#these are two of those 'oh yeah i guess they were there' side antagonists that i think had such cool designs and were pretty hot

[whos-hotter-jjba]

Hottest JJBA Outfit Bracket - Round 1 Match 10

[dynamic-k]

I just saw 'The Dark Lord' in a fic that wasn't even about ava/avm.

I SWEAR I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HYPERFIXATED ON A FANDOM-

anyway i need to actually ask a question now.

Okay, I'm fairly sure that the Government is one of the antagonists of Arc 2.

sooo... What is the Government's intentions? Why were the two people watching the clip of Second's powers? The Government is an organisation -I think-, so who is allowed to know their plans? What are their plans?

Are they targeting Vic, Second, Chosen, or Dark? OR Kaori or ALan?

wait i just reread and I think it says Second is the primary focus.

Also it says:

'I'd always assumed the main objective with collecting all these powered individuals was so we could make some, I don't know, supreme ultra powerful stick or an ultimate individual source of energy.'

AYO? WHY ARE THEY REFERRING TO THE 'powered individuals' LIKE POKEMON CARDS?!? why did i say that iv never even played pokemon

'Collecting'?

Oh yeah why does Vic Chosen Dark and Second even have powers in the first place? Same with like- the villains.

Nearly all the heroes and villains have powers, so I'm excited to see Color Gang as heroes without powers, just tech.

I've always liked seeing people without powers and just technology and/or their talents beating people who just rely on their powers.

I'm not sure why. I think that's why I like Agent so much more than the others.

Thanks for listening to me ramble and Have a great day!!

-R

also for the crossover ramble- i dont actually have any ideas and my brain is just drawing a blank. A blank, empty, sad, depressing, endless void.

[aha not me referring to a story that i made xd]

I TOO DO EXACTLY THAT-

Literally in any other media where there is a Dark Lord- I just think of a certain hollowheaded red boi, with no regard to the color scheme of this other fandom Dark Lord- XD

I also have never been this hyperfixated on a fandom- XD My favorite fandom ever in ever. You and I are best friends now. XD

O v O Well well well~ Somebody is poking around for info on the Government within Super Sticks~ Whatever shall I do-

They are an organization, yes. They rule a lot of areas, but are not all-powerful or in a position of full-on tyranny.

There are places that are private property, owned by a single stick or perhaps two sticks, and leased or available for public usage, that the Government cannot do much about. There are also small organizations of some groups of sticks, that built up their businesses to help improve the city. The properties they own and let the public around also is unable to be touched or interfered with via Government hands.

One of those such places, is the police station that Vic is currently imprisoned inside. Government cannot touch him there, even though they are very well aware that Vic has powers. They were quite put off and frustrated when Vic made arrangements for both himself and Primal to go to that specific prison~

[The non-Government station itself and the guards/officers thereof actually don't know Vic has powers right now. This fact comes into play later, for a future scene I have already written~]

They are... targetting a LOT of sticks, actually- XD They even have code names for some of the higher priority sticks, as seen when "Target Amnesia" was mentioned.

Second is the highest priority thoouugghhhh~ I wwoooOoonnndeeerr whhhhhyyyyyY~ >:D

Every currently imprisoned stick in the Government right now: ...Yeah, I guess we're Pokemon cards now- It's accurate-

XD I love Pokemon, although I've only seen Indigo League. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily into the fandom either, but from what I have seen of the show I have loved dearly.

-

| Oh yeah why does Vic Chosen Dark and Second even have powers in the first place? Same with like- the villains. |

....

[*looks at canonically powerless Alan*]

[*side eyes Kaori*]

I have absolutely no idea. I don't believe I have the faintest notion what you're insinuating. [*nervous sweating*]

Now- Anyone with abilities, obviously it's genetics where the ability came from.

Hence, Rum: the mother of Vodka and Whiskey, shares a similar power. Jade has a different power, but he is Rum's husband so he's family though not by blood. And the Alcoholic Twins ended up inheriting their Mom's powers rather than their Dad's, so nobody except me at the moment knows what Jade can do, ehehehehhee

The title of Pretzel might have something to do with it, but that is ALLLLLLLL I will be saying on that front- /total-lie, I-can't-keep-my-mouth-shut, /silly

Color Gang is absolutely going to be epic with their non-powers, I will say this much. I AM VERY EXCITED TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE WHAT THEY'LL BE ABLE TO DO, but I gotta break it to the readers slowly over the course of the four building the upgrades-

I do got the specifics all figured out, thoughhh~~ Not the names, yet- But the upgrades for each quadruplet, I have that down and ready to implement into the plot at will.

Canon!Agent is so cool, yes- I think he may be my favorite as well! [although I LOVE HAZARD so much too...] And! That is one of the big reasons why, as he doesn't even have any abilities, he uses a tech weapon. On a similar note, Mono of Super Sticks is much the same way, and on an even greater note because leg injury~ :D

It's funny you should mention reliance on one's powers, as I have a bit of a motto/theme built up in relation to that. In Spark AU. :3 Do with that information what thou will...

-

It's fine: I have plenty of crossover-related ideas for the both of us!! LIKE- THE NAME-

My sister, Trixie, suggested something to do with Kindle/Kindling. Because that sparks a fire and also is usually tiny sticks. XD

She's a straight-up genius- XD

[i will no-hesitation read anything you write- gimme-] /silly /but-also-serious

[lotus-mirage]

Time to see what they do after that tone shift

Trigun Stampede episode 3 liveblog!

Ok!  So.  Keeping that tone.  O.O

(also natural disaster angle? Interesting! And prooobably be being paired with presumably-Knives approaching the town)

....oh they’re crawling on other people now. bleegh, that’s unsettling.

Wow after the shooting stunts of the last two episodes having a death so easily is startling

Okay wtf is up with this guy

Oh! It looks like only Vash is being featured in the opening, which is pretty atypical. That might have been part of the reason I was so thrown off?

Okay so the newest antagonist’s tech is a weird mix of high and low-tech.  Like I think it’s being powered by advanced, glowy-blue tech, but the shapes and actions (aside from like.  how those actions work) are still kind of crude!

I wonder if other plants are put in danger this often lol

Good to know Vash can be serious!  Kinda surprised that didn’t come up sooner, but I guess even if they were causing a lot of incidental damage the previous antagonists have been focused on him and not just wanton destruction.

“there’s no use in revenge,” now???? To a guy whose only personality has been his son and revenge???

Okay they may be implying that same point  - wait piano again??  They are really leaning hard into this I had thought there was like. One scene about it.

O.O

Well that was something. I can’t say I was really expecting a conversation there, but I certainly wasn’t expecting dismemberment.

Two contrasting “whose side are you on” questions within a span of as many scenes! Neat.

oh wtf was that. corrosion?

flash-back touch, okay.

Or not.  Gate? 

more dismemberment!

...were those the nominal knives? or are they like. incidental.

Oh what is this now.  Giant mecha... gorilla-shaped-thing.

Wait wait who’s that!  That kid’s haircut & coloring look suspiciously like the twins’.

Oh the lighting here is really cool.

The kid’s eyes look completely different, though. Huh.

Okay that was really intense I didn’t have anything to say during it.  Except that the weird full-body hoodie thing is apparently the.....

knife. tendril.  ...thingies?

Anyway!  That’s kinda neat!

A third “whose side are you on”! ...yeah that checks out narratively

...also notably accompanying the first shot where we actually see his face, I think.

Yeah I think those are the nominal knives.

oh also lots of piano focus in the background now, nice

ooookay I see where the biblical references start coming into play.  I thought it was just Wolfwood, guess not! ...I have no idea what he’s referring to, though.  Probably something old testament? Which is interesting because Wolfwood has a lot of cross stuff happening, but other than that I am only getting the surface level of whatever parallels are being drawn here.

Aside from the next shot, I guess!  Knives gets a knife halo. ...or maybe the knives are doing the circles of heaven/ranks of angels thing? hmmm.

...did the kid just die! I thought he’d be the only one to make it out!

Wait the big guy is still alive?  Huh.

Yeah that’s a very fair reaction from Rosa.

“I don’t deserve to cry” WELL ALRIGHT THEN

Okay interesting that’s already a change in approach from Vash!  Pursuing Knives now instead of the other way around. 

Wait actually the “he” is unspecified, I guess, but I assume.

End notes:

Okay so. Kept the tone from the end of the last episode.  Okay! I wonder if they’re gonna mostly stick to that from now on, or maybe start bouncing between the two?

I had absolutely no idea about the other people working with Knives.  Like, none.  I guess I knew that there was a group with him (hence Wolfwood(?)), but nothing about the rest of the group. Wonder what’s happening there!  They took both the red and blue plants - which I guess I assumed were respectively dead and alive. Are they, like, hatching them?? They were kind of suspiciously egg-shaped.

So.  Admittedly I was previously not super emotionally invested in Vash.  I kind of knew a bit about his deal, going into things - the whole “peace and love” meme, contrasted with the material of the show - but the kind of outsider framing from Meryl and Rodrigo made me feel like we should get to know more about them before focusing so much on him.  Anyways, I didn’t dislike him, I’d just yet to get attached to him.  All of that rescinded now, I guess! 

The “I don’t deserve to cry” line made me go ‘Ah.  I understand the hype now!’ I guess, if hype counts as... my mutual’s and what feels like half the internet’s incredible fondness for the guy. Ouch.

No transition here but uh yeah! Lots of fantastic animation again this episode!  Also this episode put a lot of emphasis on framing, both symbolic and cinematic! Both of those points stand out particularly for the whole last several minutes, which were really impressive.

[allergic-to-four-leaf-clovers]

Restraints

woo hoo!! my first genuine piece of whump writing, hell fucking yeah! I've been lurking in amongst whump writing for oh so long, and I decided it was finally time to grow some balls and actually post a thing. so, without further ado, enjoy this absolute bloody mess featuring the skrunkly himself, the one and lonely, Rayan :D!!

Cw: immortal whumpee, multiple whumpers, mention of past torture, blood, stabbing, restraints, minimal swearing, whumper-turned-whumpee I guess??, whumpee-turned-whumper except There's Two Of Them Now™, slight manhandling maybe?? I don't know??, slight degradation. view with caution!!

(note: Foster (whumper) uses they/them. all other ocs mentioned (Rayan (whumpee) and Ezra (whumper) use he/him. Also note I have no clue what I'm doing, so some of this may not be accurate lmao)

- - - - - - - >

I had tried to cut the bonds long ago.

Ever since I had first acknowledged your pathetic little band of "survivors" hunting for my very head, I had tried to block contact with you — or anyone you knew, for that matter. I changed my phone number, multiple times, may I add, I considered moving to live with my sister and her fiancee, hell, I would've altered my identity entirely or even gon into hiding if I hadn't been told I was probably overreacting. But I wasn't, was I? Time and time again, I had tried to steer myself away from danger, but time and time again, you persisted. You wanted to make my life utterly miserable. And, I hate to admit this, but you succeeded.

But I could tell from that smug smile of yours that you knew damn well of this, and you relished in the fear in my eyes. I could tell from the scalpels, and knives, and bats, and hammers, and other godforsaken weapons you held in the very same basement you held me in that you would stop at nothing to inflict pain upon me. To give me a taste of my own medicine. You're all just kids with saviour complexes, aren't you? Pathetic.

Our pathways along life are forever intertwined. Though, mine may or may not be mixed with the blood of not only my victims, but of myself. Of guilt that weighs down on my heart, of burdens I am forced to carry on my now fragile shoulders. You have reduced me to a mess of a man. My very being is scarred and bruised from your relentless, merciless torture. I would say I deserve it — I did torture you all first, after all — but I'm not that harsh upon myself, now am I?

I despise you all. Though, I can tell from the disdain and disgust you try to conceal behind those grins and smirks that the feeling is mutual. We're all antagonists in the same story, only lacking a protagonist or better side of the story to oppose. I would say said side is, in fact, each other, but none of us can be deemed as good.

Despite all this, I remain in one piece. I have been humiliated, abused, drowned, suffocated, stabbed, bruised, cut, choked, starved, deprived of both sleep and my own senses. Though, somehow, I am still alive. Perhaps it's just sheer luck making my heart continue to beat, or maybe, just maybe, there's something more complex, more.. supernatural going on. Alas, you'll have to find that out on your own. Some secrets are best to be kept to yourself, after all.

- - - - - - - >

"You should be dead by now," Foster mused with a smirk that Rayan knew oh-so-well. "I stabbed you in the aorta minutes ago, yet you're still alive."

"Oh, yeah? And since when were you a medical expert?" Rayan spat back, craning his head to glare up at his captor. The latter merely chuckled humorlessly at that, guiding Rayan's chin back to face the wall, holding his jaw down with a vice-like grip. Their other hand was rested on his shoulder, which would most definitely leave a bloodstained handprint on his clothes — not that it mattered, anyway. Rayan squinted and stared at the wall before closing his eyes — well, more eye now; Ezra decided it'd be an oh-so-wonderful idea to slash a knife across Rayan's face, leaving him blind in one eye and in immense agony, as he described it himself — trying to ignore the flare of pain in his stomach and the press of ropes against his skin.

"This is boring," he eventually heard Ezra, speak of the devil, complain, his Texan accent cutting through the uncomfortable silence which had begun to linger in the basement. "Why don't we just.. kill him now? Leaving him alive'll do us no good."

"Be patient, Ezra." Foster leaned forward to Rayan's height almost mockingly and rested their head on his shoulder, the sudden proximity making the latter flinch. They smirked and added: "After all, leaving it alive means we can toy with it more, okay?"

Foster knew that would strike a nerve. Rayan absolutely despised degradation of any variety; they knew that perfectly well. Their smirk grew wider at the sight of Rayan's body stiffening and tensing, restrained hands balling into fists under the ropes, speaking through gritted teeth. "Don't you fucking dare."

Foster pouted sarcastically, patting Rayan's shoulder before stalking away. "Well, we'd best get going for now. Staying here is gonna make me die of boredom."

Rayan had his eyes closed still, so he couldn't see what they were doing, other than the fact he knew they were exiting the basement. His eyebrows furrowed in suspicion as he heard incoherent mumbles from in front of him, before hearing footsteps advance upon him. He had no time to react as he was stabbed once more, only letting out a strangled gasp, eyes shooting open.

Ezra's laugh startled him. "Never fails to make me laugh." He said, before twisting the knife in the wound, causing a small cry of pain from Rayan. He laughed again. Even Foster managed a light chuckle.

Ezra had opted to just leave the knife in the wound, which caused much more discomfort for Rayan. But it's not like he could care. Foster and him eventually left, even shutting off the lights in the basement as if Rayan wasn't actually there. Or, maybe as if Rayan wasn't a person, as if he were an item of furniture they had discarded.

Rayan managed a small scoff when he knew they were out of hearing range, rolling his eyes. "They're so fucking stupid..." He muttered, watching the wound on his body heal unnaturally quickly, the blood already beginning to dry out. They had all tried to kill him more times than he had counted, and all attempts had been unsuccessful. It was only a matter of time until they find out — it's inevitable, after all. Rayan just needs to use the amount of time he has left with his secret to his advantage.

[vulpiximisa]

gunjou no fanfare review

I really wanted to like it. It’s horse boys. I like horses. It looked like there was thought and care put into it with big names like sawano and oreimo guy and joi (jay oh won and not Joy-ee).  

I was not expecting the BL vibes from the first episode. I wonder if that turned off a lot of the viewers. I mean I definitely wasn’t expecting it from this sort of thing. I don’t know the producers/writers enough to know if the LGBT thing is legit or not. But I don’t trust like that.

Ngl I was expecting more from Yu. He’s kinda boring. Yeah the backstory is interesting to see him go through the change from being an idol to something totally unrelated and having to face the backlash of it. Unfortunately he’s not very interesting personality wise. He’s kind of just A Guy. Not really even an endearing one. Iunno, he hadn’t really done anything that stood out to me. I was waiting the entire series to see what captivated him about horse racing that he dropped his idol career for. I was thinking something about the spiritual horse visions or whatever that he would sometimes see, but it didn’t really add up for me. I just didn’t get it. 

I guess that final race with Shun showed what he always saw when he was horse racing? Was that it? I guess it went over my head. And I guess CEO was his adoptive mother that she groomed him into idol-ing so it was just him growing up and being his own person that he chose to do horse racing.

Anyway next chara, Star girl horse boy jockey Manami Shun. I didn’t like him at first because he came off as the natural prodigy kind (which he was and I dont care for those kind of charas). I liked him more when he went through the kisuke arc. Only because I enjoyed seeing someone who’s usually all smiles finally cry and break down. I’m… not totally surprised that he chose not to stay a jockey. He really didn’t feel like the competitive type and more of the whimsical Horse Boy type. 

Other characters uh… Eri Is There. The fact that they had a staple girl but didn’t do much with her other than to say She Is The Girl. Rip.

I liked Aki’s reveal because after Amane came in, I was like we can’t have Two antagonists being mean to Yu at the same time can we? but it was for different reasons and it was great. Theres not much else with his chara tho other than being the red haired hothead osakan, because of course he is. 

Hayato’s character arc was the best. I wish we got a little more on him and his friend but most of their backstory was through their word of mouth. I don’t really care about his friend though. Real BL hints dropped in that last ep. (HAYATO PONYTAIL IM GONE!!!!!!!)

 Kota was my favorite and I honestly think it might have been more interesting if he was the main chara just because he was an underdog type of chara. Lol maybe I just want my MCs to be a nervous wreck and a noob and I want to see them climb up. (i was rooting for Amane/kota, but I’m sorry nobody could handle my big brain) I can’t say that I didn’t like his growth because I’m proud of him, but he’s just a side chara at the end of the day. rip

Amane was fun but he didn’t really do much. He was supposed to be the Punkass rival but huh? Hanae’s English isn’t the worst but I kinda wish they got someone with better English to voice him. Kind of breaks the immersion sometimes. (Him and sakurai sensei having the English off was funny ngl)

Like can I even call this a sports anime? I don’t really even feel it? Like maybe if there was like, a chara from a rival school and they’d like “let’s meet on the track” kind of thing. I think if we got them racing each other like in the last few episodes earlier I might have thought it was more sporty but I understand if they want it to be realistic and can’t jump right to riding horses without all the build up.

The horse racing world just feels very Adult. Which is maybe why the series is about Adolescence and seeing the jockeys grow up. There were definitely a lot of time skips and they felt a little older when they were doing their internships. The little fake out in the beginning of the last ep gave me real Yuru Camp vibes lol. I love timeskips so I kind of wish we actually got to see it that way. 

