#really thought a lot about this and it still baffles me to see such blatant hypocrisy

[emptyportrait]

the hypocrisy of asoiaf/hotd fandom

it's actually quite funny to see how the self proclaimed "targaryenphobics" here loves aegon ii and aemond so much despite of how these two quite literally embodies every single problematic traits y'all claim to hate every other targaryen for.

they're are greedy feudal royals who started the deadliest war of westeros history because they couldn’t stomach watching a woman accending on iron throne on her own rights, commited a coup to put a serial sexual assaulter on the highest position in the realm while killing multiple lords for simply being loyal to their oaths along with numerous innocent smallfolk, violently misogynist who cannot speak of rhaenyra without calling her a whore, war criminals who murdered hundred of thousands innocents without any consequence, brutally murdered their own kin and the rightful queen in front of her son and instead of getting bashed i see people glorifying them for doing such atrocities. they are truly the inherent evil everyone accuse every other targaryens of being and are the worst targaryens of history and yet somehow they don’t get the same backlash as others.

i'd also like to point out how so many of people like to pretend as they're not targaryen or they're better than all other targaryens combined but in the next breathe the same people brag about how special the green's bond with their dragons are, how no other targaryens come close to it, nevermind that sunfyre's ashes wasn’t even cold when aegon ii disregarded him completely, demanding he must have another dragon, I'd expect different reaction from a person who as team green supporters like to say had the strongest dragon-rider bond in history. i saw some saying not even daenerys stormborn the goddamn mother of dragons can match it.

not gonna lie i'm quite surprised to see other targaryens, especially the women character such as daenerys, rhaenyra, visenya constantly being labeled as satan incarnated over the silliest reasons but never these two despicable man, they don’t even get half the hate as these ladies gets and i wonder why...

[artiststarme]

What If Steve Were To Leave Hawkins? Part 15

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

So I was going to have this be the last part but I some new ideas came to mind. Probably a few more parts after this one! As always, I hope you enjoy this part and let me know what you guys think!

~*~*~*~

Eddie kept fidgeting as they made their way down the highway towards Hawkins. He drummed his fingers against his legs, flicked through metal tracks on the cassette, and cracked every joint in his body at least thrice. They’d only been driving for an hour. 

When he switched the Dio cassette for one of Metallica’s, Steve knew he had to intervene in order to preserve what was left of his sanity. “Okay, what’s going on? You keep cracking things even though you know I hate it and we didn’t even get to listen to all of Sacred Heart.  Why are you so nervous?”

Eddie sighed and pulled at his hair before dropping his hands back onto his lap, “I’m nervous to see the kids. The little shits were brutal the last time I saw them in my trailer. They thought I was gatekeeping you from them and they really tore into me. Caused me to have a panic attack bad enough that Wayne kicked ‘em out. I just… what if they yell at me? I don’t think I could take being called a coward again.”

Steve felt a flush of anger at his words. He knew the power that a word could hold. One whisper of ‘bullshit’ and he was thrown into a flashback of Nancy brutally dumping him at the Halloween Party and blaming him for getting her best friend killed. He got it and he loathed that Eddie had such strong connections to being called a ‘coward’. 

“Hey, if any of those brats try to yell at you, I’ll take them out. I’ll ground them or some shit, I promise. I hope they’ll be too happy to see us to focus on yelling at us for leaving. But no one will ever call you a coward again, not where I can hear them. That I can promise,” Steve murmured, eyes flitting between the road and Eddie. He took his right hand off the wheel and laid it palm-up on the center console, an invitation for Eddie to grab hold and seek comfort. 

He did so, taking the proffered hand and laying a gentle kiss on the knuckles, making sure not to distract Steve too much from driving. “Thanks, Stevie. Are you nervous? You’ve been gone a lot longer than I have.”

Steve thought for a moment. He was a bit nervous, being in Hawkins always made him a little uneasy even when he still lived there. He wasn’t too nervous to see the kids though. A part of him still doubted that they really cared about him leaving despite the vocal protests launched by both Eddie and Dustin. “A little bit but not really. I haven’t seen any of the kids in months and I’ve only spoken to Dustin a few times since I left. But I’m not really scared to see them, you know? I’ve got you and Robin and I don’t think me leaving really affected anyone besides you guys and Dustin.”

Eddie shook his head in Steve’s peripheral vision, “Steve, it baffles me that you don’t see how much we love you. You would be shocked at how many people actually care about you.”

Steve just blushed and tried to escape the emotional part of the conversation, “hehe, okay. Ooo, I love this song. The metal guys, right?”

Eddie let him escape this time but he would spend the rest of his life convincing Steve that people loved him if he had to. For now, he would enjoy the grimace on Steve’s face as he pretended to enjoy Metallica, his least favorite metal band, blasting through the speakers to keep up his blatant lie. 

~*~*~*~

When they arrived in Hawkins, they headed directly for the trailer. Eddie had to pack all of his miscellaneous belongings such as DnD figurines, notebooks with song lyrics, cassette tapes, and his extensive collection of gaudy rings. He gave Steve the keys to his van and ordered him to pick up Robin while he went through the arduous task of deciding what could stay and what had to go back to Chicago with him. 

With a kiss to his temple and a hair ruffle to boot, Steve was on his way to Robin’s. The situation at her house had become even more hostile between her and her parents. With the news reporting on the HIV/AIDS crisis and the anti-gay protests, her parents had become particularly vocal about their distaste for homosexuals. They had even turned their suspicious gazes on her and had started questioning her disinterest in dating local boys or wearing makeup. Yesterday, Robin had called Steve to report that her dad had told her ‘If she didn't start dating boys at her age, people were going to think that she’s a dyke. She didn’t want that, did she?’ And so, Steve had called off of work and dragged Eddie to Hawkins to get her out of that environment. 

Both of her parents were at work which made the last minute packing and moving things into Eddie’s van easy. Steve could tell that Robin was sad at leaving her childhood home and cutting off contact with her parents with little more than a short note but, she had no reason to stay with people that would never be able to accept such a prominent part of her. 

Little words were exchanged between the two during the entire process. When he saw a small tear drip from her eye, Steve pulled his best friend into his arms. “Hey, screw them. If they can’t accept you for liking boobies, then they can go to hell, okay?”

Robin just laughed as she wiped her eyes with a closed fist. “Oh my god, don’t say boobies.”

“What can’t I say? Boobies? If I want to say boobies, I’m going to say boobies. What’s so wrong with boobies?” 

Robin shoved at his shoulder and moved to the passenger seat of the van, “I love you so much, Dingus. You always know what to say to make me feel better. Now let’s get out of here.”

Steve just nodded and with one last look towards her childhood home, they set off towards the trailer park to help Eddie finish packing. 

They passed the Henderson’s house on the way and Steve decided to bite the bullet. He’d have to see the kid sometime eventually, right? No better time than the present. He pulled into the driveway and knocked on the door, hoping Dustin was home from school. He wrung his hands nervously as he waited for him to open the door. 

However, it was Claudia that opened it. “Steve? Oh dear, you look like you’ve lost weight. Are you eating properly at your new place? I have lasagne in the fridge, I’ll give you some to take home with you. It should be enough for you and for that Munson boy.”

“Oh, um thanks Mrs. Henderson. Is Dustin here? I know he wanted to meet up while I was here-”

Steve heard him thundering down the stairs before he saw him. His dweeby little brother barreled past his mother and nearly tackled Steve to the ground. “STEVE!”

Steve laughed as all of the breath was knocked out of him upon impact, “Jesus Christ, Henderson! You’re going to break something! How’re you doing? I was wondering if you’d like to come back to Eddie’s with me while he packs up his shi-stuff.”

Dustin nodded exuberantly, “Yeah, of course! Let me get my walkie and then we can go! The others are going to lose their minds!”

So, Steve waited on the porch for Dustin to collect his things. Claudia brought him a takeaway container filled to the brim with homemade lasagne and left him with a promise for him to take care of himself. And then, they were off to the trailer park once again to go assist his boyfriend in sorting out his hoarder tendencies.

Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20: Epilogue

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[thischerik]

I'm curious about how Charles Xavier would react to one of his students calling him out for his blatant disrespect of other peoples privacy.

Also if this blog is still active.

Honestly I love Charles’s telepathy almost as much as Erik, and I do think the students that decided to take on the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngesters are mostly all okay with his telepathy.

We don’t really see a lot of students lashing out or getting surprised when Charles reads their thoughts, and that makes sense to me because I think that’s just something that you would expect, because he doesn’t hide it.

That being said, there could still be students that think he’s more low-key about it, or just didn’t do anything early on to indicate Charles’s blatant use and suddenly saw it and was like “Wait wtf”—so I think Charles would react sort of the same way he did to Raven. Respect the boundaries even if it baffled him at first.

He might even throw in a “Alright, I’ll stay away unless you project, or you’re in danger.” And if it goes further that just that student, I don’t think he’d react negatively or hide it away from everyone, because I think that would be a disclaimer for his students regardless, and he might just explain that.

Again, I love when he doesn’t hide his telepathy because that’s his mutation, his schools for mutants, they all use their mutations openly and are taught to practice it and etc.

ILYSM for reviving me (I think about Cherik daily but I got busy and stopped posting a lot and now I regret it 😔)

[ghostpunkrock]

more things I’ve been thinking about, really not trying to clog up the dash

truly sorry to be making so many posts about this but if you’ve been following for a hot minute you already know how much I enjoy them so I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole mess and just how so so so sad I feel for them. Like I can’t imagine what steven must be feeling seeing all that blatant racism directed at him all over a video company that he runs with his friends and he’s put so many of his own creative passion projects on a back burner just to keep them afloat and now having to find out that so many people hate him for it and think he’s the unnecessary third wheel and have just been waiting for a chance to unleash all of that hatred at him. And I’ve also been thinking about ryan a lot like out of the 3 of them he’s the one who’s most open about his mental health struggles and literally every year during making watcher he talks about how scared he is that people won’t like the things he makes and they’ll all turn on him and how worried he is that he’ll let down his friends who he convinced to start this business with him, and then to literally see so many people suddenly say that they don’t like anything he’s ever made at all at watcher and that he should’ve just stayed at buzzfeed making powerpoints, like his worst fear is literally coming to life around him. I really just feel so heartbroken for him.

Like I think the extremity of the internet reaction is due in a large part to the overly-familiar parasocial relationship a lot of fans have cultivated with them (partly under their own encouragement, but that’s thoughts I have for maybe a different time) that turned into this feeling of deeply personal betrayal, but it’s still baffling to me bc if you really did care for them enough to feel this betrayed, how could you also not feel any sympathy towards them? Like yeah obviously casual viewers never actually gave a shit about them as people and they’re showing that, but if you really were following them closely you should know all of this. It’s one thing to disagree with them, but how could you not feel any sympathy?

