#sorry this became a weird and unnecessary rant

[kikker-oma]

If you could change one (1) thing in the LoZ-franshise and it would become canon, what would you change?

Ooohhh I've seen some of these milling around!!

For me I would change this:

LET THEM HUG DANGIT☹️

Like, im a romantic at heart, so I always would prefer to think Zelink is cannon, but even if they explicitly were confirmed as just friends or even if they ended up being family - LET THEM HUG AT THE END😭🥺

I love hugging my friends and family!! I adore showing physical affection! I've hugged coworkers and held hands with members at work to comfort them when theyre upset (if they initiated. Im not that dense to be touching strangers without consent lol. Ill ask people if i dont know them well enough to know what theyre ok with).

All of this to say: I don't feel good and I want hugs, so thats my answer lol. (Though believable lore/timeline connecting the games would be fantastic haha))

[thesilverlady]

Judging by how Ryan love to show his feminist ideals by making female characters go through unspeakable amount of non-canon abuse and violence. And the only way for Rhaenyra's story to be a progressive/feminist tale is by making her get abused by the men around her. I am going to assume it's wouldn't be that far for Ryan to change Rhae's death and makes her gets raped in 4k scene by aegon (who should be disabled but we know Ryan loves to ignore source material) like show Rhaenyra's got zero respect from the writers. Like even her relationship with Daemon which wasn't healthy in the book to begin with , is now not really about her but because Daemon got the hots for Viserys (some leaks implies it for Aemma) he started projecting into her and entered a relationship with her bc it's the closest he can get to Visussy 🤓 f&b was already bad for me personally but Ryan is such a talented mf he managed to come up with much worse

*sorry for the rant I don't really ship daemrya but I really hate watching a female character get non-canon abuse just for the writers to prove a point about a male character *

Edit: My answer became very negative so for the pookies who want to avoid discourse and negativity pls scroll past ♥

it's alright! no need to apologize! 🫶

tbh with you I do enjoy daemyra very much in the book but I fully acknowledge their dynamic has its toxicity (tbf it's super rare to find a wholesome, sweet, "healthy" asoiaf couple and I probably wouldn't even get that hooked compared to how I get with the dark ones)

That being said, the couple lost me already by s1 ep4, so it terms of shipping I've given up waiting anything from them

Now about the writing, hotd has been misogynistic from the start so I'm not exactly waiting for a transformation to happen in s2.

in s1 Alicent’s character was rewritten - in such a way that the new version of her doesn't even experience a moment of happiness or a second of having autonomy or power. She's always someone's punching bag while also her being hypocritical and nasty to Rhaenyra

Laena's way of death was completely unnecessary and brutal, similiar to Aemma's. And the fact they made getting burnt alive being "a dragon rider's death" already gave a hint about how Rhaenyra's death will be seen if it follows canon.

asoiaf established how brutal dragon fire is when Rhaegal bathed Quentyn after he tried to tame Viserion. It's not "honorable" as hotd tries to make it be, it's torturous. And my concern with Rhaenyra's death is that it won't be seen for its brutality.

To continue Baela & Rhaena were barely given any lines, their role as kids was getting dismissed but their dad and as adults they were just standing silently - you'd think they were background characters.

Mysaria's character was brushed off by erasing the child loss she went through due to Viserys - which debatably worked as a trigger for the events she also did in the plot.

Rhaenys was downright written as an idiot who was envious of Rhaenyra and instead of supporting her, she was trying to "humble" her by being an asshole. When she got the opportunity to destroy the greens during the coronation she walked away because.... *check notes" she made eye contact with alicent and the power of motherhood won? her granddaughters being engaged wasn't enough for her to act I guess.

Then there's Helaena, who while she did have an extremely tiny role in the book, it doesn't justify making her extra passive. I've talked about this before but making her having "dragon dreams" is useless and a waste of time and it's also a great excuse to have her be dismissed and ignored.

Helaena in the book was said to be pleasant, motherly, patient and calm. I won't mention the leaks I've read about b&c but if they're true they paint her in a very weird light.

Rhaenyra deserves an entire post of her own. If alicent was the punching bad Rhaenyra is the bing bong boll being tosses from one person to another each second.

So yeah, the issue isn't about shipping or even which teams anyone sides with. The writing is atrocious to all the female characters, and what's the cherry on top is the showrunners constantly patting themselves in the back for being "feminist" and GA falls for it!

I'm so burnt out 😩 This is why I've decided to attempt turn off the media analysis for the show 'cause it's like kicking a dead horse. My goal for this season is to try to vent less and enjoy whatever I can put of context without thinking too hard about it.

[scarletofhufflepuff]

Personal Thoughts On “Batman: Caped Crusader”

As the title suggests, I will be talking about my thoughts and personal opinions on the newest Batman show. Mostly the things that confused me ngl.

Now I’m no Batman expert nor a film critic. Just a casual fan of Batman and the Batfam(as well as Dc comics in general). Wanted to preface that before moving onto the main point of this post. So I ask to not take I what I say too seriously. Again, I simply wanted to express the thoughts I had after just watching the show.

Warning: This post become longer than I thought it would, a lot of words were typed out. Became more of rant of my various thoughts than anything constructive, I think. Lol sorry about that.

Stuff I Liked About the Show

The art style! I just really liked how everything was drawn and colored. The animation itself was just fantastic. I’m no animation expect though so honestly there may have been flaws that went over my head, but still!

The show itself I found I enjoyed watching. I was interested in each episode’s story, despite some things that confused me(more on that later).

Character designs were also something I liked. My favorite being Harley’s jester costume. I just loved its pattern and colors.

Character personalities were also interesting to watch. The contrast between Bruce’s playboy persona versus his attitude as The Batman has always been interesting to me. Same goes for Harley. As a therapist/psychologist she’s cheerful and always wearing a smile. Telling her friends the best way to endure the hardships that are Gotham is by laughing. Versus her demeanor when it’s shown what she does with her greedy clients who refuse to see the error of their ways. The voice she uses as she talks to them is just really neat to me.

Things I Didn’t Like/Confused Me

Unnecessary changes to the critical details of well established characters have always bugged me slightly. Gender, for instance. The Penguin has always been depicted as this short chubby man who uses a club as a front to his criminal organization. This depiction of the character has been well established in my imagination whenever I hear the name Penguin in reference to the Dc villain. So imagine my confusion when this show introduced this big female character with two sons as the Penguin. I just have to ask, why? It just seems unnecessary. I’m willing to ignore it and excuse it as maybe it’s the result of the show being an alternate timeline(or universe). Either way it was a bit weird. Also her name? “OswaldA”? That just doesn’t seem like a real name honestly.

Moving on, another thing that confused me in terms of changing well established critical details of well known characters were the changes made to Commissioner Gordon and Barbara. Specifically their ethnicity. Why the heck are they black? Now before you raise your pitchforks and torches, I have my reasons for this change to the characters to confuse me. Historical accuracy. This show is set in the 1940s, a time when segregation and mistreatment towards people of color were very well present. Yes there were black police officers, but they were not treated equally nor given the same amount of power in their jobs as white officers. I’m no expert on the subject and will not act like one. But I still I think I know enough to be confused at Gordon and his daughter to be black and yet have no problems working in the positions they do. Again, maybe it’s because the show is set in an alternate timeline/universe? Maybe they didn’t have racial issues in their world like we did irl? Personally I have no qualms to such changes to the characters in other scenarios, I’m just confused/curious how things work in the world this show is presenting us.

Speaking of historical inaccuracy, Harley and Detective Montoya’s budding relationship being so open. Again, it’s the 1940s. If queer people were struggling to be accepted in the 60s, then they definitely were having a hard time being accepted in the 40s. Honestly I don’t hate these characters falling for each other. It’s kinda cute and honestly I wish it had a chance to be fleshed out more. What I’m confused about mainly is the lack of reactions from background characters and the fact Harley and Montoya aren’t being secretive. Again, I’m no history expert on this subject so correct me if I’m wrong. I’m just confused as a casual viewer of the show who’s heard how queer people had to be really secretive in times when they were heavily looked down upon. Again, I’m willing to overlook this in the sense the show may just be in a different timeline/universe where such issues possibly didn’t form. Who knows honestly what the history of the world this show has created is like.

Other than all of that, Harvey Dent’s characterization. Now I want to preface by saying I don’t know a whole lot about how this character has been generally depicted in the past. But from what things I have heard in passing; wasn’t Harvey originally a really good lawyer with a likable personality? Anyone who knows more about him, please correct me if I’m wrong. The way this show depicts Harvey before his transformation into Two Face just seemed off. Like, is he supposed to be that pretentious? Also why kill him off not so long after his change into Two Face? Is he going to be brought back somehow?

Okay last thing I’m confused about; Bruce’s estranged relationship with Alfred. Now I get it when Bruce insists on shooting down Alfred on talking about his personal issues and insisting that he’s fine. Bruce is stubborn on that front and personally that makes sense to me. But in this show he’s depicted as not treating Alfred like family? Am I describing it right…? It just confuses me a bit that he doesn’t seem to be treating Alfred as kindly as I’m used to seeing in other shows. Alfred basically became Bruce’s step dad by raising him as best he could after Bruce’s parents died. Maybe it’s a result of Bruce becoming overly focused on perfecting being Batman or something. Who knows. I’m just a bit confused by this, understandably.

That’s all pretty much it. Despite not liking the changes made to certain characters and stuff that had confused, none of those overall ruined the show for me. I generally liked it and will be waiting patiently for season 2. Especially to see what comes from that cliffhanger that’s shown in that last episode of season 1. Also I personally think it was missed opportunity to make the flashbacks in black & white. It would’ve made a lot of sense to do so.

[catihere]

What are your thoughts on canon Percabeth?

Oh, hello Percabeth anon! I didn’t expect you to reach out to me as well. Sorry for the long wait, here’s my answer to your question.

Generally, I’m pretty indifferent to romantic ships. I really enjoyed Percabeth in the first series because the basis of their relationship was friendship rather than romantic feelings, and even when they officially became a couple, I was more interested in how their relationship builds up outside of typical lovey-dovey stuff. I mean, that’s very cute too, just not my cup of tea, not with these particular characters anyway.

That being said, I still think that PJO Percabeth was cute and well written. Typical teenage romance that still left space for Percy and Annabeth’s individual characteristics to be highlighted. The Siren scene in the Sea of Monsters remains one of my favorite bits in the franchise! I felt it was very relevant in presenting Annabeth’s motivations, flaws and struggles while also containing a particular tenderness with Percy comforting her later on. Very cute, love to see it.

Hoo Percabeth… I’m kind of blanking here. What I know I don’t like is cotg and wottg Percabeth. At this point, it feels like Rick is beating a dead horse with a broken stick merely for fan service. And the fact that this whole trilogy is forced and unnecessary to the plot makes for some awful OOC-ness. WOTTG Percabeth comes at the cost of Percy being dumbed down and self-loathing, while Annabeth is put on an uncharacteristic pedestal. Not to mention the “mom” thing with Annabeth- unlike, for example, the early series stuff of Percy dreaming of having a future with her, that was just plain weird.

To sum it up: I liked Percabeth in the first series, especially the platonic side of their relationship, but the quality of the ship decayed as the series went on. At this point, I prefer them in Smartwatermagic than in canon XD I hope you enjoyed my little incoherent rant!

[ravenwingdark]

like fire, ice and explosions was soooooooooooooooooooooooo good. i… like... reading stories where shouto... loses his shit? he "deserves" that, you know what i mean? to go off the rails, either a little or a lot. he should be allowed to not be fucking okay! he should be allowed to have a reaction, and a messy reaction at that. i feel like he isn't actually allowed to do that though, in canon that is. maybe the mangaka thinks it's unnecessary but i don't think so, so i'm really glad for your story, for you letting him go through all of these feelings, for letting him react in a "messy" way. and i like how supportive is bakugou, and how bakugou he still is, like he's probably not the most comforting person ever, but maybe that's exactly why it works, with shouto at least. i wish we had had more characters reacting in "canon" to the part of dabi's speech about shouto instead of people only reacting to him as being related to dabi and all of that. i don't remember if there's even any comment about the quirk marriage thing? but, yeah, it's like people don't really say anything about what happened to shouto, even now that it's in the open and, okay, of course, shouto wouldn't want people to say anything, but like, it's weird that it doesn't happen. but anyway, that became a rant, i'm sorry, that was not what i was meaning to do.

i like pyrrhic victory too. i like the trio's dynamic in there very, very much, and the scenes of the rescue were so perfectly good. what i like the most is... probably how fitting is anamnesis's quirk to, like, shouto's entire life story? like, of fucking course that's the quirk of the person who kidnapped him, it's sort of poetic in the most disturbing way. pyrrich victory kind of makes me really depressed though. it's a whole new fucking trauma for him, and i'm not really seeing any "light at the end of the tunnel" for shouto, not at the moment anyway. it doesn't seem like shouto will ever be moderately okay again! i'm glad he slipped up in the latest published chapter and that bakugou noticed it and confronted him about that quickly and because it's bakugou i'm hoping he won't be fooled by however shouto tries to deflect from that, and then maybe there's hope yet, but i don't know. i'm not feeling that hopeful even with the "angst with a happy ending" tag. do you have the ending in mind already? how do you usually write? do you usually have everythingh planned, or you "go through the motions"?

haha thank you so much! you really touched on all the worldbuilding and inner conflict I wanted to explore in the series. Frankly, Hori just doesn’t have the time to dive so deep into every character that deserves it—mangakas have such strict schedules and a timeline they need to follow (or they may get relegated to Shounen Monthly), so a lot of the inner world of some of the secondary characters has to be implied. thats the joy of fanfic!