How do I feel about the BL “bait”. Like, I don’t know the creators intentions, like, Can I Say that they meant to write Yu and Shun as intertwined souls? Yeah, definitely. It could be LGBT friendly without making the homophobes too mad I guess. Like the way Run With the Wind did it, I guess. But I think Yu and Shun had a little more soft scenes that I’m fine with it. I guess.

Kinda mad that Yu got Shun’s horse whispering powers though. I mean, I get it, in that way that its like “Shun as a jockey is dead but Shun wants Yu to take him with him as he rides horses” or something. 

Also, not really sure what the ghost horse on the right trail symbolizes? The path to jockeyness? Because Yu takes it when he can but Hayato doesn’t see it, and Shun chooses not to go that path. Yeah something like that I guess.

Uhhhh all in all, that… certainly was a show. I guess I was expecting something a little more wholesome because horses were involved? Even though that makes no sense because horses are delicate and stupid creatures apparently. The whole horse racing as a sport feels gross to me though, because I always get those “middle age old men smoking and betting all their money” vibes from it. 

[icharchivist]

a happy early white day to you, icha! I’d say for your princess treatment I wrote about chikage but. let’s be truthful I did that for me. anyways tsumugi and itaru as leads… eyes emoji. this whole event was just very sweet and cute so I honestly don’t have much to say abt it, only I was thinking abt chikage during it just because. I think he’d be such a fun addition to this event due to the whole like. mildly antagonistic vibes he has with izumi. in a good way I’m not saying he’d kidnap her again I just do think like those two would probably actually snipe at each other instead of being as nice as everyone is here. or maybe he’d be just as nice as well and the contrast would be charming… who’s to say. loved muku stepping down so some random girl could get the white horse on the carousel… prince behavior. suddenly remembered that as a kid I very specifically wanted to be like… yknow how in classic shoujo setups there’s like popular prince character girl likes initially and the bad boy she eventually gives her heart to. anyways that popular prince character in general I wanted to be a shoujo prince as a kid but like unfortunately when ur like 8 acts of chivalry are really limited to just like. holding the door open for girls in your class. which I did do and wonder why I was not super popular. all this is to say I think me and muku would get along great. itaru saying work is busy because staff got shuffled around… chikage? that’s my guess abt it. the real highlight of this event tho was the tasuku tsumugi itaru dynamics it truly warmed my heart. like… the way tasuku was gonna accompany tsumugi to the amusement park the way they are supporting each other after having not been able to for so long and the way itaru after a draining days work goes with tsumugi anyways. i like to think it’s because in terms of energy tsumugi’s one of the least draining people out there. and then the way itaru says not to worry abt taxi fare and doesn’t specify anything more because like. of course tasuku will come for the two of them. the way itaru and tsumugi make up a bunch of bullshit on stage and itaru just has like, a truly great amount of fun talking about the eye of the abyss and whatever. like! he enjoys being nerdy! he enjoys acting! idk I just thought the three of em in specific were very lovely? like the way that their interactions just felt very peaceful and warm. the way tsumugi didn’t think of calling tasuku to pick them up but itaru did because he knew it would be fine. its just… nice. also my personal headcanon is citron drew one of the acting roles, said “i refuse to be a part of the monarchy!” or smthing like that and handed it over to muku bc… the role of a prince/sir or whatever, I think he’d appreciate it

omg HI KIRI <33333 It's so nice to see you, happy early white d- what with that intro i almost had a mini heart attack 😭😭😭

BUT HEY WELCOME TO ONE DAY PRINCESS! one more event down ;D

It was really nice to see Tsumugi and Itaru as lead this event, their dynamic is just so nice.

and oh god you're actually talking about Chikage hold on. hold on. Need a sec to have the brain working again. But yeah Chikage would be pretty funny in this vibe. though honestly after reading his backstages, this guy is a complete menace. "midly antagonistic vibes with Izumi" from Izumi's side maybe, the guy is laying in the most soul destroying devoted love declaration and pretends to be Izumi's boyfriend for no reason because smiling and going "well i'm joking of course. or was i.". I do NOT trust him with playing a prince being all lovey dovey with Izumi. and i would love to say "at least it's the first event since he joined so maybe he wouldn't be this bad" but then i remember he started doing those in his first backstages and i'm supposed to be normal. That said i think Chikage appears in Itaru's backstage for this event? i don't remember well. So at least he's lurking while everyone is being silly i love them.

Actually now that i think about it considering the Spring chap ends on a cliffhanger that is immediately continued in the main story, i wonder if it doesn't mean ODP is set somewhere in the middle of the Spring chapter. Which. yeah okay there you got me it would mean Chikage is prob also still antagonistic to MC and specifically not here because he heard everyone make a fuss and went nope. nope nope nope nope, without me guys, i'm here to destroy my brother not for this bullshit. I could imagine that just fine. So yeah perhaps early at that point he probably would have just be the mean bitch of the gang. Please help.

coughs sorry it was the Chikage tangeante. I'm very normal when it comes to discussing Chikage. MOVING ON.

Now, about Muku. Muku is such a sweetheart 😭 and ohmygod. Prince Kiri lore unlocked…. I don't understand how you couldn't get popular with all of this. Though ngl now it's really projecting the image of Kishima gsnk onto you. Incredible. But yes i see it now, i think you and Muku would get along so well, i love it so much.

oghhhh just seeing Chikage's name out of nowhere is making me go haywire now please help. But i could imagine that you're right yes.

Tasu/Tsumu/ita have indeed such a nice dynamic. It's also really nice to see Itaru "almost quited the company because he could never be as passionate as anyone else about theater" is out there enjoying a good day with the biggest theater addicts of the company. Feels nice feels organic. I love Tasuku having fun with them, and yeah, i agree with you, Tsumugi must be one of the least draining people out there. Must be really soothing to hang out with him just like that.

AND YEAH THE PLAY WAS SO FUN. I love how Itaru improvises to save the play. It's something that stands out to me too since, yknow, Sakuya improvising when Itaru couldn't follow the script back in RomeJuli was the reason Itaru felt supported and felt the passion for theater he ended up feeling? so to see Itaru specially save the day by improvising on stage feels like a call back to that everytime to me. Like Itaru was saved once by someone covering up for him and now he will know where to be on the look out to cover up for his troupesmates no matter what. But i genuinely love how it reflected on this play and wht can i say. Itaru living out his dream of being a hero while Tsumugi is having fun playing a corrupted evil guy is just making my heart go bonkers. Oghhhh them. The way they were so in synch about all of this is really so fun to me. Nerd boys save the day.

And i love all you bring up also about their dynamic with Tasuku in that whole time. god it's so cute, they're all so cute.

AND PLEASE for the Citron thing. I could see it, and i would definitely see him hand over the roles to Muku when he can. One stone two birds, getting rid of the icky feeling AND having Muku be happy, what's more to ask.

thank you once again as always for the throughout thoughts on the event!! it's always such a blast to live and to relive the events that way!!

So next is the Summer Main chap. :). Hope you'll have a tone of fun with that ;DDD can't wait to see your thoughts there as well.

Take care :3c

[rubyscarbuncle]

SPOILERS AHOY

For RvB & RWBY

can we all agree Rooster Teeth is the WORST when it comes to killing off bad guys? 9/10 they’re so aggressively anti-climactically dealt with. It feels like they either think of a gag or a bit and go “YUP. That’s making the final cut!” or they go “Welp, we sure did have them talk a lot about how threatening they were and maybe do some scary bad guy stuff, but we’re done with that now so they’re gone.” like, take Roman Torchwick. This is the main antagonist in all of Volumes 1 and 2 of RWBY. Built up from the very first scene of the show to be this threatening head of an entire multi-layered criminal organization, and is fought as the main threat for those volumes. Goes into volume 3 with some new people kinda stepping in, they TOTALLY overshadow him, and when he finally gets the big climactic moment, the main antagonist face to face with the main protagonist on top of this cinematic air platform ready for a showdown, to which a big bird comes in, eats him, and flies off.

LIKE

WHAT.

AFTER ALL THIS TIME. ALL THIS BUILD UP? YOU’RE JUST GONNA TOTALLY SIDE-SWIP THIS ENTIRE CLIMACTIC MOMENT YOU’VE BUILT UP IN FAVOR OF GOING “yeah but it’d be funny if a bird just ated him” Is that a funny concept? Yeah, it is. SHOULD THAT BE IN THE FINAL SCRIPT? NO. 

One could argue that Roman was being overshadowed by Cinder and her crew and thus his death was a showcase of that, him biting off more than he could chew and getting chewed up himself for it. But to that I’d say, sure, that’s fair, but it’s so poorly executed. Don’t set up this entire cinematic moment for it, it’d be a much more killer moment if right before everything went down, Cinder just ICES Torchwick, and then BOOM. The explosions, the scene with Penny, the monsters, PYRRHA. THE SCENE WITH HER WOULD HIT SO MUCH HARDER. “these new bad guys mean BUSINESS. NO SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON SHENANIGANS ANYMORE.” 

Sharkface from RvB. He has this entire fight scene (which is already pretty starkly mediocre) but they try and hype him up and get you to care about him, go “remember him?” and have scenes with him talking about how much he wants to kill the freelancers and how much hate he has for them and how he’s this tough guy that’s gonna be a big deal, never does anything, gets in one fight, loses, never really gets to use his flamethrowers, gets his helmet knocked off and is at the feet of Wash and Carolina and goes “YEAH BUT, AS LONG AS I’M ALIVE YOU ALL ARE GONNA DIE!!!!! >:(((((” to which the two just kinda look at each other and just light him up and go “welp. That’s done.” LIKE EXCUSE ME??? Do I care about this guy? Not really, but I definitely thought his inclusion was awesome on my first watch and got so excited to see what they’d do with him to which they did nothing outside of go “man remember when we had good action scenes?” Every time I re-watch the chorus trilogy and sharkface comes back in the prison scene I go “oh yeah, this guy” because I never even remember he’s in the season. To which I’m then reminded why I don’t remember when he proceeds to stand around occasionally letting the viewer know that he’s got history with the freelancers in case they forgot, and clarifying extra so they know he’s the same guy from the freelancer saga. They never really knew what they were doing with him either though so I guess that makes sense. I’m sure if given the time I could list more villains RT has done dirty than just these two, but I’m tired.

[liopleurodean]

Season 10, Episode 20: Angel Heart

Isn't that the Novak house?

This must be a flashback

Poor Amelia

Oh no

A dream?

So the mom is alive

What?

That's freaky

She's definitely not

One of her happiest moments

Claire!

Ouch

Interesting

Poor guy

She's looking for mom

Fair point

She's the furthest thing from a girl scout

Claire...

She never gave a last name

Yikes

Dude.

At least he called

Oh, Cas

Heyo!

Yeah...

Dad mode™

Sounds like fun

You were hurt!

Ouch

I'm sure it was

They want to help

Closure

He did it for you, Claire

He didn't help much

Oh boy

Wait a second. Give or take, two years ago she might've been on the trail of Emmanuel.

Cas...

Right

Um. Bye Dean

Escape artist

Yay

She doesn't like you, Cas

Dean.

Fitting

Yikes

Dean can be scary

Dean, you need to chill a little

Oh, Dean does NOT like those

I'm sure

Hah! If it was Roy, I'd laugh

Weird

And that's not concerning at all

This is weird

I don't believe him

Spooky

But you're getting it anyway

Makes sense

He didn't know his mom

AND THIS IS PRE-SEASON TWELVE????

I'm pretty sure I've heard this out of context and I thought it was post-Amara, but he's literally just talking about time travel 😭😭😭

Sam.

Yeah...

That wouldn't stop Sam

I'm sure

Spooky

An angel?

Yikes

Hey, remember when Sam ragged on Dean for credit card scams? Yeah, me too

Yeah...

Okay fair

What was he taking from Amelia? It almost looked like grace

Aww

GRUMPY CAT

I GOT IT AT THE HOT TOPICAL

And Dean was with him 😭 can you imagine Dean Winchester in a Hot Topic

It's cute!

It wasn't Dean

Dean...

Slammed his face into a table, though

Um.

Right

He didn't kill the guy, though

You've probably heard of Eric Clapton, but if you haven't, he's known for Knockin' on Heaven's Door, I Shot the Sheriff, and Layla (as part of Derek and the Dominos). Jimmy Page is the guitarist and founder of Led Zeppelin.

Nice, Dean

Angel blade, definitely

Of course

Weird

Probably

It's not that simple

Claire.

He's a loose cannon

Dean...

Daddy-daughter date!

Ouch

Claire is more antagonistic

I mean. True.

That's true

Cas... that's a loaded question

Sam.

Sam is right on this one, but it's hard

I LOVE THIS SCENE

Caddyshack!

Bill Murray is awesome

Come on, Claire

How can you know if you like it or not if you haven't seen it?

He's so dramatic

Ok, boomer

Happy Gilmore.

Sylvester Stallone face

The mini-golf is rare

I love the side-by-side

That was unfortunate

Also Cas was a jerk back then

Several times over

That's good to know, I guess

Dean?

I have no clue what's happening

Yup!

So like... an archangel?

*insert Michael joke here*

SMART DEAN TRUTHER

What?

Depends on the angel

There's Amelia

Not exactly

Oh boy

Poor girl

Dean, maybe the lore is both. They prey on some and help others

That's fantastic

Wouldn't be the evilest angel out there

Nah

THE GRASSHOPPER

No promises

Thanks, Cas

That angel was doing some messed up stuff

That's so sad

Jimmy's been gone for a long time

Cas...

Speaking of Claire...

Oh, Amelia

Wake up, Sam

Yup

Dean was right!

That's horrifying

Not for the humans

There's the sword

Evidently not

You kind of screwed up there, buddy

Baby's first hunt!

Two years

Cas!

Family reunion!

Protect your mom

Of course

Where did he go?

Sam?

Enough with the jump scares!

Apparently not

That's suspicious

Oh no

I don't think it is

Figures

Oh no...

Cas to the rescue

This is going great

Um. Bad idea

He's mopping the floor with them

Claire!

There's no saving her

Oh, Claire...

She's in her real heaven now

The light is beautiful

Oh, Jimmy...

This is so sad, but so sweet

Wayward sisters!!!

Heck yeah!

I think Jody has it handled

Yeah

Aw, he got her a birthday gift!

HAH

That's sweet

Worth a shot

Awww

Dude. Throw away the wrapping paper

He's not even 40

She didn't know better

I hope so

Oh, Dean...

Absolutely

This is cute

Hugs!

Of course

Somewhere between

[stuff-from-the-void-matron]

Laurel Wreaths & Animal Teeth (11)

(c!technoblade x fem!reader)

(people showed chapter 10 some nice love so here’s chapter 11. sorry it took so long to get out. I threw my back out and doing just about anything has been physical torture. but I’m starting to feel better so here’s hoping I’ll write more soon. but remember, please comment and reblog. they keep me motivated! <3)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things settled down pretty well after the election. Almost unbelievably so. Wilbur pretty much completely disappeared afterwards. You felt worried and voiced your concerns with Niki, saying you hoped he wasn’t terribly upset he’d lost the election. You understand he no doubt felt incredibly attached to the title of president, and he may feel resentful of you for ‘stealing’ it from him. Niki smiled at you, glad you were being kinder about this than the other contestants would be in your shoes, but sighed and said,

“Yeah, he’ll probably be upset for a while. But I’m sure he’ll come around to accept you as the new president.”

You gave her a thankful smile, even if you didn’t quite believe her words. But then you paused and wondered if maybe, despite all your reservations about the brunet man, it was possible to smooth things over with him? Maybe all you needed to do was sit and have a talk with him. Perhaps he’d gone insane in the original timeline because both Schlatt and Quackity were… well, for lack of a nicer term, total dicks to him. They were openly antagonistic to the former president, banishing him and his younger brother from the very nation they fought and died for, which no doubt added to his crumbling mental state after L’manberg chose a new leader.

But maybe you could be different from Schlatt and Quackity. Honestly you had no desire to be cruel to Wilbur, though you would not put up with any of his BS, and honestly you hoped to have a neutral relationship with the man. So you decided right then that there was no harm in trying. Your smile brightened and you nodded and said to the blonde woman,

“You’re probably right, he just needs some time. Maybe after a few days he and I can have lunch and just talk. Clear the air between us. I’ve never been president before so I’m sure he’d be a great help in getting me better settled in!”

Niki was super glad you were being so chill about all of this. She knew you were the best choice for president. That’s probably why she’d voted for you. (yeah she’d heard your little speech and was really moved) But she’d never tell Wilbur that. He fully believed she’d voted for Coconut2020, and to be fair she had intended to until she was so moved by your speech. You had a way with words that just put the listener at ease.

“Yeah, I’m sure things will be alright,” Niki replied with a cheerful smile.

-0-

You settled into being president pretty well all things considered. There wasn’t as much work as you were expecting there to be for a president. But perhaps your only frame of reference (the US president) was a bit different than your current job (l’manberg president). L’manberg was super small actually. Especially compared to the United States. Hell, Punz’ house was almost as big as L’manberg if you remember right. 

You’re glad there wasn’t much presidential work to do at that moment. Because you wouldn’t have had time to juggle that work plus going back to your village and packing up some of your stuff in your ender chest before telling the villagers (and azo) what actually happened while you were gone. Which had been an ordeal in itself. You felt bad for just leaving to a new place so out of the blue. But you felt obligated to complete the role of president given to you. You’d feel less obligated if there was some other option you felt safe passing the torch to. Someone not a child. That left out every minor on this server and Wilbur. 

Part of you considered Fundy and Niki for the job but another part of you doubted if they’d be able to handle it. Honestly they shouldn’t have to either. It’s no secret that being president is one of the most stressful jobs a person can have. Being in charge of the safety and well-being of a group of people is enough to turn anyone’s hair grey. Even if the group was just like 10 or so people like L’manberg had. You remember seeing a post about pictures at the start and end of American presidents’ time in office. And each president looked at least a decade older in each after picture. Complete with wrinkles and grey hair. Those happened in FOUR years! Their jobs were so stressful that they aged 10+ years in only 4 years.

You were pulled from your thoughts by Tommy practically shouting “We’re here!!” as you all made it over the hill that led to your village. The first thing you saw was the towering bamboo wall around the perimeter of the place. You’d been so in your own head that you’d actually forgotten about the two boys on either side of you. They’d insisted they accompany you to your village as ‘presidential bodyguards’ despite the fact you said you would be fine. They’d practically demanded to go, to ensure the ‘new prez’ didn’t get attacked on the journey. Amused and touched that they cared, you’d finally relented and let them come along. You’d only be gone a short while anyways. At least that’s what you told yourself. 

