#what can i say im weak for shared history | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

solifloris · 6 months ago

Text

SOOOOO i said i'd do a live reaction post for caleb's 5* cards.......(+ the cny one) EHFJSMNFBD disorganized as usual and mostly probably will be filled with keysmashes and random thoughts and maybe crying.... THIS IS ONGOING !!! AND WILL BE UPDATED AT RANDOM POINTS HEHE :D need to yap somewhere...

it took me. so much just to. get the courage to go through these cards WJDJWJBFH I'M WEAK OK!!!! I'M WEAK. THEY. TERRIFY ME BC OF WHAT I ALR KNOW FROM THE MAIN STORY AND THE MYTH 😭😭😭😭 it's the burden of knowledge i swear to you .... caleb makes me so damn emotional 😭

THIS IS PART ONE OF UHHH IDK HOW MANY PARTS WE'LL SEE HOW MY IMG LIMIT GOES BUT.

for reference !!!!!! order being : endless summer -> exclusive aftertaste -> hidden waves -> painful signal -> intertwined gold ; based on this post hehe :3

LETS GOOO <3

1; endless summer!!!!!!! :D

omygod..... ohhmygod.... the melancholy the nostalgia the 😭😭😭

OUGH so it's really after the main story 😭😭😭😭😭

"i wonder what caleb is doing now..." she wants to talk to him :( they wanna talk it out :(((( BUT THE DISTANCEEEE THE :(((( HUHUHU

THE HYDRANGEAS :(

omfg bc the way i can see this unfolding like a ghibli movie...

WHY IS THIS SO KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE HUHU

OMG CALEB 😭😭😭😭😭

help 😭😭😭 LOWKEY KABEDON??? baby please 😭😭😭

WHFJJWHF THE TENSION THE AWKWARDNESS THE WAY SHE AVERTS HER GAZE

"why are you back in linkon?" THE FIRST THING SHE SAYS WHFJJS i feel you girl i feel you 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

"i just happened to be passing by" -caleb ; "i was just passing by" -xavier 😭

OUGH 😭😭😭😭 THIS TUGGED AT MY HEARTSTRINGS IM :((( HNNNN :(((

"i happened to be passing by" SHE SAID IT BACK TO HIMMMMMMMMM

UGH IM GONNA SOB 😭 THE HESITATION IN REACHING OUT TO HER :(( THE WAY HE DOESNT RUFFLE HER HAIR ANYMOREEE UUUUUUUUEEEEEE im huhuhu....

"All my thoughts are focused on him, and the incessant cacophony of cicada chirps adds to my restlessness." / "I wonder what he's been up to while we were away from each other..." <- IM SO. FUCKING SICK TO MYSTOMACHHHHHHH (/POS)

it's so 😭😭😭 gosh im a broken record but my HEART 😭 just 😭

i think what always hits so hard with caleb is that.... all of his happened in the same timeline... their childhood together, the events of chapter 4, the here and now that we're seeing and then all the moments inbetween........... we get to experience all this awkwardness and the distance and the changes in realtime 😭 bc both of them remember their shared history 😭 it's like... "i knew you once..." but it feels more real.......

i think the caleb/mc story really captures the struggle of reuniting with someone from your past after a long time 😭 the feelings are very raw

ANYWAY,

OoOOOOH FY-26!!! AWWWH 😭 THE DIRECT REFERENCE TO ONE OF HIS 4*S HUHU 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

!!!! THE FLASHBACK IMMM SOBBINNNGGGGGF 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 "ILL BRING YOH WITH ME WE'LL FLY WHEREVER AND WHENEVER YOU WANT" UUUUUUUUEEEE

"and you've gone from being a pilot to colonel now." "It doesn't matter what a person's role is. Everyone has moments where they're not in control." OH MY GOD????? 😭😭😭😭 WHFJWNFBSJ THE IMPLICATIONS BEHIND THIS????? everyone has moments where they're not in control... oh MAN... caleb sweetie baby beloved 😭😭😭😭😭😭

"Our conversation abruptly ends. Once again, our surroundings are engulfed by a quietness accompanied by loud cicada chirps." THEEEE AWKWARDNEESSSSSS 😭😭😭😭😭

LIKE OK. OK;! DO YOU KNOW HOW PAINFUL. JUST

THIS IS A PERSON YOUVE HAD 9284828572885828583 EASYGOING CONVERSATIONS WITH. A PERSON YOU USED TO KNOW BY HEART. A PERSON YOU SPENT MAYBE HALF OR MORE OF YOUR LIFE WITH. AND NOW. NOW YOU CANT EVEN HOLD A CONVERSATION ANYMORE THEY JUST DONT FLOW THAT WELL ANYMORE. YOU CANT LOOK AT EACH OTHER PROPERLY ANYMORE. 😭 JUST THE. THE LOSS OF IT?????? THAT RELATIONSHIP YOU ONCE SHARED WITH THIS PERSON????? IS NO LONGER THE SAME???

DO YOU

THE ATTACHMENT MC MUST FEEL

THE PAIN THAT MC AND CALEB MUST FEEL, BOTH

IT'S NOT THE SAME ANYMORE 😭😭😭😭😭 THAT SHIT HURTS BRO 😭😭😭😭

also a side note i hate cicadas they give me anxiety 😭 i know theyre a sign of summer but ugh i 😭

(but. thats a biased opinion cause. im entomophobic 😭)

ANYWAY,

I CANF DO THIS

whxjanndnHFBWNFBSBBFBSBFBSBBFBSDHSNFBBSBFBSHG

SHES RECALLING SO MANY MEMORIES FROM THEIR PAST 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 JUST. THE FACT THAT. SHE. SHES AROUND CALEB AND ITS ALL SHE CAN THINK ABOUT FHWNNFHW THE SIMILARITY OF THESE MOMENTS BUT THEN SHE COMES TO THE REALIZATJON THAT. AGAIN. THINGS. ARENT. THE. SAMRBGHEJJGBE

THE SODA 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 truly though mc was spoiled with him... he did so much for her always did everything for her would give in to her 😭😭😭😭😭😭 UGHHH IM SICKKKKKK (/pos)

"Kids are always like that... They're brave because of their curiosity. Or they hesitate to try out new things because they're afraid of the unknown." there is something profound in this line. there is something there. BUT MY BRAIN IS MUSH WHFJSJNFBSF

i am so sorry. i read Quirkies as quickies and had to do a double take.

SEE 😭 SEEE 😭 SHE'S REMINISCING AGAIN 😭😭😭😭😭😭

"I finish half the bottle in one swig. The sweetness washes over my tongue and erases the lingering bitterness in my mouth." ITS GIVING ORANGE BY ICHIGO TAKANO 😭😭😭😭 STOP WJFKWJFH THIS MANGA BROKE MY HEART. AND IT. IT HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART BUT IT WAS GUT-WRENCHING. AND I CANTNNDJFJTJGJDNFHSJFJJSJFJS LIKE WAIY

SEE LOOK. LOOK. ITS THE SAME RIGHT. LOOK

ok anyway

"i give him the bottle. i always did that whenever we shared food as kids. 'caleb, here...'" "..." <- THE SILENCE?????? SEEEEE SHE REMINISCES AGAIN AND THEN. AND THEN. ITS LIKE THE BOTH REALIZE 'ah, we're doing this again...' or 'ah, it's this again...' WHENGBHENGTHEY KNOW THE CONTEXT IS DIFFERENT THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS DIFFERENT AND. AND. AND

YOU GET ME RIGHT IM MAKINF SENSE RIGHT

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

wait cause i went back to do the "no" option for the Quirkies and 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

"can you pick one for me?" / "why should i be scared? you already gave me something sweet." IM SOBBING????? 😭😭😭😭 it's so "you're all i need anyway" coded..... UGH i love him

OMG TARA??????

CALEB 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

STOOOOPPP 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

if we attach this to the main story and how it ended.... :(

he just automatically assumes "oh yeah, she should hang out with her friends its ok shes probably not gonna want to spend so much time with me right now" LIKE 😭 THE WAY HE OFFERS HER A RIDE? 😭😭😭 THE "I'LL GO BACK TO SKYHAVEN"?????? 😭😭😭😭 MC IS LIKE "you dont have to" AND HE GOES "is it inconvenient for your colleague to meet me" LIKE HE JUST 😭 ASSUMES SHE WANTS TO LEAVE 😭😭😭😭

CALLBACK TO THE SAFE HAVEN AFFINITY 51 CALL 😭😭😭😭 “even if he’s the worst version of all the calebs from then to now, you still want him?” THE DISBELIEF IS HERE AGAIN HE JUST 😭 ASSUMES THE WORST 😭

OGH... he knows he overstepped so much in the main story he knows he hurt her he knows he made her uncomfy... he said he wouldn't bother her anymore and he's keeping that statement to be true bc he thinks itll make her feel better 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

HES TRYING SO HARD 😭😭😭 HE JUST WANTS TO MAKE HER HAPPY 😭😭😭 EVEN IF IT MEANS HAVING HIM OUT OF THE PICTURE NOW, DESPITE HOW MUCH HE JUST WANTS TO BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF HER AGAIN 😭😭😭😭

FUCK IT IDT WE'RE EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE CARD YET BUT IM EMOTIONAL AS FUCK

"i never said i was leaving" and he's so SHOCKED 😭 AND HE 😭 HE SMILES!!! HE SMILESSSS :((( UUUUU HE'S SO HAPPY 😭😭😭😭 HE JUST 😭 HE WANTED A LITTLE BIT OF APPROVAL FROM HER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

IF WHEN WE LEFT OFF ON THE MAIN STORY THEY HAVENT BEEN TALKING... SO HE JUST ASSUMES YEAH SHE DOESNT WANT TO BE AROUND ME... AND NOW!!! NOW HE GETS THIS LITTLE BIT OF RELIEF THAT MAYBE SHE DOESNT HATE ME SO INTENSELY...

"He stoops down to adjust the water flow. When he gets up and meets my gaze again, his expression is noticeably softer." <- SOFTER!!! SOFTERRRR IT'S SOFTERRR 😭 HE'S BEEN SO TENSE BUT NOW!! NOW HE'S SO RELIEVED!!! 😭😭😭😭 HE'S SOO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

just. THE FHWKBGHEJF i knowwwwww he feels guilty about how he treated her in the main story 😭 and hes trying to make it up to herrrrr 😭😭😭😭😭

caleb saying TLC was not on my bingo card LMFAO BUT ALRIGHT

"'Every day and every night, I'm surrounded by Skyhaven machines. I rarely get to see stuff like this. Even in my dreams, I sometimes hear the roar of warships and blaring emergency alarms.' The corners of Caleb's mouth subtly tense. His brow furrows for only a moment." oh my poor poor baby 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 the things he must go through there daily... all the work... always busy... and he says this about the things that he sees... after that thing he said? "why should i be scared? you already gave me something sweet." AND THE LINE HE HAS IN THE CAFE WHEN YOU TURN AWAY AND HE TURNS TO YOU..!!!!!! "they say sunflowers always face the sun, i guess it's because trying to find warmth is normal. i'm not an exception to that rule." ITS LIKE :( LIKE HES SAYING :( THE WORLD WITHOUT HER IN SKYHAVEN IS COLD :( AND HE FINDS WARMTH WITH HER :( HERE IN LINKON :(((((

OMYGOD AND THE

DUDE THE LINES IN THIS

IM GOINF INSANE

"She's a regular at the store. She holds my hand and gives me heartfelt words to relay to the owner. Maybe the reluctance to say goodbye to places that hold cherished memories is a feeling all humans have." MC PLEASEEEE 😭😭😭😭

AUGH 😭

so i think. truly. that theyre really just......... :( theyre struggling to move into the present :(

both of them are attached to something of the past... caleb, to how much she used to always depend on hin without qualms... mc, to how he used to be more playful and caring and considerate and warm towards her, and not this cold person who hides things from her and is more forceful about things... just something about both of them craving the relationship they used to have but

BUT THEYRE. THEYRE NOT THE SAME PEOPLE ANYMORE 😭 THEY BOTH GREW UP... BOTH HAVE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AND DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS.... AND THEY DONT KNOW HOW TO NAVIGATE THATTTTT

AND MC IS LIKE :( IT'S HARD TO SAY GOODBYE :(

BC SHES SO ATTACHED TO THE IDEA OF THE CALEB FROM BEFORE THAT SHE'S MORE USED TO.... AND SHES LIKE... HES SO IMPORTANT TO ME AND I HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HIM MORE BUT IT'S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE ITS HARD TO ACCEPT AND MOVE ON AND SHES 😭😭😭😭😭😭 SHES STRUGGLING WITH THAT!!!😭

I HAVE NO DOUBT ITS THE SAME FOR CALEB'S CASE TOO.....

OH SHIT FUCK KINDLED OMYGODJGHEJF OK OK

OH :( HE ZNNN? :( BUT HE LOOKS SO TENSE :(

OUGH MC NOTICESSSS 😭😭😭😭😭

MY POOR BABY IS HAVING A NIGHTMARE 😭

"don't go" NOOOO CALEBB HUHU 😭😭😭😭😭 OUGHHH HE'S BEEN MASKING SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭 HIS PARTING WITH MC AFFECTED HIN SO MUCH 😭😭😭😭

HIS EYES 😭 THE PUPPY EYES 😭😭😭😭

"don't leave me alone" HES PRACTICALLY BEGGING HER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 IM SO SICK RN I FEEL SO SICKKKK 😭😭😭😭 (/pos)

?!!?!?

?!?!?!

WAS HE GOING TO KISS HER IM SCREAMINF

???? DID HE THINK HE WAS DREAMING? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

"caleb?!" AND THE WAY HE JUMPS LIKE HE REALIZES WHAT HE'S DOING 😭😭😭😭 "sorry. i didn't mean to scare you" AAAUUUGHGHGHGHH 😭😭😭😭😭😭

HES SO CONCERNED

HE DOESN'T

HE DOESNT WANT TO REPEAT THE THING HE DOESNT WANT TO HURT HER AGAIN HE DOESN'T WANT TO SCARE HER OR MAKE HER HATE HIM OR DISLIKE HIM MORE THAN SHE COULD AFTER WHAT HE DID 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

BUT HE WANTS HER SO BADDDDDD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

its so practiced.

it's SO practiced.

he's probably learned from a long time ago how to mask 😭 it's morethan practiced it's MASTERED 😭 his expression changes 😭 the puppy eyes go to his usual expression... the maybe slightly exasperated slightly amused kind of eyes—bc he CHANGES THE SUBJECT to the thing supposedly in her eye 😭😭😭😭😭

caleb is so.... you see throughout that he's simultaneously mastered the art of masking but also it slips sometimes... around her... but its so subtle that mc doesnt notice it herself WJDJSJJDJWHFH

THIS THOUGH 😭 like in that one myth kindled....... he schools his expression and talks about something else... it's so practiced...

caleb, please :(

AUGHHH

this scene 😭

THIS SCENE 😭

i justtt 😭😭😭😭😭

the way his hand trembles... the mask falls... his brows are furrowed and he looks at her so intensely and you can see you can FEEL the longing 😭😭😭😭😭

he probably hasnt genuinely touched her like this in forever... not so vulnerably...