And yes, I do have everything in place for the ending, and almost all of it is written :) I know this ask is a bit older so maybe out of date, but at the 75% point of a story is usually the “Darkest Moment” where everything looks the worst.

In some ways, Shoto’s worse (suffering from new trauma, not trusting his own head) and in other ways he’s become more resilient—he’s got a very strong support system system, and he’s learning how to ask for help. He’s learned a lot from LFIE and the aftermath, learned to forgive Endeavor (as much as he can) and is trying to move past his trauma, though he’s 18 years old, and only a few years removed from that abuse, and def doesn’t have his life figured out

When I decided to write the sequel I did a bullet point list with each major development being numbered, then subsections. I believe it had 51 major plot moments. Since it’s a plotty casefic, I’ve pretty much adhered to The Plan with only adding extra details here and there. (Meanwhile, LFIE was seat of the pants)

And if you’re worried about a happy ending, just take a look at the title! Pyrrhic Victory—well, we’ve already gotten quite a bit of suffering, what’s left?

TYSM for such a kind, thoughtful comment, hope you enjoy the final stretch :)

[venus-of-the-hrdsell]

It's Hellblazer anon again and I finished it! What an amazing read! There's a thousand positive things I could say about it but instead I'm going to rant at you about those last 50 issues. You once mentioned that Azzerello was your villain origin story....well Milligan is mine. I have never read such dogshit writing in my entire life. The fact that it was Hellblazer's last issues really bloody rubs me the wrong way as well. It was character assassination on a world wide level, no survivors, everyone was annihilated. MY GOD WHAT WAS PETER MILLIGAN THINKING?? John was sooo pathetic and old and obsessed with having a wife?! All he does in those last issues is be obsessed with boring women? Like sweetie don't you have better things to do?? Phoebe was so bland, Epiphany was genuinely the absolute worst and Milligan tried sooo hard to sell us on this weird marriage? He even went as far as to bring back Kit and get John to tell her that he loves this random chick way more than he loved Kit 😭 like wtf, Kit was so important to John, their relationship was so special and Milligan just had to shit all over it just to prove a point? Making Angie a punchline to fat jokes was disgusting and so unnecessary. Holy shit poor bloody Gemma? Everything around what happened with her was so revolting and she deserved so much better. Milligan just couldn't write good John angst so he had to absolutely destroy Gemma's character and I hate him so much for it. Not even Chas could escape the onslaught! John literally left Chas to die, the only reason he saved him is because his passport got rejected, like I'm sorry but John would not let his best mate die?! Also....where did the horror go?? It just turned into the John and Epiphany show where all they did was have sex and talk about how shit everyone else was. Speaking of, words can not describe how much I hate Epiphany. Two dimensional, written way too edgy, and her being that young just felt like Milligan was trying to act out a fantasy. I just.....hated this run with my entire being. So boring, so badly written, lacking substance and I was glad that it ended. Also I have no idea wtf that ending was but I hate Milligan for having that privilege and absolutely fucking it up. He also gets the medal for writing the absolute worst love interests. Sorry that got so long but I had to tell someone! I'm honestly just pretending that none of that was canon. Gemma forgave her uncle and became a doctor, Kit and Angie lived happily ever after, Chas got a cool new car and John got to have a pint. There, fixed it.

(I'm so sorry for answering this so late) but anon I hear you and I FEEL YOU because I was sleepless the night I finished Hellblazer because of HOW BAD those last 50 issues were. It's infuriating that this trash trainwreck had more issues than the good writers Hellblazer had??? Like???

It's genuinely one of the few runs in comics that aren't salvageable for me because it both destroys John as a character, destroys the Hellblazer lore and it's side characters and sends continuity to hell (there's so many errors I can easily list here). It's also incredibly misoginistic by vertigo standards because everyone woman on it either gets disrespected, shamed abused or FRIDGED. And the fact that DC saw the shitty work this writer did on John and was like "this is the PERFECT candidate to write a Constantine lead team Justice League Dark:) "

So my best advice is to do as I do (and Spurrier) and pretend that run doesn't exist. For me, Diggle's run is the perfect conclusion for Hellblazer (this, or the route Lemire took with John on Swamp Thong: Green Hell).

[harapeveco]

I read your anime recommendations and thought,,, wow, she really didn't lie when she said she had shitty taste, but then I saw you mention NATSUME!! You redeemed yourself with this one, it's absolutely fenomenal, my favourite anime of all time and I just can't stress enough how much I love it. It's over 70 episodes + a movie but I rewatched it 3 times, don't regret anything. Did you know that season 7 was announced?? After 6 years??? I'm so happy I thought they forgot about it!!!

Also I thought I was the only person who's seen the Chuunibyou one. I only watched it because it was loosely based on a vocaloid song of the same title and curiosity took the best of me but it was surprisingly good!

In the second half you also listed some really good shows like Sasamiya, Dr. Stone, Kiss him not me or Horimiya so I think I can say your taste isn't as bad as you consider it to be!!

Have you seen Given? I think you'd like it based of what you've recommended. It's cute, gay, gets pretty emotional and has really good music. One of the main characters might seem annoying, but personally I could connect with him in a way? It's just that he has this main personality trait that isn't really anything new in anime and people might not like it but it was the first time I've seen it being done right. He feels how I feel a lot of the time and idk, I might just be weird but he became my comfort character because of it.

Sorry for the long rant! I'd love to hear about more if your favourite shows!!

“Wow she really didn’t lie when she said she had shitty taste” 😭😭😭😭 BESTIE COME ON

Anyway yes!!! I knew about the natsume new season!!!! I have a bestie who is obsessed with natsume as much as I am. I remember the 6th season came out while I was still in high school and I would watch it during class with the school’s internet and like GOD every episode is a master piece I love that show so much I rewatch episodes randomly every once in a while, mostly the Shigeru and Touko one that one makes me SOB 😭😭😭

Chunnibyou I also watched it bc of the song I listened to the atr version of it and I thought it was dumb but I wasn’t expecting it to be as funny as it was. Like the main character being all into super heroes and wanting to be a super hero just to show how stupid that is and the fact that characters is voiced BY DEKU HIMSELF makes it all so poetic. The guy who believes he’s a demon or whatever getting a gf who plays along his delusions? Absolutely great. The guy obsessed with 2D girls? Somehow he’s the most normal. Catboy who edgy as fuck with a shit ton of sisters who are mean to him? Hilarious. Cringe ass Utaite guy? I feel like they could have done more with him but he was funny when he was his Utaite persona. I’m also impressed the girl who was really the straight man in all this wasn’t boring at all I was worried bc in shows like these girls tend to be just boring and tell them to stop and even if she sometimes did she would indulge in the madness so I think that was refreshing to see. Pls everyone give Chuuibyou Gekihatsu Boy a chance!

Sasaki to Miyano is so good 😭😭😭 goes a little slow to me but I got used to it after a while and the payoff is really good. Dr.Stone goat all I can say is that if you need a reason to watch it that reason should be Asagiri Gen his bitchass assholness really makes the show for me (also the science is actually pretty fun). Kiss him not me I don’t remember anything about it honestly except an episode where they fight over a ship name which I’ve seen enough in fandom spaces so like relatable and horimiya…..horimiya is so good pls everyone go watch it 😭😭😭 I would die for them holy shit like the most realistic interpretation of love and relationships I’ve seen. The drama is very ground in reality too like the one you see is not unnecessary or used to fuck them over it’s just so good!

Oh yeh I watched Given! I have pretty shit memory so I forgot to include it but I left it only at season one and didn’t bother to watch the movie (was there a movie right?) bc it focuses on Haru and the other guy and like they seemed boring to me I only cared about Mafuyu and Uenoyama and I got what I wanted out of them so I’m pleased with what I got uwu also did you know the mangaka used to write Haikyuu Doujinshi? That’s why Mafuyu and Uenoyama have that very familiar color scheme LMAO good stuff good stuff

I have more shows I like but right I can’t think of any of them (I am very much sleepy rn brain is not functioning) but yeh

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I hope you are well.

Just wanted to tell you I love Back to Eclipse. In fic their was scene about ginny, bathtub and Tom. That was so creepy.

I love how different Harry and Tom in Ginny's life. Tom's diary always brings her pain and harry comfort.

In your analysis of yew wand you explained ginny is representation of life and Tom is of death(one of your best analysis). I think It fits in Ginny's life too maybe.

Many think Tom was like abusive ex. What do you think about that?

Also i have been listening to Taylor's would have could have in which there is line "give me back my girlhood it was mine first" dunno why it remind me of ginny and Tom.

Anyways will love to hear your thoughts on this scene. Also this has such a great imagery harry holding her from behind, ginny keeping her eyes shut and the back and forth between past and present.

Thank you (Sorry for a long rant).

TW: discussion of self-harm

[For those who haven't read the story yet -> Back to the Eclipse ]

I love that you love Back to the Eclipse and that scene!! It is creepy, isn't it? It wasn't even planned originally, it just came to me while I was writing about Harry and Ginny's fight. I had this visual of Ginny in the bathtub with blood and with a white nightgown and I needed to bring it to the page. I won't get into a personal rant about my original writing but it's a very me scene.

The whole matter of Ginny and the diary is a very fascinating one that for targeted audience reasons could never be fully explored in the books, even if in each one there's at least one reminder of how dark and twisted it was and how Ginny brings it with her all her life (with the exception of GoF because it builds to the Lucky you scene).

Tom in that scene I've written is setting up a suicide attempt for Ginny, even if in my idea he didn't actually have the intention of killing her at that moment, it was "just" psychological torture. In CoS, when Tom talks to Harry in the Chamber about Ginny he's so taunting, he makes fun of her. Even if you think about the fact that he makes her write with blood her own death sentence, you can find this element of unnecessary torture for the hell of it. A show of power. So I imagined it wasn't rare for him to do something like that. You can even interpret it as an experiment for what he will do in the Chamber if you want.

One of the main inspirations for this scene was the concept of suicide in ancient Rome. Suicide was considered a right in roman culture. Because while life was a right it fell under private law (it didn't work like that in ancient Greece for example). And in certain situations, it was an honourable act as an alternative to perishing at the hands of someone else. Now I'm not going to get into detail but, for example, when the senators wanted a fellow senator dead, they made him understand that he was going to die anyway, and out of respect, they gave him the possibility of killing himself, to have control over his own death. The cut of the veins was a pretty popular method in the tradition of the great figures that ended their own life. Maybe the most famous one is the one of Seneca.

This "tradition", and especially Seneca's episode, became my inspiration for that scene because Voldemort is a European dictator, or well, at 16 an aspiring one. And if there's something all European emperors/dictators have in common is an obsession with the roman empire. But I also thought it was quite fitting as a show of that weird co-dependency between Tom and Ginny. He makes fun of her, yet he knows her, and he is close to her. He tortures her but he sets up a scene that links that act back to something that was considered honourable.

[for the love of God, don't hurt yourself, people, there's nothing pretty or honourable about it, if you need help, ask for it]

I think Would've, could've, should've by Taylor Swift is a really powerful song that is quite fitting in this situation of Ginny and Tom. Yet I have to disagree on the matter of seeing Tom as an ex-boyfriend. I understand the parallel, but I think it comes from a line of thinking I disapprove of, the idea that the greatest betrayals and heartbreaks come always from lovers. Tom was Ginny's friend, her only friend. She trusted him, and she opened up to him, he was older, wiser, and charming. And he manipulated her. The implication of romance is not necessary, opening up to someone requires putting yourself in a vulnerable position, and that happens with friends too. There's nothing weird in suffering because you are not friends with someone anymore, whatever the reason is. There's nothing weird in suffering because a friend backstabbed you. It doesn't need to be romantic. It's not that the parallel of the toxic ex-boyfriend is wrong, but I find it often unnecessary.

But back to the scene I've written.

The presence of Harry. First, I have to specify that he's holding her from the front, I don't wanna take credit for things that I'm currently wishing I had written. That said, one of the things I really wanted to do with this story was showing what Harry does for Ginny. It's in the books, but Harry's pov tends to reduce the impact of those moments. So I wanted Harry to be there for Ginny, and be sensible about the matter, calming her like he does when she's worrying about the potions' book for example.

