#no offense elephant

[faith-alhazred]

one of my weird triggers: when someone doesn't want to confess something quite obvious and keeps denying, inventing excuses and covering the truth with lies - i can't stop till i make him confess. idk what's wrong with me, but i just can't stand the elephant in the room.

[prettyprettynine]

I watched Elephant last night. If you asked me to name ANYTHING that happened in that movie you wouldn’t be getting an answer from me. Wouldn’t watch again but glad I checked it out I guess

[thevoidstaredback]

Okay, so, crisis averted. Both of them, really. Red Robin had not asked or attempted to get any more of Danny's drink and the World Ending Crisis was less World Ending and more World Threatening. Either way, no one is hyped up in lethal amounts of caffeine and the world is in no more pieces than it had been before.

That brings attention to a new problem, though. It's uniquely Danny's problem and Constantine and Zatanna and Deadman won't stop laughing at him. He's also pretty sure that Raven is laughing at him in the privacy of her mind, so that's making him feel worse.

The problem is that every single hero that had been at the meeting a week ago that was not a part of the JLD has been overly concerned about him.

So what if he half died when he was fourteen and therefore will never look over either fourteen or eighteen? So what if he consumes enough caffeine to kill an elephant within a few minutes? What is he gonna do, die? That's not a real threat as long as he only fights as Phantom.

Ignoring the fact that he can, in fact, get hurt to the point of near death as Phantom. It's not like anyone knows that, though! Besides, ghosts run on god rules. They can't die, only fade when forgotten. People aren't likely to forget about most ghosts, though, even if they can't remember their names.

He's not gonna share that, though. Let Batman keep his contingency that won't work because the only contingency that will work for Phantom is the one he made himself. Tried and tested! He's marked it off of his Bingo Card.

Anyway. Heros and their kids/proteges have been trying to track him down for the entire week. He can't risk even leaving the House of Mysteries because the Supers are all probably listening out for him and they can't hear him through magic. It sucks. He just wants to go get a cup of coffee as Danny. The second he leaves, though, the Supers will be on him like bloodhounds. He'd leave as Danny, but the rest of the JLD don't know what he looks like as Danny and he'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much. Being stuck as Phantom was going to start causing issues to his human half if he doesn't get to leave soon.

Should he risk it? Is coffee that won't kill him really worth risking the Supers finding out his civilian identity? Sure, they wouldn't tell anyone, but he didn't like the idea of someone being able to pick him out of a crowd when all he wanted to do was blend in. It's why he avoided Gotham and Bludhaven, actually, but that's both self explanatory and another story for another time.

"You're still here?" Zatanna sat on the couch beside him. "You're normally gone by now. You can't not be tired of us yet."

He sighed and sunk down into the couch slightly. "Believe me, I'm tired of being stuck here, but I can't leave. I can't leave as a human because you guys don't know what I look like and, no offense, but I'd like to keep it that way. I can't leave as I am now because Superman will be on my ass quicker than I can blink!" He whined this time, "I just want a cup of coffee."

"What about your special brew?" Raven asked, coming into the room.

"I want to drink coffee as a human. That stuff will kill me if I drink it as a human."

"At least you know your limits."

"That sounded like a dig at someone, Z."

"It was."

"Why don't you just go out under a protection spell?" Raven offered, "We could cast one over you and you could leave. Superman can't hear through magic, so he won't be able to tell. Neither will Superboy."

Danny thought for a second. "You're a genius, Raven! Has anyone ever told you that?"

"A few times," she blushed.

"Well, it needs to be said more!"

Zatanna laughed. "Alright, kid, let's get you outside before you drive yourself crazy."

Practically vibrating in place, Danny waited for the protection spell to settle over him. The second it did, he was out the door and wandering the streets of whatever city the House of Mysteries decided to drop him as Danny instead of Phantom.

"Who are you," was not the question or voice he wanted to hear the second he stepped into the open as himself.

"Danny," he squeaked out through his absolute panic. He didn't dare turn around.

The sound of fabric moving minutely clues him in to the second person behind him. What the hell were these two doing out? It's the middle of the day and there's no attacks going on anywhere in Gotham!

"Where did you come from?" Robin asked.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! This was really bad! Why did the House drop him *here* of all places? Does it *want* him to die again? It was very painful the first time, thank you very much! "Illinois?"

"Was that a question or an answer?" Why is Red Robin here now?!

"An-an answer?"

"Ah, you guys are scaring the little guy!" That was Nightwing. They're surrounding him! Why is Nightwing here? This is Gotham, not Bludhaven. "Give him some room to breathe."

They did not, in fact, give him room to breathe. Maybe coming outside was a bad idea. If he gets out of this no more dead than he already was, he was going to move to the middle of nowhere and become a hermit. Smallville is a town in the middle of nowhere, right? He'll retire as Phantom and move to Smallville until the people get suspicious and burn him as a witch-!

Maybe moving to a big city would be a better idea. Or locking himself in the basement of the House of Mysteries. Yeah, yeah that's a good idea.

"-even listening?"

Oh shit. They were still talking to him! Now is not the time to panic! "Gottagobye!" And then he was running.

Good job not panicking, Danny.

Part 1 Part 3

[radioactiveparker]

https://x.com/hugetulip/status/1886984575076982982?s=46

This but make is steddie x reader 🫣🤭

An Elephant Never Forgets - Steddie X Fem!Reader (Smut)

Summary - Steve arrives at Eddie's trailer expecting to hang out, but finds himself spying on his two friends.

Warnings - Strong Language / Threesome / Soft to Rough / Boot Riding / Oral (M & F receiving) / Cum Eating / Perv!Steve / Sex Toys / Praise Kink / Unprotected Sex / Spit / Degradation / Cum Play / Hair Pulling

