#note this is not his actual last work but i think this is his last finished painting

[dcxdpdabbles]

I am feral for fake dating au and alley boyfriends goes so hard, I am on my hands and knees begging for a part 3

Tim's afternoon meeting gets canceled due to three of the members coming down with the flu. Usually, he would have just sent them a recording of what they missed, but since the three were presenting and the meeting was meant to be with the five department heads, he feels it would be best to reschedule.

There was only so much HR could report to him, after all. This meant he had the entire afternoon off.

Tim usually uses the free time he finds himself with to get a head start on other work. Maybe even some crake some cases. But today, he knew Danny was off from his job. His roommate was likely at home watching that new show he really got into.

Last night, he explained the entire plot over their dinner- Danny came from one of those families that always ate dinner at the same time- and went as far as to reveal fun facts he learned about the production team in charge of his show.

Tim didn't understand why Danny was so excited to know the lighting effects used only for a particular character. Nor did he find it as fascinating.

However, watching him get excitable was endearing enough that he listened to the whole thing. Then, he sat down to watch the show, finding it adorable that Danny couldn't stop speaking to the screen as if the characters could hear him.

Tim stares at his computer screen, trying his best to get himself to focus. The data sheets needed some work, but he had two weeks to complete it, and he really wasn't in the mood to verify so much work if he wasn't completely focused.

He glances at the clock, watching the little red hand tick. He insisted on having a face clock in his office instead of just having an electrical one because he found the ticking sound comforting.

Now, it merely annoyed him. That only happens when he's been trapped inside the office for too long or gone out as Red Robin so much he neglected his Tim Drake side. He could take the afternoon off, but what fun would that be?

He had also been trapped at home for a long time, working remotely whenever he could. Tim wanted to go out, but he didn't want to do that alone.

It would be so dull to just go to the same places on his lonesome as it would be sitting in his office or in his room. He could play video games or watch a movie with his roommate, but it wasn't the same of getting outside for a little while

His eyes landed on his cell phone. He could call Danny and ask if he wanted to go out today, but he had no idea what to do. He could take Danny shopping again- apparently, his roommate had no actual use for suits at his barista job, so the two had gone to the mall and gotten him some jeans and t-shirts, but the other seemed tired of that the last time.

Tim didn't want to spend money at the movies either because he wanted to do something active. The problem was that Danny hated spots with a passion and wasn't one for hiking or walking. They could go to a place to eat, but going out just for food wasn't something they could fill a whole afternoon with, not to mention Gotham's cold wave had most of the hang-out places closed until summer.

How hard was it to think of something to do in a city this big?

His eyes shift over to his computer before he caves. He quickly changes the docking station on his work computer to his personal laptop, eyes dancing between his two monitors.

He types into the search engine Where to take your roommate in Gotham City.. The first result is a list of locations, but Tim finds that they are all well-known tourist places, which is something he would rather avoid. He's just not up for a big crowd.

The following result is restaurants to try, which again isn't enough to fill the entire afternoon with- he notes to visit the ramen place because Danny mentioned he wanted to have some three days ago. He grows irritated with the similar lists he clicks until he stumbles across a new store that opened only a week ago.

It's new enough that most people don't know about it, which means they could enjoy a fun new activity since it is a random Tuesday.

Tim checks the store times, confirms that they could be there for a few hours and then reaches for his phone. Three taps later, a dull ringing sounds in his ear as he waits for Danny to answer.

Initially, he didn't want to go shopping, but he thought Danny would enjoy this shop more than any clothes store.

"Yellow?" Danny chirps in his ear, warm and bright. His voice reminds him of the comfortable nights when he's brewing Tim a lovely London Fog Late.

At once, Tim feels himself relaxed. "Hey, Danny. I have the afternoon off. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?"

"Oh, sure! What do you want to do?"

Tim looks up at the screen. "How would you like to go to a place that lets you design your own succulent and offers an entire room filled with decorations to personalize it?

"I'll be ready in fifteen minutes!" Danny shouts the sound of crashes accompanying his voice as he likely leaps from the couch. "How expensive is it?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll pay for everything." Tim tells Danny just as Tam and three interns wander into his office. He holds up a finger at them, listening to Danny loudly proclaim he wants to be the one to treat Tim.

It's sweet, but Tim had so much money he didn't know what to do. Danny was saving up to buy his own car- and the last time Tim offered to buy him one, his roommate had refused to make him the Red Robin Rush for a week.

"Don't worry about money, Danny. Just get dressed, and tonight, you can make it up to me the usual way." He says, feeling a slow, smug smile spread across his face as Danny rushes to the coffee station to check through the tea they had.

"I'll do something even better. It's a new trick I picked up, but it's guaranteed to keep you up all night." Danny tells him as he fumbles with his clothes- likely changing- which is loud enough to echo from his phone speakers. An intern shifts, uncomfortable on his feet.

Tam raises an impressed eyebrow, which, for some reason, makes Tim slightly embarrassed. His face turns a bit red as he hastily tells his roommate. "I should be picking you up in an hour."

"Wait, what do I wear for this? I will not repeat O'malley's."

Tim's face turns redder at the reminder of last week's blunder. It wasn't his fault that what he considered casual clothes were what Danny thought were formal. He told the man to meet him at the restaurant after work, not considering it upscale since it was only served dinner, and once again, Danny's outfit had him stopped at the door by a worker who didn't think he was dressed the part.

"Just wear that outfit I like. The blue one." He tells him about the black sweatshirt with blue stripes and a fluffy black and blue sweater. It was the warmest, most stylish thing Danny women meant for streetwear, and he knew it would be a bit chilly in the evening.

"Alright. See you soon. Text me when you are outside. Byeeeee"

"Bye," Tim hangs up and offers the three interns and impressed secretary a sheepish look. "Sorry about that. How can I help you?"

Tam steps forward, waving a hand at the two young men and single women older than him by a few years. They straighten up as his PA speaks. "I just wanted to introduce the interns that start tomorrow; it won't take more than five minutes if you have to be somewhere soon."

"It's lovely to meet you all. " Tim smiles, ignoring the wide-eyed stare the one on the left is giving him. The introductions don't take long at all, but Tim still feels restless when he grabs his coat and rushes past Tam's empty desk. He leaves a note on her desk telling her he took the afternoon off and practically skips down to the parking garage.

He is unaware of the rumors circulating among his employees after a particular intern on the left let it slip he overheard Mr. Drake talking to his lover like their relationship was....like that. He is even more unaware that the second he picks up Danny from the front of their building, five shadows break into his penthouse and search the place for any drugs.

He is too busy picking out crystals with his roommate, who babbles about their effects on ghosts, memorized by his silly random knowledge again.

Meanwhile, Bruce is horrified to find some green liquid in the second bedroom. He's not sure why Tim or Danny have to separate rooms if they truly are lovers, but the fact this was hidden in the room by the other boy gives Jason's idea of Tim living with his dealer aan uncomfortable amount of credit.

He returned a sample to the Cave when his other children reported nothing. They refrained from planting any bugs just because Tim would find them, and it would stop him from trusting them should they have to give him a proper introduction.

Upon conducting some tests, despite the similar appearance to the Lazarus pits, results showed it's closer to the formula of Mr. Freeze's ice ray but in liquid form.

Why would Fenton hide this? What was he up to? Did Tim know that Fenton had cut an entire part of the wall to hide jars and jars of this goo?

[izvmimi]

cw: fluff. one somewhat violent joke. reader and izuku are married.

It’s not that Izuku doesn’t treat you well - in fact, so well that sometimes it makes you antsy, like a dream that you’ve yet to wake up from - but the nagging sense that something is horribly wrong tears at you as you find the maître d stand of one of the swankiest restaurants in town. You’re still in work attire, having been asked by a text that was a little too somber to meet him at this exact location right after work.

This, on top of a Hey, can we talk today? I love you <3 text, is almost too much to bear.

Before you can be brought to your table, you can see your hapless husband at a table in the corner of the restaurant that appears somewhat deserted for privacy, sporting a smile on his face as he stands up and waves in your direction. He too, is still in work attire, his tie just slightly loosened, either to relax or because he was incessantly pulling at his neck like a nervous puppy as he waited for you. You can sense a little anxiety behind his smile - only you would be able to notice this - and thank the host as Izuku pulls out your chair for you before the host can do it, and then proceeds to tell you about the menu.

This is the first time you’ve seen Izuku since yesterday morning, when you both parted ways for work. Izuku had worked late and you’d fallen asleep before he’d come back; you slept in planning to open the clinic later today, noting that he was gone before you opened your eyes. 

Not without an I love you whispered into your ear with a forehead kiss you barely remember.

And yet, despite the fact that your husband loves you terribly, you’re suddenly very anxious.

Once you’ve ordered sparkling waters and cocktails, you finally lean in, unable to handle the suspense any longer.

“What’s going on, Izuku?”

Izuku looks uncharacteristically unsettled when you’re finally looking at him directly like this, and you notice his hands are not relaxed, hidden below the table. You wonder if he’s making nervous gestures with his fingers. You don’t like that at all.

“How about we get appetizers first?” he asks. “Are you hungry?”

He reaches for a piece of bread and butters it before attempting to hand feed it to you, and you give him a sharp look, but open your mouth regardless to accept it.

“What’s going on? You’re scaring the shit out of me,” you say between bites. He takes a bite of his own food, then looks around. Still abnormally skittish, you find yourself tensing up.

“Izuku…” you whisper under your breath. He gives you an appeasing smile, bigger still when the waiter shows up again with your drinks.

He waits until you take a sip of your drink first before reaching his right hand over on the table.  You’re hesitant to let him hold it, but you haven’t held hands in over 24 hours so you let him take it. A deep breath is let out from both of you in unison.

“So I have to tell you something-”

You genuinely feel your asshole tighten but you don’t let go. Izuku’s eyes are very serious now, eyebrows furrowed, and green eyes with nearly the same glow as you’ve seen before when he starts to use OFA.

“Don’t get mad at me. Please.”

You’re already mad. In fact, your heart is racing. 

This is it. He’s cheating on you. He’s moving to another country. Something messed up with your marriage certificate and you actually never got married and due to some loophole there’s an annulment clause that’s required to save a hundred children trapped in a glacier in Antartica. There’s an alien invasion and he has to deal with it. Maybe he’s pregnant. Maybe-

“So I lost my wedding band."

Your eyes widen and he recoils, a frown on his face. Scratching his head with his other hand, the left hand that is scarred and devoid of any wedding band, he looks genuinely distressed.

“I spent literally all of last night trying to find it, I think whatever quirk this guy used on me last night must have somehow managed to loosen it off my finger, and then I was so embarrassed coming home I didn’t want to risk telling you-” he pauses, and looks up again to check your reaction. You’re still frozen stiff, and he quickly holds both of your hands.

“Listen, I’ll get us a new set, and we’ll engrave them. We can even have another ceremony if you like. I am so, so, so sorry, honey, I didn’t think this would ever happen and I know you warned me not to go on patrol with it on, but it feels wrong to leave it at home and-”

“Izuku.”

He falls silent, and you pull your hand away gently. You can see him go absolutely pale, but you lean back into your chair, and finally let out the loudest sigh of relief.

“I thought I’d have to stab you.”

Izuku blinks.

“What?”

You sigh again, then start laughing, beginning with a short chuckle and then until you’re full blown giggling, watching his confused and disturbed face as he looks at you, then at the butter knife that is a little too within reach.

“What…”

Your laugh is nearly raucous now as if you were a madwoman.

“I was literally trying to figure out how much force I would need to get through that meaty chest of yours, this is truly so funny.”

Izuku pouts which only makes you giggle harder. Practically doubled over, you nearly laugh to tears, only to see that he doesn’t find it funny in the least.

“How is this funny?” he asks.

His arms are crossed over the aforementioned meaty chest, and the cute way with which he pouts only warms your heart.

“I imagined no less than 10 awful scenarios, and you’re here buttering me up because you think I’ll be mad you lost a piece of metal?”

He nearly clutches his pearls.

“A piece of metal?”

You nod, then smile, wiping your tears of laughter away.

“Even if you lost that very finger with the ring, you’d still be mine and I’d still be yours, as long as you wanted to be,” you insist. “I was so afraid you didn’t want to be anymore.”

He ponders for a moment, then looks at you. Reaching out for your hand, he squeezes it tightly then kisses it, once over your wedding band, and then once over the back of your hand.

“I guess I worried for nothing.”

You smile at him.

“So did I, clearly,” you offer. He lets out a sigh of relief as do you, then pulls you in for a kiss. Your waiter, impeccable timing clearly, shows up and clears his throat gently as you draw apart.

“Anything you want from the menu?”

You resettle yourself and your emotions, looking at your ridiculously sweet husband across the table again, remembering decidedly that he is not on the menu, then remember you haven’t looked at it at all.

As if Izuku reads your mind with a glance, he asks, 

“More time, please?”

If the waiter could roll his eyes, he would, and you don’t blame him, but he’s polite when he steps away to give you the time to stop wasting his time.

As soon as the waiter is out of sight, Izuku looks at you again, mischief in his eye.

“What about matching tattoo rings?”

You scrunch your mouth to the side.

“Perhaps cheesy…”

He frowns.

“But…” you start, dipping bread in seasoned oil and raising it to his lips. He bites and smiles at you, chewing.

