#so I had to resort to making an entirely new post instead

[trollochkonst]

@oddarette made me hungry with that meatsicle so I had to make a 3D render of it.

[petrichor-han]

summer lovin’ ; hwang hyunjin

PAIRING I hyunjin x afab!reader

CAST | hwang hyunjin, han jisung, mentions of the rest of skz

WC | 6.4k

GENRE I fluff, smut, (slight) crack, enemies to lovers, summer camp!au, camp counselor!au, reverse trope: too many beds/two beds

WARNINGS I explicit sexual content (making out, breast play, handjob, oral [m and f recieving], ball & clit sucking, teasing, grinding, p in v sex, dirty talk, clit stimulation, unprotected sex), explicit language, e2l so they're kinda mean to each other but they're nice in the end <3

SYNOPSIS | you find yourself as a camp counselor at the very summer camp you spent so many years at as a kid—except this time, you’re stuck with a very annoying (and, admittedly, very attractive) co-counselor and bunkmate.

A/N | requested by anonymous. thank you SO much for this request; i loved writing this reverse trope!! i also turned this into a summer camp au because a) it's summer and b) i was trying to think of places besides hotels where there are multiple beds in one room. anyways, hope you enjoy and thanks again!! if you enjoyed please reblog and consider leaving a few kind words <33 (event is now closed, but requests are open.)

REQUEST! | EVENT MASTERLIST

Yeah, okay. Maybe in hindsight, scrolling through your social media at a red light was a really stupid idea regardless. Maybe you shouldn’t have given him the silent treatment when he asked if you hated him. And you definitely shouldn’t have dented his fancy car with your lamp. Maybe it’s not so surprising that he doesn’t like you, based on everything that he knows about you so far. Maybe this was all your fault, and you should take the blame entirely. 

Or maybe it’s not. 

Restless, you turn over in bed, sighing—only to look straight into Hyunjin’s dark, sparkling orbs as he stares right back at you, his gaze already fixated on your form. 

12 HOURS EARLIER. 

Your thighs are practically melted to the cheap, fake leather that makes up your car seats. And there’s not much you can do about it either, since your car’s air conditioning is broken and the weather is already sizzling—even though it’s hardly past eight in the morning. It’s the sort of day that’ll surely be a scorcher, the sort of day that you like to spend inside. 

Instead, you’re driving down to the summer camp that you used to go to when you were a kid. You had plenty of good memories here—you liked summer camp after all, but it wasn’t like you exactly wanted to spend your summer here as an adult. You can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy as you think about all of your classmates and friends that have the budget to take luxurious vacations to various beaches, islands, and countries—and what they might be doing right now. As your car slows to a stop at a red light, you pick up your phone and quickly open your social media, scrolling through a few recent posts to see what’s going on with everyone. You can’t help but be nosy, when you’re so deep in your own stinking envy. 

A gasp escapes your lips, your hand coming up to rest on your chest as you narrow your eyes and furrow your brow at the next post on your feed. A girl that you used to go to high school with posted about being in the Bahamas, with her rich husband and their darling new baby—who’s smothered in sunscreen and wearing a swim shirt that’s about two sizes too small mind you, but they’re so perfect that it doesn’t even matter. Jealousy bubbles up in your stomach as you scroll through her post, looking at the background of the photos—beaches with white sand and cerulean waters, an obviously expensive hotel room, and a clear, private pool with a view of the entire resort. You gnaw at your nails as you click on her profile, groaning aloud as you see her other recent posts—clearly, she’s been doing a lot of traveling lately. And all with her husband’s fat paycheck, too. You momentarily wonder if it would be too much to send her a DM and ask if her husband has any other rich friends that can fund your ideal lazy lifestyle, but then decide against it. What are you, a golddigger? At this point… maybe? 

A loud honk shakes you from your thoughts, making you drop your phone. It slips from your hand and slides between the car seats, wedging itself just out of reach. Cursing aloud, you forget about the phone for a moment and angle your rear view mirror, squinting as you try to make out the face of the person in the car behind you—the asshole that just honked their horn at you. 

It’s a young man, probably around your age. He’s in some flashy, probably expensive black car that contrasts deeply with your hand-me-down, beat up old ‘97 Toyota. It’s so shiny and new that you’re not even sure what type of car it is. Annoyed, he runs his lithe fingers through his long dark hair and narrows his eyes at you, realizing that you’re finally looking back at him. Go, he mouths angrily at you, honking his horn again. He motions for you to turn around and look at the stoplight. It flashes green as soon as you turn around, making you scoff—what the hell was he on about? He had zero patience. 

“Fuckin’ jerk,” you mutter under your breath, as you step on the gas. Your car lurches forward, groaning loudly from the strain as you zoom away from the flashy, annoying stranger. His car disappears from your view as you hit the speed limit, snorting to yourself.

At least you didn’t have to deal with him ever again. 

You manage to dig your phone out of the car seat beside you at the next red light, and by then you’re already nearing the campsite. You recognize the tall trees that border the entrance of the camp, their trunks etched with decades of carvings and other graffiti from young, rebellious campers. A smile creeps onto your face as you recall the night that you made your own mark on those trees; you snuck out with a few older campers, feeling extra bold since all the other kids your age were too scared, and carved your initials at the very bottom of the trunk, beside a large knot in the wood. You remember that clearly—you chose that spot so that you’d easily be able to find it if you ever went back. 

You never did, however. That was the last year you attended the summer camp before you started taking up guitar lessons instead, which took up your summers from that point on. Still, you had several core memories from this place; important ones that shaped your childhood. 

The small parking lot for staff members comes into view as you turn onto the last road, entering the forest. The big trees at the entrance now surround your path, lining the bumpy, cracked asphalt road that you’re driving down. You park your car at the end of the lot, away from most of the other vehicles, and start unloading your things. 

It’s almost eerily quiet. You know that none of the campers are here yet, since counselors and other staff members are slated to come a few days before the kids arrive to get things settled first. But it still feels exceptionally still, save for the gentle breeze that’s blowing through the trees and rustling the giant leaves several feet above your head. You look up to look at the shifting foliage for a moment, sunlight peeking through the crevices and winking at you cheerily. It’s definitely beautiful, despite the chill that goes down your spine at the thought of being out here alone.  

You gather up an armful of your belongings, including a rather durable desk lamp that you probably didn’t need to bring but wanted to. Wobbling, the load much heavier than you’re used to carrying on a daily basis, you manage to slam your trunk shut, your car groaning from the effort. You can hear another car’s engine starting approach, and you wonder if it’s your co-counselor—you were informed that you’d be getting a bunkmate, with whom you’d be sharing schedules with and sharing campers with. The sound of the car gets louder, and soon you can hear the tires crunching on the asphalt, pebbles scattering across the road. You can’t see over the pile of blankets that are holding your lamp in place in your arms, but when you hear the car door open, you manage to shout out a greeting. 

You walk forward a little, but with every step the blankets and lamp start slipping further out of your grasp. “Oh, shit,” you curse, as you feel the load slipping from your arms all at once—you try to grab the lamp, at least, but only succeed in accidentally hitting it with your hand, smashing it against the door of the car that’s parked beside yours.

The car that’s parked beside yours? Hardly registering the dent in the passenger door of the shiny black car, you narrow your eyes as you realize that this asshole parked right beside you when he had almost an entire lot of empty parking spaces to choose from. Scoffing, you pick up your lamp and fling your now dusty blankets over your shoulder. Just as you’re about to walk away, anger bubbling in your stomach, the owner of the car opens his door, stepping out. “Hey!” he shouts at you haughtily. 

Your jaw drops. No wonder this stupid car looked so familiar—it’s the jerk from earlier. And he looks pissed; even more pissed off than before. 

Gasping as he sees the dent on the door of his car, he whirls around to face you, a scowl etched onto his admittedly pretty features. “What the hell?” he shouts, gesturing wildly at his smashed in door. 

“It was an accident,” you say defensively, hugging your lamp and blankets to your chest as you take a step back. You glare daggers at him as he frustratedly runs his fingers through his hair—just like he did when you first saw him, on the road—and curses loudly, turning away as he exhales sharply. 

You roll your eyes at his overreaction. Sure, it was annoying to have your car dented by a stranger—that much you understand. But the way he’s breathing hard and clenching his fists at his sides made you cringe, unable to take him seriously. You start to walk away, your shoes crunching on the dirt path as you follow the trail towards your cabin. 

“Where are you going? I’m not done talking to you!” the man shouts, running up to walk alongside you. He matches your pace, looking down at the mass of blankets in your arms. “What’re you doing, moving in?” 

“I’m a camp counselor, idiot,” you snap, nudging him out of the way as the cabin comes into view. It’s a decent distance away from the other buildings, which you can see faintly between masses of trees and thick summer foliage. The cabin itself is made out of reddish logs, and it looks cozy and classic—the exact cabin you have in your memories from your childhood. You fumble with the key, which is shoved deep in the pocket of your jean shorts, as you attempt to hold all of the blankets in one hand. You only succeed in dropping everything again, making your cheeks heat up with embarrassment as the man behind you clears his throat loudly. You whirl around, your cheeks burning with embarrassment. “And what are you doing here anyways? I pissed you off so bad that you had to follow me?” you say haughtily, as you shove the key into the lock roughly. The heavy wooden door creaks open, revealing a clean, sunny interior with two sets of bunk beds. 

“I’m a counselor too, idiot,” he snaps, using your own insult against you. 

A pang of fear pierces its way into your stomach—he’s a camp counselor too? Here? It couldn’t be that he’s the one you’re meant to room with, right? There were so many other cabins that counselors could be assigned to. 

Whipping out your phone, you pull up your screenshot of your cabin address and your roommate’s information. You thrust the phone in his face, making him squint at the screen and exclaim in disgust at the proximity. “You’re not Hyunjin, are you?” you ask skeptically, looking him up and down. 

The man’s face pales, and he clears his throat again—though he sounds much less confident and sure of himself than he did before. “Why do you ask that?” he asks, crossing his arms. “How do you know that?” 

“Fuck,” you grumble, sinking to the floor amongst your blankets. You rub your aching temples, a headache from your stressful morning already presenting itself despite the early hour. “Fuck.” 

Muttering something under his breath, Hyunjin rifles through his pockets, and you look up as you hear what sounds like crumpling paper. He pulls a wrinkled sheet out of the back pocket of his jeans, trying to smooth it out with his fingers. Narrowing his eyes as he reads over his roommate information, he holds it out to you. “So this is you, then?” he asks, in disbelief. He chuckles bitterly, smoothing his hand over his mouth. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

You look up at Hyunjin to glare at him, offended by his disgust, but he’s already sauntering over to one of the bunk beds—the one with the bigger window on its side of the room. You spot a dry erase marker—left behind by another camp counselor, likely—and draw a thick black line on the floor, dividing the entire cabin in half. The marker squeaks loudly as you harshly draw the line on the wooden planks, and Hyunjin covers his ears, groaning in exasperation. 

“Just stay on your side and we won’t have a problem,” you mutter, capping the marker and throwing it over your shoulder. It clatters to the ground noisily, but you don’t bother to pick it up, or even look back to see where it landed—on your side, or his. 

—

At that point, you’d learned two things about Hyunjin, your new roommate and co-counselor; one, he was a douchebag, and two—well—his name was Hyunjin. 

The third thing you learned about him was that he had a stupid amount of friends, and you had no clue why they all seemed to have separation anxiety or something. None of them were even working at the camp alongside the two of you either—they just dropped by unannounced (to you) and started helping Hyunjin move his stuff in. The lazy bastard didn’t even lift a single finger as his seven friends moved in his endless boxes of clothing, of paints and oil pastels. (You were now wondering if the cabin was going to permanently smell like an elementary school art classroom.) 

“Jesus!” one of them—a small, jumpy guy with round cheeks—shouts, as he spots you sitting in the corner, scrolling through social media mindlessly as you try to stay out of their way. You’d moved there as soon as they filed into the room, hiding from their sight—and the multiple stacks of boxes that wobbled precariously as the seven men marched in and out of the room carelessly, brushing past it and scaring the shit out of you. “How long have you been here?” he asks, setting down a box full of what looked to be hair products. He wipes his sweaty brow, panting slightly. 

“The entire time,” you say, shrugging. You try not to let the awkwardness get to you—you’d hoped that they’d all leave before they realized you were still here. 

He laughs a little awkwardly, clearly feeling the uncomfortableness of confrontation. His cheeks flush pink as he realizes that they’d all just overlooked you the entire time. He tries to change the subject. “Are you his new roommate, then?” the round cheeked boy asks with a smile, extending his sticky hand to yours. You gingerly take it, not wanting to be rude, and shake it. “You’re not what I expected.” 

“Meaning…?” you ask, ducking out of the way as another one of Hyunjin’s friends walks by with a duffel bag that’s spilling clothing items onto the floor with every step. 

“Uh… just forget I said anything,” he says quickly, his cheeks flushing even darker as his gaze drops to the floor. Without another word, he presses his lips together and walks out the door, following a few of the others as they leave to presumably bring in even more of Hyunjin’s seemingly endless luggage. How much did a single person need to pack for summer camp? It looked like he packed up his entire apartment and was going to attempt to cram it into a singular, tiny cabin. Sighing exasperatedly, you kick one of Hyunjin’s bags over—it was on your side of the line—and sit down on the edge of your bed. So it seems that Hyunjin already told his massive friend group about what a bitch he thinks you are. 

Luckily, his friends don’t come back. He does, about half an hour later, with a beer in hand and his cheeks slightly pink from his tipsiness. He doesn’t apologize for his luggage that’s taking up more than his half of the cabin, nor the lack of warning before your space was invaded by over half a dozen loud young men. 

He slams the door behind him, exhaling loudly as he flops onto his own bed, slopping beer all over the front of his shirt. His eyes widen, and he groans loudly, annoyed. “Damn it,” he whines, pulling at the soaked material, “do you see this?” He looks up at you with puppy dog eyes, sending a surprising pang of attraction through your chest—you hadn’t realized just how appealing he was before, when he was pissing you off so bad you couldn’t think straight. His messy bangs fall into his dark, sparkling eyes as he tilts his head to the side slightly, studying you. His white t-shirt sticks to his chest, but he seems to have forgotten about it as his gaze meets yours. 

“You don’t like me,” he says suddenly—more of a statement than a question, but he still seemed to be asking for some sort of confirmation or denial. 

You hesitate, your words sticking in your throat as you try to respond. He waits patiently, expectantly for you to say something, but you don’t. Your lips stay sealed shut as you stare at him—and your gaze must seem so cold and unfeeling as your lips refuse to move a single centimeter—not even to quirk upwards into a slight smile to show him that you like him, just a tiny bit. Even if he pissed you off today. Even if you pissed him off today. 

It’s more out of embarrassment than anything, as Hyunjin narrows his eyes at your silence. It’s sobering—he can feel his mind clearing immediately, the slight tipsiness from the beer gone in a flash. His heart pounds rapidly in his chest and his cheeks redden as he tries to retract the flirty tone, the hope laced in his voice as he secretly longed for you to deny it; that you do like him, that you don’t hate him and you want to get to know him better—anything. “The feeling’s mutual, then,” he spits, knocking his beer onto the ground as he storms out of the cabin, slamming the door before you have the chance to fully register what’s happening. 

The tiny bit of “like” disappears at his emotional outburst, your expression souring as you’re left alone in the cluttered room. “You didn’t even give me a chance to answer, dickhead,” you mutter under your breath. 

Never has an interaction with someone gone so wrong for you before. Never have there been so many misunderstandings, and so many mistakes. 

It’s never been this hard to get someone to like you. 

Meanwhile, Hyunjin storms off, meeting up with a few other counselors and camp staff members, that were just about to head out to get some firewood. Similar thoughts stew in his mind as he takes out his emotions on the logs of pre-cut wood, his ax swinging in the air and glinting in the late afternoon sunlight. 

Yeah, he thought you were stupid for missing the green light because you were on your phone. Yeah, he was pissed that you dented his car. And yeah—he was really embarrassed that you didn’t answer him when he teasingly, flirtily asked if you really hated him—solidifying, in his mind, the idea that it’s true. 

