#this one's not entirely shippy and can be more platonic

[ace-the-fox]

Fave male character: *exists*

Okay but can I make him cry 🤨

Day 3: Music

"Oh, Andrew please! Please, please! I'd love to hear you–"

"No. I'm not doing it."

Frank huffed, a bit like a small child being refused a treat. "But whyyy!" he whined.

Andrew sighed, fingers just gently gliding over the ivory keys of the school music room's piano just in front of him. Careful not to press down on any too heavily. As though that would just cross the threshold that he was desperately trying not to cross right then.

"I just... I haven't played in years," Andrew excused. "It probably won't be very good."

"Still, you played! That's cool!" Frank very quickly brightened up again. "I'd really like to hear it. I promise I won't judge!"

Andrew fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Unbeknownst to the blonde, Frank judging was the least of Andrew's worries. The reason he hadn't played in years was the most of them.

All of a sudden he was six years old again, not fully understanding why his father was scolding him for doing something he loved so much.

Still, Frank's eyes on him had become somewhat endearing. Encouraging. That and he realised it would simply be easiest to accept defeat. "Fine," he sighed, grimacing at what he was about to subject himself to. Not playing the piano had been easier. Not reminding himself of everything he'd had to give up for one milligram of praise had been easier.

He stared at whatever sheet music had been left over from some other kid's lesson. Moonlight Sonata. At least it was something he'd remembered doing himself. He took a deep breath and straightened his back.

Other than a few clumsy parts of losing his footing after so much time, Andrew lost himself in the piece. Remembering how good it felt. What a relief it was from the strict work he faced in his everyday life.

Frank noticed the change himself. The way that Andrew visibly began to relax. Eyes half lidded, dark lashes almost resting on the beds of his cheek bones. The faintest strands of hair that had come loose from their styled position through Andrew's daily duties. The shine in his eyes that Frank had never seen before.

He'd always thought Andrew was pretty, but he always just thought everyone thought Andrew was pretty. But this gave him new kinds of butterflies he wasn't sure he could just pin down to objective attraction, and that gave him very mixed feelings.

It was all over much too soon and much too late for the two of them. Andrew sat there, unsure of what to do with himself now. He wasn't sure if he could just go back to being strict and work-focused again. Well, he knew he could, he'd done it before, but it was as if he'd forgotten how.

"Wow! Now, why'd you give a talent like that up. I'm sure if you got back into it again you could... Oh no! Andrew, uh– Don't cry!"

Andrew, who hadn't realised he was tearing up for whatever goddamned reason (there were probably multiple reasons, actually), immediately flushed and tried to wipe himself dry. "Ah, shit... I mean, my apologies. Don't really know why. It's just... God, this is embarrassing."

But Frank, sweet, everloving Frank, simply shook his head. "Andrew, it's not." He cupped Andrew's cheek with his soft hand – wether it was platonic or romantic didn't matter in that very moment. "Cry if you want, man..."

Andrew, who'd grown up on a healthy diet of crying in locked guest bathrooms that no-one would ever suspect if ever at all, broke instantly. Even then, he thought it stupid. Crying over an instrument he hadn't played in years because some pretty blonde idiot found out he used to play it and wanted a demonstration. But Frank just let him sob into his palm without a word.

That afternoon, Andrew explained how the piano quitting wasn't exactly a conscious choice but rather another form of his father's control over him. And, as much as Andrew protested that it was stupid and didn't matter, Frank got him signed up for aftershool, private music room sessions. At the same time as the new archery club, so Andrew would have a decent excuse to give his father.

Andrew hadn't fully known it at the time, but that was one of the kindest things Frank had ever done for him.

[good-beanswrites]

And a sort of alternate version for the last Fuuta/cry prompt, from a normal au that lives in my brain -- some hurt/comfort with Mappi :')

Mahiru hummed as she stirred. The apartment was filled with the wonderful aroma of her cooking. A door around the corner clicked. Perfect timing, she thought with a smile.

She hadn’t been sure Fuuta would wake up in time for dinner. He’d been out cold ever since she picked him up from his dorm room. Well, he’d probably recount it as kidnapping, since he was in no state to actually agree to come along. But that was the very reason she’d dragged his weak form out of there – no one at the school had noticed that calls stopped going through to him, or that his social media pages all vanished overnight, or that he’d stopped attending classes. When Mahiru finally made her way to his dark, trash-piled room, she discovered him with a 39 degree fever and rambling frantically about death. She needed to take matters into her own hands.

And that’s exactly what she did. Fuuta could hardly keep food down, after his diet of instant meals, energy drinks, and painkillers (if the discarded containers around his room were any clue), so she replaced them with homemade soups and teas. She traded his rumpled bed for her own, which was sweet-scented and well-lit. Mikoto had even helped with a change of pajamas for him. 

Mahiru had taken the liberty of calling Fuuta’s sister to let her know the situation, though it was difficult to find her information without Fuuta’s phone. She couldn’t find it anywhere in his dorm. She’d also given Shidou a call, and he’d stopped by the first day to check in. He said Fuuta should be more coherent by day three, at least.

Mahiru could always count on him for reliable information. Sure enough, soft steps approached from behind. 

“Good to see you, sleepyhead~” She smiled over her shoulder. Though in a better state than when she found him, Fuuta was still a bit of a mess. He looked pale and thin in Mikoto’s clothes, which were already big on him. His eyes were bleary. Strands of bright hair stuck out at all angles. His expression was dull, taking in the cozy apartment. 

“Mahiru made your favorite for dinner! I bet you’re hungry.”

“I… don’t want it… ” His expression was uncharacteristically blank. 

Mahiru giggled; he must be really tired to be denying food. “Oh, of course you do!”

“No, you… you don’t understand…” 

“Come take a seat, it’s ready now.”

He took a step forward. “Mahiru…”

“You should be more careful, Fuuta-kun! Next time you come down with something, you should really let somebody know. It’s a miracle I came and found you in time, hm?”

She spun to set things on the table. The pride in her masterpiece faded away as his expression twisted up. His hands drifted up shakily to his face, and he started to sob. 

“Fuuta-kun!”

Mahiru hurried to him. His knees gave out as she wrapped her arms around him. He leaned down into her, his breath hitching and hiccupping as he tried to tell her something. “You shouldn’t… if you knew what I… I…” 

“Shhh, hey. Shhh...”

After a moment of broken phrases and body-wracking sobs, he regained his balance and pulled away from her. There was a look in his eyes Mahiru had seen in the last few days, when he was trying to talk through his delirium. She’d chalked it up to feverishness, but she now saw that this raw, revolted horror was something real. 

“I fucked up.”

The simple sentence sent him into a fresh wave of panic. He tried to step backwards and hide his face away, but she tugged his sleeve backward. Normally she wouldn’t be able to forcibly move him anywhere, but for the second time, he was too weak to stop her.

“Just breathe,” she said. “You can tell me.”

Mahiru had known Fuuta for long enough to hear the range of his voice – the excited chatter, the snarky muttering, the grating yelling. In all that time, she’d never once heard him sound like this. His words cracked and wobbled. Sometimes it was so hushed that Mahiru had to press her ear closer just to understand.

And by the time he finished, she understood why.

“I didn’t know,” he kept repeating. “I’d never h-have done it if… if…”

“It’s okay,” was all Mahiru could repeat in turn, through her own tears. It wasn’t quite the truth, but it wasn’t a lie, either. It was what Fuuta needed to hear, and that’s all that mattered.

“I just want to take it back… but there’s no way… What am I – what am I supposed to do?” 

“We’ll figure it out, alright? It’ll be okay.” She guided him around. “Let’s get you back to bed, okay? I’ll bring the food in to you.”

He paused. His teary eyes studied her in bewilderment. “W-why?”

“Eh? Well how else are you supposed to eat from there…?”

“No, I mean,” he swallowed hard. “Why would you do that? You… you don’t hate me…?” 

“Oh, Fuuta-kun.”

She wrapped her arms around him again. This time, he willingly returned the gesture. He grabbed onto her for dear life, and Mahiru was suddenly struck with just how much of a miracle it really had been, that she’d found him in the state he was. 

She held him close, one palm spread on his back, the other twisted through his hair. 

“Not at all. Now, let me feed you something, okay?”

“... Okay.”

[griseldabanks]

for the ask game, would you do #23 for link and zelda?

Let Me Count the Ways ask game

Prompt: "I feel like we've met before…."

“You only want to go there because you think she'll be there.”

“I do not!” Link retorted, hanging his helmet on Epona's handlebars while holding his phone to his ear with the other hand. “I'm going to study for midterms, like I said. Not my fault you didn't want to come along.”

“And watch Malon making googly eyes at you the whole time? No thanks.”

Link paused halfway through slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “What? Malon?”

He could practically hear the rolled eyes across the phone line. “Oh brother. She's had her eye on you since orientation!”

“Really? How can you tell?”

“Because I have eyes in my head!”

Suddenly, Link spotted a familiar pink backpack weaving through the tables outside the coffee shop, heading towards the door. “Sorry, Navi, gotta go.”

“Hey! Listen to me—“

He hung up and darted over to the front door, managing to reach it just in time. He grabbed the door and pulled it open.

The girl who'd been reaching for it started at his sudden appearance, then let her extended hand fall back to her side. “Oh...thanks!”

She smiled up at him before stepping inside, and for one glorious moment, their eyes met. Link grinned stupidly, but she'd already passed him.

Heart pounding in his chest, Link followed her into Lon Lon Cafe. He stuffed his hands into the pocket of his green hoodie, trying to act casual as he stepped into line right behind her. He glanced up at the girl behind the cash register, and the pleasant giddiness in his chest deflated somewhat as he remembered what Navi had said. Sure enough, Malon spotted him and immediately shot him a grin, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear. And she kept glancing at him as she listened to the next customer's order.