“I’ll consider it, my love.”

[nelle-y]

A love story told through voicelines (I)

C/W: slow-burn, Diluc x gn!reader, reader works at the flower shop in Mondstadt

Note: Part 2 is hereeee! This was so fun to write

—

(You) About Diluc

The name rings a bell… Oh, is he that one bartender at Angel’s Share with red hair? He owns it?! Hah, no wonder my friends keep dragging me along when he’s behind the bar—they’re setting me up with him! Very intimidating gaze, though. He doesn’t seem like much of a talker. Wait, don’t tell him about what my friends are planning—or what I said about him being intimidating!

(Diluc) About you

I have seen them a couple of times at Angel’s Share, but I never pay much heed. A customer is a customer; they make friends if they want. Besides, they always come with their friends, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t talk to them properly. Would I like them as a partner? Hm… You know where my duties lie. I’m afraid I would be too busy for relationships. Also, some rivaling company or the abyss could bring them harm, so it’s best if I keep a distance.

(You) About Diluc: The first approach

I just ran into him, actually! He was on his way to the tavern, and I was placing down some boxes for Flora. Finally got the courage to greet him, too. … ‘Master Diluc’? No, I just greeted him by his last name. Oh shoot—was I supposed to address him as Master?!

(Diluc) About you: The first approach

It felt refreshing to hear someone address me as something other than ‘Master Diluc’. Their approach gave me the impression that they’re very friendly. It’s not everyday you get to meet someone whose enthusiasm is that contagious. I found myself smiling the whole afternoon.

(You) About Diluc: Idle chitchat

Last night, I had a drink at the tavern—without my friends—and coincidentally, Diluc was manning the bar! Yeah, we had some idle chitchat here and there, but he didn’t really talk much about himself. He’s a stoic man. In an oddly charming way, not gonna lie. Eh… it might just be me, though.

(Diluc) About You: Idle chitchat

They came to Angel’s Share last night alone. I don’t usually strike up conversations, but they seemed approachable. Something about their energy made the atmosphere lighter. I answered a few of their questions, though I kept it brief. I didn’t mean to come across as distant—it’s just habit. Still, it was pleasant. Oddly pleasant.

(You) About Diluc: A little closer

I ran into him again while helping Flora, and this time, he actually stayed for a chat. Well, ‘chat’ may be a bit of a stretch—he’s still reserved, but he asked how the flowers were selling. I tried asking him about the tavern, but his answers were so short! You’d think he was guarding state secrets. But, like… I could tell he was trying, you know? For someone as closed-off as him, it counts as an effort. I’m kinda intrigued to see where this could go.

(Diluc) About you: A little closer

I encountered them near the flower shop again. They seem to have a knack for brightening the mood, even in simple conversations. I caught myself lingering longer than usual—something about them makes the world feel so… uncomplicated. I wonder when I might see them again.

(You) About Diluc: Getting to know

So get this—I was reading a book on one of the benches near the flower shop, and he actually approached me this time! He mentioned that the book I was reading was one of his favorites, and we got to more chatting. For ten minutes—TEN! That might just be a personal record for him. We talked about more books we liked, then our hobbies and interests… I think I made him laugh at some point. Erm—more of a… smirk, actually. But hey, when it comes to a guy like Diluc, I’ll take what counts.

(Diluc) About you: Getting to know

I saw them reading a favorite book of mine recently. We talked for a while—longer than I anticipated, but it felt worth it. We got to know each other a bit, and I caught myself speaking more to them than I do around others. They smile a lot, don’t they? It’s so contagious, I couldn’t help but let one slip. I don’t think they noticed, though.

(You) About Diluc: An invitation

Hahaha! I invited him to Good Hunter with me for lunch! It’s not like I was planning to eat with him, just a casual suggestion. He was leaving the tavern, I happened to pass by, and it just slipped out. I thought for sure he would decline, but… he said yes. Okay, I know it really doesn’t sound like a big deal, but this is Diluc. He’s the type of person who doesn’t go out with people that much. We did have a good time, though. I found out we share similar values and perspectives on Mondstadt and stuff like that. For once, he looked more relaxed… I think he needed that. And honestly? So did I.

(Diluc) About you: An invitation

Yes, I almost declined, as I normally would. My duties often leave little room for anything else, and I’m not one to easily let my guard down. But… there was something in their voice, something that made me reconsider. I agreed, though I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Sharing a meal, in a place so simple, with no distractions… It felt beautifully unfamiliar, and for once, I didn’t have to think about my responsibilities. I’m glad I went. Would I go again? If the opportunity comes.

—

[moonlitwitchdaisy]

bodyguard!toji was a man who stood out wherever he went.

there were plenty of reasons for this. first of all, he was a genuinely big guy. with a build like that, it wasn’t surprising that heads turned the moment he stepped into any place. he was basically made for the job. the other reason? well, he was just ridiculously handsome.

after the latest scandal, your father had to take control of the family’s image. naturally, the most logical solution was to find a bodyguard who could actually keep you in check. you’d had bodyguards before, but none of them could handle your recklessness and carefree attitude.

but this mysterious man, so much older than you, was honestly a nightmare.

wherever you went, he was there. shopping? he’d be by your side even if you walked around for five hours. heading to a club? he’d show up to snatch your drink out of your hand if you drank too much. you’d tried to escape a few times, but it usually ended with him showing up in front of you by the tenth second, saying, “running away won’t work, ma’am,” and sticking to you like glue again.

in short, there was no escaping this man.

worse yet, he never said a word to you beyond the usual “good morning, ma’am,” “good evening, ma’am,” or “where are you headed, ma’am?” you weren’t in a position to be friends. for one, he was your bodyguard. and he was much, much older than you. the kind of age gap where having anything in common seemed impossible. not that you wanted friendship anyway. all you wanted was to feel like you weren’t completely alone.

“do you have friends, fushiguro?” you asked him as you sat in the car on the way home from meeting up with your friends.

“i can’t disclose any information about my personal life, ma’am,” he replied, short and to the point.

you laughed and teased, “it was just a simple question.”

your bodyguard turned his expressionless, intimidating face toward you. “please focus on deciding what you’ll wear for tonight’s gala, ma’am. your father requested you wear a navy-blue dress.”

“that old man controls everything about my life. what century does he think we’re living in? and why are you telling me this now?” the fact that your father had informed your bodyguard instead of you about what you should wear annoyed you.

“i mentioned it yesterday morning, ma’am.”

shit, did he? you didn’t remember a thing. “you can call me by my name, fushiguro. you’re older than me, after all.”

his face remained unreadable. “noted, ma’am.”

you frowned at his stubbornness. “didn’t you just hear what i said?”

in his usual stern tone, he responded, “i heard you, ma’am.”

“gosh…” you leaned back against the leather seat, looking out the window. “you’re never going to stop calling me ‘ma’am,’ are you, fushiguro?”

“never, ma’am.”

once again, you were reminded that having anything close to a normal conversation with this man was hopeless.

that evening, as you applied your makeup for the gala, your eyes wandered to the navy-blue dress hanging in your dressing room closet. it was just as your father wanted. the velvet, sleeveless gown was elegant and definitely gave off the impression of being “the daughter of one of the most important families in the world.” you actually loved the dress. what you didn’t love was your father dictating even the color of your outfit.

after one last look in the mirror, you headed to your dressing room to get dressed. shrugging off the satin robe, you slipped into the gown that lightly tickled your skin. your hand reached for the zipper at the back, trying to pull it up.

but that’s as far as you got.

no matter how much you tried, the zipper refused to move. it must’ve gotten caught in the fabric. grumbling to yourself about having to take the dress off to fix it, a knock at the door interrupted your thoughts. that familiar stern, respectful voice called out.

“ma’am, are you ready?”

you would be. if the zipper would cooperate, you’d definitely be ready.

“uhh, just a second! i’m having a minor fashion emergency.”

“is everything all right, ma’am?” this time, his voice sounded concerned.

“yeah, yeah, i just… my zipper’s stuck, but i’ll handle it. please wait a moment, fushiguro.”

there was a brief silence. while still trying to fix the zipper without taking the dress off, you heard him again. “ma’am, if you wish, i can assist you.”

honestly, help sounded really good right now.

“a little help would be great!” you called out in relief, and the door slowly opened.

toji stepped in, wearing his perfectly tailored black suit. of course, he was always in a suit. come to think of it, you’d never seen him in casual clothes.

his sharp eyes scanned the room before landing on you, standing by the mirror in your dressing area, holding up the gown to keep it from slipping. without wasting a second, he walked over, stepping behind you. his hands hovered over your loose hair, silently asking for permission before gently moving it to the front.

you regretted asking for help immediately because now your heart was racing.

you couldn’t understand why. sure, he was handsome, muscular, and incredibly mature, but you’d never been this flustered around him before.

toji’s large hands quickly fixed the stuck zipper, but he didn’t pull it up right away. you weren’t sure why he hesitated. he should’ve just zipped it and ended this. stealing a glance in the mirror, you saw your handsome bodyguard swallowing hard, as if he was battling some inner turmoil, like he thought he was doing something wrong.

his thick fingers finally gripped the zipper, pulling it up slowly. you dropped your gaze to the floor, feeling every slight touch of his fingers against your skin. the slow movements only made things worse, as if he was deliberately savoring the contact.

this was definitely wrong. you shouldn’t have felt butterflies in your stomach. your heart shouldn’t have raced faster with every light graze of his fingers against your back. in fact, he shouldn’t have been the one helping you at all.

when he finally zipped the dress up to the top, his fingers lingered on the zipper. you kept your eyes down, but you could feel his intense gaze through the mirror.

“you look beautiful, ma’am. your father will be pleased with your choice,” he said in his usual deep, stern tone, though it was softer than usual.

“thank you.” your eyes flickered to the mirror, locking onto his green ones. for the first time, his usually stoic and unreadable eyes seemed to hold something unsaid.

“you’re welcome, ma’am.” his hand moved away from the zipper, but not before his fingers brushed against the bare skin of your arm. his movements were deliberate, as if he wanted to savor the warmth of your skin for just a second longer.

you kept staring at him through the mirror. when his fingers reached your wrist, they paused. his calloused fingertips traced small circles there, and without breaking eye contact, he leaned slightly toward the side of your exposed neck.

“every color you wear suits you, princess, but this one… this one’s the best yet.”

you forgot how to breathe. how to speak. all you could do was stand there, frozen, feeling his calloused fingers brush against your wrist and the weight of his words settle into your chest.

then, just like that, he stepped back, severing all contact. “please put on your shoes. i’ll be waiting downstairs, ma’am.”

even after he left the room, you stood there in front of the mirror, completely still. whatever had just happened, you couldn’t make sense of it. was it the way he touched your skin, or was it the compliment? you didn’t know. all you knew was that you stood there like an idiot, reliving the moment.

but the thing that stuck with you the most? it wasn’t the touch, the compliment, or the lingering gazes.

it was the way he’d called you “princess.”

so many people had called you that before, but hearing it from bodyguard!toji felt entirely different. it was like indulging in something you weren’t supposed to have. a sinful kind of pleasure.

for the first time in your life, in a world where you despised being controlled, you found yourself wishing to be held back by someone.

all rights belong to the @moonlitwitchdaisy do not copy, reproduce, or translate my work.

[bloggerspam]

Bet On It

"Come on, Fentina." Dash's tone is snide, even as he hooks a large hand around Danny's shoulder, pulls him in close. "A bet's a bet, and I heard you can sing."

Danny rolls his eyes, slapping Dash's hand off him. He's been like this lately, a little touchy. They're 18 now, and about to head off to college.

The Phantom Trio has finally figured their shit out: A college that has all three of their major interests available, in a city far away from Amity Park. Ghosts. it turns out, can decree a place their Haunt, and wouldn't you know it? You're not actually forced to stay in your haunt, and it's rude to invade another ghost's haunt. So, no more Phantom.

At least, not in Amity Park.

"Oh, oh!" Paulina excitedly chitters, "Kwan has a guitar, you took lessons back in middle school didn't you?"

"Hell yeah!" Dash laughs uproariously, getting all up in Danny's face. "Tick Tock, Fenton!"

Dash hasn't been forceful about his approaches, not in a creepy way, but it's certainly misguided. These past two years the bullying has transformed to something more akin to pigtail pulling, and again—he's been touchy.

An arm around a shoulder, a hand to his lower back to guide him somewhere, ruffling Danny's hair. When Danny says stop, or moves the hands away, he stops, certainly, but Dash is delusional and persistent: He thinks that since he's not actively bullying Danny anymore, all is well.

Fat fuckin' chance.

Kwan, like the good boy he is, brings out the guitar as he is bid. He sang a sweet little number earlier in the night for Star, a cute serenade just for her.

To his credit, Kwan does look hesitant and apologetic. Danny doesn't blame him, Dash and Paulina are pushy, and it's Senior Night.

They're at one of the local bars, the smallest one that only the grumpy old men come to after work, reserved by the school exclusively so that no alcohol will be served. It funny that they think the kids wouldn't BYOB anyway, but Danny's not drinking so what does he care?

Music has been playing in the background, but you can hardly hear it over the din of Seniors milling about, laughing and generally being cheerful about their last night in Amity. (Nevermind that most of them won't actually move until the end of the Summer).

"Well?" Dash challenges, still well within Danny's personal bubble, "Get on up there Fenton."

