#now now that it's popular again everyone suddenly remembers how much they loved it

[emeraldskulblaka]

.

[taeghi]

casual | teaser

full release : read here

you thought you could handle being casual with notorious fratboy!heeseung, but when feelings get involved, you soon realize that 'casual' isn't so simple.

PAIRING : fratboy!heeseung x reader

GENRE : smut, fwb to lovers, enemies? to lovers?? & a little angst?? + 5 smut scenes lol

WC : probs 20k

taglist : ???

YOU LOVE CASUAL SEX.

you've always prided yourself on being the type who keeps things casual. it's not that you're afraid of commitment; rather, you find comfort in the simplicity of fucking and then never seeing the person again. there’s no messy entanglements or feelings. it’s a way to satisfy your desires without the emotional baggage that comes with more serious relationships.

you’d rather be alone, but you still have fun with your friends when you go out. you've never been content with surface-level explanations or shallow interactions. you crave depth, in people and experiences. which you have found to be, truthfully, hard in today’s day and age. 

you’re sensitive to most things, so you try to cover it up– protect yourself– with all the partying, the drinking, the sex. 

and tonight, like every other normal friday night; you’re at a party. 

there’s a familiar thump of music and loud chatter around you that you’ve grown accustomed to. yooyeon and gracie, your closest friends are an inseparable couple, are by your side. they've been together for what feels like forever, the kind of relationship that makes you simultaneously envious and relieved you're not in a relationship.

as you continue to sip your drink, yooyeon leans in with her knowing smile, “so, y/n,” teases, “have you decided when you’re gonna settle down? find yourself a nice guy and stop with all these one night stands?” 

you roll your eyes playfully, used to this conversation. "never," you reply with a grin, "casual hookups forever, remember?"

gracie chuckles, shaking her head fondly. "come on, yn," she chimes in, her voice warm with affection, “you know it’s gonna have to get boring at some point.” 

you shrug nonchalantly, though their words do make you pause for a moment. "maybe someday," you concede, though deep down, you're not so sure. relationships have never been your thing, and the thought of settling down feels suffocating.

"come on, yn," yooyeon nudges you gently, her expression softening, "we love you just the way you are. but don't close yourself off to the possibility, okay?"

you nod, grateful for their understanding. deep down, you know they're right—they always are. but for now, you want to find someone to relieve the ache that’s been in your core all day. 

you turn to gracie, the one who always knows all the drama on your college campus, “who is here that i can hook up with?” 

gracie rolls her eyes and looks around the crowded frat house, “hm,” she thinks outloud, “well jeongin and bella broke up this week…” 

you shake your head, “too soon, i don’t want to be a potential rebound for him.” 

yooyeon scoffs and continues to drink, listening to your guys’ conversation. 

“how about,” gracie, “mark? he’s real chatty though.”

you groan, “then no.”

gracie goes on a small list of people that she sees around, but none of them suffice. none of them are your type or seem to be able to satisfy you. you tell your friends that you’re going to go get another drink– you’ll need one. 

the kitchen table has a handful of drinks to choose from. there’s punch and beer and vodka, half of it has been spilt all over said table. 

“the punch is good,” a voice suddenly says from beside you. 

when you turn, you instantly recognize him– he’s one of the frat boys that lives in this house, maybe the most popular one of them all. 

lee heeseung stands beside you with an air of confidence that is probably more on the cocky side. his posture is relaxed yet demeaning. his hair is tousled and his clothes give off a carefree attitude. 

pretty much everyone at your college knows lee heeseung from his parties, his stories, the multiple girls he has slept with. you’ve heard enough stories about him to write an entire book, yet his entire persona is more annoying than appealing to you. his entire act is one that you’ve seen played out too many times before. 

“good to know,” you say and grab a beer instead. 

heeseung raises his eyebrow at your choice, “i’m heeseung.” his voice is smooth and cuts through the noise of the party. 

you take a sip of your beer, “i know who you are.” you reply bounty, not bothering to hide your disinterest.

intrigued by your coldness, “right,” he acknowledges with a smirk, “and i know who you are.” 

“congrats," you say dryly, with a fake excitement to your tone. 

heeseung suddenly leans in closer to you and whispers into your ear, his voice low, "you're the girl who only does casual sex, right?"

you're taken aback by his boldness, but there's a flicker of curiosity in your eyes. "i might be,"

heeseung smirks down at you at your answer. you let yourself think that maybe the notorious fuckboy is pretty handsome. his complexion seemingly glows, his eyes are full of a flirty playfulness, and his smile is charming enough. 

“well, do you wanna have casual sex with me?” 

if it wasn’t lee heeseung standing in front of you, you would be surprised. 

instead, you let out a groan, your face contorts in disgust, “god no.” 

heeseung tilts his head, “why not? i thought you were into that.” 

“because you’re like a walking std.” 

instead of getting offended like you had hoped, heeseung bursts out laughing in the middle of the kitchen, his eyes squinting. 

"damn, straight to the point," he manages between chuckles, clearly amused by your blunt response. 

you roll your eyes, trying not to let his laughter get under your skin. "just being honest," you retort, though there's a hint of begrudging amusement in your tone. 

“i’ll see you around, y/n.” 

you turn on your heel, your back already faced him when you reply, “no, you won’t.”

@ taeghi, 2024. do not repost or reuse in anyway.

PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU ENJOY, AS LIKES MAKE IT HARD FOR WORK TO BE SPREAD AND ENJOYED BY OTHERS :)

stay safe everyone :)

[iloveaustinelvisandmannymore]

For the person, who requested the bullies König and Horangi I accidentally deleted the ask 😔 but! I tried to write down all that I remember and I think it's pretty much all of it. I hope you enjoy it and to let you know how happy you made me with your wonderful kind words💜.

(Warnings: Non-con, Force blowjob, Oral (Fem), Breeding, Humiliation, Degradation, Bullying, Panty sniffing, Full nelson, Creampies, Squirting, Force handjob, Choking, Hair pulling,)

This is dark! If this is not your thing please move past it. You don't have to hate on me just because you don't like what I write. I decided to make this a part one and put 2 because I feel like it would be too long if I didn't so.

Chewing on part of your bottom lip, you looked up at the building of the College you attended. Dark gray clouds dominated the usual blue sky, and the scent of rain heavily whiffed in the air. You huffed a sigh as you began to walk with your fellow students, you muttered thank you to the boy who was nice enough to open the bulky door for you as you watched the floor, squeezing your books more against your chest as you heard the hectic, loud chatter of friends meeting friends.

You hesitantly looked ahead and a few feet from your locker were the men who loved making your life miserable, you still felt the bruises from them holding your wrist too hard. König, the Star Quarterback and captain of the football team, and Horangi the most liked member of the basketball team. Both transfer students from different countries who became the populars of popular people. Horangi laughed and könig smiled as if someone must have made a good joke and like some sixth sense of torture, they looked your way, wicked smirks on their lips once they saw you.

Whoever was up there took pity on you and the ball rang, sparing you from their torturous ways, for now.

The ball rang for the last time, signaling the closing of the college and for everyone to head to their dorms. Slowly you packed your stuff, while the rest of your classmates hurried to leave your last class and go home. By the time you were walking to your locker, the hallway was bare of life, your footsteps brought a ghastly, eerie feeling to the otherwise silent path, it felt like you could hear your breathing echo around you.

You drop your backpack and shove your shelved books in it, sway it over your shoulder, and continue your journey to your dorm. Your yelp was muffed as a large hand clapped around your mouth and pulled you within a lightless janitor closet. "Don't scream unless you want to be hurt, Ja Liebling?" the austrian voice of one of your bullies purred from behind you and took his hand away. Horang stepped closer to you after turning on the light and reached out to move a stay hair behind your ear.

"P-please just let me g-go." you stuttered, heartbeat was beating like a drum in your ears. "No can do, sweetheart." König cooed, spun you around, forced you to your knees, fisted your hair, and shoved your face against his bulge, "Scheiße! Braves Mädchen! (fuck! good girl!)" he groaned, throwing his head back,  and squeezed his celeste eyes shut as he humped your cheek, in desperate strokes. "Such a good girl." Horangi purred in agreement as he replaced his best friend's hand and yanked your head back as König rushed to unbelt his pants and pulled them down, his girthy dick slapped his stomach from his fast movements. Your eyes widen at the sight, he is long, veiny, big, and has an uncut head. 

Both men chuckled and smiled wickedly at your terrified expression. König pumped his cock, pre-cum drooling out of the slit on his bulbous tip, suddenly he thrusted his dick into your maw and throat, you gagged harshly, you never sucked a dick before, and if you have it wouldn't be as huge.

Horangi pushed your head forward as König drew his hips back and snapped them, causing you to gag again. The salty/ sweet pre-cum overpowered your taste buds as König used your throat as a fleshlight, a mess of saliva and pre-cum pouring down your chin, his sticky heavy, full balls smacked your chin his ginger pubes dark and wet. They smelled a little bit musky an almost addiction scent.

You peaked through your eyelashes and the sight above you had your core heat up with slick. König'd broad chest heaved and sweat glued his usual fluffy and mid-ear cut hair to his forehead, his groans and moans high-pitched in tone. His thrusts fasten, his balls tighten, and unexpectedly robes of his warm cum, painted your mouth white and forced you to swallow every drop.

Once he pulled out after staying in place, you coughed have nearly choked on his jizz. You didn't have time to rest when you were lifted from your spot on the tiled floor and pushed into Horangi's chest "Forgot about me,여자 아기? (babygirl)". He pouted before taking off your shirt, bra, and skirt and when he got to your panties, he took a deep whiff of the crotch area, his honey-brown eyes rolling back in his head as he inhaled the tang of your arousal. 

You whimper as your body begins to heat up at the pervy vision of his clear satisfaction.

When your form was completed naked you shoved back into his taller, giant companion. Your back against his chest, your legs now in his forearms and hands behad your head as he lined his cock with your opening "Don't worry Schatz, I'm gonna fuck this whore of cunt till you see Sterne. (Stars)" he said before dropping you down onto it, inch by inch buried into your cunt until he was balls deep. "Scheiße!(Fuck!)" König growled and drilled his cock up.  Each snap of his hips slammed his tip to your cervix, it was so fucking good! You aren't a virgin but they never had any good rhythm, never moved their hips at a good angle. You moaned feeling Horangi's pink tongue lapping at your clit, hooking into the hood and König jerked his cock at an angle that glazed your G-spot and cervix with powerful thrusts. Hornagi used the tip of his tongue to flick to his friend's movements before suckling in your swollen bud and the knot within broke, your pussy clenched and sprayed your juices onto König's dick and balls, a load of warmth filled with your cunt, thag must have been the groaning man that hold you in his arms cum. 

You panted but you didn't have the time to rest as your back touched the cool tile and your leg threw over Horangi's shoulder, eyes black and hair messy like he ran his fingers through to push back his bangs that stop semi-past his eyebrows, his blue jeans off and his dick hard. His was just as thick yet not as long as Königs, the head cut, and balls heavy, ready to pour his potent in a breedable hole. He wasted no time and slammed into your wet core, Horangi leaned down, and the very motion dug himself deeply, "Is our little toy ready to get her brains fucked out?" Horangi chuckled as you whined pathetically for him to move. A second chuckle joined with his, and  from your peripheral König kneeled by you, pumping his cock "Ja, she's already becoming a cock hungry whore for us." König grinned grabbed hold of your hand, and made your fist his large cock. You felt a wave of humiliation and embarrassment but that didn't last as Horangi began to jackhammer into you, grinding into your cervix, his now wet dark pubes became sticky with slick rubbed at your bud of nerves and that was enough to get your toes curling, your moans, and squeals was music to your bullies. Just as good as a song from your whimpers of pain when they hurt you.

"Goddamn bitch!" Horangi growled in pleasure, the feeling of your clenching cunt edged him closer to his climax, and he'd never admit but your pussy was the best he had so far. His pounding was harsh, fast , and precise, you gasped as he kissed you deeply, sneaking his tongue past your lips and swirling around yours. All the while König groaned at the sight, watching you become more and more cockdrunk, he bit his lip as he fucked your closed hand like your core.

With one thrust Hroangi spilled his seed into your already cum filled cunt his hips continued to jerk and stutter. You came with a powerful vengeance, your body couldn't handle it. And the void welcomed you into it's dark embrace.

(shout to @diejager and @konigsblog for making me addicted to these men)

[romanshomeonwattpad]

Girl in New York | FINAL PART

pairings - art donaldson/reader | challengers au!

"__"= Y/N

masterlist | last chapter

sypnosis - Art gives you an ultimatum.

warnings - none, angst

authors note — this is the last part!!! i hope everyone enjoyed this short fic. it was a fun journey to write a complex character such as this one. enjoy the last chapter and stay tuned for my other works in the future! (NOT PROOFREAD)

word count - 1.5k

© elliotsblunt 2024. do not repost, modify, or

You didn’t get to see your friend June before her game, so you took a seat in the front row and anxiously waited for her match. It hadn’t been your first time at a tennis event, and you very much enjoyed the sport. But the only reason you felt a strain of dread building within you was because of who else was playing today. But you tried your best not to think about it—you were sure Art had already played. Well….

…..you had hoped.

It was considerably sunny outside. The sun shined without mercy onto your slightly damp skin. Sunglasses perched on your nose, you took a sip of water to cool your nerves and throat.

And then a voice ran throughout the court on a microphone announcing the first set. A very thin man who was so pale you he was translucent walked into view. He must’ve been the one to go against your friend. You didn’t like to judge books by their covers, but considering he tripped while walking onto the court—you didn’t worry to much for June.

Speaking of her, she made her way onto her side of the court, wearing a cute lavender two-piece skirt set. You noted to ask her where she got it from before the game started. Her eyes briefly swelled the crowd before landing on you. You held your hand up and smile, in which she returned the gesture before beginning the game.

Her strokes were exquisite. You had suddenly remembered how talented she truly was. Apparently teaching academies for professional Tennis teams reach out to her to train the newbies—and that Puma uses her as one of their sponsors.