Word Count - 2.3k

A/N - This (nsfw) had my jaw on the floor oml

~~~~~

Forest Hills Trailer Park met a tapestry of luminescent rays from the setting sun as the evening shadows deepened into rich purples. The wind blew a gentle fragrance of mud and pine, bringing with it the end of summer blues and a drop in temperature. Birds chirped their little lullabies as they settled into their nests and watched nature's masterpiece paint the sky.

When Steve finally arrived at Eddie's trailer, the sun had eclipsed the horizon, kissing the earth goodnight and bidding the world farewell to its burning embers. The sun's fiery glow had melted into twilight. The hum of Steve's engine had disturbed a small finch, who had been perched on Eddie's tin roof, and it soured into the slumberous sky and back into its tree house. Regardless, Steve paid no mind as he exited his car.

The stray fallen leaves crunched beneath his boots as he headed towards the front door, when he paused abruptly. Funny. Eddie had asked Steve to hang out after he had finished his shift at Scoops Ahoy, and yet, all the lights were off- there was no offensive music, no obnoxious singing, no unsavoury movie on the TV. Surely Eddie hadn't forgotten.

Steve tried his luck knocking on the door.

No answer.

He tried again a little louder.

Nothing.

Eddie's van was still in the driveway so he wasn't at band practice. Steve held a grip on the cool metal handle and pushed downward. With a gentle click, it opened. He treaded lightly through the trailer, starting with the living room to see if Eddie had fallen asleep on the couch. With no luck, he steered towards the hall where he noticed a faint golden glow from a crack in the door of Eddie's bedroom. The closer he approached, he could hear a faint buzzing getting louder and louder and the lewd sounds of slurping and the clicking of a wet tongue.

Out of curiosity, Steve approached the door and peaked through the crack, pushing against it only enough to see through and not cause it to creak. Steve's jaw hit the floor at the sight.

Eddie was positioned on the edge of the bed and had you sitting before him, head nestled snuggly on his lap as he softly raked his fingers through your hair. It seemed innocent enough, only you were suckling gently on the tip of Eddies cock, bright red and leaking its pearly juices into your eager mouth. And while that was shockingly arousing to Steve, it wasn't what had his eyes bulging from their sockets.

Unlike Eddie, who had his jeans hanging low on his hips, you were completely naked, your beautiful backside on full display for him. Your hands had been handcuffed behind your back, and your hips rolled gingerly along the leather of Eddies boot. And it wasn't until he heard you moan softly around Eddie's cock that he realised where the buzzing sound was coming from. A vibrator was strapped firmly in place around Eddie's shin, set to the lowest vibration. And as your clit swiped along it with each delicate rock of your hips, the dildo strapped vertically to the toe-cap of his boot prodded deeper inside of you. He could see the perspiration glistening on your skin. Who knows how long you had been going at it.

Steve could feel his loins burning at the sight. He knew it was wrong to be watching such an intimate moment between the two of you. He knew he was being a disgusting perv, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. It was addicting. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to replace that dildo with the full length of his aching cock. And this wasn't the first time he had thought about you this way, or Eddie for that matter. He had had the privilege of your companies for experimentation before. But never the two of you together at once. 

The concept had his hand reaching for the bulge in his jeans, adjusting himself for a bit of relief. He couldn't prevent the hiss that sucked through his teeth at the gratifying sensation. But that feeling was short lived when Eddie's eyes snapped to his, catching him red handed. 

Steve half expected Eddie to stop, to cover you up and start yelling at him for being a perv and a peeping tom. Instead, he signalled Steve to enter with a quick jerk of his head. Eddie began tapping his foot gently, the dildo prodding delightfully inside of you and distracting you from the creak of the door when Steve stepped over the threshold.  

"That's it, Sweetheart, keep taking that cock." Eddie cooed at you sweetly, before locking eyes with Steve in a mischievously planned look. "You need some help riding it?"

You hummed around Eddie's tip in a delightful post orgasm delirium, your mind hazy with pleasure and a need to please him. At his question, you'd expected him to begin tapping his foot faster or increasing the angle of his foot to make it slide deeper inside of you. Instead, you gasped in shock when two hands placed themselves on your hips and began manoeuvring you up and down the length of the dildo. The sweet aromas of chocolate syrup and maraschino cherries were enough to tell you who had positioned themselves behind you.

"Steve." You moan airily, barely above a whisper, but loud enough for them both to hear.

In your pleasure, you didn't even question why he was here or where he had appeared from. All you could feel was the warmth from his soft hands as they worked you up and down. The dildo was not nearly as big as Eddie's cock, or Steve's as you recalled. It was the Goldilocks of dildos- it wasn't small enough where you felt nothing, nor was it big enough to make you cum, it was just right to keep you on the edge of euphoria. And Eddie had picked it out tonight especially, just to be a big tease, but with Steve now in the mix, the night was going to go a lot differently than he had planned.

"That's it, Honey. You're doing so good." Steve's voice softly rasped in your ear as he planted a kiss to your shoulder. 

Your tummy warmed at the praise and, despite your aching thighs, continued to move with him as he pleased. With your lips still wrapped around Eddie, you clawed blindly at Steve's shirt with your tied hands. He caught on quickly and removed his shirt, pressing his bare front to your back, causing you to melt into him.

"Please." You mumble around Eddie's tip.

"What was that, Sweetheart." He asked stroking a thumb across your forehead.

"Please."

"Please, what?"

"More." You pleaded. "I need more."

"More? Oh I see," He teased. "You want Steve's cock, don't 'cha, Sweetheart?"

You nod desperately as you licked his head back into your mouth for persuasion. Eddie shuddered in pleasure, but agreed regardless. He bent over to switch the vibrator off, causing you to whine at the loss. He took you by the arm and helped you onto the bed. You lay on your back, hands trapped beneath your own body weight as the two of them stood before you and admired you in all of your glory. They ogled at the perked nipples on your breasts and the glistening juices on your pussy. You sighed in desperation, yearning for them to do something other than burn your image into their brains.

Steve made the first move. He reached for his belt and removed his jeans, giving himself a few tugs to spark more life into his impressive length. You bit your lip at the sight and your pussy drooled for him hungrily. He gave you no warning as he plunged himself in one fell swoop until his hips snapped harshly against yours. He held himself there, groaning loudly and absorbing the utter ecstasy that the walls of your cunt flowed through him. You gasped as he jerked his pelvis, pulling his drenched cock out until just the tip remained before repeating. His thrusts were slow yet fulfilling and his hand cupped your hips delicately to hold you in place. You whimpered with the stretch, pussy dripping to accommodate him.  

You had barely noticed that Eddie had gotten himself undressed until he began stroking himself at the sight of you and Steve. Greedily, he swooped down to trail kisses across your tender breasts and down your stomach until he reached the place where you and Steve connected. His tongued lapped at your pulsing clit making you moan his name louder. He allowed himself to drool all over the two of you, making Steve's cock glide in and out of you effortlessly. Steve grunted at the sensation of the tip of Eddie's tongue licking along his shaft with every drag of his hips. He threaded a hand into Eddie's hair, holding him in place as he slipped out of you and shoved himself into Eddie's throat. Eddie moaned at the taste of your sweet elixir. Steve's groans grew louder and louder and he swapped between your tight cunt and Eddie's eager mouth with every thrust. 

It wasn't long before his hips stuttered and whimpers of your's and Eddie's name flew from between his lips. He tried desperately to continue alternating between you and Eddie as thick white ropes spurted from the throbbing tip of his solid cock. His cum painted Eddies face and dripped from your pussy. Eddie swiped it from his cheek, collecting it on his fingers before forcing them into your mouth. You sucked his digits gladly, savouring Steve's taste.

Whilst Eddie was enjoying the view, he had waited long enough for his turn. He ripped his fingers from your mouth and used his brute strength to flip you on your front. You face smothered into the pillow as Eddie lined himself up behind you. His cock slid in embarrassingly easily. He tested a few slow thrusts before he was pounding into you wildly. Steve gripped you by the hair, pulling your face from the pillows that were muffling your moans. Your wails of pleasure were suffocated by Steve's tongue as he kissed you as sloppy as your pussy was. 

Eddie collected your wrists in his hands, using them as leverage for every plough. They dug into your back, causing it to arch at an unnaturally deep angle. You knew you would be sore tomorrow, but the angle had Eddie hitting impossibly deep inside of you and you cried against Steve's lips. You whimpered when he stopped kissing you, removing himself from you for only a few seconds before you could hear a gentle buzzing.

A scream of pleasure escaped your lips when Steve pressed the vibrator to your sensitive clit and cranked up the power. Somehow, Eddie managed to fuck his cock into you harder. The pleasure had tears springing in your eyes and warmth spreading in your abdomen.

You tried to warn him, but it was impossible for you to scream anything that wasn't either of their names. Suddenly, white hot pleasure seared through your entire being, rendering you completely useless. Eddie gripped the fat of your hips to keep you positioned how he liked, his hips never faltering as your pussy clenched and leaked around his girthy length.

"That's it, atta girl." Eddie praised with a growl. "Such a fucking whore for us, aren't 'cha Sweetheart."

"Ahh." You sobbed at a pleasurable thrust, giving him the answer he needed.

The constant snap of his hips and the hum of the vibrator on your quivering clit gave you no opportunity to come down from your high, and instead prolonged it torturously. Eddie's stamina gradually began to wear out as he gasped for breath and his hips lost their rhythm. With a final thrust, the sheathed his entire length into the warmth of your cunt. His cock pulsed with every thick rope of cum that shot into your womb. You sighed at the sensation, your walls throbbing and milking his length of every last drop.

He nudged Steve. "Watch this."

The two of them gathered in front of your ruined pussy as Eddie pulled his softening length from deep within you. They watched in awe as a never ending flow of their cum leaked from your hole. Steve couldn't help himself as he licked a stripe upwards from your clit, collecting Eddie's cum on his tongue before violently spitting it back into your gaping pussy. 

"Don't want it to go to waste." Steve shrugged inappropriately casual for what he had just done.

Eddie chuckled and then, upon noticing more cum leaking down your thighs, licked it up until it pooled in his mouth. He grabbed Steve's perfect hair forced him on his knees. He held his chin, forcing his mouth open before dribbling a mix of cum and spit into Steve's willing mouth. However, before he could swallow, he forced his tongue into his mouth for a sloppy kiss that had the glorious mixture smearing everywhere.

You whimpered, catching their attention. You could hear the salacious wet sounds of kissing and found yourself feeling left out. Eddie and Steve shared a knowing look.

Eddie gripped onto your hair as he had Steve's and pulled you up enough for him to tower over you and bring his lips to yours. You moaned around his tongue before you felt a second one prodding the corner of your mouth. The two of them licked into your mouth in a three way kiss that took your breath away. They kissed you until you were sure that your lips would be chapped in the morning. 

The two of them released you, letting you fall into the bed in exhaustion. 

"So, you wanna hang out?" Eddie smirked. Afterall, he would never forget making plans with Steve.

[nnight-dances]

REPETITION / RARE LOVE

pairings: kim mingyu x fem!reader (ft. yoon jeonghan)

genre: fluff, angst, suggestive & sexual content

tropes: best friends to lovers, idiots to lovers (except mingyu's the only idiot), pining, flirting

warnings: explicit language, banter, alcohol consumption, borderline jeonghan slander but it's okay because i would die for the man, has been proofread by me once but only barely. kazuha (le sserafim) is your roommate, huh yunjin is present.

WHAT TO EXPECT

it's simple enough: you and mingyu are perfect for each other. you've told him as much but after years of him avoiding the topic, you leave him alone. but when your long-time infatuation with jeonghan gets rejected, you have nothing to distract you from your desire to be with mingyu. all it takes is you making out with the wrong person and a can of beer for mingyu to come to his senses. (about 11k)

OR: maybe you don't hate repetition as much as you claim to.

SEQUEL OUT NOW!

“why are men on tinder actually vile?” you question out loud, not quite expecting an answer as your eyes continue to read the offensive opener you’d received from a recent match. mingyu, who’s crouched on the desk across from you, frowns.

“y/n, we’re meant to be studying,” he points out, “but also i thought you were over tinder?”

you look at him blankly, “i am! i just gotta finish what i started you know…”

mingyu looks deeply disappointed in you and you slide your phone across to him, “look at this message i just got! it’s disgusting! i don’t need to know if someone’s wet at the thought of—”

“god, y/n, do you have to scream?” he asks as he takes hold of your phone, busying his fingers probably with blocking the guy. you momentarily look back at your screen where the black document meant to be the outline for your final art history paper taunts you.

you sigh, looking down at your phone when mingyu returns it. “i paused your account and deleted the app.” you sigh yet again, “man! if you were gonna uninstall it without my permission you should’ve just deleted my account.”

“you’d just make another one anyway,” he shrugs, “plus, this way when you go back you’ll remember why you left in the first place.”

you grumble something under your breath but resume your attempts at writing. mingyu smiles a little as he goes back to his own work. a beat passes before, he puts his pen down again and when he sees you’re staring at your screen distantly, he asks, “did you talk to jeonghan yet?”

you gasp at the mention of your years-old crush, glancing around you as if you weren’t in a private study room (because apparently the only way either of you could get anything done was while talking to each other). “what?” mingyu continues, “one of us had to address the elephant in the room.”

“wow, you’re just the worst friend ever, aren’t you? it’s like you can’t read rooms at all. i clearly did not want to talk about jeonghan.”

“well, now you are. so you might as well be honest with me. did you think about confessing to him?”

you deflate, stomach suddenly uneasy, “no. i don’t think i will. i don’t need him to know.”

“you kinda do. y/n, look at me,” mingyu knocks on the wood to demand your attention, “it’s the only way you’ll ever have an answer.”

“i don't want an answer.”

“…”

"because i'm going to move on from him!"

"..."

“okay, well, i’m starting to! just watch me, okay? i have the agency to not be completely consumed by my very shallow attraction to a very attractive and impressive man.”

“right. you just used attractive twice in a sentence— and no, i don’t care if it wasn’t the same form of the word, you absolutely hate redundant things. and yet, you refuse to recognize the way out of this pattern of yours.”

“you are so tiring, mingyu, you know that? exhausting, even. i don’t want to do this anymore.” you shake your head at him, suddenly invigorated to finish this damn preliminary proposal of yours.

—

yunjin cackles as she plops down across from you in the dining hall, finding you scrolling ever so dedicatedly on pinterest. “what’s this?”

you look up at her with a pout, “i need a dress for hoshi’s little party. it’s in two weeks and i have zero options.”

“fuck, i knew i was forgetting something,” she grimaces in her typical huh yunjin way and shifts closer, “i need to find something for that too. can’t just wear a corset and call it day since he’s labelling it a formal and whatnot.”

“he really is the worst,” you agree, pausing to muse over a pretty white dress with red roses all over it. “hmm, what about this one?”

yunjin tilts her head and nods as she looks between you and the dress, probably imagining you in it. then, you sigh, “it’s just i don’t think red is my color like that.”

you’re about to elaborate when you hear a gasp from behind you, “that is simply not true!” you don’t have time to react when a figure slides in next to you. goddamnit, it’s jeonghan, you realize, trying hard to keep it together when his shoulder comes to sit next to yours. “you absolutely fucking rock the color red.”

“i do?” is all you can muster as yunjin chokes out a badly covered laugh. you glare at her, “what’s funny, jen?”

“hah, nothing, i agree with jeonghan, you’d look lovely in red.”

you frown, unconvinced as you scroll some more, feeling dizzy from jeonghan’s presence.

“preparing for hoshi’s party i presume?” jeonghan asks and you nod. “i’m so stressed, i have nothing and it’s approaching so fast.”

“you have time though,” he reassures but you’re quick to protest, “i’m not going to have any time next week because we’re organizing that night flea market. i’ll be running around campus so i need to take a trip this week.” the beauty of going to a college with an isolated campus: peace and you gotta plan every time you leave campus because there’s a singular bus that takes you to the city. it’d be a whole day trip for you if not for mingyu, who thankfully has a car that he can drive.

