#the ending was kinda eh but wtv

[milesmoraleswife4l]

Heyy love ur writing<33

Wanted to ask if u could do one where we introduce miles to afro Beats

OH MY DAYS OFC

( ill just do a continuation of the first story at the party he went to with y/n lol)

im ngl its kinda cringey but its wtv ig

Warning: none jus fluff

Miles and Nigerian Y/N PART 2

 After you finished eating, you went to your room for some alone time. You held your hand out for him to follow you. “ So what do you think about my family?” “ Mami, they're really nice, and the food is amazing, like seriously, you need to teach me how to make that orange rice with the plantain.” he said, wrapping his arms around your waist, and your arms snaked around his neck as you giggled at his cute behavior. “ You know they have to see you dance too though right?” You said with a smirk on your face. 

He smacked his teeth and said, “ Girl bye I live with a Puerto rican mom in case you forgot.” He said while rolling his eyes playfully. “ No baby I don't think you understand the music is different and I'm just trying to give you a heads up.” You said while raising your hands up in defeat. “ I'm sure I'll be fine, it's just dancing Y/N.” He said while poking at your hips to annoy you. “ Aight but imma just tell you right now if i hear my song im dancing with or without you.” You said trying to walk out the room, but he caught you by your waist, and spun you around to kiss you. “ Miles.. Baby lets go before people start wondering where we went.” You said trying to push his face away. “ Ok ok fine.” he said, sneaking in one last kiss before you opened the door. 

As you went out, you were completely bombarded by your mom and aunts telling you and miles to come and dance. You glanced over at him and said, “See?” And he chuckled as he followed you over to where everyone was dancing. You then heard the song Fever by Wizkid, and you and your cousins started cheering. Your mom walked past you and Miles and whispered to miles, “ Be careful, Y/n  can dance really well, and she can dance for hours.” Miles chuckled as he saw you dancing with your cousins and whining your hips to the beat. You then saw him kinda in the corner and took his hands for him to dance with you and your cousins. “ You know when you dance they spray you with money right?” “ Wait, are you forreal?” he said, completely shocked that you can get money from that. Just then, you heard the song Soundgasm by Rema start to play and you turned around and put your back to him and started grinding. He was just in awe because he's never seen you dance like that before. He then started to feel the song and how attractive it was and how you looked while dancing and put his hands on your hips and started whining with you. You looked back at him still whining and gave him a smile. Your mom and the other aunts started to come and hype Miles up. And started spraying him with money. And he started going crazy and showed all the aunts that he didn't come to play. Everyone was so shocked as were you that he warmed up so fast. 

When the party ended, and you were walking him home, you held his hand tight and said, “ You know my family absolutely adored you right?” “ Shi.. I mean how could they not?” he said playfully. “ Ok not too much now. You're just lucky my dad was on a business trip.” You said giving him the hand. “ Girl that wont be a problem.” “ Wait because I'm actually still in shock that you were able to dance like that.” You said while holding your stomach from how hard you were laughing. “ Well I had to learn one way or another.” “What do you mean?” “ How else will I dance at our wedding?” He said while smirking at you and the fact that you got so flustered easily. 

When you got home you helped your mom clean up all the mess from the party when she suddenly called you. “ Y/n, see eh, you betta just be preparing to marry that boy. He’s a very fine one and I need grandbabies. You chuckled and said, “ That's the plan.” 

[bookhighlightss]

Book Review on Imperfectly perfect series by Neva Altaj:

i. Painted Scars ( book #1 ) ( roman and nina )

1. Okay I've got complaints on this book because first of all what was this mentioning her " tiny " body that it ticked me off. WHAT TICKED ME OFF MORE IS HOW HE WAS LIKE SHE IS THE SAME HEIGHT AS ME WHILE IM SITTING DOWN. LIKE WHAT??!!! U MARRIED A CHILD OR SUMN???!!!!

2. What was her going on about being scared because he was HUGE and that scared her but at the same time validated bcs of her trauma but still.

3. I hated the fact that the fmc wasn't all strong and could fight n shit bcs um ur the pakhans wife???? What r u doing if ur not kicking ass????

4. Overall the book was um mid???

ii. Broken Whispers ( book #2 ) ( Mikhail and Bianca )

1. Okay love the fact that he was always obsessed with her and her whole ballet dance and him watching her was like so cute n shit.

2. The daughter father bond was peak so love it.

3. I absolutely also HATE the fact that she also wasn't a strong fmc bcs ur the daughter of another mafia leader????? Wdym???? I wanted kickass fmc.

4. AGAIN TINY PETITE BODY WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME but kinda will accept it cuz she's a ballet dancer. So fine I'll allow it.

5. HERE'S THE ICK IN THIS BOOK. he forces his ex to give birth to their child bcs she got pregnant and wanted an abortion....HE THREATENED TO KILL HER???!!!! And obv he's a man he wouldn't know the thousand problems that comes with pregnancy so makes sense yk don't let woman have her own right over her OWN body. Like srsly he's a book bf make him a green forest please.

6. Loved the book bcs it was a level up from the first mid book.

iii. Hidden Truths ( book #3 ) ( Sergei and Angelina )

1. Love the fact that the serial killer scenes were serial killing bcs wow they really went all graphic and I'm here for it. I'm sorry but they really gave justice to his psychotic character and behaviour when he was killing.

2. Okay this girl could fight so it's accepted.

3. The tiny and petite wasn't mentioned that much prolly bcs she starved herself but yea.

4. Okay she was retarded. Like hella retarded. SPOILERS AHEAD. basically their enemy said they would kill him if she didn't come back or wtv and SHE CHOSE TO HIDE FROM A MAN WHO WAS MADE INTO A WEAPON!!!!! like this guy could kill 3 ppl in 15 secs and u wanna hide this shit from him???? HE CAN SAVE HIS OWN LIFE!!!! YOU CANNOT!!!!! I hate it when main characters r all dumb and retarded and r like omg I was protecting him??? Hun.....he can fight trust me.

5. SPOILERS ENDED. um overall book was fine better than the second book.

iv. Ruined Secrets ( book #4 ) ( luca and Isabella )

1. This book is an ICK. ICK. ICK. ICK. They have a 16 yr age gap and idk bout u but that doesn't sit well with me. HE PRACTICALLY WATCHES HER GROW UP FROM WHEN SHE WAS 6!!!!! THAS NOT OKAY

2. Can I just say that the father daughter bond was not shown the tiniest bit in this book. She didn't even exist in the book like that less cameos. And that actually shows how he wasn't there for the daughter. Prolly would've been more scenes if the author wasn't busy putting more smut scenes but eh.

3. Okay she is super badass I will not lie. She did actually fit the role of a capos wife unlike the first book and I loved it.

4. Ummm he actually calls her HIS TEENAGE WIFE???!!!!! EXCUSE ME SIR???!!!! JAIL. HE LITERALLY SAYS I'LL WAIT TILL SHE IS 21???!!!! Excuse me??!!!! U don't wait!!!!! Thas a child!!!!! U said it urself. U could practically be her father. WHAT???!!!! Fr she was 19 he was 35 and thas not okay and it actually makes me pukish.

5. Also um the way her whole family was okay with them getting married bcs she has loved him since forever is a no. I'm sorry but thas a weird obsession and it needs to be gotten rid of and not fueled.

6.. THIS AUTHOR'S OBSESSION WITH THE FMC HAVING A TINY WAIST AND A TINY BODY WITH A HUGE ASS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND!!!!!!! I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

7. The plot is super nice tho. Fast paced but nice. If they minused the WAYYY TOO MUCH SMUT and age difference.

v. Stolen Touches ( book #5 ) ( Salvatore and milene )

1. To say I went through it while reading the book would be an understatement is just wild.

2. ICK. ICK. ICK. one this woman needs a reality check BCS TELL ME WHY all the characters she writes go through the absolute worst " mafia " torture but come back out with little harm LIKE BFFR thas impossible.

3. Can I just say the guy is psychotic bcs there's no way his hyperobsession was romanticised in the book the way it was. This is how serial killers are born. Okay this should have ended with him in therapy and divorce but okay I think it's not a shock that her are weird.

4. OKAY SO APPARENTLY THIS GUY BARELY SMILES AND WHEN HE HAS A DAUGHTER THAS WHEN HE DECIDED TO FINALLY SMILE???? you're telling me this girl went thru practically years without seeing her husband smile??? And he smiles for his new born baby for the first time??? Fuck off pls.

5. This book made me question my existence and will for life but thas just me idk.

vi. Fractured Souls ( book #6 ) ( Pavel and Asya )

1. This book had so much potential and the way she ruined it with smut😭. THIS COULDVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER.

2. AGAIN THIS BOOK WAS BACK WITH THE TINY AND PETITE AND EXTRA SMOL OUTFITS🥺 like oh yea sure not only is there a 15 year age gap but there's also child fetish LESGOOOOO AND THE FAVT THAT HES BLONDE??? DAFAK??

3. Okay so the book starts off great and tbh I thought this book would have no smut or one smut scene BUT NO THE BITCH ASS AUTHOR PICKED A SENSITIVE TOPIC TO WRITE ABOUT AND SOMEHOW MANAGED TO ADD SMUT IN IT

4. Look here's my opinion even tho I'm a hea girly but I feel like this book would be SO MUCH BETTER if they didn't end up tgt yk...like she never got to grow her own wings and fly?? Like this was just transfer from one gold prison to a rotten prison to another gold prison but it's prison at the end of the day. Like if they never were together and she just became an artist and he actually continued depressed and on with his life even tho he fell in love with her but he knew she could do better than that life then it would have been beautiful. Also if they never fucked then it would be even more beautiful.

5. I actually liked this book way much more than the previous 5 bcs he was a green flag if we forget the age gap ( I did for my own sanity ). Also the mall scenes were so CRINGY that I had to put the book down or I'd cut a vein. AND ISTG IF A RANDOM TATTED MAN THOUGHT HE COULD SHUT ME UP WITH A GLARE IN A PUBLIC PLACE...THE WAY I'D FUVK HIM UP....

6. Overall this book had potential which was horribly destroyed. Thank you.

vii. Burned dreams ( book #7 ) ( Alessandro and Ravenna )

1. Am I saying this book is shit? Yes. But am I saying it's better than the first three? Hell yes. Ig it took her 6 books to get a tad better but it'll do. I didn't wanna kms by the end of it.

2. Okay um IF THIS WOMAN DOSENT QUIT WITH HER PETITE OBSESSION I WILL KMS AND BECOME FAT ASF SO NO ONE EVER CALLS ME PETITE AND SMALL.

3. So this book actually had a somewhat a good plot so ig I liked it. But um basically he has an ex wife who died but I just didn't like the way he moved on and fell in love again even tho it took him 8 yrs but meh.

4. Again the smut....ick....also the way her books are so predictable is annoying but it'll do ig.

viii. Silent lies ( book #8 ) ( Drago and Sienna )

1. Omg was this book the best out of all 8? Hell yes. Okay the usual icks were petite and tiny and the 16 year age gap but ATP I just make myself forget those two.

2. GREEN FLAG. GREEN FLAG. HES A GREEN FLAG. SPOILER AHEAD. so like when he finds out she went thru his phone and he thought she was a spy but she was just going thru his gallery BUT LIKE he never asked her what she saw on his phone and thought she was a spy but he decided to love her despite of it.

3. I fucking love her wardrobe and I need it desperately.

4. THE GIFTS. THE GIFTS. THE GODDAMN GIFTS AAAAAAHHHHHH

5. Okay genuinely I relate to her character a lot and this was fr fr grumpy x sunshine and I'm just happy about the fact that this was the first proper book in the series so yea

ix. Darkest sins ( book #9 ) ( Kai and Nera )

1. This book was the SHITTIEST of all books in this series. I got the ick throughout the book. I felt sick to my stomach and actually wanted to barf.

2. This man deserves to be in a high security jail or killed. There's no redemption for him bye. This book was crazy. He's a psycho killer and look Ive had my fair share of reading those kinds of books but this one didn't even make sense.

3. Idek if I can call their romance Stockholm syndrome bcs it's worse than that and there is no romance in this its basically him lusting after a child and objectifying her.

4. ISTG IF THIS AUTHOR DOSENT STOP WITH FILLING THE BOOKS UP WITH SMUT TO THE BRIM. While the age gap of this book was acceptable ( 10 yrs ) the storyline was unacceptable and absolutely shit I couldnt even read it properly I just kept skipping bcs this book was just not it and horrible.

ix. Sweet prison ( book #10 )

( hasn't been published yet )

[moduloxii]

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐑 !                

knowing  your  writing  partners  can  make  writing  together  a  lot  easier .  repost ,  DON’T reblog .

NAME: Meluna

PRONOUNS:  Strictly HE/HIM !

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Discord! Tumblr IMs are trash but I'd rather those for non mutuals adfhjk

NAME OF MUSE(S):  Toshi Ukuwa (OC), Minamimoto Shou and Sakuraba Neku! May pick up some more along the way, but we'll see!

EXPERIENCE / HOW LONG: I've been on tumblr since 2014ish? I took a break from tumblr RP from 2021 to 2023 and was only RPing on discord but... I decided to come back because I wanted to make new friends!

BEST EXPERIENCE: Being able to explore characters thoroughly and making friends along the way!

RP PET PEEVES:  I'm honestly not too fussy? I tend to adapt to my partner's writing so I might write differently with different people... The only thing I cannot respond to is like, script style. It's too boring for me LOL. I like having things to work with!

MUSE PREFERENCES FOR ANGST / FLUFF / SMUT: 

Angst: They did actually called me Sadist King in a fandom once because I had the reputation of making people cry with my angst comics... TLDR: love it but especially if there's a good payoff bc angst for the sake of angst is kinda eh

Fluff: Cuddly snuggles and kisses? Aww hell yeah, but only when it's earned. General wholesome threads? Yum yum.

Smut: I can write smut but absolutely not here LOL I have to have a lot of trust in someone to be able to write smut with them. If for some reason our muses are super compatible and reach that point and you do wanna write some spices, I do implore you ask we write in like idk discord or something.

