#watched this through so many times I think it convinced me to get another copy jskdsjdkjskj /hj

[mercury-falls]

Thought I'd post my entry for Alex's #HoHoHorrible video contest on Twitter here!

I had a BLAST making this y'all have no idea 😂👏

[changisworld]

experiments

fem! Changbin x afab reader

word count:3,562

Summary: Binnie is your best friend & you both realise she is confused about her sexuality & she's curious on how it is to sleep with another girl, & who better to teach her than yourself?

18+, MDNI!! smut below the cut

©ANY translation, copy & paste, posting of my work is strictly forbidden for ANY posts/ writing i post.

main masterlist here

->SMUT WARNINGS: Big tittie binnie heheh, fingering (Bin rec), oral (both rec), face sitting (reader rec), nipple sucking (Bin rec), tribbing, multiple orgasms, pussy slaps, praise, kissing kissing kissing>:3, fluff!, open ending

You are sitting in your bedroom with your long term best friend, Binnie! You're both sprawled out on your bed & you're just rambling about random things that come to your minds as you both scroll through instagram.

"That's what I said! I'm just not interested in Hyunjin in that way but everyone else was calling me crazy!" Binnie squawks as she throws her hand in the air, trying to emphasise herself.

"Because you are crazy! how could you ever reject Hyunjin?! I'm convinced nobody is ever gonna be your type!" you remark, not bothering to turn your head to look at her as you keep aimlessly scrolling on your phone.

Binnie huffs & you giggle before continuing. "Maybe you just like girls, Bin, i've always said I can see it! If you can't even find yourself fancying Hyunjin even a tiny amount, i must be correct!" Binnie scoffs at your words & you turn to face her, & you don't fail to notice his chubby cheeks a tiny bit blushed & it's not because of her makeup.

"Y/nnie stopppp! I just.. haven't, I don't like thinking of that idea!" she whines as she playfully punches your arm & you can't help but giggle. "Why not? You've kissed so many girls so what's different? All our other friends see it too!" you tease as you wriggle enough to lay on her chest, not intending to do it in a provocative way, but you can't help but feel & also hear her heartbeat racing.

"Because i've thought about that a lot recently! But feelings are kinda weird to me y/nnie, you know what i'm like! it's just scary to think about!" she cries as she plays with your hair absent mindedly as she watches your phone screen.

"Hmmm, I just think you're delusional Binnie! If you just say it out loud, you'd feel a lot better, pinkie promise, I can hear your heartbeat through your chest!" you chuckle as you reach & put your hand over where her heart is, trying to get a better feel over her tits & she tenses up under you, which isn't something that usually happens.

"Fine! Well I've just been kinda thinking of girls in a different light for a while but recently it's been a bit.. more! & lesbian porn just turns me on is all!" she admits & you move your head in a slightly uncomfortable position so you can look up at her, her bob framing he pretty face.

"& is that all? Cmon Binnie we are best friends! just spit it out!" you prodd at her, knowing she will spill the beans, especially after pulling the best friend card.

"I just, fine! I'm curious on how pussy tastes too! I watch lots of oral videos & i'm curious on how it tastes. Y/nnieeeee, tell me" he replies, her hands covering her face in embarrassment & you sit up fully, giggling & you boop her nose with your index finger & you straddle her, which isn't something uncommon for you both, but given the current conversation, you can't help but get a tiny bit fuzzy inside.

"Whyyyyy?" you tease her & she whines as she takes your hands & waves them around playfully. "Well why do you think, silly! I wanna try it but I wanna be prepared, I wanna know how I taste so I know if I'll need to chug cranberry juice every time I have sex!" she blabs, giggling up at you, her eyes trying their absolute hardest to not wander down to baggy sleep shirt, the neckline showing your tits in the hunched over position you're sitting in.

"You're so silly it's adorable Bin! It kinda tastes like warm skin, kinda like sucking & licking on your arm but it's just more wet but it has the tiniest tiniest tiniest more salty kinda taste too? & If you stick your tongue inside it kinda feels like someone is hugging your tongue & it tastes different, more strong in a way? but in a really good way!" you reply, sounding giddy. "We can just try it if you're that curious, for experience & all that, unless you already like someone n that's why you're so curious?" you almost queeze at your own words, wishing you could take it back because you've just realised this a bit far.

Binnie looks up at you with wide eyes & her face turns rosey red, even more than what it already was before & she awkwardly giggles. "How do you know I was waiting for someone?" she speaks in a shy tone, her voice high pitched. "I didn't! I was just guessing but now you've just confirmed it so whooo? what's her name hmm? Because you keep trying to avoid looking at my tits Binnie, is it meeeee?" you tease her, honestly not expecting the response she gives you back.

She looks up at you in a bit of shock, not expecting you to guess that easy, was it really that obvious? She can't get any words out & you know her so well to the point you know she's nervous & you have a huge incline that it's you, so before you can take a second to think about what you're doing, you're leaning down & you kiss her.

Her lips take a few seconds to intertwine with yours & it's obvious straight away that this kiss is nothing like the drunken kisses you would share together, but you're not gonna complain about it.

You pluck up the courage & you reach down to cup her cheek, moving the few strands of her hair out of her face as you lick across her bottom lip before you let your tongue loose in her mouth & she whimpers into yours as her tongue copies yours & her small, slightly chubby hands hold onto your waist & you almost melt at the contact.

You force yourself to break away from her plump, pink tinted lips, a tiny bit of her lip gloss plastered onto your lips & you begin kissing her cheeks & jawline as your hand moves to the hem of her hoodie before stopping. "Can I?" you murmur softly & she hums a 'yes' instantly & you sit up & she helps you take it off & to your surprise, she is only wearing a bra underneath, a plain white one, failing to fully support her big tits as the skin not cupped by the fabric is spilling out & you have to physically stop yourself from drooling all over them.

Binnie blushes at the way you're looking at her & she decides to add more fuel to the fire by taking off her bra & tossing it to the side, her dark brown, solid nipples already perking up & you bite your bottom lip, smirking up at her before you push her back on the bed again so she is lying down before you shuffle down to her big tits & push them together & run your face across the cleavage, both of you chuckling to one another as you do so.

"I could die here, can I taste em?" you question as you lay your head on her own two pillows, the point of your chin slightly digging into them. "Please y/n" she hums as she looks down at you, completely flustered & her bangs are messy in her face.

You can't help but get giddy at her response & you don't waste any time before taking her left nipple into your mouth & you both let out a small moan at the same time.

You let your fingers grab onto the other nipple to give it some attention as you suckle on her pretty nipple & her fingers find their way into your hair & rub lightly at your scalp, her breathing already getting heavier, small whimpers & hums leaving her throat ever so often.

"So sensitive, you're so good at this y/n" she groans & you can't help but notice how she rubs her thighs together, wanting something more.

You pop off her tit, her nipple an extra shade darker now & you giggle as you look up at her. "Do you wanna go further? I can feel your legs clamping together underneath me." you tease, still pinching & lightly tugging on her nipples, making her jolt & wince.

"Yeah, wanna taste you, please y/nnie." She whimpers but you shake your head in a 'no' & she pouts down at you, but it doesn't last long when you're pulling off her basketball shorts, leaving her in just her plain white cotton panties & you blush at the sight, her thick, plush thighs covering the area you wanna see most, but from what you can see, you can tell she has a landing strip which you can tell the shape of beneath the fabric.

You sit on the back of your heels as you pry open her thighs just enough so you can crawl & slot yourself in between & you are quick to notice the wet patch that has soaked through the material & you whimper.

"You're so wet already Binnie, you weren't lying when you said you are sensitive." you remark as you crawl up her frame again & practically lay down on her as you kiss her again, her bare tits connected to your clothed ones as your hand starts exploring her covered core, your middle finger running over the small wet patch, avoiding her chubby, big clit, teasing her.

"Don't tease, please! Want you." she pleads in between kisses, her hips thrusting into your hand & you experiment by giving it a light slap, making her whine.

"I remember you telling me you liked that when you hooked up with Chan" you purr, chuckling & Binnie moans at your words, in a strop. "Don't bring up my past hookups when I'm here fully naked in front of you! speaking of naked, get naked y/nnie!" she squeaks as her hands paw at your sleep shirt before deciding to just throw it over your head & off of you before you even have time to reply & her eyes widen at the sight.

You give her one last peck on her swollen lips before you start working your way down to her other swollen lips.

You take her panties off & you didn't think a triangle landing strip could be so hot on someone until right now & you give it a few kisses before kissing & nibbling at the inside spot of her soft thighs & her back arches as she fights back a whine, that's when you know you've found her sweet spot & you latch onto it as if it's your last lifeline.

The woman above you arches her back at the pleasure, trying her absolute hardest to not suffocate you in her legs, not as if you'd mind.

"Y/nnn, stop teasing or I'll genuinely cum from you just sucking on my thighs." she whimpers & you giggle against her leg before unlatching yourself, getting butterflies at the sight of the three little dark spots you've sucked onto her skin.

You lick your lips at the sight of her cunt, her big, pretty clit peeking through her fat pussy lips, a pretty dark shade. Binnie takes it upon herself to spread her folds for you in a 'V' shape & her clit is visibly throbbing & you can't hold yourself back anymore even if you were paid to, & you dive in.

Your tongue slides its way up, down & through her pretty, soaking folds & you can already feel yourself getting addicted to your own best friends taste. "So fucking sweet Binnie, when you eat pussy, it's good to tease a little bit, get a good taste of it, mkay?" you speak up as you rub her fat clit with your fingers, forgetting you're also supposed to be teaching her how to do all of this.

Binnie doesn't say anything but instead latches her hand into your hair & shoves you back into her cunt, both of you sharing a whine as you eat her out as if it's your last meal.

"Tongue s-so good, fingers p-please!" she whimpers & you can't bring yourself to deny what she wants & you'd never even dare think of doing so & you slide your index finger into her warm cunt, a small squelch noise rings in your ears.

You flatten your tongue over her entire core, flicking your tongue over her folds & her back is arching off the bed as her toes curl & she just cannot keep quiet.

You add a second finger into her already dripping core & it is met with almost zero resistance & you're over the moon that she is so relaxed so quickly & you start doing a 'come hither' motion as you latch onto her clit & harshly suckle on it & you let your teeth scrape over it ever so often & she is shaking in front of you, her legs shake around you as the grip on your hair gets tighter & Binnie can feel you smirk against her clit, slurping up all her juices.

"Gonna cum, cum, y/n I'm cumming!" she chants out & her legs snap shut around your head as her orgasm coats your fingers, her whines turning into husky squeals as your fingers are pretty much forced out of her hole as she clamps around you so tight & you rub on her clit with your thumb as you somehow remove your head from the vice- her thighs as you let her ride out her orgasm.

You lick your fingers as you watch the woman in front of you try catch her breath back. "B-best thing ever, we should have done this sooner, l-lemme taste you" she splutters & before you even move towards her, she is pulling you up towards her & you land on her upper chest.

She kicks your sleep shorts off so you're also completely naked & the second you sit on her chest, Bin can feel your wetness on her skin & you both giggle as you grind your cunt against her & she whines more than you do as her hands latch onto your ass & helps you grind, smirking up at you.

"I could cum like this i'm not even kidding, you're so pretty." you purr & you blush at your own words, so happy this is happening right now & you'd be lying if you said you haven't realised you have some sort of deeper rooted feelings from all of this.

"Well don't! I want to make you cum, cmere" she giggles, her fringe sticking to her forehead & the small layer of mascara smudged just under her eyes as her lip gloss is completely long gone by now.

Before you can think of a good enough response, you're being wriggled up until you're straddling her face, your cunt hovering over her & her eyes are glued to it.

"Your pussy is so pretty, can I taste it? sit on my face, I beg" she whimpers, her mouth watering. "That's scary! i don't want to crush you" you reply & Binnie rolls her eyes before grabbing your waist & pulling you onto her face, her nose bumping just past the pudge of your clit as she does so.

Her plump lips suction against your cunt as her tongue glides along your flaps messily, nudging against your clit, trying to find the best possible spot for you & you decide to help her as you pull up the skin on your pubic bone, exposing your clit fully for her & she takes the chance for granted & she kitten licks your clit, your own juices making her brain short circuit.

"Holy shit Bin, you're a fucking natural, tongue is so soft." you whimper as you hold onto the headboard of the bed & you have to resist throwing your head back, instead, you refuse to take your eyes off of Bins, her watery eyes looking up at you with nothing but lust & happiness in them & you accidentally start slowly grinding against her tongue, your cunt gushing onto her tongue & she is honestly sad that it's impossible for her to get any deeper into your pussy.

Binnie is kneading the fat of your ass like a cat as she digs in, groaning into you, mumbling words but they're so muffled you don't even bother trying to understand what she is babbering on about, but the vibrations of her inaudible words are sending pleasure up your spine & as much as it breaks your heart to do so, you use your strength to pull yourself off her tongue.

Bin tries to chase after you with her tongue, pouting & whining at the loss. "Your clit was throbbing in my mouth, why'd you stop? You were gonna cum!" She cries out, your juices still all over her face & you giggle at how flustered she is beneath you.

"Wanna scissor you" you reply, a cheeky smile on your face as you start to shuffle down to spread Binnie's legs but she beats you to it & tosses you beside her & she takes the position between your legs, planting your left foot to the floor & sits on your right thigh before aligning your cunts up with one another.

Binnie lets a glob of spit fall from her lips, the coldness landing right on your cunt, making you hiss & grind against air & she giggle above you, deciding whether or not she should tease you & keep you waiting but her own patience has worn too thin & desperation is far too much & she sinks down so you're both connected & you both let out a satisfied hum.

Binnie starts grinding herself against you, her big clit almost entering your hole each time she does so & you genuinely think you're about to leave the planet.

Binnie's big tits are jiggling each time she thrusts & her short hair is swaying & you just can't take your eyes off her & you pinch at your own nipples & Binnie whines along with you at the sight.

"Your clit feels so good Bin, you're so pretty, Oh fuck." you keep muttering, your voice cracking from how breathless you are & you try wriggle your waist a tiny amount to get that extra crumb of friction & Binnie notices & he pulls up on her pussy, her hand flat against her dark pubes & exposes more of her clit to your eyes as she is chasing her second release.

"I feel close already y/nnie, your tits are so hot, your cunt is so warm, so wet!" she squeaks as your shared wetness is spread across the inside of both of your thighs & she can feel her orgasm bubbling up & she thinks fast & she spits onto her fingers & aligns them up with your hole & enters her index & middle finger & starts scissoring them in & out of your hole, squelching noises filling the room almost as much as the slick noises of skin rubbing together & your shared whimpers.

Your back arches off the bed when her stubby fingers find your spongey spot & you squeal.

"H- holy shit, I'm gonna cum Bin, don't stop, clit feels so good." you say as you writhe & Binnie half smirks above you, loving how she is making you feel. "Wanna cum with you y/nnie, g- I'm gonna cum, pussy is so go-good" she stutters as she tries her best to keep up her pace & you're so thankful for that because the second her fingers change angle & her pudgy button rubs against yours, your legs are shaking & your orgasm hits you like a brick wall & your leg hits against her chest.

Binnie cums only a few seconds after your own orgasm starts, the look of bliss on your face enough to send anyone over the edge, she stood no chance.

She shakes above you & you reach down to grab her plump ass, helping her grind against you, trying to ignore the overstimulation that's setting in, just to milk the extra bit of pleasure for Binnie.

She flops down beside you & practically pulls you onto her, your face resting against her tits & you cup as much flesh as you try cup as much of her tit as you can with your hand & you simply rest it there.

"That was honestly the best thing of my life, I definitely like girls, who the fuck was I kidding." She speaks up & you giggle at her words as you squish her boob like a stress toy as your other hand rests on her tummy, grazing your nails over it.

"Told you! but on the other hand, I think we need to talk Binnieboo." you reply & she hums a 'yes' response as she plays with your hair.

->Taglist is open! ->Anon list is open!

A/N: This is kinda experimental & I honestly have no idea how well this will do, but depending on how well it does, I'm willing to make a fem!skz masterlist :3 This may or may not be completely inspired by a girl i slept with last week heheh

[accirax]

What is your opinion on the DRDT time loop theory? If you do have any thoughts on it, what do you think Mai, the Teacher & the past kg/(assumption) the altdrdt kg have to do with it? (Mai and Teacher often exist in proxy to evidence for this theory & the 'past killing game' & the teacher are clearly closely connected.)

Alright, so this one is going to be a bit more of a challenge than usual because, as I confirmed, the “DRDT Time Loop Theory” doesn’t exactly… exist. I mean, it definitely does, because you know what it means, and I know what it means, and I’m willing to bet that many other people who will encounter this post also know what it means. But, everyone’s understanding of it is pretty vague and scattered because no one has ever written it out before. Other than kind of this 3 minute segment of a video by Ocean Unknown (which never even says the words “time loop” directly, it just discusses a major piece of evidence for the theory), as well as this work-around by @/1moreff-creator, there isn’t any document I can read or video I can watch to base my opinion off of.

Therefore, this leaves me in the position of having to establish the original scripture for what the DRDT Time Loop Theory is, and then give my thoughts on how plausible it might be. Naturally, this may result in my answers having some obvious bias to them in one way or another– either that I will misrepresent some evidence because I don’t think the idea is plausible, or that I will become convinced of the theory because it’s tailored to exactly what I think makes the most sense– but, no matter! Somebody had to establish this someday, and I’m honored that you regard my opinion highly enough to task me as the one to do it. Here we go!

I usually like to establish a sort of premise to each of my theories near the beginning, because I think it provides a good structure through which people can pace themselves and know what to expect. For this theory, I think it will make the most sense to create sections based on the basic questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Although, not necessarily in that order. Or rather, definitely not in that order, because I know where I’m going to start.

What?

‘Cause, like, what? What is the time loop theory? That’s where we should start.

As far as I’m aware, the time loop theory is mainly based on the combination of two different pieces of evidence. The first hails from DRDT’s About Page. In the same fashion that people found each character’s hidden quotes on their profiles, you can find a long monologue in the code of the text. I’ll copy it here for convenience:

“You don’t understand, do you? I used to be like you. I barely remember, but I used to be like you. I cared so much about people, I cried everytime someone was hurt. I suffered for a long time stuck in here caring about people. I know what you’re going through. You’re going to hold on as long as you have, with hope that you can make it out of here with everyone. Then you’re going to despair. That lasts a while, too. Then you’ll get bored. Like me. And you’ll wish you were still suffering. Anything else is better than boredom. I wish I could feel something, anything else, other than being bored. I’m stuck in here for eternity, and I know everything that could possibly happen. I know how everyone reacts to a murder, what makes people turn to despair, what fills people with hope and make them survive until we all run out of food and starve to death. I wish I could feel terrified, or afraid, or angry. But I can’t anymore. I don’t feel anything at all except boredom. Do you understand, Teacher? This is why I’m letting you suffer as long as possible. Because it’s better than the alternative. I’m sorry. I don’t envy you. You’ll understand eventually.”

