#try and understand them first and their actions

[yearninflowers]

Imagine...

“You… Do you really love me?”

...

At first, Phainon was silent—well, technically, he was flustered. He paused everything he was doing and looked at you weirdly, trying to understand why you were asking him such an obvious question, yet he answered anyway.

“Of course,” he tucked a conveniently fallen hair strand over your ear, laughing rather softly at your question despite the confusion, “how could I not? It's as easy as breathing and as simple as admiring the skies.” His face got closer, a smile still apparent on his face.

“You don't have to try so hard. It's quite easy to love someone like you.”

He kissed your forehead. It felt soft, and the love from his heart seemed to wrap itself around you from this one action. And somehow, the lingering touch left you wanting more before he eventually talked again.

“You don't always need to fit in. You're fine as you are.”

He kissed your cheeks, both of them, carefully. And just like before, the lingering touch had left you wanting more. How could someone show their love so apparently like this?

Suddenly, he held your shoulder, forcing you to match his eyes. They seemed to focus solely on yours as he tried to mutter out something.

"You're you, and—" He gulped, the hold he had over your shoulder tightened slightly, "and that's why I love you.”

He leaned in. And at that moment, you noticed the slight tremble in his hands as he kissed you—slightly, softly, only touching the left corner of your lips.

“...understand now?”

Oh, God. You wanted to cry at this moment, somehow. It felt as if something—you didn't know if an old wound had been healed or it was just you feeling so loved—had changed in you.

Is it truly possible to have someone love you so deeply and effortlessly? — You often questioned that. For someone who had been thirsty for such an 'easy' love, how could you not melt for the man in front of you? How could you not... love him back as well?

“Yes, yes.” You sobbed out, smiling awkwardly through all the bubbling feelings. “I understand well.”

Hearing your answer, he laughed rather quietly. It sounded comforting, rather than anything else. Some people could laugh at you when you show vulnerability, but he didn't. He never did.

“Good." He smiled, nodding off to yours and his own words. "I hope you remember it well too. I really love you, you know?”

And so, you smiled back.

As your heart was filled to the brim, you finally gathered what little courage you had to give him a small peck to his lips, truly finishing what he wanted to do before.

“...uh?”

You grinned cheekily.

“Hehe, I love you too, Phainon.”

And that was all it took for him to finally melt in your hold.

[marscardigan]

freak like me

ellie williams x fem!reader

summary: since you started dating ellie, you always wanted to do something with her. so, when one day, she asks about your favorite fetishes, you decide to show her yourself.

word count: 0.9k

content warning: smut (minors dni), kind of exhibitionism(?, porn with plot, don't know what this is I just had to write it down

You loved your girlfriend. You loved how caring and understanding and kind she was. How she would never judge your actions, and how she always made you laugh.

You also loved how she supported every crazy idea that ran through your mind. But maybe this idea was sick and twisted.

But how could you lie to those pretty eyes? Ellie kept looking at you with a sly grin, cheeks flushed from her previous comment.

"C'mon babe, I already told you mine" she whined, hiding her pouty face in the crook of your neck.

You scoffed, "Ellie, you just said you like being praised while you fuck."

"So? It's still something that turns me on!" You could feel her shy smile hiding beneath your touch. "You need to tell me."

"Nah, I'll pass."

"Come on! Is it really that bad?" She looked at you like a kicked dog, caressing your inner thigh softly.

You closed your eyes, not wanting to see her face because you knew you would surrender. "It's so embarrassing."

"I'm sure I had worse thoughts, try me."

Her cold fingers touching your skin didn't help. At all. After opening your eyes and seeing her soft gaze towards you, you knew you were a goner.

Fuck it.

"I had like this thought about... Us making out on patrol..." Ellie kept her eyes locked on yours, shifting only to see your lips for a second. "While some infected are like... close to us? I-ugh, I don't know, it's fucking weird- I don't know why-"

Ellie's hand stopped right above your belly, making you dizzy. Both of you stayed quiet, but for different reasons.

You were so ashamed of saying that out loud, that you would've gladly died in that exact moment. Ellie, on the other hand, couldn't erase that dirty image from her head.

Neither of you spoke about it anymore, and you thought Ellie might have forgotten about it, but you were so wrong.

The next time you had patrol together was nine days later. Ellie counted them.

The plan was easy: clean infected from a mall close to Jackson. But the auburn had other plans. She'd have time to kill them after.

She promised you not to talk about it any time soon, but it was hard when it was all Ellie could think about.

When you first entered the mall, you killed a few from the first floor. But when you entered the parking, you could sense Ellie's focus was... indistinct, to say the least. On patrol, she was always behind you for security, but you could tell her eyes were definitely not on the possible threats. When you caught her staring at your ass for the second time, you knew this wasn't a coincidence.

"What are you thinking about?" Your funny tone only worsened the redness on her face.

Ellie could not believe how naive you sometimes were. "You should know what I'm thinking about."

Oh.

She smiled at your reaction. "Yeah, you know."

Was she teasing you know?

A clicking sound interrupted your conversation, and Ellie's smile only widened.

"Ellie." You warned, but she didn't notice the alert in your tone. She only noticed the need. She whispered your name back, grabbing your hips and trapped you between her body and the wall of the parking.

"You do remember what you told me the other day, right?" She whispered in your ear, making your legs shake.

You couldn't answer her, even if you really tried. You pushed your thighs harder against each other, almost moaning her name. Ellie whimpered.

"We should focus on the-ahm...the infected..."

Her hand ran lower every breath you took, getting closer and closer where you needed her the most. You kept calling out her name, and just before you close her eyes, you saw a clicker on the end of the hall. Ellie kissed you before you could alert her, and she kept swallowing every cry of pleasure your body echoed. Her knuckle kept brushing your panties as you nodded at her, the pleasure building inside your belly.

You were shamefully wet by the time she lowered your jeans. She laughed with pride at the sight, and looked up at you, her index finger brushing her lips. "You'll need to be quiet f'me, okay?"

You nearly came at the sight. You nodded, and brushed your fingers through her auburn locks. The finger that was just in her mouth brushed your core just the slightest, and you had to cover your mouth, but Ellie was quick to stop your action, shaking her head, “No-huh, baby, you need to keep making those pretty noises f’me.”

Her tongue slid through your cunt repeatedly, as if she was a starved woman. She grabbed roughly your thigh and pushed it above her shoulder, forcing you to keep it there.

A sob left your lips at the sight of Ellie on her knees, her strong arms making your whole body feel like jelly.

If you died here, you would die happy, you thought.

Your clit throbbed when she put the first finger, her eyes not leaving yours. The clicking sounds only made you harder to think about what was happening.

As she whimpered, her other hand between her legs, your walls finally broke down, and Ellie kept watching.

Your head was still numb when Ellie cleaned the corners of her lips, she pushed you gently and helped you put your jeans back, and a glass shattered.

A gasp sounded, and a clicker came running and-

A gunshot. Ellie’s grunt. The clicker fell right to the floor.

“Oh my god.”

“Shit, I think I came too.”

“Fuck off!”

[justvea18]

why are you so insistent on making Patrochilles so toxic...?????

This has been in my asks for a while

Disclaimer: I am NOT a psychology student nor am I an expert in this field. These are purely based on my observations (I am just a nerd yapping)😔😭

I see them as somewhat toxic (I'm using this term loosely) because they aren't as healthy as you perceive them to be if you take a look at their relationship in a psychological perspective which also explains their actions in the iliad.

Patroclus, as far as I know, has no relatives, children, or loved ones to live for aside from Achilles - his friend/companion/lover/etc. Of course he'd be devoted to him. They've slept with women and they had lovers of their own, but none of them seemed as significant or that important in their life - making it seem that the person they prioritize the most is each other.

Achilles was raised by his father and mother, but he was eventually sent off again and again from Phthia, to Pelion, to Scyros. Patroclus was believed to be with him from his time in Phthia until the Trojan war so it is no doubt he would treasure Patroclus like he did in the Iliad. He was the closest companion he had and was there for him from childhood to adulthood.

Now, the "toxic" part comes in their co-dependecy. Understandably, Achilles is devastated when he found out that Patroclus was dead. Undoubtedly, Pat would feel the same if Achilles had died first. The difference is that Achilles made Patroclus prepare for his passing (assigning him with his supposed funeral, taking Neo from Scyros to Phthia on his behalf, raising his son, etc.) while Achilles never even considered the thought of Pat dying in the war. This explains his immediate suicidal actions.

Achilles was prepared to leave (book 9) and take the other end of the bargain if his prophecy. If he hadn't seen Machaon on book 11, he wouldn't have sent out Patroclus and left Troy with him the next day.

Now, Patroclus is also co-dependent in that relationship because before his pleading with Achilles, he was also ignorant of the deaths of the Greeks (although it may or may not be under Achilles' orders, remember, Achilles is technically his prince), only acting when Nestor reminded him that he is older than Achilles and should help him in making the right choice (and seeing the battlefield/injured men up close).

They are not the "perfect" couple, but it's this complex relationship that they have that makes them so interesting.

Tldr: Achilles is super attached to Patroclus to the point he literally couldn't live without him; and Patroclus is utterly devoted to Achilles that he would go against his morals and try to ignore the deaths caused by the prince

[justastraymoa]

Yet Unnamed

Chapter 8

Masterlist | Ch 7.

Nothing within reflects anyone or anything irl. Pics off pinterest.

Warnings for Yet Unnamed: Kidnapping, cuffs, injuries, drugging by injection, mentions of needles, lots of swearing, kissing, fluff, angst, idiots in love all around.

Slowly you half woke to titters and shutter sounds. Your brain too foggy and asleep to register what was happening. But you could feel that it was far too early for you to be awake. So, pulling solid warmth closer to you, you buried your face in silkiness and immediately dozed back off. The last sound you registered was the click of a door closing.

Then your alarm ripped you back to consciousness, making you jump in bed hard as it scared you. You rolled over and turned it off, squinting as the bright light on the phone blinded your sleepy eyes.

