#tbh i didn't even know they were still performing!!!!!!!!!!

[theboytatu]

how was smtown???

it kept raining all throughout the hours previous to the concert starting. we were handed trash bags like katrina victims but luckily it ended right before the show started 👍

the venue was half empty so they relocated almost everyone and luckily it didn't look as empty in the end. i ended up with front row view so yay for smtown flopping ❤️

tvxq and key had THE single best performances of the night. by far. like oh my god. what a show. WHAT A GOOD FUCKING SHOW

the flops of the night were nct 127 and riize. even wish and dream had better performances than them like omfg? 127 were not even trying man. i've seen them before live and this performance was painful to see. they're clearly missing taeyong. plus haechan wasn't even trying he wasn't moving. johnny and jungwoo were a fucking mess. the only ones that sort of tried were yuta and doyoung. like i'm a yuta hater and i ended up thanking him for trying to pick up the pace. maybe it was the altitude but like. they also looked pissed idk there were weird vibes all around

WAYV PERFORMED LOVE TALK AND I PASSED AWAY. sadly i couldn't really see ten that much but honestly. seeing him on the big screen was enough. by god it was enough.

shinee were superb. sadly they had no group songs but minho and key were.... glowing. when they came together to do their ment key shouted in spanish SHINEE IS FOREVER and promised the full group will come back with a world tour!!! 🥺

also lowkey the chemistry between them is. honestly kinda crazy lmfao. minho was glued to key's waist the entire time like he was ON HIM like a man who just told you he wants to go steady and blew off all his side pieces. not to be a delusional motherfucker but i think key let him hit it before the show like jesus dude

SOMEHOW ENDED UP A SUJU STAN....? these men do not play about mexico. like oh god. eunhyuk and leeteuk were insane. kyuhyun is SO loved the entire stadium went BATSHIT every time he was the focus

exo. exo. EXO. 10/10. still can't believe they're real and that i saw them with my own two eyes. chanyeol is INSANE looking live. like he is drop dead gorgeous. and GIGANTIC?

also chanyeol came up to our side of the stage. i was wearing a cherry cap and he might have seen it. i know he pointed to our area and my lizard brain is choosing to believe that means we're destined to be together. best y/n moment of the night 10/10 no notes.

their performance of git it up was also top 3 of the night. like kai added so much flavor to it. they were insane. i did cry a little bit at their mention when they said they really couldn't believe they still had fans here. jesus christ i will petrol bomb sm hq one day i swear to god

we saved ourselves from an nct dream love me right cover and i thank every god above for that. they still managed to put on a better performance than the rest of nct (sans wayv) so like. that tells you where the whole group is at.

sadly the girl groups had little time to shine imo but we got an amazing performance of bad boy and red flavor by rv. i am not an rv stan but it was great to see tbh. im happy they could come here because they have a huge fanbase too

aespa were great!! it's just that i literally saw them already two months ago so it was like yay ❤️ my girls ❤️ they used handheld mics for their performances - thank GOD they sang live this time around instead of lipsyncing... sm doesn't let them sing live for some reason and they looked really happy to be able to actually sing the fucking songs. they gave us whiplash, next level and supernova. 10/10 no notes

also their outfits being miles better than the ones they wore at their own concert stop 😭 ningning looked ETHEREAL. holy fucking shit. her hair and makeup were flawless. people literally gasped when she came on the screen.

everybody looked really happy to be there except for half of nct riize and h2h lol. i think they're obviously pretty overworked and flying here less than 24 hours before the concert was such a shit idea.... like idols were literally saying we're still jetlagged we're still tired jfksjkdkf. the altitude is no joke!! </3

overall this was an AMAZING concert. like if you're any partially an sm group stan you will really enjoy it. they played the full four hour set too. i highly recommend anyone going if they still can. sadly i am in this pink blood shit for life i cannot lie to myself. this impact is different. these idols are simply built different sorry!!!! 💖💖💖

[witchpaladin]

the worst part about that shitty relationship that ruined my ability to trust people is because a lot of it has to do with DID it's pretty much impossible to communicate every little thing that happened without it just sounding completely insane, because it was

short version being that he claimed to also have DID but throughout our relationship his alters and etc kept mirroring or countering mine in ways that were weird and unhealthy but I didn't want to believe he was malingering so for years I made excuses for him

but it got to the point I'd tell him something like "yeah I don't like this character because I associate him with x trauma so his scenes can be triggering and I just avoid that part of the fanbase" and magically he'd spawn that character in his system even tho he'd never watched/read that media before

so basically he went out of his way to read up on that media, lie to me about it (because I'd directly ask him "have you read this yet" and he'd say no) and then randomly one day terrify and confuse my alters by claiming that character just exists as an alter now

and even that we tried to accept but as I started grilling him about the circumstances of the alter forming it became clear he'd manufactured the whole thing because he likes tormenting people

he'd been playing these kind of games for years but it finally got to a point where it was so overt and obvious that we couldn't excuse it anymore. and the realisation that someone would take vulnerable information from a mentally ill person who they claim to love and use it to manipulate and psychologically torture them for years kind of fucked up my trust with other people permanently. so that sucks

it's fucked up that I don't even know what parts of what he told me were lies and it's over such petty crap but the cumulative and mindfucky nature of it basically destroyed my brain

like did he even actually read the media?? did he only start reading it after he introduced this alter because I started questioning him and he realised he needed to beef up his story?

because I remember confronting him, and telling him, but you said you never even read or watched this. how do you have an alter from something you've never read or watched? and his answer was just "oh I guess I lied about that, I actually lie a lot, I'm a compulsive liar", which in itself was something I was hearing for the first time in like 3 years of being in a serious relationship lol

having someone lie to you and manipulate you like that for years when you're already vulnerable and traumatised is so hard to come back from. idk if I'll ever come back from it and it sucks

he did appear on one of my blogs once years ago to basically try to gaslight me and I just laughed in his face and blocked him everywhere. but it drives me nuts because he really has no concept of how much he has destroyed my brain lmao. it's been like 7 years since we met and I still don't trust anyone. I still think everyone is lying to me. I still see red flags in every tiny thing because I made myself ignore so many red flags in that relationship that now even a slight shade of pink puts me on the defensive. and I haven't had a friendship or relationship last more than a few months because I get scared or overwhelmed and I just ghost them and never go back

and. I barely even feel anything about it. because my ability to attach to others has been so wrecked that nothing anyone does hurts me anymore and nobody I lose hurts me anymore

and sometimes I feel bad about the things we said or did in retaliation but it's hard to feel bad about those things when we were in a constant state of distress because of the way we were treated. especially knowing that he holds onto those bits of retaliation as proof of us being the abuser or the instigator or w/e

like richard you can say w/e the fuck you want about the whole thing but you and I both know that the person who started with the lying, and the threats of violence, and the insults, was you. I'd never in my life spoken to people the way I ended up speaking to you and I haven't spoken to anyone like that since

it was you who started with the I hate you, I want to hit you, I hope you die, I'd kill your cats if I was there etc etc etc

I remember it clearly because I even remember when M finally snapped and for the first time answered you the way you speak to us, and he said he hated you and he wanted to punch you in the face, and suddenly you started laughing and said "wait what the fuck, I don't hate you, I'm so sorry, why am I doing this? I love you" and immediately M calmed down and stopped. because it was you who was always the instigator and us who were always just happy to settle into a pretense of normalcy and act like everything was okay

I remember this shit richard. I remember it vividly and every day

I remember you frequently suicide baiting us and keeping us up at night on call, begging you to get off the street and go home

I remember this happening so much that when we couldn't reach you we'd completely panic and we'd start messaging and calling random people who knew you to confirm you were okay

and then you'd come back and act like we were being insane but we thought you were fucking dead! because you'd do this all the time!

and it was all so insane and so stupid that I can't even talk to anyone about it. like congrats you ruined me for other men and not even in a fun way. I just look at everyone and see your lies now

it is so bad sometimes, thinking these things and feeling these things, that I actually want to kill myself. I want it all to end because I don't see how I will ever recover from this, because 7 years later and I still wake up sometimes with it fresh in my mind. and even if I don't remember, every morning I wake up ANGRY. AT NOTHING. AT EVERYTHING. AND I PRETEND NOT TO KNOW WHY- BUT I KNOW

because it was when we'd wake up that we'd immediately check our phone to see the aftermath of whatever had occurred the night before. we'd check to see if you were still angry, if you were still there, if you'd left any messages for us as we slept that will now lead into another argument. it always made R so angry because he had to sit there biting his tongue and just let you mistreat us

actually you know what really sucks is I feel like the only time you were ever truly content in the relationship was when you were regressed and N was taking care of you. any other time it was like you just felt obligated to be there and to pretend to actually like us so you could basically get your ddlg session in

[melminli]

Love To Dream

summary - there was this one girl that thanos really wanted, though, she didn't really want to have anything to do with him. unfortunately, that made him want her even more.

pairing: (thanos) choi su-bong x fem. reader

word count: 1.5k

contains: modern au, mention of drugs, enemies to lovers vibes ig, crack, yearning

a/n: i don't even know what this is tbh but I felt like we all deserved some laughs ;)

Life was good - life was really fucking good, Thanos thought to himself as he winked charmingly at a group of hot girls. They had been looking in his direction for a while now while giggling, clearly interested in him. He continued to watch them as he sipped his drink, music pumping through his veins like adrenaline. Thanos's eyes darkened as the girls continued to cast lustful glances in his direction - he knew he could easily get more than one of them into bed tonight and why wouldn't he? It hadn't been long since his last performance on stage, reminding everyone present once again of his legendary status in this club.

However, his attention was focused somewhere entirely else after the most breathtaking person ever decided to walk past him. The pick-up lines he had been thinking of for the group, vanished from his mind after this angel showed up in front of him since the other girls could barely compare. The whole thing looked like something out of a scene from a Kdrama because time seemed to pass in slow motion and your hair was swinging in the air like that of a princess - which would have been the perfect time for some product placement because it just looked so damn soft.

Thanos had his mouth wide open in shock and put a hand over his heart to check if it was still beating while his eyes never left your figure. You - who was leaning prettily against the bar right next to him as you ordered something from the bartender.

“Hey.” he finally recovered from the moment and casually moved towards you. “I'd introduce myself, but I assume you already know me.” he talked to you with his flirty face as soon as you looked up at him.

You smiled shyly. “Yeah, I watched your performance,” you answered him and seemed quite grateful that he was speaking to you right now. “You were pretty good.” you giggled slightly as you complimented him.

“Yeah, that's just how I am.” he sighed as he looked around the room as if it was a burden for him to have to live with all the recognition. His eyes met yours again and he tried to impress you by unpacking a few bars while emphasizing them with the movements of his hands. “Girl, I know you and I are meant to be because after I looked at your pretty face everything stopped being. If only you saw what I can see, you'll understand why I want you so desperately.” he rapped to you, stealing the last line from some One Direction song, but you didn't need to know that.

You shyly put your hands in front of your face to hide your smile. “Oh my god, that was so incredibly sexy, I'm so horny for you right now.” the words came out of your mouth and made Thanos screw up his face weirdly for a second.

Because first of all, those vulgar words didn't match your innocent demeanor in the slightest - and secondly, you said exactly what Thanos had imagined you would say - it was actually a bit creepy since you literally said it word for word. Thanos hardly thought that he could foresee the future all of a sudden or that you could maybe read minds, though he decided to ignore the whole thing as soon as you started touching his chest softly with your hands. He wanted you so bad.

“You don't even know what you're doing to me right now,” he whispered to you while you felt him so sensually and he was about to kiss you, hadn't you stopped his lips with your hand as you laughed into his face. “I think you should wake up now. Otherwise, the pink elephant will keep handing out balloons to people.” You told him, pointing behind him to where the bar was supposed to be.

