#that all happened in a fair order of consecutive days

[elizabethrobertajones]

ALSO wint and frog r similar age range, wint is 20 in arr, and i hc that with timey wimey stuff (no way arr-ew is all in 1y @ devs) shes like, 26 in ew (a decision i made bc i was 26 then, 27 now lol)

hahaha, I should do a poll for how many years people headcanon pass between ARR to EW... I love that it's so malleable. "Because I say so" is such a wild thing to be completely normal for a whole fandom's perception of time. I've been in protracted battles over a few months passing or not in other fandoms XD

I like that you can imagine your WoL starts young and sort of grows up in all that though... And the characters around ALSO change and develop so it doesn't feel weird to look back on ARR as such a naïve youthful time because everyone has changed so much since then.

[oh-saints]

You could write something like friends with benefits with Ruben Dias but he really falls in love w reader 😬 ? you can decide the rest just make it angst

you really can blame back to december (taylor's version) for this. who's ready?

saudade

(portugese) a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent; desiderium.

it was a word rúben only learnt in front of his oldest flame. his favourite flame. however, between the two of them, did time heal everything?

rúben dias x doctor!reader word count: 4.5k prompts: above + summer fling + @julianalvarez9's post here (sorry, girlie, gotta twist your idea a bit) tw: explicit foreplay but suggestive smut 👀 note: y'all can blame ms. swift's newly released album, okay? well, aside from the depressive mood lately and recent work stress, the particular song kickstarted me to write my arse off like i just broke up with my ex (when it's an old news already lol). but as usual, i happen to write this at dawn so not beta-read yet. song: back to december + all too well

“oh, there she is!”

oh for the love of god, you know you were late, okay? when you hadn’t stopped running back and forth for two consecutive days straight to save everyone and their mother’s lives, it was pretty understandable to take the chance of hibernating the first thing you had a day off, right?

“after an eon of disappearing,” the groom—your favourite cousin but god did he love basking attention—raised his glass towards you, and you could only smile his way through the gritted teeth. “I’m glad you decide to grace us with you presence, Your Majesty.”

but of course your family wouldn’t understand that, for they lived a totally different lifestyle to yours, despite begging you to enrol yourself to the most prestigious medical school. ironic now that they were the ones who always begged you to come home when you felt like you’ve moved to your home the moment you got accepted to the most reputable cardiology and cardiothoracic department in the country.

so you smiled wider—for the appearance, of course—but you said nothing back.

you were still regulating your breaths, palpable by your huffs and puffs as you took the empty seat—god if the bridezilla got mad because you took the wrong seat, you’d fight her because it was already a sacrifice on your end to drag your ass to this weekend full of wedding festivities—and before you could do anything else, a glass of water was shoved your way gently.

“you look like you need one.”

you were not surprised by the voice. he sounded like he looked like—rough, buff, strong, bulk. you were rather surprised at the small smile thrown your way when he handed you the crystal, filled with clear liquid.

oh, the choice of drink, too, by the way. in a weekend that would soon be filled with endless flow of champagne and other alcoholic and questionable options, he chose still water.

realising you were still eyeing the glass in his hand, his demeanour changed slightly. “not a fan of water?”

“I thought you’re kind of a beer guy.”

your response sent him into a laughing fit because honestly, rúben was expecting you to throw a flirty banter. with an evening gown that rocked a thigh slit as high as the bride’s ego, you looked more ready to have some fun from the get-go.

but the sound of that deep, masculine laugh did wonders to you. heat immediately run through your entire body, and you immediately knew you liked it more than you thought you should because you kept wanting more. more of his laugh, more of his voice, more of his smiles, more of his scent. more of him.

“it’s too early for that, no?”

with the way he lifted his eyebrows teasingly, you almost questioned your decision to become a doctor. you’d definitely been missing out this special specimen beside you, due to burying yourself in between your patients’ body—literally, in order to save their lives. you really need to go out more often.

or maybe, you need to step up the game while you can before hospital took your fair share of fun as soon as you landed back home. shivers ran down the underside of your arms at the last thought.

fuck it, then. if there was one thing hospital taught you the hard way, it was to might as well enjoy things while it lasted.

you grabbed the glass of water from his hands—his skin felt exactly like it seemed—before signalling for two flutes of champagne. the server went to grab your request as you shoo away your thirst with the water and then proceeded to down the champagne when the server was back in the vicinity, all while never straying your eyes from his. “in Italy, nothing’s too early, no?”

and that was another laugh you’d come to like. god, if coffee did no longer work on your bloodstream, someone should get her that as her daily fix of adrenaline dose before her night shift started.

the man in front of you took his portion of champagne and said his thanks, his eyes held yours like there was no tomorrow. despite the roughness in his facial features, stubbles and all, his smile was warm. and for you, the whole combination was what made your knees weak.

how could someone look so sexy and smug in all his friendliness?

“it’s rúben, by the way.”

with the small smirk slowly tugging the corner of his lips as he sipped the champagne, rúben should really consider himself lucky you didn’t jump on him and replaced the crystal flute under his lips instead.

＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊

despite your initial dislike towards the bride—purely because you thought she had a severe princess disease—you tried so hard not to rain in her parade. no matter what, it was still her special day, probably one she’d been dreaming since she was a toddler.

also, have you mentioned that the groom was one of your favourite person on earth?

so you didn’t even dare to move anywhere outside the safe sanctuary of your table because you knew you’d be bombarded by the elders for how rarely you showed your face again in family functions like these, or for how you could not even show up with a boyfriend in tow. amongst the lineage, you were the only one left without a lover or some sort, but instead of draining your energy to explain how exhausting it was to live so that other people can live too, you stayed put.

that, and the fact that rúben provided 1001 reasons why you should stay behind with him. yes, sexiness aside, you found yourself able to converse so many things outside the medical jargons and it kind of made you miss it—the ordinary life everyone else was leading. you missed talking about the latest blockbuster movie, you even missed wearing something else than the hospital scrub and your favourite crocs for more than 10 hours straight.

you even missed the flirting phase, thanks to rúben’s impeccable ability to chime in some subtle but straightforward seduction. rúben himself already exuded some hotness, his laugh and words managed to shoot some warmth throughout your body, and the champagne tripled the heat all over you.

rúben was only downing another glass of negroni and you were only watching the liquid move from his mouth to his throat, but you needed to excuse yourself. your brain was no longer cooperating with every other organ intact to your body—you couldn’t shouldn’t think all of these forbidden thoughts inside of your mind because rúben had been nothing but a gentleman, yet you were the one who kept wanting to cross the line.

yes, rúben might’ve dropped some not-so discreet touches down your arms, on top of your knees, under your knees. yes, he twirled with your unkempt hair, tucked them behind your ears. but the groom used to do that all the time with you, just to tease you around, so what made this time different?

“I thought you hit the jackpot or something.”

and there was rúben again, his voice matched the concern written all over his face. even in times like this, when her inside was a mess all over, rúben managed to think of her well-being. damn it, he really made it so hard for you to contain the burning desire.

there, she said it. desire—a word so foreign in her dictionary recently, for she’d momentarily lost her want to study the human anatomy since the moment she walked into this party late.

“what, you’d run away or something if I did?”

despite you hyperventilating earlier, as you ran towards a balcony of this huge Italian castle looking for air, you were sure rúben couldn’t see a trace of it anymore. you were already sporting the provocating look you’d come to realise only come into the surface when stirred right—aka only rúben managed to do so by far.

and only rúben could take the outmost pride in enticing such vixen from her hiding place. you wouldn’t have braved the face to sport such dangerous dress if you didn’t have the energy in you, and he was more than glad you ended up taking your seat beside his, despite knowing you were supposed to be seated somewhere else later into the night, for he could satisfy himself with the sly and slightly naughty look you only threw his way whenever he wanted.

he’d be the worst liar on this planet if he said he wasn’t tempted to kill distance between your lips and his, so many times tonight. but his father taught him courtesy, and to do such radical act in a room full of other people’s guests would be an insolence and disrespect to the bride and groom.

but now that the matter of prying eyes was gone…

“I’d brush your teeth, of course,” a small gasp from you didn’t escape his ears. “what do you take me for?”

you smiled but you were shaking your head disapprovingly as you folded your arms in front of you. “when are you going to stop being a gentleman, rúben?”

“why should I?” the man stepped closer to you, and you wished he was still wearing the dark blue vest because you certainly couldn’t handle those specs ghosting behind the white shirt. “do you want me to be a bad guy?”

but you couldn’t also deny you’d want to see those chiselled chest. combined with that smirk and fascinating kind of mirth dancing in his eyes, would you be dead and sent to heaven? “can you?”

you were both now so close, rúben only needed to lift your chin towards his face to claim your lips. “oh, is that a challenge?”

he could easily did, by the way, with the way your lips were gaping as soon as he gripped his chin gently. but he decided to tease you more, as his nose reached down to touch yours while his body pushed you to the railing, giving him the excuse to catch your body in his arms.

your brain was now completely unwired, your limb was moving the way rúben orchestrated yourself like a maestro to his favourite instrument. all you remembered was to hold on to the back of rúben’s neck and the side of his strong arm, as he gathered you in his sturdy embrace, and chanting don’t fall, don’t fall to your now-airhead.

when he finally tipped your chin to his desired angle and your lips caressed one another, your breath turned shaky and it gave him an immense sense of pride. he’d been wanting to have this, dropping hints here and there so you’d let yourself free of expressing your inner self, because he knew you wanted the same thing too.

“what do you want?”

if anyone went wet at his usual voice, wait until you heard this version of rúben.

you could already feel yourself turning into a weak excuse of a puddle. your brain was melting, your inside was evaporating.

“tell me what do you want, baby, and I’ll give ‘em to you.”

it wasn’t that you were shy to voice them, but it was because you couldn’t find the words. funny how you could read endless words and medical jargons and yet, gone was everything inside and outside of yourself, including your so-called dignity you were often praised for when you were doing your rounds, when he dropped the word baby to call you with.

so you raised yourself on your tiptoes and pushed yourself towards him.

“uh, oh,” damn it, you forgot he was a footballer. he was paid to use his reflexes on weekly basis. avoiding your advances were nothing against his job. “words, baby.”

“you,” you managed to breathe out the simplest word you could find in the currently short-circuited brain of yours, but the very word seemed to please the man, whose smirk went wider oh-so sexily. “want you, rúben.”

if it wasn’t for the fireworks going off at the background five minutes later, rúben would’ve succeeded in making you fall apart in record time. but rúben didn’t know the word give up so while he kept to himself for the remaining of the night, he’d come looking after you as soon as the party ended and everyone went back to their respective suites.

you, too, certainly didn’t see this coming. but when rúben immediately kissed you senselessly as soon as you opened the door—well, as soon as he pushed you inside and opened your pathetic excuse of bathrobe, that is—you weren’t complaining. you even helped him shed the rest of your fabrics before unbuttoning all of his, all without separating yourself from him, because the last time you did, you never got the chance to chase your high.

“but, rúben, tomorrow’s the wedding!” you squealed as he lifted your body, your legs immediately locked your position against the large man, as he walked you both to your bed. “we’re so gonna be late, rúben.”

he was peppering your neck with kisses as he placed you down the mattress, rousing giggles from your end. “that will give them a story to tell, no?”

“you’re crazy—oh, oh,” the crispiness of your laughter was interrupted by the sensation of rúben’s tongue devilishly sucking your sensitive spot. “oh, fuck! fuck, rúben, fuck!”

if his tongue wasn’t twirling the bruising skin so well to soothe the pain, you’d smack the smile you felt against your skin. “well, they say that what happens in Italy, stays in Italy.”

“I think you’re mistaken for what happens in las vegas, stays in las vegas—oh, fuck, rúben…! don’t fucking stop.”

“is that so?” oh, how dare he stop?! you sat up when rúben halted the wet ministrations of his tongue against your breasts, about to protest the footballer, when he pinched your budding nipples. your head immediately fell back to the pillow, surrendering yourself instead. “can’t seem to remember. you keep distracting me, meu anjo.”

the sensation of his warm saliva against the coldness of his fingers’ pads were unlike no other that you mewled out the loudest moan you’d ever done. so disgusting you had to bring down his lips towards you to shut yourself up. “should we go to las vegas instead?”

“tonight?” rúben popped a now-hardened nipple of yours, and the sight was definitely something you could not erase from your memory. “I can call my plane.”

“don’t tempt me, rúben, because we know this weekend is going to be boring from the looks of it.”

“let’s bring las vegas to us, then.”

long story short, rúben brought you las vegas and its glory every chance he got during the weekend.

＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊

“must we go back to reality tomorrow?”

the giant central back chuckled at your submission. you were tucked under his arms, your fingers were drawing air on his chest, and somehow he knew you were pouting as you did so. it never ceased his wonder how you could be a temptress for a minute, then turned into a cutie-patootie—your words, not his—the next second.

it never ceased his wonder too as to how you’d always spurt out the same question all over again, every weekend you both got the chance to escape reality, despite knowing the definite answer of yes, we all have a life to lead tomorrow from him.

many of your colleagues had inquired about your relationship with the familiar face they’d seen over the weekend on their TV screens, but you didn’t know what to answer them. you were texting and flirting all the time but you were certainly wasn’t dating. you had sex, and you happened to repeat them whenever things got tough for either of you.

it was starting to become a vicious cycle, you and him. it was an impending doom, escaping the harsh reality only to seek for harsh and explosive sex instead of facing them head first.

he should’ve said no to every of your calls, but you crying over another life you failed to save wasn’t something in his card to ignore.

you should’ve said no to every of his calls, purely because you knew you were another rebound or another anger fuck from the losing game, but you didn’t have the energy in you to think of any reason to say no, not when you’ve racked your brain to save the failing life of your patients.

you both became a constant fixture, the only thing guaranteed good, when all else failed in your respective lives.

including the romantic aspect of your life.

but how could it not fail when rúben always picked up your calls when you had a bad day—that bad that you didn’t have the energy to have sex with him? he’d listened to you crying before stopping yourself, he’d listened to the silent you gave him because you were processing things. he’d listened to them all before offering to pick you up from work, no matter how stupid it looked like for him to slide in his vehicle at 5 in the morning when he had to be back at the training centre at 9 sharp.

when he couldn’t be around when you were having a mental breakdance, rúben would send you and your team a mini buffet for your lunch so you could share happiness the same way you shared him your devastation. so you could be back on your feet in no time because time is of essence for your job, your patients need you to be strong and healthy so they too could do and feel the same.

rúben—bless him—even spared his time to visit your patients when december came around the corner. he’d cheered them up, like the way he always did around you and for you, and even gave the kids and their caretakers gifts so they didn’t feel bored spending the festive holiday at the hospital. the next week, he brought over his entire football team just because one of the elder patients said he was a fan of his team.

he did all that, like a true gentleman you’d met the first time at your cousin’s Italian wedding, only to drop you the biggest nuclear bomb right on top of your head, right on christmas eve.

it was a dinner hosted by one of his teammates. he’d asked you to come because he knew you didn’t prepare for any last minute plan when your surgery schedule fell through—the patient died before you could save her—and thought the merry atmosphere would turn your sour mood to a better one.

you, from the beginning, didn’t want to go because you didn’t feel like intruding. and maybe, you shouldn’t have come.

the host, rúben’s captain, asked what kind of relationship you both were having, just as you were about to call for the men to join the women in the kitchen because the food were all ready to be served by now. but you never joined either side because of rúben’s answer.

“I’m getting married,” you remembered vividly. “she was nothing but a good fuck.”

＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊＊✿❀○❀✿＊

but that was—what, five years ago?

you’d moved on with life, and that included moving far away from home to london. you obtained your specialist degree and was now under the tutelage of the best cardiovascular professor in town. you were often credited as prof. nagelsmann’s golden child because of how much the professor adored you, for your vast knowledge and eagerness to learn, as well as your hardworking attitude.

if people knew that you were studying till you broke your neck and had constant nosebleed till exhaustion took over your body at first only to put your mind somewhere else…

well, they didn’t need to know that. people only needed to know that you lived and breathed for the hospital now, because you’d now come to terms that life and death was two of the things that you were sure of to happen. nothing else were as definite as those two.

well, maybe also the jinx when you stashed away your hospital scrub for ordinary clothing as you clocked out of your shift.

as soon as your junior called your name, just five steps beyond the hospital territory, not even your car in sight yet, you knew you had to go back inside and save your kdrama marathon for another time. “code blue?”

your junior nodded and immediately jumped to describe the dire emergency. you were also handed the patient’s medical record. “male, 35 years old with CoA[1]. his stent’s infected so we have to do replacement but his CT scan shows hemothorax[2] and raptured aorta as well.”

your legs wanted to give away when your eyes spotted the name.

it’s ivan dias.

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rúben couldn’t believe his eyes.

there you were, explaining the whole procedure his brother would be going through. clad in your hospital scrub with no make-up, you were still as beautiful as he’d remembered. not even signs of time grazing your skin, as if the cold temperature of the operating theatre froze away the concept of time from your face.

your natural look was what initially drew him into you. in a room full of people caking their faces in the latest make-up trend, you definitely stood out in his eyes. you even outshone everyone else, including the bride, if he was being honest. and when he found out you were more than a pretty face, it didn’t take him another minute to settle his decision to make you stay behind in the table with him, so no one else could take you far away from him.

possessive, people would say to him. a trait he thought he’d hated in everyone else, but a trait that turned out to be something that showed up only whenever you were concerned.

but god, did rúben want you. so bad he felt like he could kill anyone else who casted you a seductive glance, despite you not acknowledging them.

and it made him hate himself because he was turning to be everyone else he’d come to hate. he didn’t want to be selfish, he didn’t want to push everyone else for what he solely wanted. he didn’t want you all for himself—he shouldn’t want you all for himself.

you both were only friends after all.

at least, that was rúben used to think of. because who the hell listened to another person crying for hours, if not for friends? who the hell picked up another person at 5 in the morning, if not for friends? who the hell reminded another person to eat so they could take care of their patients, if not for friends?

so he did everything he could, including dating around till he painted the town as red as the possessiveness he wished to hide, in hope he could diminish this niggling feeling that was bothering him day and night. he sought help and read endless books, just so he could validate the peculiar emotions he was feeling, that only vanished when you were around.

but nothing satisfied him. nothing was the answer to his long-standing question. even when he decided to jump the big gun and got married with someone else that didn’t even understand a simple arithmetic question, rúben still felt the gnawing hole inside of him, that was still thirsty of something he didn’t know of.

the hole grew into a big, black, gaping hole as his marriage went on. the hole even swallowed the existence and the idea of the two of them, the couple that could perfectly plaster the covers of bridal vogue, into a mere memory, burned to ashes and blown to the sky.

even then, too, rúben only wanted to see you. because being around you always brought strange waves of calmness to him.

so he did, only to find you go off the grid for good. he’d asked for you to everyone he knew and everyone he thought could possibly knew of your existence, to no avail. he’d thought of going to your home and asked to your parents but he decided to go against it because he respected you and your decision—he always does from the first moment he met you.

he remembered he didn’t even want to touch you until you succumbed yourself entirely to his palm, and he promised you he’d do that and he intended to keep his end of words, be it when you were around or not. he could only pray to God to meet you again in due time and course, when you were ready to see him again.

but now… god, did he want to scream out loud in happiness. you were still as gentle as ever, having handled fragile lives in your hands of both the parents and the guardians. your voice still reminded him of an umbrella under a blazing hot day, as you elaborated ivan’s condition to his parents. your hands still reminded him of a silk handkerchief tucked properly under one’s suit, as you touched his parents in reassurance.

only then did he realise that this sharp feeling inside of him, only you could provoke such intense emotions like a dagger stab to his heart, was longing.

he’d longed to have you in his arms again, despite having you there all his previous times with you. he’d longed to have you around him again, despite being around you. no distance was still a distance per his standard. and he realised he’d made the biggest mistake by not proclaiming you when he had the chance.

fuck possessiveness, he wanted you back.

after all these years, he still wanted you so bad.

“I knew you’d succeed,” rúben sat down with two cans of your choice of beer. “I haven’t had the chance to congratulate you. congratulations, by the way.”

“thank you,” while you flashed him a smile, you smiled rather awkwardly and scooted further away from him. like you were scared of him. like a child was scared of what a stranger had in their hands. “i—”

he didn’t like that you were getting further away from his reach. he couldn’t launch his old moves on you again if you did. “I hope you still like Budweiser.”

“I do, but I’m sorry, do I know you?”

but it seemed like he’d lost you now, the way he’d lost you years ago.

[1] coarctation of aorta; a birth defect in the aorta, where it is far narrower than normal, blocking the blood flow to the body. on severe cases, it is so narrow that it can back up the blood flow to the left ventricle, forcing the muscle there to work twice as hard in order to distribute blood the way it’s supposed to be.

[2] hemothorax; a presence of blood is detected between the chest wall and the lungs. commonly, may be caused by blunt trauma or by complication of a disease.

[nikkento-writes]

Chapter 2 - Someone New

I can be a little much, I overthink, I scared you off, my spiral begins right on cue. I wonder if I’ll ever find someone new.

Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter (coming soon)

Pairing: Nanami x f!reader

Word Count: ~8.3k

cw: switching POVs (2nd person for reader, third person for Nanami), angst, fluff, alcohol consumption, explicit language

Summary: Nanami normally likes to keep to himself during vacation, preferring not to forge any needless bonds with people he’ll never meet again. But a silly encounter at a bar leads him to find an unlikely vacation buddy at Crystal Shores.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for the love and support on this so far! I also appreciate your patience with this. I’ve been very busy with work and my personal life, so I haven’t had much time to write. I’m slowly but surely making my way through! This story is very dear to my heart, so I appreciate you taking the time to read it. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Divider credit to @/cafekitsune.

Nanami arrives to his destination after sunset, when the last boat of the day finally docks. He’s in his typical work attire, having completed an early morning mission right before his departure. Tan blazer with matching slacks, a spotted tie akin to leopard print, mahogany brown dress shoes. He’s aware how severely overdressed he is for this type of environment, more apparent now as he traverses through the delicate sand, collecting more and more of the beach with each step of his oxfords. Despite his serious demeanor, Nanami couldn’t be more ecstatic to finally be here. As his feet grow heavy with the diamond dust leading to Crystal Shores, the burden of reality that weighs hefty on his shoulders is gradually lifted. Finally, he gets to indulge in this temporary escape for the next few days. 

Since the devastating attack on Christmas Eve six months ago, an event they’re now referring to as The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, tensions within the Jujutsu community have been high. Nanami’s former upperclassman, Suguru Geto, launched this attack in an attempt to carry out his diabolical plan of eradicating humans and non-curse users from the earth. That night, Nanami performed four consecutive black flashes, a record that’s impressive on paper, though in all honestly, Nanami is tired. He usually plans a summer trip annually, ever since he returned to Jujutsu Sorcery. With all the activity happening recently, he’s in dire need for a vacation now more than ever. Satoru Gojo, a teacher at Jujutsu High and Nanami’s senior (though he doesn’t act it) has already begun his recruitment to build a strong class of first years. He suspects the white-haired idiot is going to enlist him to help these kids at some point, so he’s mentally preparing himself for that. And while Nanami has already gotten accustomed to taking the youthful Takuma Ino under his wing, he’s not sure how well he’ll fair with sorcerers that are even younger. 

Sorcerers, especially those associated with both Tokyo and Kyoto Jujutsu High, remain vigilant in order to protect the students, who were targeted for recruitment to carry out Geto’s plan. While dealing with the aftermath, they continue to actively scout young sorcerers, though Nanami is against it, believing children shouldn’t be subjected to this tragic world. He can’t help thinking about his old classmate Yu Haibara, whose life was taken from him too suddenly and too quickly. It wasn’t fair then, and it isn’t fair now, expecting children to take on the considerable responsibility of saving the world from the hidden evil that plagues it. Training them to kill and preparing them to be killed for the sake of humanity. All of it is cruel and unfair, for adults and especially for these kids. However, Nanami doesn’t have much of a say in the matters of Jujutsu High, so he makes a personal vow to himself to do what he can: protect and help others who need it. This power is a blessing and a curse; he might as well use it for good. 

Crystal Shores is surrounded by a vast garden of native plants and trees, creating the ideal canopy of green above him. The path leading to the lobby is lit up with torches, the flames waving in the gentle breeze. Every staff member on his way to the check-in desk greets him, their smiles welcoming and genuine. He’s read plenty about this world-class resort, about its breathtaking beaches, five-star service, and their highly-rated amenities. As a self-proclaimed foodie, the part he’s particularly excited for is the local cuisine the island is famous for. Somehow, he managed to secure a reservation at their only Michelin-rated restaurant, having gotten lucky at the time he booked his hotel. Aside from that, Nanami is most looking forward to some much-needed rest and relaxation, whether it be by the pool or by the sea. He’s certain he’ll be in perfect harmony wherever he is here at this resort. 

When he approaches the front desk, he realizes his tan blazer is damp from the choppy waters on the way here, so he removes it, folding neatly over his arm. His skin is tacky with perspiration from the day’s travel, the styling gel in his hair worn off, stray strands sticking to his forehead. He’s left his own trail of sand behind him, some of it still mingled with the fabric of his socks. Despite his unusually disheveled state, Nanami couldn’t be more thrilled to be here. He nods at the woman behind the counter, greeting her. “Hello. I’m here to check in.”

Jasmine, according to her nametag, responds cheerfully. “Welcome to the Crystal Shores, sir! We are so excited to have you! Your name please?”

He gives it, trying to inconspicuously tap the rest of the debris from his shoes to no avail. As Jasmine types on her keyboard, a different staff member, a young man with a genial face, approaches him to offer a crisp glass of fruit-infused water. Another soon arrives to drape a floral necklace around his collar. Nanami already feels at peace and he hasn’t even been officially checked in yet. 

“Alright Mr. Nanami!” Jasmine claps her hands once, beaming at him. “We’ve got you on the seventh floor, room 727, all the way down the hall, farthest from the elevator per your request. And, of course, with the beachside view. How many keys will you be needing?”

“It’s just me,” he answers, downing the rest of his drink. “So one is fine.”

Jasmine tips her head a bit, seemingly intrigued by this information. “Will your partner be joining us later on during your stay or…?”

Nanami narrows his eyes at her, though she can’t tell through his tinted glasses. What an odd question, he thinks to himself. Still, he answers it, his hackles raised slightly. “I don’t have a partner.”

“Oh! My apologies, I didn’t mean to assume. I was only thinking that if you did have a partner, there’s a couples mixer we like to host on Friday nights down in Event Hall D.” She rummages through a stack of papers, eventually pulling out a flyer with a schedule of events taking place throughout the week. “Our singles mixers are on Monday nights, so you won’t be able to make that. However, if you do happen to meet someone during your stay here, it’s a wonderful little party with all-you-can-eat hors d’oeuvres and unlimited wine, free of charge for our guests.” 

He takes the paper, looking at it skeptically. Even he can admit that the words “all-you-can-eat” and “unlimited” are enticing enough to have his curiosity piqued. “Will they let me in if I’m alone?”

“Unfortunately, it is a couples mixers, so the minimum requirement is that you are part of a couple. But who knows? Maybe you’ll meet someone while you’re here. They don’t call this the ‘Island of Passion’ for nothing.” Jasmine’s professional smile doesn’t waver, though Nanami can tell the cogs are turning in her brain. For what, he’s not sure, and quite frankly, he doesn’t want to know given the direction this conversation is going. 

Nanami doesn’t do relationships. He doesn’t do dating. It’s a vow he made to himself ever since he returned to Jujutsu Sorcery. Involving another person in his already risky world is complicated, adding love into the mix makes it all the more dangerous. It wouldn’t be fair to himself or to his potential partner to invest in a life together that can be so quickly destroyed every time he fights a new demon or curse. He constantly puts his life on the line without question, and when he has nobody but himself to think about, it makes this job that much easier. A partner would only distract him, force him to think twice before running into battle, make him weak. It’s better this way. 

This mindset, however, doesn’t stop him from the occasional fling, especially during his temporary escapes from reality. In this particular case, the alluring promise of endless appetizers is also an added bonus. 

He stuffs the flyer in his pocket, not saying anything more about it. “Thank you,” he mutters, no longer suspicious of Jasmine, who only seems to want to push this agenda of finding romance on this so-called “Island of Passion”. Nanami uses all the willpower he has to resist gagging from the ridiculous nickname.

Upstairs on the seventh floor, Nanami rolls his luggage all the way down to Room 727, relieved to finally be settled in. His stomach gurgles, hungry after not having a proper meal all day. He does a quick refresh in the bathroom, not bothering to change out of his dress shirt and slacks. Though, he does remove his spotted tie, not trying to look too much like a man on business rather than a man on vacation.

Just as he’s about to leave his room, his phone buzzes in his pocket. As soon as he sees who’s calling, he immediately rejects it. When it vibrates a second time as he halfway down the corridor, he groans, answering it reluctantly. “I told you to call twice for emergencies.”

“This is an emergency!” Gojo yells into the phone. There’s the distinct sound of background chatter on the other line, as if he’s at a bar, which he most likely is on a Wednesday night in Tokyo. “I thought you were dead!”

Nanami clenches his jaw, restraining from unleashing his wrath on this idiot he unfortunately considers a friend. “Why would you think that?”

“You never responded to my texts!”

A vein throbs in his forehead. “When do I ever respond to your texts?”

Gojo ignores that. “Shoko was worried about you too, Nanamin. Right? Right?!”

Ieiri’s languid voice comes in quietly amidst the chaos. “We wanted to make sure you got there safely.”

The tension in his shoulders ease, knowing this is coming from a good place, at least on Ieiri’s end. He’s convinced Gojo called just to annoy him. Sighing, he responds, “I’m fine.” 

“Good. Go and enjoy yourself. We’ve got everything handled here.” For someone as laid-back and seemingly uninterested as Ieiri, she is surprisingly perceptive. Her tone is gentle, reassuring. “Not that you need reminding.” She adds the last part in, her smirk audible through the phone, trying not to give away Nanami’s secret concerns.

He’d be lying to himself if he said a small part of him isn’t worried. As much as he’s trying to remove himself from work while on vacation, there’s always going to be that fear lingering in the back of his mind. What if there’s another attack in Tokyo while he’s not there? What if something happens to his peers? Ieiri, Ino, Ijichi, and yes, even that blubbering idiot Gojo, who he usually doesn’t worry about because he’s that confident in his power. Still, what if?

“Thank you, Ieiri,” he says, genuinely meaning it. Her words don’t completely eliminate his apprehension, though for the time-being, he’s alleviated. 

“What about me, Nanamin?! I’m the one who called you first! Shoko didn’t even want to bother you!” He can tell by the whining that Gojo is at that point of the night where he’s on a sugar rush from popping unlimited candied cherries and chugging mocktails courtesy of flirtatious bartenders. And the sooner Nanami placates this nuisance, the sooner he can get off the line to eat dinner. 

Through gritted teeth, Nanami murmurs, “Thank you for checking in, Gojo.”

Gojo laughs, appeased. “You’re welcome buddy!”

“And don’t call me again.”

“But – ”

