#they’re always being physical and badmouthing each other

[sylver-drawer]

I saw someone say Lucathy is sibling coded and ever since then, I’ve never felt so complete.

[tariah23]

Yeah! The biggest threat to goiji is gojo himself. Not just because of his status and hang ups about being the strongest but because his powers make him so above it all he can't begin to comprehend where ijichi is coming from and he's so mean to him for it 😭😭 he starts out nicer in opposites attract because from the onset he already wants to interact and hang out with ijichi on purpose. otherwise in pretty much any other scenario he's just not considering him. It could even be backhanded if gojo extended literally any thought to him at all 😭😭😭

Exactly!!! I’ve talked sm about their whole THING for months and MONTH now with friends/ mutuals privately 😭…….. for Gojo, he’s just TOO stuck in his ways; absolutely stubborn. He’s also been sheltered to hell and has been raised to believe that he isn’t really a person ever since he was a child and so, it was probably always hard for him to actually BELIEVE that he could ever connect with anyone on a human level because he doesn’t see himself as one. He’s too far above them and feels that it’s useless to actually connect and build bridges with other people because they already don’t SEE, nor do they understand him, at least from his perspective.

It’s like he most likely unconsciously prejudges everyone around him, even his friends and students, because he’s already set himself up to never be truly part of their world on a personal level that’ll leave him vulnerable. He just exists in it and he won’t ever go any further than a silly joke, teasing them like hell to the point of bullying (Ijichi……), and hugs (because Gojo really does love to throw himself onto other people. Physical contact is fun for him and he’s already an extremely affectionate individual as is so it comes naturally for him. He also seems to do this on purpose because he’s tall as hell, annoying af, and ugly!!! He is aware of the fact that he gets on everyones nerves but when he does this, it really does show that he enjoys the company of those who he cares about even if his way of thinking might come off as backwards skkssksks.)

As for Ijichi, yeahssshs. In “Opposites Attract,” Gojo is the one who makes the first step but tbh, the story/characters themselves seem to be very much in character imo!!! I can see all of what’s happened in the story, especially between them, legit go down in canon IF JJK were a different story and that the themes revolving around Gojo’s trauma were more zeroed in on and I’m so serious.

The writer handles his feeling of loneliness and isolation so well and you can literally see how hard he tries to push back on Ijichi from getting closer to him in the story until it had gotten to a point where the both of them just became legit friends who were 100% comfortable around each other. They had built up a comfortable routine… they had their disagreements and confrontations and Gojo never apologizes for the awful things he said to Ijichi in the story but you can always tell that he’s at least sorry and that he will do better with dealing with Ijichi next time. I love seeing just how used to Gojo’s personality Ijichi becomes over the course of the story lol. That’s what close proximity and overexposure does to a mf!!! The development from Ijichi feeling awkward and uncomfortable around Gojo to Gojo swinging him around at the airport bro…… (that chapter was so fun whajajajl. Ijichi was going THROUGH it while Gojo, his new FRIEND who used to be bully his ass back in HS, was gone away on a mission and he missed him sm lol. Then I think that was the same chapter where he went out drinking with fellow auxiliary managers and how he had to defend Gojo from being badmouthed by one of them 😭… and Gojo heard about it and teased Ijichi by calling him his hero or so 😭… falling to me knees…….. )

It’s so well written and the way that the writer had dragged their relationship along for so long… It’s literally insane that they haven’t kissed or even so much as held hands yet lmfao. They’re probably still not even dating even after 100K words lmfaoooo. I’m behind on the last 5 chapters so idk if anything has happened YET but uhhh. Gojo FEELS like Gojo in the fic for sure!!! Same with Ijichi! I love how character driven the narrative has been! Gojo does have the tendency to surprise others, especially Ijichi, when he wants to. Like, he’s kind of shitty towards him and he doesn’t usually realize that he’s being dismissive and mean at all but he’s aware of the fact that Ijichi is a sensitive person who’s always nervous and wanting to do his best and please others as well and so he takes advantage of that people pleaser side of poor Ijichi lmfao.

I think the story handles their dynamic incredibly well and the progression from Ijichi being annoyed with Gojo being around to falling head over heels for him makes sm sense 😭!!! Gojo has the capacity to treat other people with respect and he’s not the monster he thinks he is. People actually DO care about him, not just because he’s strong 😭! I just love how Normal Ijichi is… and it has been brought up multiple times throughout the story as well. Of COURSE he’d feel insecure around someone like Gojo but Gojo, even in canon, doesn’t really give “shallow,” at all to me at least. He’s kind of ableist though and again, super dismissive of those who he views as weak, but it’s because of the way that he’d been raised and conditioned to view himself as a something not human. His views don’t steam from a place of malice at all. Also, because it’s his job to “protect,” the weak. That’s always been part of his whole mindset. Gojo is also a weirdo lakakakakl. Given a little time and patience, Even outside of all of the bullshit that comes with dealing with him because of his personality, I think that It’ll definitely come down to Gojo allowing himself to be vulnerable with others in order for something to shake. My guy is literally a thorny rose 😭!!! I hate him for that!!!

[doodle-pops]

Maedhros SFW Personal Alphabet

Request: Can I get a Maedhros SFW alphabet #1 please? - anon

A/N: Ask and you shall receive anon.

A is for Adventure: something they haven’t done but have always wanted to

All Maedhros ever wanted to do was settle down and have a family. He'd build a house a good distance from his previous home and garnish it with all the designs he and his spouse desired. He'd have a few children, nothing more than three because his brothers were a headache. There, he'd finally be at peace. It used to be his goal in mind until his capture.

B is for Butterflies: How they act when they’re nervous

He is extremely good at suppressing his emotions, so showcasing his nervousness is an expression that only those close to him would notice. The most obvious sign of him being nervous is his hesitancy. He'll create tons of excuses as to why he can't do what needs to be done. 

C is for Crush: what is it like when they have a crush? How do they know/act?

Maedhros and having a crush is something that nobody knows about. He's secretive like all his other brothers and perhaps the most successful. Maedhros' form of interacting with you is painfully too formal and he appears too stiff. Nothing about the way he approaches or hovers around you is relaxed. Because he's the heir to the Crown Prince, he believes that he must be proper so no one can badmouth his behaviour.

D is for Date: describe an ideal date for them

Private and nothing else. He wants to be far far away from civilization and his snooping family. Once everyone learns that the eldest is courting they are quick to eavesdrop. He isn't grandiose when it comes to showcasing his love, so a simple day spent picnicking or perhaps a boat ride down the river is enough for him. He does love to spend time in the library, mostly in the private section where no one would visit.

E is for Essential: what is one thing they could NEVER go without

He ensures that he provides flowers whenever he visits. Never does he see you with a bouquet accompanying him and it's always your favourite or something symbolic. He's the reason the floral shop always has good sales. 

F is for Favourite: a favourite anything- food, place, smell, book, etc.

As much as they annoy him as all siblings do, he loves his brothers unconditionally. It pained him the most when each of their passing occurred and he had to bury them. He always remembered when they were little and they'd all run to him for help or when he held all of them as babies. He was most pained when he left Maglor behind. 

G is for Giggle: how they laugh/what makes them laugh

The only people capable of making the giant redhead laugh are Fingon, you and the twins. The rest of his brothers give him a headache and makes him question life - his life that is. There are rare occasions where he’ll laugh at something they did. When Maedhros does laugh, it’s more a chuckle and not a burst of full-blown laughter. He’ll first scoff through his nose, hang his head and then shake it left and right as he chuckles at the action performed. 

H is for Holding Hands: Do they like holding hands? Are their hands warm or cold? Pinkie promises?

His hands are extremely large and warm. Your fingers don’t even cross over his palm, so you have to stick to holding his fingers - mostly two or three. Before the oath, his hands used to be toasty warm and soft, but after the oath, his hands became calloused and cold. After wielding swords and his captivity, hand-holding became less a physical activity he’d perform with you. He believed that he wasn’t clean enough for you to touch even though at times he yearned for your touch. 

I is for Inside Joke: something they do that everyone thinks is funny but they don’t understand

As the eldest of all his cousins and siblings, Maedhros was secretly assigned the mom of the children and from a young age, he took his role seriously as stated in this post by @tanoraqui. Before any event, he’d spot check all his brothers and cousins to ensure that they were all dressed properly from head to toe. It became a natural habit of him to perform no matter where they were, as long as there was an event to be attended. A few times as everyone sat around the dinner table, they all joked about how he was super serious about their appearance, however, Maedhros had failed to understand what was so funny about him wanting their appearance to be clean. 

J is for Jinx: Are they Superstitious?

A tad bit, though the most he’d be, is interested in hearing the reasons behind the tale and why certain practices are held to prevent any harm. But at the same time, due to Maedhros suffering at the hands of the dark lord and being tortured, part of him would take all the warnings seriously because he’s seen some horrific things in Angband.

K is for Kiss: how do they kiss?

He’s a very passionate kisser, though, for the beginning of your relationship, he’d allow you to take the lead. Once he becomes comfortable and you give him the okay go, his kisses will escalate. At first, he’ll cup your chin tenderly as he leans in the deliver the early pecks and then his hands would move to the back of your neck and lower waist as it becomes more heated. He prefers if you sit on a table or the both of you are sitting so he doesn’t have to strain his neck. Maedhros isn’t opposed to lifting you but he feels comfortable in doing so when your relationship deepens or it’s marriage. 

L is for Love Language: what is their love language? How do they give and how would they like to receive love?

Maedhros is big on words of affirmation and gift-giving. Physical touch has been one gesture he preferred to act on in private, though he became to dislike it during his healing after Angband. Maedhros understands the importance of praises and compliments in a person's life and does not hesitate to inform you of your accomplishments. Praises easily slip past his lips whenever you require them. Being a very diplomatic person, you would expect his words to be formal and lack affection, but he knows how to show his affection and love for you.

M is for Meant to be: how/when they know someone is “the one”

You and Maedhros would be friends or you would be a worker under him or someone else. He’s not going to fall in love at first sight, he just doesn’t seem like the type that would, sorry (personal preference). With consistent meetings and conversations whenever you both cross paths, it would take a while before Maedhros and you have an intense conversation and he becomes aware that he enjoys your company. He may outrightly ask to see you again, or not depending on which Maedhros we’re talking about. He would spend a long while getting to know you before believing that you could be his “one”.

N is for Nickname: a nickname they would have or their favourite thing to be called

His nicknames for you are simple terms of endearment as he isn’t grandiose. However, for him, every possible name you can create that would remind you of his appearance or some embarrassing action he’s performed in the past. The latter would be for private moments. He is already named for his hair colour and figure, so you might as well add in your own to make him blush further. Please only use them in private and intimate moments because he’s going to turn redder than his hair if you call them out in public.

O is for Organization: are they clean or messy?

Pre!Angband Maedhros is organised and takes great pride in his appearance (same). He hates to be untidy or dwell in an untidy environment, it bothers the life out of him. Post!Angband Maedhros's tidiness depends on what mood he chooses to select on that given day. If he’s in a sprightly mood, then the environment would reflect such, but if he’s in one of his cold moods then the place is in an absolute mess and he could not be bothered with it. The same goes for his appearance after his capture. 

P is for Pet Peeve: What’s something they absolutely CAN’T stand?

Maedhros hates when people aren’t on time for events. It makes him pop a blood vessel especially when it’s his family, mainly his brothers. He can’t understand how one could arrive at a formal event that started an hour ago when they were necessary in being early. He wishes people would take greater pride in being punctual - like it’s not that hard.

Q is for Quiet: What do they do for peace of mind

Maedhros likes to cuddle with you by the fireplace or on the balcony reading. Either he’s reading while you’re wrapped up in his arms or you’re reading and he’s drifting off the sleep to the sound of your voice. To him, the act alone makes his day a thousand times better than it was already going and cures his boredom. 

R is for Rainy Day: Do they like rain? What about storms? How would they spend a rainy day?

Rainy days make him remember when his brothers were all little and would run to him for comfort, especially when there were thunderstorms. If he were sleeping, they would rush into his room instead of his parents and cuddle him for safety. He would sit by the fireplace drinking a cup of tea and reminisce on these old memories as he watches them carry on about their day.

S is for Soft: Describe their softest feature

Maedhros is named for his appearance so everything on him is perfect and soft, but if you had to choose, it would be his smile and eyes. His silvery-grey eyes would become soft whenever he saw you or something interesting caught his attention. The smile that would follow makes you melt. You often remind him would beautiful you found his eyes and smile to be and this leads to him being a blushy baby while thanking you. 

T is for Telephone: are they a talker or a texter? How often do they use their phone?

Out of all his brothers, aside from Maglor, he’s the second-best at writing love letters for you. His words always make you melt and become mussy on the inside. Maedhros sends at least two letters a week or two once you two haven’t seen each other, but if you have, then one letter. Most of his letters are affectionate, while the others are describing his days in the noisy household and around the family with any fun events. 

U is for Unique: a random quirk they have

He isn’t one for singing like the rest of his family is known for, but because he’s been around his brother and cousins a lot, he developed the habit of whistling. Whenever he feels a tune coming along, he whistles it instead of singing. He’ll nod his head unconsciously along with the whistling while tapping his feet. It’s greatly done whenever he’s buried under a pile of papers. 

V is for Valentine: Are they the type to celebrate or not?

Yes, he does celebrate it, but not as openly as the others or grandiose. Maedhros is a very private and formal person so he’s going to treat his love life as such - behind closed doors. After you explain what the celebration is all about and how it is usually celebrated, he understands that it is an intimate event. Wanting to show you how loved and appreciated you are, Maedhros would not spare any expense when treating you - it’s all behind closed doors away from his nosy family. E believes that if he’s going to treat you to a day full of love, then it’s going to be perfect.

W is for Wholesome: something extremely pure about them that makes you just *uwu*

Because Maedhros has taken care of many of his brothers and cousins, it comes naturally to him to switch into paternal mode whenever a child is around. His gentle nature around children when he interacts with them makes your heart explode. It gets you thinking about what he’d be like when you two have your little ones, especially daughters since he wished to have a sister. 

X is for Xenia: How they would entertain a guest/show hospitality

Maedhros has great pride in how the public views him and his family, mostly him. Because so many people have insight into their lives as it was laid bare before the world, he appreciates what little dignity is left to be used through hospitality. That way, no one can further comment negative words on his character. He does his best to ensure that his are comfortable and can acquire all that they need. When it comes to your visit, he goes above and beyond to make you feel as though you’ve walked into your house - he wants you to feel right at home. 

Y is for Youth: A fond childhood memory they have

He remembers whenever his brothers were feeling under the weather after playing for hours in the rain and mud, he would cradle them after bathing them, by the fireside. Wrapping them in layers of blankets, Maedhros would snuggle them as he fed them their soup, tea and medicine. When he was finished, he hum a song his mother would sing whenever she was lulling him to sleep for him to have peaceful dreams. 

Z is for Zzz: Sleep habits. Do they cuddle in their sleep? Talk? What do they dream about?

Pre!Angband Maedhros loved to sleep close to you - not the type to cuddle you like others but kept close. He normally preferred if you slept on top of him since he’s so big, that it’s impossible to roll off him once he wrapped his arms around you. He doesn’t snore so you have nothing to worry about. Post!Angband Maedhros is a nightmare to sleep with because of his nightmares and traumatic experience in Angband. He tosses and turns all over the bed and even suffers vivid dreams that he acts out in real life. It was disappointing to you when you learnt that sleeping beside him was going to no longer be a reality. 

Masterlist

Taglist: @whenloveexists @givemaedhrosahug @spidergirla5 @eunoiaastralwings

If anyone wants to be tagged, click the link or request in the asks.

[tsunonotarou]

Being Childhood Friends to Lovers with...

notes — Bro I fucking THIRST for this man he can rip me open

— Also I think I’m gonna start this series called “Being Childhood Friends to Lovers with...” because childhood friends to lovers shit is my kind of shit

— We’re debuting this series with Leona 🥳

BEING CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS WITH...

LEONA KINGSCHOLAR

— AS A CHILD

He cherishes you a lot even though he might not show it

You’re the first ever person who acknowledges him, first ever person who approached him first and talked to the second son

He thought you were strange at first, because why would you talk to a mere second born when the first is right here with you? So he distances himself and avoided you at first, thinking you have ulterior motives

You got the signs and didn’t pester him after that—which he is glad for—but he find himself secretly looking at you or purposely look for you in the castle whenever you come visit (let’s say you’re a royalty too and your parents’ are good friends)

It was when he saw you sulking and pouting by yourself, he felt bad and maybe, you just wanted to be friends

The servants always prepared your favorite sweets when you come visit but you didn’t want any after realizing that he’s ignoring you

So he took some, went to look for you and threw them at you

“H-Huh?—“ you got startled and quickly looked up, seeing his neutral expression on and looking down on you

“So, your parents bought you that whatever thing you want, and then what?”

The way he remembers your one-sided conversation with him before honestly made you tear up, you didn’t think he was listening

From then on, you were also excited to visit the king’s castle because you get to see him, and you made sure to bring various of things over for him and you to play

There was one time he accidentally overheard some servants of yours “advising” you to stop hanging around with Leona Kingscholar, saying how he isn’t worth your time and shouldn’t be influenced by him

Though he was sure of your loyalty and friendship with him, he still has his doubts, maybe, you secretly dislike him too

He waited for your response, your silence only made him more anxious as time pass by

“...Hey.” He bit the inside of his cheek, awaiting for your answer

“I’m gonna ask my parents to fire you all.”

His eyes were wide as ever, and so were the servants’

“B-But please, Princess/Prince Y/N-“

“I will not tolerate anyone who badmouths my friend, moreover, who do you guys think you are? Telling me who I should be friends with now?”