Something that I also find very fascinating is how Tom and Harry are arguably the two most impactful male figures of Ginny's life (until her sons) and how they are so connected and yet so different. The parallels between Tom and Harry are an explicit storyline of the books as much as their enormous differences. And you are right in referencing my analysis about the yew wands, like for Harry when it comes to Voldemort and Ginny, Tom and Harry are for her diametrically opposite things that still hold a connection. Tom is her darkest past, and Harry is her bright future. Tom is hate, and Harry is love. Tom is the guy that leaves her unconscious on a stone floor, and Harry is the guy that helps her stand up and tells her everything is going to be alright. Tom is torment, Harry is the guy who after seeing his mentor die still worries about how Ginny is feeling in regard to Bill being attacked. And I really enjoyed bringing this contrast to the page. I'll never get tired of saying that Ginny Weasley is built as a main character, she's just not the one of the story we've read.

I hope this was exhaustive enough! And please don't apologise, messages like this make a writer's day.

[dddannn]

Rendezvous

Pairing: SunaXF!Reader

 Warnings: Alcohol, other than that none

Genre: Fluff

///ring///**///ring/// you smiled as you saw the caller before answering the call

“Hello?”

“You have plans for tonight?” your smile became bigger upon hearing his voice from the other line

“I’m fine thank you, how about you?” you replied with a mocking tune “of course, how could I forget to meet you up tonight? We always do this right?” you laugh as you could hear him sigh with relief at the other line thinking you forgot your promise.

“So what time and where?” he asked

“You always make me do all the choosing, how about you decide this time?”

“You know I don’t really care where, as long as we could hang out.”

“Oh, I heard Kita’s gonna throw a party tonight?”

“Are you sure you wanna hang out with them? I mean it’s your cousin and stuff but you know”

“Well you decide then?” you waited for him to answer but he just sighed in defeat

“Alright then so I’m gonna pick you up by 9pm?”

“Yes! Just pick me up by that time then. See you!” you said as you hang up.

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Checking yourself at the mirror for the nth time,  thinking if the clothes and makeup is too much? Well you’re attending a party it’s not like any ordinary hangout like you guys usually do. You 're wearing a black off shoulder long sleeve crop top, a high waist denim short, and boots. Not really much since you don’t want to get unnecessary attention when you arrive there. As you are combing your long hair, you heard a knock from your door. ‘It must be him’ you thought. You quickly opened the door and saw your friend smiling as you opened the door for him to enter.

“You’re quite early today.” you looked at the clock and walk back too your room

“Well, I really have nothing to do now so I just came early.”

“We’ll I’m done preparing, should we go? It’s still 8 o'clock and the party starts at 9:30 though” you replied as you grabbed your stuff and went back to the living room

“How about we grab something to eat first, I’m hungry. And I know a great place” he rubbed his stomach, you smiled at his invitation since it’s the first time he suggested something when you go out.

“Okay let’s go!”

As you seated in his car before you could even lock your seat belt, he removed his leather jacket leaving him with his white shirt and placed it on your lap, you looked at him with a questionably. “It’s gonna be cold” he just said and you nodded in response. Along the ride you played along with some songs that are in his playlist, you were singing along with then the song iffy turned on then you teased him because it’s his  favorite song. He just laughed at you. You and Suna have been friends for 2 years now, you’ve been acquainted because of your cousin’s birthday party. Your cousin has no intention of introducing you to any of his friends but it happens that Suna is such a friendly person and asked for everyone’s number at the party. You usually gather with big groups and eat out but  eventually from group meetings turn into both of you meeting up every now and then since others are too busy. You didn’t mind it either.

“You know that Atsumu is there right?” you looked at him and nodded

“Of course, you , Shin and him are in the same Team before right? why? Is anything bothering you about Him?” you asked him

“No, it’s just be careful around him. He’s a fuck boy” you looked at him confused

“You’re the one who looks more like a fuck boy” you laugh

“It’s true, he might not look like it and he has a reputation to hold but believe me, he has his ways to get people under his hands.”

“Hahaha, you know that I met, and befriended Atsumu before you right? And why are you even worried about that?” you said, as the car stopped in front of a casual restaurant, you removed the jacket on your lap and handed it to him as you walked out the car. Then he followed you and he put his jacket on your shoulders, you were about to ask him but he cut you off by saying “cold” as you entered the restaurant.

After your meal, you went directly to the location where your cousin’s party was held. When you arrived at the venue, there were already many people there. You walked through the crowd in order to find your cousin as Suna followed you along like a puppy. Then at the area where people were chilling you saw your cousin

“Shin!” you beamed and he looked at your direction. When he saw you he his smile widened and he spread out his arms asking you for a hug, and immediately you jumped at him.

“God, I miss you so much, how have you been?” you asked as you let go of the hug

“I’m doing great as you can see, how’s my princess doing?” and he looked at the back of you finding Suna behind you. “Oh you’re with Suna?” you nodded

“We thought if we could hang out tonight and I remembered your party so we went here instead.” you smiled at him

“Are you two perhaps? Dating?” Upon hearing the question your head instantly turned to Suna and gave him a look, he got what you are trying to say and answered Kita’s question on your behalf.

“No uhh, we are just...uh..friends” he walked closer to you and looked at you, then you smiled at him. Then suddenly you heard someone shouted your name, your eyes instantly switched to the person who called you and gave him a big smile and a hug

“It’s been days since I last saw you” as he kissed your forehead earning a glare from Suna

“I know right? You guys don’t usually come when we hang out.” then he gave you a questioning look “you guys hang out?”

“Yeah, like we used to before yet you guys are started to get busy because because of your Tournaments”

“Oh, those times, I kinda miss those. But we’re kinda free nowadays we could hang out often now” he smiled

“Atsumu, where’s Osamu by the way? I haven’t seen him since I got here.”

“Oh, I guess he’s with the others or something. And it’s Tsumu for you.” you rolled your eyes at his remark.

“I don’t even call Suna ‘Rin’ and he didn't complain”

For the whole night you were with Atsumu and forgot the whole reason you were there is because you promised Suna to hang out. Yet you found him at the bar talking to some girls, so you shrugged off the guilty feeling of breaking your promise, maybe he might get a girl tonight. As time passed by your shots become liters, from talking turns into flirting, and from simple skin brushes turns into touches. You felt uncomfortable at this point, maybe because of the alcohol, or the fact you can’t imagine the cute Atsumu you know is flirting and touching you at some point. Yet you still pretended that it didn’t affect you. As Atsumu pulled you closer to him and grabbed from your waist, you felt someone yanked you gently away from him, when you looked at the guy, it was Suna. You smiled at relief, he saved you.

“I think she needs to go now, right?” he said signaling you to look at the time. As you look at the clock, it’s already 2:48 in the morning. You have nothing going on the next day but sensing that it’s the proper time to go you agreed.

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry Atsumu I gotta go. I still have ummm.. Appointments later.” you excused as you left the poor boy along at the table.

As you got in at his car, he gave you his jacket so you could cover up. And started to drive. The whole ride was silent, he didn’t say a word, nor did you. Then the car stopped at the traffic light as it turned red, you wanted to get rid of the tension between you two, so you decided to speak up first.

“Is there anything that is bothering you Suna?” silence, he didn’t reply he’s just tapping his fingers at the steering wheel while looking at the road.

“You're not usually this silent, during our ride home, is everything alright?” you questioned again and received a sigh from him.

“We’ll other than completely ignoring me for Atsumu all night, and I literally told you he’s a fuckboy yet you didn’t listen, and him flirting with you and touching you everywhere with his filthy hands, and the way his hungry eyes looking at you makes me get on my nerves but other than that  everything’s particularly alright” you were just shock at his rant.

“Are you perhaps, jealous?”

He cleared his throat “what do you think? If I could pull out those eyes of his as he stares at you as of you’re some kind of meat” you hummed in response and remained silent the whole ride. You know he’s jealous, he clearly is but he won’t admit it, maybe because he doesn’t have the right to do so? And he didn’t say anything else too, so you decided to keep your mouth shut.

“Where here.” he announced and you nodded then you gave him his jacket, as you walked out. When you walked towards the building you could hear the door closed behind you, you looked back and saw him following you.

“Do you need anything else?” you asked

“I’ll just want to drop you off by the elevator since you drank a lot. Someone might ride with you with weird intentions.” and you nodded in response, and smiled at what he said. As you reached the elevator and you pressed the up button.

“You know what Rin, Atsumu was the first person who I knew from your team right, aside from Shin?” he nodded “and he means nothing to me other than just a brother”

“What are you tryi-”

“you see I’m already seeing someone” he widen his eyes from your announcement “he’s funny, he’s sweet,he’s sexy, he always ask if I have any plans even though he knows we are planning to see each other, and he always makes me decide where to meet cause it’s okay for him we would be anywhere as long as we are together he’s okay with it. I really like him, more than a crush I think” you chuckled and the elevator arrived. Then you entered the doors and looked back at him “I hope he likes me back as much as I like him” then the doors started to close but Suna was quick enough to enter the elevator before it fully closed, making you shocked at his actions. “What are you do-” he cupped your face and smiled at you before he leaned in capture your lips for a kiss

“that’s a confession right?” you smiled and he kissed you again

[femmesandhoney]

i don’t know if you grew up watching the powerpuff girls, but the cw’s live action script got leaked and i want to castrate every male in hollywood. why did the cw see a children’s cartoon where the main characters are 5 year old girls in kindergarten and immediately decide to sexualize them?? it’s honest to god disturbing. the girls are having constant sex scenes, drug use, and they made one black for diversity points but made her character into the angry slutty black woman stereotype. they made the professor into a shitty dad even though he loved the girls and always tried his best to care for them. they changed mojo jojo from a monkey who became evil from a bad reaction to chemical x into some incel elon musk type. the dialogue is a bunch of dated references basically like “how do you do fellow kids” which makes riverdale sound oscar worthy. how does hollywood get all of that from a 90s children’s cartoon about 5 year old girls who are superheros? no one asked for this to happen in the first place. cw’s powerpuff girls, euphoria, riverdale, probably more tbh are all some 40 year old mans masturbation fantasy of what teenage girls and very young adult women are like. this is such a long and unnecessary rant, but i am truly disgusted by this. society has gone so far down hill i don’t know if we can ever recover from this gross mess. i mean what’s next a rugrats live action where angelica does porn and tommy is a raging alcoholic after a divorce. write a gross and awful script and it’s green lit. this makes me so angry i hate men and i hate how hollywood and society has normalized all of this stuff. it’s disturbing.

i just find it disturbing that you're literally hitting the issue on the nose and grown men keep sexualizing things for or about literal children. I watched the show as a kid, but i was born watching reruns I don't think it was still going when I was old enough to watch kids tv. but i was around to play pretend on the playground with these characters and fighting about who got to be blossom. i will always find it weird when adult men look at shit like that and go damn these kids should be grown up and going clubbing. sorry they ruined it anon :(

[my-arlington-academia]

Cliffany part 2

O-kay, and that’s it! I don’t know if I’ll write a continuation tbh since it was just a silly little idea that came out of nowhere. (Although I did have some ideas for more!) I haven’t really been active on my fanblog lately so it’s not like it’ll make much of a difference though haha. By the way, I’m thinking about making my blog more "Dulcet-oriented" rather than just SE. I hope you guys don’t mind? Recently, I’ve been getting more and more into Black Tarot! So expect my blog to change a lil 🔮🕯🌌

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It had been a couple of days now since Tiffany’s last interaction with Claire, and while she was still ignoring her like before, Tiffany’s efforts in doing so had increased. The moment she spotted her in the corner of her eye, she would move at a faster pace, as if running away. Was it guilt after all? No, she just didn’t have the energy to deal with Claire’s annoying and unnecessary empathy. The empathy that she knew she didn’t deserve which made her feel even more frustrated towards Claire.

All she should be worried about right now is getting more followers on Instaglam, not avoiding a nobody like the plague. On that note, spring was coming soon, the flowers started to blossom and the days were getting longer which meant... that the "cottagecore" tag on insta would go trending soon, no doubt! And of course, living on the Arlington campus as one of its students, this gave Tiffany the access to its beautiful garden. Although honestly, she only ever went there to take pictures and this time wasn’t any different. She had prepared some tea sets and dresses for the occasion, all of which she would throw away once spring went away along with its "trends."

Carried by her confident footsteps, she walked to the garden. That confidence was only a facade though. She knew exactly what kind of people and who in particular went to take strolls quite often in this goddamn garden. But hey, it was 7pm and the sun would soon start to set. Knowing that Claire always arrives 15 minutes in advance to any meeting and most likely always wakes up at 6am, there was nothing to be worried about. Chances are, she was either doing her homework before going to bed like a goody-two-shoes or watering her weird-ass plants. Tiffany always had the horror of seeing these at Raquel’s parties. It just didn’t fit at all with the rest of what was going on in the room and ruined the whole "party" vibe.

In any case, there she was, searching for a good spot to take pictures and set up a fake picnic. That basket filled with different colored blankets, tea sets, biscuits, tea and a pie was way heavier than Tiffany had initially thought. Maybe she really should’ve asked for collab pictures with Trisha from the fine arts department. She didn’t really like her but when it came to follower count they were surprisingly close, although Tiffany was still number one of course. Still, if she had asked for a collab they could’ve carried those heavy props together.

