#who want to be with a crypto guy anyway

[therealdistortion]

If Colin’s former partners won’t stay with him I WILL

[wcnderlnds]

fxxk it | choi su-bong (thanos)

・❥・ summary: thanos is your ex and when he sees you linking up with the guy that scammed him out of his money, he's furious. ・❥・word count: 1.5k ・❥・warnings: mentions of death bc squid game, fighting, blood, jealous thanos, female reader ・❥・ authors note: making it my mission to name every fic after a bigbang song now.

The air was thick with tension as winning team by winning team slowly rolled into the main holding area. Frustrated groans echoing off the walls from some of the players at how many people had survived. Everyone was fighting for that money and the more people that survived, the more the money had to be shared. Praying on each other's downfall wasn’t the most fun situation to be in but in this place it was necessary. You did what you had to do to survive even if it went against every human moral in existence. It was do or die in this place. If you weren’t strong willed (and strong-stomached) then it was game over. 

The blood in your veins was pumping fast, adrenaline coursing through you at the fact you had survived yet another game. It was all thanks to your team. Myung-gi had very kindly let you join his team. If you were honest with yourself, you had wanted to team with him anyway but your ex boyfriend - who just so happened to be in the games, too - had tried to recruit you for his team. Sensing how uncomfortable you were, Myung-gi had come to the rescue, gently grabbing you by the elbow and pulling you away. To say your ex was furious was an understatement. But, you didn’t care. Definitely didn’t care one bit. Nope.

That wasn’t to say that you didn’t keep an eye on him, often finding yourself seeking him out. It was just a precaution to make sure he stayed away from you. The breakup hadn’t been smooth sailing — a lot of hurtful words and unspoken truths finally coming to light. It had been almost two years since you’d seen him. All the lingering feelings you had deep down were threatening to surface again but no. You liked Myung-gi — he was kind and different from Su-bong. Different is what you needed.

“Hey, you okay?” Myung-gi gently elbowed you to get your attention. “I know the games are rough but I’m here if you need to talk.”

You smiled. “Thank you. Not just for that but for saving me from Thanos. He and I.. we have a history.”

“Yeah, I kind of picked up on that with the face you were pulling when he approached you. He’s an asshole. He’s still blaming me that he lost all his money.”

“Sorry. He’s just very… difficult.”

It wasn’t long after when the voting took place. You wanted out so you’d voted to leave along with Myung-gi who had taken to staying close by your side. The thought alone that someone was protecting you made you smile. A sweet guy that was easy on the eyes? There’d be no complaints from you. Thanos had voted to stay which was no surprise. He was more eager than most to get that money. From what you’d read in the media, he had lost all the money he’d made rapping after he’d invested it in Myung-gi’s crypto – every single penny. His life had apparently gone downhill from there. There had almost been a moment of weakness on your end where you reached out to him but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Now, as you stood in line to grab your food, you could hear his familiar voice behind you. 

“You know I’ve seen you with him,” his deep voice was right against your ear, you could feel his chest almost pressing against your back. “Of all the fuckin’ people in here, you pick him. Thought you had better taste than that, Senorita.”

You had to take a deep calming breath. Something about having him so close after so long was sending a shiver up your spine, all your senses going into overdrive as you remembered the way he used to made you feel. “Yeah, he’s nice and he actually seems to give a damn about me.”

“I…yeah, well…” Thanos shrugged like he didn’t care but you could tell by the clench of his jaw and the slight reddening of his cheeks that he was furious.

“You look like you’re about to explode there, Su-bong. Don’t go poppin’ a vein now,” you teased, turning around to face him.

“Maybe stop talking about the guy who fucking scammed me like he’s an angel on earth. He’s an even shittier person than I am. The sooner you see that, the better but you go carry on with your sweet little angel boy,” Thanos rolled his eyes, stepping in front of you to grab his food. You watched as he stalked off. A small frown appeared on your face before you shook it off. No way you were going to feel bad. That’s exactly what he wanted.

‘Whatever’, you thought as you grabbed your own food and sat back down with Myung-gi. He was stuffing his face with his food, cross legged on his bunk. A word wasn’t said between you but you could see him occasionally glancing at you, the corners of his lips unturned in a small smile. The attention was nice – it had been a while since someone had looked at you like that. After your relationship with Su-bong, you had remained single hoping to finally find peace with yourself first before you jumped into another relationship. Maybe now it was time to officially move on. Myung-gi seemed to like you and there was a part of you that liked him. If you both survived, maybe this could be the start of something good.

