#nothing else to say really but i'm excited for this one folks

[thechaoticcheese]

Cause I'm hacking up half a lung, have some head cannons on some COD folk and workouts-

Ghost

He loves lifting weights. Can't get enough of it. If he's working out, he's using every damn weight lifting machine available. He seems to dread cardio. Always having this look of tearing apart the treadmill or digging up the track, but he does it begrudgingly. He's silent about his distaste, knowing he has to keep fit for his position. Will silently complain and curse under his breath when no one is around.

Soap

Like Ghost, fucking loves the weights. You can often find the two spotting each other in the gym or workout room on base. However, Soap needs to be DRAGGED to participate in cardio. He doesn't care if he needs to stay in shape. He complains the entire time and everyone has started to just mute his voice out. He's gotten louder about complaining.

Gaz

He says that he doesn't have a preference, but he does enjoy running more. The only thing he enjoys more than running? Swimming. Though he won't tell you that, especially since some places don't have a pool. He'll go with the training, but he doesn't push himself as much on the weights as others and he's ok with that. As long as he can hang with his buds, he's happy.

Price

He fucking loves to run. He partly relieves stress whenever he runs, but if he can't, he smokes, bad combo I know and so does he, but he doesn't care. It hurts his lungs after a good run, but he could care less. Weights are definitely not his favorite, but he needs to keep up with his men, and Nikolai. You can sometimes hear him cursing under his breath and giving himself soft encouragement whenever he does set.

Price and Gaz love jogging together. Gaz never pokes fun at him until after the two are done, they usually just talk casually here and there.

Nikolai

Does not at all have a favorite. He loves working his body at any moment, but it's nothing ever heavy. It's the repetitive motions that give him enjoyment and often makes him remember working on some sort of stubborn piece of his helicopter. What's worse is that he's always just been kinda strong. He never really has to do anything to keep his body the way it is due to his job. Though he does really like working out with Price, even if it is just to see how red in the face his favorite Brit can get.

Laswell

Cardio. Nothing else. Or at least that's what she'd like to do. Since being entangled in 141, the guys have gotten her to start lifting, even just a little. They're not surprised that she does have muscle, but she hates weight lifting. She scowls the whole way through it, only for it to be worth it when her wife compliments how hard Laswell's been working on her form at home.

Graves

Fucking loves it. Cardio, weights, stretching. All. Of. It. He's that fit person in the group that is genuine in offering workout advice, but accidentally ends up pissing people off due to it. He's always at his A game with exercise and will always help people out.

Shepherd

No. Look at him. What exercise? He likes sitting in hot tubs after a 5 minute walk.

Alejandro

Loves to run as well. He is always striving to do better and swears one day he could beat Usain Bolt in a race. He cannot. He does have real good athleticism, but it just won't happen. He also likes weights. He just likes pushing his body, the slight pain from it afterwards always makes him excited for the next workout. Rudy often has to keep tabs on Ale to make sure he's not over doing it.

Rodolfo

Rudy is meh about exercise. He does it to stay fit and in Los Vaqueros. That and for Ale. Mainly because he finds the dude hot whenever he's pushing himself, baring his teeth as he tries to beat his previous record, but to also make sure he's not over doing it. Rudy lies and says he likes exercise, but only insists on doing it with Ale for the previous reasons.

Roach

Is dragged to it every time. No matter what. He does like it once he gets started, it's the getting started part that's hard. The idea of exercise sounds more taxing than it is, but always feels better afterwards.

[truelovepolinator]

The Chaos of the "Friends to Lovers" Quote & the Alleged Antonia Xmas Photos

I honestly have so many thoughts about Nicola and Luke that I usually don't even know where to start. As a result, I often end up saying nothing. Other folks are already talking about things so eloquently, and even when I don't entirely agree, I agree enough that I like it, move on, and wonder whether it's worth chiming in with my takes.

But today I do feel like tackling yesterday's craziness - the newly discovered article (and those hot photos) and the weirdness that erupted with the alleged family photo(s?) with Antonia.

This was a lot of chaos and excitement for one day and I found myself drowning a bit in the swell of it all.

Part of me was as thrilled as everyone to read those words that Luke said about friends to lovers, and also what Nic said about Luke making everything better. This story seemed to just confirm and crystallize everything I ever thought, that all of us true believers have thought. He said it. He said it right out loud.

But then there was the part of me that couldn't help but question it. Was it taken slightly out of a context that might have softened the meaning had it been included? Had the translation from English (Luke's original words) to Spanish back to English slightly tweaked the thought or expression of the thought in a way that implied slightly more than he originally intended?

Also, why would he/they just admit everything fully out in the open for this one random interview with a Chilean reporter, then retreat and go back to pretending to be just friends everywhere else (even if they never said "just" friends).

Then again, a point both for and against the accuracy of the implication of this quote is the fact that he came very close to saying this several other times. About how appropriate it felt that Polin was friends to lovers that they were friends... and he'd just sort of trail off or not quite continue the thought. So that seemed to make it both more probable that he might have inadvertently finished the thought one time, and also less probable that he would have said it so explicitly this one time when he never did any other time. Could the original translation have taken liberties in finishing the thought?

Bottom line, who knows? And I found myself wondering WHY I was wondering when, at the end of the day, I still totally believe they're together. So why question this quote so hard?

Perhaps there's just something inherently dangerous about allowing myself to believe they (even inadvertently) confirmed it. I already believe. I really do. So why does the thought of him having actually said it out loud feel so chaotic? Why was everyone whipped into a frenzy by this line when we could already see it? And why is this story just now making its way into our collective consciousness?

There's so much about this ship that doesn't make a lot of sense. I've had a few fictional ships I've loved, but I have never felt this much attachment to a celebrity couple before. Not even close. I'm sure I never will again. They are so special, and their connection is so unusual and obvious that it's hypnotic and magical. It feels like a privilege to witness such a magical and precious thing.

But perhaps it is precisely because their connection feels so magical and precious that it feels more elusive. For Luke to explicitly confirm what we all saw feels like very nearly stepping onto the solid ground of a previously misty, distant shore. But then, they took it back with every subsequent (and prior) interview, leaving us wobbly and unmoored.

And then the rumor of the Christmas photos with Antonia hit. I never saw these photos and only heard everything after the fact, so it's hard for me to draw conclusions. It sounds like the photos were inappropriately taken from a memorial page and not new, so not only were they disrespectful, but potentially also not remotely relevant to Luke's current relationship and life.

And even if she was with his family last year, there seem to be at least half a dozen explanations for that (just a friend or casual date with nowhere to go? Friend of his sister's? there at Christmas time, but for a different occasion and not actually "Christmas with the Newtons").

I also found myself confused by people insisting she was in the Maldives for work while others insisted she and her father were in a trailer somewhere? So which is it? Trailer Christmas with dad? Or dance gig in the Maldives? And perhaps most importantly, why does anyone know any of this because why is anyone following her, let alone her father, this closely?

I confess all of this chaos did drive me to check her stories and I saw the (apparently) Maldives videos. But I don't know what any of this proves.

I wrote extensively about my belief that Nic and Luke are together (see my blog: Nicola and Luke Are Absolutely Together and Have Been All Along and Here's How I Know), and that the relationship with Antonia has been a fake PR strategy to distract us all along. But I'd be lying if I said these little flare-ups don't make me wobble slightly in that boat as I continue trying to set foot on dry land. I don't feel like I know enough about how L & A met, how/if she's friends with his sister, what the deal is with that friend group, etc. And all those questions leave a tiny space for uncertainty.

Still, what's with the timing of that photo? The same day this story spreads like wildfire where Luke says OUT LOUD the very thing we've been wanting to hear and they've been trying to distract from? Seems to me a good PR agent who was paid to keep eyes off the real relationship might identify that as a moment to drop some confusing content and muddy the waters again. Don't want folks getting too close to the truth, after all.

The truth is, none of us can know the truth definitively because we don't know them. But again and again, when I look at the actual facts and the extensive evidence and crumbs, the only crumbs that fit together into a whole that makes sense are the Nic and Luke crumbs.

For the record, I have not a doubt in my mind that Nicola is *not* dating Jake. That one is crystal clear because after allowing some uncertainty to linger (part of the distraction strategy), they have all collectively shown us the truth.

Remember, Nicola has NEVER shared her love life publicly. All these photos with Jake are actually proof of a negative, that he is NOT her bf. Thinking that her photos with him are proof of their romantic relationship represents a fundamental lack of understanding of who Nicola is, let alone Jake and their shared friend group.

I do believe that she and Luke will go public eventually for two reasons. The least of these is for the fans. The fans want it so bad that one day they will relent and show us. But the more important reason is that when you find the one, and you love them with all your heart, you don't want to hide it forever. Live privately, yes, but not hide. When they feel settled and confident enough, and perhaps when the glare of the spotlight has died down enough, they will finally share. That's what I believe.

Could I be wrong? Of course. Could this hypothetical relationship with Antonia be real? I suppose. But if it is, it's the weirdest damn thing I ever saw. I will never get over the strangeness of the InStyle LA photos, and in particular, that one at the cafe with the white truck. There's something just inherently fake and fishy about the way their hypothetical relationship manifests. And since their pap photos, implied togetherness photos, and weird "likes" patterns all follow a classic PR fake relationship playbook, I have a hard time believing it.

Also, I feel much better about him with Nic than with Antonia, for a variety of reasons I won't go into because I don't want to spread hate.

If I am wrong, I will be heartbroken. I admit it. I believe in NicLuke. Lukola is my endgame. And I don't just think “someday.” I absolutely believe it's happening now. I made my case extensively in my prior blog. People seem to want to read the signs a million different ways, but all the signs I've seen point directly to Nicola and Luke being together now. So that's where I'm sticking.

Let the ship wobble. I'm not going anywhere.

[yooglefics]

The casual type: 04 . The plans change

Pairing: Min Yoongi x fem!reader Wordcount: 4,832 words Genre ( for the whole series ): AU. College!verse. Strangers to friends with benefits to ???. Eventual smut. Hurt / comfort at times. Fluff for cute friends. Summary:  ( Series ) • Hobi and his girlfriend set you up with a friend of hers to help with whatever happened months back. However, no one really expected things to end the way they did. ( Ep. 04 ) • The night wasn't supposed to go like this, but there's nothing to complain about. Well, maybe a little. Warnings under read more.

Warnings ( for this ep ): The squad being annoying ( I <3 them ). Pet names ( princess , baby , doll ). Flirting. Making out. Grinding. Fingering. ( wash your hands, folks ). Yoongi's hands should be a warning. 1,1714 words of just smut and I literally don’t know how that happened lol. Author's note: The plans for this chapter also changed a lot because I only had like three notes for it lmao. Nevertheless, I'm excited to share it with all of you, thank you for sticking around and I hope you like this ep. Remember to leave a comment, send an ask, with your thoughts and also maybe reblog, and what not. As always, thank you for reading! <3

“No, the thing is, she doesn't want to share space. That's why,” Jimin accuses you from his position on the couch. Not being good at sharing himself since his whole body is on it.

“That's not true! I just don't want to be around sweaty boys.” 

“As if you don't sweat,” Jungkook argues.

“I don't.”

“She doesn't, she is a princess,” Is Yoongi's turn to pick on you. He called you that before at the club but this time surprises you since is in front of your friends and your relationship with each other has changed. And actually, you're supposed to be keeping that a secret from them.

“I love how she didn't argue that one,” says Jimin, chuckling.

“Because I am, duh.” You do an exaggerated flip of your ponytail while turning around, carrying another box of kitchenware to put away.

The guys finally decided to rent a house all together, and to make up for the fact that you refused to leave your dorm and follow them, you offered to help organize and decorate because, at the end of everything, you'd probably be spending a lot of time here. 

“You should have moved in with us,” You hear Hobi tell Yoongi after bringing more boxes inside the house. “Did you find a place?” 

“Yes, one of my classmates and his roommates were looking for someone. Is not too far away from here, actually.”

“That's cool. You guys can come over whenever.”

“You should come to the party tonight!” Taehyung says excitedly.

“Tonight?!” You walk out of the kitchen, a couple of glasses in your hands. “You're not even done downloading the truck. Jimin is not even moving!”

“I withdraw my offer for you to move in with us,” says your friend. “She is more like an evil step-sister,” he murmurs to Yoongi and he laughs along with everyone else.

“I hate you all.” 

Storming back into the kitchen, you decide to focus on putting everything away. Not a single thing that can be broken in sight of future drunk guests, that's why you are struggling to put mugs on cupboards you can barely reach.

“Do you need help, princess?” 

The nickname makes you almost drop Tae's last birthday present, and Yoongi is right there to catch you both. “Careful,” he says.

“Is your fault.”

“Did I scare you?” he chuckles, “Sorry.”

“You keep scaring me when you call me that,” you whisper.

“What? You don't like it?” Confused look on his face when he turns to you after putting the mug in place.

“I–why do you call me that?”

“Because sometimes you get kinda grumpy and you're cute, like a princess.”

It makes you smile, and it matches the one on his face.

“I'm going to ignore the fact that you called me grumpy,” you pretend to be upset about it, scrunching up your lips in fake dislike.

“Yeah, focus on the fact that you're cute.” you blush and he uses the excuse of grabbing another mug to get closer, making it so if you lean in a little you could steal a peck. 

But you still aren't sure about how the whole friends with benefits thing works. Nor confident enough to make a decision before Jungkook announces through the house: “the truck is empty, told you we could do it!”

And soon enough Yoongi is out of the room, helping move boxes here and there, and after everything that doesn't belong in the living room is out of it, he finally sits with you and Jimin on the sofa, you in the middle of the two.

“Are you really having a party today?” Yoongi asks.

“Of course! We have to baptize the place.”

“That sounds gross.” You say, noise scrunched.

“You're gross. That's not very princess-y of you,” says Jimin and Yoongi laughs.

“I feel gross, I'm going home to change. Do you want me to give you a ride to the dorms?”

“Yes, please!” 

You have thought about going alone, but after your failed kiss in the kitchen you wanted at least some time alone, and a car drive should be just enough. 

Or perhaps not. 

Because Yoongi drops you at your dorm and goes home to change, refusing to get close to you when he is all sweaty. 

You hit send with one hand and with the other make sure your door is open before sitting once again on the bed, grabbing your mirror and eyeliner to continue your routine.

“Hello?” He knocks a few times and you tell him to come in, all concentration on the task at hand. And that gives him time to look around a little, taking in your space. 

Is a large room, just looking a bit cramped thanks to the big pieces of furniture ( two beds, two dressers, and two desks ) but your method of putting everything against the walls definitely helps. That, and the fact that your roommate hasn't moved in yet. “Now I understand why you didn't want to move in with them. You have a room all for yourself?”

You laugh, “Their office was gonna be my room, actually. And no, this year I'm supposed to share it.”

“You didn't last year?”

“At the beginning I did. But then she paired with someone else.” You shrug, not sure about the details since you've only known her for a couple of weeks. “But it's not as cool as everyone thinks, sometimes it gets lonely, mostly on exam weeks when everyone is busy studying.”

“Well, you can invite me anytime.” He only partially jokes.

“Deal. But you've to bring snacks.” 

“Deal.”

Yoongi sits on your bed while waiting, scrolling on his phone and every now and then looking up to watch you apply the rest of your makeup, then perfume and pick a jacket, until you are standing in front of him with a smile as you announce you're ready. 

“That was faster than I thought,” he says, standing up. “Your eyes do look cute with the sparkle eyeshadow. Bogum was right.” 