It didn’t take long to pack up everything you wanted to take with you to L’manberg. You put all the nice gifts the villagers gave you (as well as a couple of the banners you made) and some of the stuff you made and packed it away into a shulker box you pulled from the Creative inventory before picking up said box and putting it inside your ender chest. Then you just picked that chest up and tucked it safely in your inventory and you were basically done. With packing anyways.. You still had to talk to the villagers and let them know you had to move away for a while. But you doubted they’d be heartbroken or anything. Maybe bummed out but they’d understand. It’s not like they’d be lost without you. They’d been living in this world long before you showed up and they’d probably be here long after you left.

Then you were ringing the village bell. And like every time you did the villagers all poked their heads out from wherever they were to see who rang it and what was going on. And when they saw you they brightened and hurried over to see what was happening. They gathered around you and the bell, murmuring curiously between themselves. You sighed and cleared your throat, gathering their attention to you before you hesitated, not entirely sure what to say. Should you explain the entire story from start to finish? No, probably not. That would take a while and you felt like they’d get bored fast. But just blurting out that you were leaving felt too abrupt and blunt. Though your indecision ended up not mattering because Tubbo finally lost patience with the silence and just let the metaphorical cat out of the bag in his usual laid back candid way.

“Are you gonna tell them you’re moving away?”

Oh that caught the villagers’ attention and suddenly you were surrounded by displeased grunts and hums, like surround sound stereos. You sighed and confirmed yes, you were. So with the news out there you started explaining what happened the day before, or at least a shortened version of it. You mentioned how you’d gone to support Tommy, placing a hand on his shoulder as you said this. Then you said how you’d sorta advised everyone to vote for who they felt would lead them smartly, and how you guess they took that as you entering the presidential ring.. And finally how you’d won the election by some points and how you’d not wanted to reject their trust so you’d accepted the job…

“Reader is our new president!!” Tommy practically shouted, clearly excited. 

Though from the disgruntled murmurs from the villagers they didn’t seem happy.. But you told them it would be okay. You’d come and visit them as often as you could while juggling your new job. But even with that promise they didn’t seem happy. Your shoulders slumped a bit and without thinking you said,

“I’m not happy about having to leave the village and move away either. But I made a promise to the people of L’manberg, one I intend to keep.” 

Despite not feeling the best about this you were determined to keep your word.

“Besides, it’s not like I can just pack up the village and move you all next to L’manberg!” you said with a flippant wave of your hand.

But the idea didn’t sound too bad to the villagers. They basically worshipped you as their guardian deity. So if loading up all their possessions and hauling them to a new place meant they got to stay within reach of their deity then so be it. They’d still be living in squalor if it hadn’t been for your kindness and generosity, so they wanted to follow you wherever you went. Be it sunny skies, harsh rain, freezing snow. 

So they all made excited grunts and you blinked at them, catching on to their train of thought pretty fast. You shook your head, missing the confused looks the two teen boys were shooting between you and the villagers, and said they couldn’t follow you to L’manberg. Hearing this made the boys’ eyebrows shoot up and they started asking if the villagers wanted to come live in L’manberg. You sighed and said they seemed to, yes, but it wasn’t viable because there was nowhere for them to live! Moving them all on a spur of the moment thing would be reckless. Not only would the journey be very hard on them and take quite a while but there’s also no homes available for them in L’manberg. 

“We could make some houses for them if they want to move to L’manberg!” Tubbo said with a little grin, not seeing the issue with them coming over.

You rubbed a hand down your face, careful not to jostle your mask too much. But then you sighed and finally caved in. 

“Okay, you can all move next to L’manberg,” you began, but before they could cheer you cut them off with, “BUT! They can’t leave today. I refuse to let them take the whole long journey to L’manberg just so they can be homeless when they get there.”

You said you and some others (who you would pay) would build a new village next door to L’manberg for them. And once it was complete you would come back and help ferry them all over safely. But you might have to take them over in small groups to avoid hostile mobs and stuff. Though despite all the risks the villagers seemed quite happy with everything. So you pulled out your notebook, the same one you’d used when you first showed up to the village actually, and made a note to start construction on a new village to either the North or East of L’manberg. Or whatever side had better building room. But now that that all was settled you bid the villagers goodbye, saying you’d start construction as soon as possible.

With that out of the way you decided to pay a visit to Azo. You missed the adorable little piglin and hoped she was doing okay. Your boys followed you into the Nether, asking what you needed from there so badly. That made you pause and realize they’d never officially met Azo! You smiled down at them and said you’d sort of taken up guardianship of a little piglin girl who lost her parents. You’d expected questions and some comments but got nothing but silence in return, which left you feeling a bit confused. But when you glanced over at the boys you saw Tubbo looking lost in thought and Tommy looking mildly upset. This caused you to stop short, which made them pause and look back at you. 

“What’s wrong?” you couldn’t help but ask.

But they both waved you off, Tubbo with a soft ‘what do you mean?’ and Tommy with an almost harsh sounding  ‘nothing’, both of which didn’t sound the least bit convincing. So you tilted your head to the side and in a firmer (but still gentle) tone you asked again what was wrong. Tommy’s nose scrunched up and he crossed his arms, adamantly saying nothing and asking if you all could hurry up and see ‘this kid’ since you had to hurry back to L’manberg. Tubbo tried to piggyback off Tommy, his smile attempting to be brighter as he agreed, saying he wanted to meet your ‘new kid’. That’s when it hit you..

“Are you two upset that I adopted a kid?��

Tommy wasn’t very subtle with his feelings, his loud “WHAT?! NO!” didn’t convince you of his supposed ‘uncaring’ regarding the situation. Tubbo however reacted slower than his friend, like he was processing what you’d asked before he gave a laugh that sounded too stilted to be genuine and denied being upset, saying that was ridiculous. Tommy actually started walking away, heading in the direction you three had followed when you were together here last time, with the goatish brunet watching him anxiously. But you called for him to stop and come back, maybe a touch sterner than you’d wanted. But when the blond came back to you he refused to look at you, just scowling down at his feet. You felt your heart ache at the sight and let out a calm breath.

You wrapped one arm around the blond’s shoulders and the other around his back, pulling him into a comforting hug. You laid your cheek on the top of his mop of hair, glancing down at Tubbo who was shifting between watching you both and glancing away nervously. Without much thought you removed the hand holding Tommy’s back and instead used it to carefully tug the brunet boy into the hug. They just stood there at first, still and awkward almost. But once Tubbo wrapped his arms around your hips and Tommy’s back his blond friend quickly caved and sunk into your warmth, wrapping his arms around you both tightly, like he was afraid you’d both disappear. 

You took a breath and gently began to rock the two back and forth, missing how Tommy’s eyes pricked with hot tears as he heard your steady heartbeat against his ear. After a couple minutes of just standing there relaxed into the hug you said quietly but with as much emotion as you could put into it,

“Tommy, Tubbo, please talk to me. I can do many things, but reading minds is not one of them.”

You felt your shirt become warm and you frowned and hugged them tighter,

“If something is bothering you two, if you’re sad or upset or angry then you need to tell me so I can maybe do something to make you feel better. I never wanna see either of you upset, so please… talk to me?”

The air around you three was unintentionally heavy, only the sound of fire crackling nearby broke up the silence. It was killing you to remain quiet but you didn’t want to push them to speak. That would just make them clam up and possibly push you away. So you waited, just holding and rocking them as you did. And your eyes brightened when your patience was rewarded.

“.... Why’d you have to go and get a kid?”

You half expected for Tommy to be the one to break the silence, he was always so against the quiet. But no, instead it had been Tubbo who finally buckled and voiced his thoughts. You couldn’t help but ask what he meant. And he sort of stuttered over his words, not sounding exactly sure what he wanted to say before he got his thoughts and mouth to cooperate.

“I thought you already-.. I mean you have us.. Why’d you-..”

If your heart could physically break like glass then you knew after hearing that it would be in a hundred pieces on the floor. You couldn’t help but pull them closer and bury your face between theirs, unknowingly letting out a softened keening sound. 

“I want you both to listen, just because I take another child under my wing doesn’t mean I no longer care about you two. I don’t think I could ever stop caring about you. You’re my boys, and I-....” here is where you hesitated, not wanting so sound weird but you continued,

“If you both want… I mean since neither of you have one to my knowledge… I’d happily be your mom.”

Shy isn’t exactly how you’d describe the two boys you’d begun to care for, but there was no other word accurate enough to describe how they agreed to your offer to be their mom. Tubbo gave an almost meek, “alright, sure” while holding onto your waist and Tommy gave a long-suffering sigh while trying to discreetly wipe his eyes and said, “I guess you’re cool enough to be my mum. Barely though.” That caused you to let out a loud guffaw, your grip on them loosening enough to where you could ruffle the blond’s hair.

“Ohhhhh, Big man himself thinks I’M cool? Very high praise~”

The heavy atmosphere lightened and your laughter had the two boys laughing too. But then a sly grin took over your face and you chuckled. The sound alerted the boys of your mischievous mood and they looked up when you started talking.

“Well, now that you’ve accepted me as your mom I’m legally obligated to do all sorts of ‘Mom Stuff’, I hope you realize that. Like making sure you both eat things besides bread and meat, make sure you sleep regularly, and do the spit thing when you’ve got dirt on your face.”

They gave you a look that was a mixture of confusion and mild disgust, and Tommy couldn’t help but blurt out,

“What the fuck do you mean by ‘spit thing’??”

Unbeknownst to him, he’d activated your Mom Trap Card and your grin grew into a smirk and you raised your hand, casually commenting that he seemed to have a bit of dirt on his cheek, and then you licked your thumb and moved it towards his face. He shrieked and practically threw himself backwards to avoid your spit covered finger. But you still had your arm around his shoulders so he didn’t get far. He rapidly screamed out a verbal blur of ‘nonononoNONONO!’ that had Tubbo nearly doubling over, howling with laughter.

Though his laughter abruptly cut off with a gasp when Tommy escaped your hold, causing you to turn your sights on him. He let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like the bleat of a goat before turning and running from you. You just cackled and chased after him, your longer legs giving you the advantage. You caught up with him before he knew it and lifted him in a backwards hug. Now it was Tommy’s turn to laugh at Tubbo.

But you did let him down, without cleaning his face, and smiled down at the pair and said sincerely,

“All joking aside… I think you two would make a cool pair of big brothers..”

Tommy took that and ran with it, saying of COURSE he would be! He was practically Tubbo’s big brother already! Which just caused Tubbo to argue with him that uh, NO, he was older than Tommy! So HE was the older brother out of the two of them, if anything! And oh boy that caused them both to go back and forth, arguing about who was the ‘older brother’ between them. Tubbo insisted it was him because he was born first but Tommy insisted it was him because he was taller. You just shook your head and led the bickering duo down the familiar path to Azo’s little ‘house’ you built her. And as you reached the open area you saw her outside the house playing with a couple other baby piglins. But when she looked up and saw you she squealed happily and all but sprinted over to you. You made sure to bend down and hold your hands out to catch her. 

She was so excited to see you again that she totally missed the two boys standing at your sides. At least until she heard them and then she stiffened and stared down at Tubbo from her place in your arms. Neither boy really knew what to say so you decided to intervene and put out introductions. You tapped her hand and smiled down at her, helping her worry ease a bit.

“Azo, I missed you! I want to introduce you to my sons! This,” you gestured to Tubbo, “is Tubbo. And this,” you turned your head and pointed to the blond on the other side, “is Tommy. They’re both very nice. And they wanted to meet you!”

You turned so you and Azo were both facing the boys and saw them smiling genuinely. Relief flooded you, thinking they were actually glad to meet the little piglin, unaware the smiles were more stemming from the fact you’d called them your sons so easily.

But you saw the wariness still on Azo’s face and worried she’d not like her new brothers. Suddenly you got a bright idea and your smile widened as you spoke up and said, 

“Hey, don’t you two have a gift for Azo? Maybe something yellow and shiny~?”

Tubbo’s mouth dropped down into an ‘o’ as he realized what you meant. Then he elbowed Tommy and then pulled open his inventory and started looking through it. Tommy glared at him, moving his arm away after getting jabbed, but then his eyebrows raised when he saw his best friend pull out a gold ingot from his inventory. Then he understood what you meant and hurried to look through his inventory as well. Thankfully he did have some gold ingots leftover from when he was crafting golden apples.

Azo perked up when she saw the gold ingot Tubbo had taken from his inventory. And when he offered it to her she couldn’t hold back the happy snort she let out as she joyfully accepted it. You giggled at how she admired the saffron colored bar. And when Tommy extended his own gold ingot you laughed when Azo’s little tail began to swish back and forth in glee as she took that one too. She looked so cute as she admired her new items. You rubbed her back and said,

“See? They’re pretty nice, right? Why don’t we go have something to eat? And we can hang out.”

The tiny piglin seemed more than happy with that plan and snorted happily. You carried her towards the house, her little friends having long since scurried off. The teens behind you followed your lead, joining you in the house. You sat Azo down and suggested she show off her toys to Tubbo and Tommy, which she started doing gladly. The two played with her while you brewed some tea and crafted some cookies. Chilled rosehip tea and shortbread cookies were on the menu and after it was all done you laid it out on the table before calling them over. The boys were all too happy for the chilly drink, the cold giving them reprieve from the heat of the Nether. But Azo was shocked by the cold, not having experienced something like this before. It took a bit of explanation to get her to give it a try, and despite how it made her shiver she seemed to really like it. And cookies were always popular. So the plate was emptied in a flash.

As you sat with the three, listening to Tommy brag to Azo about how ‘cool and tough’ he was and how he’s practically a hero in the Overworld while Tubbo interjected with contradictions, you felt yourself smile serenely; truly happy where you were right then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@lady-bee-fechin @kacchasu @putridjoy @lunawritesstories @galaxypankitty3030 @paradigmax @zachariethememerie @killmewithafanfic @trinity-1002107 @hufflepuff-demigod @truthdaze @exorcisms-with-elmo @redbloodtea @heythereimhaylz @olyink @jackalopedoodles @nikkineeky @artsimatsu @hufflepuff-demigod @corpiet @beepa99 @anxiousnarwhale @bananaaddictmilkshake @realitycanbeajerk @lostandsouciant @thegeekisheere @sparkling-gayyy @woman-soot @xxtwizztedxx @v10dw4lk3r

[krabmeat]

☊⏃⋏ ⟟ ⏚⟒ ⟒⋏⎅⟒⍀⋔⏃⋏ ⏃⋏⍜⋏? ⏃⋏⊬⍙⏃⊬⌇ ⋏⍜⍙ ⏁⊑⏃⏁'⌇ ⏃⌰⌰ ⍜⎍⏁ ⍜⎎ ⏁⊑⟒ ⍙⏃⊬. ☌⍜⎅ ⍀⟒⏃⎅⟒⍀ ☌⟒⏁⏁⟟⋏☌ ⍀⟒⎐⟟⎐⟒⎅ ⎍⋏⟒⌖⌿⟒☊⏁⟒⎅⌰⊬ ⏚⊬ ⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔? ⟟⏁'⌇ ⌰⟟☍⟒ - ⏃ ⍀⟒⏃⌰⌰⊬ ⏚⏃⎅⏃⌇⌇ ⏃⋏⏁⏃☌⍜⋏⟟⌇⏁ ☌⍜⎅ ⏁⊑⏃⏁ ☌⟒⏁⌇ ⌿⎍⌰⌰⟒⎅ ⍜⎍⏁ ⍜⎎ ⏁⊑⟒ ⎍⋏⎅⟒⍀⍙⍜⍀⌰⎅, ☊⏃⌰⌰⟟⋏☌ ⎅⍀⟒⏃⋔ ⏁⊑⟒⟟⍀ "⌇⏃⎐⟟⍜⎍⍀" (⏚⎍⏁ ⟟⋏ ⏃ ⋔⍜⍀⟒ ⌇⏃⏁⟟⍀⟟☊⏃⌰ ⍙⏃⊬ ⟟⋏⌇⏁⟒⏃⎅ ⍜⎎ ☌⟒⋏⎍⟟⋏⟒⌰⊬ ⌇⟒⟒⟟⋏☌ ⏁⊑⟒ ⋔⏃⌇☍⟒⎅ ⋔⏃⋏ ⏃⌇ ⏁⊑⟒⟟⍀ ⊑⟒⍀⍜ ☊⏃⎍⌇⟒ ⟟⋏ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌿⏃⌇⏁ ⏁⊑⟒⊬'⎐⟒ ⋔⍜⌇⏁ ⌰⟟☍⟒⌰⊬ ☊⏃⌰⌰⟒⎅ ⟒⎐⟒⍀⊬⍜⋏⟒ ⏁⊑⏃⏁ ⊑⟒⌰⌿⟒⎅ ⏁⊑⟒⋔ ⏁⊑⟒⟟⍀ ⋔⟟☌⊑⏁⊬ ⊑⟒⌰⌿⟒⍀ ⏁⍜ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌿⍜⟟⋏⏁ ⍙⊑⟒⍀⟒ ⏁⊑⟒ ⏁⟟⏁⌰⟒ ⎎⟒⟒⌰⌇ ⍜⎐⟒⍀⎍⌇⟒⎅ ⏃⋏⎅ ⎍⋏⎅⟒⌇⟟⍀⏃⏚⌰⟒). ⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⍀⍜⏃⋔⟒⎅ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌰⏃⋏⎅⌇ ⍜⎎ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌇⋔⌿, ⏚⍀⟟⋏☌⟟⋏☌ ⏁⟒⍀⍀⍜⍀ ⏃⋏⎅ ⊑⟒⌰⌰⎎⟟⍀⟒ ⏃☊⍀⍜⌇⌇ ⏁⊑⟒ ⍜⎐⟒⍀⍙⍜⍀⌰⎅, ⌰⟒⏁⏁⟟⋏☌ ⏁⊑⟒⟟⍀ ☍⟒⌿⏁ ⟟⋏ ⍀⏃☌⟒ ⌇⏁⍀⍜⌰⌰ ⎎⍀⟒⟒. ⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⟒⋏⎅ ⎍⌿ ⟟⋏ ⏁⊑⟒ ⏁⎍⋏⎅⍀⏃, ⏁⊑⟒ ⏚⎍⍀⋏⟟⋏☌ ⎎⌰⏃☍⟒⌇ ⍜⎎ ⏃⌇⊑⟒⌇ ☌⟒⏁⏁⟟⋏☌ ⌰⍜⌇⏁ ⟟⋏ ⏁⊑⟒ ⊑⏃⍀⌇⊑ ⌿⟟⌰⟒⌇ ⍜⎎ ⌇⋏⍜⍙. ⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⊑⏃⌿⌿⟒⋏⟒⎅ ⏁⍜ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⌇⏁⎍⋔⏚⌰⟒⎅ ⎍⌿⍜⋏ ⏁⊑⟒ ☊⍜⏁⏁⏃☌⟒⌇ ⍜⎎ ⏁⍙⍜ ⟟⋔⋔⍜⍀⏁⏃⌰ ☌⍜⎅⌇ ⏁⊑⏃⏁ ⏁⊑⟒⊬ ⋔⏃⊬ ⍜⍀ ⋔⏃⊬ ⋏⍜⏁ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⎍⌇⟒⎅ ⏁⍜ ☍⋏⍜⍙. ⍙⍜⋏⎅⟒⍀ ⍙⊑⏃⏁'⌰⌰ ⊑⏃⌿⌿⟒⋏? ⟟ ⍙⍜⎍⌰⎅ ⌰⟟☍⟒ ⏁⍜ ⌇⟒⟒ ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⏁⏃☍⟒ ⟟⋏ ⏁⊑⟟⌇.