As much as Leona tries to stop it, his eyes watered, lips quivering at your words

He never told you how he eavesdropped your conversation with those servants, because eventually it’ll lead to how he reacted, and he’s never going to tell you he almost cried

He taught you how to roar once, got super red when he himself haven’t even mastered it yet

Glares at your form rolling on the floor laughing

— AS TEENAGERS

He is two years older than you, so he got enrolled into Night Raven College first, during the times he was at the dorm you were bored to death

One of the main reasons (probably the only reason) why he’d go back home during breaks is because of you, he could care less about the grand welcome back party—which he was sure the servants were forced to put up—and the fake smiles from relatives, but he had to see you

Is always prepared for the uncalled tackle hug from you but somehow you always manage to knock him off balance, causing the two of you to fall down onto the sandy ground

You rambled and rambled, he listened but solely focused on how your features changed, you definitely grew up, got more attractive, too

Oh fuck

He mentally cursed when he finally realizes how his heart is beating in an unusual pace, feeling his cheeks warm up and how he felt like melting right there and then

Buried his feelings deep down because of his insecurities and acted as normal as he could with you after

You have never seen him panicked so much, got so angry and frustrated before, it happened once, when the topic of arranging a marriage for you and his older brother, Farena, was mentioned

He strongly opposes the idea but reminding him that he is only a second son, hence have no say in this matter was enough to shut him down

You tried to go after Leona who stormed to his room but decided you have more important matters at hand, matters that you need to clarify first

Politely declining the marriage and telling how Farena is a good person, but you have eyes for someone else

Everyone in the room (which consisted of both your parents and Farena) knew who you were talking about, and they were shocked, to say the least

You can clearly see the discomfort in yours and his’ parents faces, but you also can clearly see Farena’s secret wink towards you, telling you he approves

You and Farena never had any romantic feelings for each other anyway, and he was always teasing about you and Leona when you two were little

Knocking on Leona’s room softly then creaking it open, you peek your head inside to see him lying on the bed on his side with his back facing you

“Leona.”

“Leona?”

“Leooona.”

“Leeeeeeonaaaaaa.”

“LEONA WAKE THE FUCK UP.”

“FUCK-“

He winces and jolted up after you slapped his arm

Snaps and growls at you, rubbing the spot where you attacked earlier

He was all grumpy and upset until you tell him you rejected the marriage

Stares at you for a good ten seconds before sighing, slowly resting his forehead on your shoulder and wrapping his arms around you

You two have had naps together, held hands when you were little but have never been this physically close after you two grew up, you two are the best of friends but there are boundaries as friends, so this was new to you, naturally, your cheeks bursted in all shades of red

“I’m glad...” you can hear him mumble, placing a hand on his soft hair and patting it before give it a stroke, calming him down

— AS STUDENTS IN NIGHT RAVEN COLLEGE

You teases him so fucking much about being a dorm leader, like- how??? He’s just so lazy and unmotivated to do anything that you’re impressed

Surprisingly takes very good care of you both as a friend and a senior, it was surprising for the Savanaclaw dorm members to see Leona actually giving fucks about someone, a freshman no less, so they got interested in you very quickly

Which resulted in Leona scaring them away because they’re too close for his liking

He always suggests you to take naps and laze around with him though, so it’s no good since you have to get good grades

You’re the one who’s always dragging him to classes (if you’re lucky to get him to move)

You two never bothered to tell anyone that you’re childhood friends, it didn’t seem to have the need to

So everyone thought you two were dating because of how close you are 💀

Definitely got jealous at how you made new friends

He doesn’t mind if you have new friends, it’s natural, it’s only concerning if you don’t have any

But if you’re spending more time with them than with him? Best know that he’d trap you in his room and never let you go out

This won’t stop until you figure out why he’s like this and promise him he’ll stay as number one in your friendship list

You really shouldn’t be but you’re still laughing at how he’s repeating school years to this day

But you’re also kind of glad that he’s still here with you, it’d be boring if he weren’t

Plus, Leona wouldn’t leave you here alone anyway, there’s too many people he can’t trust and he just generally don’t wanna leave you alone

The confession was surprisingly normal and quick, no stutters or nervous twiddles of fingers from him

He kinda just, got tired of you being so physically close and attached to everyone else that he want to call you his and his only

He’s the type that’d suddenly pin you down on his bed while you’re talking about what you and your other friends did that day

Enjoys the deep blush and lip quiver on you as he finally confesses his feelings for you, leaning down onto your ear and whisper huskily about-

His arms quickly wrapped around his stomach and coughs as your strong kick jerked him back, he ended up kneeling on his bed, hunched over as he groans

He thought he invaded your privacy and made you uncomfortable so he quickly look up to check up on you, afraid of the terrified and disgusted look on your face, but what greeted him was a hot, hot face as you refuse to look him in the eye

He stared, and stared, a small blush slowly coming up to his own cheeks before a pillow was thrown at his face

Seeing you so flustered reminded him of the past few days when he debated with himself whether he should go for it or not, he might seem smug for now, but before this cocky smirk appeared he was a nervous wreck

So the two of you kinda just stayed like that in his room, freezing on your spot with dead silence

“A-At least give me an answer...damn it.” A miracle that he stuttered

He watches as you fiddled with your finger, looking down with mumbles he couldn’t make words out from

“I...I like you too.”

This is so lame, you two are like middle school kids confessing your love for each other and yet, those simple words made his heart flip like crazy

Now that he’s confirmed your answer, prepare for a wild but sweet kiss from him

— AS LOVERS

It was a little bumpy at first, mostly from you though, because you’re just so used to being “just friends” with him that you don’t know how to act as his lover

He didn’t change much, maybe a little bit sweeter and considerate than before but he’s just the old Leona you know, which you’re glad for, you didn’t want him to change

He’s more protective now since you’re finally his, and he made sure to let everyone know that

Doesn’t really have a say on PDA, he’s fine with or without it, but he would definitely shove his tongue into your mouth right on the spot if someone even dare to look at you in the wrong way

Really likes wrapping an arm around your waist and put his whole weight on you because he’s lazy and tired of walking

Will actually fall on you when you’re in the botanical garden so that you couldn’t get up and is forced to take a nap with him

Play with his hair!! He loves it to death, though he might grumble and say he doesn’t, we all know he’s lying

You have to reassure him that he’ll always be your number one, he’s already suffered enough, if you end up leaving him he doesn’t know how to cope with it

Cuddles, cuddles and cuddles 24/7, he will not let you go

He sometimes just stares at you as you talk or do your own thing and think about how lucky he is to have you, it might not seem possible but literal hearts appeared in his eyes

If you ever catch him staring at you and tease him for it he’ll growl and pounce on you, how dare you make fun of your king like that? Prepare for a punishment my friend ;)

[highly-flammable]

Reacting to Legacies 3x03 (SPOILERS):

1. So ARE we FINALLY getting to some proper firstborn Mikaelson witch breakdowns?

2. Oh well, apparently no. They'll just try to wave it off as some one time thing probably.

3. So Hope and Landon are on a break. Okay. TBH watching them sass each other is interesting.

4. The guidance counselor is pretty much a compulsion monster, is that it? Well, I do like his wardrobe.

5. Alyssa's concern for MG is so fake I can't.

6. Nobody other than Jed read for Stefan? THE DISRESPECT.

7. Lizzie playing Caroline makes total sense but them asking Josie to play the lead without even an audition looks a bit bad TBH. Like, give the other interested people a chance, at least.

8. I find it a bit repetitive how there are mind-controlling monsters popping out again and again.

9. So MG is basically going through a phase similar to what Cami was going through when Klaus used to compel her at the beginning of TO. Considering Quincy's fondness for Cami, he must have liked playing that.

10. I understand that Landon is supposed to be a capable songwriter in-universe but it takes more than that to write and direct a musical and it's very weird that they didn't even find a guest star to pose as a Drama or English teacher who is guiding him or something. WHERE ARE ALL THE TEACHERS?

11. I kinda feel like some of the lead characters in this show are colour-coded. I see Hope and Landon in red and blue a lot (the two gowns we have seen Hope wearing also fall into this pattern) and Josie wears yellow in like, every other episode. If I recall correctly, Lizzie wears a lot of white, too. I wonder what the reasoning behind these choices are.

12. Well, I liked Hope and Landon's relationship in S1, I have no idea what was going on with it in S2, and I still don't know what to think about it.

13. Lizzie casts herself in Caroline's role and then chokes at rehearsal. Not totally unrealistic but still feels a bit forced to me. Would have been better if Landon cast her because she's Caroline's daughter and Lizzie was a bit apprehensive in the first place because she didn't want to mess up the role.

14. I appreciate the show taking a moment to talk about Lizzie's bipolar disorder though. It's been a while.

15. "Bonnie just disappears for long periods of time"? Dude, she's still super important and you're putting her in the play. Right? RIGHT?!

16. Landon, THANK YOU for pointing out how weird Caroline and Alaric's relationship was. The guy deadass got engaged to her and had a pissing contest over her with Stefan, that will never not gross me out.

17. So the monster is mind controlling Landon to put Klaus into the play. Saw this coming IG.

18. Hope is painting again, like her dad used to do when he felt things were going out of control. I've been rewatching TO and this is making me so emotional. I MISS KLAUS AND HIS SHENANIGANS. And not a single character on Legacies comes close to Klaus, Elijah and Hayley for me. (Sorry if this hurts anyone's feelings but Legacies really is a downgrade from TVD and TO)

19. Ugh, why would he use the contents of the letter as lyrics? Dude, is it because you're mind-controlled? No, I don't like this. Klaus loved Hope to the ends of the earth and wanted everyone to know but Hope wants to keep things private, and her wishes should have been respected.

20. So apparently Landon tries not to put Klaus' villainous antics into the show. Well, okay, it's definitely a copout but since he is Hope's boyfriend, makes sense. But I don't understand why the musical HAS TO BE about the Salvatore school. The accreditation excuse is lazy, writers! Also, Landon, my dude, Klaus was a major donor of the school. Put that in instead of the other things, stop pissing off your girlfriend FFS. Even if you're mind-controlled 🤦🏻‍♀️

21. I do find it funny how Landon is all gaga over Klaus' use of language though. The guy really did have the best lines, didn't he? (Tied with Elijah, I suppose, for me)

22. The other singers of the first song are really good so Kaylee sounds a bit rusty in comparison. Also, she reminds me too much of Dark!Josie with the hair and makeup. From a distance, she can be mistaken for Nina though.

23. I love that the backstage activities are being shown.

24. I'm digging Jed as Stefan and I really like his singing voice. And the Hero Hair wig cracked me up. Kaleb is obviously good at singing at it's nice to hear more from him. I also like how Chris Lee didn't try to exactly emulate Ian and played Damon how someone who has only heard about him might play him.

25. Is Hope painting herself before the pit or something? Or is this supposed to symbolize her despair at her parents' loss? ALSO, I WANT SOMEONE TO MENTION HAYLEY :( Why is Hayley so ignored?!

26. The same person probably wrote MG's notes and Caroline's letter IRL and therefore, in-universe, MG has Caroline's handwriting and it's funny to me.

27. Jenny sings well, I like it. I don't understand the song though, was Caroline actually ever feeling this insecure? I feel like the song became a lot more about Lizzie than her mother. (It's been forever since I watched TVD, if anyone has yet to guess, I prefer watching TO)

28. The doppelganger thing cracked me up.

29. Wait why did the monster attack Josie?! Ohhhh he's forcing Landon to improvise and put Klaus' song at the end. Well, I guess it makes it seem a bit less like Landon's fault. But would Hope know that?

30. It's hilarious how they lowkey make a call back to Nina leaving TVD and them having to put Elena in a sleep spell though.

31. Landon having a hissy fit is funny to me. Aria needs more comedic scenes.

32. Wait, where did Jade come from? Has she been in the school all these weeks?

33. While the scene seems a bit shabby to me, Klaus talking to Hope reminds me of their scene from TO 4X03. I needed more of Summer Fontana and Joseph Morgan together. Also, the donation did get mentioned, YASSSS. Man did some horrific things but he did fund the school so maybe a little less badmouthing in the presence of his daughter now that you know the story, eh, students?

34. The fact that the guidance counselor actually wore a leather jacket and a henley is cracking me up. It's really bizarre.

35. "Terrible painter" XD Klaus would have eaten you for saying that if he were alive.

36. Um, Hope, wouldn't you ask your family if you are doing enough to make your father proud, instead of this random bloke who supposedly met him once?! Maybe call Freya or Rebekah.

37. Why is this monster being nice to Hope? Doesn't it try to break people up or something? You'd think he'd try to piss her off even more and ruin her relationship with Landon.

38. Stefan was trying to be more like Damon by sacrificing himself? Um, what?

39. Well, this musical at least gave Stefan and Caroline a goodbye scene. I wonder how much the twins remember Stefan, must have been a bit emotional for Lizzie to play that. Jenny's singing was gooood, really liked it.

40. JED WAS GONNA KISS LIZZIE AND I WANTED IT TO HAPPEN. But a forehead kiss does work.

41. Hope's playing Elena now? What?

42. Ngl I want Hope and Jed to be friends. She needs more of a connection to her wolf side. Both of her parents wanted her to be surrounded by wolves and she's barely interacting with the wolves in this show, which always makes me sad.

43. So this monster can also do little spells and move physical objects eh? Whatever, this is random.

44. And this monster brings people back together? Why?

45. So when Hope is singing, is she doing it as Elena or Hope? She came on stage as Elena, but I thought the song is about Hope. So WHAT IS IT?

46. Oh Damon's on stage, so Hope is singing as Elena and it's a call back to the graveyard scene from the TVD finale.

47. Danielle sings pretty well. It's good she decided to perform this time.

48. Okay, that lifting up scene was adorable. I feel like Hope and Landon are at their cutest when they're a bit spontaneous. But she's Elena on stage and it lowkey looks like Landon crashed her romantic scene with Damon to kiss her so I'm cackling.

49. How much older is Jade supposed to be than Josie?

50. So is Josie going to leave the school for a while and that's why Ethan will be back in the picture?

51. Jade used to babysit Josie? Okay, it is hella awkward.

52. Josie why, don't do this, yikes. Kissing her once doesn't make it non-creepy.

53. The Sheriff feels kinda shoehorned to me. Also, I don't care for Matt Davis or his character.

54. So Candice did the voiceover for Caroline's letter. That's nice for the show. I still don't understand why the letter showed up in Hope's fireplace though LOL.

55. This episode should have spent more time exploring the aftermath of the loss of Rafael. The abrupt shift from the last episode wasn't nice.

56. Yeah, kids, talk out your problems, thanks.

57. I feel like Klaus is too much of a controversial figure that Hope's conflict about her father's reputation would be resolved in one day. This is feeling undercooked. Speaking of, when is one of Klaus' or Hayley's enemies coming after Hope, because she did inherit all of them. Would make for better storytelling than this monster of the week nonsense. And yeah, still no mention of Hayley, I hate this.

58. The monster's characterization was really odd to me and I am so tired of this format SMH.

59. So they toyed with MG for weeks to get a vampire for the spell? That sounds like too much effort. There are tons of vampires from Klaus and Rebekah's bloodline, they couldn't find another? Also, I wonder who is the wolf that they will use.

Well, I felt like this episode was mostly okay, but not that well-cooked or epic or whatever. What is horrific is that they didn't show Bonnie, though. They could have at least gotten a female black guest character who is one of the witch students or something. This is very offensive.

Also, I don't think it makes sense for the show to do any more musicals in the future. This ain't Riverdale.

[keikoh]

In terms of shinigami abilities, what are Keiko's strengths and weaknesses? (and maybe likes/dislikes -just because they are good/bad at something doesn't always indicate if they like it or not)

STRENGTHS:

Keiko's extremely brave, to a fault perhaps! She'll face down bullies and stand up for others, she doesn't shrink down or shy away. Rangiku's shown her how to perfectly punch motherfuckers in the face without breaking a nail.

Sharp! She's a fast learner and absolutely talented in her observational skills -- being able to catch onto patterns and other details within moments of it appearing, an active and honed mind, making her also better equipped to unleash some lethal sarcasm and wit at the drop of a dime.

She's an agile little fucker, slippery, hard to pin down or catch because she zips around so quickly. This translates over into Keiko becoming excellent with Shunpo once she learns and grasps the art.

To follow in her dad's footsteps, Keiko focuses a lot of her training around kenjutsu, and while she's relatively sloppy with it when she's younger, she refines this as she ages and turns her relentless charging tactics of her childhood into a terrifying flurry of quick attacks which can easily overwhelm

Basically, she's a speedy gremlin

WEAKNESSES:

Kido. One hundred percent it's Kido. She's awful at memorizing those long incantations and sees no reason in stopping, pausing a fight, leaving herself vulnerable, only to fire off something that probably won't even be strong enough to hurt her enemies. Her low motivation to actually master this art leaves her fairly vulnerable in facing against Kido, too, as well as generally not coping well with scenarios that call specifically for Kido. She knows basics.

Keiko isn't physically strong, at all, and it'd take maybe one decent hit for her to be down and out. She really needs to work on her durability.

Can become highly emotional, riled, or otherwise discouraged during battle. Keiko has some insecurities about being able to measure up to her parents, who are both titled Shinigami, whereas she feels like nothing truly special beyond her lineage. It's a sore spot, leaving her prone to acts in attempts to prove herself perhaps falling flat on its face, shattering her self-esteem.

Over-compensating independence: she'll isolate herself unnecessarily or face things alone without reasoning beyond 'I can handle it' and a blood-given inability to ask for help.

LIKES:

Food. Snacks. Especially things to munch on, specifically if it's junk food from the human world. Her parents live a fairly traditionalist lifestyle, so Keiko enjoys stuffing her bag full of convenience store snacks to bring back to Soul Society with her during World of the Living visits.

Tech, namely her phone. She has an iPhone 6s that Gin gifted her for one of her birthdays via Urahara's shop. It's in pristine condition, despite now being several years old, and runs smoothly. Keiko guards it carefully. She also enjoys video games ( Hotaru showed her them, and she got hooked; she likes either simply watching or playing them with others, she doesn't like solo-playing them ) and watching Youtube, especially hair and makeup tutorials.

Winter festivals, particularly when there are firework shows and games. It's a tradition in her family to go to them yearly, and they always make her feel warm, safe, and nostalgic. She likes getting prettied up for them, too, even if she initially didn't like the yucky kimono when she was younger -- too busy trying to emulate her dad. Rangiku's helped her with embracing femininity a lot.

Training with Gin, in any setting. She feels like these are the cherished moments between just the two of them where she can ask him anything and he'll answer. The bonding and experience she gains from each session makes her ready to break anyone's nose who tries to badmouth her father.

DISLIKES:

Being coddled. Even if she wants it, she hates the feeling of being babied or being sheltered away from the truth. She doesn't like it when her parents use that hushed tone around her, the 'we'll talk about this later when she's not here' voice. It grates at her trust and makes her feel like they're keeping secrets from her, like she can't handle them.

Cowards. Anyone who talks shit but then scrams as soon as the threat of getting hit pops up. People who have no problem making assumptions and accusations at her and her family while thinking they can just run away from consequences or cry out if she strikes at them for it. Keiko'll get in trouble again and again because of these loud-mouthed babies, and she has no shame in it.

