#obviously we don't even know if near wrote his name in the first place!

[kiyomitakada]

see i don't buy the interpretation that mikami betrays light in the manga directly because near wrote his name and those actions into the death note because we are told in the first few chapters of death note that you can't make someone do something they consider impossible to do. light tries to make a prisoner write "i know L suspects the japanese police" and they can't do it! they just straight up die of a heart attack!

and like, near as a person is extremely disdainful of all the kira followers, if he knew the rules of the death note then there's no way he would risk writing "teru mikami denounces light yagami" or even "teru mikami refuses to help light yagami," that goes against everything near thinks about kira followers & so the risk (to him) of mikami dropping dead immediately of a heart attack is too high. maybe it would have worked if he'd written it. but i doubt he did.

(i do buy that maybe he wrote mikami's name to ensure he didn't check on the notebook though)

[beesmygod]

fact check me on this absurd bloodborne father gascoigne deepest lore posting

i'm working on the next "you hunted" update and frankly i feel split between feeling like im doing the pepe silvia routine and partly feel like it makes enough sense to get a soft pass. i know these are so many words to read. but ultimately its about gascoigne and his stupid music box, if that means anything to you:

on our short trek from the tomb of oedon to his chapel, we pass through a weird...sewer...drainage room thing with a ladder leading to a modest library. a note on the table reads:

"The Byrgenwerth spider hides all manner of rituals, and keeps our lost master from us. A terrible shame. It makes my head shudder uncontrollably."

this note is REALLY weird. even cross-checking the re-translation guide doesn't do much but reinforce the literal meaning of the note: there's a spider at byrgenwerth (another rom, we don't know this yet) hiding rituals, even the ritual involving the lost (or, in a better translation, unseeable/invisible) lord. bummer. ahhhh my head is rattling. but...who wrote this? about who? and why?

it's time to be a Fromsoft Lore guy in the worst way: we're going to dissect this note down to its atomic structure in order to wring any and all possible meaning from it in a futile attempt to try to come up with a tortured explanation for nonsense. skip all this italicized text to return to planet earth.

who wrote this note? if we knew that, a lot of things would be cleared up. the potential suspect list comprised of known individuals who have passed through that area recently is pretty tiny. can't be fauxsefka, because she doesn't use this route to reach the clinic. alfred doesn't seem to have much interest in the church, knows little about byrgenwerth, and seems unaware of most things in general. an unnamed and unknown NPC of no consequence? well, maybe. probably, even.

but what about gascoigne? you find this note immediately after defeating him by using a key he drops. it clear he did not progress past the library, as the incense would have driven him off (and the chapel dweller's reaction suggests you are the first hunter they've seen/sniffed). there's a possible clue left in the library that points to a hunter having passed through recently: the blood gem workshop tool. its one of three "misplaced" workshop tools found in the waking world. a hunter took this with them when they left the dream and left it in a chest in oedon chapel. that narrows down the pool of candidates quite a bit. gascoigne obviously knows what blood gems are, he gifted one to his wife. and this is before we've even discussed gascoigne's connections to a "lost master".

who is this note about?  the words used for titles in the english translation are all over the place and "master" could mean anything from "school principal" to "great ones". this has made trying to pin the subject of this note down near impossible. the japanese is more specific: "lords" in this note is translated as "主" and is almost never in the script otherwise. the only relevant usage even remotely close is it's use is in a different note later as a flowery way to refer to whoever has assumed the role of vicar of the healing church (essentially: "lord of blood ministration"). it is also used for micolash ("lord of the nightmare"), the japanese name of the bloodletting beast ("lord of the beast blood"), and for master willem of byrgenwerth ONLY in the graveguard set item description1. in the case of micolash and the bloodletting beast, "lord" can be read as "host" as well. but NOT like a parasite host!!! specifically like, a household host. "host of the beast blood" is intended to be literal.

now time to play "guess who?": willem could be described as "lost" metaphorically, but he's also like, right there. out in the open. he's considerably less lost than our other two options, micolash or laurence/host of the beast blood. willem doesn't use the 主 kanji usually; he's "headmaster" willem or some other title that makes it clear he's from a school. forget willem. it's not him.

i'm pretty sure japanese players were supposed to intuit a connection between the "lord of the beast blood" and the "lord of blood ministration" and this nuance was lost in translation. and while there is a vacuous spider in lower pthumeru blocking access to a secret 4th labyrinth layer where a hunter can find a lost lord of the beast blood, it's clearly not in byrgenwerth. it's not the big doggie.

micolash, head of the rogue school of mensis, is literally lost in the nightmare acting as it's host/lord. access to the corpse of micolash is blocked until rom, the byrgenwerth spider, is defeated. so. having eliminated any alternatives, the note is almost certainly about micolash. but. why? who in oedon chapel gives a shit about micolash?

there are a truly confusing number of connections between gascoigne and the school of mensis (and thus, micolash). the most specific and startling connection is that the music box that gascoigne has a good/bad (?) reaction to plays "mergo's lullaby". this exact song plays during a fight with the wet nurse of oedon's presumed (but like, come on. it is) child, the titular mergo. if gascoigne's daughter is sent to iosekfa's clinic, you will obtain the level 1 formless oedon rune from her body which, as we discussed in the last part, depicts the blood moon descending during a (mensis) ritual; levels 3 and 4 of the rune are found in oedon chapel itself.

gascoigne's garb reads:

The dingy scarf is a Holy Shawl and symbol of the Healing Church, from which Gascoigne would eventually part ways. "Father" is a title used for clerics in a foreign land, and there is no such rank in the Healing Church.

reads a bit differently now...perhaps father gascoigne did not bring a foreign form of worship to yharnam. gascoigne left the healing church in order to start his own, based on the foreign practices of pthumeru.

only today the church is abandoned, and some say that the residents of oedon have all gone mad.

[a-queer-seminarian]

big ol' worry dump, i promise i'll post something rebloggable soon but i'm still processing everything and have not had time to write it coherently! cw queerphobia from the pulpit, church hurt, verbal violence, and brief csa mention (not a specific case)

SO. for anyone not keeping up, this past Sunday i visited my childhood church in ohio, and was devastated when near the end of his homily (Catholic word for sermon haha) my childhood pastor suddenly switched from celebrating the Spirit who bursts through closed doors to proclaiming that The Church Is Under Attack from people like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. :/

After he finished and sat down, i stood up and got behind the lectern/pulpit to remind him and everyone in the room that queer and trans people have the Holy Spirit too, because his words implied otherwise. And i could not risk that any other person there felt suddenly and utterly alone — i had to make sure they knew that not everyone agreed with our priest's message.

(Here's a place you can watch a clip of the homily — obviously mega content warning for homophobia, please keep yourself safe and remember you are loved!! — as well as my response)

Not long into speaking, I was escorted peacefully out of the building. Two parishioners followed and found me outside, and thanked me for what i said. They were very sweet <3

As we were talking, another parishioner stormed out and got very, very verbally violent. It was scary shit.

Other parishioners eventually came out and led Scary Man away, thankfully. The church's other, younger & newer priest, Father Jim, also came out to apologize profusely to us. Then i went home. My wife and i flew home to Georgia the next morning.

____

and...stuff keeps happening.

i did not expect this to make the news, but it did. the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote on it, and so have other papers across the country.

an officer called me to ask if i wanted to press charges on Scary Man. I don't, because i'm just not convinced the results would be helpful to actually stopping him from doing what he did again.

if anyone has resources or someone smart i could talk to for advice on alternatives to cops & court for a situation like this, please hit me up!!!

after agreeing to an interview with the Plain Dealer reporter, which used my first and last name, folks have been finding me on social media to offer their support, which actually has been so uplifting and i plan to post some of the messages later!

my parents are proud of me and support me BUT my mom is worried sick that someone is going to, like, find out where i live and come attack me. i'd be more worried that they find out who my parents are and go attack them, tbh.

i've had more sudden spikes of adrenaline in the past five days than i have in the past like, 2 years lol

i've also talked with more different individuals on the phone in the past five days than i had over the rest of 2023 so far

i was scrolling through twitter last night and randomly came across a tweet featuring a TikTok of a cut-down version of my priest's homily + my response...i really don't like what parts they cut out, or what they titled it. and it's got over a million views. :OOO

there's a lot of confusion in the replies — people who don't realize i'm a former parishioner, not an active one; people not knowing how to gender me which is fine but it's, you know, getting a little grating; and of course, people resorting to saying Father Tim must be "closeted gay" or otherwise have a Sinister Secret himself to say what he said...I hate that kind of rhetoric.

Not every person who spouts homophobia is secretly gay. The Biggest Homophobes are usually, shockingly, straight.

And flippantly suggesting that anyone, even a Catholic priest, is a pedophile without facts to back that accusation up only serves to harm csa victims — because then when there really is a case that needs to be pursued, people may not take it seriously.

one big thing that's bothering me about how everyone on every side of the debate is interpreting Father Tim's homily is they are focusing mostly on his condemnation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — and while I certainly oppose what he said about them, it's actually the first half of his message that scared me more: the stuff about the church being under attack and how Christians must defend it. He ended with a vague reminder to do so "peacefully," without any examples about how that's even done. And obviously, Scary Man didn't absorb that part of the message.

sigh. i was really hoping that agreeing to an interview with the plain dealer reporter who wrote the first article would give me a chance to explain why i felt i had to interrupt Mass, but unfortunately they didn't include those quotes. i'm really disappointed.

that article's title also says "attendee fired back," using exactly the kind of violence-coded language that I had a problem with in F. Tim's homily. So that's really unfortunate.

which is why i want to write up my perspective. i did send a long ass email to father tim the other night explaining what i did, why his message was hurtful AND fueled his parishioner's violence, and asking if we could talk about alternative ways to hold Scary Man accountable beyond the law. he hasn't responded yet.

anyway. yeah. it's been. a lot. good vibes and prayers are so very appreciated! and seriously, if anyone has resources about alternatives to legal action when we're dealing with someone who got very verbally violent and physically aggressive, i'd love some help figuring out what to do. also any thoughts about like, keeping myself safe? yeah

Anyway, gonna end with the affirmation that God made us Good; human diversity is what it looks like to be in the image of an Infinite creator; and queerness is a holy gift that the Body of Christ can't do without!!

Amen and amen.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I saw this comment a while ago and i think people like anon (who was talking about we not wanting jm to date woman) who are interested in matching kitchen counters and sofa (that comes with the house itself) would be able to explain me why jm's kitchen counter and daeun's kitchen counters are on completely opposite sides??? Did it change suddenly anon? So they are/were living in the same house yet have two different kitchen counters? Her kitchen counter literally matched RM's kitchen counter so ig they're both dating now? RM's kitchen pic u can see in second image. The first one is a story posted by daeun nd it's not even a selfie cam or anything so you don't get to twist it that way too lol. This is what we mean when we don't want to sit here and start matching counters, cutlery of two humans from sk that has population around 51million.

About the guy you're talking pjms didn't mind shipping jm with (which everyone was joking btw if you didn't get the joke/humour, they still do), that man's name is lee saeon who's a good friend of jimin with whom we have seen jimin hanging out in reality and not just in someone's imagination. We have seen jm with saeon on sungwoon's musical, we have seen a leaked footage of jm with saeon (which shouldn't have leaked in the first Place but alas) from a CCTV of a shop/Mart from literally 4am so i guess that tells you enough about how close they both are. Now anon you give me atleast ONE picture of jm and that woman together, show me atleast one video of jm hanging out with that woman and we can sit here and talk about them probably dating eachother. You people are so stupid and angry at us because we don't wanna think jm is dating someone based on kitchen counter and rumours started by his antis and tkkrs who wants to prove he's straight dating woman so they can feel safe about their ship cause they're very much convinced jm can steal jk from tae at any given point.

Same pjms ship jm with enwoo too (again anon jokingly) cause again they seems good friends and we have seen them together in the same frame, talking to e/o, hugging e/o and sticking together in a whole ass party where enwoo's supposed bestie was present too. They do that with Vernon too sometimes cause guess what? Jm and him had interacted with e/o too. We ain't sitting here matching shit.

Now read what i wrote above again anon and tell me who sounds more childish, stupid, toxic with zero brain cause it surely ain't people who wants to talk about things based on evidence and reality.

People started talking about taennie because there's pictures of taehyung and Jennie together and there's a whole ass video of them walking on the roads of paris did you have anything like that for this rumour? If yes bring it up and we can talk.

We're here for jm's music, here because of his personality and not to see who he's dating or gonna date in future. We got nothing to do with that. Most of the pjms believe he's bi so why would we gonna have problem with him dating woman?? If i see him talking, hanging out with a woman and see a good chemistry I'll myself would hope to see them together. Idk where you're getting this idea of pjms not wanting jm near woman cause we all know how he is. We ain't homophobic jjks and KTHs or yns who thinks their fav gona fall in love with them and date them.

Period 😭

I don't get what's so hard to understand that it's not about the fact that she's a woman... It's about the fact that there's no proof they even know each other.

The most ridiculous thing is that they keep comparing it to taennie, mijoo, or Jungkook's leaked video when it's so obviously different. At least they're there with the girls. And I saw all that happen in real time, which as I've mentioned, is important to me. On the same note, people seem to forget I've I said never believed the yubi rumours because the basis for it is just the same as the daeun one. And if only they knew some of the stuff I've seen that I don't even bring up also because, just like daeun, is all very speculative. Like there was even a thread speculating the woman in Jungkook's apartment was one of Jennie's friend. Or how there was one Instagram story of bibi having dinner and you could hear someone who sounded a lot like Jungkook's voice in the background.

But I can't prove anything with that, the same way I can't prove anything with daeun, because you can't even see him. How's that so hard to understand 😐 it's not that I'm making an exception because it's a rumour that involves Jimin. It's simply a baseless rumour to my standards.

It's also about the extreme push of it all.. from the beginning they made it a "living together" rumour. It wasn't dating, or hook ups or anything, it was straight up living together 🥸

The eunwoo and saeon jokes are more widely accepted simply because everything mentioned. There's at least proof of them already having a relationship, a friendship. It's the exact same as when they say Jungkook is dating mingyu. There's some basis of real relationships in all those jokes.

Jimin was the first member to have female dancers, and to dance with one. He joked with armys about it just like how he fast forwarded the like crazy mv simply because that's what he does and he actually cares about the content being appropriate for everyone; but not precisely because he's scared of being seen with women or anything. Pjms were literally celebrating every moment of it, and pjms were also really happy about the photos he took at jitb party. I myself also thought they were all so cute.

