#straightforward sport you do the same thing over and over and give it your absolute all until you're almost dead he would thrive

[abrahamvanhelsings]

don't care that edward is short in my head his sport of choice would be rowing

[mystxmomo]

OC interview tag

(answer the questions for your OC as if your character were answering them)

I got tagged by @mogruith. I love being included, thank you for including me and letting me write in a character voice.

Enclave time.

== For the sake of simplicity, the interview is taking place in her preferred Tongue: High Drow. ==

Are you named after anyone?

"No. Not to my knowledge," She's quiet, though after a few seconds, she snorts and says, "Honestly, if my mother had it her way, I probably would not have been named at all. But alas. To the misfortune of everyone involved, I sit before you today all the same."

When was the last time you cried?

She does not look like she has any interest in answering this question, and in fact looks a little baffled that you asked her?

"Mm. No."

Do you have kids?

"Well, I suppose that depends! Are we limiting this to children who are alive, or will dead ones suffice in consideration?" Despite her tone, she does seem a little unsure as to whether people consider their dead children as still being... their children, and so it is clarified to her that yes, she should consider her dead children as part of this. She gives a long exhale, as though that's something rather tedious to be doing, but considers it all the same, "Ah. Well. I have had four, however none of them made it out of the underdark. Put bluntly, only one really survived until adulthood..."

She trails off, looking a little troubled.

Worth mentioning, of course, this is not considering the adopted child she has that she does not consider her child despite the author absolutely considering him her child

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

With the flattest expression imaginable, "No."

This... seems to be a joke? It's a little hard to tell.

She pours more wine into her goblet.

What's the first thing you notice about people?

"How attached they are to their weapons," She doesn't look up as she says this. It's the first question she seems to answer without needing to put much thought into it, "And how visible those weapons are, I suppose. It does not matter how kind you are when your hand sits next to your blade for most of the conversation," Enclave looks off to the side. Her own blade remains unseen, however is undeniably within reach, "I suppose I cannot fault anyone for being suspicious, though. Lest I be a hypocrite within the framework of my own standards."

Scary stories or happy endings?

"I am not really a .... story... person..." She looks a little apprehensive. Unlike the other questions she'd skipped over, she does offer this some amount of consideration, rolling the goblet between her fingers as she does, "If I had to make a choice, I would still say neither. I prefer stories grounded in reality, and reality tends neither be so kind or straightforward in the tone of it's ending."

Then, she mutters to herself, "Besides. There is nothing more irritating than a bard who dramatizes for the sake of performance."

Any special talents?

"I have many. I have none I am willing to share."

Where were you born?

"The Underdark. It does not matter beyond that."

Again, this is something she otherwise has no interest in expounding upon. Even when further pressed on the matter, she just offers a blank stare in return.

Do you have any pets?

"What? No. With the kind of life I lead, why would I?" Her lips thin in disdain and she rubs her eyes.

She does not consider the stray cat she feeds when she's in town as being her pet, even if everyone else around her absolutely would.

What sort of sports do you play?

"... I have never been the sort particularly inclined towards sport, and was fortunate enough to have the luxury to avoid those," Her idea of sports being largely influenced by her time within the outskirts of drow nobility and the bloodsports they indulged in, she seems rather concerned with the question. Even after clarification that the question probably means less "blood" and more "ball", she only offers;

"Ah.." and, "I suppose I prefer to rest when I have the chance. I spend too much time on my feet as it stands."

The pun seems intentional, though her expression does not break when she says it.

How tall are you?

".... 5'0"

What was your favourite academic subject?

"...." She momentarily looks like she's going to need further clarification on this. But she does not ask for that clarification.

"History. Not what was taught, but what was true," She traces the rim of her glass, her gaze far-off, and rather distracted seeming, "... I suppose if you wanted a straightforward answer, I was always inclined towards the arcane. A shame, really. Being so invested in the arcane continues to reflect poorly on my character."

What she means by this, we are unsure.

What is your dream job?

"Anything besides what I'm fucking doing now," She says, switching to common to answer that. Not unlike earlier, though her expression doesn't change, this also seems to be a joke. She grabs her head, rolls her eyes, and with less venom to her tone eventually finishes by saying, "... I did quite like being a teacher. I would love to do so again one day, under kinder circumstances."

...

Tagging @bluejeanne & @mmigrainee, if you want to talk about your oc's. And anyone else that wants to be included.

[dixons-sunshine]

The Boyfriend Assessment | Quarters Of The Undead AU

Summary: Meeting your best friend’s boyfriend for the first time was never easy. In Georgianna’s case, meeting Vec’s boyfriend felt like a life or death situation—until it didn’t.

Warnings: I can’t think of anything.

Word count: 2.8k

A/N: First official fic for this AU on my part! Aahhhh I’m so excited! I hope I captured Vec accurately, @thevegandarkelf. If not, I’d be more than happy to change a few things. Also, I know there’s no Daryl in this, but I wanted to get a head start on Georgie and Scud’s sibling rivalry. My next fic should probably include Daryl!

“How do I look?”

At the sound of her voice, Georgianna looked up from the tests she was busy grading and up at Lydia Rae Vector—or, well, Dia for her personally due to best friend reasons, and Vec for others—her roommate and absolute bestest friend in the whole world. The woman in question stood in front of Georgianna, sporting a casual yet outgoing look, all in an attempt to impress the guy that worked at the auto repair shop near Atlanta General, the same guy that was coming over for dinner so that Georgianna could finally meet the man that held her best friend’s heart as of late. The cutie with the bandana, as she had come to know him as from their extensive talks about the man.

Georgianna clicked her red pen closed and leaned back on the couch. She hummed and scanned Vec’s attire, a faux look of contemplation on her face. It was all for show, really. Vec was one of the most fashionable people she knew. If one were to give her a trash bag, she would find a way to style it. But Georgianna knew that Vec loved her reassurance nonetheless, so she always made sure to let her best friend know her honest thoughts.

“You look great, Dia,” Georgianna spoke up after a few beats of silence, her tone laced with honesty and sincerity. “Now calm down and take a few deep breaths, okay?”

Vec took her advice and followed the breathing patterns Georgianna was demonstrating. Once she was certain she was not going to freak out, Vec sighed. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Georgianna stood up from the couch and made her way over to Vec, closely inspecting her rather nervous stature, something that was rather uncommon for the usually confident, straightforward woman. “What’s up, babe? What’s got you so worried? I’m the one that should be nervous.”

“I don’t even really know,” Vec admitted with a small groan. “I mean, when it’s just me and him, everything is so natural. He matches my freak, y’know? And obviously, when it’s just you and me, we can talk about anything and nothing all at once. But—”

“You’re nervous about how we’ll feel about each other,” Georgianna finished for her, instantly understanding where her worry was coming from.

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Dia, you don’t have to worry about what we think of each other, okay? Even if we end up despising each other, I won’t let it affect you. I’ll learn to tolerate him. But I’m sure that won’t even be necessary. I’m sure I’m gonna love him. Well, not like that, of course. He’s your man. I would never betray your trust like that. I—”

“I get what you meant,” Vec interrupted her with a light laugh, knowing well that if she did not, Georgianna would go on a rant in an attempt to explain something she did not have to in the first place. Georgianna had a tendency to overthink, and Vec was the anchor that helped her in those types of situations.

Georgianna sighed and shrugged. “Besides, if this guy—”

“Josh.”

“—Josh is as great as you say he is, then I’m sure we’re gonna get along great.” When Vec nodded, Georgianna continued. “Now calm down, okay? Tonight’s gonna go just fine.”

“You’re right,” Vec agreed. “It will be fine.”

The doorbell to the two women’s shared apartment rung, making them both look over at it. Georgianna frowned and looked up at the clock on the wall, before looking back at her best friend. “It’s only five thirty. I thought he was gonna be here at seven.”

Vec shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean, I told him to be here any time after five if he wanted. I didn’t think he was actually gonna be so early.” Her earlier nerves being replaced with an idea she deemed positively brilliant, Vec smiled. “It gives the two of you the time to get to know each other while I make dinner!”

“You’re kidding,” Georgianna exclaimed in a hushed whisper. “Dia, you can’t leave me alone with him! The living room is a mess! And you know what—”

“What a flibbertigibbet you can be when you’re nervous. Yes, I know, but I also know that he wouldn’t mind that.” Vec gripped Georgianna’s shoulder in—what she hoped was—reassurance. “Believe me, he doesn’t mind messes at all. And besides, I seriously doubt five test papers can qualify as a mess. You’ll be fine, Ginny. I promise. Think of this as a parent-teacher conference.”

Georgianna hesitantly nodded. “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

“Perfect, because you don’t really have a choice.”

Before Georgianna could say anything, Vec backed away from the woman and stalked towards the door. She opened the wooden barrier between her and her boyfriend, and smiled brightly at the man on the other end. Georgianna forced herself to relax, trying to remind herself that this was not a big deal. She loved meeting new people. She strived for social interactions. She was a complete social butterfly. She could do this.

“Josh, hey!” Vec greeted the man enthusiastically.

If it was not for the fact that she had seen it with her own eyes, Georgianna would never have thought she was nervous at all. Vec truly was a master at changing her emotions in a matter of seconds. Georgianna often joked that her best friend should have gone into the acting business instead of surgery due to that little fact alone.

“Heya, Vee.”

Vec leaned forward and gave the man a quick peck on the lips, before beckoning him inside. “C’mon, you gotta meet Georgie.”

Got to was a bit of an overstatement, Georgianna thought to herself. However, she forced herself to calm down and plastered a smile onto her face. This meeting meant a lot to Vec, and by god, Georgianna was going to ensure that it went as smoothly as humanly possible.

The moment Georgianna’s eyes landed on the man she had heard so much about, the woman had to resist the urge to comment on his choice of clothing. He wore a shirt that had some science joke on it, with a pair of jeans that had definitely seen better days, a big puffer jacket and a pair of sneakers that had a bunch of small doodles on the side. He even wore a bandana, but from the various conversations she had with Vec regarding the cutie with the bandana, Georgianna had expected that last part.

The couple walked into the living room and came to a stop a few feet away from Georgianna. She exchanged a look with Vec, before turning back to the man—Josh—and extended her hand.

“Hi. I’m Georgianna,” she greeted in a tone of voice that closely resembled the one she used when greeting the parents of the kids she taught. “Georgianna Marianne Hawkins.” She had no idea why she had felt the need to give her full government name, but there was no going back now.

The man smiled and gripped her hand in his and shook it once. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” He removed his hand from hers and motioned towards himself. “I’m Joshua Frohmeyer, but you can call me Scud. Just about everybody does.”

Georgianna nodded and looked at Scud with a scrutinising gaze. It got quiet for a few moments, before Scud chuckled awkwardly and cleared his throat. “Okay, then. Where’s the bathroom?”

“Down the hall, first door to the right,” Vec explained, smiling at him as he kissed her on the cheek and disappeared down the hall. When she heard the door close, she turned back to Georgianna. “What was that about?”

“What do you mean?” Georgianna inquired with a confused frown.

“You know, that look you gave him. Like you’re a dad trying to figure out his intentions with your daughter.”

“You trying to insinuate you see me as your mom?” When Vec simply sent her a pointed look, Georgianna laughed and shook her head. “Okay, okay. I just… I guess I just don’t really understand something.”

That got Vec’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“You kept going on about the cutie with the bandana, and I just don’t get it. I mean, I can clearly see that he’s wearing a bandana, but I’m struggling to see how the word ‘cutie’ comes into play here.”

The clearing of someone’s throat slightly startled both Vec and Georgianna. Whipping around, she came face-to-face with none other than the man she had been talking about a few moments prior. Georgianna would have felt embarrassed, but for some reason unbeknownst to her, she did not.

Scud went and stood next to Vec once more, his blue eyes studying Georgianna’s face intently. “Well, then it’s a good thing it’s only her opinion that matters.” For added emphasis, he motioned towards Vec.

Georgianna crossed her arms over her chest and met Scud’s gaze head-on. She did not know where this sudden surge of confidence came from, but there was just something about the man in front of her that made her feel weirdly at ease, like she could speak her mind without having to fear looking like an absolute fool. She could not explain the odd feeling.

“Well,” she began matter-of-factly, “considering the fact that Vec came to me for the initial “yes or nah” evaluation of you, I personally think that my opinion holds a ton of value.”

Scud simply stared at her with a deadpan look. “Not in this case, it doesn’t. In fact, any opinions ya have of me will be taken with a grain of salt.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Well, I think—”

“Okay!” Vec interrupted. Maybe leaving them alone to talk wouldn’t be such a brilliant idea after all, Vec thought to herself. In an attempt to ease what she thought was an uncomfortable tension, she turned to Scud. “How about you help me in the kitchen while Georgie finishes up with her work?”

Scud shrugged and nodded. “Sounds good to me.” He turned to Georgianna with a smirk on his face. “That okay with you, Marianne? Considering your opinion holds so much value?”

Georgianna rolled her eyes at his comment, and the unnecessary emphasis of her middle name. She knew exactly why he did that. Vec must have told him how much she hated being addressed by her middle name. It was the perfect way to take a jab at her without outright insulting her.

“Yes, it’s completely fine with me, Joshua. Just don’t burn my kitchen down while you’re at it,” Georgianna replied, emphasizing his name as well and smirking slightly at the way he cringed at that. Vec had told Georgianna how much Scud hated being addressed by his full first name, so now that once unimportant piece of information had turned way more vital for the Hawkins woman.

“Guys,” Vec chimed in, her eyes darting between her best friend and her boyfriend, “please don’t.”

Georgianna and Vec shared a look, before the former moved over towards the couch and sat back down in front of the test that had laid momentarily forgotten. “Whatever you make, remember—”

“No onions or tomatoes. Yes, I know.”

With that, Vec ushered Scud into the kitchen, leaving Georgianna alone in the living room. With one last look towards where the couple had stood only moments prior, she picked up her pen and resumed with her task of grading the paper, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Yeah, Georgianna had a feeling that her and Scud were going to get along just fine.

“Thanks for coming over, Josh.”

“Of course. This was great.” Scud leaned down and pressed a soft, tender peck to Vec’s lips. He shrugged his jacket on and sent Vec a charming, heartfelt smile.

Georgianna—who stood off to the side—simply observed the couple with a small, fond smile on her face. The two truly did make a terrific pair. They complimented each other’s personalities beautifully. All throughout dinner, Georgianna had noticed how Scud’s eyes barely strayed away from her best friend, even when Vec was not looking. They were perfect for one another, and Georgianna was beyond happy that her best friend had finally found the person that was meant for her.

Georgianna liked Scud. She could see that he was a great guy. Despite only officially knowing him for a few hours, Georgianna felt like she had known him her whole life. Her usual very slight awkwardness when meeting new people failed to make an appearance with Scud, and that little fact spoke volumes. All throughout dinner, Scud and Georgianna made jokes and took playful jabs at one another, like they were siblings just catching up at a family dinner instead of being complete strangers to the other.

Scud’s eyes shifted over to Georgianna, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “Good night, Marianne.”

“Night, Joshua,” Georgianna greeted with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

With one last kiss to Vec’s cheek, Scud disappeared out of the front door. Closing the door behind her, Vec locked it, made her way over to the couch and collapsed onto it. With a heavy sigh, she looked up at Georgianna, her blue eyes sparkling in the dim light of the living room.

“So,” she began, her eyes following Georgianna as the aforementioned woman went about tidying up the living room, “I have a feeling that you don’t particularly like him.”

“Who, Scud?” Georgianna asked rhetorically, though she still received a nod from Vec. “Oh, no, he’s great. I like him. I can totally see why you fell for him. He’s not my type, but he’s yours and I can see myself becoming great friends with him.”

That confused Vec. Her eyebrows furrowed behind her glasses as she gazed up at the brown-haired woman. “I—what? Huh?”

“What’s wrong?” Georgianna inquired, completely taken aback by her friend’s strange behaviour. “You sound like you’re having a stroke.”

“The two of you didn’t stop taking jabs at each other all night!” Vec exclaimed, her tone evidently laced with confusion. “It sounded like you hated him.”

“I don’t hate him. He’s actually really cool, and I could tell that he didn’t mean what he was saying. You know I’m good at reading people, Dia. He’s a good guy and he clearly makes you happy.” Georgianna sat down on the armchair, a sigh leaving her chest. “Besides, his “insults” were kinda weak. I’ve had way worse things said to me before.”

Vec smiled at her. “So he has your stamp of approval?”

Georgianna nodded. “He does.”

“Then it definitely makes me feel better about giving him your number.”

“You gave him my number?” Georgianna asked, although she was just curious, not angry. “Why?”

“I gave it to him a while ago,” Vec replied with a shrug. “It was just in case there happened to be an emergency and I couldn’t call you with my phone. I completely forgot to tell you that I did. I’m sorry.”

Georgianna nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah. That makes sense. And it’s fine.” Vec was just about to say something else, but a yawn cut her off, making Georgianna chuckle. “Go to bed, Dia. I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?” When Georgianna nodded, Vec got up from the couch. “You’re the best, Ginny. I love you.”

“Love you too, Dia. Now go to bed. You have an early shift tomorrow.”

Vec nodded, and with that, she disappeared down the hall and into her bedroom. A few seconds after the door was shut, Georgianna’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She took her phone out, opened it and read the text that had come through.

Unknown: hiya, Marianne. It’s Scud. Thought I’d shoot ya a text to thank you for having me over. It was fun.

Unknown: By the way, I hope you didn’t take my “insults” to heart. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was just playful banter.

Georgianna shook her head at the texts. She quickly saved the number to her phone, before replying to him.

Georgie: Don’t worry, I know. Same here. I didn’t mean anything by it.

Joshua: Good to know.

Joshua: Anyways, I gotta go. Nightly call with my bae. She’s way better company than you. Sorry about that.

The moment Georgianna read that text, she heard the muffled sound of Vec’s ringtone, before it got silenced by the enthusiastic “hey, babe! You home yet?” from the aforementioned woman. Georgianna smiled at the clear-as-day happiness her best friend exuded. She put her phone down on the table and made her way to the kitchen, humming to herself as she went about cleaning up the mess.

Scud made Vec beyond happy, and that was enough for Georgianna to decide that her and Scud would get along just fine.

Georgie belongs to me.

Vec belongs to @thevegandarkelf.

Comment/DM/inbox me to be added to the taglist for this AU!

[smashingdollz]

Can I ask for a match up (adult man) from JJBA Part 5 & Pokémon Sword and Shield pls? I'm a straight female. I'm shy, timid, quiet & polite to strangers. With people I'm comfortable with, I'm loud, outgoing, playful, mature, responsible, motherly(to naughty friends), childlike(to mature friends/family) and sarcastic (unintentionally). I'm kinda tomboyish as I wear over-sized t-shirts, baggy pants, sneakers but don't play sports or video games. I'm kinda perverted which contrasts my innocent & baby face. I keep it to myself though. I'm a slow learner, not smart, not strong, and not talented. I'm pretty dense, straightforward and naive too. I get confused or misunderstand what people mean easily so it's best if you tell me straight to my face so I can't be mistaken. I'm also touch starved as I love giving & receiving affection but I only can hug one person and even then, I do my best to not overdo it. I'm a hopeless romantic, sensitive, & overthink often. I work as hard as I can & try my best & be careful as I can to everything I do, as I'm pretty clumsy & makes mistakes more often than most people. I try to help my family and friends as they've helped me & cared for me dearly. I don't believe in compliments I get occasionally or why my family & friends care for me because I don't see good things in myself only bad things. My hobbies are drawing, reading manga, fanfics, and watching anime, movies, & cartoons. Please & thank you! - 🌠 anon

hi hi! hope you like who i matched you up with! I added the Spiderman ATSV/ITSV like you asked

let’s start off with…

𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐨 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢 !

-Bruno absolutely loves the way you act like a mother to your misbehaving friends, he finds it very relatable. but he also enjoys and doesn't mind your childlike side, i mean he basically takes care of grown children everyday. but with you he doesn't mind it at all, in fact he finds it quite cute.

-He honestly doesn't mind what you wear, bit considering that he has lots of money he'd get you some nice clothing and stuff, but if you don't want to wear it he wont force you too. if anyone were to give a negative comment on what you're wearing he'd glare at them and tell them to back off.

-I believe that Bruno is a very patient and straightforward person. for you he would say what he needs to say even if it sounds a bit harsh, but he'd say it in a nice way, if that makes any sense.

-Bruno would absolutely kill for your affection, he doesn't care if you overdue it and just cling onto him all day. but he does understand if you don't want to overdue your affection and will respect your boundaries. The two of you could both be hopeless romantics together. he'd communicate a lot with you to make sure you don't overthink anything or get the wrong idea whenever he says anything that can be taken out of context.

