#thank you so much for asking dear!

[ender1821]

shinyduo/gempearl post-SL is sooo funny because before SL they were the typical "friends who like to do pranks with and against each other, partners in crime, really adorable sometimes" and then SL happened and they became OBSESSED with each other (really obvious from pearl's side since gem was more subtle) and innuendos started to appear left and right. now after WL they are not only obsessed they are also 10x times freakier and flirty. it's gem's fault a lot of the time but pearl enables it and digs herself into a deeper hole so she gets a wack too.

i am pleading to the sky for the fated shiny duo alliance to happen this year because 1) i am sure gem's possessiveness would get multiplied by 20 even if she tried to not show it and that'd be really fun + pearl would like it 2) their dynamic is so complex that they could be anything (codependent or healthy or possessive or die for each other or kill for each other or-) and 3) the aftermath of them teaming would be funny asf and the streams would be horrendous

thank you for coming to my ted talk 🙏

the freakier being in bold and italic is really getting to me for some reason lmao. anyway

you are right in the shift of them pre and post-SL, like, they are STILL giving cute partners in crime but also they’re. so. abnormal about each other??? thats not to say they weren’t flirty/making innuendos before the life series but god did all of that get worse after. also, it has kinda been shown how Gem is the one saying most of the questionable things, but Pearl definitely contributes a lot as well. lets not forget the pickles

of course we’re all manifesting for them to properly team up. its not even subtle at this point they both know that. the only things stopping it from happening really are luck and Gem’s homophobia (/j) cough. i mean. they would definitely get time to resolve what they failed to address back in WL if they’re allied together and can have time to talk. it could also make things worse but we’ll be seated either way. and then we’ll be questioning our existence again when the streams inevitably come

BUT. imo the alliance i really want is them + any other player. yep. i want a third wheel. it can literally be any other player because i think having someone else to affect/witness their dynamic is always entertaining, allows for exploration of new potentially fun dynamics between Pearl/Gem and another player while still offering plenty of opportunity for them to be. weird (/aff), and generally just gives the team a new spin instead of just Murder Camel 2.0. like. i’ve put way too much thought into this so there’s a whole ramble under cut about some of the potential trios and why i think they could be cool for a new life series

Jimmy: originally my life series s6 team predictions was pearl/gem/jimmy </3 mainly out of wanting more pearl + jimmy interactions, but i think having gem there helps just keep the team together. i thought they would be a nice team for jimmy in terms of support (think the SL scene where jimmy finds out he’s not the first out and they’re the ones there cheering him on) but well. thankfully we still had bamboozlers… anyway gem’s ego will get even worse if she had this team, and don’t we all wanna see that

Lizzie: PLEASE. impossible minecraft sent me to the point of no return because now i’m BEGGING for more pearl/gem/lizzie interactions. please. the girlies. we just need more gem + lizzie interactions in the life series imo, and we’ve already seen what happens when pearl + lizzie are together. i can’t tell you for sure if i think any betrayal will happen in this team but it would be really funny if there was, mainly just so lizzie and gem can bicker while pearl is just. There like a sad puppy. it’s cool if there isn’t though, i can see them thriving straight to the finale. cmon. think of the yuri

Ren: hey. hey. remember that one ren stream? you know the one. the wedding. do you see where i’m getting at. do you see the dynamic. it’s so funny to me ok. and we haven’t even mentioned the times where ren has mixed them up. i think it would be a horrible time for him to have to deal with these two and that’s so entertaining. if i picked jimmy because i thought he would have a nice time then for ren it’s for the complete opposite reason. make him suffer with these weirdos

Martyn: HE is the one who’s going to make them suffer. HE will be the one to make it worse. and it will be hilarious. let the man get some form of revenge for them terrorising him back in SL. they’re going to be insufferable and it’s going to be great. you might as well start the “hump duo” counter now …also i may just have a personal preference of wanting to see more pearl + martyn and gem + martyn interactions

Cleo: i mean. cmon. this one doesn’t need that much explanation. the people want a pearl/gem/cleo team

Impulse: same as cleo— SOUP GROUP ASSEMBLE!!!