- ⟒⋏⎅⟒⍀⋔⏃⋏ ⏃⋏⍜⋏

𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚋𝚎𝚗𝚝

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜: philza, techno, Wilbur,(next few only mentioned)Mexican dream, schlatt, dream

𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚜: they/them

𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: fire, death, arson, betrayal mention, being used, reference to drugs, slight cursing

𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜: translation vvvvv

Can i be enderman anon? anyways now that's all out of the way. God reader getting revived unexpectedly by dream? it's like - a really badass antagonist god that gets pulled out of the underworld, calling dream their "saviour" (but in a more satirical way instead of genuinely seeing the masked man as their hero cause in the past they've most likely called everyone that helped them their mighty helper to the point where the title feels overused and undesirable). They roamed the lands of the smp, bringing terror and hellfire across the overworld, letting their kept in rage stroll free. They end up in the tundra, the burning flakes of ashes getting lost in the harsh piles of snow. They happened to have stumbled upon the cottages of two immortal gods that they may or may not have used to know. Wonder what'll happen? i would like to see your take in this.

 - enderman anon

AHHH IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I DONT KNOW IF YOULL EVEN READ THIS STILL BUT TY FOR THE REQUEST IT ISNT THE BEST QUALITY IM SORRY :[[[

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You almost don't recognize the sensation of grass against your calloused and rough hands. You were in the void playing solitaire with Schlatt and Mexican Dream, and the next thing you knew you were suddenly pulled harshly by the back of your collar, falling on your spine. The looming mask of Dream is what stood above you, but he looked different. Longer hair, smelly, wearing a stained lime green jumpsuit with ‘0001' sewn into it and covered in cuts, scars and bruises. But before you could even question why Dream was suddenly there, he stepped back into the void, the void slowly surrounding and consuming him the further he went backwards. His now bony hand is still tightly gripped onto the back of your shirt, so while struggling your body is also enveloped in darkness. All it took was one blink and there you were on a patch of grass, staring at the pale blue sky.

"Huh."

Was all that came out of your mouth. You were still shocked at the turn of events that just happened, but no longer grounded. A running river nearby stunned your senses. How long had you been dead? It felt like years, but when you look around at the familiar forest you died in, not much had changed except for a couple newly planted saplings here and there. The swirling ashes you remembered before you died had all settled and compressed into the soil.

The river showed a strange reflection of yourself- your features have clearly sunken into your skull and there's a streak of white hair coming from your scalp along with words in fancy gold letters on your arm reading,

"May thy woes and hurt of the past no longer eradicate the upwards of this lost souls future. Allow thine to be praised by Ender themselves and be granted another chance at mortality."

Scrubbing or picking at your arm did nothing, so onwards you went walking along the forest to what you remember being a bustling "community".

Each mound of dirt you saw only brought memories of your death, of the place and people who sought to treat you like you were disposable. And now that you’re alive, you hate that they technically ended up being right. Your death; alone in a forest. Running away from the unexpected attacker, ashamed and too prideful to die in the prying eyes of your enemies. It fills you with rage, all the lives taken by your hands and for what? You weren’t overreacting, you knew that for sure. And before you knew it, you stole some fresh flint and steel from a random chest and got to work. 

You had always wanted to touch the fires you set. The soothing feeling you got from watching wood burn to char and ashes satisfied you. And it made it all the more euphoric to know it was trees of your manipulator's land. Running across the land, with flames as far as you could see when you looked behind you. The heat swirled around your neck and went into your nose, but the feeling was muscle memory at that point. You were still riding your high when a voice reached out to you, luckily when you were finally calm.

"What- Y/n? Hold on, is that really you Y/n..?"

You spin on your heels to the familiar manipulative British voice of a person you haven't seen in a long time. 

"Wilbur?! Man, I haven't seen another person's face other than those two addicts in a while- you look different." 

His eyes much like yours are sunken deep into his skull, purple-pink bags under his eyes and dull skin. Wilburs shocked lips fade into an opened mouth smile when he walks up to you with his hands momentarily confused on what they should do. Eventually, his right hand settles on clasping your left shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze.

“Y/n it is so good to see you! You look quite different yourself, wouldn’t you think-? Oh, look! We’re matching!”

The grey streak in your hair seems to make another appearance when Wilbur briefly smacks it with his middle and pointer finger. 

“Ay, it’s nice to see you too Wil, but back up for a second alright? I've got something to ask you by the way…”

Wilburs head peaks in interest, urging you to go on.

“I’m guessing that little streak in your hair wasn’t a fashion choice- and if it was it’s a bit strange- but how’d you get it? You died when you blew up L’manburg! I mean c'mon, people don’t just, well…REVIVE!”

He starts to walk. You aren’t quite sure where, but stumbling along with Wilbur while his arm is draped lazily atop your shoulders seems to suffice. 

“Ahh Y/n, you’d be surprised. The most WONDERFUL thing happened, actually! Years and years in my hell of a train station; do you know who was at the subway door when it finally opened, Y/n? Dream!”

“Wh- Dream?!”

Appalled, you try to stop in your tracks but fail when wilburs arm is still pushing forward. His storytelling voice dies down to curiosity and excitement.

“Wait, did he save you too? He did, didn’t he? Oh, this is wonderful!”

Wilbur emits eagerism and you suddenly realize what you could do with his desperacy to be socially accepted. Putting on the most exaggerated and animated voice, you speak. 

“Oh my god yeah! Gosh, that Dream guy is my hero! Thanks to him, I get to have another chance at living again, and isn’t that just…swell.”

In all honesty you didn’t really try hard to sound sincere but by the look of Wilbur, it seemed to work just fine. 

“Right?! I’ve been meaning to visit him in the prison if you’d like to tag along with me the day I go? I’m sure he’d love to see you, since he revived you and all.”

Oh, you were sure Dream wanted to see you. He wants a boon- a trade. Why else would he revive two of the most historically significant people on the server if not to make some sort of deal with them? Sure, Wilbur is as gullible and carefree as ever but you at least still had scraps of mental stability and level-headedness that made you all the more a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention Wilbur doesn’t know that Dream killed you, but telling him that now would blow your act. You decide to keep your thoughts to yourself.

“Yeahh, sure! I’d love to go, just tell me when.”

And that’s the end of that conversation. The two of you walk to wherever Wilbur is going. It honestly surprised you how he couldn’t see through your apathy. From what you remembered, he was keen on being wise about people and their intentions but you guess years and years in hell do things to a person.

Somehow, you’re stuck in your mind for long enough that only now do you feel the sharp winter air making the hairs on your arms and legs stand straight up. 

“Wait, snow?”

The tundra was a drastic contrast to the void you were once in with schlatt and Mexican Dream. Instead of black as far as you could see, it was a blinding powdery white. 

‘Mexican Dream would’ve liked it here, probably would have tried to snort the snow like coke.’

You weren’t built for the snow, though. Hell- you didn’t even have a memory of anyone living in a tundra when you were alive! Why was Wilbur even in the tundra? You didn’t have the energy to ask, still feeling brittle and tired, back aching from laying on the dry dirt longer than expected earlier. 

“Yeah, just figured I’d show you around! Plus I already need to grab a couple things from an ender chest and this was the closest by. I’m a very busy man, after all.”

But why were there so many footprints in the snow? As far as you knew, Wilbur was the only one who lived out in the tundra- and he didn’t seem like the active type at all. There were strange shapes as well, large hooved footprints. However, all thinking comes to a halt at the same time Wilbur does.

“We’re here! You might see some familiar faces cause I live with people.”

Well, that answers the footsteps as well as the tall red-caped piglin hybrid giving leftover bones and raw meat to a polar bear.

“TECHNO! TECHNO, HEY!”

He tenses up for a second, you could tell he wanted to be left alone but that didn’t really bother Wilbur. But you recognize him. The name and the apparel- that guy is Technoblade. The same Technoblade who stood by your side while the two of you blew L’manburg up for the last time, and now the Technoblade who resides in a cottage shrouded in snow.

“Technoblade?!”

Hearing your voice being carried by the crisp winter air, he turns around immediately to see you and Wilbur a few feet away. Techno stood there dumbfounded, but he didn’t know why. He wasn’t particularly joyed or ecstatic to see you, but he was at the very least happy to see an old ally back. 

“Y/n? Oh my god, now we’ve got TWO of you? We don’t have room for another one, alright?”

For some it might be hard to see the meaning behind his words. Luckily you’ve talked to him enough to where you can tell he’s being playful.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just build directly on top of your house. Besides, who WOULDN'T want to be near me 24-7?”

“Me-“

“Oh f*ck off.”

You would’ve thought that that was Wilbur due to the similar accent, but there was something off. The slight gruffness and age, yet still succeeding in sounding mellow.

“Phil! How’s my favorite old bird doing?”

He gives you a face. Not a happy one like you expected, rather a face that says ‘really?’ Probably because of the old comment. The two of you briefly hug, Phil’s tattered wings stretching out slightly.

“I’m doing alright, are you okay? Here, would you like to come in? It’s pretty cold outside, you probably haven’t seen snow in a couple years.”

He wasn’t wrong after all. You were freezing your toes off and were itching for lemon tea. The kind Phil used to make when he, Technoblade and Dream discussed plans on destroying L’manburg. Ah, the good ol days…

“Of course! We’ve got a lot to talk about- you still have that old chess board?”

“Yes, but first you have some explaining to do about the fire over in that tree, Y/n. You just got back and you’re already burning down forests?!”

“Did someone say fire?”

Techno has an eager stride in his step once he also looks back to see the raging lights of orange and red in the nearby forest.

“Don’t worry Phil! It’s just- ahh, a controlled burn..?”

Your tone of voice is unsure when a black crow shoots down from the sky into the snow in front of you. It’s left wing is charred and has smoke dancing from the burn. Philza looks at you with a stern glare.

“Oh my f*cking god…that’s it! We’re all going inside now, you too Techno. I don’t want you and Y/n going on a rampage.”

[bokunosimpfiction]

Yandere!Heisenberg x Reader Pt 3

A/N: Since y’all demanded a plot that’s what you’ll get. Will it be good? No. I’ve never written anything with a plot in my entire life. Ever. Not even when I did Nanowrimo or whatever. I just bullshitted the whole thing. Like I’ll do with this fic. Y’all are going to have to remind me to update because I have the attention span of a goat. I’ll try to update this on Saturdays??? IDK at this point. ALSO, WHY THE FUCK IS THIS SO POPULAR?????????? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY NOTES THIS HAS ON AO3???? 69????SIXITY FUCKING NINE??? I HATE EVERYTHING MY LEGACY WILL BE READER CALLING HEISENBERG DOOFSCHMIRTZ I HATE EVRYTHING DSHFUGSADFJ

Synopsis: You have totally, %100, given up on escaping. Totally. You haven't been gathering supplies for one, final last hurray. Nope. Totally not. All you have to do is persuade Heisenberg of that so you can change your mind at the last minute. Y’all know the trigger warning for this series but if you don’t tw:kidnapping (implied)

Taglist: it’s exclusivly @localdepressedvampire​  so if you want to be on it for just this story or for all my pieces fill out the google doc in my pinned post or dm me and I’ll put you on it. :)

             You’ve made a breakthrough in your long-term plan of escapism. Even with the mini escape attempts that were really about exploring the factory and less about actually trying to get out, you hadn’t made a lot of progress: until now.

             Well, two, really… Okay, maybe 1 ½. Firstly, you found a sawed-off two-barrel shotgun. With ammo. In fact, there was a various amount of ammo around the factory, but no actual gun. Until now. The second discovery, which is nowhere near as useful, was a window. Which was probably 50 or more feet up from the ground. You didn’t get a chance to inspect it that much, considering as soon as you saw it and got a glimpse at the far-off ground, you had to run again from Lycans.

             Which gives you a basic idea of a way to escape. You knew where the ammo was, you knew where the gun was and had a route to the edge of the building, and hopefully could find stairs at the end of the hallway. Now all you had to do was find a time where you could be gone long enough to get a decent head start before, he notices you’re even gone. Even when he was in the workshop, he kept a close eye on you, keeping you in arms-length to the point where it taxed on both of your mental health.

             And even then, in that chair in the small room, you watch him work in the finer details on something the size of your head and torso. You try not to look at the phone in your lap, he doesn’t even know you have it, much less how great the reception is in the building. How did he not know about his old phone that was still working fine? Oh well, he doesn’t need to know you’re looking at memes and reading feel-good wolf-star fanfic on ao3.

             The best idea you had was to leave him while he was asleep, but there were two some issues with that: he clung to you like his life depended on it, your back to his chest and arms around you almost tight enough to keep you awake; it was dark as hell in the hallways of the factory as is, but it would be impossible to navigate safely with the lights; and the Lycans were most active outside at night, which was where you were trying to go. They’ve tried to eat you before as they show no discrimination on food.

             The only way to get a good enough head start would be to leave while he didn’t notice you were gone, and wouldn’t notice for a long, long time. And that when it hit you. The only time he ever left you by yourself was when he had to deal with the other three lords. And while he left you in that basement that you originally woke up in, you had memorized your way out and found that going up five flights of stairs took you to that faithful widow.

             Would you have enough time to explore and look for an actual exit/entrance, or should you play it safe and find a way to go out that window. You wanted to laugh to yourself, you’d never think that going down a 50ft plus drop would be considered safe, but here you were, kidnapped and held hostage by one of the people your late grandmother warned you not to associate with, or even go near. The letter you received directly quoted “the four lords and their mother, Mother Miranda, are not to be approached or associated with at any costs. You’ll know them when you see them, they smell like death and money. See them and run.”

             You can’t help but find that ironic, considering that you did try to run, heeded her warning, and still faced the consequences that were far worse than she had warned you about. You regretted coming here, to this small village, when you first arrived: no friends, and even those you tried to approach held you to her standard and expected them to be just like her. You were far from her kind and optimistic nature (at least that’s what you heard of her; you hadn’t even known of her whereabouts until she was dead).

             Even the duke, who had helped smuggle you into the village, didn’t seem fond of you. It was a shame, you tried so hard to impress him. But he saw you to a point where you could easily reach her old cottage without having too many issues, turned his cart around, and left without a good-bye. It bothered you to no end that your only companion for about a year or so was an elderly outside cat and the creaking noises the walls made at night.

             And then the cat died and not even a week later you got kidnapped. You never considered yourself lucky, but damn if that wasn’t the worst streak of luck you’ve had in a long time.

             You pretend to turn a page in your book and scroll through your Instagram feed, seeing friends having fun at the beach, or studying at the library, or your old best friend taking selfies in provocative clothing to your ex-boyfriend. Did she forget he cheated on you? She wasn’t always the smartest, but she brought that heartbreak upon herself. You see a photo of your mom, she had posted a picture of a black and white photo of her with her mom, you’re guessing, you have no idea who that old woman is.

             This is the last photo I had with my mom before she died. We lost contact after I moved out. I wish we parted on better terms, Nana.

             She’s in a prairie dress, holding an ancient-looking key in one hand, and the other wrapped around her mom, a middle-aged woman with long hair in two braids and a face that had too many stress wrinkles. You guess your mom was as bad as you were in college. The background looks dreary. You would have guessed it to be the quality of the photo if you hadn’t recognized the house behind them as the house you lived in used to live in.

             The loops on the handle of the key look familiar. You spread your fingers apart to zoom in and see the blurry engravings on the side. It was the payment you gave to sneak into the village. You thought it was a worthless family heirloom at most and found it strange that he had even found interest in the key, or even valued it deeper than money in general. Maybe this photo or other photos of you and your family would help out.

             Why is that key suddenly piquing your interest? Were you that bored, as to sit there and think about a key that was at least twice your age? A key that you didn’t even have. You needed a hobby besides escapism and rejecting your captor’s sexual advances. You look up at him again, only to find him leaning against the desk, hat off and sunglass placed on his forehead, his gaze on you. It wasn’t his normal piercing one, that studied you and calculated your every move, but soft and lazy. His current gaze was dreamy; he was daydreaming about you. You found that equally undaring s it was unnerving.

             “Karl.”

             “Yes, Sweetiepea?” Honestly, what the fuck.

             “Firstly, why are you staring at me like that? Secondly, that is the most disgusting way to use that pet name. I need to take a shower after you called me that.”

             He chuckles light-heartedly. Even his softer more genuine, happy chuckles are booming and loud. “Okay… Sugarplum!” And he busts out laughing.

             Clearly dodging the first question and focusing on the second. You can’t believe you gave him ammo for his annoying-you-gun. And you thought you’d grown immune to most of his… less-savory traits. Were you growing used to him? Next thing you know you’re going to like him and develop Stockholm syndrome!

             “You’re a shit head, hobo magneto…” You turn your head away and let your hair cover half your face so he can’t see you smile. You’ll miss him when you escape and get the duke to smuggle you back to your home in Bucharest. But only a little. Just because calling Heisenberg these names are funny.

             “Why don’t you call me by my name, I know you know it.”

             “You sure about that?” You quip back.

             “You’ve lived with me for at least two months now!”

             “Hm…. I think I know your name! It’s uh…” You are totally faking not knowing his name. “It’s… Heidi Carlson? Yeah, that sounds about right!”

             “It’s Karl Heisenberg!”

             “Quit being so silly, Heidi! Maybe it’s nap-time!” This was a little too fun.

             He looks back at his project for a moment and genuinely considers it. “I know you’re being antagonistic but you’re probably right.” And with that, he walks towards you and goes to scoop you up. You have to shut your book quickly in order for him not to notice the phone in between its pages before you let him pick you up.

