#plus bonus kids if we are going in that direction

[moonlightcycle571]

Jason: MORE CHILDREN FROM THE LEAGUE! HOW MANY ASSASSIN CHILDREN DO WE NEED!

Dick: WE HAVE NEW SIBLINGS AND YOU DIDNT TELL US!

Tim, already pulling out his watch-computer: So on a scale of 1-10, if we created an orphanage for assassin children, how beneficial do you think it would be?

Barbara: Probably a 6 at this rate

Damian: How odd, I do not recognise these two

Bruce: No, not that League, the OTHER league

Batkids: …

Duke: … like the Justice League

Bruce, already knowing where this is going: y e s

Expected incoherent screaming insures, cause HOW ARE TEN YEAR OLDS (we are twelve) ON THE LEAGUE (and not them)

Dick, getting smoothies after the screaming match: sooo no new siblings?

Cass: new sibling!

Mary, about to stir some more shit: I mean, technically, with a name like ours, we could be honorary siblings

Bruce, discovering that me made a grave mistake: oh n o

Billy, the original shot stirrer: Yeah! It’s litterally out last name

Batkids, feeling the foreboding: and your last name would be…

Mary: Oh right, we didn’t introduce ourselves! I’m Mary Batson, and this is my brother Billy Batson

Dick: WHAT

Damian: NO

Billy: But you know us better Captain Marvel and Miss Marvel

Steph: WHAT

Jason: NO

Tim, realising his favourite den mother from his time in the yj is all a lie: suddenly a lot of things make sense, I need to lie down

Bonus:

Alfred, having a day off somewhere in the UK: Why do I feel the urge to prepare two to three new rooms?

Freddy, taking care of Fawcette: Someone started drama without me

Talia, doing her badass assassin shit somewhere else: something just happened

Bonus 2:

All the heroes in the caped community is fighting over custody of the Marvels. Most of all the bats:

Example

Dick: Their last name is BATSON! Who they should go to is a given

Wally: Oh Please, that doesn’t mean anything. Plus they have SUPERSPEED, granted to them by the OG speed force MERCURY, you know THE GOD OF SPEED!

Or

Arthur: Atlantis would be the PERFECT training ground for young and magical warriors such as the twins

Hal: Yeah, if it weren’t underwater

Mera: Oh like SPACE is better

Or

Jon: They are basically magic, non alien, Supers! We are the best choice for them!

Damian: Such non-sense. You and your family are weak to magic. In Gotham, they would have all the ressources to learn at their disposal. (Damian learned about Tawnys existence and wants a tiger to live with them too, totally not because he got attached to the twins)

Or

Cassie, Donna, Diana, or any Amazonian in the community ever: THEY ARE LITERALLY GREEK! WE GET DIBS

Or

Jason: It’ll be so good, it’ll teach them how to shoot and everything

Roy: If they needed a marksman, I know a better family for it. Plus I got experience with Kids

Or

Constantine: ha, the old bats hates magic, no way he’s going to take in the literal champion of magic and his council

Everyone looks at him

Constantine: don’t look at me, I’m not taking them in

JL: What do you mean his council?

Constantine: I mean the other magical children

The entire community: THERES MORE

Cue more fighting. At some point, lesser know heroes got wind of this and also tried to get in the action. Then villains for some reason (I’m looking at you Creeper (and maybe HarlIvy)). None of the magic users are joining in. They know better. It came as a shock when Black Adam tried his shot of adoption. History has never seen a bigger team up of Superhero’s.

Anyways I have a lot of thoughts, and it was too much for it to be just one comment

The marvelous robins

After being found out about being children, Billy and Mary have to be trained on ther de-powered forms, since it's agreed they won't stop being heroes as their powered forms, at least they could know how to defend themselves if danger comes and they can't transform.

The idea is simple; Billy and Mary train for a few weeks on the watchtower after duty for at least 3 times a week for 4 weeks, and after that, shadow another hero with their training for another two for good measure.

The twins choose Batman after they complete their training, and become the brand new Robins.

Cut to Gotham, where out of nowhere Batman shows up to bust a drug ring with three whole robins.

Crook 1, over the phone with a drug lord:“Boss, we're done for!”

Drug lord: “What did you do? Did you run into the Red Hood?”

Crook 2, panicking: “No, but at this point, it might be even worse!”

Drug lord: “What could be worse than the Red Hood?”

Crook 1: “Batman brought out a whole flock of Robins!”

Crook 2: “Two of them are using some kind of taser-thingies, boss man! It's not looking good!”

Drug lord: “WHAT? The bat has brought out even MORE robins?! Wasn't the bloodthirsty katana one enough?!”

//

Red Hood, coming home after a good while, finding two more children in the mannor: “..Really, Bruce? Two more?”

Batman: “Hmmn.”

Red Hood, sighing, looking over to the two new children, in full Robin get-up, sparring against each other: “Where did you even get those two? Don't tell me you just snatched them from the street.”

Batman: “No, they're here because of the league.”

Red Hood: “The WHAT.”

[darknight3904]

Waiting For You

𝕊𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕪: ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇxᴛ ɢᴇɴᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴡɪᴛʜ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴀɴᴀᴍɪ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴀʟʟ ꜱᴀꜰᴇ.

𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤: ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀ ᴊᴊᴋ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ 2 ꜱᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀꜱ. ᴄᴜʀꜱɪɴɢ. ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ/ᴋɪʟʟɪɴɢ. ɴᴀᴏʙɪᴛᴏ ᴢᴇɴɪɴ. ꜰᴀᴛ ꜱʜᴀᴍɪɴɢ. ᴏᴜᴛᴅᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴢᴇɴɪɴ ᴄʟᴀɴ ɪᴅᴇᴀʟꜱ

ɪᴛꜱ ꜱʜɪʙᴜʏᴀ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ;)

ɢᴏᴊᴏ x ᴢᴇɴɪɴ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 8.4ᴋ (ɪ'ᴍ ʟᴏᴏꜱɪɴɢ ᴍʏ ᴍᴀʀʙʟᴇꜱ)

ᴀʟꜱᴏ, ꜱᴏʀʀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ɪɴ ᴀᴅᴠᴀɴᴄᴇ. ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴏɴᴇ'ꜱ ꜱᴀᴅ ʜᴇʜᴇ.

ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ ᴘᴀʀᴛ / ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ /ᴍʏ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ

2018

June

"You have to be kidding me." You sigh as you let your boys into the house.

"I'd never. I'm always serious when it comes to you. Megumi, call Shoko. She can patch you up." Gojo smiles waving the boy off

"Are you okay? I can call her. Satoru's overpowered self doesn't know what real pain feels like." You glare at your boyfriend

"I'm fine. Just watch over Itadori." Megumi says slowly walking off in the direction of his room he hasn't been inside for months since moving into the dorms at Jujutsu High

"So this... pink-haired, normal kid ate Sukuna's finger?" You ask in disbelief as you watch Megumi walk off.

"Yup. I think he's even got potential as a vessel." Gojo says motioning to the unconscious child he's holding like a sack of potatoes.

"Satoru, a finger is one thing. Twenty is a whole different story." You warn

"Did I mention he can swap with Sukuna at will?" Gojo asks

"What?" You stop in your tracks

"Cool, right? I asked him to give me ten seconds with the King of Curses and ten seconds later, Itadori here was back in control of his body." Gojo explains

"And Sukuna is okay with this?" You ask

"Oh, I doubt it. There's something special about this kid for sure though. Plus he seems like he'd be a great friend to Megumi. Seriously, that kid's so quiet sometimes I swear he's a statue or something." Gojo points out

"I'll ignore what you just said about Megumi for now. But, you realize what the higher-ups will say about your master plan to get Megumi a new best friend." You remind Gojo.

"Yeah, yeah...according to regulations he should be executed. Didn't know you were such a fan of theirs." Gojo teases

"I'm not and I know you're not either. Which is what makes your decisions so dangerous. Running around doing whatever you please will get someone hurt." You remind him

"Damn, you're a buzzkill. Too much time with Nanamin will do that to you though. We'll have to have a date night soon so I can remind you how cool I am." Gojo smiles

"Right, super cool, that's definitely why we're together." You roll your eyes, "Has it ever occurred to you that I genuinely like spending time with Nanami?"

"Well, that's just a bonus. The real reason is obviously my good looks." Gojo grins, pulling at his blindfold to wink at you.

"Wuzz happinin?" A gurgled voice sounds as Itadori struggles out of Gojo's grip and lands on the soft living room rug you had picked out with Tsumiki years ago.

"Oppsie...can't have you waking up yet." Gojo laughs before flicking Itadori's head and watching him fall asleep again

"Well, I'm off to talk to the higher-ups about him. Make sure Megumi actually calls Shoko. He tried going toe to toe with Sukuna before I got there." Gojo smiles

"I can't believe you let Megumi of all people get beat up by Sukuna." You groan walking towards the steps.

"Getting beat up builds character." Gojo reasons as he scoops Itadori back up

"Says the man who has Infinity and can teleport."

"Having him around won't be that bad." You assure the dark-haired boy beside you.

"You're kidding, right? We are talking about the same person right? Because last I checked you just said Itadori would be coming to school here." Megumi asks

"Of course we are. Besides you need friends your own age." You push

"I do have friends," Megumi said sitting down on his bed beside you

"I don't count." You smile "Also, why are you acting so cool all of a sudden? Satoru told me that you didn't want Itadori to die." You smile

"Yeah, I didn't want him to die. I didn't say I wanted him to join the school I went to." He clarifies

"Well, too bad. Satoru got what he wanted and now Itadori is officially a vessel. Of course, his threatening of the higher-ups probably influenced their decision. After all, no one's ever going to be able to beat him so arguing immediately becomes pointless." You say

"Aww talking about me with such fondness in your voice? My heart is warmed." Gojo suddenly cuts in, slowly opening Megumi's dorm door

"What do you want?" Megumi asked

"I'm here to drop off your new best friend." Gojo grins, pushing the door open fully to reveal Itadori, this time conscious.

"Hey, Fushiguro." He smiles with a save

"You had to put his room right next to mine?" Megumi asked

"Of course." You laugh standing up and crossing the room to Gojo and the newest student of Jujutsu High.

"Oh, hello, Zenin-san." Itadori greets

"Hello, Itadori. I hope Satoru has told you everything you need to know about this school." You smile

"Yeah, he was great at explaining everything." Itadori nodded

He definitely missed a bunch of stuff.

"That's great. We'll leave you two to talk. Megumi you should help Itadori unpack his stuff, you'll get to know each other better." You suggest, linking your arm around Gojo's.

"Wow a girl's close to me! I think I'm blushing!" Gojo declares stupidly beside you as he lets you pull him out Megumi's room and down the hallway.

"Is there something wrong with you? Seriously, the more I spend time with you the more I think you were dropped on your head as a baby or something." You groan in annoyance

Itadori watches his new teacher and the good-looking woman disappear down the hall, bickering like an old couple the further away they get. He swears he even hears one of them mention toenails.

"Hey, Fushiguro, they're kinda strange together don't you think?" Itadori asks

"Trust me, you haven't even seen the half of it." Megumi sighs

July

The soft beeping of Satoru's alarm is what greets you most mornings. Normally you'd lie in bed while he showered and then drag yourself downstairs and eat breakfast with him. Instead today, you're greeted with strong arms wrapped around your waist and a barrage of kisses down your neck.

"Good morning," Satoru says, his voice is deep with sleep and his white hair is a mess atop his head

"Mmm...morning." You groan, trying to wiggle away from him so you can stretch.

"Don't leave." Satoru groans

"I won't. I just need to stretch my leg feels funny." You promise

"Fine." He relents, letting go and opening his pretty eyes

"Woah, jumpscare." He says "What the hell happened to you?"

"Shut up. It's all your fault anyway!" You groan, grabbing your pillow to try and suffocate him

Satoru laughs under the pillow and easily pushes you away.

"Sorry, sorry. Guess I got carried away with the hickies last night. It won't happen again." He laughs

"You're a terrible liar." You sigh, reaching across him and snatching up his phone from the nightstand when it dings

"Who is it? Is it our little blessing telling us to stop PDAing in the hallways when you visit the school?" He asks

"You really need to stop calling him a little blessing, even if his name literally means it." You laugh "It's actually Itadori. Apparently, He, Nobara, and Megumi are going out shopping and to a movie later. They wanna know if you wanna tag along." You say

ding!

Bring Zenin-san if she's free too!

"And my presence has also been requested." You smile and tap out a reply

We'll be there at 1!

"They just want me to pay for everything." Gojo scowled

"What's the matter, rich boy? Are your pockets hurting supporting all these teens? You're the one who brings 'em home like they're lost kittens." You tease

"So mean to me! And after I gave you three orgasms last night!" Satoru laughs

"Oh please, I know we're not dating because of my stellar people skills." You remind him, poking at his face as you lie back down next to him, hoping for some cuddling before you have to get up and shower.

"You're right...It's probably your awesome tits that have kept me around for so long."

"Satoru Gojo!"

"I'm sorry but they're really great! It's like one of the first things I noticed about you!"

"Domain Expansion!."

"Wait, I was just joking!! It's also your awesome personality! What're you doing with that pillow? Stay back, demon!!"

"Where the hell are they?" Nobara groans

"Gojo is always late. I don't know why you bothered inviting him." Megumi says, his face still buried in his phone

"Yeah, but I thought since we invited Zenin-san he'd be more punctual." Itadori groans

"Trust me, when those two are together, they're anything but punctual," Megumi warns

"You sure seem to know a lot about them, Fushiguro. What aren't you telling us?" Nobara smirks, nudging her classmate

"Yeah, c'mon Fushiguro, spill the beans. That's the whole reason we invited both of them here. We wanna know what kind of a relationship they have!" Itadori says

"Why does it matter? They're both idiots. Gojo more so but still..." Megumi says

"I happen to think Zenin-san is a very respectable woman who would never stoop so low as to be romantically entwined with Gojo. I mean have you seen him?" Nobara asks

"Yeah, but have you ever seen Gojo without his blindfold? I did one time and he's totally hot! What if Zenin couldn't resist a pretty face?" Itadori countered

"I think she's stronger than that. Besides it'd be kind of crazy if two special-grade sorcerers were dating. They'd be the definition of a power couple!" Nobara says

"Yeah, but wouldn't that make them cooler than they already are?" Itadori asks

"Whatever, I just hope Gojo pays for everyone's snacks at the movie theater." Nobara says

"I'm not a walking ATM machine you know."

"Gojo!" Itadori smiles "Oh and Zenin-san is here! Perfect timing."

"You guys can just ignore him, he'll definitely pay for everyone's food." You smile

"Why are you two always so late?" Megumi asks

"You've known us for how many years Megumi? You should know that Satoru is chronically late." You say

"Wait...how many years have you known him, Zenin-san?" Nobara asks, her detective skills are on point today...

"Huh? Oh, I've known Megumi since he was six." You say as if its obvious

"What?" Nobara asks, clearly shocked

"Yeah, so has Satoru. He's actually the one who met Megumi before me. Brought him back like a little homeless kitten." You say, thinking of the day you met Megumi for the first time.

"You remember Toji Zenin, right?" Gojo asks, the phone crackling slightly as you listen to him

"I mean...vaguely. I think I might've seen him a few times around the clan's estate when I was little." You say

"Right, well he's got these kids..." Gojo trailed off

"So?" You ask, wondering if he could hear your eye roll through the phone

"I'll be there soon. Don't keep me waiting!" Gojo sings before hanging up

You groan, wondering what nonsense he was cooking up this time. Without Geto around Gojo had become a bit of a pain in everyone else's asses. Perhaps he was just lonely without his friend or maybe he really was just that annoying. All you knew was that when Geto was still here, Gojo bothered you a lot less than he did now.

"What the hell is this?" You ask twenty minutes later staring at Gojo and then at the two small kids who are next to him, a boy and a girl

"The kids I was just talking about, duh. Don't you listen? No wonder you have to study so much." Gojo taunts, pushing you out of the way and into your dorm, the kids following close behind. They reminded you of little ducklings following their mom.

If their mom was an 18-year-old white-haired freak of nature that is.

"Where the hell did they come from? You didn't steal them did you?" You ask

"You want a baby-making lesson? How bold, Zenin. I'd rather wait til' marriage though." Gojo laughs

"Can we play with that?" a small voice interjects, Gojo's crass words flying over young minds

You follow the boy's pointing hand to where your Wii console sits in front of your TV.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, knock yourself out." You say "The games are in a bin under my bed."

"They're Toji Zenin's kids. The boy is Megumi and the girl is Tsumiki." Gojo says as he watches them load Mario Kart up on the TV, bickering about who was going to get to play as Yoshi.

"You stole a dead man's children? What the hell is wrong with you?" You groan. These kids should be with the clan leader if they're orphans, not with Gojo.

"I didn't steal them. He basically gave them to me." Gojo defends

"He's dead, Gojo. He can't give anything anymore. Besides you can't just hand kids off like they're watermelons." You say

"Well he was originally going to sell them off to your clan so I'm doing them and him a favor," Gojo says

He's right, he is doing them a favor by keeping them away from the clan. Even now at 17, you can't escape how it ruins your life, just being a Zenin is terrible, especially for the girls.

"Alright well, what're they doing here in my dorm?" You ask

"I was hoping you could help me with them. I don't really know much about kids. Plus you guys are related so at least they'll know one of their relatives this way." Gojo explains

"You're joking, right? Gojo we can't just raise two random kids together." You say "Take them to some government program or something. They shouldn't grow up with sorcerers looking after them."

"Yeah about that...Megumi has the-" Gojo is cut off by a scream of frustration from the TV where the kids are playing

"You can't just let them out whenever you lose! That's not good sportsmanship! " Tsumiki shrieks tossing a pillow at what looks like two puppies that sit next to Megumi

"Holy shit..." You say, your eyes ready to pop out of your head

"Yup. Megumi here's one talented kid. He's got the Ten Shadows Technique. Something your clan is itching to get its hands on." Gojo smiles

You can hear the smugness in his voice as you begrudgingly make up your mind.

"Fine. I'll help. But only for a few years." You say casting a glance at Gojo who just continues to smile

"Why don't you ever tell us anything, Fushiguro?!" Itadori groans "You grew up with two super cool people raising you and didn't say anything?"

"I didn't think you guys would care," Megumi says

"Alright, so you guys are just what? Co-workers who raised Megumi together then?" Nobara asks

"What? No. Well, I guess it technically started that way but now..." You trail off looking at Satoru who tosses an arm around your shoulders

"We're a couple! She couldn't resist my charms!" Gojo says

"I told you, Kugisaki!" Itadori shouts in victory

"Shut up, you idiot!" Nobara groans

You laugh at the first years as they bicker while Megumi watches them in silence.

"Mmm. You're so pretty when you smile like that." Gojo says, his lips tickling your ear as he whispers to you.

"Stop it..." You say, turning away from him

Gojo laughs before pulling you so your back is pressed to his chest. He leans down and gently places a kiss on your ear, then behind it, and then another on the nape of your neck.