After finding a good spot next to the pond, Tiffany set everything up in an aesthetically pleasing manner and got down to taking the pictures. She was taking different shots to post them one by one throughout the week and give out the illusion that she was taking those the same day she posted them. She was ready to upload the first one, call it a day and go back to the dorms without touching any of the tea or cakes. It’s all just useless calories anyways. As she was putting the tags on the picture, she started wondering what were the names of those flowers in the background.

"Ugh, fuck. What are those orange shits called again?"

"Marigolds."

"Ah right, thank y-"

Tiffany immediately snapped her head back. This annoyingly gentle voice could only belong to one person.

"...What the fuck, Claire. Where did you pop out from?!"

There’s no was she was there the whole time, right? It’s true that Tiffany could get lost in what she was doing once she was focused but it wasn’t to the point where she became completely unaware of her surroundings.

"I came by a few minutes ago... Y-you looked so invested in what you were doing that I didn’t want to bother you! I didn’t mean to pry."

Well, Tiffany could always upload those damn pictures from her room. Claire’s arrival just meant that it was time for her to leave. However, seeing that Tiffany started packing up her things, Claire panicked thinking that it’s her fault. Which was in fact, her fault... in a way.

"O-oh! You’re not going to finish your picnic? I’m so sorry, I’ll just leave! Throwing all of this good food away would be such a waste-"

"Are you fucking dumb?"

Did she not get that this was all only a set-up for taking pictures? It was obvious that Tiffany didn’t have any intention of eating or drinking any of that. Not to mention that after everything that happened the other day, she was still not scared of approaching her?

"I don’t give a damn about the food, it was just for my social media accounts you dumb bit- ... dimwit. I was already done anyway so you don’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m leaving."

"I see! T-then maybe I can help?!"

Help? What did Claire even know about- Actually, on second thought. This whole "cottagecore" shtick was a great fit for Claire. She probably already had all of the things Tiffany bought last week for those pictures, even better and more authentic-looking ones probably. This was maybe the one and only time Tiffany would let Claire "help" her. But from her point of view, she was mostly just using her.

"Hm. Is that so? How can you help me then... Claire."

"Wait just a second! I’ll be back right away!!!"

She ran immediately towards the dorms. Well, she'll probably bring a bunch of random stuff. In the end, Tiffany was really torn between the idea of staying and waiting for who knows how long and the idea of leaving right now. Surely, Claire would make a hilarious expression when she’d realize that she was played with and abandoned. While trying to laugh it off, Tiffany accidentally remembered what happened a few days ago, along with Claire’s crying face. Damn... Okay, fine. She’ll wait for her but only because it would be annoying if she bawled again like a damn toddler.

And so she waited until, from the corner of her eyes, she saw a girl with a pink dress running towards her. That girl, of course, being Claire. She carried a picnic basket with her too, but much bigger and more practical. For half a second, Tiffany thought that Claire actually looked maybe, just maybe, a little bit pretty. She erased the thought in a hurry, covering it with harsh words as usual.

"Wh-why did you change your clothes? You think I’m gonna take pictures of you?"

"Ah, no, well..."

Claire looked at the beautiful picnic set-up and the cyan dress Tiffany was wearing.

"I just wanted to fit in with the rest of what you put up, I guess. Also, don’t you think that we kinda match? I brought some of the cookies I baked and my favorite teas and tea set. I think mine will look better with your picnic blanket! Uh- N-not to say that yours looks bad!!!"

She was trying so hard to make herself likable that it was painful to see... and kinda cute. God, Tiffany was really hating her thoughts today. She was just going soft because of Claire’s aura or something. Again, this was definitely the first and last time she was letting Claire help her with anything. I’d be bad if she turns completely brain-dead and clueless like her.

"...Whatever. Show me what you got. I’ll decide if it’s good enough."

Claire was pulling everything out of the basket one by one. Everytime, better and better items were pulled out after the other. Her cakes and cookies gave off a "homey" feeling which was more fitting with the aesthetic rather than Tiffany’s store bought patisseries. Claire was staring at her, wide-eyed and excited.

"W-what do you think, Tiffany? It looks good, doesn’t it?!"

"Uh. Yeah, it’s fine, I guess. I’ll take a few pics."

That was a lie. This looked so much better than the try-hard bullshit Tiffany had done. She was good at riding on the "trend wave" but Claire was a natural when it came to this one specific thing. Tiffany was trying to look as poker-faced as she could so as to not show her satisfaction, but clearly, her apparent enthusiasm for each shot was  betraying her. Sometimes, she would accidentally take one with Claire in the shot and ask her to move.

"Hey. You’re ruining the picture with your ugly fac- dress. Move to the right."

Before Tiffany could even do anything about it, Claire was already pouring some tea into 2 cups.

"Woah woah woah, put the teapot down. I didn’t agree to this."

"But...This is a kettle, Tiffany. Not a teapot."

"Oh, shut it!"

Claire gave off such a dejected face that Tiffany, once again, felt like she was kicking a poor puppy to the ground. She held back on going off on a rant.

"But we’re already here and the weather is so nice! It would be such a shame not to use any of this at all..."

Claire looked around, observing this beautiful setting, not to mention, the sun was finally starting to set. Going home right now would be like an insult to the utter beauty of this scene, it almost looked like it came right out of a fairy tale picture book. Without mulling it over any further, Tiffany took a sip out of her cup.

"I’m only doing this because I feel compelled to, got it?"

Claire’s eyes lit up nonetheless.

"Alright! Please try out my cookies too!"

Tiffany contemplated them for a second... is it true that home-made stuff is more healthy? Surely, that’s just a myth, right? A cake from the store and a home-made cake will have about the same amount of sugar in them regardless of who made them and how. Well, she did see Claire share her food from time to time with her friends and while she would never admit it, it is true that she was a bit curious about trying them herself. What was the last time she had eaten anything "home-made"? Or did it ever even happen?

"...Okay, whatever. I bet they taste shitty."

Tiffany reluctantly took a bite... It was surprisingly really delicious!

"It’s bad."

"R-really?"

As much as she wanted to lie about it, she couldn’t after seeing Claire make that dejected face again.

"Uhhh. No, um. Hmm... On second thought, it’s pretty average. It’s okay-ish."

Tiffany really hated herself right now. Being mean has never been this hard before. She couldn’t wait for the moment where they would be done with this ridiculous play-pretend and go back to her room. She tried drinking and eating as fast as she could without making it look like she was in a hurry to run away from this awkward situation. And God, it was so fucking hard...

Unsurprisingly, they were both pretty silent the whole time. Well, it wasn’t like they had anything to converse about or things in common. Right as Tiffany was about to get up and pack up her belongings, for real this time, Claire spoke up. Nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress.

"Um. So you know, I have something to confess to you, Tiffany."

Oh God, not now. As much as Tiffany found this timing annoying, she couldn’t help but poke fun at that poor choice of words.

"Confess? Oh my, so you like me in that way, huh? That explains everything."

"Wha- N-no! That’s not it! I mean, realistically speaking, t-that would never even happen!"

Was she implying that she could never like someone like Tiffany? Well, Tiffany herself was the one who brought this up but she was a bit offended at that statement. Regardless though, the way she was trying to deny it so hard was kinda cute. No. Not cute at all! If this went on, Tiffany would really become crazy before the end of this day.

"Last time, you said that I was only being kind towards others to profit off of them and I didn’t say anything but... that wasn’t true at all! I always wanted to help you because I thought that you needed it, I swear. Not to satisfy myself! ... Well. Except maybe..."

"Except...?"

"T-today. I admit that I kind of had ulterior motives."

Now that piqued Tiffany’s curiousness right away. Suddenly, she didn’t want to leave as much anymore if it meant that Claire would finally admit that she did some things for her own benefit. Why was it? Did she want to post a picture of herself on Tiffany’s Instaglam to fish for compliments, knowing that she had a lot of followers? Claire hid her face behind her hands and muttered a few words.

"I... wanted you to warm up to me."

"...Huh?"

That’s it? That was it? Claire’s ulterior motive was for Tiffany to "warm up to her."?

"So like, you want us to be friends or some shit?"

"Oh no! Not necessarily that far, just... good acquaintances!"

Is she stupid? There’s no way that she genuinely thinks those "motives" are bad. Tiffany sighed in exasperation.

"Listen. I’m just really tired right now, I don’t have the energy to assimilate all the shit you’re saying. I’m packing all of this up and going back to the dorms."

In complete silence, they gathered all of their belongings and walked to the dorms while keeping a fair distance between the 2 of them. As if to say, "we’ve got nothing to do with each other." Surprisingly, Claire didn’t try anything anymore. Didn’t even wish for a "good night" or a "good evening" which was weird to say the least. Tiffany tried to ignore it and when she got back and unpacked all of the props, she noticed something that didn’t belong to her. One of Claire’s lunch boxes with cookies in them and... a note?

Here’s my number just in case ;3 Please give me my lunchbox back once you’re done eating the cookies!♡

"...Your note makes me wanna barf."

So that’s why she didn’t try anything. That sneaky little... she must've slid that into the basket when they were packing. She already knew that Tiffany would eventually be forced to talk to her again... as if! Who says she’ll return it? She can just throw all the cookies away along with the box... Or so she thought. Tempted, she took a bite, then another one. And another one. Her diet was ruined for sure now. Damn you Claire and your stupidly great cooking skills, as if you needed another skill to be better and more perfect than you already are. Tiffany put the box away, trying to forget the delicious taste and smell. Back to Instaglam she goes. Uploading the picture while adding the "marigold" tag on it. Going through the pictures again, she noticed that some of them had Claire in the corner. She was thinking of deleting them but... well whatever. She can just crop her out later if needed. Her dress looks pretty so it’s fine even if she does appear in the pictures. All we see is a bit of her hair, as long as her face isn’t visible, it’s okay. Yup. It was totally not because Tiffany was slowly starting to feel something towards the girl she was trying so hard not to get involved with.

[flxquita]

The last la casa de las flores rant

Spoilers, you know.

I could say i have no words but i really have a lot of 'em so let's dive right in. I didn't love the second season and i thought it felt sort of unnecessary, i did love the finale though, which gives a great start for this season. First off, i LOVED Jenny's character in this season, it finally made Mariana Treviño justice and that scene when they're escaping and she looks back to Paulina, it broke my whole heart, i loved their storyline. I felt that the whole thing with Purificación was a bit too much at times and definitely crazy as hell. Anyway, i really loved seeing Virginia's past and it was SO NECESSARY to see why she married Ernesto because it makes so much sense when you find out they marry out of convenience, of course they loved each other, they always did, but Salo was the love of HER life and I'm sorry, i really don't buy the whole Ernesto and Carmela thing that was totally out of the blue and felt SO wrong i just can't - I didn't really understand why Virginia was so homophobic in the first season, or at least she couldn't understand, but in her past she went to a pride march, i'm??? It does make a little sense when Carmela says it's because she was such a rebel that she became conservative. In that topic, i cannot put into words how hard Pato's dead hit me, and his story with Agustín it was so heartbreaking, he loved him, and his last words were that he loved him but Agustín's hatred was too much and I just can't believe he did that to someone he loved. I couldn't believe someone's intolerance and his care about society's opinions went that far. Pato deserves so much better, but I'm glad Agustín goes to jail at the end and Chiva is released and GOD I've never been so glad about a character's dead as i was with Victoria's, man she was a real bruja. And the fact that Virginia named Paulina after Pato's drag name and that Elena, Julian and Diego's baby was named Patricio, I'm so soft. The whole gay conversion therapy thing was very weird and definitely not the nicest thing to see but i kind of see why they did it except WHY go to such lenghts??? But go off i guess. And the fact that they finally have their baby, I'm so happy for them and I'm so sorry my baby Diego had to go through all that horror, he deserves so much better. The wedding and Maria José and just HOW MUCH she and paulina love each other, it just fits, it was always gonna be them but Paulina had to let go of her worries about people's opinions and the grudges she held for years and at the end, she truly only cared about being with the woman she loved and i think that's the perfect ending for her. (Also, how random was that boyfriend of Elena's, was he and ex boyfriend or just a really friendly delivery guy wtf who even was that but ok). The casting for the younger Virginia and Ernesto was PERFECT idk how they did it, but they look exactly like Elena and Ernesto actually, it's weird but kinda perfect? I think the storyline was perfect, the past thing and the secrets the family buried, that's what gives la casa de las flores SUCH an energy, that's what season 1 had, the secrets and the mistery and its just amazing. La casa de las flores means so much to me, it means so much to the LGBT community here in Mexico, it was so new and incredible and i loved every minute of it. It truly made history in a country were intolerance and hatred are still very common, to see representation like this on television, it's breathtaking, it gives you hope. All in all, an epic finale for an epic series.

[shinsorokiri]

UA Idol | Chapter Ten

Hitoshi Shinsou x Reader

Word Count: 2,417

Warnings: Language

A/N: And we’re at Hell Week! Sorry this chapter took a little longer to get out, I was driving back from my parents house to my apartment and it was all very chaotic and hectic, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! What do you think everyone’s gonna sing next week >:)

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Arriving at the hotel was... intimidating. It’s very fancy, and you are a college student. Mina, on the other hand, was thriving. “Oh my GOD (Y/n), we have a MINI FRIDGE!”