PLOTS OR MEMES: I love both! I think because I'm stepping into a space with a lot of veterans, plotting is particularly important... I do love the unpredictableness of memes though. If I plot too much (from start to middle to end), I admittedly lose interest. Usually just plotting a little at the start and letting the muses go wild is my preferred way to go! Makes it fun. Sometimes muses don't like going by the script anyways.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: These days I don't really care as long as I have something to work with. Because RP is collaborative writing, I personally try my best to give my partner something to work with while also pushing the story along. But all in all, I guess I prefer longer? Single sentences (if not deliberate for impact or wtv) can get me pretty stuck.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: I am super sporadic but I'm usually around at night time JST. Like, 7pm - 5am because *laughs in gay vampire*

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE:  If we're talking Mr Minamans? GOD no, he is too much of a genius. Me? I am a himbo. So himbo that I got gaslit into marrying a third anime husband. As for Ukuwa, I like to think I am not THAT mean...! He certainly does share my traits of like workaholicism and functioning off of guilt though. I also gave him all of my CPTSD but he's more of an attack than fawn like me.

tagged: haha i stole it   tagging: Feel free to yoink this from me!

[eumivrse]

JUST CO-WORKERS : aki hayakawa

warning(s) public sex ? idk, but it’s balcony sex at reader and aki’s apartment lol. fwb, unprotected sex, creampie, slight spanking

word count 1,537

author’s note honestly didn’t wanna post another drabble but this has been on my drafts for months now n im having a little aki phase anywayz so hii

aki smoking that pack while giving you backshots, the morning news playing in the background, sun slowly rising across the horizons.

the air felt cool and groggy, the city still awake with lights from the long night, yet no one was outside to see your tits bouncing against the metal bar of the terrace that’s preventing you from falling over 9 stories down.

aki groaned in frustration, a cloud of smoke slipping out his nose and lips as he finally pressed the butt of his cig on the ashtray next to you , “baby, stop moving around so much, would ya?” he was literally asking the impossible judging by the way your body jolts with each thrust.

you mewl, face down to watch as some of the residents from your apartment complex exit the building and vouch for a taxi. “fuck, fuck— aki…” the molten stench of the cig was making you dizzy, enough that you were forgetting that people can hear you.

it’s definitely not the best type of noise to hear first thing in the morning for your neighbor’s sake, but you and aki have been up all night for work and are unable to fall asleep due to the adrenaline rush from killing devils so what better way to cure that than to just fuck like animals for a good night’s— or morning’s rest?

aki hunches over your shoulder, one hand squeezing your tummy while the other tilts your jaw back to meet his eyes. “ ‘m gonna need you to quiet down, alright? i want to be the only one who can hear you.” he leans in for a kiss, one that was full of lust, all wet and messy.

it’s complicated with aki, really. he doesn’t want to be in a relationship but would constantly get your hopes up whenever he’d probe you into these types of situations. the first time was when you came home after a dinner with other co-workers and a drunken kiss led to a hook up. something like this should’ve been expected as soon as you both were assigned to live in the same apartment, you just didn’t expect to like him as much as you do right now.

his cock was stretching you open, clit starting to feel cold from being deprived of touch. your cunt was so fucking wet, the sound of your slick slapping against his balls tickling aki’s ears. his hands were firm on your waist, adam’s apple prominent from his perspired neck.

the base of your ass slammed against his abdomen as you throw it back on him, his abs gleaming from the sheen of sweat and the sunlight peeking past the cracks of the buildings in front of you.

your knees were starting to give out, arms hooked around the railings of the terrace. “aki- i want you, please. please make me cum.” desperation lingered in your voice, it was comical honestly.

“hm? don’t you say the same thing when you’re with other men?”

you mewl when his tip plunged onto your g-spot. “wh-what other men?”

he scoffs, palm striking the skin of your ass and forcing a yelp out of you. “you don’t think i know? all those nights you’d invite some random loser from the bar and i have to listen to you fake your orgasm? i gotta say,” he slaps you again and grabs a chunk of your ass to grip on. “you’re a pretty good actress. but i know you, sweetheart. and i know how fucking beautiful you really sound when you cum.” he chuckles in between pants.

“why do you care so much anyways?” you yelp and aki rocks his hips vigorously, your hole starting to seep with arousal, dripping down your thighs and the curve of your ass marred with the print of his palm.

aki isn’t a chatty person at all, but you’ve been around him long enough to know that if he’s rambling like this, he’s pissed. under those nasty words of praise, his cock is bullying your insides and is risking you of getting a noise complaint.

he isn’t wrong though, you go around sleeping with other men on purpose to make him seethe in jealousy— to make him realize how much you mean to him. you intentionally exaggerate your moans for him to hear on the other side of the wall and he’s taking out the envy on you right now.

his clammy palms bruised the plump of your waist, his breathing heavy and teeth digging on his bottom lip. “because…” he punctures the same spot over and over again at an intermittent pace in between his words. “you deserve more than that.”

you grit your teeth, fists clenched while you whimpered. aki pulls out and wraps his palm around his fat cock, resting it in between your ass while jerking himself off.

he grunts, slapping his tip against the base of your back and taunting you. “so you want me to beg? is that it?” you groan.

“sure. not with that attitude though.” you couldn’t see him, but you bet he probably has that shit-eating grin plastered on his face right now.

it’s a change of pace from his usual stoic attitude.

he sneaks his hand in between your legs and teases your clit, the flat of his finger flicking you. “aki- don’t do this, shittttt…” you were starting to feel your stomach contract, sweat trickling from your forehead down your nose. the heat of the sun was starting to cower the dewy air, you turned your head, mouth quivering from the immense stimulation.

“please aki? i’ll be good to you. i’ll be a good girl for you…” it was so unnatural for you to pout as you are right now, bottom lip sticking out as you plead to him.

aki laughs, moaning while he fucks into his fist before poking his tip back in between your folds. “ ‘wasn’t that hard now, was it? ‘knew you had it in you.” he takes one of your arms and pins it on your back, a ball of his spit plopping down his cock before he snaps his hips against your ass.

his cock stretched your tight hole deliciously, thighs jiggling with each thrust. the tv’s noise and your moans was now swallowed by the honking and the engines of cars downstairs, you can practically see the whole road with your tits smashed against the railings. your arm is sore from being held behind you, slick running down your inner thigh.

“aki, fuck, cum with me, ah fuckkkkk” you curse out loud, your breathing jagged and sharp.

he stutters, grunting as he lets go of your arms and bruises your waist with his calloused hands. “w-where?”

“inside, baby. hah- ‘want you to make me yours.” he frantically slipped himself inside of you once more before fucking you full of cum mixed with your own, pulling his cock out with a pop! sound as translucent white cum dripped down your clenching pussy.

“fuck,” aki gasps and you turn around, seeing his face drenched with strands of his raven hair sticking to his forehead. he massaged your breasts, your palms cupping his cheeks and pulling him in for a longing kiss as you walk back into your shared apartment.

you hadn’t realized he was leading you to his room and onto his bed, you were too lost in his familiar lips that tasted of spearmint and cigarettes. you pulled from each other, your thumb pressing on his bottom lip.

you never slept in the same bed even after sex. it’s as if it was an unspoken rule— a boundary you should never cross.

however, this time felt different. aki got you to lay on his mattress and covered you with his fluffy comforter, the buzzing of the ac easing your sore body.

he settled next to you after putting his boxers back on, back against the headboard. “you’re free tomorrow, yes?” he asks, opening up a bottle of water from his nightstand and chugging on it before passing it to you.

“yeah duh, we’re in the same division.” you take a sip from the plastic bottle. probably not the best idea to share a drink with a chronic smoker, but you stopped caring.

aki always hated having to express his feelings especially after the tragedies that had occurred in his life. you were the only one that didn’t pity him when you found out about his past and that gave him a sense of hope.

maybe he’s not cut out for this and more so that you’re supposed to have a wall of professionalism in between you two, but to hell with all that. “let’s go on a date tomorrow.” he sighs.

“as…?” you slumped your head on his shoulder.

“as a couple, duh.” he places his nose on the top of your head, getting a whiff of your coconut shampoo.

“awh, is this your first time asking someone out?” you scoff.

“don’t make me take it back.”

“okay, okay! fine, i’ll go out with you tomorrow.” you’re being nonchalant, but nothing can express the amount of happiness bubbling up inside of you.

he hooks his arm around your shoulder and pushes you closer to him. “this means we’re dating now, right?” you whisper, pecking his jaw lightly.

“yes, babe.”

[zuffer-weird-girl]

Sooooo since ur request open, how about headcanons or short scenario when their so ask 'would you still love me if i was worm?' Or some dumb question like that sksksksk, feel free to ignore it :D have a nice dayyy bestieeee

Bro I love those questions. I did that with my partner and to say he was confused was an understandement.

Overhaul/Chisaki Kai

WHY WOULD YOU ASK HIM THAT OUT OF ALL PEOPLE?! 😱

Listen, this bastard is cruel, sadistic, brutally honest AND GERMOPHOBIC

You doomed yourself.

The man would just stop wtv he was doing and look at you like you were the most disgusting thing ever.

No joking, eyes squinting a bit and lips partially parted whole he muttered a "What the fuck?"

Of course he would understand that was a joke later but oh my God this dude is about to puke.

Because like, you're his love? His angel? He can't just picture you as a worm. Those things may be beneficial for the earth but he thinks worms are disgusting and like 🤢

"No."

"So you wouldn't love me if I were a worm? 😢"

"Why the fuck would you be a worm on the first place (Y/n)?"

"Uh... quirk?"

"I would kill the responsible for this in a heartbeat and transform you back."

Listen he does love you but... he is kinda complicated to be honest.

Dabi/Todoroki Touya

(Cue me tearing up after the manga)

"Is physically impossible for this to happen but I mean yeah sure, is still you so wtv..." He would mumble while lightning up a cigarette.

MAN SHOT IN THE HEART

Dabi knows how tp deal with your bullshit already so.

This man would love you even if you went bald or just straight up lost all your teeth.

To gain Touya love and trust is extremely difficult regarding to what he has been through and the deception of a father he looked up to just casting him aside so if you did manage to gain this man trust you bet your butt he is not letting you go anytime soon.

Even as a worm.

"So you would carry me in your pocket?"

"Eh .. no. Gross."

"WHAT?!"

"You can crawl on the ground" cue the smirk

He is still a douchebag though-

Chronostasis/ Kurono Hari

Straight up a "maybe"

Cue him and you discussing for about 2 hours on how would you be turned into a worm, the pros and cons, a whole fucking mental map on how would this work and in the end just thinking on how to turn you back to normal.

"Pretty sure that me having a relationship with a worm wouldn't be seen as a good thing and I don't wanna go to jail again flower."

"... we could be like Romeo and Juliet though?"

You two are the typical idiots in love which would cackle in laughter after this.

"Hari wait, what about a rat?"

"You testing your limits."

[jeonstellate]

say the word

your exhaustion (and sudden crush on a certain bartender) somehow led you to your soulmate.

๑彡 lee seokmin x gender neutral!reader

๑彡 soulmate!au, bartender!au — kinda fluff(?)

๑彡 bulleted list format — 2.4K words

masterlist

[gif’s full credit belongs solely to its owner]

following the multiverse theory, this specific universe lives in first words

soulmates are connected by the words that the other speaks to them the very first time they meet

for this universe, the daemon-in-command has slightly increased the difficulty of finding one’s respective other half

or, at least, she took the anxiety of finding the right person up a notch

all for the sake of entertainment, really

by only giving the very first word they will utter to their destined half

literally just the first word

just one

chaos never fails to ensue whenever people get their word tbh

“i didn’t even know ‘ugh’ counts as a word???”

“what— they literally started with ‘what’— hOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND THEM WITH THIS???”

“. . . great. i’ll meet my soulmate and the first word they’ll tell me is ‘fuck’. that’s just great”

and also whenever they finally meet their other half

*smack!* “aw! what was that for?”

“you literally gave me an ‘okay’ tattoo! wdym what was that for—”

“but??? you also gave me an ‘okay’ tattoo???”

literally everything’s popcorn-worthy ngl

since one’s soulmate mark might be highly identical to many, the daemon-in-command added another layer of confirmation

by making the tattoos look holographic once they meet their one

(idk if i used the right word— i meant like . . . the tattoos glimmers when hit by light or smth)

(y’know . . . like, it shimmers every time the angle of the light changes)

(think abt those holo pcs)

(idk if those even helped, but wtv)

the luckier soul pairs are the ones who at least have one braincell between them

aka the ones with a person who smartly ask “name?” before saying anything else to a stranger they just met for the first time

since that meant their — the person who asked’s — soul mark is a name

which makes things a little bit easier

or like, more comforting ig

anyway

you’d be lying if you said you wouldn’t have preferred that name-pair mark

because

well

your word just so happened to be the most common word in the entirety of the english language

clue #1: it appeared in this work at least twenty-four times so far

(yes, i personally counted them myself)

clue #2: it was in the previous bullet before clue #1 — and it’s in this one, too

yup

that’s right

your soul mark says “the”

literally out of all the words you could’ve possibly end up with

you were chosen to be part of the continuously growing facebook page group

of unfortunate people who are given the word “the” as a mark

or alternatively, of unfortunate people who were destined with someone who failed to get into the program

you see

to lessen the chances of accidentally giving their soulmate a very common, highkey meaningless word, people of your generation started talking . . . kinda weird

like

take the name-pair example — instead of starting off with “what’s your name?” (and giving the soulmate “what’s” as their tattoo)

people often say, “name? what’s your name?” or smth of that sort

bc y’know

it’s preferable to have “name?” than “what’s” since it doesn’t leave much room for anxiety and overthinking

unfortunately for you, though

your tattoo certainly falls on the latter category — the one full of uncertainty and overthinking

you have no clue what your mark could possibly mean tbh

what are you and your soulmate talking about when you first meet?

is it a positive or a negative thing?

is the “the” like “the store isn’t open yet” or like “the sauce got in your clothes, did you know?” type of thing?

or maybe the “the” is “the one i want to love isn’t you” kind?

or even “the universe must’ve made a mistake”?

eh, who knows?

certainly not you, that’s for sure

thankfully, you tend to not dwell on the what-ifs of your soul mark

partly bc you’re too preoccupied trying to juggle your responsibilities

there are just too many deadlines, man

seriously

frankly, your life involves a solid routine

so there isn’t really a huge window for you to meet your one

you’ve pretty much met everyone that often exist within your routine, so you’ve already confirmed that your soulmate isn’t amongst them

which can only mean your soulmate must appear when you do something out of your routine

but those aren’t really easy to come by bc of your busy schedule

so yeah

not thinking abt your soul mark too much it is

in fact, you got used to basically ignoring your soul mark that

when you do do something out of your routine, you still don’t think abt it at all

just like right now, actually

currently, you are attending a farewell party for one of your friends

who is set to move away soon to live with their soulmate in another country

in a suburban house with a picket white fence

(ngl, ik those fences are nice and all, but what exactly do they do except add onto the house aesthetic?? they’re so short that anyone could literally step over them???)

