#not tagging b/c again i am scared

[diiwata]

i absolutely loved reading your response! you brought up such good points that are so important to consider! i was wondering if you would be willing to elaborate on how you think culture will impact clemensia’s future (and maybe how it affected her/her families reaction to the snake bite?) thank you!

hello lils!!! eek, I hope my answer will suffice. sorry for the delay, it takes a while for me to piece my words together 🫢 this is mostly based on book!clemmie with the movie!clemmie casting, but I think some of these things can be applied to movie!clemmie

to me, clemmie is a ticking time bomb. the reputation, compliance, family, and mental health stigma are all factors that play into her life. my interpretation of her future is under the cut!

I see the snake bite as a fuse. the thing that makes clemmie disillusioned to everything she's ever believed. working hard leads to success, but in a world as unfair as panem, it's a lot more complex than that. respect authority, and don't take seniority lightly. that's what we've always been taught. it's ingrained in our heads. so, for her to put her trust in an authority figure (gaul) only to have that trust betrayed is the fuse.

reputation (not the way I grew up, at least) is very important. I can imagine that her family would do everything to maintain this secret, even going as far as working with gaul. "we don't want any trouble," i can hear them say. i mean, clemmie must've gotten her try-hard and people-pleasing attitude from someone. of course, she also doesn't want any trouble. she doesn't want to cause conflict. i can see her wanting the same as them. it's all she's ever known, after all. so, she complies.

mental health is also heavily stigmatized in asian cultures, so the continuous act of maintaining appearances would definitely have a toll on her. however, compliance is the only thing she knows. it's also the only thing her family knows. she is expected to not only keep up appearances for herself, but also for her family. the dynasty they've built. the reputation they accumulated by simply being polite. "the dovecotes are so likeable and loyal!"

she'd probably find comfort in the stability her job in the government offers. have a family, work with coriolanus, and feel a bit of weight lifted off her shoulders when dr. gaul dies. however... clemmie is STILL a bomb with a lot of unpacked trauma and no way of healthily navigating her feelings. it's ingrained in our heads that family is the only one you should trust. so, if they say you don't need mental health help, then they're probably right. your parents are older, anyway.

it gets too much for her. the secrets, the inside jobs, the assassinations, the corruption of panem. clemmie doesn't even trust the therapist coriolanus refers her, too. what if someone was listening, and she was next?! no. keep doing what you're doing. don't let change get in the way of your comfort.

her disillusionment might make her want to join the rebellion, but she is just so, so, so comfortable where she is right now. joining would mean turning away from everything her family built. she has no identity outside of that, so if it all collapses, and she was the reason, then who the hell even IS clemensia dovecote? the passive girl that never had an opinion for herself?

I believe that if she joined the rebellion, a part of her would hesitate, she'd accidentally let something slip, and coriolanus deals with her. she'd have to be really, really strong in her belief of the cause to commit. she'd have to be absolutely SURE in the cause's victory. if she didn't join the rebellion, then she'd likely end up being part of the execution of capitol officials. all that work for nothing.

and yeah! that's my depressing interpretation of her! a part of me wants to believe that the snake bite led to her switching sides, but who knows what suzanne has in mind for her!

[miradelletarot]

Might take a social media break

Idk if i will or not...right now tho, at the time of this post, I think I need to.

bg3 twt is on fire again, i have friends on both sides of the arguments and I am so scared to lose friends b/c of who i associate with, or if i like a post or whatever.

Y'all...i'm 38, 3 kids, going thru a divorce, battling mental and physical health issues, and i work 7 days a fucking week. in fact, i'm at job #2 rn (it's slow asf today) so i'm writing this and currently crying...grateful my boss isn't here and i'm alone b/c i would be embarrassed asf rn. I DON'T NEED THIS. I don't need the stress or the drama.

I am honestly scared to death b/c many of y'all have been there for me while I have been part of this community. i am so scared I'll say or do the wrong thing and lose friends. ppl I really care about and value. i feel like i'm spiraling rn b/c if I lose this community...i genuinely don't know if I'll be ok.

All I wanna do is talk about Gale Dekarios and bg3. All i wanna do is simp over my fictional pixel man. I want to write and share my fanfic. The fucking thing i wrote during the single most turbulent time of my life. I can't handle the drama. I can't handle seeing ppl I care about in this community spiral into fighting and hatred.

I know...Im idealistic. I just want us all to get along, and talk out our issues. if you ever have an issue with me, please just dm me or something. I have no desire to fight with people, or drag ppl. let's just talk like adults. please?

i'm not tagging this either. b/c fuck that. if you see this congrats i guess. i might delete it later who tf knows. i'm just really upset and freaking out rn.

[iiwaijime]

introductions

masterlist

tooru oikawa

without them, i am nothing. so i pick up the pieces they've left behind and try to put them back together just to feel like myself again.

tooru oikawa is... weird. in a time and place where staying in solitude is the worst possible thing you can do to yourself, he does just that. no companions, no allies. all he has is an ever-growing collection of things that don't belong to him, and the faces that come back to haunt him every night. and somehow, despite all that, he's probably the most outwardly amiable person you'll meet on this side of the earth.

exhibit a: dog tags. he and his best friend bought matching ones from a fair. they got their names engraved and everything. the ones that he wears around his neck now aren't even his.

exhibit b: photographs. he has a fairly large collection of them, and he treasures every single one. a life that he can't go back to plays out within.

exhibit c: comic books. a childish part of him is still seventeen, poring over old superhero comics in his best friend's bedroom. he probably knows every single line by heart now.

y/n l/n

if the music is loud enough, and i close my eyes, just for one second, everything is okay again.

y/n l/n's life is gray — an endless cycle of sleep if you can, eat if you can, repeat. like tooru, she's alone. unlike him, she has no set base. music is her escape; yet she doesn't get to listen as often as she likes. but when she does, she goes places. sometimes she's doing maths in her friend's basement. sometimes she's fighting with her parents — she misses that, too. and sometimes, tooru oikawa, six years old, shoves a volleyball into her hands and makes her play.

exhibit a: digital camera. it's out of power, and does not function with what minimal energy is still available. but she takes it along with her anyways, in the hopes that it'll be able to turn on again one day, and unlock all the memories inside.

exhibit b: notebook, pressed flowers. she writes in the notebook every now and then, but she'd rather not waste the ink and lead she has. instead, she picks out the prettiest flowers she sees, and tucks them in between the pages. one day, she wants to show them to someone she loves.

exhibit c: walkman music player. the one she has is quite old, and thankfully works with her scavenged energy sources. she'd probably be lost without it. it's her most prized possession, an emergency exit from reality when she needs it the most.

author's note

🎵 y/n, tooru and hajime were pretty close until middle school, when she moved away. they lost contact afterwards.

🎵 the earth is super desolate rn: no laws, no electricity, no actual civilization — but there are small groups of people here and there, and parts of old machinery are sometimes just okay enough to be modified to produce a little bit of something.

🎵 "one day, she will show them to someone she loves" isn't about a specific person. she just hopes that after all this, after losing everyone and everything, she will be able to achieve some semblance of a normal life where she does not have to be alone.

🎵 tooru has really bad nightmares almost every night. he's scared of forgetting, so he tries to keep as much physical evidence of everything that ever happened in his life as possible.

🎵 there are some things like zombies in this universe; known as the infected? they go around and act feral and bite people and shit. the first few were infected by a freak explosion and then it spread like wildfire. the two main dangers are the infected, and then "pirate" groups who go around attacking people.

🎵 tooru and hajime pooled together all the money that they had to get y/n that notebook. she uses it way too sparingly, because she feels like if she finishes it, she'll lose the last connection she has with them.

🎵 tooru usually has a stable amount of supplies because he can store the excess, but y/n is always running out.

🎵 i made a friend beta read the tooru pov of the first chapter and she said it's good :3 she wanted the next bit and it was so embarrassing to tell her it's fanfic. she don't judge tho <3

🎵 inspired the stand by stephen king icl. it made such an impression on me omfg

taglist — 7/50, add yourself please — form

@akaakeis @mikauraurr @dawnisatotalqueen @smellysluna @akaashislovee @lulumi1u @anqelkoz

[a-crumb-of-whump]

Okay, so I finally got around to all the responses given for the Random Whump Questions google form I made! Everything is ranked from highest to lowest in terms of what was picked, and the number beside them is how many people chose that option:)

Also, to make sure it's not longer than it needs to be, I'm going to do the open ended questions in a separate post:) Let me know if you'd like to be tagged for that!

One more thing to keep in mind. The 'custom answers' section is where only one person has brought it up. If multiple people have said the same thing, then it will be included in the main answers :)

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Question 1. When did you first discover whump as a term?

A. 15 - 17 (106) B. 11 - 14 (105) C. 20 - 25 (42) D. 18 - 19 (39) E. 26 - 30 (21) F. -10 (4) G. 36 - 39 (4) H. 31 - 35 (3)

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Question 2.

A. Absolutely not (135) B. Some of them do but I prefer to keep it to myself (127) C. I don't try to hide it but not many people know anyway (42) D. Most, if not all of them know - I'm very open about it (10) E. One person knows (4) F. Friends know, family don't (2)

Custom answers: I'm not secretive but I don't explain it because it's hard to, I've never said it but you only need to look at me to know.

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Question 4. Biggest pet peeve when it comes to whump in media?

A. Whumpee miraculously recovers as if they didn't just break three vital bones in their body and get stabbed by the enemy (204) B. Skipping over it and going straight to recovery (165) C. Changes POV's right as it's getting juicy (154) D. Whumpee is too stoic and unphased by what happened (130) E. Too comedic/lighthearted (128) F. Main character(s) die rather than living with what they've done/what happened (127) G. Too much comfort and not enough hurt (80) H. The recovery/captivity is far too unrealistic (77) I. Too much hurt and not enough comfort (62) J. Whumpee is a massive wuss (56) K. All of the above (23) L. The recovery/captivity is too realistic (20) M. Too heavy/serious (16) N. Whumpee is unattractive/not cute enough to me (2) O. Wrong characters are whumped/favourite characters are ignored (2)

Custom written: Obvious medical errors, turns out it was all "just a nightmare!", Caretaker's wellbeing is ignored, Whumpee is rescued right before the whump was about to start, Caretaker never figures out what happened and it's never brought up again, no women, never goes as badly as I want, not enough from Whumpee's POV.

Custom written #2: Whumpee is infantilised during their recovery, no trauma/trauma is overlooked, aftermath/recovery is ignored by a timeskip, Whumpee has no personality apart from being the one who deserves pity for being white and pretty and sweet, caretaker saves the day and it's never brought up again.

Custom written #3: Caretaker saves the day and Whumpee is the perfect victim and there's no conflict ever again, too much emphasis on physical pain rather than emotional, whumper wants love from their whumpees, recovery is too fast and it involves sexual/romantic stuff.

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Question 5. Best thing a whumpee can say to give you whumperflies?

A. "Please- please, no more." (146) B. "It hurts." (142) C. "Please don't leave me." (109) D. "Don't hurt them." (94) E. "Get the hell away from me." (85) F. "I just want to be good." (81) G. "You promised." (71) H. "Am I not enough?" (69) I. "I thought... I thought it was over." (50) J. "You came back!" (49) K. "I was so scared." (43) L. "You will not break me." (36) M. All of the above (19) N. Description over dialogue/I prefer whumpees that are too scared to talk (6) O. Begging (2) P. "I'm fine." (2) Q. "I can't take it anymore." (2)

Custom answers: "Go away" | "It's all my fault, I'm sorry" | "don't touch me!" | "I'm sorry, I won't do it again, I promise" | "don't look at me" | "I don't want you to see me like this" | "fuck you" | just a heartbroken "why?" | "it's fine!"

Custom answers #2: "Nobody is coming..." | "i'm not the same person I was before" | "is this real?" | "I don't want to die" | "why are you helping me?" | Repeating "i'm okay" to themselves while trying not to cry.

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Question 7. Best thing a whumper can say to give you whumperflies?

A. "I wonder how long it'll take to break you." (120) B. "Surely you can take a little more than that, can't you?" (111) C. "Tell me what I need to know and it'll all be over." (111) D. "You're being so good." (107) E. "You're so adorable when you cry." (98) F. "You're mine." (79) G. "Which finger should I crush this time?" (78) H. "I think if you were really sorry, you'd __" (63) I. "This is your home now." (57) J. "At least try to show a little enthusiasm." (49) K. "Please forgive me." (47) L. "You live to please me." (41) M. All of the above (15) N. Prefer no whumpers (7) O. Silent whumpers (3)

Custom answers: "Everything you touch dies." | "I have your whumpee." | "You wanna see something weird/interesting/cool?" | "Get some rest, darling. We'll pick this up again tomorrow." | "Just what do you think you're doing?" | "Don't worry. I'll take good care of you."

Custom answers #2: Petnames | "It's not personal." | "Nobody's coming for you. Give up." | "This is all your fault." | "You shouldn't have done that, darling." | "You'll be begging soon." | "Maybe some pain/time out/etc. will change your mind." | "It's you or them." | "Go ahead, try to run."

Custom answers #3: "Do it or I'll hurt them." | "This is for your own good." | "This will only hurt a pinch." | "Why do you have to ruin everything?" | "The more you scream, the more I have to hurt you." | "It's for science, Whumpee." | "I truly am sorry about this." | "I love you so, so much. I want to taste you..." | "Good boy."

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Question 8. Best thing a Caretaker can say to give you whumperflies?