Link looked back at the girl in front of him instead. Zelda. So was so pretty, her blonde hair pulled back in a half-ponytail, golden earrings dangling from her ears and catching the light.... And there was an elegance to all of her movements, even simply in the way she pulled her wallet out of her purse. Like a princess...if princesses ever graced college-town coffee shops.

Suddenly, she looked over her shoulder and turned to face him. “Hey, do I know you?”

The bottom dropped out of Link's stomach. “What?”

Zelda cocked her head to one side. “I feel like we've met before....”

Link swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “Uh...History 101. Professor Rauru.”

Zelda's face brightened with recognition, and somehow she looked even more beautiful that way. “That's it! So are you ready for—“

“Next!”

With a little start, Zelda quickly turned around and stepped up to the front of the line. While she was ordering her drink, Link couldn't help noticing that Malon wasn't smiling anymore, but answering Zelda tersely and stabbing at the register with more force than necessary.

When it was his turn to order, Link was a little nervous at how Malon would receive him, but to his relief, the second her eyes landed on him, a huge smile lit up her face again. He might have been imagining things, but he thought he detected a hint of sharpness in her gaze that wasn't there normally. “What can I get you?”

Link opened his mouth to reply, but she talked over him.

“Pumpkin spice latte, right? As usual?”

He'd actually been thinking of trying out something different this time, but she was already ringing him up, and he did like anything pumpkin spice-flavored, so he remained silent and just handed over a couple blue rupee notes.

Zelda was still waiting for her drink at the other end of the counter, and Link's heart skipped a beat when she glanced up from her phone as he strode over to her to wait as well. “So, what's your major?” she asked, her blue eyes bright and interested.

“Uh...undeclared, so far,” Link admitted, feeling his cheeks go warm. “I came in with an archery scholarship, but I don't know if that's what I want to go with....”

“Well, that's okay,” Zelda said. “You're a freshman, right? You've got plenty of time to figure it out.”

“Wait, are you not a freshman?”

Zelda giggled. “Oh—no, I'm a sophomore. I just didn't get around to history last year. I wanted to take harp lessons, and my schedule didn't work out.”

“So you're a music major?” Link brightened at that. Maybe he should've signed up for singing lessons or something after all.

“For now,” Zelda said with a thoughtful frown. “I love the harp, but I've been thinking about switching to political science instead. Do some real good in the world, you know?”

The more they talked, the more relaxed Link felt, just like he was talking to Navi or Saria—except that every time their eyes met, he felt a glorious swoop in his stomach. “Maybe your harp can usher in world peace,” he said with a grin.

As Zelda laughed, the barista slid their drinks across the counter towards them. “So do you play any instruments?”

“Oh, just the ocarina—“

They both reached for their drinks at the same time. Both froze, staring at the backs of their hands. Link's left, Zelda's right. Like a strangely geometric birthmark, against their pale skin was the clear outline of a triangle divided into four smaller triangles. On Link's hand, the smaller triangle on the bottom right was filled in; on Zelda's, it was the bottom left.

Link stared at their hands, the marks upon them perfect mirrors of each other. For his whole life, his soul mark had been there, as familiar a sight as the moles and freckles on his arms. He knew it was supposed to be a reflection of his soul, and the legends went that somewhere out there, his soulmate bore the mirror image of it. But who that person was, or if he'd ever meet them...that just wasn't something he bothered thinking about too much.

Just like anyone, there had certainly been times when he'd wondered who his soulmate was. Growing up, he'd compared soul marks with his friends—Saria had been extremely disappointed when she realized that the swirly mark on her shoulder was nothing like his soul mark. In idle moments, he would daydream about whether his soulmate would turn out to be someone he married, like his parents, or a really good friend, or maybe even one of his children someday.

But then life got busy, and there was no time to think about something so frivolous when school and archery club ate up so much of his time. If he ever met his soulmate, he would deal with it then.

Then was now.

Slowly, Link's eyes traveled up Zelda's arm to her eyes, which were open wide with shock. “Does this mean...?”

“You're...m-my....”

“Oh my!” Zelda's face instantly grew as red as a tomato, and she whirled away from him, covering her cheeks with her hands. Link's eyes were glued to the back of her right hand. The soul mark was unmistakable.

Without warning, Zelda began speed-walking back through the cafe, almost knocking into several people on her way out.

“Wait—Zelda!” Link grabbed both of their drinks and rushed after her, finally catching up to her where she had collapsed into a chair at one of the tables under an umbrella out front.

Hesitantly, Link set Zelda's drink down in front of her, then slipped his backpack off his shoulder and sank into the chair across the table. He looked over at her staring fixedly at the cast-iron tabletop as if she could melt it with a glance.

Just to have something to do, Link sipped his pumpkin spice latte, but it scalded his tongue, so he set it aside.

She was so pretty, even with the blush extending all the way down her neck. Actually, the blush made her look even prettier, the pink tinge of her skin setting off the pink shirt she wore.

She's my soulmate, he thought numbly. All I wanted was to talk to her, maybe ask her out eventually...and she's my soulmate. The most important person in my life.

“Um...sorry,” Zelda said with a shaky laugh, looking up at last and tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear. “I didn't mean to run out, I just...that took me completely by surprise!”

“Yeah, uh...m-me too.”

They both realized at the same time that they were staring at each other's hands, and broke into nervous laughter.

“So, we're...soulmates.” Zelda let out a long breath. “No, saying it out loud didn't help. It still doesn't sound real.”

A sudden thought occurred to Link that made his heart sink. “Hey, um...just because of this,” he pointed at the back of his hand, “that doesn't mean we have to...I mean, it's just a legend. You don't have to feel, like, obligated to...to hang out with me or....”

To his relief, she smiled sweetly at him. “You're right. But...I'd still like to get to know you. If...you don't mind.”

“No, of course!” Link said, a little too quickly and too loudly. He cleared his throat, his cheeks burning again. “Can I buy you coffee or something sometime? I-I mean, I know we already got coffee, but....” Crap, he was making such a fool of himself....

But Zelda just giggled, hiding her smile behind the hand that bore the mirror image of his soul mark. “Yes, you can take me on a date sometime. But, um...what's your name, anyway?”

“Oh!” They'd been talking all this time, and he still hadn't introduced himself. “It's Link. Nice to meet you.”

Zelda cocked her head to one side. “Link...strange...it feels somehow familiar....”

Link realized he'd felt the same way, the first time he'd learned Zelda's name. He'd passed it off as merely thinking it was a pretty name, but...maybe it was a sign that their souls were bonded to each other.

Either way, as they sat at the coffee shop and continued to get to know each other, everything felt right with the world in a way it never had before.

[it-happened-one-fic]

Ink and Magic - The Rose-Red Tyrant

Author Notes: So this is a sort of halfway non canon compliant what if with the overblots and their aftermath. I've been considering, for quite some time now, why the Prefect (reader) gets to see what amounts to the overblot victims memories and hear what seems to be their thoughts regarding said memories. So I guess you could say this is a kind of headcanon for what happens in those moments. This isn't exactly romantic. in fact, I would say it counts as more platonic, but it certainly can be taken as shippy. This will also be a series, though the Diasomnia section won't come out until that entire matter is resolved in game. As per usual, reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!

Spoilers for Book 1: The Rose-Red Tyrant!!

[Heartslabyul: You're Here!] [Savanaclaw] [Octavinelle] [Scarabia] [Pomefiore] [Ignihyde] [Diasomnia: To be released]

Type: Gender-neutral reader/ fic series/ Can be platonic or romantic/ fluff/ angst/ comfort/ Spoilers for Heartslabul overblot.

Word Count: 2311

The ground was a brutal red. Covered in crushed and bruised rose petals that mixed with dark ink and made everything slippery. 

All I could hear were the screams and shouts from those nearby, but rather than fleeing or continuing to shout directions and warnings until my voice was hoarse, I stood silently. Watching in quiet horror as Riddle stumbled, reeling from the magical attacks he’d just received from his fellow dorm-mates. 

His once soft gray eyes were a violent red and wide open as he stared at me with an expression that spoke of shock. Like his entire world had just come crashing down like a house of cards around him.

He was no longer a form of horror, as the monstrosity behind him collapsed in a flood of ink that spread across the already-soaked ground. 

Instead, Riddle now looked pitiful. Like a lost child. He was trembling all over, but he’d at long last stopped attacking, and I honestly wondered if he’d simply run out of steam.

But as I looked at him, an unexpected sorrow swelled within my heart and caught me off-guard as the young man looked down at his hands, still blackened with ink stains.

Bitter tears began to fill his red eyes, and his previously loud voice wavered as he began to speak, “I…. I was wrong?! But that’s…. Impossible…..” 

His hands came up to cover his eyes and hide the tears that now threatened to roll down his too-pale face.

 He was no longer a creature perfectly fit for nightmares, and my heart seized painfully at his next words. So soft and broken that they were barely audible, “Isn’t it…Mother?”

 With those words, he gave a shudder and stumbled forward, his hands limply falling away from his face, which was now streaked with ink from his stained hands.

This was a Riddle I’d never seen before. One that was completely different from the mature but tyrannical young man I’d met.

 This was a young boy who was lost, broken, and one that I simply couldn’t abandon in this moment.

I didn’t know if it was instinct or something else, but something drove me forwards. Spurring me into running towards the young man, who had begun to collapse forward. 

My feet slid against the inky but tattered rose petals that littered the ground. Evidence of the horror we’d all just witnessed. The other students' voices followed me as they let out alarmed cries. Ace’s voice was perhaps the most prominent as he shouted my name. 

The panic in his voice almost made me want to stop even as my tired legs continued to carry me forward.

In truth, I had only one thought in my mind: that the young man in front of me, Riddle, didn’t need to be alone. 

It was a truth that was whispered to me from within my own mind. Something I knew as a solid fact even though I had no proof.