"Could you two keep it PG for once in your lives?" Megumi asks, his face is red with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I know you said no more PDA. Can you blame me? She's just so gorgeous. I have to remind her regularly." Gojo smiles

"I think it's kind of cute," Itadori says

"Yeah, Fushiguro stop hating on them....hey what's that on your neck, Zenin-san?" Nobara asks

Shit...the foundation that was covering the marks from last night must've smeared...

"Gross!" Megumi declares getting ready to walk away

"Hey, it's natural! How do you think you came into this world?!" Gojo defends

"Gojo, we didn't create Megumi." You remind him, watching as Nobara and Itadori chase after Megumi.

"You're telling me. No kid of mine would have an attitude like that!" Gojo scoffs

"Yeah, you're right, they'd probably be worse."

August

"You're sure keeping him here isn't going to get anyone else killed?" You ask watching as Itadori messes with Yaga's cursed corpse bear.

"Nah, I had Shoko keep his resurrection off the record. Sukuna sure is unpredictable though." Gojo says

"What about Megumi?" You ask, "He seemed really broken up about Itadori's 'death'. So did Nobara."

"They'll be fine. They didn't know him that long anyway." Gojo waves you off

"Satoru, you of all people should know that it doesn't matter how long you spend with a person. The memories existing are more than enough even if much time hasn't passed." You say, referring to Geto.

"They'll be okay, this isn't permanent. Just til' he gets a bit stronger." Gojo says

Right, getting stronger, is a constant goal for a sorcerer. You look over at Itadori who's just been punched by the bear.

"He has a lot of work cut out for himself. You sigh watching as the bear dances in victory.

"That reminds me...could you give Nanamin a call for me? I wanted to tell him about Yuji myself but he blocked me after I sent him too many memes last year." Gojo says

September

"Utahime-san, we can cut through here. I bet the kids are...who the hell is that?" You ask stopping your pace.

A skinny blonde boy is about 30 feet away, a shiny sword in one hand. His long hair is pulled back and strange pink triangles adorn his under eyes.

"He's human," Utahime warns

"Women! And they're pretty too!" He smiles, the sword in his hand glitters in the light

"Get out of the way." You say, not interested in talking, "I'm busy."

"Wahhh, so mean! That's okay though...."

A flash of blonde hair meets your eyes as he swings at your head.

"Damn, you're slow." You taunt as you move easily out of the way, Utahime close on your tail.

You have to be mindful of her. She's not one for actual fights, she's best with support. Plus, you don't want to find out if there are any more special-grade curses like that tree thing lurking behind any of these buildings. Fighting something like that didn't interest you, especially if it meant you'd have to look after another while doing so.

Maybe you could just annoy this guy into leaving you alone so you could go find the students.

"I don't think you're worth my time. Look at you you're not even clothed properly." You taunt

"You're so fast!" I thought I cut at least one of you!" He smiles

You roll your eyes, whoever this guy is he probably won't just give up. He must not be aware that he's clearly outclassed by you.

"I don't think I should even bother activating my technique to defeat you. You're like a flea on a lion's back, completely invisible." You grin before quickly closing the distance between you and him, delivering a solid right hook to his face.

Ponytail goes flying and lands on the ground, hard.

"Who said you were allowed to hit that hard?" He groaned, holding his injured face.

"I did. When I decided you weren't worth my technique. Now come back over here, I want to hit you again." You say motioning to him

"What kind of person says that?!"

Before you can get another hit in, the veil has been lifted. You squint up at the sky to see Gojo there, clearly surveying what's happening.

"It hasn't even been thirty minutes yet!" Ponytail whines "I guess I'll see you later..."

"Huh?" You turn to the guy only to see him sprinting off. "Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going-"

"Just leave him, He's not worth it, you said it yourself. Besides we should clear the area." Utahime says looking up at Gojo. "I have a feeling that that idiot is about to do something to get rid of that special grade that was in the forest."

October 5, 2018

"Do I really have to be here?" Nanami asked with a tired sigh

"Of course you do. It'll be fun you'll see." You smile at the blonde

"Last time we all went out didn't Gojo throw up on you, Nanami?" Shoko asked

"Yes. That is one of the reasons I don't want to be here." He confirms, his eyes remain fixed on you

"Oh, would you relax...besides Satoru isn't even here right now." You point out.

You wish he'd stop doing that. Nanami was always watching, it kind of felt like if you dud anything embarrassing he'd catch you and tease you for it. Not that he had ever done that...yet.

"Where is he? I thought we all agreed on meeting here at six." Mei Mei says

"Oh, he was given an extra mission today. He shouldn't be too much longer." You say

"If that were me I would've asked for extra pay. Especially if I wasn't given an advanced notice." She says

"I doubt he needs any more money at his disposal." You laugh

"You never know, what if I'm actually broke?" Gojo chimes in as he makes his way towards the table

"Well, then who's been paying all the bills for the past ten years at our place?" You tease as he sits down next to you.

"Megumi. He's got his Shikigami robbing banks for him." Gojo grins

"Yeah, okay." You laugh, shoving at his shoulder.

"Hey wanna play a drinking game? We could all name the things we love about Satoru Gojo!" He suggests like he always does when alcohol is on the table

"No!" Everyone groans in unison.

"Thanks, Nanami." You huff as you slam the passenger side door, effectively trapping Gojo in the car

"Are you sure you'll be able to get him in the house by yourself?" Nanami asks, eyeing the drunk sorcerer who has his entire face pressed up against the window

"I'll be okay...I think. Megumi is at the house with Itadori, they're having a sleepover... Not sure why they couldn't just do that at the dorms. Anyway, I'll just have them help out if I need to." You say

"Alright. I'll see you later then. Goodnight." Nanami says

He's as polite as ever as he walks down the sidewalk to his own car. Somehow you swear Nanami came into the world with good manners and matching clothes on. Seriously, how do all of his outfits always look good?

You turn your back and miss the way Nanami's eyes follow you, wishing you had taken him up on his suggestion for help. Yes, even if it meant dealing with Gojo, he'd do it for you.

"Who knew he was this heavy?" Itadori laughed as he supported Gojo's legs

"It's all those sweets he eats. He's probably secretly 900lbs or something." You groan, "Megumi are you even supporting your side?"

"Of course I am." He says, "Just walk faster, my arm is cramping"

It's an entire ordeal to get Gojo into the house. Megumi and Yuji help you toss him onto the couch before bidding you goodnight. You have a feeling they're just going to lock themselves in Megumi's room and watch horror movies for hours. But hey, what else would you do on a Friday night at 15?

"Nghhh."

Damn, you were hoping he was out for the night.

"Satoru?" You ask, crouching down to be eye level with him as he lays on his side on the couch

"Nanamin?" He asks

"Nope. Guess again." You smile

"Shoko?" He asks

"Wrong." You laugh

"I give up, tell me." He groans, his eyes remained closed as he lay there.

"It's your girlfriend." You say

"Suguru?"

Now you don't know if you should feel insulted or feel bad for him.

"Whatever. Let's get you out of your clothes and put something more comfortable on." You say, pulling his zip up off and reaching for the t-shirt he had underneath.

"Hey!" He suddenly gasps, shooting up so he's sitting upright

"What's wrong?" You ask, concerned

"I'm taken. Besides you can't just strip me without my consent. I'll call the police." He says, holding his hands across his chest like he was a woman, "No means no."

"Satoru, I'm the one you're dating. Now let's go put our pyjamas on." You say, maybe he could follow you so he could dress himself upstairs

"You want me to follow you after you just tried violating me! What kind of sick pervert are you?!" He asks, his hands remaining over his chest

"The sickest there is." You joke, "By the way you don't have boobs to cover up, stop sitting like that."

"I'm in a vulnerable situation!" He defends

You didn't have the energy to do this and drunk Satoru was driving you nuts,

"Right vulnerable..."You sigh before walking over to the bottom of the steps "Megumi! I need help with him!"

"Can I use a Shikigami this time?" The boy calls back

"Sure!" You say

A half second passes before Megumi and Itadori clamor down the steps to reappear in the living room to take in the "violated" 28-year-old manchild who remained set on remaining modest with his hands on his chest.

"Um...Zenin-san what's he doing?" Itadori asks

"He thinks he's got tits to hide or something." You sigh, too tired and a bit drunk to deal with all this.

"Rabbit escape," Megumi says, and before you know it the living room is filled with little white rabbits.

"Woah, Fushiguro these guys are super cute!" Itadori says, picking one of them up and petting it.

"Right? I was so excited when he showed them to me for the first time." You smile

"Carry him," Megumi says to the rabbits, ignoring the two of you.

The rabbits move in sync and surround Gojo before pushing him off the couch and onto their many backs so they can carry him up the steps.

"It's kind of like he's crowd surfing," Itadori observes

"Ha!" You laugh as you watch Satoru slowly make his way up the steps by rabbit back.

"Should they put him on the bed?" Megumi asked

You think about it for a moment. Drunk Satoru was always cuddly but he often vomited and you didn't want to clean that up.

"Just...leave him on the floor at the foot of our bed." You suggest

"Heh, like a puppy dog." Itadori laughs

October 31, 2018,

7:14 pm Jujutsu High

"What do you mean they're asking for Satoru specifically?" You ask looking at Ijichi, bewildered that normal people would know who your boyfriend is.

"Apparently they're calling for him. But we think it has to do with the veil that's been lowered that's holding them there." He explains

"I'm famous." Gojo declares, standing up with a grin.

"Famously stupid." You roll your eyes and Nanami lets out a hum of amusement

"She's right about that." He agrees

"You worried or something? I'll be fine." Gojo smiles, resting his elbow on your shoulder

"I'm always worried about you." You mumble

"What was that?" He asks

"Nothing." You say

"Mmmhm...welp, I'll be off to Shibuya then. I'll see you two later." Gojo smiles, leaning down for a kiss.

"I need a kiss, for encouragement." He says

You lean forward and gently place a chaste one on his lips, aware that poor Ijichi and Nanami are a few feet away.

"A real one!" Gojo groans

"All our kisses are real you fool!" You defend pushing his face away from yours

"Fine! I'll just get a kiss from whatever curse is making that barrier. I bet it'll be better than yours anyway!" Gojo taunts before walking off

You let out a sigh of relief as he disappears down the hall. Satoru was exhausting sometimes.

"How do you willingly put up with that?" Nanami genuinely asks

"I wish I knew." You reply

8:14 pm, Shibuya, Restaurant Avenue.

"You're getting fat. My son doesn't want a fat bride." A voice calls

Damn...of all places why here? You wanted to go home, shower, and watch bad reality TV with Satoru.

"Hey! What'd you just say?! Zenin-san is a special-grade sorcerer! You can't just say-"

"It's alright, Nobara. This old fool is probably so senile and drunk he doesn't know what he's saying." You say, turning to see Nabito Zenin, clan leader, and your future father-in-law standing before you.

"Naoya won't have kids with a fat woman. Lay off the noodles." Naobito scolded

"I need to buy new pants again. You have to stop feeding me all your leftovers, I'm getting fat!" You groan in front of the mirror

"You're not fat! Besides, even if you've gained a little, it just means there's more to love!" Satoru beams, wrapping his arms around you from behind, "You're as beautiful as ever, sweetheart. Besides I like curves, they're attractive! "

"Oh, fuck off. I don't plan on reproducing with Naoya anyway." You say

"Well, that'll be news to him," Naobito says shaking his head"Maki, I can't believe I'm supposed to be assessing your promotion. I plan to make sure you don't get it, by the way."

If this were a cartoon, you're sure Nobara's ears would be blowing smoke out of them by now. She's positively red with anger and honestly, it's a bit comical. You're used to Naobito's insults, and so is Maki, neither of you is going to let him get under your skin tonight.

"And how'd that work out last time you tried doing that?" Maki asks, looking at you

Naobito's face droops into a scowl. He's not happy to be reminded of his failure to prevent your promotions over the years.

"That was different. The higher-ups like that she's got a technique. You're just a brat who's good with a few cursed tools and a fancy pair of glasses." He explains

"And yet she's a higher rank than your own son is. Naoya is a Special Grade One right? Oh wait, so are you! That must be embarrassing. Last time I checked special grade is higher than Special Grade One, right?" Maki laughs

Nobara lets out a snicker but stops it from becoming too loud by slapping her hand over her mouth.

"You insolent little bi-"

Alright, that's enough. Naobito's hand that flies, ready to smack Maki, is fast but you're faster. You easily catch the old man's wrinkled wrist.

"You're getting slow. Perhaps it's all the booze you like you guzzle." You say

"Whatever. You're lucky that you're actually useful, otherwise I would've killed you years ago." He scowls, "Ungrateful bitch,"

"Mmhm, sure." You say, "Raise a hand to either of these girls tonight and you'll be sent back to the Zenin Estate in pieces. I've gotten faster and don't mind demonstrating why I'm a Special Grade, so watch it, old man."

"You've become overconfident. I think you're spending too much time with that white-haired fool." Naobito smiles

"Perhaps. Do you really want to find out though? I wonder if Naoya or any of his brothers will be concerned when the dear clan leader turns up dead." You reply

9:05pm,

"The second curtain is down!" Nobara declares

"Good. We'll move in then. Inumaki is handling evacuations so focus on any curses or curse users." You say "Our main goal is to assist Satoru in whatever way possible and get as many normal people safely out of his way."

"Got it." Maki says

"Yes ma'am." Nobara smiles

"I'm the elder here! Shouldn't I give the orders?!" Naobito yells

"Fine. What do you want to do then, oh dear clan leader?" You mock

...

"Just do whatever she said!" Naobito relents, ignoring you.

Heh. What a loser.

9:26 pm, the basement of Shibuya Station

What was this? A fake? No....he was here!

Suguru Geto was standing in front of him, healthy as ever.

"Who are you?"

"Don't you remember, Satoru? I'm Suguru Geto. Did you forget? How sad!" The imposter mocks him, and Suguru.

"Your body, your cursed energy, everything my six eyes see tells me you're Suguru Geto..."

They're wrong. Every bit of information his body is screaming at him to acknowledge is wrong. The instincts he had relied on for so many years were wrong, This wasn't Suguru. No, Suguru was gone, whatever was in front of him was no friend, and the way he mockingly said Gojo's name was perfect proof.

You can't imitate love.

"But my heart and my soul know otherwise! Who the hell are you?!"

"How'd you know?"

The stitches on the imposter's face are removed as the imposter reveals himself.

"My technique allows me to hop bodies by switching brains. I coveted this man's curse manipulation of course." The monster in front of him mocks

"Goodnight, Satoru Gojo. We'll meet again, in the new world." It bids him goodbye

"How long are you going to let it keep using you, Suguru?" He calls out to his best friend for the first time in nearly a year.

"HA!" The monster grins as Suguru fights him, amused by the struggle from Suguru's instincts.

I'm always worried about you.

Looks like you were right. You always were, one way or another.

Heh, next time Satoru Gojo might listen to you. After all, look how he's ended up.

"Gate, close."

10:20 pm, Inokashira line

Satoru Gojo has been sealed.

At least that's what you heard through assistant directors who have been feeding information the best they can.

How the hell did he get himself captured? He was untouchable, so what did he see that rattled him that badly?

"Why don't you cut loose. I'm sure you could level the playing field against these curses easily, Miss Special Grade." Naobito taunted

"Shut up!" You yell, cutting through another low-level curse

Letting loose, what a funny idea. Creating too many duplicates was bad, especially in a high-stress situation like this. What was once a support mission had just become a rescue mission.

"You know she can't." Maki defends you

"Whatever. All I hear is how special you are yet I've never seen your full technique. Kind of a waste don't you think?" He asks

He's baiting you. It won't work.

"Once we rescue Satoru, I'll show you my full technique. Perhaps one of my duplicates will kill you for me." You say

"I doubt it." He grins

"Zenin-san!" A oh so familiar voice calls out to you

"Nanami!" You greet, Thank god you're here to save me from this old man."

"Are you alright?" He asked

Always so overly concerned.

It was sweet though, you'd have to have lunch with him soon, you wanted to catch up with him, it had been too long. Perhaps you could go to a diner, Nanami had always enjoyed a good sandwich.

"I'm fine." You brush him off

"I overheard his taunts. Don't let your technique out fully unless there's no choice." Nanami reminds

"Duh, I'm not crazy." You say you say gently punching his arm.

Nanami shakes his head but falls into pace with all of you.

"You ought to turn back. Grade One is the minimum for the next battles, Maki." He warns

He's right. You had noticed that the deeper you went into the station, the stronger the curses were. You hadn't been sure what you were going to say to the girl but you were glad Nanami spoke up for you

"I'll be fine." She said

"He's right, Maki. I don't want you getting hurt." You say

"How am I going to advance if I don't challenge myself," Maki said

"Dying isn't challenging yourself." You say

"You should listen to your elders, girl." Naobito laughs

"Like I'd listen to a drunkard. I'm staying." Maki declares

When the hell was he drinking?! You swore he didn't have any booze on him.

"Were you seriously drinking?" Nanami judges

"I'm drinking for myself!" Naobito declares shamelessly.

What an asshole.

You follow Nanami down the steps, happy as a clam that there's an adult you actually like here. Sure Maki was great company and you loved her dearly but her stubbornness drove you nuts sometimes.

"Stop." Nanami commands, putting an arm out in front of you.

Then you sense it, something much stronger than the last curses is here.

"Maki, go back up those steps now." You order, making eye contact with a red and white curse.

"Hell, no, I told you I'm-"

"Quit your arguing." Naobito commands suddenly

He's stepped away from your little group and has gotten a hand on the curse

"You guys are too slow."

"Naobito wait!" You call, sensing something is wrong. The curse that put out such a strong aura just seconds ago wasn't putting it out anymore. It was letting Naobito get close to it.

Your words fall on deaf ears as he sends a punch to the curse. It flies back and spits out thousands of human bones.

How disgusting.

It's a little surprising what happens next. You watch as the little red curse crawls away from Naobito, calling out for it's comrades' names.

"What the hell is it doing? Forget it...let's kill it now." You say as you begin to walk towards it.

"How dare you kill Hanami?" It asks before beginning to shake

Oh boy...this couldn't be good.

A bright light flashes and the small red curse that once seemed wildly weak had transformed into a winged creature of sorts.

"I am Dagon." It declares

"Do you know how many frames there are in a second of animation?" Naobito asks

Great...he's going to blab about his technique now.

"If you're going to run your mouth, then you can fight it alone." You declare, not interested in assisting him

"Fine by me," Noabito says

Your focus recenters on Maki. This curse's transfigured form could be dangerous. She'd be the first to die if it really wanted to go all out so you'll have to keep a close eye on her.

You'd never admit it but Naobito's technique was impressive. Being able to break down an enemy's moves was certainly valuable. You watch carefully as Naobito punches and kicks away at Dagon who seems unable to get a decent hit on the old Zenin leader. You made no move to stop Maki as she swung at the curse, after all you knew Dagon would focus on the ones who could deal heavier damage.

"Don't you plan on helping?" Nanami called

"Yeah, yeah. I was kind of hoping Naobito would get beat up a little more though." You sigh, unsheathing your sword.

Eight of them. Eight phantoms is the number that you can control easily. Any more and they break away from your main mindset. By creating too many they gain their own willpower and goals, something like that can be deadly.