A. "I got you." (180) B. "Breathe. Just breathe." (170) C. "What did they do to you." (154) D. "Hey, I'm here, okay?" (152) E. "Lie down, okay?" (107) F. "I'm gonna get us out of here." (107) G. "When was the last time they fed you?" (97) H. "Lay a hand on them and see what happens." (88) I. "Don't hurt them." (83) J. "I'm sorry but this is in your best interest." (66) K. "I will not rest until I find who did this." (41) L. "Don't cry." (32) M. All of the above (26) N. Any sort of medical talk (2) O. No caretakers (2)

Custom answers: "Don't touch them!" | Pet names in general | "Just relax. It's all over." | "Don't fucking touch them." | "It's not your fault." | "Hold still" while tending to wounds | "Almost done | Just hold on." | "Hey... not so fast." | "Just look at me, okay?" and then proceeds to gently explain what the medical procedure entails | "You're safe now." | "Please believe me?"

Custom answers #2: "May I see? I promise I won't hurt you." | "Whoa, hey, calm down. I'm not gonna hurt you." | "Shh, you're safe now. It's okay. I'm not leaving." | "Who did this to you?" | "Take this, you'll feel better." | "Shh, I know it hurts" to a squirming whumpee | Anything as long as there's physical touch to go with it | "Stay with me, okay?" | "You need to stay awake for me." | "Leave them alone!"

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Question 9. What role do you think you'd play in a whump story?

A. Whumpee (87) B. Caretaker (52) C. Side character (44) D. Caretaker-turned-whumpee (32) E. Whumpee-turned-caretaker (22) F. Whumper (16) G. Whumpee-turned-whumper (14) H. Whumper-turned-whumpee (11) I. Whumper-turned-caretaker (10) J. Caretaker-turned-whumper (8) K. Caretaker or whumpee (6) L. Carewhumper (3) M. None/I don't insert myself into scenarios (2)

Custom answers: Narrator, all of the above depending on my mood, side character.

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Question 11. Favourite place to consume whump? (not including movies/tv shows/games/etc)

A. Tumblr (294) B. AO3 (212) C. Pinterest (62) D. Fanfiction.net (23) E. DeviantArt (8) F. Wattpad (4) G. My brain (4) H. All of the above (3) I. Youtube (3) J. Character.AI (2) K. Discord (2) L. My brain (2) M. Twitter (2)

Custom answers: Sketch book, google,

Other notes: Someone also gave @whumplovers-collaborate a mention, saying they've been on that server for over a year and that it's amazing.

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Question 12. Pick a whumpy anime out of the ones I've watched (so far)

A. Castlevania (51) B. Black Butler (43) C. Bungou Stray Dogs (43) D. Banana Fish (35) E. Vanitas No Carte (19) F. Black Bullet (5)

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Question 14. How old does a whumpee need to be to be considered an "older whumpee"?

A. 40+ (127) B. 34 - 37 (68) C. 30 - 33 (51) D. 38 - 39 (38) E. 26 - 29 (18) F. 22 - 25 (2) G. 18 - 21 (0)

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Question 15. Pick a character that I think needs to be whumped more.

A. Link (The Legend Of Zelda) (96) B. Tony Stark (The Avengers/Iron Man) (64) C. Vanitas & Noe (Vanitas No Carte) (47) D. Joel Miller (The Last Of Us) (45) E. Hosea Matthews (Red Dead Redemption 2) (5)

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Question 16. Do you prefer hystorical whump or modern whump?

A. Modern (220) B. Hystorical (82)

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Question 17. Do you prefer hurt or comfort?

A. A healthy combination of both (163) B. A little bit of comfort, lots of hurt (81) C. Hurt (44) D. A little hurt, lots of comfort (28) E. Comfort (8)

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Question 19. Favourite species to whump?

A. Human (290) B. Immortal (118) C. Vampire (105) D. Demon/angel (87) E. Werewolf (57) F. Robot/android/cyborg (54) G. God/deity (49) H. Birdpeople (48) I. Merfolk (44) J. Tiny (38) K. Catpeople (26) L. Alien (19) M. All (16) N. Humans with inhuman/magical abilities (5) O. Giant (2) P. Elf (2) Q. Lab subjects (2) R. Species isn't important (2)

Custom answers: Shapeshifter, hybrics, faefolk, winged whumpees, dhampir, superheros, dwarves, mobian.

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Question 20. Pick something to restrain your whumpee with.

A. Chains (104) B. Rope (101) C. Handcuffs (38) D. Zipties (31) E. Your belt (18) F. A piece of their own clothing (18) G. Your tie (6)

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Question 22: Your whumpee bites you. What do you do?

A. Put a muzzle on them. You're not mad, but you need to keep yourself safe (119) B. Beat them until they learn their lesson (82) C. Have a rational conversation with them once they've calmed down about why it's wrong and how to stop it from happening again (61) D. Get checked for some kind of desease. Who knows what they've been carrying (25) E. Ignore it and hope it doesn't happen again (8)

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Question 23. A whumpee shows up at your door, terrified and scared. They beg for your help. What do you do?

A. Let them in and give them some food. You can worry about what you're gonna do with them later on (273) B. Keep them prisoner. Whump their to your heart's content (31) C. Slam the door in their face (4)

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Taglist: @dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night @let-the-whump-commence @pigeonwhumps @rule-masochism @whumperofworlds @whump-space @wollemi-whump

[vtforpedro]

long life update - TWs in tags

It feels like it's been ages. I'm so exhausted and in a lot of physical pain. Going on two months of it being the worst it's been right after a couple of months of the best it's been. Chronic pain + grief + trying to get help from doctors who should have their licenses revoked + dealing with a shit relationship with my mom + a good, decades-long friendship ending + the ongoing disability process with the SSA + LAW FIRMS.

I'm so fucking tired. I don't remember if I updated that the appeals council decided not to review my case because the 'judge followed the law' except that he didn't. So, as it turns out, my original attorney (and he did not tell me this) before he left, wrote that if they denied me, it should go to federal district court.

I'm now working with a NY law firm to take my case to federal court because my current law firm believes it has merit, and I guess they do, too. That's how fucked the decision was, and I'm glad my initial reaction of bewilderment and anger was spot on lol

The good news is, it should only take another year! ._.

My neurologist is the worst doctor I have ever come across and I'm quite literally stuck with him with nowhere else to go. I wish him upon no one. I'm so tired of calling the SSA, getting documents to them, signing things for law firms, contacting law firms, getting no responses, and contacting them all over and over again. I am in incredible physical pain, like this actively makes my neuro stuff worse. Everything makes it worse. I have autonomic testing in a few days, and idk if I'll get through it b/c I have to stop the meds that keep me out of the ER two days prior, and it scares me.

My relationship with my mom is fractured and I don't feel like family therapy is actually helping. I had to end a friendship with someone I love and care very much about but who was growing too comfortable mistreating me and I was giving them too many passes 😞 I've known them for the better part of two decades.

It's been over seven months since my cat Isis died. I don't know how. It feels like she was here just yesterday. Yet, all the nights I've sat and talked to her and wept are all too real. I miss her more than I can say. She was my soul cat. I keep thinking about tomorrow and how she'd be so nosy getting into EVERYthing when gifts are opened at Christmas. Having to stop her, move her, laugh because she was just so n o s y and it was hilarious. And she's not gonna be here for that ever again.

I'm having a really fucking hard time tonight. It's just hitting me how god-awful this year has been and how I have a bad week to look forward to before even getting to the new year lmao I have to stop taking so many of my medications 48hrs before 1.5-2hrs of testing to see if we can find out Yet Another Thing Wrong With Me but knowing my luck it'll be 'no findings' and the mystery of why my core body temp plummets to 93.9 in the blink of an eye won't be solved until I have suffered juuuuust enough.

It never ends. Never. I want to give up. I'm so tired of doing this. I don't want to anymore. It never. fucking. ends.

I absolutely cannot say it's all been bad, though. I've met incredible, warm, welcoming, giving, kind people this year. Y'all have helped me more than you know and I'm so so so lucky to be able to call you my friends. This year has sucked for so many of us, but I want to say I'm proud of you, and I love you all very much.

My fic is gonna be printed in a hardcover zine early next year. I participated in a Big Bang for the first time and that'll also go out early next year. I'm hosting a tiny event in my tiny fandom server that I'm super excited about. I have a raffle prize to write (bagginshield !!!! SO EXCITED to revisit the og otp) and a Valentine's gift to write for another fandom.

I posted 401,000 words this year and wrote many more unfinished wips, plus a long one (90k) that I am very invested in finishing.

I painted and drew so much this year. I improved a lot, too! I got a couple of portraits printed from inprnt to see how they looked, and it was MY art, and they were GORGEOUS. I thought I would hate seeing my art professionally printed, but no! I almost cried. They looked so lovely.

My cat Lilly had health issues almost immediately following Isis's passing, but she is doing so well right now. She's blossomed into another cat, and while she's not my constant companion, she is with me so much more than she used to be. When she walks onto my desk I am to stop everything and hold her like baby in my arms until she decides that's enough (or I really need to move) lmaaao she's such a goober. My heart cat. <3

I'm not doing well right now--my MH is bad. Especially tonight. But it felt good to write the good things.

I'm sorry for my lack of replies and kinda disappearing. I'm running on fumes. I hope next year will bring physical relief so emotional relief can happen.

For those of you facing difficulties of any kind, I am holding your hand in spirit.

[isleofdarkness]

Black Magick chapter 6

In which Riah's anniversary is affecting, they learn a lot, and someone they don't know writes in the book.

Warnings for swearing, PTSD, mentions of unspecified childhood trauma

Are you all okay?

Ginny

Riah had puzzled over the question, somehow written in such a way that it sounded like a demand even through ink. The pain in his right hand, the one that had healed as a mess of broken bones but was still the more functioning of the two, had been better, so he’d been able to scrawl out;

We’re good.

Riah

If Mal wasn’t gone I would have her draw you a picture of how little we all believe you.

Uma

Slander. What changed while we were gone?

Riah

Yzla named the baby Hope. Seph brought us back a goat and a lot of seeds so Diego’s been working on building a greenhouse.

Uma

A greenhouse? Riah had no idea what it was. Apparently Diego didn’t either.

He saw it on the telly when he was six and he’s trying to recreate it. Think you can send a book on whatever the shit a greenhouse is?

Harriet

Nice to see that motherhood hadn’t tamed Harriet’s tongue one bit.

We can manage.

Riah

Cloth might be easier to get than bandages and a lot of the bandages won’t wash well. It might be better to get cloth.

Ginny

Hadie wants to know if you can remove his curses?

Uma

His curses? Riah’s brow wrinkled until it hit him- Hadie’s treasure. Children of Hades attracted valuable stuff, like the little gems they kept hidden in vases or the titanium used to make Riah’s cane. The problem was that the treasure Hadie pulled up was cursed. It would give anyone who wasn’t blood of Hades (or blessed by Hades, as Riah found out) extremely bad luck. But the curses were very simple, especially since they were on the Isle. Riah could probably do something about them.

Probably.

Riah

He wants to send you a jar of them next time so that you can use them to get money and buy stuff. Hades is worried about you lot getting in trouble for stealing.

Uma

They get in trouble for stealing over there?

Diego

Yep.

Riah

That’s fucked up, man. That place is weird.

Diego

It was, but Riah didn’t have enough time to tell Diego how else it was weird before Fairy Godmother was standing in front of him, towering over him. His heart stopped.

“Are you ready to rejoin tha class, Riannon?”

He was so scared that he didn’t even get angry about the name. After pulling his soul back into his body, Riah nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

Her eyes went down to what he was reading and his heart attempted escape through his throat, but she didn’t really look at it. Her gaze kept skirting around it until she huffed. He shut the book at quickly as demonly possible and she went back to the front of the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of his friends relax ever so slightly.

They had all lived on an Isle of violence and uncertainty for their entire lives, but that was the scariest thing they had ever dealt with.

“Someone hands you a crying baby,” Fairy Godmother started again, tapping her point on the board with every word. “Do you A, curse it? B, lock it in a tower? C, give it a bottle? Or D, carve out its heart?”

I give it to Shan Yu or Harriet Hook. Where the hell am I getting a bottle, let alone milk for a baby, on the Isle? Riah thought, trying very hard not to glare. Gods he hated this woman.

Evie was clearly thinking the same thing because she raised her hand. When Godmother called on her, she drawled “What was that second option?”

The sarcasm couldn’t have been more clear if it had taken physical form and danced around naked with a name tag, but Fairy Godmother didn’t seem to catch it. She gave a small sigh of disappointment. “Anyone else? Mal?”

Mal, who had been drawing what looked like Uma and avoiding the discussion, spared the board one glance before giving the answer they all knew Fairy Godmother wanted. “C, give it a bottle.”

“Correct.”

Hard to believe that this was the fae who’d been instrumental in the annihilation of most of the fae of old and a good portion of the other ones. Hard to believe she’d been the one to kill the leadership of the Neverfay and burn down the pixie dust tree, sending those who survived into the fay dark ages or whatever they called it. It was disappointing, really. He would think a genocide person wouldn’t at least wear that atrocious shade of pastel lavender- how did one even make lavender of all colors a pastel? Unbelievable.

“Now-” he was going to kill himself. He was legitimately considering stabbing his good leg just to get out of the hell he was in. Just a little bit of charmspeak- no, no charmspeaking Fairy Godmother. No matter how much he wanted to. “You find a vial of poison!”

I use it to get myself the fuck out of here. He thought, trying not to concuss himself against the table as she listed the options. Five hands shot up, his not included. So of course she called on him. “Riannon?”

“It’s Zachariah if you insist on using my full name,” he snapped, finally losing his cool. “And what do I do with it? E, none of the above, because I drink it just to get me out of this bullshit.”

