#this happens at least three different times btw

[copperbadge]

how do you/have you handled Fandom Micro-Fame re: dating, especially people you meet through apps? I dither enough about whether/when to even mention fandom to new non-fannish people! and I'd imagine that letting new people know you've written some very popular fics & having thousands of tumblr followers would look different than casually mentioning your audience to your therapist, for example :P (this is purely curiosity about your position if you're open to talking about it, btw - not looking for advice!)

In all honesty, until last year no attempt I made at online dating ever got that far. I rarely got a swipe on the apps, and usually when I did it was either someone cheating on their partner or, memorably, someone wanting to play out their fetish fantasy nonconsensually (this happened at least twice that I recall). It never got to the point where you'd talk about that kind of thing. In the rare cases I met someone in brickspace and dated, which last happened in grad school, I didn't talk about it -- but partly that's because at that time I had three thousand readers, not thirty thousand.

Lucky in fanfic, unlucky in love :)

The person I'm currently seeing most often knows that I have a blog with a large readership but hasn't asked any further; I only mentioned it to them because I felt comfortable giving further details if they did ask. This is very much a friends with benefits type of situation (by mutual agreement) so I assume it's something we either won't discuss or something that will arise organically. In a way it's fortunate that they're also dealing with a certain level of micro-fame as someone who is prominent in their professional field, so they're not particularly weirded out by my situation just as I'm not weirded out by theirs; they're also familiar enough with fandom not to find it an alien landscape.

Generally speaking I keep fandom and brickspace somewhat separate, though that line has blurred more in the last five years or so. I don't really bring up fandom to family or non-fannish friends, and the friends I made beginning in fandom I now have strong connections to outside of fandom, so they're not Fandom Friends, they're friends I just met online. While fandom is obviously important to me, it's not something I really feel I need to tell people about unless I get an inkling they'd actually be interested.

It's just kind of a non-issue for me, which probably isn't very satisfying as an answer. I talk about fandom with fannish folk, and I talk about other stuff with non-fannish folk. If I feel like someone would understand the crossover I let it happen organically, but especially in dating I just haven't dated enough to develop any kind of policy about it.

[they-thespian666]

Cringetober day 24: niche interest

Old Betty boop cartoons my beloved <333

She has the fuck around and find out spirit within her

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[kakusu-shipping]

I’m making this post for me for my brain for my sorting little thinker

The Ideal Polycule is of course made up of three different Self Ships, of which have their own separate S/Is with different dynamics and personalities. I, the real human person who smooches the full polycule, am sort of the combination of the three of them.

This is just a quick summery post of them as separate S/Is and their story as it currently is in their own Universe. I don’t know how to summarize things so forgive me I’m long winded.

Does any of that make sense? No? Cool keep scrolling. If you somehow understood that and want to know more, keep reading. Uh also Spoilers for Assassination Classroom and Danganronpa

Doctor Emile Hides - Assassination Classroom

Age: 20-21

Gender: Agender - He/Him

Sexuality: Panromantic, Asexual

Self Shipped with: Koro-Sensei

Other Affiliations: Karasuma + Irina (Friends), All of class 3-E (Students)

Most Prominent Traits:

Klutzy

Comically Bad at Cooking

Still learning Japanese

Arrives Late to most everything

Classic “boy genius” trope levels of Smart

Emile came to be the stand in Nurse for class 3-E soon after their return from Okinawa, where his medical knowledge would have surely been useful during the poisoning incident. It was a decision made by Karasuma, and urged by Koro-Sensei. The kids do some dangerous stuff, they could use an on sight professional.

He is not an assassin, nor does he plan to try his hand at killing Koro-Sensei, he’s just a collage student studying abroad who was picked up by Asano as a “good enough” for E Class.

Immediately he was fascinated by Koro-Sensei, or “Koro-San” as he calls him, and began doing his best to study the unkillable teacher in between bandaging students. Emile’s focus was Biology, and he eventually filled an entire notebook with questions and drawings about Koro-Sensei and, without much thought, presented it too the teacher, asking if he’d be willing to answer them.

Koro-Sensei agreed, filling out most of the questions in the notebook.. in Kanji. Which Emile couldn’t read. He also swore the Doctor not to show the book to anyone else, which Emile had agreed too. This was Koro-Sensei’s way of helping Emile learn Japanese.

The two spent a lot of time together after that, Koro-Sensei offering to tutor Emile in Japanese after class, which eventually lead to Koro-Sensei flying Emile home most nights, as they’d study so long in the faculty room Emile would miss the last train home.

Emile eventually confesses his romantic feelings for Koro-Sensei after soon after Reaper Time, and while Koro-Sensei is hesitant for multiple reasons, the two end up an official couple, which Koro-Sensei then cannot keep to himself and blabs about to the entire class.

During Winter Break Emile stays with Koro-Sensei in the empty Class E building, and studying possible ways to keep him from self destructing. This becomes his obsession until mid February on his birthday when Koro-Sensei finally convinces him to put it down and spend what time they have left together.

Emile wasn’t on the mountain during Koro-Sensei’s final moments, he’s not an assassin, he couldn’t evade the military like the students. Instead he called Nakamura to his apartment the night the students where infiltrating the mountain and asked her to deliver to Koro-Sensei his Birthday Cake, the first successful thing Emile had ever cooked.

Post timeskip Emile has settled into being a school nurse, specifically at the High school Nagisa has come to teach at. He joins class 3-E in cleaning up the mountain every year on Koro-Sensei’s birthday, and brings homemade sweets for them every year.

The Ultimate Collector V2 - Danganronpa 3 (Despair Arc)

Age: 16-18 (unclear)

Gender: Trans Man - He/Him

Sexuality: Frayromantic, Asexual

Self Shipped with: Teruteru Hanamura

Other Affiliations: The Ultimate Collector V1 (twin brother), Hifumi + Celeste Chihiro + Kazuichi + Sonia + Gundham + Chiaki (Friends)

Most Prominent Traits:

Socially Anxious to the point of occasional Mutism

Picky Eater

Comically bad sense of direction

Has everything one could ever need in his bag at all times

Very OCD and protective of his things

Emile is a very quiet, shy, introverted person who, upon being separated from his twin brother, tended to keep to himself as much as possible and blend into the background. Being an Ultimate at Hope’s Peak didn’t really matter to him, he’d preferred to stay in his room with all his things nearby.

Moving to the dorms on campus was extra hard for Emile. Despite his title as the Ultimate collector the school didn’t allow him to bring his entire collection with him. Being so far away from all his favorite things was just too much stress for Emile, causing him to shut down even more than he would have already.

Teruteru Hanamura was the only one in the class to notice Emile didn’t eat lunch and took the responsibility to keep his classmate fed into his own hands. Despite Emile’s blatant refusal to speak, he didn’t mind being spoken to, leading to Teruteru to slowly, through questions and trials and errors, to learn what things Emile could and couldn’t eat as he shared his lunch with his fellow student every day.

Teruteru got use to one sided conversations. He took pleasure in cracking a smile on Emile’s face with his jokes, or when he’d say something so awful the quiet student couldn’t stop himself from unfurling to give him a slap on the shoulder. The first time Emile had the courage to speak to Teruteru sent him over the moon.

Emile only got better through Teruteru’s friendship. Despite being easily everyone’s least favorite classmate, Teruteru was still able to worm himself and Emile into group activities, forcing the collector into social situations that slowly opened him up to the rest of the class.

The next year, when Emile’s brother joined the 78th class as The Ultimate Collector Again, Emile found himself opening up even more, mingling between both classes along with Teruteru. Even joining an anime club his brother, Hifumi, and Celeste had started. 

When the biggest most awful most tragic event in human history struck, Emile fell into Despair along side the rest of his class, but instead of becoming an ultimate despair like them, folded in on himself again, shutting down into himself, becoming an immobile shell of a person.

Teruteru ended up taking Emile with him as he caused destruction and despair throughout the world, taking care of the other like a doll. At some point, due to his new cannibalistic habits, Teruteru safely removed and ate one of Emile’s legs.

Because of this, during the hope Program, Emile was considered more of a victim than an Ultimate Despair, and was not put into the simulation with the other students, but acted as more of a beta test to see if the system could work to recover the rest of his class from despair. During the events of the game Emile watches along side Future Foundation, waiting for his friends to come back to him.

Home-Run Hero; Gumball - My Hero Academia

Age: 29

Gender: Agender - He/She

Sexuality: Panromantic, Asexual, Polyamourus

Self Shipped with: Taishiro Toyomitsu (Fatgum)

Other Affiliations: Tamaki Amajiki + Eijiro Kirishima + Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu + Momo Yoayorozu + Nirengeki Shoda (Adopted kids), Kendo Rappa (Taishi’s Stalker/Eventual addition to the polycule)

Quirk: Bubblegum - Gumball’s saliva has all the properties of Bubblegum. Upon being blown into a bubble, the gum will harden into a hard plastic ball, typically  around the size of a baseball.

Most Prominent Traits:

Affectionately a Bully

Extremely Agile

Will eat almost anything without question

Avid PDA offender on both Taishiro and their kids

Weak to Heat

Emile and Taishiro were classmates at Shiketsu High, their relationship started on one of annoyance, as Emile was far too touchy and nosy for Taishiro at the time. Emile sat in front of Taishiro, and took every spare moment to spin around and pester him with questions about himself, class, his quirk, the other students, and so on.

During their first sparring session, Taishiro was rather excited to have teacher’s permission to beat on the annoying kid who sat in front of him. However, due to his poor quirk management back in the day, Taishiro didn’t have near as much fat built up as he does now, and ended up on his ass at Emile’s hand multiple times.

After that, Emile was constantly offering Taishiro things to eat. Every time he turned around to talk to him in class, he’d come with something tasty and some tips on preserving fat cells. It took a while, but Taishiro eventually realized this was Emile’s attempts at being nice, in his own, slightly annoying ways, and slowly the two became real friends. Though Emile thought they were already besties.

Shiketsu is a very strict school, the students are to focus on their Hero Studies; No dating, no extra curriculars, strict curfews, ridged dorm expectations. Breaking the rules could risk immediate expulsion. But despite it all Emile ran free, broke curfew and snuck in and out whenever he pleased, typically dragging Taishiro along with him. He joined a local Baseball team without the school’s permission, and invited Taishiro to all his games. He had sleep over’s in his classmate’s rooms, and slept in the common area, and his contraband all throughout the dorms. The only rule he hadn’t actively broken was no dating.