-he gets the feeling of self doubt and not feeling like you're enough and that all the positive things and words in your life is not genuine, but he hates it when other people feel the same way, especially when you feel like that. he would compliment you all the time, even for the most smallest hings, and he's genuine about them too. he hopes that you soon find your worth and believe that everything hes saying about you he means in the most genuine loving way possible. he wants you to see the good in yourself, he wants you to see what he sees.

𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 !

-I feel like the two of you have a somewhat "don't care" attitude. he'd laugh and snicker at how sarcastic and straightforward you are. well maybe not laugh at you exactly but to whoever you might be talking to

-he'd admire your clothes, even if they're the most simplest plain pieces of clothing ever, he'd say something like, "simple is best, i like simple" he'd also draw on random small designs on random places of your pants or shirt, if you're comfortable with it of course, and it always with something that can be washed off.

-I feel like Piers isn't too much of a touchy person when it comes for showing affection. he'd rather gift you something, whether it be bought or found, he'd say "this really reminded me of you, so i got it for you" or "i know you like stuff like this. but he would absolutely never miss out on a hug from you.

-he'd love doing any of your hobbies with you, if you want him too of course. while you're reading manga or drawing he'd just give you your space and look over your shoulder from time to time to see what progress you made, this would go on until you tell him he could sit down next to you.

-I feel as if Piers is somewhat pretty straightforward person, he would say what he needs to say but in a nice way, like if he needs to hold back on saying something he will. but he would never need to hold back anything from you, he would talk to you with the upmost respect, while also being as straightforward as possible to avoid any miscommunication.

𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁. 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫 !

-he honestly doesn't care what you wear, because the two of you would most likely be wearing the exact same thing, but i feel like his would be a bit more torn and messy...

-he would absolutely love doing nothing with you, just sitting there watching movies and stuff, because you just being there is enough for him. he would love watching you draw, he'd just silently watch your hands and fingers as they grip the pencil and slide across the paper. while drawing he would say "wow you're so good, i can barley draw stick figures" and while you're reading mange he would be like "so its like a comic book but backwards?"

-he also feels the same way when it comes to compliments and not being able to see the good things in himself, i mean his flashback in the movie says it all. but he doesn't want you to feel the same way too. that being said, he would always try to find a way to compliment you or anything you do, even if its the most simple thing like you combing your hair, he's say "you're hair looks beautiful today, well actually it does everyday-" and hes 100% genuine about it. he just wants you to see the good in yourself the same way he does.

-one complication i can see from him is that he is not a straightforward person at all, he's the type to accept a wrong order than to tell the waiter his order is wrong (me too though). he'd kinda stir away from what he needs to say which will lead to another topic. so he wont be upset with you for being confused or anything because he know that the miscommunication comes from him.

-he admires how you work hard and do your best. and that you always try you best to help out the ones who are close to you. even if you're clumsy and make mistakes. he'll always reassure you that the people you help out are grateful for all that you do and he says that sometimes all you can do for someone is be there for them and do your best to help them out.

thank you for putting in a request for the matchup! i had lots of fun doing this, i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did!

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hi, mbti-notes! I wanna start this off by saying that I absolutely adore your blog. There's truly nothing else like it. It's comprehensive, clear, and precise. I've been relying on the material on your blog for psychology for a while now, and I want to give you a massive, massive thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Right, moving on to the purpose of me writing this. Please help me with type assessment (of myself). I have an argument of my type and I hope your analysis of it can give more insight on whether I was accurate or not. I'm an 18F. My MBTI may be ESTP, albeit an immature one.

Stack in order:

[Se] I think I have Se because…

I love experiencing new things. I don't like when nothing much happens in day-to-day life.

I'm usually energetic, especially if the situation is fun and exciting (team sports I like in particular). But when it comes to studying heavy theory about things I don't like/don't care about or hanging out with people I don't feel comfortable with, it feels like all my battery gets sucked out.

It's easy for me to learn something when I jump straight into it and experience it real-time rather than sitting down and hearing someone going on and on about it.

It's difficult for me to sit still for a long time. (Funnily enough, as I was writing this, a classmate was sitting next to me and said she was bored. I instantly stopped writing and jumped to play a game with her.)

I don't like when I have to do the same thing over and over again unless it has a purpose.

I get annoyed when situations are too serious. I prefer to keep things fun and light-hearted.

I see it as it is, say it as it is.

[Ti] I think I have Ti because…

If something doesn't make sense/has flawed logic, I speak up about it OR I keep it to myself because 1. I may be wrong 2. If I say it, people would get hurt.

If I'm forced to learn something, then I instantly lose all my curiosity and do everything in my power to NOT learn it. In contrast, if I discover something interesting and learn it on my own, I become intensely invested in the topic for a while until I reach a block and drop it lol. (The knowledge stays, but most of the time I remain a novice, not being special in anything)

I'm straightforward. It's a double-edged sword. I have people tell me that they admire this trait in me, then get offended when I display it the next day. I have no intention in hurting people, it's just that sometimes the truth hurts, and I'm sorry but I'd prefer they "live wounded" than "die stupidly". It's a sign I care.

I'm firm in my opinions, and don't get deterred when other people tell me their own. If it doesn't make sense to me, then it doesn't. If it does, it does. The part I'm ashamed to admit is that sometimes I'm wrong. I'm working on to not deflect other people's advice and opinions face-value.

[Fe] I think I have Fe because…

Long story short, my parents weren't very present in my childhood because of their jobs. So, I threw myself into befriending people in school and latched onto them for emotional needs. Not only that, many of those so-called friends bullied me over the years. This part of my life built this people-pleaser mentality, and I've only noticed it just recently. I hate it. I want to stop, but it's not easy to get rid of something that's become instinct.

I do want to be taken seriously, but I can't help but joke around. I don't even think when I do it.

Err. Okay. This is gonna sound like bragging. I apologize beforehand. So, many people have told me that I'm "smart", whether they are family, friends, teachers, or strangers. I know this. Sometimes I have moments of doubt, just like anyone, but I know this. Whenever they say it to my face, I act dumb and say "Really? Why do you think that?" just so they continue on praising me. GAH THAT'S SO EMBARRASING OKAY MOVING ON

[Ni] I think I have Ni because…

Whenever I feel stressed out, I isolate myself from others. I lock myself in my room and snap at my loved ones if they try to ask me what's wrong. I become pessimistic and vengeful. I can't focus on anything but the negatives of a situation. During this, I feel like everyone is out to get me, and I can't trust anyone but myself.

So, what do you think? Am I an ESTP? If I am, how can I be better?

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

I'm glad you find my blog helpful, I appreciate you saying so. :)

While there's nothing in your description that jumps out at me as negating ESTP, it's still incomplete. You make a lot of claims about yourself but don't provide enough detailed and concrete examples to back them up. For example, people who've done any job hiring can tell you that everyone claims to be a "fast learner" or insert whatever trait/quality... but where's the PROOF? I need a lot of proof to confirm type with a high degree of confidence. Otherwise, I just take your word for it, which then comes down to whether your word is reliable - it's not really my analysis in the end.

Another issue, the instructions state that you should do a comparison between at least two types. It isn't enough to just confirm the type you think you are, because that makes you vulnerable to confirmation bias. You must also examine the other types and rule them all out systematically. Since you only wrote up one type, am I to assume that no other types fit as well as ESTP? If that's the case, you have your final answer.

As for how you can be better, the question is too general and vague. It would be better to raise specific things you'd like to work on. I'm not here to judge whether you're a good person or anything like that. All I do is offer some info to people who've hit a block or obstacle.

If you are confident about your type, I suggest you consult the Type Development Guide about how to improve your awareness of your functions and learn to use them better. Another thing you can do is analyze your past mistakes and failures for lessons to learn. Another thing you can do is solicit negative feedback/criticism about yourself to discover more opportunities for personal growth.

[moo-nstone]

mars through the houses

mars in the 1st house: your confident, reckless and inconsiderate nature is due to your innate fear of being taken advantage of. you fear being seen as weak and like a victim that others can prey on. you’re very impulsive and energetic, not afraid of expressing yourself and pursuing what you want most in life. you want to show the world what you’re capable of and to impress others with your confidence. you want things done your way, you’re very independent. your sincerity and straightforward nature gives you a capability of hurting others and being hostile, it’s your job to choose not to. determined and unable to give up. you don’t even think twice before doing something dangerous; there’s this happy-go-lucky nature in you that makes it so that even when you get in trouble, things still work out your way because you believed they would. you react very quickly to obstacles and adverse situations/people trying to bring you down.

mars in the 2nd house: you’re very protective of both the people you love and your possessions. there’s an innate need for stability that you possess that has you being an impulsive buyer an hoarder, someone who needs to be careful with how much they’re spending – but it’s because you’re simply terrified of instability. you work hard to gain money and be able to spend as much as you want, but you should refrain from holding on to things too tightly. your value is not about how much money you make – remember that. even if you’re lucky when it comes to money, too much spending could cause havoc. inconsistency from the ones you love terrifies you. your values and strong opinions are very important to you, just like your independence and sensuality. others can be bothered by your possessiveness over them, with good reason; you should refrain from thinking you always know what’s best for them.

mars in the 3rd house: you’re very straightforward when it comes to expressing yourself and you’re not at all afraid of speaking about sensible issues, even when everyone around you is. you’re very outspoken and provocative, loving to expand other’s people’s perspectives and help open their narrow minds. you can be an overthinker to the point of losing yourself in your thoughts and paranoias. there’s a tendency for creating conflict through discussing with your friends and family, investing a lot of time in trivial arguments. easily annoyed and very knowledgeable, it’s like you have something to say about every subject. there’s a capability for being very harsh with your words; you have a sharp tongue. apologies are rare but when they happen, they’re very sincere. an intellectual through and through but you should be careful about being too analytical and experiencing mental trauma.

mars in the 4th house: you may have come from an abusive family in which you had to deal with a difficult childhood due to controlling, aggressive or downright abusive parents. either way, for the best or worst, your family problems affect you greatly. that manifests in either cutting ties with everything that connects you to your family or wanting to reproduce the dynamic in your present relationships to try and do it “right” this time. i’ve also noticed that there’s a fear underlying this placement of having children in fear of them going through the same things the native did. this placement also indicates coming from a dangerous neighbourhood. you have an immense emotional strength that helps you fight for what you want. you’re very protective but you also have a tendency to argue and antagonize others. avoid getting too stuck in the past. you’re a human manipulation detective, no one can lie to you. it’s a challenge for you to learn to deal with your anger and the past. you’re also very enthusiastic and active, and no matter whether you exercise or not, you tend to be very physically strong.

mars in the 5th house: you’re incredibly proud and competitive, making it so that you don’t accept failure. you have an explosive creative and destructive energy; you’re a natural risk-taker and gambler. active hobbies like playing sports would be very beneficial for these natives. you also tend to have a selfish nature. very sexual, love is a way for you to express yourself. sex is almost an animalistic drive. even if you don’t have a particularly high sex-drive, you have this need to be admired and respected by others due to your sexual prowess, which can be very toxic and make you have this complicated relationship with sex and how you want to express it vs how you think you should be expressing it. underlying fear about not being good enough, which explains your desire to win. very sentimental and with a huge need to live life to the fullest. hurried and chaotic energy. impulsive and your pursue of excitement and adrenaline might have you involved in many relationships.

mars in the 6th house: you have a very deep need of being of service to others, to the point of forgetting to put yourself first. you’re very dedicated to your passions and eager to work hard, with a lot of energy when it comes to work life, but be careful of overworking yourself to the point of a breakdown. you can also be very irritable when others are not working as hard as you or meeting your expectations; you should work on your teamwork skills, and to be more gentler with those around you and not let your violent nature get the best of you. you should also be more attentive of your health. very calculated and disciplined. you melt when being appreciated for your efforts. you make for a strict boss but an amazing friend. you tend to see the worst in people, though, being very attentive to their flaws that should somehow be fixed. it’s not like you have bad intentions, you just have a need for improvement, seeing the potential in everything you lay your eyes on.

mars in the 7th house: your need to be constantly stimulated can have you be intensely argumentative, especially with the ones who are closest to you. you can easily offend others and have a hard time compromising, which can drive people away and make teamwork prove to be a difficulty; that and the fact that you simply desire to lead. you love being in a relationship because it prompts you to be more active, but those relationships cam have a dynamic of restlessness to them due to the constant fighting. you have a lot of romantic energy, you just need to learn to channel it in a constructive way. very energetic and creative, with a love for being challenged and provoking others just for the fun of it. even if you can be careless of what others want and only focus on your needs, you still invest a lot of time and energy into your relationships; you’re very devoted, passionate and loyal. being more open-minded and learning to be a better listener would do you wonders.

mars in the 8th house: you both crave and fear intimacy. on one hand, you might be hypersexual and very assertive about your wants and needs; on the other hand, you fear letting anyone close to you for fear of them ending up betraying you. paranoias about being cheated on by your partner; you might hold on too much and too tight to people, needing to learn to let go of that need to control the ones you love. fear of opening up and being vulnerable, yet you wouldn’t stand others acting like that towards you. sexually magnetic. you seek intense manifestation and answers to your many questions about the dark side of life, unresolved traumas, the workings of the universe, etc. transformation occurs when you conquer your paranoias and fear of losing control, and it’s through that manifestation that your energy runs at its highest. moving on might prove to be very difficult when you’ve learned to identify with that part of your life as a part of your character. this placement focuses a lot on acting out your self-expression, which was something you didn’t get to do when you were younger.

mars in the 9th house: you’re very enthusiastic about intellectual pursuits and achieving your dreams. open-minded, and a lover of discussing your ideas with others. you hate it whenever someone tries to impose their beliefs on you, but there’s a tendency for you to do do exactly that to other people, due to thinking you’re always right. you love learning and travelling. you don’t care for social status, you care for enriching your mind. you might have a complicated relationship with higher-powers and the belief of god. there’s an innate need to search for and find the Absolute Truth, and these natives might either study about these matters like god or the universe with all the urgency in the world or be very afraid to explore them. either way, they feel very strongly, nearly fanatically, about the subject of god, the universe, philosophy. it’d do you well to understand that there isn’t an Absolute Truth and that everyone is allowed to have a different outlook and perspective on life because we all go through different things that change and mold our beliefs.

mars in the 10th house: you practically demand an exciting work dynamic + public image. you want to be recognised by your unwavering determination and passion in everything you do, your willingness to work hard and take the lead; you destroy every obstacle that comes your way. though, this assertive nature can make you come off as too aggressive, leaving others who aren’t as bold with a negative impression of you. spontaneous, independent and strong-willed; you’d hate to feel like there’s anyone or anything controlling you beside yourself. which is why you might hate destiny, you’re not fond of a higher-power being the one to make things happen and not yourself. you love obstacles and you literally feel bored when there’s nothing standing between your way and what you want; you like being challenged because you believe that that’s the way for you to push your limits and build resilience. conflicts with authority; you hate those in power due to their incompetence or corruption and want to fight to change the system. secretive and mysterious nature. strong instincts. you constantly seek answers, analyse others’ intentions and actions.

mars in the 11th house: unmatched bravery. you become a leader even without the intent of doing so, your passion and bravery inspiring all those around you. social issues, problems concerning your friends or humanity as a whole are when your aggressiveness comes hardest (seriously, don’t fuck with these people’s friends). very strong sense of right and wrong. however, your sense of justice is very personal, making it sometimes difficult for you to accept differences between people. your big dreams and determination to do what must be done causes frustration when dealing with the pessimism and restrictions of your current reality. you’re a rebel through and through. cunning and unpredictable. you’re willing to sacrifice yourself if it’s for what you’re fighting for. energised by the thought of joining the whole world together to fight for the same cause. an enjoyment of friendships with a competitive edge, you might have a rival who you actually really respect. natural problem-solver.

mars in the 12th house: your problems of unresolved feelings of rage are due to the complexes you used to feel in your family. you’re likely to have been physically abused and/or bullied in your childhood, which now shows in your fear of physical confrontation, fear of being physically weak. you internalize your anger, taking it out on yourself. explosive anger that may come off at unpredictable times. this placement also indicates insecurities and a fear of not achieving anything in life. prone to delusion like a distorted sense of reality/paranoias of your friends hating you. you might get lost on your fantasies as a form of escapism. now, i know this all sounds terrible: but if you’re able to work through your anger issues, take action instead of escaping through fantasies and work on developing self-love, the potential this placement has is enormous. because no matter how many times you get knocked down, you’ll rise stronger than ever. your strength is found within. courage that comes from emotional sensitivity. sexually magnetic + mysterious aura that draws others in.

[nejibaby]

Supposition

Pairing: Kozume Kenma x Reader

Description: Kuroo Tetsurou thinks you like Kozume Kenma, but you just aren’t sure if it’s true… yet.

Supposition - Part 1 | In The Silence - Part 2

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: here it is, my first attempt at writing about hq. i’m not even gonna lie and say this is exactly what i had in mind because the truth is the scenes i planned on writing isn’t here, but i figured i’d just write it some other time since i didn’t want to post or write something too long 😅 anyway, this is me succumbing to the kenma brain rot 😌 please let me know your thoughts 🥺

There’s a short silence in the air when Kozume Kenma excuses himself from you and Kuroo Tetsurou. It’s almost like a pause in the world, or at least in your and Tetsurou’s atmosphere, when he leaves albeit temporarily.

It’s either that or the silence would feel a lot louder — a lot more known — in Kenma’s absence, even if he usually doesn’t participate in the conversation, opting to listen and/or play games instead.

But then Tetsurou breaks this pause, this silence, by saying, “I think you like him.”

He doesn’t elaborate further and you give him a questioning look, as you’re a little bit startled with his sudden statement, still in a daze from the pause.

“Who?” You ask.

“Kenma,” he says as he tilts his head towards the retreating figure of Kenma.

You take a quick glance at Kenma and say, “Yeah, sure.”

“That’s it? That’s all the reaction you’re going to give? No stuttering, fidgeting, or even looking away in embarrassment?”

Huh? “Why would I do that?”

Tetsurou’s facial expression turns blank. For a moment he just blinks at you. He scans your facial features and then he sighs, “You do know I’m talking about how you like Kenma romantically, right?”

Your eyes widen. “No! I d-don’t… It’s n-not what I… Uhm… That’s not what I was thinking. I thought you’re talking about how I… uh… like Kenma as a person.”

There it is, Tetsurou thought fondly, your stuttering.

He chuckles. “I should’ve known we weren’t on the same page from the way you nonchalantly responded.”

He ruffles your hair and you huff at his antics, trying to act annoyed despite the blood rushing to your face.

“I mean, you both always gravitate towards each other when you’re both at the same location. And you kind of have a different look in your eyes when you’re with him. Sometimes it’s a soft look, other times, it’s just purely excitement,” Tetsurou explains.

“So,” he leans forward and wiggles his brows, “do you? Do you like him in a romantic sense?”

You can practically feel your face heating up as Tetsurou smirks at you, awaiting your response. You open your mouth to respond but no words come out. Even your mind goes blank. Because quite frankly, you haven’t put too much thought on romantic feelings, especially not romantic feelings towards one of your best friends.

Before you could even relay that to Tetsurou, however, you both notice Kenma coming back. As usual, Kenma is on his phone, playing some game as he walks back to your group’s table. And while he’s distracted, you mouth, “Let’s talk about this another time” to Tetsurou while giving him the stink eye.

He doesn’t drop his smirk nor does he nod but you assume he understood what you just said. It is quite straightforward after all.

“What’s up with you two?” Kenma squints at you and Tetsurou. You internally curse at how awfully perceptive he is. “Did something happen while I was away?”

You void your face from any emotion despite Kenma looking away and directing his focus on his game once again. But just as you say “Nothing,” Tetsurou says “Yes.”

From the years and years of your friendship with these two males, you should have known Tetsurou was going to respond like that. When it comes to trivial matters like this, he has a habit of throwing you under the bus — only because the situations are just that, just trivial. Otherwise, he’s a great friend.

“You see, Kenma, our kitten here has a crush,” Tetsurou informs Kenma.

As the words slip out of Tetsurou’s mouth, Kenma instantly furrows his brows and his fingers stop moving — only for a moment though — his reaction was gone as soon as it came, although he does find himself unable to focus on his game anymore.

His reaction goes unnoticed by you as you throw a glare at your black haired friend, but it doesn’t escape Tetsurou’s eyes.

“First of all,” you start saying, “you said you think I like someone. It’s technically just your assumption. Secondly, I neither confirmed nor denied your statement, which leads to my last point, you can’t just go around proclaiming that as the truth.”