THERES A SPACE BETWEEN THEM LIKE HES TRYING HIS BEST TO NOT BE IN HER PERSONAL BUBBLE, HES GIVING HER SPACE TO MOVE AWAY IF SHE WANTS TO, HE'S KEEPING THIS RESPECTFUL DISTANCE THATS JUDT 😭

THE CARESS

THE SILENCE THE WAY THEY STARE AT EACH OTHER THE

UUUUUU

HUHUHU

IM GONNA SOB SO HARD

A BEAT AND HE LOOKS AWAY AND *PULLS* AWAY AND AND AND

YOUCAN SEE HER

DISAPPOINTMENT

HE PULLS HIS HAND AWAY AND HER OWN CURLS INTO ITSELF A LITTLE LIKE SHES

SHE DIDNT WANT HIM TO PULL AWAY :( ITS THAT FEELING OF LOSS AGAIN... for a moment they felt close again and then he pulls back and puts the distance BACK 😭😭😭😭

AND THE WAY HE LOOKSSO GUILTY ABOUT GETTING CLOSE :( AUGHHHHHHHHH

SHE CLOSES THE DISTANCE FOR HIM INSTEKFJEHGBE IMM SOBBINGGGG 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

UUUUUUU

HIS EXPRESSION

HES SO

:((((

HE LOOKS LIKE HE WANTS TO CRYYY :((((

UGH THE WAY HE PULLS HER BACK 😭 BUT 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 HE CANT LOOK AT HER 😭😭😭😭

he's so hesitant to be this vulnerable with her? :(

HUHU THEYRE!!!!!!! :((((((((((( THEYRE SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR TOGETHER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

THE REMINISCING...

OUGH MY HEART 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 THEYRE TALKING ABOUT IT... TJE WAY THE MAIN STORY ENDED, THE...

"would you have not come back to see me?"

SHE DOESNT LIKE THE DISTANCE!! 😭 LIKE HOW SHE WAS DISAPPOINTED HE PULLED AWAY 😭😭😭😭😭😭

IM ILL 😭😭😭😭

IM SO

MY HEART

ITS SO

ITS LIKE KTS BEING SQUEEZED

WHAT THE HELL IM TEARING UP RN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

IM. THROWJNF UPPPP

"and so another summer begins" OUGH

IM SICK

I AM ILL

PLEASEJEJFBEH IMFJSJJF OHMYGODDDDDDFDFDDDDDDDDDDD

THIS WAS BEAUTIFUL??? I. I LOVE THIS CARD 😭😭😭😭😭 UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I LOVE THIS MAN WHAT THE HELL 😭😭😭😭😭😭

maybe..this card... i love it almost as much as floral blessing...this is how much it means to me.............

ANYWAY IM POSTING THIS LIKE THIS AND GOING TO BED AND!! WILL CONTINUE FURTHER DOWN THE POST WITH EXCLUSIVE AFTERTASTE... TOMORROW !! :D

#im sobbing btw #(this user thinks about caleb daily)#lnds spoilers #3.0v2 shenanigans

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onlythoughts83 · 4 days ago

Text

A diatribe on Hope and Tragedy.

For a long time, I would openly declare that I didn't believe in hope. Such an odd thing to say in hindsight, and yet I know why I was saying it. Hope to me at this time was little more than wishful thinking. To hope, as I would've said back then, is to believe that things are going to turn out for the better, that there's progress being made to a better tomorrow. On both accounts, I still think these attitudes are a bit defective. However, what I called hope back then is certainly not what I mean by hope now.

I thought hope was a fruitless emotion because I believed in the tragedy of the human condition. I still believe in the latter, but now I hold the former to be an integral part of what makes the latter what it is. Without hope, there is no tragedy, only cruelty and horror. I fear many people today are falling into a kind of pessimism resonant with the hopelessness that I've outgrown.

So what is hope? And why is it important? In the Middle Ages, hope was presented as one of the three theological virtues alongside faith and charity. Perhaps I will write more on them another time, but it is important to know that the theological virtues were integral to each other at the time. To have hope was to hold true to faith in salvation from a charitable God. This is not readily available to our culture anymore, although by no means is one required to discard it. However, as religion is no longer a bonding agent of our culture, we have cause to ask what to make of hope without it.

One thing about hope as a theological virtue that can be made more widely intelligible is that hope is a virtue. Therefore, to be a hopeful person is to have achieved an excellence of character. If hope is a virtue, it certainly has vices. One of deficiency, to have too little hope is called pessimism. And one of excess, to have too much hope, is called optimism. To consider the modern perspective of hope it will do us some good to consider a school of thought that believed itself hopeful, but was really just optimistic.

It was Alasdair Macintyre, may he rest in peace, whose work After Virtue has come to define my thoughts so strongly in recent times. The arguments of After Virtue are compelling, the history Macintyre painted shows so clearly to me where modernity is doomed to moral failure. Hope is one of modernity's greatest weak points. I mention Macintyre because at the end of After Virtue, he provides a damning moral critique of Marxism. Marxism, Macintyre reflects, is a deeply optimistic philosophy. Having read Marx myself before, I quickly realized what was being said. Dialectic materialism argues that in pursuit of profit, the capitalist will push for more and more efficient means of production until eventually he undoes himself by making production so efficient that he is rendered unnecessary. When this time comes, there will be nothing left to do but to take the capitalists' property by force and have everyone share im this new, readily available mode of production.

What is it about the story told by Marxs dialectic materialism that makes it optimistic? It's the belief that we will be able to make ethical and efficient use of this hypothetical means of production. Within capitalism, there is, according to Marx, all the necessary tools being amassed for a better and nobler world. However, capitalism, according to Marx, exploits the workers and alienates them from their labour and thus themselves. Is the man of tomorrow really going to be the exploited and alienated proletariat? What ethical tools does this person inherit from their liberal capitalistic order? The unfortunate reality is that capitalism does not provide the ethics of utopia. There is no better world waiting in the destruction of a corrupt one.

The assumption of dialectic materialism is that the death of capitalism will give rise to the communist society that is characterized by a universal brotherhood of true equals. However, if you pay close attention to the world today, what kind of equality and fraternity are coming about? It's no accident that Marx believed that capitalism would end in violence, for he had the optimism to believe that violent revolution against the bourgeoisie would destroy the only remaining barriers to true prosperity. However, if the fraternity and equality Marx promises are absent from the corrupt system that must come before the ideal one that is characterized by them, where do they come from?

I put it to you that Marxs critique of capitalism was not born from a pursuit of fraternity and equality, but from the recognition that these things were missing in the world he observed. He believed they had to be restored by any means necessary and overlooked that by the time it'd be possible, there'd be nothing to restore. This is what it means to exceed hope into the vice of optimism. Optimism is to hold that the future is destined to be better, regardless of the direction the present is clearly taking us. Sometimes, things really do have to get worse before they are better, but that is not a self-fulfilling goal.

What the optimism of Marx shows us about hope is that hope needs something viable to believe in. If the desire for a better tomorrow is not sensitive to the tragedies of today, it is not hope but optimism. For the Medievals, their hope was grounded in a belief that reality was crowned by a philanthropic God who meant the best for us. To accept the Christian ontology is to recognize that God is an immutable wellspring of goodness in the world. If Abrahamic Theism is justified, hope is unconditionally vindicated.

However, it is important to understand that there were conditions integral to the Medieval Christian worldview that made hope invaluable. What Christianity had that Marxism lacks is tragedy. The human condition was a fallen one from Adam and Eve onwards. The Christian person is corrupt in a way the Marxist person could never be. The Christian hope was in forgiveness for an ancient sin, Marxist optimism is in the belief that present suffering is but a prelude to future prosperity. As I said earlier, without hope there is no tragedy, this is also true vice versa.

Tragedy entails us being cut off from the ultimate good. Hope is the virtue of facing tragedy. To be in a tragic condition is to be unable to do everything one ought to do. Classic moral dilemmas like the trolley problem are tragic conditions. Either one kills one person to save five or leave five to their death to avoid killing. No matter what one does, they succeed at one thing they ought to do, saving lives or not killing. However, they also fail to do something they ought to do, saving lives or not killing. Hope involves facing the tragedy of such situations without succumbing to a kind of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't fatalism. For the medievals, hope intersects charity in these moments in that one hopes they will be forgiven by God for the tragedy of the world. On its own, hope entails not denouncing the tragedy of ones act. One is to acknowledge what they had to fail at by making the most of their success.

Hope and tragedy are thus born of a world which is inherently unsatisfactory. To have hope is to believe that one can accept tragedy, to not be paralyzed by dilemma, but to not deny there is one altogether. Hope is to believe the world is worth enduring despite its failings.

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midnigtartist · 1 year ago

Note

Since Dotty is romancing Gale and has a history of acquaintance/friendship with Wyll, I'm curious about what her relationships with the rest of the party are like if you don't mind sharing. C:

I’m gonna just do the remaining origin characters so this post doesn’t get to long!

Shadowheart: Dotty kind of imprinted on her like a duckling lol. Shes who Dotty would consider to be her first friend on the adventure. Being friends with Dotty has definitely instilled the ‘mom arm’ instinct in Shadowheart bc Dotty (the rogue) has extremely low perception and walks into traps constantly. They basically walk around w Shadowheats hand on the back of her shirt to point her in the direction of things that need disarming

Lae’zel: i dont think Lae’zel really warmed up to Dot until the end of act one. She thought Dotty was weak in body and will and that she was probably gonna die early and stupidly and took up a begrudging protector roll with her. its not till everything that goes down a the crèche that they really become friends and Dotty proves that shes someone that can be relied on. Also did a big class change in act three where Dotty took fighter lvls and I hc that she asked Lae’zel to train her

Karlach: I dont have Karlach in my party often but she and Dot are definitely chaos “let me shoots this apple off your head blindfolded” friends. Drinking buddies for sure. Karlach calls her Shortie 💙

Astarion: its very “im the only one allowed to bully you” energy from Astarion. Dotty is kind of exactly the person he hates. Too emotional, too naive , too much of a bleeding heart. He finds her extremely annoying at first but possibly stupid enough to run his little scheme on if she wasnt so head over heels for Gale (ugh). He wants to hate her, but shes so infuriatingly considerate and nice. Being mean to her would be like kicking a blind puppy. Its no fun if she doesnt see it coming (he says even though he is a bit protective of her). I also love the idea of them eventually becoming in laws bc Astarion is so her cousin’s type lol

#tav shit #dotty mcclain

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seldomdrawncherubs · 10 months ago

Note

im a dudebro seer of heart/blood and ive decided i plan to use my powers for evil. any quick tips?

(I will do seer of blood here since seer of heart is somewhere else in the inbox)

UU: seer of blood. yoU share an aspect with kankri and the signless

UU: yoU have incredible potential for good! knowing how to help others, how to connect with them?

UU: i almost envy yoU! you coUld have so many friends and lead people to peacefUl victories.

UU: the seer of blood can also see connection where others claim there is only division.

UU: yoU can recognize injUstice as kankri and the signless did. yoUr classpect means yoU will know what is hUrting people and how the harm of society works. yoU coUld dismantle entire frameworks of sUffering.

UU: are yoU sUre yoU want to be evil?

***

uu: OF COuRSE THEY DO! DIDN'T YOu SEE THAT?

uu: BLOOD MEANS BLOOD. HISTORY. MARKS OF VIOLENCE.

uu: TO SEE THESE. IS TO KNOW THE WEAKNESSES. OF YOuR ENEMIES. TO KNOW HOW TO ORGANIZE YOuR ALLIES INTO A KILLING MACHINE. AND TO MANIPuLATE. YOu COuLD DISMANTLE INJuSTICE. OR MANTLE IT. YOu SHOuLD MANTLE IT IF YOu WANT TO BE EVIL.

uu: MY SISTER. SAYS FRIENDSHIP IS BETTER. I SAY. DO WHATEVER YOu WANT. SEER IS A SHITTY CLASS. YOu MAY AS WELL. FIGHT DIRTY. TO BE AN ALPHA CHAD DuDEBRO. AS YOu CLAIM

uu: ORDINARILY. I WOuLD REJECT YOu. FOR YOuR LACK OF POWER. ESPECIALLY SINCE YOu SHARE WITH THE SIGNLESS. WHO IS BORING AND NOT VERY ALPHA.

uu: BuT I LIKE. THE WAY YOu THINK.

uu: PROVE HOW EVIL YOu CAN BE. WITH MANIPuLATION. AND CuNNING. THEN MAYBE. I WILL CONSIDER YOu.

tumut.

#seldomdrawncherubs #caliborn #calliope #homestuck #homestuck classpects #classpecting #seer of blood #blood aspect

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soultiesfinancials · 6 months ago

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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Just would like to share my 2025 insight on the U.S. Economy and if you take time to read it. I would love to hear your feedback.

I legitimately believe that January - March is when we see wether we go in a recession or if the FEDs can successfully stick the soft landing.

With the stock market trading near ALL TIME HIGHs, it does help move us away from a recession. Why? It increases consumer spending. Although I also believe we are 1 "continuous correction" away from heading into a recession.

Now here are my reasons why I think January - March is where we'll get our answers.

Companies in January normally cuts back on temporary hirings / seasonal hirings - this is then when they say they do this to "cut costs" on their Q4 earnings reports

During the last FOMC Q&A (FED Funds Rate Decision) Jerome Powell have stated that the Labor Market has some "serious downside risks" but yesterday FED Barkin said hirings are coming for 2025. Who are we going to believe here?

THE YIELD CURVE

The Yield Curve is still making no sense. We are currently 31bps uninverted on the 10Y/2Y and if we look back in history, we have seen recession when we go more than 50bps uninverted on Yields. For example, 2001, 2008 and 2020 Covid. If we continue to get recessionary data in January - March, we are 1 explosion of the Yield Curve away from a recession. But to some, this makes no sense because we are almost trading at All Time Highs. But when I looked at the charts this morning, im sad to say that we were also trading at then-All Time Highs back in 2000 and 2007.