He swings the ax down again, grunting loudly as he chops another piece of wood in half. He pants, putting his weight onto the ax and leaning forward as he feels sweat dripping down the back of his neck. A comforting hand places itself on his back, making him look up—it’s another counselor, smiling kindly at him. 

“I think we can head back now. We have more than enough for tonight,” they say, gesturing towards the large pile of wood—most of which came from Hyunjin’s emotional outburst. Slightly embarrassed, Hyunjin wipes the sweat from his brow and nods, pulling the ax out of the ground and following the group back to the campsite. 

The rest of the counselors and staff that didn’t go to chop wood are now sitting outside, around the empty, unlit fire pit. Only a few thin logs and sticks are tossed in haphazardly, and one of the counselors that was chopping wood alongside Hyunjin sighs loudly and goes to fix it. 

Hyunjin’s gaze drifts around the circle of people, searching for you. He sees you, sitting directly opposite him on the other side of the fire pit. You’re sitting with another counselor, with whom you seem to be making polite conversation with. It sends a pang of hurt through his body, a stab of regret. If he hadn’t been so hasty, maybe he could’ve been the one sitting next to you and getting to know you better. 

He settles for chatting with a few people that were chopping wood with him and roasting a few marshmallows to act like he’s not paying attention to you—though he definitely is. He swallows hard as he watches the way your face lights up when you laugh, and how pretty you look by the firelight. Your eyes sparkle as you talk to the person sitting beside you, speaking excitedly and animatedly about something—and Hyunjin finds that he longs to know. There’s something intoxicating about the atmosphere—it makes him dizzy with hope, and hopeful for something more. 

Marshmallow after marshmallow catches on fire as he watches you out of the corner of his eye, trying to pick up on any bit of conversation from across the loudly crackling fire. He pretends that he likes them burnt, loudly laughing it off when another counselor pipes up that he seems distracted. 

“You’re funny,” he says dryly, before throwing his stick into the fire pit and walking back to the cabin that he shares with you. 

—

He claimed that the smoke made his eyes hurt, and it was making him cough too. Even though you were watching him the whole time, and he didn’t cough once. Unless you count the two times he choked on burnt marshmallows, spitting the charred remains into the grass beside him as he insisted that he liked them that way. 

The empty spot glares at you from across the fire, taunting you. Was it you that made him leave? 

He was certainly mad earlier, when you failed to respond to his teasing. In all fairness, you intended to—it just didn’t happen. But that doesn’t ease your mind enough as you unhappily chew your own perfectly golden brown marshmallow, watching the remains of Hyunjin’s marshmallow stick crackling and burning in the fire. 

“I’m gonna head in too. I still have a lot to unpack,” you lie to the person sitting beside you, who nods and hardly registers your departure before getting engrossed in another conversation with someone else. 

Tossing your own stick into the fire as well, you make your way back to the cabin you share with Hyunjin. A small lantern hangs right outside the front door, lighting your way as you carefully walk up the creaky wooden stairs. 

You find that—unsurprisingly—it’s much easier to unlock the door when your arms aren’t full of blankets and a stupidly heavy lamp. You enter the cabin, and Hyunjin looks up from where he’s sitting; propped up against the headboard of his bottom bunk bed. His expression is unchanging as he briefly looks at you and then looks back down at the notebook in his lap. As you peer over, trying to be unsuspicious, you see a light sketch of what looks like the forest bordering the campsite. 

“That’s nice,” you say, clearing your throat as you lock the door behind you and sit down on your own bed, facing him. He looks up at you again, his eyes wide with surprise, before he turns the sketchbook towards you, a slight grin creeping onto his face. 

“Thanks,” he says carefully, as he puts the sketchbook aside. He exhales sharply and clasps his hands together as he looks over at you. “And sorry about earlier. I was kinda drunk and I thought you were making fun of me, so I bailed.” He forces out a sheepish chuckle, his cheeks burning with embarrassment once again. “If it makes you feel any better, I ended up chopping firewood and almost cut off my own hand a few times.” 

“Probably not the best idea to chop wood when you’re ‘kinda drunk,’” you laugh softly, as you hug your knees to your chest. Hyunjin chuckles softly along with you, feeling more at ease now. “I’m sorry too. For being an idiot on the road and for denting your car. I’ll pay for it. Promise.” You hold up your pinky—jokingly—as if you were going to make a literal pinky promise with him. 

Much to your surprise, he smiles goofily and gets out of bed, stepping over the line on the middle of the floor. He leans over and links his pinky with yours, gently shaking it as he meets your gaze and smiles at you, his eyes squinting cutely. 

He’s so close that you can feel his breath on your skin as he leans close, his hand large and warm against yours. You can see a knobby callous on his fourth finger, likely from the way he holds his pencil as he draws. Graphite and what looks to be watercolor paints stain his skin lightly, as if soap weren’t enough to rid the evidence of his artistry—as if it were graphite and watercolor that ran through his veins instead of blood, and it was just natural for it to be there regardless. His fingernails are clean, and kept incongruously short—another artistic precaution, you guess? 

Before you can make any more observations, his touch leaves as soon as it comes, and he pulls away, stepping back over the line and sitting on the edge of his bed, suddenly much too far away from you. It’s odd—you only spent perhaps ten seconds in such close proximity to him, yet you think that if you don’t get it again you might die. Is life worth living if you can’t be that close to living artwork itself? 

Despite the longing that makes your limbs twitch with holding back, you don’t say anything more to Hyunjin, and he doesn’t say anything more to you. He unpacks his things silently as you shuffle around the cabin, getting ready for bed. By the time the lights are out, the entire campsite is completely silent. The fire died out ages ago; the crackling and popping of the wood burning has long since ceased, and the smell of smoke is prominent in the air—though perhaps your wide-open windows might be contributing to that as well. But what else can you do when it’s disgustingly hot, and you don’t have any sort of air conditioning? 

A cool, gentle night breeze blows through the air, disturbing the loose papers on Hyunjin’s nightstand and making a soft rustling sound. 

Restless, you turn over in bed, sighing—only to look straight into Hyunjin’s dark, sparkling orbs as he stares right back at you, his gaze already fixated on your form. 

You hold back a gasp, pressing your lips together tightly as your grip on your blanket grows clammy. After a few moments of painful silence and prolonged eye contact, Hyunjin sits up in bed, ducking under the top bunk as he moves to the edge of the mattress, his blanket slipping from his body. 

You’ve lost count of the things you’ve learned about Hyunjin at this point, but you learn another thing here. 

He sleeps naked. 

You have to stifle another gasp as the blanket threatens to slip down further, exposing him completely, but he places a hand over it just as it exposes his happy trail. He chuckles a little awkwardly, his fingers tangling in the blanket as he pulls it up further. “Sorry,” he says, sucking in a harsh breath through his teeth. 

You’re speechless again, but this time you force yourself to do something even if you can’t say anything. The last thing you want is another misunderstanding, another chance for this terribly beautiful man to slip through your fingers. 

Hyunjin has to swallow back a groan as he watches you come over to him, your gaze washing over him in a way that makes him feel so desired, so wanted. He can’t help but let go of the blanket, letting it slip to the ground and expose his hardening cock, which twitches with anticipation as you sink to your knees between his legs. Hyunjin licks his lips, his cheeks flushing as he meets your gaze. Your hands smooth over his thighs before you push them apart a little more, and before he can say anything one of your hands has made its way to his cock, wrapping around the base of it and stroking gently, sending waves of pleasure through his body. He throws his head back and moans softly, his abs tensing as you rub your thumb over his weeping slit, giggling softly at the way his hips buck up harshly. 

He looks down at you as you lean closer, running your hot tongue along his balls and making him whimper. His cock pulses in your hand as you gently suck one of his balls into your mouth, feeling the slight weight of it on your tongue as you massage it carefully. Hyunjin’s fingers come down to tangle in your hair as he gasps loudly, more precum leaking from his tip as you use your hand to stroke his length while you tongue his balls. 

You remove your mouth with a soft moan, your tongue lolling out as you lick up his tight balls and up the underside of his cock. His precum is salty, filmy on your tongue as you lick it up before taking the head of his cock into your mouth, suckling hard and eliciting a choked groan as his hips stutter. 

“I’m gonna cum if you keep doing that,” he gasps, gently pulling you off of his cock as he shudders, his orgasm fading as his cock twitches, craving more stimulation. “I wanna fuck you,” he insists, when you try to squirm out of his grasp to lick at his cock again. He only tightens his grip on you, staring into your eyes for a moment before gently laying you down on his bottom bunk bed, ducking back underneath to crawl on top of you. 

His touch is eager but not rough as he helps you out of your clothes, throwing them onto the floor carelessly. His eyes settle on your bare skin with every piece of clothing that you remove until you’re completely nude, and he runs his hands up and down your sides appreciatively. “You’re gorgeous,” he murmurs, biting his plush lower lip as he stares at your body for a few moments more, before looking back up into your eyes. His gaze is lustful, full of desire—yet there’s something a little mournful too, a glimmer of hope. 

It makes you want to kiss him, more than anything. Your lips crash onto his, but he was ready—it’s like he was wanting it too. He kisses you back eagerly, his tongue licking into your mouth as his soft lips engulf yours. His hands hesitantly rest on your hips, his touch light as a feather, before you place your hands over his and move them up to your breasts. He moans into the kiss, gently squeezing your tits in his hands and rubbing his calloused thumbs over your hardening nipples, making you groan. You can feel his cock rubbing against your inner thigh as he bucks his hips, hissing at the slight friction on his sensitive length. 

He slides one of his hands down your curves, his fingers dancing lightly across your skin as he reaches between your legs. Shakily, you part your legs for him more as he glides his digits through your silky folds, groaning quietly as he feels your wetness. “Maybe all that arguing was like foreplay to you,” he says smugly, earning him a gentle smack to the arm from you as you protest. 

“Then I can definitely say the same about you,” you retort, wrapping your legs around his waist to pull him closer. His length slides over your soaking pussy, making both of you groan again. 

“If I admit it, can I fuck you already?” he asks, his tone light and teasing. He starts to grind his cock against your weeping slit, obscene slick noises emanating around the cabin. You can’t help but let out a strangled moan as the head of his cock slides over your clit, making your thighs twitch uncontrollably. 

“Yes, please,” you gasp, not caring any more—all you wanted was him to fuck you. 

A cocky smile spreads across his face, but before you can make fun of him for it he slides himself into you, eliciting shaky moans from the both of you. 

It burns slightly; it’s been a while since you’ve hooked up with anyone, so naturally you’re once again not used to the feeling. The pain comes with pleasure, however, and you can’t ignore the deep thrum of pleasure that’s starting to pool in your stomach, your cunt pulsing around Hyunjin’s length and making him exhale shakily as he tries to hold still so that you can adjust to his size. 

He reaches down, his thumb slicking over your clit gently as he pushes more of his length into your tight warmth, until he bottoms out completely with a pleasured sigh. 

“So full…” you whimper, squirming underneath Hyunjin as he hovers over you, his warm breath tickling your skin as his lips ghost over your neck. 

“That’s right, baby,” he coos, as he pulls out all the way, agonizingly slow—before thrusting back in again all at once, his hips smacking against yours. The sound of skin against skin echoes around the room as he sets a deep, steady pace, making you whimper and cry out with each languid, carefully angled thrust. “So full of my cock…” 

He chuckles as you curse under your breath, a hint of a whine in your whispers that he picks up on easily. He starts to rub your clit faster, applying more pressure to the sensitive little nub with his thumb. Your wetness coats your clit, his fingers, his cock, as he fucks into you more desperately now, the mere sight of your tight cunt and the pleasured expression on your face starting to edge him closer to his inevitable orgasm. 

His breathing is ragged now, his thrusts more sloppy and less rhythmic as he moans and buries his face in your neck once more, pressing kisses to your skin and nipping gently. “So close,” he gasps, his teeth sinking into the sensitive skin near your collarbone, “so fucking close…” 

With a choked moan, he pulls out of you just as thick ropes of cum erupt from his tip, landing across your tits and stomach. He strokes himself through his orgasm, groaning loudly as more creamy semen drips from his slit, leaking over his fingers. The sight makes your pussy throb with need; you still haven’t finished, and you’re a little pissed off—you were getting quite close, before he finished. 

Hyunjin notices your expression as his orgasm fades and he removes his hand from his length, panting softly. 

“I didn’t forget about you,” he says tenderly, winking at you before pressing a gentle kiss to your thigh. He moves down, kissing and nibbling at your soft skin on both thighs before he reaches your cunt. With a smile, he reaches down to spread your lips with his fingers, chuckling as you whine with embarrassment, heat rising to your face. “I promised I’d make you feel good,” he says, pressing a sloppy kiss to your cunt. “And I’m gonna.” 

He licks a fat, wide stripe up your pussy, groaning as he tastes your musky wetness on his tongue. He laps at your slit for a moment, making your thighs start to jump and twitch as you grasp at the sheets beneath you. The feeling of his tongue pressing ever so slightly against your hole, the teasing… it makes you leak even more against his lips, which he eagerly licks up again. His hands grab your twitching thighs, holding them apart as he devours your pussy. 

Moaning loudly as he wraps his plush lips around your clit and sucks, you reach down to tangle your fingers in his messy dark locks, tugging his face closer to your soaking pussy as he sucks on and licks your swollen clit. He complies eagerly, burying his face closer to your cunt—his nose bumps against your clit as he messily laps at your slit, his tongue slipping into your tight hole. 

It’s more than enough to push you over the edge, your orgasm washing over you—it’s so intense that your mind nearly goes blank, your limbs stiffen and seize as you whimper loudly, pulling Hyunjin ever-closer as your hand is still buried in his dark, tangled locks. 

He licks at your pussy through your orgasm, and once the last few waves of pleasure fade from your body he kisses back up your stomach, up your chest and collarbone, until he reaches your lips. This kiss is different from the other ones; it’s much more tender and sweet, much less hungry and full of desire. 

“Will you sleep here with me tonight?” he asks, pouting as he lays beside you, pulling the blanket over the two of you. He wraps his arms around you tightly, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. 

“In your bunk bed instead of mine? No way. There’s way too many beds in here for two people, might as well take advantage of it,” you tease lightly, wiggling in his arms. He laughs softly, squeezing you tighter—he really wanted you to stay. 

“Please?” he begs, tickling you and making you squeal as his lithe fingers prod at your sensitive sides. “Please stay with me?” 

You never really wanted to leave anyways. 

“I’ll stay with you as long as you want,” you say, pretending to finally give in, pressing a kiss to his cheek as you loosely drape your arms around his neck. 

“Just until you piss me off again by doing something stupid,” he teases, turning your face ever so slightly so that he can kiss your lips, instead of you kissing his cheek again. 

You melt into the kiss so quickly, so consumed by Hyunjin and his full lips that you hardly register what he said—until you realize. “Hey!” you scowl against his lips, as he bursts into peals of soft, melodic laughter. 

© petrichor-han 2024, all rights reserved.

please consider reblogging and/or leaving a few kind words if you enjoyed this fic :) tumblr posts revolve around reblogs, and i'd appreciate the gesture!!

[genericpuff]

Scamlords is at it again.

A few nights ago, there was a sudden blow-up in the /r/webtoons server showing a new announcement from Snailords -

For anyone unaware, Death : Rescheduled has been on mid-season hiatus since October. And it's now, and only now, that Snailords has suddenly decided the comic is ending after it returns, but readers can get an extra 20 episodes... if they fork over $1k in merch sales.

Now, this could be a lot worse. They could be threatening not to return to the series at all unless their readers hand over money. But considering it's practically just one degree away from that, it's still pretty nasty. Not to mention, the further they divulged in their reasoning around this "idea", the more confusing it got.

They also even revived their @snailordsrant account on IG which, for those of you who were there and can recall, was the same account they used to put one of their own fans on blast over some very mild criticism.