“Profanity is not per-”

“Shut up!” He shot to his feet as the chalkboard cracked, the lights flickering and windows shaking in his rage. He vaguely recognized that this was an extreme overreaction, but shit. This was one of the worst months of his life at the worst time of a month that was, ever since he turned ten, a month where he was already going through the full shit. It was just a shitty day, nearly the anniversary, and he was about to lose it. He was already sick of her and they’d only been in class for an agonizing thirty minutes. 

She puffed her chest, giving him a look that could peel paint. “Excuse me?”

“I said shut up!” Jay was next to him- when had he even gotten out of his chair- and his hands landed on Riah’s shoulders.

Don’t touch me don’t touch me don’t touch me-

“Get away from me!” Either he was a lot stronger than he thought or Jay just wasn’t expecting him to be as strong as he was. Riah wrenched away from the concerned djinni. For a brief, panicked moment, he reached for a well of power he’d been forbidden from. The rune on his back burned, and Riah saw clearly.

If he didn’t leave, someone was going to die. So he left, spinning on his heel after grabbing his stuff and storming out.

The students threw themselves out of his way as he stalked down the halls, eyes black and skin so pale they could see his black veins. The lights flickered as he walked, making the shadows seem to reach for him. Maybe they were. He wouldn’t know.

Without even meaning to he found himself outside, his feet carrying him into the woods. Through the woods, across a bridge, and to… some sort of pond? With a weird little gazebo? And King Ben?

The sight of Ben was enough to shock him out of his haze. Oh- oh fuck. Maybe if he was really quiet-

“Oh! Riah?”

Nope.

“... Hi…” He waved awkwardly. Think think think panicked brain not working go on instinct- “How are you?”

Instincts bad.

Ben gave him a strange look, kind of like pity but… nicer? “I think the question is how are you doing? Are you okay? You look pretty upset.”

“I…” Why was his mouth so bent of embarrassing him? “Just a small issue- with a class. But I’m doing a lot better now and I’m gonna go so-”

“No,” Ben ordered. Riah froze and the boy king flushed. “Sorry. You don’t look like you’re doing that well. Do you want to sit? The water is pretty calming.”

And his feet, the traitors, carried him over to stand on the edge, next to Ben. The look he was giving Riah- it was sweet and fond and gentle and Riah did not like it. His face heated as he looked down at the water, so clear he could see the rocks at the bottom. “What’re you looking at?”

“Was I staring?” Ben chuckled awkwardly and oh gods, this was painful. He would take it over Remedial Goodness any day, though.

He hadn’t spent much time around Ben, but something about him made Riah feel… nice. Warm. Like there was a friendly campfire going in his chest, warming him from this inside. When he’d interacted with him before, he’d noted that Ben was a very physical person. He had a tendency to make physical contact, clapping him on the shoulder and stuff like that. And while he was being careful not to do it now, no doubt worried about freaking Riah out, they were close enough that Riah could feel the heat of him and that was nice, too. Part of him wanted to lean against Ben but he resisted. That wasn’t how things were done, he was sure, and he had horns. And it disappointed him that he couldn’t for… some reason?

He wasn’t angry anymore but he was confused. He didn’t understand the feeling he was getting or why he felt like it. It was weird.

“Are you tired?” Ben asked, ever considerate.

“Tired of Auradon,” Riah snarked before he could think. To his surprise, Ben laughed.

“That’s fair. Just give it some time. Change is always hard under the best of circumstances. I can’t even imagine how hard it is for all of you.” Ben gave him a smile that made something in Riah melt. “But seriously. You look exhausted.”

“Just what every guy wants to hear,” He drawled.

Ben wasn’t letting him get out of this. “The floor isn’t the best but it’s comfortable enough. Sit down for a bit. I can get you out of classes for as long as you need. Do you mind telling me what happened?”

The rune of his back was still burning as Ben basically psychologically wrestled Riah to sit, never touching him but somehow making him sit anyway. Riah wanted to get away from this weird place and the weird magick he could sense, but he couldn’t. He’d used too much in his little tantrum and even more trying to contain it. He was exhausted. So he sat. “I’m sure you’ll hear all about it at the expulsion hearing.”

Was that a thing they would do? Ben didn’t seem to think so. “I doubt such measures will be taken, so I would like to hear it from you.”

How could he be so calm? Even Seph would have gotten snappy with him by now and she was an angel. Riah groaned. “I blew up at Fairy Godmother and her utter bullshit, lost my temper, broke the chalkboard, windows, and lights with my magic, told her to shut up twice, cursed at her, almost killed Jay, left class without being dismissed, and stalked through the halls like a goddamn nightmare instead of dealing with my problems like a mature person. I’m getting expelled.”

Ben shook his head. “No, you aren’t. At least it isn’t likely. Can you tell me more about what led up to your reaction?”

“What are you, a therapist?” Ben gave him a patient look and how could this guy be so convincing without saying anything? Riah groaned again for good measure but fessed up. “She was doing her Remedial Goodness bullshit, which is just answering the questions the way she wants you too, called me Riannon instead of Riah or Zachariah because she thinks my name is Riannon for some reason, and I just snapped.” He snapped his fingers emphatically.

The boy king gave him an understanding nod. “So you got angry at her. You told her to shut up?”

“Actually, I told her to call me Zachariah if she wouldn’t call me Riah, then said I would drink the bottle of poison to get myself out of her class. She got on me for swearing and then I interrupted her and told her to shut up.”

Ben considered for a second. “Do you feel that Remedial Goodness is helping you at all?”

“No,” Riah scoffed, leaning his head back. The position was surprisingly comfortable. Who knew that sitting on the ground and leaning on a pillar could feel good? “It’s not about teaching us anything other than answering how she wants us to answer. We all know what she wants us to say and even if we didn’t, we would still choose the right answers because we aren’t monsters. Well, we are, but the stuff she thinks we’d do is beyond pale even by Isle standards. We don’t kill babies, we turn poison over, we don’t torture innocent people. Those on the Isle who do, we hate them. She should have given us some goodness test or some shit.”

After a moment of consideration, Ben nodded again. “I think that’s a good idea.”

“What.” He had been joking. That was a joke.

“A test for goodness. Something like the standardized testing for math or English. I won’t be able to get the class removed entirely but I might be able to shift the curriculum to suit what you actually need,” Ben gave him an encouraging smile. “Yeah, I think it’s a great idea. I’ll talk to you all later about how you think I should go about it. Thank you.”

What? He had shown up halfway to a panic attack, practically in a demonic form, interrupted whatever Ben was doing, confessed to performing illegal magick and disrespecting Fairy Godmother, criticized the school, and Ben was thanking him? “You’re weird.”

Ben laughed. “I can live with that.”

“You just became weirder. Why are you even here?”

Relaxing to lean against one of the pillars, Ben shrugged. “Same reason as you. I come here when I’m stressed out- I didn’t think anyone else knew about it.”

Oh. Oh no. He’d ruined this place for Ben. Ben was being so unreasonably nice to him and this was how he repaid him. By ruining the place he went to calm down. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t mind.” He sounded so genuine. Riah was usually skeptical at best, but he couldn’t help but buy what Ben was telling him. “I think someone else should know about this place. It’s a very special place.”

“The magic?” Riah asked. Ben nodded. “What kind of magic is it? I can’t quite place it.”

“It’s Endless.” Riah’s head turned so fast her nearly broke a horn. “Older than my father’s monarchy. Adam Constantine told me that before Delight became Delirium, she made a lot of places like this, magical places. The only known one is Neverland- I haven’t told anyone I found this. It’s very hard to find if you haven’t been here before and I think she made it that way for a reason.” Ben seemed to realize something and gave Riah a curious look. “How did you find this place?”

He couldn’t answer that. If he told Ben that part of his heritage he would be sent back to the Isle for sure. “How did you find it?”

“John Constantine made a charm to locate places like these before he disappeared. His son Adam gave it to me a while back- I think he wanted to encourage some rebellion. But the charm only worked once, to bring me to this place.”

John Constantine. He made a mental note to look up that name later. If this John Constantine could make a tool to find something hidden by an Endless, what else would he be able to make? What else could already be made? And if Constantine was alive, Riah could find him. If he wasn’t, he could get Nico to find him. This John Constantine might be useful.

“But you didn’t answer my question. How did you know to come here?”

He wasn’t getting out of it. “I don’t know.” It wasn’t technically a lie- he definitely wasn’t the grandchild of Delight and he had no idea if the one he was related to could find the magic of the others. It just wasn’t giving away all of the information. “Must be a grandchild of Hecate thing. You know, goddess of using magic. I guess I must have sensed it here and just followed without thinking about it.” That could also be true. Maybe it was Hecate’s fault. More likely, considering his luck, that it was the whole blood-of-an-Endless thing.

All else failed, he would say the blood was from Death or Destruction. Hell, he’d even go for the closest to the truth, Despair. Just not the real one. No one would ever trust him again if they knew the real one. Which was why he couldn’t charmspeak Fairy Godmother.

“I wonder…” Ben muttered, seeming to realize something. He looked at the water. “Riah, take your boots off and put your feet in the water like I am.”

Riah gave him a look. What? “Why?”

“The water in enchanted to remove spells. I wonder if it could remove your curse.”

Oh.

Oh shit.

He tried not to hope but got out of his boots as quickly as possible, taking off his socks and rolling up his jeans. He nearly fell of the platform for how quickly he shoved his bare feet into the water, and oh.

The water was pleasantly warm and silky, feeling more like a soft oil than the tides Riah knew from home. The warmth of it filled him, traveling through his veins and fixing everything it found. His misshapen bones stopped aching, his exhaustion faded, and most importantly, his curse relented. For the first time in his life, his lungs expanded and stopped not because of the curse, but because they couldn’t fill themselves anymore.

“Holy shit.” His amulet pulsed and he felt another surge of magic wrapping around his lungs, this one like armor instead of a noose. The curse was still there, he could still feel it writhing in displeasure, but he could breathe.

He could breathe.

“Holy shit,” he repeated. Ben’s head tilted, a soft expression on his face. Riah’s face heated and he turned away. “What?”

“The waters like you-” What the absolute fuck did that mean? “And I think they’re right to.”

Ben wasn’t usually one to just blurt things out. For some reason, that changed when he was around Riah.

Riah was gorgeous, anyone could see. A mop of soft, black, shaggy corkscrew curls, skin as white as the moon, soft jawline, glittering ruby eyes framed by thick lashes, and his soft, thin, pale lips. It was hard to keep his gaze from flitting to those lips. The more Ben looked at him, the more small things he noticed- Riah’s ears were pointed just a little bit, less than even Neverfay ears. He had freckles, faint and just barely visible, splattering across his nose. There were small scars on his face- one right at the end of his eyebrow, one across his bottom lip, one down his nose, and one almost hidden in his hairline. Small things, probably what most would consider imperfections, but Ben loved them. They made him more beautiful.

But back to the matter at hand- Riah somehow managed to remove the pieces between mind and mouth. This was why Ben had played middle man to tell Riah that the sentient waters liked him, and why he had openly supported their decision. And this way why Riah was looking at him like he’d just said the most baffling thing ever. He guessed he had.

“Oh-” He stuttered, trying to salvage the situation, “What I meant was-”

Riah started laughing. Not one note of malice, just laughing. Laughing as though he’d just heard the best news ever.

Ben hadn’t even known one could love the sound of another person laughing. But he did.

“You are so weird,” Riah cackled, enunciating every syllable. “Gods, I love that. You, sir, are awesome.”

Anxiety vanishing, Ben gave Riah his best smile. “So are you.”

“Joshua, this is Jasmine.”

“Jas? I get the feeling this isn’t a social call.”

“It isn’t. After school Jabari is going to bring you to my palace, I’m calling an emergency meeting. Spread the word to the others, it’s about those children.”

“What happened?”

“If I say it, I’m going off. Some new information has come to light, very disturbing information, and we need to discuss it as soon as possible.”

“Got it, I’ll spread the word.”

“Tell everyone to watch out for those children. What I just found out… Make sure they’re okay. We’ll speak more later.”

“Ben says Riah’s okay,” Jane met them the second they left, just before they tore outside to look for him. It had taken every ounce of charm Mal, Evie, and Jay had to keep Godmother from going on a warpath long enough for Mal to spell her. Everything was fixed, Godmother would only remember Riah leaving peacefully without answering the question. If Mal wasn’t so damn worried, she would have been fuming. They’d only been in the school for one day and Riah’s dumbass was already swearing at the headmistress.

She was going to murder him. “Where are they?”

“Ben said-” Jane paused, blinking, then corrected herself, “Well, Riah’s right behind you.”

Of course he is. Mal spun on her heel to face the idiot who had appeared behind them, ready to either slug him or comfort him, but he shoved a notebook into her arms before she could say anything. “We don’t have much time, Deenie and I have nursing. I just found out a shit ton of shit I wrote it all down I think we can use it we’ll all talk during lunch.” He pulled a crystal out of his bag and pushed it into her hand. “Make a wish you’ll see what I mean this is huge gotta go.”

Without any explanation he rushed past them, moving very fast for a guy on a cane. Mal blinked and turned again. “Get back here!”

There was a flash of magic, a kind she couldn’t identify, and Riah was back in front of her as though he had teleported. He groaned. “You had one wish and you used it on that.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Mal snapped, talking about everything he had done in the past hour. Riah gave her an annoyed look and that just pissed her off even more. What right did he have to be annoyed?

