#really it's that i don't have the energy to put together a menu i like and cook/prep it that isn't also treyf in a number of ways

[kaesaaurelia]

I stood in my boss' office today and helped him pack up/harassed him until he left (half an hour late) and went home to host a Seder and I'm feeling kind of weird and lonely that I've got no real Jewish community in my life and am thus not doing anything for Seder except calling my grandmother.

(I also had to buy a bunch of home goods and forgot to bring my reusable bags so I'm not doing very well at Earth Day either.)

There ARE Jewish communities to be found here, I just don't really vibe with the ones I've encountered so far, and right now I'm not really up for navigating delicate intracommunity BS (including politics and also my own feelings of inadequate Jewishness) because I'm still dealing with new job stress and recovering from the self-care backlog my long-term unemployment depression left me with.

Did briefly consider trying to keep kosher for passover but unfortunately I like bread too much. Maybe I'll write that silly fic where my GO OC is sent to tutor Moses in geography and never quite gets around to it.

[polarisjisung]

LOVE ON THE COURT | 20 ... WITH BENEFITS??

SYNOPSIS | every college student has their struggles, but raising her younger brother has Y/N top of the list, struggling her way through college whilst balancing her academics and basketball captaincy is difficult no doubt and with Jaemin, her ex best friend and captain of the guys basketball team, and his growing one sided hatred towards her, it doesn't seem to be getting any easier

WARNINGS | swearing, sexual innuendos, kys/kms jokes, y/n has daddy issues for the sake of the plot

NOTES | I have no idea why this update took me so long to post I'm so sorry 😭 I don't like making chapters like this too sad (don't worry there's still gonna be some angsty chapters) but I don't want the written stuff on its own bcs that feels too espresso depresso or wtv the phrase is so this is a bit of a longer chap than usual.. anyways if ever you feel bad for y/n, don't worry you're gonna feel worse

19:21, dinner the night before

Y/n shuffles in her seat.

Jaemin greets her with a smile, and though she offers one back, that sinking feeling in her stomach doesn't seem to settle.

Suddenly now that she finds herself face to face with her once best friend, no menus in hand since they'd already given their orders, no way to avoid conversation for just a couple seconds longer, Y/n finds herself at a loss for words.

What was anyone supposed to say in this situation?

Sure a thank you would be ideal, considering Jaemin had somehow managed the impossible, but the words escaped her. Like they rested at the tip of her tongue but she lacked the drive to speak them.

It's not that y/n wasn't grateful, no, she wouldn't be here if she wasn't, in fact she didn't know what it was, what confused her so deeply that she sat there silently. Her thumbs twiddling against one another, as she stared down at the table in front of her.

There was a nagging whisper in her mind, one that cast shadows over her once clear thoughts, leaving her in that haze of uncertainty that she recognised all too well. Recently it was all she could feel around the captain.

Something about this situation in particular makes her palms sweaty and the hairs stand on her neck, every glance at Jaemin feeling like a shadow of what had once been, a reminder of how it had all been lost.

Even just sitting opposite Jaemin isn't simple.

Not at all.

It's like sitting across from a mirror that once reflected shared laughter and secrets, now distorted by fractures of lost trust and unspoken words. She supposed that was the thing about mirrors and shattering. No matter how hard you tried to glue the pieces back together, it would never quite be the same.

Perhaps that's why y/n is lousy in her attempts, grateful to Jaemin but unbothered to express it. The thought that no matter how desperately she hoped, this couldn't be restored. That there was no point in pouring energy into a friendship that would never be resolved.

"So" it's undoubtedly jaemin who breaks the silence, a soft tone to his voice, not quite as gentle as the other night but still warm "are you feeling better? like really okay?"

For a moment she wonders whether she'll break at the sound of his voice like she always had. Would she go back to that point in life where it was so easy to lie, so easy to say she was okay, so easy to pretend, in front of everyone else but never in front of him.

"I'm fine, honestly." She lies.

There's a shy sheepish smile that creeps across her lips and slightly accents her words

Jaemin hasn't seen much of her positivity be directed his way, and seeing this ignites the little hope in him that they could move on from this, from everything.

"You didn't have to work on it without me you know, it was just as much my project as it was yours and you putting in all the effort isn't fair on you."

"You did most of the preliminary stuff anyways, and I really didn't want to ask you because of the other night" Jaemin finally admits, though not willingly, his words extracted more so by her sharp stare and the cold atmosphere.

"Right..." Her attempts at changing the subject, clearly in vain— he really needed to stop asking about the other night. Y/n wasn't sure how much h longer she could hold back the tears, the looming feeling of inadequacy as a guardian still strong. She should have been more careful.

She knows its her turn to speak, opening her mouth to do so.

But again, y/n struggles.

The words play hide and seek in her mind, leaving her to grasp at empty. The atmosphere grows heavy with the weight of unspoken words. Her mind races, a jumble of what to say, thoughts of how easy conversation once was, how effortless it had been, all such a stark contrast to now.

Jaemin watches, a mix of intrigue and concern in his eyes as she contemplates in front of him, quiet but with an expression that spoke volumes.

The silence between them seems to bite louder than any conversation they once held, each dish in front, a reminder of the bitter aftertaste of a friendship turned cold.

"It's just Minjun and I" she breathes out, voice shaky, and Jaemin realises that those nervous cues in her slumped posture and shaking hands had never changed "It's just been the two of us for a while" she whispered. "That's why I was so scared"

Jaemin's hand hovers uncertainly beneath the table, unsure if the gesture would be welcomed or misunderstood, caught in the delicate balance of care and concern.

Admittedly, Jaemin catches himself slightly intrigued, still confused what could have lead to her practically perfectly family turning into this.

But he knows better than to let his curiosity get the best of him.

He wants to stop her, tell her that whatever it is that causes her brows to knit together and her pretty eyes to gloss over isn't something she needs to force herself to talk about, but he doesn't know how.

For a moment he's kicking himself under the table— how had he ever let go of the person who meant so much to him?

Even now, knowing everything she had done, he couldnt help but question why hadn't he tried to get past it then?

At the sight of her downcast features suddenly everything that he once despised her for seemed so trivial.

Jaemin sees himself, a younger, less mature version that stands on the court, hair matted to his forehead from the rain, a ball long forgotten somewhere behind him, cold, betrayed, and so painfully alone. Those burning tear stained cheeks, the harsh whistles of wind, the bitter feeling of failure still clinging to his skin, he remembers it all.

But every feeling he recalls so well, so vividly, is so easily dismissed when her eyes shine with a painful tint, red from the piercing tears that she holds in them.

"My dad" she cuts him off, gaze now avoidant as he grabbed her cold hands in his, "he walked out on us not long after ...whatever hapenned between you and me. He never came back, didn't answer a single call, not even a text, no form of communication except the papers he sent in the mail so I could become Junnie's legal guardian."

I missed you, she wanted to say. I needed you she'd liked to add.

"That's why it's just the two of us now" she said instead, trying to find more words to stop the tears from flowing, like her words were the only thing that could hold them back.

Back then, Y/n remembers vividly the feeling of wanting to fall, to sink, to drown but still somehow keeping her head above the surface to hold on and stay strong for her younger brother. She wondered if Jaemin had been there, would it have been easier? Would she have let herself fall, would she have someone to give her a hand, to pick her back up again and hold her hand through it all? Would things have ended differently?

"I'm sorry" his words weren't new, they weren't special, they were the same as what everybody else would say but the fact that they came from him, Na Jaemin who now stood by her side with his arms wrapped around her, was enough to dissolve the feeling of emptiness.

08:25 present time

Y/n looks over at Minjun, still deep in slumber, smiling before she steps out of the room.

There's way too many toys sprawled out across the living room floor, a blanket she finds herself folding as she subconsciously begins to clean up. Her eyes land on the kitchen counter, wondering what to make for breakfast. She was never particularly good at cooking, but she'd been learning for her brothers sake.

When she gets to the black jacket resting over the couch, it hits her. She catches sight of her puffy eyes in the mirror, and a hand runs through her hair hurriedly.

"Why the fuck did I tell him all of that" she let's out a frustrated sigh, running her hands across her face, "I'm supposed to hate him" she reminds herself, though her tone isn't convincing in the slightest.

"You don't hate him though" Heeseung's voice comes out muffled, the toothbrush between his lips making it difficult to understand his words.

He had been the one to stay over last night, her friends still taking turns to accompany Minjun and her every night since he'd walked out of the apartment, a gesture that made her heart swell. Although up until now she was pretty certain he was still asleep. Clearly not.

"I can't hate him" she sighs, falling back into the couch "is it bad I want to be friends with him again?" she asks, even though Heeseung had retreated to the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth.

Regardless he pokes his head out into the hallway, a sly smirk across his lips "with benefits?"

Y/n rolls her eyes.

He emerges again not long after, smiling from ear to ear "no y/n it's not bad if you want to be friends again" he takes a seat beside her "you can only fight your feelings for so long, let yourself be vulnerable, take the risk and try again" he says, hands resting on both his knees.

"and if you're feeling really risky, you can always—"

"shut up Heeseung" she smiles, lightly pushing against his arm "I guess it is worth a shot though"

"he's right next door anyways so sneaking around won't be hard at all"

"I meant being friends. Just friends." she stands up, walking over to the kitchen "you down for pancakes?"

He nods.

"You know it could be good though, he's hot, you're hot, there's enough tension to make things interesting and it ticks your not ready for a relationship box pretty well too"

Despite the pointed look the captain offers him, Heeseung doesn't let up, and secretly, she wouldn't have it any other way.

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[nightmaretour]

I hate to do this, and it's a long shot I know, but things are getting desperate and it seems like I'm going to be waiting WAY longer than I should be for something that's fairly urgent.

I'm a disabled trans man living in the UK. Recently I was found to have severe anemia, and came up with my FIT test (gastrointestinal cancer screening) a few months ago, and was referred for a colonoscopy to find out the cause, since it looks like I'm having a slow but constant bleed through my GI tract. However, my referral has been awaiting review for over three months now. I'm not even on the waiting list, I'm waiting for someone to decide if I need to be on the waiting list. Since then I've started having GI symptoms such as pain, intermittent loss of appetite, etc. as well as my anemia worsening significantly.

This is of course pretty urgent, but it looks like I'll be waiting months longer once I finally get on the waiting list too. I really have no choice but to get it done through a private hospital, because of the time sensitive nature of, you know, potentially having cancer. I managed to put some money away out of the backpay I got from PIP, but it's not enough.

[ID: A screenshot of an email that's says:

Dear Mr (name blocked out in red),

Thank you for your website inquiry. For your information, the cost of an initial consultation with one of our consultant gastroenterologists is £280."