“Oh, don't remember me that. I think that's the last time he is going to talk to me,” a sigh follows the exaggeration. 

“If he is really interested he is going to try again.”

“And if he is not?”

“Then he's not worth it.” The confidence in his voice is as contagious as his smile, and you match it.

For a second you wonder if it should be weird to talk about this with the guy you made out with just yesterday. If this is just normal encouragement because you are becoming friends or do all friends with benefits have this type of conversation?. Either way, you are glad to have someone to talk to about your little crush, and so, decide to not give it too much thought if Yoongi doesn't seem to do it either.

When he first asked you about it on Wednesday it was out of curiosity and you returned the phrase about the cat's tragic ending, receiving a “Well, I guess we are confidants now, kitten.”

You gave him a rundown of the situation and confessed about having a little bit of hope for his now teammate to invite you out again. He wished you the best and told you to let him know if something does happen because, according to him, Bo doesn't seem like the guy to be into sharing, and so, Yoongi doesn't want to be in the way.

“Maybe you should talk to him tonight. He is going, isn't he?”

“Uh, not sure. I asked Kook but I don't think he saw my text.” you turn to grab your phone and check.

But before you can open the app, Yoongi grabs your shoulders and guides you out the door, “Or we can just drive there and see.” 

You're surprised to see the motorcycle in the parking lot, thinking it had been just a thing of last week since you haven't seen him use it since then. You even wondered if it was his in the first place.

“What? Are you scared now?” He teases when you don't take the helmet he is holding in your direction. Just standing there without any movement. “You know I'm a good driver.”

“Yeah, I just… didn't expect it.”

He laughs at your genuine shock before explaining, “I always take it to parties because it's easier to find parking and get out of there whenever I want to.” 

“And I'm sure girls love it, too.”

“That's a plus,” He nods with a smirk, “but don't worry, baby, I’m not making you share tonight.”

“Shut up,” with your nose scrunched for good measure, you finally take the helmet from him. But instead of grabbing his own and getting ready, he gets closer to you, brushing your fingers with his when you're going to secure it and doing it for you instead.

“You tell me that a lot, you know.”

“You talk too much,” you defend, “it's your own fault.”

“Or… you just want to kiss me.”

Glad your smile is hidden by the helmet,  you push him a bit as you answer, "Actually, shut up.”

He laughs, and then goes on to put on and secure his helmet before claiming on the motorcycle and waiting for you. 

The shock about the vehicle wasn't only pure confusion, it was also the realization that your outfit was probably not the best choice. The fabric of your skirt was flowier than the one you used last time, and you aren't sure it would do well at a fast speed.

“Don't go too fast,” you ask him, hands on his shoulders to help you get on and sit behind him.

“I don't get that a lot,” he jokes, and you roll your eyes still fussing with your clothes. “You ready?” he waits for your signal before revving up the engine. 

He drives faster than last time. Or maybe you're just sober and more scared about it all. Your legs tighten on his sides, and your arms around his middle, all the while telling yourself is only to protect the wind from stealing your dignity. When he stops, you have to open your eyes to realize it is because of a red light and your body relaxes. 

Left hand leaves the throttle and goes to your tight, closer to your knee, the coldness of his fingers makes you jump and you feel him chuckle before caressing your skin. “You okay?” he asks loud enough to be heard through the street noises and your covered ears. You nod between his shoulder blades, even if your heart is racing. 

Remembering you had felt your phone ringing in your jacket pocket indicating a few texts, you figure there's enough time to check them before the light changes.

You show Yoongi and he gives you a thumbs down, making you laugh. Oh, well. Maybe it just wasn't made to be.

Thinking he would just drive you back to your dorm, you're surprised when he doesn't take the next turn back — is he driving to another party?

The answer comes only when he takes a turn before entering the highway. Right to the top of The Hill. Every teenager destination to run away from their problems. Every horny couple with a low budget looking for privacy, which yes, in itself destroys that very purpose. But, this is not a place to think about too much, even if there are also people who come here to think, like Yoongi.

He turns the engine off, puts down the stand, and takes off his helmet. You follow behind, curious.

“I figured we should make something out of being outside right now, the sun is about to set.” He looks at his watch and then to the front, at the view. From here you can see the city from above, at least a big part of it. Including the mountains and skylines.

“C’mon,” he pats your tight twice, asking you to get down. Complying, you use his shoulders for support again and get closer to the barricade at the edge. 

“C'mon,” you throw back to him when he doesn't follow you.

“I can see it from here.”

You frown at him, “really?” He nods. Your head tilts slightly to the side, “reeeally?” 

“Let a guy be.”

He looks… weird. 

And, suddenly, it clicks.

“I can't believe it.” You walk back to him, “Are you afraid of heights?!” 

“Don't make fun of me.” 

“I'm not!” But in fact you're fighting back a smile, “is just… unexpected.”

“Yeah. Unlike the death from falling from here to who knows where.” He reasons and you can't really argue with that.

But you can argue with him moving closer.

Grabbing his hand and pulling, amazed when you manage a few steps without problem, but soon he puts strength into it. The abrupt stop of his body pulls yours back, bringing you close to his chest, making a surprise noise cross your lips and your triumphant smile is gone.

“Don't make me leave you here,” and for a second you wonder if he really would. Wonder how much you can push before he actually gets mad. “Look!”

Your eyes stop scanning his face, following the direction he is looking at and you catch the sky changing colors for the next few minutes. Blue. Orange. Pink. Purple. Dark blue, because the lights of the city start to appear avoiding the complete darkness. But from here, you can see more stars than from your room's window and everything seems kind of infinity.

“Wow…” is a bit lame and predictable, but what else is there to say?

“Yeah. Is beautiful.” He agrees, hand finally letting go of yours and moving to your shoulder, “and you didn't have to stand at the line of death to see it.”

“So dramatic.” With an eye roll you turn to him. He appears calmer, with a smile playing on his lips as he keeps looking at the sky.

“What?” he asks.

You're in his room now, sitting on the bed Yoongi just told you he had to buy a mattress for because he used to dorm at his last university and didn't own one. You make no promises of not spilling any of your slushie on it and he laughs, tells you he will not forgive you and both of you know it’s not true. 

Going back to your room isn't a priority right now, you're having a good time talking about random things and siping your sugary drinks with a big bag of chips between the two. You were nervous about his roommates because apparently they are older and that scares you for some reason, but he reassures you they are busy with their own thing and he can drive you back before they arrive.

“Nothing.” But your eyes are still on his lips, on the color they are tinted thanks to the red drinks, “do you like it?”

“Is not bad. I prefer blueberry, though.” 

“I think this one is better,” you said that before at the store when you stopped for gas, convincing him to try it.

“Of course you think so, you love cherry things. I'd not be surprised if your favorite color is red just because of it.”

“How do you know that?” is surprising he says it with such security.

“It is?”

“No. I mean, yes,” you backtrack, “but how do you know that I love cherry things? Did the matchmakers tell you that?”

“Mai and Hobi?

You nod, too curious of his answer you miss the way his eyes are following your lips as they wrap around the straw.

“No. But you always have cherry candy with you. You gave us cherry lollipops on tuesday. I asked you for gum the other day and you gave me cherry. Jungkook gets you cherry cola specifically, from the vending machine at our building. And,” he pauses his list, the corner of his lip curving up, “like four out of the five times we've kissed, you either test or smell like cherry. Or both.”

“Well,” you answer after a couple seconds of silence, “I'm conscious now.”

He laughs, and you drink again.

“Don't be. Is like… your touch.”

“Ew,” noise scrunched up, “I don't know if I want that. Am I going to be known as the cherry girl?”

Again he laughs, your horrified expression making it impossible not to. 

“Do I smell like it right now?” Bringing your arm to your nose, you try smelling your clothes. Then your hair. 

“Stop,” he asks, reaching to put strains of hair back into place. “You smell good. Forget I said anything.”

“No, I can't. Now it’s in my head.” You try smelling your other arm, almost spilling your drink.

“Okay,” he catches it in time, tilting your hand back completely upright, “that way you really are going to taste like cherry and leave a trace behind.” 

“Wait. Do I really taste like it? When you kiss me, does it bother you?” 

“Why are you freaking out about this?” And seeing your seriousness, he bites back his chuckles.

“Just answer the question.”

“Okay, okay. Let's see,” and before you can process it, his lips are on yours, and he hums. “Can’t tell.” And he goes in again, free hand to the back of your head to bring you forward, to really capture your lips with his.

Running his tongue over your bottom lip sends shivers through your body since it’s warmer, softer. And a small moan escapes your lips, separating them and letting his tongue in. 

You're scared to move. Not because of him. But because you have been wanting to kiss him since sitting down — heck, since this morning — but didn't know how. All this feels so complicated in your head, with rules you have to follow and what not, but in practice, he makes it look so much easier. 

Of course you can't pull him for a kiss in your friends’ house, that is too risky. But when he kisses you like this, it gives you confidence to at least ask him to do it whenever you're alone and feel like it.

Somehow your hand is on his neck, fingers running through the hair at his nape as your mouths keep their rhythm going. And you decide to take the risk, kneeling on the bed and moving closer to him. You separate for a second only to make sure you're not making a mess and he smiles at you, “give me that.” Sipping one last time at the slushie, you give it to him to be secured and abandoned on his nightstand, bag of chips moves next and now his hands are free to pull you into his lap by your waist.

“You haven't answered the question,” you tell him, hands cupping his face, “Or you just wanted to kiss me?”

“Stop stealing my lines.”

“Is that a no?” You pretend to pull back and his hold tightness.

“You want me to say it?” a nod is your answer, and is a bit surprising when he obeys. “Yes. I wanted to kiss you,” and he does, making his point clear. “And also yes, you test like cherry sometimes,” another peck, “is sweeter now, but not so much like when is from your candies,” his voice gets lower each time, practically a whisper, “and your lips look amazing tinted red, I want to kiss you every time.”

And you make it happen. Kissing him softer this time, setting your own peace. Yoongi goes with it at first, but those thoughts he doesn't share with you are hard to keep on track when your hips grind against his. Not helping with the situation in his jeans. 

His hands hold you firmly, stopping your movements, and his lips move faster, fighting for dominance. He wants you and you know it and it gives you the confidence to move again. At first it was involuntarily, your body's own reaction to him, but then you put force into it, mostly to go against his hold. He groans into your mouth, feeling it rumble against your chest. 

Pushing his shoulders back, Yoongi finally gives in and lets go of your hips in order to help himself up with an arm behind him, other hand on your thigh. His eyes travel from there to your chest, moving as fast as his with your breathing, to your face, bottom lip between your teeth and his tongue touches his own in the same place. You just sit there, looking at each other for a few seconds until his hand moves up your leg, dragging the fabric of the skirt along. But he stops mid way, going back down. He chuckles at your reaction of puffing air as a sign of deception, “what's that?”

Prying your eyes from his hand is difficult, but you look at his face, smirk in place as he moves again, fingertips glassing over soft skin. “I should make you do it too,” he teases, “make you tell me what you think and what you want.”

The idea is both terrifying and a turn on at the same time. You have never vocally asked for anything like that, but the tone of his voice, the raspiness, it intoxicates you so much you may be willing to try.

“But I'm not mean like you, baby.” In one swift movement his hand is up your leg again, grabbing your butt and making your skirt rail up, exposing more of your thigh and you gasp as he bucks his hips upward.

“I’m not mean,” you breathe. 

“No?” Head tilts to the side, that playful smile of his should be a crime. “Are you a good girl?”

“I hate you.”

“So we are dirty talking,” he nods and you roll your eyes with a chuckle.

It hasn't been long, but you really like what you guys have. Is easy. Without drama or feelings being hurt. And, being completely honest, the way he kisses you is enough to know you make the right decision.

Do you still believe in soulmates and want to meet yours and live happily ever after like all the love stories you have consumed throughout your life? Yes. But maybe your story can also include an arc of exploring your sexuality with someone who is just a friend. Someone who gets your jokes and trusts you too. Someone who kisses you sooo good it takes your breath away without having to be scared of the future and what-ifs. 

Someone whose fingertips brush the top of your inner thighs, so close to their goal, but nothing more because he is waiting for you. Although it’s hard because of the little sounds that keep flowing out of your throat as you start moving your hips on his lap, grinding on his hardening erection.

He is kissing your neck, sucking here and there but not hard enough to leave marks, and his other hand has made its way down your t-shirt, looking for that skin to skin contact, glad both of your guys' jackets were abandoned way before at his bedroom’s entrance. 

“Tell me to stop and I'll,” Yoongi reminds against your skin and you nod, the hand under your skirt finally moving from its place and you miss the warmth it provided. But his fingers reach for the waistband of your panties and your breath hatch a little as they move south, thumb brushing over your clothed pussy. “Fuck.” 

You moan. At the touch, at his reaction to feeling you're wet. And before you can feel conscious about it, he is rubbing circles over it. “Ahh…”

“So responsive,” he groans, “Does it feel good?” 

You nod, unable to form words as he pushes gently over on your center, making your body move towards him, looking for more. And he gives it to you by sneaking his hand under your panties, ring finger sliding between your folds, a groan of his own accompanying your whimpers as he truly feels how wet you're.

“F-fuck. You feel so soft,” Yoongi points out and it makes a shiver run down your body, while he keeps rubbing expertly, cupping your pussy when even without realizing your hips start moving again, looking for more friction.

“Y-yoongi,” you call, asking for more. 

For a second you think he doesn't get it because he takes his hand out, however is only to bring his ring and middle finger to his mouth, humming around them without breaking eye contact. Brown irises over taken by desire and you could've gotten lost on that look alone, but soon his hand goes back to its place between your legs, “Breathe,” he instructs, “tell me if it hurts.”

And it does, a little. Because you're not used to it and every touch is a bit overwhelming, all the same, he is gentle, one finger pushing in slowly and not all the way before going back. Your eyes close under his gaze, inspecting your reaction as he pushes in again, letting you get used to the feeling. 

“Is it good?” his lips go back to your neck, kissing his way up to your lips. 

“S-so good,” you smile against his mouth, “you can go on.”

And he moans against yours before adding another one, two digits inside you.

The thing about Yoongi is: he is a pleaser. He likes making his partners feel good and the way your lips part as he pushes into your pussy makes him weak. He knows that if you asked him to finger you all night he would, no questions asked.

But he also knows you don't have much time. That's why you are still sitting on his lap and not laying on his bed, and why he kept your clothes on even if is now regretting it.

His eyes travel down your body, to your hand in a fist with the fabric of your clothes. “Pull it up, doll.” Yoongi requests. “Your skirt. Let me see you.”��

You do, the carmine color on your cheeks even deeper as your sight is filled with his hand movements. 

“...so hot, taking my fingers so good.” He murmurs, hand on your lower back holding you in place as he picks up the peace. Feeling how your walls tighten around him every time he pushes in and his dick requests attention at the thought of fucking you properly. If only he had time.

“Fuck, fuck, fuc-” is your new mantra as his fingers move expertly, breaking into incohesive moans when they touch the bundle of muscle that makes you see stars. 

“I got you,” he says, “f-fuck, so pretty, baby.” Yoongi's voice is so gentle and still filled with lust as he whispers sweet nothings in your ear, getting you closer and closer to the end. “C’mon, let me see you cum, y/n.”

And that's all you need, hear your name so out of breath, to practically hit your orgasm on command. Head tilted back and lip between your teeth to suppress any noises, ignoring the voice of reason in your head that tells you is a bit late for that.