“Well, Mal, if I had a week I could maybe start to answer that. Alas, I have only one minute, so I’ll be brief- a lot.” His humor died and he glanced back at Jane, who was staring at them. “Too much company right now. Read what I wrote-” the warning bell chimed, making them flinch (it sounded way too much like the Twisted Neverfay, to the point Mal glanced around to spot the little monsters before they could spot her,) and Riah’s hand tightened on his cane. “This is major, believe me. We have to go.”

“So do the rest of you,” Jane insisted, staring at the crystal with wide eyes. “You’ll all have sex ed together after this and history after that.”

So they wouldn’t have to wait until lunch. Mal nodded and her crew dispersed, each moving to their respective classes.

Usually Mal loved geology (maybe it was a fae thing, maybe it was an ADHD thing, she had no clue,) but she couldn’t pay attention as the class broke into groups to begin identifying if sample rocks were igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. Riah was right when he’d said it was major.

The Endless. Seven beings of unimaginable power, power over even the strongest of titans. Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Destruction, and Delirium. Delight. The creator of Neverland, of gods knew how many other places one could only access if they knew where they were going. Places that could be used as bases, as places to hide stuff, as places to practice magic. Wishing stones, water to remove enchantments, trees from which powerful magical tools could be crafted. If they could find another one…

John Constantine. Carlos had fixed up their new laptops- courtesy of some Mister Whitmore- to not use school wifi and bypass all blocks, but it was still hard to find anything on John Constantine until she went onto the Monster Net. The stuff he did, the stuff he was capable of… If they could have this guy as an ally, they could do anything.

Both of those opened up doors to new magic, according to Riah. Full-on magick-with-a-k. Sigils, components, spells, beings with more power than even elder fae like her mother. Magick that couldn’t be tracked, like the kind he’d been using. Magick on the Isle, maybe. Magick in ways Auradonians weren’t creative enough to fathom.

The level of what they could do…

She could barely believe it.

“Now,” Snow White called, “Can anyone tell me the secret to managing a successful kingdom?” Evie’s hand shot up and Snow grinned. She already loved having her younger sister in her class. “Evie?”

“The key to running a successful kingdom is keeping your subjects happy while managing foreign relations.”

“Correct again,” she said. So far, Evie had gotten every question right. The other students seemed happy to let her carry the lesson. “Now, who can tell me how you keep your subjects happy?” Evie’s hand went up. “Yes, dear?”

Evie was beaming. “A leader has to work in the best interest of their citizens and the citizens have to be able to trust that their leader will. This is done by communicating and listening.”

“There we go.” She turned to the entire class. “You have to listen to your subjects, for they outnumber you. Does anyone know what consent of the governed means?” Evie again. “Evie?”

“It means that a government is only legitimate if it has the support of the citizens,” Evie recited. “The people surrender some rights and freedoms for the guarantee that their government will protect them and their civil liberties. If the government doesn’t protect them by not working in their best interest, the social contract is broken and the people have every right to revolt and regain what they surrendered.”

“Right again,” Snow praised, making Evie’s smile even brighter.

Maybe Auradon didn’t have the imagination to guess what she was thinking, maybe they didn’t know how horribly the social contract had been broken, but Evie was smiling for more reasons than met the eye. Her mother’s lessons had covered this and this class confirmed it- when the social contract was broken, citizens had the right to revolt.

The social contract had been broken. The Isle had the right to revolt.

Most of the cars in the school’s shop were client work. Audrey pointed out which one belonged to which person, pointing to almost all of them. All except one.

In the corner of the room, on top of a frame machine that had so much rust it couldn’t possibly work, sat an old junker van. The paint was faded, worn through in some places, there were so many dents he couldn’t count them, rust on almost every panel, and some of the panels were even missing. But the frame looked intact, he’d fixed up worse-

“Audrey?” She’d instructed them to call her by her first name, something most of the Auradon kids refused to do but he had no problem with. “What about that car?”

She followed his gaze to the junker and shrugged. “It was here before me and no one ever asks about it, I assume it’s just scrap.”

If no one wanted it… “What if someone fixed it up?”

She shrugged, giving him a look as if she knew what he was hoping. “I suppose who ever managed that would get to keep it. Seems fair, si?”

Basically, if he was willing to put in effort, he could get them a car. Not just a car, a van. Excitement welled up in his chest. “Fair. I’ll see if I’m up to it.”

Part of Neverland had been used to make the Isle, Riah knew that now. That was how the Twisted Neverfay existed, how the shadows of Pan and his Lost Boys called out to the children at night, why there could be so much in the woods but no one dared approach them. He’d never known until Ben had said it, but it explained so much and opened up so many doors. If part of Neverland was used to make the Isle, what else was there?

There was Devil’s Bayou somewhere no one knew, probably in the woods. Maleficent’s realm, according to Uma, had been made into Doomed. Chernabog’s mountain, but no one had the balls to get close. There must have been more, so much more- had they been sitting on top of a goldmine without knowing it?

As he listened to Sweet and Claudine took notes, he wrote to Uma and Harriet for other places. Ursula’s cavern, Salazan Grum, the Elephant Graveyard must have been hidden somewhere, there were so many that must have been hidden somewhere. So much magic none of them had noticed. How had none of them noticed it?

Probably no one had thought Auradon would be that stupid.

They all knew there was magic on the Isle. Magic inside of them that none of them could release, sure, but there were places where it snuck through for them. The ocean, giving the cecaelias and mermaids magic. The shadows, bending to the will of the Facilier sisters and, once he grew into his power, creating doorways for Hadie. Words still held weights, debts. The moon and stars, filling Ginny Gothel with strength and telling Reza secrets that saved lives. The life in even those without magic, a magic that could never be stolen from anything for as long as it lived. Hell, Hades fucking Olympian lived (un-died?) there. They all knew there was magic on the Isle. Most just didn’t know there might be a lot they could use.

He was talking himself in circles. The point was, he thought, that Auradon’s no-magic barrier wasn’t effective in the first place, and now he knew that there might be enough magic hidden on the Isle to overpower it. King Beast had really been that stupid.

He barely even noticed the time passing. It felt like it was only seconds before the bell (gods, he was going to curse that fucking bell) trilled. He and Claudine stayed in their seats, having sex ed in the same room, and he noticed Doctor Sweet making his way over to them, but everything else in the world disappeared when he looked down at the book. In an unfamiliar, spidery calligraphy, someone had added something.

The Dark Kingdom.

The fucking what?

Riah

No response.

Who the fuck wrote that?

Riah

No response.

Hello?

Riah

Finally, someone answered.

Narcissa went into labor and we had to leave the room. All of us left. I don’t know who wrote that.

Uma

Claudine reached over and flipped the book to a random page just as Sweet stepped up to the table. He gave them a kind smile. “Riah, Claudine. How are you two doing?”

“As well as can be expected, sir.” He quite liked Doctor Sweet and even if he didn’t, he would rather have the man as an ally than an enemy. No matter how bad the anniversary was effecting, he was going to be nice to Sweet. 

Sweet chuckled. “There’s no need to call me ‘sir,” you know.”

“I don’t want to offend.” Adults could be weird like that. They wanted to be called sir or ma’am for whatever reason and they got angry if they weren’t.

“You wouldn’t,” Sweet reassured. “I’ve been called far worse things than my name.” Claudine winced in sympathy. “Are you two understanding the material?”

“Yes,” Claudine said, smiling ever so slightly. “You do a wonderful job of explaining it.”

“That’s great.” It felt like he was x-raying them with his eyes. Riah resisted the urge to squirm. Why the analysis? “I just want to make sure you two know that you can always come to me. All of you can. If you need help with class, or food, supplies, books, whatever, feel free to ask. No matter what, okay?”

“Okay.” Claudine sounded a lot less confused than Riah felt.

“And stick with the black shelf.”

What? Claudine gave him a confused look and turned back to ask Sweet what that meant, but the doctor was already walking away. Riah blinked, equally mystified, then shook it off and turned back to the page.

Only to find the key Sweet used to open the closet tucked between the pages.

Evie had plenty of news on some “social contract” and “consent of the governed,” which she was definitely going to have to explain to them later. Jay had gotten the name of a rock shop- the place where the geology teacher got all the fancy rocks and gems- and learned that they would also buy stuff. Mal’s head ached from all of the stuff she’d learned about this whole magick-with-a-k thing. Carlos was fixed to get them a car. Claudine had three pages of notes on medical shit that Ginny Gothel could use to save lives. Riah had information on the Isle and the actual key to the medicine closet, apparently given to him by Doctor Sweet.

In short, they all had a shit ton to talk about.

Claudine and Evie alternated taking notes as the six passed a notebook back and forth, writing everything they had learned and the progress they had made. Mal wasn’t even that pissed at Riah anymore, not with the goldmine he’d found. Her crew had done so well. They were never going to hear the end of this once she finally got to praise all of them about it.

So much was going right, despite a few small setbacks. Realizing that made anxiety twist in Mal’s gut.

With all of this going so well, the other shoe was going to be heavy. When it dropped, it was going to kill someone.

And she didn’t know when it was going to drop.

[chaos-has-theories]

WIP Tag/Reblog Game

Thank youuuuu @aidanchaser!

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

WIP TITLES

Specifically 5 fanfics this time around - the things that are loudest about rattling my head at the moment.

Timetravel AU - Septimus Heap After a series of escalating deaths, Marcia and Septimus use the House of Foryx to travel back in time and - hopefully - fix things.

Merlin Resurrection AU - working title "I Refuse" Merlin has been alive for a thousand years, and he just found out that the rest of the gang is back. The problem is, none of them fully remember anything: It's only just enough to spook Arthur hard enough that he cut contact with all of the others and is trying his hardest to just be an obnoxious college student.

Three is Company - Septimus Heap, role swap AU. Prequel/Equel to The Long Way Home. Answers such thrilling questions as "how did Septimus get adopted by the Queen?", "how much trauma can you put into one freshly-minted EOW?" and "What exactly IS going on between Marcia, Milo and Cerys?"

The Egypt Agenda Part 4: The Distant Goddess I have yet to properly write out my Egyptian analysis of Nona the Ninth! Also I've been meaning to put the other parts on Ao3 for a while

Gideon the Musical Ohhhh boy I just rediscovered this while going through my drafts and?? I mean no there's pretty much nothing in that file yet but now I really want to pick it up again

UPCOMING SECTIONS

I am two-thirds through the scene in which Septimus and Simon infiltrate the Young Army to rescue 412. I'm not sure why I haven't kept working because technically I'm at such a juicy point? 412 thinks he's about to be thrown into DN1, Septimus can't tell him what's really going on, and Simon is being told to do a spell that this-timeline Simon has no reason to know. It's GOOD I think I'm just scared I can't hit the correct balance for it

sgahjhgsshfdg Merlin just met Gwen and the Knights at a metal concert and they made their way backstage to greet Morgana and Morgause but like. Morgana is half-convinced he'll try to kill her again. Gwen is crying. Merlin is inwardly screaming because if THEY'RE all back does that mean Arthur is as well??? I probably COULD skip the explanations and just continue the scene where he confronts Arthur. I'm just.... not sure how to resolve it yet. Stubborn Prince is being Stubborn.

Milo just fished a baby from the river and is walking towards the Palace to greet his wife and newborn daughter. He is about to a) be accosted by a very panicked Marcia b) have to fast-talk his way past the Supreme Custodian and c) find out that his daughter is very dead. Noone is having a good day, except maybe for me, because all of this is setup for some VERY stupid miscommunication.

DID YOU KNOW that there's an actual myth in which "Alecto" runs off to live in a land where "John" has no direct jurisdiction so he has to send "Ianthe" to cajole her into coming back? YEAH. THAT

Act I works pretty well! Even Act II is fine! It gets more difficult after that. Anyway I have decided there's going to be a song called "To the Floor" and then it can have reprise elements in all the other duel scenes. How? I dunno whatever gave you the idea that I know what I'm doing

No way I can think of 10 and I don't know if any of you have already been tagged but hmmmm - @echo-has-queries @into-september @trainsinanime @liesmyth @septimus-heap

[rye-in-a-coat]

Hiii Rye, how does your tagging system work? I'm guessing it has something to do with Toki Pona but I'm curious

That's a great question, let's go through some of the tags I use in this blog.

Also. This will be a bit long.

GENERAL TAGS

The most well known and used is ofc, #ryeblog ,which is given to any post I reblog. It comes from "rye" and "reblog". Another interesting fact is that when I reblog many posts in a short time, I call it a "ryeblitz" (ryeblog + blitz [German for lightning).

For original text-based posts of mine, the tag is #handful of grains, which comes from the fact that I am Rye; but also because originally there was a tag called #sack of grain that never got used and was intended for large text-based original posts.

Images and videos get #pics and flicks, except if these are art. If the art was posted by the artist it gets #art of them and if it's someone else's art it gets #art of those.

#letters to rye will be the tag used in this post, as it is for the asks I answer.

#poll #tag game #ask game #quiz Self explanatory.

Prev tags get marked with #Previously on Tags: and then I mark my answer to those with a #My reaction to that information:

MEDIA TAGS

Quite self explanatory, if I'm reblogging some cute art from blorbo from my shows, tags would look like

#ryeblog #art of them #my shows

Must be understood that this system isn't 100% reliable. If I don't have a tag for a media because I have no knowledge of it or even interest; it won't get a tagged or have a tag.

Imagine this, a fanart featuring characters from the shows A, B, C and D. I only have tags for B and C. Only appliable media tags are #B and #C.

This is why you can find stuff like few Chainsaw Man fanart in my blog, but a tag for Chainsaw Man doesn't actually exist. When I reblog Out of Touch Thursday, I don't do it with a tag for the Lucky Star anime. Characters don't have tags in my system.