             He immediately notices that. “Are… Are you sick?”

             “No! Of course not!” Because you genuinely aren’t sick, and he’s already up in your business as-is, you don’t need him dotting on you because he thinks you’re sick or something. You’ll go fucking crazy.

             “You’ve put in zero effort into anything remotely physical since your last little failed escape attempt.” He gave it a little bit of thought. “You’ve given up, haven’t you, and you’re just depressed about it aren’t you?”

             You want to say no, you really do, but if Heisenberg thinks you’ve given up on escaping, perhaps it’ll give you enough space to plan the big one. The reverse heist so to speak. “No- I… okay maybe I have but I still don’t like you.

             He leans down and presses a kiss to your forehead. “Good girl. Now let’s get us that well-deserved nap.”

             You plug your nose and turn away as a joke. “You’ve gotta take a bath first, you smell like oil and sweat.” You don’t fight it, because you have to play the part, but you still have to act a little bit like yourself.

             “Okay, fine doll, but don’t think you’ve escaped my barrage of affection, because as soon as I get out of the shower-“

             You bonk him. And he looks at you so confused before he smiles and leans down to nuzzle his nose against yours. You try to hold the bile back in your mouth and lean forward and peck his lips before leaning back. You failed at trying to not visibly gag.

             “Ew… I can’t believe I just kissed you.”

             “Well, I guess someone caught feelings… Didn’t they?”

[taetaespeaches]

“It’s everything to lose.”

taehyung x reader/oc  (but also jimin x platonic reader/oc) genre: angst word count: 6K

a/n: well, this was a process to write lol. Basically, Peaches/reader and Tae are experiencing a mix of feelings due to their best friends’ (Jimin and Dear) break up. Fears of a possible relationship with each other are worsened, plus, Tae and Peaches are just sad because their closest friends are sad. Also, Peaches finally talks to Jimin for the first time after he broke up with Dear, so that’s a big part of this as well. And we get a brief moment between Peaches and Dear, our ride or die duo. Ok, that’s really it. I hope you all enjoy, and thanks so much for reading! :))

Grasping the back of your neck, you massaged your muscles as you yawned, your eyes set on the coffee percolating into the pot. You loved your best friend, and of course you wanted to be there for her, but her post-break up antics were beginning to wear on you as you failed to get accustomed to running on five or less hours of sleep night after night.

Leaning over the countertop, you looked through your most recent texts with your other best friend, Taehyung. The conversation, which started with him bragging about an amazing waffle he had just eaten, had turned a bit sour as you both defended opposing friends in their recent breakup.

It was hard to find common ground with the man these days, as he was on tour with the antagonist of your friends’ little drama, and you were in a constant state of being the shoulder to cry on for the dear protagonist. A sigh slipped from your lips as you scanned through the messages, the grumbling of the coffee pot sounding in the otherwise silent apartment.

You: He dumped her through text while he was away on tour. That’s fucking ridiculous and it’s cowardly.

Tae: You don’t know what’s going through his mind though.

You: There’s obviously not much going through his mind.

Tae: He’s your friend too.

You: And he broke my best friend’s heart.

Tae: I know that. I’m sorry, I hate this whole situation.

You: Me too. I’m sorry and I hate it too.

Tae: Is she at your place again?

You: No, I’m sure she will be but right now she’s out drinking with those stupid friends she has.

Tae: Oh….

You: Yeah. I’m anxious as fuck. I wanted to keep her from going out but you know, I can’t do that. She has to do what she’s gonna do.

Tae: I’m sorry to add to your stress.

Tae: She’ll be ok, Peaches.

You: No, it’s ok, you could never truly add to my stress. You’re my comfort, Tae, you know that.

Tae: I’m sorry you’re caught in the middle like this.

You: I’m sorry you are too. I’m gonna try to get some sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, have a good night, Dearest.

Tae: Sweet dreams, Peaches.

Craving for two seconds away from the ongoing story of your friends’ turbulent romance, you scrolled up on your text conversation with Tae, a faint smile appearing on your lips at the photo of a waffle the size of the plate it sat upon, followed by a photo of Taehyung shoving a massive bite into his mouth.

Tae: It’s definitely big enough for the both of us but since you’re not here I guess I’ll have to manage it alone.

Tae: I miss sharing breakfast foods with you.

Tae: Never mind, this is so good, I’m glad you’re not here to eat it all.

Your brief moment of relief was broken when your screen changed to display a caller you were not prepared to speak to. Guilt and anxiety settled into your stomach as your breathing hitched slightly at the image of his name and photo. The contact ID reminded you of simpler times, the man pulling a silly expression with his chin tucked into his neck to give himself two of them. He had called you a few times the past couple days, but you’d consistently ignored them, trying to avoid hearing the voice of the man you considered one of your closest friends.

You almost didn’t answer again. Looking to the room your best friend slept in, a serious hangover awaiting her on the other side of slumber, your thumb pressed on the green circular button on the right side of the screen.  

Pausing a moment, you shook your head before raising the phone to your ear.

“Hello?” You answered, your voice hushed as to not wake up the girl a few rooms away. A rush of air sounded through the phone, as if the man was sighing in relief, but that was the only response you received. “Jimin,” you sighed.

“Hey,” he spoke quietly, defeat coating his tone. He must not have had the strength to pretend to be ok.  

Another awkward pause ensued, both of you waiting for the other to break the silence first. With another sigh, you stood up straight, turning your back to the counter as you leaned against it. “Can you say something?” You asked.

“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted lamely, you licking your lips which became quite dry suddenly.  

“You called me,” you pointed out, annoyance in your words that wasn’t intentional but was true to your current mood. “You’ve been calling me for days, but you don’t know what to say?”

“I didn’t think you’d answer,” he said shakily, and you were sure there were tears bubbling up in his eyes.

Hearing the sadness in his tone, you chewed on your bottom lip, trying to conceal your own emotions in response to his tone. You weren’t sure your feelings even mattered right then. “Well I answered,” you told him, in a sort of assurance. Assurance of what, neither of you were sure, but it allowed Jimin a small sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” the man whispered, causing you to clench your teeth to hold back your pity and consideration for him as you turned back around to the coffee machine.

“Don’t thank me,” you told him, a slight anger behind your tone. “What do you want to say? I have errands I need to run.”  

As Jimin prepared his words, going through his mind to figure out exactly why he was calling you, you patiently waited, halting your movements as your hand sat on the handle of the coffee pot. You knew he needed time to gather his thoughts, and though you were angry with him, you cared for him enough to give him that. “I just miss you,” he admitted, a crack in his voice indicating the earnest admission.

Taking in a shaky breath, you let it out in a wobbly exhale. “Of course I miss you too,” you said honestly. You refused to lie to him about that. “But I don’t want to talk to you, Jimin.”

His words tumbled out of him bitterly, but it was shrouded in frustration, which you believed to be with himself. “You were my friend first,” he said, uncertain whether he regretted the comment or not.

“I’m still your friend,” you told him adamantly, though your voice was still quiet.  

“Then please talk to me,” he begged, almost desperate for the affection you normally showed him. Well, that you showed him before he broke your best friend’s heart.

“I can’t,” you told him trying to sound stern, but your exhausted state ruining your feeble attempt to put up a front.

A sniffle sounded through the phone, adding to the heaviness in your heart. “Why not?”

Holding the phone to your ear with one hand, you moved your other from the coffee pot to the top of your head as you scratched your roots in frustration and distress. “I can’t risk saying something awful to you,” you confessed through an unsteady voice. And that was it. You were angry with him, but you didn’t want to hurt him. “I love you, you’re one of my favorite people on this entire planet, Jimin,” you cried, your sniffling giving away your emotion to the man on the other side of the phone.

“I’m sorry,” he told you in a rush as you wiped away a tear.

“I see her every day,” you told Jimin in a whisper, ensuring your voice was too low for your friend to hear you if she suddenly awoke. However, you were sure the quietness of your voice was giving away that the woman he still loved was just feet away from you; just feet away from the conversation currently taking place, asleep in your spare bedroom. “I’m so mad at you, Jimin, god I’m mad at you,” your voice suddenly broke, no longer able to hold back the pent-up emotions. If Jimin’s thoughts had strayed to the girl nearby, the sound of your distressed voice surely brought him back to the present conversation; the present state of your friendship. “I need to process all of this before I talk to you because I love you and I can’t say something I’ll regret or something I don’t mean,” you explained as tears spilled over your lash line.

“I understand,” he said roughly, clearing his voice right after as if he was trying to pull himself together for your sake.

“I just-” You paused, holding your breath as you attempted to swallow more tears. “I need time so I can forgive you,” you told him sadly, clenching your fist together as you tried to steady your breathing. “I’m sorry,” you told him, your voice just above a whisper.

“Please don’t apologize,” he begged, choking back a sob. “I get it, take your time,” he assured you. “I’m really sorry for doing this,” he admitted sadly. The man sounded regretful and broken, your pity for him swirling around in the whirlwind of emotions you were currently experiencing. “All of it.”

You knew that was true. You knew he still loved her. And you knew he felt immense guilt for what he did to her, you, Taehyung, your whole friend unit, but mostly her. That much was obvious.  

“I do miss you,” you assured him through a small whimper, choosing to give him the reassurance rather than responding to his apology. “I won’t be mad forever.”

“I miss you too,” he told you sorrowfully. “I’ll be here whenever your feelings change.”

With that, you ended the call, leaving Jimin alone in his hotel room. Setting the phone to the counter, you wiped your face once more before grabbing the handle of the coffee pot, pouring some into the mug you had taken out earlier.

Thinking upon your conversation with Jimin, you wanted nothing more than to scream at him; tell him what an idiot he was. But you also wanted to wrap him up in a hug and tell him that he would be ok. You were my friend first. You scoffed, thinking of his remark, though a tear slid down your cheek. You wanted to be there for your friend, but how could you be when your other friend was just down the hallway, passed out after a night of trying to numb her heartache through the use of alcohol? He caused that pain. You were right to be mad at him… weren’t you?

It was almost astonishing how things, seemingly meant to be, could fall apart right before your eyes. Things weren’t always easy for Jimin and your friend, but they loved each other. One would think that love would be enough to get them through. But maybe love isn’t enough. Maybe fate isn’t enough.

Fate. Soulmates. They’re interesting concepts. Souls destined to find each other. But the rhetoric surrounding these notions don’t suggest that you’ll end up together.

But maybe if Jimin and your friend could see past everything that went wrong, they would find something worth fighting for still. It wasn’t simple, but it could be simpler for them.  

Something also simple but not simple at all was you and Taehyung. More and more recently, you had been realizing how much you love him. Maybe you both were meant to be together too. Tied together by the fate of your souls. But seeing how things can fall apart, perhaps it’s more risk than it’s worth. Wasn’t it better to have Tae in your life in the role of your best friend than it was to complicate things and lose him? You couldn’t lose him. You wouldn’t let yourself.

You sniveled as you brought the coffee to your lips, making an attempt at a deep breath before taking a sip. Your emotions needed to be locked down by the time your friend awoke. However, that concern came too late as two arms wrapped around your middle, the surprise affection causing you to jump in start.

The presence of her limbs were tentative as he she carefully rested the side of her face against your back. Breathing out in a huff, you relaxed a bit. “Jesus,” you spoke softly, but your friend gave you no response. Alarm bells went off in your head as her body trembled just slightly against yours. “You ok?” You asked, setting the mug down carefully.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed against you, and as your mind went into high alert, your heart plummeted into your gut. Immediately, you turned in her arms, wrapping your own around the back of her head, holding her impossibly close to you. Sorry?

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” you assured her, leaving a kiss to the side of her head on the top of her hair. “Absolutely nothing.”

“My behavior last night could use an apology,” she admitted, causing you to smile slightly though she couldn’t see it with her face buried against your neck.

“Well, maybe that,” you teasingly agreed, thinking back to the few hours earlier in which you had to drive to the club she was at because she had broken down on the dance floor. All anger, if there was any to begin with, however, had completely dissolved when you pulled up outside the establishment to find her sitting against the wall in the cold, mascara stains down her cheeks as she sobbed about how much her heart hurt. “But are you even apologizing for that?” You asked her, realizing she must have heard you on the phone with her ex.

“Partially,” she cried harder. She knew the strain the breakup had put on all four of you, and though it wasn’t her fault, she still felt guilty. You knew she did. Her heart was too soft for her to not take some sort of blame.

Allowing her to cry in your arms, you moved your hand to the back of her head as you tried to make her feel safe. “You’re gonna be ok,” you whispered to her repeatedly in a gentle tone.

After a few moments, she pulled away to look at you, your thumbs moving to her cheeks to wipe the tears away, though more continued to fall, quickly replacing them.

“How is he?” She suddenly asked you, her lip trembling as she held back a sob.

Scanning her features carefully, you debated your answer. If you told her he was ok, it would make her feel pitiful for not being ok, plus it would be a lie. If you told her he wasn’t ok, it could possibly hurt her even more. Locking your eyes on her pleading ones, you sighed. “About as good as you,” you told her simply, holding back your own tears as she broke down, your arms wrapping around her shoulders to bring her close once again.

Placing a hand back against her head, you held her to you tightly. “Why does that make me feel worse?” She asked against your shoulder, her voice muffled from your sweatshirt.

“Oh babe,” you spoke softly near her ear, a tear slipping from the inner corner of your eye. “Because you still love him.”

You weren’t sure if you should have said that, but it was true. And maybe if she heard it from you, she would face those feelings. As she cried against you, your mind raced over everything that had happened that morning already. Everyone was so broken, and suddenly your mind found its way to Taehyung. Because he was the only one you wanted to talk to in that moment. He was your comfort.

But what if you didn’t have him anymore? Two people as meant to be as Jimin and the girl in your arms couldn’t even make it work. Add in your fickleness in love, and where did that leave your odds at success with Tae? You refused to break him, and you couldn’t lose him. You just couldn’t.

Hauling your groceries through your apartment, your phone started ringing in your pocket. Rushing to the kitchen, you set the bags on the floor before grabbing the device, finding Tae on the other side of the video call.

Accepting it, you waited for his face to appear on the screen before greeting him. “Hi,” you answered in a huff, Tae immediately chuckling at your hectic state.

“Hey,” he greeted, “Are you busy?”

“No,” you shook your head, dropping the phone to the counter just after speaking the word, causing the man to giggle further. “Just got home from grocery shopping,” you told him as you discarded your bag off your shoulder and onto the countertop. Taehyung hummed in response just as you propped the phone up against the side of your bag, situating it so he could see you as you stood in your kitchen.

“Did you get anything fun?” He asked, as you scanned the bags on the floor.

“Um,” you cut yourself off with a yawn, “I got those cookies you like,” you spoke through your exhale, looking at him through the screen to take in his appearance. “You look handsome,” you told him, the man smiling slightly at you as you stared at his still damp hair atop his head, giving away that he had showered recently.

“You tired?” He asked suddenly, being met with your groan as you stared down at the groceries without moving. “What happened last night?”

“Well, she went out with those friends and of course it was too soon for her to be out partying and I had to pick her up at 2 am outside of the club because she had a break down,” you ranted to him as you knelt down to begin taking items out of the grocery bags.

“Jesus,” he sighed, your eyebrows raising at his response.

“What?” You questioned defensively, piling items onto the floor as you emptied all the bags.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he tried to evade your anger. “I’m assuming she’s not there right now?”

“No, she went back to her place for a bit,” you told him. “What was with the judgmental tone just now?” You pressed.

Looking up at the phone, you watched as shook his hair out with his hand. “It’s just, that’s not really fair to you, is it?”

Scoffing at him, you stood, not bothering to look at the phone as you brought some juice and a few other items to the refrigerator.

“I just mean, you deserve some rest,” he added. “A break maybe.”  

“Well I don’t get a break because your best friend broke up with mine and she’s devastated,” you said coldly, shutting the fridge door and turning back to face the device.

“He’s your friend too,” he reminded you, his eyebrows raised, causing you roll your eyes.

“I know that,” you said in annoyance. “But you don’t see what she’s going through every day,” you pointed out, feeling protective over your friend and her broken heart.

Reaching to grab a box of crackers off the floor, you headed toward the cupboard as Taehyung told you, “You really should talk to him.”

Letting out a dry laugh, you nodded to yourself. “Tae, she’s my best friend,” you reminded him once more.

“I get that, but he’s your friend too,” he repeated, causing you to sigh. “He’s going through stuff too,” he added. You wanted to scoff, but if you were being honest with yourself, your anger towards Jimin had diminished significantly since speaking to him briefly that morning.

“Well,” you thought out loud, facing the man once more. Folding your arms over your ribcage, you shrugged. “I’m sure he is but he did this,” you said, trying to remain firm in your coldness.

You were met with the sound of Taehyung breathing out slowly as his eyes stayed locked on you. “That’s not really fair, he’s hurting too,” Taehyung defended his friend.

“I love Jimin,” you clarified. “But I don’t have time to think about him when she’s at my place all the time because she can’t handle being alone in her own apartment for a single night,” you told him, staring at him as you waited for him to respond. Taehyung ran his tongue over his bottom lip as you sighed. “I know Jimin is hurting, but she is too. And it’s bad, Tae,” you told him sadly.

Taehyung sighed as you stared at him through the phone, waiting for his next words. “I know, I don’t mean to be insensitive to her. I know he hurt her, I get that. I’m just here with him and he’s a fucking mess,” Tae huffed. “I don’t know what to do,” he admitted sadly, giving you a defeated shrug.

Stepping closer to the phone, you shook your head slowly. “I don’t either,” you admitted. You both sat in silence for a moment, watching each other through opposite sides of the phone, your remaining groceries still waiting on the floor.

Taehyung was the first to break the silence, asking, “What are you thinking?”

Sighing, you ran your hands over your face. “I don’t even know, I’m just-” you stopped yourself, not sure if you should speak your next words; because of the implication to you and Tae.

“What is it?” He pressed, resituating himself on the bed as he sat laid across a pillow, his head supported by his hand. “Peaches,” he said gently, causing you to relent.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have ever gone from friends to more,” you thought aloud, Tae’s silence feeling heavy on your heart as he tried his best to keep his face from giving away any emotion.

“You think?” He asked simply, his feigned indifference covering up the hurt you knew was there.

“It’s just a hard leap to make,” you explained, leaning against the counter on your elbows, holding your chin in your hands. “If it doesn’t work, this is where it leaves you.” Your eyes were glued to the phone as you watched him carefully. Suddenly, you felt angry at these fucking phone companies who couldn’t make a better camera or give you a better connection to be able to read the emotions flashing through his eyes and features more closely.

