#this can be interpreted as a lot of things

[auroral-melody]

I HAVE A NORMAL AMOUNT OF FEELINGS ON THIS. YOURE 100% CORRECT AND I HAVE THE LINGUISTICS PAPERS TO BACK YOU UP. LONGISH POST UNDER THE CUT

what is like? how do we use it?

Like and Language Ideology: Fact vs. Fiction is a great overview describing multiple uses of like.

in formal written usage, like is generally used

as a verb: "i like the cat"

as a noun: "with the likes of you"

as an adverb: "it looks like a cat"

as a conjunction: "it felt like everything was going wrong"

as a suffix: "something cat-like"

in informal discourse, like has many other meanings

as an approximative adverb: "we went like 30 miles". it's decent to just characterize it here as a synonym for "about/approximately/around"

as a discourse marker: "like one of my cats meows a lot, 'cause like he's picky". similar to "i mean, i was wondering..." and "you know, i was wondering", this usage helps to connect chains of thought together / introduces things to a conversation.

as a discourse particle: "and she's like a little weird". contrary to popular belief this is not useless -- it's just hard to define its meaning and why it's useful. to give a general idea though: in this study, they found that ppl who used like as a particle were perceived as younger and less educated -- but also more friendly and polite. refusing to use particles makes speech sound stilted and awkward -- like is a social glue.

as quotative be + like: "and he was like 'wow!'"

quotative be + like my beloved

the quotative be + like deserves its own special section as one of the coolest things ever!!!!

firstly, quotative be + like can be used not just to quote people, but also to just generally express an idea: "it's like, no, absolutely not". as one paper said, there is "no need to designate a speaker". no one is being quoted -- it's just a statement about a vibe.

secondly, as op pointed out, "i was like 'what the fuck'" vs "i said 'what the fuck'" are indeed very different in connotation! quotative be+like (and similar non-traditional quotatives like go and be+all) are awesome because aren't usually interpreted as literal. you don't report what was said -- you instead convey an attitude, your "inner speech" / frame of mind.

this means you can portray your (speaker) opinion, a summary of what happened/what was said, and characterize the quotee + their opinion ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

thirdly, not only can be + like be used as a replacement for a variety of quotative words like say, think, ask, etc., BE + LIKE IS ALSO LINKED TO GESTURES AND ACTIONS IN A WAY THAT'S HARD TO DO WITH TRADITIONAL QUOTATIVES.

"Enquoting voices, accomplishing talk: Uses of be + like in Instant Messaging" talks a bit about this phenomenon. you can make non-oral gestures as part of oral speech!!! "and i was like [hand gesture]" vs "and i said [hand gesture]". for orally-spoken english, only the first one makes sense!!! be + like allows you to literally quote movement, WITH all the features of non-literalness and attitude included!!!

as discussed in the amazingly-titled paper "& she was like "O_O": animation of Reported Speech on Twitter", the quotative be + like takes on even cooler functions when it's used online in text conversations. it can be used

for actions: "he was like: *walks into room* *walks out*" or "i got sand in my eye and i was like '-_e'"

for emoticons/emojis to convey facial expressions, even without a quotation attached: "he was like :D" works, but "he said :D" doesn't!

for an attitude that has no specific action associated with it, but conveys feeling: "and she was like '</3'", "i was like '!'". can i make the metal gear solid alert sound with my mouth? no, but i can quote how it makes me feel!

other interesting discussions from "Like and Language Ideology":

"women use like more than men" is a misleading statement: it depends on the function of like you're looking at! women tend to say use quotative like & discourse marker like more often than men. adverbs are evenly split. men use the discourse particle version more often. *note that this study took place several years ago and i have not looked at others, other/newer data may be different as language changes & studies like this aren't necessarily the truth everywhere. english is used in so many places by so many different groups of people, it's impossible to draw 100% generalizations

"like can go anywhere": no. even as a particle it is NOT just allowed to go anywhere. it's not randomly placed, it's just a versatile queen!!!! depending on its position it can take on different functions, but it can't go just anywhere!

"i'd like wake up and feel good" ✅ totally fine!

"i'd wake up like and feel good" ❌????

since like is used in so many different ways, different functions of it probably emerged at very different times

as a discourse marker & particle, like has been used this way since (at least) the 1840s(!!)

as an approximative adverb, a synonym for "about", it's probably been around thru most of the 20th century

the quotative like probably is the only one that is actually related to "valley girls" as a social phenomenon in the 80s. it may be the case that it was already in use, though, and that "valley girls" as a thing in american media popularized it, and possibly other forms of like.... in america. but non-americans use this too! it's complicated and hard to tell how language usage spreads :)

tl;dr people who don't like like are being prescriptivist about language, misunderstanding its usefulness, and are missing out

the humble "like" is oft mocked despite what it does for us. "like, three people" is a vastly different statement from "three people". "and i was like 'what the fuck'" is vastly different from "and i said 'what the fuck'". i love you "like" and anyone who says you make people sound stupid will be killed on sight

[vrystalius]

Squid Game men as dads (+pregnancy HCs)

How they act during your pregnancy, shortly after birth and as a veteran dad!

Pairing: Recruiter, Thanos, Dae-ho, Gi-hun, In-ho x fem!reader

Summary: Headcanons, scenarios as them as to-be-dads, new dads and veteran dads plus a bonus scenario at the end of each character!

Genre: Fluff, angst

Words in total: 7.1k (Every part is around 1.4k words long)

Note: No baby names or gender are mentioned so everything is up to your interpretation. Also, this took a lot of effort. I hope you enjoy this <3

Gong Yoo // The Recruiter // The Salesman

( Words — 1.1k )

Your husband was extremely over-prepared for anything and everything during your pregnancy. He seemingly bought every single parenting book that exists on this planet and proceeded to inhale them in a matter of days before internally panicking about if he is capable of being a good dad anyway. You can tell how much everything was eating away at him, even before the child was born. Although he tried his best to never show it.

A way to channel his nervous and stressed energy into something good is by constantly hovering around you. Being near your pregnant glow gives him a peace of mind, resting his head on your stomach and listening to the baby’s heartbeat and feeling a light kick here and there, or having you in his arms while giving you a massage, his lips peppering featherlight kisses over your skin.

Gong Yoo always insisted on cooking for you, no matter the hour of day or night. He is kind of afraid you might consume something questionable again after watching you dip tuna kimbab into chocolate sauce, insisting it tastes really good and almost making him try a little too.

For you and your baby’s health, he fully banned you from the kitchen. No more experimenting with food for you.

˚✧₊⁎-

He was absolutely broken the first time he held your baby. It was so unbelievably small, so fragile, pure and innocent. The embodiment of love and the result of it. Gong Yoo had to bite his tongue and hold back his tears in order to not cry waterfalls onto your newborn because he knows once a single tear drops, his whole facade shatters.

Once the baby came home with you two, the once neat and organised, shared home was transformed into a more warm and homely environment, the floor now decorated with toys, onesies, clothes and small children’s books.

He always gets up in the middle of the night so you can rest, falling asleep in the rocking chair with the baby in arms. Your husband is also mostly the one that stays at home with the baby since his job only requires some recruitment of desperate people once a year, so most of his time can be dedicated to you and his family.

Gong Yoo is also that one dad most of the other moms swoon about when seeing him at playgrounds or in the park, pushing the stroller of the baby, or having his kid hang out in a sling tied to his chest while he went shopping, comparing two types of baby foods with another and showing both to the bean of happiness tied to his chest, cooing and asking which type of baby food is tastier.

Hanging out with the baby is probably the activity that takes 80% of his day and he is not complaining at all. Your husband’s head lays on the edge of the crib while watching the precious thing sleep, cradling them in his arms in the middle of the night, sitting with them in the playpen, completely matching their excitement and energy while playing with their toys, admiring how easily his kid can be entertained.

Although he looks charming and even more handsome out in public, he cares little about his appearance anymore. While he was obsessed with the way his suit looked and hair was styled, now, he considers himself satisfied when he finds a clean t-shirt. His hair gets a little messier and dark circles begin to form beneath his eyes.

˚✧₊⁎-

Even as a veteran dad, Gong Yoo fold together immediately when his kid try to win his favour by saying I love you or making puppy eyes at him. He’s not a pushover though, standing his ground and giving his kid a strict glare whenever they go to far that immediately silences them is not impossible, although he doesn’t like doing it.

He is always afraid of doing something wrong when it comes to parenting, overthinking every decision and everything he says, fearing he’s too strict, too loose, too much of a pushover, too disinterested and blah blah blah.

You had to stop his circling train of thought by soothing your husband by reminding him how he always shower up to every single school event, always sat through the homework and never raised his voice when his child didn’t understand something, instead explaining it in simpler terms without making them feel stupid for not getting it the first time, how he never shamed his child for doing wrong, never blamed them for being just a kid and always did the opposite than his own father did.

It might sound selfish, but becoming a father healed the hole left behind by his own. Oh how he wishes and prays that he does and did everything right. The only thing he wants is for you and his precious baby to be happy and safe, no matter what.

˚✧₊⁎ - (TW: Suicide)

“What’s the matter? Your mind starting to race?”

The recruiter sits across Gi-hum, gun handed over into his hand. The cold metal now feels almost overwhelming when touching his skin, as if screaming at him to turn it around and point it at the man sitting across him and shoot him, end the game here and there.