“Hah?” he asked you confused and turned around while continuing to hold you in his arms, but all he saw were a few dogs breakdancing - and that was nothing out of the ordinary. He continued to look at the scene with a grin, even though some inner voice inside him was stressing out about kissing you immediately as if he was running out of time. He finally turned back to you and was about to continue when he suddenly heard a man speak. “You really should wake up man.” Nam-gyu's voice told him and Thanos only caught himself almost kissing him after he took a closer look. He just pushed him away from him in disgust and then -

Thanos woke up from his sleep, bathed in sweat, when he saw your face in his field of vision. “Finally, you're sleeping like a dead man. There's some guy at the door who wants to talk to you,” you told him as he sat up tiredly while slowly recovering from his strange dream.

That's right. You weren't just some hot girl he met at the club, you were his fucking roommate. Thanos discreetly pushed more blanket over his lap as he tried to shoo you away from his room with a wave of his hand. “Yeah, yeah - I'll be right there, just - give me a moment,” he said without looking you in the face.

You just sighed slightly and complied with his request, though not without letting him know how unhappy you were. “I told you to stop giving our address to these dealers. I don't like it when they show up here,” you grumbled under your breath before dashing out and closing the door behind you.

After that, Thanos let out a very heavy sigh and stroked his face aggressively. “Now she's showing up in my dreams, too? Fucking great.” he grumbled to himself and got up from the bed to put on some decent clothes. His eyes met his own reflection as he pulled a shirt over his head. “Get a grip man, what's wrong with you?” he asked himself as he grimaced in annoyance. “You're Thanos the destroyer, not some kind of -”

“Stop taking so long and come here already!” your voice suddenly shouted, coming through his door slightly muffled.

He looked even more annoyed at that and made his way to the living room while shouting back at you. “I'm fucking on it, alright!” and it only took a few loud steps from him to your front door for him to yank it open to fix the damn problem. He looked at his friend, completely bothered by his presence. “What do you want?” he asked him and was kinda glad that it at least wasn't Nam-gyu because he just really didn't want to see his face at the moment and probably for a little while.

“Hello, to you, too.” the man in front of him greeted him, already used to his weird mood swings. “I just wanted to do you a favor by bringing you some of the pills you wanted because last time you almost beat me up when I didn't have them with me,” he explained, holding the bag, which Thanos grabbed instantly before inspecting it more closely. “Don't act like you didn't deserve it, I paid you the money in advance, man. Of course, I was angry,” he complained again and would probably have beaten him up for real right now if he had ruined his morning over something completely unnecessary. However, he would still have to make sure that something like this didn't happen again so that you didn't have another reason to kick him out of the apartment.

“You know, maybe this was meant to be. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been greeted by an absolute hottie today,” he said happily as he stood there, still interested. “Is she your cousin or something? Do you want to introduce me to her?” he asked and was quite confident in the way he acted, but Thanos just looked at him emotionlessly for a few seconds until he slammed the door in his face.

"Okay, he's gone now!" he exclaimed, bored, and made his way into the kitchen, where you were sitting with a cup of coffee or something while scrolling on your phone. "Don't open the door for that guy if he shows up again," he said, grabbing a cold Sprite from the fridge. You just looked at him with a displeased look. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'll make sure that he and no one else shows up after today. But, I'm just saying that in case it still somehow happens."

Thanos then opened the can and drank from it while he continued to watch your face from the side. Eventually, he sat down next to you, although, to his dissatisfaction, that didn't seem to get your attention. "Hey, you want to go on a date?" He asked, and you weren't sure how many times he asked you that by now. You kept scrolling on Instagram. "You know my answer to that."

Thanos continued to grin hopefully. "Yes?" he asked and then watched you disappear out of the kitchen with your cup of coffee in your hand - probably to your room. "You should be glad that I'm even asking you! Other girls would die for..." he muffled towards the end before he stopped talking entirely once he realized that you weren't giving him a reaction.

Maybe, I should just go back to sleep, he thought to himself dejectedly, unable to believe that he had actually better chances with you in dreams with pink elephants and breakdancing dogs.

[imaginespazzi]

GUYS GUYS GUYS I FINALLY GET TO GIVE Y'ALL THOUGHTS AND HAVE THE YELLING BE OUT OF LOVE AND HYPE AND EXCITEMENT (should tell you in advance that a lot of this might be in cap because I'm so fucking happy)

AZZI FUDD

OH MY GOODNESS AZZI FUDD

LIKE BABYGIRL YOU HAD ME WORRIED A LITTLE BIT IN THE FIRST I CANNOT LIE LIKE I WAS GONNA HAVE TO MUTE YOU ON TWITTER AND SHIT

BUT THAT'S MY BAD CAUSE AZZI FUDD 3RD QUARTERS??? INSANE SHIT

Like honestly she was just....wow. Brilliant, spectacular, amazing. And I have to just point out what a testament this is to the growth in her mentality because there's a version of Azzi who would've gone 2-10 and then just stopped shooting. But not this one and man oh man was it freaking awesome. Also the 5 rebounds? Means the world to me actually. And what's being talked about less is that she played hella good defense today and kept Pao Pao from ever getting into a rhythm.

POINT GUARD PAIGE BUECKERS

WELCOME HOME SWEEHEART WE HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH

MY GOAT FINALLY GOT HER DOUBLE DOUBLE ALMOST A TRUPLE

You know what it didn't matter that, that basket coulda been the size of an ocean and Paige still might not able to get a ball through it because Paige was the heart of the offense. THAT'S MY LEADER. MY PG. MY OFFENSE MOVER. And she did it beautifully, all while occasionally having to defensively play PF.

SARAH MF-ING STRONG AMAZING AS PER ALWAYS. Like truly what is there to say about Sarah because she's just always so consistently good and that one half-court steal? OH I STOOD UP AND EVERYTHING

OH AND OF COURSE ANOTHER DOUBLE DOUBLE FOR MY NFOY

JANA EL ALFY BEST GAME OF THE SEASON AND OH MY GOD THAT HUSTLE??? Y'ALL SEE THAT HUSTLE? IT'S BEEN THERE ALL SEASON TBH BUT IT REALLY SHONE THROUGH TODAY AND THAT FIRST MOVE WHEN SHE CROSSED THAT GIRL OVER? OH THAT'S WHEN I REALLY STARTED TO BELIEVED. Just amazing work from MY center and miss girl didn't even miss a layup today I think (even if she did we didn't see it okay?)

ASHLYNN YEEHAW SHADE GIRL I HAVE YELLED AT YOU (and I still side-eye the hell out of you off the court for that follow) BUT M'AM YOU SHOWED UP! Those 3 threes really set the tone for the whole game and like she has all season, Ash hustled on the glass constantly and she saved some really important posessions.

KK GIRL THAT ENERGY BEEN CONSISTENT EVERY BIG MATCHUP AND YOUR TEAM FINALLY MATCHED IT! And those two fouls on Milaysia that she drew? Crucial shit forreal. Defense was great, made the right moves offensively AND DIDN'T GET BLOCKED ON A DRIVE!!

KC HAD A SOLID GAME!! Quiet 10 tbh I barely realized she'd gotten double digits but I did notice every basket and you could see her being aggressive about it and that's so important.

AUBREY BBG GOT SOME GOOD MINUTES TOO!!! Hard to say if she should've gotten more after such a dominant performance by but her presence is always great and I think really deflated SC, seeing her come off the bench in the 2nd half when we were already demolishing.

REBOUNDING REBOUNDING REBOUNDING. I been yelling all season and then we play the best rebounding team in the country an out-rebound them? SHUT ME UP UCONN

DEFENSE IN GENERAL? SO FUCKING GOOD. They couldn't get nothing going and we didn't do any of that overhelping shit (again mayhaps that's the adrenaline but even if we did, I didn't see it) and it was just lockdown at all time JUST AMAZING

And finally, no one I have yelled at more than Geno fucking Auriemma. AND THIS IS WHY. BECAUSE GRANDPA IS THE BEST COACH IN THE WORLD AND HAS BEEN FOR YEARS. AND WHEN HE REMEMBERS THAT AND COACHES LIKE IT, LOOK AT WHAT WE CAN DO. Like this man did everything right today. He gave the ball to Paige, he called the right timeouts, he ran the right plays at the right time, subbed the right people in and out the same time AND LIKE THIS IS MY FUCKING HALL OF FAME CAOCH. DO THIS EVERY GAME GODDAMN ION LIKE YELLING AT YOU EITHER GRANDPA.

MAN OH MAN I AM SO FREAKING PROUD OF THIS TEAM LIKE I CANNOT EVEN EXPLAIN TO Y'ALL JUST HOW PROUD I AM. THIS IS THE POTENTIAL THAT HAS BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME AND THEY JUST HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO SHOW AND LOOK AT THAT THEY FINALLY DID. AND MORE THAN ANYTHING ALL I WANTED FROM THIS TEAM IS TO JUST COME OUT AND LOOK LIKE THEY FUCKING WANTED IT AND THEY DID AND THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED JUST LIKE I KNEW THEY WOULD IF THEY JUST PLAYED TO WIN!!

[corrupted-ciphers]

Thought this would be a fun project to work on! I <3 weird women. My thoughts on each of the characters below the cut. Version without names added below the cut as well.

Current Favorite: I love Junebug, she's been my blorbo recently, she's really weird. I love her. As I started this project though, I also started playing ENA Dream BBQ. I've been waiting for it for four years now, and damn was it worth the wait. It's a surreal game about ENA's adventures to find the b̷̸̸̡̧͇̜͎͙͙̥̥͚̫̪̩̩̏͑ͩ̓̇ͪ̋̑ͧ̂̃͊͋͘͝͡͝ͅ_̗̖͕͉̻ͯ̍̒ͤ̊́a̢͉̺̫̙̳͓̣̗͔̙̻̔͑̿͛͛̀̽͒̂̒ţ̡̧̼͙̰̥̳̹̻̍ͫ͋̌̏ͮͣ́̔ͯ͊̇ͤͪ͐̿̉ͫͨͧḩ̷̧̡̛̞̩̹͙̱͍̯͇͉̪̫̹̭͙̭͉͚ͬͯ̄̄͗ͯ̅̐̀́ͯ̈́͂̇͆̾͂͘͘͢͠r̾̆͢_̽̆ơ̶̸̡̡̛̠̥͓͔̪̲̥̥̱͙̲̲̫̖̽̊̎̎͒͊̅̔͐̄̈́̓̈́͊ͩ̂̋͘ͅȍ̶̢̙͕͍̰͓̖͉̼ͯ͆ͮͩ̓ͭͭ͑̿́́͢͝͠m̵̧̛̗͉͔̯̦͙̟̼̲̜̫̱͊͋̀̊͊ͯͤͬ͆ͭ̽̃̄̔̋̾͞. Chapter 1 is out now and free to play on Steam right now, and I highly recommend it! Anyway, Junebug is my girl, I love her.

Comfort: Okay, I know the reception ch 4 of Poppy Playtime has been receiving. Do I think chapter 4 is scary? No. Do I think it's good? Also no. Do I think it's hilarious? Hell yes I do. We got several game breaking bugs that were honestly rather amusing, and also the devs letting you move around in Doey's monologues is honestly the funniest decision they made. You can clip into him and let him just eat your head mid talk. He'll also fling you if you stand on his limbs while he talks, it's great. We nearly got killed by him flinging us under the pipe in that one section where he gets froze. Having said all that bad stuff, I love Doey. Okay, there's a lot going on in my life right now, and he came along in the middle of that. As the older sister to three little brothers, I relate to Doey in multiple ways. He is me, he is my brothers, and I just want to give him a big hug himself. I too am trying desperately to pick up the pieces of our home life collapsing around us, while trying to keep my little brothers happy and managing my own angry outbursts. It was a (in my opinion) jankily written scene, but the bit where Doey was torn up over Safe Haven getting destroyed really got to me. It was probably tied to the emotional state I was in when I played the chapter, but damn, I get it man. I too failed to protect those around me from what I knew was inevitable but selfishly pushed to the back of my mind. Damn, I really was made to hurt things and fuck up too bud. I get it. And in a lore perspective, Doey is three little boys mashed together. I have three little brothers, need I say more about that? This character has consumed my life, and I just want to give him a hug. Although honestly his in-game model is a little oily looking tbh. Also Michael Kovach knocked it out of the park with his performance here. Also also, fuck you devs for making us squish/kill Doey in the end. If he's actually dead I'm gonna be so mad at you guys.