“Sometimes it works though,” he told you quietly, his voice nearly shaking, almost as if he was meekly defending himself.

A lump formed in your throat that you didn’t believe you’d be able to ever swallow, knowing you were the cause of the sadness he was feeling. “But if it doesn’t, that’s a lot to lose,” you argued, your voice faint as the emotions sat in your vocal chords.

“But it can work,” he said a bit louder than his last comment, his voice more assured as he licked his lips.

“Tae,” you sighed, cocking your head to the side just slightly. You both knew you were no longer talking about your friends’ experience with moving from friends to lovers. There had never been any confirmation from either you or Taehyung, but sometimes it seemed as though there was an unspoken understanding of how you both thought of each other.

“Look at Jin,” Taehyung countered, pointing to the fact that Jin and his old friend had successfully added romance to their relationship over a year earlier. “They’re doing really well, they’re happy.”

“Tae,” you called out to him gently, attempting to swallow as your eyes shined with emotion. When he responded with his silence, his sad eyes scanning over your features carefully, you chewed on your bottom lip as you attempted to hold in your emotion. “It’s a lot to lose,” you whispered, holding his gaze. “It’s everything to lose,” you added, blinking a few times as Taehyung looked down to the bed and began picking at the comforter. A few seconds of silence went by and you didn’t realize you were holding your breath until you suddenly exhaled, feeling breathless and tired. “Dearest,” you addressed him softly.

“No, you’re right,” he said half-heartedly, keeping his eyes directed downward. “It is everything to lose,” he agreed with a small nod, looking up to you.

“Everything, Tae,” you emphasized, hoping he would recognize that he was everything to you.

“You really should talk to Jimin,” he changed the topic, his tone stronger as he seemed to easily move on from your unspoken confessions. Inhaling deeply, you nodded slowly, standing up straight before moving back to the groceries. Trying to shake yourself out of the conversation that just took place, you spotted the cookies sitting on the floor.

“I’ll think about it,” you replied before reaching for the package. “I’m not gonna save you any of these,” you teased, holding them up for him to see as his lips spread into a mildly amused grin.

“Well I didn’t save you any of the waffle so it’s only fair,” he played along, both of you pushing aside the tension between you both once more.

You would think about talking to Jimin, you meant that. But it would be hard to think of anything but Taehyung.  

With your thumb hovering over the call button, you sighed deeply as you tried to muster up some courage. Lowering your digit to the phone screen before you could change your mind, you nervously raised the device to your ear.

The rings were deafeningly loud as you awaited the answer, running your hand through your hair and chewing on your bottom lip; nervous gestures.

“Hey,” Jimin greeted suddenly, his voice appearing breathless as if he rushed to the phone.

“Why’d you do it?” You asked him, skipping greetings and pleasantries. A moment of silence encased the phone call before Jimin sighed.

“I don’t even fucking know anymore,” he said, a sob following the words as if he had been sitting on the edge of a break down for days; weeks. The confusion and heartbreak in his tone shattered your heart, filling you with guilt for evading his calls and texts for so long. “I don’t know if there was even a valid reason and I regret it so much.”

“I don’t understand what happened,” you admitted, thinking back upon their relationship and what they had revealed to you.

“Me either,” he barely spoke through his cracked voice. “I don’t know, it’s like, as secure as we made each other feel, it was like we could never fully rid ourselves of our own insecurities,” he explained through his cries. “I fucked up, didn’t I?” He asked as he held back tears.

“Oh Jimin,” you sighed, realizing what drove them apart. And suddenly, you had the urge to wrap them both up in hugs because in an instant, there was nowhere to place the blame you were previously placing on Jimin. It was both their faults, and also no one’s fault. Jimin had made the wrong move, your best friend didn’t make enough moves, and yet they were both just victims to their own intrusive perceptions of themselves.

“Our own shit just got in the way and-” he let out a harsh breath. “When I sent the text I immediately regretted it and I was just trying to convince myself that it was for the best,” he sniffled. “And I was about to take it all back and beg for forgiveness, fuck, I was thinking about leaving tour and coming back to her so we could fix whatever the fuck was causing all of this shit between us,” he paused as his cries took over.

“Why didn’t you take it all back?” You asked him.

You collected up the patience as you gave him time the time to think back on the breakup. “All of a sudden, she just stopped fighting,” he said sadly. “We were always fighting for each other, and she finally stopped. And I don’t know, I think it kind of cemented the idea that I did the right thing. It hurt, and it felt wrong, but she accepted the breakup and gave up.”

“Fuck, Jimin,” you held back your tears at the defeat in his voice. “She didn’t stop fighting for you, she just didn’t have enough fight left in her to take on your insecurities any longer,” you told him.  

“What’s even the difference?” He asked. “Whether she stopped fighting willfully, or whether I took the fight out of her,” he scoffed, “I became too much for her.”

“I don’t think you could ever be too much for her,” you assured him. “Look, do you want me to speak to you compassionately or truthfully?” You asked, the question being met with a dry laugh.

“You’re always compassionate, but I want the truth,” he told you, you nodding though he couldn’t see it.

“You fucked up,” you told him, “but also I don’t think this is entirely your fault,” you quickly added. With a sigh, you thought out loud. “How do I word this?” you pondered. “You two are two of the most incredible people I’ve ever known and yet, you guys can’t fucking see it.”

Jimin scoffed, making you roll your eyes. “I said I was speaking truthfully, so just listen to me and try to actually hear what I’m saying for once,” you told him, the man agreeing to listen by giving you his silence. “You see how incredible she is and that makes you insecure because you don’t see yourself living up to what she deserves. And it’s the same for her, she doesn’t think she can be what you need and what you want, despite you assuring her constantly that she’s everything to you. And that holds you both back from being exactly what the other person wants,” you paused for a moment, letting the words permeate Jimin’s brain. “If you two could just be who you are and give each other that version of yourselves, you wouldn’t be in this situation,” you explained to him. “She fell in love with you, she just wants you.”

“Fuck,” he sobbed, the pained understanding echoing in his single expression. “But I fucked it up, I hurt her and I don’t think we can fix it this time.”

“I truly do not understand how you can be so wrong about this all the fucking time,” you groaned. “She is in love with you,” you told him, enunciating the words carefully. “You hurt her, and you hurt her bad, but she hasn’t given up on you,” you told him. “Whether she admits it or not, she’s waiting for you to fix it,” you informed the man. “So fucking fix it. Stop holding yourself back and just be happy, Jimin.”

“I don’t know if-”

“Be happy,” you interrupted him. “Stop being so idiotic and just fight for your happiness. Fight for hers,” you begged him, frustration over both of your friends’ moronic actions getting the best of your patience. “You both deserve each other because you’re both the best,” you went on, trying to convey to the man how strongly you felt he and the girl you both adored belonged with each other.

“She still loves me?” He asked, being met with another one of your groans. “Sorry, I just, she does?”

“Do you still love her?” You asked, knowing the answer but wanting him to speak it out loud so maybe he could truly hear it.

“With all of me,” he admitted sadly, a sniffle following the words, allowing you to visualize the tears running down his cheeks in that moment.  

“Do you really think that’s one sided?” You asked him.  

“I really don’t know,” he admitted, a small sigh leaving your lips.  

“It’s so simple but you guys make it so complicated,” you complained, the man giving you the slightest chuckle in the form of a single exhale. “You both lost the fight, but you didn’t lose the fight for each other, you lost it to yourselves. Does that make sense?” You asked.

“I think so?” He said, thought it came out as a question.

“You guys were defeated by your own insecurities. It’s not like you chose to give up on her, just like she didn’t choose to give up on you. You both just feel hopeless right now, that’s-”

“It’s not hopeless?” He asked, and despite the negative comment, there was a renewed optimism in his tone that lifted your lips into a faint smile.

“No,” you shook your head. “It’s not hopeless.” You both sat in silence, nothing but your breaths sounding into the phone receivers. “I’ll talk to her,” you assured him. “If I get any sense that she doesn’t want you anymore, I’ll let you know and I’ll be full of apologies and you can hate me forever,” you told him.

“I could never hate you,” he scoffed.

“But if I’m right, which I know I am, Jimin, I know it,” you assured him, “then you need to find that hope and bring it back to her.”

With a sigh, Jimin agreed with a simple, “ok.”

“Ok,” you replied. “Fix it.”

“I hope I can,” he spoke softly, his voice still sad, but much less defeated than the start of the conversation.

“Hope is enough right now,” you told him.

“Thank you for finally talking to me,” he said, a hint of a smile evident in his voice.

“Thank Tae,” you corrected. “He talked me into it.”

“He really is the only one who can cut through your stubbornness, huh?” He asked teasingly, you chuckling lightly in response.

“I guess he is,” you agreed.

“Speaking of simple but making it complicated though,” Jimin noted, drawing upon your earlier words, and reflecting them back on you and your relationship with Taehyung.

“Tae and I aren’t complicated,” you negated Jimin’s observation, only to be met with a disbelieving laugh. “We aren’t,” you remained firm. “I know it seems complicated but, when it comes down to it, it’s the simplest thing ever.”

“Ok, break it down for me then,” Jimin asked for your elaboration. “How is it simple?”

“Because at the end of the day, we just love each other. So much so, that we’ll do anything to keep one another in each other’s lives,” you explained. “And that makes my relationship the simplest, easiest relationship I’ve ever had.”

Jimin hummed in return, thinking over your words. “That does sound simple, I guess,” he agreed. “But are you happy?”

You paused for a moment, surprised by the question. Were you? Were you fulfilled with Tae’s role in your life as you went and dated other people, finishing each escapade craving for more, anxious for the night to be over so you could call Taehyung and hear his voice as he expressed whatever was on his mind? The truth was, no one was or ever would be Taehyung. No matter how great they were, no matter how smart, kind, funny, genuine they were, they would never be him. But Taehyung was in your life, and maybe that was enough. So, were you happy? Turns out that’s the most complicated question you could have been asked.

“This isn’t about me,” you told Jimin with a small smile.

“Hey,” he said gently. “Are you happy?”

“I’m not unhappy,” you said assuredly. That was true, for sure.

“But is that happy?” Jimin pressed, causing you to sigh in annoyance.

“It’s happy enough,” you told him. “But one of us has to be happy, right?” You turned it back on him.

Jimin breathed out your name, but you dismissed him. “This is about you right now,” you told him. “If you fix things on your end, then we can entertain a discussion about my happiness, ok?” You asked him, though it wasn’t really a topic up for debate which he understood.

“Deal,” he agreed with a light chuckle.

Happiness, you thought. What was it? You were sure it was different for everyone. Just as you were sure it comes from many different sources. For you, though, your main source of happiness was seeing Taehyung smile. His happiness mattered most in terms of your relationship. And if he was happy being your friend and having you as his, then you were happy. Happy enough.

If he wasn’t happy… well, something would have to be done about that.

[itsnothingofinterest]

So with the end supposedly approaching (relatively speaking), people have started giving some thought as to who the final threat is really going to be; Tomura Shigaraki or All For One. It’ll definitely be one of them, they’re the strongest and most established villains by a mile; but both have their own reasons for people to think they’ll be the “final boss” of the series. And far be it from me to keep my opinion to myself; I really think it’s going to be Tomura.

I’m not sure if that’s some level of controversial among the fans hoping for Shigaraki’s redemption, as I do believe the alternative’s gotten a lot of traction lately. Because understand that I’m still expecting his redemption too, and don’t expect his hypothetical final boss status to really prevent that. (Practically nothing can, it’s as much a guaranteed outcome at this point as Deku getting his sixth bonus quirk.) Realistically, the only difference would be if he & Deku then team up to fight the evil potato head, or to...just start fixing stuff I guess.

On that note, the eventual redemption is actually one of the reasons I think he’s the better choice. Almost every point of comparison between the two villain I can think of makes Tomura seem like the better choice, actually...with maybe one or two exceptions. So I wanted to go over all those points of comparison & everything they’ve got going for them as endgame villains and why the comperrisons overall seem to favour Tomura as the final boss.

1. Someone who was defeated to the power of just one man

For one, just looking at pure power levels, AFO’s just not as threatening as Tomura; and there’s not really a way to bridge that gap.

Like, Tomura’s obviously more of a threat personally; he’s got the stronger body that was scientifically enhanced, and only he has Decay on top of the AFO quirk and the collection that came with it. It is just a fact that right now, Tomura is far more powerful. And before anyone thinks that AFO could become an equal threat by just taking over & fighting in his body; that’s not true because, along with just more combat experience that doesn’t rely on an arsenal of quirks, Tomura also has that Shimura trick where you remember your origin and become super bad ass. You know, the trick that All Might used to beat AFO in Kamino. In other words, the most dangerous individual in the series right now is the AFO!Tomura body with specifically Tomura in control.

And as long as the slight edge in mentality in Tomura’s favour exists, there’s not really a way to bridge that gap and have AFO take Tomura’s place as the biggest potential threat. Restore or enhance AFO’s original body? That’s just catching it up with AFO in Tomura’s body, which is still behind Tomura in Tomura’s body. Have AFO boost Tomura’s body with him in control? It would still be better with Tomura in control. There’s no scenario where Tomura isn’t the most powerful character in BNHA.

(Well, except maybe AFO weakening him by, say, stripping him of his quirks; but if he has to make things easier for the heroes to become the most powerful, I think that kind of proves my point anyway.)

But one person can only be so dangerous, so lets talk followers. Tomura has a close knit group of friends & allies on top of a vast army super loyal to him specifically that reaches a six digit figure, and AFO...just doesn’t. And I’ll get back to this later; but I don’t think he wants one either. He sticks to just a handful of people useful to him and what’s left of his Nomu. And while maybe that is the better way for him to accomplish his own personal goals, it’s simply not as threatening as the force which Hawks thought could’ve conquered the country if the heroes hadn’t struck first.

Tomura is a country ending threat, who in the right circumstances could fight literally all of the heroes with a chance of winning, and AFO simply isn’t.

2. His own little world

And to return to what I was talking about earlier, I’m not sure he really cares to be either. Like, people say he wants to conquer everything, and I imagine he’d think regaining lots of money & power would be great down the line; but evidence seems to suggest he doesn’t really care much for the country as a whole or any of the major themes being discussed by the actual main characters at the moment.

I mean if he did, he’d probably have rescued the PLF, that army capable of competing with all of hero society. And he probably wouldn’t have told ~10,000 dangerous and powerful villains indebted to him for their freedom to just run amok while he keeps contact with only the ones useful for his personal goals. And he definitively wouldn’t be laying low & sleeping through his enemies lowest moment & giving them a month to recover, also in service to those personal goals. That activity seems to imply those personal goals matter a whole lot more to him than societal conquest.

And what are those goals? Seemingly, taking over Tomura’s body so he can finally steal One For All. To what end, we’re not 100% sure of, but I believe it’s either a) a weird pride thing where he finally has control over his brother who’s rebelled against him for decades upon decades or b) an attempt at immortality as a sentient & transferable body-controlling quirk. Either way it’s some selfish personal thing he just gets others wrapped up in.

He’s incredibly disconnected from the greater themes and conflicts of the story. He seems to have no opinions on heroics besides how people are stupid for attempting them, and no opinion on society besides that it just naturally sucks. He’s mainly just a nuisance for the actual main characters. This self-important old man stuck in his own little world is supposed to be Deku’s final opponent?

Oh, and on that note-

3. Deku who?

We’re also talking about who’s going to be the final obstacle for Deku to face; and the problem with the being AFO is that...they don’t really have much to bounce off of with each other. You might be able to argue slight foil-ment, but they don’t really know each other, nor do they have any kind of connection to each other besides Deku having OFA so he’s AFO’s enemy by default.

(In fact their latest & 2nd convo, which came out as I was drafting this post out, kind of proves that with how AFO basically just shallowly made fun of him for trying to be a hero. That’s basically the extent of their antagonism.)

In fact, I’m like 80% sure this is a major reason for the Dad For One theory existing; just to give them some connection, something to talk about. Because otherwise AFO is just an evil guy known by people Deku knows/wants to save. He’s basically just another, more dangerous Overhaul; who Deku's already fought. And to AFO, Deku’s just another OFA holder acting all high & mighty; which we also already saw him face in the Kamino fight. So what little they do offer each other has already been done for both of them. And there’s nothing wrong with that for carrying a fight, I just wonder if that can really carry the final fight.

Compare that to Shigaraki, who foils Deku in ways so numerous & obvious it’s almost hard to talk about, such as: their position as successors, strategic thinkers, very similar origins, very similar core characters, team players, red shoes, they looked really similar as kids...just to name a few parallels. Contrasting AFO, there is a lot to work with here that would contributed to a good fight that’d double as a battle of ideologies. And admittedly, we know this because it already has, this is also something we’ve seen before; but there’s a lot more unexplored with their conflict, a lot left unsaid that we could see from them arguing their viewpoints. A lot more than from Deku & AFO anyway.

I mean for Pete’s sake; All Might & Shigaraki have more in common and more to talk about than Deku & AFO. That’s a major problem if those two are meant to carry the final battle; which is why I don’t think they are.

4. Just punch him

There’s also the fact that AFO doesn’t really challenge Deku in any real way; and I’m not just talking about how All Might solo-ing him (twice) should logically mean endgame Deku should also be able to solo him. I’m more talking about how...that’s kind of all he’d need to do. If you can just beat AFO up enough then...that’s it, threat over. Wrapped up in a neat little bow.

To compare, Shigaraki is the greatest threat the heroes have ever faced, the victim most in need of saving, and to top it off, he’s got the gall to be both of those things at once. What’s a hero supposed to do with that? That’s a serious question characters are going to have to think about when deciding how to deal with Shigaraki. His position is that of, not just the greatest challenge, but a set of the greatest challenges a hero could face. And that’s before you get into his side representing those oppressed by serious systemic issues that need to be addressed as well; quite possibly simultaneously.

No one needs to address systemic corruption or prejudice to beat AFO though. They just need to punch him real hard. The biggest challenge AFO presents the heroes is “how do we make sure this guy stops being a problem for good when neither our most secure prison, nor removing his head, did the job?”

(Personally, my answer is to have Tomura do it. Because unlike Deku, Tomura actually does have a proper antagonistic relationship with AFO, so he has reason to be the one to end him besides just being the protagonist. Plus he’s under no obligation not to kill, so there’s that.)

