#please ignore that the edit is very flawed

[bj-cuntycunt]

Spock in 2x05 (The Apple)

[winterzsurprise]

Change My Mind [6]

Pairing: BTS x reader

SUMMARY: As a make-up artist, you were expected to glamorize your clients with brushes and products that cost a week-worth of food, not to befriend them outside of work, let alone have them save you from dates yet here you are five years later as one of their closest confidants.

Being a stylist of the world's biggest boyband is no easy feat, someone is doing flips, someone can't stay still and one's asleep but its fine, you can work around their chaos but then one day, you find out they're all your soulmates, a whole different can of chaos you don't think you can handle.

Tags: Soulmates AU, Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Not Beta Read, Slow Build, Polyamory, Attempts at Humor

Words: 6.9k

If you weren't able to catch the author's note, update will be very slow due to my campus enrolling us to a government extracurricular that spans for three months so updates with be VERY slow until then. Sorry this one took long, had to remove one chunk out of this chapter so I could have it posted as soon as I could. Also ik the last chapter's ending was so rushed, I'll try to fix it once I get the time so for now, ignore that mess ;-;

EDIT: edited out the beginning scene, changed it kekeke

Please vote Jimin in Visa Choice in MAMA voting and push Namseok to the top 10 for Fan's Choice award! STREAM I'LL BE THERE

<<Prev || MASTERLIST || Next>>

________

You wouldn’t say it outloud but you quickly got used to the feeling of waking up next to Jimin.

The first day was jarring. Eyes opening to tufts of hair tickling your face and body waking up to the feeling of your arms thrown around his body flushed to your front, his hand holding yours from where it hangs. There’s a rumbling warmth pulsing through your body in intervals starting from your fingertips and down to your toes.

You remembered waking up feeling new and rejuvenated, as if your body had been dismantled down to its atoms with all its flaws and aches only to be reformed into a new, better form.

Waking up next to Jimin is the closest thing to experiencing heaven on earth. It was quiet and euphoric, comfortably warm, and you loved every second of it. Dare say, its quickly becoming one of your favorite things in the world.

Soulbond strain, that’s what the doctor had said. That's what caused the constant fatigue you and Jimin were feeling yesterday which eventually caused you both to pass out from exhaustion. Due to how ill-informed they are of both your marks, they weren't aware of how fragile your new bond was and how much touching should be involved for the first few days.

So now, you are bound to Jimin for a long while. The doctors had hypothesized that you both will be able to withstand not holding for an hour soon when he had accidentally let go of your hands in favor of taking food from Taehyung’s hands. 

You hope it goes past an hour when the week finally ends, a day if you’re both fortunate enough. Being forced to rest while everyone around you moved and worked is frustrating, even Jimin was growing antsy from all the sleeping, eating and sitting you both were doing.

Today marks the last day you both will be confined to the hospital as they've finally cleaned up one of the spare rooms in the dorm so you could move in.

You were so glad you could finally eat something more nutritious than bland soup. It would be a talent to be able to cook a soup so tasteless it would even make a white person frown despite the numerous vegetables and meat on them.

Since Jungkook's Birthday, you found yourself more often than not staring at the ceiling after eating, dreaming about eating other food so intensely it's like you could taste them in your buds. Jimin teased, saying you were growing insane from the lack of flavor.

A few days have passed since you found out you were soulmates with your best friends but you still couldn’t wrap your head around it.

The thought that these five—possibly seven depending on Seokjin and Hoseok’s test results later today—down to earth, aphrodite-blessed men with even more beautiful traits were tethered to you is bizarre. The idea never fails to short-circuit your brain every time you think about it. 

And it's hard not to, not when you wake up sleeping next to the peaceful face of South Korea’s IT boy—with his arms wrapped around you and his head nuzzled under your chin. 

It's something you’re still trying to get used to as you’ve never dared to sleep while cuddling with your friends, no matter how tired you might be. It was far too intimate of an act, reserved for those who are romantically involved and for someone with feelings as fickle as yours back then, it was inappropriate.

Not that it mattered much now but it's still difficult to be comfortable with the domesticity of it all.

What was once perceived as platonic now felt anything but.

Save for Taehyung and Seokjin, everyone else has continued working, although you had advised a weary looking Hoseok to take a break, he insisted that he's fine whilst practically dragging himself out of the room. Namjoon had assured you that he'll watch over his hyung but you had threatened Yoongi for extra measures. 

Speaking of work, your friends have been blowing up your phone since Jungkook's birthday, asking why they were required to sign a whole different NDA and you told them about your soulmates. 

All of them reacted positively, Minhyuk had even pleaded to hear about how you discovered and had asked to be informed of all the latest happenings, from the courting, dates, and even the bedroom—something you had promised to hit him for once you're back to work.

But for now, you were stuck with a foot out of the bathroom and body turned to the opposite with an arm stretched far out to hold Jimin's hand as he finished his business. 

So far, there's been no accidental flashing, to which you've been thankful for. The whole ordeal is already awkward as it is with only having to hear each other pee.

Jimin couldn’t even jokingly flirt with you the whole time, far too mortified with the idea of both parties being able to hear the stream of piss to even bother coming up with jokes to lighten up the situation, nor could you dare look into his eyes after the first few times you both had to go through this. You had refrained from eating too much in fear of having to shit during the week but you knew it would eventually happen.

Especially since you both have been greenlit to eat take outs and Seokjin had generously offered to buy you both food—bless that wonderful, handsome man—and dragged Taehyung out with him. 

You had been hesitant to make a few demands at first because do you even deserve the kindness Seokjin is showing you after hurting him for years? But the man proved himself devoted once more when he listed down the food you’ve been craving desperately for without hearing it from your lips.

(Tae had joked that maybe it's the soulmate mark manifesting a little late and Jimin elbowed him for that.)

You didn’t even get to tell him not to bother when he began to loudly chant gibberish as he pulled Taehyung out of the room with him.

After all the babying and princess treatment you've been receiving in the short time of knowing you were soulmates, it's hard not to feel frustrated having your best friends become your beck and call when they—save for Yoongi, bless that man for keeping his distance—hadn't been doing so for the past few years. 

It was somewhat pressuring that you could ask Jungkook to brush his teeth and immediately drink orange juice and he'd do it without question, if not gargling the juice for a little while longer just because you asked him to do it. 

From living alone and getting used to doing things by yourself, to suddenly having five people who'd follow your whims almost blindly, was overwhelming and slowly becoming more annoying than it is helpful.

If it wasn't for the guilt from getting irritated, you would've blown up on the first day when most of your soulmates had refused to let you stand up and walk around the room in fear of having you collapse.

Sure you had passed out from the soulbond strain but that same bond rendered you invulnerable to most things, I’m not about to die walking around the room with Jimin, Yoongs.

You couldn't fault Jungkook and Tae for wanting to baby you. Jungkook never had someone to pamper and spoil, and Taehyung only had Jungkook; Even then, it wasn't in a romantic way and Jungkook was also being taken care of by the others so he didn't need to do much. His ex and him didn't last long enough for when BTS’ fame had skyrocketed and he had more money than he could ever spend in his life and is quickly running out of things to spend it on.

Still, it was hard to take all the coddling. It was better when they treated you with the distance platonic relationships had granted you.

Today, you’re huddled next to Jimin as you both scrolled on social media with both your bare legs thrown over his.

There's been comments left on your instagram page asking for Jimin's health and you decided to reply to one comment to say that he's fine and recovering. You and him had been pardoned from work for a week, Taehyung had been granted some leniency and he used it to visit you both in the hospital once it was revealed that his soulmark had been affected by Jimins. 

Silencing the app, you move to twitter when the door suddenly opens and in comes Seokjin holding up two plastic bags of takeout, flexing them as if they were golden medals and you sit up.

“Your handsome savior has arrived with fries and actually good food!”

“Hi noona!” Taehyung greets as he steps out of Jin's shadow.

“Jin you're actually the most good looking man I've ever seen in this forsaken planet, did you get me cheese and sour cream flav—”

“Of course I did,” He scoffed, putting down two paper bags and one drink carrier on your bedside table before placing the rest on the table near the bathroom door. “Who do you think I am?!”

“He almost ordered it all in cheese until I reminded him that you wanted sour cream too, noona.” Taehyung chimes in with a grin as he closes the door, a hand hidden behind his back while he holds a covered cup in the other. 

Seokjin snapped his head towards him with an indignant ‘Ya!’, to which Tae only giggled at.

“You bought that heinous, god awful sweet tea with my money! How could you do this to me?!”

“I offered to pay but you—”

“WITH MY MONEY!”

Everyone only laughed and Jin trudged over with Jimin’s lunch in hand, offering it with an outreached arm and he took it. At least, he tried to. Jin suddenly raised his hand over his head. You watched as Jin continuously teased Jimin whose reach is limited due to the need to be holding your hand. 

Jimin then finally got a grip on the plastic bag’s bottom and suddenly, their fishing game became a tug of war.

“Wait wait wait! You're going to tear it! It's going to spill!”

“Just fucking give it to me, hyung!” Jimin grunt, tugging one last time and the side of the bag rips, immediately Jin lets go.

“Why would you pull that hard?!”

Jimin ignored him in favor of pulling out his container, which he realized is overwhelmingly little compared to your three packages.

“Hyung!” He screams with his bottom lip jut out, dragging out the word. “How come I only have one food package? I'm also a patient, you know?!”

“You didn't request anything.” Jin says nonchalantly, shrugging.

“We've been together for years hyung! You should've known what I wanted like you did noona! This is blatant favoritism hyung!”

Seokjin ignored him, handing you a large bowl of mixed flavored fries, a large boba tea, and a plastic container where an aroma of caramelized fried chicken is leaking out of it the moment it leaves the paper bag. Next to you, Jimin scoffed, incredulous as he crossed his arms.

“She gets fried chicken, fries and boba but I only get Jajangmyeon?!” 

Once again, he ignored the younger man, rolling his eyes as Taehyung bounds up to his disgruntled best friend to reveal the half occupied half empty paper beverage carrier hidden behind his back, grinning widely as Jimin’s face morphs into disbelieving betrayal.

“Wow, so this is how we do things now, huh? I can’t believe you’d do this to me when I’m a patient!” 

“I’m so sorry, you poor poor thing.” Taehyung pouts as he offers out the food and Jimin spared no time in swiping the bag from him.

With their bicker finally coming to an end and Taehyung comfortably sitting crossed legs at the foot of you and Jimin’s bed, you turned to your food.

After eating nothing but bland, runny soup since the night at Jungkook’s birthday, tasting the cheddar almost made you tear up. You had taken advantage of the privilege of tasting far too long, being able to finally ingest something else felt euphoric, as if you were given the chance to walk through the garden of eden.

Exaggerated much but it's the only way you could explain the feeling.

Wasting no more time, you dug into the french fries bowl. 

You hear Seokjin whisper something underneath his breath, sounding incredulous. You watched as he crossed over to Taehyung and snatched his cup, ignoring the younger man’s indignant yelp and took a sip.

Instantly, the mixed taste of cheddar and sour cream was washed away by the familiar taste of Taehyung’s heinous tea preference of illegal amounts of tea and milk. The harsh difference of the three flavors along with the texture of fries gliding on your tongue makes you gag. Your soulmates react, Jimin placing his food down to place his cupped hands under you as if trying to catch your puke while Tae flinches, about to reach over until he sees his brother already positioned to help you and turns to fetch you a glass of water instead.

“You ate too fast noona, try to chew it first.”

“You ate too fast noona, try to chew it first.” You mimic in a tone far too high to be his and Jimin rolled his eyes.

“Why are you being so annoying today?”

“I’m sorry I’m getting cranky after someone disrupted me eating—” Your words abruptly end as Jin suddenly surged in to hug you.

You look at Taehyung who’s staring longingly at his tea still in Jin’s grasp behind you before turning to a similarly perplexed Jimin mid-bite of his tteokbokki. Raising an eyebrow at him, he responds with a shrug before continuing to stuff food into his mouth.

But as you rested both hands on his shoulders, Jin suddenly sniffled.

“Jin?”

Alert, you gently push him off and your eyes meet with his misty pairs, matched with a teary smile stretching plush red lips. Your heart leapt to your throat as both his hands cupped your cheeks and kissed your forehead in under a second. But instead of getting a seizure or being struck with an overwhelming amount of pain, nothing happened.