For example, if 25 Phantoms are created, only eight at a time will listen to your main body's orders. The others will access and act on what's going on around them at their own whims. If they become too free and learn to use their techniques, they can infinitely multiply and there'd be nothing you could do to stop them.

"Guess I'll start with three tonight. Let's see what you got, Dagon."

You'll start with 3 duplicates for now.

"Surround it. Hold it down." Your commands are instantly carried out as they each draw their swords to match you and begin moving towards Dagon.

"No!" Dagon calls as he takes a hard blow from Noabito

Suddenly the scenery changes from the station to a sunny beach. Damn it, this must be its domain.

Suddenly, two of your duplicates are cut down, they melt away and the last one remains to your right, awaiting orders. A nasty cut on its leg bleeds but it isn't anything fatal so it remains intact.

"Zenin-san!" Nanami's voice calls for you

A sharp pain fills your body as warm blood begins to trickle down your torso. Shit, did he just cut your intestines?

The harsher your wounds, the harder it would be to create a strong duplicate.

A barrage of different creatures are flying towards you now, almost like they're in slow motion.

Nanami said not to go all out...very well, you'll just have to push yourself to the limit of your control. There's no reason not to create 8 duplicates, even if they're hard to control.

"Get me to him." You order four of them

"The rest of you protect Maki." You say

She'll be the first to fall if you all stay in the domain for too long. Naobito's technique was protecting him and you were sure Nanami had enough strength to hold out until you were able to deal the finishing blow. Your duplicates were weaker than normal, and you sent the weaker ones to watch over Maki, you'd have to finish this fast and then get to Shoko, the bleeding from your stomach hadn't stopped yet.

"You're the weakest." Dagon declared, ignoring your charge and rushing Maki

Shit. This damn stomach injury was slowing you down. Without it, you're sure you would've been able to kill him by now.

"Maki!" A voice calls from the ocean

Megumi! Wasn't he with Itadori?

You grin as you see that Megumi has brought Maki her special-grade cursed tool. Good, with her safe that means you can make your attempt again.

With four duplicates left, Dagon is moving toward Megumi who seems to be trying to break the domain open. Those creatures Dagon likes are the perfect path to him.

Your stomach burns as you slice down a creature in your way. Nanami has moved to protect Megumi.

Heh, Megumi's going to break a hole in the domain at this rate. Maki and Noabito are behind you, ready for a quick escape. It's true none of you stand a chance like this.

Shit if only you had dodged when Nanami called to you. Three of your duplicates are dead and one remains as you call her to your side, ready to slip through the hole.

A gurgle sounds and before anyone can make a move a flash of white meets your eyes and a dead man enters the domain.

Toji Zenin is alive and well as he enters with a sinister-sounding laugh.

You watch wide-eyed as Toji uses Maki's cursed tool to attack Dagon.

"Who is that?" Maki asks

You're too shocked to answer as you watch the ghost easily overpower Dagon.

Satoru didn't let him go right? No...this was something different.

"Noabito how's he here?" You ask

"I don't know. He's been dead for years." Noabito says

Great, always so helpful.

"He's our best bet right now," Nanami says

Damnit. What kind of special-grade sorcerer were you? Getting injured and relying on some ghost to finish off a curse for you. If only you had infinity like Satoru then you wouldn't have to worry about cuts.

"It's alright. You'll have another chance to prove yourself." Nanami says, "Focus on keeping pressure on your stomach."

You glance down to see your normally dark clothes even darker with your blood.

"I'll help you get to Shoko," Nanami says, wrapping a big arm under your shoulders for support

Shit when did he get so muscular? Damn male puberty, you wished you had gotten to grow that big!

"Speak for yourself, You look just as bad as me." You say, watching as Toji sets himself up for a finishing move.

"Thanks, I love getting nice compliments from you" Nanami smiles

Before you can blink or comprehend Nanami's mood change, you're released from the domain, Dagon's body is slowly disappearing and Toji stands victorious over it.

Noabito looks ready to call out to the ghost, hopefully, to see how the hell he's alive again. You let your weight slump against Nanami, glad he's there to hold you up, even if he's badly injured himself.

It's like it happens in slow motion before your eyes. Toji crosses the room and his fist whirls back to slam into an unsuspecting Megumi. Glass shatters as Nanami holds you from running after them.

"You'd lose. We have to heal you first." He says, "Megumi will be fine."

You hate that he's right.

"Fine then lets get to Shoko and-"

The scent of singed flesh hits your nose and cuts you off, before you know it Nanami is shoving you away from him.

"It's alright." He says when he sees the fear in your eyes

Your eyes find his as your last duplicate moves in front of you to protect you. The last thing you see is the fire that covers your last close friend from your teenage years.

The hot blaze from the fire dries the tears that threaten to fall from your eyes as your head hits the floor, your duplicate is there, you'll have to leave everything to her.

May 2005

"Did you hear about the new student that's joining us? They're from the Zenin clan." Haibara asks as they walk toward their classroom

"Yes, I was there when the announcement was made." Nanami reminds

"Yeah, I know, I'm just excited. I hope they can get along with the second years. It would suck if we all had to stop hanging out together." Haibara says

"I dunno. Seeing Gojo less actually sounds appealing." Nanami says

"Yeah but wouldn't you miss Geto-san?" Haibara asks

"Maybe. He's better than Gojo." Nanami admits as he takes his usual seat, casting a glance at the new desk that has been added to the room

Yaga enters soon after and behind him a small form follows, practically hiding itself behind their muscular teacher.

"Introduce yourself," Yaga says

Nanami watches as the figure stops its hiding and introduces herself. Pretty hair catches his eye as she sits down next to him.

"Hello."

It's in this moment that Nanami knows you are going to be at the center of his attention from now until forever.

July 2006

"Is it possible to die from lack of ice cream?" You groan from your spot on the floor

"It would certainly be a new way to die," Nanami says, as sweat trickles down the back of his neck.

"What the hell is taking Haibara so long? The corner store is only 10 minutes away!" You whine covering your face with a towel that had been wet with cool water.

Nanami is equally uncomfortable and overheated as you but for a slightly different reason. It was the hottest day of the year, of course, you were entitled to wear a tank top and shorts, he'd never want to limit what you dressed yourself in. After all it was your body, not his.

The big issue was that the amount of skin you were showing was hypnotizing to the 16-year-old boy. It's not like he was trying to only focus on the way your body looked, it's just that his eyes kept drifting over there!

"Sorry, it took so long! I dropped my wallet on the way there!" Haibara greeted as he pushed your dorm room's door open

"Next time send a text. I thought I was going to die." You say, immediately reaching for your ice cream

"Are you alright, Nanami you look a little red..."Haibara observes

"I'm fine." He lied, keeping his eyes away from you.

August 2007

Nanami isn't sure what to do. You called him here probably so you didn't have to be alone but what should he say? He felt frozen as he took in your appearance.

To keep it short, you were a mess. Used tissues were on your overflowing nightstand and you were wrapped up under your blankets. Were you even aware he had entered the room?

"Hey..." He said quietly

"Nanami." You greet, turning over to face him from your blanket mountain

"How are you?" He asked awkwardly as he sat down on the floor next to you so his face was even with yours as you lay in bed.

"Terrible." You say quietly

"Me too." He agrees

"You look better than me." You observe

"I got most of my tears out already." He explains, thinking back to the long shower he had taken

You let out a soft hum of acknowledgment and your hand appears from your blanket burrito. Without thinking Nanami takes it in his bigger one.

"It sounds stupid to say but he's in a better place now." Nanami assures

He hated when Geto said that to him earlier but now it was the only thing he could find in his muddled brain.

"It still hurts though." You say

"...I know."

September 2007

The sun was setting when he finally caught up to you. He was worried when you ran off after he read the report about Geto to you. A warm breeze fills his lungs as he watches the scene in front of him unfold.

You hand Gojo a lollipop and settle down next to him on the stairs. It's inappropriate but jealousy burns hot in his stomach as he watches Gojo rest his head on your shoulder.

"I'm sure you'll see him again. Even if it's not for a long time, you'll talk to each other again." You say

"Yeah, I hope so," Gojo responds

Nanami watches as your eyes remain fixed on the saddened white-haired sorcerer. He understands now, Kento Nanami understands that no matter how he chases after you, your eyes will always be fixed on something far up ahead. Satoru Gojo has won you from him and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

February 2015

Nanami isn't sure why he agrees to babysitting the kids you and Gojo took in. Perhaps its because they're fun to be around, not that he'd ever admit it.

"Can we watch a fun movie tonight?" Tsumiki asks

"Yes. If you finish your dinner." He responds as he drives, "And all your vegetables."

"Can we watch Hotel Transylvania?" Megumi asks

"No!" Tsumiki groans

Nanami tunes out the Fushiguro siblings as they launch into a debate about what movies are good and which ones aren't. Apparently, Hotel Transylvania has been dubbed dumb by Tsumiki.

His mind wanders to you and how you smiled and thanked him for helping out tonight. He said it was no problem and reminded you they were welcome any time at his house so that you and Gojo could get some alone time.

He doesn't know why he said that, especially since he easily figured out what kind of night you had planned judging by the racey dress you had on when you walked the kids out. Seriously he thought he'd be feeling some sort of jealousy but instead, he was just enamored with you.

Maybe he just wants to feel useful to you. Afterall, your recent promotion to Special Grade Sorcerer has left him feeling rather weak compared to you, like he wouldn't really be of use if you were ever in real danger. Because if you couldn't win a fight, how would he? Being a rank lower than you it would be impossible.

As he drives Nanami decides that if there were ever real danger, he'd hope that he would be able to keep you safe from harm, even if it were just for a second. Yes, he'd be satisfied with something as small as that.

11:14 pm- Dogenzaka, in front of Shibuya 109

He feels a sense of accomplishment as doom looks him in the face. The curse in front of him doesn't scare him, even as he understands that this will be it.

You had been perfectly unharmed when he woke up before he walked all the way down here. Your duplicate must've taken the fire from the curse that had touched him. She had done her job well and Nanami wished he could thank her. Of course, it never would've occurred if he hadn't pushed you away from him. For once he was glad he let you go. After all, there were so many times from before that he hadn't.

One day he'll meet you again. Perhaps then he'll tell you his true feelings until then though you'd have to wait. It was only fair, considering how long he had waited for you.

"Itadori, you've got it from here."

Next Part

Series Masterlist

Guys, I swear this is still a Gojo fic, not a Nanami one.

Taglist

@polarbvnny @r0ckst4rjk @dann-acalle @bakedpotato12 @my-xoxoxox @desideriumlove @starlight5cat

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

It's raining jql! Hang onto your butts because this is a jam-packed post. We now have three shows airing weekly on Gaga, plus several fan subbers making our dreams come true. What a time to be alive.

Takara's Treasure

I love them, your honor. This show is from the same directing and screenwriting team as Our Dining Table, so it should come as no surprise that the characters immediately endeared themselves to me. Taishin is a lonely boy still mourning the death of his beloved pet bird and latching on to the senior who was kind to him in his low moment. Takara is a reserved tsundere who seems a bit taken aback by this weird kid who followed him to university, but Taishin's sincerity and gentleness is working on him already. It doesn't hurt that Taishin is not faking his interest in the things Takara loves, that boy is an amateur botanist. This one is going to be so much fun, and almost certainly make me cry. Can't wait!

I Hear the Sunspot

These two already own my heart. I loved that we took the time to get to know Kohei better at this early stage and understand how isolated and excluded he has felt since he began experiencing hearing loss. He needed someone loud and straightforward and unapologetic like Taichi to barrel into his life and pull him back out of his shell again. I was so relieved when Taichi confronted him immediately about his avoidance and cleared up the idea that he only wants to see him when he's being fed. The joy I felt seeing Kohei laugh and finally relax and play a simple game of basketball with his peers was immense. I could gaze at his smiling face all day.

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko

Holy shit, I love this show! We begin our story with a makeover, and it only gets better from there. Adapted from a manga, this is an age gap office romance between an experienced lesbian and the purportedly straight junior who is in love with her. Hiroko is everyone's favorite boss at work, but she keeps her private life separate, so her colleagues have no idea she spends her nights at the local lesbian bar or that before work got so busy, she was a consummate party girl. Ayaka fell for her after an act of kindness, and she is on a mission to get Hiroko to take her seriously, but her perceived straightness is getting in the way. Shenanigans ensue! This show is charming as hell and so genuinely funny, and Hiroko is an instant fav.

Bonus: Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka

Episode 9 has is now available on @isaksbestpillow's blog, and besties, Daichi and Madoka are getting married!!! The way I lost my entire shit when this happened, you have no idea. I was carrying on so much I had @bengiyo worried something terrible happened, but THE VERY BEST THING HAPPENED.

Ahem. This was another fantastic episode! Makoto accompanied Mika to the Random show, where he developed his very own bias and a newfound respect for the power of kpop. Mika got to share the story of how her fandom saved her in a low moment, Moe and Makoto had a heart to heart about her lack of desire for romantic partnership and the expectations he should let go of, and the entire family is getting along so much better than we could have dreamed a few short months ago. And just as the fam was headed out for parfaits, Daichi appeared and expressed his own desire for a family, Madoka took the hint from the universe and proposed, and we all collectively held our breath and cried and cheered when Daichi said yes. What a fantastic show, I really cannot believe this drama exists.

Bonus: Zettai BL 3

And to complete this week's fan subs, @ikeoji-subs has begun posting A Man Who Defies the World of BL 3. Head here to find the latest, and if this is the first you're hearing of this series, mosey over to Gaga or Viki to watch parts 1 and 2 first! The episodes will be dropping over the next week or so, and I will share more complete thoughts about the season once they're out!

[absolutebl]

Ranking Every Restaurant Based BL

As of August 2024. Shows not yet finished by that date are not on this list. Otherwise, features any BL set in the restaurant & beverage industry (that I've watched). I did not include the home cook domestic BLs on this list (like Our Dining Table).

1 To My Star

Korea 2021 Viki

10/10

Hwang Da Seul directing this show about a neurotic actor (actual puppy) who takes refuge with a grumpy chef resulting in sparks, cooking lessons, and LOVE! It’s is a touch quirky to get into, but utterly charming once it hits its stride. This is the ultimate grumpy/sunshine pairing plus the most appealing light-filled kitchen of our dreams. I adore this show so much. Limited use of BL tropes makes this feel more of a sweet contemporary gay romance between an actor plagued by scandal and the grumpy chef who adopts him, but the gentleness will appeal to fans of the BL genre.

2 What Zabb Man!

Thai 2022 YouTube

8/10

Star Hunter's WZM was better than we had any right to expect, with decent pacing and a foodie theme threaded through the narrative as both love language and plot driver. Basically CEO falls in love with a street vendor’s food, recruits him to work in his hotel, falls in love with him, and that’s just the beginning. Class struggles! Kitchen drama! Papaya pounding (not a euphemism)! Chef poaching (not literally)! Spicy scenes (yes both kinds)! It’s all so delicious.

3 DNA Says Love You

Taiwan 2022 Gaga

8/10

Okay it's only in a cafe about 1/2 the time but it is the main setting if not the plot. DNA deserves extra marks for an upbeat approach to a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled with sadness (in the guise of realism). There is a twist, which I found predictable, but knowing what would happen didn't spoil this show. The leads are luminous and engaging, and it’s full of queer found family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. The first few eps are rough going but have patience, it's worth it I promise! The second half is really special and life/love affirming - and the end is big-grin charming.

4 The Tasty Florida

Korea 2021 Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/38119c-the-tasty-florida

8/10

Not really a love triangle featuring the prettiest men ever to be grouped together outside of K-pop, honestly the visuals are ridiculous, there’s a story, it has to do with food, whatever, they so pretty. I have a weakness for this BL and it's entirely Speed's fault.

5 My Day

Pinoy 2020 YouTube

8/10

The set up on this one is enemies (also boss/employee) and they don’t like each other to start. But that gets resolved pretty quickly. And then they are some of the cutest, hottest, and best boyfriends ever. This is an under-appreciated BL, IMHO. It's also more set in the office of a food creation company, but there is a lot about food.

6 My Tooth Your Love

Taiwan 2023 Viki

8/10

Earnest dentist hottie with sad eyes who worries too much is smitten by an adorable sunshine neurotic bar owner with serious anxiety issues. They fall madly in love while courting each other with food, plushies, and naps. Then, shocker, talk about their feelings and try to actually sort out their problems so they can have an adult relationship. Bonus crumbs = 18 year old poor little rich kid in mad crush with a much older man. I really enjoyed this show, it had a unique premise, killer dialogue, there was a solid lead pair with charmg chemistry, soft flirtation, delightful smiling kisses, and stinkingly cute domesticity. All that said, I wasn’t wild about some of the darker themes it explored, even though it did a good job with them. And while the sides were adorable, they were underused. In the land of May/December, baby boy kabedon is my kryptonite! Why so little of it? (Kabedon is My Krytonite = also the name of my indie band’s first single.)

7 All the Liquors

Korea 2023 Viki & Gaga

8/10

A pretty classic foodie set KBL that managed to distinguish itself from others in this category by having a particularly satisfying final episode centered around found family. Sunshine sweetie soju rep gets involved with a shy introvert chef who doesn’t drink. This has a somewhat uneven plot and ridiculous central conceit (much in the way of Tasty Florida), but if you are looking for a restaurant BL with Korea’s signature softness, then this is a great option. FYI I may identify with our baby party boy hedonist more than any other BL lead ever presented.

8 Although I Love You and You - Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka

Japan 2024 Gaga

8/10

The promise of this show, younger cook courts older divorced office worker, should have been my catnip. I mean if someone pitched this to me in an elevator I would have downloaded it by the second storey. Unfortunately, it did not exactly fulfil that promise, not in the way I'd hoped. Did I still enjoy the ride? Yes, but I feel a little let down.

9 Ocean Likes Me

Korea 2022 Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/38367c-ocean-likes-me

8/10

Stars Kpop’s best known out gay singer, Holland & Han Gi Chan (Where Your Eyes Linger). Noodle shop! Broken dreams! This is a solid little KBL, with a good premise and cast. Manic pixie dream boy can get old fast but when contrasted with awkward grumpy chef? It’s a tasty combo that elevates both ingredients. Holland is a charming screen presence - baby boy is HYPNotiC. And while I wasn’t entirely sold on the chemistry, these two did give us some very good kisses and sweet domesticity. I grinned through most episodes and I didn’t even mind the standard KBL 1 year separation at the end because it felt so true to the characters. Is this Korea's first out gay actor in a BL? I think it might be.

10 My Sweet Dear

Korea 2021 Viki

8/10

I liked this one a lot better than most. Strict professional rivals (chefs) in a very enemies to lovers BL - to the point where we mistrust the sincerity of the seme because he’s so very in it to win. I kinda like that, because kitchens are hotbeds of drama, and I like a seme with some sinister edge. But be warned, it means the whole romance comes off as a little disingenuous.

11 You Are Ma Boy

Vietnam 2021 YouTube

7/10

The leads in this drama crackle on screen together and I kinda adore them. No one has seen this BL, and you should really give it a try. Is there angst? Nope even what could have been angst (a gay idol) doesn’t materialize, it’s just cuties in a cafe confusing each other with cat & mouse games. The side het couple is a touch disturbing, tho.