It then lists the names of 3 doctors as links, all blocked out in red. The email continues,

"The guide price for a colonoscopy is £2,339. For further information, including appointment availability, please don't hesitate to contact the medical secretaries (followed by three names redacted in red) directly on (phone number redacted in red) or call the private patient team on (phone number redacted in red). End ID]

Currently I have around £1,400 stashed away from PIP backpay I got after they royally fucked things up (however I may need to dip into this at points if I find myself struggling). Together the consultation plus the colonoscopy will cost £2,619, which leaves me about £1220 behind. I know I'm most likely not going to get that much from this, but I honestly have no choice but to try my luck here. I really don't know what else I can do.

I really don't like asking for money from people for nothing, but I have a Ko-fi store where I sell handmade screen printed patches, and I'll be adding more designs to it over the coming weeks when I have the time and energy to make new screens. I'm also offering commissions for custom band patches! (Due to Kofi's TOS I can't officially offer patches for bands without their permission.). Below are a few examples of my work:

[ID: 5 images of patches printed in white on black fabric, all sewn onto a worn looking black denim jacket. All are sewn on roughly in red floss, aside from the last one. The first says "only dates I want are tour dates". The words "dates" and "tour dates" are larger than the other text. All of the letter As are replaced with spade symbols. The second is the logo of the band Cop/Out, which is the band name with rough, jagged edges. The third is the logo for The Prodigy, which is the band name in sharp. Zig-zagging letters. The fourth is the logo for the band Subhumans, a stylised skull shouting into a microphone. The fourth is the horizontal silhouette of a crutch. With the words "Talk shit" above it and "get hit" below it. Unlike the rest it is sewn on in black, and the edge of an embroidered back patch is visible just above it. End ID]

I know a lot of people aren't doing well financially right now, and that there are people in far, far more dire situations who probably need your help far more than I do, but I would appreciate any purchases of patches or help you can offer so, so much. Even just sharing the post would be enormously appreciated.

Current progress:

£115/£1220

And of course as pet tax, here's Cynder :)

[ID: A photo of a female wild type leopard gecko laying spread out on a smooth rounded rock in a glass fronted tank. Her head is sideways and raised, looking at the camera with one eye. She looks relaxed and curious. Behind her a large piece of thick tree bark and a plastic cave can be seen. End ID]

[sommerflue-22]

i loved the childhood crush fanfic of yours! im wondering if your making a yuichiro choice one?

A/n: aaaa thank you sm! and ofc! i hope you like this one too :D

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Childhood Crush | Yuichiro Tokito

Muichiro version

Featuring: Yuichiro Tokito, aged up!Yuichiro

Content Warning: gn!reader, modern setting, fluff, not beta read

Word Count: 1.7k

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At first, Muichiro was the twin who caught your attention. How could he not? He was a kind kid, soft-spoken and very polite. Not to mention, he smiled a lot. You were in the same homeroom class with him back in your first and second year of elementary school. After that, you were separated. You didn't play with him during recess anymore, but it didn't matter because you made friend with his twin.

Yuichiro was an active kid, always running around playing tag or football whenever he had the chance. You were his seatmate for a whole semester during your third year.

One day during PE, the teacher paired you two to play badminton. It was a match made in heaven. You hit the shuttlecock back and forth, not even letting it drop. Sure, Yuichiro was strong, but you managed to match his energy. The game was really intense, your other classmates started to abandon their own games and watched you and Yuichiro instead.

From that day, you and Yuichiro were pretty much inseparable. You played together during recess, sat next to each other in science lab, exchanged collectible cards. Just two active kids having fun every day.

You remembered the first time you realized that, hey, Yuichiro is such a good friend... but he made your little heart beats a little faster, unlike the other kids.

Yuichiro came to school one day, eyes wide and a big grin plastered on his face.

"(Y/N), (Y/N)! Guess what?!"

"What?"

"You have to guess first!"

You pouted, annoyed, but gave yourself a few seconds to try guessing the reason Yuichiro's joyful expression. "You... got yourself a new bike?" Yuichiro did tell you he wanted a new bike.

"Ah, I wish! But no!" Yuichiro circled the table and sat next to you. "My Dad got me that dinosaur movie's DVD!"

You gasped, "No, he didn't!"

"Yes, he did!" Yuichiro bounced his feet, excited. "Do you wanna watch it with me after school? Mui don't wanna watch it, he'd rather watch cartoon."

"Eh? Sure! I wanna see the movie too!"

"Alright! Let's go to my house after school!"

The movie was all you talked about with Yuichiro all day. Even during recess, you both didn't join the other kids playing football. Instead, you sat with Yuichiro on the swing set and talked about dinosaurs. When the school bell rang, signaling the end of the class, you both were all packed up and ready to go.

Thankfully, the Tokito's house wasn't really far from school, only a ten minute walk. Once you got there, you borrowed the telephone to call your mom. You told her that you're in Yuichiro's house, about to watch a movie. Your mom let you, but also told you to go home before it got dark.

"All good! Let's go watch that movie!" You gave Yuichiro a thumbs up and he led you to the living room.

You sat comfortably on the sofa as Yuichiro put the CD in the player.

"Yay, it's starting!" Yuichiro plopped down next to you soon after.

"No, it's still the main menu! You gotta push that one there, the 'Play Movie' one! Give me the remote, you're so slow!"

You grabbed the remote from Yuichiro's hand and played the movie.

It was really cozy in the Tokito house. The sofa and the throw pillows were fluffy and soft, the floor was heated, and Yuichiro's mother made them hot chocolate. She also gave you two a bowl of popcorn and a few bags of chips to eat during the movie.

There were a few scenes that made you two jump, but you laughed them all off. Instead of getting scared, you and Yuichiro just commented on how cool the dinosaurs looked. The movie was interesting, but it was quite a long one. Almost two and a half hour long.

Things got a little bit boring when you reached the part where the characters had to plan an escape. It was a lot of talking, not enough dinosaurs. It was the first time the two of you fell silent. You kept your eyes glued to the TV, though, wasn't about to risk missing a dinosaur appearance.

You yawned as the two main characters got left alone by their other friends. They were supposed to guard the front door as the others went to find supplies. You weren't interested in their 'romantic' banter.

You were about to reach out and grab some popcorns when you realized Yuichiro had fallen asleep, his head rested on your shoulder.

Your heart started to beat faster than usual. You didn't know why, maybe because you were afraid of waking him up. As much as you liked watching the movie with him, you couldn't blame him for falling asleep. The movie was still on its boring part and school was tiring. It was normal for him to get tired and fell asleep.

You stayed on your seat and decided to watch the movie again. Wrong move. The two characters were kissing. Mind you, neither you nor Yuichiro knew the movie had a little bit of romance in it. You were just there to see the dinosaur.

But the scene that was unfolding in front of your eyes really made your stomach fluttered. It was your first time seeing two people kiss, and hug each other oh so tightly right after.

I wish I can hug Yuichiro like that...

...what?

You couldn't believe you thought about hugging Yuichiro like those characters. It was a tight hug, a really intimate one. They also did it after they kissed each other.

Gross.

You tried to forget about that feeling, but it never left. It stayed in the back of your mind, coming forward every once in awhile, during random moments you shared with Yuichiro.

By the time you were in the 6th grade, you fully understood that you did like Yuichiro... a little bit (a lot) more than a friend. Yet you never told him.

Apparently someone from another class had a crush on one of the Tokito twins. You had no idea which one, but you saw Yuichiro got pissed off when he found out. You saw him got angry because other kids teased him.

You thought it was better not to tell him about your little crush.

So you kept it to yourself.

You went to the same middle school and high school as the twins. You watched as they grew up to be really attractive. By the time you graduated high school, Yuichiro was already towering over you.

Oh, he's a bad news, alright, you told yourself. Yuichiro was tall, ripped, really good looking, and you waited for him to finish his kendo practices so you knew what he could do with those muscles.

The day after your graduation, you and Yuichiro drove down to the beach and had a little picnic to watch the sunset. It was something that the two of you loved to do since the ninth grade. For Yuichiro, it might be completely platonic. But for you? You loved to pretend that those sunset picnics were dates.

"So... you're moving out this weekend?" Yuichiro asked.

"Yep." You answered, still munching your chips. You got accepted to a really good program in a reputable university. The thing was, it's located on the other side of the country.

"My, my... It won't be the same without you here," Yuichiro whistled. "I mean, we've been friends since like... what, elementary school?"

You laughed, "Back when you still believe in Santa Claus."

Yuichiro threw an almond at you. "I was an imaginative kid... But, anyway... I hope you'll like it there! I'm really happy for you, you know. You deserve this. So go out there and explore the world! Make friends with a lot of people, fall in love with a few, then maybe one day I'll receive an... I don't know, a housewarming party invitation? Or maybe even a wedding invitation?"

You smiled, watching as he popped and almond into his mouth. He had no idea...

"The point is... I'll always be your friend. You can call me anytime."

You sighed. "Well... It would be great if I can find someone else out there, maybe date them, got my heart broken, fall for someone new, repeat the cycle... but I don't think I'll be able to experience those stuff... at least not in the near future."

"Eh?! Why not?!"

You turned to look at him right in his eyes. "Because of you."

Yuichiro blinked a few times before his eyes widened.

"(Y/N)..."

"You don't have to reciprocate. I just need to tell you that... just to let you know." You let out a laugh.

"Ah... thanks..."

Surprisingly, you didn't feel sad. You felt relieved. You finally let go of something that you've been holding onto for so long.

The two of you sat in silence as the sun set. Once you could no longer see the glowing, orange orb, you stood up.

"Right, we should get going, then!" You clapped your hands once. "Let me get the trash and dump them. Oi, Yui, stop zoning out and fold the mat."

You picked up the trash and walked to a nearby trash can. Once you disposed them, you went to a faucet near the stairs to the parking lot to wash your hands.

As you were washing your hands, you felt a pair of strong hands wrapped around your waist.

"Yui—"

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

You let him hold you close, feeling the warmth of his body embraced you, sheltering you from the cold wind.

"Because I don't want you to hate me."

"...Since when?"

"...third grade..."

Yuichiro chuckled, you could feel his breath on your nape. "Oh, (Y/N)..."

Yuichiro turned your body around and soon you were engulfed in his scent, earthy and clean. Your heart was beating like crazy, but so was his.

"So... do you wanna... try it out?" Yuichiro asked, voice quivered at the end.

You chuckled. He was nervous.

"Only if you want to." You lifted up your chin to meet his face.

He rolled his eyes as he leaned down to peck your forehead.

──────────────────────────────────────────

A/n: I GOT CARRIED AWAY AJASOFEJOHGE

[melanieph321]

Ruben Dias x Reader - Fake Love Part 2/8

Reader is a kindergarten teacher. Nothing more nothing less. But following an accident whistle vacation in Dubai she somehow makes her boyfriend believe that she does somthing else for a living, something that earns her way more money than she has. Her boyfriend, Ruben, is just happy to have found someone who understands him so well, someone who doesn't want him for his money since money isn't an issue for neither reader or himself. Or so thinks. Would finding out the truth ruin their newfound relationship? Readers thinks so, and does everything to keep up the lie, although it has some bad people from the middle east looking for her.

Enjoy!