By Design: Look man, I like women. I like murderous women. I mean, when I first saw the original Alice, I was still a child and wasn't pan yet, but like, she likely contributed. hnnnrg, girls.

By Plot: Unlike Doey who brings me comfort when I relate to him and kicks in my material instincts towards anyone even remotely younger than me, Jupe's relation to me does not bring me comfort. Instead my connection to Jupe is more uneasy. Ricky and I both express our traumas in similar ways. That is to say monetize them and put them on display for all the entitled voyuers out there on the internet for attention. Now, I'm obviously not someone who was a victim of a chimp attack, but there's that familiar death of childhood there. I've grown up with an abusive father, which I didn't realize the extent of until this divorce is going through. And guess what my most prominent stories feature? yeah. I'm also the type of person to build a shrine to my trauma like him. While Ricky's is obviously a little more extreme, I still have my hospital bracelet from my appendectomy. That is not a normal response. I wear my first dog's tag on a chain, and when it's not worn it's next to that hospital band. Most of my stories involve my internal or external traumas in some way, just like Jupe capitalized on the exploitive movies and shows he was roped into as a child. I'm white, but I'm a woman and I'm queer. I get being the token item. Reduced to stereotypes. Forced to uphold other stereotypes in a never ending cycle of wanting to be on top, of vainly hoping that others will finally accept you into their group. But they won't. Jupe's storyline makes me viscerally uncomfortable, but my favorite part is the end. Just before Jean Jacket eats him, we see his lips twist into a smile. Faint, but there. Because finally, for the first time in his life, Ricky isn't defined by what groups he's part of, he's not vying for anyone's attention, he's not this special chosen one because he survived all those years ago, he's just like everyone else. He's merely food for that creature. And that is a freeing feeling. Finally, something has accepted him the way he is, with no fighting, no tense acceptance into a world that could throw you away at any time, he's finally safe. And for that, I think he loves Jean Jacket. Because I know, there's parts of me that wish the same. A release from the responsibility, and freakish nature of myself since I'm so different than those around me. If Doey is my comfort character, Ricky "Jupe" Park is my discomfort character. (In a good way)

Guilty Favorite: Look man, she's weird as fuck. She also saved my nightmare mode run. Again, I love weird women. Choo Choo Charles is great because it knows its lane and sticks to it. It knows it's a goofy ass train spider game, and it sure does deliver on that premise. Pickle Lady is so bizarre, I love her. I can't help but love her. Is she a good character? No. Do I like her anyway? Yeah.

All Time Favorite: DO I even need to say much about this guy? It's FNAF. It's toilet Bonnie. It's the boy. I love him. My favorite animatronic since I was like 12. Hell yeah dude, let's keep it up.

[dangermousie]

Top Dozen cdramas - 2024

This can obviously change but nothing truly exciting looks to air for the rest of the year so that's unlikely. My Top Dozen for the year are likely be set in stone.

It's a very idiosyncratic list which has two mini dramas, three moderns (!!! for me that's insane) and a lot of vibes dramas.

12 Hard to Find - all vibes all the times. A tragic romance that feels like a Gothic fairytale, this is what minidramas could be.

11 Love In the Desert - out of all the dramas on this list, this is the one that screams most "a good time." It's a romance and visual feast and webnovel madness and sexy good time and it made me cry.

10 Fortune Writer - a mini that is so smart and meta and fun about narratives and fate and villainy and fighting the story itself. So clever.

9 Derailment - a puzzle and a love story, telling most anything about it would be a spoiler but this story about a rich girl from 2025 who seemingly wakes up in a parallel universe in 2023 in body of a poor doppelganger, and the young man who was in love with the original has everything including addressing what it must feel to people to have a transmigrator possess a loved one.

8 Tender Light - the ending was just - it's the reason it's not n1. But the rest of this drama about an abused wife and an idealistic young man refusing to bow to societal pressure was just exquisite. It addresses morality and loneliness and complicity and sacrifice. Just incredible. Poetry in motion.

7 Will Love In Spring - a modern romance cdrama? In my list? Is the world ending? But seriously, this is such a gorgeous, realistic yet intense exploration of love and loss and trauma. It made me utterly reevaluate Li Xian to boot.

6 Snowfall - this is such a fever dream of a mood piece of a vampire romance, with seriously BDSM and gay vibes, as well as utterly incredible canon age gap ride or die OTP with Ouyang Nana bothering to act for the first time in her life and Vengo Gao embodying a gentleman vampire to perfection. Li Muge remains one of my favorite directors for a reason.

5 Heroes - the story of three very different men all consigned to the dustheap of history by changing times (the best swordsman in the era of guns, a former imperial guard of a regime about to be overthrown, a constable obedient to obsolete code who studied for imperial exams which got abolished) as the Qing dynasty is about to fall, this has fights, humor, three (!) separate love stories, philosophy and utter and complete heartbreak. The performances, the ideas, the filming and the writing all combine to make a bleak masterpiece with a 99% death rate (I am not kidding, only tertiaries make it out.) If I were in charge, it would get all the awards.

4 The Legend of Shen Li - the one truly mainstream idol costume hit on the list. It's an adult, passionate xianxia that reunites Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin as deities and battle powerhouses in a love story that is so full of yearning and passion and intensity I feel like peeking through my fingers. This is everything xianxia romance tries to be and almost never is. This just might be my favorite xianxia of all time, tbh.

3 Eternal Brotherhood - a dark horse whose existence I didn't even know about before it aired. Visually stunning despite its tiny budget, this narrative about three sworn brothers in a kingdom and world in crisis, is pitch perfect in its humor, its intensity, its tragedy and its themes (also THREE!!!! amazing love stories despite not being a romance-centric show.) The battles, the friendships, the traumas, the darkness at the heart of it all!

2 Fangs of Fortune - the sole drama that can rival JoL2 for me (only caveat is it's still airing), this is visually the most jaw dropping drama I've ever seen, but it's also high fantasy the way it should be - making me feel so immersed that stopping feels like coming up from a deep dive or waking up from a hypervivid dream. It has impeccable performances (many from actors who I don't normally even like), and its plot and relationships and themes - fate and sacrifice and choice and found family bonds and trauma and so many other things - make it feel as if it was made just for me.

1 Joy of Life 2 - THE drama of 2024 for me. It's somehow better than the incredible first installment. It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it has insane performances, a narrative that hits all my personally favorite themes (a person trying to remain human in an inhuman world, righteousness not being weak), a large cast of fascinating characters who feel like they live in front of me (there are no throwaway roles in this), my favorite ship of the year (though it's not even a ship-centric show) and above all, Zhang Ruoyun's live wire of a performance as Fan Xian, arguably my favorite cdrama character of all time. It should not work yet it does. Brilliantly.

[fernsnailz]

Hi, I saw your Metal Sonic comic dub and I thought it was amazing. I was wondering, but what does Metal's outfit represent? I know Trans culture is prevalent in comics these days, but as a boy I used to think longskirts were neat, like a Samurai's Hakama or the worn, long cloak of a wanderer.

glad you liked it! the intent of that comic (good future) is that metal is transgender and that outfit is an expression of her beginning to display her new identity. though i do like the comparison to a hakama, my design intention was to portray metal casually wearing a pleated long skirt.

overall, the outfit is meant to be a representation of the choices she's allowed to make for herself now and the help she's received since eggman died. most importantly, it's meant to show a new starting point for the character rather than an ending.

i wrote a bit about my intent behind the pieces of that outfit that i put under the readmore here since it's a little long 🛝

i chose the skirt for a number of reasons (shorthand for showing metal is trans without explicitly saying it, practicality of what a robot could actually wear, etc), but tbh it's mostly meant to be reminiscent of neo metal sonic's design. neo metal sonic's look is really interesting to me because it shows that, when previously allowed the ability to choose what he looks like, THIS is what metal sonic goes with:

neo's waist piece isn't really a skirt, but that element of a long, flowing fabric piece always really stuck with me. it's meant to be intimidating and make neo seem even larger than he actually is, but there's also a certain elegance to it i really like. a skirt was a logical neighbor of this design to me, so i ran with it - a flowing skirt shows that metal is a bit more loose and subject to change, but also fills out her silhouette and shows that she's much fuller as a person now. there's a certain presence and comfort to it that neo was simply performing, but metal truly feels now.

the other two pieces of the outfit are also important! the shirt and the sweater metal wears in good future are actually pieces of clothing you can find elsewhere in born to fail.

the sweater you can find within good future, where belle is actively giving it to metal. but the shirt piece is a little harder to spot - it's actually intended to be amy's shirt that she wears in the comic i made about her and metal.

it's a pretty generic button down and i also didn't color it similarly so tbh i would be surprised if anyone has ever picked that one up LMFAO

the element of choice is the most important thematic piece of metal's outfit, but i also wanted to show that the help she's received over the past year is incredibly valuable as well. though good future makes it clear she isn't entirely sure how she feels about living alongside these people yet, a lot of them have still chosen to reach out and help her.

like. this is my thought process here: metal realizes she wants to wear clothes for whatever reason. what's she gonna do? go to a STORE? most of the world still sees metal as eggman's ultimate killing machine and would kick her out the mall with a broom. so for now, she receives hand-me-downs from her sorta-kinda-friends - at least, from the ones that actually wear clothes at all. which is pretty much just belle and amy.

overall though, this outfit is intended to feel just a little off - not wrong, but more like a first draft. it's only been a year since eggman died, and metal is still in the process of even learning how to BE a person so like. she's still figuring the whole gender thing out lol. but it's ok because she's rocking that shit anyway

also i do have another design of metal a few years after the events of this comic! i wanted to explore what she looked like once she really settled into her new self, and drew inspiration from various punk and goth (specifically cybergoth i think? sorry everyone who knows more about fashion than me i'm bad at subcultures) fashions.

but yeah erm. long story short: shes trans and figuring shit out 👍

[minoulapin]

Chapter One: The Shape of Uncertainty - Between Giving & Taking - Y. JW

Pairing: Demon!Jungwon × Angel!Reader

Genre: Forbidden Love, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery

Wc: 2.7k

Synopsis: A love unspoken, a fate unwritten, An angel and demon, forever forbidden. Bound by the laws of heaven and hell, A story of longing they dare not tell. At the Academy of the Occult, angels and demons coexist under a fragile truce. But when a celestial heir is assassinated, war looms, secrets unravel, and forbidden desires ignite. In a world where their love is a crime, will they defy fate or be consumed by it?

A/N: Coucou! So here’s the first chapter!! I don’t have much to say, it’s mostly to set the stage and get a better feel of their world. Also, since this is my story and I get to decide everything, there was absolutely no way I wasn’t making angel Jake blond… like, imagine Dark Blood era Jake. Okay more specifically, "full" concept Dark Blood Jake. Tbh, I think I imagined all of them looking like their Dark Blood era selves. Hope you enjoy & let me know what you think! -Joe

Tag list: open!! 🏷️ @whateveridontcaresheesh @iifrui @stormy1408 @indigoez @riribelle (Comment to be added)

PROLOGUE | MASTERLIST I NEXT CHAPTER

The Academy of the Occult was never truly neutral. It was a delicate lie, built on the pretense of cooperation, its foundations woven from uneasy alliances and fragile truces. For centuries, it had served as the only place where celestial and infernal forces could coexist without immediate bloodshed—a controlled experiment in diplomacy, designed not for peace, but for containment.

Angels trained to guard the heavens, demons honed their craft to command the underworld. Knowledge was exchanged, but never without a cost. Trust was nothing more than a well-rehearsed illusion, a performance of civility where both sides sharpened their blades beneath the table.

Yet, even an illusion had its limits. And now, it was fracturing.

The assassination of the Celestial Heir had been a spark in a room already drenched in oil. No one knew the assassin's name, no one could trace the hand that had done it—but it didn't matter. The fragile balance had shattered. Suspicion turned into paranoia, paranoia into whispered accusations, and now, every glance between celestial and infernal students carried the weight of an unspoken war.