(i just don’t see how they’ll help prevent any possible crime???)

(anyway…)

yea, that particular friend of yours sure does have traditional dreams

you’re not about to question them on their dreams tho

so let’s move on

you find yourself seating on a bar stool, alone and lowkey exhausted

actually, let’s rephrase that: you find yourself seating on a bar stool, alone and highkey exhausted

bc your friend literally just had to schedule their party on a friday

you get that most people consider friday as a weekend too, but dmn—

your weekday literally just ended hours before you were expected to attend

sure, there’s an interval time between them, but it’s only enough time for you to go home and get ready to go out again

you certainly didn’t have time to squeeze in a nap or smth

(i recognize this might be a very introverted attitude, so just think it was a hard, exhausting week and go with the flow)

just to reiterate: you’re tired

undoubtedly

but, even so, you don’t wanna go home yet

partly bc duh — you don’t get to go out that often

and plus, this might be the last time you see your friend for a while

and they’re literally feeding you for free . . . it’d be a waste you don’t take advantage of it, js

so, obviously, you just decided to recharge by isolating yourself from the action

and gather enough energy through that to socialize again in a bit

however

you didn’t include in your calculations that the person behind the counter would strike up a conversation with you

“the song . . . do you know the title?”

bartender dude asked you after handing you a glass of water you didn’t asked for

you turned to him

and immediately, you were rendered

speechless

jk, or you were just really tired that your comprehension is taking a while to load completely

whatever the case is, it took you a while to reply to the bartender dude

“water . . . you handed me water when i didn’t ask for one”

. . . except you didn’t actually reply to whatever he said when you did answer

but rather commented on whatever he just did instead

(yo, i think your brain short-circuited)

(either that or you’re deaf bc of the bg noise tbh)

thankfully, he took no offense

and just . . . laughed at you

“you looked like you needed one”

you don’t know if that was a good or bad thing

but you thanked him for his kindness, anw

bartender dude left you alone after that to tend to another customer

and, somehow, you found yourself following him with your eyes as you study him

from first glance, it was noticeable that he has a tall nose and a light melanin skin

he also appears to lean on the tall side, but you can’t be sure since you can’t see his shoes

for all you know, he may be wearing platform shoes — or those things you can put inside your shoes to appear taller, wtv those are

as you studied him longer, though, you noticed that he actually has a mole on his cheek

not to mention he tends to smile while talking — an act that often extends into his eyes

frankly speaking, you found bartender dude attractive as hell

that was why it kinda felt awkward when he caught you staring lmao

“can i know why you’re staring at me?”

uh-oh. you’re caught caught

good luck, buddy

you figured you should defend yourself and try to save yourself from embarrassment

but you were too stunned to speak

no one’s counting but that’s literally the second time he did that to you

and dude is literally just doing the bare minimum

“sorry,” you eventually uttered after failing to come up with an excuse

much to your great relief, he laughed

“you’re forgiven,” he accepted your apology with a smile, “but you should really check your wrist”

you paused as you registered his suggestion

“huh what why” you asked almost out of instinct

before looking down on your wrist

a part of you was relieved to find that your wrist was okay and still attached to your arm

by the way bartender dude made it sound, a part of you thought that something horrible had happened to your wrist

thankfully, that wasn’t the case

but the other part of you registered how the word on your wrist looks . . . different

it’s no longer dark-colored, but rather

its holographic

which means—

“i’ve lost my soulmate????” you panicked

literal translation: i’ve met my soulmate but idk which one they are????

which is valid, since you’ve met — and talked to — many people tonight

and it was the first time you looked down on your wrist

how can you find your soulmate now?

“name . . . what’s your name?” bartender dude broke you out of your panicked state

“[first name],” you answered while still in a daze

when he smiled again, your mind miraculously cleared, “it’s nice to meet you, [first name]. i’m seokmin.”

he offered his hand to you, but in a manner as though he was asking for yours — with his wrist facing up

and by doing so, he let you see his soul mark: a holographic “water” shining proudly under the bar lights

involuntary, you thought of the first exchange you had with seokmin

seokmin: “the song . . . do you know the title?”

you: “water . . . you handed me water when i didn’t ask for one”

truthfully, you didn’t want to jump into conclusions too fast

and embarrass yourself further in front of seokmin

so, to confirm your suspicions, you resorted to go about it subtly

“likewise,” you reached for his hand as your brain still strategized how to bring up the whole soul mark thingy. “so, about earlier . . . why did you ask if i know the title of the song?”

“oh, that. i was just checking if you were an actual guest of this event or if you just sneaked in” seokmin shrugged like it was no big deal, “the song that was playing that time was—“

“—‘only’ by leehi,” you completed his statement. “it’s juwon and mingyu’s theme song. bc it was the song that was playing when they first met.”

(i didn’t know whose names to use, so i just used theirs, lol. even if their story is no way connected here)

(let’s just say the couple in question didn’t neglect to tell all their friends abt their theme song so it’s reasonable for seokmin to use it as a secret code of sort)

(okay? okay)

“so you didn’t sneak in, after all” seokmin nodded to himself. “if we go with the same logic they have, then that means our theme song should be ‘only’, too”

bingo

bless seokmin for confirming your bond without you asking

he just saved you from possibly embarrassing yourself again

it is too early to think you love him already?

“let’s— let’s not go with the same logic,” you tell him. “besides, we haven’t gone on a date yet; our theme song should be the least our priorities”

seokmin chuckled softly, “you’re right. so how ‘bout we schedule our first one right now?”

and so, for the rest of the farewell party, you stayed at the bar — accompanying seokmin as he worked

“i’m not working! i’m here as a favor,” he corrected you after you pointed out that he should probably get back to work instead of just talking to you, “mingyu’s not paying me, so it’s okay if i slack off a little”

don’t get him wrong, though: he still helped out the people that approached the bar, he just wasn’t looking like he was available to be approached since he spent all his free time talking to you

you two ended up talking abt a lot of things, partly because both of you never seemed to run out of things to say

you weren’t not rlly sure if it was bc seokmin’s your soulmate or bc he’s just rlly easy to talk to

but either way

you never mentioned how you had to have him confirm your bond just for you to be sure

it was a secret you were willing to take to the ground, ngl

if it weren’t for your own compass telling you it would best if your relationship had no secrets

so

yeah

you did end up coming clean a couple of months later, after you two officially started dating

and

suffice to say

that conversation did not go the way you expected

at all

“did you know i had no idea you were my soulmate back then until you basically told me”

“i did know that, actually”

???????

*insert a person standing emoji here*

(times thirteen, maybe)

huH???

“remember when i asked you why you were staring at me back then? i was actually waiting for you to say something about us being soulmates

“but you didn’t. and then when i told you to check your wrist, you panicked about losing your soulmate

“so i figured you still didn’t know who i was then”

oh.

wow.

talk abt unnecessary anxiety

you lowk stressed abt admitting that to him, just for it to be for nothing??

hmph

jk

not that you were complaining, ofc

you were just . . . too surprised

when relief started to take over, you eventually thought

huh. maybe back then really wasn’t too early for you to think you love seokmin, after all

[swearwolf-writes]

Teen Wolf 2020

it’s 2020 and corona is a bitch :) the wolves might not be able to get sick but they still wear their masks bcs they could still be carriers so *clears throat* WEAR YOUR MASKS Y’ALL!! this is very much a no one dies/everybody lives au :)

[CROSSPOSTED ON: AO3]

Scott McCall - age 26

this cute nerd. he studied veterinary medicine which takes about 4 years so he graduated in 2017 and works as Deaton’s partner at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic. he’s dating Isaac (bcs he came back from France with Argent, remember) and Kira (she came back from the Skinwalkers in 2019 and has a proper grasp on her powers). sorry scalia shippers but it’s not really my thing-

Stiles Stilinski - age 26

NERD. anywho- FBI dork became an agent in 2019 whoo and lives in DC with Lydia, Derek and Braeden. he’s dating Lydia and Derek and things are pretty chill - he yells at arseholes who refuse to wear their masks bcs ‘it’s uncomfortable :(’ like bite me karen no one cares

Derek Hale - age 32

grumpy sourwolf actually knows how to smile!! who knew- he lives in DC with Stiles, Lydia and Braeden most of the time but he and Braeden travel often to fight butthead hunters who need to mind their own business. he’s dating Stiles and he and Braeden are engaged - it’s cute and they’re being dorks about it. he likes to complain that they’d be married by now if it wasn’t for freakin covid

Lydia Martin - age 26

your local genius banshee~ 🥰 still awesome, still a harbinger of death - so yk, the usual. bcs she had extra credits she started as a junior studying maths and graduates in 2016!! 🎉🎉 she moved to DC after she got some money together while working as a tutor - the quartet splits rent (but usually it’s just Stiles and Lydia splitting it bcs the other two don’t technically have jobs and yk Derek is an unsub and Stiles is in the FBI which Lydia finds hilarious). she teaches adults in the local community college and helps supernatural folk on the dl - she runs a grief counselling service at the same place for people who’ve lost someone. she’s also trying to get a degree to become a high school maths teacher and it’s a lot but she’s got it handled.

Allison Argent - 24

accidentally brought back from the dead by the Dread Doctors. everyone could not stop crying bcs she’s back baby!! she died in 2011 age 17 and came back in 2012 so she wasn’t dead long thankfully - wanted to kill Theo bcs he messed with her pack even he did bring her back. she’s a chimera now lads- she needed a kidney transplant when she was young which was why she was kept away from the family business. she was a werewolf-werejaguar chimera like Hayden but stayed a chimera. Chris and Isaac stayed home and bcs she and Isaac never actually broke up, they kept dating - she found it funny that Isaac and Scott were dating at this point,, meanwhile they were panicking wildly :) she went back to school and said she wasn’t dead, just in the hospital for a really long time. she joined Liam’s year and again, wanted to very badly throw hands when she found out about Monroe- she’s the coolest, like she has claws and bow and arrows

Malia Tate - 26

our girl went to France as promised and hooked up with plenty of hot French people *le eyebrow wiggle* she found her beau there in France and it was not a love at first sight sort of thing - she wanted to punch them in the face,, in their very pretty face- she was basically doing her own thing when she smells them, another bloody werewolf and like don’t get me wrong, she’s fond of werewolves, but bloody hell do they cause trouble. and they smell her too and it’s like ‘eh-?’ bcs werecoyotes aren’t so common as werewolves. and they’re just there in a club in Bordeaux and they’re sniffed each other out and they kinda just pause like huh- bcs they were were not expecting to see someone that pretty- but that’s not the point of course- they pretend to leave together and as soon as they’re out of sight from humans, they start fighting in an alley, as you do. it ends up with the wolf tasting the wall bcs who the hell are you- once they figure out they’re both just there to party, things chill and they see more of each other, naturally, it’s all just a big coincidence and doesn’t mean anything. and then they’re dancing and it doesn’t mean anything. and then they’re sleeping together and it doesn’t mean anything. except it does. and they don’t know when it became normal to cuddle or wake up together or have breakfast together but it just was. and when the cute werewolf (who I still don’t have a name for-) plans on moving to the next place, she comes with. the pack are happy for her and they usually road trip from place to place so when the pack comes to visit in Prague? it’s fun to say the least

Kira Yukimura - age 25

she came back from the Skinwalkers in 2019 and she and Allison became good friends. she kept going with school from home and is dating Scott. her powers are strong and when she sneezes bcs yk pollen or wtv, there’s sparks and it’s hilarious and Scott finds it adorable. she doesn’t really know what she wants to do yet and that’s cool of her

Erica Reyes - age 25

they thought she was dead- think again bitch, she slowed her heart rate down so they couldn’t hear and everyone thought she was dead - when the alpha pack got rid of her body and Allison found it, she told her to tell the others to pretend she was dead bcs of the Alpha pack - they beat the Alpha pack but she and Boyd hid with Satomi’s pack while that went down and helped generally after. she kept going with school and bcs she dipped for a while, ended in Liam’s year and eventually became a nurse in 2017. she works with Melissa McCall and joins for family dinner a lot.

Isaac Lahey - age 25

went to France with Chris Argent but kept going with his studies at Chris’ insistence. was dating dating Scott before he had to leave with Chris but they didn’t actually break up,, it was more ‘i’ll miss you :(’. came back to Beacon Hills when Chris came to help with the deadpool business and stayed bcs of Allison and Scott 💞 his studies were mostly uninterrupted and he studied law, becoming a lawyer in 2020!! so at least one good thing came of this infernal year- he wants to specialise in family law.