Before he gets another word out, Nanami hangs up the call with a pleased grin on his face, continuing his path to dinner in peace. 

~~~

It’s been almost an hour now since you watched the beautiful sunset from the balcony of your hotel room. You’ve been going back and forth with yourself about what you should do for dinner, ultimately deciding to venture out to explore the hotel’s top-notch restaurants. Staying in and ordering room service was the second option, though the thought of eating alone in a room that already feels too big for one makes you depressed. On the other hand, the idea of dining solo gives you a sense of dread that you aren’t proud of. 

There’s nothing wrong with having a dinner date all by yourself. People do it all the time. However, you’re ashamed to admit that when you see that, you make up sad stories in your head about why they’re alone. An elderly man slowly eating his split pea soup, who recently lost his wife after fifty lovely years together. A middle-aged salaryman scarfing down a bowl of ramen because he’s on a business trip. A young women all alone, cutting her steak into smaller pieces, wishing she had a partner to share it with. 

For goodness sake, why do you do this? It’s unfair to make these assumptions about strangers, who are perfectly content having a meal without a companion. It’s never crossed your mind that people rather be alone than not, only because you could never imagine choosing that for yourself. You’re so used to clinging to someone to prevent the loneliness you’ve always feared throughout life. Your parents, your childhood best friend Kim, and worst of all, Jun. Because of this, you were willing to ignore the warning signs of your failing relationship with your ex. As long as you had somebody, anybody, things would we okay, right?

Nope. Wrong. Very wrong.

You’ve changed outfits four times since you decided to dine at one of the restaurants on the first level. Anything you can do to keep avoiding the most mundane activity of eating dinner alone. You glare at yourself in the bathroom mirror, giving yourself a pathetic little peptalk. Come on. Just go down there and eat something. It’s not a big deal!

Before you can psyche yourself out any further, you leave the room in a sundress, one of many that you packed for this trip, and make your way down the hall towards the elevators. 

Nighttime at the Crystal Shores has the lobby buzzing with activity. Some vacationers are dressed to the nines, ready to go out and party at the local hot spots. Others are in comfortable clothes, lounging on couches with colorful drinks in their hands. You’re aware that the resort is home to at least ten different restaurants, so you scope out the front desk, hoping to ask somebody what they suggest for a casual meal, nothing too fancy but satisfying.

Jasmine, the poor woman you unloaded your relationship woes to just hours ago, catches your eye. She greets you like an old friend, beckoning you over and calling out your name. “I was hoping to see you again!” 

You approach her hesitantly like a dog with their tail between their legs, still embarrassed about before. “I’m so sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to trauma dump on you like that.”

She waves it off. “No need to apologize! I’m sorry about all the lovey-dovey décor in there.”

“No, please don’t be,” you insist. “It was…it was actually really nice. Please tell the staff thank you.” 

She smiles brightly at you, nodding. “I will. Anyways, I forgot to mention to you about our weekly mixers here at the resort.” She slides a piece of paper out from one of the piles on her desk, handing it to you. “Mondays are our singles mixers, so you won’t be able to make that. Fridays, we host a couples mixer. All-you-can-eat appetizers and wine, free of charge for our lovely guests.” 

You open your mouth to protest, but she doesn’t let you, holding up her hand and continuing. “And yes, I know I said couples. But if you just so happen to meet someone until then, you should definitely go!”

Huffing out a laugh, you say, “Jasmine, you know better than I do that your guests here are already couples. I’m not going to be meeting anyone.” 

She shakes her head adamantly. “That’s not true! Between you and me, I have checked-in several eligible bachelors today. You’re on the ‘Island of Passion’! You never know, your new love could be waiting for you down the hall.” Her eyes twinkle, as if she’s using you as reference to write a cliché romance novel in her head. 

Aside from how bizarre this all is, especially coming from a staff member you only just met, you find her eagerness to mend your broken heart endearing. You know it’s not going to happen the way she wishes it would, though. Tapping your finger to your chin, you pretend to show consideration for whatever story she’s trying to manifest. “The free wine does sound enticing. That doesn’t really matter though, since my ex is paying for everything while I’m here.”

Her jaw drops, enthralled by this new information. “Really?! Everything?”

You nod, a satisfied grin on your face. “Everything.”

Excited, Jasmine flexes her fingers, directing her attention back to the computer screen, typing away vigorously on her keyboard. “In that case, let me see what activities I can squeeze you into. We’ve got cooking classes, paddleboard yoga, spa treatments…I see you’ve already got a few things scheduled. Great! Oh! How about wine-tasting at a private estate? Hiking on a mountain with a waterfall? You’re sure to meet sexy singles there!” 

Before she gets even more carried away than she already is, you hold up a hand, politely stopping her. “Jasmine, while I really appreciate your,” you stall, trying to find the correct word for it, “involvement in this, I don’t think I’m ready to mingle with people yet.”

“But – ”

“Actually, I know I’m not ready,” you reiterate, making your point final. 

After some obvious disappointment, she resigns from her little fantasy. “I understand. I’m sorry for meddling so much. When you told me your situation, I really wanted to help. And if helping you meet someone is all I can do from behind this desk, then I figured I should just go for it.”

You smile warmly at her. “Thank you for the concern, but I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me.” 

Jasmine’s meddling, while well-intentioned, is indeed unwarranted. Maybe if this were in reality and not on this stunning island vacation, you’d be annoyed, even offended by her intervention. But this is paradise, where nothing goes wrong, and you’re just another guest passing through. In a few days, you’ll check-out and Jasmine will forget all about you and your sorry situation. No harm in finding comfort over this tiny morsel of camaraderie with a staff member who’s already invested in your love life, or the lack thereof. 

Not wanting to continue the topic any further, you change the subject. “Anyways, I’m starving. Is there a place for me to grab a bite to eat? Something comforting, nothing too fancy.”

“Yes!” Back to professional mode, Jasmine points you in the right direction. “Bruno’s Bistro has excellent food and tonight, they have one of the island’s beloved local bands performing. I highly recommend.”

“Bruno’s. Got it. Thank you!”

You follow her instructions, taking the short walk to Bruno’s, where you can already hear the live music playing as you approach the entrance. A hostess wearing a polo button-up with a palm tree pattern greets you. “Welcome to Bruno’s! How can we help you?”

“I’d like a table for one, please.” Saying it out loud brings back the dread in your chest about dining alone, but you stand your ground, determined to conquer this ridiculous fear once and for all.

“Unfortunately, all our tables are occupied at the moment,” she regretfully informs you. “The Bario Brothers are performing tonight, so we don’t expect any availability until an hour from now, when they’re done. I’m so sorry.”

You start to think to yourself that maybe it would have been better to order room-service. Before you can turn around to leave disappointed, the hostess adds, “We have plenty of seating at the bar! You won’t be able to see the Bario Brothers from there, but you can certainly still hear them. And you can order the full menu there. Would you like to do that?”

Relieved, you agree and follow her inside towards the bar, where there is ample seating for you to choose from. You opt for the bar stool in the middle, four seats to the right of an older couple finishing up their meal. 

“Enjoy!” the hostess says, leaving you with the young bartender who’s currently pouring a guava-pink cocktail into two highball glasses. Jin, according to his nametag, acknowledges you with a nod and a smile, carefully garnishing his concoctions with mint leaves. “Good evening. I’ll be with you in just a second.”

You think to yourself at how fitting his name for his profession and how ironically similar it is to your ex, Jun. As usual, he comes creeping back into your mind like a never-ending itch lodged in the tiniest, unreachable corner of your brain. Maybe you’re the one keeping him in there, finding parts of him in every single thing you do, every different place you go, always feeling sorry for yourself. Lost in this reverie, you watch Jin place the drink onto a tray on the other end of the bar, where he signals for a waiter in the same palm tree patterned polo to pick it up. He lifts it up gracefully in one hand, heading into the dining area, ready to serve a beautiful couple who’s enjoying the soothing tunes of the Bario Brothers. Fingers entwined beneath the table, taking subtle glances at one another until they both meet each other’s gaze. They hold it there for a second, smiling like they’re sharing a private joke without having to verbally communicate it. It’s moments like this, where nothing spectacular is really happening, surrounded by noise and strangers. And yet, they feel like the only two people in the world because they’re so in love.

“Hello? Miss?”

You snap out of it, Jin waving a hand in front of you to bring you back from your trance. It seems he’s been in front of you long enough to have a concerned look on his face. 

Embarrassed, you apologize, giving him your full attention. “I’m sorry. I spaced out for a second. It’s been a long day.”

His expression relaxes, relieved to finally hear a response from you. “I’m sure. Are you visiting from far away?”

You tell him where you’re from, to which he responds, “Oh lovely! I’m visiting family there next year. Have you lived there your whole life?” He pours you a glass of ice-cold water, sliding it towards you.

Taking a sip, you answer, “I have. But I actually just moved.”

“Where to?”

Something about his pleasant and genial demeanor puts you at ease, so you’re honest with him, telling him where you’re now residing as of a week ago, right before you left for this trip. 

“How fun! I’ve always wanted to visit there. The food, the fashion, the culture.”

“Yeah,” you agree with him. “I’m excited.”

The couple to the left leaves, bidding farewell to Jin, who waves goodbye to them as he grabs the generous tip they left for him and puts it in the tip jar beside the register. Focusing back on you, he asks, “So what made you leave? School? Work?”

You could easily lie. Not even that, you could withhold the entire truth, keep your answers simple and uncomplicated. However, at this point, you decide to be an open book. Similar to with Jasmine, you feed off this feeling of telling your story to a kind soul who’s willing to listen. “Yeah, it’s for work. That and a breakup.”

You hold back a laugh at the way his eyes widen at this, yearning to know more. But he keeps his reaction tame. “Well, good riddance. Everyone deserves a fresh start, right?”

Thankful he doesn’t push it, you smile at him, nodding. “You’re right.”

He holds your gaze for a split-second longer, showing his solidary to you, before he points you to the menu. “Anyways, can I get you started with any drinks? We’ve got a wide variety of signature cocktails to choose from.”

Remembering the pretty drink from earlier, you ask, “What’s the one you just made? The pink one?”

“Ah! That’s the Guava Goddess. It’s guava nectar we make fresh each morning mixed with the island’s signature rum and a squeeze of citrus. It’s our most popular drink here.”

Sold by his mouthwatering description, you say, “That sounds perfect. I’ll take one of those.”

“Sounds good. How about some food?”

Too hungry and impatient to look through the options, you ask, “What do you recommend?”

“Well, if you’re looking to a try a few different things off our menu, I’d recommend Polly’s Paradise Platter. It’s basically a sampler of our three most popular dishes.” He taps on his fingers, listing each item’s description from memory. “The juiciest sliders made with grass-fed beef, topped with grilled pineapple, all in a freshly baked mini taro bun. Deep fried spring rolls perfectly crispy on the outside and super flavorful and meaty on the inside. And our special veggie fritters made of several types of root vegetables we grow right here at the resort, in the Cornucopia Garden. It’s paired beautifully with our sweet chili sauce, which is also made in-house. It’ll leave you happy and full, I can assure you that.”

You swallow the drool pooling on your tongue, more ravenous now that he’s described the food so vividly. “I’ll take that too!”

“Excellent! Charging to the room or would you like me to open a tab?”

“Room charge is fine. Room 703,” you tell him, pleased that this is actually going on your ex’s bill instead of yours. With that in mind, you add, “Also, make that two Guava Goddesses. I’m feeling extra thirsty tonight.”

Jin gives you a sly wink. “Coming right up.”

It’s empty at the bar now, though you can tell from the ambient noise behind you how packed it is in the dining area. People let out cheers for the Bario Brothers, who strum their guitars expertly while they croon into the microphone, harmonizing with one another in perfect pitch. Jin begins making your cocktails, his hands fluid and graceful as he works his magic. 

“So, who’s Polly?” you ask, thinking about the name of the appetizer platter you ordered. 

He grins, generously measuring three shots of rum into a cocktail shaker. “Well, as you know, this restaurant is called Bruno’s Bistro. Polly is Bruno’s beloved wife, who inspired all of his recipes. They grew up together right here on the island and got separated when he went overseas to work as a chef. They wrote love letters to each other every day until they were finally reunited back home, where he opened his own restaurant. Now, they live in a private estate up in the mountains. They visit sometimes to see how things are going, but their son is the one who’s taken over almost everything, and he’s great. Next year, they’ll be celebrating fifty wonderful years together, so we’re going to have a big party for both the staff and the guests.” He pours in the nectar next, eye-balling it, before covering it with the lid, ready to mix. “Pretty sweet, huh?”

“Very sweet,” you mimic him, watching him shake the bottle, not knowing what else to say. You think of Jasmine calling this place the “Island of Passion”, which you scoff at. If it is, with love hiding in every little nook and cranny this place has to offer, who’s to say that you’re even capable of receiving it? Maybe you’re not meant to be in love. Maybe it’s not in the cards for you to grow old with somebody, to spend the rest of your life by someone’s side. Why bother looking for love when there’s no guarantee that you’ll attain it, sustain it? You were with Jun for five years only for him to fall in love with somebody else. And while your track record isn’t very long, it basically yields a 100% fail rate. Might as well quit now.

You’re too busy sulking to notice Jin has pushed two attractive cocktails into your line of vision. “Your Guava Goddesses.” He holds up his own glass filled with water towards you. “To fresh starts.”  

His tiny toast gives you a small glimmer of hope. You grab one of your cocktails to cheers him. “To fresh starts.”

You take a big swig of your drink, enjoying the bitter taste of liquor balanced by the sweet tartness of the guava and citrus. Another couple arrives, sitting three stools away from you, canoodling each other shamelessly. And that little ray of hope suddenly fades away, once again convinced that you’ll never love again.

Jin is busy with the canoodling customers, so you spare him from listening to your tiresome misery the deeper you get into your cocktails. You should have known that alcohol, a depressant, would sour your mood further, especially as a light-weight. Thankfully, your food arrives when you’re halfway through your second Guava Goddess, so you stuff your mouth with delicious sliders and fritters to stop yourself from using another unsuspecting staff member as your temporary therapist.  

Polly’s Paradise Platter lives up to Jin’s high praise of it. Each item satisfies your hunger and leaves you craving more of it until you’re happily stuffed, about a third of the platter left for you to take back to room. You’re feeling better now that you have food in you to soak up the liquor that was sending you into a spiral. Now, you’re enjoying yourself, listening to the live music, which is wrapping up soon, and chatting to Jin about other restaurants to check out at the resort. 

Suddenly, a young woman plops into the seat beside you, dressed stylishly in a white jumpsuit with a bejeweled plastic tiara on her head that displays the word Bride. She crosses her arms, grunting loudly, clearly upset. 

Not wanting to pry, you avoid her, picking at the last melting ice cube in your drink. She lets out another groan, swiveling in her chair to face you entirely. “Do I look like an idiot right now?”

Startled, you immediately respond, “No, of course not.”

She bites her lip, eyes watering, holding back tears. “Then why is everyone treating me like I’m a fucking idiot?!”

Jin tries to step in to intervene, though you shoot him glance, telepathically telling him that you’ve got this handled. Leaning in closer, you talk to her calmly. “What happened?” 

She takes a deep breath, smelling faintly of liquor. “I’m so sick and tired of everything. I’m ready for this whole wedding to be over with. I just want to marry Kai so we can start our lives together already. Everything else is stupid.”

A tear streams down one of her eyes and you hand her a napkin to wipe it. She does carefully, making sure not to mess up her makeup. “I’m pretty sure Lin and Jen hate each other and I know they’re not trying to show it for my sake, but they don’t even talk. This romper is so fucking annoying because I have to strip completely naked just to take a fucking piss. And dinner was four hours ago and nobody brought any snacks, so I’m going to be fucking starving while we’re dancing at the club! This sucks!” 

You look at your plate of leftovers, then back at her, presenting her the only solace you can offer her at this time. “Do you want the rest of my food?

She stares at you, contemplating your bizarre suggestion. “Are you serious?”

“I promise it’s clean,” you mention, worried she’ll start yelling at you at how gross this is. “I did double-dip in the sauce, so maybe don’t use that.”

She cracks a smile, some of the stress on her face easing as she pulls the platter towards her, grabbing the last slider. “Thank you. You’re a real life-saver.”

You relax now that her wrath has subsided. “I was already finished anyways, so it’s really no big deal.”

Through a mouthful of food, she muffles, “You’re being a better friend to me than my bridesmaids right now."

“That’s not true,” you say, attempting to mend whatever drama is brewing between strangers. “They took you here, right? That seems really nice to me.”

She nods, biting into a spring roll, bits of the wrapper flying off. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

A blonde-haired man in a blue dress shirt and tinted spectacles takes the empty seat on the other side of the bar. You notice him from your peripheral as you chat with the crying bride-to-be. Still, you continue your pep talk. ���Sure, Jen and Lin might hate each other, but they’re not trying to ruin your party. Maybe them not talking is better than them fighting.” It’s weird talking about these people like you know them, but you continue to roll with it, hoping to console her. 

She nods, listening to you intently, stuffing the rest of the burger in her mouth. “Yeah, I can tell they’re doing their best.”

“Rompers are super annoying, but you know what? You look incredible. You’re going to be the star at the club tonight.”

She sniffles, giggling at the compliment. “I’d like that.”

“And you know what the best part is? Sure, all of this is overwhelming right now, but you get to spend the rest of your life with Kai. That’s all the matters, right?” You smile at her, hoping whatever you’re saying is resonating. In the background, Jin greets the handsome man with the glasses, offering him a menu.

The entire platter finished now, she smiles back at you. “Yeah. I love him so much.”

You ignore the pang of jealously in your chest as you hand her one more napkin to wipe her mouth, covered in crumbs.

Crisis averted, she lets out a sigh of relief. “I feel so much better. Thank you. I’m Kali by the way,” she introduces herself, offering her hand, oily from your leftovers. You do the same, grinning at her. As if just realizing something, she smacks her forehead with her palm. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” She glances down at the empty plate, giving you a guilty look. “You were probably saving all this food for someone else, weren’t you? I’m the worst!”

You laugh, waving your hands at her in reassurance. “Don’t be sorry! I wasn’t saving that for anyone. I was only going to bring it back to the room with me.”

She props her elbow up on the counter, resting her chin on her palm. “Are you here on vacation? Or business?”

“Vacation.”

“Are you here with your boyfriend? Girlfriend? Husband? Wife?”

You shake your head. “Nope. I’m here alone.” 

A brow quirks as she studies you intently. “By choice?”

“Well…no,” you admit nervously. “But there’s nothing wrong with vacationing solo!” 

“I’m not saying there is!” Kali explains. “I figured an angel like you would definitely be with someone.”

The truth is on the tip of your tongue. You managed the whole dinner without mentioning it to anyone else, and you’re proud of yourself for that. Now you’ve made another new friend and think that maybe she’d be willing to offer you some comfort too. You swallow thickly, admitting, “I was supposed to be here with my boyfriend, but then he broke up with me. Now he’s paying for this vacation we had already planned as a way to make up for it.” You let out a chuckle, knowing it sounds ridiculous. 

Kali stares at you, dumbfounded and unsure how to respond. Jin, who’s been in-and-out of earshot this whole time, happens to catch this and joins in. “Are you serious? Your ex is paying for your entire vacation?” By the looks of it, he’s making an old-fashioned for the attractive fellow, who thankfully doesn’t seem to be aware of your conversation. 

You nod, confirming it. “Yup. Pretty pathetic, huh?”

Jin shrugs, pouring the amber liquid into a rocks glass, topping it off with a candied cherry. “Definitely not. You get a paid vacation and you don’t have to deal with a loser boyfriend? Good riddance.” His words he said to you earlier are said with more conviction this time.

“Jun isn’t a loser,” you argue, coming to his defense on instinct. “He…he fell out of love with me and fell in love with someone else. It happens.”

“Jun?! His name is Jun?! I’m even more ashamed to have a name so similar to his!” He groans in exaggerated outrage, leaving to serve his drink to the customer. 

Kali comes out of her shock to hold your hand in both of hers, a soft expression on her face. “The bartender is right. Good riddance. I don’t know you and I obviously don’t know this ex of yours. If it was so easy for him to fall out of love, maybe it isn’t meant to be. And if it is, he’ll find his way back to you. But at the end of the day, you should be with someone who can’t even stand the thought of ever being without you.” She squeezes you gently, her gaze filled with earnest. 

“What if I never meet anyone who feels that way about me?” You swallow thickly, blinking away the tears starting to well in your eyes. “What if I’m meant to be alone?”

Her look of earnest turns into determination. “If you want to be alone, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. People live their lives happy being single, and that’s great! But if you want love, you will find it. It may not be now, it may not even be soon. But it’ll happen, I promise you.”

You want to deny her, tell her that she can’t make promises like this because she doesn’t know what the future holds for you. Nobody does, not even yourself. But there’s so much tenacity in her voice that makes you actually believe it. You keep teetering on gaining hope and losing it all at the sight of a happy couple fondling each other in one corner of the bar. Maybe this time, with this new support from Kali, Jin, and Jasmine, you’ll make the effort to keep it. “Okay,” you answer, squeezing her back. “If you say so.”

Kali grins. “That’s the spirit! Now, let’s find you another man!” She glances around, searching until her eyes land on the gentleman minding his own business, the stout glass of whiskey tipped to his lips. Spotting him, she leans in close, barely whispering. “This guy’s a little grumpy looking, but we’re going to change that.”

It takes you a split-second too late to catch her drift. Horrified, you try to stop her. “Kali, wait, don’t – ”

“You there!” She points directly at him. “Blond man in glasses!”

You hide your face behind your hands, cheeks scorching hot, mortified. Peeking through your fingers, you watch his head turn towards you, confused by this stranger addressing him so blatantly. 

“What’s your name?” 

Hesitant, he responds, “Nanami,” taking a sip of his whiskey.

“Nanami. Are you single?”

He chokes on his alcohol, quickly retrieving a napkin to wipe his mouth dry from the sputtering. 

Kali claps her hands once. “I’ll take that as a yes! Well, you’re in luck good sir! My dear friend here is also single and is very ready to mingle. Are you interested? I bet she’s a real firecracker in bed – ”

Using physical force now, you grab onto Kali’s shoulders and turn her to face you, interrupting whatever nonsense she’s going to spew out next. “Okay Kali, that’s enough!” You mouth a guilty I’m sorry to him before returning your attention to your friend. “Please stop.”

“But why? He’s hot!” she whines, not bothering to lower the volume of her voice. You’re too embarrassed to look at Nanami again, certain you hear him choke on his whiskey once more at her bold proclamation.

You tighten your grip on her, desperate to make her shut up. “Kali, I appreciate the help, but I’m not here to look for another man. I’m here to relax, okay? I’m fine. I’m totally fine.” 

“What about love – ”

You stop her. “If it happens, it happens. You said it yourself: It may not be now, it may not even be soon. But it’ll happen. So let’s just let it happen. Naturally,” you emphasize.

She opens and closes her mouth, trying to find a way to argue with you, though she can’t, especially now that you’ve recited a line from her very own peptalk. Eventually, she relents, nodding with you in agreement. “Naturally. Got it.” Picking aimlessly at the crumbs on the plate, she adds, “But you think he’s hot right?”

In perfect timing, a woman in a black cocktail dress comes stomping towards you, shouting, “Oh my god, Kali! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” She hauls Kali up to her feet, giving you an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry, I hope she wasn’t bothering you.”

“Hey!” Kali protests, nudging her bridesmaid with her elbow. “We’re practically besties now!”

You smile at them, relieved and a little sad to see your new bestie go. “Not at all. It was nice meeting you Kali, and congratulations. I hope you and Kai live happily ever after.”

She beams at you, waving goodbye enthusiastically as her friend drags her away out the restaurant with surprising strength. 

The Bario Brothers have since left and more people seem to congregate at the bar, so it seems like the perfect time for you to leave. Exhausted from all of tonight’s drama, you reach into your purse for cash, leaving a sizeable tip for Jin, who’s busy tending to the other customers now. You glance over to Nanami, who’s currently immersed in a basket of freshly baked focaccia bread. Hopefully he’s already forgotten, or at least disregarded, the little exchange from earlier.  

Back inside your room, you change into pajamas and get ready for bed. When you’re tucked comfortably in the covers, you close your eyes, letting yourself sink into the mattress that seems to mold around your body. It’s the most comfortable bed you’ve ever been on, and yet, you find it difficult to fall asleep. Insomnia is another condition you’ve been plagued with post-breakup. The empty space surrounding you is unnerving. You’re so used to having another person beside you, a small sense of security that provided you significant comfort. You never realized how much you needed that until now. 

Twenty minutes pass, tossing and turning, switching out pillows, changing positions. Desperate, you get up to walk over to the balcony, opening the sliding door. The natural symphony of paradise outside fills you with ease. You listen to the soothing sound of waves crashing on the shore, the gentle breeze ruffling through the fronds of palm trees. Thankfully, it’s enough to lull you to sleep and by the time the sun rises, you’re relieved to make it to a new day in one piece.

~~~

When Jasmine at the front desk suggested Bruno’s Bistro to Nanami last night, he wasn’t expecting his dinner to be so lively. He’s been so used to keeping to himself during these little trips of his. That’s why it was especially alarming when a random bride-to-be at the bar called out to him, propositioning him to date the woman beside her, who looked absolutely mortified. It shocked him at first, sure. He was eavesdropping on their conversation as soon as he took his seat. While he’s vacationing solo, he likes to people watch as his own form of entertainment, make-up stories in his head or indulge the ones that strangers tell each other out loud. And luckily for him, there was plenty of that just a couple seats away from him. 

He found the bachelorette’s insistent interrogation of that poor woman amusing at first, thankful that he wasn’t in the hot seat himself. Then, she revealed her story about her breakup, how her ex is paying for her to be on this vacation as some sort of consolation for breaking her heart. At that, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Nanami is used to being alone, prefers it. For others, it may not be so easy. Although her smile was warm, there was pain behind it, an aura of hopelessness that he’s used to sensing after so many years of dealing with curses who are drawn to energy like that. If they were anywhere else, he’d worry that she’d be an easy target to feed on. 

It's because he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize he was being called out to until the bride-to-be accurately described him as the “blond man in glasses”. From there, it was all downhill. 

Luckily, the heartbroken woman with the pretty smile found a way to stop the madness, even finding the time to mouth a quick apology to him while she subdued the culprit. Normally, Nanami would be annoyed being bothered by strangers; this, however, he didn’t mind. 

He smiles to himself as he takes another sip of his coffee, his eyes glued to the same words on the newspaper for the past ten minutes. His mind is replaying last night’s events, wondering if that woman is okay. He’s sure she’s embarrassed, though she seemed to take it in stride. Will he ever run into her again during his stay here? Part of him hopes to, just to make sure she’s enjoying this vacation to the fullest. After all, her shitty ex is the one paying for it all.

“Nanami?”

For the second time on this trip, his name is called out. He folds the newspaper down to see who it is and he’s shocked to find the very woman he had in mind standing in front of him. 

“I’m not sure if you remember me from last night,” she starts, hands behind her back, chuckling nervously. “I’m actually hoping you don’t.”

“I do,” he admits, setting aside the paper, giving his full attention. 

Her smile slackens a bit, disappointed that he actually does remember. “Okay, well then, I’m here with a peace offering.” She reveals a small bag, holding it out to him.  “Consider this my formal apology for last night.”

He takes it, skeptical about what this could possibly be. It seems that she’s waiting for him to open it, so without further ado, he does. The aroma immediately piques his interest, and when he peeks inside, he can’t contain his excitement. “Is this…”

“Yeah, it is,” she answers before he can finish. It’s the famous almond croissant that sells out within minutes of the café opening. There’s countless of articles about this elusive treat, made specially by the resort’s most well-regarded pastry chef, who studied for years in France before returning back to their home island. Nanami had attempted a shot at it first thing this morning, but was met with disappointment when he was told it was all sold out.  

Amazed, he asks, “How did you get this? Did you wake up early to stand in line?”

She huffs a laugh. “No. I sort of have this friend at the front desk now, Jasmine. She told me that the pastry chef bakes a special batch just for the staff. When I passed by her this morning, she gave me hers.”

He takes a big whiff of it, inhaling the intoxicating aroma into his bloodstream. “Really? That’s nice of her.”

“Yeah it is.” 

There’s that sad smile again, hiding the pain within. He wants to ask her what’s wrong, wants to console her in any way he can. But he knows that would be crossing a line. Besides, why should he care so much for a stranger? Normally, he wouldn’t, so why now? What makes her so special? 

He hands her back the bag, shaking his head. “I can’t accept his.”

“What?”

“This croissant is very sought after. I don’t know if you know that,” he explains, holding it even farther from him, refusing to be seduced by the scent. “It wouldn’t be right if I just took it from you.”

She waves him off, taking a step back as if touching it will make it hers again. “Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal. Please just take it.”

“No. I can’t deprive you of this special moment. It might be life-changing.” As much as it pains him, he’s absolutely determined to deny this croissant. He’s that serious about it.

They stare at each other for a split second, not knowing what else to do. Then, she laughs. A real one, genuine and hearty, warm and full. Her smile is even more pure, cheeks rounded, eyes crinkled at the corners. “Okay. If it means that much to you, then why don’t we share it?"

His chest does a strange thing, something he’s not familiar with. He ignores it to respond with a simple, “Fine,” pointing to the seat across from him at this small table. A compromise. Something the both of them can benefit from. 

She sits down, taking a few napkins to surround the croissant as she splits it down the middle, giving him the slightly bigger half. “Bon appétit,” she grins, digging in. 

Well, Nanami thinks to himself, taking his own bite into his share. It’s even better than he imagined, the dough perfectly flakey, the center sweet and nutty from the marzipan. It fills him with warmth and comfort as he chews it slowly, watching the women across from him do the same. Maybe this isn’t so bad.

[yujeong]

Hello everyone. I'm currently losing my mind.

BOC released a new teaser for the final episode of DFF, in order to promote their live event for it and it gave me so many thoughts. In case you haven't seen it, it's this one on Instagram (they've also posted it on Twitter).

It's so trippy and cool and it gave us a lot of good shots of all the characters and what haunts them in regards to Non, but I'll focus on Tee and White, because I have my biases and that's so valid of me.

(I'll assume everything in the trailer is symbolic, like in the first trailer they had released and do my analysis with that assumption in mind.)

Long post ahead:

After we get a brief montage of moments we've already seen in the show with some beautiful background music (it's this one, I love it), we see the brothers and then we start seeing everyone's fears. We see Fluke being scared of the police catching him, we see Top being scared of a haunting, bloody Non chasing him in the forest and then,

we see Tee.

Tee is holding Non's knife in his hands, looking arguably disgusted with it (with himself). The scene cuts to three consecutive visuals which you have to pause the teaser to see clearly. I tried my best here, apologies if the quality is bad.

Tee feels guilt for what happened to Non. I think everyone can understand this by now. He observes the knife in his hands drowning in this feeling, and it creates the image of himself pointing the knife directly onto Non's stomach, who's wearing the T-shirt he wore the day he got drugged and taken away to Tee's uncle. It's very intriguing to me how Non seems to either be trying to stop him or urging Tee to stab him. We'll find out soon enough what's the case.

But the real winner is the two images after that.

Because they involve White.

OK first things first, the shot is gorgeous. I love the colors and the framing and everything about it.

They're inside what seems to be a gaming room, which I'll assume is where they probably met, based on the Without Me MV BOC put out a few weeks ago.

(Notice how the color pallette is the same, too)

Tee is wearing his school uniform (stuck in the past, stuck to Non), while White is wearing the clothes from the cabin (in the present, away from Non but not really). They already are in two different timelines, which is also evident by their positions - Tee is a few steps behind White in the visual.

What caught my attention, besides everything else, was those shiny things on the floor. I can't see them very well, but in my opinion, they're condom wrappers. They go all the way back, symbolizing the duration of the relationship between Tee and White.

The interesting thing here, to me, is how they stop just before Tee's body, and then reappear after him, in front of White, with some of them dipped in blood.

A lot of people, me included, think NonWhite is a possibility, which makes this choice here very interesting. I'll grab onto it with two hands and wait to see what will be revealed tomorrow.

