#re: your tags - totally feel free to pick this apart more if you ever feel inclined!

[tobyisave]

Omg hey! Thanks for taking the time to engage/share your thoughts even though you don't fully agree, I really appreciate it. And I don’t really disagree with you here, I just want to reply with my thoughts since you raised some interesting points!

Learned behaviors vs experiential gap: Absolutely the empathy/emotions thing is my weak link here, I'd call it a shameless projection that isn't necessarily supported by but consistent with canon lol. The only part I'd be reluctant to concede is the low empathy thing, but ultimately, an alternative interpretation where he's just really damn good at repressing is viable as well!

The learned behavior interpretation as you put it definitely makes sense, and I get the impression that it's more popular too. Kokichi's a really confusing guy and I think the interpretations we find most intuitive are probably going be the ones that relate his thought process to experiences we're familiar with, because that helps us grasp some semblance of humanity within him. All this to say I don't think there's anything that makes my explanation any better than yours; like you said, the truth is ambiguous, and I think it's best to gather as many different plausible interpretations as possible even if they don't lead to an "answer," because it lets us appreciate his writing and our relationship to our own interpretations. So I really appreciate you taking the time to put your version in words!

Gonta: On a similar note, I've basically lost hope that we'll ever know for certain what was going on in Kokichi's head here — and in spite of my giant footnote, I don't actually have a well-formed opinion myself — but I really like your point that his words gave Gonta peace of mind. Ironically I think I overlooked that angle because I didn't see a pragmatic reason to do anything solely for Gonta's benefit, since at this point Gonta's fate is sealed and his emotional state has no bearing on the future (aside from its effect on others, which has pretty much already maxed out with 'pity'). But consideration for the truth Gonta sees in his final moments makes total sense from the perspective of a Kokichi who's more emotionally 'typical,' and your interpretation is compelling; it gives more weight to the specific words he says, rather than just anything plausible to mislead people on why he's crying... I'll definitely have to think that over after this.

Paranoia: Another great point that I completely failed to address. I agree he's a little paranoid, or at least a reasonable amount of paranoid given the game they're in. Subbing that in as the cause of emotional disconnection in my analysis is really interesting... At the very least, I agree that paranoia would definitely add to the impression that these are all sham conversations. Though to confidently form an opinion on this I'd have to go back and look at the lies he tells in the killing game versus everyday life with that lens. My current impression is that his lying is too deeply ingrained to have developed situationally, so if I took his social detachment as a result of paranoia then I'd have to conclude that Kokichi is constantly paranoid. Which is not my opinion, but I'm sure it could be argued. In that case, in an everyday environment, the 'low empathy/emotion' version of Kokichi mostly neglects to tell people about himself because he doesn't care, while the 'learned behavior' + paranoia version actively avoids people knowing anything about him. Neither is an explanation of his lying per se, but the former would facilitate his compulsive lying, while the latter might not facilitate lying but does create a stronger motivation to lie.

Here and in other cases, I think a lot of the difference between these two headcanons just comes down to how good you think Kokichi is at acting and ignoring his emotions. 'Low empathy' Kokichi doesn't actually fight his instincts much, at least until shit really hits the fan, and that’s part of why that explanation appeals to me. Meanwhile 'learned behavior' Kokichi is frequently suppressing his instincts, successfully enough that I almost have trouble imagining someone being able to act that well (grain of salt, that’s *definitely* a blind spot for me - and more importantly, he is an Ultimate so I can’t put any kind of talent past him). My own reservations aside, the interpretation of Kokichi as someone naturally social who constantly has to fight his instincts definitely has its own merit; it’s emotionally compelling (in a pretty unique way that’s very different from mine) and probably more accessible as well.

Well, hope you didn't mind me writing an essay response to your response to my essay here lmao. I'm definitely starting to appreciate how challenging it is to figure this guy out; it's almost the opposite of the SDR2 problem, where Komaeda tells you his mindset from the get-go but the game never gives you a moment to recontextualize his actions after his death. V3 points at Kokichi and goes look, a mystery! we must recontextualize his actions! and then proceeds to give us basically nothing to go off of. All I can really aim to do is propose something with consistent internal logic, and I'm very glad if you think I managed to do that.

Again thanks for the rb, it's a treat to get such a long comment on my analysis!!

Character analysis: Why does Kokichi lie?

I think lying is more than just a means to an end for Kokichi, so this is my personal understanding of Kokichi's habitual lying, centered on the headcanon that he experiences his own emotions very weakly.

In a vain attempt to make this post more streamlined, I've isolated most textual examples into footnotes at the bottom; probably only read them if you don’t buy what I’m saying in the sentence prior. Lastly, if you disagree with something I say here and choose to make it known: probably read the footnotes first, and regardless please just be nice about it :')

"If I wanna become closer to Shuichi, I probably shouldn't lie so much... But that's my shtick... or more like, my way of life..." (Kokichi's inner thoughts from Salmon Team)

Small lies vs Big lies

To start this off, I need to clarify that there's (at least) two very different kinds of Kokichi lies. First are the “big” lies, like being the mastermind or lies about the nature of DICE. Big lies are consistent, told with a “straight face,” and well thought-out, because they usually serve some kind of strategic purpose [e.g. footnote 1]. But those aren't the kind of lies I'm aiming to explain here, because they're already well discussed and follow a pretty understandable logic.

I'm focusing on what I call "small" or compulsive lies: trivial claims & performed emotions that are usually not believed for long, either because they’re too outlandish or because he or someone else disproves them. For example, sobbing that he hates coffee and then asking for a cup of coffee; or telling the seance participants he's "actually super duper strong," despite knowing full well they're about to watch him struggle to carry the iron cage [more ex. in note 2]. Most of Kokichi's lies fall into this category imo, especially in low-stakes environments like Salmon Team and UTDP. Unlike big lies, "small" lies are somewhat unique to Kokichi, he tells/performs them constantly regardless of context, and they don’t serve a very clear purpose.

Masking

I think Kokichi got very good at performing emotions from a young age in order to mask the fact that he doesn't experience empathy or other emotions very strongly. And maybe that sounds like a very specific headcanon, but just stick with me here... [and/or see note 3 for one line of evidence]. Failing to emote convincingly would’ve not only made it difficult to exist in everyday society, but it probably would’ve put an even bigger target on his back as a criminal, too… So yeah, he learned.

But as it turns out, spending an (admittedly very short) lifetime pretending to have emotions you don’t actually have is a fantastic way to:

Start feeling detached from the people around you,

Start seeing everyone else as suckers for buying it, and

Very quickly lose any moral qualms about lying — after all, people would attack him from every direction if he was honest about his feelings towards them (or lack thereof), so how is it fair that they want to punish him for lying, too? There’s just no winning!

My interpretation boils down to this: Kokichi lies compulsively because he is deeply bored, and the kick he gets out of deceiving people is one of the only things he finds consistently rewarding about talking to them. Most social interactions already feel like lies to him because he is constantly forced to mask, so he might as well tell fun lies about being a supervillain instead of boring, easy lies about wanting to be friends with everyone.

(Continued under the cut)

Not all lies are strategic

I think it's easy to assume at first that the only reason to lie is for some sort of material influence: changing others' behavior or hiding undesirable truths, either for your own selfish gain or the greater good. Definitely, there is a purpose like that for most of Kokichi's "big" lies, and even some of his "small" ones (e.g. the kind of short-lived lies both he and Shuichi tell in order to advance the Class Trials). But even in retrospect, not every lie he tells can be explained with an external motivation like that, selfish OR unselfish.

I think telling "small" lies is more of a habit for Kokichi than a strategic choice, something he can't quit even when it becomes an actively bad strategy (hence "compulsive"). But if you’re already with me on this, feel free to just skip to the next section :P

A. Small lies aren't meant to be believed.

I don't think Kokichi tells lies in order to actually mislead people most of the time — because if he wanted people to believe his small lies, then he wouldn't be constantly retracting them. Many (or even most) of his small lies are soon followed up with “It’s a lie!”, either literally or by demonstrating/implying that it’s untrue [e.g. note 2 again]. [For some possible exceptions to this rule, see note 4].

Fig 1: Kokichi struggling not to give himself away after Monotarou believes his outlandish lie (V3 manga anthology). While I think this instance is a bit exaggerated, it nicely draws attention to the fact that he enjoys revealing his own lies.

By Kokichi's own doing, there is often a net 0 change in what people believe by the time they reach the end of a conversation with him. E.g. Kaede doesn't walk away from their FTE thinking Kokichi is her long-lost companion, Shuichi doesn't walk away from Salmon Team thinking Kokichi is obsessed with dumpster diving, etc. This suggests that Kokichi's not trying to change the perceived truth, he's just interested in the momentary act of tricking people.

B. Kokichi doesn’t tell small lies to alter his social standing, for better OR for worse.

I think the first half of this is self evident — I mean, if he was trying to gain status, he's doing a terrible job! He is aware of what behavior is required to make people like you and listen to you, and he is patently not doing that. 

You might then argue that he’s doing the opposite: intentionally bombing his reputation to build up to Ch.5 so that people would readily believe he’s the mastermind. While I do think his annoying lies ended up helping on that front, I don’t think his mastermind plan is the cause of this behavior, because...

Firstly, we still see him lie constantly in contexts where there's no clear advantage to being hated (UTDP, Salmon Team).

Secondly: Crying wolf is one of many great strategies to make people hate you... but it is a uniquely terrible strategy to make people believe you. If you were really going to create an evil mastermind persona out of thin air, "pretending to be a lying attention-seeker" is just not the most logical way to go about it; that would only make it harder for you to convince people that you're actually being serious when you do the big reveal that you're the mastermind [for a note on Junko, see 5]. That's why I don't think the compulsive liar thing is an act; instead the evil persona we see in game is just the result of leaning into traits people already disliked about him. The reason he tells so many meaningless small lies during the killing game is just that he already was, and is, a compulsive liar.

Again, there are some "big" lies, lies he doesn't go back on, that he tells in order to tank his reputation (e.g. "The more you suffer, the more I enjoy it"). But those big lies aren't enhanced at all by the fact that he walks around telling people the sky is green, you know? That might make people hate him, but it's not the wisest way to do so while still maintaining control over people.

Finally, regarding the argument that he tanks his credibility in order to mask his own emotions, see note [6].

So, with all that said... Why even tell these lies, if they don't give him more control over the situation, his classmates, or the truth?

Boredom

I believe Kokichi’s small lies are primarily driven by boredom. Yes, his complaints of boredom are probably meant to tie him to Junko (narratively) and justify enjoying the killing game. But I do think he’s also genuinely, chronically bored. Just because he doesn’t have vivid emotions doesn’t mean his brain isn’t expecting him to have vivid emotions, if that makes sense, so there’s just a constant lack of stimulus that leaves him restless.

On that note, I think it's difficult for him to maintain interest in everyday conversations. There's not usually a lot at stake for him, because he doesn't feel much about the people around him, and isn't interested in pretending that he does just so they can feel "connected" to a version of him that doesn't actually exist [but see 7].

It doesn't matter to him which path he takes when navigating everyday social interactions, so if he has to get through those interactions anyway, he's going to take the road less traveled. Pointing fingers, confessing to murder, and spontaneously bursting into tears… it’s not usually to accomplish anything in particular. It's more like doing backflips in an empty prison cell: equally as useless as rotting on the floor, but marginally more entertaining.

Fig 2: Kokichi consciously using lies to entertain himself. His dissatisfaction with the lie appears to be unrelated to whether or not it was believed; I suspect this is because the claim was so mundane that convincing Shuichi of it wouldn't have been very impressive in the first place.

But what's actually fun about lying?

I think this constant need for entertainment is what motivates a lot of Kokichi's social behaviors, not just lying. But he clearly has a special relationship with lies in particular. I think this is partially because of his perception of himself as "fake" (in the literal sense), but more importantly because lies are a versatile, challenging, and (relatively) harmless way to get reactions out of people.

Lying poses creative and intellectual challenges: Introducing lies basically doubles the amount of social calculations required to participate in conversation [elaboration in note 8].

Lying creates artificial stakes by reimagining ordinary conversations as competitions. By playing a game of "how many times can I fool this person in one sitting?" he creates an internal motivation to engage in conversation and perform social behaviors convincingly (at least, for short periods of time). External pressures like “being liked” aren’t usually enough to motivate that.

Lying allows him to emotionally occupy extreme scenarios without actually creating extreme scenarios. If he wants to raise tensions high enough that he can actually feel them, lying is one of the less destructive ways to do so, because it's entirely verbal (including body language, that is) and thus avoids material risk/harm. Now that's not to say it doesn't hurt people [e.g. note 9]. In fact, that's often the point; I wouldn't call him a sadist in the traditional sense, but there is something gratifying about triggering twinges of guilt and empathy in yourself if you don't normally have access to those feelings.

All this to say, Kokichi's habitual small lies aren't driven by a desire to create genuine misunderstandings, or to make people do what he wants [note 10]. I think what he actually seeks from social situations is little bursts of catharsis from witnessing other people’s emotions, and the feeling of control or "winning" that comes solely from being able to deceive them and get those reactions. 

Going "it's a lie!" right after is a really important part of this. It's a punchline, a tiny power trip, a kind of "Bingo!" he can use to declare victory. He doesn't necessarily want people to believe what he said, he just wants them to know that he totally got them and he'll do it again. Because what’s even the point of coming up with all these lies if people are just going to believe them and obliviously move on?

Lying as satire

Finally, and I’ll admit my thoughts on this aren’t quite as fleshed out, but I almost imagine Kokichi's lies as a form of satire, given that one of the few things he seems genuinely (?) passionate about is his right to lie. That is to say, it means something to him, in addition to being internally rewarding. He's had to present a false persona of himself from day one, after all — but now that he's a self-proclaimed bad guy, there's a lot less pressure to do it well. Performing those social behaviors in random, nonsensical patterns, and telling lies that feel just as true as the "honest conversation" he's learned to fake... it's like a form of indignant social button-mashing. It doesn't really matter if his performance conveys a coherent image of a person or not, because it was always arbitrary to him in the first place, you know?

….And I think I'm just going to stop myself there before this gets any longer. Tysm for reading!!!! <3

Disclaimer

…Actually that was a lie, let me get on my soapbox real quick. I think it's safe to say this essay hinges on Kokichi having some form of neurodivergence, however you want to label it. Personally I see him as having some antisocial traits, but I didn’t want to make that a silver bullet, and I thought it’d make more sense to just take the specific traits I see in him and work backwards from there. With that in mind, I want to make it abundantly clear that I don’t mean to assign any moral value to emotions. I can’t say this headcanon is entirely based on my own experiences, but there's a reason I connect with it, and I don't think anyone should be judged or labeled inhuman for emotions they do or do not have.

Moreover, while I explicitly take the stance that his emotions are morally neutral, I am explicitly NOT taking a stance on the morality of his behaviors. My intention here was just to explain them logically. Between you and me, just trust that I'm a Kokichi enjoyer and I did my best to consider things from his perspective.

Credits

Game screencaps from justonegamr and JakkHearts on Youtube. Manga screencap from Mangadex.

I also want to plug this analysis by @/g0nta-g0kuhara — I'm honestly not sure how much of my analysis aligns with/borrows from theirs, but it's definitely one of the posts that informs my current understanding of Kokichi, so it'd feel weird not to at least mention it. Consider giving it a read!

Finally, shout out to @thedaythatwas for peer reviewing this meta!!

Footnotes

These were mostly off the top of my head, so if I got anything wrong, feel free to (again, nicely) point it out ^^;

 “Big lies serve a strategic purpose” Big lies are also what I'd call the "normal" type of lies, just like Maki's Child Caregiver lie, or Komaeda's fake bomb threat — they're meant to be believed and to influence people's decisions. Examples of Kokichi's "big lies": those he tells in order to impersonate the Mastermind (e.g. claiming he loves the killing game); lies to Miu (being oblivious to her murder plot) and Gonta (believing the Killing Game Busters is a good idea) for his Ch.4 scheme, and debatably DICE lies to protect himself and his Ultimate title (though for these I also think he just gets a kick out of trying to juggle such a big lie for so long).

“Small lies” An example of an "emotional" small lie is the times he bursts out crying; he's not necessarily making false claims, but his actions communicate feelings he doesn't have, and most of the time he'll follow up by reverting to a bored expression thus implicitly confessing to the lie. His claim that he can’t taste food is also a pretty good example of a verbal lie: it’s random, difficult to believe, and he immediately follows it up by saying he likes sweet and spicy things. (That last part was definitely intended to imply he was lying, but whether or not he was lying about lying depends on your hc… I personally choose to believe that he has a weak sense of taste and relies on “interesting” textures like carbonation, because I think it parallels my take on his reduced emotions in a fun way.) +++ For further examples, the majority of Kokichi's Salmon Team events are just him spouting random bullshit and then immediately taking it back.

"One line of evidence for reduced empathy/emotions": His thought process often reads to me like someone with low empathy; and his ability to rapidly switch between extreme emotional performances and total flatness suggests that, in his natural form, his internal reactions are either dull or don’t automatically reflect on his face. For example, when Kokichi "gets real" during trials, his expression often goes blank and he comes off as overly blunt/pragmatic (“Everything you said is total BS… You didn't give two shits about Tenko when she was alive." "How do you expect to find the culprit when you're all worried about each other's feelings?" "Why do you guys hate lies so much? […] And some of them are only white lies, or lies to be kind to people…") They're delivered flatly (voice/sprites, and phrasing to a lesser extent) and express frustration with people's hypocrisy around social norms. To me these are moments when he gets so fed up with the social dance taking everyone in circles that he has to step out for a second and drop the mask, even knowing that his true self will make people see him as inhuman. (I probably shouldn’t have to clarify, but for the record I say all this as someone with low empathy myself.) +++++ALSO: I want to credit @/g0nta-g0kuhara's meta for pointing out that Kokichi's expression goes flat in (different) honest moments - linked in credits above - although I ultimately interpret this in a slightly different way for his character.

"Some exceptions to the 'it's a lie' rule": His own thoughts and feelings, which are often kept ambiguous. Lies he doesn't need to retract because they're obviously false ("I hate liars!" or "I was born from the big tree behind Hope's Peak Academy..."). Small *non-compulsive* lies that serve a strategic purpose, like perjury to further the trials (though you could argue these too are "obviously false" and basically retract themselves after a moment of critical thinking; e.g. claiming he killed Angie (ch3), or debatably telling Himiko she mentioned the brick handrail (ch4) because he intentionally casts doubt over the lie by telling it very badly). And of course, he doesn't go back on his "big" lies or the lies that serve to support them.

“Compulsive lying isn’t the best way to impersonate the mastermind”: Although I think his lying is very connected to his boredom, and his boredom connects him to Junko Enoshima, I want to point out that he is unaware of Junko. To the viewers of Danganronpa 53, his behavior absolutely looks like the behavior of a mastermind… but there’s no reason for Kokichi himself to think that “someone pathologically bored who constantly switches personas” is the most believable caricature of the mastermind. I think that’s a coincidence that was engineered by Tsumugi, and from Kokichi’s perspective it’s just part of his personality.