Etho: pearl + etho interactions are great. gem + etho interactions are great. boom. gem gets to bully them both, then they either make a really successful trap or perform the greatest fumble ever! i see nothing but wins here

BigB: nosy neighbours… what if we tried again… plus i’m pretty sure there was a temporary gem + bigb team in RL, so why not give them a whole season. i think it would be fun. it’d be interesting to see how this team shifts with bigb’s general play style in the life series. i wonder how the base(s?) would turn out

Mumbo: listen to me. they have the funniest opportunity here to fluster this man to the high heavens. think about SL ep 5. think about it

Scar: so like. remember that 2v1? yeah. crazy, right? no but okay i don’t think if they teamed up there would be that much more emphasis on the 2v1 after all that in WL, but there WOULD be good times. i know this deep in my heart. the pearl/gem/scar interactions would go crazy. i hope they go on a hunting spree

Joel: i think this one is the least likely (on account of the fact that pearl has teamed with him in SL, and then gem doing the same in WL) but there could be beautiful world where pearl and joel build an even bigger and better car and gem just watches and sighs

Scott: insert manic laughter here. Pearlescentmoon you are about to have the worst time of your life ever

[willowser]

you don't know how much comfort your dragon king bkg drabble has given me ever since you posted it!! i keep reading it i love it sm 🥹

as it turns out, the man bakugou is — a bit harder to handle.

he sleeps like a heathen; you once thought the dragon bakugou to be a bit lazy, with how often he tended to curl up in the fields of grass, warm under the sun, but now — it would seem his little human form needs significantly less rest.

almost up all hours of the day, and when he does finally lay down, he's everywhere. a mess of limbs: one thrown carelessly out to the side and the other bent at an angle you can't believe doesn't hurt his joints. his head stays tucked into you somehow, either buried in your neck or pressed against your ribs — or you'll wake to find him nose-to-nose with you. he still snores like a dragon, however.

you're also beginning to wonder if there is a bottom to the pit of his stomach. he ate much before, whole fields of things, but you expected that appetite to dwindle, at least a little, now that his stomach has decreased considerably in size. and in number ? you're not even sure how many stomachs a dragon has; that's not something that was mentioned in the fairytales.

it burns through him quickly, gives him more energy than he needs, and it doesn't ever seem to affect his weight much. already, he's huge and thick with muscle and eating as much as he does never dulls the severity of his cut abdomen. not that you're looking all that much.

— not that you have a choice not to, as he seems to have little-to-no understanding of —

the door to the bathhouse kicks open, with enough force that you already know who it is without ever turning to look. you try not to shriek when you see him, because he seems to like that in some evil, impish way.

you've been alone to wash so far, thankfully, as the inn you'd managed to find was small and far enough out from the nearest kingdom that the occupancy was low — enough for you and your little brute.

the man bakugou comes to stand in front of the bath, blinking and huffing against the steam. finding clothes for him was — nearly impossible, and so the trousers you'd found hanging on someone's line outside fit above his ankles, a bit too tight around his waist. instead of a shirt, you've wrapped him in a scratchy linen, swaddled him up like a baby to cover the small smattering of scales that decorate his body, almost like freckles from the sun, though they gleam just as bright and red as they ever have. no matter his form.

a horn has started to sprout, on the right side of his forehead, and you've done your best to cover that, too.

you have no idea how long this man thing will last. if it's permanent or if he even has control over it. the last thing you need is for him to switch back, somehow, while you're in the middle of feeding him, absolutely demolishing whatever tavern you're in and calling all of king todoroki's guards to attention.

bakugou grunts, almost sleepy, and tosses a fat, weighty sack onto the edge of the bath. it jingles a certain jingle that makes your heart stop.

"oh, allfather—" you move for the edge, awkwardly keeping one arm against your chest despite the fact that he's seen it all by now. when you peek inside and confirm your fears, you lob it back to him furiously, as if it were a steaming potato. "where do you keep getting this stuff?"

things have started to turn up, miraculously. shiny things — like coins and rings and gems. things he could not have simply found rolling around in the dirt.