Vernon Boyd III - age 26

yea no, Derek didn’t mercy kill him bcs he was fine :) de nile ain’t just a river lads he went into hiding with Satomi’s pack and came back when the Alpha pack was dealt with. went back to school and ended up in Liam’s year. he joined the air force when he was 18 and finished his rotc training stuff in 2018 and it’s pretty alright - he’s a pilot but was discharged in 2019 bcs someone started with him and bcs they were a superior, he couldn’t say shit. so now he likes to wear ‘fuck the army’ and ‘fuck the air force’ shirt. he has mad respect for the people out there but the people in charge? fuck em

Aiden Steiner - age 27

he lives bitches 😎 Ethan had a silver chain on so he plugged the wound with it - it counteracted the oni poison and the chain started melting into the would (he had mild silver poisoning but he was fine). school was normal and now he’s an engineer, living in Beacon Hills. he and Ethan left for London for a while bcs that town was crazy af. while Ethan was very happy there, he missed home so went back. he got an online ordination and learnt Japanese bcs why not

Ethan Steiner-Whittemore - age 27

got married!! whoo 🎉🎉 Aiden officiated (this is 2018 btw) and it was cute. the whole pack was there and the wedding was in London bcs as quaint as Beacon Hills is 

‘i’m only planning on getting married once so this is gonna be awesome’ - Jackson Whittemore, 2017

he’s dramatic but yk Ethan was a blushing mess bcs ~life partners~ he’s soft y’all. he’s a primary school teacher in London and they’re part of the South London pack.

Jackson Steiner-Whittemore - age 25

also got married!! whoo 🎉🎉 ngl he’s lowkey a trophey husband/sugar hubby bcs he’s rich af - he does business with his dad but it’s not a big workload. he and Aiden want to adopt and yk being rich will hopefully help

Theo Raeken - age 25

ah yes, the absolute nightmare bi enby returns. (i hc him with he/they pronouns ✌🏽 as you do) so he successfully gained Scott’s trust and is part of the pack - yay! he and Allison have a sort of ‘you’re a bitch’ ‘no u’ *saves each others lives* relationship at this point - it took a while for Allison to warm up to him but he did save Liam’s butt several times so,, anywho, he’s still a werewolf-werecoyote chimera and he’s cool with it. he went to an online school and got his high school diploma - Liam then snuck him into the school and he signed the bookshelf bcs yea he didn’t graduate there but he did go there and now he’s graduated so yay. speaking of, he and Liam are dating, yea ik we been knew. they started dating in 2014 and Theo now works waiting tables at a local restaurants bcs he lives with Liam and his parents (you best bet that when they found out he was living in his car, they made him move in so he pays rent, not at their request but his). that was till 2017 and they moved out into an apartment together. Theo chips in on rent but it usually ends up being split 60:40 (Liam: Theo) so he cooks and cleans a lot,,, mainly bcs Liam can’t cook and does laundry like a maniac-

Liam Dunbar - age 24

this werepup is just as chaotic as always - he cannot be trusted with laundry bcs he doesn’t split colours from whites :) honestly it makes me wanna cry a lil bcs he can’t even fry eggs either- he has Theo to cook for him tho so that’s all good. he’s a history tutor for the high school students bcs he likes history and he knows the pain of high school- *shudder* he got an online Spanish and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree and is now teaching at Beacon Hills High but yk his first year teaching is all online bcs 2020-

Mason Hewitt - age 23

he’s Emissary to the pack when they don’t have Deaton *wipes tear* he’s all grown up- he went to UCLA and majored in biophysics and minored in LGBTQ studies (graduated 2017). he lived on campus (kept the bat next to his bed lmao) and videochatted with Liam almost everyday - he would visit almost every weekend even tho it’s a 6 and half drive but hey. he got an apartment near the uni where he and Corey lived after he graduated. they’ve been engaged since 2018 (it was actually the day after the Steiner-Whittemore wedding). he’s helping work on a new drug delivery system and they moved closer to Beacon Hills (Sacramento)

Corey Bryant - age 24

he also went UCLA, studying comparative literature and LGBTQ studies, and lived on campus (for 3 years before moving in with Mason in 2017) before graduating in 2018. they’re engaged and moved to Sacramento. he’s writing a novel that will thankfully have nothing to do with their confusing ass lives

Cora Hale - age 28

lesbian queen *bows* still part of her pack in Ecuador, South America - she’s got a lady lover who I call Rosa (affectionately nicknamed Rosalita). they met when she first got there age 12 (Rosa being 13 at the time). Rosa taught her Spanish  and made her feel like part of the pack - after all the Alpha pack stuff, when she went back with Derek and Peter, she didn’t realise how much she’d missed them- how much she’d missed her. Derek asks if that’s her girlfriend and she’s like ‘wha- o.o’ and Rosa just goes ‘yup - nice to finally meet you guys’. she still visits DC to see Derek and Beacon Hills to see Erica and Isaac. even tho she lives in a different continent, Peter still looks out for her, sending anonymous donations in Talia’s name to the areas surrounding her pack’s territory

Brett Talbot - 24

*singsongs* ~he did not die~ the car swerved out of the way and the pack took him to Deaton who burnt the poison out of him (it was a long and painful process but he’s fine y’all). he’s the new lacrosse coach at Devenford Prep and he and Liam have a (mostly) friendly rivalry :) he’s a single pringle not bcs of lack of dates but just bcs he hasn’t found the one yet

Lorilee Rohr - age 22

also did not die :) she finished high school (2015) and went on to studying at UC Berkeley (art practice and theatre and performance studies, major and minor), graduating in 2018. she and Brett moved once he reached age 18. she makes and sells art from home

Nolan Holloway - age 25

after proving himself, same as Theo, he was eventually accepted into the pack. he and Gabe were dating and that’s that so he did mourn him for a long while. he works with hunters on the dl, trying to stop them hunting the supernaturals - he’s flipped 23 away from the dark side by 2020. he and Liam are friends which took a while but Nolan has his back (like there was that one time someone from the lacrosse team said they weren’t gonna ‘follow some mongrel’ so he reminded them that Liam was co-captain and if they didn’t wanna follow him, they could kindly fuck off :)) he’s a simp and has a raging crush on Brett like me too bruh

~the end~ for now

[liyuesbian]

yeah I honestly liked all of the inazuma 5* quests we've done so far! I think they all added something to those respective characters, save for ayaka's (it did further her characterization but also,,, a literal date. I think it was endearing but it made her feel kinda 2d? idk) I feel like the first two were kinda filler mostly because 2.0 was sorta the calm before the storm,,, (although why were we so passive fjdsfks i feel like the traveler needs to seek out stuff by themselves more lmao) raiden is finally someone who's both girlboss and kind and not reduced to either extreme (or limited to "(hot) wife material"), which is very very good

about the archons: YEAH I love Zhongli very much but I think he owes the adepti (at least) a Full explanation... he did mention that he hinted to both the Qixing and adepti that he's not dead but ganyu's dialogue when we were getting glaze lilies for the rite of parting AAAA I was so miffed Zhongli couldn't have taken her aside to tell her right there. Xiao too, literally they would be so worried for him and they deserve to hear it from him personally dammit >:|

I think the reasoning for the "test" was like. the traveler has a voiceline that basically says: if people knew Morax walked through Liyue every day, they would just go to him for advice, hang onto his every word and try to analyze and reanalyze it all the time, like with Ningguang's paper snow. I feel like that would be the scenario if Morax stepped down peacefully, since everyone would know he still exists; he doesn't get a good retirement and Liyue still relies on gods too much. trying to drown the city was a bit overkill (childe... o-o) but I will hesitantly trust Zhongli when he says he could and would save Liyue if it truly needed him.

also true true! the people still really believe in the archons, even with barbatos who's been absent for so long (venti...), and even after their gnoses are gone and all. it's cool how they have vastly different governance styles but their whole nation More or Less respects them

baal/ei hate is so uncalled for though wtf. At least Raiden's still doing her job unlike her slacking coworkers Zhongli and Venti. and regardless of whether she's done right or wrong, people can like fictional characters who've done bad things.... why must you inject morality into your personal faves :| (genshin fandom highkey sucks oml)

yeah!! the resistance barely got a mention except for Gorou in the end scene, and it's like ??? the war is over? or? it just went by too fast and it felt like in the end the resistance were mere pawns, since the real stuff was resolved by us and Yae (paimon's line that's like "they aren't a match for the raiden shogun" at the battle cutscene is the epitome of the resistance in 2.3)

nobody has explained to me how the resistance got into Tenshukaku/Inazuma City in the first place either 😩 it is nice to see you, Kazuha and Gorou, but what are you doing here?

-welcometoteyvat (eh you can call me by mystic or my url lol, I don't really care, and I think I returned your rant with a longer rant too hsdfsa)

AJWADAH hi mystic! i love how this turned into a "thoughts about 2.1!" discussion into a whole genshin discussion #''1?2!! AND I'M ALL FOR THIS BACK AND FORTH THING

(here we go again, 2.1 spoilers below the cut)

yes!! this date thing with the female characters needs to stop... and actually, i would've loved to know more about baal's friends in the actual story quest (like with venti) instead of having to explore inazuma to find out more (but i will admit that i do lowkey like how the lore is hidden inside teyvat's nooks and crannies but in the case of la signora... not really. we should've learned more abt her first before her death instead of us having to look at an artifact set's description. i'll forgive mhy for this though - maybe we'll get to know her more when snezhnaya releases) and i share your sentiments about raiden/ei! what a girlboss!

MHM i wasn't gonna get into the whole thing with the adepti and venti's extreme laziness but hey, it's here now lmao and right?! but hinting is not good enough for me >:( AHHAHA he owes xiao and ganyu so much they're basically avid followers of his and they have history togther but he doesn't even tell them the truth?! >:(

yepp i remember that but even then, he could've just said "yo i'm stepping down. you won't know who i am bc i'll be anonymous or whatever"... and it seems like zhongli had already integrated himself well in liyue. nobody questioned his sudden appearance or mentions when he came to be wangsheng's consultant (maybe there is but i can't rmbr anything off the top of my head)

RIGHT?! goddamn raiden is trying her best out here!! i'm not excusing her actions or ei's ignorance towards the inazuman modern society pre-raiden quest but she's still trying to run her country and the corruption of a certain influential department didn't rly help either. (and yep the genshin fandom does suck D: we don't have to "moralise" every aspect of fiction!!)

exactlyyyy and again, traveller saves the day !!!! i get that they have main character armour or wtv but still, aren't they a bit too invincible? they defeated an actual ARCHON on the second try && i can't believe it only took two people to stop an entire war which had people suffering, trying to escape inazuma and the tenryou commission and some even went MAD and had personality changes when they lost their visions but now it's all fine and dandy?

OH MY GOD that's true! i didn't think about that.. how did the resistance get into tenshukaku so quickly when they were, what, two islands away?

sigh 2.1 was messy

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 32 S4: Most Disturbing Kid’s Show Award Goes to This Episode

I often talk about how wonderfully effed up Yugioh is. What a freakin delight, how effed up this kid’s show is, somehow still remaining a Y7 kid’s show, despite everything it tries to do to get pulled off the air.

Y’all this was a filler season and it didn’t even have Bakura in it so...why did it go so edge? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for how many levels of “OK THERE, KID’S SHOW” it was.

But what the hell was that, Yugioh?

Anyway we start off completely normal in this foggy ass graveyard--Halloweens in this season so I’m down for this. Halloween is also...cancelled...this year, so at least I can celebrate it somewhat in a Yugioh episode. Then again, can you imagine how many people would be dressed up as sexy Covid?

So I don’t really talk about the card game mechanics on here, and (full disclosure to any new people) I don’t know how to play this game. But, considering that this card doesn’t usually send you to distant graveyard memories IRL, lets get into it.

We’ve clarified before that Card Graveyard is a place--like an actual place--but that it isn’t the same place that the cards vibe in within the Puzzle necklace. It’s a separate place, but ALSO not the same place as the Shadow Realm, either. Card Graveyard is just...some other third place we never talk about.

TBQH I think the people who make this show have kinda forgotten how many random pocket dimensions we’ve made that are basically the equivalent of hell (including California, PS), and are just like “no one will write a blog about it and list them all in one place, we’ll be fine.”

We’ve only seen Tristan bum out here once in like S1 and he spent most of his time running away from the Grim Reaper. But, if you remember correctly, the Grim Reaper is currently hanging out and living his best life haunting some park in Japan, so now instead of the Grim Reaper it has...this?

So is this a memory stored within the card graveyard, or did Dartz literally take Raphael to the card graveyard and tell him this was a real ass graveyard?

We’ll never know! It gets very vague from here on out!

(read more under the cut)

First off, I’d like to welcome our new guest star--the Rain--there’s a lot of rain in this episode, and we animate it by just making all of our characters glow. This comes through fine in animation, but in caps I just want you to know that no one has gone super Saiyan, they’re just...wet.

PS get a gander at Raphael’s baby boy mutton chop mustache. They somehow got longer with time? And also, when soaked his hair is just as spiky. Everyone on this show has unparalleled hair gel. The real heart of the cards.

Anyway, Dartz shows Raphael a bunch of gravestones and is like “Get it???”

and me, the audience, was like “no???”

The headstones, by the by, aren’t...normal, either, they have Orichalcos symbols on them instead of words. So like...it sort of infers that his family was taken by Orichalcos, too. I mentioned before that it sorta feels like Dartz caused the whole shipwreck to munch up a bunch of yummy souls, and maybe he did in the Japanese version--cuz like...

...why else do all these headstones have Orichalcos symbols on this graveyard that you can only access through a card god like Dartz or Yami?

Just throwing that deep lore out there, and the fact that Raphael can’t really see it or understand is either because that didn’t happen or...Dartz totally killed his family, right? And that makes this relationship between the two of them extremely effed up?

This is a great show for kids with separation anxiety.

Which is...somewhat convincing of a motive for Raphael. He gives Raphael a way to move on from his trauma in the past, and it’s not a GREAT way to move on--but it’s falls in line with things Dartz has done with his other card generals by offering false redemption.

Like Mai needed to move on from her insane jealousy, so Orichalcos was her way to prove she was better than Joey Wheeler (which, honestly, no one needed proof of). Alister needed to move on from his dead brother, so Orichalcos was his way to get revenge. Valon also had a backstory but a bunch of it got deleted in the English version apparently so...

And Rex and Weevil needed...cards? I guess? I think they just needed a ride, mostly. And Orichalcos can give you a ride. It’s not like we had Uber in 2003 and clearly they were not fit for Caltrain.

And like Gurimo.............existed...?

Anyways, they’re looking for justice that they can see. Justice for their pain. To make that pain worth something for more than just suffering. A system where this type of thing can’t happen anymore. But the thing about justice is that...eh...it’s probably not done through cards that kill people.

OH OK, KID’S SHOW.

