#not even mentioning that some of them r kids who still live with their parents

[br1ghtestlight]

in the future i could see the ones in relationships moving in together or starting a family like jayden/rainbow/blue or sunshine/two buying a house or something. but in general i dont think they would ever choose or want to live together. a little bit of personal space is nice plus they dont all want to leave their home countries to live with random strangers. Theyre gonna see each other anyway they dont NEED to be living together like that. however an object oc hype house is fun to imagine

[sunny-day-jack-official]

URGENT! Stop KOSA!

Hey all, this is BáiYù and Sauce here with something that isn't necessarily SnaccPop related, but it's important nonetheless. For those of you who follow US politics, The Kids Online Safety Act passed the Senate yesterday and is moving forward.

This is bad news for everyone on the internet, even outside of the USA.

What is KOSA?

While it's officially known as "The Kids Online Safety Act," KOSA is an internet censorship masquerading as another "protect the children" bill, much in the same way SESTA/FOSTA claimed that it would stop illegal sex trafficking but instead hurt sex workers and their safety. KOSA was originally introduced by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. and Bill Cassidy, R-La. as a way to update the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Act, raising the age of consent for data collection to 16 among other things. You can read the original press release of KOSA here, while you can read the full updated text of the bill on the official USA Congress website.

You can read the following articles about KOSA here:

EFF: The Kids Online Safety Act is Still A Huge Danger to Our Rights Online

CyberScoop: Children’s online safety bills clear Senate hurdle despite strong civil liberties pushback

TeenVogue: The Kids Online Safety Act Would Harm LGBTQ+ Youth, Restrict Access to Information and Community

The quick TL;DR:

KOSA authorizes an individual state attorneys general to decide what might harm minors

Websites will likely preemptively remove and ban content to avoid upsetting state attorneys generals (this will likely be topics such as abortion, queerness, feminism, sexual content, and others)

In order for a platform to know which users are minors, they'll require a more invasive age and personal data verification method

Parents will be granted more surveillance tools to see what their children are doing on the web

KOSA is supported by Christofascists and those seeking to harm the LGBTQ+ community

If a website holding personally identifying information and government documents is hacked, that's a major cybersecurity breach waiting to happen

What Does This Mean?

You don't have to look far to see or hear about the violence being done to the neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ communities worldwide, who are oftentimes one and the same. Social media sites censoring discussion of these topics would stand to do even further harm to folks who lack access to local resources to understand themselves and the hardships they face; in addition, the fact that websites would likely store personally identifying information and government documents means the death of any notion of privacy.

Sex workers and those living in certain countries already are at risk of losing their ways of life, living in a reality where their online activities are closely surveilled; if KOSA officially becomes law, this will become a reality for many more people and endanger those at the fringes of society even worse than it already is.

Why This Matters Outside of The USA

I previously mentioned SESTA/FOSTA, which passed and became US law in 2018. This bill enabled many of the anti-adult content attitudes that many popular websites are taking these days as well as the tightening of restrictions laid down by payment processors. Companies and sites hosted in the USA have to follow US laws even if they're accessible worldwide, meaning that folks overseas suffer as well.

What Can You Do?

If you're a US citizen, contact your Senators and tell them that you oppose KOSA. This can be as an email, letter, or phone call that you make to your state Senator.

For resources on how to do so, view the following links:

https://www.badinternetbills.com/#kosa

https://www.stopkosa.com/

https://linktr.ee/stopkosa

If you live outside of the US or cannot vote, the best thing you can do is sign the petition at the Stop KOSA website, alert your US friends about what's happening, and raise some noise.

Above all else, don’t panic. By staying informed by what’s going on, you can prepare for the legal battles ahead.

[seungkwansphd]

to boil a frog

pairing: seungcheol x reader wordcount: 15.6k summary: you & cheol go back, like way back. growing up together, you never felt anything more for him than a proximity based fondness, but things are a little different since you moved back to town. genre/themes: tattoo artist!coups, childhood acquaintances to lovers. brother’s best friend (but it’s not so much a theme as it is just a statement of fact). S L O W B U R N. idk that this is even fluff but more like just romance? mention of alcohol, tattoos, needles...cat?

a/n: truly idk what this is and why. it’s so long & self indulgent, but i’m in my soft era i guess, hah!

“Hi, I’m here for my tattoo with Seungcheol?” you checked in with the unfairly stylish receptionist at the front desk of the tattoo and piercing studio. “I booked for 3pm.”

“Okay, yes, here you are!” they smiled up at you, “If you want to just take a seat, I’ll see how he’s doing with prepping the room.”

“Perfect!” you smiled before moving towards the waiting area.

    Your foot bounced excitedly as you waited. In addition to being excited to get your first tattoo, you were doubly excited because you had history with Seungcheol. He’d been one of your brother’s closest friends growing up and despite not keeping in touch since they’d left for college, you’d really enjoyed following his artistic evolution on social media. You weren’t sure if he’d recognize you anymore, to be honest. It would be funnier if he didn’t.

“YN?” the receptionist returned, greeting you with a smile, “He’s ready if you’d like to follow me!”

“Sure!” you stood, “I love your dermals, by the way! The placement is so good,” you gushed as you followed them through a short hallway.

“Ah, thank you so much! They’re probably the piercing I worry about ripping out the most, but I do love them,” they chuckled before gesturing to an open door. “He’ll be right through here.”

“Awesome, thank you so much!” you grinned before stepping through.

“Hey,” Seungcheol greeted you after hearing your footsteps. His back was still turned to you as he finished wiping down his countertop. “YN, right? You know what’s funny, one of my friends has a sister who shares your exact name. Like last name and everything,” he chuckled before turning to greet you.

“Huh that’s weird,” you mirrored his laugh, trying to hide your curiosity as his eyes finally met yours. His eyes scanned your face for a few moments before he rolled his eyes and let out a loud laugh.

“Oh I’m a fuckin’ idiot,” he laughed, “What the hell are you doing here?” he leaned back in his chair, looking at you with slight disbelief.

“Mm, here to get a tattoo,” you deadpanned.

“Yeah no shit, but why are you home? I thought you were living that big city life now,” Seungcheol rolled his eyes at you again. You had always been a sarcastic scamp as a kid and it didn’t surprise him that this was still true.

“Oh did he not tell you?” you asked, referring to your brother. “I’m moving back. Well closer at least. I got a different job offer out here.”

“Oh no, I hadn’t heard,” Seungcheol shook his head, “To be honest, Jihun and I don’t talk all that much anymore. Not since he moved, at least.”

“Ah,” you nodded, “That makes sense. Time zones and whatnot.”

“But that’s cool! New job and I bet your parents will be glad you’ll be closer.”

“Yeah,” you nodded, “They are verily psyched.”

“Well that’s dope! It’ll be good to have you around again,” Seungcheol laughed before shifting topics, “So this tattoo. Did you have something in mind? You’re my last appointment, so we can take some time drafting and working on things.”

“I was actually planning on just picking something from your available flash,” you confessed, “I’m a big fan of the latest set. But…,” you flashed him a cheesy grin, “If you’re offering, I’m not gonna turn down a custom design from you. And I expect a friends and family discount, of course.”

“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?” Seungcheol laughed heartily. You were making the same face you used to make at him in high school when you were in a bind and needed help.

“Not much,” you laughed, eyeing some of the designs up on the walls. “Honestly, I’m down for whatever,” you shrugged.

“How about this? Pick out a few of the flash designs that you like and we can weave something together. I think that’d be fun.”

“Deal,” you grinned, accepting the binder of flash sheets from him. Pursing your lips, you flipped through it in its entirety before going back to the beginning to point out the ones that had caught your eye.

    Seungcheol couldn’t help but approve of the way you reviewed the designs in full before pointing out your favorites. You seemed to gravitate towards botanical, insect, and occultish designs which made sense, given how many times you’d attempted to cast spells on him and Jihun as children. More than a few times at sleepovers, they had woken up to find that rocks, leaves, and twigs had been strategically placed around them while they’d been sleeping. He couldn’t help but chuckle fondly as he recalled a specific incident where you’d snuck up on him to pluck out one of his hairs. When pressed on the issue, you’d calmly explained that you needed it for a spell to make him go bald.

“Okay, those are all the ones I like best,” you nodded at him, waiting for feedback.

“Alright, let me work something up. You can chill in here,” Seungcheol took the binder back from you, flipping between the designs you’d marked with sticky tabs and moving to draft up something new.

“How long’s it gonna take?” you made a face at him, “Can I go look at the piercing portfolios instead?” you asked, not really appealed by the idea of just sitting and waiting.

“I mean sure,” he shrugged, “Ask Wren for them,” he pointed back towards the reception area, “I’ll come get you when I’m ready.”

“Yay!” you popped up excitedly, clapping your hands together as you walked back towards reception.

“Hey Wren, can I take a peek at the piercers’ portfolios? And also can I ask you where you get your hair done? I’m moving back here soon, but I haven’t lived here in a while and could use a stylist rec.”

“Oh of course!” Wren smiled brightly at you, “So do you know Cheol from when you lived here before?” they asked as they pulled out the piercing portfolios to hand to you.

“Yea, we grew up together,” you nodded, flipping the binders open, “I wouldn’t say we were friends? But he was close friends with my brother so he was at our house a lot.”

“That makes a lot more sense,” Wren nodded with understanding, “I was wondering why he was so chatty with you! Usually his room is way more quiet.”

“Oh yeah, we go way back. A lot of shenanigans,” you grinned as a few septums caught your eye.

“So where do you live now?” Wren inquired after giving you the Instagram handle of their current stylist.

“I’m actually in the process of moving back! I got a job in the next town over, but I was thinking I’d move back around here since there’s more to do? This is actually mostly an apartment hunting trip.”

“Oh my goodness, well let’s be friends when you move back! I’ve been trying to get Cheol to come out and do things more with me and my partner, but he’s kind of introverted so he doesn’t bite all that often.”

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to convince him either,” you laughed, “We’re not exactly close. But I would love to be friends! I don’t know too many people who live here anymore.”

“Okay, deal! Let’s exchange phone numbers then. It’ll be good to hang out with someone less grumpy than Seungcheol,” Wren teased, eyes dancing at the man in question as he entered the reception area.

“So grumpy!” you giggled playfully at his expression, “I’m going to leave you a bad review for poor bedside manner,” you couldn’t help but tease him.

“You’d be grumpy too if you had two imps bothering you!” Seungcheol protested with a pout, before beckoning you with his hand, “Now come on, I’m done with my draft.”

“Okay,” you shrugged, following him back to his room.

“What do you think? It might be a little bigger than you had planned, but we can scale down if needed.”

“No, I love it!” you sighed, eyes sparkling as you looked at the design. The final draft was a staghorn beetle with a third eye on its thorax surrounded by a wreath of botanical work that included some of your favorite plants and flowers.

“I had a hard time deciding between a moth or the beetle,” Seungcheol mused, “But you were always a little…unique, so I went with the beetle.”

“Thanks, I think,” you narrowed your eyes at him, unsure if he was sassing you. “I’m a huge fan of this. I think you chose great. Now as far as placement, I am thinking thigh? Left thigh?”

“Do you wanna go this big?” Seungcheol asked. The tattoo artist in him thrilled the idea of the placement, but he wanted to make sure you weren’t overcommitting.

“I mean, I’ll be honest, that wasn’t what I had planned. But don’t you feel like…it deserves it?” you pulled up the leg of your shorts in the mirror to try and envision the placement and it just felt right. “I think at least let’s pop the stencil on so we can see it. But my gut says yeah.”

“Okay,” Seungcheol nodded. That was a good idea.

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah,” you nodded furiously at him after he had placed the stencil on. “She’s just gonna be a big bitch, I don’t know what to tell you, Seungcheol. It just feels right, right?”

“Yeah, I agree,” Seungcheol grinned at you, “We can do this in multiple sittings too, so don’t feel like it needs to all be done in one day.”

“I’ll let you know,” you smiled up at him, “Eee! I’m excited!”

“Alright skippy, let’s get you up on this table and we’ll get started,” Seungcheol patted the tattoo table. He made a few adjustments so that your thigh was positioned at a comfortable working height before getting started. “How’s that?” he asked above the buzzing of the tattoo gun.

“Not too bad, actually,” you were surprised to find out, “It’s just…buzzy?”

“Hah! I mean that’s good, okay I’ll keep going then,” he laughed, ducking his head back down to continue working.

    The time passed surprisingly quickly. You and Seungcheol caught up on a variety of topics until you ran out of things to talk about. After that, he let you choose some music and you simply watched him work quietly. By your math, it had been around two years since you had last seen him and seven since you’d had an actual conversation with him. Somehow he looked both the same and different. He had always been sturdy, especially in the legs, but he seemed to have filled out more in the arms and shoulders in recent years. His face looked exactly the same, but his hair was now longer than you remembered it ever being in the past. It suited him.

“Doing okay?” he checked in as he worked on a section of shading. He had been going over the same area of skin for a while and was wondering how you were holding up.

“Yup,” you nodded. It was starting to get a bit sensitive, but you weren’t ready to tap out just yet. You focused on inhaling deeply through your nostrils and exhaling slowly through your mouth, which helped.

“Good girl,” he murmured approvingly as his left hand moved to grasp you at the knee, turning your inner thigh out to face him a bit more.

    Your eyes flashed to him and your breathing pattern halted as you processed his words. With the soft praise, the somewhat breathy tone of his voice, and the pressure of his fingertips at your inner thigh, you found yourself shivering. Whether Seungcheol was aware of it or not, you found yourself deeply flustered by his praise and wildly confused at your reaction. Swallowing, you tried to gauge whether he even registered what he had just said, but he seemed to still be deeply absorbed in shading.

“Should we take a break?” he looked up suddenly, “You’re getting squirmy, it seems like.”

“I-, uh, yeah,” you did your best to act normal, “Yeah a break would be good, I think,” you managed to answer him.

“Okay,” Seungcheol stood up, “I could stand to stretch my legs anyways.”

“Sounds good,” you gave him a thumbs up as you raised your arms above your head to do some stretching yourself.

    Seungcheol peeled off his gloves and turned to take a sip of water. His expression creased once his back was turned to you. Why the hell had he said that to you? It certainly hadn’t been on purpose, but as soon as it left his mouth, he’d wanted to wince. He could only hope that you hadn’t heard it or registered its weirdness. 

“Do you need any water or a snack? We’ve been at it for a while,” he offered, pulling open a cabinet to reveal a handful of water bottles and a variety of snacks.

“I have water in my bag, if you don’t mind grabbing it for me? I would eat something though.”

“Should we order something? It’s getting to be around dinner time, I wouldn’t mind eating something proper,” he suggested as he handed you a granola bar.

“Oh yeah! Build in another break in a couple of hours, that sounds good. What’s good to eat around here nowadays?” you asked through a mouthful of granola.

“Tomato Pie is actually still open, if you feel like pizza,” Seungcheol chuckled as he scrolled through restaurants on his phone. “Otherwise it just depends on what you want?”

“I’m not feeling pizza. Let’s save TP for another time,” you shook your head, “What about sushi? Something light or fresh.”

“Oh sure! Um, how about this place?” he offered you his phone. You scanned the PDF menu before nodding.

“Yeah that looks good! I’ll do roll 37 in a combo.”

“Cool, I’ll have Wren order for us. They might want to eat too,” he nodded, stepping out of the room momentarily. Before too long, the sound of the tattoo gun was droning and you fell into an easy quiet with Seungcheol again.

“Please tell me more about Cheol as a kid,” Wren asked desperately as they swirled udon around their chopsticks.

“No,” Seungcheol grumbled.

“Of course!” you answered over him.

“Do y’all have a favorite memory together? Or a most distinct one?”

“Favorite?” your brows furrowed in concentration as you tried to think. “Like I said, he and I weren’t really friends? But, oh!” you clapped your hands together suddenly, “But this one stands out! It was the end of summer before Jihun and Seungcheol were leaving for college.”

“Please don’t tell this story,” Seungcheol buried his face into his hands, ears turning pink.

“Oh it’s cute though!” you argued, but you wouldn’t tell it without his consent. You waited a moment for him to lift his head again, eyebrows raising in a way that you knew to mean ‘go ahead’.

    Eyes sparkling, you recalled the night before your brother and Seungcheol moved away for college. You had been nearly inconsolable as you and Jihun really had been close growing up and you simply couldn’t imagine finishing high school without them. He and Seungcheol had tried all manner of things to cheer you up, but nothing worked until they whipped out an emergency dance routine to your then-favorite boy band. They hadn’t really put all that much effort into learning it and mostly tripped over themselves, but it had done the trick and you’d laughed so hard that you cried. That was still an incredibly fond night for you.

“Oh and he was blonde then too! That was an era,” you wrinkled your nose as you finished telling the story.

“He can dance?” Wren looked at you incredulously.

“No, he can’t! But he tried, and that was what was important,” you chuckled heartily. “Honestly, Cheol was kind of just a good person. He was usually nice to me, but generally I just saw glimpses of him around.”

“You’re failing to mention all of the times that I bailed you out when Jihun was busy,” Seungcheol gave you a pointed glance.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” you shook your head playfully at him. “He’s always been an old man like this.”

“He is responsible like that, isn’t he?” Wren nodded at you. “Our Studio Daddy.”

“Eugh yuck!” your skin crawled as you heard Wren refer to Seungcheol as Daddy. “No no no, don’t like that one bit!”

“You and me both,” Seungcheol rolled his eyes at both of you as he finished up his food. “You done? Let’s finish this bitch up. We’re getting close.”

“You good to lock up, boss?” Wren asked as they cleared their dishes.

“Yeah, you’re good! Just turn off the reception lights and lock the door when you leave. Don’t want any randos wandering in.”

“Sure!”

“So are you in charge?” you asked after Seungcheol had settled back into to finish up the last sections of shading on the beetle legs. Wren kept referring to him as ‘boss’, but you couldn’t tell if it was just good natured ribbing.

“Kind of. I hate being called boss, but I do own the studio now. The last owners were ready to retire and move, so they made me a good deal. I don’t feel like the owner yet, but I guess technically I am.”

“Wow, that’s…that’s really impressive, Seungcheol. I’m proud of you,” you smiled genuinely at him.

“This is weird, you’re never this serious,” he raised an eyebrow at you, a little uncomfortable to receive your genuine praise.

“I know, but I am serious!” you laughed, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve been following you for a while. I’m proud of how you’ve developed your art form and now you even own the studio! I think that’s super dope.”

“Thanks,” he grinned, ducking his head down to hide his blush under the guise of inspecting his work. It wasn’t too much longer before he was finished and applying tattoo dressing. “So for aftercare. Everyone has their own opinion, but I like Saniderm. Keep this one on for 24 hours and remove and wash. If you want, you can apply another sheet. Try to wear loose clothing as much as you can, but life is life. You can always call if you feel like it looks weird, but basically treat it like a wound cause it is.”

“Cool, sounds good!” you gave him a thumbs up. “What’s the damage, boss?”

“Shut up,” he rolled his eyes at you before working up a number that was on the low end of reasonable.

“That’s too low,” you decided, counting out bills until you reached a number that seemed more fair. “Dinner money’s in there too.”

“I-,” Seungcheol was slightly surprised. Not that he thought you’d be stingy, but because he was still accustomed to the you that begged rides off of him and never had gas money.

“I’ve had a big kid job for years now, don’t look so shocked,” you smiled at him, tucking your things back into your bag. “It was really good to see you, Coups. Maybe Wren and I can talk you into a night out sometime.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he half smiled at the old nickname as he waved you out the door. His lips curled into a full smile after the door swung shut. It had been good to see you.

…

“Hey boss?” Wren popped into Seungcheol’s office, trying to seem casual.

“I told you don’t call me that,” he looked up from his sketching. “What is it?”

“Do you have any strong friends that could help move some furniture this weekend? They will be paid.”

“You’ve never paid me to move furniture for you,” he narrowed his eyes at Wren, “Also didn’t you just move like a couple months ago? Why are you moving again?”

“Not me, YN. They just texted me. I guess the moving company cancelled at the last minute, so she’s scrambling for options.”

“Oh, shit. That sucks,” Seungcheol crossed his arms, brow furrowing at the situation. “I mean I could probably scrounge up a few friends.”

“Huh, okay!” Wren fixed their boss with an odd glance before plopping into the empty chair across from him. “Did you and YN ever date? Or like…have a thing?”

“What? No,” Seungcheol made a face of slight distaste at his receptionist. “That has never even crossed my mind until now. And I find it unpleasant.”

“Ugh, boo! Friends to lovers is the best trope,” Wren frowned, “I should’ve known you’d be a party pooper about this too. Oh well, I’ll let YN know that she can count on at least one of you meatheads to show up. I’ll get the address and stuff from her too!”

“Sounds good,” Seungcheol nodded, making a quick note on a scrap piece of paper to see whether Mingyu would be free and to exchange phone numbers with you so you could contact him directly.

…

“Hey Cheol?”

“Huh?” Seungcheol looked up from his desk. He had been very much in the zone, so the interruption had him slightly befuddled. “Oh, YN? What are you doing here?”

“Do you mind if I chill in the lobby and charge my phone? I didn’t see Wren, they must be doing something else, but I didn’t want to just be like a loiterer without someone knowing,” you huffed.

“Yeah, I mean, but you didn’t answer my question. Are you okay?” he asked. You didn’t look completely upended, but you were a little frazzled.

“Oh, yeah I’m fine! I just got lost and my phone battery died so I couldn’t pull up a map,” you grumbled, shuffling back to the waiting area and setting your bag down. You rifled through briefly to pull out a charging cable. “I decided to bus and walk home after work, since I’m still trying to get the layout of the city, but I got super lost. I slightly recognized this neighborhood from when I drove in for the tattoo. So here I am!” you gestured as if to say ‘ta-da’.

“Ah, I see,” Cheol couldn’t help but laugh as he took a seat next to you in the lobby. “How is work going?”

“Pretty good! I’m picking up the quirks of the software that they use, but for the most part, the job is very similar to my old one and I’ll be good at it. I like my coworkers too, which is always good.”

“Good,” he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“How was your day? Busy?” 

“It was okay,” he shrugged, “No tattoos today, I have Wednesdays set aside for bookkeeping, paperwork, and other businessy activities. Not my favorite, but gotta do it.”

“And how’s that?” you grinned at him, “If I remember right, you weren’t the most mathematically inclined.”

“You remember correctly,” Seungcheol grimaced.