It's not that it's a woman, it's the context and how hard they keep trying to make it seem like it's the same situation as taennie when there's a literal video of Taehyung and Jennie walking hand in hand, and they expect me to sit here and look at couches and say "oh yeah absolutely this is irrevocable proof of a relationship and it's totally in the same level as a photo of Taehyung kissing Jennie's forehead".

I don't even care to look for pictures but the mental image when you compare the three situations (taennie/daeun/Jungkook and mijoo/mysterious woman) is so absurd. One is definitely not like the others.

[afklancelot]

something i really love bout Danielewski's books is the use of color, not only by using it to signify a place/character using a color, but also text related to the place/character being the same color as well.

yeah, that doesn't make sense. elaboration in the Read More, but if ya don't wanna be spoiled on House of Leaves and/or The Familiar, then do not read any further.

Ok so first, House of Leaves. The first thing that comes to mind when I talk about color motifs AND House of Leaves is, obviously, gonna be having the word house be blue.

Out of every instance of the word house showing up in the book, only one instance has the word house be black. thanks to that, the readers start associating the House with the color blue; for example, the blue square framing the long rambling of what the House doesn't have. in general, seeing the word blue in the book makes one think of the house (though are are examples of blue being used that oppose the house). Even the instance of the house being black has the reader associate black with the house and its dark labryinth and ashen hallways.

in addition to blue, red text shows up as well: when it talks about the minotaur. and this isn’t just the word minotaur being red: any text pertaining to it will both be red and crossed out. example below:

like with blue and house, we start associating red with the minotaur thanks to the text about it being red. and so when Johnny tells the story of meeting Johnnie and using the word red to describe her and how unsettling she is, we automatically think of the minotaur. the fact that Johnnie seems to be an aspect of Johnny (almost same name and everything) helps connect the minotaur and Johnny as well; how Johnny starts becoming more obsessive and violent, culminating on the beatdown of Gdansk man.

there is one more colored text that is important in House of Leaves: purple. this colored text only appears three times, and the first two are within the cover and the very first few pages: A Novel and First Edition (the latter of which is crossed out). unlike the former two colored text, we are unsure what the color purple has to do with the book. by the time we get to the last instance of purple text, which is also near the last of Johnny's sections, we understand: Johnny seems to associate the color purple with his mother Pelafina, best seen when he sees purple flowers and starts to hyperventilate (according to his mother, she tried to strangle Johnny as a child). this is confirmed when Pelafina and her letters note that she had long purple nails when she was first admitted (this was when she describes the strangling). of course, with the first two instances of purple text, the theory that it was Pelafina that wrote House of Leaves, but i aint here to theorypost.

Now onto one of my favorite book series: The Familiar. notably, unlike House of Leaves, the use of colored text is benign. the word familiar is allways colored pink, whether or not it's part of a bigger word (familiarity) or being used in different contexts (the title pertains to a familiar a witch has, but in the series it's used as the adjective). notably there ARE some instances of the word house being blue as well, but there are much fewer compared to HoL.

What TF DOES have though is interesting. see, there’s nine total narrators in this book, which is a lot and kinda makes it hard to keep track of their own personal stories (only three of them actually intersect on a daily basis). to compensate for this, each of the narrators’ sections have a colored tag, pictured badly below:

can’t tell if picture bad bc it just looks better when reading it or bc ive had the books for about 2 years, but as you can see, there are colored tags, each pertaining to a specific narrator. when the colored tag changed to another on the next page, you know you’ve switched to another section w a new narrator.

for example, Xanther has a pink tag, Luther has a black tag, jingjing has a blue tag, and so on so forth. Xanther specifically is important: since both the word familiar and Xanther are associated with pink, that signifies to the reader that Xanther is important, and this is correct as she’s the central protagonist to the main storyline.

this carries on into mentions of colors in the story, perhaps even moreso compared to HoL. whenever a narrator's color shows up in another narrator's section, we automatically think about the former narrator and any possible connections to the latter. for example, Xanther is often described with clothes of both pink and black, the latter color making us think of Luther and the fact they seem to foil each other (not to mention Xanther has a black banner underneath; more on that on another post). conversely, in the first volume Luther ends up with a pink umbrella, making us think about Xanther (ironically enough, this is when Luther says "You think a color's gonna tell me who I am?" which is, well, wrong).

idk how to end this beyond the fact I wish colored text would be used more in other novels, no matter the genre it's just realllly good.

[mbrainspaz]

It's been years since I wrote this short story for my old writer's group and I feel like sharing. I've said before that I hate writing short stories so with this one I cheated. It's actually a prequel to a bigger story about teleporting shapeshifters I've been writing since I was 16. Even then I barely resisted making it into a 200+ page prequel novel. This MINI prequel takes place at the end of WW2 so expect themes accordingly. Please don't expect much from the 'research' I probably spent 30 minutes on. The prompt from writer's group was "I'll go first."

Observe: some of my earliest OCs— the immortal idiots.

1945. April. Berlin.

“I can hardly blame Adolf.”

The chandelier rattled and dust cascaded into two cups of coffee as a Russian shell brought down the building next door. August sighed at the froth of rubble in his gilded cup and splashed the brew onto the carpet. He took his time selecting a decanter of schnapps from a liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass. 

“He did start the war,” I said. 

“Not for—yes obviously. I meant for going mad.” 

“You want me to believe you didn’t have a hand in that?” 

August smirked over the edge of his glass and said, “It doesn’t matter now. It turns out you had the right idea when you defected to America. I think I’ll join you in Chicago soon. Despite everything I did for them the Germans have—” another cascade of shellfire blew out the tall windows. August coughed delicately. “—lost.” 

“You aren’t welcome in America after what you've been a part of here. None of the Allied Nations will have you.” 

August slowly lowered his glass. 

“That’s what I came here to tell you,” I continued without meeting my old friend’s eyes. Once I would have called him family—the older brother I never had. I swilled the muddy coffee in my cup but never raised it to my lips. I'd be a fool to try anything August served me. 

“Andreas,” August pouted my name, drawing hurt from all three syllables. “You know I don’t care if you work for the FBI now. The two of us, we’re bigger than all these squabbles between nations, yes? We’ve known we were brothers since the moment we met. Once the treaties are signed all of this will be in the past. Just like your unfortunate incident last year.” He reached out squeeze my shoulder. 

“Don’t!” I barked, rolling out of my chair to get away. I landed on one knee, pistol raised. 

“Oh dear, you’re still upset about that.” 

“Upset,” I spat. The sympathetic smile on August’s face tested the utmost limits of my restraint. “It was your fault! It’s your fault she’s dead! I didn’t defect to America because they were winning, I left to get away from you. The whole world has seen pictures of the internment camps now so stop pretending you don’t know what you were part of. You crafted this evil. You engineered it.” 

August whistled through his teeth and raised his hands. His schnapps glass hovered in the air near his right wrist until he decided to pick it up. The trick cost him nothing. I could remember a time when we both went red-faced trying to lift pebbles or slip coin purses from pockets. In those early days each new ability was a source of wonder that fueled our dreams. It took me too long to realize how very different his dreams were. 

I waited for August to retreat to the far side of the table before I stood up. I kept my pistol leveled at his head. 

“You’re being unreasonable,” August purred. “Haven’t you realized everything that happened was for the best? She wasn’t like us. She would only have held you back. You proved that when you came back.”

I lowered the pistol before August could see my hands tremble. The memories of that night were still as vivid as the crumbling city around me. They were the ghost of a bullet flashing through my head. The first sight from new eyes imprinted on my mind like a raw scar: Her dead eyes staring back at me. 

August laughed into his drink. There was less remorse in his heart than there was fuel for the German tanks. I had seen all I needed to see. 

“We aren’t as special as you think,” I said. “How closely were you involved with the Japanese?” 

“Not very. I never saw much promise in Japan. I was only ever interested in Germany. I thought that was what you wanted.” 

“So you haven’t heard of the Black Dragon Society.”

“Are they… ninjas? They sound like ninjas. Please do tell me they're ninjas.” 

I drew a photograph from my coat pocket. I flicked it across the room and August’s hand snapped up to catch it. 

“Meet me there in ten minutes.” 

August scoffed and said, “You’ve gotten slow.” 

“I might stop in Brazil for a decent cup of coffee.” 

A cannon shell screamed its final warning a second before the building came crashing down around our ears. 

I stepped out of a shadowed doorway near the FBI building in Washington DC. I slipped into the role of Andrew Stern while I was still brushing rubble from my lapels. The morning was cold and no birds sang over the low rumble of automobile traffic. I took a steadying breath and startled half to death when a hand fell on my shoulder. 

“So, is he dead yet?” John asked. 

“Ah—no. Hitler is hiding in his bunker and the Russians have taken most of the city. Goebbels has stepped in to direct the troops.” 

I let August think that I worked for the FBI but in truth it was blackmail. The sharp-eyed FBI director was the only one who knew about my ability to travel impossible distances in the blink of an eye. It was a secret he would keep as long as I was useful. Luckily he didn’t know my other impossibilities. 

No one knew about August. I couldn't warn the world about him without exposing myself. No, August was a spider pulling a thousand strings and when those strings broke he would disappear and build a new web. The threat about the Allied Nations was pure bluster. For now I was the only thing standing between an unscrupulous man who could reshape matter with his mind and the rest of the world—but perhaps not forever.

John thumped me on the back, took a drag of his cigarette, and said, “I don’t think I’ll rest easy until I finally see Hitler’s corpse. You’re doing a great service to this country, Andrew my boy.”

I exhaled a puff of cold air. At 33 I was technically younger than the director but I wouldn’t have chosen to appear that way. That was my penance as long as the FBI knew me by this face. 

“Oh, that reminds me.” John fumbled through his coat pockets until he produced an envelope. I accepted it after the barest hesitation. “They want you back on the Manhattan Project so your work in Cambridge will have to wait.” 

“I don’t—I have classes to teach.” 

“Andrew Andrew.” John’s hand thumped against my back again. “This is a matter of national security. Play teacher another day.” 

I scowled at John’s back as he ground his cigarette butt into the sidewalk and returned to his office. The Manhattan Project was what had first turned my interest to Japan months ago. I pulled back my sleeve to check one of my seven wristwatches. No time for coffee in Brazil after all. 

“This is quaint,” August greeted me from behind a Japanese face. We stood together on a bridge over the Ōta River just after sunset. A lantern-lit trolley rumbled past, carrying locals dressed in fine evening wear. Most of the pedestrians still wore their grimy work clothes as they rode bicycles or pulled carts. I didn’t miss the petrol-fueled thrum of DC. 

“This way," I said, using a tongue the locals would understand as their own if any bothered to overhear it. I led August to a dark temple on the riverfront. We entered by stepping through a solid wall, a detail that didn't phase him. He'd grown so confident in his own power. 

"Who dares approach the black dragon?” boomed a voice that would have made a sane man’s knees tremble.   

"Oh this is—this is very nice," August said, nodding his head as he crossed the black marble floor in confident strides. As he approached the regal figure on a throne in the center of the hall he raised a hand in a casual Nazi salute, then had to laugh at himself. “Sorry, old habits. I’m August, and you are?” 

Fabric rustled. Two katanas glinted in the low light as they crossed against August’s throat. He went still, not paralyzed but calculating. The warriors who held the blades wore featureless black masks and they had crossed the hall without ever taking a step. 

I coughed to break the tension and bowed my head, saying, “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us, great dragon.” 

The enthroned figure waved an onyx hand and the two warriors vanished from the hall as easily they had appeared. August stepped back from the throne to stand at my side. 

“August.” The powerful voice spoke his name as if to shake it apart and sift through the ruins. “You who call yourself ‘Aryan.’” 

August smiled a curious smile and said, “I am what I am.”

“You know not what you are, nor how you came to be.” 

I knew August was stung by that though he hid it well. A trace of the orphaned boys we once were would always be part of us. 

“Names and titles mean so little,” he hedged. 

“And yet you have given yourself so many, not least the name of an Emperor.” 

August flushed at that, his eyes blazing gold in a rare show of temper. The wooden throne creaked dangerously. The masked figure on the throne only tilted its head in response. August crushed the throne to splinters. The Dragon stayed seated on serenely on empty air, black robes hanging inches from the ground. 

“You are gifted but you are ignorant,” the Dragon boomed. August staggered a half-step back. It was enough to make my heart race. “It is time you learned you are set apart, but not above.”

“Of course I’m above them! I’m immortal,” August blustered, pounding a fist against his chest. 

The Dragon laughed. “Thirty-five years you have walked this earth and you think yourself eternal.” 

“Spit it out then. What do you say I am?” 

“You are Tsukumogami: He who lives for a hundred years. No more and no less. You are not a god, but a tool of the spirits sent to guide humanity along better paths until our time on this earth is past.” 

I knew how hard that revelation had hit me and yet August seemed to take it all in stride. He contemplated the hovering figure for a silent moment before turning on his heel and vanishing from the hall. I knew right where I would find him. 

August didn’t turn when he heard me clambering over the rooftop. He gazed out over the train yard, watching civilians and soldiers mill about like busy ants in a black forest hive. This was the Parisian train station where we’d first crossed paths in 1922. 

“You think he was telling the truth?” he asked. All the bravado had been stripped away along with the disguises. He wore his own face, probably for the first time in a decade. His tightly curled blonde hair suited him better than the slicked back style he’d worn for the Nazis.  

“He knows what he’s talking about. Their order has been around for centuries. You wouldn’t believe how I found them.” 

“Well you finally did it. Found out what we are. Tsuku—whatever. What a ridiculous name.”  

“I hoped it might help you see the world in a different light.”

“I know what it means to you.” 

I shook my head, watching all the people below without really seeing them. 

“I’ll go first,” August said. 

[thyhappynotions]

I just woke up to tell my dream. It was wonderful and I don't want to forget it. So I was pretending to be dumb in a store, I asked the cashier if is this is for something, obviously sarcasm and this guy near me hated me according to how I act. I hate to say I don't quite remember this scene but he gave me a purple milkshake. Later on the next day after school, yeah can't believe I'm dreaming in my school but few places are changed. I found him sitting at the bench alone, his name was Alex. I talked to him and I don't know it felt good.

Next day after school again, my old friend greeted me and my old classmate behind me asked, "you know ga?" I said "No, I don't even know him", actually I do but I didn't recognize. Then, I asked someone if they've seen Alex. Alex is a known guy I suppose but he's lonely. They said he's over there, I came near and the guy I asked to said don't go, don't come near him. I ignored until I saw few seniors near him but they're facing back. Alex looks so lonely but I had an instinct I may cause trouble if these seniors I don't know knows I talk to him.