When you open your eyes again Yoongi's fingers are back in his mouth, sucking yourself off of them, and even if you just reached your high, you can't help the way your pussy reacts to that.

Catching you staring, he winks at you. 

And before you can decide the next move, your ringtone fills the silence, almost making you jump out of his lap. He chuckles, “Careful,” freeing you from his hands as you reach for your phone.

“Yes?” You answer, free hand fixing your clothes and putting black strains in place, trying to shake the feeling of being caught.

“Hi. Sorry about the time, my flight got canceled and then the next one took hours and—” taking the phone away from your ear, you realize that in the heat of the moment you didn't even notice it was an unknown number and not one of the guys. You're about to say they probably got the wrong number but the person keeps talking and it feels rude to just cut them off. “...but I'll have to wait until tomorrow. So apparently you're the only one with a key now and they said you were here but I knocked and well, I don't know if you were sleeping or…?” 

It takes you a second to process they do want you to talk now. “Sorry. I don't think I'm who you're looking for.”

“Are you not y/n?”

“Yes…” you turn to Yoongi, confused expression matching yours. “Who are you?”

“Oh, shit. I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?” You nod even if it can't be seen through the phone, “I'm Subin. Your new roommate.”

A/N: AAAAAAHHHHHH pls don't call Subin a cockblocker ㅠ^ㅠ even if she would call herself that if she knew hahah. A/N 2: ALSO, I decided to try something new with the format of showing the texting, so please tell me your opinion, do you like it as screenshots or prefer it to be typed down? or is the same either way? Send a tip on ko-fi?? ( Only if you can and don't feel pressured to do it! )

♡ Tag list: @n33mesis , @mggv97 , @wobblewobble822 , @bbou-doir , @m00njinnie , @nariee02 , @sexytholland , @itsmina29 , @ktownshizzle , @take-u-2-an0ther-w0r1d , @kimtaehussy .

➪ 01 ・ 02  ・  03 | ➪ Tag for TCT verse | ♡ Tag list ➪ Main masterlist. | ➪ Pinned | ➪ Ko-fi

[rbdecepticon17]

My Thoughts on Volume 2's Bonus Story

Spoilers and Suggestive Discussion Abound!

Yes yes, I know I'm extremely late to all this, Amazon can be blamed for that. But, I have finally gotten my copy and have now read through the bonus story: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde meet Dracula.

As the resident big spicy writer in the fandom, this was something I was looking forward to reading ever since Sage had hyped it up.

My verdict after reading it? It was amazing, on the same level as the prior bonus story, heck I'd even say it's better, but maybe that's the bias talking. Since you're looking past the -keep reading- line, I'll assume you've read it already so I won't waste time summarizing the story's events. Let's get to what I want to gush about most.

Dracula in this story is simple, yet eerily effective. Every time he talks, you get why anyone would be swayed into being controlled by him, molded into whatever he wanted out of them. He may look creepy, but as Jekyll proves, a voice can do a lot. Definitely makes me think that- paired with his liking to Lanyon's voice -our favourite repressed gentleman has a thing for attractive voices. Noted for future use.

And speaking of Lanyon, this has some great character stuff with him. The sniping him and Jekyll have at the start was so good, I was gasping at their comments. The way we got to see a glimpse at his home life as an adult, saw his view of how to act around others, especially the nastier folks you can meet in the upper class of London, it was all fantastic! Later, him using the gun was very sexy of him, and him putting Jekyll's own way of interacting with others to good use so as to save the man he loves was the sweetest thing ever.

Of course, he wasn't alone in trying to save Jekyll.

Ah, Rachel. Rachel Pidgley, the woman that you are. Seriously, this bonus story gave me a greater appreciation for her character, it was a delight to read her shit talking the rich and kicking vampire ass.

But, if you've been on this blog long enough, you'll know I'm a big fan of Hyde, and yeah, I really enjoyed his part in this story. Though he doesn't have a huge role in the narrative, what I got was rather interesting. This happens during the early days of his shared existence with Jekyll, and it doesn't appear that they have a lot of ire towards one another. Like, they just do their own things and don't bother each other, which is great compared to their present dynamic.

Child Hyde and Child Jekyll are adorable, no surprise there, but that moment as Hyde tries to help Jekyll without much complaining as would be expected nowadays hit me. Especially as the false love that Child Jekyll is getting turns into vitriol towards Hyde when he tries to get him away from them, cursing him out for not being anything like his "better" half. The tears welling up, the clawing at the window between the mind and the conscious world when Lanyon gave them an opening, him secretly admitting that he needs him?!

My Lanyde heart was aflutter and my angst loving mind buzzed with joy. And then, of course, we come to that ending.

Oh gods, that ending. Jekyon shippers were fed like it was their last fecking meal, and I was hooked throughout it all: Rachel's badassery, Lanyon's love beating out his rage, Hyde focusing Jekyll so that he can save Lanyon and him being the one to kill Dracula, then him and Lanyon recovering in The Society's med-bay (always knew they had one) while being lovey dovey and flirty with one another, it was all just wonderful from start to finish.

But then the final page came and sent me like nothing else, because I was not prepared for Lanyon being horny on main towards Jekyll WHILE RACHEL AND ITO WERE RIGHT THERE, like, my guy, you need to chill, this was so insane of him, I loved it! XD

But then again, apparently our favourite frontal lobe sharing duo weren't so bothered, because they apparently got a little too excited about the prospect of Lanyon as a vampire, AND THAT'S HOW THE STORY ENDS! Sage had the audacity to end it with these two arguing over who manifested a wet dream about Lanyon, while then stating that- no matter what either said -they were both guilty, and I respect that so damn much. It's both funny, spicy, and even a tad sweet when you look past the "horny for vampire Lanyon" layer.

They both love this man, and after this story, I get it.

To think, they don't even know what the actual comic's story has in store for them. Canon or not, Sage knocked it out of the park with this bonus story. It's just super validating to see this kind of story from the author of the comic. My hat goes off to them, 5 stars.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to put Hyde through this new and fresh Dracula style angst Sage has gifted to us all.

Have a good week, stay hydrated and stay safe. Love you all! -RB. X3

[nexility-sims]

𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲.

i, frankly, haven't had the energy or positive mindset to sit down and write anything extensive out for this gratitude day, which is is a shame. however, i wanted to post something, with promises to outpour more love next year !

at this moment, i believe it's fair to say i'm most grateful for the folks in my simblr writing group. i've told you all multiple times how happy being in a group together makes me but, damn it, everyone else needs to know, too !!!! it's only been two months, but it feels like so much longer because everyone has been so enthusiastic and earnest—in general, but also with embracing each other's stories, getting to know one another, providing support and assistance. that was all i wanted. this little community's establishment has coincided with a terrible loss and truly awful time in my life, and i just can't adequately express how appreciative i am for everyone. i want to shoutout @300yearschallenge, @bridgeportbritt, @crownsofesha, @daniigh0ul, @greensleeves101066, @lynzishell, @madebysimblr, @rebouks, @simming-in-the-rain, @simstrashkingdom, @sirianasims, @saerelia, and @hannahssimblr in particular for so many insightful, instructive, funny conversations. it's so wild to me that i just met most of you and yet am excited every day to see what you've got to say. that's to say nothing of the storytelling itself !!!!! i'm grateful as well for @digital-deluxe @earthmoonz @funkyllama @housekonig @igglemouse @moonfromearth @simabloom @simeaz @simmysunset @stillgotme @the-lancasters @theroyalthornoliachronicles @trentonsimblr @warwickroyals @saerelia @xldkx i still have lots of catching up to do, but i'm happy to say i've started and am enjoying several, finally. i'm taking notes, whether it's on family dynamics or compelling prose or friendship or the importance of backgrounds and settings or whatever else. lastly, perhaps predictably: i haven’t kept up with too many stories this year for various reasons, but i have been @armoricaroyalty's biggest fan for the last two years. i’m grateful that gabe and i had such a truly epic, ridiculously fun collaborative project this year (almost entirely gabe’s doing, which makes me even more determined to repay the favor). i’m also so proud and happy that gabe’s story has really hit its stride and garnered a lot of well-deserved praise this year.

the big reason why i love gabe’s story is because there are so many interesting characters, all doing something, all woven together in ways that feel realistic and suspenseful and dramatic and hilarious and romantic … it takes a little bit of talent, a lot of skill, and a boatload of discipline to pull that off. gabe has all of it, and i’m so grateful to have been allowed to join in—whether as an enthusiastic sounding board, a partner in plotting, or just someone to agree heartily that, yes, that freddy poll had one (1) correct answer. i'm so excited to see the story continue now that this phenomenal chapter is ending, i have and will continue to learn a lot about the craft from gabe, and my own storytelling has improved immensely just by association (you know, plus the fact that my current project wouldn’t exist without him). oh, and: simblr is also about making friends, and our friendship is hands-down the best thing i've gotten out of this whole endeavor.

all of this makes me believe, in conclusion, that 2024 is going to be full of more delightful conversation, more delightful stories to read, and more friendship ♥️

[alittlebitofloveliness]

The Girl in the Ditch

Somewhat different from my usual stuff but I'm so excited about it! Please lmk what you think. TW: death, violence

****************

Most stories start at the beginning, but at the beginning of this story is an unwanted girl with an unhappy life and not much else. Instead, this story starts at the beginning of its end, with a girl in a ditch.

She lies spread out, in a dewy stretch of grass on a mostly forgotten back road, half hidden in the tree line. The picture would be almost peaceful if it weren’t for the blood matted in the girl’s raven black hair and the ring of bruises stained around her neck like some sort of gristly necklace. 

She’s found in the early hours of the morning when the sun has only just finished rising. A trucker on his route sees first her shoe and then the rest of her, dark skin and old clothes and blue eyes forever frozen in wide eyed terror. 

She was a fighter, the cops say, when they show up and take her away. There is blood under her fingernails and a chunk of hair that doesn’t belong to her stuck to her shirt, but it wasn’t enough to save her- not this time. Soon enough, the murmurs turn dark. She isn’t the first girl this has happened to and she won't be the last, poor girls with poor lives and bitter ends. It’s little wonder really, a girl like that, from the wrong side of town, in the bars at sixteen, mixed up with bruisers and gangs and drugs. She didn’t know what she was getting into. No wonder it ended this way.

When they go tell her family there is no father to be found and a mother high enough she doesn’t understand a word they say. There is a hard faced boy in the doorway who refuses to believe it, and another who truly can’t, a younger boy almost as small in the living room as the girl looked in the ditch.

Both boys demand to see her, and recoil at the sight. The older one punches a hole in the wall of the morgue and the young one screams, begs the corpse to wake up, calls to her in a language unknown to the cops and maybe the universe, his face- one made for mischief- twisted in a feral sort of horror and grief. He collapses, and the older one grips his shoulder tightly as he faces the cops who brought them there and demands to know what happened, who did this, what they know. 

Upon hearing they know nothing the boys leave, the older one cursing and half carrying the younger one, who’s shouting has given way to an endless blankness.

There is a short lived investigation, with no leads and no suspects. It’s closed before the girl in the ditch is even buried, a case gone cold before she ever died. It’s hard to catch a murderer no one knows anything about. 

The town seemed to think the girl in the ditch wouldn’t have a funeral. They couldn’t be more wrong. It’s a small room at a cheap funeral home, decked out in flowers plucked from the side of the road. It’s attended by a mother drunk out of her mind, and half the petty criminals in Tulsa Oklahoma, and is perhaps the most beautiful service any of them have ever seen. Only one person speaks, the girl’s eldest brother, who’d punched a wall upon first seeing her corpse and who’s gruff voice goes so soft when he gives the eulogy it would be a wonder anyone could hear it, if the room hadn’t been quiet enough you could hear a pin drop. The girl in the ditch lies silent, battered and beautiful on the dais, the sorrow of the mourners a final blanket. 

The youngest brother doesn’t attend, cannot be found no matter who or how hard anyone looks. By noon, most folks have given up searching. There’s only one person who might have known where he was, and she’s currently in a coffin, being lowered into the ground. An auburn haired teenager stays behind once everyone else has left, smokes a cigarette and leaves the rest of the box of Marlboros on the headstone in place of the brother who couldn’t.

The girl in the ditch has been in the ground for two days when the east side becomes a warzone. 

It starts with the Shepard gang- a tough group of career criminals- and a new string of jumpings and stabbings. They’re searching for something- or someone- and they will stop at nothing to find whatever it is they are looking for. A gang known for petty dealing and east side squabbles is suddenly starting fires, kidnapping, extorting people, hunting them down. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it all ties back to the girl in the ditch and the brothers who broke when they saw her. 

After two months of searching, fighting, and bloodshed, the gang’s leader gets caught, standing over the body of the cousin of a guy who knows a guy who thought maybe he’d known someone once whose money came from taking little black girls where they’d never again be found. The tigerlike man they take to the holding cell is at once and not at not at all the boy from two months ago who’d been told his sister was dead. There’s a darkness in his eyes now instead of just hardness, a spark creeping rapidly towards a glint some would call madness. Few things can drive a man crazy like the horrors of the unknown.

He pleads innocent but he looks guilty, with his sloppy clothes and dark skin, and in the end it wouldn’t have mattered if he was innocent, he’s a black kid up for murder in the deep south. The jury sentences him to a life behind bars, and when the prison gate clanks shut behind him it does so with grim finality. There will be no appeals for him, no reduced sentence. The man in the cell stops holding on to the shred of his reality, and spends the rest of his life trying to solve a murder that will never be solved. 

The Shepard gang’s crusade does not stop with the loss of their leader. If anything their methods get worse, their shakedowns more violent, their desperation more palpable. People speak of them with terror or with awe, whispers swirling about the girl in the ditch the boy behind bars and the brother who has promised vengeance for them both, a boy who wears the face of his sister and the sneer of his brother, who has lost everything and so has nothing left to lose.

There is one person left who can reason with the shadow of the mischievous boy he once was, and it’s an auburn haired teen who left cigarettes instead of flowers on a grave. With him, the newly minted gang leader returns to something resembling human, but as more time passes he grows colder and colder, and listens to his redheaded friend less and less. Their friendship ends in a blowout fight that leaves one boy reckless and wild, and the other withdrawn and sullen. It’s the recklessness and violence he has used to fill a piece of his heart where his family once lived that brings the boy to an untimely end.

The story ends, same as it began, with a body in a ditch. This time it’s a boy, and his killers are easy to find. It doesn’t change the fact he’s found stabbed and discarded like some sort of trash, or that he was sixteen when he died, just like his sister. It doesn’t change the fact that there is no one left to mourn him but an older brother who’s gone mad and a best friend who’s last vestiges of goodness died with his gang leader buddy. 

The story starts with a girl in a ditch and ends with a boy in another. It’s a story that has happened before. It will happen again. 

Tale as old as time, right?

[blackgirl-galactica]

What Big Changes Are Coming For You? Pick-A-Pile Reading 💥👑

Note: Please do not steal. Work of TarotLadyTalks LLC. Thank you!

Hey yall!