12 My Lascivious Boss

Vietnam 2021 YouTube

7/10

While it did have pacing issues and some questionable content at the beginning, MLB’s unabashed queerness carried it though and ultimately elevated it with camp. It never felt like mockery or punching down, it felt joyful, and very new wave BL. It’s as if Vietnam is starting a process of handing out HEAs to all the letters of LGBTQ+ in BL style - I love this look for them.

13 Pure Vanilla

Singapore 2023 microfilm Gaga

7/10

It’s very sweet. Bit awkward acting. I love seeing real tats. I wish Singapore would give us a full proper BL.

14 La Cuisine

Thai 2022 Gaga

7/10

A sweet and somewhat pure show, and like the Thai desserts it features, perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on a bad girl character, I did dock it. But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would.

15 My Universe - Lucky Love

Thai 2023 iQIYI

7/10

A boy suffering heartbreak is asked to look after a friend's restaurant, and meets a young chef whose food brings on a relationship. I enjoyed this 2 part installment, it’s a bit of a sad sack recovery SAGA, but the acting is genuine, the couple believable, and the story felt particularly queer to me. It was really quite charming.

16 Cooking Crush

Thai 2024 YouTube

7/10

1/3 of this is a sweet romance about a student doctor falling in love with a student chef, and the rest of it is utter dross. Look the OffGun bits were GREAT. In fact, I think they’re better AS A PAIR in this show than in any of their other BLs. And I'm a hard sell on any OffGun being better here than PickRome. Saying that, how can I review a show where I could only tolerate 1/3 of it? Because I didn’t like any other aspect of this show, no other pairs and no other plots. That gives me: 9/10 for the OffGun bits, 5/10 for everything else. Frankly, it probably should be an 8 but I gotta go with my gut and it's UPSET about this so 7/10. Sorry boys. It’s GMMTV’s fault. Your heart was in this show, mine wasn’t.

17 Love in Translation

Thai 2023 iQIYI

6/10

A sweet little pulp about a Thai boy with a crush on a Chinese influencer who ends up in a business relationship with her ex-bf. This show had truly great chemistry between the leads, cute found family with good rep, and an exciting (if silly) ending that almost, but didn't quite, make up for how incredibly annoying the main character was in the first half. Gotta say the make-out scene in the convenience store is one of the greatest in Thai BL history, but I can't like a show where I dislike the main character to such a degree, sorry DouOffroad I intend to enjoy your next offering.

18 Please Tell Me So

Korea 2021 microfilm YouTube

Cute barista (played by Han Hyun Jun star of Love Class) has a crush on his customer, musters up the courage to ask him out.

19 Love Advisor

Thai 2021 microfilm YouTube

6/10

Set in a cafe but not about cafe workers, this is an actor’s piece, more like a one act stage performance about friends to lovers and miscommunication.

20 VIP Only

Taiwan 2024 Gaga

6/10

A sweet if aimless story about a writer and a chef finding love via noodles, fake dating, and family challenges. If it had a tighter script and a shorter run, more like a KBL this might’ve been quite special. But it didn’t and it lost me too many times.

21 609 Bedtime Story

Thai 2023 WeTV

6/10

Okay it's sometiems set in a club but that's not really part of the... plot. An interesting time slip concept and a great set up ultimately disappointed. It opened strong, on one of my favourite under appreciated Thai actors: Plustor (as Vee) in a side bartender romance with younger bisexual king, Games. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. OhmFluke’s solid chemistry and romantically soft kisses were ill served by a reformed rake meets rich-kid cheater pairing. While it was nice to see Ohm play a part with more animated facial expressions, his was the only character that remained consistent. All in all, this was a confusing show about disloyalty and parallel worlds that never made sense or stayed true to its characters. A promising start, confusing middle, and disappointing end. I don’t say this lightly, but Oh My Sunshine Night is better, and OhmFuke deserve better than either.

22 Bake Me Please

Thai 2023 Gaga

6/10

A lackluster story about a group of bakers coping with (mostly) a shoddy script that could not be saved by either the beauty nor the talent of the actors involved. It suffered for lack of narrative backbone and so did I.

23 Bite Me

Thai 2021 Viki

6/10 (yeah I'mm surprise too, I thought I gave this a 5)

Thailand gave us Korean style slowly simmering ultra soft and sweet BL only at a Thai length so the pacing was… not good. Slower than molasses and full of insane subtext, long gazes, missing dialogue, abrupt mood swings, and one very pretty kiss. It curdled around episode 8, the sauce split, and there was no saving it. It did have some of the best food porn I’ve seen in my life, and I watch cooking shows regularly. It was beautiful, the leads were decent, it should have right up my alley, and yet… it left me with a feeling of disaffected ennui - bland and boring and unsatisfying. 11 courses of tasty tasty pacing issues.

24 One Last Order

Korea 2019 microfilm Gaga

5/10

Extremely hot cafe customer has to figure out which of the cutie baristas has a crush on him and sends hime poetry.

25 Craving You

Taiwan 2020 Viki

5/10

Honestly, I haven't rewatched this since it aired and I maybe might cut it more slack now. About a jerk of a cook with a crush on a musician and having to make a cake for a gay wedding.

26 Coffee Melody

Thai 2022 Viki

5/10

Stars Pavel (my love) as a cafe owner (Forth in 2 Moons 2) and Benz as a composer (Call it What You Want). This should have been my kind of BL - on the fluffy end of the spectrum plus honestly queer. Unfortunately, the slow pacing, manufactured angst, odd secondary story arcs, and a selfishly immature unlikeable wet dishcloth main character, meant its flaws outweighed its charm. Jean (flame on snark fairy) is ME, I love him so much but in the end neither he nor Pavel in an apron could save this show for me. It’s not bad. It’s not good either. Ultimately so forgettable I’ve probably already forgotten it. There is also a Coffee Melody holiday special.

27 Evening Cafe

Thai 2021 YouTube

5/10

Cafe setting with no heat and no kisses (almost Chinese in this regard), but a decent lead pair. About a boy who works in a cafe and the new employee who has a crush on him. That’s it, whole story.

28 Love Area: Part 1

Thai 2021 Gaga

5/10

It ended on a cliffhanger and I'm still annoyed by it. But it is somewhat set at a restaurant.

29 Love Next Door 2

Thai 2014 Gaga

4/10

One of Thailand’s early very high heat pieces, it’s odd, but sexy I guess? Some unexpectedly decent queer rep at the cafe including femme characters getting screen time and HEAs. Part one from 2013 has the same high heat content and feature the same lead character (and actor) early on in his queer journey, discovering he is gay with the sex worker next door, but isn't as good nor is it relevant to this story. Which, unfortunately, also isn't very good.

30 The Promise

Thai 2023 WeTV

4/10

Although well acted this show dragged a too simple premise out into the ultimate manipulative miscommunication repeats of idiotic "why don’t you just TALK!?” Phu & Nan are childhood bffs through college (almost lovers) until Phu disappears. After looking/waiting for him, Nan gives up and self isolates, and the actual story takes place 10 years later. Phu’s “reason” and inability to say it out loud makes the whole show just frustrating, squandering good chemistry, and a stellar cast of multiple faen fatals (whose personalities would’ve made them better boyfriends). Seriously do not bother. What a damn waste of talent, time, and electronic bandwidth. Fatally flawed.

31 Love Area: Part 2

Thai 2022 Gaga

3/10

It wasn't as boring as Bite Me, but it wasn’t actually good, either. This started out as Thailand tackles love triangles pulp style, but in part 2 lockdown changed everything. Valen & Kaitoon dropped some great kisses but traded off crazy hair and makeup in a scene-by-scene whiplash that was clearly pickups done months after lockdown, and the second lead vanished. It was... surreal. Side dishes jumped up screen time but tackled mental health... badly. A fantastic new queer side character was randomly introduced, June, who was the best thing to happen to BL linguistics in 2022 but had nothing to do with the rest of the cast, show, or plot. What a mess. In the end, I didn’t know what I was watching, and neither did it.

32 Cafe In Love

Thai 2023 grey

3/10

A café setting featuring 3 couples with a great queer fam but held together by tropes and sexual-harassment, surrounded by dubious consent and statutory rape. Avoid.

33 I Am Your King 2

Thai 2019 grey

3/10

Early love triangle BL about a cafe boy caught between two brothers, mostly not good because the wrong brother wins. Has no connection to the original I Am Your King.

34 Senior Love Me

Thai 2023 YouTube

3/10

Pulp cafe, nothing happens, not even a BL

35 Jealousy is My Guest

Korea 2016 microfilm Gaga

2/10

Just very very odd and kinda deadly.

I also have 3 unrated DNFs in this sub genre:

Accomplishment of Fudanshi Bartender AKA Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami - Japan 2022

My Story - Pinoy 2023

About Us but Not About Us 0 Pinoy 2022

Restaurant & beverage is my favourite possible setting for a BL. I'm extremely disappointed that the BL world hasn't produced more that I truly love. I'm not demanding 10/10 but I could use some 9/10s.

Side eyes Thailand and Japan.

(source)

[outmakingmoonshine]

(Some of) my hopes (and some theories) for S3

The number 1 thing I want is a scene after Nat's had her baby where Carmy sees Syd holding the baby and his entire world stops bc that's all he wants for his future 😭 If Sydcarmy kiss or something I'll be happy and I'll reblog every single gif of it like a normal person BUT if we get a Syd holding the baby scene I'm gonna be uncontrollable on every social media platform available. I might even post it on Reddit and watch the meltdown! This is where the bar of my expectation is for S3. If we get this (or anything remotely like it) I'll be so satisfied, any other good thing that happens between Sydcarmy will be a bonus for me.

We know we're getting a Syd x Pete scene and I want a Carmy x Pete scene where Pete's talking about how great Syd is and Carmy can't help but warm to him a bit more. The potential relationships between Syd x Pete and Pete x Carmy are so important to me 🥹 my three awkward, anxious lonely babies (Pete's not lonely now but I think he probably was once upon a time and the Berzatto men singling him out of the family must make him feel lonely and not good enough :( I love Carmy but I will fight him for Pete's dignity and honour!)

Putting the rest under a cut because it's mostly just my musings and ramblings

I want Nat to say something to Carmy about his relationship with Syd. Nat saw their dynamic before Claire came, she saw Syd's reaction to Claire, how sydcarmy's dynamic changed when Claire was around and how Carmy ditching her made Syd feel. She didn't witness all of that for nothing. Someone's gotta tell Carmy how he's been (unintentionally) making Syd feel and I doubt it'll be Syd.

I need to see Richie start respecting Pete at least a little bit. Carmy's already kind of made a step towards respecting and even appreciating Pete for who he is a bit more but I need to see it from Richie too because I'm pretty sure he's the one who leads that little mob mentality against Pete. Even if it doesn't actually happen this season, I need to see it heading in that direction because Pete doesn't deserve all this slander 😭 I need Richie and Carmy to start seeing that the only difference between them and Pete is that he's mature and confident in who he is. They're both not confident in who they are so their only way of feeling like they're above him/better than him is to make fun of him for it. (IRL grown adults with this infantile mentality get on my last nerve so I need to see them come to a realization soon.)

I want Donna to make amends and start finding peace. I know she's technically an antagonist in this story but it really bothers me the way people dismiss her as if she's some monster like we aren't watching Carmy treat the people he loves the exact same way she does. If we can empathize with a man for his toxic behaviour we can empathize with a woman who was going through her own trauma and loss while she had 3 kids (plus Richie) to look after. Any parent who welcomes another person's child into their family unit for years and makes them feel like part of the family despite whatever she's going through, isn't a monster imo. I know she traumatized her kids but honestly, most parents do that and have no remorse about it. Donna has remorse for her actions and the effect it had on her kids. And what is Carmy doing to Sydney's self-esteem and confidence right now? He's definitely not helping it! l If I can forgive Carmy because he's acting on his trauma and I understand he's not just a horrible person by choice, I can do the same for Donna. I know some ppl just don't like JLC because she's pro-zionist (idek I just saw this online somewhere?) which I understand but at the same time, the actress is seperate to the character. Donna's favourite person in the world is gonna be her beautiful black daughter in law! She's gonna love and appreciate Syd so much.

I want Donna's story to end with her starting to heal so people watching this show know that even late in life when you've made all the worst mistakes and inflicted your pain on others you can still heal and try to right those wrongs. It's never too late to start being a better person. This wasn't meant to turn into a rant about Donna but I think the way some fans talk about her character is so unfair and narrow minded because they don't keep the same energy for Carmy.

Some of my theories for S3

I know no one wants to hear this but I think 3x09 Apologies will be an apology to Claire where Carmy finally comes clean about why he gave her a fake number and why he can't be with her, putting an end to romantic Claire/Carmy for good. If we see the end of Claire in the first few episodes I'll be happy but I doubt they'll waste the "suspense" of Claire/Carmy vs SydCarmy by ending it 3 or even 4, 5 episodes in. I don't think she'll be in all 9 episodes leading up to it tho (please no, I love Molly but that's way too much of Claire.)

JAW said during awards season "Claire deserves an apology" which seemed random to me at the time because no one asked him that, he just brought it up and we all know Syd is the one who deserves the biggest apology from Carmy. Idk if they were filming S3 yet when he said that but he already knows where the story is going. Actors don't just play character's "blind" without knowing something about where their story is leading, especially main characters.

I think they'll do the Syd/Claire switcheroo and make it seem like Carmy's going to apologize to Syd (because it will be glaringly obvious he needs to) but it'll be him telling Claire the truth and ending things with her. Idk if Syd will get an actual apology (it would mirror 1x08 where Marcus got the actual apology and Syd didn't even though she probably deserved it more) but I think we will get some kind of super intimate heartwarming/heartbreaking scene from sydcarmy in that episode, just like 2x09.

Also Ayo said something like sydcarmy fans won't get what they want in S3 and it's the one time I actually believe her.

I think we're going to get some amazing sydcarmy scenes in S3 but I don't think it's going to end well for them. I think S4 will mirror S1 and build their dynamic up again back to what it was before Claire came in 2x03. I think S4 is gonna be THE sydcarmy season.

I'm in two minds about whether Syd will sign the contract or not. I'm leaning towards no because despite it meaning Carmy can't just leave again, going off to do whatever he wants with "wHoEvEr" and she'll have his full focus, I just don't think she wants a legal contract to be the basis of why they're committed to working together. Syd's never tried to tie Carmy to her so I don't think she'll appreciate him doing it to her. Carmy's doing this out of desperation, not out of purely wanting to collaborate with her and Syd will sense that. I think Syd wants him to want to work with her. That's why she never actively tried to get him to stay and work with her in S2 and she could've been way more direct and harsh than "I need your focus like you need mine", Lord knows he would deserve it but she isn't trying to force him. That's why she never made him feel bad about being with Claire either even though he ditched her for Claire right when they were getting closer. She doesn't want to guilt trip him or make him feel like he owes her something, she wants it to be his own decision. She wants him to show that he wants it just like she does. And he does...but he just doesn't know how to show it in a healthy way and toxicity raised him so I can't blame him.

Idk what's gonna happen between Syd & Marcus or Syd & Luca but I don't think it actually needs to be romantic to make Carmy jealous, especially if he and Syd aren't seeing eye to eye. I don't think it's necessarily gonna be romantic for Syd either, even if they see her that way. Just like Carmy didn't really see Claire romantically (in present day anyway) and I will die on that hill. That man had zero romantic interest in her despite literally kissing and having sex with her. It was more like he was just going through the motions of a "normal" relationship than it being something he genuinely wanted. Why does he show SO MUCH want and desire for Syd but not a single iota of the same for Claire?!

Seeing Syd get close to any other man is going to bother Carmy regardless, especially if he knows the man is attracted to her. But I feel like Syd is a 'connection before anything else' kinda girl (Carmy is too, that's why having sex with Claire literally sent him into a spiralling panic attack the morning after) but Syd doesn't have the exact same issues and trauma that Carmy has so I can't see Syd being with or sleeping with someone she doesn't feel connected to like that. I could be wrong but I can't see her changing her mind about Marcus and suddenly dating him at this point. She seems like someone who knows what she wants and won't settle for less just because it's available. (Not that Marcus is "less" than anyone, my sweet little cherub.) I could see her feeling a connection to Luca though, he's basically a calm version of Carmy that pays attention.

Ayo basically saying in an interview that Will Poulter pays attention to her instead of his phone was such a random piece of info imo. I get it made context in the story she was telling but it just seems like such a deliberate pointed thing to bring up knowing right now in the show Syd doesn't feel appreciated or listened to by Carmy. She could've answered the question without mentioning Will at all tbh, and even if she did mention him she didn't need to mention all of that, give us a whole backstory and everything, idk. This might be a reach but I'm pretty sure they give out of context clues like this in interviews, they definitely do it in the show so I wouldn't be surprised.

I think it was a clue about the dynamic between Syd and Luca in S3 and the difference between Carmy and Luca is Carmy's unfocused and makes Syd feel like he doesn't listen to her but Luca makes her feel like he pays attention to her. I still don't think this needs to be in a romantic sense but I'm happy for Syd to get some TLC from a hot blond guy with tattoos before Carmy sees sense.

Idk we'll see how that story plays out in S3 but if the fact Luca pays attention to her is a plot point (even a subtextual one) I'm taking that story from Ayo as an out of context spoiler.

I love Marcus and I adore Lionel BUT I just can't see Marcus and Syd being together. Their vibe is so brother/sister to me that it would just be weird at this point in the show imo. The same way sydcarmy ending the show only ever being "platonic co-workers" would give me weird inappropriate vibes about their dynamic throughout the show. The romantic dynamic between sydcarmy and the platonic dynamic between Syd x Marcus are kinda set in stone imo, especially after S2. It'll be very difficult from a literary standpoint to drastically change those dynamics in a believable way and keep the quality of storytelling and integrity of the show intact at this point. It's not impossible, I just don't think it's likely at all.

I'll be honest, I'm not looking forward to Marcus's storyline in S3. My mum died when I was young so seeing kids (even if they're adults) attending their mum's funeral on shows/movies always makes me emotional, especially when it's a character I care about. (If we get a flashback of Syd at her mum's funeral I might actually die of sadness bc I'm not ready for that! I've had enough time to accept I'm gonna see Marcus's mum's funeral but if they spring Syd's mum's funeral on me too it might actually break me idk.) I am looking forward to seeing him be supported through it though and other than his mother's funeral storyline I'm excited to see where his story goes in S3. I feel like Carmy's gonna be an asshole to him if he starts getting closer to Syd and while I love the angst and jealousy of SydCarmy he better not hurt Marcus's feelings or be too hard on him. I can't wait for some Marcus x Luca scenes too.

I nearly forgot the loml, Tina! I'm so excited to see her story in S3, idek what to expect other than her backstory episode that Ayo's directing 🙌🏽 but I'm sure I will love it. Liza does so well in this role at making me feel things (all of the cast do tbh but Liza as Tina just plucks my heartstrings on a different level.)