Taishiro, slowly, found himself being thankful for that, because if that rule wasn’t in place, he’d asked Emile out right then and there. And if he’d found out his friend was dating someone, or asked someone out, Taishiro wasn’t sure his heart would ever recover.

Upon becoming Pro Heroes, Emile and Taishiro went their separate ways for a while. Emile falling more into the “Idol Hero” roll, as he joined a professional Quick Baseball League, where as Taishiro kept their high school streak of rule breaking alive and became an Undercover Hero breaking up fight clubs and chasing drug dealers under the radar. This is where most of their 20′s were spent.

They kept well in touch, back and forth whenever their schedules lined up, which was rare and always brief. Taishiro got better at saving up fat for his quirk, Emile became more and more of a heavy hitter, they grew older and wiser from their high school days of breaking out of the dorms at night, and eventually Emile confessed to Taishiro.

Soon after he joined the Fatgum agency, still playing Clean Up hitter for his own Baseball League, but mostly slowing down steadily into Hero Work, and apparently parenting as the Fatgum agency gains more and more interns every year.

[just-a-little-unionoid]

currently realising with horror that if I want any fanfiction of the French Zorro TV adaptation to exist I will have to write it myself...

[kimikitti]

In honor of the new Book 7 part I present to you all the right and honorable Lord Calibearn the Pretender. Briar Valley's premier overworked government employee.

Former court jester turned Royal Advisor, he's wrangled almost three generations of Draconia royalty in vastly different ways. He's twisted from the forest animals in sleeping beauty taking over the Prince's coat. Yes, he is made up of a bunch of animals in a fancy stuffed outfit. There's a lore dump below the cut

Unique magic: "Flock Together"- Allows user to control and manipulate groups of small animals. Advanced application allows conscious transfer of the soul

Background:

Calibearn came from a relatively poor background in Briar Valley. He used to sing and play the lute for some extra coin on the streets. When the Royal Court held a competition for a new jester, Calibearn decided to try out. He was successful on account for the unique harmonies he could conjure with forest animals and was appointed as a companion to a young princess Malenoar. It was through this that Calibearn met Raverne and Lilia.

War: (I'm not too set on his lore yet) During the invasion of the Silver Owl, Calibearn was taken hostage trying to evacuate civilians. He was never supposed to be near the front lines, due to his weak nature. While in captivity, Calibearn was forced to give up his original form and escape using his unique magic "Flock Together".

He never found his original body.

Upon his return, Calibearn took on a more ruthless political role under the senate. His sharp tongue and wit led to a meteoric rise in political circles (plus a shit ton of blackmail).

During the seige of Malenoar's castle, Calibearn was faced with a terrible choice. Send more troups to defend Malenoar or move the supplies to secure civilians. He made a choice he'll never forgive himself for.

Relationships:

Malenoar: On account of a shared childhood, they were quite close. Malenoar would frequently tease Cali about his shyness when they were young. Calibearn also entertained the princess with the sordid affairs that happen amongst the nobles in her court. Calibearn was also involved in a lot of the mischief Maleanoar would pull on potential suitors.

Lilia: Calibearn developed a minor crush on Lilia growing up. He holds Lilia in very high regard. After the war, Calibearn and Lilia's relationship deteriorates. Lilia, though still believing in Calibearn as a friend, cannot forgive him for abandoning Maleanoar. Calibearn doesn't believe that Lilia is wrong about that, but also refuses to explain himself. While Lilia is banished, Calibearn constantly petitions the Senate for a repeal of his punishment. He continues to support Lilia indirectly and would often send gifts for Silver through Malleus.

After nearly centuries of healing, Lilia wants to finally have an open conversation of Calibearn about the past. Calibearn runs away from this constantly. Much to the chagrin of literally everyone involved.

Malleus: Due to the fact that the Senate sucks and Lilia was not often allowed to see Malleus, Calibearn self appointed himself to be a tutor and mentor to the young prince. He would often help Malleus sneak out to see Lilia. He wanted the prince to at least have some semblance of a childhood.

Calibearn was not always the best role model at times. He taught Malleus how to curse like a sailor once and got his ass kicked by Lilia. Though he is fond of Malleus, Calibearn felt himself to be a temporary figure in prince's life. The guilt he carried made Calibearn feel that his love for the prince paled in comparison to the love Lilia could give. As such, he kept some amount of distance between him and Malleus.

Malleus on the other hand, grew to respect Calibearn as a mentor. Though that doesn't stop the prince from teasing Calibearn at every opportunity. (Btw the I love DILF mug is from Malleus, Cali has no idea what DILF means no one tell him.) Also, Malleus is constantly trying to get is divorced dads back together. Silver gets enlisted into this fight on account for him being the youngest and cutest.

[trippinsorrows]

10 things + part two

authors note: wasn't expecting so many of you to be interested in this! but, you were, and now here we are! 😅 there will definitely be a final part 3 to this, btw.

words: 3.1k

part one

gif belongs to @romanreigns

warnings: angst, argument between parent and child, things get a tad bit physical....

Nova has always enjoyed and cherished Roman being home. For a lot of reasons. Many of them obvious, like the fact that he’s her husband, the man she loves, the man she wants to be around. Or even just the relief that comes with having another adult in the home to help out with the girls while she works. 

So him having time off work the past few months really has made a difference. For her. For their marriage. And especially for his relationship with their young daughters.

If only the same could be said for his relationship with their firstborn.

Which is exactly what she plans to tackle when he walks back in the room after putting the girls down for bed.

“How many stories did they sucker out of you?”

Roman chuckles at the first question he’s hit with as soon as he returns from bedtime duties. “Only three this time.”

She smiles, watching him close the door and walk over to where she sits on her knees in the middle of the bed. “Park must have worn them out.”

He makes a sound, starting to eye her up and down. Nova knows that look. Knows it far too well. It’s the same look that most likely led to both her pregnancies with their middle and youngest. “Speaking of wearing out…..”

She rolls her eyes when he reaches for her chin, lifting her head. “We need to talk.”

“Not gonna lie, not really in the mood for talking. Not with this little piece you got on….” He gestures to the thin sleep dress that shows off her breast and hardened nipples that are stretched against the cotton. 

“Too bad.” She ignores him, patting the spot beside her. “Come on.”

The scowl on his face is comical, similar to any of the kids when they’ve just been told something they don’t want to hear. “It better be important.”

“It is,” she promises. One of the most important things in his life. 

Roman looks at her, gaze shifting into something suspicious. “You pregnant?”

She rolls her eyes. “No, Roman, I’m not pregnant.” Nova taps her upper forearm. “Remember? We made sure that doesn’t happen again. At least not without being planned.” He looks both relieved and torn. Relatable. Neither of them necessarily want any more children, but they also wouldn’t be upset if it happened. “Besides, we need to focus on the ones we have. Starting with Junior.”

And instantly, she knows she’s lost his interest. “Not this again—”

“Yes, this again.” She stresses, borderline irritated that he’s irritated that she wants to discuss his abysmal relationship with their firstborn. “He’s your son, Roman. You need to fix your relationship with him.”

“Nova, we both know that boy doesn't want anything to do with me.”

She shakes her head. “That’s not true.”

He runs his hands through his hair, expressing 100% disagreement. “He acts like he hates me or something.”

Though it’s said with surface level irritation, Nova knows her husband well. Has known him since they were teenagers, so it’s relatively easy for her to see through his facade. His statement holds a lot of hurt.

A lot of pain.

“He doesn’t, baby,” she comforts, reaching to push back some of his hair. He has it down, free and wavy just how she prefers it. “He’s just—-he……he feels like he can’t talk to you.”

Roman is quick to object. “He doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“No, he doesn’t want to talk to you if you’re not going to listen to him, and you don’t sometimes, Roman.”

Nova loves her husband as much as she’s certain he loves her, but he can be hard headed and stubborn. Borderline arrogant, especially when he believes he’s right. A hard person to deal with. At times, at least.

She watches the way Roman’s shoulders relax a bit as he lets down some of his walls, admitting, “I just don’t want him to make the same mistakes I did.”

Nova moves and hugs him from behind, chin on his shoulder. “I get that, babe, but he’s going to make mistakes, regardless, because he’s a kid. That’s how they learn.”

“But, why should I just sit here and watch my son go down the same road I did if I can avoid it?”

And herein lies the main issue from what Nova has been able to see. The vastly different stances the two men in her life have regarding one of their futures. RJ wants to enter the NFL draft next year, wants to get started on his career now rather than later. Believes that’s the best route for him. Roman, however, wants his son to finish school and then declare for the draft. 

To avoid having the tough experiences Roman had in not getting drafted and being added and cut from team to team, putting the family in financial difficulties because of inconsistent income. Roman couldn’t even provide for his family at that time, a devastating feeling for anyone, let alone a man.

RJ, clearly, is in a different boat. Regardless, with no college degree, Roman didn’t have much to lean back on. He doesn’t want that for his son.

If only Junior saw it that way.  

“Because you can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to do.” She sighs, sharing her own thoughts. “I don’t disagree with you, Roman. I think he should stay and finish school and then enter the draft too, but I can’t make that decision for him, and neither can you.”

“So we just let him make bad decisions? Is that what you’re saying?” She closes her eyes. Here they go. “Fuck that. I know you like to be his friend, but you’re not, Nova. You’re his mother, and you need to act like it.”

“Excuse me?” She moves away, removing her arms from around him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you don’t like confrontation, so you avoid it by any means, even if it means upholding his bad behavior.”

Nova doesn’t really get angry or let things affect her much. Unless it comes to her family. To her kids. And Roman happens to be picking at that soft spot. “No, you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to make it seem like I’m a bad mother for supporting our son.”

He rolls his eyes. “Not everything needs to be supported.”

“And not everything needs to be judged either.” She shakes her head, climbing off the bed. “This is the shit I’m talking about. It’s like I can’t even talk to you anymore.” Nova heads for their bathroom, already over this conversation. She loves Roman, but sometimes, she can’t stand him.