I'm back with another pick a pile reading. This reading is credited to @roseology and @Tay on YouTube. Two readers I really love! Enjoy and I hope it resonates with you. This is a general reading so if it doesn't it wasn't for you at this time and that's okay baby! Just a cute little pick me up reading about the changes coming for you, especially on the hills of this Full Moon in Capricorn. Paid readings are open on my shop. Link is here: https://href.li/?https://www.miiriya.com/store/callin-in-wit-claude/

Pile 1: Queen (Do not know where this is from)

Trine--6th House—Gemini--Uranus

Pile 1 you are becoming mentally sharp! This is the change of someone who really got their stuff together and is not afraid to go their own route, hence the Uranus card here. There could be some changes to your routine, or you are just exploring what your routine can look like here with the Gemini card. I'm getting for some of you there could be some changes to your diet, workout routine, and even skincare. I feel like my Pile 1 folks are really going with the flow of their own and not falling into trends & consumerism. YOU ARE THE TREND! What works for you works, and what doesn't, doesn't. You are definitely not going to be pressing yourself anymore about what you think you should do and just give yourself the permission to be childlike and free with your life. And there's nothing better than being that bitch on your own accord. It reminds me of Megan Thee Stallion. Hot, pretty, and doing it your own way. Go Pile 1!!!

Pile 2: (Halle Bailey as Ariel) Sun-12th House-

3rd House--Pluto

Pile 2, silence is about to be your power and biggest asset. I feel some strength coming in for this pile, but in a very subdued way. In a very quiet where people think you're not there type of way. I won't lie Pile 2 I do see some resistance, possibly coming from your closer circle (hence the 3rd house) but I'm getting that's a good sign. The Sun & Pluto are both extremely powerful planets. Many can't hang and it's lonely at the top Pile 2. Yet, I feel my Pile 2 folks are coming into their own source of light (that's funny with the Sun being here). If you get a chance, listen to "The Game Belongs to Me" by UGK. That's the change for you. You may not notice it right off Pile 2. Heck, you may just think you're just trying to better yourself, but boy are you in for a ride. A good one though (minus some fallouts, but hey, that happens when you upgrade). I'm excited for you Pile 2. Keep me updated. I'm getting for some of my Pile 2 you might start wearing makeup or you're into the fashion industry? If so, the things you put out that you've been working on in private is going to launch you into success! Get ready....

Pile 3: Tina Turner

Chiron--Sextile--Semi--Sextile--Capricorn

First off I want to say good job Pile 3. For not allowing your pain to become who you are. My Pile 3 is starting to recognize that there is no harm in protecting yourself with the Capricorn card. Capricorns do get a bad reputation for coming off as cold and harsh, but one must remember boundaries are not for pleasing others, it's for self-preservation. A big change I see with my Pile 3 is the act of opening up and trying again, but we have more knowledge this time. We are going slower this time. I really love this energy because it takes courage to get up and try again. And depending on the situation and how you react, the pain could have ran deep. I'm glad you're healing at your own pace. I'm glad you're not allowing anyone to control how you feel. That's very courageous of you. For example, let's say you married your high school sweetheart, but unfortunately they may have passed or you both may have divorced. But after some healing and time, you find yourself remarrying someone else, and there was one point in time you probably said to yourself, "Never again." But hey, you processed that pain and you allowed yourself to do it again. That's what's up Pile 3. Even though you may not be completely 100% healed yet, Spirit says that's okay. This change is a sign of a breakthrough for you. That light at the end of a dark, long tunnel. And no, things may never be the same, but things can be better. And I think you're recognizing that :). Good job baby.

Pile 4: Donna Summer

Opposition--Neptune--Sun--Saturn

This pile is screaming Saturn in Pisces lol with these cards. So check where Saturn rx in Pisces is doing in your natal/progressed/solar return chart. Also to include your profection month as well. This pile is starting to see that their dreams can in fact become reality, but then reality sets in LOLOLOL! That's not a bad thing Pile 4, but I can see you're like "Dang, I really gotta put in the work don't I?" Lol yes you do! Opposition and Saturn do not give free handouts Pile 4, but I do see that you're not going to shy away from it. I think quickly you'll realize you're cut off for what you really want to do. Whether it be art, business, drama, music, etc. You really are starting to realize that the only person in your way is....you. But that's okay! Because we are starting today (or whenever you choose to lol). I do think this is a start of a long journey, and it's not to scare you Pile 4, but Spirit is saying if you really want to do this, buckle up. And don't feel bad if you fail from time to time, it's only a learning experience & how can you get better if you don't try again. Yes it may hurt (the Sun is our ego after all), yes it may get frustrating, but there's this saying "To much is given, much is required." And to be even more honest Pile 4, I don't think the Universe is going to let you chicken out on this one. I feel like you're meant to do what you're thinking about, you may just be a little intimidated and that's perfectly a normal, human response. But one thing about Saturn is that it is patient, especially if you're actually trying. So just start. Don't overwhelm yourself. This project will take time. This chapter of your life will take time, but honestly it's worth it. Push forward Pile 4, you can do this.

Thanks again for reading! See you all later!

-Claude 🪐❤️🌙✨

[dootznbootz]

Have you ever read a fic/headcanon post you liked so much that it influenced your characterization of Odypen?

I love this ask so much, Dear Anon, holy shit. Thank you so much! I'm so excited to talk about this!

Because...I...I purposely basically shut myself OUT of the fandom until I had MY own characterization down because I wanted to basically have a read of the texts, and then have my own ideas/opinions.

I actually had so much fun with it too!!! :D I wanna ramble about it lol

Ngl, I noticed a SHITTON of like, "hivemind fanon headcanons" in the fandom. Or at least a lot of people sharing the exact same one.

And while there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, I also know that people sometimes will just be a "Yes Man" with ideas and that MAYBE that's a bit of fanon. And that my own reading could be completely different.

I REALLY love this story/myth and so I just really wanted to go into it "blind". I even just RESEARCHED on my own. I have not read a single translation introduction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ THAT'S how much I wanted to really form my own beliefs before anything else.

And I just had so much fun reading and studying and ANALYSING the texts so then I could really pinpoint exactly WHERE I get a certain headcanon from (most of the time. lol some headcanons are simply for fun and don't have too much textual evidence)

I mean...How many Penelope's have you seen that are feral? 👀 Who is prideful, snarky, reckless, stubborn, ruthless, etc.? (I HAVE read some angry Penelope fics yes! And they're wonderful! ...But that's not necessarily MY Penelope. My Penelope curses and says "Bet" before rushing at something 10x her size. Mine has a temper and WILL lash out. She was just extra careful with the suitors.) Yes, she's intelligent and patient and thoughtful...but Odysseus ALSO has those traits somewhat as well.

THEY'RE LIKEMINDED. BOTH are a person of "many twists and turns". It's why they're fucked up lil soulmates 🥹

There's a few HEADCANONS that I really love that I plan to use and try to credit the OG person though! Just that they're small-ish and not really a big thing on characterization.

My fellow fuzzy worm, Char, (@fangirlofallthefanthings) has OdyPen call Telemachus their lil "droplet" which is super cute.

Someone on tumblr, (I think it was nerdygirl2023??? Idk for sure though, I'll have to recheck later lol) mentioned how Amphitrite kind of helps Odysseus about the Oar quest which I REALLY love. (please let this sad lil fuck rest ;~; I want him in Penelope's arms PLEASE. If I don't go with that idea, Penelope goes with him. Either way, I'm not separating them for at most a few days.)

Other than that and maybe some small things from other works that SUPPORT my headcanons. (Odysseus' behavior towards Circe in Epic kind of supporting my "Odysseus is asexual/demisexual" headcanons, etc.) but most of my stupid silly stuff is from my own silly head :P

It's not like I don't like anyone else's headcanons lol xD It's just that certain things would not fit well with my lil weirdos as it would be out of character for THEM, you know?

Ngl, I sometimes get a lil embarrassed by how DIFFERENT my ideas are from others :') Or even just how few I've seen that are like my own. I love my ideas but it's like I'm a lil bee outside the hive where everyone else is working 🙃 I don't like that I'm so "picky" about my ideas but I just am ;~; (Especially about Penelope's characterization.)

I've seen some posts and "incorrect quotes" that fit my sillies but that was still AFTER I've established my weirdos :P

...I almost wonder sometimes if folks are inspired by MY Sillies 👀 as I've seen some stuff that really makes me wonder lol

[partyhorn]

Very long personal 4am rambling. Honestly, I'm trying to really think about what direction I want to take MFM in. I will say that I'm still always going to make it as a comic first and foremost, I'm very excited for the story and don't plan on putting it on hiatus or discontinuing it (my love for comics as a medium is too strong to NOT see it through to the end!) I hate to talk about personally on this account, but in all honesty, I'm trying to figure out what's best for my own health. Drawing all these pages physically exhausts me, especially with how much more complex the art is becoming. My passion for the story is endless, but it's almost at a detriment. Came to the realization that it's one of the only things I feel genuine joy for anymore (...but that's already kind of shown itself in the themes of "passion can drive you to crazy lengths" in the comic.) I'm pretty much in the same regard when it comes to making this whole story. I completed all of chapter 45 in just 2 weeks, a whole 27 pages of highly-rendered panels in a very short amount of time for that kind of work. And I love it! But it's exhausting.

But really, I'm not sure what else I could do. My current financial situation isn't great, and I'm just trying to focus on what I can do to finally get financially stable (and then I'll focus on my health and crazed work ethic later). In relation to art, my main idea is to try to jump back in the indie animation scene to help draw more attention to the comic, which I'm getting a start in with the coffee short film. That's a ton of work as well, even more so than comic work in some aspects, but animation IS more popular and is sure to draw in at least some new folks. I'm just gonna have to see where this little short film leads me when it's finished a good few months from now (luckily 3D animation is miles easier than 2D for me.)

I feel like I've expressed my frustrations before at how unpopular comics are as a medium in general. It's a ton of work and deserves much more recognition for sure. I've enjoyed drawing comics tenfold as much as animating, and that's what I'd majored in during college! But comics are just not a popular medium. I don't even really want to jump into huge animated projects again with my current exhaustion (and a couple projects already still sitting on the back burner... sorry Parvey) but I feel as though I have no choice if I truly do want MFM to reach a bigger audience. Which in all honesty, I'd love more than anything in the world to happen.

I've put years of work and driven myself to physical exhaustion working on these comic pages. It's me alone who's drawn all 1100+ pages of this story (with a handful of commissioned chapter covers every now and then), and I'm tired of lying to myself- it IS a ton of effort. I'm considering really shifting gears to focus on more animated content relating to MFM- first the short film, then maybe jumping right into the huge animated adaptation, and then whatever comes after that. 2D or 3D, I don't really know at this point. Both are a lot of effort, and it's hard to judge when I'm so tired. But it might be a better investment of my effort in the end if it gets me anywhere in life. If it's any indication given how I've drawn these thousand pages myself, I could probably one-man-band this as well. But, that's also just the passion speaking.

I'm not really sure where I was going with this at this point. My brain is kind of fried. I don't plan on quitting the comic, I'm going to draw it to completion no matter how long that takes. But I'm also becoming very aware of how it's affecting me to be working myself to death for seemingly nothing, driven by an extremely intense passion. I don't even know if I'd be able to slow my pace down on making these pages if I tried- it's like an unscratchable itch to keep the story going, even during times where I force myself to focus on other more important tasks. I feel as though it really reflects in recent themes in the comic itself: grind culture sucks, and once you slip into that mindset it's hard to climb out. Even if it's something you do entirely to yourself, even if it's something out of love, it can still severely affect you. That's as best as I can describe it.

But that's not all to say that I'm ungrateful for the amount of support for the story I've gotten- in fact, it's one of the things that really keeps me going. It's great to get asks, genuine or goofy, and I appreciate everyone who's ever told me how the story has impacted them and such. It makes all of the time and effort I've put into this whole comic feel worth it. Frankly, I'd love for this whole story to get fandomized to hell and back. I don't know if it'll ever get there, but it'd be cool. Thank you all for the continued support, for real.

I think I just want to focus on ways for this story to reach an even bigger audience, even just for the sake of putting this endless passion into something that'll do me good as a physical person. If I suddenly shift gears and decide to jump headfirst into making a full animated adaptation, then that'll probably be why. But I also might wake up tomorrow and completely change my mind. Either way, chapter 46 is probably going to be done in a few week's time, just because I know that's how my brain works.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

(prev)

When Hiccup returns to the hut, he finds their guest awake, and sitting up. That's good. That's an improvement. Before Hiccup could take a better look at the guy, Gothi parks herself in front of him.

"He's delicate," she scribbles on the ground. "The seas left its mark. Don't excite him too much." She punctuates those last two words with a tap of her walking stick.

Hiccup lifts both hands up. "Alright, okay! I'll be careful! You make it sound like I'm gonna give him a heart attack!"

"Are you?" A low voice croaks out.

Hiccup turns to face their guest. And yeah, okay. He gets where Gothi's coming from. The guy looks like he's two steps from entering Hel or Valhalla, probably Hel from the looks of him. He's thinner than Hiccup, but then again, Hiccup has filled out a little. He's got honest-to-Thor biceps now. But this guy - Hiccup has seen chickens with more meat on their wings than this guy has in his arms. And he's deathly pale, which makes sense given the circumstances. Seriously, Hiccup could trace the guy's veins - blue, nearly black, against his skin. Hiccup never had the good fortune of seeing a dead body - not the way Ruffnut and Tuffnut keep saying they have. But Hiccup hopes this guy will be the closest he'll ever get.

And yet... The weirdest part about this guy has to be his face. Hiccup can't figure it out but there's just something really weird about his face. It wasn't the eyes or the hair, both colored a common as dirt brown. So what...

"If you keep making a face like that, you'll really give me a heart attack," the guy murmurs, cutting through Hiccup's thoughts.

"I think you can manage one without any help..." Hiccup replies.

The guy snorts. "I'm feeling better if you can believe it." He nods at Gothi. "Can she talk? All she's done this whole time is stare at me. I swear I never saw her blink."

"Yeah... She does that. But um... good, I mean, about your uh health. Glad to hear it." Hiccup rubs the back of his neck. He's supposed to ask the guy more about himself, but outside of a straight up interrogation, he's never been good at the 'let's get to know each other' kinda stuff. They shoulda sent Gobber to do this, now there's someone that can get folks to tell stories. But Dad says it's all part of his Chief training, whatever that means.

"Thanks for pulling me out of the ice," the guy says. "This was mighty kind of you, and really, if there's any sort of payment I can offer, just let me know? Unless, I mean, my Mom spoke to you already?"

"Your... Mom...." Hiccup echoes. He can feel his face freezing up. His Mom? But there was never - They couldn't even find a shipwreck.

"Yeah, you know. A woman that looks kinda like me, almost like we're related or something." The guy goes on.

Hiccup's throat dries up and he clenches his jaw. This guy washed ashore with nothing but the strange clothes on his back. They figured him for dead before he started coughing like he was trying to throw up his lungs. It was... Yeah, Hiccup doesn't like remembering it too much. If this guy was that bad, then anyone else would be...

"And she keeps calling herself too old or that I'll give her gray hairs, but really she doesn't look a day over a hundred." The guy chuckles, or tries to, mostly he makes this wet, wheezing noise.

Hiccup opens his mouth, shuts it, then opens it again. "We... There was no one else in the water..."

He braces himself for the guy to start wailing, to froth up a rage - some kind of strong response. But the guy just tilts his head. And oh. Hiccup gets it now - the thing that's been bothering him about this guy's face. He's always kinda smiling. As if a grin is permanently pasted on his face, even when his hands are balled into fists, even when his shoulders are drawn in tight, even when there's literally nothing about him that matches a smile.

"Well... That's good, right? I was the only one in the water then. But so... Does my Mom know I'm here? Does my sister?"

Okay. Well. Now Hiccup's just confused. "No... How would we reach out to your family? Do they live nearby?"

"Uh... Yeah? I mean, maybe? Do you guys live anywhere near Hawthorne?"