“If you ever want help with the bookkeeping stuff, let me know. I can build a mean spreadsheet,” you offered. Despite not having been close with him in years, you felt invested in his success.

“Really?” he cocked his head at you, surprised.

“Of course! We were friendly before, right? We can be friends for real this time,” you scrunched your nose playfully at him. “Plus I definitely owe you for sending me Mingyu and Chan. Lifesavers, those two.”

“Yeah, they’re alright,” Seungcheol chuckled. “I might take you up on that spreadsheet thing, cause doing the math by hand is strange and unusual punishment.”

“Sounds good, just text me,” you nodded, eyes lighting up when your phone had charged enough to power itself back on.

“YN!” Wren called your name excitedly as they returned to the reception desk. “Sorry, I was taking inventory. What are you doing here?”

    Seungcheol returned to his office as you gave Wren the rundown of your unfortunate turn of events. You wanted to be friends this time around, huh? That could be alright.

…

“I’m starting to regret this whole ‘friends’ thing,” Seungcheol groaned as you dragged him towards the bar. The rest of the studio staff was already there, but he had taken his time closing up, hoping that Wren would’ve run out of patience and just left without him. In the past, this strategy had been successful, but that was before you were part of the equation. You had a longer attention span and just when Seungcheol thought he’d gotten away with it, you’d popped up at his side, asking him if he was ready to go.

“No take backs,” you teased, only releasing the grip on his sleeve after you’d pulled him full inside the establishment. “Wren! We’re here!”

“Finally! Did he do his usual thing of taking way too long?”

“Yes, you were right,” you laughed, hopping onto an empty barstool.

    Cheol narrowed his eyes at you. While he had grown to be able to handle Wren’s brand of shenanigans, he wasn’t sure how to feel about your powers combined. He watched you chat excitedly with Vernon about lizards or something before deciding that he needed a beer.

“Anyone else need drinks?” he asked, glancing across the table.

“If you’re buying, then yes!” Hoshi jumped up excitedly and appeared at Seungcheol’s side.

“YN, what do you want?” Wren tapped on your shoulder gently as they moved to order with Cheol.

“Oh, whiskey soda with a cherry?”

“What?!” Wren’s eyebrows pinched together, “Miss girl, this is a dive bar. Can you please 

order something normal?”

“Hah! Well then just get me a beer or something,” you shrugged, eager to get back to discussing the Galapagos marine iguana’s algae based diet with Vernon.

“What the hell are they even talking about?” Wren did a double take before their boss tugged them towards the bar.

“It’s better that you probably don’t ask,” he chuckled as he hailed the bartender.

“Hey what can I get you?”

    Wren rattled off the group’s order before looking back at you. “Shit, and some sort of beer,” their brow furrowed as they scanned through the options.

“You got cherries back there?” Seungcheol cut through Wren’s thinking.

“Yeah,” the bartender fixed him with a surprised look.

“Okay, then a whiskey soda with a splash of sour and a cherry. Nix that beer.”

“Weird, but sure,” the bartender laughed, moving to fill the order.

“I don’t think she asked for sour?” Wren asked Seungcheol.

“She always forgets to say it. She won’t like it without it,” he shrugged with a wry smile.

Wren watched their boss out of the corner of their eye. In the few weeks of knowing you, Wren had done a little bit of poking and was surprised that you and Seungcheol both independently maintained that nothing had ever happened or even threatened to happen between you two. In fact, you both had such a surprised reaction that made it seem like neither of you had even entertained the possibility. Yet, small things like this happened every so often and would surprise Wren anew that things were just platonic between you two.

“You got it all?” the bartender asked again, watching Cheol and Wren haphazardly gather up the six drinks between them.

“I think we’re good,” Wren finally nodded, leading the way back to the table. “Okay, so…,” they trailed off as they doled out the drinks around the table.

“Oh! I thought I was getting beer?” you were surprised when you received your drink.

“They had cherries,” was all Seungcheol offered up in explanation.

“Oh, well thanks!” you beamed at him before taking a sip.

“So what was the name of that documentary again?” Vernon asked, drawing your attention back, “I might just leave now to watch it,” he mumbled to himself as he pulled out his phone to make a note.

“Oh come on,” you chided him, “We just got here! I’ll give you the name of the documentary at the end of the night, as incentive,” you suggested.

“That’ll work,” he grumbled slightly, slipping his phone into his pocket and turning his attention back to the group’s conversation. Hoshi was regaling the group theatrically about something or the other.

    Seungcheol raised an eyebrow. He was surprised that you’d managed to convince Vernon to stay out. That was something that even he couldn’t pull off sometimes.

“So YN, are you liking your new job?” Hoshi asked after sharing his many personal thoughts and feelings about Tiger King.

“Yes!” you nodded, “I really like everyone at the practice! My trainer is super funny and nice and she said I’m basically ready to fly solo next week,” you grinned, a little nervous now that all eyes were on you.

“Remind me what you do again?” Joshua asked kindly. He was one of the piercers at the studio that you had probably spent the least amount of time with.

“I’m a vet tech! So, you know, helping with exams, running analyses, and giving vaccinations. That kind of thing.”

“Ah, so we have some things in common then,” Joshua quipped about the vaccinations.

“Hey if you’ve got a passion for stabbin’, might as well get paid for it,” you joked, prompting a chorus of laughs.

Eventually, the group broke off, some heading to the dance floor and others moving to play darts. You watched the game of darts until you were ready for a refill. As you waited for the bartender, you fished the cherry out from your melting ice cubes. It was the best part, after all.

“What’re you drinking there?” a voice to your right drew your attention.

“Hm,” you regarded the man with a suspicious glance, “I don’t think I'll tell you. You look like you’d tease me for it.”

“Oh? Well it’ll be tricky to buy you a drink, then,” he chuckled, a little taken aback by your response.

“I-,what?” you blurted out after processing his words.

“I’m Yejun,” he smiled at you, “Can I buy your next drink?”

“Hm, I suppose you can!” you chuckled. You observed his side profile as he flagged down the bartender. “So do you live here, Yejun?”

“I do,” he nodded, “Do you?”

“I do now,” you grinned, “I actually grew up around here and recently moved back for a job. Things are kind of the same, kind of different.”

“Oh really? How long has it been since you lived here? And what’s different?” he asked, smiling charmingly as he leaned against the bar, turning to face you fully.

    Seungcheol watched intently as you chatted with this man. His brow furrowed slightly trying to gauge whether he needed to intervene. For a while, your expression was wary, but eventually you broke out into a teasing smile and he could tell that the attention was welcome. You were more than capable of holding your own, Cheol knew that, and so he returned to watching darts.

    Wren was stumped as they watched Seungcheol watch you. For a moment he’d almost looked jealous, but that tension eventually dissipated and he returned to darts as if nothing had happened. When Wren looked at you again, you were happily chatting with a man at the bar, which was somehow even more confusing.

…

“Ah, I’m so glad you were free this weekend! You’ve been so wrapped up in Yejun that I feel like I barely see you anymore!” Wren tittered animatedly as they wrapped you up in a hug.

“Wren we hung out on Tuesday,” you laughed, shaking your head.

“Yes, and it’s been far too long between then and now. Speaking of, how are things going with Yejun? If he’s not treating you well, I will bring the boys to beat him up!” Wren threatened.

“There’s no need for that at all,” you shook your head vigorously, “Things are going good! I don’t know that I feel super…serious about him, but it’s been fun so far!”

“Hm. Well if you’d rather just date someone at the studio, I’d prefer that so I could see you all the time! I think Vernon is single, and you both love those damned lizards.”

“Hah! Iguanas,” you corrected them as you scanned down the list of cocktails. An aperol spritzer sounded good in the day’s warm weather. “No, I won’t date anyone at the studio. I don’t date friends, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

“You’re smarter than most,” Wren laughed. Couldn’t fault your logic.

“How are things with the boys? I feel like it’s been a bit since I’ve seen everyone. Anything interesting happen lately?”

“Oh, we might have a stray cat hanging around?” Wren clapped their hands together, “There’s a calico that showed up both yesterday and today.”

“Really? No collar or anything, I assume? Does it have a clipped ear? Is it friendly?”

“No, no, and yes,” Wren answered, “Should we do anything special for it?”

“Honestly, we should try and grab it so that we can take it to a vet to get it checked out. See if it’s microchipped. I can bring some stuff from the office and maybe let’s pick up some wet food after lunch? You can bring that to the studio.”

“Sounds good!” Wren nodded gamely. “Aside from that, nothing new at the studio. We’re a boring bunch these days.”

“You know honestly, that’s not a bad thing,” you smiled.

“We should go out for a happy hour sometime this week,” Wren suggested as your entrees arrived. “Maybe Thursday? You can bring Yejun!”

“Oh sure! Are we going to try and bring Seungcheol? Or not worth the fight?” you scrunched your nose up playfully.

“I mean, I always want the whole gang to be there. But might need your help again.”

“I can be on Coups duty,” you laughed, “It’s light work.”

“Alright, well if you’re in then I’m in,” Wren laughed. You did seem to have a way with Seungcheol that nobody else did.

    The rest of lunch was filled with odds and ends of conversation before you and Wren walked to the supermarket to pick up a few cans of wet cat food. Wren headed back to the studio and you drove to the veterinary office to pick up some supplies. A humane trap, a cat carrier, and a kitty straightjacket accompanied you back to the tattoo studio. 

“I’m here!” you announced as you brought the trap into the reception area.

“Um, what’s happening now?” Minghao, one of the other tattoo artists, looked on curiously as you fiddled with the gate of the humane trap.

“I told YN about our new friend! She’s going to help us trap it so we can take it to the vet.”

“Oh, I see,” Hao chuckled before returning to his room. Since you’d moved back home, you’d clearly established yourself as Wren’s new partner in crime. It was usually entertaining.

“Okay, I think I got it,” you nodded before grabbing a can of food and walking back outside to place the trap against the side of the building. You popped the can open and placed it at the back of the trap. “Now hopefully we catch the stray cat and not some other beastie,” you muttered to yourself as you walked back inside. Last time you’d set up a humane trap, you’d woken up to a livid raccoon instead of the stray you’d set out to capture.

“Hey Wren, can you order more of these supplies please?” Cheol dropped off a list at the receptionist desk, barely registering your presence. Between your help setting up his profit and loss statements and just general shenanigans with Wren, you’d become somewhat of a regular at the studio.

“Sir, yes sir!” Wren saluted playfully before waving you out the door. You had errands to run yet, but you let Wren know to call you if and when the stray showed back up.

…

“Oh my gosh, she is so so cute! I have named her Sausage Patty, we shall call her Patty and I love her very much,” you gushed over drinks. The studio had organized a staff outing again and Yejun had opted to join, so all of your people were in one place.

“You said this was a cat?” Yejun asked, “I thought your place didn’t allow pets?”

“It doesn’t,” you sighed, “But Cheol can keep her in until I can find a new place, right? It isn’t too terribly long before my lease is up,” you pleaded with him hopefully.

“Ah,” Yejun shifted uncomfortably, “I, um. We should talk later,” he ducked his head to whisper in your ear.

“Oh, okay?” you nodded at this ominous feeling request.

“So Yejun, tell us about yourself,” Wren prompted, eager to get to know the person you’d been dating. “YN has mentioned some things, but I’m nosy.”

    Yejun chuckled good naturedly and shared his age, where he had lived before here, and that he worked as a financial advisor at the local bank.

“Oh interesting, do you enjoy that?” Joshua asked, eyes dancing.

    Seungcheol fixed Joshua and Hoshi with a warning glance as Yejun answered Joshua’s query.  He could tell that the boys did not find Yejun particularly interesting, but they didn’t have to in order to be nice. You were the one dating him, after all.

“It’s alright,” Yejun shrugged, not picking up on Shua’s teasing. “There are things that I like and things that I don’t, but that’s any job, isn’t it?”

“Sure is!” Hoshi chimed in mischievously, “For example, Seungcheol is the thing that I don’t like most about my job.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cheol laughed, “If this is where the conversation is going, then I’m going to grab a beer,” he announced. Joshua took the opportunity to join him at the bar.

“My god, our YN is dating a banker? Where did we go wrong, Cheol?” Joshua bemoaned jokingly as he leaned against the bar.

“Joshua,” Cheol warned him, the slightest edge audible in his voice. “Be nice.”

“He’s so dull,” Joshua pressed on, “She can do better.”

“That’s not our business,” Seungcheol shrugged as he accepted a fresh beer from the bartender. “If you can’t be nice, then I suggest you stay away. YN will take it personally if you tell her you don’t like him. Just leave it.”

“Fine,” Joshua ran his tongue over his teeth with displeasure, “A banker of all things. Please.”

“You remember when you dated that flight attendant, right? We all kept it to ourselves until things ended. YN is our friend now, so you can do her the same courtesy.”

“I wish you’d given me your honest feedback then. That was a major waste of my time,” Joshua bristled as he recalled that toxic relationship.

    When they returned to the table they found that Hoshi had wandered off with Vernon to play darts and Wren was doing their best to hold the conversation with Yejun. There really wasn’t anything specifically wrong with Yejun, he just didn’t have much in common with any of them. Seungcheol briefly wondered what you two talked about, but it left his mind just as quickly.

“So what did you want to talk about earlier?” you asked Yejun hesitantly as he walked you to your door. There was a nip in the air and your cheeks were flushed pink as you looked up at him.

“Oh, yeah,” his expression filled with unease, “I guess I should let you know that I’m allergic to cats. It hadn’t really come up before, but it’s relevant now.”

“Oh,” your expression fell at this news. Somehow it was both a big deal and not a big deal. On the one hand, you were still in a very casual stage with Yejun and wouldn’t be able to live with Patty for a while even if you and Seungcheol did manage to work something out. But on the other hand, if this was a deal breaker, you wondered if you were just wasting your time. You loved animals and couldn’t envision a future without them. “Are you allergic to other animals too? Or just cats?”

“Mildly allergic to dogs, but my cat allergy is quite severe,” he answered apologetically.

“I see,” you nodded, “Well…I would say that since I’m still not sure I’ll be able to convince Seungcheol to keep Patty for me in the meantime and I’m at least five months out from being at the end of my lease, I’m not sure this needs to change anything between us? What do you think, though?”

“I agree,” Yejun smiled with a sense of relief.

“Great,” you grinned up at him. “Well, I’m home. Maybe we can do something next week?”

“That sounds great!” Yejun pulled you in for a quick peck before moving to drive himself home.

…

“Hello?” Seungcheol’s brows furrowed as he read the name on the incoming call. “YN? Are you okay?”

“Hey,” you sniffed, second guessing yourself. You briefly considered hanging up, but decided it would be helpful to have a sounding board. “Are you busy?”

“No, what’s up?” he shook his head, noting that you hadn’t answered his question.

“Can I swing by? I need some advice. Or maybe just to talk, I’m not sure,” you muttered, pressing your palm against your cheek.

“Yeah, of course,” Cheol nodded, “I’m home right now so come by whenever. Patty would like to see you too, I’m sure.”

“Okay, I’ll be over soon then,” you nodded forlornly before ending the call.

    You second guessed yourself the entire way over. Maybe this wasn’t a big enough deal to bother Seungcheol about. Maybe you should’ve called Wren instead. But you knew that Wren would not be impartial and you knew, in your gut, that if it wasn’t a big enough deal to bother Cheol about, then you wouldn’t have called him. Before you knew it, you were parked in front of Seungcheol’s place and you weren’t about to drive right back home.

    You walked up the steps and tried the doorknob. With all of the shared cat custody, he had gotten into the habit of leaving the front door unlocked when he knew you were on the way. Today was no different.

“I’m here,” you announced generally as you slipped off your shoes. Cheol appeared with a beer before you had gotten the second one off.

“You sounded like you needed a drink,” he smiled sympathetically at you.

“You know all about me nowadays, huh?” you laughed, taking the cold beverage from him.

“Little bit,” he grinned, “So what’s up?” he asked after you took a seat at his kitchen table. You gestured for him to sit down next to you before you answered.

“Yejun and I broke up…I guess? Is it even breaking up if you were just kind of dating?” you thought aloud. “Whatever you want to call it, we will no longer be a thing.”

“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that,” Seungcheol’s expression creased with worry. “Do you want to talk about what happened? Or what’s helpful?”

“I’m not too torn up about what happened,” you thought for a moment, trying to identify your feelings, “But I am sad. But I don’t feel like I should be sad because it wasn’t that serious? Also he was allergic to cats so was it gonna work out anyways?” you were surprised when you felt the tears pricking at your eyes. You had done such a good job of keeping it together all week, but now talking about it in such clarity really broke something free inside of you and suddenly you were crying.

    Seungcheol froze. He had never seen you cry before and he was at a loss about what to do. He wanted to be supportive, but didn’t really know what that should look like for you. Did you want a hug? Did you hate hugs? It frustrated him deeply that he didn’t already know the answer.

“What would be helpful right now?” he found himself asking.

“It’s silly, but I could use a hug,” you sighed, almost rolling your eyes at yourself. You’d never really been one for physical affection, but the thought of being wrapped up in Cheol’s arms seemed comforting in a way that you needed desperately right now.

    He moved immediately, standing over you with his arms outstretched. You stood up to fit yourself into him and his arms folded around you without thought. You were surprised at how natural it felt. You allowed yourself a few more sobs into his chest before letting yourself just feel warm and secure in his hold.

    Seungcheol experienced the whole gamut of human emotion as he held you. Anger at Yejun for causing you to feel this way. Empathetic sadness. Relief when your crying stopped. And…pride at the feeling of being able to provide you comfort. It was very different and new to Seungcheol to see you in this emotionally vulnerable state, but not unpleasant by any measure.

“Okay, I feel better,” you chuckled sheepishly, pulling away from Cheol and wiping at your cheeks. “I should go home and get some sleep.”

“Okay,” he nodded at you, surprised at the instinct he felt to pull you back in.

“Thanks Cheol. Seriously.”

…

“I think I’m getting cold feet,” Seungcheol grimaced after seeing you mix up the bleach in a somewhat alarming way.

“No, no take backs!” you frowned, turning your foil-covered head towards him.

    Several days ago, you had bought the largest containers of bleach powder and developer that they sold at the beauty supply store. You kept saying that you weren’t torn up over Yejun, but you figured why not allow yourself to partake in some of the traditional post-break up rituals? An entirely new haircut didn’t appeal to you, but adding some vivid color did seem fun. You weren’t totally sure how Seungcheol had caught wind of this undertaking, but when he’d thought out loud about going blonde again, Wren had been insistent. Whether it turned out looking good or his hair fell off, it didn’t matter too much to Wren. Both outcomes were equally pleasing.

“I-,” he grimaced, “If I end up having to buzz my head, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Cheol, relax,” you tried to reassure him, “I have done this before. Now just sit still.”

    Seungcheol sucked on his teeth before acquiescing and sitting down on the stool in front of you, allowing you to get started. You grinned happily as you ran your fingers through his hair, sectioning them off and applying the bleach to the foils. The way he enjoyed feeling your hands running through his hair was a little surprising to him, but soon he found himself just watching you and smiling at the way you smiled.

“Are you excited to be blonde again?” you asked around three quarters of the way through. “Was the last time in high school?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Cheol thought for a moment, “Didn’t you help me and Jihun that time too?”

“Probably? Like your guys’ senior year?”

“Yes,” he smiled, “That was a good look, if I do say so myself.”

“I agree,” you nodded as you grabbed a spare grocery bag to pop over his completely foiled head. “Okay, now we can let that process for 30 minutes. It should start to feel warm, mine kind of does already,” you touched your own foils gingerly.

“Okay, you wanna watch something while we wait?” he shrugged, flipping on the television.

“Sure,” you nodded, sitting down on the couch. You giggled happily when Patty hopped onto your lap and you scratched her under the chin.

“She loves you,” he chuckled, watching you interact with the cat.

“She loves you too!” you insisted, “Go see your dad,” you whispered at her playfully, which she ignored.

“No, she’s your cat and your cat alone. I’m just her landlord,” Seungcheol chuckled, unable to keep himself from thinking about the implication of ‘dad’.

“Okay, time to check!” you jumped up when the timer sounded. “Let me check mine first and then I’ll check yours,” you announced as you moved to the bathroom mirror.

“How’s it lookin’?” Cheol asked, leaning against the door jamb.

“I think a little longer, I’ll check again in fifteen. Now come here,” you beckoned him over. He moved to face you and spread his feet apart until you could see the top of his head. You peeled back a few foils and were surprised to see that it had lightened sufficiently. Lucky bastard. “I think you’re good to go, Seungcheol! You can rinse that bleach out and then I’ll tone you.”

“Word,” he nodded, helping you remove the rest of the foils and tuck them into garbage. You massaged your fingers through his hair, evaluating the rest of the strands before confirming he was ready to rinse. Without a word, he tugged his shirt up over his head before moving to grab the shower head.

“What are you doing?!” you almost shouted, alarmed by the shedding of clothes.

“I don’t want to get my shirt wet,” he shrugged, somehow pleased at the way you jumped.

“Let me get out of the bathroom first,” you grumbled, flushed in the cheeks as you made your way back into the living room.

“Okay, I’m done. You wanna check your foils again?” he emerged from the bathroom, rubbing his hair with a towel.

“Yes,” you nodded, trying to look anywhere but at him as he had not put the shirt back on.

After you had also rinsed the bleach out from your ends, you started mixing up toner and color. For a second time, you were applying and massaging solution into his hair.

“This feels nice,” Cheol remarked with his eyes closed, enjoying your touch.

“Does it?” your eyebrows raised, trying to stay composed. You didn’t need to look at his bare chest. You didn’t. “I guess that makes sense, like a scalp massage, right?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, eyes slowly opening again to meet your gaze through the mirror. His lips had curled into a half smile and the way he looked at you made your heart stop for a moment.

“Okay, go pop another bag on your head and let that process for 20-ish minutes?” you glanced away, clearing your throat needlessly. As Seungcheol flopped onto the couch, you applied the tanzanite hair dye to your bleached ends, doing your best to avoid staining his bathroom permanently.

“Okay, my timer’s up!” Cheol announced as he burst into the bathroom again unceremoniously. Apparently you’d zoned out after applying the purple dye and you jumped at his intrusion. “Scoot,” he grabbed you at the waist and relocated you easily. He grabbed the showerhead and leaned over the tub, rinsing the silver toner out of his hair. You intended to leave, you wanted to leave, but when it came down to it you couldn’t do anything but stare at his broad back, mind frazzled at the way he had lifted you up so easily.