After school again, My dad and mom came to pick me up in car which is odd because I commute to home. I came in the car and asked again to step out, I came to Alex and lend him five hundred, "what is this for?", He asked "because you gave me a milkshake" and then I walked away.

Next after school scene AGAIN, I can't help but to talk to him, I saw these seniors again around him talking. As I came near like nothing, they're be littling and bullying him. I wanna defend him but I can't, that's the worst feeling. All I remember is there's a blonde girl, brunette girl, Asian guy idrk..Again and again I saw him with these people but this time it's different, a girl is flirting with him. It's disgusting because she is way more older than Alex.

I invited him in my house to feel safe and he was comfortable, I'm happy. I don't know but I have this urge to protect him. But he already have to go, next time he invited me in his house and I saw a large swimming pool from a high place. It was terrifying and someone said don't go there only Alex can swim there. I was like, umm ok I would never go there and I lied that I can't swim. Alex walked beside me and he jumped in the pool in from that high place. I can say that he's wealthy. Next day he came to me in a garden with his dog and my other friend I don't even know but she has brown hair and younger than me. We we're playing and I don't mind if his bullies will come because I think they're outnumbered. We we're having fun and we came in an open area, suddenly the bullies walked around us in different positions, cornering us " why are you with him?? " I was scared I said " It wasn't me who came first, he did!! " and I ran away. I know it's a bad decision but I saw him the next day and I'm doing boring stuffs like sneaking.

To the weird part, us three were sitting in an open grass area, talking. Then this psychopath woman shouted to us up there, she's holding a sniper and the bullies were also up there. I don't remember what they said and there's this girl again with two buns, with bangs an dyed hair colored yellowish green seem to have something with Alex. Umm, yes the woman shot me and my friend. Alex is between us and he's nearly shot. I was there lying and suddenly my perspective moved with my history teacher, knowing what happened. They were frightened and suddenly crying even though my teacher hasn't said anything yet. She's talking to them sarcastically " why are you looking behind me, is there something? " well behind her is where I was laying, being shot. Soon they were called. I don't know is I was really shot or pretended I was but Alex was crying.

Next scene in classroom, we were having a quiz this last period and I couldn't write properly, I took a lot of paper to rewrite my answers and it's not cooperating. I remember when i was trying to write the word "tanghalan" I wrote "science" instead and I told my teacher that something is wrong to me, i know what to write but my hand is writing on its own. I told her to come and I will show but then I can't find the paper, it was just like there and it disappeared. She came back to his place and my classmate showed her something in his phone, she called names of two smart guys in class. Knowing they're in a cheating group, it's a real issue in my school. So they went in the principals office and we were left in class. Alex was suddenly my classmate. My friend came near me and talked to me, It was awkward because Im ignoring him in real life for some reason, I am ignoring them because I don't use social media's anymore and the last time I was with them I feel.. hatred? Or avoidance... He patted my head and I moved, I came near Alex and saw him sitting on the floor too, it's normal since it's free time. We took pictures in his gadget and his dad messaged him, he was happy, I saw his chat with his family and they were getting along, they're even playing something to have fun together. I asked him if can I try to play too? He gave me and I couldn't play properly because my perspective is far and suddenly blurred. That's the last thing I remembered..

I can say that Alex is gr00m3d and bullied, so he's lonely. People dont come near him because they thought he's bad. I even thought he was in the first place but hey, he gave me a drink. It's weird to say I like people in my dreams and i hope i can meet them in real life.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

I guess since I'm the hell out of there and enough time has gone by I can explain what the hell was up with my name and rebrand while I was living with Fine and GB...

Because yes I completely changed my online image and my screen name and all my graphics after over 10 years of not doing that and kept changing my urls on zero notice... I even used Ai to make some new graphics again after that when I am in fact a digital artist myself and I know some people feel like that's a weird choice for me too.

Warning for just about damn near fucking everything:

After the first assault and then using my memory issues to do it the fuck again, it triggered me into remembering both instances and dumping all sense of connection to GB and I told him we weren't together anymore, so he wasn't allowed to use any of my stuff, or my bathroom -he also flooded it once and pretended nothing happened- and that he wasn't allowed to come into my back end of the basement anymore, and that I didn't want to speak to him about it.

In response he wrote me two separate and weird poems or notes acing like he didn't understand what was going or on claiming innocence about not understanding that his behaviour was harmful to me. Yes, do not put it past someone to try to force you to touch their dick and then act like that isn't harmful behaviour. Yeah, don't put it past them to wait until you don't seem to be remembering that it happened and that you have expressed that you never want to have sex again, when they know you have memory problems and issues with dissociating, to try to have sex with you again, and then act like that isn't harmful. Like they can't possibly know it would be harmful. Yes, even after being told I didn't want to kiss him either because of the risks to my health at the time, he still waited until I wasn't on guard to stop him, kissed me, then smirked and gasped about it, like he obviously fucking knew, and then tried to play innocent about it. He's say shit like "but why wouldn't you want me getting close to your mom?" and other shit like he was constantly testing to see if he could catch me dissociated again and not remembering what he did. All this after I explained how deeply traumatizing it was for men to do this to take advantage of me before. He knew. But he's skated by his whole life on everything by acting confused and like he can't understand. He understood well enough to use it to manipulate me until it stopped working.

He also started following me around. Anytime other people weren't home he would glue himself to my side and constantly talk to me and ask me questions about our relationship. Who I was going out with, constant grilling about who I was going to go see, where I was going, what my relationship was to anyone else I had contact with. "just curious :)" All after being told hundreds of times how stressing me out too much about something is how my brain ends up locking it in a box for later, after being told how making me stressed out about something is how to make me forget it involuntarily. Of course, thankfully, he misinterpreted what that meant, and had selective earwax about the part where once there was more bullshit than anything good, a switch would flip and he'd be stuck with the version of me that remembers -only- the abuse, while all the other memories die in their place... But the point is he started stalking and harassing me.

And he started going out of his way to get so fucking extra chummy and attentive with Fine and Tictacs and literally everyone around us.

He was my housemate and my only way to buy anything I needed online. We had to communicate over rent and bills and anything I couldn't buy locally.

And he started doing really ballsy shit like trying to bond with me over how 'stupid his therapist was being' by telling him he hadn't done anything wrong and how none of it was his fault "haha crazy ammairite? XD" Like he thinks I an so fucking stupid...

...

And then corona started, Fine infected me while trying to hide it was even happening because I was on a social media hiatus, and I got too sick to get out of bed, for months and he was the only one willign to bring me supplies.

Thankfully at that point he knew that if he tried anything overt I'd just call the cops... But he controlled my food, what cleaning supplies I got. I got really fucking sick multiple times after eating food he brought me, he refused to bring me the supplies I needed to clean up after the cats or to kill to toxic mould in my room from the flooding he helped cause... Bread he brought me was spoiling in 3 days with horrendous amounts of black mould, lots of things seemed tampered with.

I told my doctor he might be poisoning me and I wanted to get tests done and she said "well we can't do these procedures and tests on a 'maybe' u.u" As if the proof of him poisoning me didn't rely on those tests???

Yes you heard right, my doctor wouldn't confirm if my housemate was poisoning me so I could take legal action to stop him having physical access to me and my food in my own home!

And I couldn't tell you about it because he had access to my blog and to me in my own home!

Then after long enough of being deathly ill but not actually dying. He stopped. He just started refusing to bring me anything at all. He wasn't getting whatever he wanted out of bringing me supplies and just left me to die.

He kept letting the dryer exhaust flood into the whole basement where only my room was instead of doing what he was repeatedly told to do with the lint trap.

So, suffering the symptoms of multiple organ failure, post covid from hell, every autoimmune fuckery it triggered, CO exposure, black mould in my room with mould allergies that was closing up my lungs, Fine using cleaning supplies I was high-key allergic to and REFUSING to stop, having daily heart attacks from my blood minerals being wildly off from what I now realize was the same kidney malfunction causing me to not pee for a week around that time, and all the bone pain... Which I also told my doctor about, and the hospital, to zero fucking effect... and jaundiced as hell and barely able to remember what I was thinking for a whole 2 seconds at a time, I realized I was dying and absolutely no one would help me. I got angry about it.

Even my mother and Tictacs both, when asked to check in on me daily to make sure I responded, both waited a week before sending me some passive aggressive "so are you sill alive" fucking bullshit message and not waiting for a response. Like I cannot stress enough how much surrounded by people and actively asking for help, I am still alone in everything.

So I took the bed out of my room, treated it with the last watered down mould enzyme spray and built myself a replacement bed out of rope and palette board. Instead of a 3x6 foot mass harbouring moisture 6 inches over my floor, I had a woven net bed that was over a meter off the ground in the driest corner of my room with only a yoga mat in it to insulate me from the cold of the floor, so it wouldn't harbour moisture. I put a latch on the dryer exhaust and started cleaning the filter out myself. I researched my symptoms however I could and found things I could eat without having cardiac spasms. I started to be able to pee again after a week and all the pressure in my abdomen went away. I got less yellow. etc...

And how much of dying at the the time was corona and autoimmune VS being actively or passively poisoned? WHO KNOWS! My doctors sure as fuck weren't going to help me figure that out!

And the timeline is a little fucky for me because I had 1-2 viruses and my immune system trying to eat my brain while my organs failed and I was being exposed to carbon monoxide from the drier exhaust and to black mould. So forgive me if some of this is out of order, but this would be around the time you saw photos of the nest/bed I made in my closet. I couldn't tell you all of what was going on at the time. I think I also tried paper making because the humidity in my room had been jacked for over a year anyway??? I had needed something to work on in my room that kept me up and moving around.

I recovered enough-ish and started climbing out the back window of my room to get my own supplies, and so I could leave the house without him noticing and to avoid breathing upstairs. It's also how I had to take out my garbage and etc, because Fine and GB refused to do absolutely anything to not constantly bring corona into the house, but they mostly stayed upstairs. There was a living area downstairs but my room was down a hall after the laundry room off of that and so was my bathroom and neither of them had any excuse to be there. We remember this.

And yet I got the distinct impression he was coming in there when I was out.

In addition to following me around --but only when no one was paying attention or was home to notice, so he obviously fucking knew it was wrong-- he had my url to follow me here on tumblr.

And the problem is that your internet history maintains links, even if you change the url. Firefox would just update that shit. And most of the time he left the house he would take his whole desktop computer with him to his mothers, so I didn't have access to it.

You need physical access to a computer in most cases to good and truly wipe the links to sites that their browser has recently accessed. Just changing your url and IP does jack shit, and yes I know that.

And I had told him to stop checking up on me. To stop talking to me socially, to stop looking at my blog, to respect my fucking boundaries. After years of him hearing about how other people following me around or outright stalking me or fucking with my memory was a seriously fucking traumatizing issue that kept ruining my life.

And he kept saying shit to me he couldn't have possibly known unless he was checking up on my blog, and I just had to keep playing stupid so he wouldn't stop incriminating himself to me. Even after I deleted any follower that might conceivably be him. [yes I went through what was 300+ followers at the time, probably shot a lot of bots in the process]

I didn't want to lose all the followers I had gained for my writing etc, only to not shake him off my ass anyway because he had access to me in my own house!

So I did what I could. I changed my entire image to something that seemed a little out of left field at the time for me, so I didn't look like me anymore and the name was different, and kept changing the exact spelling of my URL across social media, unlinked things, got a vpn... And whenever he left the house and didn't bring his computer with him, I would sneak upstairs and repeatedly wipe his internet history and ect as thoroughly as I could... And then immediately change my url again and hope he wasn't also looking at my tumblr on computer systems at his mom's house.

All in the hopes that the link wouldn't be maintained and when he put in the name or spelling he thought he remembered he wouldn't be able to find me again. And if he did he might not be sure it was even me.

And I kept telling Fine and anyone else who would listen to not give him links to my social media, not to let him use their computers. I never knew if they took it seriously.

And I couldn't really say anything to you guys about the gritty details of what was happening -while it was happening- because he had 24 hour access to me in my own home and potentially still had access to my blog. So if I even seemed like I was too suspicious about the potential of being poisoned or if I looked like I was remembering the assault, etc... He would see that and have access to me. I don't know what details I have talked about since but I do know I've probably been too angry/avoidant to really give the full rundown in context... Probably, my memory is shit.

So I used people coming into our yard and fucking with our bikes as an excuse to get him to help me buy a security camera online. I tried to confirm multiple times with him that it would work on any system, because I prefer cheap android phones, and he kept just saying "it'll work with what you have :)" and that's why I am stuck with a stupid apple product that will ONLY work on the replacement phone his mother gave me second hand, or another 600$ fucking dollar phone [also my new phone only got broken because of him sabotaging me too, but that's another story... but also it will work with my tablet and I bet he didn't fucking think of that now did he?]... But I took that security camera and I aimed it down the hall facing away from my room, so I would be alerted and have video evidence any time someone tried to approach my room.

And I lived like that because having to move during the pandemic by rights should have killed me.

But eventually, Fine was threatening to move out and leave me alone with him, to go live with a guy she knows wants to fuck her in a very one-sided way out in BC, with him promising to pay for everything and let her live with him... And wouldn't listen to sense... So I had to chose between bringing another roommate or two into that existing circumstance, and telling them about the problem, thus guaranteeing we would never find anyone, or not telling them about the problem...

But see my landlord actually had a legal obligation, as my landlord, to evict other tenants who were abusing me. Like that's in his fucking job description, legally! Replacing both of them would be better than any other option...

So I bit the bullet and told my landlord what GB was doing to me. The landlord who kept acting like my friend and kept saying we were friends and I could go to him if there was a problem.

And he told me that'd have to be "between [me] and the police :)" That he wasn't going to put himself in the middle of it or help me.

...

And then within 3 months he decided to sell the house and evict us.

And when he brought up having another apartment in a building he managed/owned that he could rent to one of us, Fine leapt to try to snatch it up right in front of me, both of them knowing the situation I was in, and I never heard back about it. [So much for "I would never let you be homeless u.u" right, Fine? But then you didn't care GB kept trying to rape me either and kept calling that a "two sided issue" so I don't know what the fuck I expected. Not only would you -let- me be homeless and assaulted but you'd sell me to Satan for a corn chip... Don't worry she won't see that because I told her to stop looking at my blog too, so if she does that's a 'her' problem]

Which is how I ended up being forced into a 1000$ apartment on a disability pension that I at least get to myself.

And well I have certainly been documenting how THAT all went with the movers and their bullshit and everything I have been struggling with since...