If you read this far, thank you I appreciate you 💛

[em1e]

⠀めぐみ // CAUSE FOR CONCERN ⠀ ༝ ༝ yan!megumi fushiguro ⠀ ༝ ༝ 6k words baby ⠀ ⚠︎ modern!au + camp counselor!au + MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH + emotional manipulation ⠀ — itadori thinks counselor (and his best friend) megumi has a crush on you.

you’d like to think the summer was off to a great start. 

you got a new swimsuit, got a farewell bonus from the place you’d been working at since you were fifteen, an acceptance letter to attend a college you were really hoping to get into, and even met some new friends at the orientation for the school! you had everything you needed down to the ‘T’; your transcripts looked divine, some extra college credits under your belt from taking advanced courses in highschool, except . . . 

you didn’t have all the community service hours required to officially guarantee your spot at the school. 

but it’s okay! summer lasts for two months for a reason - your spot will be held until the very last minute, and thankfully one of the friends you’d met at the orientation was in the same boat as you! 

nobara, your savior and self-proclaimed bestie, brought up a camp she’d been going to since she was a kid – jujutsu camp (though she notes how there’s no jujutsu taught there), and now that she’s graduated from high school, she’s able to become a counselor! gives her something to do for the summer, and she gets the community service hours she was missing. win/win. 

she sends you the email to apply, and less than 24 hours later, you’re sending her a screenshot of your acceptance into the counselor biz. 

for the next month and a half, your time is to be devoted to making sure kids aren’t drowning in the big lake at the center of the camp, wandering too far into the surrounding woods, or hurting themselves on the trek up the beautiful mountain for weekly picnics. 

it’s nice and relaxing, more of a vacation than an actual ‘job’, aside from the occasional tummy-ache complaint or the reprimanding to not play with the fire from the pit —- plus, nobara was able to introduce you to some of her friends who were also counselors this year! 

itadori yuji and megumi fushiguro; the three had apparently been inseparable since grade school, joined at the hip and friends for life (despite the many groans and complaints nobara would throw their way about being annoying and smelly). 

the time in the woods is calming, too, aside from the bugs and your irrational (totally rational) fear of the dark when it creeps around, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think camp counselor and naturalist megumi fushiguro might have a growing crush on you. 

at least, that’s what camp counselor itadori whispers to you at the bonfire while helping you set up for the s’mores session before the kids are due to leave. 

he laughs when you shove him away with a roll of your eyes, almost dropping the box of chocolates he’s holding, “i’m serious! i’ve never seen him go outta his way like he does for you.” 

again, you roll your eyes because the words leaving his lips are completely and utterly ridiculous, “name one time he’s gone out of his way for me.” 

he takes a second to think, tapping his chin as if you’d asked him something complex, “when we go on the walks, he always makes sure the two of you are paired together-” 

“because you and nobara hate walking up to the cliff,” you argue with a small laugh. 

“-and he holds the doors open for you anytime, anywhere-” 

“so being nice suddenly equals love interest?” 

“- how about the way he checks you out in your swimsuit?” he grins at the way you flush and shove him again, “or how he’s checkin’ you out now?” 

still, with warm cheeks, you risk a glance behind you and see megumi is in fact staring in your direction, though his cheeks light up red at being caught, looking away hastily to give his attention to a camper who’d been talking to him prior. 

when you look back just as quickly to itadori, he has a shit-eating grin on his face that leaves you throwing the bag of marshmallows in your hands at his face to avoid it, “whatever, still doesn’t disprove the fact that everything else you said was from him being nice.” 

“be in denial all you want,” his grin returns while he opens the bag, popping a marshmallow into his mouth and talking around it, “but i know my friend, and my friend likes you.” 

another roll of your eyes and you snatch the bag from him with a pointed finger, “you are very annoying, has anyone ever told you that?” 

“among other things, like charming, sweet, attractive-”

you pull one of the marshmallows out of the bag and hit him square in the forehead, and while he voices his complaints about you being so very mean, you can’t help but take another risky peek behind you, cheeks warming all over again when you see megumi’s got his eyes back on your form. he doesn’t look away like before, holding your stare until you return to the task at hand – hoping itadori doesn’t pick at you for the way your hands shake. 

by the end of the week, there’s not a single camper still on site; everyone under 18 escorted back home while every counselor remains to clean up the area - the intent to make sure the woods were just as clean as when you arrived in the back of your mind with every piece of trash you pick up and every cabin you clean out. 

it amazes you what some kids leave; there’s a bet going on for who can find the most interesting thing and so far nobara’s in the lead from finding not one, but two retainers, though you’d like to think you’re close to taking that spot after discovering a porno magazine someone left between the mattress and wooden bed frames of the bunkbeds. 

(how the kid got their hands on it, you don’t know, and frankly you don’t care, you’re just glad you found it so you’re at least on the board for strange things). 

“lookie what i found,” you hum out, magazine pinched between your gloved fingers before you toss it onto the picnic table your three new friends have settled around. you rip off one of the gloves and toss it on top of the magazine, letting your open palm hang above it as you wiggle your fingers, “better pay up now, ‘m sure none of you guys will top me.” 

itadori picks the magazine up with the discarded glove, careful to not actually touch any part of the paper, while you stand proud - elated even when you see how his eyes almost light up at the sight. 

he whistles low, letting the booklet drop back down onto the table, and nobara scrunches her nose in distaste, “you didn’t have to drop it on the table. we eat here, y’know?” 

you wave her off and slide in next to megumi while taking off the other glove, ignoring the way itadori’s eyebrows shoot up, no longer interested in the magazine with the potential love drama unfolding in front of his eyes. 

“we’ll wipe down the tables before dinner, i’m sure,” then you bump megumi’s shoulder with your own, “you find anything as cool cleaning out the other boys’ cabins?” 

“hardly,” he rolls his eyes. you can see a light pink dusting his cheeks. itadori leans forward in his seat, “found some abandoned socks and underwear with more holes than i’d like to ever see, though.” 

you laugh, sweet and genuine, “you could’ve used that, would’ve beat itadori’s weird love confession he found in the arts and crafts room that was for you, might i remind.” 

megumi’s cheeks brighten to red while he clicks his tongue, “don’t remind me. i dunno why those fourteen year olds thought it’d be genius to make those.” 

“so there was more than one?” ever the analyst, you pick apart his words with that same teasing smile, “i’d kill to see the others.” 

even with flushed cheeks, he remains unresponsive to your taunts, “three total,” he corrects, “i threw them all away.” 

“not all.” itadori grins, fishing into his pocket and pulling out the folded one he’d submitted as his ‘strange thing’, “‘megumi, i know you’re so much older than me, but you’re so cute. please like me back - check yes or no.’ (y/n) should take some notes.” 

your own cheeks brighten at the sudden jab at you, and while nobara gags and stands to dismiss herself from the area being ‘too cringey’, you’re jumping across the table to swipe at itadori. 

itadori who practically cackles as he makes his escape, narrowly dodging your attacks and slipping from the table before you have a chance to land any blows. 

when he’s too far from your reach, you flick him off and mumble something about how he better sleep with one eye open tonight. although he doesn’t hear what you say, he wiggles his eyebrows at you and megumi, before winking and disappearing towards the lake. 

“he’s annoying.” you comment after a moment, tapping your fingers against the table before you lean forward to prop yourself on your arm, looking at megumi. 

his cheeks have faded back to the soft pink from before, hands in his lap while he picks at his nails, “very, but you get used to it. it’s part of his charm.” 

“among other things,” you mumble almost bitterly, waving away how megumi’s eyebrows raise in question. “don’t worry ‘bout it. can’t believe we’ll be outta here by next week. i think i’ll miss this place.” 

“could always come back next summer,” he shrugs, and the movement makes his shoulder bump with yours, “i think they’re always lookin’ for help.” 

you smile at the invitation, “i’ll have to make sure a month and a half of my summer is free next year.” 

“i’m sure you’ll enjoy the break from classes.” megumi shrugs again, before he stands and gestures to the magazine still on the table, “are you um . . . gonna keep that ‘til the end of the week?” 

you scrunch your nose at the thought, shaking your head as you also stand, “no way. all three of you guys have seen it, so it should be proof enough right? figured i’d just throw it away after i showed it off.” 

megumi hums, picking it up with the glove before tossing it into the nearby garbage can, “sounds fair to me –  don’t expect anyone else to beat you, anyways.” 

you giggle and the sound has megumi looking away quickly, “i should get going, i told nobara i’d help her finish cleaning out the rest of the girls’ cabins.” 

he nods, understanding, “i’ll see you later?”

“for sure.” you promise with a wink, before you’re heading off in search of nobara. 

⠀ ༝ ༝ 

“where the hell is itadori?” nobara groans, practically drooling from the feast laid in front of her. 

the last night of camp and he’s decided to disappear when the senior counselors revealed there’d be a huge bar-b-q as thanks for helping out. 

and they wouldn’t let you start until everyone was accounted for. 

you swat away a mosquito before it can land on you with a frown, “why couldn’t we eat in the mess hall? the bugs are so much worse at night.” another swat in front of you. 

megumi offers the bug spray he’d just put on himself, and you take it with a grateful smile. 

“none of you guys have seen itadori?” gojo, senior counselor and owner (you think?) of the camp asks as he approaches the table. 

“not since this afternoon,” megumi recalls, “we cleaned up by the lake.” 

“i see . . . well,” gojo glances to his side, eyes meeting one of the other senior counselor’s, “this could be a cause for concern.”

your brows furrow at his whispered words, “sorry, concern?” you parrot, “do you think he’s like . . . hurt or something?” 

“i’m sure it’s not anything serious,” he assures, if only to try and calm your nerves, “itadori’s always been a good camper for as long as he’s come here and he’s got good survival instincts-”

“are you saying he needs them right now?” the worry in your voice is palpable, it forces gojo to slide into the picnic table just as senior counselor nanami kento stops at the end beside him. 

“it just means if something has happened to him, he’s better equipped to survive.” gojo explains further, and it does nothing to quell your increasing anxieties. 

“but-but if he’s hurt or something, we should go look for him, shouldn’t we?” 

“in the dark?” nobara protests half-heartedly. you can see she’s worried too, from the way she frowns, how she picks at her nails, “i-i’m sure he’s fine, (y/n), there’s no reason for us to stress when he might just be holed up in his cabin or the bathroom or-” 

“but he’s not,” you argue, gesturing to the two older counselors, “i mean, surely they’ve checked for him there, right? what if he’s hurt and-and afraid and-” 

“hey.” you jump when megumi speaks beside you, from the hand pulling at your own to unclench your first and stop yourself from digging your nails into your palm, “he’s okay, ‘m sure of it.” then he looks at gojo, “do we need to go look for him or something?”

“i think it’d be wise to,” he stands from the table, then looks at nanami, “but we can’t force you guys - ‘specially since it’s dark and risks one of you potentially getting hurt, too.” 

“i’ll go look,” you stand, too, and gojo clicks his tongue. 

“not alone. we use the buddy system, remember?-”

“i’ll go with them.” megumi stands as well, still holding your hand, “should be easier with more eyes, anyways.” 

you almost smile at the gesture, though you’re sure his volunteering is partially because he’s also worried for his best friend. 

“‘kay,” gojo shoves his hands in his pockets, nodding his head to shoko, who claps her hands and announces everyone else can eat, “we’ll get some flashlights and radios for you two and a map of how far you can go.” 

you offer what smile you can muster to nobara, who only returns it with her own hesitation, mumbling a small ‘good luck’ as megumi guides you away by the hand to follow gojo. 

nanami is the one who breaks down the forest to the two of you, explains how to know if you’ve gone too far, and warns, “stay on the trail. especially when you go up the mountain – don’t want you falling down it.” 

gojo passes the two of you flashlights and your own radios, “we’ll check out the left side of the woods, don’t go past the fence line, okay?” 

the question is directed at both of you, but it’s megumi who answers, “we will.” 

nanami and gojo guide you to where the woods become thick, just before the trail splits off to two parts, “keep the radio on channel one and please answer when we ask for responses, or we’ll think we’re looking for three of you instead of just one.” nanami instructs. 

you and megumi nod, looking at them for a second longer before the pair of you follow the trail to the right. 

you’d been walking for maybe fifteen minutes, flashlight beams breaking through the greenery while you call out for itadori and . . . it’s scary. even with megumi at your side, the dark eats away at every part of the world surrounding you that the light can’t touch, and it’s only aiding in increasing your anxiety with the branches that snap under your feet. 

and then you see the mass in the middle of the trail. 

“megumi . . .” blindly, your hand reaches for his, squeezing tightly when you grasp it. 

he turns at the feel of you holding him, beam from his light following the shake of your own until both fall on the lump of clothes. 

“i-is that . . .” you’re whispering, words catching in your throat at the sight. 

he steps forwards, almost protectively in front of you as if it’d prevent you from seeing what your eyes have already taken in, “itadori?” 

you can still see just past megumi, how the lump doesn’t move, “yuji.” he tries again, hesitant steps pausing in front of him. 

your shaking hands reach for the radio tucked into your back pocket, fighting with yourself from how badly you’re trembling, “g-gojo? nanami? w-we um . . . oh my god—we found itadori . . .” 

the radio makes a noise as one of them begins to reply, “where are you guys? is he okay?” 

gojo, you think. your ears are ringing. it’s hard to hear, and you feel bile rising in the back of your throat. megumi nudges itadori with his foot and his body rolls over limply. you turn around before you can see how it settles on the ground. 

“--hello? megumi, (y/n), we need one of you guys to answer. where are you?” 

“the base of the mountain,” megumi’s saying into the radio, an arm wrapping around your shoulders and pulling you to his chest so your face is hidden away, “we’re at the base of the mountain. where the trail breaks off to go up to the cliff.” 

the radio clicks and your gasping for air is the only sound that surrounds you, until megumi’s prying you away from his chest to force you to look at him, “--ook at me, hey. it’s okay, it’s gonna be okay.” 

his assurances go in one ear and out the other, but they do well to stop your heart from beating out of your chest, keeping you from the dreadful sight until the flash of gojo and nanami’s lights bristle you out of his grasp. 

“you guys find him like this?” gojo asks and nanami moves closer to the body of your friend.

you feel megumi nod, “i pushed him over with my foot to . . . to see if he was . . . “ 

“the two of you should go back to the cabins,” nanami says, and there’s no room for argument from the way his gaze pierces you, “do not say a word to anyone, not until we talk to the proper authorities.” 

again, megumi nods, and he guides you away from the area on shaky legs, keeping you tucked under his arm as if that’d somehow protect you from what’d seen. 

“look, there’s pieces from those fences at the top of the cliff,” you hear gojo say as you depart, “you think he leaned on it and it just gave way? they are pretty old, rickety.” 

nanami clicks his tongue, “not sure. we’d need the police to investigate.” 

megumi’s grip around you tightens, pulling you closer. 

you can’t find your appetite when you’re back at camp, despite the fact that nobara went out of her way to set aside three plates worth of food. megumi picks at what he can, but is ultimately in the same boat as you after less than five bites, and nobara frowns at how strange the two of you are acting. 

“did you guys find him?” she asks when you’re back in your shared cabin, with the lights off and your back to her in bed. 

“i . . .” you start, closing your eyes before shaking your head from the images that appear behind your eyelids, “i can’t say.” you offer finally with a shuddering exhale. 

as if she understands what you’re implying, she only says a small “oh . . .” 

and the room fills with a silence that neither of you can find it in yourselves to break. 

the next morning, there’s cops teeming all over the campsite, and it’s shoko who pulls you from your cabin, puts you in one of the offices you’d never had the pleasure of going into, with megumi and a cop already waiting for you. 

he makes you recount the events from the night prior, going over every detail multiple times until your hands are shaking and tears well in your eyes and it’s megumi who regards the man with a frown, “we’ve been here for two hours and we’ve told you everything we can. can’t we mourn our friend without you guys pressing us?” 

the cop regards him for a moment before his eyes roam over your form, taking in the tremble of your lip, how you dig your nails into your palms, how the tears that were welling in your eyes spill suddenly over your cheeks, and how you hastily wipe them away with a sniffle. 

he clicks his tongue, but waves his hand towards the door regardless, “you can go. we’ll be in contact if we have any more questions.” 

you’re still fighting tears when megumi walks you to the door of your cabin; it’s almost noon, with the sun high in the sky, and every other younger counselor had been dismissed probably an hour prior, nobara included. you still needed to throw some stuff in your bags to finish packing, but you practically crumble when megumi closes the door behind the two of you. 

 and he holds you gently, so very softly while mumbling over and over how it’s going to be okay – he’s here, everything will be fine. 

⠀ ༝ ༝ 

a terrible accident — the newspapers read, headlining articles written about the horrible incident occurring to a frequent camp goer and dear friend to all. a terrible, horrible, no good accident.  

it leaves you swallowing hard from each news station covering it, flipping through channel after channel until you're forced to settle on a kids show; barely comforted by the familiar characters on screen like you used to be. 

yuji really likes this show, you remember dully. how the two of you got into a heated argument about whether the main character would’ve gotten with his best friend or the very clear love interest (and your personal favorite) that the creators put in place. 

a frown tugs its way onto your lips, turning off the tv and standing at the sound of knocks at the front door. 

when you pull the door open, you find nobara standing behind it, her lip pulled between her teeth and picking at her nails. a nervous habit? 

“hey . . .” she clears her throat, “i um . . wanted to talk to you about something.” 

less than a week later, you, megumi, and nobara meet up for dinner in honor of itadori at nobara’s apartment. you spend the day watching his favorite movies, playing his favorite games, eating his favorite foods . . . it’s bittersweet, a lingering ache in everything you do without him. 

as the night concludes, with the three of you sitting at nobara’s dining room table finishing up a game of uno, she drops the news to megumi. 

“(y/n) and i are gonna attend a school in okinawa.” she says casually, shuffling the cards back into the deck so you can continue drawing for the +8 you’d been saddled with. 

you had seventeen cards now, a stack compared to the six in nobara’s hand and the two in megumi’s. 

he pauses for a second, blinking as he processes the statement before– “uno.” he calls, dropping a +2 to the top and tilting his head, “why okinawa? isn’t that a little far?” 

little is an understatement. just short of a two day trip, and far away from the reminders of your lost friend. a new start, even. something that could aid in preventing from seeing his body laying limply on the earth's floor everytime you close your eyes–

nobara clicks her tongue, drawing the two cards and raises a brow at you as if to ask if you have anything to intercept his potential (inevitable?) win. you can only shake your head. 

“that’s kinda the point,” she says with a sigh, “i wanna get out of tokyo and (y/n) got an acceptance letter from there, too, so we wanna try out the first semester together. see if we like it or not. we’ll be roomies” 

you debate if you should draw an extra few cards to get something to fight off his win; to give you and nobara (mostly nobara) a chance against him. 

“what about your majors? thought tokyo had the best for both of you.” he eyes you with a poker face, taking in how you scrunch your nose in thought. 

“this school has those same programs,” you explain softly, flicking through your cards one more time, “maybe not the best, but they’re good.” 

you reach forward and draw. once, twice, five times, before you pull your very own +4. 

a smile forms on your lips, unable to hide your pleasure in the draw, and place the card atop the others. 