And this is gradually turning into one of those times. 

Roman is hot on her heels, standing in the doorway as she starts to pull out her skincare items. “See, you’re proving my point. You’re walking away.”

She turns to him, explaining boldly. “I’m walking away because I don’t want to argue with you. I’m tired of that, and you should be too, which is why I’m trying to get you to make peace with your only son.”

Of course, he continues playing the victim, going along with his swan song. “Why should I have to do it? Why should I have to apologize for looking out for him? For being his father?”

“He doesn’t see it that way, Roman. He sees it as you being controlling.”

“No, he just doesn’t want anyone telling him what to do.”

Nova scoffs, grabbing her face cream, twisting off the cap. “Wonder where he gets that from.”

She doesn’t have to be looking at him to know he’s scowling. “He’s not a little boy anymore. You need to stop fucking babying him all the time.”

At that, her head snaps in his direction. “Excuse me?” Again, poking the bear. “I don’t baby him. I make myself available for him emotionally. Lord knows, you don’t.”

“He doesn’t want me—”

Nova slams the jar down on the counter, turning to him. “What does he want, Roman? Huh?” She places one hand on the counter and the other on her hip. “When’s the last time you even asked him?”

He looks away, jaw clenched, and she knows she’s got him. Knows that he has no retort for that. Not a good one, at least. 

“You know what, I’m done asking you to do shit.” She steps toward him, all of the weight and stress of this situation evident in both her expression and voice. “I’m telling you to make things right with our son.”

Nova takes his hands in hers. “I love you, but I love our children more.” She swallows, emotion betraying her, eyes watering. “And if it ever came to it where it’s between them and you….I choose them every time.”

—--------

“We need to talk.”

Nova is barely back in the kitchen after getting the girls down for bed when the smile is easily wiped off her previously happy face. She glances over at her husband and then her son, both standing on separate sides of the kitchen island. She can tell RJ was about to head out, clearly uninterested in staying beyond his attendance for Sunday family dinner.

A part of her wants to cut in, wants to suggest that maybe they do this another time. Maybe over lunch between the two of them. Someplace where they’re less likely to have an epic blowout.

But, it’s too late.

RJ visibly tenses at Roman’s statement. An obvious reaction given the fact that rarely do good things follow those four infamous words. 

“About?” 

“You still planning to enter the draft?”

RJ shrugs. “Yeah.”

Roman is quiet for a second, stroking his beard. “You know that’s stupid, right?”

Nova closes her eyes. Such a great start. “Roman.”

RJ, however, just smiles and crosses his arms. “Of course, you think it’s stupid. Not like anyone else can have a good idea if it didn’t come from you.”

Roman ignores that, instead suggesting, “you need to finish school first. Get your degree.”

“Why?” RJ’s nose is turned up in disgust. “We all know I’m locked in to be a first round pick.”

“That’s what you think. It’s not guaranteed.” Roman objects, advising, “don’t get too cocky.”

At that, RJ looks like he wants to laugh. “You’re telling me that?” He scoffs. “You’re the last one to talk.”

“Junior.” Nova scolds, now standing almost directly next to Roman. “I think what your dad is trying to say—”

“How much longer you think I’m gonna keep putting up with your disrespectful ass mouth, huh?” Roman cuts her off, and Nova finds herself reaching over to grab his hand. His tone alone tells her his anger is spiking, and that’s never a good thing. Especially right now. “Keep it up.”

And the situation is only made worse when Junior starts to laugh. Nova closes her eyes. This is not what she meant when she told Roman to make things right.

He’s doing the exact opposite. 

Roman’s nose is flared, his voice tight as he he asks, “what’s so fucking funny?”

“You.” RJ doesn’t hesitate to answer, hands flat on the granite as he leans over the island. “How all of a sudden you wanna be my dad. How you all of a sudden wanna act like you care about me. Act like you care about my future. Act like you didn’t miss almost, if not all, of my games when I was growing up.”

Nova’s stomach is starting to twist and knot. “RJ—”

But, he only continues. Pain and anger meshing and forming into a dangerous combination. “Mama was there. Every game. You weren’t.” Nova glances over at Roman and sees the same mix of feelings from their son in him. “You weren’t there for me then, so you don’t get to be there for me now.” 

Closing her eyes, she does her best to quickly try to figure out what’s the best thing to say. To try to defuse this situation that’s clearly much deeper than she could have ever realized. 

But, Roman is faster. “You act like I was this piece of shit dad who was never around at all.” And just like with her son, she sees and hears it with the senior of the two. Anger and hurt. And pride. “I had to work to provide for you and your mother. You don’t get to throw that shit in my face when you’re older and use it to play the victim.”

Neither. Neither of them clearly know how to communicate without slinging mud. Without sharing how they feel minus the petty jabs and cheap shots. 

RJ only scoffs, seemingly unbothered. “Whatever.”

Roman leans his head back and rolls his shoulder. “RJ, I’m telling you right now, you leave school early and shit doesn’t work out, I’m cutting you off.”

Nova would have loved to have seen her son’s reaction to that, but she’s too busy looking at her husband with all the shock instead. They never discussed that. And she’s pissed off that he would even bring it up without even consulting her about it.

“Roman, you’re being—”

He ignores her, continuing to direct his warning to their son. “You wanna act grown. You can deal with whatever those consequences are.”

RJ shakes his head, Nova finally looking over at him. She can see it. So much hurt. “So what, I don’t do what you want, and I don’t get to be your son anymore?”

Roman snaps, raising his voice. “You don’t want to be my son now, so what fucking difference does it make?” 

“Roman!” She can’t believe he would say that, can’t believe he could ever fix his mouth to express such a thing to his own flesh and blood. It turns her stomach a little bit. Truly. “Don’t say—”

“It’s alright, mama. That’s who he is. It’s who he’s always been.” The betrayal is seeping through as RJ directs his comment toward her instead of Roman who only continues to look with that same combination of heavy emotions. “I don’t even know why you're still with him” Nova is already at a loss for words at how bad this has gotten, but nothing could have prepared her for what he says next. “Should have left his ass the minute you found out he cheated on you.”

Silence.

Nova’s gaze switches to Roman who seems just as taken back as she feels. How RJ is aware of this, she has no idea. Nor does she know just how much he knows about what really occurred and the complexity of the situation. But, that’s neither here nor there. Because she’s got a whole other issue to handle that’s created with Roman’s next statement. 

“Get the hell out of my house.”

Her eyes snap shut again. 

Shit.

She reaches for his arm. “Roman….”

“No!” He snaps. At her. At RJ. At the situation as a whole that’s reached a higher level of disaster than she could have ever anticipated. “He thinks he knows every fucking thing. Wants to be a man. So let him be a fucking man!”

This is not what their son needs. Far from it. “Roman!”

“Naw, he’s right, mama! I don’t need him!” Her attention switches to her son, who much like his father, is doing a damn good job hiding his hurt at this entire thing. Hiding the open, gaping emotional wound. “I can take care of myself!”

“So do it!” Roman continues, completely honed in on his emotions instead of the logic Nova is trying to desperately instill and impart on them both right now. “Get your own fucking car! Pay your own fucking tuition!” 

“I will!” He yells back. “Acting like this your house when everybody knows mama was the one taking care of your broke ass and everything else until your career kicked off!”

“RJ! That is enough.” All of this has gone too far. “I know you’re upset, but he’s still your fath—”

“He’s nothing to me!” Nova feels like she’s in some sort of simulated reality. One where every single one of her worst fears comes to life and haunts her. Or, maybe that would be more enjoyable than this. “He’s just a narcissistic ass—”

Nova has never had fast reflexes. Ever. Two left feet, poor hand eye coordination. The whole nine yards, but there’s nothing slow about the way in which she jumps in front of Roman who starts to lunge toward their son with nothing good in mind.

Nothing good at all.

“No!” She shouts, hands on his chest, knowing that it’s certainly not her strength restraining him. It’s the fact that he clearly doesn’t want to hurt her. “Roman, no! Please!”

“Let him go! Let him do it!”

“RJ! Shut up now!” Nova snaps, directing some of her own simmering anger to her son. She feels for him, sees the hurt hiding behind the anger, but enough is enough. He’s out of line. 

“Why?” He continues. And Nova is really starting to wonder if he took something, because this is not the son she knows. The child she raised. She never taught or allowed him to be this disrespectful. “You know I’m right! Even uncle Jey said it! Dad is a bit—”

Nova is barely able to process what’s happening until she’s stumbling to the side, Roman having bypassed her. She’s only able to see the moment he shoves RJ who stumbles and falls back, just not on the ground. 

No. A single, small cry pierces the air and causes all three of them to pause, even if for the briefest second.

“Mommy!” Arabella’s cry of pain is slightly muffled under RJ’s heavy body as he quickly moves to roll off his little sister whose face is turned up in pain, her arms reaching out for a source of comfort.

Roman looks devastated. RJ is mortified, and Nova can only rush over to her daughter, quickly lifting and holding her, gently cradling her head as Bella cries into her.

“Mom, I’m sor—”

“No!” Nova snaps. Enough. She’s just had enough. “Both of you get the hell out of my house!”

Roman swallows and steps forward, eyes focused on Bella’s little body as she sobs into Nova’s neck. “Bella—”

“I said I want you out!” She reaffirms, stepping toward her son whose anger has melted away into a stirring pot of guilt. “You come back when you find your goddamn brain.” Angling her body toward her husband, to the man she’s spent so much of her formative years and life with, feeling for the first time in a long time, nothing but disgust. “And you?” Nova is almost certain she feels the moment her heart breaks as she says those infamous words. “Don’t come back at all.”

[nix-writes-mcyt]

Can you write some fluff/comfort xisuma? Been wanting some more cute and cosy fics for him but so few write them <3 love your writing btw! Long time lurker<3

Sorry it took a little while anon, but the fic is now here. Enjoy!

Business Man

Oneshot Contains: nothing but Fluff -----------------

You wander into the trophy shop, hoping to find Xisuma. You're behind on three trophies now, and it's not because you haven't sent in your diamonds.

