#oh and the fact that it was Joe who brought the idea

[chillingxy]

I don't want to ramble in tags since I think this deserves all my thoughts, I'll reblog it without words after this.

This made me tear up. I joined the fandom when s9 started, I didn't really get to watch tfc's content while he was with us but I couldn't help but empathize with the people who did as they stated to grieve him. And the same thing happened when the hermits talked about him, in their own ways and at their own time, as grief should be.

The most recent one was when I was watching Grian's decked out most recent phase, he found "And old friend's pickaxe" and he said something along the lines of "Oh Tango, what a lovely artifact. I know exactly who this belongs to. I want to make it out with this one" and my heart warmed. Both from Grian and Tango because TFC was their friend and they will always remember him. Makes me feel like I would have liked his content, and in a way, some of their speeches make me think I actually got to know him.

And the fact that you researched for this absolutely warms my heart even more, I'm pretty sure I put some more prompts down in case someone would like to skip this because I know how it is to research something from a country that's not your own for just a gift. However that makes me even more impressed and grateful about this, you really picture what day of the death is like and how it should be as a community, not a sad day but just a day where you can share some experiences, remember, and have fun together. Thank you. Thank you so much for this. I can't say it enough. And I hope everyone who reads this also enjoys it as much.

Day of the death is for everyone, thank you so much again<3

Edit because I need to say more

"do you believe in spirits?" "For tonight, yes, I do believe in spirits" as they are hearing sounds. IT MAKES ME GO SO. I love that detail so much. He's with them, and he's doing what he loved the most, he's in the afterlife, being a true Hermit<3

@chillingxy Here's your secret spooky gift! Sorry it wasn't available earlier, the research for this was...a lot. Definitely a challange, and opened up my eyes a lot. So I hope you enjoy, and have a Happy Halloween, y ¡Feliz Dia De Los Muertos!

also @mcyt-halloween

On the 1st of October, Xisuma woke up, put on his helmet, and immediately sent a message in chat.

[xisumavoid]: Everyone ready for the meeting?

[FalseSymmetry]: yup

[Keralis]: Born Ready!

{TangoTek joined the game}

[xisumavoid]: Meet at spawn

He snapped on his elytra, marveling at how the gauzy purple fabric solidified into a harder substance before taking off into the afternoon sky. He planned the meeting to start the meeting as the sun set, so the spooky decorations (appropriate for the season) would really shine through. He chuckled to himself. Get it, shine? ‘Cause the lights…would…shine? 

Nevermind.

He ignored the extremely bad pun, instead choosing to focus on not crashing into Grian, who had somehow gotten to the meeting spot before him. Grian turned towards Xisuma as he landed, stumbled and finally managed to plant both feet on the ground a mere block away from Grian.

“Hello Xisuma! How are you doing on this lovely day?” Grian leaned in closer, rocking on the balls of his feet. Xisuma brushed himself off before facing the avian. 

“I’m doing good. How about you?”

 “Oh, I’m doing ghoul-d” Grian giggled after he said the last part. Xisuma sighed. 

“I really hope you’re not doing this until Halloween.”

“Oh, of course not! Once we get past Halloween I’ll start on my winter jokes.”

“Winter jokes? Grian…” Grian simply laughed before walking towards the prepared seats and plopping down on the nearest one.

“Don’t worry, you’ll love them!” He turned his attention to an approaching flier. “Hey Mumbo! Do you want to hear a joke?” As soon as Mumbo landed, Grian bombarded him with his next joke. Xisuma left the two laughing as he started to take inventory of his surroundings. 

They were in a forest close by to spawn. The trees not felled by the Hermits held themselves high, against both player and sky. Their boughs were decorated with soul lanterns and jack o’ lanterns, combining with the setting sun to cast an eerie light over the rows of chairs laid out in a clearing. He was quite proud of his setup. In fact, he was so busy admiring it that he didn’t notice Scar until he was blocking his view of the trees.

“Helloo, Xisuma, are you still with us?” Scar snapped his fingers a few times as Xisuma blinked. 

“Yes, I’m still here Scar, not AFK.” Xisuma scanned the clearing, suddenly noticing that seats were filled with antsy hermits. “Is everyone here?”

“Yes sir!” Scar mock saluted. “We’re all ready.”

“Excellent, let’s get this show on the road!” He rubbed his hands together before walking onto the stage in front of the chairs. He tapped the microphone twice, causing all the hermits to cease conversation. “Hello everyone, welcome to the monthly meeting! As you know, it’s October, so we’ll be covering possible Halloween events as well as housekeeping. But first, does anyone have announcements to make?” Immediately Tango raised his hand, waving it frantically before bounding onto the stage. His fiery hair whipped and flashes as he excitedly launched into a spiel about the next phase of Decked Out 2. Everyone pays rapt attention to his rant, because of course no one wants to miss out on Decked Out info. Then, after he finishes, another hermit takes the stage. Surprisingly, it’s Joe Hills. Xisuma briefly wonders if it’s about Deep Field, Joe’s massive pinball machine/main base. Considering the outer space theme, it seems unlikely to be updated for Halloween, but not impossible…

Joe placed both hands on the microphones before speaking. “Howdy y’all!” The crowd echoes with brief “Howdy”s and “Hello Joe”s before lapsing back into silence. Joe gives a small smile, then continues. “As y’all know, it’s been about a year since our dear friend TFC passed away.” Now the area is truly silent. Even the wind seems to have dropped dead in its path. “And…I think it’s safe to say that we all miss him. So recently, I wanted to find a way to honor both his memory and his legacy.” 

He began to walk across the stage, but at a slow, meandering pace. “I found a tradition, mostly observed in Mexico. It’s called “el Dia de Los Muertos”, or the Day of the Dead in English. It’s a collection of days in early November where the dead are honored, but overall it’s meant to be a celebration, not a wake. Now obviously, it would be hard to replicate the tradition exactly in Minecraft, but I have a plan to stitch together something like it. So if you can help out, please let me know after the meeting, and for everyone else, keep your ears open for an exact date!” 

Joe nods once, smiles again, then exits down the steps towards Xisuma. His eyes are focused on the floor, and his arms have migrated to a crossed position. As Joe walks past him, Xisuma grabs his shoulder as gently as he can. “Joe, are you good?”

Joe turned to face him, and X noticed that his eyes were a bit watery. Joe sighed before whispering, “I just…hope it’s enough. I miss him, you know?” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “I hope we can pull it off.”

Xisuma patted Joe on the shoulder. “I know we can pull it off. And I’m more than willing to help with your plan. Just tell me what’s needed, alright?” 

Joe gave X a side hug. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” He turned to look X in the eye. “Now, what are the chances we can get marigolds on the server?”

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

The chances, as Xisuma found out, were none. 

See, marigolds were only available via mods, and the Aztec marigolds Joe had in mind had no mods to their name. So, as a substitute, Stress had provided orange tulips, and was scattering the petals around TFC’s old base. Keralis was sweeping away the dust and cobwebs that had accumulated since the hermits had been there. All the hermits were chipping in to clear and decorate the surrounding area. 

Except for Grian, who had made the excuse to wait for Scar’s “surprise delivery”. Xisuma doubted the truth of that claim, but whenever he brought it up to Joe, the man smiled conspiratorially and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a surprise, X. You’ll have to see for yourself.”

Suddenly, Grian chirped and screamed, “Scar, be careful!!!” Xisuma looked up to see Scar barreling towards the group at…concerning speeds, to say the least. Scar yelled back, “I’m always careful!!” before proceeding to crash head first into a wall.

{GoodTimesWithScar experienced kinetic energy}

[GeminiTay]: LOL

[Grian]: WHAT PART OF BE CAREFUL DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND

{GoodTimesWithScar]: sorry guys!!! is the surprise ok?

Grian walked over to the place where Scar had splatted and gingerly picked up a plain white box. He peeked inside, and let out a sigh of relief. “Good, they’re still intact.” 

X wandered over. “What’s intact?” 

Joe, who had come over during the ruckus, reached into the box and pulled out a small skull-shaped object. “In Day of the Dead traditions, these are called calaveras,” he explained. “They’re treats for the dead, but we can also enjoy them. Look at the details I asked Scar to do!” X leaned closer, and saw that this particular skull was dyed bright blue on one side, but stayed white on the other. “Is that Jevin, by any chance?” Joe nodded enthusiastically. “I thought it would be cool if they looked like the hermits, even though it’s not traditional.” “It’s a really cool idea Joe! Really cool,” Xisuma said. 

They turned their attention to the rest of the base, which looked ready for a celebration. “X, do you have the photo?” Joe questioned. “Yup, got it right here.” X pulled a picture frame out of his backpack, walked over to the front wall of TFC’s base, and hung it on a conveniently placed hook. It was a picture of TFC, in all his black-and-white glory. Xisuma stepped back and admire both the photo and its surroundings. The golden petals, the soft glow of candles, and the last remains of a setting sun gave the whole base a warm light, the same that radiates from a small campfire. He breathes in, then out. Then he turns to the small crowd that has quietly gathered behind him. “Let’s have a good time, shall we?” Cheers erupted from the group. It will be a night of celebration. 

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

The party is incredible. Food is passed around, glasses are filled with bubbly potions, and everyone all around has a good time. Toasts are made to TFC, friends recall fond memories, and the light surrounding his ofrenda only grows brighter through the night. It’s a night of remembrance and reverence and love. 

Eventually, the celebration winds down to a close, as most of the hermits decide to head home when Bdubs begins to loudly snore on Etho’s shoulder (don’t worry, the laughter woke him up). They choose to keep the candles lit overnight and snuff them out in the morning. The crowd slowly exits the base, pulling out elytras and rockets as they go. Eventually, the crowd is down to just Xisuma and Joe. The two decide to walk around TFC’s home one last time before leaving for the night, and that’s when they hear it.

Somewhere off in the distance, the duo hears a soft clink, clink, clink. Joe looks over at Xisuma with a quizzical look. Xisuma shrugs his shoulders. He didn’t have a clue as to where the sound came from. 

There it was again, clink, clink, clink. This time Joe pointed over to a small hole leading downwards. It was TFC’s stripmine, located a few blocks away from his base. Xisuma motioned for Joe to follow him as he walked towards the entrance. 

Down they went, past stone and more stone and a few leftover coal ores. They reached an area where the clinking got loud. “Is someone strip-mining down here?” Joe asked. Xisuma scanned the area, but saw nobody, and no torches. “Well, I don’t think anyone’s down here. Should we head back up?” Joe nods once before making a beeline for the exit. They make it all the way to the top before Joe holds a hand out a block him. “Look over there.” He points over to where the hermits had gathered earlier.

The petals, previously scattered, were now arranged in a pattern. “Thank you,” both hermits mouthed the word silently before turning to each other.

“Do you believe in spirits?” Xisuma asked Joe. Joe thought about that for a moment then said, “Well, depends. What are the chances that Grian, Scar, or somebody else with a mischief streak snuck back to do this?” “Possible, but not likely,” X replied. “Then,” Joe concluded, “for tonight, yes. I believe in spirits.”

The two stood in silence for a bit, before Joe suddenly said, “Well, I’m exhausted. I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow?” The hermits had agreed to push back the next monthly meeting until after the Day of the Dead. “Yeah, see you tomorrow Joe.” Xisuma waved to Joe before heading off towards home.

Xisuma walked away, satisfied yet tired. Tomorrow was another meeting, another month, another day forward into the future. Yes, he missed TFC, but he knew that he and the other hermits would carry the man’s spirit with him until he too, faded away. 

Somewhere in the background, a wind picked up, swirled the orange petals, and carried them off into a twinkling sky.

[rosabell14]

The hunters of Artemis, Reyna, and Asexuality in Riordan's writing

I kinda started thinking about this since Reyna became a hunter. I could never articulate why I hated this Choice. I was asexual after all. Shouldn't I be happy about this rep? We Ace people barely get any after all. Then I realized that it's because I just didn't like the hunters as ace representation. And I didn't need to be grateful for mediocrity.

You want to know why the hunters of Artemis suck in general? And as Ace rep specifically? Because Riordan did not write them with that mindset.

Like people are so busy hailing this man as the king of representation in literature(blegh) that they forgot how heteronormative and white(sometimes racist) the original series was. Y'all really think this man was thinking about writing asexuals in the year 2007? Get real. What Riordan was doing was a white man trying to write feminism and failing (there's a reason most of his female characterization of female characters boils down to tough "not like other girls" characters who are dicks to the boys around them yet also to the girls around them if they're jealous)

Now onto the hunters.

The hunters when first presented in TTC are not a group of asexuals but rather religious celibates. Fantasy Pegan nuns if you may. The first problem arises when their ages are brought up.

"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen..."

Remember, before ToA gave us Emmie and Jo, the hunters WERE all young girls. Now why in the world are they so young? Especially when in the actual myths, the hunters could come from any age whatsoever? Well the reason is a doozy.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh… a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" I asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

Hooo boy. What a way to phrase it. Going astray. Losing themselves. This kinda confirms that the reason why Artemis goes after young girls specifically is because she only wants girls who have yet to finish puberty. Girls have yet to discover their own sexuality. Now I'm not a representative of Asexuals everywhere, but I'm pretty sure most of us don't discover our sexuality at the age of ten. Let alone have the maturity to decide to become celibates about it. And let me reiterate: celibacy is not sexuality. Sure asexual people CAN choose to be celibates but it's not the same thing at all. In fact Zoe and Thalia are big cases for this. Both of them had liked men before(herakles and luke) but joined for their own reasons. Thalia to escape the prophecy and Zoe out of heartbreak. Hell, Bianca herself is mostly swayed by the idea of having no responsibility and a new family.

Now Rick does another thing that goes against the myths. The exclusion of make hunters. Artemis frequently hung around or taught male hunters who respected her. Daphnis, Scamandrius, freaking Hippolytus whom Artemis greatly cared about. Oh but we need to come up with bullshit reasons why Nico can't just join the hunt with his sisters so the hunters of Artemis are all: Ewww men. Also note how at no point does Riordan mention people who fall in love with women.

Now the next point is the oath itself. Artemis says this:

"What oath?" I said.

"To forswear romantic love forever," Artemis said. "To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally."

When I tell you that Emmy and Joe were retcons . Rick was freaking INSISTENT on the hunters being kids. Also note the three points: to never fall in love, to never get married, to stay a maiden.

I mean I think I don't need to explain why obsessing over the virginity of young girls is creepy. Does Riordan think girls older than fourteen can't keep it in their pants? And let me be adamant here Riordan only cares about the virginity Clause here. He mentions falling in love and marriage because he sees them inherently intertwined with sex.

Now onto the wording of the oath itself:

'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'

I mean you might be able to interpret men here as mankind and therefore excluding women as well. But I have many reasons to believe that Riordan didn't even CONSIDER women as a possibility(someone inform this man that lesbians existed smh 😞). Also note that falling in love is not mentioned in the actual oath but maidenhood is.

Now onto the next big issue. Percy Jackson's Greek gods and its chapter on Artemis. It basically confirms all of my problems.

"IT’S NOT THAT ARTEMIS HATED ALL MEN, just most of them. From the moment she was born, she knew one critical fact: Guys are kinda gross."

No mention of girls. In this chapter Percy(Rick) brings up Artemis' disdain for dudes over and over again.

“Let me be a maiden forever, Father,” Artemis said, twirling her finger in Zeus’s beard. “I never want to get married.---- But you can grant me a bunch of followers: ocean nymphs, river nymphs, wood nymphs—what the heck, how about mortal girls, too? Any girls who want to join me can become my followers, as long as they remain maidens like me. They should probably make the decision when they’re about nine years old, before they get interested in boys, because after that, they’ll be all distracted and of no use to me.”

Yikes yikes yikes. Ladies and gentlemen the age has been lowered to 9. Freaking 9. Also I guess girls older than that don't need Artemis' protection then? (the real problem is that older/married girls should be out of Artemis's jurisdiction and under the protection of other gods like Hera, Hestia, and Ares. But Hestia is barely there. Hera is terrible and the Amazons also suck)

Now when I tell you that Artemis' big point was about virginity, I mean it. This actually has mythological evidence.

The myths actually DO mention what happens when female hunters fall in love. Rhodopis and Euthynicus were two hunters who offended Aphrodite by choosing a chaste life so she had Eros make them fall in love. However note that they weren't booted out of the hunters for falling in love, but rather after having sex in a cave. THAT was what Artemis took offense to.

Another myth is the story of Aura. A huntress who offended Artemis by comparing their breasts(Greek mythology am I right?). Saying that her breast were better than Artemis' because they were smaller and hey maybe that means that Artemis isn't actually a maiden. Artemis punishes her by making her lose her VIRGINITY. She goes to nemesis for revenge. Nemesis goes to Eros who makes Dionysus fall in love with Aura and when Aura refuses his advances he ties her up and... Yeah you can guess where I'm going with this.

But hey! Those myths aren't in the Greek gods book. You know which myth is? The myth of C(K)allisto. And this one angers me so much I want to chew on the drywall.

The way Riordan writes it. Zeus turns himself into Artemis, brings Kallisto's guards down with the disguise, gets close to her and then when Kallisto REJECTS Artemis' supposed advances, forces himself on her. I need to say this again. Kallisto does not fall in love, she isn't seduced, she does not break her oath. But we still need a reason for her to be yeeted out of the hunters so her lack of maidenhood it is

“You were my favorite,” Artemis said. “If you had come to me immediately, I could have helped you. I would have found you a rich, handsome husband and let you settle into a new life in the city of your choice. I would have allowed you to retire from the Hunt with honor. You could have gone in peace. Zeus’s assault was not your fault.”