“That’s right. Screw the rules. Now, with a single pull of the trigger, you could kill me… but, I’ll have you admit one last thing.”

Gi-hun’s voice wasn’t even shaking in fear, it was firm with determination.

“You put a mask on your face and do whatever your master says. You run, bark and wag your tail for them.

You’re nothing more than their dog.”

The words emitted from the mam sitting across him begin to slice deeper and deeper into his mind, his heart and soul. It’s true what he says, Gong Yoo knows it himself. He is but a small chess piece, a dog, as Gi-hun says, that obeys every order and does what his master says.

What choice does he have anyway? It’s either that or risking his death and yours.

You. A flashing memory of your face from just this morning briefly plagues his mind, the view now feels so utterly distant and unreal.

A small, cocky smile spread on his face, pathetically trying to have his last laugh. He leaned back against the cushion and cocked the gun, pressing the barrel against the underside of his chin. Taking one last breath, his finger pressed against the trigger, not pulling it yet.

He knows you both will be okay. Maybe even better without him.

Thanos // Su-bong // Player 230

( Words — 1.5k )

To be very honest, the news of your pregnancy kinda hit him like a truck. It was somewhat accidental and Thanos maybe panicked quite a lot while pacing around his shitty apartment, scared to death about the idea of becoming a dad. Like, have you seen him?? He is supposed to become a dad?!

After loosing his mind and having multiple panic attacks, he pulled himself together and went to the dollar store to buy a onesie, a teddy bear and a bouquet of roses before heading over to your place and ringing the doorbell for multiple minutes until you finally open the door.

He actually sold his apartment and moved in with you, performed a gig every night for multiple weeks on end, even dealing his fair share of drugs in club pentagon. Your boyfriend would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it, but having a stable income would be much nicer.

Other than that, your boyfriend took care of you the best he could. Whenever you crave something to eat, your boyfriend will stand inside a gas station at 2 am to buy you the specific type of chips you wanted. If there wasn’t enough money to afford a decent meal for the two of you, you’d get all the food. He promises to be fine and get his food elsewhere, don’t even worry about him.

He is incredibly fascinated by your changing body. Your breasts are bigger, softer and sensitive. Thanos will be poking them all day every day randomly, trying to see if they’ll leak despite you only being three months into the pregnancy. He’ll insist on taking a picture of your belly every day so he can document the process to show it off to his kid one day.

Also, he never smoked, vaped or used around you. Your boyfriend has been clean of drugs for the almost entirety of your relationship but still smoked, but for the health of you ans your baby, he tried his best to get clean on that as well but it proved to be much, much harder, so he instead settled on doing it on the balcony or outside.

One last thing, whenever he had a new ultrasound picture of his baby, he was showing it off to everybody he knows with the biggest grin on his face. Thanos was the proudest dad in the world before your baby was even born.

˚✧₊⁎-

Since your boyfriend was so used to staying up all night and performing, so he doesn’t really mind dragging himself out of bed to feed or cradle the baby in the crack of dawn. Although, doing that for multiple nights on end drains any person, so you two end up playing rock paper scissors after a while to decide who gets up.

Thanos is the type to grab his baby by the back of the onesie and lift it out of the crib, gently throwing it onto your bed for some family cuddles, grinning like an idiot at how his baby giggles in delight and kicks its legs, wanting to fly through the air again and again.

He performs for his kid too whenever he doesn’t know what else to do to make his baby stop crying. Your boyfriend would play with an imaginary DJ board with his hands, his waist swaying left and right as he sleepily raps some random lyrics together to make the crying baby in the crib finally fall asleep after being fed, cradled and having its diaper changed.

Sometimes, if all fails (even rapping), Thanos will climb into the crib in order to finally make the screamer fall asleep. His legs would dangle over the edge of the crib and angled in a weird position, his neck awkwardly leaning against the railing. Despite this clearly uncomfortable pose, he was deeply asleep and snoring alongside his baby sleeping on his chest. Of course, this scene immediately became your new phone wallpaper.

After having the baby for a while, Thanos’s fashion will completely shift from the indie/grungry/rave-whatever-esc he was wearing to whatever is clean and comfortable. He doesn’t care he’s wearing a spongebob shirt right now, he’s busy deciding if he wants to buy a CD of the Beauty and the Beast movie or treat you with some snacks and chocolate.

Your boyfriend also had some serious attachment issues. That man could not stand not being near his baby 24/7 or not being able to have it in sight. If you want to take it out to the park or something he’ll insist on coming with you or else he’ll be stuck bouncing his thigh up and down and switching between social media platforms to pass the time until you come home.

What was kind of fascinating to you was how little Thanos now needs to be entertained. Having his little sunshine on his lap, curiously biting onto his fingers or reaching out to his hair could keep him entertained for hours upon hours.

Sometimes you walk in on your boyfriend lying on his stomach, legs kicking in the air, making some grimaces at your kid and watching how it begins to giggle and laugh, trying to copy their dad’s expression as hard as they can. Although you have to say that your baby has their papa’s signature scowl.

˚✧₊⁎-

As a more experienced dad, Thanos gathered no experience at all. Despite his baby now being a toddler, it’s still like he has had that kid for two and a half days. Sure he knows what his kid likes and dislikes because it’s basically the same to him, both your manchild and child like colourful things and don’t like vegetables, but Thanos still has no idea how to raise a proper human.

Whenever you scold your child for something, your boyfriend just nods in approval. When the kid looks over to their papa for help, he’ll just point at you. “Listen to your mama, she’s smarter than both of us.”

Although he gets more excited every day at how he can do more with his kid now. He likes to fantasise and envision everything they could do together, like his precious sunshine’s first day in elementary school, teaching them how to ride a bike, first time bringing them to the club and show them off to everyone…

You’ll have to listen to your boyfriend fully plan out tomorrow and what he’ll go do with his kid while being cuddled up in your arms, your fingers brushing through his hair. Thanos’ll gesture around while vividly explaining everything in detail, how he wants to go buy some new toys and then maybe go to the park, grab some ice cream, then go choose out their bike to learn how to ride one on. It’ll be fun!

Although fantasising is fun, reality is often a little different. It’s difficult to afford all the things he dreams of thanks to your financial situation but despite everything, you, him and your child are happy.

He’ll make every minute, every hour and every day count, wanting to make as many good memories as possible before they grew too old and annoyed of their over-affectionate and hyper dad.

Also, your boyfriend is horrified of the teenager stage when thinking back to his own and how he first got caught up in the drug mess and whatever else he got himself into, but thankfully as of now, your child has yet to finish kindergarten so they are a couple of years ahead before that happens.

˚✧₊⁎- (TW: Death)

He was trying to stop the blood with everything he has, pressing his hands against the underside of his chin as the warm, metallic blood stickers through his fingers, staining the bathroom tiles below.

Choking on his own blood, Thanos slowly crawled into the corner of the bathroom, trying to escape from the chaos that erupted behind him. His face was scrunched together in pain as he rolled over onto his back.

The quiet sound of gurgling was completely drowned out by the sounds of fighting, yelling and punching as Thanos quietly gasped for air.

Fuck, this wasn’t how all of this was supposed to go. He should’ve just gotten the damn money and voted to leave, get that Nam-su or whatever to vote leaving too so he could go home with the guaranteed money instead of risking to play another stupid childhood game.

Now he is here, on a bathroom floor, drowning in his own blood because of a fucking fork.

His eyes were too heavy to be kept open, his warm blood on his hand weirdly enough made him suddenly feel so incredibly tired, like a large, warm blanket was just draped over him. He should close his eyes for a moment before he’ll continue to fight for his life.

Thanos can survive this, he knows that. How could he not? He has a kid back home, you. He promised to buy you a ring and propose once he had gathered enough money. Imagining you in a pretty white dress, standing by the altar, waiting on him with that pretty smile of yours.

He can’t miss his kid’s first day of elementary school, graduation, first day of middle school, first crush, first heartbreak. He can’t leave his kid alone in this world, they can barely walk. How will they get anywhere without him being there to carry them in his arms? He promised himself to be there for them with every step of the way they may take, with you in hand.

He just has to close his eyes for a second, then he’ll stop the bleeding and get up. Promise.

Dae-ho // Player 388

( Words — 1.5k )

Dae-ho was over the moon and back the moment he found out that you are pregnant. Pregnant, carrying his child! He always wanted a family of his own and you being able to grant him that wish made him fall in love with you all over again.

He’ll do everything for you during your pregnancy, just you rest and look pretty. Your boyfriend will transform into a complete malewife and cook, clean and completely pamper you. Not that he never did that before, he just did it even more now.

Whatever you wished for was provided; massage for your swollen feet? C’mere, put your legs on his lap. You want to combine the worst foods together and inhale that combo like a five star gourmet meal? Sure, he’ll go buy the ingredients, save him a plate!

Dae-ho adored cuddling with you even more during that time than before. He adored laying his head on your chest, listening to your heartbeat while his large palm gently brushed back and forth over your stomach.

Your boyfriend also takes his time every night to talk to the baby in your stomach. Feathery kisses would be placed all over your warm skin while he sleepily recalls things he did today, trying to get your baby to recognise that the man speaking to it was their dad.

He’ll talk about how he finished building the nursery and how much he looks forward to them seeing it, how you two went to the park today for a small walk, how he watched you ate seven hot dogs and proceeded to ask for his to eat as well.