In fact, turns out your mail was getting lost, to and from your home. Etho and Tango will be out to fix it soon, but it depends when they have the time. Thankfully Etho had dropped off all the lost mail at the Post Office, where Pearl had sorted it out and called you to pick it all up. The unfortunate thing was that the lost mail included the multiple parcels sent to Xisuma that didn't arrive.

So here you are, in his shop, hoping he is too. "X?" You call out, but there is no response. The trophies sit on their display pedestals, almost mocking you. Or at least they could be in a different world, but they're only trophies and that was a silly thought.

"X?" You call again, this time hearing a soft thud come from the wall. You take a few more steps into the room and look at some of the bigger trophies.

"This feels like a scam now that I think about it." You stare at the trophies and they stare back. It's definitely mocking. Trophies you earn diamonds to get.. and spend diamonds to get. "I can assure you it isn't." You turn quickly at the sound of Xisuma's voice, and sure enough there he stands. He's just barely in the room, coming from some hidden door.

"Oh, I didn't.. you know, mean it like that. I just meant that you're, well, a" the words are already barely pieced together but finding the end of the sentence is not easy. "I'm an entrepreneur. A business man, if you will." You see the gleam in his eyes through his visor. "Yes.. that." You reply, "a business man. A man of business. Xisuma." You're feeling even more flustered by the minute, the fact he's closing in on you only increasing that feeling.

"I heard you had some mail that got lost, did you come to deliver it personally?" His voice is so smooth and confident you find yourself completely at a loss for words. So you just nod, pulling the envelopes from your inventory. He holds out his hand, leaning just a little closer as he does. You swallow hard as you place the mail in his possession, at this point just trying to have the moment over and done with.

"Let me go sort this out for you, won't be a second." With that he's gone. You can breathe again. You look around the room, the trophies sparkling under their lights, the product of a business man. A man who has somehow taken your diamonds and apparently your heart.

Now your reaction seems silly, and you hope he didn't notice.

Soon enough he reappears, box in hand. "I've got your trophy, you'll have to be careful with this box though. Don't do anything too adventurous as this ones quite fragile." He places the box on the floor next to you. "Don't worry, I didn't make any plans because I knew it would be." Xisuma moves to lean against the pedestal opposite you, silence settling in.

Then he speaks up. "Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to do something? You don't have to, I just thought maybe you and I could go for a walk.. or visit the zoo or maybe something else?" Any smoothness or confidence he had earlier? Gone. Yet he remains just as charming. "Like a date?" The words just come out of your mouth before you have time to stop them.

"Yeah, well no. Unless you want it to be?" You think about it for a second. Is this actually happening? You were not expecting to be asked on a date. "I wouldn't mind a date." Is all you manage to say.

Xisuma steps forward, offering his arm to you. You take it, heart pounding in your chest. This is both exciting and terrifying. "Let's go then." You can hear his smile, the two of you leaving the shop immediately.

You walk down to the river with very little said between you, just enjoying the moment. As much as you can anyway, it's not like your nerves are in shreds or anything. Xisuma doesn't seem to mind the lack of conversation though, or at least if he does mind he says nothing.

The two of you walk for what seems like forever, even though it can't have been more than an hour. Almost a full lap of the shopping district has been done, but you both find a well needed place to sit down and rest. Conveniently for the two of you Keralis' Lake not only has seats, but a nice view and some shade.

You both settle on a bench, Xisuma leaning into you a little when you put your arm around him. "This has been nice." He mumbles. "It has. And I've not been robbed blind by your devious business tactics." You joke, earning a small laugh from Xisuma.

"Just because you kept your diamonds doesn't mean I haven't gained something of value." You can't help but smile, knowing he's speaking about the time spent with you.

The sunlight dances on the waters surface, which does remind you of your trophy. Your trophy which you left in Xisuma's shop. It's not a big deal, it gives you another excuse to see him now. Perhaps that was his plan the whole time, you'll never know. Or maybe you will if he tell you.

Regardless, Xisuma is right. The time you've spent with him has been wonderful, even if most of it has been spent in silence. All you wanted was to bring in your lost mail, but you've come out with a nice date. That's a win in your eyes.

Xisuma reaches over and takes your free hand in his, sighing softly as he gets comfortable being held. Between the cuddle, the sound of the birds and the lake, it's truly peaceful. "I'd like to do this again sometime." He says. "I'll do it again under one condition." You reply quietly, "I'll do it again if you'll be mine?"

Xisuma lets out a breath of relief, "I was worried you'd ask for a discount, but that's a much better deal in my professional opinion." The two of you giggle before settling back down, to spend some more of your day cuddled up by the lake.

[star-dust-stuf]

Albert Shaw x period!reader

title: im a baby you're holding

warnings: descriptions of blood, nudity (not sexual), pain, fluff that will make your heart ache!

a/n: sorry not sorry, this is cute and I know I should've done a period comfort sooner. posted this at three am btw. as always sorry for typos, this has nothing to do with sex or abuse. enjoy babes.

-

It as rainy out, I could tell by the small window up by the ceiling of the basement, it was grey outside, the sky and the clouds gave me a feeling of home along with the smell of dirt. I was huddled against a corner of the basement, my knees to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, I was bleeding... Yes it is as it may seem. I moved to the cold uncomfy ground because God knows how Albert would respond if I had bled on the mattress.

Though the mattress is already quite dirty, I didn't want it to be blood. He could think so many things and one of them would be my self harm, he didn't believe me when I said I wanted to stay with him, at least not yet, and time again he'd show me how much he trusted me and id show how much I trusted him. But today was different, I was waiting for dinner, for him to unlock that door and see the bloody mess on the blood.

Would he get mad? Hed punish me by leaving me alone in the dark in which he knew I feared, but only time will tell how he'd react and I waited, my heart calm pounding in my chest. But then I heard that door unlock it fluttered like a moth, it wanted out. I flinched but kept my head down. He entered, he set the tray down on the hard floor and squatted down to my level, he was close I could hear his breathing through the mask.

He pet my hair, he hummed softly. "Hmh, bunny?"

I looked up my eyes teary and glossy as I did, his eye grew soft in his mask and looked down to the blood below us, I immediately felt the tension and guilt. He titled his head at this but didn't say anything about it. But he spoke once again.

"You've earned so much trust from me, I don't want you to be scared over something that is bound to happen." I couldn't help it, I started crying even more. He sighed and pulled me close. "Shh, I gotcha." He put my head on his chest, he rocked side to side gently.

"I suppose you'd want to get cleaned up?" I nodded a little, his voice became lighter like he was happy and almost amused. "Yeah?" I knew he was smiling under the mask.

He helped me up to my feet, it was clear I was sitting in the same spot for a while, my nightgown was soaked in blood. He walked to he basement door and opened it, he looked back at me. "Come on... I promise it's alright." 

I walked towards him and as we walked up the steps he kept his hands over my eyes, making sure I didn't trip over a step and made sure I walked to the bathroom without looking, I understood why he didn't want me to. There was a flick of a light switch and a closing of a door. He uncovered my eyes. I was in a bathroom, the toilet next to the sink and in front of the sink was the bath, he turned on the water. 

He put the plug in the drain, "I'll have to stay here with you while you bathe. I can't have you trying anything can I?" He patted my head.

I titled my head a little, he laughed at this. "Don't worry Bunny, I won't do anything you won't like. What's important is we get you clean." 

The water went, I was feeling a little shy, he sighed at this and spoke once again. "I'll be back. You get undressed and in the water."

He left the bathroom, I did what I was told. I got undressed and slipped into the hot water it made my body relax and I settled but I kept my knees pressed against my chest. He came back in with a new nightgown. "I suppose I can say I was prepared for this." 

He also had some new underwear for me... And a pad. I felt loved, so loved. He crouched down from the outside of the bath and grabbed a bar of soap. "Now, I can't do this unless you tell me it's alright." His voice was stern like he meant it.

"It's okay..." I said. He looked at me to double check it was really okay before he started to rub my back with the bar of soap, and brought it to the front of my chest on my collarbone. I slowly put my knees down. 

It's not like I felt uncomfortable but I was in a vulnerable state. He didn't want to make me uncomfortable nor did he have any intentions of it. He just made sure I got clean before getting my hair wet and he was trying to be very gentle, he's never done this before and it showed. I giggled a little and I saw his eyes look at me through his mask. 

He didn't say anything but I knew he smiled a little as he continued to wash my hair. He rinsed me and that's when he started speaking again. "Feel good?" His voice was light. 

I nod a little and once he got me rinces he stood up, putting his hands on his knees and he grabbed a towel... His towel from the wrack and held it open. "Let's get you dry." 

I stood up slowly, it was clear I was in some pain, he dried me gently and he me some privacy to get dressed and situated. Once I was done he sighed. "I understand... Cramps may be a problem."

I didn't say anything but he knew it was a very likely possibility and didn't need my word to take action. He held out his hand for me to take. Almost like you would a child, and I took it. He led me back to the basement and got me back on the mattress. 

He sighed, "I'll get you something for the pain." He whispered like he didn't want me to hear but at the same time he did.

When he came back he had a hot water bottle, he sat next to me again. "lay down." His voice is soft once again, I do so. He gently placed it on my lower tummy and rubbed the side of my hip. 

He didn't want to leave me alone, he felt so sad I had to stay down here in the dark, in pain. He knew periods weren't fun and he just had a spot in his heart to want to stay, so he did. He lied next to me but he didn't touch me, not wanting me to be uncomfortable but I didn't want him to think it would so I scooted closer to him.

I knew he was smiling a bit under his mask. He put his hand on my forehead and stroked me gently till I was able to relax from the pain and go to sleep.

And through the night he made sure that hot water bottle stayed warm, even if it meant him having to get up the stairs and all the way back down. 

He kissed my forehead and slept next to me, he was a light sleeper and when he heard me start to whine from the pain he immediately woke. "Oh. Shh, shh, shh." He cooed.

He stroked my cheek, he whispers gently. "Breathe, focus on my voice."

I sniffled, I was subconsciously holding onto his sleeve but he didn't mind. He smiled at how much he was able to help and he kissed and rested his lips on my forehead for about five seconds before rubbing my tummy gently. Making sure I fell asleep once again.

[palenutbasement]

(all scenes are depicted as platonic)

So every Inktober I try to do something more challenging, and this year I thought I would make a short comic/fanfic. I think I got the idea for this one a year ago but I was already wrapped up with another Inktober. Eventually I solidified the idea by making my own prompt list some time ago.