Kallisto sobbed. “But I didn’t want to lose you! I wanted to stay!”

Artemis felt like her heart was breaking, but she couldn’t show it. She had rules about her followers. She couldn’t allow those rules to be broken, not even by her best friend. “Kallisto, your crime was keeping the secret from me. You dishonored me, and your sisters of the Hunt, by not being honest. You defiled our company of maidens when you were not a maiden yourself. That I cannot forgive.”

I want to slap this man so hard he flies to the opposite side of the universe. We are not here to blame victims of assault guys! Except we are! But with extra steps. If you get attacked, it's not your fault, but If you are too scared to admit the truth then you deserve to lose your only safe space and turn into a bear. Oh nooooo Kallisto DEFILED Artemis' company by being an icky non virgin. The moment you lose your virginity even if it's not your fault you get punished. But not because I'm gross but because YOU lied. How terrible! And he expects us to feel for ARTEMIS???

But rosabell! This is how things go in the myths. What was uncle Rick (bleghhhh) supposed to do? I don't know... Choose a different version of the story? There are versions were Zeus/Hera are the ones who transform Kallisto into a bear. There are versions where Kallisto actively CHOOSES to sleep with Artemis. Granted it's still assault because she's being lied to but at least then, she'd have a degree of autonomy in the events. At least Artemis could rightfully accuse her of breaking her oath. But noooo, Riordan doesn't know lesbians exist. He actively makes Zeus into a canonical Ra*ist. Why is he on the throne again?

(the fact that this book came out AFTER HoH y'all 😭)

Once again, Riordan sees maidenhood(virginity)/love/marriage as intertwined. This is NOT what being on the aroace spectrum means. You can fall in love but not have sex. You can have sex but not fall in love. You can have sex AND still be an asexual. You can be married and still be a "maiden". Riordan doesn't get to claim to be such a progressive ally for retconning the hunters in 2017, TEN years after he first introduced the hunters because he suddenly remembered that lesbians exist.

Or more like because he doesn't know what to do with his female characters. The hunters more than anything are Riordan's heroine dumping ground. If you don't want it put them in relationships, either kill them(Bianca whose main purpose is to die) or make them eternal virgins(the hunters, Rachel). The fact that some people genuinely think that Calypso should have joined the hunters astound me. Girl suffered for years because of the gods and you all think that the best thing outside of Leo for her(not that I like Caleo) is to become a servant to the gods? Because you can't perceive a female character doing anything else if she's not in a relationship. Like with Thalia, this at least made sense on a strategic level because she didn't want to reach sixteen. Oh but we also don't know what else to do with her so she needs to want to be a hunter after the war is over so we give her a half-assed argument with Luke and now she can be all: wah wah Zoe you were totally right about boys. And the cherry on the cake is that she doesn't even get to be in the final confrontation with Luke or say goodbye to him because of a freaking STATUE. And after pjo her personality becomes Zoe 2.0 and her and Jason get ONE measly meeting.

When I first spoke of not liking Renya joining the hunters this is what I mean. Riordan had so many options with Reyna. Why did she have to leave her esteemed position which she worked so hard for? Two boys rejected her? Why couldn't she go reconnect with her sister more then? She could have joined the Amazons. But nooo Riordan was so allergic to the fans asking him wether she could be Bi or a lesbian. For the stupidest reasons too? Oh Reyna being a lesbian would come off as stereotypical because she got rejected by two guys beforehand! My dude, do you think people don't say the same thing about us who are on the aroace spectrum? That we say we are aro/ace because we got rejected before? Come up with a better excuse next time.

My brother in Christ couldn't even allow Reyna to talk about her sexuality and whatnot. It couldn't even be fully about her. No. He had to turn Reyna into his own mouthpiece admonishing the EVILLLL fans who may have shipped Thalia and Renya. He literally had her say the word "shipping". How cringe can you get? And then he had the audacity to admonish the fans by saying: Why does a strong friendship always have to progress to romance?

It's a sentiment I agree with but coming from this man, it's extremely hypocritical? I don't know Richard maybe because YOU are obsessed with shipping? No character can escape your shipping hands unless they're eternal virgins or dead. You literally turned the Argo2 into Noah's ark2. So much attention focused on shipping that the seven barely felt like friends.

Why does Reyna need to join the hunters? She can choose to not relationship without having to become a servant to female Peter pan.

This is actually a really adequate metaphor when you consider that Emmie and Jo say that they have not met Artemis in YEARS and Apollo mentions that the two of them were lucky she let them LIVE. god can you imagine joining Artemis when you are 9? At an age when you have still not finished maturimg cognitively and therefore shouldn't be trusted on taking a freaking celibacy vow(were you even given the talk yet that age) and after 70 years you decide you want to leave? If you're lucky Artemis will part with you on good terms but SIKES every person you probably knew before joining is now dead. Where is THAT angsty Bianca fic?

Speaking of Bianca. How she was handled also angers me. In another post, I've already talked about how the hunters barely gave her adequate information before letting her join.

How Zoe was the main reason for her death. Zoe KNEW that at least 2 people might die in the quest she was given and yet she decided to bring the least experienced girl to the quest and couldn't even watch her properly.

But you know what else pisses me off? The fact that THEY should have been the one to tell Nico about his sister's death. I've always hated how Chiron made Percy the CHILD tell Nico the other CHILD about his sister dying. But more than anyone, it should have been the hunters' responsibility. Bianca was THEIR responsibility. She died in a quest to save Artemis. The least they could do was tell her remaining family of her fate. The Doylist reason of course is that we need to kickstart Nico and Percy's complicated relationship and have Percy discover that Nico is a son of Hades. But in universe, the fact that they immediately fuck off from the camp upon regrouping makes them come off as extremely selfish. We don't even know if Bianca was given a funeral by them or not. We see Artemis being upset about Zoe but we never see her react to the news of losing Bianca.

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S02E07

Took a break but we're back.

I like the episodes in the woods. I don't much care to go in the woods but I like watching them lol. The shots are really beautiful too.

That's a nice shot too lol. Although, what the actual hell is going on with... is that supposed to be water? Are these dust particles? What?

Note that there is no tattoo on his arm yet.

Rex: Why the fuck am I doing this, Charlie?

"Is this the dog I read about on the paper? The one who can find anything?" That's... not exactly what Rex does.

Parks and Recreation fans know.

They're already in love because I'd hit him with the trash bags.

I think Rex is leading the interrogation on this one.

Time for a hike!

Oh, Charlie. He's a city boy. And we also learn that he hates spiders. Sarah, on the other hand, was a Pathfinder which, aside from what the word implies, I have no idea what it entails.

Who made the executive decision for the shot to stay there for like ten seconds?

I believe Emmanuel Kabongo also guest starred in S6 in the superhero episode.

"They can't keep us here long. We're cops". Oh, they could very well keep you but who would want to?

Yay, Kendra! Finally.

"It's the 21st century, Charlie, you don't have to choose anymore". Words to live by.

Oh god, Sarah, that was so subtle.

Children, please. We're in the middle of an investigation.

The flirting continues in the lab. It's really a wonder they manage to solve so many cases when they are like this all the time.

The mug says MUGSHOT in it. Do you have any idea how long it took me to figure out that downstairs is a coffee shop? Also, how many precincts have a coffee shop in the ground floor? SJPD is living it up.

"That's right, I brought my dad this time and he's gonna kick your ass". Disregard the fact that they have like two years of age difference, whoever is the captain (or in charge) at a precinct immediately gets awarded with the "tired parent" title because they will be the person who will be holding the rest of them back from doing stupid shit.

"Are you posing?" "Google Earth. Always taking pics."

lol Charlie and Valentine fighting for who is the alpha team. I know who's ending up in jail, though.

Again, I would like a scene like this with Charlie and Sarah, please and thank you.

While Charlie was ultimately right, at some point there was no evidence to support his theory that Alia was innocent and not the culprit in all this. In other words, he was just being stubborn. Contrary to what many shows support, you can't lead an investigation based on your gut.

"You're the best cop I've ever known and I'm the best ranger you've ever known". Considering that you two don't exactly live in a metropolis, that's... insignificant.

Joe's "...otherwise it's not a nation worth protecting" line is good. I mean I don't want to write all of it but it's good.

That's a ferocious beast! So pretty, though.

Felt cute, might delete later.

Jesse asking Charlie to give his entire theory for Valentine being the culprit while Charlie is running and trying to catch his breath lol

Let Charlie have his angst moment! Don't inform him immediately that Rex is fine.

See, Valentine easily snuck up behind Best Cop.

I'm sure that Charlie and Kendra fucked after this episode, when Charlie went back to the woods to "check how the wolf was doing".

I love that Charlie doesn't want Sarah to realize how much of a total boor he is when it comes to art. Like she doesn't know! Don't worry, art knowledge is not your selling point.

Establishing "team as family". I actually like the subtlety of this one, I don't like it when in shows they keep saying it. Let it happen naturally.

I guess these are the best screenshots of these photos I've taken. 1080p, baby! I'll put these here as well since this has gotten too long once again.

[takeachillpillshawty]

British Riddle this, British Riddle that.

Have you all considered Cockney Accent Trey?!

Here. Me. OUT.

I feel like Trey would have a Cockney accent, but he toned it down a bit when talking to other people outside of Queendom of Roses.

I can just imagine during a unhappy birthday party Trey is just running his mouth off, Riddle nodding and agreeing with him. Ace and Duece adding their tid bits in and Cater has no fucking Idea what either of them are saying, especially Trey. Ace can understand him clearly, either is dad or older brother has a Cockney accent same thing with Duece. ( I think ace would have a Cockney accent, but not as thick as Trey's he probably learned it from his dad or Brother. It's not thick but you could hear it in his voice.)

I don't know if Savannah claw boys would have accents.... Maybe Leona or Ruggie...

Bronx or transatlantic Floyd. Please, I can't be the only one. I can HEAR IT in his dialogue. Oh and Italian accent Azul, and I know I get it. Azul the mob boss of his dorm having an Italian accent?

I pick accents for some characters based of four things, if it's a character with animal features( merfolk, beastmen), a character based of a mythological creature ( faes) or where the Disney movie they were based off takes place, and finally by their names.

And seeing that it's confirmed by Disney that the little mermaid took place in Italy or near a location of Italy.. I think it would kinda fit Azul.

And I think the last dorms are dead give aways the last two are if you know your mythology.

Let's knock this one away completely, we all know. Everyone knows that Kalim and Jamil are Arabic, from the way they are named to the culture. ( and I believe that the scalding sands may follow their own version of the casting system... Based on in game dialogue.) Do I believe that they would have Arabic accents? I could hear it especially with Jamil.

Now for the Pomefiore boys. We already know Rook is French and Epel has a southern country accent.

But Vil is German. Are you going to look him dead in his attractive face and think he ISN'T German?! Look at his last name! I'm pretty sure you won't find some random Joe with the last name Schoenhiet and not think he is German. And a fun detail that Jamil and Vil have is that in their respective language their names mean "beautiful". Jamil means beautiful in Arabic and Schoenhiet means beautiful in German.

It would be very cool to hear Vil speak with a slight German accent when the English dub releases.

Now onto my boys.

It's a dead give away as well with this one, they're Greek. Idia is based of Hades from the Disney movie. And ortho....Ortho is just here for the vibes.... I haven't played book 6, and maybe they make a reference to a Greek mythology.... Who knows.

And finally... The last ones.... Diasomnia.

Now I had to do a bit of research on this.....and had two options, German or French. And like one of the points I brought up is looking at the characters names and location. The two characters were Lilia and Sebek (fun fact Sebek, is an alternate form of Sobek an Egyptian crocodile-headed god.)

While digging into their names I found out that in lilia's name the "Van" in his name is German, more commonly used for royalty. It fits him being affiliated with the Royal family in Briar Valley. And for Sebek, well instead Sebek I had to work with Sobek a surname name used in what? German. And so we know that Briar Valley is most likely the Twst equivalent to Germany...or something ( take with a grain of salt)

And the one nail to finish this coffin.... Fae, the species they were based off, is tied to many folklore some being French....and German. And with all that points I made, I have to give this ones to the German side. And I think hearing Sebek shout " WAKA-SAMA!" in a thick German accent is scary and hilarious.

( and please be reminded that most of these are some headcannons I made about some of the characters due to the culture behind their characters. Some of this information is no way cannon to the story of Twst, and If the English dub comes out and the characters don't sound like what they are headcannoned to be don't harass the voice actors. )

Thank you for reading!

[lovejosephquinn]

I have this idea, you can completely ignore this by the way! Also I hope you had a great day today <3 make sure you take rest!

My idea was this, what would it be like Joseph Quinn dating someone who isn’t a actor/model? Like the reader just lives a normal life, being a vet etc. what would that be like?

Oh, I mean I think he'd quite suit it seeing as he's not lived in the limelight his whole life but would do anything to keep you protected and wouldn't want you in the public eye much - ummmm I LOVE IT

Thank you so much anon, my day got easier eventually :) ilysm!

Similar to my mini-series I wrote: 'Worlds Change When Eyes Meet'

A small, short imagine is screaming into this, I hope you love it! It'd break my heart for when Joe gets a girlfriend for her to actually go through this, but I've seen it happen with a lot of celebrities over the years.

Thanks for requesting :) x

Joe loved having you as his girlfriend, he adored you and spoilt you in every way you had always deserved, but his main fear now that he was becoming more and more known to the public since the premiere of Stranger Things all those months ago and that your relationship was progressing further was that once you were known to the public, things may go down south.

He didn't want to let that happen, but he was always terrified of losing you almost because of the career path he'd chosen. You were once photographed around London together around a month after the premiere to which it caused a stir amongst a small dose of his fan base and the abuse you got online from people finding your social media was something that scarred you, especially when people go to extreme lengths with the death threats you began to receive, truly unbearable at times. That was just the start of it.

It was harder after Joe finally admitted in an interview that he was in fact in a relationship and had kept it private for a long time, even before his fame hit. Going from being a normal part of society to becoming headline news and being named as: "Joseph Quinn's secret lover." or "Joseph Quinn's dirty little secret." It would drive you mad. You'd go to your normal 9-5 job every day with harassment from strangers you'd never even seen before, hounded by paparazzi and people filming you secretly or at least watched by someone wherever you went, whether it be at the end of your shift or just walking along the streets, with or without Joe. Since he was put at the top, you were proud of everything he had achieved, but this was becoming a definite strain on your everyday life.

One particular night, Joe had come home to find you crying in your apartment you shared together, curled up in a ball on the sofa, clutching your phone in your hand as you scrolled through social media, sighting videos about you being made by crazy fan girls who clearly didn't want you around or the tabloids spreading lies about you two breaking up which also clearly meant they weren't out for Joe's true happiness either. He instantly fell to his knees in front of you and pulled you into him in an awkward position, but you welcomed it. He took your phone out of your hand, took a glance and threw it onto the armchair beside where you lay.

"Y/N, I told you not to delve that deep into stuff, it's all bullshit, it's all stupid, please stop looking at it, baby. I beg of you."

You sobbed your heart out, not a word could be brought from your lips, only muffled weeping noises jerked from your chest to your throat. Joe felt his heart breaking for you, he was learning to deal with the anxiety that stardom had brought, but you in a way, were still foreign to all of this.

"I love you so much, beautiful. Please don't let them win, please don't cry." His hand ran through your hair slowly as his other hand was wrapped around the top of your back, rubbing it to ease the severity of your upset.

"I don't want this to ruin you, to ruin us." Joe muttered as a single tear fell from his eye.

You looked up at him at the mention of ruin and managed to speak, the touch of your boyfriend slowly calming you down, nothing could bring you back down to earth more than your Joseph.

"Nothing could ever tear me away from you, Joe. But will it ever stop?"

He couldn't lie to you, he had no idea, but he could try and come up with a solution. "I'd like to think so, but maybe it will be something more of acceptance and ignorance eventually that will get you through it and eventually you won't care what people say."

You agreed as he planted a soft kiss on your lips, a small glimpse of a smile from the gesture. "You know I'll protect you from everything right? Shield you where I can, I'll never let anything, or anyone harm you as long as I'm around. They're only jealous that you've got what they can't have which you know, is pretty good."

He was completely right, cocky as hell sometimes, but right. You chortled at his smugness and playfully moved your hand out from your chest to hit his arm.

Before fame and after fame, Joe was still himself, his sweet, loving, funny and carefree nature that you'd come to fall in love with originally never ripped away by his breakout status.

You were willing to go through hell and back just to be with this man and eventually yes, your life did continue maybe a little differently to normal, with a few added unexpected extras in between but as the saying goes ignorance is bliss.

[argumate]

(spoilers for Glass Onion)

the first Knives Out told the tragic story of a fucked up family, and family is always a convenient justification for a bunch of messed up people to be hanging out together and one that most of us are all too familiar with in real life.