"Tanking his credibility to mask his emotions": As some have pointed out, being constantly dishonest does make it easier for Kokichi to dismiss his own moments of vulnerability and keep his thoughts/feelings ambiguous (e.g. gracefully backing out of his love confession to Shuichi during the love suite by pretending he was joking. The idea that it's a prank is only believable to Shuichi because he already knows Kokichi likes to pull his leg in other ways). I don't disagree with this interpretation of Kokichi's lies, in fact it's a really fascinating angle and part of what makes interpreting him so challenging. However... I still don't think that's the ONLY reason he walks around telling people the sky is green. Its usefulness is pretty limited to cases like the love suite, where he's trying to 'test the waters' and back out if the first approach fails. A superficially similar example is when he cries for Gonta's execution and then whirls around with whole "I don't want to, stupidhead!" bit — he's not actually testing the waters here, because he never intended to go forward with the story 'I'm really sad about Gonta and I regret doing that;' even if you think the tears were real, the plan was always to retract it. What actually saves face for him here is the fact that he's able to stop crying and go on a straight-faced villain monologue afterwards — and all that was *required* to make that believable was his acting skills (admittedly helped by his "evil" reputation, but not necessarily by his "liar" reputation). In other words, I'm inclined to think it would have worked even if he had presented as 'honest but mean-spirited' up until this point. It's the same way Tsumugi can convince us in Ch.6 that she's evil and her grief for previous victims was an act, despite never having presented herself as a liar until now; Kokichi is lying about being a heartless villain, while Tsumugi (ostensibly) is not, but they have the same effect in the moment because their ability to switch rapidly between 'good' and 'evil' personas proves *in itself* that they're good actors, and that one of those personas must be false, regardless of how their honesty was perceived beforehand.

"Kokichi lacks emotional stake in other people": This is simply a headcanon I am positing because I think it has interesting implications for his relationship with lies. Please don't be mistaken when I say that Kokichi doesn't care about the people around him (all of the English words for "caring" are frustratingly ambiguous, in my opinion). I don't think Kokichi experiences "care" as an emotion very often, no, but that doesn't mean he can't take interest in people, have opinions on them, or "care about" them through his actions. Now, whether or not he actually does that.... is not the topic of this essay either!

"An intellectual challenge": To lie, you have to continually generate a false narrative (rather than just regurgitating the truth), you have to track which routes you've left open based on what you've already said, and you have to assess whether or not they believe you (...which are all similar to calculations you'd already be used to doing if you don't have empathy). If you want to win, you have to do all of this on the fly and do it really, really well. And once people know you're a liar, it not only gets harder to convince them of your lies, it also gets harder to convince them of the truth; once lies are introduced, the pressure to perform well pervades every part of the conversation. Of course, this is way more fun with bigger lies (like DICE lies, in my opinion), but the little ones still take a modest amount of effort (an amount he can afford to expend on a daily basis) and yield a much more immediate reward.

"Lying still hurts people": e.g. Kokichi accuses Kaede of strong arming everyone during the Death Road of Despair, then accuses everyone else of attacking her the following morning. This one is a complicated example because it was such an obvious lie that I really have trouble believing that he wanted anyone else to buy it (I really think the point was to annoy people and raise social tensions), but even though the lie was quickly pointed out, it still actually made everyone gang up on Kaede, to the point she leaves to cry in her room afterwards.

“Lying isn’t to make people do what he wants”: Again, I'm just talking about his everyday compulsive lying here. While he does use DICE related lies to make people do what he wants (e.g. make Shuichi hang out with him), I consider those part of his "big schemes" rather than his habitual behavior, since his claims about DICE are consistent, well thought-out, and long term. Not to mention, the veracity of those claims isn't too important to me, since he's already very transparent about the fact that he's trying to threaten people into doing his bidding in these cases.

[panharmonium]

I would like to add Gwaine to the list of friends Merlin had. Especially in the 3/4 seasons he really was ride or die for Merlin, they shared intimate details with each other, they truly trusted each other. There were instances where the show alluded that Gwaine knows about Merlin's magic and is fine with it.

hi there!  i’m assuming this is in response to the post i reblogged about will and lancelot being merlin’s only “real” friends?  

i’m actually happy to write about this, now that the question has been posed - it’s been a while since i wrote anything long about gwaine!

fair warning in advance: i don’t personally classify gwaine the same way i do will and lancelot, and that’s what this piece will cover in more detail, but these are just my own thoughts, and it is totally cool for everybody else to have different opinions.  my take is my take, but it does not have to be everyone’s take - if people wanna scroll past because this isn’t their vibe, i don’t mind in the slightest. :)

so, without further ado - i LOVE gwaine, and i have written extensively about how amazing his relationship with merlin is (some examples here, here, here, and here, if anybody’s looking).  he is the most likely of all merlin’s living friends to ditch arthur in the name of addressing merlin’s needs, which is super important, and he also has a much healthier friendship with merlin than arthur does (in my own personal opinion, of course, which nobody is obligated to share).  he definitely does go ride or die for merlin in S3/S4, i agree.

but my own thoughts on this particular point are still the same as they were in that original post.  i tend to hide my clarifications/explanations in the tags, so they might have flown by, but i’ll just copy/paste the relevant bit here for ease of access, as some background for the rest of this post.

re: will and lancelot were merlin’s only ‘real’ friends:

#what this does not mean: merlin has no other friends!  merlin doesn't have meaningful and important relationships with other people!   #what it does mean:  #every single one of merlin's other relationships is undergirded by the sickening knowledge that those friendships are conditional   #every single one of his other relationships is accompanied by the constant undercurrent of 'they would hate me if they knew'   #merlin knows his friends 'care' about him   #except they don't really; because it's not truly him they're caring about   #they care deeply - about someone merlin made up   #about a facade.   #in the most basic sense   #those relationships aren't Real   #the love merlin feels for the people in them is real   #but you cannot truly be 'friends' with somebody who doesn't even know who you are   #you cannot be loved without being known   #you certainly cannot be loved without being safe

obviously i suppose a person’s thoughts on this would be different if they headcanoned that gwaine knew about merlin’s magic, and that’s fine.  i personally do not believe canon indicates or supports that, but i’m not out to convince people to abandon their own fanon interpretations of things; i’m happy just hanging out in my own space talking about my thoughts.  me writing meta is the virtual equivalent of me talking to myself in my room - if other people have different conversations with themselves, that’s fine :)  i don’t mind if other folks organize their thoughts about things differently.  

in accordance with that - everybody please feel free to continue on with your own interpretations, and ignore mine if mine do not appeal to you!  if people are interested about how i organize my ideas on this, though, they are essentially as follows:

1) a cage fighter, a class traitor, and a fake sorcerer walk into a tavern

ok, to start with - here’s a graph.

(...who tf starts a meta post with ‘here’s a graph’ lol i just drew a venn diagram for the first time since like...middle school...i LOVE fandom, man, this is RIDICULOUS)

anyway

this is a very rough interpretation of how i think about gwaine, lancelot, and will:

to address some of these elements individually:

lancelot and will give merlin something that gwaine can’t - safety, authenticity, the comfort of being known and seen for real, a respite from constantly qualifying every friendship with ‘they would hate me if they knew’

lancelot and gwaine, likewise, give merlin something merlin wouldn’t be as likely to get from will (if will were still alive, i mean) - an understanding of merlin’s devotion to the Crown, a supportive ally in the fight to promote arthur’s reign and keep arthur/camelot safe

will and gwaine, for their part, are more likely to tell arthur to go fuck himself, if it’s important for helping merlin, and that’s a different kind of support that merlin also really needs.

and will, on his own, gives merlin something that neither lancelot NOR gwaine can provide, which is a friend who isn’t connected to or even particularly interested in arthur pendragon (merlin has nobody in his life like this, not after will dies) - somebody who knew and cared about merlin before merlin had any proximity to arthur, before this whole ’destiny’ issue reared its merciless head.

everybody in merlin’s life matters to him and gives him something important.  gwaine is STUPIDLY important to merlin.  the love there is real.  but in canon, because gwaine is not in the know, gwaine is still one of the people from whom merlin feels compelled to hide himself.  gwaine is right up there alongside gwen, arthur, elyan, percival, etc - every other person who merlin loves, who merlin nonetheless constantly, back-of-his-mind fears, ‘they would reject me if they knew.’

the above is part of why i personally have never been too interested in ‘so-and-so knows about merlin���s magic’ canon-imaginings.  there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, and i’m sure people must have tons of fun with them - and in an AU context maybe i would have fun with them too - but as hopeful interpretations of actual canon, they don’t appeal to me.  merlin’s near-total isolation and desperate, constantly-frustrated desire for real, honest love is an inalienable aspect of his character for me, one i can’t separate from who he is and why he does the things he does and why he eventually ends up in the place where we find him towards the end of the show.  

2) i just want someone to see me for who i am

i have seen a bit of sentiment out there along the lines of ‘merlin should have told (x person) about their magic’ or ‘(x person) obviously doesn’t have a problem with sorcerers,’ but i guess i personally don’t think it’s as clear as all that, and i think me saying it is would be doing merlin a disservice.

merlin’s desire to be seen/known/accepted is literally the most base urge he has.  if he truly thought he could tell somebody safely, he would.

i think merlin knows the people in his orbit well enough to know how they feel about sorcery, at least in a general sense.  and even if they aren’t bloodthirsty bigots like uther, they aren’t exactly welcoming magic with open arms, either.  at the most basic, elementary level, merlin understands something that we don’t like to think about: none of his friends ever challenge arthur on the sorcery ban or express any dissatisfaction with the political status quo, and, even absent outright bigotry, this fact speaks loudly enough in and of itself.  merlin’s friends might not be out clamoring for sorcerers’ blood, but they aren’t criticizing a society that criminalizes sorcery, either, and they are never shown to have a problem with the way things are, even though the way things are is wrong.

The Way Things Are is, in fact, unjust.  it’s oppressive.  and allowing that state of affairs to continue, unquestioned and unchallenged, when you have access to the king’s ear and aren’t personally in danger of being persecuted, indicates that you’re okay with the injustice.  that you’re comfortable with the oppression.  that you don’t see a problem with the status quo, and that you're unbothered enough by it to let it be.

it doesn’t matter that merlin’s friends have never straight-up said ‘boy, magic sure is evil’ onscreen.  they never say that camelot’s policies are wrong, and that delivers a clear enough message on its own.

3) it is not a crime to fight for your freedom

to bring this back to gwaine specifically, since that was originally the focus of this ask -

for me, for all that i adore gwaine, and for all that i think he was, for the most part, an INCREDIBLY sound, healthy relationship for merlin, the truth is that gwaine is as much a part of this problem as everyone else.  does that mean i personally think gwaine would have summarily dumped merlin if he’d found out merlin had magic?  no.  but i don’t think it’s as uncomplicated as maybe we wish it might be, and i think merlin has every right to be as uncertain of gwaine on this issue as he does of everyone else.

for one thing, like i said before, even gwaine, who used to have fewer qualms than any of the knights about pushing back on arthur’s BS, has never said a word about camelot’s injustices, or ever acknowledged that the laws of the land are unjust to begin with.  

for another, there are specific moments that kind of make you wonder.

5.05 (’the disir’) is a good example of this - when gwaine finds osgar in the woods, the two of them have this exchange:

you are a sorcerer, a heretic, and a murderer.  

the rhetoric of this sentence frames all three of these things as equivalent entities - criminal ones.  

to pick this apart more carefully:

a) sorcerer

it’s worth noting here that we’re never told osgar has done anything worse than evading arrest for the crime of being a known sorcerer.  when leon mentions him in the council meeting, the conversation consists solely of the following:

“as you know, a few days ago our garrison in the forest of breckfire intercepted the man who goes by the name of osgar.”

“the sorcerer.”

“the same.  they were trying to apprehend him when he used his powers to escape.”

and…that’s it.  osgar’s crime, as far as we know, was simply being a sorcerer (and then, after that, attempting to escape an unjust arrest, thereby killing a knight in the process).  there’s no mention of any other activities that would have warranted his arrest in the first place, other than the possession of magic.

but magic, even on its own, IS a crime in camelot - and gwaine levels the accusation at osgar as such.

b) heretic

that’s a hell of a word to throw around, if you think sorcery is chill.

“heretic” isn’t a mild accusation.  "heretic” has vitriolic severity behind it.  people are accused of heresy when they’re perceived to be in brazen defiance of what is (in the eyes of the accuser) unquestionably right and correct.  “heretic” is like…it’s like blasphemer.  the connotation is not just that something is bad, but that it’s sinful.

for gwaine, either osgar’s association with sorcery and/or his defiance of camelot’s army makes him a heretic.  and that’s not something a person who is down with sorcery or supportive of a magic-user’s struggle for freedom would say.

c) murderer

if gwaine were cool with sorcery, we would expect him to understand that a sorcerer who resisted arrest for the crime of being a sorcerer isn’t a murderer.  

it’s like kara said in 5.11 - it is not a crime to fight for the right to be who you are.

camelot has been killing sorcerers for decades.  osgar mortally wounded a soldier (not an innocent civilian, i might note) who was trying to imprison him.  he was resisting the armed forces of an oppressive state.  that’s not murder.

somebody who understands that camelot is an oppressive regime wouldn’t think of this as murder.  they would understand that it is not a crime to protect your own life when the state has literally been trying to exterminate your people for years.  and even if osgar had been engaged in rebellious activities against the state (which as far as we know is not the case - nothing like this is ever referenced!), they would understand that people with magic have long been overdue for a righteous uprising.  

but gwaine is a little more like arthur, in this moment - he sees the “wrong” that osgar has done (in the form of sir ranulf’s death) without seeing the thousands upon thousands of wrongs that camelot visited upon the magical community first.

4) you can’t go armed into a sacred place

the rest of this episode is similar.  gwaine pays just as little heed to merlin’s warnings as the rest of the knights, when merlin admonishes them that the disir’s cave is sacred.  gwaine doesn’t relinquish his sword or take special care upon entering the cave.  in fact, he is the one who outright interrupts the disir while they’re speaking - as they’re telling arthur a series of hard truths, that he’s persecuted magic-users, “even unto slaughter;” that he’s desecrated their space: “you come here, to the most sacred of the sacred, to the very heart of the Old Religion, with weapons drawn - trampling hallowed relics - treating our sacred space like you do your kingdom - with arrogance - with conceit - with insolence - ”

and gwaine cuts them off, pushing to the front of the group and shouting at them “enough!  you speak of the king!”  and that’s when the fight starts, when mordred gets stabbed.

someone who was fully accepting of magic, or who knew anything about it at all, would not have behaved this way.  they would not have bristled at hearing how arthur’s regime unfairly persecutes the magical community.  they would have known that it was true.

5) i just want to be myself

the above is just one example, but it’s a clear enough one to illustrate what i mean.  gwaine IS an amazing friend to merlin.  he does treat merlin well.  and merlin loves him to death.  but gwaine is NOT totally chill with magic.  i’m not saying he actively hates it, but he is not, from what merlin has witnessed, entirely safe.  merlin loves him, but he can’t be himself around him.

and i do think that pains merlin terribly.  all these people who he loves so much, and every time he’s with them there’s always that whisper: ‘this is a charade.  all the love in my life is a lie.  they only like me because they don’t know me.  if they knew who i really was, this would be over.’  

and we wonder why he never tells anyone.  we tell him he ‘should’ have told gwaine, gwen, morgana, arthur, like it would have been easy, or even possible, for him to ever consider putting himself in a position where he could lose what precarious, partially make-believe connections he has.

merlin, in the later seasons, when he worries about his magic being exposed, isn’t afraid of being executed.  he’s afraid of becoming even more alone than he is now.  and he has good reason to feel that way - even people who appear to put him first aren’t fully on board with the thing that makes him who he is.  and merlin knows this.  he’s seen it.  none of his friends are out fighting for people like him at court.  some of his friends shake their heads and assure arthur “you are a good and just king” when arthur expresses concern that maybe the disir are right, maybe he has indeed transgressed.  some of merlin’s friends used to buck the system in defense of the powerless, but now they defend the regime even when the accusations levelled against it by an oppressed population are true.

merlin knows that revealing himself is a kind of risk that could very plausibly end with him utterly disowned.  every single friendship he has is subject to this justified fear, this bitter knowledge.  merlin has every reason to doubt the soundness of his relationships.

and, circling back to the thing that started all these musings - the only friends who never made him feel that way were will and lancelot.

that’s all i mean when i say that will and lancelot were merlin’s only “real” friends.  i wish there were a better word to use than that, because i really don’t mean it like…as if merlin’s relationships with other people weren’t…valid, or important, or based on true love and care.  they were.  but there’s just not a better way to express that will and lancelot were the only people who ever even knew who they were friends with, who saw merlin for exactly who he was and said “i love you still.”  they were the only ones whose friendship was something merlin didn’t have to be afraid of losing solely for existing.

i always think of morgana’s line in 2.11 - ‘i don’t want to be brave.  i just want to be myself. i don’t want to be alone anymore.’

around everyone else, merlin has to be brave.  he has to keep up the pretense, which means even when he’s surrounded by friends, he’s completely isolated.

with will and lancelot, though, he could be himself.  with will and lancelot, he wasn’t alone.

6) post-script

i really appreciate being given the opportunity to muse to myself about this in more detail - i actually needed to think through some things regarding gwaine anyway, for writing purposes, and this was actually really helpful in organizing my brain.  so thanks, anon, for the prompt!  

i know my answer probably runs counter to your own interpretation of things, but as i said, this is just my own personal outlook.  i typed it up because the message got me thinking, and because i know i have a couple of friends who might find it interesting, but my thoughts apply only to me, and i do not mind at all if folks think about these things differently!  nobody is obligated to agree with anything i write, or give it any further thought, or even read it at all - we’re all going to engage with this story in different ways, so if anybody finds that this isn’t their cup of tea, please feel free to scroll on by, and keep having fun with this show in whatever way makes you happiest! :)

[seaofthemind-art]

The “Abuse” Trope in MCU Spider-Man Fan Fiction: Part 1

[Edit Note: This first post completely missed my point, and as such is now being continued in "Part 2". I have made several edits and additions to this post for coherence between the two.]

I became interested in these tropes partly due to what seemed to be its abundance within the fandom. Re-reading several stories recently led me to consider how this trope has been handled in the fandom, its variations and ways that it has been turned on its head, as well as stories ideas that have not been explored yet to my knowledge.

Within the "Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)" category on AO3 there are several overarching areas that would come under the trope of abuse.

To put it in context, on the 26th October 2020 there was 28,637 works in the category; this included 626 stories tagged as "child abuse", a total of more than 2% of the stories. Of course, as we well know, tagging on AO3 is not consistent: there will be "abuse" stories which do not use this tag, whilst the tag may also be referring to a range of characters' situations (ie: Tony's childhood, Flash's backstory, OC characters). However, for these posts I'm going to look at stories related to Peter's experiences.

For all the "popularity" of these stories in the fandom, it is just an example of what are wide spread tropes across media. TV Tropes lists several related tropes including Abusive Parents and Foster Kid, showing that it is not only this fandom in which it is common.TV Tropes also makes a good point in its Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction, in that: what one person classes as abusive behavior may be perfectly acceptable to another.

Major Plot Categories

One of the common targets for this trope is "May's Abusive Boyfriend", which seems to have grown in popularity in the last year as Endgame has provided a convenient set-up for this trope:

the second law of thermodynamics by extraordinarythings

"It happens the same way it always does. (It's just discipline. It's not that bad. It's fine, Peter is fine, he'll be fine--). Except he really isn't fine, and Tony knows something's up, and Peter's house of cards is falling apart, and so the story goes."

Who Saves The Hero by CamelotQueen

“May brings home her new boyfriend. Something about him makes Peter feel nervous, but he makes May happy. And if May's happy, then Peter is happy. Then it escalates.”

Fear all else but never me. Please. by Webtrinsic

“May's new boyfriend proves himself to be a grade A-asshole when he decides to abuse Peter. And that doesn't sit well with Tony at all.”

i get by (but it’s eating me alive) by Livinei

““Do you not want to be home?” Tony starts. “No.” Tony considers for a moment. Peter’s never not wanted to be home. Not before… Now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t know a lot about David. Peter doesn’t bring him up a lot, and when he does then he’s not very eager to discuss it for long. Tony hasn’t gotten an impression that Peter’s particularly fond of the guy, though.”