And as I write this, our 10Y and 2Y are indicating a massive move. I do not know which direction and I wont be guessing.

VALUATION & EARNINGS

The Stock Market's valuation currently is a BUBBLE. Sure, not everyone cares about a company's valuation. But valuation at 200% above GDP screams a ticking time bomb to me.

For Q4 and Q1 Earnings, what I will be paying attention for are the companies' PRICING POWER. With consumer's strength noticeably weak, it will be very interesting to me if these companies like NVDA can keep up commanding high prices for their products. And as soon as these companies lose their Pricing Power, I would no longer be concerned about INFLATION, we now have to face concerns of DEFLATION. And with the Federal Reserves cutting back on rates rapidly, the last thing I wanna see is a resurgence of inflation while we are in deflation and to combine that with weak employment, we get the worst case scenario. STAGFLATION.

THE LABOR MARKET

This is what everyone should pay attention to. These dates will tell us wether the FEDs have successfully stuck a SOFT LANDING. The unemployment rate report(s) for January, February and March.

With the FEDs start of cutting rates back in September before achieving 2% inflation. Combine that with companies possibly losing Pricing Power and could soon face deflation. There are reasons why the FEDs started cutting rates before achieving 2% inflation, and I believe that is what they are not telling us.

Back in August shortly after Powell's speech at Jackson Hole. For the first time, he sounded way too bullish. And it was a red flag for me. I suspected that they "accidentally" broke the labor market. Job reports we got during October and November is not very clear to me. Simply because of the skewed and rigged datas we got because of Election, Government Hirings and Seasonal Hirings. Jobs Report for the next 3 months will be massive for our economy. I strongly believe, that if we survive January - March jobs reports with no single recessionary data, I will tip my hat to Jerome Powell and say, you have stuck the soft landing grandpa! Cheers to 2025 and beyond!

Thank you for reading!

-TradedVhub

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erectedingold · 10 months ago

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Life Update

Writing this on my phone, think i might rn getting a little sick 😓

but lots going on rn, started school & tbh as i get older i realize school ain’t that bad bro! im so thankful for my classes & i dropped a science class cause fuck science i hate that shit SO MUCH. but when i was doing that i mentioned in my email to my guidance counselor the college im wanting to go to & she says to me “you probably won’t get in your gpa isn’t there & your SAT scores aren’t there as well, maybe check out *college*”

first of don’t talk to me like that. i know academically i am far from great but my talent & ambition outweighs ALL of that. never tell an artist they can’t go to an art school they deadass don’t even have math classes there dude like who tf do you think you are? i know my talent & what i can & cannot do so don’t doubt me ever again bitch LMAO. second don’t tell me where YOU think i should go. like please. i am being so fr don’t ever tell me where i belong because ill go where i want. so watch yourself the next time you talk to me.

that whole interaction ruined my day. my whole life i’ve been doubted but i know who i am & what i can do.

but i wrote my essay & it’s amazing, & now im gonna get 2 letters of recommendation from my teachers. one from my english teacher & the other from my business teacher. then i got 2 open responses i need to write for & then i can send my applications. if i don’t get into this school im applying for in boston idk what ima do tbh, im applying to one in NY & one in NYC but like fuck bro i’d rather one here in boston especially when i have friends here. also applying to one in california 😴

but back to school, i think the older i get the more i realize how EASY shit is, my math is easy, my english is easy, intro to psychology easy, history is a joke, & my related class is easy. it’s just managing time in the class room like damn it makes me annoyed that my senior year of high school i don’t have anxiety with school anymore 😭 is what it is though that just makes this year easier for me 🙏

my new film is dropping tomorrow i’m really nervous for it i’ll be honest idk why, im afraid of it getting NO views but also it doesn’t matter it’s my art & im proud of it 😴 it don’t matter what anyone thinks because i do it for me 🤷 i make art because creating makes me feel alive. that’s what i do it for, i make because its second nature to me, it’s like breathing i don’t think about to at all it comes so naturally to me & im truly blessed to have my brain this way.

i hope everyone who views it can feel the passion though 🙏

I’m also not taking any disrespect anymore, i’ve been on my journaling shit & some more self development. i’m going to start reading more because i want to be a better writer & also expose myself to more challenging material. i’ve been watching more international films which has been on my list for a while, subtitles aren’t that scary guys! enjoy the art made around the world never let a language barrier stop you from that.

but also finally just more self discovery on my end & solidifying my boundaries whether people like it or not because i will NOT allow myself to be disrespected in my one life. idgaf if it’s just “jokes” because my perception is my reality & if your joke is disrespectful then shut the fuck up 🤷 i also won’t be giving my energy to people who don’t match or or appreciate me. you don’t deserve me. there some people who i show nothing but kindness & give the biggest helping hand to when needed & i don’t get that energy back so guess what im not trying anymore because you’re not worth my time. simple as that.

i’m not going to give pieces of myself to people who no longer deserve it. i know that i always have good intentions & share my kindness always & i will no longer allow myself to be a doormat. people have mistaken my kindness for weakness & i won’t let them mistake it anymore.

i don’t have to have everyone like me or respect me so boom if you don’t get out of my life i don’t need you because when i look in the mirror i love myself & respect myself & that’s all i need. as long as you have yourself you have somebody.

i’m also cutting out some bad habits that i started that have been damaging to myself. i deserve better because i love me.

i am proud of me & who i’m becoming. ive been making big changes this year & im telling you 2025 will be the year of diego. im manifesting it.

but yeah i’ve been getting closer with my dawg nathan much respect & love to him always. amazing & talented filmmaker who is my best friend dude & im happy me & him have gotten closer recently. we both got broken up with around the same time & we’ve talked like everyday since dude, the universe has plans for us. we’re gonna be great i can feel it.

&& speaking of universe that’s another thing. the universe has a plan for everyone including you reading 🙏 if you feel lost something will happen to bring you onto the right track of self discovery & self love. keep going even when it’s hard because the reward will be great. i have full trust that everything i manifest will come to life & i’ll reach all my goals.

thank you for reading this blog post, lots of changes in my life & i am human & experiencing & living & breathing & feeling emotions. thankful for my mind.

- Diego Muñoz

#blog #writing

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ppddpjdr · 2 years ago

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GAGGED. THIS IS SO GOOD I READ THE FIRST 3 PARAGRAPHS AND WAS FL O O R E D I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS (i bet the projection of sociopolitical issues onto intercommunal relationships between consenting adults as means of further separating communities is going to be SO GOOD in this one)

OMG CHANNIE DID N O T just say that except of course he did we all :'( live in (are victims of) a Society :((( the way new generations will just give up. on even considering relationships beyond what we know because the rest of the world makes it so hard :((((

im actually crying rj and yn talking about werewolf human interspecies relationships history like me and my friends exploring queer history of our country that we just never got the opportunity to learn and be exposed to until and unless we found a group of people that shared that same sense of longing and uncertainty about their place in society :((( the slow dawn of understanding that your love truly exists now and has existed in many forms for centuries and can never, never cease to exist no matter who tries to take it away from you (and now I am thinking about romance is dead hELP)

I'm going actually sit here and cry. the talk that yn gives jn. that small moment at the start where neither of them have anything to say to channie, before the fortune cookie bit. the kind of pressure that gets put onto intercommunal relationships to be this beacon of true love and hope in the world, and the permission to be flawed or complex, or make mistakes that gets taken away from the people in that relationship

RENJUN IS SO ME FR making powerpoint presentations and actively seeking out and compiling historical evidence because such a grand proportion of my friend group just. Never had the opportunity to pursue that knowledge and the way he misses out on romantic angle entirely because he is excited by the socio-cultural mixing is very real to me and this is probably my favourite scene in the series so far

THE WAY!!! YOU WRITE JENO('s story)!!!! Continual bodily neglect as a means of a affirming and feeling secure in one's community membership when they community has been historically suppressed/marginalised/maintained in secrecy!!! Continual resistance to the loss of cultural knowledge and inheritance resulting in physical weakness feeling like a betrayal!! Reminds me of transness and binding and female reproductive health specifically

Crying this is one of my favourites genuinely

❧ word count: 8.8k ❧ warnings: cursing, uh reader gets called like a fantasy slur?, this one really focuses on the concept of ‘othering’ in this society and how it manifests in and around jeno and reader’s werewolf/human relationship ❧ genre: fluff, angst but like from outside sources (see warnings), modern magical creatures au, fantasy au, college au if you squint again, werewolf jeno, human reader, ft. werewolf sungchan, human renjun, and dryad jaemin, same universe as strawberry sunday, sequel to pupsick ❧ extra info: this is a sequel to pupsick! it theoretically could be read as a standalone with minimal confusion but i highly recommend you read pupsick first to see how these two crazy kids got together this work is set in the same universe as strawberry sunday! there is no continuing plotline between fics in this universe (aside from pupsick to this one), they simply take place in the same world/magic system and may have overlapping characters (neos may pop up in more than one work!)

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ explore the strawberry sunday universe more here!

“Welcome!” Renjun smacked the tip of his lecture pointer against his TV screen. You jumped a little at the sound. “To your exclusive History of Werewolf-Human Romance crash course taught by yours truly!”

“Waah!” You yelped as you were quite literally swept off your feet by a pair of strong arms around your waist, and grabbed onto Jeno’s hands. A surprised giggle bubbled out of you. “Pup! You scared the hell out of me.”

“You were too slow.” Jeno clicked his tongue in feigned disappointment, nosing along from behind your ear down your neck. “I win.”

“As usual,” you sighed, reaching up to scratch your fingers along his scalp. The warmth of him holding you was a welcome one against the wintery chill of December that was fully set in around you. “If you didn’t need enrichment, I might lodge a formal complaint about the equity of these games, you know.”

“A formal complaint? With what authority?”

“Jaemin.”

Before your boyfriend could respond, an angry shout came from across the park, drawing your attention. You felt Jeno’s arms tense around you immediately. You spotted your friend that had come with you two, Sungchan, over by the water fountains, in a less than friendly confrontation with another man. From your viewpoint, the stranger was way out of his depth. Sungchan was a head and a half taller than him, not to mention a werewolf.

“The fuck did you just say?” Sungchan pushed the guy, who looked about your age, back by the chest. The other guy didn’t say anything, but didn’t move to back down either. Jeno let you go, but only to put himself between you and the other two, despite the distance that was already there.

“I said, say it again, to my fucking face this time, asshole,” your friend practically snarled at him and stepped forward, his fists clenched and teeth bared.

Jeno looked conflicted about leaving you or helping your friend. But before he had to make a choice, the shorter man turned on his heel and stormed off. Sungchan watched until he was completely off the premises before he rejoined you and Jeno. Your friend’s fists were still clenched in anger, and you noticed a prominent vein on his forehead that wasn’t always there.

“What did that guy say, Sungchan?” You asked him softly. You’d never seen your typically good-natured friend get worked up like that. He was always a rather calming presence, especially in contrast to the other excitable wolf with you.

“It wasn’t just some guy, it was another werewolf,” Jeno informed you, though his focus was also on the taller man.

Sungchan stretched his neck out, letting out a sharp sigh. “Yeah, he was a werewolf. He… he called you a knotslut, Y/N.”

You felt your jaw drop as Jeno immediately spat out, “He fucking what?”

“I can assume that’s not a compliment…” You said quietly, though you’d never heard the word yourself before.

“No, it’s not.” Sungchan crossed his arms, and his features softened as he looked down at you. “It’s an obviously derogatory term for a non-werewolf—usually human, and almost always a woman—who only dates werewolves specifically because of the more wolf-ish aspects of us.”

“Or just any human woman who’s with a werewolf.” Jeno pulled you closer to him with an arm around your waist. “I am so, so sorry Y/N—”

“Jeno, shh, shh. It’s not like you’re the one who called me that.” You waved off his apology. “I just… forget sometimes, that this is still kind of all new. Humans and magical creatures all living together.”

“That doesn’t make it okay for him to have called you that, Y/N,” Sungchan said sternly.

“I didn’t say that it did,” you replied just as firmly. “It was just an unpleasant little reality check, that’s all. Thank you for standing up for me, by the way, Channie.”

“Seriously, dude, thank you,” Jeno echoed your sentiments.

Your friend finally gave a small smile. “Of course. There was no way I was going to sit back and let anybody talk about my friends like that.”

You didn’t like the pensive look that was still on his face, though. “Is there something else bothering you?”

“No, I was just thinking…” He gave you two a sheepish look. “Now don’t get me wrong, I think you two are very cute together, and I truly couldn’t imagine a better match for either of you than the other. But that whole thing that just happened… just really solidified that I think for myself, personally, I’d just rather stick with dating other werewolves. No need to worry about weird werewolf fetishists, and my hypothetical future partner wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with stuff like that. Just a lot simpler, you know?”

You exchanged a look with Jeno. Oh, you two would have a lot more discuss about your thoughts on that later. But for now, to give your friend your lukewarm support.

“Yeah, I mean, you’ve got a couple good points,” you offered politely. “Obviously, I want you stay away from weirdos.”

“But…” Jeno hopped in where you had implicitly left off. “Don’t accidentally swear off happiness in your search for something simple.”

“You sound like a fortune cookie, Jeno,” Sungchan snorted. “I take it back, being in love is rotting your brain.”

“He’d need a brain to rot in the first place.” You gently knocked on your boyfriend’s forehead for emphasis, giggling as he scrunched his eyes and nose.

When Jeno hadn’t made any kind of comeback or retort, the taller werewolf asked incredulously, “Seriously? You don’t have anything to say to that, man?”

“She’s right,” Jeno shrugged and knocked on his own head this time. “I’m just a big dumb pup, remember?”

“You two are insufferable,” Sungchan groaned, looking up at the sky in facetious misery. “Why did I agree to hang out with you guys without a fourth wheel?”

You laughed. “Because you and Jeno wanted to play soccer. And you two have officially worn me out, so why don’t you play while I take a nice long sit on the bench?”

“Fine.”

As you watched Jeno and Sungchan kick a soccer ball back and forth, you hugged your knees to your chest on a bench overlooking the soccer field, glad that it hadn’t snowed lately so your butt was staying dry. Your phone buzzed in your pocket, and you took it out to see who was calling.

“Hey, Renjun,” you answered brightly.