And like yeah, that does make AFO the easier guy to deal with, and thus write an ending around (to say nothing of how he's also the most satisfying person to see punched in the face); but does that really mean Horikoshi would want to use him instead of the more interesting option of Tomura? I mean I guess we can’t be sure, there is merit in writing the easy resolution; but I’d prefer the complex finale if I were in his shoes.

5. Horikoshi’s favourite

And lastly there’s just the issue of which of the two Horikoshi’s put more work into. Spoiler alert: it’s not the guy that spent like 200 chapters in jail being menacing every one in a while.

Tomura is by far the more developed between the two, having constantly evolved over the course of the series. And more than just as a character, as described above he’s been developed as the more threatening and challenging conflict for Deku while also reflecting him in a lot of important ways. We’ve seen the growth of his power & influence, we’ve gotten to know & understand his motives, we’ve seen how he’s been failed by heroes before. Everything about him has built him up as the ultimate villain, the most desperate victim, and overall greatest challenge for Deku and the story as a whole to face.

And AFO is...nearly one of those things. Which is pretty much what he was from his first appearance. He has not developed at all over the series, and from what we can tell from his flashbacks, he hasn’t developed at all over the past ~200 years either. (I’m half tempted to call him more inciting incident then character.) What we have with AFO, as far as a character and a villain goes, is pretty much what we’re getting until he’s done. And, well; if Tomura is a better villain & a better pick for final boss than he was then, that gap’s just going to keep growing.

Like, I doubt it really needs stating how Shigaraki is probably the character Horikoshi has put the most work into in the entire series. And a lot of that work, a lot of his development, has gone to the idea of him surpassing AFO or being a villain foil to Deku, who himself is mean to surpass All Might. For his roll to be usurped by the guy he’s meant to surpass just feels like it’s going against that. Like, it’d feel almost as wrong for his character and the story around him than it would for Deku is All Might got his powers back and took over for him as main protagonist. It just doesn’t feel right for Tomura not to be the final villain, is what I’m getting at.

6. ...One saving grace

Okay, but I will admit one thing AFO has going for him that I would be remiss not to bring up. Besides being the most hated character in a series that also has Endeavor in it, I mean. He’s got this one trait that makes him an effective antagonist to anyone in the series; his complete disregard to pretty much every major theme in the series.

I mean think about it; the major themes of Shigaraki’s circle all revolve around trying to fix the society that rejected them; but AFO believes Society just naturally sucks that way as part of human nature, so their cause is doomed. And the heroes’ major themes all revolve around how to become/what it means to be a hero; but AFO believes trying to do good in that society can’t really be done & also it’s ridiculous to believe comic books are real, so their cause is also doomed and they look stupid doing it. So despite not really interacting with anyone’s core conflict or goals in favour of wrapping them up in his own, he still manages a one-sided ideological opposition with nearly every major player in the series; and that’s not nothing.

But, and I completely understand that this is just a matter of opinion, that kind of just leaves him feeling to me like a good antagonist, not a good final antagonist. I’d still prefer it be Tomura even from this perspective, because he’s able to oppose the ideologies of his opponents on purpose & with proper ideologies of his own.

To summarize:

Shigaraki feels the better choice for final boss because he’s more threatening, more interesting, both as a person and as an opponent for Deku specifically, he’s far more directly tied into the themes of the story and their resolution, & he’s had far more set up. AFO is more hated, and his callous disregard for everything everyone else holds important is something I guess, but that’s pretty much all he’s got going for him in compression. I don’t know about you, but I know who I think would carry the conclusion to the series better.

But I also know this isn’t the most popular take among my villain fan colleagues right now. So if anyone disagrees, I welcome any civil discussion about these two & their viability as final boss.

[tedturneriscrazy]

And here we are with Yesterday's Lie, the season 2A finale!

Wow, this came up quick, huh?

Anyways...

What are you doing with all that, not-Luz?

(Also, cute photo of younger Luz. She had hair!)

That musical cue when not-Luz adjusted her hair was rather unnerving

Judging by Camila's reaction to that box being set out, she wasn't lying when she said she loved Luz's creativity

Freeing the rabbit from the trap did a lot to establish more of Camila's character. I'm glad we're finally getting more of her.

OH SHIT REAL LUZ IN THE MIRROR

"Are you sure this isn't gonna blow our faces off?" "Nope!"

That's a rather eclectic collection of ingredients for the door

I wonder if Amity also provided the abomination head

Group hug❤

There's the trailer shot

You only appear in reflections, huh? Interesting...

Jeez, Luz, priorities!

(Oh who am I kidding, the fact she's still thinking about her girlfriend is adorable)

I do love it when her accent comes through

Whoops, looks like wherever this is the magic of the Isles doesn't reach

Previously unmentioned dad whose face is obscured in the photo

GASP

Spider-Man moment

Oh, voice change in not-Luz!

Classic "I ain't goin' back, man!" moment

Also, it's beta Luz's bat!

"Monster Slayer Academia" I'm not entirely sure that doesn't actually exist...

"I will never understand anime..."😂😂😂

Oh, true form time!

Vee's gonna be a fan favorite, isn't she? (I ask, full well knowing the answer)

I mean, I've already seen plenty of Luca x Owl House fan art, so I imagine that may intensify

Luz seems to be quite understanding all things considered. I suppose all the people in the "Doppelganger isn't evil, actually" camp have been vindicated.

Oh, Eda

I don't think I like that camera...

So Gravesfield, Connecticut, huh?

Welp, there's a statue of a man that's probably Philip Wittebane

Oh, partially transformed Vee is gonna be irresistible to fanartists

Witch obsessed guy? Pamphlets? Hmm...

Wait, MARILYN?! As in Stan's ex?!

(I know she wasn't actually since the two shows don't take place in the same universe, but no way that nod wasn't deliberate)

"She tried to pay for a latte with a live raccoon" Eda I'm saying this in the nicest way possible: What the fuck

Those rats...buh

"BREAD OF WISDOM GRANTS US SPEECH! WE DESIRE MORE!"

Can't say I don't relate to Vee wrt confrontation

Luz has definitely had some...previous experiences with other kids. Creepy talking rats? Yes. Human high schoolers? No thank you.

Oh, fellow campers! Luz isn't the only one who had off-screen experiences.

That reading seemed...ominous

Right...contacts...

Side note: seems like that camp doesn't stomp out weirdness as thoroughly as previously speculated

Oh shit it's Sonic the Hedgehog! I mean Warden Wrath! I mean Roger Craig Smith!

I saw someone take issue with how Vee reacted to Luz running away to the Demon Realm, but considering her past experience and trauma, her reaction is understandable

Belos I don't care how much of a foxy grandpa you are, you fucking suck

"Skin's sure weird!"

She took the day off work to drive "Luz" to camp I just😭

Whether you think camp was a bad idea or not, Camila's a good mom

Oh dear, Sonic is a conspiracy bro

I guess we know who set up that camera. And the traps.

Oh, seems Eda didn't have elixir with her on one of her trips to the human realm...

"After watching a few Mew-tube videos I learned the truth!" Yup he's a conspiracy bro. Goddamnit, Sonic!

(I can rag on Sonic the Hedgehog all I want, I've been into the games since the Genesis days, well before most of y'all were even born)

Luz having a "BOI" moment

This guy definitely watches Alex Jones. Props to the TOH crew for teaching a new generation about these conspiracy creeps.

Vee is accustomed to a life on the run, but apparently not with Luz's determination and quick thinking.

Also, all this talk about being "outed?" Yeah I'm definitely seeing the trans allegory everyone's talking about.

Now Luz turns to the one person who can help

That "boop"❤ (Now we know where Luz gets it from)

Camila not believing all the Demon Realm stuff. Shocked. SHOCKED, I say.

Well shit, Camila's been a veterinarian all this time! Don't we all have egg on our faces!

It would explain how Luz is so good with animals

Sonic the Curator sure is something, huh

The scary thing is that there are people like him in real life. Worse, even.

Okay, I know this is a dire situation, but I am enamored with Camila's mom energy here. She's adorable.

Dude with a ponytail and cardinal on his shoulder to send the theorists in a tizzy. It'll be interesting to see how this all eventually comes together.

I just realized that that's a training wand on the table

And now Camila realizes this is no game

Further props to the TOH crew for making the antagonist of the episode a crackpot white dude. This is correct.

Yup, further trans allegory. Plus a nice example of a supportive-if-not-quite-understanding-everything parent.

And there's Camila going ham on a motherfucker. Turns out there was no lie in the "Two Truths and a Lie!" Rather, the lie was that there was a lie in the first place...My brain hurts.

Oh, she can appear in the rain. That's cool!

Now is time for Real Sad Hours

The way Camila is reacting...god...it hurts...

"Is this the only way I can touch you?" STOP😢

"Staying here was the best decision I ever made!" Uh oh...

That promise is totally not gonna come back up later in the most tragic, gutwrenching way possible. Nope. Nuh uh. No way that'll happen.

Dammit, Luz, not more lies! Oh, right. The episode title.

Her face really says it all.

Well, it wasn't quite the continuous pain train we convinced ourselves it was gonna be, but that ending? Ow. I'm glad Vee has the support she needs, but my heart hurts for the Nocedas. I really hope they can resolve the issues they clearly still have, because damn.

And now we get to chew on all that for the next however many months! Hooray! I knew I said I was ready for a hiatus, but it turns out I'm a big fat liar, because I'm not! Augh!

Well, I'll try to look on the bright side: At least my sleep schedule can normalize again? Also I can cancel my Sling subscription once 6-10 drop on D+. Neither DisneyNow nor Sling are optimal VOD experiences.

[bthump]

I mean, I understand the outrage a little 'cause in both cases the antagonist SA'ed the protagonist's gf (or so it looks like in TB, frankly I think there's more to it due what happens in the comics), also H&B were never friends, but as you said we're talking about two edgy series (TB is ALL gore and sex), all the four characters are fucked-up to some degree (Guts also SA'ed Casca!), both narratives push the "two sides of the same coin" trope, and TB even has a little H&B team-up, so...

Yeah like I def can't comment on the details of The Boys since I haven't watched it, but as a general rule my feelings are that it's fine for fictional stories to make you feel strong emotions, it's bad when you take those emotions out on other people by getting into internet fights about it and calling other fans with slightly different tastes in edgy media degenerates lol.

But yeah discourse talking points aside The Boys sounds like fun. Honestly I'm really picky about what types and amounts of edge I'll watch so it's not something I'll likely jump into, but I can see the appeal. Though it's slightly unfortunate to hear that the dudes that get shipped aren't friends to enemies lol, but oh well can't have everything I guess.

[lardguz]

The Aegis's Master Plan

I'm posting this story from the mobile app because I can't access my laptop until later today, but! I've been chipping away at this stupid story for months now, I started it way before the last story I posted. I kind of wrote myself into a corner by getting both Mal//os and J//in at sizes I had never really written before and then... Kept going. So it took me a really, really long time and lots of writers block to finally figure out how to finish it. But, I did! I think. I can't remember if I ever like, wrapped the story properly because the file is so goddamn big. ^^;

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy two very homoerotic antagonists stuffing each others faces!

The Monoceros. A huge mechanical marvel of a warship, unlike any other that the nations of Alrest used for their transport. This metal beast of a ship didn’t rely on Titans to move, instead roaming the Cloud Sea unfettered by any lifeform. Within the black metal armor of the craft lay the secret base of the Blade terrorist group, New Torna. The leader of the ragtag group, the Flesh Eater named Jin, was currently preoccupied with matters other than freeing Blades and Core Crystals from those who would abuse them.

 

The long-haired man stood in the Monoceros’s kitchen, cooking up a storm. Three serving carts piled high already with his culinary crafts, he was working on loading up the fourth and final cart with the last of the dishes he had planned for the evening. This much food was usually only prepared for huge feasts for royalty, or small armies, but Jin had only one dining partner this evening. Said dining partner was currently heckling him from outside in the mess hall.

 

“Hey, Jin! How much longer is dinner gonna take, anyways?! You’d think 500 years of perfecting your technique would make you cook faster than the average human child, hah!” called the loud, brash voice of Malos, the Aegis himself, and Jin’s second-in-command in leading New Torna.

The white-haired Blade groaned as he plated some Gormotti Sashimi, and called back in an even tone that didn’t betray his frustration with his partner. “I’m almost done, Malos, would you please be patient? You requested a lot more food than I am generally used to preparing at once.”

“Well, what can I say?,” the sarcastic voice bellowed back, “Regaining my full Aegis powers made me really damned hungry. And you do not want to be on my bad side when I’m hungry, so HURRY IT UP.”

Jin sighed and resigned himself to his position, when a brilliant idea struck. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small pouch. The quiet man had stolen this appetite-enhancement powder out of the barracks of the Ardainain warship he had stormed on his own a while back. Some private must have stashed it away to help gain muscle mass in training exercises. Maybe I could use this to get back at Malos for all the shit he’s constantly putting me through… thought Jin. Without missing a beat, he opened the pouch and began sprinkling its contents liberally over every single dish he had prepared for the evening. His cunning plan now in motion, Jin began wheeling the massive feast out to the dining hall, where Malos sat waiting for him.

 

 The darkly-armored Blade sat reclined in his wooden chair, his boots kicked up on the banquet table. He sneered as Jin began putting all the beautiful dishes he’d spent all day cooking on the table. “So this is the best food Alrest has to offer, huh? Certainly doesn’t look like much, Jin. You sure this will please an Aegis like me?” Jin nodded, respectfully and impassive, refusing to reveal his intentions with his expression. Malos chuckled, and pulled a plate of Ruska Dumplings toward himself. “Guess I’ll just have to see for myself, then!” Grasping a dumpling in his armored hand, he popped it into his mouth, chewing contemplatively. His eyes opened slowly, and he spoke around the dumpling. “Hey, that’s not half bad. I think I’ll eat the rest of these if you don’t mind, Jin.”

 

“No, go ahead, Malos. Feel free to enjoy until you’re satisfied.” Jin responded softly, as he began moving some more of the plates within reach of the hungry Aegis. He observed silently as Malos demolished the plate of dumplings and immediately moved onto the next dish, a plate of grilled salmon with herbs, without even making any of his usual sarcastic comments. That powder really shut him up, Jin silently mused, when he noticed something else. It seemed like his appetite wasn’t the only thing the powder was effecting. The Aegis’s once-strong and muscular body seemed to be growing softer before Jin’s very eyes. As Malos polished off the salmon and moved onto a plate of Cinnopon Rolls, some of the armor plating his body snapped off and clattered to the floor, allowing his partner to get a better look at his growth.

 

The first thing Jin noticed was that Malos’s stomach was much, much larger than it was before. The soft, flabby mass was resting comfortably on his thighs, the stretchy bodysuit he wore under his armor not doing anything to hold it back. His thighs were also softening considerably, and Jin couldn’t resist pinching the plush fat that now coated them, nodding approvingly as his fingers sunk in about two inches deep. The Aegis’s ass, once well-toned and round, was now squarish in shape, the cheeks losing their form and squishing into the back of the dining chair, threatening to droop off the edges along with his fat thighs if he kept up the rate he was devouring his solo feast. His arms were also getting bigger and softer, and his formerly toned pecs were now budding into a magnificent pair of breasts, resting comfortably atop his growing gut. His Core Crystal was nestled comfortably between each moob, and Jin wondered how visible it would be in a few hours. Malos’s face, which not long ago was rather sharp and intimidating, now undeniably had a certain rounded softness to it, his cheeks puffing out just a little bit, and a double chin peeking out any time he chewed on his food. Jin began massaging his boyfriend’s shoulders softly, feeling the fat between his fingers and getting an unexpected thrill of delight from it. He realized this was no longer about payback, but wanting to get his partner as big as he possibly could, and knowing he was an Aegis, that was probably a pretty high ceiling to reach.

 

Jin leaned forward to whisper in Malos’s ear from where he stood behind the growing Blade. “Are you enjoying the meal, Malos?” he asked softly. Malos laughed around a mouthful of roasted poultry. “Hah! What, can’t you tell? This food is suiting my needs just fine, Jin. Why, d’you want some too?”

Jin hesitated. “Oh, no, I’m fine. I made this all especially for you, remember?”

Malos nodded, taking another massive bite of the drumstick in front of his face. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But I feel like you really earned this, ya know?” The Aegis chuckled darkly as he made his move.

 

With alarming speed for one as fat as he was, Malos spun around in his chair and grabbed both Jin’s wrists, forcing him to the floor. Jin let out a yell of surprise that was cut short as Malos landed on top of him, his massive weight pinning him and knocking the wind out of his lungs. Malos smirked deviously. “You really thought I didn’t notice the food was off?! You idiot, I’m the Master Blade, of course I noticed you messed with my food! Which means…” Malos reached for a plate of Lovemerry Cake, grabbing a fistful of the sweet confection and shoving it into Jin’s open mouth. “You’re gonna be enjoying this lovely meal with me, Jin! It’s just not fair for you to not get to taste your own delightful cooking too, after all! If I’m gonna be a total fatass, I’m taking you down with me, asshole.” After shoving the entire cake, handful by handful, into Jin’s desperately resisting mouth, Malos hoisted his bulk off of his boyfriend, delighted to see a slight bulge of a new tummy growing on the Flesh Eater’s abdomen. Jin shakily rose from the floor and automatically made his way towards the other end of the banquet table, pulling the nearest plates close to him and immediately digging in without comment. Malos snorted and sat back down in his seat, the wood creaking under his already sizable ass. “I’m not letting you upstage me in this one, though, Jin. You’re never gonna outgrow an Aegis.”

 

The two men feasted in silence, the only sounds the scraping of silverware on plates, the loud smacking of lips, and frantic chewing as the appetite enhancing powder caused their stomachs to scream for more and more food. Jin was mostly gaining weight in his lower half, his titanic thigh rolls and enormous ass cheeks seemingly swallowing his wooden dining chair whole, their flab overflowing and dangling over its edges easily. His gut, which was still large but not nearly as big as his beanbag-sized cheeks, oozed over his tree trunk thick thighs, seeping between them and forcing them further and further apart. The white-haired Blade’s clothes were ripping at the seams all over his growing form, as he stared across the table at his partner. Malos was a Blade of his word, to be sure, and was not letting Jin catch up to his growth at all. The massive man had surpassed a double chin and had moved to triple, his cheeks starting to droop into fat-laden jowls that ruined his once-menacing expressions. His neck was lost under a ring of fat that looked like a small tire around his face. Malos must have fully burst out of his bodysuit a while ago, his mountainous bulk no longer able to be contained within its confines. His breasts sagged down either side of his triple-decker gut, each one larger than any female Blade’s boobs in existence. His arms were covered with jiggling fat that drooped off his biceps, slapping heavily against his numerous side rolls and his moobs every time he brought food up to his fat mouth. His gut was split into three rolls, which cascaded down his front and pooled in his wide lap. The dark Aegis’s flabby gut was definitely his largest asset, even the topmost roll large enough for a Tirkin to sleep on comfortably after only a few hours of feasting. The middle and bottom rolls split where his belly button once was, the fat from the middle roll folding over it and making a crevasse that would only get larger and deeper the more he ate. His meaty love handles stuck out to the sides of his massive belly, the side rolls they formed impeding him from placing his pillowy arms straight down at his sides, forcing them to rest at an angle in the brief moments he wasn’t stuffing food into his greedy maw. While his lower half wasn’t nearly as large as Jin’s would be when he eventually caught up to his current weight, Malos’s lard-laden ass and dimpled thighs still overflowed out of the tiny wooden chair he was in. He actually registered in his mind that his enormous asscheeks were almost definitely stuck in said chair, which was creaking and groaning constantly under his prodigious behind. He suddenly had an idea to keep the chair inevitably breaking under him from being an issue and heaved himself onto his feet.

