#n the music :<< n the charas mean so much to me n then. i just appreciate the game so much. it means a lot to me

[noxtivagus]

head in hands thinking of hermes n ebenholz

[lovely-showtimes]

HIHI, could I request a reader who’s a vocaloid producer (like deco*27/Mitchie M) with Ichika, Kanade, Minori and/or Akito???

Hope its not too much TY <3

producer. ♡

characters - ichika, minori, akito, kanade.

type - hcs.

a/n - wow sorry i took so long to get to this !! i thought this req was such a neat concept when i first received it and i'm honestly shocked it's taken this long to get around to it honestly ... also, im fairly sure a couple of these charas have been in events related to learning how to tune vocaloids, so if anything in here contradicts those events please forgive me i have not read them </3 enjoy

Obviously, Ichika has always admired Vocaloid songs

She's wanted to try it for herself for as long as she can remember, but seeing how expensive the software is, she can't

Until she met you, of course

Learning you were a Vocaloid producer and that you shared her passion for music probably made her love you more than she already did

She will gladly listen attentively as you explain how it works to her, even if she's heard it before from certain videos

She wants to hear you explain it, after all

Seeing the process of making these kinds of songs that she's loved for years is so exciting for Ichika

When you temporarily leave the room to grab something, you come back to see her tentatively making Miku sing a few notes

"...Ah! I-I'm so sorry for touching your things without your permission!" "No no, it's alright. I'd like to see what you make." "If it's really alright, then..."

You two will eventually make a song together, and it will sound amazing, trust me <3

Minori enjoys quietly watching you work away at the laptop

It's a bit of a toss-up, sometimes she'll be utterly silent and sometimes she'll ask you a billion questions at once

Every single time after you finish making a song, Minori's already crafted choreography for it in her mind and eagerly performs it for you

So if you're the type of producer to use animation/dancing in your mvs, you have a wonderful choreographer to help you plan it out!

Minori always tries to get the rest of MMJ! to cover your songs with her after you release them

Even if they don't want to, she'll probably post solo covers anyway

You'll also catch her humming your songs when she's distracted by something

If you tell her about it, she proudly tells you it's just because your songs are so amazing, they always get stuck in her head!

Minori loves her talented partner so much, after all!

Akito didn't know much about Vocaloid songs before he met you, really

Yeah, he's listened to a few songs once or twice. Yeah, he covers them constantly. Yeah, he knows Hatsune Miku personally, but that doesn't mean anything

Suffice to say, he learns a lot from you

He's asked if he can watch you make music before, which you didn't really mind

You thought it was boring to him, though - all you really do is sit there quietly as you work, occasionally humming or singing the melody you're trying to create

Until one day, Akito suddenly comments on the creation process as if he's used the software multiple times before

It definitely shocked you, but you're happy to know he does pay attention

If the music you make is his style, he'll probably cover it himself or with VBS too

Although, when they find out he only wants to cover your songs because they're your songs, he gets relentlessly teased about it...

Kanade is already used to making songs digitally, plus she's used the Vocaloid software before

The two of you end up making songs together a lot

You've probably collaborated with 25ji multiple times, plus Kanade and you often like making songs on your own

Aside from that, you two can often give each other help or criticism when you work

"Hey, Kanade. What do you think of this song so far?" "It flows very well, and your tuning of Rin sounds very unique and refreshing. However, maybe you could tweak this part..."

Although, while Kanade knows how to use Vocaloid, she usually focuses on melodies more than the voice software

So she's learned a lot by being with you

And likewise, you've learned a lot about composing from her

You're each other's biggest fans, really

Your songs are very comforting to Kanade. She'll find herself humming them on instinct when she's stressing herself out from composing

If your songs are on the gentler side, she'll probably put them on when she's trying to sleep

(Usually she doesn't try to sleep though, she just ends up falling asleep on accident...)

[tuesdaynightmusicclub]

Today is the first anniversary of the passing of Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan. His is only one name in the incredible tradition of Irish song, but brightly does it shine among that long, long list.

His body of work is not enormous, his songs being peppered across 5 albums with the legendary Pogues and 2 with his subsequent band, The Popes. Even then, his original compositions lie nestled with renditions of trad classics and band member contributions: his actual musical bibliography is not large at all.

And yet, he is acknowledged by most as one of the finest poets and musicians this island ever produced.

More than perhaps any Irish and Irish-descended band or artist (and 80s music in the UK had p-l-e-n-t-y), Shane MacGowan and his bandmates were the voice of the Irish diaspora. Many of their songs are about Ireland, and living in it, or leaving it, or coming back to it. Formed mainly by the children of Irish immigrants to Britain, the members of the Pogues, guided by Shane's astonishing musicality, built a strong early following in Ireland as well as among the London Irish: people who left Ireland to find life and work, or whose parents and grandparents did. This would build abroad as they toured the world, finding homes in the hearts of anyone forced to leave Ireland for a chance of better things. Of course, they also found many fans in people who just liked great music, which the Pogues' discography overflows with.

Their musicianship displayed on record and on stage is frankly amazing, mixing technical skill with imagination for a richly flavoured sound. Their bread and butter was a sensational mix of traditional Irish folk and rude punk energy, appalling the auld fellas of the folk establishment like Tommy Makem and Ewan MacColl (side note, it will never not be funny to me that MacColl's daughter Kirsty would duet with Shane on the band's biggest hit lmao). They did branch out at times, drawing inspiration from the musics of Spain, Turkey, Germany and Tin Pan Alley, best shown on their best album If I Should Fall From Grace With God. They also used an impressive array of instrumentation in their work, complimenting the usual accordions, banjos and tin whistles with balalaikas, saxophone and flamenco guitars. As much as Shane gets the focus, the greatness of The Pogues is a band effort. The likes of Spider Stacy, Jem Finer, Philip Chevron, Cait O'Ríordan and plenty others helped steer this ship when Shane was drunk at the wheel, and indelibly shaped the music that made them famous. To the open-eared, the results are undeniable.

The lyrics though remained more or less MacGowan's domain. Influenced by literature from a young age, his songs allude to the verse not just of Ireland, but all over: you'll not hear many bands quote Federico García Lorca and reference Irish mythology in the same show. By the band's second album (my personal fave, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, which today's entry is from), he cultivated a talent for evocative scene setting, poignant observation and intertextual imagery, often all in the same song, with a few slurred but carefully crafted lines. A true romantic in all meanings of the word, Shane's best songs captivate with their bittersweet details and rousing tunes. You can comfortably cry during the verse and sing your heart out during the chorus with zero tonal disparity.

Speaking of, 'The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn' is not among their well known hits, but does show off what Shane and co. did so well. Lurching forth with queasy strumming before launching into roar-along choruses, they paint a sloppy and luminous portrait of an Irishman who fights and drinks across Europe, attempting penance back home before doing it all again. This seems on the surface funny and colourful for its own sake, but a careful listen reveals the depths MacGowan put into his work (both are typical of the finest Irish trad songs: catchy enough to sing and dance to, yet having hidden depths for the sober hours). The narrating character, compromised by drink though he may be, is likely one of the international volunteers who joined their Spanish comrades in the valiant effort against Franco's fascists in the latter 1930s (the Frank Ryan mentioned being a leader of this faction). Our narrator could be one of many who turned to decadence to cope with loss from war, memories of home haunting his delirium in references to Irish tenors and Christian abbeys in the old country, thrashing out the grief and aimlessness, finding uneasy solace in tankards and pint glasses as many Irish have. The pictures Shane MacGowan paints with a few lines and chords could hang beside the likes of Caravaggio or Repin or Séan Keating in a gallery if they were on canvas. The words he selects to evoke those memories belong in books beside any lauded poet: Heaney, Boland, Joyce and Shane are fingers on the same ink-marked hand to me. Even the title is a witty reference: the legendary warrior Cúchulainn died on his feet, tied to a rock with sword in hand, repelling his enemies as the light behind his head faded. Our protagonist rotting in bed desperate for drink is a bleakly humourous inversion. Honestly, for all my literary talk, The Pogues can just make you laugh as well. Or retch for that matter. The group's name does come from 'póg mo thóin', literally 'kiss my arse' in Gaeilge. Gotta stay punk after all.

Irish culture is rife with artists gone too soon, especially in its music. Shane held on longer than many anticipated, thankfully, but the gawky young man who screeched up a storm on wax and stage faded quickly. It's difficult not to feel somber, remembering the toll his living had on him. It's also difficult not to feel enraged by begrudgers who held his habits against him, quick to condemn what they refuse to empathise with, only to sing his praises when the man finally died. But forget those two-faced bastards. Shane MacGowan's life was also his work, his dreams built in and around his music. Born on Christmas Day, his life at its best is a gift to those who hear their own voice in his songs. He captured the lives of so many as any great writer does. Though how many have their words quoted beer in hand, arm around the person adjacent, united in singing? Eat your heart out, Yeats. Go sit with the other Blackshirts.

Tuesday Night Music Club No. 53 - 'The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn' by The Pogues

[suiseisyojo]

Hiii! I was wondering if you could do number 39 + Rei for the kissing prompts :3. I absolutely love your writing style!

〈gn!reader x sakuma rei ✟〉

a/n: despite the prompt sounding more angsty, i really wanted some rei fluff ^q^ but there is some angst regardless, but it ends happily i promise!

i'm really happy to hear you like my writing, i hope you enjoy and thank you for requesting!!

send me a chara + kiss !!

39. Kissing tears from the other’s face.

Standing in front of a beloved coffin, the lid shut tightly, you sucked in a deep breath. With your cheeks scorching hot, you babbled, “Sakuma-senpai, I… I really like you!”

You knew he wasn’t present—Kaoru told you he was busy with the twins somewhere—so you pounced on the opportunity to practice your confession to the older boy. The simulation in your head wasn’t enough anymore, you needed to physically test yourself out.

Suddenly, a creaking noise surged through the air and your face blanched as you witnessed the coffin lid steadily move open. “I’m afraid I don’t share your sentiment,” Rei began, ascending from within, “I need someone to stay by my side, and I won’t let you—”

Agony gnawed at your heart, festering an overwhelming desire to run. How could he say it so cruelly? It was one thing to reject you, but to say it so scornfully was horrible. You didn’t think Rei was this type of person.

“You’re the worst, Sakuma-senpai! I’m never helping UNDEAD ever again!” you wailed with as much spite as you could muster in your stupor of hurt.

“—leave… me…?” Rei finished his tangent in congruence with you hucking a box of tomato juice at his coffin, uncaring in the moment that it popped open and splattered across the top. And without wanting to see his face for another second, your legs carried you out of there at breakneck speed.

Rei was discombobulated by your declarations. Why were you suddenly unhappy with him so much? First you barge into the music room and tell him you don’t like him, then when he elucidates he refuses to share your stance, since he loves you, you storm off——

Oh no.

Is it possible this old grandpa misheard you? Rei’s suppose to have hellishly sharp ears, how could he have messed things up this badly? He needed to catch up to you, to unravel the miscommunication, before the bond between the two of you became irreparably severed.

Luckily for Rei, he could still hear the faint clamor of dashing footsteps vibrate through the hallways and he desperately chased after the sound. He saw a flash of your uniform fluttering around a corner, and he called after you, “[First Name]! I’m sorry, can you please stop?”

Gyrating around into a new linear hallway meant you needed a quick escape, and even Rei knew you would choose one of the vacant classrooms to dive into. Every classroom door he opened, he paused to listen; you would surely be panting from the adrenaline, he surmised.

Rei heard a quiet sob from within the fourth classroom he attempted, and he softly stepped inside and shut the door behind him for makeshift privacy. The first place Rei decided to check was the teacher’s desk, since it was the perfect crevice to hide away into.

And there you were, legs tucked and folded into yourself as you stuffed your face into your knees. “[First Name], look…” Rei started off languid and slow, gauging for your reaction, as he bent down to his knees.

You were trembling, clutching onto yourself tauter to stave off another wave of emotion. You looked so helpless and lost, it divided his own heart. “What is it, Sakuma-senpai?” you snapped, refusing to look up and open your eyes.

“Do you hate this old man?”

Rei’s benign voice dripped with soreness and a genuine need to know. It made you feel even worse about everything. “... Of course I don’t. I might really come to hate you if you keep being mean to me, though,” your quavering voice answered.

Flinching at the sensation of Rei’s cold fingers brushing along your hair, you couldn’t stop yourself in time and lifted your heavy head up—the lucid tear streaks cascading down your cheeks glimmering in the faint moonlight shining in.

“Is it me you hate me, Sakuma-senpai?” Transfixed on his wounded expression, you knew in that moment he was truly remorseful about the way he spoke earlier. But still, you had to ask as you gaped at him.

Tenderly, Rei leaned forward towards you and his lips made contact with your salty-tasting cheeks. “No, I’m quite infatuated with you, you see,” Rei whispered, giving your tears more kisses, “So much so that my aged heart couldn’t believe you’d ever love me back.”

“Then, is that why you said such horrible things to me?” You almost wanted to squirm away from him out of disbelief this was happening. His lips were shockingly chaste and warm, they felt heavenly against the ache you retained.

“I thought you were telling me you disliked me. That’s why I said I didn’t feel the same way,” Rei explained, heaving a breathy chuckle when your eyes went wide in confusion, “I like you too, [First Name]. I’m sorry things turned out this way when I’m supposed to be more experienced.”

You giggled. It was short and sweet, but the harmony of relief and blithe tangled within the tones was enough to alight Rei’s heart with a rush of euphoria. “I know you make blunders all the time, it comes with old age,” you said whilst slowly unwinding your legs and leaning forward to wrap your arms around Rei. “I’m sorry I said the things I did, too. A-And for the juice box…”

Gracefully scooping you up into his arms, Rei pressed your foreheads together. “We’ll get our little puppy to clean it up for us♪ For now, I’d like to get you cleaned up again.”

[catch-the-wind]

when reader is sick hc's

finally posting writing here so true

n e ways okay so i’m brainrotting about the genshin charas taking care of their s/o’s when they’re sick 🥺 and now i'm feeling sick, sigh

ohm and sulien ambros belong to @teyvattherapist! they're such good chara's, i know i'm writing them here but i deffo recommend reading up on them

okay here u go, have some hc's that are kinda sorta long and by that i mean 2.5k- i haven't proofread this bc it's 4am and im going to BED but if i write for any other chara's i'll post a second part <3 mwah

tags: gn!reader, diluc x reader, kaeya x reader, jean x reader, lisa x reader, albedo x reader, dainsleif x reader, tartaglia x reader, ohm ambros x reader, sulien ambros x reader, soft bean hours

diluc

is not working or traveling when his partner is sick

absolutely makes them soup and hot tea and drinks

he’s trying to make them food but he’s not the best cook so he’s asking adelinde for help

absolutely asks jean, barbara, and ohm for help while his partner is sleeping but he’s so awkward LMAO

was absolutely frantic the first day he found out his partner was sick tho, he made them come over to the winery so they could sleep there and he can take care of them <3

absolutely lied about what room was his so they slept in his bed

“hmm this guest room is so furnished diluc are all your rooms like this” and no, no they are not, this room is his, bestie

diluc slept on a sofa in his bedroom and did work on the table that was supposed to be for flowers. kinda stressed over abyss order locations but was more worried ab his partner being okay so he was distracted

he just put the flowers on his nightstand for his partner to see when they woke up <3

gives his partner forehead kisses because they won’t let him kiss them on the lips and he gives them the gentlest cheek kisses while they sleep

also gives his partner his clothes to wear <3

cuddles them and reads to them when they’re awake and TEMPLE KISSES OH MY GOD

kaeya comes over because he’s worried his brother and his brother’s s/o haven’t been seen in a little while

n e way, diluc gets sick after his partner gets better and they nursed each other back to health

kaeya

like diluc, he took off work so he could take care of his s/o i,mediately after he found out they were sick

wouldn’t force them to stay at his place tho, he’d probably let them recover in their own place

but he might make them go to the kof hq or the cathedral just so they can be taken care of by a proper healer

he absolutely soothes their fevers and stuff w cryo and also the man can heal himself w his elem skill ofc he can fix someone if he tries hard enough <3

he gives kisses no matter how much his partner says not to but he’ll also give them butterfly kisses so it’s soft moments too~ sigh, ur too cute alberich

asks ohm and barbara and albedo and lisa for potions and such to help his partner feel better but he’s really lowkey so he doesn’t seem SUPER worried

he just hates seeing his partner not feeling so well </3

refreshes his partner’s vase of flowers at their bedside every day

brings home work so he can watch over his partner. he can’t cook super well either so he asks for help and brings stuff home from good hunter too

jean was okay to let kaeya off of work and diluc would never admit it (man practically swore everyone to secrecy smh) but he helped take up some of kaeya’s duties in his stead

and kae, the alcoholic, didn’t even drink while his partner was sick bc he was lowkey worried they would need his help w smth and he didn’t want to be drunk just in case <3

many cuddles despite protests of getting him sick <3

jean

absolutely uses her healer skills to make her partner feel better

panicked when they were still sick and thought it was her fault </3 she asked barbara and ohm for help and they just told jean to relax a bit bc her partner was sick and it wasn’t going to be a quick fix

wanted to take off work but didn’t, so she just brought her work with her

kaeya and ohm very kindly took up her other duties where she had to leave so she could be w her partner

her partner is staying in the kof hq where they get access to ohm and barbara comes to visit <3 but also so that jean can sleep comfortably enough close by bc you cannot tell me this woman does not sometimes sleep in her office or the library and barely makes it to the kof dormitories sometimes

she’s so worried the entire time, she’s probably got a few gray hairs and a new frown line smh

she has clothes that aren’t her work clothes???? it’s so foreign seeing her in stuff like pajamas. you didn’t even know jean owned pajamas

jean sets them up in her bed at home (yeah she has a place outside of the kof hq??? it’s surprising) but it’s a big bed so they can rest and she’ll have the lamp on her side on while she sits up and does work

absolutely dotes on them. she’s good at making foods that make them feel better, she’s just a good healer that way <3

albedo, klee, venti, kaeya, lisa, and ohm all come over to check on jean and co and make sure everyone is doing okay <3 lots of food brought

if jean was asked to sing to her partner normally, she probably wouldn’t bc she’d probably get embarrassed but i think she probably sounds v good and venti would give her his lyre to try out a musical instrument too. but also she’d read to her partner and they’d probably fall asleep together uwu

lisa

works part time hours at the library so she can go visit her s/o

probably asks them to stay at the kof hq for easier access to medical assistance and plus she’s almost always there