Speaking of Non, I think it's fair to assume the blood on the floor is Non's blood, which makes White staring directly into it become another version of Non, narrative wise. Both innocent boys entangled in Tee's life, both suffering because of Tee. My good friend @wretchedamaranth told me it reminded them of this painting of Narcissus by Caravaggio: White is looking at himself, as if the blood has become a mirror.

Which makes the next visual even more telling: blood separated by a thin line (it's almost blurred but it isn't, White becomes Non becomes White in Tee's eyes). On the right, the big amount is Non's, on the left, White's shadow is creeping into the shot.

It's White's blood. White is going to die.

We get zero things on White besides this. Absolutely none. Does this mean White is indeed a bystander in all of this? Should we take the words of Fuaiz here at face value?

(Source: DFF BTS Ep10)

Fuaiz could be talking about the scene we have seen, not what will come after. But he could just as well be talking in general about White as a character.

All I have to say is: Brace yourselves, fellow TeeWhite fans. We're in for a tragedy.

[percontaion-points]

LIfeblood chapter 17 & bonus chapter 8

Today's review might be difficult for some; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 17

Who knew Tenley Lockwood would mutate into the Hulk when jealous? 

I literally forgot that her full name was Tenley. 

He’s dead and gone, and he won’t Fuse with a newborn human; he won’t enter into the Rest, which is open only to Troikans. That leaves... 

Many Ends? 

Surely I haven’t sent this man...and all the others I’ve killed in battle...to Many Ends.

I’ve been saying this from the get-go, but I feel like there’s whole other layers of the afterlife that even those in their secondlife have zero understanding of. 

Yeah yeah, they have this complex system of bringing the recently seconddead back, and they’re all so certain that reincarnation is a thing. But not everybody is being reincarnated. So what’s after that?

Answer: a deathier afterlife. 

My signature move is swift, painless and permanent.

In order for it to be a “signature move”, you need to have done it more than ONCE. 

Humans can pass through Bucklers, no problem. 

I would like the record to state that the narration has never once bothered to actually fucking explain what the goddamned hell a “buckler” is. It keeps saying that they’re using one over and over, but has yet to state what they fucking are!

“I’m certain he’ll want an update on Dior.” 

“He’s slept with two different girls in two consecutive days.” His tone is dry. “I think it’s safe to say Javier is over Dior.”

I am once again asking why the hell Dior was even with this cheating jerkwad. 

“To fight with them, I’d have to go to court. Who would be my Barrister, lass?” Another bitter laugh. “You?” 

“Yes!” I shout. “Yes! It would be my honor and privilege. I love you.”

I don’t know what young girl still in high school needs to hear this, but don’t kill yourself over a boy. 

Especially not one who is basically telling you to go fuck yourself. 

His voice cuts off as a blaze of Light slams into me. The gym disappears, and a new location takes shape around me.

Chapter 17 summary: The third stop is to a boxing gym. In there, they find Killian and Javier in the ring, with a bunch of “ring bunnies” making googoo eyes at the sweaty boys beating the shit out of each other. So much time is spent with Ten watching them fighting. So much time wasted. And for what? Literally nothing of actual value happens.

Finally, some MLs come in, and everybody springs into action to kill them. Once again, Killian murders his own allies. But Sloan is also there, and she does her fair share of killing her allies as well. 

When it’s all over, Killian tells Ten that he’s letting people think that he’s boning Sloan so that they can have their comms turned off, and move around freely. That despite having murdered Ten, Sloan is now 100% on Killian’s side and would do anything he asked her to do. 

He goes on to say that Javier isn’t somebody that Troika wants, but that’s kind of not the Troikan way; they want everybody. So they argue about this. But most importantly, Killian flings in Ten’s face that if she actually wanted to be with him, she really fucking chose poorly. Which… As I’ve been saying! Ten tells him to keep fighting, but again, he flings all of her double-standards back into her face. So goddamned romantic… SAID NO WOMAN EVER.

When TLs finally bother to show up (15 minutes later, without Starbucks), Ten grabs her previously abandoned shell, grabs the sleeping Javier, and leaves. 

Bonus chapter 8

There’s a girl in Paris. A distant relative of Miss Lockwood. She’s Unsigned. You want to prove your loyalty beyond any doubt? Sign her. 

Oh no, not my 17th cousin 5 times removed that I never knew existed! Anything but that!!

 It actually works. 

General Levi Nanne

Bonus chapter 8 summary: Zhi chides Killian for not following their plan, and trying to stop Ten from leaving with Javier. But Killian is like “She already suspected something wasn’t right. What was I supposed to do?” He then begs for another mission, so Zhi tells him to go talk to a “distant relative” of Ten’s in Paris and sign her. 

Then, Ten emails Levi and asks what to do now that she has Javier. Levi is like “I can’t believe that I have to explain to you how to convince somebody to sign.” 

[writingintheshadowsforever]

Imagine saying goodbye to Wakanda and leaving with Namor for Talokan

You were in your room packing a small bag of your most cherished possessions. There was probably no need to take your entire room with where you were going. You heard a pair of footsteps approaching your door and a few minutes later someone knocked on it three times.

“Its open” You called out

The door opened revealing and Shuri walked in with a grim look on her face. You dropped the folded up shirt on the bed, and turned around with your arms open without a shirt. Immediately Shuri walked into your embrace wrapping her arms around your neck.

“Please don’t go sister” she pleaded.

“I don’t want to but there’s no other choice” You said.

Shuri pulled back to look you in the eyes. “We can find another way all we need is a little more time.”

“Unfortunately that’s the one thing we don’t have” You whispered with a humorless chuckle. You brought a hand up to wipe away a single tear that escaped from her eyes. “Now don’t do that, this isn’t forever. I’m going to come back home one day.”

“How will that work exactly? Will you spend the three months up here consecutively or will they be spread out?” She asked in a dry tone in her voice.

“I don’t really know yet, but I guess that’s something I’ll have to figure out.”

“This isn’t fair we lost brother and now you’re being forced to leave. This wouldn’t be happening if I had recreated the heart-shaped herb by now.”

“Hey don’t do that this isn’t on anyone but-

“Your future husband,” Shuri said, cutting you off with a glare.

That was the one topic you were hoping wouldn’t be brought into the conservation. You had hoped you’d be able to pretend this was like some messed up mission. Where you were going to Talokan as some liaison or something to build a relationship between them and your nation. But no, here it was the truth: you were going to marry a man you barely knew, and go live in an underwater empire. In order to prevent a war, save a young girl’s life, and convince Wakanda to protect the secret of Talokan’s existence.

“It might take time but maybe I can truly learn to love him. He’s not all bad you know he took you to his home. Shuri you saw what he has to protect” You insisted.

“Yeah and I understand that but can’t he do it without taking you away from us” she replied.

“It was my choice to say yes.”

“It's not like he gave you a lot more options.”

You let out a sigh and pulled her back into the hug burying your face into her shoulder. It didn’t matter what you said there would be no convincing anyone close to you. That this was somehow not basically Namor forcing you into marriage with him. Then again maybe you were trying to convince yourself rather than them to make it easier.

“Come on, you can help pick out all the good stuff from my closet.” You told her breaking free from the hug to head over to the giant walk-in closet

“Oh you know I’m going to give you all the bad options right so I just take the rest for myself once you’re gone” Shuri said with a smirk. You laughed, “I expect nothing less from my little sister.” It was nice to be able to have at least one light-hearted moment with her before leaving.

You and Shuri spent the next hour or so raiding your closet with the occasional argument breaking out over a clothing item. When you would catch her trying to hide something behind her back from your view. In the end she played it's going to be the last thing I have to remember you by card. You reminded yourself you weren’t dying, and made it clear your room better remain untouched for when you return. Eventually the two of you stumbled upon an old photo album on the top shelf, and that’s how Queen Romanda found her two daughters. Both of you were cuddled up against each other on the floor at the foot of your bed with a photo album in both of your laps. As you flip through it, stopping every now and then to reminisce about the funniest and best moments of your childhood.

“Well at least I get to have one more good memory of my daughters together before you leave.” She said alerting both of you to her presence. She took a seat on the bed beside you and reached down to make a mess of your hair.

“You two do know I’m not dying right?” You asked.

“My child you’re lucky I’m letting you carry out this ridiculous mission” Queen Romanda said.

“I guess this means the Council didn’t have a better idea” You said.

She shook her head. “The only thing they could think of was offering up Riri instead.”

You frowned. “That was never an option.”

“I know my child I just wish you would’ve came to me when Namor made his offer”

“Mom you would’ve sent me off to some discreet location with Ayo or something” You told her.

Your mother let out a sigh not denying the accusation.

You felt Shuri squirming against you and turned to see what was wrong. She was digging something out of her pocket. It was a small black box.

“I made you something to take down there with you,” She said, opening the box. On the inside was a simple black ring band obviously made out of vibranium. “I know he’s going to be worried about you having your kimoyo beads on, and any other of our technology. The design is simple enough it shouldn’t attract any attention, and if it helps I made him a matching one.” On her other hand was a similar black box that must hold a bigger ring for Namor.

“There isn’t like a secret feature in there that’s going to let you shock him from up here whenever you want right?” You asked. Instead of just giving you a straight answer Shuri shrugged her shoulders. You took the ring out of the box and slipped it on your finger. It was the perfect fit and she was right about it not standing out. You stuffed the other box in your pocket.

Shuri leaned forward to place a quick kiss to your forehead before getting up to leave. “I’m going to let mother have some alone time with you now. Don’t worry all of us will be escorting you to the beach before dawn.”

You turned too lookout at the sky. It was still dark out but there was a hint of darker blue mixing in with the darkness. In just a couple more hours it would be time for your departure.

“Come up here y/n” Queen Romanda said softly. You obeyed, pulling yourself up onto the bed. She wasted no time wrapping an arm around your shoulder and pulling you closer. “If you truly don’t want to do this just say the word, and we will find another way.”

“Mom, he nearly killed you. If Wakanda goes to war with Talokan, I might not be able to save you or protect everyone else. At least with this way no one has to die or get hurt.” You told her.

She pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “Why didn’t you tell me about your gifts before all of this happened?”

You didn’t answer right away trying to find the reason exactly why you hid your powers from your mother. In the beginning it was purely out of fear the power came out of nowhere and it was so destructive. You didn’t know if the powers were a gift or a curse, so you sought out T’Challa’s aid first. Knowing he would do everything in his power to help you learn how to master the abilities, and if you couldn’t do it. He would help you come up with a way to suppress them so you wouldn’t be a danger to anyone or yourself. After you learned control there really wasn’t anything stopping you from revealing the truth to the rest of your loved ones. So why did you hide them? “I didn’t know what these powers meant or where they came from? I still don’t know till this day I was worried about what the Council would think. They tend to be very superstitious about these types of things. I was afraid it would change things for me” You finally answered after giving it some thought.

“Oh my child I would let this kingdom burn before I let anything happen to you. I can’t-” she paused to correct herself. “I won’t lose another child and I need you to know that if Namor is playing some angle. I will come for you.” You simply nodded and rested your head on her chest. Queen Romanda wrapped her other arm around your body, and that was how the two of them stayed for the rest of the night. When it was just an hour out from dawn you snuck out from the palace to the jets. It didn’t surprise you that both Okoye and Nakia were waiting. Of course you weren’t going to get anything past them.

“So what then no proper goodbye for your family?” Nakia asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We both know if I let them come they're going to try and stop me” You replied.

“And how do you know we’re not going to try and stop you?” Okoye shot back.

“Because both of us understand why I have to do this better than anyone. Y’all know there is no other way out of this without a war” You said adjusting your bag on your shoulder. You hoped you were right and this wasn’t about to turn into a fight to escape Wakanda.

Okoye and Nakia exchanged a look then motioned for you to follow them onto the jet which you did. The trip to the beach was made in silence. When the jet landed there was still ten minutes to spare which you spent with them. “Take care of my mother and Shuri? You said.

“You know I’m going to general or not I will always be loyal to your family” Okoye reassured you.

“Y/N when you do return make sure you find the time to stop by in Haiti” Nakia stated.

“You’re not staying in Wakanda?” It was more of a statement than a question.

She shook her head “make sure you come visit me.”

You nodded.

Okoye made a gesture over your shoulder and you took a quick glance to see Namor hovering over the water, eyes focused on you. It was time.

“Well I guess this is it.” You dug out five envelopes from your bag each of them had a letter encased on the inside. You held them out and Okoye gently took them from your hand. “There wasn’t enough time for me to say everything I wanted to, so I put it on paper. Make sure everyone gets them.”

Okoye gave you a nod and both her and Nakia embraced you before watching you depart to the beach. Namor flew down to the ground to meet you with an unreadable expression.

“You thought I was going to back out” You accused.

He shook his head. “I thought your country would put up more of a fight, especially with them.” He nodded to where Okoye and Nakia were standing.

“Trust me they don’t like this anymore than my mother does, but they trust me and I’m trusting you. Don’t betray that Namor” You told him.

“Of course mi amour let’s go, your new home awaits” Namor replied, holding out his hand. You took it, letting you pull it to his chest. Once his arms were secured around your waist his wings started fluttering and his body rose in the air. In a blink of an eye he disappeared into the ocean.

Tag List: @local-bxbby @nebulastarr @historygeekqueen @lia-losing-it @creamecafe @polireader @inkareds @ellathefriendlyalpacaaa @alinefrank @lullabaesstuff @dngnmstr-blog @pearlsyeaaa

[criticalcoruscant]

My favorite off-the-wall cr headcanons that kinda make sense if you've got enough time and string in no particular order:

1. Fjord is a orphan of the Chroma Conclave attacks dropped off in Port Damalli because the orphanages were all destroyed in the initial attacks

2. Caleb is consecuted in some way or another

3. Sabian is also a warlock of Ukatoah -and that's why the ship was blown up. Revenge against Vandren

4. Something happened in the shipwreck of the Tide's Breath that broke whatever protection Vandren had that allowed him to sail freely and now he's stuck somewhere unable to safely cross the ocean

4. Yussa is secretly a dragon and also secretly kinda in love with Marion from a far

5. Fjord is an artist with some yarn and a hook or needles. He spins wool with the dnd equivalent of a drop spindle on long journeys to keep his hands busy and earn a little extra coin

6. Beau is classically trained in some instrument. Piano or cello are my top picks. She stuck with it growing up because practicing loudly meant the squawking would travel into her father's office. She is waiting to reveal this information to yasha so they can jam together sometime

7. Veth is actually *very* good at growing plants. Shed never imagined ever having to purchase vegetables or herbs until she met Yeza. When he became a permanent part of her life, it cut down on costs for certain ingredients and he was just in awe of her ability to coax even the most pathetic plant back to life

8. Caleb is covered in freckles or sunburnt most days. The constant healing from battle keeps it from becoming dangerous but his fair skin doesn't agree with the outside portion of adventuring life.

9. Yasha sings a heartbreakingly beautiful lullaby in celestial that always put the tribe's babies right to sleep

10. When cad was a baby, his instinctual response to getting spooked was to turn invisible. This caused problems

11. Molly and jester had a very tactile relationship. They were always in each other's orbit and touching in some way- holding hands, fiddling with hair, tails pretzeled up, pinkie fingers linked, head on shoulder. She hasn't had the same level of touch since he's been gone.

12. When verrin and essek were little, they used to boast about who their previous lives might have been and wish for anamesis to begin to see who was more important. When it never came for either of them, they never spoken of it again

[kinkmaster3000]

Burping Kink Scenarios 3

(Sorry if any of these are repeats)

-Waiting until someone leaves to let out a huge belch that's been making then miserable, only for the other person to come back in because they forgot something

     - “Oh… I thought you’d left… um… excuse me?”

-Holding a small burp in because they're in a situation where it would be inappropriate/ they would be embarrassed, and as time goes on, it builds up until the feeling is almost unbearable

-Motion sickness burps. Maybe they've been eating greasy fair food all day, and going on some kind of spinning ride stirs everything up. They try drinking some cold soda to calm it down, and end up letting out a lot of long, queasy, helpless burps as they walk around the park with their friends

-Being proud of a really impressive natural belch. They didn't even mean to do it, but they’re thrilled that it happened. They want everyone within earshot to acknowledge what a feat it was

-A character who's had a few too many beers letting them out with no concern in the middle of a bar/party. Bonus points if it's someone who would usually never be that rude, but their stomach feels so full from all of the carbonation/liquid and their mind is too muddled to think about anything other than relieving the pressure

-Eating a big meal at a restaurant and then having to get directly onto public transportation (like a subway or a bus). The motion unsettles the trapped air in their stomach, so despite being surrounded by people, they can’t help but let it out. People glare at them, but all they can do is apologize and duck their head

     -Made even worse if it’s during rush hour or something where people are packed like sardines

     -For characters who don’t really have any shame, they’ll just let them fly right in the middle of the train/bus without caring at all. If anyone gives them a dirty look, they’ll just look at them like “the fuck are you gonna do about it?”

-Similar to the one above, having eaten/drank a lot (or just being bloated in general) and having to take an elevator with a friend or a stranger, only for it to get stuck. They really don’t want to start burping, but it takes two hours to get it moving again, and they can’t hold it in for that long. The apologize profusely but they can’t stop more from coming up

     -Maybe they’re in the office building where they work, and the other person is their superior who they desperately want to respect them (this one’s evil, I’m sorry)

     -Or maybe they’re the type of person who holds in a burp specifically to let it out on the elevator, just because they know it’s a confined space and they think it’s funny to subject their friends or even complete strangers to it. If they get mad, they’ll just laugh and do it again

- Nauseous burping brought on by smoking/vaping too much, or sucking down too much air in the process. Maybe their on smoke break at work, standing outside the building, and end up catching the attention of people walking by on the sidewalk

     -Also, burping fits brought on by taking an extra large bong hit. They hold it in too long and end up coughing before they can properly exhale everything, making them swallow a lot of air. They end up burping uncontrollably for the rest of the sesh, with each consecutive hit making it worse

-Ordering an extra large soda on a hot day and bringing it home with them. They sit down with it to work at the computer, and end up sucking the entire thing down in record time without even thinking about it. Burps start rushing out one after the other, and they’re just sitting there trying to focus while rubbing their stomach and letting out strings of long belches into their fist

-Being stuffed beyond the point of comfort, and drinking an entire bottle of soda directly afterwards. They can’t control the huge, deep burps that get dragged up from their stomach afterwards, and it’s so relieving that they don’t want to

     -Just having eaten a ton in general and feeling like they’re too full to burp. Every time they try, they can only manage a soft little hiccup burp, or feel like a bit of food is coming up into the back of their throat. Then they shift from lying down to sitting up or standing, and the food shifts around enough for a massive belch to explode out of them, leaving them feeling much lighter

-Someone you wouldn’t expect having an unbelievable talent for burping. They let a huge belch fly while hanging out with friends, and just casually excuse themself. When one of their friends points out how massive it was, they just shrug and say “They’re always like that, I don’t know why”

-A character who is normally polite being very good at burping on command and not afraid to share their skill because they’re proud of it, to the surprise of everyone that knows them

     -Or just a normally polite character letting out a surprisingly large belch in general, but instead of apologizing or being embarrassed (as everyone expects), they say they’re “too proud of that one to not own it”

-Someone burping on command to amuse themself or show off to their friends, only for all of the air they swallowed to end up getting stuck. It ends up getting unstuck later at an inappropriate time, such as a date or a meeting, or in the middle of a class

-A shameless character filming prank videos of them belching as loudly as possible in socially unacceptable places, to the point of getting kicked out or even starting a fight

      -Also burping in random people’s faces and running away as fast as possible

[evierena]

The Demon Brothers catching MC listening/Dancing to their songs

I know that Belphie’s song has been out for a while now, but I still wanted to write something to celebrate all seven songs were blaring on replay on my phone so, here it is. 

INTRO:

For this time around, MC (and Solomon) has somehow convinced Diavolo that in the human world, people felt more at ease with music, with songs that reflected the character of the singer and that could move their hearts.

So, to further expand this idea and to see if it could prove useful to his goal of uniting the realms, the Demon Prince entrust the task to none other than the demon brothers.

Now, with all the songs out and blaring all over the Devildom, MC had found themselves to be quite fascinated by a particular song they just couldn’t stop replaying.

And what happens when the author of said song catches MC singing and dancing along? Let’s see…

Lucifer

You were waiting for him in his study, so probably you shouldn’t have expected much privacy really.

But, in all honesty, how could you not sing along to Arcadia?

The music was alluring, and his voice was simply enticing, it compelled your body and soul to let go, to allow being embraced by Lucifer.  

So you did.

You had forgotten your headphones, so you just had your D.D.D blaring Arcadia on replay, and once the lyrics began, you started signing along, your already dancing hips gaining rhythm and sensuality as the song progressed.

And while you were having a blast, dancing and signing in Lucifer’s study to his song, he was right outside, with the door half open, staring at your figure.

He was as captivated by your dancing as you were by Arcadia.

His heart was both full of love and pride, although he would only publicly admit to the latter. Because, you already knew about the first. And that was enough for him.

In one of those twists and turns you did while dancing you finally lock gazes with the deep crimson irises of Lucifer.

But, instead of stopping all together, you were encouraged by his powerful eyes, and decided to continue signing without breaking eye contact.