You were alone. The blanket you covered Han with last night was neatly folded in the spot he had fallen asleep in. He must have woken up during the night and decided to go to his own bed.

You were not the first one up. Seungmin and Felix were already up and eating breakfast. As soon as you walked in, they smirked at you identically and you immediately became suspicious.

"What?" You asked, looking to make sure you didn't forget pants or something equally as important. It wouldn't be the first time, to be honest.

Seungmin shook his head. "Nothing. How did you sleep?"

You squinted at him and his obvious change in subject. "I slept very well." They exchanged a look as you sat down to eat. "How did you sleep?" You asked deciding to just let them be weird. It was too early to try and decode them.

"Very well. Hyunjin and I spent the night together." Felix answered. He had a satisfied, dreamy look on his face that made you smile. It was sweet to see how far gone they all were on each other.

They showed their love in so many different ways. Not just kisses and cuddles, those were obvious. Anyone could see the affection in those actions. It was also shown in the small ways. Han, helping you build a shelf. Lino cooking dinner and letting Felix help. He always patiently taught and showed Felix what to do.

Changbin, the protector. Always willing to help physically, whether it be with his strength or by offering cuddles. Constantly ready with kind words and an open ear. Just being around him made you feel safer.

Seungmin, hard at first glance with is words and actions, but always willing to listen to any issue or complaint. He doesn't tell you what you should do, more he sets you on the path to figure out what you should do on your own. And he will hold your hand while you find it. While you figure it out. So, you know you are never alone. Even if it's just him laughing at your stumbles as he helps you to keep steady.

Ayen. Playful teasing makes everyone feel better with just a few simple sentences. His dimpled smile is never judgmental when it really matters. When it is truly needed.

Felix is the embodiment of sunshine. Laugh and smile infectious and the kindest soul you will ever meet. He will sacrifice anything to help a complete stranger. So, imagine what it feels like to be one of those he cares about. It's almost overwhelming in the best way.

Hyunjin quiet, soft, shy. Wiling to just sit quietly with you for hours without a single word exchanged. Just let you decompress but not have to be alone to do it. Giving touches freely just when your mind was trying to spiral. Reminding you of his presence and support.

Chan, the leader, the father, a protector. He would support any one of you on anything you wanted to pursue. Going as far as to study whatever it was himself, so he could better understand and help you. So, he could enjoy it with you if you wanted.

They were literally everything you had ever dared to hope for growing up. Even more. And now you got to go on this adventure with them.

Han walked in; his hair still wet from his recent shower. You smiled at him when you locked eyes. He immediately turned bright red and avoided your gaze. Seungmin and Felix burst into laughter.

"Okay, what did I miss?" You ask pinning both laughing boys with your best disapproving mother look.

It worked. They quickly quieted when they saw it.

"They are just teasing me, don't worry." Han mumbled moving to get his own breakfast.

No, there was something more to this. "Yeah, no. Out with it."

Felix looked away and Seungmin sighed pulling out his phone. He tapped the screen a few times before handing it to you, a picture already pulled up.

The lighting was dim, but you could clearly see you and Han in your bed cuddling. Han was laying half on top of you, arm around your middle, head cushioned on your breasts, his sleeping face peaceful. You were wrapped around him with both arms, your face half buried in his bed head. You wanted to cry at how adorable the picture was. Holding the phone with both hands and cradling the precious picture between them.

You quickly sent the picture to your phone. You would most certainly need to print and frame it. It was just too cute to sit in an album on a phone. Too cute not to be seen and worshipped.

"I-I'm so sorry-" Han began, fretting.

"Jisungie! This is so cute! Oh my god, I am so hanging this up in my room!" You gushed turning the phone to show him and pulling him closer to kiss him in excitement. Your heart was absolutely mush and your brain was sparking. You wanted to stomp your feet and squeal at it all.

Han was frozen, mouth partially open and face tomato red all the way down his neck and back to his ears.

You handed Seungmin his phone back. "You two are just jealous." You concluded with a smirk. Seungmin rolled his eyes, but didn't deny it.

You left the room to get to work on the YouTube video editing and print the picture to hang it up. It was turning into a great day already.

You only had 2 days to edit the video and get it ready to post. Which didn't give you a lot of time. Especially since other things were going on as well.

Stray Kids had fan calls later on today that you were in charge of. That started this afternoon. And the meet cute photoshoot was tomorrow.

The photoshoot would be an all-day thing. You were in every photo since it was your debut shoot. The boys would be in and out. They would be in the group photos, some duo/trio/quad photos, and one on one photos with you.

So, slipping on your cuter, less professional headphones, you settle in and get comfortable, pulling up the raw footage that they sent to you yesterday.

It was just over an hour later, by your computer clock when your concentration was broken by Felix knocking on your doorframe, looking unsure of his welcome. You pause the video and save your progress, turning to give him your full attention.

When one of the boys wanted to visit you or wanted your attention, they weren't usually so shy about it. Not anymore. Unless something happened or they were feeling more vulnerable/anxious for whatever reason.

"Come in. What can I do for you?" You ask.

He stayed standing in the doorway instead of coming in like you had requested. Like they all usually did. You always kept your door open, liking when they would pop in for a visit.

"Are you mad? Because of this morning?" He asked. "We weren't making fun of you, I promise."

You sigh fondly. Only eternal sunshine angel Felix would worry over something like this. Something so simple. You hold your hands out to him, and he comes forward, almost looking ready to cry. Seriously this eyes should be registered as weapons of coercion.

"Angel, I am not even a little mad. It was just teasing - I know you weren't trying to be hurtful to either of us."

His entire body relaxed. "Thank you. I'm sorry."

"There is nothing to be sorry for." You soothe squeezing his hands.

"Can I cuddle while you work? I won't get in your way."

In response you sit back in your chair and let him climb onto your lap. He straddled you and held you close, hooking his chin over your shoulder.

You ran your fingers through his hair a couple of times before getting back to work. It was easy enough to work around him once you adjusted. And it was nice to work while cuddling. Warm.

And while you worked, he played on his phone and game system, staying true to his word of not getting in the way of your work.

Sometime later, you saved your work again. "Gather for fan calls!" You shouted as you locked the computer.

In your lap Felix jumped about 3 feet in the air and sat up. You mouthed an apology and grimaced. You hadn't thought about it when you suddenly shouted right in his ear after being quiet for so long.

As we waited for everyone, you and Felix created a little space in the living room to do the calls. Blank light brown backdrop, comfy seating, and the camera stand set up right in front of it.

"You do things so differently. Not as much big fancy production." Felix mentioned off hand.

You suddenly got a little self-conscious. You were still new at this job, and you had done nothing this big before. You wanted to do a good job, but you aren't a big fancy production type person. Anything you can keep small, you tend to. But that wasn't what the others were used to. They had worked hard to get where they are, and they deserved the fancy productions that matched how big they were. How far they had come. How much they worked to get there.

Maybe it would be a good idea - after your reveal video - if you sought out some of the old social media people or the ones from different groups and studied how they did things with these bigger artists. So you could do things the way the group was already used to. It wouldn't hurt to keep things the same for them, so it was less stressful.

For now, you shook the thought off. Now wasn't the time to think of these things. It was too late to change what was already being done. They would need to deal with the way things are for now.

You refocus on the task at hand. Pulling the fan call schedule up on your work tablet and connecting it to the camera so it was ready to go when the boys were.

"Fan calls are so fun! It's been a while since we have done them." Chan walked in and rubbed his hands together.

Everyone else followed just after him, in cozy but nice-looking clothes, hair and makeup. They looked relaxed. The group plopped down around the living room, looking to you. Looking for any last-minute instructions.

You sighed; everything was as ready as it could be. "Alright. So, with the search for the ninth member being teased hard right now they will be bound to ask questions and try to get information."

"So don't be pabos and let anything slip." Lino cut in.

"Yes. True. I know this isn't the way you are used to doing this, so hopefully you aren't too thrown off. Be on guard but have fun. Chan, you are first."

"Don't worry, babe, we got this." Chan kissed your cheek as he went by to set himself in front of the camera and wait for the first call to start.

Fan call behind the scenes was more hectic than you had really thought it would be. But you shouldn't be surprised. Your soulmates thrived on being chaotic after all. And it wasn't more than you could easily handle.

Most fans were fun and respectful on their calls, engaging the boys in interesting questions and games. Wishing them luck on their search for their ninth member but not pressing for information when initially shut down.

But there is always one in the bunch. Third to last fan call the fan only cared about getting information on the search. Going so far as to bombard Han as soon as he got on instead of even greeting him. Almost yelling their demanding questions into the camera.

Han, though flustered, did a very good job of answering the invasive questions without revealing anything. Even though the fan got increasingly frustrated and kept pushing the subject. Everyone was glad when that call ended, and you immediately took note of the fan to place them on a block list. They wouldn't have another chance at a fan call to spread their disrespect for your soulmates.

You sighed as the last call finally ended and eveyone relaxed. "Fantastic job!" You praised immediatly starting to clean up.

"Leave it for right now, Y/n. We will pick it up later." Ayen said, patting the seat next to him in invitation.

And it was a very tempting invite. You didn't like denying your soulmates cuddles or time with you, but there was looming deadlines and a lot of work that needed to be done. You shook your head and kept going. "Sorry, can't. I still have a lot of work to do on the YouTube video."

You finished up the cleaning and went back to your room to work. This time, you softly shut the door so you would have no distractions, then settled back in to hopefully get a good chunk done.

You skipped dinner in favor of getting more of the video edited. You also had all the social media to go through before you could end your night. Clips of the fan calls had already made their way online and some of the boys commented on them or reacted to them.

You were happy to see the one fan call with the overly pushy fan was not getting a whole lot of love from the other members of STAY. Condemning the fan for wasting their opportunity to talk to their favorite idol. And it was so disrespectful. Not just to the idol, but to the fans who didn't get to do the fan call. Who wanted nothing more than those precious minutes with one of the boys and wasn't able to for one reason or another.