Mayuri. What the actual fuck is that guy? He looks like a clown from those scary haunted movies she's discouraged from watching ( but she definitely snuck out and watched ) and now she has nightmares that pop up every now and again about his weird painted face and lipless mouth.

KIDO. Seriously, she hates this shit. Why is it a required skillset in the Shinigami Academy? Most of the Shinigami, even seated officers, almost never use Kido in battle!!! This isn't fair!! Who has time to shout a paragraph at someone!?

[j--meat-hook--j]

Taiyuu Prequel: A mess of a day

The train to Taiyuu was a long one. The speed the train was going at accentuated and exaggerated the little shakes of the carts. 

The carts were full of potential candidates, a boy who radiated heat like a small furnace, two people with stars glowing through their hair, a boy made out of slime, there was one boy at the back who was playing with a couple batteries. And then there was Andrew Meda, the boy made of pure energy, beside him sat his friend Nento Attoteki.

Andrews doesn’t see the way normal people do, so Nento had to describe herself when they first met. Nento described herself as ‘just sort of someone. My hair’s a faded blue mess and I have way too much acne. I wear these ugly glasses, as you can obviously tell and, I don’t know, I’m just a regular turbo-nerd.” 

Andrew didn’t know why Nento put herself down so much, from his point of view she looked fine. Andrew doesn’t even know what acne is. Or the colour blue. 

“It looks like there are a lot of people here Andrew.” Nento said, her voice quivered.

“And now they’re all looking this way.” Nento continued. Nento shrank away from the attention Andrew naturally (An)drew.

“Ish fine. TH-er aw-ll here tuh-bee heroes, ever-one seemsh cool.” Andrews words all slurred together, his energy body had no mouth or vocal-chords so talking required some extra concentration. 

“There are some types that want to be heroes, not all of them want to be good. Like that guy with the grey skin, I am getting some bad vibes from him.” Nento, quickly drew judgement about a boy Andrew couldn’t recognise.

“Can’   t see gRey Nen.” Andrew gave Nento a quick reminder.

“Wai, no, stop juh-jing people so k - kwi-” Andrew threw up his hands in frustration at not being able to pronounce the word.

The floaty stumps that tipped each one of Andrews arms formed full hands with full fingers. He thrust them out in a compressed thumbs-up shape. 

‘Quickly’ Andrew signed.

After Andrew signed the appropriate word his hands and fingers dissolved back into their floaty stump shape. 

“I know, you’re right. Wouldn’t want to be on his bad side though.” Nento kept going.

The two continued in idle chatter on the train, Andrew chastised Nento whenever she quietly badmouthed someone.  

Andrew had come to Taiyuu today to take the entrance exam, ever since he was a kid he’d always wanted to be a hero. Nento came to just get away from the house, she was going to catch the next train back to the mainland and meet up with Andrew after he was done.

The next train back to the mainland was in about 20 minutes so Nento and Andrew had some more time together.

“It says here, that you all take the written test. It should be modified for you. Then it is the practical exam, that should be a breeze for you.” Nento read from the papers that were sent to Andrews house. 

“Alrigh’, I’ll see you after yeah?” Andrew asked his friend.

“Yeah. Send me something when you’re done and I’ll meet you at the train station.” Nento responded, her posture was nervous but she rarely went anywhere without a plan.

“Sounds good. Anyfing comes up don’ be afrai-d to shoo’ a message my way.” Andrew said.

“Of course. I’ll see you later Andrew.” Nento said before walking off.

Andrew continued with the flow of people, he got the occasional double take and hushed whisper about his unique body. He didn’t mind, he liked the attention, it made him feel special. The crowd funnelled into the Orientation Zone, Andrew forgot the building name.

The Principal, Laccadaisy, pointed out all the major landmarks of Taiyuu, the dorms, the track, the classroom buildings, the multitude of gyms, the etc. She explained how the day would work, first came the written exam and then the practical exam, once you’ve finished everything you can go home. The details for the practical exam came later.

Just as the written exam was going to start Andrew was pulled into a different room by someone who introduced themselves as Aurora. Aurora was going to read Andrew the multiple choice questions and options and Andrew would tell her which one he wanted to fill out. 

The questions were mainly about the laws regarding heroism and quirk usage. When it's okay to step in and when isn’t and how to prioritise civilians in dangerous situations. 

After everyone had finished the written exam they were explained the details of how the physical exam would work. There were 8 trials total, each student was randomly assigned 3. Sounds easy enough. Andrews sheet was written in japanese and braille, he got assigned trials 1: Shaky Shimmy - located at the track, 3: Dogcatcher - located in the forest, and 5: rope climber - located near the coast of Taiyuu.

The Shaky Shimmy Trial would be happening at the track very soon. Aurora pointed Andrew in the direction of the track field and he took off. 

It didn’t take too long for him to catch up to the silhouettes of the other people doing the Shaky Shimmy Trial. One was radiating heat off them like crazy, one had the night sky in their hair, and there were two more unexciting people. 

They were all standing around awkwardly with the silhouette standing at the front, Probably Laccadaisy, impatiently looking at her wrist. 

“Wait up! Hold on!”  Another boring silhouette came running from behind the group. They already looked out of breath. 

“Now that we’ve got all 5 of you we can start.” Probably Laccadaisy said. 

“Start the Sh-” The Furnace Person said. “The Shaky Shimmy trial, yes. Your goal is to get to where those orange cones are.” Probably Laccadaisy answered. 

The two cones were about 10 meters in front of the group framing some the track lines of the field.

“Oh, well that’s not that bad.” One of the boring silhouettes said.

“3 times. Just two laps of the track and you’ll be good.” Laccadaisy responded with a bit too much excitement.

Andrew couldn’t see where the track lines were, but he assumed it’s the hard stuff without grass. It made a large oval shape about 400 meters in length. 

“Alright, line up, get ready.” Laccadaisy said, she stood to the side of the track and raised her arms.

The students all picked a lane, the ones with meat started doing stretches to limber themselves up. Andrew could tell the one radiating heat was getting hotter, more around the shoulderblades than anywhere else. 

“3. 2. 1. GO!” Laccadaisy shouted. One of the boring silhouettes started skating forward; the rules of friction didn’t seem to apply to her now. The hot ones back exploded in fiery wings and he shot forward, like a high speed jet or a particularly angry Phoenix. Andrew, not wanting to be outdone flew after the flaming phoenix as fast as he could. 

Once Andrew and The Phoenix reached a curve in the track the ground started shifting across the whole field. The Phoenix tried to turn to make the curve but lost height in the process, they crashed hard into the ground. Andrew gave them a mock salute as he overtook them.

Andrew continued pushing forward, it wasn’t too far until he would finish his first lap when he heard a voice behind him say.

“I’m not losing like that!” It was the Phoenix, quickly back in the air after eating dirt. The second bend wasn’t too far away now, Andrew could control his flight easily enough that he decided to do an air drift over the second bend.

The Phoenix, predictibley, hit the shifting ground again.

“FUCK!” They called out.

Andrew raced past the orange cones, starting his second lap. Ahead he spotted the two boring silhouettes, one was really struggling against the shifting landscape as they hadn’t made it past the first bend, the other had already skated past the first bend. The silhouette with the Night Sky in their hair was about halfway between the other two, they were skating too but not as well as the boring silhouette in front.

Andrew flew over the first boring silhouette who was still struggling to gain his footing. The Phoenix was back in the air and hot on Andrew’s heels. 

Andrew took the bend narrow, hugging the inside of the track. The Phoenix ended up taking the bend wide and started to lose altitude when WHAM they slammed right into the silhouette with the Night Sky in their hair. Andrew winced at the sudden impact between the two. Instead of tumbling straight into the ground The Night Sky stayed upright, The Phoenix used the Night Sky to keep himself balanced and in control of his flight. The Night Sky got a free speed boost, The Night Sky’s shoes sliding perfectly across the shifting and tumbling ground.

Andrew kept pushing forward, past the second boring silhouette that was skating. The Phoenix hadn’t stumbled across the bend and was catching up. The skating silhouette joined the train of the Phoenix, adding even more to the stability and control the Phoenix originally lacked. 

The second and final bend of Andrews lap two was coming up soon and the Phoenix Train was catching up. The boring silhouette placed her hand on The Phoenix’s face and the Trains speed was increased by a little bit more as the Phoenix Train all of a sudden had less drag. 

The three were gaining speed and catching up to Andrew when finally the bend came. Andrew took the bend narrow again, keeping as close to the inside as possible. The Phoenix Train took the bend a bit wider. The Night Sky and the boring silhouette kept The Phoenix from crashing into the ground. The Orange cones were close, so was the Phoenix Train. The two groups were pushing further and further until… There, The Phoenix Train pulled in front at the last second. 

“Don’t stop now! We still have one more lap to do!” The Night Sky said. 

Andrew pulled off to the side having finished his two laps. He caught his nonexistent breath while the other three finished their two laps. The Phoenix Train pulled up after not too long, the last boring silhouette had to keep huffing along. 

“Woooahhhh! That was so cool, I mean hot!  Whatever!” The Phoenix said.

“I’m Nerva Rekka - Burning Soul.” The Phoenix, no, Rekka said. Name, then Quirk, as was custom nowadays.

“Meda Andrew- Energy Physiology.” Andrew responded.

“Naishin-Sunomu Isejin - Sandman.” The Night Sky, Isejin said.

“Kouka Fuitchi - Path of Least Resistance.” The boring silhouette, Fuitchi said.

“Dude you were so fast, it was like zoom and whoosh and PHWAAAA.” Rekka said, with equally extreme hand motions to emphasise the sound effects.

“No meat, no drag.” Andrew said. He liked simple and short words, they were easier to say.

“You look so, sparkly, almost see-through.” Isejin commented.

“Rekka what as with that reckless flying! It was so cool, you could have gotten hurt.” Kouka said excitedly.

“It’s no biggie really, just ate it a few times.” Rekka said, brushing the dirt on his face and torso off.

As Andrew was thinking of something to say the fifth participant of Trial 1 finished up.

“Huff, huff. What the fuck,, was that.” The new boring silhouette doubled over gasping for breath.

“You good?” Isejin asked.

“Fuckin, barely, I swear to god the next test I’m in better have a robot or some shit.” The new one said.

“You are?” Kouka asked.

“Zeke Funkee - Electrokinesis” The basic silhouette, Zeke, said.

“I think the next Trial’s starting now.” Rekka said.

“Fuck.” Zeke said, or was it Kouka.

“That’s me.” Kouka said, probably, the two look so similar.

“Anyone else?” Zeke asked the group.

“Nope. I’ve got a bit of a break.” Rekka said.

“No, I’m the one afta.” Andrew managed to stumble out.

“I’m the same as Meda.” Isejin said.

“Alright, off we go then. Um, I never got your name.” Zeke said to Kouka

“It’s Kouka, lets go Funkee.” Kouka said, slightly dragging Zeke with her. 

“So are we watching Trial 2 or what?” Isejin asked the other two.

“Yeah, that's at the forest, isn't it?” Rekka said.

“Souns goo” Andrew said. 

The three made their way over to the forest area where the 2nd Trial was happening. They sat a distance away from the trial happening.

“I like to play a game with my dads where we try to guess other people's Quirks, you lot wanna give it a try?” Rekka asked the group after they sat down.

“Sure.” Andrew said. “I’ll give it a try.” Said Isejin

The trial started and some wolf shapes started lunging at the student shapes. One student threw something that grew out of their hand.

“Uhhhh, that one’s really good at throwing things!” Rekka interjected.

The thrown thing exploded into huge gobules of cotton candy, it stuck a couple wolves together making it easier to dodge them.

“I think it’s a cotton candy bomb.” Isejin said.

“Tha’s a safe bet” Andrew said with some effort.

A wolf lunged towards another student, but they were pulled back by their jacked in the nick of time.

“What’s that, a cloth manipulation one?” Rekka said.

“Yeah, I think so. They’re moving as if they’re being dragged by their clothes.” Isejin agreed.

Andrew saw something the other two didn’t, his energy sense finally came in useful, the clothes on their body were colder than everything else. Super cold, like starting to freeze temperatures.

“No, ish bit more. Cold.” Andrew said. 

“Huh, cold quirks suck. Garbage. I hate ‘em. YUCK.” Rekka said.

One student simply stood still, sometimes a wolf would approach them but after they did a small maneuver the wolves lost interest. 

“What about her?” Isejin asked.

“I don fink hers is suited for this trial.” Andrew said.

“She’s  totally Quirkless. That’s super impressive!” Rekka said.

The trio's eyes and similar sensory organs shifted towards a girl who launched into the air, propelled by a platform underneath her. 

“Woah. That one’s flashy.” Isejin said.

“Yeah, is that… asphalt or concrete or something like that?” Rekka said.

Andrew’s energy sense came in handy once again. The pillar was warm, not boiling hot but not room temperature. 

“It looksh like freshly laid asphal” Andrew said.

“I mean, I guess so. Sorta.” Isejin said. 

The group moved focus again. 

“What about her? She’s not doing anything flashy.” Rekka asked the group

It was the girl that was standing still again.

“We alread-ee talked abou’ her.” Andrew said.

“Really? What was the verdict?” Isejin asked

“That she was Quirkless but it was cool.” Andrew responded.

“Ooooh yeah! I remember now.” Rekka said.

The group faced towards the next person, this one has almost comically long hair.

“Woooahhhh. That’s so cool!” Isejin said.

“Yeah, that looks like it could come in useful for like, stealth missions and that.” Rekka said.

“What are you talking abou? I can’ shee anyfing.” Andrew asked.

“Seriously dude. It’s so obvious. They’re hair’s changing colour!” Rekka exclaimed.

“Oh, okay.” Andrew said.

There was another student who was dodging wolves only based on his own athleticism. Rolls and tucks and short sprints all over the place.

“Seems like a strength quirk, or maybe they’re just in shape.” Isejin said.

“Yeah, I dunno. There’s nothin superhuman about it. What do you think Andrew, you seem to see some stuff we don’t.” Rekka said.

Nothing out of the ordinary revealed itself to Andrew’s unique sense. 

“Dunno, just seems like a regular dude.” Andrew responded.

“What about her.” Rekka pointed at someone.

It was the girl standing still again.

“She’s just standing still, maybe some sort of stealth Quirk.” Isejin said. “Guysh, we already talked about her. Twice.” Andrew said.

“Wha. Oh yeahhh, now I remember. Silly me.” Rekka said.

“Hmmm, that is a bit odd.” Isejin said.

The trio spotted Zeke and Kouka again. Kouka was being super slippery with her movements, the wolves couldn’t get a hold of her. Zeke was already pinned to the ground.

It wasn’t too long before the trial ended. In a couple minutes the third Trial would be up and running. 

“Welp this is my trial. See you both later.” Isejin said.

“I’m doin this one too.” Andrew said.

“Alright, I’m gonna grab a snack. I’ll catch y’all later.” Rekka said. 

Andrew and Isejin were already in the right time and place for Trial 3: Puppy Catching. It took a little bit for the other silhouettes Andrew assumed were students to funnel in and out. After a quick headcount from the silhouette in charge, probably Laccadaisy, she squared up and announced.

“BEGIN!” 

There were flashes of kinetic energy everywhere as people took off running. Andrew took off into the sky and kept his “eyes” open for the distinct silhouette of a wolf. His vision didn’t blur or decay over distance like a normal human does, it sometimes gets a little overwhelming but it comes in as an advantage today. 

He scanned around from his vantage point. His full 360 field of view was an advantage for scouting. 

‘Wolf shape, wolf shape, THERE!’ Andrew spotted a gaggle of the plant puppies breaking off from the crowd.  He took off chasing the breakoff group, the best he could do is round up 4 of the Good Boys at once. 

Andrew was tailing the gaggle of Plant Dogs but he couldn’t quite catch up to them. The group was always just out of his reach. This wasn’t a problem for Andrew, he reached out with both hands and his arms extended far beyond human proportions.

His long noodle arms wrapped around two Plant Puppies and pulled them close to his chest. Andrew did a quick aerial maneuver so that his chest faced the sky and his legs were at his front. Andrews' legs then stretched out and wrapped around another two Wolves and pulled them close.

Andrew looked like a chandelier of a jacket and wolves as he raced back to the starting area to claim his Good Boy points. When he reached the starting area the person in charge called out to him. 

“Good job Meda, that's four points to you.” 

“Fan-s Lacca-d-d-day-see” Andrew assumed it was the principal running this exercise.

“I’m not...” The silhouette began but Andrew was already gone taking off into the forest again. 

Andrew was searching for another set of dogs when he spotted the Person with the Night Sky in Their Hair sitting and surrounded by sleeping dogs. He flew past them as more and more dogs went to approach them.

He flew past as Isejin gathered something that acted like sand or dust and launched it at the new dogs. Isejin waved up at Andrew.

“H-Hey.” Andrew managed to stutter out. 

WHACK! In his light daze Andrew wasn’t watching where he was going and slammed right into a tree and its branches at high speed. 

“Aww my jahck-eh iz rew-inned." Andrew managed to stumble out. A branch had managed to go right through his energy body and poked a huge hole in the back of his jacket. 

“Woah, are you okay?” A new silhouette said from next to Andrew. Which is weird because he’s far off the ground. Andrew managed to maneuver his jacket free of the branch, his energy body could easily shrug off a branch through his chest. 

“Yeah. Jush tings a lihl.” Andrew responded. 

“Just be careful when you’re in the air, aight?” Andrew got the chance to take a better look at this new silhouette now that he wasn’t impaled. The silhouette didn’t have any distinct energies or silhouettes. Just a regular person floating next to Andrew. 

“I’ll try harda.” Andrew emphasised with a quick laugh at the end. 

“The exercise is over!” The person running the exercise, Laccadaisy probably, called out.

Waiting/Exploring - Not recognising people

After the end of the exercise the students piled together in one place, one student ran off to attend the next trial but the main student body just stuck together. Andrew spotted the Night Sky of Isejin through the whole crowd of silhouettes. He flew closer before he was asked by one of the silhouettes.

“I haven’t seen anything like you before? Such a unique physique.” said this new silhouette

“Uhm, yeah. Mah Quirk is Energy Physiology.” Andrew responded.

“Your whole body is made of plasma? Fascinating. I’m Naishin-Sunomu Seisho - Bioelectricity Manipulation.” The silhouette said. Naishin-Sunomu, wasn’t that the same as Isejin?