There were no formal declarations. Not yet.

But war was no longer a question of if.

It was a question of when.

Twilight bled through the Academy's high-arched windows, staining the stone halls in fading gold before it succumbed to shadow. The torches that lined the corridors flickered between celestial and infernal energy, their glow unstable, never quite deciding which side they belonged to. The walls themselves seemed to breathe in the tension, holding onto the weight of centuries-old hatred like a creature waiting for the moment to bare its fangs.

Y/n stood at the edge of the upper corridor, arms lazily draped over the stone railing, watching the slow, inevitable collapse unfold below.

From this height, the courtyard looked like a battleground waiting to happen.

The celestial students stood in carefully constructed stillness, their postures poised but rigid, as if rehearsing restraint. Their faces were unreadable masks, but their hands twitched toward their weapons, a silent readiness simmering beneath their skin.

The demons? They didn't posture. They lounged instead, spines slouched, movements slow and deliberate, their grins all sharp edges. Their laughter wasn't loud, but it was pointed, intentional, a blade pressed lightly to the throat of the moment.

It was like watching two storms edge toward each other, the pressure in the air so thick it could snap.

Jake leaned beside her, arms crossed as he rested his weight against the stone railing. His golden hair caught the last light of the day, casting a faint glow around him, a perfect picture of celestial grace. Unlike Y/n, Jake embodied everything an angel was supposed to be—disciplined, dutiful, unwaveringly loyal to their kind. But he was more than just a soldier of the heavens. He was warm in a way most celestials weren't, easy to trust, steady in a way that made people instinctively look to him for guidance.

"You're staring," he said, voice low but knowing.

Y/n hummed in response, chin resting on her palm. "I'm observing."

Jake scoffed. "Observing, right. That's what you call it when you're getting ready to make my life difficult."

Y/n shot him a sideways glance, a smirk tugging at her lips. Jake was infuriatingly good at reading her. He always had been.

Jake had been a constant in Y/n's life for as long as she could remember. Y/n was a contradiction—a celestial who never quite fit the mold she was supposed to. Where angels were expected to be unwavering, disciplined, and dutiful, she was restless, questioning, always pushing the boundaries of what was allowed. She was sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and exasperatingly stubborn, the kind of person who would rather challenge authority than bow to it. He had always been the responsible one between them, the steady foundation she could fall back on, even when she didn't want to admit she needed it. And she needed it more often than she liked to admit. Her defiance made her an outlier, even among her own kind, but Jake never treated her like she was wrong for being different. He just sighed, rolled his eyes, and made sure she didn't get herself killed in the process of proving a point. Where Y/n was reckless, Jake was careful. Where she challenged everything, he carried the weight of tradition, not because he blindly followed it, but because he believed in something greater than himself. Where Y/n chased danger with relentless curiosity, Jake was the one to pull her back, not because he wanted to control her, but because he didn't know what he would do if something happened to her. They weren't bound by blood, but that had never mattered. Jake treated her like family—like a younger sister who never learned to stay out of trouble. And if protecting her meant dragging her out of her own messes, then so be it.

"You ever get tired of being so paranoid?" she asked lazily.

"You ever get tired of making me paranoid?"

She grinned. "No."

Jake sighed, shaking his head. "Then no, I don't get tired of keeping you from getting yourself killed."

His voice was light, but his eyes weren't. Jake didn't joke about things like that.

He had the kind of goodness that made people gravitate toward him—a warmth most angels lacked, a patience most wouldn't bother with. But when it came to her, that patience ran thin. He didn't just look out for her; he protected her. Sometimes that meant dragging her out of trouble, sometimes it meant standing beside her while she ran headfirst into it. Either way, he'd be there, whether she wanted him to or not.

She let the moment hang in the air for a beat before dropping her gaze back to the courtyard. "The Academy had always had rules. But lately, it feels like those rules don't matter anymore."

Jake followed her gaze, his expression darkening. "They don't."

She tilted her head. "Because of the Heir?"

His jaw tensed. "Because of what the Heir's death means."

The Celestial Heir. The one who had been meant to rule. The one who had been untouchable—until he wasn't.

His death had sent ripples through the Academy, but instead of seeking truth, both sides had responded in the only way they knew how.

With violence.

Y/n tapped her fingers against the railing, eyes narrowing. "I want to know who did it. Not because of celestial honor, or justice, or whatever nonsense the Council preaches—"

Jake cut in, his tone flat. "You just want to see how they pulled it off."

She turned her head slightly, a slow smirk tugging at her lips. "Jake" she said suddenly, her voice edged with something unreadable. "Someone outmaneuvered the system. Someone broke a rule no one was supposed to break. And if I can figure out how, maybe I can figure out what else is being kept from us."

Jake exhaled slowly. "And if you don't like the answer?"

Y/n's lips quirked. "I'm not picky."

Jake sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. "Of course you would say that."

She smirked. "What, do you want me to sit here quietly and be a model celestial?"

Jake gave her a deadpan look. "I'd like you to at least pretend that your survival instincts work properly."

She shrugged. "No promises."

Jake groaned. "Why am I even surprised?"

Then—a sharp crack split through the air below them.

Magic—dark and searing—collided with a celestial shield, sending a shockwave rippling through the courtyard.

She barely registered Jake's curse before she was moving.

By the time they reached the courtyard, the tension had already shattered.

And at the center of it all was Sunoo.

It was no secret that Sunoo despised demons more than any other celestial. He never bothered with quiet resentment—he wore his distaste plainly, like a blade strapped to his hip. While angels preached restraint, Sunoo had always worn his hatred like a dare, an unspoken challenge to anyone willing to test it.

But the reason why? That was something no one truly understood.

Some whispered that he had lost someone—family, a mentor, a lover—to the infernals. Others believed it was something more innate, a hatred passed through bloodlines, a belief so deeply ingrained that it had become part of him.

But if there was one thing everyone agreed on, it was this—

Sunoo never picked fights without reason.

And yet, here he was, standing alone.

Y/n's gaze swept the courtyard, searching for the missing piece.

Sunoo wasn't just standing his ground. He was waiting. His golden light flickered—controlled but coiled, shifting between attack and restraint.

The demons circling him weren't reckless. They were patient.

They weren't looking for a fight. They were waiting for him to break.

And the air—the air felt wrong.

She felt it before she even made the decision to move. A pulse, deep inside her chest.

Not fear.

Not concern.

An unease she couldn't name.

Like the world was holding its breath.

Her fingers curled. This doesn't make sense.

Why hadn't Sunoo struck first? Why was this taking so long? And why was no one stepping in?

The world was built on rules—spoken and unspoken.

But in moments like this, she hated them.

She didn't just want to interfere. She needed to know.

She Felt It Before She Moved.

The anticipation. The way the air had thickened—not just with magic, but with tension so dense it felt suffocating.

The demons were playing with their food, dragging this out because they could.

It coiled inside her like an itch she couldn't scratch. Frustration. Restlessness. A hunger for answers.

And when Jake's hand closed around her wrist to stop her—

Her magic flared.

It wasn't intentional. It never was.

A flicker of golden light curled at her fingertips—too sharp, too unstable, too unnatural.

Jake's grip tightened—just slightly. His expression didn't change.

He didn't need it to.

Because this wasn't new.

Because he had known since they were kids.

Because when they were younger, he used to panic.

And now? Now he just waited for it to pass.

She sucked in a breath, forcing it back down. Not now. Not here.

Not like before.

Not like the day the temple floor blackened beneath her hands, the stone hissing as if rejecting her touch.

Not like the time she cast a spell without speaking, without meaning to, without knowing how—only for the air to tremble in response.

Not like the day she first realized she wasn't stronger than the others.

She was weaker.

That's how they saw it, anyway.

And then—before she could stop herself, she was already moving.

"Y/n."

Jake's voice was sharp, cutting through the tension, his fingers wrapping around her wrist before she could take another step.

"Don't."

She didn't look at him.

"He's outnumbered."

Jake exhaled sharply, his grip tightening for a split second before letting go. "That's his problem."

His voice was steady, but his eyes weren't.

He wasn't heartless. But he was pragmatic. He knew when to pick battles and when to let things play out.

But Y/n had never been like that.

And he knew it.

"Not this again," he muttered, voice low, rough. "You don't even know what's happening."

She didn't care.

"That's why I have to."

She was already moving.

Jungwon Wasn't Interested in the Fight.

He never was.

Demons found sport in provoking celestials—testing their restraint, pushing them past their supposed divinity—but to Jungwon, it was predictable. Monotonous.

A celestial with a bruised ego was still just a celestial. They all bled the same.

So when Sunoo became the target, Jungwon didn't even lift his head.

Not his problem.

The fight had been escalating, but it was the same tired game they played every day. A push, a shove, a drawn blade. Sunoo was making it worse, his presence a challenge in itself. It was no secret that he hated demons. He made sure everyone knew it.

But then—

Something changed.

A voice—sharp, teasing, unafraid.

Jungwon barely turned his head, gaze flicking toward the scene, boredom shifting into intrigue.

He had been watching her for exactly seven seconds.

That was how long it had taken him to go from dismissing her to wondering why he'd never looked at her before.

She wasn't supposed to be interesting.

Celestials weren't supposed to be interesting.

And yet, here she was—acting like the rules didn't apply to her.

She wasn't Just Interfering—She Was Playing Them.

"This is getting embarrassing," Y/n drawled, tilting her head. "I thought demons were supposed to be good at fighting. Or is ganging up on someone the best you can do?"

Several demons turned to her, some amused, others irritated.

One scoffed. "Brave words for someone standing alone."

She shrugged. "Alone? Hardly. I'm just not dumb enough to throw a punch when my words will do the work for me. Unlike you."

She was testing them.

Jungwon's lips twitched. Foolish, but amusing.

She was pushing their nerves—taunting the demons, and they were letting her.

For a moment.

And then, the shift.

Jungwon felt it before it happened.

The amusement in the air curdled.

The anger shifted from controlled to dangerous.

Jungwon's gaze locked onto the demon just before he moved.

Y/n didn't notice.

Jungwon did.

And just as the demon lunged—

Jungwon struck first.

The Atmosphere Collapsed.

The impact was immediate. A single, precise movement—effortless, almost casual—sent the demon flying backward, crashing into the stone wall.

A sickening thud.

Then—silence.

Every demon in the courtyard froze.

Every celestial stared.

Because Jungwon hadn't just stopped an attack.

He had stopped one of his own.

She felt the shift like a storm breaking open.

Magic still crackled in the air, but the fight had already ended.

Because Jungwon had ended it.

Her breath was steady, but she could feel the pulse of her own heartbeat against her ribs.

Jungwon had moved before she could.

And that fact bothered her.

Y/n Met His Gaze, Unwavering.

"You..." Her voice didn't waver, but her mind raced. "Why?"

Jungwon rolled his shoulders, unbothered.

"He was in my way."

She frowned. "Your way to what?"

Jungwon tilted his head slightly. "Leaving."

Like this wasn't worth his time.

He turned on his heel, already walking away.

And something in her bristled.

"You don't seem like the type to get involved."

Jungwon paused.

A slow glance over his shoulder. Unimpressed. Unbothered.

"I don't."

She crossed her arms. "Then why did you?"

His lips twitched. "What, do you want a thank you?"

Y/n scoffed. "No, I want a real answer."

Jungwon turned back fully now, facing her. This time, he looked at her differently.

"Alright." His lips curved. "You were entertaining. That's all."

Y/n narrowed her eyes. "So you just felt like intervening?"

Jungwon took a step closer, tilting his head slightly.

"Yes."

And the way he said it—calm, effortless, honest—sent something cold down her spine.

Not because she feared him.

But because she didn't understand him.

The Fight Was Over. But Y/n Wasn't Done.

A sharp voice rang across the courtyard.

"Enough!"

Professors.

Jungwon didn't linger. His interest was already fading.

But Y/n?

She watched as he walked away, irritation simmering in her chest.

Something about this felt... unfinished.