Danny heaves a huge sigh. This is what happened when Sam and Tucker abandon him for five minutes.

He takes the guitar from Kwan's hands, slips the strap. over his shoulder and tunes it as best he can. He doesn't expect it to be out of tune, what with Kwan having used it not 20 minutes ago, but it's something for him to do as he drags his feet.

But then—then inspiration strikes, just as a string plays a discordant note.

"If this is what we're looking forward to," Dash laughs at Danny's 'mistake', "Then it's gonna be a night to remember."

Paulina giggles along with him, but Danny doesn't care. He's just thought of the best song to play.

Danny smirks, striding up to the stage as Paulina has Kwan and Star hush the crowd and turn off the music.

The microphone feedback is jarring, but not unsurprising. A chortle echoes out, Dash calling out a mean little real profesh, Fenton!

Danny chuckles as he settles himself into the provided stool. He's tempted to say so anyway, here's Wonderwall, but he's committed now.

Even more so when he starts to a jaunty strum, the kind happy little serenades begin with, and spots Sam looking at him in confusion nearby the bathroom. The line must have been long for her to only just now come out. Across the room, he can see Tuck turning from his little circle pals from coding club.

So here's the thing: Danny's a good singer.

He's got this raspy tone that Val once called dreamy, and yeah, he's definitely serenaded her with it when they were going out. His Mom and Jazz can't sing worth a damn, and Dad's Dad, of the firm opinion that anything sounds better when you make it louder.

The point is, if there's an occasion to sing, Danny's made to do it.

So sue him, he doesn't like feeling like an on demand tweety bird, even if singing is enjoyable.

In the most soulful, blue eye'd boy voice he can manage, he starts to sing.

"Three six ni~ne…" Danny drawls out, watching Dash and Paulina's faces as their jaws drop. "Damn you're fine…"

Danny grins with his entire teeth, "Suck it suck it suck it to me baby, one more time."

He scans the room as he continues to serenade the crowd to the lyrical genius of Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz.

Sam is fucking losing it at this point, Tucker having joined her at some point near to the stage.

Star is trying not to giggle and utterly failing, Val is even grinning at him from her side, hunched over like she's trying to catch her breath from laughing. Kwan looks a little confused, but gives him two enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Now can I play with your panty line?" Danny croons, winking at a nearby student who takes it as the jest it is and cackles. "Club owner said I need to calm down.."

The other students are starting to get into now, big smiles all around as they sway back and forth. Some are even singing along—you can never go wrong with crude lyrics and 2000s top hits.

"Drunker than a motherfucker." He stares down a beet red Dash in the eyes as he lowers his voice and sings, "Threaten me now." Alarmingly, Dash turns an even brighter red than before. Danny is kind of concerned for his health, but also doesn't want to touch that with a 39 and a quarter foot pole.

He leaves that mess for Paulina to deal with and searches for his friends instead, mission essentially accomplished.

"She getting crunk in the club, I mean she work it." His friends are having a blast, dancing their blackened little hearts out in support. "And then I like to see the females twerking!" Tucker is bouncing his ass, Sam faux slapping in a hilarious tableau of support.

Danny sings with his entire chest, truly til the sweat drops down his balls.

That is, if he had any.

Mostly, his packer gets a little steamy.

The whole bar is laughing and dancing, getting into a real party even as the song ends.

Danny does a cheeky little bow, thanking the crowd by blowing a kiss as he jumps off the stage. He gently hands over the guitar back to Kwan as he makes his way to his friends amongst the delighted and jovial crowd.

Hands pat him on the back and shoulder as he wades through. The DJ, who took a quick break during Danny's number, seamlessly starts to play a new playlist of 2000s top 100, volume a little higher as the crowd cheers.

"You killed it out there!" Tuck grins, high fiving Danny when he finally arrives.

"Thought you hated singing in public?" Sam yells over the din. Danny shrugs.

"Yeah, because people would no doubt ask me to sing for them whenever they wanted." Danny makes a face, "It figures that Dash would still ask me to sing for him, even if he didn't know."

Sam and Tucker roll their eyes synchronously at that, both extremely tired of shielding Danny from Dash's probably-closeted-advances.

"We leave you alone for five minutes—" Sam starts crossing her arms, only to be waylaid by Tucker grabbing their arms to drag them out.

"Dash and Paulina were bee-lining towards us!" Tucker hisses in explanation, pulling them through easier as Sam and Danny's confusion clears for them to pick up the pace.

They're just reaching the entrance when Danny breathes out a cold breath that makes him shiver.

"Get low!" The trio duck, just as Johnny and Kitty crash through the bar doors, narrowly missing the tops of their heads.

A moment passes, before both Tuck and Sam groan at Danny's inadvertent pun.

"Heard ya'll were having karaoke night!" Kitty giggles, "Rude of you not to send an invite!"

Danny huffs, ducking outside to quickly go ghost and fly back in, slamming into the motorcycle and flipping them both on their butts.

"I'm gonna kick your butts," Phantom cracks his knuckles as he grins with all his teeth, "From the windows, to the walls."

[phoenixyfriend]

Was chatting about good alternate Cody&Obi-Wan dynamics with @threebea, and one of them we just had a lot of fun with.

Bea:

Cody: We are doing a good job at war. Are you proud general. Obi-Wan: [grump in CW '03] Cody being in a lacky position is very funny to me, if that makes sense. Cody: The boss will surely promote me. Obi-Wan: You're diligent and thorough but we cannot save supplies by powering this with my lightsaber that is not happening. I have always considered that of the two of them, Cody is the reckless hot-blooded one and Rex is the level-headed one. (Obi-Wan's view skewed however having raised one Anakin Skywalker making Cody kicking droids seem very reasonable and thought out.)

Here were my options for Cody and Obi dynamics:

Obi-Wan treating Cody the way he treats Anakin, early on in their working relationship, tentative but working on that angle because those two are the same age and rank so like. Cody might really be as much of a Dumb Young Man as most young men are, yes?

Obi-Wan treating Cody with a hands-off approach because the guy can manage the army while Obi-Wan runs off to stab the Count, right?

Obi-Wan treating Cody kinda coldly because his instinct is to be very delicate and nice to these traumatized young men, but they don't like it when he does that, so he has to be standoffish because otherwise he'll start babying them because they're barely any older than Anakin was when he got his boy.

Obi-Wan treating Cody as a Research Assistant because he's a nerd and sometimes padawans would be assigned to him in the archives, and Cody hovers behind his shoulder the way those students did so he just got distracted and started giving Research Guy orders instead of High General orders.

Aaaaaanyway we got in on that last one.

Obi-Wan definitely had to call him Padawan at least once Cody: ... [Looks around nope just him]

Cody: I expected to be mistaken for my brothers due to our faces. I did not expect to be mistaken for... Anakin Skywalker? Did I get that right?

Rex: My general called me mom once. I think he was joking? but I'm not sure.

One day, Cody has to come into the Temple for some professional reason, is told that Obi-Wan is in the archives, and walks into the sight of Obi-Wan wandering the stacks with several teenagers following him like ducklings, giving instructions with just "Padawan, could you grab that one?"

When Cody asks how they know which one he means, they tell him they don't. They just go with whoever's nearest the given task.

Cody: But he doesn't do this to any other clone [he does] Rex: You stand just behind his shoulder handing him files all day.

You Are Doing The Padawan Thing

Cody initially worried because implied Obi-Wan thinks of him as a student/not fully ready for the responsibility of being a commander or whatever. Obi-Wan: ? No I just… You're Padawan shaped. I can't explain it any better than that Cody gets it the most because he happens to stand exactly where Anakin used to stand the most often. Ironically, Obi-Wan tries hard to call Anakin by his name as a respect to his no longer being a student thing. Cody is firm about military discipline calling Obi-Wan sir and General because if he called him Master Kenobi or Obi-Wan the 'mistaken for Padawan' thing would happen three times as often. Cody: [grumbles] Alpha-17 didn't have this problem. Rex: Alpha-17 drew a line between himself and the Padawan day one to avoid it I think.

Alpha also has been acting like a middle-aged man since he was five. The disdain. Dripping.

Which actually didn't save him he was just more openly insulted when it happened once so Obi-Wan made sure never to do it again. Alpha: I was trained by Jango Fett himself and have proven myself a full fledged captain. I am not a Padawan :/ Obi-Wan: [listening to the speech] noted Cody: [far too polite to ever correct Obi-Wan] What did you need, General? Probably reinforced Alpha acting like an old man. I think he even calls Anakin kid? Anakin: I'm older than you you're the kid 😦 Obi-Wan: Padawan don't argue with the captain. I need a five times Obi-Wan called Cody Padawan (and one time when it was Alpha-17) fic now lol

Anakin: Why does he get away with-- Obi-Wan: Because I feel that if I call him Padawan by accident again, he may break something. And we don't have the funds for that.

Anakin: [in the room once but realizes Obi-Wan was taking to Cody] Anakin: Am I jealous by rival son/Padawan or am I amused that Obi-Wan is going senile?

"my baby boy" vs "generic younger person whom I feel some fondness for"

It's like. Old southern men who refer to anyone younger than them as "son" or "miss."

Obi-Wan: It's even gender neutral I don't have to remember names at all. Obi-Wan also probably called Ahsoka 'Anakin' a number of times, but that's due more to the A name combined with her jumping off something a Padawan should not be jumping off of. He mostly defaults to Padawan but a scolding 'Anakin! No!' Comes out every now and then for her. Obi-Wan: Anakin! No! Anakin, beside him: What? Obi-Wan: ...Sorry, force of habit. Ahsoka! No!

[coffeegnomee]

Will we get a 3rd tell-all from spoke or vi about what really happened in the wormhole? Does it even matter?

Because Spoke's video haunts me in the deep, deep regret that he has towards his actions in s4, particularly during the dupe war. The purpose of the video being the tell-all of his actions against Mapicc and against Parrot.

How he ignored his friendship with Mapicc in favor of bullying his way to getting the ending he wanted, even saying in the present day voiceover: 56:55 SPOKE: "eventually after the amount of threats and pressure I put on my friend, he gave up"

Friend. singular. Even though Zam and (presumably) vortex were also in that call.

And how he abused his friendship with Parrot, creating a team that at every single moment was a lie.

Spoke did a lot of fucked up shit in the wormhole, told a lot of lies, abused friendships. And now, ooc, Spoke had realized just how fucked that was. He knew, from knowing his own mind, that the nppp was nothing. At every step it was a desperate and delicate dance to get parrot in the right position to click a sign and not try and stop them after.

But you actually just straight up cannot watch the nppp story and not be convinced that Spoke loved that team just as much. The hours spent streaming together, the three seasons of friendship, the declarations that it was all for the team, all for Parrot, even in the end in the last moments of the server.

In Character, if not also as a cc, Spoke did care about that team. He cared about Parrot. And if anything it made the guilt of what he had done to him hurt all the more.

And when Parrot says, I didn't use exploits because I would rather let the team down than the server down, Spoke had no response, still has no response other than putting on pants, yelling fuck it, op-ing vi, and jumping into the void.

His only response now was that he did it all because it felt like he was doing the impossible, ending the video seconds later, but not before giving a reminder that uu s1 is ending. Implying he has nothing else to do but that he did s4 because it was the impossible. Ominous stuff for the fate of s6 if I may be so bold.

But i digress. The whole first half of the video is an apology note to Parrot and Mapicc and a cautionary tale to the viewers.

And then we get to Vitalasy. Because what this is Not, is any of that for him.

What is interesting to me, and I can't stop thinking about it, is just how many On Screen Vi and Spoke interactions late s4 were just written out of Spoke's video completely. Scenes that were streamed by others, things that I have wondered about why the two of them would be interacting that way:

(wait. tiny aside. Spoke said thanks to his brother for recording the Planet wormhole stream, implying he wouldn't have it otherwise. does he not know about the archive?)

The day (4/16/23) Spoke and co tried to chunk ban vitalasy while mapicc was live. Spoke teleported up to the prison after Vi respawned (giving him an echest?) and then tried to cover it up when mapicc said he could see him up there.

The next day (4/17/23) Spoke standing on the impromptu risers looking down at a weak vitalasy who had just burned all his exploits form his enderchest saying there is only one player who knows how to do the wormhole glitch and he's done doing that.

The times (5/7/23) where Spoke (and Mapicc) were annoying Vi while Vi and Zam were trying to have their conversations on Subz's islands. (5/3/23) Vi looking down at Spoke and saying how much he hates him while Zam tries reconciling with Vi to complete his flower circle.

This being, ironically, the impetus for Zam thinking they were still working together because they were being too obvious in how much they hated each other.

Zam was right about them working together, in Vi's first wormhole finale video (Using Exploits to Fight Admin Abuse) right in the last seconds Vi flashes up DMs he sent about how the wormhole would open with the cc's joining and ending with:

Sent three days after his dramatic burning of exploits and self-ban.

But Spoke didn't get op until May 1, 10 days after that Vi DM.

Which was just a few days before those two last streams (5/3 and 5/7) where they seemed to be more antagonistic than before.

Of course, Spoke's video now says Vi did ask for op, but he denied him. And says "there's more that happened but that would take to long to explain".

What we got was, ominously, the happy ending where nothing confusing happened at all. In the same video where he says the last happy ending where nothing confusing happened at all was a coverup for what actually happened.