Over all it was a pleasant flight, despite your burns. Mostly thanks to Ruben. As the flight attendants came around with drinks and snacks, Ruben struck up a conversation and the two of you quickly discovered that you had a lot in common - both were avid travelers, loved good food, and were passionate about exploring new cultures. Later when the dinner menu was brought out, Ruben enthusiastically recommended the traditional Portuguese dishes, extolling the virtues of the country's cuisine. You were amused by his enthusiasm and found yourself getting caught up in his infectious energy. Ruben even insisted on sharing his favorite dishes with you, and the two of you laughed and chatted as you ate.

"Does it help, the ice?" He asked, after seeing you requested the flight attendants to bring you a puch to put against your thigh.

"A little." You answersed shyly, a bit taken aback by how observant Ruben was. You dozed off now and then during the flight, but there was a always a fresh pack of ice next to you when you woke up. Apperently Ruben went out of his way asking the flight attendants to bring you a fresh pack every hour as not to disturb your sleep. As the night wore on and the plane hit turbulence, you found yourself feeling more and more at ease with Ruben by your side. You couldn't help but be charmed by his kindness and generosity.

When the flight finally landed in Lisbon, Ruben leaned in and whispered, "You have to let me show you around my city. Meet me at the famous Pão de Azeite bakery tomorrow morning at 9am, and I'll take you on a tour of the best spots in Lisbon."

Your heart skipped a beat as your mind raced with the possibilities of your adventures together. However, you knew that Ruben thought you were a frequent business class traveler. But it was all an act and reality would set in once you stepped off this plane. The reality being that you and Ruben were from two very different worlds.

"Thanks Ruben, really. But I'm only here for two nights and owe it to my friend as I've ruined her vacation."

"You said what?"

Arriving at your hotel in uptown Lisbon, you told Alicia about Ruben asking you out and you turning him down. Needless to say that she was very unhappy about it.

"Y/N, that guy was leng. Not to mention his friends. Why did you turn him down?"

"Because." You said , regret waying heavily in the pit of your stomach. "I want to enjoy my time here with you."

"Me?" She frowned. "Y/N, I don't know fuck all about Portugal, let alone Lisbon. This guy could have showed us where the party is at. Who knows, maybe he would have brought his friend?"

Apparently Alicia really hit it of with Ruben's friend Fabio after the two of you switched seats. Ruben and you could hear them giggle over bottles of champagne as the two of them had them coming like treadmills on the plane.

"Alicia, I don't really feel like hooking up with strangers right now. It's been a really hectic few days for me and all I want to do is spend my time here with you and go home.

"Alright." She nodded. "At least tell it like it is, because if I was you I would've let that guy take me wherever he wants."

You shook your head but smiled. "Let's just unpack so we can explore the city." Your hotel suite was simply out of this world. Alicia had not held back on the expenses, really taking advantage of the courtesy of the Siddiq family.

"Oh, I know what we should do today! We should go shopping." She said, smiling in that mischievous way that you hated.

The two of you freshened up and hit the streets. Alicia had ordered a rental car with a chauffeur to drive you around. All at the expense of the Siddiq family of course. She had learned to put the tab on them just as well as she had learned to use her father's credit card as a teenager. "Oh my god, this would look so good on you." She said, holding up a black cocktail dress for you to try on.

"Yes, but the price." You said, hooking the dress back on it's hanger. You let Alicia drag you to the most luxurious shopping streets in Portugal, without the intentions of buying anything. Alicia on the other hand.....

"Come on Y/N, just try it on, something tells me you might need this dress tonight?"

"Tonight? What's tonight?"

You had noticed Alicia texting someone back and forth as the two of you arrived at the hotel. The texting went on the whole day to a point where you were getting really annoyed. You were supposed to enjoy your time together in Portugal, to be in the moment. Alicia however, seemed distracted. By whom, you found out on your way to a massive football stadium whilst squeezed into a skimpy cocktail dress.

"Alicia, don't you think we're a bit overdressed for a football game?" You asked, as your friend wandered into the stadium ahead of you, her high heels tricking people into thinking that she was a head taller than you.

"Trust me Y/N, you're not." She reassured, guiding you past where people were lining up to take their seats. You however, were heading upstairs, to a private lounge of some sort.

"Eyy, linda, vocês conseguiram!" (Ey, beautifuls', you made it!)

You were shocked to see Ruben and his friends welcoming you to sit with them.

"You came." He smiled as well as eyeing your dress up and down. He looked good too, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans.

"I am as suprised as you." You said, sitting down.

He frowned.

"But I'm sure our friends had something to do with it." You looked over to where Alicia and Fabio sat, now deep in conversation with each other, giggling mischievously.

"Well I'm glad you came." Ruben nodded, returning all of his attention back to you. His eyes were so captivating, deep brown and mysterious.

"Me too." You shirped, quick to switch your attention to what was happening on the football pitch. "Who's playing?" You asked, since you had no idea that Alicia planned for you to attend a football game whilst in Portugal.

"Benfica, of course." Ruben leaned towards you not to shout over the noise of yhe cheering crowd. "It's Benfica against Braga, a good game."

"If you say so." You shrugged, to which Ruben frowned.

"What?" You chuckled.

"You don't watch much football do you?"

"No, sorry. We play cricket where I'm from."

"Which is...?"

"England."

Ruben looked even more puzzled by your answer. "You know England has one of the top football leagues in the world, right?"

"We do?"

His eyes widened in suprise. "Manchester City is practically the best club in the world right now, at least tell me you've heard of them."

"Manchester...?" You hymned. "You mean United?"

Ruben opened his mouth to say something, but prevented himself as it might have been something impulsive.

You laughed. It was cute, the way it shocked him that you didn't follow football like the rest of the world. How could you, when growing up with brothers who only played cricket. It was all they could talk about around the dinner table.

"Am I too uneducated to be able to enjoy this game?" You asked. To which Ruben's expression faltered. "No."

"No?"

He shook his head. "Don't worry, I'll explain it to you."

You smiled. "How kind of you."

There was movment in the corner of your eye, Alicia, walking towards you in a hurry. "Bathroom, now!" She said, practically dragging you with her.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't notice." She said, closing the bathroom door behind you.

"Noticed what?" You frowned.

"That it was him." She said, walking over to one of the mirrors, taking the opportunity to reapply her lipstick.

"Who?"

"Ruben." She shrugged.

"What about him?"

Alicia turned to you, confused as to why you were confused. "You didn't know either, did you?"

"Know what, Alicia? Get to the point." It was getting annoying.

She tucked away her lipstick and walked over to you, grabbing you by the shoulders. "Ruben Dias." She said. "As in, THE Ruben Dias, the professional footballer."

"The what?"

She let go of your shoulders returning to the bathroom mirror, tampering with her hair. "He's like super famous...and rich." She said.

"He is?"

"Yes, but don't make it obvious that you're in it for the money."

"But I'm not."

"Perfect, just like that."

"Alicia." You sighed. The two of you left the bathroom with the game having already started. Ruben waved for you to join him, but you were too distracted by what Alicia had told you in the bathroom, to focus on Ruben's explanation of what was happening on the pitch.

"Are you ladies up for something to eat?" Ruben's friend Theo asked. The game was over, the team Ruben was rooting for, having won 1-0. "My uncle owns this great spot in town which we wouldn't have to make reservations for."

"Eh." Fabio snorted. "With Ruben here we won't have to wait in line anywhere. Ain't that right Ruby? Can't you try and get us in to some hot club, I bet the ladies would like that."

Ruben turned to, eyeing your legs where parts of the dressing was visible. "Nah, I think dinner at Theo's uncle is better."

You silent thanked him for being so considering of you.

"No worries." He winked and offered you a hand to descend the steps of your private booth. He did not let go as the two of you made your way out of the stadium. It's when you realized that what Alicia said must be true. People were coming up to Ruben asking him to take pictures with them and sign their belongings. He was really someone specially to these people.

"Do you guys need a ride back to your hotel?" The guys asked, following a lovely dinner at Theo's uncle's restaurant.

"No thanks, we have a car."

"You do?"

"And a chauffeur." Alicia said, slurring on her words as she and Fabio had a bit more to drink than the rest of you.

"A chauffeur, really?" Ruben looked at you, slightly impressed.

Your eyes fell on the ground, embarrassed.

"I guess I'll see you later." Ruben said, when  the two of you stood alone on the sidewalk, Fabio and Theo helping Alicia get into the car.

"Yeah, see you."

It was painful, saying goodbye.

"But you're staying in Portugal one more night, no?"

"Yes, Ruben but...."

He nodded. "No, I get it. You want to spend time with your friend, make up for ruining her vacation. But how about we meet up later, by the beach?"

"Beach?" You grimarced.

Ruben laughed. "I promise you I don't own a pair of speedos, neither does Theo. Fabio might, but I'll tell him not to...."

"It's not that." You mumbled.

"No?"

Ruben shuffled his feet, visibly conflicted in how he should approach this, approach you. "Y/N, if you have a boyfriend back home...."

You looked up, having avoided eye contact. "I don't." You said, terror in your eyes.

His shoulders relaxed as he exhaled. "Good. That's...good."

You couldn't help but to smile. Ruben did the same. You stepped forward, grabbing his arm for support as you tipped on your toes, kissing him and the cheek, Ruben's rough beard tickling your face.

"See you tomorrow...by the beach?"

"Yeah...." His voice trailed off as you let go of his arm, backing away towards the car.

"Tell your friend to text Alicia the details since he has her number.

"Well, can I have your number?" He smirked. "Maybe then I could text you the details."

"Maybe." You said, ignoring the butterflies that invaded your stomach. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow." He nodded.

"Yes, I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"I look forward to tomorrow then."

You rolled your eyes. "Goodnight Ruben."

He smiled, a cheeky smile. "Goodnight, Y/N."

[blitzsicedcoffee]

Ficlet- Get Up

Based on art by @mferret9

Notes: Sorry it's only a ficlet and not a full one shot. I haven't had a lot of energy lately. Hope you still enjoy!

Timeline: Season 3, Blitz and Stolas are dating. Currently on a date.

"Stols look! It's that coffee place I wanted to take you to. They're finally open!", I yell and grab his lanky as fuck arm, pulling him toward the door. He chuckles in that hooting way that makes my lips crack a smile and I flash one back.

There aren't many decent coffee places in Pride, and I think I've been to almost all of them. But Stolas hasn't. And it's fall. I want to get him some seasonal shit. That's what couples do, right? Seasonal shit?

Stolas ponders the menu as he does. He ponders a lot. Is that just a bird thing? Or do all Goetia ponder? I don't think I ponder. I think, of course. But never ponder.

"Darling?" He asks, snapping me out of my racing thoughts. I blink and look up at him, "uh yeah?" He chuckles again, "I'm not sure what to get".

I pretend to ponder. My hand rubbing my chin.

"Ya like pumpkin spice?" I ask him. Of course he does. He's kind of a basic bitch.