Glass Onion told the story of a bunch of college (?) friends who hung out together at a particular bar, when one of them brought in a smooth talking idiot loser who must have had superpowers of some kind as he hooked the rest up with successful careers before becoming a billionaire himself based on her work and then betrayed her with the support of the others who defended him in court.

that's already a little weird! "a reclusive rich guy invites a group of people to his private island for a dinner during which someone will be murdered" is a classic premise but having the people all be college friends from way back doesn't add anything when they're already tied together by the fact that they committed perjury to defend the rich guy in exchange for his support!

business partners falling out is a solid premise (The Social Network) and if they were lovers (were they? I'm actually not sure) then that adds even more drama, but having this quite disparate bunch of characters be college friends only matters if you delve into their relationships and group dynamic, which the movie has little interest in doing.

and it's such a wordcel movie, oh my god, it could not be less interested in how a billionaire becomes a billionaire or what distinguishes a good idea from a bad one, it doesn't try to take its own premise seriously at all, unlike the first movie which was at least about a writer who writes books, solid wordcel territory.

look at the characters:

a fashion model / designer who tweets ethnic slurs, except of course she's not racist, she doesn't realise that they're slurs, that's a much worse crime: she's ignorant! she thinks that "sweatshop" is where they make "sweatpants"! classic bluecheck attitude where actual racism doesn't exist and economic exploitation is accidental and the worst crime someone could commit is being unaware of the proper shibboleths.

a Joe Rogan / Alex Jones MRA type ("sorry feminists") who of course is a manbaby pushed around by his mother; obviously he has to die.

the Elon Musk / Adam Neumann billionaire CEO who is both genius opportunist and shambling moron who can barely speak; unclear whether his garbled explanation of "disruption" represents the intellectual bankruptcy of actual disruptors or the writer's lack of comprehension of the term.

a black scientist who is very smart and plays basically no role in the movie; it's unclear why he would commit perjury given that he's the smartest character and could just go work somewhere else, hopefully not the implication that structural racism prevents him from doing so and the bad guy is the only person who will give him a job (???).

a female politician who commits to a (dangerous?) powerplant design in exchange for campaign funding, the closest time the movie comes to actually touching on a meaningful issue before quickly skittering away.

technology is writing "AI" on a napkin and having that be worth billions of dollars, while knowing the right words to say and how to say them is a Prized Skill that is actually Important.

(it's notable that the woman who is supposedly going to start the next Google ("Alpha") moves to the well-known tech hub of New York after finishing high school, not San Francisco!)

now these may seem like silly points to harp on for what is a silly murder mystery movie but the lack of sincere commitment to the premise undermines the emotional arc of the characters: it could be a comedy about them finally breaking free of the self-interest that has kept them loyal to the bad guy, or a tragedy about the ramifications of failing to break free and continuing their descent into hatred for each other and themselves, but both of those possibilities fall flat if the writers don't really care as why should we.

the hero and protagonist of the story ends up being the victim's sister, but the victim herself is barely given the chance to speak, let alone to explain what she saw in the bad guy, why she made that deal with the devil, and what other compromises she made to create a giant AI tech empire (!).

there are better stories here waiting to be told.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 15, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Today House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) canceled tomorrow’s votes and sent the House of Representatives into recess until February 28.

Before recessing, Johnson refused to take up the national security supplemental bill the Senate passed early Tuesday morning, providing aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Gaza. Johnson said the House must “work its own will” rather than vote on the bill at hand because the measure did not include border security measures.

Yesterday, Johnson told House Republicans that the House will not be “rushed” into passing foreign aid, despite the fact that Ukraine’s desperate need for ammunition is enabling Russia to regain some of the territory Ukraine’s troops reclaimed over the past year. 

But is it a rush? President Biden asked for additional national security funding in October 2023. A majority of lawmakers in the Senate and the House support such a measure, but Johnson bowed to the demands of MAGA Republicans and said he would not bring such a bill up for a vote unless it contained border security measures to address what they insisted was a crisis at the southern border of the U.S., apparently banking on the idea that such a compromise was impossible.

But Democrats were so desperate to pass the Ukraine funding they see as crucial to our national security that they agreed to give up their demand for a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, those brought to the United States as children and reared here but now stuck in citizenship limbo. So, after four months of work, Senate negotiators produced a bill that offered much of what Republicans demanded. 

Once it was clear a deal was going to materialize, Trump demanded it be shut down, likely because he has promised his base that on his first day back in office, he will “begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” and a new border measure would both undermine his campaign message and stymie his plans. Although the border patrol officers union endorsed the Senate national security measure that included border security provisions, Republicans killed it. 

Senators immediately went to work on a national security supplemental without the border measure, passing it with 70 votes on Tuesday morning. Johnson indicated he would not take it up, right about the same time that Trump renewed his attack on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that underpins U.S. and global security. 

“House Republicans are…siding with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Tehran against our defense industrial base, against NATO, against Ukraine, against our interests in the Indo-Pacific,” the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday, and President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned that “[f]ailure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten.” But Republicans, too—including Trump’s vice president Mike Pence—are begging House Republicans to pass a version of the measure.  

Perhaps to pressure Johnson, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner (R-OH), who is a strong supporter of aiding Ukraine in its fight against Russia, yesterday released information about “a serious national security threat,” urged all members of Congress to view the intelligence, and called on Biden to declassify all information relating to it. That threat appears to be antisatellite weapons Russia is developing, but they are not yet operational. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed concern that the disclosure might have revealed intelligence sources and methods.

And now, rather than taking up the national security measure, the House has recessed.

National security and border measures are not the only things the House is ignoring. Since this is a leap year, putting February 29 on the calendar, the recess will give the House just three working days to pass appropriations measures for the 2024 budget before the stopgap continuing resolution to fund the government expires on March 1.

The appropriations process is so far overdue that it threatens to become tangled in that for 2025, which is set to begin March 11, when the White House is expected to release its budget proposal for the year. 

While they have been unable to make headway on these measures, on Tuesday night, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, blaming him for an increase in migrants at the border. Johnson has named as impeachment managers a number of Republican extremists, including Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Clay Higgins (R-LA), and Harriet Hageman (R-WY). 

As Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan of Punchbowl News reported: “This is the most chaotic, inefficient and ineffective majority we’ve seen in decades covering Congress. It started this way under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has gotten worse under Johnson.”

Trump and his MAGA supporters are demonstrating their power over the Republican Party. Trump is trying to install hand-picked loyalists, including his daughter-in-law, at the head of the Republican National Committee, where she vows that “[e]very single penny will go to the No. 1 and the only job of the RNC—that is electing Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.” 

When Trump was in office, his team installed loyalists at the head of state parties, where they have worked to purge all but Trump loyalists. MAGA Republicans are continuing that process. After Senator James Lankford (R-OK), a reliable conservative tapped by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to negotiate a border measure, produced one that favored Republican positions, right-wing provocateur Benny Johnson called those like Lankford “traitors…spineless scum” who must “be criminally prosecuted.” 

That demand for purity appears to be radicalizing the House as Republicans inclined to get things done, including five committee chairs, have announced they will not run for reelection. Meanwhile, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene yesterday said that British foreign secretary David Cameron, who is urging Congress to pass Ukraine aid, “can kiss my ass.” 

But the MAGA agenda is falling apart in the courts. True the Vote, the right-wing organization that insisted it had evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, has told a Georgia judge that, in fact, it has no such evidence. Their claims provided the basis for the arguments about voter fraud highlighted in right-wing pundit Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2000 Mules. 

Today a grand jury convened by Special Counsel David Weiss, whom Trump appointed to investigate Hunter Biden, indicted former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov for making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record about Hunter Biden. Smirnov has been a key witness for Republican allegations about Biden’s “corruption” since Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released Smirnov’s unverified claims about a year ago and other MAGA figures spread them. Matthew Gertz of Media Matters noted that Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity’s show highlighted these allegations in at least 85 separate segments last year, including 28 monologues. Now a grand jury has grounds to think Smirnov lied. 

Trump’s personal problems also continue to mount. 

Today Judge Juan Merchan confirmed that Trump is going to trial on his criminal election interference case, with jury selection beginning on March 25. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with 34 felonies for falsifying business records in order to hide critical information from voters before the 2016 election. Prosecutors say that Trump defrauded voters by illegally hiding payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about their affair before the election. As Andrew Warren put it in The Daily Beast, the case “is about a plot to deprive voters of information about a candidate for president—information that Trump and his allies believed to be damaging enough to hide.”

And yet Trump’s MAGA Republicans are calling the shots in the House, and their refusal to support Ukraine threatens to empower Russian president Vladimir Putin and thus to lay waste to the rules-based international order that has helped to prevent world war since 1945. Conservative pundit Bill Kristol noted earlier this month that “politics is often a stage on which people act in bad faith. Still, the demagogic opposition of House Republicans to the border/Ukraine bill, when they've all said the border is an emergency and that Putin should be stopped, is just about the baddest bad faith ever.” 

The implications of that bad faith for the country—and the world—are huge.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Okay I'll write in points here because it's long

It started with Freddie saying something like they are gonna stay together until they die and I thought how poignant it is in hindsight.

I loved Brian May's insights the starting was very sweet with him telling us that him and Freddie shared rooms for a decade, that he knows him really well and about how shy he was until firmly saying that he was gay even if people don't want to believe it. There was another person saying the same thing, I forgot her name but I think it's unfortunate that it's really common for people to outright ignore or deny any queer artists' identity just because they don't want to deal with whatever biases they have going.

Roger Taylor was really mad about the media/tabloids attacking Freddie and I get it especially The Sun because it's still trash today. Just vile and immoral for no reason.

Then it went to them saying that the band had a guess of what's going on with Freddie because they saw him disappear for treatments and coming back with scars but not wanting to believe it so they just never brought it and made a whole album before Freddie ultimately told them.

All the pictures with Jim Hutton were really cute I have to say and his sister saying that she was told that he was the gardener but he was around every time she went to her brother's house so she put 2+2 together lol.

The minute Anita Dobson came on screen I was trying to remember where I had seen her then I remembered it was the doctor who clips that were going viral on Twitter. But she seems so sweet and she had really cute story about how she became friends with Freddie and how he introduced her to Jim. She did say that Freddie told her when he couldn't sing anymore he'll die and that's she thinks what happened. She also seemed really sad that she lost contact with Jim I guess they were close.

Also I got more songs from this documentary so I'm really happy about that, I just googled the lyrics.

I didn't know Elton John was really close with Freddie, he seemed so heartbroken in all the videos they played of him.

Also Joe Elliot was there that was a surprise, was he friends with Freddie? I know I have heard Robert Plant talk about Freddie Mercury before. I secretly adore the idea of all these frontman that people like to pit against each other being friends in real life.

I might watch the tribute concert or atleast the George Micheal's part of it, he sounded so good and David Bowie was clapping from the sidelines during the rehearsal ( I get it, he was superb )

I feel like I got insights to the entire band' dynamic so thats nice because we have all heard Bands going like oh we like each other, we are a family but when one of you is gone and how the rest treat their memory is the true test of that.

I'll respond in bullet points lol

Brian was great in the documentary, and is one of Freddie's most consistent defenders, especially in regards to his sexuality. I love when Brian talks about knowing Freddie so well through sharing rooms and talking about his shyness, because you can just feel the fondness there and get the distinct sense that he loved Freddie the human being as opposed to the showman, which can't be said for everyone who knew Freddie

Yeah, The Sun was particularly vile, and the band really hated the press. Brian wrote the song "Scandal" in 1989 for the album, The Miracle, because the press was hounding Freddie (and Brian about his affair and divorce, but that's another story). I can't remember if this documentary mentioned it, but the fact that the press had set up a camera to see into Freddie's bathroom is just so vile

The Miracle is the album that they made before Freddie told them the truth. If you listen to the album, there are a couple songs hinting at what's going on, because as you saw, the band knew something was wrong. Fun fact: one of Brian's favorite songs that Freddie wrote is "The Miracle" because Freddie was able to write about beautiful things while he was sick

Lol yes, Kashmira knowing that Jim was Freddie's partner was funny

Yep, Anita was in Doctor Who! Her most famous role was in EastEnders in the 80s. There's another interview where she talked about an episode of that show being viewed by millions of people, and overnight people knew her face, and Freddie called her up like, "Guess who's in the paper, darling ;)" Anita was a true friend to Freddie and visited him while he was ill with Brian. Yeah, her theory that Freddie stopped fighting when he couldn't sing anymore lines up...Freddie's last song was "Mother Love"; Brian was the one who wrote it, but Freddie had to go home before it was finished because he was feeling unwell. He said he'd be back, but he never returned to the studio...And yeah, that doc revealed that Anita kept in touch with Jim to some extent. I really wonder what that relationship was like

Yes, Elton John was very close to Freddie! He still tears up when he talks about receiving a Christmas gift from Freddie a mere month after he passed...

I can't remember with the Joe Elliott thing tbh. I think he knew Freddie? I also feel like I'm remembering that he called up Brian after Freddie passed to check in on him, so maybe he was on friendly terms with the band, yeah

The doc does show how close the band was towards the end and how protective Brian and Roger are of Freddie's memory at the very least, yeah. It's really a great doc and I'm glad you watched it and got something out of it

[jinxthejubilee]

Hiii!! I’m the same anon who requested the “Recruiters w/ children” little thing and I’m here again with more Recruiters fluff because i have no sense of self control/j

I was searching for Recruiters fanArts and my brain randomly started throwing cute scenarios abt them, and one of those were about the Recruiters on a tickle fight?? Idk, maybe all of them were having a little sleepover together and Jack started it just for the chaos of it (i can definitely see him doing it), or maybe it started as a Joke on Apple (because non of them would get tired of picking up on poor boi Appoi lol) and the others ended up joining on a way or another. Think about it, it would be super cute!! If you like share ur own headcanons/scenarios about it, it would be interesting to read.

Also, not related but can i be ur Fluff anon? I would like to let u know wherever i come here to share more fluffy things Ö

Hello again! This is the first time anyone has come to me and asked me to call them by an anon nickname! I'm honored! Of course you can be Fluff Anon!

I hope you don't mind, I went a little off script for this ask. But I still had the core idea in mind.

Now, without further adieu, let's set the scene!

-------------‐---------------------------------------------------------

The Sleepover War

So, one would think that a sleepover with your colleagues would be nothing but blustering, posturing, and chaos beyond anyone's imagination.

Well, you'd be wrong! For the first two anyway...

Chaos is inevitable with this crew. It follows them wherever they go. Hence, why the idea of a slumber party sounded off alarms in the more "mature" recruiters' heads.

Even so, the night hadn't been nearly as terrible as they'd thought it be. Sure, there were complaints here and there, competitiveness ran amok throughout the games they played, and no one could agree on the movie to watch, but it was...fun. Really fun, in fact.

And somehow, by some miracle, all of them had settled into a moment of peace.

Apple, Ms. Hades, Veil, and Hock were playing cards that Jack had brought, Joe, Faja, and Malfie were watching a movie with Malfi attempting and failing to convince them both that he'd make a better leading man, and Dalmatia and Pretty Scar were not-so-secretly eating the leftover food from the kitchen.

This left one remaining character: Jack. Who was starting to get bored. Sure, the peacefulness of all this was relaxing, and watching the card game had been fun for the first two hours, but it was so dull now to watch Apple win over and over again. That smug bastard. So to satiate his boredom, he grabbed the nearest pillow he could find....

...and threw it right at Apple's face.

Apple Poison 🍎

Oh, come on! He was just at his 37th win!

After getting over the sudden shock at what had just happened, Apple glared at the card boy, who gave an innocent look in return. Feigning an apology. But Apple knew.

He was challenging him.

Well then, if it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get!

The elder recruiter throws a pillow right back at Jack, and from there, it begins.

Apple gets some wins in himself, but Jack is more nimble and fast, so it ends up at a tie near the end. Such a shame, too. It was a battle of epic proportions.

Though he probably would've won overall if the others didn't start throwing pillows at him as well. Traitors...

Jack Heart ❤️

What? Don't tell him that no one else had wanted to do that! He had it coming to him!

Jack focuses mostly on Apple during the fight, but he lands a few hits on the others, too. Like they say, the more the merrier!

This goes on for a while until Jack realizes that Apple wasn't giving up anytime soon. So, he resorted to drastic measures...

Tickling!

After getting the elder on the ground, Jack, Hock, and a few others hold Apple down and start tickling!

Unfortunately, Apple broke free, and the war went on once again, ending with a tie. Well, that was kinda anticlimactic.

Still fun though! Absolutely no regrets!

Malfi (Malfie) 🪞 vs. Eight Foot Joe 🐙 vs. Faja (Farja) 🌹

Malfi laughs at the duo's antics until a pillow lands on him.

Great! Now his hair is ruined, and Faja and Joe have the nerve to laugh at him?! Retribution is nigh!

He takes a swing at Joe, who promptly uses his tentacles to grab the sofa cushion, then at Faja, who was too distracted with laughing at Joe to notice the incoming attack.

Red with rage, Faja also grabs a pillow and hits Malfi full force.

This leads to a stand-off between the three of them. Cue the cowboy showdown music.

It goes on like that for a while until they slowly rope the others into their fight.

They finally call it quits about two or three hours later after getting it all out of their system.

Mr. Dalmatia 🐾 and Pretty Scar (Mzuri) ✨️

They both peek their heads out of the kitchen to see what the fuss is all about.

After finishing her snacks, Mzuri pulls Dalma into the room to join them.

PS throws the first pillow at him, to which Dalma grabs a few and chucks them at her.

Once in a while, Dalma will double team with Jack against Apple. He can't leave his best bro hanging!