I can't give a full list of all of them, but here's the top 45 as of now:

#moomin

#deltarune

#sparklecare

#toh (The Owl House)

#sonic the hedgehog

#dhmis (Don't Hug Me I'm Scared)

#su (Steven Universe)

#tf2 (Team Fortress 2)

#pokemon

#lwa (Little Witch Academia)

#hatsune miku [Ok. It's ironic that this is a character. There's no tag for Vocaloid btw. Cuz of my lack of knowledge on the matter.]

#mlp

#minecraft

#fnaf (Five Nights at Freddy)

#undertale

#bluey

#danganronpa

#homestuck

#breaking bad

#cunk on earth [It applies to other media with Philomena Cunk like "Cunk on Britain"]

#neil cicierega [Technically a person. Applies to all his work. Forgot to mention, artists and bands also fit in this category.]

#tove jansson [Again. A person. This tag exists to not tag her with #moomin in non-Moomin issues.]

#talking heads [Again, a band.]

#jerma985 [A person.]

#spiderman

#undertale 2 [Yep. That's a game. A parody fan-game RPG of Undertale. This tag isn't for Deltarune. I found many people tagging Deltarune as Undertale 2.]

#animal crossing

#hetalia

#loz (Legend of Zelda)

#adventure time

#epithet erased

#lemon demon [Again, an artist; also not everything Neil Cicierega does is for Lemon Demon. This is why this tag is also a thing.]

#omori

#mcyt (Minecraft YouTuber)

#tally hall [A band.]

#barbie

#doctor who

#ghibli

#tetris

#touhou

#ytp

#ella minnow pea

#ena

#they might be giants [A band.]

#alexkansas [Applies to all his work. Currently MISTERMANTICORE]

NOT THAT SPECIFIC TAGS. THEY ARE THE SAME LEVEL AS THESE

#the past for the stuff about the past. The limit of how old has to be the thing to be tagged with this is 20 years.

#language is for everything linguistics, scripts, phonetics, anything of that matter and related. This tag isn't for swear swords, those bitches don't fucking get tagged.

#chemistry #geology #toki pona [An artistic constructed language by Sonja Lang] #handwriting #cursive #flags [Because vexillology was too long and I never knew if I was writing it right] #maps #biology #philately [#stamps is out of use] #reaction image ,etc.

MEET THE SPECIFICS

These tags exists because I have decided to.

TAGS THAT USE TOKI PONA WORDS

#pilin This Toki Pona word describes many concepts, like feelings, emotions, the heart in its both physical and emotional form. However, in this blog, this tag shall only be used for the heart (organ or not) and heart shapes and heart-shaped things.

#kili This word describes fruits and vegetables, all the edible parts of a plant. I also use this tag for stuff made with kili, like French fries, jam and jelly or milkshakes.

#mun This word doesn't just describe the Moon but also all night-sky objects and space objects. This tag replaced the now abandoned #astronomy as stuff like a blanket with sun and moon motifs or the fanart of a furry on the Moon aren't quite related with the science of space.

#kala This word describes fish and all the aquatic animals. Axolotls, whales, jellyfish and crabs may not be fish, but they sure are kala.

#pan As a Spanish speaker you probably have realised this word is for bread. That's right, it's for grains and all grain products. Stuff that is pan but not bread: tortilla, beer, peanut butter, crackers, communion wafers, tejuino. This tag isn't for pansexuality, Tumblr just colours it like that.

#pipi The word for insects and all the little bugs and crechurs, so it includes stuff like spiders and worms.

#waso The word for birds, flying animals and winged animals.

#soko The word for fungi. This tag replaced #mycology.

#akesi The word for reptiles. This tag isn't used for "non-cute animals" as the original meaning of the word expressed and was corrected in 2021.

#kijetesantakalu The word to describe procyonids and musteloids, like ferrets, racoons and tanukis. For the non-Toki Pona speakers. The reason why this word is long and very specific is because it's an April Fools joke that just got too popular.

#in front of them sensors I wears glasses, I like characters that wear them too. So this tag is for that. It also applies to stuff like sport/lab goggles, sunglasses and other eyewear.

#the florist's For flowers. The name is as in a flower shop, just like the butcher's or the chemist's.

#city made of light For photographs of, or art depicting urban light during the night. The night scared us, so we killed it; some beautiful examples of this massacre to our health are Times Square, the Las Vegas strip or Hong Kong neon capital of the East.

#KÖT For cats! The word "köt" isn't for cat in any language btw.

#i do the squeaking For ratas and mice. Tag name based on that one post with the mousegirl house wife.

I don't tag furries for some reasons: First is, what is a furry? Are Moomins furry? Are Sonic characters furries? Furries' opinion on what is furry and what is not a large broad spectrum of thoughts. Second is so people don't block furries from me. If you don't wanna see furries, go and try and see how many tags you need to block to see none, and you will still see some cuz not everyone tags. Also, furries don't get tagged any of the animal tags.

#boyfriendposting Those posts that are like "yeah, sorry that your boyfriend..."

#fake posts Those posts that are made to look like many and have some theme.

#fauxnetics People trying to spell pronunciation using non-standarized methods like the IPA, usually just causing more confusion. Example: "How do you pronounce Chara? Car-uh, Care-uh, Chair-uh or Char-uh?"

#illinois chess Games (doesn't have to be chess, but if chess, funky non-standard chess) [usually board games] with strange setting or rules, impossible to understand. Tag named after this thing from 20020.

#present as the past from the future Meme/joke posts describing modern/contemporany history or the current world as how we speak of the past. Example: "Cowboys were a sort of itinerant warrior class common in Meiji-era Texas."

#rainbow #emoji #ethanol [Alcohol found in drinking alcoholic beverages] #radiation #tbh creature #tea #picrew #9/11 #plush #tell-o-phone [Telephones] #tell-o-vision [Televisions] #jesus #gastronintestinal issues #isobutyl propionic acid [Ibuprofen] #rain #butane [Alkane of four carbon atoms, fuel in cigarette lighters] #loss ['Loss' by Tim Buckley for Ctrl+Alt+Del] #snow #blåhaj #R-Ë-PLANE [Airplanes and similar aircraft.] #ZUG [German for trains. Anything on rails.] #mpreg [Male pregnancy] #cool S [This one.] #aspirin ,etc, probably there are more.

I hope this ask has answered your doubts. There's probably more tags out there.

Now for an example.

Example.

Tag-relevant details: A Sparklecare Cometcare AU fan art piece made and posted by Edward featuring Barry Ill and Uni Sock Cornelius in a night picnic. Uni is wearing her rose-tinted goggles, holding a milkshake with a cherry on top, there's another one present next to Barry. Barry is holding a sandwich with visible lettuce and tomato, there's another one next to Uni. The picnic blanket has the colours of the rainbow. There are stars and hearts around them, the picnic case also had a heart detail. On the field there are white small flowers.

Tags: #ryeblog #art of them #sparklecare #in front of them sensors #kili #pan #rainbow #pilin #mun #the florist's

The tags after the Sparklecare one could be in any order.

And this is an ideal case. As I have stated, I'm not 100% reliable and this sytem isn't either. I sometimes miss some tags.

As a final detail. Comments about the post will go after all of these tags and will have proper sentence capitalization and punctuation. This is the hierarchy the tags go which I sometimes miss too.

[whore-4-drewstarkey]

15 questions for 15 mutuals

hahah thank you for tagging me @slut4drudy and @runningfrom2am glad to know ppl actually want to know more about me. 🤭

1. Are you named after anyone?: yeah, my middle name is my moms middle name and my grandmas and my great grandmas and i think one of my aunts… 😒 (i hate it because it’s basic 😭)

2. When was the last time you cried?: last week…. i hit a fucking coyote on the highway and started crying. i’m horrible i know ✋🏻 no need to tell me. i even tried to dodge it and was tbh probs close to hitting the car in the lane next to mine. i’ve just come to the conclusion i suck at driving.

3. Do you have kids?: no 😭 but i better have some. and it better be with a hot, tall man who can actually tan because i don’t want my children being cursed with my poor genetics of being short and pale as a ghost to where the sun literally reflects off my skin 😭 it’s horrible. i hate it. it’s unfair. and before anyone says “use tanning lotion” babe it doesn’t fucking work on me. i got those strong scottish/celtic genes.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?: idk probably just a little bit?? note: i’m going through this reading my answers and have realized i am quite sarcastic. my apologies luvies.

5. What sports do you play/have you played?: played basketball in the third grade but never again because kids in my tiny town are stupid geezers who make fun of you if you’re not perfect even though they sucked too. i mainly stuck with marching band like a good, innocent girl that i am🤭

6. What’s the first thing you notice about other people?: their vibe? and maybe their style? idek

7. Scary movies or happy endings?: HAPPY ENDINGS. i cant take scary movies. i get too scared 😂 i just hide my face the WHOLE time.

8. Any special talents?: i know how to play the flute if that counts. and a tad bit of piccolo. i played the flute for 7 years in school. i don’t play it much now but i still know how to play OH and read music for the most part. i’m so cool.

9. Where were you born?: missouri of all places 💀 i hate it here. get me out. it’s misery not missouri. the amount of morons in this state baffles me every day. legit. like people here are so absurd it hurts my brain.

10. What are your hobbies?: i like traveling. i have only traveled on my own. i’ve never taken a trip with someone where flying is involved. so i save my money and blow it all on a trip like once a year…. i’m terrible with money. next stop is nyc 🥳 maybe i’ll fun in to brooke starkey and say she’s a queen and fashion icon (i’ll pretend i don’t know her. just be like omg i love that outfit!)

11. Do you have any pets?: like personally mine? i used to… but then she got mauled to death by my sister’s dog 4 years ago💀 (i have to joke about it or i’ll be depressed for the next year again) (after she died my ass didn’t give a shit about myself and was lowkey reckless while driving and didn’t eat and hardly showered) nah but my family has 4 springers who are crackheads.

12. How tall are you?: 5’4 1/2 but i leave off the half. i’m the shortest in my family and get teased by it all the time 😌 that’s okay though. i need a tall man to reach the higher shelves anyways.

13. Fave subject in school?: math because i was in advanced math in high school and never tried but was getting C’s and some B’s. i think it just came naturally to me.

14. Dream job?: zoologist or marine biologist. that’s what i planned on doing until i dropped out of community college and then decided to go back but then dropped out again 💀 i cant make this shit up bro. all in under 2 1/2 years #slay

15. Eye color?: i get to flex on this one to all my drew/rafe girlies… i have like light blue eyes which pairs well with my egg white skin tone. ✌🏻 hahahaha. they get even more blue when i cry. so often.

[shroom-ish]

im not gonna tag this or write her name cause im not a jackass trying to ruin anyone’s good time and also im too busy to get flamed

but there‘s that music artist that had the ticketmaster issues in 2022 you know the one that started country and is now doing her own thing (good for her) she fell onstage at a concert in 2018 (ouch honey im so sorry)

i start like that b/c i wanna be clear who im talking about because again, no flames, and genuinely i wanna convey that i have no problem with her. i have no rational and normal reason to even care about her. honestly i don‘t really like her music (just not my thing) but again idk what my trauma is

like??? in her new (dec 2022) music videos and promo pics and stuff??? im getting bad bad vibes. i have no idea. idk what it is. normally i don‘t get these kinda vibes (i usually get good vibes instead of bad ones) and so rarely this strong. im never inclined to worry about them (unless irl safety stuff) generally. so i don’t get it. i have no idea what im picking up on. but it‘s there every time. i didn’t really notice until i got back on tumblr because i keep getting these pics/gifs served to me… but it’s like im looking at a predator (like i am metaphorical prey not that i think she is actively amoral or hurting anyone) and it‘s been so thoroughly consistent that it‘s starting to wig me out a lot actually. i might tell tumblr to stop recommending me that stuff because it is that distinct and strong and genuinely upsetting.

but again what is this???? i have no reason at all to be worried or scared. why is this happening? vibes like this usually have some backing and i can‘t put my finger on it at all. i genuinely just don‘t get it. again all my love to her fans i have no beef with you or her im just… kinda actually scared lol.

[software-instxbility]

The intensity of my love for Him makes md feel like i don’t like anyone else, like they can’t compare, like i don’t need anyone else. I love him and him only and everyone else either bores me to death, makes me irrationally angry or feels unworthy

I hate that. It’s not a Him problem, it’s 100% a Me problem (he gives me social relationships tips —not like “he manipulates me to act like x which is a thing ppl hate but i don’t see it since i trust him; we’re both autistic but he’s an extrovert, he’s genuinely giving me tips—, encourages me to see my friends when I’m not ok, etc etc, so it really is a Me problem), so it’s something i should bring up in therapy once i find a shrink and not to Him

But god it’s exhausting

Most of the times i relapse now are bc I’m scared he doesn’t love me anymore which:

A) makes me feel unworthy and unlovable (he keeps saying i am worth love AND am loveable though)

B) sucks?? Bc i relapse??