“red.” 

megumi grins at your excitement, but it seems to grow when you take in the fact that he isn’t drawing the four. he wouldn’t. 

he does. 

he flicks his last card onto the pile as he stands. +4. you groan. nobara voices her complaints. the cheap bastard would save a draw card as his last, and she says as much while he packs away what items he’d brought over. 

unfair, you think with a scrunch of your nose, and slimy. 

megumi walks you home after the game, hands stuffed in his pockets and slouched from carrying both of your bags, despite your protests in being more than capable of carrying your own. the two of you had gotten . . . closer, through the tragedy. he checked on you more often than not, would come over to your house when you wouldn't reply to make sure you were out of bed at a decent time. it was sweet, in a way. 

“so, you guys are really gonna go to okinawa?” he asks to break the comfortable silence that formed between the two of you. 

“mhm,” you nod, skipping over a crack in the sidewalk freely without the weight of your bag holding you down, “nobara came to my house the other day and we had a long, teary convo about it.” 

“just gonna leave me behind, huh?” 

though you’re not facing him, you can hear the way he’s almost pouting, and when you do spin on your heel, there’s a smile teasing its way on your lips, “you could come with,” you offer, “we can get an apartment off campus together, do cute picnics after class. the whole shebang.” 

“but we could do that here,” he argues, “dunno why you guys have to go so far.” 

you frown, steps slowing to a stop in front of him, “i don’t really know nobara’s reasoning, but . . i can’t stay here and pretend like we didn’t see him like that, ‘gumi.” 

he pauses when you do, towering in front of you despite still slouching, “but you have me here.” 

you look away from the sadness creeping on the edge of his voice, guilt eating at you, “i-i know, and i’m happy i do, i just . . i think we need a new start, or at least some time away from here?” 

away from you is all he hears, and the comfortable silence breaks into awkward tension when his frown only grows. 

“don’t look so down,” you nudge his shoulder softly, offering a small smile in hopes of him returning it. he doesn’t, “it’s not like we won’t come back here, or won’t make plans to visit.” 

he swallows hard and nods, taking the first step forward to continue the trek to the train station. 

the tension remains as you board the train, as you sit in one of the unfilled chairs with megumi looming in front of you, holding onto the railing to keep himself steady standing and almost protectively in front of you with the bustling of people getting on and off. 

and it builds until he stops at your door, offering your bag to you and pausing when your fingers brush against his own. 

his hand twitches at the contact, and you open your mouth to say your thanks for walking with you even though his own home is in the opposite direction, a completely different train ride away, but he grabs your wrist and pulls you down from the stoop you’re standing on, pressing his lips to your own gently. 

your eyes widen a moment, before they flutter closed, letting your bag fall between the two of you to cup his cheeks. 

it’s sweet, soft, and leaves you chasing after him when he pulls away, but he puts his hands on your hips to keep you in place. you brush your thumbs across the tops of his cheeks, head tilting at what this could possibly imply. did he really like you? like how itadori said? 

“everything’ll work out.” he says as he leans down to grab your bag, pressing the strap into your now open palm. he gives another quick kiss, one you don’t have a chance to return, before he walks towards the station without looking back. 

⠀ ༝ ༝ 

it’d been almost four days of nobara not returning your calls or texts. she needed space, maybe, sure, time to process other emotions and fully take in the decision to move so far away, but not showing to the lunch date the two of you had been so excited planning? that stung. 

you give her the benefit of doubt, still, after waiting two hours at the diner and getting looks of pity from the waitress who you think suspects you’ve been stood up on a date. you pay your bill (though you’re given a discount, a small sorry it didn’t work out written on the receipt with a frown), and take the train to nobara’s apartment. maybe she’s just been feeling sick. 

you knock on the door, wait all of five minutes, and stomp your foot childishly when there’s no answer. a call to her phone, and you can hear it ring somewhere close to the door. obviously she’s been up and moving, if it’s just been left in the kitchen or maybe the dining room? but it rings out and you frown at the thought of her ignoring you. had you done something wrong? another knock before you try the handle and — 

to your surprise, it opens. 

weird. sure, her neighborhood is safer compared to most, but she’s living alone; you’d have to warn her about locking the door. 

you push the door open and peek inside, greeted immediately with the confirmation of her phone sitting on the kitchen counter, along with what you can assume is last night's dinner still on the stove and the dirty dishes that came with making it. 

again, weird, because if spending a month plus with nobara taught you anything, it’s that she’s a neat-freak who flipped out when you accidentally left your dirty clothes on the floor of the cabin. 

“nobara?” you call out. there’s a pit forming in your stomach, incoming dread looming around you that doesn't go away with each step you take into the apartment, with each call unanswered. 

the tv’s still on in her bedroom. you can hear it playing the theme of a show she was telling you about – insisting you needed to watch it, but you could barely make it past the first episode. 

“nobara.” you call out again, tiptoeing down the hall until you stop at her door, barely open. it’s dark in her room, the light from the hall spilling in from the crack. still, no response. 

you knock on the door as if that’d create a reason for conversation, “are you mad at me or something?” 

the impact of your fist pushes the door open further and you sigh, closing your eyes before ultimately deciding to force it open the rest of the way. 

there’s a lump of blankets on the bed that leaves you blinking back tears at the familiarity of the situation. but you’re not in the woods, you’re not fighting off bile rising in your throat, it’s fine. you reach for the light, flicking the switch one. 

“nobara? you feelin’ okay?” 

a hesitant step closes the distance between you and her. still nothing. 

“this isn’t funny . . “ you mumble, pulling off the covers and stumbling backwards at the sight. 

puke pools around her on the mattress, and she’s so fucking pale under the yellow light overhead.  a bottle of pills lies scattered on its side, a handful spilling out, and you can only guess where the rest are. 

you gag, slapping a hand over your mouth, forcing whatever wants to come out back down to turn on your heel and bolt out of the room to call the cops or the paramedics or the fucking firefighters, if they think there’d be a chance of reviving her. 

they can’t. the cops told you as much when they arrived on scene before they took her away in a bodybag, and you’re practically inconsolable when you reach the police station. 

a suicide, they’d ruled it from the pills and the note left on her computer. 

something about not being able to bear the idea of living without her friend, the stress of the world being too much . . you weren’t paying attention to the details when they’d read it aloud to you and you don’t think you could stomach reading it on your own. 

you text megumi through tears what happened after an officer drives you home, and he’s at your house holding you while you sob in less than twenty minutes (which is amazing in itself when the trains usually take 30 minutes to run on a good day). 

he orders take out that you can’t find the idea of eating appealing, but he ends up putting the leftovers (the entire order, really) in the fridge. when he sits back on the couch, he pulls you into his side with a kiss to your hair and a frown. 

“don’t have to worry ‘bout her,” he mumbles, “‘m sure she went peacefully . .  the drugs probably numbed her.” 

you close your eyes as he speaks with a sniffle. he’s probably right, you think, the cops mentioned something similar as a way to maybe make you feel better about the whole situation. it didn’t . . but how would megumi know about the drugs? 

you sit up slightly, pushing yourself out from under his arm with furrowed brows, and his own raise in question at your sudden movement. 

“what’s wrong?” 

you only eye him, flitting over his features, to the hand that was wrapped around your shoulder and now dropped to your thighs limply. he tilts his head. you didn’t say a peep about the details –  even recounting it with the cops threw you down a spiral, so how the hell would he know something like that? 

as if he read your mind, the hand at your thigh moves to cup your cheek. it’s affectionate, despite the way you flinch back, how his brows drop back to his neutral expression. unreadable. 

“said too much, didn’t i?” 

he leans forward in the same space that has you leaning away, until you’re backed into the cushions of the couch with nowhere else to go. the hand on your cheek moves to squish the pair of them together until your lips form a pout, his body hovering over your own. 

“‘gumi?” the nickname slips out, and he laughs when your own fingers wrap around his wrist to try and pry him off. 

“too smart,” he chastises, “should’ve remembered to be more careful.” 

“megumi.” you try again, a sob breaking free from your chest, “you’re scaring me.” 

“don’t worry,” he shushes with a squeeze to your cheeks, reaching into his pocket when you offer no resistance, “everything’ll work out.” 

something sharp stabs into your arm. you cry out at the feeling, trying to wiggle your way out from under him, but his weight holds you down and fuck your head is feeling really heavy now. he puts whatever was in his hand onto the coffee table, and through blurry vision you can barely make out a syringe. 

your vision goes black shortly after. 

[hopeymchope]

The Legend of Zelda and shipping

I can't understand people who are like "I only ship Link in every game with one single character ever." What the hell... HOW?!

This seems to be most most common with people who ship Zelda/Link or "Zelink" — always wanting every Zelda to be with Link, because they're the main characters, though the phenomenon does exist with Malink and some other ships as well. And that’s not to hate on Zelink and Malink, because I love them! SPECIFIC INCARNATIONS of them, I mean.

Because there are a bare minimum of EIGHT different incarnations of Link, and you can’t tell me you think every single dude named Link has chemistry with/should have romance with every single girl named Zelda. Like EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.? I just can't with that. It's unfathomable, IMO.

I mean, OKAY, let me back that up: I get that people find it romantic to think that these are like... some kind of soulmates who always find each other through every reincarnation ala Hawkman and Hawkgirl or something, but it's not like they even display the same personality traits or share memories or something in each version of themselves. They just... act like totally different people quite regularly. Because by all accounts, they are.

Furthermore... shit - if we assume the incarnations are all descendants of one another and the same descendancy lines keep hooking up with the same partner lines, at what point do we wind up becoming dangerously incestuous with this repeated pairing? Because that shit seems INEVITABLE in such a case…?

NAH, my fam — I believe each Link and each Zelda are their own person, with their own traits. Their only unifying truth is that every person Link will ALWAYS look best in a green tunic and matching green, pointy flop-hat. (Sorry; I don't make the rules. Facts is facts.)

With that in mind, these are my sundry ships for various Links. And I apologize in advance for the fact that they're all boringly het. :P

Skyward Sword — Zelink, absolutely. Childhood Friend Romance always gets me right in the heart. I love these two together. The casual playfulness and fondness they display. The lengths they'll go to in order to see each other/protect each other. And although Zelda loses some of her distinct personality when she learns she's a reincarnation of Hylia, she gets her groove back near the end, so it's all good.

Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask/SC2 — Malink with a bullet. The singing farmgirl and the boy without a fairy, two people who felt alone in the world and find each other. The nicknames! "Don't be long, fairy boy." The fact that you can declare your romantic intentions for Malon while you're still a fucking KID! The Gossip Stone that tells you how much Malon pines to be saved from her daily life by a hero on a horse! It's SO GOOD.

Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass — I'm only mentioning this era because this Link is an ACTUAL CHILD. He's like, what? EIGHT? Maybe ten, if we're feeling generous? So I just want to say: Yeah... I just can't bring myself to ship this literal child with anybody. It ain't RIGHT.

Link's Awakening — Marink. If you weren't feeling these two by the time their sunset beach conversation wrapped up, I don't know what to even say to you. This was probably my first serious ship from playing the TLoZ games. Plus this ship is a good reason why the original black-and-white Game Boy version's secret ending is actually the best version of that bonus scene.

Twilight Princess — Ilink. Is there even any other contender worth mentioning? The writing and direction of the cut scenes makes it pretty clear that Link and Ilia are sweet on each other. You barely even meet Zelda in this game, and the only other option would probably be, well... Midna? You know - your partner imp that spends most of the game trash-talking you for her personal lulz and repeatedly slamming her body weight down HARD onto your spine? Mm, I’ll pass.

Breath of the Wild/Age of Calamity/TotK — Miphlink/Miphalink, no items, FINAL DESTINATION. Their story makes my heart just ACHE. The flashback to Mipha healing him up... Mipha's diary (OMFG that diary)... the Zora armor and its descriptions... holy SHIT, fam. And even if that story DIDN'T melt me into a complete puddle, Zelda put herself out of consideration by stealing my fucking house. I don’t understand why she pulled that, but given her privileged upbringing, I doubt she understands the value/expense of home ownership. So maybe she thought this was like yoinking a french fry. :P

Haven't Played — The only major entry I haven't played yet is "Spirit Tracks" on the DS. So I can't speak to that incarnation at this point. But the two things I can say is A) The Zelda/Link relationship sure appears cute? but B) This is also the same style of Link seen in Wind Waker, so I won't be surprised if she's supposed to be a LITERAL CHILD again (and therefore not a shippable character for me).

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

01.1 by Timecode 2001 Drum n Bass

Holy mother of god, this thing was fucking magnificent! 🤯 Here we're kicking off the week with another mix from Rob Playford, the owner of top-shelf UK dnb label Moving Shadow, who operates as a DJ under the name of Timecode. Last week, I gave a listen to an excellent prior dispatch by Playford from this same Moving Shadow 'year-decimal' sampler mix series called 99.2, and for years I've also been cherishing 99.1, but with this 01.1 set, Rob appears to have raised the bar by a significant margin.

However, I will say this up front: I actually don't find this mix to be nearly as consistent as those other two. A lot of the first half of this set is just way too clean, simple, and linear for my own liking. Unless we're talking that soul-piercingly jazzy type of atmospheric stuff that people like LTJ Bukem are especially known for excelling at, I tend to like my drum n bass to sound like what you'd imagine the mad scrawlings of a disturbed child in a psychological horror sound like. Like, when the kid just sits in their psychologist's office for an hour and turns in a big, black, and fuzzy circle of absolute crazy? That's the type of shit I'm on. And It really takes a good while for this mix to whip itself up into that sublime state of blind frenzy.

And while 99.2 is a purely steady and fun bounce-fest, this one sees Playford adding a substantial dose of murky and corrosive subterranean grime to his brew. Basically, whatever the polar opposite of a flower needing water and constant, direct sunlight is, in order for it to grow from just a seed in the ground into its fully formed self with unfurled petals and all, is what this mix is.

And nothing in this set will probably fuck your head up more than its rightful and jaw-dropping capper, Dom & Roland's 9-plus minute extravaganza that is "Imagination." This is a patently bonkers track that surrounds its pumping breaks with thick hazes of eerie ambience and wickedly rumbling and dubby, zapping sub-bass. And it has its own drum-less breakdown too, à la progressive trance. Plus, Dom also appears before this one on a tune with Ryme Tyme called "Iceberg," which as a standalone track is actually relatively calm and still; but that then just opens up an opportunity for Playford to sow even more chaos by blending it with a track with a whole lot more action on it: D Kay's "Monolith," which is a song that maintains its vigor with intermittent insertions of dope jungle fills that signify a change in the succeeding bars every time that they're deployed 🤘. Hearing those little morsels of jungle play simultaneously alongside "Iceberg" definitely make for some of the best moments on this mix.

And one final thing before we close out: both 99.1 and 99.2 came with bonus discs that contained extra promotional content for Grand Theft Auto 2 on them. This release doesn't have anything like that, but the GTA-Moving Shadow partnership still continued on with this mix, as apparently you can hear portions of it on the MSX FM station in GTA3, with MCing done on top of the selections by Code:Breaker. And this also wasn't the only videogame series that Moving Shadow was affiliated with, either. "Imagination" actually first appeared on another popular Rockstar title in 2000, Midnight Club: Street Racing.

So maybe you'll impatiently tap your foot and point at your watch for a bit after first starting this thing up, but as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Just give this one some time, and the radioactive freak will eventually bust out of its padlocked cage and turn you rabid 😌. It's certainly not always the most satisfying set, but when 01.1 gets to where it needs to go, it really is an unbelievable y2k era drum n bass experience 🤤.

Listen to the full mix here.

Highlights:

Calyx - "Quagmire" Rascal & Klone - "Get Wild" Ryme Tyme - "Judgement Day" Rascal & Klone - "The Grind" Ryme Tyme - "T Minus" nCode - "Spasm" D Kay - "Monolith" Dom & Ryme Tyme - "Iceberg" Rascal & Klone - "The Phoenix" Aquasky - "Uptight" Shere Khan - "One Day" Technical Itch - "Crystal" Dom & Roland - "Imagination"

[morrigan-sims]

Morri's DnD Characters:

So, @novac2281 expressed an interest in hearing more about my dnd characters, and here we are!

First off, I have a Notion database for all my characters and concepts. It looks like this:

The columns have data on the name, pronouns, race, and class of the characters, as well as showing which campaign (if any) they are from, and how well-developed they are.

Inside is a whole page of information regarding the characters, which is super useful and also fun to make. I have a template that I use for every character. I'm only going to be showing the top portion for each character here, but you get the idea, more or less.

Now, let's jump into the actual characters...

Fully Developed Characters:

First up we have Laverna. She's a tiefling rogue (thief subclass) and was the first dnd character I ever came up with. I've been holding on to her character idea for almost 2 years now, though her background and concept has changed a bit since then. (I actually came up with their concept for a simblr thing about 2 years ago!)

They were the child of a wealthy merchant family, none of whom were tieflings. (Pesky hellish heritage popping up at random times in the bloodline...) Their family treated her like shit, and they ended up breaking ties and changing her name when she left. Now she's a successful thief who steals from merchants and nobles in her home city. Also, she's a stabby rogue, not a shooty one. (All rogues are either shooty or stabby. It's just a fact.)

Next we have Zenara, who goes almost exclusively by Zen. They're a (purple) tiefling warlock (The Fiend subclass, Pact of the Chain).

They are a direct result of the early phases of my Critical Role hyperfixation. If you're familiar with CR, especially Campaign 2, then you might be able to figure out the weird mix of character personalities, backstories, and appearances that resulted in Zen. However, there's also a healthy amount of my own nonsense in the mix. As for backstory, Zen grew up in a small town named Hunter's Crossing with their parents and no other siblings. When they were about 17, raiders came and attacked their village. Everyone was either killed or captured, and Zen should have suffered the same fate. Except that they didn't. They dreamed of a terrifying fiery entity who told them that as long as they were useful they wouldn't die yet. They woke up with powers they didn't understand and the fear of their patron taking control of their body for its own uses. Bonus fact, since they're a Pact of the Chain warlock, they get to have a familiar, and that familiar can be an imp. So, they have an imp familiar who just showed up. But of course that would attract a lot of attention, so the familiar is always polymorphed into a raven, with red eyes, of course. The raven/imp is yet unnamed, and I need to come up with one soon, ideally before our next session.

Now we have Alarion, who I actually just totally retrofitted his character. He was originally supposed to be a sorcerer, but I realized that that didn't really fit his character (plus I have another sorcerer concept), so now he's a half-drow ranger (gloomstalker).

He was found, abandoned in the wood, by his adoptive parent who is a druid who lives in the woods a few miles from a village at the base of the mountains. In those mountains is a passage to the Underdark, and sometimes creatures from there escape into the forests around the mountains. Alarion is the one who hunts them down and either kills them or returns them to the underdark. Being half-drow, he gets weird looks from the villagers, but they at least respect his involvement in keeping the village safe. He has a horse who he's very close with, and he never goes anywhere without his longbow, a dagger in his belt, and his trusty cloak. Fun Fact: I'm shocked I didn't have a ranger character until earlier this week when I changed his class and background, seeing as I was completely obsessed with the Ranger's Apprentice series as a kid. In fact, I still have all 12 books on my bookshelf at home.

Next up we have Avra. She's a Shadar-Kai rogue (assassin subclass). They aren't currently part of a campaign, but I did get to use her for a oneshot where she was at level 12! She kicked ass with a rapier of wounding. (while she is a stabby rogue, she does have a hand crossbow to use if needed...)