I barely even knew Riddle. All I knew of him was tyranny.

But I held out my arms, catching the small young man that I now realized was quite frail despite the immense magical power he possessed.

 He clung desperately to my shirt with trembling hands, and a sob tore its way out of him. I could practically feel the cold ink staining my shirt as it seeped through the thin fabric, and we both sank to the ground. 

He was exhausted, with his head drooping towards me like he could no longer stay awake. And as my knees hit the soggy ground, a wave of fatigue washed over me that promised me peace if I would just let it carry me away. 

I faintly heard my name get called yet again, but it sounded far enough away to be in an entirely other world.

Perhaps it was a voice from my world, trying to call me back home.

But even with that thought in mind, I didn’t respond. Instead, I fell into a darkness that consumed me, and I slumped forward. Still holding the small, broken boy close to me. As if that could bring him the peace he seemed to so desperately need.

But I wasn’t meant to slumber peacefully here, and though the deep darkness of what I thought was deep sleep surrounded me, I was not truly resting.

I looked around in confusion, looking for someone else in this deep darkness. After all, it didn’t feel like I was alone. It felt like I was surrounded in a space that was filled with only myself and one other person.

 It was a strange sensation, one that left me feeling out of my depth as I glanced around in confusion. Finding that here, I was no longer exhausted or sore from the events that had just unfolded in Heartslabyul. 

Like a glitch on a television screen, the blackness flickered, and a hazy scene appeared. That reminded me of an old black-and-white movie recording. 

Even the voices were crackly.

“Happy 8th Birthday Riddle….” I frowned slightly and shook my head, wondering what I was seeing. 

I had to be dreaming, but…. Something about this didn’t feel like a dream. It felt more like I was trying to sift through my memories and was instead being faced with wholly unfamiliar images. 

A large woman stood, smiling down at an adorable red-haired boy whose face I immediately recognized with an alarmed jolt. 

Riddle. Without a doubt, that was the very same young man who’d just attacked me, my friends, and the other members of the Heartslabyul dorm in the midst of what I could only describe as a psychotic break.

I stared in a strange mixture of fascination and confusion at the scene before me as a voice that, unlike the others, was perfectly clear began to narrate the scene that lay before me. Riddle’s voice.

It sounded like he was right next to me, but when I turned, he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I appeared to be alone. 

Alone, but I was wholly surrounded by the scene of what seemed to be his, Riddle’s, childhood.

 “I’d always wanted to try one of those tarts with the bright red strawberries….”

His voice was as solemn as ever as it calmly explained the thoughts and feelings of the child Riddle, who seemed to star in all of these scenes. But the image before me did not stay peaceful, and I soon came to realize a darker truth about what was unfolding in front of me.

I listened and watched with mounting horror as memories from Riddle’s childhood, barren of playing and fun, played in front of me like a film. Every bit of it was narrated by a numb-sounding Riddle himself.

My eyes went wide as a young, brightly smiling Trey flashed in front of me. He was accompanied by another boy, whom I soon realized was that cat-like fellow I’d met in the Heartslabyul maze. Chenya, I believed his name was.

It was then, right after their appearance, that everything truly began to snowball out of control. 

Tiny Riddle finally got to experience the joys of childhood, only to be caught by his mother, who enforced even more rigorous rules on him. And it was painful to see the small child, who would someday become the young man I’d met not too long ago, weep as he was denied some of the most basic aspects of childhood.

I was beyond enraged on behalf of the small child in front of me. But what made it worse was Riddle’s voice, which was still narrating each scene even though tears were slowly beginning to choke off his voice, “But Mom… Why? Why does my heart hurt so much?”

I covered my mouth, as if that could somehow help me cope, as I listened to the young man whom I could hear crying, but I couldn’t see nor comfort.

The scene in front of me slowly faded to black, leaving me only with Riddle’s voice, begging for an explanation as I turned, searching for him in vain. But he was invisible, in this darkness, as he pleaded for an answer to his questions, “Tell me, Mom, please….. What rule do I need to follow to make this pain go away?”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head as if that could somehow help me figure out what to do, and then, like flipping a switch, it all stopped.

I opened my eyes wearily, only to find I’d been crying silently as I‘d held Riddle close to my chest. My cheeks were even still wet, judging from how cold the breeze was on my face.

Riddle himself was still asleep. His expression slowly relaxed from an upset that matched his tear-choked voice, which I’d just been listening to, to a more peaceful one that suited him far better. 

And it was a relief to see him relax after having seen what I’d just witnessed in whatever that dream was.

 One of his hands was still fisted in my shirt as he clung to me like a small child, causing me to smile slightly even as I shifted to better examine him. I froze mid-motion as I heard a sharp inhale from just next to me. It was then that I realized that both me and Riddle were not, in fact, being supported by one another.

Instead, it was the young man who knelt next to us who held us upright with his arms wrapped securely around the two of us in a sort of embrace.

I looked over and made eye contact with warm, honey-colored eyes that stared at me, relief sweeping through them as I managed to croak out the man’s name, “Trey.”

He let out an exhale, a relieved smile appearing on his face as his grip on my arm tightened ever so slightly, almost like he was trying to reassure himself that I really was present and that all was well.

“Thank goodness. You’re back,” His voice was soft, more of a breath than anything, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant by ‘back’. 

But I didn’t get to ask, and he didn’t get to continue since I heard three familiar voices both yell the same name at the same time.

“Y/N!” 

I half turned, finding I was still exhausted and slumping against Trey a bit more as I spotted Ace and Deuce both staring at me in wide-eyed relief before they both took off as Cater, who was right behind them, was still turning to look at me. 

The two boys' feet dug into the still-inky ground as they darted towards where I knelt with Trey and Riddle. 

Deuce reached us first, hitting his knees and grasping my arms as he scanned me for injury, “Are you alright?”

His voice was trembling as he questioned me, looking up at me with wide, panicked eyes. His expression was mirrored by Ace, who was desperately asking me what had happened while Cater appeared behind them. Carefully scanning both me and Riddle.

“Hey, hey. You’re crowding them. They only just came too,” Trey’s grip on me shifted in an almost protective fashion as he spoke, and I realized I was still relying heavily on him for support.

Crowley walked up far more slowly than the others, his eyes on me and a frown on his face as he began to open his mouth to say something. 

But before he could speak, one of Riddle’s hands, which had been gripping my arm this entire time, tightened slightly, and he made a mumbling sound.

All eyes darted to the young man, who slowly opened his eyes, once more a soft grey not unlike that of a dove’s feathers, with a groan. 

He looked up, making eye contact with me before looking at Trey and then back at me. 

Cater was saying something to both of us, but I'd tuned it out almost completely as I scanned the boy for any injuries. 

Riddle continued to look up at me with hazy eyes as I carefully scanned his small form, frowning as I noted exactly how exhausted he still looked. 

After a brief moment, though, he pulled away from both me and Trey. Distancing himself as his eyes slowly cleared and the gravity of the entire situation sank in.

From there, the situation devolved fairly quickly, with numerous questions being asked and reconciliations being made. Trey swept in towards the end of things, with Cater by his side like two concerned parents. Demanding that me and Riddle both go to the infirmary for a checkup.

It wasn’t until we were alone in that cold room filled with cots that Riddle made eye contact with me once more, “My… memories. You saw them, didn’t you?”

I was silent for a moment as I recalled those strange scenes in flickering black-and-white before I at last nodded, “Yes, I don’t know what caused it but…. Yes, I believe I did…. I heard you too.”

He nodded, falling silent as we waited for the nurse to enter and give us a clean bill of health. After a few moments, he met my gaze again, “I think we…. Connected for a moment there. I don’t know how, but you saw my memories and heard my thoughts. And I… I felt you there.”

I watched him quietly, not sure of what to say as he fell silent. But I couldn’t blame him. I too wouldn’t know what to say or think if some had seen my memories.

After a moment, though, he looked over at me with a troubled expression before he spoke  quietly, “If I were you, I would tell the Headmaster about this.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say since something told me neither of us knew what this meant for me or him.

[jimpagne]

Do you have a favorite photo of Jikook? Or video/moment/etc. Also I know in your bio you have “diet delulu” but what made you go from nothing to “maybe there is something here” ??

Hello anon!

Well, hm... do I have a favorite photo of Jikook? Not in particular. I think any photo that I can get of them together is a blessing, however I really do love the Jeju-do set I have of them outside in their swimsuits. Something about it is just so... warm.

Also... thighs. I am a human, after all.

Some other fun little ones I really enjoy!!

When it comes to videos, I know a lot of people will go for the more "shippy" ones, like Black Swan, Rose Bowl, maybe their more intimate moments on 이게 맞아?! ... but truth be told, some of my favorite clips of Jikook are when they're more nonchalant, or more in their passive element. It's when they're doing acts of service or being domestic in ways that don't immediately catch the eye of regular viewer.

For example, take this one from IN THE SOOP:

[But Jungkook doesn't care.]

What a subtitle.

The gentle wrapping of Jimin's hand (Jungkook's affection seems to manifest itself best through acts of service!), the funny banter, Jungkook just sitting to the side in silence while he smiles gently at the story being told. Things like this really make appreciate the more gentle sides of their relationship, whether they be romantic or platonic. To have someone who softens in your presence even when you scream at the top of your lungs about their snoring is truly a blessing.

As for my feelings regarding Jikook... Hm, where to begin. I mean, I entered this fandom in 2015 and immediately engaged with the creative space of it, mostly with fanfiction. However, when I wrote fanfiction, I didn't really ship any of the members that I was writing about, I was more or less going off their dynamics. It wasn't until 2021 that I began to delve a little deeper into the Could This Possibly Be a Thing™ zone.

I'm not really sure what moment/thing did it for me, but again I really enjoy Jimin and Jungkook's dynamic, and I think how they treat one another and how they work together really just made me think that they could be something else. Something more.