And that's why I was such an obnoxious asshole with changing my url for a while there and why suddenly rebranding with no fucking warning after I spent years not doing that, and promising I wouldn't do that unless it became necessary.

I wasn't out here -trying- to make it hard to follow me or keep track of who I was for anyone, just GB. Well, him and every other stalker I have had or every other person who didn't respect it when I told them to stop reading my blog...

That's the stalking issue I was having, not -THAT- guy, not the second guy, not Moriarty again... Just like... The latest guy.

[ceasarslegion]

So contrary to popular belief, airport employees get MORE security screening than passengers do. We have direct access to the planes and their guts. You should not take a job in an airport if you're uncomfortable being touched, because I think I could tell if my colleagues had cancer lumps forming at this point from how much I've felt them up, and they could say the same thing about me.

Obviously you don't go into a job at an airport without knowing this. It's actually part of the screening questions in an application where they show you videos of what the pat downs look like and if you say "no" to receiving them your application is automatically thrown out. I need to really drive that home for you guys: you are going to be touched a LOT if you decide to work at an airport. Fuck dude even us SECURITY go through security. They tell you this. A lot.

So for reasons I can not reveal we were stuck doing full pat downs only for a while. The reasons were outside of our control. It wasn't a big deal though because it was downtime so like. I can do one in about a minute at this point and there was one person every 10. This guy comes in and I tell him it's full pat downs only. He's like okay. I get going on it. He has a turban on, those are included. We don't mess with them but we do touch them. And I tell him I've gotta go over it, that cool? He says no. And that he refuses to be screened altogether now because I even asked.

Hm. Okay. So, that's not really an... option? I expect that from passengers, not from people who work here. You can't say no to going through security in an airport. I'm a bit dumbfounded at this point and stutter out "do you uh, wanna talk to my supervisor? Because that's not an option man" he says yes. I want it noted here that my acting supervisor is ALSO a Sikh man who wears a turban. I explain over the phone what's happening and he says "that's not an option???" And I'm like "that's what I said bro he wants to talk to you 😭"

So he comes walking over and tells the guy "you can't refuse to be screened dude. We do this kind of screening 50 times a day, he's not gonna make you take it off or anything." He then asks why I even asked if he didn't have an option, supervisor says "because he knows its a sensitive place for you and wanted to give you a chance to say if you needed some kind of accommodation first. Like that's about as respectful as you can get if it has to be done bud"

He then says he wants a Sikh officer to do it. Okay, whatever. Not my problem anymore if he asks for that. In fact please do, because he narrowed his eyes at my name tag at this point and wrote something down. I don't wanna deal with you if you're gonna do that. So supervisor checks the roster and then hits us with "we don't have one right now." Which means it has to be me. He offers the guy a private search room, no. He offers to witness it as another Sikh man, no. He is not happy with ANYTHING we try to give him, and then starts talking about how it's our fault we can only search by hand right now.

It's at this point that my supervisor and I exchange a glance that says "wait, we're security, we don't have to be nice" because in our utter dumbfoundment at this behavior from an EMPLOYEE we just forgot we like, had power and didn't have to be pushed around like this. I cross my arms and straighten my posture and bring my security guard voice back out and tell him "well you can either take what we offered or give me your pass, and then you can explain to your employer at home why you have to go through the entire process to get one of these all over again."

And he actually did it. He dramatically unclipped his pass from his uniform, shoved it in my hand, and stormed away with another security guard escorting him out, the latter of which was looking at me exactly like the blinking guy gif. I kinda stood there gobsmacked for a few seconds while I held it and remembered how it took months of government red tape to get anywhere near my own, and the guy just... threw his whole job out like that. Because he refused to do something that 50,000 people in the onboarding process told him he would have to do at some point.

What the fuck man

Well checked off "kick someone out of their job" from my list of things I wanted to do as a security guard this shift. If you guys want that story I will do my best to tell it without giving out anything confidential when I get off later.

[andorianballerina]

Getting growled at: Tolkien dwarves

Thorin had his hands on your hips and he was going in for the kiss, such a simple thing. Then your dog started growling something mad. Not at him specifically, more like his increasingly close proximity to you. He stopped leaning in and his attention turned toward the dog who was now bearing teeth. He uncertainly looked back at you and started to take his hands off you but you held his hands in place "I don't go getting into your love life, you don't get into mine, furball." You scolded before shooing the dog off so you could get a kiss in peace.

Fili was told to wake you, so obviously Fili was going to wake you. Operative word being was. As soon as he neared your bedroll and reached out to shake your shoulders did a furry snout make itself well known with a snap that narrowly missed his fingers and a low growl which was what woke you up, well that paired with the sound of Fili jumping away so fast that he fell backwards flat on his rear in the dirt. You quickly lifted your head up to find out what was going on and after you assessed the situation, you just shook your head at your dog. "You know Fili, he's not going to hurt me."

Honestly wrote this one thinking about a little Chihuahua named Queso

Kili had only wanted to to sit down beside you that night but just as he stepped close, the dog whose head was laying in your lap lifted up and they started to growl at the dwarf. You quickly scolded your dog. "We don't growl at friends!" Then you looked up and you saw Kili's sad puppy dog eyes as he looked at your dog then finally back at you. "I thought your dog liked me?"

Despite his gruff exterior, Dwalin's an absolute gentleman when it comes down to it. Not wanting you to catch any elbows trying to get through the company just to get your food each night, he often brings you yours, sometimes even before he gets his own. Unfortunately, when he first did this your dog did not approve of him approaching you when your back was turned so the dwarf started to get growled at. You turned around just in time to witness him growling right back. "Did you just growl at my dog?" "Your beastie growled at me first."

The sweetheart had finally gotten up the courage to set his bedroll near yours, unfortunately your dog decided Bofur was plenty close enough and started to growl at him. You were quick to scold your dog, but Bofur had already decided to agree with your dog concerning the fact that he was plenty close enough. Glaring down at your dog, you made a show of moving your own bedroll closer to Bofur's and when you glanced back up you found a subtly blushing dwarf avoiding eye contact.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

Hidden (Kim Hongjoong) Rated

Pairing: Soccer Jock! Kim Hongjoong (Ateez)× Nerd! Reader (Female)

Genre: Smut, Fluff, Slight Angst, College AU.

Summary: There's nothing that makes Hongjoong feel better after a game than to spend it with his secret girlfriend.

Word Count: 3.5+K

Warnings: male breast play (we love the hiddies), light gropings, dry humping, light degradation, corruption kink, unprotected soft, vanilla sex (always use protection), dom! Hongjoong, sub/slightly inexperienced reader.

Taglist: @seacottons (I wrote this for you ♡), @little-precious-baby @yunhofingers @yunhoiseyecandy @galaxteez @hanatiny @deja-vux @brie02 @multidreams-and-desires @daniblogs164 @couchpotatoaniki @a-soft-hornytiny

•––––☆––––•––––☆––––•––––☆––––•

The crowd erupted into thunderous applause and cheers when their prized center forward kicked the ball with full force into the opposing team's goal, effectively allowing them to take victory over another college from the area. His teammates hoisted the bleach blonde male over their shoulders, parading him around the field and letting the spectators admire him once more. The athlete shyly smiled and gave tiny waves towards the crowd. His eyes passed through all the rows of people standing about, searching and scanning for a particular person he hoped would come to see him.

Once he spotted a familiar red plain hoodie tucked near the very end of the bleachers, his smile grew even wider and he even felt bold enough to send a wink their way, the tiny group of admirers sitting nearby mistakenly thinking it was directed at them. The figure in the hoodie tried not to let any suspicious look give her away, but even she couldn't stop the faint pink hue that appeared on the apples of her cheeks. He mouthed a few words to her, which she understood to mean for her to wait for him at a certain place while he went to go get changed. Quickly picking up her bag, she made way to step down the bleachers, but unfortunately for her the little group of popular girls had the same idea, thus ending in one of them bumping into her rather harshly and sending her crashing down onto the concrete stairs that allowed one to get out of the spectator area.

The soccer player of course saw this and slightly hissed when he watched her palms come out instinctively to lessen her fall, only imagining the stinging sensation they went through. He then turned his attention to the tiny clique leader who looked completely unapologetic, her mouth saying something that he couldn't quite make out, but judging from the way her little minions snickered and laughed, he deduced it was only another one of the usual jabs they liked to fling at the poor girl. And he hated it, the scowl clearly visible on his face. Just when he was about to turn around and give them a piece of his mind, the victim looked up and gestured for him not to intervene and just run along to the showers. He hesitated briefly until she once again assured him she was fine, getting up and quickly escaping before another accident occurred.

Left with no choice but to follow her instructions, the soccer player joined the others in the showers to freshen up after a long and arduous game. He made sure to be quick about it, as he wanted to go check up on her injuries as soon as possible. After drying off completely, he stuffed all his belongings into his bag without caring to check if he was crushing anything and sped out of there. Along the way to the place where he parked his car, he only waved at his fellow classmates and belatedly ignored the prissy bullies that caused the incident back at the bleachers.

"Snakes." He mumbled to himself as he passed by them.

Rounding a tiny corner of the building, he took out his keys and unlocked his car, looking around in confusion when he didn't see the person he was expecting anywhere nearby. Hearing a tiny rustling of leaves, he rolled his eyes when he finally realized they were hiding behind the hedge that decorated the stairs that led one inside the building.

"There's no one else around, now come out of there before the groundskeeper finds out you were messing up his artistic shrubbery." He called out as he walked over to the hedge.

Peeping her head out, the girl looked right then left to make sure he wasn't lying before throwing one leg over the green barrier, trying to get out. It definitely proved more difficult getting out than getting in, as her foot accidentally got stuck when she tried to swing her other leg out. She grunted softly as she tried to yank her foot out, which she eventually accomplished but with how hard she pulled she was thrown off balance. Had the male behind her not have run up to catch her, she would have surely hit her head on the floor. Luckily he had indeed caught her before such tragedy occurred. Looking up, his unamused face was bearing down on her.

"Thanks?" She sheepishly said.

"Don't mention it honey bunch." He snorted when she frowned at one of the many nicknames he enjoyed teasing her with.

"Don't start now Kim Hongjoong." She grumbled with a huff as she sat upright.

When she turned around, she had no chance to say or do anything as he took her hands and made her palms face him. Hongjoong sighed when he saw the tiny scrapes on her fragile skin.

"I'll be fine. It's just a scratch." She asserted before he got anymore upset.

"These 'scratches', and the mean names, wouldn't happen at all if only you'd let people know about us."

She recoiled slightly at his words. He was right, she knew that. Still, she was hesitant about letting the entire school know about their secret relationship, something that he was more than eager about sharing. But he respected her need and wanting of privacy, even if it irritated slightly at times.

"I'll be fine Hongjoong. Really... their words don't bother me anymore. And besides, I'd rather not have all eyes at me at every moment. I like being an invisible wallflower." She repeated what she often said.

He understood her, but couldn't help the sigh that came out his lips.

"Honestly L/N Y/N, I don't know what to do with you sometimes." He confessed as he turned her palms over, his eyes focusing on her left hand. Or more precisely, on the black promise ring that was wrapped around her left finger. He smiled softly as he rubbed his thumb over it, knowing that on the inside of it, his name was engraved in white, followed by his birthstone in the shape of a heart. He wore a similar one around his neck, held up by chain that dangled right above his chest, close to his heart. Only the one he wore was a white band and had his lover's name in black with her own birthstone on it. It was a present he had bought for their 1 year anniversary, which had happened not too long ago. Every time he saw her wear it, he felt a warm and tranquil feeling in his soul. He himself never took off the chain off his neck, only when he needed to shower and even then, he made sure to never misplace it.

It was a somewhat nostalgic feeling, standing there, holding her hands kinda like the first time he worked up the courage to come up to her and state his interest in dating her. Even to that day, he couldn't believe she would have actually agreed. He was so happy and full of bliss at having her that he couldn't help himself as he closed his eyes and began leaning his face towards hers. His girlfriend widened her eyes and let out a muffled shriek before pulling away from him. Hongjoong grunted angrily as he walked after her towards his car.

"It's not a crime to kiss my girlfriend in public you know." He exclaimed.

"Someone might see us." She kindly reminded him.

Throwing his hands up in frustration, Hongjoong was about to start nagging but opted for taking a deep breath instead to calm down.

"Ok fine, but once we get behind closed doors, I'm expecting a lot of cuddles and smooches from you. You've been giving me the cold treatment at school even beyond what we agreed on and I'm slightly hurt." He pouted as he turned on the ignition.

Shaking her head, Y/N leaned over and placed a peck on Hongjoong's cheek.

"Ok you baby. Only because you were amazing on the field today."

•––––☆––––•––––☆––––•––––☆––––•

Safe in the sanctuary and privacy of her apartment, Y/N couldn't hold herself back now as she tangled her limbs around her boyfriend, face pressed against his chest. Hongjoong couldn't stop himself from snorting when he felt her cheek rubbed against one of his protruding pectoral muscles. The arm that was stationed around her frame came up to lightly scratch the back of her head.

"Having fun there you cuddle bug?" He raised an eyebrow at her when she snuggled closer to him.

"Hmmm yeah. Your man boobs make such comfortable pillows." She beamed as she reached one hand up to caress the muscle that her face wasn't buried in.

"They are not boobs Y/N. We've been over this how many times?" He dropped his head back onto the pillow as he released an exhausted and frustrated groan.

Feeling a bit on the bolder side that evening, Y/N shifted her weight over so she was fully laying on top of him.

"If they're not boobs, how come I can do this?"

Hongjoong half gasped- half moaned when he felt his girlfriend's mouth part and latched onto one of his highly sensitive nipples. Of course his girlfriend took advantage of this little fact, suckling onto his skin in a tender manner. Hongjoong lost himself in the feeling of her tongue flicking at his hardened peaks, closing his eyes as she kept on enveloping his buds with her warm mouth, first one breast then moving to the other one. This time her suction was a little more rough, teeth baring to lightly bite on the skin around his nipple. Hongjoong obviously didn't mean and was thoroughly enjoying the more harsher treatment as he began bucking his hips up against hers, his tent brushing against her folds which were only covered by her cotton underwear.

Satisfied at being able to rile her boyfriend up, Y/N sat up with a smirk as she peered down at Hongjoong's dazed look. Before he could get a word out, his girlfriend begin grinding herself against his bulge, her hands steadying themselves on his lean but firm abs. Hongjoong looked up at her, his eyes glowing with the same lust that mirrored in her own. Not able to bear to leave her in charge, his hands came up to grip her hips, forcing her to stop momentarily before they started taking control of her movements. He guided her so every time her clothed mound would rub against his tent they would both feel the best friction between them. Not only was he in full control of her body rolls, he made sure to lift his hips up so she would feel him even more. The air around them thickened as their sexual tension grew more and more, their once soft sighs turning more into heavy panting as they both waited for the other one to give in and say they wanted more than just the semi clothed dry humping they were currently doing.