“Hey, Y/N. Are you guys still at the park?” Your friend asked, and you could distantly hear the sound of his footsteps echoing behind him. You’d sent a blanket invite out to several of your friends for this afternoon, but Sungchan had been the only one that was able to make it initially.

“Yeah. The guys are playing soccer. I’m taking a break.”

“Do you think you’ll be there much longer? I finished up my essay early so I figured I could join you.”

Oh, he must be in the parking garage on campus.

“Of course! Channie was just complaining about third-wheeling alone anyway.”

“What were you and Jeno doing?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you when you get here.”

“Oh great,” he said sarcastically. “I’ll be there in ten.”

“See you, Renjun!”

“Bye.”

“So Renjun’s coming?” Jeno called out, holding a hand up to cast a shadow over his eyes.

You nodded, knowing that Jeno had only been able to parse out your half of the conversation from the distance he was at. “Yeah, he said he’ll be about ten minutes.”

Your boyfriend gave you a thumbs up before turning back around just in time to avoid a ball that Sungchan had kicked right at his head. “Dude!”

“Like I said! Being in love’s rotting your brain, Lee Jeno!” Sungchan yelled back, throwing his hands up in a grand ‘I-don’t-know’ gesture. “And your reflexes!”

“And I’m telling you, I don’t got a brain to rot, Jung Sungchan!” Jeno jogged after the soccer ball, lining up to kick it in an impressive arc back to the other werewolf.

Renjun showed up fifteen minutes later and plopped down on the bench beside you with a zealous huff. You didn’t even need to ask what happened.

“God, half the morons at our college don’t know how to drive!” He stretched his arms over the back of the bench, rolling his neck out. “And the other half are just jumping into traffic willy-nilly like they’re trying to get ran over or something!”

“Deep breath, Renjun, deep breath.” You patted him on the shoulder.

“As soon as I graduate, I’ll take the biggest, deepest beath of my life, I promise.”

“And until then?”

“Until then, I’m white-knuckling the steering wheel with one hand and laying on the horn with the other.”

You laughed heartily. “That’s one way to go about it I guess.”

“But how are you doing, Y/N?”

“Oh, fine. Something kind of… weird, I guess, happened earlier, though.”

“Weird?”

You squinted your eyes at the two werewolves now at the opposite end of the soccer field as before, trying to guesstimate if that was enough distance for your conversation to not be picked up by their superhuman hearing. To be safe, you leaned in towards your human friend and lowered your voice.

“There was this other werewolf here, and he said something about me and Jeno.” You admitted.

Renjun tilted his head curiously. “Said what?”

“Well, more specifically, he called me a-a knotslut?” The word felt unfamiliar in your mouth, and left a bitter taste on your tongue. Your lip curled unpleasantly at the memory it brought up.

His eyes widened as he looked around in alarm, then dropped his own voice to a whisper, “So where’s the body? Because there’s no way Jeno would’ve let someone that called you that leave alive.”

“Jeno wasn’t the one who heard him say it,” you clarified. “Sungchan did. Jeno and I were busy goofing off. Channie had gone to refill his water by the bathrooms and apparently the guy said it over there by him.”

“He probably thought that Sungchan was going to agree with him.”

“Must’ve been a shock for him when Sungchan almost bashed his face in himself.”

Renjun burst out in a full-bodied laugh. “Oh, I’m sure it was.”

“But, I want to ask you something, Renjun. Since you’re here.” You turned on the bench to fully face your human friend.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“You’re a Magical Creatures Studies major. Me and Jeno… it’s not that weird, right? Like, new, I mean? There’s got to be more of a history to humans and magical beings being together than six months ago.”

“Oh there absolutely is!” Renjun’s eyes sparkled as he straightened up in his seat. “I’m actually finishing up a class on Interspecies Marriage right now! Did you know that the earliest written record we have of a traditional werewolf mating ritual between a human and werewolf is nearly two thousand years old?”

“Wait, really?” You weren’t expecting that much precedent. Maybe a couple hundred years, not a couple thousand.

“Yeah! And as for how we would conventionally think of marriage today between a human and werewolf, that still goes back at least 800 years for official written historical records. And that’s just written. There’s oral traditions of entire packs that were equal parts human and werewolf that are much, much older with archaeological evidence to back it up.”

“Archaeological? Like, bones?”

“Well, yeah. But also artifacts of their villages. Things that—”

A movement in the periphery of your eye made you whip your head up to look back at the field. Jeno and Sungchan were leisurely walking over towards you two, the former carrying the soccer ball. You smacked Renjun’s knee to shut him up as quickly as possible. Offended, he seemed to nevertheless get the idea, thankfully, and stopped his never-ending stream of facts.

You smiled up at the two werewolves as they stopped beside you two. “Done already?”

“Just coming to say hey to Renjun,” Jeno informed you as Sungchan grabbed a bag that was next to the bench.

“Hey, guys,” Renjun greeted them.

Sungchan fetched a couple water bottles that were inside, tossing one to Jeno, who caught it one-handed. He then set the soccer ball down by his feet to twist the bottle open.

“And hydrate,” the taller wolf added.

The human rolled his eyes. “Oh. I feel so special now.”

“You guys want to join?” Jeno offered, using his shirt to dab at a bead of sweat on his forehead with the hem. You shamelessly watched his movements. “We can do teams now that we’ve got even numbers.”

“Yeah, werewolves versus humans,” Sungchan suggested with a grin.

“Only if you guys hop on one leg with your hands tied behind your back,” you retorted.

“How are we supposed to kick the ball like that?”

“You can figure it out with your big, non-rotted, pristine brain, Channie. I believe in you.”

“Well not if I’ve got Mr. Fortune Cookie over here making heart eyes at you the whole time.” Sungchan jabbed a thumb in Jeno’s direction, and when you looked over at him, he was already looking at you.

“I’m sorry, I thought you wanted me on your team?” Jeno rounded on him indignantly.

Sungchan shrugged as he finished the rest of his water. “Like you’ll really try if it’s against Y/N.”

Your boyfriend rolled his eyes, but didn’t do anything to dispute the claim. “Fine, then you’re taking Renjun?”

“No. I’m taking Y/N, obviously.”

As you and Sungchan walked out to your own side of the field, you studied him suspiciously.

“Why did you want me on your team?” You asked him, soccer ball in your hands this time. “If you think Jeno and I are too lovey-dovey to compete against each other?”

“Well I took your advice, and I thought about it with my huge, smart, peak condition brain—”

You couldn’t help but laugh in his face at his phrasing, to which he snickered as well.

“—and I figured that even if you don’t give it 110%, you’re still better than Renjun. So not only is Jeno not going to be doing good himself because he’s competing against you, but his teammate kind of sucks too.”

“Ohh, I got you,” you nodded along, which slowly turned into a disbelieving head shake. “I think we need to set you up with someone. You’re too smart for everyone else’s good, your brain’s in need of a little rotting.”

Sungchan turned to you then, squaring his shoulders. “I’ll make you a deal.”

“Hmm, since you’re not a fairy, I’ll hear you out. The terms?”

“If we win and I’m convinced that you actually gave your best against Jeno… then you can set me up on one date.”

“You’re agreeing to a blind date?”

“One.”

“With anybody of my choosing? You won’t back out no matter what they are?”

“I can’t back out of it.”

“And you have to put in an earnest effort, too. You can’t intentionally sabotage it.”

“I can’t back out of it, and I can’t intentionally sabotage it.”

You stuck a hand out to him. “Deal.”

Sungchan took your chilly hand, shaking it with his perpetually warm one. “Deal.”

God you were exhausted. Your legs burned, your eyes were watering from the cold wind, and you sucked in breath after breath of air that nipped at your lungs and seemed to hurt as much as it helped. But finally, someone declared the game over, and that you and Sungchan had won.

You let out an unintelligible, guttural grunt of victory, plopping yourself down onto the grass exactly where you were standing and pumping your fists up into the air from the ground instead. Sungchan jogged up to you, bright grin on his features as he held a hand down to you for a high-five.

“That was awesome, Y/N!” Your teammate celebrated as you weakly slapped your hand down against his. “I told you you were better than Renjun!”

“What? Why was disparaging me even part of your pep talks?” Renjun yelled from afar, tossing his hands up in the air in equal parts bewilderment and offense.

“Y/N!” Jeno ran up to you, skidding to his knees on the ground beside you to throw his arms around you. “Good job! Seriously, you did so good out there! Your passing got better and—”

“See? He’s happier that you won than if he had won.” Sungchan gestured to your boyfriend pointedly.

Through a tired smile, you pecked Jeno on the cheek. “Thanks, pup. You did great, too.”

Then, you turned your focus to the other werewolf still standing above the two of you, the smile dropping from your face. You pointed at him knowingly. “Consider my end of the deal fulfilled now, Jung.”

Sungchan crossed his arms over his chest, not seeming very happy about this, but he didn’t argue. “Fine. Later, okay?”

“Fine…” You gracefully dropped the subject at the moment. After all, you needed time to carefully consider. So for now, you wrapped your arms around Jeno and laughed as he kissed your cheek back two times.

“Hey, what were you and Sungchan talking about, by the way?” Jeno asked as he came into the living room with his after-dinner snack. You were staying at his place tonight to continue binging a show that you, Jeno, and Jaemin had started together.

“When?” You lifted up one side of the fluffy blanket that was on your lap for him to sit down under. Once he had, you immediately scooted closer to rest your head against his shoulder. When he was done eating, he would be the one snuggling up to you like usual, but for now, he did unfortunately have to attend to his inhuman metabolism.

“After we all played soccer. Some deal?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” You sat up straight, excited now. Looking at both Jeno, and Jaemin, who was stretched out on his own couch on the other side of the living room, you announced excitedly, “Sungchan’s letting me set him up on a date.”

“What?” “Seriously?” They blurted out at the same time.

“Yup. The deal was that if I gave 110% in the soccer game against Jeno, and Sungchan and I won, then he’d let me set him up on exactly one date.” You confirmed with a devilish hand rub.

Jeno scrunched his nose up. “How many werewolves do you know, Y/N? I guess I might know some from my pack back home that are nice…”

“That’s the best part. He can’t back out of it or self-sabotage no matter who it is, or what they are. So it doesn’t have to be a werewolf.”

Your boyfriend caught your eye, and you knew that the two of you were thinking the exact same thing. “Oh…”

“Yeah…”

“Hey!” Jaemin snapped his fingers to get your attention. Once you both were looking over at him, despite the fond smile on his face, he made a show of rolling his eyes as he grumbled, “I hate when you two do that. Mind filling me in?”

“Channie’s apparently got this thing about only wanting to date werewolves because it’s easier,” you explained. “You know, no worrying about weirdos who date werewolves because they’re werewolves.”

“And he claims that it’s just not worth any possible… harassment,” Jeno added. He’d apparently polished off his snack while you and Jaemin were speaking, because with two free hands, he pulled you closer to him again, pressing a kiss to your temple. “And after today, I kind of understand why.”

“Jeno, don’t talk like that,” you replied firmly, feeling a lump grow in your throat.

“I don’t agree with him, but I understand him. You don’t want the person you’re in love with to go through something like that. I want to be able to do something to make sure you never have to have someone treat you like that ever again, Y/N. But not if it’s not being with you. That… that doesn’t feel right to me.”

You laced your fingers with the hand of the arm he had around your shoulders, wrapping him even tighter around you. “Of course it doesn’t. Because it’s not right. And you’re not going to do something so stupid, Lee Jeno.”

“I know,” he squeezed your hand.

After a beat of quiet, Jaemin spoke up softly, “Will you… tell me what happened?”

“There was another werewolf at the park today. He called Y/N something awful.”

“What…?”

Figuring it might not be a good idea to say it again around Jeno, especially since your boyfriend apparently couldn’t bring himself to say it either, you jumped in, “Remember how we were just talking about people who only date werewolves because they’re werewolves?”

Jaemin’s face changed from confusion to recognition, then sympathy. “Oh, that’s horrible. I’m sorry, Y/N. That must have been terrible.”

“I’m okay, Jaemin. Thanks.” You smiled encouragingly to your friend. “Now, are we watching the show or…?”

“Yeah, yeah!” The dryad reached for the remote to select your show.

Later, once everyone had retired to bed for the night, you were staring up at the ceiling of Jeno’s bedroom, a discontented frown on your face. Your boyfriend exited the bathroom, flicking the light off behind him and flopping face-first onto his side of the bed. With no hesitation, he rolled over until he could rest his head on your middle. Except you didn’t move your fingers that had been laced together over your stomach as you stewed in your moody thoughts.

A comically confused sound came from Jeno at the unexpected barrier between him and his favorite pillow. And when you still didn’t move them, he lifted his head up to be able to look at you. “Y/N? Baby?”

“Hm?” You finally looked down at him, and registered the weight on your abdomen. You unlaced your hands and lifted them to make room. “Oh, sorry, Jeno. I was thinking.”

“About?” He prompted you as he settled in for his nearly nightly head scratches and rubs (they were only missed on the nights that you didn’t spend together). Your fingers began their habitual carding through his hair one way, then scratching gently along his scalp back the other way.

“When you said you understand Sungchan—”

“Y/N, I said—”

“Please let me finish.”

“You’re right, sorry. Go ahead.”

You sighed, keeping one hand in his hair and trailing the other down to caress his forehead, cheekbone, jaw, then tilted his chin up so he was looking at you.

“You’re both looking at it wrong,” you affirmed, holding his gaze steadily. “You don’t control other people’s actions solely by existing. That guy didn’t call me that today because I’m a human or because you’re a werewolf or because he heard me call you ‘pup’ or any litany of things about you and me. He said it because there’s something wrong with him. He said it because for some reason he just couldn’t imagine any scenario where you and I were simply just happy. And I for the life of me cannot bring myself to give a shit about pleasing people like him. So yes, while I do wish that you would encounter as little strife and hurt and injustice in your life as possible, Jeno, because I love you, I don’t believe for a second that any of it is caused by me loving you. I think that when things like this do happen, it’s caused by other people’s hate.”

Jeno’s throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed, and he slowly nodded, his eyes not leaving yours. His hand came up to cup yours that was cradling his face, his thumb gently rubbing over the backs of your knuckles. You leaned down to press your forehead to his, brushing your noses together.

Now that the fall semester and finals week were over, you were over at Renjun’s place. You had asked him if you could finish your conversation that you were having at the park about werewolves and humans. And truly, you don’t know why you had thought that you two would just grab coffee or something. You shouldn’t have expected anything less than a full-blown PowerPoint presentation from your friend who practically lived, breathed, ate, and slept Magical Creatures Studies.