Plus, you set up some time with other social media workers in the company to talk with them and shadow them for a bit to learn from them. You had to sacrifice some of the little time you had to work on the YouTube video tomorrow, but it would be worth it for the knowledge. And you would find more time somehow. It would get done.

The next day you had the soul group photo shoot. It was a relaxing concept, something that fit with your personality since it was your debut shoot. Classic coffee shop/bookstore backdrop.

The softness of the boys when the photos come out will be very popular with STAY. The only thing better than sexual tension photos was fluffy photos.

Even as excited as you were, you were still nervous as hell. And your stomach was not cooperating with you this morning. You stuck with coffee and an apple for breakfast.

"You should eat more, you didn't eat dinner last night either." Bin said disapprovingly when it was obvious that I wasn't going to eat anything else.

You patted his chest and took a sip of your drink before going back to your room without responding to his concern.

You all traveled to the set together in a van. You spent the ride wearing earbuds and working from your laptop set up on your knees. Lino sat next to you quietly as the others talked amongst themselves. They were all still pretty calm because it was an early morning.

You were anxious to finish the video. It was premeiring in less than 24 hours. On top of that this photoshoot would need to be released as well, and you would need to approve of and choose the photos. And the boys' socials were going to blow up with both, so you were going to be swamped with work for the next several days before it would even out to steady again for a bit.

And the boys had their own schedules as well. Ayen, Lino, And Bin woud be traveling for several days for interviews and videos. Chan and Han had songs to work on for an upcoming comeback. Seungmin and Felix had several photoshoots coming up with fashion agencies. And Hyune was shooting a commercial/magazine spread. You were all going to be over the top busy.

And there was one thing you needed to add to the schedule. Your part of the YouTube video was done enough that you could record their reactions to the secret you have been keeping from them.

"I would like to add a reaction video after the photo shoot today. There is a tiny slot of time, and it should only take a few minutes." You announced.

There were mummers of agreement and acceptance. "Reaction to what?" Chan asked. He was sitting directly behind you.

"My interview." You didn't want to give too much away, it would ruin all the fun of a reaction video.

"Did you actually spill dirt on us?" Lino asked.

You feigned hurt, clutching your chest. "How dare! Of course not!" Well at least not anything crucial. Any 'slips' were thought out and planned in advance. Only looking like an accident.

After your hair and makeup was done, you looked at yourself in the mirror and tried to make some faces that you remembered seeing others make online or in magazines. They all felt stupid to you. You had never modeled before, and you honestly should have taken some time to ask the boys for help getting prepared.

"Hyune, can you help me with something?" You asked quietly embarrassed. Last minute practicing could only do so much and you felt like you dropped the ball.

Hyune put his phone down and looked up at you, waiting. He looked so soft in his cozy sweater and floofy hair. Light soft makeup with blush placed high up on his cheeks and nose. "Sure, what did you need?"

Looking down you twisted your fingers. "I have never done this before. How do I make good poses and faces?"

Face softening, Hyune gently smiled and gestured you forward. You were wearing a long brown skirt, a white loose button-up with flowing sleeves, and small flower embroidery on the collar. Brown boots with lace socks peeking out from the top and black tights on under those.

You were expecting a bit of teasing or, at the very least, a laugh, so it was a pleasant surprise when he just turned you to face the vanity mirror, standing you in between his legs. His chair was tall enough that he could still see over your shoulder, even still sitting.

As the others were getting ready and joking around, he went over basics with you, having you practice simple soft looks that would match the vibe of the shoot. Helping you find natural and good-looking body positions as well and giving you small bits of advice.

"Don't worry too much. We will all help and eventually this will come naturally like it does to us." He finally said when he had done all he could in the short time you had.

"And things can sometimes get frustrating and intense, so don't take anything too personal. It's all in the moment." Ayen warned, joining you.

Oh great. Hopefully you didn't make them fight by being so bad you stressed them out. Plus, the added stress of this shoot not being like their others for several reasons. You had wanted to find a new cozy vibe and setting they hadn't done yet. A theme that felt fresh. But maybe it was too different for them. Maybe they wouldn't feel it and hate it.

"It's different than usual. The theme and how the shoot is going to be run. I'm not sure how they ran them before, so bear with it, please. And let me know what needs to be done that I missed, okay?" I am damn good at what I do, but this wasn't just about me. This was a team effort. And they were my bosses.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Felix patted your back carefully. You smiled at him, still unsure.

Well actually, you were sure. You were sure you were messing up all of Stray Kids flows. Pretty sure you weren't doing anything like they wanted you to. Just barely squeaking by for now with the excuse that this was all new to you. But damn if the fans would notice anything bad. It was all behind the scenes that was the issue. You could edit the shit out of anything bad before posting behind the scenes videos, so that secret would never get out.

You were very pleased when you finally saw the finished set in person. It turned out just as you had imagined it. Getting it set up on such short notice meant that it was mostly done over texts, phone calls, pictures, and video calls. So the fact that it came out so perfect was a great accomplishment on everyone's parts. The staff you worked with did great in being patient and understanding with you and an amazing job at bringing your vision to life.

During the shoot everyone was exceptionally patient with you. Both staff and the boys helped you get into positions and fix your facial expressions. The camera man mostly shouted at you. He was getting irritated with your inexperience and frustrated when you didn't know how to do what he was asking.

You could tell several of your soul mates were getting angry at him and how he was speaking to you.

"Hey, stop! You are getting paid to do a job, not scream at us!" Ayen finally snapped near the end of your one-on-one portion of the shoot. At this point, you had been fighting tears for several different poses, and he had noticed.

"It's fine, Ayen. Leave it be. It's my fault anyways." You whispered to him, not wanting to have him get a bad reputation by insulting the photographer.

"No, it's not. You are new at this, and he knows that. He can be more helpful and understanding." Ayen grumbled pulling you in close and hiding your face from the camera for a moment so you could get rid of the few tears that managed to escape. "I know you are tired, it's almost over. Just hold on a little longer." He kissed your forehead, and you heard camera clicks. He was still posing and working the camera, even while comforting you. A true professional at this.

Bottom line, you were glad when it was finally over. You were exhausted and still had a lot of stuff to do today before you could rest.

Nevertheless, as soon as you were out of the outfit for the shoot you started setting up for the reaction video while the boys gathered.

"Is this going to be a good reaction?" Han asked. He claimed the first seat.

"Don't know. I just think its something STAY will enjoy watching once the full video comes out." You shrugged. You hoped they wouldn't be upset about your fun little white lie.

"Are you okay?"

Smiling tightly, you nod. "Just tired."

"Take a nap then. Don't push yourself." He looked concerned, which made you wonder just how bad you looked.

You ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Of course you will. You are one of us now." Seungmin said as he sat in his seat.

As soon as everyone was sat you started. "Okay, we don't have a lot of time, so just watch and react naturally. I'll edit later."

You press play and stand back, biting your lip nervously. It's not like they would react too badly, right? They may be slightly upset you deceived them, but most likely not downright angry. Right?

"Ah!" Bin shouted pointing at the screen as soon as you revealed you were fluent in Korean.

Felix stared at you with his mouth open, Lino laughed and clapped. Chan snorted, and Hyune had a wide smile on his face. Seungmin was smirking with an odd look on his face you couldn't place. You just hoped it was a positive one. They all immediately switched to Korean.

"You have been able to speak Korean this whole freaking time!" Felix shouted

"'Why didn't you say anything?" Chan asked.

You shrugged. "You never asked and it wasn't really a big issue."

"I have been struggling all this time for nothing?" Lino responded gesturing with both hands to the screen.

The only one who didn't really react in any way was Han. "Han? Are you mad?" You didn't like how quiet he was being.

He shrugged. "I kind of already knew. You were flipping back and forth the other day when we were putting the shelf together."

"No wonder you haven't tried to start learning Korean!" Felix clapped his hands once, the loud noise making you flinch slightly. You were tense and stressed. Luckily, they didn't seem to notice the small flinch.

"Know any other secret languages?" Ayen asked still smiling.

"Several. I have a gift for languages." You respond, bragging only a little.

"Japanese?" Felix asked, now curious.

You nod.

"Chinese?"

"Several."

"Thai."

"Love their BL. They have some of the best out there. Was worth learning just to watch them."

"Really? BL?" Lino asked incredulous.

"We all have our guilty pleasures." You were way beyond being embarrassed about BL. Now you even watched it in public without so much as a blush.

"French?" Felix was still on the languages. Naming mostly places that Stray Kids went the most.

But this one always caught you some flack. "Ew, no."

"Ew?"

"Unpopular opinion, but I think the language is ugly. No offense to anyone! Just the sound of it doesn't scratch my brain right. More like nails on a chalkboard."

"So, you just never learned it?"

"More like I couldn't. Couldn't stomach it." No one pushed it.

You gave them another few seconds to process all the new information. Let it really sink in and marinate.

"Are you upset?"

Bin shook his head, eyes wide. He baby stepped to you and pulled you into a hug. "Shocked is all, I promise."

Letting out a breath, your shoulders dropped as you relaxed and placed your hands on his sides.

You rested your chin on his shoulder as he twisted back in forth in place soothingly.

"Well, I'm mad!" Seungmin declared.

Bin rubbed your back gently when you flinched lightly, unable to hide this one since you were being held by him.

"Minnie, you can't mean that." Han said softly.

But Seungmin nodded. "I'm mad I didn't figure it out sooner! The evidence of the lie is all right there!"

"You're not mad at Y/n, though, right?" Felix tried to clarify.

The alarm on your phone went off and you pulled away from Bin. "Doesn't matter. Times up. Gotta go." You quickly gathered your things and packed up. Maybe some time will cool Seungmin off and everything will be okay when you went home.

"The van isn't ready yet." Chan pointed out.