"Uhm well, I don't know. I've never had it", he replies and I squeeze his hand and scoff,

"A basic bitch that's never had a pumpkin spice?" I say, then look to the cashier, "One medium pumpkin spice and an extra spicy medium iced chai", I tell her.

She rings us up and I slam down my card before Stolas can even get out his wallet and he blushes. I love seeing him flustered.

"Don't worry, I got it", I tell him and rub the top of his hand, kissing it as my other hand slides the card to the cashier. Ignoring the cashier's looks, she slides it and hands it back as I'm enamored with Stolas's red as fuck face.

"Sir. You can wait for your drinks over there", she points. Stolas giggles and I shoot her a look then pull him over to a table in the corner. Ever since we got together every single little drop of affection I give to this bird in public drives him wild. And I lap it all up like a horse at a drinking hole.

Once we sit I can feel one of his long ass legs shaking under the table against mine and I rub his hand again.

"Something bothering you?" I ask, smug. Stolas squeaks adorably, "You know what you're doing", he replies and I smile wide as he pouts, crossing his arms.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Hold that thought-", I stand up and grab our drinks. Placing them back on the table and sitting back down, He clenches my shirt and gestures to one of those non gendered family bathrooms in the cafe and I chuckle.

I put my hand over his and unclench his hand.

"Lemme just get a sip in first", I say as I put the straw to my lip agonizingly slow. Stolas sighs and stands up. I barely get one sip and am able to put the coffee down when he grabs my arm and pulls me into the bathroom. Locking the door.

I smile and chuckle again, running my hands through the back of his feathered head. Damn he is so pretty. Since it's autumn he's changed to a wardrobe of all sweaters. Today's with cut outs for his shoulders and chest. It's so fucking sexy.

He picks me up and pushes me against the door. Our tongues meet and it's like feeling alive again since we did this two hours ago. I don't know if his magic is stored in his fucking tongue and beak or what but it damn feels like it. His free hand wanders under my shirt and traces along my back spikes and a moan escapes. Fuck why is he the only one that can do that?

His tongue is moving behind my teeth and down my mouth and I'm getting so hard but-

I pull back for a breath, a heavy one.

"Hehe, sorry to interrupt but uh, not really up for bathroom sex right now", I tell him. He bites his beak and nods,

"Okay I-I can conjure a portal in here and we can go home", he replies. Home. He's been calling the palace that when we're together. He didn't used to.

I rub the back of my neck, he puts me down.

"Unless that's-unless you don't want-", He stutters. I bite my lip, say something you idiot.

"Nah Stols I just wanna finish our date okay? We got coffee for a reason let's...go to the park. Get fresh air", I tell him, grabbing his hand.

He nods hesitantly, "O...Kay.." he looks at me skeptically. Probably because I've never backed out of a make out sesh with him ever. But I'm just...not feeling it right now. I don't know. Which is weird for me. I'm never not feeling it. (Except Ozzies but we don't talk about that night).

We walk back to our table, cheeks flushed and of course the whole cafe staring at us now. I grab our drinks and hand him his as we walk out the door.

We walk a good few blocks, sipping our coffees and feeling the crisp air. While it's not like fall on Earth where there's trees with falling leaves, it does get fucking cold. I huddle closer to Stolas at one point and he puts his hand on my shoulder blades.

Then we get to the park and he-stops. I turn around, "What's up?" I ask him. He fiddles with his hands, his nervous tick. Next he's going to hug himself. He does.

"Blitz I just...wanted to tell you....", he starts. I hate confessions. They're always too fucking long drawn out and always more emotional than they need to be. But Stolas is a fan.

"Spit it out sweety bird", I say. Hoping the endearing words lessen the blow.

"Blitz I...I think I've fallen for you", he says. What is this a fall pun? I laugh, "So get up", I tell him.

"What?!" He asks, frowning and his eyes turning sad. Oh no. Not a fall pun. Why is everything puns??? Not everything is puns, Blitz!!!

I put out my hands to hold his but he pulls them away. Fuck.

"Stolas i- I thought you were making a pun. I thought you were being funny", I said. Mistake again.

"You think that me loving you is funny?!" He replies. FUCK.

"NO! I just-AGH!" I stomp away and throw my coffee in a trash can and take a deep breath. Then I take more deep breaths. And more. We've been through this. I can do this differently. I can change.

I turn back and he looks too fucking sad holding himself. I want to hold him. He should be in my arms.

I walk slowly back over to him, he takes a step back and my eyes widen.

"Stolas...I'm sorry. Can we please not misunderstand this again", I plead, reaching out my hand again.

He walks towards me and takes my hand softly, I hold it tight with both of mine and kiss the top.

"I'm an idiot", I start. He nods, I chuckle.

"You're my idiot", he mumbles and I smile, "I am".

"You thought I was joking?" He asks. I nod.

"I wasn't", he looks at me with...fear? He continues, "What...do you think about that?" He asks.

I stay silent a moment. What do I think about that? That you love me?

I think it's amazing, I think there's no one I would rather be with. I think, I love you.

"It's Aight", I smile and he hits my back, "Blitz!"

"Okay okay I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I put my hands up in defeat. "Stolas we've been dating for two years of course I love you", I tell him, staring up at him. Hoping he can see the adoration in my eyes.

His eyes spurt into hearts, I love it when they do that.

"You do?!" He asks again.

"Of course I do, you silly owl", I pull him close and squeeze him tight.

"Then why didn't you say it?" He asks. "Why didn't you?" I reply. He chuckles, "Touche".

We hug for little while longer then walk back to my apartment. I still had a whole fanfic to read to him of my new horse OC that I made named Mooncake. Named after Stolas, of course. (And the time he made me mooncakes for a solstice).

Stolas loves Mooncake (I knew he would) and we end the night with a Rom com he licked I mean picked, and cuddles (initiated completely by Stolas and not at all by me).

Okay byeeeeeeeeeeee.

[kinmokusei-stars]

🍰 Some fake Kouko collab cafe dishes! More info and explanations under the cut! 💚

I've watched Emirichu for quite literally years, and (not so) recently she's started posting Anime Collab Cafe content! Safe to say I'm a tad obsessed LMAO I've been in love with Dungeon Meshi for a while, so seeing that there was a Collab Cafe for that made me lose my MIND over how much love and care was put into it! o(≧▽≦)o

HOWEVER. It reminded me that there was actually an Inuyasha Collab Cafe made a while back! And as a person who loves food and seeing what stuff collab cafes come up with, I figured why not make my own hypothetical drink and dishes! I've never seen anyone else do this with an OC, but I thought it would be a blast! It was wonderful practice to try and draw more semi-realistic food! („• ᴗ •„)

I tried to mimic how the menus I saw for the official Inuyasha collab cafe while adding my own little style, and I think it turned out pretty nice!

So here they are!

Kouko's lavender and blackberry milk tea, The Lover's Stew, and the Loyal Steed cheesecake!

I wanted a drink, a savory food, and a dessert, and I had just the idea for all of them!

🧋 - Kouko's drink is a lavender and blackberry flavored Milk tea! It has a pleasant ombre from a light blue down to a dark indigo because of blackberry boba pearls!

I also noticed that some of the drinks had these paper bits wrapped around the center, and that lent itself perfectly to Kouko's waist scarf, so of course that's in there! I gave her a unique glass shape, that tapers out from the middle to be wider at the top, to reference Kouko's build being more top-heavy and muscular, because I thought that might be a really cute detail. ( ´ ꒳ ` )

I could go on for hours about each aspect and why I added the specific flavors, but I won't yap on for too long, we still have two dishes to talk about!

🍲 - Naturally, the best idea for the savory dish was the stew that Kouko gave to Inuyasha that kicked off them becoming friends! (Foreshadowing for my next planned art piece? 👀)

I usually describe it as a soup, but honestly, I think it's way more fitting that it'd be a stew! (And yes, there's a difference LMAO) So the lover's stew would be a hearty beef and potato stew! Not entirely canon-accurate to the story, but it'd undeniably be tasty. It's the thought that counts. It's something simple, but really warm and filling!

I referenced the Tentacle & Kelpie Stew from Dungeon Meshi to get the nice warm energy I wanted, since all the food art in that show is gorgeous and makes you feel such emotion by just looking at it, and I really do think it turned out beautiful!

🍰 - And last but not least the Loyal Steed Cheesecake! You KNOW I had to add something with Aiko and Kouko, since her horse is so important to her, even if I don't draw them together often, because horses are absolute nightmares to draw LMAO

I will admit, this was the hardest one to do! (¯▿¯')

I had had a pretty easy time with the other two, but I flip flopped a lot with the cheesecake. I went from a peach cheesecake to try and get a sunset ombre effect, to a matcha one with a wafer of her and Aiko stood on top to look like she's on a nice cliffside, before settling on the blue and green one with what's probably a chocolate or wafer in the shape of her riding Aiko on it, so look like they're walking along some scenery! The little whipped cream dollops on the top could be seen as clouds, which is really cute, to me. ( = ⩊ = )

My biggest idea was the cute plate layout, with the small cocoa dust hoofprints leading to the slice, which I just couldn't get rid of!

Also, this is one of the only times you'll be seeing Kouko in anything resembling a maid dress. I decided to put her in a cute frilly apron over a sleeveless version of her kimono outfit! (Because if the guns aren't out, what are we doing? LMAO)

[heartscrypt]

Hii! I have a question about your thoughts on jamiazu.

Do you think that Azul would ever be able to confess any romantic feelings for Jamil? If so, how? And if not, would they be able to get together in any other way?