Lucifer was amused to say the least, by your little show, and he started to approach you with slow, determined strides until you both were inches away from each other.

The atmosphere grew heavy with his proximity, and you found yourself lowering you tone, adapting it to a soft whisper only loud enough for his ears.

His hands found purchase in your hips, stilling your movements, and to your surprise he joined you in your quiet singing.

And like that, both enraptured, lost in each others eyes, basking in the others presence, the song ended.

Your D.D.D ran out of battery, and the study was suddenly filled with tentative silence.

Lucifer had a smirk in his lips and you were smiling, your hands traveled to his shoulders, and you reach out to him to close the final gap between his mouth and yours.

But just before sharing a kiss that promised so much more, you both were startled by a loud crashing noise somewhere in HoL, and then a series of cursing and screaming.

Let’s just say that the punishment for whoever it was that interrupted Lucifer’s and his human moment was… terrifying.

However, that night you received a visit from Lucifer.

“Why don’t you sing for me again, my dear?”

Mammon

Mammon had invited you to a night out in the casino, and for such a thing you had decided to doll yourself up a little in your room before going out.

That’s what you were doing, when Are you Ready? Started to play in your D.D.D and well, you started to dance in front of the mirror.

The song always managed to bring a big ear to ear smile to your face and it brought out your party self. You really enjoyed it.

The music was so fun and Mammon’s voice reached the best parts of your heart and soul. And the lyrics, in your opinion the lyrics were the best part, specially because you had been there when Mammon was writing them.

It just warmed your body and made you happy.

Speaking of Mammon, he was on his way to pick you up, when he noticed you door was open so he let himself in, just to found you dancing and singing to the mirror his own song.

A deep blush spread in his cheeks, his eyes not entirely comprehending that his human looked that happy, making funny faces and dancing while listening to his song.

Once you caught onto the figure behind you through the mirror, you could see that the fiery blush on your demon grew even deeper. And so did your smile.

So, in your Are you Ready? Induced state, you went for him across your room.

Mammon tried to stop you, but in all honesty, we all know he could never say no to you, not really.

So you brought him next to your still dancing body and spurge him on to do the same.

It took a few seconds for his brain to process the situation, but once he saw the true joy and affection shining in your eyes, he felt himself relax and follow your lead.

Fortunately, the song was on replay, and your speakers were connected to your D.D.D so finally, both you and Mammon fall into a semi party just dancing, jumping to the rhythm, singing along and enjoying the others movements.

Eventually, Lucifer appeared and order both of you to shut up, and in giggles, with your cheeks aching, Mammon and you sneak your way out of HoL, and once you were in his car, on the road to the casino, he put Are you Ready? Again in the speaker of the vehicle.

All the way, both of you sang to the night in the Devildom, him stealing glances at your ecstatic face, and you staring at him while signing using your D.D.D as a pretend mic.

Once you reach the casino, Mammon felt so happy and elated to have you right by his side while he gamble his money away, he actually did manage to win a small fortune.

You both were in a rush with adrenaline pumping and serotonin flooding your brains, you suddenly found yourselves back in Mammon’s room.

Where he catch your body with his, and he stared deeply into your eyes, showing off his white pearls, no glasses covering his eyes so you got lost in the beautiful, divine blue and yellow.

“I’m just crazy for you, MC”

“And I’m madly in love with you, Mammie”

Leviathan

You wanted to surprise him, ok?

It’s just, you really appreciated that he had gotten over his insecurities and power through the whole recording and making of the song. So you wanted him to know that it meant a lot for you and that you truly loved his song.

So you got a Ruri-chan cosplay from Akuzon, pretty much spending all of your savings in a really good one, made up from scratch a choreography for My Chance! And went to work

With all of this motivation you were in the planetarium, recording video after video to just make sure everything was perfect. Of course, it was not your intention to post the video, after it was ready, you were going to send it to him privately.

But, of course, when did things go exactly the way you wanted them to without complications?

Yup, pretty much NEVER.

Honestly, I couldn’t blame you either, after being dressed up, dancing for at least three hours consecutively, perfecting your moves, editing and deleting the unwanted clips, pretty much being exhausted AF, you just hit the wrong button without realizing and post it to the DevilTube channel you had with the brothers, besides sending it to Levi.

Well, good news: it went viral. Bad news: it went VIRAL.

Leviathan couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the video.

You were so, so, so cute!!! And he couldn’t understand why would you choose HIS song to make such a good video? Like, why would you want something he made (with you in mind of course, but he couldn’t for his life say that out loud without combusting) a icky otaku like him?

So, after you realized your mistake you went to his room to clarify things.

Boy, was he flustered just by seeing you. Although you weren’t wearing the cosplay anymore, he couldn’t make eye contact without blushing furiously, stutter and imagining you in all sorts of different cosplays.

When you explained that you wanted the video to be something private for just the two of you as a token of appreciation for his song, because you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, he understood and said thank you in between stutters and mumbles.

But you also said that you weren’t ashamed that everyone got to see you enjoying his song, almost as if you were bragging about him.

By the end of the day, he truly believed that you loved his song, and somehow both of you had agreed to make another video, dancing along My Chance! But as Henry and Lord of the Shadow.

“And I’ll be the one to make our cosplays!”

“Of course, Levia-chan”

 Satan

In all fairness, you hadn’t realized he was there the whole time you were in the library, trying to study but miserably failing the moment Read My Heart started to play in your earphones.

Singing softly, almost to yourself, your eyes unfocused on the textbooks in front of you, slowly rocking your head side to side, tapping your fingers as if playing the piano, you were enjoying Satan’s song.

You didn’t even felt the green eyes of the blond demon zeroed in on your form, and he wasn’t sure whether he liked it or not.

In the beginning he just followed the quiet noise because it was distracting him from his reading, until he noticed it was you, and after paying more attention to your voice he realized you were singing his song.

A faint blush spread on his cheeks, but his eyes couldn’t stray away from you unaware of your audience, you continued signing over and over again.

He felt warmth, feeling all fuzzy and giddy in the inside without showing much in the exterior, but the small, tender smile he wore in his beautiful face along with the pink in his cheeks said otherwise to anyone who looked.

Lucky for him, it was only the two of you in that moment.

So he decided to indulge himself in the adorable sight that was you, softly and inadvertently signing for him.

However, soon enough he just wanted to be closer to you, so he did.

Slowly, he approached you until he sat beside you.

That’s when you finally noticed him.

You stared at his eyes, and found a glint of amusement at your bashful reaction, but the tenderness in them and his own blush eased your nervousness.

You stopped signing, but he took one of your earphones and put it in his own ear, and then, he also started to softly sing along.

Wide eyed, heart throbbing and your soul melting at the sight of his deepening blush, you let yourself listen to his voice only occasionally adding your own.

Somehow, you ended up resting your head in his chest, and he used one arm to bring you closer, your earphone long forgotten, your ears capturing the sound of his heart in his chest and his soft singing.

After he ended one last time, you sneaked your arms around his midsection.

“It truly is a beautiful heart, Satan”

“And it’s yours, MC”

Asmodeus

On your way from RAD, you had passed by Majolish, and, through the window, caught a glimpse of the pink haired demon, dressing in what appeared to be another brand new outfit, posing in front of mirrors, being praised by a group of lesser demons.

You saw the practiced, smooth smile and postures Asmo was putting on, and couldn’t help but remember when both of you were in his room while you were trying on face masks among a bunch of other products, how carefree and relaxed he looked, how even his flashy and over the top personality had seemed to be calmed down a bit, and how he just enjoyed your presence and allowed himself to be engulfed in the comfort of the moment.

A tender smile sneak its way on your face, watching attentively as he continued on posing through the windows, and you started absentmindedly singing the lyrics of Pomade.

Not long after, Asmodeus locked gazes with you, and your heart flutter at the immense and dazzling smile he flaunted in his beautiful face.

So you continued on with your one-man audience performance.

He mantained eye contact through the mirror, and eventually he understood by reading your lips what you were saying, which brought a bashful blush spread on his cheeks that punch the air out of your lungs.

It should have been illegal to look that exquisitely magnificent. You thought it was fair since he was indeed a demon.

Finally, tired of not being right by your side as you made his own heart throb with such a gentle affection, he grab his bags filled with new products and gifts for the both of you to share, he made his way out of Majolish.

He found you waiting for him with a smile, open arms and sweet benevolence in your eyes, he almost melt instantly in your embrace.

Asmo, with a teasing smile said:

“Baby, you want my love?”

“Yes, I need your love”

Beelzebub

In the middle of the night, you and Beel had decided it was time for a snack. So now, in the kitchen, while you tried to keep as quiet as possible, you watched the gentle giant of a demon that was him, working to make the both of you a few sandwiches and some other snacks you knew he would eat the most of.

You both were sharing AkuPods, and you were in charge of the playlist for the silent raid to the fridge.

Suddenly, Hungry Six-Pack started playing. A fond smile formed on your lips, noticing that the demon himself didn’t seem to realize what was playing on his ear, so you began following the lyrics, making small movements to go along with rhythm.

You gained confidence, and a little mischievousness, so you boldly turned up the volume of your voice. Little by little, your dancing became more jumpy and louder.

Finally, while you were immersed in one of your twists and turns, you felt the warmth of a chest on your back and strong, gentle arms surrounding your dancing figure.

Giggling freely in Beel’s arms, you continued singing to your favorite song. It didn’t took you by surprise when you hear him behind you, joining your little display of talent.

Fortunately, you were able to discern the steps of someone coming over to the kitchen, and as you and your sweet demon scurried back to the safety of his room, the song kept on playing on your ears.

Once inside his room, you flopped into his bed, a wide smile on you, finally being able to see the pure adoration plastered in the orange haired demon towering above you.

“Forever?” he asked.

“Forever, Beel”

Belphegor

Late at night in your room, unable to sleep, your D.D.D screen the only source of light, you were absentmindedly reading a children’s book that you had downloaded earlier that day.

Still, dreams seemed to elude you that night, so defeated you stood up and went to your switch, to distract yourself with some doodling on your desk.

You put on your favorite soft playlist to further help you in getting sleepy.

Then Dreamscape started playing.

Firstly, your moved your head to the rhythm, then your fingers stopped holding your doodles and followed the lead, later, you started humming.

So, you let yourself be comforted by Belphie and his voice, staring through the window, unfocused on the bright Devildom moon, recalling the demon’s face and his gestures while you gave in and began singing the lyrics.

The soft music unexpectedly didn’t get you sleepy, if anything it reinvigorate you by bringing happy memories of the two of you, dissing Lucifer, sleepovers in the attic, some with Beel others not, stargazing, sleepless nights like the one you were experiencing right then just talking about dreams and their very weird, complex, simple or absurd meaning, or, of course, just basking in the others company in a comfortable silence.

Absentmindedly, you had keep on singing and what you didn’t know is that your favorite cuddle buddy was right behind your door, struggling to hide the blush on his face at hearing you sing his song, pondering on whether leave you be or demanding to sleep together.

In his own side, lost in his thoughts, he missed how your voice was approaching the door, you were also on a mission to find him to sleep by his side.

Once you both were face to face, it became obvious what had happened, so you let a small giggle leave your lips, and grabbed him by the arm, turning off the lights, forgetting the doodles in your desk and dragging him to your bed.

There, both of you snuggle closer until the maximum amount of coziness was reached. Limbs tangled between the two, Belphegor’s head ended up resting in your chest, his arms surrounding your midsection, while your hand played with his hair.

In the quietness of the atmosphere, you dared to once more humming the melody of Dreamscape, to your surprise, that earned you a tighter hug and a satisfied hum from the sleepy demon.

By the end, the only thing you could murmur, eyelids barely open and voice hardly understandable, was:

“G’night, Belphie”

As the seconds went by, you fell asleep without consciously hearing his answer, but your dreams were filled with that simple phrase and the face of the demon in your arms.

“Good night, MC”

Thanks for reading and have a peaceful week!

Here's a little playlist with all the songs and audios from Obey Me!

Atte.- Evie

Let's see if you can guess my top 3 favorites from this HC 👀

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The music monopolists

Writing in Wired, Institute for Local Self Reliance researcher and anti-monopolist Ron Knox gives a thorough, important account of how music industry monoplization resulted declining revenue for artists, even as the industry itself has reaped greater profits.

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-big-music-needs-to-be-broken-up-to-save-the-industry/

Importantly, Knox describes how concentration has come to every link in music’s supply chain, from radio to recording, streaming to live performance. The monopolists who dominate these sectors fight fiercely between each other, but no matter who wins, artists lose.

Let’s go segment by segment. Two thirds of all North American music comes from three labels. The labels grew through anticompetitive mergers: giant companies, awash in investor cash, bought out mid-sized, successful labels, turning them into subdivisions of the Big Three.

The more concentrated the labels got, the worse they were for everyone. They spent the nineties and naughties price-gouging record companies, pocketing hundreds of millions from an illegal price-fixing conspiracy. The fines they paid were smaller than the profits they reaped.

But at least they distributed music. Today, the struggling physical record store industry — a network of passionate music sellers who serve the most intense music fans — find themselves getting “record shipments” that turn out to be boxes of random stuff like cough syrup (!).

That happened when the Big Three all piled their distribution into a single company, the monopolist Direct Shot Distributing. As Direct Shot started to fail, its operations descended into chaos, and record stores started to receive boxes of random consumer packaged goods.

It was bad news for the non-monopolized, music-first record stores, but it barely registered for the Big Three labels — today, they buy an average of two new acts every day.

The labels don’t make money from selling records, of course. They get their money from streaming.

Streaming is also massively concentrated, gathered into the hands of just a few companies: Spotify, Apple, Youtube, Amazon — with the notable exception of Spotify, the industry is dominated by companies that also monopolize other sectors.

Monopolies are good to these companies. Spotify’s market-cap doubled during the pandemic — the market values its 150m subs (twice as many as subscribe with Apple) at $50b. The major labels get $1m/hour from streaming. 99% of their artists see $25/year in streaming royalties.

Spotify may be the biggest streaming service, but it’s not the lowest-paying. Youtube — a Google division, whose unsuccessful attempt to launch an in-house video service convinced it that it had to buy someone else’s success — drives the worst bargain.

Spotify uses its industry dominance to extract heavy fees from the labels — creaming 30% of the total revenue generated by a typical track. Big Three monopolists with fat margins can absorb this. Indies? Not so much.

Spotify’s market cap growth is in part due to the new ways it’s come up with to shake down the labels — a variety of tactics that all boil down to one thing: payola. Spotify will sell labels pop-up ads, placement in “radio” algorithms, and access to “Discovery mode.”

Like all forms of payola, Spotify’s rate-card is a way for monopolists to edge out indies, buying their way into your ear-holes. I’m sure that the Big Three would rather keep the bribes they pay to Spotiify, but the consolation prize is pretty sweet.

If the Big Three are the only ones who can afford to buy access to Spotify’s audience, then creators are driven to sign with them, and have less bargaining leverage when they negotiate their deals.

Spotify, meanwhile, can consolidate its gains by driving up those fees, pitting labels against each other in a bidding war for access to listeners. This effectively drives down the royalty rate Spotify pays, because every new track will have to buy in to get any reach.

Spotify talks a good game about how it uses big data and machine learning to pick the songs you hear, but increasingly, the algorithm is getting far less compute-intensive, a simple sort-by-highest-bidder system you could operate from a laptop running Windows 3.1 and Excel.

In theory, streaming losses can be made up with touring. Acts who attain digital popularity can charge access at the door to clubs and other venues. The only problem is that live performance is also a monopoly business.

The 800lb gorilla there is Livenation, a division of the ticket monopolist and notorious arm-breakers Ticketmaster — spun out of Clear Channel, the monopolist that we now know as Iheartradio.

Livenation parlayed its access to the capital markets to buy out $1b worth of venues and promoters, before being acquired by Clear Channel for $4.4b in 2005. Today, it’s a division of Liberty Media, consolidated with Ticketmaster, Pandora, and Siriusxm.

What goes around, comes around: Liberty’s private equity owners are in the process of buying up Iheartradio, re-merging all of Clear Channel’s spinouts into one giga-monopolist.

The conglomerate already coerces artists to book exclusively in its clubs and using its ticketing, starving independent venues. Add 850 terrestrial radio stations to the mix and it will choke off all the oxygen that independent venues, promoters and ticketers rely on.

Liberty didn’t buy all these companies because it’s passionate about music and wanted to ensure artists got a fair shake. By rolling up the entire live music/radio supply-chain, it bought the power to extract vast sums from musicians, and to keep rivals out of the market.

Well, not all competitors. Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger raised tens of millions for “Savelive,” a new would-be monopolist that offered to “rescue” live music venues in exchange for a 51% stake in them.

Savelive illustrates an important point about the nature of monopolies: they beget more monopolies. Consolidation in the labels meant that only the largest streaming companies could negotiate a sustainable rate.

But consolidation in radio drives consolidation in labels — and many of the indie radio stations that survived the first wave of consolidation were picked up cheap by Iheartradio once monopolistic streamers ate their lunch.

This is a pattern across the whole entertainment industry: bookstore mergers and big box retailers drove consolidation in publishing; that was accelerated by consolidation in online ebook and physical book retail.

It’s not limited to the entertainment sector either. As David Dayen describes in his essential book MONOPOLIZED, hospitals didn’t start consolidating until the pharma industry underwent a wave of brutal mergers and started gouging for drugs.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

Hospital consolidation led to gouging insurers, leading to a wave of insurance consolidation. Today, nearly every part of the health industry is monopolized, from pharmacy benefit managers to medical labs.

The only parts of the supply chain that doesn’t monopolize — that can’t monopolize — are the ends of the chain: the people who work in the system, and the people who use it.

Monopoly punishes doctors and nurses and other health workers — and it punishes patients.

It punishes writers and publishing workers, and it punishes readers.

It punishes musicians and independent venue owners, and it punishes listeners.

When every part of the supply chain gets so monopolized that it can’t easily be squeezed by any other part of the supply chain, these giants turn on us — the workers and users of the system. We, the atomized and fragmented, cannot resist the squeeze.

But as Knox writes, the tide is turning. After 40 years of waving through anticompetitive mergers in the name of “efficiency,” the DoJ and FTC are under new management, with two-fisted trustbusters like Lina M Khan at the helm.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

This new cohort of monopoly fighters reject the “consumer welfare” theory of antitrust (the idea that monopolies drive prices down and are therefore good for society), going to war against the hegemonic orthodoxy that began with Ronald Reagan.

https://doctorow.medium.com/epic-v-apple-d3e59893b4f3

The new antitrust is surging, with bills in the House and Senate, executive orders from the White House, regulatory proceedings at the DoJ and FTC, and an interagency-cabinet coordination committee that ties it all together.

This new antitrust promises workers and users of monopolized industries a better alternative than rooting for one giant to beat another in hopes that they will drop a few crumbs for the rest of us to enjoy.

Creative workers don’t have to choose between Big Tech and Big Content based on their assessment of which monopolist will abuse them the least. Instead, we can root for antimonopoly, for giant-slaying, and the right to self-determination.

The most important immediate step towards that future is blocking new anticompetitive mergers, like Sony’s bid for AWAL, or Liberty Media’s use of a $500m SPAC to go on a vertical monopoly shopping spree.

The agencies have the power to stop these. They should. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

But ending anticompetitive mergers won’t get us out of that hole: most industries (from beer to cheerleader uniforms to wresting to eyeglasses) are already monopolized.

The new trustbusters — and the ILSR — want to use antitrust law to break up these conglomerates. I think that’s right: vertical monopolies will always engage in self-dealing to the detriment of independents, workers and customers. Break. Them. Up.

But breaking up is hard to do. When the DoJ tried to break up IBM, the company’s lawyers outspent the entire DoJ antitrust division, every single year, for twelve consecutive years, and in the end, it escaped breakup.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. IBM escaped justice because Reagan was elected and neutered antitrust. And even though it remained intact, it was never the same — for one thing, it decided that it was too risky to make its own PC OS.

IBM knew that antitrust enforcers were very suspicious of tying software to hardware — so it tapped a couple of hacker kids, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, to sell it DOS, from their new company “Micro-Soft.”

Unfortunately for all of us, antitrust enforcement only declined after that, so IBM was able to return to its monopolistic ways, and Microsoft escaped from antitrust scrutiny after a mere seven years in regulatory hell.

Antitrust enforcement can sap monopolists of the will to power, as they become increasingly concerned that their actions will attract aggressive legal reprisals.

Think of how Apple “lost” the Epic lawsuit but still “voluntarily” rescinded its heretofore hard rule against apps providing links to web-pages where you can use third-party payment processors to make purchases.

As monopolists lose their nerve, space opens up for all kinds of pro-worker, pro-user interventions, far beyond those afforded by traditional antitrust.

Next year, Beacon Press will publish THE SHAKEDOWN, a book I co-wrote with Rebecca Giblin about the monopolistic corruption of creative labor markets and how creative workers, regulators and fans can resist it.

The Shakedown catalogs the ways that monopolization of investment, distribution and sale of creative works allows entertainment companies, Big Tech, and major retailers to shift an ever-larger share of the creative industry’s revenues from workers to themselves.