“Did you just have that laying around?” You asked, referring to the pointer in his hand.

“Yes of course.”

“Of course,” you echoed humorously as you reclined into your seat on his couch. “Anyway, go for it, Renjun. I’m all ears.”

“Okay, so—” He pressed the spacebar on his laptop that was projecting to the TV. The first slide popped up. “Archaeological data. This is where we left off in our conversation. Entire packs have been found that were half human and half werewolf—”

You raised your hand. “Excuse me? Professor Huang?”

“Yes?” He called on you, having fully slipped into his role as lecturer.

“When you say the packs were half human, half werewolf, what do you mean? Like the population statistics were 50% humans and 50% werewolves? Or the individuals themselves were half-and-half genetically?”

“The former. These packs were integrated evenly with humans and werewolves.”

“And you’re saying ‘packs’ specifically. Not villages, or societies, or groups. Why?”

“From what we’ve been able to gather bout how they lived from the artifacts left behind, it seems their social structure more closely mirrored the customs and habits of werewolves than the humans that lived in that same area at the time.”

“So the humans that were in the pack adopted werewolf culture?”

“You’re getting ahead of me,” Renjun beamed at you. “You’re a very perceptive student.”

“Oh. Go ahead, Professor Huang.” You gave him a humble seated bow to proceed with the slide he was on.

“So, the archaeological data itself that was found was, like you said, bones, obviously, but also pots, stone tools, trinkets, even children’s toys or bits of clothing have been found.” He clicked to the next slide. There were pictures of some of the objects he’d mentioned, and a couple more. “This is where it gets interesting. Even if we hadn’t found any human skeletons, we would’ve known that humans had lived there because there were human tools found. Tools that werewolves didn’t need. Like knives to cut their food into bite-sized pieces, and jars that have residue from medicine that we know was used to treat diseases communicable among humans but not werewolves.”

“Wow.”

Next slide. This one had a picture of some objects on one side, pieces of worn leather, smooth colorful stones, and on the other side, a drawing of two necklaces, with matching opalescent stones wrapped securely in them.

“On the left—” he smacked said side with the pointer. “—are the pieces of two leather necklaces that were found with a pair of skeletons that were buried together. The right—” smack “—is an artist’s rendition of what the necklaces most likely looked like originally.”

“They’re beautiful.”

“Werewolves will traditionally bury mates together.”

“Like human couples who buy a plot of land in a cemetery big enough for the both of them before they pass.” You nodded.

“Exactly. This specific pack wasn’t 50/50 werewolves and humans we think. From what we’ve been able to parse out, it was more 80/20, with more werewolves. But they still buried werewolf-human couples together with all the same rites as werewolf couples. This pair right here was a werewolf-human couple.”

You smiled up at the image on-screen, feeling the familiarity of them reach across time to you in that moment. “And the necklaces?”

“It was sort of like a wedding ring-slash-mating claim fusion.” Renjun tapped the two necklaces with zeal again. You were starting to get a little afraid that he was going to damage his TV. “You were asking if the humans in these packs adopted werewolf culture, right? For the most part, yes, they did. They took on all of the werewolves’ culture as their own as far as we can tell. And what they couldn’t do, like eating raw meat, they adapted so they could. Obviously, day to day meals, they’d cook with heat. But many culturally important events held significance in the rawness of the food, so the humans would cure meat in salt ahead of time so they could safely consume it for those instances.”

“What sort of events?”

“The celebration of the solstices, uh mating rituals, burials, any number of things most likely involved the consumption of specifically raw meat as part of the tradition. It was an important staple of the werewolf diet, hence why Jeno has to slam down those protein bars now.”

You chuckled a little bit, able to perfectly picture your boyfriend’s shelf in his pantry that was taken up by boxes upon boxes of protein bars specifically formulated for werewolves. “Ah, yes, the ancestral chocolate peanut butter flavored protein bars.”

“And now you know the important cultural significance of them.” Your friend sighed wistfully, then switched back into his lecture-mode. “Back to the necklaces. So while the humans largely assimilated into werewolf culture, they also introduced a few things of their own. Typically, when two werewolves mate for life, it’s a whole biting and scenting thing and bam— every wolf in a hundred-mile radius gets the message. But human noses and teeth aren’t exactly up to par for that, right?”

“…Right.”

“So these pairs did both.”

“Both?”

“Again, extrapolation, and oral tradition.” Renjun qualified his explanation as he quickly clicked to the next slide, which had bullet points for what he was now laying out to you. “Unlike a normal wound, a werewolf’s mating bite would heal quickly and had no risk of infection, even for a human. But a human couldn’t do that back to the werewolf, and the human can’t really smell that much of a difference. But handmade, matching necklaces with a precious stone? Now that’s something everyone can see and understand.”

You nodded, “Yeah, okay. I get it. You want to make sure that both of you feel honored and loved in however that manifests for each of you, and obviously you want your partner to express their love for you in whatever way feels the most genuine and powerful.”

“Uh… yeah…” Renjun gave you a strange look. “I mean, in the field we look at it as a fascinating example of the blending of different cultures but-but that’s… cool… too…”

You gave him an unamused look before gesturing to the screen and to the left. “Can you go back one?”

He obliged, and you pointed at pictures. “What stone is that? Do you know?”

“Do I know what kind of stone it is?” He scoffed mockingly. “Of course I do, it’s moonstone.”

“Helps werewolves have more control over and less pain through their shift on the full moon.” You smiled as you recognized exactly why the human had chosen it all those years ago. “A perfect choice for the necklace that you intend for your werewolf lover to never take off.”

Your friend put a hand over his heart, looking at you with delight. “I knew you’d like that one. God, I almost don’t want to tell you about the werewolf brothels of the 1600s now.”

“The what?!”

Leaving Renjun’s apartment you were a changed person, but overall better, and now equipped with a lot of useful and important information. Quickly dialing up a contact on your phone, you listened to the line ring one, two times before it was picked up.

“Hey, Y/N!” Jaemin greeted you enthusiastically.

“Hey, Jaemin!” You turned a corner, your destination already in mind. “Are you home?”

“Yeah, Jeno’s at the gym right now but he should be back soon if you want to come over.”

“Actually, I wanted to ask if you wanted to go shopping? With me?”

“So why doesn’t Jeno have any moonstone?” You asked Jaemin as the two of you meandered down the aisles of one of the apothecaries in town. “It seems like something that every werewolf should just be stocked up on.”

Jaemin delicately inspected a few live herbs that were growing in small pots on a windowsill. “Jeno’s… weird about his shifting.”

“Weird how?”

“He doesn’t want anything that’ll make the process like, comfortable at all? For some reason.”

You looked back at him in disbelief. “Jeno? Lee Jeno? We’re talking about the same man who turns into the most pitiful oversized puppy I’ve ever seen when he gets an upset tummy? He wants to unnecessarily suffer once a month, every month?”

The dryad shrugged, “I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve tried to convince him to get some moonstone or at least let me make him a tonic to take beforehand, but I’m sure you know by now how stubborn he can get.”

“Yeah,” you sighed, chewing on your bottom lip. It seemed like your errand was going to be futile.

Sensing your shift in mood, your friend patted your shoulder reassuringly. “I think you’ll have much better luck, Y/N. If there’s one thing that he’s more stubborn about than anything else, it’s how much he loves you.”

“Thanks, Jaemin.”

That apothecary ended up being a bust for moonstone (though Jaemin did rescue a couple new plants that he deemed weren’t being taken of well enough), and you had to head off to the bakery right after that, no time to check out any others that were around.

“Hey, Minseok,” you gave your boss a rather unenthusiastic greeting as you wrapped your apron around you and washed up in the sink.

The sphinx was surprisingly in the back with his own apron on, and not in the office. Whoever was on shift in the kitchen that afternoon must have had to call out today. You just had to come in to prep the doughs and starters that needed to ferment overnight.

“Y/N, good evening,” he waved at you as he packed up a few empty trays. “How are you?”

“Ehh, fine.” You started taking down clean mixing bowls. “And no, I really don’t feel like expounding on that.”

Minseok held his hands up in an easy surrender. “That’s fair. But uh, I feel the need to ask… everything okay with you and Jeno?”

“What? Yeah, yeah,” you reassured him. “Don’t worry, tomorrow’s opening shift is safe.”

“That’s reassuring, but not really why I was asking.” He caught your eye knowingly. Of course, he really did just care.

You nodded, “Thanks, Minseok.”

“Anyway, I didn’t get to do any of my admin work today so—” He untied his apron and hung it on a hook. “Looks like it’s you and me for post-closing tonight.”

“What a party. Me shaping a bunch of loaves of bread and you making Excel spreadsheets.”

Sat on Jeno’s bed that night, you let your head fall forward as his warm hands worked at the muscles of your shoulders and neck.

“God, Y/N, did you not use proper kneading form or whatever bakers do?” He chastised you half-jokingly, thumb finding another knot by your shoulder blade. “How did you get this messed up after one short post-closing shift at the bakery? Did Mr. Minseok put you on a dough hook in one of the mixers or something?”

“That actually kind of sounds like it’d feel good at this point.” Your laugh turned into a groan as he had finally loosened up one area of tightness, then moved onto another.

“Seriously, maybe you should look into some orthopedic footwear or something.”

“My shoes were plenty sensible. I was just too tense today, that’s all.”

“Something on your mind?” Jeno continued massaging as you slowly rolled out your shoulders and neck.

“Yeah…”

“Is it whatever you’ve been scheming up with Renjun and Jaemin?”

You whipped your head around to look at him, wincing as you just undid pretty much everything Jeno had just fixed in your neck. “Ow…”

Your boyfriend sighed, gently turned your head back around, and brought his fingers to the sides of your neck. He gently massaged the pain away again as he kept talking. “I’ll let you keep scheming, baby, but if you want to tell me, I’m all ears. Especially if it’ll keep your occupational hazards to a minimum.”

Now mostly pain free once more, you slowly reached forward for your laptop that was at the foot of the bed, Jeno’s hands falling from your neck to your hips as you did so.

“I want to show you something, pup,” you declared, opening the computer up.

“Okay,” he agreed in a sing-song voice, scooting back to sit against multitude of pillows, bringing you with him.

As Jeno hooked his chin over your shoulder to watch what you were doing, you pulled up a new tab on your computer to do a quick search. You already knew the image that Renjun had showed you earlier was available online; you’d found it when you were explaining your idea to Jaemin at the apothecary. Jeno made a small bewildered ‘hm?’ noise as you typed in “werewolf human burial necklaces,” but ultimately stayed quiet as dozens of academic articles immediately popped up, along with the image of the two sets of remains beside each other, the pieces of the jewelry among them. You clicked on the picture to make it full screen.

“So these—” you pointed to the two skeletons “—are a mated pair from over a thousand years ago, a werewolf and a human. Their pack buried them together just like any other mates.”

“Aw,” Jeno kissed your cheek. “It’s us a thousand years ago.”

You smiled to yourself at that, reaching up to scratch his head approvingly before focusing back on the picture again.

“And they also had these necklaces, with matching moonstones.” You tapped the screen again to draw attention to the gems.

“That’s beautiful, Y/N.” He nuzzled his nose into the crook of your neck. “Thank you for showing me this. Really.”

“Jeno…” You twisted to be able to see his face. “Why don’t you have any moonstone?”

You felt him breathe in and back out against your skin, and let him take as long as he needed to gather his thoughts. After a few moments, he sat up straight again, a thoughtful look on his face.

“It’s... kind of hard to explain. But it always felt like, I don’t know, a crutch? Like, I shouldn’t need it?”

“What?” You couldn’t keep the confusion from your voice.

“Saying that out loud, I’m realizing how uh, dumb that is now,” he chuckled sheepishly. “I sort of thought that werewolves before me always went through their shifts without any stuff like that just fine, so why should I need it?”

“Jeno, you realize that sounds like if I said that humans two thousand years ago survived just fine before the discovery of penicillin, so I shouldn’t go to the doctor for antibiotics when I get sick? Right?”

“Y-Yeah...” He grimaced. “Besides, I was wrong about werewolves of the past not using moonstone, clearly.”

He gestured to the picture on your laptop screen, and let out another sigh. “I just wish I knew how we got from packs burying werewolf-human mates together with matching moonstone necklaces to... where we are now.”

“Oh, Renjun has a PowerPoint on it if you really want to know.”

“That’s what you two were doing today? For three hours?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll pass.” He wrinkled his nose. “I think I’ve got a much better teacher right here anyway.”

“This was the first three slides, you know? Bold of you to assume I retained anything else Renjun said after.”

Jeno’s eyes crinkled as he laughed. “That’s fair.”

“So...” You pushed the laptop forward again, then rested your hands over his that were wrapped around your waist. “Will you get some moonstone? I hate to think that you’re suffering every month when you don’t need to.”

“On one condition.”

“And what’s that?”

“We get a matching set.”

You nodded, a soft smile spreading across your face. “Okay. Yes.”

Jeno’s grin was blinding, but you only saw a glimpse of it before you were fully twisting around to throw your arms around his neck. He let you tackle him back into the pillows, pulling you down with him. You laughed as you landed on top of him, his arms holding you tight. You took this as your opportunity to pepper his face with kisses as he always did to you, across his cheeks, and nose, and forehead, until you had a sufficiently giggly werewolf beneath you.

“You were right,” he murmured, the bright grin not falling from his face, but morphing instead into a tender smile as he looked up at you, bringing one hand up to caress your cheek.

“I know I was,” you teased, turning your head to peck the palm of his hand, then turned it back to lean into his touch. “But I have no clue what you’re talking about specifically.”

“Love isn’t pain. It’s what stops the hurting.”

His words went right to your heart, and you could only bite down on your lip and nod so as to not burst into tears then and there. Jeno wrapped both his arms around you again, rolling the two of you onto your sides and tucking you under his chin. You pressed your face into his shirt, basking in how warm and secure and loved you felt and knew you were in that moment. And that Jeno knew he was too. The fact that he knew, he finally got it, and was letting you two put it into practice in your lives, too. Your life, together.

Oh, yep, you were crying. But they were happy tears, loving, loved tears. You were feeling with every fiber of your being.

You breathed in deeply, breathed Jeno in deeply. Being a werewolf, his sense of smell was sensitive, so he didn’t use heavily perfumed products, nor wore any colognes or perfumes himself. So you could just smell clean, fresh Jeno. And he, oh so cleverly, smelled like home, like safety, like love.