“cutie” but worried and very 🥺 (pleading emoji)

makes soup and potions and reads to her partner until they fall asleep

also super playful omg she’s still got a smile on and is full of affection while she walks her fingers up her partner’s arm to their face so she can cup their cheek

she’ll make her partner laugh and smile and blush even when they’re sick, but she makes them laugh until they cough sometimes and immediately feels so bad

jean, barbara, kaeya, albedo and ohm all come to visit with different foods and soups and medicines and such

klee comes knocking and gives lisa some good fisherman’s toast and asks lisa’s s/o if they want to hug dodoco b/c that always makes klee feel better

purple roses galore, lisa has them in her partner’s room and they’ve got a potion to make the. uh. sniffer? to make the sniffer feel better. don’t ask me how, idk but she would find a way to make them physically feel better with flowers

reads to her partner ofc, and she tells them stories ab her own life and time at sumeru sans the crazies

worried looks when her s/o is sleeping but also the softest smiles when they wake up pls-

albedo

cutest lil frown on his face when he finds out his partner is sick

immediately they are taken home and he’s testing to confirm what’s wrong w them and what he can do to speed up their recovery

he’s more distracted than usual at work but he’s coming over to your place all the time w what paperwork he can do

also sketches his partner while they don’t know. he’s got lots of beautiful candids of his partner sleeping, looking out the window, falling asleep, reading, even drinking water. he’s made the most mundane things look captivating

kaeya and ohm come to check on albedo when he doesn’t show up for work after a few days and it’s bc he’s taking care of his s/o with food and soup and alchemical potions and shit. and when kae and ohm come in, they find his partner opening the door wrapped in a blanket while albedo is asleep cuddling the pillow they left bc he stayed up the night before making soup and reading to them

klee has camped out on his partner’s couch, she helps w the cooking too~ she absolutely lets them hug dodoco and gives them a treasure to feel better too LOL

many kisses from klee and albedo, and they also go out to get treats for albedo’s partner too

domestic albedo cooking in his partner’s kitchen and for once it isn’t some alchemical potion that he might blow up the stove with

tartaglia

takes off work entirely but BOY OH BOY is he stir crazy smh

brings his partner to his apartment to rest <3

he’s so worried ab his s/o that he makes all the sick ppl food the first day, orders from wanmin restaurant when his partner wants smth different, and also gets toys and such to entertain them otherwise

also reads to his partner but, again, he gets stir crazy after a while

absolutely does workouts and katas in the living room and phew shirtless tartaglia working out? gets the heart rate up for sure ahem

rushes to his partner tho omg- need soup? water? a trip to the bathroom? another blanket? he goes to them the MOMENT he hears them moving around. absolutely dotes on them <3

his family knows ab his partner and he’s probably written letters ab them being sick~ his family sent snezhnayan herbs and flowers and medicines and such

zhongli comes around because he wants sugar daddy!tartaglia with tea and medicine from bubu pharmacy. hu tao is in tow with well wishes and a “hope i don’t find you at work!” which is. a little worrying because aren’t you just a little sick-

many kisses from tartaglia because he is Needy and he’ll absolutely get sick from cuddling his partner while they sleep

also he’ll probably just like. envelop his partner while they sleep. they’re all cuddled into him and he’s actually so warm it’s nice bc they’re cold w a fever and he’s living for comforting them

he’s so worried tho, he’s got the frowny face and he’s so adorable but he just doesn’t want his partner to feel sick

dainsleif

the man camps in ruins, he’s going to his partner’s house smh

he doesn’t go into the church either LOL so expect him in his partner’s home making dinner and doing their grocery shopping thanks

he would get ohm and barbara to come over tho <3 “fix them please” but also “how can i fix them”

is so dead set on making sure his partner takes their medicine at the right times, he’s so soft for them and them alone

cooks soup and old recipes he barely remembers from khaenri’ah. he doesn’t really get sick, so he doesn’t remember these ones too clearly. deffo brings back old memories he’d long forgotten

reads to his partner and tells them old stories of how the world used to be, his travels, gives them the gossip on a certain khaenri’ahn but doesn’t give away the name

ohm comes over with medicine and lollipops bc dain is so unlikely to go to the cathedral to get barbara smh

but also dain, so self-sufficient, is unlikely to want to ask for help, so ohm just goes to help anyway

dain with the old khaenri’ahn lullabies and tucking his partner into his arms and singing quietly while he holds them and rocks them to sleep

dain is immortal, he’s giving his partner kisses bc “i’m immortal, ofc i won’t get sick”

he got sick

but his s/o nursed him back to health and then there were smooches the end

ohm ambros

the doctor with his ill lover oh my god

he’s frowny, he’s taking care of his partner at his home in springvale and his home clinic is open to everyone else. but everyone knows his partner is the first priority LOL

kaeya and albedo come over to see if ohm is okay or if his house needs to be checked up on. they’re wondering if he went on a last-minute expedition to sumeru and didnt tell them

diluc comes over too, he’s just checking up on his best friend but he’s also stealing a cherry lollipop smh. he heard from kae that ohm���s partner is sick tho, so he brings some soup and good food over from adelinde. he also brings some of his own specialty food tho, the once upon a time in mondstadt <3

sulien sending letters to his big brother to see if his brother’s s/o is okay

ohm is also just super protective of his partner, there are not many people who come into his life who he loves and lets in in the first place. he’s absolutely trying to heal them with his own vitality, so their recovery is much shorter than initially expected

barbara also comes over w jean to check up on ohm and co, complete w a goody basket of soup, a teddy bear, flowers, and books

ohm reading to his partner <3 he’s got such a soothing voice even if his accent is wack LMAO. he’s reading stories and even his paperwork because just his presence is comforting

he puts his hands on his partner’s forehead to soothe the fever goodbye

ohm will not sing for his s/o simply bc he doesn’t think he sounds v good. and he probably doesn’t but it would be so cute to hear him try and please ohm? 🥺

n e way i want smooches idc if i’m sick KISS ME OHM AMBROS

sulien ambros

when he finds out his partner is sick, the man blinks like twice and then suggests so calmly that they go to his apartment in liyue

man does not sleep normally, he’s just going to nurse his partner back to health and read during their recovery. fruit tart can cover his duties for him <3

sulien cooks for his partner tho, he’s making soup and stuff and getting medicine from bubu’s pharmacy. he’s also picking up books on the way home but some of them are to be read to his partner so it’s okay-

like tartaglia, sulien works out while his partner rests and goes to them if he hears them moving around. he’s reading to his partner and not so frowny, but the slightest furrow of this man’s brow is already such a big expression of his concern <3

sends letters to ohm asking for advice ab how to help his partner feel better. ohm just sends a letter back with “i’m coming” and shows up within the day LMAO

reads to his partner, and the monotony of his voice is soothing and lulls them to sleep. he just looks at them affectionately (well affectionate for him) and presses a kiss to their forehead before finishing the story on his own and in his head

tartagalicious comes over and brings food, flowers and a teddy bear with some of sandrone’s paperwork but he sends a smile to sulien’s partner with some well wishes

scara comes over too just to visit and check to see where sandrone is, but scara is a grumpy bean so he just says “feel better” all brooding and like it’s a command to one of the fatui subordinates LOL

sulien like ohm uses his cold hands to soothe his partner’s fever and also gives them forehead kisses <3

Edit: a link to part 2

[bqstqnbruin]

Aerosmith

Alright, y'all: here's that fic that I'm low key scared no one is going to read that has taken me a few months to write, a Trent x single mom!reader fic

It's a long one, with the Bruin's feral little fighty boy from St. Louis, around 13.3k words. The songs listed as the headers of each section are all by Aerosmith, each part partially inspired by the song (hence the name of the fic)

Shoutout to @toplinetommy for helping me with this the entire time and being my beta AND to @chara-hugs for letting me bounce ideas off of you and talking through what I was thinking of. Love you lots 💛

I hope people like this

___________

Just Push Play

Considering how much was happening around you at the bar your friends had dragged you to, the only thing that could keep your attention was your phone. It was the only thing, at this point, that you would allow to keep your attention. You had no desire to be there. Part of you wanted your phone to start buzzing, anything that would give you an excuse for you to leave, but the other part of you knew that something bad had to happen in order for you to leave. Every second that you stayed was costing you more money and less time being where you wanted to be.

“Hey, Y/N, put the phone away. This is your first night out in, like, years,” Molly tells you.

“Four years. Maybe five?” you guess.

“Six years, exactly,” she wrongly says, earning a disappointed head shake from you, a small ‘no’ escaping your lips that goes ignored as she takes your hand that’s holding the phone. “Can we please just enjoy tonight and have some fun? He’s going to be fine.”

You take in a deep breath, almost sure she was right about that. You hadn’t had a night to yourself in years, and Molly was also almost right that this was your first one in over four years. Actually, given the timeline, it was probably more like five. “But what if something happens?” you ask, the natural worry and constant fear you felt taking over your ability to just enjoy the night.

“If something, anything happens, you’ll be able to feel your phone vibrating in your pocket, and I will go home with you to take care of it,” she reassures you, playing around with the settings on your phone. She hands it back to you, pulling you up from the table you had yet to move from in the first place. “He’s fine. He always is. Why don’t you request a song?”

“Because you keep telling me you hate my music.”

“Well, that’s because you have the same music taste as your sixty-something-year-old father when you’re a twenty-something-year-old woman.”

“You don’t even know how old I am? We’re the same age.” Molly rolls her eyes at you, dragging you up to the line of people to request songs, a book sitting there with the songs you could request. “They’re not going to have anything I like,” you tell her as the line behind you gets longer.

“Don’t you listen to that one guy?” she starts.

“That could mean anything. Have I told you lately that you are the most unhelpful person I know?” you snap at her, trying to find anything in your Spotify that you could request as the line got shorter and shorter in front of you. “What about this song?” you ask, your finger hovering over someone from one of your Daily Mixes. Molly looks over your shoulder at your phone, shaking her head at your song choice, and every song choice that you suggested. “I’m just going back to the table, you’re being impossible.”

Before she can protest, you turn around and head back to your table, sitting off to the side away from the rest of your friends, your eyes glued to your phone. At this point, you were praying that you would get a message from Rachel asking you to come home, telling you that something was wrong. Even something as simple as she had to leave unexpectedly so you could, too. Anything so that you could leave sooner rather than later.

“Sorry, but you really couldn’t find a song in that book?” you hear a guy's voice, tearing you away from the screen. He sits down next to you, not too close that it was uncomfortable but just close enough that you could smell his cologne, covering the smell of beer that had been lingering in the air around you. “There was some Aerosmith in there, I have a feeling that’s the closest to something you’d enjoy,” he says, smiling at you.

He must have been in the group that was in line behind you, hearing your conversation with Molly. Regardless, you smile back at him, something about his own being so infectious that you couldn’t help but mirror his expression. “Well, you’re right, but it depends on what Aerosmith song,” you respond, a hint of flirting in your voice.

“Is there a bad one?”

“No, but there are some superior ones,” you tell him, his eyebrow cocked as a sign to get you to explain. “Sweet Emotion is great but not as good as their cover of Come Together. Dream On and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing are easily, in my opinion, their best songs.”

“Is that up for debate?”

“Oh, you think their most popular songs aren’t their best?”

“I think the one that’s about to play is one of their best,” the guy says, both of you pausing as there’s a lull in the music, the chatter and screaming of the bar’s drunk patrons overtaking everything.

“Just Push Play?” you ask, a smile on your face. It wasn’t one of their most well-known songs, but you still had to admit it was an underrated one.

The boy shrugs, a smirk on his face. “I might have requested it so you’ll have a reason to dance with me,” he flirts, getting up and extending his hand for you to join him.

You hesitate, unsure if you should get up with this mystery man standing in front of you. There was something about him that you couldn’t figure out. He looked young, probably younger than you but looks can be deceiving, nevertheless telling you that there was some sort of innocence or naivety to him, but the obviously fit physique under his clothing telling you that he could and would break your heart in a moment if he had to, the time leading up to that would be like nothing you had experienced before. You didn’t have time or the energy to spend on something you knew would lead to heartbreak, but you felt like you wanted to, like you had to. “I’m not sure I can dance with someone whose name I don’t even know.”

“I’m Trent,” he says, taking your hand and guiding you away from the table. You introduce yourself as his hands snake their way around your waist, holding you close enough that you could feel his heart starting to race against your own chest as your hands met the skin at the back of his neck, your fingers grazing along the collar of the back of his shirt, the two of you not moving at all in sync with the faster beat of the song. Not that you cared. There was something about this boy you were talking to talk to over the music that made you completely disregard the movement around you, forgetting about your phone and what was waiting for you at home for the first time in nearly five years.

You danced for what felt like forever, for what you wanted to last forever, every song passing you by as he listed out song after song that he recognized, most of them country as he claimed he had a country playlist that went on for seven hours, all of them involving him trying to sing bits and pieces of the lyrics off-key, every time pulling a laugh from you.

“I don’t know what I like more,” he starts, resting his forehead against yours as the space between the two of you disappeared, “the music they’re playing or your laugh.”

You roll your eyes, a smile on your face as the heat rushes to your cheeks. “Those lines usually don’t work on me.”

“But?” he asks, his lips ghosting yours.

“But from you, they do,” you tell him, planting your lips on his before he has the chance to say anything else. You didn’t know what it was about Trent; you were never the one to make the first move, you barely interacted with guys at this point since your life was permanently hectic. But Trent was something else. You don’t know what Trent was, you just knew he was different.

His hands were on your back, finding their way to your waist, his grip tightening when you feel someone tap your shoulder. You pull away, a pout on Trent’s face as you turn around to see Molly, waving your phone in your face. “It’s almost midnight.”

“Oh, shoot!” you squeal, taking your phone. “I’m sorry, I have to get home.”

A confused look covers Trent’s face. “Is your Uber going to turn into a pumpkin if you aren’t home, Cinderella?”

You laugh at his joke, going back to your table to grab your stuff. “I’m so sorry,” you repeat, “But I really have to get home.”

“Let me walk you.”

You stop in your tracks as you were rushing out the door. You never brought a guy anywhere near your apartment, knowing that most of them would want to go in, most of them would want to sleep with you if you invited them, most of them would be gone by morning when they found out why you didn’t want them there in the first place. You don’t know why you knew Trent would be different. “No, you don’t have to,” you tell him, instead, even though you wish you could bring him home with you.

Before he can answer, someone calls out his name, pulling the two of you away from each other’s attention. “Trent, we’re leaving.”

Trent looks between you and his friend, the group of guys aggregating around him as they wait for his answer.

“You don’t have to,” you repeat, trying to get out the door because you had to.

“Jack, give me a minute,” Trent calls to his friends, “I want to,” he tells you, taking your arm, turning you towards him. The look in his eyes was sincere, begging you to let him walk you home. “Please?”

You let out a sigh, caving in even though you knew you shouldn’t. “Fine, yeah. Let’s go,” you tell him, taking his hand and leading him out of the bar, his friends left without an answer as they watched the two of you walk away.

Come Together

“I’ve had a really great night. Sorry about my friends, though” Trent apologizes to you again. He explained that he had gone out with them after their game that night, supposed to be spending their off-day tomorrow together, but Trent leaving with you had seemingly changed those plans. As the two of you walked and talked on the way back, his hand never left yours, from the time you left the bar to now standing outside your door. He pulls you in for another kiss, the worries of what was on the other side of the door melting away. You wanted to invite him in, but you weren’t sure if he would even want to once he found out.

Your door opens, Rachel stepping out. “Sorry, it’s almost curfew.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” you tell her, Trent confused by the girl sneaking out of your apartment. “That was Rachel. She’s my babysitter.”

“Babysitter?”

You could feel your face twisting involuntarily at his question. You knew you should have told him before you got home, it would have been easier leaving him at the bar than watching him walk away from you outside your door. Why did you even let him walk you home in the first place? Because he’s hot and you’re dumb, that’s why. “I have a four-year-old son. If you wanted to leave, I would understand. Most guys do when I tell them about Ben,” you spit out, not making eye contact with him. You weren’t ashamed of your son, you just knew people your age got weirded out and panicked at the thought of the responsibility that came with having a child.

He tilts your head up, his eyes flicking between your own and your lips, a lazy smile on his face. “Do you want me to leave?”

“Do you want to stay?”

“If you’ll have me,” he says, kissing you yet again. You bring him inside, showing him Ben’s room first. The two of you stand in the doorway, his arms wrapped around your waist as you lean against the door frame. You feel him kiss the back of your head as you watch Ben wriggle in his sheets before settling down, you taking Trent’s hand and leading him down to your room. You tell him that you don’t want to do anything because of Ben being so close, Trent giving you a sweet smile, kissing you before settling next to you in bed. You had no idea why, but it all felt so domestic, so right that he was there with you in that moment.

“Can I ask you something?” his voice pierces the silence that had fallen between you.

“Sure.”

“Why didn’t you mention Ben before?”

You swallow hard. You weren’t ashamed of having Ben, something you found yourself repeating in your mind every time you told a guy about your son. He was the best part of your life. Everything you did was for him. “We’re young. Being a single mom at our age has such a stigma around it. When guys find out, they normally bolt. I didn’t want you to until the last possible second.” You turn to him, still able to make out his features in the dark, the pout that was forming on his face visible without anything lighting him up.

“You could have told me before we got here,” he says, pain in his voice as he reaches for your face, the pad of his thumb gently grazing over your cheek. “I don’t care if you have a kid. I mean, I do, Ben is part of who you are. But, I would have understood. I understand. You shouldn’t be afraid of telling someone about that part of you. What I know about you so far is pretty amazing, I can only imagine what Ben brings to the table.”

“That seems weirdly out of character for what I know about you,” you tease him, pulling a smile from him.

“Well, maybe, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day, right?”

You kiss him, a feeling of relief washing over you at his words. The two of you spend the rest of the night telling each other about yourselves, keeping quiet for Ben, despite the amount of laughter you let you. You couldn’t remember the last time a guy made you feel so happy, falling asleep with a smile on your face, his arms wrapped around your waist as if that’s where they belonged.

You wake up the next morning, the sun shining into your room, but no Trent. You get out of bed, probably figuring that he had left in the middle of the night, trying to spare your feelings about you having a son. You understood. What guy really wants to get into a relationship with a single mom at this age?

You go to check on Ben, opening the door to his bedroom to find that he wasn’t in his room. You started to panic at the sight of his empty bed, unmade with his blankets in disarray. If Trent was gone, and Ben was gone, where could they be? He wouldn’t kidnap your son, would he? He was a professional athlete, that’s not something he would do, right? Your panic starts to recede when you hear laughter coming from the kitchen.

Trent is standing at the stove, spatula in hand with eggs cooking on the stove, a piece of bread held up to his face with holes bitten out of it where his eyes are, making Ben shriek with laughter. “Sorry. I heard him get up and I didn’t want to wake you, so I started making breakfast. Is that ok?”

You can’t help but smile, going over to Ben. “How’s he doing so far?”

“Mommy, look! French toast!” Ben says, pointing excitedly to the cut-up pieces of bread on his plate.

“French toast?” you repeat, your eyes wide to play along with his excitement. “Give me a bite,” you tell him, opening your mouth as he picks up a piece with his fingers, nearly missing your mouth. You hear Trent laugh, you not containing your own.

You go over to Trent, leaning into him as the two of you watch Ben eat the food Trent made. You feel him kiss the top of your head, his fingers dancing up and down along your arm. You look at his hand, a bandaid on the back of his hand. “What happened to you here?”

“Oh, oops,” he says, looking at his hand. “Got a little cut, but don’t worry, it’s not bad. Dr. Ben here fixed me right up,” he tells you, going over to Ben and ruffling his hair.

Trent hands you a plate of french toast and eggs, pouring you a cup of coffee, kissing you in front of Ben, who either didn’t notice or didn’t mind. No guy had ever stayed the night, let alone stayed and made breakfast for the two of you the next morning.