A common criticism I’m seeing is “they didn’t give any thought to their audience they didn’t think about how this would affect us and they didn’t care about our support or our feelings” and I think that sentiment is a normal human reaction sure, but I also think that in a creator/consumer (more like artist/viewer) relationship that really should go both ways. I think the “bullying works” jokes in this circumstance are tasteless bc it trivializes the feelings of real human people. This wasn’t getting neilman to make the gay angel/demon kiss, people were not just insulting the core of these guys’ livelihoods but publicly and loudly defaming their characters (and also coming after their families! like holy shit!). Like sure they broke trust with their audience that they will have to work to repair, but also the amount of confidence they’ll have to rebuild before they create anything new again… idk I don’t have a concise point I’m just trying to say that as someone who really supported and admired what they were doing I can’t help but feel really really sad for them. This must be so devastating

[bobbydagen24]

Gonna be honest I feel I am much more valid for seeing Hooty x Lilith as a cannon relationship than people are for thinking Huntlow is, so can people please stop being jerky about this ship by claiming that Lilith is cannon Aroace 😓😓

This isn't a Huntlow attack its just a kinda blatant double standard I felt like pointing out as people have been pretty rude and are normally quick to try and shut down people who think Lilith and Hooty are a couple

all because of the aroace Lilith HC even tho it wasn't even implied in the show but Lilith and Hooty's close relationship was something we spent a lot of time in the show actually seeing.

the first time I watched the show I was under the impression they were canonically together by the end given everything we had seen from their relationship, I honestly can't say I thought the same about Hunter and Willow

little something I'd like to clarify but I actually didn't interact with this fandom until I'd already finished the show ( this is actually common for me where I usually only start interacting with the fandoms of shows I love after I've already finished them )

meaning I Wasn't aware of any of the fan ships like Huntlow or Gustholomule or anything like that

so what I'm saying is I was a pretty neutral viewer who very much was just paying attention to what I was given in the show itself and I came away with the impression that Lilith X Hooty was a genuine thing

while at most I thought that maybe Hunter was implied to be a little sweet on Willow judging by the blush but that's it.

look my point is some people have been kinda jerks about the Hooty and Lilith pairing and often try to put it down by claiming stuff that the larger fandom sees as canon like Lilith being aroace

and its not only jerky but its also just baffling given there's so much more valid reason to believe they are a cannon couple

than there is for what is probably the second most popular ship in this fandom so can people please just cut it out?

as its very unfair and hypocritical, like if you don't ship it that's more than fine but your not entitled to be smug and jerky to people who do

and yes saying "" but Lilith is canonically aroace "" or anything along those lines is a jerky move because your still trying to insinuate that your beliefs hold more weight than other people's due to your own interpretation of cannon even tho frankly they don't

if you believe something that one of the people outside of the show said they HC then good for you but it doesn't hold anymore weight as an opinion than someone else's does.

if anything I would argue it technically holds less the same way I'm sure most people would argue that thinking Huntlow is cannon holds more weight as an opinion

than people thinking Gustholomule is cannon due to the scenes that imply their feelings for one another

( which btw I'm a gustholomule shipper but I agree Huntlow is way more valid to think of as cannon than that ship is lol )

and I'd argue the same about Hooty and Lilith given the sheer amount of scenes we have in the actual show that could be taken as implication of a Romantic relationship.

sooo yeah I find Lilith and Hooty's relationship pretty wholesome and I see it as pretty likely romantic, people who think Lilith is aroace learn to be less rude please that's all I'm saying.

so if someone talks about this ship and you don't ship it can you please just say

"" nah I think they are just close friends "" or "" nah I don't really care for this ship ""

but please can people stop saying

"" nah its impossible because Lilith is canonically aroace "" as that's just rude for the reasons I stated above.

[starrtoon]

I did NOT know that they had that kind of person on team with the Poison episode 😬😬 yikes.

I feel like there are a LOT of things that I could go on about it over (ya know...about the blatant blasphemy everywhere in it). The sympathetic lucifer story, the twisted Eden backstory, the angel's being Like That (I mean I guess you can look at it like "Some Christians act this way towards people because they think being Christian makes them better than others" but there is a better way to address that than the way this show is)....I fear that the day will come that they use a God/Jesus character and paint Him in a poor light while uplifitng Lucifer. I'm not sure if I would be more angry about that or sad/worried on behalf of the creators of the show.

I can see what feels like wasted potential in the more original aspects of the show. I feel like it could have been so much better if she had taken the original ideas/characters and the idea of redemption/forgivness and then placed them all in a fictional separate world that didn't include, as you said, the obvious blasphemy. I enjoy the music, the animation/art style (granted the pilot's animation was preferable).

....I feel like they were just trying to make St. Peter look like a stereotypical youth pastor. And one of the songs says "It'll take time to cover my vast multitude of sins" and I can't help but be like "that isn't hOW thAt WORKs"

I appriciate your response. It's good to see a lot of my thoughts were shared. I have difficulties pulling myself out of things when I get pulled in, so I've had some time to really think about the things that COULD have been good and the things that take away from it as a whole, what I'd have done differently, etc.

I've just taken to praying for the people who have worked on it and hoping they have the decency to not put "God" or "Jesus" on screen in the next season and make them awful. (Though I guess I did KNOW that they couldn't proceed with the show without taking a lot of things out the the Bible and twisting it around).

(I won't bother ya anymore with it btw. Some of it did just genuinely baffle me & I appriciate you taking the time to respond too me <3)

I'm sooo getting tired of media making satan 'misunderstood' lol. it got old fast, and there are some people who actually try to say the show is accurate 😭 I saw someone claim that it's true that satan wanted best for humans and that was why he was kicked from heaven. they clearly never read the Bible seeing that satan wanted to dethrone God.

yeah I could see they're trying to criticize Christians who basically do whatever they want (being hateful and evil in a different way) but still think they're going to heaven. but like you said, it coulda been done better than the show did lol

ikr, it had so much potential. and I do admit a few of the songs get stuck in my head from time to time, especially when a clip of the show appears on my tiktok FYP lol.

they probably took some doctrines from catholicism for that line XD don't they believe people will still go through some trails to pay for their sins even if they're saved? uhhh purgatory? lol

no problem! and oh gosh, yeah same, I hope they never add God/Jesus in it 😬 thankfully from the intro, it made it look like multiple angelic beings were technically the 'gods' who created earth. I'm sure they'd get a 'helluva' lot of backlash if they actually put Jesus in it.

also I don't mind if you wanna share more thoughts on the show or anything else. even if I take a while to answer asks, my ask box is always open 😊👍

[kyliafanfiction]

hi! I would love to hear your thoughts on the Criminal Minds characters because honestly I don’t think any of them had well-defined personalities other than maybe Reid and Hotchner. Like Emily Prentiss is totally all over the place as a character (a nerd, a wild child, a rebel, a rule follower, I could go on re the sloppy writing and blatant contradictions!) and JJ is such a generic, flat character with no personality other than to be blandly perfect I guess? I’ve really liked how you analyze characters in the past so I would love to read your thoughts if you ever want to share them. I do like aspects of the show, just not really the characterizations :)

I don't have a lot of detailed thoughts, since I don't really analyze the show much, it's just easy background noise and easy watching, like most crime shows.

That said, I don't agree Emily or JJ were entirely flat or all over the place, or at least, not in a way that was atypical for the show as a whole.

My thoughts, off the cuff as they are, is that Garcia gets old fast, and her antics re: Nicholas Brendan's character whose name escapes me are fucked up. She fucks up his interview with the NSA, hacks his email to find out he's proposing to her, turns him down, they break up, and then tries to get back with him and has the gall to be upset he's starting to move on.

Her whole flirtatious with everyone bit is funny for about 5 minutes, and not much beyond that.

Gideon is boring and annoying, and Mandy Patinkin's logic for leaving was baffling and I don't get it at all. There was no glorification of serial killers going on. He's allowed to leave a show he's uncomfortable with, but wtf.

Rossi is fun, Hotch needs to relax and Derek Morgan is a hypocrite and a jerk half the time. He gets all pissy about Emily holding back secrets from her Interpol days as if she was allowed to just spill, but Morgan isn't exactly an open book, and he's a complete jerk to Reid when he drafts him for the FBI baseball team and in general for the fact that Reid has nerdy non-sports interests. Morgan has this weird U-curve, where he's good at first, sucks in the middle, but improves by the end.

Elle was... meh. Emily was honestly a lot of fun in a lot of ways. The Seaver I think is not as bad as the fandom seems to think, but she was working uphill against a lot at the time. Blake is interesting and I like her. The character played by Aisha Tyler (I'm only mid-Season 8 on a rewatch rn, but I did see past her) is pretty good. But in general the show suffered from having the rotation of female team members after Emily left, but that is not atypical for TV shows like that, where the actresses often get short shrift.

Straus seems to just sort of... be there, half the time.

Overall, Criminal Minds is an easy, low-energy watch crime show. I like that it both shows sympathy for a lot of the criminals, shows how many of them were failed by everyone around them in a lot of cases (though hardly all of them), how society failed these people, but they're still killers and they still need to be dealt with.

But it's not a show I get super fannish about.

But John Curtis was, is and always will be some fucking weaksauce.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Hey! I recently read your post on, ahem, 'Female Characters in BSD And Their Portrayals' (to paraphrase)

I thought it was really interesting actually!! Thank you for writing that!

Another point is how Yosano's quirk had gotten sexualized in the anime, whilst in the manga, it's much more eery? That was weird.

I had a question: How Is Dazai Sexist?

Not in a 'pRoVE iT to ME!!' manner, but a, 'i can genuinely see that and I'm curious about your perspective' manner!

I read No Longer Human about, two months ago? And Dazai Osamu, the author, had a niche perspective on women, I suppose. He humanized them, but also dismissed them, but also heavily related to them? Of course, with historical context it's probably the average view of the time.

But I'm genuinely curious!!

My “Female Characters in BSD And Their Portrayals”

Thank you for giving the post a read! I was low-key nervous when I posted it, I don't really like being the killjoy, so I found people's positive responses to it very reassuring (╥﹏╥)

About Yosano's ability being sexualized in the anime. I know right,,,, it's part of the bigger picture issue, it's nearly impossible to find anime without fanservice. The difference in female portrayal between the bsd manga and anime is actually something very interesting to ponder on, because they're actually quite different: the manga is sexist, but it never visually sexualizes its female character (the Gaiden manga being an exception). The anime is more low-key in the blatant sexism, but there's female fanservice that the manga lacks that... Idk feels almost a given at this point, like animation studios just CAN'T not do it (I don't even know what to say? Something something *through gritted tits* 57th prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe). On a different note, this ask came as some sort of epiphany for me because it made me realize that the reason there's so many people missing on the sexism in bsd which leaves me so often baffled is because people probably reason fanservice = sexism → lack of fanservice = lack of sexism, but it really doesn't have to work that way? Of course fanservice is for the vast majority sexist because more often than not it comes with the objectification of female body, but I wouldn't say there's a direct correlation between the two things: I hope I was exhaustive enough on why bsd is sexist although it never sexualizes its female characters, and I think same can be said for the other way round? Kill la Kill is my favorite anime of them all and the most female empowering anime (and overall media??? Idk I love klk with everything I've got) I've ever seen, but it'd definitely be a wide stretch to say it lacks fanservice.

On why I said Dazai is sexist: for one, I trust Chuuya's word

This is a joke, but funny enough, that's exactly the panel I was thinking about when writing the post– I was negatively surprised by how a main character could reportedly be called womanizer, and that is just kind of there, like being sexist was just another weird little characteristic of bandage man, nothing strange there. You see the problem here?

I remember when I watched the bsd anime for the first time, I used to think Dazai was sexist a lot– but in retrospect, I don't have that much a strong opinion on the matter anymore. When I watched it, it would bother me how Dazai would objectify women a lot, using them as mindless pawns even more of how he already does with every character he encounters; it would bother me how he's so fixated on committing a double suicide with a beautiful woman, like... You do realize that is wishing for another person, and that person needing to be a woman specifically, to die, right? Not to mention the “beautiful” part only adds to the objectification if you ask me. But all taken into account, I don't feel for it as strongly as I used to– don't get me wrong, it's still disturbing, but I don't think it's an issue of Dazai specifically as much of the work in its entirety having a fucked up view of women. It hit me today rewatching the bit at the end of episode 5, Dazai explaining Ranpo's deductions to Atsushi: “she wasn't dressed for work, she had no make-up on”. Now, if you say anything like this to me irl, I WILL punch you in the face. But can you sense how it doesn't really come from Dazai in particular and is more expression of an overall worldview of women that necessary transpires through the characters, an underlying pattern I couldn't really perceive on my first time watching the anime? So, I feel like it's less of a case of “Dazai being sexist” than it is of “Dazai is a character with a lot of lines in a fundamentally sexist franchise”. The point isn't about Dazai's being sexist, because ALL the characters are in a way or the other, but about the author writing them as such; that's what I meant by saying “Dazai is openly sexist and it’s just kind of there never to be addressed”– he's reportedly sexist IN CANON, the thing is it's never portrayed as something strange or worth to be addressed.