It's actually PS who gets the idea of tickling her opponents. And that gave Jack the idea of holding Apple down and torturing him until he gave in. She actually helps Jack hold him down for a while until she gets distracted, and Apple finds a way to escape.

After that, Mzuri mostly focused her efforts on Dalma. Likewise, Dalma finds anything left to use against his hyena foe.

Their match ends when Preety Scar lands her foot on top of Dalma's chest and declares herself victorious. Dalma, in an attempt to get her off of him, pulls her leg down, and she crashes onto the floor with him.

As they stumble to get back up, they both lose their balance and end up in that clichéd "floor kiss" pose.

While annoyingly blushing (Dalma) and happily blushing (PS), they finally get up, head back into the kitchen to grab a snack, and just watch the rest of the matches.

Veil 🔔

Veil's first reaction was curiosity as to why a pillow had just been thrown. To which Hock explained that a pillow fight had just been challenged.

Growing up, Veil had never been to sleepovers before. She had heard about them and the customs that went along with it, but she never had the chance to partake in any herself.

So when Hock reminds her of what a pillow fight is, Veil is surprised by how she's forgotten all about the youthful traditions that usually happen at sleepovers.

She then asks Hock if she'll join in, to which she finds Hock loading up stock with all the pillows she sees, hands Veil a few of them, and aims the rest at Apple.

Veil sits there for a while, wondering if she'll join, until she sees the others joining in. So she goes for it!

She throws a couple at Hock and Jack, who invites her to help them hold down Apple. She even gets to land a few hits!

After Apple breaks free, Hock turns her attention towards Veil. They have it out for a while until they both get tired and end up joining Dalma and Pretty Scar in watching the two main parties fight.

Lady Hock (Hook) 🪝

In Jack's defense, Hock had been wanting to knock Apple down a peg these last few rounds, so him throwing the pillow at Apple was pretty cathartic.

Being a pirate and all, Hock knows practically every card game in existence. But even with all of that experience, Apple was still a few points ahead of her, and she would NOT let that slide.

Now, in fairness, it was interesting seeing this side of Apple. He hasn't been nearly as cold and aloof as he has been when she first met him. He's changed, not a whole lot, but quite a bit.

And he wasn't all bad during the card game. He noticed that Veil had trouble understanding how it worked and actually helped her. That was different!

But, if there's one thing that Hock's learned about Apple, it's that once Apple wins at something, he gets smug. Insanely smug. Not the incredibly boastful type like Malfi, but quietly smug. And with an annoying smirk to go with it.

Oh, it's on now, pretty boy.

Hock takes the first pillow bashes on Apple before turning on Jack. She still hadn't won the game yet, dude! You brought this on yourself!

After a while, she starts bashing everyone else. She's very acrobatic, so it makes it more fun to watch her duck and avoid the pillows being thrown at her.

You go, girl!

Ms. Hades 🔥

She honestly should've expected this..

The peace was nice while it lasted, at least.

MH hangs back to watch all of them, not wanting to partake in such childish antics.

Really, Apple and Jack couldn't let go of their pride and boyish behavior just this one night?

Oh, just wonderful! Now they've got the rest of them acting like animals! Terrific!

ONE. NORMAL. NIGHT. was all she asked for when she agreed to this slumber party idea! But noooo! MH could never be so lucky! Ugh! Now those pillow feathers will scatter all over the pla-!

-wait. They're not really fighting, are they?

They're...playing. They're playing. Huh. Well, that's...unexpected.

MH will admit, in the time that she's known them all, she'd always assumed that they'd never get along with one another. They were simply too different. Heck, why else would the gods and goddess on Olympus not care for any deities of the Underworld? They were all too dissimilar in personality and background to ever get along.

And yet, here they are. Fighting still, yes, but not seriously. They were playing. Playing.

Heh, bless the Fates.

Ms. Hades joins Veil and Hock before settling down with them and watching the rest of the teams "battle."

You know? Maybe this sleepover thing wasn't such a bad idea after all.

The night ended with tossed pillows on the ground, feathers everywhere, and a movie playing static on the TV as the gang fell asleep.

[shoujoboy-restart]

But is that your opinion or a fact? I guess the whole thing surrounding BLM and PragerU has me very confused since everyone else says some things about them and that they are not actually a university and then there's the fact that it's founder Dennis Prager said something that he thinks nothing wrong with indoctrinating children. Is that being taken out of context because every school's kind of does the same thing about schools teaching students to hate white people while being gay supposedly or is there some disagreement I'm not understanding?

it kind of feels like it's going to lead into that whoever I'm listening to are idiots and don't know what they are saying even though I can't just simply call everybody who thinks BLM and the civil Rights movements are somehow terrorist groups. It's like saying voting for DeSantis or Trump is better than Biden and everybody else is just fear-mongering about them even though I haven't been hearing good things about the Republican candidates and if we say something about Biden in the whole issue surrounding his son, honestly I'm starting to feel like the Hunter Biden stuff is too overhyped and I don't really think Joe Biden is involved in whatever dealing his son is involved as I'm not hearing anything major coming out of it and the Republicans are seemingly more focused on that then the sexual allegations against Biden or his whole deal with the classified documents which hasn't been brought up at often by either side. It's all Hunter this Hunter that and his father is involved in some crooked scheme needs to be impreached.

Let's go by parts.

My opinion is that Prager U uses of real and valid criticism of the organization calling itself BLM to attack people who are fighting against police brutality and racism, it is a fact the org BLM is a profit seeking with many of their CEOs having millions in their banks while not helping, the same way it's a fact that 94% of protest associatied or connected to BLM peaceful and the other 6% are still unfound on whether the violence and chaos was actually caused by protesters since there been multiple cases of confirmed infiltration by far-righters and cops.

I mean if the dude says "indoctrination bad" but then straight up says "actually indoctrination based" because it's for what he believes then ain't really much context that can save that lol most of the crying about "indoctrination" complaints are parents of highschoolers mad they can't obcessively control everything their child do and having a panic attack over the idea their kid won't be a carbon copy of them, I'm sure leftist parents do that as well but conservative ones actually demand their entire state to uphold that.

As a whole the Hunter Biden situation is just...pointless? Oh no, the son of a politician is a druggie and pays for prostitutes...and? Arrest the asshole or not for all I care, they are trying to claim that somehow this would have swayed peoples voting, It is republicans trying really hard to scrape the bottom of the barrel for reason to impeach Biden or attack his image, when as your self pointed out there enough to do just that, but again, since Trump also has allegations and shit.

Also I'm pretty sure the reason why Biden isn't being prosecuted and investigated for documents is because he actually did everything he should have done and the documents were literally a handful of documents in a safe, but on that I could be wrong, while Trumpie literally had boxes on top of fucking boxes in every corner of his damn home for some reason, together with multiple of the documents being classified, which as president at the time he could have just declassified them so it wouldn't be as much of a issue.

But if you want my advice as someone who used to be a anti-sjw? I didn't even stop being one at first because of how factually wrong the whole ideology was, is because almost every figure head I followed was becoming actual neo-Nazis, turning out to transphobic and homophobic while using gay and trans people as shields, constantly getting caught bold face lying(Blaire white) or just grifting as "apolitical" while having nothing but praises to the most extreme right wing lobotomites out here. Steven Crowder was having a 50 million contract and a extra 1 million whenever needed to just attack trans people 24/7, a lot of right wing content is unironically just corporate backed propaganda to regress society, the entire fox news teams was exposed for admitting they thought Trump and his supporters were loonies and that "election fraud" narrative is just bullshit they started talking because another right wing channel was syphoning their viewers whenever they said something like "Trump isn't a god and he made mistakes" in their lawsuit brought by Dominion.

I'm not saying you need to become luxury communism that believes in a 100 genders, but genuinely, the grift within the right is real, at least when leftists say some crazy shit, you have 90% they actually believe in what they are saying, while a right winger is probably just saying the shit to gain a chance of being employed by the likes of Prager.

If you want a really good channel to teach you some rhetoric and how to catch people saying shit without foundation I really recommend Mia's Rhetoric, she's not a bleeding heart leftist or anything, she's very progressive obviously but because of her knowledge in rhetoric she's really good at deconstructing arguments from fallacies to how people signage affects them, linking this video in specific to topical obviously.

[snorkling-in-sodasea]

Moments of Stupidity 5

Well, I did a little looking at the calendar and planned it. I mean, when Moments of Stupidity, as far as the amount of Helluva Boss episodes go as of now, would end. The days throughout this month will be scattered. Some in a row, some with days apart, but it should still be done by Halloween. And the newest episode, since it should be out on Halloween, I'll do a post on that sometime early November. But onto the next episode where everyone's a fucking moron!

Harvest Moon Festival -

The first instance of stupidity is probably when Blitzo had the bright idea for a pep talk to Moxxie when Moxxie was gonna take on the hell hog. Seriously, unless Blitzo was intentionally a jerkass there, which is definitely a possibility with him, then you have to be spectacularly stupid to say all that Blitzo said and not expect someone's self-confidence to take a nose dive upon hearing it

There's also probably Millie when her parents treat her husband the way they do. It's not like they really hide how they feel about Moxxie. I doubt they're even trying to. So Millie should have noticed her mother rather roughly elbowing Moxxie or notice that her father being clearly enough mocking when Moxxie brought up entering the Pain Games himself. There's also Joe and Lin's faces at first seeing Moxxie that episode. Then Millie still says the 'they'll accept you eventually' crap. It's like, 'do you notice anything about how your husband is treated?'. Even if Millie is holding onto hope for all her family to get along with each other, there's a damn limit to how they can act towards each other

There's definitely Millie just charging in and attacking Striker when catching him hurting Moxxie. It's crazy that Striker could still move around with little to no problem after getting fucking stabbed, repeatedly, in his back but Millie would have increased chances of winning if she just kept her cool like in, funny enough, Exes and Oohs. Yeah, she was weirdly overpowered there and didn't even make a damn dent here but I still feel the coolheadedness made some difference

There's also Millie treating Moxxie like he's the dumb one for not using a gun and even forgetting all about it. Maybe Moxxie should have used his gun when he tried escaping but, given how fast and competent Striker was in his debut episode, there's a real chance that Striker could have smacked it away or even use it against Moxxie. Besides, Millie wasn't even there until she just happened to hear some noise and went to investigate. How does she get to judge how well her husband did before she showed up? All without even asking how it went, no less

Oh, and I forgot this one, but there's the fact that Millie got her leg caught in a wide open bear trap when she was thrown down into the cellar, basement, whatever. This particular stupid moment goes to Millie's family, cause they're the ones who just carelessly left freaking bear traps laying around! Maybe if we saw some hellish vermin or whatever that only a bear trap can catch them, that'd be some explanation but no! We just have an active, ready-to-trap bear trap that anyone can just carelessly brush their foot or their tail against it and make it go off on them. Even if everyone in the family was told about the traps and they knew to be careful, there's still the fact that Millie fell into the damn thing. That means everyone is still vulnerable to falling on it by accident. So why the fuck would anyone just get that freaking careless with leaving around bear traps like this?

There's Stolas's behavior throughout the episode but I'll mention that, along with his flirtation with Blitzo in Loo Loo Land, will come up later. Because really, this kind of stupidity spans over multiple episodes that adds extra layers of stupid. Might as well just mention it all in its most prominent episode. This also applies to Wally Wackford, even if it's not to the same extent as Stolas

Striker, for several instances. 1, having a holy rifle in his possession out in the open where just anyone could come across it, especially if Striker's really gonna get in trouble for having it. 2, not covering the damn gun whatsoever. It was strange that Moxxie thought a glow from under the door was what's strange but it's what got his damn attention. Besides, instance one is definitely a reason why the gun should have been covered up at least. 3, throwing Millie and Moxxie in the damn basement. Fuck seriously, even if you thought of just hightailing it out of there right after you finish your hit, there was a very real chance someone could have found them before then or the couple could have escaped themselves. Which they did. Because you apparently didn't even check Millie and Moxxie for any weapons they could use, let alone any gun that can blast a hole in the locked door. In fact, instance 4 is no checking for weapons on your captives. And going back to the likelihood of someone finding Millie and Moxxie in the basement, most likely any of Millie's family, then that's gonna be a bunch of pissed off demons after Striker's ass, including Blitz since the writers like saying that he cares about his employees. Then Striker will probably have to kill more than he has to just to live for his next paycheck so that's instance 5 now

If there's any stupid moment of Moxxie's, it's not shooting Striker when he had the fucking chance. Especially when he was at the damn door that could have whacked him should someone come in. Actually, Moxxie should have shoot him before the fight even started. Considering that the show establishes that he's the best sharpshooter, then Moxxie definitely should have been able to get Striker without getting his boss. (And seeing how Striker's character got butchered big time in his second and third appearances, then yeah. I'd prefer Striker in his debut appearance shot dead)

Joe and Lin for taking pride in being meatheads. Seriously, if they're treating Moxxie as not worthy of respect because he researched about war and strategies and is physically weak (at least in this episode), then they take pride in the fact they themselves have little to no intelligence in their heads and have only muscle to back themselves up in life. Probably good thing if they just plan to stay in Wrath their whole lives, since every native there is bound to have the same line of thinking. For whatever worth that thinking could possibly have to the average Wrath citizen

Oh, and Joe and Lin apparently decide to care more about how Millie lost a fight than whether or not she could have been killed by the farmhand the parents themselves have hired and even lecture their daughter like she's wrong for getting hurt. Seriously, they're only the second best parents because the other parents - whether it's ones of main characters or that the main characters are parents themselves - are even worse! (And who is the best parent in Helluva Boss, at least in my my opinion, you may ask? Blitzo. Because yeah, if there's anything Blitzo doesn't screw up in, it's being a father to his daughter and never stop loving her no matter what. As far as I remember, the only thing Blitzo doesn't do right concerning parenthood is disciplining Loona when she seriously needs to be disciplined)

I guess Stella, too, since she had the bright idea to just yell at Stolas that she's talking to an assassin that she's hired to kill him. She's probably just lucky that Stolas is so stupid as to not take it seriously and that Octavia was wearing earbuds (Because I'm hoping that Octavia wouldn't be so stupid to still think her parents still like each other after hearing that her freaking mother legit hired an assassin to kill her father. Horrible, selfish, and incompetent father he maybe, Octavia still loves Stolas and would be devastated at just hearing it. And yeah, I don't know if I said it before, but I agree with some well-put posts on how Stolas isn't anywhere near a good dad as a good chunk of the fanbase believes so I can't agree with 'good dad Stolas' anymore)

[sharpth1ng]

Hank Williams anon. I grew up with country music and I love certain artists tbh (Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton)and I am SO here for Billy and Patsy Cline! An uncle of mine loved Hank Williams and that was his favorite HW song, which always cracked me tf up, and I can't imagine any other country song more hilarious than that for them to hook up to, esp those lyrics "Son of a gun we'll have big fun". I am so happy it's made you laugh as well! 😌 YESSS lmao @ Billy's ego death. He would eternally cringe and Stu would never stop reminding him of it. NEVER. I find the idea of Billy suffering like this hilarious so to make it even worse for him I'm headcanoning that is Stu's dad's favorite HW song, he sings/whistles/listens to it a lot and that has definitely happened since they hooked up to it, when Billy's at Stu's, at which point his soul left his body while Stu was killing himself laughing. I can see Stu incorporating those fucking lyrics into everything too, like they'll be talking about framing Mr.Prescott for the massacre at the party and he'll be like "Goodbye, Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh". and he loves the fact that he is the only one who can get away with doing this to Billy. lmaooo you are so right about that 91 song, Stu absolutely would. and totally with the lyrics too. Headcanons fully accepted! I can picture him either saying lyrics that sound like something he might be saying seriously when they're hooking but they sound too long/or rhyme so it takes Billy a minute, OR just flat out saying lyrics like the ones from that 91 song and Billy's like... sonofabitch (I love the idea that in the au where they live and they are still together in modern days he stillll does this and Billy will be like IT'S BEEN 30+ YRS AND YOU'RE STILL ANNOYING AS FUCK. Stu: It's been 30+ yrs and you're still down bad as fuck /smug). lmao yesss that "Stu's love language is being annoying" tag! my love language is so similar and my s.o would literally never speak to anyone else who tormented them as much as I do, so it is ridiculously easy and funny for me to picture this😌 and lmaoooo I apologize for the length of this!

No apologies necessary this is so funny anon- Also cause you brought up Dolly, another Stu song is dumb blonde.

GOD Billy at the Macher house after dinner, Mr Macher standing up after dinner to clear the table, starts fucking whistling the song

Stu:

Billy:

Also yeah I’m such a big fan of them as this old married couple, fully still behaving like teenagers with each other. Billy keeps threatening to leave and it just gets less and less convincing every time, and Stu is SO SMUG.

40 year old Stu like: Hey remember that time I got you to fuck me to my dads favourite song?

40 year old Billy like: I can’t wait to die so I never have to think about this again.

LMAO good shit anon, keep torturing the s/o with that lol shit agenda 🤙🏻

[quesadillawizard]

Reposting from Old Blog

what the fuck is up everyone I got a story idea from a dream I had after only getting two hours of sleep on a work night. deets under the cut.

