#this is in fact a true story. the guy was quite visibly disturbed

[meichenxi]

special interests are wild. they really have you going into second hand bookshops ugly sobbing like I've had such a bad day PLEASE tell me you have some books about imperial china. and then the shopkeepers are like uhhh yeah. over there. and then you cradle the book about imperial china in your hands like a baby bird and you start crying yet again

[lipstickstainz]

five times - s. r.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader Summary: A collection of the times Spencer says “I love you” without saying it, and the one time he actually does. Warnings: tooth rotting fluff Word Count: 2k, it’s a short one A/N: happy new year guys! since you wanted this to be fluffy, here it is! hope you enjoy! gif not mine.

Spencer didn't know what he had been expecting when Hotch had announced to the team that they would have young additions. He had assumed that the newcomer would be pretty serious so that he would be taken seriously, and that he would be very reserved at the beginning to get to know the team first and not offend anyone. But he definitely wasn't expecting you.

On your first day, you showed up to work in a knee-length summer dress and high Converse, which threw him off right from the start. While JJ and Emily always wore something office appropriate, you didn't seem to mind catching everyone's eye. With an infectious confidence and a big smile on your face, you introduced yourself to the others. While most of the team looked at you as if you were from another star - except for Penelope Garcia, of course, she was incredibly happy to finally know another colorful bird in the midst - Spencer liked that you stayed true to yourself. No matter what anyone else thought of you.

You went through life with an ease that was quite atypical of your profession. It almost reminded Spencer of Garcia, but only almost. You didn't have to look away when someone showed you photos of dead bodies. He sometimes caught himself worrying that the job would eventually take away your cheerfulness.

"'DO NOT TOUCH' would probably be a really unsettling thing to read in braille“, you said as you sat in the bullpen. Your desk bordered his, so Spencer only had to look up from his files to give you an amused look.

"Where did you come up with that?", he asked, a smile curling his lips.

You shrugged before looking at him. "I don't know. But it would be pretty disturbing, wouldn't it? How fortunate that it can't happen to me."

Spencer tilted his head. "Because you're not blind?"

"Because I can't read braille“, you replied with a grin, and he laughed out loud, drawing everyone's attention. Spencer smiled briefly at them and motioned for them to turn back to their work so you could continue talking undisturbed.

He leaned a little in your direction before whispering to you.

"Your head must be a wonderful place to live in."

-

It was incredibly loud and the air was too stuffy to be able to grasp a clear thought. But maybe it was just the alcohol the bartender was pouring out like Penelope had certain nicknames regarding Derek. But it also seemed to be Garcia's goal to get the entire team drunk on her birthday. She had round after round coming to your booth, repeating "one of you is dancing on the table today" several times. You were sure it would be Penelope herself. Or JJ.

You were enjoying yourself with Emily on the dance floor of the club. You were incredibly warm, which was probably 75% due to the alcohol you had already drunk. You were wearing tight jeans and a backless, loose top, and yet your skin was so hot that the clothes almost stuck to you. At first you had worried that Emily and you were too different to become friends, but one day she showed up on your doorstep after an exhausting case and stayed all night. It had bonded you together.

In a quiet moment, you looked to the others and Derek raised an arm, signaling you were ready for the next round of shots. You grabbed Emily's arm and, singing, you squeezed through the crowd toward the table.

"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends“, you sang, and you dropped into the empty seat next to Spencer, who looked at you with amusement. "Make it last forever, friendship never eeeend“, you sang on, leaning back in Spencer's direction without touching him. When he tried to put his arm around you to pull you close, you pushed him away. "I'm sweaty and sticky, Spence. I don't think you're into that."

But Spencer reached for your hand and intertwined his fingers with yours before pulling you onto his lap. His breath brushed your face and you smelled the alcohol in it. "I don't care. I love touching you."

-

"There's a documentary about the formation of the universe and black holes in theaters tonight“, Spencer said. The team was on its way back from a case in Dallas, and while the others were resting or listening to music, you two were playing chess. Not that it was fair, but you liked the challenge and Spencer finally had someone to play with again. "I was wondering if you would like to join me. This case has been exhausting and I think we could use a distraction." He asked without looking up from the chessboard. His face turned glowing red, which you didn't notice because you were trying not to go checkmate in three moves.

You moved your queen before you looked at him. His shoulders were tense and he was breathing shallowly. Spencer bit the inside of his lower lip nervously. "I'd love to“, you smiled, and at your reply he seemed to visibly relax.

Spencer picked you up at home after you showered and got ready. You were wearing jeans and a loose sweater. Up until that point, Spencer had been sure you couldn't get any more beautiful, but when you hugged him with a sparkle in your eye and a warmth in your smile, he wasn't sure anymore.

"Origin of the universe and black holes?", you assured yourself as you stood outside the movie theater. Spencer nodded, his hands buried in his pants pockets. You smirked. "You have to promise me one thing, though."

"And that would be?", he asked as he paid for the tickets and put yours in your hand. You smiled at him.

"You have to promise me that you will tell me every one of your clever thought processes. I want to hear every comment you make, all right? Even if people around us complain."

It was the second time Spencer and you had done something together outside of work, and you enjoyed his company very much, which of course was partly because you'd had a crush on him ever since he'd once explained something to you about his case that you hadn't understood. Spencer had explained it to you as well as he could, and when you thanked him afterwards, he didn't know what hit him. No one cared about his clever anecdotes or explanations, and the fact that you had even thanked him for it made his heart beat faster. Just as it did now.

Spencer looked at you, pleased. "We're the only ones at the movies, Y/N. No one's going to complain."

"Then you can explain everything I don't understand at your leisure."

You entered the movie theater and took your seats. He handed you the packet of popcorn. "You are my partner in crime. You are my favorite person."

-

"The exhibit was very interesting“, you said as you left the museum. It hadn't been your first visit, but visiting it with Spencer was a very different experience. You liked that he had something to say about most of the exhibits. "Thank you for being here with me."

Spencer smiled down at you. "Well, actually, I asked you to go here with me. So I have to say thank you."

"But I wouldn't have been here tonight if you hadn't asked me. So, thanks for that."

Your apartment wasn't far away, and with each step you hoped the evening wouldn't end just yet. As you stood in front of your apartment complex, Spencer nervously stepped from one foot to the other. "I had a really nice evening“, he confessed.

"Me too." If you didn't want the evening to end now, you had to take the plunge. "I'd never been on a date to a museum before."

Spencer's eyes widened and for a moment you feared you had misinterpreted everything. The looks, the stories and the touches. But Spencer stopped your train of thought. "Neither have I. Well, I had been to a museum before, of course, but it had never been dates, and I'm glad I was there with you“, he babbled, blushing, which made you smile. You liked that you could read his feelings from his face. "Um, maybe we can meet again tomorrow? For dinner? If that's not too much for you?"

You didn't answer him, but put your arms around his neck and gently pulled him down to you. In his face you searched for signs that he didn't want this, and when you couldn't find any, you gently placed your lips on his.

At first he didn't return the kiss, which you attributed to his surprise. He stiffened and it took a moment for the synapses in his brain to realize what exactly was happening. You were kissing him. And you had kissed him first. When his mind started thinking again, his hands settled on your waist and he pulled you a little closer to him to deepen the kiss. When you broke away from each other, he had a gleam in his eyes.

"I recorded a short film about quantum physics that was on TV“, you whispered, opening your eyes while he kept his still closed. "If you like, you can come upstairs with me and we can watch it together."

The short movie played as background music while you sat on your couch and kissed until your lips were swollen and your lungs were gasping for air.When he broke away from you for a moment, all he could do was whisper.  "I'm addicted to you."

-

You had tried to keep your relationship a secret, and had failed miserably.

It had taken a psychopath, a hostage, and an explosion for you to fall into each other's arms and for Spencer to kiss you stormily in front of the team. His fingers dug into your skin and would surely leave bruises, but you didn't care. You had escaped the explosion by a hair and Spencer couldn't help but thank all the gods and pull you close to him as you stood in front of him.

"I thought you had been in the building“, he breathed as he gently pushed you off of him to look at you. "I thought I'd lost you."

A tear rolled down your cheek, which he wiped away with his thumb. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Spence." He pressed another kiss to your mouth before someone cleared their throat. The team stood just a few steps away from you, watching you, which was pretty embarrassing. Except for Hotch, everyone looked pleased and delighted, but you also didn't miss Hotch pressing a bill into JJ's hand.

"That's why you didn't want to go on that blind date I set you up with“, Derek grinned, putting a brotherly arm around Spencer's shoulders. "Pretty boy has a girlfriend."

Nothing ever felt so good as sharing a bed with Spencer after that day. You were half on top of him, he had his arm wrapped around you, and your legs were tangled under the covers. His fingers stroked your bare back and yours danced across his chest. He took a deep breath.

"Are you all right?", you asked, looking at him.

He swallowed. "I know we haven't been together that long and it's probably way too soon, but I almost lost you today and I can't keep it to myself any longer." Gently, he pushed you off of him and propped himself up on his elbow so he had to look down at you. "You're not just my favorite person, Y/N. You inspire me every day and you complete me in every way. You are the person I want to spend the rest of my life with." He put his hand to your cheek and you snuggled against his warm skin. "I love you, Y/N."

- tags below -

@mollygetssherlockcoffee​ / @averyhotchner​ / @ravenclawrandomness​ 

[tsunonotarou]

AZUL, JADE, FLOYD

— asking them to be your fake boyfriend

summary: Reader rushes to Octavinelle urging to sign a contract with Azul, reader’s wish is to have one of them (Azul, Jade or Floyd) to become their fake boyfriend in order to get rid of a persistent student who kept bothering them.

: gender-neutral reader!

OCTAVINELLE

Azul weren’t particularly pleased when he was informed that someone barged into Mostro Lounge and started requesting for his presence, but oh well, they might just want to sign a contract, it’s a win for him, he gathered Jade and Floyd by his side

You dismissed Azul, didn’t even bother listening to the terms and conditions and tell him to “just get on with it”

He silently huffed at your behavior, but you’re the one who didn’t want to listen to the terms and conditions, your loss. You have no right to complain later

The Leech brothers raised their brows at you, what a bold one you are

“So, what is your wish?” Azul leaned back comfortably

“I want someone in your dorm to be my fake boyfriend because this little pest wouldn’t stop bothering me.”

Azul’s eyes widened, so did Jade’s and Floyd’s, though a grin quickly stretched out on the twins’ lips

“Heh~ this is an unusual request, Shrimpy! It sounds fun!”

“Indeed, Floyd. I have never heard of such wish during the time I’ve spent with Azul. Truly surprising.”

Azul comprehended the situation quickly, giving a light chuckle and a wave of hand, placing a pen down and of course, the contract

“Very well, I shall assign one of my dorm members to assist you.”

He halted when your hand slammed onto the paper, stopping his movements

“I don’t want just any dorm member,”

Azul didn’t felt good

“I want someone intimidating or has enough authority to get him off my ass.”

“...”

“More specifically, I want one of you guys.” You pointed at the three of them, who had their eyes wide open

Who do you choose?

Azul Ashengrotto

Jade Leech

Floyd Leech

AZUL ASHENGROTTO

“M-Me?” His calm demeanor faltered and stuttered, pointing a finger at himself to confirm your answer, his cheeks dusted light pink when you nodded firmly

He could hear held back laughs behind him, which he sent glares to the twins in return

He cleared his throat, sitting up straighter and stiffer. “Well, then.”

He will always find you after class to make your “relationship” look more realistic and kind of indirectly telling people that you’re together or get the idea of it

He’ll also have lunch with you while trying his best to ignore teasing gazes from the Tweels

If you tell him it’s fine and he doesn’t have to stick with you all the time, he’ll dismiss it and say it’s better to get the job done earlier and hides the fact that he quite enjoy his time with you

You assume that they didn’t dare to talk to you because Azul’s with you, and that was true as they suddenly dragged you to a corner when you’re alone walking

They talked about how they didn’t know you were acquainted with Azul and demands an explanation, just being very rude and confusing in general

“Ah~ I see. So you are the one who Y/N mentioned.” The familiar voice made you sigh in relief while they froze in fear

Azul would place a gentle hand on your waist, securing you close as he looks down on the cowering student, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes quickly turned into a bored stare

“I’d appreciate it if you would stop pestering my lover.” The cold gaze and intimidating aura from Octavinelle’s dorm head had them scurrying off after a series of stuttered apologies

Azul made sure they’ve gone far away before quickly making space between you two to not make you uncomfortable, faking a cough as the front he put up dissolved

“So, for payment...”

He states that he has not made up his mind about what the payment will be, but he’s internally debating whether to ask you out on a date as payment or not ;)

Since Azul often visits you after class, even when this whole incident has thankfully stopped, he still finds you after class out of habit

And when he realized he just stood there blushing while enduring your smile

Maybe this will be the start of your story together

JADE LEECH

“Oh? Me?” STOP FUCKING RAISING YOUR EYEBROWS IM FUDHDKSOFJSO

He’d agree to help without a second thought because this might be amusing

He sticks by your side now, literally

You tried politely telling him how just following you around won’t do anything, he’s like a butler

He raised a brow before a smirk stretched on his lips, the next thing you knew you find yourself trapped in between him and the solid wall

Leaning down to get eye level with you, he mused. “Are you indicating something more...intimate?”

You fainted

After that he started to get more serious as you just realize that he was playing around all the while, now only truly intending to help you with your problem

He walks you to class everyday, making sure you’re in the classroom before going off to his own class

Of course he made sure to leave gentle caresses here and there, on your cheeks, hands, arms or lightly fixing your hair for you

These small yet loud gestures attracted attention, they would definitely catch wind of it. Once they knew you’re acquainted with Jade they’d immediately stop their disturbing chase, avoiding you now, even

But Jade wouldn’t let his fun die so soon, he knew they had been staring all this while, sneaking around stealing glances and followed you two

He’d personally find them to have a good talk, asking why were they bothering you exactly

Jade threatened gave them a light warning, as if scolding little kids with that charming smile and unusually calm tone of his

It wasn’t long before his face twisted into a sadistic expression along with a as equally sadistic grin, as if making fun of their foolish and pathetic self

During the time he spent with you made him know you more as a person and he finds you entertaining

Maybe he’ll invite you to Mostro Lounge when he’s done dealing with this pest, treating you to a cup of tea or a beverage of your liking and continue on with the conversation you two left off earlier

FLOYD LEECH

“Heh~? Me? Okay, I’ll squeeze them for you, Shrimpy!”

Clings to you 24/7, partly because of the need to guard you but mostly because of how soft you are and he just loves squishing you

He demands asks you to go to his basketball trainings/games, have lunch together under a large tree and just generally playing around with each other

You sometimes think that he forgot what all this was about, you’re not complaining, though, it’s fun being with Floyd

Really touchy, likes resting his chin on your head while he puts his arms on your shoulders and basically placing his entire weight on you

Your interactions, of course, were noticed by others

Floyd was waiting for them, the “annoying person” you were talking about, but they just won’t come out! Maybe they’re set on hiding when he’s near you

It was one of the rare times when you were alone without Floyd by your side and unsurprisingly, they came and started babbling like nothing’s wrong, making you extremely uncomfortable with their subtle touches

Their wrist was grabbed harshly, Floyd’s long fingers gripping around it so hard you swear it would’ve broke if he went any further, Floyd’s expression was dangerous, eyes wide as he glares down on them, a visible frown on his face

His smile only appeared when he faces you, telling you to wait for him in the interior hallway

You were uncertain but did as he told

It took a while for Floyd to come back to you, maybe he took his time toying with them

Acts as if nothing happened, wrapping his arm around your shoulders and leading you away to the cafeteria or Mostro Lounge

“Shrimpy~ they were no fun, you know? Weren’t even fun to squeeze!”

Cupping your hands around his face and squish it lightly while giving him your cute smile definitely cheers him up, so do that

If you do that, he’ll immediately make the both of you sit down on the ground (no matter where you are at that moment) and pull you in, his legs are long enough to circle around you so you’re kinda sitting in his little bubble of area if you know what I mean

He considered placing you on his lap but it’s probably too soon for that now, he’ll save it for next time

He grabbed your hands once more and placed them on his cheeks, continue what you were doing before! It’s cute and he likes it

[moshi-moshi-sunflower]

[Ikemen Vampire Scenario/Imagine] Bedridden (part 2) 💊

Imagine: You live in the mansion, and you’re feeling very ill. Your illness keeps you in bed for days, if not weeks. What will the guys do?

Category: Reader insert - forget about little miss snack, you are the MC.

Characters: Dazai, Isaac, Jean, Shakespeare, Comte and Sebastian.

Warnings: Some fluff? 

First part here.

Dazai

Goes to your room and offers you a couple of books that he believed could be of use to you-- books that could distract you, yes.

He goes just to have chats with you; it doesn't matter if you respond in monosyllables, or don’t respond at all. He will still talk, softly, with a silky voice that sometimes he seems to use on purpose to make you feel sleepy and rest.

He acts as natural and relaxed as always, instead of showing the concern many of the others show.

This is surprisingly reassuring.  

However, he still tells you, every once in a while, something along the lines of: “You have to recover soon, Toshiko-san. You have all of these renowned personalities in disarray, and it’s kinda hard to make them be fun this way.”

Also, sometimes he brings you an apple, saying that “it was supposed to be for Ai-kun, but you need it more.”

His eyes are calm, and they soften whenever they observe you. Concerned or not, he hopes you’ll get better, and that’s good enough for you.

Isaac

He is firstly shocked. And after the shock has happened, almost everyone has already reacted, and he finds himself looking around in annoyance and embarrassment.

He does NOT enjoy crowded spaces, and it takes a while before he goes to see you.

When he does, he mutters something that sounds like he’s wishing you well; that he wishes you to get better. But it might as well have been a hallucination.

He is not sure of what to do with a sick person…? So he considers that the best thing is to leave her some space… and space for the people that actually do know what to do.

What to do, what to do…?

He sees Leonardo bringing Lumiere to your room, and has the subsequent millionaire idea, that brings a smile to your face. “Harry!”

“You shouldn’t extenuate yourself so much…” he says, awkwardly. “He doesn’t even really recognise his name.”

Unfortunately, after accidentally scaring Harry, the little creature attempts to make an escape, and runs to hide beneath the sheets.

“Harry!” Isaac’s hands move towards the hedgehog before remembering that you are beneath the sheets too, and his face turns red, even his ears reddening before his hands jerk back.

(He has no idea how clothed you are, given that the sheets cover you right above your neck)

You laugh weakly, and he sputters an explanation, about the urgency of grabbing Harry.

Harry’s shape is visible through the sheets, a small mound fidgeting, and that combined with Isaac’s expression make you laugh out loud, even though doing so hurts.

Isaac, alarmed, scolds you, with a fierce frown, but your hands find Harry and hold him before he can complain anymore.

The hedgehog doesn’t harm you, too busy curling up in a ball, and Isaac takes it back, deflated.

“That was a horrible idea. I am-- I am sorry... I’ll take my leave now”, he mutters.  

But you shake your head slowly. “I haven’t laughed like that in a while... Thank you.”

(He doesn’t seem to believe you, but it is true)

Jean

Who knows from where did he find a rose... ? Clearly not from the flower shop, considering that it seems to have been crudely cut.

In the gardens now there’s one less rose, plus a massive hole in the rose bushes that leaves Sebastian both baffled and horrified, wondering if a wild animal has broken out in the gardens.

Meanwhile, Jean realizes that he should have used his sword to cut the thorns, not the rose.

So he does, with an appalling lack of expertise, for someone that is indeed an experienced swordsman.

Later, he offers you the rose, with a blank expression, that doesn’t manage to tear your attention from the gashes on his gloves.

Sitting on the bed and leaving the rose aside, you try to reach for his hands, before he moves away; you’re successful, and he stares at you, with an almost startled expression.

You gently touch the places where the cuts are, making him take off his gloves.

You thank him heartfeltly-- before recommending him to go to the flower shop next time. Or, you know, just asking for help.

He freezes, his two hands being held by both of yours. Once you let him go, he quickly retreats, and you’re not entirely sure he bids you farewell before leaving hurriedly.

You lower your gaze, and smile.

He left his gloves on your lap.  

Shakespeare

He takes the carriage just to see you, as soon as he receives the news that you’re quite ill.

He stays a long while by your bedside; doing what? Well, writing, for starters. He finds you quite inspiring right now (oh-oh)

But don’t worry, he also reads to you. Your favorite plays, your favorite books, or anything he thinks it might interest you.

In fact, he creates stories for you; stories in which you are the protagonist, and -after a fair dose of tragedy, after all, that is completely necessary in any story- he sometimes rewards you with something akin to a happy ending.

In some of those, you are sick, too; but it usually ends up with you getting better (most of the times…)

You are surprised when he touches your forehead, to make sure you don’t have a lot of fever.

If you attempt to leave the bed, he’ll smile… and then you’ll feel compelled to immediately crawl back to your bed, and hide beneath the bed sheets, shivering.

He doesn’t even have to talk, his eyes are enough.

Sometimes if he sees you anxious to get up, he does comment, in a dangerously amiable tone, “Fair one, at this rate I might be forced to tie you. Or art thou willing to face the consequences, of getting up before time has come...?”  

And talking about when ‘time has come’... When the time comes for him to leave, he always bids you farewell by kissing the back of your hand.  

You are not entirely sure if he’s enjoying this situation or not… Would it be more disturbing if he did, or if he didn’t?

Comte

What were you expecting? Of course he’s one of the firsts in line to go see you.

He behaves as gentlemanly as always, offering absolutely (and I mean absolutely) anything you need. Medicines? Checked. A doctor? Checked. Cachemira scarf? Checked. Fluffy angora socks? Checked. What else...? Ah, yes...

You have to ask him to stop at some point, jesus christ.

He takes your hand between his, emphasizing his interest in your well being.

He touches your face gently, to check your temperature.

His hand feels comfortably cold, and you close your eyes, muscles relaxing with his touch.

You’re not entirely sure, but you swear he sometimes visits you while you sleep, to check up on you. You feel his eyes for a few moments, before he leaves.

His presence is actually comforting, and his calm smile always reassures you, saying you’ll get better, with no problem.

In a few words, he pampers you non stop, asleep or awake.