“Damn,” Seungcheol whistled appreciatively, regarding himself in the mirror, “This looks good!”

“You’re welcome,” you nodded surely at him, “And you doubted me.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, you killed it,” Cheol grinned at you. Without thinking it through, he pulled you into his chest and gave you a squeeze.

“Cheol, dye!” you panicked, pushing him away. “See, now you’re purple,” you frowned, looking at the splotch of purple on his chest that had transferred from your hair. Without thought, you swiped at it with your fingers, hoping to wipe it off before it stained too badly. It took a few passes, but eventually you gathered it all and rinsed it down the sink drain.

“Thanks,” Seungcheol coughed, nerves alight at the friction of your fingertips woefully close to his nipple. A quick shudder ran through him before he could gather his thoughts and compose himself.

“Okay, now get out, I’m going to rinse out my color. Mine’s gonna be messy, so I’m just gonna take an actual shower,” you shooed him out insistently.

    After you closed and locked the door for good measure, you let out a sigh. What had you been thinking, touching his bare chest like that? You must be out of your mind. Jumping into the shower, you let the water wash the dye from your hair and the thoughts from your mind.

    Seungcheol ruminated while you showered. He had already acknowledged that something in him had shifted after you’d visited him last week. You had always just been Jihun’s sister and that hadn’t really changed much since you’d moved back. However, seeing you in that emotionally vulnerable state last week had started to chip away at the way he thought of you.

“Whew, okay, the ordeal is done!” you laughed as you emerged from the bathroom pointing at the towel wrapped around your head. “I picked a darker one, but I can’t promise that the purple is gonna wash out,” you chuckled sheepishly, skin pink and glowing from the shower.

“I’m not worried about that,” Cheol shrugged, “Now take a rest, stylist,” he teased, patting the couch cushion next to him. Patty chirped in protest at the noisy impact, but settled back into his lap eventually as you finished the show you had started earlier.

…

“Cheol, Cheol!” Wren beckoned Seungcheol as he was walking through the hallway towards the stockroom.

“What?”

“What do you think about starting a Tiktok account for the studio? People seem to really like them, it could help us drum up some business!”

“I don’t know…,” he rubbed his chin contemplatively, “Are you going to run it? I want no part of it, to be honest.”

“Yes, I will!” Wren nodded furiously, “This looks way more fun and I could definitely do it between my normal job responsibilities.”

“I-, okay. But people have to agree to be in your videos, okay? None of this sneaky filming business,” Seungcheol furrowed his brows at them before returning to his office.

    To Seungcheol’s surprise, Wren really took initiative of the social media management and within a month or so, had amassed a significant number of followers. Wren was always on their phone anyways, and so kept on top of the latest trends and viral sounds. Seungcheol was also surprised at the ways in which the internet seemed to love their ragtag group. Folks found Joshua to be painfully handsome, Vernon and Hoshi to be side bustingly funny, and Wren to be endearing. You had even featured in a handful of videos when you’d happened to be at the studio and commenters the entire week afterwards playfully demanded ‘more YN content’.

“Cheol, have you reconsidered showing your face on Tiktok?” you asked after watching a ‘the art versus the artist’ tiktok.

“No,” he shook his head firmly.

“Aw man, this would’ve been a good video too!” you pouted, turning your phone to show Wren.

“Oh damn it, yeah it would be!” they shouted woefully.

“What is it?” Coups asked, feigning indifference.

“Okay, so the concept is showing art and then the artist that made it. Cheol you’re so talented, I feel like this is such a nice way to showcase your work!” you pleaded with him, though you were not particularly hopeful. When he didn’t reject you outright, you offered him your phone to show an example.

“Hm,” the corner of his lip pulled back as he contemplated. Your heart rose hopefully in your chest, was he genuinely considering this?

“YN can be in the video too! She’s a good example of healed work!” Wren clapped excitedly at the prospect. “We can start the video zoomed in on her thigh tattoo and then zoom out to show you!”

    Seungcheol raised his eyebrows at you in an unspoken question. It seemed that he was in if you were too. Holding back an ecstatic squeal, you nodded, over the moon at finally getting Cheol to agree to be in a Tiktok.

    The first section went smoothly. Wren positioned you in front of the studio window for flattering lighting and then zoomed in on your thigh. The second part where they would zoom out to a video of Seungcheol was not as seamless. First they wanted to try a solo shot, which didn’t pass muster. Then you tried posing next to Cheol, which Wren deemed ‘too stiff’. Finally, they took over full creative control and positioned Seungcheol behind you with his face above your shoulder. After a few more failed takes, he didn’t even register it when he leaned forward to mumble idle threats into your ear. Something about ‘never should have agreed to this’ and ‘I don’t know that we need a receptionist anyways’, which made you chuckle.

    Wren stilled in the midst of filming. Their gaze moved from the screen and lifted over the phone to observe you directly. The sight of Seungcheol with his face tucked into your neck and making you laugh was so tender it made Wren want to scream at the both of you.

“You got it?” Seungcheol looked up suddenly.

“I mean…I got something,” Wren replied, bemused.

…

    You were excited. Jihun was coming home for Thanksgiving! By your math, it had been well over a year since you’d last seen him, so your parents were going all out. They’d invited all of your friends, but Seungcheol had been the only one to take them up on the offer. It was going to be nostalgic, the five of you together, but holidays were all about nostalgia, right? You’d spent the day with your parents, helping them prepare the house and meals. Seungcheol had been assigned to pick up Jihun from the airport when his flight arrived that afternoon, so you were surprised when you heard a knock on the door a little after noon.

“Oh, who-?” your mom wondered as she opened the door, “Seungcheol, darling, you’re early!”

“I know, but I thought I’d come see if I could help with anything until then,” he shrugged, stepping into the threshold.

    From the kitchen, you did a double take. Seungcheol was wearing an unbuttoned button down with a matching t-shirt underneath and accessorized with a medium weight chain necklace. He looked nice, which made you momentarily self conscious that you were still wearing chores clothes. You threw him a quick smile before returning to finish washing the sheet pans that were no longer needed.

“Can I help?” he offered.

“You wanna dry?” you suggested, pointing out a dry towel. He nodded and settled in next to you, drying off anything you handed to him. “What time does Jihun’s flight get in again?”

“Three, so I’ll probably leave around two. There’s probably airport traffic today.”

    You nodded as you finished up the dishes and set the gloves aside to dry.

“Mom, what else can I help with?” Seungcheol had already wandered off in search of your mother.

    You rolled your eyes. He had called your mom ‘Mom’ since you were kids. The first time had been an accident and you had replied ‘No, she’s my mom!’ quite indignantly. Your mom had chuckled and patted young Seungcheol on the head, reassuring him. At first he continued to call her ‘Mom’ mostly to irritate you, but over time, it sort of just became reality. Seungcheol was over at your house so much that he really did feel like family at times.

“You’re so thoughtful, Cheol,” your mom beamed up at him, “You can come help Dad and I wrap dumplings if you like.”

“Sure,” he nodded, hip checking you away from the kitchen sink so he could wash his hands. You huffed indignantly as you took your seat at the dumpling table as well.

“So Seungcheol,” your dad cleared his throat, “How are things at the shop?”

“Good! Not much has changed since you were last there,” he cocked his head thoughtfully.

“You’ve been to the studio?” you queried, confused at the idea of it.

“Yes, of course! We had to congratulate him once we heard he was taking it over. I’m not sure we’re tattoo people, still, but our Cheol is a business owner now!” your dad laughed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“It’s still a small town, YN,” Seungcheol chuckled, “Not much happens without everyone knowing about it.”

“That’s true,” your mom nodded. For example, she had heard through the grapevine that you often hung out with Seungcheol and his staff at Anne Kim’s bar. Apparently quite an edgy group of youngsters. The Kim’s had long ago given up running the establishment themselves, but it was a good source of passive income and town information.

“That’s so funny, I can’t imagine you there!” you giggled.

“They brought me a cake and everything,” Cheol chuckled, recalling that day fondly. It had taken some explaining to get everyone to understand that they were not, in fact, Seungcheol’s own parents and the cake had done a good job of quieting them all down.

“That’s so cute,” you gushed.

    When you’d been younger, it had sometimes bothered you how easy it was for your mom to love your friends in what felt like the same way that she loved you. Now that you were older, you could appreciate her capacity to love in a different way.

“I should go get Jihun,” Seungcheol announced, placing one more lopsided dumpling onto the tray before standing up.

“Drive safe!”

“Will do,” Seungcheol smiled at your mother, disarmingly charming.

“What a good boy,” she preened happily as you finished wrapping up the dumpling filling. “Have you hung out with Seungcheol much since you’ve moved back?” she asked, even though she knew the answer already.

“Occasionally,” you shrugged, but as you did the math you realized that you’d probably seen him more than anyone else in recent days. “I’ve probably hung out with his receptionist, Wren, more though. They’re nice!”

“Oh, Wren! Yes, I remember from the studio. They’re just cute as a button, aren’t they?” your mom chirped. So you weren’t willing to admit that you were closer with Seungcheol than you’d ever been before. That was okay.

“Yes, they really wanted to come for Thanksgiving too, but they decided to go to their partner’s family’s instead.”

“Well, you know you don’t need an excuse to bring them around. Our house is always open. You too,” she gave you a pointed look. You grinned sheepishly. You knew they always wanted you to visit more.

“I’ll bring them around!” you nodded affirmatively.

“In fact, the rest of the shop can come too! They’ll keep us young,” your dad added suddenly. Your dad had always been quieter than your mom, but every so often he said something that left you absolutely slack jawed. This was one of those times.

“I’ll let them know,” you shook your head with a chuckle. “I’m going to go shower and change now.”

    Your parents waved you off goodnaturedly and you retreated to your childhood bedroom. Everything you needed was in your duffel bag, but you couldn’t help from getting distracted by all of the stuff that your mom had kept exactly the same. Filled with nostalgia, your fingertips skimmed across the figurines, books, and other memorabilia. Your diary caught your eye and you pulled it out by the spine, curious to read some of your old thoughts. It was all cringey as hell, but it made you laugh as you thumbed through. As you reached the end, something fell out from the pages which surprised you. A polaroid of Seungcheol from the night you had told Wren about many months ago at this point. It was from the night before he and Jihun had left for college and the last time you remembered him being blonde prior to this most recent bleach job. You smiled softly as you peered at it in disbelief. Seungcheol looked the same, but different. His roots were a touch more grown out than they were right now and he was wearing that dog tag necklace that he had felt was so cool back then. What a handsome doofus.

“Woof, nostalgia is one hell of a bitch,” you muttered under your breath, surprised at your own reaction.

    Shoving your thoughts aside, you jumped into the shower and focused on getting ready. The warm water soothed you infinitely and you hummed contentedly to yourself as you finished getting ready. You changed into a cute yet comfortable outfit and headed down the stairs to join your parents. You were in the middle of contemplating a cookie when the front door opened dramatically.

“I’m home!” Jihun announced excitedly as he entered the house. To your surprise, not one but two figures followed him inside.

“Jihun-a!” your mom cooed excitedly as she moved towards the door. “Oh who’s this?”

“Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend Hyejin!”

“Oh my goodness, what a surprise!” your mom tittered excitedly. “Why didn’t you tell me so I could have prepared?”

“Mom, you’re always prepared anyways! I wanted to surprise you,” Jihun shook his head.

    Your parents tsked appropriately at Jihun while ushering Hyejin inside. As they tittered over her, you threw a look at Seungcheol.

“Surprise!” he wiggled his hands weakly, which made you burst out laughing. You rolled your eyes before joining the family in the living room.

“Hyejin, this is my sister, YN,” Jihun gestured towards you as you entered.

“Hi,” you grinned excitedly at Hyejin. “I’m very excited to share with you all of Jihun’s most embarrassing stories!” you shook her hand with a little too much vigor for your brother’s tastes.

“I’m so excited to meet you all!” Hyejin smiled. She was so pretty!

“Genuinely, you’re so pretty, what the hell are you doing with Jihun?” you couldn’t help but ask mischievously.

“YN,” Seungcheol furrowed his brow, “Easy.”

“You’re right, I’ll let you settle in. I’ll ask later,” you whispered surreptitiously to her, drawing a small chuckle. Instead you joined Seungcheol as your parents lightly grilled Hyejin and Jihun about their relationship. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell any of us,” you mumbled at Cheol. “Did he share much on the drive with you?”

“No, not much,” he shook his head. “I was surprised too, I haven’t seen her on his socials or anything. Must be recent?”

“Hm,” you shrugged.

    Seungcheol watched you as you looked on with interest. You looked really cute in your holiday cardigan. You could feel Seungcheol’s gaze on you. You kept your eyes facing forward, but you couldn’t help a light shiver before you decided it was time to rejoin the fray. Seungcheol looked on from the kitchen, allowing you this familial moment. Dinner passed quickly, everyone enjoying the opportunity to catch up with or get to know each other. You found that you were a big fan of Hyejin. She was funny, clever, and so easy to talk to. Seungcheol and Jihun caught up easily, like old times. Your parents looked on happily at their lovely little family.

“Okay, time for a movie!” your mom announced once everyone had finished eating.

“Movie?” Hyejin wondered and the rest of you stood.

“Family tradition, movie theater after an early dinner,” Cheol answered with a smile. “Are we playing for right to choose? Or perhaps because we have a guest…?” he gestured to Hyejin.

“Oh I think guest chooses,” you nodded supportively.

“Really?” Hyejin was surprised. “Okay, let me see what’s showing,” she laughed, pulling out her phone.

“Ooh I'm excited, good choice again Hyejin!” you bounced on the balls of your feet as you waited in line for concessions.

“Behave,” Seungcheol grabbed you by the shoulders, pinning you in place. 

    A jolt of heat darted through your chest at his grip. You suddenly flashed back to the day of your tattoo. This was a very similar feeling to when Seungcheol had grasped your upper thigh and murmured ‘good girl’ to you, effectively knocking the wind from your lungs. You stilled, unable to face him.

“Good girl,” he went on to commend you thoughtlessly as he perused snack options.

    You blinked. A sharp exhale left your lungs as you struggled with the effect this was having on you. You wanted to punch Seungcheol, how could he be so careless with his words!

“Popcorn,” you answered the teenager when you got to the front of the line.

“What size?”

“Large,” you answered. You had saved room.

“Should we just share a bucket?” Cheol suggested.

“No! Get your own popcorn,” you scrunched your face at him. The possibility of accidentally brushing hands with him was too much to consider right now.

“Okay, damn,” he chuckled bemusedly as he went to order his own popcorn.

    You knew you were acting odd, but you couldn’t help yourself. In an effort to distance yourself from Seungcheol, you wandered towards Jihun and Hyejin, eavesdropping on their conversation. They were discussing something boring so you wandered towards your parents instead.

“YN-ah,” they beckoned you towards them. “How are things since moving back? I know it was always a little small for you here,” your mom asked genuinely.

“You know,” you thought for a moment, wanting to answer honestly, “I was worried I wouldn’t be happy moving back…but I’ve made some good friends and I’m actually pretty happy!”

“That’s great,” your dad smiled at you.

    Your mom studied your expression closely, but you didn’t give much away. She was curious whether your contentment was tied to Seungcheol as much as she hoped it would be. Your parents had always been big fans of Cheol throughout childhood. Part of it was proximity, of course, as Seungcheol had been at the house almost constantly throughout middle and high school. But the other part of it was that they saw the ways in which Seungcheol complimented both you and Jihun. Seungcheol had always had a calm energy and presence that didn’t hinder you from being yourself, but also tempered your personality when occasionally necessary.

“Movie time!” your parents announced, ushering everyone towards theater six. As everyone paired off, you found yourself sitting next to Seungcheol.

“We should’ve just shared a popcorn, we paid basically double to have the same amount in separate bags,” he pouted at you.

“I want to have my own bag, leave me alone!”  you whisper shouted at him, scrunching your face at him in the dark.

    Hyejin giggled as she watched you and Seungcheol with fascination. Jihun had mentioned that you all had been childhood friends, but not that you two were dating. She wondered how long it’d been since you and Seungcheol had gotten together and whether Jihun even knew. She’d have to ask after the movie was over.

“That was good,” you nodded surely as everyone piled into the car. “I was especially a fan of the scenes where the fruit and vegetable carts were upturned. Love me a good ‘my cabbages’ moment!”

“Me too!” Hyejin giggled

    The ride back was filled with excited discussion, laughter, and some good natured teasing. Your parents helped themselves to a slice of apple pie and let you all know you were welcome to the leftovers if you got peckish before they retired to bed. Eventually Jihun and Seungcheol wandered off to look at something in the basement, which allowed you to visit with Hyejin more.

“So how long have you and Seungcheol been dating?” she asked.

“W-what?” you sputtered. “Me and Cheol? No, we’re not!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Are you really not?” she flushed, “You two seem so close!”

“No, no, don’t be sorry!” you leaned towards her, not wanting her to feel embarrassed, “We are close! But we’ve known each other for years,” you tried to explain.

“That really surprises me. You two seem very much in step with each other,” she mused. She had literally watched him eat the chestnuts that you’d pulled out of your stuffing and set on a side plate.

“I-, I mean I guess we are closer than before these days. I moved back to town a few months ago and Seungcheol is probably one of my closest friends right now,” you thought out loud. You weren’t sure whether it was just the longevity of the relationship, but there was a deep comfort that you had with Seungcheol that just couldn’t be beat.

“Ah, I see,” Hyejin nodded, tipping the rest of her wine back.

“Do you want another drink? Or maybe we can go bother the boys?”

“Why not both?” she laughed, so you led the way.

“Oy, degenerates! What are you doing down here? Smoking weed?” you teased as you bounced down the stairs.

“I mean we could be,” Jihun’s voice called back.

“Holding out on us,” you rolled your eyes playfully at Hyejin as you rounded the corner.

“Hey,” Hyejin grinned, looping an arm around Jihun’s waist and squeezing affectionately.

“Yo,” you punched Seungcheol awkwardly in the shoulder before flopping onto the futon next to him. “It’s been a damn minute since we were all down here, huh!”

“Yes it has,” Cheol’s eyebrows raised dramatically as he considered the length of time. “Probably haven’t been back since before college started.”

    Jihun nodded in agreement and they both took turns sharing fun stories with Hyejin until your eyes started drifting shut. These beers really took a toll on you these days.

“Hey, YN,” Seungcheol’s voice and shoulder nudged you awake.

“Hm?” you murmured.

“You should go to bed,” he suggested.

“No, I’m fine! I’m just resting my eyes,” you protested, struggling to keep the aforementioned eyes open.

“Oh not this again,” Seungcheol shook his head. He had fallen for the ‘resting my eyes’ line a grand total of twice before he’d learned his lesson. That just meant you had already dozed off and were going to fall asleep again shortly. “YN, if you don’t go to bed now, I’m going to carry you up.”

“Do it, you won’t,” you goaded him sleepily. You managed half a yawn before he had hucked you over his shoulder and carried you up the stairs.

Jihun had been scrolling through his phone, and so looked up with slight confusion to see Hyejin grinning knowingly.

    Seungcheol dumped you onto your bed as gently as he could manage, but you still landed with a loud ‘oof’. He scoffed as you curled into your pillows and comforter like a caterpillar into a cocoon. Why couldn’t you just admit you were tired like a normal person?

…

    A few weeks after Thanksgiving, you were at Seungcheol’s again spending quality time with Patty when Jihun Facetimed him unexpectedly. Patty was sitting on your chest on the couch when Seungcheol picked up.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Not much, I was just calling to check in. Thanksgiving made me realize that I’ve done a shit job of keeping up with you so I want to change that!”

“Oh, for sure,” Cheol laughed, a little surprised. “Oh, YN is here too!” he directed the phone to you and Patty. You waved from underneath her.

“Oh, YN is there?” you heard Hyejin’s voice in the background. “That reminds me, I’m gonna to text her!”

[hyejin]: ‘hey, I saw an ad for this yesterday and it made me think of you!’

    You squealed in excitement at the attached screenshot she sent of a frog stun gun. It even had a little butt on the back! Patty jumped off of your chest in protest of your loud noise, but your excitement was difficult to contain.

[yn]: ‘OMFG. THNEED’

[hyejin]: ‘right?!? when they do their next shop update, i’m ordering for both of us!’

“Coups, look!” you hopped off of the couch excitedly to show Seungcheol, completely derailing his conversation with Jihun. “It’s a frog. And a self defense stun gun. And it has a butt!” you flipped through the pictures excitedly. Seungcheol nodded good naturedly at you before returning to his discussion with Jihun. 

“I didn’t know you had a cat,” your brother's voice floated across the room. Seungcheol explained the situation, to which Hyejin sent you a slew of texts rapidly.

[hyejin]: ‘are you sure you’re not dating seungcheol?!?’

[hyejin]: ‘you can tell me if you are. i wont tell jihun!’ 

[hyejin]: ‘im cool!’

[yn]: ‘im not!’

You furrowed your brows slightly. You and Hyejin had kept in touch since Thanksgiving and she had taken to fussing over you like an older sister. For the most part you loved it, but this probing about Cheol made you feel…confused. It wasn’t the first time that people had mistaken you as a couple and you almost understood why. No, the thing that was difficult to contend with was the fact that you…didn’t hate it?

[hyejin]: ‘okay 👀 im just sayin not many people would let a cat live at their house just for a friend’

[hyejin]: ‘but maybe im wrong!’

You sat up and watched Seungcheol over the back of the sofa as he chatted with Jihun. You didn’t bother to process what they were saying, but you watched the way the corner of his lips lifted into a half side, revealing one of his dimples. You’d seen his dimples a million and one times before, but this time it felt like your heart shot up into your throat, clogging it. It didn’t seem to matter how many times you tried to clear it either, that bitch was stuck. Seungcheol threw you a ‘you good?’ glance before returning his attention to your brother. There was nothing remarkable about it. There was no reason it should make you nervous. And yet, the slight pinch between his brows and the clear concern in his eyes made you squirm.

“I gotta go!” you announced to Seungcheol and Jihun, waving casually at them before pulling on your shoes. Patty gave you a departing headbutt and you were out the door.

“I thought she didn’t have plans today,” Seungcheol’s expression was clearly confused after you left.