Because this quote is found on the About page, we can’t tie it to any one character in particular like we can for the secret quotes. Many people suspect this quote may have come from DRDT’s mastermind, but we obviously don’t know who that is, either. To help us establish the speaker’s character, let’s see what we can infer about them from what they’ve said.

Firstly, we know that this character has been through a lot. They started off caring, then turned to cruelty, yet wound up feeling nothing but boredom in the end. Notably, however, this is only the way that this character sees themself– how kind or how cruel they were is subject to their own perspective. Personally, I don’t think that the speaker is as dead inside as they claim to be. The fact that they wind up relating themselves to “Teacher” and taking actions to minimize Teacher’s suffering proves that they haven’t fully given up on humanity or caring for others.

The speaker also seems to think pretty highly of themself. They begin the passage by assuming that Teacher couldn’t possibly understand what they’ve gone through, and see themself as a tortured Atlas bearing the weight of all knowledge on their shoulder (“I know everything that could possibly happen”). The whole “this is for your own good” mentality also shows them as somewhat patronizing and commandeering.

As for some of the more physical details, while it’s not 100% confirmed, it seems pretty clear that the speaker is or was in a killing game. A murder can occur pretty much anywhere that there are two people, but “how everyone reacts to a murder” really makes it seem like the speaker is in a place where murder is expected. And then, there are the obvious references to hope and despair, which we all know are super killing-game-coded words.

The phrase that I find most interesting in the About Page quote (APQ) is “until we all run out of food and starve to death.” The speaker including themselves in a “we” means that they do identify as part of the group that is stuck in a killing game. Therefore, we can learn that 1) the speaker does not have a secret way to exit the killing game facility and/or time loop, and 2) the speaker is in a physical space, not a metaphysical one. They’re just as vulnerable to starvation (and possibly being killed?) as anyone else. This could be important when it comes to establishing how the time loop came to be and what kind of time loop it is.

And then, of course, there’s Teacher.

Due to the “wants to become the perfect teacher” tagline, many people have come to assume that the Teacher that the APQ refers to is a member of the unnamed fangan (which I call altDRDT) cast. Specifically, that brown-and-red-haired gentleman in the middle. This theory was basically confirmed by the second of the three Christmas 2023 comics DRDTdev posted.

Furthermore, one of the few images we have of him is with a piece of chalk and chalkboard.

We know from the altDRDT FAQ page that Teacher uses he/him pronouns (along with “Soundwave,” “XF,” “Dandelion,” “Scale,” “Bullet,” and “Ice”), which is important in potentially connecting him to the scholarly “him” that Min mentioned in A History of Hope’s Peak.

Therefore, the “Teacher” that the speaker is talking to is very likely to be altDRDT’s Teacher. However, I do want to take a moment to provide a bit of a counterargument. I don’t doubt that our close-eyed compatriot is the Ultimate Teacher. However, I also don’t want to assume that the person who’s trying to become the perfect teacher has to be the same as the Ultimate Teacher, despite the obvious throughline. For example, couldn’t the speaker of the APQ be trying to teach their beliefs to Teacher, searching for the perfect way to get him to understand what needs to be done? I still think that the Teacher that the speaker refers to is probably the altDRDT character, but I wanted us all to reach that conclusion while considering what’s outside the box.

Regardless, there’s clearly a lot to consider here. The people who first discovered this quote thought so as well, and started looking for answers by connecting it to things we’ve already seen in DRDT. The most popular connection comes from the prologue, Veronika’s introduction in particular. Remember when she rants to Teruko and Xander about the (fictional) book Forever Dead? It goes by pretty quick, but her summary is quite interesting:

And thus, the exact phrasing of the “time loop” began. Forever Dead touches upon a lot of the same plot points that the speaker brings up in the APQ. People die, the main character transforms from invested to bored, and straddles the border between relatable and sinister.

We also learn a bit more about the speaker and what happened/will happen to him. He identifies as a boy (who uses he/him pronouns), he’s impaled by metal spikes and left to die at some point, and he manages to apologize for “everything he did,” though apparently only through some level of force. “Everything he did” is interestingly vague– is that implying that the boy was the cause of the time loop, or just that he was apologizing for the terrible things he did as a result of his bored insanity? What forced him into the apology if he was “left alone?” These characteristics may apply to the APQ speaker as well, under the assumption that the boy and the speaker are allegories for the same character.

So, those are the two main pieces of information that I’m aware of that lead people to devise the time loop theory. In case it’s important, I’ve also compiled some of the instances I could remember offhand of DRDT characters bringing up the cyclical nature of humanity and how things never change.

Any of these characters’ ideas about what “always has to happen” could be supported and/or challenged in the future by a time loop.

I also know that some people like to bring up the comments section portion of Literature Girl Insane (conveniently written over the words “the world won’t change!”) as evidence of DRDT being stuck in a time loop. I could explain why I don’t think that’s the case, but FF already did that as part of their giant LGI analysis video (which I will continue to recommend). I don’t think I can really put it any better than they did, so I encourage you to watch that section of the video at least if you’re curious as to why I won’t be including this as evidence.

And now, for a summary of what we’ve learned so far, the basics of the Time Loop Theory. Due to the About Page Quote, the summary of Forever Dead, and references to cyclical behavior, some believe that the characters in the DRDT killing game are experiencing a time loop. The speaker of the APQ, who is possibly the mastermind, is likely the only one of the sixteen students who is aware of this. When the loop began, they put their all into trying to achieve the best ending. However, over time, they became more bitter, first turning to wreaking havoc before succumbing to apathy. They have somehow captured “Teacher,” the protagonist of altDRDT, in an inescapable state of suffering, in order to teach him a lesson about how foolish it is to continue to care about others. They’re a bit of a cynical know-it-all, but their dedication to correcting Teacher’s behavior proves that they haven’t fully given up on humanity.

Basic facts, established! However, this is still pretty vague, and there are plenty more details to sort through. How about we start with…

How?

Because even among people who believe there is a time loop, there are many definitions of what a time loop can mean. In this section, I’ll aim to figure out which I think is the most likely in two broad categorization systems.

Is the time loop meta or non-meta?

A meta time loop would be one that is directly caused by the player/viewer interacting with the property, breaking the fourth wall. For DRDT, this would mean something along the lines of “every time you rewatch an episode of Despair Time, the characters are forced to relive the events of the day in an eternal loop, and they’ve started to wise up about it.” Conversely, a non-meta time loop would exist in the plot regardless of what its audience is doing, and be caused by a force that exists within the story. “After Teruko accidentally broke Eden’s favorite grandfather clock, Teruko was cursed to repeat her worst day over and over again.”

DRDT has made some fourth wall-breaking jokes before, such as when MonoTV directly references YouTube or the narrator tells the viewer to like the video and subscribe to give Teruko power. Because of this, it’s really tempting to think that DRDT is going for a meta time loop. However, given the actual text we have to work with, I think it’s more likely that we’re looking at a non-meta time loop. Remember how we learned that the APQ speaker exists in a physical space and not a metaphysical one? Focusing on the physical space of their environment and living conditions is drawing attention to how the world is real to them, not just a collection of pixels flattened into a video file. The Forever Dead boy also had to “apologize for what he did,” which might imply that the character was responsible for the time loop, not the audience.

Most of all, though, it’s the concept of “surviv[ing] until we all run out of food and starve to death” that makes me think that the time loop is not meta. Why? Because it makes it sound like there are different possible endings out there. If the time loop was caused by me going back and repeatedly rewatching the CharWhit FTE, there’s only one way that that FTE can start, and one way it can end. No matter how many times I make the characters loop that interaction, there’s only one version of that episode posted to YouTube. The APQ speaker makes it clear that they, as a character, attempted multiple things and achieved different results with them until they exhausted all viable possibilities and grew bored. I can only make the characters do one thing, but the characters within the story can, in theory, do whatever they want.

Really, a lot of it boils down to the medium in which DRDT is told. A lot of what I “know” about time loops comes from watching theory videos about Undertale and Deltarune. I won’t spoil either of those games for those who haven’t played them, but in Undertale, the player’s input is directly related to the time travel elements that the characters experience. This connection works really well because Undertale is a video game. Video games are a fantastic medium for meta commentary because player input is required for the game to function. The player can make choices of where to go or who to trust that have an impact on the story, which then makes it easy for the story to turn back towards the player and question the choices they made. DRDT, however, is a video series, not a game like the original Danganronpa. Its formatting would make calling the viewer’s impact into question, because we’ve hardly done anything other than want to watch the show. We have no impact on the direction of the plot.

Of course, I’m not trying to say that it’s impossible for anything other than a video game to tackle meta subjects. DRDTdev should be allowed to tell a meta fangan story without being forced into the life of a programmer. However, with all these elements combined, I think it’s more likely that DRDT’s time loop would be a canonical, non-meta one. Because of this, our follow up questions will be based around how the time loop could have formed in canon.

Is the time loop magical or scientific in origin?

A magical time loop could be something that appears as some sort of spell, legend, or artifact, such as the example with Teruko and the grandfather clock that I provided above. I would also count time loops that just appear out of nowhere in the “magical” category. One of the most famous time loop stories in modern Western cinema, Groundhog Day, could be thought of as a magical time loop, because the main character entered a time loop as a repercussion for his rotten personality seemingly out of nowhere. A scientific time loop would be the consequence of pushing the boundaries of science, whether purposefully (“Veronika, after researching the fourth dimension, put the killing game in a time loop so that she could experience its thrills forever”) or accidentally (“Trying to bring Ellie back to life, Charles’ time machine malfunctioned and trapped him in a time loop”).

Honestly, I’m really torn on this one. That may come as a surprise to some of you– how on earth could DRDT’s time loop be magical? The answer is our lovely protagonist herself, Teruko Tawaki. If Teruko’s luck, a supernatural force, created the time loop, then it’s magical in origin. It’s already been hinted that this could be the case through Teruko’s “you all have the misfortune of being ‘characters’” speech. Does Teruko know how stories like this work out because she’s looped through them before? If Mai is a lucky student, the time loop being a result of her luck or the combination of her and Teruko’s luck would also be magical. Assuming that luck was something that they were born with, that is.

However, it would also be very easy for DRDT’s time loop to be scientific in origin. The mysterious company XF-Ture Tech is clearly being set up for some kind of relevance down the road, which could be a science experiment gone wrong that resulted in a time loop. This could even be the thing that “Unnamed Student” (Mai) asked Xander to dig into.

That might seem like a bit of a leap, given that Mai is asking Xander to look into Hope’s Peak, not XF-Ture Tech. However, we already know that XF Tech had a vested interest in Hope’s Peak through their sponsorship of Min.

Personally, I don’t think that the XF Tech CEO would have had much personal interest in Min outside of her skill/potential, based on how Min describes him as a stranger. That means that the CEO’s goals must have been to sponsor the future Ultimate Student. The entire Ultimate Contest may have existed just because XF Tech wanted to get an insider within the Hope’s Peak system. There’s evidence to show that Hope’s Peak and XF Tech may have been collaborating– Mai asks why Hope’s Peak would even announce an Ultimate Contest, and Min answers from the perspective of the prospective student. But, why would Hope’s Peak want an Ultimate Student obtained through that method/at that time? If Min really did poison the competition to win, the entire Contest may have been rigged from the beginning to get an XF representative into the East Class.

Because of all this, I’m inclined to say that DRDT’s time loop is both magical and scientific in origin. Here’s what I’m thinking: 13-27 years ago, XF-Ture Tech signed some sort of deal with the new Hope’s Peak Academy that would allow them to look into students and their talents, much like how the original Hope’s Peak Academy was studying the origins of luck. HPA agreed for the money, while XF Tech believed that the partnership would help them sell better products/services, either through getting the first scoop on up-and-comers in the field or by scientifically developing talent rather than allowing it to occur naturally. That might sound really similar to what already happened in DRDT’s canon universe with the Kamukura project, but, hey, maybe part of the whole “time loop” motif would be history repeating and man not being able to shake the desire to play God.

Anyways, when they made this deal (or potentially a little while after it), they also decided that it would be good if XF Tech could be directly represented by one of the students in a future class. I can’t say exactly why they wanted this to be the case, but maybe HPA and XF Tech were either looking for a good excuse to go public with their relationship, or they knew that something or someone relevant would come to pass through the school in ~13 years, and wanted a man on the inside. Therefore, HPA put out a pre-rigged Contest searching for the Ultimate Student, which was destined to be won by whoever the XF Tech CEO determined was the best candidate. The CEO chose Min, and spent 13 years coaxing her into the perfect grateful, insecure, and study-focused representative out there.

Whether it was their goal from the start or a new development that caught their eye, XF Tech took particular note of Teruko and her strange luck, and wanted to research it. Teruko, who was desperate for support, let them study her, and eventually came to trust that they had her best interests at heart. But, over time, they pushed it too far. As some sort of reaction to their scientific prodding, Teruko’s luck magically created a time loop in an attempt to prevent XF Tech from bothering her any further.

Cool fanfic, right? While I’m aware that there are a lot of holes and leaps in logic– and we’ll get to those– I do think there’s reason to believe that Teruko is at the epicenter of the time loop for one reason or another. As we were all made aware of at the very beginning of the series…

… ending the killing game is correlated to killing Teruko Tawaki. Therefore, this person at least believes that the end of the killing game is related to the end of Teruko’s life. So, if the time loop is also related to the killing game– which it is, as established by the APQ– then the end of Teruko’s life would also possibly cause the end of the time loop. To quote a wise wizard, it’s maaaagic. The theory that Teruko’s secret is “the killing game is all your fault” also fits here perfectly.

So, it’s not as big of a leap in logic as it might seem like on the surface, even if it’s still basically my audition for being the Ultimate Jumper. However, now that the basics of the theory were mostly established in the “What?” section, I think I have a bit more room to inject my own thoughts and theories in here. I can’t draw any conclusions without making some guesses, and I can’t assess what the hell is going on without any conclusions. Call what follows specifically “Accirax’s Time Loop Theory” if you think I’m starting to veer too far off track from what’s plausible. I promise I’m still going to try to use actual, textual evidence whenever I can, though.

At any rate, there are still a lot of holes. Most notably, why would a time loop that Teruko’s luck created contain a killing game in it? Was she already in a killing game when the time loop began, or did her luck create the killing game? We’ll talk about that a bit more in the next section, along with some other stuff.

When?

Before getting back to the question of why a killing game would happen in this time loop, I think it’s important to establish some of the basic facts that the “When?” section might imply. Such as, “what events occurred before the time loop started?,” and, “what events occurred after the time loop started?” That’s a funny question to ask with regards to time loops specifically, but there are still things we can piece together.

Firstly, we can be pretty confident that the canonical properties Trigger Happy Havoc, Goodbye Despair, Ultra Despair Girls, and End of Hope’s Peak happened before DRDT. (V3 is, as usual, so weird that I have no clue if DRDT will attempt to explain it as part of the canonical timeline or not.) The Tragedy was confirmed as canon to the DRDT universe by Veronika in Chapter 2 Episode 2, and Min/Mai in A History of Hope’s Peak.

If the Tragedy and Hope’s Peak Academy are canon, then I see no reason why those four games, which all relate to the Tragedy, wouldn’t be as well. There’s also the mysterious “Ms. Naegi” that’s listed in the credits of Literature Girl Insane, and Teruko’s reference to “a past killing game.”

Although the event Teruko mentions could be any killing game with Monokuma as its mascot, I would suspect that she is specifically mentioning the Hope’s Peak Academy Killing Game of THH here, as it was the first and the one that was widely broadcast. Notably, although Veronika knows a lot about the Tragedy and by all accounts should be super into the killing games, she doesn’t remember another killing game happening before. That leaves us with two basic options. 1) Teruko had access to secret knowledge about the killing games that the general public didn’t, or, 2) something about the creation of this killing game caused Veronika (and likely the other non-Terukos as well) to forget about the HPA killing game. I would lean towards the second, given that the broadcast of the HPA killing game and Junko’s involvement in it were such major historical events that I would really expect that society wouldn’t forget about them so easily.

Another huge piece of information comes from the Chapter 2 Part 1 Q&A.

From this question, we know that a person who is 80-ish years old was old enough to be alive during the Tragedy itself. In THH, Makoto’s orientation letter is dated to the release year of the game, 2010 (2014 for the English release), which means that the Tragedy probably started in 2011. We can approximate, then, that DRDT takes place sometime around 2090, give or take a few decades depending on how long the Tragedy lasted and at what point with regards to it Duke was born. Not super important to this theory, but it is interesting.

So, the Tragedy probably happened around 80 years before the time loop began. We also know that the school that Min, Mai, and Xander attend, which hosts the East Class, was probably founded ~27 years before the time loop began, because that trio is part of East Class 27. Interestingly, this means that the new American Hope’s Peak was founded ~50 years after the Tragedy. That’s a fairly long amount of time.

As for events that more directly preceded the time loop, I think that both Bonus Episodes would have happened before the killing game, as well as Teruko’s flashback about Mai in Chapter 1. Xander, Min, and Mai attended HPA before encountering the killing game/time loop, despite no one in DRDT remembering ever going to HPA. Rose says in the prologue that it’s been a year or two since the HPA entrance ceremony should have happened, which means that the students probably attended HPA for at least a year before the killing game started. The chalkboard in the classroom that Min and Mai sit in also advertises Spring Break, which, in American schools, is pretty close to the end of the typical school year. That’s more evidence that they spent a considerable amount of time attending HPA.

Now, for events that happened after the inception of the time loop. The only thing I think we know of for sure is the events of the DRDT killing game. That would be part of the time loop, infinitely recurring after the point at which the loop began. I’m also hesitantly going to call altDRDT a sequel instead of a prequel… but, uh, we’ll get more into my overall theories on that later.

Okay, now back to why a loop Teruko’s luck created would have had a killing game in it. I’ve come up with three theories, all of which are… dubious, at best.