More importantly, we identify tools beyond breakups that we can use to de-monopolize the industry — things we can do right now, without having to wait for the conclusion of an antitrust suit that might run for decades.

Take reversion rights: many copyright systems allow creators to take back their rights after a set period (35 years in the US). This lets artists who signed bad deals — before they were proven successes — to resell their catalog or extract reparations by threatening to.

But reversion is really hard to do, and 35 years is way too long. Only an handful of creators — even those with valuable catalogs that could be renewed through reversion — ever manage it.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/06/backsies/#take-backs

Congress (and other legislatures around the world, including Canada, where this is likely to come up in the new Parliament) could fix reversion: make it easier to do, and make it available after a shorter period — say, 14 years.

And what about those bad contracts? The “freedom to contract” has always been subject to limits, where some clauses are deemed unenforceable “as against public policy” or because they are “unconscionable.”

With the entertainment sector consolidated into just a couple of states, state legislatures could act to void the most abusive clauses — for example, clauses that allow labels to claw back royalties indefinitely to recoup (often inflated or fictitious) “expenses.”

Our book explores dozens of these kinds of ideas, from co-operatives to trade unions; better accounting practices and direct arts subsidies; radical interoperability and collective licensing; minimum wages for creative labor and collective bargaining.

None of these are replacement for reducing the size and power of conglomerates throughout the supply chain, but all of them are interventions we can make as the power and nerve of conglomerates declines, changes that will hasten that decline and open more space for breakups.

And all of them are applicable, to a greater or lesser extent, to helping workers and users of all the other consolidated industries, from health care to cheerleading.

For example, expanding California’s ban on noncompete clauses would help fast-food workers nationwide — because today, fast food employers are the most aggressive abusers of noncompetes.

That means that a fried chicken cashier earning the tipped minimum wage can’t quit to work at a burger joint across the street for a $0.25/hour raise. Creative workers aren’t the only ones suffering from monopolization — we’re not even the worst off.

But by definition, creative workers have a platform. We reach people. We have the potential to help form the kind of unstoppable coalition that we’ll need to reverse the generations of oligarchic, post-Reagan consolidation.

You may have heard about how Danish McDonald’s workers earn $22/hour and get six weeks’ paid vacation and sick leave. That didn’t come about because McDonald’s was required by law to pay it.

It was worker solidarity that did it. As Matt Bruenig writes, McDonald’s initially refused to sign the voluntary “hotel and restaurant” collective agreement. So its workers went on strike.

https://mattbruenig.com/2021/09/20/when-mcdonalds-came-to-denmark/

Now, if McD’s workers had struck alone, they’d probably have lost. But Danish law allows for sympathy strikes — that is, it allows workers in other parts of the supply chain to take industrial action to support their sisters and brothers who are striking.

When the McD’s workers walked out in 1989, sixteen other sectoral unions joined them. They didn’t just help picket at leaflet in front of McD’s restaurants!

Dockworkers wouldn’t unload McD’s shipments. Printers wouldn’t print their cups and placemats.

Builders downed tools on McDonald’s construction projects. Typesetters wouldn’t set the McD’s ads in the daily papers. Truckers wouldn’t deliver to McD’s restaurants. Food industry workers wouldn’t produce the drink syrups, fries and other inputs to the McDonald’s kitchens.

McD’s caved.

Now, as Bruenig points out, these kinds of sympathy strikes are illegal in the US, but it’s a mistake to think that workers don’t have power because sympathy strikes are illegal — rather, sympathy strikes are illegal because workers don’t have power.

Workers across all sectors face the same kinds of monopolistic exploitation. Workers across all sectors have a common enemy (literally, thanks to “common ownership” where companies like Vanguard and Berkshire Hathaway hold significant stakes in almost every major company).

With a shared cause, shared tactics, solidarity and a renewed sense that we can do more than root for the giant we think will mistreat us the least, creative workers and their sisters and brothers in every sector can reverse generations of losses.

That’s why the new antitrust matters — because it is an assault on the consolidation that gives all industries the power to shift money and other forms of value from workers and users to a small elite of investors.

[ecliptsukki]

quirk that leaves you nude ❧ bakugou katsuki, midoriya izuku, todoroki shoto

navigation | music

➣ genre: fluff

➣ warnings: mentions of reader being left nude, the smallest smallest hint of suggestiveness in bakubro’s, two curse words

➣ request: Class 1a big 3 with a reader that quirk leaves them nude and the reader don’t really care about it

➣ a/n: this one took me a while to find out what quirk would leave the reader nude because i didn’t want it to simulate mirio’s quirk. i’m actually quite proud with how this turned out. i’ve also noticed how my bnha headcanons always end up being gender neutral lmao. anyways, enjoy!

- your quirk was shapeshifting. you could change into whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. although, as with every quirk, there were drawbacks. unlike other students, the drawbacks of your quirk never hurt you.

- other quirk users couldn’t say they envied you, but they definitely didn’t say they didn’t wish for their drawbacks to not take tolls on their health and body

- your drawback, similarly to mirio’s, was the loss of your clothing

- whenever you shape shifted, your clothes would either become to big and fall off your body or your clothes would be shredded by the expansion of your size

- your ability didn’t change the anatomy of others, nor the size

- this drawback led to many accidents and flashing of fellow classmates and strangers

- mineta, being the openly perverted person he is, didn’t mind ogling your body whenever he had the chance

- but someone did

- if you and bakugou hadn’t started dating yet, he would mostly respect your pride and never glance at your bare body. even if you were training against each other, whenever you turned back, he already was holding your fallen clothes or giving you his jacket to you without sparing you a glance.

- definitely gets flustered by the idea of you standing nude beside him

- the boy respects you for your unbreaking spirit and strong will to not only help others but to be number one

- if you and bakugou were dating, he wouldn’t care if he was looking at your bare body

- he’s seen it multiple times, why would he shy away?

- he would simply once over your body, hum in approval, and hand you spare clothes

- if mineta even tries to peek

- yiKeS

- “i’m going to fUCKING KILL YOU, GRAPE BALLS”

- *bOoM*

- never wants anyone else to see your gorgeous body

- “you belong with me and only me”

- your quirk is camouflage. you can blend in with anything. your quirk is almost like hagakure’s because of how you practically turn invisible.

- in order for your quirk to work at its fullest, your clothes must go

- you never have to manually strip because when you use your quirk, it creates an acid that comes out of your pores, burning away any material on your body

- if you overuse your quirk, it could result in acid dissolving your skin

- from training, you were able to lengthen how long you could control the quirk for, which was about 30 minutes

- since your quirk didn’t give you advantages in combat, you had to train your body to be strong and to be able to defend and attack others

- deku always admired you from the sidelines, watching your precise movements as you kicked and punch the practice targets

- his pencil would constantly be jotting down his observations and what techniques of yours he could use to improve himself

- “they angle their body at...” mumble mUmBle MuMblE

- when you actually use your quirk for the first time in training, he gets so hyped to write it down

- oH BOY, just wait for the shock to appear on his face

- his pencil in hand, fresh with lead, ready to write at lightning speed, eyes locked on your figure

- you disappear, enabling your quirk and attacking your opponent

- deku thinks you have an invisibility quirk like hagakure, except with different features. he noticed how your clothes turned invisible with you, looking like they were melted away

- as he was about to write down what he observed, you appeared once more but much MUCH more revealed than you were before

- drops everything, including his jaw

-  you walk off and grab spare clothes on the bench and act like nothing happened, like you weren’t just nude five seconds ago

- he’s so flustered and his emotions are going haywire

- he knows he shouldn’t be reacting so inappropriately but you were just to beautiful and talented and smart

- later on, baby scolds himself for ogling you and telling himself that he should go apologize 

- forgive him *insert doe-eyed emoji*

- he goes up to you after practice and profusely apologizes

- and you’re just like “it’s aight,” shrugging it off as if he accidentally brushed his shoulder against yours

- this leads to the two of you starting a full on conversation, starting from deku fawning over how awesome you are

- over time, when you start dating, he gets used to seeing your bare body and always bring a spare outfit for you to wear

- very much dislikes others seeing something that should be reserved for him and him only

- your quirk was elemental control, similar to todoroki’s. even your drawbacks were similar to the two-toned boy, except a smidgen worse

- you could control wind, earth, fire, and water

- overuse of fire would lead to the destruction of any product on your body and then your body itself. overuse of wind leads to incapability to control it’s strength and your clothing getting ripped off by the strong currents. overuse of earth would lead to your quirk extracting the organic materials in your clothing and using it as a weapon. overuse of water would lead to either you losing control and a heap of water crashing over you, ultimately ruining your outfit, or you freezing your clothes off

- having a lot of power meant many drawbacks

- at UA, you and todoroki often trained together because of how similar your quirks were

- before you trained, you could only use your quirks for 2-3 minutes consecutively and had to take 1 minute breaks before using your quirk again

- though, as you began to train alongside todoroki, you were able to use your quirk for a longer time and take shorter breaks in between

- obviously, since you trained with him, he was the first to see the awkward drawbacks of your quirk

- “oh yeah, that happens quite a lot”

- he blinks and doesn’t know how to respond because, as not inert as he is, your lightheartedness towards the situation shocks even him

- eventually, he gets used to it and doesn’t even care that you’re nude 

- one day, he had a sudden thought that was totally random and didn’t make sense whatsoever but at that moment it did to him and so, he confronted you about it

- “since i’ve seen your bare body many times, wouldn’t it be fair if you saw mine?”

- sounds much weirder than he thought it would

- you CHOKE on your saliva and break out into a coughing fit

- “sho, are you okay?”

- you most definitely declined the offer, though it was very tempting

- only was that offer fulfilled once the two of you began dating and he saw your nude body tons more of times

- he asked you out at the weirdest time, though

- you’re literally butt naked, training beside him and he just drops whatever he’s doing and asks, “wanna go on a date this weekend?”

- flusters you beyond belief and suddenly you feel all too exposed

- “u-um sure?” you splutter, hiding your dignity body in your arms

- “cool”

- wHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED

- when you were friends, he was already protective of your bareness, but once you started dating, he would literally never take his eyes off of you when you are using your quirk so that he can be there to cover you up right away

- doesn’t matter who they are, if they catch even the slightest of glimpses of your skin, todoroki will fight them

- on many occasions did you have to hold him back

- he just loves you. let him love you uwu

[povcherry]

The Love Test | DNF

Dream and George take a test to see if they are in love with their best friend

The intense red text was prominent on his screen. Frustratingly, the one time Dream agrees to playing bedwars with George and Hypixel is down.

Dream lent back in his chair, hands behind his head staring up at the ceiling. His room was dark, the only light shone from his monitors. Patches wrapped around his legs. A deep sigh left George, as he lay his head on his desk in exasperation, an empty subway wrapper by his face, the time on his monitor read 2:17 am, yet he wasn't tired. After being on calls almost consecutively with Dream for essentially a year, he had managed to sync his sleep schedule up with him, already in Florida time prepared for when he goes to live with Dream and Sapnap.

George was disheartened. He was looking forward to playing with Dream. They were both normally either too tired or busy editing or working to go on minecraft for fun, and not just for a YouTube video. But now that they couldn't play bedwars, they were bored and unsure of what to do. They only called each other so that they could play minecraft, but that wasn't an option anymore.

"What do you want to do now then?" Dream asks, his voice far away from the mic, so much so that George nearly missed what he said. He hesitated, staring at Dreams discord profile picture light up.

"We could..." He stalled, drawing out his words. He wasn't the best at making decisions, he was much to indecisive. "Do you want to stream GeoGuessr?" He suggested, silently hoping Dream would say no. He didn't really want to do anything, only talk to Dream for hours on end.

"Not really. My brain is too slow for that level of concentration." That earned a giggle from George, putting a small smile on Dreams face. He loved that sound. "How about we go in my merch vc? Me and ni- Sapnap had fun last time just listening to music?"

George was hesitant. The last time he went in Dreams merch voice call was during the sleep over with Sapnap and Dream. That ended up in a disaster of butterflies and George having to turn his phone off for a couple of hours just to distract himself from the 'dreamnotfound' mayhem they had caused yet again on twitter. He felt giddy just thinking about it, Dream whispering into the mic, loudly cursing when George beat him at 8ball. It made him dizzy thinking about it... thinking about him.

George didn't hate it though- the attention from Dream and the fans. Despite all the jokes and innuendos that they both do to mess with their fans, George knew there was some truth to it all. A deeper meaning to being called an idiot. The endearing term that Dream loved to use oh so much. George felt fluttery, wanting to be called an idiot at this moment.

"George?" He had been silent for a while, reminiscing.

"What would we do on there?"

"Just talk. Or listen to music. Whatever you want to do, George".

Without thinking, George clicked onto the icon for Dreams server. "Do you need to add me to the call?" He asked, unsure about how the podcasts worked.

"Yeah, I need to quickly tell my mods to open it first."

Within minutes, they where in the call, hundreds of people pouring in immediately, spamming the chat with things like 'GEORGE?!' and blue and green hearts. George stifled a giggle, nerves taking over him. Despite doing streams for a living with tens of thousands of people watching him, there was something more intimate with calling Dream in a private server.

"Hello" Dream broke the silence, welcoming all the fans. He chuckled, looking at the chat, "Yes, George is here today. Hypixel was down and we had nothing to do"

"Hi" George was unsure what to say, scratching his neck in awkwardness. It wasn't this weird when he was streaming. At least then they had a plan and chat was relatively easy to read. He was doubtful that this call would end well, what with his ignorance to some innuendos and jokes involving DreamNotfound.

"We thought we would just pop on here. We're kind of bored." Dream stated, unable to see what people where spamming in the #podcast chat. "I can't see what you guys are saying, i'll probably just read my twitch chat."

Half an hour passed and George was getting hungry and bored, nothing eventful had really happened so far except for Dream explaining his setup and chat freaking out over his galaxy mouse pad.

"I want food but all that's in my fridge is butter... oh and the BTS sauces and... uhm expired milk" George complained, looking through his fridge while still on the call.

Dream chucked, "Why do you have expired milk in your fridge?"

"Not the point, I just want food"

"Well get some food then" Dream counteracted. George sighed and rolled his eyes, sitting back down in his chair. His stomach rumbled loudly, calling out to his hunger.

"I'm going to order McDonald's." And with that George muted his mic, found the McDonald's number and ordered his food, in the background, he could hear Dream.

"Should i do a quiz?... yeah? Link some in the podcast chat." There was a long silence. George, long ordered his food, stayed muted, listening to Dream talk to his chat. He found it so endearing the way Dream spoke to them, as though they where a family. His voice soft and gentle as he scrolled through the chat looking for a quiz.

"Ooh, this looks interesting... oh, 'Am I In Love With My Best Friend?'. Sounds... interesting" George stopped. Everything seemed to slow down. Eyes wide as he looked at the screen infront of him, Dreams discord icon lighting up as he chuckled nervously. He wasn't actually going to do it was he? The room was getting hot for George, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to delve into the idea of being in love with his best friend, let alone his best friend being in love with him.

He quickly unmuted, ready to call Dream out on what he was doing, but Dream beat him to it.

"George, i'm going to do the 'Am I In Love With My Best Friend?' quiz" He laughed, opening up the link and reading out the first question. "do you catch yourself looking at your best friend?"

George stalled. They had face timed multiple times in the past, Dream only letting George see his eyes upwards, but George always found it hard for him to look away. He got lost staring at his best friends eyes. George quickly messaged Dream asking for the link for the quiz, if Dream was going to do it, so would George.

"Dream, check dm's" He rushed.

"Huh, what, why?" Dream asked, busy trying to still his own heart beat. He had always known at the back of his mind that he had romantic feelings for George, whether that is because he was just touched starved and was desperate, or because he genuinely wanted more than just a friendship with George, suppressing his feelings as to not ruin anything between them.

"Just read it." George urged, getting apprehensive, unsure whether he should just delete the comment and over analyse everything Dream says.

But before he knew it, the link to the quiz had been sent to George, a small smiley face underneath it from Dream. George was about to reply with a '?' to the smile, but Dream spoke up again.

"I just put 'once in a while', i mean, it's not like im never looking at you but i don't do it like.. all the time." George clicked all the time. He couldn't get enough of Dreams warm amiable eyes. His eyes were a kind of green that speaks to the soul of nature, of fresh wands of grass and new buds, and his eyes were that bright colour, bold and beautiful.

"Right," he snickered, " next question, 'are they the first person you call when something happens?' uhm... yeah, i guess. But not always, i mean i would call my mom first." He laughed, ignoring the fact that George was silent. George always called Dream if something was wrong. He wasn't in contact with his parents, Sapnap wasn't the most mature when it came to serious things, yes he was a great friend and he would be there for George if he needed, but Dream came first. George put Dream before everyone, at time even before himself.

"George?" Dream disrupted his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"You're being so quiet, everyone is asking if you're asleep" George looked at chat, Sure enough, between all the green and blue hearts, there where people spamming Georges name and sleep.

"Oh uhm no, it is 3 am though. Kind of tired." He said, anxiously looking at the next question, mouse already hovering over 'it's nice if i can'. George didn't wake up thinking about Dream, not always anyway. Just if they had fallen asleep on call together, or if they were recording a video that day.

"You should sleep." His voice had softened. He too was looking at the same question. Thinking about George staying up just for him made him feel giddy, but he also didn't want George to be sleep deprived.

George held back a smile. "I'm good, we're in sync bb" he snickered, knowing that would get a rise out of the chat. He could practically hear Dream roll his eyes in exasperation.

"Oh come on" He laughed, his voice low and raspy as he started to read out the next question. He couldn't get through it without laughing, however. "'Do you get jealous if he or she has a boyfriend or girlfriend?' Oh come on! I mean..." He started, George's scoff cut him off. "What?" Dream laughed.

"Nothing" George giggled

"To be fair.. no, but... i mean, wouldn't anyone?"

"Not really." George counteracted.

"Well, no. But! But! But! It would be one of those things where it's like, awe, now he's gonna be spending time, like, doing that, instead of like, with us. Like with like, me and sap. So, I'll put maybe a little. Right? Maybe a little.?" Dream stuttered, trying to defend his reasoning while George just giggled at his flusteredness.

George had already clicked 'ugh its the worst' already. He remembered when Dream had told him Sapnap was moving in with him. Now, George knew his best friends. He knew there was nothing going on between Dream and Sapnap, but something about them living together tickled George the wrong way. He was pissed off, to say the least. George wasn't normally jealous, but when it came to Dream, he became a different person. He almost didn't want to share Dream with anyone else... George wanted Dream all to himself.

"Dream, no one is arguing with you..." George whispered endearingly, a small smile painted across his lips.

The next few questions were uneventful. Dream still defended his answers despite no body calling him out on them. The chat was a blur of left ear jokes and and blue and greens. George answered 'yes' on the majority of the questions.

" Do you have dreams about them? Im- Okay! That's unfair, like, oh my god. Okay, I'll put sometimes." Dream rushed, desperately wanting to move onto the next question. He didn't want to tell chat, and especially George, about the dreams he has. No body knew about the desperation Dream has when he dreams about George. The want and longing to touch George in many ways than one. The heartache Dream feels when he wakes up because he knows the happiness his feels in his dreams could never be recreated.

"What?" George once again giggled. He was starting to have fun now. Seeing Dream embarrassed made George feel slightly better about his answers, but at this rate he was afraid the quiz would tell him he's so hopelessly in love with his best friend that there was no hope for him. "What do you dream about me?"

"You- you've had- you're- you're an idiot, you've had dreams! You've had one hundred pe- you've told me about dreams you've had!" He stammered, struggling to get his words out correctly without revealing too much. He was starting to get hot, the air conditioning in his room seemed to do nothing, the 'GNF' jumper he was wearing was suffocating him. He was suddenly finding it hard to breath under the weird pressure of these questions he had no obligation answering.

"What type of dreams, hmm?" George teased. He had his head resting in his hands leaning on the desk, taking in everything Dream was saying. George, of course had clicked 'all the time' about dreaming about Dream. Dream was on his mind 24/7.

"Oh don't even start with me, i know you've had dreams about me. You told me you've like.. texted me in your dreams or something. You.. you definitely have, anyway..." The two argued for the next few questions, and it was all smooth sailing for both Dream and George, until it came to the big one. The one that caused George to almost throw up the McDonald's that he had eaten a half hour ago.

Dream went silent. George could almost hear Dreams heart beating through the mic. He knew why, too. He saw the question. George had been dreading this. He chose to stay silent, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

"Do you ever think about what it would be like to kiss your best friend?" Dream was silent for almost thirty seconds. He felt sick. The amount of times he had wondered what Georges lips felt like. Whether or not they were made for him. Perfectly molded to fit Dreams own. He dreamt about them constantly. The soft touch of lips. He was beyond salvageable. "Uhm, n-no. Of course not."

"Why did you take so long to answer?" George was apprehensive. He wondered whether Dream thought about kissing him as much as he did. George so desperately wanted to, he wanted to feel them on his own lips, wanted to know what Dream tasted like, how he smelt. He was forlorn.

"I'm just going to put, well... i'm going to put.. well there's no good answers. I'm just going to put 'yes but it would be like kissing my mom'". He lied, his mouse had been hovering over 'at least a few times a day', unsure whether to click it or not, but he knew the truth. He wanted to kiss George more than he ever wanted to do anything ever.