Mmmmm take in that burying up your grave imagery. Again, this show is rated Y7 for 7 year olds, and I think that’s amazing.

Anyway, this is symbolism that is so heavy handed that it really needs no explanation, so he’s just gonna dig dig dig for...days I guess? Relive his trauma over and over again? Dig up that past like you’re a popular artist on twitter and you gotta make all of your followers relive that time you got called out because you offended a hell ton of people?

(Which is so many people on art twitter right now, ps, you don’t even know which one I’m talking about because It’s SO MANY of them. Art twitter during Quarantine is like watching the fall of Rome but it’s freakin Art Twitter. Everyone’s the freakin worst and just poopin all over themselves as they roll all the way down the steps.)

But I want to know. Who’s grave this is? It has a slightly different meaning if it were his family’s or his own. I guess I’ll have to save it for the fanfiction.

And so to add another level of spook, Raphael’s card mom shows up and kinda just stands there with a sad face?

Raphael’s reaction to seeing his card just alive and hanging out was “I’ll get to you in a sec, I gotta do some unforgivable evil, first.“

WHERE DID THEY GO?

These two shots are like nearly back to back. They’re just GONE. No explanation.

And yes I’m gonna talk about the outfit because it makes no freakin sense, even for a Yugioh card. Granted, this was a show made in Japan, for kids, with a budget that had a limit. A lot of people get involved with these productions, many aren’t artists or historians versed in American History, just basic ass business people. That be TV.

But her outfit looks waaay too modern. Like she’s gonna go to a musical festival, drop acid and climb on top of a statue and take a bunch of instagram selfies and regret all of them 4 years later. If these are Atlantean cards, this is not an Atlantis outfit to match with Dartz, who has been dressed vaguely medieval. So whyyyyy would this girl be dressed more like a vague old western costume bought at a discount so she could vogue in front of installation art at Burning Man in 2008?

Anyway, I won’t even get into the bird that is slowly devouring her face as a stand in for a headdress or wtv. Just a lot of stuff happening here and I just wanna say, Yugioh did it so you won’t need to. Just delete that desire. Yugioh already did it so you are now free from wanting to draw...anything like this problematic situation on your own OCs.

And then Yugioh predicts exactly how I’d feel about this outfit.

And she then lights ON FIRE and falls dead into the grave he just buried for her.

And in case you were like “kinda on the nose there, Yugioh, that got DARK” she climbs out of his own grave with a spooky ass face and no more coconuts to share with her bros and he’s like...

Rapheal’s reaction was like...Ya OK I can get used to this, and Yami is just pointing at the scene desperately trying to follow Raphael’s brain waves.

And like, this is YAMI.

Yami just walked through Yugi Hell earlier today. He’s seen some stuff. He’s already undug his own grave this morning in a more poetic card sort of way. But Raphael’s memories of literally digging up his family’s graves with his bare hands because Dartz told him to was...stuff he didn’t want to see today. (especially since it’s super suggested Dartz was the one who...murdered them in the first place, like I know it’s a reach but...it just feels like we were supposed to reach that conclusion)

But whether or not Dartz put the bodies here or gave Raphael a bunch of phoney graves, Raphael is still essentially siding with the guy who ruined the only thing he has left of his family--this paper card mom--and turned it into an undead evil Mom. And it just had...no freakin impact on Raphael at all.

Like what?

He just murdered your card mom. This is fine?

Card shenanigans continue and Raphael eventually realizes what he should have realized like 10 years ago when he was digging up graves and killing card Mom’s. That maybe it’s a bad idea. So Raphael decides to sacrifice his remaining monsters to “free” them from the graveyard and basically commits suicide. There’s no other way to say it, really. He kills himself.

But wait, right when you figure this episode will end like every other Orichalcos fight before it...They decide not to.

Like an angel from heaven, our drunk ass looking music concert reject descends from the clouds, along with all of Raphael's dead family members!

Yeah.

I REALLY didn’t expect them to show up. This was so much content it’s like...an entire season of any other TV show. I say that a lot with Yugioh but these episodes really like to just jam-pack it in there.

And here I thought I’d actually have to take them off the Death Count one day. Here I thought 4 kids would do something to like...prevent this many dead kids, but I was wrong.

Everyone’s HELLA DEAD.

it’s both vindicating to actually say that, despite 4kids, these kids absolutely died, but also disturbing because even Raphael is like “ah, the hallucinations today are really swell, right?”

NO, GHOST CHILD.

DON’T TELL ME THAT.

And I’ve been over before how “heart of the cards” is a catch-all phrase that can mean literally anything in this show, and it’s not the first time that cards have kept someone’s spirit around. No word on his family members if they are thrilled to be trapped in a Pharaoh situation, or whether they only occasionally drop from the heavens, or whether they have actually been the spirit that was within each of these cards the whole time. I don’t know.

And so the card family “cures” one of the most evil people on this show.

He’s fine now. This guy murdered the hell out of Yugi, our main character, but don’t think nor worry about it. This isn’t the show to worry about such things.

This show has Marik.

Bro and I were talking Star Wars the other day, and mostly about the Kylo Ren arc and how a lot of people happened to dislike that particular ending. Mostly about how there is a difference between your character being redeemed and being forgiven. I think this children’s show wants to redeem Raphael, but honestly, much like Kylo Ren--he’s just forgiven. And that’s fine. You don’t need to have your characters redeemed. We can stop at forgiveness.

And also, Yami forgives him immediately because he knows he can’t throw a single damn stone, his house is made out of 2 mm of extremely problematic glass.

Man, RIP Weevil, right?

Weevil who just pretended to rip up a card that could have been Yugi and got tossed off the freakin Caltrain? Raphael got off so freakin lucky and I am boggled he’s still alive. He freakin killed Yugi!

The injustice to Weevil right now, omg. Not like I enjoy Weevil. I super don’t enjoy that character. But DAMN. Yami murdered Weevil for even mentioning Yugi. Just feels like there’s a bit of a hypocritical line here in how the justice is dished out and...that tracks for a Pharaoh so I’ll just let it go.

And also, looking at that sunshine and I’m pretty sure they’ve been up over 48 straight hours. No one’s slept since Yugi died, right? I mean Yami is fine. We know from Bakura that puzzle people don’t need to sleep, or eat, or have blood in their body. But like Seto really needs to get Mokuba to bed.

(Although I am 85% positive that Mokuba is still part Noah Kaiba so it is...also unlikely that kid sleeps anymore, just leaving Mokuba’s future therapist so much to unpack.)

The GALL of this show right now.

Of all the generals--they saved RAPHAEL? Arguably the worst one?

I would take even Alister. I would take even Weevil.

Raphael?

I mean if he ends up as the next Duke Devlin, just driving us around for the final season of this show I guess I’ll accept this but, damn.

Raphael?

Are you sure, Yugioh???????????????????????????????????

Can’t we just let that guy die? He’s basically dead already, Yugioh. This guy does NOT want to be alive anymore. Literally everyone he cares about is super dead and now he doesn’t even have Card mom because she sacrificed herself to save his soul. This GUY.

I can’t believe Mai is dead but we still have Raphael.

The same disappointment when I watch British Bake off, man, they just...sometimes they save people and I’m like...no man...that one can’t bake. Just because they pulled something off last second does not mean they get to the semifinals. Raphael can’t bake.

Anyway, the episode attempts to end on a cliffhanger but like.

Just want to reiterate how common and boring Earthquakes usually are to a Californian. This was the most normal thing in this episode.

Man.

Freakin Raphael.

Anyway, if you just got here and is like “I don’t know who the hell Raphael even is,” Yeah, I know, I didn’t think twice about the dude until like just now, but if it’s because you’ve never seen my recaps before, I’ll direct you to the link to read these in Chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

Anyway, stay safe and have a very happy and safe Halloween alone eating your own carmel dipped apple slices.

[izukuwlw]

it's something so hard to explain with words because i remember i felt so much. when izuku passed ofa to bakugu oh god the way i cried. like, the implications of that? izuku trusting bakugou with something so important as ofa is? izuku literally giving up on his dream for the sake of saving ppl and just, THE FLAME DYING fucj bones man. and then the actual fight starts and holy shit i remember being completely shocked with how amazing and breathtaking everything was. the animation was so smooth and dynamic. so fluid and coherent and. absolutely amazing. i couldn't tear my eyes away from the tv or even blink because i wanted to appreciate every detail. i remember how my heart completely shattered when i realized what a beautiful sight the green and the yellow sparks made together. and just. fucking god the music? the soundtrack? yuki hayashi i hated u so much watching heroes rising. after the movie ended i obviously listened to might u and the fucking lyrics just. shut the fuck up. theres this part i vividly remember when bakugou is like? punched? or something but he falls back and then. then izuku like. appears again, and its. fuck. its such an incredible scene the way he emerges from the smoke, so fast and full of rage and determination because he wants to win. and i remember the fucking SOB i let out when he appeared again it was so embarrassing but i was so!!!!! so fucking overwhelmed!!!! i get chills whenever i remember that scene i kinda wanna watch it again but i know im not gonna be able to not cry. i could talk for hours about that scene. i remember how in awe i felt. how i was once again reminded that izuku is so goddamn powerful. and UGHDJJAKDLCOFLALAKDFSPSPCPVPSOQKNFKRLXPVOVOOCKSKQLKCOKSKAKCKCKDKKAKDDIKE Bye i love him so much what yhe fuck that fucking scene is gonna live in my mind for the rest of my existence. i dont even wanna talk abt bkdk and all that shit cuz. No<3 but yeah heroes rising fucking amazing its a shame that its semi-canon but. eh wtv.

[neonstatic]

haven't spoken much with one friend of mine nowadays. it feels to me that we don't have a lot in common after all. ofc it doesn't help that we don't work together so it's giving object permanence. and he's the kind of person who gets into a relationship and kind of just...disappears in it? a little? which isn't entirely bad but idk how to kindly say that i also want to hang w him alone and not him and his girl.... without giving the impression that i'm dtf. but then i'm not sure what we'd talk abt bc i've stopped trusting him with my personal life ever since his piss poor responses in times when i needed emotional support and i have a hard time giving trust back once it's been broken habfkjab and i Don't Do Small Talk so it's created these situations where when we do end up alone for a moment there's just silence gajgbb and ever since i've started unmasking i don't force myself to fill in with useless chatter.

i'm thinking maybe he's getting the feeling too that he doesn't rly need me as a friend anymore? like we've fulfilled our jobs in each other's life. some ppl they just feel like that. they're made to pass thru. like i guess from him i learned that i do like men after all, but that i would never get intimate w a straight man of all ppl (which, btw, one of the best choices i've ever made for myself. will def never regret that one.) for him i i hope i did...smth. idk. i hope i was a comforting presence when he felt alone. i think i managed.

tbh i'm also worried that our friendship is forever tainted by this will-they-won't-they dance we've had going on, in which Nothing ended up happening. mostly bc of me. i know relationships can survive this but maybe ours can't? cus the last time he mentioned a three-way w his girl, he admitted that i was an option and like... well frankly i'm not into his gf so nvm that lmao but the thought that i'm always in the back of his mind a little? like yes he has a girl who loves him and they share interests and they seem to rly get each other... but at the end of the day he still wants a taste of that ass. sooo toxic of me to take this as a win. but yeah like i'm pretty sure we will never get intimate, at least never romantically, but then it also feels like it'll forever stretch on this ension between us. the what-ifs? completely pointless rly. it wouldn't have lasted and it wouldn't have been worth it. hope he realises that too.

hope it isn't too obvious to his gf either? that we have this tension going on. i mean it might just be me overthinking but i've learned that the gut feelings that last a while like this one are rarely baseless. but also i am not that reliable a narrator. like what if the gf noticed the tension and it's an unspoken rule that we can't hang out together alone? that would suck. i called him "darling" once (not the first time) and suddenly he said i can't call him that anymore. and not in a "i don't like it" way but in a "that isn't allowed" way which???? well if you don't like it, just say so, be direct. i can't fkg tell kjagkabgaj but i mean i won't do it anymore.

chances are he isn't thinking abt it as hard as i am. good for him cus goddamn

only reason why i'm thinking so hard abt it is. well. i kinda hoped we'd be friends for a lil longer? but that's ok. oh and i still rly like his sibling and believe we'll be friends for a while, and closer too maybe, so i feel like it's kinda awkward to be close and all to his sibling but not him? after everything? eh. wtv. it is what it is and all that

[savemefrommyselfxv]

Jumping guns // marathon races // timing, waiting in time, lest disqualified.

Know not to meddle with heart sprinkles lest you are reaaaady

But then again

When are we ever truly ready for anything that life decides to put forth for us, or take away? :’)

just like opportunities of humanitarian trips or jobs or just like how death may just come to surprise

Kan?

Maka itu, senantiasa lah mempersiapkan diriiii. And may we trust fully that God only introduces something for us to menempuh when God knows we have it within us to pass the test. The end goal is the same: mardhatillah, and muqaribun insyaAllah. Other end goals may include: taqwa or sabr but yeah, hahah I’m certainnnn u get the drift.

Seeeee I think it’s funny you apologising for if ever I’d fallen, distracted etc. Walakin if I do fall then the sin and blame is defz on me :( meeee im the weak one.