[stealforreal]

Future kids - Bakugou Katsuki I

Bakugou meets his son from the future. Just some fluff, with a jealous Bakugou.

Bakugou Katsuki x F! reader

Warnings: none

Bakugou was stomping his way back to the dorms, cursing that stupid nerd Deku in his mind. Kicking some rocks lying in his way, he was radiating murder. Naturally his classmates left him alone to cool off for a minute, even the Baku squad left him alone. They had chosen not to interfere, because they would like to live to see another, thank you very much. 

The stupid nerd had been too close to y/n at lunch today, and Bakugou had spent the entire time glaring at the curly green haired boy. What really made him snap was when she hugged him, and the stupid brocoli went as red as a tomato. She was giggling loudly and seemed really happy at whatever Midoriya had said, and the fiery ash blond couldn't control his jealousy so he stormed off. After class was over Bakugou was the first out the door, not even stopping to insult Denki when he made a bad joke. 

The rest of his classmates were confused, sure they all knew Bakugou to be a hothead. But still he seemed angrier than usual, only the Baku squad had small nervous but knowing smiles on their face. They knew of the explosive boy's crush on y/n, it wasn't totally obvious and they really wouldn't have known had Kirishima not pointed out the subtle things. Like how he never once called her an extra, he still called her idiot, dumbass and such. That was probably Bakugou's version of a compliment, which was probably the reason they took so long to figure out his crush.

So here he was stomping his way back to the dorms, cursing Deku for being close with y/n, Himself for getting jealous, y/n for being too friendly and everything he could curse in general. He stopped dead in his tracks when he felt a little tug on his uniform pant leg, glaring down at the thing that stopped him. Only to be confused when that thing turned out to be a little boy, around the age of 4-5 by the looks of it. Bakugou's brows furrowed in confusion, how did a little boy end up here. UA is one of the most secure places in Japan, courtesy of the League of Villains and other past incidents. 

What caught Bakugou's attention though, was the fact that this little boy was bawling his eyes out and trembling with his sobs. Bakugou didn't know what was happening, he felt incredibly protective of the young boy but didn't know why. He seemed kind of familiar, like Bakugou had seen parts of him somewhere else before. The little boy had big e/c doe eyes, filled to the brim with tears as he stared at the ground. His hair was unruly and a familiar shade of ash blond, he reminded Bakugou of himself a bit when he was young except the crybaby attitude of course. It was weird for Bakugou to feel this protective of anything, and he didn't like it one bit

" Oi brat, where are you parents?" The teenager asked the little boy, crouching down to his level, making the little lad finally pay attention to the stranger he had grabbed. The little boy gasped and flung himself at Bakugou, clutching on tightly to the stunned teenager's shirt. A new wave of tears hit the little blonde, being relieved at the familiar sight of his fathers face though much younger. " D-daddy, I-I was so scared" the little boy whimpered, burying his tear stained face in his fathers shoulder. Bakugou was speechless, he sure as hell was not this kid's father even if it explained the feeling of familiarity. No Bakugou shook his head at the ridiculous thought, this kid was obviously terrified and contrary to popular belief Bakugou would not abandon a lost child " Oi brat, I'm taking you with me back to the dorms. Afterwards we'll find your parents' ' he huffed, Bakugou was going to kill this kid's parents once they were found.

The younger boy began calming down in the older boy's arms, the tears had stopped and he was only softly hiccupping now. "B-but daddy I did find you, I wanna go see mommy" the young boy huffed out, defiantly crossing his arms over his little chest. " Oh yeah, prove it brat" Bakugou smirked thinking he had cornered the little boy in his lie, but much to his astonishment the little boy let out a small explosion in the palm of his hand. Though much brighter than his own, there was no mistaking his explosion quirk.  Bakugou hated to admit that so far the brat seemed to be telling the truth, and he hated even more how his feeling of protectiveness grew at the revelation that this kid in fact was most likely his son from the future. It wasn't rocket science, right now Bakugou was 16 and 100% not a father. Yet here is a little boy that is the spitting image of him as a kid except the eyes, and in this world where quirks exist perhaps time travelling was possible.  

Bakugou's little chat with his son had taken longer than he thought, because as soon as he entered the dorm common room every one in the room snapped their head towards the two ash blondes. The first to break the pin drop silence was Kirishima  " Eh who is the kid, Bakubro" he asked. While Mina asked if he had kidnapped the kid, earning a glare from the explosive blonde. " Daddy, why does Aunt Mina and Uncle Kiri not recognize me? " a little voice asked, making a lot of jaws drop and eyes widened. 1....2......3...... " WHA!!!" The lot of them shouted, questions coming left and right, wanting an explanation as to why this little boy who looked suspiciously like Bakugou called him dad. 

What they all failed to notice was the little boy was recoiling from the loud noise, pressing himself closer and closer to his father. Bakugou noticed this, and thanks to his newfound protectiveness he hugged him closer and glared at them effectively shutting them up. Mostly they were just silenced because the sight of Bakugou hugging and being protective of his supposed son baffled them. I mean we are talking about Mr.Hothead angry Pomeranian, the most blatant rude student in class 1-A if not in the entirety of UA. " Shut it ya damn morons, can't you see you're frightening him" Bakugou sneered at his classmates, not loudly but it was still malicious enough to make a shiver run up their spines. 

Midoriya, who had known Kacchan the longest, was intrigued by this side of Kacchan and unconsciously moved closer to the two ash blondes. Seeing the familiar shade of green hair approach them Bakugou sneered, while his son became ecstatic. " Uncle Izu '' The child yelled excitedly, stretching his arm towards the blushing brocoli boy indicating he wanted to be held. " Ah hell no! He is not your uncle, I won't allow shitty Deku to hold my son" Bakugou yelled, making a few snicker quietly, but what really set them off was the fact his son chopped his head with a little fist. "Oi, why the hell did ya do that for ya brat? Bakugou barks at his son, only receiving a deadpan expression in return. " Mommy said, every time your daddy is mean to uncle Izu chop his head for me, okay baby?" After that announcement they all burst out laughing, while Midoriya tried not to tremble under Bakugou's glare. 

"Speaking of which, who is your mom?, uhm I never got your name, little guy" Kirishima asked the little boy, stating a valid point. Bakugou realized that even though he had known his son for about 5 hours now, he never once asked what the boy's name was. " What do you mean, Uncle Kiri, it's me Katsuma?" Katsuma tilted his head a bit, not really being aware or understanding that he most likely travelled through time. " Well you aren't born in our time yet, mini Bakugou" Kaminari informed the little boy, in his usual teasing voice. " Really Uncle Kami" Little Katsuma asked " Does this mean mommy and daddy aren't together yet?" He asked, surprising the teenagers. Katsuma was surprisingly smart for a kid his age, and after the initial shock from being called daddy Katsuki totally forgot to ask about his son's mother. 

"That is correct, Katsuma'' Todoroki piped up in his usual monotone voice, surprising Katsuma with his appearance. " Uncle Todo'' Katsuma replied coolly, surprising everyone present. The happy bubbly 5 year old had vanished in an instant, and been replaced with a little boy full of hatred. Breaking the little staring contest that had broken out between his son and the damn half n half bastard, was none other than Midoriya's phone. Being the klutz that he is, he ended up answering and putting it on speaker. " Izuku, Ochaco said there was a cute kid at your dorm, so I'm coming over " y/n voice could be heard, instantly Katsuma brightened up again being all sparkles and rainbows again. He tugged at his dad's collar, demanding Katsuki's attention " daddy, daddy did you hear, mommy's coming over" the little ash blonde exclaimed, bouncing in his fathers arms from being giddy. This new information caused everybody's jaw to land on the floor once again.

" WHY, why does Bakugou get the hot chick? '' Mineta yelled in agony, being the little pervert he is, he had to comment on her looks. " Oi, don't talk about my future wife and baby mama y/n like that, I'll fucking blast you to hell" His statement followed by the crackeling in his palm, and the sound of a phone being dropped? Turning around Bakugou was met with your stunned face, eyes blown wide with confusion and astonishment clearly written on your face. " Mommy" Katsuma yelled, squirming trying to get out of his fathers embrace, and slowly Katsuki sat him down. When his small feet hit the floor, Katsuma was sprinting towards y/n with all his might and flinging himself into her arms. Resulting in the poor girl, falling down on the floor in her confusion.

Katsuma buried his face in her neck, sighing happily to himself. The remaining nerves  he had totally disappeared once he saw you. As much as Katsuma was a daddy’s boy, he was even more of a mama’s boy. Katsuma could feel the lack of response coming from his mother, curious and slightly scared he looked at her face. you were absolutely stunned, no response came from you frightening the young boy. Tears began swimming in Katsuma’s beautiful e/c eyes, snapping you back to reality. The sight of a child with tears in his eyes, struck your motherly instincts. Answers could wait, right now there was an adorable toddler with tears in his eyes, and you had to comfort him.

Slowly Katsuma was pulled into your embrace, head buried in the crock of your neck. Arms wrapped tightly around the preciuóus boy, letting him cling to you for deer life. “ M-mommy, I m-missed you, I was s-so scared-d” Katsuma said through sobs and hiccups. Not bothering to correct him, you bounced him lightly up and down in your arms. Bakugou came and helped you onto your feet, putting an arm around your waist. His other hand began stroking Katsuma’s unruly blond hair. 

Around them the rest of the class was still stunned into silence, seeing the small family in an embrace. Most of them had never seen Bakugou look so protective and calm, let alone with a small blush. You would also sport a matching blush if it weren’t for the fact, all your attention was on the young boy in your arms. He looked like a carbon copy of Katsuki, yet his e/c eyes looked exactly like yours. Slowly the sniffles stopped. Instead they were replaced by steady breathing, it seems like the child had a long day because he was fast asleep in your arms.

Slowly you made your way to the 1-A dorm living room couch, with the sleeping child in your arms and Bakugou not far behind you. He made it a point to keep his hand on the small of your back, glaring at the other guys present if they looked at your or his son the wrong way. “ Can somebody please explain to me what is going on?” You whispered so you wouldn’t wake up the young boy, whose name you still hadn’t caught. Your eyes caught Izuku’s eyes, but for some reason his eyes widened and he averted his gaze from you. Izuku is one of your best friends, you met because you and your classmate Hatsume Mei worked on his hero costume and you hit it off. 

With your attention not fully on the child anymore, you now realised that somebody had their arm around your shoulders. Looking to your right where the owner would be stítting, your eyes widened slightly at the person on your right. One of the hottest guys in UA had his arm around you, Bakugou Katsuki of class 1-a was well known in the school. His temper, looks and quirk had made him extremely popular with the female population of UA, though none of them dared approach him. The bad boy image both attracted them and made them keep their distance from him. He wasn’t exactly known for being a teddy bear, so Katsuki hugging y/n closer to him and keeping touching her was not expected.