Tetsurou leans back and laughs at how defensive you’re being.

“Who is it?” Kenma asks, tilting his head in curiosity but without looking away from his phone.

You wag your finger at him, chastising him. “No, no, no, Kenma,” you playfully say, “Don’t listen to him. Don’t let his words get to you!”

Kenma rolls his eyes at you and then he surprises you and Tetsurou when he smiles at your antics.

You fight back the gasp that’s bubbling on your throat. While there’s no denying the fact that you’ve seen him smile before, it’s also no secret that he very rarely does it.

And seeing it appear because of you makes you swell with pride.

You’re unaware of the smile that crept into your face, as well as the knowing look that Tetsurou has as he watches the interaction between his two best friends.

“So there’s no one?” Kenma asks again.

There’s something in the tone that he used that tricks your mind into short circuiting. You’re quite taken aback by his… interest in your love affairs. And because of this, you feel something erupt inside of you, you just aren’t sure what it is. Regardless of whatever it is, it makes you feel warm all over.

Damn, feelings are complicated.

Wait… Feelings?

Was Tetsurou right in his assumption?

With one look at Tetsurou, who’s sporting an amused look on his face, your reverie breaks and this allows you to function normally once again.

“Do fictional characters count?” You ask cheekily, attempting to dodge the question.

Kenma sighs, and then the bell rings, signalling the end of lunch break, and by extension, your conversation as well.

The three of you stand up from your table.

“Are you coming to watch us play later?” Tetsurou asks you.

Kenma eyes you from his peripheral, quietly awaiting your answer. He finds you groaning and frowning.

“I wish! But I can’t. I have a lot of things to do tonight. I might even have to pull an all-nighter...” Ah, just the thought of it makes you tired already.

Tetsurou gives you a sympathetic look and pats your back. “Good luck! Come watch us some other time, yeah?”

You hum.

Just as you’re about to part ways with Tetsurou and Kenma, Tetsurou leans to you and whispers, “And for the record, I think he likes you too.”

Before you could even gather your wits to process what he just said, Tetsurou pulls Kenma and dashes away, not giving you the opportunity for a dispute.

His words ring inside your head repetitively all throughout the day. Even as you get home and bury yourself with your tasks, it somehow finds its way back to your thoughts.

“I think you like him.”

“And for the record, I think he likes you too.”

And because of these, a ton of questions flood your mind.

Do you really seek Kenma that often for Tetsurou to take notice? Do you really look at him in a different way than others? Does Kenma talk about you with Tetsurou? Does he go looking for you too? Does he act differently when it comes to you?

Trust Tetsurou to plant a seed in your mind, almost as if he’s expecting you to water it and let it blossom —which you really end up doing.

So here you are now, thinking that perhaps you do have a teeny tiny crush on Kenma. Because, yes, you like spending time with him more than any of your other friends. Yes, you stare at him a little bit too long sometimes because of his gorgeous facial features, especially his pretty golden eyes, complemented by his golden locks. And yes, you could admit that there were a couple of times that he made your heart skip a beat, although you’ve never really attributed it to attraction before.

But you still aren’t sure. And if there’s something that you absolutely dislike the most, it’s the uncertainty.

From the amount of thinking that you’re doing, you miss the message notification on your phone despite the silence. But then a knock on your door comes soon after, which effectively gets your attention.

You hastily make your way to open the door, not even having half the mind to ask who would come visit you in the dead of the night.

Once you open the door, a drink is shoved up to your face and you grab it hesitantly. You let out a gasp when you realize it’s the very man that’s been plaguing your mind who’s by the door. “Kenma? What are you doing here?” You look inside your flat to check the time. “It’s almost midnight!”

“Yeah, our game ran too late,” he mumbles. His gaze is on the floor, his back is slouched, and his lips are slightly downturned. It’s evident he’s tired. “Well, anyway, I recalled you saying that you’re pulling an all-nighter… so I thought you might need coffee and figured I’d drop it by before I go home.”

And there it is again, the warmth erupting inside you. “Thank you.”

Kenma gives you a curt nod and bids you goodbye, and just like that he’s gone.

You stand by the door until you can no longer see his figure. It almost feels like a dream, but the coffee that you hold in your right hand and the rapid beating of your heart that you’re feeling as you press your left palm to your chest is proof enough that what has transpired is indeed real.

You suppose Tetsurou’s right, you do like Kenma.

[stay-mon-army]

The Soccer Incident

Warnings: A couple swears

Word Count: 2,534 words

Pairing: Junhoe x female!reader

Koo Junhoe was a contradiction. He was an anomaly in the usual order of things, and everyone seemed to love him for it. He was one of the most popular people in his university because he didn’t quite fit into any one category. He was a physical education major, he was the star player on the lacrosse team, the most sought after male player in the intramural soccer club on campus, he was arguably the most attractive jock in the whole school, and he was the reason there was a Jiu Jitsu club on campus. You would think hearing all of these accomplishments that he was a total meat head jock- there’s no way any man this invested in physical activity could ever be interested in more stationary, softer intellects.

However, Junhoe was also a creative writing minor. He was a part of a small writers group that he had compiled of poetry writers (like him) and fiction writers (a passion he deeply admires but didn’t have the same calling for). He had a few poems published in the school’s English journal, and was never caught without his leather bound notebook for his poetry.

Junhoe was one of the most versatile students in his university- but this never seemed to cross Junhoe’s mind. He didn’t see any reason why people would expect anything else from him. Why were people always surprised when they learned that the star lacrosse player was also a poet? Why were his friends in Jiu Jitsu club always laughing when they saw him scribbling away in his journal before meeting started instead of stretching like the rest of them?

Not everyone judged Junhoe so harshly, and there’s no way he could miss the way girls watched him when he walked around campus. Like he could ever be oblivious when the girls in his writing group created love interests that could almost be his doppelganger. Junhoe’s gay-dar was also almost flawless- it wasn’t just the girls that gave him heart eyes in passing.

However, there was one girl that totally ignored Junhoe— (Y/N) was the conundrum that Junhoe couldn’t figure out. He knew she liked boys- he’d seen her at parties with boyfriends, but she didn’t seem to notice him at all. He’d only tried to talk to her once, and she’d been kind, but she’d been late to class and had to rush off. Of course, it was just Junhoe’s luck that the only girl that Junhoe had eyes for was also the one who looked right through him.

He didn’t know much about her— it wasn’t like he was some stalker. He did know, however, that she was also a creative writing minor and was a junior- just like Junhoe. They had previously been in two classes together, which was how she had managed to catch his eye. She would come to class either dressed to the nines- perfectly designed outfits that matched all the way to the jewelry- or looking like she’d just rolled out of bed- her hair in a messy bun, a pair of sweats baggy and hanging from her waist haphazardly. To him, she always looked beautiful.

The thing that really won his heart, though, wasn’t her look or their similarities; it was the way that she always gave him blunt, brutally honest feedback on his pieces. Most of their others in his creative writing classes either don’t know enough to give good feedback, or were so infatuated with him that they gave nothing but blind praise for everything he wrote. (Y/N) was the only person except the Professor who could give advice that Junhoe could use— ideas that sparked Junhoe’s mind to make even better, deeper poems that expressed exactly what he meant.

Her straightforward nature had won him over, but was also the thing that stopped him from shooting his shot. Nothing scared him quite like the idea of being rejected by her— he could imagine it now and it gave him chills. His mind paints the picture without his consent; asking her out the next time they pass, her blank face staring before it morphs into one of pity, her soft voice explaining she’s not interested, her turning away— scurrying off before he can make it more awkward.

No, he’s perfectly fine admiring from afar. It hurt less; he’d rather her not know he exists than to be another weird boy hitting on a classmate he barely knows.

Fate seemed to have other plans for Junhoe, however. Or, more accurately, his best friend, who happens to run the intramural club. He had shown up slightly early for the club meeting that day and was surprised to see Donghyuk with (Y/N) and her best friend, (Y/BF/N), who was the best female player on the intramural team. He really was contemplating running in the opposite direction as quickly as he could, but he was a second too slow.

“Yo, Jun, come here!” Donghyuk waves him over, a wide grin on his face, knowing exactly what he was doing to the poor man.

With a deep breath and a lot of internal cursing of Donghyuk’s existence, he slowly jogged towards the trio.

“Dong, what’s up, man?” Junhoe had no idea what was coming out of his mouth, or why he suddenly sounded like some of the more asshole boys in his sports classes, but he was too focused on remembering to breathe and not trip to care much. Donghyuk’s eyebrows bounce at the greeting, obviously making the same judgement that Junhoe did, before nodding at him, playing it off.

“You know (Y/B/F/N),” Donghyuk gestures to the two women beside him. “This is her best friend, (Y/N). She’s going to take up Miyoung’s spot while her wrist heals.”

Junhoe nods at (Y/B/F/N), who smiles at him. He doesn’t know where he gains the confidence, but he looks directly at you and says, “Don’t we have a creative writing class together?” The automatic look of confusion makes Junhoe’s heart freeze, then instantly knock impossibly fast against his rib cage.

But then your eyes burst with realization, a huge grin splitting your face. “You mean Dr. Scott’s class? God, I’m barely alive for that class; how are you awake enough that early to know the other kids in that class?” You were laughing with him— though it took him a second to laugh along because wow you were having a conversation.

“I just really like the class— I zone out in most other classes.” It wasn’t a lie, he just didn’t point out you were his favorite part of the class. All his other writing classes over the semesters without you had been almost torture with all the fawning, ass-kissing girls.

“Yeah, Jun is actually a pretty shit student because he’d rather write poems and join every sports club on campus than do his damn homework.” Donghyuk nudges Junhoe, laughing as Junhoe balks at his words.

“Well his poems are good so it must pay off a little! I’ll be the judge today if the same can be said about his sport skills.” You chuckle, and try to ignore the look that (Y/B/F/N) is shooting you that Junhoe thankfully doesn’t catch.

Junhoe is too busy having to physically restrain himself from fawning over your praise. Luckily your friend jumped in just before he could combust with the effort.

“We should go get ready. Let’s go stretch under the shade over there, (Y/N)!” She loops her arm around your bicep, lightly tugging you away from the boys. You wave at them, looking simultaneously absolutely adorable and like you were afraid your friend would kill you when you reached the aforementioned shade.

When you finally turned to look at (Y/B/F/N), Donghyuk whacks Junhoe’s bicep hard, making him wince and rub the abused spot. “Make a move already, idiot. Are you blind, or just stupid? Did someone put you in a particularly tight chokehold recently?”

“Wh-what?” Well that told Donghyuk all he needed to know and he sighed as he rubbed his face.

“She likes you too, dipshit. Just ask her out already.” Junhoe stared at his best friend for a solid minute before he burst out laughing.

His eyes welled with tears as he gasped around peals of laughter, holding his ribs as his sides spasmed from the force of his laughter. He couldn’t believe Donghyuk had said that when he’d just done so much to try not to seem like a crazy person.

“You’re hopeless, I swear.” Donghyuk shakes his head, leaving Junhoe’s still cackling figure to go greet a couple other students in the club who had arrived.

Although Junhoe is able to physically calm himself down and begin to stretch for the game, his mind wouldn’t stop thinking of Donghyuk’s words, and he repeatedly had to stop himself from looking over his shoulder at you to see if you were looking at him too. Finally Donghyuk called everyone to the side of the field to split into teams.

Just Junhoe’s luck that he was on the opposite team as you. He had wanted to work with you to win— the idea of you two playing soccer together and beating the other team made his heart race in a way that confused him. It was just a little passing crush on you, why was he so invested in doing things with you?

Get yourself together, Junhoe, and get your ass out there.

He took a deep breath and huddled up with his team, splitting up positions and delegating who would play when, since there were so many members on both teams that they would change out players. Junhoe was to be the first member in the goal, which he wasn’t ecstatic about, but he accepted it with a grin. He could play any position just as well as the next person, so he knew he could keep the goal safe from the other team. He really would’ve preferred to be out on the field to show off his skills though—especially with you out there. You had pulled your hair from your face and you had shed the light jacket you had on previously to show off a band t-shirt, a group he absolutely adored to listen to while writing that he never would have expected you to like as well.

As he took his place in the goal at their end of the field, he watched you stand next to your friend, laughing at something she said, pushing her lightly. He couldn’t help but smile wide at how happy you looked—totally at ease despite the fact you were about to play soccer with a group that you barely knew.

Donghyuk shouted out a “start game” from his position on the sidelines (he was sitting out this first half, but he would later take Junhoe’s position, as he preferred to stay on the side, watching the action instead of running around). Junhoe’s team was a surprisingly good mixture of members; while not the best players, they seemed to work together beautifully today, and Junhoe’s job was mind-numbingly easy.

The ball almost never came to their side of the field, except for a handful of close calls that Junhoe quickly dispatched with calculated ease. His team was winning 3-0 with only about 10 minutes left for this half before they switched out the members. Hearing this minute warning seemed to light a newfound fire under your ass, however, and you suddenly seemed to learn exactly how to play soccer like a pro. Your goalkeeper had kicked the ball at you after saving it from another goal. Seemingly in a matter of seconds you were one with the soccer ball as you effortlessly handled it all the way across the field to his goal until you were only a few feet from him. You made eye contact and he could see the fire and drive in your eyes for a goal, and he made a conscious decision in that second to let you make the goal. He would let the ball through—what was one small goal anyway, and it was only an intramural game.

However, his plans changed quickly when you punted the ball—hard. Instead of going into the goal cleanly, like he was expecting, it went straight for his forehead, knocking his head back with a sharp thwack sound. He fell to the ground with a harsh groan, his hands coming up to rest on his face as the world spun and warped, pain spreading across his whole head. He lay on his back, cradling his head in his hands, as he grunted out swears that would make his mother smack him harder than the soccer ball had.

“Oh my god, are you alright? Jesus, I’m so so sorry.” Your voice was high and anxious, and racing closer to him. He moved his hands and opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh sunlight to see your face looking down at him. You were sweaty from all the running, and your hair was starting to fall back into your face, but he still couldn’t help smiling.

“God, you’re beautiful, (Y/N).” He didn’t know what that ball did to his head, but he didn’t really mind the sudden courage it gave him.

Your face dropped into shock before you burst out into glorious laughter, your face lighting up into the widest and most adorable smile Junhoe had ever seen.

“You’re crazy, Junhoe.” You brush a strand on his hair from his face before pressing a hand softly to his cheek. He closes his eyes and leans into the touch softly. “No, no, don’t close your eyes. We don’t know if you have a concussion yet.”

His eyes flutter open and look at you with soft eyes. He gathers the last bit of pain-drunk courage to blurt out, “Go on a date with me?”

You nod, looking down at his splayed figure. “It is the least I can do after almost taking your head off with a soccer ball.”

“Good kick, by the way.”

You both laugh at that as you stand, slowly taking his hands and helping him to his feet as well. He winces and places the heel of his hand between his eyebrows, where the most pain is currently radiating.

“Let’s get you an icepack.” You chuckle, putting his arm around your shoulder and walking him towards the nurse’s office. Donghyuk didn’t seem to even ask if Junhoe was alright, he was well aware that he would be fine with some rest and ice. Instead, he just jumped into his place with an accomplished grin on his face, starting the game right back up.

You didn’t need to help Junhoe all the way to the nurse, or stay with him for the 20 minutes he sat there with an icepack to his forehead, but the conversation you had was funny and sweet. And truth be told, you had noticed Junhoe many times in the past and had been drawn to him. You were more than happy for any excuse to interact with him outside of class. And thanks to this upcoming date, you would finally get the chance to get to know him that much better.

[plumoh]

[SK8] whirlwind

Rating: G

Word count: 2341

Summary: Three times Kaoru gets into a fight; Kojirou is never too far away. / high school era.

Note: AO3 link. As usual, high school era means pre-relationship and Kaoru being a little bit oblivious to Kojirou’s feelings haha.

i.

Kaoru didn’t mean to punch him.

Well. That’s not exactly true. He did want to punch that smug smile off the bastard’s face, but he didn’t mean to knock him out. It’s not his fault that his punch landed exactly at an angle that made the guy’s head twist on the side and bang on the streetlamp, before collapsing on the ground and invoking a silence so loud everyone’s breathing felt like an entire storm.

And then all the guy’s goons start screaming and yelling for blood, pointing accusing fingers at Kaoru like Kaoru just killed someone (their boss isn’t dead, not yet), and most of them also start crowding around him with a palpable vengeful intent. As if that will ever intimidate him.

Nobody thinks that Kaoru is built to fight, which propels them into a state of shock and complete disbelief when he attacks first and manages to strike down two people by smashing their heads together and kicking them in the stomach for good measure. He doesn’t stop moving, always ready to spring back and to collide his fist with something breakable or crouching low to dodge and literally sweep them off their feet. He’s like a volcano being poked until it swallows everything around him.

His impulsiveness means he gets hurt too, mostly from his own moves that use more strength than necessary, but also from attacks he decides to go up against instead of avoiding, simply to get closer to his opponent. He ends up with scratches on his face and bruises on his legs or cuts on his arms, in a way that undeniably adds to his overall appearance of a troublemaker. He doesn’t give a shit; the messier and more dangerous he looks, the better.

It’s when most of the guys have fled, leaving Kaoru breathing hard and leaning forward with his hands on his knees, that Kojirou materializes next to him.

“What the hell, Kaoru?” Kojirou yells, not knowing if touching Kaoru will be a wise idea. “Did you pick a fight with random people again?”

“I didn’t pick a fight with them, they provoked me,” Kaoru growls, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. It comes away with a little blood. “Why do you always assume I’m the one instigating?”

“Maybe because two times out of three you’re the one who throws the first punch,” Kojirou mumbles.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence.”

“Am I wrong, though?”

Kaoru makes a poor attempt at shoving Kojirou in the shoulder but he misses by a large margin and ends up swatting at his chest, which does nothing to abate Kojirou’s annoyance.

“Shut up,” Kaoru says.

Kojirou shakes his head and takes Kaoru’s arm to steady him, dragging him towards a less crowded and more luminous place to get a look at his injuries with supplies that seem to have appeared from nowhere.

ii.

Kojirou nearly lands on his face after failing a trick, all graceless and devoid of finesse, which makes Kaoru double over in laughter.

“That was really stupid,” Kaoru snorts.

“Yeah, I didn’t see you try doing that trick,” Kojirou scoffs.

“At least I don’t look like a limp caterpillar when I’m on the ground like you are.”

“You’re insufferable, you know that?”

Kojirou picks himself up from the ground and dusts off his pants, looking back at the track that he just descended from. Kaoru watches the way Kojirou is considering the path again, eyes focused on the last meters of the bumpy pavement. They chose this part of the track specifically because it isn’t well-maintained, full of holes and uneven ground that forces them to work on their stability. Kojirou, like the brainless ape he is, wanted to show off by doing some fancy trick that only served as evidence of his stupidity.

“Hey, you’re Sakurayashiki, right?”

Kaoru turns around and raises en eyebrow. He has no idea who the guy talking to him is.

“Get out of our turf,” the guy says on a tone that’s supposed to be menacing. “Or you’ll regret it.”

“Your turf?” Kaoru repeats, unimpressed. “The hell are you on?”

“You thought you could swing by after sending some of our guys to the hospital?”

The words go in Kaoru’s ear and make a swift exit in the other. He blinks.

“I didn’t send anyone in the hospital,” he says, tone raising like a question as he turns around to address Kojirou.

Kojirou lifts his hands in sign of innocence. “I don’t know, I’m not there to watch you fight every single person in this city.”

“You would remember if I did anything like that, wouldn’t you?”

“I just said I don’t know!”

“Stop ignoring me!”

Kojirou shouts wordlessly and yanks Kaoru by the arm, saving him from a well-aimed kick that would have sent Kaoru sprawling, and suddenly it’s like a switch has been flipped.

People say that Kaoru has a bad temper, an accusation that’s not totally unfounded. He’s quick to anger and he doesn’t mince his words—when he’s having a casual conversation with someone, many wrinkle their nose at his lack of proper forms of address, and others outright say he shouldn’t be so aggressive in his choice of words. One can only imagine how vulgar and straightforward he is when he’s insulting someone or spitting out a string of curses that are probably not yet in the dictionary.

Kojirou, of course, has a deep knowledge of the ways Kaoru can react before a taunt, a physical threat or a low blow to his ego. He’s not exactly a saint either, since he will without a doubt get into a fight if he’s provoked enough, or throw back cruel words when the situation calls for it, but between the two, Kojirou has less difficulty keeping his bad mood in check.