Y/N knew fully well Hongjoong wouldn't say anything, it was in his nature. He'd just keep donning that signature smirk he was hailing at her at the moment as he continued to grind himself up at her. She knew he wanted her to tell him how much she wanted him, as a form of payback for not acknowledging him back at the university. She wanted to play at his game, keep her mouth shut and even get off him only to leave him frustrated and aching. But she had no will or mind to do that. Not when her body yearned for his, cried out to have him pin her to the bed as he tore through her intimate places. She couldn't hold back any longer, her bottom lip was starting to hurt from how hard she was biting down on it.

"What's wrong babygirl? Something on your mind? Do you want something?" He teased her as he moved his hands to cup her ass, fingers digging into her flesh and brushing against the hem of her panties.

"Hongjoong... I want...I want.." Even after having done this quite a few times, she was still very nervous and shy about requesting such things from him.

"Use your words darling, I know you can use them. After all, you're the smartest person in school. So tell me...."

Sitting up so he could lean his face close to hers, Hongjoong brushed his lips against hers, replacing her teeth with his own as he tugged at the corner where she had been biting on just a few seconds ago.

"What do you want?" He asked once more, hands going underneath her shirt so they could fondle her perky breasts, a satisfied grin lightly appearing on his face when he discerned the subtle whine that came from her throat.

"You, I want you." She finally answered, her arms wrapping around his neck as she closed the space between them and kissed him passionately.

Their tongues tangled themselves together in a desperate and slightly sloppy fashion. Flipping their positions, Hongjoong carefully laid Y/N down on the mattress, never once breaking their kiss even when his hand dropped down to tug her underwear down her legs. She helped him out by lifting her hips up and was about to pull the hoodie over her head, but Hongjoong stopped her.

"No baby. Keep it on. You look more adorable wearing my clothes." Briefly pulling away from her, he had a cocky smile as he rid himself out of his own boxers.

"Even if I do enjoy taking them off you." He admitted with no shame, which didn't surprise her.

Prying her legs open so he could fit himself between them, Hongjoong peppered butterfly kisses across her forehead and temples, sighing blissfully as he aligned himself at her entrance.

"I love you." He always made sure to state those 3 words before they got lost in their love.

"I know. I love you too." She responded.

Satisfied at hearing his confession being reciprocated, Hongjoong slowly pushed himself inside her, always taking care to be gentle as his lovely girlfriend wasn't as experienced as he was. He let her walls adjust to the intrusion of his member as he busied himself by kissing along the side of her neck and near her jaw while his thumbs rubbed circles on her waist. Y/N took a deep breath and lightly tapped his arm, a sign for him to start moving.

Hongjoong started off with slow and deep strokes, making sure to angle his hips properly so his head would brush against that sweet spot that would have the girl underneath him crying out his name. Y/N's eyes dropped down to look in between their bodies, always fascinated by the image of Hongjoong's cock disappearing inside her. One of her hands came up and slid underneath her covered stomach, a soft gasp escaping her lips when she felt her boyfriend's bulge poke out from under her skin. Noticing this, Hongjoong chuckled softly.

"You like that baby? Like feeling my cock deep inside of you?"

She could only respond with a light nod of her head as she released a faint moan that turned louder when Hongjoong abruptly slammed back into her at a quicker pace.

"You feel so good around me love. You're so tight, warm, and soft- fuck! I can't get enough of you." He hissed as he continued to roll his hips into her.

Y/N loved hearing him say things like that to her. Hearing him say how much he wanted her, it turned her into puddy. However, there was something she had been meaning to ask him to try but didn't know how to approach the topic. Figuring it was the best opportunity then, she looked up at him with large eyes.

"Hongjoong? Can we try something tonight?"

His eyes instantly lit up when she asked that, always eager to satisfy anything she was curious about or wanted to try.

"Of course. Anything you want." He assured her.

"Then can you..... can you degrade me a little?"

Hongjoong suddenly stopped moving and blinked at her with a worried expression on his face. Y/N wondered if maybe she shouldn't have asked that given his reaction. She watched as Hongjoong's bottom lip poked out in a light pout.

"Baby why on earth would you want something like that?" He tilted his head at you.

"I just.... I want you to call me your bad girl." She muttered softly, feeling embarrased at declaring that.

Hongjoong let out a heavy sigh as he cupped her cheeks and squished her face.

"But you're not a bad girl darling. You're my good girl. My sweet, kind and obedient angel who doesn't misbehave or cause trouble." He reasoned with her as he planted his lips on her cheek.

Y/N let out a tiny huff as she began to think she would not be getting what she was hoping for.

"That's what everybody else thinks....don't they?" She could hear and feel the shift in Hongjoong's mood, confirmed even further when he suddenly clasped her wrists and pinned them above her head as he started moving once again, only this time it was a more rough and fast pace. He stared down at Y/N with a hungry gaze, tongue poking out to lick his lips as he slammed his hips deeper in her.

"Got everybody in school fooled thinking you're such a goody two shoes, little miss perfect who is oh so sweet, innocent and pure, has never even kissed anyone."

Hongjoong smirked mischievously, pausing briefly before continuing.

"How do you think they'll react when they found out I ruined you? What will they say about the fact you opened your legs for me and allowed me to steal your virginity?"

Y/N threw her head back against the pillow and groaned loudly. It was true, she had let Hongjoong take away her purity a few months back. It wasn't anything she regretted, she loved and trusted him enough to give herself up to him, and she knew the feeling was mutual with him. And now to have him use that against her at that moment, to remind her of it, it felt amazing.

"What will your parents say? Their perfect daughter not only dating behind their back but actually letting her boyfriend stay over with her and fuck her into the sheets. Bet they'd be mad, bet they'll hate me for tainting their precious little angel." He laughed in a mocking tone.

Y/N's moaning now turned to whining and whimpering, her legs wrapping around Hongjoong's waist when the unrelenting tempo of his thrusts was threatening to throw her over the edge. Hongjoong knew this too given he felt everytime she clenched around his shaft, her walls squeezing onto him as if her life depended on it. He muffled his raspy pants when his lips attacked her mouth once more, his pecks aggresive and teeth nipping at her bottom lip.

"And so many guys will be jealous. You don't know but I've overheard even some of my teammates whisper about how they wanted to rob you of your innocence. Hell, I know for a fact even some of the professors wanted to shove their cocks inside your little pussy." As he dished out those tiny secrets she never knew about, Hongjoong's pounding became more harsh and he snarled with jealousy at the thought of anyone else looking at his prized possession in an erotic way.

Y/N clung onto him as she was on the brink of topping over, nails raking along his back.

"But they'll never get a chance because you're mine. All mine. This pussy of yours is mine. I claimed it a while back and only I get to fuck it. It's mine..... you're mine."

Unable to contain herself anymore, Y/N softly cried out Hongjoong's name as her body started twitching underneath his, face heating up as her juices pooled down her body. With only a few more strokes, Hongjoong himself was shooting his own cum into her, letting out shaky breaths that matched hers, their bodies collapsing on the bed as they tried to recover from the orgasm they just had.

After a few minutes and with his heartbeat back to normal, Hongjoong looked over at the girl beside him. Taking her hand, he held her arm up and aligned it with his so that the matching couple tattoos they got the month before would connect. It was a rather simple and subtle design, both of their wrists decorated with a beach wave that to anyone else wouldn't look out of place or arouse suspicions, but when they held it against each other, the waves formed a heart, which was exactly what Hongjoong was admiring at the moment. Rolling her over so she was facing him, he grabbed her leg and wrapped it around his waist so it would be easier to slip himself back inside the warmth of her walls. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, both of their eyes closing as they began to drift into a serene sleep, safe in each other's arms.

"I love you munchkin." He giggled when her hand smacked his chest.

"Don't start or else you're sleeping on the couch."

[lilahisntsadanymore]

Hi!! I read you were taking dps x reader requests, so I was wandering if you could write something fluffy for Todd, and maybe if from his pov. Thanks, lots of love<<3

Hello! Thanks for the request. You didn't specify if you want male or fem reader so I wrote it gender neutral, I hope this is okay:) also this is my first time writing it from a character's pov instead of Y/n's, I hope I didn't fail hahah and this takes place after the play, but Neil didn't die etc

Oh and the poem in this fic is mine, I don't really like it but I didn't have any that would fit this fic so I wrote this one really quick.

Words count: 1k

Tw: none

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Carpe diem, Todd

"My friend from the theater comes to our meeting tonight," Neil announced when we were back in our room after classes, "you'll have a chance to get to know them better."

"What do you mean?" I asked when I noticed a smirk on Neil's lips.

"Don't act like you don't know that I know. I saw the way you look at them."

"Was it that visible?"

A few days ago we went to see a play Neil acted in. He did an amazing job, but someone else caught my attention. Their name was Y/n, but that's all I know. I wish I could have talked to them, but I just couldn't gather myself to do it.

"Obviously! I swear your eyes turned into two little hearts when you saw Y/n."

I felt my cheeks heat up. Oh no, was I blushing? Most likely. I turned my head in an attempt to hide it.

"Hey, don't worry, I'm not making fun of you, Todd."

Neil is the last person I'd accuse of making fun of me. Or anybody in general. He is always so kind.

"Don't be ashamed of it! Don't tell them, but Y/n told me they liked you too."

"Really?" I looked at Neil, as a smile made its way on my face.

"I wouldn't lie about that."

To be honest, it made me feel better. There was this moment when Y/n came up to Neil after the play to tell him something. I don't really remember what, I was just looking at Y/n and didn't pay attention to what they said. What I paid attention to were their beautiful y/e/c eyes and that amazing smile they sent us while saying goodbye. I was truly mesmerized. When Y/n looked at me it was like suddenly getting a bucket of cold water poured on me. In that moment I realized I shouldn't have been staring at them, so I looked down. Did Y/n think I was looking at them too long? What if I didn't blink? Honestly I can't recall blinking. But humans blink automatically, so it's normal I don't remember it even if I was blinking, right?

I had been quiet for a while now, thinking about that situation. Neil's voice made me come back to the current moment.

"Carpe diem, Todd!" He exclaimed. "Ask Y/n out tonight, I believe you can do it!"

"Okay, yeah, alright, I will!" I smiled, but a few minutes later I sat on my bed regretting this decision.

How was I supposed to ask Y/n out? 'Hey, I know we don't know each other, but would you like to go on a date with me?'? No way, that would scare them off. Maybe I should wait for Y/n to make the first move?

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

I found out a way to ask Y/n out. Or rather make them realize they can feel free to ask me out.

I waited impatiently for the night, but it came quick. Me and the rest of the boys managed to sneak out like usually. Y/n was waiting for us near the building of our school. Then we all rushed to the cave.

Y/n looked so beautiful. From what I was able to see in flashlight lights, that is. I managed to say hello and Y/n said it back. Their voice was so sweet and soft. Oh my God, I fell hard.

Another night, another meeting started. We all gathered in our usual spots, Y/n sat next to me. I was happy about it, but it also made me nervous.

"Who would like to read first tonight?" Neil asked when he finished the 'opening' of our meeting.

I felt my heart speed up, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. This is my moment. Now or never. Carpe diem, Todd, carpe diem.

"I wrote a poem." I announced, causing the rest to look at me in surprise.

"Oh, that's awesome!" Neil cheered. "We all would love to hear it."

I stood up and walked to the spot Neil stood in. My hand reached to the pocket of my pants to pull out a page ripped out of a notebook. It was a bit crumpled, my hands were shaky and I was very nervous, but I managed to read my poem out loud.

"I know we have met recently,

But you made my heart skip a beat.

Darling, I fell for you,

And I hope you feel that way too.

Too nervous to admit,

So this is it.

I'm writing this poem with love,

And with hopes you'll know

That it's about you, my new obsession.

The secret is no longer in discretion."

I hid the paper back in my pocket.

"Todd, your poem is very good." Someone said, I didn't really care who.

"Thank you." I said. My eyes searched for Y/n. I calmed down when I noticed a smile on their face.

I went back to the spot I sat in, next to Y/n. Did they like my poem? I hope they realize it's about them. What if they thought it's stupid? I shouldn't have showed it off. If Y/n wasn't scared off already, they will be now.

"Your poem was nice." Y/n whispered suddenly. I looked at them, our faces only a few inches apart.

"T-thank you." I stuttered. Thank God there wasn't enough light to reveal me blushing.

"The person you wrote it about is very lucky."

"Actually... it's about you, Y/n."

"Oh, really?"

Y/n probably thinks I'm creepy, I have to explain everything now. But, how to explain it? Thankfully all the others weren't focusing on what we were talking about.

"Yes, but don't think I'm creepy, or something. I know we barely know each other, but you stole my heart and-"

I stopped explaining when I felt Y/n's hand on mine, squeezing it. My heart fluttered, when I felt Y/n giving me a light kiss on the cheek.

"I loved your poem and I'd love to get to know each other better." Y/n whispered.

[meetmyglowinthedarkboyfriend]

RR CRIT: East Asian Representation

I'm not sure whether or not this is the right time to jump on the bandwagon of RR Crit when there is already so much being debated, but as an East Asian, I have definitely noticed several things this fandom and Rick might have got a little off or wrong about our cultures, or just portrayed them in a negative light which may fall into stereotypes. Please note that this list may not cover every single point worthy of criticism regarding the East Asian characters of PJO/HoO/ToA.

Note: I live in Hong Kong and am ethnically, culturally and nationally Chinese. The Japanese aspect of this post may not be 100% accurate and I rely on my limited knowledge and TV Tropes on this part. I also rely on the Traditional Chinese translation to help me.

Chinese

FRANK ZHANG

The renditioning of his Chinese name is incorrect. In SoN, his grandmother calls him “Fai Zhang”, which is incorrect on several different levels.

The name order: Chinese names are presented as surname first, given name last, not the Western order. Japanese names are also rendered this way in Japanese (but in Western order in Western media), Korean names are rendered the same way, and even Hungarian names are like this. Dude had one job and couldn't even do it right.