 “ Oi Flashlight, brat is ours from the future. I don't know how he got here but it’s true. He even has my quirk, you know what this means right ” Bakugou spoke, explaining the situation. The others had left the two of you alone, giving Bakugou privacy to explain the surreal situation to you.  What this means? What did he mean by that? You couldn’t help but ponder the meaning. Turning your head to face him and question him on what he meant, you were met with a very close Bakugou. Bakugou couldn’t contain himself seeing you look so adorably clueless, so he closed the small gap between you. 

His lips were surprisingly soft. He was gentle in kissing you, not knowing how you would react. I mean you had to like him back right? You were sitting there next to hum with YOUR SON in your arms. He smelled nice, it was a sweet scent like caramel courtesy of his quirk. The kiss was slow, loving and gentle, the feeling of his lips on yours were intoxicating. Pulling back from the kiss, Bakugou growled silently, huskily in your ear “Your mine, flashlight” Heat crept up your neck, and you were left softly blushing. “ What are we going to do with him Bakugou?” Still facing Bakugou, you looked at your son from the future. There really was no mistake, he looked like a perfect Katsuki copy with your eyes, and your motherly instincts told that this was in fact your son. 

“It’s Katsuki to you Flashlight ” He corrected you “For now let's go to bed, it’s late. We can ask the squirt questions tomorrow” Katsuki led you to his room, still with a sleeping Katsuma in your arms. His bed was big enough to fit the three of you. You laid down with Katsuma in the middle, both you and Katsuki put an arm around Katsuma. Katsuki intertwined your fingers, and slowly you fell into a blissful sleep. You could ask more questions tomorrow.

But when you woke up, Katsuma was nowhere to be found. Only you and Katsuki were cuddling in his bed. You and Katsuki both came to the conclusion that whatever quirk sent Katsuma here probably sent him back to his own time. “Katsuki, is it wrong of me to miss him already?” You looked at your new boyfriend, looking into his sleepy vermillion orbs. “ If you miss the little firecracker already, why don’t we bring him back” His morning voice was rough, and tickled your ears just right, sending a shiver down your spine. Bakugou's eyes glinted with mischief, as he began kissing your neck. The innuendo not lost on you, the feeling of his lips on a particular spot had you giggling. It was ticklish and stopped him in his tracks for just long enough for you to get a word in. “ Let’s wait a few years okay” He nodded and laid down next to you again, pulling you close.

You would see Katsuma again. Someday.

[kxmikomrade]

HELLO! I thought I may as well request something to you. uwu I hope it's okay. Take your time, take care and delete if you don't feel like writing about this.

Well, could I request a reader who's so in love with Zhongli (reader didn't tell anyone about it) but they're genuinely so blatant that everybody knows, even Zhongli himself, that reader loves him. Reader is not trying to show their true feelings, but they do it unintendedly.

How would Zhongli react? Yk, I really like Zhongli 👉👈 Like... a lot. hsshjs

Reader could be fem or gn, don't really care. Have a good day! 💕

Author's notes: THIS IS INTERESTING and since u said 'react' i just assumed dat u want a short scenario but if u want me to extend it then lmk

He's absolutely baffled. Throughout his whole 6000 years of living and seeing pre-romance long with romance. This is the first time he's ever seen someone so blatant about their feelings even when theyre trying to hide it. Sure, Zhongli seen TONS of obvious people but you just took it to a whole new level. You guys could literally just go shopping then you get asked ''How would you like the bouquet to be?'' and then you reply with ''As lovely as the man with me''. AND YOU DONT EVEN NOTICE WHAT YOU JUST SAID??? LIKE?? HUH??? At this point, the whole Liyue thinks you guys are dating. And Zhongli himself probably just thinks of it as a normal occurrence. Basically, you guys are dating, without you knowing and still so helplessly inlove

[pastafossa]

Matt keeps a straigh face while handing Jane an actual rock in front of Foggy who is having a MELTDOWN bc he does this in front of a zoos penguin exhibit

Ok so in between my project (*shakes fist*) this idea was giving me LIFE. Because it is ABSOLUTELY in character for Matt being a sassy little shit, and like OH MY GOD, he would.

You all had just passed the seal exhibit when Matt started to grin. And not the good grin—no. This was the bad grin: a Danger Level 7 on the Matt Shenanigans scale, of which Foggy kept meticulous record. Daredevil-based antics generally categorized as a 9 or a 10, while the pig that Matt had somehow smuggled into the dorm back in college rated about an 8. And to think, he'd claimed he thought it was a dog. Foggy had sensed the stench of bullshit even then, but there'd been no evidence to prove otherwise.

Now he knew better.

You were still a little behind Matt and Foggy, caught up watching the admittedly-adorable harbor seals splash and swim around but you quickly moved on, meandering towards Foggy and Matt. Matt suddenly pulled away from Foggy, and that's when he knew the devious bastard was up to something. The few other zoo guests passing by shifted wider, giving Matt a surprisingly polite amount of space as he tapped his cane. And just like that he put on his best 'innocent, no-super-senses blind man' face��the one with the puppy dog eyes you could feel behind the glasses, the mouth tilted just so, not a smirk or a smile to be found. Foggy narrowed his eyes.

Matt called you over as Foggy hissed out a quiet, "What are you up to, Murdock?!"

Matt shifted his stance a little, the glass of the exhibit now at his back. Foggy still hadn't quite figured out what was in the enclosure but there was a lot of water. Once you were close enough to hear him, Matt reached into his pocket. "I just remembered. I almost tripped on this earlier," he told you, borderline angelic, as if he wasn't in fact a metric ton of audacity in human form. "Too much noise, threw me off. I picked it up but I'm still not quite sure what it is. I just know I didn't want it out where anyone could step on it."

Je-sus, the good Samaritan ploy. Foggy rolled his eyes, muttering a prayer to the heavens. Matt's hand had closed entirely around whatever object it was that he passed to you, scarred knuckles and callused fingers blocking Foggy's view. You carefully took it, your head dropping as you glanced down at it. As you did, Matt lifted his head and directed a quick smirk in Foggy's direction. Behind him, briefly glimpsed through glass and cold water, a black and white shape swooped by.

Holy shit, he wouldn't!

No, no. Not even Matt was this ballsy, this blatant, and Foggy nodded to himself, lifting his giraffe cup to drink from.

"Wow," you murmured, turning whatever it was over in your hand. "I mean, it's a rock, but it's really pretty. Where did you say you found this?"

Foggy spat back into the giraffe's plastic face, choking and coughing. He waved off the passersby who'd paused even as he continued to hack, because holy shit—

"Found it up towards the front," Matt said innocently, which he absolutely was not, not one bit, the bastard—

"Some kid probably dropped it after picking it up in the gift shop. God, it's pretty." You let out a quiet hum, still seemingly entranced by the stone in your hands. Foggy took a step to the right, just enough to get a glance at the rock. And then he had to turn away, wheezing in disbelief because how did Matt pick a red geode?!

"Nothing we can do about it now, kid's probably long gone," you said thoughtfully, and Foggy whirled back around, not willing to miss even a second despite himself.

"You're probably right," Matt said, as another penguin drifted by. This one paused, however, posing behind Matt. Aaand now even the penguin was staring at Foggy mockingly, those fucking macaroni penguins with their sarcastic, dastardly eyebrows.

You tried to hand the rock back, but then Matt shook his head, throwing you a warm smile. "I can't really appreciate it as much as you since I can't see it. Why don't you keep it?"

Foggy made a strangled noise, choking on air as he swallowed down a shriek and oh god, this was it, this was how he died, because Matt Murdock was literally giving you a devilishly-red rock in front of the fucking penguin exhibit. You tentatively drew your hand back, staring down at the stone and turning it over in your hands, and how could you not know?!

And there was a moment, a moment, as your head lifted and you caught sight of the penguin swimming by, that Foggy thought, Aha! Yes, you've got it! You'd realize, wouldn't you? You had to, and then-then Foggy wouldn't be alone seeing the sheer shamelessness in Matt offering you an actual rock in front of penguins when penguins courted with rocks, right?! You tilted your head, eyes flicking between Matt and the penguins as you considered them both. "Do you know where we are right now?" you asked slowly.

Matt shrugged, giving you a baffled look. "The... grizzly exhibit hit me a little hard, and there's a lot of noise. I can smell water at least. Are we near the seals?"

No, no, Foggy did not buy that for a goddamned second, but apparently you did because you gave a little snort and shoved the geode into your pocket before holding out an arm to Matt. He gently took hold and then his face turned towards Foggy over your head, and his smirk turned absolutely shit-eating.

"Fuck you, Murdock!" Foggy whispered as emphatically as he could, resisting the urge to flip Matt off when there were children present. "You insane, rock-gifting, hellspawn of a penguin!"

"Language, sir!"

"Sorry, ma'am."

[sooibian]

Trespassing is Prohibited!

Pairing: Baekhyun x Fem!Reader ft. Chanyeol

Genre: Fluff! Fluff! Fluff! Crack. Friends to Lovers AU, University AU (ish) 

Description: Byun Baekhyun has had enough. He finally wants to ‘man up’ and make you his. But things continue to spiral out of control all thanks to his friend, philosopher, and guide (a.k.a. The Worst Wingman Ever) Park Chanyeol.

Warnings: A very rambly Baekhyun and a longwinding confession

Word Count: + 3k

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

“You want me to talk about the weather?” Baekhyun squeaked into the phone after having breathed in helium from the blown up balloon in his hand.

“The weather, politics...the economy even.” Heaving slightly, Chanyeol spoke after a moment, his usual gruff and masculine voice reduced to a wafer thin high pitched squeal, sending Baekhyun into a fit of helium suffused giggles.

Taking another drag off of the balloon, Baekhyun warbled and piped, “Say...say that again. Say economy again!”

“Eco...econo-” Chanyeol’s extreme outburst of laughter at the sound of his own voice, rendered him unable to pronounce the final syllable.

All along, you stood at the door, comfortably leaning against its frame and eavesdropping on their conversation or the blatant lack thereof. Chanyeol suddenly wanted Baekhyun to talk about the weather, politics, and the economy? You thought you’d grown immune to your best friends’ antics but they continued to up the ante and left you baffled, amused, or both every single time. 

You cleared your throat to catch Baekhyun’s attention but it fell on deaf ears. He rolled around in bed, breathing in helium, laughing hysterically, chanting the words ‘economy, weather, and politics’.

“BAEKHYUN!” You screamed at last. He scrambled to face you, wearing an expression of a deer caught in the headlights. You finally had the entirety of Baekhyun’s eight second attention span all to yourself.

“YAH! YAH! YAH! What are you doing here?” Baekhyun retaliated and then whispered something into his phone, stuffed it inside his pocket, straightened his shirt and sat primly on the edge of the bed like a child who’d been caught eating forbidden candy. He threw you an accusatory glance but there was an unmistakable hint of embarrassment and panic in his eyes.

Peering over your glasses, you snapped at him, “I’ve come to pick up my phone charger because you obviously lacked the courtesy to return it!”

“Oh!” His lips protruded into a pout and he tilted his head to the side as if in deep thought, “I’ll bring it over in the evening.”

“Why are you acting so….dazed and confused?” Slouching, you took careful, deliberate steps towards the bed and sat down next to him. Leaning into his frame, you sniffed his neck and whispered, “Are you...Baekhyun don’t tell me you’re on something!”

Levelling his face with yours, he searched your eyes before flicking your forehead in response to your wild allegation. “Shut up! The audacity! You’re the one barging into my house in the middle of the day. Trespassing is prohibited!”

Confused, you pulled away from him and asked, “What are you saying?”

The corners of his lips drooped. Brows knit together, he replied, “You should’ve called first!”