None of this makes any actual sense, for several reasons:

1.) I literally fail to see how getting $1k in less than 24 hours is worth shoving in an extra mini arc of 10 episodes if you don't even have it planned out. Why do that to your audience or to yourself? Why drag things out just to scrounge up an emergency $1k? Why not just be honest with your audience and run a GoFundMe or just say , "Hey everyone, I've run into some financial troubles, I would really appreciate it if you could FastPass my newest episodes or donate to my Patreon or buy some merch so I can cover the costs". It's really telling that this shithead doesn't have enough confidence in themselves or their audience that practically worships them that they have to resort to this kind of underhanded shit to get the money they need. I wanna make it clear that this is NOT like a Kickstarter stretch goal or anything that incentivizes readers to support their work, they're instead holding the length and future of their series over their audiences' head (which they've done before) for money. That's not an incentive, it's an ultimatum.

2.) Maybe I'm misreading / being stupid (someone pls explain if I'm missing something here) but I literally don't see how their comment about working 50 hours a week explains why they're suddenly getting their fans to pay out $1k worth of merch in less than 24 hours. For anyone who doesn't know, $1k per episode is an example Webtoons uses in its post discussing how they pay out creators (this came after the platform got called out 2 years ago for paying creators too little, there are undoubtedly creators getting paid less). And yet for some reason $1k is apparently the difference between 10 episodes and 20? How does that add up? And is the bit about them wanting to buy boba supposed to be a joke? Where's the punchline here?

3.) They say they have writer's block and they want to use the money to "motivate them", but then just a few slides later they say 10-15 episodes is what would make them the "happiest" so which is it? Do they want to write 10 episodes or do they want people to pay them to write 20 episodes so they can draw the fluff scenes that they apparently want to draw? If you have an ending planned out, why rush it or drag it out depending on how this "fundraiser" goes? Why not just write the ending you want to write that will serve your story best? Why shove in an extra mini arc that you don't even have full confidence in writing and then try to compare it to a "super expensive cake"? What are you doing? Speaking as someone who's had trouble getting motivated in the past, suddenly getting a month's rent worth of money to do it doesn't necessarily solve that, it just turns up the pressure, and if you're not someone who deals with pressure well, then you're more likely to wind up just burning out entirely rather than fulfilling that goal.

4.) The fact that they did, in fact, hit their goal just makes it all the shittier to think about because their audience is mostly made up of teenagers who worship the ground that they walk on. It's horrifying that they keep pulling these stunts with their audience, and getting away with it to boot - and Webtoons, as a company, keeps enabling it by allowing it to happen by hosting and promoting people like this.

Anyways, there's already a lot going on here that's sketchy, but then... they went and deleted their posts. At the time of this happening (as I was there to witness it all play out in real time) I assumed this meant that they had hit their $1k goal - especially as they had been showing their progress on their IG and they were already at $900 after just a couple hours - but it gave me a sinking feeling seeing them delete it because they had also been called out by some brave readers telling them that it wasn't exactly a good look to essentially blackmail their audience through their own content into giving them money.

Snailords deleting it gave me a stronger impression of "burying the evidence", especially now that they had the money. By all accounts, they could do whatever they wanted now.

So what did they decide to do?

. . . Huh?

Okay, take a second to actually think about what Snailords has done here. Because I know some of you will go "oh, it was for charity all along! that was nice of them!" but . . . I don't know about the legalities of collecting donation funds under false pretenses, but morally speaking, it's a really shitty thing to do. They stripped away the choices - limiting them to three - of what their readers could donate to, and what I think their readers don't understand - due to being mostly teenagers - is that they're tax-exempt individuals and they just unknowingly gave Snailords an easy $1k tax write-off. You really, really shouldn't collect donation funds like this without being honest, it's just a shitty thing to do, especially after you've already collected the money. It mostly just comes across as damage control on Snailords' part to make it seem like they were always planning to donate to charity, when in reality, if they wanted to donate to charity, they would have been honest about that at the start. Again, even if they wanted to do that from the start, it goes to show how little confidence they have in themselves or their audience that they have to stoop to methods like these instead of just doing it honestly.

And do you really think Snailords will actually do those extra episodes? Or donate that money? This is the same asshole who has manipulated their readers for money not once but twice, and now seems intent on doing it a third time just for the charm. This is the same person who practically sabotaged their own comic, Freaking Romance, because they apparently didn't like the romance genre and may as well have only done it for clout / views / etc.

What was especially odd - and I found this out from folks who actually read Death : Rescheduled (I do not) - was finding out that it wouldn't make sense for D : R to end in as many as 25 episodes, because apparently, the plot has basically just gotten going.

So it does seem like this is foreshadowing that D : R will wind up just like Freaking Romance, rushed into an ending that wasn't expected. And this, of course, has the people who read their work confused because D : R was supposed to be Snailords' passion project, their magnum opus, the project they wanted to do. So them holding the timing of an ending that shouldn't even be happening yet for ransom contradicts that original intention. Really, it just goes to show that Snailords has no passion, they're just in it purely for the money, to a degree that I can't even cheer them on for being a hustler because it's missing the honesty and integrity.

And of course, every single time Snailords finds a way to backpedal and take his audience for a ride, they hop right in without a single thought for themselves.

And no, none of this is to hate on the readers directly, I hold Snailords entirely responsible for this - they have an audience of impressionable, naive, gullible teenagers, and they know it, and take advantage of it every chance they get. It's why they weren't just honest about wanting to collect money for charity from the start. It's why they resorted to basically holding their own comic's progression for ransom during its midseason hiatus. It's why the deadline was 24 hours and why the posts are now gone.

Thankfully the Internet does what it does - any evidence that Snailords was trying to bury is now all over reddit, and hey, just for good measure, here's a post on Tumblr that's been sitting in my drafts for days now, days after people have already seemingly stopped talking about it. Don't let anyone bury or forget about the stunts Snailords is pulling on their audience, with a platform that they've been consistently given by Webtoons, because that's what they want you to do.

[popatochisssp]

Apparently I haven't been checking here enough because there's so many new boys I didn't recognize in the sibling post!!! And they all sound so cool and interesting!!

Thank you! But you’re probably not as out of the loop as you think—I’ve been a little shy about sharing my stuff lately, so I actually haven’t posted about any of those guys before!

If you want a quick rundown…

Transcendtale: The result of a never-ending cycle of RESETs with a No Mercy sort of human. Monsters gradually became aware and eventually resorted to extremes to put an end to the cycle, sacrificing themselves to create one single vessel powerful enough to kill the human for good. In the aftermath, most of monsterkind is gone…physically, but still persist as consciousnesses recorded digitally instead. (Sort of a cyberpunk aesthetic answer to Dusttale.)

Spectr (Transcendtale Sans): The unlucky bastard who got tapped to pilot the ultra-powerful human-killing vessel and one of only a few physical monsters remaining. His new body is entirely robotic but similar to what he had before—the only thing missing is a soul. He’s coping in the aftermath of Everything about as well as could be expected, but pretty heavily dysphoric and doubting his identity and his personhood as…whatever he is now.

PapAIrus (Transcendtale Papyrus): A virtual consciousness, a snapshot of the previous ‘original’ Papyrus, his thoughts, his feelings, his memories, his entire sense of self… AKA, Papyrus, just detached from a physical body and soul. He considers it a major upgrade, really—he’s eternal, everywhere, everything… Maybe a slight god-complex about it, but can you blame him? He can interact with the world directly via hard-light projections of himself if he chooses, so it’s hard for him to see a downside to his new state of being.

Ascendswap: Another never-ending cycle of RESETs with No Mercy to be found, but after a bargain is struck with an entity beyond mortal ken, a small inner-circle of monsters is granted awareness of the cycle, and access to deeper, older, more powerful magic in order to put a stop to the human’s reign of terror. Most of monsterkind is only peripherally aware of all that happened, but a select few have been Elevated beyond what they once were.

Xanth (Ascendswap Sans): He’s the one who struck the eldritch bargain and consequently gained power and magic, as well as the ability to share it with anyone he chooses. It’s come at a significant cost and large swathes of him have been lost, dissolved into pure magic. He’s also now one who’s seen beyond the veil, the ant who has perceived the circuit board so to speak, and he’ll never be quite who he was. Still, he’s happy, and far more attuned to souls and magic and energy than he ever was before, so he’s not complaining.

Piper (Ascendswap Papyrus): One of the beneficiaries of his brother’s meddling, a newly-minted boss monster with full awareness of RESETs and much stronger magic—including an ability to push intent into his words as he speaks them, making their influence stronger. Due to the nature of its source, there’s only so far that little trick can go, but between being far more persuasive than he ever hoped he could be, his increased power, and more than a few timelines of experience, his confidence is through the roof and stress over what people think of him is a thing of the past.

Underfell Fruition: The Royal Scientist is never erased from reality. He continues his work as planned, without interruption and continues experiments which produce marvelous innovations for monsterkind’s eventual conquest of humanity. Two of his most impressive achievements are a device which allows the user to produce magic seemingly limitlessly, from thin air without drawing on one’s own energy, and a war machine that attacks on command—both of which are frequently lent out to the Emperor and the Royal Guard to serve the crown’s purposes. …Until a bit of poking around uncovers some…moderately…alarming monster rights violations, amongst other charges, which lead to the Royal Scientist’s conviction and execution.

Carmine (Underfell Fruition Sans): Captured during his attempt to escape from Gaster with his brother, and due to a consistent pattern of disobedience, locked away—permanently. Altered to produce magic at a significantly higher rate and used as a magic battery, he’s got plenty of energy and a whole lot of living to catch up on now that he’s out of the (barely metaphorical) box. What he lacks in worldly experience, he makes up for in luck, intuition, and a cocky can-do attitude, all too ready to make up for lost time.

Tank (Underfell Fruition Papyrus): ‘Raised’ alone by a cruel ‘father’ whose only use for him was as the pinnacle of his project to create a perfect living weapon for the war against humanity, he is extremely new to a lot of concepts—making decisions, having opinions, being a person… None of that was allowed while he was being developed…er, growing up, so in spite of being tall, intimidating, and built like a truck, he’s hesitant around new people and situations where he needs to do any more than just follow orders. Tentatively starting to branch out and discover what being a monster (instead of a monster-shaped weapon) is all about now that his creator is out of the picture and the brother he thought he’d only imagined is back in it.

Swapfell Fruition: The Royal Scientist is never erased from reality. He continues his work as planned, without interruption and continues experiments which lead to the development of a black ops division for the Empress, a secret service of sorts to serve the interests of the crown and to do the unsavory dirty work involved in maintaining an empire whose citizens are prone to corruption and violence. Espionage, blackmail, and quite a few assassinations are carried out by the unknown team managed, equipped, trained, and modified by the Royal Scientist. …Until one day, he happens to turn up dead and it’s uncovered that the ‘volunteers’ for the program were less willing participants and more lab-grown experiments who were given no choice otherwise. Bearing in mind what’s come to light about the circumstances, the black ops program is disbanded.

Vi (Swapfell Fruition Sans): Stopped during his attempt to murder Gaster and escape with his brother, and because of his clearly duplicitous nature, far more tightly controlled and observed and forced into obedience to his creator after. Used primarily as a handler to debrief, control, and monitor the real asset, he developed a keen eye for detail and skill in fact-finding, being secretive, and lying…which was probably a tactical error because he devoted himself wholly to playing the long con and waiting for the perfect opportunity for another attempt to free himself and his brother. A little late…maybe too late…but better than never.

Hunter (Swapfell Fruition Papyrus): The asset and field agent, a thoroughly trained and heavily mentally conditioned assassin, operant on a small library of trigger words and phrases which compel him to follow directives and alter the functioning of his mind and body. He’s extremely competent when working, charming and ruthless and efficient, but off the leash, impertinent, impulsive, and impossible. He does as he pleases whenever possible which, now that his boss/creator/dad is dead, seems like it’ll be all the time. On some weird footing now with his erstwhile handler—his brother—who was apparently less complicit in said boss/creator/dad’s bullshit than he’d thought, but y’know. He’s out of the cage either way and can chase his whims wherever they take him.

Descendtale: A Horrortale variant, a human’s passage through the Underground has left monsterkind without their king, without any of the human souls they’d gathered to break the Barrier, and without a handful of citizens. The long-lost queen returns to lead her people and pivots toward survival, weathering the long-haul trapped Underground with dwindling hope and resources. An alternate food source is the highest priority as monsters are already starting to go hungry in the wake of the chaos, and one is found…though not without its…side-effects. Light sensitivity, slowed metabolism, darkening of extremities, thorn-like growths on the body, and some mental changes and personality drift among other metamorphoses. The Underground takes on a deep-sea quality—slow, cold, dark—monsters subsisting on what they have and waiting patiently for the next whalefall to swarm.

Kohl (Descendtale Sans): The human’s disappearance has left him more than a little bitter (betrayed, though he’ll never admit that). His opinion of humans (or anyone new) is quite low after what the last one did to them all and he’s not keen on trusting or believing in any, anytime soon. He’s chilly, selfish, and reluctant to engage—though he does have a slight mean-spirited streak, and is greatly amused by creeping out or otherwise agitating humans by his presence. Coping with the changes they’ve all gone through and settling in to his new normal, but very stubbornly digging in to the small pleasures that his altered biology makes more difficult. Determined to live much in the manner of a cockroach: through just about anything and regardless of the opinion of those who’d prefer him not to.

Bram (Descendtale Papyrus): The human’s disappearance has left him confused and hurt. He’d thought they were friends, but well…then they did all that and left, never to return. There’s…a lot of conflicting emotions in there and he probably shouldn’t try to unpack it all—he’s just focusing on being the best friend possible from here on out! He’s a little bit clingy with new friends and people he’d like to become new friends but as much as possible, a perfect gentleman, host, and conversationalist. Some strong emotional outbursts from time to time, and his tendency towards unintentionally unnerving statements do make that a bit difficult but he’s very amicable and unlike his brother, only creepy on accident, so…he can still be popular, right? …Right?

If anybody’s interested in a full lore dump for anything, I can draft something up, but that’s the gist of all the brand new ones!

Sorry for all the words! 😅

[wrencatte]

mini-fic 6(ish!) post-Fallen Order. Mantis Crew. Cal & Merrin. Omniscient POV (Mostly Merrin). 1.1k words Cal...has a beard??? ao3 mini fic link - chapter 6 (ponchos)

Cal plops down on the couch with a loud, drawn-out satisfied sound, relishing in the first comfortable seat in literal days. Merrin looks up from her holonovel, blinks once, twice, and bluntly asks, “What is wrong with your face?”

He slaps a hand to his chin. “There’s nothing wrong with my face.”

“No, there is,” she insists, abandoning her novel to grab hold of his wrist and wrench his hand away – or at least she tries to wrench it away, but Cal resists valiantly, muscles straining with the effort. He leans as far back from the Nightsister as possible until he yelps, and they both go tumbling off the couch to land in a groaning heap on the floor.

Cere watches them, eyebrows raised, and lifting not a single finger to assist either one of them. BD chirrups from his spot over the Master’s shoulder, something distinctly mocking in his tone even without knowing binary, and Cal groans again, louder and more obnoxiously.

“Thanks, buddy, knew I could count on you,” he snarks. The droid whistles something else that just makes him laugh.

“What did he say?” Merrin asks even as she resorts to prying Cal’s hand off his face, fingers digging under his palm. He tries to smack her hand away with his free one, but she just grabs it and pins it awkwardly to the side out of the way. She pauses, head tilted in contemplation, then drops her entire body weight on the Jedi. He lets out a wheezing oof! at the suddenness, eyes wide. BD laughs at him. “This would be easier if you just gave in.”

“Doubt it,” he grunts.

They grapple – no, actually, tussle is really a better word to describe it. Neither of them are actually trying at all. Cal’s stuck arching his face away from Merrin since he can use his hand, and Merrin could easily hurt him in this position, so her efforts are half-hearted at best. Both of them are laughing like children, little hushed, breathless giggles. Cere doesn’t hide her smile, thoroughly enjoying the sight of them acting so care-free, and secretly recording the whole thing. Even though they have BD for that, there’s something about having a version all to herself that she can’t resist.

Cal finally gives up and removes his hand. Merrin makes a noise of triumphant – that gets cut off when he (gently) smacks his hand against Merrin’s face instead, effectively blinding her. He uses the surprise attack as leverage to shove her back against the base of the couch and he scrambles to his feet, putting distance between the two of them quickly, and…goes back to covering his chin.

“It is not that embarrassing,” Merrin tells him.

Cal scowls. “You said there was something wrong with my face!”