“ahh, tell me when you’re going into the city, y/n,” yunjin pats you, “i gotta go too.”

you nod and then remember, “right of course, i just remembered kazuha saying she wanted to come too.”

“nice,” yunjin approves, “we need all the opinions we can get. did you get mingyu to agree to drive you yet?”

“i texted him earlier but he hasn’t replied, which is slightly concerning because he may not know how to spell but he does write back very fast.”

jeonghan chuckles, “mind if i join you guys too?”

you stop in your tracks, turning to face him, “you wanna come shopping with us?”

he nods, that sweet smile of his plastered across his face, “yeah, i could use a new formal outfit. i’m tired of wearing the same black suit to everything.” he nudges your side, “plus, you guys could help me out. i can never decide on anything all alone.”

—

“maybe i should just not go,” you groan with your head in your hands. mingyu rolls his eyes, slapping your back, “why would not go? if your problem’s with jeonghan, he should be the one to stay back. not you.”

you sit back up, staring at the eggs in your plate. beside you, mingyu chugs his glass of orange juice, and you lean against him. “god, i hate him so much. do you wanna go see if the playground’s free?”

“right now?” mingyu looks at the time. it’s 11 am on saturday, still an hour from the time everyone agreed to meet in front of mingyu’s car, which is conveniently parked right across from the playground. as if following your line of thought, he grins, “alright. but you finish your food first.”

you sigh, “okay, mom, i will.”

five minutes later find you racing mingyu for the best swing in the playground— months of visiting the place had taught you the first swing was the only one that didn’t creak too loud and experienced the least amount of bumps during the ride. mingyu’s fast but you’re stubborn so you reach out for his arm midway, sticking your nails into the skin, knowing how dramatic he is about these things.

he gasps, “DO NOT CLAW ME.” strong as he might be, he slows down to rip your grip off. you seize the opportunity, getting a headstart and laugh when you reach the swing before him, sitting down firmly before mingyu can pull you away.

“that’s cheating, y/n, you know it!”

“hey, you’re the one that has an advantage. you go to the gym like eight times a week. i go like thrice a month.”

“sounds like someone’s lazy and whiny to me.”

you smile, “someone lazy wouldn’t win that race. and you’re the one that’s whining,” you point to his stance, his arms at his hips like an affronted toddler. he loosens his body with a pout as he walks over to the second swing. “whatever.”

time passes a little too fast for you two when you’re fighting like this because kazuha’s running over to you, breathless. “y/n! what are you guys doing?”

“zuha, hi! did you—”

“yep, i got your lip gloss.”

you chuckle, throwing your arms around her, “why are you the best roommate ever?”

mingyu scoffs, “what about you being the worst roommate ever?”

kazuha laughs, too nice to agree with him, “hey, that’s not true.” you hit him in the side, “you’re just jealous that you’re in a single. i guess money really does make people lonely.”

“i’d go for a double even if i was that rich,” jeonghan’s voice pops up from beside you. he sure has a knack for appearing out of thin air. “i couldn’t handle being alone.”

“not everyone can love themselves as much as i do,” mingyu shrugs, smugly as crosses his arms. “i’m self-sufficient like that.”

“if you guys are done, we should start moving,” comes yunjin’s voice from near mingyu’s car, “it’s already fifteen past 12.”

“i call shotgun!” yunjin shouts and you’re quick to fight back, “no way, i already called it.”

“if i didn’t hear it, then it doesn’t count,” she teases, leaning against the passenger side. you glare at mingyu, “i called it in front of mingyu! the driver is the one that counts.”

mingyu laughs at the petty fight, “y/n did call it earlier this morning.”

“that’s not fair! mingyu’s obviously going to take y/n’s side, you guys spend every breathing minute together. the rest of us don’t stand a chance.”

you smirk, “don’t be a sore loser, huh yunjin, you can call it when we’re coming back. if you remember to.”

“i hate you,” she mutters as everyone settles into the car.

“i’m open to music requests, dear friends,” you announce once you’ve started off. “but i reserve the right to reject any tasteless songs.”

“isn’t this the textbook example of a tyranny?” jeonghan breathes and you shoot him a look over your shoulder, “hey, the power comes with the seat. it’s natural selection.”

mingyu groans through laughter, “you know you don’t make any sense. just play some music.”

you roll your eyes, “he says as he laughs his fat ass off.”

“she’s just salty my ass is fatter than hers,” he mutters under his breath. the three in the backseat break into laughs at that, all at your expense as you gape at them. such betrayal.

“i don’t know why i call you friends. you’re monsters.”

kazuha pipes in, “y/n, are you calling your sweet roommate a monster right now?”

jeonghan is quick to join in, “honestly, i’d say kazuha is the nicest friend among us here.”

“fine, everyone but zuha’s out to get me right now.” the screaming continues for a little bit longer until yunjin and kazuha tire themselves out and pass out. you chuckle when you look at them, yunjin’s head bobs in the middle of the three until it hits kazuha’s shoulder, whose head then rests on top.

swiftly, you pull out your phone camera and capture the moment, sure to tease them later. as you’re clicking the photos, jeonghan’s face sticks into the corner with a sneaky grin and you shift the angle to include him. enjoying the attention, he shoots the camera a peace sign, followed by a little heart, and then a cheek heart and now he’s a bunny and then—

you pull yourself away abruptly with a shaky laugh, “god, jeonghan, this isn’t a photoshoot.”

he laughs back, “ha ha, sorry, i can’t help myself. it’s so fun to tease you like this.”

you feel the blood rush to your face at that, so you turn to face the road completely, a weak, “fuck off” on your tongue. mingyu silently observes the interaction, not without a little side-eye that you don’t know what to think of. “you should get some rest, y/n, you didn’t sleep last night.”

you frown, surprised mingyu knows that and you don’t get to ask him why he knows that because jeonghan interrupts, “you guys sure are close. i was talking to hoshi the other day, he misses y’all a lot.”

“he does? he can just come talk to us whenever though,” mingyu replies, doubt tracing his tone. “i don’t think we’re exclusive like that.”

“right?” you agree, “we used to be so close to hoshi, too, and then he moved to the other side of campus this semester and now i have like one class with him.”

“i don’t know,” jeonghan says, “you should talk to him about it, but there’s always been something stronger about the two of you together.”

you shrug, “we always end up together. it’s not that deep i think. it’s just how it is.”

the topic ends there as jeonghan agrees and dozes off himself too. you, however, feel eerily awake. awake? no, more like unsettled. something in your nerves is off and you feel on edge. you’re a little spaced out after that, as you finally reach the city circle with all the shops crowded next to each other with a little mall in the center.

as everyone gets off and gathers their things, mingyu pulls you aside with a concerned look, “are you okay, y/n?” his grip on your elbow grounds you a little. you inhale, knowing better than to pretend in front of him, “yeah, just a little uneasy. i don’t know why. probably just tired.”

mingyu looks like he knows something more about your condition, “are you sure? we can take a break at one of the restaurants before shopping if you want?”

“nah, i’m okay, don’t worry. i’m a strong girl,” you smile, reasurring him with a pat to his chest, “i feel better now. thanks, mingyu.”

he frowns, hand loosening against your skin, “you never thank me, weirdo. don’t be so formal.”

“man, there’s no winning with you, is there?”

he chuckles as he pulls you after the others, “no, i’m insatiable.”

—

an hour into shopping, you realize why you hate doing this. everything is so overwhelming when you’re in the city, so many people, so many clothes. at least you have friends with you as you scan racks after racks, ending up with three potential dresses on your arm. you mutter a prayer in your head that you can find something nice here so you don’t have to walk more. this is already your third store.

the first one is a classic: a little black dress. it’s satin so it sits smooth against your skin and feels soft when you twirl around. it’s a little short for your liking, perhaps too tight against your ass. you turn to the side to get a better look. you take a photo and send it to mingyu, who you’d been going back and forth with. he’d last sent you a photo ten minutes ago: him in a stupid minion onesie. you’d cursed him out real well in response telling him to stop fucking around. he writes back fast.

big gyu: u look good

big gyu: kinda basic tho

you: yea i thought so too

you agree with that, putting the dress aside in case you don’t find anything else at all.

candidate number two is more over the top: a long red dress with little black patterns on it, with a leg slit on one side. getting into it was a whole struggle but you get it on finally. it fits well thanks to the slit which also shows off some skin. you’re hot in it: like literally. the long sleeves don’t help at all. but you look good too, the flare doing wonders for your figure. you pause, sending a photo hoping mingyu would be of help.

however, when mingyu takes longer than a minute to reply, you groan, already sweating a little. concluding that he’s probably changing or something, you peek out your curtain, hoping yunjin was still in the stall next to yours. you call out her name, straining your neck to see if there was anyone else you could ask for help.

you spot jeonghan walking around the shelves near the fitting rooms and before you can hesitate to call him over, he notices your head poking out. he raises an eyebrow, sending your heartbeat into a spiral. “y/n? do you need help?”

you clear your throat, “um, yeah, i need a second opinion on this dress.” jeonghan approaches your corner and you panic when he reaches for the curtain to draw it back. his eyes question you, “can i look?” you let go of it to let him in, a tiny little rational part of you wondering he needed to come inside the room to see.

“ohhh,” he exclaims as he takes you in, “you look amazing. told ya red was your color.”

you turn away from him a little, “this dress is hot.”

“it sure is,” he agrees and you blush harder, “no i meant, like literally. i’m so hot right now.”

jeonghan presses his lips together, giving away the fact that he understands but being the little bitch he is, he chooses the option that makes you wanna combust. he presses two fingers to your cheek and mumbles, “yeah, you are.”

you push his arm off, “yoon jeonghan! you’re such a damn flirt! get out of here.” you force him out of your space and he’s uncontrollably laughing as he lets you. “i’ve another dress to try so wait outside for me.”

“sure you don’t need a hand changing—”

“no, thank you very much!” you scream, greeted with more pleased chuckling. your phone buzzes, catching your attention. you lean down to look at it.

big gyu: niceee thats hot

big gyu: u should get this dress

big gyu: pls

big gyu: pls

you: …girl why are u begging me

big gyu: because.

big gyu: you’re getting this dress right

you: no i’d die of overheating in it

big gyu: and it’d be worht it

you: i dont like how enthusiastic u are about this...

you: wtv this one's rejected.

you: i still have another dress to try

you put your phone down to try the final dress. this one was a purple slip dress with white flower detailing. it was skin tight against your boobs and a little transparent, giving away your black bra underneath. and to contrast, it sat a little loose on your hips which was honestly not the worst look, keeping from the dress becoming too scandalous. you enjoyed this dress the most so far. that was enough, given the track record.

“you done, y/n?” you’re startled when the voice outside is mingyu’s instead of jeonghan. you pull back the curtains in confusion, “gyu? what’re you doing here?” mingyu stops short, “fuck, i like this one.” you flush a little when you notice his eyes settle on your chest for a beat too long. “that’s stunning, for real.”

you laugh. “look at you using big words. but yeah, i think this is the one.” you look over at him, “did jeonghan leave?”

“um, yeah, he said he had to use the washroom when i ran into him on the way,” he mumbles. you nod, a little relieved because you think you’d die if he saw you right now. “anyway, i’m offended you were showing him your dresses and then all i got was a photo.”

“hey, you were taking so long to reply that i had seek someone else out. he just happened to be her.”

mingyu ignores that and tells you to hurry up, “i need your help choosing something for myself.”

“ugh, alright, give me five.”

in the end, you decided you’d get both the classic black dress and the slip dress, you needed more dresses in general. wouldn’t hurt to have more. when you’re done checking out, you find mingyu in conversation with kazuha who’s smiling with a shopping bag in her hands.

“zuha, you get anything?” you ask. she nods eagerly, “yeah! i got this pink dress that jeonghan helped me find just now. it’s really pretty, i’ll show you later in the room.”

you falter a little at that, glancing at mingyu who’d told you he went to the washroom. ignoring the growing unsettling gut feeling, you inform her you’d found something too. “nice, we should have a try-on in the room later.”

“you guys!!” yunjin joins the group, “this is insane. i hit the jackpot and found the sexiest green dress ever.” you laugh, linking arms with her, “you should come over later and try it on with us.”

“ah, the beauty of womanhood,” mingyu grumbles beside you, and you shove him. “you’re not invited, pervert.”

his jaw falls open, “excuse me? what did you just call me?”

you press an index finger into his bicep, “don’t think i didn’t notice you checking my boobs out earlier.” mingyu’s cheek redden at the light-hearted accusation, worsening when jeonghan appears right at the climax of the argument.

“okay, okay, first of all, i wasn’t checking anything out!” he complains, “and-and well, they—”

jeonghan cuts him off, patting his back with an amused smirk, “it’s alright, buddy, it happens to the best of us.” everyone laughs at that, much to mingyu’s chagrin who then becomes pouty for the rest of the walk to the next shop.

“c’mon,” you pull him into the store, “my turn to stare at your tits.”

“god, would you drop it?” he groans as he follows you in. “it won’t happen again.”

you giggle, “it’s okay with me, gyu, because that just means the girls look good.”

he groans again, “i really don’t need to be a part of this.” he wanders off into the store, embarrassed. you let him go, looking at clothes for him separately. turns out shopping for mingyu is harder than the concept of it sounds. it doesn’t help that he’s an expert at criticizing the small detail in every item you choose for him. half an hour later, you’re tired of him.

as if on cue, kazuha calls you to tell you to come over to an asian restaurant nearby to grab lunch. you thank the lords as you pull mingyu away, “there’s nothing here for me anyway,” he grumbles as you meet up with the rest.

entering the restaurant, you spot kazuha and jeonghan at a table nearby. yunjin’s still on her way it turns out as you sit across from them, heart in throat for the worst reason possible: you’re jealous. you may be down bad for jeonghan but that doesn’t mean you’ve lost your ability to take a hint. trying to keep the thought from completely forming in your head, you make conversation with everyone, wanting to be better than this.

you want to avoid thinking about it so you’re quick to shut jeonghan off. he’s his usual self, joking around with everyone but he picks up when you’re not as receptive as usual. you hope he just thinks nothing of it, but you know that’s not possible when he approaches you after lunch as everyone else is washing up in the bathroom.

you’re outside alone, waiting, when he slightly pushes your shoulder to draw your attention. you gasp lightly. “jeonghan?”

“can i talk to you for a sec?”

you frown, “yeah, you’re talking to me right now.”

“come on, y/n, don’t be cold. let’s go for a walk.”

“but, the others—”

“i let mingyu know we’ll be back in a few.”

out of excuses, you silently follow jeonghan’s stride through the busy street. he makes conversation really well, easing you up in no time as he distracts you from what was on your mind. it’s illegal how smoothly he then proceeds to drop the act.

you’re laughing about what he’d said about hoshi’s drinking habits just now, when he suddenly goes serious, “i think i like kazuha.”

you freeze up at that, fighting the frown that itches closer, looking at him like you didn’t hear him. heart’s out of control right now, but at least you were already expecting this outcome. “huh?”

“sorry, i just thought you should know. i’m really into her and i was planning to ask her out sometime this week.”

you would love to pass away right now. immediately, you think you hate jeonghan for doing this to you. it’s clear from his behavior that he knows you like him and that he’s apologizing— he’s rejecting you before you have a chance to confess. he likes kazuha. he’s going to ask her out. you should know that.

you sputter awkwardly, “that’s great! good for you, jeonghan. and um, you really didn’t have to tell me. i’m sure kazuha would love to be with you.”

you never want to speak a word to anyone ever again and you're sweating ever so profusely, so you speed up a little, “and we should get going, no?”

sensing your mood, jeonghan follows along but says, “i’m sorry, y/n. i- i know you…”

you don’t let him finish because it would genuinely kill you to hear him say he knows you like him. “you don’t have to be sorry.” with that, you essentially leave your body. you move fast enough to reach the car, wordlessly getting into the passenger seat and yunjin somehow knows better than to fight you.

the car ride back is filled with music. not much chatter. you realize it’s partly your fault and silently dread being back in the room with kazuha, but to your relief, when you reach she doesn’t bring anything up. you’re too tired to do a try-on like you promised and when mingyu asks if you want to come over to his place, you tell him you’re feeling sleepy. and for once, you actually sleep after telling him that.

sleep is not as much of a comfort as you’d hope for it to be: less of an escape, more jeonghan-themed content. something about heartbreak and living the rest of your life, lovelessly.

