#there are so many layers of passive aggressiveness in this ask

[spicybylerpolls]

i'm curious as to why you think it's a good idea to keep posting these polls/asks in the regular byler tag... might be smart for you to not do that. "oh just block our tag" not everyone is gonna know who you are right away and 99% of the time gimmick blogs like this stick to their personal tags and don't use the main ones. i know the byler tag is just sort of a dumping ground for everything (annoying. everyone stop tagging your personal posts as byler) but imo it would be best for everyone if you Stopped doing that

Well, I'm tagging posts as Byler because the polls/asks are... for the Byler community? And they typically directly relate to Byler? I do try to space things out/give breathing room so it doesn't clutter the tag too much, but this is such a wild ask.

"I'm curious as to why you think it's a good idea" is such a passive aggressive thing to say. I didn't know a public tag had rules for what was allowed to be posted? This isn't a subreddit lol.

And wdym "gimmick" blog? You don't have to like this blog, but I don't understand how it's a "gimmick" blog? It almost seems like you see sex as this superfluous and excessive/pointless/unserious category and not a very meaningful, deeply human part of life.

Also, what you're saying isn't even true. Byler confessions, Byler polls, that one account that ran those controversial opinion polls?

They've all posted in the main tag lol. You just don't like convos about sex (which this blog isn't even exclusively about- there have been other anons). And that's fine. But just filter the tag or block the account and move on. You can't police what other Bylers do.

[pianapplez]

Hello there 👋👀,

So I just found your blog and had a lot of fun scrolling through all the pjo show crit😂 I couldn't help but notice that one tag you left on a post where you said you had some beef with Annabeth's portrayal in the books 👀 Would you mind elaborating on that if you're comfortable with it🙈? Because I absolutely share that sentiment, but it's sooo veeeery rare that I see other people express anything like it... I've found that trying to be a part of the fandom can be pretty alienating most of the time, if you're not exactly the biggest most devoted Percabeth shipper...😅 And often any criticism leveled at Annabeth just gets you a smack with the "internalized-misogyny" hammer... it's even worse in the tv show now due to... obvious reasons...

Again just if you're comfortable with answering of course🙈 There is a reason I stayed on anon after all...😅😂

Really glad you asked because i finally get to ramble about this heheheh (going forward, know that i skimmed over The Last Olympian to have a clearer sense of what I meant because that's the book where Rick fumbles her character more than the others)

i'm gonna try to make as much sense as possible but short answer would be, she's underdeveloped. Long answer:

She really got on my nerves in the last two books, with the whole Rachel debacle and then the Battle of New York. I can't really remember a single moment in those books where she and Percy aren't bickering or having heated discussions, which really made me question their friendship status. Of course, it's not like friends can't fight and it obviously builds up the (romantic) tension between them, but it got unbearable at one point.

I understand she's a teenager in an incredibly stressful situation that didn't even get to have a normal upbringing- she grew up way too fast (run away at 7, head counselor at 12) while also not really maturing, which is not a problem for a character, if it is handled properly. Given the fact that I am writing this, Riordan did not.

On the surface, my biggest beef is that Annabeth is not exactly held accountable for her actions (ie. treating Rachel a bit like shit and going off on Percy for a bunch of stuff.) I know Percy is to blame a bit here: as far as we know, in TLO he basically cuts the greek world out of his life as much as he can as a coping mechanism. And while yes, he never apologizes either, he doesn't give her nearly half the hard time she gives him: always either giving him the cold shoulder (there must be at least one example of this in the entire series but i cant be bothered to look it up sorry) or starting an argument only to then storm off (see the "you're a coward, Percy Jackson!" scene, which is not the fairest example since she was confronting Percy about ignoring camp but also was a bit too harsh about it) (especially after finally reading the prophecy and being under the impression that he was absolutely going to die when he turned 16 lmao) or just straight up storming off (see, Annabeth reacting when Rachel shows up for the first time during the battle of new york). While most of these feel, at least to some degree, fairly justified given how the entire situation does an absolute number on her emotions, she comes off a bit brattish and like she's trying to rile Percy up, especially when it comes to Rachel, which in the context of a battle that could mean the destruction of the world.... Well, it reads as a bit childish to me, and i wouldn't exactly have that much of a problem with it if it was dealt with in some way (a two-way apology would be nice).

After that first impression, i realized that Annabeth is barely ever anything else other than a plot device (when relating to Luke) or a love interest (when relating to Percy). This might be because the books are on Percy's POV. Hell, on the third book he's even conflicted when Annabeth is considering joining the Hunters of Artemis, aka, when making a choice for herself would mean he loses her (which is fine and dandy but it feels like Percy is more upset about her choosing her own path rather than being sad about not seeing her as often); we really only get a few glimpses of her, as in, actually her when she's on her own.

Obviously it's impossible to talk about Annabeth without touching on percabeth, which also is, in my opinion, what hinders Annabeth's character the most. On paper they sound great. The guy whose fatal flaw is loyalty falls in love with a girl whose been let down by people over and over, and she decides to never give up on the boy whose always had people give up on him (can't find one of the million posts that talks about this right now but it always goes something like that) And yeah, the bickering is really well written! But that's literally as far as it ever goes: they don't ever seem to have fun together, because 8 times out of 10 the bickering ends up being passive aggressive, and mostly done by Annabeth. My biggest gripe about percabeth is that their friendship seems to be based off... shared trauma. Literally. Other than going on quests together we are given no examples of them hanging out, nor a reason why they would want to spend time together in the first place, not even a shared hobby. Yes, in the fourth book they had a movie "date" planned but of course they didn't even get to it, and surprise surprise, they had a minor discussion, and surprise surprise, Annabeth was passive aggressive again. It's hard to picture them having fun together when even the author doesn't write in any scenes in which they get along smoothly (and before you say anything, a scene in which they get along where neither of them is about to die, and they're not talking about previous adventures. Gets a bit hard then, doesn't it?) It's even harder to picture them as a couple when the moment she gets upset about something, she starts coming off as emotionally manipulative (see, again, literally any conversation with Rachel or about Rachel)

To be fair, the books are relatively short and don't allow many "filler" chapters, if you will; there's always something happening to keep the main plot or a minor plot point moving forward, but it's not like there is no room to develop the characters' relationships, especially when we're talking about the main char and what is essentially his endgame. As an example we have Percy and Clarisse, or Percy and Beckendorf. Their interactions are brief but still hold so much weight.

Worst of all, Annabeth could be one hell of a character; what's most interesting of all is how being a daughter of Athena she is still incredibly emotionally driven, which is displayed very clearly with her fatal flaw being pride: her telling the Sphynx that her questions were too easy was not smart nor strategic: it was completely impulsive. I seriously think she wasn't far from being the best character in the series had she been given more time.

I guess i have as much beef with Annabeth as i have with Rick for doing her dirty. I really could sum this up with: while her emotions are justified, she acts upon them quite poorly. And this is what i mean when i say she's underdeveloped, because it would've been nice to see her come to her senses a bit.

Would love to read anyone's opinions on her character though, feel free to comment, even (or especially) if you don't agree with me!

[mewguca]

I'll put this here too I guess. this primarily concerns Vanilla

Something I feel like I don't see discussed very often in this fandom is how moon being a woman is integral to her character. The way she conducts herself, the way she speaks... it all screams "female social conditioning" and especially "eldest daughter syndrome" to me. Don't be rude, always be nurturing and kind, be patient, be supportive, be selfless, don't express aggression or negative opinions...

...None of us really miss the times when their cities were populated. Imagine having skin parasites that also ask for advice and have opinions...

I'm sorry, that was disrespectful. They were our parents after all.

- Pale Green Exterior Pearl

I've seen some people take her "skin parasites" comment as uncharacteristic and unfounded hatred instead of something extremely telling about how her "parents" have treated and conditioned her. The use of "parents" is very purposeful here, I feel. Her immediate retraction and apology evoke the image of a daughter who had a poor relationship / was mistreated by her parents and is left with conflicting and complicated emotions she can't process. She resents them, but she also feels indebted to them, and perhaps her acknowledgement of them as "parents" may imply affection, as well. Regardless, since she cannot process these emotions (and feels it is wrong of her to hold them to begin with), she represses them. She retracts her comment and apologizes for being disrespectful.

That's probably all she's ever known how to do. All she's ever been allowed to do. Moon seems very conscientious about behaving "politely." Don't get me wrong, Moon clearly values kindness and hope; those are core to her character. She doesn't like being angry, and it doesn't usually benefit her or help anyone.

...It's useless to be angry at an animal following its instincts. Once, a single neuron meant nothing to me...

...I'm still angry at you, but it is good to have someone to talk to after all this time. The scavengers aren't exactly good listeners. They do bring me things though, occasionally...

- Returning to LTTM who has 4 Neurons left

She displays emotional maturity here by acknowledging and communicating her anger whilst not letting it cloud her judgment. Instead of holding things against the slugcat, she continues talking to them, because she understands that staying mad at them won't help anybody.

I don't think being angrier would help her, and her willingness to forgive and let go of it is a strength. But I believe her emotional repression takes that maturity and strength of character and creates something a little more complicated — a woman who struggles to fully process her negative emotions, especially surrounding people and concepts she is meant to respect. Her core values ride the line between virtue and vice (being willing to forgive and caring for others vs being too passive and repressing her own needs), and her actions are layered and nuanced, just like a real person.

This isn't to say she is against expressions of anger or negative emotions wholesale.

...I could read a bit of Five Pebbles in this neuron before formatting it. His condition has severely deteriorated since last I heard of him. The frustration he feels is profound, and that angst has seeped into every part of him, every neuron.I could read a bit of Five Pebbles in this neuron before formatting it. His condition has severely deteriorated since last I heard of him. The frustration he feels is profound, and that angst has seeped into every part of him, every neuron.

We were supposed to help everyone, you know. Everything. That was our purpose: a great gift to the lesser beings of the world. When facing our inability to do so, we all reacted differently. Many with madness...

even back when we were all more or less connected there were those who reacted to their task with anger. I can only imagine they are angrier now, alone in their cans, left only with their insatiable drive.