She makes a conceding expression. “Fair, but I did not mean it in that way. It merely…caught me by surprise.”

Cal had been gone for the last few days, exploring a nearby mountain pass in hopes it was what they were looking for (it wasn’t), so forgive her shock when he came back looking like that. He changed out of his regular poncho and new vest combo in favor of a pair of loose pants with far too many belts and his ratty training top that Greez has tried to throw out several times – though not as many times he’s tried to throw out some of his older, more…pungent ponchos. His hair longer than when she first met him, long enough to tuck behind his ears, and when you add that to what’s going on with his face…

He eyes her warily then semi-reluctantly drops his hand, putting it on his hip instead in a sort of are you happy now? pose. Merrin stares at him. He stares back, weight shifting as if he’s about to bolt.

“It looks good,” she declares finally.

Cal rolls his eyes. “You literally said – .”

“I did not get a proper look! You surprised me!” Merrin snaps. Cal throws his hands up in a huff.

He has a beard.

Or…almost a beard. Barely a beard, it’s still growing in and all. But it’s there and it, and it adds a maturity to his face she wasn’t expecting. Before, his old, world-weary soul could only be felt in the Force when he dropped his shields and let them help him. Now, though, Merrin looks at him and she can see the weight he carries far too easily. The beard looks good, yes, but it makes her heart ache just a little.

Cal scrubs a hand over the short, scratchy-looking beard. It makes his freckles stand out, somehow, or maybe that’s because they’ve been hopping from sunny planet to sunny planet these last few months and he’s no longer stuck under the perpetually gloomy clouds of Bracca. He burns instead of tans, but he seems to get new freckles every day.

“I didn’t mean to grow one in,” he admits. “But I’m kinda attached now.”

“Literally,” Cere adds.

He sticks his tongue out at her then jumps with a strangled yelp when she thrums their bond in admonishment like he’s a twelve-year-old apprentice all over again. “Hey! That’s a cheap shot!”

“What’s a cheap shot?” Greez asks, walking onto the Mantis. He looks up from the holopad he was consulting. “Oh. Hey, Cal, welcome back…What’s wrong with your face?”

Cal swears at him in Huttese as Merrin laughs. “All of you! All of you are against me! It’s not that bad!”

“It truly isn’t,” Merrin assures him, sounding only half-sincere to his ears.

Cere shrugs. “It’s not too bad,” she agrees. “I think it needs another day or two before it really works for you, though. Right now it’s…” She wiggles her hand with a wince.

“Ehhh,” is Greez’s contribution.

Cal hides his face with both hands this time, sighing very, very loudly. “You are all so mean to me. Fine, I’ll kriffin’ shave it off. Greez, got anything I can use? My kit got lost somewhere.” He glares BD-1 from between his fingers and the droid chitters in response, sounding offended. “I am not! You’re the one who went over the ledge! I told you not to scan it!” BD-1 beeps something decidedly rude.

“Nothin’ for your human sensitivity. You’re gonna have to wait until our next supply stop, kid.”

He groans. “Unbelievable. That’s a week from now.”

Merrin pats his shoulder consolingly. “You will survive,” she says seriously. “And if you do not, I know several rituals that will bring you back with minimal…side-effects.”

“Thanks, Merrin, you really know how to make a guy feel better.”

She smiles. “You are welcome!”

[domesantis]

Keith and his Fanny Packs and Boots to bed

disclaimer: first post, extremely new to tumblr. but of course my first post HAD to be voltron-related, and it's about keith and his fanny packs and boots. (A stupid, small analysis)

in S1 E2, in the first minute we see Allura doing an unannounced drill (albeit dramatically) to evaluate the readiness, vigilance and speed of the newly recruited pilots. Other than Shiro, he seems to have the best mastery of these traits as he launches across the room to grab his jacket (Wow. His first instinct. Gotta dive into that sooner or later) then get out one second later.

Many people have pointed out the sheer absurdity and comedy of Keith wearing his fanny packs and boots to bed. How uncomfortable can that be? At conclusion, this scene was boiled down to just a trivial animation mistake and I also think that's all it is. But, out of fun, I want to look deeper into this "mistake" (Although many people have already probably concluded my upcoming analysis and I'm just late to the bandwagon.)

His fanny packs and boots are the solid testament to his life.

In later seasons, we find out that Keith has been practically raising himself throughout his childhood. He had an absent, dead (secretly alive) mother and also a completely dead father. In an optimistic sense, at least his father passed when Keith was 10 (?) years old, having a fragment of paternal love and care despite it being abruptly cut off. Oddly enough, orphanages aren't a thing in his time.

As if being stripped of parental love wasn't cruel enough, he also faced ostracization and bullying throughout his entire childhood without any adult to stand up for him whatsoever. Until around he was 16-17, Shiro saw his potential and eventually developed into his implied father figure. Then Shiro disappeared after a year, leaving him all alone once again.

So, during the timeframes before and after he met Shiro, he was left all alone to fend for himself. He lives in an almost dilapidated, shabby shack in the middle of a desert, naturally leaving security unattended and nonexistent.

Of course, for a child/teenager, this predicament alone would transpire paranoia especially when you're in the middle of nowhere with the imminent anxiety of wild beasts/animals without any nearby protection.

Onto my main point now.

Keith is a teenager that was left to fend for himself all alone. Not only does he have no parents, but also he lives in the middle of nowhere and faces extreme ostracization and bullying. His school is an extremely emotionally and physically unsafe environment for him, and so is his shack. Consequently, he makes it a priority to always keep his guard up everywhere at any time. He isn't familiar with the notion of a "safe space". (Perhaps he only literally experiences that concept when he forms a deep connection with a bunch of other teenagers in outer space. Now that's a safe space. LOL)

His only resort and closest alternative to a "safe space"? His dagger, fanny pack, and boots.

Boots, to immediately escape the grasp of an intruder/emergency;

His fanny pack, presumably with all his survival essentials in it, in case of any emergency;

And his dagger, to defend himself.

All of which are stationed on him.

When you've spent the majority of your life alone with absolutely nobody to depend on, vigilance and paranoia creeps itself onto your daily routine. Most likely, Keith feels naked and vulnerable without them, because these three are his fundamental objects of safety.

So, he learnt readiness, vigilance, and speed not by training, but through cruelty. Of course, even with the reassurance of sleeping in a high-security advanced spaceship, old habits die hard. He'd rather sleep through discomfort rather than face danger.

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this would be so good for a klance hurt/comfort fic. just lance slowly easing keith into introducing the possibility of safety and vulnerability coexisting together instead of having to choose between the two. i GOTTA write something like this soon

keith needs a hug bro

[mays-corner]

(This post is a bit random so if you get it you get it if you don't get it it's fine)

It's 2024. I should be going to the disco, which I dislike.

Instead, I decided to hyperfixate on a Welshman.

One thing that baffles me to this day, and trust me it has happened more than once, is has anyone ever tried to protest at least a bit to still have Matt as John? Did no one try hard enough? Or have the attempts failed?

I mean-

I'm a newer fan (even with content crumbs I am a fan) still, so I can't be sure, but I'm amazed that in all these years that have passed, no one ever did anything, and now he can't even play Constantine (I think).

And now, the only role I've seen is him dubbing John 💀

Ignoring this discourse about John, I've decided to search for other roles, movies, and series, and what I've found was interesting, to say the least.

I am becoming passionate about him for various reasons. Other than wanting to revive pre-pandemic activities, I have noticed a pattern: I enjoy searching for things that I only watch. These are some thoughts I had about some things I could not find in Italy:

Hard to find (for example, I'm still searching for "The Halcyon," and the funniest thing about this is that in Italy, it was shown on TV (on an RAI channel, RAI is an Italian broadcaster) during 2017 and it's not available on their platform.

Region-locked content (the DCAU being region-locked is such a crime; we only have House of Mystery, and that's it) or even trying to watch a simple cameo when the entire series is region-locked (the Harley Quinn one). However (and this is good news), while searching for Away (one of his movies to watch), I found Tubi and used a free VPN. It was slow, but it worked, and I watched it.

Expensive (I paid Assassin's Creed Black Flag in installments, so that wasn't expensive, but still...)

It was a play, so they haven't recorded it, but to see and better understand the role he played (in this case, read), I read Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, and it was still effective.

Not even available on Chili (an Italian streaming platform on which you can rent or buy movies), the title only appears but is not available for streaming (lol).

Using Vinted or secondhand shops in general (it’s not the best time for me to go fully secondhand, but I suppose I could find some things there).

At the moment, I've watched just what I could easily find without resorting to piracy (which is ironic, since in Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Matt voices Edward Kenway, a pirate.).

In this list of things I could easily find, we have:

Constantine (thanks to another fan)

Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior (I had Disney Plus for a month, so I've watched it from there)

Flypaper, Adverse (Prime Video)

Arrow (Prime video)

Legends of Tomorrow (Netflix and Mediaset infinity)

House Of Mystery (Amazon prime, you have to rent it but still)

While writing this I found that "Layer cake" is on Sky, which I have and Now TV too.

Pocket Money (While watching it I just understood two words out of an entire short and I'm a c2 in English 💀)

Away, Wild Decembers, Armistice, Blood Monkey

So, you might have been asking yourself... Have I gone mad? To search and find for stuff not even available in my own country? In my own continent, too?

But I thought this is what comes with being a fan of someone, even if the career is what it is.

Considering me being unlucky, I was never able to see Matt when he acted and then had premieres at the same time.

Asssassin’s Creed Black Flag? I was 10, a child, lol.

Legends Of Tomorrow? I liked anime, manga and everything japanese.

And the list goes on...

It's nice to see what was like and what I couldn't live, gosh, I'm praying hard that we get to see him act again, I want and I wish to be present, live or not.

I wanted to make a really nice speech but nothing comes to mind, when I get it maybe I'll post it 💀

[pisoprano]

This is an ML salt post, particularly about Lila Rossi. If you are actually excited about Lila being the main villain in future season(s), this post isn't for you, I just need to rant. A lot.

I hate Lila Rossi. I hate her with a burning passion. Literally every episode where she shows up, my hatred for this character will manifest in me saying "I hate her" the moment she opens her mouth, followed by seething throughout every moment she spends onscreen.

In prior seasons, this wasn't much of an issue--she'd show up for a couple episodes and then she'd disappear 90% of the time, so I could usually just focus on literally anything else in the show. With season 5, however, she started showing up much more. I knew it was coming, of course--the foreshadowing that she would be the successor to Hawkmoth has been visible since season 3, and it was announced that he'd be gone after this season. But if the show had ended at season 5 as originally intended, butterfly!Lila could have been a theoretical problem for adult!Ladybug and adult!Chat Noir in 10 years. But since the powers that be have decided to have the show continue past Gabriel Agreste, Lila is a problem now and will be a problem at least until Chris Lahiffe is a teenage boy, if "Timetagger" is any indication. And we, the audience, will be forced to suffer through all of it.

Why, though, do I hate the idea of Lila being the main villain? I was fine with having Gabriel in the villain seat for five seasons despite him being a terrible father and manipulative git, after all. With Gabriel, there was a particular humanity to him that made him interesting--this entire show is about love and Gabe's love was so overwhelming and myopic and self-serving that he resorted to villainy while convincing himself that he was secretly the hero all along, sacrificing everything (even his morality) for the woman he loved. He used his love as an excuse to justify the harm he caused Paris and his very own son. As he continually reached for forbidden means to get what he wanted, his dreams ballooned in scope--he'd defied the odds when he'd married above his station, he'd defied the odds when he'd become a world-renowned designer, he'd defied the odds when he found the miraculous and created the perfect son--and so it became all too natural for him to fight the impossible fight as Hawkmoth because he deserved to win this too. And the whole time, unbeknownst to either of them, he's fighting against the son who he's been neglecting and controlling in his fight to save someone who never wanted to be saved? That stuff is fascinating.

Lila, though? She's got none of that complexity. She's a consummate liar who hates the protagonists and literally nothing else. In other shows, she'd be the transfer student who shows up for an episode, gets exposed as a fraud by the end of that episode, and then literally never be seen again. This show, however, has Lila overstay the welcome that her character archetype is built for and instead be a recurring problem. And, because a liar can only get away with lying if the surrounding characters don't know she's lying, Lila is made untouchable by the plot. Other villainous characters have some plot immunity to their evilness--Chloe, obviously, has the automatic win condition of demanding her father to get her out of trouble whenever she wants. But Lila's plot immunity comes from an inexplicable ability to manipulate everyone around her (besides our main protagonists, who are forced to only cry wolf). She makes all the supporting cast love her without help, she does so even to characters we'd expect to know better. When she first showed up, her lies weren't even good and still she gets away with her reputation in tact basically every time. The one time where she does get exposed to everyone, she gets to have an easy redo by making up a completely new identity to try again. She's a Villain Sue. And her very presence weakens the story she's in.

Lila only exists because the writers decided to make an absolute hate sink. They absolutely succeeded in doing so. And frankly, that's a problem. Most of the time, if you're going to have a character in a show for any length of time, they should be likeable on some level. They could be sympathetic or competent or proactive or even just have a personality that's fun to watch, but the audience shouldn't feel like the character is a waste of viewing time. Lila isn't someone the audience can identify with, her competence is largely in name only (I will allow that her manipulative skills during season 5 are stronger, but her ludicrously bad prior lying and the unexplained nature of her sudden hypercompetence now aren't nearly enough to make me forgive her here). Lila's sometimes doing things behind the scenes, sure, but she has the laughably petty objectives of "be famous" and "ruin classmate's life" and I cannot take her actions towards achieving these goals seriously as a bit villain, let alone a primary antagonist. And--worst of all--her voice is extremely annoying. I will suffer through a myriad of things, but I can only listen to nails on a chalkboard so long before need to leave the room.

And this might be a bit of a hot take, but honestly? I don't think Lila was even necessary in the first place. In episodes like "Volpina" or "Oni-Chan," she could have been replaced with Chloe (our original mean girl who's clingy with Adrien--she might not be my favorite character either, but at least she's funny). I'm positive that the plot of "Catalyst" and "Miraculer" could have been reworked to happen without Lila's involvement without much effort. The entire subplot of Lila being Adrien's modelling partner was more about Gabriel controlling his son--it could have been easily about forcing Adrien to be alone instead of forcing him to be with someone he didn't like. The fact that Lila shows up so little in the first four seasons just goes to prove how unnecessary she is. She only becomes important in season 5 because the writers now know that they need to prepare for a new supervillain to fill Gabriel's shoes after he leaves--and she's the only one who comes anywhere close to fitting. So, suddenly, she's being far more active than she ever was (almost half of her total appearances are in season 5 alone), but her motivations are less clear than ever, so I'm left assuming that this hollow character must still have the hollowest of motivations--popularity, power, getting back at the kids who rebuffed her... after having 5 seasons of truly delicious drama, why on earth would I want to turn the worst thing about those 5 seasons into main course?

I know I am far from being alone in hating Lila Rossi's character. There are literally thousands of fics tagged with "Lila's Lies Are Exposed" because so many readers want to see her be punished for her actions. I'm actually not really a fan of these--I don't take joy in seeing Lila being taken down. I want her to disappear from the narrative entirely. If the current state of United States politics has taught me anything, it's that that watching a terrible person get their comeuppance is never as satisfying as you think it will be because that terrible person will keep popping up and keep being terrible and keep forcing you to think about them. The best possible punishment I can think of for Lila is to act like she's just an OC made from some background character that never mattered in the first place--and then never have to think about her existence in the show again.

I was happy to watch the first 5 seasons of Miraculous Ladybug. I wish it had only been those 5 seasons (side note: Chat deserved to go up against his father in the final battle. I get that he couldn't since the mandate for more seasons requires the identities to be intact, but this was the point in the narrative when the reveal was meant to happen and it has weakened the story to move it elsewhere). I haven't decided to not watch season 6 at this point, but knowing who I will have to deal with in every episode? It's making it very difficult for me to want to continue any further.