—

the next week starts off hectic and you’re thankful for it this once. you could use the chaos of organizing an event to take your mind off things. a small part of you wonders if jeonghan was being merciful by letting you down and timing it so well. knowing him, that doesn’t seem so impossible.

you feel better than you’d imagined you would. you cried like once since the rejection. you didn’t need to worry much at this point, having realizing that it was less important that you’d made it out to be. mingyu, on the other hand, doesn’t give up his worrying, especially when he doesn’t see you until three days into the week. and that, too, because he gave up and thought it would be a good idea to invade your room, at one in the night.

his knocking wakes you up fairly quickly, since you’d only put your phone down a few minutes ago. you rush to the door, afraid of waking kazuha up. “what the fuck, mingyu?” you ask at the sight of him.

“what the fuck yourself! stop ignoring my messages maybe?”

you groan, stepping outside your room, feeling the cold air hit you in your night clothes. “why’d you have to confront me so late at night? can we do this tomorrow? when i’m coherent and not half-naked?”

mingyu falter as if he just realized the time, noticing your tank top and shorts. “i don’t care. i’ll give you my jacket but we’re doing this right here and right now.”

you sigh, knowing this was coming. “forget it, keep your jacket. i’ll go change and be right back.”

mingyu grabs your arm when you try to go back inside, “how do i know you’re not just gonna leave me here to die?”

“dude, my room’s right here. you can come watch me change if you fucking want.”

he lets you go, flustered when you offer and you laugh as you rush back in. in the darkness, kazuha’s voice startles you, “y/n? is everything okay? are you being abducted?”

“oh god, zuha, you scared me. and no, it’s just stupid little mingyu who wants to have a talk. i’ll settle this. go back to sleep.”

she groans, “god, you guys are just like my parents sometimes.”

you laugh at that as you slip into a hoodie and exchange your shorts for pajamas. when you return, mingyu’s sitting at the stairs in front of your room and you hit him in the back.

“ouch! fuck you!” he stands up with a glare, “also i heard what you said about me. why am i stupid and little? can you just choose one insult?"

“let’s go down if we’re gonna argue. zuha can hear us, too. and did you hear what she said after that?” when he seems clueless, you go on, “she said we remind her of her parents sometimes.”

he coughs, “her parents?? what are we, married?”

you roll your eyes, “married and sick of each other, apparently.”

“being zuha’s parents doesn’t sound so bad honestly. she’d be the easiest child to raise.”

“i feel like zuha would raise you if you were her father,” you laugh, “me too, probably.”

“who’d be the father then?”

your smile falls when an answer occurs to you, you mumble, “jeonghan,” sitting at a bench outside your dorm. mingyu joins you, equally solemn now.

“did something happen between you two?”

“yeah. he rejected me when we went shopping that day.”

mingyu’s eyes widen, “what? you confessed?”

you shake your head, a strained smile, “he already knew. i guess i was obvious, but it’s still driving me insane that he rejected me without even giving me a chance to confess.”

“i can’t believe he did that. that’s conceited as fuck.”

“conceited or impressive, i can’t decide. but he told me likes kazuha and that he’s sorry. i genuinely wanted to die when he said that. he was cool about breaking my heart, too. lowkey fell a little harder for him.” you laugh at your own joke, but mingyu looks unhappy, jaw clenched like he’d tasted something bitter.

you hit his arm, “it’s not a big deal, dude. i was thinking about it the past few days and i realized i barely knew the guy. i just knew what he told me over the last year.”

after a pause, “and he’s one beautiful man, so there was that.” you smile a little.

“but he didn’t have to do it like that. he could just stop flirting with you, you know, or wait for you to come around and confess like a normal person,” mingyu says, “he’s such a little jerk.”

“hey, it’s okay, a little flirting didn’t hurt anyone.”

“yeah but he was leading you on, leaving you in ambiguity by doing that. he should’ve been flirting with kazuha, not you.”

“okay, now that’s starting to hurt,” you whine, pressing your forehead against his shoulder, “but i can’t really blame him, no? kazuha’s so precious.”

“don’t be like that, y/n.”

“what? be like what?” you look up, “didn’t you also used to be into kazuha?”

mingyu bites his lip when you bring his years-old crush up, “when will you forget about that? that was so long ago and it was barely serious. she’s too nice to be my type.” (what does that even mean? you wonder but don't have the time to ask.)

“sure, you didn’t want to change residence halls to be closer to her?”

“alright, how many times do i tell you that i did that because of you? why do you never believe me?”

“it just makes more sense the other way,” you mumble, suddenly feeling teary-eyed and hating that you were feeling teary-eyed, which only intensified the teariness in your eyes. “god, this is stupid.”

mingyu’s arm is around in no time when he notices you curling up, your lip tucked between your lips in anticipation, “hey, hey, c'mon, i thought you said it wasn't a big deal. so how come you're crying?"

“because! i feel lame. and because kazuha’s perfect, by the way. she’d probably cry too if she knew i was crying.”

he pulls you closer, “you’re not lame, y/n. you think i’d keep you around so long if i didn’t think you were insanely cool?”

you breathe through your tears, “you just keep me around because i’m insane?”

“insanely cool! open your ears, idiot.”

“you just called me an idiot. idiots are pretty lame.”

he sighs when he feels his tshirt get damper, your body so weak under his hold. he pats your hair softly, “sorry, that’s not what i meant. but seriously, y/n, you know i’m bad at saying this stuff but i seriously cannot stress enough how highly i think of you.” his hand moves to rub your back, “and you’re so much more than perfect, you know? like sometimes you don’t do a paper till three hours before and still get an A. and then, you come up with comebacks to my arguments in your own unique ways, and trust me, nobody can argue with me like you do.”

you pull away, “all right, now you’re embarrassing me. why do i sound like a bossy nerd or something?”

“you can be that at times. hey, but you forgot the part where you’re hot as shit. and also pretty.”

“i feel like that last part was an afterthought, mingyu,” you bite back a laugh, “you really only keep me around for my tits, don’t you?”

“dude, can you let me wholesome for once? i’m trying to console you, so would you stop playing devil’s advocate?”

“sorry, i’m just,” you hesitate with a heavy sigh and then, you blurt out, "i’m scared i’ll never fall in love. i’ll never find it at all.”

“now that’s some stupid thoughts you’re having,” mingyu shakes you by the shoulders, “you’ve just been blinded by your crush on jeonghan for so long that you haven’t explored anyone else at all.”

“are you volunteering to be my crush right now?” you ask, jokingly.

mingyu’s smirk catches you off-guard, “what if i am? it wouldn’t be the worst thing if i was your boyfriend.”

you feel yourself heating up a little for some reason, head in a daze from his earlier shower of compliments and now this. so instead of trying to make sense of it all, you press yourself into him in a hug. “yeah, it wouldn’t.”

—

“hoshi, you little shit!” you throw yourself around the guy when you spot him on the night of the flea market, the product of a long and actually insane week. he laughs when he realizes it’s you, pulling you into a hug, “bro, y/n, why is this my first time seeing in you in literal years?”

“i don’t know, i just kinda see you walking around sometimes. maybe if you actually showed up to econ class, i’d see you more.”

hoshi flinches, “you can’t be bringing econ up right now. that class is kicking my ass. i can’t keep showing up to that kind of humiliation.”

the two of you catch up at last, as people swarm around the different stalls set up along the college street. you were relieved after having finished this damn event. cheers to sleep, right?

hoshi tells you all about his new situationship with a guy in another class and how he’s regretting inviting him to the party tomorrow night. “why? believe it or not, people are more fun when drunk.”

hoshi rolls his eyes, “yeah, well, i couldn’t get any more fun. so instead i become incontrollable. an absolute animal.”

“right, i remember that. so you’re scared you’re gonna drive him off? i wouldn’t worry honestly. and if you want, i can keep you in check.”

he narrows his eyes in distrust, “you? you’re not much better than me drunk, okay? i feel bad for mingyu who’s gonna have to take care of you the whole time.”

you gasp, “wow, you’re taking mingyu’s side now? over mine? i thought we had something special.”

“you thought wrong,” comes mingyu out of nowhere, slinging his arm around hoshi’s shoulders.

“why are you here suddenly?” hoshi looks between the two of you, “i couldn’t not come to an event my lovely y/n herself planned, could i?”

hoshi laughs, “nice to see you two as jolly as ever. but also i must take your leave. i gotta go grab dinner soon.”

“hey, why don’t you come with us? we were gonna check out the new outlet the college opened.”

“oh, i would love to but i have plans with someone already.”

you nod your head in realization, “right of course, have fun. not too much, though. leave some for tomorrow.” he leaves with a full-toothed smile and you face mingyu.

he playfully pinches your cheek, “you confront him about missing us yet?”

you raise a shoulder in response, and as the flea market starts to fizzle out thanks to the darkening sky, your stomach grumbles. “let’s eat, please.”

ever since that night— you don’t want to say anything had changed between you and mingyu because your friendship had been long enough that even the slightest shift in dynamics would harmoniously just become the new status quo; the two of you had been through a lot together. but ever since that night, you’d been fooling around with him more, if that was possible.

it was along the lines of: less banter, more flirting? although one might argue that the former was just a derivative of the other. but semantics aside, this is what you know to be true: friends flirt with each other all the damn time.

that’s what you’re telling yourself when mingyu asks you to feed him some of the fried rice you’d gotten on your plate. and it was true: you’re almost a 100% certain that you’d flirted with every friend of yours, and that was just how it worked.

but intimacy came differently to everyone and mingyu’s just manifested in clinginess. he was pressed to your side for the entirety of dinner, and you couldn’t complain about the proximity. it was welcome, even, this form of friendship.

“you’re thinking too hard.” mingyu’s voice pulls you out of your little reflection session. “what’re you even thinking about? you should be all burnt out from all the work you did this past week.”

“i am,” you affirm, “but some things just don’t let up.”

he chuckles, patting your head affectionately as if to persuade your thoughts to let up for a while. it doesn’t help really, only gravitating the direction of the said thoughts toward kim mingyu even more.

“maybe repetition isn’t as bad as i always make it out to be,” you say, chin propped up against your fist on the table. mingyu had chosen a corner table of the newly opened eatery, next to a low window that glowed behind you in the remains of sunset as he shifted to completely face you. the sun had finally set. again.

“you’re right. routine is good for people.”

“but it doesn’t have to stay the same forever, you know?”

“hm?” mingyu can’t help but feel like you’re edging toward some underlying topic. you were like this since he could remember: you’d start off with some abstract and vaguely relevant concept (that had no doubt been plaguing you for a long time) and slowly circle around till he caught onto what you meant. you love playing games with him.

“repetition doesn't have to be redundant? i think there's something more subtle about it.”

he doesn’t know where you’re going with this, “but repetition is literally the same thing over and over?”

“yeah, but the ‘same thing’ itself can evolve,” your fingers knock against his, “i don’t know, i was just thinking about… us.”

“us? i guess we would be a good example of repetition.”

your gaze falls from his to find your hand instead, your fingers wrapping around his wrist until you’ve forced his palm open. his hand in your lap upside down, you pull at the fingers, “yeah, but we’ve changed a lot. for one, we fight a lot less. sometimes when i’m going to tell you a thought, you understand mid-sentence what i mean.”

“yeah, well, that’s what we get for knowing each that long. but really, what’s this about, y/n?” he captures your hand in his expertly, pulling your attention back to his face.

“do you ever think we should be more?”

mingyu breathes a laugh at that, a shiver running down his spine when he spots the solemn look on your face. and then, his smile turns grave. “y/n, we’ve talked about this before, haven’t we?”

“have we? every time i’m the one who brings it up and you kinda just shrug it off. no, don’t even try to argue with me. you shrug the serious stuff off. always.”

it’s true, mingyu admits in defeat, mind racing as he considers why you’re bringing this up now. the answer is easy: you were finally available. but he doesn’t say it out loud, like he never does. you’d confronted him about the state of your friendship before, unafraid to wonder out loud what it would be like if you started dating. you’ve received all forms of shut-downs from mingyu before so you figured you were the only one in an ambiguous place about your feelings for him.

if someone was to ask if you like mingyu, you’d probably say yes, but it’s more than that. you know better than to blindly fall for him. witnessing him in his relationships before, you know he can be ruthlessly cold to his partner once he’s out of love. you practice romantic love for mingyu: carefully because too much would definitely be dangerous.

“i have my reasons, y/n.” there it is. the strict mingyu. the rigidity in setting his boundaries was something you admired and aspired for when he exhibited it in the past. right now, you want to punch him.

you’re without a filter with him so it’s unfair when he treats you like this. you let him know as much: “i want to punch you right now. i’ve hidden nothing from you, and yet, there’s this wall you keep yourself behind. is this really one-sided?”

mingyu doesn’t know what to do with you right now, “y/n, why are you—”

“no, because it's not like i can't take a hint. so one minute you're flirting with me and then, you push me away like right now,” you point to his estranged fingers, “but then you act like nothing happened and go right back to being all intimate and touchy.”

“i just…” mingyu lets out an exasperated sigh, “i just don’t see the reason for labels. why do we have force ourselves into a restriction like that? we’ve always been above conforming.”

it’s your turn to sigh heavy enough your head hits the wall behind you. wasn’t this just his way of friend-zoning you back into silence? you’ve always been too embarrassed to push him this far because you don’t mean to hurt him. but you feel as though you’ve hurt yourself long enough now.

“so why’d you say that the other night? that it would be nice if you were my boyfriend?”

this leaves him speechless for a few beats and you continue, “that was just because i was heartbroken from jeonghan? you’re playing prince charming for me so i can go back to being your trusty little best friend?”

“y/n, you know that’s not true. i’m not playing anything in your life. i’m just being myself.”

you scoff, “you really are so fucking—”

“why are we actually fighting right now?” mingyu asks through an incredulous laugh, “this is actually so petty, dude, let’s stop. you know i love you, right?”

mingyu’s last resort makes its presence: a non-committal i love you. because at the end of the day, you’re still best friends. what was a little ‘i love you’ in today’s economy? nothing. especially when you’d hear him throw the phrase around all the time.

you stand up in defeat, “fine, let’s stop. you win.” you gesture for him to move to the side and he does so reluctantly when you glare at him like you’re genuinely mad. (you are.)

he follows you out the door, catching your elbow to slow you down. “don’t be like this. i know you’re mad at me.”

“i’m not mad. i'm tired and i just want to go back to my room,” you seethe, walking faster than him. he grabs hold of your shoulder turning you around.

“if you’re gonna storm off, at least go the right way.” you huff softly and let him steer you the right way to your dorm, hands still on you. you spend the way to the front of your room silently, waiting for mingyu to say something but he just does what he does best: take care of you.

as you reach the door of your room, he pauses, apologetic smile on display. “listen, let’s talk more tomorrow? get some sleep.” he reaches for your hair, tenderly running his fingers through the locks. there it is: the soft mingyu, his eyes wide as he stares you down for signs of stress.

his warm arm pressed againsts yours, you realize you don’t want him to just leave. you know the drill: tomorrow morning, he’ll text you to meet for lunch and everything will go back to being unsaid. maybe he’ll bring along seungcheol so you don’t bring anything up again. either way, it’ll be so natural you’ll think nothing ever happened. but you want something to happen.

so your hand settles around his bicep to hold on and partly to keep him in place. you lean in, “let me do one last thing and if you want to stop, i’m never bringing this up again. i promise.”

you don’t give mingyu a moment to react to your words and instead raise yourself up to his level, other hand on his chest, and press your lips to his. you kiss mingyu after the thirteen years that you’ve known him and the ten that you’ve wanted to. you counted the years just as you count the seconds that it takes for him to come to his senses and pull himself away.

he looks less upset than you imagined: more dazed. like he can’t believe what you’ve done. he looks at you with his lips parted and you have to tear your gaze apart, lest you should tear yourself apart with longing.

“y/n, i…” he looks away and that’s enough evidence you need. you step away from him, your easy smile back in its place, not before you pat his arm as it falls from you.

“it's okay. i understand. let’s be friends, mingyu,” you declare suddenly, catching him off-guard. you'd pulled all the stops and if he genuinely was uncomfortable with pushing the line between platonic and romantic, you would respect that.

