#they put these 2 bastards on the same page and then ask why i'm not normal....

[meadowlarkx]

sexiest silm line contenders

"Beware therefore how you princes of the West bear yourselves; for I am the Lord of Beleriand, and all who seek to dwell there shall hear my word."

"But Maedhros laughed, saying: 'A king is he that can hold his own, or else his title is vain.'"

[mynotsohealthyobsession]

Disembodied parte 4/8

Warning: Mention of death // Angst // Fluff

Pairings: Adrian Raines X MC // Nik Ryder X MC

Words: 1.277

As always, tags in the reblog!

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3

They both stood rooted in place. Neither of them moved or said a word. It seemed like time had stopped and neither of them knew how to reset it. Their eyes studied each other's faces, recognizing themselves. Amy saw the ponytail that Alex had made with her hair, something truly unusual for her. Alex, instead, noticed that Amy had picked her more casual clothes, avoiding anything hunter-related.

After a while, Amy walked inside the penthouse and closed the door behind her, leaning her back against it to keep her distance. She cleared her throat, trying to compose herself. "I don't know if you are who I think you are but–"

"You are Amy." Alex cut her. "The real Amy."

"And you are Alex."

"Yes."

"We need to talk."

"No kidding. Let's start with what's going on and why are you in my body?"

"I don't know." Amy said sorrowfully. "I've been asking myself that for over a week." Alex stood quietly, simply observing Amy and what used to be her body. It was curious but for some reason, she trust Amy. She sighed.

"So I guess you know as much as I do."

"If you know absolutely nothing, then yeah, we are on the same page." Alex chuckled grimly.

"I need a drink." Alex said and Amy observed how her former body moved to the kitchen without her conscience in it. Like she was watching an extremely realistic movie about herself. “Where the hell is the alcohol here?”

"There's a wine cellar under the counter."

"You have been here before?"

"Yeah. Adrian let me stay here for a while last year." Amy looked around nostalgically. "And we celebrated our first victory here."

"I see." Alex returned with two glasses and a bottle of wine, sitting back in front of Amy again. "This has to be the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life." She commented. "And trust me, I've seen a few really weird things."

"Yeah, me too." She took the glass that Alex was passing her taking a big and grateful sip of it, trying to relax her nerves.

"I don't know if you know but I'm a vampire." She thought over her words for a second. "Well, you are a vampire."

"I imagine it." Amy sighed. "After what happened I guess it was the only option."

"Does it bother you?"

"...No. I didn't want to die or leave Adrian and the rest behind." She touched her chest. "There are too many things I want to see and do yet."

"I know the feeling."

“I tried to talk with Adrian about it before everything but it wasn't the right time. The truth is… I wanted to be Turned. Maybe under better circumstances but…” She took a deep breath. "Anyway… Apparently, you have new powers too."

"I do?" Amy put her hand up, the palm facing the ceiling, and concentrated, closing her eyes. After a while, her skin became warmer and Alex gasped. "Oh, I can't wait to test those babies out." She grinned until their reality hit them again. "If we actually manage to get this right."

"We will. We have to."

"What happened to Thomas?"

"Thomas?" Amy paused for a second. "Oh, that white thing." She nodded. "When I woke up, I killed it, with your new powers."

“Finally. That bastard gave us a lot of problems.” Alex left her glass on the table. “Everybody is okay, right?”

"Yes, they are all fine. They were more concerned about you.” She took the bottle, removing the cork again. “Nik came with me, actually."

"Oh."

"You don't sound too happy. Should I tell him to leave?"

"No, it's just… Things are complicated between us right now."

"I see." Amy filled the glasses again. "If it's worth anything, he's been really worried about you." Alex shrugged, looking down at the red wine. "Are you close to him?"

"I thought I was." Her stare became distant like her mind was somewhere else. "But apparently his care has an expiration date." Amy nodded, taking a sip. "How about you and Adrian?"

"We are. I think…" Amy smiled. "...We are kinda dating? Maybe?" She grinned for a moment until her eyes focused on Alex and her smile was gone. She hadn't thought of what had happened here until now. They had kissed? Or maybe more? She couldn't blame him if it was the case, he would have thought it was her, but it would hurt either way.

"I think you should know that nothing happened between us."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I have the feeling that he was wanting to talk about something with me… You… But the second he noticed something was different, he kept his distance." Alex swirled the reminds of wine in her glass, pensive. “I think that, deep down, he knew I wasn’t you.”

“I’m not that surprised, to be honest.” Amy gently chuckled to herself. “Adrian is really perceptive at times.”

“I think he is especially perceptive about you.” Amy drank a sip, covering her smile with the glass.

“Same goes for you and Nik, you know.” Alex bit down her bottom lip, looking a little sad. “And nothing happened between us either. Actually, he gave me a really hard time.”

“He gives everyone a hard time.” Alex stood, getting close to the dark window and looking down to where Adrian and Nik were waiting for them. “He is kind of an ass but his heart is in the right place. Most of the time at least.”

“He also wants to talk with you about something. From the moment I woke up.” Alex nodded absently. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I’m not. Before Thomas’ attack he…” Alex sighed. “Let’s just say we weren't on the same page.”

“I understand.” Amy also let her gaze wander to wander to the outside world. “Are you ready to go?”

“As ready as I’m going to be.” She took a jacket and they both walked to the hallway, taking the elevator down. Seeingthe woman exit the elevator, the men walked over.

“Everything okay?” Adrian asked.

“Yeah.” Amy smiled at him and Alex cleared her throat.

"I think I should introduce myself. Alex Fontaine. And…" She hesitated before continuing to talk. "...Adrian, I'm sorry that I've lied to you for this past week, I–"

"There's no need for that." His tone was polite and normal, not angered at all. "I understand why you did it."

"Thank you."

"Alex," Nik called her. She didn't say a word, simply watching him with a mix of anger and sadness in her posture.

Amy called Adrian's attention with a discreet squeeze on his upper arm. "Maybe we should give them some privacy." She murmured to him.

"I appreciate it but that's not necessary," Alex said, firmly. "First, I think we should try to figure this out." She narrowed her eyes looking at Nik's eyes directly. "Then we'll see."

"Works for me." Nik agreed. "Ivy is going to join us in a video call. She decided to stay back in NOLA and check some books."

"We can use the conference room for that," Adrian said, guiding the group through the doors to the elevator.

Nik whistled looking around. "Nice setup, man. Are you trying to compensate for something?"

"Nik!" Alex reprimanded him but Adrian just smirked.

"Curious. That was my exact thought about your many weapons." He opened the conference room and gave Nik access to the main computer to call Ivy. Only a minute later, her face popped on the wall screen. After exchanging a few friendly words, she looked straight at the camera.

"I have found a few things about this you all need to hear."

✨️

[consulcato]

I didn't know what to post so I just said to myself: "Why not speak about life in Liceo Classico?" Honestly I know you guys don't care about it but hey I'm going to speak about it because I'm kinda bored so yeah 😎🤟

Let's start with a brief introduction of what is the Liceo Classico.

The Italian “Liceo Classico” is a high school major in humanities: it is possibly the only high school in the world where pupils study both Latin and Ancient Greek and it’s internationally renowned for its advanced curricula in philosophy, literature and history. The literal translation from Italian to English of “Liceo Classico” is “Classical Lyceum” but, as we anticipated above, it’s correctly translated as “humanistic secondary school” or “high school major in humanities”. The “Liceo Classico” is the oldest and most prestigious secondary school in Italy and, before 2012, was actually divided in two segments: the first two years – called "Ginnasio" or “Gymnasium” – trained the students for the second part – the real “Liceo” – which lasts three years. Now, the first two years are called "biennio" (transl. two-year period) and the last three "triennio" (transl. three-year period). Besides that, it was considered so prestigious that, up to 1969, you could not attend an Italian university of any kind if you hadn’t obtained a “Liceo Classico” diploma.

This is our week hours. The translation is:

Monday:

8.15-9.15= Italian

9.15-10.15= Science

10.25-11.15= English

11.15-12.15= Maths

12.15-13.15= Religion

Tuesday:

8.15-9.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

9.15-10.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

10.25-11.15= English

11.15-12.15= Italian

12.15-13.15= Geography and history

Wednesday:

8.15-9.15= P.E

9.15-10.15= P.E.

10.25-11.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

11.15-12.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

12.15-13.15= / (we leave school earlier)

Thursday:

8.15-9.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

9.15-10.15= English

10.25-11.15= Geography and history

11.15-12.15= Maths

12.15-13.15= /

Friday:

8.15-9.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

9.15-10.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

10.25-11.15= Geography and history

11.15-12.15= Maths

12.15-13.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

Saturday:

8.15-9.15= Latin/[Ancient] Greek

9.15-10.15= Science

10.25-11.15= Italian

11.15-12.15= Italian

12.15-13.15= /

Our school schedule is not messed up at all, actually. This is really good, considering many things. Of course, we have homework everyday and this week, for example, we had a test every day and the next days we'll have tests so yes, this is normal here. Oh, plus, not only tests, but also oral exams where our geography and history professor gives us 110 pages for the next day at 11.27 p.m. Oh, and she's a real bastard, like, she calls 8 people to her desks, does 2 questions each (things that she didn't say in class/things that aren't in the book), she continues to interrogate even when the bell of the end of the lesson rings and she gave all the people in my class a 3 (We have a 1-10 grading system, and below 6 it's a red grade, an insufficient). Like, for tomorrow, I have 130 pages plus the greek oral exam! Oh, also, today our latin-greek prof (don't get me wrong, we love her) entered our class and said "put your desks apart 😃😃" That means, there was a surprise test. Of greek. And god I went to school with 37.4 degrees of temperature (basically a fever) and pfft my mind was not working so yes 😭

These stuff that you see up here are our daily homeworks...of greek. Because yes, we have latin too for the same day!

These are the homework I had to do for today.

Ahem, so, after you cried and asked yourself why the fuck did you go to this school, you watch the clock and see it's 1 am and you think you can finally sleep, but you remember that the professor said some homework in class and she didn't put it on electronic register. With the will to live below zero, you take the enormous dictionaries.

The last step is believing that God actually exists, since you finished at 4 am and you have 2 hours to rest before waking up earlier (6 am) than the other days since you didn't understand half of the stuff that your prof will interrogate you on.

[smol-tired-binch-blog]

Smol, Ask Game - Yakuza I'm curious

So. Full disclosure. I've only played Kiwami and 0, and am like...most of the way through Kiwami 2? So any knowledge I have of the rest of the franchise is via Tumblr and reading Majima's Wiki page (that's how I got here) So do bear with me lol.