She had a feeling this wasn't the last time they'd cross paths.

And she wasn't sure whether that thought unsettled her or thrilled her.

Jake Had Been Waiting.

Before she could process what happened, Jake appeared beside her, grabbing her arm.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's go."

She wrenched her arm free, eyes still locked on Jungwon's retreating form. "Did you see that?" she hissed. "He's so—so—"

Jake sighed. "Arrogant? Yeah. Dangerous? Also yes. And yet, you keep making this harder for yourself."

She crossed her arms. "I'm just saying—"Nope. Not listening."

Jake grabbed her wrist and dragged her away from the fight.

Jungwon, now halfway across the courtyard, smirked as he watched them leave.

Fascinating.

An angel who doesn't know when to stand down.

PROLOGUE | MASTERLIST I NEXT CHAPTER

🏷️ @whateveridontcaresheesh @stormy1408 @indigoez @riribelle @iifrui (comment if you’d like to join)

[gelphiegifs]

Gelphie Femslash February Day 15: Favorite Gelphie Scene

At this point in the story Glinda has spent years cultivating this public persona of Glinda the Good, despite missing Elphaba terribly she doesn't let those feelings get in the way of how she's trying to live her life. We know Glinda is unhappy as hell but she's still willing to put herself in the spotlight as this carefully curated figure and has spent a significant amount of time and effort doing so.

And yet the second she sees Elphaba again, all of that crumbles.

The Wizard is there! The man who could order her imprisonment if he wanted to is right there and Glinda knows this and she does. not. care.

Glinda didn't even know if Elphaba was alive, she's been dealing with these rumors about her for YEARS and she's so incredibly relieved to see her again she just has to hug her and she throws caution out the window to do so. (And this is GLINDA we're talking about. Her whole character relies on NEVER throwing caution out the window---except when Elphaba is involved. Elphaba is the only reason Glinda ever goes against the status quo but that's a whole other post.)

The scene plays a little differently with each performer, of course, but I love when Elphaba is portrayed as an active participant instead of just waiting for Glinda to approach.

Elphaba absolutely knows she's in danger, and yet she reaches towards Glinda and even shakes her arm a little impatiently while Glinda is frozen (sometimes Elphaba even walks up to her, too.) She's in danger and she doesn't care at all, she wants to allow herself this moment of reunion. Even while she's behind enemy lines. Because this is Glinda!! This is her Glinda who is right there!!

I could go on and on and on about this tbh but it's so precious how they haven't seen each other in years and they're on opposite sides and they're in this very dangerous place and through all the shock and disbelief of seeing each other again they still hold each other even for a moment.

Then it's back to business. "Only you shouldn't have come, if anyone discoverates you---" because Glinda is Glinda after all and there is work to do, but for a few seconds nothing but Elphaba mattered. It was like they were alone in that room.

[jifloulette]

no because imagine reo confessing to you in one of his band's performances???

note ; REVBEIVUBWCJVOUHOIDVOR reo brainrot is so real.. i have reo bf hcs in the making tew WBVOWROWVW

like it would just be out of the blue, he proposed to his bandmates to play a song towards the end of the show, a love song. they were skeptical at first yet excited at the same time because who was he going to perform— better yet, dedicate that song too? he was brainstorming of sooooo many ideas on how to perfectly announce to everyone that his heart belonged to you and only you, except you didn't know that.. not until his performance wink wink and after about like 36 changes in his band's practice, he had managed to think of the best way to confess yet.

since you were going to be at the front of audience, obviously, reo thought of a way to incorporate having you go up on stage with him as he sings and plays the electric guitar and give you a quick peck before ending the show with a bang! he had put in extra work for this performance specifically, reo didn't even know what he'll do if you rejected him.. he'd probably lock himself away tbh, interacting with nagi only. but he knew you'd love him back, you've been giving him hints that even nagi noticed so it was going to be a win/win situation.. right??

and so the day he was waiting for finally happened, he was so sweaty and nervous but the second you came in backstage and told him good luck? oh boy, he was going to make this performance the best one he's ever did. the concert felt like such a breeze, reo and his bandmates performed so good!! you only had your eyes on reo for most of the time though, he looked so happy to be able to perform. even if behind all that, he still says that he doesn't like playing in a band. you thought it would've ended by now, but reo announced that his band was going to play one last song for the night

"this last song goes out to someone i cherish deeply in my heart, someone who's always been with me ever since i met them.. this one's for you y/n!"

when he said those words, the world suddenly stopped. as in literally, everyone was in shock and became quiet yet their expressions seemed joyful! reo held his hand out to you, his cheeky smile plastered on his face. to say you were speechless was an understatement. he and his band seemed much more enthusiastic when you on stage with him, reo was holding your hand so tightly to the point it looked like it was turning red. speaking of turning red, his face was SO flustered!!! towards the end of the song, he cupped your cheek. everyone in that theater space was beyond shocked. you're expression and how you never let go of his hand was all he needed for an answer. he quickly kissed your face before speaking into his mic once more—

"so to everyone here right now, i would like you all to meet my bestfriend and now my girlfriend/boyfriend, the best person i could ever meet and be with!"

©🇯​​🇮​​🇫​​🇱​​🇴​​🇺​​🇱​​🇪​​🇹​​🇹​​🇪​, do not steal, translate, or repost any of my writings anywhere else.

[inchidentally]

I think there's something so poetic in the fact that, before being in F1, Oscar was a Lando fan (as we all saw on twitter) and we know (through his mom) that he thought being Lando's teammate in his 1st year would be the best thing for him since no one would expect him to beat someone so good and now, our little Osc will officially be Lando's longest teammate to date 💜

I just think that is beautiful and warms my heart, and I like to think fanboy Oscar is a little crazy about this as well.

anonnnnn I had no idea it would literally be this very weekend for that milestone ;__;

side note you reminded me I didn't add to the Oscar pre-F1 Lando fanboy compilation about him telling Nicole he would feel a lot less pressure being Lando's teammate bc "everyone knows how good he is"

and like, that moment made me think of when she saw his heartrate going through the roof on his monitor after she had the bicycle accent and how he doesn't express his love and affection in conventional ways, he shows it in private intimate ways that you have to get to know him and learn.

which leads on to him dreading replacing the beloved, Aussie icon Daniel and...

both of Lando's previous teammates being these PR slick gregarious outgoing extroverted types and not only was Oscar knowing his introduction to F1 was off the back of the Alpine drama he was also going to be replacing Daniel/a lineage of big beloved personalities as Lando's teammates and like ?? for someone who is lowkey and values his privacy and doesn't relish the spotlight that's just the w o r s t. Lola @twinkodium had followed Oscar before F1 and describes how awful it was to go through as an Oscar fan <3

and then when we all started exploring the Prema videos and realizing oh! actually Oscar's super sassy and sarcastic and even pretty mouthy with his teammates - and sure he dreaded PR filming days then too but he was SO different to that early McLaren content (and even current content tbh). and Lando was already being put in this "so you're the older mentor now" which was not comfortable and it took him some time to figure Oscar out and trust and like him! the development of his relationship with Oscar has been so rewarding in how gently and gradually it's happened ?? some ppl still want the PR bromance content but I feel like the whole charm of landoscar is that they both rejected developing a PR aspect of their relationship from the start and everything we see of them is authentic. sometimes they're feeling the challenge or interview and they're giggling and happy and funny. other times they're not feeling it so they give each other these teasing looks and just get through it. other times they're absolutely not feeling it and oh.

!!!

what's wild to me is that Lando has finally decided that he's not going to perform just because everyone expects him to be cute and bubbly and full of jokes all the time !! and he said that he's learned from Oscar “keeping calm and being yourself, it’s good to be reminded of that. I think he's been very, very good at dealing with pressure, better than I feel like I remember I was when I started." I often see ppl complaining that Lando is "serious" and "not as happy" just because he's a)grown up from a teenager to a seasoned professional adult and b)they've chosen to never see those other sides of him even when he's exhibited them all along - they were just never something he showed very often (considering people only seemed to react to him being fun and lighthearted, no wonder).

but alongside him figuring Oscar out that first year he started realizing oh, this guy has serious respect for me and doesn't expect anything of me. and I can ask for things and demand certain things and not be "on" or happy all the time and THAT is how Oscar shows he cares about me! he's not only showing me deference and respect, he also smiles fondly at every weird little shade of me I let out! (this picture will always be to me the 'oh! that's who you are! there you are!' moment bc godddd the complexity in his eyes and in his expression that seems to freeze time in the celebrations and he focuses solely on Oscar jesussssss)

so in getting a much more authentic, subtle insight into a teammate dynamic between Lando and Oscar, there also feels like a much more authentic and subtle insight into Lando as a person. the more serious, sometimes broody, quiet, shy and anxious sides of Lando stopped only happening on late night streams with Max and maybe the occasional post race where he couldn't switch it on for cameras, all started showing up at all of his media and PR that season - and he's stayed ever since.

bc for guys like Daniel and Carlos, learning PR is about controlling PR and the invasiveness that being in the spotlight brings. it's sort of a disarming attack being the best sort of defense method. which is fine for people who have the energy and won't be sapped by having to keep that up almost non-stop. or like Carlos have a family support system who will get ahead of things as much as possible (and even there, they still can't predict everything they media will do). but Lando has never been capable of that! he was a shy, self-confessedly pretty reclusive guy before Carlos and F1. he hits energy dips hard. he's incapable of lying (or lying convincingly) even to save his own skin. so he borrows those guys' energy when they're together (this includes George and Alex too) to cope and still does to this day.

but !! all of his own natural qualities generate the wildest extremes of PR adoration and persecution for him. being unable to lie and not having a skill for PR filter has created some of his highest and lowest experiences with fans and the media.

and side note it's super uncomfortable to see people literally complain about him showing more complexity and maturity alongside his usual fun, bubbly side and to have those same fans - who claim to know and adore him - totally bypass that he's a mental health advocate and say that he's not "himself" or his "old self" because he's not performing enough and daring to grow and develop each year and not restricting his on camera presence solely to fun and jokes and laughter. almost as uncomfortable as said people advocating for Lando's mental health and anti-bullying and then going on hate campaigns and flooding comment sections of major media accts absolutely trashing Oscar, trying to start rumors about Oscar's family and cultivating insane theories to twist Lando smiling, laughing and being relaxed with Oscar as suffering and hating and barely coping with having Oscar as a teammate. (and the delusions that Lando wouldn't clash with Carlos or Daniel if they were his teammate now that McLaren is at the front of the pack ????? is utterly utterly insane slfgsajlfgsalfgsafgsal. a shiver passes over me when ppl wish for that bc considering those awful carland0 'breakup' gifs from like 2021? imagine the horror of then watching it slowly die in front of our very eyes. like. the total failure to see the reality of these drivers' real personalities and on track dynamics bc of rpf is insane. I'm literally casually expecting Lando and Oscar to have battles and hugely awkward moments next season even tho it's been shockingly civil and mature this season. bc that's how drivers are in those situations! and oops it's actually rly good that Lando and Oscar incorporated that professional boundary as they've developed their relationship - bc off track besties suddenly battling each other for championship wins? have we learned nothing of how awful that is no matter how much the besties say it won't be ??)

and like, this is probably why I went from starting this blog just to follow fun F1 memes and the popular rpf ships to actually starting to use it bc of landoscar. the Silverstone hug was such a satisfying 'oh!' turning point that's even more gratifying and complex the longer they're teammates. and not in an rpf way! I go stupid and write fic etc but truly most of the things I think we love about this ship aren't crossing over into fantasy land or pretending they're eeeeeeveryting to each other or pretending that they loooove each other more than their girlfriends/girlfriend or that they're "better friends" with each other than other friends etc etc. even the fan fiction is so damn good bc the majority is based on the subtle dynamics we've witnessed between them rather than just projecting fantasy onto them. I mean we all love having ships where the guys are playing into it and share tons of content with us to play with sure. but we also know there's a blurred boundary between PR and reality that we'll never rly see for sure. whereas Lando and Oscar's relationship is a layered thing with no PR gloss to it that can just be plopped into a fic concept and see where they end up, yknow? it always ends up compelling.