The Homes We Make by iamq

“Peter Parker isn't the type of boy to run crying to Tony Stark because he can't handle a punch. Michelle Jones and Ned Leeds aren't the type of friends to ignore Peter's rapidly declining health. Eugene "Flash" Thompson isn't an idiot.”

to this day by hopeless_hope

“It's months before anyone realizes May's boyfriend abuses Peter. The effects are lasting.”

Promotions Aren’t Always A Good Thing by Agib

“When May gets a new boyfriend, Peter's okay. When Carter moves in, he can deal. When May gets a promotion so she works days and Carter works nights, Peter finds it harder to deal. When Carter starts abusing him, he begins to feel crushed by the weight of it all.”

The Black And The Blue (All That It Takes Out of You) by Buckets_of_Stars

“David wasn't a person Peter would ever want to be around, but with him being May's new boyfriend and all, it makes it harder and harder to avoid him. But it was fine, May was happy and of course, Peter still has Tony. But that was before the hitting started. Before David spit neglectful words in his face and the spiderling begins to question his very worth.Tony, on the other hand, is not having it.”

Vertigo by GalaxyThreads

“Coming back from the dead wasn't nearly as awesome as TV made it out to be. Peter's learning this on the go. And it really doesn't help that May's new husband absolutely hates him. And that May is pretty ignorant of that and him now. But it's all fine. Really.”

Your Heart Changed (mine stayed the same) by @loboselinaistrash​ [WIP]

"Peter Parker is back but 5 years into the future and the world has changed. Peter goes home with May only to find she had moved on, with a husband and two kids. Peter struggles to find his place in this new family with a strict step uncle, the longer he's there the harder he finds it to stay on his good side, uncertain if May will believe him."

A Peter Parker Problem by @spagbol99​ [WIP]

"Peter comes back to find May has a husband and a kid. A new family he has to fit into. But he has done it before, he can do it again. The only thing that feels solid is Tony: the Blip and fatherhood have mellowed him and Peter loves the bond they have now. He knows Tony would be there for him through anything. But Tony needs to focus on his own recovery - not small time Peter Parker problems. When things at home take a turn for the worse, Peter decides that he'll handle it himself. He is Spider-man. He's been to space and fought aliens. He can get through anything. After all, if May is happy, he is happy, right? Right?"

--

This premise has been turned on it's head by a couple of authors with the straight opposite of this trope in "May has a new boyfriend who is decent (and confused)":

The Secrets We Keep by @euphoric-melancholyy​

"May has a really awesome, loving boyfriend who's just a little confused as to why she lets her teenage son stay out til 1 every night and sleep somewhere else every weekend. Also, he’s friends with Tony Stark? Chris - May’s new boyfriend - feels like he’s missing something here."

A Good Kid  by kuragay

"Ricky thinks that May's an exceptional woman, and he thinks that Peter's an exceptional kid. But there's no denying that the Parker household is full of mysteries, and most of them are centered around Peter and his supposed internship with Tony Stark."

--

Then there has also been several stories changing the abuser, such as in the concept of "What if May (or Ben) is the abusive carer?":

Brooklyn by @hailing-stars​ [part of a longer series]

"After leaving Peter with Tony and months of no contact, May shows up in Peter's life again, interrupting Tony's plans to adopt him. Peter has to decide who he wants to live with, but soon learns the decision may really not be his."

Parker Luck by CreepyLittleLullaby

"He never met one, he got left behind by the other, the next one died, and the only one he had left was pushing him away. And he doesn't know what to do. Peter really has rotten luck when it comes to parental figures. No matter how hard he tries. Parker luck will always prevail."

Please, Understand by jipseebree

"When Aunt May discovers that he's Spider-Man, something inside her snaps. She starts to abuse him and he deserves it, doesn't he? After all, people have died because of him. People who wouldn't have died if he was a better hero."

Spiders hunt alone, anyway by karma_is_a_turtle [WIP]

"Ben’s death hits the Parker family hard, May worst of all. May Parker struggles to cope with her husband’s death and her nine-year-old nephew grows up learning how to pick up her slack."

Always Silent, Peter Darling by LlibLo

“After a traumatic experience at age 6, Peter Parker hasn't spoken a word. Most blame it on the fact that he witnessed his Uncle die in a horrible fire, this is only partly true. Now, almost 10 years later Peter is given the chance to finally speak, but will he take it? Or is the fear of his Aunt to much for him to take that chance? Either way, Tony Stark can tell something's not quite right about the kind hearted May Parker.“

It’s All Just Static In My Head by Blue__Dreams

“And then May was shot. Foolishly, childishly, Peter hoped Iron Man would swoop in and save the day again. He hoped and hoped and hoped. And Ben drank and drank and drank. As Ben grew worse, and their fridge grew empty, as Peter’s face became more bruised, and his powers grew, Peter realized, you can’t depend on superheroes. So Peter created his own hero - Spiderman.“

 I told you I had issues by Bergen            

“Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and right now, a little exasperated. Because some guy is swinging around New York, shooting webs and making trouble, Fury is breathing down his neck, and his latest intern took off with his coupon for a free coffee.“

--

Another focus for the abuse trope are the "Skip Wescott" stories, which take their concept and the character from a one-shot from the comics. @irondadfics​ has a good rec list for this. Many of the stories take it further than the comic that inspired them, and within the fandom it has also become common to see it re-mixed in variations of “Abused by Other Person of Authority” AKA: Babysitter/Teacher/Foster Carer/etc.

Although Skip is a common character for authors to use when they need a character as the abuser who isn't a complete original character, both original characters do appear as well as other characters from within the MCU.

The Third Option by Uncertainty_Principle

“Ben and May divorced before Peter’s parents died, so when Ben is murdered Peter goes into foster care. It takes just a tiny taste of superpowers for Peter to decide he doesn’t want to put up with his horrible foster father anymore—the streets are infinitely more appealing. All he wants is to be Spider-Man anyway.“

take a look at me now, there's just an empty space by @lyssismagical

“As much as Peter does want to disappear to his bedroom and avoid the awkward attempts at a one-sided conversation or inquiries about the life Tony’s read about, he craves the closeness to another person. The last time he felt properly close to someone was May. Every home in between had people who tried or people who didn’t, either way, it never felt the same. He was just another mouth to feed, another set of house visits and questionnaires from Elaine, another troubled kid under their roof. He was never treated like a human being, like a kid.“

Like A Flame That Flickered Out Too Soon... by @mysterycheerio

““He did this to you?”. Peter nodded. “And this is why you haven’t been talking?”. Another nod. Tony left the room in a hurry. Peter didn’t know where he went. Pepper knew. Rhodey knew. The whole damn neighbourhood around Stark Mansion knew, his yells were so loud.”

The Education Complication by Buckets_Of_Stars

“When young Peter Stark was diagnosed with Asthma, he was given two very important rules to always follow: 1. No long distance running. 2. Always have your inhaler with you. But when a new Gym Teacher with a hatred toward Iron Man gets hired, the 13 year old is going to find that following these two simple steps has never been more difficult.”

--

This is just a selection of the stories which can be found on AO3, from which it should be already clear that these cover a wide range of treatments of the subject.

Across all the categories, the reactions of characters to the abuse is varied; as well as some notable omissions in the range of stories. 

This we will look at in Part 2.

[komahinasecretexchange]

Title: The Flowers That Had Torn Them Apart

Author: @gravestone-monarch (Grave)

For: @creepioz

Pairings/Characters: Established Hinanami, Komahina

Ratings/Warnings: Major character death, blood, angst, unrequited love

Prompt: 1) Coffee Shop AU 2) Any Angst 3) Hanahaki’s Disease

Author’s Notes: So, hello there! I’ve never written Komahina or hanahaki before, so I’m sorry if some things seem out of place! (It also doesn’t help I haven’t played SDR2) (this probably isn’t very reassuring huh)

I know I was probably just supposed to pick one prompt, but I looked at the list and the story just clicked in my head

So now you have this!

I really hope you enjoy it! I did *shudders*

rEseArCh

For this so hopefully it’s up to standard!

Also I know it says Hinanami in the tags, it makes sense in the story (this isn’t a hinanami centered story I swear)

Once more, enjoy!! ^^

Komaeda had been getting his lunches at the Jabberwock for as long as he could remember. He practically lived in it at this point. Each day he’d come in, order, sit for an hour and leave. Day in, day out. He was lucky the little coffee shop hadn’t closed yet. Usually he has rotten luck.

But one day, something changed.

The something that would inevitably be the death of him.

He walked in one day and noticed someone new at the counter. Short brown hair, heterochromia, well toned…

Well, he was certainly attractive, Nagito would give him that.

He walked up and stood in the queue, checking his phone for the time. He was here a bit earlier than usual.

“Next!”

His head snapped up as he realised the relatively short queue had depleted.

“Ah, so sorry!” He said to the man.

“No problem. What can we get you today?” The person said.

“Mm… I’ll have the usual.” He said. The cashier raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

“Sir, this is my first day. What’s ‘the usual’?”

“Oh!” Nagito chuckled nervously. “Sorry about that…” he looked down at the person’s nametag. “…Hajime.”

“Mhm, it’s fine. Honestly, it’s already happened three times this morning.”

“Really? That’s almost impressive.”

“Almost, yeah.” Hajime grinned slightly. “Now, what’d you say you wanted?”

“Oh, right! Well…"

He gave Hajime his order, and seeing as there was nobody in the queue behind him, he stood talking to him for a few minutes.

He learned a lot about Hajime in the time he had. He was the same age as Nagito, and actually went to the same college, despite being in different courses. Nagito told him he wasn’t sure what he was planning on doing with his future. Hajime agreed.

"Yeah, not sure either, really. It’s a writing course, so it could really go anywhere. Journalist, author, scriptwriter… you get the point.” Hajime said, Nagito nodding.

“I see! Sure does give a lot of hope, doesn’t it? Knowing you’re not stuck on one path… it’s great!”

Hajime looked at him. “Yeah, probably. Oh, your order’s ready.” Hajime told him, writing Nagito’s name on the cup.

“Oh! Thank you so much, Hajime.”

“No problem. That’ll be ¥360.”

Nagito passed over the money as Hajime passed him his coffee. Their fingers brushed for just a moment. Neither said anything, but Nagito felt his pale cheeks flush slightly.

“Well, I’ll be sitting over there now. Bye, Hajime.” Nagito said, waving. Why was he waving? Was he on waving terms with this guy?

He was being awkward.

Hajime laughed, shaking his head. “See ya, Nagito.”

Nagito smiled back at him, almost a bit too wide, as he sat down, taking a sip out of his coffee. It tasted slightly different today, but… not in a bad way. It almost tasted better, actually.

“Huh…”

He didn’t pay it much mind, just enjoying the taste as he pulled out his laptop. He had decided to get a bit of work done while he was at the Jabberwock today. His next paper was supposed to be about lesser known or folklore diseases. After a bit of research, he had decided on a certain disease that had caught his attention.

“Now, how do I start this..?” He wondered to himself. After a moment, he opened his document and started typing.

The hanahaki (ha-na-ha-ki) is a fictional disease that affects people with unrequited love.

As he finished his coffee, he saved his work, closing his laptop. As he was about to throw out the cup, something caught his eye. Where he thought his name was, a series of numbers had been scribbled.

You seem cool. Call me, if you want

xxx-xxxx-xxxx

-Hajime

Nagito’s breath hitched. That was Hajime’s number, right? He couldn’t believe it. Hajime gave someone like him his number?

Woah.

He looked back over at the counter, where Hajime had started serving another customer. As he turned around to start his customer’s order, he caught Nagito’s eye. He gave one last smile before turning away.

Nagito smiled, putting the empty cup in his bag. With one last glance back, he left. Until the next day, at least.

Hajime and Nagito got to talking over the next few weeks. Hajime told Nagito his schedule (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) and Nagito made sure to come in on those days, if he couldn’t make it on the others.

They learned a bit more about each other over the weeks. Hajime was born on New Year’s, leading to parties doubling as New Year’s and birthday parties (despite him not always enjoying them.) Nagito was born on April 28; his birth month representing death, sorrow and horrid luck, but his birth date representing increased luck and fortune. As such, he’s always had a weird mix of luck, which Hajime just found kinda funny.

Nagito started getting staff discounts, which was great. Both were born into rich families though, so it didn’t make much difference to either.

Nagito did end up asking why he started working at the Jabberwock if he already had enough money to last him a lifetime. Hajime responded with I’m not really sure. I suppose I just… had a feeling. Besides, what harm could a bit of extra pocket change do?

Nagito got his paper submitted on time. Hajime helped him out at parts, knowing a surprising amount about the disease. Once he finished, Hajime congratulated him with a free meal.

Honestly, Nagito didn’t feel like he deserved it. Hajime’s friendship, he means. Sure, he was kind of frank at times, almost vaguely rude to people he doesn’t like, but he was able to put up with Nagito’s rants about whatever was on his mind, which wasn’t easy, considering his random theories and such.

He was nice.

Nagito knew he was falling for the man. He’d be a fool not to. The man was attractive, nice, understanding… yeah, Nagito definitely had a crush.

The days when Hajime wasn’t in work were the lonely days, as Nagito called them. They just felt emptier, since he started talking to Hajime.

Nagito wasn’t entirely sure what to do about his feelings. Becuase, let’s be honest here. 'Why would Hajime ever like someone like me? Besides, he’s probably straight.’

But he knew he couldn’t keep it in forever. It’d get too much to handle at some point. He was getting distracted in his classes for thoughts of Hajime. So one day, he decided.

He’d just tell Hajime so he could reject him. Get it over with. If he was lucky, maybe Hajime wouldn’t be totally repulsed. Maybe he’d still want to maintain a friendship! Wouldn’t that be great?

So that Saturday, he decided he’d say it.

Now, he was just counting down the days.

Saturday rolled around, and Nagito made his way to the Jabberwock. He probably wouldn’t stay too long today; he’d just say it and leave. But when he walked in, he noticed something.

Hajime wasn’t there.

“Huh..?”

Wasn’t that just his luck?

The day he finally decides to be honest, the object of his affections isn’t even there.

Well, that’s fine too. He can just come back in a few weeks. Maybe a year. Perhaps a century or two. Not too long, right?

He sighed, turning to leave. As he turned though, he slammed right into someone.

“Ah, sorry! I- Nagito?”

Nagito looked up at Hajime, who he had just slammed into.

“Oh, hello Hajime! I’m so sorry about that, I had no right to touch you like that, I-”

“Hey, hey Ko. What’d we say about the self-deprication?” Hajime said, raising an eyebrow.

“R-right. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Actually, I’m glad I ran into you. I wanted you to meet someone.”

“Ah, has Hajime made a new friend? How wonderful!”

“Haha, you could… yeah, you could say that.” He gestured to the girl beside him, who Nagito hadn’t even registered until now. She had pale pink hair and was wearing a navy hoodie, holding her phone. He could hear faint Tetris music coming from it.

“Nagito, I’d like you to meet Chiaki Nanami, my… my girlfriend.”

Nagito could’ve swore his world just broke.

The floor felt like it was crumbling apart, the walls falling beneath their own weight.

“Hey.” The girl greeted. Both smiled at him like they hadn’t just broken his heart.

Well, they didn’t know, did they?

“A-ah… n-nice to meet you, Nanami… I’m- I’m so sorry, but I really must go. I- I don’t feel the best.” Nagito spit out that lame excuse as he advanced to the door.

“Oh, you need a lift? I could-”

“No-! ahem, I mean… no thanks, Hinata. Thanks for the offer. Bye.”

He pushed the glass door open and walked out, quicker than he had ever walked before. He didn’t live too far away, luckily enough, so he walked home quick enough, just desperate to get away from it all.

“Hm.” Hajime hummed.

“What’s up with him?”

“Not sure… a-anyways, what would you like?”

That night, the flowers started.

It was only a petal at first. He was sitting at his desk, booting up his laptop to take another look at his paper. Something had been bugging him about it, he just wasn’t sure what.

This wasn’t the first thing he’d done when he got home. His pillow was definitely tear-stained and he’d run his box of tissues dry. He wouldn’t admit that to anyone, though.

He had finally gotten over the throbbing in his head the crying had given him and sat down to re-read it when he felt a tickle in his throat. He tried clearing his throat, which turned to a full on coughing fit. At the end of it, he finally coughed it up.

A small daffodil petal, a bit smaller than his thumb.

Nagito froze, staring at the petal.

He just coughed that up, didn’t he..?

He looked from the petal to the computer screen in horror, not taking long to put it all together.

He thought the disease was fictional… but he had most definitely just coughed this up.

Nagito had the hanahaki disease.

He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Lucky for him, he’d already done his research, so he knew the deal. Flowers blossom in the victim’s lungs, eventually rendering them unable to breathe and suffocating them. The only cure was for the victim’s feelings to be romantically requited. You could also get surgery, but that results in you being incapable of romantic love, and Nagito couldn’t bear that. Despite knowing he didn’t have a chance with most anyone, especially Hajime, he’d like to make himself believe he still has.

Now, here was the kicker.

In most of the stories he’d read, the victim simply believed their love interest didn’t like them. But not in his story, oh no. Hajime was already romantically involved. That meant he most certainly didn’t feel how Nagito did. And if Nagito was going to avoid the surgery…

“I’m going to die.” He concluded, putting his head in his hands. He didn’t have enough energy or tears to cry anymore, so he just sat there, letting the cold truth set in.

It already felt harder to breathe.

It only got worse over the next few weeks.

After only three days a full daffodil head had come up, while he was in the Jabberwock, no less. It was getting increasingly harder to hide it in front of others.

Especially Hajime.

Hajime was usually very observant. He usually knew when someone was lying or hiding something from him, so he had to pull out his best acting skills.

Which, admittedly, were those of a teenager.

While he sat there, he was constantly clearing his throat, trying to force down the seemingly harmless flowers clawing their way up.

Luckily for him, the same person that put him in this situation was his unaware cover.

Chiaki.

As much as Nagito hated it, Hajime was now a lot more preoccupied with his girlfriend, which meant if Nagito needed to slip away to choke up a flower or two, he could do just that.

He didn’t know how to feel about Nanami. Sure, on one hand, she was basically the reason he was walking up Death’s driveway. But on the other hand, it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own for having these feelings

How does that one song go?

How could I hate her? She’s such an angel.

But then again, kinda wish she were dead.

Not to that extent, but that basically sums up his feelings about her.

Feelings very unlike those for Hajime.

He did a bit of research when he could. Why daffodils? Turns out, a meaning for daffodils was unrequited love.

And wasn’t that fitting?

He was marking the days. Appreciating each day he still got to wake up, not having been smothered in his sleep. In all honesty, though?

He’d rather be killed in his sleep than choked to death at a coffee shop table.

He was also trying to appreciate his time with Hajime. He knew he would never have that sort of relationship with him, not now. So he tried to make the most of their friendship with him.

It was nice, for a while.

But all good things come to an end, as they say.

He was coughing up flowers multiple times a day, now. He’d noted to himself that when he saw blood, his time was almost up.

Terrifying, right?

It really was.

He’d just come home from a walk. He’d started going on them a while ago, when he’d just got it. He hoped the fresh air would do him some sort of good.

It’s funny, really. A while ago, Nagito wouldn’t have cared if he was killed. We practically would have welcomed it.

But now? Now he’d met someone. And because he’d met someone, he was dying. Because he’d met someone, he didn’t want to die.

But it’s not like he got a say in the matter, did he?

His lungs were being overgrown by weeds that call themselves flowers. Horrid things that were worming their way up his throat every. Single. Day.

And eventually, blood would come with them.

So here he was, sitting down after his walk. He sat down at his desk, his throat wheezing as he did. It had been three weeks and four days, and each day suffocated him just that bit more. And right now, he was dizzy. Probably from the lack of oxygen.