- bringing one of FP's neurons to LTTM

She empathizes with the frustration that FP feels in a very literal sense; she's processing his emotions from the neuron. She doesn't judge or rebuke him for this; rather, she explains why he might be frustrated, and that he is likely not alone in feeling this way.

So, it's fine when others express that anger. Just not for Moon. Ironically, the fandom sometimes reinforces this. Moon can get mad at you and refuse to speak to you if you treat her in ways she doesn't want to be treated. (setting and enforcing boundaries) I've seen (some) people say she's being mean or unreasonable here. You're not trying to hurt her, and your actions are quite tame. But these actions cause Moon great distress and make her feel disregarded. Holding her neurons likely inhibits their function, jumping around likely overstimulates her, and interrupting her while she's speaking to you is just plain rude.

But some people still seem shocked by this; they're not used to NPCs setting boundaries with them like they're actual people. And Moon is usually very nice to you! So when she enforces these boundaries, some people get frustrated and confused.

...This ties into the parentification of LTTM, a phenomenon that greatly upsets me.

People expect her to be unconditionally and endlessly loving and patient and supportive, and then when she acts like a normal human being, they get mad. Because they expect her to be their mom.

And yes, she is very caring, supportive, and patient! She's also eloquent and enthusiastic, emotionally repressed, hopeful and kind, someone who struggles to assert herself, someone who enjoys sharing knowledge with others, someone who's careful about the way she conducts herself, someone who speaks fondly of sky-sails in flight during big festivals, etc...

She's very caring towards others. Like a Big Sister. She is Big Sister-coded. Her name is Broadcasts is Big Sis / Big Sister Moon. It could not be more obvious, and yet some people force her into the role of "mother" because on an unconscious level, they can only conceive of women as mothers and wives.

Perhaps that is too biting, but I believe it is true. It does not help that her Counterpart (Five Pebbles) is often infantilized in tandem, but that is a conversation for another time. I should also specify that forcing / expecting eldest daughters to take on a motherly role is a phenomenon widespread across various cultures and not something exclusive to the Rain World Fandom. ((it's a widespread societal issue!))

Regardless, this view of Moon as a mother plays into this idea that she must be unfailingly kind, unconditionally patient, and unfathomably supportive. Moon likely even expects these things of herself. The expectations of a Big Sister are not so different, after all.

And she is trying very, very hard. She is exhausted and irritable, she hardly functions, and she has very few resources to help her. Don't get me wrong, I do think she is an exceptionally kind person, but that is because she wants to be. Her kindness is not the default; it is not owed to you or to be expected of everyone you meet. Looks To The Moon remains kind and hopeful because she is fighting every moment of her life for it to be so.

Unfortunately, her efforts often go unacknowledged and her radical empathy (influenced by her unique circumstances) taken for granted.

People often focus on how it feels to be someone's "Little Brother", to live in their shadow...

But what about how Moon feels? What about the struggles of being responsible for another person? Of being an example for them and held to higher standards? Of unfailingly devoting your support to them? How she struggled to assert herself, to go against her sibling... How she may feel guilt over both her inaction and her subsequent action... Maybe she should've acted sooner. Maybe she shouldn't have acted at all. Maybe, if she had just been a better Big Sister, none of this would've happened to begin with.

We don't really know how she feels about all that, though. (She probably doesn't, either, haha) It's all just speculation at the end of the day. And I don't want to make it seem like her "Big Sister" role is an entirely negative or oppressive thing. Again, she is kind! She likes teaching others! She's very understanding and caring, and she has a lot of patience and maturity! I just think it's fun to point out these subtler details.

I think viewing Moon as someone who has been socialized as a woman and as a big sister specifically gives a lot of meaningful insight into her character. And it's not something I see discussed a ton in general.

Other Notes I didn't know where to put:

Eldest Daughter Syndrome I cannot re-iterate this enough

I feel like sometimes people make moon assertive or more aggressive to compensate for her suffering. Like, because she's FP Local Group Senior, she has to be authoritative. I think these people focus too much on the "Big" and not enough on the "Sister" aspect. Moon isn't a girlboss, and that's okay! It's okay for her to struggle with things. (But, being fair, you're not hurting anyone by doing this, so do what makes you happy etc etc. I just think it can potentially come from a place of devaluing "weakness" often associated with traditionally feminine traits, and it's good to examine that.)

Furthering the aggression point, I think some people see that Five Pebbles hurt her and think that there needs to be some sort of retribution. That Moon should hate him, resent him, and want to hurt him back. But I feel like forgiveness makes much more sense for Rain World. Moon isn't being unrealistically kind or too much of a pushover by forgiving Pebbles and not holding resentment towards him; she's at peace. She doesn't want to hurt him or hate him, and doing so wouldn't bring her any catharsis. (And he doesn't want to hurt her, either! i could make an entirely different ramble about why I think the Vanilla siblings could and should reconcile but I'll save that for another time ig) uhhhh this isn't entirely gendered something something Care Ethics

LTTM and FP serve as foils in a lot of ways. I think there is an enlightening conversation to be had about how FP explores / presents traditionally masculine traits or a masculine socialization.

The bennies / ancients / whatever seem to place a lot of importance on Obligations. I think Roles were probably important to them. Being a Big Sister likely had a lot of Obligations that came with it.

I get that LTTM and FP are not like explicitly specifically siblings in Vanilla. I do think it is implied, though. They have a unique physical connection and live in very close proximity to one another. There's no flashing "THESE TWO ARE SIBLINGS!!" sign, but the subtext is there, and I prefer to interpret them as such. alternative readings could instead be "all local group iterators are related" or "none of these people are related". do what you want ig

Was any of this even intentional? I'm probably reading a liiiittle too much into things, but I do think this was intentional. She's "Big Sister Moon" in the broadcasts. She could've just had her normal name, but they decided to make her "Big Sister Moon." Vanilla is subtle and largely up to interpretation, but it is very purposeful, I feel. I don't think they named her BSM just for fun, lol. (But maybe I'm wrong!)

I do not want to undermine FP's struggles and equally fascinating character-writing here. There's a whole host of issues I have with how people see FP, but I feel like many people have spoken about this at-length, and most are aware of the common complaints that tend to arise. With LTTM, I feel like people generally really like her, but they don't appreciate / talk about the finer nuances of her character as much. People like her because she's really nice, but there's more to her than that. ((also because it's fun to talk about that's kinda the main reason I made this))

I do actually have some thoughts about DP canon and the relationship between LTTM and FP and her role as Big Sister within that canon ((like how people misinterpret FP's construction as being for LTTM rather than primarily to serve her Citizens with LTTM being alleviated as a bonus)) but to be honest there's so much to read with DP that I don't really want to try and tackle it. Furthermore, DP canon will on multiple occasions either contradict itself or muddy the concepts it's trying to communicate and this makes it a lot harder to work with when it comes to interpretations and readings aha.

im just a random person on the internet so please don't take my word as gospel. feel free to disagree with me or provide your own insights, etc.

thanks for reading. sorry if this is hard to read on light mode

[tadc-harlequin-au]

Heyyyy I need to know what Swap!Harlequin Pomni's living situation is, and how her Caine fits into it... No reason in particular..

(Totally not for a fic I'm cooking, not at alllll)

;3

Her living situation is the fact that I was thinking: she's living in a large underground hideout (one of those war bunkers) hidden inside a broken down shed that sat abandoned for years until roleswap!Pomni and Abel found it and repurposed it for themselves. Since they're on the run, they can't exactly risk on staying on a big mansion like Harlequin!Caine does in the canon story.

On the surface, it looks like a very dilapidated bunker entrance and opening the surface entrance door would lead to an "unstable" walkway down that had seemingly collapsed in on itself, but if you were able to put in the effort of moving the "debris" out of the way, You'd realize that it's actually just a coverup to make sure the place never gets explored beyond the "collapsed" walkway. How is this coverup possible? One of Pomni's many magic tricks.

Opening the inner door and hopping onto the open elevator with barely any protective railings on it, it's layers upon layers of rooms, and there's a small open space in the middle of it all, with a tall high beam support connecting the layers to ensure that the place doesn't collapse in on itself. Caine likes to use these beams as like an obstacle course of sorts for getting up and down.

This is a rough layout on how I think it'd be, not the final look obvs but it is a start that I can improve on later down the line

There's a number of 'broken-but-still-kicking' Puppets living in this space, all being taken care of and attempted to be fixed back into their prime to give them a shot at living a life that was robbed from them. Not exactly in tip top shape, but hey. At the very least, they have a safe space away from their abusive masters, and the duo never claimed they were good at this kind of thing anyways.

Pomni does have an office, but it's significantly smaller, very homely and she doesn't spend as much time in there unless it's wanting a small enclosed space to simply smoke in, thinking of a gameplan for their current situation or figuring out what to do for the day, and the day after that. Even more surprising is the fact that Caine likes this area the most and stays in there for extended periods of time, whether Pomni is in or not. He's in a calmer state when that happens, so Pomni lets him be.

Speaking of Caine, how does he fit into all this? He just does. He's actually not as energetic as Harlequin!Pomni, being an Assassin Harlequin instead of an active fighter; he's much more toned down and surprisingly well-behaved in the grand scheme, if at all irritated at the entire situation and how he had let his guard down enough to be roped into her mess. Passive-aggressive and speaks in a low tone like he's constantly judging, which he is lmfao.

... But that doesn't mean he doesn't ask for a target Puppet to locate, capture and bring back (if he can't kill them lol) to be inaugurated to Pomni's cause. He's still acting on directives like a normal Puppet would.

He does find out one day that he has a knack for making/fixing mechanical things, after finding Abel's pathetic attempt to reverse engineer an old mechanical wonder. This newfound passion of his could occupy him for hours (or days usually) on end, and frankly? it's nice to have peace and quiet instead of him going off on her ear about how the whole place is a damn OSHA violation completely.

Even goes to the extent that he knows the ins and outs of a Puppet body like an expert surgeon would with the body of their patient, which... Pomni finds quite interesting because as far as she knows, there's only one person in her eyes who could be a natural at something like that.