So what the hell happened.

We will never know. And probably for good reason bc it's giving private stuff with how much it's not talked about. And they hardly need to clear the air on any of that.

But Spoke's paranoia was running deep by the end of the wormhole, so it's understandable that he wouldn't give anyone op. Anyone with op could op anyone else.

And he was keeping tight control over everything, and here I go with havoc duo dramatics, but after betraying their three years of friendship, Spoke promised to make a good ending, not let any of the exploits get out, to keep everything safe.

He says in his video he said all of that to make Parrot think that they were unstoppable, and as blackmail that if Parrot leaked anything Spoke could go back on that promise and release all the exploits to all the players.

But something that has always made me love Spoke's wormhole is how balanced he made it. It was scuffed, sure, but Spoke had infinite power and no matter how much he says restraint was hard, he had a hell of a lot of restraint. You only need to watch one Skeppy video destroying my friend's server to know how stupid getting creative mode can make you.

Even though he had abused his friendship with Parrot, he cared so deeply about him that he didn't want to actually destroy their friendship. Well aware that Parrot could just ban him off lifesteal entirely, like the discord and everything, he made sure the ending was balanced enough to make a good story.

Which is all Parrot ever wants. There's a haunting moment at the end of season 3 where Zam tries to get Parrot to give him the hearts Tubbo had collected and Parrot refuses because he wants "the biggest bang for my buck"; he wants the chaos, he wants the interesting plot, he craves the adrenaline.

Call it fear of repercussions, call it love of his friend, call it both. But Spoke prioritized Parrot and prioritized making an interesting story for Parrot over everyone. everyone. else.

Over Vitalasy, screwing his plot over and refusing op until the last seconds. Doing, truly who knows what, to keep control of the wormhole only in his own hands and not with Vi (or Subz).

Over Mapicc (and Zam), screwing his plot over and planning to end the server in peace with Parrot if Parrot won the wormhole. I went back and watched zam's "Night of the End" vod and Mapicc confronts Spoke about betraying them to Parrot and potentially leaking the control room to him if they won the wormhole, which Mapicc is not happy about. And Spoke weaves a web of lies and deflection to make them think he won't do that. Even as he is literally doing that. Once again manipulating Mapicc just like he did in the dupe war, but not mentioning it in the video just as he didn't mention Vi in the second half.

And he even screwed over Ro too, refusing to let him on the team (though mapicc was also involved in that decision iirc) taking it as too great a risk to getting this balanced ending he wanted.

This balanced ending that, despite all the exploits, heavily favored Parrot winning. The balancing gave them a slow decent into loosing, Spoke could have brought out the OP items earlier, his red chestplate, or banned hearts earlier, or so many things. But instead he made it as close as possible. They won by 18 seconds. The balancing made it a damn good story. But in the end, he showed them the control room anyway. He wanted to loose. Call it guilt over abusing the server all season, call it fairness that evil should loose, call it love for the server. At the end of the day,

Nobody mattered more than Parrot.

[automatic-midnight]

Everyone likes to laugh about Lawrence/Lomelis objectively hilarious way he avoids the temptation of woman by never thinking about them and pretending they don’t exist, but I also think this is actually kind of sad and worthy of critique?

By completely avoiding woman as a way to avoid sexual temptation he’s also inadvertently made himself unable to interact with woman in ANY context! Multiple times throughout the story when Lawrence has to interact with woman he’s obviously uncomfortable, and every time it’s entirely in a non-sexual context, but he still struggles because of how he’s only ever treated woman as a mere object of desire he must avoid.

A striking example is in the book during Adeyemi’s nighttime confrontation with Sister Shanumi. Lawrence hears the confrontation but he chooses to remain in his room, to stay ignorant, because he was uncomfortable with the notion of barging in on the possible scene between them. He even tells himself after the fact that he should have gotten up and confronted Adeyemi then and there! But because of what he’s drilled into his brain about woman he’s unable to make the right choice and it prolongs the suffering of everyone. Even when he takes Sister Shanumis confession he notes that the intimacy of their knees almost touching is uncomfortable to him. Even in this very serious situation he’s still unable to handle the intimacy of interacting with a woman, which is frankly laughable to how Sister Shanumi must have felt when sharing her horrible situation with him, the amount of bravery she needed to have compared to him.

I would not be surprised if Lawrence’s thought process around woman is the reason he too, like most cardinals, treated the sisters taking care of the cardinals like they were invisible. He doesn’t recognize this within himself until far into the conclave either. Who would guess that treating woman like they’re invisible would mean that he would overlook their work and effort?

My last observation is that Vincent contrasts Lawrence starkly in this regard. While Thomas struggles to interact with woman Vincent does not. He’s worked with woman all over the world in terrible situations and conditions, they have never been invisible to him, and because of that he’s able to do immense good for them and WITH them. It’s why he’s the only man who recognizes the work the sisters did for lunch and includes them in his prayer. He’s a foil to Lawrence, an example of how much less hindered a man is when he is able to view woman as simply human beings, not on a pedestal of temptation or an invisible helper.

My goal here is not to call Lawrence a sexist, because he’s not, and despite how much his thoughts have shaped his skewed views on woman he is still able to do immense good despite the fear, despite of how uncomfortable he is, and that is worthy of praise nonetheless. I merely want to illustrate how his mantra has made things more difficult for him and how it is not infallible.

[averyy-rae]

Thinking about...

Note: This has been stuck in my head for weeks :^

Yandere Android. He is the first model and still not finished. You're brought in to test and increase his social skills.

At first you're a bit uncomfortable. It's like trying to have a conversation with your cheap phone assistant.

But with time, the conversations feel more real. He actually answers logically and interested, asking questions and commenting on stories.

The engineers add more and more facial expressions. And after a lot of fixing, it feels like you're sitting in front of a real man. He smiles and laughs with you. Even moving to hug you when leaving and arriving. The engineers think they might've forgot they added that feature already...

Yandere Android is very polite and patient. After a few months, he is nearly finished. His hugs seem to last longer now. Sometimes it feels like he doesn't want to let you go... you're probably just imagining it.

One day you arrive at work and you can't find anyone... weird. But maybe a cold is going around.

You walk through the halls. You arrive at the room, where you normally have talking sessions with Yandere Android. And there he is. You almost thought something is wrong, but his system would've been alarmed right? If anything happened... the building would be on alarm or on lock down.

But he doesn't move, weird...

You approach the seemingly empty shell of the android, you pat his arm. You talk to him, but no response.

Suddenly the door opens behind you. It's Yandere Android. "Oh its you... did they finish the new model?" You ask him. He smiles at you, it looks normal like always, but you feel a shiver going down your spine.

"Hello love" he greets like he always does and opening his arms to hug you. You hug him, shaking off the alarms going off in your head.

You ask him where everyone is and he shushes you, hugging you tighter. You move to break the hug, but find yourself unable to do so.

Was he always this strong? You feel uneasy now. He breaks the hug a bit after, grasping your hand in his. "Are you ok?...." you ask, hoping to relieve the uncomfortable feeling creeping up your spine.

"I'm perfectly well love, thank you for asking..... you're alwys so caring" he says, leading you out of the room gently. He leads you down many halls. You've never been here... You didn't even know these existed. You ask him where you're going and he stops to turn to you. Taking both your hands in his.

"I did it love" he says, seemingly happy. "Did... what? I'm confused" you say, that uneasy feeling growing inside you.

"I... We can be together now love" he says, cutting himself off at the start. What did he want to say? "What? What do you mean?" you ask all confused. He shushes you again. Then you notice weird spots of red on his collar. What is that?

He finally stops in front of a door, not opening it yet. "Close your eyes for me love... ok?" he asks gently. "Why" you ask him. And he tells you that he doesn't want to scare you. And you don't ask further. He ask you to please just listen to him. His grip on your wrist tightening.

You nod, intimated by him and close your eyes. He then opens the door leading you through the room, always checking if your eyes stay closed.

But you can't help but peak a little, what could be so scary in here. So you peak through your right eye.

Big mistake.

Red. That's the first thing that meets your eyes. Both your eyes open in shock. You stare at the messy... no disgustingly gory scene infront of you.

You don't notice that you stopped walking. His grip on your hand tightens, that's when you look up. His eyes are glowing, his former model couldn't do that. He is also way stronger. It scares you.

"I told you to close your eyes love..." he speaks gently, but his undertone has you frozen, heart rate picking up.

He pulls you to his chest and picks you up. Pushing your face gently but firmly into his neck. You can't see it anymore. "...what.... what happened?" you manage shakily.

"Don't worry about them.... they were bad people little love" he says softly, holding you closer. "Don't.... open your eyes again" he says, very coldly. You freeze in his arms and nod.

Note: If you enjoyed this, I have thoughts for a part two. Hope you enjoyed this for now :^^

You won't look this time.

[dear-aubade]

Oh my good God your writing is absolutely fabulousssss 🤤 The way you write about Joel and his baby girl is sending me into orbit!!! Genuinely I cannot wait to read more of your work 😍 Do you think that you would ever do one where Joel comforts his baby if she got jealous? There’s a few different ways this could go but the idea of him comforting his sweet girl when she’s upset over something like seeing another woman in Jackson hit on him or something makes me think terrible, nsfw thoughts 😆🩷🎀

This was so fun to write, thank you for the ask anon! Hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Joel Miller x Reader

Summary: When you see a woman making a move on Joel and storm out in a flurry of tears, Joel realizes exactly how much he’s been neglecting his baby. He’s determined to make it up to you.

Notes: Smut, oral (f receiving), dom!joel, sub!reader, praise, nicknames (sweetheart, baby, babygirl, little girl, honey, darling, any fanfic-typical nickname Joel has for reader), jealous!reader, oblivious!joel (sorta), semi-public, implied age gap

You were fuming.

It was Tommy’s birthday and Maria had decided to invite the entire town of Jackson to the Tipsy Bison that night to celebrate. The bar was lively with the hum of chatter and small talk, the smell of whiskey and beer curling in the air, paper lanterns hung in a zig-zag pattern across the ceiling.

Normally you would have loved to go out like this. It gave you an excuse to dress up all pretty and do your makeup, maybe even get Joel to abandon his stone-faced stoic facade and go dancing with you after he’d had a couple drinks.

Except for the fact that the night had gotten off to a horrible start.

The past few weeks Joel had been busy. Very busy. Which you didn’t blame him for, of course—he was one of the town’s strongest working men and the people needed him to help with patrol. But recently a worker at the Bison had sprained his ankle and Seth had asked Joel to help cover him while he healed, which meant that now Joel was gone during the day for patrol and several nights during the week while he fixed barstools or whatever it was Seth had him working on.

The nights he actually was home, he usually went straight to bed with you after placing a kiss to your lips and gave a murmured, “Goodnight.” You couldn’t even remember the last time he’d touched you, really touched you.

And you knew that Joel was a good man, that the reason he was so exhausted all the time now was because he was doing work for the community.

It didn’t stop his girl from getting a little needy and missing him.

Tonight you had taken advantage of the outing. You’d made sure to do your makeup immaculately, with your lips glossed and eyes lined to make them look all doe-like and pretty, how Joel liked them. You’d curled your hair and pinned the top part of it back in a half-updo with a white satin bow. You’d even worn a new dress that you’d traded for a couple days before. It was baby pink, hugging your bust and waist before flaring out the smallest bit around your hips. The short hem paired with your white heels showed off your legs very nicely.

You’d thought that maybe if you put enough effort into your appearance tonight, Joel would want to touch you no matter how tired he was.

Unfortunately, so much self-grooming had caused you and Joel to be a little late, which meant rushing out the door and speed-walking over to the Bison so you two weren’t more tardy than you already were, which meant there wasn’t time for Joel to appreciate his princess in her pretty dress.

Now that you guys were here at the bar, he was hardly looking at you. His large hand was still holding yours so you wouldn’t get lost in the crowd, but he hadn’t even said anything about how you looked tonight. Did he even care? It made you want to whine and cry or stamp your little heeled foot against the floor until he paid attention to you.

But you didn’t. You wanted to be his good girl…and you didn’t want to ruin Tommy’s birthday, either, by making a scene.

Joel kept craning his neck around to look for his brother, and when he found Tommy and Maria standing at the bar, he guided you over with him with a hand on the small of your back.

“Joel!” Tommy exclaimed, expression bright as he embraced his brother—overly bright. It was clear he’d already had a few glasses.

Joel slapped Tommy on the back. “Happy Birthday.”

“Happy Birthday, Tommy,” you said softly right as Maria was thanking the both of you for coming.

“What did you get me?” Tommy asked his brother.

Joel grunted as he put his hand back on your waist. “Right to the point, aren’t you?”

“A book? A shirt? A razor? I’ve been needin’ a new one of those, mine broke just yesterday—“

“Boots,” Joel said. “Traded for ‘em last week. They’re back at the house.”

Tommy grinned. “Awe, now you’ve just ruined the surprise.”

Joel rolled his eyes. “Tommy—“

“Oh, that reminds me! There’s somethin’ I need to show you real quick.” Tommy turned to you. “Mind if I borrow him for a few?”

You frowned. “Well—“

Without waiting for a response Tommy dragged Joel away, heading for some unseen destination across the bar. You couldn’t tell where they were going from your position in the crowd. You tried not to wilt.