It was a quick game. After about thirty minutes, you had assumed correctly. She didn’t only beat him, but kicked his ass.

It was now the next set’s turn. June jogged off the court, smile beaming, as she wiped her sweaty sunkissed skin with her own white tiny towel. “Oh my god, _ _!” She pulls you into a sudden hug as you stand up. “I’m soooooo glad you made it. There’s this guy I wanted you to meet. He’s like, god level. I think he’s playing right now.”

You laugh, wind blowing your hair out your face. “I’d love to—but I doubt he’s better than you. I mean…you totally killed it out there for sure.”

June had pretty brown eyes, almost as if she was a bunny or baby deer. Very soft and youthful looking. She was really popular with the guys when you two trained together, even the instructor himself. You wouldn’t doubt the guy you’re about to watch flirted with her already. At your compliment, she grabbed your hands whilst her smile grew even bigger if possible. “I’ve missed you so much. We should def hang together more often! Once again, you don’t understand how much it means to me that you came.”

You smiled at June before the match begun. The announcer had already introduced the players whilst June and you were talking—so when your eyes fell upon a certain blonde…

…..you didn’t know if you could do it anymore.

It was him. The person June had personally wanted you to meet—who was amazing at Tennis. It was Art.

“I’m sorry.”

Your hearing was muffled, as the blonde boy walked solemnly onto the court. Your fists balled at your sides, standing up onto your feet, June looking up at you with a confused expression. It seemed impossible to look at him for another second—so as you tore your eyes away from him, Art spotted you in the crowd since you were stationed close to the front.

Before turning to walk away, you glanced at him again. His eyes were already trained onto you, his lips slightly parting as the wind kissed his hairs. Your throat grew dry. Why did you feel so betrayed? Damn him. He was a parasite that had burrowed into your brain, and had completely taken over your senses and thoughts.

He felt so far.

So far.

You couldn’t believe he had bad mouthed you.

You turned to walk away, muttering to June you were going to the bathroom. But in reality—you were going to go home and end up calling her telling her you threw up or something. You don’t know, all you knew is that you had to get away from there. From that stupid building with that stupid fucking man.

As you’re about to exit the hallway, and make it to the front entrance, a hand wraps around you and yanks you back. You gasp, hitting a rough chest, locking eyes with the devil himself. Shock hit you like a freight chain. “Art…you’re supposed to be playing.”

Subtly glancing down at his hands, you noticed bloody nail marks indented into his palms. Something twitched in your heart as Art released a shaky breath. Dropping your wrist, his chest heaves. “I’m sorry, _ _. I’m sorry for being a fucking idiot. You’re more….important than a match. Please just—meet me at our place tonight. If you wanna give us a chance…and if you don’t…then I’ll get the hint.”

His words were frantic and incredibly vulnerable. He looked completely hopeless. Biting on his lip, he watched as you gulped before slowly nodding. His nostrils flared before you turned around and walking away, Art’s words sinking into your brain.

“You’re more important than a match.”

It was growing closer to nightfall. You sat by your window in your bedroom, blowing another life of your cigarette out the window.

June hadn’t been mad about you taking off. She said she understood and actually wanted to get together soon again. You agreed with the idea and thankfully saved your friendship. But as bad as it sounds, you didn’t even fret about the situation with June today. Your mind was consumed about Art’s offer.

“If you wanna give us a chance…”

Didn’t he have a girlfriend?

Did they break up?

Did Art…break up with Tiffany…for you?

Because of the things she said?

Your heat pounded in your chest. Deciding to call up Pat, you dialed his number before hearing the line ring. In a few moments, it picked up. “Hey bitch. Bad time—I’m eating toaster strudels right now.”

He earned an irritated eye roll from you. But he couldn’t see it, so instead, you scoffed. “Food over your cousin? Fat ass. And no…I need advice.”

You heard him laugh on the other line, snickering before random shit cluttered on the other line. It sounded like he was re-adjusting before his voice popped out again.

“Okay okay. What happened?”

Jesus. What didn’t happen?

You picked at your nails anxiously. “There’s this guy I’ve been hooking up with—“

“Art? Oh—honey that’s old news.”

Your eyes bulged, “What? How?”

“Because he basically drooled whenever he looked at you. I also caught him getting hard and checking out your ass literally every thirty minutes.”

Your face twisted, the sound of it being nice but not from your cousin. “Gross. But yeah…he asked me to meetup with him tonight.”

“What about Tiffany?”

You shrugged, but realized he couldn’t see you.

“I dunno. He didn’t mention her.”

He hummed on the other side. “I think you should do what feels right. If you like him, then yeah.”

It was odd. When he mentioned you liking him, you didn’t shudder in disgust as usual. Instead, something warmed up in your chest and made your cheeks bloom.

“And if you ask me, I think you do. But I know you don’t do relationships so.”

And then you make a decision. Just from that sentence.

“Pat. I gotta go. Thanks. Love you.”

“Loveuwyou.” His voice was muffled, sounding like he had been chewing. The phone line clicked as you hurriedly grabbed your keys and leave your house. It was peculiar how excited you were, hastening your pace and already on your way to the tennis court.

The night was calm. Clouds were clear from sight, the full moon shining brightly in the dark sky. Your fingertips drummed on your steering wheel as you made sharp left and right turns, humming lightly to the random tune on the radio. Your mind flashed with images of the first time Art and you had kissed. It was when it had been raining, the image of him soaked with wet hair covering his eyes making your throat hitch.

And as if on cue, drops began to hit the surface of your windshield. A shocked laugh escapes you, shaking your head. You hoped he showed up.

Slamming your car door shut, only wearing some sweats and a long sleeve. Your hair instantly got drenched as rain soaked the strands on your head. It felt as if cold needles kissed your flesh. Wiping the water away from your eyes, you jogged to the spot.

"I hate how you make me feel. You're like a parasite for fucks sake-“

"Fucking dreamed about this," he groaned, watching you cry out as his teeth pierce the flesh of your nipple. Something flashed in his eyes at the sound-grabbing your throat with his hand and looking you dead in the eyes.

"Get in the fucking backseat now."

"Art-"

"Fucking mine," he growled out, your other hand gripping onto his chest. His hips stuttered as you began to twist your wrist towards tip of his cock.

His words were a fire in your brain, and with every gas filled thought, it continued to cascade as you grew closer to him. You weren’t cold at all, the adrenaline keeping you warm as you finally make it. As you walked up, you saw him….

….standing there under the rain…..

….looking at you.

You did something that shocked the both of you.

You smiled.

THE END .

[nanawritesit]

Twice Enemies to Lovers Imagines/ AUs

TW: making out (momo and tzuyu) corruption themes (momo) mentions of killing (sana) revolutionary themes (sana) mentions of daggers and knives (sana and dahyun) reader is kidnapped and tied up (dahyun) sharing a bed (tzuyu) partial nudity (tzuyu) neck kissing (tzuyu) light swearing

Nayeon: Former Best Friends

Your jaw hit the floor as your next applicant walked into your office for an interview. It was Im Nayeon, your high school best friend who ditched you freshman year to become a cheerleader with all the popular girls. To make matters worse, you had always secretly been in love with her. Not that you would ever admit that to yourself.

“Nice to see you again, Im.” you said flatly, flipping through her resume as she sat down in front of your desk.

She looked confused. “I’m sorry sir/ma’am, but I’m not sure what you…” You glared up at her with ice cold eyes, and suddenly she remembered. “Oh, Y/N… I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognize you…” she stammered meekly.

“Doesn’t surprise me. You hardly acknowledged me after you became the ‘it girl’ of our high school.” you resigned, folding your hands together on your desk. “So, what have you been up to since high school?”

She chuckled uncomfortably, eyes shifting to the ground. “Well, I was at university, but… things didn’t work out this semester.”

“So you’re looking for a job just until the end of the semester?” you asked, trying to sound as professional as possible.

“I’m not sure… But I’ll at least need a job until the end of the year. I’m living back home now.” she explained. “I need a job in the worst way, and to be honest I’m really relieved that you’re the owner of this place.”

You cleared your throat, closing up her resume and looking at her sternly. “So you think that just because you were super popular in school and I wasn’t that I’ll immediately hire you at my restaurant?”

“No, no! Not at all!” she insisted, eyes widening. “It’s just… you’re a very kind person. And you’ve always had a way of making me feel calm. I always remembered that, even if I didn’t recognize you at first.”

You winced. There she went again, making you feel special. It scared you how easily her praise still got to you.

“Oh… sorry for jumping to conclusions.” you mumbled.

“No, it’s alright…” she reassured you, seemingly okay with taking all the blame. “I’m really sorry we drifted apart. I never meant to hurt you. You were actually the person I cared about more than anything. I just thought you wouldn’t want to be friends with a cheerleader given how much we used to make fun of them.”

You glanced at the ground nervously. You were kind of a pick-me in high school. Not that it was your fault, you were just conditioned to be that way. In high school, you were either popular, or you hated everything related to being popular.

“I understand.” you told her. “It was quite a long time ago.”

“See… I’m not doing well in my classes, and my parents said I can’t move back home unless I find a job first.” she explained, eyes locking in on yours. “Please, consider me.”

Her pretty eyes were sparkling with need the way they always did, and your last reserve finally cracked at the sight of them.

“Okay, okay, the job is yours.” you told her, a reluctant smile appearing on your face.

“Really?” she asked, a huge grin breaking out on her face. “Oh, thank you so much!” She stood up to shake your hand making you laugh.

“No problem. Can you start tomorrow?” you asked, still sitting at your desk.

“Yes, I’ll be here!” she chirped, grabbing her bag. “You won’t regret this, I promise!”

Once she shut the door behind her, you plopped your head down on your desk, releasing a huge sigh. “Oh, I most likely will.”

Jeongyeon: Bad First Impression

You were running horribly late for your first day on the job. You had gotten an internship at a high end company, and were expected to bring everyone coffee in the morning. So now, you were carrying a carrier full of four huge iced coffees while sprinting down the sidewalk. You could see your building in the distance, all you had to do was turn one corner and you would make it to work on time!

That was, until you actually turnt the corner and slammed straight into a girl who was walking while on her phone. All four of the iced coffees splashed between the two of you, ruining both of your outfits.

“Oh my gosh, watch where you’re going!” she screeched, wiping coffee off her face.

“Me?” you questioned, fixing your hair. “You’re the one who wasn’t looking where you were going! Maybe if you weren’t glued to your phone, we wouldn’t be covered in coffee right now!”

She scoffed. “Well maybe if you weren’t running with a carrier full of coffees…”

You both stopped what you were doing as your eyes locked in on each other. She was absolutely gorgeous, the kind that makes your heart stop beating. She seemed to be caught off guard by you as well, the two of you just staring at each other blankly for a moment.

“I’m sorry, this was totally my fault.” you chuckled, adjusting your bag. “I shouldn’t have been running down the sidewalk.”

“No, you’re right, it was stupid to be on my phone while I was walking. I’m sorry for not paying attention.” she refuted, laughing along with you. “I’m Jeongyeon, by the way.”

“Y/N.” you told her, shaking her hand. “I’m sorry I covered you in coffee. I’m just running horribly late for my first day on the job…” you sighed, shaking your head in disbelief. “Although I’m sure I can kiss it goodbye now, as I’m either going to show up soaked in coffee or an hour late.”

“I’m really sorry about that…” she said sympathetically. “Where’s the job?”

“Right behind us, actually.” you laughed, gesturing behind you.

“Oh my gosh, I work here!” she told you exasperatedly. “In the administrative department!”

“That’s where I’m interning!” you gasped, a hopeful smile making its way onto your face.

“This is perfect. I’ll just call the office and say that someone ran into the two of us while we were walking in, and that we had to go change clothes.” she suggested.

“Thank you so much, you’re a lifesaver!” you sighed in relief, placing a hand affectionately on her arm. “Are you sure they’ll accept that as an excuse though?”

“Oh please, everyone here loves me. My word is law.” she giggled, putting an arm around your shoulder. “Now, let’s go get you some fresh clothes and new coffees, okay? I’ll even buy my own, since I’m pretty sure one of them was.”

You laughed along with her, letting her lead you down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. Somehow, you had made an enemy, ally, and crush all in the same day. Lord help you in navigating this relationship.

Momo: Angel/ Demon AU

You bit your tongue in anger. Things were not going well with your latest assignment. You were trying to be a guardian angel to a certain human to improve their life. However, this human also happened to be under the influence of a demon. Not only a demon, but one of the most powerful demonesses in your department. Momo Hirai.

“Something wrong, angel?” a sultry voice asked. You whipped around to see her standing at the entryway of your human’s living room. You could see them, but they couldn’t see you. She was absolutely captivating, with her dark hair, ruby red lips, and tight black dress.

Remembering yourself, you looked away. “As a matter of fact, yes. You are.” you spat, crossing your arms across your chest.

“Oh, I didn’t know you thought about me so much.” she grinned, stepping closer to you. “I wonder what twisted little fantasies are running through that pretty little head.”

“You wish.” you groaned, rolling your eyes. “I happen to be a being of purity.

“How boring…” Momo sighed, stopping in front of you, who was leaned against the wall. “I figured someone like you would feel really repressed. Nothing causes the mind to wander more than being cooped up with a bunch of puritans.”

You swallowed hard. How had she known that you’d been having sinful thoughts lately? You wondered if she also knew that she was the subject of some of them.

Deciding you had to stand your ground, you held your head up high. “It’d be none of your business if I did.”

“Oh, I know…” she glanced down at your lips momentarily, then met your eyes once more. “I just can’t help myself. Seeing you, who’s so bright and clean… it makes me think about how much I’d like to corrupt you.”

Your heart stopped. Every part of your brain was screaming at you to resist her.

“L-like how?” You could barely control the words coming out of your mouth.