“So, what were you two talking about before I joined?” you ask, taking another bite of the French Toast. You already knew it was good from what Ben gave you, but you were still devouring it.

“Bears, boots, and battles of galaxias,” Ben lets out, his full mouth spraying crumbs everywhere.

“I’ve been trying to make sense of that all morning. I have no idea what he means. Why does that sound familiar?” Trent asks, sitting down next to you, his hand on your thigh under the table, sending a chill through your entire body as his fingers lazily traced an unknown pattern on your skin.

You take a sip of the coffee he had handed you, setting down your cup and putting your hand on top of his under the table. “He saw that one part of the Office, the identity theft cold opening, where Jim says, ‘Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica?’ That’s how he remembered it,” you explain, Trent looking over to your son who was fixated on the food in front of him.

“Benny,” Trent calls him, your entire body going numb hearing him call him the same nickname you used for your son, “do you like bears?”

“Bears are the coolest!” he squeals. Everything he saw with a bear on it, he would start begging you to buy him, your heart breaking from the look on his face when you had to tell him no, we don’t need the kitchen towel just because it has a bear on it.

“Can you do your best bear impression for Mom and I?” You felt your heart skip at the sound of Trent calling referring to you as just ‘Mom’ instead of ‘your mom,’ like he was already part of the family. You didn’t even hear Ben growling, his best attempt at being the ‘scary’ Baby Bear that he was just laughing along with Trent.

“Hey, buddy, what if I called you Benny Bear from now on? Do you like that?” Trent asks, Ben nodding excitedly at his nickname.

“You’re nice,” Ben says to Trent while he clears his plate, Ben running off to go play.

You look at Trent, not able to help how you were beaming at him getting along so well with your son. It was like he belonged there with you, and with Ben, making his presence that much better. “That means he likes you.”

“Not trying to pry,” Trent starts, standing beside you at the sink while you wash the dishes, “But how often does he like the guys you bring home?”

You bite your bottom lip, feeling the heat rush to your cheeks. “I almost never bring guys home. And when I do, he generally doesn’t talk to them.”

“So he likes me,” he starts, getting closer to you as you nod your head. His arms wrap around your waist, pulling you away from the sink. “How about you?”

“That depends,” you flirt, stretching to turn the sink off before draping your arm on his shoulders, twirling his hair through your fingers at the nape of his neck, “do you like me?”

He lets out a small laugh, pulling you in for a kiss. “I do.”

“I like you, too. Help me finish cleaning up and then we’ll go watch Ben, ok?”

The two of you wash dishes in silence, weirdly domestic and comfortable considering you knew this boy all of twelve hours. “Can I ask you something?” Trent breaks the silence, just as he did the night before.

“Sure.”

“Where’s Ben’s dad?” You take in a deep breath, knowing that this would have come up eventually. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” he continues, a wash of panic over his face at the thought of asking something too personal too soon.

You shake your head, smiling at him to try to calm him down. “No, no, that’s fine. Um, we were together when we were in college, but we broke up. I started feeling like shit so I went to the doctor and she told me, ‘Congrats! You’re two months pregnant!’”

“Does he know about Ben?” Trent asks quietly.

“Yeah. Yeah, he does. I told him when I found out because I knew Ben was his. I told him that I was going to keep the baby and since we weren’t together anymore, he had the choice of either being present and helping out or if he didn’t want the responsibility, then that was fine, too.”

He didn’t know what about the way you were talking was making him feel this way. A lump in his throat was forming looking at your eyes start to shine with the threat of tears while you refused to make eye contact with him. You rarely talked about Ben’s father, making the decision a long time ago that he wasn’t worth your time thinking about since he didn’t want much to do with his own son. “And he didn’t?”

“He sends a present to Ben on his birthdays and Christmas, but other than that nothing really. I’m not even sure if Ben’s made the connection between the presents and his father yet. Like I said, though, I gave him the choice.”

“Do you regret anything?”

“I could never regret Ben or anything with him. I almost regret giving his father the choice, though. Being a parent isn’t easy, even if you have someone to take up half the work, but it’s even harder when it’s just you by yourself, you know? And I’ve gotten help, but it would be different if Ben had his dad as a constant in his life. Ben’s only seen him a few times, anyway. He calls him Andy instead of dad, and it’s just,” you stop, trying to find the word, “heartbreaking seems too severe, seeing him not acknowledge his dad as his dad, but what can you do?”

Trent didn’t know what to say. He was practically still a child himself when you really look at him. He couldn’t imagine having his own at this point in his life, let alone raising one on his own. “I’m sorry,” is all he can get out, trying not to cry even though he could hear Ben’s laughter ringing from the other room, sending a weird sense of joy through him at the same time.

“No, it’s fine. I would rather do this alone than do this with someone who didn’t want Ben to begin with. You can’t be a parent if you aren’t all in.”

He had no idea why, but he already felt so connected to Ben. There was no reason why, but he did. “I’m in.”

You turn back to him, shocked, confused, not even sure if you heard what he said properly. “What?”

“I’m in with you. With Ben. If you’ll let me. I want to see you again, keep seeing you. And that includes Ben. He already likes me, after all.” Trent was used to making snap decisions, on the ice, off the ice, wherever. He knew this was one, but this one felt like his best one.

“You don’t have to, you have your own life with hockey and everything,” you try to insist, cut off by Trent’s lips connecting with yours.

“I want to. Let’s go play with Ben.”

Angel

“Are you sure this is safe?” you ask him for what was probably the millionth time, getting out of his car in front of the rink.

He runs around to get Ben out of his car seat, you grabbing the stuff he had stashed in the trunk. “Yes, I promise it is. The guys bring their kids all the time and they’re way younger than Ben.” He had invited you and Ben to the family skate the team was having, you reluctant to go since Ben had never been skating before. Naturally, you were worried he would get hurt, either by falling down or being curious about the skate and somehow cutting himself, something you were sure he would do if given the chance.

You two had been together for about a month, Ben falling head over heels for Trent, jumping up and down whenever he saw him on TV. Much to your dismay, Ben loved it when Trent was fighting, begging you to let him play hockey so he could fight just like Trent. You loved taking videos of his excitement despite that fear of him skating and fighting like Trent, sending them to him to see during the game, Trent always making sure to FaceTime you the next afternoon when you got home from work if you two couldn’t meet up so that he could talk to Ben. He was acting like the dad Ben never had.

And that was terrifying to you. The thought of you and Trent breaking up and him suddenly leaving Ben’s life was the reason why you never got close with a guy before. You didn’t want Ben to go through that. You didn’t want to go through that.

But there you were, sitting rinkside at the Garden as you tried to tie up the skates that Trent got for Ben, his feet swinging back and forth in excitement no matter how much you tried to get him to stop for a moment.

“Are you excited, Benny Bear?” Trent asks, picking him up and walking out to the ice.

“Yeah!” he says, squirming around and clearly ready to go.

You weren’t sure if you were more nervous about Ben being on the ice for the first time, Trent already showing him how to skate, or you formally meeting all his teammates for the first time, that night at the bar not really counting. The three of you step onto the ice, Ben in between you two, practically swinging in the air as you both held his hands while you skate.

“You’re nervous?” Trent asks, reading the expression on your face.

“They look like they didn’t know about Ben.” You saw the looks you were getting from the guys' families as you and Trent were skating around with Ben between you. You knew they were looks of confusion, but you couldn't help but think that they were the same looks when you went out with Ben in general, the societal disapproval of being a young mother, no ring on that finger to show that this was planned with another parent on the other side. People were judgemental; it was in their nature, but you were hoping Trent’s teammates were accepting like Trent had been.

“Um, I guess I didn’t tell them? I didn’t think I needed to,” he says, looking down at your son. Ben was beaming, not paying attention to what you two were talking about, not that he would probably understand it if he was. Trent didn’t think it would be a big deal to have your son around. The guys knew he was seeing you, but was it really that big a deal that you have Ben? He looks over at you, the scared look that was on your face worrying him. “We can just tell him he’s your nephew or your little brother?” he whispers so Ben doesn’t hear.

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know. You don’t seem to want them to know he’s your son?”

You stop skating, pulling Trent over to the side while holding onto Ben’s hand as he begs to pull away and take a lap on his own, something you weren’t going to let him do. “I told you I’m not ashamed of Ben,” you hiss at him.

“I’m not saying that you are. I’m just saying if you’re scared of what people would think we could just tell them something else.”

You look at him for a moment, trying to properly process his words. “Am I scared of what people think, or are you?”

He steps back, careful not to fall on whoever's kid was zooming past him at that moment, Ben begging to go skate with him. “Hey, Zach,” he calls Patrice’s son over. “If he takes Ben is that ok?”

You knew you shouldn’t say yes, but you didn’t need Ben hearing this conversation, no matter how oblivious he might have been to begin with. “If you trust him, fine.”

“Zach,” Trent starts, crouching down to their level, his hands on Ben’s shoulders so he can’t skate away before he’s done, “Can you take care of my guy Ben here? Make sure he doesn’t fall? Go skate to your dad.” Zach and Ben practically rush off with each other to Zach’s dad, eager to skate around and surprisingly good for their age. “What do you mean I’m scared?”

“Who’s the one suggesting that we don’t tell your teammates that Ben is my son? We’ve been out together when people ask if he’s my brother, my nephew, if I’m his nanny, and every single time you’ve seen me correct them. I told you I’m not ashamed of Ben. And to come here and have everyone giving us looks because they’re trying to figure out who he is to you makes it seem like you are. You couldn’t even tell the guys you claim are like your family about Ben. He’s not old enough for that hurt, but I am.”

He looks down at the ice, shuffling back and forth on his skates. “I’m sorry.”

You move closer to him, tempted to reach out and hold him. He looked just as hurt as you felt, part of you glad that he was actually showing he was sympathetic instead of just saying it. “Are you ashamed of Ben?”

His head snaps to you, a look of disbelief on his face. He starts shaking his head, the curls on his head that were loose enough going wild with his movement. “I’m crazy about that kid. I know why you aren’t ashamed of him because I don’t think I could ever be.” Trent turns around to find Ben on the ice, skating around with the other kids, some of the guys playing a small game with them, Ben with his own little stick. He watches Ben score on whoever was playing goalie, Ben shrieking with joy. Trent couldn’t help but smile, turning to you. “He means more to me than I thought someone else's child could.”

“Then why didn’t you tell them about Ben?” you ask him.

He shrugs, sticking out his bottom lip. “Because I’m dumb.”

You can’t help but laugh, hooking your fingers in his belt loops to pull him close to you. “Well, I do call you a stupid muppet,” you joke, earning a groan from him, “Hey, I say it with affection and you did say I could call you that.”

He cups your face and kisses you, momentarily forgetting his teammates and their families around you. “We could go tell them now?” he suggests, his forehead pressed against yours.

“Do you want to?”

Trent starts skating over to the rest of the guys, Ben giggling and playing with the rest of the kids. The two of you start talking to his teammates, introducing yourself to Jack and Jeremy, keeping your eye on Ben while he plays as you wait for Trent to finally say something about him.

“Trent! Trent!” Ben’s voice tears you two away from the conversation. “I’m you!” he yells, using the stick to try to shoot the puck, instead missing the puck and falling down on the ice. He was trying to process what just happened, hopefully not meaning to do what he did.

You look at Trent’s face, his teammates laughing while his face turned red. Ben shoots back up and starts skating again, Trent beaming at him. “That was cold,” he says to you, a smile on his face anyway.

“You know he didn’t mean it,” you tell him, squeezing his bicep before skating over to your son. You lift him up off the ice, thankful that he was still small enough to do that as you kiss his cheek and skate around with just him for a bit.

Trent couldn’t take his eyes off you, his teammates doing everything they could to try to peel his attention away from you. He watched you interact with Ben, the same light in your eyes when he looked at your son.

“Dude?” Jack finally succeeds in bringing Trent back down to Earth, “is that her brother?”

Trent shakes his head, turning back to you. “Nope, that’s her son.”

“Son? What are you thinking?” Jack asked. He knew what he meant. Trent was young. You were young. Having a kid was something real adults did, not whatever definition of adult he fell under.

Trent shrugs, watching you and Ben laugh and smile as you skated around, talking with some of the guys' girlfriends as they coo over Ben. “I’ve been better since I started seeing her.”

“You were fine before you started seeing her,” one of them mumbles.

He rolls his eyes, turning back to them. “Come on. I was fine but I wasn’t great. All I did was punch a few guys and get a couple of secondary assists. Even Butch said something about my play last game. Everything in my life is better with Y/N in it. And Ben.”

He didn’t hear what the guys were saying, and honestly, he didn’t care either. He loved your son, probably not as much as you did, but he felt like he was getting there. He wanted to get there.

Because he loved you.

Dream On

“Where are you?” Molly's voice comes through your phone, panicked and irritated. “I thought you were coming in today?”

“What are you talking about? Today’s my day off.” You were at home, sitting on the couch with the tv playing in the background while Ben played with his toys in front of you. It was one of the rare days that you could spend from the time you woke up until you went to sleep with your son, and you had no real intention of changing those plans, which is what it sounded like Molly was going to ask you to do.

“Well, you know that funding we secured for that new project?”

“Yeah?” you say, Ben coming up to you, trying to show you something. “Hold on, Benny. What’s going on, Mol?”

“They’re getting cold feet.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, we need you here. You and DeAndre were the ones who got them in the first place, and he’s already here. Please?”

You take in a deep breath, trying to figure out if anyone is free to watch Ben. You couldn’t bring him in and have him running around the office while you were trying to convince a major investor to give you the money promised. “I have to find a babysitter but I’ll be there as soon as I can,” you sigh, wracking your brain as to who would be free. Rachel couldn’t typically do weekends, but maybe she could if you promised to pay her extra? But then there was the issue of: did you have the money to pay her extra?

You start scrolling through your contacts, trying to figure out if anyone in there would be able to watch your son, running into your room to get changed to look at least a little presentable.

Trent’s name pops up, calling you with what you hoped would be somewhat perfect timing. “Hey, babe, what’s up?” you answer, your phone on your bed as you try to find something to wear.

“What am I looking at?”

“I’m changing for work and my phone is on my bed, so the ceiling.”

“I thought it was your day off?” he asks as you throw what seemed to be the only clean work shirt that you could find. You knew you were forgetting to do something today, now you realized it was laundry.

“Molly called saying that I need to go in and now I have to find someone to watch Ben or else I’m going to have to bring him in with me, which doesn’t seem like a good idea. And most of my friends are from work or have their own lives and can’t watch him, Rachel can’t do weekends, but I guess I could ask her if she has any friends who could watch him last minute.”

“Y/N.”

“But then I have to pay them and since it’s so last minute I would need to give them more money, right?”

“Y/N.”

“I guess I could, but I think I would also have to pay for meals, and then I have no idea what time I’m going to get home, and whenever that is I’m going to have to do laundry, and-”

“Hey. Earth to Y/N. I can watch him,” Trent finally cuts you off long enough to get a word in.

You were hesitant; Trent had never been left alone with Ben, and probably never left alone with a four-year-old ever by your assumptions. “No, no, I can’t ask you to do that,” you tell him, picking up your phone to see him.

“I’m serious! You just said you need a babysitter, I was going to ask if I could come over and see you before the road trip, anyway.”

“Are you sure?” you ask, biting your lip. Did you trust Trent enough to let him watch and take care of Ben? If you could trust Rachel, a girl who still had a curfew and couldn’t even drive her friends in the same car as her, why couldn’t you trust your boyfriend?

“Of course!” he says, clearly getting up and walking around what you think was his apartment. “I’m leaving right now, I’ll be there in ten.”

He hangs up and leaves you to finish getting ready, hurrying through trying to make yourself look presentable and finding the stuff that you needed. You couldn’t find your work bag, or your computer, mentally cursing yourself for the one time you didn’t leave it in your closet like you normally did.

“Hey, Benny? Have you seen Mommy’s computer and bag?” you go into your living room to where you left Ben. He shakes his head, his overall attention not leaving whichever toy he was fixated on. “Great,” you mutter under your breath, trying to find it. “Ben, how about you and I play a game?” you ask him, getting down in front of him. “If you can help me find my blue bag and my computer, someone really special will come over tonight!”

Ben gets up and starts looking for you, hoping that you can find it before Trent actually gets to your place. “Mommy! I found it!” Ben comes running to you, your bag nearly as big as him as he struggles to carry it to you.

You take it from him, kissing his head as he goes running off, a knock at your door just in time. Opening it, you see Trent on the other side, a bag in his hand. Kissing him hello, you tell him, “I owe you big time.”

“We can discuss payment when you get home. And I have some ideas as to how you could pay me,” he says, bringing you in for a kiss.

“Trent!” Ben runs over, interrupting.

Trent practically launches himself off you, picking up Ben and hugging him while your son’s laughter and happiness fill your home. “Benny Bear!” He gives Ben the bag, telling him to open it.

“A bear!” Ben jumps up and down with the small stuffed animal that Trent had gotten him.

“What does a bear say?” Trent asks, both of them going, “grrrrr,” with their hands curled like claws, their faces scrunched. You felt yourself melting at the sight of Trent getting along so well with Ben, your son running around in circles with his new toy that he would probably say is his favorite since it came from Trent.

“Did you buy him a Benny Bear?” you gush, bringing him in for a hug.

“I saw it when I was on the road and had to get it for the little guy.”

“You love him,” you tell him, not needing to ask since you already knew what his answer would be if you did.

“Of course. But you have to get to work,” he tells you, pushing you off him.

“I’ll pay you for whatever you get for dinner, order what you want, within reason for him.”

“You don’t have to pay me back, and I’ll make sure to get him lots of candy,” he jokes, earning a look from you. “I’m joking,” he says, throwing his hands up in defense. “Go, go to work. I’ve got this.”

“If you need anything call me, or even one of the guys who have kids. If you trust them, I’ll trust them.” You kiss him again, yell goodbye to your son and remind him to behave for Trent. You were nervous about leaving Ben alone with him, but if you wanted to be serious about this guy, you had to do it at some point, right?

You close the door, leaving Ben and Trent alone on the other side as you try to think about how you and DeAndre can now keep your investors from pulling money, practically running down the hall so that you can get to your car.

Trent turns around, Ben already sitting back down on the floor and playing away with his toys. He had no idea how to watch a four-year-old. He takes in a deep breath, sitting on the ground with Ben, his back leaning up against your couch. “Alright, Benny, what do you want to do?”

Ben hands Trent a toy, starting to ramble on about whatever magical world he’s conjured up that Trent was no part of. He had no idea what he was doing, trying to follow along with your son’s imagination as best as he could.

Trent didn’t know how you did it. Ben was a ball of energy all the time, and at home seemed to be no exception. Trent was chasing him around as they played ‘Bear catcher,’ which Trent wasn’t really sure the rules of in the first place, just following around your four-year-old through your apartment while he sprinted, jumped, hid, crawled, and did every other action that Trent felt too old for.

Ben finally sits down and focuses on the tv when he hears some song coming from it, the first moments that Trent can sit down as well, hoisting himself onto the cushions. His phone starts buzzing, a call from Jack coming in. “Hey, what’s up?”