Avra used to be a member of an assassin's guild, where she served for 10 years. However, recently one of her missions went wrong, and she was captured and killed. Yes, killed. She woke up in the middle of the woods, half-buried. Since then she's been on a search for answers regarding her return to "life", as well as a potential betrayal by a member of the guild she belonged to at the time.

Next up (and the last of my strongly developed characters) we have Asra. They are a human fighter (champion subclass) who I used in a short-lived campaign at my university.

Asra was an orphan who grew up in a city near the coast. Upon turning 18, she moved to the kingdom's capital in search of new opportunities. Once there she was recruited to be essentially a bodyguard for a secretive organization. She was kept in the dark about the group's motivations and goals, so she did not know that the group was a cult to the god of war and tyranny, who were trying to provoke war between two kingdoms. She had a girlfriend who was also a member of the "army". At one point the cult decided to attack some important buildings, but failed. Asra's girlfriend was killed, and most of the cultists were captured. They fled across the ocean to another country and another city, where they have been pit fighting, taking some of the betting pool as winnings.

My favorite character to date is named Rook, and is a half-elven Swashbuckler Rouge. (I'm currently playing him in a campaign, and he is my Most Blorbo Of All Time at the moment. As you can maybe tell by all the edits I've done of him.)

He's the bastard son of a nobleman who ran away from his shitty father. He joined the crew of a pirate ship and excelled at it. He was named first mate at the age of 22, which made a lot of the older crewmembers jealous, so they plotted against Rook, drugged him and sold him to another pirate captain (who, unbeknownst to Rook has beef with his former captain, Zara...) who kept Rook as a prisoner for 2 years, torturing him until he escaped, setting the ship on fire in the process. Needless to say the captain, Kora Wolf, is not pleased. She vowed to hunt him down no matter what. He'd been hiding out in the Feywild, doing mercenary work until he met the party. He's an excellent duelist and exceptionally skilled with a rapier. He uses self-confidence as a shield to protect his very traumatized heart. He's impulsive and reckless to the point of self-destruction, and he would do literally anything for anyone who shows him the slightest kindness. He's currently really going through it in-game, both physically and mentally. From two deaths in 3 days to a demon's lord curse to sudden reveals about his former captain, he's been having a rough time. But of course that's what makes it fun...

My other currently active character is a fire genasi path of the storm herald barbarian / champion fighter multiclass. (We're doing Gestalt leveling, so we'll get to 20 in both classes.) Their name is Cyra, and she's a lot of fun.

She grew up in a Mad Max-style warband-cult after being captured during a raid on her village when she was a child. They were raised to be a soldier for the group, and they were very good at it. As a teen and young adult, she entered a relationship with the cult leader's daughter, a young woman named Talia. As Cyra grew disillusioned with the Brotherhood, they dreamed of leaving, and bringing Talia with them. But after witnessing proof that Talia would never leave the cult, Cyra stole a sand skiff fled, ending up on the dwarven continent of Terramor, where she met the party. However, she still has complicated feelings for Talia, which is something they will have to face when the party makes it to their home continent of Pyrothos. Especially now that Talia might just be the leader of the Brotherhood. Perhaps unusually for a barbarian, Cyra fights with a solid metal quarterstaff that she is able to summon from her chest. She has no idea the staff's true origins as it randomly showed up in her possession shortly after leaving the Brotherhood, but recently discovered that it was made using an Elemental Fragment, and might play a key role in preventing another explosion of the elemental nexus.

My next developed character isn't actually a DnD character, but rather a character for an eventual Pathfinder game that is who-knows-how-far-off. Her name is Morana Novak, and she's a fetchling witch.

She's an orphan and was kicked out of her home city as a teen after she was caught experimenting on corpses she dug up from the cemetery. After that she was apprenticed to a necromancer who was hell-bent on turning himself into a lich. Her familiar is a raven named Miro, who she rescued from being chased by a cat. Morana's naturally chilly demeanor, as well as her bluntness and lack of empathy often cause people to find her unsettling. Morana doesn't mind this in the slightest, as she'd much rather be left to her own devices in her cottage than have to deal with people. She's no stranger to gore, and is more comfortable around corpses than the living most of the time. (Fun Fact, her first name is the name of a slavic goddess of death and winter, and her surname is one that was traditionally given to people who were new in town, making Morana my only character with a name that actually has character-relevant meaning. She's also going to be a lot of fun for me to play and explore because as an autistic person with essentially zero empathy who has to mask that a lot, I'm thrilled to get to play a character who can just say the weird things that pop into her mind, no matter the consequences.)

My last developed character is Aspen Vale. They're a half-elven (wood elf) college of glamour bard / archfey warlock.

They wandered out of the woods near a small town about a year ago, with no memories. All they had with them were their clothes and a well-made pan flute. They named themself after the first thing they saw, an aspen tree. Though they remember nothing of their life before or during the woods, they have a talent for glamour and illusions, and the songs they know are haunting and utterly alien to the human ear. People are often disturbed by their unnaturally bright green eyes and "eerie" presence. They have the Feylost background, and unbeknownst to them, they were Pied-Piper'd into the Feywild as a child. They were there for years, and at some point while inside they met their warlock patron. But upon leaving the Feywild, they lost all their memories of their life up until that point, and have no idea that they even are a warlock. Their pact is Pact of the Talisman, and the "broken" compass they wear around their neck serves as their talisman. They follow the compass, which is influenced by their patron from afar. They also have a small woodland creature that travels with them that is actually a fey, and the patron uses it to spy on them. Also, they're autistic. <3

Semi-developed Characters:

I also have an aasimar (scourge) oath of vengeance paladin named Asola Riava Ashmark (or Sola for short). I used her in a campaign that was cut short for various reasons.

I never really got super in-depth developing her, but she didn't know that she was an Aasimar, and her powers only showed up when she really lost control of her emotions, which had only happened once to date when the campaign started. It happened again in the campaign, and she got force-shut-down by a god.

The next character is Elira, also known as Ellie. She's a high elf abjuration wizard.

She's rather naive, but incredibly smart and very academically talented. She's used to being the best and definitely going through some Gifted Kid Burnout. Also way too pure for this world and when she finally has to kill someone, she's going to have a very rough time. Oh, and she's autistic and has a grey cat familiar.

My next semi-developed character is Commander Saber, who goes by Sabe. He's a warforged fighter (battle master subclass).

[insert pic when it's done]

Sabe was made for the military, made for battle. But following his "escape" from the military with the assistance of his friend, a humanoid artificer, Sabe found himself without purpose. So now he's trying to find one. One that is entirely his own, not that of higher powers. He's tired of being a piece on the game board.

That's all the fully developed characters but I also have the following ideas:

a tiefling bard (college of swords) with the charlatan background named Havoc. (They're the red tiefling from my "creatures of legend" post.) (ended up getting turned into a bg3 character.)

a fire-based sorcerer named Orion. (maybe a custom subclass?? idk for sure)

a cleric to a death god who has zero issues with killing bad guys (or anyone, really) because "either I kill them now or they die of natural causes in 10 years. either way my god is happy."

a black Tabaxi monk (shadow subclass)

an older dwarven artificer armorer

a changeling thief rogue

a changeling lunar sorceress

an elven fey wanderer ranger

a shifter (lycanthrope-ish) moon cleric/stars druid bc I thought it would be funny to have a werewolf character who worships a moon goddess

If you made it this far, congrats! I love you!! Thanks for reading all about my silly little guys. I hope you found this at least somewhat interesting!!

[mymaleficaria]

mthedm ---> mymaleficaria

Hi gang! I've had this blog since high school, but somewhere in college it fell into disuse and disrepair. I've been itching to get back on here, as a space on the internet that's not...ya know *gestures at the Twitter-sized elephant in the room*. But I also wanted to go in with a fresh coat of paint and reintroduce myself to y'all, maybe even make some new friends (or enemies. That could be hot.) A lot has changed!

Wait, why do I follow you?

Statistically, you followed me because of Wolf 359! I was big into podcasts back in the day, WTNV, Wolf 359, all those. I also wrote some Wolf 359 fics and was semi-active on the discord. Still fondly remember the show and might reblog fanart once in awhile, but it's not the direction this blog's going to go, so feel free to unfollow if what up I'm to now isn't your jam.

What's this blog about now?

Wouldn't you like to know, weatherboy? Frankly, I'm ADHD as fuck, so that'll vary by the day, but I have a few fandoms (do we still say fandoms in the year of our lord 2023???) that I've been into lately.

Dimension 20: I started watching D20 a little less than a year ago, and it entirely took over my life. It's just a series that's so robustly funny, wonderfully told, and never fails to make me smile. I'm especially fond of ACOC and Fantasy High.

Dracula Daily: I'm in this shit for the long haul! I think Lucy and Mina should kiss, but that's neither here nor there.

Game of Thrones/HotD: This show ended in a trash fire, but it literally lives in my head rent free. The political intrigue, the drama. Ugh. I'm a targ girlie through and through, so I've been eating up HotD, though it's nowhere near as good imo. Am also currently reading the 1st ASOIAF book.

YA lit/Whatever I'm reading/watching: I've read almost 50 books this year so far, and am frankly, insane. Bonus points for queer reads! Not many people to talk about books to irl, so might ramble about them on here instead. Also watch a lot of random TV drama and some anime.

Writing: I'm a fanfic writer, and a fiction writer in general, so I'll post stuff about writing--complaints, story snippets, link to my fics, etc! Headcanons and all will be found here. I've also copyedited before, which is like writing but if you get even more nitpicky about it.

Personal/Whatever the hell I feel like/My D&D Games: Life happens and sometimes you want to scream into the void. Ramblings, jokes, whatever. I transed my gender in the past few years and sometimes I'm mad about it! I also just graduated college! Madness! I play a lot of TTRPGs, and I'm usually on brainrot for one of my characters at any given time.

Why's your new username that?

One of my favorite book series is The Scholomance by Naomi Novik, and in the series, Maleficaria are the horrifying monsters that threaten to kill the students every day, and what is tumblr if not a place full of vile, evil beings? Plus, it means you all can call me Mal.

Anything else?

Nope! Other than to feel free to drop me a line and say hello, especially if you want to scream about D20. I'm p alone in this brainrot irl, so I'm pretty much always down to talk about the Bad Kids... especially Adaine and Fabian. I'm also always down to take fic suggestions in my asks! This show genuinely lifts me up when I'm down, so sharing it with people is one of my favorite things.

My fics (shortlist):

In Sweetness, There is Violence: Angsty ACOC one-shot about if Ruby had made a different choice in the finale. Obligatory Caramelinda Caramelinda-ing.

the words i speak are wildfires: A HOTD one-shot I intended to be smut, that ended up instead being more like a romantic sapphic moment of healing between Alicent and Rhaenyra. What can I say? I like childhood friends to enemies to lovers.

Stay Stellar: An unfinished (and, very likely, discontinued) 15-chapter high school AU for Wolf 359 that I wrote with an old friend. Featuring some truly crazy shenanigans, a lot of embarrassing Kepcobi moments, and a surprising amount of theatre.

[k-white]

A very personal rating of the Our Skyy2 episodes, in airing order cuz I am doing it weekly, if you stumble upon this list it is my personal opinion! if I rated your favourite episode low don't take it personally, we all love different things and maybe my favourite was the one you liked the least

Now here we go:

NLMG: 8/10 I really liked it, I liked the og show fairly enough more by the end than the start, but the special? I liked it a lot, I am a sucker for time traveling and period pieces so it played with my heart strings, I had some issues with the pacing and story but overall I liked the more romcom feel to it that to me PP are perfect for, bonus points having Pawins character score a bf! also it looked amazing! I love Jojos directing and the colorgradiants he used here

SIMM: 5.5/10 It was fine, nothing that bad, I onestly liked the first episode more than the second only cuz the pranking made sense, Maitee and Sean were being annoying and deserved to heve their asses handled to them, also the possible side couples played a big role on my liking this, they could have made SM or TM, but they didn't, tho WS are cute I can give them that, it didn't make much sense but ok, tho the major downside was the plotlessness and ok it is a 2ep special but they could have done more, just KN being sikeningly cute doesn't cut it for me, also News directing style is not for me

THE ECLIPSE 9/10 Ok I might be biased, you take a look at my profile you can see that I love FK and the Show, I didn't give it a 10 cuz the first episode had some issues mostly on how Aye acted torwards Akk, but this second one? Basically perfect! they were the sweetest and most loveble ever! all the kissing? The popsicle scene?? The bar scene??? The last scene???? PERFECT so I gave it a 9 cuz of ep1

VICE VERSA 5/10 ok so I wasn't the biggest fan of VV when it aired, but I wanted to go on this with an open heart and it was broken! and again I wanna say: FREE TALEY! Puen and his supposed best friends manipulated him! Using a CHILD! It was cute at the start, I still like JimmySea, but they had to go and ruin it, if the kid was actually Tess's child I would have been a lot more happy even tho Taley would have been a victim yet, better than being manipulated tho still chosing to be with Puen and satying friend with them! Sorry but this continue to not be my thing, saved by the cute cast!

MSP 6/10 It was all way too rushed, they wanted to combine all of 12 episodes in 2 and the result felt rushed and staged, like a bad movie that the characters produced, plus the only characters that were actually convincing were Tinn Por and the moms, the others felt stiff and too similar to their original character, the MV was cute but the sang was average at best, Tinn liking Gun since 10th grade(or at least it is implied) doesn't align with ep1 unless Tinn was lying the whole time, the ending scene was a bit confusing I don't know if it was made like that cuz they hope for a s2 but I didn't really get it, if the ending was either Tinn or Gunn waking up it would have been a good twist, anyway it was fine

ABAAB 5.5/10 Ok I did go in a little biased with this show cuz I really didn't like it, tho the first episode of OS2 was actually not that bad I did enjoy it but then the swap "bet"(it was basically a bet right?) happend and I got reminded how much I don't like this 2 people! and I feel bad cuz I do like ForceBooks interactions IRL but Gun and especially Cher I don't like them and I feel like they wrote them episode after episode without a clear idea on who they are cuz they act according to the plotline of the episode! Also I didn't like that we never got a resolution for the little fight ThreeZo had!

BBS×ATOTS 7/10 I changed the score cuz that last episode deserve a 9 if not a 10 it was perfect with pacing story and acting, but the rest didn't work for me especially the 2 crossover episodes, they sacrifaced the story to just make a mix and match of the 4 main characters! in the crossover they spend more time apart and with somebody else than with eachother and the time spent lost was too much, it didn't progress the story at all! if they did 2 eps dedicated to each couple amd then 1 only ep crossover maybe it would have worked better, also as I said Longtae was nowere to be found and not even mentioned and I am bitter and pissed about it still, I also feel like the characters especially Phupa were kinda ooc

Am I very biased with The Eclipse? YES INDEED!(but it is very obvious from my blog so do I even need to specify it?) the others I am more objective, tho mind you! NLMG wasn't one of my faves but I really liled the OS2 ep!(but I saw that people that liked the show didn't like the OS2 ep and vice versa)

So we arrived at the end of this journey, this thing was in my drafts since week 1 so 8 weeks can you believe that? anyway I have to say that I enjoied this show overall, it wasn't perfect and production was clearly rushed but it still worked and people enjoyed it so that is all that matters!

[scarlethoodi]

I only read Audible books so I can’t make actual book content like the cool kids on Booktok, Booktube, etc so I’m putting my 2022 top 10 books here

Dishonorable Mention

You Made A Fool of Death with your Beauty

I fucking hated this book. 2/5 on goodreads. Plot didn’t make sense and the main character pissed me off; never should’ve messed with that man’s daddy (who is also a weirdo). The use of grief was essentially a means to justify the weird plot and say everyone but the main character was wrong. I’m getting mad all over again

10) LilyReads (YouTuber) book club pick that I thought was a romance but I’m glad it wasn’t. In fact I was surprised at the direction it took, but the journey of self discovery was fun in its own messy way

9) I said I wasn’t going to read any white people romance but I’ve seen enough reviews to want to check some out. And I love a good friends to lovers despite what the “haters” say

8) The overall book is okay but the ending is what makes it great. It all started coming together so fast but it perfectly sets up the next book which I can’t wait to get.

Also quick honorable mention: Cinderella is Dead was also a fun read

7) Jake the boy that you are. Did I need that much insight into Sawyer’s mind-no could’ve gone without it. But I’m not mad at it and the contrast between the two of them really made the story what it is.

6) Massive trigger warning: Child Abuse

God this book had me on edge and if I think about the ending too much I start to shake. A book about how so many people can fail a little girl and the consequences of it all around how the only person who seems to care being said missing girl’s best friend. I could cry

5) Another LilyReads book club pick and the most fun I had out of them all. Very fun and enjoyable, I loved the narrative of the way it handled body autonomy

4) All children are charming as an adjective, but you’re charming as a verb if that isn’t an amazing quote. This book was a very fun book and surprisingly my very first male focus YA/romance. Henri was a fun character to see the world through and the narrative of him feeling like an outsider surrounding by those rich kids and trying to balance his own goals along with his parents plus dating. Oh Corinne was just the best here, I was practically shaking when the reveal of his betrayal came in. Also bonus points for not pulling a “we’re teens so in love, how can we separate for different colleges?” I wish them all the best

3) I only checked this out cause I saw it on Goodreads so I wasn’t expecting its content. This was an eye opener and a very emotional read that I gladly told my sisters about. Following an elderly immigrant women at sessions in an unemployment office as she tells her life story to you (the unknown presence of the social worker who is only revealed at the end). It makes me wish that community was reveal

2) Was so excited to get a chance at reading this and it definitely met my standards. F the noise (bad reviews), I got one think it makes perfect sense to fight fire with fire. Hell I think Wu Zetian could’ve been a bit more unhinged at some points. And everyone she killed deserved it, hell probably worse. Also answering a possible love triangle with polyamory *chefs kiss* thank you. Will be reading the sequel

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girl Boss, Get away with Murder

1) Beautiful world building, diverse and interesting characters with great powers to match-when I get my shit together I will be making fanart. Between this and Cemetery Boys Aiden Thomas is definitely one of my favorite authors so the moment I can I will get physical copies of this book. If you love Percy Jackson I do recommend. My favorite book of the year.

This book was so much fun and a overall joy. I love the combination of fantasy and modern elements, the whole gods among us plus the power play/oppression build into the society. Trans representation that acknowledges said fantasy elements so it introduces different aspects of gender presentation. The slow burn of a rivals to friends (to maybe lovers). Each trial had me on edge as you saw the clear difference in Golds who were raised for this vs Teo and Xio, two Jades not on equal grounds. The betrayal that sets up the end and sequel book. I will be there consuming all of it

This concludes my very unserious reviews of my Top 10 book list of 2022. Follow me on Goodreads I guess, I do plan to use it more next year

[maroonghoul]

Horror Movie’s I just watched: April 2023

A bit late, but to make up for it, there’s a lot more than usual! Here we go:

Beyond the Black Rainbow Definitely the same director who would go on to give us Mandy, tone-wise. The old complaints for a movie like this would be that the plot is either too thin or abstract. But, for my mindset regarding horror films these days if nothing else, it’s become what I prefer. I’ve made myself so busy with errands and other things (including posting here), that a plot I only need half a mind to follow is a boon as long as it’s got an atmosphere I like. Granted, there was still a few plot things I missed that hampered my enjoyment a bit. But still, it was all enough that I hope to see more of Panos Cosmatoes’s work.