She grinned a sinister smile, brushing some of your hair behind your shoulder and playing with it. “Well, for starters, I could run my fingers through this pretty hair…”

Your eyes squinted shut at the feeling of her doing so, hating how good it felt.

“I could gaze into these sparkling doe eyes…” she purred, tilting your chin up to look her in the eye. Her own dark eyes were locked in on yours, pupils dilated but squinted slightly like a siren’s.

You allowed her to push you further against the wall, showing absolutely no sign of displeasure at her actions. “Then what?” you whispered.

“Then… I could kiss these beautiful, delicious lips…” Momo finally leaned down and connected her lips with yours, pressing her body up against yours with a fiery passion.

You moved your arms up around her waist, hands gripping onto her for dear life. The pleasure was so great, you almost forgot why you vowed to resist temptation in the first place.

Her hands snaked up into your hair, tugging slightly and making you whimper into her mouth. You could feel her smirk at this, and with the knowledge that you were enjoying yourself, she slipped her tongue into your mouth, letting it explore slightly before pulling away.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” you muttered breathlessly, forehead still pressed against hers. “Both of us could get fired if anyone found out about this.” Demons and angels were not allowed to have relationships. “Besides, how do I know you’re not just using me to win over my human?”

“You can have the human.” she told you without hesitation. “I don’t need them. Right now, I only want you.”

You looked at her closely, studying her expression for any sign of dishonesty. If this was a trick, or one of her lustful schemes, she wouldn’t have been so upfront about it. She would’ve been sneakier.

“I want you too, Momo…” you sighed, crashing your lips into hers once again.

Maybe you would lose your angel status for this, but you knew that no amount of purity would ever feel as good as Momo on your lips would.

Sana: Royal/ Assassin AU

You grunted as you scaled the wall of the castle with a dagger in each hand. One of them would momentarily be used to kill the princess in her sleep. You winced as you thought about what you had to do, feeling your stomach turn.

You were a member of a rebel legion who was planning on overthrowing the palace during a coup. While you weren’t too thrilled about having to kill anyone, you believed the king and queen deserved it. They were incessantly cruel to their subjects, denying them any assistance and punishing them when they took matters into their own hands. Your people were dying of starvation while they were having extravagant parties, and something had to be done about it.

There really was no reason to kill the princess other than your leader feared it would be unwise to leave the only rightful heir to the throne alive. You didn’t think it was right, but the suffering you and your people endured overcame that.

As you reached Princess Sana’s bedroom window, you carefully crept inside and over to her canopy bed. As the moonlight graced her features, your breath hitched in your throat. She looked so peaceful, so content… not to mention, she was positively breathtaking.

You sighed defeatedly, realizing you couldn’t possibly harm this innocent girl. You stepped back and dropped your daggers on the floor, startling her awake.

“Hm? What’s going on? Who are you?” she asked, clutching her blankets to her chest in fear.

“Sh, it’s okay. I’m here to help.” you tried to reassure her. “There’s a rebel legion that’s going to assassinate the king and queen momentarily, and they want to kill you too. If you want to live, you’ll have to escape with me right now.”

She gasped, throwing her blankets off of her. She looked so adorable in her long white nightgown and pink hair bow. “Oh my, let’s go then!”

You grabbed her hand and led her down the hallway and out through the back of the palace. You knew your legion would only be using the front entrance.

The two of you ran off into the night, ducking into a nearby forest for protection. Luckily it was a warm summer night, and the weather was mild.

“I’m sorry about your parents.” you finally spoke as you both caught your breath. It hadn’t dawned on you that Sana might not take the news of her parents assassination very well until just now.

“It’s alright. To be honest, I’ve always hated them. I was hoping to become a better leader than them one day, but they were only interested in marrying me off to a nearby kingdom. I’m just glad the kingdom will be heading in a better direction.” She sat down by the riverbed, taking her hair out of its bow and letting it fall over her shoulders in loose waves. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“I don’t deserve any thanks.” you sighed, sitting down next to her. “I was the one who was supposed to kill you.”

She gave you an unfazed expression. “Well, you didn’t. And I never really liked being a princess anyway. I’ve always craved a life of adventure.”

“Well, you’re certainly going to get it.” you chuckled, stretching out to lay down in the grass. “We’re going to have to flee the kingdom, or at least go to the countryside. They’re going to wonder where the lost princess is, and why she wasn’t executed.”

She laid down next to you, curling into your side. “But… you’ll protect me right?” Her eyes were so big and twinkling with innocence. She looked as if she would shatter into a million pieces without you.

“Why do you trust me so easily?” you asked her genuinely. Any other princess wouldn’t have even believed you, let alone followed you into the woods.

She smiled cutely, brushing some of your hair back. “I had a dream once that someone came into my room and saved me from being a princess.” She traced your features with your finger. “They looked just like you.”

Your mouth fell slightly agape. You were never one to believe in fate or destiny, but this girl was making you second guess yourself.

“Now, are you going to take care of me?” she asked again.

“Of course I will.” you told her, running a hand through her long hair. “Now, let’s get some sleep. I’ll find us some breakfast in the morning.”

Jihyo: Idol Rivalry

Park Jihyo was the bane of your existence. The two of you had hated each other for years, and for good reason. For one, you were both under different companies that constantly compared artists with each other. Two, both of your groups debuted around the same time, and since then it felt like every time your group got a moment in the spotlight, Twice would come along and upstage you. And three, you were both leaders, so everyone expected you to get along due to your similar roles. However, all that meant was that you were both extra protective of your groups, and even more hostile when someone threatened their success.

Today, however, your rivalry was coming to an eruption as both of your groups were performing at the MAMA awards. Luckily, they were spaced apart enough to where it wouldn’t look like one of you was the opening act for the other. Both of your groups put their absolute all into the performances, and everyone agreed that you both owned the award show.

Your members somehow all got along. It was just you and Jihyo that couldn’t seem to find a common ground.

You were thinking this over as you walked up to her dressing room after the show. You decided it was time to be a grown up and hash things out with her. You took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” she chirped from behind the door. You walked in, seeing her at her vanity, still in her stage outfit. You lost the plot for a bit as you took in her features. Her beautiful skin, her pretty eyes, her perfect smile… wait, when did she get so gorgeous?

“Oh… hi Y/N.” she interrupted your thoughts with genuine surprise. “What are you doing here?”

You shut the door behind you and walked up to her. “I’ve come with an olive branch.” you began in a serious tone.

She glanced behind you, furrowing her brows. “Really? I don’t see one.”

You bit your tongue to keep from laughing. Damn, she was funny, but you were trying to have a serious moment!

“A metaphorical olive branch.” you sighed, pretending to be annoyed to save face. “We’ve been fighting for years because of stupid reasons. I think it’s time we sort out our differences.”

She smiled warmly, inviting you to sit down on her sofa. “So, what exactly are our differences?” she asked, starting to remove her makeup.

“Well for starters, you guys have always overshadowed us.” you told her. “Every time we’d start getting attention, you guys would immediately do something even better, and then it was all anyone could talk about. I guess I was sick of the company always telling us how much better you guys are.”

She paused, making eye contact with you in her mirror. “Are you serious?”

You nodded. What did she mean ‘are you serious,’ of course you were serious! It wasn’t that hard to comprehend.

“Oh my god, that’s so funny…” she laughed out loud, shaking her head. She spun around in her chair to face you. “Y/N, ever since we debuted, all our company does is compare us to you.”

“You’re kidding…” you marveled, eyes widening in shock.

“No, I’m serious! I especially get compared to you a lot. You’re super mature and have killer visuals, not to mention you’re one of the best dancers in the industry.” she praised, leaning back in her chair slightly.

“Oh please, I would commit arson to have your vocal skills! You light up a whole stadium with them!” you told her enthusiastically. “You’re so bright and energetic, and you’re absolutely stunning. I mean, who wouldn’t hate you?” you joked, slapping her on the knee playfully.

The two of you laughed for a moment, then sat in a comfortable silence. It was probably the most pleasant interaction you’d ever had.

“Did we just compliment each other?” she asked suddenly, cocking her head to the side.

You shrugged. “I guess so. Maybe we’re not so different after all.”

She smiled affectionately, moving to sit next to you on the sofa. “I actually think I quite like you now.”

The way she was looking at you made you feel butterflies. You didn’t know if you were seeing things or what, but she looked as if she was absolutely captivated by you.

You shrugged cheekily, a sly smirk making its way onto your face. “I kind of like you too. See you around?”

She nodded enthusiastically, a hopeful glint in her eyes. With that, you turned and exited her dressing room, pressing your hands to your warm cheeks.

How did that just happen?

Mina: Fake Dating

“I can’t believe they actually fell for it!” Mina marveled as you both exited the party into the cool night air.

“I know right! Like, are they really that stupid?” you laughed, leading her back to your car.

You wondered how everyone had set aside all their memories of you two absolutely hating each other when you walked into the party holding onto her waist. Anyone with eyes could see that you and Mina despised each other before. You guessed that the two of you were just really good at acting.

What led to your truce was that both of your crushes weren’t paying any attention to either of you. You were trying to win back your ex, whereas Mina’s crush had totally friend-zoned her. So, you came to an agreement that you would pretend to date each other in order to hopefully make your crushes jealous.

You were worried that it was going to be hard to sell your affections for Mina, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy. From spending time with her, you were able to see that she was actually really funny, incredibly bright, and sensitive. Not to mention, she was a perfect ten. That was part of the reason you hated her so much.

As you drove off to drop Mina off at her house, you kept glancing over at her with an amused smile.

“What?” she asked, giggling slightly.

“Nothing, it’s just… you’re so different from what I thought you were.” you answered, eyes focusing back on the road.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she interrogated you, crossing her arms with a smirk.

“Well, to be honest, I thought you were incredibly stuck-up. I mean, you hardly paid any attention to me, and whenever you did, it was to disagree with something I said.” you chuckled.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that…” she apologized, shifting her body to face you more. “I have a tendency to close myself off when I find someone intimidating.”

You scoffed in disbelief. “Intimidating? How could you find me intimidating?”

“Oh come on, Y/N!” she rolled her eyes, hitting your arm lightly. “You’re like the coolest person ever! When you talk, everyone pays attention to you. It makes me so jealous the way you command a room.”

You shook your head in amazement. “I had no idea you felt that way…”

“Yeah well, I do.” she laughed. She ran a hand through her hair as if to calm herself down.

The two of you enjoyed a comfortable silence for a moment until you spoke again. “You did a really good job today.”

“Thanks, so did you.” she complimented you, nudging you slightly.

“I’m sure your crush is still thinking about how good we looked together.” you pointed out.

“Oh yeah, them…” she resigned, looking out the window absentmindedly. “Well, I’m sure your ex felt the same way.”

You glanced over at her. Why did she seem to shut down when you brought up your love interests? Isn’t that what she had wanted out of this?

“Well, there you are ma’am.” you announced as you pulled into her driveway.

She snapped out of her daze and grabbed her purse, turning to you with a smile. “Thanks again, Y/N. You make a wonderful fake partner.” Suddenly, she leaned forward and planted a brisk kiss on your cheek. You looked at her in disbelief, feeling your cheeks heat up. “Just practicing. You know, for the next time we see them.”

“Oh, r-right…” you stammered, shifting anxiously in your seat. “Well, see you later!”

“Bye bye!” she waved, cutely scampering away into her house.

You sighed, slamming your head against the steering wheel. Suddenly, a relationship with Mina was sounding a lot better than getting back with your ex. Why did you think this was a good idea again?

Dahyun: Hero/ Villain AU

You struggled against your restraints, rocking the chair you were tied to back and forth. You were previously on a mission from the hero agency to retrieve a stolen artifact from a well-known villain, but something had went wrong, and they ended up capturing you. Now, you were tied up and didn’t know what awaited you.

You screeched into the cloth around your mouth in frustration, feeling hot tears prick at your eyes as you realized there was no way to get out of these ropes. Damn it all. Was this going to be how you were going to be taken down?

Suddenly, you heard a rustling coming from the window in the corner of the room. You furrowed your brow in confusion, until it opened and in tumbled Kim Dahyun, your arch-nemesis.

“Dahyun? What are you doing here?” you asked, although it just sounded like a bunch of muffled syllables to her.

“Sh, I’m here to get you out of here.” she instructed you. She then came over to undo the cloth around your mouth and slice through your ropes with her knife.

“Why are you helping me?” you asked, massaging your wrists from their rope burn.

“Because, you’re my enemy.” she smirked, crawling back through the window she had previously entered in. “If anyone’s going to take you down, it’s going to be me.”

You scoffed with a smile, getting up to follow her. “I won’t go down so easily.”

“Oh I know. I’m looking forward to it.” she cockily winked. “Now, are you coming or not?” She extended her hand to you, face illuminated by the soft candlelight of the room. God, she was devastatingly beautiful. Perhaps in another universe, the two of you would’ve made a great couple.

You brushed the thoughts away, knowing they could only lead to heartache, and instead just took her hand and fled with her by your side. Maybe you didn’t need a relationship with her. This game of cat and mouse was too damn fun anyway.

Chaeyoung: Forced to Hang Out by Mutual Friends

You walked into the restaurant, face twisting into a scowl as you realized only one person was at your table: Son Chaeyoung, whom you could not stand. However, you had to get along with her because she was a part of your friend group. You knew she didn’t really care for you either, but also agreed to keep the peace for the sake of your mutual friends.

You took a deep breath to calm yourself down, then walked over to the table to sit across from her. “Hi Chaeyoung.” you said, flatly but still politely.

She looked up from her phone and cracked a forced smile. “Hey there, Y/N.”

“I wonder why everyone’s so late.” you commented, trying to make small talk.

“I’m not sure.” she replied. The two of you shared an awkward silence, save for your repetitive tapping on the table. After a while she coughed uncomfortably.

“Hi there! Are you two here for the couple’s special?” the waitress suddenly asked as she arrived at your table.

You both looked at each other horrified. “No, we’re definitely not a couple…” you insisted.