“What are you doing right now?” Jack’s voice comes through the phone as Ben gets up again, starting to run around with the bear Trent bought him.

“I’m watching Ben.”

“Since when are you a babysitter?” Jack asks, judgment dripping in his voice.

“Since Y/N needed a babysitter and I was free.” Ben climbs up on the couch and starts jumping, Trent suddenly feeling a wash of panic over him at the thought of Ben falling and getting hurt. Jack starts saying something that Trent knew he didn’t want to hear anyway, giving him the perfect excuse to cut him off. “Hey, Ben, you’ve gotta be careful. Sorry, dude, I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”

He hangs up before Jack can get another word in. “Hey, Benny. Mom said we could order dinner,” he says, pulling Ben into his lap in hopes that he would calm down long enough so he could talk to him. Ben squirms as his energy never seems to stop, Trent doing everything he can to try to figure this out. “What sounds good to you?”

“Ice cream!”

Trent lets out a small laugh, Ben’s face glowing at the thought of ice cream for dinner. “No, bud, you can’t have ice cream for dinner.”

“Ice cream! Ice cream!” Ben wriggles free of Trent’s grasp, repeating the phrase over and over again as he sets off running around again.

Trent was way in over his head. He didn’t think that Ben would have this much energy for this long. Whenever he was with you, it was either during the day and Ben stayed relatively calm, or when you were playing, he had you to help counteract and keep Ben from being the seemingly crazy child that he was right now. He could call you and ask what to do, but from how you sounded on the phone and when he came over, you were way too stressed out to also have to worry about Ben at that moment. He could call one of his teammates who actually knew what they were doing when it came to child care, but Jack’s words from the family skate practically haunted him. He wasn’t in too over his head when he was with you, or when he was with you and Ben. But just Ben? Not going too well.

“Benny Bear, come here,” Trent says, reaching out to catch Ben as he runs by the couch. “How about, we get something else to eat, and if you eat all of it, I’ll get you ice cream?” he asks, making a mental note to at least text you to ask if it was ok that he have it. Ben nods his head since Trent technically said he could have ice cream. “What do you want?”

“Mac and cheese!”

“What about,” he starts, pulling out his phone. “Some chicken fingers?” Something told him cheese and ice cream wasn’t going to end well for Ben’s stomach that night, and by default, it wasn’t going to end well for Trent, either.

Ben nods, going back off and running around the room. He had to tire out at some point, right?

“Hello?” you answer your phone, Trent calling you to make sure his dinner plans were ok.

“Hey, Ben said he wanted ice cream, but I told him only if he eats his dinner, and I had to make sure it was alright with you, first.”

“What did you settle on?”

“Chicken fingers?”

He hears someone calling your name in the background, you yelling something back to them in panic. “Yeah, there might be some in the freezer? If not, just tell him that the ice cream fairy is coming later and he can have it tomorrow, or something. There are also some carrots in the fridge, too. Tell him he has to eat some of those if he wants ice cream, even if I don’t have any. Have some with him, pretend they’re spaceships, and play with them before you eat them, that normally distracts him long enough.”

“That works?”

“Trent, he’s four. Most things like that do.” He hears more yelling from your end, Ben coming zooming by him yet again, nearly tripping over Trent’s feet. “I’ve gotta run. Love you, bye.”

You hang up before Trent can react. You hadn’t told each other that you loved the other yet. He knew he loved you, but he didn’t know if you loved him back. But you just said it, and he didn’t even know if you meant it since you said it in such a hurried context. He hoped you meant it. He can’t even focus while he’s ordering dinner, not really sure what he was having other than the carrots you mentioned were in the fridge.

Trent just sits there while he waits for the food to arrive, getting the carrots out and trying to see if there was anything close to ice cream, or even yogurt that he could throw in the freezer for Ben while he continues to zoom around your apartment. “Hey, Benny, look!” he says, holding up the carrots. “Spaceships!”

This felt like he was talking to a dog, which seemed weird, but at this rate, Ben was tiring him out so fast he didn’t know what to do. He and Ben start playing with the carrots, watching your son eat what was in front of him when the doorbell rang for food.

Ben keeps playing with food, something Trent thought you probably wouldn’t like too much, but at this point, he didn’t know if he should care. He had no idea how you did this. There was no way Ben had this much energy every night, right? He had never seen you exhausted, so Ben couldn’t be a ball of energy all the time. At least, that’s what he convinced himself as he sat there eating his food.

Eventually, Ben goes to sleep, Trent helping get him ready for bed and tucking him in. You had texted that you weren’t sure when you were going to be home, but Trent was free to stay the night instead of driving back home regardless of what time you would be back, something he gladly took you up on.

Trent finally settles down after finding a pair of sweats he left at your place a while ago, collapsing onto the couch in complete exhaustion from Ben’s running.

“Trent?” he hears Ben’s small voice coming from down the hall, pulling Trent away from the trance he fell in trying to stay awake until you got home. “Trent!”

He runs down the hall at the sound of the increased panic in your son’s voice, not sure what he was supposed to expect when he practically burst through his bedroom door. “Buddy, what’s wrong?”

Ben was breathing heavily when Trent got close to his bed, clutching his sheets to his chest, “I had a bad dream.”

Trent sits down on Ben’s bed, a sad smile on his face. “Ah, Benny, it’s all over now. You’re safe.” Ben nods his head, a terrified look still on his face. He pulls Ben in for a hug, kissing the top of his head, Ben’s small arms wrapping around Trent’s own. “How about I read you a story to help you fall asleep?”

Ben nods, jumping out of bed and getting a book for Trent. “Goodnight Lab?” Trent reads, a confused look on his face.

“Mommy likes science,” Ben offers as his explanation.

“Of course she does,” he says, opening the book, putting his arm around your son as Ben cuddles up against Trent’s chest. “In the great green lab, there was a laser, and a lab notebook, and a picture of Einstein with a stern look,” he starts, already seeing Ben’s eyes getting heavy.

You finally get back home, seeing the light on, no one in the living room. Wandering through your apartment, you hear Trent’s voice coming from Ben’s room, finding him there with your son, him asleep against Trent’s chest as he whispers the end of the book to him, “Goodnight liquid nitrogen, goodnight compressed air, goodnight scientists everywhere.”

You stand in the doorway, Trent not noticing you as he slips himself from Ben, your son curling up with his blankets. Trent bends down to kiss him on the head, tiptoeing out of the room.

“Hi,” you whisper, closing Ben’s door behind you, giving Trent a kiss hello. “What was that?”

“He had a nightmare, so I read him a story to calm him down and get him back to sleep,” he explains.

“That’s so sweet of you,” you tell him, leading him down the hall to your room.

He shrugs, closing the door behind you. “My mom used to do it for me and my siblings. I always told myself that I would do it for my son or daughter.” You don’t know what to say, just pulling him in for a kiss, down on your bed. He pulls away, a smile on his face, “Oh, and I love you too,” he tells you, hoping that Ben didn’t wake up and hear what you two were about to do next.

Sweet Emotion

“Happy birthday, Benny!” Trent says, taking a video of your son as he blew out the candle on the small cupcake in front of him. Your son’s fifth birthday was spent out with Trent, starting with him making breakfast again, taking the two of you to the park and Boston Commons as he played with Ben the entire time, out to dinner where you were now, treating you the entire way. Ben didn't even care about the gift that you had gotten from Andy, something he had previously looked forward to every year. Ben was starting to see Trent as a father figure, something that was both terrifying and exciting to you.

If Trent, for whatever reason, stopped wanting to be part of your life, that would mean he would also probably leave Ben’s, a boy who already didn’t know his father and didn’t seem to want to know him. But he wanted to know Trent, he loved Trent, and you knew Trent loved him, too. You were just afraid he would fall out of love.

Ben was giggling as Trent smashed part of the cupcake against his nose, the bright red frosting making him look like Rudolph as he tried, and failed, to lick it off himself.

“Did you get that part, too?” you ask Trent, leaning over to see his screen.

“Yeah, I’ll send it to you. Do you mind if I post it to my private story? Some of the guys and their wives would go crazy for this.”

“Only the private one,” you tell him, laughing as you turn to Ben to see his face more of a mess than before, the red frosting now spread to his cheeks, “Benny, what happened?”

“I’m painting,” he says, using his finger to smear the frosting on his face.

Trent can’t help but laugh, you pulling Ben in for a hug. Trent snaps a picture of you kissing the frosting off his face. “Wait a sec,” he says, calling over a waiter to take a picture of the three of you, both of you kissing Ben’s cheek as he beams at the camera.

You see him set his phone down, notifications lighting the screen up as you guys get ready to leave, the picture of the three of you his new phone background.

The next morning, Trent had morning skate before needing to get ready for their game that night. The last game before the All-Star Weekend marking the halfway point of the season was always both nerve-wracking and exciting, the hypothetical of ‘if the season ended today, would you be in or out of the playoffs?’ always on everyone’s mind even though it meant virtually nothing, but still wanting to stay at one of the top spots in the league regardless.

“Hey, what was with that story yesterday?” Jack asks him after practice.

“It was Ben’s birthday,” he shrugs.

“Isn’t it weird?” Zach asks. “She has a kid. She’s a mom. You aren’t a dad.”

“I never said I was his dad,” he defends himself, starting to take on a hostile tone.

“Well, you’re acting like his dad, aren’t you?”

Trent rolls his eyes as his only response. What was he supposed to do? Ignore that you have a child? Trent gets up to leave, Jack now standing in front of him to stop him.

“You’re with them all the time. You watch him when Y/N is busy. You brought them to family skate. You know his favorite toys, his favorite tv shows, you facetime them every night before the game because he’s going to be asleep by the time the game is over. You’re not his dad,” Jack lists to Trent, Trent getting more angry with every word that comes from his friend.

“What am I supposed to do? Pretend that Ben isn’t part of her life? Pretend that she has no kid? I can’t do that. I don’t want to do that.”

“It’s messing with you, Trent!” Jack yells, the rest of the remaining guys getting quiet. “You don’t do this. You don’t date a girl who has a child and play ‘house’ with her. You’re the guy who just fucks around and has fun. Where did he go?”

“I can’t change? I can’t settle down because I wasn’t settled before?” Trent responds, knowing that his face was bright red, “I love Y/N, and I love Ben. I don’t care if you think it’s ‘not normal.’ It’s what I want and you don’t really get a say in that.” Jack stands there, stunned by his friends' words, still struggling to find them as Trent grabs his bag and walks out of the room to go home before the game.

He wanted to call you and talk about it with you, but what was he going to say? ‘The guys think my dating you is weird since you have a son?’ The flash of your expression appeared in his mind when you realized the guys didn’t know about Ben at family skate, the pain he knew you felt when you thought he was ashamed of Ben. He wasn’t then and he isn’t now.

But what was he doing? Jack was right: he wasn’t Ben’s dad. He could never really be Ben’s dad. Why did your son mean so much to him if he had no relation to the child in the first place?

Why did he have to say he was all in? He was supposed to be focusing on himself and his hockey, not a girl he met at a bar and pouring all his excess energy into you and your son. What was he supposed to do? Pull back? Pull you away from your son? There was no way that was going to be an option, and there was no way that was an option he wanted to follow.

He was supposed to be following his normal pre-game traditions and routines, not having his mind run rampant over the thought of you and Ben and what his teammates think.

He pulls out his phone, a notification from Instagram telling him that you had responded to his story a few hours ago while he was at practice. Trent opens it, seeing the picture of Ben, looking so happy with the cupcake that was all his, the red frosting seconds from being smeared all over his face. Trent didn’t think about being a dad anytime soon. He really never had any intention of settling down, at least not yet, not seriously, yet there he was, thinking of Ben like his own son, head over heels for you and your son.

It was too much, wasn’t it?

His phone started buzzing with texts from the guys to make sure that he was ok after they watched his and Jack’s blow up in the locker room. Trent didn’t even care about them at this point, knowing that he should at least answer them even just to tell them to leave him alone for the time being.

But what if they were right? Jack’s words kept ringing through his head, that he was just a guy who had fun because that’s what he wanted, not a guy who settled down with a girlfriend, and especially not a guy who settled down with a girl who had a toddler.

He spent the entire time he was supposed to be taking a nap going back and forth between whether or not he was in too deep or if he was fine because he was in love. The night he met you, he had never intended to get this far in with you. He had just wanted to hook up, the reason he went home with you in the first place. But as soon as you told him about Ben, seeing the crushed look on your face at the prospect of him leaving because of your son, he knew that he couldn’t just be one and done. There was something about you and Ben that he had to be part of it once he was introduced, that part of his life that he never knew was missing until he realized he couldn’t picture his life without you.

And it was just too much.

Attitude Adjustment

Trent finally gets to the Garden, not even remembering who they were playing that night. He couldn’t think about anyone else, almost tempted to tell Bruce that he was sick so he could be a late scratch instead of letting this mess with him. Because no matter what he did, he couldn’t get out of his head and focus. The music that he normally played before a game wasn’t working, even so much as trying to close his eyes and picture being on the ice while he was in the locker room before the game.

No one approached him while he was in his stall, probably out of fear of another outburst from him. He wasn’t even paying attention when Bergeron gave his traditional pre-game motivational speech before they all went out to the ice, Trent skating around by himself in hopes of being able to focus before they played the Flames that night.

“Alright, what’s going on?” he hears someone say, not even noticing who came up to him in the first place.

He looks at Brad, suddenly thankful that there was someone on the team who knew what he was going through. “Katrina already had Sloane when you two met, right?”

“Y/N and Ben on your mind?”

“You were in the locker room after practice.”

The two of them skate around their half of the ice, the time before the game ticking down. “When you date a woman, when any two people date, there’s always going to be something that can get in the way and potentially break you up. That includes their family, their kids if they have them. You need to decide if you want to let Ben break you and Y/N up or if you’re going to take him in and not let him do that.”

The guys were migrating back to the bench, Brad still on the ice for the starting lineup. “It worked for you, though,” Trent says, hanging back as long as he could, his eyes darting back and forth between the clock and his teammate.

Brad shrugs, looking out to the blue line where Bergeron and Pastrnak were already waiting. “I don’t see Sloane as any less of my son than I see Sawyer as my daughter. It worked for me. If you want it to work for you, then you have to make it work.”

The buzzer sounds, Bruce yelling for Trent to get off the ice and onto the bench. Did he want this to work with you and Ben? What the three of you had was already great, but Trent had barely spent any time with you, a time when you and he could just be a couple without worry of anyone else.

Trent’s line goes out on the ice, his mind still occupied as he skates. The puck touches his stick, him making a mad dash towards the Flames net, only to get tangled up with Tkachuk, sending Trent to the ice. He doesn’t get up for a minute, trying to process what happened, an easy shot and probably goal just messed up, leading to a breakaway to the other end to put the Flames up 1-0 against the Bruins.

By the time he can finally get himself up, Bruce is yelling at him that if he messes up like that again then he’s benched the rest of the game, definitely not a good look going into the All-Star break. He gets back out on the ice, the same thing happening with him tripping on a breakaway, this time over himself instead of a Flame, again leading to them scoring and putting them up 2-0. He couldn’t get out of his head. Trent sat there the entire time, not even focusing on the game, not focusing on the comeback his own team had to win the game 4-3.

He didn’t talk to anyone in the locker room, rushing out as soon as he could to go home, hearing Brad’s voice carry through the hallway to the elevators as he explained what he knew about the situation, no doubt that Jack offered his own remarks that Trent was sure would have lead to them fighting right there.

He had never wanted to fight one of his teammates over shit they said before, let alone one of his best friends. Other guys on other teams? Sure. But Jack?

Trent gets into his car, his phone already blowing up, asking him if he had still wanted to come on the trip to Puerto Rico he and the guys had planned with their girlfriends a while back. He had completely forgotten about the trip, no one even mentioning it for the longest time, not even sure that it was actually booked by anyone.

What surprised him most was Jack asking in the group if you were going to come with them, followed by a separate text saying that he meant it, that he wanted you to come.

Maybe this is what you and Trent needed; a trip with the guys, the two of you able to spend some time alone and just be with each other without the constant worry of someone or something else. He texted back that he would be there, not sure about you yet.

“Hello?” you answer your phone, Ben’s coming through the background. Hearing him made Trent hesitate, swallowing hard.”Trent?”

“Yeah, uh,” he swallows again, “Sorry, um, mind if I stop by for a few minutes?”

You sit up from the couch, looking at the mess you didn’t even realize Ben had created during the game. “Yeah, sure. I’ll see you soon?” you say, hearing him start up his car.

“Yeah, awesome,” he says, hanging up before either of you could say anything else, practically speeding out of the Garden as fast as he could to get to you. The more he thought about it, the more excited he was about spending a week with you.

“Hey, Benny, guess who’s coming over soon?” you put on a cheery voice, crouching down to the floor where Ben was playing with his toys.

Your toddler started bouncing up and down, his arms waving around in excitement. “Trent?” he squeals.

“He should be here any minute, help me pick up some of your toys, ok?”

You and Ben start to scramble to pick everything up. You knew Trent wouldn’t normally care if there were toys on the ground, but there was something about the tone of his voice when he called to tell you that he was stopping by that worried you.

You had watched the game, you weren’t stupid that he had had an awful game, thankful that it was an earlier evening game that Ben could watch with you. Even he was upset when Trent fell, both times, getting benched and hearing Jack and Brick speculate what was up with one of their favorite players.

Ben continued to buzz around as you waited, thankful that he couldn’t sense the anxiety that was building up while waiting for Trent. You hear him knocking on the door, getting up while Ben seems to be oblivious to the sound. You smile when you see him, mirroring his own expression, the complete opposite of what you expected given the conversation you had minutes ago.

“I have something to ask you,” he starts, his hands on your waist as he starts walking you backward down the hall, seemingly toward your bedroom.

“Trent! Trent!” Ben comes up to the two of you, bouncing up and down, Trent's hands releasing their grip on you. “Are you coming on Friday?” Ben asks him, referencing his concert at school that Trent had promised to come to.

You saw the smile on Trent’s face fade at Ben’s words, a nervous look taking over as he knelt down to look Ben in the eye. “I really want to see your concert, buddy, but I’m not sure if I can make it. I’m gonna try, though, ok?” he tries to save face when he sees the crushed look on your son’s face.

Ben nods, not understanding what Trent was really saying to him. In his world, Trent saying he wasn’t sure meant he didn’t want to see him sing with his other classmates. “Um, Ben, why don’t you go play in your room for a little bit, ok?” you ask him, guiding him to his room, watching him run down the hall. You turn to your boyfriend, clearly confused by what he just told Ben. “It’s the All-Star break, what came up?”

“The guys and I are going away for the break, and I want you to come with me.”

“What are you talking about? You said you were staying here?” you ask him, praying that Ben doesn’t come out of his room and couldn’t hear any of this.

“I know, I know, but, come on, things change,” he says, taking your hand and trying to lead back down your hallway.

“Wait, Trent, come on,” you stop him, turning him around to face you. “You want Ben and I to come with you on a trip with the guys? What guys, where are you going?”

His expression drops again, “I was kinda hoping it would just be me and you.”