Right on cue, his next coughing fit started. It lasted as long as all the others, felt like all the others… but afterwards, it didn’t look like all the others.

He opened his eyes to see what he’d been dreading. A horrible stain of blood splattered across his desk, almost looking pink in the lamp light. He saw two daffodils laying in the midst. Some would call this poetic.

What would Nagito call it?

A death sentence.

He could barely breathe. The flowers crushed his lungs as he scrambled to get his phone out.

Logically, he should call an ambulance. Emergency services, anything that would help.

However, Nagito wasn’t thinking logically.

And that’s not what he did.

He looked over at the old cup, tapping in the number scribbled on it.

He’d never see that handwriting again.

He’d never see him again.

His hands shook as he pressed dial, holding it up to his ear. He also pulled up his paper on his laptop, scanning over it.

Now he knew what he was going to add.

“Hello?”

“Ah, h-hello, Hajime! S-so sorry to bother you th-this late.”

“Mm, no problem. Something up?”

“N-no, nothing at all..!” He scrolled to the bottom of the document, typing quickly. “I just wanted to ch-chat, is all… you g-got a minute?”

“Ahh, sorry Ko. I’m with Chiaki right now. Mind if I call you back tomorrow?”

“…sure. That’s no problem, Hajime. Hajime Hinata…”

“Huh? Ko, you ok?”

He saved the document, plugging in the laptop to charge shakily. He wanted to say his usual; Yep, I’m fine! No need to worry yourself, Hajime. See you tomorrow, hm?

That’s what he would’ve said had his throat not closed up.

Instead, he fought for his breath. He fought a battle that he’d inevitably lose. Hands shaking, chest wheezing, he spoke into the phone.

One last time.

“H-Hajime…”

“Yeah Ko?”

“I-I think I’m dying.”

He dropped his phone to the table, his head following suit not long after. In his last moments of consciousness, he heard Hajime yelling through the phone.

“What?! Nagito, did you say you’re dying?!”

“Nagito, answer me!”

“Nagito Komaede, talk to me!”

“C'mon, c'mon! Answer already!”

“I- Chiaki, call emergency services to this address. I’m sending help, Nagito. Just… just hang in there, please.”

A pool of blood drying on the table.

A final call ended.

A bleach white head of hair stained.

A final message on his computer.

In conclusion, the hanahaki disease is a very terrifying prospect, and now that I have experienced its effects first hand, I can confirm.

The hanahaki is deadly. I, Nagito Komaeda, have been killed at its hands.

March 11th.

They just didn’t get there quick enough.

Emergency services got there moments after Hajime did, who had sprinted up the stairs to where Nagito once resided.

He was shocked to find the scene in front of him.

He ran over to Nagito, trying to shake him awake. But no amount of shaking could uproot the flowers that had torn them apart.

He was brought off to a hospital, but he was already dead when they arrived. It didn’t take long to put together what had happened, despite nobody quite believing it. With the document Nagito had left, the blood and flowers and the tangle in his lungs, it was determined he most definitely had the disease, and just managed to keep it a secret.

Hajime.

He just couldn’t believe it.

Nagito was just… gone.

That phone call was the last time he’d ever hear the poor man’s voice. See him smile or laugh, despite how unnerving it could be at times.

All of that… gone.

Just because he loved someone.

Nagito had never talked about having a crush on anyone. But only people with unrequited feelings got the disease, right?

So whoever he liked just didn’t like him back.

And there was just the smallest, miniscule part of Hajime that had a feeling he knew who it was.

He prayed to whatever gods were up there that he was wrong.

Years later, Hajime still can’t look at daffodils.

For all they mean respect, chivalry… rebirth, eternal life, new beginnings, all of which Komaeda didn’t receive…

They also meant unrequited love. The cruel mistress that took his life.

He used to like Spring. Now he can’t stand it. That’s when daffodils bloom.

That’s when Nagito died.

He still lays awake some nights, thinking about the man he used to know. What would have happened had they not met? Had Hajime never taken that job, would Nagito still be alive?

A question that would never be answered.

He quit his job right after, not wanting to be reminded of the man. Despite that, he wouldn’t let him be forgotten.

So now, all he could do was heal. Mourn him, and heal.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever like daffodils again. After all, they’re the flowers that tore them apart.

-End-

[paintedrecs]

@mad-madam-m​ tagged me in the “list 5 OTPs from 5 fandoms” meme a couple days ago, which I laughed at her for because (a) she knows my otps FULL WELL (b) our lists are very nearly an exact match (which i am by the way delighted about because half my list right now is full of rare pairs, and I have never before known the hell of treading that landscape alone)

but!

I’m gonna do the meme and double it up as an announcement of what I am currently into and what you’re likely to see on this blog if I start picking up my activity levels a little.

I honestly have no idea how active tumblr is at this point - how many of you are still around, and how many of you I might lose if I start reblogging my other fandoms in addition to Sterek - but after doing a Pillowfort experiment for a while, I think I’ve finally figured out how to use social media again in a way that works better for me.

My old method, before tumblr kinda imploded and fandom got weird (filled with antis and ship hate and constant infighting, ugh why), was to create a separate blog for everything I was into, which is why I have appreciatederek, appreciateshiro, appreciatejack, and...is that it? See, this is why I need to stop scattering myself into a zillion different pieces.

So I’m going to consolidate more (like I do on twitter and now Pillowfort), and also hopefully get back to my fandom roots: digging into more meta, like I did 8 years ago when I first fell in love with Sterek, and posting fic recs, like I also did thanks to Sterek. (And sharing my own fics as I write them. Guess which fandom pushed me down that path, too.)

So it’s fitting that the first ship on this list is...well, an obvious one.

1. STEREK (Teen Wolf)

Y’all know this one. Sterek will always, always be the OTP of my heart. I love their dynamic. I love the creativity and passion of the fandom. I love that they brought my writing back to me and introduced me to so many of you.

I still have dozens of Sterek fic ideas; quite a few of them are partially written or have significant outlines, so at some point I will still be writing them. Life is just, as you know, very busy and very tiring and it’s so hard to fit everything into my days. I’m working on it, I promise. 

I’d like to start doing more updates with snippets of my upcoming fics, maybe a lil Q&A if anyone wants to chat about what I’m working on/my thought process behind what I’ve already written/what you’d like to see from me, etc. Interactive fun stuff! Sterek fandom is still the best and most supportive fandom I’ve ever been a part of, and it makes me happy every time I’m reminded we’re all still around and thriving.

And here’s some of the other stuff I’m into right now...

2. XANATOWEN (Gargoyles)

I have been sailing this ship entirely by myself since January, recently joined by the aforementioned M, who also created this gif for me while she was still in the patient “I’m your friend, I will listen to you yelling about this show” stage. (ha ha ha look at her now, that’s what you get)

I’ve been genuinely holding myself back from spamming tumblr with my thoughts about this show and this ship, which I’m beginning to realize is...maybe silly. I’ll still try to keep it a little bit balanced, but you can definitely look forward to more Gargoyles on the horizon, including:

Fics - 30k so far, with another 4.6k that I’m hoping to post this afternoon, after I look over it and decide if I still like it (ha ha fic writing amirite). I also have a fairy tale AU that I’ve done a substantial outline for, so I’d really like to get that underway.

Episode recaps/meta posts - these are currently being posted over on Pillowfort. The goal is to get the last two episodes of Season 1 up there, then to start crossposting them here.

As long as it’s not a gigantic hassle to paste over all the screencaps, because I uh. I have a lot of them. And a lot of thoughts about the show as a whole, but particularly about the relationship between David Xanatos and Owen Burnett: the meta’s currently averaging from about 1.5k to 2.5k per episode, whoooops.

I love them. I love them a LOT. See my meta posts for very detailed explanations as to why.

3. TREVORCARD (Castlevania)

I honestly did not expect to get this deeply invested in this ship. I watched and liked the first two seasons of Castlevania and really enjoyed the dynamic between Trevor and Alucard, but it wasn’t until the lead-up to Season 3 (and then the devastation of how absolutely terrible that season was) that I realized how much I loved these two together.

So now I’m having a very Sterek Fandom moment of “eff you canon, they’re ours now” in regards to Trevorcard. 

I’ve written one fic for them - it’s a 20k coffee shop/modern/college/artist/musician AU because they deserve all the fandom tropes and so much happiness together..

I don’t currently have plans to write any more, although if I do, it’ll likely be some sort of neighbors AU with wolf!Alucard, since my vast experience with Sterek fandom has taught me the absolute joys of exploring characters who can canonically turn into a beautiful giant effing wolf. 

I’ve also been steadily reading my way through every single Trevorcard fic in the AO3 tag, which unfortunately is only ~200. (HOW is this a rare pair. I will never ever understand it, they’re perfect together, and the animators literally said they intentionally storyboarded moments like the one above with the knowledge that people would start shipping them.)

Once I’ve finished up my AO3 tour, I’m going to compile the ones I enjoyed into rec lists. There are some really wonderful fics in there, and I’m excited to see what the rest are like.

4. TAIBANI (Tiger & Bunny)

I really don’t talk about this ship much, but it’s so immensely close to my heart. I have...so much...official merch of Kotetsu and Barnaby; it makes me happy every single time I see it. If I used my Tiger & Bunny stuff as the standard for what sparks joy during a konmari, the rest of my apartment would probably wind up empty.

The show (which is finally getting a second season in 2022 - Kotetsu & Barnaby had better be getting married) is wonderful. I genuinely can’t recommend it enough. Great writing, wonderful character development, beautiful animation, and Kotetsu and Barnaby are absolutely perfect together. Here’s an old post where I talk about that a little bit.

I’ve only written one fic so far: a canon compliant established relationship future fic that focuses more on their family dynamic as Kotetsu’s daughter adapts to turning 18, becoming a hero, and living with her frustratingly affectionate dad & his new husband.

I have ideas for two AUs: a single dad mature student/young professor one and a sorta weird circus/steve irwin-inspired one. We’ll...we’ll see if I ever get around to either. What I end up writing always surprises me, so I sorta give up on planning what words will come out.

And oh wait! I totally forgot about the third idea, which will be roughly canon compliant, with “Kotetsu sets Barnaby up on a series of blind dates that Barnaby initially thinks will be with HIM” angsty/funny fic. Hrm. I should get back to that one, I’ve outlined part of it.

I haven’t actually read a ton of fic for this pairing, because the more I like canon material, the less I seek out fandom content to “fix” it, but I would like to start going through the AO3 tag after I finish my Trevorcard project. I did an initial rec list ages ago and would like to follow up with another.

5. SHEITH (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Here’s the last pairing I write fics for. I have several more in progress that I’d really like to finish - including a dragon AU that I wish someone else would just finish for me so I can read it, hahhhhhhh sigh. I wrote 15k, did a ton of research, and basically intimidated myself out of continuing, because it’s one of my Big Projects. Not gonna be like, PDIW length or anything, but it should be a pretty hefty fic once it’s done.

Then there’s the roommates AU, the burrito shop AU, the....wow. I really need to get back to these, don’t I. A couple of them are super close to being finished, too.

I’ve also compiled a few fic rec lists, although I haven’t updated those (or my Sheith blog) in a while.

This fandom has been...interesting. Rough sometimes. Sliding into some of the other pairings on this list has provided a good break for me, particularly since they’re all such small fandoms that they’re relatively free from drama and hate. Once I’m fully refreshed and re-inspired, I’d love to get back into writing Sheith. They’re such a perfect, feel-good, extraordinarily balanced and supportive ship, and I am disappointed every single day I remember that Voltron didn’t stick the landing with making them canon.

Look at that almost-kiss. Just...look at it. And tell me they aren’t in love.

[despairforme]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. ( Within the community my muse is? Fairly popular? But overall in the fandom a lot of people dislike him. )

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO. ( Apart from giving two surviving characters scars, he has no real impact on the story ).

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — I’d say pretty closely, in the sense that I don’t erase any parts of his canon, and I try to analyze and ‘ make sense ‘ of the different things he does in canon. There are some parts of his canon that have been re-written though. Like his relationship with Grimmjow, thanks to their chemistry. Oh, yeah, and Nnoitra is also alive in my canon. But other than that I try to keep him as canon as possible. 

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  Oh gosh where to start... Nnoitra is a very deep character. He is typically disliked by those who only see his exterior, but there is so much more to him. He is brave beyond compare. He is not the typical ‘ pretty-boy-sassy-villain ‘. He is harsh, rude, violent, sadistic and carries a heavy sadness inside him. He has strong believes and won’t back down from anything. Ever. He is someone who doesn’t hold back his true self and while he can be very challenging to interact with - isn’t that part of what’s fun with interactions? That they’re not all supposed to be easy. And, of course, one of my favorite parts about my Nnoitra is the big modern!au story that I have created for him, where he has a completely different life, while still maintaining what I hope is a legit translation of his canon personality into a human!au. Another thing that makes my Nnoitra interesting - in my opinion - is that I’m in it with him for the long run. I’m here to build long-lasting relationships of all types. I’m here to write stories for him with others. 

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  Nnoitra is very difficult to get along with for most muses. He’s rude and sexist and also a bigot. These things really put people off, but I’m not going to water down my muse for anyone or anything. In canon verse he is very set on killing more or less anyone who approaches him, which can mean that a lot of interactions turn into fight-threads which some people aren’t interested in writing. He is also rather anti-social so.. Yeah, not the easiest to interact with for sure. 

What inspired you to rp your muse?  — I originally found my inspiration for him when I started drawing him way back in the days. I randomly drew him and got hooked on how inspiring he was to draw. I never experienced an art-block ever again. After over a year, after I had gotten into rping ( I was rping different characters ), I eventually wanted to try my hand at writing Nnoitra, and it’s been the best decision ever. Now I’m stuck with him forever ahahaha.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  Nnoitra IS my inspiration. He is my muse. Definition of ‘ muse ‘:  a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. I can’t imagine not writing him. I never have a problem with inspiration when it comes to writing him, since writing him gives me inspiration. 

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO.

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. ( The inner monologue that I always write is filled with headcanons, but I hardly ever post ‘ headcanon posts ‘, because I don’t like writing meta - and I don’t like speaking for Nnoitra. )

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  Yes and no. If I ASK for criticism, then I’m happy to receive any kind of criticism. However, if I’m not prepared for it, and get random criticism out of the blue, then eh, I’m not really into that. 

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  Oh yes! I love headcanon questions! I always answer them IC, unless the question is specifically aimed at me, like: “toby what do you think about...”. I feel really flattered when people show interest in Nnoitra!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  Not really. I don’t like discussing meta / headcanons about Nnoitra. If people disagree with my headcanons, they are free to make their own Nnoitra blog and do their thing. 

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  People have different opinions and that’s fine. I would prefer that if people who disagrees with my portrayal just unfollow me. I take my portrayal of Nnoitra very seriously and put a lot of effort into it. However, if I ASK for criticism, then I am completely open for it and would like to hear people’s disagreements on my portrayal. In general though, I don’t like discussing it. I don’t like discussing meta or anything like that, because I’m not open to changing my portrayal of him. 

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  If a mod hates Nnoitra, I don’t mind that at all. I don’t mind if they post hate-content about him either, as long as they tag it, so that I don’t have to see it. I don’t like seeing Nnoitra bashed in public. For example, I block blogs that post hate on him to the #nnoitra gilga tags on here. I just think it’s unnecessary and I don’t want to see it. My followers and mutuals are free to hate Nnoitra, and it can often be interesting to have your muse interact with someone who hates them / they hate, so I totally understand. Nnoitra is not a very likeable character after all, and people are free to hate him. 

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  Absolutely! I am not a native speaker, so I am sure I make a lot more grammatical errors than I’m aware of. If people want to point them out to me, I see that as a favor to me. 

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  Yes, I think so. I’m chill even if I am very slow at answering messages. I always try to be kind and understanding and I hope people don’t feel intimidated by me even if I play a very mean character. 

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by:  @elxfi​ , @meishutori​ and @xyuuken​ ( thank you guys for tagging me, and thank you Snu for making this awesome meme! )

Tagging: @spottedsoftpaws​ , @trafalgar-bleedingheart-law​ , @xdiez​ , @tenyxshx​ ( tagging some people in the op fandom to get the meme going over there as well! )

[uzumaki-rebellion]

“Stark’s New Intern” Chp. 6

Summary: Erik hangs out with Tony...

NSFW.  Mature Audience. Smut.

"Why are you selling dreams of who you wish you could be A prince in all of the magazines They'd have no words for the man I've seen Talk real fast 'fore they see your face

And would they love you if they knew all the things we know We've got these images We need them to be true Not ready to believe we're no more insecure than you…"

Res – "Golden Boys"

Erik wore his expensive suit again when he sat in the foyer of Stark's office. Tony's secretary Devika eyed him from time to time. She offered him water and juice to drink but he sat on the foyer couch rigid, muscles ready to spring and take him far away from Stark Industries and Los Angeles. His suitcase and duffle bag sat right next to his left leg.

"The restroom is over there if you need to use it," Devika said. She let her chin rest on her hand, her dark dewy skin looked radiant. Working for Tony must've been great for her.

"I'm good."

His voice came out gruff. Devika's eyes went back to her computer.

"I'm cool, just chillin," he said in a softer tone.

Devika's dark brown eyes watched him. She glanced down at his bags.

The door of Tony's office swung open and four of the intern project managers walked out. Erik's project manager, Yuri Deetz, stepped out last. When he caught Erik's eye, he gave a weak smile to him as Tony swept into the foyer.

"Erik Stevens is here," Devika said.

Tony glanced at his watch and then his eyes planted themselves on Erik's face. He walked over to Erik and stood in front of him, folding his arms across his chest. Erik kept his own stare steady. Face hard. He wasn't backing down over no bullshit white boy.

Tony looked as if he was going to spill a lecture, but then he glanced at his watch again.

"Come with me," he said.

Erik stood and followed Tony to a private elevator. On the ride down, Tony stayed quiet and Erik just stood in silence too. The ride down to a mid-level floor had Erik keeping a swift pace with Tony's stride. Passing through several security checkpoints, they arrived inside a cutting-edge computer lab. Erik's eyes marveled at the hardware and Stark employees programming with software that was never going to fall into the hands of the general public. Not even the military.

"Hi, Janine, this is Erik Stevens, one of the new interns…"

Tony stood next to a red-faced programmer with piercing gray eyes who leaned against a specialized programmer's desk and stared at Erik.

"Stevens…you programmed some Sandex code to be a placeholder for Yang's new software," she said.

"Yeah," Erik said. Janine's eyes stared him down and their intensity made him nervous. He glanced at her expansive four-dimensional screen.

"How's that working out for you?" he asked, recognizing the AmDX7 computer language that was all the rage in certain programming circles.

Janine glanced over at her screen. A simulated biometric passport glowed before them and she enlarged it.

"Trying to figure out a way to keep data secure from RFID tech is proving to be quite a task. We want to be the first on the market with full-proof E-Passports, but the problem is—"

"Many national identity cards aren't ICAO9358 compliant, and a lot of countries don't want a universal chip," Erik said.

Janine smiled. She looked over at Tony.

"Can I keep him?" she asked.

"I'll pick him up at dinner time," Tony said.

"Pull up a seat," Janine said.

She didn't have to tell Erik twice.

###

Rubbing his eyes, Erik leaned back in the computer chair and took a moment to rest his brain. Ten hours straight he had been at Janine's desk coding for her, skipping lunch and dinner in the cafeteria. The regular staff was already gone for the dinner break, and Erik was left to be supervised by Janine's assistant Manuj and four other programmers. Janine's crew oversaw all of Stark Industries' facial, fingerprint, and iris recognition technology.