FIRST RECORDING OF THE DREAM’S INFO SPAMMED IN A CHAT

oh god its like fleeting images bushes turning into wings people could use a man that was a lantern given human form a horse buggy with no horse but it had spider legs being on the run from someone bad with a gang of kids a diner called Bazooka Joe's somethinga bout an old traffic tunnel it was vaaaaaaaaaaaaarely vaguley pkemon related then it swapped to minecraft the man who was on the run with the kids looked like the humanized version of jack skellington i draw sometimes the bad guys were these giant long dragons one of them made out of corn husks and one was all black and called The Ugly and like, the guy was leading the kids around and showing them all kinds of cool shit so they wouldnt be scared while subtly keeping an eye out for the dragons who like, knew him personally I think they were either trying to get home or get them to a certain point in the weird world because there were a lot of nonsense things kind of like in the phantom  tollbooth oh well time to go to work on two hours of sleep but those two hours gave me that

After spending all day thinking about it at work and telling a few oher folks about it, I arrived at a first draft of what would become the story’s bones.

So there are four kids who are at a camp (ala digimon) who get lured into the woods by a strange light and then find themselves in this weird out of place town that seems nearly abandoned but has tons of weird touristy attractions like places to eat, shop, rides to go on, and generally neat stuff because its empty adn NO PARENTS HERE!!! and this tall dude in black with a sick mustache who calls himself Mr. Fetch swoops in to be their tour guide and leads them through all kinds of whimsical fun shit some of it's dangerous, some of it's weird, but most of it is fun and HE is also super fun because he's all magic and shit While he's hanging with the kids, he starts getting sort of attached to them (sorry spilled my water) then, at one point, they are attacked by a monster and they try to defend Mr. Fetch because they see him as a feeble old man and he is Moved by this and steps in to Stop Them From Doing That and gets his ass kicked in a very significant way as he fends off the beast he is Injured  and loses the use of a lot of his powers during the fight but he doesn't let on because he doesnt want to scare them and also EGO the monster that he fended off goes back to tell a weird gross black dragon called The Ugly that there are children in the town The Ugly used to be a beautiful dragon, one of a pair that had a falling out because The Ugly wanted to use the powers they had for evil and that made them gross and so the other dragon left him and sealed him in a tower so he couldn't hurt anyone The Ugly desires the SOULS AND BLOOD OF CHILDREN so that he may become beautiful again and attract his mate back (he misses the fact that he was who made himself ugly) He communicates with his few servents with a husk puppet of the other dragon he made to keep himself company with He also keeps himself company with a bunch of objects that were in the castle that he brought to life sort of like a reverse beauty-and-the-beast situation and these objects are his lackies that he uses to hunt down anyone youthful and beautiful it is revealed that Mr. Fetch used to be a lantern and was the first object that The Ugly transformed but he put too much magic into him and gave him free will and after a little while of being his servant, decided FUCK THAT and became a free agent of chaos in the town Mr. Fetch makes it like, his life's duty to fuck with The Ugly his original plan was to lure the kids into the world, parade them in front of The Ugly like NENER NENER and then whisk them away home before anything bad happened since The Ugly cant leave his tower but now Mr. Fetch is injured and caaaaaaaaaant do that nearly as easily as he thought he could and now he's gone and gotten ATTACHED to the kids the light in his lamp is out and more lackies are coming after him and the kids so he's trying his best to finish this little wonderland trip with them without letting them know that they are in Actual Danger now instead of Fun Danger and THAT IS WHAT I HAVE

this is all VERY scattered but I wanted to have it somewhere as early as I could to show my work.

[rabbitindisguise]

*puts my close reading analysis glasses on* oh it gets better

There is one way of analyzing it (the backhanded "damning with faint praise" that amounts to just "intellect" and "focus" for an entire man's life). But there is a second and equally important one, and it's the acknowledgement of the suffering caused by Kissinger and the anger from people who are affected by (or condemn) those actions.

Many people are celebrating his death, but he can't just say "oh same" (and honestly I don't even know if he feels that way personally, and it wouldn't be entirely helpful even if he did). But that doesn't mean the feelings of people who were wronged by Kissinger or furious about his crimes any less important. So he begins by pointing out Kissinger's role in politics, with "I was a young senator, and he was secretary of state." Politics is the means that Kissinger used to do many terrible things. Bringing it up like this is talking about his feelings about the war crimes even if he's not saying he's talking about the war crimes. Biden specifically brought up the elephant in the room in the second sentence. And that's basically the only thing the paragraph discusses.

Biden follows that up with "we often disagreed. And often strongly." More or less: he doesn't condone any of it. He chooses to bring this up and focus on this even when this is not typically the thing you say about dead people (culturally) in America. Biden is treating this man with the same amount of respect as Republicans gave Obama during his administration (read: absolutely none, yet subtly enough people sounded crazy when pointing it out). This is just a toe over the line of what's socially acceptable to say, couched in the format of sympathy, while being a scathing criticism. This message isn't a direct response to idk a newscaster asking about his opinions on Kissinger's actions* so it's unusual to bring up negative things in this particular context, and yet he's doing it. Biden cares that much about how much he disagrees- or that people know he did and does disagree- that even giving condolences after Kissinger's death has to be full of condemnation.

Following that, he says "and from that first briefing-" which has a couple different moving parts. The first is that the fact that he established that he disagreed with Kissinger early on and brings up no common ground to connect them (Joe "let's all see the good in each other" Biden). The second is that during this entire time Biden knew Kissinger, and despite having "intellect" and "focus," they never developed common ground to speak about after his death. This essentially says, when put together, "what a waste of skill." And "what a horrible way to spend life."

As if that wasn't already damning enough, he adds on "long after retiring from government, he continued to offer his views and ideas to the most important policy discussions across multiple generations." Basically: not only did Kissinger not ever create common ground with Biden's political positions during his career, he didn't even manage it after he retired despite staying up to date on politics going forward. This all says he was terrible, he learned nothing, he died without adding anything positive to the world.

The final bit doesn't really add much but he says "condolences" rather than other expressions used towards a grieving family. "Sorry for your loss" is notably not used here. It's a very stiff and formal phrasing too, though I'd have to read other similar posts to see if he takes on more genial tones in his writing about less celebrated deaths. More or less I'm reading this as "get fucked" in president speak.

The original posts short paragraph more or less spells out the worst parts of his atrocities: the fact Kissinger kept choosing this path even though he had every opportunity to stop, the lack of remorse, and the deep unfairness of his continued participation in society long after he retired. Biden doesn't offer praise or forgiveness. He doesn't talk about how we should come together as a nation to mourn Kissinger. Hell, he barely even acknowledges Kissinger actual death. This is a moment taken to address the people who are furious he loved as long as he did, and committed as many atrocities as he did.

In summary,

Kissinger: *dies*

Biden:

There's probably going to be some students writing literary analysis on things written by Biden at some point, with all the available digital messages, and I hope this is included because it is dense with hidden meaning.

*even in that situation people are supposed to water down criticisms but there's a lot more freedom to say what you really think than in these contexts

This is some cold-ass shit. As President, Biden has to say something. But he can say it in a way that says nothing and everything.

I want to shake the hand of the staffer that wrote this because this is absolutely fucking superb.

I know we (in general but especially neuroatypicals) prefer things to be clear and straightforward. But occasionally, you can do things in full view of the world like this. And that's kind of incredible.

[interlunium-opus]

▶︎ DISMANTLING ALMOSTS. [Sunghoon.]

Part 1: "Beyond 7 Minutes in Heaven"

Abstract: Two weeks have passed since your bestfriend, Park Sunghoon, kissed you unexpectedly during a round of 7 Minutes in Heaven. Since then, you have done nothing but avoided Sunghoon like a plague. Like gravity however, you two were forced into one another’s orbit again thanks to a Winter Outing which the university held. With nowhere else to run to, you guys were forced to confront the elephant in the room.

Genre: friends-to-lovers (or will it, hmm 😋) | Word count: ~10.9k

Taglist: @woniebae | @angel-hyuckie | @sfthyuka | @sweetjaemss ((heheh I've tagged all those that mentioned that they wanted to be tagged in Part 1 -- sorry if I've missed out anyone :( ))

“Something must have happened between you and Sunghoon that night, I am sure of it. Am I right or am I right?” Jay, who was seated next to you, pried for the umpteenth time. You glared at him, “Jay, not now. The President of the Student Union is speaking.”

“As if you’ve ever paid attention to him,” Jay scoffed, “you know the more you deflect away from these questions, the more curious and persistent I will get. Perseverance is my middle name after all.”

“Oh, I’ve always thought meddlesome was your middle name,” you replied flatly, “Also I’ve never deflected. I’ve told you only about a billion times that nothing happened.”

“Bull.shit.” he whispered to you with extra emphasis, “Even the average Joe can see that something is amiss with the campus’ inseparable duo. You guys looked as if you guys have been avoiding one another like a plague since that night that one would have to be blind to not notice it.”

“We’re on winter break, of course we’re not together 24/7,” you grumbled, face impassive. 

It has in fact been two weeks since that night and well, Jay was not entirely wrong for you have indeed not talk nor met with Sunghoon since then. While Winter Break could have been a factor, both you and Jay know very well that that was not the case. After all, your Winter Break thus far has been mostly spent on campus grounds, for revisions in the library and student union duties. Same goes for Sunghoon who had to spend most of his Winter Break on campus for his Ice Skating training. In other words, you had plenty of opportunities to see or talk to your best friend — except you never did because at every instances you spot any sign of Sunghoon, you just run for cover like some sort of criminal.  It was childish, you know. You thought you’ve got it under control, that you can act rationally and nonchalant if you see him and yet at the slightest sight or sign of him, everything just feels like it was crumbling and you found yourself running for the nearest cover: the bathroom; an empty class; cafeteria; Janitor’s closet; behind your friends; behind strangers; and the list goes on. It was as if seeing him after that kiss, if you can even call it a kiss, something changed. Not that you had even given yourself any time of the day to ruminate on what exactly had changed — you were too fearful to explore the depths of your feelings. 

Paradoxically, despite often being praised for being a natural problem-solver, this simple thing is one problem you have no idea how to tackle: after all, how were you supposed to act after that? do you address it? ask if he was out of his mind? or would bringing it up means you’re overreacting to it when it was actually no big deal? so should you just feign nonchalance? act as if it was nothing or it was normal? or should you just pretend that it never happened? — ugh, whatever, you found yourself concluding every time the whole conundrum arose in your head. In the end, you thought wholeheartedly, it was just easier to not think about it and the best way to prevent it from being brought to the forefront of your mind is to avoid the root of all problems at all cost: Park Sunghoon himself. Thus, this leaves you with the easiest option, to run away. You know you can’t keep on running away forever but at least you thought once Winter Break ends, you should be back to your old rational and collected self and therefore will be able to face the issue head-on. Easy peasy.

Except, life don’t work that way, they don’t bend to anyone. Just like how you can't evade him in campus during the Winter Break. Here, far in the mountainous range of the East, at the Winter Outing which he never signed up all these years despite always being specially invited, somehow Sunghoon appeared.

“Speak of the devil,” you hear Jay mutter under his breath as the door of the lounge swung open. It was to your horror (though to the delight of many), Park Sunghoon. As if a natural reflex by now, you immediately sunk in your seat, trying to hide yourself.

“Apologies,” Sunghoon muttered, apologetic over interrupting the President’s speech, before looking around awkwardly to find an empty spot to sit on. 

“Should I call him to join us?” Jay smirked playfully. You glared at him, seething, “Ha funny. The row is full Jay.”

“He can always sit on my lap,” he snickered, “Or yours.”

“You’re insufferable,” you spat, “Why is he here anyway? Don’t tell me this is all your doing Jay.”

“Hello, in case you forgot, this Winter Outing that we are hosting is open to everyone, why can’t he be here?” Jay raised his eyebrows, “I mean if there’s anyone who’d be more excited for a Winter Outing, it should be the Ice Prince himself — he gets to be in his element.”

“But he never likes these outings. Also, it coincides with his Winter break training so he should be back at the campus,” you retorted, “Seriously, Park Jongseong, as the Head of Events of the Student Body, you didn’t even bother telling me that he was joining?”

“Dude, you usually have zero care in the world about non-substantive matters like these,” he replied acidly, “also, come on. He’s your bestfriend, if nothing happened that night, you should be rejoicing now that he’s here with us. Maybe we can play another round of Truth or Dare to set things right? Right.”

You glared at Jay — if eyes could shoot lasers, he’d smithereens by now. 

“You know what, I guess not. Seems like he’s got company,” Jay jutted his chin out as if pointing to someone. You slowly followed his gaze, trying to be discreet while at it. Trailing closely behind Sunghoon and then sitting close next to him was an impeccably beautiful girl with long wavy locks, pouty and glossy pink lips, a smile that could instantly light up a room and legs that could go on for days. 

“Isn’t she that First Year everyone is raving about?” You elbowed Jay, “No wonder she’s been making waves in campus — she’s gorgeous, ethereal even. The two of them looks straight out of pictorials side-by-side — like a match made in heaven.”

“That’s what everyone said — didn’t work out though,” Jay said nonchalantly. You immediately turned to him, mouth ajar, wondering if you had misheard him. Jay raised his brows, bemused by your confused expressions, “what? You didn’t know? They used to date. In high school.”

“How come he never told me about this?”

“I'm pretty sure if you had actually asked him about it, he would have told you," Jay shrugged, "knowing you though, I bet you never did given how topics like these are just out of your realm of interest."

“Okay fine, you have a point,” you rolled your eyes before badgering him further with questions, unable to mask your curiosity, “Did they date long? I mean they look perfect together, why did it end?”

“I guess you can consider it long, they dated for like 2 years. They broke up when Sunghoon was in his final year. Kind of surprising really — they match each other so well, from aesthetics to interests. I guess, they were just too busy for each other at that time — him with Ice Skating, her with modelling — Oh wait, pretty boy is looking this way —"Jay gave a quick nod and waved at Sunghoon’s direction while you froze, not daring to move a muscle as if your life depended on it. Noticing your changing expressions, Jay smirked, “You should sink yourself down further, or maybe just sit on the floor, you’ll hide better that way.”

“Piss of Park Jongseong,” you mouthed. Jay snickered, leaning closer to you as he whispered playfully, “Want to finally tell me what really happened now?”

You sighed to yourself, realizing that your days of running away were numbered.

“Everyone accounted for?” Jungwon, the Student Union President appeared behind you, peering over your shoulders at the checklist you were holding. You nodded, “Yeah, everyone has left for skiing, it’s only us here now.”

“Finally!” Jay, who had been holding the main door open, groaned, “can we go now? The jocks aren’t blessed with patience as a virtue, they will riot soon — we are already making them wait for the match for like what, 5 minutes? That is equivalent to 5 days in jock terms.”

“Wow, since when is Park Jongseong so punctual?” You stared at Jay in disbelief, grinning sarcastically.

“Since he knew the girls from the campus national athletics team are joining, that’s when,” Jungwon quipped with a smirk, taking out the chalet’s keys and about to lock the door behind you when you guys were suddenly interrupted by a girl’s voice, calling you guys out, “Hi sorry guys-“ it was Sunghoon’s ex, out of breath, yet still as ethereally as pretty as ever, “oh my goodness, sorry I just ran the whole way — I, uh, phew — okay, so uh I left my phone inside. Sorry, I know you guys are about to lock the chalet but-“

“We are in a bit of a-“ Jay quickly replied only to be cut off by Jungwon, whom, with a gentle smile, reassured, “No, don’t worry. We can wait for you. Go on take your time.”

“Thank you so much. You guys are such life savers,” she cooed, her plump glossy lips curving into a picture perfect smile as Jungwon held the door open for her. You can really see just how easily people fall for the girl. She is basically Barbie-personafied: long legs; lean body; plump lips; luscious long locks; large eyes with long eyelashes; red cheeks; melodious voice; animated and cutesy expressions; and a gregarious personality to boot. She is basically the blueprint. You watched as she quickly disappeared into the hallway, leaving only invisible trail of perfume in her wake. 

“Really? Take your time?” Jay chided as soon as she was gone from your sight, “Our time is on the line. In case you forgot, I’m the running champion for the ski match for the past 2 years. Actually, if I win this one, which I am sure I will, that’d be 3 but we won’t have a match if you’re late and I wont have enough time to warm up if-“

“Okay okay, we get it,” you rolled your eyes, “He’s right Jungwon, any later, someone is either going to get hurt or they’d just get rowdier, as always. You guys can go ahead then, I’ll stay behind and wait for her. I’ve been to the slopes with you guys last night so don’t worry, I won’t get lost.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? The girl has spoken,” Jay raised his brows at Jungwon who was biting his lips as if hesitating for a second. “Fine,” Jungwon sighed, handing the keys to you, “I’m just a phone call away if there is anything yeah?”

You nodded, waving at them as they rushed towards the direction of the main ski slope where the skiing match was going to be held. Not long after they disappeared from your sight, Sunghoon’s ex appeared beside you, her perfume wafting in the air as if loudly announcing her presence, “Sorry again for the wait! Sunghoon was in a rush earlier so I just dashed without realizing that I’ve left my phone.”

You feel your eyebrow twitch at the mention of his name, though thankfully, no one was around to catch that as you were facing the door, busy trying to lock it. Feeling antsy at the mention of his name, you blurt out, eager to change the subject to anything but Sunghoon, “the boys have gone ahead by the way, I hope you’re okay that it’s just me.”

“Of course, why ever not?” She answered sweetly, tilting her head to the side as she waited for you,  “Actually, I have been dying to talk to you since I knew you that you also in this outing.”