Good thoughts never seemed to last in your world because as soon as the idea of dating someone else popped into your head, Thanos made his way over. It was like he had some kind of sixth sense. This time, he didn’t approach you but Myung-gi instead. Oh no, this was sure to be trouble. 

“First you scam me out of my money and then you want to steal my girl away?” Thanos seethed.

“Last I heard she wasn’t your girl,” Myung-gi quipped. He didn’t even bother looking up which seemed to infuriate your ex more.

“You don’t know shit about us so shut your mouth and stay away from her. She has better taste than a puny, little, fraudulent fuck like you.”

That seemed to trigger something in Myung-gi and before you could even react, he had jumped up and pushed Thanos to the ground. The two men threw punches at each other, yelling obscenities. It wasn’t the first time they had fought. It was becoming an almost daily occurrence at this point. Thanos seemed to have the upper hand, his hands wrapped around Myung-gi’s neck trying to choke the life out of him but Myung-gi kneed him in between the legs. He rolled them around, sitting on top of Thanos as he threw punch after punch into his face.

“Stop!” You cried out but nobody listened. It wasn’t until Gi-hun and Young-il stepped in to stop it. Thanos had blood pouring from his nose, his hand trying to staunch the flow. Myung-gi held his cheek, both of them panting heavily. Your eyes flitted between the two men before you made a decision you knew you’d probably regret.

“Come on,” you said, taking Thanos’ hand and dragging him off towards the bathroom. Myung-gi looked offended but you didn’t care. Your heart had told you Thanos needed you more and, as reckless as it was, you always trusted it.

He sat down on the counter as you dabbed the blood away from his face with some paper towels. Not a word was said between the two of you, only Thanos wincing when you dabbed a particularly sore spot on his face. His poor beautiful face that was now littered in bruises. Once everything was wiped up, you gently examined him. 

“Your nose might be broken but… other than that you’re probably going to have a few brusines,” your fingers softly ran across his cheek causing him to sigh deeply, leaning into your touch.

“You chose me…”

“Yeah.”

“Why? Thought you hated me,” he met your eyes, his hand coming up to take yours from his cheek and hold it in his. “Aren’t I an ‘obnoxious, loud, annoying purple haired moron’ or whatever I heard you call me the other day.”

You blushed. “I mean… yeah you are but… you’re you and there’s always going to be a part of me that loves you regardless of how obnoxious and a pain in the ass you are. I just wish you weren’t so reckless.”

“Sorry, babygirl. Gotta take me or leave me as I am. Can’t change. Won’t change,” he pulled you in a little closer, his lips hovering inches from yours. “So, what’ll it be?”

You were going to regret this, you knew you were but the heart wants what it wants and in that moment it was telling you that was him. The most reckless person you knew but there was something about him that always seemed to pull you back in. Without hesitation, you closed the distance, pressing your lips against his.

“We have a lot to talk about,” you mumbled against his lips.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said as he wrapped his arms around you with no intentions of ever letting you go.

taglist: @ldydeath @angelofbooksworld @taivantaylor @sherlocke3d @djarindroid @justsisse @sassyyoyo @mysatnin @basquiat-top @urmomsg1rlfreind @belladonna-303

[myclovernew]

hate you, love you [lee myung-gi]

⟢ pairing: myung-gi x fem!reader (basically replacing junhee as player 222 sorry jo yuri my queen)

⟢ fluff but a little steamy near the end...

⟢ word count: 4k

⟢ a/n: hai everyone this is my first ever fic here on tumblr and i haven't written anything in over four years so i apologize if the writing is terrible LOL squid game and myung-gi brainrot had me down BAD

the annoyingly cheerful music blaring at what felt like 7 in the morning woke me up. the last thing i could remember before falling asleep was getting into a white semi-van driven by a man in a red hoodie whose face i couldn't quite make out. so where in the hell was i now?

blinking a couple times before rubbing one eye, i slowly slid up to the point where i could feel the cold, metal backboard of the bed i was in through the thin polyester jacket i had on. that's when i realized i was in a completely different outfit than the one i had on the night before. looking around, i noticed others slowly waking, everyone in the same outfit as mine with only a slight difference. we were all numbered, and my number was 222.

a guy who was in the bed directly in front of mine started waking up at that moment, mumbling something incoherent to himself and then letting out a huge sigh. the number on the back of his jacket was 333. only when he turned slightly to his left is when i realized; i'd recognize that side profile anywhere.