You can’t help but grin how Dae-ho acts like the baby is already there, can listen and understand to what he is saying and react to it. Your fingers brush through his long hair while he slowly falls asleep with his head resting on your soft chest, his arms draped over your stomach.

˚✧₊⁎-

As a new dad, you can’t help but think about how much of a dilf your boyfriend had become.

His hair is messy and his face tired, yet he has that big grin of his always plastered all over. Dae-ho’s whole demeanour lights up even brighter with his baby in his arms, walking around your home shirtless with his muscles on full display for your shameless enjoyment.

Something extremely important to him is skin-to-skin contact, so you’ll have a half naked Dae-ho laying around on the couch with your baby curled up on his chest. He adores cuddling with you, so having a baby between you is a big bonus.

Even after your pregnancy, he was still in full on malewife mode, but now with a baby strapped to his chest. He cooks and includes his baby in the process so they can stay entertained, offering small tastes of the sauce he is working on or letting them have their own tiny cooking utensils to hold and inspect while he stirs the sauce.

His sisters also come by for a visit a lot so they can see the first offspring of the Kang family. They coo over your baby and congratulate both of you, but scold their brother sometimes for not caring for you well enough, especially after postpartum. Your reassurances that he does plenty fall on deaf ears most of the time.

They often times take your baby in so the both of you can have some alone time and rest. You two planned on taking a small vacation somewhere and treat yourselves to cocktails or something, but you and your boyfriend ended up sleeping and cuddling the full week and barely leaving the bed.

At first you and him enjoyed the peace and quiet, but after a day of naps, cuddles and breakfast at 4pm, Dae-ho suggested the idea of getting pregnant again.

He himself grew up in a big household and sure there were a share of fights over mundane things, but at the end of the day, he and his sisters love each other and have each other’s backs, no matter what. If one of them has problems, the others are there to help and support or bury the body of the problem.

He won’t forcefully push the idea of multiple kids on you though. If you say no he’ll totally understand it. He’s not the one carrying the baby for nine months and bleeds every month when he doesn’t, but Dae-ho will try and sweeten the idea of having a big family to you.

˚✧₊⁎- (multiple kids mentioned in this one)

As a veteran dad, Dae-ho always complies to his little monster(s) demands without complaint. He’s more of the fun dad that lets himself get used as a horse where his kids can hop on and be paraded around the home on his back. He could melt whenever his babies come up to him and ask him to join their roleplay, doesn’t matter if he’s going to be dressed up as a princess or supposed to play a big scary monster.

He’d be down to play all day every day, but once school work and homework comes into play, it’s going to be a little complicated. Dae-ho knows his ABCs and all but quadratic functions? Both him and his kid will be sitting by the table, crying of confusion and stress.

Despite being the fun-dad, he can be strict if he wants to. Sometimes his scoldings hit even harder than yours because of how tolerant he is. He never raises his voice or his hand, nor does he shame his child for doing something wrong. Screaming gets you nowhere, he learned that first hand, so instead he’ll try to understand their behaviour no matter how complicated or hard it may be.

Dae-ho is an incredibly proud dad and he will show it. Every award his kid wins, even if it’s a participation award, will be stored in the living room and somewhere you can admire it in its full glory. Every work of art that was ever gifted to him was kept in either large folders that sorted drawings based on the kid and year or on a shelf in the entrance area.

He also has plenty of pictures of his kids that he is ready to show off to everyone that had the misfortune of asking how they are. He’d spiral into a rant about their recent activities (no matter how mundane they seem, they are very special to him) and just how adorable they are, how they have your nose and eyes but his cheeks… the poor waiter just asked if they wanted a refill on his coke, not knowing about pandora box he opened.

˚✧₊⁎-

His body curled together as he pressed his back against the wall behind his bunk. Right now, Dae-ho wanted nothing more but the concrete to consume him, hide him away and muffle and the gunshots and yelling that was happening above him. His hands were tightly pressed up against his ears and his eyes tightly shut.

He hunched over to hide his face in his shaking knees, trying to hide from the gunfight, to hide form the shame of not being able to force his legs to walk and bring the much needed ammunition. Dae-ho knows he is useless.

“Dae-ho!!”

Player 120 calling out to him violently pulled him out of his trance, making him flinch. He stared up at her, his arms slowly moving off his ears, clearly shaking.

“Dae-ho, what happened?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

She leaned closer to him as he glanced away, lowering his head in shame. His lips pursed together and slowly began quivering as low whimpers escaped him. He felt her eyes literally piercing him.

“The magazines?”

Dae-ho stumbled over his own words, barely comprehending what she is trying to ask of him.

“I-I’m sorry— I-I…”

Hyun-ju glanced down to the hoodie near his cowering form and moved the cloth away to see what was inside. The ammunition magazines. Dae-ho flinched violently and lifted his arms to shield his face as she stood back upright with the ammunition in her arms, casting one last worried glance to the obviously scarred and horrified man before walking off.

The world around him went numb again as he kept repeating quiet “I’m sorry”s over and over, mixed together with broken whimpers.

No matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t pull himself together and force his arms to grab a gun and fight for the games to end, but being staying here, with the other players, would be safer. Out there he either could be captured and eliminated, shot in the fight and bleed out, watch others die in front of him, kill other humans. He can’t do that. He can’t. No matter if he was in the marines or not.

Back when Dae-ho left for the games and back when he didn’t know that said games include death and murder, you two talked about it. You warned him about how it’s too good to be true. Playing childhood games in exchange for hundreds and up to millions of won?

You made him promise he’ll keep himself safe no matter what. You made him promise to always keep you and his family in mind, how he has people he needs to come back to.

It seems that his own body and soul internalised that pinkie promise you made him agree to. He has to keep himself safe and alive.

Gi-hun // Player 456 (post s1)

( Words — 1.4k )

Finding out that you’re pregnant almost made him have an aneurism. He already has a child that he himself doesn’t have a lot/barely and contact with before she moved away to America and even less now thanks to the distance and the want to keep her out of his mess. The mess that are the death games and the mess he now forced you to be apart of.

Gi-hun already felt incredibly guilty for falling in love with you. Anyone being associated with him is now in the line of fire and probably in constant danger thanks to him. Yet you stayed with him and even provided comfort.

He actually apologised for getting you pregnant while standing in a grocery isle to choose some jumpers and sheets for the future nursery crib. It was out of nowhere after staring at you being so excited over your baby, how you couldn’t decide between two pairs of itty bitty socks.

Gi-hun does warm up after a week or two. He catches himself smiling brightly at nothing after thinking back on how round you already look, what you’re doing right now. His eyes soften up every time he walks past the pastel nursery he build himself, fixing the sheets in the crib and folding the baby clothes together for the 100th time. His hands pick up one of the toys and his fingers brush over the surface, feeling the material beneath his skin.

Every time he does all this, it hits him all over again. You’re pregnant with his child.

Since he already had a daughter before and knows how much of a terrible father he was to her, Gi-hun feels a mix of guilt and excitement blooming in his stomach. He knows what he did wrong, both in the department of marriage with his late wife and parenting, so he doesn’t repeat his mistakes again.

The feeling of selfishness always swims around in his mind because it feels unfair to his daughter how he can provide all the things for his future baby he couldn’t for his daughter; proper attention, the financial means, maturity, a good father figure.

Gi-hun rested his head on your stomach, his eyes closed in relaxation as he listens to both your heartbeat and the heartbeat of the growing life inside of you, your hand idly resting on his cheek. Even if he cannot fully fight those feelings of guilt and shame, he swears to be a better father this time. In no means is he perfect, but he will try his best from the bottom of his heart.

˚✧₊⁎-

Right after birth, Gi-hun was incredibly attached to the baby. He was paranoid for a long period of time, things like sudden infant death and all kinds of worst case scenarios always in the back of his mind. He was faster than you in getting up whenever it cried, rushing over to the baby’s side immediately.

He’ll cradle the baby in his arms, silently walking around the home in the dark even long after his child fell asleep. Most of the time, calming his baby is more to calm his own mind of worries.

Sometimes, you two move the crib into your bedroom to stand beside your bed, just so he can feel more secure and less paranoia. It soothes Gi-hun’s mind to have his baby right there in arms reach. His arm drapes over to the crib, his hand weakly holding onto the railing even in his sleep.

But beside his paranoia, Gi-hun is always ecstatic when around his baby. There is always a carefree and soft smile on his face whenever his baby innocently chews on his finger, his eyes intently watching the adorable bean coo and kick around in its crib.

You gifted him a small heart locker with a picture inside. Unoriginal, sure, but something he cherishes with a his being nonetheless. The picture had you and him together, hand in hand, on one side of the locker, a photo that is actually fairly old. It was of one of your first dates and he had a soft smile on his face. It looked hesitant and unsure, but it was one of the first smiles he cracked in a long time.

On the other side of the locker was a picture of your baby in the crib, looking up into the camera with big and curious eyes while chewing on a rubber toy. You dressed the baby in an adorable brown bear onesie, overloading his senses even more.

Gi-hun wears the necklace almost every day and keeps it secure under his shirt, fishing it out and opening the locker to look at the two pictures to remind himself why he is still fighting to stop the games. His fingers brush gently over your face and his baby’s cheeks, a small smile spreading on his face.

˚✧₊⁎-

Since Gi-hun was already had a daughter before, he already kind of knows how to raise a child, although he sometimes struggles with spoiling his child too much.