Theory #1: The killing game came from Teruko’s subconscious. Teruko’s luck is a part of who she is, and therefore, any effects it may have are based on what Teruko knows and how she feels. Perhaps, just before the time loop began, Teruko learned about the Hope’s Peak Academy Killing Game, whether in class or through shadier sources. When her “magic” snapped and the time loop began, because the killing game was on her mind, it manifested before her. Basically, the time loop would operate much like a dream, where the things you learn in real life come back in surreal ways. I don’t like this one because it leans in really hard to the magic aspect. Although Danganronpa has always been science fiction, letting Teruko’s emotions create an entirely new magical realm seems like jumping the shark.

Theory #2: XF-Ture Tech wanted to test Teruko with a killing game. Their research into her and her luck is quite similar to that of Nagito or the Kamukura project, so why not test their findings in the same ways that Nagito and Hajime were tested? Things amidst this theory that make sense are XF-Ture Tech, a tech company, possibly creating MonoTV, and the prospect of Teruko’s friends dying in a killing game adding an extra kick to why her luck would step in and create a time loop out of desperation. Things that don’t make sense include how the hell XF-Ture Tech would manage to pull this off (especially if constrained by legality/friendship with HPA) and where the hell they would be now. That second question could be answered by, “it was Min,” I suppose, but the first is still off.

Theory #3: The killing game was introduced to contain Teruko. I’m not entirely sure how this would work, but, basically, something else would have triggered Teruko’s luck to start the loop, and then someone (Hope’s Peak, Mai, the Spurlings, who knows) would have introduced a killing game in there in hopes of having something happen. This idea was sort of spurred on by the note that Xander had to kill Teruko Tawaki. Let’s say that Teruko is a huge, powerful problem, much like Junko or Izuru. If you can find a way to breach the time loop she’s created to introduce a killing game, she has to die eventually, right? Victim after victim, blackened after blackened– if Teruko is trapped in an eternal killing game, it seems like at least one of them would have to randomly stumble into her dying. However, I then have to ask how and why the other DRDT characters wound up in this killing game. Them all agreeing to volunteer for this potentially kamikaze plan seems unrealistic given their personalities. So, were they just collateral damage of the original time loop, roped into this last-ditch effort plan? How would a seemingly closed off loop be “breached” to such a drastic extent, anyways?

I once again feel like I’m missing something here, but I also don’t think any of my previous assumptions were wrong. I just can’t understand why the killing game would have come to exist within this time loop. Maybe it has to do with the person who started the killing game?

Who?

Oh yeah, it’s time to talk about the mastermind again, baby. But, obviously, filtering it through the assumption that there is a time loop will change my overall assessments. Now, we have to look for someone with the means, motives, and thematic… fittingness(?) to be involved with Looping the class.

Let’s start with some options that seem so obviously incorrect that I don’t have anything to say. Why would Ace, Hu, Levi, or Nico be the one to have started a killing game within this time loop? Ace’s cowardice already made him seem unlikely, and making the danger zone neverending makes the premise all the more bizarre. You would have to reach pretty far to characterize Hu as the APQ speaker who claims to be incredibly bored and apathetic. Levi wants to change as a person, so inflicting a stagnant time loop seems counter to his goals. Nico… just doesn’t seem to have any aspect of their character line up with the premise of a time loop? Like, if Nico were the character you created to be the mastermind of a time loop killing game, what aspects of how they turned out would reflect that? In my opinion, there are no connections, which makes Nico not it.

Some more less likely options… Arei has some dialogue about people’s behaviors not changing, but especially given her (likely) death, I don’t think it’s enough to call her the mastermind. Given that David is alive, he fares better than Arei under the same scrutiny, but I still feel like the mastermind’s power in this context is more than the desperate, run-ragged David we’ve seen in the second Class Trial. He cares too much, in his own David way. I feel like Rose should be doing better given how highly I ranked her in my main mastermind post, but I’ve been trying to fit the Spurlings into this time loop thing, and I haven’t been able to manage anything. J is much the same, although the whole “TV show” argument still gives her some traction. Although Arturo is generally a smart, scientific kind of guy, being a plastic surgeon doesn’t seem to mesh with whatever science would be needed to make a scientific time loop.

And then there’s Whit. Look. I’m as tired of airing my grievances with Whit mastermind theory as you probably are of reading me air them. However, Whit definitely merits his own section due to one of the main pieces of Whit mastermind scripture (to my knowledge) directly tying the APQ to his candidacy. While I definitely respect and appreciate that aspect of this theory, I don’t buy it myself. By demodraws’ word, this theory is more of a “list of evidence.” The only items on that list that I see directly relate to the APQ are that 1) the Forever Dead character, who may be linked to the speaker, identifies as a boy, and that 2) the speaker expresses grief. Although, that second point is also linked to the belief that the mysterious quote at the beginning of Chapter 1 is said by the same person who said the APQ, which isn’t necessarily the case.

I certainly agree that Whit’s character is the most tied to the concepts of grief and idolizing the dead. However, there are many other characters who do the same. Charles mourns Elliot after remembering his existence, Arturo mourns Felicity whenever he’s confronted with the truth, Xander mourns his family and how he couldn’t do more. (Why do so many DRDT characters have dead family members?) Eden has mourned Min and Arei since their deaths. You can also make the argument that the APQ speaker is more so mourning who they became and how things used to be more than mourning or idolizing any dead compatriots. Rose mourns being shackled to the Spurlings, David mourns the loss of his career once his secret is out, Levi mourns never knowing the right thing to say around Ace. With so many griefheads running around, I don’t find Whit’s connection to the subject compelling enough to label him mastermind.

Then there’s the “boy” aspect. Obviously, Whit isn’t the only boy in DRDT either– as far as we know, Xander, Charles, Ace, Levi, Arturo, and David also identify as boys. However, I also don’t think that the Forever Dead character being a boy is a majorly important piece of evidence. Assuming that Forever Dead is autobiography-flavored fiction as opposed to a genuine biography, the gender of the character it’s describing feels like a detail that DRDTdev could have easily changed to make the parallel less obvious. Although, then you might ask, “why bother including the character’s gender at all, then?” In my opinion, Veronika talks for long enough that it would have been really hard to get through the entire monologue without ever establishing a set of pronouns for the protagonist.  “It’s about a _____'' is also a pretty natural way to introduce a story to someone for the first time. Choosing the fairly inconsequential “boy” is a lot less revealing than if Veronika said something more targeted; such as, “it’s about a marriage counselor.” I can’t deny that Veronika talking about a boy could be an important clue, but hopefully I’ve explained why I’m not hinging my entire theory off of it.

Alright, now we’re on to people who I think could genuinely make sense as a time loop mastermind. I think it’s probably most fitting to start with Eden. Because, you know… clocks… time… making time… you can’t go back no matter how hard you try… it’s not a hard conclusion to draw. DRDT has many underlying mysteries, but as compared to something as mysterious as, say, Mai, the concept of a time loop is even further obscured. Making your mastermind the Ultimate Clockmaker is something that would seem totally harmless on the surface, but be a great twist when the truth of the time loop is revealed. The issue is… other than her talent, I don’t think Eden has much going for her here. I guess you could argue that, if the killing game time loop is meant to help Teruko in some way, Eden has been very dedicated to her goal of supporting others. However, whether that’s the case or not, it’s hard to make an argument that Eden doesn’t care about anything anymore.

Maybe if the APQ quote is said in the future, and this is evidence of Eden undergoing the change that the APQ speaker described…? Eden is a definite possibility, but given all this in addition to my other theories as to where her character is headed, I think it’s an unlikely one.

Next, Veronika. As the one who introduced us to Forever Dead, she definitely has some connection to this time loop nonsense. The question is, how strong can that connection get? The main thing that I like about Veronika being the time loop mastermind is how well her character seems to fit with the APQ speaker’s personality. Both of them face boredom as their greatest enemy, and the APQ listing terror and fear as the top two emotions they wish they could still feel would match really well with a Horror Fanatic. My biggest problem is my main issue with Veronika being the mastermind in general: it just feels too obvious. Having Veronika directly state, “I can’t stand boring things,” and having the APQ speaker directly state, “anything else is better than boredom” is a really, really clear connection between the two. Would DRDTdev really want to drop such a decisive clue so early into the story? I can’t be sure. But my gut leans “no.”

It’s kind of impossible to talk about the possibility of Xander or Min being the time loop mastermind separately, because they share so many of the same points. Under the assumption that XF-Ture Tech is behind the time loop somehow, both of them may have connections to it. Min’s is undeniable– she’s clearly told us that they’ve sponsored her, and she wears their paraphernalia– while Xander may have been interrogating their actions as part of Mai’s scheme and/or in the first scene with the bloody hands over the documents. Both of them would serve similar narrative roles as someone who Teruko once wanted to trust who then betrayed her. And, obviously, both of them would be characters who appeared to die in Chapter 1 who would then return to serve as the mastermind, which could be an out-of-universe parallel or an in-universe reference to how Junko portrayed herself in the Hope’s Peak Academy killing game. Using a time loop to bring your thought-to-be-dead mastermind back for Chapter 6 would be pretty sick, I have to say.

Similarly, both of their greatest flaws lie within the realm of characterization. Neither of them strike me as the particularly apathetic type– Xander still seems to care ferociously about doing what’s right, and Min sounded genuinely desperate as she pleaded for her life. It’s possible that they could have been acting, or some time-loop induced amnesia made them forget their true feelings, but either case would still be a major shift in character. If I had to pick one of them to be more likely, I’d probably go with Min? The speaker’s insistence that they know what’s up could match with Min’s scholarly attitude, and I like her increased connection to XF Tech as well as Teacher. However, I still feel that Xander would have the greater impact upon being brought back– Teruko grew closer to him than she did to Min, and other characters, such as David (if he’s still alive) would also likely have a greater reaction to Xander’s return– so for that reason, I kind of prefer him as well.

Despite the pros and cons of all fifteen other options, this theory is clearly the most straightforward if Teruko is the mastermind. You remove all elements of how someone would have to spring either the killing game or the time loop on Teruko, and allow her to make all of the plans herself. Whether it was fully intentional or not, “the killing game is all your fault” (italicization mine) would make the most sense in this scenario. Furthermore, Teruko definitely fits the attitude of the APQ. I don’t know when she would have said it– between loops, possibly?-- but I can totally imagine her outlining how she used to care, but constant suffering and betrayal caused her to corrode.

The real question here is just why she would have put herself in the killing game to begin with. My first thought was “go through a killing game an infinite number of times and somehow something will finally result in getting Teruko to die,” if Teruko wants to die. But, that sort of contradicts what probably-Xander had to say about “end the killing game or at least kill Teruko.” Because, if the killing game is intended to kill Teruko, then ending the killing game could mean Teruko doesn't die, not satisfying what's framed as the more important of the two goals. Maybe if he was just mistaken as to what the purpose of the game was…? Or, if the time loop leaned more on the magical side, maybe the loop itself is keeping Teruko in the killing game until she can learn to trust others, no matter how dire the consequences. These other Ultimates were looped in for… accuracy to Junko’s original, I suppose? Or, maybe Teruko threw them in as a form of punishment for their misdeeds.

Anyone who isn’t a part of a killing game, such as Elliot or Ryan, raises some questions about how the speaker could be “stuck in here” and communicating with those who are part of the time loop. The most obvious option in this category is Mai, simply due to being the most relevant to the plot. She’s heavily involved with the secrets hidden in the website’s code, just like the APQ, and we know from Teruko’s own quote that “some years ago, [Mai] was searching for someone named ‘Teruko Tawaki.’” We also don’t technically know what her Ultimate talent is (although I think it’s very likely to be Lucky Student), which leaves the door open for her talent to be something useful with regards to setting the time loop up. Even a second Lucky Student could create some sort of weird clash of the titans that resulted in a time loop.

A common argument against Mai being the mastermind is that she is, in all likelihood, dead. However, with a time loop in play, there’s the possibility of resurrection. It could even be the reason why Teruko (or whoever) created the time loop in the first place. However, even if it’s pretty likely that Mai could be involved in the conception of the time loop, I’m not sure if it would be in a way that made her the APQ speaker and/or the mastermind. For the former, it’s that same issue of not being in the killing game, and for the latter, I more so see someone else creating the killing game for her than her making it herself. Probably. I dunno, Mai is a mystery.

Given the criteria of “in a killing game,” it’s also possible that the APQ speaker could be one of the characters in the altDRDT cast, though presumably not Teacher. They would have the easiest path to talk to Teacher, as opposed to the regular DRDT cast, who may have more trouble accessing him. However, there’s basically no shot at anyone in the altDRDT cast being DRDT’s mastermind, other than maybe Teacher. None of those characters have appeared on DRDT’s main hub, its YouTube channel, at all. Suddenly unveiling one of those characters– who even the hardcore fans know very little about– as the mastermind would be pretty out of nowhere. So, to the extent that the mastermind was the one who set up the time loop, I don’t think that any of the altDRDT characters created the time loop.

I think that’s pretty much every viable time loop mastermind option. I don’t know if we really determined anything all too specific, but it’s nice to sort out where all our pieces lie. As I said, I think that Teruko is by far the most logical option under the assumption that the killing game and the time loop are connected in a way where they must have been created by the same person. However, there are definitely other possibilities if you allow yourself to think outside that box.

Why?

On to arguably the most important of the categories: why? It doesn’t matter how much logical sense a time loop would make in DRDT’s world if there’s no narrative reason for it to exist in the first place. How would adding a time loop to DRDT’s story improve its themes and messages?

Well, as I already discussed in the What? and Who? sections, many characters grapple with themes of an unchanging world. What better device to reflect that mentality than one that literally shows the same sequence repeating over and over again? The fantastical concept of a time loop could emphasize and heighten the mistrust that Teruko feels. Using the time loop in that way would assign a concrete obstacle to an internal struggle, much like how the killing game itself is a physical manifestation of the helplessness of despair. Writers often enjoy employing devices like these to have a more tangible end goal for the protagonist to notably vanquish. Knowing exactly what’s going on in Teruko’s mind at any given moment might be difficult, especially given DRDT’s format. But, if Teruko sends the time loop created by her own tragic expectations shattering to pieces, we’ll know she made progress.

Additionally, Danganronpa itself posed the question of why we as fans continue to be interested in the killing game formula after seeing it play out so many times. In v3, they framed the killing game as the 53rd in a series to further emphasize the repetitive nature of this ritual sacrifice. Putting DRDT in a time loop could accomplish a very similar goal. As Veronika theorized in Chapter 2 Episode 7, the killing game will only continue for as long as audiences are entertained by it. In a never ending time loop killing game, will fans always be able to find entertainment? What does that say about them…?

Having a killing game within a time loop is a unique premise, as far as I’m aware. I’ve never before seen a fangan that decided to incorporate that into its plot. (Although, that may be a symptom of fangans tending to fizzle out before the finish line.) Making a fangan stand out can be tricky, and although DRDT already has the advantage of being fully illustrated, partially voice acted, and shown in a video format, having a unique gimmick can be a point of inspiration and a sales pitch. Similarly, Ultimate Lucky Student is a talent often tackled, both by the canon games (twice) and by other fangans. If the time loop is related to Teruko’s luck, that would also be a memorable and creative interpretation of a commonplace talent.

As for how a time loop would actually impact the story as it is, the obstacle it creates would definitely raise the stakes high for a Chapter 6 Trial. Like, how the hell are they supposed to beat that? Reiterating what I said earlier, a time loop could also be a clever way to revive a character (or characters) who previously died. If one of the starting premises of DRDT was “what if I had a mastermind that appeared to die in ch1, only to strikingly return in the finale?”, a time loop could have been the method invented to make that happen.

So, in summary, yes, I think there is sufficient narrative support to justify the inclusion of a time loop in DRDT. Maybe I should’ve cleared this section out of the way earlier in the theory. Oh well, too late now. But, if I had the chance to start it all over again, maybe I could do things differently next time…! Or, maybe I’d wind up writing the same thing every time regardless…

Where?

It’s a little silly of me to co-opt the “Where?” section as basically a summary of how I think the time loop theory would best play out, but I have my reasons. “Where?” seeks to answer where the time loop originated, and who was in it when it started. Thus, with so much focus on how the time loop began, talking about the cause and result alongside that made sense to me. The full Accirax Time Loop Theory will be in blue below, with more discussion afterward to answer whether I believe in it or not. Closing Argument starts… now!

The Tragedy ended nearly 80 years ago, and the new American Hope’s Peak Academy was founded about 50 years after that. Some time between HPA’s founding and 13 years ago, an up-and-coming tech company– XF-Ture Tech– partnered with Hope’s Peak Academy to take a more scientific look at the origins of talent in young students, much like what happened in pre-Tragedy days. XF-Ture Tech already had their eyes on one promising youth, “XF,” who they prepared to send to the West Academy. To place a representative into the East Class, XF Tech encouraged Hope’s Peak Academy to host the Ultimate Contest, with the intention of rigging the exam to get their applicant of choice into the school. This wound up being Min Jeung, who was placed in East Class 27.

Whether because of XF Tech’s request or simply due to respect for the history of the Academy, Hope’s Peak also once again began admitting Ultimate Lucky Students into their program. Their two candidates for Class 27 were Teruko Tawaki, who was sent to the West Academy, and Mai Akasaki, who was sent to the East Academy. XF Tech was quite interested in both of the students, but particularly Teruko. The way that her bad luck affected not only herself, but others as well, was very reminiscent of Nagito Komaeda, a major historical figure in both the start and the end of the Tragedy. XF Tech told both Min and “XF” to look out for Teruko as best they could, making sure nothing would come to harm their new test subject, and prepared to begin experimenting on Teruko’s luck.

Meanwhile, in the East Class, Mai fit in swimmingly. She grew really close with all of her classmates, but particularly with Min and Xander. Mai had already begun searching for Teruko several years before they wound up being recruited at opposite Hope’s Peaks– possibly because of their shared connection to good and/or bad luck– so when she heard a bit more about Teruko from Min, her interest was piqued. Recruiting her favorite Rebel to the cause, Mai asked Xander to sneak around in Hope’s Peak Academy to learn more about what the connection between the Academy, XF-Ture Tech, and Teruko was.

What they learned in the documents was the reality of what was happening in the West Class: XF-Tech was intermittently running physical and mental tests on Teruko to determine exactly what the range and power of her curse-like abilities was. Could her raw Ultimate power rival that of someone like Nagito, or perhaps even Junko Enoshima? Throwing a few mediocre lives at that question would be well worth the answer, wouldn’t it…?