His extremely out of character standoffishness made you uncomfortable. You were clearly not interrupting anything other than a helium infused gala which, truth be told, you were greatly annoyed at not being invited to. Neither were you inconveniencing him in any way. You were to simply fetch the electronic device and head home. And this wasn’t anything out of character for you either. You’d always felt free to walk into his goshiwon as you did your own. Yet, here he was, dark hair unkempt, dressed in his usual baggy clothes, accusing you - his best friend, his emergency contact, the one he moved cities with for University, the only one who had the passcode to his goshiwon - of breaking and entering. You knew Baekhyun since the day you’d learnt to walk and in all these years he’d made you feel a lot of emotions - happiness, sadness, mostly anger but not once had he made you feel unwelcome. 

Your heart sank to your stomach at this abrupt coldness.

“Baekhyun, you took my charger, remember? My phone died.” Fighting the lump in your throat, you explained politely and proceeded to rummage his desk drawers for the said item.

“Wait!” He came trotting after you barefooted as you dashed out of his room. He grabbed your wrist to hold you firmly in place. 

While you were no stranger to physical contact with Baekhyun, these past three months since your break up had started to get increasingly excruciating for you. A slight brush of his hand with yours sent tingles through your skin, made your cheeks flame, your legs turned to jelly, and alarms blared inside your head. At first you thought it was just your hormones messing with you - he was an attractive man and you’d only recently been deprived of love and attention but you’d slowly begun to realize it was something far beyond that. Something you had an inherent knowledge of but were not quite ready to confront yet. 

“I’m leaving.” You replied matter-of-factly. Yanking your hand free from his grasp, you didn’t bother to look at him. “Helium makes you stupid!” You yelled instead, and banged the main door shut behind you.

.

.

.

After a week of radio silence (though he was still clearly avoiding you at campus) Byun Baekhyun had finally started texting you again and you realized that he was now a changed man.

He'd gotten...boring.

Every morning he'd send you a no effort good morning text along with, lo and behold, weather updates! Bland messages ending with the same emoji. Mostly alternating between 'Good morning! Don't forget to wear a mask today, the fine dust level is scary! ☺️' and 'Good morning! Don't forget to carry an umbrella today, it might rain! ☺️'

You'd almost always reply with a disinterested 👍 but he remained undeterred. 

Now it was as if Baekhyun and Chanyeol came as a package. The duo seemed to be joined at the hip and they walked in the opposite direction every time they caught you approaching them. Movements frantic, whispering in each other’s ears as if they were plotting to start a rebellion to overthrow the Government. But the Morning Daily from Baekhyun remained unchanged. Until one day, you snapped and replied with an emoji depicting another special digit used to indicate an entirely different sentiment from the sweet old 👍.

.

.

.

Later that evening you were dressed up for a double date set up by your classmate Jiwoo, your only “friend” other than Baekhyun and Chanyeol. She was to introduce you to her boyfriend’s friend who she thought was your type. Not looking for anything more than just a stress free and light evening, you decided to dress to the nines, let your hair down, and forget all about Baekhyun’s pigheadedness. 

Dabbing on just a hint of blush along your cheekbones, you gave yourself a quick once over in the mirror. It was then that a familiar beeping reached your ears and you rushed out of your bedroom to greet the unexpected visitor with a snarky comment.

“Trespassing is prohibited!” Crossing your arms over your chest, you glared at Baekhyun through your glasses. Dressed in a black hoodie, head covered in the Nike cap you’d gifted him for his birthday, twirling a pen between his fingers he just stood there, smiling sheepishly with a bag from your favourite desserts cafe in his other hand. It seemed like he’d come straight to yours after his lectures.

His gaze hesitantly roved over you and he questioned softly, “Going somewhere?”

Slinging a shoulder bag on, you averted your eyes and remarked, “It’s none of your business.” 

“Yah! Don’t be like that”, he said with a soft chuckle yet his voice bore a hint of dejection and apology.

“That’s rich coming from you. Allow me to remind you how strange you and Chanyeol have been acting since the last two weeks!”

“I’m - I’m ready to..talk about it.” He quipped, awkwardly proceeding to put the box of desserts in the refrigerator. He then very comfortably took a seat at the kitchen table.

Hands on hips, you sauntered to the main door and shook your head, gesturing for him to leave. “Not today, Baek. I’m running late.”

He pulled back the chair next to his, and drummed his fingers on the table nervously. “Come sit. I won’t take too long. I promise.”

Letting out a deep sigh, you dragged your feet to the table and slumped into the chair.

“You look nice.” Lips stretched into a thin line, he stole a glance at you and said to his cuticles instead. 

“BAEKHYUN!”

“Okay..okay sorry… so the day you came home?”

“Please stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Drawing out sentences in a question.”

Inhaling deeply, a slightly irate Baekhyun replied, “I’m trying okay.”

“Listen, first of all I am really annoyed at not being invited to that helium balloon call? So I’d advise you to think twice before saying anything stupid. Tell me...why did you two think it was a good idea -”

Embarrassed, he interrupted to get that part of the discussion out of the way. “Chanyeol and I just wanted to know what we sounded like… over the phone, you know? We sounded..err...squeakier.”

“Okay...I hate to say this but ...makes sense, I guess? Why wasn’t I invited?”

“Because - ”

You leaned in closer, questioning eyes locked with his.

“Because -”

“Baek, I’m running late!”

“It’s because we were talking about you!”

“No? You were talking about politics -”

“Politics, weather and -”

‘The economy’ The two of you said in unison, face averted from each other to keep from laughing at the recent memory of Chanyeol’s oddly peculiar way of saying it.

“Yes..so Chanyeol and I were discussing how you probably don’t see me as a man? Like … a man man?”

Face scrunched into an expression of pure confusion, your mouth fell open to answer Baekhyun but no words came out. His lower lip had begun to wobble slightly and he rubbed his palms on his thighs before continuing. “He was of the opinion -”

“You’re literally the only one to ever pay heed to Loey’s opinions!”

“Yah! Don’t shit talk my Loey!”

“Yah! He’s my Loey too! Moving on”, pinching the bridge of your nose, you urged him to continue with a curt nod.

Baekhyun straightened his spine, threw his shoulders back and explained, “We had a thought.” 

“Both of you? The same one?”

“Ye-yes?”

“This is not going to end well. I can feel it in my bones.”

“Can you stop acting like you’re better than us? Just for a moment?”

“Fine! Go ahead.”

“We thought that it was about time you started to see me that way.”

“That way?”

“The way you used to look at your greasy vermin of an ex?”

“With sheer contempt and disgust?”

“That was after. I mean like before.” Hands balled into fists, Baekhyun looked at your expectantly.

“I don’t get it.”

He gave you an exaggerated smile as if to centre himself before throwing more vague questions your way. “What is the one thing - the only thing - I can actually cook?”

“Haejangguk?”

“Exactly! Do you get it now?”

“I have a thousand of reasons ...or ideas as to how you and Chanyeol would manage to relate Haejangguk with politics, weather, and the economy but I’d rather not dive into that cesspool. Instead I’ll allow you to explain.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows shot up in concern as he explained softly, “Haejangguk helps with your hangovers. It took me fourteen tries to master! And it was Loey who ate every single spoilt batch. Without any complaints!”

“I wouldn’t say you’re any good at it even now but...sure whatever.” Rolling your eyes, you murmured.

Your phone chimed with a text from Jiwoo but before you could answer, Baekhyun snatched it from your hands and shoved it in the pocket of his hoodie.

“Pay attention. This is more important than that loser you’re going to meet.”

“Baekhyun!”

“No, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t watch you go from one idiot to another.”

“I’ve literally only dated two guys! Why are you suddenly getting territorial?”

“I am not getting territorial! What I’m saying is…  I spent these two weeks rehearsing the right thing to say to you but - screw that! And listen. You cannot do this anymore!”

“Do what?”

“You cannot waltz into my thoughts anytime you like! For instance I’m eating a tangerine, I think of how it would magically taste sweeter if I could only share it with you. Your face suddenly flashes before my eyes and I lose my mind while I’m doing the most mundane things like riding the subway or having a meal or talking to someone. I go grocery shopping and the first thing I pick up is strawberry milk and it’s not even my favourite! But I bought a whole damn carton because you love strawberry milk! I have cucumbers! Cucumbers! In my fridge because what if you crave oi muchim with your ramen some day and woe betide me if I DO NOT HAVE CUCUMBERS! I waste 4,050 Won every week on cucumbers but it DOES NOT MATTER because it would be nothing short of a tragedy if you want something and I can’t give it to you. Like, have you looked at yourself when you get upset? When your lips stretch into a thin line and your eyes ever so slightly lose their sparkle. It makes me want to pluck the bloody stars from the sky and lay them at your feet if it means that I can make you smile again. Do you know how warm you are? I mean, like, physically warm. Especially when you’ve woken up from a nap. So, so warm. I feel like wrapping you in my arms, putting your head on my chest and just...staying like that. Freezing the moment in time. Freezing the moment in time! Look at what you’ve done to me! I'm saying these cheesy things and I'm doing boring things like studying politics and understanding the state of affairs and keeping up with fine dust levels just so that you see me differently! So that I can somehow make you believe that you can rely on me. Think of me as more than just a friend who used to pull your pigtails back in the day.” 

The beat of your heart boomed in your ears. You hugged your coat tighter around yourself as if to conceal its conspicuous sound. Your throat felt dry and your spine liquified in the face of his overwhelming confession. You had a million things to say to him. And there was one specific thing you were dying to do the moment your eyes landed on his soft, strawberry pink lips.

Eyebrow cocked, you said in a low whisper. “Why not buy a jar of oi muchim instead? It’ll surely last longer than a week.” 

He buried his face in his hands and let out a shallow, pained wail and continued. “I'm done.” He looked up at you. Eyes droopy, lips pouty. “Put me out of my misery. Look, if you don't like me back the way I like you just ...forget that I said any of this. We can go back to being what we were at 7 o’clock. It's 7:30 now, we can rewind, 30 minutes. But don't...don't...what the hell how can you just sit there and act like you're watching a freaking movie. React! Say something! Actually...don't! Oh my god this is a trainwreck! I had rehearsed the right thing to say...but I got distracted by the indentations on the corners of your lips..I think I'm having a full blown breakdown… I just want to - ugh!"

"You just want to what, Baekhyunnie?"

You took his fists in your hands, eased them open and laced your fingers with his.

He clamped his eyes shut, slouched to make himself small, and muttered. "Don't call me that!"

Giggling softly, you repeated, "Baekhyunnie?"

Baekhyun flicked his eyes open. Unabashedly studying the curve of your lips, he whispered ‘Stop.’ His hand gently rested on your cheek, eyes seeking approval. You nodded in response, feeling your face flame. His honeyed gaze darkened as he leaned in closer, a sweet scent of bubblegum wafting in the space between you. His hand found the back of your neck, lips ever so slightly parted. Finding his movements excruciatingly slow you gravitated towards him while your breath hitched in your throat. He took your hand and placed it on his chest as his silken lips melted into yours. He held you like you were fragile, like he was experiencing the sensation of your skin on his for the very first time, committing every slight brush, every single touch to memory. You felt the wild hammering of his heart against your fingers despite the thickness of his cozy hoodie, your own reacting in likeliness. 

Baekhyun held you by your shoulders and gently pulled away, breaking the most delectable first kiss you’d ever had. Tilting his head to the side he looked at you briefly before making vague hand gestures and shaking his head. He opened his mouth to say something but found himself at a loss for words. Face flushed, he opened his mouth again after a while only to clamp it shut. 

Byun Baekhyun was processing.

After having had your fun with his perplexity, you smiled at him and raised an eyebrow questioningly, prodding him to speak.