"lee my-" before i could even finish calling out his name, the speaker sent out feedback indicating the start of something unknown. everyone was awake at this point, walking towards the center pool of people.

that's when an alarm went off, and an automatic door let in a group of eerily mysterious people dressed in pink jumpsuits, their faces covered by black masks with either squares or circles painted on them in white.

"i would like to extend a hearty welcome to all of you," one of the square guards started. i was watching from the foot of my bed, trying to scan the crowd to navigate that piece of shit. i can't believe that asshole is here too, i thought to myself while half paying attention to whatever the square guy is saying.

"everyone here will participate in six different games over six days." games? what are we in, grade school? "those who win all six games will receive a handsome cash prize."

now that's what i wanted to hear. when that salesman looking guy approached me a week ago, he had me play a game of ddakji, which i was a natural at. so of course i beat him on the first round. he gave me 100,000 won as a prize and a rustic brown business card with only a number on the back. i debated on calling the ominous number for days on end, but the final straw was having all 58 of my calls to that asshole myung-gi ignored. he had "borrowed" 500,000 won from me to kickstart a stock he was investing in and just never paid me back. a couple of weeks after was when i found out his dumbass had led a bunch of his stream viewers to invest in the wrong coin, causing a lot of not-so-happy, middle aged men struggling to make ends meet to go after him.

anyway, i was determined to make him pay.

a couple of people from the huge crowd started yelling out remarks, demanding for answers.

"what happened to my clothes?" "did you kidnap us?" "why are you wearing a mask?" "show your face!"

then one person started asking for their phone, insisting that they had to check the crypto market.

"player 333, lee myung-gi," the square guard had declared. my head immediately snapped up, eyes glued to the screen that had just turned on. a video of myung-gi started playing and it was him being embarrassingly bad at the same game of ddakji i had played with the salesman. i couldn't help but laugh to myself as hundreds of people watched him get slapped, how humiliating.

"current debt levels, 1.8 billion won." oh you had to be joking.

that made the measly 500,000 won he owed me look like nothing. no wonder he was ignoring my calls, the loser had absolutely no means of paying me back, let alone getting rid of his own debt.

i lost sight of myung-gi when the guards had us line up and sign what looked like a consent form to play the games. it seemed a bit excessive, but i guess they had to keep it all professional. we then had our photos taken before being led up multiple flights of pink, maze-like stairs.

all at once, three giant doors opened up to a large, sand-filled area. the guards instructed us to go in and stand behind the red line drawn on the ground. at the very end of the field was an enlarged cartoonish doll. what could we possibly be doing here?

i looked around for myung-gi again, hoping to catch him by surprise when he saw my face afters months of ignoring me.

"the first game is red light, green light," a woman's voice iterated through the speakers. red light, green light? i hadn't played that since i was a kid. "cross the finish line before the five minutes are up. if you do, you pass."

this honestly felt like a joke. why were we getting paid to play children's games?

"everyone!" i squinted my eyes to see a middle-aged man, his number being 456, run to the middle of the crowd. "everyone, pay attention!" he was waving his arms like a mad man to try and get everyone to listen to him.

"this is not just a game!" what?

"if you lose, you die!" there's no way that was true. did he mean get eliminated? they wouldn't really kill us, would they? i looked around to watch everyone else's expressions. some started visibly shaking, others shaking their heads in pure disbelief.

at that moment, the robotic doll turned around and put her hand up to her eyes.

"let the game begin."

the first "red light, green light" was said and everyone began to move. as soon as the doll stopped to look around, i stayed as still as possible. the man from earlier was still yelling at everyone to freeze, and something in me started to believe in what he was saying about the game. as i froze in place, i scanned the people around me. 239, 009, 176, 028, and 333. found you.

the next "red light, green light" played and i ran towards myung-gi. he might've been a crypto bro who practically lived at the pc cafe, but damn he was a fast runner. the next couple of "red light, green light's" went off and i was just about a feet behind him now. that's when a loud "bang" echoed throughout the hall. a gun shot. more gun shots sounded, followed by ear-piercing screams. stay still, stay still, i thought to myself.

then it went silent. everyone who was still alive was frozen in their places, not even moving when the doll said "red light, green light." my eyes focused on myung-gi. he was breathing so heavily i could hear him.

"red light, green light." the man from earlier, player 456, was the only one to move as he ran past all of us. "red light, green light." he moved a bit further, with his back facing us.

"the doll detects motion," he yelled out as he had one hand behind his back, moving it around to prove what he was saying was true. so as long as the doll couldn't physically see me moving, i would be fine.