When you finally looked up at your boyfriend, he looked down at you so lovingly, you felt another round of tears welling up already. But you held them back just long enough to tenderly brush a stray piece of hair from his forehead, and whisper into the quiet of the night, “I love you, Lee Jeno.”

He pressed a long kiss to your forehead, then murmured back, “I love you too, Y/L/N Y/N.”

Unlocking the back door to Half Moon Bakery the next morning, you flicked the lights on and led the way in with a skip in your step. Jeno trailed in behind you still rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Yeah, he was never going to be a morning wolf, especially when he now insisted on accompanying you when you went in at 4 a.m. to do the pre-opening kitchen prep, instead of coming in for the front opening at 6 a.m. like he used to. You secured your apron around your waist, put on your music, washed your hands, and got to work.

While it was more tiring to have back-to-back post-closing and opening shifts, you tended to prefer being able to bake your own doughs and loaves that you prepared the night before rather than ones that someone else had done. Not that you were necessarily a perfectionist or elitest about it (okay maybe a little bit that), but it was always satisfying to see the end product of something that you had started. To work on something from start to finish.

You hadn’t kept track of time, nor even of where your boyfriend was, until Jeno popped his head into the kitchen—you admittedly hadn’t realized he’d left it—to announce, “T-minus ten minutes until opening.”

“Got it, thanks, baby,” you smiled up at him, hands preoccupied with dusting powdered sugar over some pastries.

When you came to a stopping point with that task, you went to pause your own music, and could finally hear Jeno’s floating in from the front. You took joy in the small delight of Jeno’s voice being carried back too as he conversed with customers, smiling to yourself when you could hear his voice pitch up if he got particularly excited about whatever they were talking about, or drop with confusion as he would ask a customer to repeat an order that either didn’t make sense or he didn’t hear.

As you carried out a tray of cream-filled croissants—matcha flavored and strawberry flavored—you kept your eyes focused on your destination, the display case of pastries up by the register. You knew that these were a popular item, and usually worked to refill them first. There were only two matcha ones and a strawberry left, so it looks like you brought out a fresh batch just in the nick of time.

“Ah, perfect timing, Y/N!” Jeno’s voice made you stop dead in your tracks as you were setting the fresh tray on top of the case and were about to grab the old one.

You stood up straight, looking over at him in alarm. Three young kids, a dryad boy, human boy, and phoenix girl were at the register, barely big enough to see over the counter, accompanied by who you guessed to be the phoenix’s father.

“Hello,” you nodded to them politely, then looked to Jeno for an explanation. “Is something wrong, Jeno?”

“Y/N here is our baker, she makes all the delicious treats you guys eat,” Jeno said to the kids. “Including those brownies you loved so much.”

The adult phoenix spoke up, addressing you, “They loved the limited-edition peanut butter brownies you all had in the summer. They come in and beg poor Jeno here for them almost every day. I’ve tried to explain what limited-edition means to them, but...” He trailed off, giving you a sheepish shrug.

“They were sooo good!” The phoenix exclaimed, clutching her stomach dramatically.

“Why did you take them away?” The dryad asked curiously, a slight pout on his face that matched that of the toad perched on his shoulder.

“Is it ‘cause nobody was eating them? ‘Cause we’ll come eat all of them!” The human gestured to the three kids.

You chuckled, “It makes me really happy that you guys liked them so much. Thank you.”

“I beg her to bring them back all the time too, guys. Never works...” Jeno sighed melodramatically, and you elbowed him in the side.

“I literally made you some last week,” you said to him under your breath through gritted teeth. “Spoiled…”

Your boyfriend simply smiled at you innocently, and you turned your focus back to the children.

“Since I know they were so popular, I will see what I can do, okay?” You told them.

They erupted into cheers, and you found yourself grinning too, feeling your heart warmed to see so much happiness just from your baking. You finished swapping out the trays of croissants as Jeno rang up their order, then you disappeared back into the safety and quiet of the kitchens.

Minseok, whose initial appearance a few hours ago let you know it was 8 a.m., left his office then, grabbing an apron hanging on one of the hooks along the wall.

“Filling in again?” You asked him curiously, taking a fresh pan of bread out of the oven. Must be 11:00 already.

“Johnny called in sick. Or, his roommate called in sick for him. Apparently he accidentally petrified the poor guy,” your boss sighed, washing up in the sink. “He was trying to tell me the petrification usually only lasts ten to thirty minutes so Johnny would be late, but I just told him Johnny could have the day off. Sounds like he’s going to need it.”

You winced sympathetically. Poor Johnny. Mark, Johnny’s roommate, was a friend of Jeno’s, so you were keenly aware of the basilisk’s struggles with his recently developed powers; and Johnny was a new part-time hire at Half Moon, so you had gotten to know the human and had heard from him some of the unfortunate happenstances the two roommates would find themselves in as well. Johnny was at least usually in good spirits about it and seemed to find them funny most of the time.

“Mark’s trying his best…” You tried to put up a lukewarm defense of your boyfriend’s friend.

“I’d appreciate it if he tried a little harder not to petrify my employees.”

You didn’t have a good comeback, and so with that, Minseok took a tray of half-moon dipped cookies that were ready to go into the front with him. Jeno popped back in just a couple minutes later with the empty tray, already snickering.

“It’s not funny,” you pointed at him, warning in your tone. You knew what he was laughing at, surely having asked Minseok why he was working up front today.

“It’s a little funny,” he argued.

“No it’s not.”

“Come on, I bet Johnny thinks it’s funny.”

“And I’m sure Mark is mortified and hates his life right now.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of Mark’s general state of existence,” Jeno pointed out, meandering around the kitchen towards you.

You turned around to face him as he came up behind you, crossing your arms over your chest. “Be nice, pup.”

“Mmm, I’ll consider it,” he teased, standing in front of you and crossing his arms to mimic you. “Why?”

“If you don’t, I won’t ask Minseok if we can bring back the limited-edition peanut butter cup brownie.”

Jeno narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t disappoint those little kids just to teach me a lesson.”

“And, I won’t give you the peanut butter cookie discard I saved you from earlier.”

You saw his face perk up at that. His eyes glanced around the kitchen countertops searching for it. “You saved me one?”

“Well not if you’re going to be mean. I’ll just give it to Mark, sounds like he needs a pick-me-up right now a lot more than you.”

“Okay fine it’s not funny! It’s so unfunny! I definitely didn’t dribble water all over myself when Mr. Minseok told me because I laughed and choked because it was so funny. Because it’s not funny! I promise!” Jeno pleaded with you, uncrossing his arms and grabbing your shoulders desperately. It was then that you could see that the front of his shirt and apron did in fact have wet marks on them.

You rolled your eyes as you reached out to touch the damp material. “Jeno, seriously?”

“That was before I learned that it wasn’t funny! I’m sorry!”

“Is this why you came back here? To get a new apron?” You surmised, already knowing the answer by the nervous little smile you got in response.

“And return the empty pan and see my beautiful girlfriend that I love so much,” he added, which admittedly, did make you smile fondly as you pulled him over towards the sink by his forearm.

You held out a hand expectantly. “Apron.”

He untied the garment and handed it to you, and you went to swap it for one of the spare ones. Hopefully it would be mostly dry by the time you two left so you could just take it with you and toss it in the laundry when you got home. Jeno had taken a couple paper towels to the worst patches of his shirt, but unfortunately, it was grey, so he was just going to have to look like someone who didn’t know how to drink water for as long as it took to dry.

“Here.” You handed him the fresh apron, accepting the used paper towels in return to toss out for him.

“Thank you.”

“Honestly, how did you survive this long without me, Lee Jeno?” You clicked your tongue in feigned disappointment as you watched him put his apron on, leaning against the counter with your hip.

“Says the girl with strawberry frosting on her face,” he shot back smugly.

“What? Where?” You squeaked, looking around for a napkin.

But Jeno was already grabbing a paper towel, and held it under the persistent drip of the faucet that Minseok couldn’t seem to keep fixed. He grabbed your chin, leaned in close, and gently wiped the damp napkin over a spot on your cheek.

“Right there,” he murmured.

You looked into his big, brown, heart-stopping eyes for just a second before surging forward to close the short distance between your mouths. He smiled into the kiss, the paper towel falling from your cheek as he then gave you one, two more short pecks before pulling back.

Jeno was still holding your chin and pinched it in between his fingers affectionately as he looked at you with his adorable eye smile. “Alright, unfortunately, if I’m back here any longer, Mr. Minseok will come looking for me.”

“I suppose I’ll let you get back to work, then,” you sighed facetiously, grabbing the hand that was on your face and giving it a squeeze before letting it go.

“Yeah, you’re too much of a distraction back here, you know.”

“Shut up and go work, Jeno.”

⤷ blog masterlist ⤷ anthology masterlist

#fluff #nct dream #jeno x reader #!!!!

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greenfuls-secret-chambers · 2 years ago

Text

Warnings : Minors DNI, shameless smut

Reader is of legal age

1800+ words

Our Little Secret

Tripping over your feet, you successfully made your way past the crowd to the door of the bar.

It was Friday night, being the last few weeks of your third year of college , you and all of your friends decided to go out for a drink. Next thing you knew, one drink led to two, and two some how led to four.

You pushed past the heavy door, finding yourself leaning up against the building fishing in your pockets for your pack of cigarettes. Finding the pack you took one out and put it to your lips. You took out your lighter, tried to light the end but no luck.

“Well fuck, isn’t that just peachy.” You groaned

You looked around, scanning the figures around you, looking for someone who might be able to save you from your predicament. To your left you saw a man blowing smoke out of his nose.

“Hey would you mind? I need a light.” You pointed to your cigarette.

He looked up at your with green eyes and smiled. “Sure, no problem. I’ve been there a couple of times myself.” He stood up and put his hand around your cig to light it.

Holy shit, was this man TALL. Not only was he built like a damn giant, he was hot as fuck.

You stared at him in the pale moonlight, taking in his light brown hair, his bright green eyes, but also a scar that ran across his face. What you wouldn’t give to be under this mystery of a man.

“You know, it’s not polite to stare.” He smirked, as if he knew what you were thinking.

“I’m sorry!” You blushed, “My name is Y/N, thank you for the light.” You smiled, trying to not make things awkward.

“Oh yes Y/N Y/LN, I know of you, I’m Professor Remus Lupin, I teach world history at UCL.”

Your brain short circuited.

Im standing here smoking in front of a professor. NO I’m standing here drunk, smoking in front of a professor.

Worried about your image you moved your arm down by your side trying to hide your cigarette. You couldn’t afford to lose your scholarships.

Seeing you become uncomfortable he spoke,

“No need to be bashful, I’m not going to scold you for smoking. That would be hypocritical of me to do so.” He brought his hand up to his mouth and took a drag.

“Plus we are off of school grounds, so it can be our little secret.” He smirked

There it was again, that smirk was making your knees weak.

You finished your cigarette and flicked it away

“Well professor, the night is still young, I’m going back in and to grab another drink.”

“Mind if I come and join you? It is the weekend and I could use one. Grading all these exams are going to be the death of me.”

Feeling a little brave, you smiled, “Sure, since you helped me out with the light, just put yours on my tab.”

“Well I never say no to a free drink”

With that you walked through the door making your way to the bar taking a seat, Lupin following behind you.

The bartended made his way over to you, “Need another jack and coke?”

“Yes please, and could you put his on my tab?” You looked at Lupin.

“Cinnamon whiskey on the rocks.” He requested.

Within a couple of minutes your drinks were sat in front of you.

Lupin turned to look at you “For someone as sociable as you, I know you couldn’t of come alone.”

Oh shit your friends, you had completely forgotten about them. You looked around the bar, but no dice. “Well I didn’t, I guess they have already left for the night.” You looked down at your phone confirming your suspicions.

*Hey, I hope you’re alright! We waited for you to come back to the table, but Maria started to get sick so we took her back to Uni. Be safe! I’ll see you back at the dorm later*

…

An hour had past, you were now on your 6th drink of the night and you were feeling it. The night was going very well. The both of you were chatting up a storm, everything from what was going on at university to even some hobbies you both shared.

“.. and you know what,” Lupin spoke in between sips, “Professor Snape needs to have the huge stick removed from his ass, he is so insufferable to work with.”

You almost spit out your drink from laughing and lightly slapped him on the arm, “Imagine being one of his students, I have never in my life had a professor who is such a hard ass for no reason, I think that man just needs to get laid.” You giggled.

Lupin looked down at your hand, still on his arm and bit his lip. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

He looked up at you, taking in the sight. He hadn’t noticed early but you truly breathtaking. His eyes began to look you up and down, noticing a couple of your buttons at the top of your shirt had come undone. You skirt had rode up just slightly, giving him a view of your upper thigh.

You but your lip and quipped “You know Professor, it’s not polite to stare.”

“Y/N, no need for formalities, please call me Remus.” He replied, trying to take away from you catching him staring.

You smiled, noticing you still had your hand on his arm, you squeezed it ever so gently. This caused him to shift a little in his chair.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for another smoke.” You said trying to break the tension.

“I think you’re right.” He smiled

You both made your way outside, it had gotten a little colder which caused you to shiver.

Seeing this he asked, “I’m freezing, would you want to smoke in my car?”

Taking the opportunity not to go into hypothermic shock, as well as be alone with him, you happily agreed.

You both made your way to his car, getting into the passenger you could smell chocolate and warm spices. It was a nice change from the mustiness of the bar.

You both took out a cigarette. He lit his, waiting for him to hand you the lighter never came. He leaned over and lit your cig with his. His face only inches away from yours. Between the booze and his action, your cheeks turned red.

You both smoked in silence, stealing small glances while the other one wasn’t looking.

A few minutes went and you had both finished your smokes, flicking them out the window.

You checked your phone seeing it was almost 2am. “Well it’s getting rather late, I need to get back to the dorms soon.” You sighed.

Your hand reached for the door, but before you could open it, Remus grabbed onto your arm and pulled you over to him. Leaving you both inches away from each other’s face.

Staying in that position for what seemed like eternity, you closed the gap putting your lips to his.

He kissed you back immediately, sliding his tongue along your bottom lip, begging to be let inside, you happy obliged and parted your lips slightly, allowing him access. You both fought for dominance, but in the end letting him win.

A few seconds later he moved his hand to the back of your head, grabbing a fistful of hair, pulling you away to look at him.

This caused you to whimper. Your cheeks where flushed, and your eyes where slightly closed.

“Such a pretty girl, I was just waiting to get my hands on you.” He looked you up and down, taking in the sight before him. You skirt had rode all the way up, giving him a view of your black lace panties.