While you drove home with all of the windows rolled down in an effort to regain composure, Seungcheol tied up his conversation with Jihun. The house felt quite empty now that he wasn’t on a call and you were also gone. It was a surprising thought for him to have, since he’d long ago gotten accustomed to being alone and in fact quite liked it. But he’d be an idiot to ignore the fact that his life had changed dimensionally since you’d come back into it.

You’d coaxed him into a closer friendship with his staff members, gifted him the furry little gremlin that he now looked forward to coming home to, and you yourself had become someone that he thought of often and cared for deeply. He’d been unsure whether it was the same kind of proximity based fondness that you had shared before, but upon further consideration, he concluded that this was not the case. These days he didn’t just tolerate you. He sought you out. He wanted to fill his time with you. He wondered if you felt the same.

…

[wren]: ‘come on, please?!’

[yn]: ‘i’m tired 😩’

    You frowned at your phone. You weren’t actually so tired that you didn’t want to go out, but you felt a sort of reluctance to go because you’d been avoiding seeing Seungcheol. It had taken some time to sort through your feelings, but you’d finally accepted that you were struggling with an attraction to him that you needed to get over. You were sure you could, you just needed time.

    Seungcheol ran his hands through his hair as he finished up his profit and loss statements for the month. It had been a good month. In fact, an extraordinarily good month, which also meant that there were many more transactions to account for. In the past, he probably would’ve rather walked off of a bridge than do his P&Ls, but the spreadsheets that you’d help build for him were a genuine lifesaver. You’d even helped with figuring out how to automate data downloads from the PoS system which saved him and Wren a huge amount of headache. He really needed to treat you to dinner or something as a thank you.

[seungcheol]: ‘when are you free?’

    You stared at your phone. What the hell was in the water today? Your heart had jumped when you’d seen Seungcheol’s text. You were of two minds: one wanted to read and respond to it immediately while the other wanted to throw the phone into a garbage chute. As usual, you let both sides percolate before reaching a happy compromise. You read the text but didn’t respond until later.

[yn]: ‘kind of depends. what for?’

[seungcheol]: ‘i want to take you out.’

[seungcheol]: ‘as a thank you for the p&l spreadsheets’

    Your hopes rose and fell just as quickly as you read the texts in sequence. It was a professional matter.

[yn]: ‘that’s not necessary! friends help each other’

    His brow scrunched upon reading the word ‘friend’. It sent such a pang through his chest that he wasn’t expecting, but he felt persistent today.

[seungcheol]: ‘i dont see why that should stop me from showing you that i appreciate you. let me know when you’re free for dinner’

Your heart flip flopped in your chest. How could you get through a dinner with him when just a text affected you like this? And yet you had no valid reason to say no.

…

    You tapped your toe nervously as you waited for Seungcheol. You had decided on Friday after work and he had insisted on driving you, because he had wanted to keep the restaurant a surprise. So here you were, 6:12 pm on Friday and incredibly, unreasonably nervous about dinner. You wondered if you could still cancel.

[seungcheol]: ‘here’

“So much for that,” you muttered to yourself before stepping out of your apartment. The only indication of dress code that Cheol had given you was ‘don’t look like a hobo’, so you’d chosen a simple black dress with a colorful and fun cardigan. There was a slight chill in the air, so you pulled the cardigan a little tighter around yourself as you climbed into his car.

“Hey,” he broke into a smile as soon as he saw you. “You look nice.”

“Thanks,” you replied as you buckled your seatbelt. You gave him a quick once over as he backed out of the parking space. He was dressed in all black and the visual focal point was a half-pearl, half-chain choker necklace that really stood out. “Oh I like that!”

“I thought you might,” he grinned at you as he leaned back, settling into his seat after getting onto the highway. “It seems your kind of style,” he explained when your brows furrowed.

“Ah,” you nodded, not quite sure what to say. “So where are we eating, will you tell me now?”

“Yes. We’re going to Kyōten, in the city.”

“What?!” you glanced at him, slightly alarmed, “That’s kind of a haul!”

“It’s not too bad. Plus our reservation is at 7:30. I budgeted enough time.”

“Still, you don’t have to drive that far! We could’ve eaten somewhere in town,” you grumbled.

“I’ve been wanting to try this place too. Not everything’s about you, baby,” he teased. This was true in part. Seungcheol was interested in the omakase menu at this restaurant, but he likely wouldn’t have gone by himself. “How’s work been, by the way? I feel like I haven’t seen you around much lately.”

    You flushed at the moniker ‘baby’ before pushing through it to answer him. It was true, you’d been working a handful of extra shifts at work here and there in preparation for the holiday season. But you’d also been making yourself scarce because you still couldn’t control the physical reaction that you sometimes had to Seungcheol. You omitted that part in your answer, but did share a handful of funny stories that had happened at work lately. Seungcheol, in turn, updated you on some of the interesting happenings at the studio as of late. Hoshi had finally been able to do the largest tiger flash that he had available, which had been incredibly exciting to him. Joshua had attended the annual APP conference and made a lot of good contacts. The studio was working out details on a guest piercer spot in the near future. Before you knew it, you had pulled into the parking ramp near the restaurant.

“Oh it’s windy!” you remarked as you stepped out of the car.

“Here,” Seungcheol pulled a spare puffer jacket out of his backseat and handed it to you. You’d wrapped it around yourself gratefully as you completed the short walk to Kyōten.

“We have a reservation for 7:30. Seungcheol,” he informed the hostess. She nodded kindly and led you through the dark space towards the sushi bar. You remarked at the beautiful architecture and decor as you hopped onto the bar stool. “I’ll just stand, if that’s okay?” he asked the hostess, tucking his stool slightly to his left under the bar.

“Have you all done this before?” you asked the people sitting next to you as you waited.

“No, we haven’t!” they shook their heads, “Have you?”

“Oh thank god! No, I definitely haven’t. You haven’t either, right?” you asked Seungcheol, realizing you didn’t know.

“No,” he shook his head.

“Don’t be nervous! Just eat what they give you,” the couple on the other side of the bar from you smiled kindly. “The chefs here are great, they’re very interactive and fun. Just have a good time.”

    Reassured now that the ice was broken, the six of you chatted before the chef came. The pair next to you shared that they were celebrating their second anniversary. They had also driven in and were staying for a long weekend in the city.

“That’s so fun, I love that! We’re just here for the night,” you smiled at them, the sake warming you from the inside out.

“What about you two? Is this a special occasion?”

“Sort of,” Seungcheol answered, draping his arm across the back of your stool as he did so. “It’s a thank you dinner for YN. She’s been a huge help with my business this year, so I thought I ought to show her my appreciation properly.”

“What do you do?” Miseon asked curiously.

“I run a tattoo and piercing studio,” he answered.

    As he explained in more detail, you felt like your back was itching, the way you were hyper aware of his arm draped behind you. Seungcheol had gotten closer and closer to you as he’d engaged in the conversation with Miseon and Nuri. It wasn’t like you weren’t used to physical closeness with him, but the interior of this restaurant was so intimately lit that it tricked you into overthinking the whole situation. Even after the chef arrived and dinner commenced, he didn’t distance himself from you at all.

“Would you like to join us for a few drinks? We’re having such fun with you!” Nuri asked once you were all back on the sidewalk.

    Seungcheol looked to you, indicating that he was game. The way you smiled back at him, flushed in the apples of your cheeks, made his breath hitch.

“Sure!” you nodded excitedly. You’d also really enjoyed Nuri and Miseon and were happy to keep the night going.

    The four of you did some quick googling before settling on a bar a few blocks away. At the second crosswalk, you’d been a little too engaged in the conversation and nearly stepped into oncoming traffic. Without thought, Seungcheol had hooked his arm around your waist to pull you back and simply left it there. Your eyes flew to him at this touch. He was looking straight ahead and you were surprised when the idea of planting a kiss along his jaw popped into your mind. You flushed and shook your head when his head turned to look at you again.

    The bar was cute and the next hours passed quickly as you chatted with Nuri and Miseon and enjoyed the ambiance and music. A few times you had looked up to see Seungcheol’s dark eyes trained on you from across the bar and you’d flushed each time. Before too long you were saying your goodbyes and driving back home. The car was quiet as you and Seugcheol both reflected on the night.

    Even though he had framed it up as a ‘thank you’ dinner, you felt like that label didn’t quite fit. You might have been overthinking it, but Kyōten had been so intimate and the way that Seungcheol’s touches seemed to linger felt different than your usual closeness. You’d also been mistaken as a couple a few times and neither of you had bothered to correct them, which you usually did. Perhaps it was the context of being in a city you didn’t live in, but it just didn’t seem important this time.

    Seungcheol tapped his fingers against the gearshift as he drove. He’d known Kyōten might be a little more romantic than your typical dinner with a friend, but he’d chosen it because he’d overheard you share with Wren that you were really interested in trying omakase style dining. It hadn’t been totally conscious on his part, but he’d found himself finding ways to be closer to you throughout the evening and he’d been surprised at how you’d responded. You hadn’t shied away from his touch and he’d seen you blush a few times throughout the night in ways that made him wonder if his attraction towards you wasn't completely one sided.

“Did you have fun?” he asked, glancing towards you as he drove down the dark roads.

“Yes,” you beamed at him, “Although you spent entirely too much money, Cheol.”

“Hey!” he cut you off with a stern look, “I told you, this is a show of my appreciation. Let me just appreciate you.”

“Hm,” you pursed your lips at him, trying and failing to not imagine those words in a different context.

    Seungcheol pressed his tongue against his cheek. He’d always enjoyed the way you reacted when he teased you.

“Thanks for driving,” you threw him a smile before reaching for the door handle. You were eager to get out of this car, which felt entirely too hot right now.

“I’ll walk you,” he announced, leaving the car as well and stepping to your side.

“Oh?” you were surprised. This was not typical.

“I really enjoyed tonight,” he commented as you stepped onto the front stoop of your apartment building.

“Me too!” you beamed, eyes creasing softly at him.

“I want to tell you something,” he cleared his throat and your heart stopped.

“O-kay,” you nodded a moment later when you were actually able to retrieve your voice.

“I-, uh,” he cleared his throat again when he tried to speak. “You are very important to me, so I want you to know that nothing has to change between us after I say what I say.”

    You blinked at him, heart racing so fast that you were worried you wouldn’t be able to hear him over its beating.

“My life has changed a lot since you moved back. I am closer to my friends, the shop is doing really well, and I have a cat that I guess I love now. And that’s mostly because of you, so thank you for that. But also, I, uh, my feelings about you have changed. I think about you often and my house honestly just feels empty when you’re not there. So I like you,” he felt like he was shouting now, so he tried to reign it in, “I like you and you don’t have to say anything, I just want you to know.”

    Your brain had screeched to a halt and you were frozen throughout most of his confession. The cogs started turning again as he planted a soft kiss on your forehead and let you know he’d text you tomorrow. He was back in his car when you’d gathered yourself enough to run after him.

“Hey!” you practically jumped out in front of his car as he tried to leave the parking spot.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” he shouted, jumping out of the car after slamming on the brakes and putting it back in park.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” You couldn’t explain why, but you were fuming. “You need to be less careless with your words!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Seungcheol threw his hands up, completely caught off guard by the fact that you were…yelling at him?

“You can’t just call me ‘good girl’ while you’re tattooing my inner thigh or tell me you like me and then leave? What about me and my sanity?”

“What?” Seungcheol’s eyebrows raised into his hairline as he processed what you had said. Surely you didn’t mean…?

    He was taking too long to understand so you walked towards him, grabbed him by that damned pearl chain necklace, and pulled him into a kiss. He was surprised for just a moment before he was kissing you back intently.

“Were you doing it on purpose?” you asked between kisses.

“What?” he asked, not totally grasping what you were asking.

“Was it on purpose?” you reiterated, fingers teasing at the hairs on the back of his neck. “Your little touches, grabbing my waist? You were driving me crazy,” you exhaled sharply.

    Seungcheol paused at this confession, drawing back to look at you fully. His eyes raked over you and you grew hot under his gaze.

“It wasn’t, but I guess I couldn’t help myself,” he chuckled, lips curling into a half smile.

“Turn your car off,” you demanded and Seungcheol was more than happy to comply.

[techramonic]

The most ironic thing about Elliot Rodger is that in his attempt to prove that all women are shallow, he proved that not all women are shallow.

My Twisted World: An Analysis on Elliot Rodger's Manifesto

This is a great take. Thank you! I've been meaning to talk about this matter after reading the first few pages of Elliot's Manifesto.

note: Thank you for Antimatter_42 on reddit, since a lot of the information sourced on this analysis was from their reddit post, “Elliot Rodger: A Psycho-Lingustic Profile” on r/TrueCrimeDiscussion. Other information is from my own analysis while reading Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto: “My Twisted World”.

Elliot Rodger was actually a normal guy. People on reddit would often question why this guy was lonely. Why did no one consider him attractive enough to be in a relationship with him? He had the looks, the wealth, practically almost everything a girl would want, right? The reason why no one approached him was because he was shallow.

Here are some of the aspects of his personality and life that could better explain why:

CHILDHOOD

I currently have been reading his manifesto and he had a seemingly good childhood. He was a nice kid who lived a nice life. Up until his parent’s divorce. Even until then, he would still spend time with both sides of his family, who both treated him with wealth. On his first birthday, he had already been to France, then lived in Sussex, went on a vacation to his mother’s home country Malaysia, took a trip to Spain, then Greece, then grew up from ages 5 to 9 in California. He travelled a lot.

First observation, he places so much of his worth on materialistic things that it fully consumes him when he fails to become what he isn’t. He has exhibited this fixation at a very young age. Just when he moved to Topanga Elementary School, by the age of six, he had already developed a view on the world that separates people by their differences: the “cool kids” and the “losers”. He considered the cool kids as the higher-class, the ones who are privileged with garnering attention even if they did the bare-minimum. He even went so far as to dye his hair blonde to appear more white because of the predominantly white population, and even tried to pick up on skating because he thought it would make him cooler. This was the first red flag, because instead of accepting things and bettering himself, he chose to change aspects of his life to better fit people's "standards", when in truth, that was only a standard he set for himself because he was insecure.

RACIAL HIERARCHY

Elliot is an interesting case because he has no sense of self-worth. He is so fixated on hierarchy that he constantly demeans his own kind. He’s very racist, particularly and most fixated on Asians. Elliot is Asian-European himself, his father is English and his mother was of Chinese descent. Yet he was so focused on how this makes him less because he considered whiteness as a prestige. He has made several comments regarding how no woman would find Asian men to be attractive and it seems like he has placed whiteness on a pedestal that somehow is highest in the racial hierarchy.

He was also very fixated on his looks. He was vain, to be short. He has repetitively mentioned how he hated his hair, his looks, and even his height. From things he can control and others of which he can’t, all these aspects of him seem to tie into him being mixed. He thought that this difference further alienated him when in truth, it really didn’t. Sure, he was bullied for being physically weak and short but he shouldn't blame that on his descent, for that wasn't something in his control. He could've went to the gym and worked on himself, it might've helped him feel better, but he then only saw this problem as "being mixed is a form of inferiority", because this made him “undesirable”. He is not as fair-skinned, he is blonde, he didn’t have blue eyes, and he was not as tall as the other kids simply because he was not them. He changes parts of himself to better fit the narrative of being “cool”. To him, it’s all a part of growing up and fitting in but he fails to see that the more he takes parts of himself for people to like him and focus on him, the more it just makes him hollow.

Elliot’s childhood and teen years, best summed up, is a fixation on trying to keep up with those who are higher on the social status ladder and this continued to his later years.

EXPOSURE TO PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXIST / MISOGYNISTIC MEDIA

He was also more lonely during his teen years, 13 years old according to his manifesto, he stopped having contact with his only friends because they started having their own separate lives together, making him spend more time alone by himself (Rodger, 2014, pg. 38). This was when Elliot first recounted his exposure to pornography by catching a teenager watch it on Planet Cyber.  He said he was “traumatized” by how two people could do such a thing and call it love. He didn’t know about sex up until then and this explicit exposure truly “damaged” him, according to his words himself. Though he did feel aroused, he was more guilty and confused.

This was the pinnacle of Elliot’s misery. A kid who searches for validation with his looks, now searches for it with sexual gratification as well. He only found himself as wanted if girls flocked over to him. He had the misogynistic mindset that his worth is only measured by how many girls he could get and how fast he'd lose his virginity. Especially with the stereotypical portrayal of media influencing teen boys with the concept of "cool" guys having lots of girls, treating them like objects and trophies, while nerds and "losers" have none. With this, he did not even make any effort to do his part. It was almost always one-sided, his friends would say, where he would expect women to just swoon over him because he exists, because he is a man. 

ENTITLEMENT

Furthermore, initially, his middle school years at Pinecrest were pleasant according to him. He even talked to girls and even danced with a girl during a school dance (Rodger, 2014, pg. 29). However, things eventually became difficult as he found it harder to socialize and was also bullied in his later years. According to his friends, he barely even talked to women but still complained no woman wanted to talk to him. He just expected them to approach him.

Elliot also had  a record for being entitled or spoiled. Even as a kid, he would complain about things that were small, like when on his first birthday, he cried that his friend got the first slice of his cake, which was understandable but still relatively small; or when he refused to sit crossed-legged for his class picture and was the only boy who didn’t do it after the teachers gave up on persuading him; or when he threw a fit that he didn’t get his hair fully-dyed as blonde because the hairdresser said he was too young. This transcended to his adult years.

More on his latter years in life, he attended Pierce College and found it rather pleasant compared to former schools, but after a while, found it disheartening after seeing a lot of couples on campus, which shifted his fixation from school to getting a girlfriend, so much so that he dropped out and enraged his step-mother. Elliot had this hatred for his step-mother, Soumaya, which was mentioned in the book as well. He considered his dad to be “weak” for following her orders around, when in truth, she was only trying to teach Elliot a lesson about independence.

At his mother’s insistence, Elliot began looking for a job and eventually found work with a family friend on a house construction project. He felt more comfortable with this job, seeing it as helping rather than typical employment. After getting his driver’s license, Elliot enrolled in summer classes at Moorpark College but struggled with attendance, again due to his jealousy of campus couples. He dropped out midway through, briefly worked as a janitor at an airport office, and quit after one day. Knowing his mother would be upset, he reenrolled at Moorpark but eventually dropped out again (Rodger, 2014, pg. 70). Upon learning of Elliot’s decision to drop out again, his parents decided he would move to Santa Barbara, where he would live alone in an apartment paid for by his mother, receive a $500 monthly allowance from his father, and enroll in classes at Santa Barbara Community College (Rodger, 2014, pg. 77). 

CONCLUSION

Elliot is insistent on the idea that “women are shallow.” when in truth, it was him all along. No man is entitled to force a woman to give them their love and attention, even to buy it off of them. No one has absolutely any obligation to love someone because the other sees it as a form of acceptance or validation. Self-worth comes from yourself, not from others. 

Due to Elliot’s constant fixation on trying to be accepted, he lost himself and the identity that made him authentic and less shallow. If only he stuck to being genuine, then surely, he wouldn’t have been so lonely. It’s like seeing a kid who was sheltered all his life finally open his eyes to the cruelty of the world and because he thinks he can get whatever he wants, he feels disgustingly hateful whenever he doesn’t.

Additionally, due to the unfortunate events that have subsequently happened in the later years of his life, he was driven to a point of madness. His best friend ended their fourteen-year friendship due to Elliot's constant complaints about not having a girlfriend, his stepmother cut ties with him,, he got beaten up while he was drunk and desperate to find a girlfriend, the cherished gold necklace given to him by his grandmother was robbed, further drove him to the tragic decision to commit his crime and suicide.

Concluding, Elliot was the epitome of shallowness. He wanted everything even if he did the bare-minimum. It wasn’t the problem of the second party, it was him, and because he never realized that and only further saw gratification of his actions from both the media and guys who sympathize with him because they also could not get women themselves and are too caught up with their misery to work on themselves instead, he was convinced that his crime was the only way for the world to give him the attention he desperately wanted.

[thenextdawn-temporarilyclosed]

is it possible for a Wednesday x Reader where they are childhood friends but Reader went overseas and years later Nevermore has a new transfer besides Wednesday and that is reader but Reader is different compared to the young Reader Wednesday knew because Reader lost all memories when reader was young and Reader today is a prisoner who used to be a assassin (just like Black Widow but recently cured from brainwashing) and is staying in Nevermore while waiting for final punishment?

Prisoner of Mistakes

Word count: 2.3K

Warnings: mentions of Gore, Violence and Blood

There you go! I had a lot of fun writing this so thank you for the request! I did put a lot of effort in this so hopefully you like it!🖤✨

———

You and Wednesday were both kids when you met for the first time. You were older than her by 3 years, but you were still really good friends. You would play together since you had very similar interests. The way Wednesday grew up never bothered you, you always liked everything that was horror, killing, blood. So it was really easy for you to be friends with Wednesday. You would play all kinds of games, hell you even helped her dig up graves or make autopsies.

One day though when you were around 10, your family decided to move across the world to a scientist, that could help study your ability since no one could find a way to understand it. No one ever managed to figure out what it really was but it messed with your brain and it definitely was not something good. You never got to say goodbye to your childhood best friend because the decision to move overseas was so abrupt, and in your head and heart you never accepted it.

And for the first time you moved you never stopped going around the world, most specifically through hospitals. No one could pinpoint what it was you had, if it was an illness, if it was an ability but you were starting to get so tired of this. You just wanted to live a normal life as a normal girl and have friends, but you were never allowed that.

Then the worst thing happened. While performing an experiment on you, a doctor made a terrible mistake, he hit the wrong button on his machine and ended up erasing all kind of memory you had. Ever since then, your personality completely changed and kept on changing. You had lost yourself, you didn’t recognize yourself nor your parents and everything your brain had was long gone.

Talking about losing your way, you became everyone’s worst nightmare. You were now 16 and a serial killer. You were ruthless, they way you killed people was unbelievable to everyone. you cut their body parts, opened them up and mixed their organs around all while your victims were still alive. You enjoyed hearing their scream and lose their breaths before dying. Probably this “gore” part of you is the only thing that remained in your brain ever since you were a kid, given the fact that you’ve always liked this kind of stuff.

The way you would always get away with it was unbelievable too. Seeing how the victim had been reduced, everyone always thought it was an animal. You got away with it till some day you didn’t. At 17 you made a mistake when killing a guy and left a trace, which led the investigators straight to you. By now your parents had completely disconnected from you and changed their names. Not that you would remind them anyways. Of course you had a trial, but somehow the judge gave you two choices. You could either live forever in prison or go to Nevermore.