You promise to make it up to him, but he just chuckles lightly.

Sebastian

He orders you to stay in bed, and goes back to you every once in a while, to make sure you are doing okay.

If you ever try to get up, he admonishes you; and if you insist too much, he gives you a light flick on the forehead, waaay more softer than what you ever thought him capable of doing.

He brings food to your bed (Comte would have insisted anyway, tbh), and makes some spare moments to share with you.

He religiously gives you every medicine at the exact same hour you are supposed to take them.

Precise as a walking clock, you can’t help but admire his dedication to you, even when he has so much to do, especially now that you are not helping him.

You offer to give him the new info you obtained from the other residents-- of how they behave when someone in their house is sick (and when said someone is a girl)...

You are not entirely sure it’s a proper thing to do, but it seems harmless enough. Sebastian accepts your offer, with that sparkle in his eyes you know so well.

So you spend an afternoon exchanging information; because in return for your words, you receive new information, from when the other residents have been sick.

(Now that is more questionable, you think...)

And yet, you keep chatting happily, basking in Sebastian’s reliability, even when it comes to make you feel better.

[starshipsofstarlord]

Hey!!! I'm so glad you liked the blurb night idea :) 💞 Can I request a blurb with Peter bumping into the reader while she's kinda lost at times square and he's dressed as spiderman so he tries to flirt with you, but it makes you laugh instead?

I loved the idea hun, thankyou sm for helping me with this idea xxx

“You’re a guy?”

Pairing | Peter Parker x reader

Summary | based on the request

Warnings | mentions of crime, brief mention of death and drugs, mention of sex

2K blurb masterlist

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

“And there was this girl. She was really pretty, but-“ May quirked her head at her nephew, hardly understanding his blabber as he sped through his words like he was racing verbally against a cheetah, though, she was manage to uncover that particular sentence.

“Whoa, slow down kiddo.” His aunt laughed lightly, bracing her shoulders on his arms as he caught his overexcited breath. “How about you start from the beginning, and take a breath?” May had much practice with calming the boy down, she sincerely remembered how that night his parents had dropped him off, how worried he had been for them not to return. And they didn’t.

Peter bobbed his head in a eager nod, doing as he was recommended by his legal guardian, puffing the air in through his cheeks, as he inhaled and exhaled normally through his nose.“I was out patrolling the city, checking out for any bad guys, and then, I saw her...” her, the girl that had captured his attention, and distracted him from his friendly neighbourhood duties. She was much like a magnet, pulling his north face into her axis spinning world, distracting him from the things that he was actually meant to be ensuring did not happen on his watch.

“Weren’t you supposed to be patrolling?” The elder of the two quirked a brow, earning a splutter of a response from the teenager under her roof. She wasn’t a strict guardian concerning his heroic antics, though, she made sure to keep him on track for his own sake. Peter had quite the tendency to become overrun with stress from the amounts of responsibilities that he took on, and him being only young did not help the situation.

“I’m getting to that!” He was fast to defend himself, huffing his chest in as he prepared to tell May his story, from the beginning. It was quite the tale, he’d say, combined with the embarrassment of his own presence entangled in the random and friendly interaction that he had felt promiscuously lulled to create.

Queens, it was new to you. There were so many streets, filled to the brim with people that seemed to know where they were going. Unlike them, you didn’t, in fact, you’d go as far to admit that you were lost. Lost in a place that was known for the chaos that wrapped it off with a tarnished bow, and made the collateral practically fashion within its various newspapers that rounded every corner to divulge their companies’ obscure theories.

A panicked look struck your eyes, as you turned, shaking your head and pressing through the mass of citizens and finding an empty lot, scrolling through your phone, diverting your attention quickly towards google maps. It was the only thing that you could think of, it’d be a shame if you were to disturb one of the many passersby from their clearly packed schedule; you did not need that, nor berating them on your conscience.

“You lost or something?” A voice asked, making your shoulders jump as a figure, twisted in the colours red and blue, with a seam of black fell from the roofs above. Your heart rate imploded, more so when you realised who the mask wearing vigilante was. The wearer, although unknown, was infamous for the successions of saving lives that they had participated in, including defending the galaxy against outside threats.

It was Spiderman, the neighbourhood dubbed avenger, that tried their utmost to return stolen or lost bikes to their rightful owners, and protected banks from armed and overnight robberies. There was known to be something different about this particular hero, they were young and clearly had time to improve their skill set, for they were quite the clutz, and spoke significantly more to those he faced off against than what was necessary.

But this one hero, stood out amongst the rest. Not only was their suit designed by Stark technology, as you had written about in a work article, but it was far more concealing, and not to mention restricting, for the person beneath the red concoction to wear. Yes, you were in town for a new job, specifically to delve into the details that regards the world of heroes, and exploit all possible angles to how they deserved as much recognition for their stunts, as the president received for his noble speeches.

“I-“ you paused, think back over what you were preparing to say. It was without a doubt, that you had not expected the vigilante to appear in your spectacle gaze the first time that you stepped foot on the premises that he roamed, and protected. But here the spider enthusiast was, leaping down to stand beside you, burdening you with more knowledge that you could use, such as the person beneath was not as tall as you had expected, and there was definitely no way you could see their true eyes through the shallow white cases that covered them.

That was something you could write about, and make various descriptive theories about. ‘Seeing in white vision, sparked by the purity that glazed their unknown signature irises, Spider-Man halts all with the sparing of their true self. They may have reasons for shielding their eyes, much like Daredevil, not needing to see when they are overcome with various other senses that convulse their body into attentiveness,” -no, that sounded absolutely terrible.

And not to mention, if you spread that horrid writing about, Murdoc would be ashamed of ever deciding to get your aid in uncovering the route of the villainous underworld, that had take over Hell’s Kitchen and turned it into their own ring for drugs and more. The battle of New York had many repercussions, that being one, another influencing you into the career choice of being said reporter that you now proclaimed yourself as.

“Yeah, I am.” You responded with the company of a smile, and Peter swore he could feel his heart convulse beneath his suit. It’s pace was vaguely rapid, disheartening him from thinking of any more to say, he was practically speechless. “I’m looking for New York Times, you ever heard of it?” Yes, he most definitely had, it was the average run of the mill newspaper company, though, he did not know that you intended to change that into something much more.

“Funnily enough I have.” He scratched the back of his head, his arm subconsciously flexing as he did so, feeling like he had failed as your eyes remained focused on the wideness of his suit’s intense eyes. “It’s about three blocks from here, I could take you there if you want, I have nothing more to do.” From his proclamation you quirked a brow, crossing your arms amusedly.

“Don’t you have a city to watch over?” You asked, watching as Spider-Man’s false eyes widened, and he visibly panicked, realising that you had been right. “I’ll find my way, I’ve been to New York, many a time, Queens is bound to be a piece of cake. Also, a map is always handy.” A shrug rippled off your shoulders, Peter watching and walking closer as he thought of something more to add to the initial acquainting conversation.

“I’m Spider-Man.” Inwardly, and beneath his mask, Peter cringed noting how his voice rose, and it could be perceived as boasting. That though was definitely not his intent in the slightest, but he worried of how it may have come across to you. He wasn’t sure how you may have read it as, but a swarm of relief filled his lungs as he watched the corner of your eyes crinkle up, humoured by the tone of his that had significantly heightened. “Im a guy by the way.”

He felt the need to state that, especially considering people’s perceptions in the past. But instantly after saying it, he was regretful, through, he had to admit, he enjoyed listening to you laugh, it was like a melody that he wanted to listen to until the end of time. “You’re a guy?” You released a dramatic gasp, aiding your phoney response. “Yeah, no. I completely thought that you were a girl.” Sarcasm, he had well gotten used to frequency of it thanks to Mr Stark, who... well, he wasn’t around any more.

“You’re funny.” He smiled, shaking his head whence he realised that you could not see his hidden expression. “I don’t know, maybe, would you like to go to coffee with me, if you have time before you have to get to the news place? I mean, I don’t drink that much coffee, I get told that if I have too much caffeine that I get a little hyper, but I mean, I’m trying to ask you out and I have a really bad track record of-“

“Sure.” You spoke, ignoring the map that had finally loaded onto the screen of your phone. It was to your luck that you weren’t required to make your presence known at the business until tomorrow, and there was always time to kill, so you thought screw it, and decided to find it so that you didn’t get lost the approaching day. “Are you going to be wearing that, or you know, take it off?” You pointed at him, making peter surprised.

“It’s not that kind of date.” He quickly responded. “I meant just for a drink, not to hook up in the back of an a- oh, you meant the suit, didn’t you.” With a roll of your eyes, you nodded, pursing your lips together, as Peter felt the rain of relief once more. “Oh, that’s good, not that I wouldn’t want to, you’re gorgeous, that just wasn’t my intent and I’m rambling again, aren’t I?”

“Basically.” You wrinkled your nose, with a laugh, the way you scrunched it up was adorable to Peter. “So I’ll meet you here in two hours, I’ll let you finish up your duties, and change into something that doesn’t make you look you’re wearing a thong, because I can tell you from experience that those things are not comfortable. That good for you Spidey?”

“That works.” He spoke, trying his best to contain his overflowing excitement, biting his lip to do so. “That definitely works.”

“Hi.” The familiar voice of Spider-Man spoke, and you turned around, watching as a young man, not much different in age from yourself rounded the corner. He was clothed in a blue and white chequered flannel, and grey jeans, and you had to say, that whilst the amazing Spider-Man was quite the sight, this was something else.

“Oh, I was waiting for a girl actually.” You informed him, clearly messing with him, as you walked closer, a stretching smile pinning up the corners of your lips. “But I guess you’ll do webslinger.” He could feel his heart racing, but he walked closer, watching as you eyed him, a stranger met with the sight of a vigilante unmasked. “Where to, red and blue?”

“There’s this really good place on main, they sell the best sandwiches. And trust me, once you buy from there, you won’t stop...” the two of you began to walk away together, and towards Peter’s secret destination, where the two of you learnt the others real name.

[transsexualhamlet]

sherlock holmes reactions part 4 (?) ive lost count already but unsurprisingly ive grown even more attached to him

using this as the cover image because i made him a playlist. cause im awful

no legit this is gonna need a read more because it's SO LONG SHIHEWIESHEFSHIEWHF

Had three mental breakdowns this week and realized i do in fact kin sherlock motherfucking holmes. this does not bode well for anything in my life mentally I've diagnosed him with so many things

Oh boy lol you want the list I think hes autistic (undisputed honestly) plus also adhd but on top of that there's the manic depression and uhhh the bpd lmao I dont even think that's it those are just. the obvious ones

But yeah man's a fucking mess and a shit person but in the same way as me so 👍

Some highlights I thought were very funny:

watson: we are in fact going to be waltzing into a place where people are Shooting People you do not have your gun. this is a problem

sherlock: don't worry watson I have my trusty stick!

watson: visible pain

This clearly happens like every day or so with them

but yeah there were some really honestly sweet scenes with them at the apartment and why am i getting soft over the crusty man being gay

have you considered tho. have you considered them

have you considered sherlock, who usually only plays absolute garbage on his violin serenading watson to sleep when he was tired and in pain and watson being so fucking in love with the man and waxing poetic about falling asleep to his music and waking up to see him fallen asleep on the couch next to him and oh my god them

They're just really sweet together for such a completely dysfunctional couple so much of the time lol I just. Sherlock being like.

Sherlock half of the time: watson you're fucking stupid. no i won't take care of my personal needs stfu. watson get a goddamn life. watson shut up. watson no one cares about your goddamn opinion. no i need to disturb you in the middle of the night it's for science. hey watson mind if i manipulate mansplain malewife

Sherlock the other half of the time: HELLO SIR YOU ARE MY FAVORITE MAN TO EVER MAN HELLO MAY I SPEND THE REST OF MY DAYS WITH YOU HELLO I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU WE ARE PERFECT MATCHES I LOVE YOU AND I NEED YOU YOURE SO MUCH BETTER THAN ME PLEASE MARRY ME

They're... they certainly are.

ALSO OH MY GOD.

THIS ONE TIME WHEN SHERLOCK WAS JUST PACING AROUND THE ROOM AT 3 AM GOING "IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE >:(((" AND HUDSON LIKE BARGED IN TO COMPLAIN AND THEN WATSON WAS LIKE DUDE YOU GOTTA STOP DOING THIS AND PROCEEDS TO SAY THE LINE "YOU ARE KNOCKING YOURSELF UP, OLD MAN"

BAHGHSFHGRHEWHEWHIFEW

BRB SOBBING

CALLING HIM AN OLD MAN???? KNOCKING HIMSELF UP?? I DONT KNOW WHATS FUNNIER

The main highlight of this part was I have now gotten to see him have a great time watching his homo homie get married

Its so fucking funny.......

I was prepared for a funny reaction by yuumori sherlock's face when he said it lol but. Damn i was really not prepared tbh

watson: I'm engaged!

sherlock: *pained groaning*

watson: do you... not like her?

sherlock: no she's fine she's great you'll be wonderful together bUT I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE ARE HETEROSEXUAL WATSON DO I HAVE TO MARRY MYSELF THEN WATSON? ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME MARRY MYSELF.

watson: yeah... yeah... fair, I feel really bad because you did this whole case and I got a girlfriend out of it and all you got was me leaving you alone fuck man im sorry what are you gonna do without me

sherlock, highly sarcastic: dont worry watson I've always got my handy cocaine! *pulls it out and gets high in front of watson just as he's about to leave*

watson: *in fucking agony*

sherlock: good for you!

I DONT EVEN- THIS SCENE KILLED ME MULTIPLE TIMES OVER WHAT

ITS SO GODDAMN NONCHELANT ABOUT IT SHERLOCK IS JUST LIKE YEAH I WILL IN FACT NOT BE MENTALLY HEALTHY IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ME 24/7 BUT WHATEVER YOU DO YOU /S

I'd like to apologize to watson on sherlock's behalf lmao. man is being a bit too codependent on main

The last thing about sign of four I do need to address is yeah, there's the Horrific Amounts Of Racism in that one and the whiplash hearing it is just ridiculous because they seem to be so knowledgeable in all other areas and fairly... politically correct, taking sherlock's original misogyny as a purposeful character flaw, but then they just mention someone indigenous once and suddenly its all parrotting racist propaganda and just... really awful shit. There's no way I'm gonna speak for the group that just got absolutely hate crimed here but anyone can tell the author just has no clue what he's fucking talking about and it's physically painful.

And I don't know, it's just so bad it seems out of character? Doyle's making these motherfuckers say shit that honestly, Sherlock would know better about. And especially Watson. Come on, you cannot tell me watson is mentally capable of being prejudiced against someone. Please do not make him that way.

I'm not sure how to handle it specifically, or what's the proper way I should handle something like that in a media I otherwise like. Is it ok to say Doyle was clearly a piece of shit on the matter and separate those characters from his bias or is that insensitive?

I don't know, I was Not a fan of it and I'm glad to see they've at least finally shut up about the guy

But anyway yeah, uhhhh onto the short stories because I'm trying to read those before I get to the final problem

Scandal in Bohemia was a fucking ride, first of all, before we even get to Sherlock's girlboss arc we have to discuss how gay the whole situation was and how Doyle's attempt at making them less gay failed spectacularly

Like he's all "ah yes I need to marry off watson and uhhh make sherlock ummmm interact with a woman so they dont look gay" but he does it SO BADLY that it makes them look EVEN GAYER

cause i mean, even the conversation they had about watson getting married back in sign of four was gay af, but how Doyle handled things afterward was in no way straighter.

Cause you know, the man kind of wrote himself into a corner with the fact of Watson narrating these stories. So Watson has to be around to witness them, and to witness Sherlock's own thought process rather privately, so he has to be around sherlock at night, a lot. But trying to come up with a reason for that happening just... it didn't occur to Doyle. He just went. Ah yes this makes sense. And it's Watson just like Sleeping Over At Sherlock's like every other goddamn day and every time his wife leaves town and having them basically still live that cute domestic home life but they have absolutely no excuses for doing it anymore. It's quite funny

Like it was gay already the way they interacted when they officially lived together but it was like, a necessity for them. Now it's not, Watson just comes over because he goddamn wants to, and it's hilarious to me.

LIKE IDK I THINK THEY KIND OF BROKE UP FOR A YEAR OR SO BC OF WATSON GETTING MARRIED AND THEY LIKE DONT HAVE CONTACT WITH ONE ANOTHER BUT ONE DAY WATSON JUST INEXPLICABLY HAS THE URGE TO COME VISIT SHERLOCK ON NO NOTICE AND THEN SUDDENLY THEY ARE TOGETHER NEAR 24/7 AGAIN LIKE BARELY ANYTHING CHANGED AHIEHOEWH

SIT DOWN AND TRY TO TELL ME THOSE ARE NOT HOMOSEXUALS

Watson walks in on no fucking notice after a full year and Sherlock is just. In the middle of some experiment obviously but hes like

Sherlock, carrying around unidenfiable chemical mixtures: W A T S O N you look good you look good! i see you've gained seven pounds!!

watson: uh. thanks??? Hey lol *awkwardly waves* Uh um Wanted to Uhm sEe you

Sherlock: ABOUT gODDAMN TIME AND YES WONDERFUL LOOK LOOK SIT DOWN I HAVE THINGS TO INFODUMP ABOUT

watson: :) ok :) *turns to camera* and we were back to the old days

sherlock: makes a deduction

watson: wowwwwwwwwwwww !! so true bestie !!

sherlock: !!!!!!!!! :))) !!!!! :))) uh fuck im supposed to be smooth Its Elementary Lol

watson: *turns to camera* when i stroke his ego like this and compliment him he blushes like a girl like i just complimented his dress so i do it more because he likes it. this is a homie trait

watson: well i should probably get going! my wife will notice that i am gone my dear buddy bro homie!

sherlock: NO DONT LEAVE IM LOST WITHOUT YOU (pretty much a direct quote lol) your. wife doesn't. get back home until monday. I know this because I am smart and definitely have not been stalking you.

watson: alright :)))))

AND THEN HE FUCKING SLEEPS OVER LMAO FUCKING HOMOS

So yeah they're right back where they were before pretty much and there's a case bc of course there is

And honestly I think this short story specifically was so insane mostly just because of how absolutely fast it all went. Yuumori kind of made me believe the original Irene Adler was more of an important character than she really is? And I think that's. Honestly so funny. Motherfucker shows up for ten pages, girlbosses her way around town, and changes sherlock's entire opinion of the female gender while still keeping him gay?

LIKE NO LOL SHES NOT IN ANY WAY A LOVE INTEREST AND WATSON GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO SPECIFY THE FACT THAT IN NO WORLD WOULD THEY HAVE BEEN ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED BECAUSE. SHERLOCK. DIDN'T DATE WOMEN.

HE WAS JUST??? SO IMPRESSED AND SHELL SHOCKED BY HER EXISTENCE HE DECIDED IT WAS TIME FOR GIRLBOSS APPRECIATION DAY TODAY AND ALL DAYS HENCEFORTH???

AND THEY HAVE LIKE O N E INTERACTION?? God, the power this woman(?) has. Watson looks at her once like. damb shawty 😳 and she's like "no<3" and he's like FUCK

Like yeah it's pretty much just the king walking up like "help girl the whore is blackmailing me" and sherlock being like "ok lol this will be easy" and then it proceeded to not in fact be easy or even possible

sherlock like... posed as a dead body and tried to get her to give up the location of the photo but she out-acted him and skipped the town the next day after doing the 'good night mr. sherlock holmes' thing with sherlock completely tricked

and she just. sends a letter like "dear sherlock holmes. you're a fucking idiot and i think it's funny that you lost. nice job tho mad respect" and sherlock just SHORT CIRCUITS

the king comes back a bit later like "hey Dude where's my Photo" and sherlock's like oh yeah uhhhhhhhhhhh about that and the king is like HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN THAT GODDAMN HARD i would have dated someone more noble if she wasn't so pretty i swear im on a whole different level from her

and then. GIRLBOSSIFIED SHERLOCK HOLMES RESPONDS "from what I have seen of the lady, she seems indeed to be on a very different level from your majesty" ABSEHHESHEFHHFES ROASTED

and the dude just LEAVES

After that I read a few more of the short stories and well the highlights I got from that pretty much were these conversations

Watson: sherlock. honey. have you. eaten anything today

Sherlock: IT DIDNT OCCUR TO ME DEAR WATSON

Watson: ITS FIVE PM

and:

Sherlock: *having one of his Moment Moments at three in the goddamn mornig* GRRRR CRIME ISNT WHAT IT USED TO BE

Watson: MY DEAR SHERCOCK WHAT IS CRIME S U P P O S E D TO BE LIKE ACCORDING TO YOU

Sherlock: no one's original anymore fucking copycats

Watson: so you want the criminals to make things harder for you specifically.

Sherlock, exasperated: yes!

I love them your honor.

[introductions-are-a-spook]

Tag list: @kyuudomo @kissthe-gogoat @caloroso-cosmos @omrade-echorin < You said you like the last one so added you. Let me know if you’re okay with that, and sorry if not!

Let me know if you want to be added or taken off. Reblogs and feedback always appreciated!

Fifty miles from the Chapman house and twenty years ago, rain fell over an English boarding school. Children ran from building to building, clutching their bags under hunched chests in an attempt to protect them.

Visible through a window, one student sat huddled on a library bench, nose deep in a book. And of course they didn’t see through their concentration to the rambunctious upperclassman arguing with the librarian.

“I told you before, my father tore the book, not me. I can get the money to pay for it, it’ll just take a couple days!”

“That’s ridiculous. Just why in the world would a parent do that, hmm?”

“You obviously don’t know him like I do,” he snipped under his breath.

After a moment more of this, he sauntered over to where the bookworm- maybe a grade or two below him, sat. Flopping down, he groaned.

Finally the quiet one spoke. “Mrs. Kingsley’s going to wring your neck if you don’t replace the book soon, you know.”

“Yeah, I get it already. Geez.” The older boy looked at the younger with a raised eyebrow. “Hey I know you, you’re in my chemistry class. Mary, right?”

“Er, it’s Maxwell. And yes, what about it?”

“Isn’t that a bit too hard for you? You’re what, twelve?”

“Fourteen. You?”