Instead a warm feeling, akin to what the rest of your soulmates caused you, wrapped around you like a thick blanket and you froze.

Then, Jin stands with an excited yip and excused himself out of the room, leaving you and the others confused.

What?

You didn't need to look at Jimin or Tae to know they all had huge question marks hanging over their heads as they stared at where they last saw their hyung disappear out of the room.

Why didn't your body react from having someone kiss your forehead while your bonds were still unsettled? From what you've read, there's always a chance of it happening, yet even if your relationship with him stretched over years, there shouldn't be any reason why he's not causing you and Jimin pain.

Unless he's also a soulmate.

Immediately you were reminded of the time he had carried you and wondered why no one ever questioned why nothing fatal had happened when he had done that in the DFA. Even if it had everyone in a flurry of panic, someone should've noticed and questioned it right? Yoongi should have at least.

There was also that one time Hoseok had held your hand in the car, it was brief but it should've done something still with a Nexus bond as complicated and huge as yours. Yet like with Seokjin, nothing happened.

“What did I just watch?” Taehyung began and you wish you had the answer. “Did I just witness my soulmate get stolen by Seokjin hyung?”

“No,” Jimin says, eyes thoughtful as he looks at you before turning to the bathroom door. “I think we just discovered that hyung is also tethered to her.”

Both your head snapped to the man next to you.

In the small amount of time you stared at your soulmate, the pieces began to click as the cogs in your mind whirs with all the possibilities before it took you back to the moment the horrendous taste of Taehyung's tea violated your tongue. Your mouth falls into an ‘o’.

“Shared Tastebuds.” You mutter.

Jimin opens his mouth to ask you to elaborate when Seokjin reenters with a doctor following behind him, red faced but the blinding wide smile he wore was enough to make you forget he was crying not a second before. The doctor next to him looked ecstatic, eyes a little crazy at the newfound discovery.

“Congratulations, it seems that also Mr. Kim here is a part of your Nexus bond!” He says a little cheerily as he hugs the clipboard close to his chest. “It would do you all well to inform the rest of the group of this finding. From a professional standpoint, I do think that Mr. Jung has a huge chance of also being a part of your Nexus.”

To say you never had doubts that the other two members were a part of your nexus would be a lie, you had hoped they were but the absence of mark manifestation symptoms made it hard to believe they’ll be one of your soulmates.

Who knew all it took to find out if you and Jin were connected was eating while in the presence of each other? If you hadn’t fainted from the lack of food and the Soulbond strain, would you have found out about it earlier?

Was he the reason you’d taste the savory taste of a well-seasoned grilled meat or the sweet fizzling taste of a soda late at night yesterday?

Or is the bond you both have will allow for long distance sense sharing? There are two types of Shared Tastebuds after all.

“The results are due today right?” Jimin asks and the doctor turns to his watch.

“This afternoon I'm sure just before you both are discharged. But,” He turns to Jin. “For now I'll be taking Mr. Kim with me to register his soulbond and involvement in your Nexus.”

When they left again, the three of you remained unmoving, stunned. 

It must be Jimin’s touch that had kept you calm throughout the revelation because you didn’t know how to react. There’s no doubt joy in the hurricane of emotions swirling in your chest, as well as the pacifying effect from both your and Jimin’s touch overwhelming the rising stress and conflict at the back of your head, forcing and pushing them back into the shadows.

You knew you should be stressing over the possibilities of having seven soulmates and how you’d divide your time to be able to equally spend time with everyone, it was already difficult having five these past few days. More often than not, you found yourself suffering a headache caused by the constant noise and overwhelming sensations each individual soulmarks gave you. 

From the constant sounds of Namjoon’s heartbeat at the back of your head, and Jimin’s touch making your skin thrum, even the Amoneuron in your blood is having a hard time keeping you away from soulbond hyperactivity.

Someone’s phone erupted into a shrill scream, it was Taehyung’s. Picking it up, he automatically puts it on speaker and holds the end of the phone close to his mouth. 

“Is it true? Please tell me it’s not true! I’m already competing with most of my hyungs for noona’s time!”

“This isn’t a competition, gguk.” Yoongi drawled in the background. “Didn’t we already establish that? No fighting for her hear—”

“What soulmark do they have?!” 

“Manager Sejin is already on the way with a lawyer to handle the legal side of things, how are you guys doing right now? Is noona good?” Namjoon asks, sounding closer to the mic.

“She didn't faint if that's what you're asking about. If anything,” Taehyung turns to you. “She looks a little out of it.”

“How did it happen? Is it the test? Is it out already?” Hoseok's voice came through, nervous.

“Yeah we'll deliver it to you later also, remember hyung complaining about tasting something weird? Apparently he was tasting the hospital special soup—”

_______

On your dismissal, the doctor had handed the eldest their test results. Seokjin had thrown him out since he already knew what it'll entail but held on protectively on Hoseok's envelope.

Jimin had proposed a small celebration for the mark's manifestation for everyone, nothing too grand, just a few take outs appropriate for tomorrow’s dinner—because Jungkook and Tae had requested pancakes and waffles for whatever reason—and a small cake. 

With five—not counting Jimin as he insisted that you both sit the activity out and Hoseok who visited his sister but promised to return the next day to read his result at dinner—men at your disposal, boxing up and moving your items into their dorm was easy, even if Yoongi has noticeably slowed down the stairs carrying the same one box he’s picked up since earlier; not that you’d call him out on it but you knew Seokjin and Jimin would to do it instead.

If it wasn't for Jungkook's eagerness to have you move in, it would have taken you all longer than you had today.

It was surreal seeing the items in your home slowly decrease, the mass on your shelves and all the personality of every room disappear with every box filled. You had been staying in the same apartment since you were 21, to have its familiar sights and spots be slowly stripped off of its glow felt sadder than you thought it would be.

BigHit had requested your company friends do all the packing while you were at the hospital, it wasn't forced but they acted like it was anyway. They (read: Minhyuk and Nabi) had jokingly complained about being tasked with doing things your soulmates should’ve been doing, Minhyuk going as far as threatening to sneak off something into one of the boxes and you feared for your life for what that something might entail.

You offered to buy them anything they want the next time you all visit the mall in exchange for their full cooperation and Minhyuk had vowed to run your bank dry with a sly grin.

“It's not like you’d even need them anymore when you’ve got the world’s biggest boyband as your soulmates, might as well spend your hard earned money on important things; friends, especially me though.”

You wouldn't deny the fact that you tried dating Guwon with the hopes of living lavishly without lifting a finger but the world would have to bathe in fire and water before you'd let them buy you expensive things outside of food; that you accept because you'd be able to taste and experience delicious dishes. Not to mention, it's practical.

Having your furniture moved out as well was out of the question after an hour of argument with Jimin and Jin who insisted on having you buy new decorations, except for the books, trinkets, and plethora of BTS collection you were given by the members themselves every comeback.

You argued that you didn’t need them to buy new furniture when you already have working ones.

But that argument was easily disproved when the maknaes (plus Namjoon because, hyung you’re big, we need to weight test it!) had jumped into your bed and the frames creaked and trembled.

He was right, as much as it pains you to accept it.

But just because he's right doesn't mean you agree with him.

In the end, with one against eventually all of them, you were due for furniture shopping with Jimin, Yoongi and Namjoon the next day. Today though, you were bunking with Jimin due to the need for constant skinship and the lack of bed in your new room.

You spent the better half of the afternoon unboxing and filling your closet with your items which barely filled two shelves out of six that were bolted onto the wall of the small well-lit room.

“Noona, your closet is a bit… barren.”

“The closets are just huge, I have plenty.”

“I’m concerned that you think this is plenty.” He says, thumbing the material of your cream cardigan as a grin grows on his lips. “I think I saw a few cute clothes online that would fit you.”

“Don’t.”

“Can’t do much about it now, they’re already in transit.”

After finding out your and Jin’s soulmark, you had thought deciding what you ate for dinner until the bond settled would be a hassle or until you both learn how to disable it. But Jin had simply agreed on your choices that night with a shrug of his shoulder with that soft smile on his lips.

And that amount of trust in whatever you’ll pick scares you in ways you never thought it would.

It's just a simple decision, one would say, but the ugly voices at the back of your head wondered if you even deserve this amount of consideration from him when you hadn’t noticed his lingering feelings for you for years.

But it seems like that fact has long been swept under the rug when the maknaes bounded up to you with mischief in their eyes.

Upon the realization that their Jin hyung would agree to almost anything you’d eat for a while, Jungkook and Taehyung wasted no second running up to you to propose the idea of ordering you a strawberry ice cream for dessert, claiming it was the only way to test their hyung’s love for her.

“You see noona, if hyung really loves you like he said he does, he would suck it up like the man he is.” Jungkook had reasoned to you with Taehyung nodding behind him and Jimin grinning mischievously next to you.

Fortunately for Jin, you don’t think forcing him to taste strawberry flavored things on the day he found out he wasn’t untethered would be a good decision despite the loud voice at the back of your head goading you to follow through their plan for fun.

But you promised the maknaes that you’ll do it someday.

Dinner was surprisingly uneventful with a few talks about the schedule changes and the rumors Jungkook had read and heard from his small friend group outside his brothers. If it wasn’t for the soft glow of gold at the edge of your vision from where your foot is resting on top of Jimin’s under the table and the faint outline of the red string of fate stretching across to Yoongi’s right pinkie, you would’ve tricked your brain into thinking it was a normal dinner with your friends.

With the words streaming out of Jungkook’s mouth, Tae and Jimin’s additional information and the scandalous gasp and widened eyes around the table once the pieces began to form a picture, you almost thought it was an average weekly dinner with your bosses.

But soon enough, plates are taken into the kitchen and Jimin is already pulling you up to your room, saying how he wants to take a shower and that you should take your toiletries.

Something you had dreaded since you heard the doctor had sentenced you to be in constant skinship with Jimin.

Why are you even nervous?! You had seen him and his brothers in their boxers from being one of their make up artists yet your heart had been thudding loudly in your ears the moment you had entered his room with your travel bag in hand.

Turns out, there was a truth in the saying “Ignorance is bliss” in the fact that knowing something could alter the way you think and perceive even the smallest of actions. In your case, knowing Jimin's your soulmate while facing the dilemma of showering together had you completely fucked up.

On the verge of a breakdown, half a foot on the ledge and the other hanging over the fall.

You had swam in public pools with him before but it was always with the presence of others, to be alone in a small room in nothing but your undies while maintaining skinship with your soulmate—

Isn't that a bit too intimate?

Will you even survive?

To stand half naked in a minimal space alone with Jimin, your heart might just collapse.

Seeing him in his underwear shouldn't faze you as much as it should. He and the others has stripped in front of you in a haste of changing into the next costume for the next performance but in the minimal space of his bathroom where you both are secluded away from the other dwellers of the building and he's already topless and is now unbuttoning and sliding the zippers of his jorts, the mass in your throat kept on thickening with the tension in the air.

Your eyes roamed the soft, flatness of his stomach; from up his lightly freckled bare chest and down to the thin trail of hair down his abdomen. The prominent bones of his adonis belt had your throat drying up.

Seeing him topless shouldn't affect you the way it should yet you found yourself heating up at the sight of them.

When he begins to remove his pants, you force yourself to look away, cheeks burning hot as you thumb the top buttons of your—Taehyung’s—polo before beginning to undo them all with your heart thudding loudly in your ears.

The string tied to your finger lights up in a rhythmic beat, persistent and hurried. Wrapping your fingers around it, Yoongi's loud concern immediately washes over your body. You respond to him by pushing down reassurance down the lane and the thread dulls from one side.

“Did hyung contact you?”

You turn to Jimin, already stripped down to his boxers.

God is really testing you today, putting a handsome man in his underwear in front of you and tempting you to let your gaze fall down for a glimpse of his thick muscled thighs you always saw through the fabric of his skinny jeans.

“Ye-yeah, nothing to worry about though. Give me your foot, I need to remove my shirt.”

Obediently, he puts his foot forward and you step on it before making quick work of your shirt. You feel his burning gaze roam your skin and you shiver from its intensity.

By the time you had your pants pooling on the floor alongside his, your heart is thudding uncontrollably in a way that might concern Namjoon at how fast it's going.

Why is the calming effect of Jimin's touch absent when you need it?

“Ready to go?” 