Hatching Here’s fun idea to watch on Easter.  It’s even kinda sorta has a resurrection at the end. But yeah, the metaphor is pretty clear as day. The monster symbolizing the girl’s hatred for her mother and all those pressuring her...plus puberty, I think. A bit of a shame the mother doesn’t suffer any real direct consequences at the end. But she does have to live with the fact she symbolically and literally killed her daughter. 

I know what the ending represents; the girl never being able or willing to be the perfect daughter again. But, in-universe, now I almost want a sequel, at least in spirit. This idea that a the Thing like monster has replaced one of your loved ones and it civilized itself enough that it might not kill again. Do you just live with it to keep up appearances? How? But, given that The Thing is my favorite horror movie, any excuse to explore the themes of that further are forever entrenched in my mind. 

Death Kappa Does a parody succeed if it makes you realize how much you miss the real thing? This movie starts out making fun of films like Pumpkinhead and ends making fun of 70s era Tokusatsu. Though in a way of just cranking them up pass 11. And now I just miss watching old giant monster movies. It helps that Kappa is strangely cute, even after murdering people.

Bonus points for portraying Japanese Imperialists in way just as dignified as Mel Brooks and Taika Watiti portray Nazis. Meaning, as the dumbest bunch of bullying nerds the world has ever seen. And given what comes later in his career, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Hideaki Anno here.

In The Earth And now this year’s Earth Day feature; the Better Watch Out of Folk Horror movies. Even without the masks and tests, you can tell this was filmed during the lockdown. Given the threat level the film tries to sell him as, I would’ve expected Zach to be more of the stereotypical hard core survivalist type. Yeah, that would’ve made his evilness less shocking as a reveal. But I still had trouble buying it. 

Bit of shame people with epilepsy can’t enjoy this movie. Though I don’t know how you can portray the spirit Parnag Fegg messing with people’s heads without it looking ridiculous. Also, given what happened to Martin’s foot, I’m a bit let down there wasn’t more bodily injuries on him and Alma’s side. I’m not saying, I wanted either of them to be dead at the end, just a little more messed up. Again, I’m sick that way.

Evil Dead Rise *Spoilers*I might come off as too negative here. 

I liked this the least out of all the Evil Dead movies, but the reasons might be entirely subjective. I’ve heard a lot online how the scariest parts about this movie, fears connected to Mothers or being a Mother, spoke to some people. I don’t want to take that away from anyone. In a lot of ways, it’s super ballsy, including kids in the body count and deadite count. It’s less hackneyed to find another version of the Necronomicon from the past found and put together then...going to that cabin again. There’s some creativity with the gore. Given how indestructible these deadites are hyped to be, a wood chipper’s a reliable way to get rid of them as anything. I don’t even mind the loose ends like the remaining deadites left behind, because the earlier films built off of loose ends from each other. And I still wants sequels from this. 

But it feels like it comes at the cost of taking risks in areas I care about more, like tone. This and the last movie feel like they more directly inspired by the first movie, which is common for these requels. But here’s the thing; I understand why they did that with Halloween and Candyman and such. Because not only are the originals still regarded the best, it’s not even close. But Evil Dead never had that problem. Sure, 2 is considered the best, but all the other ones from the original trilogy are still seen as strong in it’s own right. Even the least scary of the bunch, Army of Darkness is an awesome movie. I get why the Alvarez remake focused on the original and nothing else. But I’m scared that the tone and fun from 2, 3, and the TV series are going to get abandoned because every attempt to continue a franchise has to be as serious as possible. Maybe that’s more of a concern about trends.

Sure, I get why that wouldn’t have worked at all with, like I said, kids getting killed and mutilated. (Unless you’re just as sick as Sam Raimi, who in the old day would make the youngest one get possessed too while he’s at it.). Balancing comedy and horror, especially the way Raimi does it, is a lot harder then what they were going for here. But that was what helped made these movies specials. That made them stand out. Looney Tunes with buckets of blood. 

Would I have want Lee Cronin to make a completely different movie? If this was where his passion lied, absolutely not. But maybe, I would like some comedic chops to contribute to this franchise again in the future. I’m sorry that I’m coming down on this. I guess I feel that part of the fun was when it feels like there’s a deadite behind the camera too.

Last thing, I would’ve figured Beth would’ve got the exact opposite takeaway from this. “If they’re going to potentially wander off and find a book that summons demons, Hell no I don’t want kids!”

Renfield Certainly a better foundation for a Dark Universe more than “Tom Cruise and a Mummy too I guess”. Well this and The Invisible Man reboot. It’s a rare treat seeing Nic Cage play the villain, but Dracula’s often a good one to make an exception, especially in a production that encourages his usual style. It’s also kinda funny with more people realizing the OG novel Renfield wasn’t as much Dracula’s slave as the adaptations would have us believe, having a film version where he fully betrays him and lives is refreshing. Making it an allegory for abusive relationships is the icing on the cake. Or maybe it’s the other way around. 

The mob sub plot I’m not as crazy for, outside of Ben Schwartz playing the most pathetic mobster’s son since Fredo. Loser side villains are fun when not overused. I can buy a mob family, when they realize that Dracula’s real and here, they’d form an evil alliance with him. I could’ve had more of that.

And of course, like any proper vampire films made post Hays Code, there’s a lot of blood. Granted, with one scene where it was clearly CGI, but better that then cutting away. 

I’m not too sure how you make a sequel to this, or even if you should. But more of the classic Monsters used in modern day metaphors in modern day dark comedies, please!

[memento-morri-writes]

Distraction! I would love to hear about your dnd characters?

Hi nonny!! Sorry I didn't answer this last night. I found out things were Okay-ish, and I went right to sleep. I also really wanted to give you a complete and through answer on this, because dnd is a hyperfixation/special interest of mine at the moment, and I want to do my characters justice. Anyways, let's get into it!

Here's a pic of my dnd character masterlist in Notion.

Each character has their own page, which follows the same general format as the character pages from this post with a few alterations. Really the only part that changed is the top part (4th pic on that post), which now looks like this:

Info about the actual character under the cut, cause this is going to get long!!!

First up we have Laverna. (pic above) She's a tiefling rogue (thief subclass) and was the first dnd character I ever came up with. I've been holding on to her character idea for almost 2 years now, though her background and concept has changed a bit since then. They were the child of a wealthy merchant family, none of whom were tieflings. (Pesky hellish heritage popping up at random times in the bloodline...) Their family treated her like shit, and they ended up breaking ties and changing her name when she left. Now she's a successful thief who steals from merchants and nobles in her home city. Also, she's a stabby rogue, not a shooty one. (All rogues are either shooty or stabby. It's just a fact.)

Next we have Zenara, who goes almost exclusively by Zen. They’re a (purple) tiefling warlock (The Fiend subclass, Pact of the Chain).

They are a direct result of the early phases of my Critical Role hyperfixation. If you’re familiar with CR, especially Campaign 2, then you might be able to figure out the weird mix of character personalities, backstories, and appearances that resulted in Zen. However, there’s also a healthy amount of my own nonsense in the mix. As for backstory, Zen grew up in a small town named Hunter’s Crossing with their parents and no other siblings. When they were about 17, raiders came and attacked their village. Everyone was either killed or captured, and Zen should have suffered the same fate. Except that they didn’t. They dreamed of a terrifying fiery entity who told them that as long as they were useful they wouldn’t die yet. They woke up with powers they didn’t understand and the fear of their patron taking control of their body for its own uses. Bonus fact, since they’re a Pact of the Chain warlock, they get to have a familiar, and that familiar can be an imp. So, they have an imp familiar who just showed up. But of course that would attract a lot of attention, so the familiar is always polymorphed into a raven, with red eyes, of course. The raven/imp is yet unnamed, and I need to come up with one soon, ideally before our next session.

Now we have Alarion, who I actually just totally retrofitted his character. He was originally supposed to be a sorcerer, but I realized that that didn’t really fit his character (plus I have another sorcerer concept), so now he’s a half-drow ranger.

He was found, abandoned in the wood, by his adoptive parent who is a druid who lives in the woods a few miles from a village at the base of the mountains. In those mountains is a passage to the Underdark, and sometimes creatures from there escape into the forests around the mountains. Alarion is the one who hunts them down and either kills them or returns them to the underdark. Being half-drow, he gets weird looks from the villagers, but they at least respect his involvement in keeping the village safe. He has a horse who he’s very close with, and he never goes anywhere without his longbow, a dagger in his belt, and his trusty cloak. Fun Fact: I’m shocked I didn’t have a ranger character until earlier this week when I changed his class and background, seeing as I was completely obsessed with the Ranger’s Apprentice series as a kid. In fact, I still have all 12 books on my bookshelf at home.

Next up we have Avra. She’s a Shadar-Kai rogue (assassin subclass). They aren’t currently part of a campaign, but I did get to use her for a oneshot where she was at level 12! She kicked ass with a rapier of wounding. (while she is a stabby rogue, she does have a hand crossbow to use if needed…)

Avra used to be a member of an assassin’s guild, where she served for 10 years. However, recently one of her missions went wrong, and she was captured and killed. Yes, killed. She woke up in the middle of the woods, half-buried. Since then she’s been on a search for answers regarding her return to “life”, as well as a potential betrayal by a member of the guild she belonged to at the time.

Next up (and the last of my strongly developed characters) we have Asra. They are a human fighter (champion subclass) who I am using in my campaign at my university.

Asra was an orphan who grew up in a city near the coast. Upon turning 18, she moved to the kingdom’s capital in search of new opportunities. Once there she was recruited to be essentially a bodyguard for a secretive organization. She was kept in the dark about the group’s motivations and goals, so she did not know that the group was a cult to the god of war and tyranny, who were trying to provoke war between two kingdoms. She had a girlfriend who was also a member of the “army”. At one point the cult decided to attack some important buildings, but failed. Asra’s girlfriend was killed, and most of the cultists were captured. They fled across the ocean to another country and another city, where they have been pit fighting, taking some of the betting pool as winnings.

My most recently-developed character, who also happens to be one of my favorites, is named Rook, and is a half-elven Swashbuckler Rouge.

He’s the bastard son of a nobleman who ran away after his family threatened to disown him for his improper behavior. He joined the crew of a pirate ship and excelled at it. He was named first mate at the age of 22, which made a lot of the older crewmembers jealous, so they plotted against Rook, drugged him and sold him to another pirate captain who kept Rook as a slave for 2 year until he escaped, burning the ship to the ground in the process. Needless to say the captain is not pleased. He’s an excellent duelist and exceptionally skilled with a rapier. He’s self-confident to the point of arrogance, something that get him in trouble a lot. And he loves cats. Oh, and he’s literally the definition of Chaotic Bisexual, lmao.

Semi-developed Characters:

She’s not well developed at all, but I also have an aasimar scourge oath of vengeance paladin named Asola Riava Ashmark (or Sola for short). She’s not currently part of a campaign, especially since I haven’t decided on a backstory or anything for her, but I’m excited to get a chance to use her someday!

I don’t know a whole lot (or really anything) about her backstory, other than the fact that she is trying to avenge the death(s) of someone (or multiple someones) she cared about.

The next character, who is more developed than Sola (but not by too much) is Elira, also known as Ellie. She’s a high elf abjuration wizard, who I love very much.

She’s rather naive, but incredibly smart and very academically talented. She’s used to being the best and definitely going through some Gifted Kid Burnout. Also way too pure for this world and when she finally has to kill someone, she’s going to have a very rough time. Oh, and she’s autistic and has a cat familiar.

My next semi-developed character is Commander Saber, who goes by Sabe. He’s a warforged fighter (battle master subclass).

[insert pic when it’s done]

Sabe was made for the military, made for battle. But following his “escape” from the military with the assistance of his friend, a humanoid artificer, Sabe found himself without purpose. So now he’s trying to find one. One that is entirely his own, not that of higher powers. He’s tired of being a piece on the game board.

My last semi-developed character is as of yet unnamed. They’re a half-elven (wood elf) college of glamour bard.

They wandered out of the woods near a small town about a year ago, with no memories. All they had with them were their clothes and a well-made flute. Though they remember nothing of their life before or during the woods, they have a talent for glamour and illusions, and the songs they know are haunting and utterly alien to the human ear. People are often disturbed by their unnaturally bright green eyes and “eerie” presence. (They have the Feylost background.) Also, they’re autistic. <3

That’s all the fully developed characters but I also have the following ideas:

an unnamed tiefling bard (college of swords) with the charlatan background. (They’re a red tiefling.)

a fire-based sorcerer named Orion. (maybe a custom subclass?? idk for sure)

a cleric to a death god who has zero issues with killing bad guys because “either I kill them now or they die of natural causes in 10 years. either way my god is happy.”

a half-orc barbarian

a black Tabaxi monk (shadow subclass)

an older dwarven artificer armorer

a necromancer

a blood mage (custom wizard subclass)

a changeling thief rogue

Wow, you made it through my mega infodump! If you made it this far, thank you so much for listening!! this literally took me an hour to do, adjskajdkas.

[rinrinx2]

Let goo y/n and Gojo ship!

Just as happy with Gojo when y/n start calling out Nanami on his bullshit😆 but how dare he accused y/n of doing the things he being doing in their entire marriage🤬

As for the mistress I don’t really feel sorry for her because seriously did she really think her and Nanami relationship would be okay once he got a secured position in Tokyo and then divorce his wife. That their relationship would be all okay and that it be smooth sailing for them in future. Because if that the case she doesn’t think furthering. I mean it like Anonymous said Nanami has kids they will spill the beans if they got together because the boys aren’t little kids they understand what going on and she kind omit Nanami is kind of a shit father to boys. He doesn’t spend time with them and doesn’t talk about them to the point no one in Tokyo he work with know he married and has kids. The only real way stop the boys from tell everyone in their life is if Nanami just give up his parenting rights or just straight up abandon them but if he does that then his parents will absolutely furious with him and probably disowned him and most definitely will receive criticism from his other family members and his friends and some will definitely will be toward her too. Another reason I don’t feel sorry about her. Is I don’t think she feel any guilty about her relationship with Nanami despite knowing fact he has a wife and kids and is just upset about their relationship not going her the direction she wants.

As for Gojo you go man! 😄 and the fact he got evidence of Nanami affair is the best. I can’t wait for shits to hit the fan with Nanami and his mistress😁 please Rin make them suffer like hell😈 pretty please 🥺

Sorry @vnsomniac if I sound against make up arc😅 it just we only got two chapters left of TOW and I don’t that enough for Nanami and relationship with wife y/n and his sons to be heal or redeem Nanami himself. Maybe Rin if did some bonus chapters for Nanami ending. That the only way I can see Nanami redeem himself to me as reader because so far he done nothing but cause pain to his wife and his kids with actions and plus it kind seems difficult to squeeze redemption arc for Nanami in just two chapters left and plus it would make easy to read it be like TOW Gojo ending and TOW Nanami ending. It like alternative pain of the story.

Anyway great well written chapter Rin can’t wait to see what pain you are going to make Nanami and his mistress go through next Sunday.

Yes! Nanami really tries pulling uno reverse cards on wife (y/n) when ever he gets cornered or feels trapped. And Gojo is really a ride or die for wife (Y/N). We'll see in the next chapter why he has such a quick bond with her.

The mistress is literally like she knows what's doing is bad but continues to do it, it's like cutting your nose of despite your face vibe.

Thanks for all the love and support omg this feels amazing 😭😭💖💖💖💖

[betteryoutipsblog]

Feeling Like a Supermom Drowning in To-Do Lists? Take Control of Your Time!

Juggling work, kids, chores, and me time can feel impossible. But you've got this, mama! This post is packed with powerful strategies to ditch the overwhelm and create a calmer, more balanced life. Let's reclaim your sanity and become the time management queen you were always meant to be!

Before We Dive In: Breathe & Accept Your Limits

Best Time Management Strategies for the Overwhelmed Mom

Feeling like the world rests on your shoulders? It's normal, mama! But you can't do everything, and that's A-OK. Let go of the guilt and focus on what truly matters. Prioritize tasks, set achievable goals, and embrace self-care. You deserve it!

Time Management Hacks for the Busy Mom

Plan Like a Boss: Feeling scattered? Planning is your BFF! Schedule work, family time, self-care – everything! Knowing what's ahead reduces stress and keeps you on track. Plus, ticking things off your list feels amazing!

Early Bird Gets the Worm (and the Coffee!) Struggling to squeeze in "me" time? Become a morning person! Wake up before the little ones and enjoy some peace and quiet. Read a book, meditate, or grab a coffee – it's your time to recharge. ‍♀️ This sets the tone for a productive day and lets you tackle priorities before the chaos begins.

Craft a Morning Routine You Love! Set yourself up for success with a morning routine. Wake up 30 minutes earlier for some joyful activities like yoga or savoring a cup of coffee. Feeling energized? Add some exercise to boost your mood and productivity! Use this quiet time to set goals, make a to-do list, and conquer the day!

Family Calendar: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work! ‍‍‍ Feeling like you're going it alone? Get the whole crew involved! Create a family calendar and discuss everyone's schedules. Delegate tasks, and don't forget to schedule in self-care time for yourself, mama! You're important too!

Set Goals You Can Crush! Feeling overwhelmed? Set realistic goals. Break down big tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This helps you make progress without feeling crushed. Remember, your well-being matters, so set goals that work for you, not against you.

Bonus Time Management Strategies for Working Moms

Office Hours: Boundaries Are Your Friend! ⏰ Feeling pulled in a million directions? Set work boundaries with clear "office hours." Let everyone know when you're available for work-related matters. This keeps you focused and helps you plan your day effectively. It also allows you to be fully present with your family during non-work hours.

Pomodoro Power! Feeling like you're constantly multitasking? The Pomodoro Technique is your new best friend! Work in focused 25-minute intervals ("pomodoros") followed by short breaks. This keeps you laser-focused and prevents burnout. Take a deeper dive into the Pomodoro Technique to unlock its full potential!

Tech To the Rescue! Technology can be your lifesaver! Use calendar apps, meal planners, and to-do lists to stay organized. Feeling overwhelmed? Find online communities for support and inspiration. There's an app for (almost) everything, mama! Use them to your advantage.

Remember, Mama: You Don't Need More Than 24 Hours... You Need to Use Them Wisely!

Feeling like there just aren't enough hours in the day? It's not about more time, it's about using your time effectively. Prioritize tasks, set goals, and eliminate distractions. You've got this! By optimizing your 24 hours, you can achieve amazing things.

Empowered Moms Rock! ‍♀️

Time management isn't just about convenience, it's about your well-being and success! These strategies, from weekend prep to mindfulness, will help you navigate motherhood with grace. Embrace flexibility, prioritize progress, and don't forget to take care of yourself. You are a superhero, mama, and a healthy, happy you means a happy family. ❤️

This is just the beginning, mama! Take one or two tips at a time and find what works best for you. You've got this!