Thanks to both the guilt he feels for failing to be a proper dad to his daughter and now having such an insane amount of money he doesn’t know what to do with, Gi-hun showers both you and your child with everything you two could possibly want.

So sometimes you have to remind him that just because your kid really really wants that expensive lego set doesn’t mean he should buy it for them, perhaps when it’s their birthday or Christmas or they have done a very good job at something.

You have to teach the oblivious man how to properly manage his money and maybe not buy everything in sight for your kid. Gi-hun will listen to you with those big, sad puppy eyes he always has whenever you scold him about something.

Also, he adores playing with his kid. His favourite thing to do is to have them stand on his feet and put their hand into his, walking “together” through the apartment while loud, childish giggles fill the rooms. He also loves carrying and walking his kid everywhere, despite knowing very well they acted like they were extremely tired just so daddy can carry them for a while.

How can he possibly deny his precious baby?

˚✧₊⁎-

“Here, take this.”

He takes out an ammunition magazine and offers it to Young-il standing in front of him, who was watching him holding the ammo out to him. “You’re going to need it.”

Young-il’s eyes glosses over his hand and up to his face slowly as if not believing his offer. “Are you sure?” Gi-hun nods reassuringly, holding it a little closer to him.

“Dae-ho will be back with more.”

That was the reassurance he seemingly needed before reaching out and finally taking the ammo out of his hand, nodding slightly. “Let’s do this, then. We have to end everything now.” Young-il mumbled, briefly gesturing towards the necklace around his neck as if knowing what was hidden beneath his shirt. “We have to bring everyone back to their families.”

Gi-hun froze for a moment as his head moves back to his ally. Jung-bae glanced over to the two. Seemingly taken back, the man quickly elaborates. “I mean, you have a wife and child, right? I overheard you two talk about it.”

“Doesn’t matter right now, go!!” Jung-bae waved his hand as if to shoo him away. Gi-hun just nodded and spared him one last glance before turning back to the pink guards standing atop of the stairs. Yet he can’t shake the feeling of dread creep up on his neck.

His hand briefly brushed over the locker beneath his cloth, tracing the heart shape with his fingers. Did he ever talk about you or his child back home? Even about his older daughter living abroad? Does Jung-bae even know about his family? Maybe it’s a lucky guess of Young-il.

His brows furrowed together in thought before Jung-bae ripped him out of his thoughts. “Gi-hun? Are you alright?”

Gi-hun flinched slightly before quickly nodding. “Yeah. Yes. Sorry.”

Without wasting another second or a breath, he pulled the gun closer to his chest and aimed it around the corner and at one of the guards and continuing the shootout. Although Young-il’s last remark still was engraved in his mind.

In-ho // Young-il // The Frontman // Player 001

( Words — 1.6k )

The news of you being pregnant actually horrified him to the core for a moment. The last time his love of his life was pregnant she died in the hospital while he fought for his life in the death games. It is safe to say that In-ho has bad memories associated with pregnancy.

Those bad memories fuel his protective streak even further as you cannot find a moment to yourself. Your husband will be there, hovering near you since the first day you know of your pregnancy. He orders you to take a seat in the leather chair of his study with that Frontman-voice of his while he provides food, drinks and entertainment for you.

In-ho also employed a doctor on the island that specifically is there to give you full medical check-ups every week. He cannot risk loosing you or the baby this time, you have his heart tightly trapped within your grasp and he does not mind at all. His heart is yours and yours is his.

Your husband tries to pull himself away from work and planning this year’s games but the VIPs are quite demanding and he cannot afford to disappoint them. Although he is a lot more home than before which you of course enjoy.

Your husband is actually a very good cook and will cook for you as much as he can, but also doesn’t mind when you give into your insane cravings. He will question your choices though, maybe even check your forehead temperature to see if you’re sick or something when In-ho catches you devour a whole plate of cut fruits you generously salted.

In-ho always was more hesitant when it came to showing affection, fearing he might come off as weak or soft and maybe seem unattractive to you. Even if you think quite literally the opposite.

With you becoming pregnant he became more and more sweet with you. His kisses will be more frequent and linger longer on your skin, his hands will always find their way to connect with you and let them run over your waist, stomach, back and shoulders.

Your affection breaks this man more and more as well, your hand cupping his cheek making him melt and nuzzle into your palm like a touch deprived cat, your kiss warming up his soul over and over.

In-ho knew this before but he never fully realised how hard he fell in love with you.

˚✧₊⁎-

You’ve never seen him cry before so the sight of your husband completely breaking down and showering you in praises and kisses right after birth. In-ho pulled you closer against his chest as his tears flowed down to you, his lips whispering broken “I love you”s, “You did such a great job” and “Thank you”s.

You gave birth in a hospital in Soel and not on the island. It was the decision of both of you to spend the first few days after the birth in the old apartment he still owned in the capital city, away from all the death for just a while.

Those days were the most peaceful and pleasant days In-ho had in a while. It was almost like a dream come true, the dirtiest fantasy he ever allowed to imagine: a regular family life with a wife and child. To go to the grocery store to pick up some carrot baby food and the bar of chocolate you have been craving, to have his biggest decision be if the newborn will wear the soft pink bunny jumpsuit or the cozy grey cat onesie. To be a simple man and his only duties to be a husband and a father.

Although after two weeks of rest and peace, the games pulled him and with that both you and the newborn back to the island.

Your husband did set his will through with the VIPs though and worked himself more free time he could spend with you and the baby.

Though he sometimes takes his child with to work by strapping them onto his chest with a baby sling. He knows that the rather violent environment is not the best place to have a baby, so In-ho implemented changes in the control center to make the place a little more child friendly.

The word “eliminated” was a little too gruesome in his opinion, so he made the woman who spoke the first voiceover change it to “lost” or “lost the game”. The blood on the screens will be censored with the colour black and most of the sound will be muted as to not expose his baby to the screams and pleads of mercy and scar that young mind.

It’s quite the bizarre sight, the Frontman standing in the center of the control room, inspecting the new portraits taken of the players participating the games while a giggling baby was attached to his chest, curiously chewing on their own fingers, unbothered by everything around them.

˚✧₊⁎-

As a more experienced dad, In-ho, much to his dismay, found out that his now a little older kid is very attached to the Frontman mask. Sure, they still smile when they see their papa, but they do seem happier and more excited when he wears his mask and talks to them with the voice changer.

In-ho’s parenting style is more strict than lenient, though he does provide a lot of love, encouragement and praise for his child, even his ways to express those things are more subtle. His hands give out light pats on the head while a smile spreads on his face, giving them an acknowledging nod for their work.

Whenever his kid needs to be lectured, his voice is stern but not loud. Raising a hand does nothing but ensue pain, fear and hate, so he never did that anyway. Thanks to his role as the Frontman, he knows how to be and sound incredibly intimidating and menacing.

It’s not entirely his fault, but In-ho is not home with you and the kid most of the time. He is always incredibly busy, especially during that time of the year. He tries his best to compensate for that lost time by pulling himself away from the games and spend time with his family, but it proves to be harder than it sounds.

He has a lot of pictures of you two on his desk and study. Whenever stress gets to him in a moment of weakness, In-ho will take his time to go through every single one. All of the masterful drawings made by your child are also on full display for his enjoyment and you know he’s treating it like a modern art gallery; with uttermost care and interest.

˚✧₊⁎-

“Look closely at the consequences of playing your game.”

In-ho’s voice was deeper, distorted when speaking through the mask. His eyes pierced through the man kneeling in front of him. Gi-hun.

Gi-hun stared back up at him with so much hate, so much despise. It’s almost humorous to In-ho how the same man that seeped of both hate and determination insisted on giving him one of his essential ammunition magazines. Almost.

The Frontman moved and aimed his caliber at the kneeling man beside him, Jung-bae. He slowly moved his head over to his best friend in horror. “Gi-hun.”

Those were the last words he mumbled before In-ho pulled the trigger, executing the kneeling man swiftly.

As Gi-hun screamed and cried for Jung-bae, trying to reach out to his best friend as the pink soldiers pressed him firmly against the concrete floors below, the Frontman swiftly turned around and stepped away to the master control room, sliding his gun into the coat as he walked.

It was pitiful, he thinks. Not the display Gi-hun gave or how he naively trusted him as the played the persona of Young-il to the point of wanting to overthrow the games with him, but how he, In-ho, opened up to the man.

He talked freely about you and how you two met, fell in love and married, how excited and horrified he was when you got pregnant, how he cried for the first time in a very long time after you gave birth. Gi-hun laughed with him when he ranted a little bit about the adorable antics of his child and he comforted In-ho when he voiced how much he missed you and worried about you.

Most of it was planned to get closer to the man and build some sort of connection, to make Gi-hun think of him as a father and husband than a faceless player. It’s just that In-ho enjoyed talking to him so freely.

He doesn’t have friend, no connection to his brother, no people he can confide outside of you and he can’t really talk about his wife to you, can he?

It almost felt normal, like two men complaining about the small things in life like how dry the buns are they ate at breakfast, or compare their children to one another and pridefully gush about how his already knew how to speak both Korean and English at 1 year old and how Gi-hun’s daughter lives in America and goes to a prestige school.

Yes, he’ll miss those couple of days he spend with him. But duty calls. He has to move on now.