You shook your head. "I'll be at JYPE. I have to meet with several people and learn how your last social media expert did things. Don't wait up. I'll be really late tonight." You waved to the group with a smile and left quickly.

👁👄👁👄👁👄👁👄👁👄👁👄👁👄👁👄👁

General Taglist @stellasays45 @beebee18 @weird-bookworm @velvetmoonlght

Yet Unnamed Taglist: @fackeraccount @velvetmoonlght @hyunjinstolemyheart @vampkittenb82 @happy-jj @estella-novella @demigoddreamon-blog @tiana-maxivar @ms-flowergirl @jennibahng @whatdoyouwanttocallmefor @mimimiloomeelomi @simpforskz143148 @xxeiraxx @lil-bear08 @brbwritingfanfic @jisungs-iced-americano @zofia515 @missvanjiii @malyxsoulpersonal @silentreadersthings @pixie0627

[deadinthefanfics]

Housewardens x a reader who has selective mutism (platonic)

A/n: Hello this is my first time doing this I will try my best the reader is gender neutral in these headcanons ^_^

Riddle Rosehearts

☆) Riddle was honestly surprised on first meeting you. He was expecting to get someone on the immature side or likely the calm yet still manages to get themselves into chaos no matter what.

☆) When he tries to have an interaction with you seeing that you either whisper or mutter and he asks you to speak up you feel like shrinking away into a black hole. He never understood why it was so hard for you to not talk. Yeah speaking is such a simple action but he didn't know the reasoning behind you.

☆) After the overblot and realizing that it's really hard for you to talk no matter how much you try it's hard for you to do. He became more empathetic for you. But since you were out of trouble he liked you.

☆) He would likely help you when you are called on he would say the answer for you so you wouldn't have to say it.

☆) He also likes to walk and talk with you during passing periods and you get to listen along to him, even if you didn't say it in your words he could tell you didn't mind him by your facial expressions and your hand gestures. ☆) He also probably sets up your own formal language when it comes to unbirthday parties as such tapping your cup for more tea or tapping a certain part of your plate saying that you want more of a sweet.

Leona Kingscholar

☆) He honest didn't mind when you didn't speak that much. But if you are in any situation where you need help, he's here for you when you absolutely need it.

☆) He will maybe also lay on you or let you sit next to him since you are quiet and not bothering him when he sleeps.

☆) He will tease you when you are comfortable with him jabbing snarky jokes at you most common one he will use on you was "cat's got your tongue?"

☆) He will feel accomplished when you make a slight giggle or chuckle at his jokes when he makes them

☆) Will make anyone shut up if they try to bother you to speak or force you out of your comfort zone.

Azul Ashengrotto

☆) When he first met you he thought you were a spy since you stood awkwardly and it stood out from everyone else speaking so loudly. Or plotting against his schemes of forming contracts.

☆) When he found out you were nonverbal he formed more ideas for the monstro lounge since if they catered to regular people why not the quiet people? Or the introverts?

☆) Gives you a special pass so you can go into the quieter places when you needed to. While also gets advice from you on how to cater to the quieter people in which now they have to pay for the pass.

☆) Business is getting bigger since now they accommodate to the quiet side of NRC.

☆) When you do actually speak to him he feels a sense of pride that he build up a good relationship to speak.

Kalim Al-Asim

☆) When he first met you he was a bit surprised when you literally almost ran away when he spotted you. But you didn't and tried to be brave and you stayed and let him talk to you.

☆) When he found out you had trouble speaking he asks Jamil for help on how to talk to people like you.. In which now he knows how to talk to the shy people without scaring them away!

☆) Will buy your favorite things use that to your advantage since he is very nice.../j

☆) Passes you notes when he is bored and wants to have a conversation with you.

☆) He would be excited when you finally talk to him like as if a kid got the gift they wanted on their birthday and makes it KNOWN he is proud of you for finally talking.

Vil Schoenheit

☆) When at first Vil met you by just you accidentally bumping into each other and he apologizes in a bit of a mean way for bumping into you. But when he noticed that you were trying to form an apology he saw you now as "Idia Shroud 2.0"

☆) Does the same thing as Riddle asking you to speak up but to be more confident in yourself. But also does kind of understand why you were to be quiet but he doesn't really force you to do anything much.

☆) Vil will definitely provide you communication cards he custom designed at hand for you to communicate with the others.

☆) He would also likely make you his mannequin make you try on clothes for him. Since you are as silent as one so you would at least make a good acquaintance for him. ☆) When you finally talk to him he gets very proud like a father when you speak for the first time to him. Even if it were a little it still meant a lot to him.

Idia Shroud

☆) Idia would honestly not care that much he is just glad you are nice to him and you manage to surprisingly get him to open up about his interests and everything.

☆) I feel like whenever you actually talk even if its like muttering or the smallest whisper when he is like paying attention to a game he would get jumpy thinking it is someone else is in the room when its just you.

☆) Idia would allow you to borrow his tablet on rare ocassions when you do need to give out presentations or public speaking so you wouldn't feel the anxiety so much when speaking.

☆) Idia would allow you to be in his room as well and just let you watch him game and probably allow you to mess around with a few of his stuff.

☆) Idia would just allow you in his close circle in general as close as Ortho because of how awkward you are around people and seeing he is the same level as you he would be more delight talking to you.

Malleus Draconia

☆) He finds you very interesting. A child of man that has anxiety of speaking? He never seen one before let alone in person.

☆) He does like to be around you and try to ask you questions by giving you something to write on so that you can answer his questions.

☆) Would probably pat your head or rub your back when you feel anxious, or even more so hug you and would maybe never let go.

☆) Will smite down anyone who bothers you or makes you anxious. ☆) He will find it comforting since he also doesn't speak and someone of same nature could lead to good bonding.

Psst hey! My requests are open (^o^)

[thewadapan]

School Days review

Yeah, School Days is actually pretty good after all.

When you google "School Days", on the first page of results there's a reddit thread asking "hey, why do people hate this show?" OP gives a succinct summary of the show's themes and praises it for its tight focus and psychological depth.

The comments in that thread are fucking crazy. The top-voted comment includes this absolute gem: "Sekai is an emotionally manipulative bitch". Some users gesture towards a faint understanding that School Days is a deconstruction of harem anime, but almost to a one they claim the character writing is unrealistic. Nobody seems able to look past the show's metatextual meaning to just look at it on a straightup subtextual level—that is to say, it's not just being different to other anime for the sake of contrarianism, it's making a serious point about misogyny and toxic masculinity. Describing Makoto as a "character" at all is almost missing the point; he's practically a force of nature, and the vast majority of the show is concerned with the psychological manoeuvring of the girls in his class trying to manage and shape his behaviour.

I only know about School Days because @weaselandfriends is constantly banging a drum about it being a secret masterpiece. Gee, I wonder who the OP of that thread was! Cannot imagine being on a "School Days slaps" grindset for eight fucking years now.

(CW: discussion of underage sex, full spoilers follow)

I'm going to take a cowardly centrist route and say that School Days does in fact slap on a conceptual level, but that the execution in many places leaves a bit to be desired. It often feels repetitive. I watched the thing on 1.5x speed because, as someone who reads fast, watching subbed anime is like watching paint dry. The dialogue often feels awkward (unintentionally so, as in), which I'm willing to partially chalk up to the translation; maybe some of the clunkier lines feel more natural in the original Japanese. The imagery is often kind of laughably blunt: in some cases it works, like Kotonoha's red yarn like she's pulling her own fucking arteries out of her body, and in other cases it feels derivative and hackneyed, like the whistling kettle in the final episode. Maybe that was more original in 2007, I don't know—I would've seen the same thing in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire two years prior.

School Days does set out to pull the wool over the eyes of its presumably-mostly-young-men audience, by putting them in Makoto's POV. The show is adapted from an eroge, where the player literally would have inhabited Makoto and made his choices for him, and the "objective" of the game would have been to unlock sex scenes with all the schoolgirls. The trick with the anime is that it removes the possibility of choice, creating an impactful dissonance as Makoto's actions become increasingly alien and harmful. Inversely, as Makoto's sexual exploits escalate, we see less and less of them; by the end, the whole thing is routine, not eroticised in the slightest, we see people putting clothes on afterwards, sneaking around darkened rooms.

At the start, though, it's all panty shots and boobs. And like, how do you depict the objectification of women, from an internal perspective, without just... objectifying women? This has basically always been the classic problem with satire. If there is a way of doing it, School Days hasn't figured it out, so it just rolls up its sleeves and gets on with it. Where School Days stumbles, in my opinion, is that the fanservice shots leak out of Makoto's POV and into the scenes where it's just the girls on their own. Nevertheless, I think that even pretty early on School Days is unmistakably saying, "this is a bad thing". There's a discordant note to everything, a threat of another shoe waiting to drop. At the start, it takes the form of these innocuous remarks as the characters try to interact in good faith: Sekai is constantly like, "There's nothing wrong with feeling attracted to a girl! But maybe she doesn't feel comfortable with it! Have you thought about how she might feel?"

That's the great tension of Sekai, and indeed of much of the show's conflict: there is a world where Makoto and Sekai are just friends, and where Makoto is faithful to Kotonoha, and everyone lives happily ever after. Maybe Sekai really is earnestly trying to cross this gulf between genders, and wants to just make Makoto understand, so everyone can be happy. But from the start, there's a question of Sekai's motives; embodied by Sekai's friend Setsuna, who trails after her constantly asking, "But do you like him really?"

Setsuna is an interesting character with her own motives. There's a reading where she has a crush on Sekai, but can't pursue it because of her family's impending emigration; she ends up hanging around Makoto and desperately attempting to protect him from the consequences of his actions to preserve his relationship with Sekai, expressly stating that she wants Makoto to be a proxy for her after she's gone (though leaving any romantic feelings unspoken, that's just my interpretation). This escalates to the point of her having sex with Makoto on the condition that he breaks off another engagement with Otome, which is such a self-defeatingly doomed gambit that it becomes tragically clear Setsuna has lost all control over the situation. I got the impression that Setsuna somewhat envied the other girls' entanglements with Makoto: the bit where she kisses him while he's asleep, in an attempt to create a personal memory before she leaves forever, is haunting. Like Sekai, Setsuna ends up manufacturing a romance between herself and Makoto as a way to be with him "by proxy", without earnestly confronting her own feelings.