[ghostwnby]

Crashing Tides

Authors note: So remember about 3 or 4 ish months ago I said I was working on a surfer shop worker!Daniel + moody rich 19 year old!Max age gap romance fic? Well, surprise! After a billion years the first part of it is finally here. I'm not 100% happy with it but I decided to finally just say fuck it and bite the bullet with it. I am hoping to write more in the future about this au but in the meantime if you have any suggestions or ideas about this au please feel free to share them with me :) my asks are always open <3 otherwise, I hope you enjoy!!

Warnings: language

Word count: 2,029 (2k)

----

The warmth of the Australian sun beats down harshly on Daniel’s skin as he tries his best to dodge and weave through the crowded boardwalk, not wanting to run anyone over with his bike. He wipes the layer of sweat that had gathered on his forehead off on the back of his hand, cringing slightly at the sheer amount of it. 

He silently regrets not taking a shower before leaving the house, but at this rate, with the amount of people blocking his way, he was going to be late.

Damn tourists. 

He can hear his boss, Mark, now: "Look, who finally decided to show up! I’m glad you think this company runs on your schedule.” He rolls his eyes at the mental image of the older Australian man passive-aggressively scolding him. You would think a person who owns a beachside surf shop would be more laid-back, but no. Ever since his wife left him last summer, his boss has been nothing but a crotchety old man. And trust me, Daniel has tried many times to invite him out to bars to be his wingman for the night, but every time he offers, he gets immediately shut down and scolded for even offering. 

Sorry, he was just trying to be a good co-worker and get his boss some stress relief in the form of a one-night stand with a beautiful lady. 

Pulling up to the shop, Daniel rushes off his bike, hastily reaching into his bag to grab his bike lock and securing it to the pole near the side of the building. Once secure, he practically bolts into the front entrance of the shop, accidentally slamming the door open a bit too hard for his liking, causing a few customers and his coworker, Lando, to perk their heads up and look in his direction. 

“I know. I know. But technically, I’m early. I still have a minute until I’m supposed to be here.” Daniel says matter-of-factly, shining a bright smile at the younger man as he walks up to the front counter that his co-worker is lounging lazily against. 

“You're cutting it close, mate.” Lando comments as he glances up at the shark-themed clock on the wall. (What? His boss might be an ass, but at least he’s an ass with good taste.) 

10:59 am

Lando shakes his head. “I don’t know if you want to push your luck too much. Mark is in a pissy mood today.” He explains.

Daniel rolls his eyes. “When is he not?”

Lando glances over his shoulder, making sure the door to the manager’s office is shut before whispering, “I don't know, mate; he seems grouchier than normal. Like something’s really ticked him off.” 

Daniel raises an eyebrow at the younger man. He opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, the door of the manager’s office slams open, revealing his boss on the other side.

“Speak of the devil.” Lando whispers as both of the men straighten back up as their boss steps out of his office. 

"Daniel, I'm so glad you finally decided to join us for your shift that you were scheduled for.” Mark greets, scowling at him.

“Good morning to you too, Mark.” Daniel says, not bothering to hide the sarcasm that coats his words. The older man scoffs at him, rolling his eyes in a way Daniel can only describe as Oscar-worthy with how dramatic it was. 

“Whatever. It’s not like I have been waiting for you all morning to get your lazy ass here.” Mark hisses, motioning his hand to the shark clock on the wall. 11:00 am. Daniel has to repress the urge to roll his eyes. He’s been there for less than 2 minutes, and he’s already having to deal with Mark’s bullshit. That has to be a new record. 

"Sorry, I wasn’t here earlier. Emily decided to have a breakdown this morning about having to stay with my parents for the day.” Daniel explains half-heartedly, knowing no matter what explanation or excuse he gives the older man, he’s not going to be pleased either way.

“Well, maybe you should invest in some parenting classes then since you aren’t doing a great job at controlling your kid.” Mark sneers, “You know what? Never mind, I don’t care at this point.” 

Daniel can feel his frustration growing by the second. Honestly can’t he just back off? He’s here, isn’t he? It’s not like he’s one of the only workers there, besides Lando, who does his job. If it wasn’t for the fact that the pay was nice, Daniel would have been out of there the second Mark started acting this way last summer. Plus he’s been working at the surf shop for almost 5 years now and what has he gotten for it? Nothing except for the temporary title of shift lead whenever Mark isn’t there. 

As if he can sense the tension in the air between the two older men, Lando decides to speak up. 

“Oh uh..by the way, Mark, this dude called earlier. I think he said his name was Jos? He said his son would be here around 11:30.” 

Lando and Daniel both watch as Mark inhales deeply as if Lando’s words were the most aggravating thing he has ever heard. 

“That brings me to my next point. A friend of my old man asked me to hire his son for the summer while they are vacationing here.” Mark explains. Daniel and Lando share a confused look. Mark continues, “The reason why? I have no clue. Something about how he wants his son to learn what the real world is like even though his pocket money is more than what we all make in a year combined.” 

Daniel raises an eyebrow at him, “And you just agreed? Just like that? Who’s going to train him?”

Mark smirks devilishly, “Well that’s where you come in Daniel.” 

“What do you mean ‘that’s where I come in’?”

“Well, you are always complaining that you’ve been here the longest and still haven’t gotten any type of raise or promotion. Well here you go, I’m promoting you to training associate. You are in charge of training the kid and also keeping an eye on him and making sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.” 

Daniel can’t help but feel the heat of anger from earlier rise beneath his skin. “So you expect me to not only train this kid I’ve never even met but also babysit the little brat as well? What the hell do you think I am? A damn babysitter?!” He snaps, crossing his arms and scowling at the older man. 

“I’m nineteen. I don’t need a babysitter.”

All three of the men snap their heads back towards the front door, only to see, who Daniel presumes is the kid Mark was mentioning, standing in the entryway. Daniel blinks as he tries to take in the teen’s appearance. He doesn’t look like any nineteen-year-old Daniel has ever seen. Sure, he has semi-smooth skin, with a blemish here and there, and an overall youthful glow about him but for some reason, something’s off about him. Maybe it’s the way his shoulders are a bit broader than his own or how his jaw is a bit too sharp for Daniel’s liking. Either way, he doesn’t like it.

“Max! I didn’t expect you to be here so soon! Is it 11:30 already?” 

Daniel glances at the clock on the wall. 11:09 am.

The teen trudges over to the front counter where the others are standing and crosses his arms. “My dad said I should show up early just in case you guys were busy or something. But, by the looks of it, you aren’t and are instead talking bad about me behind my back.” Max explains, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. 

Daniel looks over at the teen, studying his face more intently now that he is standing next to him instead of a few feet away at the door. His brow is furrowed. His pale skin is tinted with a shade of pink from the harsh Australian sun. There is a collection of freckles that are scattered across his jawline and up to the middle of his cheek, with a single one lying on his upper lip. He notices now that the teen is just a bit taller than him. Not by much but enough to make Daniel even more wary than he was before. 

Mark shakes his head, “Please forgive my employee, Daniel, here Max. He has had a bit of a rough morning so his mood isn’t the best right now.” 

‘The only reason why I have had a rough morning is because of you jackass.’ Daniel thinks to himself as he shoots a glare at his boss. 

Max rolls his eyes, “Whatever.”

Daniel and Lando exchange glances once again, as if to telepathically ask each other if this is what they are really going to have to deal with for the next two and half months. 

The sound of Mark clearing his throat makes the two of them look up towards their boss. 

“Anyway, as I was saying. My employee, Daniel here, will be in charge of training you and just overall making sure you're settling in here nicely.” Mark explains, clearly trying to skip over the part where Daniel called Max a brat that he has to babysit. 

Daniel shifts his eyes over to the teen next to him. Max doesn’t look impressed. He still has his arms crossed and his lips have formed a tight line of annoyance. Honestly, Daniel can’t blame him. If he was in his shoes, aka if he was a rich kid who probably hasn’t worked a day in his life and his parents suddenly made him get a job at a dingy old surf shop while they were on a  summer vacation, he would be pissed too. 

There is a beat of awkward silence that fills the air between the four. 

“I’m guessing this is the part where I introduce myself?” Lando chuckles awkwardly, drawing the other’s attention to himself. Max stares at him silently, as if he is waiting for the other to say something else that will ultimately aggravate him even more. 

“I’m Lando. I started working here about a year and a half ago. I go to the university just up the street. I usually work in the mornings because I have night classes.” He explains. Max doesn’t say anything, instead, he sighs, uninterested. 

Lando scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, “Uh..When I’m not working or in class you can usually find me in my dorm playing video games.” The mention of video games makes the teen’s ears perk up with interest.

“You play video games?” Max asks in a slightly less annoyed voice than before.

“Yeah! I play all sorts of games like GTA, God of War, and F123. I actually stream my gameplay on Twitch with my friends from time to time. You should join sometime. I bet it would be really fun.” 

Daniel doesn’t know if it’s the heat getting to him or what but he swears he sees the faintest hint of a smile on Max’s face when Lando mentions him joining him in a gaming session. 

“I’ll think about it.” 

Seemingly pleased with the exchange, Mark claps his hands together like a coach trying to round up his team for a debriefing after a game. “Alright, now that introductions are out of the way, Max, how would you like to follow Daniel around for today to get a feel of the environment and how things work around here?” 

Daniel can feel the teen’s eyes on him before he even turns his head. His stare is as cold as ice and Daniel worries that if the teen doesn’t look away, he might burn a hole through his head. 

The universe must have been on his side because just as Daniel thought he would never look away, Max shifts his eyes toward Mark. The stare he gives Mark is just as cold. 

“Whatever.” 

“Perfect. Now let’s get started.”

[fumifooms]

Don't really reblog or leave comments all that often, but I've been reading your Delicious in Dungeon deep analysis posts for a few days now and honestly I can't wait for that Kabru (& Mickbell) party rundown. They're a fine set of adventurers, if in dire need of people more capable of handling monsters.