he begins to say something but you don’t want to hear him speak, at least not right now when the sound of blood rushing to your head is the loudest it's ever been, and you certainly don’t want to falter again. you’ve decided. “good night."

—

mingyu should feel relieved. he really should be happy that you’re back to normal around him, friendly and playful like you’ve always been. he should count his blessings that you’ve accepted the status of your relationship with him as it is. but as he falls asleep that night, all that comes to his mind is the smile you’d sported as you asked to be friends.

it was all wrong: your lips against his, that was something of his dreams, not a reality he has to be escaping from. it replays in his head, your scent that he’d caught a whiff of now and then, whenever you’d wrap your arms around him. the heat of your skin he’d rationalize as the comforting presence of a friend for days later.

he’ll soon come to know how insanely stupid he’s being right now but until you knock some sense into him, he simply plays along with a sting he hides pretty well. he should, he’s been doing it for years now.

it’s the night of hoshi’s party already and he’s walking over to the location of the pregame, alone because according to a text fifteen minutes ago, you’re still not ready. you’d invited yunjin and some other friends to your and kazuha’s abode to apparently make the process easier, but if mingyu knows anything about the group, you’ve probably spent more time selecting the right song to play than get ready.

the door to dino and hoshi’s shared residence is already open as he strolls in, finding a group already on the floor, taking shots. he makes eye contact with jeonghan who beckons him closer and mingyu takes a seat next to him.

space is scarce so mingyu finds his arm pressed uncomfortably close to jeonghan’s, who oohs at mingyu’s fit, “ooh, you look positively sexy.”

mingyu grimaces, “do you have to put it like that?” he does look … positively sexy, mingyu admits, in the navy blue shirt he wore but— and here’s the punchline— with the buttons undone all the way to right above his navel.

“where’s y/n, by the way?” jeonghan asks, an eye at the entrance as he slides a shot glass toward mingyu. the question irks mingyu for obvious reasons and he keeps him waiting for a minute, waiting to down the liquid in glass (vodka unfortunately for his throat) to answer him. “um, she’s still getting ready. any minute now.”

“ha, that means she’ll be another ten. that’s a shame, i was hoping to pour her first shot.” jeonghan shrugs resentfully.

maybe the alcohol’s working faster since it’s been a while for mingyu, but his mouth runs faster than his head, “why’d you care? i thought you asked kazuha out a while ago.”

jeonghan raises a brow at that, “hmm. i did. but things did not work out so well. what with kazuha feeling guilty about y/n and… well, i also…”

“feel guilty?” mingyu asks, voice strained. he’s annoyed at having to listen to jeonghan’s side of the story. he could not care less about humanizing him and whatnot. he’s watched you suffer for far too long to be empathetic right now.

“yeah. and i thought i might like y/n, too, after all.” jeonghan says it so casually as if discussing his performance in a particularly challenging college course, not his feelings for a person who he’d recently rejected.

the word might pierces mingyu’s ears. the uncertainty behind it is in such stark contrast to his own… feelings toward you that he genuinely feels his breath heat up.

or maybe that’s just jeonghan when he leans over to refill his glass. “drink up, buddy.” mingyu’s just about ready to make a scene right now, shoving jeonghan’s hand off his back but suddenly jeonghan’s standing up, making his way to—

you. you’re here.

almost as soon as he catches sight of you, he looks away, pretending to give the vodka in his hand all the attention in the world, as he puts his lips to it and empties it. head is now light. that’s probably enough for now, he decides as he puts his glass down.

when he looks back up, you’re at the kitchen counter with yunjin and kazuha.. and jeonghan, who’s grinning as he hands out the bottles of fireball to the group, no doubt marketing it so convincingly that you’d think you came up with the idea yourself.

mingyu shoots to his feet, regretting it when his vision darkens but he pushes past, eyes focused on your figure— god, he forgot how hot you look in that dress. he tries to keep his thoughts in check as he approaches you, but it doesn’t help that your makeup’s even more meticulous than usual, eyes glittering and lips delightfully glossy.

he breaks into the space between you and jeonghan, arm against yours, catching your attention.

“my guy!!” you exclaim when you see him and then your eyes trail down to his chest and then back up to his face where his hair sits parted with the help of some gel. “you look like a slut. i love it.”

mingyu laughs, subjecting you to a similar once-over, “you’re one to talk.” your hair’s back in a bun of sorts, a rare occurrence because you seem to prefer have it around your face. he can’t help but pause at your exposed collarbones, the gold shadow you applied there earlier doing wonders to his already dazed headspace.

“is it already that part of the night where mingyu starts hitting on everyone?” yunjin complains, reserving the alternate version of her question (something along the lines of how impolitely he’d been eye-fucking you in front of everyone) for some other time as she nudges you to open the fireball in your hands.

you do so, looking at jeonghan who offers one to mingyu, which he refuses as he leans against the counter, hand silently at your back just in case. “you’re not drinking?” you ask, quietly enough only for the two of you, just in case he wasn’t comfortable sharing.

“nah, i just had two shots of vodka back there. trying not to mix for the sake of me tomorrow,” he mutters, patting your back encouragingly, “but let me know if you need help finishing that.”

jeonghan eyes mingyu on the side as the trio clink their bottles together and get to downing them. later, as things start picking up and more people make their way into the party, mingyu finds your arm. “do you want me to stay close by?” he frames the question in a way that you have an out, because he can tell that you’re still unhappy with him.

but you’re tipsy when your hand interlocks into his, “only if you’re going to dance like you mean it.”

the night goes better than you expect it to, especially since mingyu’s let loose for once. or perhaps… he’s always this carefree when drunk, palms kneading at your waist, keeping you close to his chest, which you try your best to not get too used to touching. he sure knows how to keep you on your toes (sometimes literally) even when wasted because you’re trying not to get too close. for you own sake.

that is until hoshi shows up beside you two, pulling you apart as he introduces you to a friend.. or a partner? you can’t hear in this state and just as you try to lean in closer to hear what he’s saying, you feel a presence at your shoulder, fingers poking you.

you turn to find jeonghan behind you, sloppy smile on his face as he screams something at you. you frown, asking him to repeat himself, hand on his bicep to steady yourself against the movement of the party.

“need to talk to you about something!” his words come at you, clearer. “right now?” you shout back, “what the fuck is it?” your body doesn’t want to stop moving so you groove against his side, and momentarily catching a glimpse mingyu’s heavy gaze on you. you almost completely stop then but jeonghan’s pulling you away, after him to a relatively emptier zone of the house.

you’re breathless, you realize, now that the spell of the music’s been broken. you rest against the damp wall behind you, uncaring as you look around for a liquid to quench your thirst. cunning as ever, jeonghan’s already handing you a plastic cup with a transparent liquid.

you narrow your eyes at him despite how wasted you are. “what’s this?”

he laughs, “i’m glad you’re vigilant as ever. this is water. cold. drink up.”

you comply, your throat throbbing ever so lesser after you’re done and you sigh in relief. “you might have broken my heart but you’re still an angel, jeonghan.”

“ahhh,” he exclaims joining your side against the wall. you frown when you take note of his fingers clasped together, almost fidgeting. yoon jeonghan, fidgety? that’s a first for you.

“actually, that’s what i wanted to talk to you about…”

when mingyu looks away from hoshi and his company to see if you were listening and when he finds out that you’re in fact in jeonghan’s embrace, he’s suddenly sober. and when your eyes find his for a moment, something in them changes and he calls out your name like a warning. but then jeonghan’s already leading you elsewhere.

mingyu wants to follow after you immediately but he realizes hoshi’s still talking to him. “hoshi, bro, can i find you in a while? i gotta make sure y/n’s okay.”

but hoshi stops him in his tracks, hand on his chest, “wait. please tell me you told her…?” he trails off uncertainly as mingyu catches on what he’s saying.

“i haven’t,” he admits, eyes still searching the crowd for you, “but i think it’s time that i do. only so much i can take.”

“that’s the spirit, man! okay, now go kiss y/n for me.” hoshi pushes mingyu with a start, not before the the latter shoots the man a glare and takes off in his search for you.

you’re still in that corner with jeonghan, who’s done narrating the past week’s revelations to you, all about his failed attempts with kazuha and his slow understanding of his real feelings about you. you’re far more unaffected that either of you was expecting, arms crossing in thought.

but then you say, “well, that’s fucking stupid. because i’ve realized i wasn’t as down bad for you as i once thought i was.” jeonghan’s smile falls a little with a disappointed sigh. “but,” you continue, “you know what i’m still curious about?”

when your hand creeps up jeonghan’s shoulder, he thinks he knows where you’re going with this. “i’ve wanted know if you’re really as good at kissing as everyone makes you out to be.” jeonghan’s already moving closer to you, enveloping your face in his hands, and his devilish grin’s spills out as his lips find your ear. “let’s find out?”

and that’s how mingyu finds you wrapped around jeonghan, making out like this was your last day living. and for a moment, he considers giving up and letting you have this. he even stops in his tracks in the crowd, his thoughts so easily drowned out by the music if he just lets go.

but his mind’s reeling when the sight of you kissing someone else just pushes him back a day ago when you were leaning up into him, soft breaths risking your lips against his and the way your body pressed into his just right. his feet move without a thought, then, shouldering through the bodies around the two in the corner.

you’re just pulling away from jeonghan to start to say something about how that wasn’t too bad when his body is lifted away from yours with an unannounced jerk. you gasp and then once again when mingyu’s face comes floating in front of yours.

“mingyu,” you breathe, unsteady from the series of events this past minute, “what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“what the fuck are you doing?!” he screams in your face, hands on both arms to keep you from moving. jeonghan’s walking to your side and you want to say something to apologize but you’re far too infuriated with the man in front of you to think.

“i don’t know! trying to get laid? finding happiness? love?!” you scream back with as much force. you call out jeonghan’s name, “i’m sorry. mingyu’s too drunk to—”

“jeonghan,” warns mingyu when the guy tries to break you free from his embrace, “can i have a minute with y/n.” it isn't a question.

jeonghan has the nerve to say, “maybe not. i wouldn’t leave you alone with her in this state.”

“oh, she’ll be just fine,” he replies and jeonghan simply looks at you for confirmation. but you’re still looking at mingyu, starting to tear up, head throbbing all at once. you stop fighting against his grip and mumble in defeat, “whatever.”

“if you’re going to lecture me about being bad, i don’t really want to hear it.” you’re back next to the kitchen counters with mingyu beside you. slowly, you sit yourself up on the surface, feeling exhausted. “i’ve heard it before.”

“no, that’s not what i’m doing. i just want you to stop and think clearly—”

you groan when you hear the beginnings of a typical you’ll regret this in the morning type talk, you slide off the counter and to your delight, you run into a guy holding up a can of beer for the taking. you’re quick to jump at it, grabbing it up from him and pulling the tab of the can open. just as you put the beer to your lips, ready to chug it, you feel it being pulled away, the next few moments occuring before you can comprehend anything.

suddenly you’re sitting back on the counter and your dress rides up when you feel mingyu push himself in between your legs. at first, you see his face close on yours and then the taste of beer meets your throat. no, it’s not just beer— it’s mingyu. his tongue spills onto yours, beer mixing with saliva and when you try to pull away, his hand at your neck tightens. you sit up straight and you feel his watch digging into your spine.

your head spins when you can finally breathe, inhaling only to cough out. heart in your throat, you look at mingyu in disbelief, “what the fuck!” but he’s already taking another sip of the beer and some of it slides down your throat into your dress, when his mouth finds yours again.

you’re weak in his arms, and the heat between your legs is only so rational. so you find yourself giving in and kissing him back when the liquid runs out, nails finding his scalp, earning you a deep groan that vibrates against your chest. that’s when he pulls away again, eyes finally meeting yours with an unprecedented intensity.

he leans in again, wet kiss against your cheek, followed by a grunted whisper of, “i love you so fucking much, y/n. it’s so hard to watch you run around with other men.”

you want to think you’re hearing things but mingyu doesn’t let you, another kiss right in the nape of your neck that sends shudders down your back. “i want to be yours so fucking bad. want to spoil you like you deserve.”

you swallow against the moan that rises in your throat, to pull mingyu’s face back to your eye-level, “then why aren’t you mine? why’d you push me away?” your voice breaks, betraying the pretense of indifference you try to prop up. his eyes soften, fingers brushing against your forehead.

his lips quiver and he sighs defeatedly. it’s a miracle you can hear him with all that noise around you. but you hear him clear as day against your hair when he finally says, “i’m scared. of loving you too much, of being too much. and i’m scared of losing you.”

mingyu’s imagined telling you these exact words before and how you’d react to them infinite times before but when you giggle into his collarbone, he pulls away with a blank look. your forehead is against his all over again and for the second time night you say, “that’s fucking stupid! if you were going to lose me, it would’ve happened a while ago.”

of all the things he’d imagine you saying in response, this was the simplest option, so unlike your usual overthinking self. maybe it’s the alcohol and adrenaline in your system speaking but mingyu somehow feels comforted, because maybe it really is that simple. it would’ve happened if it was going to. or maybe mingyu’s too drunk to make sense of it all right now.

so his lips are moving against yours once again, without warning, your breath all his when his arms tighten once against around you. you’re laugh grounds him enough to break away. you open your mouth to complain about the distance when mingyu’s back against your skin.

“shut the fuck up,” he groans, the command making you hotter than you’d like to admit. your legs close around his ass, pulling him closer and his hand slips across your boobs. the friction of his palm against the tight fabric of your dress makes you let out an undignified moan into mingyu.

that’s when he knows he needs to take you to somewhere more private for reasons more than one. you’re too lightheaded to move yourself so mingyu’s carrying out the house without a word anyone you two came with. it’s only when the cold air hits you that you realize you’re outside.

you struggle against mingyu until you're back on your feet and stop. “where are we going? i’m— do i know you, mister guy?” for a second, mingyu’s heart sinks when he wonders if you thought you were just making out with a stranger. then, you say, “i need to go back and find mingyu. gotta kiss him.”

ignoring the blush that colors his face, he grabs hold of your elbow, “i am mingyu, idiot. and we’re going to my room.” you shake your head to clear your vision, eyes widening when you recognize him. your hand finds his face with a light laugh, “ah! it’s my big guy.” the name doesn’t help mingyu’s condition at all, so he’s pulling you after him faster than before.

back at the party, kazuha starts panic when she realizes she’s lost hold of you, unable to locate you anywhere within the party. she tugs at yunjin’s sleeve who looks over in concern, “what happened to y/n? i can’t find her anywhere.” yunjin laughs at that, covering her mouth with her hand. “don’t worry about her. i saw her and mingyu leave together earlier. she’s probably in heaven by now, if i’m right.”

“hmm?” kazuha pauses as a thought pops up into her head, “wait… did they…?” yunjin grins knowingly, “yup. it really was high time they fucked.” the former lets out a satisfied giggle, “i know. they were so obvious without even being together. i was getting tired.”

“you were getting tired?!” you gasp at mingyu later in the night, panting against his pillow. you’re on your back and he throws you a tshirt of his to sleep in now that your dress is… demolished. you look at it sadly out of the corner of your eye. “i really liked that dress,” you whine, as he picks the remains of it up with a somewhat smug grin, “planned to wear it out again.”

“i couldn’t risk that. you looked too good in it,” he chuckles to himself as he jumps into bed with you. you sit up, feigning anger as you slip the cotton over your head, warming up when the smell of mingyu greets you. “i don’t know if i could resist seeing your tits out like that.”

you hit his chest hard with a lighthearted scoff, “i knew it! you’re such a pervert. not just a pervert, you’re also a brute.” you groan as you rub your thighs together gingerly. mingyu props himself up, pulling you down into a hug, rubbing your back. “sorry, does it hurt a lot?”