You didn’t know what Nevermore was, but you chose that. Apparently you had to spend there a couple years, and see if you would come back to your senses, see if somehow the wrong experiment would reverse itself. The judge knew that all of this wasn’t your fault, and he hoped that in Nevermore you would find something that triggered you and made you go back to the sweet girl you were before you took this road full of everyone else’s mistakes.

The day you arrived at Nevermore was an intense day. Nobody would treat a killer like a normal person, right? Right. Everyone at the school had heard that a killer would be coming to their school to study, but no one quite believed it until you showed up. At your arrival of course you weren’t alone. You got off the police car with police on both of your sides. You were cuffed and as you were being escorted to the principal’s office you walked through the quad. As soon as you did everyone went quiet and stared at you. You looked at them with a psycho-killer-smile and waved at them.

“Hey, look in front of you psycho” one of the guards said as he roughly grabbed you by your head and forced you to look forward. “Alright alright, it’s not like m I’m gonna kill people here with you around, morons”. They pushed you forward at your reply as you kept on heading towards the principal’s office.

Wednesday looked at you, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she made sure that what she thought was right. “Enid I think I know her” she said, looking at the slightly taller girl next to her. “Why am I not surprised you know a worldwide known killer?” Enid replied not surprised at all, arms dropping on her sides. “She was my childhood best friend, she wasn’t like this. All I know is that she went overseas and then I knew nothing, but she wasn’t a killer, not at all” Wednesday finished her speech being sure of what she said, like most times.

After having talked to the principal she decided that it was necessary that she talked to students and teachers, so she called everyone in the quad and started listening. “May I have everyone’s attention please?” Weems started as you stood by her side, still handcuffed and with cops at your sides as everyone turned to look at her. “From today till the end of her studies, (Y/N) will be studying with us. Keep in mind that she’s a worldwide known killer so make sure not to get too close to her, stay away from her room and most of all DO NOT bother her. She’s manipulative so she’ll get you to do what she wants if you let her so I repeat, do not get close to her. She’s here on court’s orders so she’s not leaving anytime soon.”

That day finished like that, with you going to your room and the guards leaving the school, though making sure that your handcuffs were still on. There was no way they were letting you stay here without them even for the night, although the police officers would be coming back the next day, and they did. After having dressed up they escorted you to the greenhouse for mrs Thornhill’s class. The class had already started when you got in, of course you were late because you were trying to escape.

“Get inside psycho, if you continue we won’t hesitate to hit you and you know that so move your ass!” One of the police officers said as he pushed you, almost making you fall to the floor. Your balance was limited to a minimum because of the handcuffs. Everyone’s eyes turned to you as you had interrupted their lesson. “Fine okay! There’s no need for you to threaten me, jeez” you said as you headed to your desk. Of course it was away from everyone else. “I would think about what you do before bothering her. You both know how she can be right? I wouldn’t feel so powerful if I were you. She could kill you in a second and I’ll stay and enjoy if she does” Wednesday started.

“Thank you shorty, but I don’t need you to defend me,” you raised your hands, showing her the handcuffs “I have these so they’re right after all” you said smirking. You may look like a psycho, but deep down you hated how you were being treated. You were still a teenager. Wednesday looked at you with confusion on her face - for how noticeable it was - and turned back to Enid. “She didn’t recognize me” she told the blonde, and she turned to reply “well I would be happy about that, at least she doesn’t have a reason to kill you right?” The blonde ended the conversation like that. Deep down Wednesday was sorry that her childhood best friend didn’t recognize her.

The following days were pretty much the same, you would get pushed around by those idiots and a couple of times they beat you in your room for the bad replies you gave them. You had started submitting to them, having finally understood that there wasn’t a way out from this living hell and that no one would ever treat you like a normal girl.

This time you were in your Biology class, of course in your alone desk. You weren’t listening to the lesson at all, you were just writing on your diary. It was the only place where you had privacy so you would vent and write all kinds of things there. Then suddenly you felt a presence at your side, and realized that the girl you had learned to be Wednesday Addams had moved to sit next to you.

“Addams maybe you should go sit somewhere else” the teacher suggested, but she quickly shut him up “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. If needed I even know how to defend myself so don’t worry about me” he nodded hesitantly and let her do. “What do you want Addams?” You started, closing your diary as she noticed the bruises on your arms, but decided to say nothing about it.

“Do you remember me?” The brunette asked without thinking of it. “No I don’t. Why would I?” You were quick to reply. “We played together when we were kids and I used to be your best friend. Then you moved when you were 10 and I never knew anything about you” she said, not once looking at you in the face. You wondered why. “Yeah well I lost all of my memory when I was 13 so for my cute little brain my life started at 13” you said and then everything went quiet for the rest of class, until Wednesday got up and sat back at her place next to Enid.

Even more time passed since then and things didn’t really change much. In school you had learned to behave and always went to class on time, but when you were in your room you would always end up fighting with the guards, who always ended up beating you until you passed out, and they also started tightening your cuffs, which started cutting on your wrists and leaving dark bruises and dried blood.

The day after the 100th fight with the cops you went to class with tears in your eyes, which you refused to let go. Arms full of bruises, yet everyone refused to say anything. You were breaking and you had no one to talk to. By now of course you regretted what you did, but at this point there was no going back. Nobody cared about your state, except for Wednesday.

Recently she had been Sending Thing to your room to check on you, luckily you hadn’t seen him. He saw every day how you would get beat up and of course told Wednesday. One day she finally decided to act upon this. Luckily the guards were only outside of your room so she only had to distract them to get inside and help you. Thing took care about this and Wednesday got in your room. She caught you crying on the floor because of the pain.

“…(Y/N)?” Wednesday asked quietly as she walked to you, kneeling down in front of you “are you okay?” She asked again. “Addams get away from here before I kill you!” You warned her in between sobs, but she didn’t budge from where she was “I’m not leaving. I came to help you” she said and without thinking of it she put a hand on your shoulder, but she didn’t expect a reaction from you.

She didn’t expect you to jump up on her and pin her to the floor, a murderous expression on your face as you looked at her while breathing heavily, but suddenly it all came back to you. 

How you would always play with her

How you loved your parents

How your parents loved you

How you were such a happy little girl

But then came the experiments

And with it the pain

And the depression

The killing.

Suddenly you remembered everything and it gave you a headache as you quickly stepped away from her and crawled backwards to the wall. Wednesday looked at you unfazed, like she expected it from you. But she didn’t expect you to pull back that way.

“What’s happening?” She asked you as she stood up and once again walked to you. “I- I remember everything..” you told her and began crying once again “I’m sorry- I’m so sorry Wednesday I didn’t mean to do anything of that- it wasn’t my fault” you started rantling. You were apologizing to her, she did nothing wrong but she knew that you just needed to say that.

———

From then on you turned once again to the girl you used to be, with the only difference that no one trusted you here at Nevermore, even though Wednesday told everything what had happened, obviously after you had given her consent. The court has been notified about this events and today you were going through another trial to validate what had been said.

They asked you questions of the past to which you replied, and then they called Wednesday to testify that you were back to normal. When they told you you were free to go you breathed of relief but then you asked for one thing you never thought you’d ask.

To go back to Nevermore.

[the-wolfbats]

Thoughts on the Redwall Series overall 

What started as a walk down memory lane ended up being a multi month reading project. With notes!

A lot of how these books are stereotyped is not true. Only a handful of them end in Babies Ever After. There may be a riddle or a poem but it's not taking up most of the story.

The lack of immediate continuity after book 6 is a little sad but it gives a real sense of time to things, which I like. The Lord of Mossflower exists in Mattimeo, but hundreds of years later in Loamhedge, it doesn't. Brockhall is rediscovered twice! That’s kind of what I liked about Mistmantle, it was only 5 books but there were enough characters that yes, some became parents, but the young ones didn’t. It’s only at the end of the series where some even get married, and it’s not EVERY animal.

Until I reread these, I didn't look at these from the point of anti-colonialization. But, yeah it's THE recurring theme.   

colonizers (vermin) are harassing the people who already live there. Who are native to the land. They're trying to enslave or kill them.  

They're trying to take over either redwall, or mossflower, or basically any place mentioned. 

There is a minor fighting force but the majority just want to chill. A few outliers exist because they've lost families or communities. And they get stopped. This book series is essentially a minimally colonized world.

 Green Isle is a colonized area where the indigenous population fights back and eventually succeeds. Mossflower is eventually freed from the Greeneyes. 

Rhulain and Taggerung come at this from different angles, and while both are hampered by the series structure a bit, enough good shines through. (I lurked the r/Redwall subreddit and a lot of people seem to dislike Taggerung, maybe they were thinking about it from my angle initially - see my thoughts on Taggerung post in my Redwall tag for how my mind was changed).

There's also the heavy religion (Western Christianity) parallels which is why so many conservative kids and young adults attached themselves to this series. And yet they miss major parts of the entire concept. Ah well. 

 I did find it tiresome that as soon as a maid is mentioned to be pretty she's going to be the wife of the male protagonist. They all prove capable and varied but the immediate reaction of pretty is tiring. Note how Mariel is never referred to as pretty by Dandin, and they don't get married but remain partners presumably through their lives. Doomwyte is terrible about this. Come to think of it, Rogue Crew is like a homage but is done much better than Doomwyte, and it works on expanding the world in ways  we never get to see officially :( Maybe we should work on it ourselves. We could do that.

While the squirrels have no subculture, the shrews only have a subculture (arguably two worth pygmy shrews) There's not lone shrews simply existing outside of Redwall or the Guosim. 

Any headcanons about things in story?

I choose to believe Martha spent a time as Abbess after Fenna died. She would be the only noted hare ruler of Redwall. 

There was a squirrel society in Mossflower but it eventually migrated to the area where Sunflash and Skarlath stayed the winter with the mole and hedgehog families.

What books were your favorite?

I've ranked them in groups of 5 of published order (or in the case of the last 2, just 2.) 

*Lord Brocktree was my favorite as a child and frankly it’s still enjoyable. I won't include it in any ranking to keep it fair. 

The Pleasant Surprises

Loamhedge (probably bc I listened to the audiobook. I liked how there was quite a mournful tone throughout, from going to a place full of life to a dead Abbey.)

Eulalia!

The Long Patrol

Martin The Warrior (while it felt a bit long, it was so nice to see a different side of the continent. It wasn't just Mossflower.)

Taggerung.

The Rogue Crew

Side note; I’d love to see someone superimpose the map of some of the books on others. Like where did Martin wander in his book with Grumm, the hedgehog, and Rose compared to the Patrol in The Rogue Crew? He was born on the northern shores - are they the same shores as the Crew? 

The Disappointments

High Rhulain - It’s just not interesting outside of what Green Isle existing implies.

Mariel of Redwall - I think he got better at writing female characters, and it’s not as if Mariel is awful - she’s fairly well rounded, being headstrong and angry as well as needing support - her personality is just kind of There.

Half of the Bellmaker. The part with Southward is dull as dishwater the part with the seafaring is almost enjoyable. The Redwall part is, oddly, the best part.

The one with more than meets the eye lorewise 

High Rhulain 

The one with the best songs 

Loamhedge (the spring song)

High Rhulain (the honeybee song and the calling of the clans)

Marlfox (Mother Nature Dear)

The Long Patrol (over the hills)

Lord Brocktree (a hare is a marvelous creature)

The Rogue Crew (The song Lancejack Sage sings at the funeral)

The best

Mice: Rose, Lycian, Nimbalo

Hare: Maudie, Dottie, Boorab, Martha, Rockjaw

Squirrels: Fwirl, Song, Doogy 

Shrews: Basically all of ‘em, if I had to name one, Flib, if I had to name two, Dandy

Moles: again, most of ‘em. Though it’s funny how they’re championed as beings with good sense, but apparently not good enough sense to ever be elected as Abbott or Abbess.

Hedgehogs: The family of theatrical troupe hedgehogs in Sable Quean, Tansy, Posy

Otter: Mhera, Kroova, Skor, Ruggan, and Swiffo

Birds: Orocca and Tauroc, any bird from the North, Rocangus and MacTalon

Moles: any of the mole Dibbuns. 

Badgers: Sunflash, Cregga, Brocktree 

Major antagonists: the fractured groups of the Juskarath, Tsarmina, Ungatt Trunn, Slagar, Raga Bol, Razzid Wearat.

There was probably going to be more but I got a concussion and forgot

[crushedsweets]

Any Jeff hcs?? (Your art is absolutely amazing)

i make him evil. ok jk but also im serious. im mostly just gonna cover his backstory in my au, rather than his current part in it.

cw for brief mentions of animal abuse, bullying, the usual. AGAIN THIS IS FOR MY AU !! also tysm :3..

liu is about 4-6 years older than jeff. they lived somewhere in the midwest until jeff was about 10.

they were both raised by incredibly good parents and had a very strong support system, always visiting their grandparents, big christmas every year, parents always go to open house/parent-teacher conferences, etc. tried getting their kids into sports, would go to every game, literally just the stereotypical great parent. not even a secret "ooo behind closed doors they r actually abusive...!" thing theyre literally just good.

jeff was always a bit more on the aggressive side, something they especially noticed when he was 5 and could not be left alone with a single fucking pet. he'd yank at and shake anything small enough to pick up, and punch and kick anything too big to pick up. every family pet was scared of him.

even at school, he was a bully - it started as typical grade school shit, putting gum in girls hairs, stealing peoples belongings, pushing kids off the play structures. he targeted girls especially. he's been warned, suspended, expelled - but his dad got a job offer in the east coast that they couldnt really ignore

he was 12 when he started harassing a girl, following her around the playground, calling her a slut, yanking her hair, spitting on her, etc - and eventually, her brother and his friends stepped in.

thiiis is where i wanted to put randy and his friends in. theyre older kids, around 14 and still more on the mean side, but they didn't just randomly target jeff for fun bc he's "the new kid". just like jeff harassed that girl, they began harassing him - but of course with the strength of 3 teenage boys, rather than an 12 yr old. liu would interfere when he could, but he was still a student and began working his first job by this point.

jeff got into physical fights with them for weeks, but he was quick to turn it into something bloody and brought a pocket knife. this time the fight occurred in front of jeffs house, when his parents were at work, and liu ended up running out to make them cut it out. he tried to grab the knife out of jeffs hands, he tried to stop his brother, but jeff was serious about what he wanted - and he wanted to fucking stab randy

so he did, right in the stomach. it was nothing fatal.

liu took the fall, being 16 and terrified of what could happen to jeff if he landed himself in juvenile hall - the other 3 boys were content with this, knowing it meant jeff really didn't have anyone to defend him by this point. thinking it would fuck with jeff even more . . BUT JEFFS A LITTLE SHIT he doesnt fucking careee . something about "i never asked him to take the blame that shits on him" or whatnot.

but obv once randy recovered fully it got worse. it went from schoolyard level harassment to borderline stalking, robbing him, holding him down so randy could fucking stomp on him, so on and so forth.

and eventually the bleach happened, and the fire happened, and it didn't really have anything special or involve a birthday party or whatever . it was just another insane fucking attack on jeff, although randy and them didn't exactly expect the fire to spread so fucking quickly - they just splashed some gas at his feet, threw a match, though it would scare him and maybe fuck up his pants. really did NOT think that shit through

jeff recovered in the hospital, and the trio decided to leave him alone. they were little shits who took it too far, but they werent trying to do all that. jeff didnt snitch, he didnt want them to get put away . he wanted to keep going, obviously

things settled down for a while. jeff was waiting and waiting and waiting. his parents were mortified, they rarely spoke to him now. required family dinners at the dining table turned to just his parents eating together, liu in juvie and jeff in his room. jeff began getting violent towards his parents as well, especially his mom - he started spiraling after the fire, especially since the trio weren't bothering him anymore and it was driving him nuts. he would do freaky shit, showing up at their houses now, shattering their windows, killing their pets. they'd come and beat his ass, and he'd do it again. nobody wanted to get their parents involved by this point, they all did too much shit - but jeff was getting UNBEARABLE

jeff eventually was around 15 or so, liu was out of juvie and 19 and in community college bc he couldnt get into any of the universities he was dreaming about.

liu wasnt nice to jeff anymore. he wasn't "hardened" by his experience in juvie or anything, but whatever he saw in jeff was NOT his little brother anymore - if jeff spoke to him, he'd ignore him. if jeff got too close, he'd shove him off. if jeff slapped their mother, liu would punch him.

liu thinks it was bound to happen. he misses his little brother, even when he was a mean little kid - but he always knew there was something realy, really fucking wrong with jeff, and when he woke up to jeff on top of him, stabbing into him , he knew it was inevitable.

liu survived, the only one in his family to do so. he wondered what he could've done to stop it, especially as other kids began showing up in the news. he wonders if he shouldve just let jeff go to juvie. he's kinda shocked at the fucked up ass police sketches that pop up, he didn't really remember seeing that damn smile when jeff was on him

jeff continues fucking shit up and is a piece of shit all around

this is already pretty long so if anyone wants a less "backstory" version of headcanons and more current stuff just lmk ;3

[blocksruinedme]

you’re mARRIED WITH A KID??? i guess i should expect that bc all types of people are on tumblr but i forget sometimes . does ur spouse know about ur blog? ur kid??

Yup, I have a spouse and a kid! I decided I didn’t want to do some announcement post, and I’d casually mention it on tumblr until someone commented. Thanks!

My spouse absolutely knows about my blog, has beta read fic, listens to me go on and on and on about blorbos, teases me lovingly (and cleverly).

My number one, absolutely NUMBER ONE piece of relationship advice is ***ONLY be with people who you don’t have to hide anything from***, who will accept you, even if they aren’t themselves into it.

In my fandom studies, I read about the fandom pioneers, married women, mostly mothers, who were out there making smutty Kirk/Spock zines, going to cons, and hiding EVERYTHING from the husbands they were sure would divorce them. I get sad about this at least monthly.

If you can choose who you are with/marry, there’s no reason to live like that! Hiding anything is setting yourself up for a lack of true intimacy and understanding. That’s not long term happiness, that’s not knowing you can have support for *anything*. You, tumblr users, deserve to not hide yourselves in love.

I’ve had a lot of relationships, good and bad (I’m polyamorous which means a lot of options), and this is it. This is number one. BE PERCEIVED AND LOVED. 

As for my kid, they can’t even see in color yet, just born this summer. 

I have thought about how I’ll handle fandom with them. Who knows what fandom I’ll be in when this comes up, but generally there’s some things I won’t have any issue sharing, like my cute stream clips. I think I’ll make sure to have some very appropriate kids writing for when we get to “your parent writes for fun”. Because kids know about R rated movies, and we’ll have media we watch that isn’t kid approved and we’ll explain why, I suspect I can make things work with “some writing isn’t for kids” until some age. There’s even “oh is it like romance novels” before it gets to the weird stuff.

Once they get older, it depends who they are, y’know? I have noooooo intent to show my kids *some* of my stuff ever. However, if we get to, like, “I’m 25 and we have a really healthy and somehow appropriate relationship talking about sex and I want to see it”, well, it’s not like I’m ashamed of what I write? But this is an issue for the 2040s, get there when we get there. 

God it’s so fricking great to have a baby! It’s been a long complicated process that started too many years ago. Calling them "Fin" online, cause I went with an ocean theme for all the baby stuff <3

Neurodivergent queer polyamorous smutty slutty freaks can have kids. People sometimes get this idea that only people who fit a certain type can have kids - and that sucks, cause I want more people like me to have kids (if they want to and are able to.) Kids are expensive, but you don't need to be pinterest perfect to be a good parent.

(PS: Infertility sucks, and I know a lot of you are still teens yourself, but if one of you, or someone you're close to, needs the infertility welcome packet, I am always happy to give someone a run down. Now, in five years, whatever. I really want to help people if I can - and I know a lot. Just give me some contact method if you send an ask. It can be really terrible and isolating. Or send them to the infertility reddit, much of reddit sucks but this places is incredibly well managed.)

[5uwabbit]

"Testing testing..The mic seems well! What a nice morning to greet everyone, Welcome to Altru inc!"

“What are you looking at? Did you finish loitering around? We have a mission to do."

“That’s Kellie??”

Kincaid background is unknown (secret) but he actually have some sort of educational background. He’s still has a skill in spotting talents out of the ordinary. The first time he met Kat she was just a troublesome kid breaking a vending machine. What impresses him more was how her parents didn’t give her an output for this? This is wasting talent!! Anyways.. when her parents were giving her a lecture for doing unforeseen robotics, he told them she would be a genius in tech. By chance, Kat was already in the best school in the area, where Kincaid is in. He now actively sponsors her. (Then they all moved to Almia in via student exchange)

Of course, given that it is an exchange program Kincaid has to keep her in check. Unfortunately, Kat is the “well now I’m not doing it now that you told me type”. So she’s giving him trouble.

Kellie was also from Fiore. He’s the son of a very popular whatever.. just think they have big influence here. He was already in Kincaid class and of course.. Kincaid is trying to get him on board with this plan. However the biggest struggle is literally convincing the boy since he’s Very. Very. unmotivated. He’s a natural social genius yet doesn’t like any interaction that doesn’t interest him.

Kellie only followed Kincaid when he mentioned they’re taking him to ranger school. Kincaid here actually works as a supervisor because Kellie has actual work in Altru including and they know Kincaid from the inside, putting trust on him. He always lived a carefree lived and his motivation is way too vague to tell. (Kincaid thinks he’s actually more at risk of drifting away from their group than Kat is)

Both Kat and Kellie were separate project. He didn’t plan for them to meet. They first began interacting in Almia Ranger School. Kat actually wonders why Kincaid needed Kellie because of course “Kincaid doesn’t really need anyone else doesn’t he?” (This leads to her investigating the organization as a whole, realizing that it’s much bigger than just robotics privileges). However instead of breaking away this strenghtened both of the two bonds.

Kat: I know your evil plans old blondie

Kincaid: what (oh sh-)

Kat: I agree

Kincaid: (huh?)

After this the two have full transparency. Anyways.. Kat realized Kellie’s background and was more like okay we’re coworkers. “I guess Kellie does play a good role in the plan..” Although…. it was kind of unexpected given Kellie were more of the “carefree type”. They got closer later on. Kat thinks Kellie should rebel more because why aren’t you extorting Kincaid more. We in this together dude!