The romanization method: Zhang is obviously a pinyin/post-PRC takeover rendition of 張/张, while Fai is likely to be in either Wade-Giles or isn't Mandarin Chinese altogether - I suspect Cantonese, which I made a theory for. The “different romanized topolects in one name” thing is not unheard of in Hong Kong, where I've seen “Mando-surname, Canto-given-name” combinations (disregarding the form of Mandarin romanization used - I've seen both pinyin and Wade-Giles), but it most certainly is uncommon. I can get more into this later per request - send in an ask and I'll give all the legal name combinations for romanization in Hong Kong that I've seen.

It is more of a consistency issue than anything, but in-universe, Frank apparently didn't know how to read Chinese more than his own name. With a grandmother like his, how did he go over fifteen years without learning to read Chinese? He also lived in/near Vancouver, a city with a large Chinese population. How could he not know!?? And within two weeks, he somehow knew enough Chinese to read off a tourist Google Maps in Rome. How did he teach himself to read Chinese, a difficult language for Westerners to master, within two weeks? Even if many foreign names are transliterated into pinyin in Chinese, he would have to recognize the characters used in the transliteration, know the pinyin for the words, be able to transliterate the name, then guess the Western name of the place, all without the use of a computer? That's not possible if you're a newbie to any form of Chinese, in spite of what I wrote in Remembrance (my fanfic).

The “Amazhang” Pun: This is more of a fandom issue than anything, since it's never used in canon. The “a” in Zhang sounds more like a non-rhotic “ar”, and the “zh” is like a nasal “j” sound with rolling tongue. Whenever I see that pun, I have to force myself to say it in the Western pronunciation to get the pun - it's more of a pet peeve than anything, but still.

Why is he so underrated? Once again, a fandom thing. Why is he the least popular out of the Seven in the fandom? I'm not sure if racism has anything to do with this or not, but my point stands. Why is he so underrated in the fandom? But then again, he is underrated in canon too, sometimes the inadvertent butt of jokes and gags. Dude, uncool.

The whole Love Triangle From Hell thing… still not cool.

The “Ghost Month” thing: I as a city person… don't care about the Ghost Month as much, and neither do much of my family, and we are “Westernized” Chinese people at that. The quote “Tell me it's a coincidence we're searching for the Doors or Death during the ghost month” (HoH Ch10) seems a tad ooc and superstitious. Some Chinese people are very superstitious, but for someone who was primarily raised in Western and not Chinese culture, that is just… weird. Contradicts previous characterization. Dude can't even stick to one characterization, even if it's a shitty characterization. And ANOTHER point regarding the “ghost month” is that it refers to the seventh month on the LUNAR calendar (Western calendar - starts in mid to late July or even August), not July (Gregorian calendar). Specifically in 2010, the so-called Ghost Month wouldn't start until 12 July because that's the first day of the seventh lunar month, but the conversation where they talked about the Ghost Month took place on 5 July. Gods, I thought being raised in a place with such a large Chinese diaspora would have taught you the difference between the two calendars. At least the celebration of Tuen Ng Festival, aka Dragon Boat Festival needn't be brought up in canon as it took place days before SoN began, instead of during the bulk of the plot, or I'd have to register another complaint.

(taken from the post of @queenangst) His arc: The bigger part of his HoO arc is becoming more confident, yes, but it also involves getting pretty buff and tall. (Personal jealousy because I am also Chinese and am very, very short - maybe it's the northern genes? Northerners are taller than southerners, but Frank would be tall even for a northerner…) Slight fatphobic implications here because he basically “lost his fat” to become buff so as to get his character development (physically). I don't deny his character got some development, but the way it was physically represented is kind of fatphobic AND unnecessary.

(taken from the post of @housemartius, specifically from the reply of @pipersgay) Descriptions: “Baby man” and “panda”… yeah, that's not very nice in hindsight. And I'm quite sure 16yo Chinese folks wouldn't have much of a baby face, especially when they're raised in a healthy environment where their growth wouldn't be stunted by poor nutrition and therefore puberty would start earlier. The best canon-compliant explanation would be that he's a late bloomer, but I don't think late bloomers mean THIS late in most cases (taken from the post of @lesbiansism). Also, Rick… sumo wrestlers are Japanese, not Chinese. Stop promoting Interchangeable Asian Cultures.

(taken from the post of @housemartius, specifically from the reply of @alfie167) Despite having Western relatives, he has little to no on-page interaction with them in BoO - everything takes place off-page and honestly, it would have been interesting to see their interaction, because family really matters to the Chinese.

His lack of dyslexia: Yeah, it's cool to know it is possible that some demigods don't have dyslexia, but he is East Asian… maybe you should have picked a different and/or another demigod of a different ethnicity to play this part (as well). Also, in case you are wondering, East Asian kids can get learning disabilities too and in Hong Kong, kids with dyslexia receive some forms of support like more time to finish their exams and printing assessments and maybe assignments in larger font for easier reading, or so I vaguely recall.

Being raised more Western: Chinese people, especially in the diaspora, are pretty proud of their heritage overall. And Vancouver, a city where Frank and his family live in/near, houses a large part of the Chinese Canadian diaspora. Dude was basically raised in Chinese culture and/or multicultural society and hardly talk about it. How Frank managed to not go 16 years without much regard for all of THAT Chinese culture exposure and not mention it before MoA (starting with the Chinese handcuffs thing), I have no idea. Dammit, Rick, you did something similar with Piper, so no wonder you messed up here.

GRANDMOTHER ZHANG

The lady interchangeably uses Mandarin and Cantonese. She seems to mostly use Mandarin, but there was one point in SoN where she calls Juno a gwai po, which is an explicitly Cantonese way of derogatorily referring to a white woman who is middle-aged or older. How the lady came to know Cantonese, a southern topolect, when her ancestors are from Gansu, a northern province where residents speak Mandarin, I cannot be certain. I made a theory on this months ago, where I use immigration patterns to suggest she is descended from Gansu residents on her father's side and Cantonese immigrants from her mother's side, but it is definitely not canon and I would like Rick to explain. Refer to my Chinese Culture tag for the theories and headcanons about Frank's name and family history.

Her name: Disregarding even the immigration theory, it is not possible for Zhang to be her maiden name, or at least, it probably isn't. This implies that her husband is surnamed Zhang, and presumably died before he made an impact on Frank's life or even before he was born. But most Chinese people still go by their maiden names after they get married, so I might be able to get away with this by citing Carrie Lam, current Chief Executive of Hong Kong (and hated by a decent chunk of the population), as an example - Lam is her married surname, while Cheng is her maiden name, and she has chosen not to go by it, and that is understandable. But I am not a big fan of this because of how uncommon it is in real-life usage (as well as the example mentioned above being a possible contributing factor), so we are back to square one for this. [On top of her maiden name debate, we don't know her given name either. It is understandable that Frank exclusively refers to her as “grandmother”, even in narration, because that's the respectful thing to do - always call someone of higher standing than you (Confucianism is a huge part of Chinese culture and hierarchy is a big thing) by their title. But you can't live with someone for 15 years without knowing their real names. And funnily enough, no one in this fandom has given her a fanon name. I've definitely thought about it and cannot decide on anything.]

Her encouraging Frank to pursue a (future) relationship with Hazel: It's not really about Hazel's age here, but Frank's - the old lady is really traditional, but where I live, where ethnic Chinese people make up over 90% of the population, dating before university is frowned upon, because it takes time away from studying (education is highly valued in the Sinosphere), making dating a very 18+ thing, while Frank was 16 in SoN. The best explanation I can give is her being raised in a Western country (Canada) affecting her view on romance, when in Western countries, teenagers dating is perfectly acceptable behaviour. Even now, I have reservations on most of the cast being in a relationship at all - I made a post on this a little while back.

Her unknown current status: Is she alive? Is she dead? Who knows! Canon never says.

She reminds me of Mulan's grandma in Disney (1998 movie), and it's a little discomforting in hindsight because of the Expy trope.

(taken from the post of @lesbiansism) She's more stern and cold. Though there definitely are Chinese parents and guardians who prefer to practise tough love, it's about time to quit the stereotype, because Chinese parents and grandparents do come in all shapes and sizes - loving parents, abusive parents, stern parents, entitled parents, parents who aren't perfect but try their best, parents who are obsessed with their kids' grades, parents who are human.

Comparison with Aunt Rosa: This happened during Chapter 10 of HoH, referring to the death honouring customs of different cultures. Saying that the two would have got along… well, Rosa was literally abusive to her nephew. Not a great comparison, in hindsight.

EMILY ZHANG

We don't know much about her.

She is a minority, and she is dead. Not exactly great.

We don't know her Chinese given name either. It's not as important of a point, but as a Chinese person, it matters. And I don't see anyone giving her a name either… if anyone wants to give these two Chinese ladies Chinese names, I can definitely give a couple of pointers.

SHERMAN YANG

Only assumed to be Chinese from his surname.

From the little we know about him, the dude tried to bully a 12yo girl. Doesn't make a good impression at all, even if you're just a minor character.

Once again, surname pronunciation, where “Yang” in Mandarin sounds closer to “Young” than “Yank”.

BILLIE NG

Why I put her as Chinese is because of her surname, Ng, which is a rendering of several surnames in southern China, depending on the topolect. The traditional Chinese translation uses 吳, which is a Cantonese surname, and I headcanon her to be a Hongkonger like me, but it would also be interesting if she were from Macau, because Macau is more underrepresented in media than HK. She also happens to be a fairly overlooked character and has very few fanfics about her. But canon never states her to be Chinese, which is disappointing.

Hair dye: Many of us do not dye our hair, or not to her extent. Hair dye is sometimes used to lighten our dark hair to brown or reddish brown, or is used to hide greying hair from ageing; and hair dye is already frowned upon in Chinese culture by some because it “damages” the body given to us by our parents (ancient Chinese philosophical stuff, which is also why many Chinese people refuse to donate their organs after passing away). Her dying her hair BLUE is already unusual, and she is just in her teenage years! I do strongly support self-discovery as a teenager, but for this girl, I really hope that the dye is temporary and not permanent.

Makeup: It is not to say that the use of cosmetics is discouraged in modern China, since many skin-lightening products are sold (pale skin symbolizes being rich enough to not toil in the fields and get a tan, back in the old days), but makeup is usually to look natural and subtle and not be say, a clown. Seeing a likely East Asian girl with golden makeup is definitely a tad jarring, to say the least.

Apparel: Most teenagers do not dress like K-pop stars, not in the US, not in East Asia - we wear normal clothes like jeans and T-shirts. If they want to emulate pop stars, fine, they might go and learn Korean to understand their songs and stuff, but they wouldn't really do so in garish, “weird” ways like wearing a freaking silver coat. Also, wearing that in a Death Race? Impractical as heck - it might get dirty, and it would practically be a monster magnet since it's so distinguishable. [And since HK is farther south than most of the US, it is definitely less cold here and I'm surprised she's not kitted out in parkas and/or down coats if she hasn't lived there for long, though NYC being less humid than HK might make winters more bearable.]

The whole K-pop thing in general: Timeline wise, I don't think K-pop gained traction in HK or the world in general before 2012 (Gangnam Style), and ToA presumably took place in 2011. The gap isn't as big as other things like Love is an Open Door (2013) and Hamilton (2015+), but it's still there, but even I'm not so sure of this point, as I can barely remember anything from my childhood in general (I was about 8 when Gangnam Style became a thing). Culture wise, Rick might have accidentally helped promote Interchangeable Asian Cultures - for the record, South Korea is a three-to-four hour flight from Hong Kong and/or southern China. It's a whole different country. Implications are not really good here, okay? Someone even assumed that she's Korean when she “dressed like a K-pop star”, but her surname indicates that she's a Chinese person who speaks, or is descended from someone who speaks, a topolect/regional speech/“dialect”!

“Wisp” of a girl: It could imply being a “soft and delicate” Asian girl (stereotype).

We barely know anything about her.

Note to the fandom: I did not feel that represented with Frank, mainly because he's a canonical northerner, and one not as connected to his heritage at that. As a Chinese southerner… this is why I basically adopted Billie recently and have been part-time using her for projecting into the Riordanverse, partially because she barely as a canonical personality.

Japanese

GENERAL ISSUES

Do the Japanese characters in the series also have Japanese names? Many Chinese people take on Western names because it functions as a nickname and is more convenient for Westerners who cannot speak Chinese, but Japanese people rarely do this and many stick to their Japanese names.

All these characters have Japanese surnames but are not confirmed to be Japanese. Smh…

ETHAN NAKAMURA

He is not necessarily good rep for East Asians entirely, because he functions as an antagonist, and though “diverse” antagonists is always a bonus, being the one (1) East Asian in a book series with a mostly white cast while also being antagonistic carries some pretty unfortunate implications. And he also died. Not cool.

DREW TANAKA

Another East Asian with antagonistic tendencies. The most we know of her is that she is the go-to mean girl with the vanity and the heartlessness, which doesn't paint a very nice and sympathetic picture. She also doesn't have a lot of brains, which definitely goes against the “nerd” stereotype, but falls into the “Asian Airhead” trope. Also, her trying to get together with Jason, a guy who is most likely white… more unfortunate implications come flying out of the woodwork. And her lack of character development is… a little disappointing, tbh.

ALICE MIYAZAWA

We barely know her. The little we know about her is that she's a daughter of Hermes who enjoys pranking. Yeah, that might subvert traditional Japanese values, which places emphasis on hard work and persistence, and I am not sure if it is Rick's place or mine to break the party up. [I do not speak for Japan, and I am 100% not sure how accurate this is for Japan, but here in HK, we aren't big on pranking.]

Unclear

MICHAEL YEW

We don't even know if he is East Asian or not, since Yew can be a Western surname as well as an Eastern one, but for this, I am going off of the traditional Chinese translation again, which renders his name like an East Asian, and his surname with the specific transliteration of 尤, and the physical description of his hair and eye colour (dark hair, brown eyes) definitely sounds East Asian to me. Which begs the question of what kind of East Asian he would be - Han Chinese (specifically from Fujian, another southern Chinese province), Han Taiwanese, Mongolian, Miao (a subdivision being the Hmong people as Westerners would know them), or even Taiwanese Aboriginal. Personally, I am inclined to go with the non-Han minorities, because they are also underrepresented in media - archery is a traditional sport in Mongolia, some Miao people wield crossbows, etc. but I am not certain if this would help enforce stereotypes rather than break them. Personally, I would want more input from the fandom over this issue.

Also, he's kind of dead. That speaks for itself, and worse still that he is the first named casualty of the Battle of Manhattan.

MRS. CHASE

She is not exactly portrayed as sympathetic when concerning Annabeth and her childhood, not with disregarding her fears and not treating her equally like her blood children and stuff. And also the evil poc stepmother of our white protagonist - even more bad implications.