💠

Author’s note. Thank you so much for reading!

I wrote this over the course of around three days while recovering from a head concussion, so I apologise for any mistakes! This took a lot of effort but was incredibly fun to write!! This is probably one of my longest work yet but it’s totally worth the effort, I just hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Anyways, make sure to EAT, SLEEP and DRINK enough!!

Take care of yourselves <3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

i cant really tell if yuu's involvement in ace's character is more for fanservice reasons or because they really did play a part in his character development.

like in nbc we have malleus choosing to focus on finishing the task at hand as quickly as possible so that they can then find the prefect rather than drop everything there at that moment and prioritizing finding yuu. (iirc) and compared to that we have ace who does put a lot of emphasis on finding yuu especially when no one seems to remember it during the halloween event it feels very traditionally fanservice-y ? and i cant really tell where the line is drawn for ace anymore. and you did mention a lot of other points in another post that you made esp with ace's dream recently dropping and the fact that hes the only guy whos dream yuu was actively involved in idk its a little confusing for me i hope im making sense TT no shade to the shippers im just a little slow in comprehending it all bvbvsjdj

your posts are always really neutral and accurate it just helps to clear up a lot of my confusions and questions i have when playing so thank you for your hard work!

[Referencing this post; you might also find this related post useful in the discussion of Ace and Yuu's relationship!]

DISCLAIMER: I do not mean to invalidate or detract from Ace x Yuu or Malleus x Yuu shippers or anyone who may interpret their relationship as romantic. You should ship what you like and have fun doing it. My reply aims to be more objective, but that should NOT impede on your enjoyment or whatever it is you choose to ship.

iufipaerasfeao Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you find my posts helpful. I try my best to be objective when it comes to analyzing the story and characters, but there's no true way for someone to be completely neutral. There are definitely times when I have an aside to insert my two cents on a situation or I get super heated about a particular topic. Hopefully I still leave enough space for everyone to come to their own conclusions.

I think it's both fanservice and because Yuu actually plays a big part in Ace's character development? Like, it's technically fanservice but it does not feel egregious because it fits Ace’s teasing nature and Ace's bond with Yuu has been established from the start. He was the first student we met at NRC and we spend so much time with him since then; there's no way Yuu wouldn't have had an impact on him, especially when book 7 is now paralleling the two as people with insecurities about being weak/unable to do anything + not contributing enough and Yuu encouraging him when he finally gets his UM.

I commonly see people joking about Malleus having "missed the meeting about Twst not being a dating sim" and holding him up as "the main love interest". (And to be clear, Twst isn't a dating sim, nor do all Twst fans see the characters romantically; I am only speaking about this in a romantic lens in the context of this post.) However, I think there's a very strong case to be made for Ace as well. The thing is, I also feel that Malleus and Ace fundamentally appeal to two different groups of yumejoshi. Malleus is the tall, dark, and mysterious type you can "fix", the type of guy that would burn the world down for you. Ace is the teasing and approachable boy-next-door that has your back and supports you even when the entire world is against you. This is also evident in the ways they're set up in the main story; Malleus is introduced in a way that encourages much more "filling in of the gaps" due to how little he actually shows up in front of Yuu in the main story. It gives the player a lot of space to imagine what their relationship with him is like because there isn't a ton of interactions in canon to go off of. Meanwhile, Ace has many more canonized interactions with Yuu (eating lunch, doing homework, watching movies, playing video games, etc.), so the effort of thinking about what they actually do over the course of their relationship is already done for you. There is an established friendship and connection with Ace, but you barely see Malleus enough to truly have a strong impact on him or to change him. Does that make sense?

IADUPADF9A9FSBdb I do find it sort of funny that Malleus is basically like, "Oh, something unexpected happened (ie Yuu is missing). We'd better solve this." Not really showing much emotion about them being gone in Nightmare. (Malleus only gets annoyed when Leona begins to take charge; he is not mad at the fact that Yuu is gone.) Meanwhile Yuu is missing in Endless Halloween Night and Ace is the FIRST person to excuse himself to check Ramshackle for them.

If you consult the fandom and the fandom alone, you'd think the situation would be reversed. Edit: Malleus does have his moments of intimacy with Yuu (which I won’t be getting into here because then I fear this post would veer into shipping wars), but the English speaking Twst fandom has a VERY strong bias for Malleus x Yuu. Because of that, there is a tendency to misinterpret or misattribute every little thing that Malleus says and does to support the idea that "Yuu is his most important person". (For example, even though Malleus provides no reaction at all when Skully kisses the back of Yuu's hand, many Malleus fans claimed that he would be very jealous or would harm Skully for doing such a thing. In another Halloween event, Glorious Masquerade, people believed he was angry at Rollo for harming Yuu even though this was not the case; the event states that he was mad because the invitation he had been extended was a fake one.)

It is because of thinking like this that a lot of English speakers genuinely believed Malleus would OB in book 7 in a desperate attempt to prevent Yuu from returning to their original world. Misinterpretations, headcanons, misattributions, and personal projections were conflated with canon, leading to many people to believe that Malleus was closer with Yuu than they actually are. Instead, Malleus ended up OBing because he feared Lilia leaving and he barely even considers Yuu after he OBs. And, ironically, Ace is the character whose dream prominently features Yuu and a scenario in which Yuu doesn't have to leave them forever. It was always Ace that we had a strong relationship with, not Malleus.

Ace is often overlooked even though he has far more canon interactions with Yuu in the main story. I think this could maybe to chalked up to a combination of him being "boring" compared to the literal DARK FAE OP CROWN PRINCE M. Draconia over there and the fact that so many of those "gaps" are already filled by the main story. There's less room for imagination because the game has already defined what Ace and Yuu's relationship entails. Malleus is just so much more appealing when it comes to intrigue and mysteriousness. When you look at it objectively though... Yuu only meets Malleus face-to-face like 5-6 times for brief conversations. (Edit: I’m not counting voice lines because those are arguably directed at the player, not Yuu, to endear the character to you and/or all characters get similar voice line fanservice. The canonicity is questionable since the same familiarity in voice lines is not carried over to the main story.) 5-6 times… That's not nearly long enough to make a huge impact or change in his life (unless you as the player extrapolate and imagine more Malleus and Yuu interactions outside of the ones we see in the main story). At best, I think you could say Malleus is glad he can have a special little friend who doesn't know of his name and status? He doesn't really change because of that relationship though. Malleus doesn't even show up until book 2. But Ace has literally been there since the beginning, canonically spends tons of his free time with Yuu, and has been through several near-life experiences with them (several OBs). He has the chance to bond with Yuu. Malleus does not. (He has given Yuu advice once, sent them a card once, and reassembled a stage for them once; all other interactions in the main story are short talks.)

It makes a lot of sense that Ace would be the one "touched" by Yuu's influence, whether you see it as romantic or platonic. Both he and Malleus (and all the other characters, really) get their moments of fanservice--but very few characters' development is directly impacted by Yuu's presence. Yuu might be there for most of the main story, but they actually get only a few moments to engage with the other boys in the cast to the point of actually changing them. It feels like the changes that occur are more often the result of the other boys (Trey standing up to Riddle and holding his hand afterwards, Epel and Deuce bonding on the beach, the twins telling Azul he's lame but also being the first to check up on him following the OB, Idia finalizing his farewells with Ortho, etc.) Ace just so happens to be an exception to that, as Yuu very clearly plays a big role in his development.

[blackdykegirlblogger]

a/n: in honor of this ask . could be interpreted as g!p or strap, whatever gets you wetter.

thinking about cowboy!abby who loves her rope almost as much as she loves you. she got it when she was just a little girl, gifted from her father on his deathbed, and it's been on her hip ever since. it's good for a lot of things: wrangling horses, showing off at the rodeo on friday nights, or....

having it looped tight around your neck, cutting off your air supply as she bounced you on her cock from behind, one leg propped up on the bed for extra leverage. it's quite the sight, your ass up in the air as your head is shoved in the pillows, the strain from the nylon cutting into you in the most pleasurable way. the way the plush of your ass bounced against the expanse of her stomach was hypnotizing, almost enough to make the cowboy drool. the room smelled like pure sex and she breathed it in, the scent giving her a twisted motivation to keep drilling you stupid.

you could feel your brain slowly leaking out of your cunt as you pulsed around her cock. abby wrapped the excess rope tight around her hand before giving it a sharp pull, yanking you up suddenly as her cock slid even deeper inside your icky cunt. you tried your hardest to think actual sentences, but the grip around your throat and her tip on your cervix made it close to impossible. your hands curled into the headboards, and the feel of your nails scraping against the wood served as your slight tether to reality. your head felt so heavy and the ringing in your ears got louder by the second.

"well, ain't that somethin’? you’re usually runnin’ that mouth a mile a minute. what’s the matter, hmm? don’tcha wanna tell daddy just how good it feels?"

she saw the dazed look in your eyes, grinned at the way they crossed ever so slightly as her balls grazed your clit with every movement. "go on now, tell me how it feels." she pistoned her hips even faster, and you swear you saw god. he was definitely laughing at you.

"s-so...go-ood."

your voice came out in a ragged whisper that you've never even heard before. shit, eating was going to be a pain for the rest of the week. but you loved it, as if abby somehow couldn't tell by the way your juices coated her completely, leaving a gooey white ring all along her base. if you were lucky, she'd make you lick it up afterwards, something to soothe your throat as an apology for making her pretty girl hurt so much.