“Oh yeah?” you shot her a confused look, “is something wrong or did you need something-?”

“No no. It’s just that I heard a loooooot about you,” she sang, “As the girl, or rather the only girl, that Sunghoon is close with in campus.”

“Oh,” you chuckled drily, trying to feign nonchalance, “I hope all the things you hear have been good so far then? Or have I amassed such a negative reputation without realizing?”

“Oh, don’t worry. Nothing bad,” she emphasized, tilting her head sideways again like a form of reassurance, “though since Sunghoon is such a shy and closed-off boy, a lot of people are dying to know your magic. Geez I still remember how in high school he was just so shy that he came off like an arrogant prick. Like you would have thought he hated you just by the way he acted so curt and indifferent back then though apparently it was just a mistranslation of how shy and flustered he was inside whenever girls shower him with interests and attention. Even after we dated, he was still so shy with other girls, preferring to latch and cling near to me for comfort—”

Kill me now, you thought to yourself, suddenly regretting having even suggested to walk her back alone. I should have just let Jungwon and Jay be late — be selfish for once, all man for themselves, you thought to yourself when suddenly you feel her hand squeezing yours as she gasped loudly, “Oh no, I am so sorry, I am jabbering aren’t I? Really sorry — bad habits die hard.”

“No it’s fine,” you said as you plastered your usual diplomatic smile, “You look like you’ve been enjoying the trip so far so I’m just glad about that.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” she cooed, “Yeah. I mean Sunghoon plays a huge part in making the trip memorable so far. Makes me forgot that we even broke up. Oh — I am jabbering again. Goodness me,” she sighed before suddenly sharply turning to you, eyebrows knitted in deep thought as she eyed you suspiciously, “Wait, you … you don’t have a crush on him do you?”

You almost choked on your spit, “I -wha-“

“I mean it’s understandable, most people just fall for him and-“

“No, no— I don’t,” you answered immediately, “Don’t worry, we’re just friends.”

“Oh thank God, I would hate to see another heart break,” she slurred, tilting her head again, “He has grown into such a fine man though, buffer, manlier, and more sociable compared to the skinny, lanky and tight-lipped boy that I used to date.”

"Hmm," you nodded awkwardly, unsure how to respond. Thankfully, just then you started seeing the familiar ‘welcome’ sign, which indicated the start of the slope, "well, here we are. It's good to talk to you today," you muttered, gesticulating towards the side of the slope where people were waiting, “Sunghoon is right there, you should probably run to him now before the match starts — he could probably use some cheering.”

“Certainly, I never missed any of his matches back then — skating, hockey and even skiing — both there as the cheer captain and his girlfriend. This takes me back,” she exhaled, before giving you a gentle pat on the shoulder, “Thank you so much for waiting and walking me back. Duty calls, see you around.”

“No worries,” you waved back, surprised to find yourself heaving a huge, heavy sigh as you watch her join him. Almost immediately, the serious expressions which he usually wore before his matches, lit up at the sight of her. Like magnets, her hand immediately wrapped over his arm, giving a light squeeze as if providing some form of comfort. It all looked so natural — as if it was meant to be, as if it has always been like that. You quickly turned away, heading towards the other side where Jay and Jungwon stood.

“Why the long face?” Jay raised his eyebrows, “also, where’s my good luck?”

“As if you would need any,” you scoffed, holding up your hand for a high five nevertheless, “but, if you insists, all the best champ.”

“Can’t you put a little bit more sincerity in it?” Jay grabbed your hand, pulling you closer towards him.

You sighed, holding his hand with the other free hand, “My dear Park Jongseong, I wish you all the best of luck. I hope you’ll take the trophy again this time. That way, your ego wont be bruised and you’ll get more girls clamouring over you.”

“See? Not that hard, isn’t it. Thank you. I love you as always,” he grinned sarcastically before suddenly grabbing you by the shoulders and turning you around, “I think your other best friend needs a good luck from you too.”

“Jay wha-“ you were about to protest when your eyes landed exactly on Park Sunghoon at the other side of the path, who was already staring back. You feel your breath hitch. Sunghoon isn’t one to stare but then again the Park Sunghoon as of late has been anything but the best friend you knew and the stare he was giving you solidified that. For starters, they were anything but warm. It was almost cold but with so much intensity that no distance could mask, compelling you to break the eye contact. Fortunately, you didn’t have to because Jay, always so boisterous, yelled his good luck to him, “Good luck bud! Break a leg!”

As if broken from a trance, Sunghoon’s serious facial expressions soften as he looked away from you to Jay, yelling back, “Right back at you!”

You took the chance to turn around, shooting daggers at Jay, “You’re an ass.”

“Hey, what have I done wrong?” Jay grinned playfully, “He was staring at us for the longest time — thought he might have wanted a good luck from his best friend too.”

You shook your head, rolling your eyes, “Whatever Jay.”

Throughout the event you tried your best to not look at the direction of Sunghoon for wherever he was, his ex was also there. But in the few instances when your eyes accidentally landed on him, to your horror, he was already staring — his eyes looking as if he was itching to tell you something. But that could all just be in your head, you thought.

Except it wasn’t.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jay suddenly grabbed you by the wrist that night as you were heading the opposite direction of everyone else, “Dinner is that way.”

“I uh- I got like period cramps,” you lied, “So I’m not hungry.”

“didn’t you just have your period like 2 weeks ago? I don’t think you’re going to have it so soon-” Jay was saying before getting cut off as your hands immediately flew to his mouth, stopping him from jabbering any further. You looked around in alarm, trying to make sure no one had heard what he had just said before letting him go and smacking him by the arm, “Dude, someone would easily misunderstand if you say that out loud! Also, why the heck would you know or remember that anyway!”

“Duh! because you were complaining about period cramps 2 weeks ago too while we were at the coffee shop. Also, you’re snappy when you’re on your period, I’ve pretty much connected the dots,” Jay grumbled, wrapping his hand over your arm again like a prized possession that could be stolen any time, “This is getting ridiculous, it’s our 3rd day here and you’re skipping dinner again. Don’t think I have not noticed you sneaking around okay? Because it was bloody obvious — to me at least.”

“I am not sneaking aro-“ you stammered, trying to hold your ground as Jay tugged you towards the other direction, “Park Jongseong, let me go. I am not hungry!”

“Of course you are hungry, you always skip lunch and have early breakfasts, how in the world are you not hungry?” Jay retorted, his grip strong. As you struggled to pry your hands off of Jay’s grasps you noticed, from your peripheral vision, a familiar silhouette standing at the end of the hallway watching you both. To your horror, it turned out to be Sunghoon, again with the staring. His face was so impassive, you wouldn’t know if he was puzzled, annoyed or just staring blankly. Like auto-pilot however panic immediately rose inside of you, triggering some sort of flight response.

“You know what, I have to show you something first,” you blurted out and like magic it worked as Jay stopped tugging you towards him, “We’ll have dinner after this. Just come with me Jay. Now. Stat. Please.”

Jay heaved a huge sigh, shrugging with the other free hand, relenting, “Okay, fine. Show me then. But after that, we both will have dinner. No questions asked. I’m not about to let anyone out of this outing emaciated.”

“Absolutely,” you immediately replied, heaving a huge sigh of relief as you push past the throng of people in the hallway. Your mind was a flurry of mess though. Since talking to Sunghoon’s ex, as if emboldened with a newfound resolve, you had doubled your efforts at avoiding him. Prior to this, you flee at any signs of him, now however you had taken the taxing task to a whole new level by pre-emptively avoiding crowded times so you wouldn’t even see him and therefore wouldn’t even have to run away from him in the first place. This means avoiding peak meal times, avoiding events, and taking on mundane administrative student union tasks like cleaning up or preparing the next venue for the next event and whatnot. 

Such was the state of havoc that had been brewing in your mind that unbeknownst to you, you had dragged Jay towards the direction of your room.

“You wanted to show me your room?” Jay asked sardonically, bringing you back to reality as your two stood in front of your door.

“Uh yeah,” you lied, pushing the doors open, “the view actually. It’s beautiful, you have got to see it.”

You hear Jay let out an audible sigh as the doors close behind you two, “I am pretty it’s pretty but we both know you did not just kidnap me to your room to show me your awesome view. I know you saw Sunghoon earlier and the only reason you managed to kidnap me here is because I let you.”

Crossing his arms and feet while leaning against the back of the door, he pressed further, “since we’re alone now, just spill it y/n. I know something is amiss and I know it revolves around Sunghoon. Deflect again and I will really treat everything as normal and I will be, in my most boisterous and annoying extroverted self, pulling you into all events, gatherings, mealtimes — you call it.”

“That a threat?” you scoffed as you sat on the armrest of the couch near your huge window.

“Works like a charm as if I held you at gunpoint doesn’t it?” He clicked his tongue as he walked towards you, eventually taking a seat on the arm rest of the chair next to yours so that you guys were facing each other. With a gentle gaze, he murmured softly, “Don’t just bottle things up y/n — it will just fester in uglier ways.” 

You sighed, staring into his eyes longer than usual, contemplating hard. Always so sensitive and understanding, Jay did not hurry you through it. With such a gentle gaze, contrasting his usual hawk-like gaze, he waited patiently — knowing how hard it is for you to express your feelings. Eventually you relented, telling him fully about what had unfolded that night during the 7 minutes in heaven.

“Damn, the kiss should have been such a turning point for you two — but it seems to be a turning point of things going south instead,” Jay shook his head.

“Always leave it to Park Jongseong to put it in the worst light possible,” you replied flatly, mustering a sarcastic smile.

“All these aside, don’t you think it’s a bit childish to keep running away? I don’t know what you’re trying to get from it because it just comes across as if you’re really offended by him or you’re really flustered — so which one is it? Because if the kiss meant nothing to you, you won’t be acting like this.”

You opened your mouth to protest but immediately closed it as his words, which were very true, left you with no more replies to retort with. He was right and you do know it — avoiding Sunghoon was indeed childish. It wasn’t supposed to drag on for this long. You thought after a few days, with clearer mind, you can face him again — feign nonchalance, as if nothing happened but as days passed, it got even harder to face him as if the flight response is already coded into your DNA. 

In between your toss and turns in bed at night, you allow yourself to finally ruminate about why you were being so childish and in moments where you allow yourself a shred of honesty and allow yourself to feel with your heart instead of with your head, it seemed to all boil down to how unprepared you are to face the actual reason behind the kiss. 

In essence, there should be 2 reasons as to why he had kissed you that night. The first, which is the most likely reason to you, is because he was just messing around. Kissing are indeed not a big deal in today’s age and time so while the kiss might have stupefied you, it’s probably something casual and meaningless for others including Sunghoon. However, you thought over again, Sunghoon is not just like any other average Joe. He doesn’t really engage in unnecessary flirtations and romantic engagements and to top it off, he is far from reckless and is basically the word ‘unadventurous’ personified which means he wouldn’t just kiss anyone. Let alone kiss his best friend on the lips — I mean, best friends don’t do that, right? You often ask yourself.

As much as you hated to even think about it, your train of deduction just somehow lands on that one possibility which you hate to even entertain nor think about: that his feelings for you goes beyond what one should feel for their best friends. But of course, your cynical and pessimistic side are so entrenched that whenever such thoughts crop up you’d just convince yourself of how delusional you are, “Pfft, as if. Not in a million years”.

Having said that, that night has been putting your mind on overdrive with regards to that possibility especially when prior to that there had been a plethora of instances where people have pointed out that Sunghoon might as well be your boyfriend considering his actions to you that has often borderline that of a boyfriend. From the adoring gaze, the teasing, the constant touches, the lack of boundaries, the banters, the protectiveness and so on — all seemingly reserved and unique towards you and no one else. 

You remembered one night when Jay brought up how you and Sunghoon might as well date considering how Sunghoon is always staying back with you at the library until late after his practices. “Normal friends don’t do that — that’s too taxing,” he argued, pouting and gesticulating wildly as if he’s a prosecutor in court.

“Maybe he just wants to study,” you replied nonchalantly. Jay scoffed, “yeah right, did he ever?”

You ruminated for a bit, realising that most of the time, if not all of the time, he would just fall asleep. Jay clicked his tongue, “Never right? He just falls asleep, waking up only when you’re packing almost as if he’s there just to make sure he can walk you home.”

“Jay, you’re just projecting,” you shook your head dismissively. 

Jay cocked his eyebrows and snapped back, “if we can measure just how romantically-dense you are, you could compare to an Osmium so you’re not one to speak.”

“Ugh whatever. He could also just be a naturally caring person. Caring people exist — even more so if they’re best buds,” you countered. Jay scoffed, “First things first, this is Sunghoon. Sure he has his caring moments but boy is not stupidly selfless, he has his priorities and skating as well as his wellbeing is at the top of that pyramid. So no, he wouldn’t just trade his good night’s sleep after skating practice, just to walk someone home because that someone is always silly enough to stay at the library until late”.

He continued, “at most, if you’re just like any other best bud of his, he would just continuously nag at you to go home early but no, for you, he actually stayed behind. Nothing else screams selfless devotion than that especially if it’s coming from him. Though I presume, it’s a win-win for him too because doing so means he gets to spend more time with you and he can also make sure that you get home safe. Also let me just add, I’m also your best bud and no, I will not do the same, sorry. At most, I will steal your backpack just to force you to go home in time.”

In another instance to shore up his ‘Sunghoon has feelings for you but you’re too dense’ agenda Jay would bring up Sunghoon’s subtle clinginess and protectiveness towards you, “it’s as if you’re his centre of gravity — he just orbits around you and sticks close to you. In a room full of people, he faces you — he might as well be a sunflower with you serving like his own sun. Then, in an area even with empty spaces elsewhere, he still stick close next to you that some parts his body would guarantee to touch yours, be it the shoulder, the arm, the finger — you get the drill.”

“Jay, that’s just rid-“

“Don’t even try — I have noticed sometimes he would link fingers with you or rub circles at the back of your hand when he’s bored too as if you’re his personal stress ball or something? Does that scream normal to you? Because dude we both are also close and while I can hug you just fine, I aint going to be rubbing circles at the back of your hand for no reason,” Jay asserted, looking smug as if you guys were on a debate and he’s winning, “Also, don’t get me started on all the protectiveness — combine it all, you guys just seem like you’re dating.”

You remember opening your mouth to protest but closed it as you couldn’t find an argument to retort back, remembering all the touches that lingered far longer than necessary that you could start to ‘consciously’ feel it, as if they were burning holes. Not that you’d complain though. While you’re not the touchiest person on earth, it’s not bothersome enough for you to point out. You also figured perhaps physical touches gives him some sort of comfort since he often asks for your hand when he’s nervous just to squeeze or hold it, as if it provides some relief, so you thought if it helps him in some way, you wouldn’t mind. 

“Yeah, see? You two are like always compromising for one another, it’s disgustingly cute sometimes,” Jay rolled his eyes. Suddenly, as if unlocking a box of repressed memories, it all came rushing out in your mind like a film reel: the dilated pupils; the leaning-ins; the long hugs; the lingering touches; the shared utensils; the shared outerwear; the eyes-to-lips glances; and all his little remarks which, as much as you hated to admit, sometimes ruffled your feathers and make your heart flutter (just a bit, you tried to convince yourself).

“Jay, come on, you’re one of the most objective person I have met, so you know that these instances are not necessarily explicit romantic interests — they are just bordering on the caring, protective and no-boundaries spectrum — the spectrum that is widely open and susceptible to misinterpretations,” you argued back to Jay one day, “No explicit hard evidence, no credibility.”

As if reading your train of thought, Jay clicked his tongue, bringing you back to reality as he affirmed, “you wanted hard evidence all these while right? well that kiss is one hard evidence and if you are going to dismiss that like all the rest, you’re just in denial.”

You protested, “Okay but it’s not like he said ‘I love you’ after he kissed me so there’s still a possibility that he was just messing around. It’s a 7 minutes in heaven anyway, people are bound to kiss.”

Jay scoffed, “I’m sure he would have probably said ‘I love you’ if you let him but you’ve never given him the chance to explain anyway. Also, yeah sure there are people would just go ahead and make out in a 7 minutes in heaven casually or meaninglessly but not you two. Nu-uh, if you two do kiss in that circumstance, it aint casual that’s for sure.”

You shook your head dismissively, standing up and staring out of the window — trying to clear your mind again, “Jay stop — I don’t need your advice and input whatsoever. You wanted to know what happened and there you go I’ve told you all. I don’t want any unsolicited advice. You’re not helping anything but make me feel even worse. All I need now is to not think about him and about whatever happened that night.”

Jay threw his hands up in the air, giving up, “Fine, I’ll stop pestering or nagging you about this. I just- I don’t know. I love you both and it kills me to see you two like this. Pretty sure if others are as observant as me, they would have said the same thing. You guys have got to address it sooner or later.”

“… or perhaps with space and time, we can just move past as if it never happened,” you murmured. Indeed, whatever the reason behind the kiss was, it carried heavy ramifications to confront. If he was just messing around, he is as much of a prick as the the frat boys in school who thinks their good looks are licenses to transgress in actions. If he had meant it, then you’d need to confront it but the problem is you don’t know how you feel about him. Either way, both would change your friendship forever and you did not have the bandwidth to deal with it at the moment so you did the easiest thing: running away, at least buying some time until you’re ready to confront it. 