"we're running out of time. we have to move!" shit.

"red light, green light." everyone moved then, finding someone bigger than them to hide behind. i was still behind myung-gi, who i admit was shorter than most guys here, but then again so was i. we were almost by the finish line, with a little less than a minute left.

"red light, green light." we moved again in a synced matter. but just as the doll was about to turn her head, myung-gi tripped on someone's foot. he's going to die, i thought. without thinking, i put out my arm, and grasped onto the back of his jacket.

"don't. move," i whisper-yelled, my teeth gritting against each other. myung-gi didn't make a sound.

"red light, green light," i let go and he regained his balance, the two of us crossing the finish line. i bent over, my hands resting on my knees as i tried to breathe normally again.

"y/n?" myung-gi questioned. i looked back up to him, scanning his face. as much as he was confused as to why i was here, he also looked relieved to see a familiar face.

"aren't you going to thank me?" i retorted. i did just save his life.

"oh, yeah," he said, his hand reaching the back of his head, "thank you. seriously." i sighed and gave him a slight nod. frankly, i was too exhausted and too desperate to get out of this place to even demand for my money back from him right now. he opened his mouth again, like he had something to say, but got quickly distracted by the ceiling of the arena slowly closing in. the game was over.

the guards had us all walk back into the room we woke up in. it was eerily quiet; people were scared for their lives. i just wanted to go home. i didn't even care about the money anymore. why would any of this even matter if i didn't make it out alive?

everyone made it back inside as the guards followed behind the last couple of players, stopping in front of the door they first walked out of. some of the players ran down to the middle of the floor and started kneeling to the ground, rubbing their hands profusely, begging to be saved.

"we are not trying to hurt you. we are only presenting you with an opportunity," the square guard declared.

"clause three of the consent form!" i turned around to look at the player that yelled this out. it was the same man that was helping everyone in the last game, player 456. "the games may be terminated upon a majority vote. correct?"

oh thank god. we actually had a chance at getting out of here before they had us all killed.

that's when the room went dim, and a golden piggy bank was slowly let down from the ceiling. even i was mesmerized, my eyes glued to the stacks of money falling into it. the guard then explained there was a sum of 9.1 billion won in the bank, and if we all wanted to leave now, it would be split by all current players. murmurs erupted, some people wanting to stay and play more games for the sum to rise, while others still wanted to leave.

"now, let's begin the vote."

the guards started calling out player numbers, starting from the last number, 456. the first vote was an X. each player received a tag with either an X or an O, indicating what they had voted for.

"player 333." i watched as myung-gi emerged from the crowd, and walked towards the buttons. i swear to god.

the sound of the button went off and so did a flash of blue light. he picked O.

he barely even made it through the first game without my help, yet he wanted to stay and continue playing? i scoffed to myself, he really did only care about himself.

"player 222." it was finally my turn. i walked up to the voting stand, confident in my answer. i hit the X button and received my tag. walking back to the group of other X voters, i looked over at myung-gi standing on the opposite side who was also watching me from afar. i narrowed my eyes and made a face full of utter disgust and disappointment, then looked away. in that moment, i regretted saving him at all.

the voting ended shortly, the O's winning by one point. we really had to stay and play another game. it was absurd to me, all these people being blinded by the money after seeing firsthand how one wrong move could literally get you killed.

food service happened after the voting and each person was given a meal. i walked back to my bed and opened up the metal box to find a layer of white rice, topped with an egg, sausage, and picked radish. it honestly wasn't bad at all. i was eating peacefully before myung-gi walked up, holding out his box of food and resting his arms on the foot of my bed.

"you want the radish? i know it's your favorite," i looked up at him, mid-chew of a mouthful of rice and egg. the radish was my favorite, but i was surprised he remembered that at all. without saying anything back, because i was still mad at him, i took the pieces of radish out of his box and put it in mine.

"are you mad at me?" i looked up from my food again. he could not be serious. we were making eye contact now, but the purple-ish, blue ring forming around his left eye caught my attention.

"what happened to your eye?" i asked, ignoring his initial question. i don't even know why i brought it up, i could care less about this asshole.