Sorry if this is a weird question, just curious.

thanks for your question! it is SO not weird at all i really enjoy stuff like this. actually i am going to go on a huge ramble that goes on a little tangent so like. LONG POST AHEAD!!!! be warned!!!!!

anyways. azul is always confessing his romantic feelings for jamil whether he knows it or not. in every interaction. because he's so damn obvious. hope this helps LOL

in all seriousness though. i really like to think that azul is kind of cursed to be a hopeless romantic despite it going against all of his pragmatic sense. i mean. he's a child of divorce who hates leaving things up to chance and he believes in getting something back whenever he gives something away. being head over heels with someone goes against his whole nature, so i think it's definitely a new thing for him. he won't recognize that his feelings are romantic right away because he'll be too busy trying to justify to himself why he's investing so much time and energy into a guy that Clearly wants nothing to do with him and won't give him the time of day. its business, guys, i swear.... stonks.....

i think once he does come to terms with it though. it starts leaking through in Every Interaction he has w/jamil. in every encounter, azul basically ends up saying I Love You without actually ever speaking it out loud. whether it's through his actions (like getting jamil gifts / offering to help out without any genuine expectation of repayment) or or his words (like implying things about them being good together / complimenting jamil excessively). things he did before he realized, but they just have so much more Weight to them now that he Knows he likes the other in a very Non-Platonic-Business-Partners way. he doesn't intend for it to have that emotional weight but its fucking impossible for him to hide and he does NOT know what to do with himself.

he keeps pushing forward regardless because some part of him hopes that his feelings will reach jamil but he also does it with the expectation that jamil will push back like he always has and that's completely fine by him because never actually directly admitting that these feelings are romantic means that the rejections also stay platonic and that is. Way easier to bounce back from. because god forbid jamil sees at who he is behind all the walls he's put up to protect his most vulnerable and emotional self and ends up hating the real azul too.

tl;dr: i don't think azul would go out of his way to make a real, honest confession of his feelings. but he's so obvious it actually hurts to watch

---

ok so. as for jamiazu get-together:

maybe im like super biased b/c im a sucker for narratives that involve jamil learning to shake his passivity and going ahead and Taking what he wants. but i always think that any scenario where jamiazu gets together has to be initiated by jamil somehow. azul can make the first move and several moves after that but jamil has to be the one to make the Final move if that makes sense.

i don't have like. one set get-together scenario but i have a couple that i like to rotate in my head sometimes. most of them involve azul being a failgirl and getting caught off guard because i think it's funny and jamil also thinks it's funny. here are two for your viewing pleasure:

azul makes a pass at jamil that is romantic-coded but could be interpreted as platonic. jamil seizes the opportunity to turn it Explicitly into a romantic thing and fluster azul to no end about it.

azul: there's a new tasting menu at the mostro lounge if you'd like to come with me and try, i'd love to see what your discerning palette makes of it ^__^!

jamil, very casually: yeah sure. why not. i'll go on a date with you

azul, who did NOT expect a yes so his head is about to explode in t-minus 5 seconds: oh, uh. that's .fantastic, actually— wait. ....DATE?!?!?;!?

jamil corners azul and admits romantic feelings first. bonus points if it's a situation where any romantic confession would be incredibly out of the blue. and the way that jamil says it is like dropping a bomb on azul

like in potions lab. azul's concentrating very hard on pouring an exact amount of a substance. jamils watching him and at some point out of nowhere he breaks the silence in between them by going "i think i like you. in the romantic sense". azul's concentration snaps immediately and he fumbles the beaker into the cauldron out of sheer WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING. it explodes in both of their faces. they both have no chance to address what jamil said because crewel is chewing them out for the next 15 minutes about lab safety. during the entire 15 minutes azul looks like he's been hit over the head with several bricks. Repeatedly. jamil's smirking the whole time though he dgaf. takes pleasure in flustering azul

anyways. im insane about these guys ♥️ if you stuck around and read the entire post im really sorry for writing so much i just have a lot of thoughts

[tawus]

Hi Tawus!!!! The way you write Gojo is so spot on, it's hard to not think that you're getting all his dialogue and mannerisms from Gege himself!!

If you were free, I was wondering if I could hear your opinions on student!gojo and how he would react if his classmate had a crush on him. I feel like he would be the type to intentionally try to fluster them, just to see their reaction. Gojo doesn't seem like the type to lead them on, however. I don't know, I just feel like it would be terrible to have a crush on him, lol.

Thank you so much!!! 🩷🩷🩷

If I may be so daring, allow me to recommend my two fics that focus on Gojo in his student times:

We

Mister Fahrenheit

And so sorry for my late response! I have this anal thing where I put all of myself into each ask response... 😅

Right so, I'm not perfect with headcanons but please peep my student!Gojo take:

1 --- 1

Nothing escapes student!Gojo’s six-eyed scrutiny. He catches all of your lingering gazes. He notices when you inch into his personal space by a mere centimetre whenever you stand together at the front of the class. He notes how you stand back with a lowered head with your tray in your hands in the short lunch line, allowing him to take his food first.

Gojo’s techniques are based on mathematical formulae, in fact - using mathematical formulae was he able to decode, understand and master his own techniques. Which is another way of saying that he was plenty good at putting 2 and 2 together.

So, at some point, when you stared at him across the classroom desks, he began turning to you and meeting your gaze.

When you were in front of the class together, he began taking a single sideways step enough to intrude into your personal space.

And in the lunch line…oh no, his feet were rotating around…

“What do you want?” he suddenly turned around, addressing you.

Tongue-tied, nape sweating, you stammered out a meek “Wha–?”

“Besides me, I mean,” he enunciated the ‘me’ and flashed you a shining Cheshire.

Your cheeks had fires lit behind them, not sure what the fuck to do or how the fuck to act.

“Satoru,” Suguru’s milky voice gently reprimanded him as he passed by the two of you with his own tray. “Don’t be mean to our classmate.”

You saw the blue globes rotate in his friend’s direction, “I was just being hospitable.”

The globes rotated back to you, unfolding their oceans to expose their magma core.

“By offering her all that’s on the menu...”

2 --- 2

When your ankle is injured during one of your group missions and Geto cordially lifts you up in his arms to carry you to the pickup point, Gojo comes up to his friend and takes you from his arms as if you were a doll.

“No, Suguru, she wants me to carry her.”

Which, obviously, makes you scramble to your feet, however injured, and hobble in the direction of the pickup point on your own...

3 --- 3

Or when you were separate from the group, facing a Grade 1 cursed spirit on your own, coming to your resolve and finally allowing for your technique to fully release to face this strong enemy. Glad for the fact that none of your classmates were around to see just how bloodthirsty your technique really is.

It began seeping out of you and the curse was right there, zeroing in on you as its solitary target.

Good.

You sensed Gojo's and Geto’s goliath cursed energies many miles away.

Fucking good.

With the fluid rotation of your hand, you summoned your cursed technique as the Grade 1 curse summoned its own on pure instinct. Clouds of premonition gathered above you two and thick, dirty auras permeated the air.

“Cursed technique, Arr–” you mouthed.

FWACK!

You observed in shock as your enemy – the cursed spirit – got lifted up in the air and smacked into the nearby bluff side - its essence trickling down as no more than liquid blood and putrefied remains. Your budding cursed technique got paused. Your chanting stopped mid-air. Your killing instinct got robbed of its target.

“Yo! Didn’t think you’d struggle against a bug like that, but I guess you do…”

The voice you’d recognise anywhere. Too full of itself. Too fucking cocky.

The cursed technique that was budding within the fluid rotation of your wrist fired in the direction of that voice – only to be stopped by his Infinity barrier.

By the time it collided with it, though, you were already there, standing before Gojo motherfucking Satoru, with your vice grip aiming for his windpipe but held back by his annoying barrier once again.

“Baby girl, don’t channel the fact that you pine for me into personal vendettas within our missions,” he mouthed down to you with an easy smile and sympathetic white brows.

Causing you to fume. Causing your cursed technique to reactivate, and his – to power up and thicken in instinctual response. You were staring up and he was smirking down, while your cursed energies were flaring out of normal eyesight and battling, sparking, colliding, fizzling and incandescing against each other.

4 --- 4

Another colleague fallen. Not even a colleague yet – a classmate. No longer smiling. Cold. Stupefied in rigor mortis.

As you stood staring at their face, Gojo came to stand beside you in deafening silence. It lasted as long as a droplet takes to swell and finally fall.

“Maybe you should seek a temp job downtown. Leave all this jujutsu stuff behind,” he said out of the blue.

You swallowed down your offence while memorising, despite yourself, every single morbid line of your colleague’s face. Envisioning how yours would look soon enough in this same occupation.

“You think I’m not cut out for this job…” you said to Gojo with only a trace of appropriate indignation. You didn’t have it in you in this moment to be snarky.

The air was heavy with the stench of decomposing flesh, as his blue gaze sliced you obliquely from aside. After a long pause, with you not returning his blue intensity, Gojo threw his head back and spoke to the ceiling with a wistful smile.

“It’s me who’s not cut out for…this.”

The raw emotion in his last word made you finally look at him, at his tall stature, at his oddly shrivelled shoulders. But he turned away from you soon, his towering back propped up and facing you, denying you the answer as to what exactly he meant by ‘this’.

“You're all so weak. Just….don’t die on me, ok?” he said and walked off.

[ryuichirou]

Replies!

Good morning or evening! Here are some more replies.

A couple of them are related to our comic from yesterday, but there’s also a bunch of random ones. At this point this is our regular menu hehe.

Anonymous asked:

your latest art has me giggling because Sebek seeing Malmal and Lilia go at it is World Shattering And Unforgettable!!! He will Never be able to look at them the same way again!!! Meanwhile Silver would accidentally see Lilia railing the prince and go "oh. hm. well, anyway." LOL <- actually got me thinking about it more seriously, and now I'm imagining Malleus doing it in front of Silver on purpose, getting weirdly jealous and possessive of Lilia spending so much special time with his new human son... And it backfiring because Silver would just take it as some sort of unique learning experience hgcffghjgfd

+

Anonymous asked:

Oh no the baby’s traumatized now or he might be turned on who knows

Thank you, guys! :D Yes, this is definitely a life-changing experience for Sebek. Or is it? I honestly like the idea of Sebek just erasing this image from his memory, not necessarily because he saw two people having sex, but because his young impressionable mind couldn’t compute the fact that one could do such things with his beloved Malleus, and Malleus would seemingly enjoy it. So Sebek’s desires awakened and then were immediately put to sleep by his own consciousness lol

But maybe he did remember… maybe he really couldn’t look at Malmal and Lilia the same way after this. Maybe the image is so engraved in his mind that he won’t be able to focus on anything after this lol

Oh SILVER THOUGH!!!... Yeah, he wouldn’t think much of it. Whatever Silver sees, he just considers it the norm, as long as it’s Lilia who does it. He definitely wouldn’t get affected in a way that our jelly king Malleus intended, but yeah, see it as a learning experience instead. Which is sooo much worse… Malmal is definitely petty enough to try and passive-aggressively attack a poor child, though <3 He’ll like him soon, though

Anonymous asked:

May we please have some Sebek x Malleus thoughts? I absolutely adore them together!

We do have a couple of hc posts with them!

They are really good together. One of our most favourite ships 😔

This would be fair to say about every Diasomnia ship, but their ehh situation is quite unique, and that makes it interesting. Not only because Sebek is Malleus’ guard; he worships Malleus, he uses Malleus and whether Malleus likes something or not as a radar for his own reactions. But it’s not like this is the way Malleus wishes to be treated: he gets annoyed with Sebek sometimes (and sometimes he gets amused and enables him to continue, but, again, this is just amusement he gets from this silly young man). But Sebek is so completely delusional that he’ll put all his passion and energy into something if he believes that it would make Malleus happy. Even if it annoys Malleus so much that he runs away lol This is both fucked up and hilarious.

Anonymous asked:

Hey, i was wondering which pronouns do you and katsu have? I didn't see anything mentioning it on your card.

Of course, you guys don't have to answer if that's sensitive or if you don't want to publicly share it. I apologise if my question made you uncomfortable. you can delete it if you want.

No worries, Anon! It’s nothing sensitive at all. Thank you for being so considerate! :)

Neither of us really cares about which pronoun people use for us, so feel free to use whatever you want.

Anonymous asked:

any dark/whump/dead dove tropes your into? …anything you’d want certain characters to go through?