"c’mon now, mama, i know you can do better than that."

"...ca-can't talk d-ddady."

you could feel her annoyance behind you, dropping you abruptly and pressing your face back into the mattress, one hand still wrapped around your binds. "always with the damn excuses. when i say talk, you best start talkin��."

you felt the telltale signs of unconsciousness creeping up on you, because abby suddenly sounded like she was miles away and the room was floating and-

oh shit. oh shit oh shit oh-

out of nowhere, you felt the rope loosen, and you don't think you've ever taken a bigger gulp of air as you came around her length, harshly. your senses came rushing back to you in a hot flash, and the overstimulation became too much to bear as you thrashed in her arms. you were boneless and delirious and....when the hell did you start sticking your tongue out? when did your chin get covered in spit? god, this was so fucking embarrassing.

you snapped out of your daze when you heard abby chuckle behind you, the sound teasing and slightly dark.

"welcome on back to planet earth, darlin'."

[ash-is-not-trash]

Or rather admit that many people can be wrong in the same way! Our brains are more similar than we think. It's like how lots of English speaking people mispronounce "nuclear" as "nuke-ular", its not because it used to be that way or anything, people's brains just have patterns in the ways they interpret things!

the mandela effect is so funny like. imagine being confronted with the fact that you misremembered some trivial detail and you have the deranged self confidence to assume that Reality Itself was Altered rather than admit to yourself you were wrong

[acid-ixx]

I don’t understand the age gaps in the batfam, isn’t time 17 in the main verse? But reader is the second youngest so how would that works

— masterlist !

yes, the age gaps are really annoying with how much the comics fluctuate. honestly, i've no set age for all the characters, but in tim and reader's case, i've vaguely stated that although they were taken before tim at the age of five, and tim at around twelvish years old (? yeah, despite reading so many comics, the age gaps confuse me too); they're considered bruce's "third" child, while still being the second youngest.

so essentially, tim is older than the reader, so he's the "third" child, but he wasn't adopted considering his parents were alive during the first few years he took in the robin mantle.

this all sounds so confusing, but trust me i'm working on a timeline (you guys will get a plethora of diary entries soon enough and more past neglect mentioned) on how it all worked out. the reason why there's a huge gap in a lot of things is because in between those years of jason's post-resurrection, i also had to integrate how cassandra, stephanie, and duke were slowly partaking in the family activities, which makes the angst even more delicious to me. but in the present timeline, damian's a teenager now, and tim is NOT 17 in this 😭 he's a bit older than that.

hope this answers some questions rather than leaving more of it. honestly, you guys can interpret their ages because dc itself likes to diverge from a lot of timelines hahaha.

[noxiatoxia]

Mikan wants to be "forgiven"...but what does that really mean?

Hello. This is something that has been quietly on my mind for a while.

It's something shown in the game in chapter 3. Mikan really focuses in on "being forgiven".

And while not a mistranslation per se, I think it's inaccurate to what is happening in the game.

I've talked about this extensively - the fact ENG DR team has a very bad habit of translating things literally or very directly. This leads to either clunky dialogue, missed nuances, or just incorrect interpretations sometimes.

I think this in particular falls somewhere between 2 and 3. I'll explain why.

If translated literally, the English text works just fine, but as with a lot of literal translation, it misses the "feeling" of what was trying to be conveyed. If you want my translation...

Mikan: Won't someone just tell me what I did wrong!? Why won't anyone just let it be already!?

While Mikan doesn't say "What did I do wrong", there is a subtle emphasis on her talking about herself...I feel like it's a more natural way to word what is essentially "What is it that I did differently [to warrant this]?"

Anyways, to the main point...I hope you can kind of see what I'm getting at.

"Forgive" feels like...Mikan is seeking people to "pardon" her for perceived wrong-doings. And while not untrue I would say, the way Mikan specifically uses the word and the context it is in, to me, feels much more like she is using it like "allow" or "excuse".

Let me use another example to better explain myself.

The last line to me reads like Mikan needed this person to pardon her for being born; for existing. That her existence in and of itself was a mistake or wrong-doing that needed to be forgiven.

I think that's missing the point, though.

Mikan: They allowed me to exist.

See, the point is...Mikan is a very troubled person. She admits as much in the freetime events that wherever she goes, she is horribly bullied just for existing. That she hated being bullied, but even more she hates being forgotten.

She emphasizes her beloved (Junko) did not hate her, and in fact allowed her presence...

This line was heavily misread, I think. 許して受け入れて was read as two verbs in one sentence (which it is) but as "forgive and accept" which is incorrect to what it means. It's closer to "they tolerated me" (like, accepting and moving on). Which comes to how I would translate it, and my final point:

Mikan: They accepted me for who I am.

This is why I think the "forgive" thing is not only incorrect, but actually opposite of what this scene was going for. Junko did not "forgive" Mikan for the sin of existing. Rather, she was the only person who seemed to not mind that she existed, that didn't bully or ignore her.

She didn't "forgive" Mikan, she allowed her to be herself.

Another reason DR3 totally missed the mark, but I digress...

I guess while I'm on the topic, we all know that scene where Mikan has a little back-and-forth with Nagito...that, too, was misrepresented somewhat.

Putting the English here just for comparison sake. And while not the worst translation in the world, it certainly isn't how I would go about it.

Nagito: I don't...really get what you're trying to say... Mikan: Oh, you don't? (lit: you don't understand?) Mikan: Is that because you don't have any loved ones in your life? Mikan: Is it because there's no one who will love you?* Mikan: Oh, you poor thing...I feel very sorry for you.

*Literally speaking, she says "Is it because you are a person nobody allows" but considering the context thus far, it's easy to conclude she means that there's no one who will love/accept him for who he is.

*Adding "also" to the line is a mistranslation, I believe. も means also but it is also used for emphasis, which I think it is here. Not that it's impossible Mikan is using it to say "also", but in these lines of dialogue she is intentionally contrasting how she does have someone who loves her and that she can love, so to then identify a similarity between her and Nagito, I think, wouldn't make much sense...

Mikan is one of my favorite characters, so little details like this matter a lot to me.

[renesassing]

i may never really explain the whole deal with my revan on here bc reasons and there's just Too Much to get into but i am also deranged and i need you all to Get what im deranged about so here's like. a very quick list of core aspects of how i characterize revan & interpret kotor so my disembodied rants aren't coming from a complete vacuum

kotor 2 is more about revan than kotor 1 is. kotor 1 is what saves revan, though, so maybe it's the most important thing. the book isn't about kotor at all so i ignore it.

have you ever been built to love things and then convince yourself it's a flaw that must be compensated for, and no one bothers to correct you until it's too late?

the answer to the question "what makes a mandalorian afraid" ends up looking a lot like another mandalorian.

"love will save you, not condemn you" jolee was fucking right about that

there's not a single person in kotor 1 or 2 who gains a net positive in their life from interacting with revan. except maybe hk-47, who was created by them

what it means to be driving the trolley in the trolley problem. what it means to be a passanger, too.

determination and ruthlessness can be just the same thing from different points of view.

it's about inter-generational trauma. which means a lot of things but also that technically everything is exar kun's fault.

war destroys jedi. at it's gentlest it leaves deep, gouging scars.

revan exists in the narrative as a black hole in a way that probably says a lot about my special interest in black holes

that one post i made about revan and their divinity

to be saved and to be redeemed are two different things. revan never experiences redemption or resolution.

revan never stopped trying to be a jedi. it's part of the problem

[stupidbeecandle]

ASL is absolutely about facial expression. Think about how much emotion you get just via audio in a radio drama or such. Pretty much full spectrum of human ability right? ASL (and many SL) uses gesture and expression to mean the same thing. I got dinged so many times in my exams for not doing grandiose enough emotions on my face during speeches and conversations, even about simple soup recipes.

It doesnt come naturally to most non Deaf or HH folks to emote to that level unless you are a stage actor and you understand the need to signal to someone with a slight visual impairment, across a crowded dimly lit room, that you are smiling. Thats why its built into the language btw, ASL is all about accessibility and throwing the most cues possible into a gesture because a slight hand movement can be difficult to track, similar to others, accented differently than yours (yes really); so accompanying it with a large emotion or body gesture can really help. ASL can also denote mood, time, place, people, and more by using large movements to gesture when where and who is involved in a story much faster than finger spelling out everyones names every time.