Speaking of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro in particular – I think it does generally tend to be perceived from Mickbell's side, whether positively or negatively (which makes sense to some degree, since Kuro's perspective wasn't presented in full until the World Guide), as if Kuro isn't himself a maladjusted adult who spent an unspecified amount of time starving in a cage, his family situation unclear beyond "permanently out of contact", and is yet as overprotective of Mick as Mick is of him. I do recall a panel where he furrows his brows at the sight of Mick sitting on Inutade's shoulders, but other than that he is less aggressively isolating and self-insistent and more... coddling, I'd say, or overtly abiding. Kabru should have found Mickbell some books on kobold language tbh.

This is not intended as a criticism of the earlier webweaving post so I apologize if it does have shades of passive-aggressiveness – it's an incredibly on-point assessment of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro and his reasoning. Thank goodness Mickbell isn't a master magician, or else he'd make for a rather tasty dungeon lord (and Kuro would probably end up in a cage again, if not worse).

[context: ask sent on april 14th, soon after I posted my Canines web weaving]

Don’t worry, I loved getting your ask and didn’t read in any hostility! I didn’t want to reply before finishing my party masterpost-analysis (🤡 man it’s been too many months) but Kuro fans are begging for scraps and clamoring for Kuro meta and content everywhere I look including my askbox and man. Man yeah I should throw a bone you guys’ way at least in the meantime. The thing though you see is, one does not simply talk about Kuro without trying to cover every ground and every single piece of info we get. I’ll end up repeating myself a lot on this in my longer upcoming post but that’s just how analysis tends to be, so flash Kuro segment focusing on the Mickbell-Kuro dynamic

In a way I talk less about Kuro because compared to Mickbell his situation feels more straightforward to me somehow, the abused is usually the one who gets empathized with and liked more over the abuser so I don’t feel the same need to explore and explain. But… Kuro is not only generally hard to read but has so many layers. Kuro is both a self-effacing follower who’s communicative but polite & behaved and somewhat stoic, making it hard to gauge how much he’s voicing himself or even repressing, and functionally devoid of the ability to speak most of the time. He emotes in doglike ways but mostly because, lacking words universal body langue and cues like growling are the only way he can emote and communicate, not unlike how tone of voice is what’s important when talking to say, a pet dog. Kuro’s extra where he talks with Kabru is truly the Kuro bible, without it we’d have a much kess clear vision of how he lives his situation with Mickbell. And… It’s whiplash inducing and disconcerting when we see then that Kuro has everything rationalized, that Mickbell is still an angel in his mind and this is normal, just a guy who’s a little insecure that he must bend every which way for if needed.

Mickbell & Kuro’s relationship is fascinating because they each have a totally different view of the relationship. Mickbell thinks he holds the reigns, he’s the employer, the master, he’s manipulating Kuro consciously to some degree and withholds things like salary or permission to talk with others from him, and he thinks this is how he gets Kuro to not leave him. Kuro has seen through the matrix and pinpointed Mickbell’s insecurities and has decided he must do everything in his power to never make him anxious or upset and be his emotional support, EXCEPT that hilariously he seems to genuinely think Mickbell is a kid. He’s 22. Like, tallman equivalent of 27. Kuro is 18. Kuro has chosen to stay consciously and keeps choosing to stay because he wants to, because he’s chosen to devote himself to Mickbell’s wellbeing. In Kuro’s eyes, before being employer and employee, Kuro is the guardian and protector of this sensitive kid that he must follow and protect at all costs. What everyone is seeing as wage slavery doesn’t even register to Kuro because he’s never really thinking about the money, he dgaf. Kuro could choose to snap Mickbell in half with his jaw at any second and is more emotionally mature than Mickbell, but otherwise the power imbalance both financially and manipulation wise and using whatever he can to keep Kuro where he wants him is 100% tipping the scale towards Mickbell.

The amount of miscommunication they have for being each other’s most important person + person they spend most time with is insane, but tbh I think part of it is that Mickbell is terrified of what would happen when Kuro becomes fluent in common. Not only because Kuro would have the whole world of opportunities open up to him then (and in Mickbell’s mind, who would pick him over the world?), but because then the relationship would inevitably shift, Mickbell would lose some of that power imbalance, he would have to do more listening and both of them would have to learn to know each other better, and rectify wrong assumptions. It’d remind Mickbell that Kuro is truly his own person with a lot of thoughts and it’d make him feel less safe in being able to keep the relationship secure…

This all is why I’m less into mickuro in general, because unless Kuro puts his foot down one day for both their sakes, the status quo would just… Keep going, on and on. Canon supports this too, since Kuro’s profile in the complete adventurer’s bible in the post-canon blurb mentions very pointedly he’s still being worked for peanuts by Mickbell. Kuro being able to speak fully would make it a bit healthier I think like I talked, but Kuro would still be complacent to Mickbell’s unhealthy obsessive needs and man… Man……. Mickbell feels safe only when taking and Kuro wants nothing more than to give, if that makes sense, and that might be a shaky decent enough way to live for them but it also is far from healthy the way it is. I also don’t think getting that house he wants would fix Mickbell. Could even be a huge breakoff point if Kuro mentions his dreams is travelling around.

So yes I definitely agree with your assessment of Kuro being coddling and overly abiding. Both of them are very protective of each other like you said, the difference being that Kuro is selfless and even self-sacrificing with it meanwhile Mickbell is more selfish and possessive. (Although his overcontrolling nature does to some degree come from a protective place. Which would especially if he sees Kuro as helpless because of his language barrier or the way they met. But moments that go towards this is him being worried for Kuro after the chimera fight, after being stung by an aquatic monster in a monster tidbit, Mickbell often mentioning being worried the union or Kabru will steal Kuro away in a borderline trafficking undertone. Beyond just the care he shows him on the regular like washing and brushing him for hours ofc. Mickbell is not uncaring, his worrying and insecurities just bring his worst instincts out of him. Ehem Mickbell tangent over, my apologies.)

I know Kuro also being possessive is a common reading, but I don’t think I really agree 🤔 The support for this is the way he frowns at Mickbell being on Inutade’s shoulders, but I think that and the other hostile over Mickbell behavior he shows fall more in live with being protective. From Kuro’s perspective, Mickbell (the kid who must be protected who might fall and break his neck at any moment or something) is now on the shoulders of this very tall stranger he just witnessed pull off a sneak attack Laios’ party with ease, not something considered particularly honorable or trustworthy, and now she’s handling Kuro’s most precious thing in the world? Yeah better watch them like a hawk. Also remember, this is on top of his language barrier meaning he hasn’t had the same opportunity as others to converse with them and understand what they’ve been saying and thus form bonds outside of "my party trusts you for now so I’ll follow their lead." He also explicitely distrusts Izutsumi. I’ll also say though, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Kuro doesn’t know what to do with himself when he’s not looking after Mickbell, there’s the secret studies sure, but his whole life is always centered on him otherwise, so I can definitely imagine this being out of a restless feeling as well, though if that qualifies as possessiveness depends on the behavior it causes imo.

Other times where he growls or such is also defensive in nature. If anything, Kuro unlike Mickbell with him seems very alright with Mickbell making friends with the party and forming relationships outside of him. This does go in line with his "Mickbell is just a sensitive young lad I must do my best to protect until he feels safer and better, I want him to be happy and healthy" mentality. Near the end, we even see Kuro encouraging Mickbell to go towards other half-foots and implicitly join the half-foot union, the very same that Mickbell has told him would take Kuro away from Mickbell. So if it’s for Mickbell’s sake, even if Kuro might feel afraid of change or losing him to some degree (I don’t think he feels threatened bc he doesn’t think Mick would leave him), Kuro is even willing to endanger his situation/relationship/status quo with Mickbell.

Kuro is peak guardian angel……… 🥺😭

You’re also right Kuro is very maladjusted, with his past it feels very unsurprising Kuro would end up like this. Having a language barrier alone is extremely isolating: not being able to really communicate with others is his default with or without Mickbell, so it isn’t innately alarming or anormal to him, even when someone actively tries to make it harder for him. This is of course without mentioning the experience of being taken away from your homeland suddenly, and brougth against your will to a country you know nothing of and have no resources or knowledge to live in. Who knows how long he’s been in a cage— and as we see the living conditions were awful, similar to Izutsumi’s when she was part of a freak show. He was visibly starved and food was all the payment he could have wished for and that + following this guy who got him out of his chains were all the motivations he needed. And this makes sense for the overprotectiveness on both ends, Mickbell is all too aware of how particularly vulnerable kobolds are as targets and Kuro’s second interaction was mauling a guy who was trying to hurt Mickbell. Mickbell did "hire" Kuro as a bodyguard first and foremost, after all. Mickbell was scared of Kuro at first, echoing how he reminds Kuro during canon that his snarling is scary and not to do it. Even at first, the professional aspect to their relationship is a very shaky facade, it’s always been more like mutual aid that evolved into life partnership. Kuro was used to being alone, Kuro was used to having nothing and being starved and beaten, Kuro was used to having everyone dismiss him as a beast that’s not worth even trying to talk to, so of course Mickbell seems heavensent.

Man. The fandom has been so scary esp with the anime wave, Mickbell discourse is something I never expected would be so divisive 😭 Sometimes I hear things about Kuro like "he’s too smart to be abused" which is not only as a broad statement untrue but also harmful and vile. Abuse is complicated!!! You are bending over backwards to justify literal Mother Gothel behavior!!! No one is telling you you can’t sob over Mickbell and want mickbell & kuro fluff oh my god let’s just not normalize well known abuse tactics such as isolating them and controlling their finances and social circle.

Ok fun last ending note, it’s also interesting to note their dreams for the future and directly contridactory. When they have some money saved up, Mickbell wants to settle down with a house with Kuro, and Kuro wants to travel the world with Mickbell. Ohh to be a guy who’s been denied ressources all your life and has lived in constant danger who now wants nothing more than to have the ideal of a stable peaceful life, vs being a guy who’s been kidnapped and traded around and denied your freedom for so long who wants to see the world you’ve always been kept away from…. They’re each other’s world but they’re not a place they can live in, not sustainably not while thriving…….

Ahh, mickuro, mickuro, the ouroboros of codependence…

[ae-azile]

3. 8. and 22.