"go put it back!" you hiss at him, and the tone of your voice makes his frown deepen. you never realized how pouty he was, when he was still a dragon.

you think he understands you, and you're pretty certain he just chooses not to listen; instead of doing what you've told him in the slightest, he simply dumps the coin-purse to the floor, and then lets his linen and stolen trousers cover it as he unceremoniously undresses.

the biggest issue that you would say the man bakugou poses is — his complete lack of understanding of personal space.

"bakugou!" your voice wavers, shocked again by his nakedness. as if you haven't seen it all by now. "no, you — get out!"

but he does the exact opposite, which is hop into the steaming water, ignoring the arm you hold out to keep him away as he saddles up beside you. skin against scales, pressing a nose into your hair to huff out his annoyance, to make it something you can feel.

if anyone were to walk in right now, they would — probably think the lie you'd told the innkeeper was true. that you are a simple traveler and this is your mute, over-sized husband.

regardless, you think this behavior isn't polite. especially in a public bathhouse.

"bakugou," you try again, turning your face away as you speak to the wood-paneled wall. "i'm taking a bath, you have to wait your turn."

all you receive in response is another huff against your ear and a low rumble of disagreement from his chest.

he has yet to speak back, and has only used inhuman sounds as his points of conversation. the only word you've ever heard him utter is oi, which he does when he really thinks he needs your attention. you're starting to wonder if he's named you that in his head. oi.

curiously, you turn back to him and the movement has him pulling his face from your hair, just enough that he can look down at you, too. watch you, with the red-rippled sea in his eyes.

they're — amazing, you will admit. just as bright and detailed as they always have been. fit for a fairytale told by the fire, veiled by the soft-ash of his lashes. he watches you through them, half-lidded, and you wonder if it's something other than fatigue that has them so heavy.

"do you know what i'm saying?" you ask quietly, voice lacking the firm heat you want it to. instead it's heavy, too, weighted by something soft and unfamiliar and frightening. "can you even understand me?"

bakugou doesn't respond, not with a huff or a rumble or ever a purr, like the one he let out on the night he lay over you by the lake. you've only heard it sparingly since then, oftentimes in his sleep when his face is pressed into you.

you try not to frown at his silence, try not to let it disappoint you because it shouldn't; he's a dragon afterall, and you're not sure what it matters. the little horn protruding from his forehead catches your eye and you reach up to touch it gently, watching him blink away the water that drips from your wrist — and then he's turning into you again, too close.

beneath the water, you feel his hands skate up your bare thighs, wrap around your waist until your chest is pulled flush against his. you feel his huff, again, against the damp skin of your neck but it's slower, lighter. not laced with his frustration. some unknown thing you feel guilty for liking.

you drop your hand to his hair, rushing full force into all the damned things you've thought about doing but have been too afraid to. he's soft between your fingers, and you trace your nails lightly against his scalp until he groans quietly; a new noise, one you don't know how to translate.

your fingers stop when they brush upon little spines that have grown at the base of his skull, that have started to trail down the center of his back.

suddenly, tangled up in the bath with him, you wonder how much time you have left.

bakugou huffs again into your skin, a little fiercer this time, and it's because of his light jostling that you realize how rigid you've gone. you try to relax so that he will, too, though you must not do a convincing job, because a sharp nip comes to your earlobe.

"ow!" you squeal, but he doesn't let you go far, not even as you try to jerk away from him. in fact, the harder you try the more his teeth show: into your cheek and the point of your jaw and then dangerously low on your neck.

it's not until you finally freeze that he stops, huffing again, with a warmth that burns more than the steaming water.

and then, very quietly, he grumbles, "shitty wife," into your collarbone, just before biting you again.

[fidgetspringer-art]

Hi, I need more cowboy x punk stuff after the suggestive boots, I also kinda wanna see them slowly infect each other's style since they look like similar sizes

I'm never gonna pass up the chance to draw Noah wearing Martin's clothes ;)

[cent-scratchnsniff]

its scuffed as all hell but i NEEDED to have them hug

[mollymarymarie]

I got this from my friend for my birthday; she binded it by herself and I'm so thankful, i can't even express what I'm feeling at the moment. I had to show you.