Conclusion

While any prejudice against East Asians in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles is not as apparent as other cultures, there are definitely points in time where I would raise an eyebrow at Rick's decisions in regard to them.

On top of this, in this entire effing list, only 3/10 of the characters are confirmed East Asian. THREE OUT OF TEN. It's like queerbaiting but with racism instead of homophobia. At the same time, other than one (1) East Asian protagonist with less development, insight and attention placed on him than the rest of the cast, all the other East Asians are either dead, antagonistic, and/or minor characters to the point few acknowledge their existence. As Oversimplified would put it, “Dude, uncool.”

I personally doubt this list is complete, so if anyone wants to point anything out to me, I would gladly respond via inbox or notes section, and add any other suggestions given. Also, even if this list contains many headcanons and theories and canon complaint reasoning, it does not excuse Rick's bad writing on his part - as a canon-sympathetic person, I try to explain things in-universe, while as a canon-critical person, I criticize the meta reason why I had to explain such things in-universe and more.

I hope you gained a little more insight on the situation from this post. Even if the East Asians of the Riordanverse are more overlooked, being overlooked by itself is a form of racism and I seek to help correct all of this. My East Asian fam has been done dirty by Rick, though perhaps to a less significant extent than many others, but I believe it's about high time someone pointed this out.

[anormalweirdo]

This is part 2 of the surprise aka the NSFW part I will be added here so you can read that if you want don't forget to enjoy. Also everyone is aged up and the two boys are pro heros

After a few months of hanging out you finally realized just how much you liked them. You kept it for a secret for the longest time and even got yourself a boyfriend to try and keep your mind off the boys. After a while your finally stopped crushing on the boys(or so you thought) and was getting ready for a date with your boyfriend. While getting ready you got a phone call from an unknown phone number. Hesitantly you answered and the moment you did you heard moaning from a woman and a really familiar voice moan "yeah baby you like that don't you"(she know she don't🙄). You stand there in shock with tears in your eyes while listening to this random girls moans. You stood there for a while until you cleared your throat catching their attention. " What the hell is this and who are you even with?" You said while trying to not let tears fall down your face. Once he realized who's voice he heard he stopped what he was doing and sat their looking at the girl in shock. "Y-you did this on purpose didn't you?" was all he said before the girl started to laugh" of course I did I'm tired of being the one hidden from everyone while you just flash her off to the world". (by the way forgot to mention your boyfriend- well now ex is famous and is known for dating you). After she got done talking she mentioned how long they've been doing this and how she don't regret it and then hung up right in your face. Instead of crying all alone while watching movies you chose to call up your bestfriends Deku and Todoroki to watching the movies with you. You called Deku and luckily Todoroki was near him at that time so he put you on speaker. The moment you told them everything that happened they were both furious but soon calmed down after hearing you lowly said hello multiple times. They said they were coming over and before you could even disagree they hung up and you stood there face covered with tears and a messy living room. After a couple of hours you heard a knock at the door and went to open it. The moment Deku seen you he quickly grabbed you and brought you into a tight hug“ I’m so sorry that lowlife did this to you”. You just stood there while lightly sobbing in his arms(god this is bad😭) after what seemed like forever you finally stoped and invited them into your home and watched some movies. There was one movie in particular that involved a more naughty scene, now obviously the three of you didn’t know about this scene so to say it surprised you was an understatement. “Oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t notice that was gonna show up”you said while turning your eyes away from the tv. “Oh it’s fine” Deku reinsured while blushing. He slowly turned his head to look you right in the eye. “ You ex really doesn’t deserve someone like you y/n” he said before looking at Todoroki whose eyes were basically glued to your face. He quickly turned his face the moment your eyes turned to look at the both of them, “y’know what’s crazy I aft I’ll had a bit of a crush on you for a while but never got the chance to say anything” Deku said as you and Todoroki looked at him in disbelief“ I thought we were gonna tell her together Midoriya” Todoroki mumbled loud enough for the both of you to hear. You stood there in shock and a little bit of disbelief. You couldn’t believe that after all these years of you thinking they were to good for you, believing they would never fall for someone like you. You were so shocked, so surprised that all you could do was stare at the both of them. “ If you’ll let me, I’ll like to show you just how much you mean to us” Deku said while Todoroki just nodded. All you could do was nod before Todoroki went to kiss you while Deku whispered how much he’s happy that you gave him the opportunity to show all his affection towards you. All while Shoto(had to put out they first name) began to put you on his lap to deepen the kiss. “ wait” you said which caught both of the boy’s attention“is there anything we can help you with darling” Shoto asked while his hands slowly rubbed the sides of you hips. “Are we gonna do this…here on the couch.”

You asked while looking at the two boys. “Where’s your room doll face” Izuku asked while Shoto picked you up making you giggle. “Down the hall to the left” you said while leaning your head against Shoto’s shoulder. As you entered your bedroom Shoto placed your smaller body on your bed while Izuku chuckled before putting his head lightly against your neck and placing small kisses on the skin“here’s the fun part baby are you sure you wanna do this if not that would be perfectly fine” he said while continuing to kiss your neck but with a little bit more pressure. “Yes I’m sure Izuku I really like you boys plus it would be a great way to take my mind off my ex” you said while smiling. The boy didn’t need to hear twice before he basically attacked your neck with kisses and bite marks making you moan quietly. “As much as I love to watch I’m sure I’ll love it way more if I get a piece of them as well” Shoto said while taking off his shirt showing off his fit body. You looked up just to feel something slowly covering your eyes but just before you was completely blinded you heard the low voice of Shoto whisper“ is this ok for you I would never force you to do something you wouldn’t want to do”. You nodded slowly before you felt a hand lift your face to make eye contact with a certain green-haired man“ I need to hear your beautiful voice baby” he said before kissing you for a quick second. “ Yes it’s ok” you said while trying to cover your face in embarrassment before feeling your head being moved and feeling the same blindfold being pit over your eyes.“ How does it feel? Is it too tight?” you heard Izuku ask before you answered that you were fine. “Time to get started if it’s too much make sure you say peppermint so we can stop everything ok baby” you nodded your head and felt a hand pushing you towards the bed laying you down. As you were laying you felt each piece of clothing being removed one by one until you felt the coldness hitting your skin making you shiver a lit. Expecting something to happen you prepared yourself but after waiting a few seconds you realized that nothing was happening. You we gonna say something until you felt a lick on your sensitive area making you moan loudly. “Wow all that from one little lick darling imagine if I we to keep going” you heard a voice say instantly knowing whose voice it was. You kept quiet, too embarrassed to say anything before you felt more licks making you more sensitive and soon you felt a lick to your most sensitive area causing you to moan even louder. “H-hey slow down" you said between breaths. “No can do baby we’re just getting started but if you’ll like us to stop you know what word to use”. Izuku said before you felt even more licks and sucks to your most sensitive area. You felt closer and closer to your climax as he continued to lick and suck every where while the other gave you all types of marks over your body. You soon reached your climax and moaned out whosever named came out with was both of their while your legs started to shake a little. “ Aw baby that’s so cute but we’re not done yet” Izuku said while opening your mouth slowly as he entered into your mouth while groaning softly. “F-fuck baby your mouth is so warm” he said while slowly putting his head behind your head to help you take all his length. On the other hand you felt Shoto slowly prepping you. You felt him slowly enter you and although it felt good it was also a bit painful since you never felt anything as big as him before. “Fuck you’re so tight and warm” Shoto said while slowly thrusting into you. The vibration from your voice was vibrating against Izuku’s dick which had him getting louder as he was close to his climax as he helped you take more of him into your mouth which had you gagging at how big it was. You knew you was gonna be sore the next morning but you didn’t care you just wanted to make them feel as good as you do so you took more of him into your mouth which cause him to leak a white sticky liquid. As you tried to swallow most of it some of it leaked out your mouth and landed over your face

and mouth. Izuku just looked down at you like you was a masterpiece his masterpiece. You soon noticed you was on the verge of cumming and started to tighten your walls around Shoto with caused him to wince and groan loudly as he pounded into you harder and faster and as soon as he did you came right on him but that didn’t stop him at all, he even started to go faster which you thought was impossible. He soon came while Moaning your name as more white sticky liquid filled you up. As he slowly exited your body he looked at the mess he made on you and smirked“ you look so beautiful like this darling” he said while grabbing his phone to take a quick picture of his mess. Soon after you tried to sit up but was quickly pushed back on the bed. “Oh honey you don’t think we’re done do you? Baby we just got started”

This probably sucked and I’m sorry. This my first full smut I ever wrote and I hoped you enjoyed😁

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 1

Greetings, Apritello enthusiasts and attention! Here comes a loong post is written by totally nerd. You've been warned. Here we go.

The thing is that Apritello is a double-edged sword. The series shows us established friendship of these two, give us a lot of content with them. We can see development of relationship through interaction between the characters, their reaction about the situations they are put in. We can sense their synergy and bound through the show.

Donnie and April have incredible chemistry, and both options, brotp and otp seems fine to me.

But let me tell you why I ship them.

Apritello is the kind of pairings, which consists of small details, hints, that's hidden, but if you're sharp and attentive one, you will notice that. Apritello has a strong foundation: the best friends trope.

And from the very beginning, it works as planned.

When I start watching show, I could say that April and Donnie are best friends. It is worth noting that April is like an older sister to the other brothers, more of a sisterly figure than a friend, but with Donnie she behaves somewhat differently, namely, as best friend. Obviously, she sets him apart from his brothers, although girl tries to pay attention to all of them equally. And Donnie behaves as well.

Dee's battle shell designs for April needs as well as his. His shell transform into comfy spot for taking ride for April. Special and only for her. Because his bros are not supposed to use it (at least, he carries no one on his back), Donnie carries them by his techno-bó or his limbs.

This tiny detail shows his special treatment to her. April is a very, very special occasion to D. Don does care about her comfort, he accept the way she is. Donatello does not try to prevent her from participating in their affairs because he respects her decisions and is pleased that April can be shoulder to shoulder with him.

D is glad to be at her service.

Yeah, Dee's still playing cool, he has image to perform as tough and coolheaded guy. So Don doesn't show his intentions, interest and feeling to other people (he's tryin', but fails). Because his actions matter. They are always small, hidden, but meaningful.

April, in return, trusts Dee and depends on his tech, even knowing what his inventions are the opposite of success (usually).

Go on. Look at Donnie's facial expressions and body language when April is near.

Donnie seems more relaxed when she's around, happier. His emotional response is always different from his brothers ones.

Oh, and look, he wanted to be first to give her a high three.

They worry about each other. Look at Don. He does worry about her way more than his brothers. Yeah, they all want to protect her, but Donnie is more expressive.

Mayham has no particular sympathy for the brothers: he is afraid of Raph and behaves aggressively, he is indifferent to Leo and Mikey. Mayham immediately takes a liking to April. And then the details come back: he let Donnie touch his neck. The most vulnerable place for any living creation, for a second. Let him to study an important vial without any hesitation. Mayham depends on April trust for Donnie. When everything goes wrong for Don, the little doggie comes to his rescue, just as April would have done. Is the hint transparent enough?

We can see links with "A mystic library", wherе Donnie begins to look for solutions to save April's pet. Yes, this may seem like his next leap, "sit down, I'm smart, and now I'll solve all the problems, watch and learn," but Don says one phrase that opens up the veil of the second plan, what happens behind the scenes. "My illiteral colleagues and I was conducting a mustic research, with a life of the beloved pet, hanging in a bounce".

Strange wording, Donatello. Beloved pet? Not yours, as we can see. I can say, that everything in this sentence is true, but Donnie and Mayham has something more.

Continue. Next episode "Origami tsunami". Interactions are kept to a minimum, as April herself appears for a maximum of 5 minutes in the series itself. But devil is always in the details, dear friends.

When April was attacked and hung up, the only one who excitedly called out to her was Donny. Raph is furious that the thieves have escaped, Leo is frustrated that their plan has failed, and Mikey is worried about the salami.

Yeah, we didn't see his worries about her when she fell, because Donnie is on the mission and must be coolheaded turtle, and second, he's calm because now April life is safe and sound, out of the danger.

Dear passangers, Apritello Express arrives to the next station - episode "War and Pizza".

Bare facts:

1. April has Donnie's number on an emergency call.

2. "Anything for you"

3. Donnie is the reason why Alberto knows April's name.

No one calles April by her name (except for Donnie, while phone call, but Alberto wasn't nearby) it was "Captain O'Neil" by her chief, her badge seems blank. And yeah, you can say, that's just economy of budget, but I assure you: in the first episode we were shown the name of the delivery guy. The animators were not lazy bones and wrore "Stewart" on his badge. So if something isn't there, then it either shouldn't be there, or it really isn't, that's how this show works.

So, the reason explained in the episode. When Al has short circuit, parts of its new code flashed through its mind.

Info about April was in its memory, in its code. Alberto was a lame animatronic, and it seems somewhat outdated. I do really doubt about Alberto is being something smartass machine with complicated AI like Freddy's Pizza's ones. Quite questionable. Donatello fix Al's brain and wrote code, synchronize with his remote control. He put information about Cap O'Neil into animatronic's head. All this pictures are kind of massage: "You was created for birthday celebrations. You are machine, and there concepts of "life" and "birth". Do great party for this birthday kid and April won't be like this". Or, something like that.

So Alberto did - do a memorable party. And he do what his creator programmed him to do, but in his way.

4. In other words, Alberto was a tool to impress April. Don flaunts himself in front of her, stating how he did the upgrade while doing the upgrade, even though April is fully aware of his tech wizard. And his abilities supposed to help Cap O'Neil to finish the birthday party, so she will stay at her job, not fired. All thanks to Donnie and his upgrade Alberto. (Or not)

By the way, Donnie was the last to leave April in ruined "Alberto's". And it's not an isolated case, it is a pattern.

5. They understand each other without words.

First, Donny came at her at the speed of light. Second, she hadn't even finished speaking before Dee was taking Al apart. Third, their chaotic, well-coordinated work? Donnie was a distraction (although he wanted to just take a break from the battle or let Alberto's guard down, while April just knocked him out). Donnie and April are great team, and sometimes the DonniexApril team is much more precise, coordinated, and interdependent than the DonniexBrothers one.

D&A feel each other and anticipate each other's actions, their skills complement each other, creating an incredible synergy of their interaction. They act as a whole, while it's not always possible with his brothers, even though they're family and know each other the way more Donnie know April. And Dee hasn't trained with cap O'Neil.