You almost jumped at how hoarse his voice had gotten but recovered quickly and nodded, stepping first into the shower and twisting the valve towards the hotter temperature. Jimin hissed the moment the water touched his skin, breaking the stifling tension for a moment.

“How are your skin not burning off?! It's so hot!”

You rolled your eyes. “You're being dramatic, it's not that hot.”

“It is! The mirror is literally steaming!” He exclaimed, pointing at the long horizontal mirror above the sink which is indeed, fogging up. 

Jimin then leaned over, his naked chest touching your back. Goosebumps prickled your skin and you barely stopped the urge to shiver as he manipulated the valve until he was satisfied with the temperature. When he steps back, you finally let out the breath you didn't realize you were holding.

Hearing your exhale, he laughed lightheartedly. The fucker did it on purpose.

Trying to ignore the thumps of your racing heart, you busied yourself with the task of washing your hair. You reached for the shampoo bottle and popped open the cap, body still facing the wall.

“Noona.”

You looked over your shoulder and Jimin was scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

“Can I wash your hair for you?” He shyly asks, his sly attitude from earlier nonexistent. “I've never done that with someone else before. I-I’ve always wanted to do that now and now that we're soulmates, I was–I was wondering if maybe I–we could—”

“Not even with that girl you’ve dated before?”

He shook his head. “We were too busy to do something like that, noona. Idol lives and all that. It's one of the reasons why we broke up.”

“She was pretty nice though.”

His lips quirks up. “Don’t get jealous noona, you’re my soulmate after all.”

You hit his shoulder and he brought his arms up to shield himself, giggling. “Do you want to wash each other’s hair or not?!”

Despite your agreement, you were beyond nervous as you handed him the shampoo and turned around to shut the shower off. The string on your finger thrummed once more, still concerned as your heart leapt up to your throat when Jimin's fingers began to thread and scrape his nails against your scalp.

A thrill of pleasure shoots down your spine and you hold back the urge to mewl as he begins to put more pressure on his motions.

It stayed like that for a while and you reveled in the pure domesticity of it all. 

When Jimin retracts his hands, you reach for his shampoo and order him to turn around.

“What if I don't want to?” He challenges with a mischievous smirk.

“If it gets in your eyes, it's your fault.”

He giggled and shrunk down to your height, to which you hit his shoulder for and he laughed, standing back up. 

“Can you even reach the top of my head like this?”

“Fine but don't complain about your knees hurting, you wanted this.” You jokingly say as he bends his knees once more, a playful lilt in his eyes.

Once you lathered the shampoo enough, you began. 

You’ve seen multiple couples on screen shower together and had once wondered how it’d felt having someone to help reach the spots you couldn’t as well as do those domestic things such as brushing your teeth together and just washing each other in general. The actors always made them natural and romantic, with the soft lighting bouncing off their skin and their laughter ringing in the small space.

But showering with Jimin is anything you’ve ever thought of.

Against the other members, Jimin is easily dwarfed by them, matched with the constant jokes about his height, it's easy to forget that the man is still taller than the average man. He towered over you, his eyes intense and lit with a playful sultriness. His lips twisted into a mischievous smirk as he bent his knees low enough where you could touch the top of his head without risking a stiff neck or standing on your tiptoes.

He’s peering up at you yet you feel smaller under his gaze.

He had always done this, getting into your face while you retouched his makeup. In a way, it was nice that you’re slowly regaining the normalcy 

But it's not appreciated when he’s doing it when you’re already fighting demons trying so hard not to ogle at his body and explode from how flustered you are.

“Are you seriously getting flushed now noona? We’ve done this plenty of times already, why now?”

Is he seriously asking you that?

He laughed. Your thoughts must’ve reflected on your face.

“Didn’t know you’d be affected by something as normal as this. Don’t you see us naked at least every other day?” He asks with a quirk to his eyebrow and you narrowed your eyes further at him.

“You know damn well why,” You say, slapping his shoulder before turning to open the shower once more. Laughing when the water burst open above him, cutting him off from replying.

With the tension dissolving with the shampoo on his hair, a playful grin replaced the coy smirk and with his newly washed hair, he grabbed your arms in an iron grip and began to shake his head at you, flicking water from his hair and onto you.

When he was done, he then pulled you into the stream with a bubbling laugh as he watched the shampoo suds dissolve with the water. But with both your arms pinned in place, you weren't able to wipe your eyes and had them closed the moment he had you under the shower head.

“I'm—I’m going to put chili in your fucking water, I can't see!”

With sorrys in between fits of giggles, Jimin reached up to wipe your face for you when he realized this.

Shower with Jimin sailed smoothly from that point on. After his teasing, he made no more attempts to fluster you, even when he was scrubbing your back a little longer than it should've taken. 

He had, however, made comments on how many steps there are for you to shower.

“Why do you need to shampoo twice, use soap AND body wash? It’s not like you’d ever get sick anymore when I’m here.”

You just rolled your eyes and told him to leave if he’s going to complain about your routine. Eventually though, you speed through your routine due to him whining about how he’s starting to feel cold, lightheaded—to which he dramatized by leaning his hurting head on your shoulder—, and is suddenly sleepy.

Changing into your pajamas was a little hard as you attempted to do it all under the safety of a towel while also maintaining skinship with Jimin every other ten seconds who's also doing the same.

You managed somehow and soon enough, you both situated yourselves into the bed, with your legs thrown over his and backreading the bangtan gc that had awakened the moment Jimin had his phone.

Surprisingly, even Jungkook was active.

           [21:24] Mimi: It's so weird tae            [21:24] Mimi: I’ve never seen someone use soap AND body wash THEN washes their hair t w i c e            [21:24] Hoba: I do that…            [21:25] Mimi: That’s expected hyung, you’re a neat freak.            [21:25] You: Why are you so weird about me being clean?!            [21:25] You: IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU BEING AN IDOL I BET YOU'D USE THOSE 11-IN-1 SHAMPOOS            [21:26] Mimi: ITS PSYCHOPATH BEHAVIOR            [21:26] Mimi: also EXCUSE YOU???            [21:26] Jinnie: hoba I think he just called you a psychopath            [21:26] Hoba: 🙁            [21:27] Ggukie: NOW YOU MADE HYUNG SAD            [21:27] Hoba: 🙁            [21:27] Hoba: you think im weird jimin-ah?🥺            [21:27] Yoongs: why is this even a conversation            [21:27] Joonie: Jimin just because you don’t do it, doesn’t mean it's unorthodox.            [21:28] Minnie: you’re one of them, are you hyung?!            [21:28] Tete: I still cant believe Jimin just showered with noona…            [21:28] Tete: why are we breezing through that information?            [21:28] Jinnie: ok so lets not talk about that            [21:29] Jinnie: this pretty prince is going to cook tomorrow's breakfast, what does the group's prettiest want?

Reading his message felt like cold water dousing you awake and you’re suddenly attacked by a wave of guilt.

Is it okay for you to even make demands like this? Do you even deserve being Seokjin’s dearest?

“Ask him for waffles, I'm craving for them.” Jimin says, his voice slicing through your thoughts and you turn back to your phone.

           [21:29] Ggukie: ask me too hyung!            [21:29] Jinnie: fine I’ll bite            [21:29] Jinnie: what do you want brat?            [21:30] Ggukie: noona’s love :DD

You watched as Jin’s profile pic popped up and came down multiple times, and each time they do, your and Jimin’s giggles multiply.

           [21:32] Jinnie: I’m blocking you            [21:32] Joonie: I should have you kicked out for that stupid, corny ass joke oh my god            [21:32] Yoongs: that activated my fight or flight            [21:32] Yoongs: don’t do that again            [21:32] Ggukie: hyung ask me again            [21:32] Ggukie: promise I’ll respond properly this time :]            [21:33] Jinnie: Y/N?            [21:33] Ggukie: HYUNG            [21:33] Minnie: she says she wants waffles :>            [21:33] Jinnie: I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth, Park Jimin            [21:34] Minnie: D:            [21:34] You: I want scrambled eggs and pancakes :D

“Get out of my room if you're going to betray me like this.”

“You shouldn’t have played around earlier then.” 

“You shouldn’t have played around earlier then. Give me that!” You stretch your arm away from him but Jimin was faster, managing to pluck your phone from your grasp and moving to place it on his side of the floor.

Without hesitation, you launched yourself at his hand making him yelp before it dissolved into giggles when you managed to catch him and had curled up around his arm, fingers attempting to pry him away from your phone.

It was how Tae had found you both in and immediately lept in, taking your side the moment he had seen you and Jimin tussled for your phone. 

With Tae’s help, you were able to take back your phone only to see that it had locked itself from the many times the screen had picked up on both you and Jimin’s palms and had typed in the wrong combination after the other. For that, you slapped his arm.

“What did I do wrong?! It’s not my fault the stupid phone couldn’t differentiate between palm and fingers!”

“If I wasn’t required to touch you, I’d have you kicked out of this room.”

Jimin pushed himself up, face incredulous. “This is literally my room.”

“Next week you should sleep in my room instead, noona. I’d love to have you there.” Taehyung says, pulling you to his chest and side-eyeing his friend. “I wouldn’t be as mean as Jiminie.”

“Why am I getting disrespected in my own room? Is it gang up on Jimin day?!”

“When is it not gang up on Jimin day?”

“Why you—GET OUT OF MY ROOM.”

TAGLIST: @wildestdreamsblog @canarystwin @prettywheenicry @jmnscutie @sassy-snassy @misuguru @11thenightwemet11 @yoongibaybee @rinkud @bri602 @igetcarriedawaywithyou @marvel-potter-1d-korea @comingupwithacoolnameishard @sooha-neul @juju-227592 @coffeewanderer @x-uno @diamonddia-mond @eggsysstuff @dearmyfavoritepeople-bts @sld88 @katsukis1wife

[ryker-writes]

i just remembered reading ur pome siblings post and oh my god please if you have the time and motivation, write an angsty version of vils part! its so interesting to explore his potential sibling relationship rgsfbyddnr

absolutely! I feel like a lot of the dorm leaders could have a broken and angsty relationship with their siblings, Vil just was the first one that popped up in my head

warning: Book 5 spoilers

Vil as a sibling (Broken relationship edition)

the Schoenheit family was not an easy family to live in

that became very clear early on in your childhood

your father was a very famous celebrity that did a lot of modeling and acting

and he really wanted you and Vil to do the same

the two of you would be signed up for many roles and auditions in anything

even if you didn't want to, you had to

sometimes you two would be so busy that you didn't have time to just relax and play with other kids

half of the time you and Vil wouldn't get roles in the same thing and you wouldn't even see each other

even just being in the Schoenheit family was enough to get a spotlight on you and your life

you grew up with eyes on you at all times

eyes that criticized every little thing you did

if you tripped, made a slip of the tongue, or even got slightly upset you would be criticized

but you wouldn't only be criticized by the public, but also by your father

he would lecture you on how to act at all times until you got it right

until it became second nature

it was a constant demand for you to be perfect

and you had no choice but to do what they all say

it was either do what they say or be shamed by society and your own family

so you did everything you could to be perfect

to not let the public ever see a single flaw and to be considered beautiful

Vil often helped you with this too by giving you pointers

as you grew up you became very good at it and so did Vil

you two were both well established celebrities by the time you entered Night Raven College

the both of you ended up in Pomefiore together of course

Pomefiore is the dorm that values beauty

you and Vil often talk since you two are in the same dorm

it actually felt nice to talk to Vil about school things instead of new roles or similar things

at first it was fine

you even met his friend Rook, and found out he was a fan of yours and Vil's

but then he started pushing you away and talked to you less

he always said he had important things to do and didn't have time

he couldn't completely ignore you though so there would be times he would still hang out with you

while you may have liked to spend time with your brother, Vil hated it

there he was with the ultimate goal of being the most beautiful

and there you were, not even trying to be the most beautiful, but the other students talked about you being beautiful and perfect and even debated which one of you was more beautiful

the answer should be obvious right?

but now he not only had Neige as rival, but you too

and when you had a new post on magicam or a new role in something, he would check to see who was currently the most beautiful

he absolutely hates when it says your name

it's one thing for it to be someone else but for his own family to be better than him?

especially after he helped you when you were younger

and he gets so angry when he thinks about it

but he never shows that anger

in fact he acts very nice when he is around you

it's when he's alone in the privacy of his room that he'll let the anger show on his face

for just a single second, the thought of poisoning you crosses his mind

the Evil Queen did that, and she's his role model after all

but he would have a moment of rationality after that

he couldn't do that. you were his sibling

but you were also competition

so maybe he couldn't poison you, but he could do something else

when Vil did hang out with you, he would always point out some small thing about you that was out of place

even if you had everything together, he would find something to criticize

afterwards he would always make a comment about how you should be careful because your actions reflect on him and your father

sometimes he would even give you a backhanded compliment or when he was especially angry, he would straight up insult you and claim he's trying to help you

everything he says slowly chips away at your confidence

and it hurts even more to come from your own brother, someone who helped you become who you are

once upon a time he was someone you could look up to

if you started slipping up more in public, he would be happy

unless...somehow people enjoyed that because it was cute or a reminder that you're human

at that point he's furious and it's getting harder to hide

Rook started noticing too

sometimes you could be hanging out with Vil and Rook will come along and tell you someone else wants to talk with you

he basically separates you two in hopes Vil will calm down

through this repeating process, the distance between you and Vil grows greater by the day

an unspoken hatred and sense of competition is hard to miss

and the one person who you're supposed to be able to rely on at NRC, absolutely hates you

Somewhat happy ending:

after Vil overblots, he has time to reflect on his actions the past few months

he does realize that the way he treated you was rather ugly

and he will personally apologize to you

he'd be lying if he said that people claiming you were more beautiful didn't bother him anymore

it still does, but it doesn't make him as angry

he tries to spend time with you to actually genuinely spend time with you instead of tearing you down

it can be a bit...strange at first

but give him time and he will start to come around more

he's really trying to be nicer to you and try to fix what he's done

but is it too late? has too much damage been done? is it even possible to fix it?

the choice is up to you

will you forgive him?