“Aww, a little shrimp. I’m seventeen. Andrew, by the way,” although teasing, his tone lacked any genuine malice. He held out a hand to shake.

“Nice to meet you, prick.”

Andrew laughed. “Damn right. Whatcha reading?”

Maxwell tilted the book. A collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. “I want to be a detective when I get out of school, so I’m studying now.”

“That’s cool. We better get to class though, the bell’s gonna ring soon,” Andrew said, standing up and checking his watch.

Maxwell reluctantly closed his book and nodded. “Just try to pay for the book soon, okay? Mrs. Kingsley isn’t the only one who cares about this library.”

“Oh sure. I’ll just steal the money from my dad while he’s at church or something,” he said with a mischievous grin. “Nice meeting you, Maxwell!”

“Same here. Criminal!”

Andrew laughed and walked off. Maxwell allowed a chuckle as he went the opposite way.

~*~

Six pictures were laid out in front of Andrew. All of various bedrooms. Half he recognized- Maxwell’s, Isabella’s, and his own. The other three varied. There was a rather plain, maroon themed bedroom with several camera monitors in one corner. Another was coated wall-to-wall in weapons and a bright scarlet palette. The last of which was more pink and the most homely, with picture frames full of people everywhere. All belonging to Maxwell’s siblings, most likely.

And yet, Andrew was not confused. In fact, he was quite disturbed. He sat with his ferret, Brie, in his arms, petting her in an attempt to calm down.

He had finally worked up the courage to read the letter. Mr. Antigone had left a graphic plan of all the horrible things he would do if Andrew didn’t leave Maxwell as soon as possible. He detailed all the ways he could get away with it, and included the pictures as proof of his deadly seriousnessand capability.

Well if he hasn’t killed me yet, it probably means he wants me alive. He must be trying to beat me into submission.

What a mess. Within just a few weeks of going out with Max, Andrew’s world had turned upside down. Of all the people in the world, he had to fall in love with a detective.

A knock at the downstairs door stirred him. Quietly putting Brie in her pen, he cursed himself for not burning the letter as told. Walking down to the front on tiptoe, he slipped a kitchen knife into his pocket- just in case.

Another knock. Andrew took a deep breath, prepared for the worst, and opened the door.

“Maxwell! Oh, it’s just you, thank god,” he sighed in relief.

Maxwell raised an eyebrow. “Of course it’s me, who else would it be?” He cut Andrew off before he could respond. “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. We need to talk.”

A twinge of fear settled in Andrew’s gut. “About what? Is everything okay?”

“Given that you feel the need to answer the door with a knife in your coat,” he gestured to how poorly it was hidden, “No, things are far from okay.”

Andrew studied Maxwell’s face. His handsome features were pulled into a grave expression, his demeanor uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you come in,” Andrew said, holding the door ajar for the other man.

“Thank you,” Maxwell responded, sitting down at an empty booth in the main shop. Andrew sat down across from him, and they sat in silence for a long few moments.

Maxwell slowly tapped his thumbs together. Andrew could see how his eyes faded in deep thought.

“Andrew.”

“Yes?”

“Are you…” he took a shaky breath. “No. I know you’re the thief.”

Andrew’s stomach flipped, but he calmed himself. “You’re good. Guilty as charged. Is this my day of reckoning, then?” His tone was bitter, almost scared.

For the first time since arriving, Maxwell looked Andrew directly in the eye. “I have an idea.”

“You didn’t answer my question, but go on,” he said with a dry chuckle.

“Tell me, who is Nikos Antigone?”

Andrew stood up suddenly. “What do you mean, has he contacted you? Have you met him?”

“So you do know him. He sent me a letter- or, as it turns out, two letters. The first ‘anonymously’ telling me to run away from you, the second saying that you robbed him. Tell me, have you ever used violence in your hijinks?”

“I don’t know how much you’ll believe me, but no, I haven’t.”

“I figured as much. So it was Antigone that broke your nose a couple weeks back?”

Andrew hesitated. Was this an interview? But Maxwell seemed so genuinely worried. “Yeah, basically.”

“I’m very sorry,” he said, brushing a finger over the bridge that was still sore. Andy winced slightly, causing Max to draw his hand away.

“I’m not going to turn you in. I want to help, but to do that, I need answers. Could you tell me more?” He was now surprisingly soft.

So with a heavy sigh, Andrew spilled his guts about everything, even ousting Isabella’s involvement in the process. He also provided some insight on Jennifer. She was the daughter of a nobleman, one that rudely broke off dealings with the Antigone family’s crime loop, when she was just a baby.

Despite this, all four of them had attended the same school without realizing. She and the young Nikos were the best of friends, before they all went their separate ways, and Nikos followed in his family’s footsteps. Andrew was doing jobs for him simply to make him money and to be a jewel in his crown.

“You won’t have to be for long. If we can find a way to get him in the wrong place at the wrong time, we can pin all of your wrongdoings on him.”

“Maxwell, no. You could lose your job if you did that!”

“I’m more than willing-“

“And besides, I’m the one at the wheel, I should take the blame-“

“You think I haven’t shuffled blame before? You know neither of us have ever cared about morals and virtue.”

“That may be true, but this is still a huge risk. One I’m not willing to let you take for me!”

“Well too bad, because I refuse to allow you to keep on like this. If you don’t let me help, I’ll find a way to do something on my own.”

“Max, what the hell has gotten into you? Why can’t you let me sort out my own problems- or just throw me in jail already?”

“Because I love you, you nitwit!”

There was a long, charged silence. The tension of argument melted away, leaving something else entirely in its place.

“I… I think I love you too. And I don’t want you to get hurt. You have no idea the things this guy will do to you.”

Max held Andy’s hand, up on the table. “You’re right, I don’t. But I know with our combined minds, we can outsmart him.”

Andrew took a deep, shuddering breath. “Do you really think so?”

Maxwell nodded. “The Antigone family has done enough damage. It’s about time someone put a stop to it. I only have one condition.”

“That being?”

“For both of our sakes, you need to drop your game. Once Nikos is in prison, well…”

Andrew nodded and pondered for a moment. “I’d need something else after the fact- to keep me entertained. But yes, for you, I will.”

“Then our plot can be your last heist. Any ideas as to a replacement?”

“You could marry me, and we could run away together. Be musicians in Vienna till’ we’re old,” Andy smirked.

Max giggled. “Ask me again in three years.”

And then he gave Andy the most lovestruck look. Andy returned it. They glanced at their pose- they were awfully close.

“I’d ask if I could kiss you, but there’s a table in the way,” Andy whispered with a quiet laugh.

“Just get over here, you,” Max then pulled a laughing Andy by his tie to the nearest wall, moving close, only to be stopped.

“Hang the hell on, you’re the short one, shouldn’t you be the one-“

Max swatted Andy’s arm. “Oh, shut up.” And with that, they finally closed the gap.

Andy smelled like fresh cakes, and Max like old books. Where the thief tasted like strawberries, the detective was like tea with milk; both felt like smooth butter.

Andy’s arms were strong as he lifted Max and held him so close. They stood like that for a long time, pausing only to dash upstairs. Andrew had only one thought before his mind went blank with bliss.

Antigone thinks he can use me as a puppet. Poor man has no idea what he’s messing with.

[americangodstalk]

Notes on S2E4: The Greatest Story Ever Told

# During the flashback to the Boy/CEO background we pass by three main eras. The Pong era, the Game Boy era and the one with the computer (well, one of the first computers). See my Game Boy theory.

# Bast licks the wounds for them to heal.

# Ibis and Jacquel are prosectors. They save tissues for analysis and do autopsies for the county medical examiner (while also being a funeral parlor snce 1863). They found a “niche” during the Civil War, opening up as a funeral parlor for people of color (though of course they did not identify themselves as people of color). Upon being asked about the name Cairo, he only answers “chicke-egg”.

# Odin is against monogamy.

# To meet Money, “the most influential god in America”, “untouchable asshole but his stocks never fall”, they go to Saint Louis, a “big city with big money”. 

# It is mentionned that Anansi and Bilquis know each other “biblically” (aka they had sex). 

# New Media mentions to Technical Boy that “we need each other”. New Media says that Media “died”, while Technical Boy opposes that Media didn’t die but simply “changed” into New Media. 

# When Mr. World arrives, there are numerous electric disturbances. He is of course pissed off at Tech Boy’s failure, saying that “war is won with information”. Technical Boy mentions that he knows a “guy” that own him, in Silicon Valley, and that can provide them with a “new network”. The guy will of course turn out to be the CEO. 

# Apparently, Money was born (or at least it is implied by Wednesday) in 1933, when Roosevelt took the dollar out of the gold standard, so that money couldn’t be exchanged for gold anymore. As a result, money became more than a piece of paper - it became a “story”, a “value”, the “greatest story of all” and thus gave birth to the most powerful god of America. 

# Mama-Ji is present in all of the Motel Americas across the United-States. It is mentionned that she and her followers (those that practice hinduism) own half of the motels in America. (Is it true? I’ll need to check). The day Kali slew Raktabija is mentionned - however they imply that Odin was here to with her? 

# Of course, there are the Penny Scouts. 

# The company of the CEO is Xie Comm. New Media manifests herself through screens, holograms and SMS to taunt Technical Boy. The Xie office has in it numerous white faces - later revealed to be the faces of Technical Boy. “I always thought I’d see you again. You will show me something new?”

Let’s note that Xie is a Chinese surname, meaning “immortal” or “enlightened one”, and that the Xie Comm headquarters are shaped as a symbol of infinity. 

# Bast is referred to as Thoth’s sister. Bilquis and Anansi apparently know each other “since infancy” (which is... up to debate). Anansi talks about slavery - designing it as a cult. The gods clearly represent here their worshippers.

# Argus is referred to as “CCTV”. More precisely “a relic, a desiccating, necrotising, geriatric, organic sack of redundancies. CCTV?”. Tech Boy mentions that he creates “coltan-encased microchips”, and that thansk to him people carry “trackers” to give up their “locations, card numbers and facial IDs” (interestingly, this is all the things Mr. World knew in season 1). Tech Boy goes as far as make a Jesus comparison with “I have given of my flesh to my disciples”. 

# When asked by Shadow if the Penny Scouts give candy, Wednesday answers that he will take them “a gold bar and nuggets”. These are references to money - a nugget is a slang for a pound coin, and money in general in the UK, and is a nod to the “gold nuggets”, while a gold bar is obviously what it is - and a pun on candy bars. The Penny Scouts keep repeating “Credit or debit?”, which is THE question every foreigner in America is puzzled upon hearing because this way of paying is quite unique to the continent - in France for exemple we don’t have that. Odin identifies himself as “Odin the Allfather”. 

# Among the Penny Scouts badges you can see the All-Seeing Eye, the American flag, and the sentence “e pluribus unum”. Shadow reveals that he has no debit and no credit in his file, “no trace” whatsoever, and Money apparently hates those that have neither debit nor credit. 

# Bilquis says that Jesus was a “rebel” and a “troublemaker” that died because he angered the men in power and refused to be controlled - and for that he became one of the most popular and worshipped gods. As Bilquis says, “he was onto something” - she visibly identifies herself with him or wants to follow his route.

# At one point, the Book of Thoth is mentionned by the other gods - a legendary book said to contain the secrets of all the Gods.

# One should not forget that the speech of Anansi is actually a trick. While he says true facts, he actually exaggerates and change some numbers so that they are a bit higher than the official ones - again, Anansi is a trickster god known to twist the truth. 

# New Media shows to the CEO a “pattern”, and while many people were confused by it - if you look carefully enough, a humanoid shape actually appears in this pattern. It seems what New Media shows the CEO is the future Quantum Boy. 

# The “face-hugger” makes a new appearance, this time to “retire” Technical Boy.

# Mr. World is offered a “Payback candy” by the Penny Scouts, but Mr. World answers that to meet Money he has “no need to buy candy” because he “retired a god today”. Which grants Mr. World access to a meeting with Money.

# Mr. World says that money is not “cash and gold” anymore but zeros, number sequences, and banks and accoutns with no physical presence”. Money appears as an old man with trembling hands, and while he says that he loves profit, he refuses emotions, and thus refuses to involve himself in the war.

# Mr. World says that he “prefers to be feared”. 

# In the credits, it is quite interesting that the man who is identified as “Money” in the episode is actually identified as the “Bookkeeper”. As for the “Son” aka the “CEO”, two of his “childhood” actors are identified - the one for 1977 and the one for 1987. 

# Among the badges, well actually the “scout patches” worn by the Penny Scouts, one can see the Chinese Yuan, the Indian Rupee and the British Sterling Pound. 

# An interesting point is that the father of the CEO wanted to teach his son faith in the ingenuity and talent of humanity, by showing you the musical works of Bach. But the son only saw algorithms and patterns in the music, and then used a computer to create something identical if not better (in his mind) - because the CEO has faith in technology over humanity. And this is precisely this displacement of faith that apparently led to the creation of Technical Boy.

# Some think that the Bookkeeper only “put up an act” of being a senile old man, asking for the bill, because they note that he is much more serious when Mr. World and Wednesday sit at his table. 

# Mr. Nancy mentions that he did not took the deal of the New Gods because it is a rigged one - in fact he equals it to slavery and to its modern variations (human trafficking, prison industry, racial profiling, etc...)

# Many people interpret the line of Mr. World “retiring a god” as basically him having sacrificed a god in order to obtain the favor of the Bookkeeper, literaly doing a sacrifice so that he wouldn’t have to pay to meet him.

# Interestingly, while Mr. Nancy is against peace and says that peace only reinforce complacency and apathy towards oppression, Bilquis and Mr. Ibis answer that suffering and “social ills” are universal, and that waging a war is definitively not the way to change those, because ultimately everyone is equal in front of death and all could end up killed. 

[happyvoidharmony]

Just a look.7

rating : M pairing : Laxus & Mirajane found : FF.net   AO3 Chapter : 7/7

The tingling sunlight awoke him. He growled and turned around hoping to find a hint of darkness into one of his pillows. The air was soft, still fresh and deliciously stinging his skin. He spread an arm and slid it against the cold sheet. Cold ? He opened an eye and abruptly sat up. It seemed like she was gone and hadn’t closed the window for that matter.

He groaned again and let himself fall against the mattress, not so comfortable now, and smashed said pillow on his face as he cursed at the sun attacking his pupils. Finally, the lightning mage found the strength to look at the clock. Eight thirty. Fucking demon leaving in the middle of the night and not closing the damn widow on her way out. A long sigh escaped his lungs and he noticed he was thirsty.

With all the strength he could provide, not really much, he pulled himself out of the sheets still warm on his side and heavily dragged himself into the kitchen – which was more storage than anything – pouring himself a large glass of water, eyes still half open. He put it down with a sound that echoed through the room and surveyed the place as if his eyes were discovering it for the first time. Finally, he noticed the paper patiently waiting on his coffee table, above a pile of already completed missions.

He walked to it, hoping it was just a forgotten chore list, and not a bunch of awkward apologies written in that quick and thin handwriting of hers. He grabbed it and deciphered the note :

“I had to open the guildhall, sorry. M”

And that was it. No tearful regret. No prohibition of saying a word to the others. No “slept well ?”. No “that was great, let's do it again sometime !”. No “Sorry I drove you crazy and left while you were sleeping.” Fucking demon.

What was he expecting anyway ? He groaned again, this time louder, not sure whether he was supposed to feel offended or relieved by this lack of consideration. He examined the paper again and finally raised his eyebrows before sighing in despair and heading back to bed, determined to get a few extra hours of sleep. She definitely needed someone to teach her some manners. And with a good kick in the ass.

 .

The young woman wearily put down the case of food. It had been a week since she had slept with him. One entire day biting her nails off in anxiousness and six cursing in her mind. At herself, at him, and then at herself. Especially at herself. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice a thing. Not one suspicious look or a snide comment. What a relief.

He had been gone on a job for six days now, had gone to the hall late in the afternoon, had looked at her with the same indifference as usual, at least in public, she had just smiled, as usual. He had gone upstairs, into the room reserved for S-rank mages, and of course, she had followed after him. After a good fifteen minutes, to avoid suspiciousness.

She had entered cautiously, avoiding slamming the door, and found him casually leaning on the wall, detailing a job stamped with a red mark. The lightning mage had looked up at her, his golden eyes so expressive. She had entirely shuddered, feeling her insides getting warm and others freeze. Was he pissed off  ? Should she have woken him before leaving ?

Yet, his gaze hadn't changed at all, it was the same one that had been detailing her naked body so furiously the day before, before his arms had grabbed her and convinced her to stay the night. And it had been worth it. Her knees were still shaking thinking about what happened next. She had wished to shut him up and he had made her regret, or not. She had taken the upper hand and he had stolen fit from her. Again and again, until she passed out, sweating and blissful in his bed.

She shuddered again and blushed heavily, remembering the few details left. His warm hands and definitely knowing their way on her sweaty skin, his rough kisses, the way he made her move at will, his mischievous grin when she attacked with the same heat. The way she had let him defeat her, despite all of her efforts. Some much she couldn’t tell if he remembered it the same way she was.

She had looked down, no longer able to keep her cheeks from reddening at these thoughts. He had stared at her again, she had looked up, wanting to make him swallow his self-confidence, and he had just grinned. Slightly, nothing too much. Although, for Laxus, that was quite excessive. A playful smirk, satisfied, but nothing mocking. Just a smile. And her heart had raced.

Finally, he had started walking towards her and showed her the paper.

“I’m taking this one, it should take ten days.”

She had wanted to utter a word, tell him what she really thought about it. Curse at him too. Maybe strike him. But she had only blushed and nodded softly.

He had smirked again, a little grin, but still so fascinating.

“Don’t miss me too much.” He mockingly added before stepping out the door and disappearing.  

She had blinked, clenched her fists, cursed at herself and especially at him. Had come downstairs again, casually, but her mind far too busy. Stunned one smile of his could have thrown her off again, trying to avoid her body's memories of the night before, and half-cursing at him for laughing at her when he had begged her to stay the night before. Someone had to make him swallow his arrogance. And she had an idea of ​​who would be absolutely perfect for the role.

.

Eight days later, he was back. After being away for fourteen days. Not that she had been worried, no. She hadn't counted either. She just had a good memory. That was all. And then, someone had to count for the Thunder Legion, reassure them, tell them everything would be okay and that there was no reason to worry.

And all of this without knowing, for sure, that they were perfectly counting as well and claiming to everyone that Laxus had certainly already finished the job and was simply taking a few days off to rest his godly being.

The barmaid sighed again before putting down the last glass of the day. Cana’s, her only company of the evening. The rest had already gone home or was protecting the weak and the defenceless in some land far away. Only Cana remained, still pesting against her last date that had abandoned in the middle of the night because it was apparently “not normal to be drunk at nine p.m.”. To which she had just called him weak and ordered a bottle for herself.    

At least the brunette tried to be a decent human being. When others didn’t smile to anyone while they got back from an s-class job that had lasted four days longer than expected, knocking Natsu out in the process and starting a rampage when he fell on Gray, sending him against Elfman, sending him against Gajil, who of course had thrown him on Erza’s cake.

Not a word, not a look. Not a gaze to let her think that he wanted to talk to her. Not a move. Nothing. Who did he think he was ? He had gone upstairs. She hadn't followed him. What the hell was thinking ? She had work to do and couldn't afford to take a break every time a moody blond felt the need.

“Why are you making that face ?” She heard a voice.

The mage's loud voice echoed through the empty hall. The woman shrugged and shook her head. She turned and smiled as best as she could, hiding the boiling anger rising within her.

“Just tired.”

Her friend raised an eyebrow over her hazy eye and smirked playfully.

“Oh ? So it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Laxus came home today ? Or the fact that you completely ignore him for no reason ?”

She suppressed her surprise and went on smiling while taking on a surprised, perfectly innocent look.

“No… not at all. Are you done soon ?” She asked eagerly.    

“Huuuh ?” She frowned and then, changed her mind. “Anyway, they're still chatting up there so you can't close the guild even if I leave.”

Which was true, the master and his grandson had been talking in his office for quite a while now, meaning where no one could hear them, disturbing the woman even more when it was the first time she had seen them talking that long in years. Probably about a family issue that had to remain confidential, although the master entrusted her with the most discreet matters. The mage raised her head towards the door where they were locked in, hoping Laxus wasn’t getting stressed over his father that still took a good part of his mind.

“Let's just come back to our little conversation…” The brunette offered, with a smile eager for gossip.

Mirajane sighed and desperately searched for some pretend story. Suddenly, they heard yelling and the door slammed open, revealing the visibly enraged dragon slayer, who went downstairs in a loud and heavy pace, exiting the hall with the same delicacy. Not without sending an infuriated look at the two young women, frozen in fear.

The master went downstairs shortly after, looking remarkably bored.

“Master ? Is there a problem ?” The woman inquired, more than shaken.    

He warmly smiled and shook his head.

“Nothing to do with you.”

And then, he added :

“It’s getting late. I think it’s time to close.”

They both nodded, the brunette stammering quick greetings and vanishing faster than she ever could. The bartender locked the door soon after and started her way home, still deeply stressed out.

The night was dark, but she didn't mind. She was still thinking about him. It was hardly every day that the guy lost his temper. She had completely forgotten her anger of the day and quickly thought that it maybe wasn’t too late to come by his place, now that she knew the address. Not for very long, just to check if he wasn't about the town. Public health issue, truly.

She didn't decide where to go either. Let's be honest, he was going to throw her out, at best. If not going to take his anger out on her, definitely the last thing she wanted, to further complicate their already too complicated situation. She walked past a  restorant and stopped abruptly, had an idea and shrugged with a mischievous smile. Why not ?

When the dragon slayer opened the door, determined to make the idiot ringing at his door regret he ver had the idea, he found her, dressed just as he had seen her a few minutes ago, with a bright smile and sparkling eyes. He had been trying to avoid her for a little while, that started well. He frowned.

“I am in no mood, Mira. Go home.” His tone was abrupt, almost mean.  

He wanted to slam the door but she stopped it nimbly, obvious not in the least scared for pretty white fingers. He took a deep breath that wanted to be upset. He had nothing against sex to calm his nerves down but he really doubted she was there for that. Suddenly, she opened the door with a wide move and took bag out from behind her back.