If it’s okay with you and if you’re really interested, you can DM me about it instead, Anon, I’ll name everything I can remember.

People really like to take things out of context and make a shitshow out of it sometimes, even if it’s just someone mentioning that they enjoy a trope and not even a visual depiction of it, so I’d rather not entertain them.

Anonymous asked:

Well hard to think of any hcs regarding Crowley given he is too mysterious. Although there is a certain theory about him but I wouldn't say much given it is a Chapter 7 spoiler and you might get it once you learn in the latest last two parts of Chapter 7. Once you know about it, you might think of Crowley's hc sexuality.

Yeah, I feel like I know what you’re talking about (still haven’t read Ch7 and don’t know for sure though), and I don’t know, we’ll see! To be completely honest, a big part of me really wants him to just stay mysterious lol

Anonymous asked:

So if/when you do the overblot ship with anyone, who will be next?

Like I said, we’re not planning anything for now. So we haven’t thought about who we would draw next. It depends on my inspiration and energy; once again, overblot boys are difficult to draw and take a lot of time.

Realistically, it may be AzuIde. But one can’t predict anything when it comes to stuff like this. Definitely not KaliJami, since that’s where you’re getting, they’d probably be the last on the list.

[ed-recovery-affirmations]

Ive been going through a minor depressive episode and I fully lost my appetite and any interest in eating, as a result I’ve not been eating enough for several weeks if not longer, but getting worse the past few weeks. As a result I’ve lost a bit of weight. I know I need to eat so I’m making myself eat every day and I’m trying to get out of it, but it’s hard because now that I’ve lost a little weight I like my body so much more and it’s hard to shake the thought that if I keep going I don’t have to gain weight. I know not to follow these thoughts because even eating barely enough takes a toll on your body (I’ve been there) but it’s hard. I don’t know I feel like I’ve been liking my body so much more and I’m gonna have to gain weight and hate it again. I guess I’m just wondering if there’s anything I can tell myself to feel better other than just “you have to eat”

Hmm. I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling with depression and have lost pleasure in food. That's a really tough thing to work through.

I wonder if you could try to take the focus off your body for a bit? Maybe try thinking of it more in terms of mental health. So instead of thinking "I need to gain weight" or even trying to stop yourself from thinking "I kinda want to lose more weight" just think about what your body and mind need to feel better.

So like...maybe try to find pleasure in food and eating. I know that's really hard right now, but something you could try could be doing things each day to live purposefully while you eat. Take a nice walk and get yourself an ice cream, and be out in the community just noticing things and trying to enjoy the taste of your ice cream and the feeling of just moving your body and having a lil walk. Or sitting out in the sun eating a nice cold bowl of fruit. Prepping yourself some easy comfort food can help, something that doesn't take high effort to make and is enjoyable to consume. These can be things like a PBJ sandwich, mac and cheese, a bowl of pasta, microwave soup. Depression can make it hard to really get yourself together and prepare a high-quality meal, so it's okay to rely on the easy stuff if it helps you get a little food in. When you do this and eat it, don't think "I'm doing this to gain weight." Eat what you're able while thinking "I'm doing this to nourish my body. My body deserves care even when I don't feel so good."

If there are times when you are so absofuckinglutely depressed that you cannot manage to organize and throw together a PBJ, it's okay to just eat whatever snack food you can manage that's immediately available. This is not ideal but it is better for your body than starving. If you must do this, tell yourself "I'm doing this to support my body. My body deserves better than starving. I deserve better than to deal with the long-term health problems of starvation." It's all in how you talk to yourself, even in the worst moments. If you are prone to this level of depression, it's okay to keep these snack foods available just to support your ability to get something into your body, anything at all. It's okay to accommodate yourself while you're struggling. You're allowed to love yourself that much even at your worst.

When you have a little bit of energy, meal-prepping in bulk might be able to help you, but if you're not at the stage where you can put that level of effort into your food right now, that's okay - it's just a suggestion. Do what you can.

But really it's about taking the moment to try and enjoy things even when your depression is trying really hard to take that enjoyment from you. So sitting down with some food and a comfort show and taking some time to really enjoy it, taking a walk and getting yourself a treat while you're out, going with somebody to a preferred restaurant and trying to enjoy what's on the menu - these are all things that depression will try to take away from you because it's hard to enjoy them the way you would when you're not depressed. It's important to try to fight to keep those moments of small personal joy in your life if you can.

In addition to that, try doing this in areas that are not related to eating, too! Take 5-10 minutes to try and engage in a non-scrolling hobby, even if that 5-10 minutes is all you can manage. Take a few minutes to message with a friend or family member. Do a mental health practice such as meditation or journaling. While doing these things, tell yourself that you're doing them to nourish your body and soul because you deserve to be well.

Depression wants you to get worse. Depression wants you to be listless and disconnected from your hobbies. Depression wants you to be immobilized. Depression wants you to feel ambivalent about or even negatively about your body, and about your mind and soul. Depression wants you to be so frustrated with the lack of pleasure in your hobbies that you just stop trying to engage them altogether. Depression wants you to feel too tired to have a proper conversation with the people you care about, so you become isolated. Depression wants you to engage in self-harmful behaviors and feel worse about yourself. These are all things that will make depression stronger, so where you are able to fight them, it's important to try. So try and think, "how can I engage myself to feel better and feel like I'm worth fighting for?"

Best of luck, anon.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

Yes the Twelve/Clara stuff I specifically heard is that there's the travelling together/personal enmeshment/the presence of a third love interest representing the mortal world she tries to balance with the new world type of thing, but there's not (yet) the burn-down-the-world investment you have with that pairing, which as I can glean from your posts is very necessary to understanding Twelve/Clara hahaha.

But yeah, I, too, have been trying to resist it, Because I Don't Trust Like That Anymore, and I'm still preoccupied with another pairing eating up all of my fandom energy, but I would never turn my nose up hearing more from people with good taste. I also played New Vegas when I was a teenager, which is considered the best of the Fallout games, and I think it's probably more hopeful than the others? It's also going to be most relevant for the next season, so there's that. You probably know that it needs fan-made patches to run properly without crashes (actually one of the developers released his own patches for it as mods, but they're obsolete now).

It's really funny to see all the fantasy romance enjoyers now being lured into the post-post-apocalyptic setting, lol. When there's a will (a Beauty and the Beast ship) there's a way.

I was initially very hesitant about the show because of the established media property mill, and having watched Westworld, the bad man/nice lady ship was straight-up dark, and after the second season descended into total nonsense. My hope is that the different writer for Fallout doesn't let Jonathan Nolan ever do that again. But it's pretty faithful to the games and one of the original creators, Tim Cain, gave it a pretty glowing review, and that's actually nice to hear. I watch his videos on the YouTubes (they're no frills and actually pretty good) and it's so funny that he doesn't like romance in RPG's because he feels like they're never done very well. Now we put romance in your television show, how do you like that

I'm personally extremely ambivalent about the likelihood of the Fallout pairing evolving beyond flirtation with evil, but who knows? I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you get around to it!

I thought it might be something like that. Yeah, I wouldn't say they were really comparable because the dynamic is very different, but there is the immortal/mortal aspect and him as the knowledgable and hyper-competent native of the larger world versus her more sheltered and ordinary experience. There's the inherent B&tB conflict over power dynamics and emotional vulnerability. But yes lol, part of the essence of Twelve and Clara is us-against-the-universe, being all things to one another, deeply entwined in each other down to the foundations of their identities. Unconditional and unhinged devotion. Which isn't where Ghoulcy is (yet? :D? one can dream).

Oh yeah, just to get further than the menu and actually start a game for Fallout 3 I had to install a mod lmao. My brother was also telling me stop playing that, play New Vegas, it's the best one. But I didn't have NV sitting free in my gog.com library. I got a PS3 version from ebay coming. Hilariously, it's easiest to play the original game, the oldest one. I had zero problems with that on a modern PC.

I know, man. So many times I've sworn off getting invested in anything with such high likelihood of going south or otherwise being disappointing, but the temptation is real. I mean if the second season drops and it goes in a direction I don't like, I would just not watch it, but if they set up something super interesting and squander the potential that's always so frustrating. At least there will be a lot of fic before anyone can rain on the parade.

People are calling attention to the parallels between the characters, but I think we can take for granted they will have a significant relationship going forward, the question is more if it having a redemptive, healing, and/or romantic component is something the writers have considered. If it doesn't hit the first two, I wouldn't want to continue with the show, because that's what's appealing to me about it. If there's a flat token romance with another character for Lucy while her most important and transformative relationship is with Cooper, whom her influence helps reclaim his humanity/decency/hope, that'll annoy me as a missed opportunity but won't make me as sad as if he just stays the same or dies getting revenge or something.

I, too, would have dismissed it as unlikely to be canon (even in a foyay way that doesn't go anywhere) except for how much the creators have emphasised that they wanted him to be attractive and how he's framed very romantically, even heroically by the cinematography (I've seen gifs). That isn't, like, hugely compelling evidence the ship will happen, but it does make it seem like a possibility. It makes me (perhaps foolishly) hope his arc is going in an optimistic direction. If he's literally still wearing a white hat, it's just dirty? I'd honestly put a lot of stock in that.

And maybe I'm basic, but I want my ships to be canon. They don't have to be, I have some that aren't even close, but I do prefer it lol. I like the relationship to be a formative part of the character arcs. If it seems like a good/interesting/satisfying place for the narrative to go, I want it to go there.

[what-yadoking-likes]

Henlo how are you?

Are there any games besides Payday that you're really into? I've been pretty hyper fixated on Terraria recently. Idk I just really want an excuse to talk about Terraria with someone but like no one here plays it as far as I know and I have this pent up excited Terraria energy I just wanna unleash on someone but I don't want to confuse or burden anyone so I'm just in the corner alone with my Terraria hyper fixation. Sorry if that's too much I just wanted to ask you something but couldn't think of anything cool.

Actually I did have a good question (maybe idk). Are you proud of how you're doing with The Cell? Like are you satisfied with the direction it's going and how the plot is unfolding or do you just feel like it's not right or it could be better? Also completely unrelated but Jacket just coming in and cock blocking Wolf and Hoxton is fucking hilarious

Uh idk how to end this so I'm just gonna put an emoji here 🫠

Hi-iiiiiii

I have personally never played Terraria. My partner has played in the past & occasionally goes back to it, gets obsessed for a few days & then the cycle repeats itself all over again.

Games other than Payday I am obsessed with HMMM. Well... I often find myself going back to Left 4 Dead 2 (which isn't surprising considering it was inspo for Payday : The Heist). There's something weirdly comforting about it?

Recently I've been playing Pokemon Scarlet alongside my partner who plays Violet. We did our best to ignore news of new 'mons & spoilers & so far I have enjoyed the game! Pokemon came out when we were in primary school, so it's nostalgic for us to play, but we've also been playing the games together since we got together some 13 years ago, so it's kinda like a couples activity we do now, I guess.