The emotion she is conveying "the threat of actual MFing nazis carting people off en mass for the grand shared reward of fuck nothing" is a horrific emotion to convey and one that SHOULD look like that in ASL. To tone it down would be to tone the message down dramatically

A lot of Deaf get togethers look dramatic and translators can be very uncomfortable for hearing people to interact with because hearing-culture and USamerican culture tells us such large expressions are childish, innapropriate, creepy, or gross

Unfortunately this discomfort can and often DOES override accessibility with weddings, stage shows, and more putting the interpreter off in a dark corner where they wont be "a distraction" for the sensitive hearing folks (if they have an interpreter at all)

I know someone who married a hearing partner and despite the gathering being half Deaf, the partner insisted that the translator signaling the joy of a marriage would be "too much" and "distract the audience from their big moment". So she placed the translator at the BACK of the church and had the Deaf half of the audience turn around if they wanted to hear what was happening rather than rely on the bs oralism lip reading the bride wanted

Asl is complex and Deaf is a culture and people's absolute confidence and comfort in their hateful bias is disgusting

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[jetginxed]

sick and FUCKING tired of people misinterpreting the meaning of Nosferatu (2024). let’s not be purposefully fucking obtuse. two interpretations can coexist. the ‘romanticization’ of orlok and ellen’s relationship is only wrong if viewed from a rape perspective (which is a valid interpretation as well.) HOWEVER, it is heavily implied that their relationship was consensual and orlok served not as an abuser, but rather as a manifestation of repressed aspects of ellen’s identity. ellen says herself that the nosferatu is her shame and her shadow. we forget that one of the main horror aspects of vampires is that they are very blatantly sexual creatures. keep in mind the context of victorian europe!! ellen is haunted by her own sexuality. she denies herself. many of the sexual scenes are portrayed as very violent or jarring because a woman’s sexuality was viewed as an assault on her innocence/purity. the nosferatu has followed her since childhood because she has been taught to be ashamed of her sexuality since it began to develop. the horror is womanhood and repressed female sexuality. count orlok is all the fears of a victorian puritan culture made into flesh. i do agree that a lot of the people romanticizing ellen and the count’s relationship view it through the lens of assault as a “spicy dark romance” thing, in which case the criticism is appropriate. but jesus fuck if you haven’t bothered to take a second to view the story in the context of victorian vampiric gothic horror, shut the hell up about other people’s interpretations of it!!

[paracosmicka]

As a trans man I love mpreg as long as it’s not fetishized. I want kids in the future so seeing mpreg is like going oh hey! Another seahorse dad! I don’t get to see myself in media much. It makes me uncomfortable when people don’t separate the 2 mpreg can be fetishized but it’s also a thing a lot of transgender afab go through. I know this is a sonadow account and it’s not that deep lol but thanks it’s cool seeing it :) saying that: more plz 🥹

This actually makes me feel so relieved bc another reason why I’m always hesitant to post pregnant Shadow is I’m worried that it can be seen as disrespectful or that if it might be used for fetishization purposes which isn’t really what I’d like my art to be associated with.

I don’t want to kink shame anyone, as an agender aroace person who does not experience any romantic or sexual desire whatsoever (i think? still learning about the different types of experiences within the aroace spectrum) I feel that I am literally the least qualified to talk about the morality behind mpreg as a kink/fetish.

With all that in mind, I do wanna say that I wish there was more transgender pregnancy representation that wasn’t just fetish. Like just googling “pregnancy symptoms” will give you a wide range of experiences, but when I was trying to look into if there were unique ways that pregnancy can effect trans men, it took a lot of digging so either I’m just stupid and can’t search things on the internet very well or there really isn’t a lot of representation of trans pregnancies.

Although I did recently learn that in the r/pregnancy subreddit, FTM does not in fact mean “Female to Male” and is actually just “First Time Mom” which makes a lot of sense bc for awhile I thought half of the subreddit were just trans guys. Then I discovered there is literally a subreddit r/seahorse_dads and so I spent awhile just reading a bunch of posts in there.

Anyway I’m fine just existing in my own space with sonadow family fluff, but when I share it I get all nervous bc mpreg is cringefail or whatever and I don’t even know if it’s cringe for being cringe or if it’s cringe bc it’s a fetish. Just know that whenever I post any art of any kind, I try to think as little as possible about how people will interpret my drawings, bc at the end of the day I just drew it because it made me happy and thinking about sonadow fluff gives me warm and fuzzy butterflies that I think people are supposed feel when they’re in love but I’ve never experienced that for another person in my entire life and I don’t think I’ll be able to. So thinking about and drawing sonadow is probably the closest I’ll get to that feeling.

And it makes me even more happy when people say they genuinely connected with my art bc then I know that the warm and fuzzy butterflies feeling got through, and I’m just really glad we can all get our little serotonin boost from these stupid gay hedgehogs.

I genuinely don’t think any of this makes sense I’ve spent 3 hours trying to write a response to this ask and then I remembered that I got zero sleeps last night so that’s probably why brain no worky but in conclusion: thank you for the ask Anon it really made my day and I’m spiritually headbutting you like a cat as they say

[adhdo5]

I was prompted to post these a bit ago bc of my madness posting abt the Xiyao laundry audioextra upload someone posted like last week and I think there is really a lot there in the Xiyao laundry thing in general (hashtag release the Yunping tapes) and not all of it is smth I see ~talked abt as much as I think it deserves SO . Collected thoughts on Xiyao laundry

OK so like Yeah they're cute. I absolutely get why people's primary reaction to this is that it's cute and I think this is not even wrong. The politics of uselessness r complicated and I Will be returning to this but a legitimate angle of this is that LXC, who has spent his life largely defined by the fact that he pretty much excels at everything expected of him, has nothing expected of him and gets to be incompetent at something he ~feels obligated to do and have that not actually be a fail state, still get offered the same kindness regardless of his ability to be exceedingly capable/responsible etc.; meanwhile MY, who historically has had pretty much no one ever gaf about whether he's struggling or overworked or generally about him as a person (and the audiodrama extra version even has a bit where MY's coworkers are shit talking him including talking abt how he's probably not even actually doing any work), has someone earnestly caring about that, if ineffectually, and materially recognizing his workload as important and effortful and trying to help him with it. That is I think legitimately kind of sweet! Especially if one interprets the "he didn't even know who I was" line as true and as in the audiodrama extra this is set b4 MY figures it out! They appreciate each other in ways they don't usually get to be appreciated and it's nontransactional in this way and ;x;

HOWEVER. #Nuance. There's Other Angles.

I've talked abt this before inc on my blog but I do kind of never get tired of thinking abt it: there's a reason LXC is incapable of doing laundry and it's not just inexperience it's that he is physically incapable of the task bc of his cultivator strength!!!!! And the disparity of cultivation level is explicitly a class thing w/ JGY wrt 3zun especially!!! No matter his intention Zewu-jun CANNOT SULLY HIS HANDS WITH THE TASK bangs my head against a wall. It's such an innocuous detail yet it captures how from even this early on in their relationship and in this context it's not ignorable how much LXC is in fact a nobleman where JGY is not and this is a literal physical difference and it's in his very flesh and it has explicitly destructive results. See again vampire AU posting

And going off that it's notable how this does in fact also end up creating more work and while MY doesn't begrudge that in the moment and it's pettier here and arguably inextricable with the first point (LXC is not only incapable here he's actively bad at something, he actively makes smth worse and he's forgiven for it and that's genuinely kind of nice) it's it's also worth noting more grimly given how their relationship ends. It's not just destructive it's destructive to MY specifically

And on the notes of "inextricable from first point but also tragic" – it's sweet tht LXC gets no external consequences for this (yet lol) but is that really something he can Accept. It is an arguably underexamined element of Sunshot Xiyao how fucking miserable LXC is; he might be in an environment where this isn't fucking him up but he did bring his complexes here and you don't suddenly know how to accept that kind of grace yknow – and, and this is tangentially related to the stuff I was posting earlier today, this is one of the first of several kinds of vulnerability that LXC's almost only able to experience with MY/JGY. Considering how much that's arguably a running theme for them and considering where that leads that's also quite Foreshadowing Dismal!!

This is an audio drama exclusive but the way in the audiodrama extra ver that MY realizes who LXC is here and then ~lies about it is also crunchy as helllllll

AND between the coworkers thing in the audiodrama extra and the added scenes in the donghua and this and the notion in general (which comes from MXTX's post) that it's important they do the laundry themselves bc the robes would give LXC away it's a highlight of how genuinely precarious this is for MY which is another thing that both makes it more sweet and more. Despair.

It's just so lovely how it is both indicative of how genuinely good they are to and for each other, the ways in which they're meaningfully and significantly compassionate and helpful to one another, and also of the ways in which their situation here is precarious and high-stress and dangerous as fuck, AND also the ways in which they hurt each other so so bad, and how all of those things are largely different facets of the same qualities and the same significances. And That's My Post. Stream Apple Pie by the Scary Jokes

[hillbillyoracle]

I'm fucking begging folks like this to cut it out.

I will set aside for the moment the fact that trying to use inaccurate and incomplete understandings of a religion you don't belong to in order to control a group you aren't a part of is WILD (and has a troubling colonialist history).

Let me explain this as simply as I can.

Do you want fundamentalists to stop impeding aid efforts?

If your answer is yes, then you'd want to do what would make that most likely.

There are lots of things that could work - community dialogs, creating resources for people escaping or renegotiating their relationships with fundamentalism, protests to protect the aid, direct action.

There are a lot of things that have been tried and don't work - including, but not limited to, pushing your personal interpretations of a scripture you do not follow, calling their religions a cult and otherwise trying to stigmatize folks in it, insinuating they're dumb though feigned concern for their literacy.

So if you're saying you want one thing and actively doing things you reasonably can know will make getting that harder or impossible, there's a good shot you don't want what you say you want. Not more than you want something more in like with your actions.

This response would likely only succeed at two things - establishing you're not like or a part this maligned group and presenting yourself as more intelligent than said group. Its ego all the way down.

If you keep putting your ego above the material needs of people being hurt by the policies born of these beliefs, you're not different than them at all.

Actually want to help? Unpack your reactiveness to fundamentalist Christianity and commit to keeping the fear mongering and stigmatizing contained to journals or therapy where you can process it in a productive manner (rather than making everyone feel hateful and hopeless - a terrible combination).