C) is not something i can tell him about bc a) hd knows already and b) if i keep instilling the idea that he doesn’t like me in his mind, he’ll end up conditioned to think he actually doesn’t

I feel guilty bc it feels like i replaced everyone (esp my bsf). And i know the only way to make this end is to find someone new to love like i love him (bc that’s what happened with my bsf, and the person before her)…but that’d be replacing him and the cycle would start all over again

(Rant continues in tags)

[cavernfullofexistentialdread]

since @woofberry-regrets-everything said to rant in tags of reblog I WILL

_______________________________

So in order to do this, I will spilt it into 2 halves. The lyrics and the theme(?). Make it easier to digest, the lyrics I will review will be ones that strike me the most as Parrlyn (I don't wanna have to do the WHOLE song) It is recommended that you listen to the song first so it's better to understand (Over here)

_______________________________

LYRICS

I personally see this song as from Cathy's perspective. Why? Exhibit A:

"I was scared of dentists and the dark" I mean, I think that the dark and dentists put a sort of doubt and terror into Cathy, not enough to scare her, but it's unsettling

Exhibit B:

"I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations" I mean... self explanatory

Okay so now let's talk about the f r u i ty parts

THE WHOLE DAMN CHORUS I MEAN LOOK AT THIS

"Ah-ooh-ooh-ooh, ah-ahh-ah-ah And they come unstuck

Lady, running down to the riptide Taken away to the dark side I wanna be your left-hand man girl I love you when you're singing that song And I got a lump in my throat <- Screams Cathy 'Cause you're gonna sing the words wrong" <- Also screams Cathy

I MEAN LOOK AT IT. THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING CATHY WOULD SING ABOUT ANNE- ITS HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT JUST LISTEN TO IT

2.

"There's this movie that I think you'll like This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City This cowboy's running from himself <- Cathy And she's been living on the highest shelf" <- Anne

This verse parrticularly (I'm sorry it was just 2 easy) strikes me. I can see this as Cathy talking to Anne and hinting about her feelings, "this cowboy's running from himself and she's been living on the highest shelf". "There's this movie that I think you'll like" is soft, but caring, and is willing to share with the other person. Very Cathrine Parr if you ask me. The girl (Kat voice) hurled up in the world/living on the highest shelf is Anne. While Anne isn't particularly rich (Thats Anna's job) she is very social, extroverted, and out there, I hope you get what I mean. She's up and out, Cathy is running and wants to (Another Kat voice) have a connection with Anne.

3.

"I just wanna, I just wanna know If you're gonna, if you're gonna stay I just gotta, I just gotta know I can't have it, I can't have it any other way"

ANGST. ANGST. ANGST. ANNE IS OPENING UP AND IS VENTING THATS SHE'S SCARED OF CATHY LEAVING HER SINCE EVERYONE SHE'S EVER CARED ABOUT HAS LEFT OR BEEN TAKEN AWAY OR THE FEELING WAS NEVER MUTUAL. CATHY PARR IS GETTING A GOLD STAR FOR COMFORTING HER GREEN GREMLIN

4.

"I swear she's destined for the screen Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh"

Do I need to explain? Cathy is just being so passionate about how much she admires and loves Anne

OK UHM THE REST OF THE SONG IS JUST THE CHORUS SO UH-

_______________________________

IDK IF I CAN CALL THIS THEMES

Ok this is about to be hella ranty

The singer seems very shy (and quite frankly is) but as the song goes on they get more "louder" and by the time the Michelle Pfeiffer line comes on their belting it out. Very Cathy Parr. The song is very... DHMIS, it has moments where its a bit foggy and vague and maybe even child-like "All my friend ares turning green; your the magician's assistant in their dreams". I just think it's just so dorky and something that the 2 of them would come up with with. I mean at first I didn't exactly get what the chorus was going on about; I still really don't and thats completely fine. The song is just so child like, chill, full of passion I can't really put into words, and fun to both sing and play. I will repeat this again: it's dorky. So dorky. So very... so very them. Riptide is one of the most over played songs on ukelele (as a uke player myself) and the chord progression is Am, G, C, C. It's simple, and it's amazing. The song has this energy that I can confidently describe as "a loving dork has a crush", which also happens to be how I describe Parrlyn.

_______________________________

TLDR/Summary: Its just so simple, fun, bouncy, and dorky. It has traits that I can easily see Anne and Cathy in. It is the perfect way to describe Parrlyn!

i hope this makes any semblance of sense

I SAID IT ONCE AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN

Riptide is a Parrlyn song, you can't convince me otherwise

If you ask me to rant on how everything about it just screams Parrlyn, I can and will

[shitpost-tom]

wingy boys stuck in ponytown (where i happened to meet you)

Long story Short:

(Iamreallysorry)

-Mod C

[heretyc]

eddie and val headcanons + rlly small fics to get back into my writing spirit [DD:DNE]

There are some sections that mention vague NSFW but that's it. These are also taking place in their original universes; I love modern AU but it's fun to experiment and whatnot. They don't murder you but instead like/love you because fanfiction logic hehehehehe

If there are spelling mistakes, forgive me. I am not kidding I am on my KNEES and I want you to forgive me [although I will be rereading this like a BITCH]

I added the DD:DNE tag because I don't condone anything that happens in these nor do I encourage you to enter a relationship with a murderer or a cultist [insert The Rock's eyebrow meme here]

Implied TW with the DD:DNE tag. Eddie's a murderer and Val is Val [aka a rapist with a bigger ass than mine wtf], so proceed with caution if mentions of sex and murder disturb you. Val uses they/them because everyone sees them differently. See them however you want in this 🙏

These are basic hc's but being a hoe I added reader interaction. #girlboss

Feel free to give me your thoughts on how I portrayed these two!

☸ Eddie Gluskin —

♡ As much as you'd like to take him home with you, you cannot do that unless you want your entire neighbourhood to be slashed to shit because of an angry murderous man toddler. He cannot enter society because I think you know what would happen if he did. Not to mention he's probably on some wanted list. He needs to stay in a normal institution where he ISN'T tested for some weird supernatural bullshit.

♡ He also needs to be taught that misogyny isn't cute.

♡ Eddie has an intense fear of abandonment, as shown when Waylon runs off from him. This results in an outburst, so it's not entirely inaccurate for me to think he has a Cluster B personality disorder. Meaning he is emotional, erratic, and dramatic. We all see how his emotions span from anger to sadness in a single minute.

However before Murkoff scrambled his brains he exhibited more behaviours from the Cluster C personality disorders.

[Cluster types here if you'd like to know more]

♡ Eddie...would not be the best partner. Walking on eggshells is not the way to go.

♡ If you decide to become intimate with him I am sending you all the luck on God's green Earth.

♡ He'd need patience. Loads and loads of patience. Also, like...hide the sharp objects.

♡ He'd need to vent, man. Vent and vent and vent. If you're understanding and compassionate, he'll appreciate it immensely.

♡ He has the shittest coping mechanisms. Introduce him to something healthier, please.

♡ Eddie has very childlike beliefs. Death is not a thing to him, rather he views it as "sleep". Due to not being able to have a proper childhood, you can expect a lot of topics to be seen from an innocent point of view. He cannot help it.

♡ It's very likely his charming personality is just a front so you don't leave him. If you stay with him he'll likely form his own, although it's possible he'll keep the gentleman persona to a point.

♡ Sexually, he may not be as immaculate as he likes to think he is; a panic attack is very much a possibility. Flashbacks, too.

♡ Patience comes out to play yet again, here.

♡ Despite his violent outbursts and such, he has his pros.

♡ Can take a very optimistic approach to things. You dropped something and it broke? Silly you! You accidentally cut yourself? Oh dear, be more careful next time!

♡ He can sometimes come to extremely inaccurate conclusions. Waylon falling and getting stabbed by glass = trying to die just to get away from Eddie.

...That's not completely untrue, but you know. Assure him that you're not trying to secretly leave his ass. [Unless you are. Then good luck :*]

♡ Obviously homemade clothes, crafted with love. Maybe some blood here and there.

♡ Murkoff is a shit place to reside in, but because the mention of Eddie scares the variants shitless, nobody goes near you. A blessing and a curse.

♡ He's no doctor, not like Trager, but he does have experience with stitching if the time ever comes when you need stitches. Just make sure you take a shitload of painkillers first. Eddie is precise, but he can't make it painless.

♡ He'd prevent you from venturing into the gym for...obvious reasons.

♡ If a variant had previously scared the bejesus out of you or just generally made you feel unsafe, he'd give them the Eddie Gluskin treatment, no questions asked.

♡ You can't eat sewing machines. They taste gross. No nutritional value. So you make the extremely brave trip above to grab food from the low-key haunting cafeteria. Also...water.

Anxiety and anger combat each other in Eddie's head, but basically, to avoid any visits from the Groom, Dennis will spectate your little adventure and make sure you come back. When the Groom has to leave his little mancave, it's never good.

♡ Because he's old-fashioned and has been surrounded by nothing but this cold asylum, he knows nothing about modern stuff. Cell phones? He's not sure what that shit is but it's magical.

♡ You have no service down here, but you DID manage to find a free wifi signal...might as well pass the time until your phone dies.

♡ He's enamoured. Duh.

♡ It doesn't hurt to open YouTube and introduce him to the Fallout soundtrack. Promise. Too much oldies for him to miss out on.

I beg you...please introduce him to Cheek to Cheek by Fred Astaire. Not because I listened to it while writing this but it fits him so well. [I also was non-stop listening to The Plagues from The Prince of Egypt but that's different rofl]

♡ He'd be a bird person. 100%. They'd sing together, and the feathers of the bird would no doubt inspire Eddie to work with colourful fabrics. [I had a dream about Eddie keeping me in a birdcage...it was odd but that's how dreams are ig]

♡ He'd like winter. An excuse to stay indoors and spend time with his loved ones.

♡ He has mannequins to use for his dressmaking and such, but he'll use you for it instead once you're settled. [Aka forced to stay down there and make no effort to leave anymore.]

♡ If he's able, he gives the best embraces. Like...expect the warmest and biggest of hugs.

♡ If you're having difficulties sleeping, he'll happily use his sleep gas on you. Just...um...expect to sleep for the next 12 hours. It's potent.

♡ Eddie is an excellent listener when you need him to be. Ranting about your problems to him as he sews or sharpens his knives is a common activity.

♡ Wants to suffer with you. Doesn't matter what it is, he's intent on sharing your struggles. Not to the point where he'll mimic your injuries but he'll make you squeeze his hand or something.

♡ He learns to take his anger out on variants instead of you. Since meeting you've shown him [forced] kindness, it'd be wrong to harm the one person he's grown to actually like.

♡ Oh yeah. Kindness. Eddie's life has been full of monstrous individuals. His uncle. His father. The staff here...kindness is a foreign thing to him.

♡ He will not let you go. It's something he craves, now. And he reciprocates.

♡ Just saying...if a Murkoff staff member finds their way into the third floor, whether to kill you so you don't spread their secret or just to hide away, don't stop Eddie from expressing his rage.

Sit back, relax, witness the bloodshed.

♡ Eddie doesn't mind blood getting on him. It's warm, a lovely shade of red. What's not to like about it?

However, he will refrain from getting it on you. You've expressed disgust before.

♡ He seems like the type to write poetry. With his vocab? You bet.

♡ Chastise this mfer if he says something misogynistic or something hurtful to you. He's not in a situation where he has to be on fight mode [in his words, "vulgar mode"] anymore. He has no excuses, goddammit.

♡ He uses pet names for everyone. Easier than having to learn and remember names.

Well...pet names for the people he likes. Vulgarities for anybody else.

♡ His love language is a mix between physical touches, compliments, gifts and murder. The last one is...eh.

By murder I mean you'll be safe from any assholes with the intent to harm you.

♡ If Waylon exists [aka you're not in his place] and traverses down there, you can bet he'll try to get you out. Whatever happens to him is up to you. [Save his ass if you can though or Lisa will be furious, okay??]

♡ If you're afraid of thunderstorms, then his little section of the asylum is the best place to be. His music drowns out the thunder and torrential rain. Lightning is still a possibility but he'll take your mind off of it.

♡ He avoids sleep like the plague. Night terrors are inevitable and he doesn't get his work done if he's asleep.

♡ You know how they give dementia patients baby dolls to help them calm down? Give one to Eddie.

♡ If your childhood was traumatic as well, he'll listen to you talk about it. Again; excellent listener when he needs to be.

♡ He has issues separating his own beliefs and reality. Be extremely careful with this information.

♡ If you didn't like work or going outside before, you miss the hell out of those now. You're not as afraid anymore, but the boredom is more likely to kill you.

♡ If he is sexually active, he's a gentle dom. Unless he's angry in that moment, in which he's rough. Aftercare is a must with him, too.

♡ Eddie never leaves the third floor as long as you're there. If he leaves to grab a victim and someone managed to slip by and hurt you, what will he do with himself?

♡ He'll come outside with you to the courtyard but that's the farthest he'll go.

♡ He'd be a violinist. Violins tend to sound haunting and elegant, which I think suit him well.

♡ There are so many sewing machines down there, that it'd be weird to not consider learning how to sew.

Yes, he teaches you.

♡ This man is tall. 'Climb him like a tree' tall. No longer will you have to stand on your tippy-toes to grab things off of shelves. [If you're short of course lol]

♡ He'd support the things you'd like. He probably has no idea what those things are but he doesn't need to in order to support you.

♡ He makes Christmas sweaters. Yes, they're ugly. No, you won't tell him.

♡ If you were a variant beforehand, nobody goes near the third floor. Everyone knows of your combined wrath.

♡ I don't think he cares too much about Walrider. It's more enamoured with Miles, whom he knows nothing about because he doesn't even know Miles exists, but he has more things to worry about.

♡ He also would not care about Chris, Jeremy or Trager unless they involved themselves. He cares only for his territory, his wives and himself. [And you, obviously.]

♡ He doesn't bat an eye when he has to murder another variant. It's just a common thing for him. Almost the same as breathing.

♡ Because he has mood swings and gets angry over the smallest of things, he will 100% say things in the heat of the moment. He doesn't mean any of them. Chastise his ass.

"If this is you on the honeymoon, I'd hate to imagine our anniversary" man shut up 💀

♡ Let's you carry his knife for safety. Or just because.