3 male characters I love: To the shock of no one, Goro Majima. RGG really just made The Best Fictional Character Ever and just use him less and less huh I KNOW a lot of the characterisation came LONG after the first 6 games but IT STILL STANDS. Also also, Akira Nishikiyama. I know I've been more stuck on him recently but he's shoved his way to the front of my brain, but I still love Majima. They are both my boyfriends <3. Now hmmm, who gets the third spot....I know he was around for MUCH less time than I thought he would be, but I'm gonna say Homare Nishitani. He's a fucked up horny freak, he's just ACTUALLY a mad bastard and he loves it and I love him for it. I genuinely wish we got to fight him more it also makes fic more difficult cause I'm like 'wait when can he show up how does Sunshine fit in WHAT IS THE TIMELI-'. He's great, even though that first fight was very fucking bitchy.

3 female characters I love: Bold of you to assume there's more than 3 characters for me to pick from. Nah but uhhhh, can we count Yuko Nishikiyama when all my love for her is basically based on my own personal headcanons and interpretations? Let's call her a bonus option. Obviously Makoto Makimura, like I don't think I need to explain that do I? I think I also have to go withhhh.... Hibiki-chan and Yuki-chan. The fucking LORE IMPLICATIONS of Goromi's dress being a custom-made pink-snakeskin version of Hibiki's outfit?? And she was probably one of the most in love with him, idk she's just very sweet I love her. And Yuki is so cringefail but she thinks she's girlboss, I love that. Honestly I love all the Sunshine girls, more importantly I love the 'spares', yknow, the Golds and Silvers and Bronzes but I've mentioned that before, I should give them their own post.

3 romantic ships I love: Good morning Majimako nation :) It's a ship that brings me nothing but pain in canon and I love them so much, so thank God for fic writers vbhjnbhjn. I say canon brings me pain but they're just so cute and they understand each other's pain in a way others can't and it's like...all Majima had to do was give her closure, yknow? There's such a tragedy to it but I love them all the same. Also shoutout to the 7 other Majinishiki shippers out there. Yes I just put my two favourite beautiful men together. But the more I think about it the more I'm like "oh but this could be SO GOOD" cause they're both assholes and would both dislike each other and reckon they're polar opposites, which they appear to be on the surface, but they're more similar than they think and the idea of them learning that and being like "oh wait a minute....oh hang on...". They could be fun and funny and beautiful and hot so yeah, I've gotten real into it lol. Now....you know, I could pick the obvious, but it's time to push another agenda: Majima x Dolly. Yep. As in Doll Girl's mum. Look her kid has already decided he's her new dad, why not make it official? I just think Dolly is super cute, she's one of my favourite girls, and idk man it's really cute even though 0 content exists gvbhnjbhjn

3 platonic dynamics I love: Yuki and Majima's sibling bond means the world to me. Two cringefail weirdgirls who take turns being weird. Like one does something weird/stupid and the other is like "bro what the fuck is wrong with you" but then they switch and it's a constant bickering back and forth but you can tell it comes from a place of affection, and at the end of the day they do have each other's backs. Speaking of siblings, Nishiki and Kiryu. Yeah took my time bringing up the fuckin' protagonist didn't I? For all my Complicated Feelings towards Kiryu, his brotherly connection to Nishiki is clearer in 0 than it is in Kiwami, but when it's there it's there, man. These boys have each other's backs, they're the closest family they have, and seeing it fractured so tragically is heartbreaking. I wish they had more Heat Actions but the one they do have is delightful. OH, sorry, I had to take a minute irl to think of another platonic dynamic and I remembered: Kiryu and Rina. Yeah, the lesbian hostess from Kiwami who got the job to look at cute girls! The one who told Kiryu he can be wooed by men if he wants and he told her to not judge girls on such a binary femme/butch scale (well, 'cute/not cute'). I loved going to chat with her, they're really sweet and fun. Genuinely quite heartfelt conversations and I'm surprised how like...idk, progressive their chats are? It's sweet.

3 favorite moments in canon: This is actually very tricky to me, I've never really thought about ranking moments. Like, the games are a matter of 'vibing vibing vibing do some substories that give us some fun Kiryu characterisation do some plot I don't understand or particularly care for HOLY SHIT SUDDENLY IT'S REALLY GOOD AND THERE'S SOME GOOD CHARACTER/REALLY FUCKING COOL ACTION SCENES vibing vibing vibing' In no particular order:

The bit where Nishiki fuckin shanks Matsushige. I KNOW his psyche is shattering before our very eyes, I KNOW it's him well and truly crossing the line but like....Goddamn. I cannot have stated multiple times I find it to be his pinnacle of beauty and NOT include it, surely.

The entire Goromi interaction. What starts as a joke quickly just becomes a very heartfelt, honest chat between the two characters, and gives us a very welcome insight into Majima and what she's like when she's not wearing the Mad Dog mask. The cowards should give us a Goromi dating game.

Oh it's GOTTA be Majima's introduction, right? I feel like I can't be a Majima or Yakuza fan and not mention his intro in 0. Just the shot of those iconic shoes, seeing how he handles the whole customer conflict and faces it with such humility and grace and showmanship ALL WHILST HATING IT???? BUT MAINTAINING THAT COMPOSURE AND HAVING FUN FUCKING WITH HIM WHERE HE CAN???? Holy hell. Does the bit where he learns Essence of Blade Biting count tho because that's a favourite for a DIFFERENT reas-. (But also his intro in Kiwami was my actual introduction to him and I fell in love with him then so *shrugs*)

3 favorite headcanons: How to narrow it down to just 3? Hmmm. Actually now I think about it suddenly Every Headcanon I've Heard Has Vanished gvbhnjmbhjn. I'm not very good at making my own or ranking them so uhhhhh. Okay okay:

Trans man Kiryu is canon in my head. Idk man it just feels right.

OH I REMEMBER!! So I don't give a FUCK what canon says, too many people tower over Kiryu for him to be 6 foot. So my actual height headcanons are that Nishiki is 5' 8" (good height) and Kiryu is 5' 10", whereas Majima gets to remain his full 6' 1" glory, however, he slouches a fair amount so people sometimes people forget how fucking tall he is, so when he straightens to his full height people are like oh FUCK. These heights also mean that Nishiki, Who Is Not Short, looks quite small compared to the two men lmao

Sure he's willing to hide in empty trashcans, giant traffic cones and potholes to get the jump on his Kiryu-chan, but Majima actually can't stand being dirty. (1 year of constant torture probably does that to you) He has about 10 different products in his bathroom, a very thorough and regular hair-and-skincare routine. Probably has a floral or citrussy undertone hiding under the smell of smoke, sweat and blood he usually has.

3 least favorite things about it: *sighs*. Okay: 1. Its treatment of female characters. See Exhibit A) Yuko. As we introduce more female characters I fear it'll only get worse. And the thing is, I quite like the women we get!! They just Keep Being The Same!!! Like can I have something beyond Hostess/Bar Employee Who Is Nice To Kiryu and preferably DOESN'T die with little fanfare or just get written out? Makoto probably got out of this the best but even then, not really imo?? She still had her agency taken from her in that last choice. Idk man that's the crux of it ain't it, these women having little agency beyond how to serve the men in the story.

2. I Do Not Care For These Main Plots. By that I mean I am FAR less interested in these bits of political intrigue/conspiracy and plot twists about who works for who because I simply forget who half of these cunts are and I don't actually care. I care about the relationships between the characters, which granted is a more personal taste, but it always feels like....they have something there, and they kinda know it? But not enough to give it the rich and in-depth exploration it deserves because it'd rather throw a twist my way that someone's actually Korean or something about Jingu. (NO SERIOUSLY WHO THE FUCK IS JINGU WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN KIWAMI?!?!?) It leads to Substory Kiryu and Main Story Kiryu being two different men in my head, and I much prefer one over the other

3. Kinda related to the treatment of female characters but like. The softcores. The telephone club minigame. The catfight club. MesuKing. Please stop. They're not sexy, they're not fun, they're just really uncomfortable. It doesn't help that the girl in the background for telephone club game is the fucking same but with a different bikini colour like would it KILL yall to get some body diversity?? Actually if you did that the joke would be she's fat and ugly hahahahaha so funny I loooove this I'm Having Fun Playing the game alongside bae and/or bestie honestly makes it more uncomfy, but watching softcores on my own for the sake of a substory somehow feels sadder. We started fuckin' reviewing them lmaooooo like "Okay THAT'S a pretty tasteful and sexy pose, I'll use that for ref. And now I don't know what she's doing. Please stop looking at me like that" etc etc. Basically anytime the game tries to offer me a 'sexy surprise' or a minigame with tits in it I'm just very uncomfortable. I visited that catfight club ONCE for the uh. Wait which Billionaire was it? GAMBLING KING!! Yeah him and then I never went back because why the hell would I, this is MesuKing But Even Worse. So yeah. Please stop. (I feel like they won't)

That was very long and rambly and probably more in-depth than ya wanted/expected, I'm sure others just write their faves and leave it at that lol. Despite my little experience with the franchise overall and my many issues and criticisms, I do actually quite like this franchise so far. By that I mean my brain has decided to adore Two Characters so I have a feeling I know what games will be my faves overall lol.

HOWEVER I'm actually really looking forward to playing 3 because it's got Mine in it and I've heard it's good, 4 gives us my boy Saejima who I'm excited to learn more about (and Akiyama?? I think?? Idk I'm pretty sure he sings Baka Mitai in 5 aka The Best Version of The Song). 5 introduces us to a Ms Mirei Park and BEFORE YOU ALL START: I'm reeeeally looking forward to making my own judgement because she's SO divisive as a character I cannot help but be fascinated. Ooh same with Yasuko in 4. I think I'm gonna like her, but I might not. Who knows?

And of course from the Entire Hour we played of 7 I already love Ichiban and I think he's gonna be my best friend ever, what a cutie. I'll even sit through turn-based combat for his sake (I KNOW SOME OF YALL LIKE IT AND I'M HAPPY FOR YOU I'VE JUST NEVER BEEN INTO JRPGS THE CLOSEST I'VE GOTTEN WAS POKEMON MOON WHICH I NEVER FINSIHED BUT THAT'S A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME)

Anyway uh. Hope yall enjoyed my ramblings lol

[astromaki]

part 3 of second choice ; ceo!shoto todoroki x gn!reader (x ceo!katsuki bakugo) (1617 words)

part 1. part 2. (previous) part 4.

tw ; angst, arranged marriage, toxic relationship, degradation, divorce, mention of alcohol, bad language, slightly suggestive ?

EXTRA INFOS ;; all the characters are aged up obviously (they are 30 here), the point of view of this third part is from shoto todoroki !

confrontation. [7 : 16 pm]

a week has passed since he came home that night drunk. that he had begged momo to stay with him. that he had accidentally seen those divorce papers crumpled by your hands.

momo had seen them too that night, and yet she and shoto had not commented on them. good, he wasn't in the mood anyway.

it had become almost official, even the media had it on their front pages. "one of japan's richest couples on the verge of divorce?", "billionaire todoroki single again?" "y/n, will the heir.ess of their father's company return to being a lawyer?"

he would have liked to say that he cared what you thought about it. if you cried, screamed, were you hurt ? but that would be lying, you were the least of his worries.

and then, wasn't it what he wanted from the beginning ?

that you would end up hating him so much that you would leave him. that he could finally be free of the weight that you represented every day.

and yet his signature was still missing.