This comic is split into three parts with 10 days focusing on each of them, 30 in total, everything is compiled here. I wanted to post them after October in case I wanted to change anything.

This first part takes place in the summit.

The comic is basically all improvised, that means no planning for the composition, plot, or sketching any drawings. The most planning I did was write a few scripts ahead of time within the month to save me some time but most of them would be changed last minute anyways.

As for the plot, I won't go too deep into it because I don't want to talk too much, so you'll just find commentary on the making of the comic and stuff.

This first part is a little gimmick-y compared to the next two, with new elements appearing almost every day. It’s because I relied a lot on the prompts (dog, milk, etc.) to keep things happening, eventually I move further away from them.

What is surprising to me is how much the art changes as the days go by especially within the span of one month. I did refine a few things to keep it more consistent but this is nearly indistinguishable from the original drawings.

I should also mention that my favourite aspect of this project was adding references to the game and subtle details (if you can find it all, awesome!!) This may have been done quickly but I like to have those things and put at least a bit of effort into the dialogue.

Part 2

Eventually I figured that drawing the same setting for 30 days straight would drive me insane, hence why this comic is split like it is. I’m glad I did because it makes the story a little more interesting, seeing the characters have different attitudes in different places and whatnot.

This one takes place in the cave directly after pt 1. Admittedly I do better drawing outdoor settings, it's what I'm used to, but the cave wasn't so bad to figure out.

I remember these two days I was streaming drawing the comic to my friends, so I kinda zoned out while we were talking lol

One of the prompts was about napping, so I made Dwarf sleep. I believe I was tired that day too and it was therapeutic to draw and include that. Also they look cute, I think.

18 & 19 have some of my favourite drawings in the comic. The campfire lighting is what we'd get if I had a bit more energy each day, and I like the perspective in the first panel of 19.

I find this last section interesting, because of all the 30 days, it’s the only one in Dwarf’s POV. I felt like it was fitting to do something like that at the time.

Part 3

Since we were approaching Halloween, I wanted to have a special part for it. It’s related to the other two parts but it takes place some time after. I’m really sorry it’s out of season, if it were up to me I would have had this post out earlier (thank my midterms for the delay)

Out of all the other parts this one is my favourite. Maybe because it’s more recent I’m inclined to think that way but it has some of my fave moments that I've written here.

Other than that I don't have much commentary for this part. More thoughts at the end!

I was caught up everyday atp, but I didn’t have much spare time to prepare for the ending (I wrote it the morning of that day). I think this is a decent conclusion though.

I intend on coming back to this story, maybe next year to make a continuation but we'll see what happens. There are definitely things that I want to come back to someday.

Thank you for making it this far btw. It's been an eventful month for me beyond this (Untitled) comic, but there wasn't a single aspect of this that I didn't enjoy doing. It's a silly project and I care about it.

Also, I'm not going to neglect the 31st of October! That day will get an illustration, where I will pick my favourite panel and redraw it. I want to take my time with this one so it's not out yet, but hopefully I can finish by Christmas.

[rotthepoet]

Pookie pookie lemme tell u ☹️ I ughhh like Lorenzo so much (not as much as I like u ofc wink wonk w rizz 🌚) but I would neverrrrrr irl entertained the idea of being w him (bros a s-tier asshole)

SO THIS GAVE ME A REQUEST IDEA

There's Lorenzo who's...well Lorenzo. And then there's us 😻 the it-girl 😻 academic weapon, got our life together, ambitious n too smart to fall for Lorenzo's bs and won't give him the time of our day🤞😩

Essentially I'm saying I'm craving for a girl boss x pathetic Lorenzo trope n headcanons ☹️

Btw that new Mattheo fic was so intense got me fanning my face

- 🎹

ONG BABES IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO GET TO BUT IM HERE FOR YOU NOW POOKIE!!!

Because Lorenzo thinks he is ALL THAT and some, when in reality hes just a pretty face with rizz. Hes not a genius, and his personality doesnt offer any redeeming qualities, so when he sees you??? God youre so perfect. Absolutely everything he wants, everything he wants to be. You’d make him look perfect, he’d be perfect next to you

Lowkey his pining after you is a power move before it fails and he becomes unequivocally whipped.

He’s literally on his knees begging for you, offering to carry your bag or books between classes, i mean he is TRYING SO DAMN HARD

But you’re independent, pookie. You are a GIRL BOSS!! YOU DONT NEED HIS SHIT!

And so Enzo tries a different approach. Buying your love! Every single day, without fail, you have a new present. A new necklace, a new perfume, a new dress, and these things are not cheap in any way. He is trying to SPOIL YOU and when you so humbly ask him to take it back, he refuses, and says he’ll only take them back if you agree to a date with him.

At least the gifts are cute, because thats not happening.

And fuck he’s becoming so pathetic for you, going out of his way to be a gentleman for you. Holding open doors, paying for your bill at the three broomsticks.

Maybe if hes lucky, you’ll give him a little kiss on the cheek for being so sweet.

[6feathered6siren6]

Winding back the clock

Trigger warnings

Death/gore

Killing the main love interests

Being dilutional

Spoilers of the good/bad ending of love interests

Note: This was inspired by a song, "Again & Again" and reminded me of this game. Anyway enjoy, I will continue this idea with small tidbits, don't know if it would be in order yet, but this is one is at least. Btw rolled a d20 for how this story went, I rolled a nat 1. So be prepared, it's kinda angsty.

P1, P2, P3, P4, P5

𓆩☠︎︎𓆪

September 31st, 11:50 pm. Again.

You have been through this for how long now? Years? You don’t remember, but you remember when it started. 

『00:01』

You didn’t know The Devil Butcher’s name in time, and there was no way out. You had stabbed him, felt the red, hot liquid on your hands, stained them from that moment one. His laughter filled the alleyway. Forever ringing in your ears. His bloody toothy grin was his last movement before the light from his eyes vanished. 

You ran home, you felt his spirit taunting you. His laughter still rings in your ears. No matter how many times you shower, wash your hands until they bleed themselves. You can still feel his blood on them. 

You felt your phone ping, it was Angel. You felt her anger through the letters and words. Then Ronin’s account texting you, then felt like your body was light and saw black. 

-

As you came to, you saw your bedroom ceiling. Not the bathroom. You swore you were there. And you swore you were wearing different clothing, ones painted in red. Not… your cartoon pajamas. Did someone come in here? You check your phone which didn’t have that crack when you dropped it near thanksgiving. Turning it on, September 31st, 202X, 11:50 pm. 

Did.. Did you go back in time? You stared at your phone screen for a moment, you felt so much fear. You looked at your bright computer screen and saw Ronin’s invite to the server. 

This has to be a dream, like it can't be true. Right?

『00:02』

You chalked it up to some weird dream of showing you the future if you loved Ronin. You couldn’t go down the path of falling in love with him again. You couldn’t. You still hear his laughter, your hot covered hands. Instead, you went to the most chaotic member of the server, Misaki. 

You had them in your arms. Her smile was bright, and full of love. Her crossed dazed eyes stared at yours. They were gonna go assassinate someone, but you had to stay at your place while it happened. At least you can text and call, right?

-

You heard the shot through the phone. Her saying ‘I love you.’ and ‘Not your fault.’. But it was, you allowed yourself to let them call you. You knew not to, and you did it anyway. Misaki was dead. And it's your fault. You could feel weight built up on you. Another death you caused. Another soul staring you down. 

You felt your phone ping. You look at it, Ronin and a few others are spam calling you. Ronin knows you did it. There is only so much time you could get away from him, you had to leave, find some protection. The moment your hand was on your doorknob. 

You blinked.

You’re back to your computer screen. Back to September 31st, 202X, 11:50 pm. 

This had to be a dream, right? Like some weird psychic dream. This can’t be real, you can’t have two people’s blood on your hands. 

『00:03』

V, V was a sweetheart in your opinion. And you tried to not be murdered or murder anyone else. Telling him straight out, no, you are not a killer. Well, in reality? Right? And that, he should try and not put Ronin in prison, giving him the freedom from death or going there at all. Or, paying back that you weirdly killed him in a dream. 

You went through Luca and Feli’s whole drama of not dating each other. Helping them again for the third time. Your dream predicted this situation twice, three times now. 

Vince’s Christmas dinner was three times correct. Or ‘March is for murder’ again. Feli and Luca’s whole “Is Vince and Ai Hua dating or MARRIED?!” debacle. Christmas call, then Ronin either giving a shovel talk or rizzing you up himself. 

Three times true. Your dilution is tough shelled, that had to be some messed dream. That showed the future… 

V was arrested. 

It still hurts so much, he might die either in there or on some death sentence. You didn’t know. They didn’t arrest you, leaving you on a whole new warrant. You had limited time. 

That same ping. The same message of something went wrong. The same ping of ‘You fucked up.’ You were screwed.

Your hands gripping onto your skull, turning your knuckles white and feeling blood run down your head. Your eyes shut close, hurting them. And Ping! You opened your eyes.

It was your computer screen. Back to September 31st, 202X, 11:50 pm. 

Maybe… maybe it’s not a dream…

『00:04』

Maybe the Angel was the path to take on, like, you murdered two in a dream(Which you are still questioning if it was real.) and another was arrested. Like, she can’t be killed or arrested. Right?

-

You had to fucking jinxed it. YOU HAD TO.

As Ronin was going to your house, the clock hit 3:25 pm and it was back to square one. Back to the beginning, getting that same invite. 

『00:05』

What if saving them worked, what if not being manipulated and fucking everything up. To try and save them.

Would it work? 

Ronin? You made out in the alleyway and him saying your book was good, and that he loved you.

Back to square one.

Misaki, you didn’t call her, didn’t indulge their call. They came out alive and you guys were having an amazing time. 

Back to the computer and hearing that dreadful ping.

V, you didn’t get him arrested, he stayed at your place for a while, and when he said your book was great. 

Another tally to this just being a dream, right? 

Right?

And with Angel, she shot her manager. Her bloody lips kissing while you help her clean up. The moment you are in bed, you are back into your own chair, staring at the fucking blinding screen. 