“it’ll hurt more in the morning,” you relax in his arms, pressing a loving kiss into his hair, “should’ve known you went so rough. asshole.” you giggle when he pulls away in disbelief at the last insult.

“how could you—!” you roll away from him, laughing. he shifts closer, caging you against the wall behind you, “hey, you can’t say stuff like fuck i knew you’d have a big dick and then expect me to go all vanilla! do you know what that does to a guy?”

you shriek in embarrassment, “don’t bring that up now!” your ears redden when mingyu forces you by the chin to look up at him. “besides, where do you think the nicknames like big gyu and big guy came from?”

mingyu’s jaw falls open at the revelation and you break out into a fit of laughter at his mindblown expression. “how- how long have you been thinking about my di-”

you hit him to stop him, “ever since you kept pushing me away,” you run a hand down his side, sly grin on your swollen lips, “and i had to come up with something if i wanted to get myself off alone.”

with an exasperated groan, he falls against you, suffocating you as his body goes limp above yours. you let out a gasp when you feel him hardening against your leg and he speaks into your neck, “you’re seriously telling me i’ve been missing out on taking you like this for… for how long now?”

you kiss his cheek, hand slipping down his boxers with a soft exhale, “a while. and if you hadn’t come to your senses today… well, i’d all but given up on you today. when jeonghan kissed me, i was just going to—”

suddenly your breath escapes you, mingyu’s hand around your throat and his lips on yours with a loud grunt. he stops your hand in its movements, “please tell me you’re not talking about jeonghan while— fuck!” he gasps when you bite his lower lip to protest his hand on yours. his hand gives way and you’re palming the tent in his boxers again, pushing him down against the bed, so thankful he doesn’t have a rooommate in times like this.

you place a kiss at the corner of his lips and trail down his chest, shirt long gone, before muttering, “forgive me?”

—

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

i really want to write a more wholesome ending but have not the time or energy right now, so i'll be back with a shorter spin-off/ epilogue of sorts about how you and mingyu as a couple work out, how your friends react, some skinship, etc.

anyway, this is my official announcement that i've become a baby carat :] didn't know how much i was missing out on before svt so this is very fun. so far, jeonghan's my favorite little guy, although as is clear from this... mingyu makes me do things. on the roster are: minghao and joshua. hopefully there will be more svt fics in the future. no promises <3 goodbye friends and foes!!

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Hogwarts AU [pt. 2]

The second time they meet, Tim actually knows a little more than nothing about him.

He knows Daniel is Vladimir Masters godson, set to inherit the man's title, and he knows that his birth parents are both wizards, albeit eccentric ones. No one would tell him how they are eccentric, not to mention why.

He knows the boy is a second child among the three, and his older sister is going to Hogwarts next year while his younger one had just turned five. And Daniel himself is seven, just like Tim, which means they will be in the same year eventually. He doesn't know whether he likes that or not.

He doesn't know nearly enough about him to form an opinion.

What he does know, though, is that he absolutely doesn't like Samantha Manson.

Mother had met Mr. and Mrs. Manson at that same party that Daniel kind of ruined (Father's words, not his, Tim thinks that elephant trunks were an improvement), and, upon finding out that they have a daughter Tim's age, decided they should be friends. Which is how Tim found himself sitting in an offensively pink room on an uncomfortably soft pink couch that is threatening to swallow him whole, right across a girl in a pink dress and with a pink bow in her hair. Granted, they are all different shades of pink, but Tim still feels very out of place in his black pants and pale blue shirt with a tight collar.

However, the most unsettling part about all this is that Samantha hadn't said a single word in about ten minutes - so, since they were left alone in this horror of a room by their respective mothers - and Tim is fairly certain she hadn't blinked once, and she is glaring something awful at Tim. For all that he knows, she is probably coming up with a detailed plan of burying his dead body in the garden.

Tim honestly tried to start a conversation. Twice. The girl looked like she didn't even notice, so Tim just kind of resigned to his fate and decided to simply wait until this was over.

He really regrets not bringing a book with him.

Another few minutes pass in silence, interrupted only by some cheerful chirping of birds outside. And then, right as Tim starts to actually consider flopping down on the soft pillows behind him and falling asleep, he hears a knock.

Samantha turns her head to the window so quickly that Tim is afraid her neck will snap. But, as he follows her example and looks outside, he can't help but blink in surprise.

Daniel Fenton, wearing some kind of red jacket with a hood - definitely muggle by the looks of it - is hovering just outside the window. On a broom. They are seven, they are not supposed to have brooms yet! Or, at least, not the ones that can go all the way up to the window on the second floor!

"Bloody finally," Samantha rolls her eyes and jumps off her seat, nearly running towards the window, "What took you so long?" She demands an answer in a snappish tone that allows no excuses.

Daniel grins and shrugs, "Jazz almost caught me sneaking out," he explains, but his gaze is not on Samantha. Instead, he is looking over her shoulder, right at Tim, before asking, "Who's that?"

The girl turns around and scowls, "A boy that my Mum wants me to marry."

Tim sputters, feeling his cheeks heat up, but not out of embarrassment; it's mostly just frustration. She most definitely does not, they are seven, and their mothers can't be making plans like that!

Can they?..

Daniel laughs, bringing the broom closer to the window and setting one foot on the widowsill for balance.

"I would have invited you with us, but I only have one broom," he tells Tim, still smiling. Tim bites his lip.

He wants to go with them so badly. They look like whatever they are about to do is going to be way more interesting than Tim's whole life. But Mother will probably be upset, and-

"Don't bother, he is boring," Samantha huffs dismissively as she pulls the skirt of her dress up and climbs out the window, carefully holding on to Daniel's shoulder as she gets on the broom behind him.

For some reason, that makes Tim angry.

He sticks his chin up higher, straightening up in his seat and frowning. "I don't see how your inevitable fall from a broom is interesting anyway," he drawls, far more mean and uncaring than he wanted to.

"See? Boring," Samantha smirks, but Daniel just looks a bit confused and thrown off.

"I'm not gonna fall," he tells Tim with a certainty that makes Tim kind of want to apologize. But the girl behind him is still smiling like she won something, and Tim is not about to back down now.

"Live with that illusion all you want," he huffs and turns away, still keeping his back straight.

"Come on, Danny, let's go," Samantha urges her friend impatiently, and Tim is decidedly not looking in that direction. He doesn't want either of them to see him pouting. Also, maybe he just doesn't want to see them fly away.

But he still hears a quiet "Bye," from the window before the room goes back to silence, interrupted only by the chirping birds and rustling leaves.

When, mere moments later, Tim looks back to the window, both of them are gone without a trace.

—☆—☆—☆—

Visuals!

The offensively pink room and the way to escape:

Tim's opinion on Sam:

[Picrew]

—☆—☆—☆—

More notes on the people and the world around:

Mansons are, actually, filthy rich. They are a wizarding family, but they are way less concerned about blood purity than people expect them to be. A part of their business involves muggle products, and while they don't advertise it, they don't try to hide it either. Jeremy never attended Hogwarts, he was a Beuxbatons student, and Pamela was a Slytherin. Both of them don't exactly like Danny for separate reasons, but Pam likes to keep Vlad as a friend, and if that means letting Sam be friends with his godson, then so be it. She still tries to keep their contact to a minimum, but it's not like Danny - or Sam, for that matter - cares.

Janet and Pamela did not, in fact, plan to marry their kids; they just liked each other enough to have tea together and decided to combine it with throwing their children at each other. Although Pam does consider Tim a fitting pair for her daughter. Janet is of a different opinion.

The broom Danny took actually belongs to Jack - or, it belonged to him a few years ago, up until Danny realized the kiddie broom is not fun anymore. Jazz is constantly scared he is going to fall and break his neck, but Maddie thinks her son is good enough of a flyer. Besides, even if they did take the broom from Danny, he would just find a different thing to break his neck with, so Maddie just put a bunch of disillusionment charms on the poor broom so Danny won't be noticed by muggles and called it a day.

This is very much not the first time Danny comes to save Sam like she's a maiden in a tower. Also, Sam is not mean out of nowhere, she just likes Danny and hates sharing, and she is seven.

[<- part 1 | part 3 ->]

[rightwheretheyleftme]

I’m watching Korra book 2 and I have so many emotions about Aang’s neglect of his kids

After watching ATLA earlier this year, I started following a bunch of fan accounts and saw the same discourse regurgitated over and over again; One of the main points of discourse is whether Aang was bad father.

The discussions that I saw would always play out the same way. Aang’s detractors would say: “Aang didn’t take 2/3 of his kids on vacations. That’s neglect” and Aang’s defenders would reply “Aang is not a bad father! The places that he took Tenzin to were built for airbenders so Kya and Bumi wouldn’t have anything to do there!” And you know what? When I was reading those arguments, I thought that both sides had valid points and that this was a complex discussion.

Oh boy.

Now that I’m watching the episode, I realized that the people in this fandom are lying through their teeth. Aang only taking 1 out of his 3 kids on vacations is true, but the claim that that happened because Aang only visited places made for airbenders is completely false. Let’s recap the places that Aang and Tenzin went to:

- Kyoshi Island; to ride the elephant koi

- Ember Island; to build sandcastles on the beach

Now explain to me, why on earth does the majority of the fandom say that Aang went to airbender-only places? Kyoshi and Ember islands have 0 historical significance to the airbenders. These are just fun vacation spots, we know this because we saw the Gaang vacation at these places multiple times.

Moreover, according to Bumi, Aang was busy due to his job as the Avatar but he made time for Tenzin, only Tenzin. Kya agrees with this.

I’m so disgusted by this information. There is no way that a grown man in his 40s wouldn’t realize that taking only 1 of your kids on fun vacations and leaving the others behind is hurtful, the only possible conclusion that you can reach here is that Aang was intentionally trying to hurt his kids’ feelings.

And that breaks my heart.

This is not the Aang that I know and love. Aang is a fun, caring, accepting, and loving person. The behavior that I’ve described above is not only emotional neglect, it borders on abuse.

At first, I thought that maybe this storyline was meant to deconstrue the “The hero can do no wrong” cliché. Except that it ends with Kya and Bumi looking at a family picture and reminiscing about how happy they were. So no, there is no deconstruction; Aang is portrayed as a flawed but otherwise good father. Apparently, not loving 2/3 of your children enough to want to spend leisure time with them is a common flaw and not parental neglect, according to TLOK.

I feel so betrayed not only by the writers and the story that I love, but also by the fandom who silences victims of parental abuse when they are rightfully pissed off by Aang’s actions. I never wanted for Aang to be a neglectful father, but he is. Harassing people who are mad about his actions and calling them bitter Zutaras is a disgusting way to try to silence conversations about parental abuse.

Side note: Where tf was Katara while this was happening? Did she not take offense that her husband was neglecting 2/3 of her kids? Why didn’t Aang respect Katara enough to not play favorites with the kids she gave him?

[lizardsfromspace]

One aspect of TikTok that's faded, but which was the major driver of panic about it for most of its life, was the TikTok Challenge: the moral panic about dangerous or offensive trends on TikTok that were taking over.

And I do mean moral panic because even basic research turns up that the majority of TikTok Challenge stories were unfounded, or exaggerated.

Many of them straight-up didn't happen. There are trends that never had a challenge attached at all, like Momo, but others were never a thing on TikTok at all. The stories have a similar form to them. For instance, there was once the "shoot up your school challenge" that sparked a huge series of warnings and cries to repeal Section 230 and ban this sick filth...and then, at the very end of those stories, an acknowledgement that there was no source video - that no one had found evidence it existed on TikTok at all.

Let's define a "challenge", because any bad thing that happens on TikTok was branded a "challenge". But in my view, it has to contain, well, a challenge: some element of showing yourself doing it, and then daring others to do it, too. As we'll see, it's actually pretty difficult to find evidence many challenges ever existed

One of the more well-documented is the alleged Benadryl challenge. In mid-2020, a trio of teens overdosed on Benadryl and claimed they got the idea from a TikTok claiming you can get high off taking it. They were treated at the hospital, and TikTok deleted the video in question and blocked the relevant hashtags. But then a couple months later stories about Benadryl overdose deaths started attributing it to the "Benadryl challenge". But...all they were doing was citing the original story as proof the challenge existed. A story that doesn't include a challenge, and where the TikTok video referenced had been deleted and the topic blocked. When a reporter actually investigated, they found no evidence of any challenge videos, and found that, just as TikTok had said, the search itself was blocked. In other words, and this is a trend you see a lot in coverage, the existence of a panic about something on TikTok meant everything sprang from TikTok: because of that story, any teen overdosing on Benadryl *had* to have gotten the idea from a TikTok challenge - TikTok had to be grafted on to every relevant story regardless of relevance, and each new story including it became more evidence it was all down to TikTok. Because teens would never do something irresponsible without an app...would they?

So let's talk about the elephant in the room. Tide pods. The Tide pod challenge was a thing, but it was not a thing to the extent that the media made it into a thing. So how many teens ate Tide pods?

86. Non-stop global media coverage for months over 86 teens doing a stupid stunt. While over 10,000 kids were accidentally exposed to laundry detergent in the year before with hardly any coverage. Discussions over, hey, maybe memes aside it's bad for children to have this dangerous thing look so colorful essentially stopped completely thanks to this panic, during which time stories about children unknowingly eating Tide pods were folded into the panic and attributed to the Tide Pod Challenge. Discussion of actual product safety, discussion of how to prevent harm to over TEN THOUSAND people, had to give way to a moral panic about 86

86 sounds bad, but is a really small number in the scheme of things - and absolutely disproportionate to the media coverage, which lasted for months and endlessly blasted all young people for eating Tide Pods.

There are others. For instance, after Kia failed to include an anti-theft device in their cars, thefts of Kia cars skyrocketed, and some young joyriders posted videos of this on TikTok and other platforms - and posted guides on how to do it yourself. These videos were removed, but somehow "someone posted a guide to steal an easy-to-steal car online" turned into "there's a challenge on TikTok daring you to steal cars" which then turned into attributing all thefts of the car without anti-theft tech in it to TikTok. But in this case, there is a source video, an original video that made stealing Kias look cool.

It was posted on Youtube.

"Slap a Teacher" went viral, and was a complete hoax, as was NyQuil Chicken. Many of the videos in the "Devious Licks" challenge were, as well, hoaxes. These stories go viral enough to spark a well-meaning FDA warning saying hey, don't do this, which is taken as evidence that people were doing it. But in just about every case, it's relatively few people, or the challenge didn't exist. The stories have a familiar form: description of death or incident, statement from concerned parents, interviews with cops and maybe a child psychologist, and then a denial from TikTok. What these stories rarely, if ever, include is any citations of where on TikTok the challenge began, or any independent research into them. Notably, even stories admitting it's a hoax often go on to talk about how we need to control it anyway. When TikTok said a video didn't exist on their platform, it's natural to suspect the social media corporation of lying, but oddly they appear to have been telling the truth most of the time, and were rightly saying content didn't exist or only made up a few videos stopped early on.

(I'm mainly talking about America, but this happened internationally, too. There was, as I understand it, a major panic about the "Charlie Charlie" challenge in Latin America - indeed, it was the panic that brought it to the Anglosphere - but it was, you know. Literally just Ouija boards/Bloody Mary. Meanwhile, the "Blue Whale" challenge started in Russia, off a reporter essentially imagining a game because two teens who died by suicide had images of blue whales on their computers, but there's no evidence of any challenge - but the press, normally reluctant to report on suicides, rushed to give breathless coverage to teen suicides - which, after all, only happen due to the Blue Whale game - likely causing copycats of a game that never existed. Most ridiculously, when a video of a creepy statue of Michael Jackson went viral, Mexican police warned parents about the "Ayuwoki Challenge". Which was...looking at a creepy statue of Michael Jackson online)