"you can't even love your partner properly, and now i hear through the media that a divorce is on the way ? you're pathetic son. i knew i should have married them to touya. " enji's heart-attack voice echoed terribly through the phone, which made shoto sigh. he was even pretty sure he could hear it from across town.

"calm down." shoto said in an annoyed tone. "your marriage isn't a success either, so keep your remarks to yourself. bye. "

"you idiot, don't you dare hanging up on me. i don't care if you can't satisfy your s/o, i don't care if they feel bad about this arranged marriage either. but y/n y/l/n comes from a very famous lawyer's family, so get a divorce and the amount of money you have to give will be huge. "

"i manage them, it will not be a problem. i have to go now. "

the young man finally returned to your room, looking exhausted, his tie loosened and ready to down a few glasses of whiskey.

however, he was surprised to see you. dressed in a beautiful versace dress/suit, you were glowing. well no, he meant that you looked... good.

though, it was the first time he took the time to look at you. to admire you.

the young man finally met your indifferent gaze through the mirror you were standing in front of. that gaze that was so joyful and sparkling at the beginning of your marriage, full of hope to transform this purely financial union into a love marriage.

but that look, devoid of emotion, almost made shoto, Japan's most ambitious ceo, doubt himself. almost.

"i'm surprised you're still using my card to splurge. how much is this one? $1000 ? $2000 ?"

he was tired, exhausted. nut the truth is he was in the mood to be a pain in the ass tonight.

"$ 8,330. plus the $800 pair. " you replied coldly.

your answer was like a slap in the face to your husband. not because of the price, he didn't give a fuck about this.

but this tone right there. it wasn't like you. you were normally so gentle, patient even with the worst of the crap he put you through. that naive kindness that made him want to vomit was completely gone. he didn't expect such a turn of events.

"so you decide to divorce me, but first you want to empty my bank account? you're exactly as I imagined." his look that used to reflect nothing but fatigue was now full of contempt for you.

you finally faced him. shit, he couldn't help but find you beautiful.

"here todoroki, let's talk about the divorce. " you began, quietly walking over to the cabinet and pulling out a stack of documents. "i've signed it, sign it, and i'll take it to my lawyers first thing in the morning.

he snatched them out of your hand and threw them across the room. you didn't even flinch, you even held his gaze. poker face.

a loud silence fell between you. a long silence, uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. heavy and light. sensible and meaningless.

"what's all this about ? who put you up to this ?"

a wry laugh escaped your lips. your new behavior puzzled shoto. he loved and hated what he had in front of him. a challenge.

"you think i need someone to make me realize that i deserve better than an asshole like you ? fuck, let me laugh. "

your hand went to retrieve a piece of paper from your purse. and it was slammed hard against his chest. bakugou’s business card.

he found your face inches from his, your warm breath gently caressing his cheeks. a scent of whiskey filled his nostrils. you were not sober.

"how many drinks are you on? " he asked quietly.

"so now do you care if i downed a whole bottle or not ? oh please shut up. because now that you mention it, your friend bakugou katsuki may have hired me. to be his company's business lawyer. isn't that funny? "

you turned your back on him, unaware of the state you'd put him in. but damn, it was like he'd just been slapped in the face. nausea took over his whole body, his legs became heavy and weak in few seconds only. and he knew damn well it wasn't fatigue.

so you were leaving him, but on top of that you were going to work for his number one competitor ?

he didn't know what hurt more, the knowledge that bakugo had won one of the most competent lawyers in the field or that you were leaving him for him ? was he jealous ? surely not, it was another feeling that repulsed him. he didn't even know.

"have you lost your tongue todoroki ?"

todoroki ? since when did you call him by his last name ? where are the darlings or my heart that used to annoy him so much ?

you finish getting ready, now wearing your long jacket. he had lost his tongue indeed, he didn't know what to say to you. what to do.

y/n y/l/n, you had succeeded in putting your husband to the wall.

but it was only for a moment. he quickly, too quickly, pulled himself together. his usual irritated expression returned.

"you don't see that he's using you to get ahead of me ? i thought you were smarter than that. "

he took a step forward, slowly but surely. like a predator approaching its prey.

"he doesn't care about you. just like no one has ever cared about you, not me, not him and not your bourgeois family. that's why they put you in a loveless marriage so easily. "

a mirthless laugh escaped from his lips.

"y/n, this bastard doesn't give a damn about you. "

you tried to move towards him, ready to slap him, but the alcohol made you capsize and stumble on your carpet. he arrived just in time to support you with his muscular arms. an annoyed sigh resounded in the large room when your sob reached his ears.

nevertheless, a petty smile stretched his lips. there you were again, the fragile and unassertive y/n finally in his arms.

that bakugo had managed to turn your brain inside out. yet shoto knew you better than anyone else. he knew you. better than you knew yourself. you were that puzzle he had managed to decipher long ago.

"that's not true. kacchan wouldn't do that...", you whisper.

"you know i'm right, sweetheart. you know i'm the only one who's honest with you. my love for you is all you need. "

his muscular hand gradually, peacefully, came to caress your back to take off the buttons of your dress. his lips came to meet yours, to draw you into a long, languid, unsentimental kiss. your lips asked for more, your whole soul asked for more of shoto. more of this man for whom your heart never stopped beating. even if his was vibrating for another woman.

you wanted to feel his lips making love to you sensually, sincerely.

you just wanted him to love you for one night. one fucking night.

shoto was ecstatic. he could already see himself opening a bottle of champagne with his father, to celebrate the divorce that would never happen. tonight, shoto had brought out his best acting skills. millions were at stake. he had brought out his best kiss. he had never touched you like that. so gently, so carefully.

he had never called you by any affectionate nickname.

he has done too much to keep you around.

and you were drunk, not stupid.

you finally stood up, moving away from him, reluctantly. nothing he said was true. from his love for you, to his accusations against katsuki.

awkwardly, you put your dress/suit back on properly.

"i have a meeting with my future employer mr. bakugou tonight. i'll be late. don't wait for me, i'll sleep at the hotel tonight, with your card. "

a red color came to his cheeks. anger ? sadness ? jealousy ?

he had never seen you so determined, so proud. and that attracted him. he was going to lose millions, no matter what. but it was you who was going to escape him. for that bastard bakugou katsuki.

the nice little y/n was no longer shoto todoroki's.

AHHH omg sorry sorry i told you i can't do a fluffy end!! >< (comments and reblogs are appreciated <3)

🔖 tag list ; @nveusii @angelofthorr @missmolliemoo @jazzylove @loki-an-idiot @deepestranchgoopdeputy @mhasimp666 @shotorozu @chscklvr @devilsbooksworld @marshmallow12345 (ones in bold cannot be tagged)

[guiltypleasurefandomface]

WIP One Lines

Because sometimes plot bunnies just... happen.

1) Joe stopped where he stood and considered the situation very carefully. “Yeah that about sums it up.”

2) “Do you know what an infected wisdom tooth can lead to? Blood poisoning, encephalitis, endocarditis, calcification of the molar leading to cancer years down the line. Not to mention the lack of eating and drinking to avoid the pain isn’t good!”

3)  Brian: Remember, this is about Deaky, not you, not us, not really. R: Fuck’s sake. I hate it when you’re sensible. Oh and now there’s a fucking van!

4) Roger rolls his eyes and pulls him in into the once-office-now-nurses-station

5) “And you call me a romantic.” Brian says, completely taken aback by his friend’s rant. “That’s the sappiest thing i’ve ever heard you say. Mr ‘Won’t sing happy at home cos i’m a fucking Rock Star’”.

6) “Hm, but unlike you darling, I age like a fine wine. You on the other hand are like bread, gone all mouldy around the edges and falling apart.”

7) “Well, it’s nice to see you too, Rog…” Brian said, smiling quite amicably considering the situation.

8) Freddie patted Roger’s back and got him to lift his head off the pillow. 

9) “Fine. But just remember this, if he gets a girlfriend and he wants to have sex all the time with her, I’ll be making him agree to a set time and day as well!”

“See, that’s what I like about you, Rog, dear, your sense of fairness.”

10) Roger should have known he was being lulled into a false sense of security. "I'm not moping," he said, full in the knowledge his tone of voice betrayed him.

11) Roger: Who really spilt beer on my stripey jacket? Freddie: Me. OH fuck. Shit. Oh you arsehole

12) “That’s odd,” Brian said, and frowned at the sound, “That’s not one of my ringtones.”

13) “I think… that was a long time coming, don't you?”

14) Roger: Ow what was that for? Freddie: You never make me egg and chips

15)  “Look I’m sure you’re, er, great at what you do-” “I’ve had no complaints” Roger said rather smugly. He winked at him. The bastard.

16) Freddie held him at arm’s length and looked him right in the eyes. “You are one of my very dear friends, Deaky, and I will fuss over you if I think you need fussing over.” 

17) Brian laughs awkwardly, “Er. No.  Not really. I mean not right now. Not exactly. no. No. I don’t fancy anyone male right now.” “I’m hearing a yes in all of that rambling.”

18)  “Roger, I’m probably going to regret this.” Brian said, already regretting it, “But can we get back to your original point, please? What are you on about?”

19) “Shame, I wanted to know what Chucky egg was.” Ruth’s face brightened up. “It’s mashed up boiled egg! It’s a scottish and northern term” she said smiling, “I used to make it all the time for this one here, when he wasn’t well.” She turned to Brian, “You’re probably fed up with it.”

20) With his glasses off only the colour looked familiar, so he put his glasses back on and suddenly it was clear. The  discoloured envelope that held the letter.

21) For a while the only sound in the room was the sound of the pages of their respective books being turned. 

22) Then Freddie did what he did best, he took up all the available space and made it feel like home. “Share the blanket, darling,” he whispered, “There's a love.”

23)  Roger kept one arm around Brian as he guided him through the double doors of the building. “She was very frosty with me when I spoke to her before. She must have a soft spot for you.”

24) John looked at him carefully. “ … As in musical writing partner? The McCartney to your Lennon?”

25) B: Oh really, Roger, come on, this rivalry between you two is ridiculous. R: Well. He started it.

26) The older of the two looked at him in alarm “You come from the planet Vegetos?! Bertoli have mercy!”

“Er, no.” Brian said, trying to get passed the fact one of the names of their gods was a leading brand of margerine. “I only eat... that.” He pointed at the leafy greens on Roger’s plate. “Salad? Nothing with a heartbeat?”

27) F: and why do you sound sad about that? R: … I was after her for myself, wasn’t I?

28) “Oh fuckking hell, just stop drinking it Freddie.” Brian dragged a hand up and down his face and looked at Freddie, exhausted and upset. “What have I done to it?”