It didn’t work.

『00:09』

What about them getting arrested? That had to be it. The good ending. It had to be.

The text for everyone, that they should hide, was scary to you. It felt real. No one is dying nor falling in love. This had to be it.

You shut your eyes while on your bed. March 10, 202XX. Taking a breath. This had to be it…. But it wasn’t. Your eyes saw the search engine and your socials with the red dot. 

This is a time loop. Isn’t it?

『00:10』

Seeing your computer again, and the awful ping sound. You were sick of this. You were in a time loop, now… how to get out of this? Like, there had to be. 

Joining the server again, guessing the password right, you knew what would happen, the text and the welcoming. 

You just stared at your bright, digital device as you sighed. Until… an idea popped in your head. This is a time loop. You go back in time 9 times already. What if… you go the way you wanted?

You decide to flirt with Ronin again, play his games, but be corrupted just like him. 

-

It was December, and you stood in this alleyway alone with a corpse. He was an asshole to you throughout the night. You were just walking around when he decided to try and pursue you. You sit on a crate looking at the body, in your past time lines, you looked a lot into murder, the ways people killed, how they disposed, their alibis. You could take one out of Angel’s book and eat him. You never had human meat. You knew some of the effects of eating your own kind. You twiddled your weapon in your hands, a metal rod that was nearby when you attacked him. It was rusted, but now stained with blood. 

It’s also weird to you, you thought when you killed someone with your own bare hands, in your own accord, it would be different. Not… emotionless, like now. You got off the crate and walked closer to the dead person. His head was bleeding quite a lot. Heck, you smashed his head in, to the point you could see his brains. Maybe you could pin it on someone, put the weapon in another’s hands. 

“Now that's a sight for the divine.”

You turn your head to see Ronin, his crowbar was also stained in red. His grin was widder, more sinful in your taste. The man you fell for the first timeline, the original. His combat boots were loud as he took a step forward to you. 

His chuckle pierced your heart again. His warm hand coddled your cheek, his thumb wiping the blood off of you. 

“You might steal my heart by stealing this view, Darlin’.”

You proved yourself, proved that you do kill. And this time, not him. You leaned into his hand, the warmth that radiated off of him. 

“Not some pretty little innocent writer, huh?”

You could hear his grin. His pride and ego. As much as you hated it. You loved it. 

“Let me help finish up here, then we can talk. I want to know everything.”

𓆩☠︎︎𓆪

You told Ronin everything, well, except for the whole time loop thing, and him dying in the first timeline. Why did you kill that asshole and how? You dropped the stained metal rod into garbage. One that would be thrown out in the morning, before the body gets found. 

He holds you close to him, holding your shoulder. Like he’s teaching you. He is guiding you to somewhere. But where?

“You did so well, lost, little lamb.” Lost, little lamb… you pondered on that nickname, you were never called that before. Maybe instead of being called a fallen angel, but it's now ‘little lamb’. You changed a major course and still got his love. You didn’t guess his name, and went straight to him, falling more in love with you. And it’s December, anytime before you start dating, it was February, or a major change was in March, ‘the ending’.

You decided to see how far you can take with these timelines. How far can it take you?

“Ronin…” You mumbled out softly, you looked at him. You finally see that it was snowing. “I…” Your feelings from the original time loop were burning again. You remember that any person you flirt with would date you in February, not December. So you couldn’t take it so far, right?

“I really like you, Ronin.” You blurted out. That was not what you wanted to say. You felt your face burn up. Even he was shocked that you said that before he started laughing. 

“Tell it to me proudly and with no shame, huh?” His grip was tighter, his smile had joy in it. Not like a joke, but with pride. “Can you carve out your own aorta then? Give it to me on a platter.” 

Your face burns as blood rushes through, but you nod. “I will.”

“Good.”

-

It was a week after your first kill. Your first kill of your accord. Ronin seemed to act more romantically towards you. He was also acting kinder to you in his own sadistic way. He even brought you to his killings as dates. Everything seems to be going your way for months. Until March 10th. The day you return back. 

You were feeling sentimental, you didn’t know if you were going back yet. You were laying on Ronin’s bed, next to him. He was surprisingly asleep, he was busy the day before working at his job, late as well. Some rich guy needed his car fixed right away. Paying double to get it fixed right away. 

He was holding you to his chest, his hand was in your hair. Your arms were around him. You were wishing to stay there in his arms. The clock was ticking down, closer and closer… Your eyes shut, it was only Ronin’s breathing that filled the quiet. 

Then Ping!

You were back in your uncomfortable desk chair, in front of the screen.

『00:19』

You felt nothing, any sweet moments you had with anyone were gone again. No one knows, no one that can help you. You felt despair. The moments with V, him holding you, or tending to his animals with, Angel, helping her manage, or just doing her makeup for a video. Misaki, the moments planning an assassination, or having dumb, loveable dates with them. Or Ronin, learning how to fix a car and giving him tools, or playing on his Gameboy with him. 

They felt nothing to you. If this was timeloop, repeating over and over. You are gonna take control, not what ifs anymore, you want to see how far this can go. Killing Angel’s manager way too early to support her, or sending Misaki anonymous messages on their assassin request board that they are great and to keep it up. Helping V by capturing the killers he was planning to find and tie them up for him. Except for Ronin, and for Ronin. What if you carve out aortas and left them in his alleyway. You want to see how chaotic you can make these timeloops be. Because whoever put you here, you won’t be trapped with them, but they will be trapped with you. No matter how insane you get. 

* ‧̍̊˙· 𓆝.° ｡˚𓆛˚｡ °.𓆞 ·˙‧̍̊ * ‧̍̊˙· 𓆝.° ｡˚𓆛˚｡ °.𓆞 ·˙‧̍̊

I have more to come, wrote a few already but thought to share what I have. Sorry if it seem dramatic or confusion. It was meant to be that way. (1/?)

Words: 2,233

[gallusrostromegalus]

So for AEIWAM, how does the whole Ukitake thing work? I’m still fuzzy on how it was in the manga (and that’s not even touching the ‘epilogue’/Echoing the Jaws of Hell why are these arc names like this) but wasn’t he essentially reverse faith healed-slash-possessed for death? I see you keep mentioning gods so like- what does that whole situation make him?

I need you to imagine a Self-Propogating Cryptocurrency Mining Computer. Whenever it's hardware starts to burn out, it creates a little man to build it a new machine and port it's memory over, keeping the machine alive and solving equations.

In An Elephant Is Warm And Mushy, that's God.

I may need to back up.

If you're not familiar with how Cryptocurrency Mining works, essentially, a computer thinks very, very hard about how to solve an extremely complicated equation, and when it solves it, it gets a little bit of money (or it gets a receipt saying that it has money that uh. nobody will accept, because the money aspect is a scam but the math, at least is real).

Anyway, thinking very, very hard like that runs through the computer's hardware- it's especially hard on the graphics cards. So eventually, if it want to keep solving equations, it needs new hardware. But a computer can't replace it's own parts, and this Ultra-complex, reality-generating God-computer is no different.

So when it starts to get old and degraded, the God-Computer does a neat little trick: it builds itself a programmer. That programmer learns all about the God Machine and how it works and the way it's powered- it moves souls through three planes of existence- each enormously complicated question is representative of the shape of a lifetime- each time a soul completes it's life and is reborn, the God Computer gets a little burst of extra energy. The larger and more complex the soul and longer and richer lifetime, the more energy the God Computer gets. So for the last millions of years, many, many generations of God-computer have made the universe richer and more complicated to generate larger and more complex souls to power themself (themselves?) further.

The programmer learns all about how the God-Computer works, and sets about building the next Generation of God-Computer to keep the universe running.

Due to a slight miscommunication, the programmer is colloquially known as the "Soul King" this time around.

Anyway, the Soul King was doin' his thing, when he happened to start chatting with a cool guy online and agreed to meet up with him. And it was fun! They hung out, Soul King showed him the true nature of reality, they stayed up late eating junk food and talking bullshit, good times. Later, The Soul King's cool friend from the internet said he had some other friends who wanted to meet him, and Soul king thought "BALLER. SLUMBER PARTY!!!" and told everyone to come on over!

-and then the new guys beat the shit out of Soul King's buddy and dismembered the Soul King for parts to sell as part of an organ-harvesting scheme!

Whoops.

Now, Soul King's buddy DID manage to get up and stop one of the organ thieves, the guy absconding with his hands, and tackled him off the Balcony. One of the psuedo-god hands (the one with the power of stagnation) fell into the Spirit World,took the name "Mimihagi" and became a minor kami because he's really bad at this Witness Protection thing.

Eventually, some parents with an extremely sick kid came to the hand's shrine and asked him to save the kid, and Mimihagi went "Well, I can't cure him, but I can hang out in his body for the next few centuries and prevent his disease from getting worse with constant effort?" and they said "...Please?" and Mimihagi said "Yeah OK.

-And ever since then Ukitake has had the left hand of The God Machine's dead repairman living in him and (mostly) stopping his super-tuberculosis from getting worse, like a benevolent tapeworm!

:)

The God-Machine is still dying this whole time, BTW. Might want to do something about that.

(the best part is, that of the three-to-five-and-a-half living pieces of the Soul King, Mimihagi is actually probably the least weird and definitely sanest of them)

[carniekisses]

Here's a long post that I really hope Tumblr will not flag as NSFW (please don't flag this), I remember back when I showed off the needlefelt Gomer sculpture I had made, someone asked if I had like a work process to show off for it. And I did not, because I had kept it all confined to a private account. I thought it'd be fun to have something to show for it for this one.

So I've been wanting to make a BJD for at least the past 15 years, back when I was a kid with no money to buy supplies with and also with a worry for symmetry, and also also I wasn't very skilled. It's 2024, and I vaguely know how to use Blender now

I've started this project on April 6th, as I've been documenting this on the above mentioned private account.

Of said model I (much) later ended up only being able to salvage the physical sculpts of the chest and torso parts as I messed up somewhat badly, see down below. I also ended up dropping the 'magnets in hands & feet' concept as it was just redundant, one can simply unhook them off the elastic if they are to swap them out.

At any rate, I 3D printed it all and got to sanding, and painting.