But, I am not without my doubts. Hence the "diet" part.

I think it's healthy to have doubts when you've been presented something with no true/confirmed conclusion, otherwise you could risk turning into a rabid dog chasing its own tail, making up lies to satisfy a narrative that you've entirely made up yourself. Sound familiar to anyone?

Hurt dogs bark. They bark reaaaaallll fucking loud.

Personally, I don't necessarily entirely agree with blatantly announcing that "They're Real!!" because I myself cannot really confirm that. I'm autistic, so sometimes when I see posts of people stating that someone is feeling a certain way just because of a "look in the eye" or a "facial expression", I start to get a bit upset, because we don't really know what they're thinking at the end of the day. I've had many moments where neurotypical people have accused me of something based on my face, and it kind of just ... drives me nuts.

Of course, my grievances stem from more abstract presentations of human emotions, whereas actions/words can be a little more clear. Decipherable to a considerable degree... if you know what I mean.

I wouldn't be devastated if things turned out to be different; I'm not rooting for Jimin and Jungkook because I enjoy entertaining myself with the possibility of their relationship being true. I have loved BTS for nearly TEN years now, and their music, their message, and their close bond as a team has drawn me to them in a way where sometimes my only reason for getting out of bed in the morning is to check if they've posted.

It's the little things that really matter for me.

Thank you for your ask, anon <3

[miya-twins]

miyacest !! (idr if u talk abt them on this blog so if u don't feel free to ignore)

oh dw idc. this is my blog and I'll talk about whatever I want <3

Send me a ship, and I will tell you:

1. My take on their canon relationship: they're each other's most important person. full stop. that's what canon says. if you disagree you're wrong. obv canon doesn't mean it in a shippy way, I get it, but that doesn't matter. sometimes the most important relationships are entirely platonic. the point is, they've spent their entire lives together, and even when they grew up and their paths diverged and they fought about all this change, it didn't tear them apart, if anything, it only brought them closer together. idk how anyone can read hq post-ts and not get insanely emotional about them. look at atsumu wearing osamu's old number to the olympics, and osamu being all proud, wearing the same jersey at home. look at how happy osamu gets from seeing atsumu eating his onigiri and taking strength and ecouragement from it to perfect his serves and get even better. look at their stupid ass bet to each be the happier one because they can't be fucking normal and say "I support you and want you to live the happiest life you can". literally I can't shut up about them.

2. Do I ship them: obviously.

3. Reasons why I do/don’t ship them: canon gave us such a juicy, complex relationship, how could I not ship? nobody gets them like they get each other. osamu literally was created so atsumu wouldn't be lonely. what else do you want me to say??? idc about anyone's supposed 'moral concerns' like damn, it's a story, them being related just gives an extra layer of drama if I want one. I'm not passing up one of, if not the best relationship in the series for a stupid reason like that.

4. Headcanon, if any: when things get tough, they make another stupid bet on who's gonna be the first to give up on their relationship due to outside pressure, and they both know it's 100 times more meaningful than any promise to stay together forever, because they're both committed enough to never give up on what they have, or else they wouldn't have agreed to the bet.

5. How much do I ship (%): not measurable in numbers they make me insane

[picnokinesis]

OC Ship Song Tag

Tagged by @gabeorelse - ahh thank you!! Okay this will be fun because I don't tend to talk about my ocs much here

Rules: list the ships of your wip (canon or otherwise!) and the song that "describes" your ship, or that would be used for a fan edit of the ship.

This is a bit complicated because actually a lot of my wip projects aren't exactly shippy, especially since I am trying to write predominantly aromantic stories - but Gabe said I could do platonic or single characters if I wanted to 😌 I think what I'm actually gonna do is songs for the characters who , if I had a fandom, people would end up shipping lol. I'm gonna do these for Onkalo because I think that's got the most to going on (and also the longest playlist haha) and actually I think it'll be funny to do this by how common or rare I think the pairing would be hahah

For those who don't know: Onkalo is my original tv series concept set in several hundred years after the collapse of our civilisation. It follows Peregrine, a grief-stricken father who dedicates himself to finding Onkalo, a mythological structure buried under the ground that is said to contain an item of great power. He believes that he can use whatever is inside to protect his son, Ash. On the flip side, Ash, who believes he has been abandoned by his dad, sets off to find him after a disaster destroys their community.

Harper/Reo or Harper & Reo - these two are basically my og spydoc - childhood friends who bonded in adverse circumstances, but then Harper manages to escape the Bad Situation, and Reo is left to suffer the consequences. Reo ends up becoming something of an antagonist, bitter and set on making Harper pay, whilst Harper becomes a semi-parental figure to Ash as he looks for his dad (she is absolutely terrible at it). But, eventually, Reo choses to help Harper, Ash and Connie escape, and sticks with them. It's not completely smooth going, but fundamentally they missed Harper and their friendship too much. If any ship is canon in this show, it's these two.

Songs: Go Down Together by Foxing or La Lune by Madeon for more shippy fandomy stuff, but Sink by Brand New is my song for them, and it's a lot angrier. However, in the show, I'm 100% intending to have the very intense sequence of Reo and the others escaping be set to The Bike Song by Mark Ronson and The Business Intl, because bikes are involved and I'm hilarious - so if anyone set a video to that song, they would absolutely correct.

Peregrine/Caleb or Peregrine & Caleb - the canonical-ness of this one is very muddy, because I'm fighting with my fascination over their dynamic and how they do or don't feel about each other, and my overwhelming desire for this show to be as aromantic as possible. As it stands, Peregrine is entirely driven by his grief and guilt surrounding the death of his wife, Heather, but if he wasn't, then he'd be open to it. I reckon Caleb has a hell of a crush but will take it to his grave. As it happens, they're super doomed by the narrative and almost certainly not going to survive anyhow. However, I reckon if there was a fandom, this would be one of the Big Ships because I know what fandom is like.

Song: Wild Country by Wake Owl

Peregrine & Ash - the relationship between these two is so mired with desperate, familial love and aching anger. Ash wants to hate his dad, but fundamentally he still travels across the country to find him. Peregrine is so driven by the need to protect his son like he couldn't protect his wife that he completely abandons his son to hunt down a folktale that ends up killing him.

Songs: Above the Clouds of Pompeii by Bear's Den, and Welly Boots by The Amazing Devil

Harper & Connie or Harper/Connie- I think anyone who ships this would be so galaxy brained, tbh, but Harper and Connie both travel with Ash and lowkey become his stand-in parental figures, but not in any standard sort of way. Harper is like, reluctant dad figure, and Connie is the only person with the braincell. I reckon the appeal of this one is that this is that they're both people who have been defined by their own communities and families, but in very different ways. I think Harper would learn a lot about what family can be from Connie, and Connie would learn to blame herself less from Harper. People who ship Harper/Connie/Reo would be even MORE galaxy-brained, but adding Reo into the mix would make the whole thing a bit more rancid, bless. I think Connie and Reo would actually be super interesting.

Songs: if it's just Harper/Connie, it's Hello My Old Heart by The Oh Hellos (this one also works really well for Peregrine and Caleb too). If it's Harper/Connie/Reo....ooh, it would probably be Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos, with Reo being the soldier, Harper being the poet and Connie being the king. Okay damn I lowkey love how that works, like non-romantically.

Connie & Peregrine or Connie/Peregrine- Peregrine actually meets both Harper and Connie on separate occasions earlier in the plot. The dynamic between Harper and Peregrine is lowkey hilarious to me, because I'm pretty sure they look at each other and go 'oh, yikes' and leave it at that. Connie and Peregrine actually get on really well, though, and hang out together for a long while. Peregrine is allergic to nice things though, and actively avoids making new emotional ties. With Caleb, he fails drastically - but he also fails regarding Connie too. Con actually wanted him to stick around, but he tricks her into getting left behind (because he's an ASS, but actually it's mainly because he didn't want her to die/get hurt. And it's a good thing tbh because by the next episode he's captured by an amnesia cult who try to lobotomise him, so....). Anyway, I think both Caleb and Connie are people that Peregrine could have learnt to overcome his grief with, in a different world. I think Connie and Peregrine in particular find common ground in how much their communities mean to them. They are both driven on journeys, spurned by grief and guilt - but for Connie, she still remains in orbit of her family, whereas Peregrine has isolated himself entirely. I feel like not so many people would ship this, but I'm soft about it

Ship Song: I Will Remain by Matthew and the Atlas

Peregrine/Heather - the only CANON ROMANCE, but I killed it lol because Heather is dead from the start. She haunts this entire series, but her relationship with Peregrine is SO IMPORTANT because it drives the entire plot. I love them both a lot augh

Ship song: You Are a Memory by Message to Bears

That ended up SUPER LONG and also won't make sense to anyone probably rip, but!! Here it is!

Tagging - this is obviously optional, and feel free to make this about fandom characters instead if you like! But! @taardisblue, @novantinuum, @chaoticacecryptid, @subducting, @agendergorgon (I think you have ocs? For worm?)

THANKS GABE!

[sauron-kraut]

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

Hey dear anon, thank you for the ask! 🖤

All my ships except Angbang and Silvergifting might be unpopular ships by definition (engagement with art, fanfic and general posts in the fandom), meaning rarepairs.

I will take this opportunity to talk about one of my most unpopular ships, which is Mairon x Thuringwethil. I am not entirely sure why exactly this ship is or seems to be this unpopular. I can think of a few reasons though: People seem to prefer the interpretation of their relationship as exclusively platonic (absolutely fair, Mairon deserves a bestie and she does as well) or might feel that shipping them (or f/m for Mairon in general, which I think can work occasionally if done well / in ways that appeal to me) would take away from Mairon's queerness (or hers/both; depending on specific HC ofc). Personally, I don't feel this way at all. On the contrary; when I write for them for example, the ship feels very, very queer to me. I don't interpret them as being romantically involved (that place is reserved for Angbang) but more as queer friends who sometimes cross a blurry line and venture into more sexual/shippy territories, be it for mundane reasons like opportunity, for comfort or out of boredom, while I still believe it's important not to completely disregard their lord/herald dynamic.