29) “On second thoughts,” John said, trying to cut oncoming argument. “Do we have monopoly?” “NO!” Brian exclaimed, sounding horrified at the question more than in answer to it. “Oh god no, not monopoly.”

30) “So many shades!” Brian exclaimed! He looked between the colour wheel and his own clothes “How do people learn them all, I wonder…” Brian murmurred. 

31) Roger: … Brian, I’m going to go. There’s a FREDDIE IT’S ON FIRE. Shit Bye Bri. Brian: … Bye Roger.

32) “Oh! Where’s Jules and George?” Roger said, gesturing to the empty corner of the bed.

“Ah. Up there.” Brian replied, pointing to the bookshelf.

33)  Roger: What happened to the tribbles? Dr Aug: that's my queue to let you sleep.

34) “ Ah ah! No! This is a proper date. Don’t talk about the cost!”

35) “Right. Relax my knees… Are your knees relaxed?” ”I don’t know what my knees are doing.”

36) “I was horrified for a moment. I thought she really had adopted a tiger.”

37) Roger looked up at him with brows furrowed. “That’s an oddly specific suggestion…”

38) “We shop in the same place!”

39) MG: Look do you want a pamphlet or not? F: No we fucking don’t. We’re here celebrate people, not shit all over them.

40) J: Did you just…? B: Yep J: er. Why? B: No idea.

41) He brings his hand up to his mouth, slowly, horrified, at what faces him.

42) “Did you want me for something or is my name just funny today?”

43) “No. No. I mean. Its not that. It’s just… Yes, I'm… you know…” Brian waves his hand around in a vague gesture, from around the room to the bar they’re sat at, but fails come up with what exactly it is that he is.

“An auditor for the tetley company?” Ewan asks, laughing, though not unkindly.

[kagehinataboke]

Can I request Innocent Physical Contact and Almost kiss with todobakuuuuuuuu?? (Probably weird bc this sounds soft and they're. Not so soft lol.) I'm glad prompts are getting you inspired!

absolutely!!! i made it as soft as possible ^^

tdbk, [85] Innocent Physical Contact and [40] Almost Kiss

***

“Carry the one here. No, here. Christ, are you even listening to me?” Bakugou lifts his finger from the textbook page to glare at Kirishima, whose head is beginning to lull. “Wake the fuck up when I’m teaching you, Shitty Hair.”

“We’re tired, Bakugou,” Kaminari grumbles from his spot beside Ashido on the other side of the cramped living room floor. “Training today was rough.”

Ashido and Sero groan their fatigued agreement. The only ones who don’t complain are Todoroki, who’s actually studying, and Kirishima, who’s definitely asleep.

“Training is rough every day, but that’s not a fucking excuse to slack off.” Bakugou scowls. “Do you want to pass your damn classes or not?”

Nobody answers: they’ve all dozed off while he was talking. Bakugou is about to give up all hope and take a nap himself when Todoroki speaks. “Do you understand this problem?”

“Huh?” Bakugou looks at him, and he’s still sprawled out on the floor on his stomach, legs crossed at the knees, frowning at his textbook. “You’re still awake?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Todoroki looks up for the first time in an hour, silently taking note of their sleeping friends. “Oh... Everyone else fell asleep?”

Bakugou sighs. He gets up and nudges Sero aside to sit down beside Todoroki, who shifts to make room for him. “What question were you asking about?” He leans closer, pausing when he notices the cold radiating off Todoroki’s skin. The others were right about the rumored ‘Todoroki Air Conditioning.’

“This one. I don’t understand what you do with this integer.”

“You have to separate these two terms first.” Bakugou takes the pencil from him to demonstrate. “Try the next one with the same method.”

Todoroki learns faster than the others. It’s a bit surprising, given how dense he always acts. He is in the top five in their class, but it’s still strange. Bakugou doesn’t even have to help him much beyond the first problem. He’ll ask something occasionally, but he never has follow-up questions.

After ten minutes have passed in silence, Bakugou hears a quiet snore. It slowly gets louder, tearing out of Kaminari’s mouth like the whirring of a chainsaw. It’s loud enough to be annoying, but quiet enough not to wake the others.

Todoroki glances at Bakugou, pencil stilling against paper. He mouths something that looks like, What should we do?

Bakugou jerks his head at the kitchen, and Todoroki nods. They silently pack up their books and climb over the couch, sequestering the dining table.

“I can’t believe they fell asleep,” Bakugou grumbles, pressing his pencil so hard against the paper that it stabs through. “I offer to help the morons and they fucking pass out.”

“It could be worse,” Todoroki replies evenly, wasting no time in getting back to work. That’s one admirable quality about him, as much as Bakugou hates to admit it. “Can you help me with this inequality?”

“Which one?” Bakugou leans his elbows against the table, leaning over the page. The cool air wafting from Todoroki’s cheek brushes against his own. “This? It’s pretty simple. Take care of this first and...” Bakugou trails off when he feels the cold shift. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a blush staining Todoroki’s normally pale face.

What the hell? This is innocent physical contact. Why the fuck is he blushing?

Instead of storming off or punching him like he probably would under any other circumstances, Bakugou edges slightly away. “Um... take care of this first, and then solve for this.”

“Thanks. I got it.” Todoroki quickly moves away, putting more distance between them. It’s both relieving and disappointing, for reasons Bakugou can’t understand.

Several more minutes pass where neither of them speak. Pencil scratches across paper, and a clock ticks on the far wall. Bakugou tries to focus on his schoolwork, but his mind won’t stop revisiting the mental image of Todoroki’s blush. It’s the type that spreads to every part of the face, across the ears and down the neck. Invasive. Cute, a traitorous part of Bakugou’s brain thinks.

He doesn’t have much work left to do, actually. Neither does Todoroki. What happens when they both finish? Do they wake everyone up? Gah, Bakugou can’t even focus long enough to finish a single thought. What’s wrong with him all of a sudden? There are only three problems left. He just needs to focus on them.

Simplify the expression 2(a - 3) + 4b - 2(a - b - 3) + 5. Easy. Solve the equation |-2x + 2| - 3 = -3. Easy. Solve the equation

5(-3x - 2) - (x - 3) = -4(4x + 5) + 13. And done. But now there’s a bigger problem at hand.

Bakugou looks up to find Todoroki’s head bent low over his textbook, his hands empty and still. His hair is obscuring his eyes. Bakugou leans toward him for a better view, touching a hand to his shoulder. “Oi, you awake?”

Todoroki turns his head, and their eyes meet. It’s brief, but there’s a second where time stops. Their faces are so close that Todoroki’s breath breezes across Bakugou’s lips. Several long seconds pass before Bakugou jerks away from him, fighting the heat crawling up his neck.

“Sorry.” Todoroki’s face is red again, and he quickly lowers it. “I was distracted.”

‘Distracted.’

Bakugou wishes the excuse was convincing.

***

“I won’t help you idiots again after last time.”

“Pleasssseeeee?” Kaminari puts his hands in prayer position, jutting out his bottom lip like a pouting kid. “We won’t pass this test without you, man. We’re too stupid. You have to help.”

Bakugou sighs through his teeth, but he knows they won’t give up. “Fine. Meet at my room at four. If any of you are late, I’m locking you out.”

Or so he says. When Kirishima appears at four fifteen, Bakugou still opens the door for him—and is met with two idiots instead of one. “What the fuck? Why is he here?”

“He came last time, so I just assumed he was invited.” Kirishima pushes his way inside with a shrug. Todoroki follows him quietly, quickly looking away when Bakugou glares at him.

After the kitchen incident, the last thing Bakugou needs is to be in a confined space with Todoroki. But he can’t think of a valid reason to kick him out, either, so it looks like it’s a stalemate. Besides, it won’t end up like last time. There’s no way everyone will fall asleep again... Or is there?

Within an hour of arriving, everyone has passed out over their textbooks, leaving the room eerily silent. After getting over his annoyance, Bakugou glances at Todoroki nervously, but his face is resting against his arms. He crawls closer to see if he’s awake, even though he should’ve learned after last time that assumptions can be devastating.

It’s fine, though: Todoroki really is asleep. When Bakugou flicks his hair back with a pen, his eyes are closed and lips slightly parted. He’s actually kind of pretty when he sleeps. He’s got really long eyelashes, and his lips look soft...

Fuck. Bakugou jerks his hand away when it reaches out, but he can’t do much more than that. If he scoots backward an inch, he’ll hit Sero. Fuck. What the hell is he doing? This is crazy. Insane. He can’t really be thinking about... about what? Certainly not about Todoroki‘s blush, or avoid how easy it would be to touch his lips right now. How easy it would be to kiss him.

“Bakugou?” Todoroki murmurs. His eyes are open a sliver, and he’s staring at Bakugou’s hand—at his thumb, which is currently pulling down Todoroki’s bottom lip.

Bakugou tries to retreat, but Todoroki grabs his wrist. “Wait.”

As much as he wants to tell, Bakugou keeps quiet to avoid waking the others. Todoroki’s desperate grip is so strong that he can’t break free. “Let go, bastard,” he hisses, trying not to focus on the feeling of Todoroki’s fingertips against his racing pulse.

“No.” Todoroki jerks him forward by the arm, pushing him down and straddling him in a way that’s quiet and efficient, like everything the asshole does. He’s blushing, despite the confrontational action. “What were you doing before?”

“Nothing.” Bakugou turns his head away so he doesn’t have to look at him when they’re so close together. “Let me up, you psycho.”

“You were going to kiss me,” Todoroki whispers with such certainty that there isn’t room for denial. “You were thinking about it before, too. In the kitchen.” The color of his face is making Bakugou’s head spin. Red, like roses.

“You’re out of your mind,” Bakugou tries to say. Meeting Todoroki’s eyes is what gets him. His eyes are filled with uncertainty, even while his expression remains passive. His hands tremble faintly against Bakugou’s wrists. He’s nervous.

When their lips touch, the shaking stops. Todoroki’s hands go slack, followed by his whole body. Bakugou is experiencing much the same thing. His core feels like it’s melting.

Todoroki’s fingers slide into Bakugou’s, latching on and pressing their joined hands against the carpet. Bakugou almost flinches when a leg slips between his knees, but he doesn’t have time to react before Todoroki’s tongue makes his mind go totally numb.

So much for ‘innocent physical contact.’ Right now, the only touch Bakugou wants is the opposite of innocent.

[elusive---ivory]

The Woman In Velvet pt. 5

Aaaaa, this is a lot one. This one is just all fluffy and fun.

WARNINGS: None, just fluff

PAIRING: Arthur x Oc.

Masterlist

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Three little girls were in the dining room, setting the table for their dinner.

"Ha, Seriously Sandy? You still don't have a date for Friday?" The girl with dimples giggled.

The girl with black hair shook her head and shrugged. "Looks like I won't be joining you for your triple date."

The girl without dimples gave her a shocked look and gasped. "Sandy! Don't be such a debbie downer. I'll set you up with someone."