“Not plas-” Andrew started but was cut off by another silhouette.

“Nice to see you back in one piece. I’m Sainoch Yurei - Phantasm.” The silhouette said. “Yeah, i’ was jush a scrach. Mah jahk-ehs coul’ use a rep-air though.” Andrew struggled out.

“You really helped me out there Seisho, thanks.” Another un-unique, an ique silhouette approached the small group. 

All the other students talking amongst themselves, their unrecognisable voices blended together, the movement of all the students made it hard to keep track of who was where and with who.

“Yeah, how’d you find the trial Andrew?” A silhouette said.

“It wash preddy easy I fink. I got four poin’s, wha abou’ you Seisho?” Andrew said.

“I’m not Seisho, I’m Kayaki.” Kayaki? When did Kayaki get here? Who’s Kayaki?

“Yeah, m bad.” Andrew said apologetically.  

“I’m shree, I’fe gotta go. I fink my next Trial is up soon.” Andrew said to the small group that had gathered. 

Andrew flew off from the group. His next trial was the Rope Climb, located near the coast of Taiyuu. He spent his time looking around the cliffs and beaches of Taiyuu. Along the way he spotted a short silhouette with a large hat. He floated close to the small silhouette assuming this was where the next trial would be.

“Can I help you?” The silhouette said when Andrew got close.

“Is this where tha rop-ah climin trial is?” Andrew said.

“Not quite kid, follow this cliff face round till ya hit the ocean, then head up, go North-by-North-East by 62 paces and ya should be right there.” The silhouette said.

“Okay, fanks.” Andrew said. 

‘Those were some confusing directions’ Andrew thought to himself. 

He followed the cliff face around for another while until he finally hit the ocean. He then flew straight up the cliff face.

‘Which way is North-North-East?’ Andrew thought. Compass directions are wild and weird and whacky. Andrew kept flying up to gain a vantage point to see if he could spot any groups of people. 

He was scanning the environment around him, “eyes” darting around the place searching, searching. THERE. Andrew found a cluster of people standing in front of a small thin line of stuff, probably rope.

Andrew rushed towards the group, hoping he wasn’t too late. He was close by when the silhouette in charge spotted him. Andrew landed near the back of the students, his energy “feet” never touched the ground. 

“Well it looks like we have a volunteer. Late start. Step forward.” The silhouette in charge said. 

Andrew imitated a step forward as he maintained his floaty nature.

“Just slap the rubber ball up top and you’ll be done.”

Andrew nodded with his whole body and flew up to the top of the rope. 

‘Rubber ball, rubber ball.’ Andrews lack of traditional sight has betrayed him once again. The silhouettes of the rope all blended together and looked the same. Andrew was a little confused and just smacked the highest point of the rope.

“Nope, that’s stone.” Called the silhouette in charge.

“Oh, shree.” Andrew apologized. He aimed a fair bit lower and smacked there.

“That’s rope.” Came from the silhouette again.

“Uhhh.” Andrew aimed a bit higher and smacked. If he had blood it’ll all be at his face.

“That’s the one. You’re all good.” The silhouette called. 

“Fanks.” Andrew responded quietly. He slowly floated down back to the ground. It was the other students' turns but Andrew didn’t really care at this point, it’s been a long day. He just floated back to the train station on Taiyuu Island. 

Train ride home/ Meet up with Nento

While Andrew was on board the train he pulled his phone out of his pocket. His other hand formed a full finger to unlock his phone. After some struggling he got his messages app open.

‘Alright, deep breaths Andrew, take your time.’ Andrew hyped himself up for this bit.

“Ne-n-t-oh” He managed to struggle out. 

‘Sending message to Nento’ The phone responded.

“I’m do-ne wif my physical tri-als. M-e-e-e-et y-ou at the lib-rar-ee?” Andrew slugged through, talking so much was like rolling a metal ball through his nonexistent mouth. Andrews' phone wrote down what he said and with a voice command it sent.

After a minute a blip came from Andrew's phone. 

‘Message from Nento.’ The phone's text-to-speech said. Andrew fumbled around with his phone again until he could get it unlocked. 

‘Sounds good. I’ll meet you there.’ The phone said aloud. 

Andrew enjoyed his time on the train. It was a break from the bright and unending technicolour barrage from the sun. All the energy coming off of it was so intense and focused, it gave Andrew a headache. The night sky is far better, Andrew could see all the energies of such far off places with vivid detail. The sky was beautiful at night.

Andrew nodded off a little for the rest of the train ride, when he woke up again he was only 5 minutes from the mainland station. Andrew navigated his way through the familiar streets of the city until he found the library. 

Andrew got his messages app on his phone again and prepared himself for the high-concentration speaking action that tired him out so much.

“I-m outsi-de Nen--to.” Andrew said. The phone bleeped and blooped and sent the message. Andrew was stuck outside the library, he didn’t want to disturb the peaceful goes inside. After a little bit someone exited the library. This person's hand signed the letters for “A” and “N”. 

“Hey Ne-nt-o.” Andrew said to his friend.

“Hey Andrew.” Nento said back.

The two made their way back to the Train Station to head back home. The two walked most of the way in silence, perfectly comfortable with the other.

“Hey Andrew.” Nento piped up. “Wassup.” Andrew slurred out.

“Do you think Nick would mind if I stayed over?” Nento asked. “Nah, not at all.” Andrew said.

[florianwirtz]

Tears - Anyone You’d Like

Warning: strong language

"Will we see us again? I really had a good time with you."

You blinked a few times confusedly before you answered the question with a plastered smile on your face.

"Of course, I'm texting you whenever I'm free, see you soon." You even had the decency to look back and wave until you ran to the bus stop, a sour expression on your face.

Another failed tinder date later, you found yourself at your best friend's couch with a glass of wine in your hand. Luckily, he always had an open ear for you whenever your day didn't go the way you wanted.

"He really spent the whole date talking about how fucking awesome he apparently is and managed to make everything about him. I swear I was that close to spilling the wine over the table so he could shut the fuck up for once."

Frustration was taking over you which made you finish your half-full glass in one go and your best friend only chuckled slightly while observing you silently. He never grew tired of listening to your failed date stories because the way you were able to retell stories and spilling all your emotions was just so hilarious.

“I told you these tinder dates will lead to nothing. You should give one of my teammates a chance, they're all lovely, I promise!” He suggested after you were finished with ranting and you only rolled your eyes at him.

“While I appreciate your lousy attempts of playing matchmaker, I already told you I don't want to date a footballer, I don't think I could handle being second choice to a freaking ball!” A short laugh escaped your mouth which made him laugh too, but you saw that he wasn't really listening anymore as he was busy scrolling through his socials.

To avoid awkward silence, you pretended to do the same as a sudden wave of sadness hit you. Because of course, he didn't understand why you were still accepting all these tinder dates when you were fully aware that this is definitely not the platform to find the love of your life. How could he know that you refused to go on dates with one of his teammates because you couldn't help but compare every single footballer to him.

Something deep inside you still somehow hoped that you'd end up with him. So you used these dates as a distraction, an excuse that you haven't found the right one yet.

And just as you thought about how naive and stupid your feelings were, the reason you felt silly went down the stairs.

"Hi you two! [Y/N], I didn't know you were coming!" She gave you her sweetest smile and you couldn't help but smile back. The hug she gave you felt warm and genuine and once again you just knew that she was the right one for him. How could you hate her when she never badmouthed you once for always showing up at your friend's house because you wanted to feel his presence near you.

Not even the miserable feeling in your stomach when she bent down to him and kissed his cheek softly which made both put their happiest faces on could tell you that you shouldn't be happy for them.

"Hi! Yes, but I was about to go, it's late." You answered her politely, ignoring the pang in your chest when you realised that they only had eyes for each other.

"Really? Let me drive you home then, it's late and you had a drink." She didn't even give you time to refuse and went searching for her car keys, leaving you and her boyfriend alone again.

"Thanks for having me and sorry for always barging in, she probably doesn't like it and I try not to do it so often anymore." You chuckled while holding him in your arms. Nothing made you feel more secure than being able to share physical contact with him while smelling his signature perfume.

"Stop saying that, you are always welcome. She knows how important you are to me. Have a safe ride home." He lightly brushed your cheek which made your whole body tremble and never were you happier than now that you could blame the burning shade of your face on the wine you had consumed.

You knew it was only a gesture of a trusted friend, yet it was all you could think about the whole ride home. Which is why you barely paid attention to what she talked about but she didn't seem to mind as she cluelessly continued talking. Only when she mentioned his name, you suddenly came back to reality.

"You ordered that cake for his birthday next week, right?"

"Yes, of course, the carrot cake from the bakery located in the neighbourhood he came from. It's gonna be delivered to your house on his day, it's all planned." You explained to her and saw her smiling while paying attention to the street.

"He's so lucky to have you, the amount of effort you put in his birthday is so heartwarming. I'm going to make sure he does the same for you."

She said it with such reassurance, for a moment, you weren't sure if you were able to hold this fake happy facade any longer. Because you still couldn't believe that she found all these sweet words for you when you were nothing but horrible to her by secretly wanting her boyfriend all to yourself. You were lucky that it was dark outside so she never noticed how a few tears escaped from your eyes. 

And the pain in your heart returned but this time not because of jealousy but because you realised how awful of a human being you are by not being able to let go of a dead crush.

A few days later you were invited to one of his games and it wasn't just any game but the decisive game of which team was going to the cup final.

Of course, you wore his name and number on your back but it didn't feel any special as he always had gifted you his kits whenever a new season started, it was a tradition since he went professional and for you as a football fan a great collector’s item.

She was also here and you were both twinning as she wore the same kit as you, only that hers was a man size, probably stolen from him. You even posted a pic on social media together, capturing it with “game day x” and expressions for the support of his team.

His family always managed to be present which was a rather rare occasion as they lived far away from his current residence. However, you knew from childhood days that they were always the proudest whenever they saw him play. And of course, they loved her, she was the perfect girlfriend anyone could ask for and she already told you that his family already made her feel like she was one of them. Life could be so perfect if you’d only see him as your best friend.

The game couldn't be any closer as both teams were equally strong, chances missed and converted from both sides and in the last 10 minutes, the scoreline showed was 1-1.

Both of you were nervously trembling, the tension whenever the opponent had the ball was unbearable and it seemed like it was going to extra time. But then a player of his team saw an opportunity and sprinted as his life depended on it, making the opponent's defenders look like fools. Finally, in front of the goal, he was crossing to his teammate who smashed the ball into the net with a beautiful header.

The crowd erupted, you and she in the family lounge hold each other tightly, screaming with joy and pride with the others in the room joining as well. And the few minutes of extra time after the deciding goal felt like an eternity, you and she never let go of each other's hands, too afraid that the opponent could turn this game around, but his team fought back until the liberating final whistle was heard.

You saw his team celebrating with each other, grinning like a Cheshire cat and also finding yourself in her arms again.

“I'm so proud of him, you have no idea.” She squeaked excitedly and you agreed with her, hugging her even tighter.

Finally, after all the post celebrations and interviews he came up to the family lounge, the people in this room applauding him with immense pride when they spotted their golden boy and he was greeting one after another.

Then he made his way to you and you just ran up to him and hugged him wordlessly, burying your head in his shoulder.

“You were fucking awesome there. You gonna win this trophy for sure now.”

“God, you are amazing. My supporter even when I accidentally smashed your mom’s vases back then. Thank you.”

You could feel your heartbeat so fast, you even thought you might pass out in a moment. This moment just felt too intense to end but it wasn't long until he slowly let go of you and you snapped back to reality.

And the ugly feeling of rejection came back when you saw him running up to her, kissing her passionately on the mouth and leaving a few other kisses on her face. They whispered sweet nothings to each other inaudible for everyone else and never noticing how they were lost in their own bubble. You stood on the side, no one noticing how you hold back a few tears in the back as they were busy in taking pictures of the two lovebirds.

Then his birthday came up. He still had training on this day but his coach assured him that there was no training the day after so he decided to celebrate in the evening after training.

So you found yourself in his house, helping his girlfriend to organise the party they had planned.

"Can I ask you something?" She suddenly asked you as you were in the process of decorating the table.

"Uh sure." Unsure what to expect, you both stopped arranging the glasses on the table as she sat down on the sofa, pointing to the place next to her.

"Do you think him and I are a good match?"

To say you were flabbergasted by her question would be an underestimation as you looked at her utterly aghast. What was she implying?

"What do you mean? Of course, you are?! You and he are perfect for each other and I bet you could ask anyone and they'd say the same."

She hesitated a bit before she answered, visibly uncertain about your statement.

"People on Instagram beg to differ."

She referred to the pictures he posted after the game he won. It contained a series of pictures including his family, you and her. "Finals! Always grateful for all of them supporting me."

You hadn't had a look at the comments before, but most of them were either about her or you. How you and he would be a much better fit, that you and he seemed to have more chemistry, simply based on two photos he had posted.

"Don't listen to them, sweetie. They don't see what we see every day and we know that you belong together." Comfortingly you put your hand on her shoulder while her expression still remained doubtful.

"But you still know him better than I ever will. After all, it was you who told me what he likes and how we should organise the party. It feels that after all these years, I still don't seem to know him like you do."

Unwilling to accept her self-doubt, you forcefully shook your head.

"It doesn't matter how well I know him. You are still his and his only. And while he loves me a lot, he loves me differently. He will always love you more."

How you managed to say this without bursting out into tears was beyond your understanding. Maybe if you told yourself this often enough, you'll start to accept it and maybe you were finally at the point where you should be able to move on.

However, when she gratefully took you in her arms, thanking you for trying to build her up, the relief in her voice obvious, you could feel your eyes watering. Because you knew she wouldn't even take a look at you if she knew what kind of feelings you were hiding.

The conversation was long over and forgotten when one of his mates finally brought him home, his house full of guests singing happy birthday to him as he entered the living room.

Obviously, he was left speechless at the number of people who had come to the party. He was even more surprised when he found out that it was you and her who organised all of it and immediately, he embraced you both at the same time, whispering "thank you my favourite girls".

Everyone was having a good time and even you could temporarily forget about your problems for a while. It was also an opportunity to get to know his teammates and you were positively surprised as most of them weren't too bad of a company.

It was all going well for you until he was asking for everyone's attention. No one really knew what was going on but he managed to make everyone surround him and his girlfriend, visibly wanting to announce something.

"First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for coming and making this day special. I feel extremely grateful that I know people like you who care so much about me."

Everyone in this room applauded him but stopping soon as he gave a signal that he wasn't finished talking.

As the applause died down, he took both hands of his girlfriend in his and looked her deeply in the eyes.

"I also wanna say special thanks to my girlfriend who always stuck by my side no matter what we've been through. I don't think I could ask for anyone better than you."

Suddenly he went down on his knee, everyone in this room holding their breath, knowing exactly what was coming while she held both of her hands in front of her mouth as he pulled out a box with a shiny ring out of his pocket.

"So I wanted to ask you if you would give me the honour and let me make you my wife?"

And she was now crying tears of joy, nodding with her head so much as if she had never been more sure of a decision.

Finally, the ring was on her finger and the people around the couple who were holding each other happily began to film and cheer with loud noise, celebrating and congratulating the couple in front of them.

You, on the other hand, stood like a brick wall at your place, not moving one bit as you still needed time to process what had happened a few minutes before.

Luckily for you, everyone's attention was given to the couple as no one noticed how you discreetly made your way out of the room.

You barely managed to reach the toilet and lock it up as you immediately fell down on your knees and finally, you let all the tears you had held back all the time streaming down your face.

You knew you should've expected it, you knew there never had been a chance in the first place, yet you couldn't help but feel heartbroken and alone. Because now he had made his definitive decision, he intended to spend the rest of his life with her.

And maybe this was your final call to ultimately move on from a love that was never meant to be, to finally let go of a person who was never yours in the first place.

Eventually, the tears stopped pouring and you took your time to sit on the floor for a few minutes, trying to regain your composure. Your make up was ruined by crying so you tried your best to make yourself look normal as much as possible. Right now, no one was supposed to notice your pain, later when you were home by yourself, you had enough time to let your true emotions show.

Carefully, you sneaked out of the bathroom and by the looks of it, no one had noticed your disappearance or breakdown. So you approached him with your brightest smile who was still surrounded by other people congratulating him. "My best friend is growing up and I can't believe he didn't tell me! Congrats on popping the question!" You took him in your arms as he hugged you happily back.

This time you broke the hug before you could feel anything more than you should.

Of course, he immediately noticed your face which was still red from the tears you had cried, making him look at you with a concerned face.

"Did you cry? Is everything alright?"

It wasn't easy to lie directly into his face as you still felt like you could burst out in tears at any minute but for his sake, you continued smiling.

"Of course I did, because I was so happy for you, idiot!" Playfully you smacked him on the shoulder and laughed which immediately infected him too.

"God, I'm so glad to have you."

And for some reason, his words didn't seem to affect you as much as they used to, you no longer felt like your heart could explode at any minute. Maybe these tears you had cried before were the first step of letting him go. Maybe these tears were necessary to get you through the process. Maybe when you saw him with her the next time, you will already have your happiness back.

Tell me who you imagined this with!

[artsy-hobbitses]

Because my nostalgic ass had been wanting to do this for a SUPER long time, have some Humanized!Mighty Ducks! It’s funny to see how far I’ve kinda come, because I had a strong love for this and most other anthro shows back in the 90s bc they looks excellent but also because I couldn’t draw humans worth a god damn and ended up anthro-ing all the humans, but now I can human the anthros :’B Also because I have no self-control, actual human names and backgrounds below. I might actually have to write this AU at some point. 

WILLIAM ‘WILL’ FLETCHER ie. ‘WILDWING’

30yrs

Canadian (Eh)

Half-brother to Nate Fletcher (Same father, different mothers). Despite this, they have a generally good relationship with each other.

It doesn’t mean they don’t have their issues however; Will believes his father chose Nate as the man stayed with Nate and Nate’s mother, while Nate believes Will is the favorite because they never hear their dad stop comparing their accomplishments as a troubled teen to straightlaced Will.

A decorated ice hockey player in his youth, won several state championships.

Formerly a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, did a security stint in Afghanistan from 2009-2014.

Returned to Canada, opened a youth hockey camp to leave behind his old life before the Saurian threat at which point he was called up by his absentee military father to help spearhead a team of saboteurs.

Initially reluctant, however the death of his best friend and former army comrade, Connor Tiberius, during a rescue of captured citizens spurns him to accept on his terms in which he picks the team members.