Dear god please do not. Inspire Kellie to be like you.

-Kincaid

Also Kat suspected Kellie had relation to Kincaid at first because “He isn’t the troublesome type but still here anyway”. (Referring to some sorta detention)

Kellie knew right of the bat that Kat and Kincaid were actually allies to each other by sheer observation alone. Even when both the Professor and Kat literally seems like they only got beef with each other (This is why Isa doesn’t suspect that Kat and Kincaid is in the same faction). There will be more children dramas between R!Rhythmi, R!Keith, R!Ponte and Isa but that’s a topic for another stuff..

(Note: I put name differences for easy filtering, it also provides nice detail)

TAGGING

If I said R!Kate that means it’s Kat, R!Kate=Kat

Kate -> Kat

Kellyn -> Kellie

Isaac -> Isa

Mr. Kincaid -> Prof. Kinz (Still spelled Kincaid but again, easy filtering)

I have yet to make name diff for some :p I would love if you try to hyperanalyses who is swapped with who whether in personality or jobs. Who mirrors who designs LOL.

My take in Reverse Universe is like

Sometimes they are completely opposing themselves. Sometimes two characters swaps personality or/and jobs. Sometimes they remain the same as ever but something is off.

[alder-saan]

A knight on a white horse

Brienne of Tarth x afab reader

(I say afab bcz well... there is no trans person in GOT, I guess, so may be in this world that is not even a question. I'll try to not to gender R, but the entire plot is based on R being a single parent perceived as a mother so...)

Warnings : mention of sexual abuse and bullying, insults

Wordcount : ~3000

Angst, little fluff ?

You were the mother of a child, a wonderful little girl, but she had no father since he had decided to leave you for an other woman, before her birth. Now you two lived in your house, but a being an unmarried woman was not well thought of in your village. And this day, your daughter disappeared...

SPOILS FINAL SEASON (at the very end of the fic)

Being a single mother in this town was hard. You had been in love with a highborn man who told you he would marry you and live with you in a big castle. He told you you would never have to work, and you could spend all of your time dancing at the balls, learning how to read, how to embroider... He told you you were the one in his life, you were his soulmate. And you believed him. Because he said he loved you. But you soon understood he was lying. All of this was an horrible lie for him to had sex with you. And when he found out you were pregnant, he just left you alone. When your parent learnt you were in an outside of marriage relationship, they kicked you out.

You walked to this town and started a new life. You had to work hard, you had to sleep in stables. You needed money to find some decent home for the child you would have. Every day you would work in the fields, collecting carrots, cabbages, and other vegetables, for a miserable wage. Sometimes, your employer would try to touch you, as you were "a little whore who opened her legs to anyone and managed to get knocked up by a stranger" (why would you try to tell him that was not a stranger but the lord of the land ? It would have made no difference). Sometimes you would successfully stop him. Sometimes not.

You finally found an old woman, Ariee, who hosted you for almost nothing. She was the only really kind person here. Thanks to her, you were still alive. You just had to help her cleaning the house, fixing some broken stuff and tending the little garden in which strange plants were growing, and she allowed you to sleep in a room of her house. Even if the entire world seemed against you, you had an ally. She never blamed you for being pregnant, and she helped you giving birth to an absolute wonder you named Elsie. You asked Ariee to be her godmother. When you were working, the old woman was taking care of your daughter.

But as your daughter was growing, you were not anymore the only one to suffer from the other villagers. Elsie was 6 the first time she went back home, a huge bruise on her face. "John told me we weren't welcome here ! So I told him this was our home ! So he hit me" she said. John was a kid from the village. That was the first time you permitted her to go outside alone, and the last time. Ariee told you many times to move, to find another town somewhere else, but you knew it would be the same. And maybe you weren't going to find another nice old woman to help you. So you decided to stay. You knew you could handle this. The only thing you were afraid of, was that your daughter could not. She was at this age when girls want to make some friends. And she watched the other children playing in front of your house. She had such a sad look... But what could you do ? Let her playing with the other kids ? No, they would hurt her.

"I am sorry, Honey. You can't go with them. Remember what John did to you. I don't want this to happen again. Do you understand ?" "Yes mom... But I want to play a game..." "We can play with you, if you want" Ariee told

And so you played together.

You loved Elsie. Yes, you didn't want her at first. But in this world, she carried hope. You wished you could give her a best life. You wished a knight on his white horse would come, one day, and fall in love with her. You wished she would fall in love with him too. And you wished he would put her out of this misery.

But she was still 6. And you had to protect her by yourself until the knight would come.

When you opened your eyes, the sun was warming your skin. You slept much more than you expected. But you needed this. You stretched your arms and legs, then you sat on your bed. This night, you slept with Elsie because she was afraid of the dark. But she wasn't in the bed. No worries, it was quite late, she probably was downstairs, watching the pictures in the only book of the house (that was a gift from her father to you a few days before he knew you were pregnant), playing with Ariee or helping her to cook. She loved this. You put on a brown dress. That was your work dress. You quickly brushed your air, and went down, to eat some bread. No one was there. The old woman and your daughter had to be in the garden. You took a slice of bread and ate it, going outside. Ariee was watering plants. But no sign of your little girl.

You frowned

"Hello, Ariee" "Hello" "Do you know where Elsie is ?" "She told me she was going to see if you were still asleep, why ?" "She's not in the house" "I'll search in the house, go in the town." She said.

You nodded and ran. You were afraid. What could they do to her ? She could be in danger. The kids could be cruel, and the adults even more. You searched in the streets. The town wasn't that big. You asked your neighbours. They didn't see anything. You searched everywhere. In every little hiding place, even if it was too small or too high for her. She wasn't there. You sat on the floor, crying silently, when you heard a conversation.

You know what, I saw baby whore today. Did you ? I thought her slut of a mother never let her out... She told me she wanted to pick some flowers. And what did you reply ? That there were some in the forest. You froze. He said WHAT ? You immediately went back home.

"Have you found her ?" Ariee asked when you entered. "No I... I'm afraid she might be in the woods." "What ? How ?" "Marcus just found funny to tell her that there were flowers in the forest" "What will you do ?"

You took a knife in the kitchen

"I'll go" "I am sorry I really wish I could come with you but I am too old for that, I-" "I know, Ariee, pray for her, please"

And you left again the house, a long, sharpened knife in your hand. You were already crying. If she was lost, you had no chance to find her alive. But you didn't care. You had to find her.

You searched for maybe two hours in the woods. She was nowhere. You didn't know where you was, nor where she could be. Your eyes were filled with tears, you couldn't see anything, so you decided to stop. You rested on a tree, trying to calm down your heartbeat. You wiped a tear. After a few minutes, you were a little calmer, and you realised where you were. You were far from the town... You were alone, almost lost. No sign of civilisation here...

You smelled cooked meat in the air. You had to be near an other town... Instinctively, you walked, following the smell.

That wasn't a town. That was a man in armour, blond haired, sitting in front of a fire, you could only see his back. You almost fainted when you saw your daughter, lying on the floor next to him. She had bruises and dirt on her face. What did this man do to her ? You walked slowly towards him, trying not to make a sound, holding the knife. A twig cracked under your foot. The man stood up, drawing his sword as he turned towards you... He... She. She was so tall, her sword too... You stumbled and fell, trying to step back.

You could see she was confuse. Why would you try to attack her with this knife while she was full plate armored. As she saw the fear in your eyes, she put away her sword, and bowed down to help you.

"Don't touch me !"

She immediately walked away and watched you stood up. You still had your knife and you threatened her with it.

"Give my daughter back ! Or I'll kill you"

She didn't seem impress and just told you :

"Oh, this girl's yours ? Don't worry she's okay. She's sleeping"

You didn't know what to say. You approached Elsie, still threatening the woman with your knife. You gently shook your daughter to wake her up. She opened her eyes and you burst in tears, holding her tight.

You looked at the woman. Did you have to thank her ? You didn't know...

"I'm sorry mom... I was lost" "Don't worry my sweet child, we'll go back to our home, okay ?" "Yes" "Thank you lady-knight !" Elsie said "I told you I would find your mother, but you mother found you first" she smiled at your child. "I-I am sorry for being rude I-" you apologied "Don't worry, I am used to." "Do you travel alone ? I can give you a bed for the night if you want" "That's okay, I usually sleep outside" "But I really want to thank you. Please, accept it" "Yes ! Lady-knight ! I want to show you my home !" "O-Okay" she replied

She packed the few things she had, put out the fire and buried the bones of the rabbit she had eaten. She whistled, and a white horse appeared from among the trees.

The knight on the white horse !

She picked up Elsie to put her on the back of the horse.

"What's-What's your name, lady-knight ?" you asked "I am Brienne. And you ?" "Y/N" "Do you need help getting on the horse, Y/N ?" She said "Yes please"

She grabbed your waist and lifted you up on the horse.

Did she just- She's so tall and so strong...

You blushed. Why did you find a woman attractive ? You meant yes, she's beautiful and you wished to kiss her right now but- She took the reins to lead the horse, walking by your side. She looked at you but you seemed lost in your thought.

"Are you okay ?" "Yes, thank you Brienne. I can walk if you want to be on your horse" "That's okay, where's your village ?" "Over there" You showed a direction.

You were back in the town. Folks were looking at the three of you. Such a strange trio. A slut and her daughter on a white horse, with a giant lady in armour. They started to laugh at you, and some of the children threw you little rocks.

"I am sorry, they are like that because of me..." you said. "Don't worry. I'm used to"

You held your daughter against your chest and showed Brienne the way to your house. Elsie jumped out of the back of the horse and ran into the house.

"I'M BACK, ARIEE !"

The old woman was in the garden and came when she heard Elsie yelling. She wiped her tears and held the girl.

"Oh thanks Lord you are safe !" "Thanks to Brienne the lady-knight !" Elsie said "Yes, yes, I'm gonna give you a bath, girl" Ariee replied

She left you alone. Brienne didn't seem really comfortable. You could understand. She didn't know this house, she was a complete stranger.

"Follow me, I will show you your room"

She nodded and you went upstairs. You entered your daughter's room. Brienne was looking everything in the house with her curious blue eyes, as if she was searching for something. She was beautiful... You cleared your throat.

"This is Elsie's bedroom but she'll sleep with me for the night" "I can sleep on the floor, this was really kind of you to-" "She often sleeps with me, that will not disturb her" "O-Okay" "You should take out your armour. You don't need it here"

You approached to help her. Under her armour, she was a normal woman. Tall, yes, but normal. She wore a simple white shirt and brown pants. You could feel her back muscles under your fingers. That was quite... attractive. You were bright red at the thought she could sleep with you, gladly she couldn't see you. You tried to hide it under a poker face as she turned towards you. You smiled to her. Her cheeks were pinkish too. She didn't look at you, avoiding your gaze. Instead, she viewed the garden through the opened window.

"Are you searching for something ?" "I was just wondering where was your husband..."

You closed your eyes and sighed. So that was the time when you had to say you didn't have one and when the woman would laugh at you and insult you. You didn't want this to happen. But you didn't want to lie to her.

"I-I don't have a husband. Her father left me when I found out I was pregnant" "You raise this girl alone ?" "No, Ariee helps me" "It must be hard" "It is. Especially when every one calls me a whore" "I'm sorry" "Don't apologies for them. They don't deserve it" You sighed. Downstairs, you heard Elsie laughing. "I know how men can be... rude" she said. "I believe you"

You smiled at her, your eyes in hers. You were absorbed by her saphire colored eyes. She blushed a bit and looked away.

"I am sorry, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. Do you want to shower ? You may be hungry. We have bread and fruits-" "I am okay, really. Thank you for being so kind"

Elsie, who cleaned her face, bursted into the room and hugged Brienne's legs.

"Lady-knight, follow me, I'll show you my book ! I can't read it but there is some pictures in it !" "O-Okay, show me, Elsie"

Your daughter took one of Brienne's hand in hers and led her to the first floor. You followed them. Elsie was so cute, and Brienne too. The little girl took the book on a shelf and sat on the floor.

"Sit with me, lady-knight"

And Brienne sat. Else opened the book and searched for a very special picture you knew was her favourite.

This was a drawing of knight, that probably was a woman, fighting a bear. But as you couldn't read the story next to the image, you didn't know. Ariee couldn't read neither. But when it was time for Elsie to go to sleep and she asked a story, you would took the book and tell her what you imagine being the story of a young woman becoming a knight to save her father. You didn't know the book was a story about Brienne of Tarth. But you did notice her eyebrows when she saw the picture.

"What is this book about ?" "We don't know" you answered "No one here knows how to read" "I do" "You do ? Oh ! Can you read me the story ?" Elsie handed the book to Brienne. "Of course" She took the book.

The cover was just simple leather. No title, no ornament. She opened it. Here, in italics and gothic font, the title was written.

"Brienne the Beast..." She whispered. "Oh ! That's your name !" "I don't think that's a beautiful story. I can't read it to you" "But you told me you-" "Elsie, don't bother her, please..." you said.

Your daughter pouted and stood up. Then, she left the room, going upstairs.

"I am sorry, I hope she'll understand..."

The sun was down, you were still laughing with Brienne when Ariee went to sleep. Elsie was in bed for a long time. She was exhausted. Now you were both sitting at the table, in an awkward silent. You didn't want to go to sleep now. You wanted to talk to her a little more. You really liked her. She told you about some of her adventures. She was there for the long night. She was a hero ! You had a hero in your house. When she talked about that time, you could see in her eyes such a beautiful light. But you had no more question about her. Except for one.

"Brienne ?" "Yes ?" "That book... Was your story ?" "Oh... No. That's a story someone wrote to make fun of me." "What ? Who ?"

She laughed a bit and looked through a window.

"I don't know. And I don't care. If I wanted to know every single person who laughed at me at one point of their life..." "Do you often get mocked ?"

Her eyes rolled.

"Look at me, Y/N, I am a woman and yet I am taller than most of men. I am an ugly woman and-" "You are not." "Please, this is not funny. I know I am ugly. Don't try to make fun of me. I really like you, so please don't do it."

You cupped her face in your hands. She was confuse, you could see it in her eyes.

"Brienne, you are not ugly. I really find you attractive- I mean, If I was a man I would ask you out- I mean... You are beautiful" "Please... I am going to believe you if you keep telling me this" her tone was half whispering half pleading

It was painful, I could hear that. You kissed her cheek.

"Believe me. You are so... stunning. Oh, no, don't cry, please"

You softly smiled at her and wiped a tear with your thumb.

"Brienne, I mean it. You are beautiful" "No one ever told me that" "No one ever ?" "Well a man told me that once, but he left me so I assume it doesn't count." "How would a man leave you ?" "He loved his sister more than me..." "He is stupid. If I was a man I'd never let you down." "If I was a man I'd ask you for marriage."

You blushed. Did it mean what it meant ? She blushed too, understanding what you understood.

"I- What I want to say is that-"

You gently kissed her. She shyly reciprocated.

"Take me away with you" you said.

____________________________________________

OKAY that was definitely longer than I expected. I may write an other part one day...

[ultraericthered]

Three cases where the Sailor Moon 90's anime totally went against the point of what Naoko Takeuchi's manga. One case I like, one I'm mixed about, and one I loathe with every fiber of my being.

Black Lady in R: I already mentioned the thing with Luna-P in another post, but even beyond that one factor, the way Black Lady behaves in the anime compared to how she did in the manga & Crystal has a huge core difference - Takeuchi's Black Lady put her childish ways completely behind her, while Toei's Black Lady did not. The entire point of Chibi Usa's corruption into Black Lady is that it's the dark extreme end point of why she took the Silver Crystal to begin with: she wanted to stop being treated like a child and instead be a mature grown-up lady like her mother. Which is why she punted Luna-P away when it came back for her, and also why she...well, did the thing she did with her daddy Mamoru. But in the R anime, Black Lady is a Psychopathic Womanchild who still carries about her that sense of child-like mischief, still loves games and trickery, still uses Luna-P and does stuff like weaponize playing badminton against the Sailor Senshi, and is more prone to lashing out at her former family and friends in tantrums. She feels like a kid in an older girl's body, and....I honestly really dig that. 'Cause now it's less that this is Chibi Usa's ideal of a grown-up and more like this is how Chibi Usa would turn out if she was raised by a different family - the Black Moon Clan in this case. As Rubeus said, "love does not exist in the Black Moon Clan", and thanks to Wiseman's mental manipulation and the influence of the Malefic Black Crystal, Black Lady believes that love exists in no family, including her original one, so she might as well just live for herself, embrace the darkness and have fun with it. And this also ties into how she's turned back to the light by the family she'd been decieved into rejecting. It's a different but just as nuanced and interesting take on the character and her time in the story.

Professor Tomoe in S: I'm mixed on this because it works on one end but not at all on another. On the end of Souichi's character itself, the change comes off perfectly. We got to know and like the professor through all the little quirks, eccentricities and humanizing personality traits displayed by Germatoid!Tomoe throughout the season, so when it's revealed that he once was a good man who truly does love his daughter and had turned to extremes to protect her but is now remorseful for what he'd ended up bringing about, it checked out. It's completely against the point of Takeuchi's Tomoe, an irredeemable monster who was never a truly caring, loving father to Hotaru and who willingly threw away his humanity in pursuit of godhood, but it works on its own merits. But on the end of the Outer Senshi, this change works in tandem with their own misues and Flanderization to derail so much about their part in all this. In Takeuchi's narrative, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna end up becoming Hotaru's real family, as her father had never been a good parent to her. It's important to Hotaru's story that she gets another chance at life to be raised by people who actually love and care about her, and it's important to the other three Outers as a show of growth, how they accept to become the guardians of the girl they know to be the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn, who they'd been fearful of and set to kill beforehand. In S? Haruka and Michiru want to murder Hotaru for completely inane and unsympathetic reasons, do not gain custody of Hotaru since Souichi is alive and around to raise her up himself, and when they do take Hotaru off Souichi's hands for a time in Stars, they prove how much worse off with them Hotaru is because they fucking get her killed by Sailor Galaxia! Moreover, it robs Haruka and Michiru of yet another chance to have an argument with some ideological high ground that even Usagi ends up having to cede to, as in the manga and Crystal Usagi does not want to take any life that is or was human, but Tomoe is too far gone into inhumanity and end up needing to die by her hand just as Uranus and Neptune said. By having him alive and redeemed, Usagi doesn't need to make any hard decisions. and Haruka and Michiru end up not being right about one single thing by the end. And lastly, nothing more is done with Souichi in Stars anyway, so I have to wonder if maybe they should've gone the direction Sera Myu went and had Pharaoh 90 kill the man.

Queen Nehelenia in Stars: I had plenty of words to spare about why Nehelenia in SuperS worked so well. She was still every bit the grim and malicious fairy tale-style villain, still the darkness threatening the light of Elysian, still tied directly to Zirconia and fixated on her own beauty, and still evil to the core beyond any hope of redemption. The Nehelenia who showed up for the first six episode arc of Stars was exactly none of those things. She's not deep, she's not interesting, she's not enjoyable to watch, and she's barely a thing like the villain from Takeuchi's Dream Arc save for the design and the aesthetics of mirrors and nightmares. She's just some raging, vengeful hater who fixates on her "loneliness" (y'know, the thing she willingly chose for herself so long as it meant she kept her beauty?) over her beauty, has a sudden hate boner for Usagi that's strong enough to break her free from her mirror because she despises people who love themselves and who love others because she was never truly loved and never truly loved herself in her sad lonely childhood, and said childhood apparently so deeply effecting and so heartbreaking that it renders her deserving of friendship and a chance to start over in a better life where she can be loved and happy. The larger plans she had in SuperS to completely corrupt Elysian, make Earth into a new Dead Moon, and take over the universe with the Golden Crystal's power? Nonexistent now, her only goal in life is to hurt Usagi. Her old lady form? Never seen again, though that's logically what she'd turn back into once out of the mirror. Those Zirconias she could create? Never creates another one. And by pushing her as a personal enemy for Usagi in particular, the writers on Stars inadvertedly made her more like Sailor Galaxia, the very villain who then became that season's Big Bad! Living in loneliness and envying Usagi for the better life she had? The whole "wanting to completely break Usagi" thing? Cursing Mamoru and turning him into a puppet? Wiping Chibi Usa from existence to make Usagi suffer and piss her off? Those were all Galaxia's things! Giving them to Nehelenia instead limited what Galaxia could actually do as an active force for evil other than slapping on and removing bracelets and boom-killing all the Sailor Senshi until it was time to fight Sailor Moon to the death. And sweet Sailor Comos, that forced, bullshit ending. Much like Prince Dimande before her, Nehelenia was not set up as a redeemable villain prior to this moment, not even in Stars itself, and to give the pretense of redemption and a happily ever after to one of the Big Bads who was spawned from Chaos in the manga...it just doesn't feel right! So nothing about this deviation worked. It really feels like a bad dream.

[mangoisms]

i'll be the dangerous ledge (you be the parachute)

━ chapter three: like the world makes sense | read chapter one | read chapter two

━ pairing: tim drake x f!reader

━ word count: 5.3k

━ warnings: mentions of explosion, injury, and death (within the usual canon-typical violence parameters)

━ masterlist

You and Tim continue to hang out. 

Through the week, after school lets out, you are often too tired to go and do anything, but this suits Tim fine as the two of you continue to think of movies you like that the other has not seen. 

You make him watch Mamma Mia, which he says is ‘okay’ but you think he likes more than he wants to let on. You do what he wants, too, and terribly dated as it is, The Devil Wears Prada is certainly fun enough. 

Every time you see him, you learn something new about him. His favorite color is blue. He used to play tennis when he was younger but not anymore. He also used to like photography, but he doesn’t do it much these days. Not because he stopped liking it. He doesn’t say that but you can tell. 

You wonder about that, about the things he used to do but no longer does. What does he do now, then? You ask him that, and he says he helps out with WE, with their R&D department, with IT, or wherever they want him. Not always but most of the time. 

He doesn’t talk about his parents and he doesn’t talk about Bruce Wayne or his adopted siblings. He’ll talk about Alfred, the butler (not the cat), who was also the one to do his laundry. 

You don’t mind. You’re more interested in him, in what makes Tim Tim. And on a lighter note, while you admit to having expected him to be a poor cook, he is actually decent. 

“I’m only good at breakfast foods,” he admits to you one evening, having commandeered your kitchen to make breakfast for dinner. “And pasta. I can do pasta. But mostly breakfast.”