Using their social connections and financial power, XF-Ture Tech arranged for West Class 27 to be taken to a self-contained abandoned mall to begin their most dramatic test yet: seeing if Teruko’s luck would carry her through a killing game against other Ultimates, just as it could have for Nagito or Junko or as it did for Izuru Kamukura. The killing game commenced, and while Teruko might not have been a target from Day 1, at some point in the story, someone attempted to kill her. And… It worked.

What a disappointment. Was Teruko’s luck really so weak when push came to shove?

But then, something truly unexpected happened: the killing game began again. Unable to accept her death, Teruko’s luck engulfed the entire mall into a time loop, running the killing game over and over again until the results were satisfactory. The rest of the world moved forward in linear time as usual, but the mall was stuck in an infinite killing game. XF Tech, amazed and delighted, diverged all of their resources into the study of this phenomenon, protecting it closely.

Mai and Xander were horrified upon learning this, and knew that they had to do something to save West Class 27. Mai, Xander, and potentially some others ran over to the site of the test to see if they could break in, get further intel, change someone’s mind, or anything to get the killing game to stop. However, as they did, they were attacked by XF Tech’s security, resulting in Xander losing an eye… and Mai losing her life. At that moment, Xander vowed that, no matter what it took, he would end the killing game and save the rest of West 27… or, at the very least, kill Teruko to avenge Mai’s life.

Meanwhile, within the time loop, the deja vu (and possibly some comments from the XF Tech-controlled mascot?) began to make Teruko wise up to what was happening. While her original plan was to get along with everyone in the killing game, trusting them and being their hero, she found that every one of those routes led to death and personal tragedy/betrayal. Teruko learned that, if she stopped caring about others, she could at least cut down on the personal tragedy aspect.

Teacher, as a perceptive and intelligent soul, was the next to piece together that something about the killing game was unnatural based on Teruko’s behavior. In one loop, Teruko winds up saying the APQ to him, revealing her new attitude. Either Teruko or Teacher could fit the description of the Forever Dead boy with how their minds began to fracture.

Outside of the time loop, Xander formulated his new plan. When his village was eradicated, it was a case of the rich and powerful obliterating the little guy with their unmatched resources. To fight back, you have to become as big as your attackers. You can only defeat a time loop with a time loop. You can only save Ultimates by putting more Ultimates’ lives at risk.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard to motivate the rest of East Class 27 to join Xander in his crusade. Although he himself may have been a love-or-hate figure amidst his classmates, everyone loved Mai, and wanted to help fulfill her dying wish. Plus, in theory, the plan shouldn’t risk any of their lives. Weaponizing the time loop killing game’s unending nature against it, the goal was to repeat the killing game as many times as it takes until Teruko dies as the first victim. Her luck has to fail her at some point– it’s a corrupt system; it can be broken, argues Xander– and at that point, they’ll simply end the killing game with no other casualties. To make it easier on everyone else, Xander even promised to be the one to make the first move against Teruko, every time. He left a note on him when the time loop started to always remind him.

Anyways, using some combination of Xander’s determination, Charles’ science, J and/or David’s money, Whit and/or David’s connections, and remaining vestiges of Mai’s luck (LGI “original” Color Theory pulling through???), East Class 27 managed to break the abandoned mall time loop. They pulled Teruko into their own killing game, “masterminded” by Xander, in which her luck would hopefully be less of an obstacle. The DRDT killing game we’ve seen thus far could be their first attempt or their thousandth, but whatever the case, the plan to get Teruko to die as the first victim hasn’t succeeded thus far. It’s especially hard to get it to work when Teruko has the lingering thought in the back of her mind that she can’t be killed… and when Min still has a vague memory that she’s supposed to keep Teruko out of danger.

Even though the altDRDT cast, West Class 27, escaped the time loop, they aren’t out of the killing game woods just yet. The East Class managed to catch them mid-killing game, after two Trials passed. But, due to the confusion of the time loop, none of them can remember what happened in that particular iteration of the game, or Teruko’s disappearance, which leaves them at only 11 participants. Quite the mysterious circumstance, indeed…

That’s the best I could come up with. Got some points of concern? Me too! Here are the ones I’m thinking of right now:

Would HPA (presumably headed by “Ms. Naegi”) really allow XF-Tech to do anything remotely close to what I described to Teruko?

How would XF-Ture Tech have known enough about Teruko’s luck when Teruko was 5 to recruit Min (and “XF”) to be in the correct classes at the correct time?

Is XF-Ture Tech really that important to the story?

Is Mai actually that close to Min and Xander specifically, or are we just biased because those are the two Bonus Episodes we’ve seen thus far?

Didn't Mai and Teruko have a more extensive connection than what was described? (Matching tattoos, phone charms)

Why would Teruko’s luck create a time loop specifically? Why wouldn't it come up with some other way to save her?

Why would the time loop only be constrained to the mall?

Would Xander ever be willing to come that close to sacrificing innocents’ lives for the plan?

Would the entire DRDT cast really be willing to risk their time, if nothing else, to enter a killing game just to "avenge" Mai?

What could they have actually done against Teruko’s luck to break the mall time loop?

How could they have guaranteed that another time loop would begin if they managed to steal Teruko?

Where did MonoTV come from?

Why would the students have themed the killing game around TV?

Why would they throw the embarrassing secrets motive into their killing game if it was only meant to kill Teruko/that “round” theoretically shouldn’t even happen?

Why would Xander not have written the kill Teruko Tawaki note to himself? (He probably didn’t based on the handwriting)

If not Teruko’s death, what marker would signal the loop point of the DRDT killing game? Whenever the killing game seems to end?

What motive would XF-Ture Tech have to (presumably) continue the altDRDT killing game after the time loop is broken and Teruko is gone?

Why does altDRDT have NG code bracelets?

I could probably come up with more, but these are all the major questions I could think of at the moment. While not a “question,” per se, another point of contention for some would be that this would make Xander the mastermind of DRDT. It’s not a huge point of contention for me, both because 1) an off-the-wall situation like this is exactly what I think Xander would need to properly capitalize off of any narrative setup he may have for being the mastermind, and 2) @/sentinel-kinjo made a really good point in the replies of my DRDT mastermind post that definitely had me questioning whether I should’ve put Xander (and Charles) higher.

Anyways, despite all this effort– or maybe because of it– I think I personally don’t really believe in the theory that DRDT is part of a time loop. Somewhat like the Arei dress-up theory, I feel like there are too many oddities currently left unanswered for the theory to be actually viable. Unlike the Arei dress-up theory, though, I think that this one has far more potential to become correct via us receiving more information that either fills in some of our plot holes or reroutes the plot to avoid some of the biggest grievances.

The only thing I really like from this theory is that the altDRDT cast is West Class 27, AKA Teruko’s class. That’s gonna be my new personal headcanon until proven otherwise.

I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the DRDT fandom has been feeling a little sleepy (Min reference) lately, so thank you, anon, for helping to keep me cooking on the series during this semi-down period. …Even if it took me, like, two months to actually finish. Thank you for your patience, as well.

And thank you to everyone for reading this far! I think my mastermind theory still wound up being longer than this (although it’s hard to tell with the pictures), but this one is still a doozy. Also, if you have anything to add on or argue against, please share your thoughts in the comments or a reblog! I’d love to hear others’ thoughts, especially given how loosely defined the time loop theory was. Whether you do or don’t, I hope you enjoyed. See you at the next inexplicably long analysis!

[roo-bastmoon]

I dunno what it means but I have a theory

Pessimists say JK is copying/stealing Jimin's style because he has no creativity of his own and he knows Jimin's look was successful.

Pragmatists say the stylists recycle looks and design brands for BTS, especially when the members have a similar sense of style or body build, and they are pressed for time with all these rollouts.

Optimists like me say JK has a say in a lot of his outfits and poses, so he might wish to draw visual connections to Jimin, creating an unspoken alignment. It may not even be entirely conscious, and it definitely doesn't connect the "themes" of their solo works.

I guess we won't know unless they ever talk about it, but at this point, there's too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.

The reason I cannot bring myself to believe that Jungkook is just copying Jimin out of intellectual laziness is because THEY DO THIS IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES ALL THE TIME. All the shoes, pants, shirts, hats, and jewelry brands and looks they've shared over the years?? They like the same stuff.

They take the whole "I am you, you are me" thing pretty seriously, and as much as Jimin teases Jungkook for being hyung's copycat, he has never truly minded. In fact we've had proof of them recently hanging out and being just fine with one another. Whatever their status is, Jikook seem pretty good, which is heartening.

So maybe I'm looking at the world through rose-colored glasses (and I'm not out to convince anyone to see things my way), but I just get the gut sense that JK craves connection with Jimin and this is one of the ways he can do that... Or maybe he just thinks Jimin is the coolest (I cannot argue with the man).

Even if he didn't write his own songs or craft his own designs in solo era (something I personally lament--I am really struggling to connect with his work so far, I'm sad to say, but that's a comment on me, not a demand of him), staff know what he likes; he approves things and has right of refusal.

So I just tend to think it may not be a big huge hairy deal (as in, this is not couple coding; this is not proof that "Jikook is real"). Rather, I take it to mean Jikook share aesthetics and this is one of the ways they click. At work. At home. While traveling. They click this way.

It's cool if you see things differently. I could be way, way off base! But as a general rule, if you bash a member of BTS on my blog you get the ban-hammer from me without any fuss or fanfare.

Discussion is great but keep it respectful. Thank you!

And now I cannot procrastinate any more. Lunch break is over and I have to get back to work. I don't wanna don't make me I just wanna watch BTS content all day long is that too much to ask waaaah. The deadlines, they wait for no one...

[macravishedbymactavish]

A Symptom of Being Human (John "Soap" Mactavish x GN! Reader)

Look at me cleaning up my drafts with 2 finished WIPs in one night.

TW for very light angst and a very concerned Soap

| Blog HQ | Modern Warfare 2 Masterlist |

"You dinnae look happy" a voice commented as you walked into the shared kitchen. You spared him a shrug as you continued quietly to the cupboards, looking for your cup to make a warm drink in.

"What's bothering ye? You can talk to me, I don't bite" The corner of your mouth twitched at that, while he could be loud, and border the line of obnoxious his heart was in the right place.

"Would you believe me if I told you it's just how I look?" You glanced over your shoulder, watching as he slowly squinted at you. Clearly not buying it.

"Just my face, Irish Spring. I'm having a really good day actually" you shrugged once more, ignoring his protests mumbled from under his breath about the nickname. ('M not even Irish…)

As far as you could remember, you were always having people checking in on your wellbeing. Friends, distant family, caring strangers, store clerks, and teammates. Your normal expression clearly wasn't welcoming and optimistic. It was the opposite actually - you looked like you hated the world and everyone in it at all times.

"But you look miserable" You appreciated his concern, but didn't need him worrying about you. Pausing slightly, you shook your head before glancing over at your friend.

"The face looks upset, the soul feels good. Do you want a coffee?" You lightly chuckled, grabbing another mug out of the cabinet when he accepted your offer.

--

"You're concerning Soap" Ghost confided to you later that day, following a sparring session between the two of you. "He's convinced you're depressed and not telling him everything"

You couldn't help but playfully roll your eyes, you loved your teammate. You really did, but he was so overly concerned for nothing.

"I've told him, it's just my face. I don't know what more I can do, outside of wearing a mask like my resting bitchfaced friend" you smirked at Simon, watching him copy the action you had just done a moment prior.

"You know 'im as well as I do, he's not going to suddenly stop being concerned. Especially since he thinks you're devastated about something and hiding it" Simon had a point...shit.

It was at dinner that night, when you felt a pair of eyes burning a hole in the side of your head. You had a fairly good guess at who was on the other end so you continued eating.

How many times do I need to tell him I'm fine? It's just. My. Face.

You opted against entertaining the concerned stare, in favour of continuing your meal. Making small bits of conversation with your table mates between bites. That was until you heard a soft, yet obnoxious shuffling getting closer. He wouldn't.

"Hey guys" Kyle awkwardly greeted, placing his tray down at one of the empty chairs across the table from you. "Thought I'd sit here, change of pace" you arched a brow at the man, seeing right through his change of pace.

You continued picking at your food, waiting for the question to be asked. Waiting for the confirmation that Kyle didn't come by to just hang out. Glancing up at him every so often, you watched as the man sat awkwardly across from you. Shoulders stiff as he sat.

"You can tell Johnny that I'm fine" you commented after another moment of silence. "And you don't have to stay if you don't want to"

He gave you a small smile before picking his tray up and returning to his main group. Leaving you to roll your eyes, and audibly groan when you felt another tray land beside you.

"No. I'm eating, you do not get to badger me about this now" voice trailing off as your eyes met those of the confused recruit. "Nevermind, I honestly thought you were someone else"

Poking at the food for a second longer, your appetite leaving the chat after you potentially scarred the poor stranger. Dumping the remnants of your tray into the trash, you sighed softly as you continued on to your room.

3 steps from your door, you heard a familiar voice call out to you. Jogging up to meet you before you passed the threshold.

"Are ye sure you're okay?" He asked, leaning against the wall in front of you. You debated whether or not to call him out on his dinner plan, and involving Kyle in all of this madness. Deciding against it in the moment, you went with a simple:

"I'm fine, Johnny. I promise I'd tell you if I wasn't" followed by a small smile, almost missing the unfocused gaze he was giving you.

Almost.

The two of you sat in silence, a rarity for the man in front of you. The team could've swore he was allergic to silences unless required for work. Always chattering about something, making silly jokes or teasing his friends. But right now? He sat silently, unmoving. Eyes staring right through you as his mind was clearly not within range. You lifted your hand to wave it in front of his face, then it clicked. The reason why he was so concerned for you. The moment passed as soon as it began, quickly blinking and refocusing on you.

"I know you would, I still worry for ye though" a small punch to the shoulder, and he was making his way down the hallway. Leaving you standing in place, eyebrows furrowed with the latest revelation. How did you never realize this before? Turning to stop him, to sit him down and ensure he was alright, you were met with an empty corridor.

Frozen in place, you ignored the dull ache growing behind your chest. The gnawing feeling in your mind as you debated on running up after him. Worried that it would give the wrong message after you spent the last few days all but begging him to quit.

You couldn't get the sight out of your head, out of your heart. The flash of hidden agony in his eyes, emotion covered up by extrovert tendencies. Making sure everyone else felt alright and was doing fine, as a coping mechanism?

No. This is not up for speculation.

"Johnny, wait" you called, jogging down the hallway to go find him. "Are you okay?"

Without stopping, he turned his head and shrugged.

"It's just my face, bonnie"

Taglist: @bloodonmyhands-1221 @v1naco @bowtruckleninja

[redwidow616]

Okayyyyyy it's 11 pm and i just watched the new aaa episode and i can't sleep before i write down all my thoughts so spoilers under the cut

I swear how many times do they wanna make me think mrs. Hart is coming back?? Literally the first scene i was like waiit green witch? Animals coming out of her grave (i think)? But then it was "just" the salem seven and i was just sitting there thinking whyyyy am i doing this to myself right before i want to go to sleep?? But it was okay, not as scary as i thought it would be (im such a baby about stuff like this istg even tho i never even get nightmares)

The broom ride looked soooo cool, them in front of the moon, rio being crazy, just everything

Ngl i was sure the salem seven would at least try to come in or wod be shown following them somehow at the end. I mean they had to get through the studio house somehow but yeah I'm sure we'll see them againIt was soooo funny to me when they showed the ouija (is that how it's spelled??) board, seriously marvel, two witch clichés in one episode I was also surprised this was already agathas trial because i was convinced hers would be last but oh well

Her imitating mrs hart tho like girl show some respect like wtf was that, then when she was possessed before we new it was her mom, again with the horror movie cliche, like a witch from back then would actually do that?? Also what kinda shitty ass mother is she, i can't believe she would say that to agatha

Of course the whole solution part was crazy, i loved how rio was basically like no one can have her except me to her mom and while i was not very excited for mom!agatha but the Nicholas scratch thing pulling her out of possession was kinda cute ngl

But ALICE NOOOOO i can't believe agatha did that, now we already have two dead witches :(( also did they just leave her there?????? For the salem seven to find and idk eat or smth?????? And teen being so concerned for her, it broke my heart

But of course the ending!!!!!! WHAT WAS THAT???????? WHAT DO YOU MEAN HIS MOM????? WANDA???!!???!!!!! WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN TO THE THREE OF THEM NOW????? WHERE DID RIO GO????? TEEN IS WEARING THE SCARLET WITCH CROWN BUT IN SILVER????? WERE THE PEOPLE SAYING HE'S WICCAN RIGHT???? ( i actually have no idea about this, i didn't read the comics)

seriously @rorysfreakshow616 you were completely accurate when telling me the last scene is crazy, i thought maybe it would be alice rising from the dead or smthn or the salem seven getting them, i actually thought they had possessed jen and lilia for a sec before i saw that there eyes were the same colour as teens magic and i was also just sitting there with my mouth wide open thinking wtfwtfwtfwtfwtf after i finished this episode

Also one last random spontaneous thought, what of teens spell book was another copy of the dark hold?