Responsible, dependable, good-natured, more bookish than his size and stature might suggest, some self-esteem issues and very much a wary but bleeding heart. In his baby brother’s affectionate words, a “Major Dweeb”.

Trilingual; Canadian-French, English (fluent), Pashto (intermediate).

His codename ‘Wildwing’ came from Connor, who affectionately gave it to him as he was the best ‘wingman’ a soldier could ask for on the field and his habit of going from bookish to ballistic when faced with any injustice. His civilian outfit includes a bomber jacket with wings decorated over the back to commemorate his best friend.

Literally the only member of the team to actually be associated with ice hockey. The others picked it up gradually as a way to bond with each other and discuss battle tactics.

NATHAN ‘NATE’ FLETCHER ie. ‘NOSEDIVE’

20yrs

American

Half-brother to Will Fletcher, unofficially the ‘team baby’ which is something he tries hard to break out of.

Seen as a delinquent in his youth and battling with ADHD, his father strongarmed him to enlist with the Air Force when he was 17 to try and ‘shape him up’ and while he absolutely bucked under the chains of command, he proved to be a natural at flying which both amazed and frustrated his officers when he would ace their flying exams but often break out to fly the planes when he wasn’t suppose to.

Due to perceived attitude problems, he was dismissed much to the anger of his father, but was quickly roped into the same role by Will who saw his potential in combating Dragaunus’ forces.

Hotheaded, impulsive and immature but also loyal, gregarious and friendly to a fault.

Will not stand for anyone badmouthing Will. That’s his brother and only he’s allowed to joke about them.

Codename ‘Nosedive’ was chosen because of the stunts he used to pull in the plane and also as a take-that moment to his father who would often complain about how everything good they tried to do for ‘this kid’ would ‘nosedive into shit’.

Oscillates between loving Will as the only family member to have really given a damn about him and see any potential in him at all and resenting Will for in his eyes, being everything he felt he couldn’t be.

Often in charge of flying the team jet.

Bilingual; English (fluent), Canadian-French (beginner. For Will, he’s trying).

MALLORY MACKENZIE

27yrs

Irish-American

A former cop who idolized her Sergeant mother who was killed helping to defend NYC from Dragaunus’ marauding forces.

She knows Will as a good friend through Connor Tiberius who was an old boyfriend prior to his death.

Has been tracking Duke’s movements for some time prior to the invasion, dead-set on bringing the jewel thief to justice. Not particularly enthused about his way of life, but does care for him in her own way as it was during their little chases that she would have conversations she couldn’t have had otherwise with someone she believed would have no role to play in her life outside of prison time.

When he consoled her after the death of her mother and she had to tend to him after he was gravely injured during a rescue, a strained friendship grew as they defended NYC together for a while with her banding together the remaining cops of the Central Park precinct and him putting together a coalition of small-time criminals who turned their tricks to beat off the alien invasion until Will called her up as a member of his new saboteur team.

In a spur of the moment, she asked Duke to come with her, vouching for his set of skills to Will and despite their back-and-forth snarking (mostly snarking from her, mostly teasing from him), they work with each other the best out of the team.

Her hatred for Draganus is strongest out of all the team and of all of them, she’s the most adept at hand-to-hand combat.

Has no use for code names—-the people she loves are dead or on the same team as her so she sees no point to it.

Pugnacious, Black-And-white view of the world and judgmental but also confident, decisive and fiercely determined. If she has her mind set something, she’s Terminator levels of terrifying to see it through.

Speaks only English but understands Arabic and French to an intermediate degree even if she can’t trust her tongue to speak it, if only to understand what Duke is saying at times (as he unwittingly tends to jump between his three ‘fluent’ languages in conversation).

DULQUER LATEEF ie. ‘DUKE L’ORANGE’

35yrs

French-Algerian

A renown jewel thief (simply known as the ‘Duke’) with a knack for stealing blood diamonds from diamond barons to channel their proceeds back to the communities they were pilfered from. Actually thinks the diamond industry is a huge joke, but it’s a joke some morons pay insanely dangerous amounts of money for. Prefers other jewels on a personal basis (fond of rubies and amethysts)

Ran his own gang back in France called the Brotherhood of the Blade, got caught up in the invasion when he decided to work his heists in New York.

His codename came from the inability of people to properly pronounce his name in his youth and so ‘Dulq’ became ‘Duke’ in due time. ‘L’Orange’ was what happened when having to come up with a surname on the spot during a heist in the States, he blurted out the first vaguely-French word he could remember which was ‘L’Orange’ ie. ‘duck a l’orange’ which was what a former target of his ordered and when his gang brethren found out, it amused them so much they talked him into keeping it as a full part of his nom de plume. He keeps it, because it helps his remaining family stay safe that no one knows his real name and he prefers it that way.

He and Mallory had something he likes to describe as a ‘dance’, with her continuously tracking him down and him escaping her clutches at the last moment. He’s absolutely tickled that they’re now on the same team.

Cares for the team the deepest due to having run his own back home and missing the brotherhood and his own family, always aware of everyone’s emotional and physical condition to the point he disregards his own at times.

Seriously, hurt his new family and you die.

The most streetwise of the team and adept with any form of blade-play and stealth/subterfuge.

Lost his eye and gained the scar on his face fending off ‘Wraith’ for as long as he could from a geologist with knowledge of Beryllium crystals.

The cybernetic eye he hides behind his eyepatch was given to him by Mallory who came across it while evacuating scientists (Including Tanya) from a lab under siege. She obtained it as willing ‘payment’ from them and had them help install it on Duke, claiming that he was only as much use to the rebellion as the clarity of his depth of field. (In truth, was well aware of how shaken he was from the loss of his eye). Cybernetic eye has x-ray and heat-seeking capabilities.

Fond of Mallory (who he may or may not be harboring feelings for but is also aware that he’s greying, a criminal and damaged, like who’s he kidding), Tanya (something of a younger sister to him especially since she’s the scientist who helped install his new eye) and Will (who he treats like a little brother he gotta teach the workings of the streets to).

Egoistical, questionable morals and unconcerned with ‘the big picture’ of global invasion but also surprisingly compassionate, open-minded and does his best to see the good in everyone (He’s a thief eh?)

Something of an omniglot due to his background and the different people he ends up having to work with; Fluent in French, English and Arabic, intermediate in Mandarin, Spanish and Italian, beginner in Japanese and Russian.

TANYA VANDERBILT

30yrs

German

A scientist working mostly with cyberkinetics who also made use of Beryllium crystals (the same the Saurians are coveting) in her technology and upon the invasion, her entire lab and research became a target.

She was rescued by Mallory and has since then tagged along with the fiery redhead who sees her as a sister, augmenting her gear and weapons where needed and even providing Duke with his energy sword.

Absolutely not a combatant, has no field experience and is most often found back at the base playing her role as Command central or guarding the ship while the group go on their recon missions.

Sees herself as deadweight sometimes though her comrades will always attest that they’d probably be dead out there if not for her tech and in-depth knowledge.

Meek, easily terrified and a bit of a pushover, but also innovative, multi-talented in diverse sections of science and always eager to help.

Speaks English and German, understands intermediate Japanese due to most of her lab co-workers.

CASSIUS ‘CASH’ HARDING ie. ‘GRIN’

40yrs

African-American

Originally a pro-wrestler working the circuits, he was caught up in the Saurian invasion and captured as a test subject in order for the invaders to figure out the biological weaknesses and breaking point of humans at their prime.

Was the subject of multiple experiments, but strove to keep up the spirits of his fellow prisoners by way of story, meditation and keeping a genial facade.

Was among the prisoners Conrad attempted to free before they died, led the prisoner rebellion and immediately joined up as a member of Will’s team upon finding out that he was Conrad’s best friend—-paying off his dues, as it were.

Unfortunately for the Saurians, their experiments had been in the midst of testing out how much augmented strength a human body could take before breaking, which left him with well, augmented strength to go with an extremely high pain threshold from both his old job and his ordeal. That said, the strength comes with a caveat that prolonged use of it could lead to organ failure due to the strain he has to put on them and thus he’s only able to work with it for short bursts of five to ten minutes depending on the task.

Despite his size, is generally the pacifist of the group more concerned with keeping people safe than facing down Dragaunus’ hordes—he leaves that to the actual soldiers. If you pissed him off in some way, you have fucked up super bad.

Bonds with Will and Nate quickly, rather like a stable older brother or uncle figure who realizes these two worlds-apart siblings have issues and are way over their head with these new responsibilities and tries his best to keep them grounded.

Hesitant, tendency to shy away from confrontation and almost on an emotional lockdown but also amicable, stoic and uncannily perceptive.

Speaks mostly English with a strong smattering/understanding of Jamaican Creole.

The codename ‘Grin’ came from his tendency to ‘grin and bear it’ when it came to punishment or altercations.

[ferie-anon]

hiya! well i guess i can say that i’m the anon with a taurus mars, capricorn moon, virgo rising, aries mercury, gemini venus and libra mars ☺️ nice to meet you! i was wondering if i can request a ship with ATEEZ since you reopened your ship requests, i really love the detail you put into your analysis and posts (appreciation for that virgo rising 🥺)

Hii, I figured it was you after having a feeling after seeing you reblog one of the asks :3 since I already discussed your placements I’ll dive right in!

In ateez... your match is San!

Looking at San, who is such a kind hearted and affectionate person, I think it’s a good match for you~ you have a lot of earth signs so you are always composed of your emotions, while San an emotionally open person can help you melt down your walls or accept yourself more which can cause you to understand your own emotions at times. San being a sun in cancer shows how he can tell if you’re down or can be empathetic with you when you just say you’re not fine :) And San himself is pretty chill and sentimental despite his hyper energy and extra self :3, cancerians natives just be like that. In a scenario, San honestly thought you were pretty and you just seemed so self composed with confidence oozing out of you.After approaching you, you two were getting to know each other as San realized a soft vulnerable side hidden in your strong heart. It made you more human, and it made him fall more <3

San’s moon is in taurus, so this is where he is more inclined to comfort and relax, often having a less rushed mentality but constant focus on his goal, San is willing to work and improve himself little by little at his pace for his passions. His moon taurus is conjunct to your sun taurus, hence where you find his presence and company soothing. Understanding each other easily in this aspect, San is also supportive and encouraging to wut your ideas, and when you doubt yourself he’s there to reassure~Also your cap moon is trine to his taurus moon, so you both have similar values and both work hard. You both are responsible so discussing things together won’t be an issue. In a sense, there is more mutual understanding and a natural attraction with this placement as well :3

San’s mercury is in leo, and your mercury aries is trine to his mercury~ Both are fire signs, so you have similar projection of your thoughts, these signs speak in quite a fiery way, with leo merc being positive and like a spokesperson kinda. Your aries mercury is confident and honest, not one to mislead or confuse others with your statements. This makes you appreciate each other in this similarity and attracted to each others’ speech. You find San’s expressive and outgoing communication fun and engaging, and likewise to San who appreciates your open perspective and not shying away from the truth. A sense of trust is formed in knowing each others communication and self~

Sannie’s venus is in leo, and it so happens your gemini venus is sextile to leo! You have many positive aspects such as trine and sextile, and this is no different :) San expresses his love in giving and loves to show his love publicly cuz leo venuses be showing off their partner cuz they’re proud of them. Like they would go “see that beautiful person? Thats my s/o” probably to a stranger and San would want you to appreciate him just as much as he appreciates you~ Gemini venus is charming in bringing fun to their partner’s life, although sometimes your gemini venus may cause you to change your mind alot. Nevertheless, your earth placements ground you a bit so its not too out of control, and San will find it adorable and endearing your two sides ;)

Lastly, his mars is in scorpio mars and it shows San has a dedicated and intense side of him. Romantic wise he is a bit posessive if not already clingy with his cancer sun, but he will have his eyes on you and only you~ He has a scary side and if anyone badmouths you or talk behind your back, certainly he will go >:( “thats not true huh?” And your libra mars show you are passive not wanting to stir up any conflicts, and I think San will find that endearing of your calm soft side~ Also idk San’s rising, but cancer sun in general are attracted to virgo rising cuz in the zodiac chart, cancer are sextile to virgo so there is a natural attraction at glance. Plus it means your appeal lies in your underrated charms, like you are charming but not shoving it in others face, like others have to notice or get to know u to realize and appreciate your innate charms. So that goes for San too~

Overall, dangg the soothing mature vibe but verbal chemistry is somethinggg~ yall are the couple with alot of appeal physically and personality-wise together like words cannot describe the energy I’m imagining you two exude :3 ->🌿🍵❤️☕️✨🍃🌹💫

[dragynkeep]

Sun & Blake vs Mercury & Emerald

I’m always here for some pairing match ups.

This would be a close match, especially since we’ve seen much of Blake/Sun and Emerald/Mercury working together in the show. I still stand by my opinion that Blake and Sun versus Roman and Mercury and Emerald versus Coco and Yatsuhashi being some of the best fights in the show. Especially on Mercury’s end since Emerald is established to be a support fighter.

The first thing that’s important when pairs are fighting is compatibility, and we’ve seen multiple times that both of these pairings have good chemistry and fighting styles that meld together. The fight with Roman shows that Blake can compliment Sun’s CQC with his gunchucks with her shadow clones blitz, and these moves together can disorientate an opponent with fast paced attacks that come from multiple directions. 

While Mercury is one of the best fighters amongst the students, and that his deadliness is only augmented with Emerald’s longer distance attacks and her Hallucination Semblance confusing her opponents with things that aren’t actually there. Whether that’s duplicating Mercury so that their target doesn’t know the real one, or by mimicking their allies to get them to lower their guard and strike them when the time’s right, like with Coco. 

Not only are the two pairs both shown great compatibility with each other, they both have similar fighting styles and weapons. Mercury and Sun focus on close combat with their dual weapons, with their fights often having spins, flips and quick strikes that someone would have difficulty in keeping up with, favoring to quickly overwhelm their opponent. However, while Sun fights primarily with his hands and staff, Mercury favors a style similar to Capoeira and Muay Thai. Sun has the advantage over other hand based fighters with his staff, since it gives him extra arm length, and he doesn’t seem that poor in his legwork in his fights, but it doesn’t hold up to Mercury’s, especially since Mercury has free hands to grapple and move his body around so that his feet, and by extension his boots, are free to strike. 

On the other hand, Blake and Emerald possess similar weapons and fighting preferences. Blake wields a katana and a sharpened sheath that she can dual wield at the same time, with Gambol Shroud being connected to a ribbon that she can use for more long distance attacks. Emerald has dual scythes on chains that can be used for the same effect, with both having pistol modes to shoot, even though Blake has only one while Emerald can wield two. Both prefer evasive fighting, and can both traverse through environments with the use of their weapons, being quick agile and quick on their feet.

But Blake focuses mainly on evasive fighting with the use of her clones, which she can use to take hits and come out unscathed. With her fight with Roman, she can quickly create clones and blitz her enemy, or use them to give herself an extra boost while evading. Compare that to Emerald preferring hit and run techniques, using her Semblance to trick her opponent into directing their attention somewhere else while she vanishes or moves into a different position to get them while they’re distracted. While Blake has the advantage with her clones and speed attacks if she got close enough, Emerald can use misdirection to confuse Blake and go for the blow.

Now considering this, Blake and Sun are a great duo for overwhelming an enemy physically with quick paced attacks and disorientation through not only Blake’s clones, but Sun’s gunchucks going off right in their face. However, Mercury and Emerald have shown a devastatingly effect team combination of Mercury fighting in the front lines, having the quick reflexes to deal with Blake’s blitzing and Sun’s gunchucks, while Emerald puts distance between her and the fight to not only trip them up with her Hallucinations, but is smart enough to separate Blake from Sun like she did with Coco and Yatsuhashi.

Blake is smart enough in a fight to know not to split up from Sun, she’s shown this when Adam tried to do it in Volume 5 and when she made it look like she went to find Ilia alone in Menagerie, only to spring Sun on them when Ilia is gone. However, Sun’s very headstrong and has a tendency to rush into things. He did it with Roman and didn’t keep an eye on his surroundings good enough, letting Roman drop a crate on top of him and Blake and separate them, he ran for Ilia when she badmouthed the Belladonna family, allowing her to comically slip away, he rushed at Ilia again at mansion because he saw her hurt Blake, and he was all for him and Blake to take on Adam alone at Haven before Blake had to explain to him that it was what Adam wanted. 

Meanwhile, Mercury and Emerald know that they work best together, and have more importantly shown divide and conquer techniques that most of the heroes haven’t. If Blake is separated from Sun by Emerald, she’s in the same trouble as Coco is with Emerald’s Semblance, and especially if she can’t locate Emerald to fight back. 

Now Mercury and Sun would be very close, especially since I put them as some of the best fighters among the students, along with Pyrrha. And the biggest plus to Mercury’s fighting ability is that, unlike Sun and Pyrrha, he had gotten this far without a Semblance. Now having a Semblance doesn’t automatically mean that someone is stronger, especially since I had Ironwood beat Yang even though she has a Semblance and we don’t know Ironwood’s, but it mustn’t be that good in a fight since he hasn’t used it yet. But like Yang, Sun’s Semblance has concrete drawbacks.

Not only is he unable to move when using them, but using it for long tires him out enough that his Aura breaks, on top of the clones not being that hardy. Keeping himself frozen in place would just make him an open target for Mercury, and his clones could be taken out with potentially Sun himself if Mercury used those AoE attacks that we’ve seen him do, like the wind dust cyclone in his fight with Yang. With these big problems, Sun’s Semblance not only doesn’t put him at an advantage over Mercury, but actually puts him at a disadvantage because of Mercury’s speed, multiple attack moves, and aggression.

With all that said, while they would definitely fare better than Coco and Yatsuhashi, I say that Emerald and Mercury would win over Blake and Sun based on how well their fighting tactics meld together, their mentality in dividing their opponents and going for the ones that they are best suited to, the drawbacks of Sun’s Semblance meaning that he wouldn’t be able to use it, and Emerald’s striking from cover with her Semblance giving Blake difficulty since she has no solid defenses against that type of fighting. 