(for ask game)

3. Screenshot or description of the worst take you have seen on Tumblr: 

There have been many bad takes on Tumblr (and on social media in general). But I suppose when it comes to this show, it's any time I see someone express their views on a character in a manner that obviously puts other fans’ analyses down. Like, it isn’t the fact they view a character differently. It's the fact that they feel the need to belittle a different interpretation to make their point. If you need that, is it a great take? 

I won't get into specifics, because the few I have seen this from do actually have interesting takes. It's just the way they feel the need to write them passive aggressively. This seems to mainly happen with Kim meta, but I occasionally see it with Vegas meta too. 

8. Common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about: 

Bahaha, I wrote myself into a corner with the response to question 3! 😂 I guess I am going to go with Korn and Gun. Both are viewed with a lot of hate, and rightfully so. But I also think they are products of their environment and have a lot of layers to them. And overall - at least from what we have witnessed solely in the show - I feel like Gun is more redeemable than Korn, despite Korn being a better father. Can't forgive him for what he did to Namphueng, Pat, Porsche, and Chay. He literally destroyed a family. I think Gun being under the impression they were all dead, losing the mother of his children, and likely being abused himself was what made him abusive. While I have no doubts Korn also carries a lot of trauma that plays into who he became, I also feel like his worst actions can't be viewed with any compassion like Gun's potentially could. Don't get me wrong, perpetuating the abuse cycle is NOT okay or excusable. But unfortunately, it can potentially be a reality that abuse victims who don't have help, resources, or healthy outlets end up re-enacting. There is an explanation for his worst crimes. There is no explanation for Korn's, nor will he ever offer a truthful one.

22. My favorite part of canon everyone else ignores: 

I don't know if everyone ignores it, but I love that Arm is working multiple guard positions? Boy does surveillance, builds and distributes weapons, designs high tech spy gear, and goes on missions with Kinn (which is sort of dumb in hindsight because he is one of the main people holding that compound together). On top of that, he was the first one to tend to Big when he was shot, implying he has some medic or strong first aid knowledge, led the clean up crew after Tawan set off the bomb, and then built bombs of his own for the attack on the compound later on. 

He does all of this, and still manages to be a guard to Tankhun, who is likely the safest yet most emotionally demanding family member. And he seems committed to that position. I am sure Arm could easily be removed from Tankhun's team. He has plenty of other work demands, and he better be the highest paid guard other than Chan. Yet he chooses to stay with Khun along with all of those duties. Hm. Love that for him though. 

[minophus]

Have you any thoughts and headcanons on minos/sisyphus/gabe?

I wrote more than i thought i would

i love ponderinf their dynamic all togehter. gabriel is here to make sure everything is in order and minos is continuing to carry out punishments, sisyphus is visitng not just for possible political advantages and seeing if he can get any resources for his people, but also bc with the many times hes seen minos before theyve gotten quite close despite their differed ways of thinking and rule. Gabe uses this for an opportunjty as well to study sisyphus.

minos and gabe - also get along, but minos has a tendwncy to push gabriel to getmore comfortable..Cease donning thine armor, perhaps a toga instead? it will do better keeping you comfortable rather than that armor. they have discussions about his citizens and as the lust renaissamce began to rear its head minos would gush about how his city is flourishing and his citizens seem so Happy in their expression and it would make gabriel so uncomfortable because 1 the council wouldnt like this 2 hearing about free self expression and free will to do what people want to do with their bodies and with others. It cuts a little too deep into his masculinity. Minos' open expressions of femininity make him uncomfortable too as the two of them get closer and minos opens up bc hes shaking gabriels image of a man thats been forced upon him for milennia. Its very interesting.

minos and sisyphus - again, their relationship(not explicitly romantic, they couldnt uphold that) came about through political affairs. sisyphus trying to get resources to his people which he couldnt quite abundantly so do .. Until the renaissance:). they get along quite well time going on esp with Minos defying god as he does fpr the sake of his people Bejng a thing sisyphus seriously admires.. it helps that he has a city and not a wide open desert. minos is verrry physically affectionate w sisyphus not just out of bodily admiration(who wouldnt be. this guy works the hell out hes got good form) but also to combo w his verbal appreciation and admiration of how hands-on sisyphus is with helping his subjects as much as he can in his fleeting moments of grace. minos also has a Terrific libido and sisyphus is kind of the complete opposite of him. He likes to tease minos every now and then about it(can be taken two ways).

minos for the both of them LOVES offering food and fruits and sweets. gabriel always turns it down until that fated apple. Sisyphus absoluyrly tears up any meal minos has prepared for him. He fucks it up. He tears it the hell up. He asks for more and more until he cannot take it anymore(HA) and he will promptly fall asleep less than an hour afterward. After such hard work and such a good meal you can only imagine how sleepy he gets. minos joins him in the bed for cuddles before sisyphus conks out. If gabriel happens to visit at the same time(and if sisyphus let his guard down enough TO indulge and fall asleep)hed. very deep down. be very jealous. he wants to join in.

gabriel and sisyphus - very tense. Always a tension in the air when theyre in the same room. sisyphus isnt outwardly rude but hes very passive aggressive and kind of verbally rips into him and Reads him like an open book all on account of gabriel being an angel. Used by oppressors to further continue enforcing punishments, and he blindly follows them in the name of faith. another tjing sisyphus would call out.

Gabby @ sisyphus hmm, hes very polite w him upon first meeting. if sisyphus wasnt a lowly sinner he'd almost be intimidated. they wouldnt talk much outside of sisyphus prodding about this and that to have any chance to learn gabriels weaknesses, and gabriel does the same albeit not with tactical purposes in mind. i dont think he anticipated a rebellion. Sisyphus upon seeing a Pattern with how subtly flustered gabriel would use that against him(very silly way to passively take out anger on gabriel. he has hardly any control in his layer despite being king. he has so much passionate hatred for the angels. This is how he feels powerful)

..realistically all 3 would never willingly physically get super close solely on account of gabriel and sisyphus. yes gabsisyphus fall asleep w Minos a few times legs intertwined. but the two of them would never happen. But heres the thing im playing with my touys

[luvly-writer]

"But Oh..Cara Mia"

Ch. 8: Are we making progress?

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Dick Grayson x Latina! Reader

Warnings: None

Status: Ongoing

Author's note: I AM BACK! So my absence has an explanation. First, uni is tough and I bearly had time, but we made it! YAY! Second isss that I know what I wanted to write but didn't know how to put it into words. Which was tough AF. Like I know the next plot point that is coming but didn't know how to like get to it LMAO. In my mind, I connected it like "DUH IT GOES AFTER THIS" but when it came to actually writing it I was like "HELP" BUT IT HAPPENED AND SINCE WE DID IT HERE YOU GO! CH. 8 AND 9. HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY AND REMEMBER FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS LOVED AND ACCEPTED DOVES!

Taglist: @lorosette @nanas-teatime @prettyacademia00 @mxtokko @sarahkaliii @w31rdg1rl @eurydicegrimes @writing-for-the-hell-of-it

Series Materlist:

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If we could use a person to describe the words relentless and determined, Damian Wayne would come to mind. This boy was focused, and all of his family noticed. First, was Tim. He had been down at the cave the entire day and noticed that Damian would only obligate bring Dick to the cave and ask him to spar whenever Yn was in her lab. He would go a little rougher, making sure Dick would have to speak to her in order to get his sore muscles checked out. Then it was Duke. Seeing as most of his suit was getting fixed by Yn to get used to his powers better, he would see how Damian would rip small parts of Dick's suit to obligate him to go and ask Yn to get it fixed. Then it was the girls. They had noticed that Yn began to receive random flowers every once in a while going by the name of a secret admirer. They had seen Damian pay the man that brought them when they were coming back from lunch. This resulted in Dick being truly observant of Yn's reactions to them and trying to indirectly know more of this "secret admirer" of hers. Finally, it was Jason and Bruce. They would see some of their shirts and hoodies missing and later find them in Yn's room or her wearing them with the smell of an unknown perfume. After further investigation, Bruce found Damian had bought a men's perfume and only used it to spray those items. Damian was setting Dick up by using his flirtations and his jealousy against him. His plan was that if he could layer that up enough, Dick would understand that something was different and would realize his sentiments for Yn. And yet...it didn't work.

"He is setting him up for failure my GOD JAJAJA!" Laughed out Stephanie. Yn had gone out to get some food for everyone and Dick had gone away to attend a call. The rest were lounging at the Batcave. They had decided that they would try to investigate Riddler's next move together and the best place for that was the cave. The conversation had shifted from the case to Damian's mission when Jason brought it up. They were dying of laughter at his plan and asked about how it was going. "Terrible. Grayson remains oblivious to the world inside him and Yn is more confused than ever whenever he mixes his flirtations with passive-aggressive accusations and inquiries. It only makes them bicker even more." Damian huffs out as he cleans his knives and swords. He was bitter that it wasn't working out. The rest laughed in amusement. "Damian, this is a war that has been going on for YEARS. Jealousy is a feeling that they have grown so accustomed to when it comes to the other that it's almost second nature. You aren't changing anything." Barbara laughed making the rest snicker, even Bruce was sending amused looks their way. As a result, Damian did something they NEVER thought he would do. "Well then, would any of you care to help me out?" He asked. Damian Wayne asked for help and everyone was stunned. They all exchanged glances and dwelled on the question. Too many years have passed. "Why the fuck not! Im in" said Jason, wanting to see where this went. And so everyone was on board. Alfred and Bruce exchanged worried glances. Yn and Dick were not easy to trifle with. There were never two people more destined to be with one another, that was true, but heavens they were NOT easy to work with. When Yn had come back, she looked around and sensed something was different with them, almost suspicious, yet she didn't pay mind. They are a bunch of weirdos so she shouldn't be surprised at this point.