Okay I'm done now, I'll probably rewatch this episode cus I'm crazy about it and i can't wait for the next one

[moth--mallow]

I wonder if Merlin convinced/asked King uther to adopt Arthur

Than she set up Excalibur so Arthur could be king

Why is Merlin going to these lens for Arthur of all people considering there have been other chaos users and as long as Merlin's been around I'm sure there have been other humans she could have given Excalibur to and help them become a great ruler a king in order to use chaos why does she have to

pick Arthur pacifically I wonder I know it goes with the Arthurien Legends and all but why is it in this story Merlin shows Arthur that's just one of the many things that was never really cleared up like there's a bit more about their past we don't know and then there is the stuff that happened in between the end of seven deadly sins till what we're looking at currently I've been trying to piece the timeline together

From what I can tell it goes in this order

First we have the end of the seven deadly sins after the god-awful chaos ark

Then we have the safe by light movie which I'm still convinced a large majority of this fandom has not watched including myself I got the screenshots I have with Arthur and Merlin in it off of a YouTube clip

Then there's the next part from the night from the beginning of the manga who the age the characters when they've got to the Crystal caves I can't remember his name right now

And he showed how Arthur recruited him and it seems this happened right after the demon King's my asthma was affecting the southern Britannia and our large amount of people in it right after the attack the when the demon King finally was defeated or whatever around this time so could Arthur's personality have begun to split and he not know it at the time where chaos was in control and then he would go back to normal and then at some point it was just completely chaos and control

Cuz looking back at it Arthur's outfit is the exact same as it was from the movie unless Merlin just made him multiple copies of the same outfit cuz they were working on just rebuilding Camelot at the time so focusing on appearance and what they look like wasn't probably a top priority which is understandable so Arthur just has multiple of the same outfits in different colors because even in color we see that this outfit is the same one from the movie just in Black

Or maybe the my asthma was just so bad that it had a longer lasting effect on Britannia I'm wondering and this takes a place a bit later this could be a year later from when the movie was set because if I'm correct from what people have told me king and Diane were getting married in the

movie so I'm guessing it took place a few weeks maybe a few months to maybe several months later cuz that's how long it takes to plan a wedding or whatever so this could be several months later and Arthur started to turn at that point and maybe at

first Merlin didn't notice it because around her even though he was still with seemingly seems to be depressed about everything that happened with Camelot and trying to rebuild it he was still trying to maintain his own personality but glimpses of chaos would come through

I'm trying to piece together the timeline and what's happening with Arthur's personality because it's clear like we all been saying from the beginning it's been chaos and control not Arthur and personal having Spirit magic I think will be a driving Factor helping bringing the real Arthur back there was also the theory and I mentioned in another post before that I saw from Reddit where someone had

mentioned that Arthur could have been being controlled by the spirits and Excalibur but I think it's pretty clear especially when looking at the anime and color and you see Arthur's eyes change you see more white in his eyes than his own color of his eyes which are purple meaning that chaos truly is slowly taking over Arthur

(sorry I don't have a visual for this right now Tumblr won't let me post any more pictures in this post )

I'm assuming Arthur is Chaos's first true host it's had full length too I

believe before maybe at some point on chaos was creating humans it puts larger parts of itself in certain humans so that way maybe one day it could have a host and maybe Excalibur was always the key to that but it got corrupted over time and at

some point the Lady of the lake meant Merlin and told her about the key to chaos and maybe that's why she used Excalibur to wake and Arthur since Excalibur seems to just be a chaos key I don't think it was meant to hold the spirits of the heroes but for some reason it did and now that chaos is more free and had gained more control over time I'm

guessing within a year or maybe even a couple years it fully consumed Arthur and about 10 years ago from what pellegard said that's when Arthur's fully started to change because it was around part two after the time skipping for nights and and Donnie met pellegard he mentioned he hadn't been able to fully understand Arthur's motives and almost 10 years something major had had to change where Arthur was willing to fully let chaos consume him

In Merlin disappeared or maybe chaos trapped her away or something but we can tell that Merlin has been active there have been hints that she's possibly hiding in lions , and then there's gwaian who I believe isn't like a clone or hybrid or anything I believe she's just like a normal baby that Merlin saw had magic potential maybe like she did with Vivian and Arthur so she left the granny golem with her to train her to use magic and sunshine is something Merlin enchanted on to her as it's next host so Sunshine could be active again and possibly used to defeat Arthur or at least stop chaos at some point the same can be sailed the Lady of the lake who I believe still had some magic left over from one Merlin had the seven deadly sins send their magic towards the leg during their battle with the demon king and there was some residue magic left over and the lady of the late gave it to Lance a lot which is why he's so overpowered and people say he's on the same level as the seven deadly sins is because he has some of their magic in him

[dynamightsfave]

jude duarte—trust

the pinks and oranges of sunrise adorn the horizon’s sky as i make my way back. i’m still not used to seeing the day begin and end. back in faerie, in elfhame, i only ever saw sunrise, i was never much of an early riser, so sunset was a rare sight for me. even so, this sunrise is different to those back there. i cannot explain why though, it may very well be the fact that the people around me are getting ready for work rather than for bed, or the fact that it seems to be brighter, unhidden by the shadows of the mortal world, as this is the mortal world.

who would’ve told. young lady of one of the lower courts, used to the finer life at the palace, living like an ordinary mortal. one that has a night shift at the local seven eleven—a “restaurant”, where they serve some kind of “fast food”, which i have to admit, is far better than some of the things i’ve tried at banquets before—and goes grocery shopping and wears jeans and pays rent. no one to do things for me as i ask, no magic used between one thing and another, sweeping floors, like a servant.

it sounds worse than it is, really.

sometimes i wonder if i did the right thing leaving elfhame. i know my father doesn’t think so, i saw it in his face when i took the first step. but what does he care for me anyway, if in the end i wouldn’t have been able to secure him an actual position of power in the higher courts, the only thing he’s ever wanted me for. still, i don’t feel like a failure. for the first time in my whole life, i do not feel like i owe anybody anything, like i am being watched, having to keep an eye open for a predator. nobody expects anything from me in the mortal world, and it’s liberating.

i like it here, i’ve decided. maine is a good place to be in. until jude finds a way back to faerie anyway. and she will, no matter how done with the crown she tells me she is. she’s trying to convince herself of that, a pathetic little attempt if i do say so myself, but it keeps her going, and if we want to make ends meet, then she can attempt as many times as she likes.

vivi’s—or heather’s, more like—apartment comes into view, and i can already feel the poor wonderful bed that’s awaiting me. i want to sleep today off; tonight’s shift was full of idiots that really should not be allowed outside. and where i’m from people revel in their birthday suits.

however, i am met with a limping jude trying to get away, and before i can ask her what happened, a copy of her runs out from our entrance, gowns similar to the ones i once wore myself adorning her figure. taryn.

when i hear her ask jude about her condition, i’m not sure i want to laugh, ignore her and try for answers myself, or if i should outright step down from my piece of wood with wheels transport and slam it on her head.

jude ignores her, so i choose to meet her in the middle. she lets me hold her in place for a second, before she takes my hand and keeps going.

"i need your help," at that, i do laugh. taryn gives me a glare, one i return with pleasure.

"no," the other twin says.

we keep going, until she gets in our way, but i don’t hesitate to push her shoulder to let us through. fuck her and her stupid big ass gown.

"jude, just hear me out," before she can answer again, i growl.

"no. like absolute hell"

but she doesn’t look at me, she just stops her sister, eyes desperately looking for hers.

"locke is dead. i killed him"

"good," comes out of my mouth before i can stop myself.

"i am trying to talk to jude," she finally snaps, glare intensifying.

"and i am trying to hold my murderous desires towards you at bay, but it seems we’re both failing at our intents," i bark back. my free hand digs into her shoulder again, stepping into her space and covering jude with my body, "jude isn’t going to help you with whatever you need, you do not get that. you used her, twice. once because you were jealous and desperate enough to lower yourself for a piece of attention from someone you’ve now killed. pathetic," i spit, frown deepening in a way my mother would’ve chastised me for before, "and then you used her position to betray the kingdom you’d worked oh so very hard to fit into? you’re a two faced bitch that only thinks of herself, taryn. the fact that you had the audacity of coming here to ask favors proves just that. so no, jude will not help you, and she will not hear you out. she needs to get that injury checked," i decide our best bet is to go back to the apartment, and jude says nothing as i turn us around and drag her back inside and to the bathroom.

i help her undress, careful with the stained cloth stuck to her side. i don’t ask questions; i know her jobs can get odd, and just like in faerie, there’s danger in odd. her eyes are dozed off, a glazed look over them. i sigh.

"no, jude," i chastise, "she doesn’t deserve you to hear her out. so stop thinking about it. if she’s still here by the time we’re out, i’ll send her back to elfhame myself"

"she killed her husband," she tells me, voice merely a mutter, still not here.

"her husband was locke," i deadpan, "if anything, she just took the opportunity out of our hands," i try to humor. but she just hums.

i grab the organic soap vivi buys and rub it on her side, washing the dried blood away. then, i rinse it all and turn for her hair. we don’t say much. if i know her, and i do, she’ll hear taryn out, no matter what i say.

"she doesn’t deserve you," i say again, washing my hands in the water when i’m done. i let myself slump next to the tub, "and i’m glad locke is dead, one way or another. he was an asshole"

"yeah, but why would she do it?"

"who cares? she did it, about time. you’ll not help her with it"

"i’m not being fooled, if that’s what you’re worrying about," she grumbles.

"jude," i sigh once more, and stare at her face, even if she won’t look back at me, "i’m not worried about that. i just hate her being here, asking for help like she’s done nothing. she always gets what she wants. i know you like to act like you know who to trust, but you’re just like me, you trust easily. we’ve led with our emotions, and look where that’s gotten us"

"you didn’t have to follow me here," she rebuts.

"that’s not what i meant"

there’s a pause. her head falls forward, gaze losing down at the tub, playing with the water.

"i know. i’m sorry"

"we’ve trusted her twice before, you because she’s your sister and i because i trust you. she’s used you both those times," i stress, my voice low in an effort to seem calm, "she doesn’t get to appear out of nowhere and ask for help because she killed her husband. and need i remind you, we can’t return ho- to faerie"

jude ponders over my words. my slip is obvious, but i don’t try to hide it. we’ve been avoiding calling elfhame our home, it makes things easier. but when the king you once let yourself trust for a moment uses you, suddenly home doesn’t feel welcoming. and here we are now, a queen without a kingdom and a lady that refused to be reduced to a consort.

"why did you do it?" she asks this time. we’ve been avoiding that question as well. her gaze lifts up to me as mine lowers to my hands.

i let my fingers dance with each other for a few seconds, wondering what the best way to answer it might be. i’ve run through the list of them a thousand times, but how does one explain an unconscious action? the reflex to lose everything just so they don’t lose that one person. again.

"because against everything you’ve proved everyone else, i trust you with my life, jude duarte," i confess, "and i love you"

"you loved cardan too," she notes, "he seemed to love you as well"

"and yet he made you his queen"

it’s funny, how a person can fall in love with several and not be able to stop any of it. i never meant to fall for the high king, as i’m sure jude didn’t either, the same way i never mean to fall for his seneschal. i don’t know how or when it happened, all i know is that as resented as i am with the boy, i still ache for him just as much as i ache for the girl in front of me. and i know neither fell that way for me, too consumed in each other to notice anyone else.

"i’ll wait outside"

jude says nothing as i let myself out.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

If ever there was cry for help, that was it. I hear you! No more shipping and fan wars and charts and Army.

I'm not sure if this would help, but please feel free to pick from a topic below or ignore all of them:

You are obviously very drawn to music and film. What about painting & sculpture? Is there an artist, an era or genre that reigns supreme with you? Any why? Oh, and painting or sculpture? And why?

Ancient Egypt or Ancient Mesoamerica or neither?

Bronte or Austen? Other examples of proto-feminist literature?

Top five absolute worst film/series you can remember?

Is there a period of women's fashion that think, "yes, I could totally rock that," and wish it would make a comeback?

Where--and doing what--do you feel the closest to the sublime?

Finally, do you prefer Western or Asian gg, or not at all? Here's my controversial take and you can ream me out, if it will make for a good copy: It's not so much that I find the K-Pop gg groups look alike, but that they sound alike. I have a hard time distinguishing one voice from another--the range, tone, color, etc. are just too similar for me. Do I just need to listen more?

Enjoy your day!

Oooh, lots of questions and options. Thank you, anon 😊 Right, let's see.

1. I'd have to pick painting over sculpture simply because I was more exposed to art movements in painting in school or throughout my other years of study as an adult. I do have an inclination towards Baroque and Art Nouveau, but I'm mostly interested in everything that falls under contemporary art, beginning with the '70s until the present. Artists that come to mind would be Duchamp, Lichtenstein, Lucien Freud, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, etc.

2. I'm going with Ancient Egypt simply because I went through a period in sixth grade when I would read everything I could find on the topic. I heard it's quite common for people to have an Ancient Egypt period in their life, particularly in their childhood. Mine started because one day my dad brought me a book.

3. Despite having first read Austen, I'll always choose the Bronte sisters. Particularly Emily Bronte. Wuthering Heights is among my favorite novels in English literature.

4. Worst films I've seen: The 50 Shades of Grey series (I saw two of them just to laugh with other people, but it is an excruciating experience). Sex and The City 2 (highly offensive, wrong on many levels and completely unnecessary). The Twilight Series (I can't be convinced that there's anything good about how the films turned out, nor the story itself). I also saw some Avenger movie just to see what it's all about. Never again. Marvel movies are a plague. And lastly, American Sniper which might have kickstarted the hatred I have for Bradley Cooper and his acting.

5. Not that I think it should make a comeback or not, but my favorite period in women's fashion would be the 1930s. For day and evening wear as well. It has the practicality and glamour.

6. I never thought of it that way and perhaps there's less opportunities/occassions for it, but taking walks by myself through forests. The first time I have listened to Leonard Cohen in my childhood bedroom many years ago. Going to the cinema by myself, sitting in the front row in the middle and watching the full, uninterrupted 5 hours of Nymphomaniac. More often than not, cinema is connected to the sublime in my world.

7. I don't have a particular preference for it. Just as I don't have one for boy groups/bands. If it happens that I like one, then I listen to it.

I can understand why you think that K-Pop gg sound the same, but what I realized in my case is that it's a matter of exposure. There's plenty of bg in k-pop that "suffer" from the same issue, and once you get to listen to them more, you can see some particularities. Boy or girl groups are supposed to be homogenous, with some sort of variety added by the personas they present to the fans. A similarity in sound might be the result of trends and what producers are interested in. Again, groups that distinguish themselves from the crowd (which is quite a big one in K-Pop), do have their own style which can be easily identified the more you get accustomed to it.

[khaleesiofalicante]

THE EVIL HAS BEEN DEFEATED! And by that I mean exams are finally over! And the last one on Monday, which was the most difficult one probably went good so I'm even more excited for summer vacation to start. And September is gonna be hell, so I'm planning on fully enjoying this summer😄

And of course, first thing I did was read the chapter you posted and I absolutely loved it! I have so many thoughts that I will share in another ask

I also finished the fourth season of Drive To Survive. Which I will talk about in another ask because it will be longgggg. But I absolutely loved the Canadian GP, I mean a podium with Verstappen, Alonso and Hamilton, that had to be legendary! And he looked so happy after it ended I wanted to hug him🥹 Also Hamilton saying it was an honour to be on the podium with two World Champions when he has more titles than both of them combined, I really love this man. What did you think of the race? Also, opinions on Russel trying to convince the team to allow him to pass Hamilton in the Monaco GP? I mean I really like George but that kinda pissed me off.

On other news I watched the Good place and Good omens and they're both amazing shows I really enjoyed them. Have you seen them? You should see them if you haven't they're awesome!

How are you?? How did you copy with the hell that was May? I really hope June has been better for you and you enjoyed your vacation. And what is this about you getting your hair died blue?? THEY MUST LOOK AWESOME, not ordinary colour on hair always looks great. My best friend once died half her hair pink and they looked amazingg

Can't wait to hear how you've been while I'm done bombarding you with asks about FMF and F1. 🌷

PS: I've told a couple friends of mine that I've started watching F1 and they legit didn't believe me and I honestly can't blame them, the power of Max Hamilton🥲

VICKYYYYY HELLO.

congratulations on surviving hell and hope you have the BEST time during your summer vacay!!!

I was so glad to see him on the podium too (although in all honesty i was half dead during the Candian GP because it was late here) but Merc upgrades are really working and here is hoping he can get more podiums (maybe even p1!!!) in one of the upcoming races <3333

I'm not a big fan of Russell so yeah it really annoys me when he says shit like that on the team radio kjdnjkds.

I have watched both good place and the good omens - the former is one of my favorite shows because it's so fucking smart and effortlessly funny.

I survived the hell that was May and really learned many life lessons. i feel like i went through an apocalypse or something but tis all over now. And I did dye my hair blue and I've been told it's very cool so yay no regrets lol.

PS - The power of Hamilton is truly unmatched. Can't wait for the Austrian GP and omg it would be hilarious if Redbull doesn't win there because it's their home race ;)

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Completely agreed, and I think the question of HOW he knows all that is really what proves that this was stalker behavior and not the product of a normal amount of attention.

We've got to keep in mind that this was written the year the world wide web was BORN. You could not simply google information about people from the comfort of your own home.

So, let's look at what Tim's options were for sources of information on the fact that Dick retained his old apartment after he moved in with Starfire.

He special ordered each new edition of the yellow and white pages for a completely different city than the one he lives in just so he could look up Dick's address and phone number over and over again - except that I think this would only list one address at a time, so he'd probably need to do this in addition to one of the following:

He called Dick's landlord and conned him into handing out his tenant's private information and then extra conned him into never telling Dick that anyone had asked for that

He broke into Dick's landlord's physical files in order to dig up the paperwork proving that the lease extended passed the moving date.

He followed Dick in person consistently and closely enough to eavesdrop on a conversation Dick had about keeping both apartments

He went through Dick's mail carefully opening and resealing all his letters to read them and found one mentioning something about keeping both (wildly illegal!)

He watched through the windows of both the new apartment and the old apartment after Dick moved just in case he came back????

He had been watching that apartment on such a regular basis that he immediately noticed Dick showing up there less often, followed Dick and Kori to their new home, and kept track of the fact that most of Dick's furniture was still at the old place.

Absolutely none of these options are even remotely within the realm of normal human behavior!

Also like... How did Tim get into Dick's apartment? Did he teach himself to pick locks in order to be capable of this?? Did he steal and copy Dick's key??? Did he steal/copy the building owner/caretaker's master key????

Plus there are panels showing Tim knowing just waaaayyyy too much about the other Titans and peeping through Starfire's apartment window from the neighboring building, and from the way he talks about it I am convinced this was NOT the first time!

Like, okay, yes these could technically be Sherlock deductions, but I'm hard pressed to interpret them that way! Especially considering the part about 20 mins. It's really fucking weird that Tim would be so sure Dick wouldn't stick around in the building alone working on some kind of project.

Again, how would he know this?

Unlike the apartment thing, superheroes don't leave paper trails! I don't think there's another way to explain this other than to say that Tim has watched Titan's Tower waiting for Dick to come out many, many times before. Also the certainty with which he says the one dinner part makes me think he's watched them have dinner together often enough to know they basically never eat separately.

Bottom line, it required a LOT of dedicated effort to learn this much about Dick and all of the people connected to Dick; this is not something Tim could have done casually; he is 1,000% a bona fide stalker!

I know some people say that in canon Tim isn’t actually a stalker, but I would just like to remind you all that he TOTALLY IS.

He:

Knows where Starfire lives and that Dick stays with her

Knows where Dick lives

Knows who Alfred is just by Alfred opening the door

And, as some circumstantial evidence that may or may not help my case:

He was able to take pictures of Batman without anyone noticing him. Yes, Bruce was in the middle of a fight, but that’s never stopped him before

He was able to rescue Bruce and Dick both, and they seemed surprised when he showed up.