"don't worry about it." say less! i went back to eating my food, myung-gi still hovering, waiting for the answer to his question. i gave him a "what?" look with a shoulder shrug and seems like he took that for an answer because he turned back around and started walking away without saying another word.

i looked toward his direction ever so often after finishing up my meal. he really was a loser and didn't have anyone else here, not even someone to team up with. he sat straight up on his bed, poking at the rice with his spoon. a couple of hours passed by, and it was soon bedtime. the lights in the room dimmed and everyone was in their beds by this point. i pulled the thin cotton blanket over me and readjusted my pillow so it was leaning a bit against the bed board. i lay there on my back with my hands intertwined across my chest, closed my eyes and desperately tried to fall asleep. but it was one of those nights where your eyes were sleeping, and your body wasn't. hours passed and i was still awake. i tried turning to my side, readjusting my pillow again, but nothing worked. at a loss, i just kept my eyes open and stared at the bottom of the bed above mine.

the older gentleman to my right was snoring like there was no tomorrow, and a woman in her mid-20s to my left kept turning around every 5 minutes. even if i did manage to fall asleep, i probably would've woken up because of one or the other. that's when i heard someone nearby talking, or it was more of a loud whisper. i sat right up on my bed to figure out where the noise was coming from, only to see the source was right in front of me.

myung-gi was talking... but to himself? i slowly peeled the blanket off of myself and threw both legs over the edge of my bed. i stepped on my shoes without properly putting them on, and walked towards his bed, making sure not to make anymore noise that could wake up anyone else. i watched as myung-gi continued to blurt out sentences and random words in his sleep, but i couldn't quite make out what he was actually saying. his eyes were fully closed, but his eyebrows were at a slight furrow with sweat beading on his forehead. he looked like he was burning up. without even realizing, i reached my hand out to his forehead, hovering just an inch above it. i didn't even need to make contact with his skin to know he had a fever. i retracted my hand and bent down to my feet to fully put on my shoes before walking over to the door that led to the restroom. a guard was standing by the door and it took me a good 10 minutes for him to let me use the restroom, finally convincing him by saying it was that time of the month.

i grabbed a long piece of a paper towel, folded it, and let it run under the cold water for a bit. i walked back out the door without the guard noticing the paper towel in my hand and made it back to myung-gi, who was thankfully still asleep. i reached out my arms to place the towel on his forehead, but before i could take them back, myung-gi's hand wrapped around my left wrist. his eyes were slightly open, but i couldn't quite tell if he was actually awake or not.

"stay," he croaked, his voice coming out raspy. i stood there unsure what to do and his grasp still on my arm. "please."

well it's not like i could fall asleep anyway. i used my feet to take off my shoes and climbed into his bed, using his arm as a pillow. i cautiously turned to slightly face him, but myung-gi looked like he had already fallen back asleep. i turned back around, closed my eyes, and without even knowing it, fell asleep right then.

i felt warmer than usual as i started waking up to the same music that played when i first got here. eyes still closed, i turned over to my right side and felt even warmer. it was a nice feeling and i wanted to stay here just for a couple more minutes.

the chatter from the people around me woke me up. vision still blurry, i blinked profusely to make sure i wasn't hallucinating. i was looking straight at myung-gi, our faces almost an inch apart. his eyes were still closed and i could even hear his heartbeat; we were that close. we were also under the same blanket now, not knowing how i even got to that position considering he was hogging the thing when i first laid down.

i didn't know what to do. i didn't want to move now because then he'd wake up and i'd have to confront him. i just kept looking at his face, focusing on the bruise from yesterday, which was now a little darker in color. he didn't look like he still had a fever, but something in me wanted to check anyway. i freed my left arm from my own grip and slowly raised it up to his forehead, but before i could even check, myung-gi opened his eyes. i quickly dropped my hand and closed my eyes, pretending like i had never even woken.

fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, shit, shit.

then i heard him starting to laugh, myung-gi was laughing at me. i peeked one eye open and he started to laugh even harder. now i felt myself heating up. guards please take me now, just take me now. as i was about to say something, myung-gi used the blanket to cover me entirely and pulled me in even closer.

"what the fuck are you do-" i tried to get out, but my voice got muffled by the blanket as he brought me in even closer. oh my god i thought i was going to explode.

"you hiding something under that blanket?" a voice questioned from outside. i took that as my queue to stay as silent as possible.

"no, why would i be?" myung-gi answered back.

"don't talk back to me, fucker. unless you want a matching black eye." oh, so this must've been the person that beat the shit out of myung-gi yesterday. myung-gi didn't respond this time, but i could feel his arm around me loosen as the footsteps got further away. i reached for the rim of the blanket and pulled it back down enough for my face to show. that was a bad idea, because i was just about touching his chest now.