“Yeah we’re just waiting for some of our friends.” Chaeyoung explained to her, chuckling nervously.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” the waitress apologized. “I’ll come back in a few minutes, okay?” You both nodded, and she scurried off to the other end of the restaurant. Wow… you thought, the two of you were so uncomfortable it was spreading to other people.

“I’ll text them and see what’s keeping them.” Chaeyoung announced, picking her phone back up. However, her eyes widened as soon as she looked at the screen. “Apparently Rosè is sick.”

“Really? That’s odd. She seemed fine yesterday…” you replied, grabbing your own phone. You too already received a text, but from Yeoreum.

yeoreum 🌻: “hey, sorry to cancel last minute, but i forgot i have a doctors’ appointment :( say hi to the girls for me!”

You sighed, setting your phone back down. “Well, Yeoreum bailed too.”

“Are you serious?” Chaeyoung asked. “Well, at least there’s…” However she never got to finish her sentence, because both of your phones rang at the same exact time. You were getting a call from Somi, and she was getting a call from Jinsol. You both snatched up your phones again and slammed the answer button.

“Hey Y/N!” Somi chirped on the other end of the line. “I gotta cancel today. Forgot I already made plans with my sister!”

“No, Somi please-“

“Have fun! Give my love to the girls!” she responded, hanging up.

You squinted your eyes shut and sighed, setting your phone down to see Chaeyoung doing the exact same. “Jinsol too?”

“Yep.” she nodded. “Something about a family reunion.”

It was obvious that all your friends had planned this in an effort to get you and Chaeyoung to spend time with each other and hopefully sort out your differences. However, right now that seemed like a lost cause, as both of you were consumed with irritation and discomfort at the situation.

“Great…” you grumbled, putting your head in your hands. “Guess we’re stuck with each other.”

“I don’t get what your problem is with me.” she snapped, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Me? You’re the one with the problem!” you responded defensively. “You’ve always hated me for no reason. I can see it in the way you talk to me.”

“That’s not true!” she replied angrily, furrowing her brow in frustration. “I was just upset with you because you threw that huge party a year ago and invited everybody but me! I had to hear about it from Bangchan of all people!”

Your jaw unhinged in disbelief. You had totally forgotten about that event, and how you never invited Chaeyoung. To tell the truth, you couldn’t even remember why you didn’t invite her in the first place.

“I didn’t know it bothered you so much…” you marveled, leaning back in your chair as if backing down from your anger. “I guess… maybe I assumed you wouldn’t want to go? You don’t really seem like the type to enjoy a huge party.”

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have want to be invited.” she retorted, glancing down at the table nervously.

You blinked, straightening yourself up. “You’re right. That was really rude of me. I’m sorry I didn’t invite you.”

She smiled genuinely for the first time since you had known her. “I appreciate that.”

“If I have another party and invite you, will you stop hating me?” you chuckled.

“I wouldn’t say I hated you…” she replied, softening even more. “There were still things I really liked about you.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” you asked, trying not to be too enthusiastic with your curiosity.

“You have a really pretty smile, you’re super passionate about what you do, you’re really sharp and witty…” she listed out with a bright grin. “You’re really cool. I guess that’s why I was so mad you didn’t invite me.”

“I understand why you were mad, and I’m sorry again.” you replied, looking at her sympathetically. “But it didn’t come from a place of malice. I actually think you’re really cool.”

“You do?” she inquired perplexedly.

“Of course I do! You always make everyone laugh, you’re super nice to everybody… and you’ve got a really cute face.”

She grinned, and you swore you saw her cheeks turn a light shade of pink. “You think I’m cute?”

Now it was your turn to blush. You cleared your throat, then glanced away with shifty eyes. “I mean, like objectively. You have bright eyes or whatever.”

She giggled quietly to herself, then as soon as your eyes were focused back on her, she spoke again. “I think you’re pretty cute too.”

You couldn’t help the smile that crept it’s way up your expression, looking away again bashfully.

“Do we still need a few more minutes?” the waitress asked, suddenly appearing again.

“Nope, I think we’re ready.” you replied, glad to be changing the subject. “I guess we will take that couple’s special since it’ll just be the two of us.”

“Oh, well it’s actually only for real couples…” the waitress told you sympathetically.

“What if this was our first date?” Chaeyoung asked her. Your eyes widened as you whipped your head around to look at her. She was just looking at the waitress with a confident grin. You had never seen her so bold, and you had to admit, it was really attractive. You were starting to kick yourself for messing things up with her in the past. You could’ve been around her best self this whole time… well, at least you were seeing it now. And you couldn’t get enough of it. You loved the excitement about where things were going with her.

Tzuyu: Only One Bed

You frowned as you realized who had just walked into your hotel room. “What are you doing here Tzuyu?”

“Believe me, this wasn’t my choice.” she groaned, shoving the door shut behind her. “Apparently the hotel booked up their last room by accident. And since you’re the only one who doesn’t have a roommate yet, I’m going to have to room with you.”

“Are you serious?” you asked, sitting up in your bed. “Aren’t there any other hotels in the area?”

“I went all around the neighborhood looking for one. Why do you think I’m soaked? It’s pouring down rain right now.” she complained. “They’re all booked up too.”

You took in her appearance. “Where’s your suitcase?”

“Airport lost it.” she replied, an angry sarcastic smile on her face. “This is a really great vacation so far. None of my things, and I’m stuck with you.”

“Yeah, well I’m not exactly thrilled about this either.” you sneered, shuffling your way out of bed. “Here, you can have one of my big shirts.”

She looked amazed. “Wait, are you actually being nice to me?”

You glared at her. “I may not like you very much, but I’m not heartless. Now go change.” You threw the shirt at her and got back into bed. You thought you caught a glimpse of a smirk on her face, but she turned the corner to the bathroom so fast you couldn’t be sure.

You got settled in bed again, then stared up at the ceiling. You were currently on a group vacation with all of your friends. Well, Tzuyu wasn’t your friend, but she had come along because she was close with some of your friends. You did kind of feel sorry for her… it had to suck losing all of your things. You shook your head. There was no need to feel sympathy for her when she had never made any effort to be nice to you. However, your thoughts were interrupted as she re-emerged from the bathroom, wearing nothing but your shirt. Your heart stopped. She looked really cute, with her wet hair and bare legs.

She chuckled cockily. “Like what you see?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” you scoffed, rolling over in resignation.

She laughed at you again, walking over to the other side of the bed and crawling in. “Try to control yourself Y/N, we’ll both need some sleep for all the stuff they have planned tomorrow.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” you laughed, curling up in displeasure. “Rosè and Chaeyoung were way too excited about going downtown.”

“I know right? Like, how many shops can you go to before you get bored?” Tzuyu joked, making you laugh even harder. “And Elkie and Shuhua want to go to that museum…”

“Oh my god, what a snooze-fest.” you rolled your eyes, making her cackle even louder. You started chuckling again too, and soon you were both consumed with laughter.

“Do you realize this is the first time we’ve had a conversation without arguing?” you asked, leaning over to face her with an amused smile.

“Yeah… it was pretty nice.” she responded, looking at you and resting her head against the pillow. You both just stared at each other affectionately for a moment, taking in each others’ features. “Well, I guess we should go to sleep.”

“Yeah…” you agreed, moving to turn off the lamp. “Goodnight Tzuyu.”

“Goodnight Y/N.”

You lied awake for a moment, glancing over at her every so often. You couldn’t help the giddy, flustered feeling that crept up in your chest. You never knew Tzuyu could be so pleasant, and you were excited you got to share a room with her for the rest of the vacation. And you were even more excited to share a bed with her. Your mind started to wander about holding her, touching her, kissing her…

You shook your head, shuffling a bit. You couldn’t think these things while she was asleep next to you. Unless… maybe she was thinking them too?”

“Y/N?” she suddenly asked, rolling over to face you.

Your heart stopped. Holy shit, was she reading my mind?

“Yeah?” you asked, mirroring her actions.

You both stared at each other in desperation for a while, until she dove forward and kissed you passionately. You were taken aback for a second, but soon brought your hands up around her neck. She shifted to straddle you, kissing you more intensely. She pulled away for a breather just as your hands were going up into her hair.

“I hate you.” she smirked evilly, gasping for air.

“I despise you.” you retaliated, yanking her hair slightly and making her whimper a bit. You used her moment of weakness as an opportunity and pushed her over to straddle her. You began kissing her again, then moved down to nip at her neck and chest. “Let me show you just how much I do.”

[itonashi]

May I request Chigiri Hyoma x reader, but the bllk boys and Chigiri are hanging outside of blue lock and the reader hugs Chigiri from behind while he's talking to someone; suprising chigiri of his s/o's sudden appearance? I LITERALLY CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THIS MAN 🥰💍💍🙏

BOO!

pairing: chigiri hyoma x fem!reader

warning: mentioned other chars, fluff, lowercase intended, manga spoilers

note: pls pls pls appear in the tag... im gonna cry if it doesn't appear. i hate mobile legends. memang tolol kau tahu tak (nonsense in malay). i love the anon who req me this.

it's time!

for your divine, beautiful, majestic, heavenly, breath-taking, lovely, charming, marvelous, splendid, distinguished, monumental, glorious, astonishing, and pretty boyfriend to get out of his hell hole!!!

the blue lock program.

because of that stupid program you didn't get to even chat him or see him for months! now he's a celebrity after that soccer match that you didn't even managed to get a ticket for.

you want to see him so much instead of chatting with him on some apps. you hated how chigiri hyoma is now known to the world and some ppl liked him because of his beauty. that beauty should've been only for you.

fortunately, he is yours and you are his.

but he said that he only have two weeks break so that means the program is still not finish yet and that made you filled with the 5 stages of grief because that technically means that you won't be seeing him for months again! and who knows? he will also be offered with professional clubs out there.

you're glad that he didn't give up on soccer anymore and how he is really happy now.

with these two weeks break, you will make the most time to hang out with your boyfriend and make the most of it.

oh? is that your lovely boyfriend there? and if you're not mistaken — the people that he's talking to is the blue lock people.

'i want to surprise him. i mean.. his reactions will be so cute! after all, we haven't seen eachother for a long time.'

"i think i will have a chances with many pretty girls this year."

"shut up, otoya."

"being known to the world feels nice."

"i wonder if i have a fanbase..."

"isagi! look at the comments about you."

"people really like nagi, huh."

"why are they so shocked that reo is playing soccer..."

the atmosphere was lively as everyone was talking about different things. some were talking about their popularity, soccer, the u-20 match, school and friends.

what was irritating me is that aryu keep asking me about what i use for my hair. yeah yeah, i know my hair is silky but only some people can touch it. if i don't want him to bother me with his 'glam' things. i just need to straight up tell him about the haircare i use.

"oh really? that's the one you use... hmm, what a shame. it doesn't fit my glam hair."

"ok, aryu..."

just stop talking to me about that, it's boring! damn it. "chigiri! look at people commenting about your beauty!" bachira showed me the multiple comments about my beauty and how they wish they know me earlier... blah blah blah. "haha, it's amazing how chigiri got people to like because of his beauty." isagi said.

"i bet his fanbase is full of girls."

is it? i don't really remember...

"i don't think so?"

"yeah, right.

i couldn't careless about the fanbase anyway. i already have my special someone who never gave up on me. the one who was always there with me through thick and thin. she never left me when i was injured. it was a shame she didn't managed to see the match in front of her eyes.

if she was there, i would've hug her tight even if there was my mother and sister there...

it's been a long time since i see her.

i was conversing with nagi and telling him some information about soccer. when suddenly i felt a hand wrapped around my waist from behind and a beaming girl's voice was heard.

"boo!"

'eh?'

everyone stop talking and look at the uninvited guest that just arrived. 'wooo' and 'oohh' could be heard from them. nagi look at the person who interrupt chigiri from talking and the person unwrapped their hands from chigiri's waist.

"[name]!?"

"oh, you're surprised to see me." you chuckle at the sight of him.

you wave at all the people there and they wave back with welcome but they're definitely questioning who you are from the sudden appearance. otoya did the honor of asking not before asking if you're single.

"im taken by the oh so lovely princess chigiri hyoma."

"oh."

"oi, don't call me that."

well, at least no one's here is beautiful like your boyfriend! this goes unnoticed by you but when otoya asked you that question. he almost tried to gouge out otoya's eyes. you didn't notice yukimiya was there until he spoke up.

"[name], you are dating chigiri?"

"ah, since when are you here... yuki?"

"you two knew each other?"

"he's my co-worker in the model agency but don't worry i never work with him, hyoma."

chigiri let out a sigh of relief at that statement. sure, yukimiya was handsome. and he love how you are loyal to him in the end. they time passed with you being introduced to the boys and come of them praised you for being a beauty and question you is it hard being a model and all that.

you get to know some of them better and it did help with yukimiya being there.

"i think it's time we should go back home." isagi said. the time was almost 5:00 p.m and they all agreed to it — saying goodbyes to one another, you set out walking back home with chigiri.

"you really surprised me back there."

"your reaction was worth it. hehe."

typical [name]. a little prankster ever since middle school. "here, do you want my hand?" chigiri offered you his hand for you to wrapped your hands around it and you did just that. you lean your head on his shoulders while walking to the train station. talking along the way about the day and your opinion on the boys.

"you did great on the match, hyoma. you don't have to think about it that much when you were out half time. i have been watching you that whole match even if i wasn't there. you're my favorite player out there."

it was out of the blue when you said that but it was comforting to him. you are his biggest supporter and he will never let go of that fact. the things you said to comfort him. you always know what his feelings are at the moment.

"thank you, [name]."

you chuckle at his flustered voice.

"that's my duty as your biggest supporter."

you two arrived at the train station and wait for your train to come and board it. it is fortunately empty. you love some quiet times with chigiri on the train.

you lean your head on chigiri's shoulder and close your eyes while holding his hand on the train and hum a melody. "[name], what do you think of me?" he said with a slight nervous. hoping at what you said about him is all positive.