and then Oscar having preferred to run the most painful gauntlet just to sign with McLaren, then his further commitment and loyalty showing itself at the first opportunity, Lando recommitting to McLaren and including Oscar in that, Lando calling them the strongest partnership on the grid, them both today saying how they both set aside ego and achieve balance through teamwork.

that is the kind of stuff that is unique and has a genuine future and strength to it. it's exhausting and often painful to watch two guys who got super chummy and friendly first and then deal with both wanting to be the winner at absolutely everything only to realize - as so many do - that it's messy and uncomfortable as hell. for instance I learned early on that it always shakes out fine with Charles and Carlos, but the fireworks that make their dynamic so exciting and fun is also why the battles are so intense and explosive. they were made so thoroughly perfectly for each other as friends but therefore in so many ways the opposite as teammates. I'm gutted at losing all the content after this season but I'm fascinated to see over the coming years how things will settle bc that pressure will finally be off.

but we're watching that whole thing consciously being done in reverse with Lando and Oscar and, considering the challenges they've faced, the professional and personal dynamic and relationship they've cultivated together (esp with the open door policy between their garages) is fucking working so far. the fans are screaming and losing their shit while those two are calmly shaking hands, shaking the whole thing off when it's done and already caught beaming and smiling at each other before they notice the camera is on for the post race. Lando is the guy who speaks with words, Oscar with actions. Lando wears his emotions on his sleeve and hates being disingenuous, Oscar would rather let the media and public get him wrong than expose himself too much. Lando has a whole life and separate company, Oscar has a whole life with Lily. they never made their off track time available to fans and don't have to feel pressure to perform there either. even Monza, they were bonded in misery and traveled home together and showed up for press the next race with the same objectives.

tee el dee are, I feel like this milestone says a lot about the potential for them as teammates - and quite frankly if the rest of us have to block out the swarms of fans who can't follow the example of maturity and reason set by Lando and Oscar - and we end up with a small but sane space then I'm all for that !

[piftamere]

part five - stunned (wc : 0.5k words if you don't want to read there's a tl:dr just under it!)

As you stepped off stage, still feeling exhilarated from your first gig, you saw a freakishly tall man approach you, a smirk on his face.

When you recognized who he was, you inadvertently grimaced.

Come on, let’s be mature, i shouldn't base my opinion of him on hearsay. You thought, taking a deep breath and replacing your expression with a polite smile.

"Hey!" he greeted with a toothachingly sweet voice "I just wanted to come by and congratulate you, it was a really good performance, for a beginner artist like you." He was probably trying to flatter you, but instead sounded impossibly condescending.

Ok, so maybe the rumors were true.

"Thanks." Your voice and expression were deadpan. "Can I ask how you got backstage?"

"No, it's a secret," he winked at you, flashing a playful smile. However, when he noticed that you didn't even flinch at his joke, let alone laugh, he quickly added, "The security guard let me in because he's a big fan of me."

You wondered if he could sound even fuller of himself… and made a mental note to hire stricter security next time.

Deciding to be polite you replied "I have to admit you make good music, I've been a fan of Geto since forever."

He noticed the hint of admiration in your voice, making him relax a little.

"Not of me huh? I'm hurt." he pouted, taking the liberty of teasing you. "Geto was the one who invited me and i'm glad he did… I really liked 'before you can', i think that's my favorite from tonight."

Your eyes widened a little, "Really? I'm… surprised, it's a little sadder than the others. To be honest, it's my favorite one too."

"Surprised I'm more than a pretty face?" He teased again.

"I never said that." You rolled your eyes but the corners of your mouth tilted up slightly, he noticed that too.

“Can i ask what it’s about or if it’s about your own experience?”

Even if he could be genuinely interested, you can't help but decline. "Sorry, but it's a little too personal."

“Shame.” he paused and smiled “Can i get your phone number?”

You couldn’t suppress the frown on your face. He choked a little at your visible disgust and laughed awkwardly, passing a hand through his hair. “For business reasons, sorry I should have clarified.”

Only half convinced, you gave him your number, worst-case scenario you could simply block him.

After typing it in his phone, a hint of mischief in his eyes, he continued “You didn’t have to look so horrified that i might be hitting on you though, I’m deeply wounded.” his voice dramatic as ever, a hand on his heart.

“How will you ever recover?” you retorted, smiling. Without giving him a chance to respond, you said "It was… nice meeting you, but i gotta go. Bye!!"

And with that you disappeared behind a door, leaving Gojo Satoru stunned.

[tl:dr : gojo comes backstage, he’s arrogant (and a tiny bit charming), he congratulates you, asks for your number for “business reasons”, you give it to him and you leave quickly.]

fun facts

gojo really didn't notice he was condescending until shoko pointed it out

y/n doesn't know what to think of gojo yet...

author's note

ilovegojosatoru

i've eaten cereals in orange juice and it's not that bad tbh

⋆⭒˚｡⋆ tugging on heartstrings ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

as an aspiring solo artist, you dream of making it big in the music industry. With your talent and unwavering determination, you find yourself entangled in a web of romantic pursuits amidst rumors and betrayal. Will you emerge unscathed and manage to navigate your love life in the chaos of fame?

Part five - Next

rbs and interactions are highly appreciated <3

taglist : open :) to be added leave a comment on the masterlist of the smau

@lysaray @swissy23 @d6za1 @minzxec @sleepy-waffle @saturn-alone @dreamxiing @reiluvr @nikkimvriee @mellozhi @cre8ing @ichorstainedskin @inosfavgf

[mashiraostail]

Presentation Mic, Eraser and Sek accidental confession?? Maybe you guys are arguing or reader did something stupid that worried the boys? Cliffhanger NSFW-y ending?

You already know what it is. I missed presentation microphone the most tbh hes fun

Present Mic: "You can't do things like that-" He's following you, lately it feels like he's always following you. "I'm not going to argue with you right now Hizashi." You hold your hand up, not even turning to face him. "What?" He sounds perturbed, "I'm not trying to argue with you!" "Oh perfect! I know I'm always wrong in your eyes but this time I'm glad to have screwed it up! So I guess that's solved, I'll see you tomorrow." If your mood had been even slightly more sour Aizawa poking his head out of his bedroom door and making a mocking angry feline sound at you would have made you deck him. Dorming as staff had created much more drama than anticipated, he was loving it. You had a feeling Nezu wasn't going to stick to this set up long. You weren't a teacher and didn't live in the dorms, however you were working closely with Hizashi and upon decided to come check on him after the fight you were instantly met with criticisms of your performance.

"Fuck off." Instead of decking him, you just push Aizawa by his forehead, away from you. "Why won't you listen to me?" Hizashi closes Aizawa's door as he walks by it, still chasing you. "Because you're not the boss of me!" You turn to face him, "I swear you think-" "I'm not telling you this because I think I'm the boss of you! I'm telling you this because I-" He furrows his eyebrows, "I'm telling you as a concerned friend, your lack of self preservation is-" "None of your concern!" You can hear Nemuri gasp at that, Aizawa must of alerted her to the brewing argument. It was your mistake for accidentally venting to him about Hizashi's sudden change in attitude. You forgot how much he enjoyed being a spectator to conflict. It had actually been Hizashi's fault for telling Nemuri the way he felt about you, even though he knew she thought misunderstandings were a spectator sport. "It is my concern!" Hizashi asserts, "please just hear me out, I'm begging you here!" He throws his hands up, "do you want me to get on my knees or something?!" "God I'm a masochist." you turn around. "Fine. Tell me how stupid you think I am, how I never think, how you would have done it better!" You jab his chest with an accusatory finger, "absolve yourself of all guilt when something happens to me, because you warned me so it's not your fault that they're just culling the weak-" "When did I ever say that?!" Hizashi sounds terrified, "is that what you think of me?" Your heart is pounding, your eyes are watering, "What?! No!" You leer back, "Hizashi I think the world of you! Ever since I came here I've just wanted to impress you! For you to tell me I did a good job, that you were glad to have me here, god anything!" You scoff, "instead you always tell me all the stupid things I did wrong!" Hizashi faulters at that he looks at you, your heaving chest and rising shoulders, he could practically hear your heart pounding. "What? I'm standing here, I'm listening, I'm hearing you out and you're just going to stare at me?" "I didn't realize you saw it that way." He holds his hands up, his hero outfit was discarded after the fight, his hands were bare of his usual gloves. "Of course you didn't." You laugh, "you can never do anything wrong, only me."

"Oh, holy shit."

Vlad was standing at the end of the hall but quickly dissipated into the nearest room. You'd amassed a small but subtle crowd of teachers, poking the heads around corners and out of rooms. The only one who was in direct sight was Aizawa, probably wondering if you were going to punch Hizashi's teeth in. "I wish I never moved here." You scrub your face, "this was such a dumb idea." "Don't say that." Hizashi looks different than you'd ever seen him before, "don't be mean." He looks at a loss for words. It felt mean to say, even this small misunderstanding couldn't hold a candle to your relationship with Hizashi to this point, you became fast friends. He wsa your closest friend and confidant since moving to this side of the country, he met you on a patrol and showed you the ropes. It went beyond work, you had him over weekly, to talk about music, his teaching, American reality shows, whatever you wanted to talk about Hizashi proved a very attentive listener. It was easy to admire him, and even easier to fall in love with him. He was there for you always, when you were homesick, when you failed, and when you succeeded, to say you wish you never met him was a deep and intentional cut. "I'm sorry I didn't...tell you what you wanted to hear." His eyes scan his surroundings looking for something better to say. "Oh fuck you." You scoff, "fuck you so much Hizashi. What a shitty thing to say." You wish you had something to throw at him, "you're so fucking patronizing." "Stop! Why do you always assume the worst of me?" He holds his hand to his chest, "I don't even know what to say right now, I'm fucking grasping at straws here! I didn't know you felt this way, I wish you told me sooner!" "It's always my fault." I'm wrong again. You laugh, "god." "No! It's my fault!" Hizashi takes a step towards you, "it is completely my fault! I was stupid. I am stupid! I was so worried about keeping you safe I didn't let you do your job! I didn't want you to!" He shakes his head, "you're a great hero and that's what freaks me out!" "What?" You blink at him, leering back as his voice raises a bit. "When I saw you laying there, I fucking freaked out!" He gestures back to the courtyard where a villain had laid you out. "I wanted to keep you safe, so I picked you apart, I wanted to close every opening-" He's holding your shoulders, "you aren't weak!" He shakes you a little, "all this stupidness is my fault. I'm falling in love with you and I let it make me throw reason out the window-" He's going, he's still talking, you stopped listening. You're just staring up at him.

"Hizashi-" You're trying to cut him off, "Hizashi stop-" All you can think to do is pull him down into a kiss. It's confused, stiff for a moment until he leans into it. His hands hold onto your wrists by his jaw. "I'm sorry I....must have misunderstood-" For the first time since knowing him he whispers. "It's okay." You shake your head, "I'm sorry too..I didn't think you felt that way I assumed you were getting sick of me.." "I-" He falters, "no. God I, I'd lose it if anything happened to you, if you left me." Your eyes scan his face, his eyes, you knew he was genuine but still your stomach lurched with uncertainty. "I'd never.." You look down at your feet, "can we talk somewhere more...private?" Aizawa's surprised face reminds you of your lack of privacy. "Come with me?" You don't really do that much talking once you're in private. A few words are exchanged, mostly in disbelief, 'are you sure?' "you mean like...?' They're quiet, quieter than you thought he could be, though you figured you'd taken him by surprise.