“I have food.” She announced before mischievously raising her eyebrows. “And I know your fridge is empty.”

The young man's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten anything since noon and his body wasn’t letting him forget it, it didn't help with his mood either, he was one to hate getting to bed hungry. And she was obviously well aware of these last two small details. He sighed in despair and turned to let her in.

“You’re really annoying, you know that ?”   

She proudly crossed the threshold, visibly more than satisfied with her little effect as he watched her carefully clear the coffee table to put what she had bought. He sat in front of her and grabbed a burger avoiding the stare she was giving him. When he felt her focusing on her food, he gazed at her struggling with the sauce dripping down her fingers and lips, begging to be kissed. Much too cute. She looked up, looking far too serious.

“Do you want to talk about it ?”

He shook his head sharply, focusing his mind back on his fries. She gave him a benevolent smile and they continued eating in silence. She had bought quite a large quantity for him but finally wondered if it was going to be enough. Finally, she met his gaze again, intensely fixating on her. She shivered and blushed, her body racing although she thought it was under control and looked at him again, this time with the same envy.

Their eyes stared at each other for a few more seconds, waiting to be sure. When she crossed the table, he gripped her waist and she pinned him to the floor. He grabbed her buttocks, she grabbed his lips, and they both quickly grinned before going at it again, ready to devour each other.

That was the last chapter, thanks for reading and following the story until there ! Hope you enjoyed it !

[mytrashs-blog]

Movie Star

Pairing: BFF! Tom Holland x Reader

Warnings: Angst, SO MUCH ANGST, swearing, Tom being an asshole, there’s a mention of an injury...

Summary: Tom is your best friend, but fame can change a lot of things.

Word Count: 2,609 (Probably the longest one piece I’ve done)

A/N: So! This is an entry for @unholyhaz and @spidey-waffles11 #marvellouswafflescelebration writing challenge. I am actually quite proud of this baby and how freaking painful it is. I was having a hard time with the prompt because I kept wanting to write it the same way it happened in the movie, so yeah, I’m very happy with this. Enjoy! (Please if you do like it, reblog it so it can be read by more and more people).

Part two

(This pic doesn’t belong to me, I took it off google, but I did edit it a little)

You never thought your friendship with Tom would end up like this. Ruined. Potentially forever, and the worst part is that you can’t even be mad about it. He’s been dreaming about becoming big in the movie industry since you were like 7 and dancing ballet at the studio everyday, so him getting big should be something to be happy about, right?

Only it isn’t. And not because he’s always busy and barely even texts back, not even because he never has time to hang out anymore, nor is it because he seems to always be in the other side of the world either filming another damn Marvel movie or any other movie, or promoting his work. No, all of those reasons were not enough to wreck your friendship. What finally did it was the fact that he became so full of himself that you couldn’t stand hearing him talking when you did get to see him. He’s kind of an asshole now.

So you snapped. You were out in a pub with him, Harrison, the twins and a couple of your friends, Tom was telling you about how unacceptable it was that his manager tried to get him, to spend a night in LA in a 4 star hotel instead of a 5 star or a damn Airbnb apartment, how he was tired of this neglecting behaviour from a person that eats from the 5% of his paycheck, and you lost it.

You may be bestfriends with this guy, but you definetely didn’t have the same economical status, and you have to work a normal job like everybody else, you don’t get 5 star hotels ever, for gods sake you don’t even get to travel that often, the only time you’ve been out of the country was when Tom took you to Atlanta to do some reshoots back when the first Spider-Man happened, so you made well sure to tell him he was behaving like a brat, posh and whiny rich kid. And he didn’t like it, so he called you a jealous uptight bitch that’s bitter because an ankle injury killed off her career, which was a low blow. So you stormed out of the place.

It was a pretty public scene and there were a few videos from different angles of nearby tables at the pub and a few pictures of both of you screaming at each other, and of you getting out of the place while fuming, and of Tom getting his car a driving off while visibly pissed. It’s been the story of the moment (at least in your life). All your social media was full of Tom’s fans calling you a fake friend, a bitch, a brat, whore, slut… some even sent death threats, which was a bit disturbing, but not surprising.

Of course Tom wasn’t helping at all either, he stopped following you, but didn’t block you so you could see him liking all the rude messages directed to you, and he was being very very vocal about the importance of having real friends and how loyalty is a very important thing and how he had to learn that the hard way very recently. So yeah, like a whiny rich boy.

You were scrolling down instagram, trying to focus on something else, but the notifications were still blowing with comments and tags on rude posts, so decided enough was enough and you started an Instagram Live, not even 1 minute in and you already had a handful of people watching and commenting snake emojis and very strong language words, but you ignored it as you started talking.

“Hello everyone, thanks for all the lovely wishes, I apreciate them a lot, you don’t wanna know. So, I’m here because, since I don’t go around doing interviews for a job, I have to find an outlet to let out my side of the story, because all stories have more than one side and one shouldn’t decide on a side unless you’ve heard all sides of it- the story, I mean.

Tom and I became best friends since day one of us meeting, that was 16 years ago, we were always inseparable and I always knew I had someone to rely on and he had someone to rely on in me. Pretty strong bond. I always knew he wanted to be an actor, the best actor he could be, and I always knew he would make it, because he’s always been so incredibly talented and dedicated and he was very determined, so when he finally got his big chance being casted as Spider-Man I was the first one to celebrate him. As his fame and recognition started growing, he started hanging out with a lot more celebrities and he started picking up on personality traits that aren’t that cool, but at the beggining it was so minimal that I’d just ignore it.

By the time he was filming Far from Home, I think, he was a full on movie star. Every place we’d go, a few cameras would follow and fans would show up, and he loved putting on a show for everyone, to the point where he’d ignore anyone that’s with him. But that’s no the worst part. I can forgive him for having an ego, we all have one, some are bigger than others and that’s cool, but what’s not cool is being condescending to the people who work with or for you. I dont’t believe in people from first or second class, for me everyone is equal and everyone’s work is just as dignified and worthy as anyone else’s, that’s why I finally lost my respect for Tom, because he started treating people that don’t have the same level of privilege as him like they’re less than him. That’s not the way we were raised, those are not the values that my best friend has and I know it’s all because of all the media attention he has.

You all give everything to him in a silver platter, so he now became a bratty movie star, another self centered celebrity that feels entitled. So congratulations. You have created a celebrity, but you have wrecked a human being inside. And I don’t feel like I deserved to be attacked this way for not wanting to put up with being belittled and treated like a peasant. Thanks.”

You finished the live and you broke crying, of course. It hurts to know that your best friend is no longer, that you’re never gonna have all those amazing midnight adventures. Like when you escaped from your houses at 15 to go to that crazy party all the school was attending but your mothers wouldn’t let you go. You remember how you got drunk after just one or two beers and ended up walking and giggling back home at 3am. You were in so much trouble the next day.

Or when he got casted as Peter Parker and you were so happy that you spent the whole night laying in his bed talking about all the hard work you both had done to make your dreams come true. That night he told you how he was proud of you for working so hard on your dancing career and how you were his favourite dancer ever. And you told him that you always knew he’d make it. You promised each other to always be there for the other.

He was the first to arrive to the hospital when you had the accident onstage that ended your career, he held you on those long nights when you’d cry and cry, he was there when you were angry at the world for not letting you have your dream. He helped through everything and never left your side until you were back on your feet and you had a new plan for your life.

He’s not here now though. He’s the one holding the gun on your back and you were the one that threw the first punch. You feel guilty. You ruined everything. You should’ve told him that he shouldn’t behave that way. Of all people, it should’ve been you holding his feet on the ground, and now it all went to shit because of you. It’s all your fault and maybe you do deserve the furious fans and the creepy reporters jumping on you every now and then, and maybe you deserve all those messages because maybe you were a fake friend.

You really don’t have the evergy to get out of bed for the days that followed. It could’ve been just two days, or a week, maybe even months for all you knew; but you stayed in bed, you would cry, eat and sleep and nothing more. Your phone was in some unknown place of your house, you hadn’t even attempted to find it and maybe it ran out of battery long ago, but who cares? definetely not you. You were walking around in your pajamas, looking for ice cream in your freezer or maybe some chocolate bars, or chips… or whatever came to view first, but you were interrupted by the ring of your doorbell and then a knock on your door, you thought about ignoring it, but then they knocked again so you brought yourself to the door and opened it.

You froze when you saw Tom on the other side of your door, looking probably just as destroyed as you do, red puffy eyes, messy hair, he was wearing sweatpants and an old shirt, an unusual look since now he’s always trying to look his absolute best. This guy in front of you resembled your best friend since childhood more than any of the high fashion versions of Tom, but it still ached in your heart that he was in this state in your front door unannounced.

“Tom… w-what are you doing h-here?”

“I uh… read a rumor and I needed to see it wasn’t true.”

“What?” You suddenly feel your blood boiling. The only reason he came was because of some rumor he read, he doesn’t regret anything, he doesn’t miss you, he just wants to see if some stupid rumor is true. You go to close the door in his face but he pushes the door.

“You wanna know what it was? Y/N listen to me, please!” You try to push harder, but he’s way stronger than you are so you give in and let him in, but the frown never leaves your face and you cross your arms over your chest.

“I’m listening.” You really don’t want to get your guard down, but the way Tom is looking at you right now makes it really hard. He looks at you the way one looks at a youth treasure you found after years of longing. The way you look at a flower that grows against all odds in the middle of a desserted field. And it’s making you feel very aware of him. You notice how the bags under his eyes are deeper than ever, his skin doesn’t look as flawless and polished as it did the last time you saw him, you can even see some spots around his forehead, you notice how he’s still unable to tame that eyebrow and how they also look a little unplucked, you can also see the tarce of a beard, the kind that tells you that maybe he didn’t shave this morning and even the day before that, and his hair is not only messier but it’s also longer. And it’s grounding to see him look so human, vulnerable and real right in front of you.

“There were some rumors going around that you might’ve… that you maybe… y-you had..”  For some reason he was unable to look you in the eye, and every time he tried to speak he’d take a small step closer to you. “That you maybe had… comitted… suicide…”

You froze where you stood, and maybe your jaw fell slack, and maybe you even stopped breathing, where the fuck did he read that? What the actual fuck are people saying? your blood started boiling with rage, not even at Tom anymore, but at the world, why does everyone suddenly feel entitled to say those terrible things and why? Because you haven’t been on social media in a long time? People seriously need to understand that other people exist outside the internet and the have lives outside social media.

“I seriously hate people. Well… here I am, alive and well, is that everything?” you ask as you raise a brow, expecting him to say something else, but he looks at you taken a back, he’s at a loss of words because he was expecting this to fix things.

“Umh… yeah?”

“Okay then, I’ll walk you to the door.” You say flatly and start making your way back to your front door.

“Y/N wait… I do need to say something else” He grabs you by the wrist and turns you around, you end up mere inches away from him, his hand still holding you. His gaze roams all over your face, he looks down at your lips while licking his, but then he looks up to your eyes. “I’m sorry. About everything. I was a dick, and maybe I am an idiot for realizing I don’t want to lose you until I read those terrible things and it hurt as hell to even imagine a world without you in it. I don’t want to live the rest of my life without your surprise texts when I’m away filming, or your weird gif replies, or our film nights and crazy getaways. You’re the best friend that I have. And I love you, Y/N. I really, really do, and I’m sorry it took me so long to admit that to you.” If this had happened a few months ago, you would have kissed him already. You loved him for such a long time, it almost hurt you, you had all those feelings for him stored inside you and at times it felt like they couldn’t fit anymore and you’d just explode, but that changed. You changed. And so did he.

“I accept your apology, Tom.” you took a long pause before speaking again, and you could see in Tom’s eyes that it was killing him to wait, every second feeling longer than the previous, until you spoke again. “But it’s gonna take a lot more than that to fix our friendship. I’m sorry I don’t share your feelings, but I received death threats over twitter, so many hate comments coming to me everyday… and you were liking them, encouraging people to keep attacking me! You expect me to just forget about that and act like it never happened? And you expect me to just throw myself at your arms and live happily ever after? It really doesn’t work like that, Tom. You have to go now.” He stayed looking at you for a moment, and you could see the heartbreak in his eyes, but your own heart was breaking aswell. Maybe you could fix this, but it would take more than this, and right now you could not see him in your apartment.

“Please leave Tom” Your voice was just a pleading whisper at this point, but Tom did let go of your wrist and you sighed when you felt the cold breeze hit the skin where his hand had been. He walked past you and opened the door, taking one last look at you as one single tear fell from your eyes. And the door closed.

---

Tagging a few people that might be interested so it doesn’t flop :)

@caeruleum-in-caritate-lupus, @softstarkk, @peterparkerbabyy, @dottirose, @legit-fandom-trash, @carostar2020, @appreciating-chase-brody, @mvmakki @madmadmilk @hollandrecs @starksparker @sunshinehollandd

[minniepetals]

String Of Fate 05

— summary: they set fire to the world around them but would never let a flame touch her.

— pairing: bts x reader

— genre: fluff, angst || poly!au, soulmate!au, mafia!au

— word count: 4.6k

— warnings: none

╰ Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 

The closer you walked to his room, the louder the sound of music mused on. The soft sounds of piano keys hitting each pads lured you in like a siren singing its music to enchant the sailors at sea. You almost didn't wanted to interrupt the beautiful sounds but you had a task that Jin had set you to do.

"Yoongi?" You called softly, knuckles lightly coming in contact with his door three times. The music stopped almost immediately and you found yourself gulping out of nervousness before voicing out your reason for being there. "Jin asked me to check up on you."

A short moment of silence passed right before the knob of the door twisted, revealing a tired looking Yoongi. 

"I'm sorry, did I disturbed you?" You worried, already regretting going to him in the first place.

But Yoongi only stood there without a word, making you shift awkwardly from side to side with his gaze taking you in. A second later, the man gently grabbed your hand. "Come here," he said, pulling you into his dim room. The second bedroom you were walking into, Yoongis', looked almost the same as Jins' did but the room looked a little darker than his. Something else struck out to you though, because in one corner of the room laid a beautiful piano.

Yoongi led you over to the musical object, sat down on a comfortable chair right before pulling you down to sit beside him. You stared at him, confused as to why he had you sitting down and just as you were about to say something, Yoongi's fingers began to dance around the piano.

A soft gentle music began playing. You recognized it as the tune he had played just before you interrupted him and slowly let your eyes flutter close, allowing yourself to enjoy the beautiful sound.

"There's...so much I don't know about you guys, yet it seems that's quite the opposite on your ends," you mused, voice soft as it spoke over the music.

"That's true," Yoongi said, not at all fazed by that fact as his attention stayed on the fingers walking over the keypads.

You opened your eyes, watching Yoongi silently while his gaze still fell on the piano. You hadn't seen him this close up and quite frankly, you liked it. There was a soft look on him, a look you knew he'd never show to the world outside. And now that you understood a tiny bit about your special position, you felt a warm blush creeping up your skin. Why were you so special that even Yoongi was letting his walls down? Why was he allowing you to even be close to him? Looking all defenseless?

"I want to get to know you too," you said, voice shrinking a little because you were afraid of saying something wrong. "...if that's alright."

He let his head turn to the side, facing you and allowing himself to be even closer to you. One small movement closer and you'd be kissing. Yoongi's fingers slowed down, bringing the tune along with it. His gaze fell upon your lips, a slow sensual moment before letting it fall on your eyes again. "What would you like to know, Princess?"

His breath hit you, tickling your nose. It was the closest you've ever been with someone but you didn't wanted to back away even as your heart thumped loudly in your chest. And perhaps that was the exact reason why you weren't backing away. You wanted to know everything about him, everything he could tell you. But you had to start off somewhere. And in that moment with Yoongi so close to you, no questions but one came into mind.

Would he kiss you?

Though Yoongi wanted to do just that, he knew that it wasn't right. Not now. Not when things were so complicated and you had yet to be insightful of everything. He didn't know when the answers would all be clear to you but he knew Namjoon had a plan. After all, he always did.

But still, looking at you, how close your lips were to him, was so tempting.

A part of him told him to allow a peck, just a small little touch, but he knew even that wasn't allowed. He wouldn't allow himself to do so.

So before he could give in, Yoongi looked away, clearing his throat. From the corner of his eyes, he could see a small disappointed look on your face but still, he knew his boundaries.

One day soon, babygirl...soon, he promised inwardly to you. Things would fall into place soon.

Still, seeing your slightly disappointed face made him smile to himself. You didn't know it yet but you were slowly falling.

"Yoongi."

"Hmm?"

His fingers played back to a normal pace, letting the music flow once more.

"When can I know everything?" You asked.

He chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "Soon, babygirl."

He heard you giving out a heavy exasperated sigh as you crossed your arms against your chest. "Soon is too far away," you huffed, whining. "Why can't I know now?"

"Because now's not the right time."

"When is the right time?"

He shrugged, refusing to look at you because he knew he'd only coo if he saw those puppy eyes of yours. "Not exactly the question to ask me. Namjoon has the answers."

Your eyes widened at his answer and quickly got up. "Then I'll—"

But that only set panic in Yoongi as he was quick to leave his piano, wrapping his arms around your waist to keep you from leaving. "No, you're not leaving. Not now. I finally have you to myself, you can't leave me."

It was surprising how the usual reserved and cold Yoongi had suddenly changed the second you had decided to leave his comfort and head over to Namjoon. Wherever the man was. With his arms around you in a tight embrace, you had to admit that you found the action quite endearing.

You liked it.

A giggle escaped your lips as you looked down at the man. "You're adorable when you whine."

Hearing your words, Yoongi found himself frowning as he let you go to sit straight up again. Though, he looked nothing of annoyed at your words. "I can literally kill you."

Kill you. Right, you were reminded once more of the life him and his friends lived. But you couldn't find yourself threatened by what he had said. "Mhm, but you wouldn't," you said, voice slightly playful.

A small smirk tugged at the corner of Yoongi's lips. "You're right," he chuckled, catching himself, "I wouldn't."

"I'll stay since you went as far as begging."

He hummed, rolling his eyes playfully at you. "You would had stayed even if I hadn't begged."

You found yourself smiling along as you went on to take your seat next to him again. "You're right," you chuckled, "I would've."

Some time during that moment as the two of you made small talks while he continued playing the piano for you, Yoongi found you sleeping soundly with your head rested on his shoulder. You looked so peaceful and at ease, chest rising up and down at a slow pace, mind in dreamland.

He watched you, the sound of the piano gradually slowing down as he found himself immersed in your beautiful sleeping figure instead. Not long after, his fingers completely stilled over the keypads.

I wish everyday was like this, he sighed to himself but knowing fully well that everyday would not turn out that way. Life had its way of stealing away his happiness at any given moment but Yoongi was determined the pains and sufferings he and the boys had to face wasn't going to happen again.

He had you in his sight, in his arms, and there was no way he'd let anyone or anything take that away from him ever again. One day they'd have to explain everything to you, because it didn't looked like your memories of the past would return any time soon.

Namjoon had analyzed you, and though something told him that the memories were still there, there was no sign of it coming back.

The revelation had hurt, but thinking about it, maybe it was better that way. Because then you didn't needed that reminder of the pain you had gone through. Or perhaps that had just been their own selfish wishes, not wanting you to be reminded because of the guilt eating them away. Things weren't easy and you would have to suffer worse if you remembered.

At least that was their way of interpreting it.

But thinking about those happy moments back then was something Yoongi had never wanted to be taken away from you. It was their story, your story of falling in love with them.

"We'll start all over, from the beginning," he remembered Jimin vowing, desperation clearly heard in his voice. "We'll make new memories and she'll fall in love all over again. She has to."

They were all desperate for that; you falling in love once more. The situation would be different, you'd have no idea of the soulmate system. But maybe that would be better. Because then it meant that you'd fatefully fall in love not knowing it would happen eventually.

The sudden movement of your head made Yoongi almost panic, knowing your head would had fallen off his shoulder and head for the floor if he hadn't grabbed you ahead of time. He allowed you to rest your head on his chest but then you went on to seek for warmth, finding it as you nuzzled your face against his neck.

A light chuckled escaped his lips almost bashfully but Yoongi liked the feeling. You were so cute.

He decided to carry you off the seat like the princess you were and brought you over to his bed. He thought of leaving for a moment, only to have your hands unconsciously grabbing his hand. "Don't leave," you whined sleepily.

He looked back, worried whether moving you had woken you, but when he saw your eyes still closed with your breathing still slow, Yoongi smiled. Like Taehyung, you still unconsciously looked for someone to hug in your sleep.

"I'm not leaving, babygirl," he promised.

"Don't leave me," you repeated. However, it hadn't sounded as light as it did the first time. Your face disoriented, fear suddenly visible, and soft whimpers fell from your lips.

"Y/N," Yoongi gasped, shaking you awake. The second your eyes opened, Yoongi saw the small tears in your eyes and he cringed, heart falling at the sight.

"Yoongi?" You asked, confusion shown on your face.

"You had a nightmare," he whispered as he held you close, a soft kiss falling on your forehead. Your face flushed at the action but you found yourself instinctively seeking for his warmth and Yoongi allowed you without a word.

The same dream, of war and pains. You could still hearing the battle cries, causing your chest to throb with affliction. "Want to talk about it?"

You shook your head, only wanting Yoongi to hold you. You didn't know what the dream was about, all you knew was that your heart was hurting in a pain you had never felt before.

Though, why did it felt like you did?

~~

"Y/N?"

You found yourself at a loss for words. Was it really a good idea to be in a room alone with Namjoon? He had always intimidated you the most amongst the seven Bangtan members. Being a leader meant that he must had done some great (or not so great) things to achieve that position. He was charming and bold, tall and intimidating. Though the strange connection between you and him was intriguing.

Sure you felt connected with all the seven members but Namjoon had a bit of a different feeling. You didn't know how to describe it but it just felt...different. A good different. But also a very heart aching feeling accompanied the connection. Your heart had pained a little more at the sight of him, a little more than the rest of the boys and you wondered why. What exactly had the two of you shared? What was your story with him?

"Is there something wrong?" At the sound of his question, you shook your head to dismiss your previous thoughts before looking back at him timidly.

"Um, Yoongi said you could help me with my problem."