Yet upon that same note, wow hahahah rabz ok //wasilah not distractor wasilah not distractor//(repeat times a gajilionzz time) hahah // wah I badlybadlybadly feeel like my presence is…. A distractor. Eeeks. Ok pls stop me if I ever become a bad dosage or wtv ok. Rabak la. Hhahah tru friends pull each other to goodness and not into weakness so yeah hahah rectify as u deem fit okiz. And I badly apologise :(

Truth? “we may like a thing while it is bad for us” and that’s scary la hahahah and I know you’ve always preached bout skipping talks on “negative what ifs” andddd how there’s goodness wheresoever we seek and its always bout perspective

….

so. Yeah. Maybe in traversing forward with this friendship, it’s seeking and maintaining balance ah. Of varied aspects. While maintaining respect/rights/adab and yaaaaa idk aha i feel its actlly vv easy to langgar all these. (esp weak me la hahagah ah gunshots to me forehead) (see ilmu without amal is mintak nahas)

For example, hahahagah, and masuk your side swerve sikit ok

I apologise hahahah but yeah you can’t follow my priv ig cuzzzz ya ah, hahahah ada some few photos that aren’t halal for your eyes to fall gaze on bcuz you aren’t my mahram (and if I just so decide to drop a word here, just oneeee word, and terus it might lead into a cheeky banter hahah astaghfirullah ah. But ya all I had to do was to add a “…. yet.” hahah gettit, tak halal for you…. yet. Terus boleh bukak for pintu fitnah ke hati. Hahaha it’s the same with the “hahah maybe someday you’ll find out.” of habits and whatsoevz hahahah. Or hahaha all you gotta say is “yo so let’s… Share” with regards to your recent sharing of two in unison who share much and all into one - plates they eat from etc, hahah so yeah

Rabz ah me hahahah so for my bad habit of such occasional cheeky that is salah of me hahah aku mintak maaf ok mirrorredz :( im not la. im faaaar from good or precious or whatevz and still much self rectifying to do, if you’d only kneewww

The setan says: skip the formalities

The malaikat says: up and out and go back to self rectify

Hahahah, rabz.

Ok actlly so many things I could write about like on and on and on

Hahah like hm about how diff I ended terawih this year vs last year or about solat raya and the idea of eid traditions hahahah and I’m surprised your mama knows about hidayah eh hahah. Do yall share with your mumsies everyth/when does a boy start telling his madre stufff hahahah and ahah hm the other day my mumsie started sharing all about love hahahah and about her old dating/befriending days and gave me advicesss hahah and she said along the lines how it’s crucial to find one who can lead me to even better anddd also one who wouldn’t clamp me down on my overseas ventures of such humanitarian trips ah hahahah best if the future zauj would join onboard on all of such projects and comm service and overseas ventures ah like camps and waterbashing and explore masjids worldwide and such service trips jugak.

I think another thought that crossed me is the whole social media and “sharing happiness” hype and idk hahah healthy unhealthy? Might write more when I do have the timeeeee about yeah this and how so many diff ppl celebrate eid diff and yeah

And yaaaa hahahah i guess i havent shared about the aceh ventures and thoughts etc too

Wah but yeah hahah rabz bcuz I realise how …. Hahah radio silences from you maaay hurt hahahah quite bad eh. Cuz idk ahah yeah I probs should learn from you how you’re ok with “knowing ppl from silence/prayers are timeless/temu tak jemu jauh tak jauh hahahah or wtv that phrase is ah.

Oki hahah I rlly hope I find time to write wtv more but no promises. thank u for being a letter buddy and wtv else that you are. Aha labelled unlabelled.

Keep each other much in writes and do'a and may thissss friendship teach much and beneficial of two lifetimes.

PS: i realise our good covos tend to be more of thoughts theories exchange

19:03 25/06/17

Pps: and upon the theory of wasilah not distractor, alhamdulillah for this ever refreshed exchange friendship. It only occurred to me recently how "open silvers” kinda describes what a mirror is - a silvered reflection that openly shows reflection thing hahahah kk i cant think alrz

Ppss: so bila nak explain itu dessert beaches island hahah and what bout the other two tunes HAHAH trying my luck eh

Hahai aiy oki maaf zahir and batin. I think i may have wronged u wronged self much but, may the goodness prevail :“

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep 9: Denial on so Many Fronts

I’ve managed to have a pretty open timeslot this holiday, where I decided I was going to do lots of catch up work. (I have instead filled up my Background Music Playlist with lots of youtube piano covers of Castlevania.)

So of course I find myself back at this blog to fill the leftover time, it being so many weeks (months, actually) since I was able to do a double update weekend (spoiler, I did not finish a second update  :) ).

This episode, Yugioh decided to legitimately enter romance territory and y’all it is something. And I don’t mean it in a “Ain’t that something!” sort of way, I mean it in the “That is...something.” Kind of way. And for the first time in forever, I actually have to talk about romance today. For once that is actually something this episode is about. For about 5 entire minutes. It’s staggering.

So lets get into it because the stance the show decides to take against the only valid romantic relationship it’s had outside of Pegasus sure is something.

Duke has managed to get inside Pegasus’ facility/Place Duke works at every single day. Incredible that he finally made it inside of his actual workplace. Whether he just found an open door or Metal Geared up a trash chute is undeclared, since that was all off screen between episodes, but maybe he has to do this like...all the time? Like heaven forbid Duke ever leave his phone at the office because this place seems iron clad and apparently there is absolutely no one he can call to let him in.

Like for reals isn’t Duke upper level management or something? Like a team director for an entire model of card game? Wtv, I guess he got demoted at some point and now he’s at the same level as a Google temp.

Duke used to air on international TV, just throwing that out there. He used to be a very big deal. Course, for all we know, maybe he also got locked out of his game store all the freakin time?

Anyway, he finds some random room he’s decided is the security room and uh...

Starts just mashing buttons.

I assume that he was just mashing the entire time it took for this duel to last, PS, because we all know that password, but does Duke? Is Duke, in fact, the only character left on this show that doesn’t know Pegasus’ password because he wasn’t there in most of S1?

(read more under the cut)

As Joey is playing Mai, he’s noticed that she is freaking out, but only intermittently. She’s going in between personalities like Yugi and Pharaoh.

In the show it makes it seem like she’s “Snapping out of it” as far as the Orichalcos’ effects go. But like...becoming a stumbling crying mess in between card draws is sort of like...not making Joey look like a good guy.

In fact, this episode goes out of their way to try and paint him a hero but they didn’t accomplish that. They start to. It starts to look like that. As Mai is breaking down, she loses her weird Oricalchos ability to no longer feel fear, and Joey takes the opportunity to try and get her to away from the dark side.

Thing is, the duel has already started so it’s kind of moot now since neither she nor Joey really know how to end the duel without killing the other. So it’s like he’s trying to reach out to her the only way he can since this duel wasn’t his choice anyway, but it is in a way that is killing both of them. Symbolism, I guess. 

You know, it seemed like the show just needed a way to put a timer over Joey’s head and this was the only excuse they could give because the right thing to have done is just not play anything.

And that whole thing last episode where Pharaoh was like “there is ONE way out of this situation” I assumed would be about a tie. I kind of just assumed a tie would take place like between Kaiba and Alister...instead...it got weird.

First off, Valon--out of all people, Valon the drug card pusher of the wacky accent--decided to be more heroic than any of our heroes who are currently just gawking at a force field.

It’s been like 4 seasons since Yugi jumped and hung off the edge of a clocktower, only holding on by the point of his pyramid puzzle, and I keep seeing situations where we could see Yugi impress us yet again and instead he keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground while random ass Valon just shoots into the air like a rubber band.

Why didn’t I just assume that when Pharaoh said “I know how to beat this.” he meant to punch it directly in the face?

I’m pretty sure it’s an allusion to the fact that Oricalchos takes away your sense of fear that these three are constantly being huge idiots and jumping off ledges and out of airplanes but like...

...they are wearing a lot of padding, to be fair.

(I joke about Joey getting possessed as if he hasn’t been already)

And so Valon, this evil as hell villain who’s probably killed countless numbers of people up until now just starts freaking out about Mai. Like, a lot for this show. Like we even get a really awkward death squeeze. And like she ain’t even dead.

Almost like Severus Snape in that awkward Harry Potter Movie flashback, but Valon actually dated her once (I could go off about the Harry Potter movies but I’ll spare you.) It’s just every time Mai passes out there will be some man crying over her that she doesn’t even seem remotely aware of when she’s awake.

Like remember how Mai got engaged and she forgot? At the time I thought that was super weird but I’m starting to realize she probably just took a nap or something and then boom.

So although none of this is Raphael’s business, he’s so annoyed at Valon for possibly pissing off Darts that he decides to deflect his anger onto Pharaoh--who wasn’t even participating in this duel.

I mean Raphael wanted to kill Pharaoh anyway but it still feels like kind of a reach.

Speaking of reach...I miss our really good storyboarder. Check out that foreshortened hand. Man Yugioh, the whiplash from good to eh. It’s so much whiplash.

So, in a burst of green light, the three bikers vanish.

And I guess now they can just use Mai’s bike whenever, because it’s not like she’s gonna use it. But I doubt very much Tristan will remember that.

And so, this is about where this episode’s romance goes a little weird because Joey just...

Am I supposed to want Joey to break up Valon and Mai? Like I know one time Joey attempted to take a fireball for her (but didn’t, that was Pharaoh, who isn’t currently crying about Mai despite taking a fireball for her), and then another time Joey dueled Marik for her (and lost.) But like...then Joey lost touch with her for over a year and legitimately didn’t seem bothered until just now when she showed up.

Valon not only seems at least 2 years older than Joey, he’s also stuck around with her for longer than a week, which is much longer than the amount of time that Joey Wheeler has spent with her (while she was conscious). And listen I don’t ship, you know me, but I feel like the show isn’t doing a good job to convince me that Valon is anything but loyal to Mai. Just throwing that out there.

It just comes off that Joey is jealous and unable to cope with Mai being around another guy, when it’s like...Joey...Mai was gone for over a year. You can’t claim dibs anymore. It’s possessive this episode to a degree I don’t think the writers wanted to go. It feels like an accident that they wrote him like this.

I guess, story wise, Joey needs a reason to duel and be on this show--but why must it always gravitate around a girl who’s actually just fine without him?

Like Mai right now is a mess but she wants to be this mess. Personally I think he should respect her decision and give her space but I guess this show really wants to go the angle of “If your friend goes off the deep end, dive after them” to which I would like to say “or don’t.”

Like I think this is all on a case by case basis, but...Mai’s MURDERED people (and a gas station). Although one of them was Pegasus, who doesn’t count, this is still a situation where you should maybe avoid your friend and just call the cops already. If there has been a murder, especially if there’s been over 20 murders, it’s OK to finally call the cops. Mai is a SERIAL MURDERER, which should never mean “she can come back.”

I mean it’s not like any of these kids decided to start hanging out with Marik, right? And I mean they kinda all decided unanimously that maybe they should hold back chilling with Bakura? This should be old hat for them now. They’ve had to deal with the murderous betraying friend so many times. Why must Mai be so special?

But I guess that is Joey’s whole shpeal, isn’t it? That’s Joey’s magical superpower? He wouldn’t be friends with Yugi if he was bothered by his friend occasionally going Pure Asshole. And Joey did have a darker background himself (which is something the show keeps telling me but I have never actually seen because we haven’t seen it in Season Zero. Which honestly means I should do a Season Zero next because how long am I going to wait to watch that Joey backstory?)

So I guess I should stop being so practical about it, this is a fantasy story, and the fantasy of Joey Wheeler is that he can actually try to keep the people in his life from going topside and it actually works. The most magical person in all of Yugioh if that’s true because you ever try and change a drug addict? There’s a reason why they have therapists for that.

Speaking of topside,

Kaiba just shows up in the middle of a Joey meltdown and youknow what? He’s barely even that surprised that these guys are in San Fransisco crying on the floor of his ex-competitor’s lobby. He’s just so used to this.

And so, we’re all going to ignore Joey and just try not to notice Rex and Weevil and instead talk about cards.

Ps in the show Mokuba says his brother “swept the floor” of Alister when like...Seto nearly died multiple times. Mokuba’s so ready to lie his face off to save his brother’s face when like...no one asked. He just volunteered this information.

That and Mokuba might not actually know how this game is played (NO ONE REALLY KNOWS) and legitimately thinks his brother did really good in that card game. We still don’t know entirely what the title “Battle Commissioner” even meant and knowing this company it was probably a secret job made to hide lots and lots of illicit insider trading. Because we all know Mokuba wasn’t playing cards.

So, Yugi remembers that he has this key card that is a card with a key printed on it, and figures...it probably opens a door or something. That maybe they should do that thing they came to California to do, and since all (counts on fingers) 9 of them (10 if you count Pharaoh) are here, they may as well all do it together.

Meanwhile, every animator in that studio cried a single tear over the amount of bad hair they will have to shove into every frame between 9 of these people. Crowd scenes wow.

And what’s great about this next shot is that you have no idea which way Joey’s head is pointed. I dare you. take it in.

And so they all go up to the top floor with Duke Devlin while these two are just...still here.

Rex and Weevil are still here. Despite everything.

(forgive me if this is a joke I forgot I read off of tumblr once. I’ve been reviewing this show so long I just...I don’t remember what jokes I’ve already made)

(Also, I can’t believe they stuck in Rex and Weevil but didn’t put in Mokuba into this shot.)

So they open the cryptic door with the cryptic Keycard and enter...Pegasus’ room of toon suits.

I imagine he just pulls these out whenever there’s an event in the city, just like “Hell yes hell yes it’s Bay to Breakers time to be a parrot with boobs for some reason.”

(fun fact, despite the weather, SF is home to 3 clothes-optional beaches. You can see two of them from the Bridge.)

And so Pegasus decides to tell everybody what we already know. Rex and Weevil have overheard this, but they’re busy like...looking for trading cards in all these mascot suits. Whatever makes it easier for this team of animators. Like you never really think about it, but kid’s shows have just a hell ton of crowd scenes. Worse than a Marvel comic right here.

PS, if you are designing a comic or a drawn story of any degree--just never allow a party to be more than 4 people at a time, Kill off anyone you have to in order to make this happen, you’ll thank me later. Never EVER a draw a crowd scene. Once you do, then other people will think that you can draw crowd scenes, and you never, ever want anyone to know that.

It was nice of Pegasus to let Arthur Hawkin’s take the fame for Atlantis, I guess. But like...Pegasus just...he really doesn’t seem to care about the fate of humanity unless it inconveniences his card game.

Bro brought up “how much do you think Pharaoh even knows about America other than it’s a place across the sea that Rebecca lives? Like do you think that he has a good grasp on there being 7 continents?” and I’m guessing...not much. Course this is like a weird America with mesas and deserts in Napa so...I don’t know if the animators have a good grasp even.

Anyway, where do you think the key is?

And What do you think the key is?

So in the show Kaiba sees this card and goes “It’s a worthless card” (because I dunno maybe he forgot for the zillionth time that this was how he got turned into a playing card) and then Pharaoh replies “Maybe to you it is.” and like...