“So...does this mean we’re?” He asked, voice faintly tremulous.

Pursing your lips to stifle a giggle you teased, “Yeah?”

“Am I your...I mean...are you my….girl-girlfriend?” Averting his eyes from yours, he inquired, while shyly rubbing the back of his neck.

Half shrugging, you answered, “Depends.”

Baekhyun’s face fell. “Depends?!” He exclaimed, almost in falsetto.

"Depends on whether you want to continue sending me daily weather updates.” You deadpanned.

“This feels like a trick question.”

“Yes or no?”

“N-no?”

“Then, yes. Byun Baekhyun, congratulations, you’ve earned the unequivocal and irrevocable right to call me your girlfriend.”

“Does it mean that you didn’t like the new and improved version of me?” He asked hesitantly, face clouded over with caution.

“That wasn’t the Baekhyunnie I fell for.”

“Yah!” Surprised at your sudden blurry confession, his eyes grew into large brown circles but the moment his gaze met with yours, his expression softened again. He smiled sheepishly and spoke tenderly, “Okay...noted. You too can call me your”, he cleared his throat, took your hand in his, placed a soft kiss on it and used his most dulcet voice to say, “boyfriend.”

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

A/N: hello, hello @you-did-well-moon​ hope you enjoyed this very cheesy confession from Baekhyun! 

@exolssecretsanta​

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

re: your last ask about the time travel shenanigans—holy fuck yes please more of this. like, not only is it funny as hell, which i appreciate, but it's also a. more c!thomas and b. points to just how interestingly both the plot and characters of this series have grown over the years and i am ALL for it

"Janus!" is the first thing Thomas exclaims when he sees the Side Formerly Known Exclusively As Deceit rise up where Logan would usually stand. Which just might be a mistake, if Janus’s expression is anything to go by.

Okay, in Thomas's defence -

This is a really, really weird day, even by his standards. Because, like, Logan's currently standing in front of the stairs, and that's not where Logan's supposed to be, and his shirt and tie are all wrong. And had had been grinning. Openly. He had been openly grinning when Thomas had first woken up and looked in his wardrobe and realized that his favorite t-shirt apparently doesn't exist anymore and all his clothes are a half-size smaller than he's used to but also they still fit and - okay, no, back to Logan. He'd gone downstairs and tripped over a chair that wasn't supposed to be there and called out Logic. And he'd been about to ask him what's going on and why everything feels so off and also why Logan's standing in Virgil's usual spot instead of over to the right of the stairs. But then he'd noticed all the aforementioned Very Weird Clothing Things. And he'd stopped and said, "Uh, Logan?" and Logan's grin had dropped and he'd stared at Thomas for a full ten seconds then whispered, "what the fuck," with great emotion.

And then Patton had shown up with a ridiculous amount of pun-riddled cheerfulness that Thomas had been able to clock as sixty-percent fake within about half a second. And his clothes had been all wrong, too, and after a lot of confused, borderline-incomprehensible yelling at each other, Roman had showed up and added to the chaos.

"I am scared and confused and on the verge of completely losing it!" Thomas had declared at some point, which had been the cue for an ominous music sting somewhere to Thomas's right that made everybody jolt in terrified unison.

"Did somebody say scared and confused and on the verge of completely losing it?"

"Virgil, thank god!" Thomas had practically yelled, and just about thrown himself across the room to get to him - before pausing midway and allowing his brain to process... wrong hoodie. Wrong amount of eyeshadow. "Wait. No, hang on, is this - "

"FUCKING WHO," Virgil shrieked, leaping backwards half a flight of stairs, which had led to another round of confused yelling, with Thomas trying to assure them all that he's fine he hasn't had some sort of strange head injury or whatever, he's just really happy to see Virgil and no of course that's not weird, what do you mean who's Virgil, that's Virgil right over there, Roman please put down that sword things are already out of hand -

And at some point Thomas had got it into his head that the most reasonable course of events was to summon the one person who always seems to know everything that everybody else doesn't, which brings everything up to speed, more or less. Roman had gone, "Thomas, what are you doing," and Thomas, feeling slightly manic at this point, had said, "I'm trying to summon a demon, obviously," because the best way to get hold of a certain someone probably is blatant lying, and boom, instant Janus.

"Jeee-sus Christ on a cookie-shaped canoe, what is he doing here?!"

"Janus!"

So, Janus pops up, he looks literally the same as he always has (except maybe with shorter hair? Wait, they all have shorter hair, including Thomas, wait a second -) with his half-snake-face and his hat and gloves that cosy-looking capelet of his. And although his expression reflects faint bewilderment and that very particular 'wait, what' emotion that results in being pulled abruptly away from something you were busy with, he looks so normal that Thomas thinks for a moment he might be the only sane person left.

But then Janus makes a series of start-and-stop noises of incomprehension, and gestures wildly towards Virgil, who's crouched midway up on the stairs behind Logan, looking like a cornered wild animal, and snaps, "Why for the love of everything that's holy would you tell him my name?"

"You think this is me?" Virgil retorts, hands going up to grab desperately at the bars lining the side of the staircase. "I don't understand anything that's going on! He somehow knows my name! He's - he's being nice to me!"

It suddenly occurs to Thomas that this might just possibly be a time travel sort of thing. It would explain the clothes shift. And the altered layout of his house. And the fact that when he'd checked his phone this morning it had told him it was 2016, and also it hadn't been his phone, it had been the one he'd broken a few years ago in a tragic piano-moving-related accident.

...Okay, yeah, this is absolutely a time travel thing.

"Is somebody going to explain why Thomas ruined all of our heartfelt name reveal moments in one fell swoop?" Roman demands. "I thought we agreed we were going to do them gradually and draw them out as long as possible for dramatic effect!"

"I agreed to none of that," Virgil snaps from his position halfway up the stairs.

"Yes," says Logan, "yes, I think we all would like to know what's going on. Thomas? What's going on?"

"Uh - " Thomas, who has just come to a rather startling realization about time travel and also about how shitty his Sides' taste in costumes were pre-wardrobe change, doesn't really have a prepared answer for this. "I have... I am - I just - "

Thomas struggles for words. Really struggles. And everyone's just standing there, watching him with expressions that range from terror to confusion to suspicion, and they all look so weirdly young in a way that's hard to pin down. It's the clothes. It's probably the clothes, or maybe it's the way they hold themselves. Roman, carelessly confident, without a doubt in the world. Patton, still wearing a fixed dad-grin, politely baffled and looking back and forth. Logan, who hasn't been systematically beaten down and pushed back over the course of many, many years. Virgil, who's basically just a ball of grey-and-black anger and acerbic anger at this point. Janus, who's... Janus. Who's looking at him in a way that Janus has never looked at him before.

And Remus is probably lurking somewhere in the back of his mind, too, doing whatever Remus does, and - would Remus be any different now, four years prior? Thomas hadn't had any significant problems with intrusive thoughts, not back then... or, well, back now. Maybe he's calmer, maybe Thomas could actually talk with him. Try to work something out, try to understand.

But wait, he's still got to give the Sides right here and right now an answer.

Hm.

...Thomas has been through a lot in the past four years. Not, like, fantasy protagonist a lot, but more like a extended psychological journey of self-discovery and mental health crises. Now, he wouldn't trade any of this for the world, because he's learned a hell of a lot about himself in the process - but also? The Sides have put him through a lot of horrifying realization-type things.

Which is why he absolutely one hundred percent deserves to do what he's about to do next.

"I," says Thomas, with an extraordinary amount of confidence and self-assuredness, "am psychic."

And the dead silence holds. Now even Patton is staring at him in disbelief. Janus has graduated into outright horror, his face twisted up into a oh god no I am somehow responsible for letting him delude himself this far expression.

"Thomas!" Roman gasps, almost instantly lighting up with genuine enthusiasm. "Oh, Thomas, I'm so proud, we've been working on this for years. Tell me, does this extend to telekinesis, or just somehow knowing all our names and nothing else?"

"What?" Janus says. "What - no. No, you can't seriously be going along with this - what? That... what? That doesn't even make any sense?" He turns wildly from left to right, and - okay, it's very enjoyable to see him out of his depth, to be perfectly honest. Thomas likes Janus a lot, knows he has his best interests at heart, but the whole courtroom thing had been a major dick move. This is satisfying. "Are any of you getting this? Does anyone here understand what's going on?"

"I'm psychic," Thomas repeats doggedly. "I acquired magical psychic powers and now I know all of your names and tragic backstories. Surprise! I unlocked my full potential and the ninety-percent of my brain power that I wasn't using."

"That's - that's a widely-perpetuated and wildly incorrect myth," Logan says weakly.

"Nope. Turns out it's true, and I was only using ten percent of it, and now that I've gone full big-brain, I know that Patton's repressing all his bad feelings because he doesn't want to bother anyone with them, Virgil acts all scary and menacing because he thinks it's the only way that I'll ever listen to him, and Janus is secretly a huge dork with a heart of gold - uh, yellow, I guess."

"How dare you," Janus breathes, looking horrified.

"Wha - " Patton suddenly looks very pale indeed.

"Also, Roman, you're my hero; Logan, please never stop smiling like that ever again, it's literally my favorite thing in the world and if you ever stop being enthusiastic about teaching me things I will cry - and Virgil, I love you."

Virgil lets out a choked little noise like he's just been punched directly in the stomach.

"I love all of you," Thomas adds, an afterthought. "I never say that enough. Janus, that goes for you as well. You're right, I need to take care of myself more."

"I'm - " Janus is still looking around at everyone in complete disbelief, but now his gaze fixes onto Thomas, his eyes wide. "I'm what?"

Thomas is now on a roll. An extremely cathartic sort of roll. "And Remus -"

Everybody immediately panics. Virgil and Logan's hands both immediately leap up to clasp over their mouths, which seems to be a reflexive reaction on Janus's behalf. Patton lets out a deranged-sounding high pitched giggle that edges into genuine hysteria.

"Brother? What brother? I don't know what a brother is!" Roman says loudly. "I've never had a brother in my life! Thomas, your glorious psychic powers are malfunctioning. Have you tried turning them off and turning them on again?"

" - I'm not going to lie and say I love him, but -" Thomas stops abruptly, and staggers  backwards to catch himself on the couch as a thought strikes him out of literally nowhere. "Son of a bitch -"

"Does being psychic make you swear a lot?" Patton asks weakly. "Because, uh. Not sure I like this side of you, kiddo - "

"Logan," says Thomas. "Logan, what's the date today? This is so, so important, what's the date."

"It's... October," Logan says, very slowly. "October twentieth. 2016?"

"Holy shit," Thomas whispers, and then says it louder, "holy shit. Okay, listen. I was going to sort out all of our collective psychological issues in one impressive emotional speedrun, but I've realized we have something much more important to do." He pauses, and takes in a very deep, shuddering breath. "Guys. We can save Vine. Excuse me. I've just realized I’ve got to make a lot of calls."