"if im being brutally honest... after you were injured, you care too much about what those people said about your injuries. especially those wanima twins. i hate them. you have me on your back — i will defend you from those types of people but im happy that you're not giving up on soccer. you are a hardworking guy. you are slightly moody though..."

"that's too honest."

"i did said i was brutally honest."

[familyagrestefanblog]

I love that Ariana's Galinda, too, just becomes utterly over the top during "Popular":

In my opinion, thats actually one of the strongest indicators of how close Elphaba and her have become and how precious that connection is.

Cause sure, Galinda is a diva with other characters too, but as far as I remember, Galinda only ever let's out her entire energy and colorful personality when she's alone with Elphaba (or something Elphaba-related was the motivation).

Cause lbr, look at the second gif and try and tell me Galinda would in-universe still be this embodiment of popularity if she did that in front of the others?

Her friends who were seriously judging her for merely having a "weird" hat:

And who not only tried to stop her the moment she looked foolish while reaching out to Elphaba

But also distanced themselves in revolt when she refused to stop trying to at least somewhat undo the humiliation she (and the friends) put Elphaba through here by having given her the hat so people will laugh at her.

These two friends only let go of that revolt again when Galinda and Elphaba dancing together turned around the mood, turning the former embarrassing dance into one the others wanted to emulate.

And now let me ask:

You think there was ever anyone else again in her life infront of whom Galinda was allowed to be such a cringe-ass theatre kid? And I'm saying that with all love cause at least for me that was the point.

Galinda is very similar to Fiyero in that way. They are the most popular people and both are divas in a way that is thrilling for everyone around them. But they sure can't risk that they ever act too much like a diva. Too annoying. Bothering for others because them being cool by "disrupting proper poise" went on for a tad too long. A tad too loud.

I like about Galinda and Fiyero that it shows that being popular like them really is almost an artform you have to dedicate yourself to, without it being the main focus of the show. It was just really well done without taking over.

And, of course, all this set up raises complicated questions for later on in the time line regarding Galinda's choices onwards since she eventually chose to not go with Elphaba, leading to her loosing this connection and becoming Glinda the Good, but ironically seemingly being the one to end up alone despite her popularity, which again is handled with the appropriate complexity.

I also hope the second part will expand on Fiyero's part in this. And what price he has to pay for choosing Elphaba and how becoming the Scarecrow has potential, too, to have characters suddenly treat him worse for something that's not at all his fault just because now he's the opposite of what's perceived as popular.

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

*jingles keys infront of your face*

Hi guys

Having a strange night again but I suddenly remembered Frank Sinatra exists and my brain went nuts for a second and I remembered one very specific song that reminds me of Angel Dust and also this brings me to my topic of how to write what Episode 4 was trying to do without being shit.

Song for your listening pleasure~

Alright *cracks knuckles* let me tell you how my brain is working.

Poison is meant to sound like a generic romance pop song about a bad relationship on the surface but the audience is supposed to know it’s about something much worse. Now lets flip that around real quick.

“My Way Of Life” is a romance song.

At least I think it is? I’m under the aromantic umbrella and I don’t pick up on this stuff good.

BUT try listening to the song while imagining the wording to be more hostile and literal.

A few standout ones are these in my opinion

—————

Gotta have you near all the time, with your dreams wrapped up in mine.

Gotta be a part of your soul and your heart all the time.

You are my way of life.

The only way I know.

I’ll never let you go.

Because “I love you so.”

You are my way of life.

The only way I know.

Make me your way of life.

Don’t ever go.

Nothing in the world that I do means a thing without you.

Im just half alive, in my struggle to survive without you.

Never let you out of my sight.

Be it day.

Be it night.

You belong to me.

That’s the way it has to be; wrong or right.

—————

Colour coding this by which characters I feel represents these best by the way. Angel-ish ones are pink and Valentino ones are red.

When you look at them in a tone like that with certain lines being possessive, and fake (ie. “I love you so”) and the others being despairing, self-loathing, you can hopefully see how I mistook this for a much more unhappy song when I first heard it.

If you look at a song like this thats so dramatic and intense and full of emotion, it’s going to be better than some generic pop song like 99% of the time. The music also make sense for the time period Angel died since Sinatra was popular in the 1940-1950’s which I personally think adds more.

How I imagine some kind of music video for this would play out, I’ll probably end up storyboarding it sometime, but bear with me till I do. would be a lot of Angel doing day to day things and tapping more into what ADDICT did with flashbacks and hallucinations and so on without shoving rape in our faces. I touched on this in my original Episode 4 rant so I’m going to vaguely recap on that. There are times where very simple things can trigger unpleasant memories, I think everyone knows that. But for some reason, Vivzie seems to think the only way to show SA actually happened is to deliberately show us since every other character thats been sexually assaulted or sexually abused has it played off as a joke. Yes I am fucking talking about Sir Pentious.

Angel having a flashback or hallucination doesn’t have to be of it happening. It can be something as simple as sitting next to Valentino. Someone pronouncing something the same way Valentino would. A specific piece of trash on the floor like a cup showing up somewhere else. Reminders can be tiny have a massive impact. Sometimes reminders for shit I’ve experienced is something as small as a hat, water, or a nickname. Even a day of the month can be nerve wracking.

Im about to start listing a bunch of ideas and stuff so this may end up being the entire song, brace yourself for reading all this.

0:00-0:32

I feel like this would start with Angel in his room staring at a wall, probably drinking after work.

“Gotta have you near all the time with your dreams wrapped in mine.”

Is less of a willing “gotta” and more of a “I can’t do anything else.” with the talk of dreams alluding more to the fact that Angel’s original wants from the contract are long gone and noting that Valentino is controlling his career, future, needs, wants, “privileges”.

“Gotta be a part of your soul and of your heart all the time.”

Is once again about the contract of Angel’s soul.

0:33-0:51

“Nothing in the world that I do means a thing without you.”

In the original song I assume this is meant to be like “Life is so dull without you” but for the way I hear this song, it sounds a lot more like “Nothing that I do holds any meaning without your name attached to it.” in a kind of corporate way. I imagine this part with Angel walking down the street and seeing posters of himself but all of them have credits to Valentino somewhere on them. Angel likes his job but obviously the job that he previously enjoyed has turned into a dangerous and traumatic one. Posters like this can both be seen as a reminder that Angel is no longer in control of his own life and as some kind of intrusive thought like “I’m only famous because of you. I gave up everything for this.” AKA Valentino manipulating his way of thinking about his situation.

“I’m just half alive in my struggle to survive without you.”

Once again calling back to Angel’s contract. This part to me is more of what I stated in another rant I did a while ago. Honestly if I ever did this it’d likely take place after or during season 2 under the assumption Valentino dies. This is more of what I said in the linked post, but it’s a lot of Angel processing everything that’s happened to him. Everything suddenly hitting him all at once. “Struggle to survive without you” doesn’t mean that Angel is struggling because Valentino is gone, health struggling because he was there in the first place. Angel is dealing with and processing severe trauma and judging by ADDICT, dealing with vivid flashbacks and hallucinations as well.

0:52-1:15

A lot of this section reminds me of how I processed my emotions when I first realised that I had control over my own life again and I feel like Angel would feel very similarly to how I did.

“You are my way of life. The only way I know.”

After so many years of sticking to this strict regime, enduring so much pain and stress, it’s so hard to just suddenly snap out of it. That was your reality for years and it’s over, but everything that happened is still clinging to you so harshly it feels like its still happening, but when you prepare for a previous habit you picked up from that time and it doesn’t happen it can be so jarring it’s terrifying that you’re still so used to it. My best example in this setting is going to hang up a call and saying “Hey I have to go do something” and you expect to have to lie about why you’re leaving or prepare for the other person to get mad and then they just. Don’t. And you can hang up normally. I know some people wont get this but that kinda stuff is such a specific feeling of realisation.

“You are my way of life. I’ll never let you go.”

Can be taken as either Angel talking to himself; saying he’ll never let the memories and trauma from Valentino go because it’s so engrained into his mind, or, as Angel remembering Valentino explicitly stating he will never let him go. Even if Valentino is dead by this time, it could still be done with a flashback or auditory hallucination like Angel had in Episode 2.

I don’t think I’ll be diving into this entire song, but it really hit something in my brain. I had to quickly sketch a possible frame for a video if I did ever make one:

It’s a bit basic, but hopefully you see what I’m going for. This was for the 0:52-1:15 section mostly, but I can see it being used in various other places.

I hope this was at least a little bit interesting for you all and if not at least maybe I could introduce you to a really good Frank Sinatra song! Usually my really long posts like this don’t get much traction, but I hope this one at least sees a glimpse of daylight because it really is an interesting idea to me. If you have any thoughts, questions, or ideas for this please tell me I love when you guys ask me stuff. I am hopefully going to knock out now because it’s 2:44 AM at the time of writing this, so whenever I post this, please enjoy.

[yanderefan-kimi]

What makes a good yandere character for you? What are some of your favorite yanderes? And what are some that you like the least?

Aaa my first ask! Thank you so much!! Yes, as you can tell from my username, I do like yandere characters quite a bit! And I'm super excited to finally start ranting about them lollll Alright, this might get pretty long so I'll put my answers under the cut!

What makes a good yandere character for you?

This is a very subjective question, but first I'll explain what makes a character yandere.

"Yandere" comes from the Japanese verb 病んでいる which means to be sick. This can refer to any sort of illness, but with yandere characters, it's referring to ailments of the soul so to say. Basically a "yandere" character is anyone who becomes sick with love. Which is really vague, I know - but that's how it is.

A character can kill for love and still not be considered yandere. A different character can respect their target's (the person they are affectionate toward - their "darling") free-will and autonomy and still be considered yandere. It's vague and open to interpretation. What one person considers yandere, another might find them just being possessive.

Just getting a few common misconceptions out of the way first:

-Yandere characters can be abusive to their targets, but just because a character is abusive, that doesn't mean that they're yandere

-A character doesn't have to go around killing people to be considered yandere

Okay, with that out of the way, time to talk about my favorite kinds of yandere characters!

I like characters who are subtly manipulative, the characters that mess with their target's perceptions of reality to mold them into someone who can accept their isolation. I like to describe the buildup as "walking into a spider's web, and only after you think to turn around do you realize that it's too late." These characters can appear to be very doting (溺愛) to their targets and lull them into a false sense of security, and usually only show their true selves to people they see as their love rivals. These characters can also be commonly described as haraguro (腹黒) or scheming.

But I can go for any sort of yandere character! I'm not so good with gore tho so I try to avoid that, but any other type has their own appeals. There was this huge chart about the different types of yandere characters and their "symptoms" I found before, maybe I'll dig it up and explain it in detail in another post eventually. But for now I will move on to the next question!

What are some of your favorite yanderes?

I can explain a bit more about the kind of yandere characters I love by using some of my favs as examples! Please note that I read a lot of shoujo, especially because the yandere trope is gaining some good popularity in that demographic, so these are all male yanderes. Though, I do love me a good female yandere character too!

My absolute favorite yandere character is Haruma from 恋と心臓 (Love and Heart) Seriously, no one does it as well as him. I don't want to spoil anything since it's more fun to experience the craziness yourself and the series is available in English!

But to give a brief summary: Yoh (the main character), having lived a life where she didn't have anyone she could rely on, is incredibly independent. But then her childhood friend (who she doesn't remember), Haruma, moves in with her and suddenly she finds herself in the position of damsel in distress again and again, with Haruma being the only one to save her.

It's a great blend of psychological horror, romcom, and drama with a huge dose of unhealthy relationships and a happy ending! I recommend it to everyone who is comfy with the subject matter.

Kuroyuki from Nightshade deserves special mention for being the reason I started liking yandere characters in the first place.

I never really got the appeal before him, but when I played Nightshade, I liked him from the start. I tend to love comic relief characters (who are secretly quite sad/serious) so he caught my eye right away and then when the cray-cray hit, I was like,

Oh no, that's hot.

And it was over for me after that lol. Yandere love interests in otome games have a reputation for caging, and Kuroyuki has a subtle approach to this. He spins this (not entirely false) tale that everyone is trying to kill Enju (the main character) except for him, and that he's the only one who could protect her. I won't go into his backstory, but an unhealthy amount of delusions feed into his obsession as well.

The game is fun and intense, and I highly recommend it if you would like to cry. Check out my Why you should play Nightshade PowerPoint here:

If you're looking for other good otome games with fun yandere characters, I also recommend: Amnesia: Memories, Taisho x Alice, and Mystic Messenger.

After Kuroyuki, I started reading a lot of Japanese webnovels with yandere characters (I literally have a page in my browser with just the yandere tag on shousetsuka ni narou that I browse thru regularly) I could probably do a whole post just about yandere characters in webnovels, but for a quick recommendation, I suggest checking out Kotoko-sensei's (琴子) works or, for something a bit more bizarre, check out Inaida-sensei's (稲井田そう) works. (I once went thru a phase where I was obsessed with all of Inaida-sensei's works around 2~3 years ago.)

Anyways, on to the final question!

What are some yanderes that you like the least?

Well, I tend to dislike the yandere characters that are not well thought out. It's easy enough to put a knife in a character's hand or make them shove someone in a cage, but it's not interesting unless they have a compelling reason why. What leads them to decide they have no other choice but to kill a rival (or their target) or take away their target's freedom?

This is why I tend to dislike side characters who are yandere (especially in harem series) because they're usually not given a whole lot of depth or character building - like a main character would have.

I think a lot of the appeal from yandere characters comes from their depth, complexity, and how they can be hypocritical by nature. I love them but I hate them because they care about other people. I don't want to scare them but I need to protect them. I don't care if they hate me as long as they stay by my side.

If I were to name a yandere character I dislike, though, I would have to say Yuno Gasai (from Future Diary) who is a rather famous case. I don't think she's a bad character - in fact, she's a really great character and a good example of what happens if obsession is left to fester in a high-stakes, dangerous environment. But her character has been boiled down to crazy anime girl who kills a bunch of people for her crush by the internet, which has completely changed the way many people view the word and perceive the trope of "yandere." I just find it irritating and as the self-proclaimed saleswoman of yandere, it makes my job a lot harder.