Another reason why many people might not be too fond of the ship is that they ship Angbang and don't like background / simultaneous shipping of Mairon with that (which it has to be when we adhere to the canon timeline).

I just think some femme dark lord x feral vampire action is hot ok.

[kitkatt0430]

Iris West-Allen for the character ask game 👀

How I feel about this character

I think she's awesome. We really get to watch her grow over the course of the series and watching her truly discover herself as a leader and hero in her own right is really wonderful to see. While she occasionally has powers here and there, she's a great example of a badass normal and proves that a powered character (Barry) doesn't need a powered love interest in order to be in love with someone who is every bit their equal. Iris is no damsel in distress; she's going to try to find a way to save herself every time.

That said, I wish her agency was more consistently her own. Her plots often get co-opted to serve other character's plots (most often Barry, but it's also been done for Allegra which was just weird...) which puts a lot of her achievements in the background or sub-plot area instead of centering them the way she deserves.

(The fact that she goes from student to journalist with no graduation in between is really frustrating. She's Barry's best friend and yet he's never shown as being super excited to attend her graduation and celebrate her achievement of a Masters degree??? S1, asleep at the wheel right there...)

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Barry, Eddie, Cisco, Caitlin, Lisa, Leonard (more for ColdWestAllen than for ColdWest on it's own though), Ralph (but again more for ElongatedWestAllen than DibnyWest itself), Linda, Laurel, Sara...

Probably more tbh, she's very shippable

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Barry again, I kind of prefer the platonic ship for them because of how their dynamic in S1/S2 is (though obviously the romantic ship grew on me...)

Cisco, Caitlin, Frost, Allegra, Kamilla, Linda, Ralph...

Everyone wants to be besties with her, okay? :D

My unpopular opinion about this character

The show does a terrible job of establishing Iris' feelings for Barry as romantic in the first several seasons.

In season one especially there is so much of other characters telling her how they think she feels, but every time she establishes what her feelings are for him are... those feelings are platonic. Aside from the cheating kiss that was the worst decision ever made by the show runners (and made kinda creepy given how it's been romanticized by later seasons) and was a heat of the moment thing that happened after yet another character (Linda) was telling Iris 'I think you're in love with him based on your stated as platonic, sibling-like behavior with him'.

Basically every 'shippy' moment I've seen pointed out for the first two seasons fits entirely with Iris' stated platonic feelings and can really only be interpreted as romantic interest if her stated feelings are ignored. (Especially Joe trying to get Iris to say she wouldn't have dated Eddie if she knew Barry liked her; way to take what she was just saying out of context despite the context having literally just been established. >_<) Iris is the one living in her own head, I wish other characters would respect that she knows what her emotions are better than they do.

This essentially leads to the problem where when Iris and Barry get together it feels less like it's happening because Iris is in love with Barry and more because everyone and their time-line reading AI has told her she marries Barry. And since trying to deviate from that got Eddie killed, what choice does she really have? She loves Barry, but is she in love with him? It's painfully unclear for quite some time and the show itself doesn't even acknowledge this problem until (briefly) in S9.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish she'd been looped in on Barry being the Flash from the start. Locking her out of the loop 'for her protection' only ever put her in more danger than she'd have been in if she'd been kept aware of what was actually going on.

[ari-the-arotistic]

hey! I'm your ML Secret Santa, and I've made (possibly) a GOOF, but one I can fix! The entire time my brain had a 'Chloe and Marinette' fic as your criteria, not thinking ChloexMarinette, because I'm an idiot. The fic I prepared is a lot more about going from canon situation to friendship bonding.

If this isn't to your liking, I can write you a Christmasy shippy one shot as well, as a sort of stocking stuffer to go along with it :)

Please let me know your preference.

Hello! Thank you for reaching out! But please, don't worry! A more platonic premise is totally fine! I mostly did just want something positive with Marinette and Chloe, it didn't really matter if it was shippy or not, so your perfectly fine! I'll go check out what you've made right now ^^

[myfaveisfuckable]

Tuvok:

Ok, first off: real world standards, he's not normal passing. Apart from the ears, he's just too autistic (sorry, "Vulcan" 🙄) to be considered "normal looking". He went to 1990s earth once and Did Not Pass as normal. But in universe, he would on the surface seem like a model Vulcan. And he is, kinda. But he's also so gd weird. (/aff)

Not even gonna get into how badly he wants to be Will Graham because obviously that's there too but we don't have all day. Anyway.

Obvs the emotions struggle is real as it is for any Vulcan worth paying attention to, if only because they were all only ever written by humans.

But also, tangential to him being Will Graham coded (but still separate enough) he is a total mind slut. You know how some characters will go "when I have a problem, I set it on fire" or shit like that? When Tuvok has a problem, he mind melds with it. Homoerotically if it's an option. Dude even got a mind std one time, despite the fact that's not even a thing.

And then whatever the fuck kinda thing he has going on with Janeway. Not even necessarily in a shippy way ("not romantic, not platonic, so devoted the lines blur") but like... not only is he unreasonably loyal to her but he does shit like not only letting her touch him whenever she wants but *deliberately offering her HIS HAND to hold* to comfort her when she needs it (reminder that hand touching is very intimate to Vulcans and can be likened to human kissing) and again, they're never even stated as romantic or anything, they're just friends and yet he is more loyal to her than he is to his own code of ethics.

Obviously part of all of it could be because Janeway (or possibly Kate Mulgrew) is simply Like That, she does do shit like tell her platonic subordinate "then be a good rat and find us the cheese" in a tone that makes me lose it, but it's not all her, Tuvok is also extremely not normal about it. I should submit Janeway too actually, I'll do her next.

Also, afaik Tuvok is the only crew member of Voyager (who makes it back) who had a romantic partner before the ship got lost in the Delta quadrant and remained loyal the entire seven years they were lost. I *think* Samantha Wildman also did but she's a minor character (so she could've been getting it off screen) and she started out pregnant so once born Naomi both kept her busy and was a living reminder of her husband's love. So in that regard, Tuvok is very much not normal but like in the most positive way. He literally didn't cheat on his wife even when his life was in danger (they *were* out there for seven years so of course he hit pon farr eventually) and I think that's really cool of him. But also very not normal.

I'm very tired rn but once the polls come out, simply check out the blog of Bea @bumblingbabooshka (wanna clarify, I'm not him but he is THE Tuvok blogger in my opinion) who has written much on this already.

There's also the whole stuff that happened around his monestary era but I'm not even at that part yet but it must've been wild.

Anyway. Vote Tuvok

Janeway:

- will literally martyr herself at the drop of a hat

- will kill you if she thinks it's what she needs to do for her crew

- will not kill you if she thinks you've got residue humanity after decades as a borg drone even though realistically she really should've (tho ofc we're all glad she didn't)

- will violate your personal rights if she thinks you're not "human" enough and also compare you to a replicator (yes I'm still salty about that. wait what was the question? right, i'll get back on track)

- will say absolutely deranged shit like "then be a good rat and find us the cheese" in the a tone that makes me lose my mind and basically give everyone a crush on her (and also mommy issues) if they spend too long in her vicinity, leading to a very loyal crew

- her solution to having a crush on a fictional character was to delete his wife (very relatable but also very not normal)

- she wanted to watch hot Q on Q sex (possibly for scientific reasons) and looked very disappointed when it was severely underwhelming

- WHO brings a bathtub on a spaceship???

- there's more but y'know

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

Sorry if this is more of a redundant question or related to one that you already did, but what is your opinion on people claiming that ships with little evidence or up to interpretation are "canon"?

I believe you mentioned this somewhat with FranFlam, but what about with other ships that you like where this seems to be common with like Metadede? Or is it the case of "it's fine as long as they aren't attacking people who think otherwise"?

under the cut! nah totally valid q anon i love talking about stuff like this:

tbh i think kirby is just a series that should not have romance in it at all. innocent things like ribbon and kirby in 64 is like fine because i personally dont take kid relationships too seriously but like anything else i just dont think its the place for it. for metadede in particular, ofc i love shipping and i like to scream with other shippers and pick out things and see it in a shippy context but i absolutely dont think metadede is canon, will ever be canon, or even particularly Should be canon actually. im just gonna stick to metadede and franflam like your examples for this because you dont really see people trying to claim any particular (fanon) m/f ship as canon in this fandom but hey even tho i think a lot of us can agree nintendo makes some great games, nintendo is also a big soulless corporation that does not care about us. if youre someone desperate to find a cake in the crumbs on the floor in terms of canon main/major character queer rep, anything nintendo is absolutely not the place for that

to answer your question, that sums up how i feel about other people who try to make canon ship claims too. i try to think the best of people because the lines get really blurred when a lot of people just like making jokes about ships being canon vs Actually genuinely thinking that, but for anyone who legitimately does try to push their ship as canon its just kinda like Mmmm. that gets a thumbs down from me... its not like problematic in of itself (unless you try to claim that people who dont like the ship are homophobic by default or something. youre getting thrown in the grain silo and you probably need to go outside) so like technically i guess i dont care, but i sure do think its obnoxious as hell and also absolutely REEKS of "FRIENDS dont DO that!! people who arent dating dont DO that!!!!! so they must be dating!!!!" and then the thing in question is the two characters like holding hands sometimes. of course theres something to be said about Writer intent but cmon this is a series where people kiss each other on the lips platonically all the time i cannot take canon ship claims seriously. why is so much of peoples worth in a ship staked in whether its "canon" anyways? it just comes off as wanting a reason to lord over others why a certain ship is better than everyone elses. unless two characters make out in a cutscene complete with blushing afterwards prefaced by a lot of romantic tension through the entire game previously its not canon. thats my hot take lol. we have a rare series where canon romance isnt in your face and shoved down your throat every moment and yet some bad folks in the fandom will try to do that for you still. unbelievable

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

"About the Blogger" Meme

@ambeauty thanks for tagging me, love 💕

Star Sign(s): All I know is that it's Pisces. What does that mean really? No clue, never checked.