Kaoru twists around and is ready to swing his fist at full speed, but Kojirou is already scolding him while having a grip of iron on his arm. He’s also trying to drag him back, stopping him from making even one step towards their opponent who is, quite frankly, looking too fucking pleased with himself.

“What, too chicken to fight me?” the guy snickers. “Too scared of hurting your little hands?”

“I’m gonna punch a hole through your skull, you absolute buffoon,” Kaoru hisses, struggling against Kojirou’s grip. “Let me go, Kojirou!”

“Stop getting into fights, damn it!” Kojirou yells.

“He asked for it!”

“Same difference, you idiot!”

Kojirou loops his arms under Kaoru’s armpits and keeps him still, pressed against his torso, even when Kaoru is trying to pull forward with the sheer force of his will. Kojirou’s stronger than Kaoru, but Kaoru doesn’t give a shit when he is moved by rage alone, stomping and wriggling and squirming in the hopes of getting away.

The guy is watching them with the most self-satisfied smirk ever, as if Kaoru’s inaction is proof of his victory over a petty squabble that Kaoru himself doesn’t remember. It pisses him off.

He usually wouldn’t resort to such dirty tactics. In a fight, the more they use their fists and feet and entire bodies, the more gratifying it is. Sporting injuries and scars are simply a natural consequence of it, and everyone should wear them proudly—like real battle scars, resembling a physical history of their hard-won fights.

Kaoru’s skateboard is within leg reach. He has long legs, Kojirou keeps reminding him, so might as well make use of them. He makes one big step forward, grunting when he’s met with resistance due to Kojirou holding him back, but he manages to have his foot on the tail-end of the deck and brings the skateboard at his feet. He can feel Kojirou’s and the bastard’s confused and intrigued gazes on him; all he does is offer a grin, the sunlight catching on his lip ring like some wicked gleam of mischievousness.

Kaoru gives a harsh kick into his skateboard that goes straight towards the guy, hitting his ankle at full speed and tearing a cry of pain and surprise out of his throat. He puts all his weight on his other foot and cradles his injured ankle, glaring at Kaoru with burning anger. Kaoru isn’t sorry in the least.

“I’ll end you,” the man threatens, visibly shaking with fury.

“Good luck with that ankle,” Kaoru replies smugly. “You’ll fall over before you can land a single hit on me.”

Kojirou audibly sighs and shakes his head. And then, two things happen at once.

The first is that their friend bends down with difficulty, not wishing to put strain on his ankle, and picks up the skateboard. He gives it a long contemplative look, like he’s wondering if this object is worth his interest, before dropping it back on the ground and getting on it.

The second is Kaoru watching this with mounting irritation and rage, and he decides that stomping on Kojirou’s foot to let him go is less aggravating than letting some random prick steal his skateboard. So he does just that with minimal hesitation, causing Kojirou to loudly yelp as his grip loosens enough for Kaoru to slip out.

Skating all day doesn’t mean they can’t run with their feet. Kaoru pushes on his feet like his life depends on it and in a few large strides he catches up to the guy just as he starts skating away, and Kaoru, without a second thought, decks him.

Skateboard back in hand, a broad smile splitting his face in two, Kaoru leaves the track with a victorious fist lifted in the air, to Kojirou’s growing exasperation.

iii.

Kaoru presses his lips together and remains stubbornly silent.

“Kaoru.”

Arms crossed and a frown deeper than usual on his face, Kojirou is staring at him with disappointment so clear that Kaoru actually feels bad, for once. He shrugs.

“You’re lucky that it didn’t rip off your lip,” Kojirou continues. “Why did you get piercings if you know you’ll never resist fighting people? Do you want to risk permanent damage just because your brain is filled with a useless need to fight?”

“Shut up, Kojirou,” Kaoru mutters.

Kaoru winces when Kojirou presses something cold on his mouth, gently dabbing at it and being careful about the lip ring, whose presence alone did a number on his face. Having his head smashed into the ground would do that, he supposes.

Kojirou is silently working on cleaning and bandaging his various cuts and bruises on his face. Kaoru glances up, noticing that the tense line of Kojirou’s shoulders is heavier than usual, a bit more worried, as if today’s encounter could have ended in a disaster. It wasn’t any worse than the previous times. Maybe Kaoru got roughed up a bit more and maybe he got kicked in the ribs more times than necessary and yes, maybe he should have taken off his earrings and lip ring before going skating, but these are all possible factors disrupting his routine he always considers before doing anything. And it’s not like he knows in advance that someone will pick a fight with him. He just got unlucky this time.

Kaoru watches Kojirou’s brows knit together in concentration. This isn’t a rare expression on his face, but Kaoru has never noticed the way Kojirou’s focus is single-minded when he does this kind of detail-oriented tasks, or the way he purses his lips like he does when he’s trying to solve a complicated math problem. It’s the face he makes when something requires his entire attention, unperturbed and going at the pace he needs to finish what he started.

“Hm,” Kaoru says, partly because he’s thinking and partly because he shouldn’t open his still bleeding mouth.

“What?” Kojirou’s gaze never strays from Kaoru’s injury.

Kojirou takes Kaoru’s hand and guides it towards the compress placed on the corner of his mouth, and makes him apply pressure while the cleaning shifts to his ear. Kaoru’s lip isn’t bleeding as much as before, judging by the color of the compress that didn’t become completely red in five seconds, so he supposes talking shouldn’t make matters worse.

“Your precision is a bit surprising,” he admits, laughter in his voice. “I didn’t think you could be so calm while handling things that need careful maneuvering.”

“I’m not the one who can’t break eggs without dropping pieces of shell in them,” Kojirou snipes back.

Kaoru rolls his eyes. “Breaking eggs needs practicing, and I can still pick out the shell pieces if I really need to. If you poke someone in the wrong place while tending to their injuries then you’ll make it worse, moron.”

Kojirou is visibly putting all his efforts into remaining focused on his task, trying not to get riled up by Kaoru’s comments. It would be funny to watch, actually, if Kaoru wasn’t the one receiving treatment.

“I haven’t let you down yet, have I?” Kojirou asks.

And Kaoru can’t find anything scathing as an answer, staring at Kojirou’s bright eyes that never hide what he’s feeling.

“I suppose you haven’t, no,” Kaoru says lowly.

“You’re so much trouble, you know that?” Kojirou sighs.

But he finally meets Kaoru’s gaze and Kaoru is almost taken aback by the sincerity and raw emotion shining in it, like Kojirou is looking at a treasure he has locked behind a chest and kept the key close to his heart. Kaoru swallows.

“Not as much as you,” he replies with less bite than he intended.

“Says the one who is covered in bandages and band-aids.”

“I have to put up with your nonsense every day!”

“And I have to drag your ass back from whatever scuffle you get involved in!”

Kaoru shoves his hand in Kojirou’s face, and they start jostling each other, as if they weren’t being as still and cautious as possible to avoid complicating the process of patching Kaoru up. This familiarity, too, is something that will never change, no matter what happens—Kojirou has Kaoru’s back.

[milktyama]

karasuno boys on first dates pt.2

part 1

a/n: idk about yall but this pandemic making me feel extra lonely </3 LIKE I CAN’T EVEN HUG MY OWN FRIENDS FFFFFF. sucks being a physical person during this time. i’m also procrastinating from math homework, words make more sense than numbers

genre: fluff, lighthearted, g!n s/o, kinda?? cliche??

includes: tanaka, sugawara, asahi, daichi

wc: 1489

tanaka ryunosuke

he is the type to bring you to a movie date

classic and simple

he wants to recreate that oh so romantic moment of casually laying his arm over your shoulder and bring you slightly closer together

maybe if he wants to get a little spicy have you lay your head on his shoulder

but let’s move a few steps back to the asking out part

oh dear god

this man, although he is a mad gentleman, cannot handle feelings for the life of him

and in all honesty, probably took him a little far too long to ask you out

he had this whole scenario out of a movie in his head, all the vibes of a protagonist; boy meets girls moment

and the second he musters his courage and walk up to you during the end of the day, he freezes up

needed ennoshita to give you that sweet insight so you made the first move yourself or it would’ve taken a solid month or two before he could manage to greet you and start some small talk

he does not deal with feelings too well

fast forward to the date

he suggests a a rather romantic movie since he is kinda that type of guy

but you were feeling rather active today and suggests an action movie

and honestly he couldn’t thank you more because although he’s a hopeless romantic, probably could not stand a 2 hour romance movie

he doesn’t like to be called out by a movie </3

anyways, remember that movie scenario in his head? yea that’s out of the question

for one, you two were too hype during the movie; something about superheroes kicking ass is just oh so exciting

secondly, he was wimping out a little

at the end of the movie, you just, shine the brightest smile he has ever seen on you

and oh baby does he feel so HONOURED to be the cause of that smile

but the next thing you do absolutely makes his heart swell

you ask him for a second date

we did it gamers

quite ironically you guys go on a arcade game for your second date, and this mans does not give you an easy time, but you just love that competitiveness in him

sugawara koushi

starting at the beginning, he asks you out

he keeps it simple and straightforward

calls you out right before you exit school buildings, and asks you if you wanna watch practice because he’s obviously trying to woo you a little before his nerve wrecking question

and you gladly agree

i mean who can say no to mr. refreshing sugawara koushi

when he walks through the gym doors and the members seeing you walk right behind him, they would totally kinda misread the situation

i mean no questions asked when it comes to the boys having some insight to the setter’s feelings, however they were just a few steps too forward

saddest part it was DAICHI himself who went “woahh suga you already asked her out? good job man!”

his soul never left his body as fast as that time

like his boys really ruined that one time he wanted to go perfect

but it’s fine

because although you two were in a little of a blushing mess, you lightly grip his sleeve and murmured the cutest “i’m free on saturday afternoon”

saying that he short circuited is honestly an understatement

saturday rolls around and you two unanimously agreed to baking class date

it’s just a really fun and interactive date idea and suga is so in for activity dates

even though you two knew it was gonna get a little messy, yall SIMPS still put on some of your fav outfits

it was so worth it though ‘cause suga’s reaction to your outfit was just all you needed in the world

the date is really fun and playful

totally not at you two flouring each other haha nooo....

he walks you home just before you two part ways, his bold little butt places his hand on top of your head, pecks your forehead and gives you the widest smile

“pottery painting next?”

azumane asahi

asahi is a simple and shy man

i’m pretty sure that’s the obvious

and he would def opt for a simple, at home date

of course only if the other party is comfortable enough for that

don’t get me started at how he asked you

asahi is such a baby and probably has so much trouble with expressing his emotions on the whim/real time

he’ll probably go for a love letter (damn cheesey) just in case he messes up his wording and turns into a blabbering mess trying to make up for the previous mistake

i can imagine his love lever being just the most aesthetically pleasing

like homeboy pulled one of those scrapbooking, journaling people on instagram

plus points he did a wax seal thing (so fancy oml)

most likely put in your locker and then just RAN out of the place like usain bolt

and for the cherry on top, you would return a letter with the same amount of effort (probably not as pretty as his tho LMFAO) accepting his little date uwu

when the date comes, he would set up and clean his house to the tip top utmost cleanliness it could be

at his house, you two would probably watch some movies, play some board games, bake a little and so on

but the highlight of the date is when while watching your like 3rd movie, you doze off into asahi’s shoulder and boy you should’ve seen his FACE

so read and so cute

*insert pleading eyes emoji x2000*

he would gently stroke your hair, careful trying not to wake you up

but unfortunately for him you are a light sleeper

so you would wake up but allow him to run his fingers through your hair

and then when you decide to wake wake up, you tell him that when he strokes your head feels so nice and makes you feel safe AIJFSOLDKRG

and you ask him if you can do the same to him or try styling his hair

and how could he say no to you?

you two spend hours playing with each other’s hair (or only his if you have short hair)

oh and you took so any adorable pictures of him

he got so flustered but it was fine if it was you

sawamura daichi

as a man with the biggest appetite in the series, no surprise that daichi would bring you to a local restaurant for a little date

daichi is also a confident man

so he would puff his chest and put the effort to approach you

though as confident as i make him out to be, there’s still light pink dusted on the apples of his cheeks and hand awkwardly scratching the back of his neck as he makes eye contact with you

he’ll have you watch their practice and right after you two would make your to his favorite local restaurant for dinner

also during practice the third and second years would NOT give their captain a break while the first years are probably either too confused or don’t care (COUGH COUGH TSUKISHIMA)

anyways after practice and walking to the place is literally so perfect because sun in setting and the atmosphere is so romantic

you two probably walk right beside each other and making small talk when daichi is hinting that he wants to hold you hand by brushes that back of your hands together often

BUT YOU’RE PROBABLY SO SHY THAT EVERYTIME IS HAPPENS YOU JUST BLUSH AND APOLOGIZE AND EVENTUALLY U PUT YOUR HAND INSIDE YOUR BLAZER POCKET?????

HONEY YOU CAN ONLY BE SO  D E N S E

n e ways

knowing daichi, he probably goes to this restaurant very often and knows the menu like the back of his hand

so he would ask you for your preferences and then give you his recommendations based on that

he just wants to make sure you will enjoy your meal to the fullest

as a regular, he is also well acquainted with the restaurant owner

so like when mr. restaurant owner sees daichi walk in with another person while sporting a very clear blush on his face, he KNOWS something is up

while serving your orders, he was being sNEAKY by giving yall a freebie

and it turns out to be like the couple special

like those very pretty sparkly milkshakes with one of those straws that has two sides to it branching out

and like he refuse to serve yall other drinks FAGKFHJADH so you two had to with the milkshake and like oopsie moment when you two decide to go for it at the same time

the restaurant owner DEF took a pick of that exact moment and gave it to daichi as a gift AHAHAH

[wakatoshine]

crush CULTURE ☆

3rd year! shirabu kenjirou x fem reader

WC: probably around 2-3k

shirabu kenjirou has always enjoyed the quiet. he was raised to value the silence and to fight for his wants and needs in the shadows. he was taught that his future success would speak louder than his own words.

for someone raised with that philosophy, shirabu surrounded himself with quite rambunctious individuals. he was an athlete! he couldn’t stay in the quiet comfort that was his head on the court.

his first real friend at shiratorizawa was, unsurprisingly, kawanishi taichi. he was a fellow first year when they joined the club, and shirabu felt like he was the only first year in his bunch close to his level. they were similar, they bonded quickly, and just like that his first year at shiratorizawa had passed by in an instant.

complications that shirabu would rather avoid arose at the start of his second year. second year was monumental for many reasons. shirabu had surpassed his senpai, semi eita, and recieved a starting position on the shiratorizawa male volleyball club. second year also brought about goshiki tsutomu (much to shirabu’s own chargin) and more college preparatory classes.

shirabu was the only member of his team who got accepted into shiratorizawa based on merit. he knew he worked hard and deserved what he got, but it was difficult to not have teammates who could relate to his own struggles.

that was where you came in.

the first time shirabu saw you was in your shared college preparatory biology class. your eyes were filled with such passion for the subject and you walked in the room with a huge smile on your face every day.

you were quite the individual. there was this journal of yours, you were teased about it quite often, but shirabu found it endearing. you could be seen around campus plucking leaves off trees and gluing them into your journal. it was full of the daily discoveries and observations you made. you were quite the upcoming scientist.

when your mutual teacher announced that you and shirabu were to be lab partners, he had no complaints. he knew you were smart and he had a good feeling that your presence wouldn’t be a hinderence to his own studies.

it was a week before interhigh when you first met the rest of the shiratorizawa boys volleyball club. you knew absolutely nothing about the sport and you only stopped by because shirabu had left his calculator behind.

“kenjirou-kun,” you called out (another thing to note, you had absolutely no semblance of manners. you had practically called shirabu by his first name since the first day you met him) “i have your calculator.”

everyone’s eyes navigated over to you, and you couldn’t help but cower a bit once coach washijou sent you a harsh glare.

“pardon the intrusion,” you had muttered, remembering that you only knew one person in the room. maybe it would do you good to pretend you had proper manners.

shirabu dropped the ball he had been holding and made his way over to you.

“thank you, l/n-san” he nodded before taking his calculator out of your hands.

you smiled in response, “it’s no problem at all kenjirou-kun! don’t be so careless next time, i may not be around to save the day.” you teased.

shirabu had only blushed at your retreating form. his teammates noticed, of course, and he faced an intense round of questioning after you were out of sight.

taichi had called it a crush, goshiki seemed angry that shirabu managed to clinch a girlfriend before he had the chance to, tendou made fun of him, and ushijima had been completely indifferent towards the matter.

shirabu had denied that he had any attraction to you. there was nothing special about you, other than your intelligence of course. that’s what stood out to him the most about you. you were undeniably one of the brightest minds at the academy, and you stood out from the rest because you were so passionate.

shirabu had wondered if he would ever have the chance to feel that passion you had towards life.

you became more and more of a presence in shirabu’s life as his second year progressed. tendou had made sure of that with his endless heckling.

you attended games, you began waiting for shirabu after practices. you became friends with taichi and suddenly you were part of shirabu’s own friend group. he wasn’t complaining, it was a change of pace and you felt like a breath of fresh air.

it was the week before the beginning of your third year when shirabu had realized his admiration for you was deeper than a reverent respect for your intelligence.

the break before third year had been busy for you. you had decided to send in your journal (with no expectations for it to be seen as important) and some big shot lab in tokyo had found it interesting. boom! you were published in your first scientific magazine at the tender age of 17.

you had ran the familiar route (due to countless study sections over the past year) to the shirabu household to share the news. you had knocked on the door completely winded, and shirabu had opened the door to see you standing on his porch with a flushed face, wild hair, and the biggest grin on your face.

“i did it kenjirou!” you had yelled before attacking him with the tightest hug you could muster.

shirabu had known what you meant immediately, and it was as if your joy had transferred through a wire into his own brain.

you had watched in wonder as a genuine smile found its place on shirabu’s face. he was beautiful, you had known that for awhile now, but he was simply stunning with such a genuine expression on his face.

pulling away from the hug, you moved to clutch shirabu’s hands and shirabu swore he stopped breathing in that moment. despite how cliche it might be, shirabu knew he was in love in that moment. maybe taichi was right, he was a hopeless romantic. only for you.

despite being a fairly straightforward person, shirabu decided not to confess then and there. it was your celebratory night and he didn’t want to overshadow your success with some silly emotions. it would have to wait.

and wait it did. two months of your third year had passed and still no progress was made. shirabu was frustrated, but he didn’t want to seem like a fool confessing without knowing your emotions.

“just go for it,” taichi had told him, “it’s so obvious that she feels the same way.”

even goshiki was giving him advice. shirabu had snapped at him afterwords, he was just a kouhai what did he know about love and feelings.

everyone but shirabu knew about your love for the male. it was obvious when you had cried in pride after shirabu had recieved his captains jersey at the start of the year. it seemed like you were happier for shirabu than he was for himself.

you had been there for shirabu (and the team of course, but mostly for shirabu) when they faced another defeat when trying to clinch the ticket to nationals during interhigh.

you found shirabu sitting in the hallway alone.

“i should have seen it coming,” he had said bitterly, “it’s not like i could ever live up to ushijima and what he did for the team.”

you took his face into your hands and forced him to meet your eyes. your heart broke when you saw the way his eyes shone with unshed tears.

“that’s not true kenjirou,” you whispered, “ushijima knew what he was doing entrusting you with the team. you’re talented and deserve everything you have gotten this year.”

shirabu had shook his head, “even so, y/n, it wasn’t enough. maybe the golden age of shiratorizawa is over after all.”

you hadn’t said anything back at that point. you only forced him up from his crouched position and gave him a short side hug before leading him to the bus.

your relationship with shirabu had taken a massive step back after that day. you knew shirabu was going through something so you chose to step back. it hurt, but you had genuinely thought that it was for the best.

it was no more than a month later when you heard a sharp knock on the wood door to your dorm room. it was shirabu, and to be quite honest he has never looked worse.

the past month had been difficult for you, but it seemed like it had taken quite a hit on shirabu as well.

he had let himself in once you opened the door and immediately moved to sit on the foot of your bed. your roommate was out at the mess hall at the time, so you thankfully had the dorm to yourself.

“would you mind telling me why you’re here kenjirou?” you asked, crossing your arms across your chest in an attempt to look angered.

shirabu sighed, “i’m sorry,” he stated, “i shouldn’t have ignored you for the past month.”

your eyes softened. it was no secret that you had a soft spot in your heart for the brown haired boy. it was impossible for you to actually be mad at him.