Anyway, my point is that early on, everyone is treating Makoto like a person, which is sort of their mistake. They're like, oh, a boy with a crush, how cute! What's the worst that could come of this? He's a bit clumsy, but I'm sure he means well! And progressively, mercilessly, the show is like: no, he does not mean well. This dude has absolutely nothing in his life except sex. Girls only exist to him as people to have sex with. Guys practically don't exist, as he can't have sex with them. And for these teenagers who are discovering their sexuality, the very fact that Makoto soon starts having these rumours circulating around him is what gives him some allure: he's a sexual entity, he can be thought of in that way, there must be some reason all these girls are acting so crazy over him. Even a character like Hikari, who early on was crushing heavily on the anime's one (1) other male character, Taisuke, ends up taking her turn with Makoto; whatever feelings she had for Taisuke are forgotten, the anime doesn't even bother establishing how that romance works, because it doesn't need to, we've already seen Makoto use his exact same wiles on like three girls already.

School Days has aged well not just because the years since have yielded a better cultural understanding of its subject matter, but for its "production design": what would have been a timely present-day setting at the point of its release ends up turning the whole thing into an early-2000s period-piece. The fashion and environments are distinctly noughties. Perhaps the most consistent bit of visual symbolism in the whole thing is the flip-phone: whenever a character is holding their phone, you can think of them holding their heart in their hands. They're like the fucking soul gems from Madoka Magica. Sometimes, people leave their hearts in the other room, or block each others' hearts, or search their hearts for good memories. The "cell phone charm" from the first episode is brought up towards the very end, seeming bitterly quaint in retrospect. Right before she kills him, Sekai sends Makoto a text which just reads "sorry" copied and pasted hundreds of times. And of course, the ED shows a propped-open cellphone with a slideshow of photos of the girls.

I think in terms of its place in history, School Days speaks to this information age where young girls are being bombarded with cultural messaging that the best way to get ahead is to sexualise oneself while simultaneously slamming everyone else for their sexuality. Girls aren't just competing with one another for the attention of boys; now, they're competing with online pornography. Sekai works as a waitress at a maid cafe (?), and sometimes wears the outfit for Makoto when they have sex. During the School Festival, the girls theme their class as a maid cafe (drawing on Sekai's experience, I think?), and are shown using "absolute territory" as a last-ditch resort to steal people from the other classes. As part of the festival, they have a secluded area curtained off with a bed, encouraging couples to go there for sex acts—but later, it turns out some of the girls have set up a camcorder, and they use the footage to reveal how everyone is cheating on everyone else. While the exact events are obviously taken to an extreme, subtextually everything in School Days tracks 100% with my own experience growing up in a Bri'ish high school, and it feels like things have only gotten worse since social media really tightened its grip on our society.

The most common talking point I see regarding this show is that the characters are "stupid". And it's like, no, they're not stupid, what planet are you on, they're fucking children! (They're children, fucking!) Most of them have probably never been in a relationship before! Everyone in the show is pursuing their own interests; it's just that often, they're in denial about the reality of the situation, because to acknowledge the reality would run against those interests. It's funny, Makoto hardly changes his behaviour throughout the whole show—it just becomes more extreme—but the only thing that affects whether or not his behaviour with Sekai is good or not is whether or not Kotonoha is his girlfriend. The use of "girlfriend" as a role is weaponised by both Kotonoha and Sekai against the other constantly; like declaring "you're It!" At once point while cooking for the school festival, Makoto starts groping Sekai's ass, and she goes, "Geez, stop it! Stop it I said! What'll you do if someone sees us?", only for Makoto to reply, "Then it's okay if no-one sees us?"; this motif of a private sin recurs with Setsuna's character, particularly in the masked play that crops up a couple of times. In what context is an act of desire okay, or not okay?

Halfway through the show, I remembered Emily is Away, a short Western indie visual novel. Released in 2015, Emily is Away is very consciously an early-2000s period piece, wearing the whole time period as an affectation. The whole game is a series of text conversations on an IM client with a girl; after key choices, you are told "emily will remember that".

I fucking hated Emily is Away when I played it. It made me so, so cross. Because after I finished my first playthrough, and got a miserable, unsatisfying end, I naturally started the whole thing over and tried again. I picked different favourite bands. I acted completely differently. And yet, no matter what I picked, during the timeskips between sections, my viewpoint character would do the exact same shit and the relationship fell apart in exactly the same way. The second playthrough was a complete waste of time. It seemed like I, the player, was being railroaded, that the writer simply hadn't the imagination to conceive of a truly interactive narrative with a wildly diverging chain of events.

But of course, that's the whole point, obviously. Emily is Away plays a mean trick on the player, where it outright lies that "you" are making meaningful choices, when in fact "you" are merely spectating the actions of the viewpoint character, a specific guy who is, by nature, a certain way. It posits that all this shit on the computer just doesn't fucking matter, it has nothing to do with how we feel about each other, that it's only our actions in the real world that matter. The thesis of Emily is Away is that sometimes, for some immutable reason, shit just doesn't work out between two people, and there's nothing you could have done differently that would have changed that.

In the timeline where you go the party, you regret going to the party. In the timeline where you don't go, you regret not going. So, the game says, what's the point in regretting at all?

I totally understood this, after finishing the game. But, fuck, I was still pissed about it. The game lied to my face. It put me in the position of being a shitty person, and I didn't like that. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm still not sure if Emily is Away is actually any good; I think I like it conceptually, but maybe the writing sucks, I played it eight years ago. My point is that I think School Days is trying to pull the same trick as this one game, but in a much more mean-spirited way, to much more devastating effect, and I suppose I can't be too surprised that it pissed off a lot of people. If I hadn't known upfront what to expect- well, I wouldn't be watching ecchi anime in the first place, but you get the point, maybe I would've been pissed too.

If you break out of the "anime" mindset for even a second, and allow yourself to think that what you're watching is a frank portrayal of events, rather than some hyperreal cartoon, then Makoto is obviously just a little sexual predator. He's constantly pushing the girls past their limits, groping tits, going in for kisses, often against their express wishes. He initiates all the sex we see, and while in a certain sense it's all consensual, everyone involved is under the age of consent, and the show is making a very strong case for why underaged sex is a problem. When Sekai gets pregnant, Makoto wants nothing to do with her—"It's not my fault!"—but it's made clear he wasn't using any contraception, so, c'mon.

School Days is very deliberate in omitting adult characters entirely. Teachers mostly exist in the form of textbooks being read offscreen. I think we get a line of dialogue from Sekai's mom, if I remember right? It presents this world where Makoto basically has free reign to do whatever he wants to the girls, and everybody knows about it, but nobody is doing anything about it. When Sekai murders Makoto, there isn't a scene where anyone notices his absence, finds out. Kotonoha carries his severed head across town without anyone noticing, kills Sekai, and makes it onto the boat without getting caught. The show ends on a montage of idyllic school scenes, as if to say, "nobody noticed, everything just carried on". And again, to a certain kind of guy, I think this would stretch plausibility to the point of causing offence. For me, I think it's speaking to something very real.

Makoto's bedroom is barren except for his computer and magazines: porn, and porn. In the back half of the show, the void left by the absence of adults is filled by Makoto, Sekai, and Kotonoha, who are thrust into this horrible domestic drama, as everyone else in their class blocks Makoto. Makoto relays Kotonoha's recommendation for an abortion clinic to Sekai. He and Sekai sit diagonally across a table in a living room, and suddenly Makoto's school uniform looks like a salaryman's suit, a size too big for him, like he's walking around in his dad's clothes. Sekai tries to prepare a big meal for him, in a fucked-up parody of domesticity, but ends up destroying the whole thing after Makoto spits in her face yet again; later, she sees the remnants in the trash, an uneaten chicken leg poking out, and sees a little of herself in there, and that's basically when she decides to take the knife and kill Makoto. She stabs him in the belly, which is what Kotonoha will later do to her; both are imitating the original sin of the pregnancy.

Kotonoha explicitly chooses to kill Sekai this way because she believes Sekai is lying about the pregnancy—which we can pretty safely say isn't true, based on the scenes where Sekai is on her own. There's this horrible, horrible shot where the camera is looking out at Kotonoha from inside the gut wound, and she observes, "Just as I thought. There's no-one in there." And it's like, is she talking about this baby, still so early in the gestation that it's scarcely even an idea? Is she talking about Sekai, or Makoto, these two people who turned out not to care about her at all? Or is she peering straight through the screen at the viewer, complicit in this atrocity? The shot mirrors the bag containing Makoto's head earlier in the same scene; when Sekai unzips it, the inside is just a black void, and we aren't shown the contents. It's honestly more unsettling to infer it—that bag's not big enough for all of Makoto—and have it "made real" by that final shot of Kotonoha pressing the severed head into her chest on the boat. The memes were more right than they knew: "Nice boat."

Overall, I think School Days extends a lot of empathy towards its female characters. Or, if nothing else, it takes care to give them complex and distinctive internality, which is more than I can say for a lot of anime. Kotonoha initially represses her feelings for Makoto, and then when she feels pressured into reciprocating his intimacy, she soon gets turned into a social pariah for it. Early on, there's this eye-roll-inducing scene where Kotonoha is like "the other girls used to make fun of me because of my huge boobs", and from Makoto's perspective it's like "great, you've got huge boobs!", but then from Kotonoha's perspective, she spends the whole show getting slut-shamed, doesn't she? As a coping mechanism, she builds up elaborate delusions around Makoto—Makoto wouldn't let this happen to her, would he!?—which make it impossible for her to see how he's harming Sekai at the same time, culminating in the "I think you've made up your pregnancy for attention" beat. Their own internalised misogyny prevents the girls from identifying their common enemy.