At the last word, Namjoon's brows had immediately furrowed. Something about that alone made your heart beat. He was concerned for you. "What's wrong, babygirl?"

Babygirl. You almost collapsed. Stop making this so freaking hard. If I died a little at just that word, who knows what'll happen in the future.

"Y/N?"

You cleared your throat. "I-I had a nightmare."

Thinking about it though, it had probably been the most stupidest thing you could had ever been afraid of. A weak person like you, in front of a leader of a mafia, was telling him about your worries of nightmares. He should had looked at you weirdly, made a face that showed his annoyance of you, or even complained about the fact that you had to go to him, a busy leader, with worries of a simple bad dream.

But Namjoon didn't.

Instead, he looked even more worried.

"Want to talk about it?" He offered, taking some steps back into the room and beckoning his head in for you.

You nodded, though hesitantly began taking your steps into the room. "It's sort of...ominous," you said, finding yourself looking around at his clean office. The room was dark but it gave off no scary presence. Though something about Namjoon did intimidated you a bit, another part of you felt safe because your conscience knew he wouldn't do anything to hurt you.

His brows furrowed at the last word you gave as he closed the door behind him, then offered you a seat on one of the leathered sofas in the center of the room. "Ominous how?" Namjoon wondered, voice calm but firm and serious.

You took your seat as he took his across from you, on an armchair. "I've been having it every night," you admitted, arms slowly reaching around to hug yourself. "It's strange. They're dreams of wars, of battle cries, pain and sorrow. Every time I wake up, I don't remember anything vividly except for one thing."

His brow quirked, silently asking you to go on.

"An arrow."

"Arrow?"

You nodded. "And someone's death."

A short moment of silence surpassed the two of you. You watched him stare aimlessly somewhere on the floor, brows deeply furrowed but something told you he wasn't confused by the dream, rather, he knew something.

"Y/N." Namjoon looked up, his left elbow propped up against the armchair, head leaning against his knuckles.

"Yes?" Though he was a few feet away, everything about that gaze made you feel small. Like a mouse going up against a wolf.

"Are you afraid?"

You blinked, not really expecting that question to come up.

Afraid of what? The dream? You assumed so, so you nodded and a soft sigh left his lips. His head tilted back upright, gaze still kept on you. "Will you be afraid of being with us?"

You swallowed, not knowing how to answer that question.

He nodded, going on as he had already expected you not to give him an answer. "We live in a dangerous world, a world far different from yours. Everything about us screams stay away, to never go near, to never interact with. And we're fine with that, we're fine with looking intimidating towards others because that's who we are. We're fine with the world being afraid of us. But as you can tell by now...you're a special case, the special case we don't ever want to let go."

Namjoon paused, a very subtle smile forming his lips.

"I share something special with the other boys that I don't ever want to destroy, nor will I ever let anyone do the same. There was once a world where we all lived in where everything had been peaceful. It wasn't a perfect place, the world had its downsides with corruptions of power and leaderships, but everything was perfect in the moment with them. It could had stayed that way for a while, maybe even forever, but life is unpredictable and there's always some inevitable hardships in the way. Maybe things could had gone better if we had thought differently, if I had thought differently, but destiny has it's own way of things."

There was a flicker of guilt and sadness that you couldn't necessarily describe because you couldn't understand. Something about Namjoon, there was something in there that had regretted something deeply. He reflected on his mistakes yet he was letting that mistake remind him constantly of why things had gone wrong in the first place.

You couldn't understand the subtle pleading eyes that begged for forgiveness nor could you understand the flicker of guilt in his eyes. You didn't know the story, how could you understand without living in that moment with him?

And though you knew you couldn't understand, you wanted to.

"We are all given a second chance, Namjoon," you told the man, a soft yet sad gaze on him. "Things will all work out in the end if you let fate do its job."

You have no idea how much I want that, Namjoon thought. You didn't understand but, you were trying even under that oblivion.

Namjoon nodded, looking away from you. "Will you be prepared for the world then? For its obstacles to come, for the tears and sorrows you'll suffer through before achieving happiness?"

"I won't be alone then," you said so so confidently he had to take a moment to understand what you were saying. When Namjoon looked back at you, there was a promising gaze in your eyes. "I won't have to face all those things by myself...right?"

Some time during those moments with them, there was a silent promise they all gave you, through their soft loving gaze, a promise that you weren't going to have to suffer alone. That you'd have someone by your side through it all.   Everything was a question but you knew you'd understand some day. The moment would inevitably come somehow. After all, with Namjoon's confirmation, you were someone they didn't ever wanted to let go. And because they were who they were, you knew they were capable of keeping that promise.

"Right," Namjoon smiled. His shoulders began to drop as if a weight had been taken away from him. His smile felt sincere. "And those nightmares of yours, you won't have to fear again."

You returned the smile with sincerity. "I believe you."

~~

Hoseok took you home later that evening though they had dreaded that time. But because you had work the following day and the sky had already turned dark, you had to leave even though you yourself had to admit that leaving them created an empty space within your heart.

"Do you think we could ever be happy again?" Jungkook asked the moment they all settled themselves in the living room once Hoseok had arrived back. His brows furrowed at the thought of you gone from their lives once more. "If we hadn't fallen into this world or became the kinds of people we are, or maybe if we were just normal business people, don't you think things could had gone better? Y/N wouldn't need to be so afraid of us."

Yoongi sighed. "You can't really expect the universe to be lenient on us after what we did, Jungkook. It's our punishment for what we allowed to happen to our soulmate. Why do you think she received a life far better than us, living as a florist while we're intimidating mafias?"

The maknae pouted. "Still."

"Be happy we still have each other and given another chance. Things could had gone far worse. We could had lost you too, my little prince." Jungkook wanted to grimace at Taehyung but how could he not grin when the male was smiling teasingly at him?

"We could had all been lost," Hoseok pointed out, grunting. "I can only imagine how much harder life would be."

"At least she has someone trustworthy by her side," Jin said and they all nodded in agreement, a sigh of relief escaping them all at the reminder.

"And about the happiness, we'll be alright, right hyung?" Jimin asked and they all looked towards their leader.

Namjoon nodded, a sure look equipping his face. "You know Y/N. She doesn't understand but she's trying. And although everything is confusing to her, she's not giving up on us. She's braver than she thinks. All we have to do is keep her safe, make new memories...trust her."

"I'm scared," the maknae admitted as he laid his head on Jimin's shoulder. "Will she ever remember?"

"She doesn't have to remember," Jimin prompted.

"But," Jungkook frowned, his words trailing off as he looked around at his boyfriends. "I mean, yeah there were bad memories that I wouldn't really want her remembering for her sake, but there's still precious moments she had with us, the kisses, our playful banters, the small times we had together that meant the world to us. She was ours."

"She can still be ours," Taehyung stressed. "We can still make her love us like she used to. The world can still be ours like how we felt during those times."

"Yeah," Jimin nodded. "They're all afraid of us, no one can stop us."

"But that's another thing!" Jungkook stood up with frustration. "People are afraid to even get near us either because they've witnessed us in action or have heard of how powerful we can be—which translates to a literal thing—but what about Y/N?"

"They'll find her as our weakness," Hoseok realized. "They'll try to hurt her."

"They can try," Yoongi scoffed bitterly.

"It's not the same anymore, hyung," Jungkook continued, "life isn't like before. If she's a normal person with a normal life, then she wouldn't remember how to fight like she did. She wouldn't know how to defend herself in the case that someone does manages to steal her. Someone like our enemies."

"Gosh," Jin sighed in frustration, knowing that the youngest member was right. "Then we'll just kill them," he said so casually as if talking about the weather. "If they ever hurt our Y/N, their heads can go snap into two."

"Damn," Jimin side commented, looking almost turned on by Jin, "Sometimes I wonder why you're a doctor."

"In all honesty though," he cleared his throat, "we've already bonded so we'll know when Y/N's in danger and calling for help."

"I'm still worried."

"I know babyboy," Jimin cooed, turning Jungkook's face into a pout.

"Hyung, I told you not to call me that," the man whined.

But Jimin could only smirk. "You know you love it."

"I'll have you guys know though," Namjoon spoke up, reverting back to the main topic though a small part of him had smiled at Jimin and Jungkook, "If it ever does comes to that, we are not hurting those idiots and scaring off Y/N in front of her in any way. Got that?"

"Yes sir."

~~

"I'm taking it went well?"

You looked up at your boss, blinked, then a small blush creeped up and your eyes wondered back down to the flower arrangements in your hand. "You can say that."

"Ooh," she cooed, a wide grin lighting up her face. "Then I'm glad I got you to leave work early."

You thanked her and she gave you a wink before moving on to do her own line of work, leaving you be.

You woke up very happy that morning, the nightmare not haunting you and you getting an actual dream after a while. Hoseok's words ringed in your head that night when he had taken you home, the promise of seeing him and the others again after your work, that he'd pick you up. You smiled at the thought of seeing them again and you wondered what Yoongi had meant when he had said that Namjoon could help you with your nightmare problems.

Because after talking to him, you indeed had no nightmares the following time you went to sleep.

They were more fascinating with each word you exchanged with them. So far you understood that Namjoon was associated with dreams of some sort, that Jin could heal, Hoseok could transport, Yoongi could disappear or something, and that Jimin was somehow associated with animals.

All that was left were Jungkook and Taehyung, the two boys you had yet to talk privately to. The time would come, you knew, and you couldn't wait for those moments as well. If you were special to them, then you knew that they had to have been someone special to you as well. After all, the strange connection you felt with them all was still strong and lingering with the tug of your heart.

By the time you had stepped outside, the once drizzled rain and already begun to pour. You were the last one to leave your workplace, always loving to stay behind and do some extra work just because. But now a part of you was beginning to regret that as you waited under the roof of your work's building, watching the pouring rain.

Hoseok was late.

Maybe he forgot what time you had told him? Or maybe something happened to had kept him to picking you up on time.

You huffed to yourself, wishing you could had exchanged numbers with him and the others the day before. For now, you just had to wait for the male to arrive.

Though the night was in mid-summer, you began to worry as the time kept ticking on. The pouring rain made you shiver of the cold, the dark night beginning to scare you a bit.

From the corner of your eyes, a homeless man was walking about the streets. A part is you had hoped to ignore the male, not knowing whether it was some coax but how could you when he had slipped on the ground at the slippery wet road?

"Sir, are you alright?" You called out after running over to the figure.

"Ma'am," he called. You couldn't see his face but he sounded weak and frail and his hand reached out for help.

You offered your hand for him and helped him up. But the next thing you knew, pain shot at you and everything went dark.

~~

"Crap, crap, crap!" Hoseok grunted. "I'm late and it's raining. She's probably freezing." He sighed out a sigh of frustration, hurrying to grab his coat and umbrella, ready to head out the door while the others scattered about the living room. They were all exhausted from arriving back from their mission. Jin walked into the kitchen, ready to prepare some food for your arrival as Jungkook followed along, wanting to help. Namjoon left for his office while Yoongi and Taehyung landed themselves onto the sofas.

And just as Hoseok was about to take another step towards the entrance door, a sudden force of pain caused him to stop in track.

"Hyung..." he heard Taehyung groaned in pain from the living room.

Hoseok looked back, panic clear on his face. "You feel that?"

Yoongi spat out a curse while Jin and Jungkook emerged from the kitchen. Namjoon slammed his door open, already ready with a gun in hand. They didn't needed to exchange words to understand what was going on because they could all feel it.

You were in danger.

[thegoldendice]

Love Is A Battlefield

Fandom - American Horror Story 1984

Pairing - Xavier Plympton/Reader

Rating - Explicit

Warnings - Suicide, Violence, Mental Heath Issues, Sexual Content, Language, Religious Content

Chapter - 3/12

Read on - ao3, ff.net

Fic Summary - The year is 1984. You're a poor student living alone in L.A., plagued by your problematic relationships with a false friend and a disturbed ex. You meet Xavier Plympton, an aerobics instructor with a dark past, at the gym where you’ve taken a reception job. You quickly develop feelings for him, and you learn to your relief that he likes you too. Soon a deadly series of events befall you and the people in your life. Overwhelmed by tragedy and with your blossoming romance cut short, you are left a wreck. Six years later you discover that while Xavier is dead, he hasn’t quite departed. You soon realise that if you are to be with him and finally achieve true peace and happiness, you must take your own life and become a Camp Redwood ghost.

Chapter Summary - Your ex, Scott, finds out that you are spending time with Xavier and retaliates by subjecting you to more than one aggressive outburst. Scott attempts to hurt you even further by revealing a secret from Xavier's private life. 

You’re trying to study. Really, you are. You’re not thinking about Xavier. Nope.

Who are you kidding?

Your stomach does a backflip when you remember what it felt like to be touched by him. He was gentle. Tentative. Until Xavier, you hadn’t gotten to experience how good it could feel to have someone touch you in a way that actually felt intimate. It’s still a marvel to you that his only care was your pleasure. You wonder if, had you not gotten distracted, you might have been able to come. You’ve only ever had an orgasm by yourself. Would it be different with another person?

You let your mind explore the possibilities. Studying can wait, it’s not like you have any pressing deadlines. You are about to slip your fingers under the waistband of your sweatpants when the phone starts to ring from the tiny kitchen of your apartment. You quickly move your textbook and notepad aside and, throwing off your blanket, you dash to the phone. You hope to hear Xavier’s voice on the other end. All you feel is distaste when Amy’s short, sharp greeting reaches you. She usually only calls you if she’s bored. You zone out, wrapping the phone cord around your finger as she describes some new hot guy she’s set her sights on.

“So, did Xavier say anything about me?”

You snap back to reality. Amy doesn’t know you went on a date with him.

“Uh, no. He didn’t say anything. Well actually that’s not true, he said he wants you guys to stay friends! That’s good, right?”

Amy is silent for what feels like an eternity.

“No, it’s not good. I wanted to fuck his brains out, not be friends.” Her voice is harsh. “Why are you all nervous?”

You let out a small laugh. You know you sound flustered.

“I’m not!”

“You fucking are. Tell me what’s going on.”

You can’t lie to Amy. You hate to admit it to yourself, but you’re scared of her. Your mind flashes back to the night of your high school prom. Amy had offered to apply your makeup. Half way through dusting your cheeks with blush, her hand slipped. Her quick, pointed nails left three glaring red scratches on your left cheek. Her eyes flashed with malice as she apologised profusely. You allowed yourself to go along with the narrative she spouted, that it was an accident. Deep down you’ve always known the truth.

“Amy I... I went out with him. I’m sorry.” Your voice carries a hint of desperation. “You know how long I’ve liked him.”

Again, Amy lets the silence drag on and on. You know she’s still there. You hear her breathing.

“You stupid bitch.”

You wince as you hear Amy slam the phone down. There’s no point trying to call her back. Part of you feels relieved that she knows the truth.

~

You know you’re dreaming. You’re aware of your mind trying to wake itself up. You hear a loud banging. As you come to, you realise there’s someone at your front door. You hear Scott’s voice shouting your name. It’s muffled, but you can tell he’s drunk. And angry. You stay in bed, resisting the urge to turn on the light. If he knows you’re awake he won’t go away. With any luck, if you pretend to be sleeping he’ll eventually leave. You’ve never been more glad that he doesn’t have a key.

Finally the barrage of swearing ceases. Everything outside goes quiet. You pull your blankets tighter around yourself.

Amy must have told Scott about Xavier.

You have to try to sleep, you have a full day of classes tomorrow, and work at the gym in the evening. The thought of seeing Xavier calms your frayed nerves. Finally, you drift off.

~

You’re on the most boring phone call of your life. For some reason the customer you’re speaking to has decided it should be you who has to listen to their every complaint about the gym. Xavier struts through the front door. Your heart beats faster at the sight of him, sending tingles to your extremities. He hasn’t noticed you yet. Before you get the chance to catch his eye, Montana launches up from a couch and puts herself directly in his path. You can’t hear what they’re saying, besides, you have a customer talking in your ear. You try not to stare as Montana rubs Xavier’s arm. You remind yourself that they must have stopped dating for a reason.

Xavier smiles at Montana and moves to walk around her. He scans the reception desk, his eyes coming to rest on yours. His face lights up as he grins at you. You gesture at the phone you are cradling against your ear and roll your eyes. Xavier’s face is a picture of silent laughter.

“Later.” He mouths, before heading towards the locker room.

You feel warm and fuzzy, barely registering the fact that the customer on the end of the phone has asked to speak to your manager.

~

It’s been a slow night. You don’t get breaks on this job, but for fifteen minutes every shift you’re allowed to turn the phone to silent. You proceed to do so, and head over to the empty couches to mentally remove yourself from work. You don’t realise Xavier has come up behind you until you hear his soft voice in your ear.

“Hey.”

You twist round you see him crouching right behind you, his face inches from yours. You decide to be brave, and reach up to place a quick kiss on his lips. It takes him by surprise, but he seems pleased. At this distance you get to see his eyes close up. They are hypnotic, the colour of a deep, icy sea. His lashes brush against slightly reddened cheeks. Xavier is about to say something when a movement at the front door catches your eye. Reluctantly you break eye contact and look across.

“Oh my God.” You breathe. A cold dread sluices through you. Scott is here.

Xavier frowns at your alarm. He stands, turning towards the door. Scott is just inside the threshold, breathing heavily. He’s drunk again. You can tell by the way he sways slightly. His roommate Alex hovers just behind him. You watch as Alex looks Xavier up and down. Something like recognition registers on Alex’s face. You don’t have time to focus on that. Scott begins to charge forward. You stand abruptly.

“Scott what the hell?” You realise too late that you’ve shouted. It makes Scott stop short.

“You know this guy Y/n?” Xavier asks you without turning around. He’s backed up against the couch as far as he can, attempting to act as a barrier between you and Scott.

“He’s my ex.”

At your words, Scott begins to laugh. The look on his face is almost manic. He bares his teeth at you.

“Had to see your new guy Y/n. What’s he got that I don’t, huh?”

Alex comes up beside Scott, grabbing his arm. His dark eyes flash between Scott and you. He looks like he wants to say something but thinks better of it. Instead he mumbles into Scott’s ear. At that moment you notice several of the gym instructors moving as one towards the front of the gym. Xavier’s friends Chet and Ray stop beside the couches, facing down Scott and Alex. You see Scott glance at Chet. He pales visibly. Scott is well built, but he couldn’t take Chet and he clearly knows it.

“It’s time to go man.” You hear Alex say. He’s pulling on Scott’s arm.

Scott’s bloodshot eyes rest on you for a second before he turns to leave, kicking the doorframe violently on his way out.

Xavier turns back to you as the group of instructors disperses, leaving you alone with him and Chet.

“Are you okay?” Xavier’s voice is full of concern, but you can’t help feeling worried. Surely he won’t want to be involved with you now, knowing you have a psycho ex.

“Yeah I’m fine. I’m sorry. He comes to my door drunk sometimes but I never imagined he’d turn up here.”

Chet, who has been listening in, pipes up,

“You dated that guy, for real?”

He looks so incredulous that a laugh escapes you, breaking the tension. Before you know it Xavier and Chet are laughing along with you. You suspect the sudden hilarity may be down to shock. You fight to regain your composure.

“Seriously though, if he does something like this again, call the police.” Chet smiles at you and walks away, leaving you alone with Xavier.

“I can’t believe him. I just want it to stop.” You mumble. Somehow, some way, Scott always manages to destroy your happiness. Xavier surprises you by grasping your hand.

“Don’t worry Y/n. You’re safe here with us. Chet’s right though. If he turns up at your place call the police.” Xavier hesitates slightly before continuing on. “Not that I mind but, why did you tell him about me?”

“I didn’t.” You sigh, looking at the ground. “It must have been Amy. She got it out of me. I know it seems like we’re close but... our friendship is complicated.”

“Actually, I think she’s jealous of you.” Xavier’s frank tone surprises you. When your eyes meet his he gives a slight shrug. “I don’t just mean because of me. She just strikes me as that sort of person.”

“What sort of person?” You ask, not quite taking his meaning.

“The sort of person who hangs around someone good, trying to bring them down all the time so they can feel superior.”

“Wow. You got that from one date with her?”

Xavier smiles.

“I’m a good judge of character.”

He pulls you to him, enclosing you in his arms. He places a finger under your chin, drawing your lips up to meet his. You close your eyes, savouring the kiss.

After a minute or two you reluctantly break free.

“I should get back to work. My non-existent break ended like, ten minutes ago.”

~

You are getting ready for bed when the phone starts to ring. It’s unusual to get a call at this time, but you can’t ignore it. In the back of your mind you always fear that a phone call late at night will be some kind of bad news from back home. Never mind the fact that your mom hardly ever bothers to call you. You slide your feet into your slippers and run to the kitchen.

“Hello?”

You hear heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. Loud music plays in the background. The chorus of Thriller filters down the line.

“You always liked this song.”

You feel sick.

“Scott please leave me alone.” Your voice sounds desperate, even to your own ears.

“I can’t. At least not until I’ve told you a secret.”

“What secret? Scott what the hell are you talking about?”

Scott laughs giddily. He sounds like he’s been drinking continuously since you saw him earlier. His voice takes on a mock theatrical whisper.

“Your new boyfriend is gay.”

Notes: So just to make it clear, I know in 2019, as a female, dating someone who has been with males (or any other gender) is not an issue. In 1984 however, bisexuality and homosexuality were not appreciated the way they are today, so finding out someone you like was potentially not straight may have actually been a barrier to the relationship. I’m trying to be authentic to the time period but I don’t for a second believe it should be an issue. Also Scott is just a dick.

[starlight-matrix]

Nabari no Ou 15th Anniversary!

@nabaridays wrote up some prompts to celebrate the 15th anniversary of NnO and as it’s my favorite manga series of all time, I had to join the fun!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of the prompts’ existence until we were about four or five days in, so instead of starting in the middle of the prompt list, I wrote all mine up in a Google Doc and decided to do a big masterpost in the day of the anniversary. And here it is! Beware for a lot of reading, this shit’s at 4.1k words.

- Catherine Lynne / catielynnelove.tumblr.com Fan of NnO since 2012 -

DAY 01 (Jun. 3rd) - Favorites

My favorite character has always been Miharu, though I do struggle to choose between him and Yoite. I have always been fascinated by his apathetic nature, the way he uses is as a shield while loving the people in his life so incredibly fiercely. He appears neutral and uncaring, but the moment you look beneath the surface, you recognize that he would give his life for those he loves in a heartbeat - and has shown this on multiple occasions.