This is where Erik wanted to be. Stark was so far ahead in the future with biometrics that Erik felt confident that everything he learned in this department would secure his future. Technology changed at an extreme pace, but to be with a company that shaped future tech would bode well for him at this time. Learning the pitfalls of cybersecurity would help him devise ways to hack it when he needed to. A day would come when he would have to go into Africa…East Africa in particular…Wakanda to be exact. He needed to find ways to circumvent some of the tech that his father showed him before he was murdered. And if Wakanda really was that far ahead of the world, the lab he sat in at that moment was the start of his preparation to defeat it.

"Janine said for you to go home and be back here tomorrow at seven. We've sent you some time-sensitive cheat codes to help get you to speed. Read them over tonight and be ready to rock and roll again in the morning. Good work, Stevens," Manuj said heading back to his desk on the other side of the room.

Erik stood up and put on his suit jacket. Ten hours and not one word from Tony—

"There he is."

Tony walked in wearing a totally different suit from the one he had on that morning. Formal. Black. With a bow tie.

"I was told to come back here in the morning," Erik said.

"Well, Janine must really like you. She doesn't like very many people. Good on you."

Erik just stared at Tony.

"I thought we were going to talk this morning—"

"You sat in that chair for over ten hours, without a break I was told and did what you love to do. You want to be here—"

"What about Wesley?"

"What about him? His dad is just a Congressman. Who fucking feels threatened by a Congressman? A Senator…maybe a little concern. Let's go. There's a party at my house tonight and we are going to be late if we don't get you dressed to impress."

"My stuff is still—"

"Your bags are back in your apartment. Maria made sure it went in your room. We have about thirty minutes to get you some new threads before we go to mi casa su casa."

Erik grinned.

"You really think I would cut you loose just because you punched a drunk asshole? You know how many times I have punched people…or been the asshole? I brought you to Janine so you would know what you are here for. She's your new project manager. And she wants to know who else on your old team you want to bring over with you. So, if you could pick only two people to ride with you—"

"Valentina and Maria."

"Nice. Let's go."

Tony's Lagonda Vision was waiting for him in the parking garage with his personal valet standing watch over the car. Tony opened up the moon roof and the Cali air blew in.

"Tonight, I think we'll put you in Hugo Boss," Tony said glancing at Erik.

They drove into Beverly Hills and Tony ushered Erik into a Boss shop where Tony paid for a brand new tuxedo, shirt and bow tie for him. The shop owner threw in some free boxer briefs and dress socks to be nice. The tuxedo didn't even have a price tag on it. None of the suits did.

"I've been in an office all day. I need to clean up," Erik said.

"I already have toiletries at the house. Never opened. I've got you covered. And if we hurry, you will have time to shower and shave."

The PCH was packed and by the time they reached Tony's Malibu "house", hired valets and caterers were already looking after people in the ultra-luxury mansion overlooking a high sea bluff. They slipped into the mansion through a back entrance and Tony took Erik up to a private guest suite where he could shower and change.

Pepper was already hounding Tony when he arrived complaining that she had to entertain too many people without him being there as the real host.

Tony had everything he needed for Erik to get ready, and within twenty minutes, Erik was showered, suited and booted. He had trouble with the bowtie. He stuffed it in his pocket and made his way down several stairs looking for the party spot. Over one hundred people were already in the home and Erik found Tony standing next to a group of attractive white women who hung onto his every word.

"Kid, ya gotta wear the tie to complete the look, excuse me, ladies…"

Tony ushered Erik to the side and helped him tie the bow correctly. "I thought I looked suave without the tie," Erik said.

"No…no you didn't."

Tony stood back and admired his handiwork.

"You look good, kiddo."

Erik nodded.

"Stick next to me a learn something," Tony said moving back into the crowd.

The man was smooth. Memory impeccable. He knew names and nicknames and greeted each person with enthusiasm. When there was a break in the mingling and Tony sipped a bit of white wine, Erik could finally talk to him.

"What is this party for?"

"Some investors in the lower-tiered companies I own. I throw them a shindig every now and then to make them feel special. Let them know that no matter how global I am, I always remember the little guy. It's once a year and it makes me look peachy."

"Gotcha."

"I will allow you a glass of wine here…hey…one glass of wine," Tony said as Erik put one of the wine glasses back on a server's tray as they swept past him.

Two chic blondes walked over to Tony, red wine in their hands as they fawned over him.

"My, my, my," Tony whispered as his eyes took in the décolletage on their dresses that highlighted their fake breasts. The only things that weren't plastic on them were the leather heels on their feet.

"This is my assistant, Erik Stevens," Tony said. Erik went along with the ruse and watched Tony maneuver his way to the other side of the room without the women realizing he was dumping them.

"Does this ever get old?" Erik asked.

"Here in Malibu, yes. I'll take you to my European digs and you can see how the Euro Trash party crowd changes everything," Tony said winking.

"I'll hold you to that," Erik said.

Later in the evening, Tony gave a speech to the crowd touting the growth of the companies he owned and highlighted the party-goers fatter bank statements due to Tony's leadership and smart business acumen. Two hours in, Erik became bored. And tired.

Tony worked the room and his rock star status among his guests was apparent. He was truly the King of razzle-dazzle and Erik watched Pepper keep him in check as she also worked the room, helping to move Tony when he was tired of talking to certain people. Pepper must've been working for Tony for a while because on instinct almost, she knew when to interrupt and pull Tony away with her to meet other guests. As much as Pepper came off as nit-picky with Tony, Erik got the sense that she loved her job with him. Tony allowed her a lot of leeway to butt in when she felt the conversations were veering into territory that Tony didn't need to speak on. She was also good at cockblocking certain women who didn't seem to fit Tony's type.

That's where it got interesting.

Tony's only type was beautiful and female. He was a breast man and a leg man from what Erik could see from the women he took an interest in. One tall sleek white brunette eased into his orbit, and within an hour, Tony was walking around with an arm around her waist. She was now the chosen one.

At one point, Erik had walked around a staircase where Tony was speaking to the head of a law firm, and Tony had his hand up the back of the brunette's dress digging all in her ass. The woman was standing there as if nothing was happening while Tony fingered her. When the lawyer walked away and they thought they were well hidden from view, Tony lifted the back of her dress higher and openly fingered her shaved pussy. She had no panties on at all.

Tony whispered in her ear and the woman's eyes shut tight. Her moan was loud.

"Talk that talk, T," Erik said under his breath as he sipped on a glass of Chablis. Tony's fingers were glossy and he must've been digging deep in the right spot because the brunette whimpered and held onto his left arm that cradled her waist while his right hand went to work. After a few minutes, Tony positioned himself behind the woman, unzipped his pants, rooted inside the fly of his underwear, and inserted his lengthy erection between her folds.

"Damn, no condom…bruh," Erik thought to himself watching the action.

Tony's strokes were hard as he palmed the woman's pale breasts that spilled out of her dress. Slamming into her, he kept talking, his voice urgent.

"Take it…take it…like a good little slut," Tony grunted, his eyes pressed shut and his face tight with lust. He was getting close. Looked like it was going to be a fat nut too. He pulled out abruptly and the brunette fell to her knees facing him, her hungry mouth wide open.

Time to go.

Erik turned and walked in the opposite direction feeling himself wanting to find a babe to finger fuck and clap cheeks. But there was no one there worth his time or energy and he had no condoms. The reality was, the women who were young enough for him to step to had their eyes on Tony. A billionaire genius was better than a broke genius.

He pulled out his cell and contemplated calling Giselle. The memory of her hand on his dick had him wanting a part two encounter. Tony was out here getting his rocks off. Erik wanted to do the same.

"Erik."

Tony's secretary Devika walked over to him. She wore a copper-colored body con dress and her thick black wavy hair was tucked in a chignon.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"It's interesting," Erik said.

"Very diplomatic answer," she said, giggling.

"How often does he party at his house like this?"

"Four or five times a year. I think you might be the first intern to ever come here."

Erik's eyes swept over the entire first floor.

"He lives in this big ass mansion by himself?"

"Yes."

"Rich people."

"This could be you one day."

"My spot will be bigger than this. A palatial estate."

"Listen to you," she said slapping his arm.

She dug into her small purse and pulled out a cell.

"You'll be back tomorrow, hopefully?" she said.

"I'll be there."

"Good. I heard nothing but good things about you."

"From who?"

"Mr. Stark."

Pepper walked over to them, her eyes looking around the room as she approached.

"Have you two seen Tony?" Pepper asked.

Erik's eyes swept over to the last place he saw him and there was no sign of Tony or his dime piece.

"He was talking to that lawyer from Fielding and Houstons," Erik said.

"If you see him, tell him that Mona Richards wants to speak to him and it is very important," Pepper said.

She walked away from them on the hunt for Tony.

Devika's eyes scanned the room.

"He was with a brunette," Erik said, making sure Pepper was far away.

"Ah, let me guess, the one with the…"

Devika held her hands out in front of her chest.

"You be knowing," Erik said.

"I'm going to call it a night. If Pepper is hunting him down, it can't be a good sign."

"Where do you live?"

"North Hollywood."

"Can I get a ride with you to the Oakwood?"

"Party over for you so soon?"

"I'm beat. Gotta get up early."

"Was Mr. Stark your ride?"

"Yeah."

"I'll give you a ride."

"Cool, let me get my stuff," Erik said.

He stood for a moment trying to remember which direction he came down to the first floor.

"Come on, I'll show you where your stuff is. You were in the guest room on the third floor."

"Thanks."

Erik followed Devika to the East side of the mansion and they walked up some stairs.

"There it is," Erik said walking into the room and grabbing his original suit that he placed inside the Hugo Boss bag he kept.

"You know where I can get my hair lined up?" he asked her.

"I look Black so you assume I know where to get hair done?" she said.

Erik stared at her face.

"My bad. I thought…the name Devika…it sounded…"

"It's Sanskrit and means 'little Goddess'. My parents are Indian—"

"I didn't—"

"—and Black. My brother gets his hair cut on Crenshaw, right across from the mall."

Erik smiled. "Los Angeles is a melting pot," she said.

"A segregated one."

"I hear you."

"I'm ready. Let's dip."

"I just texted Mr. Stark to let him know you are leaving. Just in case he wants to keep you longer," she said.

When they made it back down the stairs, Tony was waiting for them. Erik noticed his tie was fixed back up in haste. His hair was not as perfect either.

"Pepper said there's a Mona looking for you," Erik said.

"Here? Now?" Tony said looking around like a sniper was gunning for him.

"Yeah."

"Shit. Follow me," Tony said.

Erik and Devika followed him out onto his ocean view balcony that circled the entire mansion. Tony's eyes darted around as he slipped past guests out on the balcony and entered his private den.

"You owe her some money or something?" Erik asked, intrigued by how secretive Tony was acting like they were in a spy movie.

"No, she's just a friend with benefits whose benefits I no longer want."

Devika rolled her eyes at Erik.

"Hopefully she didn't see you with that brunette," Erik teased.

Tony's eyes narrowed. Erik threw up his hands.

"Hey, you were getting it in. I just happened to be there when it went down."

"Really? In front of Devika?" Tony said.

"I'll just be leaving Mr. Stark. Erik asked for a ride—"

"Yeah, I saw your text. Thanks for taking him. Put it on your T & E report for mileage. I'm going to hang out here," he said. He swiped his hand over his desk and security cams popped up on a floating screen.

"There she is. Damn it. I thought I had her taken off the invite list," Tony huffed, his hands on his hips looking distraught, "…oh shit."

"What is it, Mr. Stark?" Devika said.

"Pepper found her…and…oh no…"

Erik and Devika stepped around Tony's desk to look closer at his security feed.

"Let's go, let's go!" Tony said shoving Erik and Devika toward the door.

They exited the den and headed toward Tony's private exit where he and Erik had first entered the mansion. They were practically running down a hall and jumping into an elevator.

"Why are we running?" Erik asked.

"Pepper is bringing Mona to me," he said. Tony glanced at his watch and the security feed popped up there.

They scurried into an underground garage. Tony made them jump into a silver Lamborghini.

"Where are you parked Devika?" Tony asked.

"Second level."

Tony sped them over to a little red BMW.

"See you in the morning," Tony said.

"Where are you going?" Erik asked.

"I have a penthouse downtown. I'm staying there tonight."

"You're leaving your own party?" Erik asked.

"Pepper will shut it down," Tony said.

"Goodnight Mr. Stark," Devika said.

"Night Devika. Good job today, Stevens."

Tony took off like the wind.

"Get in," Devika said.

###

Part 7

Tag List:

@fd-writes​ @soufcakmistress  @cherrystainedlipsbaby @tclaybon  @thadelightfulone @allhailqueennel @bartierbakarimobisson @cpwtwot @shookmcgookqueen @yoyolovesbucky @raysunshine78 @the-illllest @terrablaze514  @l-auteuse @amirra88 @jimizwidow @janelledarling @chaneajoyyy @sweetestdream92 @purple-apricots @blackpinup22 @hennessystevens-udaku @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @bugngiz @stariamrry  @honeytoffee

[strawberryjeonginnie]

Instagram//Kim Seungmin

Genre: fluff

Additional: college au, instagrammer(?) seungmin, lowkey coffee shop au, gender-neutral reader, oneshot

Word Count: 2,147

Warnings: a lot of blushing and disgusting fluff

Summary: @ ksm_00 has followed you!

A/N: this fic was inspired by instagram by dean. 

Kim Seungmin was quite possibly one of the most attractive boys you had ever laid eyes upon; your local college sweetheart who spent his free time in a quiet corner of a coffee shop with a book in hand and round glasses slowly slipping off his nose. Except, there was something that set him apart from all the other college sweethearts who spent their free time in a corner of a coffee shop — Seungmin was Instagram famous. Sure, Instagram famous does sound a little ridiculous, but he was popular for a good reason. He had the voice of an angel and posted short little covers of songs in between selfies and cute aesthetics. He had gained quite the fan base and even some admirers. You were one of them.

You weren’t typically the type to fawn over anyone, but you couldn’t help yourself. As soon as you laid eyes on his page back in your sophomore year of high school, you had been completely whipped. When you first saw him on your campus your freshman year at your university, you had to do a double take. It felt even weirder when you ended up having classes with him. Now, in your sophomore year in college, you still couldn’t get over seeing him in real life. It was like you were permanently star-struck. What made things worse? You worked at the cafe he frequented. Needless to say — sometimes you got a little distracted on the job.

“Excuse me–“ A shy voice snapped you out of your daze and you quickly turned your attention to the customer in front of you. To your horror, it was Kim Seungmin himself. Of course, he had to catch you spacing off.

“S-sorry! What could I get for you, sir?” You stuttered out, pink dusting your cheeks from embarrassment. “Could I just get a medium iced vanilla coffee?” he asked, fishing out a ten from his back pocket. “Of course! Your total is four fifty.”

He handed you the bill and you quickly made out change and handed it back to him. Smiling, he put it into the tip bucket and shyly looked back up at you before going to find a place to sit while he waited for his drink. Your heart fluttered and you smiled dreamily. Your coworker, Jisung, quirked his eyebrow at you, making you turn and start to make the coffee to hide your red face.

While scooping ice into the plastic cup, you suddenly felt a presence next to you. You jumped, looking up to see who it was. You let out a sigh of relief seeing that it was only Jisung — but you quickly became confused seeing the smug look on his face.

“What?” you questioned, only to be met with him wiggling his eyebrows at you. Suddenly understanding, you became defensive. “No,” you said sternly, turning back to what you were doing.

“Oh come on — it’s so obvious,” he whined. You shook your head. “Keep your voice down, he’ll hear us. Besides, I don’t like him like that,” you whispered, glancing over at Seungmin to make sure he didn’t hear. Thankfully, Seungmin was on his phone, most likely scrolling through Instagram. Jisung smiled wider, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“I never said you do. You’re assuming that’s what I meant and that must mean you do like him,” he whispered back, making you groan and go back to making the drink. Finishing up, you turned around and pushed past Jisung. Sucking in a breath, you approached Seungmin.

“Here’s your drink, sir!” You smiled. Seungmin looked up from his phone and gave you one of his dazzling smiles. “Thank you,” he said lightly. You swore there were hearts in your eyes. You nodded and quickly turned back around to keep him from seeing the blush that was making its way to your face. You walked back to the counter, only to be met with a very smug-faced Jisung.

“So you don’t like him, huh?”

“Shut up,” you mumbled, embarrassed that you outed yourself so easily.

“Don’t worry. He seems to like you too.” Jisung nodded his head, gesturing behind you. Glancing in the direction, you awkwardly lock eyes with Seungmin. You snapped your head back to Jisung, who seemed satisfied with whatever work he thought he was doing. 

“He’s been looking at you every chance he's gotten,” Jisung whispered, making you shake your head in disagreement. “He’s probably looking at the menu or something,” you say, trying to come up with some other logical reason. 

“The menu isn’t taped to your name tag, (Y/n),” he laughed out, amused at how persistent you were being. Suddenly, Jisung’s expression changed, signaling that he was struck with an idea. He took a napkin off the counter and pulled a pen out of his apron pocket, quickly scribbling your Instagram handle onto the piece of paper.

“W-What are you doing?” You stuttered out, knowing all too well what he was about to do. “You’ll thank me later.” Jisung smiled, a mischievous tone to his voice. Before you could stop him, Jisung was already standing in front of Seungmin.

“Excuse me, but my coworker over there thinks you’re cute. I’ve noticed you checking them out, so I’ve taken the liberty upon myself to give you their Instagram.”Seungmin’s face flushed pink and you wanted to die where you were standing, you were so embarrassed. Jisung walked back to you with a big smile plastered across his face. 

“You’re welcome!”

--

Finally, your shift had ended and you were home. You flopped down onto your bed, sighing in relief as you felt the pressure of standing all day leave your body. You rolled on to your back, fishing your phone out of your back pocket. Clicking on the power button, you were met with notifications from your social media from throughout the day. You quickly scrolled through, stopping to see who followed you.

Instagram, 11:36 am: @ ksm_00 has started following you!

Your eyes widened and you clicked the notification, making sure that it was really Seungmin and not someone else. Sure enough, it was really him. Throwing your phone down next to you, you grabbed your pillow and screamed into it. Once that little moment was over, you picked your phone back up and quickly texted Jisung a thank you. 

Biting the inside of your cheek, you thought about what you should do next. Should you message him? Would that be weird? Sucking in a deep breath, you decided to just go for it. Opening up your DMs, you were surprised to see a message already there.

‘hey, sorry if this is weird, but ive been going to the coffee shop you work at for a while and i think youre really cute’

You kept re-reading the message over and over again. You were convinced you didn’t read right. Once you went over it for the fifth time, you started to freak out. Kim Seungmin — the Kim Seungmin — thought you were cute. Your hands started to shake a little as you typed out your response and you couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same way when he messaged you.

‘haha, no, i dont find it weird at all. its kind of cute. if you wanna meet at my work tomorrow at 11 maybe we could talk and get to know each other more? the coffee is on me’

You were thankful that Seungmin seemed to be a quick texter, as it only took him a few moments to respond, saving you the anxiety of waiting for a reply.

‘are you sure i wouldn’t be distracting you from your job?’

‘no no its fine! i actually have tomorrow off but i figured it would be the easiest place to meet’

‘ok! consider it a date ;)’

Key smashing in all caps would be the best way to describe how you felt at that moment. You put a hand on your chest in an attempt to calm your racing heart — but to no avail. Putting up your phone, you worried about tomorrow. What if you fucked up? What if Seungmin was just trying to be nice? What if you were thinking way too much about everything? The last one was 100 percent likely, but you chose to do it anyway.

You couldn’t help worrying, though — you had spent enough time following him and his friends on Instagram. To put it simply; you weren’t like them. They all were the type to constantly look good, have flawless skin, and confidently show off their talents. You, on the other hand, tended to have days where you were imperfect and not as confident. Seeing them perhaps made you feel a little insecure about what you could be worth to Seungmin.