Better than most rich boys, you think. 

You tell him about yourself, too. How you came here because tuition at Gotham University is dirt-cheap, largely because of the city in which it resides in, but the programs are still good. Good enough for what you wanted — public education with a small dash of child psychology. You worked at one of the elementary schools for two years before landing a job at Gotham Pointe. 

“Will you ever leave?” he asks one day, the two of you eating ice cream and watching Zathura. His pick today. “Most do.”

You swirl your Oreo ice cream, the ceramic bowl cold against your palm. 

It’s a good question. One your family wonders. 

You got the degree. You got the experience, too. And experience in Gotham is gold everywhere else because if you can withstand the kids here, you can handle them anywhere. 

With the fine print being that Gotham kids are what? Uncontrollable troublesome kids who will inevitably turn into criminals? Inherently evil? Your kids can annoy the hell out of you on a bad day but they’re your kids. They talk to you, they tell you about their lives, about what they like and don’t like, and they listen to your stories, too, and they show you that while others think living in Gotham is like living in some kind of barren wasteland… there is hope. So easily within reach. 

If Gotham was as bad as people tried to make it out to be, no one would be here. 

“I don’t think so,” you eventually say, looking at him with a small smile. “I like my job too much to leave. I like living here, too. And the company isn’t so bad, either.”

Tim smiles when you say that. “I would miss you.”

And what a thing to say. What a thing for you to have the privilege of. That someone, not just your kids or Ms. C, would miss you and your presence. 

Well, you think. You would miss him, too. Maybe more than you would like to admit. 

Friends. 

Still hard to quantify or believe. 

The city starts to ease into something like spring as mid-March creeps on you. Mornings and nights are still frosty but your breath no longer comes out white and you don’t have to watch out for patches of ice. The time in between is even more comfortable, allowing you to be outside mid-day without a jacket. You’re still in a long-sleeve but it’s a win in your book. 

You and Tim keep spending time together. He learns, with the onset of March, that you like baseball and used to play softball when you were a teenager. Semi-seriously, too. 

Gotham has its own major league baseball team, too — the Knights. It shares the name with your football team. 

The baseball team isn’t any good, but that’s fine with you. Tim prefers their football team, which has the best track record out of all of them. 

So, with that, Tim surprises you with tickets to their Opening Day on the last day of March. Well, the tickets are from one of WE’s partners, trying to suck up to him, he says, but it doesn’t matter that much to you since he didn’t technically pay for it. 

However, there is something to be said about the buyer’s wealth. 

“Look, I’m genuinely not trying to be picky or ungrateful but where, exactly, are the seats?”

“It’s not the Diamond Club, relax.”

“Okay, thank god.”

That would be too much. Mostly because of the notoriety around the seats themselves. Plus, with them being right behind home plate, your faces would most likely be caught on TV and that would be… a mess. 

No, the seats are in the second row in front of the Knights’ dugout. Still excellent but not the Diamond Club, thankfully. 

Tim comes dressed in jeans, a forest green long sleeve that meshes well with his pale skin and dark hair, and a nondescript ballcap. 

“Just a precaution,” he tells you. 

But upon arriving at the Knights Stadium up in Otisburg, you book it for the nearest merch stall and grab two black Knights caps — modeled like the iconic LA Dodgers and NY Yankees emblem except with GK — and shove one into his hands while putting yours on backwards. He acquiesces you with a smile and then leads you to concessions, happy to foot the bill, with you happy to let him do it, too. 

(Drinks and food are far too expensive for a team that loses more games than it wins. Seriously.)

But like the universe is looking out for you (and the Knights and all of Gotham, really), the Gotham Knights win their Opening Day match against the New York Mets. The first time they’ve ever won an Opening Day game, actually. 

Even Tim feels some pride, which is why, you think, after the game, he lets you drag him off to take a picture with the Gotham Knights’ mascot, King Arthur. One of his handlers takes the picture with Tim’s phone. 

“Hey,” he says, scrutinizing Tim’s face even as he casually adjusts the bill, pulling it lower over his face. “You seem familiar. Do I know you?”

You panic, because this hasn’t ever happened to you two before, what with how you two mostly spend time inside, but you know you shouldn’t be surprised. Tim is careful to make himself as boring as possible to the tabloids. Even while grocery shopping earlier in February, he had a cap on and made sure to blend in as much as he could. 

So, of course, Tim is the one to get out of it. 

He looks at you, mock confused, and says something equally as befuddling in… Russian? 

You match his look, raising your shoulders, and the handler decides this is not a situation he wants to be in as he shoves the phone into your hands and waves his own, enunciating, “Never mind. Never mind. It’s nothing.”

You and Tim leave them, making sure to look as confused as a pair of Russian tourists with not a lick of English would. It’s only when you are home free of King Arthur and his handler do the two of you break down into a mess of giggles.

“What did you say?” you giggle, nearly stumbling over the curb. 

“I said, My publicist is going to kill me.”

You laugh all the way to his car and then on the ride home, too. 

(“You know Russian?” you ask at one point, finally realizing that. 

“Some,” he says, and you learn he knows a handful of languages like Russian, French, Spanish (the stuffy kind, though). 

It’s cool, though he admits it’s from tutoring he had, so you have to make fun of those rich boy tendencies again.)

It’s one of the best days you have in a while. 

But you find most of your days shape up to be like that. 

Even long ones where the kids refuse to listen to you and lesson plans are thrown way off course. Tim will leave you to it if you need the space but other times, he’ll come over, make breakfast for dinner, and you two will watch some Ice Age and you go to bed in a much better mood. 

And while you and Tim continue to hang out, your brother remains in awe of that fact, too. 

He has some preconceived notions about who, exactly, Tim Drake is but you shut those down quickly. You know why he thinks like that and it would be a lie to say you didn’t think like that, either, but people are so much more different than they portray themselves. Especially ones like him. 

Your brother understands, then, and is happy for you. 

Not without a few well-placed jokes, of course. 

You should steal his debit card info

i’m not stealing his debit card info

Dude he’s a millionaire it’s like his civic duty to society 

Which is fair and you’ve certainly made that joke in regards to… some of the wealthier figures in Gotham before. (You flush thinking about your college friends’ jokes about being Bruce Wayne’s sugar baby. Tim will never find out about that as long as you live, thank you very much.)

Even Tim starts to foot the bill if you get takeout or something. And he says exactly that. 

“It’s my civic duty,” he manages to say to you with a completely straight face. (Which is funny because he’s also apparently not straight, much like you.) 

But it is true that Tim is decidedly well-off. Most of Bruce Wayne’s children are. 

You carefully prod Ms. C and the other teachers and aides about information on them, because the internet can only tell you so much.

They rehash most of the info about Tim you already knew — the drama when he was seventeen with the CEO thing, the engagement thing, and the attempted assassination thing. (So many things.)

Tim is the only middle child, though, out of five.

The eldest of them is Dick Grayson, taken into Bruce Wayne’s care after his parents died. He doesn’t live in Gotham, though. New York, you think, is where he currently resides. Then there is Jason Todd, who is a bit of an odd case, because he ‘died’ when he was fifteen then came back when he was older, but the real story is that Bruce Wayne was, apparently, in so much grief at the thought that he misidentified the body in Ethiopia, meanwhile Jason Todd was still alive but kidnapped. He would be until he escaped and came back to Gotham at nineteen. You have faint memories of that media hellstorm from college but these days, they don’t focus on him much. 

Cassandra Wayne, the most shrouded in mystery out of all of them; a cryptic figure that paparazzi only manage to capture every six months. She shows up for the occasional charity gala but most can’t actually find or talk to her. The only trace of her existence is other people saying they saw her. 

After her, there is Tim, and then there is Damian Wayne, the youngest of them. A teenager now and a model student at Gotham Academy. The one that economic magazines and tabloids say will one day take over Wayne Enterprises. Damian is also the only of them not adopted. He is, much to Gotham’s collective shock, Bruce Wayne’s biological son. You idly wonder about his mother, though, since he does have black hair like his father, but the brown tone of his skin and hazel green eyes sets him apart from his father’s obviously white ancestry. 

And well, there is Bruce Wayne, too. 

Starting to go grey, he is less of a playboy these days and more of a fatherly figure. Apparently, he’s on the Parent-Teacher Association for Gotham Academy. It’s an amusing thought. 

(It still doesn’t mean the Gotham populace isn’t drooling about him. If anything, the fatherly vibes seem to do something for, ah, certain cohorts. You did at once think he was attractive — really — but after knowing Tim… it just feels a bit odd.)

You are certain your prods for info go unnoticed. And they do. It is… something else that gets Ms. C’s attention. 

“You seem more happy these days,” she says offhandedly one morning, the two of you preparing the assignments for the day, as well as the tests the kids had taken last week that are now ready to be handed back. 

“I have a new friend,” you decide to say, because it shouldn’t hurt. 

She nods distractedly. “That’s nice. You did seem a bit lonely before.”

Which is funny because she never let on about it. And also because it’s so direct, you don’t know what to say.

“Nothing wrong with it,” she says after a minute. “I like to be alone. But there’s a difference between being alone and being lonely, isn’t there?”

“I suppose so.”

“It’s good, then, that you have someone now.”

“He’s just a friend,” you chuckle, scratching your cheek awkwardly. 

“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” she says, finally looking at you, amusement twinkling in her hazel eyes. 

“Right.”

“Well… good for you.”

“Thanks.” You smile at her and mean it. 

It is good for you. 

Really good for you. 

Which is why, you suppose, things take a sharp downturn one Thursday evening. 

Truthfully, you have no idea how you made it back to Rose Oaks. 

Your fingers shake as you try to lock your bike to the rack. It takes you a couple tries to get the lock into place. 

You straighten, your body aching as you do, and you limp through the entrance. The doorman does a double-take at the sight of you. 

“Have a good night,” you mumble to him, going over to the elevators. You press the button. Your eyes catch the shredded skin on your arm, red and raw. You let your hand drop. 

It happened too quickly for you to do anything. 

All you know is you’d been biking down Cameron, the sun setting, others starting to make their way home for the day, then there was a boom that rattled the street and buildings and people panicked, because this is Gotham and any unusual activity is dangerous activity and you don’t stick around to play the hero, and if people start running, you start running, too. Doesn’t matter if you don’t know what’s happening, just do it, because it could be the difference between life and death in a world like this. 

You know all of this. 

But you never stood a chance against the rush. 

You barely managed to scrape yourself off the ground, grab your bike, and break free, trying not to think about how you very well could’ve been stampeded to death and that’s not a very fun or dignifying death at all, is it? But it’s Gotham. Death is not fun or dignifying here. It’s miserable and painful and a cautionary tale to those that live to see the next day, just another addition to the fine print of living in this city. 

Ding. The doors open. You step in. Your legs feel weak. 

“Hold the door!”

Your hand shoots to the panel, holding down the open doors button. Someone rushes in in the next second. 

“Hey, thanks for that —” the polite gratitude is swapped out for frantic concern in the next second, your name wrapped up in it. 

You blink and find Tim in front of you, eyes wide in concern, hands hovering over you, as if afraid to touch you. It confuses you, because it’s not like you’ve ever shied away from him. If anything, you’re horribly, horribly touch-starved. If he let you, you’d be plastered to his side twenty-four-seven. Or, not twenty-four-seven, but you know. When you two are watching a movie or a TV show and he lets you throw your legs over his lap, you have to be really normal about how he rests his hands on your legs. 

(He isn’t even doing anything, it’s just the pressure, the touch, that makes you want to sidle up beside him and never let go.)

Oh. Where did that come from?

He says your name again and you shake your head. 

“What?” 

“You can let the doors close,” he says softly and you turn and realize you are still pressing the button. 

You let it go. 

The doors close. 

You hadn’t pressed your floor, though, so he does it for you. The elevator starts moving in the next second. 

Tim looks carefully at you, concern still clear on his face. 

“What happened?” he asks gently. 

“I… I got knocked off my bike. It — it was an accident. People were just… panicking. There was…” Your chest tightens, until every breath feels like a struggle and why are you so cold? “An… an explosion. I… I don’t know.”

He realizes something. “Off Cameron?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Can I —?” He gestures to your arm. 

Strange to ask. Unsettling in a way. 

“You… you don’t need to ask.” 

He softens at your response and his hand finds your left one, turning your hand up, where your palm is a little scraped up from your spill. Your forearm is worse off, road rash peeling the skin off, exposed and throbbing. 

Tim’s fingers are warm against your cool skin, his hands calloused but still soft. 

“I’m fine,” you say, though you aren’t sure why.

He looks up at you, the look in his eyes… You have to look away, shaking your head. 

“I’m fine,” you say again.

“You’re hurt,” he counters gently. “Let me take care of this. Do you have a first aid kit?”

“It’s old. I don’t… Haven’t used it since I got it a few years ago.”

“Then why don’t we go to my place so we can grab mine?”

“Okay.”

He turns to the panel to press the button for the fifteenth floor. 

The elevator pauses at the fourteenth floor but you two stay on. 

Tim’s hand holds onto yours, gently, avoiding the scraped skin of your palm. He leads you out, to his apartment. His is bigger, better, than yours. But it just feels more empty when you come inside. Alien in a way you don’t like. You’ve spent a lot of time here but you want your apartment, with the crabitat, your fridge with drawings from the kids, your messy coffee table with tests and assignments that need to be graded, your sometimes clumsily-made pottery pieces on display. 

He can tell, you think. Because he lets go of your hand at the door and moves quickly, murmuring for you to give him a second. 

He disappears down the hall. Your feet ache from work and your knee and thigh aches from the road rash you sustained there, too, the material of your slacks torn. Because it’s already April and the days are growing warm, you’re in a short-sleeved blouse, which accounts for the scrapes on your arms. 

More than that, you want nothing more than to lie down and sleep for the next week. 

But no… You have work tomorrow. The thought burns through you, frustration and exhaustion sparking hot in your chest. Your eyes sting and you close them, swallowing down the emotion. 

It’s fine. It’s fine. You can handle it. 

You will. 

Tim returns, then, first aid kit in hand. He pauses for a second, gazing at you, and you turn away first, opening the door. He follows you. 

You take the elevator back down. 

Soon, you’re stepping into your apartment. The light in the crabitat is the only thing on, glowing in the darkness like a lighthouse on the shore guiding you home. Something inside you unwinds. 

Tim turns on the light. You take off your shoes and drop your backpack near the coffee table. 

“Take a shower,” he suggests. “Then I’ll patch you up. I’ll be in here, okay? Want me to feed the boys, too?”

You blink, starting to return to yourself. “I… Yeah. If you wouldn’t mind.”

“What is it today? Fresh or canned?” 

You blink. “How do you…”

Tim cracks a smile. “I’ve seen you do it a bunch of times, the way you alternate. But I’ve also done my own research. I was curious.”

“Right… um, canned today. They had fresh food yesterday.” You pause, starting to feel this strange creeping feeling inside your chest. You don’t like it, so you try to push it away. “Thanks, Tim.”

His face softens. “Of course.”

You head for your bedroom while he heads for the crabitat. 

You pull out a fresh change of clothes, a pair of white linen shorts, heeding your scraped up knee and thigh, then an old high school softball t-shirt. 

You have a door to the bathroom in your room, then another door from the living room. You lock both and turn on the shower. 

Inside, you finally get a look at yourself. Your breathing stutters as you understand why the doorman was concerned, then why Tim was — is — too. Your cream-colored slacks are smudged with dirt and a few tire tracks from your bike when you fell. The fabric at the knee is torn, too, edges turned red from the blood. More fabric at the side of your thigh is torn, skin scraped and raw. Your pale blue blouse is in a similar state. Your arms are scraped up, rubbed raw from the sidewalk. 

You look like a mess. 

Hot humiliation bubbles inside you, along with fresh terror as you replay what happened inside your head. 

Your eyes burn as you strip. Your scrapes burn even more when you step into the shower, the hot water making them throb, and you finally let your tears fall. 

You work to keep your cries silent, though, wary of how noise echoes inside the shower. You don’t want Tim to know. You don’t want him to worry more than he already is. 

It takes a while for you to piece yourself back together, but after washing your hair and body with your familiar smelling shampoo and soap, you manage to do it. Your injuries ache, though, especially when the towel brushes against them as you dry off. 

Soon, you are reluctantly stepping out of your bedroom and into the living room. 

The TV is on, playing season one of Spongebob. Tim, in the kitchen at the stove, turns, smile flitting across his lips. 

“Hey, you’re just in time. I hope you didn’t mind me using the kitchen but I figured you hadn’t eaten dinner yet.”

Something spasms inside your chest. 

You shake your head. 

“Take a seat,” he says. “I’ll bring it over.”

You go to him. 

He doesn’t say anything, ladling tomato soup into a bowl cushioned by a potholder. A grilled cheese sandwich sits on a plate on the counter. You pick up the plate, then take the bowl and a spoon as well. 

“Water?”

You nod and seeing as you no longer have the hands for it, decide to just let him do it and head over to the couch. Your knee protests as you sit down. Your whole body protests, actually. 

Tim brings a glass of water for you, along with a bottle of Tylenol, then sits down. 

“You should eat, too,” you say.

“I can eat after.”

“Tim —”

He says your name. You stop. He grabs the first aid kit. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

But you do worry about it. You worry about this, about him making you food, about him putting off his own meal to take care of you, about him taking care of you. 

In that moment, you feel terribly, terribly burdensome. 

He inspects your hands first so you can eat and deems the scrapes not bad enough to cover, then moves to your leg. 

You sip your tomato soup and take bites of the grilled cheese, oddly famished. 

“It’s the adrenaline,” he says. You imagine you must’ve looked confused at your own hunger for him to say something. 

“Huh?”

“The adrenaline,” he says again. “Coming down from it, you get hungry. And tired.”

You have fuzzy memories of your psych classes. That is true. Also probably why you are still cold. 

How does he know that, though?

At your question, he shrugs. “You know how much time I have to myself. I have to do something to occupy it.”

“Maybe you can take up knitting.”

“Nah, I already know how to sew.”

“So, you know how to sew but not do your own laundry?”

He flashes a smile at you. “Exactly.”

You laugh despite yourself. 

His smile softens, then he looks back to your knee, grabbing a piece of gauze. 

“Aren’t you going to disinfect it?”

“Rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide aren’t great for cleaning cuts, actually. It kills the bacteria but it kills the normal cells, too. You need those to heal. Did you wash it well during the shower?”

You nod. 

“So, that works, and we can do something else, too.” 

He pushes up from the couch, heading over to the kitchen, riffling through your cabinets. You turn your eyes back to the TV and take a drink of your water. Your fingers itch to change it to the news, to see what happened, to see if there were casualties. 

But Tim returns before you can grab the remote. 

He has a bowl of soapy water in hand, setting it carefully on the coffee table, then sitting next to you again. 

“This might sting,” he warns, dipping one of the pieces of gauze in the water then gently dabbing the edges of the scrape. 

It does sting but not as bad as the alcohol might’ve. 

“So, how do you know this stuff?” you ask quietly. 

“I was clumsy as a kid.”

You wonder if that clumsiness has much to do with the scars you’ve seen on him. Some on his knuckles, on his arms. He sports fresher ones sometimes. The shadow of a bruise hidden under the hair that falls sharply over his forehead, the occasional cut. He always blames it on his clumsiness and you have no choice but to believe him. What other option is there? He isn’t dating anyone that could be doing that and he hangs out with his friends and siblings sometimes but they wouldn’t do things like that. 

Well. You don’t actually know them. But… still. 

He finishes cleaning the edges of the scrape, then he applies a little bit of Neosporin and tapes gauze over it. He does the same with the one on the side of your thigh. 

Tim works attentively, not even sparing a glance at the TV once. You should know by now, the way he dedicates himself to things like this, how he will listen to you talk about something to do with school or with the crabs or with a movie or TV show. Every iota of his attention and concentration is on you. It flusters you sometimes, to be paid so much attention, but you would be lying if you said you hated it. 

Now, with him turning that familiar concentration to taking care of you… you don’t know. 

He has to have better things to do than doing this. 

“Are you going to work tomorrow?” he asks, gently taping a piece of gauze over the scrape on your arm. 

“Most likely.”

He nods wordlessly in acknowledgement and moves back, leaning forward to collect the used pieces of gauze and trash from the tape. 

You chew at the inside of your cheek. “It’ll be fine. It’s… it’s fine.”

“Just don’t strain yourself,” he says gently. “Did you want a ride? I don’t —”

“No.”

An awkward silence follows your abrupt denial. You don’t miss the flash of hurt on his face. It stabs you right in the heart. You look away. 

“I mean, thank you, Tim, but, um, it’s okay. I’m fine. You don’t have to do that. I get up pretty early in the mornings and… Yeah.”

You stand, your knee — your body, really — protesting but you ignore it, stacking your plate and bowl, then grabbing your empty cup. 

“You didn’t have to do all of this,” you continue, dropping them into the sink. “And I appreciate it, really. Thank you. But you don’t have to do any more. So, if you have… other things to do. You know. Go ahead.”

“I have nothing else to do,” he says, surprising you as he appears by your elbow, throwing away the trash from the gauze and the tape. The look on his face is hard to describe. Caught between some cross of disappointment and determination. A part of you shrinks at it. At the thought of disappointing him. 

“Let me wash it,” he says, stopping you before you can turn on the faucet. “Give your hands a break. Give yourself a break, okay?”

Some part of you wants to fight it. Wants to say he should try that, too. As if you don’t see how tired he looks sometimes, staying up late to do reports for WE. For whatever reason, he’s working more with them. A few weeks ago, he had to fly to New York. Something about R&D. He returned exhausted from the trip. 

But you clamp the impulse. That’s not necessary. It’s not about him. It’s about you. This is… It’s unnecessarily difficult to let yourself be taken care of right now. You have an inkling as to why but the energy needed for that kind of introspection is lost on you. So, you let him take care of the dishes and slink back to the couch, slouching into the cushions, feeling exhaustion tug persistently at you. 

Yawning, you pull the blanket hanging over the back of the couch onto your body. The Tylenol you took before has already kicked in and with your hunger satiated and your pains taken care of for the most part, you are ready to go to sleep for the rest of the night. 

You fight the impulse, though, sparing a glance at the kitchen. 

“Tim.”

“Yeah?”

“You better eat.”

He laughs and your chest warms at the sound. 

“Alright,” he says, tossing a smile over his shoulder at you. “I’ll eat.”