So far so good I guess, really not a fan of how the knee and elbow bean slots were just holes (I fixed that later don't worry)

So This was Not looking good lmao. I used acrylic paint, which was not necessarily the problem, the problem was that I'd applied it with a sponge brush which caused the surface to feel really sandpapery once dry. So don't do that I suppose, bad idea

On top of this, I realized that given the thickness of this doll I absolutely needed double joints in the legs, in order to have decent articulation. You can see in the above pics I *had* sculpted those, but I later fused the knee beans with the shins with apoxy resin, for some reason? I think it was because as I posed the legs the knee beans kept falling *into* the hollowed out shins/thighs, and I got tired of it.

The final blows for this model were me applying some 3D finish resin in a last ditch effort to smooth out the horrible texture, which rendered the pieces extremely shiny and smooth (disgusting), WHICH then prompted me to apply matte varnish to fix that bullshit. It absolutely did not work lmfao, and I have no pictures of that disaster because I became pretty discouraged about having to go back to like square two or three.

Some time passed (months really because I kept getting distracted for many a reason [sanding is so fucking boring, Blender was a mistake, I was feeling overwhelmed, I was too sad/tired to work that day, etc.]), I buckled down and finally retooled the pieces that needed it: everything But the chest and torso parts, off of which I managed to sand the varnish and smooth resin. I had fixed all the double joints too to actually be decently functional this time. The head was completely resculpted to better reflect the character's latest design iteration.

bean slots: Fixed

So after sanding (which was the part I was dreading the entire time, because it's so tedious and also it hurts after a while), I caved and got myself an airbrush to, hopefully, lay paint down good this time.

Very glad I did because the difference is kinda crazy. Please ignore my dirty ass desk, it's what happens when you craft. These pictures are from last week btw.

The blue base and the blush were airsprayed, the finer details like the dark shading and the pinker parts were done with both chalk and just acrylic paint. I miiight remake the eyeballs, or at least add more of a smooth finish. The shine to them is really nice

Here's she with lashes, wearing a shitty little scrap of fabric I cut in 10 minutes for fun (please DON'T flag th), and posing to test out the double joints too, they definitely could be better but they work Fine and I'm okay with that.

As of today I'm waiting for the fibres to deliver, for the wig, I already have the cap done. I guess I can update this when it happens, thanks for reading so far, I hope it was interesting, see you next time.......

[axuanmii]

admit you ship incest dude. the cn/jp shippers say its incest. pick up a book and translate it, it says kaeya is adopted. .. and heres a long paragraph about how incest is only between biological families and more disrespect to people who are adopted...

no idea why my inbox didn't give me this notif until now, but now's a better time than any to talk more about this.

i'm chinese. i speak fluent mandarin chinese. i've consulted other native chinese speakers about this, both genshin players and unrelated. i play genshin with chinese audio and english subs specifically to catch and complain about inaccuracies. i'd reveal more information but then i think it'd be trivially easy to doxx me if one knew what they were looking for.

fundamentally, the issue of incest lies in physical reproduction, yet i find adoptive incestuous relationships discomforting all the same. it's why i didn't like or finish go ahead (以家人之名) because i felt that it laid too much into the siblings aspect for romantic relationships to be feasible, and it was super contradictory from the initial general message of the first bittersweet yet wholesome episode.

however, personally, i just don't think kaeya felt like a part of the family until crepus's death and he really reflected on crepus's actions towards him (hangout). and even after beginning to view crepus as a father figure, he wouldn't have so shallowly made the transition for diluc to be his brother by adoption and consequently changed his entire mind about the guy (which you can see with the way he chooses to refer to both men with different terms, one adoptive and familial, one very clearly 'sworn', very consistently throughout the whole game. if that ever changes in chinese, well, at least you can know that i'll make a post about it if i still care about genshin by then.)

the localization team does make plenty of serious mistakes, and it's of my opinion that as a result, it has very clearly skewed character relationships with those mistakes, (cynari and collei, eulamber, some npcs in liyue, sumeru) some from cultural differences, some just from lazy translation overall. there's layers of complexity in how chinese utilizes honorifics and affectionate terms, as well as contextual consideration between fiction and reality, and sometimes i feel like the english localization team just threw it all into google translate and called it a day.

i don't even ship kaeluc that much. i like to call it the secret third thing where they can't get off their asses to talk about anything ever so they exist in an undefined space and to have them return to any semblance of a healthy relationship, platonic, familial, or romantic, would require a novel's length worth of development that hoyoverse will probably never write, and so my brain has made up novels of all three kinds and more.

however, i also don't care about people who do ship kaeluc or treat any other fictional media in an incestuous or otherwise problematic manner, regardless of language or culture. this is because i operate on a "don't like, don't read, don't interact" mindset. it makes being in fandom more fun; you should try it.

my disappointment wasn't aimed at the fact that i think too little people ship kaeluc. it just sucks to see people claim that that's what's wrong with the fandom and spin this evil gross imagery around the ship over a misunderstanding, especially when that's not how i view it. it's also the only thing vehemently regularly repeated ('klcers dni') when there's so many other issues with the game and the fandom.

(off topic but what's the worst thing that'll happen if a kaeluc shipper likes your fan stuff. it's not like they come into your tumblr asks to bother you with an "oh btw you're wrong about how you enjoy this media and this is what's right"-- oh wait that's what's going on here right)

including the fact that people like you purposefully go around searching in the kaeluc tag (which you probably did, because nobody is scrolling that far back in my blog to find this one specific post to complain about) to police and pick fights with people over a stupid issue from 2020/2021. i guess tumblr isn't a safe place to talk about kaeluc either lmao.

and to think i left anon asks on in the hopes that it could be an inbox for anyone who wanted to ask me art questions or just leave something positive and not feel too awkward (where do i get the confidence in thinking anyone would ask my incompetent brain for help lol).

to be fair, it's going to be my fault for continuing to draw attention to this by responding to such an ask instead of just deleting it and moving on but fuck it we ball.

this ended up pretty long but i feel like it would've been too rude to just say "会说中文的干嘛要翻书 :P". probably would've been funnier though and saved me a lot of time. kudos to you if you actually read this and read through everything.

final note:

[becauseimanicequeen]

Timelines and the Color Red in 4 Minutes

(I've already published this in a reblog of my timelines post. However, since I know not everyone has the energy to read through all that (since it's basically three long-ass posts so far), I've decided to add this in a separate post as well.)

First, let me summarize my thoughts on the timelines so far so that you have an idea of what I've been thinking these past 4-5 episodes. (Also, I've highlighted my theories in purple so that you can choose to ignore them if they want, lol.)

I still believe there have been at least 3 timelines present so far:

The present timeline.

The 4-minute timeline (which is Great's do-over timeline).

The real past/Tonkla's timeline.

I also still believe that both Great and Tyme are having OOBEs (and a possible third character), and that we will now get to see Tyme's perspective on what's happened. In other words, I will most likely add another timeline to my list at the end of this post.

How I've been able to see/notice the different timelines so far, has been primarily through:

The clocks/watches and the times they display.

The difference between Great's environment before vs after his 4-minute phenomenons (4MPs).

Details that change throughout the scenes (like items and their positions, lamp colors, etc.).

I won't go into detail about these two aspects in this particular post because I want to focus on something else this time. However, we did get to see the clock move to 11:03, first on Great's wall:

And then on the news:

There was also the way Great's mom talked to him before vs after he had his vision of her getting shot. Before he was sent back, she was almost pleading for him to apologize to his dad, while after he was sent back, she was more commanding. Also, as he came back, the gunman was ready to shoot before Great even had a chance to leave his mom and drive off, the way he did before his visions.

(This moment of precognition was very different to his previous ones, btw. This time, he only saw the things happening rather than "living" them.)

There also continue to be the smaller details that tell me there are different timelines/realities at play. Like the things on Chanin's desk in the scene where Samarn went behind Korn's back vs in the scene when Korn is scolded by both his dad and Great's mom:

The lion figurine is facing the wall behind the desk in the first scene while it's facing the room in the second, and the framed family portrait is on Chanin's right-hand side in the first scene and on his left-hand side in the second. (Those two items in the second scene are placed in the same positions as they were in the 1st episode when Korn walked into his dad's office to talk about his new position at the company, btw.)

In other words, this episode was also consistent with the time, the differences in the before vs after Great's precognitions (even though this one was different than the 4MPs), and the other details to show us that different timelines/realities are at play.

With that out of the way, though, I want to focus on something entirely different in this post. It's still related to the timelines, obviously.

I want to see if a theory I have about a specific color is true or not, and if that specific color can help us figure out the backbone of the story (about the core events of the story). In other words, I have a theory that may (or may not) tell us which of the events we've seen in Great's 4-minute timeline so far also happened in the real past.

So, in this post, I'm going to go back for a moment before I make some predictions of where we might be heading in the next episode and onwards.

But, first, I need to emphasize Den's research, and especially what he reiterated in the 5th episode: What people go through during their cardiac arrests varies because of their experiences.

In other words, if what we've seen so far has been Great's OOBE (which I believe), then it means that (most of) what we've seen so far was his interpretation of what really happened (as well as filler content of stuff he might've wished had happened, but I won't focus on that here). And now that we're going to get Tyme's perspective (at least I believe we will, in one way or another), that will be colored by his experiences and be his side of the story (and possible filler content from him as well).

We've all heard the saying that "there are two sides to the story", which is true. But that doesn't mean either side is completely forthcoming about what really happened because the truth is usually somewhere between those two (or more) sides. But that doesn't mean there isn't at least some truth in the two (or more) sides of the story.

I want to focus on that middle ground in this post. Specifically, if the color red tells us which scenes are the backbone of the story. So, let's get into it.

Does the Red Reveal What Happened in the Real Past?

I think we all know that the color red is often used to indicate the red thread of fate (mostly in Asian media). Where I'm from (northern Europe) we also have a red thread saying, but it's used more as a synonym for theme. For example, an essay can have a good red thread if the theme throughout the essay is clear and concise.

Red is also a great color to use to capture attention (which mine was as soon as I saw the trailer). So, I've been tracking the red (and other colors) throughout the show so far to figure out if it had a specific meaning. (I even made posts for the red in episode 1 and in episode 2.)

It might.

And, it might not.