Can yandere be considered problematic? Sure, absolutely. But does it have to involve murder, rape, gore, or other triggering content? Absolutely not.

(This goes for this whole post, but please note that I am talking about fictional characters, and this in no way reflects real life people)

All in all, I'm very passionate about yandere characters and yandere content. I just find them so compelling, and especially love exploring relationships involving a yandere character - because it usually involves having to come to some sort of compromise. I could probably rant on and on and on about it but this answer is already so long lol

Thank you so much for the ask again! And anyone can feel free to send asks if they would like me to clarify on any of this! I do love ranting about these sorts of things

[commander-gloryforge]

hm (kinda a rant/vent/i just wanna get things off my chest and actually TALK about whats been bothering me)

so. theres this person that has kind of been the cause of my recent mental lows/imposter syndrome getting worse/fear of connecting to people and general distance from literally every community i enter. i think ive ranted about them before. theyre a writer and in a community i used to be active in, and in the beginning i got along pretty well with them because we both enjoyed similar themes and metaphors in our writing but they ended up kind of dropping me, coincidentally at the same time they gave my actual writing/current wip a shot, and ever since then theyve been sub posting about me in really weird and elitist ways and it kind of had ruined my spirit, especially considering that i did really look up to them as a writer since theyre very into actual technicalities, writing theory, they speak about writing very academically. their odd vague posting ended up seriously knocking down my confidence and ive been spiraling into this strange mindset ever since that i’m incredibly stupid/can never improve/am not a real or proper writer by virtue of the things i write. they talk highly about writing techniques and concepts every writer needs to know, very subtly punch down at those who dont seem to know, yet dont care to make that knowledge easy to understand or accessible to obtain.

on top of that theyve been getting quite close with another new friend i made recently thats very dear to me and seeing them talk about things i cant seem to keep up with because i am too ‘stupid’ has just made me very anxious and brought up old feelings and fears that ive worked very hard on to let go off. this person is keeping me from interacting with a community i love because i cant seem to get ovr the fact that some people just dont like me, because im getting paranoid, because i think their every word is directed towards me, because theyre popular and well liked and everyone always agrees with them, even when what they say goes against what what i do and like.

it really sucks, its been bothering me so much, especially the fact that i cant just let it go. that i cant just ignore them and move on and do what i like without feeling like its wrong or cringe or weird. everytime i think im ready to go back i suddenly see them talking again with my friends that have offered me so much support whenever ive opened up about my struggles and now they suddenly agree and praise that person for having opinions that directly oppose me and the things they were so keen on supporting me on.

but recently i remembered something they said. they said that they dont want to be self indulgent in their writing, that ‘there’s nothing necessarily wrong with self indulgence but it reflects in the writings quality’, that you can ‘tell’ and they dont like that. when they first posted that i just read it and went. oh :( my writing is self indulgent :( does this reflect in my quality as well? is that why they dropped my writing and me, because i like being loud about self indulgence and cringe? and now i remembered that post, and suddenly it kind of clicked

this person very obviously does not write for the same reason as i do. they very obviously do not feel about writing thhe way i feel about it. they talk about it as though it is a science. like its something that needs to be perfected. now, it’s clear that they do love writing, that they have a passion for it, and their technical knowledge very much reflects on their art- and that impresses people. im not like that. i want to learn writing techniques and i want to improve my craft and i want to be taught, properly so, i obviously want to be a good writer, and im going to be a little self obsessed and say that i am a good writer, or at least not a bad one. but there is a difference in how each of us sees writing.

i want to be self indulgent. i want to write what i love. i fucking love writing and story telling and yes, the fact hat my writing is self indulgent does impact the quality of my work, because it makes it better. i am passionate about my worlds and stories and characters because its exactly what i want it to be and thats why is fucking good. because it makes me want to put effort in and learn how to get better. i dont write for a grade, i dont write to make something perfect and deep and meaningful and serious, i dont write to impress someone, i dont write to squeeze as many smart things and references to classic literature in as i can, i write because i want to fucking write what i like.

so im stupid. so im cringe and bad and insecure and a loser and i dont fit into the good writers club but at least what i write makes me happy. whatever. let some fucking whimsy into your life and stop treating me like im an idiot for having different motivations than you.

[agent-yolk-writes]

Friends Like You and Us - Venom!Reader - Chapter 9

I...still have a lot of catching up to do since I'm updating the main story again. Thank you for your patience!

This episode takes a step back to explore Reader and Venom's relationship, but the next chapter should bring us back.

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

AO3 Version Here

NOTIFICATION: DAILY BUGLE (2) PDNY Chief on the headless, handless body discovered last night: “We will catch the person who did this. We will give this innocent victim the justice they deserve.”

Hottest Spider-Man merch and memorabilia available to purchase right now, just in time for Christmas!

~

At the end of the day, no matter how you look at it, you’re going to need help.

You’re going to need Spider-Man’s help, specifically. 

Granted, it’s going to be a little awkward since you’re going to a professional superhero with what’s essentially their ex in tow. Will you unintentionally open up old wounds? Probably. Is there a chance Spider-Man might see you as a villain rather than an innocent bystander with unnecessary baggage they want to get rid of? Most likely, but that might be the anxiety talking.

Then again, how were you supposed to track down your friendly neighborhood hero? Signal him with a floodlight into the sky with a spider on it? Actually, that might be a good-No...no, it wouldn’t now that you thought about it. It’ll just attract unneeded attention from everyone except the said hero. Venom mentioned that he developed something from his former host, something that detects, to a degree, the potential danger that’s nearby. If both you and Spider-Man go out on patrol tonight and sense something, it’s possible that you could ‘accidentally’ bump into each other. This is genius!

As much as you want to get the tea on him, school comes first. Besides, whoever’s behind that spider mask would love to enjoy having some normalcy in his life before some high schooler (you) barges in with their alien former host under their skin. Either way, you wouldn’t mind skipping out on club duties. It’s a good compromise, in your opinion. 

Speaking of which, school just couldn’t drag out any longer than it already is. It sucked that everyone in the hallway might be staring at you as if they knew who you had for dinner against your will last night. It wasn’t your fault. Kyle had you cornered when it was dark and-

The screech of the bell made you jump. Damn, was that bell always so loud? What time was...oh yea, it’s lunchtime. There’s no doubt in your mind that the most popular girl in school, Stacy Adams, would be looking for you. It didn’t help your case as you overheard two of her minions talking to each other about how worried their boss is since her boyfriend suddenly ghosted her. Sucks to say that’s not the only kind of ghost he is now. 

Your best bet in being undetected by Manhattan’s own Plastics is to hide in the third-floor bathroom by the physics labs. Just you, your body co-pilot, and the “hamburger” you refused to eat based on recent events in your life. Venom was more than happy to eat it, but he quickly spat it out after the first bite. Why did you bother even buying lunch today? Did you hope that some attempt at sleeping and one swig of mouthwash is going to wash away the taste of Kyle (or the robber in Koreatown, or the drunkard on Tenth Avenue, or the creep that followed you into the subway station in Harlem, or….) overnight?

With an annoyed sigh nothing better to do to occupy your thoughts, you use your free hands to take out your phone and open up Twitter.

You remembered your good friend Hannah is a very avid fan of Spider-Man. She practically knows almost everything about him. She's good with data gathering, but not the investigative logic needed to piece together the entire puzzle. Her side hustle is running a Twitter page dedicated to pinpointing Spider-Man’s exact location, kinda like Manhattan Bird Watch. And to think she’s doing this manually without a bot. If it wasn't for the five other accounts that have been established years ago dedicated to spotting him more accurately and her lackluster posting time, there’s a possibility she might’ve been verified by her hard work alone.

You, on the other hand, were indifferent to superheroes. You never really found the need to insert them into your life until one literally inserted his life into you last week (Does he count as a ‘hero’ though?). So now you have to keep an eye on Hannah's guesstimations and figure out how you can remove an alien parasite out of you with your organs still solid and intact. At the same time, you’re keeping an eye out to see if there’s any suspicious activity that would warrant the webbed hero’s intervention.    It’ll be hard to do some galaxy brain predictions while Venom’s currently biting your liver in retaliation, but it’ll work out somehow. Maybe. 

“We are not a parasite! Apologize!” Said the parasite.

“Quit chewing at my organs like a dog toy and I will.” You shot back irritated. “I can’t juggle between thinking and trying not to be eaten alive here.” You weren’t surprised when he nipped your kidney for that retort. 

After constant flicking back and forth from Twitter to the map app you made a broad assumption that he’s currently on a course heading to either Manhattan or Brooklyn. You don’t have any idea what could be lying in either location, and nothing that’s currently trending could help you outside of the latest ‘is over party’ filled with idol fancams. He’s obviously not going to drop his location on every tweet on his verified account.  

“Aaargh. Why is everything so difficult?” Your whines echo in the bathroom. “He’s either in Coney Island or Long Island, and I don’t think he’d be hanging out in his vineyard out on the forks with nothing to stick on.” A pause. “...Does he even own a vineyard?”

None that we know of.

Letting out another frustrated groan, you continue your search on the web. As you expect, it’s as misinformed as you can expect. Some even claim he’s in Japan. What kind of ‘friendly neighborhood hero’ would he be if he was on the other side of the planet? Ugh, this is so frustrating. At this rate you might as well go out...and…..find him…

If you can’t go to Spider-Man, then your only option is to bring Spider-Man to you…hold on.

You glare at the tendril. “Stop putting thoughts into my head.”

“It’s our head. We share the same thoughts.”

“Alright, then what number am I thinking of?” Hopefully, he doesn’t pick 421. 

“421.” Damn it, he’s good. 

There is a certain risk of being the problem rather than solving them. Yeah, there are villains and then there are supervillains. Yeah, Spider-man can take on villains, but it’s the supervillains that will most likely take priority over everything so the city doesn’t topple to its knees overnight. Hell, you even had to do evacuation drills for this scenario!

The shrill of the period end bell brings you back to the current day. Cursing at the outdated machine, your companion sunk back into your body as you exited the bathroom. Rather than paying attention in class, your focus went to trying to iron out how you can cross paths with the man in red and blue spandex.

~

By the end of the school day, the antsy feeling inside you was getting harder to contain. Are you nervous? Excited? It’s hard to tell at this point. The idea of seeing Spider-Man, like actually seeing him up close and having an actual conversation with him...it’s giving you the chills. You’ve never been this worked up over a superhero before. Hopefully, Hannah doesn’t bring up how much you’ve changed in the past two weeks. 

God, where do you even start? Where do you go first? There’s so much happening in the city that trying to find where Spider-Man is going to end up makes finding a needle in a haystack child’s play. 

You could use a knish right about now. Can’t track a spider down on an empty stomach. 

~

NOTIFICATION: DAILY BUGLE (2) PDNY baffled in figuring out the identity of the decapitated victim. Skeptics say this is related to attacks with similar MO in the past weeks. 

Today’s Poll: Do you believe we’re witnessing the beginning of a new villain?

~

“Excuse me, have any of you seen Spider-Man recently?” While it is a polite and straightforward conversation starter, it’s technically not the correct way to start a conversation with some obviously shady people. Well, to be fair, you did follow them into a secluded area that was clearly off-limits. Logically, they would’ve bumped into the hero you’re looking for.

Now here you are, head in your hands in a warehouse painted ceiling to floor in blood and viscera. Is it worth mentioning that the head that you’re holding in question isn’t even your own?

“God...damn it.” You sighed as you threw the body part somewhere behind you. You didn’t have the appetite to eat it now. “I didn’t think this through.” You groaned as you buried your actual head into your very bloody hands. 

“We couldn’t help it.” Venom tries to assure you. “We need the strength to find him again.”

“But-ughh.” This is what you get for being the host of a brain-eating parasite, you supposed. "We gotta find an alternate energy source."

You get flashbacks to last night’s incident. You could remember getting out of your club meeting pretty late, and being followed home by the most popular girl in your school’s boyfriend right after. Everything was a blur after that. Vague memories were practically a slideshow in your mind. You remembered running, but hit a dead end. You could recall the menacing shadow that could only belong to an athlete. Then a headless body drops to your feet, and your stomach needing an emergency exit...

Ugh. You could feel your head starting to hurt just thinking about it. The damage has already been done, and you’ll get locked up sooner or later. It’s not like you’re eating people on purpose (yeah you are). This is why you need Spider-Man’s help.

He can show you how to apply discipline, how to control your power, and maybe...fight alongside him?

“Stop it!” Your voice echoed. “We’re getting sidetracked. We need to find the damn guy first!” Oh no, are those police sirens you’re hearing? You’re starting to hate the high pitch wailing of the horns recently. Better get out of here before you get a taste of undercooked pork. 

~

NOTIFICATION: DAILY BUGLE BREAKING: Police discover a gruesome scene at warehouse with known connections to the Manfredi Crime Family. Rival families deny any involvement. 

~

After cross-referencing Twitter, it’s safe to say Spider-Man is estimated to show up somewhere nearby. Emphasis on the ‘somewhere’. Rather, it’s more of a toss-up between either East Midtown or Upper East Side. In an effort to keep your feet on the ground a little longer, you had an idea.

“Well I can’t roll up in the same space as your ex without knowing anything about him. Let’s make a quick detour, I know a place.” And so here you are at Midtown Comics.

It was the hottest spot for all things superheroes. Hannah dragged you to this place on more than one occasion. It’s super popular and it gets packed all the time. While a second store was established in an attempt to alleviate the issue, the appeal of even stepping in the flagship store as if it was a holy site attracted tourists in droves. Hell, it’s getting dark out and there’s still a sizable crowd in here. 

You couldn’t help but gawk at the sheer amount of merch for this web-slinging hero. The fact you can plaster his face on just about anything...you couldn’t help but wonder how much of a profit this guy gets on royalties alone. He has to own a vineyard with that money. 