The following weeks were rather strange, she noticed. Dick was a little bit squirmish and when asked, he would avoid the topic. You had decided to ignore him, thinking he was just in one of his Dick moments. Instead, you had focused on the rest, but even they were weird. Whenever Dick would come near you, any of the girls would throw comments such as, "Oh shit, you guys would make a good couple, guess social media’s right" or "my word, both of you act like a married couple" or even, "you knoooooow, seeing you guys now, if you two ever had kids, they would be good looking as hell with your combined genes" and even go to the point of, "both of you emit such high sexual tension! get a room!" These would leave you both blushing and unable to look each other in the eye. They would be said with teasing smiles and curious looks, observing both of you precisely. Barbara would give you a knowing look whenever they came from her. The boys had taken to flirting with Yn jokingly whenever Dick was around. Jason's compliments normally came with a fondness for his older sister, ranging from how she looked today to saying that ANY man would be lucky (stares at Dick who is side-eyeing him real hard). Tim would compliment her intelligence and state how important she was to the team. Normally, he would say them after one of Dick's quips was a little too harsh. Duke normally was the worst. Not because they were bad, but because they were absurd and Yn LOVED them. They could go from "You know the other day I saw one single leaf and thought it was pretty and it made me think of you" or "your left shoe looks great on you, big sis" and finally to, "you know, that one eyelash is super pretty". She would laugh so hard cause they would catch her so off-guard and it would cause Dick to look at her directly, adoring her smile and laugh, softly smiling at her.

They had thought that if they could showcase how well they'd be together or make all of Yn's attributes even more OBVIOUS, it would do something. BUT! IT! DIDN'T! Even Bruce had gone and said they would make great partners if they pushed their differences aside and Alfred had commented on how she would make a great choice for his date at the next ball, for the public image and to keep everyone in check of course, and still nothing. They were all baffled at how oblivious the two of them were. Finally, it all came down to Damian, fed up and tired, who decided to take a moreeeee direct approach.

"You are staring again." He drily stated to Dick who looked at him panicked. "Am not!" Defended Dick and Damian deadpanned at him. "Yes you are, it's distracting you" he responded and Dick huffed out a response. "I was just looking at her." Damian smirked up at him, knowing he caught him, "I did not state if it was a she or a he" Dick just rolls his eyes and ruffles his hair, and laugh "Shut up" and Damian smiles softly at him. Grayson didn't comment on that making Damian see it as a small victory. He would continue to call him out on the small things, careful to make sure that Dick didn't catch on. He would ask him why he was angry when Yn received flowers (yn had found out they were from him and his excuse was that she should decorate her lab cause it looked ugly. The real reason was that Damian liked that it brought a smile to her face and he had already grown so fond of her. She never made him feel as if he was a bother or any less worthy than the rest, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He did make her promise she wouldn't tell anyone.) or when she wore something of Jason's and he would scoff at Dick every time he would make excuses. Damian truly was a handful during those weeks, but he thought that when he started to do that, there was real progress. With his somewhat hostile attempts and everyone's comments, they had noticed little things that began to happen.

Dick would bring Yn coffee, and sometimes would tell her he appreciated her work. Yn would finally return some of Dick's quips with a more flirtatious tone (normally, the flirtatious tone came from Dick seeing as he is flirty by nature) and initiate physical contact. She would bump her hip to his whenever he passed by her and both would exchange teasing glances and brush his hair out of his face whenever she was helping him with his injuries. They would see how sometimes his hands would stay on her waist whenever she was fixing a particularly deep gash on his forehead and she would allow herself to laugh a little louder at his jokes. The rest would high-five and congratulate each other since they were making progress, VERY SLOW, but progress nonetheless.

It was all chill until one day, Damian was on his way to get Titus to take him for a walk when he heard Dick and Bruce discussing some matters regarding the Teen Titans. "I know, I know we are in the middle of an investigation that needs all hands on deck, but they need me there for some time. Kory has been calling me none stop asking me to pass by and help with some training and missions. It will be quick B. No more than a few weeks." Dick was leaving? Damian thought to himself, but he couldn't! Not after his mission was making progress. Sensing someone was getting closer to the door, Damian carried on walking quickly.

That afternoon, Dick announced that he would be leaving for Jump City and wouldn't be back for three weeks. Damian had a bad feeling about this trip and he voiced it to Barbara. She had reassured him that distance only made the heart grow fonder but he still wasn't convinced. Knowing Grayson's long history of an on-and-off relationship with Starfire, Damian kept being suspicious.

[daybreakrising]

𝘒𝘕𝘖𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘕𝘌𝘙 𝘞𝘌𝘓𝘓 𝘊𝘈𝘕 𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘌𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙 𝘈 𝘓𝘖𝘛 𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘌𝘙.

REPOST DO NOT REBLOG !!

NAME: lauri

PRONOUNS : he / him

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION : discord absolutely over anything else, IMs next. people i write with are always allowed to ask for my discord, and i recommend that you do bc it's easier for me than IMs as the notifs are 1000x more reliable. and i find it easier to share stuff / ramble about our muses/dynamics there

NAME OF MUSE(s) : i... have many. main ones at the moment are wrio, vautrin, baizhu & blade, bc they're the loudest at rattling their cages rn.

BEST EXPERIENCE : honestly? joining this rpc. it's the first one that (so far, please don't change-) i haven't had any issues with regarding shitty behaviour or shittier people.

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS :

- vague-posting. i cannot tell you how fucking irritating i find this. it's a shitty & unnecessary thing to do and i will call you out on it if we're friendly and i see you doing it. being vague about something is just inviting drama, and given that so many of us have anxieties, you have no idea who you're subsequently stressing out with your passive aggression.

- plotting, even loosely, with someone & then taking that plot to another version of the same muse. thankfully i don't see too much of this happening these days but, man, it infuriates me.

- hating on someone's headcanons simply bc they don't align with yours. everyone writes a muse differently - that's the beauty of rp. you are allowed to disagree with a headcanon, sure, but if you think your opinion is the only correct one... get out. take your insecurities elsewhere thank u.

MUSE PREFERENCES: morally grey characters, characters who have several layers to wade through and delve into, characters that provide a good challenge for me to write, dogboys.

PLOTS OR MEMES : both. i love plots but i can & will create plots from memes too - and memes are a great way to get things going, to prompt dynamic development & can also just... be fun.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES : listen. LISTEN. if you've followed me for any length of time you know i love long replies. LIVE FOR THEM. being able to freely write several paragraphs without feeling guilty for dumping essays on my writing partner is delicious. but i'm not opposed to short replies either - they're good for when muse is low, or my energy levels are limited.

BEST TIME TO WRITE : literally the middle of the night. my most productive hours are between 10pm and 4am.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S) : i have enough muses to be able to say: probably. i do tend to pick muses that resonate with me in some way, whether that's something in their personality or their background that i identify with, or some other aspect of the character that is familiar. that doesn't apply to all of them, necessarily, but certainly the majority.

tagged by: @ruinare (thank u!)

tagging: idk who hasn't already been tagged so feel free to yoink this from me & say i tagged you !

[lighthousenewsnetwork]

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - In a move that's both innovative and deeply relatable, climate scientists around the world have swapped their picket signs and lab coats for a more subtle weapon: the passive-aggressive Post-It note. Tired of shouting into the void (and frankly, tired of the picket sign splinters), these exasperated experts have begun leaving pointed messages on the windshields of gas-guzzling SUVs. "We figured, yelling about ice caps melting just isn't cutting it anymore," sighed Dr. Greta Thunberg-Ersatz, a leading climate scientist and noted Post-It connoisseur. "People seem more receptive to gentle reminders about their oversized carbon footprints, especially when they're adorned with a cute little smiley face." These "sticky bombs" of environmental guilt are proving surprisingly effective. Early reports indicate a surge in existential dread amongst SUV owners, with many spotted muttering darkly about public transportation and the virtues of a good walk. Popular note messages include: "This car's carbon footprint is larger than your wardrobe. Consider a capsule collection?" (Targeted at fashionistas with gargantuan SUVs) "Is this bad boy compensating for something? Asking for the polar bears." (For the insecure drivers in oversized trucks) "Maybe consider a bike? Or a horse? Or a pogo stick? Literally anything else." (Universal note for all gas guzzlers) The impact has been undeniable. Social media is awash with photos of bemused SUV owners holding up their Post-It notes, sparking a viral debate about gas mileage and existential dread. #StickyTruth and #SUVShame are trending worldwide, with celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio Instagramming photos of their bicycles with witty captions ("This gets way better gas mileage"). Naturally, not everyone is thrilled. Big Oil executives are reportedly experiencing a collective nervous breakdown, with stock prices plummeting faster than a deflating SUV tire. The auto industry, ever the picture of grace, has responded with a series of laughably transparent campaigns promoting the fuel efficiency of their "luxury tanks." But the scientists, emboldened by their newfound viral fame, are doubling down. "We're thinking of branching out," said Dr. Thunberg-Ersatz, her eyes glinting with mischief. "Maybe Post-It notes on private jets next? Or yachts? The possibilities are endless!" So, the next time you see a climate scientist, don't expect a fiery speech. Instead, be prepared for a fleeting smile and a small, brightly colored square of paper with a message that might sting more than a sunburn from a depleted ozone layer. Call to Action: Feeling the guilt? Join the movement! Get a pack of Post-It notes, unleash your inner passive-aggressive activist, and maybe even consider ditching the gas guzzler for a slightly less planet-killing form of transportation. Remember, folks, every little bit helps, especially if it comes with a cute smiley face. Just don't blame us when your neighbor retaliates with a note about your excessive air conditioning usage. Because, let's be honest, no one's perfect. (Except maybe Denmark. Those guys are doing alright.) Satire Disclaimer: This article is a work of satire and does not reflect the actual views of climate scientists (who are probably way too busy trying to save the planet to engage in passive-aggressive warfare). But hey, if it gets people thinking, right? Now go forth and spread the sticky truth!

[katyspersonal]

Hey! I appreciate this post and agree in general, but I want to add a couple of things here:

1) It is not very fair to claim that it is exclusively "male gaze" problem! People of ANY gender or sexuality can be bad at drawing athletic body type like Malenia's or Maria's, or simply too used to drawing women in a certain way! It is not always a problem of sexualising or being attracted only to a certain type. Like.. I dunno, would not be outlandish to imagine a straight woman or a gay man draw female characters like this and get defensive when asked to 'git gud'. In other words, addressing the problem of quite literal skill issue is just as important, which you did to, but even when you talked about refusal to improve as an artist you included sexualising as an explanation! Like, the right point IS in your post, but instantly redirected, which takes responsibility for bad portrayals off everyone but those guys!