But, let's go with Great's idea and start connecting the dots with the red...

My theory as I go into this is that the red shows us the things in that middle ground I wrote about above. Those scenes/events might be the backbone of the timelines that are at play. Let's see if that's a hit or miss (or somewhere in between).

I will only focus on a few major scenes from the currently released episodes and mostly focus on Great and Tyme's part of the story (because I only have 30 images to play with, which is giving me a headache, btw). So, let's start from the beginning and go through it in chronological order of the episodes.

When Tyme is shot in the first episode, there's a red light behind the shooter:

And when the patient is flatlining in the same episode (whom I believe is Great), red lights are blinking:

Whether everything we've seen so far was triggered by these events or if these events were triggered by something else, Tyme being shot and that patient flatlining is at the core of the story.

Then we see Great and Korn's dad wearing red when he gives Korn the responsibility of managing the illegal gambling sites:

That surely happened in the real past as well, right?

Chanin also wears that same outfit during the family dinner later on in the episode. And while I don't believe Manee survived in the real past, I do believe the dinner happened, it's just that the conversation would've been different.

Then we have Great, who hit Manee with his car, where the seats have red lines on them:

So far so good, right?

Then there are red roses when Tyme gets home and jokes about Coachella:

He and his grandmother also eat from porcelain plates with red flowers on them when we find out Tyme's motivation for becoming a surgeon (to make a better life for his grandmother and himself), which I'm sure was part of the real past. (Unless Great, in his OOBE state, made up the story about Tyme's parents being murdered by his dad...)

Then we have Lukwa, who carries something red the first time she enters Den's office to talk about her own cardiac arrest experience.

She clearly has an important role in the story since she's the woman in that gallery with the red lights where Great saw her. (Perhaps it's the red from that gallery that spills into the story to show us what the key events are?)

I will forego the legendary Tonkla by the lighthouse opening of the 2nd episode where he has blood splattered across his face because I feel like that's the future from our current vantage point, and right now I'm more focused on looking at the things that could've happened in the real past.

Dome clearly saw what happened between Title and View in front of that red trashcan (with a 4 on it, btw):

Which led into this scene where we have the red lights from the car plus the red blood when Title kills Dome:

Considering I think that most of Tonkla's timeline (at least in the beginning) is the real past, Dome was definitely killed.

There are also red folders on the desk Win is leaning against when Tonkla comes in to identify his brother's body:

Which is probably how they met in the real past as well.

And then we have the red Aston Martin Great parks as Title barges in and accuses Great of betraying him:

Now, what's interesting about this scene is that it only seems like Great is in the timeline where he saved Dome while Title isn't. First of all, Title already had that bruise on his face when Great got into his car that night he killed Dome:

The other side of his face doesn't even display any evidence that Great clobbered him with the rock. That's why (apart from the red) I believe this scene happened in the real past as well. It's just that, in the real past, Title was pissed at Great for betraying him about something else rather than saving Dome.

Then we have the hacker attack, which turned their screens into a multitude of reds:

Then we have the shareholder with the red umbrella who was, more than likely, shot in the real past as well. What impact he may or may not have on the story remains to be seen. But I still wanted to mention him here (even though I'm saving on the image limit with this one, lol).

Then there's the red tea Tyme gave to Great:

Which he might've given Great in the real past to get closer to him (due to his family) rather than telling him to check his wound at the hospital (which might not even exist in the real past). Great might've taken that as a sweet gesture, which might've been why this scene popped up in his timeline.

After that, we have Great in the red gallery with a mystery woman (which we know is Lukwa):

This is where things might get a little wonky. But, I think this is meant to highlight a connection between Great and Lukwa that happened in the real past, which is why they are both in that (subconscious?) gallery together. That's why I've included it here. (Also, like I mentioned before, what if it's the red from that gallery that spills into the story to show us what the key events are?)

Then we have Great driving Tyme home after their claw machine date in his red car:

I don't necessarily believe they had a claw machine date at the mall in the real past, but I do believe Great drove Tyme home after a possible date at some point.

Then there's the red light as Tyme walks out of the operating room:

That leads into the scene outside where Tyme tells Great to get out of his sight (before the 4MP changes things). The way Tyme acted in that scene (before the 4MP) was a lot more like the Tyme we saw in the 1st episode than Great's rizzless version of Tyme. So, that might've been the real past Tyme bleeding through in that particular scene.

Then we also have Tonkla's red cat collar, which goes even further back in time as he buried his cat while at Uni, but also now that he's thinking back to that time when he and Korn started their relationship/situationship:

Both those scenes (burying the cat, which leads to his thing with Korn, and looking at that collar after having a fight with Korn and fucking Win) could've happened in the real past.

Why do I think this matters to the story, though? And why do I believe it's part of the backbone of the story? Well, I'm basing this off my theory that Title is Fasai's brother. If that's true, there's a chance that Title knew about Dome's brother (Tonkla) being Korn's "toy" (as Fasai put it). That could very well be the reason Title clearly hates Dome as much as he does. And it all started with Tonkla burying that cat at Uni.

Then there's the blood around Nan as she's held captive and is beaten (and later shot):

Which, in the real past, might've led to Great and Korn fleeing town in Great's red car:

And considering we still haven't seen the scene from the trailer where they're lying in a boat out on the water (which I think is at the same glamping site as at the beginning of the 5th episode), they're probably going back there again in Tyme's timeline. And if they're going back there, there's a big chance it happened in the real past as well (since both characters are imagining it).

The same goes for when they returned to the city in Great's red car. They likely returned to different circumstances in the real past, but they must've returned either way.

Then there are the red features on the news as they report about the accusations against Great's dad and his company (which can be seen in an image above).

I'm sure the evidence Tyme had gotten on the illegal gambling sites leaked somehow in the real past as well (it might've been Tyme who did it, which might've led to Great and his mom being shot).

Then we have the sign on Tyme's place saying "House for rent" in red letters:

Whether he (in the real past) left because Chanin bribed him or because he just wanted to take his grandmother somewhere safer is up for debate.

But at least I'm pretty sure Great was shot (and, most likely, his mom too):

Just look at that red splatter.

This is as far as we've come in the show right now.

So, does it make sense that the red tells us what happened in the real past and/or which events are the backbone of the story? Yes.

Do I think I cracked a code or something? Not really.

But it does make me eager to keep tracking the red in the remaining episodes to see if it will keep being the red thread of the real past/the backbone of the story or if any pitfalls will come up.

Now, let's move on to my predictions of what might come in the coming episodes.

Jewelry, Clothes, and Bruises

At first, I was going to write about the jewelry after the 5th episode because I've been tracking them (besides clocks/time, numbers, and color, to name a few things) since the start, and I think it will play a role now that the show is moving toward Tyme's perspective instead. But, @yakdee wrote amazingly about the jewelry in this post, which means I don't have to. I recommend you read that post first.

To that post, I want to add that the 5th episode ended with Tyme wearing the clothes he was wearing when he was shot in the 1st episode (he also doesn't wear any jewelry in the scene when he's shot):

Is he still in Great's timeline here, running towards his own death so he can have his own OOBE, or is he in the real past?

Or, a third option, perhaps he's in both at the same time, which could be indicated by the bruise on Tyme's nose that he had in the 1st episode when he was shot (image above), which also showed up every other time the lights flickered in the last scene in the 5th episode:

Perhaps the spinning of the camera in that last scene was to show these two versions merging together. Perhaps it showed one Tyme ending while the other Tyme beginning. Or, perhaps it just showed that everything is upside down.

Now, whichever version of Tyme it is that gets shot, I believe that will be the trigger that moves the show into Tyme's perspective of whatever happened in the past. Because I do believe we will be sent back into the past again (somehow) since there are scenes from the trailer that haven't yet shown up and yet would've chronologically happened in the past from our current vantage point (I'll get back to these in a bit).

(I would personally argue that the Tyme with the bruise is the Tyme from the real past. I also believe it's that version of him we'll see get shot in the next episode like we did in the 1st episode, and that will be the trigger that sends us into his OOBE timeline.)

In other words, this is where I believe we're headed.

Tyme's Timeline

I've had the theory for a while that Tyme is having an OOBE as well because there are times when the thunder has broken through into the events we've seen, which I think is his real present reality bleeding through (the thunderstorm at the abandoned place where he was shot in the 1st episode).

So, what can we expect from Tyme's timeline? Or, what will I keep my eyes open for when (if?) we get Tyme's timeline?

Again, considering the things Den commented about in his research, it's obvious that the person from which perspective we're seeing is coloring the narrative.

We might be getting a completely different vibe going forward when seeing things from Tyme's perspective. And just like @yakdee wrote in that post, there's still the scene at the bar from the trailer as well as the sex scenes Great had visions of. The vibe in those scenes is very different (in my opinion) from what we've seen so far from Great's perspective.

There's also this scene of them lying in that boat out on the water:

Which I believe is at the same countryside/glamping site they were at in Great's timeline.

We know that these scenes will show up at some point and we'll likely get to see them from Tyme's perspective, which will be an interesting contrast to Great's.

Also, from a color perspective, Great's OOBE timeline had him in white and Tyme in black for the most part (that might not change very much in Tyme's OOBE timeline, but it's definitely something I'll keep my eyes on). Just look at that image of them in the boat, though. Great is wearing primarily dark clothes with a white jacket while Tyme (who has basically only worn black clothes excluding his doctor's robe, his gray clothes when visiting Great's Uni, and the clothes he wore when he was shot) is wearing a black shirt and white pants... (Also, look at the yin and yang they're creating lying there in that boat. It's just so visually stunning.) That's super interesting to me.

I will keep tracking clocks/time, the color red (and other colors), numbers, more tilting camera shots (which also appeared in this episode, but I don't have the brainpower, or the images left, to write about that right now), and more as the show continues.

So, if I'm to summarize the major timelines right now, they would be:

The present timeline (where Great and Tyme are dying).

The 4-minute timeline (which is Great's do-over timeline).

The real past/Tonkla's timeline (which may be the same timeline or have diverged into separate ones as the show has progressed).

And the addition I think we'll get in the next episode: Tyme's timeline (which may get another name if he also develops a supernatural ability).

I can't wait to watch the next episode and see how wrong I am.

Is it Friday, yet?