As you looked around and flipped through some comic book pages here and there, you couldn’t help how quiet Venom got when you showed up. You would hope he would give you some kind of inside scoop, maybe a walk down memory lane when you looked at some prints, but voiceless commentary tells a lot.

You, uh, okay there...buddy? 

What you got in response was, in your interpretation, some form of a grunt. Oh, that might be bad.

Is this too much? I knew I should’ve gone to Kino but-

Not it.

“Huh?” You voiced your confusion, causing some customers to look at you. In an attempt to save face, you covered your ear as if you were adjusting your earbud. “What do you mean ‘not it’?”

Doesn’t feel right. We don’t know why.

Well...that certainly comes at a surprise. Then again, you are looking at artistic interpretations of his ex rather than the real deal. It would make sense to feel weird, you thought. Then again, what other superhero swings around NYC in red and blue spandex? You honestly had to think about what else you could or were going to say. Although, you did note a nervous feeling in your gut despite not experiencing it personally.

Suddenly, you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stick up. Then that strange experience you had a few days ago started happening again. You only had a few seconds to brace yourself before the world started to shake. 

A loud explosion rocked your ears. Gasps and shrieks filled the store. Lights began to flicker in and out as books and other items fell off the shelves. You half processed a hardcover book hitting your head during what you can only describe as a seizure. And just as quickly as it happened, it stopped. One hand reached for the impact spot while the other used the shelves to push you back up.

Holy shit! What was that? You thought, followed by, I have to get out of here! 

That feeling in your gut came back twofold. The tingling sensation from your neck doesn’t feel like it’ll go away soon. While you were getting used to the sporadic occurrences of the earthquakes, you couldn’t shake off the feeling that something’s different. Oh no! Could someone be trapped under some rubble outside?

With no time to waste, you barreled out the store and clambered up the closest wall to scout out the immediate area. There have been some things that have toppled over not to mention several cars piled up near Times Square. It looks like nobody got seriously hurt thankfully. You could hear emergency vehicles echoing throughout the city. While there isn’t anything that sticks out like a sore thumb, you still have that gnawing feeling in your stomach. 

“I wonder where Spider-Man is?” You thought aloud. According to the news, he would drop in to assess the damage before doing what he needs to do then dip. He should be here any moment but...where is he? Guess you should check Twitter. 

A barrage of notifications greeted you as you reached for your phone. As you open your lock screen, you can see messages from Hannah that sound very distressing. Incomprehensible even. It was hard to read them as they kept coming and coming. Is she okay? This isn’t like her at all. 

Unfortunately, the cause of Hannah’s distress texting decided to make itself known on your phone. While you could feel your heart drop, the rest of your body froze when a news notification emerged in the sea of texts.

NOTIFICATION: DAILY BUGLE BREAKING: New York’s Hero Spider-Man has died. His identity revealed to be grad student Peter Parker, 26.

“N-No…” Your voice was so small. Your phone slipped from your hand and dropped to your feet. “This...This can’t be…” The denial was only shot down by more and more news notifications popping up.

The next moment you could remember was staring at a TV display somewhere in the city. You watched helplessly as the reporters struggled not to cry on camera as they explained that Peter-no, you have no right to call him that after your search for him came to naught. They explained that Spider-Man succumbed to his injuries caused by the current earthquake that toppled several buildings in Brooklyn. 

You try not to acknowledge the reflection in the window. Those weren’t tears running down your face. The owner of that defeated look in their eyes isn’t you. But man, you look so tired.

“What am I going to do?” You croaked, peeling away from the display. “I couldn’t even track him down properly. How was I supposed to know he was in Brooklyn?” Worst of all, you’re starting to fear that Venom might not see any use for you after this spectacular failure. “What do you think?” Instead of a backhanded remark, you get...nothing. For a minute, at least.

“Not him.” He replied.

You couldn't have but blink. “What?”

“That’s not our Spider-Man.” A tendril emerged from your shoulder. He glanced at the TV before looking at you. “He was younger, we think. No ‘grad school’. Darker hair too.”

And that just adds the finisher to the wombo-combo series of events you still have yet to process. Your head hurts for a variety of reasons. All you want is to crawl into bed and hope all of this was a bad dream or some kind of hallucinogenic drug made by a mad scientist that's in the air. Anything that chases away the inevitable thoughts of your actions being for naught. 

You try to find your way home. The only things you could feel were the tears running down your face and the headache you’ll have by the time you get to bed.

Hopefully everything will return to normal tomorrow and you can try again. 

~

Unfortunately, it was all still very real. Even as you watched the funeral procession from a nearby rooftop, your entire body was buzzing.

A huge crowd dressed in red and blue gathered around the cathedral soaking in the eulogy given by the widow of their fallen idol. The speech itself was beautiful and inspiring. The weight crushing down on your shoulders seemed to dissipate for a moment. You were hopeful that the world was indeed counting on you, but you were quickly crushed by the reality of the situation. This isn’t helped by the tingling feeling in the back of your neck. It wasn’t too much of a concern, but it’s going off just low enough that you could ignore it if you don’t focus on it.

Somehow, someway, Spider-Man wasn't the ‘one’. Yes, it is Spider-Man that you're looking for, but the only one that exists is, well, no longer existing. 

“I’m so tired.” You said mindlessly. 

“We know.” 

You let your hands run down your face in frustration. “What am I going to do now?” 

“What are we going to do?”

“...Ugh, yeah. Fine.” 

You stood up and left your spot. This was getting too much for you. The headache from last night hasn’t gone away either. No amount of pain medication (that is quickly rejected back up by your partner) could do the trick, so you've resorted to ineffective temple rubbing. With that said and done, you picked yourself up from your ledge. As you did, the weird feeling in your neck was…pushing you. It wouldn’t reprimand you from going another direction, but it encouraged you when you did follow its guidance. Is this the famous sixth sense Spider-Man was said to have? Only one way to find out!  

And so, you found yourself standing outside Brooklyn Visions Academy the very next day. With your companion dressing up as one of the standard uniforms you saw, you enter the charter school with shaky steps as you find someone that can help you with your current predicament. 

[caernua]

re: your arcana post - i literally don't even go here but i live for drama.... if you were ever to do a video essay or even just a write up in a post about the situation.... i want to know what happened, can't resist 👀👀

oh my goodd it's so eerie to explain it to someone who wasn't involved but this silly little mobile dating sim was just an initial passion project from a small team of employees of an indie game developer that was basically given six weeks to turn in something completely self-indulgent and it quickly got a backing on kickstarter around 2016-2017? beyond that it was quite a classic case of a project becoming more famous than its creators expected and it turns into a bit of a mess bc of their lack of experience. and by that i mean they got very close to the fans, and that's bound to open a can of worms. they used to make weekly q&as and you can't imagine what an exciting event that was, oh my god literally everyone was in a discord server losing their shit bc the devs had opened the askbox and we could ask the stupidest questions in the world about their characters and they would answer bc frankly they were very funny and the characters were all like... established in a funny enough way that it was so easy to make good jokes about them.

and i think what makes it very interesting is that the fandom was actually pretty small, but it felt HUGE. those q&as seemed like the most viral posts you could run into when you logged on tumblr but really most of them had a couple thousand notes at best, even when the arcana was at its most popular. it was literally like living in a small village where everybody knew EVERYBODY. if you posted something, high chance everyone in the fandom would see and reblog. it was like a hive mind.

also part of the reason why it felt so huge was bc everyone was churning out fan content like CRAZY, i don't think there was ever any fandom i've personally been in where i've seen so many people create so much damn stuff and frankly i think it's one of its strongest features. idk what it is about this game but everytime i revisit it inspires me so much, suddenly i wanna pick up my tablet after months, i wanna try writing again, etc. it's just wonderful at urging you to create and i have no idea how one even achieves that.

but yea the fandom slowly disappeared partly due to controversies, some of the creators were found to have been into some questionable stuff back in their not so olden days and they stepped away from the limelight, afterwards i believe a lot of the team stepped away from the game altogether. but it was weird because the controversies were constant, not just towards the creators but also within the fandom itself 💀 and given the huge volume of them they of course ranged from reasonable criticism especially regarding the representation of the characters of color, or the absurd microtransaction to stuff like 'his eyes are drawn bigger in this cg so the artists wanted to make him look like a child so this game caters to pedos actually' dkjgdkfj i saw some CRAZY takes and the bad faith criticism definitely overshadowed the reasonable voices in my opinion, it was not balanced at all. they stopped doing the q&as, the posts they made on their official tumblr became way more sanitized, and actually in a way so did some aspects of the game, and little by little it grew quieter.

and now it's... silent. but it's so near and dear to my heart, i think it's an absolutely wonderful game and what i love about it the most is how much it inspires people to create. and i think the reason why is bc unlike in many games like this (at least i think, i'm not sure cause i haven't played many) your character doesn't just suddenly meet every love interests. they have a connection to some of the love interests and a past they don't remember so it's very interesting to peel those layers back, BUT because it's your character the story stays quite vague about the past. so it's incredibly fun to speculate, to create a backstory, etc! that's i think one of my favorite things about it and it's not a coincidence that arcana went on to inspire some fans to venture into the visual novel genre as creators themselves.

and yea overall it just felt like a close positive community (well. mostly really, we are talking about a fandom on tumblr here so) and a super creative and inspiring one. the jokes were super fun, the art was top notch, the writing was also good. so yea i kinda miss it and it's sad to see how empty it seems now? like i see people from 2020 onward go 'ohh i just discovered this game' and i'm like... MY SWEET SUMMER CHILD... YOU HAVE NO IDEA.... YOU HAD TO BE THERE.... and ig i didn't really answer your question bc i kind of glossed over the drama but i went through the whole phenomenon bc i think it was. really interesting to witness 🫡

[niigata-division]

By the time the famous ex-actor and homicidal detective was about to step inside his house after all the hard work he had been through during the day, he was then greeted by a pile of gifts sent over to his address since today was also none other than his birthday.

Well, since he assumed that the majority of them were coming from his fans or maybe his colleagues, the option of just leaving them all under the cold of the night seems to be considered inappropriate here. So, he decided to take all of them into his residence.

Speaking of which, he also noticed that one notable-sized present with the tiny card written “from Nara Division” laying down on the floor —It was a roll of blackout curtains with so many cuts that all lights shining through them would mysteriously portray the silhouette of nighttime cityscapes and this was somehow striking some kind of aesthetics to him.

Carrying the large roll of curtains into his arms, suddenly his area of sight caught up on something nearby —It was a miniature black coffin with a lot of accessories in the theme of his interest, but what made him a little bit surprised was the name addressed as its sender and the small letter attached inside.

“Yo, What’s up, Shiba-kun (and greetings to Shiba-chan if she is around there).

First and foremost; Happy birthday and long time no see★

Time does fly very fast, doesn’t it? I thought I’ve just seen both you and your sister as a pair of shorties among the crew from back then. But now, look, you have already turned out to be even taller than me right now!

To be honest, it was such a regret when I heard you decided to quit showbiz so soon. Ever since then the world of entertainment had lost quite a number of young talents and also a lot of its muchness after you left.

However, above all else, I hope you guys are doing alright and content with the path you choose to walk from now on.

But WAIT, what if I’m already writing this long but you still have no idea of who I possibly am?! Haha, just kidding… I know you would never since both of us got our grand debut from the same drama series after all.

—ASHIBI

(My stage name is still the same, you see?)”

Lyall blinked as he read the letter. Gosh, it had been so long since he thought about the series that had given him his big break. No one could ever have expected how huge “Andromeda’s Children” would become. The series finale alone was watched by millions of people. Even now, reruns of the show were still popular to watch.  

Ashibi, huh? Lyall tried to remember who that could be and thought back to everyone who played a part in the drama. Then, all of a sudden, a figure appeared in Lyall’s mind. Someone who played a certain character and who understood what it was like to be suddenly shoved into the spotlight. 

“Hahahah! Oh gosh, I can't believe I almost forgot you! It has been a while hasn’t it? I should get back in touch with you. I'm sure Lyra would love to speak to you again.”