But let's address the real elephant in the room. Of the TikTok challenges that really took place to some degree, what are they? Devious Licks was about vandalizing school property. The Tide Pod challenge and its ilk were about eating something stupid. The Milk Crate challenge and its like were about doing dangerous stunts.

And I experienced TikTok challenges like this when I was in high school. I remember this group of kids who egged one of their number on to punch glass, which shredded their hand; I remember people being dared to snort pixie stix dust off the table; I remember people stealing the soap dispensers from the bathroom and the mouse balls out of the mice, because oh wait, it wasn't TikTok challenges, all that happened when I was in 9th grade in 2004

The TikTok challenges that are *real* are just...routine teen misbehavior? Being attributed to an app ruining the kid's minds. Teenagers have been peer pressuring each other into doing stupid things since time immemorial; it didn't start because of phones.

The people who spread these panics did or saw equally dumb things when they were that age. Now that they're older, and parents themselves, it's scary and dangerous. How do you reconcile that? You don't - what you did as a kid was an innocent prank, the same acts happening now are scary and Never Happened When I Was A Kid. So there must be some explanation. In the 80s it was metal music, in the 90s & 00s it was video games, and in the 2020s it was TikTok Challenges. There always has to be some media corrupting the youth into doing what the youth have always done, because "you grew up and became more mature and aware of your own mortality" is not an option you want to dwell on. Meanwhile, actual harmful trends go unnoticed; most of the people who spent a year dunking on teens bc 86 people ate Tide Pods have no idea about how many teen boys have become, essentially, cultists for figures like Andrew Tate or how hard they're being recruited; coverage was lavished on challenges that never existed, but not on true crime obsessives starting a hate campaign claiming a trans woman on TikTok was a serial killer

There are two other factors here. One is a drive to not take the issues facing young people seriously. This has been a long-term function for moral panics - since it's easier to say kids don't face any real problems, they're just being corrupted by outsiders, and we just need to ban video games or "Satanic" music or Slenderman or TikTok challenges to 'fix' it. You had real problems as a teen; but these kids today, they're just whiners. If teens no longer overdose or act out or harm themselves for any reason but Being Told To Online, then there's no need to look any deeper at society

The other is that the defining moral panic since 2020 has been the idea that young people are a barely-literate fascistic mob of unruly hooligans who are acting out More Than Ever, a moral panic that's being used to push legislation that harshly cracks down on the rights of young people and their access to society and their ability to be independent from their parents. But I heard some anecdotes that kids are, like, totally mean now when they never were before so it's probably true, and we should make them their parent's property to stop it

[starcurtain]

What do you think Aventurine would be like as a boss?

Aventurine's first character story tells us that people both outside the IPC and internal to the Strategic Investment Department are explicitly racist toward him, so I would say first that I suspect Aventurine's team is much, much smaller than other Stonehearts like Topaz. For example, we constantly see Topaz's dumb "support squad" following her around in most of the events she shows up in, while we've never been introduced to a single "Aventurine support squad" member.

My suspicion is that, between the rampant racism and the undoubtedly common rumors about Aventurine's dangerous behavior, very few people are even willing to be put on his team in the first place. I suspect he's much more likely to be paired up with one or two "strategic partners" (like Ratio) and sent to handle things that way, rather than actually having a large group of underlings he directly supervises.

But just logistically speaking I'm sure he does have a few underlings, and I think... He's probably a very difficult person to work for, for a couple reasons:

He will almost certainly beat assholes to the punch. If a majority of the people who have been assigned to work with him don't want to be there, you can bet he's not going to wait around for new people to prove they are racist garbage. I imagine that, for the most part, he's off-putting and offensive to new people from the get-go. You ask which desk is yours and he just goes "Oh, feel free to set your things anywhere!" then turns around like: "Wowwww. Jim, this rookie is trying to steal the desk you've had for ten years! How inconsiderate our new friend is proving to be~!" New people on his team probably have the worst few weeks of their lives. (Because... If people are going to hate him on principle alone, he might as well give them a reason, right?) However, this has the effect of weeding out most of the people who are incapable of dealing with Aventurine's antics, so I imagine that the few who persevere through the hazing are probably genuinely decent folks. Those that make it past the initial "Let's see how much you hate Sigonians and disrespect me personally" vibe check probably end up on Aventurine's good side, and I think he eventually eases off his newbies after a while. (Not before they've proven their exceedingly high tolerance for shenanigans and even higher ceiling for shock factor, though. If a new employee makes it past the first month of working for Aventurine, literally nothing else will ever phase them. An elephant-sized Warp Trotter could warp them all six galaxies over and they'd just be like "Anyone got a working cell? I need to tell my babysitter I won't be back by 9.")

I think he's just never there. Absentee boss in the extreme. It's not that he ever slacks or doesn't do the work--it's just that he's constantly going off and doing the missions all on his own. It doesn't matter how many times the higher-ups assign him to do a team task, tell him he has to take the full squad... He just scampers off and does the deal entirely on his own, comes back covered in blood, and is like "Hey guys, I took care of the problem; enjoy some comp time on me!" I don't think he drags his average-level underlings into his dangerous gambles; I think he just does all the work with their clients by himself or with a high-caliber partner. You would think this would make him a great boss to work for, but I implore to put yourself in such an employee's shoes: You go into the office every morning only to see your to-do list is empty. Your boss isn't there to give you any new direction. After twiddling your thumbs for four hours, you find out the reason he isn't in the office this morning is that he's recovering from betting he could take an entire pack of Borisin in a fist fight. He's not in the hospital because of the fight (which he won). He's in the hospital because he was then promptly shot in the back by the guy he was betting with. Why is your life like this? Why must you be subjected to the soap opera of your boss's own self-destructive spiral?

Even when he's around, he's probably weirdly awkward. Don't get me wrong, I bet when he's in a good mood he throws all kinds of extravagant parties in the office, and his employees would never lack for bonuses and perks. But I think he has never really bothered to learn--or perhaps simply does not care--about normal managerial behaviors and boundaries. Like, you slip up and tell him your mother-in-law is in the hospital. He comes back five minutes later to tell you he's just bought six bouquets (sent from your address), commissioned a personally embossed card for her with your monogram, and contracted the services of the best-reviewed individualized medical team in Pier Point under your name. He's patting himself on the back for being an incredibly thoughtful boss. You don't know how to tell him that you haven't spoken to your mother-in-law in years, not since her last attempt to poison you. Every six months he buys the whole team new cars. You have no idea what to do with all these cars. It's too many cars. Put some cars back. He calls everyone his "friend," but even after working for him for years, you still have absolutely no idea about his likes, dislikes, or hobbies outside of the IPC. You could not name his favorite food if someone put a gun to your head. Does he exist outside of the workplace? You literally can't imagine him anywhere but on a mission or at a poker table. He's constantly bringing an "I am the party!" vibe to the room, but everyone else is a bored 8-5 worker who doesn't have a drop of enthusiasm left in their veins. It's like when a singer asks the audience to cheer along with a song, but nobody in the audience makes a peep. Absolutely no one in the IPC cubicles can match his particular freak. Aventurine's a smooth-talker and a street-smart cookie for sure, but something about the way his smile looks like it's made out of plastic when anyone tries to engage him in chitchat at the water cooler gives you the vague impression that he's probably never had an actual friend in his life. If "uncanny valley" was a vibe a workplace could have, Aventurine's office would have it.

Long story longer, I think Aventurine has very few people willing to tolerate him as a boss, whether because they are racist or simply because his quirks are just too quirky. However, I like to imagine the few who have hung in there are ride or die. You know they have an "Aventurine Protection Squad" group chat. They probably all wear peacock-teal and gold accessories in solidarity. They have definitely disappeared people for talking shit on their boss before. Aventurine has no idea how much they actually like him.

[newnitz]

I don't really see people talking about how cultural Christianity is applied to Jews.

In Christianity, Jews are the people who rejected and betrayed Jesus and are punished with statelessness and destitution, whose only redemption is accepting the Messiah and the Son of God. This is the basis of several antisemitic tropes, most prominently deception, religious supercessionism and the Wandering Jew.

In cultural Christianity, these tropes are considered tenants of Judaism rather than Christianity, as Judaism is considered Christianity without Jesus.

Christians see themselves as tortured saints, persecuted for spreading the truth of Jesus and God across the globe. Missionaries who go to non-Christian lands to try and get the people to convert by fearmongering with damnation to Hell see themselves as victims when they're rebuffed and asked to stop.

Cultural Christian non-Christians are usually atheists and adherents of folk religion revivalist movements who have suffered religious abuse, as many sects of Christianity normalize emotional abuse by instilling inherent guilt in the Original Sin and even physical abuse in "Spare the rod; spoil the child". These cultural Christians see the millennia of antisemitism and roll their eyes, to them we're just another sect of delusional religious people with a persecution complex.

To become a Christian all you need to do is accept the Father Son and Holy Spirit, to affirm your beliefs and confess your sins. To become a Jew you are either born a Jew, or you learn the Jewish culture and religion for months on end and must live half a year under the strictest restrictions of the Jewish lifestyle to show commitment. That is the difference between a universal religion and an ethnoreligion.

In a Culturally Christian world there is no room for ethnoreligions, and they do not exist. All religions are about your faith and which God(s) you believe in. So in a Cultural Christian's eyes, a country of Jews is a country that holds one faith supreme above all others and conditions rights with conversion, as that's how Christian countries have historically been.

Christianity's common ground with Jews comes from the Roman Empire appropriating the religion from the Cult of Jesus, and making it more appealing to the masses by introducing Greco-Roman and Germanic folk religion aspects into it. Xmas is Yule but with Jesus, Easter is a fertility holiday but with Jesus and so on. In the eyes of the Cultural Christian, Christianity and Judaism are two once-antagonistic sects of the same religion, no different than Catholics and Protestants.

Cultural Christianity erases and appropriates Judaism and is as inherently hateful of Jews as religious Christianity.

Now, when it comes to the elephant in the room: Islam.

Islam, like Christianity, is a universal religion. You must believe in Allah and accept the prophets, which include both Jesus and Muhammad. It is no more inherently violent than Christianity, though it's no less. In the Christian's eyes, Islam is the competitor, the enemy. The Muslims conquered Christian lands and converted them, and they've fought holy wars against one another throughout the Middle Ages.

To become a Muslim the Cultural Christian doesn't need to unlearn any of the core tenets of their culture. They can simply apply it to Islam.

Which is why many Cultural Christians, damaged by Christianity, are sympathetic to Islam. And since Muslims and Jews are no longer on good terms, they use this sympathy to give themselves a free pass to be antisemitic. Whether Muslims check their converts for bigotry, allow it or are powerless to stop them, that's another issue.

Jews are not diet Christians. We have less in common with you than you have with Muslims. Unlearn Christian cultural appropriation.

And no, I don't care that it's "offensive" to associate you with Christianity due to the religious abuse you endured. You still see the world through a Christian lens.

[flower-boi16]

Helluva Boss Handles Abuse Horribbly

In Helluva Boss abusers are either one-dimensional or aren't even treated as abusers to begin with. Take Stella for example; Stella was made abusive towards Stolas as a way for the series to justify and remove accountability from Stolas in favor of making him look more sympathetic. Stella and Stolas' dynamic had the potiential to be fairly interesting but it was watered down into a clear-cut abuse story and nothing else.

Then in Seeing Stars, Loona starts assulting Blitz and starts acting aggressive towards him over him telling her to be a bit nicer to clients. She then, regularly, beats Blitz even when he is running towards her in tears and apologizes for threatening to replace her...and all of that is treated as a joke. Blitz didn't even though anything to deserve this, Loona was just acting like a massive dick to her father over the smallest of shit and she doesn't get called out for it. Helluva Boss is very, very inconistant when it comes to how to treats abuse depending on the character.

Then we get the worst offender Exes and Oohs, where the series decides to slap daddy issues onto Moxxie despite it adding nothing to him as a character so it could create artificial drama. Crimson is also a very shallow and one-dimensional character who serves a role that is completely pointless anyway, and the series doesn't even explore Moxxie's truama, removing it changes nothing about him as a character and it's just something that's tacked onto him that you can easily remove.

But that's not even the most offensive part of this; Moxxie decides to finally stand up to his father, the moment the episode was building towards. He tells his father to fuck off, he gets a full 3D turn and...he immediantly gets tazed and put in the damsel in the distress role. Moxxie stood up to his abuser...and the narrative decides to completely undercut that moment by having him get tazed for a bad joke. The series punished a child-abuse victim for standing up to his abuser.

And this is the show that people claim to care about male abuse victims. This moment becomes even more insulting once you remember that Stolas gets a scene where he stands up to Stella and HE gets to keep his moment, but Moxxie? Nah, he gets tazed.

Actual. Writting. Sewage. Oh, but we haven't even reached the worst part, the obvious elephant in the room, Stolitz. I've made millions of posts ranting about Stolitz just go read those for more detail but my problems with Stolitz should be obvious at this point. It's a relationship where one partner is clearly more abusive than the other yet the show (and the fandom) tries to claim that both parties are "equally in the wrong" even when they aren't, unironically both-siding a relationship that is based on coercive r@pe which the writers refuse to acknoweledge IS r@pe.

Helluva Boss doesn't read like it's interested in telling actual stories about abuse, rather it uses abuse as a way to artificially create drama, remove accountability from characters, or just refuses to unpack it at all.

[ltlemonpop]

MARTYN X THE CREAKING

This is an idea I have had kicking around in my head since like double life. The idea of Martyn being a life/nature/tree spirit has always appealed to me, but I never had an 100% idea of how this would manifest. Then two years later Minecraft came out with a creepy tree mob and inspiration struck me like a lightning bolt

Personally I think the creaking as martyns Mob (tm) is perfect because he is in the little wood. Like I can’t imagine anything more perfect for him than the creaking.

Alright time to get into the design…

The design

To address the elephant in the room, why martyns hair is long. Okay the real reason is just because I like drawing martyn with long hair, BUT THERE IS ALSO A LORE REASON!!!

So I think Martyn could transform back and forth from his normal form into the creaking form. But this requires growing the bark and branches directly out of his body, which he can do on command. But this process also makes his hair grow as well, which is really inconvenient for him. His hair can get incredibly long if he doesn’t pay attention when he’s transforming, so he either chops it all off, or ties his hair back out of his face with his headband.

The branches growing out of his back, the operate as Spider-Man’s instant kill mode appendages. Extra bladed limbs that can be used to move and attack. This are for pure offense and don’t serve much purpose outside of combat.

Honestly I could ramble about this for ages but I think this is enough for now. If anyone has any questions I would love to ramble about this.

@inthelittlewood (because I’m very proud of this concept and I think he might like the idea of him and the creaking)

And

@cherrifire (because you are the official martyn fanartist)