--

The next morning you woke up, dreading your meeting with Seungmin. Groggily, you grabbed your phone and clicked the home button. Rubbing your eyes, you squinted at your screen.

‘10:27 AM’

A jolt of panic struck through you and you shot out of your bed, hurrying to get ready to meet Seungmin. You wanted to look good and your work was about a 15-minute drive from your apartment, leaving you around 15 minutes to get ready so you could be a little early. You ran into your bathroom and quickly brushed your hair and teeth. Rushing into your room, you threw open your closet in hopes to find a decent outfit. Scanning over your clothes, you caught sight of your favorite sweater and sighed in relief, silently thanking your past self for washing clothes.

You arrived at the cafe five minutes before you and Seungmin agreed to meet up and you were glad to see that he wasn’t there yet. You were even more thankful to see Changbin and Minho behind the counter today and not Jisung. You knew he would give you hell at work if he saw you on your date.

“Hey, (Y/n), odd to see you here on your day off. What’s up?” Changbin asked. Hearing your name, Minho perked up from behind the cash register and smiled happily.

“(Y/n)! My favorite co-worker!” He laughed, earning a light punch on the shoulder from Changbin. Suddenly, the door chimed, signaling someone had walked in. Turning around, you saw Seungmin awkwardly standing in the doorway. Seeing you, he walked over and gave you an awkward, lopsided smile, like he was unsure what to do with himself. For the first time, it felt like you were seeing an awkward nineteen-year-old and not some internet celebrity.

The start of the date was tense, to say the least. Since the two of you were the only customers, it felt more open and awkward than you felt like it should.

“I’m sorry if I was too forward yesterday... I’m not really good a flirting.” Seungmin laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. You cracked a smile and laughed, making Seungmin’s face burn red with embarrassment.

“W-What? Why are you laughing?” He stuttered.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. You’re just being cute.”

Your own words honestly surprised you and you tried to look like you weren’t panicking. Thankfully, Seungmin grinned, bashfully looking down at the cup between his hands. Slowly, the conversation between the two of you started and before you knew it, three hours had passed.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe it’s already 2:00!” You and Seungmin walked out of the coffee shop and decided to take a walk together in the park nearby. 

“I know! I really haven’t talked to someone for that long in a while! You’re really fun to talk to,” he said. You blushed, happy that he enjoyed your company.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” you quipped. Seungmin laughed and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

The two of you walked peacefully through the park, shoulder-to-shoulder. While you were admiring some of the pretty hydrangeas, you felt a hand brush against your own. Looking over at Seungmin, you saw that he was looking at your hand, his face dusted a light pink. Smiling, you shyly held his hand. The two of you continued walking in comfortable silence, only really speaking when one of you spotted something to point out to the other. About an hour had passed before you decided you needed to get home since you had a class the next day.

“I had a lot of fun today. Could we... could we maybe do it again?” Seungmin asked. There was a nervous twinge to his voice, making you feel butterflies in your stomach. 

“Of course! I had a lot of fun today,” you said. There was a pause and Seungmin looked like he was contemplating something. Taking in a deep breath, he placed a quick kiss on your cheek.

“How about a movie tomorrow after class?”

[ohprettyweeper-moved]

Open Your Eyes (Part 3)

Chapter Summary: Everyone heads home for the holidays.  Pairing: Tyler Joseph x OFC, Frank Iero x OFC Word Count: 2020 Warnings: None? A/N: I needed something fun and cute to write with low pressure so that I could stop worrying about a more serious piece I’m working on for a bit. This five-part crossover series was the result! It’s cheesy and fluffy and is probably akin to something you’d see on the Hallmark Channel, but that’s how I intended it to be. Thanks to @razor-tothe-rosary for your help and encouragement! Enjoy reading, everyone!

Wanna be tagged?

Masterlist

Emerson normally hated flying, but today she didn’t mind the airplane ride. She was heading home to Jersey to celebrate Christmas with her family and help her mother execute the perfect wedding. Not only was she reuniting with her family for a less hectic schedule over the next few weeks, but Jeff had agreed to come for Christmas. They had resolved their differences, and he was going to meet her in Jersey after his trip to Orlando.

She stepped off the plane and headed right for baggage claim. There was no reason to dawdle when Jeff should be waiting for her. After two phone calls, though, he didn’t answer.

Emerson told herself not to panic; he was on a business call or waiting to see her, or had forgotten to take his phone from airplane mode. She walked confidently through the crowd until she got to the carousels dealing out suitcases as they were unloaded from the airplanes.

When she had her bags and had moved on to the sidewalk, she still hadn’t spotted Jeff. Sighing, she found her phone and called him again.

“Em, listen, I can’t talk long. I’m in a meeting.”

“A meeting? Jeff, you’re supposed to be in Jersey. Remember? Christmas? With your girlfriend?”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I’m going to make it. Listen, I just -- maybe this is better. We’ve been fighting and our lives are going different ways. Maybe we need some time apart.”

Emerson choked back tears and swallowed down the lump in her throat. “So you don’t think you’re going to make it, or you knew all along you weren’t going to make it? I mean -- did you even buy a plane ticket?”

Jeff sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ve really got to go.”

Emerson held the phone up to her ear for another few seconds, even after the call disconnected. She didn’t know what to do. If she called her mother, Tanya would be upset and dramatic, and Emerson couldn’t handle that right now. Who else was she going to call?

Frank had told her he would be in Jersey for Christmas, too, maybe he was available. She bit her lip, trying to decide if it was too early in their acquaintance for a cry for help. Finally, after a few minutes of looking at her phone and dropping it back into her pocket, she exited out of her Uber app and dialed Frank’s number.

“Emmy,” he greeted, smile evident in his tone. “You back in Jersey?”

She swallowed hard. “Um, yeah, I am. I don’t want to bother you -- if you’re busy, I totally get it. It’s just -- I’m stuck at the airport, and I can’t get a hold of my mom. Are you available?”

“Yeah, of course. Give me about thirty minutes, okay? Be there in a flash.”

“Thank you,” Emerson said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m on the sidewalk outside of baggage claim.”

Frank described his car so she would know who to look for, and also promised to call when he got close.

Emerson sat down on a bench and finally let the tears fall. Her career was at a great point, but she was homesick, even being on Jersey ground. And her love life … she had known for a while that Jeff was pulling away, that things weren’t good, but she had thought it was just a rut. She never expected for him to leave at all, let alone like this.

She hadn’t heard Frank call her, she was crying so hard. Next thing she knew, an arm was around her shoulders. She looked up to see Frank sitting next to her, so she quickly swiped the tears away.

“I’m sorry, my phone was in my bag, and I --”

Frank interrupted her apology. “Don’t worry about it. Wanna tell me what’s got you so upset?”

She pursed her lips together. “Jeff’s not coming. He was supposed to meet me here at the airport, but when I called him, he told me he wasn’t coming. I think it’s over.”

Frank’s arm tightened around her shoulders. “He wasn’t really nice to you, from what I know. Not that we know each other well enough for me to be saying this, but maybe you’re better off.”

“You may be right, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

“Fair enough. C’mon, we’ll hang out before you go home. Then your mom won’t freak out -- which I’m guessing is really why you didn’t call her?”

“Busted.”

Frank took her hand in his left and pulled her suitcase with his right. “Stick with me, Emmy. We’ll get you through this, together.”

Through her lingering tears, Emmy smiled. Together didn’t sound so bad coming from Frank.

Vanessa, Americus’s agent followed Americus around her room while she packed to leave for Ohio.

“I told you. I haven’t felt grounded in months. I need to go back to Columbus. Need, emphasis on need.”

The other woman groaned, leaning against an open space on the wall. “But you have two shoots before Christmas, and one before New Year’s.”

Americus sighed. “It can’t be about shoots anymore, Ness. It can’t be about shoots and parties and meetings and appearances. I don’t know who I am anymore, but it’s not this -- this person who plays the part of the elite crowd.”

“How much of this has to do with you running into that guy you know from when you were a kid?” Vanessa asked, frowning as though she might have been on to something.

“None of it,” Americus answered. She rolled her eyes. “Not all of it. I’ve been feeling this way for a while and seeing Tyler just cemented that I need to do this. Tell them I’m sick, tell them I quit -- whatever you have to do. But I’m not going to be there for those shoots, and I’m not doing anymore appearances and interviews until I figure some things out.”

She zipped her bag and shouldered it, grabbed her camera bag and her backpack, then turned to Vanessa.

“The sooner you get me to the airport, the sooner I can get home and figure out what I’m doing with my life.”

Vanessa groaned again but followed her client out to the car for the drive to the airport.

Emerson checked the time on her phone. “I should get going. I can only convince my mom of a plane delay for so long.”

Frank smirked. “You ready for that?”

“I don’t know,” Emerson sighed, setting her head against her hands. “I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with Christmas and a wedding and a break-up.”

“So don’t deal with it yet,” Frank replied, matter-of-factly. “Come hang out with me. I know a killer record store not far from here, you can crash in my guest room. Nothing shady, I promise.”

Emerson surprised herself by how appealing she found his offer. She licked her lips and thought about it before slowly nodding her head. “I mean, maybe my flight gets re-scheduled. Or something.”

“Or something,” Frank laughed, “that’s a good one. What do you say, Emmy?”

She loved that he called her that. No one had ever shortened her name to anything but ‘Em’ before. “Okay, fine. But I don’t want this getting out, okay? We have to keep a low profile. I really don’t want anyone thinking we’re hanging out to boost up my career or anything.”

Frank rolled his eyes and gathered his keys. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

Emerson grabbed for her purse and followed Frank to the car. The record store sounded exciting, right up her alley -- and who knew what else the night would bring.

“Okay. This one,” Frank said, pulling Bon Jovi’s Keep the Faith from the stacks of records. “Best record Bon Jovi ever made.”

Emerson rolled her eyes. “No way! Slippery When Wet.”

“No way,” Frank said, waving her off and sliding the record back into the pile.

“Seriously? Are you even from Jersey? Like, for real?”

Frank laughed. “You’re funny. Genuinely funny.”

“I am,” Emerson nodded. “Thank you. You’re fun to hang out with.”

Frank smiled. “Yeah. I am.”

“Well, I’m going to buy these, and then we can get you home, if you want. I’m sure you have family to hang out with or something.”

“I’ve got a free evening, actually. When you called -- I, uh, sort of canceled the plans I had with my friends. So if you needed me …”

Emerson’s cheeks hurt, she was trying so hard to keep her smile reined in. “I appreciate that.”

“Sure.”

It took some deep breaths stepping up to the register, but Emerson managed to stamp down the butterflies and her nerves, remind herself that she had just broken up with Jeff that day, and that there was plenty of time to get to know Frank -- and she also reminded herself of exactly what she had told him, that she wasn’t going to get involved in anything that might make it look like she was trying to climb the fame ladder.

Americus had been in town for a couple of days and decided it was time to get some Christmas shopping done. After two days of doing absolutely nothing but hanging out with her father, and it was time to get out in public.

Once she was seated behind the wheel, she dialed Tyler’s number. He answered on the second ring.

“Hey, kid. Didn’t expect to hear from you so soon,” he greeted.

Americus couldn’t help but smile to herself. “Yeah, well, I didn’t expect to be back in Columbus so soon. I’m going to do some Christmas shopping, and my dad said he saw you at church last weekend. So … yeah. I’m calling to see if you’d like to go Christmas shopping with me.”

Tyler chuckled. “Christmas shopping?”

“Yes,” Americus relied confidently. “What’s so funny about that?”

“I don’t know. Just picturing the new you going Christmas shopping. Figured you had someone to do that for you.”

Americus rolled her eyes. “Are you in or not?”

“I’m in.”

“Good. I’m already in the car. I’ll come pick you up.”

The mall was packed, but Tyler and Americus hardly noticed anyone else. A few fans approached the both of them for pictures and autographs, but it didn’t ruin their hometown reunion. They laughed and joked, just like it was old times, all the while crossing things off their Christmas shopping list.

“What do you want for Christmas?” Tyler asked her when they sat in the food court to take a break.

Americus shrugged. “Being home is pretty much all I wanted. Getting back on the ground, figuring out who I am.”

Tyler sipped from his soda. “C’mon. There’s gotta be something.”

“I don’t know. What about you?”

Tyler took a deep breath. “I want you to come on the next leg of the tour with us. Mark will handle the video portion, and I want you to do our photography.”

Americus’s mouth dropped open. “Ty … you haven’t even seen any of my work. Just because I said I like to take pictures, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Except that it does. I don’t have to see your work now, I saw it when we were in photography class in high school together. You were always taking pictures, of everything.”

“It’s not the same.”

He leaned forward. “You asked what I want for Christmas. I’m telling you. I’m offering you a job behind the camera.”

“How about I’ll consider it. Honestly, genuinely consider it. How’s that?”

Tyler pursed his lips together. “I’ll take it as a stocking stuffer. In the meantime, how about you and I go to Josh’s Christmas party together next week? Not like, together-together, but you can come with me.”

Americus smiled. “Okay. I’m in. Do I get to wear an ugly Christmas sweater?”

“If you want to,” Tyler laughed.

“For my Christmas present, will you wear one too?” she pleaded.

Tyler shook his head. “Only for you.”

Americus nodded and smiled. She had a lot to think about, but it was going to be a very good Christmas.  

[babydollsmadd]

Meet The Daydreamer: Elli! 🌸

This is my “meet the daydreamer” post! My answers will be under the cut since this did end up being quite long.

You can find the template here, feel free to do this if you want to! I also tag @maddlyinluv to do this~ 💜

1.) Name/Nickname:

My name is Elisabeth, but I go by Elli, or my parame’s name which is Nyru!

2.) Age:

Fresh 19 years old.

3.) Pronouns:

She/Her!

4.) Star Sign:

Aquarius 💦

5.) MBTI:

I’m an INTP-T! What a surprise.

6.) Likes:

A lot of things. I love listening to music, playing video games and watching YouTube videos. I love Goth clothing, more specifically gothic lolita and nu-goth, as well as everything make up related. I enjoy cuddling my two cats and spending most of my time on the internet. Oh, and I’ve always been very obsessed with horses. And then of course everything MaDD related. I love my daydreams and my paras, I love finding new music and scrolling through Pinterest, and I love talking about it. Recently I’ve also really started to enjoy making aesthetics/moodboards.

7.) Dislikes:

Also a lot. Probably more than my likes, actually. There’s a lot of food I don’t like since I’m an extremely picky eater, I dislike summer because it’s always too hot, I hate it when someone is sitting on my chair and I really don’t like not being able to listen to music. I’m super anxious in social situations, and I hate being pushed around. I generally can’t cope with expectations. I hate that MaDD keeps ruining my life, but oh well, I don’t really see that as a dislike. I really don’t like drinking water. It’s disgusting. It needs to be something sweet for me. I can’t deal with ignorant people, like people who just won’t listen to anyone that doesn’t share their opinion and are so in their own head that they can’t see beyond their own plate. But that’s a whole other conversation.

8.) Hobbies:

Music, video games and YouTube videos. That’s mostly just what I do. And daydreaming. I guess fashion and make up would also considered a hobby. Otherwise I don’t really have any hobbies? I just don’t really do much at all. The only thing that I’d definitely consider an actual hobby would be horse riding, if I could ever pick that up again.

9.) Fav Colors:

Black & Purple! I pretty much only wear black, and sometimes white or pastel pink/purple. But I love all shades of purple.

10.) For how long have you had MaDD?

Daydreaming became maladaptive for me around the age of 12. I’ve always had a very vivid imagination, but as a kid it wasn’t a concern and it also didn’t really influence me. Only after some traumatic experiences it became really bad, it became my biggest coping mechanism and I started coming up with scenarios, worlds and people in my head. Those people are still my paras, and I’ve had them for as long as I have MaDD now. So 7 years.

11.) When did you discover the term/community?

I only learned about the term Maladaptive Daydreaming about a year ago from one of those stupid posts where someone spread completely false information. The name sounded interesting tho, so I looked it up and started to realize that maybe I wasn’t crazy, but that it was a condition. I started following many blogs and reading up everything I could find, I was just observing for the most part. About three months ago I started becoming active in the community, and so far it’s been incredible!

12.) In which ways does daydreaming affect your daily life?

MaDD affects me in pretty much every aspect of my life. It’s constantly on my mind, I daydream all the time and even when I’m not, I’m thinking about my paras. It prevents me from living in the present. I don’t want this to be too long and I also don’t want to ramble on about it, but even tho it has so many negative effects on my life, there’s no way I could ever give it up. It allows me to cope with some very dark issues, and while I do know that I need to be able to control it better in order to actually live my life, I don’t hate having MaDD. I hate how it keeps me from living. It also changed the way I think and feel about a lot of things.

13.) How many Paras do you have? How developed are they?

I have 10 paras in total! My two main paras, my parame/self, 3 important ones and 4 less important ones. But I do love them all. Just some more than others. My three most important paras are highly developed, they’re fully fleshed out and especially my two mains feel just so real, with all their quirks and flaws. The next 3 are also very developed, but the last 4 are kinda all over the place. Two are somewhat fleshed out, but the other two are more “ideas” than full on paras. But I’m working on that.

14.) What media do you use for MaDD related things? (Examples would be music, books or social media platforms.)

Music is definitely the main one! My Spotify has hundreds of songs and playlists, I only very recently re-organized them again which seemed to help me daydream much better. I don’t read books anymore at all, just fanfics from time to time which do sometimes prompt a daydream. I also watch a lot of movies and series. As for social media, I guess YouTube would count too since I take inspiration for houses/apartments and dialogues from certain YouTubers. Of course Tumblr, I have a MaDD blog as well as two private para blogs. I’ve also started using Pinterest a while ago which has proven to be the best idea ever.

15.) Assuming you have a MaDD blog, in what ways did that change how you view and interact with your daydreams/Paras?

I’ve had this blog for almost 2 months now, and it definitely changed the way I think about MaDD. The most important part being that I found such a good friend, someone I talk to on a daily basis! I also stopped thinking of my daydreams as something crazy/bad, and instead of an actual valid coping mechanism. It’s also very interesting too see other’s experience the same things as me, and see the differences in paras and such. I’m not sure if this is related to me having a place to talk about it now, but it seems like I’ve dreamt about my paras at night much more than I did before.

16.) Is there a special meaning behind the name of your blog? How did you choose it?

There is, actually! The name comes from the character Babydoll from the movie Sucker Punch. It has been my absolute favorite movie for so many years now, and Babydoll is one of my favorite characters of all time. I’ve always felt like the movie was (most likely unintentionally) about MaDD, and that Babydoll would be someone to develop it. So she was the inspiration for this blog, as I also have a quote from the movie as my bio on my main blog. On this blog, she inspired the name and the title, and my header image is also obviously her. (If you want to read my post about why it’s such a good movie, click here!)

17.) Do you want to add anything? Here you can say something about yourself that you want to share!

I’m not sure what to say or how to end this post, but if you want to talk to me, don’t be afraid to! I’m very anxious myself, but I’m really trying to be more social and interact with people in the same communities. So feel free to message me or send an ask if you feel like it!

[enkisstories]

The android cemetery (Ch. 23)

The first thing one had to take care of when entering the Reed apartment was not to bump into the stairs leading upwards. The second was to dodge the cats that were sitting on the staircase and clawing playfully towards the interesting hats and hairs that came within their reach. Afterwards everything else was a trifle.

The floor/downstairs living room combination was L-shaped. To the left the smaller arm contained a lounge chair, various installations for the cats to climb on and a bookcase. Straight forward the longer arm was dominated by a long sofa, a wall-mounted TV and the usual household electronics. The left wall was completely made of reinforced glass. It offered an amazing look out at balcony and over Detroit. At the far end of this room a door led to the kitchen.