“And where would Ben be? I can’t just leave him alone. I can’t go away with you.”

“But, Y/N, come on,” he whines. “This could be so good for us. A few days, just you and me, no distractions, nothing stopping us from just being together, like a real couple.”

“Distractions? A real couple? Trent, what the,” you stop, realizing you were standing right outside of Ben’s door. You look between Trent and the door, Trent’s pleading expression as you take him down the hall, practically slamming the door to your own bedroom. “What the fuck are you talking about?” you hiss.

He sits on your bed, you still standing, towering over him. He puts his hands in his face, letting out a deep breath. “I’m,” he starts, “I just want time where it’s you and me. Other than that night at the bar, we almost never have had more than a few hours when you and I are alone. I need to get out of Boston for a bit, and I don’t want anyone with me beside you.”

“Trent, I can’t,” you protest, sitting down next to him.

“Yes, please, just say, yes.”

“No, Trent. You aren’t hearing what I’m saying.”

“I am, I just-”

“Ok, then you aren’t listening! I can’t just drop everything on a moment’s notice and go off with you on a vacation. I have a kid, and if you haven’t noticed, I can’t exactly afford a babysitter for more than two nights in a row, let alone watching him all day every day for an entire week.”

“Don’t worry, I can pay for one, I just need to get out of here, and I need you with me.”

“Trent, I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Ben can stay with a sitter.”

“Don’t you get it? Ben comes first. Ben has to come first. When it comes to a decision between you and Ben, or anyone and Ben, my choice is always Ben. There is never a case when I’ll pick something or someone over him, especially not going on some trip with you and your frat boy-like teammates because you’re upset you had one bad game. I choose him every single time. Especially over you, Trent.”

“What about Ben’s father? Can’t he stay with Andy?”

You can’t help but gasp, hurt by what you thought Trent meant. “You mean the father that didn’t want him? I. Told you. This,” you say, standing up again, “Andy wants nothing to do with Ben. And right now it seems like neither do you.” You could feel the tears threatening to roll down your cheeks, turning around and heading out of your room. You couldn’t look at him. You had no idea where you were going to go, given that you had Ben in his room and couldn’t leave him.

“Y/N, please, I’m sorry,” he runs after you, stopping you before you reached the door. “I just want a few days, where it’s you and me. Where everything is easy for us. Where there’s nothing, no one, besides you and me.”

“This isn’t supposed to be easy. You knew it wasn’t going to be so why are you so shocked that this is how it is?” you tell him, the tears finally falling.

The two of you stand there for a minute, Trent starting to reach for you a few times before running his hands through his hair. “It’s me and Ben, or neither of us,” you give him an ultimatum. His mouth opens and closes like a fish, wishing he can find the words. “Fine. If you can’t make the decision, I will. Get out.”

“Y/N, come on.”

“No. If you have to think about it, then you aren’t ‘all in,’” you call back to the morning after you two met. “Because if you were, you wouldn’t have to think about it.”

Trent doesn’t say another word, pushing past you and leaving you there.

You press your back against the door, letting out a silent sob so that Ben can’t hear you. This was exactly what you were afraid of, wiping the tears from your face and peeling yourself off the door. You walk down the hall, hoping that Ben wouldn’t notice the redness that was probably in your eyes from crying, opening his door.

“Where’s Trent?” Ben asked, handing you a toy of his when you sit down on his floor with him.

You swallow hard, not sure what to really tell him. “He had to go, Benny,” you say, running your hand on his hair, pulling him close to kiss the top of his head.

“When’s he coming back, Mommy?”

You put on a fake smile for him, not wanting to let him know when you really thought Trent would be back. “I don’t know, sweetie. Not this week.”

I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

You hadn’t checked anyone’s story on Instagram since last night, sitting on the metal chairs in the middle of the day, surrounded by parents much older than you, figuring now was probably the only time you hate the chance.

You tap through them, some stories from friends from college, random celebrities that you followed. You finally get to Jack’s story from last night. They were in Puerto Rico, in some dark restaurant. Zach and Jeremy were dancing, Jack behind the camera. In the corner, you could see Trent sitting at a table, looking miserable. He sees Jack with his camera, shakes his head and storms off. You replay the story, Jack’s shaking making you think that he was saying something and turning the sound on low, holding the phone to your ear. You could hear the music more than anything else, sounds of Zach, Jeremy, and Jack’s laughter breaking through after one of them said something inaudible. Trent must have gotten up at that point, because you hear Jack yell, “Oh, Trent! Come on, man! Have some fun!”

You go to Trent’s profile, hoping that he had posted anything. The last photo he has posted was of the two of you, him strategically cropping out Ben because you had asked him to. It was from Ben’s birthday, outside the restaurant. He had captioned it, ‘Spent the day with my two favorite people, Bear not shown.’

Ben’s preschool teacher gets up on the stage, the high-pitched whispers of the four- and five-year-olds starting by the back door as Ms. Barry introduces the class, all of them walking up in a line to the stage. They start waving to their parents, Ben waving to you as everyone, including you, has their phone out waving back and recording the moment. The children start singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,’ their pixie-like voices filling the auditorium, all slightly out of key and slightly out of sync with each other. Towards the end of the song, you notice Ben starting to jump up and down, anxious over something he saw towards the back of the auditorium, as did some of the other children. You figured it was nothing, none of the other parents turning around to look at what it was either.

They go onto their next song, one you weren’t paying attention to, nor did you recognize it. Ben was no less antsy than he was before, waving again with the biggest smile on his face. It had to be someone.

You turn around, Trent leaning against the back wall, one hand in his pocket while the other was waving to Ben. All of his attention was on Ben. You turn back in your seat, shocked that he was there. He was supposed to be in Puerto Rico.

You put your bag on the seat, the mom next to you promising to watch it. You sneak back to Trent, not sure what to say to him. You turn to Ben, giving him the thumbs up and a single finger to tell him that you were going to be back in a second, feeling bad that you were leaving your so. Ben jumps up and down, nodding and continuing to sing.

You grab Trent, pulling him out of the room and into the small hallway. “What are you doing here? You were in Puerto Rico last night; I saw you on Jack’s story.”

He looks down at his feet, biting his bottom lip. “I couldn’t be there knowing you and Ben were here.”

“That’s not what you said when you wanted to go.”

He nods, looking up at you for a second before his eyes flick back down to his feet. “I told you I was dumb.”

“So why are you here then?”

“I told you when we first met that I was all in. I can’t be all in if I’m not here.”

“So?”

He takes a step closer to you, hesitating for a moment. “So. I don’t want to miss anything with you, or with Ben.” You don’t know what came over you, kissing him outside your son’s concert the way you did. You can hear the parents start to cheer, signaling that the concert was finished. Trent pulls away, your foreheads pressed against each other. He smiles before stealing a kiss again, pulling you back inside.

Ben comes running up to you, giggling with his arms open. “Trent!”

“Benny Bear!” he responds, crouching down with his arms open, hugging Ben when he came in contact. He picks him up, kissing him on the cheek, your hand on Trent’s back.

“You came! You’re back!” Ben squeals, burying his face in Trent’s shoulder.

“Back and here to stay,” he says to you, giving you a quick kiss before putting Ben down, getting your bag, and going home.

[masteremeraldholder]

thoughts on the sonic movie: knucklesknucknuckleSKNCKLESKNUCKELSKNucklesnnukccclkas

but fr tho, it was a LOT better than the first one. i'm still very disappointed/meh/unliking of the universe and whatever lore they're trying to take. not quite game sonic, not quite tv or comic sonic, something in between. and the whole owls n echidnas thing sat wrong with me. "the mean black-coded charas must be stopped bc they are too powerful and will hurt us soft uwu yt ppl." ik that's what y'all meant to say and like, ik it's a children's film so it's just meant to be entertaining, but when i say that for the first 30-45 minutes nothing happened. just dragged on and on with too much standing and looking on the humans' part. all i can think about is how badly this movie is going to age a;ldkf  it's so cringe man i can't say i love the depiction of black women in it; maddie's sister was the angry black woman trope in the first movie and it continued into this movie too. angry fat black woman and her skinnier desirable sister. that's what y'all are telling us. and fandom doesn't handle it any better, i literally saw the ugliest fanart in the tag of maddie and knuckles with matching beads on their braids/dreads, n maddie looked like a yt person with brownish skin. mighty sus how y'all can draw the anthros perfectly but fuck up black women overall, the movie just takes a very american view; the angry russians are bloodthirsty and hate outsiders, the angry black woman, hip-hop (read: black) music used for comedic purposes, etc. i still wish they'd chosen a better world to set it in. without humans? no disrespect to the actors/actresses part, but the humans are what i hate in this movie. like the parts with sonic, tails and knuckles were so sweet? the last fight with eggman? chef's kiss. n the baseball game, i cried man love the bros bottom line, this is true evidence that knuckles CAN and SHOULD have a black va in the games. ik y'all wouldn't be able to get mr. elba, but it's the thought that counts. bc i swear every fucking time i HEARD knuckles, i screamed, died, then came back to live. n he was so cute1!!! let me hold him, bbyboi, i love how idris voices himas;ldkfs in conclusion, kknucklESLKNUCLKESKNUCKLESKKNUCELes

[sugako]

Can i request doing the clothes swap trend with Kenma Bokuto Ushijima Oikawa and Kageyama(idk your character limit. It wasnt in your rules) i hope this isnt too much for you. Have a good day

i lowkey did not know what this trend even was 😳 but this is cute (also i don’t really have a chara limit currently within reason)

sum: clothing swap trend w/ gn!reader x kenma, bokuto, ushi, oikawa, and kags

cw: clothing switches (no sizing indicators really), mostly fluff, kinda slightly suggestive content (for bokuto), timeskip spoilers!

kenma

does not get it or why you would want to

you already wear his hoodies/sweatpants all the time so that’s the same thing he thinks

but he does it anyone because it’s going to make you happy

you get into it teasing him abt habits he has while he streams/in meetings

he doesn’t act super different but still imitates you a little

secretly loves having your soft sweater on because it smells like you

“you’re wearing my clothes right now.” he says bluntly, motioning to the old, too loose hoodie and fresh pair of boxers of his you have on.

“you know what i mean. i know you watch tiktoks even you pretend you don’t. you gotta wear my clothes.” you say, already reaching behind you to grab the set you pulled out for him.

for just another moment longer he hesitates before he finally snatches them from your hand. you close your eyes, waiting for him to change, and when he’s done he taps your shoulder.

“c’mon, my followers will like it.” he sighs.

bokuto

he suggests it as soon as he sees one video of people doing it

drags you away from whatever you’re doing to ask

already loves seeing you in his jerseys and t-shirts

idc if you have big tiddies so does he and his shirts would fit anyone

he would love to squeeze into your shorts or skirts with his massive ass and thighs

you just hope he doesn’t pull any seams, but even if he does it’s just funny and cute

“hey, baby...?” he draws out the word, pulling you away from your laptop screen. you shut it, already sensing that he wants to do something.

“what’s up?” you ask, pulling him into your arms, running your fingers through his hair.

“wanna do the couples outfit swap thing with me?”

“of course!” as you agree, he’s dragging you to your shared bedroom when he tosses his clean MSBY uniform at you, helping to drag the clothes you’re wearing off.

he shimmies on your clothes and sets his phone up to record. you hold back a wheeze as he awkwardly steps in front of the screen as the music starts up, gently mocking some of your habits. nearly in tears, you step out when it’s your turn holding onto a volleyball and trying to imitate his chest receive, but laughing so hard it barely bounces across the room to him.

“hey!” he comes stumbling back into view of the camera, laughing as he picks up the ball.

“you do that a lot, you’re very good at it with these.” you say, cupping his chest. on reflex, he tightens his muscles under your hold, firming up the soft flesh. the music fades off and the phone finishes recording.

“they’re good for a lot more than that,” he purrs, leaning in as though to kiss you, but bouncing the ball between your chests at the last second.

ushijima

another one that just doesn’t get it

doesn’t have tiktok so he doesn’t know what you mean at first

agrees immediately because you seem excited

he’s worried about fitting in your clothes though no matter your size

doesn’t know what to do so he just stands there (askjlsfj i’m sorry i just think he would)

“so, this is all.” he asks, looking down at himself before his eyes refocus on you.

“yep.” you answer plainly, buttoning the last button of his crisp, white dress shirt he pulled for you. while he didn’t totally get it, the way your eyes lit up when he was in your clothes and you in his made his heart warm and he couldn’t say no.

“i don’t do anything or...?”

“you can act like me if you want. promise i won’t be offended.” you joke, clicking the phone on and nodding at him. he’s a little stiff, but he does his best.

when it’s your turn, you hop up to him with your arms stretched over your head, spiking a mini foam volleyball that was sitting on your bedside table with a straight expression.

with his phone you snatched minutes ago you pretend to scroll through it with an oddly intense look that he gets when he concentrates. to anyone else, he might look angry, but you know he’s just focusing.

“do i really look that mad all the time?” his eyebrow just barely quirks up, and you can hear the tiniest hint of amusement in his voice.

“aww, you’re just a big, kind of sometimes serious guy with the prettiest eyes i’ve ever seen.” you cup his face in your hands, bringing it close so you can peck the tip of his nose. “but, uhh yes, a little bit.”

oikawa

another one that suggests it to you

has you in a plain shirt and athletic shorts in seconds

peruses all of your clothes to find the ones he thinks will suit him best

finally finds something that’s his favorite shade of blue and gets it on

he gets very much into it, overexaggerating your mannerisms, etc.

“i do not do that!” you call, holding back a crooked smile. finally, you push him out from in front of the phone.

before he can stop you, you start making flirty faces at the camera, pretending to take selfies with your tongue stuck out and eyebrows furrowed.

“excuse me?” he chuckles, coming back into frame. “i don’t do that.”

“oh, should i be poutykawa then?” you counter, crossing your arms and sticking out your bottom lip with a sullen look on your face. “i miss my bestie in japan and shoyo so much, but at least i’ll see them when i crush them at the olympics.” you taunt, throwing your head back.

“hey,” he whines, “did iwa tell you to call me those awful names? you know i just want you to call me tooru.”

you giggle as he lets out a long, dramatic sigh.

“i’m y/n and i’m so in love with tooru oikawa, san juan setter and his pretty hair and hands even though i pretend i’m all tough.” he throws back at you, grabbing your wrists and playfully started to wrestle with you. at onces, you’re glad he proposed this silly idea even as you’re about to be strong-armed onto the ground.

kageyama

another clueless king like ushi

but also does it because you seem excited

...and he likes seeing you in his clothes

if you give him something complicated (like that laces up, skirt, dress, etc.) he needs your help

looks very good in whatever clothes you put him in

even if you’re the same height/barely shorter than him, he’s gonna make fun of you for being short

you gotta hold back your laughing tears even before you start up

you let him go first, and he stiffly mocks some things you do, in step with the music. when you have to go, you’re already on the edge of losing it, you think you’re joke is too good.

first, you take a deep breath, and use your hands to part you hair, just like you’ve seen hinata do during his kageyama impressions. you barely get out the words “...power curry...” before you feel him roll his eyes and you let out a shuddering laugh.

“is that supposed to be me?” he asks as you pretend to quickly stuff you mouth with nothing.

“what?” you chuckle, “there’s nothing wrong with being a big eater, you’re a big guy.” you say, voice raising up a couple octaves.

“uh-huh, and the power curry commercial?” he questions.

“was a, uh, very important thing that you did and now some people know you from it.” you coughed out, acutely aware of the sinister smirk growing on his features.

suddenly, he drops down to both his knees. “hmm, is this how you see things?” he says flatly, looking around the room.

“tobio, i’m not even-”

“nuh-uh, i think this is a much better impression than i did earlier.” he stops you, still looking around. “i could see below a volleyball net from here, that’s pretty amazing.”

“yeah, well you’re a big, tall...big guy.” you weakly try to counter. his flat face drops for a just a second as a smile breaks through and he nods.

“i’m actually 188cm so i think you need to get on a chair or two.”

[clownmoontoon]

Recently found your blog so I was wondering, thoughts on the Animaniacs reboot?

AAAA OMG WELCOME!!! HOPE UR ENJOYIN IT SO FAR \OUO/!!!

i LOVE this question and i have sO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE REBOOT so ima try to break it down into my likes, dislikes, and hit or miss (things i liked some of the time but not all the time)

🌈  10 things i liked!!!!! 🌈 <-- in no particular order

1. THE THEME SONG REWRITE!!!! ITS GREAT!!! og series callbacks, DELIGHTFULLY MORE INCLUSIVE, all those unnecessary side characters cut out, no weird celebrity references JUST RLLY WELL DONE and im glad they just redid the old one instead of making a brand new one ITS A CLASSIC!! plus this way u rlly notice those differences and how great they are

2. SPEAKING OF nO BORING SIDE CHARAS... YEAH!! THAT!! perhaps an unpopular opinion but ive never been a fan of the side characters and watched the og show p much exclusively for the warners so i LOVE that its mostly about them now!! (( i do miss the mime tho but they shoulda been nicer to him u_u ))

3. also like the theme song: MUCH LESS CELEBRITY CAMEOS/REFERENCES there are still a few but i feel like they were WAY more abundant in the og series and im rlly glad they calmed down w that, its actually Not That Fun to try and spot all the celebrities 

4. mORE “IRL”/TIME IN THE TOWER!!! while there are some shorts where the warners are “acting” (gold meddlers, warners unbound etc) the VAST MAJORITY(19) of the 26 warner shorts take place “irl”!! WE GET TO SEE THEM IN THE TOWER SO MUCH!! eating together, shopping together, TRICK OR TREATING TOGETHER!!! and i just LOVE this stuff its sO GOOD FOR CHARACTER BUILDING!! 

5. DIVERSITY!!!! EVEN THE BG CHARACTERS!! EVEN IN BODY TYPE!!! no more fatness only as a joke and hotness as the only other option for women, PPL ARE AVERAGE AND I LOVE IT

6. OVERALL CONSISTENT QUALITY!!! THE ANIMATION IS REALLY INCREDIBLE AND BEAUTIFUL TO WATCH!!! that was one of the BIGGEST flaws of the og series, so many eps were animated poorly bc they were handed off to studios that rlly didnt know how to draw the warners so its HELLA to see them beautifully animated in EVERY ep of the reboot so far

^^ animation by @/lemurasart on twitter!! 