...You know the thought crossed Pharaoh’s mind.

To just put a little Seto in there.

Youknow, it took me 4 seasons but I can deffo see why and how Pegasus did it. If I were in Pegasus’ shoes, how long would it take me before the Kaiba kids are paper? Like 10-20 minutes tops? Especially with how completely insane Kaiba acts this episode?

And speaking of endless denial, Joey still hasn’t quite caught up to the plot.

He’s getting there, but he’s mentally still crying on the floor of the lobby.

Just Joey going all ham about a girl he hasn’t thought about in over a year. And then from the other side of the room, Kaiba is still coming to terms with Ep 2.

Like you have to hand it to Duke Devlin that not once in this entire series has he had a denial meltdown. Even Yugi had a denial meltdown (at several points) but Duke? Duke’s just winging it. Dukes just has no idea what’s happening or what he’s doing and is just winging it every second he’s been alive. He’d fit right into San Fransisco.

Like remember Duke hangs out in the bad parts of the Tenderloin for some reason, he deals with PG&E just deleting your power willy nilly and still making you pay for it, Comcast, Bay Area traffic, and, of course, the entire North Bay lighting on fire once a year, so he’s totally fine when it comes to cards.

And so Yugi, just unable to think of any solution to Kaiba being a wall just holds this up

And so with that, Kaiba has joined the party. I guess.

Well, back to eating this large stack of holiday cookies. Hope y’all have a good one--happy holidays! 

It’s been a very weird year, but we’ve had some good news here in the States recently, I’m sure you all heard about it, that Inktober is legally unprofitable so now that means there will be nigh an Inktober ever again, and I am so stoked. I am so excited that the decade of hellish Inktobers is finally over.

That and the other stuff that happened but we won’t get into that ;)

Hopefully I’ll do another post before 2020 but I’m sort of in denial that 2020 is happening so I’m doing my best not to look at the calendar.

And if you just got here, this is where you can read my recaps in Chrono order from S1 Ep1

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 23 S3: Always Put Guns on Your Satellites

Ah, I’m finally back at my home computer after a little hiatus there. In case you are curious, I went to San Fransisco and then spent about 2 weeks trying to find a single parking spot. But, I’m back in my normal place now, where trash trucks aren’t driving around, breaking the speed barrier at 3 AM and where I don’t have to parallel park at a 45 degree incline. I got my fill of good food, chilling out, getting completely rained out by a freak storm in May, and walking about a mile vertically to go three feet horizontally, it’s time to sit back, relax, and talk about an anime that came out 20 years ago.

Y’all...what were even doing 2 weeks ago? It really does feel like three years.

If memory serves, we are currently in the midst of not one, but 3 Apocalypses. Lets just place em down in case you forgot

1.) The Millennium Item Apocalypse, where if one person gets all 7 (or was it 10?) of the items, the world freakin ends. This is briefly on hold because Bakura, our Millennium item enthusiast, hella died about 24 episodes ago and none of these people have brought it up or tried to contact any sort of governing authority even though Yugi and Tea both witnessed the murder about 7 hours ago (which, for Marik’s credit, did take place over international waters, touche). So, for now, Bakura’s spirit is kinda holed up in Pharaoh’s puzzle necklace so he’s just...chillaxing.

2.) The God Card Apocalypse, where if one person gets all 3 God Cards, the world freakin ends. Briefly on hold because everyone got stuck in a VR universe, and Marik felt like staying on the blimp instead because I dunno maybe he wanted to take a nap or something.

3.) The Matrix, where Seto’s Dad is going to launch a bunch of machines to trap the entire human race in this VR zone against their will and become a slave to the machine overlords. Somehow this is a thing that has been happening in the background this entire series but has only been revealed like...last episode.

Bro is reminding me that I forgot to mention that all these duel monsters are becoming slowly more and more real but like...eh.

There’s three concurrent Apocalypses right now. Don’t forget. There’s three of them.

Anyway, Seto Kaiba has decided it’s about time he deal with his Daddy issues/prevent the Matrix.

While Kaiba has decided to confront his Father, the rest of the people on this show have no freakin idea what to even do so they’re just arguing with eachother in Domino square and getting no where.

Also, I nearly forgot, Joey can’t even beat up Noah currently because Noah switched places with Mokuba, because this isn’t Yugioh unless we start switching brains like it’s as easy as turning your T-shirt inside out.

Of course, in this case, Mokuba didn’t exactly *switch* places with Noah--Moki’s brain is just...floating around this world somewhere. I don’t know if he got stuck in a Monkey or if he’s just...dead...but it just makes absolutely no sense to me how your soul can get sucked into a VR game and now lives tron-style in VR while someone else steers your body which isn’t any more connected to the machine itself, so I’ll just assume he’s dead. It’s just easier to say Moki died, it’s happened so many times to this kid at this point.

Basically, Mokuba is here, but in not-spirit. In every way but spirit.

And about those brain pods--does Yugi’s pod take up 2x the RAM because he’s got two people in that bean or has Noah seriously not noticed this like at all? because there's two dudes in one pod and Noah has just acted like that’s a completely normal thing that can happen.

(read more under the cut)

Anyway, the A team has sort of all turned into the B team because only Kaiba’s can really have any active involvement at this part of the arc, so Yugi decides to take a break and enter brain fort. Which, I assume he does just whenever he’s bored. It’s just kind of weird when he decides to do this, without warning, in front of a large group of other people.

Anyway, it’s Yugi, so he somehow turns what is so clearly Kaiba’s problem into this selfish need to carry the torch by himself for no reason.

Like, Yugi is the main character--I get that--he’s gotta be some sort of moral standard because this is a protagonist in a kid’s show, but it is such a stretch for him to still think that there’s any good left in Noah after all the events of this arc. It just comes off that every time Yugi tries to see good in Bakura, or Marik, or the Kaiba family even, he’s maybe doing it out of guilt.

Like Yugi isn’t naive at this point - he set a guy on fire once with Russian Whiskey in a freakin burger diner, and even if you don’t consider Season Zero canon, he also set PaniK on fire and left him to die in the woods (and that nut ABSOLUTELY died), so it just doesn’t make sense to me that he’d helplessly fall victim to a thousand evil assholes who pretended to be his friend. Instead, it’s sort of like Yugi’s trying to overcompensate for the amoral weirdo residing in about 98% of his brain right now.

Overall, TL;DR, Yugi is kind of a weird guy.

Love him, but he’s sort of a walking disaster with some very selfish motivations and I forget. Not about the walking disaster part of course, that part is like clearly very obvious, especially when we find out his grand masterplan.

Also, this happened,

Again, I would be absolutely fine if Tristan just remained like this, talking like the librarian out of Terry Pratchett, taking Serenity to prom just like this.

Anyway, these guys had absolutely nothing to do, so the show invented something on the fly.

If you could copy-paste any card, why not just copy-paste 24 Exodias? Like I get they don’t have God cards here but they have all the other ones, right?

Like I don’t understand the danger here, you can just keep playing cards infinitely because there’s no rules when you’re outside the game. Just keep slapping stuff on your duel disk like it’s that fanmade Yugioh game that they made for real life VR headsets. Youknow the one that was so bad that it became like a viral video, where everyone is a really low poly Yugioh character but they only have like 4 character models, and for some reason one of the four is Yugi but as a girl in a miniskirt? And they’re on the blimp for some reason, and none of them can stand up straight so they kind of duck walk everywhere? That one? The one with Joey saying “It does what it do!”

Like I feel like if even I saw that video show up on my twitter, everyone else has seen that video of just this really bad VR game and I don’t remember what it was called but feel free to google it, it’s a fun 10 minute ride.

Anyway, the mayhem of that viral video is kind of what this entire VR arc is turning into. More and more as we break reality and completely ignore the rules, to the point where now we’re just slapping whatever cards on our duel disk--cards we shouldn’t even freakin have because we identified at the beginning of this season that no one has a deck here.

But anyway, back to the only person who got out of the VR zone, lets see what Noah’s up to. Ah, the real world, where all we ever had to worry about was magic.

This password was so obtuse even Noah, who is literally a computer, forgot it. Wow.

So now that Noah has escaped the computer, he decides to walk down the hall to log onto yet another computer so he could use his hands instead of...however he was using computers in the digital zone.

He could have done this from within the Orb, right? Like this part didn’t really require him stealing Mokuba’s body? We know he’s already connected to Kaiba’s network so he could become ascended and open the Door of Truth, so I’m assuming it would also have the ability to just log onto this computer in his own ship?

Noah does seem to be just winging it through this entire arc, but he could have done this sequence, and THEN stolen Moki, and THEN hightailed it out of there. It would have saved him some problems later. But wtv, lets hack a satellite, that good ol Kaiba pastime.

Also, fun fact, Kaiba went through all that work to get rid of all the weapons and then forgot about his space stash?

Like was there just SO MANY weapons that he overlooked it, or is he just keeping this here, just to have? Just in case, youknow? Like why does Seto Kaiba have access to The Bomb? Why would we leave a horrible nuclear missile in the hands of a teenager who freaks every time he plays cards? This child who is so unstable, that he knows he was married to a paper card in a previous life but doesn’t feel like talking about it? That crazy kid?

Like usually we have a set of two keys for this type of thing and two different people turn the key at the same time, we don’t just leave them in the Seto Kaiba headquarters with the kid who turned all cards into guns. Are all of Seto’s handlers actually just spies from other countries trying to keep Seto from nuking the planet? Is that the real answer to who the hell Roland is? Is he just a nice spy that makes sure Seto plays enough cards to forget that he could blow up the world if he sneezed too much and pressed the wrong key loading up Duel Disk Myspace?

The implications.

Meanwhile, Kaiba is the only one on this show smart enough to just walk into Gozaburo’s office, where I assume this guy has just been hanging out the entire arc.

Yep, that’s right, they’re going to do a card duel with a chess champion because this show has to shoehorn in those cards. Just one more card fight. Just cuz. Just one more completely pointless card fight between these two people, to show...that Seto can beat his Dad? Seto’s beaten his Dad like every opportunity he’s had to beat his Dad I don’t...exactly know why this was necessary. Would’ve been a much bigger emotional beat for Seto to have just walked away, but that would have also been a much different Seto than the Seto we have.

So basically, if Seto loses, Gozaburo threatens to erase Seto’s mind entirely, which we’ve already pointed out has been so wiped at this point that it would be all of 700 KB and it would just be a single corrupted pixel picture of a dragon.

Anyways, Marik finally conquers his greatest enemy.

Oh. OK. This is a thing he can do now. Welcome back to the show, Marik.

Anyway, Marik has decided it’s high time for him to just go flippen spaz and start breaking stuff. For no reason. I don’t think he fully comprehends that he’s underwater and should not blow up the boat.

Or maybe he FULLY comprehends that? Either answer for him would feel correct.

Also, while I don’t cover cards here, Kaiba’s Dad has decided that the only way to beat his son was to pretend he’s Yugi Muto and reenact the pilot.

It was weird. It was sort of like watching someone audition for a role they don’t have.

Lets go back to Noah.

I knew this arc was going kinda long but how did they end up in freakin Guam???

Marik, who has no concept of technology because he grew up in a tomb and is currently possessed by an ancient force of evil, is still able to recognize a good countdown clock when he sees one. Before he bashes it to pieces because of course he can.

Marik almost saved everyone else’s ass, but unfortunately doesn’t understand that the monitor is not actually attached to the workings of the computer. Much like my Mother.

Bro brings up that this a very Metal Gear thing to only use helicopters to travel over the ocean and hot damn we got yet another Metal Gear reference in just before this arc closes. These weird war crime children.

Ps I like that they drew in the shadow of the bangs across Moki’s eyes as if that would somehow make Moki look sinister. lol.

But, much like the Grinch, Noah’s heart grew...well, it grew.

I wouldn’t go as far to say it grew even a full size, but youknow it...kinda made a weird little fart and bloated a little bit.

So like with Tristan turning into a monkey, it does seem a lot like Noah is just turning into Mokuba and that’s why he’s decided to save everyone. Least in my mind that’s what it looks like. Maybe if he really did take Yugi’s body, Noah would have lasted maybe 5 seconds before being doubled over with endless anxiety and guilt. Would’ve solved a lot of their problems.

I’ve been watching a cat while commuting 4 hours a day and this is actual footage of what my charger cable looked like after the cat went Marik on me and decided the cable deserved to die at 3AM after the freakin SF garbage truck went supersonic and woke up the entire neighborhood.

(the cat is fine, btw, we went and hid all the other cords, dumbass cat)

So what does Noah do? He decides...it’s time I fessed up. And he does it in the worst way, during a time when literally everyone else in the VR world is fighting multiple card enemies/their Dad.

Way to be, Noah, way to be. On the other side of town, Yugi was visibly sweating and had this facial of expression of like “Wow, maybe Noah is just a freakin psycopath?” Which, I dunno, kind of seems like the sort of thing we figured out 23 episodes ago, right at the same moment we met Noah.

Anyway, that’s all for this episode. Really seems like the only person who actually DID anything was Noah who just...decided to throw a bunch of missiles directly at himself because he can’t think things through. I guess Marik did some stuff too, but honestly, I have no idea if Marik thoroughly understood that he just guaranteed that he was absolutely going to be destroyed by rockets. That Loki.

Hey if Noah DOES manage to destroy everyone on this boat, he prevents 3 whole apocalypses and that would default him to hero status. He’ll kill off like 3 major villains and maybe even Shadi. And who doesn’t want Shadi to die (who I assume is already dead but wtv) I mean that’s not going to happen, but like...way to try and save the world Noah, you’re doing your best life.

Anyway, if you just got here, here’s a link to read these recaps from the very beginning, fair warning, there’s 2.5 seasons.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 21: Hey, It’s a Party, Lets All Get Kidnapped!

Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve worked on these. I’m back from my cross-country travels, I’ve overcome my food poisoning because of said travels, and I did like 2 Inktobers so I’m officially allowed to quit and then never do Inktober again till the end of the month so now that’s over with, lets get back to Yugioh. Thankfully, Joey is here to recap for us what has been going on so far in the show, via a phone call to his sister where he literally started off the episode saying this line.