2) It is also not fair to say characters like Maria or Malenia are "for lesbians". They are for people of ANY gender or sexuality that can appreciate them the way they are! Again, I don't believe you've intended this, but since you've put this post in the main tags rather than just vent in your blog it is a subject of criticism! This sort of gives away the vibe like you're saying "only non-men attracted to women can have good opinions on women", when I guarantee you that there are plenty of cis or trans men of any sexuality, nonbinary people that are not attracted to women, straight women and asexuals of any gender that absolutely agree that erasing this body type from drawing is annoying at least, misogynistic at worst! Heck- there WILL be lesbians that prefer "hyperfeminine" body type and WILL change female characters to their preference, too! There should not be dichotomy of 'lesbians vs nasty porn addicted men', when the real dichotomy here is 'people that appreciate these characters vs people with skill issue' as many identities are included on each side!

3) Maria is definitely flat-chested (or at least had top surgery, it boils down to one's headcanons)

( x ) Even more likely so because if you look at female Hunter, the clothing does have breasts visible, so it is not that Maria's clothing simply flattens them on the impact:

However, she CAN be slim!

Her clothes are rather thick and she has like three layers of them, and with that in consideration picture the torso underneath even more slim! I say it makes sense as she has Pthumerian genes, who are notoriously very tall and slim, lanky even. They're built like Messmer when they are not Basically Round like Merciless Watchers. There are only two extremes, nothing in between XD

The Doll might be an additional evidence for Maria's body as she appears to not be depicted in a corset, and is a replica of Maria in everything but her hunter outfit! (she is also flat, which is an important thing to notice because Doll is also a victim of tig biddy depictions often..) She however has Maria's boots, her large brooch and her ribbon (sewn into Doll's hat now)! Doll is intended to be a grief ornament, so it makes sense that her face AND body perfectly repeat Maria's. She matches her proportions, her height and has exact same face, so why not the waist too?

^ I'd think that the disconnect comes from using Maria's concept art as a reference, which is okay to do as a headcanon, but it did NOT make it in the final portrayal of this character in the game so it is not an obligation! There is another type of Maria's fanart that I lovingly like to call "fridge Maria" where she is deliberately made more wide and buff which hardly even feels like a tribute to concept art version and more like.. well.. you guessed it, "fixing" it to one's own preference...... At times I see people that do draw "fridge Maria" being very passive-aggressive towards those that draw her slim, even if the artist did NOT give her huge tits, which is also a problem! TLDR slim Maria is accurate, as long as she doesn't have visible breasts!

why (from the point of view of a lesbian) drawing lady Maria overly feminin is a bit more of a bigger deal than it may seem

I’ve seen people say that it isn’t that big of a deal if many artist want to draw lady Maria with huge naturals and a thin ass waist when in actuality she’s built like a door. I was a bit conflicted with that point at the start because yes, of course you can draw whatever you want. But the act of reducing women to the ideals that porn and mass media find attractive in women is still a huge problem.

for one thing, when I see people draw Maria and even Melania like curvey anime girls I can already tell they don’t really care about the character or lore, they just want to sexualize the character because they are women. The excuse often is “well I’m not good at drawing any other body type” which is a lazy excuse in my opinion. Just don’t draw them. That’s like drawing a big women like fucking twiggy and saying “it’s just my style I can’t help it, I don’t know how to draw big girls!”. Pick up a book and start learning bud. But these rules apply to a plethora of other characters and aren’t specific to more masculine souls borne women.

What really irks me about this is the idea that more masculine or androgynous women are seen as less beautiful or less as women, and in Maria’s case often leads to them being changed in art to be more “attractive”. This is of course from the “male gaze” and while you are allowed to have a preference for women, there are thousands of other characters for your consumption that fit your little porn addict needs.

to all the people who want to change lady to be more slim thick with fat tits on the side, she wasn’t fucking made for you. What you have been fed all your life to beleive what is beutiful is Fake. Why can’t you move yourself to find her attractive the way she is? To be less feminine is not to be less beutiful and if you can’t fucking see that than you need to understand that character isn’t for you. Go watch some hazbin Hotel or genshin, some world of war craft, or GTA or tomb raider. These games and media are full of conventually attractive women made just for your digestion! Maybe even play some dark souls 1 and lust over gwynevere! Leave the women who are not up to your standards alone. They were not made for you. They were made for us lesbians :]

ok ty have a great day

[pigdemonart]

May we hear your many thoughts about Skyla and the twins? 👀

I was traveling so i got to ramble a little in my notes app : )c here are my ramblings

I love this tiny idiot so much. 

SO some of these things I have plans to illustrate because I’ve been wanting to scratch the itch to draw the four of them together some more! We’ll see though.

Been thinking about the friendship dynamics with the trio, and I think Skyla adds an interesting layer to the bunch!

I think what we know about Skyla personality-wise is pretty telling. She’s spirited, she’s fun, she deeply cares about others, she loves elesa. In the anime she’s portrayed as being very confident (maybe even a little arrogant) and pretty headstrong. She’s also very honest and speaks her mind -- we see that with how she talks to Elesa in the flashback scene of the game. She’s a person that can be a little impulsive. As a personal touch, (and because of the joke) I like writing her a little clueless in a “head in the clouds” kind of way.

I can definitely see some of these traits clashing with the twins’ personalities. Not in overt ways, but subtly enough where they’ll end up having passive aggressive little arguments. Even the most subtle things…if you read Skyla’s quotes she values having fun more than winning. I can see her capable of irking the twins in how she chooses to battle. Like it feels like theres not a lot but -grabs shovel- THERE’S GOLD HERE I SWEAR. (Equally though, theres a lot in favor of them being buds, but…i can dig that hole later.)

In the fanon side, we can make some stretches and say the twins would know Skyla for her fame as a gym leader, but also because she’s Elesa’s friend (and in my HC her romantic interest.) They respect her …even if she sometimes makes that a little challenging. Meanwhile to Skyla, the twins are Elesa’s …dudes. Her malethings. Her “you’ve been angrily typing at your phone all lunch!” “Oh sorry, Emmet is asking me my top 5 theme parks and Ingo is arguing that I’m wrong somehow.” Her either special friends who happen to be guys or like confidants shes sometimes has sleep overs with. Skyla doesn’t have to like them. She can fuck with them a little as a treat…she can launch them in her cannons a little higher than others just to see if those coats make decent parachutes.

Also final point. Her partner pokemon is Swanna. You know how fucking vicious Swans can be? Im just sayin.

Skyla. Total sweetheart. Absolutely menace with no concern for self preservation WHICH might as well include trying to get into verbal arguments with two very tall guys who LITERALLY OWN an underground fight club. Hellooooooooooo.

[sparring-spirals]

Okay, so I recieved an ask discussing Marisha and Taliesin's interactions last ep, and while I'm not going to publish the ask because it has a level of speculation wrt cast relationships/interactions I'm not personally comfortable with, I think the question was genuine, so I'm going to say a few things.

Firstly, to answer the base question: I don't think Laudna's actions were out of character, actually. I've already got some speculations on why this behaviour can be considered new to what we've seen so far, but that's not the same as "out of character". I can think of some reasons that are interesting and add layers of complexity, and honestly: we're still pretty new to Laudna? I'm much more inclined to adjust my understanding of Laudna than feel that it was "out of character".

Secondly- and this is more broad. I think if you find yourself speculating or worrying in-depth about the casts interpersonal feelings, relationships, possible tension or bad blood, etc, its very important, and helpful, to remember a few things:

1- The cast are adults

2- The cast are professionals

3- The cast are friends.

4- The cast are full humans that we don't know personally

5- The cast are not their characters

And I mean this kindly! With Critical Role you devote many hours of your time to watching these people talk, they all roleplay VERY intensely, you might spend a ton of time picking apart and analysing the minutiae of character expressions, speech, interactions. And with the way the cast poke fun at each other both in and out of character, it makes sense the lines get blurred. But, quite frankly, that only makes it more important that you can separate the two, and conduct yourself responsibly with these kinds of things.

(more in depth thoughts below the cut. Sorry, this got LONG)

The cast are adults, the cast are friends, the cast are professionals. This is my main "take" whenever I see speculation about "is ____ mad at ___?" "does ______ resent ________?" "do you think ______ is feeling upset/sidelined/offended by _____?"

They are probably not genuinely unhappy with each other, they've been broadcasting this game live for 7 years and friends- actual, IRL friends, for longer. They presumably like each other, and are used to working things out with one another, personal and professional. They are adults, they probably know how to hash things out, instead of passive aggressively vibrating with tension at a table. They can talk to each other, they know how to talk to each other, they have to talk to each other because this is also a professional venture.

Momentary disagreements, friction, tense conversations, are going to happen in this kind of format, when they all rely heavily on improv, roleplay, and willingly engage with flawed characters and realistic interactions. If they put you on edge, or you feel unsure about them- that's fine! That's okay! But attributing them to cast interpersonal relationships, trying to anticipate tension or secret simmering tensions- is, in my personal opinion, deeply unhelpful, and only going to cause you grief. We see these people interacting, uncut, for 4 hour chunks. If you convince yourself of something- its going to be very easy to find more evidence, and then, you can't really do anything about it other than worry about the personal relationships of people you dont know.

So, for me, this is my thinking:

1- Tension is largely in character, and intentional, and the cast loves committing to it and know how to separate the two.

2- If it isn't, sometimes heat of the moment or roleplaying Vibes can factor in, and that makes sense, and again, the cast know how to separate the two.

3- Even if its something that extends out, or sticks, the cast know how to interface, check in, etc, with each other to address concerns and communicate, and will probably work it out.

4- It is their job, and their responsibility to do that, if something came up. Me doing rampant speculation and catastrophizing on the side does nothing but ruin my own experience.

5- Furthermore, they're actual people, and extending the analysis and speculation I do on their characters is... uncomfortable, and I personally don't want to do that.

6- They seem like reasonable enough people. They've got a good track record. It'll probably be okay.