Donatello didn't show his crush for April. No puppy, loving eyes, no lovey-dovey speeches, no planning schemes (at least, the audience don't see one) . He just want her attention, but stays cool and hidden. D is already her BFF, but still.

The same thing is claimed in 5B episode - Mascot Melee. Donnie has no problems with interaction with idol of his childhood - Atomic Lass. She'd put Leo in a stupor, but Donnie? He playfully challenges her to a dance duel. Yes, he adores this character, who may have become his measure of the attractiveness of others to Donatello, determined his type. But still, he's playing all cool and confident guy, he's really smooth with girls, so you will never see a puppy loving eyes from him. Only two things can betray him at this point: his voice and his body language. Remember, how's soft his voice became for Atomic Lass? Now I want you to remember the scene before, in turtle tank, when April sent guys a meme.

D is the first to respond to the message, despite the fact that Mikey is sitting closest to the screen. And the responding is a little too emotional for this situation, don't you think?

And this face of his. And he comments it. He likes her sense of humour.

The only difference between April and Atomic Lass is that the first one is a real girl who is a friend of their family, practically a member of it; and the other one is just a fictional character. It is easier to say about love for a fictional character, because it brings less problems for a teenager, especially when he is living with three brothers and a father who likes to tease as well. Donatello needs to be careful and outline the area of emotions he could show, so that he does not get hurt.

Now, dear passangers, we are returning to the previous episode, shall we?

Donnie presents to his brothers his precious Turtle tank, but she's gone, and it's really necessary to find out, who has taken her. And the first person to suspect is April.

Something is odd, don't you think? Yeah, Raphael has taken tyre for their "Midnight special", Leo claimed that Donnie's stuff is common, but they are D's beothers. It's natural for family to borrow(stole) stuff of each other. But this trend was not observed in April. She would never steal anything from Donnie, much less steal anything from him.

Actually, there is a good, logical and solid explanation here. April was number 1 in Donatello' suspect list, because he simply told her about Turtle tank. His brothers didn't know he were working at Moon buggy, except Mikey (Orange helps Dee get the vehicle from Repomantis), but they didn't know what exactly Donnie was working for. They didn't know he build the Turtle tank, he kept it a secret, to surprise his brothers. But April knew.

- Alright you! Where's our turtle tank?

- Hi, DONNIE. You have 9 seconds to say, why are you just broke my door.

- Someone's stole Donnie's turtle tank.

- Haha-ow, I see. As your best friend, you naturally suspect me.

- She gets it!

- Oh-ho, don't give me that! You're the only one could taken it!

The only one, because she knew about it.

As Splints said in this episode - "April is not a snitch"

Donatello does trust April and share with her both, sorrows and joys. But we are not shown this directly. We do not see the action itself, we do not see their calls and conversations on the phone late at night, we only see the consequence. We have no choice and take it as a given.

And the way she cooled him down? Fast, efficient, and Donnie seems to used to it. Moreover, she slapped everyone, but still, she throw Don out of window the last. However, why such a large time delay between him, being slapped and him, was throwing out of the window?

And my favourite scene. It was obvious that Donnie had taken the hardest hit (judging by his scream and the way he was putting his knuckles back in place). Don then claims that their inner circle is secure, Mikey tries to make amends for everyone, and April agrees, blowing them a kiss and closing the window. Cute and mean, isn't it? (You're cute! but mean! why do I always go for your type?! - ep. War and Pizza)

Nota bene: Donnie wouldn't apologize to April. Tough, not caring badass boy image, remember? Even to best friends. It's hard to him to express his feelings by using words, he cannot do it in proper way. But he has Mikey, who is so alike inner him. Michelangelo apologizes not only for himself, but for D mostly, because D starts suspected April.

Let's continue: the episode 8B: Hypno Part Deux

• Donnie put "Donnie's blocker" at April's phone to protect her.

It's common thing that your friend install some programs or apps on your device. But you will always ask your friend to do such a favour, and you will always know about what, when and where were installed on your phone.

And April didn't know Donnie had done something with her phone. It was a real surprise for her, to see blocker with "Donnie says no-no-no".

And you know, the interface of his app. The way he tell this current phrase. Donnie could put a huge banner "THE APP YOU WANT DOWNLOAD TO IS A REAL PIECE OF GARBAGE", as usual antiviruses do. But no, voice interface. It makes the app more personal and thoughtful. Because when Don made gifts for his brother, the program was voiced by a computer-generated female voice. Yes, the tank's interface is voiced by Donatello himself, but his voice sounds more like Google than the real Don. And, we talking about HIS BABEY, for a second. Bit still, the point remains.

• Also, Dale.

Dale is nerdy boy in purple, wow, how convenient for making a parallel with certain purple turtle.

But thing is, April doesn't like Dale. He's clingy, remora guy, who has a little obsession with April, even he's not harmful, still, such behaviour freaks girls (and not them only) out. Her classmate is usually tell her what April O'Neil is "his favourite person" and he loves her. There is little that is attractive about this behavior.

So, there is nothing new and unpredictable here that Dale was rejected. Because April didn't, doesn't and won't like him because of his lame personality and strange behaviour. Our girl in yellow do right thing: she clearly sets personal boundaries and does not allow any dubious personalities to invade them. So that's the reason she refuses to go on a date with him at the end. He's weird, obsessed, and she doesn't like him.

Donatello, as far as I concerned from different versions of TMNT, was always a little obsessive with some things. And, you know, putting a blocker inside your best friend's phone seems a little weird, because it's, in simple words, violation of privacy and personal space. And there are people who may regard this as stalking or sorta.

Yeah, for the most part, he gets away with it, not only because April's focus is in a different area, but also because their bond is stronger than April's with anyone else at school.

She has known him for years. Donnie is her best friend. I can't say that it's fine to her when Dee violates her personal space - her phone, but April can accept Donatello's personality in general.

And he does really have good intentions. Donnie installed this blocker, developed by himself only for one reason: to protect personal space April from fishy apps from nowhere, from being hacked and etc. Don knew her too well, how much she depends on stupid apps that will distract her. He also knew well, that he can't be with her 24/7 to fix problems with April's phone, so Dee put a part of himself to prevent any harm in the future.

And again, "Donnie's gifts"'s vibes. Donatello genuinely cared about April, because he wrote, coded, developed, designed, and dubbed it, turned on the database, and installed it all on April's phone. 'cause, you know, writing programs in general is a bit of a hassle, but writing an antivirus is much more difficult, because viruses are changing, and questionable applications are finding ways to bypass. Do you feel how much effort Dee put in for her?

But Donatello didn't mean to fix April, as he tried to do with his brothers. Purple turtle accepts this girl the way she is, and tries his best to play smoothly with April, by adjusting, not being passive aggressive jerk. It's his outstanding way to show his caring nature, soft side.

Remember, small but meaningful actions.

Maybe, Donnie also can foresee that April may be forced to download some suspicious program, but still, it work: he managed to prevent April being hypnotized, even if couldn't be physically with April at the this moment - Dee was working for Repo Mantis, building dog's paradise for Todd. That's why, by the way, Leo and Raph were dragged into this whole situation. Mayham would teleported literally anyone to help his hostess. Donnie just wasn't at the Lair at the moment.

And on this note, we'll take a break for now. Stay tuned, expect parsing of the series, there's a lot to discuss.

Part 2

Part 3

[mcwriting]

Lost in Rome

hello, friends! Ever since "La Vita Dolce," I've wanted to write something else involving Italy and at least one Italian phrase, and so this lil story was born! Hope you all enjoy!

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Word Count: 1488

Warnings: mentions of drinking, vv slight language

★

You had been walking around Rome for what felt like an eternity.

(It had only been like 30 minutes)

You knew the bar was right near Piazza Navona, but you'd only been to that part of the city one other time, having been staying south on the other side of the river in Trastevere.

You felt embarrassed knowing you were dragging your friends around the city without much of a guide, but you were too stubborn to admit that you were actually lost.

"Maybe we should've gone to Bar San Calisto again. It was cheap and close but noooo. I just had to look up a 'best bars in Rome' list" you thought as you continued to trudge on.

Not only were you lost, but you also didn't have the ability to look up where you were going, since you'd decided to go cheap and not buy an international plan or a vpn, choosing to only using wifi so you'd "stay in the moment."

That moment seemed stupid now that every marble wall and cobblestone street started to meld together in your brain as it continued to darken.

A trip to Rome was something you'd been wanting to do for years, so when your university offered up the chance to go study abroad for 4 weeks, you immediately began scrounging up the funds to go, even scoring a scholarship based on the fact that you'd taken Italian classes in school.

You'd only been there a week but thankfully had bonded with your roommate before even going, having struck up a conversation at the informational meeting the semester before. Since then, you had also bonded with those in the room next door, them sticking to you as their translator.

Finally, you couldn't take it anymore, stopping.

"Okay, look, guys. I'm really sorry but I literally have no idea where we are," you admitted, feeling guilty. Everyone else smiled.

"That's okay! This place is beautiful! I'm sure we'll find it eventually," your roommate, Olivia, said.

"Yeah. Didn't you say it was at Piazza Navona?" Aaron, one of your neighbors, asked. You nodded. "Well as long as we can find that, then we're basically there!"

After some wandering, your group found itself in the square in front of the Pantheon, which was a step in the right direction, but you were determined to actually find the right place.

There was a hotel right there, so you quickly stepped in to ask the desk worker to point you towards the Piazza, who explained that it was only a couple streets East of where you were.

Relieved, you and your friends quickly walked that way, breathing out a collective sigh when you walked into the giant open square, looking around at the familiar structures from the second day of class when you'd toured the area.

"Sooo... where's this bar?" Aaron's roommate Joseph asked.

You all circled the square from the inside and out a couple times, not seeing any signs with the name "Bar del Fico Roma" anywhere.

Dread started to wash over you as you realized the website must not have meant the bar was actually on the square, but was somewhere nearby. You felt stupid for not screenshotting the website page or, you know, actually looking it up first.

"Fine, that's it! I'm marching up to the next person I see and asking where this darn place is. We've made it this far!" you said, exasperated.

The first thing that caught your eye was a group of people who looked close to your age, talking in a small group. They were pretty well dressed, typical of a young Italian, so you immediately started over towards them, expecting them to be the most helpful in giving directions.

"Wait, y/n!" Olivia protested, but you ignored her, walking between a shorter boy and taller girl.

You couldn't help but sigh out the words as you started speaking, placing a light hand on the boy's arm.

“Scusa, potresti dirme dov’è la-" "Excuse me, could you tell me where the-"

"Sorry! I don't speak Italian!" the boy answered in a British accent, turning to face you with hands in surrender.

You both seemed taken aback when your eyes met.

Tom Holland?

"Um, oh what was the word for sorry in Italian again?" the actor in front of you asked, looking to one of his many Spider-man costars around you. Before one could answer, you blurted out one for him.

"It's 'mi dispiace' or 'perdonami,' depending on how you want to say it," you started, realizing how stupid you probably sounded to be teaching a world famous actor Italian words after accidentally infiltrating his conversation.

However, Tom was more shocked by your American accent. Your eyes still widened as you realized what was actually going on.

"Oh my gosh, what am I saying, um. I- I'm so sorry. We're just trying to find this bar and got lost and-"

"Which bar?" he asked in return. You furrowed your brows and looked at him funny, wondering why he would care. He seemed to take notice. "It's just that, we're also headed to a bar and can't seem to find it, either."

You chuckled at the situation, baffled.

"Well, um, it's called 'Bar del Fico Roma.'"

Tom's eyes widened.

"Hey, that's where we're headed!" Jacob Batalon cut in, making you look at him and the rest of the actors in surprise. You could see your own friends shock from your peripheral.

"No way! Really?" Joseph said for you. The group nodded.

"I just got it pulled up on maps," Zendaya said, holding up her phone. Realization suddenly hit that she of all people was the one who you had been standing next to this whole time.

You and your friends all gasped incredulously, amazed at your luck after spending all that time lost.

"If you want, we can show you the way," Tom offered.

"What? No, no we couldn't impose like that," you began, knowing your friends were probably internally screaming at you.

"Oh come on," Tom responded. "We're all going to the same place anyways, not like we won't see you there. It's barely a five minute's walk."

"Seriously, y/n. Do you really want to go around asking more locals for help when we've got it right here?" Olivia asked, raising a good point.

"Alright, fine," you started, rolling your eyes. You turned back to Tom. "You know what they say, 'when in Rome.' Seriously, thank you. All of you. You're definitely saving our asses."

He chuckled as Zendaya began leading the way. Though the sun had set, lights throughout the roads and emanating from various shops lit the way.

Without meaning to, you fell into step with Tom, easily matching his gait as you crossed through the bustling piazza.

"So what brings you to Italy?" He asked. "You don't quite sound like a local."

"We're studying abroad through our university. Unfortunately for me, these goons keep following me 'cause I speak the language," you joked, causing Olivia to slap the back of her hand to your shoulder.

"Ah, I see. I was definitely confused when you went from Italian to American in an instant. Y/n, was it?"

"Yes! Yeah, that's me. And you're obviously Tom Holland."

"You better remember that later, he tends to forget his own name after a few drinks," Zendaya called back to you, causing the group to laugh.

"Hey! That was one time!" Tom defended himself. "Not my fault I was going through a breakup!"

He turned back to you.

"Don't listen to them. I'm quite fun to drink with. You should see for yourself."

"Is that some sort of offer..?" you questioned playfully, tucking your hair behind your ear.

"If everyone's alright with it, I figured you all would join us at the lounge. I'm more than happy to pay for a round or two," he winked.

The group was approaching the bar, and any anxiety you'd had about finding it finally quelled when you could see people outside laughing and drinking as they enjoyed the summer night.

"Hmm... I don't know..." you sing-songed, looking up at the sky.

"Dude are you crazy?" Aaron exclaimed, causing the others to argue in agreement with him.

"Okay, okay. Of course we would be happy to join you for a drink. Thank you."

Both groups cheered in approval.

"The only thing I ask in return is a little lesson in Italian and, if all goes well, a pretty lady's number at the end of the night," he said smoothly, giving you a look.

The others looked between you with wide eyes, surprised at his open flirting. You couldn't help but smile and blush before replying.

"I think that's something I can manage. Now come on, your first lesson will be in ordering drinks," you said, grabbing his hand to lead him in what was about to be the best night of his life.

And yours.

★

A/N: Okay fun fact I thought up this concept immediately after publishing La Vita Dolce and just... never wrote it? The entire work was actually written around the one Italian phrase I used haha.

Anyways... Hope you all enjoyed as per usual and feel free to hmu anytime about anything :)

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