Dear your holiness is my favorite fanfiction of all time (comfort fic); i reread it every few months and this means so much to me.

I must say, I cried when she gave it to me.

🎀

Oh my God it's beautiful, I would've cried too 😭😭

You are amazing, your friend is amazing, and I hope you had the most wonderful birthday ❤️❤️

[caimdrakengard]

I got kinda carried away hehe

[strwbrryfire]

DRAW THAT GUYS BOOBS ‼️ anyway tell me about his driving style. how hes on the radio. relationship with press/media stuff (socials interviews etc etc)

[i already drew him jorkin it so yeah boobs next, naturally]

ANYWAAAY!!! YOU GET BOOBS!!

oh lord . he is a menace on track . in my delusional coping world of Cadillac F1 Team, daniel is knox's teammate & he's obvi learning from the best, so he's extremely calculating + attentive to everyone else But. his aggressiveness gets him in trouble, especially at any dangerous overtakes. he sometimes goes against whatever ashton (his beloved lesbian race engineer) is telling him bc he's convinced his idea is better . it normally is, but still . he's a lil shit.

he tries too hard to be a comedian on radio bc he wants to be in the funny compilation videos on the f1 insta ,..or like, he quotes elden ring and movies n shit to try to seem cool, but it's kinda cringey . or endearing . depending on how u look at it. other option is him being pathetically self deprecating and weepy because one of his grand plans didn't go right . he'll be like oh god oh fuck oh blimey dont hate me plea se im ju s t a girl ahheemhemmm ......... bless him

& on socials he's very candid!! he posts a Lot on insta and is always giving as honest of an answer as he can — like, the way he actually is personally is who he is in front of the cameras, if that makes sense. his debilitating boycrush on daniel [and max] [and j.d.][ this dude is so very down bad] is very obvious so he's perfect for the vague yaoiposting on the cadillac socials . sometimes tho knox like . majorly zones out during pressers and trails off a lot if someone [i.e, sloane or jd] isn't there to finish his sentences . tbh just think lando but without his oscar . daniel and knox are just two adhd ridden losers with way too much energy so all the videos they film together are pure gold

[lifemod17]

Hand-picked selection of hozier-posting (that you've probably already seen) for your viewing pleasure <3

LOOK AT THIS NERD (affectionate) oh man, chronically online hozier you are so iconic and i miss you

i've never seen that last one about the pancakes omg hahaha i went to check and yes, the tweet is still up

i've also never seen that one about Like Sleepy People Do which. is very me coded btw. me and who?

[agentnatesewell]

Beloved Mar, I saw your tags on that post! is there any Suri lore you've been wanting to drop 👀

My dearest PD! Thank you for this ask and thinking of Suri!

As Christmas is right around the corner and it is the holiday season here, I’ve been thinking of Suri Christmas lore

Suri is not religious, and isn’t a follower of any religion (though exposed to several through her life and she appreciates them), Christmas is special to her and mainly for the sense of community and the celebration of it all

Before moving back to Wayhaven, when she lived in Paris, she spent so much time walking through the streets to appreciate the light displays and festivals and going to the Christmas Markets - depending on the year either alone or with a boyfriend or friends who were free

Back to Wayhaven, she reminisced on her childhood celebrations with the Andersons, how magical they made the season. It’s all changed since their passing, and since joining the PD, she and Tina would spend their holiday shifts together, usually around the Cornerstones to take a look at the lights (they’d rank them and assign an unofficial winner, and it wasn’t never Friedman)

However, usually in secret, she’ll walk to the church for the Christmas midnight service, and stand in the foyer. Looking in to observe, feel some sense of togetherness (even if at times she still feels like an outsider) - I imagine that one of these years, Adam witnesses this little excursion

But now! With Nate, and Unit Bravo, she’s going to help decorate a tree for the first time in a long time. And host a holiday party, with Nate. Suri is very excited about this. It will he the first time she’s celebrated with a family structure, at least from the last time she was with the Andersons