Shota Aizawa: You felt taken advantage of. He must know how you felt about him, he would be stupid not to. He was your Achilles heel, he could get you to do whatever he wanted. He knew that. Everyone did. "Aizawa will be there." Nemuri would coax you into meetings, outings, whatever. "Do me this favor, please?" He'd look right through you when he said it. You would still do it. Press conferences, public speaking, all the things he hated. You were bent to him, he was a weakness that only you could feel, but everyone else could see. This had just been the last straw. Endeavor was not someone you felt fondly of, everyone knew it, yet you'd spent the whole fight being berated by him, just to "Do me this favor?" Maybe your quirks paired well, that didn't matter, did no one care how you felt? You were strong, you didn't upset easily and yet you felt like your resolve was being chipped away slowly, and today Endeavor had taken a jack hammer to it. Your stomach was a pit, of course you didn't feel like talking to him. You'd thought about it all, the countless failed dates, your desire to build a bridge and get over it. You can't see a future for yourself where you feel fulfilled, lavishing in free will and a heart that's 2 tons lighter. You worried he'd have this hold on you forever, never loving you at all. You were okay with that, which was most crushing of all.

Did your feelings push him away, had he only wanted someone to take under his wing, a friend and teammate but not a lover? Was this his idea of putting distance between you? "Hey." Aizawa holds a hand up to you, "I appreciate what you did today." When you don't stop it makes him tilt his head, he came all the way here to thank you and you couldn't even stop and give him a curt nod? "Hello?" He starts to follow you, he isn't sure why. "Yeah whatever, you're welcome. Thanks for trusting me." It's curt, it's fast and quiet and he barely caught it. "That's it?" He catches you as you wait for your elevator, you decide to take the stairs, "why are you running away from me?" "I'm not running I'm walking." These 8 flights were going to be painful, at least you wouldn't have to stand toe to toe with him in your elevator. "Stop it." "I don't want to talk right now." You shake your head, "Endeavor was too much today. You know I don't like him." "Let's get dinner," He's trying to catch up to you, "let's talk about it okay? I'll get you something to eat and we can talk about, talk about everything." "I'm not hungry." You turn the corner, your voice echoes through the cemented stairwell, making it impossible to mask the way it trembles. "Drinks then, come get a drink with me. Tell me why you're upset, please. We'll have drinks and I'll listen. Tell me what he said to you." "Why do you care?" You clutch the strap to your dufflebag, you didn't even bother to stop at UA to change out of your hero costume, the tight fabric making you feel exposed and silly. "I looked for you at the school and you weren't there. I figured you were upset." "So? I ask again, why do you care?" "Well-" He seems taken aback, "he has no right to make you upset or to be mean to you. I don't want to see you upset because of him. He's just an asshole, tell me what he said I can set the record straight with him. Let's go get drinks, you can tell me and you can cry if you want and say you were drunk and I won't hold it against you. I'll be nice all night and I'll say I was drunk too, so you can't hold it against me." You won't turn back to look at him, if you do your resolve would crack. "Right, only you can be mean to me. Only you get to make me upset." You're resisting the urge to bound up your stairs and lock yourself in your apartment. "What? No, I don't want to make you upset, have I upset you? Tell me what I did." "Why did you make me do this today?" You grit it out, "and everyday, the press conferences, the meetings, the stupid team ups-" "What?" He sounds lost. You slam into every door you come across, you wished they closed faster, slam in his face. "Why do you ask me to do it? Why, when you know I'll always say yes?" "I don't-" "You do!"

"Please," He sounds genuine, almost pleasing, "let's go get drinks, let's talk about it. Somewhere quiet, just me and you." "No I don't want to." You were so close to being there, how could you get a big enough lead to lock yourself up before he could stick a foot in the door? "I don't want to go out with you right now Shota." "Why not?" He's gaining on you, you hate the idea of looking at him right now, even his voice was chipping away at you. "I know you're used to always getting what you want from me but I just need to be by myself right now." "Getting what I want- what?" He sounds bewildered, lost and almost offended, "I'm not understanding you, please stop let's just talk, we don't have to get drinks or food, or even go up to your apartment if you don't want to! We can talk here in the stairs okay? I want to understand, help me understand." He reaches you, his hand is on your arm, "I don't want to upset you, that's the last thing I want. Tell me what I did, yell at me, be mad at me all you want, but tell me what I did so I won't do it again." "You're just always making me do things and everyone is and they just hang you over my head like I'm a dog or a little kid-" "What?" His hand falls off you once you stop in your tracks. "And it's embarrassing!" You shake your head, "I feel stupid, I feel like a fan not your colleague!" The tears are adding insult to injury and you urge them away. "It's always 'Shota needs this, Shota will be there, well think about Shota-' and you. 'Please do this for me' like I ever say no because you know!" "Know what?" He holds his hands up as you spin around. "Everything has been such a wreck since I met you." Your lip quivers, "and I'm so stupid, you could make me do anything and you know it and maybe you just wanted a friend but that's all you had to say!" "I think one of us is misunderstanding something-" "I know!" You drag your palm over the offending tears, "it's not a misunderstanding! I understand!" You're sniffling like a child, "at first it was just an admiration, infatuation, whatever. I'm sure you noticed, it would be impossible not to." You drop your bag too, the extra weight makes you want to crumble. "I didn't even have the resolve to ignore you for 8 flights of stairs. I thought it would go away! I went to see other guys, I met up with tons of guys, heroes, civilians, whoever!" "That's great, it's good that you're branching out I'm just not sure what-" "And there were romantic dates, lovely nights Shota, and- and...I was scared to death the whole time that I'd say your name instead. I was thinking about you, what you would order, what you like to drink, what kind of movies you like. Expensive, perfect dates, and I was thinking about hanging out with you in the teachers lounge." You push him back, he stumbles, he lets it happen. "And everyone is treating me like a fucking teenager about it, and you don't even have it in you to let me down!"

His normally brooding eyes look sympathetic, even when you shove him, "I think I misunderstood." "Misunderstood what? That I love you, and you treat me like a lovesick puppy to run your errands? I love you so much, I don't think I'll ever stop loving you. I'll love you more than anyone I ever meet! You could find me in fifty years when we are wrinkly and old and- and I have 40 grandkids and you could come to me, ask me to leave, to ruin my perfect, perfect life to be with you I would go. And it would be easy Shota." "I thought you were going on dates and branching out for your own..reasons, why would I assume you felt that way when you were going out once a month I didn't-" He looks at a loss, "of course I care about you. I didn't want to get in your way." "What?" You look at him in disbelief, "don't do this to me, don't hurt me Shota please this isn't a game-" "I know it's not- I'm not, I swear I wouldn't-" He sounds almost earnest, "I do care about you, I...enjoy all the time we spent together, and I wouldn't chase just anybody up 7 flights of stairs like this. And the others were..just trying to get us together, they were pushing me to say something to you, do something about the way I was feeling. At first I thought you were just infatuated with me sure, I wrote it off. But you stayed, you were genuine and kind and I liked having your help and I loved having you around, and I'm sorry I made you go out with Endeavor today. You're right, I know you always say yes to me, I should have been more mindful of the way you felt. I was never trying to take advantage of you. I would never want that, I do love you, I wanted you to come to it on your own but this all got so fucked up. So let's go now, okay? I don't want you to stand in this stairwell and cry, let's go get something to drink and we can talk about everything." His eyes never leave your face, "everybody adores you, especially me. I don't want you to think that's not the case-" You kiss him, you practically launch forward at him, like it was the easiest thing in the world. He accepts you just as easily, using the brief moments of reprieve to speak again, "or we could just go upstairs." "Let's just go upstairs."

Sekijiro Kan: "It's all-" you're shoving him, "your fault!" You shove him again, "you always do this!" Again, "why don't you trust me?!" Again, "I had it all under control!" He's nudged back but never off balance, letting you vent your frustrations into his chest, looking down at you a bit annoyed. "You were hurt, you were pushing yourself beyond your limits and I just stepped in-" He holds up his hands, "I do trust you." "I'm not hurt!" Your obvious injuries said otherwise, bruises and gashes scattered your arms, your nose was broken. The villian had gotten away when he stepped in to stop you, you would have broken your ribs or worse. "You were in pain you didn't have a clear head." "How do you know what was going on in my head?!" "I did know! It was nothing!" He finally snaps, "you get tunnel vision-" "So what?! I'm doing my job and who are you to call me dumb?" "I'm not calling you dumb-" "You are!" "Oh god." he rubs his eyes. "Sorry I'm just sooo much for you, it sucks you have to deal with me!" A dig at his choice of wording in the heat of the moment, Nemuri pointed out the struggle, wrapped up in her own, Kan had said he would "go deal with you." It was poor wording even he can admit that, he didn't know it would set you off. "Oh stop." He holds his hand up, "don't throw that back at me you know how I meant it." "I don't! I'm such a burden, I'm so stupid and weak and impulsive and I just want to help Vlad why can't you see I just wanna help?" "I know you do! But you're hurt, you did help! You got hurt though, you can't help anyone when you're out of commission! I was there, I had to stop it, we can catch that guy another time, I'll give it to you-" "you think this is about the arrest?" You leer back at him, "I don't care who arrests him, he's still out on the streets-" "But you're okay-" "It's my job to protect these people, and your's too!" "It's not so black and white." He warns you, "what was I supposed to do, let him kill you?" "Why do you think he would have? Why am I so weak to you? I'm sorry I'm smaller, I'm sorry I'm-" "That's not it, you would do the same for me!" "You're always butting in, always keeping an eye on me, like I'm a fucking chore to you!" "When did I ever say that?!" Sekijiro had been a good friend to you, you aren't sure why but you clicked, you liked the same foods and the same movies and you had the same idea of a good time, when you had a free moment to spare it was Sekijiro you were looking for. Everyone expected it, one day you'd be spotted together hand in hand, he'd mention you in a romantic way, you went together and the tension was palpable sometimes. Maybe you were a bit oblivious, or hot tempered with him at times, you knew about your flaws and you couldn't see a guy like him settling for someone with the issues you had. That being said, you still would chase your tail to impress him. "Please." He holds up his hands as you shove him again, "please be resonable. You know I don't feel that way about you. I don't want to fight I don't want to argue. I was worried about you, I'm sorry." "God now I'm the asshole, perfect."

"No!" He groans, "no I'm not trying to spin it like this. What's really the problem? I know you don't care about the villian, tell me what's the matter, please I can tell it's something else." He even sits down in a chair so he's looking up at you, "I don't want you to be mad at me like this, tell me why." "I just want to impress you! I want to be someone who is just as good as you are-" "You are! You're just as good as me! You're better than me, you're better than the best of us! You know that! Why do you think I don't feel that way?" "You're always jumping in, trying to save me to get me away from the fight to stop me from doing my job and you-I don't wanna be a chore to you!" "You are not a chore!" He sounds exasperated, not angry, "I love to watch you work, and to be around you I love seeing you do what you do and I love to help you, I'm sorry if that makes you think I see you as weak, I don't!" He even feigns crossing his heart. "I want to work with you, beside you because I think you're the best of us, really I do. I'm sorry I let the way I feel about you get in the way of your work." "What do you mean?" You look surprised at him, "what way do you feel?" "What?" "Sekijiro you just said the way you felt about me-" "I..." He looks like a deer in headlights, he furrows is eyebrows, "I guess..I just. I'm always on your case because I like to..be with you, and I can't even think about what I would do if something happened to you. Not because you're weak but because this work is dangerous and unpredictable. If it's too much I'll stop, I don't want to be in the way of your work, you do amazing work, I'm just enamored by it, by you." He shakes his head, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you in the right way." "I'm confused-" Your face is hot, "stop it this isn't funny.." "I'm not being funny, really I'm not. I'm sorry this got so out of hand. I didn't think you'd be so upset with me." "Of course I'm upset with you, why would I want you thinking I can't hold my own why I think so highly of you? When I feel the way I do?" "Are you saying you-" You laugh, "oh I'm sorry." You rub your face, "I'm sorry this is all a big misunderstanding." Your hands move to his shoulders, the side of his neck, "I didn't think you felt that way about me." "You couldn't tell I was falling in love with you? You're all I ever want to talk about." "I'm sorry I shoved you.. a lot." You rest a knee on the chair between his legs, "I'm sorry I got upset before you could explain, I'm thankful you're looking out for me." You don't let him reply before kissing him, he guides you into his lap, hands holding onto your waist. "I'm sorry I was hovering, I'm sorry I doubted you abilities-" "It's fine." You shush him, "We can make it up to each other I'm sure."