The girl with dimples scoffed. "Really? Because, the last time you played matchmaker, you set up Dollar Dave with his sister."

The two sisters bickered until a large man appeared in the entrance of the dining room.

"Girls." The man spoke. His voice was raspy. He had a thick, black, cigar hanging out of his mouth. He looked over at the girl with black hair. The man took a seat at the newly set table.

"Deliah, Destiny, if your cousin doesn't wish to attend your ridiculous triple date, then don't force her."

The girl with black hair turned away from the man and muttered a small "Thank you" under her breath. She sat next to him, but scooted away a few inches. The two other girls rolled their eyes and sat down with them.

"Besides, I think Sandy and I would have lots of fun without the two of you, ain't that right, doll?" His eyes were glued on the girl next to him. She gulped hard. She stared hard at her cousins.

They both stared back with menacing looks. Neither of them bothered to help.

Sandy woke up to a dreaded alarm clock going off.

'Funny,' she thought. Her alarm didn't work at all. She had planned on getting a new one, but it was her same alarm clock. As she opened her eyes a little bit, she took in her surroundings. She was in her bed, and in her usual nightie. What was different about today?

"Oh fuck." She said, aloud. Sandy looked around. She threw the bed sheets off her body and quickly ran into her living room.

Arthur was standing there in the kitchen, shirtless. Sandy approached him carefully, still not fully understanding what was going on. The early morning sun was slowly creeping outside the window. The small apartment was dark, beside the light of in the kitchen.

"Hey." Sandy said, quietly.

Arthur looked around him, slightly startled. He didn't expect her to be up yet.

Arthur smiled at her gently. "Good morning."

Sandy looked down, bashfully. "Yeah, what are you doing up?" She stepped into the florescent lighting of the kitchen.

Arthur shrugged. "I couldn't sleep."

"Really? Did you fix my clock?" Sandy smiled, giggling slightly.

"Yeah, you talk in your sleep. You kept mumbling about the alarm, so I fixed it." Arthur answered, sheepishly.

"Also, we were on the couch when," Sandy cleared her throat, "we, ya know."

Arthur smiled. "You also sleepwalk."

Sandy giggled and gently punched his shoulder. "You got all of that from just spending the night with me. Color me impressed, Detective."

Arthur flinched at her sudden roughhousing, but chuckled at her joke. "Yeah, you know. I do stand up comedy."

Sandy raised her eyebrow. "Really?" She said, brewing her coffee.

Arthur nodded, shyly. "Yeah. Tomorrow night will be my very first gig."

"Huh." Sandy stirred her coffee. "Save me a seat in the front." She winked, booping his nose.

Sandy walked out of the kitchen. Arthur's eyes followed her dreamily.

Sandy finally got into her routine according, putting on a seemingly different work uniform. Instead of matted and ripped purple violet blouse, it was a red and black velvet with a black satin skirt. It wasn't at all comfortable, but she had to make do. She put on black heels matching the overall theme of the outfit. When she was done, she found her cheap frame glasses, and gently placed them on her face.

Sandy walked back into the kitchen to give Arthur a small peck on his cheek.

"I'm heading out. Here's the spare key, just incase you want to lounge around here for today." Sandy placed a small key in his hand. "Try not to burn down the apartment." She giggled stepping out of the door.

Arthur's eyes never left her figure once. She looked so elegant when she walked. His hand gently touched the cheek where she kissed him. It left him breathless.

The gloomy office building seemed to be even more dull and dreary than usual. Sandy sighed sitting there in her small cubicle.

"Hey, did you hear about those subway killings?"

Sandy overheard two coworkers talking. Often times when she eavesdropped she would mostly hear some stupid gossip like she fucked or he fucked her etc, but this seemed serious.

"Yeah, I did. I hear they were employees of ours."

This caught Sandy's attention. 'Employees?' She thought. She continued listening intently.

"Wayne Enterprises?"

"Yeah, I hear one of them was Dennis Cullen."

Sandy's eyes widened. 'Dennis is dead?' Half of her celebrated the death of that bastard, but it just seemed wrong. She snapped out of her thoughts when a coworker knocked on Sandy's cubicle.

"Sandy, the boss wants you."

She took a long sigh. She got out of her chair and walked down to the boss's office.

"Needed me, Mr. Don?" Sandy asked, being as polite as she could be.

A large man looked up at Sandy from his paperwork.

"Yes, please take a seat." Mr. Don gestured to the two chairs in front of him.

"Why were you not here yesterday?" His voice sounded frustrated.

"Well, sir, I was really sick, yesterday and-"

Mr. Don cut her off with a glare.

"Look, I'm too bent on excuses. Now, as you may know, Dennis, your associate, has recently passed away. It's a shame, I know, but he had lots of clients. Since he's gone, you have to take after his clients." Mr. Don looked back down at his paperwork.

Sandy stood there dumbfounded.

"Wait. Shouldn't the person getting his position get his clients?" Sandy crossed her arms.

Mr. Don looked at her begrudgingly. "Well, yes, but there's still so many clients he had. Most are pretty upset by the current circumstances. Could you please do these few clients?" Mr. Don held a sudden desperation in his gruff voice.

Sandy gave a defeated sigh. "Alright. I'll see what I can do about the clients."

Dennis would always brag about his clients and how high maintenance they were. How he was so lucky to always have meetings with the one and only, Thomas Wayne. His position was completely up for grabs.

Sandy didn't want Dennis's stupid position. Not like she could ever get get it. She was a woman working 45 hours a week, yet being paid so little.

'Why the fuck did people get so angry over some dudes getting killed on a subway?' Sandy growled in her thoughts, as she walked out of the office building.

All day clients were yelling and screaming about how they furious they were for not getting their fucking products. It gave her such a headache.

Her heels tapped the wet pavement. The lights of bars and restaurants colored the numerous puddles on the ground.

As she was walking down the street, she felt a pair of eyes on her.

Crack.

She turned around. Her eyes monitored the alleyway next to her. She strutted ahead, continuing her path, while being on high alert.

Crack.

She heard it again. She started walking fast. As she did so, Sandy glanced behind her. It was a silhouette of a man walking fast. Her heart stopped. She kept walking faster, until she was gently jogging in her heels. She was almost to the subway.

The man had finally caught up to her, and gently tapped her shoulder.

Sandy froze. She turned around to face her stalker.

Arthur smiled gently, taking off the yellow hood of his hoodie.

She sighed in relief. "Oh, thank god. Arthur, it's just you." Sandy smiled at her supposed stalker. "I thought you were the subway killer."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah, so I've heard."

"How could you not? It's everywhere. Who cares about some assholes dying?" Sandy tapped around her coat. "Damn it." She hissed under her breath.

"Hey, Art." Sandy said, getting his attention.

Arthur tilted his head. "Hmm?"

"Do you think I can bum a cig?" Sandy asked, desperately.

"Uh, yeah sure." Arthur handed her a fresh cigarette.

Sandy lit the cancer stick, inhaling the dangerous smoke, then exhaling it out of her lungs.

"Thanks, Artie." Sandy smiled. "Say, you never told me why you were out here following me anyway?" She said, with the cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

Arthur looked down, almost like a guilty puppy.

"I, uh, was worried." Arthur said, twiddling his thumbs.

Sandy smirked. "Worried? Aww, Artie. You don't need to worry about me, sweets." Sandy pressed a small kiss on his cheek.

Arthur started fidgeting with the bottom of his hoodie. "Uhh, well, of course, I do, Sandy. It's dangerous."

Sandy giggled. "Ok, I guess you can walk me back to my apartment." She put out the cigarette, and linked arms with Arthur.

The subway was deserted. The florescent lights flickered on and off as the loud railings of the subway train moved by.

Sandy was seated by Arthur's side, leaning on him a bit. For Sandy, Arthur was like a breath of fresh air. He was so comforting and sweet. He listened to Sandy's problems, no matter how stupid they were to her.

"So, you're a party clown?" Sandy said, holding Arthur's hand in hers.

"Yeah, at least I was. I'm focusing more on my comedy career. I've got lots of jokes." Arthur put emphasis on the word lots.

"You said that this morning. Let me hear some of your jokes." Sandy said, interested.

Arthur eyes lit up.

"Oh? Let me get my joke book." Arthur reached into his back pocket and pulled out a worn down journal. Arthur gently handed the journal to Sandy.

Sandy flipped through a few pages of the journal.

"Well, what do you think?" Arthur asked, impatient. He looked pretty anxious.

Sandy laughed a little.

"How come poor people are so confused? They don't make sense." Sandy read, still laughing. "That's a stupid joke."

Arthur frowned. "Oh."

Sandy immediately corrected herself. "No, no, no. It's great, Arthur. You're gonna be great. I know it."

Arthur's frowned disappeared, and turned into a smirk. "You think so?"

"I know so, babe." Sandy kissed his nose.

"Could I look through your book more?"

Arthur nodded.

Sandy looked through each page, but there's one page that caught her eye. It had a polaroid picture of her with twisted writings all over the page.

Mrz. Sandy Fleck

Mrz. Sandera Fleck

MY dEaR, Sandy

Sandy's eyes read the page over and over again. Arthur began to look anxious.

The subway came to a stop.

"This is our stop." Sandy handed his journal back to him. "And, by the way, it's spelled S-A-N-D-R-A." She said, stepping out of the subway doors. Arthur followed behind her.

[pandalandalopalis]

Memes of 2018

- Going into 2018 fighting / wanting this year to be about wholesomeness

- Gordon Ramsey “delicious, finally some good fucking food” meme

- Cereal guy makes a comeback???

- “Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?”

- That McDonald’s triangle with characters showing the different reactions to kids asking for McDonald’s

- Black Mirror

- “Why the fuck….are you so cute” 

 - That dude sitting at the table with the sign that says “Change my mind”

- The Super Smash Bros promo

- The Gru plan meme where the third page makes him do a double take

- “General Kenobi”

- Marvel: ‘Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover in history’ and then an example of a different crossover

- “[x] literally [x] but go off I guess”

- Undercover Russian plants on the website

- Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer vs 0.01% of germs

- Mark Zuckerberg’s trial

- That meme with the two guys yelling at each other and the one guy has a handlebar mustache and one of them throws a chair??

- The meme with that guy from “why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?” except he’s shooting a guy in the background then saying “Why would [other person] do this?”

- I honestly don’t know if this meme was created in 2017 or 2018 but it’s too good to pass up on this list: the “I spoil [x] but I don’t give you context” meme because it’s always hilarious

- "Staff I am BEGGING you to let me reblog this ad"

- That guy giving a presentation where the overhead screen says "[x] is [x] you guys are just mean" or various other responses

- An upsurge of John Mulaney related content??

- Going along with the above, his line "And I said 'No'. You know, like a liar" has become a meme

- “Whats happening on Twitter?” + various different responses and stories

- Along the same lines as above is “Good morning tumblr, Who are we cancelling today?”