I have a lot of time & love for Final Fantasy, too. FFIX & FFX are amongst some of my favourite games of all-time, but because of their nature (huge-ass games with sidequests that send the in-game clock into the hundreds of hours), they're not something I dip into all the time - but I do re-play them often, & even have tattoos referencing both games.

NOW ONTO THE CELL OH HO HO.

This is how I had imagined the Cell going all along, pretty much. I didn't always know how they would get to the exact position Wolf and Hoxton are in right now, but I knew that I wanted it to be an examination of Hoxton post-breakout, because when I first started playing Payday 2 (immediately after blasting through Payday: the Heist & loving it), I was disappointed that the development/story seemed to be told more through blocks of text accessible in menus & live-action films rather than in the game itself. Don't get me wrong, I love the live-action stuff and the opportunity to have written information on hand, but I felt a bit... disappointed... with how the breakout was this huge cinematic thing, and then the revenge happened, and then... Hoxton is back to his old self again? I didn't buy it. There would be more to it than that. Speaking as someone with anxiety, depression & PTSD... there's always more to it than that.

My original intention was to have the main focus be on Hoxton and his PTSD/anxiety/trauma from being left behind and replaced. As I started writing I quickly realised I was actually more comfortable writing from Wolf's POV. This inevitably meant I ended up focusing on his traumas too, but I'm not displeased with how it turned out that way.

I guess... when I first started writing it, I didn't think I would still be writing it so many months later. I knew it would be multi-chapter but I had no idea it would become as big as it has in terms of the word count.

Originally I wanted a way to take one of my favourite fanfic guilty pleasures tropes - 'but there was only one bed!' - and find a way to make it believable. We all love a good power-cut/thunderstorm situation - I've written them myself - but I wanted to challenge myself to write it in a more... plausible way?

I guesssss I also didn't intend on having Dallas be a prick... but he turned out that way.

If the focus is more on the 'am I proud' of the Cell, well... I have lost confidence in myself a bit recently. In the beginning I got a lot of comments which were really lovely & went into detail about what people liked or found funny, & now there are less of those & part of me wonders whether the readers are happy with the direction its going. That's... been a tough thought to deal with ngl, because I did really think I was telling a good story and telling it well, & now there's a lot more uncertainty & insecurity about it for me. But I need to hold steady and get the whole thing done so I can move on to something else because... it's been a long time.

Also lol Jacket. I originally wanted him to catch them in the previous chapter (before the rimjob scene), but figured it would be a bit awkward to have them get caught, then immediately getting back into it like 'OH WELL LOL', so I switched the order a bit instead.

[noro-noro-noro]

general bullet point of my dreams

- started in a hotel at some kind of resort? maybe with my family. as with all hotel-like dreams the walls eventually give way & the rooms get cramped & overcrowded. this suite of rooms was through an openn floor plan carpeted public bathroom (why) . a girl i met in a work meeting last month that didn't seem to like me too much was also there with her friends. - the hotel area was in like a maze-like mall where every angle looked the same despite it being like 3 stories tall. Everything was white/blue tile & lit fluorescently. There were no windows. The hotel also had no windows btw - i had some kind of power briefly? there was this snake woman monster thing that appeared & i asked this ? "what would you rank this? a B?" since i wasn't tooo sure if i'd be able to take it out without collateral violence. but there was some superhero in the crowd who didn't want innocent bystanders sto get involved...i guess..? well, whatever. i left. - i went away from the fluorescent zone & into a publix? a more local-feeling store. it had windows. the shelves were close together & i couldn't find ANYTHING. they had nothing useful and 40 rows of granola & some various stuffed animal plushies that were kind of cute that kids had thrown all over the floor. the sales associate asked me "find everything you're looking for?" no. you don't even have computer mousepad. you don't even have energy drink. and people are following me. it was really crowded there. i left. - & ended up in a large circus area at night. my sister was there, & so were that girls friends who were actively bbeing jackasses. they kept daring me to do some bungee jump swing thing? idk you had to go on a swing & jump off onto a cushion which sounds easy except the eswing was 2 stories tall & i didn't trust them. i realized "this is really stressing me out why do i have to be having this dream?" & woke up & went back to sleep. - & ended up in a huge grocery store/mini shopping area again. this one had a vibe closer to a night market but not quite. i was late to the student trip & everybody was allowed to order food & make purchases in the area through these tablets. mine wasn't working properly. i was really hungry & wanted to get some pastries but only pastry store near me was $7 for a small brownie, so i asked my friends if there was another pastry place & there was one on the ohter side of the area!

i went over there. it was a bakery run by a lady who was on the younger side of middle aged, but all her hair went gray already. mmy tablet still wasn't working properly & i couldn't open up the menu, but she was at least patient enough about wanting my money. i asked her the prices of her pastries. she said check the tablet. i saaid i can't check the tablet. whatever.

my friend's cat was chilling in the window since the bakery wsa on the corner of the ?shopping structure. this is the first window i'd seen in a while. me & this other girl were petting him & squishing his face. he didn't like hsi face being squished so he grew human sized human hands & started pinching us until we stopped.

some time passed & it was now nighttime. i still couldn't get the tablet to work but i was determined not to leave until i'd eaten a fucking pastry. the lady had started putting some of her stock away but she left some out for me. i was getting really frustrated.

something happened - i don't remember & i left the store. the other stores had all turned into a series of interconnected dark & damp caves full of weird blind white tube-like enemies. they were very ridged. in the cave there was a lot of weird & damp milky cocoons next to the water. it was claustrophobic & unsafe, so i left. the lady said she was worried about me going in there & asked me if i'd got the tablet working yet. i said no.

[alolanroy]

Watch Thread 2024 Pt 1

VOTOMS: Brilliantly Shining Heresy: The animation is great and Chirico does his thing. The ideas introduced could've been developed more, but the vibes were there and what more do you want from votoms. My biggest gripe would be that the romantic angle doesn't work and damages Fyana in a way that gives it a hard fail for the Bechdel Test. 6/10

Votoms: Alone Again: By the end they had me, but man, the actual ending is so abrupt that it just killed the momentum for me. 5/10

Votoms: Phantom Arc: I was almost on board for the concept of 'the side characters do a tour of all the locations from the series' as a bit, but once I realized they were just repeating the actual beats of the show I checked out. This only scrapes by using the charm of the cast, but I was rolling my eyes and groaning 3/10

Portal Revolution: Slick UI, well designed puzzles and writing and voice acting that didn't make me want to die. Dare I say? A bit funny? I love using the portal gun to traverse the varied terrain like in this mod and I have to give them a lot of credit for keeping the gameplay veriety up. It even left me impressed by the final boss and the laser cube mechanic I'd love to see more of. 7.5/10

Ninja Terminator: My first true IFD ninja movie, Ninja Terminator made me understand what people meant when they said these were just random southeast Asian films with white guys with mustaches and ninja outfits stapled on. It sure is one of those. But it also has a lot of wild quirks that make it funny as hell in a group watch: Garfield phone, Omega Supreme shows up in bootleg form multiple times, stolen music from L-Gaim and crabs. The source movie looks fantastic though, in a rediculous sense, like the weird villain, cool clothes, and muff diving. However, the fight scenes were surprisingly fun. -8/10

Slipstream: Don't let the first five minutes fool you with the cool and fairly realized post-apocalyptic setting and badass Mark Hamill anti-hero, this movie is boring as hell. 3/10

Super Ninja: This is going to be the lower end of my spectrum for IFD ninja movies. It feels a lot more like 3 movies stitched together, one of them is a mildly cool Rambo knock-off. Otherwise, hard to follow and it never gave me a reason to.-2/10

Yu Yu Hakusho (Netflix): This had me until it really didn't. Right around the halfway point it remembers that it was a modern Japanese anime adaptation and tried to cram the the Dark Tournament arc in. You can tell they had no faith in the project so they just crammed in all the things people liked. I mean, in Kurama's second fight he busts out Yoko Kurama form. I hope this never gets a second season. 5/10

Doctor Who 2023 Specials: GOOD WRITING IS BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!

A good refresher. More 'Kiddie' than the rest, but a palette cleanser was needed. Points for trying to make a pronoun joke that is actually funny.

A spooky Episode? Haven't enjoyed one of these in a hot minute. good all-ages TV should be a little scary. The kids love it and the adults love intellectualizing it.

The Doctor has his own Q now, nice. Glad they kinda lampshade the character's racist past by having me be consistently racist to everyone. I wasn't fully onboard for Time Lord Mitosis, but allows Tennant to have a happy ending chilling with Donna's family while letting the new series feel more refreshed.

Gatwa's 15th Doctor has a lot of energy, and I think the series needed that enthusiasm back. Not the weird tryhard enthusiasm where the show tells you to be excited, I mean that the characters are just thrilled to be on an adventure.

Pinning a piece of celery to your jacket isn't exactly straight, but I'm glad the new series is really trying to put different types of diversity at the forefront(though I'm glad I wasn't in the UK when this aired, I imaging not everyone was chuffed). Looked fantastic by the way. 8/10

Votoms: Case; Irvine: I would have actually liked to see more like this, but without the mecha, this could have really been any universe. Good character design and the ending went suprisingly hard. 7.5/10

Votoms Finder: THATS IT! *G-Recos your votoms*

An Armored Trooper with safety features isn't a VOTOM. 5/10

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Adventure Heaven:

The fully CG environments are badly integrated as always, it looks like a DLC area in a videogame

The framing device of a long lost childhood friend screams 'BLEACH movie'

No Quarry :(

The final fight has a great monster costume and over-the-top choreography

All is forgiven 7.5/10

Turkish Star Wars: This movie is incoherent and violently funny at times. The reversed star wars footage that implies the heroes are the empire, the lore dump about Islam and the constant reuse of Indiana Jones music...I think this might be the first movie with a negative Bechdel Test score. -8/10

Andor: I'm resisting the urge to make some kind of snarky comment here, I think because I'm so used to Disney Star Wars delivering creatively bankrupt slop, but like, this was incredible. I can't speak for some of the threads that might get wrapped up in a second season, but this really nailed the banality of evil/tapestry of cause and effect thing it was going for. Is Andor my new favorite Star Wars character? The dialogue was good? like really good????? HUH???? 9/10

Vilja in Skyrim: Sorry 2016 Elder Scrolls community, but this wasn't good. It was 2016 and everyone could handle grating sound quality for a modicum of virtual affection. I however cannot, and I don't intend on fully unpacking that she if a little fantasy racist. 4/10

Half Life 2: Episode 1: VR: This may have been impressive at the time, but the first hour being mostly waiting for Alyx to stop talking to open doors is not good game design. Maybe it was just compounded by the sense of being stuck more since it was in VR, but this convinced me to not finish the episodes in VR. 4/10

The Black Hole: It's painfully dull and in a post-Star Wars world I see why people didn't like it. It has some great concept art ruined by a script that feels like it was out of the black and white era, and I mean that in a bad way. It has the aggressively white futurism and inconsequential woman who screams, but none of the charm that can make those amusing in the modern day. The only interesting thing it does is have the villain go to hell trapped in his goofy robot for some reason. 2/10

The Last Starfighter: Hey look! A hero's journey! Looks like someone actually learned the right lessons from Star Wars. I found this to be incredibly charming and a couple moments (and not just the ones you might be thinking) really stuck with me. 8.5/10

Cowboys & Aliens: Everyone lied to you. This movie whips ass. 7/10

Skyrim Saints and Seducers Extended Cut: Incredible what a little story, some great voice acting, and a small open world space can do to make a paid mod pop...if only another mod wasn't required to make it happen. This thing really puts the bandit camp as content trough to shame. Delightful. 7/10

Armor Hunter Mellowlink: I think this show has a pretty good time with it's novel premise of 'taking a gun to a giant robot fight'. I'm probably not doing enough to praise this show, the episodic structure kept if feeling fresh for most of its run. I do think a few skirts a little too close to well-worn Votoms territory (like the battling arenas) but it does enough to differentiate itself. However, I do think that Arity and Lulucy don't make a particularly compelling team and it makes the last act drag. 7/20

Skyrim Creation Club/Anniversary Edition: For completions sake I actually tried to knuckle down and clear all of these and here are my thoughts.