“As if y/n,” Jay said scornfully, “admit it, you’re avoiding him even more now. At this rate instead of pretending the kiss never happened, you two would end up pretending your friendships never happened.”

Indeed, now that his ex has come into the picture, the prospect of the latter reason behind the kiss, which was already minuscule to you in the first place, diminished even more that you just did not want to entertain any of the possibilities any more and assumed the worst. Hence, your newfound resolve at avoiding him.

Except, unlike during the previous moments in campus when every instances of spotting signs of him would just trigger your flight response — nowadays, spotting him and his ex, both of which may as well be joined-at-hips given how they always come in pair, elicited a twinge of pain in your chest.

Sunghoon heaved a huge exasperated sigh as he fell for the umpteenth time in an attempt to land a Triple Axel that night — a feat that is usually easy for him until the past few weeks. Feeling frustrations welling up, he slammed the back of his skates against the ice beneath him, cracking parts of the surface, sending little shards of ice flying.

“Hey, watch it.” 

He shot up, suddenly alarmed over the fact that he might have sent shards of ice flying towards an innocent fellow skater. As soon as he saw the person skating towards him though, his expressions softened and he laid back against the ice, “Oh, it’s just you.”

“Just me? Hello, this face is insured okay,” Jake, his best friend, whined, “Also, why is Park Sunghoon suddenly throwing tantrum like his 12-year old self again?”

“I guess old habits die hard,” Sunghoon mumbled, arms sprawled, eyes staring blankly at the dark night sky. He could feel his back getting damp from the ice but he could not care less.

“Get up now, this isn’t the Park Sunghoon I know,” Jake raised an eyebrow before offering Sunghoon a hand.

“How can I be the Park Sunghoon that everyone knows when I can’t even land the bloody axels,” Sunghoon grumbled as he grabbed Jake’s hand, “My skills are slipping and I don’t even know where it all went wrong. I didn’t miss a day of training, I slept well, kept myself fit and the list goes on.”

“Sure it’s your skills?” Jake gave him a knowing smile as he helped Sunghoon back up on his feet, “Just so you know. You have definitely been out of it as of late. Not that you’ve done a good job at hiding it anyway. Penny for your thoughts? Maybe you just need to let whatever is bothering you inside, out.”

Sunghoon skated towards the barrier while dusting his pants which were covered in some small shards of ice from the multiple falls, “I guess you were right.”

“Hmm?” Jake followed closely behind, “About what? The tantrums or you being a walking time bomb as of l-“

“That I’ve got it bad with y/n… that it will end up festering in uglier ways,” Sunghoon threw his head back, staring forlornly at the sky, “I kissed her that night … during the 7 minutes in heaven,” he blurted, surprised at his own honesty.

“You wh-“ Jake paused, his jaws agape, eyes wide, jabbering and gesticulating wildly, “Wait… back up— you kissed her? You? Park Sunghoon made such a bold move? This Park Sunghoon? I - wai- how come- how did- was there tongue tho-”

“Dude!” Sunghoon jabbed Jake in the ribs, looking slightly embarrassed, “Get your head out of the gutter man.”

“Oh,” Jake paused, suddenly realising the gravity of the conversation, “Oh right… If it was that kind of kiss you wouldn’t have turned into a walking time bomb like this, right? So I guess… she didn’t take it well?”

“I wouldn’t expect her to, I was being such a prick,” Sunghoon grumbled, “I… I might’ve just ruined our friendship together.”

“Hey, you don’t know that,” Jake elbowed him, “Not until you guys talk it out at least.”

“I don’t even think we can — she has been avoiding me like a plague. I initially thought it was all in my head but it’s bloody obvious that she has been avoiding me. I thought she just needed some space but 2 weeks in and she is still turning away at the slightest sight of me,” Sunghoon scoffed.

“Then go after her.”

“That is also the problem. I don’t know what to say if I do go after her. Heck, I don’t even know how I clearly feel,” Sunghoon sighed, running his hands through his hair.

“That’s probaby because you never confronted your feelings before,” Jake said as a matter-of-factly, “You just suppress and masks them — not that it hides any of it at all to be honest. It actually spills out like an overflowing sink through your actions.”

“You’re overreacting, I have never-“

“I’m overreacting?” Jake scoffed, “Who ended up kissing his own bestfriend? If those feelings were not so entrenched and repressed in the first place, they wouldn’t fester in such a way.”

Sunghoon sighed exasperatedly, throwing his head back, at loss for words.

Jake continued, “You probably don’t realise it but as someone who is prudent, overcautious and overtly pragmatic, you don’t go out of your way to be unnecessarily flirty, self-sacrificing nor outgoing. You do just enough, if you have to. Except towards her. Yes, only towards her. With her, you drop all your guards, you bend your ways, you compromise and you’re shamelessly you. It’s both endearing and bewildering at the same time especially given how you two are just friends. In fact, you weren’t even like this when you were still dating your ex, though that could probably be chalked up to the fact that you were still too young and immature back then.

“But anyway, going back,” Jake gesticulated, skating back and forth in front of Sunghoon, “you hate instability and insecurity so you go out of your way to make sure everything will be in order and will be secure for yourself. Thing is, you extend such an arduous effort towards her as well, like it’s second nature. Your hands/body is always protectively shielding her from any possible harm/inconvenience: the sidewalk; rowdy boys; open cabinets; rain; her fears. Your bag always carries things she might need: extra power bank; extra umbrella; extra charger; gastric cramps pills. And your time, although you already spend a lot of it in practice, the remainder of it you willingly devote to her: whether doing something fun or mundane, from just lounging around her in her place; accompanying her at the library until 4 AM just to walk her home; snowball fights at 3AM; and so on. It’s like she’s your Achilles heels.”

Jake sighed, stopping right in front of Sunghoon, eyes dead-set on his as if to emphasise a point, “So if a Park Sunghoon, a guy who will never let any weakness or vulnerability flourishes within, willingly keep such a kryptonite close, the affection has pretty much gone beyond surface-level attraction or short-term enamour Sunghoon. It’s already so deep and entrenched — it’s no longer friendship either. The kiss is basically the testament of that.”

Sunghoon finally lifted his head up, staring back at Jake in silence, contemplating his words seriously. In any normal time and day, he would have been too uncomfortable to talk about emotions and feelings in such depths that he would have immediately deflected, if not joked about it. But Jake’s words were ringing some sense into him. He’s been so knee-deep in an area that is so gray — he needed the enlightenment. Like a film reel, all past instances and moments play in his mind. The touches that lingered, almost as if it’s second nature, were essentially his feelings dripping over, slipping through the cracks of the walls that his pragmatic and overcautious mind have built. The sudden protectiveness over her whenever interest comes her way, despite having always told her to be less aromantic as a person, were simply his feelings festering into uncalled possessiveness.

“What if that ruins the friendship? Accepting the feelings and being honest about it?” Sunghoon muttered quietly.

Jake shrugged, “Not talking about it will also ruin it, don’t you think? Especially since you two seem to be avoiding one another after 2 weeks? At this point, there’s nothing to lose anymore. If you tell her how you honestly feel and she said she doesn’t feel the same way — then if the friendship falls apart there, at least there is a concrete reason behind it: love gets in the way or something. Way better then if the friendship falls apart without any closure simply because you two are too cowardly to talk your feelings out. 

“Also, who is to say that she doesn’t feel the same way,” Jake added, “You said it yourself, she’s a paradox and kind of like a fortress in that it’s hard to get inside her mind — so who’s to say for certainty that she feels the opposite? What if she feels the same? Then that’s good news for you. In the same manner, what if she felt the same and yet you never asked her about it, that’s just one sad belated lovers trope that will leave you the rest of your life to regret over because you have just lost a potential love interest AND a best friend.”

Sunghoon sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “But… she has ice in her veins, is the paragon of pessimism and cynicism, and is totally averse to anything that rhymes with romance. Come on Jake, you and me, we both have almost the same personality — wouldn’t you have avoided such slim chances too?”

“To be honest, if I’m already knee-deep in the muck, I would risk it no matter how slim,” Jake winked before turning Sunghoon around, his head jutting towards the building behind the rink as if telling him to look over there, “Let me just say, in matters of romance, timing is important and your risk-aversion and proneness towards overthinking can be your downfall.”

Sunghoon followed his gaze, wondering what it was that Jake wanted him to see. Through the glass-to-ceiling windows of the building, Sunghoon can see parts of the lobby on the ground floor, where a crowd was forming, either dancing, chatting away or playing beer-pong. Right in the hallway of the first floor however, which was also visible through the large windows, he saw a familiar figure: it was you, smiling widely with a box in hand, before breaking into a fit of laughter, doubling over. It was a sight that has been imprinted in his mind for he had shared such fits of laughter with you countless of times. Almost as if on auto-pilot, the corner of his lips lifted into a smile, his hearts leaping, realising just how much he had missed seeing that bright smile upfront.

His smile slowly faltered however as soon as he saw the source of your laughter: it was Jay, gesticulating wildly in front of you, before pulling you close into a playful head lock. Suddenly, he can feel the familiar sinking feeling in his chest — as if knots were forming. He had the same feeling when he saw Heeseung getting close to you. As of late however the feeling also grew in intensity and frequency when he saw you with Jay but something else was brewing together with it, something akin to contempt. He can’t help but feel bitterness seeing how the spot, which has always been his, seem to gradually be overtaken by Jay. He hated how close you two have been especially when to him, you’ve been cold instead. Jake was right, his feelings were really festering in ugly ways. Worse, Jay was also his bestfriend and yet not even such bond could shield Jay.

He gradually saw what Jake had meant about how his mind had always silenced his feelings. Because now, seeing you so close in proximity to Jay, all he saw was red, effectively silencing his mind which in normal times would have gone on overdrive in justifying what he saw. Only then though, while basking in the silence of his mind, can he really feel the depth of his feelings for you because right then all he wanted was to walk up to you and tell you that you avoiding him was killing him, that he feels like he’s losing you and most importantly, that he loves you more than a best friend.

And that Jay should piss off.

Thus, hit by a newfound resolve to set things straight, you were everything Sunghoon looked for in the crowd since that night. Unfortunately, like parallel lines that is bound to never meet, you had a newfound resolve too, which involved avoiding him at all cost. So what followed during the next few days was him going after you the moment he spotted you, pushing past the crowd as if possessed, and you slipping away and disappearing quicker than he could call out your name. 

In the rare instances when he actually caught up with you, insisting that you two talk, you found yourself lying shamelessly, saying that you’re busy currently and that you will talk to him later. Of course, you won't. In fact, you would ensure that never happened. Despite the excuses though, Sunghoon was no quitter, not this time, not on you, he told himself. If anything, the more you run away and throw excuses, the more emblazoned his resolve was. 

Hence why he acted like a vulture stalking its prey on the night of the farewell party — the last night of the outing. Despite the rowdy crowd and the cacophony of noises, all he could see in the room full of people was you. 

“You are boring holes onto her,” Jake whispered, noticing how his best friend had not taken his eyes off y/n even for a second ever since the speech started. 

“I can’t let her disappear again tonight,” Sunghoon sighed, his foot tapping nervously on the wooden floor, wondering why the Student Union president have to prepare such a long speech, “It’s tonight or never.” 

Just then he felt someone’s hand wrapping over his arm. He looked over to his left. It was his ex, “Hi Sunghoon, I booked some gears. Join me for skiing tonight yeah?”

“No I can't, sorry,” Sunghoon muttered, slipping his arm off of her grasps, “Bring someone else instead.”

“Oh come on,” she tilted her head, flashing the smile she is famed for, the one that used to work so well with him, “just cancel your plans. It’s our last night, we should just spend it together.”

Sunghoon sighed, not even bothering to mask the annoyance within, “Look, maybe you’re misunderstanding something but… we have long been over. Please don’t mistake my amicability over the past few weeks as something else — it isn’t. I was just being nice as a senior. That’s it.”

“Wow, did you have to be that harsh?” Her smile disappeared in an instant, “I thought-“

But Sunghoon did not hear the rest of what she wanted to say for when he glanced to where you had stood earlier, you were long gone. His heart sank and panic quickly took hold that he immediately took off, looking around warily, ignoring the calls of his ex and ignoring the annoyed grunts of the people he had bumped shoulders with. 

“No…” he mumbled to himself as he couldn’t spot a single sign of you in the room.

He really felt like he was losing you this time.

Having just quietly and discreetly left the hall where the farewell party was held, you quickly scurried across the hallway, heading back towards your room. You knew if you stayed any longer until the end of Jungwon’s speech, Jay would have roped you into a series of stupid party games — the last one of which ended in catastrophe for you. You shook your head, refusing the let the memory play in your mind. As you were about to take a turn towards the lobby however, you felt someone’s strong grip over your wrist, yanking you towards the other direction that you almost lose your balance. Before you could even react, you found yourself unwittingly getting shoved into the coat closet nearby.

“What the he-“ you yelled but stopped mid-sentence as your eyes slowly adjust to the dimmed lighting of the small room, gradually registering that the figure in front of you was the last person you wanted to be alone with, “Sunghoon?”

“I’m sorry,” he let go of your wrist as his other hand swiftly lock the door behind him, “I have no choice, we have to talk but you kept on running away from me.”

“No I haven’t,” you lied, yet again, “I was just… really busy.”

“Yeah right,” he scoffed, the tone his voice did not mask the annoyance within — clearly he had enough of your excuses, “Well, if that really is true and you have not been avoiding me then you should have no problem with us having a conversation alone in here then.”

“Of course,” you answered almost immediately, trying your best to look and sound unfazed. Please don’t talk about the kiss, please don’t talk about the kiss, please-

“About that night,” he mumbled, swallowing thickly, “I’m sorry… for kissing you. I didn’t- I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Oh,” you managed, suddenly feeling a lump in your throat as his last few words play repeatedly in your mind like a broken radio. While you had constantly convinced yourself that the kiss had meant nothing, the ‘confirmation’ had stung more than you expected. Ignoring the pain the twinge of pain in your chest, you feigned nonchalance, casually shrugging, “It’s fine. I thought so too.”

You gave him a small smile as you headed towards the door, pushing past him. The lump in your throat felt too much to ignore. To your surprise however, Sunghoon’s hand quickly flung over the doorknob. “I’m not done yet,” he muttered, blocking your way.

You stared at him in disbelief, crossing your arms, “Sunghoon what now? You didn’t mean the kiss and it wasn’t a big deal to me. We can just move past it. Just pretend it never happened. Case closed.”

“But I don't want to pretend,” he scoffed with a slight twitch of eyebrows, looking offended.

“Then what do you want?” you sighed exasperatedly.

“I want us to address the elephant in the room,” he pressed on.

“We just did,” you cried out, “you were messing around and I don’t take any offen-“

“I never said I was messing around!” he retorted with a scowl. The edge in his voice making it obvious that he has had enough with you deflecting from the real issue, “the kiss was not thought through, yes. But it wasn’t meaningless. I did not kiss you just for the fun of it, you know I wouldn’t.”

“It’s fine, it’s 7 minutes in heaven anyway — it’s not out of place. I wouldn’t hold it against you,” you mustered, sighing weakly, “Sunghoon, let’s just drop this okay. It’s all in the past, no one cares and no one knows. Your ex is here now, I won't want to ruin anything. That night was just like a fever dream, I won’t say a thing so let’s forget it and move on—“

“You know what, stop. If you don’t let me say what I want to say, we’re both going to be in this cramped closet all night long,” Sunghoon glowered, “Maybe you dont care. But I do. And what the hell is this about my ex? I don’t understand how she fits into all these, into us. If there’s anything that is in the past and will always be — it would be her. Not us, not the kiss. We need to address that and you, YOU need to listen.”

“Well, where are we going with this. I already said that it’s fi-“

“I love you,” Sunghoon blurted out as his patience all dried up and just like that, your train of thoughts crashed, rendering you speechless. His gaze slowly softened as he stared into your eyes, repeating with greater conviction this time, "I love you more than I should for a best friend, y/n."

"N-no you don't," you stammered, "Maybe you're mistaken..."

"Oh trust me, if this had been one whole misunderstanding, the feelings would not have lingered for this long. Growing, even," Sunghoon muttered, "Look, I know we both hate talking about feelings or rather feeling feelings of these kinds but I have to. I have sat on them for the longest time and look at what it has done instead, it just intensified, festering in uglier ways, to you and even to others."

"The feelings spill like an overflowing sink through my actions which, as many have pointed out, are too caring, affectionate and protective between just friends," he swallowed thickly, "then came other people, forcefully entering our little protective bubble. That's when the feelings took an uglier turn. It was very selfish of me, I know. By being a coward, I never let you know of how I truly feel about you and yet when others outrightly showed such interest and affection towards you, I turned possessive and defensive, as if I owned you in the first place."

"But my selfishness will cause me to lose you at this rate," he muttered softly, "so I made my mind to stop being a coward and stop being so avoidant with regards to my romantic feelings and interests. So no, I was not messing around with you, never have been. On the contrary, I am in love with you. Have been, still am and I would like to continue loving you in such a way if you let me."

He stared at you expectantly but no coherent words form except for a jumble of mess as your mind was thrown in disarray, " I- I don't know... how-" you sighed, "Sunghoon, there are better people for you out there, that's for sure."

“to me, no one is,” he said adamantly.

“No—,” you croaked, “I mean, we have been best friends for more than 2 years so you know how very non-girlfriend material I am. I am far from that caring, affectionate and nurturing girlfriend that you deserve. I am also very frustrating to be with, even more so as a girlfriend."