 

Malos waddled his way out of the mess hall, leaving Jin behind to continue eating on his own. The round Aegis had to shuffle his massive thighs past each other with each step, the inner rolls rubbing against each other no matter how far apart he kept his legs. The lowest roll of his stomach slapped against his knees as he wandered around the halls of the Monoceros, looking for any of the other Torna members. Unfortunately for Malos, the first one he found was the one he least wanted to see right now.

 

Mikhail, the blonde skirt-chasing scoundrel of their group, was leaning against a terminal, punching something in on the keyboard. Hearing the huffing breaths coming from a bit of a ways down the hall, he turned toward the noise's source and saw Malos’s morbidly obese form and couldn’t hold back a snort of amusement. “Whoaaaah, Malos?! What happened to you? You look like you must’ve ate an entire Ardun by yourself!” Malos groaned. “Mikhail, please. For once in your life, shut the fuck up.”

Mikhail looked playfully hurt by this statement, and cried back in response, “Boss, I’m hurt! I was just saying you look even bigger than last time I saw you! Why are you being so mean to m—GAAAH!!” The blonde man didn’t get to finish his sentence as Malos made his move, pushing his entire body against Mikhail’s and using his massive gut to pin the smaller man to the wall. He leaned his blubbery face in close to Mikhail’s and snarled, “I told you. To shut. The fuck. Up. Got it?” Mik nodded, his cheeks flushing bright pink as he felt Malos’s body enveloping his own. “Good. Now here’s what I need you to do. Go grab two benches from the storage room. The ones meant to sit four people. Bring them to the mess hall as fast as possible, or so help me, I will crush you like the worm you are, got it?”

 

By the time Malos managed to waddle his way back to the mess hall, the benches had already been brought in, and Jin was planted firmly in his. To Malos’s disgust, he realized that Jin had surpassed him in size while he was gone. The white-haired Blade’s enormous, shapeless ass was already starting to get close to overflowing the bench he was sat upon, with the fat of his massive thighs making his legs look roughly the size of a particularly old Puzzlewood tree from Gormott. Malos moved as fast as his overburdened legs could take him to his bench and began stuffing food into his face at double speed, chewing frantically to make sure his boyfriend didn’t end up larger than him. They kept feasting long into the night, even after the benches shattered beneath their respective bulks, leaving them to shift their nearly-immobile bodies onto the table so they could continue reaching the food with their fattened hands. Being Blades, and incredibly powerful ones at that, they retained movement in their arms for much longer than most, long past when they both were immobilized by their own corpulence. Their multitude of chins and neck rolls blended seamlessly into each other, their drooping jowls wobbling and smacking loudly every time they chewed, and their cheeks so fat that they started to impede their vision slightly. Their massive moobs pressed into their neck rolls, giving the impression that their faces were sinking slowly into their own fat. The only thing hindering their powerful Blade arms from accessing food readily was the fact that their fattened hands were starting to sink into their fat as well, their flabby pillows of arm fat starting to absorb them at the wrists. Their legs had already done the same to their feet, the dimpled lard of their calves already collapsing over their ankles about an hour ago, preventing either of them from being able to even waddle ever again. Even if their feet were visible, though, they wouldn’t be able to touch the ground. Even Malos’s comparably small ass was still a veritable mountain of adipose, lifting him off the ground by about half a foot already, each cheek the size of a couch and steadily spreading out under him. His massive gut spread even further, its numerous rolls spreading out underneath him as he strained his overencumbered arms to try and reach the dishes that were closer towards the middle of the banquet table. Jin’s gut was nowhere near as huge as Malos’s, but his massive ass cheeks pushed him about a foot and a half off the ground, making it just as difficult for his fat-covered arms to reach the tantalizing feast near the center of the table. Both Blades soon surrendered, wobbling futilely as they fell back, unable to move anymore due to the lard encasing their once-powerful bodies.

 

Malos was wheezing for breath, the strain of leaning forward even too much for him now. His boyfriend was in a similar state, face flushed crimson as he huffed to regain his composure. The Aegis breathlessly spoke to Jin from where they both sat with the table and its forbidden meal between them. “H-hey, Jin. I think… haah… we might need… huff… to ask some of th-the others… haah… for h—urp, help… finishing this.”

Jin tried to nod in agreement, but with his face and neck caked in fat the way they were, all he could manage was wobbling his face fat instead. “Yeah, th-that sounds… huff… like our b-best… haah, haah… option, Malos. Should I… hnngh… call for them?”

Malos only belched in response, which Jin decided to take as a “yes”, and he sent out a mental signal to Mikhail and Akhos to come to the banquet hall at once. As soon as they both arrived, to quell any sass or small talk from the two particularly condescending Flesh Eaters, Malos cast a quick Monado Enchant on them and gave them their new instructions: to feed himself and Jin the rest of the many plates of food on the table in silence. Akhos immediately moved to grab plates and began climbing his way up to where Jin’s face was being slowly buried in between his breasts and back rolls, while Mikhail did the same for Malos’s mountainous form.

 

The two men continued to grow and grow the more they were fed, their hands now long ago absorbed into their arms’ fat rolls. Malos’s titanic stomach overtook the table, crushing it underneath its enormous weight. Thankfully Mikhail and Akhos had already moved the remaining plates onto the guts of their two leaders, which had long since become large enough to be used as a table anyways. Jin, with five crab skewers in his fat mouth at once, realized that he could feel his rear pressing against something, but since his face was so sunken into his own fat, he couldn’t even begin to move his head to see. Even if he could turn his head, all he would have seen was his boulder-sized ass cheeks and his cascading rolls of back fat that led down to them. His gut, while smaller than his partner’s, was still enormous, and was slowly getting pushed under Malos’s much larger and more expansive stomach rolls. The Aegis currently was having an entire four-tiered cake shoved into his mouth piece by piece and loving every second, reveling in feeling every inch of his flab creeping further and further across the room. He felt more powerful than he had ever felt in his life as the Aegis.

 

After hours and hours of feeding and eating, finally, the two Torna leaders were finished with their feast, and sat in the aftermath of their massive gain. The only thing Jin could see past his flabby cheeks that took up most of his vision was the ceiling directly above him, as everything else he could see was his own soft pale flesh. His miniscule face was nestled deeply between a valley of his massive jowls, his flabby back rolls, and his cascading chins and neck fat. His breasts sat atop his enormous gut, each one larger than the table that he originally placed the feast on was before it was crushed under his and Malos’s combined weight. The rings of fat next to his breasts that were once his arms contained no signs of once being able to wield a katana expertly, now uselessly huge with his fingers and hands swallowed up beneath the rolls of adipose covering them. His gut was mostly eclipsed by Malos’s enormous stomach rolls, but Jin’s ass and thighs were his biggest asset by far, both of which were so massively obese that they spread across the room and pressed firmly against the metal walls and ceiling of the Monoceros’s mess hall, threatening to crush them under the weight of his titanic ass fat if he ate any more food.

 

Malos was in a similar state, though he had definitely surpassed Jin in sheer size. Not that it really made a difference when both Blades were huge enough to fill the entire mess hall between them. Malos’s blob of a body towered over Jin’s, his wobbling mountain of a gut covering almost every inch of his side of the room and squishing up against Jin’s comparably-smaller stomach rolls, waves of pillowy flab spreading all over. The Aegis’s core crystal was nestled between his two boulder-sized moobs, still perfectly present despite the sea of soft fat around it. Malos’s face, however, was much less visible, the once-sharp and intimidating features now buried between enormous flabby jowls, rippling chins and neck rolls, and hefty rolls of back fat that already threatened to crash over onto his face. The black haired man wiggled his fingers from where he could feel them buried under the incredible amounts of lard that coated his arms, chuckling deeply as he realized he could still move them despite his hands being absorbed into his arm fat hours ago. Suddenly, his core began glowing with a purple light that enveloped the fat rolls that were once his arms, which then flowed over to his partner, Jin, covering his entire corpulent form with a glow of dark energy.

Jin groaned as his body started wobbling, every fold and roll rippling and slapping against each other loudly. Suddenly, the light dissipated, and the white haired Blade felt… strange. He almost felt lighter, despite being thousands of pounds overweight now. He squinted his icy blue eyes, trying to peer past his overfed cheeks to look at his boyfriend, Malos. He could make out the pale blob that was now the Aegis’s body across from him, and he heard deep, almost maniacal laugher coming from the mound of flab, which sent the entire expanse of fat wobbling all over.  Malos spoke, his voice deepened significantly by all the fat caking his neck, and his words slurred from his incredibly flabby cheeks and pudgy lips making talking all the more difficult.

“Sho… Jhin… Hah doesh ih—hnnnnhhhh—feeuhl… tuh hahve—nnnnghhh—th’ pohwehsh… ohf an Aegish…?” Malos had to pause frequently to wheeze between words, the weight of his body making speaking and breathing at the same time a difficulty. Jin grunted in confusion. What did he mean, the powers of an Aegis? Malos laughed again, his drooping breasts wobbling like pendulums with each booming sound. “Youh… hahven'… fihgurhed ih—haaaaah… haaaahhh…-- ouht? Shtahnd… uhp… Jhin… an’ cohme… tuh meh…” The Aegis stopped talking, opting instead to gasp for breath, exhausted from exerting himself by just talking for a few seconds. Jin sat there in shock, wondering how the hell Malos expected him to stand up at his size. But then he remember that he did feel lighter somehow after Malos did whatever it was he just did, so the Blade attempted to move his presumed-useless legs.

 

Jin was surprised to find that his legs did in fact move, and he was easily able to shift his room-wide bulk into a standing position somehow. The resulting movement of his enormous rear end slapped both hills of lard into the wall of the dining hall, making the entire room echo with the sound of their bulk clapping against the cold metal. Jin hesitantly began shuffling his bloblike body towards his boyfriend’s immobile form, inching his carriage-sized legs past each other painfully slowly, the entire expanse of his body rippling with every slight move he made. His stomach, leg rolls, and ass cheeks all dragged along the floor, making the journey all the more difficult even with the strength of an Aegis making it possible for him to move at his incredible size. Eventually, Jin stood at the base of Mount Malos. He heard his boyfriend’s voice, smug as ever even with the weight affecting his speech, echoing from above him. “Haaaaah… ekshellehnt… Naoh… Ah—hnnnngh—neehd youh… tuh… clihmb uhp—hhhhhnnn—tuh mah… mouff…” Jin grunted in confirmation, moving his fat-swaddled arm rolls experimentally. They responded to his movements despite being disgustingly overfed, his hands still buried under their rolls, but it was enough for Jin to be able to climb the massive, wobbling expanse of Malos’s stomach rolls. It made for very slippery going, with one not-insignificantly smaller blob of a man climbing another one. Jin’s oversized arms and legs sank deep into Malos’s soft belly, the leader of New Torna feeling like he was going to fall into a crevasse of body folds and never be found again. Their fatty bodies slapped against each other loudly as Jin slowly ascended, every inch of their bodies shifting endlessly with waves of movement. Finally, Jin found his blob of a body perched atop Malos’s chest, gazing into his boyfriend’s cold gray eyes, surrounded by the sea of fat covering his entire face. Malos grinned, his eyes almost disappearing behind the creases of fat that formed when he did so. “Sho… naishe—haaaah—tuh shee yuh… agaihn… shekshy—hnnnngh—Reahdy tuh… fihnush thish?” The Aegis said, looking almost ecstatic that his plan had progressed this far, whatever it was. Jin nodded, or did as close to a nod as he could manage at his size. Malos explained through wheezing breaths that the true power of an Aegis granted him the ability to make whatever he wanted reality. He had given Jin some of that power to help make him bigger than any Titan or even the World Tree itself, so that he could fulfill his desire to destroy Alrest by crushing it beneath his own continental sized body. Jin agreed, lifting his sagging arm rolls and conjuring a flow of food to enter Malos’s waiting mouth. The Aegis moaned in satisfaction, readily gulping down anything that came near his greedy maw.

 

Rex and his companions were visiting his hometown of Fonsett Village to recuperate after their last encounter with New Torna. The Driver of the other Aegis, Mythra, sat on the overlook that he and his friends from the village had jumped off of into the Cloud Sea an uncountable number of times, watching the sun set as it bathed the clouds in a golden glow. Rex heard footsteps in the grass behind him and turned to see who was approaching. His eyes met those of the Gormotti Driver, Nia, who he’d been traveling with since the very beginning of his journey. The brown-haired boy grinned at her and patted the grass next to him. “Oh, hey there, Nia! C’mon, come sit and watch the sunset with me! Fonsett has the best sunsets you’ve ever seen!”

Nia scoffed, rolling her yellow eyes, her cat ears twitching with amusement at the boy’s enthusiasm. “I swear, Rex, yet such a kid sometimes! But, sure, why not? Sunsets ain’t really a thing I ever got tae enjoy much in my life.” She sat down next to him, crossing her legs beneath her and placing her hands on her knees.

Rex looked over at her, examining the look of quiet concern on the girl’s face as she stared at the clouds below. He piped up gently. “Nia, is something the matter? You look like somethin’s botherin’ you.” She closed her eyes and smiled wryly before responding. “Aye, nothin’ gets past ye, does it, Rex? I was thinkin’ about Malos and Jin.”

Rex tilted his head a little in confusion. “Jin and Malos? Why? Are you worried about ‘em or something? Do you miss ‘em?”

“Miss ‘em?! Pfft!” Nia snorted, “Of course I don’t miss ‘em, they were a right couple’a tossers. I was jus’ thinkin’ that somethin’ don’t seem right. I feel like they might be up tae nae good. I just feel somethin’… off in the air I guess? Somethin’… big?”

Rex clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times before replying. “You know, I was thinking the exact same thing earlier. I feel something off in the air, too. Like the flow of ether energy in the air is… growing? Or maybe shrinking? I dunno. But maybe you might be right, and it’s something to do with them.”

Nia was about to theorize some more when she stopped, her ears perking as she looked off on the horizon. “Oi, Rex, d’ye see that there off in the distance?” She pointed to a large shape flying high above the Cloud Sea. Rex looked, squinting to see it better as it was so far away. “Is that… The Monoceros?!” He exclaimed in shock. Nia nodded. “Aye, that’s what I thought, too. Doesn’t it look a little off tae ye, though?”

Rex peered at the battle ship of New Torna and realized it looked… misshapen. The metal hull seemed to be bulging weirdly in places, and it also seemed like its flight path was sinking slowly, like something was weighing it down from within. “That’s odd. Why’s it look like that, do you reckon, Nia?” The girl shrugged. Rex looked back and noticed, now that it was a little closer, that some of the metal plating of the hill was coming apart at the seams, and something pale and soft was oozing out of the gaps. One panel fell off entirely, and in its place burst out a wobbling pillow of soft material, almost like a bubble of some kind. The two young Drivers looked at each other in confusing and worry as they watched the Monoceros fall apart piece by piece as it sunk closer and closer to the clouds below, revealing more and more of the strange, pale mass contained within the ship. “That definitely wasn’t there when I was still with Torna…” Nia murmured, “What the ‘Ell is goin’ on…”

 

Suddenly, the air was split with the shriek of breaking metal, as the entire remains of the Monoceros burst open, sending two indistinct shapes, one at least twenty times larger than the other, plummeting into the Cloud Sea. The smaller blob-shaped object landed on top of the much larger one with a resounding meaty slap, sending rippling shockwaves all over its form. The enormous wobbling mass floated suspended in the clouds, while Nia and Rex tried to figure out what it was. That was when they realized the shape was growing larger at an alarming rate. Rex looked at Nia, his eyes panicked. “Uh, Nia? We should probably evacuate everyone in Fonsett to safety. Whatever that thing is, it’s getting bigger by the second!” Nia nodded and the two ran off to the village to gather everyone together.

 

Jin sat on top of his boyfriend’s uncountable chins and neck rolls, thrilling in the feeling of his own massive expanse of rolls sinking into the even softer and ever-growing fat of the Aegis himself. One wouldn’t even be able to tell the acres of soft, pale flab were a Blade unless they got very, very close. Malos was completely unrecognizable, any semblance of a humanoid form long buried beneath tons upon tons of adipose. His gigantic mountain of stomach rolls spread for miles and miles across the Cloud Sea, blanketing the thick, puffy clouds with even thicker, softer, heavier fat rolls. Malos’s monumentally sized ass cheeks, each one now bigger than any inhabitable Titan, stretched out behind him for almost as far as his incredible gut did. The mounds of adipose that were once his legs were ringed with soft, dimpled fat rolls, completely unrecognizable as anything that once resembled a leg. His piles of pudgy love handles had reached the hundreds now, looking like a stack of floppy pancakes leading up to his enormous chest. Malos’s breasts were astonishingly huge, large enough to crush the entirety of Alba Cavanich under just one of them easily, each one weighing at least over ten tons. His face was barely visible anymore, between the boulder-sized jowls drooping down the sides of his face and impeding his vision greatly, his rings of hundreds of flabby, wobbling chins and neck rolls, and the cascade of back fat that was crashing down on his face from above. The Aegis’s mouth was constantly occupied with an endless deluge of fattening foods conjured up by Jin’s new powers, Malos’s mouth constantly stretched to its limits by the sheer amount of dishes crammed between his overfed cheeks,. He had no time to talk anymore, not when he was eating constantly to grow larger and larger and eventually crush all of Alrest beneath his massive blob of a body, but then again, why would he ever want to waste time talking? Becoming the largest Blade in all of Alrest was truly a calling worthy of the Master Blade himself.