So- I don't think you've got anything to worry about. But more importantly, for your own sanity, and enjoyment, remember that the cast are people- generally nice, reasonable, fully fleshed people we do not know, not their characters, or props or figureheads. And proceed accordingly.

[fatmaclover]

thanks for rbing this katie ive got more thoughts now that its morning and im not high

im never gonna be over the thought of like. while mac just wants people to like him, he wants to feel like he belongs. i dont think he ever felt like he had a proper place in his own home, with how his parents treated him. its hard to feel like you belong somewhere where all your needs or wants are ignored.

the implication of being joyces boy isnt just the fact that theyre friends, its the implication that mac belongs with joyce. hes hers, no one elses, with her is where hes supposed to be. he has a place he belongs, and its with joyce

its just unfortunate that hes not really into that. he wants to belong literally anywhere else. despite their history together, joyce isnt where mac wants to belong. to a degree, i think he still holds resentment for joyce. he doesnt do it consciously, if you asked him he would say his biggest issues with joyce are her hygiene ones, but its there. i think the teenage mind that still remains in him still kinda blames joyce for why he was bullied. they had each other, but maybe if he had let himself be alone he would be liked. again its not really a conscious thing, more along the lines of like... he would find himself getting lost in a daydream about "what if he never met joyce?" and then would feel so guilty he would probably immediately go to confessional about it. its not something about himself he even wants to acknowledge. he knows its bad, but it lingers in his mind.

so people saying that he belongs with joyce would have so many layers there to him. not only is it the fact that he belongs with joyce, but it could also be read as "i think youre so lame that you belong with her because shes just that bad" (which, macs mixed feelings on joyce and the fact that he both does and doesnt think hes better than her is. an entirely different can of worms.), or it can wrap back around to the fag allegations with them, having the implication of "you two are faggots for each other!!! gay!!!! gay!!!!!!" which i imagine is a pretty big Thing for mac. lol.

i just think its silly how its seen as such a sweet thing by us but mac probably views it as a passive aggressive insult. and honestly i doubt joyce even has positive connotations with it either, with how mac feels about it. i imagine thats kinda rubbed off on her.

mac being referred to as joyces boy. her boy. hes her boy. mac being the person to understand joyces writing the easiest. they belong to each other theyre each others lost halves if they were ever separated they would stop functioning. auawhhrhwuah

[whenwordsmakesense]

#16 for Thiam or Sterek because passive aggressively asking your crush out seems like their thing 🤣🤣

From this list: #16. "You and me - Movie night."

(I went with Sterek, hope that is fine with you!)

Be My Cushion

((can be read on AO3 now!))

Stiles is laughing at Isaac's crushing defeat in their uno game when Derek comes up to him. He's wearing a soft green henley and form-fitting jeans, hair styled like he has actually tried to tame it and hasn't handed the duty over to the breezy winds Beacon Hills has started to get during winter. He looks good, really good, and Stiles feels his heart drum in that familiar beat that Derek causes every single time he is near.

"Hey," Derek says, like he hadn't greeted Stiles not an hour ago at the door.

"Hi," Stiles replies.

"Sounds like Cora is calling me, I'm gonna go." Isaac interrupts their—staring; that would be the apt word for what they were doing. Derek's eyes are just like that, meant to be looked at, examined carefully, layers of colors picked off one by one until only the soul remains. Unhidden, true, beautiful soul of a beautiful man.

Stiles clears his throat and watches as Isaac gets up from the couch, three cards put face-down on the coffee table, and walks hurriedly away from him and Derek like they stink.

Erica had told Stiles, "You two stink of unresolved sexual tension all the fucking time, Stilinski. Do something about it!" that time that she had been cursed by a witch to speak everything that crossed her mind for exactly seven days. That's one of like, Stiles' favorite weeks, ever.

Stiles doesn't look back at Derek, hands thumbing at the unused deck, smoothing down the corners that remain folded no matter how many times he tries to flatten it. "Wanna play?"

Derek doesn't move for a while. Stiles can feel him, a solid, ever-present line of heat at his side, even when he isn't looking at him. And then as if he is considering something, a sigh escapes Derek, and he walks foward, sitting down exactly where Isaac had been. "Sure," he agrees.

And so they play for the next fifteen-minutes, Stiles winning again while Derek is stuck with seven cards and a scowl.

"This game is rigged."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night," Stiles grins, and after a beat Derek is shaking his head, chin dipping down as a smile blooms across his face, like he is still afraid to let others see his happiness. "Hey," Stiles says, heart clenching as it always does at the reminder of the pieces that fell to bring about the life they have now, "What do you say about another round? And if I win again, hmm, what do you say about giving me the Camaro for a day?"

Derek looks up, mouth pressed into a thin line, like he is suppressing a smile. More likely a smirk, to go with his tone of voice. He mixes his cards into the deck, hand moving to collect the used ones as he says, "And if I win?" He sounds awfully sure about winning, too.

"I doubt you will, seeing as I am the champion of Uno,"

"Champion of being single, sure."

Stiles' heart beats double time at those words. Not because he is angry or even upset, because he likes his life like it is right now, he is content, but because Derek's playful, dry sarcasm just... does things to him. He can only be so strong, okay?

Derek shuffles the deck this time and hands them both ten cards—Stiles protests that it's seven cards at the starting, but Derek just doesn't heed his trivial rules—and they're bantering, a playful, fond give and take of words that has become their own language, now. From cutting words to a healing balm, their relationship has evolved a lot in the four years that they have known each other.

Derek wins the game this time.

"You cheated," Stiles accuses, even though there's no way Derek could have. It's just how he is, honest and honorable, too high above to stoop down to dirty tricks for a win. But Stiles is a sore loser, one who is also worried for what Derek might ask of him, and so he will accuse Derek all he wants.

The last time Derek had asked him for a favor had been when he'd wanted to show up to the Beacon Hill Police Department's Fundraiser, but he'd been so nervous about his appearance that Stiles had thought he was going on a date. That had been a painful afternoon, right up till Derek had asked if it's okay if he donates a hefty amount of money, because he wasn't sure if Stiles' dad would accept so much from him, given that Derek—along with the Pack—protect the town just as much as the police, if not more, but don't get paid for it. Stiles had laughed hysterically at that.

Now, that had been a line of luck stringing Stiles along, but he isn't so sure if another one of Derek's favor wouldn't hurt him again. Because statistically speaking, Derek's favors do hurt him, in the physical flavor most of the time. That, he can handle.

But not Derek going on a date again.

"I didn't cheat," Derek informs him like it's news, and leans forward, elbows on his knees, eyebrows doing that dance that means he is nervous.

Oh hell no, it's another date!

"Oh, look, it's almost midnight!" Stiles yells, way too loudly given Derek's wince, and starts to stand. Derek, though, he catches him by the wrist—damn it Lydia and Erica's demand of having the couches at the corner of the room, making him cross, well, try to cross Derek to get out of the room—and pulls him back.

"It's literally nine," Derek says, and Stiles looks at the clock on the other wall. Fuck. "And I have a favor to ask you."

Stiles turns around slowly, eyes at the wall behind Derek. "I can't help you, Der," He admits softly. "Good for you that you found someone you want to go on a date with—"

"How do you know?" Derek sounds defensive, and the small bubble of hope inside Stiles deflates into a thousand needles, all of them stabbing him in his heart.

"I'm sorry," he repeats, trying not to cry. "But I just—have someone else help you,"

He turns to leave the room, but again, Derek catches his wrist. This time Stiles doesn't turn to see him, something that makes Derek sigh deeply like he is dissapointed, and then he is being turned around forcefully but gently, Derek's hands resting on his shoulders, their eyes boring into one another.

Stiles wonders if he'd imagined all those moments between them, borne out of some sick part of his brain that likes hurting him.

He waits for Derek to say something, anything. Derek doesn't.

Stiles smiles, sad. "It's okay. I'm happy as long as you are—"

"You and me, movie night!" Derek exclaims, eyes wide like he hadn't meant to say them. Stiles stills. Derek's hand burn where they touch him, the shocked silence stretching until Stiles breaks it with a small:

"What?"

Derek's eyes flick to his lips and back up, eyes showing so much vulnerability that for once, Stiles doesn't—can't—get his words out.

"You and me, movie night," Derek repeats, slow, like he wants Stiles to understand the meaning of them. "I want you and me to spend a day in your bedroom, sitting close, laptop on our knees. You with your stupid commentaries while the movie is playing—"

"That's the fun part of watching together," Stiles says automatically, and Derek's intense look melts into a fond smile. He smiles back, less subdued.

"It's fun with you. Everything is," Derek admits, and his hands wander up Stiles' shoulder to his face, to his cheeks, like he is holding something precious in his hands. "So. You and me, movie night, on the first night of the year."

"Because what we do on the first day we continue doing the rest of the year?"

"Yes." That one word is so simple; a stupid confirmation to yet another stupid tradition Derek believes in—that you believe in too, says Stiles' inner voice—but it's also so much more than that.

So much more than that. It's a brilliant start to a new chapter in both of their lives.

Except...

Stiles smiles so big he fears he'll be stuck like that forever. "Yes! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," he would have continued his yeses, but Derek decides four is enough and shuts him up.

By kissing him.

Derek is kissing him.

He is kissing Derek.

"Fucking finally!"

"What the—" he and Derek separate to find the pack—Erica, Boyd, Isaac, Cora, Kira, Malia, Jackson, Lydia and Allison—looking at them with a camera, a smile, a douchey smirk, another camera, a phone being used as a camera, a wolfish smile, a faux-bored expression, a satisfactory smile and yet another camera.

Derek sighs deeply as Stiles curses them out, arms wrapping around Stiles' waist.

More pictures are taken.

Stiles doesn’t stop smiling the whole night, and when their kiss goes on for way, way too long at midnight and grosses the pack out, there's no stopping him now.

Take that, you thousand needles! He has a Derek Hale shaped cushion in his heart now, ain't nothing gonna hurt him after this.

(Derek calls him an idiot when Stiles informs him of this and the pack laughs, but later when everyone is gone and Derek is in his arms in Derek's bed, the Alpha admits that he, too, has a Stiles shaped cushion in his heart).