7. nO HORNY JOKES...POSSIBLY ANOTHER UNPOPULAR OPINION?? bUT I NEVER RLLY LIKED ALL THESE HORNY JOKES GIVEN TO KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE LKDKD its actually rlly neat to see how creative the writing gets when they cant just horny joke their way out of a situation ALSO THIS BIT WAS AMAZING 

8. I RLLY LOVE THAT THE CEO DOESNT HATE THEM!!!!! it was so frustrating in the og series that the ceo wouldnt even hear them out EVEN WHEN IT WAS STUFF THAT WOULD BENEFIT HIM its nice that this lady is insane AND greedy aND YET ISNT REALLY MALICIOUS TOWARDS THE WARNERS AT ALL at least not any more than she is to anybody else ITS REFRESHING!! I LIKE NORITA

9. ANIME-NIACS!!!!! thATS ALL I GOTTA SAY ABOUT THAT LDJLKD

10. FANGIES!!!!!!!!! they always had fangy energy im so glad it finally manifested...

⭐ 4 things i didnt like ⭐  i was gonna make this a top 10 list but i couldnt think of 10 things i didnt like djkldkljd

1. THE REDESIGN.... yes i know i was just celebrating the fangs bUT other than that i rlly wasnt a fan of the redesign.. its just too ...animal?? the triangle noses and changing their white faces to beige just seemed rlly unnecessary imo..

aLSO THEY LOST THEIR CLOWNINESS!!! ;;;;; i miss that clown aesthetic... big round red noses, white faces.. also i loved it when characters would try to describe them and say things like THEY HAVE FACES LIKE A CREEPY CLOWN dLdlkjdJLK

im not sure why they couldnt at least stay w the white n black like the old cartoons theyre based on??? THERES EVEN A SONG IN THE REBOOT THAT SAYS “LIKE US, ITS BLACK AND WHITE” bUT... THEYRE NOT BLACK N WHITE ANYMORE LDKKDJ 

also the redesign is a lot more angular/less round than the original and i jus prefer the sof..

i miss this ;n;

2. GROSS OUT HUMOR  ..LIKE HONESTLY WTF LDLJKLJKDD theres not too much of it thankfully but the og series had like.. nONE so it was a shock when theyd suddenly zoom in on marie antoinette’s finger and it was LIKE THAT and the pigeon scene at the end of “the cutening” actually made me feel sick sdjkdjk JUST IN GENERAL IM NOT A FAN OF GROSS OUT HUMOR SO .. EUUGHGH 

3. those random new shorts that are like???? whyd u get rid of the side characters if ur gonna have these guys anyway?? the gnome in ppls mouths and the alien guy?? neither were funny to me and again the gnome short was mostly gross 

4. YAKKO CANT DO MATH?? YAKKO DOESNT KNOW WHAT PLEBIAN MEANS??? HELLO?? HE HAS A VERY COMPLICATED SONG WHERE HE BREAKS DOWN MULTIPLICATION AND ANOTHER WHERE HE SINGS EVERY WORD IN THE DICTIONARY!! hES SO SMART LET HIM BE SMART hES A HUGE NERD PLS...

💣 HIT OR MISS 💣 

THE SONGS!!! while i love that they brought back the musical aspect of the show (its rlly not animaniacs without singing tbh) the songs were sUPER VARIED IN QUALITY IMO 

the reboot song? AMAZING

the song about dot’s zit??? ... no..

🌈  OVERALL I HAVE A LOT MORE POSITIVE TO SAY ABOUT THE SHOW THAN NEGATIVE AND IF ANYBODY ASKS I ALWAYS SAY I LOVED IT!!! 🌈

IS IT PERFECT? NAH

IS IT FUNNY AND FUN AND IN GENERAL A SHOW THAT MAKES ME AS HAPPY AS THE OG SERIES DID? ABSOLUTELY 100%!!! 

✨ GO WATCH IT!!! ✨

(( ironically this scene RIGHT BEFORE THE PIGEON SCENE is one of my absolute faves DLKLKJDJKD ))

[taichissu]

hi yes please tell me more about a3!! is it a rhythm game bc i am VERY interested in the fact that theres a gnc guy in it but im only really able to dedicate myself to gacha games if theyre rhythm based :pensive:

under cut because i got carried away-------

it’s not rhythm unfortunately 😔 it’s too bad because this series has VERY AMAZING music and they really got their hands on ones of the best (imo) composers in the field (like yuyoyuppe or emon(tes) or hige driver <3) but it’s Sadly just a card collecting game like enstars (i feel you though, i can’t really get into mobage if they’re not rhythm either, it’s a miracle i still play a3 everyday-) :( if you can’t get into the game though, there’s a currently running anime :D it’s very ugly (compared to game art) but <3 i still love it <3 even if it’s not perfect haha

it promotes itself as an otome game but it’s Really not, it’s just a story heavy card collecting game you’re y/n [izumi] tachibana and you take over mankai (jp: full bloom) company after it’s about to be demolished because your father disappeared and failed to pay off the debt; your job is to bring the company back to its former glory as the director (and work as a personal therapist to all of your actors-) i’m sure you’ll like it if you like the found family trope, because the mankai company to everyone there is a place where they belong and feel safe there are 4 troupes in the company, each specializing in different play genre spring: altered versions of known stories (for example: romeo & juliet, the wizard of oz, some original stories following a similar vibe) summer: comedy (slapstick and tons of ad-lib) autumn: action (if there’s no fighting it’s not an autumn play-) winter: mature and serious stories, often tragic

it’s a really cute series that can get kinda serious at times (there are matters of abuse, child neglect, kidnapping+unconsented drug use, and death (off the top of my head) if that makes you uncomfortable)

the writing sure is flawed; masumi (obsessiveness portrayed as cute and funny), citron (making the only (?) character of color the butt of a joke---), how they portray their ND-coded charas like misumi and homare as jokes too, but i still think it’s possible to just ignore those aspects i mean............... not in MY canon-

the gnc guy is yuki rurikawa and he’s my fave <3 he’s a “crossdresser” (i don’t really like that word but that’s what he calls himself) who loves sewing and is the costume designer (aside from being an actor) for the company, he has a cute appearance but a sharp tongue and sassy attitude <3 he’s strong and mature for his age, if he wants something he’ll get it something i really like is that nobody in the company really questions or comments purely negatively about his choice of clothing, which is very refreshing another character that isn’t really gnc but Borderline Could Be is azuma yukishiro, who speaks in a very delicate and feminine manner and is said by some characters to “feel like a woman” <3 yuki even calls him “azu-nee” (big sister azu)

overall, if you don’t check out the game, i at least recommend you checking out the music because it���s honestly one of my favorite things about the series <3 all 24 characters have solo songs, group songs (4 troupes), plus each released play gets 1 to 2 play-themed songs and i think they’re all great (imo better than some idol-franchise music but not calling any names-)

if you need recs; my faves are

more on the rock side: just for myself, muddy hero, the contract, second shot

ballad-like: minority (yuki’s solo song; the lyrics are very lgbt-coded but we don’t get much of it in game), loner, monologue  

other genres i can’t quite name??: susume pirates, exciting charmer (PLEASE consider tasuku hatanaka (who voices kumon) i’ve been absolutely obsessed with his vocals), mikansei na sora de, buzama, living the dream, shoutai, scarlet game, kiteretsu poemer (literally a musical masterpiece?? it’s so fun????)

sorry for linking so many but literally every single song in this franchise is amazing????? there’s not ONE song i dislike like how??????

i’m also really sorry for rambling on sajfkhsakfjash i just love a3 a lot 🥺

[kuratoki]

Distance 01

It’s finally here! I hope you guys enjoyed Changes but I hope you enjoy the sequel even more~ My ask box is open for Charas and personal (and I would low key love some anons uwu) Enjoy!! 

If you haven’t checked out changes yet, you can find it here.

There wasn’t a day Jeno didn’t regret not making things official with you sooner. What he also didn’t expect was his soon to be ex best friend to act on his feelings towards you either. Now a whole continent away with a ten hour time difference, will the two of you survive the distance and all the obstacles that come with?

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Pairing: Ballerina OC x Dancer Jeno

Words: 3488

Warnings: Swearing

~Updates Ever/other day at 8AM PST~

“Happy New year everyone!” Hana said brightly, waving at Yeeun and Yukhei who were sitting in the lunchroom before class started.

Seeing her new good friend, Yeeun squealed, engulfing Hana into a hug and the two girls started jumping around as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.

“Didn’t you guys just see each other for a girls day two days ago?” Jaemin asked walking up behind Hana and giving Yukhei a bro hug before giving Yeeun a small hug.

Ever since you and Renjun departed, things had gotten progressively better between the two couples. Despite the rough past, Yukhei and Yeeun were the addition the group needed. Yeeun was actually really fun to be around and you got to bond with her a bit at the Selects Christmas party before you left. You also encouraged Hana to talk to her more which resulted in the friendship they had now. 

“Can you like not?” Hana asked looking at her boyfriend with a playful glare, “We’re the only girls now because Y/N and Mia are gone.” 

“Yea and with all the trouble you guys get into without us, we kind of have to stick together.” Yeeun said, taking Hana’s side, “Anyways, did you guys have a good holiday?”

“We spent it with Jaemin’s parents.” Hana said, smiling bashfully, “They invited us to this….” 

As Hana recounted her winter break to Yeeun, Jaemin looked at Yukhei and playfully rolled his eyes.

“Who would have thought.” he said as Yukhei nodded.

“Who would have thought.” he agreed and looked around, “Any idea where Chenle is?” It wasn’t like him to be at school so late in the morning but then again, it was the first day back so classes started a bit later.

“He mentioned something over winter break about taking care of three transfer students from China.” Jaemin said and raised his eyebrows as he saw said boy walk into the room with a girl and two boys trailing behind him, “Speak of the devil.”

“You guys really shouldn’t talk about Jisung while he isn’t here you know.” Chenle commented as he approached the group, making Hana and Yeeun break from their conversation, “How was everyone's vacations?” 

Once everyone responded, Chenle motioned to the three behind him, “I’d like to introduce you guys to Xiao Dejun, Liu YangYang and Chou Tzuyu. They’re from the transfer program and the schools asked me to act as their guide.” he then motioned to the two couples in front of him and tried to hold back his sigh, silently wishing he wasn’t the fifth wheel in this case, “Everyone, this is Wong Yukhei, Jang Yeeun, Kim Hana and Na Jaemin….” he paused for a second and looked around the room, “Where’s Jeno?” 

“He told me that he was taking a later flight so he might be in later today or for sure tomorrow.” Jaemin answered and looked at the other three, “It’s nice to meet you guys. If you need any help at all, don’t hesitate to ask. I was a guide myself this past year.” 

“Yea for what? Two weeks?” Hana snorted, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes, “Then Jeno and Jisung kind of took over no? You were probably a shitty guide since she doesn’t attend the school anymore.” 

“You have spent way too much time talking to Mia over the phone. Now I know how Renjun feels.” Jaemin commented with a pout, “And that’s not true. Timing just sucks.” 

“Are you guys all couples?” YangYang asked curiously and Yukhei shared a look with Jaemin.

“Kind of.” they both said, thinking about the situation between you and Jeno.

As the guys got to know YangYang and Dejun, who said to call him Xiaojun, Hana and Yeeun went to get to know Tzuyu who seemed a bit more reserved.

“So what department are you entering?” Yeeun asked curiously.

“Dance.” Tzuyu responded and the two other girls looked at each other.

“That’s cool, that’s….pretty much everyone here.” Hana said with a bright smile, “Except Chenle. So we’ll be able to help you if you need it.” 

“I don’t think I will but thanks.” Tzuyu said flipping her hair, making Yeeun inwardly grimace while Hana tried to maintain her bright smile. This was going to be interesting since it seemed like the guys were getting along with Xiaojun and YangYang just fine.

While the girls continued to converse with Tzuyu with mostly her giving one word answers, they were about to give up before the doors to the cafeteria opened and her attention was pulled to the person that walked in, approaching the group of boys next to her.

“Who is that?” Tzuyu asked, putting on a flirtatious smile and tried not to let it falter when he walked right by her.

Hana and Yeeun turned around to see who she was talking about and Hana almost choked on her spit, “Holy shit what did Europe do to Jeno?” 

“Europe? You mean Y/N?” Yeeun asked, eyes wide and looked at Tzuyu, “He’s off limits by the way.” 

“Completely off limits.” Hana emphasized, “Untouchable.”

“Plus, you're not his type.” Yeeun said bluntly. She didn’t like the predatory look Tzuyu had on her as she watched Jeno converse with the others and knew that Hana was not going to be a big fan of this girl at all. They both had promised you that they’d keep an eye on Jeno and they weren’t going to let one person get in their way this tie.

“And how would you know? Are you friends with him?” Tzuyu asked slightly offended. They didn’t even know her and yet they were already calling her out. When the guy gave her a side glance and a light smile, she swore she felt her heart flutter and melt at the same time.

“He’s my boyfriends best friend so yes, I can confirm that you aren’t his type.” Hana said with a fake smile before watching Jaemin literally fly across the room and she had to laugh at his clinginess to the new blonde.

“Oh ho ho ho ho! Look who it is!!” Jaemin said excitedly going to give Jeno a big bro hug, “Who are you and what have you done to my best friend.”

“Blonde suits you dude.” Yukhei said, doing the same as Jaemin, “Wasn’t your flight supposed to land later today?” 

“Y/N made me take an earlier one cause she didn’t want me to miss school.” Jeno said before greeting Chenle, “I drove here straight from the airport so I made it just on time.” He then turned to the two unfamiliar boys who were looking at him curiously and waved, “Hey, I’m Jeno.”

“I’m Xiaojun, this is YangYang. The girl over there is Tzuyu” he said pointing at the long haired brunette that had yet to take her eyes off him, “We’re from the transfer program.” 

“Ah yes, I remember listening to Chenle whine to Jisung over the phone about how Renjun ditched him for Europe again.” Jeno said, chuckling slightly and turned to the girls, “Ladies, how were your breaks.” 

Both Yeeun and Hana got up and gave him a big hug leaving Tzuyu wide eyed, so they were actually friends with him.

“Someone seems well rested.” Hana teased, “So I guess going back with Renjun for break instead of spending it here was worth it then.” 

Jeno smiled thinking back to the last two weeks. It was a spontaneous decision but after talking to Renjun and Soonyoung, he decided to take a chance and fly to Europe to surprise you for winter break. He knew you would be busy with your new duties but it was all worth it. It had taken you and Jisung completely by surprise when he walked through the apartment door with Renjun and he remembered what it felt like when you jumped into his arms although it had been a literal two weeks since you had seen each other.

“Uh oh, someones thinking about Y/N again.” Jaemin teased, nudging Jeno lightly.

“WHIPPED.” Chenle called out and Jeno raised his eyebrows at him.

“And for that comment, you can ask Renjun for the sheet music you need for the performance. I’ll just tell him you lost it.” Jeno shot, making Chenle stick his tongue out at him though in reality, Jeno had the full binder of all the pieces in his locker that he stopped by on the way to the lunchroom.

“Speaking of performance, does this mean you’ll be part of todays lunch show with us?” Jaemin asked and Jeno nodded.

“As long as Yukhei is okay dancing Jisung’s part.” Jeno said with a nod and addressed the two others, “You guys should come check out the performance. I’m sure Chenle will tell you about it later.” 

“Dude, I was practicing all winter break for this!” Yukhei said with a fist pump, “I cannot believe I’ll be performing with the ACTUAL dream team.” 

“They’re part of this dance club called NCT.” Chenle explained when he saw the confused looks on the transfer students, “They put on various performances throughout the week here in the lunchroom. You’ll see later today.” he looked at his watch, “If you guys are ready, I can show you where your classes are. Unfortunately, the other Junior Dance major is in Europe right now so outside of the academics, I’ll leave you guys to them to show you where everything else is if that’s okay.” 

“I offered.” Jaemin said, “Which dance classes do you have?” 

“All of us have contemporary first period and freestyle third.” Xiaojun answered, “We tried getting into the advanced contemporary class but they said we couldn’t.”

“Yea, that’s the class Jeno, Hana and Yeeun have together. It's a reference class and only one other person got in without it. But I have freestyle during third so you won’t be alone” Jaemin explained, “Anyways, why don’t we start heading in the direction. We’ll see you later Chenle.” 

“I’ll meet you guys there.” Jeno said, “I need to give Chenle the binder with all of the performance pieces that he has to practice. Y/N and Renjun say thanks again for taking this on by the way, it takes a lot off their shoulders.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I couldn’t do it.” Chenle answered shrugging offhandedly, “I’ll meet you guys after class then to go to second period. Take care of them guys.” 

“See you guys in a bit.” Jeno said, “It was great meeting you guys too.” he said to the three. Though he didn’t really talk to Tzuyu much, he was getting an off vibe from her and the look Hana gave him was telling him to stay far away.

As the group entered the dance studio, YangYang couldn’t help but ask the question which was on everyone's mind, “Who is this Y/N and Renjun everyone keeps talking about?” 

Hana and Jaemin looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. There was a part of them that was uncomfortable sharing something so personal with people they just met but Hana also felt like she had to get a point across to Tzuyu who seemed to be eye fucking Jeno when they were in the lunchroom but she also didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“They’re our close friends.” Jaemin answered as he stretched, “Y/N was actually the person that I was assigned to guide earlier this year but we only had two classes together. That’s why Hana said Jeno and Jisung eventually took over. They both had three classes with her so it made more sense.” 

“Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure Jeno would’ve fought you to be her guide had he known that she transferred back first.” Hana commented with a giggle. Yeeun and Yukhei had split off fairly quickly to go to their own classes so it was only the five of them, “But things were rough between them for a while.” 

“Oh so this Y/N chick and Jeno are dating.” Xiaojun said, making Tzuyus eyes widen, there was no way someone that looked like Jeno could already be in a relationship, he didn’t seem like the type  but what did she know?

“I wouldn’t use that term when you reference her around Jeno.” Jaemin warned, he didn’t even like that term being used on any of the girls in his friend circle, “And no...they aren’t dating.” 

“It’s complicated...like six degrees of separation. Y/N, Jeno and Jaemin all grew up together and attended the same dance school. Y/N left four years ago to attend a ballet program in Europe and she came back home for summer dance camp and met me and Jisung who is also part of our group. Some stuff happened over the years that tie into Yukhei and Yeeun. When she transferred back this year, things kind of...started making sense?” Hana asked looking at Jaemin who shrugged, “Anyways, she, Renjun and Jisung are in London for the semester. They’ll be back before summer though”

“They’re actually in Germany right now.” Jeno said coming up behind them, changed into his dance clothes and his phone tightly in his grasp. Tzuyu just thought he looked like a whole snack. The black T-shirt, sweats and cap added to the aesthetic of this image of him that was building in her mind. “There's one week left till Jisung has to be at training camp so the five of them are doing one last travel before lockdown.” 

“Of course you would know this.” Hana said, rolling her eyes, “Anyways, we can talk more later. I need to know what Jeno got Y/N for Christmas so I can beat his gift.” 

“You won’t” Jeno said with a large grin, “Nothing will beat my gift. She said so.” 

“That’s a lie!” Hana gasped, “Now I really need to know!”

“I got her new pointe shoes and took her to the NutCracker ballet performance on Christmas.” he grinned and Hana scoffed, “Good luck.” 

By the time lunch came, the three transfer students and Chenle were all making their way to the lunchroom where cheers could be heard. Leading them to the center where most of the NCT Club had gathered along with Yeeun and Sicheng along with the transfer student, Kun whom he was assigned to. From what Tzuyu could see, there was only the Jaemin guy and Yukhei, but where was Jeno? He was the only one she was looking forward to watch. 

She had seen him lead the choreography during their first period class and she was so mesmerized by his dance style and movement. The way he made comments to various people, telling them how to improve like a true leader. It made her temporarily forget what Hana had said before about him not being in a relationship yet and Tzuyu was positive that she could change his mind. It was obvious Hana’s warnings from earlier were going ignored.