Favorite holidays: Halloween, even though it's not that wildly celebrated where I’m from, barely at all. But I love watching the craze about it online and participate in online celebrations. Other than that, Christmas, because of food and family.

Last meal: one of my favorite traditional Polish dishes - bigos

Current Favorite Musician: Does Rachel Zegler count? Because I am obsessed with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Soundtrack

Last Music Listened To: Marjorie by Taylor Swift and some other Evermore tracks for Evermore’s and Taylor's birthday (Dec 11th and 13th)

Last Movie Watched: in theaters - Renaissance: a film by Beyonce! Blew my mind! And at home it was my beloved Prospect - a watch party + live reaction (screaming about Cee and Ezra) with my friends the Bees on Discord. As Ezra would say, “This is so exciting!”

Last TV Show Watched: I am making my way through a Supernatural rewatch, finished 7x05 last night. I’m excited to finally be on S7 because S7 introduces my favorite female character ever, Charlie Bradbury!

Last Book/Fic Finished: Book - The Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (right before S&B was c*nceled, not fuckin fair), and Fic - “The Stag” by AFireInTheAttic about Katniss and Haymitch going hunting because I am in my Hunger Games Renaissance era and PapaHaymitch feels are roaming free

Last Book/Fic abandoned: I bought the entire The Witcher series just to struggle through the first book 🫣 the story is good but the way it's written, my god. Why do our Polish writers have to make everything so difficult? All the fat jokes and sexist jokes and misogyny, you can tell these books were written by an old grumpy douchebag. As for fics, I had to drop out of some Katniss and Haymitch fics because they had shippy undertones and weren't tagged right (please people tag your fics appropriately when it comes to relationships, I am begging on my knees)

Currently reading: Book - Percy Jackson and The Chalice of The Gods by Rick Riordan, Fic - “After All We've Been Through” by TheFelineQueen96 aka my darling @ellies-little-gun, an incredible Joel and Ellie story

Last Thing Researched for Art/Writing/Hyperfixation: spinal taps and bone marrow biopsy for my Titanstober fic I am flesh, bones... I am skin, soul… I needed to learn about this to figure out the balance between medical accuracy and using these procedures in unethical ways/as forms of torture, as I’ve seen done on some TV shows in the past, like The 100. I even rewatched those scenes for inspiration

Favorite Online Fandom Memory: as my bestie mentioned before me, definitely the day we all lost it over Brenton's birthday post dedicated to Anna. I had my phone in my hand when that notification appeared and I nearly dropped it, that's how bad I was shaking.

Favorite Old Fandom You Wish Would Drag You Back In/Have A Resurgence: probably The Magicians for me. I wasn't active in that fandom, only a little towards the end of the show, but I loved it so much and it has two very strong platonic pairs that I was absolutely obsessed with, Quentin & Julia and Margo & Eliot, and I kind of wish I could write for them. Maybe after a rewatch though 👀

Favorite Thing You Enjoy That Never Had an Active or Big "Fandom" but You Wish It Did: Let me use this part for advertising and say PROSPECT!!! WE ARE SMALL BUT MIGHTY, ALL 5 OF US! Jk there's a bit more of us, but not by much and the movie is incredible. So go watch Prospect everyone!!! Come lose your mind with us over Cee and Ezra!!!

Tempting Project You're Trying to Rein In/Don't Have Time For: My brain is flooded at the moment with Katniss and Haymitch, I already cave in and wrote one fic even though I am officially on a break till January. I want to write more for them and definitely will, but I need to go back to my two ongoing Titans projects. Only my love for writing Titans is currently the size of a dying candle flame and I am trying to stoke that fire up (rereading my own fic to get back to the story) and failing (it's not working, I got nothing)

No pressure tags for the besties @undertheknightwing @legendsofentity @skoulsons @ellies-little-gun @sotvtaughtmehowtofeel @dilf-din

[stifledlaughterao3]

Genuinely Something Else: Comiket & comic-related events reflection

I recently attended Comiket 102 in August 2023, and had tons of thoughts on it. I've been attending comic-related cons for years - indie cons, zinefests, anime cons, you name it. I'm a huge fan of doujinshi, specifically fandom doujinshi (mostly shippy stuff, although I love a good platonic / gen focused doujin!), so my main goals at Comiket were to find those, as well as find small, personal works by amateur creators that were more autobiographical in style. Since I have Japanese language skills, I figured this would not be overly difficult to do.

Because of how much I love these genres of work, I've gone to some big conventions, including the Angoulême International Comics Festival ('Angoulême' for short) and Otakon in DC. 

Comiket was genuinely something else.

What you 'do' at these comic events

At Comiket, which does stand for Comic Market, it is definitely a place where you go to purchase items in a 'market' setting - there isn't any aspect of socializing, and as far as I can tell, if there were events, they were in the minority and mostly seemed to be held in the South Hall where the vendors were. I also feel that you can get a lot more chatty at American cons, but that may be due to the general cultural differences between Japan and America. Even though I was a foreigner, I still didn't observe many people chatting and sticking around a specific booth the way I have observed in other countries. It was also so crowded and busy that if you spent too much time at a booth, it was difficult for the artist to help anyone else out as there was literally not enough room to stand next to you as you browsed to be helped. 

At most American fandom-related cons, the same artists are there throughout the con (2-4 days. usually). At Comiket 102 it was held Saturday and Sunday, and there was a complete overhaul from day 1 to day 2 of who was selling their work. I am used to the purchasing technique where you see something you may want to buy, do a loop of the artist's alley to see if something else grabs your attention/money more, and if you decide to go for that first item, you loop back and purchase it. At Comiket this is ill advised as the conference center is enormous and doing so is exhausting, especially if you were to do this going from the East Hall to the West Hall. If you see something you like, you either purchase it immediately, or assume you will never see it again.

The scale of Comiket was just overwhelming. At Angoulême, held in Angoulême, France, the entire small town is turned into a festival for comics, averaging 200,000 people (pre-COVID). Comiket has ranged in the numbers but it was estimated to have more than this at Comiket 102 (the one I attended). At Angoulême it was far more spread out across four to five venues, so I did not feel the same sense of crowding I felt at Comiket, even though the conference halls were large. I could chat away with vendors at Angoulême easily and didn't feel like I was stopping them from getting sales as there was plenty of room for a chatter and a browser at the table. At Angoulême, the entire town became the festival but you could still slip away for a breather. (I found, much like in the rest of France, I could easily hang out in a semi-abandoned cathedral for a while as I pored over my purchases.) 

(The shops participating in the comics festival in Angoulême, as it took over the whole town (2016))

At the average anime/fandom/gaming cons I go to, which range from 10,000-40,000 attendees, the scale is just significantly smaller than the aforementioned larger events, and the artists (usually) attend both days, meaning you can get to know an artist if you stick around enough and they want to connect and chat. I didn't feel like that was as permissible at Comiket, as you were blocking sales since they were only there for that one day, and had a lot less time to sell their stock. (Not that it stopped some booths from selling out by noon!) 

Day 1 of Comiket 102 I spent most of my time in the 'fandom' areas of the East hall, and noticed that, unlike American and European artist alleys, the Comiket artist tables generally stuck to one fandom, or perhaps 2-3 if they were really out there. In American or European artist alleys, you could see up to a dozen or so different fandoms based on what the artist felt like selling, mixed in with original works. In some cons, such as Otakon in Washington, DC, you are required to have a certain percentage of original works (see the 50/50 rule), which would not fly at Comiket, as fandom ("parody") and original works are on separate days. This rule with Otakon is, to my best guess, due to IP and copyright law fear, where fanart definitely walks a thin line and often just gets away with being sold at these sort of conventions due to the low chance of Nintendo actually suing a con vendor who made $40 off of Zelda themed keychains, although I have heard the horror stories from Western copyright holders such as Disney and Paramount. There are many commentaries on 'parody' works in Japan and how they are tacitly allowed by (most) IP holders, which creates a wholly different creator & IP holder environment.  

The lack of fandom diversity per table at Comiket's 'parody' section is likely due to how the tables are grouped by genre- for example, all of the Genshin Impact tables were in a specific area, all of the Bocchi the Rock tables were together, etc. There were a few outliers here and there in regards to this (erotic doujinshi were sometimes sold with various characters, but even they stuck to the 'genre' where they were at - video game, Vtuber, anime, etc). 

Comiket having the day 2 books that were travelogs, how-to booklets (I saw one explaining how to use Excel with a cute anime girl, for example), food and photo based zines, etc, reminded me a lot more of a casual zine fest in America. These were truly made out of a deep and narrow interest in a particular topic; I bought a zine that was photos of signposts near a rural train station in Hokkaido, and then a small travelog of this person's experience in that small town, including the food he ate. He had several others in this series. 

Many of the zines/booklets/doujinshi I saw at the second day of Comiket were as if people printed out their blog posts and formatted them and then printed them, that sort of travelog/diary feeling. There were also of course many erotic doujinshi and fandom based doujinshi both days, although the first day had more fandoms I was interested in. The range of art quality and styles was refreshing to see - it really felt like anyone could apply and give it a shot to be at Comiket (although I heard the 'circle' (artist/group) applications are bureaucratically harrowing, so there's that barrier to entry.) 