"I... have never heard of that place."

"What? No. That can't be right. Hawthorne's barely the size of a village, sure, but it's the only settlement for miles!"

Hiccup slowly shakes his head. "No... I don't remember hearing of someplace like that."

At last, the guy's grin falls away as he scowls at the blankets. He chews on his lip, clearly thinking hard.

Hiccup tries to remember if he's ever heard of a Hawthorne. But he comes up blank. "I can -"

"Where is-"

They share a look. Now it's Hiccup's turn to crack a grin. "You first."

The guy blinks. "Oh, uh... I was um... Where am I now? Where is this?"

"Berk."

When the guy just gives him a blank stare, Hiccup folds his brow. Berk's been making a name for itself since they started the whole dragon co-existence thing. Surely, this guy would have heard all the rumors about them. Thor knows, they've been suffering the consequences from all that attention.

But this guy - there's not a shred of recognition in his expression. He could be faking it. Or 'the seas left its mark', as Gothi put it. Hiccup really wants to give him the benefit of doubt here.

"Berk, one of the isles in the Barbaric Archipelago? Home to the Hairy Hooligan tribe? No? None of that sounds familiar?"

The guy wordlessly shakes his head, fear starting to twist his face. Okay. That's not ideal.

"Is that... Is that anywhere near the New World?" The guy asks, his knuckles going white as he squeezes the blankets with both hands.

Gothi makes an irritated tap of her walking stick. Hiccup ignores her.

Did this guy just say the 'New World'? But that's just an old mariner's tale. And even if it was true, it's definitely nowhere near Berk.

The look on Hiccup's face must give him away because the guy locks up, eyes going wide, limbs closing tight and stiff.

"H... How... But I was just there! The pond was right by my village! How did this happen?!"

And that, Hiccup thinks, is the real question. Either this guy is a really good actor or he really has no memory. When he starts breathing faster, clutching his chest like it hurts, Hiccup makes a decision.

Dodging Gothi's stick, which tries to keep him away, Hiccup crouches next to the bed, putting himself at eye level with their guest. "Hey, we can figure this out, okay? You'll be back with your Mom in no time. Just... Just hang in there... Uhm..."

The guy looks at him, and there's that smile again - completely out of place given that he's literally one heartbeat away from a breakdown. "Ca-Call me Jack. And you?"

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. But everyone calls me Hiccup."

[wobbbiy]

Little observations and perspectives of folks I've gathered on Eliksni and Eramis as I've floated around the internet in the Destiny 2 spheres:

Please keep in mind, these are just my observations from the past 2 months, recognizing there's bias to that and I may be wrong! ;)

1. Spent the majority of time on TikTok, just kinda where I landed after instagram got weird. Made other game content, ended up in Destiny 2 community. There were a couple lighthearted Eliksni fans, who mostly posted meme type content. A few folks posting broad Destiny 2 lore content, they were heavily followed! But, besides that, I couldn't find other Eramis friends. While many were fairly neutral to my pro-Eramis content, I still dealt with hate/uninformed commenters on the regular. Overall, though, interestingly, most folks took an open-minded approach and would admit that they hadn't really understood her. I had many find my content and say they were on the fence or were surprised anyone actually thought about her that deeply. I liked educating on there... I could tell many still didn't like her, for example, one of my friends never interacted with any of my Eramis content, but liked everything else I posted instantly. Lol. But, in the end she said she enjoyed my content about the "big lady" (I love that lmao). TikTok = generally polite and curious.

2. Reddit. Nothing but hatred. It is like being in the wild. They want nothing to do with Eramis besides her death. They also blanketly tend to hate Eliksni. I'd lose my sanity commenting back and forth for hours with folks. It's not a pleasant place. A lot of them are just content with being ignorant and uninformed...even in the lore subreddit. Reddit = 10/10 do not recommend.

3. Tumblr. I'm extremely new so I can't really speak to it too much. But, from my lurking, I can tell that this space is way more open minded than the other platforms. Which, is nicely how I remember this platform being many years ago through the other fandom groups I have been apart of. I'm sure nowhere is perfect, but, this seems close enough. I also feel there's so many lore rabbit holes I can jump in and read, so exciting for me. I tend to love reading headcannons and fanfic. Tumblr = more clustered and nice for niche interests like Eliksni.

Other spaces like YouTube, I just don't know much about as I don't really interact with folks on there..

[gachawolfiebloom]

Two Hearts In The City of Love

Chapter 12: Mr Puzzles' Amazing Couples Game Show Fanatic

Cover made by me and Puzzlevision selection is from Smg4. Please do not repost artwork.

Drumroll please...

3...

2..

1.

"Hello and welcome ladies and gentlemen! As always, it's your favorite TV host Mr Puzzles here! Now I know our last gameshow didn't quite go according to plan now did it?"

One of the members in the audience asks "Yeah, didn't you flip out and complete destroy the show because you were jealous of that red, fat, Italian guy?"

"NO! *Ahem* No...we just had a little programming malfunction with our games. But fear not! For this new show will feature all new kinds of games that couldn't possibly be ruined. And you wanna know why? MARIO WON'T BE PLAYING! That's right everyone. We've got all your favorite contestants, invited back for a new show I'm calling: Mr Puzzles' Amazing Couples Game Show Fanatic!"

Mr Puzzles clapped his hands and everyone he had trapped, except Mario appeared. Bob got all territorial and asked "UM EXCUSE ME? WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!?" Mr Puzzles took out a sheet of paper and said "Now let's layout the rules. Each couple will compete in a activity that I have set to test their intelligence (if they even have it ), their physical abilities, and how well they are willing to go for each other."

"What do you mean? We aren't couples." Tari quizzically asked when Mr Puzzles butted in and yelled "YOU ARE NOW!" He clapped his hand and divided 2 partners at each station. Smg3 looked confused as hell until he turned and saw who he was partnered with. "Oi! We're not a couple!" Smg4 did the same as he blushed up a storm and awkwardly avoided looking at Three.

Meggy and Tari also felt awkward when they saw that they were paired up with each other, but neither one was a blushing mess like Four was. Bob stomped his foot down and yelled "I REFUSE TO WORK WITH THIS GREEN BOOGER! I WOULDN'T DATE BOOPKINS IF HE WAS THE LAST FISH ON EARTH! PAIR ME UP WITH BIRDO INSTEAD!"

(Sidenote: I DO NOT SHIP BOB AND BOOPKINS. I JUST SEE THEM AS BEST FRIENDS. NOTHING ELSE.)

Mr Puzzles started to get irritated and nervously laughed. "Don't pay any attention to him folks. I think he's too shy to admit his feelings." The audience let out a couple Awwwww's. Bob was getting really angry and began complaining "HE'S LYING! I'M NOT GAY! I'M STRAIGHT! NOT GAY NOT GAY NOT GAY NOT GAY!" Mr Puzzles put a hand over his mouth and said "One moment please." He whispered "I know you're not gay Bob, but I ran out of contestants and I need a third team. Can't you just roll with it."

As he went back to addressing the audience, Bob kept chanting "NOT GAY NOT GAY NOT GAY-" Mr Puzzles facepalmed and announced "I almost forgot! Whoever scores the most points gets a sPeCiAl pRiZe!" Everyone immediately stopped their belly aching and became incredibly interested. Bob finally shut up and said "ANYTHING FOR MONEY!"

Three swung an arm over Four as he became even more flustered. "Forget what I said. We're the best couple and we're going to crush you all!"

"U-Um...Three can you not?"

Meggy got a serious look on her face and yelled "No way! Me and Tari are the best duo!" Tari thought it was a sweet compliment and didn't even pick up on how Meggy didn't mind letting the audience see them as a couple.

The crowd erupted into excited cheers as Mr Puzzles went back to his happy self. "Alright everyone! First up we have-" He felt a tug on his sleeve as Luigi nervously asked "Uhh...what do I do? I...I don't have a partner." Mr Puzzles noticed that since he didn't cast Mario in this episode so now Luigi didn't have anyone else. "Oh Luigi, you have the most important job of all!" He brought him over to a discount whiteboard and handed him a marker. "You will keep track of scores. Making sure that each team gets the amount of points I say they earn."

"Oh that sounds like fun! I can do that!" Luigi began humming to himself as he made a column for each team. "Wonderful! Now that that's all figured out, we can finally beg-"

"Um can I take a bathroom break! My face feels hot!" Four raised his hand. Mr Puzzles was getting really irritated with all the interruptions, just like his last game show. He turned around with his scary, realistic face and yelled "NO! SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" Four immediately slumped down in his seat as the audience went silent and Mr Puzzles felt all eyes glued onto him.

"I-I mean...Sorry Smg4, but the show has started already. But don't worry, you'll be an excellent team player. Maybe you'll even win the prize..."

"Now about we start with-"

The sounds of Italian gibberish echoed on stage as Mr Puzzles raised an eyebrow. "Huh...that's strange. But let's cont-"

More gibberish noises that sounded closer as Mr Puzzles angrily said "Whoever that is, please stop so everyone can enjoy the show." The person that was making the annoying sounds didn't stopped. It almost sounded like it came from the audience. Mr Puzzles then froze when he realized something. "Oh crap...I made sure Mario wasn't a contestant, but I never checked to see if he was an audience member!" Sure enough, Mario rushed down from his seat onto stage and said "Oh boy! Oh boy! Mario wants to play games!"

Mr Puzzles virtually tore his eyes out and politely tried getting him to go back to his seat. "Oh sorry Mario, but we have no available contestants for you to partner up with." Mario shook his head and pointed at him. "Mario can play with you TV guy!" Mr Puzzles quickly shot back "No way Mario! The host doesn't play the games and I would never be in a romantic relationship with you!"

"WELL I WOULD NEVER BE IN A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH BOOPKINS, BUT YOU'RE MAKING ME PLAY!"

"Shut up Bob! And Mario...GO BACK TO YOUR SEAT!" He then asked "Can Mario at least stay up here and watch?"

"NO!"

"Pretty please..."

"No!"

"Pretty please with spaghetti and meatballs on top..."

"Ugh. Fine. But only because we need to get the show started. However, you will not make a sound and you will not move from that spot over there!" He pointed to a far off corner that was almost off stage, but Mario didn't mind. "Yippee!" He hopped over to his spot and hummed to himself, head in hands, excitedly awaiting the first game. "Sorry for the delay folks. Let's get started with our first game."

Trivia Time!

"For this game, you must answer questions of different categories that are randomly selected each turn. The team with the most points wins!" Three moved his hand close to the buzzer, ready for the moment he got the answer. Bob also did the same and Tari looked nervously between their tension. Four had managed to calm down and his competitive spirit was ready to knock his components into the ground.

Mr Puzzles picks up a card from the Entertainment category (no surprise that was the first one) and stars reading "Question 1: In-"

"Oooo can Mario play! Mario is great at guessing games!" Mr Puzzles gave him a cold stare and said "AS I WAS SAYING, In the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S, what was the name of Rachel's colleague that worked at Bloomingdale's in Season 3." Bob and Three buzzed in at the same time when both answered at the same time.

"THE UGLY DUDE."

"Mark Robinson!"

Mr Puzzles made a wincing sound and said "Ohhhh sorry Bob. These answers must be clear and specific so Smg3 gets the point."

"CRAP!" Bob pouted while Three and Four pointed and laughed at him. "You can't beat the true F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan!" He made a flirty look at Four when saying that. Mr Puzzles took out a another card from a different category and said "Question 2: What is-" but was interuppted again when that annoying Italian voice whined "Cooommmeee onnnnn! Let Mario answer this question! He'll be quiettt ifff youuu doooo!"

Mr Puzzles was already ready to kick him out when he looked down at the question and said "Ohhh sureeee." Mario cheered and scooted in with Meggy and Tari. "Hello girls! You don't mind if Mario joins your team do you?" Tari gladly replied "Sure!" Meggy quickly stopped her and informed her teammate "Tari, he doesn't know any answers to these questions." Mario gave her an offended look. "Sure Mario does! Just watch!"

"Question 2: What is the square root of 9?"

Mario buzzed in with his nose and yelled "21!" A bzzt sound played as Mr Puzzles made a fake gasp and said "I'm sorry, but that is incorrect. -1 points for team Megari!" Luigi put a negative point on their score and made a gesture over to the girls that he was sorry. Mario stood up and said "WAT! That's bullcrap! Mario totally got the answer right! He has 1000000 IQ!" Meggy hissed "Mario...get down and go back to your seat."

"NO! The mean TV man is being unfair!" He launched towards Mr Puzzles and yelled "This game is rigged! Mario demands vengeance!" He took the rest of the cards and burned them down with a blowtorch. "HAH! Mario wins now! Hehehehehehehe!" He smugly went back to sitting at the corner and was contempt on seeing how Mr Puzzles would hold up the show now. Mr Puzzles got up and saw the cards were now burnt to ash and he started nervously sweating. "N-Not t-to worry audience. I-I always have some spare cards." He took out a piece of paper and scribbly wrote down a question.

"Now this last one should be easy. What is the weather like today?" Tari instantly knew the answer and buzzed in. "I know! It's-" Mr Puzzles quickly turned to the boys and declared "That's right Smg4! It's sunny! Smg4 wins the game!"

"B-But I didn't-"

"NEXT GAME!"

Outstanding Obstacles

Mr Puzzles teleported them all to an insane obstacle course with hoops, pits, and beams. "In order to beat this game, both opponents must safely cross to the other side that is marked with the handy flag." He pointed way across where a tiny checkered flag was waiting in the safe zone. "We have to cross that!?" Tari cried out in fear. A little thing Mr Puzzles forgot to mention was that there was fire, swinging weapons, and many other deadly traps sprinkled along the way. Bob didn't care. He ran towards it, singing "GIVE ME THE MONEY!" and flung himself straight into the middle, where he was pierced by arrows and got a sword stuck in his head. He evaporated as an X appeared on screen and the announcer yelled "DEAD."

Mr Puzzles laughed and said "Oopsie! Looks like Bob is eliminated from the rest of the show! Sorry Boopkins, but you can't play without a teammate so you're disqualified too." He snapped his fingers when Boopkins was right in the middle of a sentence. "Wait...what-" He began evaporating as well as he screamed himself out of existence. "Now for our two remaining teams, good luck!" Meggy and Three lined up against each other, both wanting to prove their athletic skills. Four and Tari were nervous from all the deadly contraptions. When the horn went off, Three and Meggy ran lighting fast through the course while Four and Tari barely ducked out of the way of swinging maces.

"Ooooo can Mario join in!" Mr Puzzles angrily turned around and yelled "NO! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" Mario grumpily crossed his arms, but then got an idea. When Mr Puzzles wasn't looking, he tiptoed past him into the obstacle course.

Tari carefully jumped over a pit when she saw a bazooka firing straight at Four. "Look out!" Four turned and saw the missile hurdling towards him as he shut his eyes and prepared for the worst. Instead the missile just stopped, crying "Ohhhhh nooooo!" and poofed. That was strange. He saw Three and Meggy leaving without them and cried "Oi! You guys know that if we die, you lose right?" Both of them stopped, realizing he had a point.

Tari was dangling over a pit of fire. "I'm coming Tari!" Meggy yelled as she ran over to help her up. "Are you okay?" Tari breathed heavily as Meggy pulled her in for a hug of comfort. "Don't worry. You're safe now." Three saw his chance to go, but saw Four trembling as the weapons were coming by the bucket full. He groaned and went back to grab him. The slight hand touch made him flinch as he stuttered "S-Sorry...did you get hurt?"