“you shouldn’t have,” you agreed and shirabu immediately tensed up, “but i know you had to figure things out, so i can understand why you did.” you added, making shirabu relax once again.

at this point, shirabu’s heart was running a mile a minute. there was no doubt in his mind that tonight was the perfect time to confess. he just had to figure out what to say.

but when you sat down next to him and rested your cheek on his shoulder all thoughts left his head. it was almost as if your head was meant to rest in the crook of his shoulder.

needless to say, shirabu kenjirou did not confess that night.

however, the relationship between the two of you had improved drastically after that night. your interactions had grown from platonic to something more, and it made the rest of the team sure that the two of you were together.

“how could you ask l/n out and not tell me about it,” taichi said, clapping shirabu over the shoulder, “i thought we were buds”

shirabu had rolled his eyes, “there’s nothing going on between y/n and i, stop fantasizing.”

“nothing going on? how could you say that when the two of you were clinging on to each other last night when we got meat buns after practice?” goshiki called, which resulted in him receiving a slap from shirabu himself.

“there’s nothing there, we’re just friends,” shirabu scowled.

“friends with emotions though.” taichi teased.

shirabu blushed, “ok fine, i may like her but it’s not like she feels the same way.”

it was taichi’s turn to scoff this time. “yeah right dude, but if you want to think that go ahead,”

months passed once again and it was time for the spring qualifier tournament. shiratorizawa lost, but this time shirabu didn’t harbor too many bitter emotions. he was ready to pass his title down to goshiki, lord knows the kid deserved it.

you and shirabu had sat on his porch the night after the loss. the moonlight reflected on his eyes as you turned to look at him. he had a small smile on his face, you would almost say it looked a bit sad, maybe even nostalgic.

“are you upset about today?” you asked.

“i don’t think so,” shirabu answered, “i’ve had countless opportunities with this team. i’ve gone to nationals three times. twice my first year and once my second. maybe it’s time another school in miyagi had the chance to shine.”

you chuckled, “that’s a very noble opinion kenjirou, but i’m sure washijou would disagree.”

“washijou’s an old man, he’s upset at everything at this point of his life,” shirabu laughed “what does he know.”

it was silent, but the kind of silence between partner flames that was comforting.

“besides,” shirabu started, “it’s goshiki’s turn now. i think he’s as talented as he is annoying. he’ll be good for the team.”

you nodded and chose not to say anything more about the topic. your heart felt heavy, and you started to think back on the time you had spent at shiratorizawa academy.

graduation was nearing quickly, your future was too near to ignore. your time as a child was almost complete. you thought you had lived it out to it’s fullest.

you reached out and clutched shirabu’s hand. he looked up at you in curiousity.

“is anything wrong?” he asked.

you shook your head, “no, i was just thinking.”

shirabu squeezed your hand and turned to look up at the sky.

“the moon is beautiful tonight, isn’t it?” shirabu whispered.

your head whipped around to face him. surely you hadn’t heard him right. your lips parted and shut a few times before you sighed.

“what did you say?” you asked.

“it was nothing.” he responded.

the last few months of your third year at shiratorizawa passed quickly. shirabu and kawanishi’s retirement from the volleyball club was unceremonious. goshiki was, as expected, thrilled to be named captain.

shirabu had placed a hand on goshiki’s shoulder and told him that the team depends on him. goshiki cried like a baby and thanked him too many times to count.

the night before graduation found you, taichi, and shirabu at the local ice cream parlor.

“i can’t believe it’s over!” you exclaimed, slamming your hands on the table.

“we had fun, didn’t we?” taichi asked, and shirabu nodded, reaching under the table to squeeze your hand.

you blushed, “it’s hard to believe that kenjirou and i will be in tokyo. what are your plans taichi?” you asked the ginger haired boy.

“i’m heading to tokyo too, maybe i’ll work a few years to get myself through uni.” taichi said.

“i’m glad we’re all heading to the same place,” shirabu stated with a small smile.

the three of you sat in quiet comfort as you all finished your ice cream in peace. it was then that your phone chimed with a notification from you mom.

“shoot!” you shouted, standing up and grabbing your coat and bag, “i was supposed to be home an hour ago! i’ll see the two of you tomorrow!” you explained while running out the door.

shirabu and kawanishi stared at your retreating form. shirabu sighed, slightly peeved by the fact that he didn’t get the chance to walk you home.

“what are you going to do tomorrow?” taichi asked.

“confess,” shirabu stated as if it was a known fact.

his companion nodded, “i wish you luck then.”

shirabu stood at your doorstep the next morning. the third years had moved out of the dorms the week before, so everyone was at home. the two of you had decided to make the long trek to the academy together.

you looked stunning in your uniform that day. your mother had made sure that it was pressed and proper the night before. for once in your high school career, you were wearing the uniform correctly. it was a strange sight to see, but shirabu didn’t mind it.

“see something you like?” you asked while doing a quick twirl on the pavement.

shirabu blushed and took your hand in his. the gesture was normal between the two of you, and you were seen holding hands with the brunette more often than not.

the two of you split ways once arriving at the school gate. shirabu headed towards the gym and you went to speak to your teachers in the building.

it wasn’t until after the graduation ceremony that you reunited with him.

you had already bawled your eyes out by this point. you looked horrendous with mascara all over your cheeks. shirabu had laughed when he saw you, but he enveloped you in his arms once he heard your quiet sniffles.

“why so many tears?” he asked you.

“i don’t think i’m ready to leave,” you choked out, “i’m going to miss this place so much.”

shirabu took your face in his hands, a complete role reversal from the last intimate moment the two of you had shared months before during the interhigh tournament.

“i’ll miss it too, but we can’t look back forever.” he said while looking into your eyes.

he didn’t let go of your cheeks, and instead looked at you with an emotion you couldn’t quite recognize despite normally being able to read shirabu easily.

“can i kiss you?” he asked.

all you could do is nod before shirabu tilted your head gently upwards and covered your lips with his. your eyes widened for a moment before you relaxed into his arms.

you tasted of peppermint and salt. peppermint from your cheap convenience store chapstick and salt from the tears that had been spilled earlier.

shirabu found it endearing, like every other aspect of you.

you had been the first one to pull away from the tender kiss. you looked up at shirabu with wide eyes only to see him looking back at you with an emotion so intense and sincere it made you take a step back.

he fiddled with the second button of his uniform, successfully taking it off and placing it in your hands.

“i meant to do this earlier but i didn’t think it was the right time,” he said shyly.

“don’t get shy on me know kenjirou,” you chided, “where did your confidence go?”

shirabu rested his forehead against yours and chuckled softly. his expression softened into something more serious before he next spoke.

“i like you a lot, y/n” he said.

“i figured” you laughed, “i’ve been waiting for you to say that for awhile now.”

shirabu watched in quiet delight as your nose scrunched up and your eyes sparkled with joy.

yeah, he thought, he had been waiting for this as well.

— fin —

well guys that was it! i hope you enjoyed. this was something i wrote quickly in class, so that’s why it is pretty rough. i had fun with it so i hope you did too!

[malecdiscordserver]

We’ve officially come to the end of the Malec Discord Mini Bang 2020 presented by the Malec Discord Server. We had a fantastic turnout with 35 writers, 21 artists, and 22 betas making it across the finish line. I hope you’ll join us in giving everyone a huge round of congratulations for this fantastic content. 

Take a look at the AO3 collection here!

Without further ado, here is a masterpost of all submitted pieces for this event. Please be sure to give all of these fantastic creators the credit they deserve for these amazing stories and incredible pieces of art. 

The Games We Play by @accal1a

Rating: Explicit Summary: Alec and Aed play a diabolical game, Magnus and Francesca look on, teasing their partners all the while.

When Life Doesn't Give You Lemons by @jesssssah

Rating: Mature Summary: Magnus and Alec are contestants on Masterchef. Without a recipe, they must each make a dessert by celebrity chef Jace Wayland or risk elimination from the competition. Magnus' talent is for desserts but Alec is inexperienced at those. So to save him from going home Magnus must give him some lessons in baking.

The Angel's Treasure by @notquiteascrazy 

Rating: Mature Summary: When a change of life circumstance gives Magnus the means to go in search of adventure, there is only one person he can think of who should accompany him: his college friend, Alexander Lightwood. After all, what could possibly go wrong with taking the man you've always had a secret crush on to explore a tropical island on the hunt for long-lost treasure? Link to completed fic

You Are The Music in Me @brightasstars 

Rating: Explicit Summary: Alec wakes up one morning, in a hospital’s bed, alone and far away from home, only to discover that he has lost his lower leg and all that he had, is now gone forever. With his new life, comes new relationships and encounters, and Alec finds himself working on his dream with Magnus, a famous cello player, who shares with him more past than he could imagine. Heart grows fonder as they get to know each other but it terrifies Alec to reveal everything to Magnus, scared that it would be too much, for he isn’t ready to lose everything all over again.When truth is forced out of him, even his own skin doesn’t feel safe enough. Luke’s question echoes through his mind, is he ready to let someone see him? let someone love him? A story of losing and winning and everything in between. Link to completed fic

hollow crown by taurussieben 

Rating: Teen Summary: He nodded at himself in the mirror, took the keys from the bowl on the sideboard in the hallway, checked for his pockets for his card and phone, and stepped out. The door closed behind him with a soft click.

“I think we should take a break.”

A story about how we shape our own world and that sometimes, that shape is much more different then we thought it is.

of track meets and heartbeats by fallenhurricane

Rating: General Summary: Alec takes a deep breath and rolls his shoulders, bouncing from foot to foot. He adjusts his grip on the pole one last time before starting his run.

His run feels good and right; his knees are pulling up high and the pole is steady, if a bit lighter than normal, in his hands. As he approaches the crossbar, he straightens and speeds up a bit, extending his arms above him. The bottom of the pole settles into the plant box and Alec swings himself forward and up, just as he’s done hundreds of times before.

But.

But.

While Alec has plans to clear this jump and advance to set his personal record, the pole that Camille loaned him has a different idea.

OR: The high school track team injury AU nobody asked for.

Please, Don't Turn Back by hmweasley

Rating: Teen Summary: Once they're 18, both demons and angels must visit Earth with their own personal missions before they come of age. For angels, this means saving souls. For demons, it usually means little more than corrupting a human or two, but Magnus isn't a run-of-the-mill demon. He's the son of a Prince of Hell, and his mission must reflect that. What Asmodeus gives him is a mission that's rather straightforward on paper: kill Alexander Lightwood, the son of high-ranking angels.

There's just one thing the plan doesn't account for: how Alexander makes Magnus feel.

Dormancy by Hermit

Rating: Teen Summary: Love used to be a weed that threatened to choke him. Now, it will never again be in the cards for him. Magnus absolutely, and with all the certainty of centuries, knows this. Until Alec Lightwood unknowingly waters his heart. It decides to grow. This is undeniably a problem, but both Alec and Magnus have to choose if it can bloom.

catch me when i fall by @mirrorofliterature

Rating: Teen Summary: When Magnus Bane walks into Alec Lightwood's office on one frosty fall night, fresh from a conference about a particular world-destroying lie-detector, the Damocles sword doesn't drop onto their heads.

Or: Robert Lightwood doesn’t tell Alec about the Soul Sword, and things change. Magnus and Alec stay together. Yet -

How much more does he have to lose - how much more does he have to suffer - before he’s finally left alone?

In the perpetual, lonely silence filling his home, Magnus Bane falls to his knees, and cries.

Meet Me On The Ice by @aceon-ice

Rating: Teen Summary: Magnus is at the top of men's figure skating, with a solid winning streak, but he's no longer interested in the sport- until he meets Alec Lightwood.

Alec is a pairs skater struggling with competition anxiety whose life takes a turn for the better when he's approached by Magnus Bane.

AKA the figure skating AU nobody asked for but I wanted to write.

Artwork for Meet Me On The Ice by @koryandr​

the way to a chef's heart by @lecrit

Rating: Mature Summary: After a scorching review on his restaurant in one of the world's most famous food magazine, world class chef Magnus Bane is set on finding the food critic who dared to slander his art and make him change his mind. He doesn't expect someone as stubborn or infuriating as Alec Lightwood.

Artwork for the way to a chef’s heart by @whatanexcitingfewdaysithasbeen

I loved your colours (before I loved you) by @hopesilverheart

Rating: Explicit (Chapter 10 only) Summary: Magnus Bane is a journalist who's always dreamed of modelling for Lightwood Fashions. When the CEO Alec Lightwood starts looking for new models for their spring collection, he jumps on the occasion.

In the meantime, Alec Lightwood is struggling with the idea of finally announcing his role as co-designer. When Magnus Bane strolls into his life, Alec is torn between keeping his secret or throwing all caution to the wind. Link to completed fic

Artwork for I loved your colours (before I loved you) by @calliartss​

Bleeding Heart by sivan325 

Rating: Explicit Summary: “Are you sure? Maybe there is some other alpha out there for you?” Jace asked.

“What other alpha?” Alec asked as he stared at the beta, and added, “I don’t have a choice in that anymore, I’m without an Alpha, I’m more like pack less, someone that does not belong anywhere.” Link to completed fic

Artwork for Bleeding Heart by @miss-shiva-adler​

They Call Me a Thief by @lightwormsiblings

Rating: Teen Summary: The Lightwoods are relatively new to the criminal scene but are quickly making a name for themselves. What happens when they run into world renowned con-artist Magnus Bane and his team when on a job after which Alec realizes he and Magnus might be after the same thing.

or a Shadowhunters Leverage AU

Artwork for They Call Me a Thief by @killiarious

Love, but Make it Fashion by theweird1

Rating: Explicit (Chapter 9) Summary: Alec couldn't stand corporate life anymore. Now he needs a job and Izzy is the girl to help. Unfortunately, it is to be a PA to the most overbearing and annoyingly handsome fashion designer to ever grace the pages of Vogue. A man with a heart of ice, but even ice can be thawed with enough care. Ghosts from the past will surface just when it looks like love is in the air. Suddenly Alec finds himself in the most awkward position of pretending to be his boss’ new fiancé. Magnus and Alec will have to decide if their fake engagement can become a reality before they are completely torn apart. Link to Chapters 1-5 Link to Chapters 6-Epilogue

Artwork for Love, but Make it Fashion by Kuro

To Shine A Light by Nadja_Lee

Rating: Mature Summary: Alexander Lightwood is a very old and powerful Warlock, who has risen to become a leader for the Downworld. When one of his people, the Warlock Andrew Underhill, is accused of breaking the Accords and faces sentencing Alec shows up at the New York Institute to set the record straight. Camille, leader of the NYI, has plans for the powerful Warlock, plans she is eager to see carried out. She has Idris’ best soldier, Magnus Bane, assist with the interrogation of Alec, unaware what she is setting in motion by doing so as Alec and Magnus are instantly drawn to each other. Soon Magnus will have to choose between helping Alec and his oath to Idris. Will Magnus dare to risk it all for the possibility the powerful Warlock will take a chance and open his heart to him? Link to completed fic

A Bit of Space by @facialteeth

Rating: Mature Summary: Alec and Magnus are the sole survivors after their spaceship crashes on an uninhabited planet. They have no way to contact anyone to let them know they’re still alive but somehow, they make it work. In the end, all they really need is each other. Link to completed fic

Artwork for A Bit of Space by @accal1a​

A Prince of Gold and Glass by @harkasun

Rating: General Summary: When Magnus sends himself to Edom in order to protect Alicante and the world, Alec must come to terms with the possibility that the man he intended to marry has sacrificed much more than his freedom. Meanwhile, in the demonic realm, The Queen of Edom finds a warlock, the half-breed son of a Prince of Hell whose corruption can ensure that the throne of Edom is once again claimed by a creature of demonic royalty: one who will become her Prince of Edom. Link to completed fic

Artwork for A Prince of Gold and Glass by DarayFlair

Cradling the Sun by @cuubism

Rating: Mature Summary: Alec’s known for a long time that Magnus is a hard person to hold. He’s so much—so much power, so much energy, so much brilliance, so much love. He shines so bright he’s hard to even look at directly, never mind try to hold in one set of hands. Now that Magnus himself is losing his grip on all of that, well. Alec will just have to hold him a little bit tighter. Link to completed fic

Artwork for Cradling the Sun by @faejilly Also found on YouTube and Spotify

A piece of night sky by myulalie

Rating: Teen Summary: There are rumors that Valentine is back. And he's searching for something. When his dealings with dark magic cause swarms of demons to crawl New York, the city is not safe at night, especially for downworlders.

Alec is doing his best to keep the city safe. With no support from the Clave, the New York Institute is desperately understaffed. He begins patrolling with help from the Downworld factions - which proves to be tricky at best, and becomes almost impossible when the werewolves start hunting Alec.

His siblings have no idea of what he’s up to at night and to keep them all safe Alec needs to keep it that way.

Then, he meets the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Suddenly, patrolling also includes pop songs and bird puns in between watching someone's back when fighting demons.

But, what’s one more secret to keep? Link to completed fic

Artwork for A piece of the night sky by @jesssssah​

Dona Nobis Pacem by lawsofchaos

Rating: Teen Summary: “When Alec kneels before you on that dais, Magnus,” Jace keeps going, “he’s telling every person present that it is your judgement, your respect, that he places before all others. In you placing that rune on his neck, Alec is publicly proclaiming that it’s your blessing and your judgement on him and on his reign as Head that gives him the right and the authority to uphold the Covenant.” Link to completed fic 

Artwork #1 for Dona Nobis Pacem created by @cloudburst-ink Artwork #2 for Dona Nobis Pacem created by @cloudburst-ink

isn’t it just so pretty to think (an invisible string) by @iambeingcoy

Rating: General Summary: alec had jumped at the chance to work in paris when the offer presented itself to him. it was a chance to run away from new york for a year under the guise of a good career opportunity. there, he meets magnus. while falling in love with the other man, alec finds himself falling in love with the city too. when the year begins to come to a close, alec doesn't realize that what you're running away from can always catch up to you and, just maybe, he isn't the only one who has been running.

it's easy to fall in love in paris.

Artwork for isn’t it just so pretty to think (an invisibly string) by @spark-draws​

Copper, Gold, Silver, and Glitter by YourAverageNerd 

Rating: Teen Summary: "Oh. Yeah. You know how you invited Magnus Bane to Jace and Clary's wedding as a joke?" Alec shrugged. "He actually showed up. We went out for lunch yesterday."

Silence. It was silent. The kind that Alec craved and usually could never find and wow, he should drop bombs like this more often because he really liked it.

Then Jace ruined it by nearly screaming, "I'm sorry, what!"

(In which there's a wedding, some celebrities may be nicer than they appear, and Alec is trying to keep himself from turning into smoke.)

Blame It on the Fairy Dust by slyvir 

Rating: Mature Summary: Pandemonium is Magnus's territory, the lack of Alec's presence by his side despite the latter's apparent open stance on downworlders is slowly brewing into political issues. That clubs are not Alec's scene it is not a surprise, the reasons why he tried to avoid nights at Pandemonium however blindside Magnus, especially when they came out in the open in a fashion that is uniquely normal for them.

Both Alec and Magnus are ready to give away a piece of themselves for the other. Suffering in silence, with the intent to protect their partner from pain or guilt. But the way to Hell is paved with good intentions. And the more one let someone else in, the more one can get hurt. No one has any doubt that Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood are deeply in love, they show it all the time, even when no one’s looking. So it should not come as a surprise that they end up being each other’s reason to hurt so much. Link to completed fic

Artwork for Blame It on the Fairy Dust by @a-ghost-named-k​

In Every Universe, We Find Each Other by EternallySilverMagnusandAlec 

Rating: Teen Summary: Tensions have been rising between the Clave and the Downworld to the brink of near revolution in the wake of Valentine's return. Magnus is asked to lead in these trying times, pushed to fight at the forefront of his people and the downworld as he has for centuries. Despite this, Magnus and Alec still meet and dance around with whatever is growing between them, time stretching into months of stolen interactions despite the swelling conflict, and fall in love. And Alec Lightwood still makes the decision to choose Magnus Bane. Or: A collection of moments in a time of growing tension Magnus and Alec share, and the product of their final choices

Artwork for In Every Universe, We Find Each Other by @greentealycheejelly​

Codename: Bane by @bidnezz 

Rating: Mature Summary: Magnus Bane meets Alec Lightwood by pure coincidence on two occasions: one morning in a quaint coffee shop, and again during a mission briefing for The Clave. It’s only supposed to be one mission, but leaked information and the kidnapping of his friend and mentor Ragnor Fell lead to undesirable predicaments, and hard as he tries to keep it professional, Magnus can’t help his growing affection for the spy he’s hired to watch and navigate through the murky treachery of espionage.