I could best compare Day 2 of the East Hall of Comiket to SPX (Small Press Expo) in Bethesda, MD, which is a small comics event held for 2 days in the DC area. It usually has 3,000 or so people. I have both been an attendee and tabled at it, and of all the events I have been to, SPX is the one to make the most niche, bizarre works, and then chat with people about them (or anything else, really). They make the table aisles far enough away that you can both stand at a table with someone moving through the aisle behind you, and the very connected “we’re all weird here” sort of mentality makes conversation flow. I’ve had extended talks with people when I tabled for a small indie comics press who just noticed something I was wearing or recognized one of our artists or authors. Even though they didn't always purchase something, I got a lot out of the interaction. Even though the social aspects of SPX still didn’t quite apply over to Comiket Day 2, the “make what you love, you beloved weirdo” feeling was persistent as I went up and down the aisles of the food/travelog/explanation doujinshi. 

While obviously people in the other sections of Comiket were making what they loved too, there was something different about someone selling a doujinshi made about their travelog in Berlin or a book on the sake that had come out in the Chiba area and their takes on it as a sake master. I was able to chat with the artists for the aforementioned works, no doubt due to the nicheness of their products their booths were not overflowing with people. My gain, I suppose!

(One of the pass-through areas to get between halls.)

Cosplay

Cosplay also differed at Comiket from my experience at similar American events, because you had to sign up beforehand to cosplay and change at the center (you cannot show up in cosplay), and you cannot be on the merch hall floors in cosplay - you can only be in cosplay at the specifically structured pavilion. (Exception - vendors could cosplay in the main halls.). It meant a lot less spontaneous cosplay connections of 'I love your cosplay!'  'Thank you! [Insert follow up comment if the person felt up for that]", etc. 

I've had many conversations with con-goers at Western anime/fandom/gaming cons based on their cosplay but given that at Comiket it was usually vendors I say in cosplay (who, as I mentioned before, I didn't feel I should/could chat with), I ended up only briefly complimenting the cosplays I liked before purchasing my item or moving along. 

It should also be noted that the ‘cosplay photos’ doujinshi section of Comiket is huge, and obviously the vendors selling photos of themselves in cosplay often were in cosplay behind the table. I also suspect that due to the cosplay books being sold on Day 2, the cosplay participants in the cosplay hall dropped significantly in number on that day. I don’t have the numbers to back that up, however. 

(Side note: I was also pleasantly surprised to see the sort of ‘soft gravure’ doujinshi in the cosplay section. One book I regret not getting was of a thirty-forty-ish year old woman in soft sweaters drinking a hot beverage while walking or sitting around a cozy fall urban park setting. I cannot imagine I would find that even at the most niche of American zine events I’ve been to.) 

Closing thoughts

I wish I knew someone that knows Comiket well that would be willing to answer some questions I have, as there were many genres and conventions of books I didn't understand. When I talked to the vendors at Comiket, my Japanese just wasn't nuanced enough to get into the subculture and sociological aspects of my questions. I also didn't want to bother the vendors too much, as I didn't want to block them from possible other purchases by taking up table space. I am definitely making do with limited information, even with my research prior to the event. 

Overall, to call Comiket a "con" would be inaccurate- it is primarily for purchasing items, where as a 'con'/'convention' feels more like a gathering of people to engage, whether it indeed be at the artist alley, at panels, at cosplay meetups, and the spontaneous interactions in the halls. I feel that, at Comiket, it's difficult for the attendees to get to know each other and make connections but I absolutely can see where vendors would gain familiarity and friendships with other sellers, especially if they attend year after year. Also, this is all with the huge caveat- I am a foreigner with middling Japanese proficiency! It is far more likely that I missed out on this spontaneous attendee connection due to this very large elephant in the room that was my language proficiency. I spoke to several vendors in areas where it was slower and made some connections but not nearly the depth I did when I was in America or France. 

I would love to attend Comiket again (perhaps the winter one, as waiting in line for 3 hours in the blazing sun was an experience in Suffering (™).) Next time I'll be a little more prepared and do my research on which vendors will be where so I can hit up their booths first and then leisurely browse after. And hey, maybe my Japanese will be better then, and I'll be able to understand a little more of what the hell was going on!

[it-happened-one-fic]

Ink and Magic - The Usurper From The Wilds

Author Notes: Part 2 of this sort of halfway non canon compliant what if with the overblots and their aftermath! A lot of what I said for part 1 counts for this section too. This isn't exactly romantic. in fact, I would say it counts as more platonic, but it certainly can be taken as shippy. This will also be a series, though the Diasomnia section won't come out until that entire matter is resolved in game. As per usual, reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!

Spoilers for Book 2: Usurper from the Wilds!!

[Heartslabyul] [Savanaclaw: You're here!] [Octavinelle] [Scarabia] [Pomefiore] [Ignihyde] [Diasomnia: To be released]

Type: Gender-neutral reader/ fic series/ Can be platonic or romantic/ fluff/ angst/ comfort/ Spoilers for Savannaclaw overblot.

Word Count: 2353

Sand was still whipping through the air even as the giant leonine creature let out a final bellow before collapsing. It’s ink mixing with the golden sand that covered the earth, as if trying to hide what had happened here.

Leona’s overblot had, if anything, been more horrifying than Riddle’s. Sand had swirled around us, diminishing our vision and biting into our skin, but Leona himself had been what was truly terrifying. Because unlike Riddle, he’d maintained a sense of lucidity. 

He hadn’t been himself, but…. He’d still had his tact. When he’d spoken, it had been filled with a bitterness that spoke of sense. No person who’d totally lost their mind could have managed that much acerbity. 

Even Riddle, who’d been my only other overblot example, had really just screamed and bellowed basic phrases. Nothing he’d said had seemed quite as pointedly self-depreciating as Leona’s words had.

But what was perhaps more upsetting was the sound that filled the air as Leona was truly defeated. A sound that melded with the blot creatures cries and that I could only describe as a pained roar.

 A cry of a power that spoke of an unexpected defeat that had occurred against all odds.  

My eyes were wide as I watched Leona, of all people, stumble. Because it seemed so impossible that someone so strong would fall in such a fashion.

It was true that what he had done was horrible and that his signature spell had perfectly terrifying possibilities, but… Seeing him look so broken was almost more frightening.

Because up until this point, Leona had been many things, but fragile would never have been a word I would've used to describe him. 

He looked up, his painfully bright green eyes briefly meeting mine as the golden flame around his right eye flickered out of existence. Signaling the end of his overblot.

There was something there in his gaze—something that spoke of loss and made my heart clench painfully in my chest.

I inhaled as I felt it, just like I had with Riddle. That instinctual yet inexplicable need to go to him. 

I started forward, only for my arm to get caught in a vice-like grip by Ruggie, who released a pained sound as soon as he moved his injured arm to grab my wrist, “Are you mad?!”

I looked back at him, noting the pain in his large blue-grey eyes and realizing that I had to be crazy to do what I was about to do. But even as I realized that I was gritting my teeth and going through with what I'd already started.

I swallowed thickly as I mumbled a hasty apology before yanking my arm away from Ruggie, whose expression was a mixture of pain from his injuries and utter confusion.

But there was no hesitation in my motions as I whirled, running towards the weakened prince, who seemed to look my way as soon as I darted forward. Driven on by this unspoken need to reach the lion beastman in front of me.

“Y/N?!” My friends cried my name behind me, but I didn’t heed their pleas for me to come back. I could only trust Riddle to explain my actions as I let my already wobbly legs carry me towards where Leona stood alone.

  After all, Riddle was the only one who might understand what I was doing.

Leona didn’t even brace himself as I slammed into him, wrapping my arms around him in a feeble attempt to keep the already sinking beastman from falling to his knees.

As if by instinct, one of his arms wrapped tightly around me, his clawed fingers digging into my back like he was afraid I would abandon him or suddenly disappear one. 

His grip steadily tightened, and he let out a choked sound as he waged against his own exhaustion and tried to stop both of us from falling, even as he stumbled backwards. 

But his actions were all for nothing as he continued to sink towards the ground, dragging me down with him. 

It was immediately clear that I couldn’t support him as my already trembling legs gave out, and we fully collapsed into the sandy ink that covered the ground as he fell backwards. Still keeping a tight hold on me as we plummeted. 

I barely made out his faint words over my friends' shouts as darkness slowly began to consume me, “I wanted…. To be king….”

…

It was different this time. 

Instead of the old-recording that had played all of Riddle’s memories, the first thing that sliced its way through the blackness was Leona’s crystal clear, embittered voice,  “From the moment I was born, there's been a boulder on top of me that's too heavy to move.”

I tensed at his words because, unlike Riddle’s narration, it felt strangely like Leona was actually directing his words at me. As if he somehow knew that I was here and listening.

He’d barely finished speaking before a black-and-white scene burst to life, briefly blinding me until my eyes adjusted to the new environment that surrounded me. 

Two unfamiliar people were walking together in this scene. They appeared to be servants who were discussing the crown prince as well as Leona and his power. And judging from the sounds of it, me and my friends weren’t the only ones who feared Leona’s signature spell.

“Crown Prince Falena is such a bright and cheerful young man. I don’t understand why his younger brother has to be so moody all the time.”

“And he possesses such a terrifying power! Imagine being able to turn anything to sand!”

What followed their words was Leona hypothesizing about what they would have said had he been the crown prince. And I found myself frowning at his resentful words. But I couldn't deny that he wasn’t necessarily wrong. 

It wasn’t fair of the servants to look at his magic with only fear. But, considering what had just happened moments ago, it also wasn’t wrong.

It really was one of those situations where I could understand both sides of the argument and couldn’t really fault either one of their perceptions of the situation.

 Leona was bitter, though. Bitter to the point that I wondered if something involving his signature spell had happened to him in the past.

Why were the servants so afraid of him, and how had he known that he could turn living people to sand?

The thought was chilling and made me wonder exactly what accidents might have occurred while Leona was learning to control his magic in his youth.