[aziraphales-library]

Lost Fic #142

1. Hello! Maybe you will be able to help me? I'm searching a fanfic that I read a while ago, but I only remember one scene. Aziraphale and Crowley are in the bookshop, C has past-abuse (by Hell (?) can't remember what). They're starting to be intimate and C assure that A can do anything to him. A is not convinced and say it. They argue a little until A ask C if he would be OK if A hurt C. C's eyes became empty and he turn his head saying "yes, if it's what you want"(Of course, that's not) Thanks ! - anon

2. I'm looking for a fic but the only thing I remember about it is that there's a line where someone calls crowley a "punch-clock demon" and he responds with "actually, I'm salaried". I have no idea about anything about the rest of the fic but that one line was so funny to me that I haven't been able to get it out of my head for months and now I just really want to know what story it came from - anon

3. Hi! First I want to say that I love what you're doing here, helping people find fics and giving recommendations and it's just amazing, thank you. I'm searching for a fic I stumbled upon and read before I had an ao3 account and have never been able to find again. I'm pretty sure it was written in the earlier years, a while before the TV show came out, because I don't remember it having any more recently popular tags. I don't remember the title but I do remember most of what happened in it. Aziraphale was given a, like, new trainee angel, he was a young boy, to "show the ropes" and teach how to be an angel. The new angel just couldn't understand what was going on, there was a lot of frustration with really complicated angelic math problems,  and somehow managed to mess up a miracle so badly it turned into a huge man-eating slime blob, except that instead of eating people everyone it touched turned into, like their opposite self? Something like that? And the rest of it was the characters trying to find and stop this rouge miracle from wreaking havoc. It was incredibly hilarious. Interestingly, it's probably the only fic that I absolutely loved that notably /didn't/ ship aziraphale and Crowley. In fact, aziraphale was shipped with a human guy. Usually I hate that kind of thing in fics but this one was so funny and well done it just worked. Aziraphale got touched by the miracle and suddenly decided he could spread God's love better by going into the porn industry and having sex with various men. XD Meanwhile, Crowley got touched by the miracle and became, like, really nice? Idk I remember that he was wearing a sweater vest or something lol and his apartment was different somehow In the ending, they realized that the miracle had somehow ended up in Hell and were fearing the consequencesIn the beginning, the guy aziraphale was eventually shipped with gave him a kitten, I think, to petsit while the guy went on a trip and aziraphale was less than pleased I think the kitten got turned into a big dog or vice versa probably because the miracle touched it So I know what it's about but not much that would help me find it, much gratitude to you  if you canThanks :) - @aceartistactivist

4. Hello hello! I’ve scoured existing tags, but can’t find the fic I’m looking for. Angst, Aziraphale is Gabriel’s sex slave, he and Crowley become friends through snatched moments on Earth when Aziraphale can break away, Crowley buys Aziraphale books and keeps them safe in his flat for him, they eventually fall in love. Happy ending.  Thank you for any help you can provide! - anon

5. hey y’all! happy new year! i’m looking for a pretty specific fic i can’t track down. it was set in pompeii as the volcano was erupting and crowley and azi were saving people. then they play in a river and maybe there’s wing grooming? it wasn’t illustrated, was one chapter, and was likely rated T or under because I don’t read smut. like i said, super specific but i’ve tried looking everywhere and can’t find it! i figured you lovely people could help. thanks so much! - anon

If you know any of these fics please include the number in your reply! Thank you :)

- Mod D

[pallases]

hi leigh!! i hope you're well :) saw your post with asks and decided i would combine lots of them lol so first thing is tell me abt whatever's bothering you!! i hope nothing's bothering you obv but still.

also i am asking you for book recs. i haven't been reading a lot of proper books lately so any recs are welcome but i kind of feel like some fantasy would do me good. but like good ones? The last couple of years i've been picking up some popular fantasy standalones hoping they feel like a fantasy book you read when you're twelve and they end up being the most mid thing i've ever read. like help. i'm planning to read some robin hobb books so hopefully they're good.

also i've started listening to mitski (talk about being late lol) and i'm really liking her songs i was wondering if you have any particular recs? Or any music recs? what've you been listening to?

sorry this ask is all over the place lol i guess i'm chatty today. i hope you're having an amazing day!! <3<333

ORLA!!!! i hope you are doing well too <3 one thing that is bothering me is school is starting again bc i have gotten virtually no break </3 also that apparently the english class i’m taking doesn’t have any required books i was looking forward to reading actual books not whatever mini readings ig they’re going to be giving us instead ☹️ also also that i did Not in fact get my license like planned this summer bc during the singular week i was home a bunch of stuff suddenly came up and it became no longer my priority and now i will need to renew my permit Again bc it expires in early september and im not going to be able to make it home before that so. <3

as for book recs!! i have tragically had the same problem lately re fantasy books and honestly mostly just books in general BUT i don’t know if you’ve read any ve schwab ive really loved what books of hers ive read. vicious was my favorite, but the monsters of verity duology better fits the “feels like a fantasy book you read when you’re twelve” vibe!

for non-fantasy recs if youre feeling poetry i reallyy liked margaret atwood’s morning in the burned house. also just finished hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy which was v fun! got many laughs out of me, i did not however know before starting it that it’s a series so now idk how to proceed bc i only have the first book agdjfk

OH ALSO fantasy shoutout to strange the dreamer duology 🫶🏻🫶🏻 lovely writing style and world, fascinating antagonist, i was not a big fan of the romance but otherwise big rec on that. definitely not for everyone tho some ppl find the pacing too slow, i remember when i first read it i mentioned that in my review too that it took a bit for me to really get into although i personally wasn’t bored in the meantime like others, i was just chilling enjoying what it had to tell me abt everything

MITSKI RECS!! i love strawberry blond sorry for being basic. square too but specifically square solo piano version which they took off of spotify (idk what you’re listening to her on). because dreaming costs money my dear is also a veryyy hard-hitting one. fond of circle, a burning hill, goodbye my danish sweetheart, nobody, washing machine heart, and class of 2013 as well. that was a lot i will stop now 🫡 also must admit i am quite behind on mitski’s recent releases so i can’t speak for any of her newer albums/songs. except for working for the knife musically it doesn’t hit as much as other songs of hers for me but lyrically it makes me go crazy

as for random music recs my most recently liked songs are unsweetened lemonade by amélie farren, army dreamers by kate bush, numb little bug by em beihold, would that i by hozier, the milk carton by madilyn mei, and comme des enfants by cœur de pirate. i have not really been “listening” listening to anything lately! though that will change in a few days with wisdom saga >:)

— sleepover saturday sunday!

[batsplat]

your negative takes on recent tennis rivalries pleaseeee🙏🙏🙏

ps. you’re a treasure

okay so I'll do the copy paste thing from what I did just cut from the initial post, which was my polite 'I'm attempting to write a reasonably neutral post' approach

so, this may come as a shock, but obviously I'm a bit of a fan of rivalries. we do have some bangers in tennis history, rich narrative texts, but... well. the landscape out there hasn't been great for the past decade or so. sometimes you can get invested in match-ups between specific players that are fun to watch and interesting tennis-wise, but it's all very much about the sport rather than the personal relationships between the different players. I enjoy matches between all three or ryba, sabs and iga!! but also. they are coworkers. you do kindaaaa get the sense sabs and iga aren't particularly fond of each of other, but it's all perfectly cordial. again, the tennis is great, I support them in all their endeavours, but it's very much the tennis itself you need to look for for the drama (also they don't play each other as much as I'd like, but that's a conversation for a different day)

you do still sometimes get some fun beef but it's very much isolated dumb stuff like the fritz/rinderknech "have a nice flight home" thing. this isn't going anywhere story-wise but it's fun in the moment

speaking of men. obviously the most important rivalries for the last however many years have been between various big three/four members, and federer/nadal specifically is extremely popular. tennis-wise, I still think federer/djokovic was the most fun match-up, and at least there was a little tension there because federer used to hate djokovic. they've played a lot of matches that are worth watching!! also they've finally mostly retired so it's not super relevant any more, but well tennis fans as a collective are very big three-pilled so you'll hear a lot about these blokes

and now there's alcaraz/sinner. they've only really had one match that was good start to finish (uso 2022), but definitely some fun ones (miami 2023 and wimbledon 2022 are probably the other ones that stand out, their most recent match was very much in the 'long does not equal good' category). plus, they're quite good at producing highlight reel content, like this one point everyone remembers (shown here from every angle... tennistv produces longer videos for single points than the wta releases for most finals). it's an interpersonally warm rivalry between two young guys who are both very successful and will presumably win everything for the next decade. again, I'd suggest trying to become a fan of one of those two

this was the polite way of phrasing it!! everything below here is quite rude and negative, peace and love to all

okay, let's ditch the thin veneer of neutrality, here's what I actually think: it is completely baffling to me how popular quite a few of these rivalries are, I don't get it, I have never understood it, I will never understand it. tennis went 'what if we had rivalries without narrative tension' and everyone just kinda rolled with that? mind you federer/nadal early confrontations were happening at the same time as clijsters/henin, who were like?? dude it got so bad henin said she had never been friends with clijsters so nothing clijsters and her father said could hurt her ("nothing was broken between us because there was nothing to break" ???? ffs). which is obviously not true!! but it's so... she denied the friendship ever existed and called it all pr like that's so SAD! look, this is beside the point, I'm not talking about henin/clijsters here, I do understand why people aren't that into a rivalry that was at its peak like two decades ago and federer/nadal were still playing slam finals in 2k17 (a dark dark time for some fans, federer had already HAD his decline and then he was suddenly winning slams again like tf). and to some extent I go 'well clearly people will just be into anything if you have two successful blokes' but there's clearly quite a lot of genuine passion there? like I'm not denying the passion EXISTS, people do clearly care about these guys, it's not all a psyop by Big Fedal who have suckered people into caring for these two dudes. and I'm not denying the tennis is great! I still personally prefer the match-ups that involve djokovic, and also the match-ups that involve none of those three, but fundamentally I have been watching these matches for like!! so many years! it's part of my childhood, I have enjoyed plenty of these matches, the tennis is obviously otherworldly. I have hot takes on a bunch of their matches, I can have the goat debate with you, I can give you the rundown on surface-specific match-ups and how long since nadal won a set on hard court against djokovic and federer's peak year domination rate and what they all did at madrid and blue clay and yec and golden masters and all that shit, of course it's part of my dna as a tennis viewer too!! I did usually have a slight order of preference in my head when I was watching big three match ups to have someone to root for (it's different now but back when I was a kid it was djokovic > nadal > federer, these days federer's redeemed himself a little bit in my eyes by having the decency to retire and I was radicalised against nadal). but like!! what's the narrative hook! I need somebody to explain to me what the story here is. these guys are all very good at tennis and they are racking up their titles and it's so!! whatever!! no tension no arc no real interpersonal development once federer stopped being so bitchy about djokovic. twenty plus slams who CARES, what are they doing this for! it's all so?? ugh

anyway now that I've taken a potshot at the most popular rivalry in men's tennis, I should quickly back it up by saying I feel almost the exact same way about the second most popular one (at least on tumblr) and also feel nothing for alcaraz/sinner. that one was still like... vaguely palpable? when alcaraz was clearly a way better player but struggled in that match up and also was way more invested in the rivalry than sinner was. but well, sinner is world number one now so THAT'S been ruined. again, sit me down and explain to me what the narrative stakes here are. like, if sinner wins that roland garros match, he'll be fine? alcaraz will be fine? everyone will be fine? their relationship is basically 'friendly coworkers', zero chance of anything more substantial developing there. now, don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna pretend like I'm massively into the current state of the women's game when it comes to rivalries either, but at least I have a base level of fondness there for the top players and am ideologically inclined to hype up any rivalries there whenever they come along. also, quite frankly, it DOES matter viscerally more to them!! iga spends a lot of her time kinda like,,, on the edge, the way she was in tears when getting physio after the naomi match, united cup last year, a bunch of her 2021 matches, like she's so intense and so tightly strung on the court that you do really get the sense that a loss could just cause her to have an existential crisis. there's so many unanswered questions about her ultimate potential off clay, I'm still proper curious about her story develops. and then with aryna, she's obviously ALSO so intense but in a different way, and she feels every single emotion so completely and entirely and iga has beaten her in one of those infamous semifinal chokes and it's kinda... you know, aryna also feels like she has something to prove, and you can tell they both really really want to beat each other. there's something there!! it's something real! I'm always seated whenever we actually get to see them play

that being said, yes, obviously I do think we're not exactly peak rivalry potential in either gender. the men's is more egregious because the way the game has shaken out since like,,,, 2004, is incredible top level domination by just a few guys. and now, yes, I'm aware I'm a fan of another sport where this was also incredibly true. but. the key difference is that the aliens had the decency to not be so fucking boring about it. sure on paper they were as a PACK winning everything, but good lord were they screaming crying throwing up whenever things went mildly wrong for them. like!! they despised each other and they needed to beat each other, which makes ME care!! I'm not saying I NEED rivals to hate each other, though it sure does help for my investment levels, but I need a narrative hook! borg/mcenroe had a narrative hook, evert/navratilova had a narrative hook (unfortunately that narrative hook these days is 'being united in transphobia'), agassi/sampras had one HELL of a narrative hook. noughties wta tennis about fifty million narrative hooks!! when I watch alcaraz/sinner, I just try and enjoy the tennis (though their roland garros match was mid as shit so what's that all about) but like... I don't care? or I care because one of them has pissed me off recently. I do fundamentally watch most of men's tennis as a hater, and admittedly this is accumulated bitterness over way too many years, but I do also think it's frustrating! tennis gets in its own way with this whole gentleman's sport business, the amount of wanking people do over federer/nadal in particular is truly insufferable... this is a sport filled with millionaire tax evaders and they'll have you believe that smashing a racquet is not only not fun (obviously it is) but also some kind of arbiter of morality. congrats to nadal for not smashing a racquet in his career!! could we please get his thoughts on gender equality in prize money? oh... okay. hm. this isn't supposed to be some gotcha, these guys all suck. but ultimately I would prefer not to engage with this sanitising and pearl clutching, given they do all suck, over shit that fundamentally does not matter while giving them a pass over all the stuff that DOES and instead maybe just have some fun. maybe you need to be single-minded and kind of dull to be good at men's tennis these days, maybe it's inevitable, doesn't mean I don't find them boring and pointless. there's some people who just enjoy like,,, watching greatness, endlessly racking up numbers and reaching the pinnacle of the sport or whatever, that's not me, I need there to be a story

thing is, right, obviously I'll still watch these matches (though I have massively turned it down this year, especially on the men's side - I did have a kind of breaking point this january where I was like 'wow I don't think I can ever care about anything any more?' and broadly speaking this has proved to be correct). I've tried hard to like a lot of these men because, god knows, it'd be a way more pleasant experience if I could trick my brain into it, but I can't! I think they're dull! fundamentally I'm too embedded in this world to ever be able to leave it. but I think it's funny when fans go 'oh people who are into drama don't appreciate the actual sport' like buddy I can basically guarantee I know more about the sport than you do. I Just Think that actually interpersonal relationships do also enhance the actual sports, like this shit is a conversation right,,, it has its history, it's a development over time in terms of your tactics and your knowledge of your opponent's tactics and so on, your expectations going into every match. when you have an interesting interpersonal dynamic, the sport also becomes more interesting... it's actually pretty straightforward lol. a lot of tennis is in the head, rivalries are also in the head, you're playing the other guy (gender neutral) as much as you are the actual ball. I get super annoyed by fans who are too busy being nostalgic to actually enjoy the players we have now, and I really don't like it when people call iga boring for instance, but I do also have a little bit of that. love the game, hate a lot of the players, simple as. bring back agassi calling his pet parrot more interesting than sampras in his autobiography, we used to be a proper sport