Artwork for Codename: Bane by @myulalie​

A Wonderful Institution by @rhosyn-du 

Rating: Teen Summary: Magnus doesn’t have time for this bullshit. Warlocks are disappearing in New York City—five people in less than three months—and Magnus is determined to find them and protect the rest of his people from whatever took them. He doesn’t have time for politics, and he certainly doesn’t have time for whatever nonsense the Clave is proposing about marrying a Shadowhunter to a Downworlder as part of the new Accords. He doesn’t really have time for a pretty Shadowhunter who’s surprisingly kind to warlock children, either, but, well, he’s always been good at multitasking.

Alec always knew he couldn’t have what he wanted, but he’s spent the nearly four years since the newly-appointed Consul recalled his parents to Idris without explanation making the best of what he can have. When life suddenly offers up almost everything Alec actually wants on a silver platter, he can’t quite bring himself to trust it, especially when it comes with a million caveats and a side of impending disaster. But he knows how to handle disasters, even if the return of the Circle on top of Clave secrets that could destroy the Accords is way beyond the disasters he’s used to fielding. Hope, on the other hand? He doesn’t know what to do with that. Link to completed fic

Artwork for A Wonderful Institution by @bidnezz​

Coming to America by PisangGoreng 

Rating: Mature Summary: His Royal Highness Asmodeus Magnus III is the crown prince and sole heir to the throne of Edom. He has never left the island and is pretty desillusioned with the royal treatment. The law says he needs to wed before he turns 30, so on his 29th birthday his father arranges a marriage for him. But when his fiancée turns out to be an awful familiar face, Magnus takes matters into his own hand.

He bargains with his father, who gives him 3 months to do whatever he wants. So Magnus comes up with a plan: he's going to live life as a normal guy and find a partner all by himself in New York.

Not wasting any time he starts looking for love, with little success. Until he encounters the most handsome, intelligent and charming man he has ever seen! Without realizing it himself Alexander Lightwood sweeps Magnus off his feet, and along the way Magnus finds that he's in deep and has no plan, his dream guy is already in a relationship and every day he is closer to his return to Edom.

And even if he manages to get Alec's attention, will there ever be a good time to tell him he's been a prince all along?

An adaptation of the 1988 romantic comedy Coming to America (but probably a lot less funny). Link to completed fic

Artwork for Coming to America by amillustration_

until death do us part by ColorfulWarlock 

Rating: Explicit Summary: In the past, a still traumatized six-year old Magnus thought he would have to endure the darkness of Edom alone. Until another child – a boy with dark hair, pale skin and bright hazel eyes – found him and lighted up his heart.

In the present, the High Warlock of Brooklyn Magnus Bane works with the Shadowhunters and other Downworlders to bring Valentine down. What he doesn’t expect is that Valentine controls a very powerful being, and how to fight someone to whom you give your heart centuries ago?

Artwork for until death do us part by @eternallysilvermagnusandalec​

Keris by AlterEgon

Rating: Mature Summary: A recent death shakes Magnus Bane with some eerie parallels to his own past. As the supposed suicide turns to probable murder, he begins questioning the circumstances surrounding his own mother's death. When proximity to the dagger that took his mother's life brings him visions of details long forgotten that do not fit into the narrative he had taken as truth regarding her last days or weeks, he, Alec, and their friends and family begin to investigate, uncovering unexpected connections and a killer who has been on the loose for far too long

It's What You Do With Life That Matters by @skylar102 

Rating: Teen Summary: Alec has come to the Sinnoh region in search of a rare pokemon. Along the way, he meets a trainer who is more than willing to help him out. Is there more to the stranger's generosity? Will Alec be able to capture the pokemon he's been long searching for? What secret is Alec hiding?

On this journey, Alec is going to make new friends, finish a long overdue promise, and finally confront a piece of his past.

Aligned by @jaackkitty

Rating: Teen Warning: Non-con in a chapter (not descriptive or explicit) Summary: In six months, Prince Alec Lightwood is set to become King of Idris. He’s been waiting to take the throne since his parents' unexpected death at sea eight years ago. Since then, Valentine Morgenstern has been serving as king. Needless to say, Valentine’s rules & regulations only serve Valentine and his trusted followers, with no regard for the well-being of the people of Idris, least of all the magic users. Afraid of them, he created a law to bind their magic to another. By circumstance, Alec finds himself aligned with magic user, Magnus Bane. Link to chapters 1-9 Link to chapters 10-16

Artwork for Aligned by @greentealycheejelly​

My Fearless Love, I Will Not Say Goodbye by @arialerendeair

Rating: Explicit Summary: When their first time together results in an accidental mating bond, Alec and Magnus have to decide how they want to proceed. Especially since they were both sure that the other didn't want a full mating...right?

Also known as: Alpha Alec, Omega Magnus, and a fuckton of pining. Link to completed fic

Artwork for My Fearless Love, I Will Not Say Goodbye by @skylar102​

Sixteenth Sunset by Nhixxie

Rating: Mature Summary: NASA astronauts Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood spend one year living and working together in the International Space Station. They fall in love one astounding view of Earth at a time.

Artwork for Sixteenth Sunset by @miss-shiva-adler​

Untitled experiment by @imandras

Rating: General Summary: But it happened at the time that in one of Alec's lectures the proposal to conduct an experiment was presented so convincingly, that Alec and his guitar were allowed to (or rather had to) spend some time (with considerably less wages) in the subway.

And as fate would have it (she was in a good mood this morning) Magnus went to work earlier than usual, because he wanted to start the day pleasantly with his dear friend Cat and an extensive breakfast together.

Remember, it's all Simon's fault! 

Artwork for Untitled experiment by @a-ghost-named-k​

[okay-victoria]

Love of My Second Life: Tanya & Romance

This is both my take on why, despite seeming like the easiest and healthiest relationship to write, TanyaxVisha is up there with TanyaxMary in difficulty level for pulling off successfully, what I’ve seen go wrong in fanfic so far, and what needs to make it/any romance go right.

Where to start, where to start...um, a warning, for obvious reasons I’m going to have to talk about sex.

The Age Difference

This has the joy of being a bit creepy on both ends of the spectrum! Yay.

Visha Being Creepy

Visha is probably 5 - 6 years older than Tanya. While as more mature adults that age difference is relatively negligible, Tanya being 17/18 and Visha being in her early 20s doesn’t make it suddenly a non-issue. If you and a coworker, both in your first job out of college, went to happy hour and you met his/her significant other and they were a senior in high school, would you feel good about that?

The age-of-consent laws in bygone eras may help your case for why in-story characters give a pass to such things, but it doesn’t really help explain it to your readers. Unless I’m missing something, no one is reading this story from 1920s/30s Germany, and so it needs to have the relationship explained in a way that tries to work for modern standards. Additionally, I think people tend to mix up age-of-consent with “people found this generally appropriate”. A 19 year old dating a 59 year old violates no laws in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that most people are going to consider it a loving and healthy relationship without any proof. Even your in-story characters are probably going to have some thoughts.

The final issue, from Visha’s end of the spectrum, is that even when Tanya is aged up to 18+ and has gained some secondary sexual characteristics, she is sometimes still presented as being an “eternal loli” who can be easily be mistaken for someone around 14/15, an age at which girls normally have some secondary sex characteristics, but distinctly immature ones. I imagine this problem stems from two places:

1) Scenes when Tanya’s lolidom is brought up are not the same scenes as the romantic ones, so the problem is not as obvious to the author and

2) Author forgets that “short+small boobs+doesn’t have wrinkles yet” does not actually result in people looking like they are mid-puberty. Without being really creepy, as women age, their breast tissue drops down and to the side, waist/hip/leg ratios change, and the face loses its baby fat, among other things. Writing that references Tanya as looking like a teen comes along with the unfortunate implication that she actually looks like she is still mid-puberty, and Visha...is into that, instead of being someone who is attracted to petite POST pubescent women.

These are all extremely fixable problems. Really, all an author has to do is make Visha acknowledge that it’s weird, and probably try to talk to Tanya about her reservations before she starts trying to seduce her. It’s the handwave that is the issue. For the last/puberty problem, unless there is some reason I probably don’t want to know about that the author only wants to write the relationship if Tanya looks 14, simply describe her as a petite but adult woman, and if you need to use her looking young as a plot point, have her make an effort to adapt her adult characteristics to suit or hope that nobody looks hard enough to tell the difference.

Tanya Being Creepy

While Tanya is physically the junior member of the relationship, mentally, she is the senior, and by a lot. Tanya knows this. While I don’t necessarily think Salaryman is the Earth’s most morally-pure man, I have a high enough opinion of him to think that he was not pursuing college girls when he was like 35. Tanya should also have a moment of thought over this, or the relationship needs to wait until Visha is closer to her late 20s, when she is approaching a similar level of life maturity that Salaryman would have felt was close to his own.

Even if you think that Salaryman’s logical side would have been eroded by his “but I’m a guy, I can’t help it, college girls are hot” side [I’m side-eyeing you], I think it’s very unlikely that living as Tanya, and being on the receiving end of that kind of stuff, wouldn’t make her reconsider her stance on it, at least a little.

I know, I know, Visha’s been to war! She’s not the same as some random college girl in 2020! While this is allowable as a partial justification, because it is true, it ignores a whole lot.

First off, maturity is not a straightforward drive. All parts of you do not mentally mature at the same time. If you want to write early 20s Visha as a mature-enough partner for Tanya, a bit of time needs to be spent on what Visha loses because of it - she never has, and never will, get to be that happy-go-lucky girl. While making fun of young women for being dramatic gossips, obsessing about non-serious things, etc remains a popular sport, thinking that you are doing Visha a favor by taking that time of her life away from her says pretty terrible things about how society values women’s relationships with each other. If you don’t mean for your fanfic to accidentally imply that, it’s something that needs some love & care.

Alternatively, you could write a story in which Visha, while being a competent adult, still gets space to explore her “girly” side. If doing so, you are going to have to make a really strong case for why Tanya is willing to put up with this, as Salaryman does not come off as someone who would judge it a good use of time & effort to be constantly letting his girlfriend rattle off about things he thinks are silly and immature - there’s a lot of other fish in the sea, why not find one that is a competent adult *and* isn’t often talking about things you don’t care about.

The Canonical Setup of Visha & Tanya’s relationship

Opposite Goals

In a nutshell, Tanya is presented as a person that wants to live a safe, boring, and non-notable life, is doing her best to get there, and is constantly failing and being stressed about it because she needs to figure out a new plan. Visha is presented as someone who has major qualms about Tanya as a human being, but has a nigh-worshipful respect for her heroic officer side.

This is a massive, and I mean MASSIVE problem. You absolutely cannot ignore that what makes the characters happy is diametrically opposed to each other. Can you overcome it? Yes, by slowly developing the characters towards a compromise, but you can’t just not acknowledge it and expect me to think this relationship has any hope of leaving both partners happy. Either Tanya never escapes her never-ending stress cycle, or she does, and the entire basis of Visha’s attachment to Tanya disappears.

This can be fixed by: 1) Tanya coming to terms with a new side of herself, one that wants to be that hero. This cannot just be a one-paragraph epiphany. Tanya is shown to hate when she thinks her internal self is being changed by her new experiences and she needs a lot of work to get to a point where she is willing to acknowledge this in herself.

2) Visha has to go through a rocky part where she second-guesses herself - she thought she wanted Tanya, but turns out, Tanya isn’t the person she thought she is? How and why does she decide that she likes the person Tanya has become? This is probably the easier route, but I think runs the risk of having an author have Visha *say* Tanya does all these other good things for her, but never really show it happening.

3) The happiest medium is probably one where Visha *mostly* adapts towards Tanya, so Tanya gets to live a quiet but not too quiet life, and Visha learns to love another side. As Visha is compromising more in this sense, a healthy relationship is going to include Tanya realizing what is happening and deciding to make an effort to appeal to Visha and not just be like “Take me as I am. Or don’t.” and Visha unilaterally decides to accept that.

Why Does Tanya want to be in a relationship with Visha?

Tanya betrays no actual emotional attachment to Visha in the light novels. While you can read in rationalization to the reasons Tanya gives to her actions, she herself does not believe that it is because of an emotional connection.

Canonically, Tanya is portrayed as liking Visha because of how well Visha passes the “usefulness” test. This brings up another MASSIVE problem - does Tanya, in any way, shape, or form, actually like Visha as an individual, or just  her ability to conform to the role Tanya wants her to play?

Look, I don’t need Tanya to be in LOVE with Visha in the way we usually talk about people being in love to believe that Tanya can be in a relationship successfully. I’m fully on board with a portrayal in which Tanya can’t quite summon that level of emotion. However, she needs to like and respect Visha as an individual person, and summon a level of emotion beyond friend with benefits.

IMO, it is really hard to do that without showing Tanya and Visha disagreeing on a major piece of Tanya’s philosophy and Tanya actually listening and responding positively to it, not simply agreeing to disagree because it isn’t worth upsetting her useful sidekick, or whatever. There needs to be character development of both characters - Visha finding it in herself to be comfortable rocking the boat, and Tanya having a compelling enough reason to change something that she has clung to for two lives.

Everyone wants to be a lesbian

While I get it, the Empire is not the exact same as Germany, and yes, I know that Weimar Germany was relatively sexually progressive, it’s really not something that a well-written romance should handwave.

“Weimar Culture” in many ways developed as a result of how WW1 went for Germany. If you have a story where WW1 doesn’t go that way for Germany, gay culture is unlikely to flourish to the same degree.

All that aside, Tanya isn’t someone that is going to easily shrug her shoulders and say “you know, sometimes you need to jeopardize your career for the sake of hot sex/love”. She’s pretty clear on which she prioritizes. A lesbian relationship is not going to help her here, and she’s going to be aware of it. She needs to struggle with that choice.

Visha not struggling to accept herself as a lesbian is also somewhat of an oversight. It’s pretty unlikely that a woman born in her time period would come to terms with that easily. Visha is also never shown being attracted to other women besides Tanya, which carries a weird “I’m only a lesbian for you” vibe that is like a gross parallel of a straight guy wanting a lesbian to be so attracted to him she can’t help it, she wants the D.

And now, we enter the realm of Tanya’s relationship with her identity and sexuality.

Tanya is shown to have mental qualms both about entering a straight or lesbian relationship in her new life. The reasons behind those qualms are not explored at all in the LN, but they should be in a story in which Tanya goes into a relationship.

No matter which path puberty takes her down, there is the issue of Tanya being comfortable having sex as a woman. Even if it is with another woman, it is not going to be particular similar to the way she had sex with women as a man. That type of thing is pretty tied up with our identity. Tanya hates having her internal, I haven’t changed identity threatened, and not being able to give sexual pleasure/needing to receive it differently is the type of thing that is probably going to come along with some emotional reservations on her part.

Again, sexual identity being a part of our overall identity, while Tanya may remain attracted to women, that means her identity is now as a gay person, not a straight person. Given her biases from both growing up in Japan and the state of gay rights in her new life, it would seem atypical that she would consider this a non-issue and it wouldn’t make her question her priorities or the type of person she thought she was.

But...The Sex?

Look, I get it, sometimes you wanna see certain characters bang. We’ve all been there.

While yes, I recognize that many humans make terrible decisions solely in pursuit of sex, and so it’s perfectly realistic to have Tanya and Visha do the same and say that’s why you’re handwaving everything else, it is an extremely lazy storytelling technique, especially since neither character seems likely to go to extremes for it.

Because people focus so much on sex appeal, unfortunately, they use it as a substitute for making a good case for the relationship. Visha/Tanya is so attracted to Tanya/Visha, that now they are willing to undergo character development, because the pulsing loins urge them to. Really?

Do at least some of it first, lay the groundwork for romantic attraction before you slam them with physical attraction. While it often works the opposite direction in real life, that undercuts the romantic side in fictional story-telling.

I also think that because of the focus on their attraction to each other, what ends up missing in all TanyaxVisha fanfics I’ve seen so far is the tension. That makes it boring, I don’t care about it, and the entire reason I don’t care about it is because the choice to handwave the inconvenient facts means there is nothing in the way besides Tanya being a dumbass, which you can only do for so long without it becoming boring.

They are both attracted to each other, and admit it to themselves. Neither sees any real problem with the relationship other than not knowing if the other person likes them, but they aren’t even hung up on it and mostly work on straightforwardly winning the other person.

When in doubt, blame it on The Patriarchy

As far as we know, Tanya isn’t pining for relationship, and never thinks about a romantic relationship from her old life. Combined with other things Tanya says, it is hard to imagine Salaryman ever had a “considering marriage” relationship - more like, he may have felt partnership had some desirable aspects, but probably never was able to compromise on his kind of extreme worldview enough to try to make it work with someone, just figuring he’d find “the one” one day that wasn’t going to make him compromise.

While of course, you should not need to change everything about who you are for a romantic partner to like you, saying “you should like me for me” and then putting in exactly zero effort to do things because you know they are important to your partner, even if they aren’t for you, is not one of the keys to a successful relationship.

While it is not a problem inherent to Tanya & Visha’s relationship like the above sections, it is a problem in all forms of how I’ve seen the relationship written. It fails to answer a fundamental question: WHAT CHANGED?

Why did Tanya want love/a relationship/a wife in this life, and not in her last? If she did want it in her last life, why did she successfully find love/a relationship/a wife in this life, and not in her last?

Unfortunately, skipping the answer to this question implies that nothing changed. The success is then entirely reliant and Visha, and that brings along with it a really ugly answer.

Visha’s professional I’ll-do-anything-for-you is equated to a personal I’ll-do-anything-for-you, and she very much accepts Tanya for who she is, through all the flaws that are definitely there and that presumably no woman in Salaryman’s life was willing to put up with. Tanya doesn’t have to undergo any character development to be capable of making the relationship work.

This has some really, really unfortunate undertones. It is the very reason why even legal-but-large age difference relationships often aren’t healthy, because the older partner, instead of trying to be someone capable of contributing to the life of someone their own age, decides it’s easier to find someone younger who doesn’t know better and is more willing to put up with their bullshit. That, then, turns into a creepy grooming undertone - you make the less experienced partner think this is normal.

It really isn’t normal or good that Visha should have to put up with a relationship in which she never discovers who she wants to be because she’s so caught up Tanya’s idea of how to live your life. That is borderline emotional abuse, I am sure no one intends it to be there, but without giving some serious treatment to character development, unfortunately, it is.

To me, this has some of the worst overtones of the worst types of male fantasy - My Manic Pixie Dream Girl is completely devoted to me, and instead of emotionally adding to her life and/or our relationship, she is completely fine with me substituting being a Strong Heroic Man who occasionally buys her Nice Things. She demands I change nothing of myself and completely agrees with my Logical Man worldview, no matter what she needs to change about herself to get there. She’s hot, and I get to simultaneously be a straight man and have hot lesbian sex. Even better, because she’s a “strong” woman who is capable in her own right, not only am I physically satisfied, but I get the ego boost of “earning” the submission and subordination of a woman who is better than most people, because she knows I’m better than her.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the grosser it gets, so as far as fanfic goes I just try to ignore it and understand that the authors intention wasn’t to bring along all this baggage. However, to truly write a good Tanya x Visha story that gets away from all these unfortunate implications is a big undertaking, and it’s really impossible for it to make for a compelling side-plot that doesn’t get much screentime.

I’m generally fine with handwaving issues for sideplots, but if Tanya is making decisions because of her relationship with Visha that are now affecting the main plot, it really isn’t something that *should* be handwaved.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[imo-chan-imagines]

『 Haikyuu!! Week 2020 | Day 2 』

· Sept. 26th → One Ball, Heart and Soul ·

Characters: Sawamura Daichi, Testurou Kuroo, Bokuto Koutarou, Ushijima Wakatoshi, Oikawa Tooru, Terushima Yuuji

Prompts: A. favourite position/role + B. travel/journey

Tags/warnings: Haikyuu!! (anime), PG, fluff, crack, headcanons, HaikyuuWeek2020

A/N: I found it so hard to pick a favourite position/role, because they're all so interesting and important, and I love everyone 😭 But I settled on the role of captain because of the headcanons I thought of. Captain Sqaud, assemble! So, want to find out what these boys are like on a road trip?

(Just to be clear, I do love all these guys. None of this is hate 😂) All my Haikyuu Week 2020 posts will be SFW, but I have some NSFW stuff on my blog, too. Feel free to check that out~ Thanks for reading! Please enjoy ♡ Imo~

☆ Sawamura Daichi ☆

Dad-chi™

Comes prepared with all the food, drinks, snacks, med kit, camera – literally everything you could possibly need on a road trip

Plans out the route beforehand down to the tiniest detail nothing gets past this man

As well as multiple backup routes in case there's diversions etc.