I also love his development over the series. His apathetic facade slowly falls out of use after he meets Yoite, and he learns that feeling your emotions is important, that letting the people you love know when you’re happy or sad or pissed the fuck off is important.

In the first few chapters we as readers honestly can’t tell a whole heck of a lot from what we’re shown of Miharu. He’s plain, uninteresting, even to us (unless you’re the kind of person who automatically reads between the lines, but let’s face it, not a lot of people are). But by the end of the series, he’s such a vibrant and expressive character that I marvel at Kamatani’s ability to drastically a character’s personality in a way that feels so gradual and natural.

Another reason Miharu is my favorite character is because I tend to see parts of myself in him, as many people do with the characters they like most. I can understand and relate to his apathy in the beginning of the story. His memory of his parents deaths is so deeply traumatic and that the very fibre of his being (objectively, Shinra) locked the memory, and most of his childhood, away for years to come. Because at that time in his life, the pain of it all would’ve broken him.

(E/N: I now remember that Asahi actually erased Miharu’s memories of that event, but I think a good chunk of this will still make sense, and I’m lazy, so I’m not gonna edit it out. Enjoy.)

Emotions, especially ones he didn’t understand - or couldn’t understand, like his feelings toward his childhood that didn’t quite make sense because of his augmented memories - were simply so overwhelming that Miharu pretty much just went “lol don’t wanna deal with those so yEET now they’re gone” and locked them up in a box to be dealt with at a much, much later date. That speaks to me, as a person who has struggled with depression, and the fact that he finds a way to recover from this is very reassuring.

Overall, Miharu is a very complex and realistic character that undergoes more vivid character development than I’ve seen in almost any western media. I love him very much.

DAY 02 (Jun. 4th) - What got you into Nabari no Ou?

This is actually quite a funny story, so buckle up for a wild ride y’all!

When I was 12 years old (God, this sounds like the setup for an angsty villain backstory), my family had a housemate who liked anime. One day I came to beg for him to let me use his video game console to play Little Big Planet and he happened to be watching the second half of the anime - I distinctly remember the second Alya Academy episode being the first one I ever saw. It was my first anime experience outside of a Studio Ghibli film, and to this day remains close to my heart, even though the anime adaptation itself really… just… well, it sucked.

After I finished watching it with him, I went and found the first half of the series on Netflix (back when Netflix did the whole send-a-DVD-to-your-house thing) and watched the whole thing from episode one. And then very quickly became obsessed. I probably watched the anime four times in two months. I had every single one of the English VAs names memorized. I was dedicated.

Eventually I looked up the manga online, and HOO BOI, this is the point where my Nabari no Ou origin story becomes ridiculously hilarious (and stupid).

When I read the manga, I was disturbed by the idea of Kouichi being a villain-type character, as he had been one of my favorites when I watched the anime. And, at the time I was first reading the manga, the apparent “ending” from my perspective was the scene where Kouichi takes the newly-made hijutsu scroll from a bleeding, dying Thobari.

Looking back, I figure the website I was reading it on just didn’t have all the chapters, or perhaps I had happened to start reading while the manga was on hiatus, but at that age I didn’t know of or understand either of those concepts and accepted that sad scene as the end of the manga.

And as such, I wrote the manga off as terrible and ignored it for years.

Flash forward to about 2014, two or three years after writing the manga off as a Fat Mistake, I finally decided to give it another shot. And BY GOD did I cry reading it a second time. Whether it was the two years of maturity, my experiences during those two years, or simply the fact that I read the whole thing that time - I was sobbing in my desk chair over NnO.

It was the most beautiful story I’d ever read. Even now, after five more years of reading beautiful manga, Nabari no Ou remains my absolute favorite, and likely always will.

DAY 03 - What are your favorite scenes?

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Alya Academy arc, even back when all I’d shunned the manga and all I had to go off of was the inaccurate anime adaptation, simply because of how well the character relationships are shown during those sequences (this is one thing the anime did really well in my opinion, actually - Shijima’s verbal reflection on how humans connect to each other and how important those connections are is stunning). Not to mention the displays of how the characters care for one another regardless of what side of the war they’re technically on.

I’ve always loved Subaru as a character, too. I find her motivations to be very realistic and really quite understandable, and I love the little easter eggs in later chapters that imply the Kouga ninja are helping Miharu’s side of the fight even though they’re not visibly involved. The scores from the Alya Academy arc are especially chilling and memorable as well.

Another of my favorites are the chapters following Miharu and Yoite’s escape from the Kairoshuu and their travels afterward. They feel mundane and peaceful, yet blanketed with this layer of grief, like we’re all aware that at any moment their calm could be destroyed and lost forever.  

The scenes about Yoite’s gender were very special to me as a teen still learning about the LGBT spectrum and how different people could be, and the scene of Yoite bandaging Miharu’s aching feet? My heart literally swells every single time I think about it! It was so sweet and loving, my fragile fangirl heart does flips when I read over it.

DAY 04 (Jun. 6th) - Photos & Fashion

I like to think that Miharu keeps every photograph he’s taken and has them stored safely away in a box or chest or drawer. In my experience, people who have lost loved ones tend to treasure photographs, more than someone who hasn’t experienced loss might. A lot of times a photo is all someone has of someone they loved outside of a memory, and contrary to popular belief, if you don’t look at someone - physically or in a photo - for a long time, you do forget how they look.

Miharu has lost many people: his parents, Yoite, Kouichi and Shijima, even Shinra, in a way - so I imagine this observation would be doubly true of him. Especially if he has Yukimi as an example to go by - pretty sure that guy has kept every photograph he’s ever taken in his life!

(As far as fashion goes, I honestly think everyone’s fashion in NnO is horrendous, so...)

DAY 05 (Jun. 7th) - Favorite character design in the series?

Gosh, it’s hard to choose, I love so many of them! Gau is fascinating to me because I figure his hair must be difficult to draw, with all those little curls and cowlicks. Shijima’s too, with the way it frames her face and leaves just a tiny little opening for her eyes to peer out at you through.

But, as with most of these character-specific prompts, my answer will have to be Miharu. The idea that Asahi reshaped his face to look more like her own when she used Shinra to save him is very interesting, and the fact that Kamatani manages to draw Miharu in a way that both clearly shows their resemblance to one another and establishes Miharu as his own character with his own unique features and gestures and ways of carrying himself is incredible.

Miharu’s stance are also very telling to me as a reader: he often stands loosely, almost lazily, as if he really couldn’t care less about where he is and what they’re doing, which rings true for a good chunk of the story. It matches well with his (mostly) fake apathy and kind of makes him seem bland and boring as a character. But as the story progresses, he becomes more open, shows affection more easily. He’s quicker to stand up for his beliefs and the people he loves. All of this shows in the way he carries himself throughout later chapters.

DAY 06 (Jun. 8th) - Favorite location in the series?

The Shimizu estate, without a doubt.

The secluded area, the forest in every direction, the house itself - it’s all so beautiful to me. Ot gives me the feeling of rural Japan and more traditional Japanese living. Even after the house has burned away and all that’s left is a field full of Spider Lilies, there’s a kind of sober beauty lying over the place, made even more intense when Shirogamon stands watch over it.

DAY 07 (Jun. 9th) - Positive Influences

The thing that I preach about the most when I talk about NnO to others is the fact that the series has no absolutes. There is no true right or wrong, no clear villains nothing that actually puts our heroes above anyone else. Which, in a way, means that are really are no heroes in the story at all, which is a very rare and interesting way to tell a story.

The entire series deal with a greyscale in morality. There’s no bad vs. good or moral vs. immoral, just your own goals and people whose goals don’t match yours. Opinions and ambitions differ vastly even between people on the same side of the fight - Thobari and Raimei want to seal the Shinrabanshou, Kouichi wants to use it to defeat his immortality, Miharu even changes side on a few occasions - yet they all work together together to achieve their own very different ends.

Even those who can be coded as villain on the surface have something motivating them to do what they do, and more often than not, those motivations are understandable to the reader and actually have you sympathizing with the character. Hattori wanted to rid the world of the need for war. Subaru wanted to save the person she loved most in the world. Yamase wanted to win his family back (I think? It’s been a while).

Even Katarou and Kannuki, two characters who have practically nothing to redeem them, at least have motivations that are pretty damn realistic. Kannuki wanted to capitalize on Kouga’s Forbidden Art and use it to grow Alya Academy’s profit and power through the surface world. A Lot of people are like this in real life, and while you may not sympathize with him over it, it is a motivation that is true of our own world as well as the one in this story.

An Katarou, as far as I understand, is obsessed with Shinra herself, rather than the hijutsu and the power it holds. He manipulated hundreds of people and hundreds of situations to suit his own needs, then literally got himself killed - just to see her one last time. And… yeah, I don’t think anyone really sympathized with him, but hey, I can see what pushed him to do what he did.

To me, Katarou is symbolic of someone with an addiction - their mind is so clouded by a need for some specific thing that all other human aspects of that person just fall away, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get what they want.

I also appreciate how the characters handle their differences throughout the story. Their honesty with each other, the way they support each other even when they’re all heading in opposite direction. The Alya Academy arc (I really love this arc okay) especially shows this, in how the ninja from Banten and Kairoshuu - two very opposing factions - fight together against the Kouga without hesitation, despite the fact that in most other situations, they’d be fighting each other.

It’s a wonderful thing to promote: that even though people might have different opinions or goals, it doesn’t mean they have to hate each other.

DAY 08 (Jun. 10th) - Favorite Extra?

I am IN LOVE with the little between-chapter 4koma pieces, especially the ones from the Alya Academy arc (God, I’ve talked so much about this arc). Subaru fantasizing about Miharu being her little brother and making her birthday cake? Adorable. Miharu and Yoite getting stuck behind a bookshelf and terrifying an opponent by asking for help out? Hilarious.

I love that Kamatani put those in, both as a peek into happier aspects of the world he created, and as a way to add a bit of sun in between the much darker, much sadder chapters.

DAY 09 (Jun. 11th) - Headcanons

I’m not much of a headcanon person, to be honest, and especially not with this series. It feels off to me, to try and add to something that’s already so perfect. However, I do agree with a couple of headcanons I’ve seen - particularly the ones theorizing that Yukimi is aro-ace. It makes a lot of sense to me in how his character is portrayed when nearly every other character in the series has a romantic match, and as an ace person myself, more representation is always welcome.

DAY 10 (Jun. 12th) - Alternate Universe

I once started (and quickly abandoned out of shame) a very cringey, very out-of-character fanfic, in which the Nabari world didn’t exist and all the characters meet through natural means in the surface world. Other than that, however, I’ve not put much thought into Nabari no Ou AUs.

But something I would LOVE to see is a crossover between NnO and Shimanami Tasogare, as the two stores canonically take place in the same location - NnO being in Banten, a fictional town  based on the real town of Onomichi, and Shimanami Tasogare being confirmed to take place in plain old Onomichi itself. It’s been a while since I’ve read Shimanami Tasogare, but I remember the leader/owner of the little house the cast gathers in as giving me a distinctly Nabari-world vibe, and I think it would be interesting to see the NnO characters react to a community like the one presented in Shimanami Tasogare.

(And also perhaps have some romantic relationships and sexualities proven canon. Perhaps.)

DAY 11 (Jun. 13th) - Favorite song from the OST?

It’s a firm tie between the opening theme and the second ending theme. I have every song in the OST memorized after years of hearing them day in and day out, but those two themes always give me this tingling nostalgic feeling, like rereading a book from your childhood or finding a toy as an adult that you’d thought was lost forever. The animation and symbolism in those themes are also very telling of the series and the character’s connections to each other (a bit obviously, at times), and the lyrics are special to me in a way I can’t describe. They’re precious to me, and  to me experience of NnO as a whole, considering I started with the anime first (a bad idea).

DAY 12 (Jun. 14th) - Are there any songs that make you think of NnO?

“Neopolitan Dreams” by Lisa Mitchell ( X ) ( X )

I once watched a cute Raimei/Kouichi AMV set to this song listened to the lyrics, I understood how the author had put them together. I very much feel like the lyrics echo Raimei’s thoughts on how Kouichi starts to act in later chapters, becoming more and more distant until he almost appears to be an antagonist rather than one of the perceived heroes. The song also makes me think of Raimei’s stubbornness and pride, her unwillingness to accept option besides her own conclusions until she’s had the full story and nothing less.

I can never get their faces out of my head while listening to this song, which I guess means the song reminds me more of Raimei and Kouichi than NnO in general, but it still counts, right?

DAY 13 (Jun. 15th) - Food

I’ve never really thought too hard on it, but now that I am, it’s actually very interesting to note how different characters use food - the Rokujo Okonomiyaki shop, in particular - to their advantage.

Thobari uses his (implied, before the start of the overall plot) regular visits to try and get Miharu to believe him about the Shinrabanshou and the Nabari world. Thobari uses the close proximity to explain his motives to Miharu, who physically cannot leave the situation, lest the food burn to a damn crisp (and I figure Naoko wouldn’t be pleased if that happened every time Thobari came in). He also very clearly uses this to keep tabs on Miharu when outside of a school setting where Miharu has no choice to be in Thobari’s sight, and later, as a way to either catch up on what’s going on in the Nabari world or - as in several cases - simply demand answers from Miharu.

Raimei uses the shop as a way to get closer to Miharu. She charms her way into getting free food (and sometimes, free lodging as well) and I assume her thinking is probably something on the lines of “Free Food + Spend Time With Miharu = Information on Where Raikou Might Be.” Of course, this likely isn’t her motive in later chapters, because, well, character development.

Food is also an important bonding thing for Yoite and Yukimi. In a lot of the scenes where we see Yoite and Yukimi in their home, they’re eating together, and I always took it as a display of their familial relationship - cooking dinner for Yoite the way a dutiful older sibling would for their younger sibling - thoughI doubt either of them would admit they’re like brothers. The significance of lemonade should also be noted for this topic - I could go on for ages about it.

(But I won’t unless people ask me to, because this piece is long enough already!)

I don’t have much memory of this scene being as big a deal in the manga as it was in the anime - but I also haven’t seen either in a while, so I could be wrong - but the birthday cake scene from the latter half of the anime left an impact on me even back when I’d only seen the anime, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the prompt was “food.” Gau’s pride in the cake he made and his determination to get any kind of praise out of Yoite is very touching, especially when you take into account that Yoite literally saved Gau’s life, and that Gau knows this, as well.

The Kairoshuu - particularly Yukimi, Raikou, Gau, and Kazuho - are all shown bonding on more than one occasion at Kazuho and her husband’s sushi shop, and there is significance to those occasions in the rather heavy conversations they have during those visits. And there’s also the time Miharu cooked okonomiyaki for all the main Kairoshuu member after he’d first joined their clan - similar to how a recently hired employee would bring cookies for their new boss.

Food has a lot of significance in Nabari no Ou, no matter where you look.

DAY 14 (Jun. 16th) - Favorite village, and thoughts on the Forbidden Arts?

As far as morals and motivations go, I would have to choose Banten, as their (or at least Thobari’s) main opinion is that the Shinrabanshou shouldn’t be used because it throws off the balance of the universe. I definitely understand this opinion, because a lot of things can go wrong if the wrong kind of person is making wishes to Shinra and having them granted.

Although, I think that if anyone were to use the ability in a way that leaves the balance of the world intact, it would be Miharu, and this is even shown in the series itself. He doesn’t have the kind of greed or anger that would taint a person’s motivations when making their wishes, he just wants to do what is best for others- especially Yoite. Yoite is important to him, and therefore Yoite’s wish is also important to Miharu. And, as we see in later chapters, Miharu puts granting Yoite’s wish above even his own happiness. I feel I would make a similar decision were I in his shoes.

(For aesthetic, though, I’d choose Fuuma. Their village is hidden and surrounded by forest and in that lovely traditional Japanese style, and their uniforms are great. If Saraba were Chief I’d join.)

DAY 15 (Jun. 17th) - Favorite minor/supporting character

Gau! Definitely Gau! Gosh I love him so much. He’s optimistic and tries his best to look for the best in situations and in people, and his smile is so freaking sunshiney, I bet he lights up rooms with it. He’s awkward and quirky and I can relate so hard. But he’s also strong? He stands up to other ninja even though he really doesn’t have the physical ability to defend himself or others. He puts his life in danger to tell Raimei the truth about her family immediately after swearing silence to Raikou, his boss, who could 100% kill him if he found out Gau had broken his promise. And I bet you Gau would’ve told Raikou about him telling Raimei as soon as he’d gone home, if the bullshit at the Shimizu property hadn’t gone down the way it did.

And speaking of that scene- he throws himself in front of Raikou’s katana to save the life of a girl he hadn’t known for more than a day, who had threatened to kill him, who was seeking to kill the person he treasured most in the world. Who does that?! Gau apparently. He literally gives his life for just the possibility that Raikou and Raimei can make up and be happy siblings again. He gives his life so that the person he loves can maybe reconcile with someone else they loved.

He makes a conscious effort to include Yoite in conversations in which he would otherwise be largely ignored, and while I doubt Yoite would care either way, it’s the thought that counts, right? And, at least in the anime (it’s been a while since I read the manga) he puts his life on the line to help Yoite and Miharu even though, as I said before, he can’t really defend himself all that well.

Basically, I’m in love with Gau and want him to be happy. Sweet baby!

DAY 16 (Jun. 18th) - Free Day

I don’t really have anything else to say but I’m posting all of these today (I was late for the original posting by like four days so I figured I’d write them all out and post them together) so I’ll count this as my day 16 entry! Thank you so much if you’ve read this far, I know it was probably daunting to look at this long as fucking post but I’m glad you took the time to read my personal reflection on NnO! This manga means a lot to me and it’s nice to discover other people who love it as much as I do (I’ve literally met two people in my entire life who’ve read it without me suggesting it).

Keep the love going y’all, I hope to see you again! And feel free to hit me up if you’d like to talk about NnO, I’d love to connect with other fans! Seeya owo

[misssophiachase]

For the klaroline song dabbles could you do Taylor Swift 'I Forgot That You Existed' I just picture them both getting over their past traumas just by being together

Thanks nonnie! Great idea. I love this song (and the rest of the album). Hope you like where it went, blame the fact I just watched Blue Crush again.

He’s chasing his wayward brother across the globe to take his mind off things and she’s trying to keep a low profile after a messy break-up until their paths unexpectedly cross.

I Forgot That You Existed

Oahu, HI 

I forgot that you existed

No, she really did forget. The only thing she did remember was when it happened. 

It was Sunday July 26th at 1:33pm. A stunning 93 degrees on the North Shore according to the weather report, the sound of waves from nearby Waimea Bay her backing soundtrack and a delicious serving of fish tacos courtesy of the guy seated across the table.

The guy that looked completely out of place in his designer threads at a food truck who seemed to be studying the meal in front of him carefully.

“It’s a taco, you eat it with your hands no cutlery necessary,” she instructed, picking it up and taking a sizeable bite. “See?” 

“And here I thought it was a projectile I could throw at my wayward younger brother,” he muttered sarcastically. “And I do know what a taco is Ms Forbes.”

“Well, I’m sure it wouldn’t be a first if you did throw it at him,” she offered, looking over to said brother who was attempting to charm a few local beachgoers and wolfing down his own tacos without caring much about spillage. 

Caroline wasn’t quite sure what to think about her current predicament, she’d woken early to surf then headed to Waimea for her usual lessons.

What she wasn’t expecting was a twenty-something, English tourist, albeit cute, dressed in a gaudy Hawaiian shirt. He’d called her darling about twenty times before she’d even taught him how to stand up beachside on his board. 

Once she eased him into the water (probably against her better judgment), he decided no more training was required and proceeded to anger neighboring surfers (either by heckling, cutting them off or trying to chat them up) and broken her board in half during a particularly bad break. 

It was only when they returned to the beach and happened upon another equally out of place observer. Unlike her Hawaiian shirt-wearing student, this guy was practically glowing in the sunlight. Dirty, blonde curls, crimson lips, and dimples which were so distracting Caroline didn’t even notice just how much his jeans, loafers and button-down shirt were screaming preppy chic in the completely wrong setting. 

He removed his aviators, those blue eyes taking their time to not only inspect her companion but her also. Caroline almost felt self-conscious the way those intense orbs were traveling the expanse of her bikini-clad body. She shivered inwardly annoyed that some cocky stranger had that effect.

“Who tipped you off this time, Niklaus?” Her troublemaker to the left whined. Obviously, they knew each other but in other news his name was Niklaus? Caroline wasn’t quite sure how to process this information.

“Lucy.”

“Seriously? The maid ratted me out?” 

“I think she was more disturbed by your request for Hawaiian shirts, Kol,” he murmured, his eyebrows rising briefly in judgment.

“I was trying to blend in so as to avoid detection.”

“As much as you like to think you’re stealth, well you’re not.”

“Is that according to the older brother or detective in you?”

“Both,” he shrugged. Caroline meanwhile was watching this whole scene unfold with great interest. She’d been teaching surfing for about six months now but never experienced anything like this. “You need to come home, Kol.”

“And what if I don’t want to?” He growled. “What if I’ve found the love of my life here in Hawaii.” Before she knew it, he’d placed his arm across her back and pulled Caroline closer.

“The love of your life? Well, then I’d really love to know the name of the amazing woman who’s tamed my little brother.”

“I’ve done no such thing,” Caroline blurted out, feeling completely lost. The fact this idiot broke her board was one thing but then he’d brought her into his story which wasn’t on. “He’s not my type at all.”

“Hey, I’m everyone’s type.”

“Wow,” Caroline whistled. “I really hope you don’t use that line when trying to pick up women.”

“Too late,” the cute looking guy murmured, a slight smile tugging at those crimson lips.

“You are such a wet blanket, Niklaus, always trying to ruin any semblance of fun. Don’t forget that if you hadn’t bloody well abdicated the throne I’d be able to travel the world without a babysitter and have fun with whomever I like,” he pouted, his brown eyes wandering back to Caroline.

Abdicated a throne? Were these two royalty or had she entered the twilight zone?