“LOOK AT THE BALCONY!!”

“Do you think Zendaya has ever been here? I would sell my soul to know if she stayed in this room.”

All of her little outbursts were intensely amusing, but you were too busy deciding on what you should wear to the first day of Hell Week. Luckily, the flight landed at six in the morning Los Angeles time, and since you had slept for almost the whole flight, you felt good to go. Also, if you would get to live shows, this is probably something you’re gonna need to get used to. “Okay, so this black, or this slightly blue tinted black?” you ask, holding up a few articles of clothing. Mina sighs, shaking her head before walking over to you. “(Y/n), sweetie, just wear whatever you want! You’re going to look good regardless.”

“But we’ll be on television, Mina, not everyone can look as effortlessly perfect as you can,” you say, sighing. “You’re right, there’s only a few people who are at my level. Luckily, you’re one of them. Just wear the outfit you planned to wear before we even got to LA. It’s cute as hell and it captures your personality perfectly.” She picks up the clothes you’d planned to wear and tosses them at you. She was right, you did look great in that outfit, and you don’t even know why you worried in the first place. Overthinking at its finest, you guess. “Oh, but if you need help with any other outfit, you know damn well I will help you. Now, let’s go! Time for Hell Week, bitch!”

She grabs your arm and basically drags you down to the lobby, where you two run into Shinsou and Denki. “Are you guys excited?!” Denki basically shrieks, and Mina, in return, also screams. You and Shinsou glance at each other, the pure exhaustion radiating off of you two. You both have an unspoken conversation of “How the hell do we do this” This causes both of you to break out into a grin. How cute. “Shinsou, (Y/n), hurry! We need to get to the theater!” Mina screams, grabbing both of your arms and dragging you outside of the hotel to the cars waiting to take the contestants away. The four of you pile into one of them where you find two other people. There’s a red head with an infectious smile and a blonde guy with an infectious frown. Interesting. “Hi! I’m Kirishima Eijirou!” the red-head takes no time in introducing himself as the car starts to drive to your next location. “Kaminari Denki, but you can just call me Denki.”

“Oh, and I’m Mina!”

“Uh… just Mina?” Kirishima asks, and she nods. “Well I mean my family name is Ashido, but I go by Mina. And this is (Y/f/n) and that’s Shinsou Hitoshi!” Mina introduces the two of you where wave. “Awesome! This is my boyfriend Ba-“

“Bakugo Katsuki. Shut up, shitty hair, you know you’ve had a scratchy throat for the past two days don’t fuck your chances before you even get there, dumbass,” the blonde growls, reprimanding Kirishima. Though his words are harsh, Kirishima just smiles. “Awww look at you. Worrying about me.”

“OI! I SAID SHUT UP!”

“You said… boyfriends? Are you sure, Bakugo seems more like an angry… mom?” Denki says, and Kirishima laughs while basically holding Bakugo back in his seat. Weird dynamic. Cute dynamic, but weird dynamic. Mina and Denki engage in conversation with Kirishima, and you and Shinsou give your input every once and a while but you let them just talk to each other. Bakugo keeps screaming about Kirishima needs to rest his voice, and eventually Kirishima says Bakugo needs to rest his voice because of all the unnecessary damn screaming he’s been doing. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket, and when you look at it you realize it’s a text from Shinsou. “i’m not saying we should have gotten in a different car to get some peace and quiet, but i’m saying we should have gotten in a different car to get some peace and quiet”

You smile to yourself before shooting back a quick, “you’re right, we sabotaged ourselves how tragic” to which you see Shinsou grin at before looking back at you. “Hey wait! You didn’t tell me y’all were a couple!” you hear Kirishima’s voice interrupt whatever little moment the two of you were having, and you both immediately turn red. You start stuttering out an explanation to him. “What? we aren’t…”

“Yeah, no we’re just-”

“Friends!”

“Yeah, friends!” Shinsou says, clearing his throat and awkwardly looking out the window. “Yeah right. And Kirishima and I didn’t join the mile-high club on our flight here,” Bakugo grumbles, and it’s Kirishima’s turn to turn as red as his hair. “Katsuki!”

“Oh, wow would you look at that?! We’re here!” Shinsou, uncharacteristically, screams when you pull up to the theater where you’ll all be performing. You and Shinsou get out of the car, speed-walking away from all the relationship talk. “Sorry about them,” Mina says to Kirishima, who looks genuinely confused. “They both just hate the idea of relationships even though, you know, they’re cute as hell together,” Denki explains and Kirishima slowly nods. “Well... I am willing to help them realize they actually like each other.”

“Wait, seriously?” Mina smiles, already excited when Kirishima nods, grinning just as big as she is. “Oh my god HELL YES!”

“Stop screaming Raccoon Eyes! Anyone ever tell you to let up on the eyeliner. We need to go inside,” Bakugo grabs Kirishima’s arm and starts dragging him in. “Oh my god, Denki, I’m in, he gave me a mean nickname,” Mina whispers to Denki excitedly before chasing after the two guys they just became fast friends with. Well friends with Kirishima. Bakugo is... still undetermined.

When they get inside, they find the two of you sitting next to each other in the corner of the many chairs set up in the theater lobby avoiding everyone else. “You know, I really thought some of my social skills would rub off on him. Tragic,” Denki says as they all make their way over to you. You glance up from your phone to see them walking over and you give a small wave. “A wave? That’s all we get after you literally sprinted away from us like we had an infectious disease?” Mina says, and you shrug. “Sprinted away from you guys? I have no recollection of that.”

“And I’m sure Tosh has no idea either,” Denki says, and Shinsou grins at him, shaking his head no. Denki and Mina groan, sitting next to you along with Kirishima and Bakugo. Of course, Bakugo was complaining that they were sitting next to you “extras” and Kirishima kept laughing it off and saying he was all bark and no bite. For some reason, you didn’t believe he was all bark and no bite. In fact, you think he was mostly bite and the bark came as a warning beforehand, but Kirishima was his owner and as long as he was around, he wouldn’t actually hurt anyone. Thanks, Kirishima. You watched as people from all around piled into the room. Some, you could tell, were California natives or had at least lived there for a long enough time to put off that energy. Others were definitely from other places all around the world, and it was really interesting to see. Also, terrifying. There were a lot of people here. And they were all after the same thing you were. It would take a miracle to actually get through Hell Week and onto the live shows. You feel your phone buzz again, and you look down at it. ‘don’t worry kitten you’re gonna kill it.’

You glance over at Shinsou who gives you a quick little wink before sending a thumbs up and smiley face to you. You can’t help but smile at that. Crazy how he knew how to cheer you up so fast. Especially since y’all didn’t meet that long ago. Guess you were just meant to be best friends.

“Oh, it looks like everyone is here,” Mina says, glancing around. Sure enough, the entire room was full. All the empty seats you saw when you came in were occupied with other people now. And that’s when a producer comes out and tells everyone to quiet down because the judges would be out soon. And cue everyone getting excited and nervous again. “I can’t wait to see what Midnight is wearing. She always looks so good,” Mina says, and Kirishima nods. “I know! It’s always so funny to see what she’s wearing compared to Aizawa.”

“Yeah if there was anyone who embodied not giving a fuck, it is Aizawa Shouta that’s for sure,” Denki says and Mina and Kirishima laugh. “Don’t you idiots think it’s a bad idea to talk about the judges when they could hear you,” Bakugo snaps and Kirishima pats his hand. “It’s okay, Katsu, I think Aizawa would take it as a compliment.” Bakugo rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else. That’s when the four judges walk out, and everyone goes quiet. That is of course until Present Mic starts yelling into the camera and doing his job as the best MC in entertainment. He goes on his welcome to Hell Week rant as the UA Idol makeup artists touch up the judges. Even Aizawa gets some make-up put on him, and no. No, he does not look like he enjoys that at all. “And here come the judges to let our contestants know just what is happening this year during Hell Week,” PM finishes out his, well, monologue, basically, and the cameras all turn to the judges. “Hi everyone!” Midnight says, waving to everyone. Mina was right. She does look pretty damn good. I mean it’s hard to not look good when you look like her, especially since she’s wearing an all-black bodysuit that accentuates every curve. As expected, Aizawa is also wearing all black but it’s literally a baggy long sleeve shirt and baggy black jeans. Of course, Toshinori is wearing a suit, and Keigo is wearing quite possibly the most stylish lazy outfit you could ever see. Icons, honestly. “So, welcome to Hell Week, as you know it’s called Hell Week for a reason. The reason being it always changes. The only constant being the group challenge. Other than that, you all have no idea what is about to come,” Aizawa says, and Toshinori sighs. “Aizawa why do you insist on scaring them?”

“They need to know fear. No recording artist would be anything without fear.”

“Whatever you say you absolute sadist. Anyways, we’re here to tell you the first part of Hell Week, which will be starting in about,” Keigo glances at his phone and smiles. “Twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes?!” you hear Mina whisper to herself, and sure enough a lot of the other people in the room are taken aback as well. You’re not too surprised, they don’t call it Hell Week for nothing. “The first challenge is what we like to call the genre challenge. If you remember, when you signed up to audition in your respective cities, you also signed up for a specific genre. We had the options of pop, rock, hip hop, r&b, country, and singer-songwriter. You’ll be reminded which one you put, and if you believe your style has drastically changed, you can switch to a new genre. You have to pick a song and put your own twist on it, show us your style shine through even in your specific genre. Oh, and if you’d want to show us some original songs... I guess that would be okay, too,” Keigo explains, and shoots a glance over at you and Shinsou. The two of you look at each other, and grin. Originals? Easy.

“Right, so pop is first since there’s so many people who are signed up for that genre. We’ll give you all about ten minutes to gather yourselves, then everyone will go into the theater. You’ll also be watching everyone, time for you all to scope out your competition,” Aizawa says as he begins to walk into the theater. “Remember though, you all made it here for a reason! Even if you don’t make it through, you all have potential to be stars!” Toshinori adds, trying to make this entire situation a little less stressful. You really wish it worked. The judges enter into the theater, and then the assigned genre you signed up for is sent to you in a text message. Singer-songwriter. Still the same. “Damnit, (Y/n), why couldn’t I have put singer-songwriter like you! There has to be so many people in the pop genre...” Mina says, frowning. “Yeah there’s a lot, but none of them are quite like you,” you reassure her, and she smiles at you. “You’re the best even though you hate me most of the time.”

“Hey Kirishima, what genre are you?” Denki asks and he grins sheepishly. “I’m pop, too.”

“Told you you should have gone into rock with me, dumbass.”

“I don’t have the voice for that like you do Katsuki, that would be wrong on so many levels,” Kirishima pouts and Bakugo sighs, wrapping his arm around him. “Listen, idiot. You’re just as good if not better than everyone else in this room. You have nothing to worry about.” This caused Kirishima to smile and kiss his boyfriend’s cheek. Wow so Bakugo did have the ability to be supportive and cute. Who would have thought?

“Well hey, you, me, and Mina are about to kill this, dude. What song are you thinking of singing?” Denki asks as you all walk into the theater. “I’m not totally sure.”

“Well you know what I say, when in doubt look to Harry Styles.”

“Thank you for that wise statement, Denki,” Shinsou says sarcastically, and Denki gives him finger guns. “Well, good luck you guys. We’ll be over here where all the singer-songwriters are,” you say, grabbing Shinsou’s arm and going to your assigned section in the theater. “Time to scope out the competition,” Shinsou says after you both sit down. “Yeah. Luckily singer-songwriters go last, so let’s just sit back and observe,” you say. This is gonna be fun.

[lokisarmyfirstwarrior]

Rant on SPN finale

Obviously SPOILERS ahead

Whoa, this got a lot longer than I anticipated. And I have a suspicion I forgot to add something, but hey, I had to vent.

I just binged the last few episodes of Supernatural, on a very legal site. It took me quite a few tries to get back into it, because by the time the end came, I thought the show was stupid. And i still kind of think it is, Somewhere around leviathans and cain’s mark it went downhill. It was getting more tangled into itself and the stories weren’t enjoyable anymore. 

So when they announced this is gonna be the last season, I was rather relieved. Yeah, there’s enough episodes to rewatch and have good time reminiscing about the old times. And it lets the show finish on a note that is not the worst out there. 

I still stand by that. Most of the season was boring, predictable in a way. But towards the end, episodes 18 and 19 weren’t bad.

Let’s not comment on Destiel’s weird and awkward confession, during which i had to look away and nervously laugh to survive the second hand embarrassment. It was quite out of place and I think the perfect happiness thing would work out a lot better if it was Dean suddenly realizing Cas is about to sacrifice himself and confess. But hey, we go by bury your gays in this show, so that can’t happen and instead we get a half-assed reaction from Dean, who doesn’t pick up the phone to inform his beloved brother that it was all Chuck’s doing and instead kind of sort of cries. I mean, they could have at least texted Sam it’s the Death, it’s the God, it’s worse. But that’s just my logic and common sense speaking, sorry. I do realize I started this paragraph with let’s not comment, but I had to. 