Thor and Loki didn’t leave their vantage points on the stairway when the bipeds took seats. Being the smallest of the adults Gavin sat down on the sofa’s back, feet on the seating. Daniel sat down to his right. Emma, after a moment of hesitation, sat down on the sofa, too. Separated from Daniel only by Gavin’s dangling feet she grabbed the sofa’s edge with both hands and stared down as if she was utterly enraptured by the floor’s pattern. Jason circled the sofa and ended up standing to Emma’s left, looking down at the PL600 in a mix of fascination and suspicion. Evelyn grabbed a book from the bookcase and curled up with it in the lounge chair that almost swallowed her. The child android grinned, because she was staying up past bedtime tonight and nobody seemed to mind. Finally Connor chose the lowest stair to sit on. Ever since picking up a fish on the verge of suffocating had set him on the path of increasing program instability, the android liked animals. Surrounding himself with pets helped him focus on being a person instead of a function. Hoping that the cats would eventually come down for cuddles while serious matters were underfoot was immensely childish, that much Connor realized himself. But to hell with maturity! The others in this room didn’t have deviancy, they didn’t know how taxing living with a mental illness was! Okay, Daniel had deviancy, too, but he had been a nutcase to begin with and given in to their condition. Therefore Daniel’s opinion on the handicap didn’t count in Connor’s book.

“How did you find me that fast?” Emma asked the apartment floor, but Jason understood that he was being addressed. He started to explain, only to get cut short by Gavin: “Ever wondered how the damn automated cars decide who to run over? Well, for one, the valuable kids like you get tagged with subdermal implants.”

Jason saw the policeman’s nose twitch while he said that. An old scar ran across the bridge. Maybe there was a connection, or maybe not. This wasn’t the time to be nosy, because Emma exclaimed: “I thought the tags were only for opening our lockers at school and for showing when we are not in the classroom!” The idea of her position getting tracked, even if it was for her wellbeing only, didn’t sit well with the girl. “I didn’t know they were active all around the clock! As if we were androids… or criminals…”

Daniel, who was both, weakly supplied that the tag could save Emma’s life one day. If she ever got lost or taken away, the police would find her and return her to her mother.

The child didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at the android whom she had known as a friend under two different names now. What was wrong with her, Emma wondered? Had she not set out tonight to re-activate her caretaker? To smuggle him out of the police station and set him free? Well, now she had confirmation that Daniel had lived as free as possible for the last one and a half year. He was happy, he was friendly towards the child and rude to everyone Emma disliked. So why did she feel the urge to run away and hide?

“And you were…?” Connor spoke up, nodding in Boyfriend Jason’s direction. In his back the cats were shifting uneasily, now that the big plastic thing had started moving, even if had been on the spot only and only so subtly.

“Jason Graff”, the man answered. “I am Emma’s mother’s new partner.”

“Graff… that name sounds familiar”, Gavin mused. “I think Danny cursed you two nights ago!”

Connor quickly consulted the internet. A number of entries and photographs came up. The third one was matching Boyfriend Jason and Connor announced that this man was the head of CyberLife’s humanization department.

“Are you the guy who implemented flash grenade sensitivity in household android eyes?” Daniel inquired.

“Among other things, yes”, Jason admitted. “Not that it would impede your functions in any way. Flash sensitivity doesn’t apply to just brightly lit rooms. But you’ll squint a little during a thunderstorm, that kind of endearing thing.”

“Yeah, thanks, we got almost taken apart by a trash golem because of that!” Daniel replied. “Endearing? More like endangering!”

“Are you also responsible for my voice?” Connor asked, this being the second thing right after deviance that made his life unreasonably difficult. Gavin, probably ranking third on the list (although Connor wouldn’t admit that anytime soon in order not to give the detective that satisfaction), laughed out loud!

“Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Graff, I do not think there’s something wrong with it”, Connor quickly added. “It’s just…”

“No, no that wasn’t me”, Jason said quickly. “I was down with the flu and when I returned to work, the damage had already been done.”

“The “damage”…” Connor replied. The android shook his head. “Okay, new rule”, he announced then. “Not only are you three including Tina forbidden to mention my Daniel-encounter ever again, the same goes for my voice!”

“Not fair!” Gavin countered, still laughing. “You get to use it on us every day!”

“Yes!” Daniel chimed in. He noticed that both Jason and Emma were smiling now and that the girl had let go of the sofa she had been clinging to like to a lifeline. That Connor! Aptly nicknamed The Negotiator, the RK800 certainly knew how to defuse a tense situation and wasn’t afraid to play up his dorky side to achieve his goal. “Yes, Con’”, Daniel repeated, “you cannot just ask that of us without offering something in return!”

“Your bones”, Connor chirped, playing up his voice’s quirk on purpose. “Intact.”

A playfully delivered threat, but a threat nonetheless. Or a warning, rather.

The android wasn’t prepared for the reaction that prompted from Jason:

“Hell, yes, Connor, that’s our adaptive routine in action! Exactly as we had envisioned you! Oh my god, I’m so proud…”

Connor looked up, his expression one of amazement not unlike the day he had watched Dewey resume circling the fish tank in the Phillips residence. None of his handlers at CyberLife had ever said they were proud of him before. Not of his successes and least of all of Connor’s personality. Perhaps the prototype had been below their notice, his feelings irrelevant to even those who believed he had some. But there was also the possibility that he had never done anything to make them proud. Not Portia Colch, who always had preferred Brandon over Connor, not Amanda, who was just a simulation and least of all Elijah Kamski, who deemed himself so far above the normal frame of reference that Connor could have sworn to have dealt with Gavin Reed instead.

A sincere smile that carried a hint of relief crossed the android’s face.

“Thank you, Mr. Graff!”

“…of my team’s work”, Jason had wanted to finish, but seeing Connor like that made him reconsider and he let the rest of the sentence hanging in the air.

Thor, too, was almost hanging in the air. The black cat was stretching his head through the railing, his gaze fixed on Mama Gavin and especially on the sofa’s underside. But the only path to that safe space was blocked by the plastic biped. Thor’s tail twitched left and right, up and down... Meanwhile Loki felt the need to add some scratch marks to the wallpaper, just in case there was any question about who owned this place.

“We call the RK800s Witchers, internally”, Jason went on. Here he was, totally lost at the situation, but being able to talk about something he understood, something that was familiar. Not that Jason’s grasp on android lore would have mattered to any of the assembled, but chatting them up like that might at least serve to break the ice before tackling the real questions of this night.

“…because of the prototype. It helped ending the android crisis of November ’38.”

“Yes, that it did”, Connor whispered and away went his smile.

“I’m actually very happy with their design!” Jason claimed.

“Uh-huh…” Daniel and Gavin went simultaneously. It didn’t do anything to stop Jason from gushing about his team’s creation:

“The thing about the Witchers is, when out of uniform they look absolutely adorable! Like a young adult fresh out of college. The B-series even more so than the Connors, they can pass as freshmen.”

“It fucking worked”, Gavin remarked.

“What worked?”

“They both got adopted”, Daniel explained. “Only Brandon’s still in denial about it. But if he is supposed to be an older teen, then this reaction is only natural.”

“That’s not what we intended”, Jason admitted. “Fascinating, though.”

Emma raised her head. Her confidence restored by the shared laughter just now the girl asked Jason, and she sounded as innocent as Connor, when she did so: “Does mom know that you design androids for a living?”

Daniel winced. That wasn’t just confidence, that was a declaration of war! Ever since he… ever since the… ever since august 2038 Caroline Phillips didn’t allow androids of any kind in her apartment. Or near her precious daughter, if she could help it. The therapy sessions had been one of the rare exceptions, because the slow exposure to Dean had unquestionably helped Emma overcome her experience with Daniel. But other than that… Caroline paid a maid service that exclusively employed humans. She specified that she wanted a human to deliver her pizza or would fetch it in person from the store. And she had transferred Emma to another school, one that only had a few android janitors and cafeteria workers, but a full staff of human teachers. The widow wasn’t confrontational towards androids, she just did her best to ignore them. Caroline learning that her love interest was actively participating in filling the world with more of the dangerous machines, even made them likeable, would probably spell the end of the relationship.

“I didn’t have the courage to tell her yet”, Jason confessed. He said nothing else, only his eyes were silently pleading.

[holy-fucking-damn-shit]

Supernatural Survey

I was tagged by @bend-me-shape-me thank you ♥ i love these things

1. What season did you start watching Supernatural? Season 1!! although I wasn’t really super into it until season 2

2. Who was the first character you fell in love with? Dean fudging Winchester 

3. Who was a character that you hated at first but grew to love? hmm, i’d say Bela Talbot. Actually, couldn’t stand her until I re-watched the whole show. I then realised she was completely hilarious and I’d wish she’d stayed longer :(

4. Which character would you most want to be in a long-term relationship with? interesting question... of course Dean♥

5. If you could go on a date with just one character, which one would you choose? I mean I don’t want to answer with Dean every question, so Cas he would be very entertaining I imagine

6. What would you do on that date? Maybe a theme park? or somewhere he would be all cute and confused. I think we’d go to an aquarium.

7. Which character would you most want to be like? I could name any of the bad ass female characters so I’ll just pick Charlie

8. Which character would you most want to see brought back from the dead? (im not including cas because obviously CAS!) Gabriel #1, BENNY #2, Eileen #3, Bobby #4, Crowley #5, Charlie #6 

9. Which character would you most like to punch? Definitely Lucifer, I always haated Gordon from season 2-3, in fact, he is probably the only character that I’ve continueously hated so yeah I’d punch him

10. Who is your absolute favorite character? It’s Dean but sometimes it’s Castiel, then sometimes it’s Dean and other times it’s Castiel  (So Destiel right?)

11. Which “Big Bad” do you think was the worst? by worst do you mean the best bad guy or the one I least liked? hmm

Lord knows how much I hate the Bmol, and not because they’re good bad guys because they fucking sucked

I really liked Abaddon, but the best would be Lucifer (only in season 5 tbh or Casifer) I loved the built up from seasons 1-5 and Mark totally met my expectations 

12. Which character are you most like? Apart from the fact that I am completely ugly and have absolutely no love life I am the same as Dean. Isn’t it weird sad how I hate myself more than anything but my favourite character ever is the one most like me?? 

I find it so easy to relate to Dean, feels worthless, 100% self loathing, feels the need to protect loved ones but doesn’t understand when they do the same (lol they don’t) gets angry af sometimes, no one seems to know who Dean very is even Sam, is treated with a lot of tough love when he really needs soft gentle affection, dying of loneliness, gets too attached and can’t leave toxic relationships *coughssam*     I could continue to go on but I won’t

13. What death hit you the hardest? Bobby’s - It was such a fun episode so it took me completely by surprise

Cas’s- I spent all episode sobbing to myself that I didn’t want to see Cas die...

14. What season finale hit you the hardest? Season 12 because Cas, but probably season 5 I literally had to take a break from watching spn after it like damn wow. If I re-watched the show again I’d watch up to season 5 and then particular episodes from 6 onwards.

15. What are your ten all-time favorite episodes? In not order: Lazarus Rising, Changing Channels, The French Mistake, Swan Song, The End, Dog Dean Afternoon, Free to be You and Me, In my time of Dying, Bad day at Black Rock, Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie,

16. What’s been your favorite season? I thought about it a lot and it’s definitely season 5. Kripke did a really great job of setting everything from 1-5 and I love it. I’m a very emotion tv show watcher, so too much sad really drains me, but this season has some of the funniest episodes as well as some super depressing (but awesome) ones. It also has both Castiel and Crowley in it so that’s like 500 + bonus points from me

17. Who is your favorite angel? Castiel, who else?♥

18. Who is your favorite demon? Crowley I also loved Abaddon

19. Who’s your favorite evil character? I really really liked Cain, i don’t really think of him as evil though yes he’s a demonic murderer, whatever

20. Do you have any Supernatural ships? I only ship what I see with my eyes and connect with, so basically, I only have one main ship (OTP actually) and that is and always will be Destiel

21. Who’s your favorite supporting actor? SHit I love the entire cast ,, favourite acting ? they are all seriously talented. I don’t know if he counts but Misha, even though he is a main character!!! (his jimmy novak was so different to his cas it’s so freaking cool to watch)

22. What’s your favorite quote from the show? damn just one? do I go meaningful or comedy? ask me again in 100 years when I can go through them all and find one

23. If you could cast one famous actor in an episode of SPN, who would you choose? Totally not my idea, but someone made a post about having Robert Pattinson play himself, and he hunts vampires Lmaoo

24. If you could write your own episode, what kind of creatures would you like to see included? Something that messes with the mind like the djinn or the wraith

25. Who’s your favorite girl that Dean’s hooked up with? um, no one from the later seasons because Dean HAS a freaking husband, so I get Cassie?

26. Who’s your favorite girl that Sam’s hooked up with? I really liked Jess, she made him happy. I know they didn't hook up but I also like Sarah, and I like Maddison 

27. What are some of your favorite convention moments? the fact that cockles panels keep getting gayer.

I think it was at Nerd HQ - Misha’s fart story , can never stop laughing about it The makeup on the pillow j2 lmao That little girl who asked Mark what Fergus/Crowley sold his sold for and then said I’m just kidding I know exactly what he got - i was in actual tears Jared and the scare bears app I have the app *giggles*

^If anyone actually reads this sorry and wants a link just ask me^

28. If you were going to guest star (or be a recurring guest star) on SPN, how would you want your character to be described? exactly how i am, short, thick thighs thin patience, frizzy afro hair, wimpy in the inside bad ass on the outside, bff’s with cas and dean

29. What do you hope to see in the next season? I’m honestly so conflicted, because there has never been more canon destiel and I really truly want it but I’m sure they won’t but I’m also yelling at myself because season 12 was GAAAAAY bi

30. - 40. If you had to choose…

Bobby or John? Bobby

Bela or Ruby? Bela

Jess or Madison? Jess

Jo or Lisa? Jo

Charlie or Kevin? Charlie

Balthazar or Ash? Balthazar, but ash :(

Cas or Crowley? Cas

Ben or Claire? Claire

Jody or Donna? They are a duo, you get them together

Sam or Dean? I’m a 99% Dean girl and a 1% Sam girl so you do the math :) no hate just preference

I’ m tagging @useless-blog-nobody-follows ♥ and ♥ @sirikenobi167 ♥ and ♥ @punk-ass-cass Don't have to if you’re not interested :) 

[lettingspencerjbzo569-blog]

Rumored Buzz On Conerney Estate Agent

Referral Reputation usually means which you've ceased the grind of trying to houses. You eventually become inactive, however in case you level a person who is looking to buy or sell a house for the property company, you obtain a percentage of the commission. Say farewell to pleasure and leisure. Here is your week: • Friday. Mailings, customer searching. CHAPTER 6: THE CLIENTS CHAPTER 5: THE "Old Timers" This provider that "hired" you'll now send one to an exercise "college" (these are companies which, for a price tag, educate you on exactly concerning the actual estate business and allow you to pass the state required test). Here is 2 weeks of courses that have very little to do with the livelihood. At different times during the week, you are going to receive yourself a two hour stints replying the phone. The idea is the fact that clients will call in looking for a realtor since they've a house they would like to purchase. I'd suppose that that has happened the moment, ever, in the annals of authentic estate. The majority phone calls into the old-timers. You did not think any such thing was liberated, did you? Here's the rundown on charges: If you're lucky enough to get you to definitely state they will use one to sell their house, you ought to know that their house is worth much more than the one three doors down which is exactly the same. Exactly why? Idon't understand. Maybe they're delusional. Maybe they're dumb. They're greedy. Maybe they're upside-down in your house. Possibly they need the cash. It really is probably each of the aforementioned. • Thursday. Nothing is required. This really is your weekend, enjoy. Tend not to spend money there's no necessity it. I am convinced it is totally different in YOUR area though, plus they truly are suggesting that the facts once they say so... When I state "old timers", I'm referring to the representatives which happen to be employed in the office for more than a yr. They are going to make eye contact simply because they count on you to actually be absent in a few months plus they don't really want to squander their time. Once you've been around for fourteen days, they'll start offering you that the "chance" to take a seat into their own receptive houses on them. What they're actually asking you to do is sit in a house for 3 hours that no 1 will visit, and basically sell it to these, on the off chance that you might receive a client out of it. • Business cards. They are free! Well, kind of. The most basic, crappy models are free, those which scream "I'm new for this!" You've got to cover, to find fine ones, having a film, and also you've got to pay for the picture. You will probably be asked to alienate everybody else by begging for referrals, you understand and also make situations. Celebrations, churchand school, the gym - anywhere...that you require to become angling for house purchasers or house vendors. It's horribly embarrassing for everybody involved. Don't forget to utilize just the page1=46 snare that is small everywhere you move! Their ideal broker is someone who is miserable and blessed, sitting on a pile of money money or an available field of credit, and only needs something to keep them occupied. Next in line is somebody who is unhappily wed, sitting over a heap of income or a available line of credit, also merely needs something to keep them out of the house and far from their spouse. If you're not 1 of these two, that's OK - they will require you. It really is odd to be involved in a financial project for somebody who you realize. They will use you to buy or sell a house, but no one wants you to know their financial business, therefore that it's hard. Your family and friends may want tiny favors, like...they will need all their cash. Yes, badly. I had a comparative ask if I would give them back my entire commission should I utilized me to obtain a house. I declined, and the request was the nail which sealed my real estate coffin shut. • Saturday. Mandatory coaching...every day. Done with all the mandatory 15-week teaching? Start out education that reproduces that which they taught you! CHAPTER 7: YOUR LIFE AS AN AGENT • Associations. The County Realtor Dublin Apartments For Sale Affiliation. It's mandatory that you join it. It charges dollars...each yr. Their State Realtor Association. You have to combine it. It costs money...each year. The Nationwide Realtor Association. You have to combine it. It costs income...each calendar year. Join this particular organization. Join this organization. You're going to get even, and possibly a magazine a pindown. It truly is all mandatory, plus it all costs money. They have complimentary biscuits at the conferences though. • Tuesday. In-house coaching, or "how to squander 3 stable hours of prime job time." I'm 1 man. Even the Realtor's affiliation is a huge conglomerate which has attorneys on the payroll. My brotherinlaw is legal counsel...but I still feel out-numbered. So you're going to notice I refer to real estate agents, not Realtors. • Monday. Mandatory conferences along with house excursions. The assembly is useless, which is why you find old timers there, they slough off following the very first house and wind upward God-knows-where. They are likely in the pub. The tour is pretty fun, though. You have to listen to every one complain about everyone they utilize and what from those houses. You get to stroll through a stranger's house and hear your co workers (proudly displaying their title badges) criticize the homeowner's choices in everything. Cases: Things thought for this carpeting? Have they ever cleaned this particular room? Wow, those are some kiddies in this film. I can't think they left Prozac AND Paxil . Realestate offices are listing places, therefore that it's easy to obtain an interview. As guess what, avoid being too stressed? You're hired. This isn't a meeting, it truly is a pep-talk. You inhale in the lobby and could walk in, you're probably however hired. • real estate agent prices get you the "real estate agent" pin. This really may be. CHAPTER 3: LICENSING CHAPTER 4: Mo-Re FEES, Expenses and Costs There are rules which state that even though your certification training is still occurring in a realestate office, that no one from that office may "recruit" you. Expect you'll be recruited. Some of those instructors was a Business X manager and obtained a distinctive fascination with me. He took me to open houses at homes throughout the months of training, introduced me to every one in any office, took me to lunches and carried me out. The full time, he talked about the way Business Y (who had delivered me into the practice) was horrible, and why Company X has been far superior, and also definitely the place for me. Ethical? No. Fun? Sure. I still went together with the company that sent me to the practice as it was the perfect thing. This means that in the event that you own a person which wishes to market their house for £330,000 nevertheless, also you and every one know it won't bring $250,000, you tell them you will list it to get their selling price, and after that gradually let the price decline when folks laugh at the house. CHAPTER 2: THE Job Interview Keep in mind, however, that you have two choices here: you can either become a Realtor or you can become a Realtor. Yes, you see that right. I'll make no decisions regarding this organization's worth, with the exception of to say that sitting through the most boring training ever nets you a tiny R pin. Nothing says I'm a victory a lot better compared to a pin using an R on it...directly close to a name label. Ethics rule #1 would be "simply acquire the record." • vehicle. They will cover the vehicle! No, they wont. If you are one of the most notable 2 manufacturers, and are willing to set a God-awful giant decal over either side and rear of your own (correctly coloured) car, they will cover a minimal amount to you. Why shouldn't they? Oahu is the ads they can get. CHAPTER 10: AFTERTHOUGHTS