“Oh come on, buddy,” she huffed. “Still not in the slightest bit interested.” Caroline couldn’t miss the stray dimple his brother flashed in response. “I’m not here for whatever weird family drama this is, I have to go and source another board since his royal pain in the ass broke mine.”

“Now that is a catchy nickname,” Niklaus smirked. “But please let me buy you another, it’s the least I can do.”

“I’ll sort it out,” she mumbled, slightly overwhelmed under his gaze. “However, I am starving so if you want to buy a girl some lunch I might be able to forgive the debt.”

“Yes! Let’s get some lunch,” Kol agreed. “Great idea, darling.”

“I’ll promise I’ll make him sit at another table,” his brother promised. 

And I thought that it would kill me, but it didn't

“So, Niklaus, what’s that all about?”

“What’s that about? It’s my name last time I checked.”

“Well, Niklaus seems like someone who’ll show up to the beach fully clothed on a hot day, visibly annoyed even with the gorgeous scenery and look down unfavourably upon perfectly good tacos. But then there’s this whole other person that has flown across the globe to rescue his younger brother for whatever reason, not just from a hideous Hawaiian shirt, and even settle his debts with buying a girl some lunch.”

“Well, if I’m honest that person is actually named Klaus,” he smiled knowingly. “Unfortunately, my family is yet to fully accept him because they can’t seem to shorten my name like I’ve insisted upon for years.”

“We do it to annoy you,” Kol offered. Even from his place a few tables over he still had exceptional hearing to interrupt.

“Story of my life,” he shrugged. “And I’m not one to let false statements stand Ms Forbes, I happen to love tacos.” With that he picked it up and took a bite, Caroline trying to ignore just how good he looked doing it.    

“I’m pretty sure Klaus would call me Caroline; you know just saying.”

“So, what exactly are you doing here, Caroline?” He grinned as he said it and she was trying to focus given how good it sounded rolling off his tongue. “Well, besides having to put up with my brother?”

“I’m a surf instructor,” she murmured, feeling her answer was woefully inept given his response but not wanting to elaborate further. 

“That I got,” he nodded. “So, are you from these parts originally?”

“I think your charge has done a runner,” she gestured to the back of his Hawaiian shirt billowing in the breeze, glad to have a much needed distraction. 

“Bloody hell,” he growled. “I’m too old for this.”

“He’s headed towards the camping ground, I have a friend who works there and can keep him occupied,” Caroline explained, pulling out her phone and texting, deciding that Katherine would be the perfect choice. The perfect amount of luring him in with her feminine wiles and then scaring the hell out of him. 

“I really should go myself,” he said, standing up and stretching, Caroline not missing the brief flash of skin between his jeans and shirt. “But thank you for everything, Caroline.”

“You’re welcome,” she mumbled, wishing for some reason it didn’t end here. She’d spent the last six months not seeking attention but for some reason Klaus had made her crave it again.

Her phone beeped signalling a new text message from Katherine. It was a picture of a happily looking Kol surrounded by multiple bikini-clad campers. “Pretty sure he’s settling in for the night.” 

“As I understand it your brother is happily occupied,” she shared the picture noting Klaus’ disapproval followed by something resembling relief. “The camp site has a bonfire at sunset, you could collect him then.”

“Is that where you Americans decide crackers, marshmallow and chocolate make a good snack?”

“You are not dissing s’mores,” she objected. “You can’t judge until you try one.”

“But what do we do until then?” He asked, his lips curving into a smile. 

“We could surf?”

“Well, I’m not sure...”

“Afraid?”

“Oh you did not just do that,” he growled, he was pretending to be angry but she could sense his excitement. “And what am I supposed to wear?”

“I’ll help you out,” she offered, cocking her left eyebrow and trying not to imagine just how good his physique would look in much less clothing. “Just don’t break my spare board or I will sue.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he saluted teasingly. 

And it was so nice

What Caroline wasn’t expecting was for him to be so natural on a board and in the water, a far cry from his brother’s efforts. They laughed, mainly when he fell without notice and she refused to relinquish her board to save him. She told him tough love was much better if he had to fight off a killer wave or shark without assistance.

It was about 5pm, they’d been riding waves for a few hours their limbs sore and sunset was edging that bit closer. Klaus and Caroline lay on their respective boards in the water. The big waves had long disapated and it was now just a gentle nudge. 

“I’m jealous,” he murmured, his hands running through the water lazily. 

“Of what exactly?” 

“That this is your home, you get to watch this brilliant sunset every day.” Caroline knew that wasn’t altogether true and for some reason felt more relaxed than usual. 

“It’s not my home originally,” she admitted quietly. “I ran away a year ago from my past because my ex wasn’t the most loving or respectful of people. I guess I kind of feel like a fraud pretending I belong here.”

“If it helps, so do I most days. My parents are disappointed in my life choices and my girlfriend cheated on me because I wanted to be someone else with much less money.”

“So, they were all upset you abdicated the throne in Genovia?”

“Geography wasn’t my forte at school I’ll admit but pretty sure you just made up a country, love.”

“Obviously you’ve never seen The Princess Diaries,” she opined, not missing his confusion. “Please tell me Kol isn’t actually taking over a real country because I’m worried for its citizens wellbeing.” 

“Thankfully, no. My father owns British Airways which we do liken to another country,” he explained. “I never cared for the family business even with all the trappings. I’d worked hard at the police academy and wanted to work my way up through the ranks without family assistance.”

“And it didn’t go down so well?”

“My father practically disowned me and appointed Kol CEO-in-waiting which totally threw him over the edge into Hawaiian shirt land. I don’t regret my decision but feel so guilty that I’ve scared Kol into a role he’s not ready for yet.”

“Hence your unexpected appearance on my beach,” she uttered. “I’m pretty sure he appreciates your effort.”

“Because he’s been so happy to see me.”

“I think it just might take a little more time, let him just relax for a while,” she suggested. “How about we head over to the campsite and I show you just how good s’mores can be?”

“I’ll entertain your theory for my brother’s sake,” he shot back. “But I have to admit it’s extremely difficult to leave the water.”

“I know what you mean, it’s....” 

So peaceful and quiet

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 3.7

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in chapter 3, Maki became Maki Roll, Kaito finally admitted to his phobia (sort of), Tsumugi deliberately used said phobia to nerf Kaito because apparently his support of Shuichi in investigations is just too OP, and so Maki stepped up to begin helping Shuichi investigate instead. Investigate Angie’s death, that is, because she’s dead. That also happened.

Maki:  “The Monokuma File included the time of death this time.”

So apparently, even though Maki spent the previous investigation guarding her lab while insisting she couldn’t help, she still did read the Monokuma File and notice that it omitted the time of death. She wasn’t completely refusing to engage with the case.

Tsumugi:  “So… the murder happened at nighttime after all. If everyone had followed the student council’s rules like Angie and Atua said…”

Yes, if only Angie had followed her own rules.

Himiko:  “I… don’t care anymore…”

Tenko:  “What?”

Himiko:  “Surviving… and everything else… It’s too much of a pain…”

Poor Himiko. She was never lazy; she is horribly depressed, and losing the person she was using as a coping mechanism, even if it was an unhealthy one, has just made things even worse for her.

Kiyo jumps on the opportunity to suggest a seance so that he can get himself a two-for-one murder. Presumably, if he hadn’t unexpectedly had to kill Angie last night, he was imagining the resurrection ritual would fail and then was planning to offer the seance to speak to Rantaro instead.

(It’s a good thing Kaito left before anyone started talking about seances. That would not have helped him feel any better.)

Himiko:  “If I can talk to Angie one more time… I’ll do anything. A seance or whatever it takes… I’ll do it.”

Tenko: “I-I’ll help out as well! I can’t leave Himiko alone!”

Himiko:  “Do whatever you want…”

Tenko:  “Okay… I will.”

I really like that even though Himiko has no opinion about the fact that Tenko is helping her, Tenko doesn’t care and wants to help anyway. Sometimes Tenko’s actions towards Himiko are clearly done with ulterior motives, but she’s at her best when she’s helping Himiko for completely selfless reasons just because she cares about her.

Kiyo:  “My lab has windows, so turning the lights off won’t make it quite dark enough.”

Huh, I’d forgotten this detail – I thought there were no windows anywhere on the fourth floor. I guess the gamemakers put windows in Kiyo’s lab specifically so that his ploy where he leads someone else into picking one of the empty rooms can work.

After talking to Miu and being subjected to some of her usual garbage…

Maki:  “…You’re a waste of time.”

Shuichi:  (Maki turned and walked away. I can’t say I blame her.)

I never get tired of how done Maki is with everyone who deserves it. Shame Shuichi is too passive and polite to give in to what is clearly his own desire to not talk to Miu ever.

Tsumugi:  “U-Umm… I’m not sure if it’s okay to say this or not, but… Could… Tenko be the culprit?”

Look who’s suddenly dropped her theory about the culprit being the resurrected Rantaro now that Kaito’s no longer in the room, even though she was originally so into the theory that she made the point of bringing it up again several minutes after being cut off once. Yeeeaaah.

Gonta:  “N-No way. Student council would never break own rules. They shoulda been asleep in own rooms! To set good example to others!”

Oh, Gonta. Of course he’d be determined to keep the rules that he’s meant to be enforcing, unlike Angie. He’s such a good.

Gonta:  “Maybe Angie get attacked while she sleep in her room, and get brought here? If so… Gonta coulda saved her! If only Gonta saw! But Gonta was sleeping… Sorry, Angie… Gonta no could save you!”

Noooo but then he uses that to give himself a reason to feel guilty and like he could have prevented the murder again no Gonta it’s not your fault!!

Necronomicon:  If it’s not obvious who the effigy is supposed to be, label it with the name of the deceased.

These seem like rather vague requirements. How would whatever otherworldly force that brings back the dead decide whether the effigy’s identity was “obvious” or not and needed a label? Why wouldn’t it be able to just read the mind of the effigy’s creator and sense their intent? Seems more like the ones bringing back the dead are just some perfectly ordinary humans who need to know which Flashback Light (and possibly which clone) they need to prepare, and who are likely to have the same basic human judgement about whether the effigy’s identity is obvious or not as the person who created it.

Necronomicon:  Then close your eyes and wait. After a while… you should feel a light tap on your back.

This part’s a little harder to fit into a way in which this could work. I’m not sure how the gamemakers would be able to get the newly “resurrected” person from wherever they were keeping them to inside the dome and right behind the ritual-doer so quickly. Asking the ritual-doer to close their eyes probably helps, but this still seems… kind of impossible. But I suppose the book technically never specifies how long of a “while” they’re supposed to wait for.

Maki:  “Maybe the student council should have blocked the warehouse instead of the manhole.”

Pretty good point she has there. Also her lab. And Kiyo’s, because of the katana. And Himiko’s has a bunch of swords in it too.

Shuichi:  (Maki nudged me aside, then gripped the katana and pulled it out of the effigy.) “Ah, wait! This is a crime scene, you can’t—”

Isn’t the point of “don’t disturb the crime scene” so that the investigators can be aware of the way things were originally found? Everyone investigating this case has seen how it originally was and will remember it, so surely it’s now perfectly okay to move the things that it’s necessary to move in order to investigate further. Shuichi’s probably really objecting because he just doesn’t want to see someone pull a katana out of something that looks like Kaede.

Maki:  “When I first started working, I botched a mission using a katana… I haven’t used swords since. Which is fine, because they’re a hassle to carry anyway.”

Heh, swords being a hassle to carry is exactly why she ended up botching that mission.

As I just mentioned, there are swords in Himiko’s lab, even though Maki’s has none, so the culprit could have used one of those (and then it wouldn’t have left gold leaf on the lock). Seems like someone was attached to his own lab’s katana after all.

Maki:  “I’m going to put the katana back where we found it… If it’s too hard to watch, look away.”

It’s a small thing, but it’s nice that Maki’s considerate enough to realise Shuichi might not enjoy watching her stab something that looks like Kaede (and she’s right, because he does look away). It’s not the sort of thing you’d necessarily expect her to be conscious of, since she’s so jaded to everything herself.

Shuichi thinks to test how easy it is to move the sliding lock on the back door as soon as he sees the gold leaf on it, meaning he’s basically already figured out that the lock was locked using the katana’s handle and apparently just isn’t being confident enough in his deductions to voice that idea out loud. Having a detective protagonist who’s riddled with self-doubt is very convenient for writing a murder mystery game where you’re supposed to let the players figure things out and not have the protagonist solve everything for them.

Maki:  “…He’s clearly suspicious.”

Shuichi:  (It is suspicious, but that solution seems a little too… convenient.)

They’re talking about Kokichi, because of his lock-picking abilities. Apparently Shuichi is genre savvy enough to know that it’d never be him because that’s way too obvious.

Shuichi:  “I’m surprised you spotted this, Maki. It was hidden under her body…”

Maki:  “…It was partially visible. As a detective, you should have noticed it before I did.”

Shuichi:  “Ah, well, that’s true…”

Maki:  “Well, even so… I guess you’re still getting used to being around dead bodies… So don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Maki’s smiling a little as she says that last bit. She’s being considerate and reassuring! And I think she’s also beginning to realise that her own talent that makes her used to dead bodies can actually be helpful in this situation.

Shuichi:  “Well then, it’s a good thing you’re used to corpses, Maki.”

Maki:  “…Huh? Do you want to die?”

Shuichi:  “S-Sorry, joking. I couldn’t resist.”

Maki:  “…You don’t need to apologize. I was joking, too.”

Look at them being comfortable joking around with each other, even if in this grim kind of way. They’re friends!

Maki:  “It’s not that important, but… the only time you’re reliable is when you’re investigating a crime scene.”

Shuichi:  “Is that… supposed to be a compliment?”

Maki:  “Who knows?”

It’s a bit of a backhanded one, since she’s implying that he’s useless the rest of the time. I think she means well, though. She’s just not used to complimenting people.

Maki:  “You’re certainly more reliable than Kaito, at least. That guy is useless.”

Kaito may be kind of useless in terms of plans, or deductions, which is what’s important right now, but he could not be further from useless when it comes to helping people, in a way that nobody else could replicate. One day Maki is going to be able to admit to herself and others that Kaito has made a huge difference for her. That day is not today.

(The fact that he noped out of investigating due to something that Maki can’t appreciate isn’t his fault certainly doesn’t help that right now.)

It’s also… probably a good thing Kaito isn’t here to hear Maki say that Shuichi is more reliable and useful than him. That would hit him a lot deeper than he’d ever let on. Then again, maybe Maki wouldn’t have said that if he were here. She calls Kaito a lot of things (mostly an idiot), but she hasn’t ever called him useless to his face. And Maki’s not the kind of person who’d think something negative about someone behind their back but avoid saying it in front of them… so the fact that she’s never said it to his face does rather imply that she doesn’t truly think he’s useless after all.

Maki:  “It just occurred to me… Why am I acting like your partner?”

Because you’re friends? Learning how to be friends and work together with people is the kind of thing you’ve been trying to do in fighting your “enemy”, isn’t it?

Shuichi:  (It’s not as if I *asked* you… but it’s fine by me. It’s true that Maki is a tremendous help to me.)

Maki definitely has been more help in terms of actual deductions than Kaito would have been… but still, not really in ways that Shuichi couldn’t have done using his deduction skills alone (with the possible exception of noticing the duct tape under the body because she’s more used to corpses than him). So really, what Shuichi is appreciating the most is the company and support and not having to do this alone.

Next, they head to Kiyo’s lab and end up hearing more about how the seance works as Kokichi reads the book to them. All these details of how the seance is performed are very transparently written to facilitate Kiyo’s murder plan. It’s almost like this seance method only exists for the purpose of committing this specific murder with it or something.

Kokichi:  “Also, it says we can’t step on the magic circle during the preparations…”

Even this part, which Kiyo uses an excuse so that nobody accidentally steps on the unstable floorboard, is explicitly written in the instructions and not just something he makes up himself. How very convenient for him.

What I’m saying is, here’s another thing going on in this chapter which is a product of blatant in-universe lazy writing. It’s actually kind of a consistent running theme of this chapter, in a way – and certainly a more narratively meaningful theme than “ghosts, for some reason”.

Kokichi:  “Complicated plans have a better chance of working out in the end, wouldn’t you say?”

…No? It’s definitely simpler plans that are more likely to work. Man, Kokichi believing this sure does explain a lot, though. His overarching grand plan ultimately fails, and while I’ll go plenty into the exact reasons why when we get there, a more general reason is very much that it was way too complicated.

Kokichi invites Shuichi to join the seance. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he suspected a murder was going to take place and figured Shuichi ought to be witness to it so he could solve it. Maybe.

Shuichi is too focused on the plot to let me take him into the left or right rooms before the seance. If only he’d investigated one of them and discovered the floorboard, maybe he’d have realised what was up before it was too late for Tenko.

Kiyo:  “I always use salt for magic circles. It makes seances more likely to succeed.”

Yeah, that’s definitely why, and not so you can feel your way to the right spot in the dark.

I’m not sure why Himiko initially volunteers to be the spirit medium, since the whole point of this is to let her talk to Angie. She can’t do that if Angie’s possessing her.

Still, it lets Tenko specifically offer to take her place so that Himiko can get to speak to Angie. Gah. She has no idea she just volunteered to die instead of Himiko, but still. If she hadn’t done this and Himiko had died instead, then something like, “I should have volunteered so that I would have died instead of Himiko!” is exactly the kind of overzealously protective thing Tenko would say. If she actually were still around after death in some way to reflect on her decision here, she wouldn’t regret this. But guh, if she’d known beforehand then this wouldn’t even happen at all. Fuck you, Kiyo.

Tenko:  “Expressing your feelings is perfectly natural. You shouldn’t feel ashamed at all. So… if you feel like crying while you’re talking to Angie, go ahead and cry your eyes out. …You’ll feel better when you do. Well, I mean, laughing makes you feel better too… And venting your anger onto something can really cheer you up! Train your heart by crying, laughing and venting your anger, Himiko.”

Himiko:  “… I think you’ve trained too much…”

Tenko:  “Hahaha, you’re probably right.”

I wanted to quote this whole speech to appreciate Tenko being at her best. It’s a shame she’s only at her best when she’s raising massive death flags, but.

Also, look at Himiko actually engaging with Tenko just a little bit (she’s smiling a little as she says that!). If Tenko weren’t about to be killed here, Himiko might have come out of this seance already feeling better and ready to change.

Shuichi:  (It seems like the two of them made up… That’s good.)

Aside from the part where they still weren’t ever really friends in the first place and this would more just be the beginning of them becoming friends, I can also see where Shuichi’s coming from here. It sure is a relief when friends who have been at odds with each other make up just before one of them is murdered. Right?

I’m not sure why Kiyo doesn’t delegate Himiko to be one of the people to carry the cage, since he’s going to claim in the trial that only the cage-carriers could have put the sickle there, but he also tries to pin the blame on Himiko for picking the room. I guess it’s just because she’s small enough that she’d really struggle to lift it? Or he just doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing; that’s also very possible.

Kokichi:  “It wouldn’t be very funny if a body discovery announcement happened during this.”

Kokichi sounds like he means this, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he hasn’t figured out Tenko is totally about to be murdered. Because if he has and is keeping quiet about it, that’s very not okay. Then again, he did quite knowingly lead Ryoma to his death last chapter, so maybe I shouldn’t be putting this past him.

I’m also sceptical as to how the four of them could have carried the statue in without some of them stepping on the magic circle at some point. That path into the middle of the circle is way too narrow for all four people, especially if they’re carrying something really heavy.

“How many will there be by dawn? Will there be two or just one?”

*thunk!*

Two. Definitely two murders and not just one.

(This bit isn’t in-universely deliberate, since they couldn’t have known Angie would have been unexpectedly killed before this.)

You can kind of clearly see the blood seeping out from under the cage as they relight the candles… but considering that the blood is not actually bright pink and is really dark red, I can understand why the characters don’t notice it at first. The misplaced floorboard is a bit more obvious, but maybe also the room is darker in reality than it looks in the game.

Shuichi:  “…Tenko?”

Kiyo:  “Ah… I told her that she mustn’t speak until the spirit enters her.”

It’s possible this part of the seance procedure was something Kiyo made up just so that he could keep up the pretense of normalcy for long enough to allow him to remove the sheet with the sickle under it.

Kiyo:  “Those who remove objects from the magic circle must be the same who brought them in.”

And this part. It wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the book, at least from the bits that Kokichi read out to us.

(She jumped onto the cage, and…)

Himiko:  “T-Tenkooo!!!”

(Fueled by desperation, Himiko grabbed the cage, lifted it up, and…)

Look at her lifting the cage by herself when it took two people to carry it! She’s having emotions! She’s desperate not to lose another person who cared about her and was trying to help her deal with this awful situation! God, poor Himiko.

Monotaro:  “Wh-Who would’ve thought… there’d be another victim during the investigation…?”

Apparently nobody gave the kubs the memo about how the scripted murder for this chapter was Kiyo’s seance murder.

Kiyo is the one who asks for clarification about what happens if there are two separate murderers. He knows he’s more likely to be discovered for Tenko’s murder than for Angie’s and is hoping to get himself some insurance for that, and that’s exactly what he gets. Someone claims during the Debate Scrum that Kiyo was planning to protect himself with the rule all along, and he insists that’s not possible because the rule was added after this murder. But even so, him being the one to ask makes it pretty clear that is what he’s hoping for. It’s not like he could have asked about rules regarding double murders prior to the seance without making himself way too suspicious.

Kaito:  “This is… unquestionably bad. I can’t believe Tenko was killed. Everyone’s upset and confused… And I’m in no shape to help right now…”

Heh, this is Kaito actually being honest about his capabilities. That’s rare to see.

Also I like that he specifically mentions how everyone’s upset and confused – because that’s exactly the kind of thing he’d normally be able to help with, by being his usual optimistic self and boosting everyone up.

Kaito:  “So… this is where you need to step up. Listen, Shuichi…”

At least he has his sidekick to trust with that role instead!

Kaito:  “The impossible is possible, all you gotta do is make it so.”

Ayyy! I don’t actually remember how many times throughout the game Kaito says this, so I’m going to keep track here. This is the second.

Kaito:  “Alright… then let’s check the Monokuma File first.”