Plans for regular breaks at two-hour intervals where everyone can pee, stretch their legs, buy anything they need, etc.

He's the one who's driving he's not letting anybody else get a scratch on his van, lmao

And he's good at it

No speeding he's a cop, y'all but he doesn't dawdle either, no running red lights, turns corners well, keeps an even foot on the gas, etc.

Just a good time, tbh

Nobody is getting car sick because of him that would be a damn disgrace

"Stop fighting right now, or I'm turning this van around"

And will actually do it if you don't stfu, lmfao

Don't even think about making a mess and dropping your rubbish in the van you'll be walking home

Everyone else thinks his music is boring and for old people, but Daichi honestly doesn't care

Besides, it's either that or no music at all, because he needs to concentrate on the road

He takes this shit seriously. People's lives are in his hands, dammit!

☆ Testurou Kuroo ☆

Likes to switch between driving and riding shotgun/being designated navigator

Is fairly decent at both

Is constantly eating something but, like, he probably doesn't even know what it is

Some kind of edible is shoved towards his mouth by whoever's riding shotgun, and in it goes shut up. Not like that, you cretins 😂

Somehow manages to behave like an overbearing grandparent and an overexcited child at the same time?? Nothing new there, I guess 😂

I'm sorry, Kuroo, I love you. Please don't be mad 😭

Has a banging playlist full of throwback songs from the 90s and early 2000s

Drums along sofly on the steering wheel or dashboard constantly

HATES driving in rain he's low-key terrified he's going to aquaplane

Likes driving with the windows wound down and feeling the wind in his hair

Will plan the route, but then forget to save it/print it off, etc.

Cannot work Google Maps or SAT-NAVs to save his life Kenma, please help him

Actually packs properly balanced meals, but is heavy on the snacks, too

You'd think he'd drive too fast, but he's actually really responsible

Constantly telling dad jokes to try and keep people amused the groaners are the best

Would probably fight someone at the gas station if they started being a dick and causing trouble

Kuroo, baby. I love you, but please don't get arrested 😭😂😭

☆ Bokuto Koutarou ☆

Dear God, do NOT let him drive leave it to Akaashi, I'm begging you

Has really bad spacial awareness in a vehicle and drifts all over the place

Probably speeds without even knowing it, too

Likes to ride shotgun, but is a terrible navigator, so is nearly always made to ride in the back

Is the loud one that moves around too much and blocks the rear view mirror strap him in tight, Akaashi

Belts along at the top of his voice to whatever music is playing, he's not fussy

Was told to pack essential items in his backpack and proceeded to fill it with sweets and snacks and a pack of condoms??? and thought he did good

Bokuto: Bro, you said they were essential

Akaashi: NOT FOR EVERY SITUATION

Rarely ever has to pee, but when he does, it's always miles away from any service station, and he has to hold it for hours

Has definitely peed at the side of the road multiple times because he couldn't hold it any longer, but he wasn't even embarrassed as numerous cars zoomed past

Likes sticking his head out the window like a dog on the motorway which gives everyone else heart attacks

Like, get the hell back inside you maniac 😭

If the car has a sunroof, he's 100% standing up through it with his hands in the air just you try and stop him

And they will. Everyone will try

"HORSES!!"

Will get out of the car in traffic jams to find out what's going on and end up chatting with random strangers until it starts moving again

And he's very sad when he has to leave his new friends. Droopy hair and emo Kou for the next 2 hours :(

Unironically enjoys playing 'I Spy' for hours at a time

Is a bit much to handle in such a confined space for hours on end, but he's just so excited for the road trip

Will fall sound asleep in a matter of minutes if you set him up with a travel pillow and it's freaking adorable!!

☆ Ushijima Wakatoshi ☆

No music whatsoever it's distracting. Why would he want it?

Okay driver, brilliant paper-map navigator

Will sit and do absolutely nothing but stare out the window the entire trip if he's neither

Breaks too hard and accelerates too fast, though

Is also kind of heavy-handed with the gear stick he may or may not have snapped one off before...

Never give him a SAT-NAV, though, because he will follow the directions with 100% accuracy and end up driving through a wall or some shit don't try and deny it

Does he ever even blink when he's looking at the road? We may never know

Might be astral projecting, who knows

Forgets people need toilet breaks but refuses to make unscheduled stops

"Just hold it in"

Uh-huh, sure. That's how that works, Toshi

No snacks

Or rather, no fun snacks. Protein bars and mineral water all the way, babyyyy 🙃🙃🙃

Could probably drive all through the night without taking any breaks but that's irresponsible

Don't do it, kids

Will likely devour the entire KFC menu at the service station he's big, okay? He eats a lot

Is prone to leg cramp after long drives oh look, he needs a massage 😏

Doesn't get car sick. Ever. Upset stomachs are for the weak

Has garbage and recycling pouches on the backs of the front seats use them correctly, or feel his wrath

Isn't exactly a barrel of laughs, but it's somehow endearing just like always *happy sigh*

But it's actually a good thing

There's no hidden side to Ushi or any bad or annoying habits that come out of the woodwork on a long road trip

He's just the same old reliable, adorably straightforward Ushijima ❤

☆ Oikawa Tooru ☆

Calls shotgun and demands the aux cord every. Single. Time but it's pretty decent music, so no-one really complains

Not that he's any good at navigation pray for Iwa-chan

Is constantly taking selfies, making TikToks, and documenting the trip on his social media

#ROADTRIP #SQUAD GOALS #BETTER THAN YOU

Will send all the photos in the group chat when it's over, and they actually come out pretty well

Will not stop complaining if the air conditioning is busted and Iwa-chan will threaten to dump him in the middle of nowhere if he doesn't can it 😂

Iwa-chan: I shoulda left you on that street corner where you were standing

Oikawa: But'cha dIDN'T

Bonus points if you get that reference, lmao

Has to keep taking breaks because his butt hurts when he sits down for too long because it's fLaT

I'm sorry, Tooru 😭😭 Forgive me. I love you, really

Is constantly on his phone

But he points out pretty views and interesting sights to everyone all the time awww

Low-key needs to pee all the time, but gets defensive if someone brings it up please stop bulling him, travelling is hard

"Are we there yet?"

Seems kind of annoying, but is actually just genuinely excited to go on a road trip and spend time with his friends 😭😭

Buys matching souvenirs for everyone in secret to surprise them with 🥺

When people complain about all the photos, souvenirs, and enthusiasm, etc. and ask why he has to keep doing it, Oikawa says:

"I want to remember as much of this as possible. I want us all to remember as much of this as much as possible," with a sweet little smile 😭😭😭

And that's when everyone realises how mean they've been to him about being over-the-top and irritating, and they all feel terrible

Just like in the freaking anime, man

☆ Terushima Yuuji ☆

Will hijack the aux cord to play his incredibly niche music taste

Feet up on the dashboard when he rides shotgun

Shoes on is bad enough, but shoes off just stinks up the entire car you have to roll all the windows down, lmfao

Will break all sorts of road laws if you let him behind the wheel please don't

Daichi will come and arrest him 😭😭

Lives on energy drinks

That's all the drinks he packs. Nothing else

Travels in sports wear and sliders yes, even though you reallly shouldn't drive in sandals

Like he knows or cares 😭

Will chat to girls at the gas station and ask for their numbers, even though he's never going to see them again

"You never know, man! It could be, like, fate or something"

Yes, Yuuji, you do. And it's 'or something'

Thinks it's a good time to sext his current booty call because, like, he has hours of free time. What else is he going to do?

Probably forgot to pack actual food

Has to live off of snacks and cheap service station food for the duration of the trip

But not his own snacks, of course. Everyone else's one doesn't keep friends and buy one's own snacks

Genuinely doesn't realise if he's being gross or annoying, so let him down lightly like a bro and he'll probably make an effort to stop

Doesn't plan the route or anything, even if he's driving. Just punches it into Google Maps as he sits his ass down on the day and trusts it to get him there in one piece and on time

Entire Johzenji team: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

For some reason knows how to change a flat tire, though, so he's good for something, I guess 😂😂

Probably saw a YouTube video on it. Maybe a WikiHow article

Somehow still manages to be an endearing part of the trip??

He smiles a lot and makes a lot of jokes, particularly when things go wrong, so it keeps everyone's spirits up

It definitely wouldn't be the same without him

© imo-chan-imagines 2020

[fieldsofplay]

Favorite Albums of 2020

25. Dehd – Flower of Devotion

Rather than look back on the shit year that was 2020, lets keep our eye on the hope of the horizon.  Speaking of which, Dehd herald much of what’s to come on this here list.  While as previously mentioned a shit year for most everything besides presidential politics, 2020 proved to be a great year for good old fashioned guitar music.  Could I be accused of curling up with my version of musical comfort food? Perhaps.  But starting off with Dehd, we have a type of band that used to be everywhere and now seems to be almost nowhere.  Jangly lo-fi guitars, perky drums, and straightforward unadorned singing.  About five years ago you couldn’t throw a rock in Brooklyn without hitting a band like this, but now that that fad is long gone.  I’m glad that Chicago’s Dehd are still carrying the torch.  

24. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

I’ve always liked Perfume Genius, but for whatever reason Set My Heart on Fire Immediately is the album that took him out of the realm of casual background musical encounter to something I sought out.  Chamber pop has never really been my thing (except for those couple summers where Grizzly Bear was totally my jam), but here the torch songs catch fire by the compressed force of Michael Hadreas’ longing.  This record also pulls off the impressive feat of each song gradually morphing just a bit from what proceeds it, so that the whole record sounds similar and yet each song carves out its own little generic niche, the whole thing united by the quivering power of that pleading voice.  

23. 2nd Grade – Hit to Hit

If you ever found yourself wondering what Guided by Voices would sound like if they wanted to be Big Star instead of punk rock Kinks, we now have the answer, and it’s Phily’s 2nd Grade.  In the noble tradition of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, Hit to Hit’s 24 tracks breeze by in a mere 41 minutes and 8 seconds.  An earworm sunny melody, a quick guitar hook, a second verse (maybe), and poof, each song is gone before you could ever miss it.  You would think variation would be difficult working within such tight musical corners, but while each song clearly shares common DNA, there is actually a lot of variance here, from weepy country ditties (“Bye Bye Texas”) to overdriven stompers (“Baby’s First Word”) though they all tend to orbit the same (big) star.  

22. Tame Impala – The Slow Rush

I’ll be the first to admit that The Slow Rush isn’t my favorite Tame Impala record, not by a long shot.  Having said that, this album still feels like it got short shrift this year (not that anyone can really complain about that in these here times).  If we never knew that Lonerism or Innerspeaker or Currents existed, I wonder how much people would be head over heels for this album.  “One More Year” “Is It True” and “Posthumous Forgiveness” are all top notch Impala jams.  Seems like this album is the soundtrack for the chilled out summer hangs that we never got to have, and thus it’s fitting that it seems condemned for the ash-heap of history rather than the late-night come downs we never got up to.

21. Against All Logic – 2017 – 2019

Ah, speaking of complicated musical relationships, I can never seem to chart a clear course with Nicolas Jaar.  The music he puts out under his own name never seems to do much for me, but I dug his collaboration with Dave Harrington as Darkside, and I really love most everything he’s put out as Against All Logic.  While admittedly not a great year for house music—normally a liberating genre of communal interconnectivity, now a cruel reminder that we all live in Footloose—a banger remains a banger, and 2017-2019 is full to the brim with them.  While I honestly can’t remember the last time I went dancing, I’ll still crank up “Fantasy” and bop around my living room, literally dancing by myself (lets be honest, something I would have done pandemic or no).  

20. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Fetch the Bolt Cutters has had a lot of great things said about it this year, so I don’t really have to add that much.  What I will say is this is perhaps the most interesting percussion I’ve ever heard on a record.  There is percussion all over the place, but almost none of it in the form of full-kit drumming.  Fiona always used the left hand on the piano as the rhythmic center of her songs, but here there is drilling, tapping, rapping, patting.  The phrase DIY gets tossed around all the time (and almost never applied to big money, big label Fiona) but to me the most impressive thing about this record is how it always sounds like she is sitting at a rickety upright piano in the corner of a living room, while everyone congregating around keeps the beat by tapping on pots and pans, the walls, whatever is at hand.  I’ve truly never heard anything like it.  

19. Advertisement – American Advertisement

Godbless Seattle’s Advertisement. So long as there is cheap beer, old shitty cars driving with the windows down, and the U-SofA, there’ll be bands like Advertisement.  Straight out of the vein of Cheap Trick and the more recent White Reaper, Advertisement play power pop with the emphasis on the power.  Sometimes this type of music gets called sleazy, but honestly I don’t get it.  I think its probably because you can imagine it playing while Wooderson drives around Austin looking for redheads. While we rightfully cancelled the song of summer this year, “Upstream Boogie” would have gotten my vote, perfect for backyard bbqs and cannonballing into creeks.  

18. Nation of Language – Introduction, Presence

I didn’t set it up this way, but if Advertisement has a diametric opposite, its probably Nation of Language.  Where Advertisement is all frayed edges and foam, Nation of Language is as buttoned up as those terrible sports jackets people wore in the early ‘90s.  While its not as good as my beloved Black Marble, those bands share enough DNA to make me a big fan of this synth pop gem.  It’s not as dark as the cold-wave Black Marble, but it does share that bands fondness for stark baselines and crisp arpeggios.  If you’ve ever envisioned your life as a scene from a John Hughes movie, Nation of Language could easily be playing in the background.

17. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall we Go on Sinning so that Grace May Increase?

Indulge me in a moment of naval gazing.  Every year as I put these things together I reach a point where I’m lack “damn, this album is this low on the list?” And the point at which that thought enters my head is usually indicative of how good a year for music it was.  Now 2020 wasn’t a good year for anything, and I probably spent the least time of any year listening to music, new, old, whatever.  For the most part I just listened to the Grateful Dead and ambient albums.  However, for my idiosyncratic tastes, 2020 was actually a pretty fucking incredible year for new music, as evinced by the fact that this album is all the way down at 17.  

Earlier on in 2020 as I was bombarding my poor local music text thread with yet more of my inane musings, I think I declared this a top 3 album of the year.  And I wasn’t lying!  “Pretty” is often a dirty word in aesthetic appreciation, but this is certainly the “prettiest” album of the year in the best sense of the word.  From the Drew Daniel half of Matmos comes Shall we Go on Sinning so that Grace May Increase?  A record that is somehow simultaneously deep house and feather light, so much so that it needs its own dumb internet music writing moniker—shallow house? wide house? vacation house? (actually kinda like that last one).  With vocals from Jana Hunter, Angel Deradoorian, and Colin Self (with whom I wasn’t previously familiar) this thing will simultaneously make you want to tap your foot and drift off into the clouds.  This is album is like the prayer Madonna sang about all those years ago.  

16. Kurt Vile – Speed, Sound, Lonely KV

It’s not at all surprising that if Kurt Vile decided he wanted to go country western he’d be really fucking good at it.  First of all, he’s an exceptional acoustic guitar picker.  Secondly, his voice, while always befitting his hazed out urban rockers, has just enough twang to it that in retrospect it always sounded a little bit country.  This record also gives me room to offer up an homage to the late great John Prine, for whom the EP is essentially a tribute.  Vile covers two Prine songs, dueting with the man himself on “How Lucky.” Saying goodbye is never easy, but on Speed, Sound, Lonely (both the album, and the song more or less by that name) Vile manages a fitting tribute to a lost legend.  

15. Lomelda – Hannah

The reviews of Hannah really did Lomelda a disservice.  Sure, they were glowing, but they made it sound like this was some weepy milquetoast singer songwriter affair, when it’s actually a knotty album full off elliptical piano and fuzzed out electric guitar.  Its 14 tracks hurtle by, largely due to the fact that almost all of them are under 3 and a ½ minutes.  Things really get going with the second track, “Hannah Sun” with is squiggly synth effects and driving acoustic strums carrying on Hannah Read’s musings.  It’s an album of relentless forward musical movement even if the vibe feels like it’s always looking back over its shoulder.  Basically this album is what emo would sound like if it wasn’t made by the worst people in the universe.  

14. Shabaka and the Ancestors – We are Sent here by History

Jazz! Another great year for jazz (Asher Gamedze’s Dialectic Soul and Keefe Jackson, Jim Baker, & Julian Kirshner’s So Glossy and So Thin are with a strong group that just missed the cut).  In the midst of an excellent jazz renaissance (you gotta use super annoying words like “renaissance” when talking about jazz) Shebaka Hutchins remains my absolute fave of the bunch, and We are Sent here by History is probably my favorite thing he has put out so far.

13. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

While I really liked Waxahatchee’s low-fi emoish debut—American Weekend—I’ll readily admit I wasn’t much about the popier albums that followed, frequently jesting, honestly, that Allison was my preferred musical Crutchfield sister.  All that changed for me with Saint Cloud.  I’ve certainly drifted far off into country and Americana as I’ve aged, and it appears the same came be said for Katie Crutchfield.  These songs have a giddyup to them but they never break out into a gallop, allowing the strength of the melodies to carry them along across the plains, with just the right hint of twilight.  Saint Cloud is the sound of Patsy Cline if she played to roadside inns rather than the Grand Ol’ Opry.  

12. Neil Young – Homegrown

This was the hardest album to place on the list this year.  For starters, should it even count? Clearly I say yes.  While some of these songs have been available for over 30 years, as an album, Homegrown was a “new” release here in 2020, even though it was originally slated to come out in ’75 between On the Beach (my personal fave Neil record) and Zuma.  As a pure piece of music, is it better than most, if not all, of the records that follow? Of course yes.  But what does a new Neil Young record mean in 2020? As a thought experiment its fascinating.  Do we value this album within the musical context of 2020 or 1975? Fortunately, it’s an even more enjoyable listen than it is a thought experiment.  From the first strums of “Separate Ways” you’re like “oh shit, this is the vintage stuff.” Gentle amber acoustic numbers (“Try”) share space with electric stompers (“Vacancy”).  The best thing you can say about Homegrown is that if Neil had originally decided to release this instead of Tonight’s The Night, it would have fit right in amongst his unimpeachable run from Everybody Knows This is Nowhere up through Zuma.  A classic is still a classic, no matter what year it finally sees the light of day.  

11. Destroyer – Have we Met

Ah Dan Bejar, boy was I wrong about you.  I kinda got into Destroyer’s Rubies, I loved his contributions to Swan Lake and The New Pornographers, but yet when Chinatown started really making waves, I just couldn’t do it.  It was soft rock! I hate soft rock! I hate everything about it!  This preconceived notion wasn’t helped by the fact that I saw him open for the War on Drugs in Pontiac once and he was so drunk he could barely stand up and had to read his own lyrics from a sheet.  And yet, for some reason I never really gave up on it. I can’t tell you why exactly, but two summers ago Chinatown just slowly became my go-to for early morning / late afternoon strolls. I found comfort in giving myself over to its pillowy soft embrace / cheating on my own aesthetic judgments.  Now that I’m card-carrying Bejarhead, I greeted Have we Met with open arms, and I was not disappointed.  The synths glimmer, the guitars add just enough punch, and his lyrics remain sharp as ever.  Its fitting that this was the last concert I saw before the iron curtain fell.  The one thing I had always turned my back on ended up being the last memory of dionysian group enthrallment I had to carry with me out into the desert of social isolation.  Come back soon Destroyer, come back soon, everyone.

10. Deeper – Auto-Pain

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready, because post punk is back! I always say my favorite genre is ‘sad songs you can dance to’ but post punk is a close second.  When I was in college post punk underwent a bit of a renaissance in the form of Interpol (back when they were still good), Bloc Party (ditto), Franz Ferdinand, and a whole slew of British one hit wonders (Maximo Park, Futureheads, Art Brut, the Bravery).  Fortunately, as is always the case, what’s old is new again, and stark melodic bass lines, angular guitars, and moody introspective speak-singing are back in full force.  Of the three post punk bands gracing this here top ten (Deeper, Fontaines DC, and Crack Cloud) each has its own little slice of the generic pie.  Fontaines have the deep gloom of Interpol/Joy Division, Crack Cloud ripple with the staccato energy of Gang of Four, and Deeper have the wiry dancieness of, well, Wire. So long as leather jackets and black and white photography remain cool, there’ll always be bands like this, and thank god for that.  In a true sign o’ the times, I learned about this band from some random girl’s Tik Tok in my for-you feed.  She repped five bands, two of which are in my top three, so I was like, sure I’ll give this band Deeper a go.  God bless the internet.  Finally, Deeper get bonus points for naming a song “This Heat,” who I’ve been spending a lot of time revisiting this year, and whose spikey guitars are all over this record.  