Wanting more you moaned out, “Professor please ..” Starting to rub your thighs together.

He smirked “Professor? I do recall telling you to call me by my first name.” He brought his other hand to your thighs and pushed them apart.

Taking his finger and rubbing them up your clothed slit, he lowly chuckled feeling the wetness.

“Oh I see. This little slut has a thing for getting fucked by a Professor huh? That’s quite naughty isn’t it Y/N?”

You couldn’t take it, he was turning you into a moaning mess.

“Professor Lupin, please don’t tease me, I need more.” You gasped out, grinding down on his hand.

“Exactly what I would expect from a whore like you, don’t worry my love, I’ll give you more.”

He pulled your panties over to the side and pushed two long fingers into you, immediately curling them.

With his other hand, he let go of your hair, almost causing you to lose your balance, to unbutton his pants. He pulls them down just enough to free his cock.

Your eyes grew wide at the sight. He was definitely larger than average and so thick. You have no idea how it was going to fit inside you.

He brought his hand up to your mouth and commanded, “Spit.”

You did as you were told and watch him bring his hand down to his cock, starting to stroke at the same speed he was thrusting his fingers.

He started to speed up both hands then completely stoped.

“Come here, I want you to get in my lap.”

Without hesitating you climbed over the middle console.

He slid down in his seat to give you more access. He pulled your panties back over to the side and slowly pushed you down on his cock.

“Professor Lupin, you’re stretching me out.” You moaned, bitting your lip.

He grunted as he buried himself completely to the hilt. “Y/N, you have such a tight little pussy.”

Without warning he started to thrust upward into you. Both of his hands ripped open your shirt, sending buttons flying all over his car.

He pulled your breast out of your bra and leaned forward to take a nipple into his mouth.

His thrust started to become more rough causing you to grab on to his shoulders for more stability.

“Professor please, I want you to ruin my pussy, fuck me harder.” You cried out, begging.

He released your nipple from his mouth and grabbed the back of your neck pulling you close to him.

“If you keep squeezing around my cock like that, im going to make sure you won’t be able to walk for a week.”

And with that he sped up, thrusting into you at a speed you couldn’t even fathom , before you knew it your orgasm hit you like a train

“Fuck Remus, fill up my tight pussy.” You pleaded, riding out your orgasm.

With his name leaving your mouth he sped up.

“Y/N I’m so close my darling.” He groaned

Feeling you clench around him caused his movements to become uneven. With a final thrust he emptied inside of you, panting to catch his breath.

You both sat there, slumped in the driver seat. He brought his hand up to your cheek , taking his thumb ever so gently to rake across it.

#professor lupin x reader #smut #drinking #ciggerate #smoking #harry potter #remus x reader #remus lupin #mauraders #fanfic

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acreaturecalledgreed · 2 years ago

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ppl who have read through it say that the august few: amygdala is as pretentious as it is stupid as it is vibrantly creative

and like yeah lol

i havent read it yet but i could have told u this from listening to fennah talk for five minutes

this is the kind of guy who thinks that saying he takes no stance at all on the politics of his book means that its more intelligent than if he did

hes the sort of guy who i get the impression feels that having Strong Feelings About Anything means that you are wrong simply for having strong feelings (this is based on vibes from what hes said in vids etc; he has not to my knowledge outright said anything like this im not trying to slander anyone, this is just the impression he gives off)

but he is kind of a textbook example of why “kill your darlings” isnt bad advice, and why sometimes you need someone to say “idk man this doesnt read super great”

watched a livestream with him and the guy stumbles reading through passages of his own book, not b/c hes a bad reader but b/c he Really likes using as many words as he can to say anything

anyway fennah is one of those internet creators who makes me cock my head in both admiration for that devotion and bravery in really putting his stuff out there and boldly and proudly embracing how weird it is

but also in a wince, because it really, really is frustrating how much thought he seems to put into literally everything except what it is he’s wanting to say or share with the world, and what seems to be a massive aversion to researching aspects of culture, nature, economy, environment, even parody (as he describes the book as a hyper-parody of the animal kingdom, which i can see and it does have this really over the top extremity to it that i think is fun! but needs to be handled better)

he talks about how he likes his characters to not behave how they look like they Should behave- but then at the same time elaborates that he designs his gentler characters to outwardly show traits more in line with herbivores than carnivores, like his more intense and violent characters, which is both like, textbook visual queueing and also feeds into the whole “herbivore soft weak gentle carnivore big scary mean powerful” thing which is just. massively inaccurate

anyway the entirety of fennah’s works and their history absolutely fascinate me in this really detached way and i am rolling them over in my mind and inspecting them like a neat bug

i will read the book eventually and probably enjoy it if only b/c excessively wordy hyper detailed prose is genuinely fun for me to read, and i know its going to have me rolling my eyes A Lot

#the august few #fennah #i do not have any beef with fennah #i literally do not know enough about him as a person to have beef with him #i own the book b/c i am Genuinely delighted at such a weird and maximalist world getting a massive published book #from a guy who made his weird little live action/cgi science fantasy show on youtube #ghostboyfriend would describe it as me once again doing internet anthropology #which yeah it is #im fond of it as a strange artifact of internet #and completely unrestrained and unedited fantasy can be inspiring to me in a lot of ways even when its not very good #blah blah blah many thoughts and not the best at words to talk about them but yeah

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apilgrimpassingby · 2 years ago

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hello! i just wanted to say i am so pleased to find your blog😊your views on masculinity are so very refreshing, and i wish there were more blogs like you here.

so i wanted to ask you something!! sorry it’s a bit of a long-winded explanation, i am prone to overexplaining😭

i am sort of unofficially dating this guy—we still have to talk about it, but we do like each other a lot and are just taking it step by step. he’s very artistic, enjoys literature, he’s deep and introspective, and he’s very emotionally intelligent. one thing he has always talked about is how he loves examples of masculine men in fiction that aren’t necessarily athletic, like himself. he is gentle and kind, while still being protective and nurturing, and he takes good care of himself—but sometimes people will call him feminine or girly for his interests, or for actually taking care of his body/having a fashion sense (im pretty sure it is also because he learned to take care of himself this way a lot earlier than other guys in his class, so they were all just kinda like🤨)

i was wondering if you have any suggestions on how i can uplift him and help him feel secure in his masculinity. obviously it is not up to me to make him feel masculine, that’s not what i mean—i was just wondering if there is anything i can do, or avoid doing, to remind him that i don’t think of him as weak or what-have-you, since sometimes i know guys can start to feel that way if they aren’t necessarily athletic or if they don’t enjoy sports, because that is sort of the masculine stereotype—and i would imagine that society definitely makes you feel less masculine if you don’t fit into that.

it’s alright if there isn’t really anything to be said since this might be a bit of a weird question, but it’s something i think about a lot so i decided to just go ahead and ask. i would just hate to add to any of his anxieties or unintentionally cause him to question his masculinity, if that makes sense? i would like to support him in any way i can, whether subtly or directly.

thank you for taking the time to read this if you did, and no pressure to answer it, especially since i sort of just sprung this in your ask box. just know that your blog is appreciated and i am glad that you are here and sharing your thoughts. i hope you are well :)

Here are my attempts to help.

Point to historical/literary examples. Yes, I believe there is an essential "masculine function" that has been more-or-less constant across recorded history and human culture; but the Left is right to say that the form of it has historically been tremendously diverse. Taking care of appearance? The Spartans didn't just braid and oil their hair, their did so in public before their enemies as a show of masculine prowess. Literature? My ideal man, King David, wrote poetry (which the Bible has recorded for us). If you want more examples, message me and I'll happily provide them.

In terms of taking care of his body, it's a part of the relationship - you presumably want him to look good. Do you do it for your woman's happiness? That makes it a chivalrous - and, thus, manly - action.

More generally, step away from modern masculinity and towards historical exemplars. My chosen ones are David (as already said) and the chivalric code of high and late medieval Europe. Many people also look to the men of The Lord of the Rings who are, of course, rooted in the characters of early medieval English and Scandinavian literature.

As for not liking sport, that ties into the above points - a good masculinity is applicable to all men. It's about protecting your wife and children, providing for them, and leading them by word and example. That's what (in my humble opinion) real manliness is. For me, as a Christian (don't know if you're one) the essential masculinity passages are the example of David (1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 23) and Ephesians 5:25-30. Nothing about doing sport or eating steak.

Hope this helps! And don't worry about bothering me, I always like receiving asks in my inbox.

#traditionalism #traditional masculinity #flood my inbox #answered asks

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optimistpax · 3 years ago

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ooh I'm thinking of reading tf 2019 but idk if it's for me, could you share more of what you enjoyed about it? I'm curious!

Absolutely!! I'm always down to talk about comics!

Gonna throw my thoughts under the cut bc oops this got really long really fast... i have a lot of thoughts

TLDR: I like it bc it's easy to get into organization/access wise, it's soooo pretty to look at, has genres I personally enjoy and find fun, has a lot of characters I vibe with, and its themes are empathetic and hopeful which is nice to read about when life is tough

Organization

So the first thing that I think rocks about the 2019 comics is that they are actually organized in volumes that make sense from the get go. All the main story AND side stories are compiled in chronological order. This may not seem like anything significant, but I have major beef with serialized American comics about this so imo this is great skldjfg. Also!!! 5/6 of these volumes are on overdrive! So if they aren't already on your libraries library app (libby or hoopla), then the library can absolutely get you them if you ask! I'm certain that the 6th volume will be up there soon, it did come out relatively recently tho so it might be a month or two. It's also only 4 years/6 volumes long so it's not an overwhelming amount of content to read, which is nice :)

Art

Another thing I really love about the 2019 comics is the art!! They've got a couple artists that are series regulars, but 9 times out of 10 they knock it out of the park! Usually I'm bothered by a series jumping around different artists, but the regulars have similar enough art styles that with the colourists help, it's not that noticeable when they do switch around, which is really nice! I also Looooove the use of colour dots (i dont think they're screentones in this case? since they're quite big and used as a texture thing? idk im not a professional comic artist.) You can see some in my header! It's a double page spread from the first volume!! gorgeous stuff :)

Genre/Story

As for the story itself, I think it'll really depend what kind of genres you like reading. It starts on Cybertron before the war, which is fun to see since we get to learn a little about their culture, history, and geology. The genre starts off as a murder mystery and evolves into a political drama before finally dissolving into something more action-y. So it's not for everyone, but I personally had a fantastic time!

Characters

The 2019 comics have a MASSIVE cast of characters. There are so many characters that there's bound to be at least a FEW that you really enjoy! Lots of more obscure characters from the depths of tf lore that haven't really been developed in mainstream media (afaik) get some time to shine (Flamewar, Roadrage, Jumpstream, Javelin, Lightbright, and Subsea to name a few) and also introduces some new characters (Termagax, Codexa, Geomotus, Exarchon, Cryak, Rubble, Gauge, Lodestar) which imo were really fun to see! There's also a surprisingly large (relatively fleshed out) female cast which is refreshing to see in a franchise that originated as Reagan-era toy ads lmao.

I say relatively fleshed out bc the massive cast of characters is one of the series biggest strengths, but it's definitely also one of its biggest weaknesses. Since there are so many characters sharing limited panel time it's difficult for the series to explore them in depth bc there are just SO MANY. They're also using the toy designs where they exist (see: lots of same designs with different colours), so characters are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Esp if they don't show up often and you're not already overly familiar with transformers. Altho my comic book club of non-transformers fans managed to get through the first volume alright (or at least they said they did) so it can't be that unintelligible...

Themes

I really liked the themes in this series! Again, that's a personal preference that'll vary from person to person, but I had fun with this one. I'm not sure if it's the right word, but I think the narrative felt very empathetic(?). Characters were very rooted in their ties to other characters, their relationship with other characters. Something something we're better with the connection to and with the support of others. Some of my favourites character arcs in support of the theme of empathy in no particular order off the top of my head:

Cyclonus and his grief

Arcee and the lasting impact that the PREVIOUS war had on her and her relationships (esp with Greenlight and Gauge)

Gauge getting to CHOOSE her family not because she has to but because she wants to

Sad videogame dad Bumblebee

Geomotus and how he's autistic and taken seriously and respected and also his friendship with Landmine

Optimus being chosen for the matrix because he has the quality of HOPE

Javelin's PTSD

Shadowstriker trying and failing to keep Flamewar from being a gremlin and getting in trouble

Megatron being the pettiest man alive

Starscream's love for Cybertron?? ???

Wheeljack being SO supportive of his mentee Gears

I would apologize for the essay but you DID ask ahaha! Anyways, I definitely think the 2019 comics are at least worth looking into if you're a transformers fan and are looking for some comics to read. I had a blast reading them :)

#if youre not sure whether you wanna get into it check it out from the library (digital or hard copy)!#costs you nothing and supports your library and if you dont like it then you can give it back with zero repercussions :)#ask #if anyone else wants to share what they liked about idw2 u should also share!#love hearing about ppl having fun

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a-libra-writes · 3 years ago

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Hello! ✌️I wanted to let you know that everyday before going to bed I check to see how my fellow Libra is doing, and that you made me fall in love with Stannis (another one falls victim to his awkward mannerisms and hot sense of justice 😔👊) and Ned (... actually they're pretty similar on these fronts, maybe you made me discover a new favourite type??), but also Tywin (the complexity of this terrible cold man, istg) and Roose ( *chuckles* I'm in danger) You're officially the kind of writer that make me wants to read everything of theirs, even if I'm not in the fandom, so: thank you for your service!

I've never asked any request in my life, but your soulmates au live rent free in my mind and so, if you feel like it, I'd like you to expand on an idea...? I don't have much, but this: soulmate au with Tywin, post Joanna (set in whichever time period you think best, so if just few years after her death, or with Tyrion already grown up) and he discovers that this lady from a minor house (that isn't exactly in good relations with the Lannisters) is his soulmate. And I mean, he knew that Joanna wasn't, but honestly he could never expect to have a similar connection with somebody else but her, so he always ignored that, hoping neither of them would ever meet their "true" half. I expect he would almost resent this, especially if he found in her something that made him admit she is a good match, but would he give up such a thing, anyway? Depending on the soulmate au you choose it might even not be his choice: if everyone see their connection and there is a certain expectation, nevermind if now she's a possible weakness to get to him through the bond they share.