You could say that they’re the one to win :))) 

[atopearth]

Fate/hollow ataraxia Part 2 - Food is Bliss (Phase 2)

What?! So, Bazett dying is something normal? She dies, he takes her home and she starts breathing again eventually?? Or does it just restart back in this house after they both die? Wow, they can practically never die since they’ll always revive back at the house, unfairrr! Anyway, Avenger huh? I guess he’s Angra Mainyu? Since he sounds like just a culmination of all the hatred and violence, whilst also being someone that’s weak enough that he can’t physically fight and win against other Servants? I guess it’s good that Bazett is his Master then since she’s so great at hand to hand combat~ Did Bazett actually summon two Servants? And the other one was Lancer and that’s why he’s able to stay in this world even though Kotomine is gone? Actually maybe she just made a contract with Lancer? I’m not sure how I feel about Bazett as a character, in a way she’s interesting in that she fights to protect the “correct” way of life, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like she really cares since she seems to just feel like she needs to do this rather than this is what she wants to do? On the other hand, Avenger definitely has more thoughts and feelings towards things than he lets out with his superficial personality that he shows to kinda hide what’s inside.

Anyway, is that ghost house Shirou went to the place where Bazett and Avenger revive? Omgg hahaha, I love how when Sakura and Shirou had to cook dinner for heaps of people on the weekend, they started early on the brainstorming as to what they should cook, and when they were doing it, Shirou would refer to her as Chef Matou and Sakura would call him Chief Emiya hahahaa, they’re so cute! I think it’s one of the few times you actually get to see Sakura get full on cooking guidance from Shirou rather than the usual where they kinda just help each other out cooking their own thing. I wish we got to see the reactions of everyone eating the persimmon dinner! It would have been fun! I wanted to see the fruits of their efforts~ Oh well. It’s kinda saddening to think but it’s true that above all else, Rider is a monster that can and will eat humans if it comes to it, I mean, in the Fate route etc, it was apparent that she was unnerved over killing and devouring humans after all. As she said, she’s never been a noble spirit like Saber. LOL at Shirou wondering how it could be possible that young Gilgamesh is a nice little boy hahahah. I love their after dinner antics, lmao at Taiga losing her after dinner snacks to Saber through blackjack, she really gambles everything away haha. It was cute how Shirou scolded them🤣

Lmaoo, trust Illya to tease Saber for having a stuffed lion toy and then forcing Shirou to go buy her one too lol. HAHAHA, I love how Shirou teased Mitsuzuri’s little brother (Minori) about liking Sakura and tried to dig why he likes her🤣 Gotta love how much of a spoiled brat Taiga is to knee drop Shirou to play with her when he’s trying to sleep lmao. Honestly though, with the relationship Shirou and Taiga have, I can’t deny that I kinda wanted a Taiga route in FSN haha. Omg, I nearly died laughing at Shinji sulking at the harbour port for appearing only 3 times in the game when Sakura’s appeared so many times hahahahah. It feels like Shirou is the most smitten with Saber after all~ It was so cute when she discussed with him why bras and underwear had to have so many designs lmao. LOL, so it was Rin the troublemaker that told Saber to consult Shirou about it just because she thought it would be funny hahahahha. It was pretty hilarious when she insisted on Shirou accompanying her to the lingerie shop and Shirou ran away, but the icing on the cake was when Sakura and Rider overheard their conversation and Sakura wished her good luck on this quest lmaoo. Btw, I love how Shirou experiments making different snacks and he gets Saber the glutton to try them hahaha, so cute. Omgg Saber’s face enjoying Shirou’s baked sweet potatoes was so precious, she looked so happy🥺🥰 Lmao at Lancer picking up Makidera and them, and even saying his speciality is the javelin throw, I guess he’s not exactly wrong or lying hahahaha. Lancer being a part time florist is definitely a win win situation for him, he gets to pick up girls and earn some money haha!

I quite enjoyed Mitsuzuri’s meeting with Lancer, they got along pretty well due to their interest in martial arts etc, Mitsuzuri was so cuteee! I love how Shirou ended up bringing the party of Saber, Sakura and Rider to help clean Rin’s house hahaha, it’s true that with all her antiques and carpets etc it can be rather difficult by himself, not to mention how large the place is too! HAHAHA when Saber changed into her armour to clean Rin’s house. Lmaooo at Saber thinking all the gym equipment in the basement was what Rin tried to use as a catalyst to summon her but failed, it was so adorable when she started playing around with them all instead of cleaning hahahah, didn’t think Saber would be a bludger!🤣 It was really sweet to see Sakura’s reactions to things around the house, it was so adorable how she talked about Rin giving her the precious handmade ribbon (that’s on her hair) as a parting gift and saying Sakura has to repay it with a compounding interest rate lmao. It’s cute how she wanted Sakura to always feel connected to her through this “debt ”. Awww how cute of Saber to play with the lion plushie and even sleep with it at night!! She’s so cute!! Shirou totally deserved Saber’s wrath for teasing her about it so ruthlessly hahahah. Sakura is so mischievous! She literally just wrote down everything Shirou said in the letter to Rin hahaha, I love Sakura in this, she’s so cute but cunning at the same time hahaha. Omggg how embarrassing for Sakura that Shirou caught her hugging his jacket so lovingly hahahah! So cute though when she got all flustered. It was really thoughtful of her to notice that his button fell off and sewed it back for him.

Aww Rider going to school just to give Sakura and Shirou their lunches (that Sakura forgot) was cute, I also really enjoyed how Shirou ended up buying her food for them to enjoy together on the rooftop, it was really sweet of him. I don’t know, but Saber welcoming Shirou home and thanking him for his hard work at his job was so heartwarming, it really made me think she was such a great girl. I can’t believe this but my love for Rin is going to be at the same level as Saber if this goes on hahaha, Rin come back soon pls. I found it hilarious that Rider is so dissatisfied with bike number two that is mainly used for casual shopping, and really wants to use bike number one which is a racing bike, but Shirou is scared that she’ll be zooming around the neighbourhood like a rocket and refuses, which is very logical!! Lmao, just imagining Rider at her superhuman speed riding on that bike is killing me hahaha. Omg hahahah, that silly drawing of him imagining Rider being chased by the police on the bike and her escaping happily was so funny and cute LOL. Hahahaha, I loved how Rider tried to use her seductive skills to make Shirou bend to her will so she can use the bike, but then Sakura appears overhearing them, so she immediately runs away and leaves Shirou to deal with the misunderstanding hahahah. Honestly though, seeing Saber and Sakura co-operate happily making pie and enjoying the fruits of their efforts was so cute. They used to be rather awkward even though they got along relatively okay, so it’s pretty nice and refreshing to see that if they had the time to bond more, they could actually be so friendly.

I think I’m starting to see how and why some people might like Fate/hollow ataraxia more than the original game, because wow, seeing Sakura grow so much and become the captain of the archery club was so cool. I absolutely loved how resolute and strong she was, and I loved how she scolded Taiga for being a nuisance hahaha. It was so funny yet so cool to see that. And it’s not something sudden too, because Mitsuzuri stayed, supported and guided her into establishing more self confidence in herself into being a worthy captain so I’m glad it all worked out. Although it’s obvious Sakura would be a great captain seeing how she carries herself at the Emiya household haha. I also absolutely loved how she fed Shirou the obanyaki when they went shopping after, and it was honestly so beautiful and heartwarming to see how truly happy Sakura was. Not only is she now able to have a proper life where she’s spending time with people in the club and making friends with others whilst actually playing around doing other activities, she is also able to truly live for herself and not live in fear of anything in the Matou household. It’s so wonderful to see how nothing is holding her back anymore, and honestly this is the best ending for Sakura, or I guess, it’s more like a new beginning for her! I’m so glad they showed all this. Sakura used to think she didn’t have the right to play around and stuff, so seeing her enjoy all that made me feel really satisfied haha.

Confused Caster walking around the shopping district wondering what she should buy to make for dinner was cute haha. HAHAHA, I love how Caster and Sakura became friends because Lancer was trying to pick up Sakura and Caster hates his flippy attitude so she taught him a lesson lol. It was even more hilarious when Sakura subtly kept badmouthing Rin for using Shirou like a servant and Shirou not minding it hahaha, I think it was pretty funny how Shirou didn’t even realise or he ignored the fact that Sakura was talking about him and Rin haha. Omgg snake wine with a snake in it?! Reminds me of the crazy Chinese concoctions hahaha. Anyway, I really loved how persistent but considerate Shirou was into finding out what Rider likes to eat and what she doesn’t eat. I think it was really cool that rather than giving up after she said she doesn’t particularly mind whatever he and Sakura cooks, he instead asked her to come to the kitchen and get her to choose what she would prefer to eat from the ingredients they have. I really love how thoughtful Shirou is in changing his approach several times in order to get Rider to enjoy her food rather than just feel apathetic about it all. Lmao at Saber getting jealous that she doesn’t get to choose even though Shirou asks her what she wants to eat all the time hahaha. LMAO at Saber’s reaction to octopus and not realising she’s been gobbling it up all this time when she ate takoyaki hahahah. I love how through their “fight” about the weird things they eat, Shirou gets to understand a bit more about what Rider actually prefers to eat. Rin is hilarious for making Saber wear the fancy clothes Caster sent to them hahahah, it was so cute how traumatised Saber was hahaha. Shirou imagining Issei in a frilly dress was LOL, that cursed image hahaha. Hahahaha, I love how Saber didn’t give up on eating high class food when Shirou told her they were poor, and instead said that they should raise/make the ingredients themselves so that they could cook it in the future. It was so cute when she started talking about raising ducks and pigs hahhaha. Issei being fond of sweets is cute haha.

I don’t know why but I never thought about Kiritsugu’s grave at all lol! I never thought it would be in the forest at the Ryuudou Temple graveyard though! I wonder if Illya and Saber would ever go visit…but then again, Shirou doesn’t even go so I think it’ll be harder for them. Wow, I didn’t think I needed it, but hearing Kuzuki call Caster his wife and leave her in Shirou’s hands (to learn cooking lmao) was so..amusing LOL. On the other hand, Reikan (Issei’s brother) is a pretty cool guy! He’s chill, full of confidence but also a strict serious guy, I can see why Issei would admire him. He gets along nicely with Taiga since they were classmates so it’s pretty cute. I…feel so sorry for Shirou that he was caught between Otoko/Neko (his part time job boss) and Taiga, they’re monsters… Hmmm, the actual story part is quite short as usual. It was expected that the white hair girl was the one who restarted the holy grail war, but why does she become possessed and have claws come out of her? Poor Shirou dieddd! Is she hiding a monster inside that comes out when it meets Shirou at the wrong time? Hahaha. Anyway, I’m curious about her so I hope we’ll get more story stuff in phase 3.

[plush-rabbit]

SFW Alphabet - Kaminari

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Denki is a very touchy friend. He constantly has an arm wrapped you, nudging you constantly, leaning against you and anything else you can think of. If he’s unable touch you- mainly because of distance- then he’s calling you nicknames.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

As an extrovert, friendship started with him coming up to you and flirting, giving you sly grins, winks and anything else that he has up his sleeve. As a best friend, he’s constantly flirting but it’s a bit more toned down or flirts more but it’s much more teasing like- marriage proposals when you’re both forty and single, putting his face close to yours until you shove him away- it all depends on the mood he’s in.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

He loves to cuddle. If you ask him for a cuddle, he is already dragging you to the nearest soft surface and pulling you close to him. He loves being the little spoon and nuzzling into your neck. Alternatively, as long as you’re able to play with his hair, he’s happy.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

He eventually wants to settle down. He would like a partner but he doesn’t see himself having an actual committed one until he’s older. He’s fairly okay at both cooking and cleaning. It’s enough where he can make simple dishes and where his room is cluttered but it does have a few empty bottles and pants where they’re not supposed to be.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Face to face. He’ll go to your place and just explain that you two aren’t a good fit for whatever reasons. He tries to be sensitive with your feelings but no breakups ever end on a good note. If he’s left clothes or any of his possessions at your place, they’re already gone. He doesn’t want to have to come back and face you once the breakup has happened.

F = Fiancé(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

He’s not interested in commitment when he’s young. He enjoys his youth, the freedom and fun that comes with it. He only decides to settle down when he’s older, wanting the domestic life that comes with it. Once the relationship does start, he will know fairly early that you’re the one but it’s still a wait until he’s on his knee.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

He’s good at reading your emotions and knowing if you need space or comfort. He enjoys being near you and kissing your wrists and just sitting in silence with you if that’s what you need. He doesn’t need to be popular with you, he doesn’t have to put up a front because you’re there.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

He loves hugs. He’s wrapping his arms around you and pulling you tight into his chest with a huge smile on his face. It’s a type of hug where you’re left breathless and giggling at how much he’s into it. You can expect a hug from him at least once a day but will gladly hug you if you ask for it or even hint that you want one.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Despite not being too interested in commitment he says the l-word fairly often. He means it, he does love you but with how often he’s said it, you don’t really believe that it’s the actual meaning. It’s until he’s serious and holding your hands in his and the words leave his mouth that they actually mean something.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Denki is a fairly positive person, always happy and making friends with other but when you’re being hit on, he gets possessive. His arm is around you and he’s planting a kiss on your cheek and talking to you like the other person doesn’t even exist. If you scold him and continue to talk to the person, he’s bound to sulk in a corner until you hold his hand.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

All types of kisses. Quick, little ones. Deep, passionate ones. Ones where it’s a mix and he’s holding onto your face or hands that dip to your hips. He loves to kiss you on your lips, he loves how personal and intimate it all is and how he can feel your smile against his lips. If you kiss him on his jaw, he’s putty in your hands.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Children love him. He’s just so energetic and friendly that kids feel safe around him. He loves being around little kids, they’re so easy to impress and they usually love his quirk because it reminds them of a certain mascot.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

A morning with him is usually where you both lay in bed awake for a few minutes and just sort of wait until you can both move without feeling as if you’re going to fall over. Usually you both are still curled into each other or even just holding hands.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights are spent with him giggling in bed to a joke or memory of the day, with him nuzzled into your chest of you into his neck. It’s late nights where you to watch a Vine compilation and quote them, convulsing into a fit of giggles where once it’s quiet, laughter fills the room all over again until your stomach hurts.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

He’s not secretive about his life in the slightest except it’s more like he won’t say anything unless asked or mentions it nonchalantly. He’ll be cleaning and then mention some memory as if he were asking you what you wanted for lunch. Usually if you do ask him to reveal some personal stuff, he’ll just ask what you really want to hear and he’ll tell you. He trusts you enough to allow his form of secrecy to go down.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

He usually isn’t angered quite easily until he’s pushed. He has a surprising amount of patience where he can tolerate most things. It’s until he’s jealous that he’s actually a bit more annoyed. However, once he’s angered, he becomes very agitated and sometimes will shoot out little sparks. He’s a lot more bratty during these situations, complaining, making pouty faces and the works.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Denki tries to remember more of the everyday stuff. Like your medication, favorite food, specific things that come up more often than like little ticks of yours. He knows if you dislike the taste of something but he won’t be able to remember why.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

One of his favorite moments in the relationship is when he came home from patrol, ragged and weary, and you’re still awake, waiting up for him, you whisper, opening your arms for him to rest. He’s stressed and hands are limp and you’re playing with his hair, singing him a song and with closed eyes, you whisper that you love him and little sparks jostle you awake and he’s asleep with a smile on his face.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

He’s fairly protective of you. Always wants to be your knight in shining armor and proudly wrapping an arm around you and pulling you away from a situation that you’re in. If you’re being physically threatened, he’s pushing you behind him and puffing out his chest. If you were to protect him, he likes it when you snap at the offender, insults spewing and fists balled up. He likes to be held afterwards.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

It’s the cliché things, chocolates, flowers, balloons, and what not where you scoff and roll your eyes. You have a collection of different themed plush animals hiding somewhere in a closet.  Usually for bigger dates like anniversaries and birthdays, things are a bit more lowkey, dinners and handwritten poems that aren’t usually good but it’s sweet and the thought that counts. You keep the collection safe in a binder decorated in pictures of both of you.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Old habits die hard. He can’t help flirting with others, a coy smile on his face, eyes that shine and an attitude that won’t quit. He’s still very committed to you and he doesn’t even realize that he’s flirting until you give him a look.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

He takes care of himself. He has a whole night routine that that he follows regularly. He always makes sure that he looks groomed and well taken care of.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Yes. Once he loves you, an actual love where he just sees you and mind goes blank and he can’t stop the smile that’s growing, he would feel incomplete if you were gone. He likes to joke you’re the better half but ever joke holds some truth to it. Losing you would leave him feeling empty and a constant what-if.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

If you start singing, he’s bound to join in. If he doesn’t know the lyrics, he’s mumbling and belting out the words he can make out. He’s holding your hands and pulling you into a dance. If you’re driving, he’s bouncing in your seat and looking at you and doing all sort of motions.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

He doesn’t like people who badmouth others. He finds it distasteful and will become a bit more aggressive and dismissive. He doesn’t mind the occasional rant because that’s what it is, a rant to just vent off your feelings but when you make a snide comment about someone’s appearance, he isn’t taking that lightly.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

He sleep talks. Often times the sentences are barley coherent, just little whispers about the toaster. There have been times where he’ll say sentences out loud and they’re a bit alarming; always “Who’s that?” or “Check the closet.” Sometimes you wonder if he’s just messing with you and he promises he’s not but he has been known to be cheeky. You’ll either get a good night sleep or a night full of paranoia.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

The Mistakes We Made - Chapter Three

Summary:When her high school girlfriend comes back to town after two years with a baby and a terrible story she won’t tell, the Librarian has to deal with the feelings she had worked so hard to keep at bay.

notes: Uhhh so the notes I wrote are kinda importanta, but they’re too long, so if you really want to read them you can read it at ao3 lol. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Read it on ao3: (chpt1) (chpt2) (chpt3)

The bell rang loudly, interrupting Mrs. Kavindi’s speech about neoclassicist poetry. The woman tried to keep her students’ attention, but it was no use, as the teens were already putting their stuff away in their backpacks. Only a pair of grey eyes followed her hand as she wrote on the board, rapidly taking note of everything. Eventually, she sighed and let her hand drop to her side.

“Alright, everyone. You’re free to go.”

There were loud noises of chairs dragging on the floor and the chatter of the students as they hurriedly left the Literature classroom, eager to begin their weekend. The girl, however, took her time putting her pen in her pencil case, and her pencil case in her backpack. She checked her notes one more time, certifying herself that she had written in legible handwriting before she was out of the classroom and couldn’t ask the teacher any more questions.

She got up from the chair and put her backpack on her back, walking up to the teacher who had sat down on the table and was watching the students leave. Mrs. Kavindi raised her eyes when she realized the girl had gotten closer, and gave her a simile.

“Can we expect you this evening, Maven?”