It is episode 21, Joey has run out of excuses, and the crew has decided that now is the time to finally find their friend who definitely is being tailed by a murderer with psychic powers.

Because no one wants to ever call the cops on this show.

I can see why Yugi and Grandpa might not, since Pharaoh may have done some criminal nonsense before he reformed at the end of S1 (I mean Season Zero isn’t not NOT canon) and I can see why Joey might not because bro mentioned that he had some sort of dealing with the mini-Yakuza or something in Season Zero (I look forward to that). Tristan already thinks he is a cop so I can see why he doesn’t either. But maybe Tea should call the police. She doesn’t work at the must-be-18-to-work-here-so-it’s-probably-a-stripper-joint-after-10-PM burger place anymore, she’d be fine. Probably.

I mean they did illegally invade a country last season and was complicit in the removal of that country’s leader’s right golden eyeball so like...yeah...

But now that Yugi has the company of three people inside of his head and Kaiba alongside him--who is always communicating with Mokuba on his jacket walkie talkie (like he went out of his way to make a jacket that has solely one function because it clearly doesn’t keep him warm without those arms--and the function is to call up his little brother and complain about the people who are two feet away and can hear him complaining about them), but this means Yugi actually has more people in his 2-person party than the other crew of 4 people. Anyway, he’s certainly not lonely.

But first we gotta throw Tea’s phone around and have some comedy hijinks.

(read more under the cut)

Tea x Cell Phone giving me more energy than Tea x Yugi but that’s actually true of every teenager and their intense relationship with their phone. Accurate. Hell, it’s true of me as an adult.

I also love how they throw this phone in our face just to remind us how neither Yugi has called Tea or how Tea could easily call Kaiba AKA the guy in charge who knows where everyone is, since he’s in their High School phone book, but wtv. We gotta first sort out who’s gonna pick up Serenity from the hospital although her bandages aren’t even off yet.

We’ve already clarified how dangerous this whole tourney is, and the fact that during these finals they might be ground zero for when the world might actually stop functioning entirely, maybe don’t throw your blind sister into the mix? Girl has enough problems right now. Maybe keep her in the hospital preemptively. Y’all are probably going to end up there anyway. She can book you a reservation.

I do appreciate the Tristan stance in this shot.

Anyway, sensing that the crew might actually do something, Bakura decides to show up and make some mad insane nonsense again. Ah, our wild card, Bakura, our Charlie Kelly.

Lol What? His big master plan is to feign an injury? (I’m assuming this is fake? But he’s also sweating a whole lot? Maybe they had a fight club behind the scenes that got edited out?) But you know, if you’re gonna try to sell a broken arm then wouldn’t you want to like...wear an sling?

Wtv, we’ve already learned from last season that literally all these people are the very worst boy scouts and would absolutely die in the woods. Apparently they would also absolutely die if they had to administer actual first aid rather than vague card magic. I was kinda thinking that Marik miiiight be a better scout from all his tomb runs, but from the looks of it he’s too busy being as incompetently evil as possible to learn how to tie a simple bandage.

Nice that Bakura waited until the moment Tristan left to start being shady again. I guess that Bakura also remembers that one time that Tristan hulk-punched him so hard - in the shadow realm where mere mortals should not be able to even move - that God-Mode-Bakura passed out for like 45 minutes.

I’m a little confused at how this at all works with Marik’s plan, since it’s really not that hard to abduct Grandpa, but o well, this was the plan they went with. They ARE teens after all, and teens kind of live by the mantra of “I dunno, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” I guess it’s less complicated than making sure he watches a haunted VCR tape.

So off Grandpa goes with Bakura, meaning Gramps is probably going to be a card or some other sort of lifeless husk in a few episodes or so. It was a good run, Gramps.

Honestly, Bakura should just heavily suggest Gramps just go back to work the counter of his Super Gonna Curse You Weasley’s Wizard Wheezly’s, you know, the shop he actually owns. That shop who’s name is canonically “Turtle Game” (good name for a card shop, really gets it across. Great business decision.) And really, it’s been 2 days since he’s stayed open past 9 AM. Does he not pay rent? He seriously might not, we do not know who’s the owner of that house/shop. For all we know it’s Yugi’s Dad who is........somewhere?......

And speaking of missing people, the two most direction-less folks in the universe decided to make this show even longer when they could have easily skipped like 8 episodes if they had just crossed the street. Instead, they’re going to backtrack back to the Shamu exhibit while somehow not overhearing Bakura screaming in his British(?) accent.

Sometimes I’m impressed by all the well placed irony in this show. Here come the two God-characters of the A-team. One has the infinite reaches of technology, the other has the infinite reaches of dark magic. They can do anything except navigate a map and find their friends who are within I assume a 10-block radius.

Now I know, I know, Namu’s an actual name people actually have. Much like Mary Jane. Or AceBluntz420. But forgive me, I am from California.

Also I just went down a rabbit hole of K-pop and the only song I could find that said “tree” enough times was “tree of Sephiroth” which was a pretty good banger but not what I was going for. Again, I’m stymied by my naive, elementary level K-pop education. One day I will be a master of K-pop but I am yet just a newbie with a couple of Black Pink and BTS on my Spotify.

One day I will know enough about Kpop to know which of the songs are about romance and which are about weed but alas, I just like looking at the pretty lights and the pretty colors and the fun dancing like a newborn babe.

But anyway, couldn’t help but notice - THAT’S the name he actually chose for himself, huh?

I mean I looked it up and Namu is also a Buddhism reference in Japanese and that’s probably what the show makers were going for, but safe to say, Marik is clearly not a Buddhist. He is literally in charge of a Pharaoh cult. Well, used to be. It seems like Marik’s just out to destroy his own God. He’d be the hero in really any other anime with motives like that. Hm.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for Marik wanting to vaguely rule the world I’d probably side with him completely, lets be real. Pharaoh is kind of a huge problem. And while I do like Pharaoh now, it took me kind of a while, and if Marik showed up S1 I’d be like “Yes, finally, please kill the already dead insufferable ghost.”

So, Marik decides to become friends with Joey and Tea.

This sure was a lot of work to become friends with Joey and Tea. Did Marik not realize that if they’re also buds with a guy who is possessed by a ghost, they might have low enough standards that he doesn’t need to jump through any hoops?

Marik could have just walked up and said “hey, remember me? From class?” and these two would have been like “yeaaaah” because it’s been so long since they’ve attended that they would have had no idea that he was never enrolled.

Anyways, Pharaoh’s arrived to scream at the top of his lungs about a bomb threat at a theme park.

Bummer that Mako Tsunami finished his act and I guess went back to his home island on the back of another whale he had parked outside the theme park.

Also it says a lot about what this town goes through that Yugi, shouting about how everyone’s going to die, doesn’t seem to perturb a single member of this audience. They’re just like “shaddup, I’m looking at the large dolphin.”

The total amount of time that Marik could handle being friends with Tea and Joey : maybe about 30 seconds.

Which makes you wonder why he even bothered with this charade, but maybe he just wanted to get rid of Bakura because that guys kind of a mess.

And then just when I thought it would never ever actually happen.

It happened.

I don’t recall any era where non flip-phones had little antennae. I think this was kind of before my time. Good. Finally something on this show that I’m too young for.

Jokes on this mook for thinking he could ever crush a Nokia with his shoe. Actually impossible. I’m sure there’s Nokias that have outlived being run over by a Jeep.

Yo my payphones never had digital minute indicators on it. You can even read the numbers on the numpad? And there’s no gum lodged in the coin slot? This is not how I remember payphones.

Yo second thought, maybe those are 33 seconds and not minutes? Eh, what do I know, I’m a millennial, I don’t really remember how those awful things worked. RIP payphones, you were always spooky and the worst. Like honestly if a ghost Pharaoh would live in anything, it would be a payphone. If you ever had to use a payphone with a phone card, then you’d understand that it’s more an unsolvable puzzle than any puzzle pyramid.

And I guess that Mokuba just felt left out, so he decided to leave his brother and just wander off by himself on a rooftop where there’d be no witnesses?

Mokuba, why are you on the roof? How does everyone in Domino have roof access? And is the internet so bad in this town that you must be on a roof to get any signal?

please admire the leg wraps on this guy’s ankles. They’re like high fantasy legwarmers.

*why ever duel with cards when you can freakin fly*

WOW, KIDS SHOW. That sure is dangling a small child off a helicopter!

And like, Mokuba just hangs there for a while--no joke, he’s just hovering in the background of every shot for kicks and I’m just like...how did this kid’s show get made????? The 00′s was a different time.

This past week I’ve been watching my older brother’s 5 kids and so I’ve been watching their TV shows and youknow The Descendants 2 would have been a very different movie with edgy, rogue helicopters in it. Though I will admit Yugioh could do with a couple more dance sequences. (and Yugioh might legit have better fashion than The Descendants 2, why the hell was Cruella DeVil’s son wearing bright red baggy capri shorts to a cotillion ball? Anyway, I’m putting Descendants on my “possibly recap this later” list.)

I get that the intern who was putting this scene together might not have known about the helicopter incident in the shot right before this when they drew in these people just on the street on their cell but mannnnnnn.

I love the implication that this happens so often to children in Domino that no one freakin cares anymore.

Reminder that Kaiba refuses to believe in magic and has no idea wtf is going on. Like he knows there’s some yummy cards he wants--that’s it. He doesn’t think this is the end of the world, he doesn’t think anyone here is magic. He just thinks Yugi is a super weird kid from Spanish class who's voice keeps cracking and that Marik is some sort of weird mafia boss. He was not expecting this tourney to become kidnapping central and I mean no one could have predicted this next part either.

...

So Marik’s plan, lets just walk through it.

These two loose to Kaiba and Yugi, then these two violently pass out, Pharaoh runs over and shakes up the fat one for a little bit, and then Kaiba and Yugi go to a theme park. These two guys intentionally lost and got beat up for no reason?

And then, he sends the same people who have Already Lost back to Yugi and Kaiba, to use a different deck than the one they used the first time?

Why not use this amazing deck they had the entire time the first time? Why are all of Marik’s plans so roundabout?

I mean I guess they had to lure these two to the roof but not really actually--once you beat Yugi in a game then boom the puzzle is yours so you don’t actually have to...whatever, they’re on a roof and and it’s edgy and it’s scenic and it’s gonna get real Jack Baur on us.

oh man this workaround to “but they never actually go splat because they die before they hit the bottom” which is infinitely worse than actually just falling down.

So seeing no other solution, they decide to endanger the lives of hundreds of people and play this exploding rooftop version of Yugioh.

I mean last season we sure did go through a lot of time trying to get Kaiba off a ledge of a tall building and now he’s just...back on that ledge. Well. OK then. These kids and ledges.

Really was a line in the show that Kaiba listed the only two things these guys have done wrong and it’s like--well they used the wrong deck the first time. That was probably actually a really big thing they did wrong. Also they could have kept Pharaoh in an infinite rock-paper-scissors loop but passed up on the opportunity. TBH these guys make a lot of mistakes but we’ve been over this before, Kaiba can only remember 2 things. Weird that this has become canon, but here we are.

I guess Kaiba suddenly remembered he had a grudge.

He forgot for a few episodes, but the grudge is back. He must have written it on the back of his hand “don’t forget you hate Yugi” and then when he went to  scratch an itch was like “OMG I can’t believe it, I forgot again!”

That bean.

Anyway, next week, on Yugioh:

Does Kaiba’s helicopters get into a helicopter fight with Marik’s helicopters and keep Mokuba dangling there the entire time? Does Joey get to throw a couple mooks over his shoulder like that time he took on 18 ruffians in a warehouse or will these ruffians be too ruffian even for Jo? Will Tea, after her hearts been consumed by darkness, and she becomes a nobody or a heartless or whatever, realize that she’s dating a dark wizard this entire time so it literally doesn’t matter?

Anyways, I mentioned K-pop so here you go, a moment of happy handsome boy Zen in this overwhelming world.

[savemefrommyselfxv]

Hearts, intuitions, gut points.

Gut points, towards a gun point. Ramadan day twooo and terawih night threee is done. :") I have so much hm learning reflections and photos to blog abt actlly But beyond that Idk if your Recent letter triggered me or what ah But 1) kk ya la aku rabz dhoif so :( - I think I spent a good like idk man 20 mins contemplating if I'd drop you a whatsapp AGAIN and just ditch wtv half convo about ntuc finest aha and to ask you to spill your thoughts, any recent thoughts, whatevz on your mind kinda thing. Just to.. Idk hear you out? But then idk if that'd be weak of me to do so. In a sense of... Stealing away your time in such a... Precious month and yeah wal asr. Yet here I am on open silvers. What's the diff la :") "The heart has this strange ability to... gauge distance measured by heart." Idk if such are guts and intuitions or wild guesses and plus we know not the accuracy do we? Assumptions, it becomes, if we do not clarify. We sought honesty. Aha then spill wtv honest you have now ah. Idk but yeah. Ok I'll keeeep writing/posting/journaling just to help me arrange and see clarity in my thoughts thru catharsis and maybe its back to putting cards on the table thing again. Half of me was all sure confident I could probs anytime up and out and pull a solid hiatus from my end thruuuu this ramadhan while idk if I'd pantau AT FIRST AH tapiiii ahahah. Idk ah eh. How should this friendship swerve ramadhan, friend? We aim for maxximize. And rmmbr the deal at the start - this friendship was supposed to be wasilah and never distractor? Re calibrate mm. When the heart feels distance, it misses the voice ah hahah. Maybe its the soul presence thing but meh hahahah cmon fa what r u doingggg Ahah ok la, up to u actlly as to what to do with this 00.43am mess of thoughts hahahah just needed sorting. Just me tryna figure it out. I'll figure. Someway somehow some decree. Where's a good line of a positive hiatus? Let the hearts learn to tie strings only to Allah. Let minds empty any empty chatters of thoughts to replace with dzikrullah or do'a. And empty out any void time and swap it in with positve good things to do instead. I'm making this more complex than necessary, aren't I hahahah haiyyyy ala ok la. :")