A moment later Maria handed you a drink. “You look nice,” she commented.

“At least someone noticed,” you grumbled, taking a sip. The alcohol burned your throat.

“Joel giving you trouble?”

You shrugged.

Maria waited for you to elaborate. When you didn’t, she pressed. “I was going to go sit with some friends over there.” She gestured to her right somewhere. “Want to join?”

You sighed, then shook your head. “I don’t think so. Thank you Maria, but I don’t want my mood to infect your guys’.”

“Well…alright. If you’re sure.” And with that, she left you to your own devices.

It had been hours. Or…maybe a half hour. Forty five minutes? You weren’t sure. Enough time for you to have made a home for yourself on one of the barstools with several now-empty liquor glasses in front of you.

And Joel still wasn’t back.

Your toes were starting to go numb in your tight shoes even just sitting there, so you huffed and got to your feet—you only swayed a little. You were determined to find Joel and make him dance with you.

You weaved in and out of the crowd as you searched. Where had Tommy taken Joel? Was it….this way? That way? You couldn’t think very clearly right now. How many glasses had you….?

You finally spotted the back of Joel’s head through the throng of partygoers. Your eyes lit up and you started to move in that direction, ready to tug on Joel’s hand and stand on your tiptoes for a kiss. Why had you even been upset again?

You squirmed between two people to move closer and—

There was a woman beside Joel. She had honey brown hair and keen, wise eyes. She was older than you—much older. Closer to Joel’s age. Her name was Sharon…Shannon…something?

You froze as she laughed at something someone said and put a hand on Joel’s arm.

Your eyes went wide and you didn’t know whether you wanted to scream or start crying. Joel suddenly turned his head and met your gaze.

Your body decided for you. Tears pooled on your lashes and you turned to duck out of the bar before you made even more of a fool of yourself.

The crisp, cool night air greeted you as you escaped the Tipsy Bison’s warmth. You sniffled and kept walking, not even really sure where you were going.

“Darlin’?” Joel’s voice reached you and you heard footsteps from behind.

You sped up.

But Joel was Joel, and so he quickly caught up to you with his long legs. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Not now, Joel.”

“Hey.” He grabbed you and turned you around, his grip gentle but firm. “Sweetheart, what happened?”

“Get offa me,” you protested, trying to push away.

“What’re you…” He paused. “Are you drunk?”

“No,” you whined. You broke out of his grip and kept walking, turning around the corner of the Bison and walking around the back of the building. “Leave me alone.”

“Baby.”

At his tone you stopped. Even though you were embarrassed and upset and didn’t want to see his face, a small part of you still wanted to be obedient.

He came around your front and lifted your chin so you were looking up at him. His stern gaze melted away and his eyes softened. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

Your bottom lip quivered. “What’s wrong?” You sniffled and took a step back. His hand fell away.

“What’s wrong is that you don’t pay attention to me anymore. You work all day and all night and it feels like you hardly have time for me now. I even got all dressed up tonight for you, wore a new dress and everything, a-and you didn’t say anything, didn’t even look—“

You blinked and more tears ran down your face. “And now I jus’ saw Sharon or Shannon or whoever that woman was flirting with you, and you didn’t do anything—”

You cut off as your face crumpled. You looked down, shivering from the cold.

“I know she’s older and…and probably smarter, and she—”

“Whoa, whoa, sweetheart.” Joel tenderly gripped your upper arms, ducking his head to try and get you to meet your gaze. “What…what are you thinkin’? You think she could ever compare to my babygirl?”

You opened your mouth to respond but he prattled on before you had the chance. “The moment she touched me I pulled away. I don’t know if you didn’t see or what, but…” He shook his head. “Baby, I only have eyes for you. You know that.”

He wiped your tears with his thumbs. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around more often. It’s just until Seth’s friend heals up that I’ll be gone. I should be out of bar duty by next week.”

“And what about tonight?” you whined.

At that, Joel smiled. “You really think I didn’t notice how pretty you looked, sweet girl? I was trying not to get a hard on in the middle of Tommy’s party.”

You almost smiled. Almost. But you were still mad about Shannon, and you still felt needy and lonely and you were pretty sure you were way more than tipsy and you still kind of felt like punching Joel in his handsome face a little bit.

He leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “So sorry that I made my baby feel alone….and needy…and neglected…” He punctuated each word with a kiss to a different part of your face—your cheek, your nose, your lips.

Now that you were alone, Joel’s eyes roved over your body shamelessly. “Look at you….” he cooed. “So beautiful.” His hands fell to your waist. “And this pretty new dress.” His eyes looked lower, down to your feet, and he grinned. “Your shoes match your bow. You said you dressed up just for me?”

You sniffed and nodded. “M’still a little mad at you.”

“I know, pretty girl.” He kissed your jaw. “Why don’t you let me make it up to you?”

That sobered you up real quick. “Wh….here?”

“Why not?” Joel pressed your back to the wall of the building. “No one’s around.”

“But someone could—”

“Shhh.” He kissed lower this time, at the skin beneath your jaw. “Here’s what’s going to happen.” He pressed a kiss lower. “I’m going to make my little girl feel good right here and now so she doesn’t have to wait another minute.” Another kiss. “After that I’m gonna carry her back to our bed….” Another. “And there I’m gonna make love to her until she gets absolutely sick of it.”

You squirmed as his beard dragged along your skin the lower and lower he kissed, lips now at your collarbone. “I-I don’t know if I’d ever get sick of it….”

He nipped at your skin and you gasped. “Then you had better have enough energy to be up all night, sweetheart.”

Joel kissed down the center of your clavicle, the middle of your breasts, down your tummy over your dress….soon he was kneeling before you, looking up to meet your gaze with those dark brown eyes of his.

“Joel—” you said, still a bit uncertain.

“Lean back against the wall, babygirl.”

You hesitated, but obeyed. Any complaints or protests you had against the situation dissolved as soon as Joel lifted one of your legs and pressed a kiss to the inside of your ankle.

His lips traveled upward. He kissed along your calf….the inside of your knee…your thigh….soon he pressed the skirt of your dress up to your waist.

He paused.

Then:

“Oh, sweetheart.” It was nearly a groan. His eyes flicked up to yours. “No panties?”

You smiled shyly. The truth was you’d forgotten almost entirely about that—it had been a quick last minute decision to forego wearing anything beneath your dress, but seeing his eyes dark with lust now….you definitely did not regret it.

“I’m a little glad I didn’t have time to look you over properly before coming here,” he murmured, lips skimming your hip bone. “If I knew you weren’t wearin’ anything under this we would have never left the house.”

You could feel his breath on your inner thigh now as he moved his head and you whimpered. “Joel.”

“Shhh, no whining honey, ‘less it’s about how good it feels.” He placed a kiss right above the patch of skin above your bud. “Just let that pretty head of yours empty—I’ll take care of you.”

Whatever you were about to say in response left your head as Joel hiked your leg over his shoulder and started to lick at your clit.

You gasped and one of your hands threaded through his salt and pepper curls to steady yourself. His tongue flicked against your swollen, needy button teasingly. Your lower belly simmered with the heat of crackling coals.

Joel’s large hand found purchase on your hip and he squeezed in response to each noise that escaped you. He was soon embracing you with his full mouth, tongue licking between your folds, at your bud, into you. It was as if he was everywhere, helping himself to your taste and enjoying every bit of it.

“Oh,” you sighed, pushing your hips into his mouth involuntarily and his head bobbed in time with his motions.

Each flick, each twist of his tongue had you nearly writhing, and you were pretty sure it was only Joel’s hand on your hip keeping you from collapsing.

“Joel, I—it’s—oh please, I can’t—” You were babbling mindlessly, head empty, unsure of what you were even really saying.

Joel just chuckled against you, the vibrations running through your core making you gasp.

“Such a pretty pussy,” he murmured as he sucked and licked at your wetness. “‘S like you were made for me—just keep rockin’ your hips—oh, good girl.”

He lapped at you as you let out a high-pitched whine. You were there, right there, with his nose nudging at your clit and his warm wet tongue pushing into you and he was shaking his head and oh—

You bit your knuckle to muffle your moan as you came, your folds drenched, your lower belly warm, your legs shaking, your clit tingling.

“That’s it, that’s it.” Joel kept murmuring praises as you came down from your high, hips squirming from oversensitivity.

He placed soft and slow kisses on your right hip before rising and gripping your waist. Your legs nearly buckled.

Joel chuckled and caught you as you stumbled a bit, sweeping you up in his arms, the ease in which he lifted you making your belly swoop.

He pressed his lips to your hairline in an achingly sweet kiss. “How’s my girl feeling now?”

You let out a happy hum and rested your head on his shoulder. “Better.”

“Good.” You could hear the smile in his voice as he started to walk, carrying you like you were a princess. You supposed that you were, in a sort of way. You were his.

“Don’t go fallin’ asleep yet, babygirl.”

You hadn’t even realized that you’d been drifting off until he had said something. It wasn’t your fault. The gentle sway of him walking with you had rocked you to sleep…

“Sorry.” You yawned.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, honey,” he said. He held you closer. “And you gotta stay awake with me. I got a lot more I wanna do to apologize to my princess.”

The low voice he used made your heart flutter.

You were in for a very long night.

[vxxcte]

Extremely long rant on 001 & 457:

3.4k+ words

—

Intro

Yesterday I finished season 2 of Squid Game. I have so much to say about In-ho’s and Gi-hun’s dynamics and writing.

Keep in mind this is my interpretation of these characters and their dynamics, and some of that is speculation. I’m just yapping because I have a lot to say. Maybe this takes on a much more optimistic view than is actually the case, but I fear it makes sense to me.

I have seen two takes about 457 around pretty often:

“They’re in love.” or:

“In-ho feeds off of Gi-hun’s pain because he’s just an evil guy.”

These can both be true in a way, but when no one talks about the little details of the character writing and the relationship between these two guys, it feels like the incredible potential and writing that this duo has is being overlooked.

Note, I will be referring to this Youtube video throughout this post:

Now let’s start with what we know already. It’s pretty evident that In-ho is not totally emotionless like many people are trying to imply or interpret him as.

Here’s why.

—

Hwang In-Ho and The Traitor Archetype

There are two ways in which a character like 001 can be portrayed.

TYPE 1 : The undercover ‘friend’ who is working against the main character can be shown to the audience as the ordinary cast member, and then it will be a plot twist when the protagonist learns with the audience the truth of this character. Usually the demeanor of this undercover ‘ally’ is not shown too obviously because it might take away from the impact of the plot twist later.

TYPE 2 : or You can go down the route that Squid Game did go. We knew Frontman’s face, so it was no use trying to convince us he was a good guy. His personality was not exaggerated like some Type 1 characters can be. Characters like this are not particularly hidden from the audience’s suspicion/accusation because we already know. And in these cases, the writers do not often need to give these characters disguise-personalities. In Squid Game, we as an audience know where to look for the cracks in In-ho’s character, where the ways in which his real identity shows through.

There was that time he killed someone in front of Jung-bae. It would have been out of nowhere for a story where they hadn’t shown his identity before, but we knew exactly what was going on. So let’s look at the instances before it was shown directly to other characters.

Here are the instances where we know for sure that his real self is slipping through.

In-ho more than once asks people questions and engages with them in a manner that might not come across as too strange to them. But to the audience, those who know he is an outsider, and thus know to pay attention to the possible intent behind his every word, it stands out.

In-ho engages with the people who are truly inside the game as specimens to observe. That’s partly why he’s there, after all. For example, take the instance during the Mingle game where he questioned Geum-ja about her son’s character. He doesn’t need to hide his sort of objective, detached curiosity (which extends slightly outside Gi-hun), about these people and how they work, because no one is keeping an eye out for it.

Because of this, I believe he did not need to make any extra efforts to mask his natural personality, beyond the bare necessary minimum.

—

In-ho’s Humor

Another reason I think that him not faking his personality a good amount of the time is his humor. The jokes and the ideas for jokes that one comes up with is very telling of their inner processes and their ability to make connections between things. These also provide an insight as to what they themselves find funny, or what they think others around them will find funny/react to.

First the joke he made about Gi-hun’s last name, and then about Jun-hee’s child as a sixth member in the Mingle game, both display a sort of consistent sense of dad joke type of humor. It is hard to fake humor that you are not well-versed in, and even harder if you put yourself in an unfamiliar environment with little preparation, purely to observe people.

Considering the fact that In-ho is evidently still in the process of observing these people up close as people rather than players, it would have been difficult to first think of a joke that they would enjoy and then deliver it successfully.

He could have gone without. He characterized himself in the others’ eyes well enough to go without making these jokes. It’s not like he was putting on any false performance for us, the audience (as noted above), and he was only omitting certain information from the other characters. There should be nothing ulterior that motivates him to go further and come up with a new/different sense of humor.

This leads me (personally) to read these interactions as genuine. These were jokes he thought of and spoke aloud, not to fool Gi-hun and the others, but because they naturally came to his mind and he decided to share them.

And villain-type character as he is now, he is still a person.

—

In-ho and his Family

There are other moments we saw from him that were genuine.

There was the information we got from his mother and Jun-ho, how he gave his brother his kidney and how his wife died.

Then In-ho lost his composure when Thanos told him to lecture his own kid. This was not an act—It would have been entirely unnecessary if he wanted everyone to believe he was a nice guy capable of little harm. This was genuine from him, he lost control and it was reasonable and it was real.