Bonus, she’ll get tipsy on eggnog which will be fun

Bonus Bonus, she always kissed someone at might on New Years, and she’s looking forward to kissing Nate every year 🎉

[prince-liest]

I'M FREEEEEEE

Yesterday was my last day in the emergency department for this academic year, and of course it was also the absolute fucking worse out of the entire two months of emergency medicine that I've done so far in residency. I didn't get so much as a ten minute break to eat the whole fucking day, I stayed nearly two hours after the end of my shift writing notes and playing phone tag with a bunch of specialists until my attending fucking left, and my attending kept telling me to go see new patients when I was already super behind on figuring out wtf I was doing for the ones that I had. One of my sign-outs literally ended up being, "As for plan, uh...sorry, I didn't even staff this one. I put in a CBC, CMP, and UA and then they called a code and I went to go do that. Sorry." and fucking bless the next attending coming on because he was so chill about it. I think he could see the stress in my eyes, lmaoooo.

On the bright side, I did get to successfully intubate a guy! This is an improvement on the first time I tried to intubate someone, which was a few days ago on a high risk patient who coded in the middle of it.

Anyway, saw my clinic patients today, and now it's time for my first two-day weekend in literally two fucking months. Happy November!

[psychologicalwarclaire]

WHAAT. WHAAAAT.

DID THEY REALLY SPEED UP LLOYD'S AGE??? WHAT IN THE REVERSE DEAGED IS THIS

HOW OLD IS HE????

When the deaged plotline goes wrong.

My gut reaction is to be like "aging physically means nothing, its the experience you gained along the way" but idk. Can you really magically fast forward maturity like that without actually experiencing life? I suppose he now has the brain of a adult/teen and thats how itd make sense? But hmmm. Im staring in disbelief that "hes more ready bc he aged significantly in five seconds." Maybe im overthinking this.

Im also realizing i have no idea how old the ninjas are. Are they adults? Teens? Unclear, but i kinda assumed late teens? Im afraid to look it up cuz fear of spoilers, but im wondering if theres a canon answer.

They are really pushing the future lloyd vs garmadon showdown this season and im curious how itll be handled down the road

*deep breath* two seasons in and you're already asking the most difficult questions of the show XD

How old is he? How old is he?? HOW OLD IS HE??!? That is the question that everyone has asked for over a decade. I think at one point we got confirmation? Maybe? He was physically and also mentally aged up, but his mental age is still fairly young, methinks. How I think it works is that he has the maturity and stuff, but sometimes he can regress to "younger" and more childish thinking because like you said, he lacks the experience.

Everyone has their own headcanons of how old the ninja are... Lego and the writers didn't really let them age very much (OR CONFIRM HOW OLD THEY ARE) because it was important to keep them young for their younger audience.

That being said, here are my thoughts of how old they are (I'm going to get stoned to death for this probably):

Lloyd: pre magical aging, he was 8-11? Post magical aging he's like... 14??? Maybe?

Cole, Kai, Jay: 15-17 age range.

Nya: she's like... 14? Kai's at least two years older than her.

Zane: 60+ ??? He's been around for a long time.

Season 9, which is canonically at LEAST four years ahead in time, Kai says something like "WE'RE still teenagers" and Jay says, "Grown up teenagers". But by season 11(?) they're all definitely adults? I think??

And then Dragons Rising is a whole different story because there's a significant time skip of like... anywhere from 5-8 years. So the ninja are definitely adult adults by then (when Lloyd).

So yeahhh I wish I could give you more specifics. I could go through each season and calculate the time in between but I'm too sick for that rn. Hope this helped? Child's Play is such a good episode and you're in for some awesome stuff in the second half of the season. I think you, as a Garmadon fan, are gonna love it!

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Hi Josi 😊 For the Top 5 BL: Best Hug and / or Most Beloved Sidecouples ✨

Uuhhhh, two in one! Maxine, thank you for this ask ❤

I love a good hug. Seeing those feels like I get a hug (and sometimes it makes me feel really single). There are the hugs that you can feel through your screen, some of them you just want to look away, because this moment belongs only to the couple on screen, they are just so intimate and there are so ones where one wants to crawl into the other one and I am here for this kind of hug. This desperate need for each others closeness.