9. The Flaming Lips – American Head

There are few things as satisfying in art as being genuinely surprised by a beloved artist you had given up as culturally dead.  Since putting out their last masterpiece (2009’s Embryonic) the Lips have put out a string of good, if inconsequential, albums that befitting the ethos of the band could best be described as half baked (The Terror, Oczy Moldy, and a series of collaborative experiments).  Basically, they had reached that dreaded nadir where I was no longer interested in listening to their new output (cough The National, cough cough Arcade Fire).  So what made me give American Head a chance? That reader, is the point of art criticism! I can’t remember how the blurb on pitchfork read exactly, but I knew it referenced Tom Petty and a return to a preoccupation with more Earthly concerns—namely ‘70s heartland rock.  Well, this sounded intriguing, and boy was I not disappointed.  Sure, the Flaming Lips have already reached their sell-by date twice over (first in 1992, immediately followed by their MTV reinvention on 1993’s Transmissions from the Satellite Heart; and then again in the late ‘90s with the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones, followed by their creative pinnacle, ‘99’s symphonic masterpiece The Soft Bulletin), so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that this band could rise from the dead a third time.  Only, for the most part, they didn’t.  I guess I’m not surprised that American Head failed to reach a broader audience. Most people probably aren’t even aware that they are still a going concern, and after the failures of the last decade it makes sense that most weren’t interested in more tunes from the Oklahoma freaknicks.  But for those willing to give the band another chance, American Head easily delivers their best album since Embryonic, if not all the way back to Yoshimi.  Mixing ‘70s Americana with the star gazing of Soft Bulletin’s “Sleeping on the Roof,” the Lips deliver their best album in decades by foregoing the parlor tricks and returning to what they do best, taking trips to distant galaxies while keeping their feet firmly planted in the soil and songcraft of Oklahoma.

8. Cut Worms – Nobody Lives Here Anymore

This one is pretty easy.  Do you like George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass? If yes, listen to Nobody Lives Here Anymore and revel in this double album’s upbeat acoustic rock mediations.  If no, well there’s plenty of other good stuff out there.  Not quite as metaphysical or orchestral as All Things Must Pass, Nobody Lives Here Anymore still manages to hit that rockabiliy-pop sweet spot that Harrison used to mine.  I’m not quite sure what the definition of “troubadour” is, but it feels safe to call Cut Worms a troubadour, which is certainly better than his terrible stage name.  

7. Cigarettes for Breakfast – Aphantasia

Similar to Cut Worms, Cigarettes for Breakfast also involves a simple influence equation.  Do you pray at the altar of Loveless? If so, Aphantasia is just the record for you.  Sure, it’s a bit of My Bloody Valentine paint by numbers (“Breathe” even features the same squally guitar noise [it’s really hard to try and describe My Bloody Valentine effects ha] as “Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)”) but when you’re as into shoegaze as I am, that’s never really a bad thing.  Plus, I’m being a bit unfair.  Everyone with textured tremolo heavy wall-of-sound guitars and cooed vocals is going to inevitably be compared to MBV, and Cigarettes for Breakfast do enough to chart their own course.  Perhaps most interesting is the musical journey this record charts.  Its loudest moment is its opening, where pummeling guitars more reminiscent of Sonic Youth with a touch of Dinosaur Jr. rip across hardcore style drumming. From there each song becomes a little more ambient, until closer “If Someone Could Help Me, Please” more or less floats away on its shimmering sheets of beautiful noise clouds.  In this sense, it bears a resemblance in structure, if not in sound, to Deerhunter’s Cryptograms, another album I spent a lot of time revisiting this year.  A shutout here is owed to the fine folks at Radio K, who had me diving for my shazam as this thing ripped across their airwaves.  So long as there is college radio, there’ll be a new crop of kids discovering via Kevin Shields that the electric guitar contains endless sonic possibilities.  

6. Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death

The second entry in our top-ten post punk trio is A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.  I’ll admit, on first blush it’s kind of a dumb band name (I just assumed they were some hardcore band from Washington DC chasing those Dischord Records glory days), but when you learn that the “DC” stands for Dublin City, it all clicks, as this band is sorta inescapably Irish in the way that James Joyce is.  Now this fact at first was also off-putting—if I went the rest of my life without ever hearing the Dropkick Murphy’s again I’d be quite content—but eventually it becomes integral to their sound, and not just because of the brogue in Garin Chatten’s vocals.  “Love is the Main Thing” is an incredible song in many ways, most notably because of the hypnotic quality of the drumming with its counterpoint between riding cymbal and staccato toms, but perhaps in the main (*wink*) for the way it manages to connote the weariness of a grey urban environment without ever being explicitly about it.  Just as Turn on the Bright Lights managed to perfectly capture New York in 2001, A Hero’s Death to me is the aural equivalent of a dense urban center like Dublin, especially after nightfall.  

5. Imaginary Softwoods – Annual Flowers in Color

It should come as no surprise that I listened to A LOT of ambient this year, and to me there was no better electronic record to chill the fuck out to during this insane year than Annual Flowers in Color.  I absolutely loved Emeralds’ Does it Look Like I’m Here? and was devastated they never followed that gem (*wink*) up.  In the immediate aftermath of the demise of Emeralds Mark McGuire’s solo albums got a lot of attention, but apparently the person I really loved in Emeralds was Imaginary Softwoods’ John Elliot.  Annual Flowers in Color is like if Dead City’s, Red Seas, Lost Ghosts were waiting in the departure’s lounge of Eno’s airport.  At the heart of the album lies the 10 plus minutes of “Another First/Sea Machine.” I could listen to this song forever, and on some particularly WTF 2020 lakewalks I more or less have.  Chunky synths, arpeggios that drift off to infinity, ‘80s soundtrack nostalgia.  I could live in these Softwoods for the rest of my sonic days.  

4. Pottery – Welcome to Bobby’s Motel

In another moment of nostalgia for my college years, Pottery are a welcome return to weird ass experimental Canadian bands.  They don’t sound anything like the Unicorns, but in spirit Pottery kind of remind me of them.  I’ve spilled a lot of digital ink here and elsewhere bemoaning the fact that Pitchfork (or perhaps, me) isn’t cool anymore, and to me no band embodies this more than Pottery.  They take a bunch of fun disparate elements—Talking Heads dance art rock, periodic weird pitch shifted vocal effects, hazy deep purple style guitars, and Queen style machismo disco—throw them into a witch’s cauldron, and come up with something off the wall that sounds like nothing else but is also instantly familiar.  This is the type of thing Pitchfork would have been all over in 2007, but instead now they’re too busy chasing conde nast clout clicks.  Oh well, nothing gold can last. But enough negativity, this here is a celebration of the joy of new music, and no new band embodies that unbridled joy like Pottery.  Along with Fontaines DC, this is the band I wish I most could have bopped around to with a bunch of sweaty strangers in the 7th St. Entry or Turf Club. ��You can just imagine the call and response vocals and funky grooves getting the people moving.  Oh well, hopefully we’ll soon all be rocking the vaccine, they can breeze through town, and I’ll be the first person on the dance floor embarrassingly pumping my fist a half beat behind the rhythm.  

3. Pure X – Pure X

To paraphrase Same Elliott in the Big Lebowski, sometimes there’s a band, and well, sometimes there’s a band.  For me this year, that band was Pure X.  I absolutely loved their debut Pleasure way back in 2011, when lo-fi reverb heavy slow guitar music (ie, Galaxie 500) was all the rage. Their follow up Crawling up the Stairs was so bad I didn’t even bother listening to Angel, though perhaps that also owed a decent amount to just how terrible the art on that record is.  (I’ve since remedied this mistake; turns out that record rules).  Being that as it may, I can’t particularly tell you what drew me in to this year’s self-titled album, a full nine years after Pleasure first graced the stage.  In one sense it’s probably because Pleasure is one those albums that just never went out of my rotation.  Whenever the fahrenheit tips past 90 and the walk to the bodega is a few blocks longer than you’d like, that record always hits the spot.  Maybe I just knew this was the record I needed this year.  Either way, from the first bars of “Middle America” I was hooked.  The guitars crash over you, but never in a threatening way. Rather, they envelop you like a weighted blanket, comforting you in their sonic embrace.  Nowhere is this more true than on “Fantasy,” easily my favorite song of 2020 (especially since this was a year entirely devoid of dance floor bangers).  If this album came out in 1999 rather than 2020 I would have hit the repeat button on my discman and listened to this song forever.  

2. Crack Cloud – Pain Olympics

Pain Olympics is the answer to the question that no one asked: what if Arcade Fire’s (back when they were good) communal uplift was paired with Gang of Four’s stark anthem’s of industrialism’s collapse?  While on first blush this might sound like your standard album of punkish fist pumping angst, from when the female vocals (sorry there are too many people in this band for me to be able to figure out whose who) come in on opener “Post Truth (Birth of a Nation)” Pain Olympics reveals itself to be a very strange animal (likely a unicorn of some sort), especially as little orchestral swirls creep into the mix, giving it an almost Judy Garland (in hell) quality.  This subtle genre pastiche is given its best effect on stunner “The Next Fix.” That song starts out as an elastic spoken-word call and response addiction rumination, at the minute mark it starts to segue into a vocoded chill raver, then some horns crop up out of nowhere, then a spoken word passage, then at the two minute mark a chorus of voices come in, doing their best Broken Social Scene in the truest sense of the phrase.  This is perhaps one of the strangest records I’ve ever heard, but what is strangest of all is just how beautiful it is.  Crack Cloud are not for everyone, but if you really give it a chance, the returns are limitless.  

1. SAULT – Untitled (Rise) / Untitled (Black Is)

You cannot tell the story of 2020 without SAULT, which is why this pair of records is here at the top, even if under the influence of sodium pentothal (lets be honest, veritaserum) I might lean more towards Pain Olympics.  In June, the “anonymous” London project put out Untitled (Black Is), and then quickly followed that gem up with September’s Untitled (Rise).  Perhaps more amazing still is that these two albums, released so close together, have unique personalities.  Black Is is more pop/R&B whereas Rise has a dancy, electr(on)ic feel.  I lean more towards the latter, but honestly, both albums are so overstuffed with amazing moments that it’s borderline unbelievable that one outfit could put out so much amazing music in such a short span.  While these records would chart high even if sung in Hopelandic, there’s no escaping the social import of the lyrics.  One need look no further than Black Is’s “Don’t Shoot Guns Down” for the 2020 dance party at the end of the world.  As if that weren’t more than enough, it finds its analogue on Rise’s “Street Fighter,” and that’s SAULT in a nutshell: two albums in constant communication with one another, and more importantly, with the state of the world.  Guns down.  Don’t Shoot.  Let’s dance.  

[hu4ngs]

Ten as a boyfriend pls! Thank you!!

ohhhh boi

omg this baby

first of all congrats, you’ve got yourself a MAN

so let’s go from a to z

you met him when you attended your friend’s (let’s say guanheng) sports match

you weren’t all close to guanheng, so you have no idea who’s in his friend’s circle

and you were very much surprised that he asked you - of all people - to go to his match

so as a token of gratitude, you attended

you sat on the bleachers

you sat next to ten ;)

your first thought when you saw him was that you think he looks so much alike guanheng

when ten caught you staring, him being a lil shit, he just HAD to call you out, playfully, of course

“take a picture, it lasts longer”

you’re confused and taken aback

“i’m sorry, what?”

he laughed at you, before shaking his head

“i was kidding!” he told you

and then you laughed, but you were still very confused

ten, on the other hand, just brushed it off

although he’s a little embarrassed that his joke didn’t come through

there was an awkward silence between you two now

“so who are you here for?” he asked

“my friend, guanheng. he said this is his first time being a regular, so he wants every one he knows to -”

“to go see his match?” he finished your sentence for you

you’re really confused with this man

you nodded nevertheless, “how’d you know?” 

surprise surprise

guanheng and him are friends!

so you two exchanged instagrams cuz why not

he’s hot, you’re hot, i don’t see a problem here

and then it just continued on since then

you’d reply to his story

he’d reply to your story

it continued on like that for about two months

and then ten finally tells you that he’d like to have your number

you’re more than happy to give them to you

then you two started playing imessage games together

ten: damn you really suck at cup pong, y/n

you: literally leave me alone

ten: saving your number as ‘loser’ now

this goes on for a few more months i tell you

because ten is a prideful person

he’s not just gonna give in and admit to himself (or to anyone, for that matter) that he has fallen in love

plus, if you’re gonna get TEN to have a crush on you, you’re gonna have to wait longer than 3 months, this man isn’t here for puppy love, he’s here for LOVE love

after months, and you two are noticeably comfortable with each other now, you started opening up a little

every now and then you’d talk about your day to him

and ten appreciates that

he feels needed

he feels wanted

and he loves feeling that way

he loves feeling important to someone

even if he doesn’t open up as much as you do, you didn’t mind

you figured when he wants to open up, he will

and he noticed this about you, and totally loved this about you

plus to you, it’s not a big matter anywas

oh, you’re so oblivious with your feelings for him that was increasingly growing that’s why you’re so tolerable for him

one fine day

more like night

you were texting him

and ten asked you out

das right

just you two, out on a date

he was so straightforward about it??? big dick energy right there

n e ways

you’re like holy shit holy fuck oh my god wow

of course you said yes

only an absolute fool wouldn’t say yes to ten

so the next day yall meet up

he looks stunning

you look stunning

oh god i love a power couple

ten’s a little shy than he was the last time you saw him

and when he’s shy, he giggles and smiles a lot its adorable i tell you i’m so in love with you, ten

anywAys

he took you out to see a movie

and there wasn’t any bomb movie at that time so yall settled with a horror movie

but its shitty though

but it’s okay bc it’s the memories that matters xoxo

ten purposely picked the couple seat btw

he’s a sly fox

like i said it was a crappy horror movie so you weren’t really scared

but ten was surprisingly kept on his toes during some parts

considering all the times ten had teased you thru text

you decided to jumpscare him

you whispered-yelled a ‘boo!’ to him during the suspense part

and he actually S C R E A M

mans screamed LMAO

the few people who came to watch the movie gave you two quick glances

“i’m gonna beat your ass, y/n!” he told you

but you were too busy laughing to react to him

after the movie ended

ten was still a lil mad that you embarrassed him like that

so you decided to take him to an arcade 

ten quickly got over it and was excited to beat you in games like he usually does

“try beating me in real basketball the same way you did in the imessage version, loser!” ten told you

and obviously he won

virtual basketball and actual basketball are two different things

and you sucked at sports, even if its just an arcade game

i hope you know what basketball game im talking about omfg

and then you decided to play that shooting game where you have to kill zombies

it was nerve-wrecking 

you two were literally SO loud with letting out frustrations about how the zombies should just ‘leave you alone’ and how they should ‘go fuck themselves’

but yall actually won the game!!

you losers actually WON!!

you were so happy because you’re so used to losing in games

that you just,,, pulled ten into a hug

as you excitedly laugh, happily telling him that you’ve won because of how good your teamwork was

your ear was pressed exactly to where his heart was

and you’re surprised that his heart was beating so fast and so loudly

maybe it’s just the adrenaline from playing the game

so you brushed it off

then you went out to eat together

and when yall were eating

you talked to each other a bit more

talking about random things and facts about yourselves

you know,,, small talk and shit

ten, at this point, had already acknowledged that he has feelings for you

but after knowing how much you’re well educated about things he’s interested in, he falls harder for you

as you were busy talking

he couldn’t help but hold one of your hand that was on the table

you quickly became quiet as you stared down at his hand

“ten?”

“hey, y/n?”

you nodded as a response, wondering what the hell is he up to now

“do you think i’m a dumbass?”

you laughed at that question, not thinking much of it

you are, in fact, more intrigued with him holding your hand like that

“sure, sometimes you are”

he chuckled at your answer

and then he made eye contact with you

“well am i a dumbass if i told you that i like you? and that i wanna date you?”

you almost choked on your food

“wait! wait, wait. do you mean that?”

“of course”

you didn’t think twice

you’ve never been so sure about an answer your WHOLE life until now

“then yes, you are a dumbass! but, i like dumbasses. especially cute ones like you”

oh boy ten loves his baby confident like that btw ^

and voila! ever since then you two became a couple

NOW i was so into writing this

let’s get to the point

him as your boyfriend?

nothing changed much

except now he takes you out in so much dates

he loves you so much, and he’s constantly reminding you

he’s not one to admit his love as often as it seemed, so he’d show it through his act of kindness

he knows how much you appreciate the little things

so, he’d shower you with little things

he’d tell you to be safe when you’re on your way to somewhere

facetimes/calls you whenever you tell him a good news, just to congratulate you and say ‘i love you and i’m proud of you, baby!’

he has a lot of petnames for you

baby, angel, babe, honey, darling, fatass, loser, the list goes on

he comes over so often you have a hard time trying to sneak him out whenever your family member comes back from work/school

he’d tease you a lot for being scared to introduce him to your parents though

but he doesn’t mind, when you’re ready, you’re ready

he doesn’t really hug a lot

he kisses you a lot though

he lovesssss giving you a peck on your lips

when you two meet up? kiss

when you’re going back home? kiss

when you made a funny joke? kiss

when he finds you adorable? kiss

oh my god your first kiss with him was totally accidental

ten was showing you his new art and you complimented him

it boosted his self confidence

and then he was jokingly saying “your boyfriend is such a genius artist, don’t you think?”

he was walking towards you at the same time

then he accidentally tripped whilst he was rambling on about how amazing he is

but it’s okay he landed straight into your arms so you managed to catch him before he falls and breaks his nose

BUT his lips landed a centimetre away from your lips

when he pulled back he was like O__O

“did i kiss you?”

“no”

“aw, that sucks”

you were kinda blushing now

he saw you like this, and took this opportunity

he quickly wrapped his arm around your waist, and leaned in to kiss you

it wasn’t THAT passionate

but it was sweet

he was smiling in the kiss when you kissed back

when he pulled away, your noses were still touching

and he took the time to admire your beautiful face

“i love you, babe”

ANYWAYS!! OH MY GOD THIS IS GETTING ME IN MY FEELS!!!!

he compliments you a lot too

he’s constantly reminding you that you’re beautiful

sometimes he invites you when he’s going out with guanheng/taeyong/johnny because he wants everyone he cares about to meet you

he talks about you a lot to his family, too

saying how lovely you are, and how smart you are

and that his family would absolutely adore you when you meet them

god he praises you so much he literally boosts your confidence

oh ALSO!!!

he’d go to every event you joined

you’re doing a performance at your school/college? he’s there to support you

your school’s doing an open carnival and you’re the host for the event? he’ll be there

you’re at a math championship? he’s sitting amongst the crowd praying you’d do your best

you’re volunteering? you’re going together because no way in hell is he gonna let you do all these hard work without his help

you appreciate this so much, it means a lot to you

during your anniversaries/birthday, he’d surprised you a lot

he’d buy you the gift that you didn’t remember telling him that you wanted it

along with 10 other gifts that he bought you 

he’ll take you to that fancy restaurant you’ve been eyeing a lot whenever you two go out

he’ll also remind you how much he loves you because you just mean so much to him

whenever you two argue

he’s usually a dick ngl

he’s got a sassy mouth

it’s not his fault if he roasts you

also

you two argue quite often too

some more serious than the other

ten builds a big wall around his heart because he’s just a guarded person in general

it takes a long time for him to open up and trust someone

but once he does, he trusts said people very dearly

even so, whenever you argue, it’d take a while for him to cheer up

it takes an even longer time if he was in the wrong, because he’s quite an egotistical person

but once he cools down completely

he’ll go see you

and he’ll cuddle with you for as long as he can

caressing your hair

whispering sweet nothings into your ear

he does feel guilty of course, but its kinda difficult for him to apologise, so he does these act of kindness instead as an apology

he doesn’t mean anything that he said when he argued with you though

he was simply just trying to win the argument

he’s so glad that you’re able to tolerate with him

because not a lot of people can

he appreciates you a lot for that

he makes it clear that he’d do anything for you because you’re simply worth the effort

in conclusion

ten would be an amazing boyfriend for you

he loves you dearly

he will be the best boyfriend ever

his hugs will linger with you for days

his kisses gets sweeter each time he kiss you

although he can be an ass sometimes

it can’t be helped, that’s part of ten’s nature

he’s a lil mischievous, so you need to tolerate with that, the same way he’ll have (and will) tolerate with your bad sides too

please don’t ever let him go

ten as your boyfriend will make you forget about you exes, he’s just THAT amazing

i said it countless times but im gonna say it again

he loves you so much, so so so so so much, you’re his own personal angel to him