♡ No matter how you identify...expect to wear dresses. There are no issues with doing so, and he doesn't care, he's more concerned about the length and the colour.

♡ If you were a worker before the breakout happened, and you were nice to him, he will remember.

♡ He has...a very strange pain tolerence. This mfer made little to no noise when being impaled. Do whatever you'd like with this information.

⚘ ————————————————————————————————⚘

❝Oh, darling...I'm so sorry. The vermin here can get quite vulgar with their actions. It's unfortunate.❞

It's rare to witness such a behemoth of a man express kindness, but down here it's all you're exposed to, now.

Well, that and the occasional variant who dares to lay a harmful hand on you, either not knowing or not remembering that the Thing Below had claimed you as his own.

He protects what he has.

Albeit your bleeding arm and less-than-amused facial expression, Eddie chirps away, and with gentle care, wraps a somewhat dirtied bandage around the wound. Gentleness is something that you'd think would be foreign to him, but apparently not.

❝They're nothing like me. I'm a gentleman, through and through. However, if every man was like me, it'd get quite boring.❞

He stops looking at his handiwork for a moment to wink at you, his blue eye surrounded by pools of hemorrhage, before looking back at the bandaging.

❝And you, darling? You're one of a kind, as well. The rest are all whores. Trying to seduce me. And then leave me.❞

He scowls a bit at the end, making you flinch.

You've seen the bodies. You've heard the screams of the men who died at his hand before coming here. There's no seduction involved, unless you consider fear to be lustrous in nature.

❝Not to worry. You're not one of them.❞

The furrow in his brow leaves as he makes a noise of contentment. Looking down, you can see he's done. Blood seeps through the bandaging, however you feel some relief.

❝All done!❞ Eddie takes your hand into his, the one that's not attached to your injured arm, and twirls you around as if you were a ballerina.

❝How convenient,❞ he muses, ❝the bandaging perfectly matches the dress I finished just before this. Come! You must try it on!❞

You may not be too happy to be down here, stuck and now injured, but it's better to be used as a doll for dresses and his attempts at affection than to be above, running for your life.

So you let him happily take you to the dress he created, and hoped you wouldn't get an infection.

† Val —

♡ Val is a strange individual. You can thank Murkoff for that. They're always lascivious, no matter what they're doing. Either lascivious or remorseless.

♡ They're used to the heat that Arizona offers. By day they stay in the mines, encouraging their children to do the same. The sun's beams can't exactly target you if you're underground.

♡ If you're from the north [like me...oh no] it's likely you cannot stand the heat. They'll assist you to the best of their ability. You can decide what they do to help you beat the heat lol.

♡ Val and the cult's treatment of you really depends on whether Val wants you as an equal or as a Heretic.

Seeing as you're not from there, whether you came there by helicopter and crashed or you were just unlucky as fuck during a hike, it's likely you'll be their equal. They've never seen an outsider before.

♡ If you're equal, you'd be seen as their romantic partner. More attention towards you, curiosity about your life and being involved in the fight against the Scalled and The New Testament are just a few things you need to expect.

♡ Knoth doesn't like you. Neither does Marta, or Laird, or Nick...do you want the entire list?

Just know you don't have to lose sleep over being disliked by an egotistical man and his followers when you have Val and their entire cult to enjoy your existence.

♡ Clay and mud have benefits for the skin. Val's skin is extremely smooth to the touch.

♡ Somewhat familiar with medical stuff. Before the "apocolypse" bullshit they tended to their injured orphans whenever the time arised, so if you accidentally get a gash that's too deep or sprain something, they'll assist you.

♡ The Heretics make you a crown much like Val's. Basically you just became an adoptive parent. Awwww.

♡ They're touchy. Their love language includes loads of physical touches and compliments. Also the occasional murder in your name if someone outside the Heretics touches you. If you feel them embrace you from behind or shove your head into their chest...don't be too shocked.

♡ The visions affect you differently. While they see visions of their God, you'll see other things. Horrific things.

If your memories are like Blake's - full of regret and sorrow - they'll comfort you. You cannot see their true God? Unfortunate. You will soon, but for now, let them aid you in coping...

♡ Their home is extremely fucky, okay? Mazes upon mazes of rocks, torches and the god awful corpses. You have to be guided in and out.

♡ They're rarely ever cruel to anybody. To Knoth's followers? Depends. Thumbs through their eyeballs are deserved for them, no doubt. But sometimes they feel merciful, giving the members quick deaths. Listening to Knoth's bullshit is already painful enough.

♡ They're like a predator. Stalking their prey is fun.

♡ The Heretics are everywhere in the mines. Taking a stroll? There's always gonna be one just chilling somewhere.

♡ Yes, you're involved in the orgies. Yes, you take breaks. You don't have the stamina. Where's the damn Powerade in this place??

♡ They're into pain kink. If you're in a non-consensual makeout session then biting into their bottom lip and scratching down their back won't do fuck all.

♡ ....[Sighs] Yes, they lick you. A lot.

♡ Their breath doesn't really smell like anything. You'd know...they lick you constantly. It's how they show their love. Yum.

♡ Going outside during the day is rare. At night is when it's best to strike. Nobody can see them.

♡ Val helps you with the Heretics and their little language. They understand it, but you're left clueless when they talk to each other.

♡ They're automatically the dom unless you make a move. You get on top? Yeah...they're your bitch. They won't pry.

♡ You're given a bone knife. Obviously.

It's dry, because you know, bone, so you never use it. It's just strapped to your hip. But it's handy in cutting things, so.

♡ Consent isn't...a thing to them. They want to give you their love, take it.

♡ Agile. Incredibly agile. They balance on things effortlessly. Y'all saw them in the mines on those thin ass pieces of wood, right LMAO

♡ Cleanliness is not Godliness.

If you were a clean person beforehand...sorry.

♡ If you were with a group of friends you're the one they take.

Somewhat strong hands wrap around your neck, then gently remove themselves as you lose consciousness and your friends cry out for you. How fun! 5 stars on Help. [Get it? Hehehehe]

♡ If you have menstrual cycles [aka blood waterfalls], they'll try to ease your pain with sex. Was this unexpected? [And I believe it's been proven to work. It helps break up blood clots which are the causes of pain irrc]

♡ So, sexually? There's absolutely no chance of being shamed, no matter the kink. BDSM? They have ropes. Priest/Succubus roleplay? Uhhh, fuck yeah, they're down. They do not care as long as it brings pleasure.

♡ Their nose probably doesn't work anymore. When you've smelled enough corpses and the scent of sex your nose is bound to GTFO.

♡ You don't want to give in willingly? Fair! They love cat and mouse. But they hope you're not stupid enough to waltz back into the territory of Marta and the others. Cause they cannot get you back if you do lol

♡ However if you stay within the confines of the mines [it's hard to leave...fucking mazes if you ask me] then they'll find amusement out of it. They know every shortcut and where every tunnel leads. They make heretics keep an eye out at the exits, though.

♡ Compared to Laird I don't think they care too much about the 'modern' world nor know much about it. If you brought a video camera they'd just give it to their heretics or something. They won't think twice unless it's of obvious importance to you.

♡ Won't outright be angry at you for believing in Knoth's God [if you do], but will be annoyed.

♡ If you're a poor wittle Northerner and get heat sickness, or you're just a victim of the heat due to the stupid ass Arizona sun, the mines are...decent, I guess? Kinda gets sticky due to the mud and the orgy sessions but at least there's water to chill in. [Just turn the damn electricity off first !!!!]

Because they're all used to the humidity, and the medication needed to treat headaches and whatnot are in the greedy little hands of Knoth, Val can't really do much except monitor your temperature, make you drink water and chill in a cool place. No sex will be involved, to their displeasure.

♡ They have a strange fascination with blood and innards. They find your disgust of those things to be amusing.

♡ They're tall and lanky. If you're short, they find your height endearing. Especially considering the fact that they might have to assist you with things. If you're the same height, or taller...they might get turned on ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

♡ If you've taken the place of Blake, and dealt with the bullshit that came with being The Messiah [tm], they are suspiciously gentle.

You've been through a lot, they think. Running from a brainwashed, gothic Knoth apologist, running into an archer and his friend, being crucified by said friend, having rusted and jagged nails shoved into your delicate palms...this night has not been kind. Speaking of crucified; the wounds in your hands were relentless in their pain and their bloodiness. They were raw. Tainted. But not to worry, they'll ease your pain.

♡ Yes, they use their Magic Dust on you. To ease anxieties, pain or used as an aphrodisiac, it is used.

♡ Feeds off of your fear. Eats your fear, horniness, pain and pleasure off of a silver platter.

♡ Not saying it will happen, only if you wanna imagine it for the Angst, but if Marta invades and kills them, you die too. You ride togetha you die togetha, you feel me?

You'll be reunited in Hell. Romantic!

♡ If you're a virgin or the sex you've had beforehand was disappointing, Val is a blessing in disguise. You don't want anyone else. [Yes you do. But you won't say that in front of them.]

♡ They've adapted to eating human flesh. Like...whole ass human flesh. Feral bullshit at its finest. You never will, though. You have yet to lose your humanity.

♡ It's likely you abandoned your clothes at some point. Probably due to bloodstains that no amount of scrubbing and tears can get rid of. Perhaps due to the fact that some of us wear hoodies and jeans to a fucking desert. You dislike being nude? The least Val will do is let you wear their robes. It's not like they wear them in the mines anyway LOL

♡ If the birds are somehow still alive, they'd 100% befriend ravens.

♡ You don't know where or how they got some, but they will wear lingerie for you. Don't ask questions cause I don't have answers 💀

♡ They'd be into art. You've seen the gigantic effigy placed in one of the caves, it'd be odd if they weren't using art to their advantage. Painting with blood is not at all uncommon with them. You can't change my mind x)

♡ Befriending the remorseful heretic is inevitable. Unlike the rest, he is competent. He expresses his emotions, yet has no tongue. He is an example of this corruption. And you can't help but feel fear. He doesn't want you to experience this, yet he dies, and Val has a strange distaste for when you traverse to the lower parts of the mines. You wonder why? [The document is called The Atheist in case the image I linked isn't clear enough/you can't read it <3]

♡ It's very likely you've read the journals. Their decline into madness. Will this happen to you? Most likely. But you can't help but wonder, would Val have treated you like this before the downfall of this society? Or would they be human? You wish you could see it.

If you've brought them with you, I don't think they'd care lol. Unless, of course, you brought pieces of Knoth's gospel. They'd simply laugh at Knoth's idiocy and burn every piece.

♡ Val is very unpredictable. Their face exposes little to no emotion sometimes and it leaves you on edge quite a lot.

♡ Their relationship with you is even more interesting if you're in the New Testament. Love-Hate relationship. You hate them? Oh? Enemies to lovers?

1+ angst if you were lovers or close friends beforehand.

⚘ ————————————————————————————————⚘

The pain in your palms still throbs with pain, raw and angry; your body hates you for this. For the running, the screaming, the climbing. The flashbacks.

You hate the flashbacks. Like body, like mind you hate the reminders of your past.

But right now you'd kill to have one. To rid of this moment.

❝You've been through glorious Hell and back, isn't that right, my love?❞ The serpent, known to you as Val merely smirks at your pain as they lightly trail their fingers around the holes in your hands. Newfound Christ.

❝This land has been unkind to you. Unfortunate.❞ Their bony pointer finger lightly grazes the origins of your pain and you inhale, afraid of what they'll do.

But they merely chuckle and take your hand into theirs, gently. Uncharacteristic.

❝You shall worry no more about the Father's bullshit and his poor excuse of a following.❞ Val licks their lips, staring into your eyes with cold blue ones, and you wonder if this was a sad attempt at trying to ease your anxiety.

You pray as Val prods and picks and bandages you in places you didn't know you were injured, but you know God would rather sip his whiskey and grin at your displeasure.

May he have mercy.

⚘ ——————————————FIN——————————————⚘

[raidengaile]

who am i? no- who are they?

SUMMARY: after you got stabbed and died in the hands of an unknown person, you were reincarnated into your favorite video game! but something wasn't right.

FEATURING: villain!au and imposter!au (based on this post)

WARNINGS: mentions of violence, curses, death

NOTE: this was a pretty dumb idea i know. and i wrote this at like 11:15 pm so maybe this will stay in my docs.

you felt the heat of the sun warming up your body as you felt an itchy feeling everywhere. you forced open your eyes just to see a beautiful scenery—the sun, the blue sky, the clouds and the birds flying freely.

you look left and right to check your surroundings and you know that you're not on earth, considering the huge grassy lands and mountains that you can still see from afar.

‘well this is familiar’ you thought, as you slowly stood up, anxiousness starting to build up in your body.

‘man…’

you checked your surroundings again, not ignoring every single detail.

‘maybe i wrote too much fanfictions.’

you nodded. trying to focus on your memories and everything that you did before you got here.

‘i got stabbed. understandable. don't- don't panic.’

inhale… exhale…

‘grass, camps, campfires, trees, apples- a, b, c, d-’

that was when realization hit you. you got reincarnated- no maybe, teleported? you can't recall anything about getting stabbed—in fact, you were about to get stabbed when everything went dark and you woke up in this place.

‘damn. did i faint when i was about to die? that's pretty weak.’ you insulted yourself, chuckling at your own weakness. “wow i can hear heavy footsteps” you muttered, still out of your mind.

‘wait- footsteps?’

you looked behind and saw something with a shield running at you, ready to crush you with it. ‘oh wow. is that death waving at me?’

…?!