The scenes continued, uncaring that I was privy to Leona’s memories and now showing that there had been a birth of the new prince. Leona’s nephew. 

I cringed in sympathy for Leona’s brother, Falena, as I watched the scene play out in front of me. Even just from this memory of Leona’s, I could tell that this man loved his little brother. 

But Leona either didn’t realize that or he’d undergone such a number of comparisons that Falena’s love could no longer reach through that deeply entrenched bitterness.

The scene faded away, and it was once again just me, the darkness, and Leona’s voice that seemed to be actively questioning me, even though there was no way I could give him an answer.

“Why will I never, ever get to be the best?” 

I didn’t know enough about his circumstances, and I could not simply forgive everything he’d done. But his voice still continued, almost insistent in its questioning, “Why? Why? Why??”

There was such rawness and unrestrained frustration in his words that, despite what he'd done, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Leona. 

Who hadn’t noticed themselves being compared to someone and wondered what the difference between the two of you was?

And Leona was right. He was powerful, clever, and all the things that should cause people to revere him and for him to the best. But he also seemed defeated. Like he’d come to the conclusion that no matter what he did, at this point it wouldn’t matter.

“Life truly is unfair.”

With those final, resentful words, I was released from whatever held me tied to Leona’s memories. 

I exhaled slightly, my throat tight with emotion as my consciousness returned. The first thing I felt was a hand resting gently on my back, but it wasn’t until I opened my eyes that I realized exactly where I was.

I began to sit up, but found I couldn’t since Leona was, to some degree, holding me to his person. 

Apparently, I’d fallen on top of him when we’d both collapsed and now lay half-sprawled across his body, using him as a pillow as he held me to him.

“Y/N! Oh, thank the Seven! Are you alright?! Are you hurt?” Cater’s frantic voice was accompanied by the sensation of whiplash as he harshly tugged me away from Leona’s passed out form.

The orange-haired third year was now looking at me with a deeply worried expression as he grasped my shoulders tightly and repeatedly scanned my body for injury, “What were you thinking?!! Didn’t you see what he did to Ruggie? He could’ve killed you!” 

I shook my head, attempting to clear the fog from my head as I gently pulled away from the worried young man, “I’m fine, Cater. He wasn’t going to hurt me; he passed out and-”

I stumbled almost immediately as I broke away from Cater’s support, but was soon caught by a pair of steady hands. Glancing behind me, I made eye contact with a concerned set of golden eyes and registered that Jack was frowning at me worriedly.

I was half-dazed, and everything was happening too fast. But even as I tried to gain my bearings, the questions kept coming. And on top of it all, I could already feel a massive headache coming on. 

“Did it happen again?” Riddle’s blunt, to-the-point question sliced clearly through the frenzy of people asking if I was alright and caused me to tense slightly before I looked his way and immediately spotted Crowley standing behind him.

I hesitated before I responded, meeting Riddle’s gaze and nodding, “Yes. I think I may have seen some of Leona’s memories and… heard his thoughts.”

I fell silent, deciding not to mention how it had felt—almost like he’d known I was there. Riddle said he’d felt me there, but he hadn’t seemed to be addressing me. Not like Leona had.

“And you don’t think that’s bad?” Ace’s voice came from behind Jack, who was still holding me upright, but the redhead was soon stepping around Jack so that he could better scold me with a frown on his face. 

“Y/n, have you considered what connecting with overblotted people might do to you?” The pure irritation radiating from Ace startled me, but he didn’t get to fuss at me for very long.

Instead, Ruggie stepped, or rather limped, forward. He was still cradling his arm as he stared at me, “Is he alright?”

Silence fell over the group at Ruggie’s solemn question, but I nodded. Holding the young man’s gaze as I responded, “Yes, Leona’s okay… I think” I paused, frowning as I looked at the hyena beastman, “Are you?”

He managed to crack a smile and nod, but he didn’t get to say anything since Deuce was now questioning my well-being and Grim had begun nudging the still-passed-out Leona with one of his front paws, “Hey! Wake up.”

We turned in time to watch Grim scurry away as Leona let out a groan. One hand reached up to his face to block the bright sunlight as he sat up with a grimace.

 His hand fell away from his face, and he opened his eyes before, almost immediately looking directly up at where I stood. His expression perfectly unreadable.

Similarly to me, the prince wasn’t allowed to recover any, though, as questions and explanations began flying around at a dizzying rate.

The next few moments flew by in a haze, with the Savannaclaw team being given a pass to play just so others could gain their revenge, and the ghosts had shown up so that Ramshackle dorm could have its own team and play in the Spelldrive tournament.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience much of the game though, since the last thing I heard during Ramshackle dorm’s opening game was Grim saying the words: “I call this baby the Great Grim Hurricane!”

It was indeed a great Grim hurricane since my next lucid moments took place in the infirmary with a splitting headache and bandages wrapped around my head.

I wasn’t alone, though. The usual motley crue had apparently come to await my awakening, along with a few less expected companions. 

Evidently enough, Leona and Ruggie had also been admitted to the infirmary. But that was no great surprise considering one was heavily injured and the other was exhausted from overblotting. 

What was concerning was the way Leona stared at me the entire time.

It wasn’t until his nephew had come and gone and the nurse had run everyone else, including Ruggie, who’d apparently been cleared to leave, out that the elephant in the room was finally addressed.

“You saw into my head, didn’t you?”

I flinched slightly in my cot but twisted my head, wincing with the motion, to look at the frowning lion man who was currently staring at the ceiling. “I…. Yeah.”

He twisted to meet my gaze, a blank expression on his face as our eyes met just as they had in the stadium earlier today, “Riddle said you saw his memories and thoughts too when he overblotted.” 

He paused, eyebrows lifting, before he continued, “And Ruggie told me about how you charged me and then collapsed.”

Silence hung heavily between us, and I shifted awkwardly before looking away, “Sorry for invading your privacy….”

Green eyes drilled into my head as I continued to look awkwardly away from him, but then I heard him scoff, “Go to sleep, Herbivore. You’ll need it if you're gonna recover from that head injury.”

[kaenineteef]

notes app doodle i did at work except it's my ideal mha/dekusquad polycule (+shippy yap sesh)

also i dont take criticism because im right 😋😋 i mean ship what you want idc but also i'm right (joke)

i don't actually expect anyone to fully read this, but my sleep deprived mind at work could Only think about how i feel about these specific ships so this ramble is, like, super not organized and is literally just a lot of rambling and borderline nonsense. have fun with my brain vomit if you want it

FULL YAP SESH BELOW

this is just how i feel w class 1a (for the most part) ships, even more specifically just the ones i have doodled. dekusquad, kinda

for the not-as-front-and-center characters, i can talk abt them eventually but it's really not as interesting to talk about and is actually straightforward

if we're not doing polyships and only talking abt class 1a ships, my top three are todoiida, bakudeku, and togachaco not rlly in that order but yeah in that order, with bkdk and togachaco being tied i LOVE todoiida. todoiida is peak. todoiida is the perfect ship.

bakudekuchaco(?) is good and all, but i feel like it's hard to find content where bkdk are dating, izch are dating, but kacchaco arent !! katsuki is gay !!! but his boyfriend has a girlfriend !!! katsuki does not have a girlfriend !!!!!!!! but kacchaco are BESTIES !!!!!!!!! that's her gay best friend yknow

still about katsuki, i Am picky with my katsuki ships because in my heart he is too in love with izuku to see anyone else HOWEVER todobaku is really cute so i will accept todobaku. more because i think shoto absolutely has a crush on katsuki. please, it's cute. also poly ships where katsuki is still dating izuku and not dating a girl, those are good i like those. he's the one character i'm like "yeah thats a gay man" with and the only way that could change is with transfem izuku. he's actually dekusexual.

i'm really not too picky with my izuku ships, but i do think bkdk is the best technically dkbk but like you get it. i think izuocha can be rlly cute ! but im a dkbk lover at heart so they Have to be together i read like one (1) fic that had codependent platonic deku/iida in it and i was like "holy crap that kinda rocks." i'm not super strict w canon stuff because shipping is for funsies, but sometimes i get into my head abt having things be "accurate", even though i know they dont need to be but that's a whole different can of worms. also that only applies to my own things. i care soooo much for my own stuff when ik it literally doesnt matter

what i actually meant to say in that previous chunk is in this specific situation, i like to think tododeku have unspoken romantic tension that everyone sees except for those two. theyre not together but theyre not not together and that's okay.

uhhhhhhhhhh togachaco real !!!!!!!!!!! i recently wasnt super into any other ochaco ships but tsuchaco has been growing on me it's rlly cute actually. i've mostly been thinking about tsuchaco in a post-431 way. like ochaco dates izuku for a while and they do have fun, but they both know it isn't right. izuku is head over heels for katsuki and ochaco might not like guys (probably)

i'm torn between headcanoning ochaco as bi or a lesbian struggling with comphet, so depending on what i'm writing/thinking about, she's either one!!!! in general i find it hard to have like one set of headcanons for a character? i think it's pretty situational, or maybe that's because if i'm going super non-canon compliant with something, i think of the characters as relatively blank slates and i can try out new things with them. the lesbian w comphet hc is mostly just me projecting though because her admiration for deku (in the anime at least, since i have yet to read the entire manga so idk how different it is) feels a lot like..admiration and not necessarily romance. i might just be super biased though idk. this is yet another can of worms.

tldr:

izu is dating kats and ocha, maybe sho too

kats and izu only, but maybe sho too

TODOIIDA

ocha is dating izu, himiko, and tsu

kacchaco besties because i said so

sho likes izu and kats, idrc that much if theyre together or not

that migjht be it idk i wrote this throughout the day starting at when i took that screenshot and ending the moment im posting it. i went to work and then was out and about w my siblings but my mind was stuck on mha ships. i still have to go back to work in less than an hour from now. i will still be thinking about mha ships. thanks for listening friends