"No. I'm okay. Thanks for coming back for me."

Mr Puzzles was sitting back in a chair, munching on popcorn and watching through binoculars. It seemed like the show was going really well with emotion, drama, and suspense, except one contestant didn't belong. "MARIO!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!" He was running past the two teams, flashing the loser sign at Mr Puzzles when he saw the flag in sight. "YIPPEE! Mario is gonna win!" Mr Puzzles quickly snapped his fingers when he saw Mario was only a few feet from the finish.

He reached his hand out to grab the flag when the floor fell out from over him and he evaporated back to his seat in the corner. The rest of the contestants fell through the floor, but luckily Smg4 was the closest to the finish line. "Wonderful! Smg4 has done it again! Add some more points on the board Luigi!" Four hazily holds his head as he says "I think my brain just committed SUICIDE." The green Italian happily nodded as he added more points to their score, but Mario stole the marker for him and gave himself infinite points.

"HAHA! Mario wins the game now!" Mr Puzzles stole the marker back and yelled "MARIO DOES NOT WIN THE GAME! SMG4 IS SUPPOSED TO WIN! YOU WEREN'T EVEN A CONTESTANT IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Mario points a finger in his face and says "So you admit it! These games are rigged! Bad TV man is a stinky cheater!" Mr Puzzles looks over and sees that the crowd was starting to boo him. "No no no no! I'm not cheating!" He clenches his fists and storms over to Mario. "I am finishing this show and nobody is going to stop me! Not you! Not anyone!" He takes some chains and locks and tied them around Mario, kicking him into the corner.

"FINAL GAME!"

Truth or Dare

"To play this game, all you have to do is give an honest answer to any question that an audience member asks or whatever they dare you to do. IS THAT ALRIGHT WITH EVERYBODY!" He creaks his head over to Mario and narrows his eyes at him. The Italian looked at him with a glazed look in his eyes. "Okay great! Who would like to ask the first question?" One guy in the back immediately raises his hand. "Yes. What is your question?"

"I dare Smg3 and Smg4 to recreate the 6:50 minute of snow trapped!"

Both boys immediately tense up and their faces become red and hot. "Uhhh...." Mr Puzzles doesn't pay attention to their awkwardness as he claps his hands and a igloo drops down. "Well you heard the audience. Climb in and do your thing!" Four and Three don't say a word, but they slowly begin backing up. Mr Puzzles stops them and throws them in, blocking the entrance with snow. "See you later~"

"Now then, do we have any questions for the girls!" Another audience member raises his hand and asks "What is Meggy and Tari's favorite bonding activity?" Before the girls can answer, them and Mr Puzzles hear a suspicious thud. It starts to speed up as Mr Puzzles swivels his head around to find Mario humping the igloo. "Come on! Come on! Mario wants to see the gays making out! Commmeee onnnnnn!" Mr Puzzles anger goes through the roof as his body turns a bright red and his TV box begins to fume.

"THAT'S IT! MARIO IS DISQUALIFIED!" He slaps Mario so hard that the igloo and Three come with him, the three of them crashing into Meggy and Tari. Mr Puzzles stands in shock for a few seconds and says "Well it took some time, but we finally have a winner! Smg4 wins the sPeCiAl pRiZe!" He grabs Four and tells him "Now let's go see what it is!" He used a remote to open a hole in the wall and begins pushing Four towards it.

The rest of them just sat there flabbergasted. "He didn't really win did he Luigi?" Three asked. Luigi stood there, staring at a broken board and shrugged. "I guess...he did?" Mario instantly recovered and saw the two heading into the prize room. "Oh boy! Oh boy! Mario wants to go see the prize!" He sneaks into the secret compartment, unknown to Mr Puzzles.

He excitedly awaited the grand prize, expecting it to be a never-ending spaghetti maker or something. Instead he was met with a dark room that was completely empty. Well...not exactly. Mr Puzzles led Four up to a scary looking machine. "Is...is this the prize?" Four nervously asked. "It sure is! And it's all yours!" He flipped a switch and two giant claws grabbed onto Smg4's arms. "Hey! What the-" They dragged him up as Mr Puzzles snickered.

This wasn't at all what Mario expected. He tried to run back out the door, but it closed on him. Mr Puzzles said in a cold tone "You see, I had to make you win somehow. I needed you."

"W-Why do you n-need me?"

"Oh, for something far important. From now on, you will serve me as my partner."

"WHAT!?"

"Thank you Smg4 for everything."

That was the last thing he said before he pressed a button and a wave of electricity shocked through his body. "AHHHHHHH!!! STOP IT!" Mario couldn't do anything, but watch as his best friend was tortured by Mr Puzzles. His relentless screaming. The increasingly inflicted amounts of pain. What...What exactly did Mr Puzzles want with Smg4? Why was he trying to capture him all this time?

"STOP IT PLEASE! Ş̶̨̤̫̞͖̃̔͒̃̎̓̍̅͛͆͠T̴̳̞̭̘̥́Ò̸̠͔̮̹̯͇̻͈̯̼̲̈̃́͋͛͗̄̎̕͜P̵̮̰̫͎̱̈́́͊ ̸̭̻̼͕͍̱̳̝͌͋͗̔̔́̈́̇̃̓̓̑͜͝I̶͈̹͚̫̭̞̙͕̞��̇͐̇̌̀̓͗̆T̴̡̢̜̣̞̩̼̞͎̲̬͖̖͛̈́̓̾ͅ ̸̨̬͈͓̞̝̳̼͚̓̇͝S̷̨̰̰̮̝̯̺͔̭͕͉̐́͒̒̉̓̿͜͝Ť̷̳̞̰̇̎̆̀͋͐̏́͛̎̽̈̓͝Ȍ̴̧͓̭͑̐͜P̵͙̳̔̃̌ ̸̧̱̦͙̬̗̝̗̞̲̗̳̮̘̋́͂̈́̋̐͊͐̈́̆̈́͂͑͘͝Ḯ̴̧̧͈̮͓̫͎̙̼͔̖̪̇̑͘͜T̴̮̟̜͍͎̮̜̗͉̽̐̎̔̌͂̂̃̚ ̴̳͈̻̤͖̲̫̝̘̗̫̘̜̫͌̒͐̈́̓͗́̀̋͊̌͝S̷̢̬̜̤̝͈͔̪͙͔̫͈͗̈́͂͒̎ͅT̶̛͉̯̾̓̀͜Ǫ̶̜̔̿̃̍͝P̸̨̫̭̱̲̮̞͍̳̺̑͜ ̷̢̃̑̄͐̓͊̎̊I̶̧͍̲̍͋͘T̷͕̭͚͇͖̲̝͖̬̪̩̦̿͐̀̇͋̎̀ ̸̨̳͙̥͚̝̼͓͕̘̻̰̗͛̈́̓͛͗̀͝͝S̷̡̛͙͙̻͚͖̞̮͎͉̓͆̉͂̉͂̅͜T̴͚̮̝͉̲̿̑̾͋͒̇̆͘͠Ơ̴̢͔̩̜͖̫̲̬̬̪̼͂̍̈́͂̅̈́̐̔̕P̴̺̰̪̣̩͉̘͎͈̬͍̭̯̤͐̇̏̈́̋̓̈́̈́͗̄̀̓͝ ̸̢̢̜̳̟̫̥̖̱̭̜͇̩̐̒͐̄̉̿̍͆̊͗̏̉̈́̚ͅͅI̷̛̥͉̤̰͎̩̔́̅̅͋́́̍ͅT̸̥̮̯̫̙̪̝̯̟̭̻͚͇̈́̅̉̓̓̃͌̂̄͊̈́̑̑̇!̶̭̣͇̤̮̘͉͙͌̊̇͊̽̾̈́̍̀͐͋͑͝͝"

E̵n̸d̶ ̷o̶f̸ ̴S̴i̴m̶u̶l̵a̸t̴i̶o̸n̸.̸

W̵h̶a̷t̵ ̷d̸i̶d̸ ̶y̶o̶u̷ ̶t̶h̵i̶n̴k̶ ̷o̶f̸ ̷T̸o̸d̸a̴y̶'̴s̸ ̷E̸p̷i̵s̵o̴d̴e̶?̷

Chapter 13: PuzzleVision's Grand Finale

[askthe-r-m-au]

Ok this is currently being written the morning after chapter 4 because I'm in a good mood

Now let's bet on how long I'm gonna take to actually publish this!! (20 bucks says I will forget about this for another month)

[Ring-Misstress Chapter 5 : Firsts]

Everyone stood around the stage with the new players. The ringmaster still sat their dumbfounded.

☆This audience is a bit... taller and... more edgy than I'm used to.☆

Zari: ... The #@/! Is that supposed to mean-

The ringmaster and his tiny assistant simultaneously gasped

☆Now now, I've come to expect mild language from my permanent performers, but from our guests!? How disrespectful!☆

Osa: Sorry, your... what-?

♧E-excuse us for a second, folks!♧

The Ring-Misstress stepped in and pulled Caine aside, out of ear range. They still exchanged words through whispers, just to be safe.

♧This isn't going anywhere, What are we supposed to do??♧

☆I don't know!?!?☆

♧What do you mean you don't know!??!♧

☆I- I haven't run an adventure for an audience other than you guys for years! Besides, I spent half the time making the circus look pristine...☆

Caine trailed off with his words. Pomni put a palm to her face. She took a breath, contemplating a solution.

♧You say this... "Audience" is ...different than usual?♧

☆Yes, they appear younger than us, but mature at the same time...☆

It didn't take long for things to click.

♧Mm. ... wait a minute... You said they're more... mature?♧

☆Yeah... At least I think so? I'm not sure if we can work with this... last time I tried to make an adventure more mature for someone it went...☆

Pomni recalled the adventure he mentioned. The thought of it still made her shudder. But Caine was referring to something else... She remembered not too long after that adventure she had a conversation with Zooble about what they did while- hold on...

♧A-hah! I think I have something!♧

The pair returned to the audience, now with a plan actually in mind.

♧Sorry for the wait, everyone. Your adventure today is...♧

The Ring-Misstress snapped several times until letters finally appeared overhead.

♧The... SkatePark!! Objective? None today, just- skate? And... if not- hang out, I guess? Uhm... right!!♧

With another snap, the circus crew (Plus Voz) AND the new players were given helmets and knee and elbow pads. Pomni made her way to the main cast.

♧Now, YOU guys have the most Important job! What IS said job? Supervising our new friends, of course!! You could participate in the adventure if you wish, or you can just sit and watch at the sidelines. No pressure! As long as we have each and everyone of you-♧

She paused as she realized someone was missing. Zooble was already making their way to their room. Pomni quickly met their side.

♧Zooble! I- I understand if you don't wanna go, but please, can ya hear me out?♧

Zooble stayed quiet for a moment.

◇Look, Pomni, I appreciate you trying, but I just... It's not your fault.◇

Pomni met them at eye level.

♧You don't have to say yes at all, but... just know we'd like to have you out there. Mostly to talk some sense into Jax, Heh. Besides, I think these kids might like you.♧

Zooble said nothing.

♧All I ask is this one time..?♧

◇... Between you and me, this is only so I can bash Jax's head in with a skateboard.◇

Zooble walked over to the rest of the crew, and Pomni followed suit. She rejoined at her position with Caine.

♧Wonderful!! Now that everyone is ready, your all free to go! The Portal should reopen In a couple hours! Have fun!!♧

The portal opened, and everyone stepped in, leaving Caine and Pomni. She beamed with an odd sense of pride, despite how childish she felt.

♧Our first official adventure!! How exciting! Right Cai-♧

Pomni looked down to see she had been clenching his hand all this time. The Ring-Misstress flushed red as she was brought back to reality.

♧Oh god, I- I'm really sorry. How long had I done that for??♧

She quickly pulled away. The ringmaster was silent for a moment.

☆...From when you introduced the adventure and when you sent then off☆

♧...Again, I'm sorry I was just so busy explaining the- ...why didn't you say anything?♧

Caine froze once again, even longer that before.

☆Well, I-! ...Diiidn't want to interrupt you! The exposition you gave was quite a mouthful (no pun intended), surely you would have lost track of your thought!☆

As if I already hadn't... She tried to keep the conversation going and forget about that.

♧Oh, right... the whole speech thing... too much??♧

☆Not at all! It was well thought out. And you put it together on a whim, which is pretty impressive!☆

The Ring-Misstress forced a smile.

♧Well I uh, I learned from the best, ahaha!...♧

She continued trying to change the subject.

♧So... What do you normally do while we're out on adventures??♧

☆...Nothing much, really. Usually prep the next adventure. That or I'd have to be with-☆

The Ringmaster paused completely.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The SkatePark was outdoors. It's ramps and bumps were made from realistic-looking concrete, but some of the greenery in the distance still looked cartoony. The Circus Crew sat at a few Nearby picnic benches.

This was Voz's first time outside of the tent. He made his way to a small patch of grass within the map, shaded by one of the trees. He sat there, picking at it until Ragatha and Kinger Hunched over to him.

□Hey there, little buddy! Whatcha doing?□

[Playin' in the grass.]

+Don't you wanna go play with the others?+

Cut to the players shouting "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" Watching Zooble and Jax hitting each other with their skateboards.

[They seem busy.]

□I... see. Well, are you liking the adventure?□

[... I like the grass]

Kinger joined him on the grass.

+Yaknow, I'm starting to like it too! They really put their attention to detail in this, huh kid?+

[We spent most of the work on the concrete.]

□Oh, you helped them make this?□

Voz tilted his head, curiously.

[No, why?]

□...er, nevermind.□

Just then, a tiny red and black spotted creature flew by and landed on a blade of grass in front of them.

+Oh, look! A ladybug! All the spots on its back kind of look like eyes!+

What Voz hadn't told them yet was that the players weren't very nice. They ridiculed him for his strange eyes. Being the youngest and an AI made him feel small. But looking at that ladybug and being in the grass made him feel less small. It had strange eyes, too.

[He looks like me.]

Kinger flinched at Voz's sudden words.

+GAH! Oh, hello Voz!+

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Ringmaster and his co-host viewed the cast from one of his all-seeing eyes.

☆Well, my dear, it looks like everyone's having a good time!☆

♧Really? ...huh.♧

☆You know how DID you get Zooble to join the adventure?? This "SkatePark" thing must be very mature!☆

♧No, Caine, it's not that. This is what I meant by mundane. There's no stakes, no objective, they can just relax.♧

☆Well, my red and blue friend, This "Mundane" formula for adventures was a great idea! I knew I picked the right partner!!☆

♧Uhh... thanks.♧

Pomni thought about the day she became Caine's assistant. It was a big step in her relationship towards him- ...her escape plan. Yeah.

But that didn't come without sacrifice.

♧Uh, Caine? I- I'm sorry about... Bubble.♧

Did he even feel empathy for that thing? Can he even feel empathy in general?

☆Oh, that's all in the past, dear! Why feel the need to apologize..?☆

♧I... I don't know. It's just... eversince we had to... yaknow... you've been acting kinda... different?♧

The ringmaster stammered through his words.

☆M-me?? Different?? Now, why would I be different, especially after Bubble's disappearance?? It'sdefinitelynotlikeIthadaneffectonmeoranythingAHAHAHA-☆

Caine's WackyWatchTM alarm went off

☆Oh, would you look at the time! The adventure is over! Time to retrieve our crew!!☆

He quickly snapped and teleported them back to the stage, just as the Portal reopened.