The start makes the oldest one on this list:

My School President

Their hugs just felt so good! I loved giffing those moments. They needed the other one physical close, they felt peace in those hugs and it was their way to show how much they cared for each other. I loved every single one of those hugs!

I just realised the next ones are all just some really desperate hugs... and I love them! I have a thing for them...

Kiseki: Dear To Me

This hug felt so good. Finally they were reunited again. Finally they could hold each other again. And damn this was such a beautiful hug! They hugged with their whole body and soul. Imagine holding the love of your life finally in your arms again after years of spending apart. I love it!

Tokyo In April Is...

There is no space for anything else between them. Kazuma made sure of that. He neeeded Ren to feel this hug, and for himself to feel this closeness again. Both are in love with each other, even though they couldn't tell each other yet, but for us viewers it was cristal clear. This hug alone made it clear for us. I love this hug so much!

Pit Babe

Yes Babe, cry because you're so happy to have Charlie back in your arms! Beautiful. I needed this, he needed this and Charlie needed this too! We all needed this! And I love Pavel's facial expressions in this moment.

I Feel You Linger I The Air

The most desperate hug after the most saddest fuck this year! Such a beautiful scene! They knew they didn't have much time left and just made love. They wanted and needed to feel every inch of each other, and it felt so intimate, I had the urge to look away and let them have this time alone in closeness and happiness and desperation.

And now after these beautiful scenes we go on to my favorite side couples 2023. I love a good side couple I can concentrate on and forget about the main couple 😅

The first couple is one of the most precious ones of this year. We knew them and we knew they had incredibly chemistry and could act really nice, but nevertheless they blew us away:

Heart and LiMing from Moonlight Chicken

Their story was so wholesome and important. Their journey was so good. LiMing's struggles with his mum and his uncle, the money and the fact that he wanted to see the world were so ordinary and felt so real it was so good. And Heart's problems with his parents and the urge to be more independent and to be seen felt so sad and Gemini was so good. Oh I love these two and their stories!

Next we have a show I didn't like that much, but I was in love with the side couple. They were the only reason why I kept up with this show.

Zeke and Fifth from My Story

They had an extreme intense chemistry. I loved them on screen and their journey to finally become a couple. I was hyped for their own show and was so let down. I couldn't watch it. It was too much cringe for me, but this is just personal preference. In My Story I adored them and this scene especially.

Next is the couple, that has the most entries in all of my Top 5s this year:

AiDi and ChenYi from Kiseki: Dear To Me

I love them. They stole the show and my heart. Their dynamic is so adorable after they finally become a thing. In the beginning I was a little put off. I didn't understand their relationship, but within a few episodes this changed I was rooting for them so much! I was so happy when ChenYi finally understood his feelings for AiDi and AiDi finally got what he wanted desperatley for years!

I don't know if the next one counts... The show has three couples and I guess one was the main couple. Well, I cared more about the other ones.

Love Class 2

Maru and Minwoo had the softest kiss this year in my opinion and Sungmin and Joohyuk had this lap-situation and everything else that came after. I really enjoyed their stories and their characters. The main couple was just not that interesting for me. But because of the side couples (or the other main couples) I enjoyed this series so much!

I close this list with a couple, that is a little bit problematic for me. I don't like the series that much, mostly because of the main couple and the bad writing for them. But the writing for this side couple was so much worse!

Jaab and Jane from Step By Step

I was so pissed with their ending! What was that? There was no real conclusion and I still don't know if they are happy together now. They had this huge cheating plot (and I like those tropes, but only with a good solution in the end) and before they could work on that Jane was never seen again. This was so sturpid, I was so angry. I wanted them to have their own stupid happily ever after, but no, we have some creepy stalker like behavior and some mystery... no thank you, but besides that I liked them so much and I wanted so much more of them!