[skullinahat]

some long-ass thoughts on watcher and dropout

for the record, i've enjoyed both of their work. i won't talk abt it much in this post, but it's very interesting how people kind of view shane's performative anti-capitalism making their consumption of ghost files a reflection of their own politics. then, a business making a business decision feels much more personal, because an aspect of your morals has just betrayed you. instead of just losing access to media you enjoyed, you just lost a reference point for your identity. Dropout is very mildly more aware of their function in capitalist society when they make anti-capitalist jokes, but the effect is still the same. the concept of supporting small business being an effective political action has obviously fed into, or perhaps came from, consumer culture. there's been a lot of "disappointment" in shane specifically, which is why i bring this up.

this post is a mess and i definitely used some of the wrong words, but i hope it makes some sense.

Watcher and Dropout have been compared alot as of late, of course both being attempted independent subscription based streaming services with a small host of content. dropout is cast as the good guy, the thing that watcher is striving for and failed at. I've seen several people joke about subscribing to dropout instead as a little fuck you to watcher.

A lot of people have genuinely asked what the difference is. Why is watcher bad and dropout good?

The most common answer i've seen is that dropout was pitched as a last effort to save a dying company, instead of the greedy money grab that watchertv feels like. dropout also offers a much larger cast, and many more shows, releasing new episodes monday through friday. Both of these things, however, are only true of dropout as of now.

Dropout was started two years before collegehumor's death, and it was only able to release as many shows as it is now very recently. It also didn't originally advertise itself as a final resort, rather "netflix- but worse!"

It didnt begin as a hail mary for a dying platform, just a new branch of an old one with no ads and more freedom. (Though it was a final resort later.) i think the biggest material difference between the two is that dropout always felt like an addon rather than an ambush paywall. later when it did become an ambush paywall, it felt justified. there was complete clarity over what would be on dropout and what would remain free on youtube.

this clarity was never present in watcher's announcement. I personally don't think watcher was ever planning on removing their free content from youtube, and they just worded it really poorly in their original video, but keeping new episodes behind a paywall is still enough to alienate their fanbase. the concept of them removing everything from youtube has stuck around despite their assurances against it.

the rest of the reasons why watcher went over so poorly is audience trust, yearly context, and marketing.

People had already followed ryan and shane from buzzfeed to watcher, so their trust had been tested before, resulting in them being more loyal, but still. I've seen a lot of people discussing their disappointment with watcher's content compared to buzzfeeds, which, everyone hates change so on and so forth, but most people are pointing specifically to the overproduction and the awkwardness. I had the same expeirence. I specifically remember watching an episode of too many spirits and realizing i was forcing myself to continue. It just felt like lipstick on a pig, hours of animation work on top of an awkward joke. I think there's been frustration with watcher's content building for a long time, and this poorly worded announcement is the straw that broke the camels back. i also don't think there was as much streaming service fatigue back when dropout was started as there is now.

It is entirely possible, given that they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on post-production per video, that watcher needs more money to continue. I, as many do, would attribute this to poor financial decisions. However, i think they could've framed watchertv as a last resort for a company that fiscally couldnt continue on youtube and gotten away with it. they still would have gotten some flack for steven's tesla and gold-leaf pizza, but it wouldnt be the total takedown it is now.

Instead, in the video they simply talk about being to big for youtube. No stressing about money. It feels entitled. even in the apology, where they claim that watcher couldn't continue on youtube, the overt focus is not placed on money. Wether this was a decision to try and not sound too whiny and pandering, or it's that they genuinely could continue to work on youtube but want more freedom on watchertv, i'm not sure. either way, it worked out horribly for them.

[allinthemagicshop]

We'll Fix This

I'm new to posting my writings so be gentle please.

FelixSKZxF!Reader

Angst, no warnings (I don't think, let me know if there should be for future reference)

This is a complete work of fiction originally written for a friend, I do not own rights to anything about Stray Kids. This is just a fun pastime for me.

Falling in love with someone is the easy part. The feeling of letting yourself slip into the comfort of someone’s presence and finding a new home within them takes little effort. Smiling at every interaction with someone is effortless. Recognizing their little mannerisms as endearing qualities is a breeze. Loving yourself more when they build you up is second nature. Smothering each other in love is like breathing. Realizing that the little things you fell in love with are now constantly irritating you is the hard part. It’s been 3 years since you and Felix started dating and loving him was the easiest thing you’ve ever done. Until it wasn’t.

Another comeback, another tour, and another period of repeating that “distance makes the heart grow fonder” to get through it. Only this time, you don’t have the belief behind those words. The last couple of days before a tour are always spent together, cuddling and promising that your love will keep this relationship going. Felix had his arms wrapped tightly around your waist while you threaded your fingers through his hair. Something was definitely different this time, he’s never held you this tight. Too nervous to say anything, you focus on the show you two had decided to finish together. 

“Babe…can we talk?” Felix mumbled against your side, not taking his eyes off the screen. Your hands dropped to your side at his tone. He noticed immediately, yet instead of reassuring you like he has so many times before, he pulled away. “Something has changed,” he looked down at his hands, spinning the rings around his fingers. You couldn’t even form a sentence as you felt your heart harden against what was coming. 

You weren’t stupid, you knew it was coming. The past two months have been filled with more fights than the entire last 3 years. Every time Felix wanted to be cuddly, you would stiffen and find excuses to busy yourself away from him and vice versa.  He would lock himself in the office to play games with Jeongin and Seungmin rather than having the door open for you to lay on the office couch reading or mindlessly scrolling in his presence. Baking nights were nonexistent nowadays. If he wanted to bake, he’d go back to the dorms with the other guys and rarely brought any home back to you. You made elaborate dinners for date nights that would go cold long before he texted that he wouldn’t be home that night as practice had run later or he was going out with the guys. 

Instead of working in tandem, it seemed as if you both were working around each other at opposite poles. 

You had attempted to text Changbin what was going on, only for him to reply with short, uninterested responses saying he didn’t know what you meant. Similar responses came from Hyunjin and Chan. So you stopped asking. He pulled away first and you would return the sentiment. It took about two weeks before Felix started asking your friends if you were okay, only to be met with unanswered or indifferent texts in return. You began canceling date nights in favor of working more or going out with friends instead. Again, another week before he tried asking why you kept canceling. 

The fight that followed landed you where you are now. Always one to resort to physical affection, Felix suggested a silent cuddle night to repair the hurtful words thrown at each other. It was about as expected, tense silence and too many unshared thoughts.

“Felix. Do we even need to talk anymore? You leave in two days again, that gives you a full day to set yourself back into who STAY expect.” He turned his head to you quickly, eyes widening in fear. “I’m not blind, I know something has changed. I tried to tell myself it was just the stress of a new album and tour, but that excuse only goes so far. When your own members start shutting me out with you, it’s a pretty clear sign,” you finished with a forced chuckle. “Although, I am a little disappointed you couldn’t just tell me that your love had faded weeks ago, rather than try to string me along until you could just leave and let it fully fizzle out with the tour as an excuse not to talk to me.” 

Felix fell to the ground in front of you on the couch. “No, no, baby, no. No please you don’t understand, just give me a second to explain. I promise-”

“Promise what? That you didn’t mean to pull out of this relationship? That you didn’t notice the hundreds of texts you’ve left unanswered or the dozens of dates you’ve ditched on? Or how about that you didn’t have me in mind the past two months in any of this?” You swipe your hand under your eyes harshly as you watch his face fall and tears build up.

“Love, don’t do this to me. I had so many things going on since we started this comeback, I didn’t know how to function properly. The boys are just as stressed, please believe me,” he sniffled the last part out, tears falling onto your knees as he knelt over them. He tried to grab onto your hands, but you pulled them back. 

“Felix I-” “No. No stop with the ‘Felix.’ You never call me that. Please, baby. Come back to me.” You just shook your head. “Felix,” you watched as his heart broke in his eyes, you were already gone, he was sure of it. “I can’t do this anymore. We’ve had plenty of comebacks and the last extended tour that we made it through. With communicating. Not by shutting each other out. I’m not going to sit and listen to excuses for you to rationalize why you have been treating me so badly recently. God, Felix, we used to be so good. Until you stopped trying. I don’t think I can listen to the excuses right now. I’m going to head to Yeji’s, please be gone when I get back.” You stood up and grabbed your keys and wallet, brushing past him to get to the door, not even looking back to see him stare after you as the door on your relationship closed with a soft click.

Felix sat there on your floor sobbing, staring after you for nearly 30 minutes before he realized you were right about one thing. He had one day to get himself ready for STAY, but also one day to figure out how this tour was going to fix him so that he could come back to you. Taking a minute to collect himself, he ran through your apartment and gathered all his things he kept at your place. He took off the hoodie he was wearing and buried it deep in your closet, hopeful that you’ll find it when needed, even more hopeful that these next three months on tour would selfishly not be enough time for you to move on. He put the spare key you had given him on the counter before he walked out of your life.

●●●

You walked into your apartment after spending nearly four hours crying into Yeji’s arms. You put up a good front for Felix, hoping that it would make it easier for him to move on if he thought you agreed with his recent feelings. The truth is that you felt like someone had punched into your chest and pulled your heart out. Complete numbness settled over your body as the ache in your chest kept blossoming further out, fogging your mind. You convinced yourself that the pleas from Felix were just for your benefit, not to truly save the relationship. If he had wanted that, he wouldn’t have pulled away months ago with no words or warnings. 

The ache in your chest bloomed into full searing pain when you spotted the spare key on your counter. Running through the apartment, you noticed everything that tied Felix to you was gone. He truly had wanted this, no matter how loudly the little voice in your brain had tried to tell you it was another overreaction on your part. Holding your hand over your mouth, you looked around your bedroom, noticing even his plushies he’d bought you had gone with him. You didn’t even make it to your bed before your legs gave out and sobs tore through your body.

●●●

Felix stepped into the dorm, barely getting the door closed before he fell to the ground, head in his hands. He couldn’t even cry anymore, just shake and feel his heart rip to shreds. He had done this. He knew that you didn’t want this, he could always read you so well, but he wasn’t going to hurt you anymore if he couldn’t fix himself.

Lino poked his head out of the kitchen after he heard the front door click shut. One look at the younger member had him throwing the utensils onto the counter and running to the front entrance. He nearly slid across the floor to grab onto Felix as the younger boy shook. “Yongbok, what happened? Are you hurt? Did you call Chan? SEUNGMIN, GET CHAN HERE NOW. Shhhh, I’ve got you. Talk to me, Felix, you’re scaring me.” The younger boy could only shake his head as he buried himself deeper into the arms of his friend. The other younger members ran in after the shouts, Seungmin already with his phone dialing their leader. When they laid eyes on one of their best friends broken in the entrance, Jeongin began crying and walked over to the scene while Seungmin locked his jaw and told Chan to get to the dorm as soon as possible with the other members, hanging up without explanation.

It was only 20 minutes later that the other four boys burst in, the eldest looking around for the fire, only to be met with an even more heart shattering scene: Lino rocking Felix back and forth on the couch as Jeongin sat beside him rubbing his back with Seungmin gently murmuring to him from his position on the floor in front of the trio. 

“What happened? Who’s hurt? Sick? Someone tell me what the hell is happening?” Chan rushed over to the group, kneeling next to Seungmin while the others looked on, wide eyed, starting to tear up at the sight. 

“I- I lost her. I screwed up. I don’t know what I was think- thinking. It hurts so bad, Channie. I feel like I’m drowning,” Felix sobbed as he pulled out of the tight embrace he’d been held in. “You guys didn’t help. Why did none of you talk to her? Why did none of you tell me she was asking about me? Why didn’t you guys warn me? Why- why did I let this happen?” He broke down again as Chan shifted into Lino’s spot, pulling Felix into him.

“Hey, hey. Shhh, you have to tell us what’s going on. Is it y/n? Did you fight? What are we a part of? Felix, I need you to talk to me, yeah?” Chan was rubbing his younger friend’s back, looking at the rest, questions and tears in everyone’s eyes. 

Felix pulled back before wiping his nose, Chan reaching up and rubbing the tear stains off his face, looking the younger one in the eyes. “I was so stressed about this comeback, this tour, continuing to be better for STAY. I lost myself, became obsessed with perfecting everything, perfecting our chemistry for STAY. She said she reached out to some of you, but was ignored by you guys too. We left her alone. Alone to think that I was done with her. Never even explained my obsession with this comeback. I lost myself, and I lost y/n in the process. I don’t know what is so different this time. I didn’t even get to tell her that JYPE was giving us the opportunity to go public. It slipped my mind. Another tack on my obsession with being perfect this time so that she would be protected. She’s been with me through so much already, and when it was finally time to take the next step, I took twenty backwards, away from her. I need to fix this. I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t have time to fix this. I love her so much, it hurts so bad. Who am I without her? Will I lose STAY next? She still only thought of me when she called it off, saying she was going to give me a day to get myself ready for STAY. She still looked out for me, thinking I had already given up on her. I couldn’t even get her to stop before she walked out. She walked out, trying to make it easier. It wasn’t easier. It’s my fault. Help me, please. Help me fix this. I want to make STAY proud, but I need her back. Help me.” Felix cut himself off, sobbing again. The others stared, open-mouthed and silent. 

Hyunjin pulled his phone out to look through texts between him and y/n, noticing for the first time how he had come across in his own obsession with perfecting himself for the tour. He turned to Changbin, who was silently crying while already staring at his own phone.”We did this. We left her alone,” Changbin whispered, voice cracking. Hyunjin just shook his head, disbelief coursing through his veins. 

“Lix, look at me. Please,” Chan gently pulled the younger one away from him, grabbing his chin to direct him to look in his eyes. “We have to focus on this tour and give our best. We owe it to ourselves and the hard work we’ve put in. We owe it to STAY. But we WILL fix this. I have a plan. The bag by the door, that’s your stuff from her place, yeah?” Felix nodded, tears still sliding down his cheeks. “Okay, good. We’ll need it. We will fix this, Lix. I promise you. You aren’t losing her, none of us are.” Chan looked around the group, noticing the tears in all their eyes at the thought of y/n no longer being a part of their lives after so long. He was going to fix this, not just for his brother, but for his dear friend he had found in y/n, for his members.

●●●

The tour began. Felix shaky behind the scenes, powerful on stage. They were leaving Seoul for the first leg of overseas concerts. A package arrived on your doorstep the day they left, pictures and one of the many plushies Felix had gifted you. A note sat on top. Y/n, I’m so beyond sorry for what happened. We got obsessed and none of us checked each other. You mean so much to all of us, to Felix. Please, I want to help you through this. I want to help Felix. This is where it starts. We’re all sorry. -Chan. You put the box in a corner of your closet, unable to look through the pictures.

The next flight was a couple days later. Along with it came another package. Hey, darling. I know we haven’t spoken in a while. That’s on me. I’ll be better, we’ll all be better. Take care, remember to eat and sleep well -Your favorite Cat Man. More pictures, another plush, and a bracelet the boys had gotten you for you first Christmas with them, the clasp fixed. You rolled your eyes, placing the new package with the other one.

A week later, another flight, another package. Sweet girl. I am so sorry. I let myself get caught up in the members and the practices and the new songs. That’s no excuse to have let you down in the process. He misses you so much. We all do. - Your muscle boy, Binnie. Again, another one of the plushies but this time a brand new necklace, obviously from Changbin, along with a new purse you had mentioned one of the last times you were with the boys. You felt your heart tug a little more as you hesitantly set the package on top of the other two. Closing the door, this time resting your head against the cool wood as you tried to steady your breathing. 

Expecting it this time, you rushed into the apartment with the new package. This time you couldn’t help the small smile that grew on your face. A painting of a beautiful flower field greeted you, this time with three of the plushies. Lovely y/n. I miss you. I missed you before we left, but I didn’t act on it. I’m forever going to be sorry that I let you slip away when I got carried away. When we get back, we’re going on a painting date again. I miss our jokes and your laughter. I want to fix all of it. Yours, Hyunjinnie. A tear slid down your face. It’d been a month since you walked away from Felix. It hasn’t gotten any easier. You set the package on your coffee table, walking to your room to grab the other three. You sat staring at them, chewing your bottom lip as you debated what to do. Ultimately, you walked into your bedroom, leaving them on the table. 