Tim knows how to not draw attention to himself. He knows where they live. He knows who they live with. I don’t know if he just deduced where Dick’s safe was or if he just knew where it was, but he broke into Dick’s secret safe. And I just can’t say this enough: he knows where Starfire lives. He shows up at her door. He knows.

I’m sorry, but all evidence points to Tim being a massive stalker. You don’t have to physically follow someone around to stalk them you know. And Tim may have just said something along the lines of “I followed your career” but that, in comics, translates to “I have been stalking you since I was but a wee lad”

[slugworthless]

Am I ok? I’m not sure. I feel my mind has been breaking, and this comes not just from the relationship, but from so much regret and pain. I’ve begun to see a therapist to try and work through my issues. I’ve begun talking about my trauma and working with the therapist in order to not only better my social skills but to also better my own internal dialogue and understanding. Tbh the past year has been another dark night of the soul for me. I’m lost and confused. I don’t know if I’m at fault, if I was abused, or if If I was the abuser. I've not been a nice person, and I'm beginning to understand that beneath myself lies hurt, anger, and fear. It has boiled over, and, in times of stress, it rises even further to the surface.

You've not always been on my mind, but I often found myself thinking of you as well. In times of distress, when it felt like no one could understand the inner me, you'd reappear. Just random days, Id wonder how you were, and if your life was going well. I didn't want to interfere with your life anymore. I didn't want to hide from Sam and cause you trouble. I was trying to be where I was and be the best that I could be, but I found myself trapped. Things are getting better, now, though. I'm still alive. I'm still here, and while that is the case, I've realized that it's up to me to make this life something that I can be happy with.

I feel as if I hold myself back from the world; afraid of people and their interactions; afraid of their perception of me; afraid of more pain that might arise. I'll tell you the story, and I'll tell you all of it. I won't hold anything back, and you can be the judge of my character and what transpired. There's still so many things I'm unsure on.

It all began back in November. You had encouraged me to find someone else to experiment and enjoy with. I began talking to this individual to find a fwb. I was still living with my ex-wife at the time. I had stumbled upon you, and I was so sure that we had found something special. I remember that I wanted to give you the Dolores Claiborne book, but I couldn't find my own copy. I searched my parents' house the day of our meeting, but couldn't find it. I stopped at a bookstore ran by an elderly woman who seemed to love books. She charged $5 for that copy, which I ended up gifting to you. I was so excited. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized how the day had went on your end. I didn't realize any of it. I got the room, and had been watching Steven Universe. You arrived while I was in the bathroom, but I had the phone still playing that show, so I ran to pause it before opening the door. I didn't want to make a bad impression. You know the rest of what transpired. That night, as I was heading home, she texted, asking how I had been. I ended up meeting up and fucking her, in my state. Was it a rebound? I was pretty upset over everything, so I tried to escape and forget. We had stopped talking, and I just met up with her and we fucked. That happened alot. Over time, I had decided to just stop bothering you. I cut ties. I didn't want to keep hurting over you. I focused on her. She was sweet. She had a lot going on in her life. I tried to be understanding of everything. She was in an abusive relationship. She told me that her kids had been taken away by DCS because of that man. He called DCS after convincing her to bring them to his residence. He'd watch them because they had just split up. She was transitioning and trying to move. He lived in a place without electricity.

Well, they took them away from her. She lost everything. She was trying to do her best. Honestly, the environment and people that I have met and seen have been really bad. I've had my life threatened countless times. I was dragged into the underbelly of drug addicts. I've been exposed to these kinds of people, now. I've seen the nastiness that humans can exhibit.

I bought a second car. I had everything sorted out. I gave her the car to use in order for her to get her life on track. She would make the payments on it. I installed a tracker on the car, in order to be able to get it, should the need arise. I began noticing odd behaviors. Her driving to certain places at night. Erratic behavior and the like. She told me that she used to be on drugs, but now she was just delivering it for people, as a form of employment.

Over time, I kept asking her to forsake that life. There was too much at stake to keep going down that path. I wanted to see her succeed. I wanted to be supportive. We weren't anything serious. Tbh, I had rationalized the car, as an investment to have a second one. One day, she was talking about a number that kept texting her, so I asked her for it, and texted them, unbeknownst to her. It turned out, it was someone she had met on a dating app. I confronted her about it, and she said she used them to find "stuff" for people. This back and forth happened for so long. My trust began to fade and I became more critical. I began watching her. I began to see if she was up to anything. She would disappear. She would turn off the trackers. She would get defensive if I brought anything up, and would begin to attack me; bringing up my own shortcomings that she had problems with. I fell for it all. I became angrier and angrier over time. I eventually took the cat back, and that's when things came out that she was on meth. She didn't deliver anything. She was going to buy it for herself.

From there, we continued to fight off and on. I was constantly under scrutiny. We gave each other access to our Googles. She combed through mine with a fine-tooth comb, which made me do the same to hers. I was manipulated. That's how it felt. Gaslighted. I was told that I talked to her like she wasn't a person. I would get so incredibly angry. I couldn't handle it. I would talk to her very negatively. I would tell her that she won't get her kids back like this. She needed to work and get money. She needed to help me pay for the car. I called her a burden, so she went back to dating apps. I kicked her out in July. I felt bad though, she needed a car. She had nothing without me. I would ruin her life if I had canceled everything.

I brought her back, and she wanted to know what I wanted. Were we together? What was she to me? I didn't want to think about it. I was afraid of who she was at this point. I didn't want to ruin someone's life, but she constantly put pressure on me. She constantly made me come back to reality to figure it out. We have screamed at each other. We have fought and fought, and I hate it. I can't handle these things. I'm traumatized from my childhood. Anger leads to depression for me. I did become severely depressed. She lied to me about her addictions after that. She said she had quit. Her court case with DCS was still ongoing. She eventually went to jail, and I was left alone. The day she went, I had confronted her about everything and told her that she didn't love me. I was being used by her. Nothing made sense. Existence had become a daily sense of anxiety. I've cried, broken walls in anger, and said so many hurtful things. I've made her cry from those words more than once. I went two weeks without her, and when she was released we talked about making things better. I had tried to find answers in introspection. I had never been in such a stressful environment. Never a moment of peace. However, while she was gone, I became incredibly lonely; smoking weed daily to try and numb my mind and pain.

It's always been over the same things; her talking to other guys, and her disappearing and being dishonest. Communication is crucial. Trust is crucial. I had neither. My trust had vanished. I became almost paranoid. Last week, she went to her mother's house to see her nephew, while I was working at the house. It had been a full day, and I tried calling her, but she ignored my calls for 2 hours. It was getting late. She had been talking to me that day on what I was doing wrong for everything. I felt like I truly was the one at fault, but I was confused too because I wasn't truly sure if I was at fault. I was explaining how I was trying to make things better by working on myself. After 2 hours of not answering my calls, I went to her mom's. I knew she was there. It was 1020, and I had to be up at 6am. I pulled in and saw her in the car with a man eating her out. That was the moment. I snapped. I cut all 4 yores to that car. I had it towed to my house. I left her stranded at her mom's. I told her mom what happened. She was on probation for 2 years. She had a job. I cut all ties and then she had nothing. I have no plans of getting back with her. She needs the car so I have her cleaning my house rn. I'm traveling around for Thanksgiving. I've spent the past few days talking shit to her. She needs the car. It's her only way to keep from going to jail for two years. I'm still angry, but she doesn't control me anymore. I've made it clear that we're not together. I brought her back to clean my house because the dogs are too much. She's on her own. I'm making her pay to replace all the tires, then we'll figure out a contract or something for the car. Idk.

[kathanisharma]

Speaking of Episode 6/the wedding, do you still watch that one when you rewatch the show?

I was rewatching it today and completely forgot that Anthony says Kate is a ‘thorn easily removed from the blossoming flower of our lives’ - I forget how many times he pissed me off watching it because he so quickly makes up for it again and makes me love him again, damn that man.

What did you think of this line? I loved Edwina’s subtle reaction - I kind of read it as her realising she’d have to give up her sister to be with this man and almost wish there had been a line where she said something along the lines of ‘never see my sister again?’ But also she’s mad at Kate then so it may have jarred.

What do you think Anthony’s motivations are here? Do you think he is still acting in Kate’s interests or is he genuinely worried about their reputations? I thought there might be some relief based on the previous episode. I assume he is still lying to himself/wearing that mask.

Soaking of Edwina & Kate - if they were doing Austen parallels I kind of wish they’d had an Edwina weeping over Kate like in Sense & Sensibility with Eleanor & Marianne but then that is one of my fave scenes ever and makes me cry everytime - but Charithra would have smashed that

i— i can't tell if you're joking i literally went on a spiral about this yesterday so i'm just going to copy paste what i said but essentially i LOVED that line about the thorn AND I LOVE EPISODE 6 from a kate and anthony standpoint and here's why:

"the man was on the verge of a complete breakdown and only years of pushing away his own emotions for his duty/for the good of his family got him through that day like?? this man was not ok"

"every word out of anthony's mouth was literally him trying to build his walls up. 'she has plans that do not include me' clearly suggested that if kate even hinted at wanting him in her life, he would do anything for her. he was literally going through with this wedding because of her begging, using his name for the first time, him to. he restates the thorn line because he's forcing himself into thinking of her that way because if he doesn't? he would end up completely broken on the outside. he literally states that this is what i now know for what will happen with kate post wedding because he cannot ever say that that is what he wants. at the first hint of her being vulnerable to him as well, in the closet, anthony grab's kate's wrist and looks deep into her eyes, begging for just another moment with her."

"i maintain that thorn line in episode 6 was delicious because it really emphasized how much pain anthony was in over what kate said about their feelings fading and he was there saying that to edwina but actually desperately trying to convince himself"

"HIS MOUTH SAYS ONE THING BUT HIS EYES SAY ANOTHER THE MAN WAS IN PAIN IT WAS DELICIOUS AND IT HURT SO MUCH LIKE WHAT DO YOU NOT GET!! HE WASN'T JUST BEING CRUEL ABOUT KATE HE WAS BEING CRUEL TO HIMSELF ANY AMOUNT IT HURT US IT HURT HIM 10x WORSE LIKE??? HE WAS LITERALLY LOOKING INTO SPACE IN THE PICTURE ON THE LEFT HE WAS IN HIS HEAD IMAGINING KATE LEAVING FOR INDIA AND HE WAS IN PAIN"

TLDR; anthony was forcing himself back into the duty mindset because he believes kate doesn't care for him/doesn't want a future in which he is a part of and so that's why he was saying those things. to convince others, sure, but more to convince himself and honestly the person he was hurting the most was himself.

in terms of edwina, i struggled in this episode, i won't lie. i think her hurt and anger are justified, but i struggled with understanding her motivations and i think that's a fault of the writing. especially in her confusion that anthony doesn't love her and then her saying that kate pushed her into this when kate was against it from the start and only gave in when edwina took a stand for herself and said this is what she wants. like i will always be a little bothered we never truly delved into that and again, i think it's a fault of the writing trying to make her speech as big and dramatic as they could without actually paying attention to the content. they could have gotten that same scene with different lines.

i think when watching episode 6, i kind of ignore literally everyone except kate and anthony (and honestly that's how i watch the show) so to me, 6 was an excellent episode for the kathony content it delivered. it was peak repression and DESPERATION on both of their parts and the angst?? the sweet sweet angst!!

[gyusfavlibra]

THIS IS MY WORK! PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR REPOST ON OTHER SITES/APPS!!!!

Warnings: +18, smut, fingering, hand job, sex in bathroom, language, jealousy, fighting, arguing.

Y/n and Sarah sat quietly on Kie's bed as they waited for Kiara to stop degrading the lavender dress she wore while standing in her large mirror. Mrs. Carrera coming through the door to make sure the girls were all dressed. "This is disgusting."

"I know it's just horrible."

"I'm asking you guys to just relax and go to a fun party."

"I look like a bourgeoisie pig."

"I think you look beautiful," y/n said while shrugging at Kie. She just gave a smile back to her, still hating the look no matter what compliments were given.

"Will you please not worry about socioeconomic injustice for one night?"

"Mom, people not three miles from her have no power, no running water, and we're going to Midsummers."

"That's so tone deaf."

"Y/n," the mother scolded at her niece. "Do you know how hard we had to work to get into the Island club?"

"Yeah, mom. How could I forget? You had to grovel for, like, ten years--"

"Twelve years, and we also had to cough up a huge chunk of dough-"

"To keep up with the Joneses-"

"No, so you had the same experiences that I had as a child."

"But weren't parents as teens out, like partying, getting drunk, making out in the backseats of their cars at drive in movies," the cousin listed while putting her things in its bag. "Getting pregnant."

"That doesn't sound fun," Sarah added.

"Do you girls even know what the Island club is?"

"A factory farm."

"For debutantes," Y/n raised her eyebrows.

"It's a nice place, with nice people where you can do fun stuff."

"With out-of-touch rich people, while the island sinks slowly into the ocean."

"Water filling the poor's destructive lungs while the wealthy ones get away on million dollar boats."

Sarah sat quietly laughing on the comfy blanketed mattress. Mr. Cerrera sighed, saying one last thing before walking out. "Okay, I want you to put on your party face, girls, if you want to live."

"Did your mom just threaten to kill us?"

"Maybe. I think so," she nods as she turned around to the duo, fixing the flower crown that sat on her cousin's head. "You nervous to see Rafe."

"Why did you have to bring that up?"

"I was curious. I know it's only been two days, but-"

"Hey, he broke up with me. So if he wants to talk, that's in his duty. Not mine. I did nothing wrong."

Sarah got off the bed, swinging on it's pole. "Except flirt with JJ, or so he says."

"I was not...flirting with JJ. He has a crush on Kiara. I'd never."

"But Rafe doesn't know that."

°°°°

*flashback*

"What if she doesn't like it?"

"She'll love it. She's hippie."

Y/n and JJ sat on John B's porch, smoking a blunt. The girl was trying to help him do something nice for Kiara so JJ could ask her out without feeling weird. He's liked her for the longest and he was finally ready to tell her how she feels.

"Alright, now practice what you're gonna say."

Just as Y/n finished saying the statement, her own boyfriend, Rafe Cameron showed up. Standing behind them listening in.

"Okay, uh, hey I have to tell you something...uh important," the blonde began speaking, using hand gestures because of his nerves. "I really really like you. Like not like friends like, but I have feelings, uhm, strong feelings for you. Because you're like super hot, andnyou're like a really cool chick. So I was wondering if maybe you'd wanna...go out with me."

"Yes, t-"

"What the hell!"

The manly unknown voice shocked them both, their figures jumping at the sound because they thought they were alone.

"Rafe, what're you doing here?"

Y/n asked confusedly as she stood from the steps. The Kook just scoffed and walked back out. Ignoring her question. She shared a glance with JJ before going to follow after him.

"Hey! Where you going? What's wrong?"

"A pogue!? Y/n, seriously?!"

"What're you talking about?"

"You're cheating on me with a pogue?" He shouted. Y/n scrunched her eyebrows, looking at the unnecessary upset individual.

"What do you mean cheating? I'm not cheating on you. We were just talking."

"Bullshit. That's bullshit! I heard it all."

"Rafe, it's not like that. Jj was just-"

"I should've known better. I should've known," he fumed. His right foot swung to kick the dirt near his truck that he was so very close to getting into.

"Known what?"

"I should've never trusted a pogue. I knew something like this was gonna happen. You were just gonna throw me away like Sarah did, Topper. Right? Huh?"

"You sound ridiculous. I was never throwing you away. I was helping him out."

"Yeah, while you're at it. Might as well help sleep with him too."

Y/n scoffed, taking a step back from the angered boy who's brain had just functioned what he said. Part of him regretted it very much. But the other part thought you deserved it because of his cheating accusation.

He opened his vehicle door. Stepping one foot inside. "We're done."

The girl just laughed with held tears reaching for the openess. She turned around to head back inside as Rafe just drove off.

°°°°

"Hey, no tearing up today. Go to this stupid thing and show him that his little cheating accusation act didn't hurt you at all. You're stronger than that."

"Thanks, Kie."

The girls finished up their last minute touches. That includes sweeping their dresses with roller for no hair, any makeup redos, or hair finishes. The ride to the country club was quiet. Well, y/n was quiet.

This would be her first time seeing Rafe since their break up a three days ago. They've been doing everything in their mighty to avoid each other. And it definitely worked. But like her friend told her, she wasn't gonna get worked up. Letting Rafe see her weak was like telling him he was right about everything. But he wasn't.

"Jesus, Kook land."

"I forgot how packed this thing is every year."

"Well, let's go. I gotta walk out with my family."

The Cameron family walked out with their heads high and the Kook crowd cheered for each one. Y/n kept her eyes gazed to Kiara since they were in the middle of a conversation. Not caring if that family came in or not. That excludes Sarah.

Rafe watched from his spot by his dad, as they exited to outside. Breath hitched when he saw Y/n and her dress. It was a dark toned red, had tulle, and a revealing  chest opening.

A red flower crown on her head, complimenting her beautiful down hair. She looked amazing and hot to Rafe. He had to clear his throat before excusing himself.

"Hey," the red dresses girl heard from beside her as a hand landed on her lower back. She removed it before her eyes retracted to theirs. Kie just pursed her lips before leaving to hangout with Sarah. Y/n internally screaming that she left her there.

"What do you want?"

"Uh, you look nice."

"Okay. Thanks. You don't too. What do you want?"

"Nothing. Just saying hi."

"Bye."

"Wait, wait, wait. Why are you mad at me? Shouldn't I be the mad one here?"

"Why?"

"Because of what you did," he said with furrowed eyebrows. Y/n shrugged.

"I didn't do anything."

"Do- do you not remember what happened on the cut three days ago? The fight."

"You slut shaming me and accusing me of cheating with JJ. That? Yeah, I remember that."

"Accused? I heard you."

"Heard what exactly?"

"JJ, was telling you he liked you and thought you were a cool hippie chick, which you are not. You're not hippie. And then he asked you out and you said yes. As soon as I walked in."

Y/n stared at him blankly. Before bursting out laughing. A few guests behind them staring with a look that showed they weren't used to loud talkers or laugher. "Oh my god. You thought? Jesus that's absolutely hilarious."

"What is?"

"That you think- you think that JJ was confessing feelings to me. Whew that's rich."

"I heard it, Y/n."

"He wasn't confessing anything to me you shit head. He was practicing for when he asked out Kiara."

Rafe was confused. Majorly. Inside and out. "But she-"

"He likes Kiara. And she's my cousin. You think I'd really hurt anyone like that? How low of me do you think? Have fun at this party."