[nootthereststop]

Pt. 3 pookies sorry it i cant spell even thoigh english is my first language my typing is AWFUL.

Falsettos commentary: Trina edition

So i think its really understated the impact of religion on all the characters not just jason?

I would like to preface this post by saying this isnt a post about the flaws of religion, i have no problem with religion and i believe that it can be a lovely thing to be religious in some form if one is so inclined, scincere apologies if i mischaracterize any aspects of judaisim in this post, ive tried to educate myself on the little i do cover in this but i understand it would likely not be accurate, if i have said anything that doesnt seem right please let me know so i can fix it!

We see (especially in act two) how the cast is not very enamoured by the idea of religion in lines like "this is so much crap, throw a simple party, religions just a trap to ensnare the weak and the dumb" "(days like this) we ALMOST believe in god ect"

Trina is in my opinion most affected by a jewish upbringing. We see that in the expectations placed on her by her mother and father "i was sure growing up i would live the life my mother assumed id live, very jewish, very middleclass, and very straight" and of course her father indirectly forcing her into her first marraige which ended in divorce. A major aspect of the show is highlighting the glaring flaws in everyday people; how we manipulate and lie, "we are manipulating people and we need to know our worst sides arent ignored" . We see one of trinas "flaws" to be what she frames as some level of sexual frustration/ dependency, as alot of im breaking down explores her (lack of an) intimite relationship and the strain this puts on her, as her mind consistently defaults for sexual refrences and innuendos, sometimes to the point of objectifying herself, (something that we also see alot consistently throughout the show) "whos lusty and requires a fling with a female thing" "me im just a freak who needs it maybe every other week". As im not personally jewish I am very uneducated on jewish practices and belief systems HOWEVER many religions tend to have a very negative standing on sexual intimacy for the express purpouse of pleasure. This appears to cause trina to objectify herself as well as conform to the societal roles assigned to her, despite not really seeming to enforce them on others "he decides the role to assume". We see the pressure to conform to religious practices when jason doesnt want a bar mitzfah "not with g-ns but k-ll your mother rather than humiliate her" despite not really seeming to visit a synagouge or encourage aspects of religion such as prayer onto jason. I think this shows how her eeligion is so deeply engrained these practices are no more than habit and how disconnected she truly is from that religion

[howtofightwrite]

Greek fire was an extraordinary specific weapon found in a particular time and region, naval combat was primarily an afar of rams (in the medaterriaan with its oar powered vessels) and armed roaring ie: getting as close as possible and just swarming onto your opponents boat to fight in melee, with some archery and whatnot. One of the sucesses of the eventual roman navy was perfecting a sort of boarding ramp to quickly put their troops on an enemy ship

Furthermore, in later periods, there are accounts of skirmishes in the atlantic between rival fleets. In which case the fore and aftcastles on the cogs are used as platforms to post archers and men throwing rocks and iron bars down on opponents ships while others boarded (hence why their called castles and elevated). Theres at least one account (I forgot of which battle) in which an English king boarded an enemy ship then abandoned his own as it sunk.

So, free advice, if you want to remain anonymous, you probably should make sure that both asks go through as anon. Though, I'm pretty sure Tumblr's extended ask length would have let you drop both paragraphs into it. Worst case (and I do realize I'm a poster child for looking like I ignore this advice), but when you run into a word (or character) limit, it's usually a good idea to start editing and trimming down the length until the system accepts it in a single pass. Splitting an ask into multiple parts is an excellent way to lose part of a question, or just make sure it never gets answered in the first place. Cut everything you don't absolutely need.

Either way, I'll err on the side of caution and answer the anon response to preserve your privacy.

I thought I made it clear that Greek fire was a much later invention. It's actually a little frustrating, because you'll see poorly researched history articles which will straight up make it sound like Greek fire was used during the Peloponnesian War. Which, yeah, no. A lot of the major Hellenic wars we think of today were around the 5th century BCE, while the invention of Greek Fire was over a thousand years later.

While you were talking about Greek fire in particular, what you said applies to a lotof weapons throughout history. When we're talking about something like the rapier or the claymore, those are weapons from very specific points in time. It's something to think about when you're mixing and matching technologies to create a fantasy world. No weapon exists in a vacuum, and they all develop as responses to the state of warfare around them. This doesn't mean you can't mix and match pieces you like, but it is something to be conscious of.

While it is outside the scope of the original question (because it's a firearm), one of the more amusing weapons from the age of sail were actual gun blades. These would be musket (usually a pistol), with a cutlass blade mounted under the barrel. (There were also examples that mounted an axe head under the barrel.) The intention was to be able to use the firearm during boarding actions and then switch over to using it as a melee weapon rather than reloading. The design was fundamentally flawed, the weight distribution was poor for a blade, and the (relative) mechanical complexity of the early firearms meant those components were too fragile for serious use. But for a couple decades in the 17th century these things saw limited use.

Now, I do need to give serious credit to A Number of Hobbies, who came back with a trio of fantastic reference articles. Naval Combat Strategies from Shadyislepirates.com, Choosing Naval Tactics for Your Pre-Gunpowder World from Mythcreants.com, and The First Punic War: Audacity and Hubris from the U.S. Naval Institute. So, if you're still wanting more information, those are all excellent resources to check.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

Would you ever write stories about other groups?

This blog is exclusively for BTS. If I do choose to post somewhere else, I feel like my writing style is very distinctive so you'll probably know right away it's me (also I don't hide my biases of other groups, SVT's Woozi is just Min Yoongi, special edition Busan version). As of right now I don't have any plans to publish anywhere else.

if you're interested in current wiyllt status, read under break

I don't post much about myself because I generally think it's unnecessary but you did click here so I'll let you know what's up. 2025 started off a lot busier than I thought due to work (gotta pay for concert tickets somehow) and personal life (not really me per se but people around me smh), so naturally wiyllt did the responsible thing and picked up a new video game, Metaphor ReFantazio (turn-based JRPG by Atlus that is probably now one of my top 3 games - dynamic characters with exploration of complex emotions in their storylines, insightful and deep messages about today's society, excellent gameplay mechanics, wonderful art as a whole) which has helped me keep a level head (chasing after my marbles all day gets tiring). It also made me remember something important. There can sometimes be a lot of clatter and noise that ultimately dampens a wonderful experience even despite you ignoring it. It is unavoidable, to some degree, and not all of it is negative of course, yet to have that peace of enjoyment is an unparalleled serenity. Is your free time truly free if it is constantly hijacked by unsolicited loud voices? People seem to constantly want to be the ones to twist the knife and find those minor flaws to create cracks in others' happiness. I'll stop here, as that's quite enough yap lol. The game has me both greatly pleased and greatly pensive and actually has nothing to do with what I stated above though HAHAHA if you want to play it, just play it, it is worth the blind buy.

tl;dr wiyllt busy being wiyllt

[goddamnwebcomics]

Ranked from Best to Worst: Webcomics of Goddamn Webcomics (2024 Edition)

It has been a year since I started riffing the new batch of comics at hand, and 15 months since I made this previous ranking, so it's about time it got updated again. This time, if I have nothing new to add to a comic's description, it has been italicised.

0. Gene Catlow

When I added Gene Catlow to the ranking, I thought there was nothing like it on this blog and is thus unrankable. One year later, I have been mostly proven right. I still hate how terrible the pacing for this comic was in its later years, and honestly outside of Burke and Sulfur this comic's ending is hard to get through. I think the biggest strength this comic has over any other comic is the emotional versatility. Yes, it's not perfect and can often get extremely tonally inconsistent. I still recommend for people to read it, but if you skip every page after Dorzoi dies outside of Burke and Sulfur pages, I don't blame you.

1. Alien Dice

Alien Dice is still the best comic quality-wise I've read. I would actually argue it does the emotional versatility much better than Gene Catlow does, despite its VERY grimdark setting, which is impressive. Still, it has the occasional inconsistent characterization, it has the ANIMAL ROMANCE, it has the terribly written villains, it has Riley. Chel has gotten some competition with likable protagonists, but still doesn't change the fact Chel and Lexx are the only likable main protagonist couple in this blog.

2. Peter & Company

Some people may be upset by this ranking, but it speaks more about the quality of the shit I riff on this blog than the comic itself. Peter & Company does the bare minimum to not be bad. It has some really good dramatic scenes and decent art, but it's flaws are as hard to ignore as the cameos in the latter half of the comic. Combine that with some of the worst explained worldbuilding in this blog, and I don't see another decent by this blog's standards comic going below this.

3. Daisy Falls Apart

Daisy Falls Apart is a parody comic that doesn’t exactly break new ground. It’s harmless but I wouldn’t read it a second time. It’s held down by its horribly unlikable protagonist and how the whole conflict of the comic is very quickly resolved, and also too many sexual jokes in something that is based on a children’s game. Out of all the comics I’ve riffed, this one is the most mediocre, and number 3 meaning mediocre should worry you.

4. Dominic Deegan

You might be shocked to see Dominic Deegan this high up, yeah, if I did this few months earlier it would be much lower, but recently Dominic Deegan has gone through colossal improvement. However, it still has the existing problems, and especially in its past it has been rather terrible. Still, Dominic does have the credit of being an interesting case as a protagonist. He is not likeable but he is not that hateable either, because he is not a horrible person. You hate because of what a saint he is to the comic's world, not because of what he does. Still, the painful lack of nuance in its commentary can make it a cringy read, its tone is all over the place and comedy isn't as funny as some of the above comics.

5. Carnivores

This comic was originally a painful experience, but so many painful experiences came after it, it feels like one of the less worse ones despite having the worst art. Also i can tell Austin did this comic for fun, and not to convey a deep message. Also it’s probably the only fetish webcomic in history where fetish itself starts taking a backseat halfway through.

6. Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary satisfies your specific hunger for Johnny Test characters commiting several crimes in rapid succession. Reading the comic both entertains me immensely but it also makes me feel dirty. The crossover stuff is there to please the author and not really provide any point. It is unique in that the comic doesn’t feature a full cast ensemble but it’s rather just focusing on Mary ruining people’s lives and interacting some random character from a North American animated thing. The only reason it’s below Carnivores is the suspicious amount of unintentional racism???

7. Warmage

Warmage is enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. None of Dumok’s other comics have gone to the same level of bizarreness Warmage offers with each page. However it is also the host to the long-since-dethroned worst character to ever appear in this blog, Tsuki. Other than that, Warmage seemed to have semi-intriguing lore and also ended on a rather decent arc, so i think i could’ve been interested to see it continue, just because i wanna see how much worse it can get. But then again, spanking scene.