[gold-rhine]

btw another thing i noticed from the fics i read is that celestia's imperialism is actually a really key driving force in shaping fontaine, and most of neuvi's mischaracterizations can be traced to people ignoring it.

for example. everyone knows neuvi is sad. rains as tears is the most popular cliche fandom has for him, so most fic writers will try to incorporate neuvi being deeply sad into their AUs. but now they need reason for why he's sad. in canon he's sad because celestia invaded his planet, wiped out his race, put humans there instead and he now has to live between them and pretend to be one of them. but ppl dont want to deal with colonialism in their fics, so instead they invent other reasons, most often that like his family abused him. they also love using scylla as like abusive relative, i guess bc hes the only named hydro vishap we have, as if my man scylla wasnt at egeria court telling her to kill herself every single day so his sovereign can be reborn. but even aside from scylla's slander, this also completely changes neuvi's dynamic from being Sovereign in exile - position of power and responsibility, adored by his people, but forcibly removed from them, - into being shy flower who needs protection bc he cant stand up for himself. that changes character into complete opposite. now they have to erase his other obvious main trait emphasized in canon - being intimidating and stern, because it wouldn't fucking make sense for him to be scary and commanding if he supposedly can't stand up to his mean bully uncle scylla. this is not to say anything about real victims of abuse, its just that all fics i saw made it completely one dimensional stereotype that absolutely does not track with neuvi's actual role of a ruler who knows how to command, but was taken away from his people.

on the other hand, some fics do emphasize his intimidating presence, in these he's usually in positions of power like a judge. in these cases they attribute his sadness to just like general burden of his position and responsibility, which is tbh fine, whatever. but then another conflict arises. first of all, now as a judge he has to love the laws. which btw canon neuvi openly says (voice lines) that he thinks a lot of fontaine laws are ridiculous and overall the whole law codex is unable to reach real justice. trials are his 9 to 5 wage slavery, not his passion. but even ignoring that, even bigger problem is that fontaine is like hugely and obviously fucked up. even if you erase the metaphor of trials as performances, the fleuv cendre and just overall obvious inequalities still stand. so now you have to answer the question why didn't neuvi do anything about these problem if he has position of power?

the canon answer is again celestia's colonialism of course. he didn't do anything bc he never saw humans as his own people bc they were not. in fact, they were against him at the beginning of his career, they ostracized him and melusines, he thought of himself as a hated outsider up until his story quest. and he's naturally kind, so he helped when asked, and he was moved by human emotions which is why it rained at trials, but he never saw it as his place nor responsibility to try and reorganize humans, esp when they already had their own god. but we can see that with melusines who he does see as his own, he is very proactive, the only laws he passed were for their protection, he staked his unstable reputation to integrate them into society, he dropped everything to go investigate threats to a single melusine, he never shuts up about how you must be nice to melusines. as authority figure, he's very involved, but only when he sees something as belonging under his authority. he's very particular about boundaries of authority, its his fundamental character theme.

but if you remove all this nuance and internal conflict, then in these fics he becomes just kind of stubborn, inept judge with very black and white worldview, whos too pedantic and loves laws too much to see how they are flawed and how the whole system is dysfunctional. and he also loses his kindness and empathy.

so like if you ignore celestia's role in fontaine's narrative, its a lose lose no matter what role you want to put neuvi in

[dross-the-fish]

I have to know. What do you mean by "Jealous of Christine" I thought it was just Meg? Were there more?

I've touched a little on how ALW treats Carlotta, basically depicting her as a squawking over hyped-prima donna, even worse in the 2004 movie because it's actually shown that no one around her thinks she's a good singer, everyone hates her and they're just trying to appease her ego. There was no need to take that extra step of making her untalented, it actually, in my opinion, weakens Christine's triumph if Carlotta is that incompetent. And then he kind of repeats that with Meg Giry but goes EVEN HARDER into making her un-likeable and implying that she is not as talented as the untouchable Christine Daae. Meg is completely pathetic, head over-heels in love with someone who doesn't know she exists. It's implied she sold herself to help him fund his weird Coney island amusement park and meanwhile...she's depressed and abused by everyone around her and in the end she looses her mind and kills Christine. You'd think that would make the character at least a little sympathetic right?

Nope, ALW does not want you to sympathize with Meg, he turns her into an obsessive, jealous villain and every time she performs on stage her songs are the cringiest, most intentionally obnoxious, parodies of vaudeville performances. Because, see...she's not a REAL opera singer like Christine. It's staggering how little respect or sympathy ALW has for this character. She is pretty much just there to be a punching bag who has some kind of psychotic break at the end because Erik doesn't love her because she can never be Christine. That's it, the show acknowledges Meg's suffering but immediately undermines it by warping it into an unhinged jealousy for Christine. It's disgusting. Andy who hurt you? Is this about your ex wife? Get help. And don't get me wrong, LND resents Christine to. It's such an obvious "She should have chosen Erik" fan-fic, even so Erik is absolutely reprehensible in this. Like, holy shit he is the worst he's ever been and at one point he even threatens to kill Christine's child. Um...bro? Didn't you let her go? Didn't you give her your blessing? Why are you still acting like this????? HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING? What happened to your redemption arc???? HELLOOO??? And then there's Raoul who....isn't even Raoul. Idk what this character is but that's not our boy. This guy, Douchenozzel Drunkerson, who wandered in and replaced Raoul is an abusive drunk with a gambling problem. He hates his wife and his kid because...he is drunk. Idk if he suspects the kid isn't his, it's not really stated anywhere that he does but he's consistently mean to both Gustave (I hate this little twerp too tbh) and Christine (Who has no personality out side of "pretty voice." and I'm getting kind of tired of her too tbh.) Why is all of this? For what? To punish Christine for not choosing Erik? Idk, I have a very strong suspicion that ALW actually hates women because he cannot seem to write them 90% of the time without making them suffer or having them be nothing more than props or at worst, targets, for the male lead.

[f1-stuff]

You mentioned omegaverse in the surreal DC reblog where he’s commenting far too much on Charles’s smell lol and it made me wonder if you’ve ever considered writing omegaverse Charlos? Do you have any interest or not so much your thing?

Love your work <33333

Hello! ❤️ I didn't used to be into omegaverse very much tbh, but something clicked in the last couple years and I started to vibe with it a lot more. I actually did start to write an abo charlos fic, that's also a Victorian-era royalty arranged marriage situation (woo that's a mouthful 😂), but I haven't added much to it in a while...

The funny thing is that I find myself forgetting it's abo while writing bc there's so much else going on, and then I have to throw in a line about someone's scent asghfjlslsdk. But anyway, I'm gonna share a little more of it now just because I feel like it's been a while since I posted a fic or a snippet...

“Charles.”

Impatience has crept into his mother’s voice by the second utterance of his name, and yet Charles still takes the time to finish the page he’s reading before clapping the (dreadfully boring) book shut and looking up at her expectantly. As usual, she doesn’t look particularly amused by his stubbornness.

“Charles, I was thinking that perhaps you and I should stay away from the palace for an additional month or so.”

“What?” he frowns. “Why?”

“To rest,” she suggests. “It’s been a very tough week, and you still don’t look well-”

“Maman,” he sighs, rubbing his temple where a headache is starting to form. Of course, he won’t tell her that. “I feel fine. And I’m ready to go home. We already missed Uncle’s birthday. We are not missing Papa’s.”

His mother doesn’t reply. It’s not the first time she’s brought it up, and it won’t be the last, but Charles isn’t losing this particular argument. Not even if he has to escape back to the palace himself. A week away from his father in his poor condition is already too much to bear, let alone the prospect of more time apart.

Charles and his mother’s retreat to their country residence had been unavoidable. The ‘very tough week’ in question is Charles’ heat, which had been brought on early due to the stress he's been under, caused by his numerous advisors' renewed efforts as of late to convince him to sign the regency order. No doubt they’ll be hoping that now, weakened by five days of fever and delirium, he’ll feel further compelled to relinquish his power to a regent in the event of his father’s death before he’s come of age.

It’s never going to happen, and his mother doesn’t need to try to protect him by hiding him away for a month either. She, along with everyone in that damned palace, treats him delicately enough as it is. Ever since he’d presented around eleven years old, he’s been wrapped in cotton wool. But just because he’s an omega doesn’t mean he isn’t perfectly capable of standing up for himself. In fact, he can’t wait to be free of the silly protective measures that were put in place almost seven years ago. The moment he’s crowned, he’s doing away with all of it.

“Really, Charles. I hope you’re not upset we had to come here. You know that it’s for your own safety-”

“Yes, maman, I know,” he interrupts, then sighs and aims a small smile her way to soften his exasperated tone. “I’m not arguing that. But I don’t need any more time to recover. It isn’t as though I do much more than this in the palace, anyway.”

Reading books, painting, playing piano and chess - there isn’t much more that he’s allowed to do. The other activities that his brothers partake in, like horse riding and archery, aren’t permitted for him, nevermind that he performed them just fine before he’d presented. That argument has never worked to convince anyone to grant him allowances because it’s not really about whether he’s capable.

“Well...if you’re certain.”

“I am,” he says, firmly. His mother nods.

Good. That’s settled, then. She speaks again before he has a chance to reopen his book.

“The other thing I’ve been meaning to discuss with you - your uncle has invited the Sainz siblings to come and stay at the palace. You met their two eldest when you were very young, but I’m sure you don’t remember.”

“No,” Charles confirms, intrigued. “Who are they?”

“Their father is a Spanish duke, and his son, Prince Carlos, is just a few years older than you. Unlikely that he will ever inherit the throne, but it is a distant possibility.”

Ah. So a marriage prospect, then. Charles bites back a sigh. From one prison to another.

“You should get to know him better,” his mother says, reading his expression.

“Why?” he asks, just to be difficult. He knows very well why.

“Because. Your Uncle Thierry thinks it’s a good idea.”

Well, if his uncle thinks it, then so it shall be.

Charles sinks further into his chair, grabbing the book he’d set aside and reopening it pointedly. His mother takes the hint. (The book may be a dull one, but at least it serves its purpose as a conversation ender superbly.)

****

“Monaco could be a very important chess piece in future conflicts,” Caco explains, leaning against the table to address his young cousin. “It is under the military protection of France, and having the force of France at our disposal could be instrumental in quelling potential unrest.”

Carlos Junior looks up at him from his seat at the desk, notes of skepticism in his expression. He doesn’t make an objection just yet - his cousin would not be telling him this unless it had come from his father directly.

Caco sets down a piece of paper in front of him. It’s a drawing of a young man who can’t be more than eighteen, his boyish features evident even in sketch form. The other thing that is undeniable is his beauty, a sense of mischief and innocence dancing in his eyes that has Carlos wondering if it’s a faithful representation.

“Is he this pretty in person?”

Caco simply gives him a look, not dignifying that with a response. “That is Prince Charles, heir apparent to the Monegasco throne, seventeen years old. In the next few weeks, you will study everything there is to know about him - his favorite novels, plays, composers. You will brush up on your French-”

“Wait, wait, cousin,” Carlos interjects, blinking in confusion. “What does a prince have to do with me?”

“That omega...” Carlos’ gaze shoots up to his cousin, brows raising. “...has everything to do with you.”

Ah. That changes things, indeed.

“As I was saying,” Caco continues, sighing. “In order to keep the prince safe, he’s been kept sheltered from his father’s court for years, ever since he was a boy. Thus, when he does make a rare public appearance, such as at the opera or ballet, his mere presence causes quite a stir.”

Carlos’ eyes return to the paper in front of him, his gaze tracing a path over the prince’s nose and settling at the elegant curve of his lips.

“You must win his favor before anyone else has the chance,” his cousin says. “The first visit in a few weeks’ time will be vital. We can afford no mistakes. But always remember, you are first and foremost a Sainz. Do not forget the reason behind all of this, no matter how ‘pretty’ his face.”

Carlos tries to bite back his smirk, but likely fails from the look his cousin sends him.

“Charm him, Carlos. Make him smile. God knows you are good at that. The rest will be up to fate.”