You nod and turn back to the TV, picking up the remote and switching to the local news channel. 

The poised voice of the GNN news anchor replaces the Spongebob theme song. 

Tim pauses in turning on the stove.

“An incident in the Upper West Side tonight, a laundromat off Cameron Avenue went up in flames after a dryer exploded. Miraculously, there were no casualties inside the laundromat, however, the explosion caused much panic on the streets, resulting in at least one person dead from the rush and many others injured. No doubt, people believed it to be some kind of attack, especially with the recent news that the Joker has broken out of Arkham again and police have been unable to track him down —”

You change it back to Spongebob. 

A laundromat. 

Just a laundromat. 

No real danger. No threat of death. 

All this… because of the collective anxiety Gothamites hold. You aren’t holding it against them, you’re just…

Tired. Exhausted. That’s what this city does sometimes.

A lot of the time.

You swallow past the uncomfortable tightness in your throat, close your eyes, and let yourself be whisked to sleep, where things are easier, simpler, and you can just… forget. If only for a little while. 

━ end notes

1. it was brief but i largely prefer the thought that gotham is not as evil or horrible as people like to make it, or better yet, that the city does stink but people still stay there and they still try to be kind in spite of a horribly corrupt government that is in fact the root of almost all the problems. it's really just the sociologist in me (seriously, that's my minor!)

2. reader briefly mentioned the diamond club, which are typically the seats directly behind home plate and they are crazy expensive. here is the seattle mariners' diamond club prices for reference

3. technically, in canon, i don't believe the knights' have ever mentioned a mascot and what kind. i also admittedly did indulge in letting both the baseball and football team be called the knights but let's ignore that. anyway, i made up the king arthur mascot thing on the fly. couldn't think of anything else knight-related that would work, other than an actual knight. for mlb teams, it isn't always on the nose. like the seattle mariners' mascot is the mariner moose. so, that's why i went with king arthur.

4. dick is not living in gotham or bludhaven anymore and instead in new york because i think he deserves a little (a lot) of space from bruce for his own peace of mind and um general mental health

5. also yeah jason is alive to the public here. i know that is the same in rebirth (i think) but i don't know the details, so if the story behind that is different, that's why, because i also made it up. but it is slightly inspired by this fantastic au on if talia brought jason home after restoring his mind with the lazarus pit, seriously read this, the characterizations are so fantastic; also it's important to me that you all know i am the number one talia truther ever and that shit about him sleeping with her in lost days is blocked from my mind.

ANYWAY. continuing point number five. i have too many thoughts on jason. in my mind and in this, i've changed a lot but that won't Actually be discussed here. there isn't much batfam interaction at all other than these mentions. steph, cass, and duke do appear towards the end (as well as some very very brief appearances by cassie, kon, and bart) but that's really it. it's not very batfam-centric at all, it's more centered around tim and reader.

6. and this is my last one i SWEAR i know the order in which the kids were mentioned in reader's narration was dick, jason, cass, tim, and damian, but if we were going by ages, it's dick, cass, jason, tim, and damian. it is again important to me that cass is a few months older than jason for no reason in particular other than i think it would annoy him and please her.

reblogs are appreciated!

[siriuslysatorusimping]

Hey kiko!

First off, i saw the stardew valley stream right before going to office (twas my mom's birthday the day you streamed and an ungodly hour where I'm at) and i was in such a good mood🥹🤌🏽💖 gojo is adorable, I cannot.

Second, I was recently diagnosed with high functioning autism and adhd (not a surprise, figured i was ✨ neurospicy✨ since i figured what it meant) and I was wondering... Gojo is neurospicy for sure, it's canon. But the way you write him, it's even more so. So out of curiosity, how would Goinko react to finding out their kids might be neurodivergent? And would that lead to satoru getting his own diagnosis?

HELLO!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOUR MOM!!

Thank you for your message and question!!! 😊

Gojo in Stardew is so fucking cute that it makes me wanna die. My Kiko playthrough is already in year 2 and they’re living their best life (though, I did discover SVE Lance, recently, and all I’m sayin is that if Satoru didn’t already have my heart, Lance would be the first contender that’s actually piqued my interest).

I FUCKING GAVE YOU A HELLA LONG RANT SO THE REST IS BELOW THE CUT

WELCOME TO THE NEUROSPICY (I love this and I’m stealing it) COMMUNITY. We don’t have t-shirts yet because we got distracted before we could finalize the design and then all of our inspiration left and now we just cringe in self-hatred whenever we think about another project that’s half-finished… 🙃

I will die on the hill that canon Gojo is one of the most autistic coded characters I’ve seen in my entire life. There’s literally no valid argument against him being a member of our wonderful neurospicy community.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am also very fucking autistic and adhd. I wasn’t diagnosed with adhd until a few years ago, and I didn’t find out about my autism until last year 🫠🫠 the journey to that discovery was a wild one… To give context for how extreme my adhd is, I’ve gotten distracted mid sentence for this reply a total of three times already and went on my own tangents of making random notes and literally forgetting about this for ten minutes while I started googling things and then I looked down at my phone and realized I’d completely forgotten that I was TYPING THIS REPLY 😭

ANYWAY. YOU ASKED A GOINKO QUESTION AND I WOULD LOVE TO ANSWER IT.

How would Goinko react to finding out their kids might be neurodivergent? And would that lead to Satoru getting his diagnosis?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION. I LOVE IT. WITH MY WHOLE HEART.

I’m assuming we’re talking about Physical Paradox Goinko because you sent this not long after I posted begging for questions about them and their kids!

For those who don’t know, neurodivergence (adhd, autism, ocd, etc.) tends to be hereditary, which essentially means that neurodivergent parents have a high chance of having neurodivergent kids.

I’ve specifically written Physical Paradox Gojo with the idea in mind that he’s got a variety of neurodivergencies (Rai’s fun facts about brains have helped a ton and I always love hearing them! Rai, this is me telling you I wanna know more fun facts when you have the time). I’ve talked before about how he’s absolutely got adhd, whether hyperactive or not remains to be seen in the story, but I’ve been nailing a few things down lately so I’m excited to explore that more…

BUT THATS NOT THE POINT OF THIS REPLY. FUCKING FOCUS, KIKO.

I’m gonna answer these backwards because Gojo will get his diagnosis before they have kids. Because Rinko is studying cognitive and behavioral psychology, as of Summer Nights, she’s already noticed a few ticks and signs that Gojo has something. But she’s avoided saying anything for multiple reasons. (she’s still only a student, she doesn’t want to overstep in case he already knows and doesn’t want to talk about it, and she doesn’t want to offend him if he doesn’t know and doesn’t receive that kind of information well.) She literally had the thought in Summer Nights that it wasn’t like she could give him a diagnosis.

At some point in their relationship, she’s going to realize that he has no fucking clue and she’s going to say something. I haven’t decided if she does this before or after they start dating, but my main point is that by the time they’re talking kids, they’re gonna know they’ll have some neurospicy in them.

As for how they’ll react? They’ll love them no matter what and do everything they can to support them. They’ll struggle and have their bad days but they’ll figure things out and do their best to be there for them.

I imagine Eiji will be a lot like Satoru. I see him being loud and excitable as a young child and becoming more reserved and closed off as he gets older, which is how Satoru was.

I don’t know if I’ll explicitly include it anywhere in the series, but Satoru was loud and outgoing and friendly as a kid. As he got older, he struggled to connect with people because they couldn’t keep up with how chaotic he could be or they showed no interest in what he was passionate about. We’re sprinkling some rejection sensitivity that’s manifested as “fuck you, I don’t care about your shit, either then.” He keeps things surface level with most people because it’s not worth the time and energy just to be rejected or misunderstood. Obviously he’s different with Rinko, but that’s mainly because she’s shown that she can keep up with his ranting and there’s a part of his brain that desperately wants her to know he isn’t a shitty person and he doesn’t realize it’s because he’s pretty much already in love with her 😂😂😂 but really, Rinko can keep up with him and she meets his sarcasm with her own instead of brushing him off.

IM FORCING MYSELF TO STOP HERE OR ILL GO ON FOREVER. DID I ACTUALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION?? I HOPE I DID 😭😭

I hope you have a wonderful day or night!! 💕💕

[burning-brightly]

Anywaaaay, the most important thing to address.

My brand new followers. Gotta remind Lils to do this in parts.

@drcgcnfly - I gueesss you're self-explanatory, Ava. lol. Geez. It's weird talking to Lils to talk at you online. Assuming this isn't just one huge ongoing prank on Lils's part.

--

@livlaughlovio - So you got introduced as "livio jackass saverem", and I thought it was gonna be awkward cause I thought you were someone Lils didn't like. But when I asked, she seemed confused and said it was actually your name. Sooo I guess I'm so very sorry. Is that Jackass with some sort of weird accent then? Like the name Dumass or something? Or is it that your parents just horribly failed in the naming department? Or is it just an in-joke which I actually suspect. Anyhoop, she says you take care of a lot of kids and run an orphanage, and sometimes some person R goes on the account to talk. She adds that you also like to use a weird symbol that resembles a hat - "a voiced volar impulsive????".

--

@theurgic-necromancer - Got introduced to me as Sayran, on a mysterious journey to do something underground that involve honest-to-god drow. When I asked what sort of magic you used, she just gave me a confused look. I thought it would've just been what it said on the tin.

Also told me that you lived in a monastery at one point - I'd imagine that'd be stifling with all the rules and crap.

---

@creepy-crowleys - Waaaaait. I'm sure Lils mentioned you before. You hung out with her sister a while back with the whole Northern Docks scandal. I knew it as soon as I heard redhead and hung out with Lev, who is a superhero (well more antihero I guess, I don't think you count as a hero if you enjoy beating up people that much). I'm guessing you're a superhero back in your world or something, even if Lils's description doesn't quite seem that way.

Says you live on an island and that you solve supernatural problems for a living. You own a spider and bees and a cat, and you make good peppermint humbugs? Is that even a real thing? She says you like posting stuff of ancient relics and bugs.

---

@hulizi - I see Lils write Nata this and Nata that every now and then. It's only now that I realize she's talking about you on this site that I'm still not quite convinced is real. She says you're a mom taking care of kids now, so congratulations - In the spirit of happiness and cooperation, I will make the fervent wish that both of them don't grow up to be like me lol.

She says you do the things that involve money. Which does not really help, cause everything involves money lol. She also says you taught her martial arts too and also sent her gifts like these erasers and colored pencils she likes to use and I suspect must be magical cause she's been using them the entire year. She also showed off a ring that made her hair multicolored which admittedly made me a little jealous lol. BUT YEAH, HELLO.

@unbrcakablc-heart - Welcome to the blog! You got introduced as Vash, guy on a very very long roadtrip with a band of other folk. She says your world is craptacular - okay so Lils is denying that she called your world craptacular and fine she didn't say it, I did. But giant wasteland of a world where there's only tiny pockets of civilization and even less water is definitely worthy of the adjective of craptacular.

She says you have sisters and have also been very helpful in her quest to help out her guardian. And that you try to be kind in an unkind world. Admittedly, I probably would just find some way to scam my opponents to ruin, but I guess I can appreciate people trying to be good. I imagine there's a lot of bullshit that happened in a wasteland world that probably erodes people's trust in each other. So being a relatively stand-up guy means something, probably.

@7wolfmoon - Got introduced as Lark and designated as one of Lils's Minecraft buddies lol. Also heard you like birds and wolves and woodcarving too; I like two of the three with the bigger the better. The third requires too much dexterity for my pitiful hands, but it's cool seeing the wood transform.

She also made an interesting remark about her other Minecraft buddy in regard to you - that you probably would like to fold him up and put him in a trash can, much like Lils's sister does to me whenever I say something she really doesn't like. Wait. Lils can we cut that? Goddamnit.

Also heard that you really really didn't like school at first? But I'm guessing you're okay with it now. That and you don't like worms on a string despite having a picture of a worm on a string? What the hell is a worm on a string?

[whoseafraidofliloleme]

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 1:

Summary: {HP AU}. Gryffindor Golden Boy and Ravenclaw Troublemaker are the Head Boy and Girl for this year. Two clashing forces, it is going to be an interesting year at Hogwarts.

Taglist: @beans-and-jeanes @blaaiissee @flwrsforriki @harperwasstaken1 @sbnchaos @kange3939 @wonieleles @jovibaes @boowoohoo @kkalechip @itsatodorokisimp @anothershorthuman

Permanent Taglist: @honeyhuii @chirokookie @nyxtwixx @clar-iii @centheodd @prdxinvade @hiqhkey @junnniiieee07 @love-4-keum @acciomylove @sproutswonies @youkwim @kpoplover718 @anotherimaginesaccount @ashxxgyu @bubblytaetae @strwberrydinosaur @xiaoderrrr @shinkenprincess-oh

This got too long. So this Where Are They Now is split into 2. This part focuses on the time skip between chapters 31 and 32 of YBWM. The next part will be the one year after the final YBWM chapter 😂.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Our babies have graduated yay!. As mentioned in a chapter at some point.

Mrs Weasley, Ginny and Hermione planned a graduation/birthday bash for YN.

This is the most mingling that all of YNs different groups have done ever.

It wasn't intentional but while Jungwon made his place in YNs friend group, she found it harder to mingle with his friends.

The only one she was most comfortable with was Wonyoung, who being the star she is.

Took it upon herself to make sure YN is comfortable and happy around the rest of Jungwons friends.

Jungwon on the other hand, he's practically being passed around the Weasleys, all of them sizing him up.

Interrogating him on if he's worthy for their girl.

Sirius takes extreme joy in reminding Jungwon that he is YNs dad and just one wrong step, he can ruin Jungwons life.

The Malfoys join in that by declaring they'll make Jungwon a pariah in British Magical society if he dares hurt YN.

The funniest has to be Teddy, who the minute YN gets there, attaches himself to her and doesn't leave her alone.

Any time Jungwon even tried getting close, he gets a glare from Teddy and a few times Teddy almost biting him 😂.

Eventually Remus and Tonks find Teddy and they talk to him about leaving ynwon alone 😂.

Now moving on from this party. Since graduating, we've got ppl moving in together.

Jungwon, Sunghoon and Jay, all get an apartment together. Bahi, moves to France to train to be a magical seamstress.

Gaeul and Wonyoung are still living with their parents but plan to move out in a year or so.

Meanwhile, all the troublemakers decide to come together and rent in the same building.

The purebloods aka YNs besties, theyve got their parents mansions to choose from.

None of them want to be separated so decide to live at one of their mansions together.

Well all of them but the Choi line, Soul and Jake, give an ultimatum that they refuses to live with the Choi's again 😂.

So those three just buy a nice apartment in diagon alley but majority of the time they're at whoever's house the group is living in.

So in the end, YNs parents mansion is decided. All of them living there.

After the debacle that happened at Hogwarts, Ron was determined to send YNs family to jail.

It got to the point, Hermione who before taking up teaching was a famous lawyer, came out to fight YNs case against her family.

That worked and they get sent to Azkaban for life.

In the process, Hermione finds a way to nail all the other kids horrible parents/family as well.

So everyone free from abusive families.

In lieu of this, Harry manages to convince YN to get therapy for everything she's been thru.

She resists at first but eventually agrees.

Jungwon seeing how much this helps YN, makes it his mission to convince the rest of her friends to go to therapy as well.

Basically all the purebloods in YNs group get therapy and are healing.

Now onto more things that happen in the years between graduating and final chapter.

Jungwon is in law school and tho it is killing him, he's determined to work at H&R, Hermione and Remus law firm eventually.

Sunghoon, always the one filming, wanted to be a photographer but he gets street casted in Muggle London.

Jay is a trainee auror. Hes doing okay, it's long and hard but he's happy.

Gaeul and Wonyoung, start they're own skin care and make up line, using magic and Muggle products.

Trouble makers san YN, get offered jobs with the Weasley twins.

They all take it without even thinking.

Causing trouble and chaos as a day job, it's their dream.

Our pureblood besties have more than enough money that they never need to work but they all want to earn.

However it's Sirius that tells them that they need to recover, process all that they've been thru first before they can live for themselves.

They all decide to just go to therapy, start healing and then decide what they want to do, they've got the time and money to do that.

Regardless of that, these workaholics need things to do.

Soul, Heeseung, Jake and Theo decide they're gonna redo the interiors of their family mansions.

The girls not to be outdone, help Gaeul and Wonyoung with their business but are also doing odd jobs for the vast number of Weasleys and other connections that YN has.

After about 2 years of therapy, YN decides she wants to go on a trip. Initially she wants it to be a solo trip.

However, no one wants to let her go on her own. Not because they don't trust her.

Oh no, cause they know this girl will cause chaos wherever and there needs to be ppl to keep her in line 😂.

So the parental disappointments all decide to go on a trip together. Sirius puts together an itinerary, it ends up being a year long trip.

Yep, u read right. Ynwon were long distance for a whole year. They made it work, obviously.

Now we're a year before the final chapter. YN decides she's had enough of the odd jobs, she knows what she wants as a career.

She's training under Hermione, to be a transfiguration master. At some point, take over being transfiguration professor at Hogwarts.

Chaehyun is happy to be a normal ministry worker, she enjoys the monotony of a 9-5.

Theo, Jake, Heeseung and Soul, took over the family businesses and changed everything.

Got rid of the toxic work environment their parents had created.

Trouble makers, specifically Sunoo and Niki approach Theo and Heeseung about starting a business together.

While the 2 loved working for the Weasleys, they want to make theyre own things, branch out.

Eventually they convince Youngeun and Hikaru to make a new business. Which Sirius happily helps invest in.

Soul, who didn't want to take over his family business, hands it to Intak who happily takes over.

Soul, joins the new Troublemakers Inc. and loves working with his friends as they build a business to rival that of the Weasley twins.

YN tho busy with her masters, does invest some of her family money into Troublemakers Inc.

So coming back from the one year long trip, dynamics and living arrangements have changed.

Soul and YN decide to move to Hogsmeade, closer to Hogwarts and the law firm Jungwon is working at.

Everyone else disperses to be closer to significant others or to their places of work.

Troublemakers inc. prioritise meeting up as much as they can. Its hard with them all being busy but they make it work.

Surprisingly, Heeseung is the one who takes to being a society wife.

He's not even married but seeing his love for event planning, Narcissa Malfoy took him under her wing.

With Heeseung planning the events, none of the purebloods are allowed to not come, Jungwon weirdly enough is his helper.

His events are so exclusive, they've got foreign dignitaries begging Harry to get them invites to Heeseungs events if they're in the country when they are happening.

According to Jungwon, helping Heeseung plan events is how he procrastinates from all the paper work he has to fill out as a lawyer.

Jake getting tired of being a CEO, decides to try being a healer. He's joined the fast track course at St Mungo's.

Theo on the other hand thrives at being a CEO. He always wanted to be part of the family business. He really is living his best life.

Jay. Is an auror, he's one of the best and is making quite the name for himself.

Bahi after finishing her studies in France, is working for Madame Malkin's. She's being trained to take over after Madame Malkin retired.

Gaeul and Wonyoungs business took off. They are trying to expand across Europe, so these two are always flying everywhere.

Sunghoon, becomes a famous movie star, he only ever leaves the magical world when he's filming so paparazzi can never get pics of him 😂.

Choi line are just causing chaos in any way they can, they've got money you last generations so they only ever work when they want to.

All three decide to go to Muggle univeristy. By the final chapter they're studying to get they're second degrees.

Ynwon tho hella busy, make time for dates and each other.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 2

[colgatebluemintygel]

The thoughts about their experiences with family and grief hurt on many levels. R sees that s has parents who are rich and still alive and probably feels a bit jealious and cant understand how s seems to resent it. S is self aware enough to know that outwards his family seems ideal and struggles with how he could let people know how things actually are (maybe even afraid that they wont believe him). As seen in OAO he feels that he takes up too much space and r's mom has just died so he feels guilty ab burdening him with this and r will later feel guilty ab his anger/not understanding the situation. I am shaking. I want to hug them both. (Also yes, I believe that s really craved even a smallest hint that his parents cared. He couldnt live with them but leaving didnt really make it easier bc he understood that he lost all hope of having his birth parents love.)

yes yes yes !!!! absolutely!

the difference in class and privilege absolutely factored into it as well (as mentioned in oao, remus was one of the only kids at that school not from an affluent background, and it was definitely alienating for him, especially as two of his best friends grew up amongst immeasurable wealth (i picture peter's family to be more upper middle class than upper class like s and j, but it's still different to remus's background). definitely every now and again sirius would say really out of pocket things relating to how his parents treated him, but i think once he noticed his friends reactions, he'd also immediately backtrack and try to play it off as a joke. so for the others it was tricky to get a handle of the severity of the situation, and what was true and what wasn't. i think early on, some of the other boys (i'm thinking frank etc) would have made little jokes about sirius and his rich boy problems (ie: i imagine sirius would always be sad on his birthday—he'd receive these expensive presents, but they were never be meant FOR him; they were status symbols. and they just served as a reminder that his parents don't see him for who he is, and they don't love him for who he is -> cue meltdown. and i imagine remus would be looking in on this kinda like ??? perhaps internally thinking that sirius is being a little bit ungrateful (again, gift giving has a totally different meaning in remus's family). he'd NEVER say that out loud (well. aside from their big blow out argument), but in his head he'd be like.... rich boys.......) (while also being like :-(( my poor pretty padfoot :-(( and fantasising about kissing the tears from sirius's cheeks xx (all this conflict chat makes me want 2 reiterate !! remus ADORES him. like so SO much. this whole situation was such a change from their usual dynamic, it really threw everyone for a loop))

and YES and as you say: sirius's mouth works faster than his mind a lot of the time, and he would make comments maybe about wishing his parents harm, and it absolutely sent remus reeling. their main fight occurred over something incredibly minor (it was months and months of emotional build-up on both ends), but each of these little comments were a blow to remus </3 and of course sirius was never ever trying to cause harm. he had no real way of knowing what was happening with hope, because from the outside it just looked like something had happened to remus, who was now suddenly super reserved with himself and his body and seemed to be totally caught up in self-loathing. and i think sirius resonated a lot with that (even if he was expressing it all in a completely different way).

but yes... the idea that s takes up too much space. it's sort of all he's ever known. he was never taught how to emotionally regulate himself; he was always just punished. and that link between his emotions and punishment is so embedded in his psyche that even if his birth parents aren't around anymore to punish him for his emotions, he does it himself.

SOBS poor poor babs :-((((