A couple weeks later, you were again greeted with a package. Opening it slower this time, you felt your heart rate pick up as all kinds of snacks from different countries greeted you, nearly drowning the two plushies at the bottom. My lovely honey girl! I suck. STAYs would say “predebut Han came out” and they wouldn’t be wrong. You mean so much to all of us. I did have to steal some of the snacks from Flour boy. I hope you enjoy them all, tell me your favorites when we get back. Hannie. You rubbed at your eyes, missing them all more than you can express. You pulled out the notes from all the packages so far. Heading into your bathroom, you stuck them all to your mirror. Gazing at yourself, finally noticing the dark circles under your eyes. You walked back to the living room, gathering all the plushies in your arms as you walked to your bedroom. You laid them all down on the bed before heading into your closet to find clothes to change into for a nap. While flipping through your sweatshirts, you finally noticed it. There in the back was the sweatshirt Felix had been wearing the last time you saw him. You grabbed it, feeling tears slip down your cheeks as you slipped it on. You slid on some random shorts you found and crawled into your bed, surrounded by the plushies of your relationship with Felix. You fell asleep with tears drying on your face, wrapped in the scent of the boy who meant the world to you, sleeping better than you have in weeks. 

With only one month left until the end of the tour, you got nervous for the next package. If they were following the pattern, it would be Felix’s turn. You slowed your walk when you spotted it at your door. Taking a deep breath, you walked into your apartment with the box tucked under your arm. You opened the box to a new book you had mentioned to Seungmin months ago. Your jaw dropped, and a weird wave of relief went through you. You hugged onto yet another plushie as you read the note. Hahahaha sorry that I’m probably not who you’re expecting. SEUNGMIN IN THE BUILDING!!! I do want to apologize to you. Y/n you are such an important part of our lives, and we got too caught up in ourselves and being perfect for STAY that we neglected you. I promise, if you take us back, that it will never happen again. -Puppy boy. 

The boys had been outstanding all tour. STAY were loving the shows, the boys were giving their all and then some. A cloud still hovered over all their hearts as none had received any word from you. Felix would go straight to bed after every show. It was a harder time each stop for Lino to keep him eating with the members instead of retreating to his room to scroll through all your photos together. Two more weeks remained until he would know if you truly had left him or not. The others were increasingly worried they weren’t going to get you back. 

Another package arrived. New shoes and a new phone case accompanied the plush this time. Cutie cutie it’s me! I miss you. Felix isn’t the same without you, none of us are. I’m worried about him, but I’m worried about you too. I miss our conversations on who’s concert fashion is the best (me, by the way). I want to take you shopping when we get back, if you will go with me. Baby bread. You sighed, you couldn’t stop the ache in your chest from coming back as you let yourself fully recognize how much you missed them all. Only a week remained in the tour. You pulled out all the photos from the first package. It was you and all the boys. There were some candids you had never seen, clearly taken during your many hang outs at the dorms. Many of your favorites with Felix were in there as well. Your heart swelled. You were fairly certain what your decision was going to be. 

A new package greeted you after a particularly hard day at work. Your heart sped up, knowing who it was. It was the last of the plushies Felix had gotten you over the course of your relationship, nothing more beyond the letter. I don’t even know where to start. One of our staff will have dropped this off only a day before we get back. Chan’s plan was so thorough. Each of the members have written an apology for how we all acted the last couple months before this tour. Accompanied by something of ours that I took back with me when I tried to give you as much space as possible by removing myself. It’s killing me, knowing that I hurt you so horribly. A sorry isn’t even enough, a thousand sorry’s won’t be enough. I royally screwed up. It’s no excuse that I let myself get too obsessed with being Stray Kids and getting everything perfect for this tour. I hope it goes well, as I’m writing this before we even leave. Everyone already has their extra gifts picked out except for Han, he wants to collect snacks from different places to send you. His package might be a little behind schedule, but Chan has it planned out to work anyway. I’m sure you noticed that I have nothing extra in here besides my words and the last of the plushies we’ve collected together. I do hope you’ve already found it and haven’t thrown it away or burned it. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. But I left my sweatshirt from that night in the back of your closet. It should still smell like me. I know how much trouble you have with sleeping, especially while I’m on tour. If you don’t hate my guts by now, maybe it will bring you some comfort. I love you, y/n. So much. Words don’t even come close to describing the way I truly feel about you. If you’ll have me, I want to be better for you. I know what I did, and I swear to you that I’ll be spending this entire tour working on myself so that I’m better for you. I’ll get strength from STAY. All the work I put in won’t be for nothing, especially if I lost you throughout this. It still won’t be worth losing you, but maybe I’ll drown myself in STAY’s love if I have to. I love you, endlessly, my beautiful star. - Yours always and forever, Lixie. Tears were streaming down your face as you put the letter down. You only gave yourself a few seconds before you throw yourself into action.

●●●

The boys walked off the plane, through the airport. The air crackled with excitement over how well the tour went. The cloud of anxiety still hung over them, but they were trying to block it out the best they could. As they walked towards the car to take them back to the dorms, they noticed one of their managers standing at an extra car. Trying to calm their heart rates down, Chan slowly walked over to the manager. “From y/n.” He gave Chan a gentle smile. 

Chan could almost feel his knees give out in relief. He hung his head and blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He turned to look at the rest of the boys. He couldn’t hide the wide smile that spread across his face, crinkling his eyes as he felt laughter bubble out. He ran over to Felix and shoved the small box into his hands. The rest of the members couldn’t hold back their tears of joy as Felix pulled the little ribbon off the top of the box. He looked at each of them, tears streaming down his face.

“No matter what, thank you all. What you did means the world to me, even if she doesn’t forgive me, forgive us, I love you all so much. Thank you.” Felix took a deep breath before he lifted the lid off. A tiny note was placed over something silver and shiny. He felt his knees give out as Changbin rushed forward to catch him. They all noticed the key at the same time and nearly sobbed in relief. Come back to me, I love you so much. “I- I’m going home. I’m going home!” Felix stumbled into the final car as the boys watched him head off to the love of his life, smiling until their cheeks hurt, tears slipping down all their cheeks as they realized they hadn’t lost two of their favorite people. 

[adarkrainbow]

Another fairytale park... Mirapolis (1)

We have been talking about Disney a lot - and of course, with Disney comes Disneyland. I have made reblogs aboutt the Efteling park (and maybe more posts shall come in the future). But today, I want to invite you to an amusement park that doesn't exist anymore, and yet remains a part of France's history, and a part of the history of French folklore and fairytales. This is... the defunct amusement park Mirapolis.

Mirapolis was opened on the 20th of May 1987, in the city-group of Cergy-Pontoise (more specifically it belonged to the town of Courdimanches. It was a complicated situation as Cergy-Pontoise was one of the "new cities" built in the 60s/70s by sticking various existing small towns together as a way to deal with the population boom in the Ile-de-France region/Parisian area... Its the convoluted ways of French territory delimitation). It lasted for only five seasons, closing on the 20th of October 1991. The name of the park was explained as such by its creator, Anne Fourcade: "mira" is meant to evoke mirrors, the infinite, the eternal, while "polis" reminds of "the greatness of cities and of ancient kingdoms". It is thus meant to bring in people's minds ideas of adventure, of fabulous, and of future... Too bad the park didn't live up to its name and was a big failure.

The project of Mirapolis is tied to the arrival in Europe of Disney - more precisely, the appearance of the Euro Disney Resort (current "Disneyland Paris"). The Walt Disney Company was on our ground, the Americans against the Europeans, and Europe had to fight back. [Another complicated thing: Euro Disney Resort only offically opened in 1992, but the project existed and had been going on - though secretly - since 1976, and in december of 1985 it had been publically announced that France would be the country welcoming the first European Disney park.] Mirapolis was an attempt to create a counterpart to this American implantation: it was to be the greatest, largest and first French amusement park.

And large and great it was! Too great probably... Mirapolis was agreed to be an excessive project, truly bigger than life - a lot of resources were given to the project, and they didn't hesitate to consume every last drop of it and even more. The park was 55 hectars in terms of size - something unheard of in France until this point. Created by the collaboration of Anne Fourcade (architect and the creator of the park) and of Ghaith Pharaon (a wealthy businessman), the park's main problems were an ever-growing debt and a series of constantly changing owner and staff. The park was first owned by the Paris-Parc society - until the society went bankrupt. It then became the ownership of the Cergy-Parc society, and the original gestion and maintenance team was replaced by staff coming from the Club Med (the most famous French holiday-club/vacation-company ever), but THEN they were replaced by a group of carnies (carnies who funnily originally were against the project and had loudly expressed their opposition... but they still were hired and ran the park until it went bankrupt, and their presence made the park half-funfair). Because while the first year was a good year that met its mark (500 millions of francs invested, no loss), the second year started going flawly (700 millions of francs invested, 85 millions of loss), and then the third went bad (140 millions of loss) - and so on and so on until the park clearly wasn't profitable in any way anymore.

Now, why would this park be interesting for this blog? Because its themes was "French legends and French fairytales" - it was an amusement park entirely centered around French folklore! Again, since Mirapolis was about counter-attacking the "American invasion", it makes sense the park would be focused on glorifying the local heritage and culture, and proving that you could do a fully French park instead of having Disneyified verson of Perrault and Grimm's fairytales. A very admirable project... that unfortunately failed. Why? There's a big debate as to what was the exact cause (or causes, in plural) of this park's downfall - we'll get into this another time. But all in all, beyond being an amusement park trivia, and the background of current urbex explorations, the story of Mirapolis is one of the chapters of the massive wave and passion for amusement parks in France in the 80s-90s. Plus, the park still technically "lives on" as a lot of its attractions and elements are currently in use by other European amusement parks... But I'll get into the more historical details later.

For now let's focus on...

WHAT THE PARK LOOKED LIKE

The park was organized in eight zones, whose names were only fixed by the second year of the park's run. Each zone was a mix of rides and food-sources. When the park opened in 1987, there were only 20 attractions in total - but when the park closed, it had a fifty or so or them.

1 ) "La Grand'Place" (The Main Square/The Great Plaza)

This area was called "Le palais des merveilles", "The Palace of Wonders", during the park's first year. While it was renamed the "Grand'Place", the name "Palace of Wonders" was kept for the theater in the area - a building for theater plays, special-effects shows and other ballets that could welcome up to 800 people and have different shows playing simultaneously. In 1987, René-Louis Baron (a famous name of musical experiments in the 70s and 80s) created there a show based on La Fontaine's fables, called "Partir à point", with costumes by Yves Brunier. It was also within the Palace of Wonders theater that the first episodes of the "Juste Prix" (the French "The Price is Right") were recorded, between 1987 and 1988. In the second year, "Le Palais des Merveilles" became "Le Château des Visions" (The Castle of Visions), and became the first and only permanent 3D movie-theater of France - sponsored by Fujifilm, and decorated on the outside to look like a medieval castle.

Other buildings of the area included "Le théâtre de verdure" (The Greenery Theater), an open-air theater of 900 places ; and "La Navette aux milles sensations", a small-sized moving movie-theater that was carried across the area. Finally when the carnies arrived in 1989, they prepared a karting course there. The Grand'Place area was also where "La Grande Parade" (The Great Parade) was organized, a big parade with roughly 200 characters/costumes - among which many were the characters of La Fontaine's Fables.

2 ) Le jardin de la Belle Epoque (The garden of the Belle Epoque)

[For those of you not in the know, "La Belle Epoque", "The Beautiful Era", is the nickname of the era of French history located between the end of the 19th century and the First World War]

Located north-west of the park, The Garden of La Belle Epoque was originally called "Les Impressionnistes", in homage to the titular artistic movement/group. The three main attractions of the area were Le Ruisseau fleuri, les Tacots-Chapeaux and Le Manège de chevaux de bois. Le Ruisseau fleuri (The Flowery Stream) was a boat-travel in a canal surrounded by animated scenes based on impressionist paintings (it was renamed Rivière fleurie, Flowery river, in 1988). Le Manège de chevaux de bois (The wooden-horse carousel) was, as the title says, a carousel of fifty-four wooden horses - and it was renowned for being the first traditonal carousel created in France since 80 years... It was later moved to the "Land of Legends" when the carnies arrived. The third ride was the Tacots chapeaux (Hat-cars), little cars you could drive around which wore eyeglasses, mustaches and hats. There was also a fair-organ/band-organ playing music for the guests.

In 1988 new attractions were added - but clearly designed with a medieval theme, which clashed with the Belle Epoque one (for example there was "The Knights' Poney-Club", which was a medieval-theme poney-ride). Among the novelties there was a small maquette of the Port of Deauville, a faithful miniature reproduction in which children could drive around mechanical boats.

3 ) Le domaine du Moyen-Âge (The Middle-Ages domain/area)

North of the park, the Middle-Ages domain used to be called "Gargantua the giant", because its main attraction was the huge statue of Gargantua - it was a "scenic route in height". Basically you could climb inside the giant and look at the park from within him - this statue was considered to be part of the "duck architecture" (l'architecture canard) where buildings were made to look like objects or people (for example you could have a building looking like a giant picnic basket).

This area also contained a miniature train station where the park's train, the Mirapolis Express, went. In 1988 they created there "Le Chapiteau de l'ép��e magic" (The tent of the magic sword), where there was a laser show of medieval theme ; but it was moved to the Legend Land in 1989. Meanwhile, the same year, this medieval area was invested by most of the funfair and carnival-attractions and stands, brought by the carnies: there was a UFO ride (called... UFO) for 48 people ; La Pieuvre (an octopus-ride) ; La Chenille (a Music Express), a Buggy ride ; and "Godbille", a children carousel.

4 ) Le royaume de l'illusion (The Kingdom of Illusions)

Its original title was "The Castle of Spells" - because the titular castle was the main ride of the area. There was also a restaurant called "Les Sortilèges" (Spells, The Spells), and a building called "La tour de Léonard de Vinci" (Leonardo da Vinci's Tower). Within this tower, which was meant to recreate Leonardo's workshop, there was an animatronic show created by Pascal Pinteau: the show was about a painting of king François Ier suddenly coming to life and presenting to the audience Leonardo da Vinci, while making parallels between his inventions and modern day's technology. (There was also a "futuristic character" named Alpha apparently?). The special effects were overseen by Jacques Renoir (the great-grandchild of the painter Auguste Renoir), Leonardo da Vinci was voiced by Jean Topart, and Roger Carel made the voice of the other characters of the show. The animatronic of Leonardo da Vinci was renowned for being very complex and advanced - it was moved by three hundred different motors, which allowed for things such as the animatronic's eybrows to move to mimick emotions.

To the back of the Castle of Spells, there was a rollercoaster named "Le Dragon des sortilèges" (The Dragon of Spells) ; and north to the castle there was Le Labyrinthe - a two-hectar maze inspired by an actual labyrinth of the Middle-Ages. In 1988 a hot-air balloon ride was added.

Now you know how it goes: in 1989, as the park became half-carnival/funfair, a lot of carnival rides were added in the area: Le Grand Huit (Galaxi-type rollercoaster), "Télé Combat Avion" (a plane-themed ride), a ghost train "Geisterburg/Train Fantôme", a "Tagada" (a sort of horizontal platform with a bench all around it facing the inside, and the platform jumped and turned around) - and "Les Cygnes Blanc", a water-ride in swan-shaped boats (once Mirapolis was closed, it moved to the parc Saint-Paul, renowned the Pédalos cygnes).

5 ) La terre de l'aventure (Adventure Land)

West of the park, it was originally called after its main attraction, "La descente des rapides" - going down the rapids of a river on 14 meters-logs (the ride was another spnsorship of Fujifilm). There was a lot of boats-and-water based rides: there was a "tow boat ride" called "La Rivière des Castors" - Beaver River. It took the guests on a water-ride onto thriteen boats, with the shores decorated by beaver figures. There was also a "balancing boat" ride, called "Le bateau pirate" (The Pirates' ship).

When the Club Med took over Mirapolis in 1988, a lot of attractions were added - twelve hot-air balloons ; an inflating castle (La Montagne molle), a gravitron-ride (Le Galion) and a "Bateau pirate junior".