If I'm being totally blunt, I feel like I can pretty safely put most of the comments regarding School Days I've seen online into a big bucket labelled "HAS NEVER HAD MORE THAN ONE GIRL INTERESTED IN HIM AT ONCE". Like, "I can't believe this Makoto guy! Why doesn't he just dump Kotonoha and date Sekai, who he's obviously more compatible with?" Bucket. "Makoto is so spineless and needs to stop letting these girls manipulate him!" Bucket. "There's no way the teachers would let him get away with this!" Bucket. "What do these girls see in Makoto anyway?" Bucket. "Sekai is such a bitch!" A new, bigger bucket labelled "NO BITCHES".

What I'm interested in is takes from School Days haters who aren't brainpoisoned anime fans, who might even nod along to all my analysis of the show's themes here, but who nevertheless think it's a bad show that deserves to be reviled. What part didn't you like? Is it the part in the OP where you see every female character naked one after the other? Yeah that part's pretty bad. Is it that windowpane-shattering digital transition that gets used once or twice? Is it the utter self-seriousness with which it tackles its ludicrous melodrama? I can see how, if you don't let yourself start to think "oh, those poor girls!", if you don't have that emotional buy-in, the whole thing might just feel comically edgy, sophomoric. I don't think there's any level on which School Days is fun to watch, and I'm not saying it's a secret masterpiece either, but I guess it more-or-less landed for me.

[ewingstan]

Hrm. I'm aware that there's a common narrative that Ward suffered from wb steering the text to directly respond to people who gave Amy too much credit. I've already given my thoughts on the way Amy's character has been handled so far—I certainly understand how people would see Amy's increasing propensity to give weak excuses to her actions and read them as wb strawmanning their own reactions to the text. Strictly speaking though, it didn't have to be read that way— its possible, for instance, that Amy's development was driven by wb really wanting Breakthrough's struggles with becoming better people to be contrasted against a villain who's too prone to abdicate responsibility to grow. I have my misgivings about that as a theme, but it is in line with the broader focus of the text, and doesn't rely on an assumption that wb is writing her that way to pwn commenters.

Eric though. Eric really does just seem inexplicable unless you read him as wildbow getting frustrated at certain parts of his fanbase and wanting to dress them down. At least when Amy gave weak justifications for herself, it was for herself—there's a legible reason why she'd do it in the first place. And as I said, it served a thematic purpose of contrasting Breakthrough's attempts to get better by taking responsibility for their actions with Amy spiraling from a refusal to do the same. What similar thematic purpose is Eric showing? What purpose is he serving at all, outside of claiming that people who "defend" Amy are the type of people who don't face real hardship and stare at women's boobs?

The type of defense here is important to note, because the main thing he does is push back against Victoria reading everything Amy does in the worst possible light. This is behavior that makes sense in a comment section when you're trying to detangle your own feelings about a character from a narrator who has a justifiably hostile perspective towards her. It's not the behavior of someone responding to a current crisis event. And it's not the behavior of someone talking to Victoria rather than other readers, considering how obvious Vicky makes it that there's history between her and Amy. Yes, the oddity of that reaction is to some degree intentional, in that its supposed to make Victoria feel increasingly alienated from those around her—but Eric also seems to be getting posed as a synecdoche for non-capes in general here, a representative of a common type of thinking, rather than a wackadoodle who choose a very bad time to defend a stranger's intentions.

On that point. I don't think that wildbow is fully uncritical of Victoria's tendency to fully dehumanize some of her more heinous enemies, or her tendency to see the unpowered masses she's nominally acting in service of as just not understanding the Great Sacrifices™ and Tough Choices™ of their protectors. Ward has flirted with those attitudes in the past, but there's usually enough tension in the framing to suggest it's not fully the intended takeaway. And I don't want to overstate my case, because even here the framing pushes against some of what Victoria takes away from Eric—its made clear that Victoria's in a particularly ugly state of mind right now. The characterization of Larue right afterwards pushes back somewhat against her attitude towards non-capes, and the conversation with Jessica made the idea of seeing Amy's perspective on an issue, and the idea of denying a villain's full responsibility for their actions, seem less ridiculous on its face. Reading Eric's inclusion in the best possible light, I'd see him as the text introducing certain ideas in an unflattering light in order to make Jessica's later reaffirmation of the theme that everyone can act horribly in the right circumstances hit that much harder.

But Eric really feels like who'd you write when you wanted to complain about the bleeding hearts. His presentation is much more what I'd expect from a jingoistic action flick, the most unflattering caricature of someone who wants basic limitations on the actions of cops and soldier. Very "decadent ivory tower cultural relativist who wants you to consider the drug lord/terrorist/rapist degenerate's point of view," who's putting obstacles in the way of the action hero's righteous and necessary cleansing crusade against the subhuman hoards. Why the fuck is a character made to support the worldview of Dirty Harry or the fucking Turner Diaries in a wildbow novel?

[astroyongie]

can you do seventeen toxic love traits please 🙂‍↕️

Seventeen Toxic Love Traits

Scoups

Attention-Seeking – scoups is unfortunately the type to flirt with others for validation since due to his lower self esteem, he feels good when knowing that people like him or find him attractive even when he is in a relationship

Wonwoo

Manipulative Communication – won woo is the type to twist words to win during arguments and during period where he wants things his way. he is extremely good at communicative manipulation and gaslighting

Mingyu

Controlling – Mingyu is the type who wants to dictate everything in the relationship which can be sometimes very overwhelming. he wants to be the man of the relationship but often, his controlative nature can be toxic

Vernon

Emotionally Cold – Vernon is the type to struggles a lot with emotional intimacy even with his partner. so he doesn't show his emotions much, doesnt communicate and he can feel very distance even during intimacy

Hoshi

Two-Faced Love – Hoshi is the type who says one thing at one given moment but then he does another. so his actions never are in accordance to what he says which can be quite infuriating. you never know when to trust him

Jun

Emotionally Inconsistent – Jun is the type to feel different every day of the week and that makes him very hard to deal with. because you never know how to access his feelings or understand what might have triggered his mood swings as well

The8

Overly Practical – The8 is the type who views love as a business deal and not really as an emotional connection. to him his relationships need to have goals and meaning, and purposes. he would be with someone for the sake of love if there isnt financial interestes behind for exemple

Dino

Puts Work First – Dino is the type to always neglect his relationships for success. which means that to him, his job comes first, his relationship comes after and his partner needs to accept that or else they will be quite unhappy

Woozi

Manipulative Charm – woozy is the type who uses kindness to control his partner, so yeah it's a form of gaslight and even "grooming" in a way. Since he will manipulate his partner into keeping them where he needs

Jeonghan

Avoids Conflict – Jeonghan's is the type to hide his problems and the relationship problems until they explode. and when they explode he can get impulsive and aggressive and his communication is then, terrible

Joshua

Avoids Deep Conversations – Joshua is the type who prefers intellectual talks over emotions. talking about feelings or emotional connection can make him feel very uncomfortable so he will avoid those topics

DK

Unpredictable & Inconsistent – DK is the type who changes his mind frequently about things so it can be quite frustrating of this partner. he often seems like he doesnt know what to do with the relationship. his actions are also unpredictable which makes you confuse

Seungkwan

Controlling & Rigid – Seungkwan is the type who wants things done his way only since it can trigger him if you try to change his routine and habits. because of that he can become very controlling and rigid in the relationship

[luvmyboyss]

SAVIOR | SATORU GOJO

✮ Pairing: Gojo Satoru x Fem!Reader

✮ Synopsis: You were trapped in a monotonous life, every day was the same, same routine, same boring people, same boring boyfriend, untill one day it just changed.

✮ Warnings: Stalking, fainting, mentioned panick attack, anxiety

✮ Word count: 1.3k

✮ A/N: I'm thinking about making more parts obiously, but let me know what you think about it, if you like it or not. Also i'm still learning to put warnings so if anyone notice some missing please let me kno. Thank you!

✮ PS: Thank you @hyuneskkami for the blue dividers!! 🫶🏻😭

You were tired, all the days were the same schedule, every day that passed you were more tired, what you should do? You didn’t know, but you felt trapped in a loop, doing the same each morning, each midday and each night.

At 6:30 your boyfriend, who didn’t even want to marry you, after 7 years, you thought the day was coming, but it never happened. He wakes up, and instead of trying to be as subtle as he can so you can rest for 30 more minutes, he is the loudest person you’ve ever met. He goes to the bathroom and the only thing that you are praying is for him to just stay as quiet as he can.

At 7:00 your alarm goes off, and it’s a good thing that your boyfriend is now out of your room, so you can take a nice shower to try to stay calm and start the day nicely. You change into boring clothes, because after trying to be more stylish for a while, you noticed that everyone in the office stared at you, and at first you didn’t care, but after some time and lots and lots of whispering, laughter and mean looks, you started to be more like them.

By the time 8:00 rolls your boyfriend is already out of your tiny apartment and you eat your breakfast alone, the silence feels heavy, and you hate it, but still get trough it because in fifteen minutes you will be taking the train, because you’d be damned if your bf lends you the car you both paid for. 

Then, from 9:00 to 17:00-17:30 you work your ass off and with just some time to eat your lunch and relax, and all you can really think about in that time is how you wished you’d be somewhere else, living your life fully, and even tho you were still young you felt like this was your life for the rest of your stance in the world.

Around 17:45-18:15 you finally get home, no boyfriend at sight, and you are very tired, but still have to do dinner and both of your lunches for tomorrow, because he didn’t like it when meals weren’t done, ‘cause if you spend so much time home why don’t use it wisely? If not you will be met with the consequences of your actions, or lack of them in this case.

When your boyfriend arrives at 20:00 the table is already set, and you are preparing the lunches for tomorrow and setting them in a place where he can see them or he’ll get mad. 