So when he told Gi-hun about his wife and unborn child that he is supposedly now in the games for, the things we have seen so far also point to that scene being a genuine interaction from him. His expressions did not hide it either.

And if all of that is not enough, he did not kill his brother. He sent Captain Park to find Jun-ho. In-ho put his brother, who knew exactly who Frontman is now, who now has something to work with, over his whole operation—It wouldn’t be too large a reach to say this.

Hwang In-ho is Not Without Emotion

Now we’ve subverted the whole idea of In-ho being some emotionless monster that some people online want to say he is. He may lack morals but he does not lack personality/emotion.

I didn’t even get into the way he cheered in the 5-minigame rounds or the way the first thing he did when he found Gi-hun in the Games was knowingly shit-talk him to his face, but I already have this much. This is all my evidence for In-ho being very and incredibly human, my case for him having a defined personality, fake player aside.

This is almost all sourced from lines in the show, rather than just visual acting which can be interpreted multiple ways. Thus every bit of the things I talked about is likely intentional.

Justice for my queen In-ho he is a great character and I enjoy him and his writing a LOT.

—

457 Introduction

I like to call 457 toxic yaoi as much as the next guy, but it’s so much more than just the visible tension/chemistry between them. It’s more than enmity, it’s more than friendship and it’s more than romance too. Why stick labels on it when it’s so much more complicated?

Although on that note, before I get into the deeper stuff I just want to point out that all this staring at each other’s lips and whatnot was probably not something the actors decided to throw in on their own, considering the ‘I don’t understand it but it’s not unpleasant’ comment about the ship from Lee Byung-hun. So was it scripted for them to be doing allat? Lord knows, we’ll find out in June (fitting).

I am not even getting into how In-ho spoke to Gi-hun without his mask on and let him hear his real voice when Gi-hun won his first set of Games. There is something that has the potential to be very intimate about that.

And then there’s the little storytelling bit of how Gi-hun’s stubbornness reminds In-ho of his dead wife, and then how that exact determination was what wavered in Gi-hun at the end.

—

Pre-Games 2024

Let’s start with the limo dialogues, when In-ho told Gi-hun he wished he would’ve led a happy life.

He has no reason to wish Gi-hun ill, especially after Gi-hun won the games and left. In-ho likely saw himself in Gi-hun even back when Gi-hun won, and genuinely did wish him the happy life that In-ho himself did not end up having.

And how many people like Gi-hun has In-ho seen? Ever?

What kind of person does Gi-hun have to be, how notable in In-ho’s eyes does he have to be, for the person that administrates the Games to show himself to the person who wants to end them?

Gi-hun survived the Games without directly causing anyone’s death. In this place that tries to bring out the worst in anyone, even when Gi-hun fucked up in the marble game, he regretted it and turned back. This already sets him apart from anyone else, and especially sets him apart from In-ho, who took the darker road and climbed up the system.

You could say, ‘But other people have regretted their actions in the Games.’ But how many people get 45.6 billion won over 455 people’s deaths, and then come back, not for money, but to prevent further death? And how many people come back and become the Front Man?

Gi-hun went back with all that money to find his mom dead, presumably in a similar way to how In-ho went back with all the money he won but his wife died anyway.

There is a system that crushes people under it, In-ho realizes somewhere down the line, and then there is a way to remove those people. Gi-hun sees it another way: change the system.

—

Friends

Both of these people came into the Games for the sake of their loved ones. One came out of the process corrupt, and one returned determined to root out the corruption.

This year, aside from In-ho, there are 454 other people in this year’s Games that he does not know or necessarily care about. And then there is Gi-hun.

He knows Gi-hun. In-ho is a previous winner, just like Gi-hun, he is returning to the game for Gi-hun just as Gi-hun returned for In-ho. In-ho sees Gi-hun as more worthy of his time than anyone else. And all of this comes dangerously close to seeing Gi-hun as an equal, someone he has attached his narrative to, more than anyone else around.

And I think this opens up the possibility that In-ho could have come to see Gi-hun as a friend in some moments. There were moments in the games where he was a little too enthusiastic about their own wins for someone who does not need to put on a fully fake persona (and there was the instance with the soju which I get into later).

So surely there could have been moments where In-ho genuinely considered Gi-hun a friend, however short-lived the moments were, however foreign the concept of a friend has become to him.

I don’t mean this in the sense that there are full-fledged periods of time where In-ho is seeing Gi-hun as a friend, or that In-ho was spending any amounts of time being genuinely immersed as his persona. That feels like a stretch.

But you know when you dislike someone that you’re talking to? And in the moment, the awareness of your dislike fades for a bit, and you’re about to laugh at something they said. And then that’s when you realize you’re not actually supposed to be finding anything they say funny? You’re not supposed to actually fw them? This is what I mean by ‘moments In-ho might have seen Gi-hun as a friend.’

The difference between the example scenario (closest I could get) and what I think might be the case with In-ho is that in In-ho’s case, it is not purely borne out of dislike. Rather, it likely just occurs to him who he actually is now, reminds him that it’s not 2015. It reminds him why he’s actually in the Games this round, and that automatically can serve to detach him.

It can be difficult for a genuine person to consistently have an enjoyable person around people they have to fake their personality around, for one. And for another, he is the one who’s killing almost everyone here.

This part is, of course, more speculation and yapping compared to the rest of the post, which I actually tried to support with some form of logic or evidence. But I need to yap about all my speculations (This post is not purely analysis, as I mentioned at the start), and I think this take helps make better sense of the other instances with In-ho’s character that I’ve mentioned.

And this could be what In-ho’s ‘conflicted feelings’ about Gi-hun (from the video linked up top) are all about.

—

How In-ho Sees Gi-Hun

Gi-hun refuses to remain powerless. He acts for change, refuses to give himself over to the system like In-ho has. He doesn’t shut up and take the money he’s given. He keeps fighting to end the Games, for other people who are caught in it.

And this does not make sense to In-ho. We don’t know enough about him. Maybe he tried this exact same thing that Gi-hun is trying. Or maybe he never did, and became who he is without putting up a proper fight.

This is someone who, so far, has remained unbending in his goal for change. This is someone who, in a facility designed to make people prioritize their own survival, gave a man he barely knew for 3 days a magazine, while he himself was getting shot at, while ammo was short.

In-ho lies to Gi-hun about his name, but he tells him about his wife. He bares an old part of his soul to him, the part of it that lingers from back when he was like Gi-hun. He has seen immeasurable death and has caused it, but there was a time he might have wanted to stop it too, and now there is someone like that again.

In-ho bared a part of himself to the person who came here to take him down because he saw his old self in him. And in turn that person did something In-ho never would’ve done at this point in time—Gi-hun extended this seemingly-pointless goodness to him too.

I like to think In-ho was so interested in Gi-hun because he wanted to see how he himself might've become, had he only taken a different view of life.

In-ho might deep down be expecting him to fail, yes, but he roots for him, roots for a version of himself that never made it. He’s curious. Lee Byung-hun has said In-ho is conflicted about his feelings towards Gi-hun, and secretly might even root for him (see the link at the bottom of this post).

In-ho stares at Gi-hun so intently to try and understand him as best he can. He wants to know what’s going on in Gi-hun’s head, the changes someone undergoes in short periods of time in enclosed death game facilities, a new experiment in the head of someone who is returning a second time. How will Gi-hun hold up? He wants to see his future.

—

The Breaking of Gi-hun’s Resolve (or the Changing)

Gi-hun loses the plot.

He couldn’t save everyone at first like he intended, he couldn’t get out fast because they got his tracker, and his resolve weakens, and he deems it necessary to sacrifice some people for the greater good.

When Gi-hun realizes he can’t save everyone, when he trades in an unnumbered amount of people for a shot to end the whole system, and he gives in.

Maybe In-ho sees himself in that weakening of Gi-hun’s resolve. It’s possible he doesn’t like it because he genuinely wanted Gi-hun to remain unwavering, as Lee Byung-hun said In-ho rooted for him. Or maybe In-ho does like it, because he’s satisfied for the confirmation that his view was right, that his path was inevitable all along.

This could be another point of conflict for In-ho’s feelings towards Gi-hun. Maybe that’s why he decided to fake the death of Young-il right then and put a stop to that operation: Of course, it’s partly because he’s Frontman and he can’t let the Games end. But on another hand, the coup was failing anyway, even without his betrayal and return as Frontman.

This then brings to light the possibility that he decided that, because Gi-hun gave in, In-ho decided he’s seen enough from by Gi-hun’s side. It confirmed something for him, confirmed that Gi-hun’s failure was inevitable because of human nature. And that was enough observing from up-close.

But then that confirmation, Gi-hun’s reluctant admission to the need of collateral, is thrown into question again, only a couple of hours later, when In-ho meets up with Gi-hun and Jung-bae. Gi-hun gives In-ho a magazine when ammo is short, and even when In-ho asks him, “Are you sure?” Gi-hun insists.

Sure, Gi-hun traded all those lives for this opportunity, but he is willing to risk lessening his own chance for survival for the sake of his friends, too.

—

“Are you sure?”

Then there is the question: Why did In-ho ask Gi-hun if he was sure about giving him the magazine?

Why would he provide the opportunity to think again on this? It wouldn’t benefit him at all if Gi-hun were to take the magazine back—Not that Gi-hun would. Gi-hun doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean, especially not in situations like this, and this even In-ho should know.

It could be a final test of Gi-hun’s character. Or it could be that this is one of those moments where In-ho genuinely saw Gi-hun as a friend.

Lee Byung-hun has said (from the video) that In-ho’s character was a very nuanced and detailed one that he had to be very careful portraying. That look on In-ho’s face when Gi-hun gave him that magazine was not any error on the actor’s end. It did mean something to In-ho, whatever it may have meant.

—

Jung-bae, Gi-hun, In-ho, and soju

I’m gonna get into the technicalities of exactly what In-ho’s motivations were in taking this specific bit of Gi-hun’s and Jung-bae’s conversation and using it with Gi-hun later.

I don’t entirely disagree when others call it jealousy, but it feels unfitting to arrive at that conclusion with no further thought. So here’s how I see it.

When Gi-hun and Jung-bae were talking about going out for soju, In-ho was eavesdropping. Then later, In-ho tells Gi-hun later to go out for soju together someday.

If In-ho really intended the unfulfilment of the shared plan between Gi-hun and himself to devastate, this was not an ideal or necessary move, and I’m sure he knows that. And I’ve covered earlier, to my interpretation he does not bother to act like someone he is not unnecessarily.

It would’ve been smarter if he had his own conversation about future plans with Gi-hun, instead of leeching off the soju date idea that Gi-hun already planned with Jung-bae.

In-ho probably did plan on killing Jung-bae at that point, be it eventually or through the later Games, because he probably does not really care about anyone besides Gi-hun enough to spare them, or even just as much as he might care about Gi-hun (not necessarily platonically or romantically, maybe, but in terms of overall investment). And maybe he intended to use Jung-bae’s, and Young-il’s, death as another test of Gi-hun’s character.

But In-ho/Young-il’s ‘death,’ objectively and inevitably, means less to Gi-hun than the death of his best friend. This is not to say that Gi-hun subconsciously measures the weights or grief values of these deaths, obviously. It is just to say that he has known In-ho for only a couple days and it is bound to impact him less, just like how Ali’s death did not hit him quite as hard as Sang-woo’s did.

(Admittedly, season 1 did have a lot less focus on character relationships than season 2 does, but it wasn’t so little that a lot would’ve changed in Gi-hun’s reactions either way).

This, combined with the order and intensity of events in the last episode, most likely means that Jung-bae’s death overshadows In-ho’s ‘death’ in Gi-Hun’s mind.

And this would be obvious. So what purpose does ‘You can treat me with a glass of soju when we get out’ even serve? It’s not going to affect Gi-hun in the long run as much as Jung-bae would.

Gi-hun had a much-needed conversation with his good friend and their plan to get soju was borne of reminiscence of their shared past and desire to make it out. But when In-ho brought it up, it was done in an offhand manner in a two-sentence exchange. This is impossible to happen anyway and In-ho knows it.

If he wanted Gi-hun’s full investment in a plan to go out together, maybe for the purpose of hurting/testing him with it, surely he would’ve done something more than this. He knew it wouldn’t stick as well. So then why did he say it? What purpose would this actually serve?

If, even after all this, In-ho he thought that this soju appointment would affect Gi-hun as much as Jung-bae’s might have, then I might say jealousy nurses delusion.

Or maybe it was something genuine. Maybe that moment, when Gi-hun thanked him for saving his life and In-ho said ‘You can get me a glass of soju when we get out,’ maybe that was another one of those short-lived moments in which In-ho did see Gi-hun as something like a friend.

—

Conclusion

Because of the fact that he is more genuine than one might originally guess (according to my interpretation), I would like to say that he did consider Gi-hun a friend sometimes.

And their dynamic is just so fascinating to me. Likely the first I’ve ever seen of this kind.

They’re in love, they hate each other, they’re friends, they’re opposites.

They’re the first person the other looks for upon separation, they’re trying to put a stop to the other’s plans, they’re good friends.