• Cardkey. You want this to access into almost any house that's on the market. It's true, you've got to cover this. And it can't be shipped by them; you require to drive 30 miles to pick it up. • Tip 3: Everybody you understand will soon feign support whilst questioning the decision and also making fun of you. I'm serious, and you know that this. You've despised with, didn't you? • Office Aid. You are hated by them. That I met Travis the first day, he had been in the middle of the hissy fit because someone had stolen his own Cross pencil. This is clear, since it is not just like they sell them. Yes, they are really sold by them . The hissy fit lasted an hour, and included our manager delivering out a phone communication to every single representative from any office to please go back the pencil if they had it. Travis kept a much-needed eye on the labels that one would use to send out these mailings. You had to request the quantity, to receive them. You can find 25 in the sheet and you would not get 3 sheets if you're printing 68 labels. Also don't forget, exclamation points are used by top manufacturers! Lots of these! In what they do! Just an FYI. I suggest: Just an FYI!!!! • Licensing. If you speak with a actual estate organization earlier you take the class and obtain licensed, then they will cover your course. Very well, kind of. They will pay for it, then take the commission straight. Wait patiently, that paid for this? It's true, you did. You didn't think that was free, did you? You are hated by them. • Computers. Don't understand a computer system? Do not stress, no 1 else does. Everyone I worked with was dreadful with any instrument that is technology-related, although I don't know why. They needed assistance and also the computer system's were always down having a virus of some kind. • Sunday. No more football matches, household picnics, etc.. as you require to take a seat in Open Houses. This is my own story. Don't let it change your mind if you want to enter the world of real real estate. I had a previous realestate agent inform me what a horrible idea it was and I went together with my dumb plan. • Mailings. I lucked out with Company Y, and they also pay for postings. This means the promotion substances are provided by them plus also they pay the stamp for some amount to be sent out. A Rottweiler shielded addresses that you could send mail to's database at our office, a man I'll contact Travis. Travis was tan yearlong, using slicked-back own hair, also he had been dressed as a 1970's JC Penny mannequin daily. Idon't know if he was homosexual, but I bet his boy turned out. When there are not enough newbies in your office, they will battle over your house-sitting attempts, and may even supply you with dollars (don't get excited, so I'm talking around £ 20.) Get paid I never really did get covered out helping someone. • Hint 1): there is certainly a whole lot of funds. It really is simply not likely to be made by you. In fact, a lot of it's actually going to come FROM you. The actual estate organizations themselves make an enormous quantity of money in a part by fighting folks through their "apps" and spitting them out using emptier pockets. CHAPTER 9: "ETHICS" (note quotation marks) •The Multi-List Program. You cannot be considered a true real estate agent without access to the MLS. It must be liberated? No. CHAPTER 8: "Assist" (note quote marks) • Hint two: There's no wages. Make sure you have sufficient money in the bank to eat and pay your bills for 6 months. And start searching to get a job NOW. By the time you get it, you are going to be from dollars. I landed a spot at a company 6 weeks and 1 day from the day of my lay off. If it was not for Un Employment, I'd have been surviving in a cardboard box waiting to the property profession. You are hated by them. • Your internet site. The company has set a page up for you in the website, you require to fill it using useless items that no one cares about, like "resident of (our general place) for umpteen a long time" and Realtor and "Member of (Our County) Real Estate Club. None of this helps you or them, however, it will not fill the webpage, even although no one will look at it. It's possible to put an image up . Whatever you have to do is get the phone, notify the organization their name along with cell phone number and where they are looking. The irony? It's payday. I know individuals who made more about referrals than I did as a realtor, many occasions around. Needless to say, there's a fee nevertheless, you did not think that was liberated, did you? Also also to stay in "citizenship standing" that you need to simply take ongoing coaching. • Signs. Big signs, symptoms, vinyl signs, steel signs, name signs, for sale signs, open house indications. You have to get them, you need to pay for them, and so they cost hundreds of dollars. • Title label. Good information, the title tag is totally free. The awful news, you've got to have on a name tag. Back once I experienced a real job, I understood a gentleman who always believed "In case a man has to wear a name tag during his job, he is not very profitable." I'd a beautiful Ford Mustang GT when I got this "job". I sold it as I had been told that you have to simply take all of your clients around the place to view houses. Out using the sport vehicle, in addition to all the Volvo station wagon (in the dreadful corporate color, needless to say.) As it turns out, no one wants to ride with their real estate agent; they want to follow you all around. This will be for many good reasons: hence they really could escape you when they desire, so they may talk about the houses with no hearing them (even if you're their reputable adviser)...oh, and they hate you. I overlook that Mustang. • Wednesday. "Twilight" open houses. This implies that the nighttime is shot. How do you create matters better? You have their nation included! CHAPTER 1): SOME QUICK Rookie 'S Recommendations • totally free trips! 5 decades from today, in the event you overcome ALL the odds, perform hrs that are ridiculous and sell everything that you buy near, you may possibly receive a absolutely free trip. Don't hold your own breath.

[armorroofing]

Armor Roofing - Belton MO Roofers - Satisfaction Guaranteed!

The article Armor Roofing - Belton MO Roofers - Satisfaction Guaranteed! originally appeared on Armor Roofing Kansas City.

A home's roofing is a pretty important component of your home. Many believe a house to be the embodiment of American opportunity. A nice house is everything required for a family, as this is actually the accepted point you will label home, and your story will end up being authored mostly here together with your children. You can accordingly appreciate why it does need to be well maintained for absolutely everyone to end up being satisfied. The last point you need is definitely for your best lifestyle to wind up as messed up by a ceiling leak and the accompanied water leak damage to your most loved treasures. Appropriate maintenance of your roof structure is usually thus of the utmost importance to you and your residence.

Due to the fact that you reside in Belton, you should notice that the very severe weather we experience can significantly take a toll on your roof if pertinent care is certainly not paid to it. Thereby, when you recognize glaring signals of probable roof problems such as tiles in the garden or sudden dings on your AC or truck, you must have been cautious and look for an inspection of your roofing immediately to fix any potential damage.

Patrons of Armor Roofing are our most significant admirers. Armor Roofing is very pleased to uphold a perfect position with the Better Business Bureau as a demonstration of to our determination to the best customer service. We now have important relationships with insurance companies in the general vicinity and know just exactly the practice of attaining your insurance claim released promptly. We have at the very least a five-year assurance on materials and service on every single rooftop contract we carry out, and your total satisfaction is assured of.

You can't permit a hidden roof structure leakage spin out of control into a comprehensive homeowner's tragedy. You have got little or nothing to lose by phoning us free roof inspection as soon as possible. Simply contact the number on the button directly below or send us a communication through the use of the Contact Us link at the top of the page.

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

Speaking of roof maintenance, there are a small number of indefensible home renovation services many often times avoid thinking about, and behind such, there are solutions that had better be finished so the roof will withstand the elements when some type of mammoth storm hits. If you think you must have to swap out your roofing, then simply get the point that the work also can set you back a boatload of funds. The final price should never stop you out of having it performed. It is undoubtedly uncomplicated to thoroughly grasp the reasons this is usually the reality. As the impairment gets to be more intense, it will most certainly amount to more capital than ever before, and we are definitely sure that not anyone would want that to occur. A roof covering is able to endure a limited amount of stress from severe weather over time just before needing to be renovated to rebuild its health.

The very good particulars can be two-fold. A roofing spot job is a bit more routine than an elaborate 100% replacement, that is generally solely necessary subsequent to an unusually harsh weather system or a roof is very aged. Whenever you have got a home mortgage on the residence, you will likely be called upon to surely have specific property insurance coverage. You likely hold coverage even though you purchased the dwelling without debt. In either situation, you will likely be secure for any roof covering property damage, therefore you will certainly sleep perfectly at nighttime if you have reason to believe you may have roof structure damages. Just recognize insurance adjusters strictly cover the cost of thorough replacements that they will scrutinize. Consequently, it will make good sense to use the services of the right roofing contractor to further increase the chances the work is done with the expected high-quality, and therefore, your insurance agent is appeased.

Do I Need to have Another Roof in Belton?

You will discover a lot of conditions you ought to Start Looking To Identify:

Several Positive Effects

Do you catch a glimpse of some existence associated with wood decomposition? Wood erosion is undoubtedly dreadful info for home investors. You will need to dial a roofing company so that you cure the harm. It is certainly the best to take care of the situation as quickly as possible.

Have roofing layer tiles crumbled or dropped apart from the residential home? Determined by the damage, one will possibly not really need to implement something as immense as a thorough new roof installation; may well be you can easily change out the messed up ones with the latest roofing tiles and then be concluded with the hassle!

How exactly does the sarking materials down below your roofing tiles look and feel? Roofing services oftentimes name a layer beneath the rooftop as sarking. Rotting sarking will most likely imply the roof top is overdue for a complete new roof installation. You would need to repair the sarking and redo the roof covering substance above it right now.

Where noticing virtually any devastation, you ought to start to consider ways to most effectively to take care of the situation. Nonetheless, a need for a roof structure substitution shall be the effect of a stringent analysis that is better looked after by an authority roofer not too distant from Belton. It is the best that you use the services of a qualified expert as early as you can since you very likely have got a lot better tasks to go about doing than ascending upon directly on your roof structure looking for property damage.

Speak to us by dialing (816) 331-7663 to receive a complementary roof examination. You have certainly nothing to chance!

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

So just why leave your roofing to danger? Get in touch with Armor Roofing LLC at this time at (816) 331-7663 and our team will study your roofing materials cost-free. Upon a total examination, your roofing service can convey to you with honest certainty what your restoration options will be and what precisely each will surely cost. Obviously if this person offers a complete roof replacement, perhaps you should appreciate a couple of facts first of all in advance of trying to decide on if you want to proceed.

What Do You Think Are Most Of The Strengths Attached To Roof Replacements?

The primary edge to a full-blown new roof is that your roof should be totally restored! This replacement points to you acquiring a hundred percent new, substantial, and shiny roof covering topping the house, and thus you don't need to be overly concerned with it anymore. Once the trouble may not be that problematic, and you won't have to maintain the secure feeling that goes along with a new roof, perhaps a much less pricy refurbishing may very well be conceivable.

Among the commonest benefits for mounting a new roof top is probably that you are hoping to selling the residence soon. Real estate market experts believe the fact that a solid roof is a huge selling point that will often significantly amplify the price tag of your house in the sight of a new buyer.

So Just Why Dodge A Belton Fresh new Rooftop Package?

A all new roof covering construction process uses much more time than a super-easy refurbishing. This is certainly a single excuse for why you will need to choose a trusted roofing contractor complete with a sufficient amount of operators to manage the entire job promptly. The total price is the justification for why the majority of home owners avoid An all-encompassing fresh new roof top design and installation. six-thousand and 9-thousand dollars, which is just the typical price of a re-roof, is undoubtedly a boatload of dollars for most people. An immense mansion or top quality shingle will be far more extravagant whereas smaller sized dwellings should fall lower than this level. As earlier mentioned, this outlay of money will quite often picked up by the insurer, just exclusively provided the endeavor is agreed upon upfront and finalized with acceptable quality. If you are anxious about handling the documentation resulting from the claim application in Belton, support you in ending up with that released reimbursement.

Armor Roofing LLC can service your family if you are thinking the roofing might actually be injured/damaged. Equipped with our accomplished workers that have been in the operation for more than thirty years, we endorse that our products and services will be top-notch and high quality. Do not even chance your a roof health. Ask for Armor Roofing right away at (816) 331-7663!

Call Us Today!Call Us Today! (816) 331-7663

The post Armor Roofing - Belton MO Roofers - Satisfaction Guaranteed! appeared first on Armor Roofing Kansas City.

[greyelven]

Fandom 5k Letter

Dear Writer,

To begin with, thank you for writing for me! I really appreciate the time and effort, especially for this exchange, and I want to emphasise that I’m going to love whatever you come up with, so write what you want to write and don’t stress about it. All I ever really want from exchanges is more fic about my favourite characters so I’m very easy to please. The genre tags I’ve picked are probably bordering on the excessive but that’s just me liking a lot of different things. As always, prompts are just there if you need a little inspiration, if you already have your own idea then go for it. My previous letters can be found here; I’ve recycled a lot of old prompts in this letter but you’re welcome to draw on any I haven’t as well.

Likes – AU settings (modern, steampunk, sci-fi etc, go wild!), canon divergence AUs, grey morality, gothic vibes, fantasy elements (creepy fairies, enchantments etc), character studies, backstory, banter, road trips, found family, femslash, ladies working together, ladies kicking ass (literally or figuratively)

Dislikes – torture, depictions of rape/dubcon/sexual assault (implied/discussed is fine), pregnancy, homophobia

Ghostbusters

Erin/Holtzmann, Abby & Erin & Holtzmann & Patty

This movie was such an unexpected delight and I just want more of these ladies, kicking spectral ass and being friends and not giving a damn about what anyone else thinks of them. I loved the light tone of the movie but I also love creepy ghost stories so feel free to take these prompts in any direction.

-what’s one of their most memorable busts? Are there any particularly scary or irritating ghosts? Do they ever go beyond New York? Perhaps to investigate a ghost town, or abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere…

-how does their ghost research progress after the events of the movie? Any big scientific breakthroughs? Do they find out more about the world through the portal? Any big mishaps that lead to more ghosts rather than less? I wouldn’t be surprised if Holtz’s unstable equipment malfunctioned somehow

-the team hanging out in their downtime (movie nights, celebrating each other’s birthdays, Patty taking them to interesting historical sites around the city…)

-there are a lot of genre AUs I’d love to see for this fandom but the first ones that spring to mind are Victorian gothic (ghost hunting would fit so perfectly) and cosmic horror (what creatures live on the other side of the portal?)

All of those could have an Erin/Holtz bent but for some more specifically shippy prompts:

-everyday moments between the two of them, slowly getting closer the longer they work together - cleaning off slime after a tough bust, late nights at the lab, long uneventful stakeouts of ghosts that may or may not be there

-established relationship moments - lazy mornings, date nights (bound to be some odd ones with Holtzmann around), culinary adventures, trips away together

-I’m dying for a San Junipero au of these two, if you’ve seen it (if you haven’t, it’s a standalone piece and a really lovely story - Black Mirror season 3, episode 4)

HTGAWM

Annalise/Bonnie

I’m not caught up on the second half of season 3 but I will be soon, though tbh I’m here for character dynamics - there are so many freaking plot twists I’ve forgotten much of what happened earlier in the show anyway. What I love about this pairing is how complicated and co-dependent it is; their personal relationship and working relationship bleed into one another, it’s messy as hell and it’s never not going to be like that.

In the meantime, shameless copying and pasting of prompts from the last exchange I did, with a few new ideas:

- they finally kissed and then the freaking house burned down, so maybe a quiet moment between those things happening when Annalise is wide awake and sober (seriously that whole situation was so ficcy, with Bonnie taking care of her – might as well mine it to its full potential)

- I like how effective a team they are as lawyers and the contrast with their complex messy personal relationship, so like, maybe casefic with a side of dysfunction

- backstory! all the backstory! good moments, bad moments, just anything exploring how their relationship came to be as it is

-assuming Bonnie gets Annalise out of jail, how does their relationship change going forward?

-in terms of genre shift, I would love a political au - Annalise runs for office, or maybe she’s a career politician, with Bonnie as her right-hand woman (of course), and they take a similar approach as they do to law - occasional good intentions, regularly dirty methods, a string of bodies in their wake

Rogue One

Jyn/Leia, Jyn & Leia

All I want from Star Wars is a proper relationship between two women and it has yet to materialise. So give me Jyn and Leia as friends, girlfriends, reluctant allies, whatever, as long as they’re interacting. They’re from very different backgrounds - polished princess and petty criminal - but they’ve both been trained for rebellion from a young age, and if they met around the time of A New Hope, they’d both be grappling with loss; there’s a lot of potential to mine.

-they’re sent on a mission together at some point during the war - how well do they function as a team? Who’s in charge? How does the other deal with that?

-Jyn surviving Scarif and standing beside Leia when the Death Star gets destroyed - what does it mean for each of them? What would Jyn’s involvement in the rebellion be like going forward?

-building on that, what would Jyn do if she were still alive during the Force Awakens? Would Leia turn to an old friend/old flame for support after losing Han?

-college au, where they’re both involved in student activism but have very different methods of getting shit done (Leia working from within the institution, getting elected to various student offices and delivering impassioned speeches at committee meetings, while Jyn goes for more subversive tactics)

Wolf 359

Lovelace, Minkowski, Lovelace/Minkowski, Eiffel & Minkowski

My new favourite thing! I started listening about a month ago and was immediately hooked. I love the show’s effortless switching between humour and much darker material, the insular character dynamics set against the big empty galaxy, and the bleak underlying scenario of being stuck on a spaceship that’s falling apart while nobody on Earth really seems to care.

I requested my favourite characters and combinations of characters but I like Hera and Hilbert too and most of the prompts could apply to the Hephaestus crew as a whole, so if you want to take more of a group approach that’s totally cool. What I’m really interested in is how the characters function and develop meaningful relationships under the circumstances.

(I’m less a fan of the SI-5 team; the angle I’m interested in there is the disruption they present for the original crew , so if you want to include them in that capacity, go ahead. Also, feel free to ignore the whole Lovelace = alien thing cos that’s mostly what I’ve been doing.)

Prompts!

-if the crew do make it back to Earth, what then? Do they stay in touch or drift apart? Is it difficult to re-adjust to ‘normal’ life? Or for a lighter approach, the crew indulging in all the things they’ve missed most about Earth

-wacky space shenanigans! The first time Minkowski brought out the jetpack and Eiffel got excited, an experiment of Hilbert’s going wrong and everyone helping with damage control, ways Eiffel has attempted to alleviate his boredom...

-exploring pre-canon - the characters’ first weeks of life in space and how it was the same/different from what they thought it would be, moments where characters realised their first impressions of each other weren’t quite accurate, etc

The X-Files

-what I’m really after here is casefic, weird happenings with a side of Mulder & Scully banter. One of my favourite things about the show is how many genres it managed to incorporate so effortlessly, sci-fi/horror/thriller etc, and I love the monster of the week episodes that their own distinctive feel - the claustrophobia of Ice or the melancholy of the Field Where I Died. Some of my favourite X-Files tropes are small creepy towns, isolated mountain forests and strange lights in the sky, if that helps :)

-I’m not a huge fan of the revival - I think it was a missed opportunity, because it was a) a mess and b) didn’t really use aspects of the 2010s that make the show still relevant today - government spying, distrust of authority, etc. So a modern au done right would be really nice.

-the show’s pretty noir-ish already but I would love a full-blown noir au, Scully as the straight-laced detective who gets reluctantly entangled in her partner’s wild goose chase

-or complete opposite direction, take out the aliens and have Mulder & Scully as office co-workers