An up beat started playing from the speaker behind Jaemin and Yukhei and Yukhei let out a big breath, “HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! LETS MAKE SOME NOISE FOR OUR NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!”

A group of the NCT Club split in two and Jeno came running, doing a backflip into the center, causing cheers to erupt from all around the room. Gasps were heard throughout as they realized that their national champion was now blonde, many complimenting how it suited him perfectly.

“Are you recording this for Y/N?” Tzuyu heard Hana ask Yeeun who nodded, “She’s going to scream when she sees this performance.” 

“Jisung is going to be so jealous that Yukhei took his spot.” Yeeun commented with a giggle as the performance started.

As the boys danced, Tzuyu couldn’t keep her eyes off of Jeno. This was a different style of dance then she had seen earlier on. It was so strong, powerful and there were so many flips involved. The look on Jeno’s face too said so many different emotions and the way he flowed with Yukhei and Jaemin was on another level. It was obvious he was the lead since he was in the center for most of the performance but it didn’t mean the others couldn’t shine. 

When the performance was over, applause erupted around the room and the group gathered around the trio, Hana and Yeeun handing water bottles to their respective boyfriends while Doyoung ran to the center to engulf his favorite junior in a hug and suddenly the bad boy she had seen turned into a puppy.

She tried to make her way to Jeno once everyone was done congratulating him but he had looked down at his phone and was quick to make an excuse to leave out the cafeteria doors.

“Probably Y/N.” Jaemin said with a smile, watching the blonde literally sprint, “Isn’t it like a ten hour difference between here and Germany though?” 

“Seven actually.” YangYang commented, “I lived there for a few years before going back to China for school. So it’s around 6am there right now.” he said looking at his watch, “Are you sure he isn’t dating her?”

“Nope.” Jaemin said, “Their schedules won’t let them right now but he can wait, he’s already waited four years. He can wait a few more months.” he explained and changed the subject.” What did you guys think of the performance?” 

“You guys are so cool” Xiaojun gushed, “Is this a normal thing?” 

“Weekly? The seniors of the club organize the performances and we meet almost everyday after school.” Yukhei explained, arm around Yeeun, “If you guys want, you could come check it out with us today. Hana’s our manager so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. Yeeun also hangs out too.” 

“Not at all.” Hana said and looked at Tzuyu, “You’re welcome to join us too. There isn’t going to be any practice since there was a performance today but everyone just kind of hangs out....” her eyes widened and she slapped her hand to her face, “Frick, I totally forgot about the retreat too. I need to find Jeno. I’ll see you guys later.” she said and ran out the doors.

Afterschool came faster than anyone had suspected and all the transfer students were gathered in the NCT Practice Room. Hana had called the meeting to order and the only other person that wasn’t there was Jeno.

“Is this to discuss the weekend retreat or spring break?” Ten asked as the group gathered but there were still people talking above Hana that she couldn’t even get a word in..

“HEY! Just because Y/N isn’t here doesn’t mean that you guys should be disrespecting Hana.” Jeno called from the door as he walked in with his bag and keys swinging around one finger, “She’s just as much as our manager as Y/N is.” 

“Thank you Jeno Lee.” Jaemin huffed, happy he didn’t have to say anything, he couldn’t believe the disrespect.

This made the whole room go silent and the people who weren’t used to Jeno’s outburst actually looked scared, especially the transfer students. 

“Did you talk to Y/N? Is she letting us use her place?” Hana asked since she couldn’t find him during lunch, it had turned out that it was his mom that called and not you. Because it seemed private, she didn’t want to interrupt instead, opting to text him instead.

“She gave the okay. Unfortunately the date is right in the middle of rehearsals so she or Renjun won’t be able to make it.” Jeno said nodding with a frown, “I have the keys at my place and we planned it over winter break. I’ll give you and the leaders the plans after but I actually have to run to my place in Gangnam for a bit so I wanted to let you know I won’t be present today.”

“Meeting up with Soonyoung?” Jaehyun asked knowing that the Selects foreign rep and Jeno got close after you had introduced the two.

“Forgot something that needs to get to my parents actually.” Jeno said with an awkward smile and looked at Sicheng, “I’ll stop by after if that’s okay.” 

“You’re the only one who has another key so I mean I can’t stop you.” Sicheng commented, “Can you bring me back some stuff I need then?” 

“Text me.” he said with a nod, “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” 

“Jeno is definitely up to something and it has nothing to do with his parents.” Jaemin whispered to Yukhei as YangYang and Xiaojun picked up on their conversation, “They’re with Y/N’s parents on a cruise in the Carribean right now so they wouldnt even be able to contact him to send them anything.”

“Who knows what he’s doing.” Yukhei said sighing, “Sometimes I wish Jisung was here to read him.” 

“So do I, Xuxi...so do I…” 

[noxtivagus]

a night will never not be complete without me rambling abt ffxiv huh

[ask-thegoatbro]

Unkn??n 7: y?ur Ch??ce

Asriel found himself out of that wanting dream and surrounded in darkness was something he was used to when he was sleeping or dead. Waiting for him to wake up from this endless darkness that was surrounding him in this strange location.

Although this time it was different, the sounds of chains could be heard and a fainting red light could be spotted. With nothing much he could do he moves closer and closer until he could see a human-shaped silhouette that was on their knees and their limbs bound by chains while their head was hung down. But, as he went closer and seeing the faint red flickering light at their center he learns who it was. Asriel took notice that the light was coming from where their SOUL was supposed to be, the SOUL that Chara now controls.

“F-Frisk. . .?”

The figure looks upwards as they heard their name and without giving much of a hint they saw the furry white goat in front of them.

*Asriel. . .

*. . .You couldn't look at him in the eyes.

*You feel your sins crawling on your back.

Asriel looks at them as he heard their defeated tone, their small amount of determination left was the only thing keeping them alive. Frisk was guilt-ridden as Asriel notice they wouldn't look at him directly.

“Sorry? Why are you sorry, Frisk? You didn't do anything wro-”

*You told Asriel to stop.

*The feel of you betraying his trust.

*How you made yourself to be.

*And failing to listen to his words.

*He told you not to kill or be killed.

*The sense of betrayal eats at you.

“. . .Frisk?”

*. . .

“Frisk!”

*. . .You cannot bring yourself to speak to him

“FRISK!”

*You felt his paws grabbing your shoulders.

*They were not as gentle as when you comfort him.

*Smells like burning. . .

*You slowly raise your head.

*And expect to see those life filled grey eyes.

*Sadly reality hits you.

*Those eyes were no longer filled with life or innocence.

*They were lifeless and the experience of many deaths can be seen.

*Asriel had died countless times.

*looking at his eyes, you could tell.

*The thought reminds you of the eyes that went lifeless by the blade you wield.

*You choose this. . .

*. . .You allowed Chara to talk to you in RESETTING.

*You allowed Chara to say this was to help them and Asriel. . .

*. . .and you wanted to help both of them more so when Chara was with you during this genocide.

*Helping you. . .

*.  .  .Kill them all. . .

*. . .Even when Asriel wanted to be left behind.

*You couldn't allow that, you were DETERMINED to SAVE him.

*Killing everyone. . . Was to help them, Chara promised.

*You believed them. That you only had to do it once. Then you can SAVE Chara and Asriel.

*Even when Chara stop helping if you show a sign of remorse.

*You push that remorse away so you can depend on Chara to help you to SAVE them both.

*This became some sort of apple and Chara was the snake that tempted and convince Eve to eat the apple. . .

*Then Chara used your plead to bring the world back.

*You didn't want everyone to all be dead. . .

*You didn't want Chara to ERASE it all. . .

*. . . You couldn't face the consequences of your actions.

*Chara's offer for your SOUL was thought as a way to SAVE everyone from the fate you placed them into.

*No one would have to die.

*Everyone can be happy at the cost of your SOUL.

*Chara had other plans, possessing your body at the end.

*Killing EVERY living creature including the close friends you've made.

*Chara was a demon that corrupted what you wanted most.

*You believed and will seek no other answer.

*You are to be blamed for everything.

*You are not beyond consequences. .  .

*. . .You've made your choice long ago.

*You were never in control.

*You lack the determination to keep going.

*There is no going back.

*This is your prison for all of eternity.

*You destroyed this world. . .

*You pushed it against the edge. . .

*You led to it's destruction. . .

*. . .And soon, the world will permanently be ERASED.

*While you see yourself as. . .

*. . .A fool that listened to the piper's music.

Asriel stares at them with concern, their expression seemed troubled. This was unlike the Frisk he knew or perhaps he didn't know them completely. Even still. . . His grey eyes look upon the soft tears slipping out of their closed eyes.

“Frisk! Frisk! Say something! We finally see each other again. . . I. . . I. . !”

*. . .You couldn't lie to him.

*You are not the perfect friend he hoped for either.

*This could be the only chance to open up his eyes.

*Your eyes slightly open up with you spoke up. . .witnessing the goat's own tears being created.

Asriel could feel tears at his eyes, he wanted to catch up with Frisk, he wanted to be happy with them and enjoy happy times together with them. N-not like this, if only, if only he didn't- His thought was interrupted as he heard their tense voice.

*. . .I'm not the greatest person either, Asriel!

“W-what. . .?  What are you saying Frisk-. . .?”

Asriel's eyes widen and the only thing he could do was to listen to Frisk speak a few words at a time, his eyes spotting the golden-colored eyes that glow in this abyss.

*I've killed them all. . .

*. . .I wanted to save you both. . .

*. . .I'm sorry. . .

*. . . It's my fault, Asriel. . .

*. . .All of your suffering. . .

*. . .Everyone's suffering. . .

*. . .Blame me, please. . .

*. . .I. . .Even if I wanted to help at first. . .

*. . .LOVE. . .

*. . .EXP. . .

*. . .HP. . .

*. . .ATK. . .

*. . .DEF. . .

*. . .GOLD. . .

*. . .It felt so good. . .

*. . .When they increase. . .

*. . . That feeling was. . .

*. . . Chara. . .

*. . .and I embraced it. . .

*. . .They only helped me. . .

*. . . But. . .

*. . . It was my choice. . .

*. . .So please. . .

*. . .Asriel. . .

*. . . Hate me. . .

*. . .Blame me. . .

*. . . I promise. . .

*. . . I mean this when. .  .

*. . .I say that . . .

*. . .I truly...

*. . .Truly. . .

*. . .Am sorry. . .

*. . .I should have. . .

*. . .Listen to you. . .

“. . .” Asriel couldn't believe their words. They. . .Frisk chooses to do that Genocide. . .  He couldn't believe it and yet. . . He knew they were telling the truth with their words as he looks upon their expression. Could he blame them? After all, on what grounds does he stand on to judge them. He wasn't innocent either, no he was just as bad. There was only one thing he believed was right.

*You said your piece. . .

*. . . Asriel must hate you now. . .

*. . . Who wouldn't hate a murderer?

*Then something warm overcame your body.

*Your eyes in a rare display open up fully.

*Asriel hugs you tightly.

*Even if you wanted to you couldn't hug back.

*You are confused.

*Your lips moved to speak.

*What are you doing Asriel?

“I'm hugging you.”

*. . .Why?

“Why? Because I don't have anything better to do, Frisk.”

*You understood this. . .

*. . .He forgives you. . .

*. . .Like how you forgave him. . .

*. . .It seems there was a connection. . .

*. . .and an understanding.

*A smile bought it's way to your face. . .

*. . . and you couldn't help but laugh at his words. . .

*. . .Because, now you were on the other end of it.

*You felt the time you have left with him is about to end.

*. . .Asriel must know this feeling. . .

*. . .He holds you tightly. . .

*. . .Not wanting to let go . .

*. . .Like the first time.

*He started to speak. . .

*. . .As his body starts to fade.

“One day, Frisk. . . I'll bring you back!”

*. . .Asriel, I'll place my remaining. . .

*. . . hopes and dreams. . .

*. . .To you. . .

*. . .My dear friend. . .

*. . .I knew for only. . .

*. . .a little while.

“. . .Frisk, I'll never. . .  Forget. . . You. . .”

Asriel spoke those last words as he vanishes and Frisk was now alone in the abyss once again. This was their punishment but at least. They were able to see Asriel once again and he forgives them. At the very least, that meant something, right?

While Asriel woke up in his bed, but it felt so real. He felt the gaze of someone all too familiar, a sinister grin on the First Fallen with the real knife in hand. They must have felt his presence. . .

“Asriel, Asriel, Asriel. . . Did you invade my lovely realm by chance~? Did you not think I wouldn't notice?”

“Chara, I. . .”

“Ahaha~, I told you didn't I? You did not know Frisk all that well. You blamed me for their actions, but all I did was told them the truth~.”

Chara took a few steps closer to witness closely Asriel's determined expression and continue speaking.

“They wanted to SAVE us and they did. We're here together on our way that will fix everything. Just like how Frisk would want it~. It's so close,  I can feel it and the fact you were able to be in that realm after your last death. Is proof that I am close to achieving my goal, my best friend~”

Chara said those last three words with a mocking tone, taunting Asriel.

“I'll. . . I'll stop you no matter what. More than now that Frisk is placing their hopes and dreams upon me as well!”

“Ooooh? Empty words from a murderer towards a serial murderer~. Go, get up, I'm sick of seeing that face. “Mother” and “Father” are seeking you, I told them you want to help with breakfast.”

“Ah. . . tch, I'm not done with you.”

“Yes, yes~. Not the first nor last time I will hear that~”

Chara said with a wide grin that shows their sharp teeth, watching him get up and out of the room. Allowing themselves to let out a chuckle.

“Ah, thank you Frisk~. I know I can count on you to push that useless goat forward. I want to make sure my fun is at it's fullest potential before everything ends~”

Friskriel week ends.

Day 7: your choice for @friskrielweek

[madiiko12]

new york’s very own madison ‘madi’ ko was spotted on broadway street in chanel sneakers . your resemblance to kim chungha is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty-first birthday bash . while living in nyc , you’ve been labeled as being obsessive , but also ambitious . i guess being a virgo explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be glittery eyes, dangling earrings, & chanel draped in pearls.  ( cisfemale & she/her) + ( kale, 20 , she/her , est. )

hi honeybuns !! im back and with child. there is a brief mention of an ed under the cut but i block it off with a tw start & end.    if you’d like to plot pls leave a like and i can dm you or hit you up on discord !! my discord is kale#3079  

BACKSTORY

haneul madison ko was born september 18, 1999 to two immigrant parents from S.K. her birth name is haneul, but she went by the name madison since it was easier to pronounce + madi began to almost detest her culture??

it was just that growing up she would sometimes get bullied for looking different at her school, for the way her packed lunches smelled/looked, the way people would stare if she spoke korean to her parents, how other kids would make fun of her english since she didn’t pick up on vocab/grammar as quickly since she didn’t practice at home with her parents. she just became SO insecure about it that she rejected her culture. she wouldn’t bring her mom’s food to school, if her mom ever forced her to take it she’d throw it away  and choose to starve instead. she wouldn’t speak korean back to her parents in public, barely even in private (which reeaaallly upset her parents). this also REALLY destroyed her korean language skills. she can understand still, but she can barely hold a basic conversation anymore.

as she grew up, and continued this sense of distancing herself from her culture, she ultimately distanced herself from her family. which left her feeling -  - alone often, even though it was all due to her own choices. in this loneliness, she found her escape in music. she would wear headphones constantly through the halls, in car rides, in her room when her parents yelled at her to turn the music down. she just loved music. she saved up the money her parents gave her whenever she worked at the nail salon (her parents owned it!!) to thrift an old keyboard. she became self-taught by trying to copy melodies of songs she’d listen to, thrifting piano lesson books, staying after school with the music teacher learning to play. sometimes she’d even skip lunch to sit in the chorus room with her choir director and play.

it’s not that she had a LACK of friends growing up, maybe just that she lacked a best friend. she had a lot of friends, but no one that she felt so connected to in the way she felt connected to music. perhaps, she was addicted to her loneliness.

she spent a lot of time playing the piano and dabbling in writing music that her grades started to fall (not that she was ever the BEST student) and her parents literally took away her piano. they said it was a waste of time because they wanted her to focus on doing well, so she could get into a good university, and then live a good life. music was just a distraction

but that didnt work

she would sneak out into the city to go to concerts and poetry readings. she’d sneak out and go to indie songwriters scenes while her parents thought she was at the library with one of her school friends

This underground scene had her full heart!! she was surrounded by likeminded people who just lived for music. she was hearing all of these incredible people who were all looking for their start. maybe not looking for anything at than just to sing their songs. tbh i think this was the point she was happiest. she was completely enveloped in music, just for the sake of music. There wasn’t any pressure, just music. Just the songs. she was wide eyed looking at this whole underground scene of artists. So maybe some plots from these underground charas?!

she’d perform some songs at karaoke nights and the indie sessions, and a producer took a keen interest in one of her songs. basically im kind of stealing halsey’s career start, but she posted a song Came in Close on SoundCloud and just blew up overnight. in the morning, she woke up to a record label asking her to fly to LA for a meeting.

and thus, Madison Ko began a career as Madi Ko where she’d release her debut album, Honey, a few months later. (DISCOGRAPHY HERE). her music is very 80s synth inspired!

new album that is most definitely CRJ’S EMOTION is coming soon...

PERSONALITY

right off the bat, madi is an absolute firecracker!! she’s loud, bursting with personality, has a lack of inhibitions that CHAOTICALLY mixes with her spontaneity

part of this is projecting her insecurities. she felt lonely as a child but doesn’t want to be seen as that to the world. it’s not so much a persona but an exaggeration of who she was. 

she likes to show off her glam bc it, once again, hides her insecurities. 

she just kind of is dramatic anymore

like everything about her

her persona as Madi Ko, upcoming popstar underdog, is like DUNKED in glitter, over the top stages and sets, draped in couture. basically her stages/outfits/dances/mvs are like Chungha’s but with Pale Waves and Carly Rae Jepsen VC. ex: 1, 2, 3, 4

also bc im obsessed with chungha’s famous diamond wink, IT’S GONNA BE MADI’S THING TOO. so basically madi has trended on twt a few times bc of her signature diamond wink bc she effing glues rhinestones and glitter under her eyes for performances !! she said fuck corneas !! ex: 1, 2, 3      ....god chungha is magical

so while madi is like a brand hypebeast n never shuts up, she can also get,,, easily annoyed. and heavily perceives ppl on first impressions despite that being the reason she felt misunderstood a lot growing up. 

definitely argumentative!!! will blow up arguments for no reason n then later questions why she made it such a big deal but cant own up to her mistakes

when she decides she doesnt like you, SHE DOESNT LIKE YOU. it’s done. bridge is burned, she’s not keen on second chances

fame has definitely given her a bit of an ego problem --- she’s a bit more aggressive, self-obsessed while intrinsically insecure, is too busy flaunting her material possessions and trendy life that she can...lose touch of reality. basically most of her high school friends cant stand her. HC that her high school bf broke up with her bc she was no longer was the madison ko he knew!!! so if anyone wants to be that ex lmk !!! she’s written songs about them!!!

definitely the type of girl who is so hype at a party, dancing in fallen confetti, standing on the fireplace mantle, but then midway realizes she’s lonely. sad at a party. 