"if you wanted a hug you could've just said so," he said sarcastically, a one-sided grin forming on his face as he looked down at me.

"in your dreams," i said, all flustered. i quickly pushed myself away before he could pull anything else and practically stumbled out of the bed. i didn't even look back as i put on my shoes and walked out to regroup with the rest of the players.

they had us get into groups of five for the second game, making it a game based on team effort. i teamed up with four older guys, one of them being player 456 from earlier. i was glad i didn't end up with myung-gi this game, because honestly i didn't know how to face him after last night. but i still found myself glancing over at him throughout the game to make sure he was still alive.

we both got through the second game, but it was still silence between us. i didn't go up to him and neither did he try and talk to me. i couldn't fall asleep that night either, but i didn't dare get out of my bed.

the next game came around quickly. i stuck with the group i had made during the previous game, and we quickly got the hang of this new game. we were placed onto a merry-go-round like platform and spun around until the music stopped. the speaker would blurt out a number and the same amount of people would need to run and find a room to stay in. if the room had more or less people than the number that was said, you would die. as a group of 5, we got through teams of 3 and 6 pretty easily. but then the speaker called out 2. i looked up as everyone paired up, and i had no one. my mind went fuzzy, everyone was running around screaming and looking for their friends. i felt like i was going to faint until i felt someone grab onto my wrist and started to drag me off the platform. i picked up on the pace and ran like my life depended on it, because it did.

we ran into a purple room and shut the door. my back was pinned to the wall as myung-gi still held onto my wrist. we were both trying to catch our breath, but then he leaned in closer. my body froze and we were only inches apart again. i was looking into his eyes, then panned down to his lips, just to trace back up to his eyes again. the door clicked shut and we were stuck in here. together.

in that moment, i felt his lips touch mine. i closed my eyes as i let myself melt into the kiss. he let go of my wrist and positioned one hand at my waist while the other creeped up the back of my neck. i could feel my shirt fleeting as his fingertips made contact with my skin ever so lightly. my hands made their way up his chest as i gripped onto his shirt and pulled him in even closer, deepening the kiss and eliciting a whiny moan from him. i wanted this to go on forever.

the door made another clicking sound, letting us know we could go back out. i loosened my grip before myung-gi could get his hand up any higher under my shirt.

"we have to," i let out, mid-kiss, "go." we both came to a stop then, realizing we had to go back out onto the platform. i quickly straightened up my shirt with my hands and reached up to myung-gi's hair which was looking all disheveled now to smooth it back out into his natural middle part.

"we're not done yet," he whispered into my ear as we walked out the door, parting ways once again.

that's when i knew i'd be getting a good night's sleep tonight.

[archives-of-a-hidden-writer]

Saved

Thanos / Choi Su-Bong X M/GN!Reader

》Typing... |

》 [Entry No.004 - Saved]|

》 Loading Archive Entry "Saved" |

》 Location of Entry: Archivial's |

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》 Summary: Instead of dying to a damn utensil, you were there to save his ass just when things were about to take a turn for the worse on his behalf. |

》 Warnings: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 6 SEASON 2, Swearing(On the archiver's behalf), Archiver(writer) speaks in between scenes through parentheses, OOC, Blood, Violence, murder/killing, Change of Storyline, Aversion of Story, Mention of Drug Use, MxM but can also be seen as MxGN it's just that reader can go to the men's bathroom, Reader's choice in the voting is unspecified but leans more in the 'X'. |

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As the 3rd game came to a close, all 100 remaining players came into a voting of 50 by 50, making it a tie. It was then told how another voting were to occur the next day, giving the players time to choose their options once more.

As things died down between groups, you were peacefully doing your own thing in the restroom until you suddenly heard a commotion outside the stalls, followed by another voice that you recognized all the while ago.

During your time throughout the 3 games, one particular man stood out, Su-bong, aka the rapper Thanos. Although you've heard of the man before the games, you weren't particularly a fan of him to the point you would clutter him like the others during the start of the 1st game. Despite that, you couldn't help but feel something towards the chaotic and high man.

Going outside your stall, you were greeted to the men split into two groups, one siding the ones who chose 'O' last voting and the other group being the ones who chose 'X'. One of the players in the 'X' went in front of the scared man who was you concluded as the man Thanos was after. Yet it seemed to worsen the situation as the player, numbered 333, was the infamous MG coin, the same man who 'milked'(Archiver doesn't know if this is the right word, but I'm rolling with it) his fans of their money for a crypto coin.