“Like you said, we have been best friends for quite long now — if those qualities put me off, they would have. But they never did. In fact, even after 2 years, you never cease to amaze and enamour me,” he reassured, “Sure sometimes your behaviour and personality can be painted as indifferent, workaholic, emotionally-detached whatnot but I see the flip side of it more, that you’re hardworking; gritty; impartial; and wise. You don’t just enamour me, you drive me to be a better person too. I love that about you and I like myself better when I’m with you too".

He continued, murmuring softly, “I just want to clarify that whatever you respond me with, I didn’t confess to you just so I can get my feelings reciprocated. I just don’t want you to misunderstand, given your predisposition to pessimism and cynicism. Most importantly, given your stellar record at self-deprecation, I genuinely want you to know that someone is capable of falling and staying in love with you. You effortlessly give so much vibrancy and zest to my life — you’re like my reprieve and it would pain me so deeply to lose you. So if you let me, I’d very much love to continue being by your side but would even love to able to transcend the constraints of best friends — without having to hold back and without having to overthink whether what I do is excessive for friends.”

You stared away, the gravity of his words weighing heavily in the air, stirring your mind into complete shambles. You have hardly ever ruminated the nature of your friendship with Sunghoon mainly because you know the more you overthink about certain moments, the more romantic feelings possibly flourish and to let that happen with a campus heartthrob is just like setting yourself up for a heartbreak. So you never did. No matter how much you two compromises for another — something you two often do for each other only and sometimes transcending that of bestfriends' norms — you’d just play it off as something casual. Even when your heart sinks when you see him getting close to some other girls — you’d bury such feelings without facing it, smothering yourself with extra work and distancing yourself.

But Sunghoon will always come around — like gravity, he always finds you and like earth orbiting around the sun, you two always stick to each other — realising that you two are each other’s constant amid the chaos you two face independently in your lives.

“Y/n,” Sunghoon spoke up again, breaking your train of thoughts, “I won’t force you to answer me now nor accept me — you can take all the time to think about it but just promise me one thing? Don’t disappear on me. Whether it’s a ‘no’ or ‘I’m not sure’ or ‘I’m not ready’ — I’ll accept them all. But just, at least for the sake of our friendship, don’t let it hang in the air. Let it have a conclusion, good or bad.”

Mustering a weak smile, he slowly backed away towards the door, “I’ll go now. I’m sorry for having kidnapped you in such a cramped room. This could have been done in a grander space but well, I was desperate.”

Trepidation filled your heart as you watch him turn around, about to exit the room. You’re not one to act very rashly but at that moment — things seemed so fleeting that you just blurted out anything you can think of, not wanting him to leave, “What if — what if it doesn’t work out?”

He stopped, turning around. Not missing a heartbeat, he replied, “We don’t know that. In the worst case that it doesn’t — it’s better than never pursuing it because we’re afraid of the risk isn’t it? That’s what you always tell me. That you always regret things you don’t say and don’t do, more than things you’ve said or done — it’s the same for me. And this time, I refuse to fall in the same trap. Not when you, us, are on the line.”

“What if,” you paused, “... what if I turn out worst than you expect? That I can’t be who you want me to be?”

“You don’t have to be anyone — it’s you who I fell for,” he uttered, “I’ve met thousands of people, many of which are more emotionally-transparent, doting, caring, and affectionate, than you and yet it’s you who I just fell back to — you who I gravitate towards. Even when it takes you ages to reply to my text; even if you reply me sarcastically instead of sweetly; even if you don’t hug me when I wish you would; even if you’re always glaring at me instead of looking at me adoringly; even when I always have to make the first move in contacting you — you’re greater than the sum of your parts and that’s who I fell for.”

“Aren’t you scared? If it doesn't work out at the end. It will just hurt," you reasoned.

“I hate uncertainties — you know that well. But you’re the exception,” his lips curl into a slight smile as if assuring you, “I’ll traverse the great unknown and take the risks if it’s for you.”

You stared at him, ruminating deeply. Sunghoon let go of the door, walking towards you instead. You held his gaze as he walked closer towards you, "So, y/n, what do you say? Would you go out with me and be my other half from here onwards?"

You have never imagined that you would ever date anyone, let alone that person being your own best friend. You have always been so aversed towards the idea of romance and dating for yourself. You have never viewed yourself so highly either so you never would have imagined anyone to ever like you in such a way, let alone that person being your own best friend. But now standing so close to him, with all possible repressed feelings hashed out, it all felt — weirdly natural. You thought it would have put you into a pickle — that it would all turn South. Yet, it felt weirdly natural — as if things are falling into place, as if this was how it was supposed to be. All in all, you were surprised by how, deep down, you felt as if you had known the answer already, "Sure. Let’s try it then.”

Sunghoon's serious wary expressions gradually softened, his lips curling into a wide sheepish smile, before he dropped his head momentarily as if trying to prevent you from seeing his facial expressions. You tilted your head slightly, trying to meet his, "What? are you shy now? after confessing a whole essay to me?"

He schooled his expressions as soon as he lifted his head back up, pressing his lips in a thin line as if trying to suppress the glee within from escaping again, "Pffft, you're still so dense. I'm not shy. I'm overjoyed, silly."

You snorted, "uh-huh sure."

"Want to me to prove it?" he bit his lips, reaching over to your hand before pulling you closer towards him. His smile begin faltering as the proximity between you two grew, filling the air with heavy tension. You swallowed thickly as his gaze bore intently onto yours. You were opening your mouth, about to say something but before you could do so, he had leaned in, pressing his lips onto yours gently — a stark contrast with the harsh collision from the last time. Stunned, your shoulders stiffened as your heart begin to race uncontrollably. Noticing your stiffened body, he softly wrapped his hand over the side of your neck, his fingertips gently caressing your nape — feeling like butterflies against your skin. You gradually warmed up to his soft touch, allowing yourself to slowly ease up, letting his lips melt onto yours. You can feel him smile against the kiss before he momentarily pull away, his eyes gazing intently to yours, softly muttered a ‘thank you’. You smiled back, surprised by how comfortable you were with the proximity. He latched his lips back onto yours, as if they were magnets. This time, his other hand snaked over your back, pulling you closer, closing any small space in between, as he deepened the kiss. Any worries and thoughts slowly dissipated from your mind as the kiss grew in intensity, his soft lips dancing against yours, his body pressing onto you, backing you up slowly to the wall.

"Oh shit."

You immediately pulled away from Sunghoon, startled by the voice that followed the sound of the closet door opening. It was Jay, standing by the doorway, looking horrified, "I know I said you guys should stop avoiding one another but making out was really not really what I was suggesting--" he was saying before stopping himself, realizing what might have unfolded. With a coy smirk, he nodded, closing the door, "you know what, sorry, please continue," he pulled the door shut as quietly as possible as if he had not just flung the door opened earlier, before you hear him yell to others across the hall, "Guys, the closet is occupied. Don’t go near it!"

Not even a second after, Sunghoon begin to lean in again, about to lock his lips with yours again but your hand immediately flew over to his chest, trying to stop him from leaning in completely.

"Dude, he just walked in on us," you reminded, bewildered at just how unfazed Sunghoon looked. He just shrugged, his hands tightly wrapping itself around your waist, "No big deal. Sooner or later, he'll find out anyway. I will make sure of that," he smirked playfully, his eyes flitted from your eyes to your lips, realizing he had found out more things about you that is so addicting, "Also, who cares about that, you heard what he said, the closet is all ours."

A/N: Phew, finally it’s done. I hope the wait has been worth it :3 Again, thank you for loving part 1 and for sticking by. I would appreciate it if you guys can comment on how I did for this Part 2 hehe — that would massively help me from sliding into another round of writer’s block. Have a great day/night everyone :3

Masterlist // Work in Progress

[malfoys-demigod]

The One Where Chandler Takes You In

Chandler x F!Reader

Summary: Chandler lets you sleep in his and Joey's apartment after you had to evacuate yours. Chandler's genuine and over-the-top kindness results in confessing his feelings for you.

Word Count: 1.9k

A/N: My first Friends fic and it's on Chandler! I hope you like it!

Tag: @bellarkeselection

There was a knock on the door.

“That must be Y/N.” Ross suggested, noticing the clock. So there were times when you’d be late for anything, such as Monica’s daily dinner. But to be two hours late? That was something new.

Monica stood up from her chair from the dining table and walked over to the door saying, “It’s about time you showed up-“

As the door opened, she was met with a messed-up version of yourself, with wet hair, wet clothes, tired eyes, and a self-depreciating smile on your face.

“Hi, everyone.” You greeted the gang, who looked at you with worry.

“Oh my gosh, Y/N, what happened? Are you alright?” Monica gasped, wondering why you were all so relaxed despite looking the opposite.

You laughed at yourself as you entered the apartment, taking the empty seat beside Chandler, “As of tonight, I’m officially homeless! The entire apartment floor happened to have some caught fire. I wasn’t really aware of this until there was water sprinkling over me like crazy from the ceiling. There wasn’t any fire from my end but their sprinklers must’ve been jammed and continued pouring on my room until, well, everything started messing up my place. Hard-headed me didn’t leave the apartment without a few boxes of clothing and other necessary items so yeah, that’s why I look like I showered with my clothes on.”

“That’s terrible, Y/N!” Rachel said in despair, “Where are all your boxes then?”

You gestured to the outside of the apartment with your finger, “Just outside in the hall.” You said in a cool tone.

“How are you so calm about this? You literally have nowhere to go now!” Monica commented, wondering.

“The apartment company made arrangements for us apparently. I just have to call this number,” you said, withdrawing a piece of paper from your jacket and showing it to the gang, “And have them confirm where I’m staying for awhile.”

“Well why don’t you call them now?” Phoebe asked.

You shrugged, listening to her question. You stood up from the dining chair and headed over to the balcony, attempting to call the number.

After a few tries, nobody picked up. You weren’t having this. You turned around and went back inside, now irritated.

“Nobody picked up,” you announced, frowning.

Chandler, who wanted to be the first one with the proposition, proposed, “How about you stay with me, Y/N?” Then stuttered, “I mean with me and Joey? You know, we could take you in for as long as you want, you could take my bed and I could take the couch and it’ll be fine!”

There was a smile that grew on your face, heart melted from the kind gesture of your friend. You placed your hands on your heart, “Aw, Chan, sure, thanks. But I can’t let you take the couch.”

“Why don’t the two of you share the bed then?” Joey whispered to Ross, who chuckled like a child, which Rachel and Monica heard the both of them, rolling their eyes. They all may or may not have thought that Chandler had a thing for you.

“Hey, whatever floats your boat, Y/N,” he agreed, “Do you need help with the boxes?”

“Sure,” you nodded.

—

“Alright, and we’re all set!” Joey said, finally placing the couch into a couch bed.

“Thanks, Joe,” you said, patting him on the shoulder.

You turned around to see Chandler staring at the two of you from the kitchen, to which he started moving away from and towards you since he felt like a creep from the back, “Uh, I guess that’s it for the night. There’s a lot of water in the fridge if you’re thirsty, and if you really need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on my door, alright?”

“Yeah, thanks too, Chandler.”

Joey yawned as he stretched, looking a little tired now. “Well, I’m gonna head to bed. Night, Y/N.”

“Night, Joe!” You waved as he retreated to his bedroom.

Chandler gave you a small and shy wave, “I’ll get going too, see you, Y/N.”

“Sweet dreams, Chandler,” you said, smiling at him. He smiled, turned around, and headed to his room.

When everyone was gone, you tucked yourself into bed and closed your eyes shut with a smile, knowing that you’re being taken care of by your two good friends.

Sometime at 3am, Chandler woke up. He was quite thirsty, which was odd since it was in the middle of the night. He needed to satisfy his body, so he got out of bed and slowly made his way out of his room without making any sound.

As he made baby steps from his bedroom, his eyes darted to the couch-bed. Somehow, he wasn’t in the mood for water anymore. He was curious to check up on you.

He made his way over to you and found you looking like a sleeping beauty. You were dead asleep, but looking so graceful and at peace.

But he knew you could be feeling more comfortable if there was an upgrade to your sleeping situation. He did something he never thought of doing EVER.

He scooped you up from the couch-bed smoothly and made his way to his room. Like the gentleman he was, he placed you on the other side of his bed with ease, placing his blanket over you.

That should do it.

Then he made his way to his side of the bed and closed his eyes. He was at peace. Or at least thought he was.

Five minutes later, he felt your body near his. You were subconsciously snuggling with him, making him feel so flustered about him yet he felt happier.

“Sweet dreams, Y/N.” He murmured to himself, then closed his eyes.

—

Joey woke up to an empty couch-bed as he made his way to get a glass of milk from the fridge. Hm. That was weird. You weren’t the type to wake up early and leave. Well, why would you leave? Your stuff was here. Well, you could be at Monica’s for breakfast but again, it was too early.

An idea popped up in his head. He smiled at himself, hoping he was right. He tip-toed over to Chandler’s door, opening the knob slowly and pushing the door quietly to see you and Chandler, in the same bed together.

He noticed how your arm was spooning over his waist, as his hand was over yours. The both of you look so at peace and so comfortable that Joey wanted to take a picture of you two.

He couldn’t contain himself. Oh man, he had to tell the rest of the gang.

He slowly closed the door and rushed to Monica’s.

—

“YOU WOULD NOT GUESS WHAT GLORIOUS THING HAPPENED OVER AT MY PLACE!” Joey announced himself in a loud tone.

Phoebe, Ross, Monica, and Rachel looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Phoebe guessed, “You had sex with a girl!”

Joey pointed at her, “Good guess, but no!”

“Well, spit it out, Joey!” Monica demanded, now curious since it wasn’t that.

Joey sat in the dining chair with excitement over his jazz hands, “Okay,” he started, “Y/N started her night with sleeping on the couch-bed, right? Then when I woke up, she wasn’t there. So I checked over at Chandler’s room and SHE WAS SPOONING HIM! Oh man, they just looked so cute together, you know, especially with how Chandler likes her, and even his hand was over hers!”

Around the dining table, everyone’s faces became in awe, as they were surprised it finally happened - something between you and Chandler. Rachel’s opened mouth turned into a proud smile, clapping her hands together with joy, “Well that’s just great! I’m so glad something finally happened. Would you know if she went over to him or if he brought her over to his bed?”

Shrugging, Joey shook his head with no answer, “Nah, but I bet he made the first move. I can tell.”

“Well, are they still asleep?” Ross asked

“They should be awake in a few minutes probably,” Joey replied.

—

Over at Chandler and Joey’s apartment, you and Chandler had just woken up at the same time.

As your eyes started to open, you noticed that your surroundings seemed different. You sat up, quickly turning to the side to see Chandler flashing a small, awkward smile at you.

“Oh, Chan,” you said, as your heart was racing, “Did I sleepwalk or something over to your bedroom?”

Chandler sat up properly now, stroking his hair with a small laugh released from his system, “Uh, no,” he replied, “As a matter of fact I carried you to my bed last night since I figured you’d feel more comfortable here. I hope that was alright.”

“Oh, yeah,” you blushed, appreciating his gesture, “It was comfortable, thank you.”

“Of course,” Chandler replied, smiling.

You then looked away casually, not knowing where this conversation could now lead since there was a potential of it becoming dry sooner or later. There was one thing that you wanted to ask though, now that Chandler had done something out of the ordinary for you.

You looked back at him, feeling a bit stunned since he was staring at you this entire time. He then jittered and started murmuring things that you interrupted by shooting the question, “Chan?”

“Yes, Y/N?” He instantly replied, feeling saved from embarrassing himself even more.

Gulping since this may or may not have been an out-of-the-blue question, “I’m just curious but why would you do this for me?”

“Carrying you over to my bed?” He bluntly asked, raising his eyebrow. You shook your head, “No, I mean yes, but everything on top of that, you know - taking me in. I mean, I know Joey wouldn’t carry me over to his bed or quickly be willing to take me in. Either of the girls would’ve done that but you stepped in so genuinely. How come?”

Chandler looked down, feeling guilty but embarrassed at the same time. He started scratching the back of his head, knowing that it had to come out sooner or later.

“I guess it’s because I-I like you, Y/N,” he confessed, looking up to see your reaction with a hint of fear and anticipation in his face, “And you don’t have to reciprocate if you don’t feel the same way but I’d kinda do anything for you whether you like me back or not.”

You were internally gushing so hard that your heart started beating even faster, seeing how Chandler was basically giving you heart eyes right about now. You placed a hand over his shoulder, and another over your chest with a fluttering feeling, “Oh, Chandler, believe it or not, but I like you too actually,” you confessed back with a blush on your cheeks.

There was a wave of relief and happiness that came from Chandler’s body, as he exhaled with pure joy, “Oh boy, really?” He asked, laughing.

“Yeah,” you nodded, “I was probably just better at hiding it, but yeah, I like you Chan. I wished I started the night last night in bed already with you,” you teased. He smirked, gaining confidence to kiss you on the cheek as he said, “We can make up for that and stay in bed for as long as we want instead.”

“What about the gang?” You asked genuinely. He shook his head and threw a hand gesture saying, “Nah, I think Joey can take a hint and should be over there without us right now."

“Alright, I like the sound of that,” you said, laying your head back on the pillow, which Chandler imitated, as the two of you started getting cozied up again.

“As do I.”