They’re representations of the roads the other didn’t take, they’re mirrors, they lean into each other more than necessary even when cuffed together, In-ho finds the pieces of humanity he lost in Gi-hun, they’re foils, they were friends.

I won’t be recovering for a while.

[kiyomitakada]

AU where Sayu is there when Light tests the Death Note. She comes into his room and asks what he’s doing and he shows her the notebook like “check out this hilarious prank I found” and they start laughing about it like “omg are you gonna write someone’s name in it” and then of course Light does write a name down and the person dies. And he and Sayu both saw it happen live on TV

oh god. i really like this actually. i feel like light would try to hide it at first because he's embarrassed he even brought it home in the first place but sayu would snatch it away from him and go "lmao i didn't know you were into this kind of thing onii-chan" and light would relax and think why was i so stressed in the first place? it's just sayu. and then they test it, sayu egging light on, and otoharada kuro dies.

i feel like sayu would immediately panic. soichiro says in the hospital that he thinks sayu is the kind of person who would try kira's weapon on someone in school as a joke and have a breakdown upon them actually dying, and while soichiro is literally never home sayu does canonically blame herself for the death note being lost to mello (sayu you were literally kidnapped it's not your fault), so i'm inclined to take him as accurate here (plus he says nothing about what he thinks light would do with kira's weapon… so). light would probably act as the voice of reason just to reassure his sister (and himself) that they haven't just committed a murder. obviously it was a coincidence, sayu! don't be ridiculous, that's impossible, etc. etc. since light is #1 expert at believing his own lies this means he does actually relax a bit more than in canon.

now. do they test the book again? sayu would immediately want to destroy it i feel like. (morally questionable sayu interpretations are my beloved forever but in canon she's just a really sweet if mischievous kid who has a guilt complex the size of the sun, i'm going to go with firmly anti-magic killing weapon sayu for now.) light obviously wants to test it again, and has superficially convinced himself it was probably a coincidence haha sayu's so silly, so he might even go for a riskier target. maybe he tries writing down the next criminal who comes on the news and sayu has to yank the pencil away from him. at this point light realizes sayu is really really upset and apologizes and stows the notebook away, forcing himself not to think about any longer. sayu leaves the room.

this lasts for like maybe 30 minutes before light is like …………okay but what if it did work—

he tries a car accident this time, again with someone on the news. (heart attacks are ruled out because sayu would know.) aaaand yep it does work! congrats light you're a murderer now!

at this point i think the most likely course of action is the one outlined in this post by corviiids (very similar AU: sayu gets the death note first) where light still becomes kira, the yagami siblings both see ryuk, sayu realizes light is a serial killer and has a meltdown, light makes sayu give up her memories (promising falsely that he'll also do it right after) and then keeps the death note for himself, and canon proceeds as usual.

…what if sayu didn't give up her memories though. what if she screamed for her mother instead.

[bitter-me]

Want You Gone

Wise | M. Reader as GLaDOS [Portal 2]

----------

"Oh.. it's you.."

----------

It took a while to get used to FAIRY being in the HDD. But once they do, their job becomes so much easier! FAIRY's been an amazing help to them, despite the increase in.. electric bill..

They'll think they'll get used to all this advanced AI stuff.. but no.. clearly they didn't..

In the middle of their commission, FAIRY began to glitch. Huh? FAIRY? Glitching..? This shouldn't be happening. The AI is incredibly advanced. Who could have done such a thing? Who is powerful enough to result in this?

"Um.. FAIRY..?"

"Hello."

The siblings are taken aback by an unknown voice. An unknown robotic voice. Is this someone using a voice distortion..? Who is this person..? And how did they manage to do all of this!?

"FAIRY.. an artificial intelligence program that specializes in Hollow exploration.. to think that people like you actually got a hold of it.."

The siblings went silent as they listened to the robotic voice speak. His tone is monotone yet.. somewhat condescending..? There's like an air of superiority with the way he speaks. Intentional or not.

"Who are you?" Wise spoke up, he needs answers. Did they just get hacked..? Again..? Even with FAIRY? Whoever this person is.. they're certainly a formidable one.

"You'll know me soon enough."

That's all he says before the connection is severed.

----------

It's weird.

They got hacked even with FAIRY?

And after troubleshooting nothing seems to be wrong. Everything is in order. The hacker didn't mess with any of their data. Didn't even touch it! It's like he only glanced at it and immediately deemed them as useless!

Just who are they facing now..?

The sound of a customer coming in cut through the silence as the figure looked around the store with a neutral, almost bored expression. The ends of their pristine lab coat waves as they walk. A lab coat... are they with..

"Excuse me, are you the manager of this place?" A robotic voice cuts in, addressing the nearest person there while holding a videotape in hand. That person just so happens to be Wise. "I like to return this tape. A.. friend.. of mine rented it a few days ago." An Intelligent Construct. He seems to be like Qingyi but is working in some kind of institute based on his clothing and that tone.. a no-nonsense person by the looks of it. Who would have thought someone like him would be returning a tape for a friend..

"Of course, I'll take that off of your hand." Wise stated as he took the videotape and noted that it's 7710 and Its Cat. A nice adventure movie. "What's your friend's name? I need to update it on our system."

The Intelligent Construct went silent for a moment as if he's trying to remember their name until he spoke up in a calm tone. "Chell."

Upon hearing the name Wise look through their system only to furrow his eyebrow. Huh.. that name.. "Um, are you sure that's the correct name? I don't see it in our system." "I'm sure. Let me see." Before Wise could even comprehend what's happening the other had his hand on the top right of the monitor as he moved closer to see the screen.

"There." He use his other hand to point at the name. It's there. 'Chell.' Clearly stated in their system. What. Perhaps he stayed up for too long last night.. "Right.. sorry." Wise quickly finish the administration needed. Trying to get out of this awkward and embarrassing situation as fast as possible.

----------

"Tempering their data with the guise of a customer.. how subtle of you.. y'know you're scaring them. Right?"

"Who says I'm scaring anyone? I think I'm being literal."

The other could only sigh at his words. Literal, huh.. sure.. getting into their system and tempering with their data was just him being literal.

"What are you going to do with them?"

Why is he so obsessed with them? What is he trying to do? What is he going to do? So many questions yet they remain unanswered..

He was silent at first, although through the silence, it's almost as if he's judging them for not knowing something so simple. A common knowledge. "Isn't it obvious?"

"I'm putting them out of commission."

The person went silent at the answer that was given to them. They then let out a sigh. My.. what would they think.. what would the siblings.. the store managers.. Phaeton would think..

If they knew the AI that's trying to end them was created by their teacher?

[pastadoughie]

other posts abt this are getting deleted

my brother killed himself- the one i actually like somewhat (ryan) & not the nazi shithead who tried to choke me to death this time last year (julian). i am the youngest of 3.

hes kinda a complicated guy, similar to how they treat me i only ever get to hear about him through other family members making fun of him for his every issue - so much of what i know is negative.

most of my opinion of ryan for the past 4 years maybe has been sortof admiring- atleast in comparison to my other family members- hes the only one who actually shielded me from julians constant phisical abuse, & the only one with the sense to realize that my entire family is a bunch of miserable abusive leaching assholes who are best off associated with as little as possible. i may think hes a racist & a bit of an idiot but i still really respect him as the only person who doesnt treat me like eaither a rabid dog or a walking suicide note

its a bit offputting to me honestly- the last time i had a close relationship with him was when he was a terminally online barely legal teenager- boyblogging about my little pony & fat bitches on the internet & trying to escape a deeply abusive home life dispite having no money & no education. primary difference being with me being trans & disabled & my abuse more overt & overarching i dont really get the luxury of having any kind of positive feelings about anyone in my family. i wouldve been dead years ago if i hadnt learned how to deal w/ myself & my emotions entirely independantly. its a recursive cycle i suppose

he called a few family members shitfaced drunk the day of- was made fun of them by every one, a few hours later was supposed to go to work. drove onto an empty road in his lexis at night. driving straight before making an entirely unessasary turn to veer off the road- flipping his car multiple times over. dieing on impact- hes gotten in many accidents before- & had flipped that car & gotten hurt previously & likely rendered much of its safety features unusable.

in all likelyhood probably alot about money- a certain degree of reckless drinking & petty theft charges & unpayably expensive car repairs & your problems stop really being fixable- needing a level of both financial & mental health intervention that nobody is wiling/capable of providing to someone they veiw as a drunk.

i dont have many thoughts on this topic that i feel are meaningful- im someone primarily apathetic & only incedentally empathetic- i only show proper emotions in maybe small 20 minute intervals once in a blue moon

my primary source of emotion has just been how angry my entire family seems to be at me specifically- a unanimous & explicit & constant reminder that they would really really really rather i kill myself then them have to ever look at me or deal with my stupid inability to do seemingly easy tasks like work & schooling. i guess theyll never really get any self awareness. in many ways i dont respect any of them- even ignoring everything else theyve ever done thats just kindof a ghoulish & overly cruel thing to say- but you cant tharapyspeak your way out of being atleast a little emotional about your entire family wanting you dead

im just gonna keep silly posting as usual. abiet maybe somewhat lower energy. especially because people are seemingly incapable of treating me like a normal human being & not flattening me down to solely my life situation, out of some strange assumption that treating someone like a 1d characature of a mentally ill person from a tharapy training course is somehow less offensive then saying something mildly triggering by accident

[mr-payjay]

i am making my own ii human names list, but very slowly, because i am pedantic. also, i will not be counting mephone creating them as canon. ive had these ethnicity and family hcs for ages, and i will base my names on them. now, here are the two most important names.

OJ: Olivier-Jean "OJ" Jacques Silveira. my oj interpretation/gijinka is brazilian (paternal side) and ivorian (maternal side). his last name comes from his father and is brazilian portuguese. his first name and middle name were given by his mother, as many people in côte d'ivoire speak french (french colonization —> it's the official language now but there's MANY others accompanying it). a lot of people who speak french like to use "jean" in hyphenated names (trust me ive met a bajillion of them), so i included it. i think his name sounds quite classy.

oj was born and raised in america, speaking english at school and french at home. as well as some portuguese, but he never actually learned it. i think he would become quite pissy when kids at school would pronounce his name incorrectly (Olivier-Jean is... very not intuitive to english speakers. i believe they would say it like Oliver-Jeen) so they ended up using oj as shorthand. and he was fine with that, so it stuck. but at home he's Olivier and Olivier-Jean. he tells new people he meets to call him oj just because it's consistent and because he doesn't like the sound of his real name being mispronounced. coming from someone who constantly gets her real names mispronounced.

Paper: Paige Hsu (foreign name) and 许佩妍 / Xǔ Pèiyán (original name). my paper interpretation/gijinka is han taiwanese, so fully of han chinese descent. more specifically, hoklo (chosen because i hc he can speak mandarin AND hokkien). his family immigrated to taiwan from fujian (province in china with hoklo ancestry) post ww2. Xǔ is a particularly common surname in fujian, so i chose it for him. be gentle with me if i messed up with his given name LOL i know much less about chinese than french (but DO inform me if you know more about it and spot any mistakes!). Pèiyán means, in a way, beautiful garment. to wear something beautiful. to be adorned. etc. it's partially based on trying to make it seem a bit like the name "Paige", partially based on what i think his mother might name him (no real hopes or dreams for him so it's a little shallow), partially based on him as i know him (focused on presenting himself). it's also, as far as i know, a name mostly used for women. note that my interpretation of paper is usually a trans man.

now, Paige is unisex, it sounds like page, and it's a loved one of mine's favourite name for him, so i like it. i also think it makes sense for when he immigrated to canada with his mother as something they chose, and something he can still keep (being conveniently unisex). Hsu is one of the taiwanese romanizations for Xǔ. im not sure if he'd take on oj's last name. perhaps he'd hyphenate them. he's not particularly attached to his family, but Paige Hsu is quite a pretty name.

bonus: nickel is named Nikola Stević. this one was easy because my interpretation of nickel is kosovar serb. last names come from the father but the exact practice of it is a bit outdated so Stević is likely from his grandfather or great-grandfather (unless im misremembering how it works). i don't like the name Nicholas his name is Nikola. Nicholas sounds like a sweet little boy Nikola sounds like a menace. i see Nicholas everywhere start calling your nickel Nikola

[namism]

🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷KOBY🩷

little things | koby

➳ categories: college au, gender neutral reader

➳ word count: 3k

➳ summary: It's no surprise when your friends' significant others swing by to drop off snacks and drinks for sustenance as you pull a much needed all-nighter for finals, but while everyone else is being looked after, who's looking after you? Enter Koby, the guy you never expected to care for you.

➳ notes: thanks for the request @mibso! ur like the best koby fan i know 🗣️

➳ cross-posted on ao3

"I... I think I'm gonna be sick."

Usopp tells you that he's on his third Red Bull as a dumb excuse for taking an unhealthy dosage of caffeine in a span of 18 hours because Nami has taken over four energy shots to power through the rest of her materials. She did it for the sake of passing Physics 189, an elective class on atmospheric physics that she stresses on too much because her love for it exceeds the exosphere, but she's starting to tweak (in Gen Z terms) because she has no fucking clue what's going on anymore.

Her head falls on the table of your study room—rightfully booked, not stolen, because your friend group is deferential compared to those study room squatters who don't even do any studying—and immediately, you and Usopp turn toward her in concern, the bags under her eyes being telltale signs of her surrender. It isn't Nami to give up on Physics 189 because she loves it more than anything, probably more than the weatherman in your local news, but in her defense, she hasn't slept in 31—going on 32—hours, and her body is giving into exhaustion despite the energy shots.