Ask me Top 5 BL Anything from 2023

[evillandscaper]

if you are still doing art requests - may you please draw your favorite joke or running gag in odd squad? thanks :)

they never did tell us who she is

[fuzstar]

*Jumpscares you with a little fan art*

WAAWWWWOW oh the sudden fanart attack makes me blown away >:0

Tunggu eh,tunggu. One day,aku attack ko balek

Anyway,thank you,y'all look at this! So cute and so cool :]

I love this,check this artist out lol :33

[sugarsnappeases]

wait kara i must know more about your new thoughts on The Article

okay so i struggle a lot with the common conceptions of The Article, which is that rita publishes an article either about the fact that bella took the dark mark/is a death eater or revealing a whole bunch of black family secrets (<- not saying there's anything wrong w these! i've used them myself in fics before! keep on keeping on etc etc!) and i'm not gonna go into all the whys and wherefores of my opinions on why i take issue w them bc i started typing it out and there's Too Many lol...

but i will say that something fundamental to my quillkiller is the inevitability of the double betrayal and the disjunction between them that stops them from understanding how what they've done could be considered betrayal. like, i think that their betrayals happened around the same time, and that either one could've happened first and it wouldn't make a difference, and that neither of them were trying to hurt the other with what they did (<- this makes them more tragic and more interesting. to me.)

bellatrix getting the dark mark isn't an attempt to cause rita pain, it just so happens that that's a moral line that rita will not cross and cannot forgive. rita writing her article isn't a malicious attack on bella herself, it's just what she does, following the story, chasing the next big scoop, and betraying bella's trust is not her intention. afterwards, neither of them understand why what they did is so unforgiveable (i go into this more in this post).... for this to be the case, the article has to be something different and its irked me for so long but i finally had an epiphany today.....

rita writes her article about rodolphus. about how he was caught torturing muggleborns or 'exposing' him as a death eater (<- the nuances of this are somewhat wrapped up in my opinions about the other article hcs that i'm not going into here lmao). this works as a compelling betrayal to me bc it draws bella and rodo's marriage into the conversation. i think quillkiller continue on more or less as usual after bella gets married, rodolphus is never an obstacle to their relationship in that way. it was a secret before and it remains a secret after. however, this leads rita to believe that rodolphus doesn't matter to bella, which is where she's mistaken, bc of things i've discussed before about that marriage. it's arranged, it's about duty and appearances and partnership, even if neither of them love or even really like each other. for bella, rodolphus is her husband, and that does mean something. it means he's family and an attack on his name and reputation is an attack on her too. and bella cannot forgive that and rita doesn't understand why...

and in some ways, esp if this betrayal happens post bella's betrayal, rita even thinks that her article is protecting bella. bc, the way she sees it, if bella gets caught, she can let rodolphus take the fall, she can claim he forced her into it, and people would probably believe it bc rodo is a Man and she's just a poor powerless woman... although again this isn't taking bella's loyalty to her family and to the dark lord into account bc obvs she would never agree to any sort of plan like that - it would be a betrayal, and she would never betray anyone to whom she was loyal like that. (and rita doesn't get this bc she doesn't really understand Loyalty in that way, she would always put herself first in a situation like that)

it's like. for both of them, their perceived betrayals are something so completely separate from their relationship that both of them are left somewhat at a loss as to how it all fell apart so completely. for bella, the dark lord is separate from rita, in the same way that, for rita, her work is separate from bella - and both of them want the other to be happy for them and proud of their success in these other parts of their lives and can't understand the horror and the anger and the hurt that they instead receive as a reaction. and i think this all ties together much more neatly for me when the article is about rodolphus. it just works better, sue me!!

[skyafied]

hi there! i really liked your heavy redraws and saw you were asking for suggestions so may I ask for a little red Oktoberfest smooch or general fluff? pretty please 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Oh yes yes you absolutely may!! Thank you so much for the request and kind words, I’m so glad you liked them!!! I am shaking you and spinning around rn!! 💥

As for the Red Oktoberfest fluff-

I think they both express love in their own way!! I love old men yaoi!!! I also managed to dig up this very old WIP, maybe I’ll get around to finishing it sometime :’D