Even so, despite admitting he’s not likely to be much help and having kind of passed the torch onto Shuichi, Kaito still starts talking as if he’s going to be helping here. I suppose he’s hoping to get in as much help as possible until someone inevitably started talking about seances and spirits and set off his phobia again.

Kokichi:  “Maybe… it’s Angie’s curse.”

Kaito:  “C-Curse…?”

Which Kokichi almost immediately does. He’s obviously noticed Kaito’s phobia (how could anyone have missed it after his reaction last time) and thinks it would be hilarious to set him off again here. Newsflash: no, triggering someone’s phobia on purpose is nothing but the biggest dick move.

(And since Kokichi is such a dick, Tsumugi didn’t need to do anything this time. I have to assume that she was going to, if Kokichi hadn’t got there first.)

Kaito’s overreaction this time is even more extreme and, again, something I don’t think is quite in character for him to do. He should be doing everything he can to not let everyone see him being this obviously pathetic (or what he considers “pathetic”), and he should be capable of suppressing it at least that much.

Maki is blushing here, but even though the writers probably annoyingly intend this as a ship-tease, it doesn’t necessarily have to have anything to do with her romantic feelings for Kaito (which might not even be a thing quite yet). Anyone, especially someone who’d been severely starved of physical contact with other people for as long as she has, might feel uncomfortable if someone suddenly clung to them like this.

There’s a trickle of blood coming from Kaito’s mouth after Maki punches him to get him off her. It’s not stated exactly where she punched him – did she punch him in the face, causing him to cut his mouth somewhere and bleed that way? Or did she punch him somewhere closer to his stomach, which would have worsened whatever internal injuries he’s got from his illness (his symptoms include stomach pains) and caused him to cough up blood from the inside?

Based on the position of Maki’s arms in the illustration, and the amount of blood coming from Kaito’s mouth… it seems more likely to be the latter.

Kaito:  “My bad, Shuichi… I’m starting to feel bad… but for a different reason.”

For what different reason? Because he feels guilty for invading Maki’s personal space without her permission? Just because she punched him? …Or because his real, physical illness has been getting worse lately and Maki’s punch just exacerbated that even more? This might be one of the most honest things Kaito says regarding his illness until the very end of chapter 5. (And yes, it still isn’t very honest. That’s my point.)

I guess he’s apologising to Shuichi specifically because he’s going to be unable to help him investigate again, but also he really should give Maki an apology for invading her personal space.

Kaito:  “I’m gonna get some fresh air, so… I’ll leave this to you and Maki Roll…”

I feel like this time it’s somewhat less about his phobia and simply needing some fresh air. He’s probably heading to go cough up some blood where nobody will see.

(He remembered to call her Maki Roll this time! …Also a sign that he might be in a less phobia-driven state of mind than last time. Maybe being punched by Maki to the point of almost coughing up blood right there in front of everyone made him freak out about his much more real problem in a way that kind of pushed the phobia aside somewhat.)

Gonta:  “It all Gonta’s fault…! Gonta fail to protect friends again!”

Noooo Gonta it’s not your fault! You couldn’t have known this was going to happen! And it’s especially not all your fault – nobody else saw this coming either, not even the people who were participating in the seance.

Shuichi:  (Tenko’s death caught us all off guard… Everyone is panicking. I have to keep it together. I have to work harder. Because I’m… a detective.)

Gah, look at Shuichi putting pressure on himself. It really would help him a little if Kaito could still be here for this.

Gonta:  “Himiko! Hey, Himiko! Be strong, Himiko!”

Tsumugi:  “Gonta… If you shake Himiko that much, she’s going to break!”

Gonta:  “But she not talking! It’s like Himiko not even here!”

Aww, Gonta, not quite understanding that this can be some people’s way of responding to trauma and getting a bit too overzealous in trying to help. This is also a nice early instance of Gonta wanting to help Himiko, which he does a bit more of at the end of this chapter and in chapter 4.

Kiyo:  “But why did the seance fail? We performed all of the steps flawlessly…!”

I don’t know, maybe because the medium died in the middle of it, you absolute moron. Even if he believes in the seance, I don’t know how he can possibly think that wouldn’t be a sensible reason for it to fail. There cannot be recorded instances of people performing this seance in which the medium died during it and yet it still worked.

Kiyo:  “Oh! If we perform The Caged Child again and summon Tenko’s spirit this time—”

Is he fucking serious. Is he actually trying to get them to do the seance again in one of the two remaining booby-trapped rooms and kill a third fucking person oh my god what a creep.

Kiyo:  “Why, I’ve even had spirits enter my bo—”

Maki:  “Shut up. I don’t want to hear about your stupid delusions.”

Shuichi:  (Maki really doesn’t beat around the bush. It’s kind of refreshing, actually.)

Maki: still 1000% Done With Everybody’s Bullshit, now including Kiyo’s. It really is refreshing to have her around to do this.

Maki:  “With a wound this deep, the victim is too shocked to do anything except die.”

This is part of Maki talking about how Tenko’s death wasn’t instant, which is used in the trial to suggest that she could have thrown the sickle under the floor after stabbing herself… but the way Maki phrases this line in particular certainly makes it sound like she wouldn’t have been able to do that even though she was alive for those few moments. That confused me a little when this part came up in the trial.

When you come back up from investigating underneath the floorboards, Kokichi is no longer there. However, nobody draws attention to him having left, and since he was off in one corner anyway and you don’t have any reason to talk to everybody again before leaving the room, this fact is very easy to miss.

Shuichi:  (When I came to the hallway… a scene more surprising than I could ever imagine unfolded.)

Because of that, and because of this line that implies we’re about to potentially see yet another body (which indeed we do, except it’s just Kokichi messing with us)… on my first time through, I was terrified that this was going to be Kaito. I had no reason to assume that it could be anyone other than him, since I didn’t notice that Kokichi was also missing. I was expecting it to be Kaito so strongly that my brain was apparently just looking for identifying features of Kaito during the first split second of the cutscene, and I got as far as “it’s a dude with pale clothes and dark hair” and felt a pang of sheer terror before I looked at it more and realised it was actually Kokichi (and then that he wasn’t even dead).

I have to wonder if this is something that was maybe vaguely deliberate on the writers’ part – they could have drawn attention to Kokichi having left the room to put the assumption that it’s going to be him rather than Kaito in your head, but they didn’t. And having you think Kaito is dead only for it to turn out to be Kokichi (and then him turn out to be not even dead this time) could kind of maybe be thought of as foreshadowing for chapter 5? …I’m probably reaching here, I admit.

Maki:  “If you’re going to lose consciousness, do it after you tell us everything.”

Maki gives zero fucks about Kokichi even when he’s injured. Which is perfectly reasonable, since he’s spent this whole chapter giving negative fucks about her and treating her like a monster.

Monokuma:  “Killing game fans! Hold your head high and watch with your own two eyes! Baseball! Soccer! Mobile games! They’re all nothing compared to the killing game!”

My god, it is any wonder Kokichi figured out this thing is being watched. You’re really not being subtle at all, Monokuma.

Kokichi:  “He drew his magic circle the same exact way as in this picture.”

Kokichi’s memory cannot really be this bad, surely? The lines leading to the corners of the rooms that were in the salt circle but aren’t in the book were very obvious and hard to miss. I can understand someone not being able to clearly remember whether it was different or not, but sounding this certain that it was the same when it wasn’t seems off to me. He might well be lying and already suspect Kiyo.

…Or this could just be this chapter’s bad writing, because this thing about the magic circle is probably the dumbest part of the trial and I am planning to rant about that when we get there.

Kiyo:  “It would appear we have all gathered… But it seems there are less and less of us.”

Yes, and whose fucking fault is that this time.

Shuichi:  “Ah, more importantly… are you okay, Kaito?”

Kaito:  “Yeah… I’m feeling better now. But wow, Maki Roll sure does pack a punch.”

Aww, look at Shuichi immediately checking on Kaito’s wellbeing.

I have to doubt how much better Kaito really feels, not only phobia-wise, but also because Maki really did pack enough of a punch that it caused blood to come from his mouth, so that’s definitely a thing that’s becoming more and more relevant now. Kaito is never genuinely fine from this point onwards.

Interestingly, this line here is only the second time we’ve seen Kaito’s big-grin-and-thumbs-up sprite since anyone mentioned resurrection rituals (the first being when he told Shuichi the impossible is possible a little earlier). We know that when Kaito’s problem is his phobia, he doesn’t have the mental strength to be able to smile like that – but in future chapters, when his problem is that he’s dying, he’s still able to grin and insist that he’s Completely Fine in this way. So the fact that he’s able to do this now is a sign that this is probably the point where his physical illness begins to overtake his phobia as the biggest problem on his mind. Even though that scares him in a much more real, rational way than any of the ghost stuff did, at least that’s a kind of fear that he’s actually able to hide from the surface – and he’s even more desperate to hide it.

Keebo:  “You might call it an inner voice… It tells me what to do whenever I’m in trou—”

This is the first time Keebo’s brought this up! It’s actually kind of surprising to me that such an important plot point is only first being mentioned halfway through the story.

Kaito:  “Yeah, the trial this time is gonna be rough. We got caught in Monokuma’s trap.”

Shuichi:  “His trap?”

Kaito:  “He probably made the 4th floor so scary on purpose to prevent me from investigating.”

Maki:  “No, he didn’t.”

This part is absolutely great, because the thing is – he did. (Or rather, the mastermind did, but Kaito’s basically conflating them with Monokuma here.) Obviously Kaito doesn’t really think that’s true and is just saying this to try and save face, but… he’s actually right??? Even though, as I said before, the in-universe writers deliberately preventing Kaito from investigating seems pretty unnecessary and I don’t fully understand why they felt the need to do it, that is exactly what they did.

Tsumugi:  “Yeah… there’s no way.”

Yeah, Tsumugi. There’s no way you did that to Kaito on purpose. Kaito definitely didn’t just accidentally describe your intentions.

And with this, I am 100% convinced that this is definitely what the out-universe writers are trying to imply here. Sure, Kaito would naturally make some kind of excuse to save face about not being able to investigate, but to have it be this specific excuse, and then to have specifically Tsumugi respond to it like this, when nobody else except Shuichi and Maki is paying any attention to Kaito here… This is so clearly deliberate.

Which… I really love? I love that even when you’ve seen the whole story and have learned the answers to all the major mysteries, there’s still subtle details like this – details caused by the writers having a specific thing in mind about the story that they don’t feel the need to ever explicitly tell us, because it never being explicitly told to us doesn’t stop it being true.

Kaito:  “… Shuichi… say something.”

Shuichi:  “Wh-What should I say?”

Unfortunately, Shuichi is not omniscient and cannot possibly figure out with the information he has that Kaito’s excuse is actually the truth. Sorry, Kaito. I’m sure he’d love to know that he genuinely is apparently so awesome that the mastermind felt the need to nerf him.

Kokichi:  “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! I respected Angie and Tenko so much, since the moment we met!”

No, you didn’t. This is just him yet again trying to cover up his basic-human-decency-driven horror at the two deaths by overexaggerating his reaction to pretend that it’s all a lie. He’s done this for every single death so far – the only one until he becomes a murderer himself next chapter that he won’t do this for is Kiyo, because Kiyo is not a decent person and it’s much easier not to be bothered by his death at all in the first place.

Kaito:  “Shut up! Nothing’s gonna be solved by crying about it!”

Oh, Kaito. Even though it’s Kokichi, and Kaito should perfectly well be able to tell that he’s lying (mostly), he’s still trying to help by putting across his usual philosophy on this kind of thing. (…I wonder if he’s doing this because he can sense on some level that Kokichi’s reaction isn’t completely a lie. I wouldn’t put that past Kaito’s intuition.)

Maki:  “Besides… that was a lie, wasn’t it?”

Kokichi:  “Yup! You guys have me figured out already, so there’s no point in keeping up the act.”

Everyone had this “act” of his figured out ages ago, so why did he keep it up even until now? Oh, right, because the person for whom he’s keeping up the real act is himself.

Keebo:  “I can hear an inner voice guiding me when I don’t know what to do. I can’t explain why, but I believe that voice will lead me to hope as long as I listen to it.”

Oh dear. Sounds like Keebo’s programmers conditioned him to automatically associate his inner voice with hope. Of course they did.

Kokichi:  “That inner voice is probably just a radio or something.”

Kokichi is immediately figuring out plot-relevant things yet again. I don’t think he ever mentions Keebo’s inner voice after this point, though… which he really should, because it’s quite relevant to his ideas about this situation and the point of his plan. Maybe his rampant robophobia prevents him from considering it important enough to warrant further thought.

Tsumugi:  “Hmm… So in the end, the culprit really was… N-No, it’s nothing… We can talk about it once the trial starts.”

You were about to say “Rantaro”, weren’t you. Because Kaito’s feeling better now, and we can’t have that, apparently.

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[Next post]

[waraupiero]

Hello, I'm very interested in your view on Uta/Yomo friendship, what do you think about their dynamics? I don't ship them but would be down with it in canon. Their intimacy is palpable in the manga, and it was portrayed in such subtle, quiet ways up to the newest chapter, that last panel honestly made me #shook even tho it was to be expected eventually :/

hey!!

i agree! if you look at how their friendship is largely depicted, it’s fairly lowkey and understated. sometimes it doesn’t seem like they’re all that close. heck, yomo even avoids admitting outright that they’re friends. however, there are little pockets in the story, in which they’re honest with each other, and it seems like their friendship is fairly significant to the both of them, and so i feel like their dynamic is still going to embody the whole ‘can’t live with you, can’t live without you’ philosophy.

i think the easier place to start when discussing their friendship is probably yomo, since he talks more about his relationship with uta than uta does about his with yomo, and is also more straightforward in his motivations. in the infamous drunk!yomo omake of volume 12, yomo waxes poetic about his friendship with uta and itori. he admits that he cares about them and that their support means a lot to him, and that he wants to talk to them more so they can better understand one another.

so, i feel like mutual understanding is something that yomo’s been hoping to get at with uta (and itori), but he doesn’t quite get the chance because 1. so many things are happening, they’re all understandably busy and occupied with other things, and 2. yomo doesn’t feel confident in his ability to communicate with them. i think that definitely factors into his attitude towards uta in the newest chapter. like many other bloggers have said, it’s sort of an inevitable build up of events, given that the three of them have kind of been operating separately since the clowns started taking the offensive, and none of them have (presumably) communicated their aims and ideology. of course he’s not going to understand. he’s going to be going into this fight as the challenger for this reason – he’s the one asking the questions.

certainly, yomo values his friendship with uta; however, i feel like with the events that have unfolded around yomo, he’s extra sensitive to protecting his family first and foremost. for him, the purpose of his life is to protect his remaining family, and the clowns’ plans definitely do not spare touka, ayato, kaneki, and anyone else in goat/anteiku/:re. i feel like yomo’s only turned a more-or-less blind eye to uta and itori’s membership within the clowns because it hasn’t threatened his family until just about now. so, even if he doesn’t necessarily want to fight his friend, i feel like yomo would definitely do it if it meant keeping his family safe.

uta’s relationship with yomo is a little more complex. i think it’s fundamentally rooted in uta’s fear of loneliness, along with boredom. uta has always been in sort of an ‘outsider’ position – he’s either removed from the action, or he’s so powerful that no one else can challenge him (thus making him also alone). he’s constantly trying to balance between the freedom that being at the fringes affords him, and the loneliness that a position too extreme would bring. his friendship with yomo is a rare thing for him – someone who is around as strong as he is, and also someone who is his age whom he could talk to and form connections with.

yomo pretty much becomes uta’s connection to the twentieth ward, which is kind of where most of the action is centered – that’s important to uta’s projected agenda of ‘being involved’. thanks to yomo, uta is able to observe everything from both perspectives; it gives him information and insight that is not available to anyone else in the series, except perhaps itori, who both collects information as an information broker and also visits yomo at anteiku/:re (though not as visibly frequently as uta does. uta does it so frequently that even nico notes it).

though if yomo offers uta both company as a friend and also connections to other ghouls and the flip side of the conflict, why would uta reject that and ally himself fully with the clown cause instead of dancing along the edges? what is in it for him with the clowns?

frankly, i think he does it just because he can.

in his rooftop conversation with donato in tg:re chapter 116, uta confesses that he’s excited by the idea of unpredictability and pushing someone off an edge. although he’s not technically speaking about yomo in this scene, i feel like it could be applied pretty well to yomo’s situation as well. yomo has been one of the most stable/stagnant characters since the beginning of kaneki’s story. he hasn’t been forced to reevaluate himself or reorient his understanding of something like other characters have been. uta would definitely be interested in pushing yomo just to see what’ll happen. he’s aware that he himself might be injured or killed in the process (re- ‘i myself might vanish’), but he’s willing to gamble just to see what happens, and so he plays along with the clowns.

i think his exchange here with donato is significant. uta tries to relate donato to himself, and it’s true that their roles in this upcoming chapter are very similar: both uta and donato are the ‘bad’ guys who are fighting ‘good’ people close to them. the fandom expects donato’s fight with amon to lead to amon coming to terms with being a ghoul and release his suppressed emotions regarding being a ghoul and also donato (i mean, if ishida doesn’t do this, then what is the point of this conflict); uta is similarly prodding yomo, and even if their fight does not change yomo significantly (i think it will; but all things considered yomo has really firmly rooted personal purpose and philosophy, and is less emotionally vulnerable to uta than amon is to donato) it will change their relationship and perhaps be a deciding factor in which way the clowns’ war will lean.

yet despite their similar roles, donato states that he is not quite like uta. i think this implies that uta is more affected by his loneliness than maybe one would expect. i don’t think anything uta has done thus far suggests any particular sentimentality (if anyone has shown sentimentality about this friendship, it’s drunk!yomo), but donato may be picking up more than others would (i’m willing to scrap this up to him being a priest and being able to read people much better than most). uta’s sentimentality regarding his loneliness would definitely impact the upcoming fight, and i’m inclined to think that he won’t want it to end his friendship with yomo.

he already expressed that he did not want yomo to die, because yomo is his friend. even though it would be better for the clowns to just let yomo die, he doesn’t think according to what best benefits the clowns; uta’s always thinking about what’s gonna be best for himself. having yomo dead is definitely something that would be pretty detrimental to him. i think he’s more invested in keeping this friendship alive than yomo is, and he’s definitely not loyal enough to the clowns to execute their agenda over his own wishes.

(well, as far as we know. we don’t know if there’s more in it for uta in the clowns than he’s let on. but i don’t feel like uta’s the type of guy to have a particular political agenda or leaning. he seems to just follow whatever is the most fun for him, and if it doesn’t suit him anymore, he’ll just leave without a thought about what’ll happen after. he’s certainly done that before, leaving his position as the leader of the fourth ward. i can’t even begin to imagine how much trouble that power vacuum must have incurred)

however important yomo may be to uta, uta’s definitely not all that torn up about fighting his friend, though. uta treats all of this like a game, and he’s excited to finally play for once. i feel like he’s definitely been bored in the past few arcs in tg:re – he hasn’t found a worthy opponent in hirako, juuzou, or mutsuki. he kind of just toys with them instead of fighting them. but with yomo, uta has the opportunity to finally go all out, and scratch that decade-old itch of his.

it must be so exciting to fight yomo. yomo is the pebble who disturbs uta’s pond of autocracy in the fourth ward; no one before yomo has been able to match uta. so yomo is special to uta, first of all as the first person who could possibly beat him. now this possibility is made all the better with the experience that the two of them have built up in ten years, and also their closeness with one another would make for a dangerous fight. throughout the years, yomo has gotten the opportunity to study all of uta’s moves, ticks, patterns (if he has any), and resolve/attitude; and uta has a similar advantage over yomo. a rematch of their fight from the fourth ward would be the most entertaining, so yeah he’s on board!

finally, he gets the chance to either push yomo off the edge, or fall from his own perch. either way it may end poorly for him, but he can’t resist the challenge. he’s only been able to resist the challenge with the promise of something better – he would have loved to fight yomo to the death in the fourth ward, but he stops because friendship seemed a far better option for him. but if yomo’s resolved to fight him … he wouldn’t back down from the offer. though, i think uta has a lot more at stake than yomo does, and that’s always sort of been the case with their friendship. uta has a lot more to lose if he loses yomo; yomo has relatively little to lose if he loses uta. so, i don’t think uta will go as far as to kill yomo.

the greatest hardship of their relationship is that uta and yomo’s natures mix together like water and oil. uta’s tendency towards chaos and self-indulgence is definitely at odds with yomo’s preference towards structure and service. but that’s what makes their interactions so interesting – despite the fact that they’re vastly different people, they’re able to find a friend in the other person. despite everything, they help each other out, care about each other, and support each other. differences do not divide people; you may find meaning and significance in the person you least expect to find it in. it’s quite the compelling narrative.

uta and yomo find it difficult to exist around each other without bumping elbows, but at the same time losing the other person would be a significant hit whether they want to admit it or not. although they can’t perhaps understand the feelings, motivations, or logic of the other person, life without them suddenly becomes difficult. ‘i cannot live with you nor without you’; i think that definitely speaks towards uta’s perspective on his relationship with yomo. itori also describes their friendship as ‘undesirable but inseparable’. i couldn’t find a more suitable way to put it. i can’t wait for more development on yomo-uta-itori friendship in the upcoming chapter.

i think this upcoming fight is going to be a way for yomo and uta to at least work towards some kind of understanding. itori may also be involved; or at least i’m hoping that she will (because i love her). although yomo is not great with words, he channels a lot of his emotions and beliefs into his fighting (and communicates that way), as we can see in the two yomo v. arima fights. i’d actually say that the foundation for yomo and uta’s relationship is kind of built upon the ‘conversation’ they’ve been having through their fights in the fourth ward, and this is kind of a continuation of that old, partially resolved (through the power of friendship!) conflict. although i do love the unusual way that uta and yomo’s friendship just works because they’ve looked past their differences and supported each other unconditionally, forcing them to reexamine their differences will definitely be super exciting and i’m looking forward to some new revelations about the fourth ward trio. the return of the old rival dynamic between yomo and uta – with yomo playing the role of a swooping bird of prey and uta a spider ‘defending’ his own space – is definitely something i’ve been not so secretly looking forward to as well.