Its not that tall of an ask. And it'll make you better at whatever way you decide to help.

I am finding out that a lot of things I thought were common knowledge about Christian Fundamentalism are not in fact common knowledge.

Like with the aid freeze, people were like why would they do this? And I was like cause they want churches to be the only option for aid.

And people were shocked. And I was also shocked that this wasn't like...more well known. I grew up with people who were anti-aid because they felt that belonged to the church and made people behave more worldly if they could get it elsewhere. It was so well known it was a debate topic in my Philosophy of Religion course in high school.

I'm just...I'm concerned at how little some groups seem to know about Christian Fundamentalism. I wish I could help translate more.

[enodia-polymorphous]

hello hello!

I hope you're doing well! I was just wondering what you would think is the best way to start researching Lady Hekate and her worship? As in, what are some basic things that you believe are important for new worshippers of Her to learn about before anything else?

I've recently found myself being more drawn towards Her; so even if nothing comes of it, I'd like to still do some research and learn more about Her!

-A l e c [this is just my personal acc :DD]

Hello Alec!! Thank you so much for your ask and your trust in me!

LEARNING ABOUT HEKATE

What are her domains outside of witchcraft, and where do these sit in her history? Witchcraft is a later attribution to the goddess and there's so much more to her!

Hekate as a goddess of all realms (not just the underworld!) plus the lore behind this (multiple interpretations)

On that note, worship of chthonic deities/chthonic aspects of deities (libations and offerings for chthonic deities). But also, how you might do libations and offerings to her when honouring her in non-chthonic aspects? (see the next dot point)

Hekate as a household goddess in hellenic polytheism (her role and the associated worship - this will be very helpful to implementing her into your worship initially, and it's a context of Hekate outside of the chthonic)

Hekate is known to have many names. Just by looking into Hekate's epithets, you can learn so much about her. You can also find new sources to learn about her through the sources of these epithets (especially helpful because she isn't as prevalent in mythology as other deities, but also significant in some mysteries)

Some particular epithets that may be enlightening to who she is: Kleidouchos (keybearer), Phosphorus or Dadouchos (light-bringer/torch-bearer), Enodia (of the crossroads), Kourotrophos (protector of children, women and the vulnerable), Propolos (guide/companion), Propylaia (before the gate, of the threshold), Apotropaia (averter of evil)

Hekate's role in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (the kidnapping of Persephone)

The celebration or recognition of Hekate's deipnon at every new moon, the history of this, why this tradition exists, and how it is celebrated in modern times

Hekate as a psychopomp and guide of the dead/guide of souls/guide of the restless dead

A lot of this is about developing your perception of Lady Hekate, and especially unravelling any inaccurate or incomplete ideas of her that may be common around the internet.

It's easy to feel a lack of direction when researching Hekate as she doesn't have many myths and her role in the pantheon doesn't feel as defined, like with the Olympian gods. Her domains are sometimes difficult to explain, yet they are all intertwined.

You will find yourself led down a few paths while researching some of these things! And I'm sure from there, you'll get some ideas on how ancient worship and modern worship are informed by who she is and how she seeks to help us. Then, how you might want to approach her and invite her into your life.

Please feel free to submit more questions as they come!

divider credit -> @enchanthings-a

[lemotmo]

I just had no idea how many people genuinely don't know how to watch something and truly understand what they're watching. I'm dumbfounded.

Q. I guess I don't know what a retcon is then. Because if we've already been told what the episode was about, and by Buck himself, then how is going back and now having Buck say it wasn't about that not a retcon??

A. Buck never told us the episode was about Tommy. When watching the episode live the audience was under the impression that Buck was upset because Eddie was spending time with someone other than him. The entire episode was played as if Buck was jealous of Tommy not Eddie. Go rewatch Buck's conversation with Maddie. He was jealous that Eddie and Christopher were hanging out with Tommy and seemed to enjoy hanging out with Tommy. The only scene in the entire episode that indicated it was about Tommy was the kiss scene at the end. And even Tommy was confused in that scene because Buck's behavior throughout the entire episode gave zero indication that any of it was about Buck wanting to spend time with Tommy. Making Tommy Abby's ex was a retcon. Making Tommy gay was a retcon. He was not originally Abby's ex-boyfriend and he was not originally gay. The show made him both of those things to facilitate plot for Buck. His original character profile was racist, sexist firefighter. That's it. He was a minor character so that's all he was. A racist, a sexist and a firefighter. He had no backstory. He wasn't struggling to come out of the closet. He was just a racist, sexist. When the show needed a guy to introduce Buck's sexuality storyline they retconned the character as gay. Then when the show wanted a quick way to break them up they retconned him again as Abby's ex-boyfriend. He was not Abby's ex-boyfriend prior to the writing of 8x6. Please tell me you all understand that. He was not gay until season 7. He was not Abby's ex-boyfriend until 8x6. That is fact. It is not open for interpretation. Plot devices get retconned all the time for the sake of the plot they are serving. It's why they're called plot devices.

Going back and allowing Buck to realize what was actually happening to him in 7x4 is not a retcon. The episode was clearly framed as Buck being upset that Eddie was spending time with another guy. Allowing Buck to understand and recognize that is not retconning anything. It makes perfect sense that Buck would go back and reexamine certain things now that he's aware of his attraction to men. Eddie absolutely has to be a part of that examination. Not addressing the Eddie of it all would be malpractice and absolutely nonsensical. It doesn't mean Buck wasn't attracted to Tommy. No one is saying that's what it means. He dated the guy. Clearly he was attracted to some degree. Tommy will always be the first. He just was never intended to be that last. Listen to his breakup speech to Buck. His dialogue in that scene was his entire reason for being. Buck figuring out the Eddie of it all doesn't erase Tommy. It just allows Buck to understand what Tommy already knew. Eddie is his person. Eddie is his last. And for Eddie, Buck is the exception to Tommy's 'your first isn't usually your last' statement. They gave Tommy that line of dialogue so Buck could counter it with his statement about sometimes your first can be your last. Eddie is Buck's last. Buck will be Eddie's first and last. It was the entire point of the break-up dialogue. The show has made this all very easy and obvious to follow. Genuinely not understanding how to read subtext is one thing, that happens and we can explain those things for people. But clearly understanding what you're watching and choosing to pretend you don't get it is an entirely different thing and it's weird. It's a very weird game to choose to play.

Thank you Nonny!

Yeah I agree with Ali here. This was always about Eddie, which is what a lot of us have been saying since day one of bi Buck and BT. 😏

Tommy even says it before he kisses Buck: "My attention?" He knew exactly that Buck wasn't trying to get his attention, but Eddie's. He still chose to kiss him, knowing that there was no real future in it. Tommy was never that deep in with Buck because he knew that their time was limited.

And just like that he fulfilled his plot device goal. That's all there is to it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[crosbyism]

okay this might be a helluva ask but i literally somehow don't know about any of the cursed hockey player sex knowledge????? i would very much appreciate elaboration on all of them, or if that's too much, you pick the Big Ones new people should know about pls pls?

wow, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t at least heard about steers and queers! let me help you out.

so i’ve been answering questions about a fair amount of the chart’s contents over the past twelve hours, so i’ll cover here what i haven’t answered an ask about yet

—tsegs steers and queers. possibly the most iconic hockey tweet of all time. at the time it was interpreted as a homophobic thing but a couple years later the common consensus was that tyler seguin tried to come out and the whole thing failed hard. hilariously, he was used as an example of what not to tweet at the jets dev camp a couple years later.

— jabenn bunchmox gate. Jamie Benn doesn’t eat pussy. he got made fun of for it, deservedly so, even by brazzers, the porn site.

—ladeskog bachelor party foreheard dildo. the bottom left gif. that was at an airport on the way, too, iirc.

—speaking of unicorns, here’s a bonus for you: jack eichel unicorn princess.

—zdeno chara bondage bed. zdeno chara is the now-retired former captain of the boston bruins before patrice bergeron got the C. He was pretty famous for having one of the few nhl exemptions for stick length, mostly because he was absolutely enormous. must’ve been a custom bed for the height alone, and, well, i guess for other things too.

—hallsy gucci4anal. this was when he was a sophomore on the edmonton oilers when they were bad, pre-mcdavid. so before he was much good, and mostly when he was being goofy on twitter. bonus: breeding material 💪

—canonical big dick henrik lundqvist. this is from sean avery’s autobiography, who played in the nhl for 12 years on multiple teams (and with a lot of big names!) and was known for being a pretty big shit stirrer. he has a rule named after him, and originated the concept of goalie interference, more or less. henrik lundqvist is now known mostly for being a pundit, but before he retired him and carey pricey traded off for the title of “best goalie in the league” for like a decade.

—possibly canonical big dick jaromir jagr.

—captain spreadsheet. so deuxmoi is this celeb gossip site that has blind items every now and again. normal shit. the thing is that (for the usual gossip site standards) they’re known to have pretty accurate sources and their info is usually good. about as credible as that kind of thing can be. so sometime i wanna say in like… summer of 2023? they got this blind item that they posted on insta. this screenshot wasn’t the whole thing; there was a couple others that mentioned the time frame and a couple of other details. in the end, there was a lot of speculation and jokes about it. there was never an official consensus about who it was, but i know a lot of people believe it was jonathan toews.