♧Uh, Welcome back!! Seems like everyone enjoyed the adventure?♧

Plauge: Never thought I'd say this, but yeah, actually.

Aki: You're just saying that because their was violence and bloodshed...

Plauge: And?

♧...Well, thank you for your feedback!♧

Pomni brought her attention to the circus crew once again.

♧And thank YOU all for helping! All of you. You guys are free to go!♧

She flashed a thumbs up at Zooble as they walked away.

♧Well, thanks again for being here. Come again! I guess we'll, uhh... seeya!♧

The players walked out the tents front curtains, which led to the grounds. She quietly followed and peered behind it. She was there for a while until Caine eventually found her.

☆Oh, there you are! What're you-☆

A few feet in front of the tent was a big red door.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

WELL WHADDA YA KNOW? ITS BEEN- uh... almost 2 months... yay...

Yeah I don't know what's with Me and writing fics at night when I can't sleep.

I feel pretty proud of this chapter.

But honestly I'm not entirely sure how the next one is gonna go but I feel that way for all my works-

I know I said I had a comic planned, but I have been helping the family with Thanksgiving stuff (we celebrated a day late yippee) buuut now I might have more time!

Anywayyy uh feel free to leave asks if ya want and uhm byeee

I'm so tired-

[l-in-the-light]

Chapter 1130 commentary

I have been procrastinating about this one for a while, because... two weeks break for One Piece manga? Damn, that hits hard. But now I'm catching up with my commentary :D I kinda liked doing the poll last time so let's try it again :3

Now, it's time to reveal the answer from the last poll. Before the spoilers were out, people voted mostly for "Luffy saw someone he knows" option, but just before the chapter released the scales became 50-50, and after release "Elbaf" option won, no surprise there, lol. But what if I tell you the correct answer was actually option D (something else)? :D

Because look what he actually saw:

And you're thinking: he saw Elbaf! He said it himself, right? Everything is so huge! Yes, that's right, but in previous chapter he reacted with "ah" like it's something he didn't see in the castle itself but recognized as familiar, and he saw big things already inside the castle. So what caused him to have that huge smile?

Here you go, this is your answer. Now look at the picture of snowy landscape outside the castle and everything should be clear now ;)

Luffy really missed some snow! You might think, that's because he didn't see any for some time already, right? Actually... Immediately after leaving Drum Kingdom and going through way too hot Alabasta, Luffy wanted snow again. He got to see it again only at Punk Hazard (where he also meets Law, so it's two of his favourites together, no wonder Luffy was so thrilled all the time there, lol), and then nothing till Egghead. What do you mean Egghead? Don't you all remember? It's originally a winter island, so when they were approaching it, it was super cold and snowy!

So actually Luffy had some snow already just last arc/few days ago, but seems it's never enough for him, haha. He's already excited to see it again.

I gotta say it's interesting how Luffy loves snow so much while Law grew up in a snowy and cold North Blue. But this time I'm not here to speculate on Lawlu, let's move on with the commentary :D

I took that from the chapter's title page. Interesting how the houses only in Amigasa Village have those kind of roofs made out of straw in a form of a komuso hat. Law wore one just like that in Wano, to hide his identity. It's also a real thing that travelling samurai who turned monks used to wear in Japan. Too bad we never learned anything more about Amigasa Village, besides the fact they weave hats made of straw, apparently. The name of the village itself, Amigasa, is also a name of a hat made of straw and used for some traditional folk dances. Seems Amigasa's bond to weaving hats out of straw runs very deeply. Too bad we couldn't stay in Wano forever.

I kinda adore the fact they said Rodo would be happy to be called "the shame of Elbaf". Rodo is more quirky than we thought he is, and he was already pretty quirky when he got introduced to us in his full roleplaying glory in last chapter. Whatever you say about him, you just gotta respect that this guy would wear the title of "shame of Elbaf" like a badge of honor :D also if you love Strawhats outfits in Elbaf you should never forget who made them for them. That's right, our guy Rodo himself, with his own nerdy roleplaying hands :D you should be grateful to him!

Oh, so it's a regular thing Rodo actually does, he steals intruders to play with them like living dolls in his lego city. Omg. I already thought that might be the case, but it's kinda funnier when it's confirmed now. I wonder what the Giants do with the intruders normally, when those don't land in Rodo's RPG dungeon. They just mention "we will let Elder Jarul (whoever that is) know as soon as we find them", hm. Seems Hajrudin's group is responsible of taking care of intruders. This kinda lowkey shows that Hajrudin has quite a lot of authority or at least responsibilites.

Luffy of course wants to immediately go and say hi. To be honest, if his crew trusted his instinct more often, most of One Piece arcs wouldn't even happen the way they did, lol. Especially Dressrosa. Imagine if Luffy asked people if it's true Mingo abdicated, just like he wanted to do at the very start. And here as well, this decision of Strawhats not to trust Luffy's guts, is gonna have bigger consequences.

Just wanted to point out the "..." bubble. Why is it even here? Is someone again withholding some information from us, the readers? And why in this moment? If it was Strawhats thinking "Rodo won't answer you, we knocked him out", it could have been shared with us, it's not any new piece of information after all. Curious.

Appreciation moment for the Strawhats getting through their rope bridge challenge :D Chopper is carrying Nami, helping her and reassuring her as well! Zoro is taking the lead while Sanji tries to stick to Nami instead, in case she would need him. Poor Usopp, shivering from fear there, lol. Let's take a closer look at him.

Poor, poor Usopp! He's trying his best, okay??

A cute Zoro-Luffy moment. Zoro immediately notices that something caught Luffy's attention and Luffy shares without losing a beat, expecting Zoro to know exactly what he means. They're best buddies ever since the beginning of the manga and it's never gonna change or get forgotten :3

Cute Zosan moment. Even before Zoro declares what he wants to do, suddenly Sanji catches up to him, grabs him and denies him. By this point, Sanji can perfectly read Zoro's mind already and reacts in time before Zoro says what he wants to do, lol. Let's be real, Sanji probably figured him out exactly when Zoro asked Luffy "what's wrong".

Many people point out that those two grew really close in Elbaf, and I totally agree. Before WCI it was mostly Zoro closing the distance between them, now it's reversed. Perhaps Sanji learned to appreciate their bond in more open way than before (as in: he's holding back less, not just feeling suddenly more affection towards Zoro, he had it for a while already), because he knows now how it feels to almost lose it and be afraid to never see any of them ever again. In WCI he was convinced he won't be coming back to Sunny, after all.

Another mystery solved. So that was the "wild beast" they heard "roaring". Interesting that they heard Loki even when locked inside a castle, hm. Maybe it's because Loki is tied up to Yggdrasil and whenever Yggdrasil shakes it affects the whole Elbaf? Just like the giants in the detention centre said, world will crumble if Yggdrasil gets burned or damaged.

Let's look at the rest of the crew still left at sea. The Reliable Four, lol. It's funny because they're indeed the most dependable ones in Luffy's crew and they're all together here. Franky looks great in those clothes, Jinbei is of course hard at work, Robin's full of hope and confidence (which is always infinitely heartouching to see!), and Brook... Brook, when he's together only with the adults of the Strawhats, actually behaves very responsibly and sane, not even cracking his usual skull jokes and he's providing helpful arguments. Brook definitely knows how to be serious and seems he does that depending on who he is stranded with at the moment :D

This reminds me of Tekking's comment about One Piece world; just like our real world, it's affected by it's own inflation rates, lol. I might be laughing at that, but actually this is a remarkable tiny detail that adds to the worldbuilding and makes this universe feel really alive. At the end of the day, it actually follows similar rules to our own reality, hm.

Also poor Dorry and Brogy, they're not used to shanenigans of this world. They did kinda spend 100 years dueling on Little Garden, cut off from the current events. I guess they will have to postpone their duel to death ;)

I can't with this photo collage. Imagine writing a story about Luffy viciously murdering Vegapunk, but you print THESE photos to illustrate it, lol. Luffy laughing happily and Vegapunk doing some silly face. Way to prove your point there, Morgans. I bet he was snickering to himself when he was choosing photograps to this particular article, lol. That guy has some silly sense of humour, I gotta give him that.

Everyone figured it out almost immediately, but I will still say it. Yep, this mark was probably drawn on the photograph itself by no one else but Vivi. She couldn't stop the press or force Morgans to change his article, but she managed to smuggle in a message of her own and it's meant for Luffy and Strawhats. It's the very same X mark they showed to themselves when parting ways at the end of Alabasta, the symbol of their unity, friendship and belonging to same crew.

Vivi is hoping that it can give the Strawhats idea as to where she is (hiding at Morgans), but also this is her way of telling them not to worry and that she's alive and well. She knows it's officially reported she's missing and she knows Luffy and Nami well and expects them to be very worried. Of course it also a sign proving her loyalty and showing that she's still one of them and didn't forget, and that she probably really wishes they could all reunite soon. A pretty clever message :)

Of course Franky, Brook and Jimbei have no idea about any of it, because they joined much, much later. Robin seems to recognize it, but she was their enemy at the time, so she has a very vague idea. Brook reaction is quite puzzling though, he's keeping his thoughts to himself, and a bubble with three dots appears for the second time this chapter. I wonder what does Brook know here and why isn't he saying anything outloud. Could it be that when Robin said "it seems familiar", Brook is actually thinking the same thing? I wonder why would it feel familiar to him, was the X mark used for something else in times before Roger sailed the seas?

Seems this is officially the moment when Luffy reaches similar standing to Shanks, interesting. They point it out to us, to make sure we won't miss it, hm?

You gotta admit Lilith can be a little shit sometimes, lol. They indeed risked their lives to save the Vegapunks, but she's joking at it so lightheartedly now like it's no biggie, and finds this whole situation simply amusing. I wonder if that's a hint towards Vegapunk's own sense of humour as well, if so, he was quite a curious fella.

Huh, interesting. So Elbaf works on rule of seniority, which seems more important than whatever a royalty wants. They're even excused at calling him just a whipper-snapper, huh. That explains why an Elder was mentioned before, Elders must be the ones who actually hold the power in Elbaf. Anyway, seems the oldest Giants are the ones that always get priority in any matters.

The phrase "Trouble in Elbaf" is also interesting. We know that Elbaf is a nation of war or even birthplace of war. Is Hajurdin's task to stop any inside wars from happening? Is that the usual job description of a King's son? This is already not what I would have expected from their political system. It's possible that king in Elbaf isn't even the highest position, from the sounds of it, or at least not in the terms of having absolute power.

And then they mention Loki, another prince of Elbaf. Seems this one is really strong, if all the warriors had to work together to catch him up and chain him. Apparently he's not right in the head, killed his own father (the king, which means Elbaf currently doesn't even have the king! It's likely Elders are governing over the country now, at least till new King will step up), apparently because of some legendary devil fruit (what's that fruit? your guess is as good as mine, but if it's a nod to Odin then I kinda expect a flying type fruit).

But is Loki really as bad as they paint him here? Let's see, he tried to flee because they wanted to crucify him, I mean... who wouldn't flee for their life in that scenario? Especially if he thought he had a chance to actually escape.

The most curious part is them calling him "accursed prince" from the moment of his birth. Sounds to me like either fate was at hand (Loki was simply born under worst combination of stars) or his birth was prophetized. Perhaps even before he was born someone with clairvoyant powers could already predict Loki will bring the end to Elbaf. The person in question himself says he will destroy "the whole world", but I don't exactly believe it. In Rodo's little miniature of Elbaf it was enough to destroy Yggdrasil to destroy the world. Since we now know that Elbaf is literally located in most part on the tree itself, damaging it in any way would lead to the end of the country, so it would be the end of the world but only for the giants who live on Elbaf. Apparently pirate giants crews are a rarity which means most Elbaf giants live on Elbaf their whole lives. We know there are other giants in the world, but they're not very common, unless Saul tells us more about any sort of giants communities outside Elbaf.

I can't help but symphatize with Loki personally. We heard of "accursed" people before while they themselves did nothing to deserve being called this way. We had Duval who was born "cursed" just because of his looks (I wonder if swirly eyebrow was part of the reason, actually), and we had Doflamingo calling Luffy's D bloodline as "cursed". So far no one who was called "cursed", especially since their birth, be it for their looks or a single letter in their name, didn't turn out to be a bad person. And that's why I'm willing to give Loki a benefit of the doubt. I don't know his actual story, but so far it sounds to me like he was subjected to crucifixation for something that was never his fault: being born with "a curse".

As to why he killed his father, I have no clue, but it's possible it was the king who gave the order to crucify Loki. Maybe Loki had no other choice. I'm sure we will find out what's exactly the deal with that, for now I will refrain from blindly guessing around, but the things I already deduced does seem rather logical so far.

Now this is interesting. Why would Loki be called shame of Elbaf? Again, Duval was also shamed for something that wasn't his choice: his appearance (and possibly a swirly eyebrow), and he was made to wear a helmet (though that was probably mostly thanks to the wanted poster of Sanji at the time). Speaking of Sanji, he was also called Judge's greatest shame, and why was that? Oh right, because he was an empathetic, weak human. He was a child that didn't meet the expectations, was told to work 10 times harder than his siblings to catch up, but Sanji was more interested in cooking instead. What if Loki is the same? He might be simply not meeting his own father's expectations. We know he wanted to marry Lola, a human, and perhaps that's frowned upon (if Rodo's reaction about Giants working under humans is anything to go by).

It's also sort of implied Giants kidnap humans who try to approach Elbaf. Hajrudin's group mentioned that they're on guard against "intruders" and since we know already Elbaf Giants don't really leave the island much, the intruders can mean only one thing: humans. I'm not sure I like this implication. I guess Strawhats are safe, because they're treated like an exception, the same with Shanks and his fleet.

I have a feeling that maybe Loki isn't such a bad guy after all if he likes humans more than the rest of the giants. Now Hajrudin also likes *some* humans like Strawhats, but I doubt it expands to all mankind, they're probably an exception for him as well. Meanwhile it's possible Loki simply likes humans and wishes for Elbaf to be openly welcoming to them. That would put an end to the current order of things in Elbaf, but would that be enough to call it "end of the world"? Yeah, maybe that's not yet the full story.

And there he is! He looks sooo cool, not like that weird blob from Lola's memories, just look at him, lol:

You gotta ask how close to the truth this depiction even was. Would other Giants really be so overjoyed and would Loki really give Lola a flower? Heh. He's got that air of a gentle giant who wouldn't even hurt a fly, huh.

One thing worth noting is that he has his eyes covered, which could suggest he indeed inherited some dangerous powers from his father (in mythology it was actually Odin who lost one eye in exchange for wisdom, so he could see everything that happens in the world and understand the hidden truths. The mentioned wisdom was ability to understand runes, btw). We know in mythology Loki is said to be the god of deceit and trickery though, so it doesn't exactly line up. It's also worth noting that he has something under the bandages, we can see part of the helmet sticking out, it reminds me of Hajrudin's helmet:

Anyway, Elbaf is hinted to be a story about brothers fighting each other for power, which would be Loki against Hajrudin. I wonder if there will be a twist to it somehow. Will Loki turn out to be the trickster everyone expects him to be? He does stick out his tongue in similar way to another trickster we know of, Doflamingo, heh. Just look at it:

And also let's appreciate the cool country Elbaf is. It's basically just mountains beneath the tree's trunk, then a whole land supported by the branches. Many people speculate there will be a sky island up there, at the very top (though the top of the tree looks like it's covered in snow, like a summit!). There are waterfalls on that tree, that is really cool. And there's a huge ass sword, and you know it could have belonged only to some ancient giant, damn. There is also some huge ass castle in the branches to the left of the picture, probably the place where the king lived. We can also see some huge buildings and smaller settlements, the latter seems to look like the houses in Big Mom's story, I mean those:

And there are some cannons at the end of the branches as well, hanging high in the air, interesting! I wonder how much of this country we will end up seeing. It's kinda odd that we're going to start the arc with an explosion though (releasing Loki, because we all expect that to happen, right?). No other arc started with a big bang like that before, are we really going that route now?! Very unusual, maybe one big event will chase another, like in Hitchcock's movies, if releasing Loki is our starting point and not one of the peak moments of the arc, haha.