But the most striking part of this area was the Nesquik sponsorized area. It was originally just one specific ride, the "Quick Cup" (also called "La Chocolatière de Groquik"), your usual spinning-cup ride, but with Groquik on the sides of all the cups. However in 1988, the "Groquik area" expended with three more children-rides: Le Mille-Pattes, Le Chemin des tortures (a kiddie train" shaped like turtles), and the Mini-dragons (a plane-jet-ride shaped like dragons - it survived the closure of Mirapolis by becoming the "Manège dragon" of the Parc Saint-Paul before being retired for good in 2009). If you are confused by my mention of "Groquik" let me explain: before Nesquik brought over in France its chocolate-colored bunny as a mascot, France had its own Nesquik mascot called "Groquik". Created in 1978, it was a big, jolly, large yellow hippopotamus with a straw hat (he also doubled as the Greek Nesquik mascot as "Kouikaras") ; but he got officially retired in 1990 because Nesquik realized having a big, fat mascot for their products could mean their products made children fat or obese... So he was replaced by the fit, trim and athletic Nesquik bunny.

6 ) Le Pays des Légendes (Legend Land/ Legend Country)

Its original name was "La ville d'Ys", "The Town of Ys" - once again, because it was the title of the main ride, The City of Ys. [When the name Land of Legends was brought, the attraction became "Voyage sous la mer", "Travel under the sea"]. It was an omnimover scenic-ride that went fourteen meters down below the earth, and made the guests explore the legendary city of Ys - this fabulous lost city of Bretagne supposed to have sunk below the waves. The SFP society designed the monsters and animatronics encountered during this ride, from gigantic invertebrate to a ten-heads hydra. And of course, Dahut was there too - princess, witch and mermaid all at once!

There was an area called "La forêt de Brocéliande" (Broceliand forest), which contained a replica of the Round Table, and a "potager des fées" (The fairies' vegetable garden). There was a lake, and on its shore a tent - a large circus tent that actually welcomed the shows of Annie Fratellini (one of the most famous female clowns). Annie Fratellini also had there a "circus school", that presented to the guests the story of clowns from the 18th to the 20th centuries. In 1988, due to the lack of food-areas, this tent was transformed into a restaurant - it was called le "Camp du Drap d'Or" (The Field of Gold Cloth), in homage to the historical event of the same name. But in 1990, it became once again a clown-area that doubled as "Le Musée des Arts forains", a museum dedicated to funfairs and the art of carnivals.

From the second year of the park onward, there was also a Viking-theme area prepared: a Viking village built near the lake's shores, with a drakkar within the lake's water ; and a "Viking Farm" with farm animals in it. (Plus a Palace of Mirrors/Mirror maze was added there, for some reasons).

7 ) Le paradis des comptines gourmandes

(This one is a mouthful to translate... "The paradise of tasty nursery rhymes" ; "The heaven of sweet-toothed nursery rhymes")

Originally called "Le domaine des enfants" (Children's domain, Children's area), the main building of this zone was "Le Palais de Dame Tartine" - inspired by the French nursery rhyme "Dame Tartine" (Lady Toast, with her "palace of fresh butter"). The Palace itself was divided into several unities, the two most important being a two-hundred places theater ; and a "Gallery of Automatons".

The theater could be reached by going through the sleeve of a gigantic reproduction of Mister Gimblette (Dame Tartine's husband in the nursery rhyme, here crowned with a "galette des rois", the typical dish of the Epiphany). The main show of this theater was a show depicting the four seasons, and partially created by the SFP - it also had René Clermont voicing an owl who told not just the cycle of seasons but also how the world was created ; there were also other automaton-animals, as well as an enormous luminous tree of 450 kilos, made with ten thousand optic fibers. It was due to this tree that the area was sometimes called "Le théâtre de l'Arbre Lumière" (The Theater of the Light-Tree).

As for the Gallery of Automatons, it was also called la "Balade des contes" (A walk through fairytales) - going all around the Theater, this gallery was filled with animatronic animals that activated themselves when a guest came nearby, and these animatronics sang the various legends and folktales of France. Other areas within Dame Tartine's palace included a gigantic kaleidoscope, a pool of plastic balls, and another theater of 500 places.

Outside of the palace, there was also a Music-Express ride called "Caravelles", and "Le Petit Train des comptines" (The Small train of nursery rhymes) - a children ride with two little trains, whose wagons were shaped like rabbits and elephants, and which rode through a vegetable garden with giant vegetables. After the closure of Mirapolis, the Caravelles ride was moved to the Jacquou Parc (Dordogne) and renamed Gabarots.

There was also a later inclusion of a "robot" shaped area added later, during the "funfairification" of the park.

8 ) Le sommet de la grande frousse (The top of great fear / The summit of big fright)

This was actually one of the first areas of the park, just west of the entrance. In fact, during the first year of the park it was called the "Entry zone" and grouped together with the park's entrance - before the entrance and this area were divided. Its main attraction was a roller-coaster called "the Miralooping", famed for being the French roller-coasters with the most loopings at the time. Some newspapers and advertisement also called this roller-coaster the "biggest roller-coaster of France", able to rival the biggest roller-coasters of Europe (though this was apparently not certain and put to doubt?).

There was also a troika-ride called "Le Tourbillon", and most importantly a train station called the "Mirapolis Express", with three trains leaving it to go around the park (with the second train station being located at the foot of the Gargantua statue). There was also a bike-shaped ride opened in 1990 called "Les Vélos drôles" (The funny bikes).

(This picture is not of the Mirapolis park, it is the Saint Paul park - but the white swans you can see were originally those of Mirapolis)

And before leaving you for now, I will share another weird trivia about this weird park. The official logo and symbol of the park was this:

But on all the merch the park sold (such as official Mirapolis clothes), a different logo and symbol was used, and it looked like this:

The idea was that the three faces would embody the three emotions guests were supposed to go through: surprise, joy and wonder.

[itsamenickname]

Okay, so do you guys remember how I talked about how both @jelixpo and @deckof-dragons/@anomander-dragnipurake inspired me to write my story, To Break the Bonds Within Two Kingdoms back in the Ao3 chapter 11 notes?

Well, what if I told you that there was another Bowuigi story idea I had in mind while brainstorming TBTBWTK?

That's right, what you are about to read is another rough Bowuigi story idea I had that actually originated back in late April-early May 2022 (right around the same time TBTBWTK was first born). While I ended up choosing TBTBWTK to flesh out and actively work on, I felt bad for keeping this WIP hidden within my computer files for almost an entire year (okay, I kind of told one person about this idea back in mid-November 2022, but it wasn't to the extent of what you're about to see).

And since the Mario movie is coming out today, I thought what better way to celebrate the momentous occasion than by sharing this fun little Bowuigi story idea? :)

Also, before I forget, if anyone wants to do something with this idea, then by all means go for it. (Just let me know if you have done something with the idea so that I can see it.) :) As I just mentioned, this was something I've thought of back in early-mid 2022, but because I want to not only finish TBTBWTK, but also work on a second (and bigger) Bowuigi story after TBTBWTK is done, I figured that it would be better to at least share this rough WIP/idea than to leave it in my computer files for no one else but myself to see.

Anyway, I apologize in advance for the extremely long post (and for any grammatical errors), but I hope you guys like the idea all the same! :D

(Adding a cut here to help make this post shorter.)

***********

Okay, so imagine a time in the Mushroom Kingdom where Bowser is living a good life. He and Peach recently signed a peace treaty together (and by recently, I mean like 1 month ago), not to mention that he's been dating Luigi for about 6 months now and has never been happier (per Luigi's request, they are keeping their relationship a secret which Bowser doesn't mind at all).

But on one mysterious night in the Dark Lands, Jerry (yes, the same Jerry from TBTBWTK) informs Bowser that he has a surprise visitor waiting for him in the throne room. Well, this didn't make much sense to the Koopa King. If it was Luigi, Mario, or even Peach, Jerry would've explicitly told him, but the fact that the Hammer Bro. not only refused to elaborate about the visitor, but also seemed kind of hesitant and nervous when Bowser asked for more info about the said mysterious visitor? That just seemed really weird to Bowser.

And oh boy was he right when he stepped into the throne room and saw the one and only King Boo.

Now, even though Bowser wanted nothing more than to kick the ghost king out of his kingdom, Luigi's kindness actually rubbed off on him just enough to where he instead angrily asked King Boo why the hell he's here. When Luigi talked to E. Gadd last month, the professor said that the ghost king was still trapped in that canister from the adventure of The Last Resort, so it didn't make much sense that the ghost king who he thought was trapped is floating right in front of him.

So King Boo explains to Bowser about his new plan. He rants on and on about how he is just so sick and tired of getting defeated and captured over and over again, so King Boo devised a new plan. He figures out that the best way to defeat the Mario Bros. (especially Luigi) and take over the Mushroom Kingdom/rest of the world is by teaming up with Bowser. Sure, King Boo understands that Bowser may not have a good track record when it comes to defeating Mario, but he figured that as long as Bowser distracts Mario and Peach just long enough, King Boo could use that stall to trap Luigi in a painting.

Bowser, of course, shoots down the idea. He explains to King Boo how he just recently signed a peace treaty with Peach and he doesn't want to do anything that would break Mario, Peach, and especially Luigi's trust (although he doesn't mention Luigi to King Boo). And even if he and Peach hadn't signed a peace treaty, he has very well learned from his past mistakes and knows deep down that Mario and Luigi can, and will, easily defeat both of them.

But before Bowser can leave the throne room, King Boo manages to stop him in his tracks by explaining how he knows that he and Luigi are dating.

King Boo also blackmails Bowser by saying that if Bowser doesn't agree to team up with him, he won't hesitate to posses Bowser and force him to kill Luigi with his own hands.

As much as Bowser wanted to call on King Boo's bluff, he's inwardly really scared to. If King Boo was making threats to him, Mario, Peach, or anyone else (should point out that the Koopalings & Jr. don't exist in this timeline, but I'll leave that up to reader's discretion), Bowser wouldn't care about the idea of King Boo possessing him. But King Boo was making an indirect threat to Luigi, the one person Bowser would not hesitate to lay his life down for. If anything were to happen to the love of his life, it would kill the Koopa King (no matter if it was his fault or not).

So Bowser grudgingly agrees to King Boo's plan as the ghost king is excited to finally set his plan into motion. But before he forgets, King Boo mentions one little important thing:

This new alliance they have has to be a secret. No one, not even Kamek and Kammy, can know about it. Everyone has to believe that whatever is about to happen is Bowser's ideas and his ideas alone.

And if anyone finds out about their alliance/plan on their own (or if Bowser tells anyone about their plan), King Boo will kill Luigi himself and force Mario and Bowser to watch.

_________________

So time skip to around 2 weeks later where Bowser has caused so many problems to the MK to the point to where Peach is sick of it. She sets up a royal meeting with herself, Mario, Luigi, Toadsworth, and the royal court about what they should do with Bowser. The royal court is honestly spilt on either declaring war on the Dark Lands (they have a justifiable reason to declare war because Bowser has broke parts of the peace treaty) or try to reach out to Bowser and meet with him peacefully.

Eventually, the arguments get so stressful and out of hand that Peach gets mad (and I mean really fucking mad) and orders the royal court to let her, Mario and Luigi discuss this in private. While the royal court (especially Toadsworth) are hesitant on this, they eventually follow her orders and leave the brothers and Peach alone in the room. When it's finally just the three of them, Peach just takes this time to calm down and take a few deep breaths (which Mario and Luigi don't mind and allow her to take as much time as she needs).

Once she is really to talk about it again, she explains to Mario and Luigi how she is kind of dead set on declaring war on the Dark Lands. As a few Toads pointed out earlier in the meeting, Bowser broke parts of the peace treaty, not to mentioned that she had actually privately reached out to him on multiple occasions, but has never received as response back.

Now Luigi (who had been mostly quiet throughout the entire meeting due to his anxiety and his tough decision on whether to stand by Peach or Bowser's side) tries to defend Bowser by explaining how both the MK and the Dark Lands had worked on the peace treaty for almost 3 months (not to mention that they've officially signed it last month) and theorizes that there has to be a reason that Bowser is causing so much trouble that they don't know about. Luigi begs Peach to give him time to talk to Bowser before she decides to declare war on Bowser's kingdom.

Now here, I should point out that both Peach and Mario know that Luigi and Bowser are friends, but they don't know that they're dating. So obviously, when Luigi begs Peach to let him talk to Bowser, Mario (being the protective older big brother that he is) hates the idea. He still doesn't trust Bowser and is afraid that allowing Luigi to talk to Bowser (especially right now) will ultimately get his little brother hurt or worse, killed (it would destroy Mario if anything happened to Luigi).

But despite Mario's protests, Peach makes a deal with Luigi: He has one week to talk to Bowser and make him change his ways. If Luigi succeeds, then she won't declare war on the Dark Lands. However, if he fails, Peach will declare the treaty null and void and declare war on Bowser's kingdom.

So over the course of the next 5 days, Luigi tries to reach out to Bowser in multiple ways. He tries to write him letters, meet at their usual spot on the usual days they hang out together, little things like that. However, none of his ideas work. Now, that's not to say that Bowser hadn't received Luigi's letters. In fact, Bowser has actually received every single one of his boyfriend's letters (at one instance, Bowser started to tear up as he carefully touched Luigi's handwriting, which led to King Boo taunting him on whether he should respond to Luigi's letter or not.), but...Bowser is honestly scared. He wants to tell Luigi that he hates doing what he's doing, he wants to tell Luigi about King Boo's ultimate plan to take over the MK and the rest of the world, but...he can't. He doesn't want to put Luigi in any form of danger, so he figured that the best way to keep Luigi safe is by completely shutting him out.

But that kind of backfires on Bowser because on the afternoon of the 6th day, Luigi gets a new idea.

He gets the idea to sneak over to Bowser's Castle (without Mario, Peach, or anyone else knowing) and talk to Bowser face-to-face (for the first time since Bowser's alliance with King Boo) in hopes of forcing his boyfriend to talk about why he's doing all of these bad things.

But as for what happens when Luigi finally arrives at Bowser's Castle?

Well, I'll leave that up to you. ;)

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Do you have any thoughts on why Sally & Barry fail at that imitation to Gene/Fuches? @_@ good post

Oh man, that's a great question.

This honestly isn't something I've pondered before, so this was fun to think about! I feel like it has a lot to do with the people on the receiving end of their attempts.

In Sally's case, a core difference to keep in mind between her situation and Gene's is that Gene had his class in the palm of his hand. He'd made it his own personal shrine where people worshipped him and they wouldn't dare call out his behavior, if they even recognized it as bad at all. If somebody had gotten upset and left the class, no one would have followed them - instead, they would've been treated as a weakling and everyone would've taken Gene's side.

But Sally was brand new, and although she felt emboldened by the class being sympathetic to her, she hadn't actually built up any kind of relationships, respect, or trust with these people. It was way too soon to pull out an abusive tactic - it's much easier for people to call out bad behavior when the person is a stranger.

With Barry, it mostly had to do with the fact that Hank decided to stand up to him. Unbeknownst to Barry, Hank had been having some character growth. Barry massively underestimated Hank in that moment. Barry was in prison and had no allies to break him out - he was clearly all bark and no bite, and Hank knew it. So actually in that way Barry's imitation was pretty true to Fuches. Fuches tells ridiculous lies and makes empty threats and resorts to angry outbursts when he doesn't get what he wants, too. But it failed in that it ultimately just didn't work, because Hank ended up being a lot harder to manipulate than Barry gave him credit for.

Another difference is that Gene and Fuches have both been doing what they do for a long time. There's an inherent confidence in both of them that Barry and Sally just don't have at this point. I don't think Barry has Fuches' level of cunning, and Sally doesn't have Gene's level of experience (or the benefit of being a man, though it's entirely possible the class still would've called her out for the abusive tactic regardless of gender).

I will also say that, while Sally was definitely consciously trying to imitate Gene, I don't think it was something Barry was doing on the same conscious level.

Like, for Sally it was "my acting teacher did a specific Thing to me and I am now going to try the exact same Thing on someone else." Whereas with Barry I think it was more subconscious? Not so much literally trying to copy Fuches as just doing what Fuches did to him because he doesn't know any other way of going after what he wants. He doesn't know how else to solve problems - all he knows is what he's been taught. I think he might actually be offended if someone were to point out how much he sounded like Fuches in that moment - sort of the "guy who hates his dad doesn't want to recognize that he's starting to turn into his dad" type thing.