‘wait no shit- i'm gonna die-!’

you ran away in the opposite direction, not even worrying about your stamina. ‘goddammit why the heck do i hear boss music?!’ joking about the situation made you less scared and nervous, but still running miles just to get away from the unknown danger.

after all that running, you found yourself near a very large tree. you looked at the surrounding landscape. you know that you're right. you're in the game you played years ago—heck, you even made fanfictions about it.

it was pretty famous back then. you sighed, smiling at the old memories. you sat down as you tried to stop yourself from crying. is it because of anxiousness? fear? or something that you can't explain? yes. it's number 3. you don't know how to explain this feeling, but you've felt it multiple times.

“hah…i wonder what's gonna happen-” you heard footsteps, again. you quickly looked at where the sound was coming from. it was you. laughing with the other familiar characters.

you looked down and checked your body, from toe to head—and then looked at the other you.

‘if this is me, then who are they?’

© raidengaile 2021. do not repost, copy, translate or claim my works.

taglist: @white-like-dis @xienn @uchihaeirin @chibikiibielle (send an ask to get tagged)

special tags: @willowedwisteria

[hyunsuks-beanie]

Jungwon SFW Alphabet

Mellow speaks: So I got quite a few requests for the alphabet (some SFW and some NSFW), and here I am with the first one of the series. I remember someone had requested this, but I'm so sorry I don't remember who you are and so I couldn't tag you. If you read this though, do lemme know if you liked it! PS. I went for Jungwon since I've written quite a lot of Jay stuff recently, so I hope you don't mind!

A = Affection

(How affectionate are they? How do they show it?)

Jungwon definitely is one to readily show affection. He loves being at the receiving end, but will be equally glad to give you tight hugs and kisses on the cheek. He seems to be the type to be big on cuddles, and would just like to plop himself down on you if he ever sees you lying down, on the sofa, on the bed, it doesn't matter to him as long as he can hold you close. He would also be the type to randomly come up behind you, giving you a back hug as you cook or do your work. He's already babied a lot by the boys, so expect them to want to be the mature one in your relationship every now and then (though he absolutely adores being babied by you as well). Keep your head on his shoulder, snuggle your face into his chest, and he'll be on cloud nine.

B = Best Friend

(What are they like as a best friend? How does the friendship start?)

He was quite shy when he first met you, but at the same time, he was definitely intrigued by you and wanted to get to know you more. If you take initiative and talk to him first though, he'll come out of his shell pretty quick, and soon enough, it'll be impossible to shut him up. In no time, the both of you are swapping secrets, coming up with inside jokes, and pranking the members, and while he may or may not have a crush on you, he's a teensy bit scared to admit it, for fear of ruining your friendship.

C = Comfort

(How do they help their partner when they’re down? How do they help with a panic attack?)

Even though he might be new to this stuff, Jungwon always tries to do his best to comfort you when you're upset. He's pretty perceptive when it comes to emotions, so it's not a surprise that he notices rather quickly when you're down. He'll just hold you for as long as you want, urging you to do whatever it is you feel like doing. You want to cry? His T-shirt is all yours. You want to rant? He's all ears. You want advice? He's got his opinion ready. Whatever it is you need him to do, he'll try to do it, just so he can see you smile again.

Panic attacks are a different story though. The first few times, he wasn't quite sure what to do, but soon enough, he becomes an expert at handling your panic attacks. He'll do his best to distract you from reeling, and will hold you to his chest as he urges you to take deep breaths, gripping your hand as he tries to calm you down.

D = Domestic

(Do they want to settle down? How are they with cooking and cleaning?)

Since he's still young, I feel like the thought of settling down won't even cross his mind until a lot later. But that doesn't mean he doesn't see himself settling down one day. Marriage or no marriage, he likes the idea of having a home with his s/o, and waking up with the same person every day. If you decide to stick around till then, he would be more than happy to settle down with you.

He's not great at chores, but he's willing to learn with you. If you do decide to teach him, expect a ton of questions, because he just wants to do his best to impress you.

E = Ending

(If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Jungwon would hate the idea of ever having to break up with you, not wanting to hurt you in the least. But if things don't seem to work out, then he won't hold you back. Even if he has to break up with you, he will want only good things for you, and it would break his heart to see you cry as he ends things with you. If he's the one calling it quits, expect a lot of tears and apologies, as he tries to calm you down and take all the blame.

After walking away, he would miss every little thing about you, even if he was the one who broke up with you. But over time, he slowly overcomes his grief, and learns to live his life.

F = Fiancé

(How do they feel about commitment? How quickly do they want to get married?)

As I said, the idea of marriage would not even cross his mind until he's older. He would be open to the idea of commitment, and would be fascinated with the prospect of spending the rest of his life with a single person. But at the same time, he would want to become more mature and emotionally strong before he fully commits himself to it. Once he does find himself in that frame, however, he'll begin to realize that the idea of getting married isn't as foreign as he thought it would be.

G = Gentle

(How gentle are they, physically and emotionally?)

Jungwon is extremely gentle with you, in part because he doesn't want to do anything wrong or to hurt you unintentionally. His touches are soft, and he takes every care to ensure that doesn't harm you in any way. Yeah, his hugs can be too tight sometimes, but that's because he missed you (and perhaps also because of his martial arts instincts). But he would never lay a finger on you on purpose, he's a gentleman that way.

Speaking of emotionally, he is quick to catch onto your moods, and knows when to tread lightly. He is always ready to be your shoulder to cry on, and never once does he show any annoyance. He wants you to know he's there for you, and puts in a conscious effort to not come across as mean or rude. He picks his words well, and yet, always knows just what to say to make you feel better. His words exude the warmth, care and love he holds for you, and it would totally shatter him if he were to ever be the cause of your pain.

H = Hugs

(Do they like hugs? How often? What are their hugs like?)

Jungwon is a total sucker for hugs. He loves all kinds, but his personal favorite have got to be back hugs. He just adores the idea of being clingy and sticking to you like gum as you go about doing your chores. His hugs are super warm, as he nuzzles his face in your neck, holding you close. He also loves, no needs, to have his arms around your waist as you cuddle him in bed. He usually prefers having you face him as you place your head on his chest, but if you don't want that, then he's also down for being the big (or occasionally small) spoon.

I = I love you

(How fast do they say the L-word?)

He would realize fairly quickly that he's in love with you, but would be shy to admit it, knowing full well just how much that single phrase can mean. He won't be able to keep it in for long, however, letting an "I love you" slip out his mouth. He seems to be the type to confess when you do something nice for him. Nothing too grand though. Bring him food at dance practice, or send him little messages reminding him to take care of himself, and he won't be able to keep himself from saying it.

J = Jealousy

(How jealous do they get? What do they do?)

Frankly speaking, Jungwon can get jealous quite easily. The moment he starts feeling you are giving more attention to someone else, he'll get all pouty and sad. But his jealousy doesn't stem from his doubts about your loyalty, since he's absolutely convinced you love him just as much as he loves you (and you do). Instead, the sole reason for him being upset is his constant need for your attention, something he doesn't like sharing. As such, expect him to be jealous of pretty much anything or anyone. Puppies, babies, your favorite actor/book character, his group members, anything that he considers to be a threat to him getting your attention.

But since he gets all pouty and sulky whenever something like this happens, you catch on to his mood quite often. He won't be able to stay mad for long though. Just give him a couple kisses, and he'll be back to being your cheerful boy.

K = Kisses

(What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss their partner? Where do they prefer to be kissed?)

Kisses with Jungwon are super sweet and super fun. He loves kissing you on the cheek, and he loves to be kissed on the nose or on the cheek too. Whenever he presses a kiss to your skin, you can practically feel his lips curling up into a smile, as he proceeds to turn into a giggling mess after pulling away. You are no better, and every single time the two of you catch the other's lips in a kiss, it's bound equal parts goofy and sweet.

L = Little Ones

(How are they around children?)

Since he's so used to being babied, expect Jungwon to go into his competitive mode any time he's with kids. If you like playing with children, then he'll do everything in his power to ensure that he continues to be your favorite kid. But that doesn't make him mean towards the children. He loves playing with them, and can go on making them happy for hours on end.

M = Morning

(What are mornings with them like?)

Mornings are usually hectic, since the both of you have to leave for work. But when you have days off, expect him to not want to get out of bed at all, keeping his arm firmly around your waist as you cuddle him, talking about anything and everything. You love mornings like this, waking up and falling back to sleep as you please, staying in till you feel your stomach grumbling, and just soaking in each other's embrace.

N = Night

(What are nights with them like?)

Night finds Jungwon coming home, completely exhausted from dance practice. But he never fails to ask you about your day, throwing a soft smile your way. His night routine is fairly simple, just freshening up before he crashes into bed. But if he's hungry, he drags you to the dining table with you, eating while swapping stories with you about your day. As soon as he crawls into bed with you, his arm is thrown around your waist as he pulls you closer. Falling asleep, of course, is not an option till you've spent at least an hour talking. You often just cuddle on the couch, watching a movie, and end up falling asleep midway through it.

O = Open

(When would they start revealing things about themselves?)

As I said before, Jungwon was pretty shy when he first met you. But once you got him to talk to you, his quirks started making themselves known quite easily, one thing at a time. Pretty soon, you had learnt of his love for Maeum, and his tendency to love being patted on the head. This is something that continues throughout your relationship as well, with the only thing that changes being the relative intimacy of the quirks. And so, you soon learn that your boyfriend is a sucker for back hugs and nose kisses.

P = Patience

(How easily angered are they?)

Jungwon is pretty good at keeping his anger in check, even under pressure. And that reflects in your relationship with him too, as he manages to keep his calm even when things don't go smoothly. Sure, he exists to call you out in a playful manner when you're being annoying or when you mess something up, but full-on fights are a rarity. And he intends to keep it that way.

Q = Quizzes

(How much do they remember about their partner?)

He makes it a point to remember everything about you, however big or small. He is naturally very inquisitive, and since he wants to get to know you better, expect a lot of random questions being thrown your way, the answers to many of which even you won't know. He however, does his best to keep track of every important thing, and his idea of what is "important" is pretty simple too. If it's related to you, it's important to him. He does forget an occasional trivia, but you're there to help him remember.

R = Remember

(What is their favourite moment in their relationship?)

Jungwon makes sure to cherish every second he has with you. But his favorite have to be those stolen moments under the duvet, your hands intertwined together as you talk about whatever comes to mind. He just loves watching your soft smile and sparkling eyes as you tell him about a new book you read, or a new place you went to, or a new friend you made. But that doesn't mean he doesn't like the silence. He loves how comfortable the both of you can be, without the need to talk, and just basking in each other's presence.

S = Security

(How protective are they? How do they protect their partner? How do they like to be protected?)

Jungwon is protective in the sense that he doesn't want you getting hurt, ever. But he's not the overprotective kind, and he knows you get to have friends and a life outside your relationship. He doesn't get jealous much, apart from the pouty-sulky behavior which is more cute than upsetting. At the same time, he's pretty capable of protecting you should need be. A creep bothering you? Consider him done since our boy here is an expert in martial arts.

On the other hand, if he's the one in need of being protected, then he'd rather you use your quick thinking to get him out of any messy situation. He doesn't want you to get hurt, but would love to know he can rely on your mind to save his ass.

T = Try

(How much effort do they put into dates, anniversaries and every-day tasks?)

Being a leader, Jungwon has an inherent tendency to always want to do his best, and that reflects in your relationship as well. Even though he doesn't have much experience and may still be clueless about a lot of stuff, that doesn't stop him from wanting to treat you like you deserve to be treated. He's always one of remember important dates, and would never bail on any plan the two of you make together. If he knows he won't be able to make it, he'd rather tell you straight away, than to keep you hanging.

U = Ugly

(What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Jungwon has grown out his socially-awkward phase and opens up to people much more. But one thing you often find yourself scolding him for is his constant urge to giggle during serious things. He’s landed himself in trouble for it more than once, and you've taken it upon yourself to get him to appear just as serious as he actually is.

V = Vanity

(How concerned are they with their looks?)

Being an idol, Jungwon needs to take care of his skin. But that doesn't mean you always see him wearing tons of make-up or putting on one face mask or another. Sure, he knows he needs to protect his skin and keep it shining, but you often find him bursting a pimple or getting a rash, especially since he's still growing.

W = Wedding

(What will your wedding be like? Who will be invited?)

Jungwon seems like the type to want to have a wedding out in the open, and you can be almost certain that it'll be a destination wedding. He's not one to care much for color schemes and dress codes, so he'll leave that choice up to you. Whatever you come up with, he'll simply go along without a question.

But don't take this for nonchalance, as he's just as jittery and just as excited as you are. Perhaps even more, because he realizes what a huge responsibility he has signed up for taking on. But his natural instincts as a leader help him remain calm through it, in part because he doesn't want you to panic.

There won't be too many people at the wedding, just close friends (including Enhypen) and family. It's an intimate and special event, and he wants to share it just with the people he's closest to.

X = Xtra

(A random head cannon for them)

He would never admit it, but he absolutely loves it when you ruffle his hair. You often find your hands making their way to his silky mane, and while he whines and complains about how you're ruining his hairstyle, he loves having your fingers entangled in his locks. He especially likes it when you rake your fingers through his hair as he rests his head against your chest or on your lap. It helps him calm down.

Y = Yuck

(What are some things they wouldn’t like, in general or in a partner?)

Jungwon would need someone who has faith in him, someone who wouldn’t question his abilities. He will never be with someone who doesn't find him capable of doing something, and will not tolerate anyone trying to belittle him.

Z = Zzz

(What is a sleeping habit of theirs?)

Cuddles while sleeping are a must, and he needs to be holding you one way or another. His most preferred way is to have you face him as his hands rest on your waist, but he's also down for being the big spoon (or occasionally the smaller spoon).