Soon, a fight broke loose within the restroom, and none of the guards came in to stop them. The guy originally Thanos was after had already run off, while Thanos was currently choking player 333.

Not knowing what to do or which side to go or help, you ended up knocking and punching a few who tried swinging their fists at you. You just decided to help the person, to you, you knew the most, and that is Thanos.

As Thanos choked out player 333(Myung-gi, but screw it, he'll become irrelevant in this entry anyways), you noticed the player holding something in his hand. You soon noticed it as a fork, 'Shit,' you thought to yourself. Forks are sharp enough to pierce skin with the right pressure. You immediately screamed towards Thanos, tackling and pushing him off the man.

Thanos looked at you confused and irritated, "What the fuck, man?-" He cursed, you took a deep breath, trying to gauge your perspective at him, "He has a fo-" you were about to say until you felt a sharp pain in your shoulder blade. Turning around, you met the same player lodging the same damn fork in your shoulder. You groaned as he pulled the fork out, wanting to aim at another area in your body.

"Why are you helping him?!" The player screamed, about to plunge the fork again.

About to expect the worst, someone behind him pulled him back and started to punch him again and again. It was Thanos' friend, you presumed as you've recognised the man often beside the purple-haired.

Taking a deep breath, completely forgetting the pain in your shoulder for a moment before exhaling heavily. That's when you heard a voice admists the chaos.

"Hey, hey!" Thanos called out, not knowing what to do other than check the wound. "Tsk, dammit!" He cursed before roughly pulling you up and into one of the closest stalls to the two of you. Locking the stall behind him, he made you sit down on the toilet.

Trying to ignore the pain, you spoke out, "You should've ran out," I wheezed out, taking my jacket off before ripping a piece of my shirt to use as a bandage from the wound. Wrapping the cloth around your shoulder, you noticed that he's just standing right there, not doing anything with his head down at the floor. Not knowing what's on his mind, I continued to wrap the item around.

It was until you had to tie the cloth together to prevent it from coming loose, but with your shaking hands and inability to move area from your shoulder to your arm. Wincing, you still attempted until you felt another pair of hands grabbing over the cloth and tying it for you. You looked up to see Thanos tying the cloth for you, an uncharacteristically focused look on his face, but you couldn't help but gaze at him even further.

At this time, as Thanos finished tying the cloth secure, the fight outside the stall had quieted down. The purple-haired man peeked out to see four players dead, with the others being led out by the pink guards, followed by the announcer announcing the player number of each person who died.

Coming out along with the rest, Thanos kept behind me before muttering a 'Thanks, man', I nodded and continued walking until we reached the dormitory.

Thanos came back to his friend after such a situation, and you went into your original bed location until you heard someone scream your player number.

"Hey, ■■■!(You guys choose your number)" Thanos called out, waving his hand up as he looked over to you. He hopped and waved his hand, gesturing you to come over, and you not knowing what to do anymore, you decided and fuck it, join them.

As you approached them, Thanos hopped and swung his arm on you, but you quickly noticed how he was careful about his action and considering your wound.

"Welcome, my friend!" Thanos welcomed you to his friend, "This guy right here, they saved my damn life there!" He announced, shaking me lightly, "It was nothing... Really," you tried to start, averting away from them.

"What do you mean it's nothing?! My life was on the line, man!" Thanos replied, patting your chest as he spoke.

After that, the three of you waited for the next day to come by for the revoting of players. Coincidentally, you couldn't help but notice a shift in Thanos' attitude when he speaks to you alongside how his eyes were filled with an emotion you couldn't decipher that isn't his typical high-on-drugs gaze.

As the announcer reminded everyone of the night's out in half an hour, everyone got to their respective beds with you being made to sleep near your now new friends('friends' yeah right).

As you slept on your accord, you didn't notice Thanos on his side, gazing at your sleeping figure. Somehow, a random stranger like you made him feel something other than the high feeling of his 'candies'. Quietly chuckling to himself, he laid back on his back.

Awaiting the next day, little did they know that other players had their own plans for the night rather than sleeping.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

》 Archiver's Notes: Do not mind this as your dear archiver, me, still can't seem to wrap their head around the fact that someone like his character died inside of a damn restroom with a fucking fork.