Y/n walked off to go look for her disappeared friends. Not wanting to spend another second in a spot with someone who was so rude over something he knew nothing about. Just assumed. Never asked.

As she walked down the corridors of the porch that many people stood on drinking, a hand grabbed her shoulder, turning her around. Her eyes fixated on the blonde in a black tux and a bow tie.

"Holy shit, JJ. You scared me. What're you doing here?" She asked as she hugged him.

"Well, Sarah somehow convinced her dad to let me in tonight to hangout with Kie."

"Have you seen her?"

"I was just looking for her myself. C'mon. She's probably inside."

She grabbed his hand. Pulling him inside. They found Kie just minutes later with Pope. He was working the grill with his dad. Sarah was getting raided by Topper about their own stupid shit. Y/n decided to go get herself a drink and maybe find someone to dance with.

The straw rested on her lips as she stood against the porch railing. Gazing over all the people who say around laughing, probably bragging about their money, summer vacations, their older kids getting into a good college. Typical kook things.

Her eyes focused on a specific couple talking off to the side. Her eyes burning a whole in the back of Rafe's head as he tried to flirt up a storm with some Kook she didn't know whatsoever.

Her body was fuming. Was Rafe really gonna sit in front of her and flirt with a whole other girl that isn't her. Just a few days after their breakup. It's like he's trying to play victim. And she's had it.

"Hey, Sancho. Lassie."

The brunette Rafe was talking up a storm to laughed. "I'm sorry who are you?"

"Oh, you gonna introduce me to your side piece here?"

"Would you stop? We're just talking."

"Talking? Yeah, okay," Y/n laughed. The girl just looked at her dazed. "Hi, I'm his girlfriend. Y/n. And you, yeah you're excused."

Rafe was truly enjoying this scene. Internally rooting for Y/n. He wasn't gonna object to that fact that she called herself his girlfriend. Because now that he knew the truth, it changed his perspective.

"Who do you think you are?"

"I already told you. Wh- can you not hear correctly?"

"He said he was single so, why-"

"He lied. So, you can go away now- Rafe. Let's go. We need to talk."

"What're you his mother now?" The rando questioned. Y/n turned to her and gripped her face.

"If you wanna keep these teeth, then I suggest you stop talking. Go find somebody else's boyfriend to mack on."

She dragged Rafe by his hand into the upstairs private bathroom. Locking the door behind her. "What're you doing?"

"Just having a friendly conversation. There a problem?"

"You were flirting, Rafe. That was flirting," she paced. Hand against her for head.

"Like you're any better. You lied to me."

"I've never lied about anything."

"You said JJ liked Kiara."

"Yeah. He does."

"Then why is he holding your hand, hugging you, and leaving inside with you instead of the girl he supposedly likes," Rafe argued. Gripping onto the large counter.

"Rafe, I grabbed his hand and brought him inside to find Kiara. And I hugged him because I was happy for my friend. God, Rafe how many times do I have to tell you that I am not cheating on you."

"It's kind of hard to believe that shit when I keep seeing things with my own eyes."

"Then stop assuming and come ask me. Jesus, do you not trust me or something. Because I trust you. Anytime I hear that you're at a party doing lines with hot blonde's next to you, I brush it off because I know you'd never. Why can't you just do that for me."

Rafe stood from his seat. Pinching the bridge of nose. The guilty conscience grazed through his mind as he listened to her words. He had issues with trust and with others, but he knew it wasn't a reason to take it out on the only person who's loved him for him.

"I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. You're right. I should trust you. Just like you trust me. I'll work on it. I promise."

"Don't promise me that. Just show me that you love me just as much."

The words clicked. He did love her. And he cared about her. More than anyone in this world. And he wanted to show her. In the most physical way possible.

"C'mere."

"Why?"

"Just c'mere," he repeated as he grabbed her by her waist, pulling her closer to him. She stumbled, but Rafe's grip kept her in place. He moved his face closer to hers, lips almost touching as they grazed against each other.

He used the hand placed on her waist to grip the fabric of her dress. Pulling it upwards. Her breath hitched as he hand snaked under the red tulle and right onto her now soaking core. His pointy finger swept across the waistband of her panties.

Y/n wasn't expecting this as the outcome from their miniature argument but she wasn't complaining. And neither was Rafe.

He pushed her underwear down as much as he could from their position, before going back to her walls and making circular motions. Rafe finally closer the space, kissing her lips practically roughly as he continued rubbing her.

He kept a firm hand on her waist to make sure she had a gripping support if he legs gave out, which they indeed will. The motions stopped as Y/n pulled her lips away from his. Rafe stared at her daring eyes, questioning if she wanted his to continue.

"Put them inside me," she whispered. The Cameron smirked before obliging to her demand. He stuck to fingers into her wet cunt. A soft moan escaped her lips as he did so. Pumping them in and out of her. Y/n rubbed her hand against the erection in his dress pants.

"You like that, yeah?"

She nodded as the locked her lips. Not being able to speak because knowing if she did, she let out a loud moan and even at this club would hear.

She unbuckled his pants, putting her handninside to grip his penis and pump it as he slipped his tongue into her mouth. The hand he held to her waist was now gripped on her neck, gently. Y/n clenched around his fingers. Feeling her high come close. "Dont stop."

Rafe began pumping faster just as Y/n did so. The teens were so horny that they were both already reaching their extent. Rafe's shaft twitched in her hand. "I'm cumming."

"Do it for me."

That's all it took for Y/n to finish. And Rafe too. His liquids filling her hands as they both let out moans due to their intense actions. In one swift motion, Rafe snaked a hand around Y/n's waist turning then so she was against the counter. Her pulled the straps of her dress of her shoulders, leaving kisses as he did so before connecting his lips to hers.

Her pulled his tuxedo jacket off him. Snapping the bowtie off as well. Y/n moaned at the tluchnof his hands on her breast. Massaging them in his hands over the fabric of her strapless bra.

Y/n unbuttoned the spots on his shirt before pulling it off his shoulders and onto the floor. Rafe stop his gripping motions and pulled down his pants and boxers. He sat her up on the counter. Her bare ass connecting to the coldness of the marble designed setting.

Rafe rubbed his tip against her fold once or twice before pushing himself into her. Not giving a warning, but Y/n loved the suddeness. Y/n let a moan into his next as he began thrusting his hips. The girl gripping her black painted nails into his back.

Rafe's eyes rolled to the back of his head. Enjoying the feelings of Y/n's cunt wrapped around him.

"You like that?"

"Yes, god yes."

Y/n sat up, wrapping her arms around his neck. Each moan and huff she exposed in his earn make his whole body shiver. Rafe let out a grunt before answering. She clenched her walls around his dick. The dirty blonde groaned slamming into her body. "Do it again."

She did so. Clenching around around the boy as he slammed into her again. This time, hitting the spot that made her whole body go insane. "Tell me I'm yours."

"You're mine."

A moan escaped her lips after he said what she had wanted. Her hand smacked down onto the edge of the sinks counter. Grilling onto it for dear life. "Tell me it again."

The feeling of her finishing was fastly approaching. As well as for Rafe. The moans she let out made his go over the edge as he fucked her hard. "Tell me, Rafe."

"You're fucking mine, ah-"

Each of them let out a loud moan as they finished. Covering each others mouths. There shouldn't be anyone upstairs but for precautions they covered either way.

Rafe's head fell forward onto her chest. Taking large breaths as y/n did too. "Shit, y/n."

The Cameron pulled out of her. Helping her get redressed and cleaned just after he did himself.

"You're still on the pill right?" He asked as he zipped his pants.

"Yeah. It's fine," she smiled up at his 6'4 figure. Rafe reached down to kiss her passionately.

"I love you, Y/n."

"I love you, too."

[strandnreyes]

Want to come over for dinner after your shift?

Carlos shoves his phone in his pocket after sending the text. If he’s being honest, he’s not expecting a reply anytime soon and as much as he hates to admit it, he’s not expecting a yes, either. 

After three days of dodged calls and short responses to texts, Carlos is forced to admit that TK is avoiding him. 

He didn’t think so at first, and that was partly because he had been so busy himself with writing, but even TK declining his offer to come over a couple of nights could be easily explained. 

He’s had the morning shift at the diner the last few days and they had been spending a lot of time together before this. He can’t blame TK for wanting some space, though it does sting a little. He just wishes TK would be outright about it. 

Carlos tries to ignore the weight of his phone in his pocket as he gets out of the car and walks down the short stretch of sidewalk to the bookstore. Mateo’s behind the counter with a customer, but he nods to Carlos and points to the back.

The sharpie and a stack of paperbacks are sitting on the table in the office just like they were when Carlos was in here last week to sign them. Except this time there’s at least twice as many copies, a good idea considering how fast the first batch sold out.

With the tourist off-season in full swing now, the businesses that benefit from out-of-town consumers feel the hit the most, Mateo’s bookstore included. Marjan called Carlos last week, asking if he’d be willing to autograph a few copies to get more traffic in the store, hoping those shoppers would purchase other items as well.

It seems to be working as far as Carlos can tell. It’s the middle of the week and nearly closing time, yet there were still a couple of people in line.

Sometimes Carlos still can’t believe he wrote a book good enough to achieve that.   

He goes through the motions, flipping over the front cover, running the sharpie over the paper time and time again. He tries to focus on the curve of his name instead of the fact that his phone sits silent. 

He gets about halfway through the stack when Mateo finally catches up to him. 

“Dude, Marjan knows what she’s talking about. Usually by this time of the night this place is so slow that I start sweeping the floors for fun.”

Carlos cracks a smile, pushing the newly autographed book to the side. “Yeah,” he says half heartedly. “She’s great.”

Mateo goes to say something else, but Carlos is distracted by the vibration of his phone against his thigh. His mom would have words for him for checking it while someone’s talking to him, but he briefly glances at it anyway, needing to know TK’s response. 

Might be stuck late here. Table in the corner doesn’t understand that closing at 8 doesn’t mean you sit down 10 minutes before that. 

On the surface it seems light hearted, but Carlos knows better than that. TK will probably be held up there for no more than a half an hour extra and he could easily come over anyway, they don’t even have to have dinner. Carlos just wants to see him. 

But he doesn’t want to push. He doesn’t want to have to convince his boyfriend to spend time with him. 

“Carlos?” Mateo asks.

He shoves the phone away again, masking the hurt he feels with a forced smile. “Yeah, sorry. What?”

Mateo watches him carefully for a moment before jerking his thumb behind him. “I was just saying that one of my regulars is here and trust me, I’ll be with her awhile. You can just head out when you’re done. Thanks again for doing this.”

“No problem,” Carlos answers, barely registering what he’s seeing in front of him as he quickly works through the rest of the stack. 

By the time he’s back in his car he’s all but convinced himself that he should just pop into the diner real quick before he goes home since it doesn’t seem like he’ll be seeing TK tonight. Just to have TK smile at him for the surprise visit and have everything feel okay again. 

But just as he’s about to start the car, he gets another text. 

His first thought is that it’s TK again, but it isn’t until he sees Tommy’s name on the screen and reads her message asking how TK’s feeling that Carlos realizes he’s been lied to. 

TK had called in sick to work the past two days. 

[robininthelabyrinth]

I hope you get plenty of prompts that you enjoy. Thank you.

NMJ bonding with child Wangji. Maybe a few times NMJ beat little LWJ in a spar and the time he knew little Wangji would one day beat him. Mostly Pre Cloud Recesses arc?

Of Few Words - ao3

The first time Nie Mingjue met Lan Xichen’s little brother, he thought he would be just like Nie Huaisang, so he picked him up and threw him.

“Mingjue-xiong,” Lan Xichen gasped, clearly horrified. “What are you doing?”

Probably something forbidden by the rules, Nie Mingjue thought, and shrugged.

He wasn’t good with words, was too blunt and too direct, especially for the Lan sect, and so over the past couple of weeks or so that he’d been here he’d found it was easier not to speak at all. They’d make whatever assumptions they wanted about him, no matter what he did; it was easier to just let them do that and work with that than it was to futilely strive to get them to actually understand him.

“Even if Wangji has done something to upset you, you may only assign him to do copying,” Lan Xichen told him, and Nie Mingjue was briefly surprised that his new friend had assumed he was angry before he remembered that everyone here thought he was angry all the time, so it wasn’t actually that much of a surprise. “Please keep that in mind. Also, I don’t know if I’ve said, but he’s very reserved, so please don’t take offense if he just points things out...oh, I wish I wasn’t needed elsewhere this afternoon! I’d much rather show you around myself, but as it is, he’ll be showing you around this part of the Cloud Recesses in my place.”

Nie Mingjue grunted assent, and watched, a little desolately, as Lan Xichen disappeared down the still confusing twists and turns of the paths of the Cloud Recesses. It was all gardens here, carefully tended to maximize graceful tranquility, and he was sure he would have no chance of ever finding his way back on his own if left to it.

It wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest if he was. The other Lan disciples hadn’t really taken to him the way Lan Xichen had, much less a younger brother that the (rather reserved, by Nie Mingjue’s standards) Lan Xichen had described as reserved…

Unexpectedly, a small hand slipped into his own, and he looked down in surprise.

Lan Wangji looked up at him, his cheeks flushed a little red.

Nie Mingjue instinctively smiled at him, charmed by the reminder of Nie Huaisang, then remembered that too much exuberance seemed to only disturb the Lan sect and struggled to get his expression under control. He expected him to start leading him around the Cloud Recesses without another word – he had overheard Lan Qiren telling his father that Lan Wangji wasn’t much of a talker, very quiet, and to not expect much interaction with him – but to his surprise Lan Wangji did not move, looking at up at him thoughtfully, lips pursed as if he was considering saying something.

Nie Mingjue waited for his judgment.

“You weren’t angry,” Lan Wangji finally said. “When you threw me.”

Nie Mingjue blinked.

“No,” he admitted, breaking his own informal vow of silence. “I wasn’t. I thought you might enjoy it.”

Nie Huaisang loved being tossed around, whether up into the air or into bushes, headfirst shrieking into his bed or ass-first into a pool of water; he’d thought tossing little brothers around was what big brothers were there for. Sure, there was a small age gap – Lan Wangji was six, Nie Huaisang still not quite five – but he hadn’t thought it would make such a difference.

Lan Wangji hummed thoughtfully. He did not speak for another long while, but Nie Mingjue was starting to think that that was just him chewing over his thoughts before forming them into words.

At last, he spoke again: “I did.”

Nothing afterwards. Hesitantly, Nie Mingjue asked, “Would you like me to do it again?”

Lan Wangji nodded.

This time, Nie Mingjue was a little more cautious: he threw Lan Wangji up into the air and caught him, trying to demonstrate that he knew what he was doing, that he could be trusted, and by the third or fourth time Lan Wangji was smiling. It wasn’t quite on part with Nie Huaisang’s giggles and shrieks, but felt rewarding nevertheless.

Satisfied by his success, Nie Mingjue was about to put him down on the ground, but hesitated. “Do you want to ride on my shoulders?” he asked, and waited as Lan Wangji considered it.

“Another time,” Lan Wangji decided. “Not today.”

Nie Mingjue nodded and put him down. Lan Wangji took his hand once again and, this time, led him around the way he’d expected from the start, pointing out various places and naming them in a quiet murmur.

Lan Wangji really wasn’t much of a talker, a person of few words, but that was fine. So was Nie Mingjue.

-

It was a few days later that he came across Lan Wangji kneeling beside the training grounds and impulsively challenged him. He was getting bored of training alone: Lan Xichen was busy again, and the other Lan disciples had already made clear that they didn’t want to have anything to do with him, the interloper who’d pushed his way into their lessons by force.

It wasn’t actually like that at all – his father had sent Nie Mingjue to learn here for the season as a gesture of goodwill, wanting to support Lan Qiren’s lecture series and make it clear that other sects should follow suit, to encourage Lan Qiren’s goal of eventually creating a safe haven for all the Great Sect’s heirs to come together and learn and build friendships while still in their youth – but Nie Mingjue knew that there was no convincing any of his wary Lan sect peers of that. Even if there was, he certainly couldn’t do it, not with his clumsy tongue and scowling face and too-tall height that made everyone immediately assume he would resort to violence as his first and only argument.

So he trained alone and studied alone, or with Lan Xichen in the rare times when his friend was free, but it was boring, and anyway, he thought he’d gotten on pretty well with Lan Wangji the first time they’d met. It wouldn’t be a real spar, of course, not against a six-year-old, but doing the moves slow and mirroring a smaller opponent would force him to pay close attention to his own technique, which would pay off in the long run.

He explained this to Lan Wangji when the boy frowned up at him in what Nie Mingjue was starting to be able to identify as a silent question – he didn’t use many words himself, just spat out “Mirroring improves technique,” and saw that Lan Wangji understood the rest – and a moment later Lan Wangji nodded and rose to his feet, picking up one of the practice swords and taking a position opposite him on one of the fields.

Nie Mingjue started with a standard warm-up routine, unsure of Lan Wangji’s skills. Supposedly he was the opposite of Nie Huaisang in this respect, too, startlingly advanced for his age, but Lan Qiren had also said something about him pausing his sword training as a result of some incident, not specified; his father had nodded in response as if he’d understood, which was very unhelpful to the eavesdropping Nie Mingjue, who didn’t. Since he didn’t know the background of the incident or when Lan Wangji had picked up sword training again, and more to the point wasn’t inclined to ask since he knew that Lan Wangji wouldn’t enjoy explaining, he just started out with the basics and went up slowly from there.

It turned out his concerns were mostly unnecessary – Lan Wangji was a bit stiff at first, maybe because of the kneeling he’d been doing, but he clearly had the basics down flat, and they were able to progress to something a little more interesting quick enough, trading very slow swipes with saber and sword.

Nie Mingjue didn’t even notice that they had an audience until he heard Lan Xichen say his name in a strangled voice. He finished the follow-through of the move they were on, since stopping in the middle could be dangerous (not for them, not with training swords, but in the future, when it was real, and forming good habits now would help more later on), saluted Lan Wangji with his saber and was saluted in return, and then turned to look for his friend.

Lan Xichen was staring at them as if they’d turned into ghosts, and there was a whole crowd of Lan sect disciples standing around gawking at them instead of doing their own training.

Nie Mingjue hunched up his shoulders, assuming he’d somehow managed to do something wrong again, and automatically stepped in front of Lan Wangji, blocking the others’ views of him. “I challenged him,” he said bluntly, hoping to take the brunt of whatever punishment would need to be imposed here – generally speaking, he’d learned that the Lan sect’s penalties for being lured into misbehavior were less than the penalties for instigating it. “He didn’t seem otherwise occupied.”