The Cause - Probably the closest these come to being real content. New environments, reskinned enemies and half-decent quest design do a lot to make me ignore the aura of CC content. I'll admit I was even a little excited when the second quest proc'd. 5/10

Ghosts of the Tribunal - Initially exciting, but primarily fetch-quest content ping-ponging between NPCs that can't really talk gets old. I never really felt like I was infiltrating a cult, more like doing fetch quests for a faction more than joining one. 4.5/10

Forgotten Seasons - OH BOY A HUGE DWEMER RUIN, NEVER SEEN THAT IN A MOD BEFORE. Jokes aside it actually had some interesting mechanics and themed areas. A little light on story. 4/10

Player homes - Meh, at most I used some of these as crafting tables, but I have better ones for mods and I don't really use player homes as anything other than a follower holding area. 3/10

Armor sets/weapons - The majority of the 'quest' framing devices are so paper thin, they should have just thrown the armor in a chest somewhere if most of it boils down to a quest marker from a note you need uesp to find. If they were going to put in this little effort, I would have been less insulted if they just respected my time and not tried at all. 2/10

Fishing - I hate that this is permanently part of my load order. I can't remove it. 0/10

Project AHO: A gem of a little mod. While the value proposition of another player home doesn't really do much for me, I had a blast with this self-contained adventure. If anything, I kind of wish it kept the handicap of being trapped without your items going longer because I felt myself doing the rare role-playing in this RPG. Part of me wishes the ending could have incorporated some form of reform or radical action in response to being enslaved by the Dunmer, but I suppose I could have just gone on a rampage once I got free. But instead of bemoaning what it doesn't have, I'll compliment what it does: Solid writing, fun secrets and some cool spells.7.5/10

The Queens Corgi: This is one of those kids movies you shouldn't let your kids watch. Not because of the monarchism (It makes that look lousy in its own way), I'm talking about the bizarre messaging this thing is loaded. For example, the love interest is explicitly a gold-digger stripper dog. When some 90's cartoons could get away with stuff like that, this movie has 0 charm to back it up. -6/10

Demolition Man: The movie is fun enough and the action is a great watch. However I can't untangle this movie from what it has become in the modern day. Knowing that this is genuinely what a lot of people my dad's age think the real world is like now makes me bummed. whatever commentary is completely droll to me. Even on the positive side, this movie can't really escape the modern lens. At least we got baffled by the international version that has Pizza Hut instead of Taco Bell. 6.5/10

LIFEFORCE: I'd love to see this re-edited to let the mystery breathe. Frontloading the space stuff (obviously meant to be in the middle) and seeing 'based on the book SPACE VAMPIRES' really flattened the suspense in a way I found funny. otherwise, this movie had a lot of great VFX and an unexpected zombie apocalypse in its final act. I like it when a movie escalates and surprises me. Neat. 7.5/10

Mission Impossible I: Getting around to watching the first three of these has put a lot into perspective. This one really is the template for that the series settle into with 4 and onwards. Good action and stunts with fun concepts. I good first draft. 7/10

Mission Impossible II: I'll be honest I didn't really like this one. The Y2K time capsule didn't mesh particularly well with the mismatched John Woo-isms. It would have been more fun if it committed harder to either, but it just didn't work for me. Perhaps to undue focus on a romantic plot that we all know will never be referenced again kind of ruined it. 4/10

Mission Impossible III: Are you telling me that Abrams directed this? I COULDN'T TELL. I'm glad the series took wild swings to find an identity though. 5/10

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Sauceless. Every element that makes Indy work is not present here. Action? Meh. Music? Nonexistent after the first 20 minutes. Harrison Ford? Rendered in CG with no light behind his eyes. Humor? I don't think I smiled. Punching Nazis? Somehow they managed to make that not satisfying. Maybe it is the forced late-60s lighting, direction, or modern Disney visuals, but it lacks that tangibility that made the originals so gripping. But once again I am left wondering why Disey's only idea for 'Legacy' intellectual properties is to make Harrison Ford's character old, divorced, and pathetic. I can see how you'd try that angle once, but it seems like such a maladaptive strategy for a company that wants to sell t-shirts and toys to adults. Reminding my dad that things only go downhill is a bad way to sell Blu-rays. 2/10

[veilxstars]

Arjun noticed Ori's hesitation and the way he pushed the menu away, his concern growing. The soft furrow of Ori’s brow didn't escape him, and it made something tight form in his chest. Granted - it was early in the morning. This was not the best time for breakfast and not everyone ate like a horse like Arjun did.

“You’re worried about it, aren’t you?” he asked quietly, watching Ori. “I know you have your reasons but you push yourself so hard." Arjun’s gaze softened, but he tilted his head, a hint of a teasing smile tugging at his lips as he raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you’ll help me work off all this breakfast? I can't run. Hell - putting on pants is an effort most mornings - but if you have any suggestions - I can do chair dancing, as long as I don't move from the chair. A little extra exercise never hurt anyone, right?” He tried to keep his tone light, but there was a clear undertone of concern in his words, the offer an attempt to ease Ori’s mind. Plus - a little exercise could hurt Arjun ... a lot.

But he made them offer and then quieted, so he could listen as Ori spoke, taking in the sincerity of his words. When Ori reached out to touch his hand, Arjun couldn’t help but feel a warmth in his chest, something that had become foreign to him in recent years. It was a gesture he rarely received from anyone, and in a way, it felt both comforting and disarming.

He gave a small, knowing smile at Ori’s apology, grateful for the empathy, but he didn’t let the moment linger long. He had learned not to dwell on things that were out of his control, even if part of him had never truly found peace with it. “I suppose some people just... don’t see things the way others do. I don’t think it was out of cruelty, at least not in the way most people would think of it,” he said softly, his voice low but steady. “My mother… She was always different. But she loved me. I never doubted that.”

Arjun paused, his gaze shifting to the steam rising from his own mug. “She never married. Never even really dated. But she was a remarkable woman, respected by her peers. Her house was a revolving door of people—those who could challenge her mind, who could argue for hours, and those she admired. I was always part of that, always encouraged to think, to be curious. From a young age, I learned that questioning was a gift, not a burden. I didn’t have the family many people think of, but I had love and support, in my own way.”

His smile faded slightly, but it didn’t vanish entirely. “I wasn’t alone, in the ways that matter,” he added, his words soft but sure. “I wasn’t alone.”

At Ori’s mention of the possibility of there not being a maker, Arjun looked up, his brow furrowing slightly. “Maybe. Or maybe the truth’s just something we’ll never know for sure, no matter how many scenarios we think through.” He didn’t particularly believe in fate, but he had learned to leave some things unanswered.

His gaze drifted to the window, as if searching for an answer in the outside world. “But I do believe in something... else. Not a maker in the way some might think of it, but something grander, something far older than we could ever truly understand. There’s a beauty to the way the universe works, how everything is so intricately woven together. Even in the darkest moments, there’s still that pull of the stars, the earth, the endless sky. Maybe that’s as close to a maker as we’ll get.”

He glanced back at Ori, his eyes soft, yet firm in their conviction. “And the soul... I believe in that. I don’t know where it comes from, or where it goes, but I know it’s real. It’s in the way we connect with each other, how we’re drawn to things bigger than ourselves. You can feel it, can’t you? That energy, that spark inside, even in the quietest of moments. It's a part of us, something that doesn't fade, no matter what happens."

Arjun leaned forward, this time - he reached out for Ori and took his hand. “Some things are meant to be felt, not explained. And maybe that’s enough. Like this - why do we take comfort and enjoyment out of eating shitty pancakes at this hour? Why are you and I friends? It doesn't need to be explained or put into words -- because it just is."

“As for your childhood... it sounds like you had a good foundation," Arjun continued, though his tone was neutral, thoughtful. "You were raised in a place that valued hard work and community. That’s more than a lot of people can say, even if it was all about balance, even if your passion took you away from it sometimes. You didn’t lose that foundation, did you?” He took another small sip from his cup, waiting for Ori’s response, considering how different their worlds had been yet how similar their drives had been to carve out their own paths.

Ori smiled, but shook his head. "The more I eat, the harder I have to work later today. And I'll already be tired, so that seems like torture," he explained, pushing his plasticky menu away from himself on the table. He went through phases like that, where he worried about what he was eating. He tried not to make it too obvious, he knew it was silly, but it was just one more thing keeping him from being the best he could be.

Listening to Arjun's story made Ori's smile disappear pretty quickly. In fact, he looked sad, his features drooping as he let the other finish. "I'm so sorry," he said finally, reaching forward to gently touch Arjun's hand. "That's terrible. I can't imagine treating someone I loved like that. If any of my sisters wanted to have a baby in any sort of way, I'd be so excited for them. And I'd expect all of them to be happy for me, too," he said, eyes watering as he spoke. But quickly he blinked the tears away, sighing and pulling his hand away from Arjun's. Sometimes he got too affectionate with people, he never meant any harm though.

"Maybe there isn't a maker," Ori suggested, though it came merely from a thought he'd always wondered about. He didn't pretend to know about what came after anyone's time on Earth, but he'd tried to imagine pretty much every scenario he could.

Sipping at his coffee, he picked up a fork and started to cut up his omelette with it. As he did, he shrugged, looking up at Arjun again. "It was peaceful, I think. I was born on a commune. Everything we had was worked for. My family grew food, helped with all of the chores with everyone else, and I started doing what I could as soon as I was old enough to walk. I'm not the oldest, I have an older sister, and then I have two more sisters after me. Ocean's the youngest." He hesitated a moment, thinking about his childhood, and then he smiled again. "I didn't leave the commune for anything other than dance. Classes, and recitals, and then competitions and stuff. I actually started feeling guilty when I was going to the studio every day, but my mom never let me stay guilty for long. She was always really proud of me, and she made me feel like it was okay that I had a passion outside of our little community."