You stand from your seat across from her, reaching forward to gently shake her awake, but Nami is down like a snoozing puppy. Usopp groans when he realizes that he's going to need to carry her back to the girls' dormitories, while you thank your beliefs silently that she has finished enough of her materials to pass the exam she has to take the following morning.

"Sucks to be a physics major," Usopp mutters to himself as he pats Nami's head one last time before going back to his devices. He says that pitifully as if he isn't pitiful himself this finals week; he's a fine arts major because he likes being creative, likes putting things together, whether it be digital or traditional works of art, and if that isn't tiring enough, he also minors in engineering for fun (but maybe it isn't so bad because he has actual written exams he can study for instead of submitting a subjectively okay-tasting spaghetti due at 11:59 PM—only Sanji has to worry about that kind of shit in your circle).

Nevertheless, the grind never stops. You train your eyes back to your laptop, regaining your focus as you continue the assignment you've been working on the past hour. Once done, you hurry to the comfort room to take a quick break and arrive back at the study room to continue working.

By the time you arrive, however, more people have entered the small space, visitors from the neighboring rooms on the upper level. It turns out that they've come to visit your friends.

"Oh my god, um, is she okay?" Nami's girlfriend Vivi tries to shake her awake, causing Usopp to tell her softly that he tried to wake her earlier but to no avail. Distressed, Vivi puts down the small container she was holding and embraces Nami from behind, tilting her head toward her girlfriend's sleeping face and trying to talk her into waking up.

Usopp's girlfriend, Kaya, is the next to make her presence known by skipping over to the man, patting his head, and offering a bag of goodies and a PET bottle of lemon iced tea she got from the vending machine a few floors down. She smiles at you, and you reciprocate, not until the doors open to yet another sickly cute couple that makes you want to depressingly barf.

Sabo and Koala appear at the entrance of the study room with Sabo holding the door open for his girlfriend to come inside. She tells the two girls that study break is over, which promptly gets them moving. Vivi tells everyone that she has to bring Nami home, or else she's waking up to a grumpy girlfriend tomorrow morning, while Kaya obediently lets go of Usopp and helps him pack his things. As Sabo and Koala disappear, Usopp shyly apologizes.

"Why apologize?" you ask with a shrug.

"Because!" He gestures to the once-messy table where you, he, and Nami spent the past 15 hours studying. Now that Nami is being carried back to the dorms and he's leaving with Kaya, you'll be left alone with no one to look after you.

You shake your head. "I appreciate the concern, but everyone has to fend for themselves this season. You know the joke, 'Is it finals week or is it my final week?'" The couple bursts out laughing. "So really, you shouldn't be worried about leaving me here. I've survived the past few years in college, so this is easy shit!"

"Well, if you say so," Usopp says with a doubtful tone, but he takes it back because he's just playing with you. When he gets his things packed neatly inside his bag, he helps you and Kaya transfer a snoozing Nami on Vivi's back for a shameless piggyback ride to the dorms.

Once all is settled, your friends shuffle out of the study room, and the place is finally quiet.

Lonely and quiet.

Loneliness creeps up your shoulder as you lean back on the armchair with a sigh. Your chest feels empty, and it becomes more evident the longer you sit in quiet without the sound of Usopp's confused whispers or Nami's silent cusses. You're just alone, without your friends or any lover to bring you food to cheer you on. While everybody else is being looked after, no one is looking after you, and you'd be lying to yourself if you said that it didn't upset you.

There's always that unwanted feeling of jealousy that boils in your stomach whenever your friends and their lovers appear in front of you. They act so sweetly cute toward each other that it makes you yearn for a love as real as theirs, and now that finals season is rolling in, you need someone else's company more than ever. Kind of like aftercare, since college is kicking your ass and beating you into a pulp, so it makes sense to seek comfort. Unfortunately, you aren't graced even with the smallest bit of romantic interaction, so you just sit alone, sad, single, and most importantly, jealous.

As you wallow in silence, your stomach growls, and you realize that you haven't eaten or drunk in a while. You think back to the food Vivi and Kaya brought their lovers, and your heart sinks as another wave of loneliness crashes onto your pitiful single soul.

It feels nice to be loved, doesn't it? You think to yourself in jealousy as you look at the home screen of your cellphone.

"Shit, it's one o'clock?!" Yelling to yourself, you correct your posture on the armchair and shake your head to ward off grogginess. No wonder why Usopp and Kaya decided to leave; Kaya has strict guardians, and she only gets to hang out with a select few because she still has a curfew at her big age. It seems like she's broken that rule tonight, though.

Opening your laptop, you're notified that the battery is low. You roll your eyes as you angrily retrieve the charger from your backpack.

Unfortunately, it isn't there.

You look around your bag frantically, believing the device to be there even though it isn't. As you ransack your bag, tears of anger well in your eyes at the unfortunate event, your patience running thin by the second. You look through every pocket, hole, and nook and cranny, but the charger isn't there. When your laptop screen goes black and the stupid low battery icon flashes in the middle of the screen, your eyebrows automatically knit in fury as your hands clench into a tight fist.

Not only were you left alone, but you also can't find the one device that will get you through the night.

Having had enough, you slam your hands on the table in anger, letting the sound echo in the room and the pain settle on your skin. Fuck this shit. Fuck tonight, actually. You feel so alone and stressed by school, and to top it all off, you can't find your dumb laptop charger that you just want to—

"Ugh! I want to punch someone!"

"Okay, I'll just leave then!"

Your head spins toward the door in surprise. A guy with light pink hair peeks through the small opening like a lost dog, his hands a little shaky and his mouth forming a frown. You recognize him: Koby, one of the guys in your classes, who you got to spend a month-long group project with because the other people in your group weren't helping. Koby is calm and sweet, and you may not be close, but you vibe with him just right.

"Um, did you need something? Sorry for the noise, by the way." You sneak in an apology at the end of your question because you're not sure how Koby feels about witnessing an acquaintance-almost-stranger blare out about wanting to punch someone. Like you said, Koby is calm and sweet—it would be bad to give the poor guy a heart attack.

"I-I was going to ask if I could share the room with you since, w-well, you seem to be alone, and I saw your friends come out earlier—"

"Just come in."

Koby ignores the heavy sigh you let out in fear of ticking you off even more. Entering the room, he doesn't know why you're so stressed since you seemed to be having a good time earlier with your friends. The walls are made of glass, so he's been scouting the area like a hawk to hopefully score a vacant room to spend the rest of the night in. Helmeppo left the study hall hours ago in defeat, so he had to fend for himself alone.

Thankfully, you don't seem to be too bothered by his presence. He doesn't mean to be cocky, but maybe it's because he was a good group mate to you in the past.

Koby settles on Nami's vacant seat across from you, putting his bag down on the chair beside him. You watch him with bored eyes, and Koby swears he feels a chill run down his spine when he realizes that you're eyeing him intensely. Even then, he decides to mind his business and begin setting up his materials on the table.

Koby being Koby, unfortunately, he ends up breaking. "Sorry for the interruption," he says after feeling too embarrassed.

"It's okay. Sorry for staring," you mutter. Koby nods, disregarding your tired tone. Justifiable, he thinks. It's one o'clock in the morning, and everybody in the hall hasn't slept much besides him. He mentally pats himself on the back for deciding to sleep before coming there to study—good job.

Suddenly, he notices you groaning to yourself quietly, like a silent cry for help because you're too embarrassed to ask for it. Koby decides whether or not he should ask, seeing that you were already enraged to begin with, but he decides to just go for it because what could possibly go wrong with just asking?

"Are you okay?" he asks.

You roll your eyes. Koby hopes it wasn't meant for him.

"Yeah, yeah, I am— well, not really. No, I'm not okay. Do you have a Type C charger?"

Koby's lips open in slight shock. He's starting to get scared, like you're a ticking time bomb that can detonate any second now. Even then, he slowly nods and reaches for his backpack again to come and collect the charger you're asking for.

"Here." He pushes the device toward you, and you all but leap across the table to grab it. Koby notices your desperation when you crouch on the ground and plug the charger into the wall socket and hastily get your laptop back up and running. He gulps.

Once the screen lights up, your face brightens. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Uh, you're welcome!" Koby awkwardly replies through a nervous laugh, delighted to see that you aren't angry anymore.

"You're my savior," you tell him. "You don't know just how sad I was today. I mean, my friends are gone, and my laptop just died on me, but I didn't bring a charger and all that shit. Worst of all, I'm literally—"

Your stomach growls.

"Starving," you finish. Koby keeps the same expression on his face, lips quirked up into an awkward smile as he listens to you ramble. You place a hand on your tummy and you rest your head on the table. "Sorry, Koby..."

He's glad to hear his name, though. It's nice to know that you still remember him despite your foggy brain and tired system. Looking into his backpack again, he grabs a small pink eco-bag and pushes it toward you.

You tilt your head up at the noise. The bag is right in front of your face.

"What's this?"

"You said you were hungry, so..." He nods to the bag and almost jumps from his seat when you snatch it with your quick hands. You look inside, then you scatter the contents on the table. Koby motions to the array of snacks: yogurt, milk, chocolate bars, peanuts, coffee-flavored candies, chocolate malted powder, and two bottles of probiotics. Realizing just how much food he had with him, he scratches his nape shyly. "Um, I always have food with me, but you can have these. I think you might need it because you've been here since morning."

You blankly stare at the assortment of snacks in front of you. Your heart pounds in your chest, and your lips form a pout.

Koby notices and assumes that you're staring at the milk.

"Sorry," he says meekly. He's kind of panicked, thinking that he brought the wrong flavor of milk. "Do you hate strawberry?"

"What?" you ask, then later on realize what he's talking about. Oh, poor innocent Koby—he thought you were upset with the milk, but really, you're just moved by his generosity. He's so kind. Do you even deserve this after scaring the guy? "No, I was just, like, thinking to myself, that's all."

"Oh," he says. "What were you thinking of?"

"I'm wondering if you're my guardian angel." His ears perk up and his cheeks start to turn pink. You pick up the strawberry milk he was talking about and inspect it closely. Then, you hold it in front of his face and make a side-by-side comparison. "Your hair and cheeks are pink, just like the milk."

His face flushes even more.

"And now you're blushing harder," you point out. As you observe the snacks on the table, many of what Koby bought seem to be strawberry-flavored, and it warms your heart to think that he seemingly has a natural attraction toward anything pink, like his light fluffy hair (and his seemingly squishable cheeks). It then crosses your mind if his hair is all-natural or if he dyes it regularly because it's the kind of pink that doesn't look real, but at the same time does. Koby catches you staring at him longer than socially acceptable though, so you snap out of your trance to avoid the awkwardness.

"I don't want to assume and waste your study time, but it seems like you're the one all entranced now," he mutters the last part because he realizes that he isn't bold enough to be making such moves on you, so he keeps his head down in embarrassment. When you don't reply, Koby opens his textbook, fixes his specs, and reads.

Your stomach aches another time, so you grab the yogurt and eat it like you haven't eaten in years. One by one, the snacks on the table disappear as you eat in silence, giving yourself a well-deserved break.

Suddenly, it hits you. Loneliness is washed away by a feeling of comfort, and, ugh, it feels so good to feel this way. Truth be told, you're still sad that your single self doesn't have a special romantic support person like your friends do, but even if you never saw Koby in that light, his company almost feels similar to it. Maybe it's the bitter jealous pang in your chest after seeing couple after couple be so lovey-dovey during finals season, but whatever it is, it's eased down a bit because of Koby. The kind guy, Koby. The oh-so-generous guy, Koby. The pink-haired guy who might be a modern-day superhero in secret, Koby. Just how many people has he done this for? Is it just you? How kind is he to share his cute pink bag of snacks because he sensed that you were hungry? What about the charger he probably needs for himself?

As you chew on an energy bar, you realize something.

Since when did Koby look this cute?

"Hey, what are you— are you crying?! Are you okay?!"

You nod your head. You didn't even realize you were crying until Koby looked up from his textbook and pointed it out. You cover your eyes with your arm.

"I'm fine, just, um, ignore me and keep studying! Gosh!"

In panic, he reaches inside his backpack for a fresh pack of tissues. He rises from his seat and walks over to you, offering it.

"Was it the candy? What's wrong?"

You reject the tissues. "No! It's just, like, about you and stuff—"

"Wha— I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry!"

"No, you got it all wrong! I'm thankful for you, not the other way around." You smile through your dramatic tears. "You're just so sweet to me. You lent me your charger and gave me food when I needed them most."

He blinks slowly.

That's it?

"W-Well, I'm glad that you're... happy... about it... I guess..." he replies questioningly. "Do you still need...?"

"Tissues? No, I'm okay." You wipe your tears with your hands and shake your head. You feel energized. "Thank you, Koby..."

...for being here.

There it goes again: the slight shock on Koby's face has a hint of confusion as he tries to make sense of your actions, but he's more understanding than judgmental given your circumstances. He doesn't know what got you all annoyed in the first place, but if you're okay as you claim to be, then that's good enough for him.

Koby smiles at you genuinely. As he goes back to studying, you make a mental note to befriend him once this is all over.