ED TW STARTS!!!!!

....

she kind of always had body image issues growing up, but it was very off and on, but once she got signed and being by surrounded by cameras became normal she formed a full fledged ED. she’s passed out at concerts a few times bc of her ED, but they always brush it off as “not enough rest” or “she wasnt feeling well that day but pushed to perform anyway as to not disappoint the fans”

so feel free for ur muses to point it out !! she’ll get really defensive like “i eat i just work out a lot” and yeah it’s true she works out a lot but she...doesn’t really eat

it’s also one of the causes of her irritability ...

.....

END ED TW!!!!

idk why this is so long

always up for mischief! 

does love a good prank. asks weird hypotheticals 

is not scared of an ouija board

will get wasted off a few shots and drunk madi is UNSTOPPABLE 

one time drunk madi cried bc her siamese cat (MOCHI !!!) wouldn’t ever get to go to school and would never know chemistry..... the dramatics.....

she is sensitive and despises it. she does everything she can to not come across as sensitive

however, she’s so obsessive. so deep in feeling. when she feels something she FEELS it. when she is mad it boils through her. when she is in love it is all she knows. when she is sad it covers her like sweaters and blankets on rainy days. she doesn’t know how to half-feel. everything she feels stops her in her tracks.

HOWEVER she’s the most obsessive with her own insecurities — so in relationships she’s kind of known for tapping out early. she just gets scared and the fleetingness of her career and that she’s at her very core, lonely and disappointed in herself, makes her want to run away thinking that letting down her walls and being vulnerable could only be disappointing for her SO. so maybe she ghosted ur chara or gave some lame excuse

Kind of obsessed with how she’s perceived

terrified that at any moment her career could be thrown away, her deemed irrelevant, and she goes back to being Madison Ko, daughter of nail techs in Koreatown. and then her parents would have been right all along, music was a waste of time.

she’s just my little fallen angel who flew to the sun (fame) and it constantly eats away at her girlhood, at her heart.

anyways this is all i got rn <3 come love me sorry i kind of didn’t shut up this is long

WANTED CONNECTIONS

an ex from before she was famous who broke up with her because of how she changed!! PLEASE i have ideas for this. plus,,, you get a lot of songs about ur chara!!! could be from high school, maybe someone in the music scene she frequented before she was signed, anything!!

anothr ex/fwb/undefined relationship i’d love is one when she was first famous who just introduced her to everything. something like a whirlwind that was exciting and magical. she’s written songs about this person.

exes in general. 

hookups/fwb

romantic plots. pls i have songs who need meaning. friends to lovers, one sided (either way), slowburn, ANYTHING. love cruel summer plots, anything lover by tswift

PR relationships -- would LOVE one where she falls in love with the other despite how clearly defined they made their relationship

love triangles in general just get me going

best friend!!!! the one’s who know how the other feels just by looking at each other. they have countless sleepovers. tell each other everything. cry together on bathroom floors. pregame together. 

ex friends. for whatever reason -- maybe madi did smth shitty, maybe they did. maybe there was backstabbing, maybe madi sacrificed friendship for a career, maybe she made moves on their romantic partner/interest despite being fully aware. idk. gimme

People she knew from the underground/indie scene before they were famous!! they’d have bonded over their love for music, little indie dreams kind of vibe. just imagine a group of dreamers !! Would love if they made some kind of pact!!!

party friends

collabs !!

pranks. mischief. gimme

enemies. gotta cook up some drama, yknow

GIRL GANG. god i just want this so bad like make a girls dream come true

[judehayward]

lady gaga voice slowly fadin in: ju-Das juda-ah-ah… frankly i missed this ridiculous depressed little man so i’m gna try my hand at playing 2 charas again. the crowd grits their teeth in apprehensive nerves. it’s fine it’s fine it’s all FINE!!!!!!!!! also this is nai btw forgot to say. anyway. ahem. without further adieu.... his intro

he pinterest:

me in the voice of a card magician performing on the street: round up round up pick a pinterest any pinterest!

ta-da it’s aesthetics:

lead marbles instead of eyes, a stolen hearse careening down the wrong lane, wearing a faded smiley face sticker on your forehead while receiving a serious lecture, bags under the eyes that are so big they could pack enough clothes for a three week vacation, a cigarette wobbling from your bottom lip as you squint against the sunlight, passing out on a stranger’s rooftop, placing sunglasses over the eyes of a biology lab skeleton, gangling around the place like shaggy minus his scooby snacks, saying “fuck off” to inanimate objects

about tha Bitch:

ok to start w i won’t lie i’ve pasted in an old intro here bc i just hate intros i hate writing them i hate them................. bt it’s fine.......................... lets pretend this is all fresh n sexy n new....... bsically this is jst a disclosure tht this isn’t tht well written bc it’s old n stinky bt we’re all jst having fun here. bye

he hd to do community service bc he kind of… hd a bit of a breakdown before the funeral of his elderly neighbour who bsically raised him bc her kids rly didnt care abt her they jst wanted her inheritance?? so he… stole the hearse w her casket still in it n ws jst like… drivin around the place sort of… tryin nt to cry…..KJJFHSFKJGHKFG i mean. it isnt funny its actually sad bt :/ in a very bizarre n jude way. he gt caught n taken in fr questioning bt her son kind of realised hw… broken up abt her death jude ws n had a heart n didnt press charges. regardless he stil hd to do community service bc it ws like taken seriously even tho it ws his first proper offence. doin it rly exhausted n depressed him so when he wsnt doin tht he ws just hibernatin in his room……. this ws like 2/3 months ago nw mayb bt... just some fun lore fr u all

in a new development in terms of sexuality i jst am nt quite sure……. hes always thot he ws straight… fooled around w a 90s hugh grant lookalike once n ws jst a bit like :/ my rocks rnt blasted off? bt who knows wht the future holds… who KNOWS wht the future holds ladies n gentlemen

born in sheffield in england, bt they went back and forth between there n san fran a lot jude was an unhappy accident. his parents never rly used protection bc they were super Liberal n Au Naturel n believed in the pull out method bc… they were maniacs. bt then the ONE time they used a condom in an effort to b safety conscious it broke n hence…. jude was born

they just kind of ran w it bc they had such a passionate relationship tht they were like What The Hell…. may as well! itll be fine we’ll learn to be good parents n love him like normal ppl do

spoiler alert: tht didn’t work out

they were ok to him like they weren’t abusive or anything like that bt they just found him to be a massive burden n hindrance to their plans. they literally….. had sex all day every day n acted like a pair of teenagers. it ws a super weird environment for a kid to grow up in bc he literally had no role models or… guidance or…. anything rly. occasionally they’d joke around w him or pretend they even knew what grade he was going into but for the most part they just Didn’t Care one bit

they were both suuuuper into the arts. they’re both rly good sculptors bt they paint too n they actually own a successful gallery in san fran

as a result he grew up around a lot of creative n sometimes pretentious ppl. the friends of his parents were more present in his life than his ACTUAL parents bc they were always jetting off to diff countries to scout out new pieces fr their galleries n just have a gd time in beautiful places without…. the annoyance tht ws their son forcing them to b responsible n look after someone else. tbh some of his parents friends were rly damaging too bt….i won’t go into that just yet. it doesn’t rly…need properly explaining bc jude never talks abt it anyway n it….is rather triggering so i’ll jst….leav it for now tbh fgkhdfgh. basically they just were Not Nice n jude had a lot of bad memories he keeps repressed

bc of how he ws raised he has a p cultured taste. he luvs classic lit n p much anything artsy. he can play piano 2 n sometimes gets rly high n thinks he’s mozart level gd at composing. i mean he’s gd bt… Calm Down Jude. personality wise he acts out sometimes bc he’s so frustrated. he tried rly hard to be someone his parents wld care abt by doing wild or stupid things so he’d hav funny stories to tell them n tbh sometimes it works n he gets them to laugh w him but it isn’t a parent/son bond n it never rly wil b.

he’s rly sarcastic, sleeps around a bit, has an overflowing secret sketchbook n if he cares abt someone he’ll probably draw them n get rly defensive if they find out abt it fkjgdhfkj bcos he’s an Independent Boy without a sentimental bone in his body. or so he says. at heart he is jst a very Sad Boy w lots of repressed issues like depression genuinely just does NAT giv him a single break bt he plasters over this w wise cracks n never discusses his emotions ever. he’s actually p decent or at least tries to b. he’s kind of like tht bit in superbad where michael cera gets rly drunk n makes a toast to women. tries to b? a feminist bt sometimes fucks up n offends ppl n is like dam….. my bad fr :/

he has p bad insomnia so he like never sleeps fgjkhfgjkf he always has rly sleepy eyes n rubs them tiredly mid conversation. he smokes a lot of weed to try n compensate fr this n make him tired bt he still struggles a lot

ANYWAY that aside he’s at lockwood doing fine arts. he luvs painting n photography n philosophy n all tht. a pretentious fiend sometimes? maybe_so.gif. he isn’t rly pushy abt it tho n tends to like.... take nothing seriously bt at the same time acts like he is??? like he’s very deadpan in everything he does

ummMMMMmm honestly idk i’m blankin on what else to say. ull find him smoking weed reading an american classic or gnawing at his thumbnail n getting charcoal smudges on all his clothes. wandering the streets eating frm a cereal box without care in public. he’s p broody n scruffy n he’s mostly here fr a good time. o and he’s That Guy that would die fr morrissey (his vibe not personality bc i hc jude was depressed n shut himself inside all day when he actually found out what a dick he is dfjkfhg) and all that stone roses the smiths etc stuff music wise. HMU FR PLOTS!!!!!! i’m down fr anything

[storyswap-color-au]

StorySwap Color - Final Episode!!!

Swappy arrives at the castle once again. The puzzles were already solved, so there’s no need to do those again. Once they’re at the throne room, Swappy and Papyrus encounter once again… That is, until a bone blocks Papyrus’ to prevent it from breaking the mercy button. Sans comes into the scene, being all like “alright, here’s the deal: we aren’t gonna kill anybody.” Papyrus is both surprised and glad by Sans’ appearance, HE CAME TO VISIT!! The two skeletons have a back and forth, until Undyne bursts in holding a spear and is like “SANS DON’T YOU DARE HURT PAPYRUS– Oh hey kid”

Swappy waves, and Sans is understandably confused by this, but Papyrus is like “UNDNYE AS WELL??? IS THIS A SURPRISE PARTY???”, to which sans replies with “yeah bro, we’re celebrating the kid’s birthday” “I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS THE HUMAN’S BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUMAN!!!”, Undyne frowns. Then Asgore kicks in, concerned over the well being of Papyrus (and Swappy). Sans and him share a look, but Sans shrugs it off, he winks and says “hey, no hard feelings, ‘gore, i’m over it.” Asgore coughs, he’s like “Papyrus. Please give this human.–”

But he’s suddenly interrupted by chara, who bursts into the scene as well, being all like “Don’t fight each other!! Let this human live!!” somehow avoiding all tsundereness about it, Asriel also appears to back it up. “YEAH don’t hurt Fr- I mean, the human.” Papyrus is so confused, but Sans is like “oh hey, i know that squeaky pubescent voice. oh, and asriel’s.” Chara is ticked off, but Asriel is glad to meet Sans properly for the first time.

But then Alphys and Toriel also come in and ready to protect Swappy, begging Papyrus not to kill Swappy, but he’s all like “WHY WOULD I DO THAT? I WASN’T GOING TO KILL THEM, WE WERE JUST GOING TO DUEL!” Everyone looks at Papyrus with a blank stare, perplexed. “WHAT? WHY WOULD I TAKE SOMEONE ELSE’S SOUL?! THAT WOULD BE MURDERING.” Everyone laughs nervously, looking to the side awkwardly.

Toriel looks at Swappy, being like “Child, you heard Papyrus, crossing the barrier may be a bit too dangerous as of now. You can stay with us, if you’d like!” … Swappy stares blankly, they really do want to go back to the surface. But knowing what happened before, they nod silently, agreeing to staying here for now. Surely they’d find a way, one day. Everyone is relieved to hear that.

Asriel then brings up why did everyone know to come here anyways, Undyne mentions “A weird talking flower told me that Sans was gonna kill Papyrus, so I OBVIOUSLY had to come to save him.” Sans just chuckles about it, why’d she hear a flower? Alphys and Toriel are like “Excuse me, did you just say a flower?”

Oh dear! It looks like everybody’s been imprisoned by Florescent’s vines! Swappy is taken aback; didn’t they do everything right this time?

“Don’t worry, darling, you played your role just fine! But now, it’s time for someone else to have their spotlight! BEHOLD, AS I TAKE THE FORM OF SOMETHING SO FABULOUS, YOUR FEEBLE HUMAN MIND CAN SCARCELY COMPREHEND I- wait a moment.”

Florescent looks up to one of his victims, and notices Chara, another human. “Well, well, well! Isn’t that an intriguing development! TWO humans, for the price of one!”

Chara struggles in futility, trying to wedge themselves out of the vines as Florescent cackles, delighted by it all, in a sick, twisted sort of way. “Let me go, you… you insolent weed!”

The aforementioned insolent weed starts to comply with Chara’s request… only to summon a spiky thorn pit below the two humans… which is promptly burned away by a fire attack. “Get your filthy vines off them, you damn dirty flower!”

Asriel bursts onto the scene, followed by Royal Guardsmen and other monsters that Swappy met on their journey. Chara looks around, tears welling up in their eyes for the first time in… how long had it even been? Well, it didn’t matter now. They were just happy to see everyone here! “You guys… you all cared about us this much?” It all seems like it’s going to be a nice, happy ending, and everything would work out, but… suddenly Florescent starts chuckling.

“Oh, no… human, how could you do this?!” He says in a faux-dramatic voice. “Look at me, I’m positively shaking…”

Well, he certainly was shaking, alright. Shaking and wiggling until suddenly, his face inflated to about 3x its usual size, gaining an uncomfortable amount of humanoid detail as he sported an Oscar-winning grin. “I’ll admit, kids! You almost had me! But don’t you know, a story is nothing… WITHOUT A FEW PLOT TWISTS~!”

“All these souls…”

The face started to melt, becoming more and more skull-like.

“… are MINE now!”

He began to cackle, as everything faded to white.

“Don’t touch that dial, folks! W E ‘ R E  J U S T  G E T T I N G  S T A R T E D !”

The pure whiteness fades out as smoke dissipates into nothing. Chara and Swappy cough the bits of smoke that entered their mouths out before looking around… not only was Florescent nowhere to be found, but they were in a new location entirely. They were… outside. How odd.

“Look, as much as it hates me to say this, I think we might have to team up to stop… whatever’s happening right now.” Chara says, seconds before a cane extends from out of the darkness and yanks them out of sight.

“Sorry, but Chara’s going to have to get ready for their part in the grand finale! You, however… you have front row seats, darling. Toodles~!”

Swappy walks through the dark outside area, through a giant set of wooden double doors that sported elaborate designs relating to the art of theatre. The typical happy and sad masks were there, but their eyes were more ovular and widened, and the happy one seemed to be missing an eye-hole.

Once inside, Swappy would be treated to an enthralling organ composition as they walked past rows and rows of seats filled by empty, doll-like simulacra of their various monster friends. Once they got to the front, true to the voice’s word, a spotlight was cast down on an empty seat near the organ, which was actually ginormous! The stool alone looked to be about the size of a small house.

After sitting there, listening to the music for a moment, their chair suddenly lurched back, then flung Swappy on top of the stool to see… the keys were pressing themselves. At least, for a moment they were, since they stopped a few seconds after Swappy stuck the landing. The giant music sheets flipped through themselves for a moment before stopping on a peculiar page… there were only six notes, and the time signature was 6/8.

Suddenly, the page flipped once more, and on the new page was… a little bedsheet ghost made from notes and lines used in music writing. It had what seemed to be hair covering half of its face, and it looked down on Swappy with glee.

“Ah, you’ve finally arrived! Now, we can finally move past this drab pre-show and get to the main event!” A voice rang out from nowhere in particular. The pages moved again, this time seemingly being more of a flipbook animation for this little ghost. It floated in a figure-8 pattern before the ink started… smearing… into something comparable to a rorschach blot test.

“It won’t just be like old times, it’ll be BETTER! More drama, more action, an intense struggle of man and monster, over the fate of… well, EVERYTHING~!”

Something burst out of the organ, knocking the book down onto the keys and providing a neat little bridge. Swappy runs up as more stairs twisted downwards to allow them to get up to the main platform. Fireworks sprinkled the sky with light as the human made their ascent…

Finally, at the top, Swappy stood before a figure sitting on an elaborate throne, with spotlights that previously swiveled around to light up the sky slowly lowering down to point at him. Florescent was humanoid, now, with dark hair and an eye-catching outfit that just SCREAMED “I’m fabulous to a degree that mortals will never reach for as long as they live on this earth.” Needless to say, Swappy was a bit taken aback by this.

“Ahahaha! Getting stage fright, sweetheart? How cute.” The figure stood up, slamming their heels onto the ground as they bounded down the mini-set of stairs to stand closer to Swappy. “But it’s too late now! The show’s starting, and I’d hate to disappoint a certain someone in the audience…”

Swappy would find the figure to be correct; the stairs that helped them reach this platform had disappeared, leaving only an impossible drop to a sea of ravenous audience members screaming and cheering. Delighted by all of this, the figure summoned forth a dazzling microphone. “Beauties and gentlebeauties… puts your hands together, clap and cheer like it’s the end of the world, for the grandest of returns…!”

Cue battle transition.

“It is I… METTACRIT!”

The fight begins against Mettacrit. He talks about how long he’s been waiting for this moment since he failed blooky and the Fallen Human, he misses them too much. He knows that Swappy has been keeping them in their SOUL and he wants to get them out of it, even if it means Killing Swappy to do it. He doesn’t really want to, but the two are trapped, so he tells Swappy to give up.

Of course, Swappy doesn’t agree, which causes Crit to say “I’ll force you out!” As he brings Chara out again, he grins. He forcefully takes out their soul and puts them aside. “Fallen human, I got you a body and a SOUL!”. Swapy is horrified by his actions. Crit laughs, as he shifts into his second form.

Swappy struggles, they can’t move, however… Two voices speak in Swappy’s head, and say “You can still save someone.” Which means LOST SOUL time.

After saving everyone, Swappy saves Metta after calming him down, as he’s finally accepting that maybe, they’re actually gone. The fight ends, Metta apologizes to Swappy.

“I could feel them… but… I suppose I need to accept that they’re… gone…” Swappy doesn’t hug them, they look to the side… “I suppose I can only thank you… … actually, what is your name?” Swappy replies with “Frisk”, to which Metta seems weirded out– just what kind of name is Frisk.

Mettacrit, after a moment of reflection, sighs and says “I guess I should bring everyone, including them.” he says as he looks over at Chara’s body. Swappy immediately brightens up, since, hadn’t Chara died in front of their very own eyes. Mettacrit assures them that he didn’t, he only took their SOUL, they aren’t dead really.

After breaking the barrier, Mettacrit restores the SOULs, and after waving goodbye to Swappy, he leaves as the screen fades to white…

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