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen said, or started to say, but Lan Wangji was already turning to put away his training sword. He then formally saluted his brother and trotted away from the training field entirely.

Lan Xichen watched him go without stopping him, then turned to Nie Mingjue. “Mingjue-xiong, how did you get him to fight you?”

Nie Mingjue blinked, confused. “I asked.”

“Yes, but – how?”

“I asked him to train with me,” Nie Mingjue said slowly, not sure if he was missing something. “I pointed out that mirroring improves technique. He probably did it as a favor to me…listen, do you need me to copy lines or something?”

“Copy lines?”

“For whatever rule I just broke,” Nie Mingjue clarified, but Lan Xichen only looked more confused. “Was it because he was kneeling and I interrupted him?”

Everyone is staring at me again and I don’t know why, again. Just tell me what it is that I did, impose the punishment, and I won’t do it again, I promise – but you need to tell me what it was that I did wrong first.

“Mingjue-xiong,” Lan Xichen said, staring at him even more strangely now. “You didn’t break any rules at all.”

That was even weirder. “But –”

“Wangji was kneeling because that’s what he always does during training hours,” Lan Xichen said. “He doesn’t train the sword anymore.”

“He – doesn’t?” Nie Mingjue asked, now even more confused, and in his confusion forgot that he was in the Lan sect with their carefully thought-out sentences and myriad of prickly unwritten rules. “Why not? He’s so good at it! And he seemed to be having a good time, too…listen, I know your sect prizes musical cultivation, Xichen, and that it’s often one or the other, but there’s really no reason he can’t do both.”

He belatedly realized he was talking too much and shut his mouth, embarrassed. He shouldn’t have brought up that subject.

After all, Qingheng-jun had been a sword cultivator with little interest in music beyond battle-songs  – still was, Nie Mingjue supposed, although he was in seclusion so much that it might as well be ‘had been’ – and Lan Qiren was an expert at musical cultivation, skilled in both xiao and guqin, but used his sword only to fly.  They’d been trained that way, complementary to each other’s strengths – Qingheng-jun the attacking hand, Lan Qiren the supporting arm – which was a pretty decent plan right up until it had all rather been ruined when Qingheng-jun had for whatever reason retreated from the world.

“Of course,” Lan Xichen echoed, and luckily he didn’t seem to notice the implied criticism. “He should, of course, if he wants to…Mingjue-xiong, I’m sorry, I have to go again, I need to talk to my uncle at once. But you should feel free to challenge Wangji again – in fact, I would appreciate it if you did. Liu-xiong, can you tell Mingjue-xiong what Wangji’s training hours are?”

One of the other Lan disciples nodded, and Lan Xichen flashed them both a thankful smile before disappearing again, even though he’d promised that his uncle only needed him for half a day and that they’d be able to go down to visit Caiyi Town that afternoon.

As a result, despite Lan Xichen’s assurances, Nie Mingjue still had the distinct feeling that he’d done something wrong, but he really couldn’t see what. Best not to think too much about it, he supposed.

-

By the afternoon, Nie Mingjue had retreated to the library to avoid being stared at. He’d thought that the indirect sneers and silent rigid politeness that invited no familiarity was bad, but apparently it was actively worse when the Lan sect disciples treated him like he’d just turned into a performing monkey that had done a neat trick. They still wouldn’t condescend to talk to him, of course, but they felt no issue staring or talking to each other about him – even though Nie Mingjue was sure there was a rule about not talking behind people’s backs.

Maybe it didn’t count if you did it in front of their faces.

Nie Mingjue actually rather liked the library, despite the Lan sect’s general tendency to treat him like an illiterate ape that only knew how to swing a saber – even Lan Xichen had looked a little puzzled the first time he’d asked to spend the afternoon there, though of course he hadn’t said anything out loud beyond reminding Nie Mingjue that they didn’t have to go there and that it wasn’t necessary to sacrifice his own enjoyment for Lan Xichen’s.

It wasn’t his friend’s fault that he was brought up to prefer those were gentle and scholarly, Nie Mingjue reminded himself, even if it chafed a little every time that Lan Xichen automatically sided with someone who could express themselves better, someone cleverer with words than he; that trait was common to just about everyone at the Cloud Recesses, and at least Lan Xichen would eventually listen to him if he kept his temper under control and persisted in trying to make his point.

Nie Mingjue might wish that the Lan sect didn’t view losing one’s temper as an automatic forfeit of the argument – do not succumb to rage had been whispered in his vicinity more times than he could count, though rarely to his face – and he might think in his heart of hearts think that they were simply wrong in dismissing his viewpoint just because he felt too strongly about a matter to contain himself, but he was a guest here and he needed to respect their ways, conform himself to their customs, even if it upset and disturbed him to do so.

At least sometimes those ways and customs served him, including in the deliberate air of quiet contemplation in the Library Pavilion. There were separate rooms for private study, of course, but an emphasis was put on preserving the tranquility of the location, and it seemed that the Lan disciples at least knew enough shame to avoid coming to gawk at him from the door when he was there.

Deciding to entertain himself, Nie Mingjue picked out several books on military strategy utilizing musical cultivation – just because he was all but tone-deaf didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate the power of the Lan sect’s core techniques – and settled down for a nice afternoon of being alone.

Until, of course, he wasn’t.

He was pretty absorbed in an analysis of altitude effects on range attacks for a while, deaf and blind to the outside world the way he usually was when he was reading, and then, perhaps alerted by some sound, he looked up to find that the sun had shifted position and also that Lan Wangji was sitting across from him with his own book primly laid out in front of him.

Nie Mingjue blinked and thought briefly about saying something. If it had been Nie Huaisang, he would have – some friendly jibe that Nie Huaisang would return in full measure, before they both settled down to enjoy each other’s company in communal silence – but this was Lan Wangji, who was a Lan, and probably wouldn’t appreciate it.

So he didn’t say anything, just looked back down at his book and continued reading.

After a little while, there was a tug at his sleeve.

Nie Mingjue looked up. Lan Wangji was pointing to one of the words in his book – “Frivolous,” he said, assuming that Lan Wangji was asking for assistance with the more complicated characters the way that Nie Huaisang would have, albeit with much less whining. “Means lacking purpose or value.”

Lan Wangji nodded, released his sleeve, and returned to his reading.

They carried on in this fashion for a while, quiet reading interspersed with occasional reading comprehension questions, and it was nice. Nie Mingjue could feel the stress of the day slowly sliding off his shoulders – more than just the day, maybe the whole week, the entire time he’d been here, or even before, when Nie Huaisang burst into tears at finding out his big brother was going to be leaving him behind. He would need to write to him again soon, Nie Mingjue thought to himself, and send presents; he’d been hoping to pick something up in Caiyi Town today, but then Lan Xichen had gotten busy…

It’d be nice if he could get him something from the Cloud Recesses itself, though.

“Wangji,” he said before he could stop himself. “What is a present you would get for someone who likes pretty things?”

Lan Wangji blinked up at him, then frowned. Nie Mingjue was pretty sure that it was a thinking frown, though, so he just waited, and sure enough Lan Wangji carefully closed his book and stood up.

“Flowers,” he said, and held out a hand as if to help Nie Mingjue up.

Nie Mingjue long ago learned that when a small child offers to help you, you accept regardless of whether or not they were actually capable of performing the action in question – though with Lan sect arm strength, who even knew – so he took Lan Wangji’s hand and scrambled up to his feet.

“Flowers?” he asked, a little dubiously. “I don’t know if they’d survive being sent by post.”

“Flower petals,” Lan Wangji clarified. “Pressed.”

Nie Mingjue blinked, but actually, no, that sounded perfect for Nie Huaisang. Especially if he got them pressed into a bookmark or something.

“My brother will love it,” he said enthusiastically. “Do you know where there are good flowers?” He knew himself well enough not to even try to make that sort of judgment call. “Can you show me?”

Lan Wangji frowned, and this one wasn’t his thinking frown – it seemed sad, almost.

“You don’t have to,” Nie Mingjue assured him, but Lan Wangji set his shoulders in a look of fierce six-year-old determination and he nodded as if he was going to go to war. “Really, if you don’t want to interrupt your reading –”

“The place is sad,” Lan Wangji said. “But it has the best flowers.”

Nie Mingjue frowned. He could tell from the way Lan Wangji’s little lips were firmed up in stubborn intent that there would be no stopping him, that he was determined to get Nie Mingjue the best flowers – truly, Lan Wangji was such a good boy, unlike that junior hellspawn and walking calamity named Nie Huaisang – but also that he thought it would hurt him to do so.

He didn’t want Lan Wangji to hurt.

“Do you want to ride on my shoulders this time?” Nie Mingjue asked, and Lan Wangji looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. “Sometimes having a different perspective on the same place makes it feel different.”

He knew he was butchering the explanation – he really wasn’t good with words – but he didn’t know how else to explain it.

He didn’t know how to explain that he used to spend days and days looking at the place where Nie Huaisang’s mother had gone in to give birth and never come back out, equally drawn and repulsed by it, right up until the day he climbed up the gate of the Unclean Realm on a dare and by coincidence happened to see it when he looked down from that great height, only to realize that the place he’d thought of as dark and depressing and even haunted was just a room like all the rooms right beside it: he couldn’t even tell it apart from the rest.

“…mn,” Lan Wangji said, sounding doubtful, but he hopped onto Nie Mingjue’s back when offered and scrambled up to sit on his shoulders, ducking his head to avoid the doorway to the Library Pavilion as they exited out the side door, and then he showed him the way to a nice looking cottage that seemed a little out of the way but which was surrounded by what were undoubtedly lovely purple gentians.

“Wow,” Nie Mingjue couldn’t help but say. “They’re very – purple.”

Lan Wangji poked him in the head.

“They are! Very purple. I’m sure Huaisang will love them to a ridiculous degree and that my father will write me angry letters about trying to sell him to the Jiang sect again –” There was a very small snort from above his head. “In my defense, he was really annoying when he was a colicky baby, and at the time I thought the Jiang sect were pirates.”

Another snort, this time less small. Somewhat disdainful.

“Listen, they’re ‘known for their watercraft’, right? It was a perfectly reasonable mistake to make…”

Lan Wangji didn’t giggle the way Nie Huaisang did when Nie Mingjue clowned around for him, but he was smiling by the time he edged onto a nearby tree branch to get a particular blossom that Nie Mingjue had set his heart on, declaring it the fattest of all the flowers and thereby a necessary acquisition, and in the end they collected a full basket of the purple flowers, more than enough for a dozen pressed bookmarks.

The smile made Nie Mingjue feel like he accomplished something.

It was almost enough, even, to let him brush off all the stares they got as they walked back together, side-by-side.

-

Nie Mingjue reported to Lan Qiren’s study with a great deal of trepidation.

It only got worse when he saw Lan Xichen sitting there as well, and when Lan Qiren instructed his nephew to serve them all tea. Nie Mingjue was abruptly seized by the fear that something terrible had happened: that he’d broken some unknown rule and needed to be punished severely, that he’d failed all his tests, that they’d decided he wasn’t actually a good fit for the Cloud Recesses after all, that his father had been summoned to take him back home early in disgrace –

“You’ve been spending some time with Wangji of late,” Lan Qiren said.

Nie Mingjue nodded.

“Yesterday, you presented the craftsman with a basket of purple gentians. Did Wangji show you where to find them?”

“Yes,” Nie Mingjue said cautiously. “He helped me pick them.”

Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen exchanged glances.

Nie Mingjue somehow felt even more nervous.

“Was I not supposed to take them?” he asked. “Wangji said they’re his mother’s favorites.”

Lan Xichen dropped his cup.

“Xichen,” Lan Qiren said sternly, and Lan Xichen apologized and quickly cleaned it up. Luckily the cup had not shattered. “Nie-gongzi, to confirm, Wangji told you that himself?”

Nie Mingjue nodded.

Lan Qiren stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Nie-gongzi…if I were to tell you that Wangji has not spoken to anyone in nearly six months, what would you say?”

Nie Mingjue blinked.

“He also hasn’t trained with the sword in that time,” Lan Xichen interjected.

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth, then closed it. He had no idea what to say.

“Our mother died,” Lan Xichen explained, his brow creased in misery and concern. “Wangji didn’t really understand…it took a long time before he understood that he couldn’t see her any more.”

“Oh,” Nie Mingjue said, feeling uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, Xichen.”

Now it was Lan Xichen’s turn to blink. “Sorry? For what?”

“For your loss? I mean, she was your mother, too, right?” It occurred to Nie Mingjue that she might not be, the way his mother and Nie Huaisang’s mother weren’t the same, but he was pretty sure the Lan sect only allowed for one marriage, and the age gap between Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji was smaller than the one between him and Nie Huaisang…

“Yes,” Lan Xichen said. “She – was. Thank you.”

Lan Qiren made a thoughtful sound.

“If you’re asking if I did something to convince Wangji to come with me and do all that,” Nie Mingjue said, having finally figured out why he was sitting here having tea and being uncomfortable, “I really didn’t. It may just be that enough time has passed for the wound to scab over.”

“Perhaps,” Lan Qiren said.

“I think he feels bad for me?” Nie Mingjue hazarded. “I’m not sure. I’m still learning how to understand him.”

“The fact that you’ve realized that there’s something there to understand puts you way ahead of most people,” Lan Xichen told him.

“Why would he feel bad for you?” Lan Qiren asked.

Because your sect is full of snobs that all hate me.

“Uh,” Nie Mingjue said. “I – have no idea.”

Lan Xichen frowned at him. “Mingjue-xiong, ‘do not tell lies’ is a rule.”

“So is ‘do not insult people’,” Nie Mingjue said sulkily, and refused to say another word no matter how many ways Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen asked. He’d already figured out that not talking was the best way to avoid getting into trouble – the Lan sect was much more insular than the Nie sect, with all sorts of restrictions about getting brought in, and he didn’t have any confidence that expressing grievances would result in anything other than more shunning.

Eventually, Lan Qiren dismissed him, frowning, and Lan Xichen escorted him back to his rooms.

“Is it because you don’t trust me?” he asked, and Nie Mingjue stared at him.

“What are you talking about?” he said. “Of course I trust you. You’re my friend.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me that there was something wrong?” Lan Xichen demanded. “And don’t say nothing’s wrong, that’s obviously a lie.”

“It’s because we’re friends,” Nie Mingjue said with a sigh. Most of the time, he forgot that there was an age gap between him and Lan Xichen – three and a half years, same as the gap between Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji – but sometimes it really hit home. “I don’t want to make trouble for you. This is just a place I’m staying for a little while, but you live here; after I go, we’ll still be friends, but you’ll still be stuck with whatever mess I make for you.”

Lan Xichen was scowling, his lower lip trembling a little, and Nie Mingjue cautiously reached out a hand to put on his shoulder, squeezing. He would prefer to give him a hug, but he didn’t know if it would be welcome – he’d already told Lan Xichen that he himself was always open for hugs, but he knew very well that Lan Xichen was uncomfortable with too much contact.

“It’s all right,” he said.

“No, it’s not,” Lan Xichen said. “Wangji noticed that you were unhappy, and I didn’t! What kind of friend am I?”

“You’re a good friend,” Nie Mingjue insisted. “You are. It’s not about you. I promise.”

They still hadn’t resolved it by the time Lan Xichen left him at his room. Nie Mingjue sighed, hoped that he hadn’t inadvertently ruined everything, and went to sleep.

The next morning, he woke up when the door to his room opened abruptly with a slam that seemed, in his sleep-fogged brain, to echo throughout the entire Cloud Recesses.

“Mingjue-xiong!”

“…Xichen?” Nie Mingjue said, and rubbed his eyes disbelievingly. “Did you just slam a door?”

It wasn’t really a slam. It was a small shove, at best.

“Why didn’t you tell me people were being mean to you?” Lan Xichen demanded, and Nie Mingjue stared at him. “I would’ve made them stop! Really, I would have! I don’t care if they’re Lan sect and you’re not, they shouldn’t be – I shouldn’t be – making assumptions about you or pushing you out or – or – or anything!”

“Where did you get all of this from?” Nie Mingjue asked, utterly at sea. He was right, of course, about the problems Nie Mingjue had been having, but he certainly hadn’t known it last night before curfew and while, yes, it was only morning by the standards of guest disciples and not Lan sect members themselves – he got an extra shichen to sleep in while he adjusted to the earlier schedule, of which he generally tried to use only half – it still seemed a little implausible that Lan Xichen had managed to puzzle all of that out overnight.

“Wangji!” Lan Xichen said, and threw himself on the bed next to Nie Mingjue and gave him a hug, a good proper one like the ones he used to get all the time back in Qinghe and which he missed rather terribly. “He actually came and talked to us! With words! Well, a few words, anyway, but he hasn’t said anything to Shifu or me for six months up until now. He said you were unhappy because of the other Lan disciples persisted in thinking that you were stupid and angry when you’re neither.”

Nie Mingjue felt warm inside.

“Your brother’s smart,” he said gruffly.

“He is,” Lan Xichen said. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like I also thought you were stupid and angry and nothing more than that. I know you’re not.”

“I didn’t think that,” Nie Mingjue said, and it was mostly not a lie. “We’re friends, aren’t we? A friend wouldn’t think that about another friend.”

“That’s right,” Lan Xichen said, nodding firmly. “And friends don’t let friends go around thinking they didn’t do anything when they did something big – I still don’t know what exactly you did, Mingjue-xiong, but you helped Wangji a lot, and I’m eternally grateful.”

“There’s no need for thanks between friends,” Nie Mingjue reminded him, the first rule of their friendship formed in the spaces between discussion conferences that neither of them had any choice but to attend, and Lan Xichen smiled.

“I know,” he said warmly, and Nie Mingjue felt warm in response. “But I’m going to abuse my privilege and ask you to keep spending time with him – with both of us, sometimes, but with him by yourself if you don’t mind – so I think you’re owed at least one ‘thanks’.”

“Oh, I see how it is,” Nie Mingjue said, grinning. “You just want a free babysitter, is that it?”

“It is not! Mingjue-xiong!”

Nie Mingjue started laughing. Lan Xichen smacked him – lightly by Lan standards, no doubt, but it was a good thing Nie Mingjue was as strong as he was.

“I don’t mind,” Nie Mingjue finally said. “I like your brother.”

Lan Xichen’s smile was as dazzling as the sun. “Good,” he said. “He likes you, too.”