We reached the end of my yapping about the chapter, now I wanna share my sad reflection about Elbaf at the end. Remember this comment Oda said in latest Jump Festa?

"If Luffy and crew manage to make it out of Egghead safe and sound…do you think they might go to…THAT island? I mean, I thought up a route for them that doesn’t involve it but…I'm not sure I could stop Luffy, even if I wanted to."

Many people thought Oda meant Elbaf when he said "THAT island", but since we are on Elbaf now and Oda clearly had to go through many weird loopholes to get this result (kidnapping Strawhats ship, RPG session with Rodo, the Green Fairy), I start to think he really *wanted* the crew to go to Elbaf instead and tried his best to bend the story to make it happen. So what was the island he didn't want Luffy to go to, it it wasn't Elbaf?

My bet is Hachinosu. We almost actually got that result, if only the newspaper dropped when the crew was all together. Luffy would then learn that Law lost to Blackbeard and he would go to give him payback for him - it would be his last straw, he already has enough beef with Blackbeard to pick up this fight. But Oda, by kidnapping half of the Strawhats, made sure that Luffy doesn't learn the news just yet and so would go on an adventure in Elbaf, just like Oda wanted him to all along.

I mean, it does make kinda sense, doesn't it?

I wonder what the struggle to obtain THAT thing could be. Law's hat? LOL. Indeed if Blackbeard took it after the battle (and you know he totally did, to keep as a trophy and to bait Law), then that hat will become Hachinosu's biggest treasure. Pfff.

Anyway, it was sitting on my mind for at least a month already, so I'm glad I could get it out of my head finally. I still can't believe Oda didn't make Law reappear even for one frame in his birth month... I feel betrayed :(

[nientedal]

Disclaimer: I'm speaking as a person who's only been in the Megamind fandom for almost 8 years, so I'm not, like, an OG 2010-2011 fan. HOWEVER... I find it interesting that from what I've been seeing, the people loudly complaining about the sequel content are mostly newer fans. People who've been fans for at least 6+ years are hyping this UP and being optimistic despite the flaws. I'm just like "u haven't been here that long, can we stop shitting all over it before it's even PREMIERED?? GOD"

It really is funny that the vast majority of people who are screaming like Dreamworks shot their dog are, yeah, people whose names I've never heard. Not on Tumblr, not on Twitter, not in AO3 or ffnet comments. Don't get me wrong, I've seen a couple of the old Livejournal crew who are unhappy, but even they haven't been spewing vitriol (that I've seen). For the most part, those of us who are actually active in this fandom are ecstatic! And it's not a length of time thing, either - there's new folks kicking around who are just as excited as the rest of us!

I'd say I hate to say it, but I'd be lying - the people who are the angriest about Megamind Rules are the people who wouldn't care if it existed or not in the first place. They're people who watched Megamind and enjoyed it, but didn't enjoy it enough to be excited for more unless it meets their personal standards. They didn't enjoy it enough to look for fanworks, they didn't enjoy it enough to say anything. I'll buy that they do care...but they don't care enough to try to see any joy in this.

They don't care enough to look anything up before sneering at the Doom Syndicate for being a "retcon" despite the massive amount of material out there supporting both the Doom Syndicate's existence and this plot (big "thank you" to some chucklefuck YouTuber in particular for that one). They don't care enough to stop and consider if there might be budget concerns for an IP Dreamworks was totally radio silence on for more than a decade. They don't care about who's writing it, or who's on the production or voice acting teams. They only care about jumping on the hate train, and I am FURIOUS about it, because I am scared to death that Dreamworks is gonna shitcan this before it even gets released. If that happens, I will be a level of angry that defies description. Because the people who did not fucking care one way or the other will have killed it, and the people who loved this story enough to be excited to see more will have nothing. Again. Newer people in this fandom who are bitching might not have the background to realize this, but if this is killed right out of the gate, THERE WILL BE. NOTHING. ELSE. When I say "radio silence" I mean Dreamworks all but refused to even LOOK at Megamind, for more than a decade.

That's not even getting into how much of a slap in the face it would be to the team who worked so hard on this. If anything could gut me hard enough to kill my desire to write anymore, it'd be that; I can't even imagine how the writers and voice actors and animators might feel in that event. I hope we never find out.

But yeah, uh, tldr: can we not fucking shit on something that literally has not even premiered, seriously. Can these joyless shitbirds PLEASE do something that sparks joy for them instead of shitting on something that sparks joy for others, goddamn. The animation looks fine, y'all are just mean.

[thebunniesgrim]

Helluva boss needs to slow down  

I know I know take of the century I'm so big brained  

What I mean is the show is too excited  

Its given us some good episodes sure but goodness  

(You just can’t top Ozzie's there will never be a better episode and I'm trying cope frankly)  

I understand that as a show grows older and is still in development things change visions shifts yeah, I got it.  

But Viv has said that that she plans for Helluva Boss to have multiple seasons like at least 3 or so she has time to work out all her ideas  

Why is she rushing?   

like slow down babes the show isn't going anywhere

This show is so excited to get to the fun stuff they don’t want to build it up. They want Stolas and Blizto’s slow burn and love story but don’t want to really build them up as people outside their relationship or even together in the relationship. anytime blitzo and Stolas hangout together its whenever some other 3rd party is around. In LooLoo Land its Octavia, in Ozzie's its moxxie and Millie, and in Seeing Stars its Octavia again I mean at this point she’s the catalyst for their relationship. When they don’t have someone else involved its sex for the book. Bltzo and Stolas haven't hanged out in a meaningful way. Without sex  

I saw in a tumbler post that in the Helluva boss poster the fact that Stolas is bigger on the poster than the main characters who are small and off to the side. It really tells you how the show is going so far.  

And it's true so?  

If you knew nothing about Helluva boss and saw that poster you’d think Stolas was a main character, the protagonist, or the villain.  

Stolas is in 90% of the episodes and is a side/supporting character, at least that’s what the wiki says.  

A supporting character is supposed to not be important to the main plot but still helpful to the protag  

The folks behind Helluva boss are picking favorites and you can tell in the eps  

How come we didn’t get to Moxxie’s family life till season 2? a main character! But we got to see Stolas family life? A supporting character? and we see his wife her reaction to the cheating, his daughter and her view on the situation. But we don’t know about Moxxies family till season 2 or Millies family where it’s dropped to focus on Moxxie and Striker and the pain games (Sally Mae wasn’t in the pain games).  

Helluva boss made it seem like from episode one it was going to be about a trio of imps and a hellhound going to the human world to kill people for sinners and how many times did they do that? Let's see 

Murder family   

C.H.E.R.U.B. 

Truth seekers off screen at the being (I'm assuming because why would they be on earth as a group? the only people I think who’d go on earth to fuck around is Blizto and Loona)  

And  

Ozzie's off screen at the beginning  

Imp has only done their job like what? A few times? On screen that we’ve seen  

The synopsis of the show says according to IMDb says: 

And then the wiki says:  

Like what is this show about? because we haven't got what we were promised like?  

Like I get that helluva Boss is a satirical show and we aren't supposed to really be reading into it but what is it satirizing? hell? Office shows? What?  

Even “edge” adult shows have some semblance of structure or plot you know? Like Rick and Morty or smiling friends (can't wait for more episodes tbh) 

Rick and Morty didn't have an episode about not physically going to alternate universe still what? Ep 8 season 1? I could be wrong  

And Smiling Friends didn’t have Pim and Charlie do their job (I.e., making someone smile) still the Halloween episode or if you don’t count holiday episodes. Episode 5 Who Violently Killed Simon S. Salty   

They stick to the structure of the show for a few episodes and then do other stuff you know?  

Helluva boss was like nah speed run! And did the other stuff in the second episode and didn’t return to it till ep 4. I don’t count Spring Broken because it doesn’t really feel like they're doing their job basically it's not the same set up of sinner comes to them, tell them back story, they go to earth shenanigans ensue, and they kill the target. They've only done their job twice on screen  

Even non adult shows like  

Wonder Over Yander (I'd love another season) they don’t have a story not about Wonder or Syliva till season 1 episode 7 about Westley  

Steven Universe didn’t have a townie episode till episode 5  

In the episodes about killing, we could have gotten more intel on how the characters feel about their job. How they feel about each other and stuff  

Also, this show can't take plot points seriously or do good foreshadowing or set up  

Ok so Ozzie’s my favorite episode I love it :) 

But  

So stolas and Bilzto have a falling out in the end of the episode.

gasp drama!  ikr?

But here’s the thing they messed up the flow with Seeing Stars let me explain (studios)  

It makes since to me that they wouldn’t talk the next episode sure give them time to stew in their misery. sure  

So, the next episode is Queen Bee, then The Circus all goes good gives us some backstory cool  

it's going well... Until  

Uh no

Oops

Fuck 

Seeing Starts where Stolas and Blizto are just talking to each other like normal like nothing is happening between them  

and  

Don’t say they're worried about Octivia because if that’s the problem they get sidetracked so much and Stolas just forgets about his daughter.  

Like instead of just killing the humans stopping them from getting to Octivia. you're telling me that Blizto couldn’t shoot the van door open? Or overtook the drivers and drove around LA?  

Press x to doubt bitch  

Also, the fact that Stolas “has his ways” to find blitzo without his book he couldn’t use that to find Octavia? Really?  

I'm starting to think they aren't royalty. More like upper middle class you know that family with a 2 story house and pool you feel me?  

Because you're telling me that you “need” security to a theme park but you're only child and heir is out here magically unsupervised? wow  

Also, Stolas hasn’t taught Octava how to use the book. You would think that with how many hits he has out for his head he’d teach Octavia to use the book by now. Stolas started when he was like 7? Just saying  

Anyways what I'm saying is they fucked up the flow for western energy.  

If they didn’t have Seeing Stars there it would have been fine frankly  

Also  Stolas getting hospitalized and being fine in Opps was much a slap in face  

Like homeboy was fucked up right?  

Like leg messed up  

arm broken  

he was stab! With a holy weapon!  

And 1 episode later he’s fine... what? You almost died dude! Are you not traumatized? Worried about your daughter? No? Ok.  

And then the conflict in Ozzie's gets resolved through text  

>laugh track<

Also set up for like villains is kinda screwy  

So, first 

Villains we haven't seen again  

The Cherubs and D.O.R.K.S. we haven’t seen then since episode 4 and 6 respectively we don’t know where they are or what they're up to at all.  

The cherubs are a direct conflict to they’re business and the dorks are literally a threat if they catch them all of hell is in trouble and Stolas, Blizto, Moxxie, Mille and Loona (possibly Octivia and Stella if they know about it) are like fucked and will most likely be killed by higher ups for putting everyone in danger. Idk seems more important than Blizto and Stolas sex life  

(Also, if heaven and hell exist for a fact does that mean in the Helluva and Hazbin verse does that mean there are people in hell who didn’t believe in the Christan God? Also, what if they were good people? no wonder hells overcrowded) 

It's fine if they did a villain of the week thing like the powderpuff girls but in PPG the villains came back! No matter how irrelevant or lame (unless it’s the cooties kid then sure also did that episode make anyone else uncomfortable as a kid?)  

Now Villains that did comeback 

Striker, Stella and Crimson or the S.S. Crim. as I call them  

heh you know like a boat :)

So stella was obviously a villain from the start but she didn’t openly threat stolas till Western energy as well as Striker that was his grand entrance. So stella and striker were a threat and stella didn’t show back up still and pose a threat till like 4 or 5 episodes later. Striker didn’t come back till like what 7 or 8 episodes later lol and Crimson only had to wait 2 episodes to come back. Quickest we have so far honestly.  

(also, we were rob of more robot Fizz I like the way they made his voice it was fun to listen to)  

And the reason they came back is because they're popular! And favorites of the fandom and the writers and the creator  

No one's making horny fan edits of the dork agents no one's putting the cherubs in their favorite characters list unless its Collon because Collon is cutest of the 3 so... they got that going for them  

But other than that  

They most likely aren't coming back and if they do color me surprised  

The show keeps setting up problems and setting up major events then just not doing anything with them  

Like?  

If Helluva Boss slowed down then Western energy could have been a perfect way to wrap up Ozzie's, made a call back to Blitzo’s trip in Truth Seekers, and foreshadowed Oops.  

Imagine  

The episodes are  

Ozzie's(the best episode) , Queen Bee, circus, (get rid of Seeing stars put it in season one or hold off) Exes and Oohs, then western energy 

Give Stolas and Blizto some room to brood over what happened at Ozzie's  

(throw unhappy campers somewhere in there if you have too)  

Stolas moxxie and Mille just got done fighting Striker to save Stolas (so many s’ in one place lol) or better yet Blizto by himself saving Stupid ass I mean Stolas. Oops sorry  

Because let's be honest the hospital scene was unneeded and Moxxie and Millie could have took Loona to the hospital. It wasn’t a bonding moment between Loona and Blizto it was a waste of animation and time.  

Blizto (and the M&M’S) are fighting Striker having some witty banter back and forth. Striker playing into Blizto’s insecurity about the relationship with Stolas to the point the background of the cave is becoming goopy before fixing itself and they win agent striker as he flees to spouts “I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!” setting up his return in Oops before one more cheap shot at Stolas maybe dropping a stalactite on Stolas or shooting Stolas with Holy bullet in a place that’s not fully lethal.  

Have stolas think he’s actually going to die from his injuries to keep Stolas from passing out or to stay conscious or whatever have Blizto talk to him (if moxxie and Mille are there have them drive and Blizto is the back with stolas). Stolas is using what little life he has left to apologies to Blizto fully say he’s sorry for getting him in this situation, sorry he put in a situation he doesn’t want to be in for his business, sorry for being embarrassed at Ozzie’s, sorry for treating him like a play toy. Yada yada yada yada  

Have Blizto be covered in the goop from his trip and have some of it drip on Stolas. The person he views as untouchable and clean being corrupted and stained by his goop.  

Have Blizto try to reassure Stolas that he’s going to be ok and that he’s not going to lose him too. Have green flames subtly lick at the background and foreground as he stares at stolas slowly dying. He’s going to lose him but he’s not going to let what he has with Stolas slip from him like his mother, sister, Fizz, Verosika, etc. He’s going to save him like he couldn’t save his mom or Fizzarolli. maybe have the voices from truth seekers whisper failure, loser, and other demeaning things to bilzto.  

Have Blitzo declare he isn't going to let Octavia go through what he went through with the loss of his mom. When they get to the hospital and help is on the way have Blizto about to say something to him like “we’re at the hospital everything is going to be ok” before his sentence cuts off and Stolas is unconscious and unresponsive. Have Blizto yell his name a few times heart broken and worried as the nurses and doctors whisk him away. And a single feather from stolas falls infront of Blitzo as he whispers “please be ok” or a soft sorry  

But hey I’m not writer or showrunner so hey what do I know  

¯\_(ツ)_/¯