And maybe this makes me a bad person, but  I am glad, that Sam didn’t get to Eileen on time. Their whole relationship seemed forced, maybe because it was mainly Chuck’s doing, but nonetheless, I wasn’t really on board of that ship.  Besides, if Cas and Dean, don’t get their - hinted at - happy ending, why should Sam and Eileen get one. Because that one’s straight? No, thanks. Not to mention Cas’ death seemed kind of glossed over... I don’t want to get into that, but that was a part I didn’t like in the slightest. 

Jack apparently had to die several times in an episode to be a proper Winchester and catch up on the total deaths count. I love Jack, he is very adorable and Dean’s way of treating him got on my nerves a lot. I’m not saying he should have forgiven him faster or at all. But the kid wanted to sacrifice himself for them - and the world- he could have appreciated it a bit more than saying he is no one or nothing. That was a moment where I lost all hope for Dean.

The first time I thought of Jack becoming God was when they mentioned that somebody has to fill up the place after Chuck and Amara are gone. For some reason, they never really considered Jack to be the one to do it, even before they knew he was supposed to die. Which baffles me, because he proved time and time again, he is on their side and he is good. But whatever, him actually becoming God was probably the best thing to come out of this ending. The worst scene was when Chuck was laying powerless on the ground and they fucking explained step by step what happened. Talk about spoon feeding the audience. I hated that part with flashbacks and all. I’d understand if it were something that happened long time ago and only now became useful, but it all started in the previous episode at most. They super obviously left Chuck to rot, because he deserves it. But it was obvious since the first moment he started talking about it being a poetic ending and Dean being a killer, when Cas just told him he is not... Then a super religious Jack monologue when they brought back the humanity. Although I am not sure who he did bring back. I kept thinking about Eileen and if Sam wouldn’t want to get back to her or something, but apparently he forgot already. 

The 19th episode ended somewhat fanfictiony when you think about it. Just the two of them, free and in peace riding into the sunset while clips from previous episodes flash on the screen. (A lot of them were from Gabe’s episodes, kudos for that) I have seen quite a lot posts about similar ending and with maybe it prolonged for a minute, we could the end with carry on playing in the background. That would have been nice. 

Now, when I watched it, I was about halfway through the season when I googled how many episodes does it have. Because I thought 20 is not enough, I remembered there being around 22 or 23. It showed 20, so I continued watching. When I was watching the 19th episode, I kept thinking, this is a good end, that it was not bad. But I also kept thinking, what is going on, there is another episode. And I read somewhere, that the finale is supposed to be longer, but that part of it was just behind the scenes and stuff. So I thought, the 20th episode I see on the website is that, behind the scenes. I stopped the episode at some point after th drive into sunset started, still thinking there is another one after it when I googled  again season 15 episodes. For some reason it showed 19 and I thought I was robbed of that feeling of THE END at the finish of something that was such a huge part of my life. I was so confused. Then I started the 20th episode, thinking already it is indeed behind the scenes, only to find out there is another episode. 

I did cry at the final ending, but I also kept thinking it was stupid. The whole episode was stupid and completely unnecessary (I mean they spent ten minutes on Dean conversing with Sam, impaled on a pole...). I guess it was the final happy ending. But when Bobby mentioned Cas helped Jack rebuild the heaven, I expected a little more than just a smirk from Dean. I mean, I would have been completely okay if they just hugged reuniting, meaning they had sort of happy ending, with Cas occasionally checking in on Dean. Anything really, after the queerbaiting... But what should I expect after the same person who killed Queliot essentially killed Destiel too. 

Then the whole montage of Sam living his life to the fullest and Dean driving Baby in the heaven. I lost it when they showed Sam’s kid wearing overalls wth his name on it. That was ridiculous. Dean stopped at the most random bridge, just to have a nice shot with the crew I’d guess. And super obviously Sam appers behind him, I could tell and hour in advance (complete exaggeration) that he’s gonna say Hey, Sammy. Because this last season was riddled with bad throwbacks. This particular scene reminded me of The Untamed last scene, which played out very similarly, except way better(Honestly, everything is better, if you like chinese drama, you’ll love this one.  It’s gay, although censored and originates from a book) 

It was as if Dean didn’t deserve to live his life to the fullest on Earth. Maybe they wouldn’t get families if they stayed together and continued hunting, okay I can get over that. But when Sam’s kid told him it’s okay, he can go now, that was some high level cringe. I get it was because Dean wanted Sam to say it to him, but their whole conversation was very cringe at the time. 

Well, I decided that episode 20 does not exist and I do not accept any criticism on that. They could have used Carry on my wayward son in episode 19 and that would have been a better ending.

Thank you for reading through if you’ve read through it all. Thank you.

[bigskydreaming]

About "ward" and "son", part of It's the legacy of the Batman show. Also, while Dick became Bruce's son in 2001, that was well after "ward" no longer applied. Meanwhile, Damian is Bruce's biological son, and reminds us of that constantly. Not so much anymore, but he used to.

I mean, the constant harping on Damian’s blood son status absolutely IS bullshit, I agree? But that’s also like....part of my point, is the thing. I hate any and all insistence on treating any of the kids like they’re actually less Bruce’s kids somehow than any of the others.....and this absolutely includes singling Damian out as his biological son, which is a thing that for the record, I rant about a LOT too, and one of my biggest issues with Tom King’s run (though to be fair, I have so many Big Issues there its hard to actually rank them, lol). But the thing is......there’s plenty of people in fandom and in fics who speak to how the blood son crap is bullshit, and again, all for that, I do it too, no disagreement. BUT, there’s not to my knowledge a whole lot of people speaking about the tendency to prioritize Dick’s former ward status over his adopted son status.

Like I read plenty of fics that have no problem referring to Jason and Tim as Bruce’s sons, even when referencing events after Tim got himself emancipated in the comics, and Jason objects to being called Bruce’s son....BUT IN THE EXACT SAME FICS, refer to Dick with terms like ‘ex-ward’ or ‘former ward’ as a description, rather than son as well....even though he’s actually his son by adoption in those fics as well. And I’m totally cool with those things as well, because, hey, not wanting to legitimize DC’s weird are they/aren’t they fixation about letting any of Bruce’s kids (except for Damian, yes)  be CONSISTENTLY regarded as his kids....totally valid in my books. Fics don’t regard the inconsistencies or weirdness or vagueness or totally unnecessary ways in which DC finds to refer to Bruce’s kids as something other than his kids? Noooo problemo.

The problem I have is so many fics still allowing those inconsistencies with Dick to stand, or still play into agreeing things other than ‘Bruce’s son’ still make for a more accurate or standardized description of him.

As far as it being a legacy of any of the animated Batman cartoons, sorry, I just don’t see it. The 90s era one was a popular show, a lot of peoples’ first introduction to the characters, yeah, and the others all had plenty of fans of their own, but there’s a TON of stuff from those shows that have nothing to do with comics canon OR have been accepted or prioritized by comics fanon....so Dick being Bruce’s ward rather than his son seems a weirdly specific thing to hold on to and carry over into comics-based fandom when so much else from the shows weren’t. 

Especially when you consider that the majority of instances of cartoons distinctly referencing Dick as being Bruce’s ward were ones where Dick was a teenage Robin living with him in Wayne Manor.....which absolutely matches up with how Dick was always a ward when he was a kid and teen living at home still in Wayne Manor too, y’know? Since Dick wasn’t adopted until well into adulthood in the comics.....there’s no reason it wouldn’t be presumable for the same to be true for any of the cartoon versions.....so again.....IMO that just kinda doesn’t match up with a legacy of teenage Dick Grayson in any of the Batman shows being the frequent description of him as a former ward in fanfics about adult him from the comics. 

Plus most of the other Batkids never even existed in any of the cartoons, and writers never have trouble fitting them into fics and in fact, a huge emphasis in fics in this fandom is pushing the actual family connections to Bruce moreso than the comics EVER have.......so again, it still comes back to me as being very very distinct that Dick’s connection to Bruce is so often defined by being his former or ex-ward in even just casual descriptions in a fic...instead of like, his eldest son.....when there’s tons of reasons why that feels forced instead of a natural or obvious take to default to. 

*Shrugs* Tbh, my only real concern is just ‘this thing that happens a lot has a tendency to single Dick out as different from his siblings in ways that carry unfortunate implications regardless the conscious or unconscious reason for doing it, so I wish more people would stop to examine why they default to that description IF they’re someone who does so, in the hopes that maybe in doing so they’d find no reason to continue doing so. Which I mean, I know I’d prefer but honestly I do think is to the benefit of how anyone writes the Batfamily as it makes them a more cohesive, happy and healthy FAMILY of a father, his surrogate father, and all his kids, be they biological or adopted.....rather than a family in this case being a father, his surrogate father, and all his kids, be they biological or adopted....or his former ward.”

Like I said, its just about how you frame things most often. The word used most as a descriptor is almost always going to be the description readers internalize as being most accurate....so the more a character is described as an ex-ward rather than a son, the more people are likely to internalize their default view of that character as an ex-ward rather than a son.

[gwoongi]

𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗎𝗌 ✰ taehyung (8)

𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗅𝖺𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿 𝗎𝗌 kim taehyung / reader genre: zombie apocalypse au words: 6106

“No matter what,” by now, Taehyung was close to tears, choking on his own words, “you keep finding something to fight for. I have nothing else to lose- you’re the only thing keeping me on this Earth right now, Y/N. You’re the only thing I have left.”

a/n: spot the merlot murders easter egg :D

warnings: dirty sex, hyper realistic sex, body hair, impreg kink, face riding, the L word, violence, death, gore, graphic imagery, unprotected sex, its a zombie apocalypse ok its ok to be dirty

01. denver ↝ 02. holiday with me ↝ 03. sad forever ↝ 04. surely ↝ 05. scorpion ↝ 06. shakespeare ↝ 07. thrones ↝ 08. moon motel ↝ 09. zombies

Namjoon remembers the day that the news came to California, that the outbreak had gotten worse. Like most, he knew of the war; he knew of Jongun’s scheme to betray South Korea after an alliance that turned to shambles, and he was no fool to the media that went against all laws to stream illegal footage of nuclear sites in Russia, in America, in England, in countries that nobody knew were developing nuclear weapons. After the first North Korean bomb hit in America, and after Namjoon had urgently booked a flight to visit Kyungmin at UCLA, he didn’t think it could get much worse.

Like most idiots who didn’t take the urgent evacuation broadcasts seriously, Namjoon realised how dangerous it was to be in the cities when the military opened up the quarantine zone in the northern section of LA. Small explosives went off, bursting holes through the concrete walls, allowing a tide of infected zombies to surge into the streets.

Namjoon and Kyungmin had been on campus at that time, hauled up in a Lecture Hall used for business majors. It had been just them, with a couple other students who couldn’t afford to make it out in time, with the lights out and the food from the cafeteria in blankets, the whiteboard playing the news right up until the stations shut down to conserve power. The explosions rippled the Earth, shaking the entire Lecture Hall to the point where Kyungmin woke up, rubbing her eyes and searching the hall for her brother. Namjoon and another exchange student called Xell, from Japan, pushed up to the ashy windows and peered outside, seeing the chimney of smoke across the city. Xell muttered something in Japanese, calling out to another group on the front row.

“Okay, Kyungmin, time to go,” Namjoon breathlessly said, stuffing a pistol into her hand. She recoiled for a moment, a strangled noise of surprise slipping out of her mouth, “Okay, honey, you know how to use this, right?”

“Are you serious? Of course I don’t!”

Namjoon brushed it off. “Alright, it’s a semi-auto. You know what that means? Means you gotta load a round into the chamber before shooting. Face it downwards, yeah, pull back the slide, then release it.”

Kyungmin hands shook as he spoke. “Joonie, please-”

“We need to fucking get out of here as fast as we can,” Namjoon continued. Whenever Namjoon got nervous, he had a habit of swearing when it was unnecessary. Over the years, Kyungmin had just learnt to get used to it, especially since everybody in her family besides herself had the exact same habit. Maybe she was adopted, she thought briefly, before being pulled back in by Namjoon’s words. “Okay, yeah, okay? Stay close to me, do not let go of my belt, okay, honey? I know, this is scary, and I’m not making sense, but trust me, something bad is going to happen and we can’t be here when it happens. You get me?”

Kyungmin looked towards the front of the hall, “and what about the others?”

“I can’t save them all, Min.”

“But we might be able to,” she reasoned, tugging at his hand. “Please, Joonie.”

Namjoon hesitated, as if he considered it. And then, outside the window, a series of howls and growls rang through the vents and he shook his head, a look of agitation spreading across his face. “No. Kyungmin, I’m sorry, I love you, but we can’t, I gotta keep you safe, okay baby? Yeah?”

“Everybody makes tough calls, I get that, but we can save them,” Kyungmin ranted, confused and scared, emotional, empathetic. “They’re my friends, Namjoon, I can’t just leave them-”

“We are gonna die if we stay here, Kyungmin!”

Namjoon never raised his voice. In response, his sister froze, the gun halting in shivers.