You both eat and even though it hurts you, neither of you talks, and you still did not so long ago, but seeing that he didn’t care and didn’t listen, you just stopped. You should have left him long ago but can’t understand why you still haven’t. You blame it on the fact that flats are expensive and living with someone takes half of it off. 

Around 21:00 you are in your bed ready to sleep but the TV from the living room is just so high, you’ve tried lots of different ways to stop the sound, lots and lots of ear plugs, but none worked, so now you roll on your bed until bf comes to bed and the TV is off.

At 23:00 when everyone is probably asleep, and you can hear your boyfriend snoring you wonder if there is really a meaning to life, if you are meant for this life and if this is how it’s going to be forever.

You hope it isn’t.

૮ ྀི◞͈ ˔ ◟͈ ྀིა

You woke up more happy this morning. Today you had to go shopping for groceries, and that broke your schedule a bit, and you liked that more than you let yourself to admit.

Around noon you got out and went shopping, walking around and getting to the center of the town seeing people expressing themselves made you feel alive again, but today felt different, you felt as if someone was watching you.

You let that pass as your brain tricking you. The thing is, you were indeed being watched by some white-haired man from some miles away.

You went home and started back your routine. It wasn't until some weeks later when you went out again, when that feeling of being watched came back, or rather stronger, because you'd been feeling it since that day when you went shopping.

You were walking around going to your trusted supermarket when you saw him, and how could you not? Even when he was sitting he stood out over everyone else.

Who was that white-haired guy sitting on a bench in front of your supermarket? Why was he wearing a blindfold? Why was he so...ethereal?

Deciding not to pay any attention to him, you get to get your groceries. Everything went well but after like an hour when you got out of there he was still there, and for you it seemed weird because even though he wasn't looking in your direction and wearing a blindfold, you still felt like he was watching you.

As always the longer route seemed more appealing so its the one you chose, half the rout in the feeling of being watched was still there. You couldn't shake it off, and then you saw him.

Even though the reflection wasn't the clearest you could identify him from miles away. Who could't? And he was... following you? 

"No, no it must have been a coincidence he couldn't be following me, right" you thought, but still weren't sure at all.

After some more turns and straights, the reflection gave him away again.

"Now he is following for sure"

You speed up your peace and soon enough the entry to your building was right there. After looking at both directions and seeing the white hair weirdo wasn't there, you decided to enter.

૮ ྀི◞͈ ˔ ◟͈ ྀིა

The next week you felt watched every hour of the day, everyday, it was exhausting, at some point you even felt sick, it was very bad, your body was telling you to stop doing the thing that made you that anxious, you were anxious all the time, you. You thought you even had some small panick atacks.

One day while you were in the office your body had enough and you ended up blocking yourself in the bathroom.

You felt like everyone was watching your every move, you were out of your mind so you did what anyone would do, you took the day off and packed to get home.

Just after getting out you saw him, sitting on a bench but this time he was looking at you, or so you thought 'cause he was still wearing that blindfold.

At that moment, you freaked the fuck out, you started sprinting home, you didn't care about anything, after some meters you turned to another place, the police.

If he was still following you, he was going to meet the consequences.

When you arrived, you waited a minute to see if he was there, but he was nowhere to be seen, so you decided to go back home. 

When you were taking the lift to your floor your heart was racing, you wanted to stay home forever, you swore if you saw him again you were truly filing a police report and moving to another country.

You opened the door to your flat, but there was something weird. You couldn't point at it but the feeling wouldn't go away. And then you saw him.

"What the fuck!"

Your reaction was to leave your apartment, but for some reason there was something blocking the entryway. It made the outside blurry and now that you noticed the light from the outside seemed blurry too.

When he moved, panick moved through your body and you couldn't move "fuck" you thought. 

"Hey you don't need to worry, I'm not trying to do something bad to you, I'm here to talk about something important with you, it is..."

You couldn't even hear what he said because you fainted.

[madwhimsical]

i am still slowly rewatching The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, and like, I know the basic shapes of the arcs, I remember Scratch growing to care for Molly across s1. but the thing about going through each episode with a fine-toothed comb is, i am seeing this shift start to happen in significant ways a lot sooner than I thought it did. Like, in-the-second-episode sooner.

On the one hand, I understand a show needing to establish its character dynamic status quo early on. Episode 1 did a great job of that initial setup, and also preparing the audience to expect a kind of slowburn of Scratch's emotional walls coming down (I'm looking at you, the oblique Scratch-as-Andrea apology at the end of First Day Frights). This kind of vibe continues in Howlin' Harriet, as Scratch invents "safe" reasons for hanging around Molly (e.g. using the camping trip to pad out his scare report). And the show could have run with only this formula for a while: Molly's doing a thing, find an excuse to be on the periphery, grouse about it, but ultimately acquiesce and become invested. In fact, this is pretty much the setup for ep 3's Getting the Band(Shell) Back Together.

But something interesting happens in ep 2's The (Un)Natural. Tammy rips on Molly's lack of pitching skill, and Scratch intervenes (i will refrain from talking here about how protective Scratch is of Molly's feelings already, although it is a catalyst). Crucially, and allow me to continue the softball metaphor here, Scratch approaches clowning on Tammy/the Skylarks in a way that positions Molly and himself as being on the same team.

He's still denying friendship motivating his actions, but Scratch is unequivocally excited about cheating at playing softball with Molly. He outright says, "I cannot wait until the next game when we do it all over again!" And I find this use of "we" significant, because I think this is the first instance he's used first person plural to designate Molly as being part of his personal sphere/plans. Any other time he's used "we" in reference to Molly, it's been more in service of convincing her to exit an activity/situation he'd rather not bother with (hell, he does this earlier in this same ep, to try to persuade Molly to leave the Lemmings well enough alone so he can take a nap). But the guy is having fun alongside Molly here, rather than despite her or at her expense. He's enjoying having a reason to pal around with her, to say nothing of having a kind of blanket approval to be a little bit of a stinker to the other teams via ghost powers. I talked earlier about "safe" reasons to enjoy Molly's company, and i think being aligned against a common adversary accomplishes that for Scratch in that he could plausibly claim he was simply enjoying haunting them. This allows him a freedom to be more openly enthusiastic about the ongoing events without having to show vulnerability regarding his growing fondness for Molly. And across the subsequent games, he looks like he's super enjoying himself, like

He's having a blast, he's being silly! He's doing little antics to get Molly's attention so she can share in his good time! Like, the degree to which Scratch reaches out to Molly this episode is kind of mindboggling for how early in the series we are. I did not expect this level of sincere engagement from Scratch until a while later. And when Tammy jabs at Molly yet again, he invites Molly to give input on how to get back at her. There's another usage of first person plural here, too: "Let's just take this jerk down". He's specifically positioning them together, against Tammy, on Molly's behalf.

I think it's also worth mentioning that by this point, Scratch is legitimately invested in the Lemmings' success, like. He does not want to see them lose this game. And when Libby brings home the win, it's a win they share alongside each other.

Tellingly, as the Lemmings are celebrating their championship victory, Molly and Scratch are situated in the stands, apart from the group. A part of their own team. Molly even echoes this sentiment back to Scratch, vis-a-vis her aim to inspire confidence in the Lemmings: "We did it."

This level of support from Scratch is not consistent yet (he pretty immediately reverts to professing disengagement from Molly and her family in the very next episode), but I was so surprised to see it here this plainly. I guess that's the power of sports!

[the-fallen-blue]

Aveline is a fascinating example of a phenomenon I like to call "expectation bias." Because let's be real, Aveline is a dirty cop who makes exceptions to the law for her friends. She makes Hawke deal with things, from thugs in the street to qamek terrorism, that are the Guard's job, but also like. Dangerous, and Maker forbid she put her own people at risk, even to protect civilians, even though that is their one and only reason to exist as an organization. She botches the Lily Killer investigation, she only doesn't show Donnic favoritism because he gets mad when she tries, she puts rapists on administrative leave and is thus a major contributor to the disaster with the Arishok. She's a disaster who's actively corrupt and bad at her job.

However.

Isabela is a pirate who is the only reason the Qunari were even in Kirkwall to cause the disaster with the Arishok in the first place, who will not even return to try to fix the problem she caused unless Hawke makes a point of befriending her. Fenris murdered an entire group of Fog Warriors who had been protecting him, can hypocritically murder his own sister for doing the exact thing he did with the Fog Warriors for the same reason, will look a romanced mage Hawke directly in the face and say "what does magic touch that it doesn't spoil." Merrill brings a formerly Blighted artifact that she doesn't understand into a thin-Veiled, densely-populated city and spends seven years projecting all responsibility for her own actions onto her clan and being mad when they don't thank her for it. We hardly need to talk about what Anders gets up to, and even Varric is the most #bothsides centrist fence-sitter who ever sat on a fence, which is not a great trait in someone who could probably have set himself up as Viscount the minute Dumar died and saved everyone a lot of pain and suffering. All of these people are corrupt disaster shitbags. Aveline is not special! Every single member of the Kirkwall Crew is an ugly mess, and every single one of them is that ugly mess because of profound trauma, and generally speaking, we understand that and forgive them their vices and love them for their virtues.

But with the rest of them, their trauma is upfront. Their dirt is upfront. This is a pirate, this is a deserter twice over, this is an exile who practices magic that everyone in the setting, including her own people, condemn as evil. The player is presented with a flawed character, and expects and embraces the flaws they find. And in this and this alone, Aveline is different. Aveline claims to stand for Order, for the law, for doing the right thing. She's a guard, a keeper of the peace. The player is presented with an archetype of righteousness, and when they find flaws, they pull up hard, immediately condemning them. Is anything Aveline does worse than murdering the people who took care of you at your enemy's behest, or starting a minor war that gets half a city killed out of selfishness? Of course not. But we never expected better from Fenris and Isabela. Aveline, though. Aveline's supposed to be good, right? She has no leeway to make mistakes at all.