- More John Mulaney, a meme similar to the Drake meme, where the first panel is him pointing and saying "No!" and second panel is him pointing and saying "Yeah!"

- I'm also not sure if this meme was created in 2017 or 2018 but I love the meme where people write a number and then put the actual number in brackets like: "I love one (1) man"

- Variations of "Is this a rabbit?"

- The one where the guy hands another guy a bowl of cereal and he throws it into the hall

- The gif of Chris Hemsworth confidently approaching the table in the Marvel Family Feud game

- Advanced memeing: posting a screencap of a meme or a vine without the caption or words and everyone still understands. The most advanced memeing I've ever seen is a post that began with the sentence "when April is ending" and was followed up by a picture of Ramon Noodles ("it's gonna be may")

- Variations of Captain America’s “So. You got detention.” sitting backwards in a chair in front of lockers

- "We've updated our private policy"

- The four alignments: Jock, nerd, prep, goth

- "Are you a princess?" meme from Wreck It Ralph 2

- Increased use of "fucking superb you funky little [x]"

- When technology does a Thing and someone replies with "Detroit: Become Human"

- Thor being a lesbian icon

- "This is so sad, Alexa play Despacito" + variations of this

- Big dick energy

- "Queer Eye" related content

- The Queer Eye meme where the guy in the middle is saying something and the two guys behind are horrified

- Alignment chart with "edgy, depressed, dumb-ass" at the top and "bitch, thot, bastard" down the side

- Example of an edgy/dramatic banger from the early 2000s; 8-12 year old me: *insert that dramatic guy in the sand picture or alternately a picture of someone laying on the ground*

- Last two brain cells

- The one where two guys are arm wrestling and the arms are labelled with something that they have in common which is labelled on their joined hands + variations

- That scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(?) where Willy Wonka's dad is like "Eating candy?" and child Wonka says "No papa!" and the dad's like "Telling lies?"

- TIL (Today I Learned)

- Video of animated cat playing an instrument

- Twilight renaissance??

- Bowsette

- Moth memes

- Venom + Tom Hardy in the lobster tank

- Influx of photoshopping the Had To Do It To Em guy into the very background of photos in a Where’s Waldo-esque manner

- The characters in Super Smash Bros got Infinity War-ed??? And then a continuing meme of people being decimated by a blast of light similar to the dusting/'i dont feel so good mr stark' meme

- Alternatively someone pointed out that 'the obliterated by the Smash bros boss' meme is just the 2018 version of "Docktor Octagonapus BLAAAAAAAARGH" and honestly.... I hate it

- "One taught me love; one taught me patience; one taught me pain" from Ariana Grande's song 'thank u, next'

- Shocked pikachu

- "They had us in the first half I'm not gonna lie" when something starts off normal then gets weird

- Surgery on a grape

- Tumblr banning adult content

- "Sir that's my emotional support [x]"

Happy New Year everyone!

[kpop-probably]

Mr. Business

August 2015

Hanbin POV

“We were all little bastards to her when she joined us so i think we need to get her a gift to say that were sorry. We debut in a month and it's my responsibility as leader to make sure that we are all on the same page as a group when the time comes because we have ALL worked too hard to blow this. Understood?” The boys all look at me and nod their heads. From the looks in their eyes i can tell they know i'm right and probably even feel guilty about how terribly we've treated her. I even feel bad for ignoring her because we actually had a lot in common. “Now we know she loves music but what else?” they all look at each other then back at me with blank looks on their faces. Shit. “Good god none of us have paid any attention to her have we?” Then i remember.

Three months ago

On the way back to the dorm i make sure we have everyone because bobby likes to wander off and thinks it's funny to see me panic. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 including myself and….oh shit where'd she go?! “Bobby where's Asuka!!?” “She was behind me wasn't she?” “we have to go find her she doesn't know her way back” As we retrace our steps  back to the restaurant we just came from we spread out to see if we can find her. “I'll go this way and see if she wandered off to the bakery or something.” As i walk i call her name but not loudly enough to disturb the residents. When i'm about to call her name for the 100th time i hear the most precious giggle and turn my head to the right and there she is sitting in the middle of a kitten litter with what looks like about 10 kittens attacking her for her attention. I walk over to her and tap her shoulder, but when she sees me she tenses up and her smile fades away. She immediately stands up and bows and starts apologizing but before she can finish “It's ok we were just worried when we didn't see you behind us… you know i love animals too.” She gives me a look before letting her guard down a little and says “They're only a few weeks old, at least that's what the owner said.” we can stay here a bit longer, but let's call bobby i know he was worried about you.” She looked up at me and i finally seen a genuine smile from her. “I named this one mr. business”

“She likes cats a lot!” “Would everyone be ok with us having a cat in the dorm though?” I look at Jinhwan and Donghyuk says “I don't see why we can't put up with a cat, i mean she's put up with us for almost a year. That's a long time to live with 6 people that are constantly mean to you” “Well it's settled then, we’ll get her a cat”

At the pet store

“Why are there so many types of freaking cats!”  “Calm down Chanwoo it's a pet store and were only looking for one specific one.” I'm not religious but I prayed to whatever god i could that Mr. business was still here. I look around the litter that's grown about 2 sizes since me and Asuka had been here last. “What about this one he's cute” “No that's not Mr. business” “Mr. Business? Is that really what she named him” Jinhwan looks at me confused yet amused at the same time. “Don't ask i don't know her reasoning something about he reminded her of YG hyung.” 

“Ahh you mean this one? I can definitely see it haha” “Donghyuk you're amazing” we buy Mr. business and everything we would need and head back to the dorm. We walk in and she's nowhere in sight which is great, i really want this is be a great surprise for her. “Put him in the middle of the floor and i'll go get her.” I knock on her door “Come in” i walk in and she's sitting on her bed reading The Age of Innocence. “Hey noona we have a surprise for you.” She puts the book down and gives me a cautious look “For me? It's not gonna explode is it?” I laugh nervously with a pang of guilt but shake my head no “I think you're actually going to love it.” 

We walk into the living space and she hides shyly behind me. “It's in the box there” the other boys have gathered on the couch all just as nervous as me. She opens the box and immediately recognizes him. “Mr. Business!!! Bin you actually got him?!” “We all pitched in. We wanted to show you how sorry we were for treating you so badly in the beginning. We've all worked hard especially you noona.” Song comes closer as he speaks and she just looks around wide eyed. “We debut soon and honestly you add something to the group that none of us have.” June is the next to come towards her. Donghyuk is next to come and he grabs her hand “Just from sharing a room with you i noticed how kind you are, you pull up my blanket when i kick it off, when you read late at night you sit in the living room with a flashlight so you won't bother me, you do all of that even though i ignored you all the time. We know it's not going to make up for how bad we all treated you but we hope it's a start.” She looks at him with tears in her eyes “It's more than enough, the fact that you even thought to get me this says a lot. I love it you guys .” “GROUP HUG” Chanwoo yells and he and Jinhwan followed by everyone else we all pile onto Asuka. Just as we all start laughing we hear Bobby coming in and freeze and turn our heads towards the door. He walks in the dorm coming from the studio “Hi Bobby” she says as a muffled laugh from beneath us. “WTF guys get off her!!” “Bobby it's ok we were just hugging.” “They weren't hurting you?” Really Bobby. “No we weren't we were apologizing.” Bobby looks from Chan to Asuka who nods her head in approval “Finally!! All my friends like each other now!!!” and he joins us on the pile making Asuka groan “You guys are heavy!!” 

AN: I didnt really know how to end it lol but i hope you guys are enjoying it as much as i am enjoying writing it 

[bizarrewritings-blog]

Knock Hard Life / Pt. 4

Bucky Barnes x reader

Being the new one is always problematic. Being the new one while thirsting over a new companion is even more problematic, especially when he shows no interest at all towards you.

Warnings: slight smut (blink and you'll miss it), Angst

A/N: The next part will be the last one sooo hope you enjoy this!

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5

The following night was rough. You've been tossing your body around the sheets for at least 3 hours resisting to fall asleep. You sighed heavily, sitting up and rubbing your palms over your face. Since you moved you always slept perfectly, the comfiness of the mattress lulling you to sleep easily. But even the softest sheets didn't bring you to doze off.

You turned on your bedsite lamp, picking up your favorite book from its place on the nightstand. Maybe this would help you to get a little sleepy. Making yourself comfortable against the headbord you started reading, almost immediately feeling in your own little world where only you and the story the pages infront of you pictured existed. You had no idea for long how you've been reading until a noise ripped you out of your trance, making you flinch. It was a knock at your door. Confused, you looked at the clock. 2:26 am. "Come in." You called, closing the book on your lap, still suspicious why someone would be up this time. Your features softened when a nervous looking Bucky took a step in your room. He wore a grey shirt to his sweatpants this time. Sadly.

"What's up Buck?" You asked, puzzled why he kept his gaze at the floor. You really thought he was finally over the 'I won't look at you' phase. "'M sorry for bothering you." He murmured, something lingering in his voice that you couldn't quite name. You crossed your leg under your blanket to sit up straighter, putting your book back on your nightstand. "You're not bothering. What's wrong?" He run a hand through his hair, his gaze still on his feet which were nervously scratching your grey carpet. "I normally go to Steve with stuff like this but...I walked by and your lights were on, and the talk we had in the kitchen was nice, so i thought... i don't know, if you want to...maybe I shouldn't have come..." He was unbelievably adorable when he was all nervous, but you really wanted him to form his thoughts into proper sentences. "If you want to talk, we can." That's when his gaze finally lifted from his feet to you. His eyes were a little puffy and red, the usual sparkling blue in his eyes turned to a cloudy grey. You gave him a sad smile, shifting a little to the side, petting the sheet to your left, telling him to sit down. He walked over to your bed slowly, sitting at the edge of the mattress. You giggled at his actions, making him throw a confused look at you. "You can sit on the bed normally, you know? You don't have to keep yourself so far from me." He only nodded, carefully taking his place beside you, making himself comfortable against the headboard as well. "Great. Now, talk." He took a breath before speaking. He told you about the nightmares he had for years, flashbacks of his years as The Winter Soldier, completely under another persons control. He talked about how the dreams where always different yet the same. Sometimes he would get pictured flashbacks of missions, the feared faces of people around him. Other times eveything would be a blurry imagine, but he heard the screaming, yelling, gunshots. And rarely he could feel the pain he went through everytime they messed with his brain, he even heard his own suffering screams.