“And I am not being held accountable for your death,” he continued, shaking his head with every word, his hands smoothing back her hair that was by now, greasy and thick. “Please, Kyungmin. Please.”

Namjoon doesn’t remember the entire scenario, but he remembers escaping the hall moments before the windows fell through, splintering the students left inside, and bodies with peeling skin and bloody blisters became crawling through the open spaces, their teeth rotten and sharp, fingernails like talons.

UCLA was worse; smoke engulfed the outdoor campus, with dust in the air and debris on the pavement, a bike upside down with blood and an arm poking out from underneath a fallen side of the building. The wheel moved in the wind. This had happened recently.

Taking hostage of a black Peugeot, Namjoon and Kyungmin barely escaped the embrace of death, driving crazily through the scenes of that end-of-the-world movie, where buildings collapsed and fires spread in each apartment, bodies falling like leaves from a tree to the concrete with sickening thuds and explosive red bursts. In the sky, Kyungmin could see the distinct colours of a military helicopter, the side doors open, a zombie hanging from the legs, and another being tossed out of the side and down onto the floor. It landed with a human thud straight ahead in the road, and three seconds later, pulled itself up to a standing position and stared at the front window of the stolen Peugeot.

People were running, screaming, covered in flames or blood or dirty hands and rotten mouths, crashes and bangs and explosions bursting Kyungmin’s eardrums as she flinched, watching a nearby gas station burst into ember. At this point, she didn’t know if the screams were human or not.

“What the fuck is this?” Kyungmin asked frantically, cradling her ears as blood dripped from her left eardrum. “This is seriously some sort of fucked up Train to Busan shit.”

“It’s the fucking military,” Namjoon cursed, veering to the right sharply to avoid a mother cradling a baby. He stepped on the breaks just as sharp, looking back to the mother and shouting for Kyungmin to open the back door. As she turned to do so, the mother fell with a breath of wheezy air to the floor, stains of red jumping to the window. Namjoon blinked, and hit the gas.

The military had betrayed them- they weren’t protecting them at all. No, no, no; the military were setting them up. They were letting the issue get too wild, and then they released it to the public, letting innocent people die, throwing bombs onto the cities. On the radio that seemed to still be in signal, Namjoon realised California was a hell of a lot safer than the likes of Houston, which apparently, “just saw thousands of casualties after a Napalm bomb, the same model used in Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s.” Yeah, Namjoon was fucking lucky that he was in California, although, things seemed to be just as bad here as it would be anywhere.

It felt like a scene from the movie 2012, where the Earth opened up and underground trains fell and crashed into giant ravines pulled out of nothing, and multi storey car-parks gave way and cars drove themselves off cliffs. Only, it was much more preserved, with the same amount of panic, and with every dead person jumping back up sixteen seconds later to complete the cycle. As he drove, further towards the trees, all he could see was fire, burning everything and everyone, the wildlife jumping from the burning safety of their homes covered in flames, the baby deer running ahead as their mother rolled over, putting out the flames, following her family further into the city where Kyungmin saw, through the mirror, that the zombies avoided them.

For some reason, Namjoon thought of all this when Taehyung pulled up at a motel in a secular part of the journey-to-wherever-, located in a circle of dead trees, the moon logo no longer working. The Moon Motel, in all its glory. Namjoon hopped out of the van when it stopped rolling, feeling unusually weird. Maybe it was the memory of California. Maybe it was the fact that nothing he wanted to happen was happening. Or, maybe it was simply because he was starving, and tired, and disgustingly dirty.

“Hey, I’ve read about this place.”

Hoisting his backpack higher up over his shoulder, Taehyung moved to look at Kyungmin as she jumped out of the back of the van, drawing closer to the motel, “Yeah?”

“Mm. A journalist said that it used to be in a chain of motels, spaced across the globe,” she continued, following Taehyung towards the building with her hands in her back pockets. “Apparently, some rich fancy poly couple owned it after the previous owners died.”

“Oh. That’s sad.”

“Yeah, the article said that the poly couple, the new owners, were vampires.” She laughed gently, tossing her jaw upwards to inhale the oily smell in the air. “Imagine that.”

Taehyung was about to make a comment about how vampires weren’t real, but then he remembered that he lived in a world where dead people came back to life to eat everybody. Suddenly, the idea of vampires didn’t seem so impossible after-all.

And like everywhere else in the apocalypse, the Moon Motel had seen better days. The front door was busted, mostly covered in mossy mould and turning yellow around the handle. The interior was mostly stable, smelling stale and wet, with the golden couches and a brown suede suite that Namjoon sat down on with a hefty sigh, thankful to sit somewhere that wasn’t the van.

“I doubt there’s much here,” he said tiredly, waving in the direction of the kitchens. “I take it rooms are somewhere out back.” He yawned, “knock yourselves out…”

Kyungmin hummed quietly, finally overcoming the car sickness. “One of us should keep watch. I noticed a ladder to the roof. I’ll stay up there for a few hours ‘til one of you’s comes up to switch. That okay?”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Taehyung nodded. Before leaving for the back bedrooms, Taehyung called Kyungmin’s name and tossed her a revolver, the bullets clinking as she caught it in her hands. “Just in-case,” he added with a friendly smile, and she nodded, dipping her head to look at her feet as she hurried past the two of you. She shut the door firmly behind her. Namjoon lay, passed out, on the brown couch and Taehyung threw you a look over his shoulder, nodding in the direction of the rooms. “Sleepover?”

The bedrooms were in a satisfactory condition. Although not as chic or glam as they could have been before the world began to end, it looked expensive, with golden interior and a chandelier with no accessories, and burnt candles with wax leaking down off the shelf, like icicles. The bed, an egg shape on top of a platform that crumbled, lay untouched, the sheets still messy as if someone had only just clambered out of them.

“This is nice,” Taehyung commented off-handedly, dumping his bag by the door. “Never been to fancy places like this before.”

You shook your head, “Me neither. I could never afford to leave Denver.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked. Despite being distracted by checking the room was secure, his tone was laced with sincerity, with interest, a genuine interest nobody had ever really shown you before. “How come?”

“Family trouble,” you replied truthfully. “Kind of a long story.”

“We’ve got time,” he assured.

“Not now,” you answered, shrugging off Taehyung’s jacket, setting it on top of the vanity with a quick inhale. The room smelt used, with the faint aroma of nicotine and a vanilla perfume, the wet smell of armpits. Taehyung shrugged in reply, not really in any position to demand a backstory.

A few moments later, after you sat down on top of surprisingly intact silk bed sheets, Taehyung poked his head out of the bathroom with a smile- “hey, the loo works in here!”

“Woah,” you replied. “Really?”

“Yeah!” Taehyung confirmed. He laughed, finding it funny that he was sharing an excitement with someone over the primitive use of a toilet. “Maybe now I can take a shit without feeling like people are watching me.”

Laughing, you watched as Taehyung stepped across the room, joining you on the egg bed. “Truthfully, how long’s it been since you actually took a shit?”

“I don’t even know,” he muttered. He moved to lay back on the sheets, his arm that had slung around your waist bringing you down to join him, like two little sardines in a tin. “This feels so good.”

You hummed in reply, curling to stuff your face in the crook of his armpit.

You lay like that for a while, feeling so utterly safe and relaxed and calm and quiet, until Taehyung wriggled on the bed and sat upright, a frown tugging on his lips.

Glancing at him, you rolled over onto your back. “Everything okay?”

He inhaled a breath. “Y/N, I was so afraid of losing you today.”

Oh. You hadn’t been expecting that, at all. Pushing yourself up onto your elbows, you stared at Taehyung with a confused expression. “Huh? Where’s this coming from?”

“It’s been on my mind for ages, and I said so in the barn that I didn’t wanna lose you, I said it in the trailer park, and I’m saying it again now- no, don’t interrupt, please, just let me get it all out.” He sighed, continuing: “Y/N, I think the world of you. I just feel so protective of you and there’s this weird thing in my head that makes me act funny whenever something revolves around you. It’s not fucking love- no, it’s not love, but, it hurts. Thinking about losing you fucking hurts my head. And, that- that thing today, the thing we saw, that’s what I’m afraid of. Not afraid of walkers coming for us, no, you’re strong, you can take them. But, God, I’m so afraid of someone hurting you, someone intelligent with a gun that doesn’t miss a target, from someone who is aware that they’re causing pain. Y/N, I don’t even know what I’m saying or why I’m saying it but I adore you so much. Sometimes, I forget there was even a time where it wasn’t just me and you. You know what? Fuck- it might be love. How long has it been? You don’t have to know someone ages to love them.”

“Taehyung, I-”

“And,” he rasped, his hands quivering. He didn’t even feel you reach to hold them, “today was so scary because I didn’t want to lose you or anybody else in the van and I need to get this off my chest because it’s killing me and every day we face a new threat and danger, and fuck, if I die tomorrow, I don’t wanna die knowing I never told you that I cared about you. God, I’m so thankful to be here with you right now. I don’t have anything else left.”

“Hey, Tae, please-”

“No matter what,” by now, Taehyung was close to tears, choking on his own words, “you keep finding something to fight for. I have nothing else to lose- you’re the only thing keeping me on this Earth right now, Y/N. You’re the only thing I have left. With you, I feel invincible. Y/N- I love you so much, you know that?” He paused, sniffing, cradling your face with his hands. Taehyung lifted it up to meet his gaze, his thumb brushing away a tear that hung down your face, “Yeah? You know that, right baby?”

He felt a nod against his hands, “Mm. I know.”

“You mean the world to me,” Taehyung whispered. He couldn’t fucking see- God, he was crying, like a little baby, choking on his own salty tears. “‘m gonna fight to get you somewhere safe, okay? I swear, baby, I’ll kill every damned biter on this Earth, just as long as you’re safe.”

Taehyung had moved significantly closer to you throughout his talking, his knees touching your own, the hotness of his breath on your cheek. He visibly jerked when you laughed quietly, your mouth against the palm of his hand. A gentle kiss, and then, “you said biter instead of walker.”

He laughed, too. “Hey, I just...I just said all of that, and that’s what you have to say?”

You joined in his laughter, the sound filling the room like a vinyl. Taehyung then bundled you in his arms, collecting you, picking you up off the sheets and onto his thighs, his nose brushing against your own. He felt his eyes go cross eyed, taking in all of your features up-close for one of the first times ever. He’d never noticed the small mole in your cupid's bow, or the little cut that over time had scarred into a fossil white, just below your left eye. Oh, how much he loved the little things, the flaws that would have once made a difference in an Instagram following, flaws that would have defined you, that do now but in a completely different way. He held in a breath, without realising, questioning how he went so long without saying something, without having a moment of realisation that you are his everything.

As a silence fell across the room, Taehyung smoothed his hands up your arms, exploring the skin, until they came to cup your head, as if it were a delicate doll that required careful handling. Like an open book, you read his face, noticing how his eyes appeared softer, a quirk in the corner of his lips bringing his mouth upwards to a smile, his eyes unusually glassy. He stroked your hair gently, his bottom lip curling upwards and then, it became apparent that he was trying not to cry.

Taehyung brought your face closer, his nose nudging against yours, his eyes closed and eyelids stuck together with tears. He opened his mouth, as if debating to speak, but stopped, opening his eyes to stare at the way you bashfully shrank in his hands. He moved closer, his lips brushing against yours, and his brows knitted together when you moved away, your fingers curling around his wrists with a childish whine that he apparently liked.

“What?” he murmured quietly. His eyes glanced upwards: “Ah, shit. Is this too much-? I can stop, we can stop, I’m sorry, ‘m sorry-”

“No, it’s just-” you began, cutting off with a tight laughter. Taehyung retracted, staring at you with an uncomfortably anxious expression.

“I,” he started, shaking his head gently, “I thought we were on the same page.”

All at once, you tightly held onto his hands with a firm shake of your head. “We are, Tae, it’s just- fuck. I’m ugly. And my skin is dirty and my hair is greasy and God knows what my legs and armpits look like right now. I look so...conventionally unattractive.” You scoffed, “Everything I hated about myself before all this started is back and I just- I don’t know how you can like me.”

As expected, Taehyung didn’t say anything for a few moments. He sat, silently, staring at your face, and you watched his eyes flit from various spaces. From your eyes, to the middle of your brows, to the dirt on your cheek, to your sunken cheekbones, to the acne scarring that had faded over time on the apple of your right cheek, the On Its Way Out pimple on your chin and the chapped skin of your lips. For a moment, you thought he might not answer at all, that he might sit up and back away, sleeping in the room next door. Or worse, he could laugh, criticise each flaw that made you feel ugly, revert back to the old norm of society where body hair was seen as illegal on women, and acne was gross and dry skin was dirty and a tiny bit of monobrow hair was unlady-like.

Taehyung’s mouth made a noise, the noise of lifting your tongue up and down, the sound of chewing a banana until it was mush. “But, baby...it’s natural.”

He laughed gently, “Everything about you is natural. D’you think I expect to find a Brazilian wax down there? Babe, we’re in the middle of a fucking zombie apocalypse. I don’t care about any of that, none of that even matters anymore. Neither of us have washed our hair in like, well, forever, you think I care about it?” Taehyung reheld your head, “You hear me, yeah? I love you.”