The girl nodded. “I still have some topics to study for next month’s finals, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Kavindi’s smile widened as she watched her favorite student leave. The girl was a bit of an outcast, for sure, but by her experience, all the best people were.

_#_#_#_

Johanna bit back a groan when the boy came closer. His smug grin was infuriating, and it didn’t help matters when he leaned on his shoulder against the locker next to her.

“I don’t want to talk to you, Torrin.” She said as she put her math notebook back in its place. His blue hair fell over his face when he laughed.

“Why not?”

Johanna closed her locker’s door with more strength than necessary. “Because you’re a jerk.”

“Is this about about Dick? Is this why you’re angry?” He said the words in a mocking voice, making Johanna wonder what would be the penalty if she got caught burying a corpse. Maybe Maven would be up for it too and they wouldn’t get caught. It sounded like a good plan.

“What happened between me and your friend is our business. Not yours.” Johanna sighed. She was waiting for Torrin to answer when she sighted a spot of black coming towards her. Her mouth opened into a smile, her eyes moving from his strong face to beatiful, wise eyes, coming closer and closer, with a smile answering her own.

When Torrin realized he had lost Johanna’s attention, it was too late. Maven was already behind him, pulling his head back by grabbing a handful of his hair. He gasped at the feeling, though she hadn’t grasped quite hard enough to make him feel any pain.

“I believe you are unwanted here, Aven.” She stated coldly. She let his hair go, but not without taking a few strands with her. The boy turned to her, wide eyed with fright but feigning anger.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Remember what you called my mother last month, when you and your gang threw eggs at our house?” She ignored him as she tied one of the strands around the others, making a little bundle. “You called her a witch. And you weren’t wrong.”

She put the bundle on her jacket pocket and looked at him in the eyes. “So tell me, Aven. What kind of thing do you think a witch can do with a few pieces of your ridiculous blue hair?”

Torrin cursed under his breath and left, taking long strides and making sure to bump on Maven’s shoulder hard enough to hurt. But the raven haired girl didn’t care. All she could focus on was her friend trying and failing to contain her fit of giggles.

“Your mother wouldn’t actually curse him, right?” Johanna asked once she had gotten a hold of her laughter.

“Well, she could. But she won’t because he’s just a stupid teen. It would be a waste of spell ingredients.” Maven looked at ground. She wasn’t ashamed of her mother’s religion, nor was she that she too had chosen to follow Wicca, but Johanna’s parents were extremely Christian and she didn’t like to see the involuntary judgement in Johanna’s eyes whenever she talked about her faith.

“Are you ready to go?” Maven asked right after. Johanna had already put everything she would need for the weekend in her backpack and it seemed useless to just stand there looking at each other.

“Oh. Yes, I am. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

She sounded sad, Maven realized. That was unusual. Her Anna was always so full of happiness that whenever her mood changed it was easy to notice, at least for her.

They were silent as they finished crossing the school’s corridor and its front door. When they were finally outside, with the early autumn wind messing with their hair and the leaves on the trees by the sidewalk, she finally spoke.

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about this when you asked at lunch. I didn’t feel like badmouthing someone then. But after that, I’ve no problem whatsoever with doing it.”

Oh, this is going to be good ,she thought but instead said “Torrin Aven is never good knews. Truly, only he is able to get you this upset.”

“You aren’t going to believe this, Maven! So, I had scheduled to help Richard study, correct?”

“I still don’t know why you accepted that, but yes, correct.”

“It turns out he didn’t want a hand with geometry! He was trying to trick me into going on a date with him!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Who does that?!”

Maven snorted. “Stupid, obnoxious people, that’s who.”

Johanna sighed deeply, and looked both ways before both of them crossed the street to her block. “Honestly, I’ve never met one dateable boy. I wonder it I’m the problem, or if they are.”

She stopped in front of her house, turning to look at Maven before they bid goodbye. “You know, maybe I’m meant to be alone”, she said sadly. Maven’s eyes widened, and her mouth was slightly open with confusion.

“That’s not true!” The girl protested. “I mean, if you don’t want to be with anyone, that’s okay, but if you want a relationship, I doubt that you’ll stay much longer without one, Anna.”

“What makes you think so?”

“You’re a naturally loving person, for one. You’ve always been able to give your heart completely to the people you love.” She shrugged. “And you’re smart. And beautiful. And extremely kind. Anyone would be happy to have you. Now you just need to find someone who you think deserves you.”

Her long brown hair cascaded down her shoulder when she cocked her head. “You’re just saying this to make me feel better about being picky with boys.” She laughed nervously.

Maven sighed and blushed. Trying to flirt with a girl who grew up in a conservative household was a challenge indeed. But she had been doing it for five years and she wasn’t about to give up on her clueless Anna now. “I’m really not, though.”

She was rewarded with a hug and a peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Maven. You’re the best friend I could wish for.” She drew back and began heading for the door. “Same time same place?” Johanna asked as she looked for the keys in her backpack.

“Yup.”

With a smile, Johanna entered her house and closed the door again. A ghost of a smile passed through Maven’s lips. Though she had been wanting to be something more to Johanna ever since they were thirteen, being her best friend was already enough. It was more than an “antisocial creep”, as she was called in school, like her deserved. Johanna could be friends with anyone. With the jocks, the nerds, the popular people, the drama kids and the band kids. But she chose to stick with the graveyard keeper’s daughter, and she couldn’t be more grateful.

And yet, she was too selfish to stop wanting more.

_#_#_#_

“Oh, it seems someone else needs to go to her bedroom too.” Johanna said sweetly as she picked her baby up again. “Could you take the stroller to our room? I’ll try to calm her down a bit.”

“Oh, sure.” Maven quickly put her cup on the sink counter and went for the stroller, taking it through the narrow corridor beside the staircase that led to her mother’s old bedroom. She pushed on the door with her back, placing the stroller between the bed and the window.

She hoped Hilda didn’t mind having a cemetery for a view.

Johanna came in too not a moment later, singing her baby a lullaby that Maven was almost sure she recognized from somewhere, though she had no idea where. Her mother had never sung her lullabies, always going for stories to calm her down instead.

“Is she going to sleep in the stroller?”

Johanna sighed. “I don’t think I have another option. I left in a hurry, so I didn’t have time to disassemble her crib and bring it along.”

Maven bit her lip. What could have happened that made them practically run out of there? She swore that if in the end it turned out Aven had threatened them physically, there would be very few places that man would be able to hide in. She was already hated in town for being an outcast, so why not add murder to the list?

“Well, I think I have a smaller comforter stored somewhere. Do you want it?” She asked, wanting to help even if a little with their situation.

“No, I brought her blanket, but thank you.” Johanna gave her a really tired smile. “Do you have any children’s books, though? I didn’t bring hers, and she really likes the colours.”

Maven nodded. “I’ll be back in a second.”

_#_#_#_

It had been a fairly calm meeting, Maven mused as she put her sweater back on. The book club was rarely this way. Just in the last few months, she had already gotten into arguments about A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Iliad, but it seemed like everyone had similar opinions this time, or at least no one had wanted to defend Alice when the majority of the participants had accused her of being a spoiled little girl who didn’t respect Wonderland’s traditions, just judging them all as “madness”.

She had been so concentrated on checking that everything she had brought was still in her simple brown leather purse that she barely realized that she was being spoken to. She raised her head and saw that the librarian, Mr. Kavindi, was talking to her.

“I’m sorry, sir, what was that?” She asked politely and he chuckled.

“I asked what are your plans for after school, little one.” Mr. Kavindi was a sweet man, with graying red hair and round glasses. He was wearing a blue sweater that was way too big for him. All his sweaters were like that, and she supposed it was because his wife knitted all of them for him.

“Oh yes, dear. I wanted to talk to you about this.” Said wife, Mrs. Kavindi, walked up to them and put her hand on his shoulder. Her wild dark brown hair framed her face, and combined with her green coat it made her look like a forest spirit. “Go on, Maven. I think he may be able to help.”

Maven looked from her teacher to the librarian. She really didn’t know what he could possibly do for her. The only help she needed was financial, and it was highly unlikely that a librarian had a lot of money to spare.

“I would like to study English, and then major in Library Science.” She said simply.

His eyes lit up and his usually kind face showed even more happiness. “Oh, so you want to steal my job, young lady?”

Maven put the purse’s strap on her shoulder and got up from the armchair she usually sat on, one with dark wood and magenta cushioning. She looked around the room that they used for their weekly meetings, one of the most secluded areas of the library, breathing in the calming smell of old parchment and ink that emanated from the hundreds of books piled upon shelves on the walls. Yes. Yes, she wanted to.

“You needn’t worry, sir. My mother doesn’t have enough money to pay for my college, and I really don’t think it would be wise to get in debt.” She’d probably just stay in Trollberg and learn her mother’s job. She was already quite familiar with it, and it wasn’t as if there was a queue of people wanting to be the knew cemetery keeper. In fact, she didn’t think there was a single soul that wanted it.

Mr. Kavindi frowned and seemed to deflate. His wife, on the other hand, kept pressing on. “And where would you study, if you had the money?”

She didn’t know why her teacher was asking this - she already knew. Maven had talked to her about her plans and why they wouldn’t work. But her teacher was a smart and helpful woman. It wouldn’t hurt to say again.

“In Ericsonberg University. It’s not a very long drive to make every day, or I could go by train and it would be even faster. Also, my best friend has already sent in her application and is probably going to study there.” Trollberg was a small town. It had very few options of higher education, and only a few courses were offered, most of them related to the forest and agriculture. Everyone else had to move away or choose a college in a nearby city.

“That is wonderful!” Mr. Kavindi chirped, looking like himself again. “I can help, then. I have a very close relationship with the dean!”

Maven made herself stand up straighter and looked at him with more attention. “Really?”

“Yes! We studied English in Oslo together! Why, Erica always told me you were such a great student, I’m sure I can work something out with him.”

Maven wasn’t the sentimental type, she really was not. But in that moment she felt such gratitude that a few tears nearly leaked from her eyes. Nearly.

“Would you do that?” She asked, just to be certain, just to check. It wasn’t offer something this good happened to her.

The librarian’s eyes softened, and he and his wife leaned their heads against one another’s. It was weird, to see those two people so similar and so in love. It was like they had been made for one another. It was cute. “Of course, little one. It isn’t often that we get a bright and curious mind like yours in a small town like this one. It would be a shame not to nurture it.”

Maven inhaled deeply with emotion. “Is there anything I can do to thank you?”

Mrs. Kavindi let go of her husband put both hands upon Maven’s shoulders. “You are already hard working and focused. I know we needn’t ask you that. But you’re lonely. So in return, I ask you to not get even more so. Keep that friend of yours around. Don’t let the rhythm of college pull you two apart, okay?”

She had to blink back a few tears at that. “Thank you. So much.”

Husband and wife shared a look, and before she knew, Maven was engulfed in a bone crushing hug. “We’re glad to be of help, young lady.” He said when he pulled back. “I’ll let you know when I hear back from the dean.”

“Now run along.” Her teacher said. “You have finals to study for.”

Maven smiled to them and headed to the door. She had something else to do, actually.

_#_#_#_

It turned out that her mother had kept all her favorite books from when she was a kid in a single box in their cramped little attic. After scaring a spider into moving away from the box, Maven dug in and grabbed the three first books she saw, walking away quickly and promising to come back soon with cleaning apparel.

The spiders she could live with, but a bunch of perfectly good books gathering dust crossed a line.

When she came back down, Hilda wasn’t crying anymore, but was clearly agitated in her mother’s arms. She approached Johanna very quietly. She didn’t know much about babies, so she wasn’t really sure if any noise could make matters worse or not. Even though Johanna’s eyes were focused on Hilda’s forehead, her gaze was so glassy that Maven doubted that she was actually seeing anything.

“Hey, I found them.” She placed the book by Johanna’s side on the bed. She desperately wanted to ask if she was okay, but she didn’t think she’d get an honest answer.

Johanna’s gaze cleared and she looked at the items before her. “Oh. Thank you, Maven.”

“Not for that.”

It felt like silence stretched for a long time after that, but realistically Maven knew it had only been a few seconds.

“So. I, uh, I’ll just read one of them for her and then sleep myself. Can I do anything for you?”

“No, it’s okay.” Maven rubbed at her eyes. Just looking at Johanna was making her tired. “Just get some rest. You look like a zombie.”

Johanna lifted her eyebrows. “Well, aren’t you a flatterer?” She asked mockingly.

“I speak only truths.” She said as she headed to the door. You look beautiful to me anyway. That truth she didn’t tell.

Johanna shook her head and got up from the edge of the bed. Maven’s heart felt entirely too tight as she watched from the doorway Johanna kiss her child goodnight before gently lowering her down to the stroller and tucking the blanket around her. The woman really had “mother” written all over her. The image of the two of them, so perfect and loving even through pain and exhaustion, was too much to bear, and Maven had to avert her eyes.

When Johanna turned to get one of the books to read to her baby, Maven was already at the bottom of the staircase.

_#_#_#_

Johanna fidgeted nervously with the sleeves of her jacket as she looked out of one of the Poet’s Retreat windows. Ever since she had arrived home that afternoon, she’d felt as if butterflies had taken flight in her belly. She didn’t think she’d ever been so nervous.

She had been stalling that realization for as long as she could, pushing the thought away whenever it popped in her mind, but honestly, she’d be a fool to ignore Maven’s feelings towards her after she’d all but declared her love, and even a bigger one if she denied her own feelings any longer when she had felt like she was melting inside when she had kissed her friend’s cheek.

She’d had a most unproductive afternoon, after that. She’d had been dealing with the thought of liking girls for some time now, so guilt wasn’t really a problem, especially since she wasn’t as religious as her parents, anyway. But the worry of not being able to share that part of herself with the people that had raised her had kept her thoughts away from her studies.

At least she knew there was a name for what she felt, for liking boys and girls. It kept at bay the feeling of being an alien in a small minded town. It was comforting. But it still didn’t hold back the shock that was admitting that she was in love with her best friend, regardless of gender.

When the clock in the wall near the counter marked five in the afternoon and Maven still hadn’t arrived, Johanna began thinking something was off, which didn’t help her matters when she was already trembling with nervousness. She was always so punctual, arriving right after her book club ending, precisely at five to five. And she wouldn’t have just forgotten it either. They’d had this appointment ever since they first went to the Poet’s Retreat together: 5 p.m. every Tuesday and Friday. Even if they didn’t have the money or didn’t feel like ordering anything, they’d go in and talk. About their days, their worries, their parents, their studies, or even about dumb things they saw in the internet. They never missed it unless there was something very important they needed to do, or if one of them was sick, in which case they’d visit each other in their houses in the time they were supposed to be there. It was their tradition, their thing. Maven wouldn’t miss their eight year old tradition unless something had happened.

Johanna was just going to call her when the bell that hung above the cafe’s door jingled and she turned to see who was it, relieved as she watched Maven come in. She looked radiant with happiness, and she couldn’t wait to find out what got her like this.

Without breaking eye contact with Johanna, Maven walked closer with a shy smile, while her friend grinned at her. She pulled her usual chair back and sat down, chewing on her bottom lip before she whispered.

“You won’t believe what happened!”

“What did?” Johanna asked as she tried her best not to get distracted by said lip.

“Mr. Kavindi says he knows Ericsonberg English College’s dean. He will try to get me in!”

Johanna’s jaw dropped. For more than an year now, she’d been worrying about what would happen to Maven when High School was over, knowing very well her widow mother couldn’t really afford an expensive college like those of the cities nearby, nor could she pay for a place for Maven to live at in the further away cities that offered cheaper education. So this was practically a blessing that fell down from the skies.

“Are you serious? How?”

“I still don’t know exactly.” Maven said, trying to get the buttons of her coat undone. “Most likely they’ll give me some tough exam or something. But I’ll make it.” She got all of them out of their holes and lifted her head to look at her friend. “I have to.”

Johanna reached out and grabbed her hand “Yes, you will. And if you need help, you can count on me.” She said, squeezing it slightly.

Maven smiled and intertwined their fingers upon the table, making Johanna’s heart skip a few beats. She swore that that coy smile would kill her one day. “Thank you, Anna. I feel like coffee”, she said suddenly. “Will you join me?”

She didn’t quite think that coffee was the best option for her already on edge nerves, but it was a special occasion. It called for celebratory coffee.

“Sure.”

Maven got up, then, and told their order to the barista who already knew them by name. She came back a few minutes later, handing her a cup with a lot of cream.

“I forgot to give you the money!” She exclaimed after taking a sip of the heavily sweetened down drink.

“That’s okay. I did a cleaning job for my cousin a few days ago, this one’s on me.”

Half an hour passed comfortably. Maven told her of how the library’s book club went, and Johanna took the chance to discuss a book she was reading. She felt she could talk to her friend for hours; Maven was so intelligent and well read, it was nearly impossible to get bored when she was near. But their cups were long since empty, and it was time to go. However, there were still things Johanna needed to say.

“Do you want to take a walk in the park? It’s going to be a beautiful sunset by the looks of it.”

Maven bit her lip. She really needed to go home to study, but that really was an offer she couldn’t refuse. So she nodded and they got up, and walked to a little known park near Johanna’s place, one that had many flowers growing wildly and randomly due to lack of attention from the city hall, and even had a small fountain, though cracked in a few places and waterless.

“How does Mr. Kavindi know Ericsonberg’s dean?”, Johanna asked eventually, when they stopped to admire a few celosia flowers. Maven stretched her memory.

“They went to college in Oslo together, if I remember correctly.”

Johanna frowned. “The librarian went to Oslo? But that’s an amazing college! How come he ended up working in a little town? He sounds like he’s from the north, so he can’t have family here!”

That made sense, Maven though. With a good graduation and his natural talent, Mr. Kavindi could probably get a job in a way better place. Sure, Trollberg’s library was gigantic, but that was mainly due to the efforts of one of the first mayors in its history, who had hoped that the town would grow to be one of intellectuals. Maven nearly pitied him.

“Mrs. Kavindi said once that they had met when they were in college and she took a trip to Oslo”, Maven remembered, lifting her eyes to the orange sky on top of them. “And her family is from here. So he probably came to live here because of her.”

“Oh.” Johanna breathed. If that was the case, it was probably one of the most romantic acts she had heard of outside her books. “That must have been quite a sacrifice.”

“Not really” Maven shrugged. “It must have payed off. When you love someone, and they love you, you do whatever it takes to be with them, don’t you?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Johanna realized that Maven had stopped looking at the sky, and was now looking at her. She felt her heart accelerate, beating madly against her ribcage as she faced her friend back.