You only looked at him while he talked, not saying anything. You wanted him to talk without being interrupted. When he finished you took all your confidence, carefully putting your hand in his flesh one, squeezing it lightly. He gave you a little confused look but didn't pull away. "I can never imagine the way you have to feel. It has to be absolutely horrific to be reminded of the things those bastards forced you to." You gave him a heart warming smile. "But you have to remember one thing. You're still here. You've made it through all of that and now you're here, being one of the toughest fighters the world has ever seen, with a group of friends everyone would love to have." He smiled brightly at your words, carefully squeezing your hand which still remained in his. "You're even better at these speeches than Steve." You both chuckled at that. The sound of his laugh spread warmth in your belly, it was such a beautiful thing to hear. You decided to be even bolder, shifting a little closer to him to lean your head on his shoulder. You felt him lightly tense again, his metal arm stirring lightly, but he relaxed soon after, making you sigh in relieve. None of you said anything, just enjoying each others company. You wanted to stay like this forever, the peaceful silence, the warmth of Buckys Hand around your own combined with the scent of him making your eyelids feel heavier by the second.

Bucky was the first to talk again. "Thank you, for all this. I hate bugging Steve all the time, waking him up and stuff, even if he says it's okay i still feel bad." You slightly nodded, you completely understood him. "I have to thank as well. You finally make me feel sleepy." You lifted your head from his shoulder to look at your alarm clock. 3:19 am. You really talked for almost an hour. You felt Bucky shift, his hand about to leave yours. "Maybe I should go then. But really, it was n-" "Wait." He stopped his movements, watching your face while you felt it going red. God you sounded really desperate there. "Y-You can stay if you want. You often stay at Steves as well right?" His eyebrows furrowed together in question. "How do you..." "Steve told me." You admitted. His face dropped a little, making it your turn to give him a questioned look. His gaze falling to his hand still intertwined with yours. "So you knew all of this and still had me explain it?" "No, no, i didn't know!" You instantly protested, fearing he might get mad at you for putting him through the misery of remembering all his dreams. You softly squeezed his hand, signaling him to look at you instead. His gaze met yours, a hurt expression on his face. "I promise, okay? He only told me you that when you had nightmares you would go to him to talk and sometimes staying there for the night. That's all. Really." Your eyes practically begged him to believe you. You didn't want him to go, you would do anything to convince him to stay. He took a breath before nodding. "Okay, okay. I'm...I'm sorry for accusing you like that." You sighed and shook your head. "It's alright, really." You ran your thumb over the back of his hand before lifting your gaze back to his eyes whose colour had returned to sparkling blue. "Stay, please." He smiled softly before nodding.

He stood up, the warmth of his hand leaving you. You shifted under your blanket to give him enough material to crawl under. After he joined you under the covers, laying on his back, he went full nervous again, you could almost see his rapid heartbeat trough the thin material of his shirt. You suppressed a chuckle but didn't accept that he wasn't at all close to you. With help of your new found confidence, wherever that came from, you lifted his arms and maneuvered yourself next to his body, your head on his chest. Now you could also hear his racing heart and you actually feared he might have a heart attack. He's an old man after all. "This okay for you?" You asked carefully as his heart didn't slow down. You feared you might have taken it too far. He answered by moving his flesh arm, which was laying somewhere behind your back until now, setting his hand at your hip, softly squeezing. You smiled at that, making yourself even more comfortable, soon after drifting off into your well deserved sleep.

Both of you actually slept longer that night, enjoying the comfort. What you didn't know was that at the same time you were the number one topic in the kitchen. "Has any of you seen Bucky?" Steve asked, nervously looking at Tony, Wanda and Sam. "Nope, barely see that guy." Sam shrugged. "His door is open and I usually always meet him here." The blonde stated, feared for his best friend. "Gym?" Wanda suggested. Steve just shook his head. "Already checked." "You know we have a AI in this house right?" Tony chuckled. "FRIDAY? Where is Barnes at the moment?" "Sergeant Barnes is asleep in Miss Y/L/Ns room." All four exchanged suprised glances. "Never thought Tin man would actually get laid." Tony laughed, Sam joining. Steve rolled his eyes with a smile. He was happy for you two but damn that went fast.

You woke up slowly, prying your eyes open to adjust to the dim light in your room. You tried to move but failed, something heavy keeping you in place. You turned your face, the glistening of metal catching your attention. Buckys left arm was draped around your waist, making you smile. Thank god it wasn't a dream. You managed to turn on your back, Buck immediately shifting even closer to you, pressing his body against your side with his face in your neck. You felt something hard against your thigh and gulped hard. Morning woods were awkward, but having Buckys pressed against you was torture. Suddenly the door swung open, making you jump. Steve entered the room, smiling wide. Bucky stirred in his sleep, slowly waking up with a mumbled "What the hell?"

"Good Morning, Lovebirds! I would've liked my best friend to tell me about this, but the AI took this job." Bucky and you both sat up, giving him a confused look. "What are you talking about?" The dark haired man rasped, the sleep still lingering in his voice. "Don't treat me like a goddamn fool, Buck. That between you two! I mean i knew you were meant for each other and as soon as Y/N told me she liked you I-" "STEVE!" You interrupted him with a shout, your eyes wide and entire face heating up. He shot you a confused glare before realizing. "Oh- You didn't...?" You let your head drop back against the headboard with a sigh. When you felt Buckys gaze you turned to look at him, Nervousness written over your face. "You like me?"

[transbianlavender]

Can you please talk a little bit about what poststrucualism is and how it relates to the feminist movement and identity ? I'm really curious about it and you're super smart tysm

“I get the base idea that language creates reality, but I guess I’m wondering like how it does that and what it means for gender identity and stuff“

I’m assuming these asks are the same person.  If not, send another one to explain.

First things first, I’m no where near qualified enough to be a definitive voice on this topic- I’m not well read, and have only read some secondary literature based on many of the authors that have bearing on your question.  I would highly recommend you do some independent research and go ask other, more qualified people than me (ie, someone who works in feminist philosophy and isn’t a math major like moi, I suggest alyesque).   Also worth noting is that i’m personally moving away from post-structuralist feminism in my own thought, and more towards materialist feminism, so this could be a little biased.  That aside, this is something i like to talk and think about, so here goes. Followers who know more than me, please tell me if I've made a mistake in interpreting these thinkers! I'm always open to criticism.

Post-structuralism is one of the most vaguely defined philosophical groupings ever.  It arguably includes a huge amount of thinkers that disagree- like Lacan and Deleuze, for example.  Keeping in mind that many “post-structuralists” would reject the term, here’s a definition from Saul Newmans’s From Bakunin to Lacan that I usually work from (mostly because its one of the relatively small amount of books I’ve read) 

“Poststructuralism has its origins in the structuralism of Barthes, LeviStrauss,Althusser, etc.13 Broadly, structuralism subordinated the signified to thesignifier, seeing the reality of the subject as constructed by structures oflanguage that surround it. Thus essentialist ideas about subjectivity are rejected,and in their place is put a wholly determining structure of signification. Forinstance, Althusserian Marxism saw the subject as overdetermined by thesignifying regime produced by capitalism, the subject becoming merely anIntroductioneffect of this process. The problem with this rejection of essentialism was thatthe all-determining structure of language became, in itself, an essence. Thestructure becomes just as determining as any essence, just as totalizing and asclosed an identity. As Derrida argues, the structure became a place: “the entirehistory of the concept of the structure … must be thought of as a series ofsubstitutions of center for center, as a linked chain of determinations of thecenter.”14 In other words, the all-determining structure becomes merely asubstitution for the essential centers—like God, man, consciousness—that itsupposedly resisted.

 This critique of structuralism may be broadly characterized as “poststructuralist.”Poststructuralism goes one step beyond structuralism by seeingthe structure itself, to a certain extent, as affected by other forces. At least theidentity of the structure is not closed, complete, or pure—it is contaminated, asDerrida would argue, by what it supposedly determines. This makes its identityundecidable. There can be no notion, then, of an all-determining, centralizedstructure like language. For poststructuralists, the subject is constituted, not by acentral structure, but by dispersed and unstable relations of forces—power,discursive regimes, and practices. The difference between structuralism andpoststructuralism is that: first, for poststructuralists, the forces which constitutethe subject do not form a central structure—like capitalism, for instance—butremain decentralized and diffused; second, for poststructuralists, the subject isconstituted by these forces, rather than determined. One is constituted in such away that there is always the possibility of resistance to the way one isconstituted. It must be remembered, then, that for poststructuralism, as opposedto structuralism, forces, like power, which constitute the subject, are alwaysunstable and open to resistance. 

Poststructuralism may be seen as a series of strategies of resistance to theauthority of place. Poststructuralists sees structuralism as falling into the trap ofplace by positing, in the place of God, or man, a structure which is just asessentialist. So poststructuralism is not only a rejection of the essentialism ofEnlightenment humanism, but also the essentialism of the structuralist critiqueof humanism. Apart from this, I am not prepared to define poststructuralism anyfurther. Its definition will be brought out in the discussion. However, as Isuggested before, the purpose of the discussion is really not to define ordescribe, but to use, and this is how I will approach poststructuralism. “

So what does all this linguistic turn schtick mean for feminism?  Broadly speaking, it means that the subject- woman, lesbian, transgender, etc. is “constituted” by relations of power (here power isnt necessarily political power in the traditional sense, its basically the diffuse effects of all discourses and shit in a society).  What that means is that feminism suddenly isnt about freeing an oppressed subject, but freeing individuals from that subject itself.  Whereas these folks argue that structuralist feminisms (like materialist feminism or most of “second wave” radical feminism) had accidentally recreated the problem they wanted to solve by creating a hegemonic conception of women.  Post structuralists usually draw from black feminism here to explain that second wave radfem was bad at talking about race, sexuality, transness, etc. as an example of this.  

Another big difference that happened was the now cliched-to-hell “the personal is political” changed in meaning.  Though the slogan existed earlier, as an argument that the domestic lives of women were indeed politically constituted, it changed in implication.  Instead of urging that we broaden a structuralist analysis to include those issues, it came to mean what it usually means colloquially today, which is that personal choice is a political act.  and that the most radical, non-hierarchal politics come from personal acts of transgression that break norms (an idea ported down from Foucault and Bataille From Bakkunin to Lacan explains this idea a bit too).  This idea, plus a big anarchist-inspired critique of organization and hierarchy gives rise to a very individualist politics that at the same time claims to reject individualism (as a capitalist discourse).  So you get the shift from alliances and united fronts to affinity, and from class war to insurrection.  For feminists its resulted in a lot more arguments about individual choices (wearing makeup, having X type of sex) being seen as inherently radical in and of themselves.  In some circles (cough cough tumblr), further mixing of this idea with a bastardization of identity politics has resulted in the idea that certain identities are inherently transgressive (like trans people, for example).  

 Finally it means that we have to be very very very careful about where we situate our politics- post-structuralists see the dangers of hegemonic meaning everywhere, and tend to think that universalizing any idea is a potentially, if not inherently, violent process.  

For the gender identity part- I highly recommend u read some stuff from the Transgender Studies Reader and the Transgender studies reader 2 (they’re both like 300 pages of articles).  The kinda go to post-structuralist account of gender is Butler, who describes it as a performance- ie a social construct that is made to seem natural by being repeated over time.  She doesn’t mean that individuals are responsible for gendering as a whole process, because that performance is coerced out of you (this is where i think she kinda doesn’t make sense, IMO, only an economic relationship that exploits women explains why this coercion ever came about).  Because power kind of flows both ways, action that destabilizes that performance (like drag) could change it and make it steadily more open and accepting, expanding the category of “man” and “woman” and even creating new ones.  