8. Kit n Kay Boodle

It’s amazing that year by year, Kit and Kay Boodle gets more and more tame. More than anything it helped to expose me to Albert’s usual writing bullshit, but somehow it manages to be tame compared to craziness of Gene Catlow. When you know that EVERYONE is fictional in the real life bits, it just loses the nightmare quality it once had. That being said I am bitter half of the riff is locked behind Tumblr’s stupid filter system.

10. TwoKinds

Yes, I'm afraid TwoKinds is occupying Dominic Deegan's former spot. It honestly suffers from very similar issues as early Alien Dice did, just without the likable protagonists. It has some very surprisingly progressive things for its time, but that doesn't change the extremely confusing worldbuilding, terrible antagonists, yet ANOTHER "evil side of the protagonist" and of course the sympathetic slaveowner. Why did Tomjay think that was a good idea? This comic is kind of stuck in a place where it still has a chance to either go above and beyond the early blog shit, sink below Chugworth Roommates line, or maybe just stay in the same spot as always, if the comic doesn't go through any major quality changes. It is bad, and sometimes painful, but it's not unforgivable, and we'll get to unforgivable soon enough.

-The Chugworth Academy and Roommates Line -

Yes, at this point this isn't a ranking but rather, the point of no return. Once your comic sinks below this line, there's no coming back.

11. Four Girls

Four Girls has some of the most vile, disgusting, terrible jokes and some of them just don't make sense. The characters (especially Heaven) are all extremely hateable. You just wish you were reading Daisy's Fall Apart instead. Thankfully it is short, but it is pretty much at same level of quality as Chugworth and Roommates are.

12. Spinnerette

Spinnerette is stuck at a sad, pitiable state. It's like watching the continued downfall of an internet celebrity. The story keeps doing the same mistakes over and over again, and desperately trying to pretend it is not something that is permanently stuck in early 2010's. At this point however, I am so used to Kraw's bullshit gimmicky writing and moments of drama being forced in arcs where they don't belong, I don't even care anymore. At this point, every decent character has been fucking ruined, but it is what it is. Kraw doesn't care about anything else besides the money going into his Patreon so he can keep making porn comics and figurines and Spinny dakimakuras for his disgusting audience.

13. Peter & Whitney

Peter and Whitney should have never existed. Kraw has more of a direction with Spinnerette than this comic does. It's supposed to be an autobiographical slice of life sequel to Peter and Company, but it is just a request from fans that shouldn't have been fulfilled. Peter feels like a whole different person, and there is just no conflict. I don't give a single fuck about college life of these characters, and also, it's existence ACTIVELY HARMS the existence of Peter and Company, a much better comic, because of all the retcons and foregone conclusions.

14. Las Lindas

Las Lindas is even more hopeless than Spinnerette and Peter and Whitney, because this comic will introduce the decent thing, and before you know it decent thing is ruined. At least Spinnerette has decent variety of different stories. Las Lindas will never leave that fucking farm, if we don’t count the spinoff comics half of which are non-canon and are about the same level of quality as main comic anyway. My brief revisit showed me the post-Alejandra era wasn’t as hideous as I thought but it’s pretty damn close, and with the ever-worsening artstyle and an apparent INTRODUCTION OF SUPERHEROES, Las Lindas’s level of quality could best be described with that panel where Tootsie drives into a river.

15. Carry On

Carry On may legitimately have the most hateable protagonists in this blog. It's a comedy comic from a time period when comedy was not at its worst, per se, but definitely at its most embarrassing. There are too many terribly aged jokes and just terrible jokes in general, which make our protagonists look like vicious murderers. If you are also going into this comic without reading 21st Century Fox first, you're not going to understand anything, and even if you have read it you're still going to be confused. Whether or not Rackeroon Saga will lift this comic out of the abyss remains to be seen.

16. Console Girl

Console Girl is the first comic in this ranking I just completely despise. It makes Ctrl-Alt-Delete look like Penny Arcade, it’s a comic about an ecchi console that comes to life but midway through we get a plot twist and it turns out to be a cyberpunk comic that tries to treat humanoid consoles fighting seriously…or not really, as the comic has a problem taking itself seriously, outside of some questionable moments where the author seems to project their hidden anger towards video games into the comic??? We also have in-comic non-canon filler arcs, console girls eventually becoming random fetishes instead of things actually relevant to their real counterparts and TOO MANY LITTLE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH ADULT MEN. I’m glad this comic was never finished.

17. Ask the Werewolves

Ask the Werewolves is visually the most disgusting comic I have ever riffed. It's not the art style that is bad, it is what that art style chooses to depict, hideous character designs, disgusting body horror transformations, 100% unerotic sex scenes, men and women fighting their primal urges, giant balls cumming inside dumpsters, vomiting and so much more. Combine that with the fact it tries to include out of place commentary about modern state of housing market and the end result is a comic that angers me more than it should. It still has a surprisingly likable protagonist, but I still don't want to see the said protagonist cum inside dumpsters, or hang out with a colossal woman child who ruined his life. I don't think this comic is gonna go anywhere.

18. Monster Girl Academy

Monster Girl Academy is just…the worst. It was solely created to make Kraw even more rich, but I would forgive that if the comic didn’t just…fail as a webcomic, fail as a porn comic and fail as a narrative period. This comic was designed for lowest common denominator with fetishes that are too weird to be vanilla and too vanilla to be weird. Its existence pisses me off. While other comics I’ve riffed had potential, this never had any semblance of it. The main protagonist is a piece of shit and all his girls are also pieces of shit, the only likable character is a little girl who cries and prays in Spanish, because every character reading this comic can relate to her. Fuck this comic, and I mean it with every letter of that sentence.

[panda-puma]

(I am sorry in advance, because you unlocked a ramble I've had in me since I saw Zoro and realised that Oda looked at the Cool Manga Dude Archetype and said "no" and made our Mossball capable of wide, wide smiles (which are apparently lost post-timeskip but that I ignore, I am not looking, I am still pre-timeskip, I am soaking every smile and grin) 300+ chapters in and I still am riding the high of love at first sight, when it comes to OP. one day I might find flaws but for now it is perfection incarnate 😂😂😂)

aw, it's sad hearing how the anime kills characterizations. especially with core characters. Nami disgusted by Sanji!? c'mon, why would you do that, anime-writers 😭

to taint any relationship in OP, where the relationships are what makes it such a good read 😭

it's true that when Sanji gets more spicy, what makes his reaction tolerable is how the girls just shrug it off. they care not! they feel safe around him! Nami pranced around him in bikini, and our boy was more interested at first in flowers 😭

thank you so much for movie recommendations! ❤❤❤

I absolutely adore the story and the characters! and the writing! I've cried like a baby while reading OP more times than I've had while consuming any other media. it just hits you in the heart with sniper accuracy ❤😭 and then makes you cackle like a witch. rinse and repeat. i love it.

(reactions still dictated by the story up to the very start of Impel Down) I'm still trying to fully put my finger on what exactly makes me love OP that much but I think that what gets is how much trust there is between the characters. how easy they love each other. (Zoro and Luffy? dear god, they are so good. 100% trust.) and how silly they can get. It's rare that I love absolutely everybody, yet here I am: I'm collecting my silly little boys and girls like pokemon. I will catch em all. gimme more.

I cannot get enough how emotive the characters are. when they smile it lits up the sky. when they cry I cry with them. when they goof off I watch them fondly but when shit hits the fan, I read with baited breath how my silly little goobers get serious. there is a whole rainbow of emotions and I adore it.

(Sorry for taking so long to answer! this month went by extremely fast ;v;UUu if i take too long to reply you can talk to me privately too, i don't mind!)

Don't apologize for passionately loving things! It's the best way of living! ❤

Oda writes characters so well, that even in their comical exaggeration, still feel like real people to me. Everything is for a reason, even the dumbness (that i absolutely love xD it's just amazing to me that even that has its reasons and wraps so well with everything)

And yes, sadly the Anime really kills characterization... Nami and Sanji's relationship is completely changed. They are not really friends in the Anime. Nami is not kind, ever, and Sanji is just interested in her as a sexy object. They are not friendly with each other... when in the Manga is obvious that they are friendly and chill most of the time.

Sanji adores her, yes, but in the Manga he is not just there to be her slave and please her. He has dreams and a beautiful relationship with Luffy too, something that the Anime decides to completely erase from existence...

The Anime transforms all the characters into one note (the one that they decide is funny for children or to sell merch): Nami is the girl who only screams and hits the others, Sanji is just the pervert idiot who fights all the time, Luffy is just an ugly goofball with nothing between his ears, Zoro is serious guy who is the comical relief and screams all the time, Chopper is a baby, Robin is a mysterious woman (who gets jealous of Chopper paying attention to other women)... etc etc etc

They are so reduced to this roles, that when something they can not edit out of the original story (because it's an pivot point in the story) happens, it even looks out of character!

Of course a lot of this is also amped up by the amount of continuous filler the Anime has, where they just butcher the characters even more...

It's a lot of work and as you see I am a slow writer xDu but I really want to get deeper into writing about how the differences matter a lot.

I hope you've continued with your reading and have even more to share! OvO please feel free to talk to me again

Again: very sorry for taking so long to answer ;v;U my audhd threw me off everything very hard this past month

And finally I don't really agree with what people say about Zoro losing his smile post time-skip... at least in the Manga! The Anime can look like he doesn't smile so much anymore, i guess...

I feel like Zoro's default expression is calmer after the time-skip ^^ you can see how he is not frowning all the time like before, and he still has his cool smiles!

Beware a bit of Spoiler ahead!

Have some non-very-spoilerish images of him smiling post-time skip, just in the first arc post time-skip:

[nobodysdaydreams]

My Last Minute and Probably Wrong Guesses for @tmbswhodunit (and my undoubtedly flawed logic to go along with it)

Drumroll please...

Petrichor - @mashpotatoequeen

The title is lowercase and most of her recent titles are also lowercase

Many of her fics have titles like this (fancy words like eucatastrophe or bellis perennis)

This fic is very beautiful, amazing word choice, gorgeous visuals (which is what I really love about her writing 💖). I also enjoyed Constance and Sticky's sibling dynamic very much!

We'll Both Be Completely Home in Midair - @oflightningandstars

The title of this fic on AO3 ends in a period, which Moth has done on occasion

The AO3 version also lists where the title is from, which is a Moth staple

The fic is locked. Moth is one of the only people who consistently locks his fics

Even when you ignore the first three points that make me look overly analytic (sorry), the fic is about aliens, which is very similar to the "Cirque des Etoiles" concept which involves stars and spaces AND the Dr. Who AUs, which at some point involved Moth.

The writing, characterization, and concepts are also absolutely beautiful, so they match Moth's style perfectly!

Steady On - @mvshortcut

Milk always double spaces between their paragraphs and also this feels a lot like Milk's writing (and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! seriously the part where Martina doesn't take Mr. Benedict's hand...why do you do this to me... /lh /I loved this fic!)

Milk's titles are all capital letters, so this fits that (sadly so do many of these fics, but that at least narrows it down)

Milk consistently tags both the books and shows for their fics. There are only two fics in this that fit that requirement. It was for this specific reason that I only tagged the TV show for my own fic (at least for now. I'll probably edit my tags now that the exchange is over).

The Interview - @acollectionofcuriousreblogs

Summary is a longer sentence, other authors usually use shorter ones.

The way the paragraphs are spaced is very similar to her other fics

The angst is AMAZING and very similar to that one snippet I saw on her tumblr during whumptor with her OC's (which was also very well written, but also hurts??? And what happens to Sticky??? The public (me) needs to know! /lh /great writing).

The Alpaca -@lizardwoman-from-earths-core-2

Has used *** to separate lines in fics before

The fic is unrated, and some of her fics on AO3 are also unrated, which is generally rare.

I really enjoyed this fic. The line "some has Godfathered my daughter" made me laugh. 😂

Art: A Psychic Among Us - @heyitsthatonesmolgay

Has made fan art for me before (which I love😍) however, that was a pencil sketch, so it's hard to compare the styles.

You can make gifs and animations for free with fire alpaca (according to google) which I know Nick uses

The way Nick titled the fan art was to put "art" or "fan art" before the title of the art in all caps, which matches this style.

This art is fantastic, I love the animation, I love the concept, just...all of it. 10/10. Anyone in the fandom who makes art is officially a wizard in my book because I don't know how they do it.