"aveline is just a cop who only cares about maintaining the status quo and actively works against the underprivileged" aveline is an ex-soldier who lost her men, her home, and her husband all on the same day because of one man's attempt at seizing power for himself and has made it her purpose to ensure that no one will ever be used as disposable fodder under her watch again. should hawke challenge her authority and her decisions the player will slowly realize the hard armor she wears is chipping away and the woman underneath the role she has forced herself into is deeply insecure and constantly second guessing herself and her capabilities as a leader and the reason she is so staunch in her adherence to protocol is because she's learned that even a millisecond of hesitation leads to loss of life. aveline is literally loyal to a Fault and this is immediately shown all the way at the beginning when she willfully follows hawke into the criminal underworld and even continues keeping the guard off your back when she's earned enough coin to stand on her own without you and btw she is literally the most difficult companion to drive out in the endgame she will literally Only leave hawke if for some reason you just straight up ignored her entire questline she abandons her own values time and time again throughout the entire game for anders for merrill for varric for fenris for ISABELA because despite her surface level actions being so rigidly tied to the law aveline is dictated only by her love for her friends and comrades

[knockknockitsnickels]

I think this is one of my favorite lines from the Wraith route because of (imo) how much the meaning changes depending on if you got there via Spectre or Nightmare. For Spectre, it honestly strikes me as a genuine question. Why are you doing this to her? If you're on the Spectre route, you presumably already know the Narrator can't really be trusted, since you had to reject his reward to get here. What are you hoping to gain from continuing to hurt her? For Nightmare, it honestly just makes me sad. As the Shifting Mound describes her, "She desires only companionship, but the only thing she knows is how to hurt." This line feels like a plea from someone who genuinely doesn't understand why you keep rejecting her. She wants to be with you, but she just can't understand how to do that in a way which doesn't hurt you.

[wonder-worker]

"[Elizabeth Woodville's] piety as queen seems to have been broadly conventional for a fifteenth-century royal, encompassing pilgrimages, membership of various fraternities, a particular devotion to her name saint, notable generosity to the Carthusians, and the foundation of a chantry at Westminster after her son was born there. ['On other occasions she supported planned religious foundations in London, […] made generous gifts to Eton College, and petitioned the pope to extend the circumstances in which indulgences could be acquired by observing the feast of the Visitation']. One possible indicator of a more personal, and more sophisticated, thread in her piety is a book of Hours of the Guardian Angel which Sutton and Visser-Fuchs have argued was commissioned for her, very possibly at her request."

-J.L. Laynesmith, "Elizabeth Woodville: The Knight's Widow", Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty

[sunnynardelli]

It was never easy to tell when banter was just banter and when there was a little more weight to it. Sunny tried to never read too much into the words of others. She had embarrassed herself more times that she would have liked to admit by thinking people were into her (or worse hated). Unless they were explicitly clear, she would just laugh at it and roll her eyes. Even when they were, she did the same. “I never said it was true just that there are people who think it,” she said, shaking her head. There was definitely truth to that too. “Maybe the people who have had to deal with the real me should start a class action lawsuit against them for misrepresentation.” That’s was definitely an idea. It was definitely better that someone else have to pay it than herself. She wasn’t overly concerned about anyone actually pulling that though. They were more likely to try and come out of the woodwork and sue her for something relating to her business. They could try but she did have a lawyer dad. His focus might not have been bullshit lawsuits but he’d have figured something out or called on favors for friends. “Isn’t it better to be upfront about who you are so there aren’t any misconceptions?” she asked in return to his question. “I mean, maybe it would be better to wait a few times but honestly if they can’t handle the truth why are you even going to want to bother dragging it out. It’s better to run people off immediately.” And she was relatively good at that. That and knowing things about town. “There are. I mean, the trick is finding one’s that aren’t on private property. Trespassing is just the first thing in the quest for possible death.”

Sunny wasn’t a risk taker. Not even remotely. Growing up, she’d always been the kind of person who played it safe. She wasn’t likely to be caught dead jumping off a cliff. She’d tried a thing or two with limited chance of damage or chaos a time or two but she was much more content to keep her days downtown, running her bar or trying different foods. “That’s nearly an impossible feat though. I mean, trust me when I say, it is very rare for the dream to stack up,” she confessed. It was a bit like not meeting your idols, they were bound to disappoint you. She’d definitely put people on a pedestal only to have reality come crashing down on her later. “That is precisely it. I mean, I’m not sure what your after life would have in store for you but there is potential and at the end of the day, that people is enough to enter it with hope. I do have to warn you that she’s a bit of a screamer. Well, crier to be more precise but it comes out like a bit of wail – Maybe a partner in crime is what she needs to knock it out.” It made sense to her in her New Years Sleep Deprived brain. She nodded, willing to accept that neither of them actually wanted him to die. “I do a pretty good job of leaving things in random places on my own though honestly no one has to die to do that sort of things,” she told him. She listened to him talk, nodding as he talked about all the things he wanted to do with his son. She didn’t have any person experience in her life to relate to it but she could understand wanting to teach and encourage your kid to love and appreciate the things that were important to you. “Between your interests and his mom’s, he’s going either going to be the biggest hipster or completely rebel to the music and outdoors and become some sort of straight laced business man. It’ll be entertaining to watch.” You couldn’t really predict whether a person was going to run toward their genetic predispositions or against them. She snorted at the mention of booktok. “It’s okay. Men can be into spicy books too.”

Following and talking along the way was definitely the way to go. She felt a little warmer moving than she did standing around. Then again, moving from the beach and the breeze helped a little in that department as well. “It’s too late,” she said, “I’m afraid the image is already there and soon you will be known as the freezer fuck guy. You’ll be a legend. A questionable legend who people aren’t completely sure if they can trust but a legend never the less.” She did follow and wait, letting herself lounge against the wall while he got into warmer things. Her spiked hot chocolate was practically gone but it was okay since she’d soon have more. “You look less like an popsicle now,” she remarked taking in the sight of him. “And that will do. We don’t have far to go. Hopefully you can manage. I mean, we should start from the top with all the secrets.”

"All varieties of teasing are always on the table." A smirk tugging at his lips before laughing, his tongue darting out to wet his lips, tasting the saltiness of the water that still clung to his skin now. "Now who told you that you had an innocent appearance? Because they were lying, and you should get your money back." If there was one thing Ari could do, he could play the games too, she wanted to tease him, he could easily tease the blonde headed woman, at least she was being gracious enough to have talked to him so he wasn't standing on the beach completely alone, which had been the original plan. "Challenging and difficult, those are the two that you choose to start off with in telling someone about yourself? Brave, brave woman." Clicking his tongue, not sure if he was more impressed, amused, or fascinated by their conversation. "Believe you're supposed to save that information till you meet a person at least -- I don't know say the third time." Holding three of his fingers up as if driving the point really home. Though the blonde could do what she wanted, he just couldn't resist when she had offered up that information. "Mean there's the cliffs here, aren't there? Maybe it's not allowed to cliff jump from them, rocks below -- immediately crushes that rush, er -- figuratively and literally." Or maybe it was more turned into shredded human but there was no point in attempting to give more details to this story.

For Ari he was someone who was always up for an adventure, maybe you wouldn't actually find him cliff jumping but send him on a more difficult hike? Sign the man up. It was something he planned to do more of once the weather settled a bit more in Merrock and he could get outside, feel the crunch of his heavy boots back against the ground, it'd be that feeling of home for him. "That's all I could ever aim to be, a true gentleman, have to live up to someone's dreams." Ari quipped, tugging the towel tighter around his skin. "So you have one ghost lady, and you're willing to promote me. All I'm hearing is I'm winning at ghost life, and in the afterlife I'd at least have a friend, or maybe a ghost girlfriend, mean she's alone, I'm alone, haunting your for the rest of evermore might as well also make a partner out of it." It seemed like the only logical idea.

Giving a set nod, "You're not wrong, not something I want to think about anytime soon, actually happening. As much as haunting you until your last days probably would be far more amusing for me, than you. A person can only handle so many things going missing or ending up in random places before you know." Tapping the side of her temple indicating going a little crazy, but weren't they all in this world? "Definitely have a lot I want to teach him in this world so kind of have to stick around. Want him to learn to enjoy the outdoors, how to be kind and gentle with nature and animals." It was something he knew wouldn't happen for awhile, at least in the bigger sense there'd be years before he was taking him on adventures, but even in small ways he could make a change for the little boy. "Daddy Phantom sounds -- like you've been on booktok. Don't ask how I know about booktok either, you couldn't torture it out of me."

"I said that I'm freezing as fuck! Not that I fuck freezing -- wait, that -- no, definitely did not say that and I'm going to need you to make sure that you don't put out the image to anyone that I'm hanging around meat freezers. Are you trying to give the town of Merrock the idea I'm a serial killer? Not the vibe I'm trying to give, Sunny." As the blonde followed he rolled his eyes, "Apparently I'm far more exciting than you're giving me credit for, but I will take the liquor if you're offering now." Since this had all started over her playfully attempting to show off her spiked hot chocolate. Once inside it didn't take him long to dry off and change, emerging with his own hot drink, now far more suitable in a pair of jeans, his boots, and a simple button up. "Alright, I did make a pit stop for one of these, figure warm up and you show me the direction to this place you intend to take me to liquor me up and tap into all my secrets. Let's see how much game you have."

[ohsweetflips]

less discourse about characters’ actions being defensible/justifiable. it can be a fun discussion but ultimately it means nothing to me. more discussions about whether a character’s actions are understandable or not. whether a character is justified or not means shit to me when their actions are completely in accordance with their characterization.

[icharchivist]

French Lefties are on another level, in order to promote the new leftie alliance in order to counter the far right majority in the next elections, people have been working on promoting the alliance no matter what

..... with a visual novel/romance/dream daddy inspired dating game.

i'm losing my goddamn mind