[skunked-up-kicks]

Omg... same... I don't remember my first reaction to that kevin-andrew staring line, but like for example, it took me a while to get why Nicky warned Neil not to look too much at Kevin. And when people interpret things sexually/romantically in the fandom I'm definitely surprised, like the cigarette pack in Andrew's back pocket turned into staring at his ass etc. I did find stuff like Andrew brushing Neil's back more telling, but I didn't read every moment from a sexual attraction lense u know

I don't know if my last ask made sense but basically same sometimes im like "oh you guys think this line is about attraction. ok. i didn't know that" i feel like i learnt to see the romance/attraction in most of it bc i remember i felt like neil for the longest time -- i didn't see the signs of 'attraction' a lot of the time, though i did see more blatant flirting

lil disclaimer thingy: i understand everyone reads book differently and is coming from different perspectives, and i'm not intending to shame anyone or anything, just wanna talk about my experience reading aftg.

so, if i'm being honest... i do genuinely find it so baffling that people read certain scenes (mainly book 1 scenes) as sexual. like you mentioned the infamous 'neil sussed the twins out by which one had a cigarette packet in their back pocket' scene that people have turned into 'neil was ogling andrew's ass'. which.. neil is a respectful king and would never, okay? i hate when ppl make him into a fucking creep :// but also it's a good example of an early moment in the series that showed how observant and clever neil could be so it also makes me sad that the moment got stripped of that in favour of it being sexual :(

anyway, besides sexual clearly not being how it's intended to be read, it's also weird to me because like... my mind was not at all in the place to be reading scenes as sexual when i first read that scene.

we've just been introduced to neil not that long ago, and he's been presented to us as a traumatized teenager who's been squatting in his highschool's gym locker room, seems to have a nicotine addiction, is really anxious, has seen his mum die, and i'm also pretty sure there's lines about how lonely neil is and about how much he's grieving his mum. not that long before the cigarette-in-back-pocket scene doesn't neil have a moment at the window where he thinks "one of us has to make it mum"??

what i'm very poorly trying to explain is that, at least when i first read the books, i was really attached to neil early on and more importantly i was really protective of him. cause he's a child really... and a very hurt and distressed one at that, who's in a new and clearly unsafe environment. andrew's group is not presented in a good light early on, so i was rightfully suspicious and untrusting of them. how people can be given a character like neil in a situation like that and be playing matchmaker almost immediately is... yeah.

like... my mind wasn't in the place to be going "oooo neil thinks one of them has a nice ass!!🥴🥴"... LIKE? the scenes before certainly aren't set up in a way that's leading you down that train of thought...

it's the same as the scene where neil puts andrew's hand under his shirt, people talked about seeing that as sexual too. but andrew's been raped literally like 2 or 3 pages ago??? when i read those kinds of posts i can't help but think "how is this what's on your guys minds right now??..."

plus, when people say they saw these moments as sexual attraction they are often also implying they were thinking "maybe they'll get together". which is why i mentioned that i didn't trust andrew's group, cause i assumed everyone else felt the same, so i also assumed that like me they wouldn't be thinking of neil possibly getting with any of them... cause if you don't think they're trustworthy... why would you? i just wanted to protect neil from them ngl :') the only other character i liked at the time besides neil was wymack cause he actually showed that he cared about neil's wellbeing.

even that scene where andrew runs his fingers also neil's back, i honestly thought andrew was trying to intimidate neil... cause i didn't fucking like or trust andrew! he had non-con drugged not that long ago and i was still pissed at him and his group at the time. plus, andrew had used touching neil as a way to try and intimidate him before that so. even if i had picked up on the fact that andrew was attracted to neil from that during my first read, i wouldn't have thought they'd be getting together, or even wanted them too lol.

also because, aside from what i've said, there was also the fact neil told us he didn't swing... some scenes happened before that but most that people talk about happened after. if i'm reading a book and i'm having moments where i'm thinking maybe someone is attracted to the main character it's because i assume something might actually happen!

but i believed neil was aro/ace and so i wasn't looking for moments of neil being attracted to people, or moments of others being attracted to him. i never really bothered trying to read between the lines, it never even crossed my mind for so long... cause i had already set my mind on "neil won't end up with anyone". i only remembering it occurring to me at the "doesn't mean i wouldn't blow you" scene.

and honestly, when that happened i remember thinking something like "andrew's gonna end up getting rejected". idk? i never doubted neil was aspec, i started off thinking he was aro/ace like i said but i never went "oh he's gay", i just went "oh so he's not aro/ace but he's somewhere on the spectrum of being asexual".

and also tbh... i liked that neil never thought of things sexually. it was nice :'( and seeing his own thoughts and actions getting interpreted in that way, especially after we should have been under the assumption he wasn't interested in things like that... it rubs me the wrong way.

(i know aro/ace ppl can have relationships and/or have sex, but the way neil presented his sexuality and acted when hit on. to me, it made it seem like he was completely uninterested in either)

i can understand going back through the book after reading for the first time and being like "oh andrew's actions or words here might have been partially motivated by his attraction to neil at the time!", but through the first read? and for neil?? it's weird to me...

this is quite long so sorry bout that lol, i think i'll leave it here. it's nice to see someone else feel a similar way anyway ;^;

again, i don't think it's wrong if people read it differently. it just confuses me cause it's so different from my experience reading it and what i would expect it to be like for others

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Let’s talk: Grievances and Cuteness - BTS on You Quiz on the Block

by Admin 1

Today BTS were guests on You Quiz on the Block, a very popular Korean variety show on tvN, and it was a wonderful mix of fun and hilarious, but also serious, vulnerable and honest. Seeing as we don’t have subtitles yet, merely the things our marvelous translator ARMYs managed to translate for us—the episode was 100 minutes long so there was a lot going on and being said—I don’t want to get into detail in this post and instead will wait with that until we have subs and I’ll be able to sit down and watch it properly again, focus on things that stick out to me and I would want to talk about. So that I can do their words justice.

Instead I want to use this post to air some of my grievances, directed at fellow ARMY, “ARMY” and shippers, as well as just gush a little about a few cute moments. The more serious things will be in a different post sometime soon. I hope that’s okay.

Grievances

What is the point of Bangtan going on a show like this, especially one that is broadcast on national TV and very popular with the general public? It’s to share not only their funny side but also their honest and genuine one, share stories that, though some we’ve heard before as ARMY, they’re things the general public doesn’t necessarily know. The point of them sharing vulnerable moments and memories with us is to simply be honest and transparent, something they’ve always highlighted as important to them.

What is the part we play in this, what is it that we should do? We are simply supposed to listen, understand the things they are telling us, put things into perspective so we know what they felt in certain moments and periods of their lives, understand that they’re human too with struggles, fears and sadness, and we should cherish the fact that they tell us any of it at all. They could just as well only show up whenever there’s a new album and comeback and then disappear again, share nothing personal at all and put on entirely fake personas. But they don’t. And we should be grateful for that and happy because of it.

Now, the reason why I even wanted to write this in the first place is this:

Many, and I mean many have decided that instead of doing what I’ve highlighted a moment ago, a far better course of action would be to twist their words, manipulate them, use them to victimize the members (and especially Seokjin), and try to overanalyze them in favor of their desired narratives and especially their ships, even if whatever was being said had absolutely nothing to do with any ship at all.

Before the episode even finished airing, solos/mantis were already up in arms “crying” about mistreatment and victimizing Seokjin because *insert demands they have no right to make at all* and when Seokjin, bless him, was on weverse, he actually replied to a post where he basically said that parts of what he said were too sad/depressing, so he simply asked the You Quiz staff to cut them out, which would explain why he seemed to have “less to say” during his interview section with Yoongi. Did that help? Of course not. Even though it showed not only that he did say more, that he likely said more vulnerable things, but also that he made the decision for himself that he did not want to share that yet, because he’s not ready for it or because he came to the conclusion that he simply doesn’t want to period, and that his wish for them to cut it out was met. Even though it wasn’t BH controlled content, but You Quiz.

More below the cut:

What does this tell us? The members have control over what is aired and what is not. If they feel something is too personal or would come across wrong, they can voice objection and chances are their words will be met and followed. They aren’t victims in need of saving, aren’t helpless boys with no idea what they’re doing. They are serious musicians, respected and treated well. This is a good thing and I’m glad he told us that, even if many don’t want to hear it and immediately claimed that “oh yeah BH told him to shut us up”. The mental gymnastics some are willing to do to make things fit their agenda truly baffles me sometimes.

On the other hand, I’ve seen shippers try to twist words or put others into the members mouths to push their agenda, and we’ve even had one or two asks being sent to us basically sadly wondering if maybe Tae isn’t who we thought he is for Jimin, and neither is Hobi, because of something Jimin said. Even though the thing Jimin said had quite literally nothing to do with either Tae or Hobi. In a way, I get where such vminnies are coming from, as vminnies we would love to just hear vmin talk about each other all day because it’s cute and we love their bond and stories, but it’s not like we didn’t get that. Because we did. Unprompted. Jimin mentioned Tae during their trio interview and told a story, even if we’ve heard it before to a certain degree. And yet it still wasn’t enough? Like come on, please don’t do this. Don’t reduce everything the members do and say to just ship related and non-ship related (thus uninteresting) statements and actions, as though the latter is worth less.

Here is the moment in question:

The way I see it, the only thing we should take away from this is that despite these very human fears and struggles, wonderings if people only care about Jimin because he is BTS Jimin and not Park Jimin, he still had and has good people in his life that’ll remind him that he is appreciated and loved for who he is, and not just for his celebrity status. Friends even outside of Bangtan. Why do we have to take something so incredibly personal, this moment of vulnerability from Jimin, and try to overanalyze it? To twist it to fit a ship? Regardless which one. Or to twist it to fit some kind of narrative, whatever one it may be? Please don’t do that.

Sure, Admin 2 noticed his use of ‘chingu’ when talking about this friend that told him that, and sure it reminded me of what Jimin said to Tae in the FESTA 2020 Rolling Paper, but neither Admin 2 nor I will go and claim that oh he must’ve been talking about Tae but didn’t want to use his name to avoid XYZ because we are not in his head and, at the end of the day, it’s irrelevant who exactly said that to him. That wasn’t the point of that story. Like at all. So why are some people disregarding the point in favor of speculations? Why are some completely ignoring his words, downplaying them as just potential ship material instead of appreciating the fact that he told us that at all?

It’s unfair toward Jimin, and the other members as well when they tell similar stories. Their lives aren’t fictional stories that revolve around romance. They are real people with real lives and more friends than just their fellow members and that’s a good thing since it surely gives them the opportunity to feel less isolated, cut off from the world by nature of their occupation and status. Besides, in the past Tae said something similar as well, how he used to be a social butterfly and make friends easily wherever they went but eventually he understood that people didn’t really care about Kim Taehyung and instead just wanted to know BTS V and be able to use that to brag, so he stopped being so outgoing. And we’ve also seen Jimin talk about cutting out friends in the past if they said something negative about Bangtan, then, a few years later, saying that he’s grown more as a person and learned to not allow these things to affect him as much, to surround himself with genuine people.

So, in light of what he said in that segment, we should be happy for him. And that’s it.

We also saw people use what Tae said about his dad to push the he must be 100% heterosexual because he said he wants to be a dad narrative which, where do I even start. Perhaps with the fact that this statement relies on a mistranslation? Because he didn’t say he wants to be a dad but that he wants to be a person like his dad, that’s his dream. Perhaps with the blatant homophobia this statement is laced in? The disregard for how queer people can also want to have kids, be parents, just like anyone else? Perhaps with how these things oddly seem to just be done to Tae and Namjoon, and especially Tae to use it for ship purposes?

Instead of jumping to conclusions, overanalyzing stories we are not supposed to analyze but instead to simply appreciate, please wait until we’ll have the full episode with subtitles (even though from the past we know that some of it may be simplified so reading what our translators wrote is also a good thing to get the whole picture) and even then, just enjoy their silliness and listen to their words of honesty. Listen to the fact that their fame was and continues to be a heavy weight on their shoulders, how instead of becoming cocky assholes they remained humble and genuine because that’s the kind of people they are and want to be, listen to what they want you to hear and now what you want to hear.

Also, to shippers—this isn’t the place to look for ship content of any kind, for some romantic confessions or whatever, because this was about Bangtan as seven members and their stories of the last ten and a half years since Namjoon joined BH and the idea for BTS was started.