As I've said it's just an idea. Obv ignore if it doesn't tell you anything/there's something you don't like/you don't want to! Thank you for your attention, and once again I must tell you how lovely is your writing, how adorable are your fluffy pets and how dear you are! Coming to this blog feels everytime like coming home ☺️

Sorry if I did any mistakes, English is clearly not my first language and since now that I found my courage it's likely I'll write to you again (if you don't mind ofc), so to distinguish me I can be your Milkyway anon🥛🛤️ (I'm sorry I had to! 😔😌) I actually have no preference: call me as you wish, I'll know which name to take lmao

Have a good day/night!!

first thank you for all the kind words!!! Im always pleased when I drag others into my Stannis hell >:)

So this is a very interesting concept! I did a lot of chewing on it and I have Some Thoughts

So starting from the top, Joanna and Tywin knew they weren't soulmates. They didn't care; they were close from a young age (childhood friends, imo) and they knew their duties and place. Stories and poems of soulmates uniting and having a Happily Ever After were just as common as tragedies where soulmates determined to be together started wars and destroyed entire Houses. The history of Westeros is already bloody and fraught with war. So, like many Highborn lords and ladies, they were expected to ignore it. And anyway, the ability to actually meet your soulmate is difficult in a society where there's no internet, instant messaging, etc.

(Now obviously all this depends on what sort of soulmate AU you're imagining, bc there's so many and they're generally not AUs I'm invested in anyway, but I digress)

Besides, Joanna and Tywin were very in love. For Tywin, cynical as he was, he believed all the talk and absurdity about soulmates obviously wasn't true. Or at least, people placed too much importance on it. For Joanna, she was content. She was in love and happily married and loved her two children. Who was she to go looking for some stranger, whom she didn't even know the identity or age or status of? The two of them were so in sync, they probably didn't even talk about it. They just silently had the same thought - who cares?

Again, depending on what soulmate AU you believe in - like, some say you know when the soulmate dies - the fact nothing happened when Joanna died felt cruel. Tywin still had a mark, or perhaps thoughts, or couldn't see color - again again, theres so many - and somehow... it's like the gods were telling him that she didn't matter. There's no grand change, because she wasn't "The One." He already dismissed the gods before. After Joanna's death and Tyrion's birth, he truly resented them.

Tywin is so used to purposefully ignoring the soulmate business, pushing it aside, that it becomes second nature. Many believed Joanna was his soulmate, though neither of them confirmed or denied that rumor. Perhaps even his children believed it. He never speaks of it, anyway. And if this is an AU where there's a specific mark, naturally he would hide it. It would become like an ugly scar, an imperfection he doesn't look at and ignores.

(More interestingly - if this is a lady who appeared to him when he was much older and she was younger, a soulmate mark/"tell" might appear in the middle of his marriage to Joanna. There was something annoying about his soulmate being some child and later some woman who would be half his age. Joanna actually found it amusing).

Moving on. A situation where he comes into contact with a Lady and she's "the one" - the one all those damned poems and songs are written about - it might actually silence him. Perhaps she doesn't even speak to him. He just knows when she walks into the room. And perhaps, there's that realization that she might have known before him.

(Imagine, depending on your favored soulmate AU, some poor woman finding out Tywin fucking Lannister is destined to her. What's worse; that it's while he's married? Or after Robert's Rebellion? If she's of a minor house, or a Great one? Hiding it from siblings or parents who hate him? What if she's married at the time?! Wild.)

She might actually believe there's a mistake. She's going insane. It must be someone else. Can these things be wrong? A lot will depend on her personal feelings about the soulmate business. Does she pursue him anyway, to see what happens? Does she stay the hell away, thinking it's "too late" for them?

Tywin would go from uncharacteristic shock, to quickly recovering, to full-blown denial. Obviously he was mistaken. Depending on your AU, this may be more difficult to ignore. But by god, he'll try. He's too prideful to even consider approaching her, unless there's a reason. And then he'll speak to her like any other person, determined to not express anything, to act as he always does. Even when they both know the truth.

It would be a long, painfully circular song-and-dance that would only progress under specific circumstances, like an arranged marriage. And even then. He's so damn prideful, not wanting to admit to himself when he begins appreciating or desiring aspects about her. He's so prideful! It's infuriating. And he hates being distracted from work and politics for things like feelings, even if he and Joanna were constantly involved in politics as a team.

It's a Whole-Ass Thing. As yall should expect from this awful man. And lord, if word got out to his family or any of Westeros about it ... madness.

#this is REALLY interesting and dependent on a lot of stuff so sorry if i meandered or wasnt specific lol #soulmate AUs arent rlly my jam but i like to think about consequences it would have on the world or characters #because yall know me :P #🥛🛤️ anon #can i just say that is an incredibly cute anon tag....#tywin lannister x reader #libra headcanons

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shivada-jade · 4 years ago

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soulmates!

soulmate!au because im weak. you're weak too.

characters: bennett, zhongli, diluc ➡ mentions: barbara, lisa, guizhong, hu tao, kaeya, crepus warning(s): bennett luck (he gets hurt a lot), wrote this at 2:48am so my writing may or may not make sense

bennett: feels the same emotions from the other, but the emotions have to be strong and genuine

he never understood your sudden bursts of sadness. it would come at the most inconvenient at times.

for as long as he could remember, the emotions that weren't his are mostly sad. he asked his dads about it and gently told him his soulmate system is feeling emotions from the other.

after crying from an unknown pain, he made it his soul purpose to constantly be happy all the time, no matter how unlucky he could be so you can be happy too.

his dads worry when he falls down and scrapes his knee, but he would always reply with, "i'm not hurt! my soulmate is hurt!"

he would then clutch the fabric on his chest tightly, like he's been stabbed with a sword and say, "my soulmate hurts right here."

he heaves a breath, "it doesn't compare to whatever luck i get."

"this pain is bearable," he convinces himself when he comes out a hilichurl camp in cuts and bruises.

"your soulmate needs you to be happy for them," he chastises himself for shedding a tear when another adventurer wronged him.

he visits barbara to heal his wounds and asks how she always looks so... happy, so smiley.

"all it takes is one smile to make yourself happy. it can be a slow process but it works!" she singsongs, "miss lisa showed me a study about it."

ever since barbara explained, he smiles the brightest of smiles in mondstadt. he refuses to let other adventurers let him down, worried he might hurt you more than it is.

soon, he finds out that he feels no sadness coming from you. he feels no weight on his shoulders. he feels happy after Good hunter ran out of food for him.

these are not my emotions, he thinks, a wide grin creeping it's way to his face.

he lets out the loudest laugh, giggles, and various joyous noises. he's never felt so happy in his life. for once, he feels lucky, because for once, you're finally happy in the other end of his invisible red string of fate.

his luck skyrockets when he sees a person around his age, with a gorgeous smile adorning their features. he knows its you, sitting by the fountain making wishes. he knows it's you when he sees your eyes that hold so much emotion.

it was as if his heart was tugging him to where you sat.

he's never felt so lucky to have you as his soulmate.

"thank you giving the best smiles"

zhongli: every time he passes his soulmate, he hears the sounds of bells ringing

now, zhongli never thought he would have a soulmate because of his past title of 'archon.' soulmate systems are a tricky thing. he knows there are so many ways to know your soulmate system.

the common system was their first words tattooed on themselves. many others had the ability to know when they meet them, in other words, a count down.

but zhongli never had those two, nor did he have faith in the soulmate system until the lantern rite festival.

walking by the busy streets, he muses to himself how pretty liyue is under the blanket of the moon and stars. he hears the merchants call to customers, attracting and waving at them to buy their products. he hears the clink of the mora in their bag is loud; the laughter from the children young and old marry a soft smile to his face.

he freezes, hearing something that should not belong in the lantern rite. the sound of bells ringing. it isn't any cow bell, or school bell. it's the sound of echoing, melodious wedding bells ringing his ear.

he vaguely remembers his friend guizhong mentioning about this rare particular soulmate system when she still roamed teyvat.

a soulmate!

zhongli stands straighter, eyes grazing on the sea of people, trying to see if anyone stopped to hear the bells he heard. he mutters a few apologies when people bump into him with lanterns in their hands, but that doesn't matter to him.

fate brought someone for him to love. it's just that... he doesn't know where.

he walks forward, he walks backwards to where he came from. he walks to the docks then to the top of liyue harbour, but he can't hear the sound of the bells again.

he doesn't panic. he doesn't rush, because he knows fate will bring you back together. he just doesn't know how long until he'll hear the bells again.

it came to him a surprise when he hears the bells everyday after that.

everyday when he sits at third-round knockout he hears the sound of bells behind him, but when he turns, he knows you've left already.

he sighs, blowing on his tea before taking light sips. it seems he won't be meeting you today.

one day, the ringing just stops. there's no sign of you, or your presence. zhongli assumes you're just taking a sick day, or you've decided to rest, but after a week of not hearing the bells, he worries.

archons, how he wanted to look for you, but he doesn't even know who you are. hu tao encourages zhongli to take the day off and look for you, so he did.

walking aimlessly in liyue, doubt crosses his mind. what if you were here for a business trip and left? it wasnt until he passes by a stunning figure he hears the bells again. he stiffens and turns to you when you stopped next to him.

"thank goodness," he says, slightly covering his smile with a gloved hand.

your eyes sparkle as you look at him, "thank goodness indeed."

diluc: lost possesions will come to your soulmate

for as long diluc knows, strange things always end up in his possessions: hairclips, pens, coins, and archons forbid- his soulmate's overdue bills.

his father laughs when younger diluc comes home dragging a wagon and the biggest teddy bear in history, because how on teyvat does someone lose a teddy bear taller than a door. crepus watches his son struggling to drag the big toy home and sees his other son pushing the wagon from behind, also struggling.

"what do you have there?"

all the response he gets are grunts. the side of his eyes crinkle with mirth, seeing his two sons having trouble bringing it home.

"father!" diluc calls out with a grin missing two of his front teeth, "i don't know where it came from. it's like it appeared from the sky."

"it actually did fall out of the sky!" kaeya says, "we were at the vineyard and i saw diluc get crushed!"

"i did not get crushed."

"did too," kaeya retaliates, sticking his tongue out.

that was the first time diluc heard of this certain soulmate system. lost things from his soulmate go to his possession; lost things from diluc go to his soulmate's possession.

crepus glances at his boys and gets an idea. he calls for them to follow him, and they do, obediently. he leads them to his room, pulling out a treasure chest full of frilly clothes, dresses, outfits that range from a farmer's outfit to a noblewoman.

"this chest is where your mother kept her favourite things," crepus pulls out a necklace from the bottom of the case. "this necklace was particularly her favourite."

diluc can see why. he's mesmerized by the ruby sparkle it hangs. the gold chain complimenting the red jewel and making it complete.

crepus clutches the necklace, looking at it longingly before placing it back in the chest. he places out all the old clothes from the container and lays it on his bed.

"you can keep your soulmate's things here like i once did. your pops is getting too old anyway, i-"

kaeya interrupts crepus jumps on the clothes that are on the bed, creating a havoc in the room. he jumps on the bed with so much energy even after diluc tells him about the story of the 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed.

though, crepus is having none of that. he picks up diluc by his small arms and flings him to kaeya, looking like a bowling ball knocking down a pin. the two boys gasp for air, shooting dirty looks at their father before they chase him out of the house.

the corner of diluc's mouth twitch up ever so slightly, remembering when he first knew of his soulmate. it would take a very observant person to notice his smile. he polishes the glass behind angel's share's counter. under the filtered sunlight, the glass glints. satisfied with the cleanliness.

the chest his father game him was fill of trinkets his soulmate had lost over the years, and good grief. his soulmate must be the most disorganized person ever. he remembers walking to dawn winery and a sack of mora drop on his feet. it wasn't a pleasant feeling, but the thing that has diluc worried is how his soulmate tends to lose the biggest things like a 7-foot-tall teddy bear.

diluc is about to place the wine glass on a cupboard until SMACK.

a thick paper hits his face from seemingly nowhere and so he knows that is his soulmate losing the tenth thing for the day. he has a room dedicated for the things his soulmate has lost, and he thinks he might need a second room.

he pulls the paper off his face and his eyes widen in shock. this two-inch thick paper are legal documents. loan agreements. overdue loan agreements.

[Name] [Last Name]

he notes the name in his head. [Name] owes the fatui 35 thousand mora as interest. what kind of reckless person- then it hits his mind. that sack of mora that fell from the sky was that 35 thousand to pay off the loans.

he knows where to go. he leaves the wineglass on the counter for charles to pick up and hastily grabs his coat and leaves the door.

"liyue, liyue, liyue, and the fatui." he chants in his head. loans. he greets his maid before ascending to his room. he snatches the mora that dropped on his feet and sprints out the door to retrieve his stallion.

a few hours at most to make it to where his fated partner was at, and so he sets off.

arriving at liyue is strange, seeing diluc's attire did not match the city, and seeing his hands are holding the reins of his horse tightly. a strange traveler from a foreign land... with a majestic stallion. he looks like a prince straight out of a fairytale.

he lightly pats his horse, urging to go a bit faster from the trotting they were doing until he meets the gaze of a distressed person in front of the fatui.

"i swear! i had the money and the papers just today!"

diluc scoffs, knowing who they were now, and they did not have the money today. they lost it a week ago.

"listen," the masked fatui grumbles. "im just here to do my job. if i don't have the money in my hands right now i'll-"

diluc jumps off the saddle and unloads the sack of mora from the side, dropping it on the fatui's hand with a seething glare, yet still polite.

"i believe they owe you 35 thousand? sounds about right, no?" he says, letting his diplomatic side show a bit. "for the sake of it, why not amuse me and take this, david. hmm?"

the fatui goes rigid, hearing his name. he slowly lifts his eyes up, "master diluc." he curtly nods and skittishly walks away. one time david spilled drinks at a mondstadt political gathering. he spilled it on diluc.

the ragnvindr waits for the fatui to walk away before turning to his, supposedly love of his life.

"you're the one who lost a 7-foot-tall teddy bear when i was six," he points out, waiting for your response.

his soulmate sheepishly smiles, "well- i would have a good defense but hey, did you at least enjoy having a 7-feet-tall teddy bear fall on you?"

"i did, along with a glass mug falling on me as well."

"i just cant believe how you never lose your stuff!" they retort, "the only thing i got was a missing tooth from you."

the tip of diluc's ears turn the same colour as his hair, but still wears a stoic expression. "i'm diluc ragnvindr," he greets, slightly bowing his head.

"and i'm yours"

part 2: with ganyu, kaeya and thoma

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact x reader #genshin headcanons #bennett #zhongli #diluc #diluc x reader #zhongli x reader #bennett x reader #diluc ragnvindr

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