[masterwords]

good vibrations

Summary: Hotch & Morgan take the family to an amusement park.

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan

Warnings: Nothing I can think of?

Words: 1.4k

Notes: Continuing this domestic May nonsense, I just wanted to think about their family at an amusement park for a while. How cute it would be with that mix of personalities on the road and in the park and...believe me I could have turned this into a bajillion words but I kept it short and sweet.

Read on AO3 if you like! This one is short and all fluff so I posted it in its entirety here too.

**

Hotch considers himself a world class napper. A perfect vacation would simply involve a bed, warm blankets and no alarm clock. He can come and go as he pleases, close his eyes and open them using nothing but the delight of his own internal rhythm.

Derek, on the other hand, likes to be on the move from sun up to sun down. He wants to pack as much into their weekend as he can because they simply don’t get enough of them.

When things were still brand new, before the team had any idea that they would leave Friday night and sneak away together in a rental car to such exotic places as Busch Gardens or the Jersey Shore or Dollywood, they would make plans during the car ride. Hotch, car sick though he is, always let Derek drive. He would pull out his phone and flick through his notes app to run down their itinerary for the weekend while Jack watched the scenery fly by from the backseat in silence. The kid was a champion in the car, hardly a peep out of him for the whole first hour, and then he would pull out a book or some other quiet car game, wholly capable of keeping himself completely occupied. The last hour or so they would all be a little antsy and that was when Hotch would initiate such car trip classics as alphabet of road signs, spotting license plates until they hopefully saw one from each state (and if you saw one from Canada you basically won) or an old standby that eventually turned into arguments...I Spy.

Now that they’re seasoned, now that they don’t have to hide from anyone, now that Jack is older...they forego the planning entirely. Instead they arrive, find their hotel, and Hotch immediately begins preparations for his first nap of the trip. The first of many, he announces cheerfully. The planning happens on the fly. That's real comfort, real progress. They go simply with the intent to have a good time, itinerary not required. 

This time they’re at Knoebels Amusement Resort, a recommendation from JJ. It’s a little less ritzy than some of the others but what it lacks in style it makes up for in comfort. They’ve rented a little cabin with easy access to the park and secured all the passes they’ll need to pack a week’s worth of fun into three days. They even brought Jessica, just in case the BAU called and they had to take their leave...at least Jack could stay and finish out the good times.

“You’re both old fogies,” Derek huffed while he set out all of his myriad toiletries in the bathroom he staked out for he and Hotch. Hotch and Jessica just smiled knowingly at each other and, almost like mirror images, began preparing for afternoon naps.

“We need our beauty sleep,” is Jess’ sassy retort before she enters her small bedroom and closes the door behind her. Derek cups Hotch’s face in his hands, stares longingly into his eyes for a minute like he’s going to say something really romantic about how Hotch doesn’t need beauty sleep because he’s perfect the way he is, and then smiles.

“Don’t sleep through dinner,” is what he actually says and Hotch sighs, nodding.

“I won’t.”

He doesn’t. It’s a nice, short nap, just energizing enough that he showers and throws on some casual clothes and heads out the door to find Derek and Jack who are out shaking up their brains on rollercoasters, one after another. Hotch doesn’t mind a good rollercoaster, but he’s definitely not one to subject himself to a full day of them. He has better things to do.

Like buying a big salty pretzel from a vendor with a cart, and hoping he doesn’t spill the bright yellow mustard all over his khakis while he walks and takes in the sights. Everything is bright colors and loud music and it’s mesmerizing in the way it assaults his senses. Before Derek he used to loathe these places, they just felt like people infested stress cages and Haley would run off with Jack to wait in line somewhere and he’d spend at least a half hour hunting them down to make sure they hadn’t been taken. He doesn’t worry about anything with Derek around. It’s taken him a long time to get used to that feeling. Sometimes it’s so big he doesn’t really know what to do with it.

That’s not a problem right now though. He pops off at a little round table with bright red benches that are faded at the corners from the unrelenting summer sun and fires off an inquisitive text to Derek.

Where are you?

Next in line for bumper cars. Third round. Jack’s ruthless. You?

Hotch smiles and sends Derek a picture of his pretzel with the grand carousel in the background.

Hell yeah! Win us some free rides ya tall dark and handsome drink of water!

He hadn’t really thought about getting on the carousel, he just thought it made for a nice picture but hell. A ride didn’t sound so bad, he’d always liked the way they were just so simple and classic. And soothing, that up and down motion, the music, the mirrors. Something about it was almost enchanting. And being tall and graceful enough to reach out and snag that brass ring on the way around was, until recently, a talent he didn’t realize he had.

They all met up an hour later with Jessica outside of the Haunted Mansion, her one specific request. It’s somewhere between a slow moving rollercoaster and a haunted house and she’s all about it.

“You and Derek should sit behind us,” she says, pointing at the car she wants them to get in. “And then you can hold his hand when he’s scared.”

Derek rolls his eyes. “Ain’t me gonna be scared, little lady.”

“Yeah, right. Says the guy who hates Halloween.”

They all jump and laugh and close their eyes, and Hotch does find that at a certain point Derek is gripping his hand a little tighter than natural and leaning a little closer to him. He’s not scared, he says, it’s just that he thought being in the dark meant they could be a little extra close. Hotch has his doubts.

There’s golfing that fulfills all of Hotch's personal goals (18 holes while no one complains, and Derek teaches Jack how to drive the cart when no one is looking) and swimming and exploring and a whole lot of eating, all littered with a staggering number of naps by one or two of the adults at any given time. Jack refuses. While Hotch and Derek nap, Jess takes him swimming and follows him down countless looping swirling slides into the icy crystal water. While Hotch naps, Jess and Derek ride all sorts of rollercoasters and ferris wheels and while they’re down for the count, Hotch takes Jack on the Pioneer Train and they explore the history museums. All in all, they head home both exhausted and well rested, somehow. No incidents, no arguments, just some good old fashioned family fun.

Well, almost no arguments. Jack’s grasp on (or respect for) the rules of I Spy is shaky at best and Jess always takes his side, leaving Hotch and Derek to argue on behalf of reason and sanity. "You can't just say you spy something GREEN in a sea of green, kid...you gotta be more specific!" Derek shouts after the third round of madness while Hotch pats him on the knee and Jessica's laugh bellows from behind them. He's spied something green on each of his turns and Derek is certain that he's lying about his answer when it's guessed too easily. Changing which green thing he's spotted.

"Sure he can! Are you accusing a child of lying?"

"I study behavior for a living, I know he's lying."

Hotch nods. "I know his tells."

"SOMETHING GREEN!"

"Oh for the love..." Derek cries out, sending off a litany of green things he can think of that he can't even see at all. Apples, grass, lettuce, slime, aliens...he's losing his mind and Hotch thinks it might be the cutest thing he's ever seen, at least for a while. 

Jessica's laughing so hard there are tears on her cheeks and Jack is pleased as punch. Hotch finally waves the white flag and turns up the radio, invoking the power of the quiet game. The first person to talk loses.

Everyone in the car is far too competitive to lose at this game.

[martyrbat]

7 8 & 9!! 🫶

7. One DC death you'd like to make permanent—or alternatively, one you'd erase so it never happened?

if i was in a room with the joker and jason with a gun that had two bullets i would shoot jason twice <3 i think his character has good potentials however, being realistic with dc comics as a whole, they're never going to explore it in a way that has significance or is interesting. plus itll retcon the outlaws existence so its a win for the roy & kory girlies too <33

8. Is there anything about post-Flashpoint canon you prefer to pre-Flashpoint canon? Be honest.

i jump around in comics i read & their timelines A LOT so my canon and what i like is me just picking and choosing elements so trying to remember what came from where is difficult, especially because i considered flashpoint itself boring and new 52 is. new 52.... but I'm pretty sure its where willis todd was set up by oswald. i like the idea of him gooning (😌) for the penguin rather than his backstory being just a throw away line that he was working for two face because of the extra class commentary it can provide—especially if hes a poor man who just had to resort to petty crime and his desperation to provide for his family was being exploited. and him being thrown under the bus and arrested for something he wasnt responsible for in a cover-up for the crime lord who he was working for, resulting in being separated from his family and what eventually led to his family's homelessness—having his entire life ruined by a rich man who saw his life as nothing valuable and the unfair system that put him in that place to turn to crime and then punishes men like him rather than oswald... i think it has more depth and potential if any writer was capable of providing it, although i don't care for him now being wingman (?) and secretly still alive... but thats dc, one good idea forward, five steps back.

9. Superman in space or Superman in Metropolis? Does this change if I say Smallville instead?

oooh,,, ill have to say metropolis purely because it allows more nuances and better stories!! i think his adventures in space are grand and can be so fun but part of the reason why i love superman so much is that he IS this alien capable of major feats and he's powerful but, more importantly than that, hes just a lonely man whos scared to lose those he loves and wants to protect people. he has these abilities and he immediately wants to use them to help others and that hes based in that with all his actions. and because hes so people focused it also brings to a point of that sense of loneliness and guilt and identity crisis that he frequently had in 80s/90s comics and how he sacrifices a lot of his own happiness and self in the thought that he must to protect them or be the hero they deserve, allowing for stories to have more emotional weight and his character to be a silent tragedy that a lot of people overlook (literally what i was vaguely talking about last night on [this] post)

also i think a lot of people have gripes that hes boring because of his powers and the scale of his abilities but by having him in metropolis, it shows the heart of his stories and character (and it usually involves more than just out muscling the alien baddie since he has to be smart about his actions and what hes doing to reduce the possibility of civilians being hurt) and who he's supposed to be and what he represents by existing. by having him in such an earthly setting it constantly emphasizes that his character has always been to be a symbol of hope for the people, especially for the oppressed. what use is him having these big powers if he doesnt use it to protect those who needs it? again, his space adventures are fun and can be interesting!! but i think that if thats all superman was and what his stories focused on, itll get tiring quickly since itll be just making up new power-scaled characters to give any sense of conflict and loses such a big part of who he, as clark kent AND superman, is

(also i think him being so messy as clark is very entertaining and theres more possibilities of that soap opera drama in metropolis—i love when hes so painfully human and doesn't his shit together despite being one of the most powerful heros in existence. im still eagerly waiting for the inevitable clois divorce arc & for him to be a little cunty and have a ponytail again <33)

dc ask game <3

[torinighthawk]

Harry Potter Headcanons (2/?)

My werewolf post has been lost in the forest and I can’t find it so...

Let’s talk Hogwarts Headcanons instead!

I’ve always been big on worldbuilding (and attempted writing) of Next Generation stories because of the huge potential of not only getting to go crazy creating a world that is familiar but more suited to my own tastes, but because I enjoy the move forward, the making things better, aspect of jumping off from canon into uncharted territory.

Harry Potter is no different. Most of the fics that are still half finished in my document folders on my computer are Next Gen, in fact I believe they may all be.

Since coming back into the fandom I’ve been working on a huge worldbuilding project that spans dozens of decades of the wizarding world past, present and future, and I thought I’d share some of the Next Gen Hogwarts School ideas I had here.

Firstly, Post War Magical Britain is a mess and I’ve always been like, yeah, McGonagall took full advantage of that to make the school hers and to make lasting changes that would survive her tenor as Headmistress for the better of all of the students.

With a portion of the Board of Governors either in Azkaban for their crimes as Death Eaters, or silenced by their past support of Voldemort (and not wanting anyone to know it), and you know the ones who survived the war (its weird that the only Governor we know is Lucius), new different minded people take their place and McGonagall takes advantage of that too. 

The world is my (ahem, her) oyster. Her first order of business after the recovery and grief period was to address the Houses and Sorting. Some wanted the Houses done away with, others argued it was tradition, smart educators pointed out that classes would eventually be hell if they didn’t split up the students somehow. McGonagall took this all in and conferred with active and former students alike, as well as with the Sorting Hat itself, and it was ultimately decided to keep the Houses but resort the students.

Resorting sparked a debate (because of course it did), with some arguing it should happen every year, and other’s balking at the logistics of resorting hundreds of students every year. It was Ron (seconded chiefly by Hermione) who suggested that students be resorted before transitioning through the natural progression of their schooling, basically meaning Second Years would be sorted at the end of the school year before transitioning from basic classwork into their O.W.L classwork and Fifth Years would do the same transitioning from O.W.Ls to N.E.W.T classwork.

Students still had pride in their House but knowing they could be re-sorted twice and potentially end up in three different Houses (this is rare usually its only two) during their time at Hogwarts almost immediately saw students trying to make friendships and connections with students in other Houses (though it was hard to tell if that was because of the change or Post War sentiments in general).

Over the years House traits fell out of use, though the Sorting Hat itself still used a general personality trait guide to sort, students themselves no longer put as much value on those traits as needing to have to be a true member of [insert House]. Calling people who stayed in one House their entire time at Hogwarts a True [House] was said as more of a joke, than something taken seriously.

At some point only Quidditch and Dueling Club became true places of rivalry between the Houses and even that was done all in good fun with the expectation of no ones feelings getting hurt (or you know someone saying something they shouldn’t, and other’s responding with violence, and those people getting suspended from playing, if you get the reference you get it).

Once the Ministry got itself together under Kingsley, they realized it was better to work with Hogwarts than against it. 

It’s always baffled me that wizards, who think themselves so above muggles, don’t have institutions of higher learning. I’ve kind of changed that a bit in that there are certain institutions like St. Mungo’s that teach and train employees after secondary schooling or secondary equivalent schooling is acquired, including The British Archives and Museum of Magical History (BAMMH).

So instead of having to train wizards and witches on the most basic aspects of what their job might require at the Ministry after they have already started working, the Ministry instituted classes, such as Government and Economics, Magical Law, Business and Leadership Seminars and Conferences, etc. be taught at Hogwarts for students interested in future careers in the Ministry.

With the Introduction of new classes and new teachers McGonagall and the Ministry (and Hermione at some point inevitably) wanted to make Hogwarts and Wizarding Britain in general much easier for Muggleborns, or Half-bloods raised in the Muggle world (poor kids like Harry), to transition into Magical Society while also not assuming anyone raised in the wizarding world would fully understand even the basics of it at 11, a new class called Wizarding Studies (think basic gov and econ plus magical folk relations plus how wizarding society differs from muggle society) was created for First and Second Years to take. With the new class came a new teacher who requested to be allowed to teach Latin to the students to even further help witches and wizards in their studies. 

Eventually Latin becomes a required course.

I’m still working on how all these new classes work, maybe when I have it at a place I’m satisfied with I’ll share. 

But on to more nuanced ideas:

I headcanon that collectively as a student body the students decided to focus on culture in order to further unite the Houses and institute healthy House rivalry as opposed to negative culture. With McGonagall’s approval they created new clubs that were inclusive, and a student council made up of Prefects, the Head Boy and Girl, and other student leaders that could help keep the culture going.

A special peer Study Hall was created that allowed all students to help each other. By the time Harry’s children go to school Students Helping Students, or SHS, is a time honored tradition for almost all students to attend every Friday evening (SHS is available everyday in the evenings but Friday is special) where raffles are drawn and door prizes are given and everyone genuinely has a good time learning from each other with little to no teacher interference (except to keep the peace and caution against dangerous activities).

Multiple fundraisers where the Home Ec Club sell their projects and the Theatre club put on skits or whole plays to help other students out are held every year, completely organized by the students with help from the professors when needed. One year a Hogwarts Student makes it to the Wizard’s Chess World Tournament and the students raise the money to make sure they get to actually go and play some of the greatest Wizard’s Chess Masters. Another year, a Muggleborn Student and their family loses their home to a nasty fire and the students raise the funds to put them back on their feet. 

Even before his kids go off to Hogwarts Harry gets involved as a Governor on the Board and whenever it is needed he matches donations made by students for certain causes (Mental Health Awareness; Abused Children in Need; A new wand for every student, even the ones whose families can’t afford it), and he gets other’s with deep pockets involved too.

Hogwarts as a whole grows, and with it so does Magical Britain.

There is a bit more that I have mostly ironed out and a lot more that needs more work, so this is only a sampling of what I’ve had floating around my head for the last several months. Hope you all enjoy!