There were so many things that needed to be discussed. Johanna knew that ideally, she should probably talk about her feelings and the things she had found out first. But Maven was looking at her with so much affection in her beautiful grey eyes, and her short dark hair was just a little bit messy because of the wind, and the golden light of the sunset was throwing golden shadows on her angular face, and honestly, Johanna was just human.

So she closed her eyes and leaned in.

And not after a moment later, Maven leaned in too.

The raven haired girl exhaled heavily. She had been deathly afraid of having mistaken her friend’s intentions, but found instant relief when Johanna pressed her lips against her own. Many thoughts filled her mind, of love and victory and confusion, but she pushed them all aside: she could deal with them later. When she was alone in her room, and Johanna wasn’t kissing her.

Maven took Johanna’s bottom lip between hers, and sighed again at their taste of sweet coffee and honey, being answered with a similar sigh from her love. They hadn’t had any honey at the cafe. She wondered if her lips always tasted like that somehow.

Oh, how she wanted to find out the answer for that question.

She wished she could stay there forever, in that beautiful place with untamed flowers, in that perfect moment of golden light, that little natural miracle that was when day met night. But too soon, they pulled away.

And Maven didn’t “grin”. For most of the town, save her family and Johanna, she didn’t even smile. But in that moment, she was grinning like an idiot. Like the lovesick idiot she had become.

“ I, uh-“ Johanna began, blushing strongly but also with a gigantic smile on her face. “I’m sorry it took so long for me to get the hint. A- about you and about myself too.”

Gods, she looked so cute it was nearly impossible to gather any rational thinking, Maven thought. “Do… do you?” She asked, only realizing that she hadn’t asked a complete question when Johanna cocked her head in confusion. “L-like me, I mean.”

She cursed herself for stuttering, but stopped bothering when Johanna’s face opened up in a smile again. “Yes, I do. Very much.”

And after that, when they didn’t know what to say, they kissed again. And again. And even as she walked home alone later, the stars and the moon her only companions, Maven began thinking that maybe, just maybe, that beautiful dusk could last forever.

_#_#_#_

The Librarian shut the door behind her and all but threw herself on the grey duvet of her bed, feeling the hard mattress against her back. She was downright exhausted. For two years, she had made herself accept the fact that she would never see Johanna again, she had locked her feelings for her where she thought it was safe to say that they wouldn’t haunt her again, and yet there she was. Back in her town, back in her house, back in her damn heart.

She slowly got up from the bed, walking to her windowsill seat and sitting down. Johanna had always had such light around herself that Maven sometimes felt as if she needed to squeeze her eyes to look at her directly. She just radiated warmth that she had craved so deeply. But now that there was a baby, she all but glew whenever it was near. She had been through so much, had gotten her heart broken, and it was clear on her eyes how much she had suffered, but it was also clear that her ability to love had, if anything, multiplied.

Maven drew her legs up to her chest and looked at the waning moon, leaning her head against the bedroom window and catching her own eyes in the reflection. Johanna was so bright and comforting and nutouring, and she was cold and lonely and eerie.

So it didn’t matter that she was back. It didn’t matter that she was staying at her house. It didn’t matter that her heart sang whenever she looked at Johanna and her baby. After all, she told herself as she drew her eyes away from the moon and to its glow on her pale hands, Sun and Moon could never be lovers. The day could never be with the night.

Dusk was just a fleeting moment. Eventually, darkness always came.

[thejadedjewel]

Game Grumps Live - Asbury Park, NJ - 8/24/19

Game Grumps Live:

Left to Jersey 9:30-ish

Got to Jersey by 2PM.

Had lunch at Wendys – terrible bathroom, great food.  Checked in at Inn afterwards, but did a check of the Stone Pony Summer Stage to see how it looked.  Chilled at the room until a little before 5PM.

Was dropped off and got in line.  At the time, it had almost completely circled around the whole area (building and outdoor stage).  Doors opened a little before 6 because the line soon went all the way around TWICE. Talked with the guys and ladies in line and made friends with them.  There were folks as Danny Sexbang, Arina, and Daniella.  Got in around 615-ish.  Got water and waited over an hour in line for the merch table.

A ‘burgie’ chant started up at one point.  Lots of awesome music played – Rush, Queen, etc.

There was a chopper circling around and many of us joked that Dan and Arin would make an entrance from it.  Cheers always happened when someone came on-stage, one point tossing water into the audience.

Got shirt and poster and left my drawings at the table.  Then hit the bathroom.  By this time it was 740-ish and the screen suddenly pulled up the Wii-U main menu.  A voice came on and started to hype the crowd that the show will be starting a few minutes later.  By this time, the sun was setting and nearly gone.

Show started around 8 with Vernon coming on-stage to hype the crowd.  He notes that this was the biggest Game Grumps Live ever – 4 thousand fans.  To prep everyone, a fan – Chris – is brought up from the audience to play Super Mario Bros world 1-1 blindfolded.  Chaos ensues, but Chris ended up beating it after two game overs and on the last life of attempt 3.

Afterwards, Vernon joked that he was out there stalling for time due to Arin pooping and joked about making an attempt of standup comedy.  Before he leaves, he gives some homework to everyone: make a new friend at the show – it’s easy.  He also tells everyone to be kind and tells everyone to get loud and do the theme song. V: Hey, I’m grump. Us: I’M NOT SO GRUMP!  AND WE’RE THE GAME GRUMPS!

Coming out to music (Pour Some Sugar On Me) Arin and Dan ate up the applause. Dan was extra-hyped due to the show not only being the first outdoor show, but also in his birth state of New Jersey.  “Welcome Home” chants ensue.  There’s also a joke from Dan about how Arin would make cracks at live shows about the place they’re doing it, but Arin refused to do one due to fears of being beat up by Jersey folks.

Game time – Mario Party 10!  Dan was Yoshi and Arin was Peach.  The crowd was split into two sides – side one was Player 3, Waluigi and side two, my side, was Player 4, Toad.  We were given chants to shout out (“Wa-Lu-Igi!”/”Go Toad!  Go Toad!”)

Danny: (after giving each team their chants) I’m drunk with power!

To compensate for Player 3 and 4’s rolls, Arin would do that.  When Dan told the crowd to boo Arin when he rolled wrong, the crowd started to boo anyway.

Arin: Don’t boo yet!

Dan: Your Jersey hate is like vitamins(?) to me!

For Mini-games, someone to represent for each player team would come up onstage to play alongside Dan and Arin.  Mini-game 1 had Jonathon for team Waluigi and Devon for Team Toad.  When asked for something to get their respected teams hyped up, they said “Waaaaa” and “We’re the video game boys” (Us: We’re the ones who win!)  The game was a memory-esq game, which was gonna be bad for Dan (because of the weed he smoked in the 90’s killing his memory) and Arin (because he’s “an idiot”, in his words).  The game was intense with Jonathon winning.  This was when Dan noticed that, for some odd reason, Waluigi had ‘boob physics’.

Mini-game two came soon with Marcus (wearing a Dream Daddy T-shirt) and Kirsten (wearing the sexy Sonic costume) for Team Waluigi and Team toad respectively. The question asked, by Arin, was which sandwich is the favorite – Dan jokingly said that was the stupidest question ever asked… then asked “same question” for the other player (something similar happened later) and it was Tuna Melt VS BLT.  We were also asked to do a giant Golf Clap during the mini-game shenanigans.

The post-Golf clap comment from Dan: You have given Daddy the ASRM tingles.

Daddy Chants ensued.  Dan would do another “Daddy” comment shortly afterwards – “So many stars for Daddy”.

When it was time for the third Mini-game of the night, Dan and Arin noticed some cool stuff in the crowd – A “Bienvenue Power Bottoms” sign and a “Burgie” paper craft being held up.  Player 3 and Player 4 were Divan and Chris, who was dressed like Danny Sexbang, and their question was to say something to badmouth the opposing team.  Divan’s was “Boo, Toad, you suck!” while Chris was “This is why you weren’t in Smash!”  Burn comments ensue.  Mini-game turned out to be a three on one battle… everyone vs Arin.

Dan: It’s New Jersey VS Arin!

Arin eventually won that game and during and after the game, there was a “Fuck You, Arin” chant from everyone.  Dan “OK! OK!  Hang on!  Hang on! Hang on!  Don’t get me wrong… I love it…,” but he asked if they should do “Heck you, Arin” but decided nope and let the crowd continue.  He then joked about how the folks on the boardwalk were probably wondering what the hell’s going on at the show.

Mini-game four was with Erid and a tall guy named Roger.  Dan also noted that his dad, Avi, was in the audience.  I began to chant “Avi” and pretty soon a large chant for “AVI” started.  Team Toad/Roger won the mini game.

Mini-game five was Bowser related with a lot of stars up for grabs.  Both players were ladies – a female Danny who, like Dan, was Jewish, from Jersey, favorite color was light blue, and loved dinosaurs, and Renee, who had an LED helmet and had apparently been there since 6AM.  There were 6AM chants for her.  Dan noted that he smelt weed in the audience, which I thought was a stupid thing to go.  Dan then picked the wrong mini-game chosen for that round.  His reasoning for the screw up? “I HAVE GIANT THUMBS!”  Team Toad won that round again.

Final mini-game was up and it was Sophie and Bethany as players 3 and 4.  They were asked to say something to hype their teams.  Sophie said “Mycaruba” (a old-school Game Grumps joke) while Bethany’s was “We got this, dude!”  Team 3 won and the finally tally was Waluigi/Team 3 victory.

For the last bit of the show was a Q and A with the audience.  Ground rules were laid out: No selfies, no hugs, not songs, and you can’t touch Dan’s hair… so Dan touched his hair for us.

Q: Favorite Cartoon Network cartoon? A: from Dan, it was Aqua team Hunger Force and, since it was aired on CN, Starlight Brigade music video while for Arin, it was “Mighty Magisword”, which he worked on.

Q: Favorite game they got into via Grumps? A: Dan went with House Party while Arin couldn’t think of one.  They hyped the new version that was going to include them as characters coming soon.

Q: for Arin, favorite voice to do around the office? A: the Grubba voice and the “Ball-sniffing adventure” one.

Q: A request for some more Snipperclips, which they would love to do.

Q: For Arin, it was about the frequency of his pooping and asking the “Yum to Dump” ratio.

A: Arin talked about a incident from eating at Whataburger.  He pulled off at an exit and ate a burger from Whataburger. Got back on the interstate… and pulled over at the next exit to do a 2 at that exit’s Whataburger.

I think I’m gonna avoid Whataburger…. Q: Can Claud come back? (I have no idea who Claud was, but they want him to come back.  I think they meant “Claudio Sanchez”, who had appeared on Guest Grumps.)

Q: For Arin, favorite 3D Zelda game? A: first game he said was “A Link Between Worlds”.  When asked for a second, he picked “Wind Waker”.  Good choice.

Q: A request for more Dog Island and Princef Taaanx.

The next question was right by me and I managed to get two pictures of Vernon, who was out in the crowd getting the questions from the crowd.  I thanked Vernon for the second one, which he smiled for. Before the question was asked, there were some “Furry” jokes and Dan went into a long rant about being a Furry in reference to the running gag about him being one.  The question was about Starbomb and hopes for new stuff in relation to it.  Dan and Arin threw around some possibilities like a boxed set for the CD’s/vinyls.

Q: What’s gonna be the new format for live shows.  They have no idea.

Q: An offer to do later framing for CDs/Vinyls/etc.

Q: for Danny, since he and the asker are from Jersey, is it Pork Rolls or Taylor Ham? Dan picked Taylor ham, prompting booos.

Q: the original asker game his question op to his friend, who asked since they looked alike and had similar likes, does Dan know who the doctor was that cloned the two of them?

Dan thinks it was Def Leppard’s lead singer Joe Elliot (?)

The last question: "the band bowling for soup...are they bowling to receive soup or are they bowling on behalf of soup?"  Dan thinks they’re bowling on behalf of soup while Arin thinks it’s the former.

To end the show off, Dan notes this show meant a lot for him since it’s in Jersey and the best night.  “Danny”/”Jersey” chants.  Dan and Arin thanked everyone and left with a message: They don’t care what your race/religion/gender/political stance/etc. is, they love us.

Show ended a little around 950 and I got my ride back to the Inn to chill.

Pictures to come later

[oncloud999]

more feels and rambles

ok so after yesterday’s post, i just still have so many thoughts that i need to just write it down here...

ok what i find really interesting between them is also their dynamic. at first glance, jk is the more expressive one, always with the stares and the smiles. but i think it’s just from the fact that jm is definitely better at hiding his feelings now after the initial barrage of feels he pushed onto jungkook. now he’s far more subtle. but he still can’t help himself from looking and touching. but what’s interesting is that although he initiates a lot of stuff on stage in particular, a lot of it is exagerated and seem very fan service-y. 

but in front of or behind the camera, he seems to LOVE putting his arms around jungkook, which seems to be a sign of dominance. jungkook, on the other hand, very rarely puts his arms around jimin. in fact, he does it more with taehyung. but he likes to put his arms around jimin’s waist more. but at the same time, what gets me the most, is the fact that jimin also clearly loves the fact that jungkook is physically stronger than him and can take care of him. he likes to play coy or even damsel in distress with jungkook which i find interesting. like when he asks jungkook to lift him off the ground like 10cm to reach the exercise bars when we all know he can jump that no problem. there’s also those pics of him and jk coming back from helsinki where he’s looking small and fluffy and jk is pulling him through the crowd. now i know the excuse is that they were being crowded around and they want to protect each other. but lets be real, non of the other guys are doing this and they have heavy security. and it’s definitely not their first rodeo. i’m sure it’s been worse before... but for some reason, jimin wanted to play the damsel at that moment and jungkook rose to the occasion to protecc. he also loves to be carried around by jungkook, mostly on his back but also in princess style. 

it’s also interesting to me when jimin plays these demure roles with jungkook because dude is 

a) probably the second fittest one in the group despite being the shortest (see when it comes to any physical challenges, after jungkook, they usually expects jimin to do it)

b) he hates being treated as small 

c) dude has perfect control of his body when he dances, he is NOT weak in any way

d) apparently can stare down a whole room of journalists at wembley. 

he is not demure or weak. and he doesn’t appear to behave like that with any other members. in fact, in a lot of instances, he has a very macho vibe in the way he carries himself. so it’s so interesting to me. 

the other thing about jimin is that despite being the apparent angel and glue of the group he is, there’s a vicious side to him that i think the members and everyone else is well aware of. he’s mentioned previously that he’s defintely mellowed since his earlier days and is now less angry and you can see that. in some of their earlier clips, he’s like openly angry sometimes. 

taehyung who is his bff, has stated that he’s one of the scariest members when he gets angry. i can see why, when he is angry and glares, it’s something else.

i’ve also seen videos of compilations of jimin being vicious/savage and for some reason, you never see him directing this towards jungkook. now this may be because jk is the youngest and all the members are clearly soft for him and excuses him from a lot of their more vicious banters. and yes i’m sure that’s part of it, and i’m sure jimin does feel the need to protect jungkook as well, but referring back to above point, one does not play the damsel with one’s younger brother... there’s a part of jimin that wants jungkook to protect and cherish him in a very non brotherly way. 

and the other thing i find interesting is the way the others react towards jimin’s more vicious side. like they never call him out for it where as if it was like hoseok or jin, they’d probably jostle him around a bit. they probably know he’s pretty intimindating. and while tae and jungkook still behave like bts’s babies sometimes, jm has never seem to do so and the hyung line treats him like one of them. like they expect him to hold his own where as they will give taehyung and jungkook some leeway in what they do because they’re younger. 

wait back to the point of bts being intimidated by jimin. you can kind of tell when jimin is being serious and when he’s kind of joking around cos his tone and the look in his eyes really change. for example, in the more recent episodes of run when they were measuring their arm lengths, yoongi said something like what’s the issue with having short arms cos you’re the shortest (cos it really doesn’t matter) but you can see he actually got a little angry and told yoongi to watch what he’s saying, but then he toned himself back down from a full on attack mode really quickly. but you can tell there’s definitely anger there, but albeit a little playful. then there’s the time where they were running around putting stickers on each other’s backs. when at the end, he said he will unfriend the person who betrayed him if it wasn’t jin, and you can see on taehyung’s face (even though he still tried to smile through it) that there was genuine concern that jimin was actually mad. and the way his face and voice changed, even though he was saying it in a joking manner, he was actually upset at the betrayal (lol they take their games hilariously seriously). and when th revealed himself and jimin still said he was going to unfriend him, like tae did look concerned. obviously they’re not seriously going to unfriend over that, but i’m guessing getting jimin’s cold shoulder and angry stares for a few days is no easy task. 

it’s clear that jimin will actually cut you off if he wants to. like in the 2019 ep where they sat around and talked, he was like i cut anyone that badmouths bts out of my life. that must’ve been quite a few people in the beginning because as we know, kpop is sort of a teeny bopper thing in korea especially and people don’t take you very seriously. i mean look who’s laughing now, but you know. the point is, he’s clearly cut people out before and he’ll probably do it again. and it’s hard cutting friends out because you generally tend to share friends circles etc. man is determined and can be vicious is my point. doesn’t mean he’s not a nice person because i think he still is, but he clearly will do what needs to be done. 

but jungkook doesn’t seem like he’s scared of jimin. like jimin has yelled and given him attitude before too (though in a slightly playful manner and never very sustained.. like in that recent video for tae’s birthday) but he just laughs through it and then doesn’t leave like he’s told to. he knows jimin will forgive him all his sins... and obviously that one vlive where jimin is like jungkook chastised me... the only time i can remember where jimin was legit upset with jungkook was that time when jk came to crash jin and jimin’s eat jin (not the recent one) and he asked to be let in and jin was ready to let him in but jimin was freaking upset and wouldn’t let him in and there was even a little scuffle between jin and jimin about who’s show it was and who gets to decide if the door is opened. and then came that picture where there may or may not have been a hickey... it’s a little suspicious

they just have such an interesting and funny dynamic. i want to understand. but it’s hard because we obviously only see a part of what happens between them and it’s honestly none of my business but i want to knowwwww

again, this is all my conjectures because i do’nt know they personally and i’m a fairly new fan of bts so it’s not like i’ve even seen all of their videos or anything. i’m just trying to keep up at this stage. 

gah, this has been keeping me awake thinking about it. it’s good to have it out hahahaha.