Fairytale- @fandom-queen-13

This one gave me the most trouble out of all of them by far. At first I was 100% sure fandom-queen-13 was the one who made some of the fanart, because I have art drawn by her for my SOS fic (if you haven't see it, it's amazing!) BUT! The art submitted to the exchange didn't match the style. Also, I know Crow does a lot of fairytale AUs, and I know Sophie and I have talked about them too, so that really threw me off. HOWEVER, there were three key things about this fic that tipped me off:

1) The bold alternating text in the fic and use of ~ matches other works of hers on AO3

2) The fact that it says in the description that this fic was inspired by "@sergentsporks". There is no one with that URL on AO3 or tumblr, HOWEVER, there IS someone named "@/sergeantsporks" and I found this post: https://www.tumblr.com/sergeantsporks/695958143301255168?source=share. Only one person in our fandom liked the post. Once I figured that out, it cracked the case wide open (unless of course someone else liked and unliked the post in which case this entire guess post is completely wrong. If that is the case then um...my bad? 🤷🏻‍♀️)

3) The writing is amazing and completely blew me away, not unlike the art style I'm more familiar with. Seriously, this was a FANTASTIC concept and I loved it so much! Werewolf Kate and Milligan my beloveds!

Card Games - @ae-jurumi

This one was difficult. Once I determined that fandom-queen-13 was in fact likely NOT an artist, I was down to Amphibian and surprisingly, realized at the last minute that I forgot to consider Sophie as an artist. I've seen some art from Amphibian in the past, but it can be hard to track down because they have two blogs, and as for Sophie, she writes such great fic that I find myself forgetting "oh yeah, she's also an amazing artist, like really good???" however, I had to go with amphibious entity for this. Why? The art seemed slightly more their style, and most of Sophie's recent fics have titles where all words were capitalized.

Most seem to agree with me, as the tmbswhodunit poll had them winning for this

Has only written one fic that I know of (which was INCREDIBLE everyone read it) but the odds of them doing art for the exchange seemed higher

This art was amazing. It's so beautiful, I can't even tell if you drew it or use software to do it, but either way, it's incredible and proves my earlier point that all fandom artists are wizards.

I Have Spent My Entire Life Clamoring Towards It - @mysteriouseggsbenedict

All words of title are lowercase which Frances sometimes does

Posted to an anon collection as well as WhoDunIt and I know from the discord that Frances was worried about the fic being posted properly

Mary Oliver is a poet, and we know Frances studies library science

A wonderful and sweet fic, and we know that Frances is a wonderful and sweet person. Suspicious. /lh /affectionate

Seriously a very wonderful fic. I love anything where Nicholas Benedict is a good dad and a good mentor.

Cat Fic - @crow-in-springtime

Second word of title is lowercase, which is consistent with how recent fics on AO3 are titled

Author took finals according to the tags, and Crow is in the right age range for this

Has tagged fics "I wrote this instead of sleeping" before

Usually writes fairytale focused content (which I LOVE), however, this fic also seems very much in the wonderful adorable whimsical style of Crow

Crow also tags both the TV show and Book on AO3 (as does this fic)

I love this fic. But the cliffhanger though: what is the cat's name??? 👀

Don't Grow Up Too Fast - @sophieswundergarten

It is to my great shame that this took me the longest to guess and it might not even be correct

But it matches the technicalities of Sophie's writing: the use of long dashes, each word of the title is capitalized.

The biggest give away is that it’s one of the only works Sophie DIDN’T give kudos to, and you can’t leave kudos on your own work.

Also, the writing really does feel like Sophie. I know she loves nicknames, and the "Pen/Penny" thing is a nickname. So. There's a clue right there.

She also loves sibling dynamics, so focusing on Rhonda and Number Two's relationship fits that too.

Sophie already commented on two other fics and she doesn’t seem like the type to comment on her own fic and throw everyone off (would be impressed if she did though)

The writing leaves me with a warm feeling that I get whenever I read fluff by Sophie. So the more I think about it, there more confident I am about this guess. I think I just had to eliminate a few other choices first.

Amazing fic btw. They are such a family 🥰

And...finally...as many were quick to guess both on tumblr and in the discord:

Sirens of the Sea and Sky - @nobodysdaydreams

The Crangst (Crack + Angst) style is my bread and butter (though I usually emphasize the angst more).

It’s the longest fic in the bunch, because in classic Bods fashion, I never know when to quit. The whole paragraph of backstory was completely unnecessary.

Also in classic Bods fashion, the fic has a glaring typo (I wrote that Mermaid Curtain drove into the water instead of dove into the water. I fixed it on AO3 but not before everyone read it on tumblr. Oh well. At least this way we can imagine mermaid Curtain driving his golf cart into the sea).

Genuinely curious to know the exact moment in the fic that made @sophieswundergarten and @myfairkatiecat go "oh gosh dang it Bods" and all but @ me and/or private message me about it (as I suspected they might).

Don't judge me. This is finals did to my brain. They melted my mind. I swear, if this is the first fic of mine you've read, literally any of the other 7 works on my AO3 are so much better than this, I promise.

Really, who else could it be? Who else would do this? The silliness and absurdity haunts me like a plague. I will never be free. Never. I didn't even try to make this funny, this is just what my brain is like 24/7. I've never seen one episode of Sailor Moon and have barely watched any H2O and that was years ago. So why write that into a fic? I don't have the answer. I know not what I do. But I hope that at least some of you enjoyed it, because despite everything, I really enjoyed writing it!

Thank you @mahpotatoequeen for putting this together and thank you to everyone for your wonderful fics! When I have more time, I will be leaving comments on them all because you all are extremely talented deserve them! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 💕💕💕💕

[gemwing1988]

The Cuphead Show: Dreamstones Edition - King Dice TV Tropes

A/N: Warning, this fanmade tropes will contain spoilers. Please read with care and enjoy.

The Devil’s so-called number one with a Villainous Crush on Lexie.

Adaptational Hardcore: Zig-zags between Adaptational Comic Relief every now and then. However, when it concerns him trying to steal Lexie and keep her all to himself, he can be just as nasty as his game counterpart.

Ain’t Too Proud to Beg:

He really isn’t when the Devil being very disappointed is concerned.

Dice: (frantically pleading) Just a second chance to your number one!

He also had a panicked breakdown when Severus threatened to use Lexie’s friends (and Dice himself) as sacrifices to blackmail her into marrying him, pitifully whining that he’s too handsome and musically talented to die.

Always Someone Better:

Amusing Injuries: Being the Karmic Butt-Monkey, King Dice is more prone to a LOT of these.

Ascended Extra: Unlike the canon, Dice will make more appearances in several fanmade episodes, paving him more of as a nuisance for the heroes as much as the Devil’s a more active threat to them.

Assumed Win:

Bad Liar:

Berserk Button:

Break the Haughty:

Briar Patching:

Bright is Not Good: He dresses in purple, wears White Gloves and he’s the Devil’s number one.

Co-Dragon: With Anubis.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Hardcore:

Didn’t Think This Through: Dice certainly didn’t think his plans through when he realised he has Cuphead onstage and the Dreamstones present in the studio. He thought it was going to be an easy win when he called the Devil and confidently boasted about “capturing” and promising to deliver Cuphead’s soul and Katie to him on the phone. Also, he never stopped to think the Devil would learn about Dice’s first loss at the hands of the Dreamstones and Cuphead’s minimum competence on the show through Henchman, who is a big fan of Roll the Dice, and heard the whole event.

Dirty Coward:

A Dog Named “Dog”: He is man with dice for a head and his name is “Dice”. King is only a title.

Dude in Distress: A villainous example He suffers this in “The Isle of Severus”.

Enemy of Mine: As sleazy as he is, he begrudgingly agreed to team up with Katie, Natty, Liam, Brineybeard and the Cups, to rescue Lexie when she’s captured and forced to marry Severus in the summer special.

Entitled to Have You: No matter how many times Lexie made it clear that’s already with Liam, King Dice will stop at nothing to get her to be his gal.

Even Evil Has Standards:

Fatal Flaw:

Goofy Print Underwear: A few times whenever he loses his pants or he gets a rip in the seat of his trousers, it’s revealed he wears pink boxers with printings of dices on them. If you look closely, the pips on the dice are magenta hearts, making his under twice as funny.

Hidden Depths:

Idiot Ball:

I Have You Now, My pretty:

I Love You Because I Can’t Control You:

Ironic Name: Dice isn’t really royalty since King is just a title and partly a stage name.

It Can’t Be!:

Karmic Butt-Monkey:

Laser-Guided Karma:

Lean and Mean:

The Man in the Mirror Talks Back:

Manipulative Monster:

Meaningful Name: Well, what else do you expect from a man who literally has a dice for a head?

Narcissist: He’s so enamoured with himself that he and his own reflection flirt with each other. When it comes to practically being in love with himself, Dice would most certainly give Gaston a run for his money.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:

Oh, Crud!:

“Oh, Crud!” Smile: Dice often sports a very nervous and frightened smile whenever things are bound to turn extremely go bad for him. His reaction when the Devil tells him that Henchman is a big fan of his former show and misses an episode is a prime example, mix in with a bit of This is Gonna Suck in the adaptation of “Roll the Dice”.

Psychopathic Smirk: In the retelling of his debut episode, Dice a very nasty one he commented about a very excited and ignorant Cuphead happily claiming “he’ll get what’s coming to him” once he rolled the dice, anticipating his Assumed Win to deliver the cup’s soul to the Devil.

The Rival: To Liam when it concerns Lexie.

Screams Like a Little Girl: The authoresses couldn’t resist making him more prone to this every time he’s about to get beaten up or is frightened by the Devil’s wrath.

Slimeball:

Smug Snake:

Stalker With a Crush:

Surrounded by Idiots: His attitude towards his own minions, Jack and Ace.

Terrible Trio: With the Devil and Anubis.

Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In “The Isle of Severus”, he will begrudgingly put aside his beef with Liam, Katie, Natty and the Cups to call a truce long enough to help rescue Lexie from the villain of the special.

This is Gonna Suck:

Undying Loyalty:

Villain with Good Publicity:

Villainous Breakdown:

Villainous Crush: On Lexie, much to her dismay.

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing:

Would Hurt a Child:

You Have Failed Me:

[matchbookarmy]

The War is Over and We Are... by Hecate

Rating: Teen

Summary: After they beat Thanos, Steve and Tony muddle through what is left of their relationship.

Ending: Open/Ambiguous but hopeful with a hint of Happy for Now.

Why I'm Reccing: So, I'm not sure why this one comes up at the beginning of the alphabet. Maybe there's a space in the title or something, I don't know. But I am so so so pleased that this was the first fic I read upon returning to Stony fic.

I actually almost didn't click on it, and I waffled back and forth for a bit, because while this takes place after Endgame (edit: this was actually published *before* Endgame came out, but after Infinity War, but for me, it still works just fine with canon if we just ignore the last 15-ish minutes of the movie -- which I do!) , it is ultimately a Civil War fix-it. And I'm always so nervous with those, because a lot of them tend to paint Steve as being completely in the wrong and that's just very far from my own take.

But this fic doesn't do that! Steve feels guilt for the role that he played in Civil War, and everything that came after it, feels guilt about not trusting Tony more at the time -- but he also still has his own feelings about the things that Tony did (including in Age of Ultron). Not a lot of CW fix-its focus on the fact that it happened in the wake of AoU, and I'm glad that this one did, because I think it provides another necessary layer and nuance. Not that this dwells on Ultron, but it does come up as Steve is contemplating how they started to fall apart, and what he wants his relationship with Tony to look like in the future.

Y'all, this fic.... I haven't even finished reading it yet, but I had to start typing this up because I knew it was going to be my first rec. It is just an amazing character portrait of Steve (and also Tony, in a way, through Steve's thoughts about Tony) that feels incredibly in character for Steve in a way that stays true to who he is in canon, while also adding more depth to his character.

Since this is ultimately a reconciliation(ish) fic, it kinda gives those early 2012 post-Avengers getting to know one another vibes in parts of the fic (though everything is tinged with heartache and grief -- even the "happy" moments). Which I actually think is sort of a nice bookend to their relationship. And while this fic is short (only 4.5k) and so never actually gives us a complete reconciliation, we are left with hope that they will find their way back into one another's hearts, that they will work through their guilt, and their trust issues, and find a way to make it work this time.