The rest of the quiz, George kept silent. If he opened his mouth, he would confess his love on the spot. He had finished all the questions, revealing a 32%. He was totally in love with his best friend. Desperately, pathetically and hopelessly in love. He needed help.

"Okay, last question" Georges ears pricked up at this, he was happy it was almost over. He needed to talk to Dream in private, even if it killed him. "Do you see them in your future?... of course. A lot of my future is your future. I don't want a future without you in it..." Dream whispered, muting his physical mic so that no one could hear his breath leave his body. That was the most intimate he had probably ever been with George in front of fans. He hoped he hadn't just messed anything up.

George still stayed silent. Dreams answer made him almost cry with happiness. He couldn't imagine a future without Dream.

Dream un-muted his mic to finish up the quiz, "It says, you are in love with a few things about your best friend, so it's likely that you could fall entirely in love with them if you... if things keep up the way they are right now." George was unsure of what to say. Chat was once again asking if he was asleep. Both boys took no notice. Almost silently, so silently George almost missed it. But he held his breath, staring at the monitor with fear. All colour had drained from his face. He was about to pass out.

"If.. if you're worried they don't feel the same way... you're going to have to find out how to shut your feelings off, you don't want to ruin what you have."... no one talked for a couple seconds... both of them waiting for the other to say something, until George plucked up the courage.

"I don't want to ruin anything, Dream."

George loved Dream, and Dream was sure he loved George.

[insertbtsurl]

About the Billboard article (this is how I d!e)

After reading some people's reaction, I understand the point that Billboard probably wouldn't have asked a western artist about chart manipulation, so I get the frustration in regards to that (even though I think they have valid reasons for addressing this).

That being said, some armys are being extremely hypocritical right now, because Billboard did not solely focus on the chart manipulation allegations, they talked about many other things (including the fact that BTS have DIPLOMATIC PASSPORTS HELLO?). Besides, they...did not lie. The stuff they talked about, armys organizing to buy singles in bulk, to stream on certain days when it has the biggest impact, exploiting the loopholes in charting/streaming rules...that is all true. It happens, I've been in this fandom for years now and I've seen it happen a little bit more with every new release as the stakes get higher.

Basically, as Namjoon himself said..."it's a fair question". Why is it fair? I mean there might be a racist or xenophobic bias here, I don't know (Namjoon does mention that them being a "kpop act" makes them easy targets but it could just be because of how easily kpop is dismissed as being an inauthentic industry of mass idol producing). But I also think there are objective reasons to question this. Among the top charting artists on Billboard right now, BTS are the only ones to rely so heavily on sales.

Why? They don't get radio play, so you have to compensate somehow to get them level with the others. Now, if it was common practice for western artists to have such massive sales numbers, BTS would just be "one of those acts" and no one in their right mind would even bring it up. Like "oh yeah they sell a lot of albums...I can name 10 other people who do that". Just as people in the west will not question albums being sold as part of bundles (which a lot of armys consider to be cheating - but again, still playing by the rules), because you could name at least 15 artists on the charts right now who do that (and BTS doesn't). Therefore the fact is right now there is no one to lump them with, which makes them stand the fuck out. So of course people are like "huh weird, how come their numbers are so different from others?".

And the answer is simple...the devil works hard...but army works harder. That is what the fans themselves take pride in. The amount of "good job army", "we worked well", etc. that you see on every social media site around any BTS comeback is simply staggering. Because the fans are aware of how much their efforts contribute to BTS's standing...so why are some of you so mad that those efforts are being brought up now? Some armys treat being a fan of BTS like it's a goddamn full time job. Hell, I got scolded on here for listening to Butter on loop when it came out (it was just that good) because that isn't the "proper" way of streaming. Only I wasn't looping it to boost stream numbers, I was looping it because I was hooked to the fucking song on first listen. But some people take achieving numbers more seriously than enjoying the music.

Since BTS doesn't get the mainstream industry support other western artists do, armys have taken to studying the rules of the game in order to win while playing by those rules. There is no cheating when you follow the rules. This is why with every release you get streaming guides telling you to make sure you put the new song in a playlist, that you watch at least 10 minutes of videos between 2 viewings of the MV, that you play the song on at least 50% volume, etc., etc. Does that scream "authenticity" to you? Because to me it doesn't. Does that mean it's cheating? No. The system is made that way and you're taking advantage of it. Life handed you lemons and you made the sweetest lemonade you possibly could have.

BTS has their fans to thank for their charting success more than anyone else on the charts right now because other fandoms simply don't need to work as hard. No one needs to be buying Ed Sheeran albums in bulk, you just know the man is gonna debut in the top 10 of any chart. BTS starts at a disadvantage. I think that is probably more of an issue (and a xenophobic one) than Billboard questioning how the hell an act with virtually no radio play made it all the way to #1 on the Hot 100 for ten consecutive weeks.

So yeah...Billboard has a point, actually. But as RM said, if they have a problem with the way army does stuff, they can just change the rules (and then army will find a way to work with those new rules). They weren't accusing anyone of anything, just reporting on a situation, and they concluded on something which, in my opinion, is true...BTS does so well thanks to the large number of extremely loyal and supremely motivated fans that they have - few people can say the same thing. And the work that the fans do for the group is a cycle that feeds itself, because it becomes really easy to feel like you had a tangible part in all of their achievements, which in turns makes you even more motivated to outdo yourself on the next comeback.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-3

May, 1984

THE WAR BEGINS

Oof, here we go.

Just gotta replicate the pace that let me do the Hawkeye miniseries in one go, three times in a row.

This is probably too much effort considering its Secret Wars (or more accurately Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars) and maybe there’s not going to be a lot of big changes from this in the Avengers book to really justify it.

But we’re getting Jim Shooter writing the Avengers and his non-consecutive runs were a lot better than I had remembered. And it continues the theme he had from the Avengers book.

It just makes sense in a nonsense way to cover this story.

Last relevant time in Avengers! Acting Completely Normal Vision warned the Avengers about some weird, possibly hostile energy surges right in time for an energy surge to surge energetically in Central Park.

When the Avengers went to investigate, they found a weird structure that looked like a techy coliseum maybe. When some of the Avengers wandered into it (apparently the most bankable Avengers? Sucks to be Vision and Wanda, shrug) they vanished.

In the next issue, after several days, these heroes returned, speaking of a secret war they fought. Weird stuff like She-Hulk taking the Thing’s place on the Fantastic Four happened. In other books, Spidey got a cool new suit.

Would you know more?

After being raptured in their various books, the missing superheroes all end up on one of those distinctive structures like the one that appeared in Central Park, except IN SPACE.

Its cool that the Avengers will have some company.

We’ve got a terrific 3/4ths of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men (including Lockheed but not including Kitty Pryde for some reason), the Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the totally Articulate Hulk, and hilariously Magneto is also here.

Maybe Secret Wars is just setting up the most awkward moment in the universe, as a prank show.

I think I’d enjoy a big event that turned out to be a prank show at the last minute. The fan discontent. Imagine.

Everyone introduces themselves to each other but mostly the audience and Ben Grimm claims his new codename as the Easter Bunny.

Checking, marvel wiki doesn’t have Easter Bunny listed as one of Ben’s known aliases. Cowards.

Looking up into space, Captain America spots another one of the totally cool constructs and Professor X scans that it contains EEEEEEEVIL.

Specifically Amora the Enchantress, Ultron, the Wrecking Crew, the Absorbing Man, the Lizard, VICTOR VON DOOOOOM, Kang the Conqueror, Doctor Octopus, and Molecule Man. Also, hilariously, Galactus is there.

I’m more convinced than ever that this is a prank show.

You know what would be more hilarious? If Punisher ended up on this construct.

The distribution of villains is kind of odd though. Galactus and Doctor Doom map to the FF. Doctor Octopus and the Lizard to Spider-Man. Ultron, Molecule Man, and Kang are Avengers foes. The Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew can go a couple ways but started off as Thor villains. And Amora is usually a Thor villain but supposedly has chilled out around this time or at least is less of a pain than her horny sister.

No X-Men villains. Because Magneto is chilling with them in the generally heroic pod.

Also, all the heroes were raptured from Earth while the villains were grabbed from Earth, from space, from Asgard, resurrected just to be here, or from the FUTURE.

I know marketing is wagging the dog but be consistent, secret organizer who we don’t know yet.

The Thing points out that Magnet is off-sides, re: being in the hero construct, and Magneto is like ‘hey, chill out dudes’ and denies specifically doing murders.

Magneto: “I know not what power transported me here from my secret lair, nor why I was placed among you -- but I find it more appropriate to ask why such as you were judged fit to be placed in my presence!”

Oof.

Burn.

Then the conversation is put on halt on account of the wildest shit any of them have ever seen.

An entire galaxy vanishes but probably not due to a wave of anti-matter.

Thor: “It’s gone! Gone -- ! Swept away like dust before some unseen, giant hand!”

And then around that last star left unswept, various chunks merge together to form some sort of world, perhaps for battle.

A nice touch for later is that you can definitely see that one of the chunks is a stray chunk of city.

Some of the villains start squabbling because close quarters, ego, etc.

But Ultron goes hey we’re allowed to fight? I’m the best at that.

Ultron: “I am Ultron! I do not understand the events transpiring! I do not understand how I came to be resurrected... nor how I came to be here! Nothing computes... Insignificant! I am Ultron! My purpose is to slay that which lives. You are all living things, ergo -- Ultron must destroy you!”

With the benefit of having read all the Avengers up to now, I feel that Ultron got up on the wrong side of the resurrection a little.

He’s not not like this but he’s not usually this turned on?

(Then again, maybe he just came back cranky)

DOOM grabs and shakes Molecule Man to do something about this because given enough time even the mighty DOOM might fall before Ultron.

Ultron is famously annoying to defeat, what with that adamantium.

But Molecule Man is in therapy after the Avengers kicked his shit and Tigra yelled at him for being a punk. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

So Doom with all his brilliant genius tells MM a cool way to help out that won’t hurt anyone. Directly.

Using his Molecule Man power over molecules to lightly toss Ultron into Galactus.

So that Galactus goes ‘who the fuck scuffed my boots’ and rips out all the energy in Ultron’s Ultron.

He can do that.

Why wouldn’t he? If he can do that to a planet, he can do it to a pissbaby robot. Even one apparently containing more power than an atom bomb.

Then, because this is one of those plots where things are always thenning, a rift opens in the nothingness of space and a heavenly esque light shines out. A warbly voice commands the action figures beat each other up.

I mean. Its more like

The Beyonder: “I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!”

But you have to admire that this toy commercial of a comic book is being honest and upfront about being a story where action figures bonk off of each other.

Galactus just hears ‘i can finally shake off these persistent forever munchies’ and flies off to demand prepayment for action figure bonking, with DOOM following behind him.

The Beyonder speaks up warning Galactus that hey, personal space. And that a guy that can effortlessly wipe out a galaxy is gonna have a sweet barrier but Galactus wants the hunger pangs gone and does not listen.

DOOM recognizes a bad idea when he sees one once in a while and hangs back but still gets blown out of space by the force of Galactus bonking off the Beyonder’s barriers.

Captain America: “They were swatted back like flies!”

Professor X: “To the Beyonder, even Galactus is less than a fly, Captain!”

Interruption dealt with, the Beyonder gets the show on the road and sends the two constructs to different parts of the patchwork planet.

The Marvel Super Heroes And Magneto land on some hill and quickly make sure that there are no villains excepting Magneto around.

With Magneto around, the non-X-Men raise an objection to Magneto being around.

He sank a Russian submarine with all hands back in X-Men #150 but he insists that it was self-defense and also they started it.

The X-Men’s position is ‘hey he’s a jerk but he’s our jerk plus we could use his help? The bad guys get GALACTUS, how is that fair?’

Well, they don’t say it but they’re probably thinking it.

And Hawkeye decides to be a little racist today.

Hawkeye: “You mutants stick together, huh? Well, sticking to a blood-soaked maniac like him doesn’t speak well of you, pal!”

Dude, Clint. Your dear old friend is Wanda.

Wait, why ISN’T Wanda here? Did the toy people really not want her? Fools. Her husband is toyetic as all get out.

Also, point of order, Wolverine? If anyone qualifies as ‘hey he’s a jerk but he’s our jerk!’ here its you.

Johnny “good life choices” Storm decides he’ll just kick Magneto’s ass and end the debate but yeah. Yeah, no. Magneto makes a fool of him.

And then Magneto decides eff this noise and flies off.

With Magneto alienated (good job, guys), Professor X decides this group needs some dang leadership and throws a nomination to Reed Richards. Reed defers since he’s thinking of Sue, left at home and not able to participate in the event.

Wasp, the cool leader of the Avengers, nominates instead Captain America.

Wasp: “We’re off in a strange land, up to our ears in a little secret war that may decide the fate of the universe! Some people don’t know me well! They might have doubts... and there’s no room for that!”

I’m baffled that there’s people here who don’t know Wasp who has been heroing since the 60s but sure. Cap(tain America) probably gets more crossovers and whatever.

I mean, heck, we’re talking a group of heroes consisting of the Avengers (who she already leads), the Fantastic Three (who she’s well acquainted with), and the X-Men (who I’m sure she’s met, although awkwardly its going to later be revealed that Wasp is in the Hellfire Club, but only the sex parts).

And I guess Wolverine’s extensive backstory with Cap doesn’t exist yet because Wolverine isn’t keen on him being the leader, describing him as the least of the assembled heroes. When Hawkeye is right there!

I kid because I love.

Meanwhile, DOOM wakes up adjacent to Galactus ankle and heads to a nearby fortress which he correctly assumes is where the villains have ended up.

Wait, the heroes get beamed down to a random hill while the villains get sent to an advanced fortress with weaponry and we later learn vehicles sold separately?

Kinda stacking the deck, the Beyonder.

You gave the villains GALACTUS and A FORTRESS PLAYSET right out of the gate.

The other villains tell Doom that they’ve (mostly) decided that he should be their leader. But Doom has bigger fish to fry than the prizes that the Beyonder is offering.

In typical Doomesque fashion, he wants the whole kettle. But the other villains what with their petty concerns think he’s too afraid to fight.

So he ditches.

He goes to steal-borrow a spaceship and even though he hates the thought, takes off to go talk to Richards. And then Kang shoots him out of the sky with a GIANT GUN THAT THE VILLAIN FORTRESS ALSO HAS? to stop him from allying with the heroes.

Said (marvel super) heroes see the distant explosion and fly as a group in the most hilarious way possible to check it out.

God, I have always loved this image. Its squished down into the bottom third of the page but its a delight.

They find Doom sprawled in the crash site, rambling that he’ll only speak to RICHARRRRRDS and about the Beyonder’s power. But Cap offends Doom mightily but offering him a hand up and because Doom sees pity in Cap and RICHARRRRRRDS eyes.

So he blasts the heroes and fucks off.

How very Bakugou of him.

And right as the heroes recover from that, a bunch of villains arrive to get this secret war started.

I have a fondness for this particular issue. For a long while, issue 1 was the only issue of Secret Wars I could find. So I just had the start of this story with all these non-Spider-Man non-X-Men heroes I barely knew cliffhangering into an attack by villains I really didn’t recognize except for Doc Ock and the Lizard.

It was a window into another side of the Marvel Universe. And for child me, this first issue worked perfectly to intrigue me. All these characters, the very straightforward conflict, all the complications that immediately pop up like Magneto, Galactus, and Doom. Alas, small child resources.

June, 1984

PRISONERS of War!

The heroes react slowly to the sudden villain attack but thankfully, the villains aren’t working together well. Unthankfully, half of the heroes were already knocked out by the first attack.

Meanwhile, over at Doctor Doom’s side of the plot, he flies back over to where Galactus just in time to see him finally rouse from being slapped down by the Beyonder.

Galactus floats to his feet and wanders off.

Doom: “He ignored me! As though I were a gnat buzzing at his feet! And so I am... Just as all of us, even Galactus himself, are but insects to the all-powerful Beyonder! Thus, the others have chosen to play the Beyonder’s simple game -- thereby, in effect, paying homage to him. Should I, too, pay homage? Should I worship at the feet of this god-like being -- or chose another path... one only Doom would dare!”

I think anyone that knows Doom knows which option he’s gonna choose.

He heads back to the villain fortress and finds Ultron’s deactivated body and decides Doom can use this.

Meanwhile, back at the first secret battle of the secret war, the heroes rally and start fighting back under Cap(tain America)’s leadership.

She-Hulk even gets a designated girl fight with the only female villain on the villain team.

I’d complain, I would. But at least She-Hulk isn’t the only heroine on the hero side.

She-Hulk: “Hiya! I’m the She-Hulk! You must be the Enchantress! Gee, I’ve heard so much about you -- ! You’re a not-nice lady!”

Enchantress: “A green woman? Is there no end to the varieties of mortals?”

The Enchantress magic slaps She-Hulk away and comments that she could crush She-Hulk physically but its beneath her.

Yeah, all Asgardians have some level of super strength, that’s right. Even the squishy wizards.

But all She-Hulk heard was, ‘someone I can really punch!’

She-Hulk: “I don’t often duke it out with someone solid enough to really unload on -- and slow enough to let me! Oh, wow! That was, like tubular, you know -- to the max!”

Uh. Jen, are you okay? Did you have a stroke? You don’t usually talk so much in Mario World secret world levels.

I think maybe Jim Shooter didn’t have a good grasp on her. I don’t think he’s ever written for her. And the other heroes mostly don’t vary too much from generic hero speaking patterns. Add some smart for smart characters, add some rude to Wolverine, and so on.

The battle wraps up with Kang, the Enchantress, and the Wrecking Crew captured and the rest of the villains fleeing when the battle didn’t go their way.

Cap sends Storm off to scout for a cool playset that they can use as shelter and she does so, noting that the winds on Battleworld are super easy to control. Like Battleworld was created to create ideal fighting conditions for everyone. Pretty neat, the Beyonder.

Storm finds a particularly rad fortress (”Bigger than fifty-four and a half Pentagons, I’d estimate!” Wow!) and the heroes move in.

I unironically enjoy how toyetic this story is with the fortresses and the vehicles and the weapons. Because I’m almost positive that Mattel barely capitalized on it.

There were only two playsets. Pitiful.

Over in their new headquarters, Reed stashes the captured villains in some form of psychostasis which “works by controlling aggression through brainwave modulation!”

He also sticks Enchantress in a healing pod to address that nasty case of being She-Hulked right in the face. Nothing will salve her ego though.

Captain America: “It’s no wonder that the name Mister Fantastic is renowned for compassion as well as courage! You give added meaning to the word hero, Richards!”

Whenever someone loudly announces that Reed is super compassionate, it makes me feel like they’re overcompensating.

Nobody ever makes note of, say, Captain America’s compassion.

With the prisoners (of war? Is that the whole reason for the title?) accommodated, Cap calls everyone for a meeting in a cool meeting dome he found which has a small waterfall for aesthetic and so everyone has to yell to be heard.

Wolverine yells that they should mop up the rest of the villains and get this over with.

Not mentioning that in order to “win it” they’d have to kill the villains, which none of the heroes have shown any interest in doing so far.

Cap(tain America) replies that A) planet big and they have no idea where the villains got to. And B) the remaining villains slash antagonists are Galactus, Doctor Doom, Molecule Man, Doctor Octopus, the Wrecker, the Absorbing Man, and Magneto. Not really people you mop up.

In a fun logistics bit, Cap sends out a patrol to make sure the area is secure but he also sends out two additional groups to find  if there are any places in this fortress they can sleep and whether there's any... food.

Makes me imagine a Secret Survival War where the sides have to wrestle over limited resources.

Hours later, the villains that escaped the fracas arrive back at their fortress.

I’m sort of confused here.

Maybe it took so long because they had to make sure they weren’t followed. Or maybe because they didn’t have the sweet tripod vehicle anymore. But think about the flow of events of: everyone beamed down to Battleworld > Doom ditches the villains and gets shot down > heroes investigate and Doom ditches > villains show up for cliffhanger fight.

The villain fortress should be pretty close to where that fight took place. And then the heroes find a nearby fortress of their own so their fortress should be pretty close to the villain fortress. Maybe not in the same neighborhood but surely the same zip code.

Anyway, they find that while they were gone, Doom swanned in and renamed the place the Doombase.

If they have problems with it, they can talk to his Ultron.

Which I’m surprised he didn’t rename Doomtron.

Doom also tells them that he’s in charge now.

Absorbing Man: “Aw! Who gives a hoot! I need a meal an’ sleep! You wanna be in charge, Doom? Okay by me!”

If you think about it, this is just some steps added what the villains wanted all along.

They wanted Doom to be their leader but he told them he had bigger fish to fry and fucked off. Now he’s fucked back on and told them all that he’s their leader. They initially object before reconsidering due to Doomtron but, yeah, its all gone full circle.

Doom is a lot more cordial to Molecule Man though.

Doom: “Molecule Man... uh, Mr. Reece, I believe it is? I trust you were not inconvenienced.”

Molecule Man: “Well, being absolute master of molecules I can just assimilate molecules when I want, so I never have to be hungry, and I can just shoo away dirt molecules, so I’m always nice and clean -- but I am tired!”