Cute and silly things

Now that that's done, let’s talk about some fun and cute things to lighten the mood, shall we?

One of my favorite moments was when the MIC DROP ARMY came in as a surprise for the members, her confidence was off the charts and the guys looked so genuinely happy. After all it’s been so many months since they’ve last seen ARMY! And I’m so glad she was such a wonderful representative for us all, how she didn’t react with fear or shyness, didn’t scream or cry, but instead did her thing like a Queen. And the way the members reacted when she sent them a finger heart during one of the dances? Absolutely adorable! 

Also, she truly must’ve saved some kind of nation, or maybe two, in her past life since she also was gifted a chicken leg pillow by Tae. He’s just so kind and lovely.

Then we had the members play a game of trying to guess a song merely by the first second (I think) and then having to sing it, though who sang which part didn’t follow the actual order in the song but was chosen by someone off screen which meant that, for example, Tae was doing one of the rap line verses as well as singing Jimin’s part in another, Hobi showed off his vocal skills, and of course, the highlight, Namjoon singing a part from Spring Day. Even though we know Namjoon’s skills when it comes to singing are not the greatest, which I mean in a very loving way, no tea no shade, and yet he still went for it. It was hilarious and cute and showed that he is willing to be silly even if others might laugh at his expense.

Sometime after the episode aired Namjoon actually came onto Weverse to talk about the episode and, among other things, apologized for not singing Seokjin’s guide all that well. One thing I’d like to point out is how, originally, he wrote Jinhyung but then changed it to Seokjinie hyung, which is just a small and precious little detail:

Another cute moment was during ‘dance mafia’ when Tae turned to Jimin to ask him if they did well and Jimin replied that yes, he did well (both using this adorably soft tone with each other), they also hugged for a moment while smiling brightly. See, I said not to look for ship moments, but this is just cute regardless if you ship vmin or not. Admin 2 though would like to comment on how they could’ve given us that hug from a camera that’s a little further away so we could have a more proper look, or a longer shot of it, please?

Honestly that game was hilarious and the members who were mafia did a wonderful job tricking the others, particularly JK was fantastic at it since the second time around no one suspected him at all. Also, the fluffy ear muffs with cat (?) ears on them were adorable. At the end of the segment they were all supposed to strike a pose but Tae didn’t manage to put his ear muffs back on, so they fell to the ground and so Jimin lightly hit/caressed his chest and turned toward the MCs to ask if they could try again so that Tae could look good in it as well.

Actually, speaking of adorable in regard to Jimin, when they were introduced at the beginning of the show as RM-jagi-nim, jagi-nim being the name used for all the guests on the show and also the name on the necklace (given to guests who are fans of the show by the producers) Jimin showed off on weverse in his selcas, Jimin corrected the MC that it’s not Jimin-jagi-nim but Mini-jagi-nim which just…my heart. Too cute.

Lastly, I want to mention how all of them were asked what the first sentence would be if their lives were a book and their answers were just so very…them.

Namjoon: Predictions in life often turn out to be wrong

Tae: I’m a chameleon

Hobi: Dear, people who’ve helped to lead me here

Yoongi: You lived life to the fullest/hard/well

Seokjin: Dope, worldwide class!

Jimin: What kind of life do you want to live?

Jungkook: Hello?

Overall it was an amazing episode that was so fun to watch even without really being able to understand any of what was being said. Still the members genuine personalities shone through brightly and I’m glad they had fun and felt comfortable, especially since it’s been a while since they were last on Korean variety shows and some of their past experiences were…not great. I can’t wait to watch it again once we have subs and to write a more proper post about it then. I hope you didn’t mind this more…serious and “angry” post and understand where I’m coming from with my complaints, but also that you enjoyed the cute moments I highlighted.

[bellisperennis0]

Falling For You

Word Count: 1,608

Warning(s): None

A/N: Love confession and a blushing Bishop. Swoon! GIF credit to @trans-am-catie. Thank you for reading and Enjoy! 🖤

Anonymous asked: Hi lovely ☺️ possibly 27, 28, 29 from the fluff list with bishop please? Him blushing and really fluffy in his feelings for reader, and he hasn’t felt like that in while and he comes clean about them.  Thank you so much!! I love how you write him ❤️ ❤️

Showing up to the Clubhouse after your shift, you had expected the normal Club party to be well under way, but were surprised to see the Clubhouse this quiet for a typical Friday night.

Walking in, you were even more surprised to see most of the guys were gone as well.

“Hey, Boy scout. Where is everyone?” you ask as you make your way towards the bar, giving him a hug.

“They all went home. The run kind of took everything out of us.” He says giving you a reassuring smile.

“Everyone whole?” you ask in concern.

“Everyone’s whole. He’s in the office.” He tells you as he points towards the Templo door.

You give him another hug, thanking him and sending him home for the night.

Gently sliding the door open you step in, taking in the sight of Bishop in his seat at the head of the table, head in his hands, bottle of whiskey and an empty glass sitting not too far from him.

“Penny for your thoughts?” you ask as you lean against the doorframe, watching as he lifts his head to look up at you. Your heart slightly clenching as you can see the worry and exhaustion all over his face.

“Hay, sweetheart.” He says as he does his best to give you a convincing smile.

“Anything I can do?” you ask as you take the seat next to him.

He just shakes his head as he sits back in his seat, “You just being here is enough.”

You both sit there in a comfortable silence until Bishop’s raspy voice breaks you out of your daydream.

“Want to go for a ride?” he asks you as he stands up, giving you his hand to take.

“Yeah. Yeah that would be nice.” You smile as you take his hand.

----------

The ride with Bishop led you back to your place, as it almost always does. Walking out to the back porch, you hand Bishop another beer, before taking your seat across from him.

“Are you alright, Obispo? You don’t seem yourself tonight?” you ask him with concern laced in your voice.

Reaching over, he takes your hand into his, his thumb gently rubbing over your knuckles, “I will be. Don’t worry your pretty little heart about it.” He tells you as he brings your hand to his lips, placing a gently kiss against your knuckles.

“Well, you know if you ever need someone to talk to, or just to be there and listen, I’m always here.” You tell him, giving him a smile.

He returns your smile, “I know, sweetheart. Thank you!”

“You want to know something, Bish?” you suddenly ask, looking at him over your mug as you take a sip of your tea.

Bishop looks at you for a moment. He raises an eyebrow and speaks. “What’s that, sweetheart?” He slowly asks.

You smile and say, “Your face is freaking adorable and I bet the rest of you is too.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, your brain catches up with what your heart had said. “Shit! Obispo I am so sorry, I didn’t- I mean- I didn’t mean to say that it just kind of came out on its own and- Fuck I’m so so sorry. I...” You stopped as you looked at Bishop, just staring at him for a second. You slowly spoke. “Are you...Are you blushing?” you asked, with a hint of disbelief in your voice.

Bishop’s eyes grew wide as he did his best to avoid your gaze. “What? No, no, of course not.”

Even though he tried his hardest to play it off, you had already seen his rosy cheeks and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

You smile, your fears now forgotten and replaced with confidence. Bishop wasn’t freaking out and hadn’t stormed off. Maybe this was a good sign.

“Did I - Did I get the ever hardcore, stoic, total badass MC Presidente to blush?” you teased, your confidence and certainty growing.

You watched as Bishop scrambled for something to say, a way to defend himself. “No, its - its - the cold.” He lied. You watched as he slightly cringed at his own words. For starters, Santo Padre didn’t know what cold was. Second, it was the beginning of summer, and even at 3 in the morning, it was insanely hot. Bishop doing everything in his power to avoid your gaze.

Your smirk grew, knowing full well what a blatant lie Bishop just told. You figured you’ll go along with it for shits and giggles. “The cold, huh? You sure it wasn’t the fact I told you your face is freaking adorable and I bet the rest of you is too?” You said with amusement lacing every word.

Bishop’s cheeks growing redder, “N-no!” he said as his voice cracked.

You laughed wholeheartedly and loud. After calming down to just soft giggles, you looked over at Bishop. “Oh, I’m sorry I made the big bad biker blush!” you chuckled as you take another sip of your tea. Bishop's just eyeing you with a smirk on his face as he takes a swig of his beer.

 “Can I be completely truthful with you, Obispo?” you asked him with sincerity. Clearing his throat, he sits up straight as he nods.

“Of course, querida. You can tell me anything.” He tells you, placing his hand over yours on the table.

Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, “I like you Bishop, like, a lot, a lot. More than I think I have ever liked anyone before. I like you more than just a ‘You’d be an awesome fuck’ kind of way, I… I want us to be more than this… whatever this is. I know you may not feel the same way, and, that’s - that’s fine. I… I don’t want to pressure you into anything. If you don’t like me in that way, we can keep being friends; at least I hope we can keep being friends. Fuck, I hope I didn’t completely fuck everything up. I didn’t mess this all up, right?” you finished in one breath, looking over at Bishop with poorly concealed worry all over your face.

Bishop just stared at you in awe, you can tell he was processing everything you just spewed out at him, wrapping his head around the fact that you just said you liked him, that you wanted to be with him - an actual relationship with him.

You slowly felt yourself become more and more nervous, the fear setting in again. Waving your hand in Bishop’s face to get his attention, “Uh, you okay, Bish? Kind of freaking me out!” Bishop looked at you, still piecing together everything you had told him.

Bishop’s face flushed again, and he fumbled over his words, trying his best to compose himself. “I–you-wha - huh?” was all he got out. You had the once clearheaded man completely and utterly baffled.

“I know I spit out a lot just now, but I said that I like you Bishop. Would like to know where you stand here?” you chuckled to hide the fact that inside you were completely panicking.

Bishop rubbed his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. “Okay, so, you like me… as in, you want to start a relationship… right?” he asked slowly, as though he was making sure he wasn’t misunderstanding the whole situation.

Your smile grew wider, trying your hardest to seem calm, like this was just a normal everyday conversation and not an awkward, albeit heartfelt, confession of love. “Yeah, exactly what I said.”

Bishop took a swig of his beer and leaned back in his seat, holding his breath for a moment before exhaling. All you could think was that this was it, this is where he completely rejects you. “[y/n]…” he began slowly, “I… I’ll be completely honest with you…” yep, here it comes, total rejection.

“I don’t like you… Because I love you.”

Quickly shooting up from your seat, taking a deep breath and exhaling, as you take a couple steps back, “Yeah, sorry, I knew the feelings weren’t reciprocated, that’s why I never said anything, it was stupid and -“ You were startled out of your rambling by a hand landing on you shoulder.

Lifting your head, you saw Bishop looking at you, amusement in his eyes. He had a serene smile on his face and he whispered, “Querida, did you hear anything I just said?” you just stared back at Bishop, bewilderment written all over your face.

“I just told you I loved you.” He said as he watched you take in his words.

Your eyes widened and this time it was your turn to blush, “Oh… OHHH!” you looked down at your feet, until Bishop gently placed his hand under your chin, lifting your head up so you were looking at him. You both looked directly into each other eyes, the raw emotions you each held for each other clear.

Slowly inching closer till your lips clashed together. You slowly melted into his kiss, eyes sliding shut and a content hum leaving your throat. You felt like you could stay in this moment of security forever. Both pulling apart rather reluctantly, standing there soaking in the love you held for each other.

Bishop gently caressed your cheek as he smiled down at you, “Can I stay here tonight?”

You smiled back at him, “That would be nice. And for the record, I love you to.” You tell him. He smiles down at you before his lips were taking yours. Kissing you harder, deeper, with a fervent, urgent need you’ve never known before.

 --xx