I don't know. It just feels like a very realistic portrayal of where they would be post-Thanos. And the thing that I really like about this fic is that, in staying true to Steve's canonical characterization, we can feel him holding himself back from Tony, keeping his emotions close to his chest, and just how much it's hurting him to do that. In fact, we see a lot of Steve's recklessness in this fic, the way he's almost careless with himself. Steve is not a perfect character, he is flawed, and I wouldn't want him any other way, and this fic hits his flaws perfectly.

And look, I just need to add something. This fic is, in my opinion, extremely underrated. It only has 146 kudos, but whatever. I've read some truly atrocious fics with thousands of kudos, so kudos aren't everything. But when I went into the comments, the very first comments were from people complaining about the fic, about how Steve didn't do enough for Tony in the fic, and frankly being outright argumentative with the author (this argument made up the bulk of the fic's 18 comments), and that.... that really sucks. Cause this was a truly beautiful fic, and the author didn't deserve that. No author does, but it was especially shitty to see it on such a brilliant character study of Steve.

Anyway, if you give the fic a chance, and I really hope you do, especially if you are a Steve fan, please show the author some love.

~.~.~

Follow me on my journey as I make my way alphabetically through every Stony fic on AO3.

[artaxlivs]

I really really like your works. I get so excited whenever you post a new fic. You're really talented and one of my favorite writer. I'm always looking forward to a fic from you. Please don't make your talent go to waste. Please don't let negative comments to effect you.

I'm not good with words like you especially in another language but I hope you don't stop what you love-enjoy.

I don't know if the ask date posts when I answer it but this was asked/sent back on January 23rd. I didn't see it then because I was in a funk and ignoring a lot of things. I'm glad I didn't because when I started doing WIP ask games a few weeks ago as way to engage with Steddie mutuals and keep my WIPs moving along, I saw this in my inbox and realized just how much I'd repaired my mental headspace since this was sent by @free-space-4-myself all those months ago.

Back in January, mere days after my one year anniversary of writing fanfics, someone wrote an "inspired by" fic from one of mine which was meant to be complimentary but was pretty rude. Basically they said they wanted to write a more "realistic" view of my Through the Looking Glass which is a Winterhawk BDSM fic (very nsfw). I was heartbroken. I felt terrible and uninspired and pulled away from the fandom and creating. I wrote only one more fic in that fandom. A fic about how we carry words with us and even when we know they aren't true, they affect us. And keep affecting us. And I cried the whole time. Every word from start to finish, I cried. Then I cried while I edited it and I didn't send it to my perfect beta bestie @feistygina because I knew she'd tell me I'm amazing and I didn't want to hear it.

Mutuals reached out and supported me, hyped me up, sent me love, and I researched that writer and realized they were a trash person who did that kind of shit all the time to writers that I consider amazing so I knew it wasn't me or my writing, it was them. I knew it. But that didn't stop the Nothing from spreading. Didn't stop my creativity from withering up and dying. I couldn't even read Hawkeye fics anymore, they just turned to ash in my heart. I felt nothing for them. And I really love Clint Barton. I really love him. I miss writing him because he's so very much like me. He, too, was raised with bruises and hateful words. He, too, never thinks he's as good as everyone tells him he is. "The bad stuff is so much easier to believe."

So - yes, when someone hurts you, do what you need to do, lick your wounds, burn it down, scream into the void, whatever it is that helps you cleanse the rot from your soul that someone else whispered there. And then fill that space with something that heals you. For me is was Steddie. I realized that Steve and Eddie were both like me in different ways and that made me remember how much I love writing about journeys like my own. How I like to repair the damage done to other people by giving them flawed characters like themselves who deserve love and happiness. How I shouldn't care who reads it or how they feel about it because I'm one of those people, too. That what I put out into the world is for me, too.

So, thank you to every single person who has ever said nice things to any writer or artist or podficcer or creator because, yes, it takes a thousand of you to make up for that one shitty one but yours could be just the drop that the bucket needs to tip in our favor.

[billconrad]

A Writing Setback

You may recall a recent article discussing a YouTube video that trashed the movie Men in Black International. I chose to write about this criticism not because I disliked the movie but because the review revealed a significant plot problem in one of my books.

What about the people who were part of that movie? I bet they were not impressed with that YouTube video. But it was not always that way. They were optimistic at the film’s launch and felt crushed when it did not perform. The YouTube video added to their anguish by explicitly describing the film’s failures. To add insult to injury, the video generated a profit for the YouTube creator, but the movie failed to make a profit.

   Well, everybody involved in the film moved on. Hopefully, they will learn from their mistakes, and their following projects will be better. In life, the painful lessons are often the most important.

    In another article, I confessed that writing these articles is a form of low-budget therapy. So… Time to eat some crow. This article is going to be “open therapy.” Four days ago, I received edits from a professional editor. They included a detailed report on several issues. I have severe plot, character, logic, and grammar problems. To make matters worse, they were fundamental issues that were difficult to fix without a total rewrite. To further pile on the pain, I now know these flaws were also present in my other books.

    This mountain of criticism was a lot to confront, and I stopped self-editing for a few days to reflect. I was depressed, and it is now challenging to write this article, and editing has become a miserable chore.

    I again viewed the Men in Black International YouTube video and wondered what the people who were part of the movie thought about the criticism. I suspect having flaws publicly pointed out was much worse because the result was very public. Having my flaws pointed out by one person was the only bright spot in my sea of self-pity.

    I have had many setbacks during my writing adventure and even considered closing this chapter in my life. (Ha, a writing joke!) I often remind myself that a primary life goal is to start a business, and writing takes much away from that effort.

    Looking in the mirror and seeing the face of failure is difficult. “Your best is not good enough.” Of course, it is easy to deny my problems. I do not have an English degree; writing is not my career, and I went into this project knowing I would never be able to compete with the great authors.

    That’s enough self-pity. How am I going to salvage this situation? I have failed many times in my life and unquestioningly developed a recovery technique. I will gather all the information, analyze it, and form a plan. Sometimes, I talk to people about the issue but typically hunker down and work on my problems in solitude. Hence, I took a bike ride today. Yes, it helped.

    For this problem, I will fix what can be fixed and ignore the other issues. The main criticism concerns my weak characters and plot. There is not a lot I can do about that. Learn from my mistakes and try harder in the future. After all, this is life, and it is reasonable to expect issues, failures, and colossal setbacks.

    An author writes the story they want to tell. It might be pretentious, arrogant, weak, and unrealistic. However, my story came from my heart, and I based the characters on people I have met. On my bike ride, I came to a conclusion. After all that stuff the editor pointed out, I still like my plot and characters. They mean something to me; if I can make that happen with only one other person, I have succeeded.

    I certainly appreciate my core flaws. The identified flaws will take a lot of work to fix, but I never give up on a dream without a fight, even if the dream is unrealistic.

    You’re the best -Bill

    November 01, 2024

    Hey book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

    Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

[ldysmfrst]

Reciprocal Synergy (2) - Enigma

Status: Ongoing series

Chapter number: 2 of unknown

Word count for Chapter: 2,393

Work count for Story: 4,246

Genre: Omegaverse Au based off KinnPorsche: Thai BL Drama

A little about the author: I am a mother of two beautiful children, one of whom has special needs, and the other loves everyone. I started a Patreon, and I would be grateful if you donated to help me make ends meet while I am out of work.

This is the very first story I wrote. I posted it here in July 2023, but I have now edited it and finally decided to add it to my library. I hope you enjoy it. I only have two chapters written so far, but I may get back into it... once I am healed up from my hospitalization and almost dying at the start of August 2024.

Each chapter starts with a definition. (thought it would be cool) 💜💜💜

Warnings: NOT BETA READ!! This chapter does have guns, violence, Alpha, and motorcycles.

Library of LdySmFrst / Reciprocal Synergy Master List

E·nig·ma

/I’nigMuh/

noun

a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.

“I saw the video from the alleyway,” my father informed me while sipping his tea and looking over the gardens. “You trusted, asked for protection, and gave protection to a stranger. Wait… not just a stranger but an Alpha stranger. Now, you have Arm looking for him to give this Alpha stranger money you promised after he stole your watch, which is worth more than triple what was agreed upon.”

I knew all of this already, but my father…oh, my father loved to point out every flaw that he could just to show his displeasure in the turn of events. Couldn’t he at least be happy that I was trying to correct it discreetly?

“Tell me, Anikinn, what is the point of wasting resources?” With the last question, my father looked me square in the eye, the challenge simmering just beneath the surface.

“I want to uphold our honour, Pa. We never go back on a deal and who knows, he may still have the watch.”  My father nodded his head slightly, always the ever-present helicopter parent.

“Fine. Find this Alpha stranger, and pay him the agreed rate, but then you must get him to work for us. It seems he is a strong Alpha, and it is always good to have someone like him on our payroll.” My father breathed as if to say more, then stopped to take another sip of tea, seemingly to maul over a thought before stating, “Not only will he work for the family, but he will also work for you.” 

The challenge had been given. 

I may have been getting the family’s business partners to accept me in my new position. Still, I need not forget that by codes, I cannot take over fully until I have proved myself to the current head of the family, my father. 

“Understood, Pa. I don’t know if he will, but I will find a way.” I reluctantly agreed, standing to take my leave. I give a slight bow to my father, which he ignores. 

I walk out of my father's balcony and into the hall, only to be greeted by Arm with a tablet. “What is it, Arm? Did you find Jom?”

With a hasty bow and handing over the tablet, I see first a picture of some other, not good-looking male Beta named Jom, who works as a bartender at Hum Bar. 

“Who is this, Arm? You saw the footage from the alleyway. This is not the right man. He is a beta on top of it all.” I glare at Arm, who is avoiding looking at me.

“Yes, Khun Kinn, this is the only Jom that works or lives in a 15-mile radius of where you were assisted in escaping, Hum Bar. Please look at the second dossier.” He quickly states as he clicks on a different document on my tablet. 

My breath catches slightly at the picture of the Alpha stranger. 

It is only from the chest up, and he is dressed in a white, thin, and sheer sleeveless shirt failing to cover his chest, brass buttons, and a Chinese high collar. His ears are covered in a tasteful amount of brass chains. His smiling lips are covered in the same earthy brass color shimmering in the light. His eyes are done with a slight smokey shadow, which brings out the deep yellow amber of his Alpha shining through. Finally, his hair is artfully styled with white highlights striking against his deep brown natural hair color. 

Name: Porsche Gender class: Alpha (potentially Feral) Status: Bartender at Hum Bar Siblings: Porchay Gender class: Not yet presented.

Next to this one is an equally devastating photograph that seems to be of a completely different person, yet with the same amber eyes and face sneering back. 

There is no makeup, artsy hair, or see-through shirt this time. 

The photo is just him, again from the waist up but gleaming in sweat, muscles tense, taking a classic martial arts stance. The only mark on this photo is a busted lip. 

Taking a deep breath and clearing my throat, I read the dossier. 

Name: The Phoenix Gender Class: Feral Alpha Status: Former Taekwondo National Champion and current underground fighting headline contender Status: $7.8 Billion in debt collector unknown.

If I thought my breath caught on the white photo, then my breath left me with this one.

Who is he, really? 

The Phoenix or Porsche… maybe he is both.

“I want you, Pete, Big, and Ken. Then anyone else would fit in for this venue for recon. Where is he tonight? Bar or ring? I need to pay a debt and collect a life.”

“Ring, Khun Kinn, at the old condemned swimming stadium. He is headlining tonight and is up against some heavy hitters. Seems he is past due on his payment and was added to the roster for tonight while you were speaking with Khun Korn,” Arm states, taking back the tablet and tapping on the screen. 

The guards are undoubtedly being notified of their new assignment for tonight. Within moments, a loud screech is heard from the floor above.

Hanging my head, I glance at Arm, “Khun No is not having a good day I take it?”

“Well, he set up a marathon of Tale of the Nine-Tailed Fox for Pete, Pol, and myself to watch with him, and now it will only be Khun No and Pol, Khun Kinn.” Arm timidly says. 

Since he was kidnapped, my elder brother, Thankhun, has been unique. He lives his life through his dramas. His personal guard consists of Pete, Arm, and Pol. 

He will tell you that he does not trust anyone other than his family, which is not always accurate. If he didn't trust them, he wouldn’t be so dramatic when his “useless” guards get into different rotations. 