Doom: “I have prepared a special chamber for you! I hope you like it!”

Molecule Man: “If not, I can always reconstruct the molecules -- !”

Heh.

Nice to see Jim Shooter able to follow up on the trajectory he sent Molecule Man on.

The rest of the villains head off but Doctor Octopus, the only other brain cell in this group, hangs back to talk to DOOM.

He wants to know what he plans to do about Galactus and then shows Doom on the biggest screen TV that Galactus is standing on a mountain glowing with an awesome power.

Doom just retorts that his plans are for his forces to triumph.

Doctor Octopus: Something tells me he’s got ambitions that dwarf merely triumphing in the Beyonder’s little contest! The question is whether he will destroy us in trying to achieve them -- or immediately after fulfilling them?!

Like I said, the only other brain cell in this group.

Meanwhile, while Magneto secretly sneaks into the hero fortress for Reasons, the heroes have a quiet moment that lets this Secret Wars biz really sink in.

Wasp: “I’d be having tea in my studio now, Jenny... And lunch on my patio tomorrow... This... um... situation we’re in... is kind of... much, you know? I feel there’s just a little thin wall inside me holding back a flood of despair!”

Its a nice touch, if intentional, that Wasp only admits this kind of thing now that she’s passed off the leadership responsibilities to Captain America. Its been a recurring character beat that she’s been keeping these sorts of worries to herself as chairwoman.

Over in another part of the fortress, Cyclops complains that he was right in the middle of his dang honeymoon when he was yanked into this event.

Cyclops: “I don’t know about you, Richards, but more than angry or afraid, I feel cheated! I -- I was on the verge of real happiness...”

Oof. This really sets the tone for his marriage with Madelyne Pryor.

Spider-Man and the Human Torch even have a little conversation.

Spider-Man: “You mean it doesn’t shake you, Torch, being here? What if we don’t get home?”

Human Torch: “The Fantastic Four have been off on space missions a couple of times, Spider-Man! We’ll get back! Believe me!”

I like when they’re friends.

So, I’m not sure what Magneto’s plan actually was. He was going to sabotage the fortress’ fusion generator as a distraction but Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense Spider-Alerts him to shenanigans afoot and he runs off to the power plant while Johnny Storm goes to get the other heroes.

Magneto decides to abandon whatever his plan was and captures Wasp as a consolation prize.

Gasp, another prisoner of war!

The Thing tries to give chase but inexplicably turns back to normal, smooth skinned Ben Grimm.

Also, Magneto escapes with the Wasp.

It’s like the aardvark says, you can get what you want and still not be happy.

Captain Marvel is holding the randomly anti-mutant ball for Hawkeye here and comments that none of the X-Men showed up to help stop Magneto.

Cap(tain America) tells her to belay that.

Captain America: “Let’s keep our minds on solving problems, not creating more!”

And they can’t even go after Magneto or rescue the Wasp right now because they have bigger problems: Galactus glowing with an awesome power and a massive storm that’s forming on Battleworld.

July, 1984

TEMPEST WITHOUT, CRISIS WITHIN!

The Beyonder has thrown in a nice stage hazard to keep things fresh in the form of a massive storm raging on Battleworld, with lighting that shatters mountains and winds that could tear someone’s limbs clean off.

Or perhaps its the unintentional result of just slapping a planet together out of random stuff you have lying around. The climate must be shot to shit.

I like it either way. Secret Wars has a lot of very toyetic collisions between groups of characters so its nice when Battleworld itself manages to be an obstacle.

Over in his giant U-shaped fortress, Magneto finally unwraps Wasp from the ball of random metal crap he has her in.

He lets her wander around until she finds him so that he can be all casual and eating a space scone.

Magneto: “Do not bother trying to attack me, my dear! My person is magnetically shielded!”

Wasp: “Well, la-de-da!”

Wasp: -blows up his space scone- “You think I have to strike at you directly to hurt you, monster?”

Hilarious spite, thy name is Janet van Dyne.

She also makes the point that magnetic shielding or no, she could bring this whole room down. Her being able to knock over a small house with her pew pew hasn’t stopped being true.

Magneto hastens to ask her not to do that because neither of them want to be out in the storm outside.

Besides, he just wants to talk! And flirt!

Magneto: “You are obviously a woman of intelligence and understanding as well as great beauty -- and I am not the monster you believe I am -- which is precisely what I wish to discuss!”

Wasp: “Oh? My intelligence, understanding and beauty or your non-monsterhood?”

Magneto: “Why... both!”

Back at the hero base (which is apparently ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF CHICAGO?? I want that playset), the storm has almost completely flooded the area, leaving just the top dome and such poking above the water.

The storm keeps dropping chunks of mountain at the base but Thor is standing on top, protecting it while grinning like a loon.

Captain Marvel even speculates that Thor could calm the storm but is whipping it up into a greater frenzy instead. Those storm gods, amirite?

Hawkeye is also standing by, with his explosive arrow, thinking to himself that if Thor fails, Hawkeye will totally save the day.

I don’t know whether that’s sad or endearing.

Mostly though he’s trying to distract himself from thinking about the new wife he left behind.

Cap, Reed, and Hulk are watching the villain base because apparently they do know where it is. The storm is keeping the villains in too but Cap figures they’ll pull one desperate attack as soon as the storm breaks.

They’ve already lost four of their dudes. Plus, Galactus isn’t a team player.

Spider-Man is just swinging around, enjoying how good for swinging the random technological pipes and tubes and whatsits are when he stumbles upon the X-Men having a secret meeting.

Professor X has decided, possibly on the basis of two (2) rude comments from Hawkeye and Captain Marvel, that the X-Men just don’t belong here and that they’d be better off going and teaming up with Magneto.

This... sure is a take.

Rogue comments that the Avengers don’t trust her because of that time she kicked their asses collectively. Which, hey, very possibly. They haven’t really had a thing to say about you though. They’ve mostly been grouchy about Magneto.

Which is kinda born out by the way he tried to blow up their base and definitely kidnapped the Wasp?? And is even now aggressively eating scones at her?

That’s the Magneto you guys want to go join because he’s more your people than the Fantastic Avengers and friends are?

You know, there’s a pattern I sometimes see with the X-Men where they loudly insist that the other superheroes don’t help them and don’t care about mutant stuff while at the same time doing shit like this.

“Should we get Reed Richards, smartest dick in the world to help with the legacy virus or the techno-organic virus Stryfe shot into Xavier? NAHHHH Beast can handle it.”

“Should we stick with the other superheroes or go hang with Magneto instead in a cool mutants only U-shaped fortress? Well, U is the coolest letter that isn’t X...”

If you squint, you can definitely see Krakoa all the way in the future.

Anyway, Spider-Man overheard all of this and goes ‘I’M TELLING!’

Wolverine tries to tell him that snitches get stitches but the thing is?

Spider-Man is ridiculous. He’s a ridiculously good combination of skills and powers which lets him make chumps out of entire groups at a time.

He’s embarrassed the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and now he’s about to embarrass the X-Men.

After making them all feel foolish, Spider-Man gets away and goes to tell Reed what that doody-head Xavier said when Xavier uses his psychic powers to just wipe the entire encounter out of Spider-Man’s memory.

Yeah, it’s to cover their imminent blowing off but also? I don’t think he wants anyone else to find out how badly his X-Men just got stomped.

Psychics are too OP, I tell you what.

In fairness IN FAIRNESS, the X-Men kind of have the right to fuck right off if they wish. I don’t even know what it had to be in secret. In fact, doing it in secret is a massive dick move of its own for reasons.

What would the Fantastic Avengers have done if the X-Men had just said ‘hey we’re heading out’? Would they have put them in stasis tube jail? I doubt it.

Professor X made the decision to handle this the stupidest way for whatever reason. That scamp.

Speaking of Magneto, he’s over at the U-Lair turning down a partnership offer from DOOM. So, hey, he has standards.

Wasp has become less ‘i’ll blow up this room and your breakfast’ about him over the course of whatever the hell they discussed in their offscreen chat.

Magneto even starts to make out with her and Wasp is like ehhhhhhhhhh what the fuck why not.

Why is this happening?

I guess he has a...................... magnetic personality?

Eh? Eh??

No, but seriously, I do have a theory that I heard someplace but it’ll have to wait.

What’s weird is that there’s a Marvel What If about some spinoff babies that come about if the heroes and villains got stuck on Battleworld and never managed to leave.

Wasp has a son with Human Torch. Which is pretty weird and comes from nowhere. I guess a lot can happen during a massive time skip. My point being though, its weird that they didn’t have a Wasp/Magneto baby instead given the weird chemistry they have here.

Meanwhile, over at DOOMBASE, DOOM has some women in giant tubes.

That’s So Doom.

Doctor Doom: “All is ready -- ! This alien technology, so rich, so subtle... so easily harnessed to serve my purpose... Energy, tapped from the raging tempest... And two mortal subjects who dare to gamble for power -- knowing that to lose is death, for truly, here I shall test the limits of power a human body can contain! With the throwing of a switch... so -- the die is cast! Hear me -- ! Power must be seized -- ! Crave it! Welcome it! Drink it in, despite the pain... or it will destroy you.”

And thus are Volcana and Titania created!

Talk about lasting effects of Secret Wars! Titania is going to be around forever! Mostly annoying She-Hulk!

Where did Doom find two random women to give superpowers?

Denver, Colorado.

No, seriously.

That city chunk we saw as Battleworld formed? That’s Denver, Colorado, USA, EARTH.

Why isn’t there a miniseries or one-shot about a normal ass civilian from Denver having to deal with OH MY GOD WHERE DID EARTH GO?

I actually read an interesting thing re: this scene. It exists because Mattel asked Marvel to introduce some new female characters so Shooter wrote in these two and a third who I’ll get to when I do.

Mattel then promptly used none of these characters for the associated toyline.

The toyline, in fact, used none female characters at all. It made toys of characters who weren’t in the story but did not have a single female character.

So its very weird that they asked Marvel to introduce some but I’m not going to knock the results.

Doom introduces these two new characters to the other villains.

Hilariously, Absorbing Man guesses that Doctor Doom just made women from scratch. Because doesn’t it sound like something he could do?

Volcana and Molecule Man immediately hit it off, her being attracted to his sensitivity and him being attracted to... positive attention at all, I guess?

He muses that he could easily stop the storm outside, because molecules, but his therapist told him to let nature take its course. “Unless Doom asks me to!”

And Titania and Absorbing Man. They don’t hit it off. She either wants to hit him or hit that and its not clear and it might be both.

(Spoilers: Its both)

Titania: “You! Absorbing Man! You look like the toughest man here! Get up!”

Absorbing Man: “Whatcha got in mind?”

Titania: “I’m going to do anything I want to you! Everything I always wanted to do to everybody who used to be bigger and stronger than me! Maybe I’ll just play with you... or maybe I’ll make you eat dirt... or maybe...”

Absorbing Man: “Woman, if you got somethin’ to prove, prove it tomorrow against the guys we’re fightin’!”

Titania: “You’re backing down?”

Absorbing Man: “Nope! I just ain’t getting up! I got nothin’ to prove... to a dame!”

Would you believe that they become one of the healthiest and most stable romantic relationships in Marvel?

Speaking of weird relationships, back over at hero base, Thor goes and pops the lid on Enchanteress’ healing tube because he’s bored and wants to talk to a peer. A god peer.

Enchantress is at first more characteristically worried about what her face looks like after being She-Hulked.

But she then creates a portal so she and Thor can go have a chat.

Later, it’s morning and Hulk has been too busy stressing over losing his Banner smarts to actually keep watch or wake up Cap for watch like he was supposed to.

So when the villains ram an airship into the hero base, the heroes are not at all prepared.

Titania hurls a giant slab of wall through the room the Terrific Three are sharing, breaking Johnny Torch’s arm and ribs and knocking out the other two. He manages to get himself and co out of danger by melting through the floor.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk is carrying a big heavy as she’s been doing since the previous night and is caught unaware by Volcana who blasts her off her feet and then collapses the room on top of her.

Doctor Octopus knocks out Captain Marvel who is in the hot springs dome but gets chased away by Hawkeye, claiming that long-range firepower is his weakness.

I’m stunned at the implication that Doc Ock is one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous foes but could be scared off by Hawkeye while Spider-Man could pretty easily drop Clint’s ass. There’s some rock-paper-scissors nonsense at play here.

Spider-Man and Iron Man are also taken unawares by Ultron but manage to hide under some rubble.

Hulk leaps into the fray at Molecule Man and Doom but Cap convinces him to fall back to a defensible position.

The villains reconvene with all the captured villains freed except Enchantress (since she fucked off to have a chat with Thor) and the heroes scattered and buried under various rubbles. How the fortunes of Secret War turn.

Sure would have been nice if the X-Men had been around to help or if they mentioned they wouldn’t be. Sure would have been.

Doom: “We have accomplished much here today! And to finish it, we shall level this place so that no stone remains on stone!”

No wonder Mattel didn’t make a playset of this base! Dammit Doom, you’re ruining the merchandising!

Follow @essential-avengers​ for more of Secret Wars! At this same pace! Its sustainable! This is fine! Like and reblog too!

[rose-edith]

I had this idea whilst being half asleep: Kembleford's first Singles Auction. Charity event, of course. 😍🤣🤣

Ok but you have no idea how much I LOVE this as a concept! Hope you like it!

Kembleford’s first Single’s Auction Charity Event would include:

•Mrs M is positively scandalised when she reads the poster! A Singles Auction? It would never have happened in her day!

•but you, Lady Felicia and Bunty all think it might be rather good fun! Not to mention a splendid way to raise money for charity.

•you pester Sid as much as possible to enter the auction, and after the third consecutive day of you annoying him about it he signs up- you’re surprised to see Inspectors Sullivan AND Valentine there signing up! But they both admit that they’re only doing so under orders as they’ve been told they have to participate in community events more!

•well, with such a fine desire of men (for that is the collective noun we shall use- a ‘desire’ meaning group) on offer you made a hefty withdrawal from your bank the day before the charity event, you were determined to get one of the young men to be yours for the day!

•the crowd was awash with lots of fine Kemblefordian’s all vying for the chance to win a date/day with the men who were taking part!

•when bidding started there was a rush! But you held off and waited for the man you wanted to get- you were determined to have the winning bid!

If you bid for Sid:

•Sid was absolutely playing it up on the makeshift stage! He’d rolled up his sleeves and was flexing and pouting and winking at all the young ladies.

•Bunty is the first person to bid and she sets the bar rather high, but that doesn’t put anyone off.

•at first there was a flurry of bids! So you waited until it calmed down, and then you started to bid.

•it came down to you and another young lady, and Sid was deliberately flexing and trying to look macho at you both to keep the bidding going! But the other bidder soon stopped, it had gone over her budget- leaving you victorious!

•with a flamboyant bow Sid jumped off the stage and slid next to you in the crowd as you passed the money to the organisers. You had quite a lot of fun activities planned out!

If you bid for Inspector Sullivan:

•he looked borderline terrified up in the stage! But the terror increased ten fold when the bidding began and it seemed like every single woman wanted to win.

•slowly as the price rises the number of bidders drop, until eventually its just you vs Lady Felicia. It feels almost hopeless, because you know she’s got far more money than you.

•so you turn to her and give her your very best puppy dog eyes and practically beg her to let you win! You’d had a crush on the Inspector forever, and this was your chance!

•Lady Felicia felt kind, and stopped bidding- meaning that you emerged the winner!

•Inspector Sullivan breathed a sigh of relief when you won instead of Lady Felicia (he could only wonder at what sort of things Lady F would’ve had him doing!)

•you paid up and waited for him at the edge of the stage, you weren’t going to hang around, time was of the essence!

If you bid on Inspector Valentine:

•he looks so nervous as he steps up to the front of the stage and the announcer rattles off a list of his best qualities, but then he catches the sight of you biting your lip and smiling up at him and he relaxes and even smiles.

•the bidding starts off fairly well, there’s a fair amount of interest especially from some of the more mature Kemblefordian’s, but eventually they peter out.

•there’s no real competition by the end and you win! And up on stage Inspector Valentine’s eyes have never left yours and he mouths the words ‘thank you’.

•by the time you’ve paid and he’s guided you out the crowd so you can start your day, you’re both blushing but beaming.

[jinmukangwrites]

LINKED UNIVERSE MULTI-CHAPTERED

-o-RUINS 1-o-

[x1x] [x2x]

Summary: Wild opens up to Time in the worst way.

-o-GRACE TRILOGY-o-

GRACE

Summary: Wild would do anything to protect his friends, even if it meant jumping into the line of fire.

GRACELESS

Summary: Twilight has some things to think about and Wild doesn't understand what he's done wrong.

GRACEFUL

Summary: sometimes, things take a turn for the worse, and the world feels like it’s falling apart. Wild’s always jumped at the chance to save someone else, but what happens when the favor is returned?

-o-LABRAT AU-o-

LABRAT

Summary: Wild as lab rat / Discord Warrior Week prompt.

[x1x] [x2x] [x3x]

Summary: In a modern version of Hyrule, a young man finds himself in a world filled with nothing but white walls, studying faces, and tests after tests. Something is different about him, and the world seems very interested is seeing what makes him tick. (A modern, BOTW/LOZ "Labrat" AU)

-o-SOMEBODY DIFFERENT-o-

SHRINE

Summary: Wild dies, and it's Legend's fault. (A practice fic to Somebody Different)

[x1x] [x2x] [x3x]

Summary: Legend is always messing up, but this mistake takes the cake.

-o-praestrigiae [In Progress]-o-

Summary: It starts like this.

-o- succumb -o-

[x1x]

Summary: While collecting firewood after a harsh day of traveling, Wild and Hyrule find themselves ambushed and alone, facing a mysterious enemy that wants Hyrule for something Wild doesn't understand... or more specifically: they want Hyrule's blood.

-o-o-o-o-

GEN LINKED UNIVERSE

SCARS

((LINK MISSING D:))

PROMISE

Summary: Legend wakes up in the worst way possible: alone.

BLADE

Summary: Time’s sword is gone and Sky is hurt, unconscious. When cornered between a raging monster and the sword laying by Sky’s limp hand, Time is forced to make a choice.

(NOT) BROKEN

Summary: Wild breaks a gift from Mipha. He's understandably upset about it.

GLIDE

Summary: Or the one where Twilight has multiple consecutive heartattacks because of Wild, jumping of bridges, and dragons. Not particularly in that order.

BENEFITS

Summary: It's been a while since Wild and Zelda saw each other. Meanwhile, Wind tries to figure out what "Friends with Benefits" means.

MEMORY

Summary: Wild shares the story of a picture he has hanging in his house to the others. They all decide he needs more pictures hanging up.

LOSE

Summary: It's been awhile since Twilight's been forced into his wolf form. He forgot how painful it was, but there isn't a thing he can do about it due to the fact everyone is currently under attack.

ALONE

Summary: They think Wild had no one on his adventures, but they were wrong. Wild had a very special friend. He had a wolf.

SPEAK

Summary: as time passes, things change. The language does as well, and that causes some problems when they meet the new hero.

FEAST

Summary: Wild is always eating something.

SHADOW

Summary: Wild finds himself lost and alone, or what he thinks is alone.

(DONT) REMEMBER

Summary: Wild was completely content going the rest of his life not remembering the past.

DOUBT

Summary: It's funny how one thought can lead to another, and suddenly the whole world feels like it's tilting.

HOPE

Summary: The group finds themselves captured while Hyrule and Four find themselves alone.

CUB

Summary: He's the Hero of the Wild, it's only fair that the creatures get to know him.

LIKE US

Summary: Warriors finds out a little more about the Yiga.

MOON

Summary: The group has a little run-in with Wild's pesky red moon.

REFLEX

Summary: Tired, hungry, on-edge, Wild finds himself having trouble remembering he's among friends. Hyrule helps.

CAGED BIRD

Summary: The desert is a heartless place, and traveling unprepared is about the worst thing you can do. Good thing Wild has some friends.

DARK

Summary: It's a domino effect, at the beginning Wild is actually okay, by the end he's left gasping.

FLY

Summary: Sky takes a tumble.

HUNGER

Summary: There’s a demon, and she’s been hungry for a very long time. Patiently waiting for the perfect moment to pounce upon her prey.

Battle

Summary: Stories of war are only ever told by the survivors, though the survivors are not always the brave and strong. They are just the lucky.

Mutual (Mis)Understandings

Summary: Wild and Zelda seem to be engaged... and Twilight like the worried mother hen of the group that he is overreacts and misunderstands greatly. 

-o-o-o-o-

Carry off

Summary: The monsters attacked in the dead of night, and Legend suffers the consequences.

LEGEND OF ZELDA

BOY BEHIND THE LEGEND

Summary: Link likes to listen, and he knows there is nothing wrong with that.

TIME FLIES BY

Summary: ""Time flies by, " they all sang along"

STORM

Summary: Zelda and her good pal Ganondorf decide to overthrow the kingdom together idk

TRUSTED

Summary: "We should never have trusted you."

WILD

Summary: When he wakes up from the shrine of resurrection, Link notices that he doesn’t always feel like a he. Link learns to be okay with that.

Tbc