There was no necessary reply; with a mutter of, “I love you so much”, Taehyung didn’t think he really needed anything more. 

He wasted no time in bringing your face towards his, his fingers on your chin and jaw, guiding you closer, wrapping you snug to his torso as if skin to skin wasn’t close enough. Each kiss was different, more passionate and wild and sensual and everything in between, his hands palming at your skin, pawing your lower body like an impatient kitten wanting milk.

“Have you done this before?” he muttered, his arms around you as you shakily brought your trousers down your thighs. With one arm, he held your waist and with the other, he wrapped it around to help you wriggle out of your clothes, bunching them up in his fist and tossing them away from the bed.

“Yes,” you replied in an equally soft tone, speaking through pouty lips. “Many times.”

Taehyung made a noise of approval. “Oh? This makes things more interesting.”

“It does?” you asked, shifting in his lap. He groaned quietly, his hands jumping to your middle. “You say it as if you’ve never done this before.”

He shrugged slightly. “Was a long time ago. With someone I didn’t really like that much.” A hand on his crotch. “Fuck- was a one time thing. Haven’t done it since.”

“Oh? This makes things very interesting, indeed.”

“Now you’re just mocking me.”

He smiled when you let out a giggle. “Smart boy.”

Taehyung hummed, a sort of reply, and wrapped his hands back around the back of your head, his fingers pulling you forward to meet his lips in a hard kiss. The force was sharp, splitting your lip on the inside, but the pain was pleasure.

It was clearly apparent that he knew what he was doing- his grip was experienced, and it left you breathless. Taehyung- at some point- lifted himself up to shimmy free from his jeans. The bulge in his pants did not go unnoticed, and neither did the breathless moan that left your lips when his erection sprang free, a salute like a soldier.

Taehyung hissed in a breath at the feeling of your hand wrapping around his stiffness, his eyes closing. On top, you muttered something he missed entirely, too focused on the feeling of your palm cupping his dick and balls. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, the words stuck in a clump in the middle of his throat, his fingers quivering like thighs after an orgasm. He moved, slightly. You moved too, with him, to squat over his thighs.

“Na-need lube,” he sighed shakily, his hands nonetheless prodding at your inner thighs. He hooked a finger underneath your underwear, his fingers basically already touching your genitals. “These gotta come off too.”

“You think I’m just carrying round lube with me?” you replied with a frown. Moving off his thighs, you shimmied further down, your face downcast. “I’ll just spit.”

“‘snot enough.”

“It’ll have to do.”

Grunt. “You got a condom?”

“No, but I’ve got faith in the fact you’ll pull out.”

“Pulling out’s not protection.”

You sighed with exasperation. “Well, let’s hope for the best. It’s this or nothing, babe.”

Babe. He writhed. “Whatever. I’m ready to be a Dad.”

With his help, and by help, it meant Taehyung didn’t remove his hooked finger as you pulled down your panties. At the sight of Taehyung now somewhat level with your pussy, you felt self-conscious. Insecure and ugly. After a dragged out moment of simply staring, he softly cursed, a gentle, “fuck”, and he curiously curled a finger between your folds, mindful of the tame hair, unbothered.

“Yeah, well,” you groaned, head back between your shoulder-blades, “if we’re still knocking around by the time this is all over, I’ll let you be the Dad of my kids.”

“Mm, yeah?” Taehyung hummed, oddly vacant. His eyes were glazed, lost looking. “Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Me filling you up? Putting a kid in you?”

“Mhmpf!”

“Imagine our kids,” he huffed, three fingers up there. You whined as two scissored. “God, I want you. Wanna fill you up with my cum, put a baby in you. I want a life with you.”

“What? Like we aren’t having a life right now?”

He removed his fingers, a coating of juice and white covering his fingers, drooling like wax on a candle. “Nah, this ain’t life. We’re living, sure, but this ain’t a life. ‘M gonna get you out, I promise. Gonna go somewhere safe.”

He doesn’t say anything else after that, except the occasional fuck or shit, or intake of breath. Taehyung thought to himself, with the nape of his neck resting on the low headboard of the premium suite bed, watching you settle over his crotch with a look of need, want, and love, that if this were happening three years ago, he’d have taken his time. He would have gone to lengths to take you on dates, to visit the bowling alley that his friend Nate back at Uni worked at part-time, or to the diner owned by a chain that started in Chicago. For sure, he would have prepared lube and condoms, and flowers in a glass rose, twenty candles or something, rose petals in the bathtub for after, meringue in the freezer and Ultraviolence on the vinyl.

But now, in a world where losing someone has the same probability of seeing someone on the street outside your house, Taehyung couldn’t care less about taking his time. This time tomorrow, he could be dead. He won’t be, but he could be.

That’s what he told himself as he watched you take his cock with one hand, too small for his girth, and groaned with his fist wrapped around your hair as your mouth wrapped around his length. He told himself again when you settled down on his middle, sitting on his cock, one hand on his tummy and the other back on his thigh, the cowgirl on a horse, facing him instead of away. And again when he straightened up off the headboard, wrapping his arms around your body, one hand on your lower back and the other running along your wrist raised in the air like silk on skin, and again when you rolled forward in a wave to kiss him, to kiss him like you’d never kissed anybody before.

And God, it was some kiss. It was the kind of kiss a lover gave to their other half when they came back from the army, the kind of kiss where you’re physically afraid of moving away in-case they disappear. Taehyung had never, ever felt so loved, so wanted, so content with somebody in his entire life, and there was a margin of possibility that this could be the last time he ever kissed somebody, or held somebody. In any case, it was the first and last time he’d ever tell someone he loved them.

For some reason, he laughed as you sank down on him, a breathy giggle against the curve of your neck. You rested your hands on his shoulders, stabling yourself, and you peered down at him with a smile: “Enjoying yourself?”

He nodded with a small laugh. “Fuck yeah. Wish I had my phone, would have recorded this so I could watch it over again.”

“You’re into that?”

“I can be.”

“Dirty boy,” you said.

Taehyung lifted his hips to meet your thrusting, a shaky whimper making him grin. “I don’t wanna forget this moment.”

“Who says you’ll forget?”

He groaned at that. You moved faster, sinking up and down, skin sweaty and shining, your hips rocking forward and a shy hand between your breasts.

It’s nothing special, if Taehyung compared it to stuff before the outbreak. He’s a lad- he’s watched porn, he knew how things went if you had enough time, and lights, and patience. But, to Taehyung, this was bliss. Having a moment of intimacy with you was something his heart swelled with joy at, and his hold around your body tightened with every tight thrust, every slowing rise and fall, right up until the pivotal moment of release. Taehyung moaned, louder than ever, his mouth hanging open and lids half-closed, watching you through his thick eyelashes as you significantly slowed down.

“Cah-can’t hold it, Tae,” you said quietly, your voice close to a whisper if anything.

He gently took your forearm, sending an encouraging squeeze. “It’s okay, baby. ‘s okay.”

You whimpered softly, the high-pitched wheeze sending blood rushing to Taehyung’s dick, twitching inside you, begging for release. Impatient, Taehyung moved his hands to your lower body, one on your hip, the other underneath your ass, helping you deliver deep bounces until the gates opened; when you came, you saw white. You could see the white walls of a square room, everything white and pastel yellow, the figure of a man stepping towards you with a suit and tie, the man being Taehyung, his hair longer than it is now, shiny, plastic, fake, not real, a dream, not real- when you came, the weird, offhand smell of lemonade filled your nose as a dribble of creamy white ran down the vein of Taehyung’s cock.

Your arms gave way, weakened after your hard work, and Taehyung lifted you up off his dick to simply hover above him with thighs on either side of his hips. Once he removed himself with a slick sound, he let out a large exhale of breath, the tone gravelly and animalistic in some sense. Resting your hands on his shoulders, although they moved in jitters across his body, from his collarbones to his neck to the tuft of hair sticking up on his head, you gently eased yourself down, running the wetness back along the tip of his dick, your eyes widening when he groaned loudly; one hand cupping his balls and the other on your hip with his arm wrapped underneath your ass, Taehyung let out a gruff, “fuck”, and let go, cum splashing up onto your cunt, dripping like a leak in the roof, spread like cake frosting.

Reluctantly, Taehyung let his arm slip, giving way and letting you drop onto his thighs with a tired thud. He stared, dazed, bringing his fingers to join at your hair, pulling away the knots. After all that, you couldn’t help but feel embarrassed, shyly moving out of his eye to hide your body, a slight dusting of rose on your cheekbones. Taehyung whined softly, his hand wrapping around your wrist- “Hey, are you alright?”

“Mm,” you replied quietly, looking to him with an admiring gaze. He paused, pleased. Dropping your gaze to your bare cunt, Taehyung’s gaze followed, a smile pulling at his lips. In fact, his brow even quirked with satisfaction, exactly like planned. “Just gotta clean this up.”

“I could help,” he offered. Implying that he would get on his knees and lick the mess away, of course. You flushed.

“Taehyung, I dunno, that sounds kind of-” you began, but, catching sight of the way his face widened at the thought, his eyes glued to the stickiness of your vagina, his fingers tapping erratically on the sides of your thighs.

“Just like a bath, only rougher.”

“I don’t think that’s entirely accurate,” you breathed, practically burning with mortification when Taehyung shuffled down the bed to lay down on his shoulder-blades, his elbows propping him up almost expectantly, like a dog waiting for dinner. Curving your brow, you simply watched him, curious.

“What, you worried about the taste?” he asked bluntly, smiling as an afterthought. “The smell?”

“Yes, and yes,” you admitted, stroking his V-line with one finger, a feathery touch that made him shudder. “I mean...the hair…”

He groaned in amusement, his head falling backwards. “Y/N,” he exclaimed, his mouth widening to reveal the same set of weirdly white teeth. “Most males have hair and women still go down on them. D’ythink it’ll be different for me to do it? Honestly,” he huffed dramatically, taking your hand whilst supporting his body with a single elbow, “I’m not picky like that. I’m seriously the best person you could have sex with, really.”

“...Lucky me,” you sighed, after a breath of thought. His eyes flashed open wide for a split second, content with that answer.

Taehyung smirked through a chuckle, one produced by the tension in his throat, and tapped his chin with his finger, coated in dried cum, his tongue wetting his lips in anticipation, “sit.”

(And sit, you did.)

“No matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.”

As if it had just been touched by the demon underneath the bed, you pulled your leg back underneath the sheets of the motel bed, wrapping it around Taehyung’s legs, out in a starfish position.

You glanced up at him. “Hm?”

His Adams bobbed up and down, as if it was suddenly hard to swallow. “Joel Miller said that. The Last of Us, 2014, Naughty Dog. A story of a man who got loaded with a 14 year old, smuggling her across America to become the cure to humankind. He said that to her, at the end of the game.”

“Oh, yeah?” you muttered, face smushed against his breast. “It’s a nice thing to say.”

He made a noise of agreement, but it fell short. “Yeah, but wanna know the context? He got selfish. At the start of the game, he loses a daughter, probably the same age as Ellie when he finds her.”

“Who’s Ellie again?”

“The girl.”

“Oh, right.”

“Ellie is immune to the zombie apocalypse- I mean, how fucking fortunate? She’s being taken to this gang of scientists to become the cure, but he kills them all when they try and kill her to take brain samples, or something. Anyway, he takes her back to his brother’s little camp in the woods, and just before the game ends, he tells her that. He looked at her, said to her face, “No matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.” She made him swear to it.”

You hummed with interest, propping your chin underneath his nipple to stare up at him, enthralled by the shadows cast on his face from the angle. “You like that quote?”

“It applies,” he explained, moving his hair from his forehead. “Back in New York...ah-” he inhaled a breath. New York brought back a flood of memories, that was obvious. It seemed as if talking about it was difficult, and you rested a hand on his bicep with a meek smile, “you don’t have to say it, baby.”

“No, no,” he continued, not rudely. “I want to. Look...I lost my sister. For all I know, she’s dead. I mean, I hope she’s not, but when we got separated in New York...man, I lost it. My body went into a shutdown, I searched New York with a baseball bat with nails, some stolen gun I didn’t know how to use properly. My mate, Bogum, was with me for a bit, before he left with his friends to go somewhere better. As if there’s anywhere better. My sister was everything I had in America, and losing her like that...I just, shut down. My body couldn’t cope.

“Point is, is that I don’t wanna lose anybody again. I don’t want to lose you like I lost her, Y/N,” he rasped, his chest filled with something tight. It felt like he was breathing poison. He repeated the quote, lost in the words, his eyes closed gently.

You sat up completely, looking down at him with a washed over expression. His lips pulled back to a frownish smile, his fingers reaching to loop a strand of hair behind your ear. “Should cut your hair.”

“That’s enough video game references from you tonight, Tae,” you laughed breathily, pulling your hair back to fall down your back. “But, yes. I agree. Help me cut it tomorrow?”

He nodded against the pillows, bringing you down to join a kiss, and then press your nose to the shell of his ear. “Course. I’d do anything for you.”

And it went without question.