[oumakokichi]

Hi! I've been seeing posts saying Ouma said 'I love you' to Himiko, and that they're hinted to have feelings for each other in the game? I've read your metas about them so I know about Ouma being gay and Himiko /possibly/ having feelings for Tenko, but are there actually events in the game that actually hint on romantic feelings between them? Though I believe in letting people ship w/e they want, I'm not exactly fond of the pairing, especially because one of them is actually confirmed to be gay.

Hmm, this is a difficult question to answer. I don’t want to come across as condemning any ships or putting my foot down as though my opinion on shipping is the only one that matters, because that’s definitely not the point of this blog! As long as it isn’t unhealthy or there isn’t a huge power imbalance between the characters, I’m pretty okay with most ships.

That being said, it’s true that there are some that just aren’t personally my cup of tea. That doesn’t make them bad ships necessarily, it’s just…there are certain factors involved when it comes to my own personal preference. If it comes to talking about it from that perspective, I don’t mind. I just don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea and assume that I’m trying to act as though I’m some kind of shipping authority when that’s definitely not the case.

With all that said, and understanding that these are just my personal opinions on the ship so please take this with a grain of salt, I’ll go a little more in-depth about this under the read more. There will be spoilers for Chapter 5, so be careful!

The main reason for people shipping Himiko and Ouma from what I’ve seen stems from the Chapter 5 trial. The two of them interact occasionally prior to this; in Chapters 2 and 3 in particular Ouma is quick to accuse Himiko as the first suspect in both trials despite knowing who the real culprits are ahead of time, generally to defuse the suspicion from her and move on to the real topic instead.

In the post-trial for Chapter 3, his most notable interaction with Himiko is that he confronts her very specifically about her feelings for Tenko: he calls her out on the fact that she’s still not being open and honest with her emotions even after Tenko’s death, and says that she’s only lying to herself. Even though he’s a liar, he says that at least he always tries to be honest about his own feeling for himself—and puts heavy emphasis on the fact that appreciation can only be shown for people while they’re still alive. He comes down hard on her, but his speech is what prompts Himiko to stop holding back her grief and start crying, and ultimately she becomes much more straightforward about her emotions from this point on.

I feel like because he could tell that Himiko was such a poor liar, and because even though he refused to trust anyone fully he could still tell that she posed relatively little threat to the group, he intentionally pushed her here because he knew that she had potential to grow and develop the way that she did. And I feel like it’s very telling that he specifically talked about her feelings towards Tenko in that scene, the same way that he often targets Maki’s feelings for Momota later on, or even Saihara’s feelings for Kaede. Ouma, as perceptive as he was, knew very well that Himiko’s regret and her feelings about Tenko were the very things necessary to push her to become stronger.

Only in Chapter 5 is there any discussion about Himiko and Ouma’s feelings towards each other, and it’s this scene which prompted most of the push for it. Throughout most of the trial, Himiko spends the whole time getting easily flustered by pretty much everyone because she was lying about bringing the crossbow to Momota in the machinery bay. Her lies are transparent and super easy to poke holes in, and the more flustered she gets, the easier it is to get her off-topic in the trial discussion.

When asked why she was definitely seen going to the machinery bay, and while she desperately stammers out excuses about checking on Momota to see if he was okay and says “What other reason would I be going for?!”, “Ouma” in the Exisal responds like this: “Because you like me~.” And Himiko gets even more flustered and embarrassed by this, assumes that “Ouma” is messing with her and of course tells him to stop lying and messing around, to which he responds, “It’s not a lie~, I like you too~.” And Himiko proceeds to get pretty noticeably embarrassed and fond at the idea of someone having a crush on her (Tsumugi calls her “a young maiden in love at some point” when telling “Ouma” not to mess with her, haha), and this kind of interaction is I think why most people decided to start shipping it.

The thing is, it’s not actually Ouma in the Exisal, it’s Momota. However, he is following a script that Ouma wrote (a multi-branch 300-page script, give or take, that could predict almost perfectly how everyone would react during the trial). He does say that “some parts were his own ad-lib,” and asks the group if they can tell “which ones,” but there’s no real way to tell the specifics exactly. Personally I’m inclined to think the “confession” was something Ouma himself wrote—because this kind of teasing behavior is definitely in-character for him and I have no doubts he definitely liked to see Himiko get riled up. He’s undeniably a prankster, and Himiko’s quick temper later on made her a pretty easy target to tease in a very mischievous way.

That being said, it’s not something I exactly ship per se because…well, it’s not something that ever seemed to me like it was intended seriously. Himiko reacts to “Ouma’s confession” about the same way that she reacts to Monokuma suddenly saying that he’s their friend now and he’s going to help them theorize in the school trial—she’s indignant at first, then falls for it completely and even gets sort of shy and flustered and says she wants to give Monokuma a big hug. And when Monokuma goes back to giving absolutely no shits about any of them in the post-trial, she’s super shocked and outraged and even says “Y, You bastard, even though I loved you…!”

This kind of behavior isn’t anything new or out of the ordinary for Himiko. She admits in-game to enjoying soap operas and cheesy, clichéd twists. Her line to Monokuma feels very much like a child imitating a soap opera line they once heard, in my opinion. And I feel like her enjoyment of these pastimes is what led to her very much liking the idea of being in love or someone having a crush on her, but without it necessarily being a serious thing.

After the Chapter 5 trial, there’s never again any indication that Himiko had particularly deep feelings for Ouma, or vice-versa. When discussing Ouma’s “true character” and what his real objectives and feelings are, in fact, Himiko is one of the characters who believes in him the least. She assumes that he was lying about absolutely everything, because that’s easier than accepting the alternative—that perhaps they were too hard on someone who was actually trying to help the group all along in his own way. She does not accept the fact that he was never quite the villain he played himself up to be; even when they all know for a fact that Ouma was not the ringleader, she goes as far as to say “he wasn’t someone who could shed real tears.”

Considering how much of Ouma’s character requires a deep understanding of the fact that he was not completely evil and not actually a horrible person, the fact that Himiko pretty clearly doesn’t believe there was even the slightest chance that he was telling the truth in Chapter 5 just…doesn’t really appeal to me from a shipping perspective. As part of my own personal preference, I just don’t really like the feeling of a dynamic where one character doesn’t ever really understand the other and thinks they were a horrible villain the whole time.

There’s also definitely the point that you brought up, about gay characters when it comes to these kinds of ships. Ouma is definitely, undeniably confirmed gay, and Himiko is at least open to fan interpretation and qualifies as what I would at least consider gay-coded. But it’s true that there’s no outright confirmation that Ouma was only interested in guys, and as Himiko definitely expresses interest in guys on multiple occasions, I would say it’d be perfectly plausible to headcanon her as bi or pan.

And while it’s certainly not confirmed that Ouma was only interested in guys, I do feel as though there’s at least room to read into him having a preference. When it comes to his interest in guys, he only uses phrases like “my beloved ___” with Saihara and Amami specifically—both of whom are guys. And rather than teasing Maki or Himiko, he asks Momota constantly, “Oh, Momota-chan, could it be that you’ve fallen for me?” These are phrases that he doesn’t ever use with the female cast, and in my own opinion, it just feels to me as though Ouma has much more of an interest in guys than girls.

What grabs my attention with Himiko and Ouma though is this: even though one of these characters is canonically confirmed to be gay and the other one can at least be read as such, I’ve seen many, many people in the fandom trying to deny that fact. Even though being gay is not only a fact about Ouma but also an essential, plot-related factor (because he would never have taken as much interest in Saihara as he did if he hadn’t fallen for him), I’ve seen many people since the game’s launch questioning whether he “really was in love with Saihara,” saying it felt very forced or random even though there were plenty of hints to it all the way from Chapter 2 and onward.

It reminds me quite a lot of people’s reactions to Juzo prior to the actual reveal about him being gay in dr3. Even though it was clearly foreshadowed and very noticeable hints that anyone could pick up on were dropped the whole time, many people wanted to deny it—or even ship Juzo with Chisa instead, even when it was very clear he didn’t feel that way about her. And being gay was so essential to Juzo’s motivations and character, just like it is with Ouma. Trying to gloss over the fact or ignore that there’s a canonically gay character when we so seldom get this kind of confirmation in canon, ever, just feels… Well, it’s not something I like very much.

This is all just a matter of my personal preference, once again. People can certainly ship these things if they’d like to! As long as there’s no gross or unhealthy basis for the ship, I don’t think it’s right to try and tell people to just stop shipping something, moreso if it’s something they clearly enjoy and are having fun with. Shipping is by and large a matter of people’s personal tastes and desire to see more development, interactions, etc. between certain characters, and I think if people want to take Himiko and Ouma’s interactions and expand upon them or read in a certain way, that’s perfectly fine!

But I do think it’s also true that it’s important to try and think critically about why we ship certain things or why certain ships seem “more plausible” than others. There were quite a few people who were willing to believe a “love confession” from “Ouma” (who wasn’t even actually Ouma, no less) that was mostly brought up for the same kind of comic relief as Monokuma joining the group in Chapter 5. However, I noticed considerably more people raising objections or questioning whether Ouma was “telling the truth” when he confessed in Chapter 4 that he “had fallen in love with Saihara-chan” even though he was speaking to an empty room where he had absolutely zero incentive to lie.

I feel as though it’s important to occasionally ask ourselves this: “Why do I want to ship these characters? What do I enjoy seeing the most in their interactions?” When provided with a canonically gay character or a gay-coded character, it’s important to try and evaluate whether we’re actually shipping those characters in non-gay ships for a certain reason, or if it’s just because it “seems cuter” or “more plausible.” And if it’s the latter, that’s a very dangerous mindset which can and does have real-world implications, because media is so full of the assumption that heterosexuality is the norm, and I just think it’s good to be careful of trying to fall into that same assumption.

Anyway, I really hope I didn’t offend anyone with this, because it’s not my intention at all. I’m not against other people enjoying this ship, and I can see why people would think it’s cute! It’s just not something I myself ship, and again anon, I can understand your feelings and your hesitation.

[elentarial]

The absolute shade here.

My personal take: Maedhros is sexier here because he laughs in the face of an ancient elf who is siphoning power from his Maia wife.

Thingol: I am king here and all will obey me

Maedhros: yeah fuck you buddy, come out from behind your fence and without your wife and we’ll talk

The original come and say it to my face

sexiest silm line contenders

"Beware therefore how you princes of the West bear yourselves; for I am the Lord of Beleriand, and all who seek to dwell there shall hear my word."

"But Maedhros laughed, saying: 'A king is he that can hold his own, or else his title is vain.'"