“Fine, take yourself off the list. I will have Tay and Time join me as it is in Tay’s boundary. That should be enough to make an impression and get what is needed.”

The fight does not start until late evening, and the headlining match, where The Phoenix is rostered, won't start until midnight.

That gives us time to find additional information about the venue and the other fighters. The venues are picked and announced on the same day of the fight, which does not allow any fighters to gain the upper hand or hide anything to aid them in the ring. 

However, it will take a little longer to find out who is rolling out the cash for these fights. Since the fights are being held within Tay’s boundaries, it won’t be someone out of reach. 

Then again, for the Theerapanyakun family, nothing was out of reach.

Pulling up the parking lot, the venue is a 5-minute walk to the south. The sounds of a live DJ start flowing through the air, and the lack of mixed scents on the wind with the undercurrent of peaches let us all know that they must have hired a decently large Omega Den to help keep the crowd in check. 

Omegas have a unique ability to release a calming pheromone in the air that calms everyone. It is one of the reasons why I had Pete placed on the team tonight. His scent is more like apple pie and ice cream and decently strong. 

He always comes in handy when getting answers with minimal bloodshed or calming down Khun No when his panic attacks kick up. 

Big, Mew, Beam, and Mok are all Betas. 

Tay and Time are Alphas and a mate-bonded pair. 

However, with how pretty and delicate Tay looks, you would think he was a “high-class Omega baby,” which tends to be everyone’s, sometimes fatal, mistake when dealing with Tay and Time.  

Tonight Tay is laying it on thick in an all-white suit with a thigh-high layered slit which only shows when he walks… well, more like sashays around flashing some skin. His white high-waisted jacket only closes with a single silver button, and he wears a silver lace bodice. His hair is teased up and back with silver highlights, tasteful silver and glitter dusting around his eyes, and glossy lips that would make anyone want to have a taste. 

On the contrary, Time is dressed in a deep blue suit typical for any businessman with silver accents with his watch, pocket square, and chain necklace. 

They match, but not overly so.

They have been a couple for several years now. Still, it always amazes me how well Tay puts up with Times roaming eyes and rushing fingers, but who am I to judge a mate-bonded pair. They are hard to find and rare when they are the same gender. 

I played it down tonight. I am simply dressed in tan suit pants, black penny loafers, and a black dress shirt open to mid-chest without makeup or jewelry, aside from the family ring. 

That ring is my key to everything and anything or anyone. 

It never comes off, and it never will. 

The team has opted to dress more for the outing than to be spotted as security, dressed in jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, and the like.  Everyone has been given orders to drop the formalities for the night and play as if we are all old acquaintances or work buddies when they need to come and impart any information or take direction. 

The closer we get to the venue, the louder the music plays, the stronger the scents toxify the air, and the energy of the ring creeps across your skin. 

A quick look at the team and a few of them split off in pairs, jogging through the crowd. Others hang back but never lose sight of Tay, Time, and myself. 

Looking around, the crowd is a mix of mid-game players and bottom feeders, and there is no one high-end like the three of us; so much for effortlessly blending in. 

“A’Kinn, why are we here again. This is NOT your usual scene,” asks Time, looking around with a slightly disgusted look and clinging a little tighter to Tay.

“I have a debt to settle with someone, one of the fighters, but he won’t be on til a bit later. For now, try to enjoy your beautiful date tonight. I am sure Tay will have many eyes on him.” I say while showing my heated gaze, enjoying Tay's view from his heeled shoes to the smoky silver eyes.

“Oh Kinn! You are such a tease,” Tay preens under my gaze, a slight blush dusting his cheeks. “You always know what to say to make someone feel wanted and know the work they put in to look nice pays off. If others learn the same thing, the world may not be so insecure.”

“Come on, babe, you know you look good. You always look good. Can’t you see it when I look at you too?” Time whines while burying his nose into Tay’s neck, scenting him along his mating bite and causing a small gasp to escape Tay’s lips.

“Fine, yes I can see it but sometimes words also help.”

I just shake my head. 

I never understood the point of bonds and mates.

My father always acted as if being a mate-bonded pair was the end of the world because they could make you weak and give your enemies a target with neon flashing lights how to bring you to your knees. In fact, my brothers and I are pretty sure that our mom and dad were in an arranged marriage and that mom died because she found her bonded mate and father had him murdered. After all, it would make him look weak to lose her as a wife to someone else, bond or not. 

“Hey Booouuudy.” I roll my eyes as I look at Mok, the newest bodyguard on the team. He almost slipped up calling me boss, but it was a decent save.

“Oh hey, Nong Mok, what are you doing here? Don’t you work tomorrow?” I asked to keep up the preset relationship roles assigned when everyone was briefed on the way over.

“Yeah but I switched the afternoon shift with P’Tank because I didn’t want to miss out on the Special Event tonight. Its not everyday that the main match is six to one.”  Giving Mok a slight tilt, I process what I was just told. 

Special event, six verse one, and who is Tank?

“You mean it's a gang-up on one guy?!” Time interjects, “What did that one guy do to earn such a match?”

“Word has it that Jay set this up. Apparently, the poor sap of a guy is behind on some payments, and this is how he is to catch up. The deadman’s name is ‘The Phoenix’. The dudes he is up against look like they have more than enough muscle to put down anyone here,” Mok offers, glancing around, looking like he is bored with the conversation but is really just doing safety checks.

“You mean to tell me it is one Alpha against 6 others? Are they all Alphas too, or is it a mix?” I ask, trying to keep the pit of worry and concern that has now formed in my stomach from leaking into my voice.

“Well, the match has been named ‘All-out Alpha.’ So, I am sure you can guess the answer to that question, bud. I would love to chat, but I see an old college hottie. Peace out!” Mok says as he starts to jog over to Beam, who looks stiff and cannot find a way to relax and blend in. Hopefully, Mok can get Beam to chill, or people will start to wonder.

“Umm... A’Kinn. If Phoenix is against six other Alphas, this isn’t a match. Is it a cover-up for a reminder or a beatdown, and why do I feel it's Phoenix that you owe a debt to?  Could it be because your face paled just a hint when Mok said his name?” 

Damn, Tay.

He has been my friend since primary school, and almost nothing gets by him. However, he is not wrong with anything he says. 

I am here for Phoenix. 

I owe him a debt, and we may have just got front-row seats to his murder.

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@bethanysnow @braveangel777 @danielle143

[automatismoateo]

How do I stop a hardcore, homeschooled Christian from trying to convert me? via /r/atheism

How do I stop a hardcore, homeschooled Christian from trying to convert me?

I’m an atheist, and a boy in one of my classes is really, really trying to convert me in particular, and it’s gone from “sweet that you care, but no thanks” to “I am uncomfortable just being around you” in a matter of weeks. TL;DR at the bottom.

I met a guy, Adam, at the start of this year. He was homeschooled until college and is a hardcore Christian. Very extremist in terms of beliefs. It’s also important to note that he says God speaks to him personally. He’s a firm believer that it’s his duty to convert others in our immediate class circle (about 15 of us).

It’s pretty interesting to talk to him, so most of us indulge him, ask questions, and point out flaws in his reasoning. It’s usually civil but sometimes we get heated when he claims something too outrageous (like if you don’t believe in god, racism is ok actually). Most of our talks usually end with one party (usually not him) saying that we disagree, and neither of us are going to budge on our beliefs, so let’s shut up and get back to work.

One night a few weeks ago while it was just us working, I was upset about a fight I was having with a friend and ranted to him. Afterwards, Adam sent me a long message about how God told him after I left that “he cared about me and is waiting for his daughter to come home.” Weird, but I figured it was his weird Christian way of telling me he cared about me. I didn’t want to be an ass so I thanked him very very briefly in passing later that week. Bad decision, apparently.

While cleaning out my desk at the end of the year, I discovered a wrapped package with a letter. It was (surprise!) a bible. For me!Apparently his mom bought it, felt that it wasn’t for her, and heard my name (a typical Christian name) at church and mailed it to Adam to give to me. Adam wrote me a long letter. Some highlights:

“I know you may want me to stop expressing my beliefs about God, but I care about you too much to stop”

“I love you in a way that only God could show me how. He will not give up on you, so neither will I.”

“I will never stop trying to show you God’s love”

Adam KNOWS I will not be converted. I’ve told him to his face that “the only way I will believe in god is if he descends from heaven above and slaps me in the face.” I’m also bisexual, which is a big no no to Adam and something I’ve told him is a dealbreaker for me. Almost every time we talk, I tell him that it’s interesting to hear his beliefs, but I’m not going to convert. Apparently, that was not clear enough.

I didn’t know what to do and I the idea of talking to him freaked me out. I successfully avoided him for our last few days, ignored it, and figured it would blow over during the summer.

Nope! I received another long Instagram message yesterday. Lots of bible verses, a live worship link, and a YouTube video I haven’t even opened. Some more highlights:

“There are so many things, so many desires I wish God would take away. I was furious he didn’t. When I met you, they all made sense”

“If my life had no other purpose, no other achievement, no other reason than to show you God, it would be the most perfect life God could give me.”

“I attended church for the first time in a long time. You were the only person I could think of.”

We’ve gone far past what I am comfortable with. I don’t know why Adam is so focused on me, but I want him to stop and I worry he won’t. We’re in a very small major together and I will see him every single day in class for the next 4 years, so preferably this doesn’t blow up in my face.

Please help.

Edit: ok wow, this got way more traction than I expected. I sent him a message that simply said “I know you think you’re doing the right thing by trying to convert me, but the Bible and the messages are making me uncomfortable. Please stop.” He’s seen it but hasn’t replied.

I appreciate all the advice about how to escalate the situation, and if he continues to message me I will alert faculty. For now, I’ve documented everything, told my parents and friends in class with me, and am hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.

TL;DR Hardcore Christian believes God has personally given him a mission to convert me. I’m wildly uncomfortable and want him to stop.

Submitted May 15, 2023 at 11:25PM by consistentlycrying (From Reddit https://ift.tt/GY3ij6D)

[ladyluscinia]

i'm the prev anon who sent the ask about ed + woobification and just wanted to say thank you for such a detailed reply. this might be long again lol so please don't feel obligated to reply if you don't want to but i just wanted to say, def agree that a lot of the handwavyness regarding ed comes from the fact he's barely even started his character arc; deciding what to do with him is difficult and it's simply more comfortable to ignore some or all of his flaws. it also helps that izzy is intensely unlikable to a large amount of people in the fandom for various reasons that are mostly imagined, meaning that he is sometimes relegated to a badminton like character that it is fine to do violence to, so ed's crimes against him don't particularly matter to them. which, again, i think falls into that category of genre bleed that you referenced in your reply. the anachronisms in the show in terms of societal commentary and allegory sometimes have a tendency to blur together and can be confusing for individuals who have no historical context for the time period, but imo i feel like at this point a lot of fans are patently refusing to acknowledge just how low izzy's rung on the ladder of western society would have been at that time. and assigning izzy the role of colonizer or whatever it is they're calling him now in turn leads to a distorted version of ed and a misunderstanding of his character. stede is my favorite fucked up little guy out of all the fucked up little guys in the show which is why i'm usually searching for and attempting to read ed/stede fic + successfully reading steddyhands fic and enjoying blackhands on the side, and hard, hard agree that blackhands and steddyhands shippers usually understand ed the best and that is because they are able to understand izzy accurately and usually sympathize with him to some degree. izzy is someone important in ed's life who ed chooses to have in his life, and equating him to the level of ed's father or badminton is going to lead to a severe misunderstanding of ed himself, and imo i believe the same can be said for stede; treating stede as a victim of izzy is hilarious to me when stede hardly ever even acknowledges him. which i'm sure is something you're aware of esp if you main blackhands, but i've really realized in the last two months just how connected bad takes about these characters are to misunderstanding izzy and his purpose within the narrative as well as being unable to comprehend a plethora of other aspects of his character.

(Link to Previous Ask)

Nodding along, nodding along...

Izzy really is smack in the middle of all the different interpretations of the show, isn't he? Our very own Helen of Troy, starting wars over possession of his character, except one side wants him just so they can make sure he's dead. Whatever S2 does with him is going to raze sections of this fandom to the ground. 🤣🤣🤣

Good luck with your BlackBonnet fic quest. I'm rooting for you.

EDIT: Just going to tack this clarification on here because it's pretty straightforward (ID in alt):