[glamourscat]

౨ৎ KISS? OIKAWA TOORU Pt 2

time skip! Oikawa | past insecurities | reader being a writer | high school exes to strangers to...? | PART 1 | PART 3 | PART 4

The silence between you is suffocating. For a moment, you wonder if he’s going to say anything more or if he’ll just stand up and walk out. Maybe he should. Maybe you should. But neither of you moves.

“You’re not going to say anything, huh?” he finally asks, his tone laced with that sharp-edged charm that you thought time might have dulled. It hasn’t.

You blink, your throat dry as you force out a reply. “What is there to say?”

too much. I am sorry. We shouldn't have broken up. But saying so now it's a bit pathetic, no? At our age, after so many years apart. And yet, at this very moment, I can't help but feel like the same little girl I was back then. I am sorry Tooru.

He leans back in his chair, arms crossed, and studies you. His eyes, still that warm, deep brown, narrow slightly.

“Maybe a hello would’ve been a start,” he says, and there’s a flicker of something behind his words. Bitterness? Amusement? You can’t tell.

“Hello, Oikawa,” you say, your lips curling up into a half-sarcastic grin.

His lips twitch in response, but he doesn’t smile. Not fully. “Hello back to you.”

· · ───── ·𖥸· ───── · ───── ·𖥸· ───── · ·

The waitress brings your orders and for a while the clinking of cups and the low music in the café fill the silence between you. You glance at him from time to time and he does the same, although in Oikawa true style, he will never admit to it.

“So,” he says finally, breaking the silence. “What brings you back to Japan? Thought you’d left for good.”

“I could say the same about you,” you reply.

He shrugs, his smile faint. “Fair enough. I am back for a competition. But you didn’t answer my question.”

You hesitate, your fingers tightening around your cup. “Work,” you say. “I’m a writer now. I travel a lot. I have a meet and greet" you shrug.

“A writer,” he repeats, his voice softer now. “Guess that makes sense. You were always scribbling in that little notebook of yours.” "Guess I will have to buy a copy then" he adds on with a small faint grin.

The chuckle that escapes your mouth is soft, as your eyes move to the window for a moment. "I suppose you shall. Maybe I will even sign it for you" you tease back.

· · ───── ·𖥸· ───── · ───── ·𖥸· ───── · ·

Eventually, the café starts to fill up, and the noise becomes too much. Conversation between you two starts to drown out, almost as if it was coming to an end. Dancing around the elephant in the room. Oikawa glances at the time, then back at you.

“Let’s go,” he says suddenly.

“Go where?” your voice filled with confusion.

He doesn’t answer, just stands and waits for you to follow. Against your better judgment, you do.

You walk through the city together, the silence between you stretching, snapping, then stretching again. It’s only when you realize where he’s leading you that your steps falter.

“The museum?” you ask, your voice barely above a whisper.

He glances at you over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “Yeah. The museum.”

You don’t know why you follow him inside, why you let yourself be pulled back into the past. But before you know it, you’re wandering through familiar halls, memories surfacing with every step.

“This is where you almost knocked over that sculpture,” he says, his tone lighter again now, almost teasing.

“You pushed me,” you shoot back, but there’s a faint smile on your lips.

“And this,” he says, gesturing toward a statue of two figures embracing, “is where we tried to recreate that pose. You got embarrassed and ran off when people started staring.”

You roll your eyes, but you can’t suppress the laugh that bursts out. “I forgot how dramatic you are.”

“Dramatic?” he repeats, faking offense. “I’m passionate, thank you very much.”

For a moment, it feels like you’ve slipped back in time, like nothing has changed. But then you reach the last room and the room feels like it's engulfing you from the inside out. The main painting of the room is illuminated by small shining lights, making it more captivating. The Kiss, by Klimt. 

You remember the way you both stood here, years ago for your first date, awkward and unsure. The way he leaned in, his lips brushing against yours for the first time.

"Shall we recreate this painting too, no? We recreated all of them, it's fair we do the same with this one"

The way your heart raced, the way your lips moved together in an awkward mess but it was so sweet. 

Now, at twenty-seven, you stand side by side, the memories of the past pressing down on you two.

“Oh...” he murmurs, his voice barely audible.

You turn to him, your gaze meeting his. And for a moment, everything else fades away.

pt3 soon

© GLAMOURSCAT (all rights reserved. do not share, modify, translate and re-upload my work outside of tumblr)

tags: @liquidcatt @justanotherweeb666

[sealsdaily]

what are the different kinds of seals im curious

There are many different ways to categorize seals/pinnipeds, but we'll be focusing on the most integral to Seal Gameplay.

There are three families in your cast of playable characters: earless or "true" seals, eared seals, and walrus. These are then further split up in subfamilies, tribes, and genera. I'll sum up a brief overview of each subfamily's character class and the species within.

Phocinae: DEFENSIVE SUPPORT

These are the most common earlygame party members, and their support for the DPS can make or break a playthrough. You start the game with a Harbor seal along with your first party member, it needs no introduction. Some of these also splinter off into healing as well, but the Baikal seal also has an offensive supporter edge to it as its massive Perception stat lets it easily expose enemies' weak points and lower defenses. The Ringed and Ribbon seals are also very popular picks, they're simple but very effective at raising stats (ringed raises speed, ribbon attack)

Monachinae: DPS / ATTACKER

The bread and butter of any pinniped party. There's not much i can say about DPS seals, they do big damage! The most popular of these, of course, is the Leopard seal: It's a late-game add, but very worthwhile as it has the highest base attack stat, with good HP. Elephant seals are also a popular pick and synergize well with many fur seal species. Monk seals also have some support qualities, but it seems they're not used that often.

Otariinae: HEALING

Sea lions tend to range on a spectrum of focuses on either all-in-one healing or over-time healing. It's not as picked, but i often use an Australian sea lion in my party compositions for the over time healing, since it works really well with Spotted seals' shielding and DEF mechanics (walruses as well). Overall though, a Steller sea lion can work with mostly any party due to its simplicity.

Arctocephalinae: OFFENSIVE SUPPORT

You wouldn't believe just how much offensive status effects a fur seal can have up its theoretical sleeve. There are many subcategories under this character class such as focus on STUNs, enemy vulnerabilities, DMG over time, etc. Guadalupe fur seals especially are a hot topic: a lot of newbies tend to get intimidated by their risky and RNG-reliant strategies, but the more i've used them the more i can say they can absolutely be worth the risk.

Walruses: TANKING

Walruses are the only species in the Odobenidae family, so if you want a reliable tank there's just one pick. For what it's worth i don't really use tanks but i can definitely see the appeal in their shielding and DEF stats. They're also the only species that can redirect damage from an ally onto them.

Hope this helps!

[madwomansapologist]

YOU LOVE BLOOD TOO MUCH (BUT NOT LIKE I DO)

★彡 synopsis: awakened in a new era, sukuna found endless opportunities to hurt and maim others. he also found you, a sorcerer with an ever-expading soul bonded to oaths of pacifism and self-control. allured by the strength you decided to hide, sukuna realized this era could be far more fascinating.

chapter four: three is a magic number or the one with unsupervised kids with knifes.

warnings: insane sorcerers + assistants, kento nanami is exhausted, offensive driving.

kill count: [-1]

Dirt and rocks gave place to concrete underneath the car. Muscle memory made you lower the window with your eyes still closed, a warm breeze almost lulling you back into an accidental nap. A peaceful moment after a dreadful mission.

Your eyes fluttered open as hair whipped your face. Taking in your surroundings, you saw blue and smelled red. A cloudless sky engulfed you, your lungs doing the same to the scent of iron. It all feels the same. Tired assistant’s faces and black cars started to blend together in hazy memories after years of being carried around the country. They all stink of blood; they all drive you back home.

Except for him, of course. His black car was dented, passenger’s door creating angles within itself. The blood is there, how could it not be, but losing shamefully a battle with his cologne. He smells like sage, apple and… something silken. Delicate yet impossible to ignore. Maybe nutmeg.

“Don’t put your face out of the car like that”, Haibara chuckled, words as empty as his growling stomach. Definitely nutmeg. “I won’t be responsible for an accident.”

You rolled your eyes, ignoring his advice. Admiring the ashen buildings getting closer and closer, you only moved when something hot brushed against your thigh. Taking the plastic cup from his hands, you beamed.

“Another accident”, Kento took a sip of his coffee.

Holding the cup closer, you breathed in the chamomile tea. You looked at Haibara through the inside rear-view mirror. He was already staring at you. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. When did you get those?”

“Some minutes ago”, Haibara chuckled again. It made you frown. “You really want me to drop you at Harajuku? You’re very tired, senpai. Didn’t even flinched when I almost crashed the car.”

Kento not sighing was what convinced you that they were acting weird. Narrowing your eyes, Haibara’s stiff arms suddenly became so obvious. Kento was still wearing those sunglasses you begged him not to buy. And they both weren’t looking into your eyes.

Nothing was wrong, but something definitely was wrong.

“I want to welcome the new student”, you answered slowly. Have you done something? You don’t think you did. Or maybe you don’t remember. Is that the problem? “It won’t take long.”

“You need to stop doing Satoru’s work”, Kento murmured. Another sip, and finally he sighed. “Don’t let him grow used to it.”

You took a deep breath, doing your best not to play devil’s advocate and ruin Kento’s mood even more. There was a touch of resentment on his words. There always is when he talks about Satoru. The best you can do is ignore.

“Don’t complain about him”, Haibara yelled. You closed your eyes, once more surprised about how bad Haibara is a reading others. “Satoru works hard too.”

“What is happening?” It was best to address the elephant in the room than to let the conversation go on as it is now. Kento holds so much tension on his shoulders you fear one day he will simply explode. You’d hate for him to die now. “Something is happening. Why don’t you two just tell me already?”

The car braked so abruptly you almost hit your face on the driver’s seat.

The silence that came after it was so loud your mind wandered to the worst possibilities you could imagine. Dead friends, schools exploding, unsupervised kids with knives. Although there is no way you’re responsible for that. You excluded the last option.

Sitting on the floor in front of a cursed building, Satoru sneezed. Megumi said nothing, still sulking for doing nothing while the other two fought curses. As if sending him with a knife was a good idea, Megumi thought. I could do more.

Haibara hit his head on the car as he tried to sit between you two. His legs on top of yours, back supported by Kento’s arm. Kento fixed his sunglasses. “You weren’t wearing a seat belt, were you?”

Looking into your eyes, Haibara hesitated. “Are you scared?”

“Haibara, don’t you…”

“You also want to know, Kenchan.” Haibara wide eyes kept staring at you, but all you could see was the ghost of a smile on Kento’s face. “Are you scared of him?”

Oh. You snorted. That makes more sense. “I am.”

“Was he as strong as the tales?”

“It was a forgettable fight”, you lied. You will never forget how it feels to be truly hollow. “What scares me is that it won’t be the last.”

Kento took off his sunglasses. His eyes were so small. You wonder if he slept lately. “You think the boy might lose control of the body?”

 “I don’t know why, but Yuji is… a perfect vessel. I don’t think he even can lose control. But what I know is that we would be really lucky if nothing wrong happened”, you smiled. “And there is only one thing more surprising then Ryomen Sukuna.”

Haibara tilted his head. “What?”

“A lucky sorcerer.”

After one last look at you, Haibara moved back to the front seat. As he speeds up, the look you and Kento shared was so easy to understand. Where is Ijichi-kun when we need him?

The moment the car was finally parked, you thanked every god you knew and swore to never let Haibara drive you anywhere again—a promise you made countless times since you convinced him to stop being a sorcerer. You tried opening the door, but it was locked. “Haibara”

“Do you think Satoru would win?” Haibara asked. His hands were still glued to the steering wheel. “Do you think you would?”

You hesitated. Holding his shoulder, you smirked. “I think I can survive him.”

“That’s enough”, Kento nodded, ignoring your mockery tone. “It’ll be.”

“Thank you, Haibara.” Opening the door, you turned to face Kento and grinned. “Bye, Kenchan.”

all rights reserved to © madwomansapologist

TAGLIST: @snowsilver2000

[thecreaturecodex]

Yule Cat

Image © PBS, by Samuel Allen. Accessed at his ArtStation here

[Part 3 of this year's Christmas series, following the Yule Lads and Grýla. I love this image; it's good at stressing that this is a giant domestic cat, not a "big cat" like a pantherine, indicates scale delightfully, and is a very recognizable feline behavior. Although in context, much more sinister. Bad kitty!]

Yule Cat CR 13 NE Magical Beast This creature resembles nothing so much as a fluffy domestic cat the size of an elephant. Its fur is gray with white mottling, and its eyes are wide and yellow.

Once upon a time, on a distant planet, a god of strength was challenged to perform seemingly simple tasks by a trickster titan. These tasks were all impossible but disguised with illusions, and one of them was to lift the giant’s cat—in actually, the Midgard Serpent, a primordial beast that encircles that globe. When the god tried to lift the serpent, and managed to get one paw off the ground, a kitten was born that was a metaphysical echo of the immovable cat. That kitten kept growing and growing the more she ate, until she was the size of a wagon. This is the Yule Cat.

The Yule Cat is a predator of small game, like any domestic cat, only due to the Yule Cat’s size, “small game” is Medium and Small humanoids. The Yule Cat prefers the taste of succulent young flesh, but hates the taste of newly made clothing. Thus, she preferentially attacks the impoverished and already suffering. In places where the Yule Cat roams, children are given gifts of clothing in the winter in order to make them less palatable to the great cat. The Yule Cat cannot be moved unless she wants to, and can be an impassible obstacle if she decides to set herself in front of a door or bridge and just wait for prey to pass by

The Yule Cat is “owned” by the fey troll Grýla, but like all cats, is as much an associate as a dependent. The Yule Cat stays in Grýla's cave for most of the warmer months and goes off hunting in the colder ones, but always manages to be by Grýla’s table in the winter to demand a portion of her finest human stews. Of Grýla’s children, the Yule Lads, she likes Stumpy the best, and will occasionally let him ride her. Rumor has it that the Yule Lads, Grýla and the Yule Cat once all lived on a distant world called Earth, but a ritual spell intended to force that darn cat to get up and move had the unforeseen consequence of sucking the whole monstrous clan through a portal and depositing them on Golarion. That said, the actions of gods and monsters can send distant ripples throughout the cosmos, and reports of “jotunn cats” may indicate that the Yule Cat is merely the most prominent member of a whole species.

Yule Cat CR 13 XP 25,600 NE Huge magical beast Init +10; Senses clothing sense,darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +12, scent

Defense AC 28, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (-2 size, +6 Dex, +15 natural) hp 175 (14d10+98) Fort +16, Ref +15, Will +9 DR 15/magic; Resist cold 20, fire 20; SR 24 Defensive Abilities immovable

Offense Speed 50 ft. Melee bite +21 (2d6+9 plus grab), 2 claws +21 (1d8+9) Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks pounce, rake (2 claws +21, 1d8+9), swallow whole (Medium or smaller, 2d6+13 bludgeoning, AC 17, 17 hp)

Statistics Str 27, Dex 23, Con 24, Int 8, Wis 17, Cha 12 Base Atk +14; CMB +24 (+28 grapple); CMD 40 (60 vs. bull rush, overrun, reposition, 68 vs. trip) Feats Acrobatic Steps, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception) Skills Acrobatics +16 (+24 when jumping), Climb +17, Perception +12 (+8 if target is in new clothes, +16 if target is in old clothes), Stealth +12, Survival +6 (+2 if target is in new clothes, +10 if target is in old clothes); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Climb, +8 Stealth, +4 Perception and Survival if target is in old clothes, -4 Perception and Survival if target is in new clothes Languages Giant (cannot speak)

Ecology Environment cold mountains and forest Organization unique Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Clothing Sense (Su) The Yule Cat gains a +4 racial bonus on Perception and Survival checks to detect or track a target wearing clothing six months old or older, and can detect and pinpoint these creatures at twice the normal distance with scent. The Yule Cat also suffers a -4 racial penalty on Perception and Survival checks to detect or track a target wearing clothing a month old or newer, can only detect these creatures with scent at half the normal distance, and cannot pinpoint such targets by scent. Immovable (Su) The Yule Cat can become nearly impossible to move as an immediate action. When it does so, it freezes in place, even in midair, until it decides to move again. When frozen in this way, it can still attack, but cannot move from its square unless it chooses to render itself mobile as another immediate action. The Yule Cat gains a +20 racial bonus to CMD against bull rush, overrun, reposition and trip combat maneuvers (this bonus does not require an action to activate or deactivate).