[f4iry-bell]

WHO AM I? | 2

pairing: nerd grayson x popular reader

warning: miscommunication? indirect mention of segs but nothing direct or explicit.

taglist (permanent) : @unnoodles @nqds @alwaysthefangirl @clarissaweasley-10 @benny1989fredd @imaseabear @never-enough-novels @elysianwayy77 @whatsamongus @sheisntyou @emelia07 @cassie6392

series taglist: @inmyheaddd

word count: 1.4k

a/n: hope you guys like it, next part will have grayson with GLASSES. JAMIE CAMEO AND MY JAMIE X NERD READER FIC CROSSOVER LOWKEY

part 1 | masterlist

Grayson tried hard not to think about her because he knew that she would have probably forgotten about him by now. There is nothing interesting about him anyway, unlike her. It was getting harder and harder for him to ignore her because they share a class, and well now his Instagram feed is filled with her because he made the mistake of stalking her page the night after their little disagreement. In defense, she was too pretty not to stalk, and everything about her was attractive.

_

Unlike what Grayson might think, Grayson was in her head. Everytime her ‘friends’ say something to her his words will be playing in her head like a broken record. She realised it first when she told her friend Lily that she got an A in her business class and Lily said “Thanks to Grayson. Don't you love being pretty and doing nothing?” in a mocking way. Lily didn't believe her when she said she actually worked on the project, and even caught up on the lessons. 

But Lily laughed “You? Stop joking. You barely know what is going on in class.”

“I do!” She protested but Lily just kept making fun of her for being dumb as if she is anything better. On top of this, the guys she's friends with acted like jerks making awful inappropriate accusations about her and Grayson. She denied them all, but she didn't like how they responded.

“Of course. You wouldn't go for someone with no social status in college.” One of them said. 

Everything after that evening was just proving Grayson’s point. She noticed how mad her friends get when she posts them and forgets to tag them in her story. Or how they'd always want her to post the best pictures of them and always post the pictures in which she isn't that great. It was tiring at one point. 

After two weeks of this realisation and madness she texted Grayson. 

Hey, I'm sorry for calling you a jerk. You were right about my ‘friends’ ;/ 

To which Grayson replied immediately.

G:It's alright. 

Are you mad at me?

G: Why would I be?

Because…I was rude to you.

G: It's fine. I forgive you.

Thanks xo

Grayson wanted to text further and keep the conversation going but he just liked the message and left. Truth is he didn't know what to text her. He knows her but he doesn't know her enough to keep a conversation going. But lucky for him she texted him. She double texted him. It must mean something, right?

Are you asleep?

G: No.

Me too. Also may I know why you're so anti-social? You are sort of cold but sometimes you even crack funny jokes, a VERY interesting person. If you just try, people would love to be friends with you.

G: I don't like people, they're annoying. Always in my business.

Oh! 

G: Yeah.

Good night, gotta sleep.

He didn't know what to reply to, so he just liked and left it. Did he do something wrong? Why didn't she keep the conversation going? He got comfortable in bed to text her for another hour or however long she wanted. 

_

It was the Harvard and Yale football match. Normally Grayson would look into crypto currency or read the newspaper but since his brother Jameson Hawthorne is coming to see the match he has no choice but to go. He wore a burgundy shirt paired with beige pants, he didn't exactly ditch his suits but his brothers forced him quit wearing suits to college, they said someone might mistake him for the professor. Grayson was sitting on the bleachers waiting for Jameson who was late. He looked around taking in his environment and his eyes landed on her. She always stood out from the crowd, she was sitting with her ‘friends’ but she wasn't talking, she was just on her phone. Her hair was done up to a high ponytail, and she was wearing a red sweater. She looked so beautiful.

“How long are you going to stare?” Grayson immediately looked up to see Jameson standing with snacks.

“I wasn't staring.” Grayson tried to deny it.

“Sure.” 

“I wasn't.”

“Look! She's looking at you!” Jameson pointed which got an immediate reaction from Grayson. He looked back at her to find her still on her phone. “So?”

“So?”

“Who is she?” Jameson asked.

“No one.”

“Didn't act like no one the way you looked.” Jameson smirked.

“A friend, I think.”  he wasn't sure.

“You think? Tell me what is it with her?” He asked.

“There's nothing.” Grayson told him.

“You sound like you want something to be there, though.” Jameson read his face.

“Stop analysing me, I thought you were skipping your psychology classes.” Grayson said.

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

“I'll tell you mine, if you tell me about her and what's with you and her.” He asked.

“There isn't anything, Jamie. We didn't hit off well at the start—”

“I'm shocked!” Jameson commented to which Grayson glared. “Sorry, continue.”

“And then we were assigned as project partners. We did more than just the project—”

“You said nothing!” Jameson interrupted.

“—As in we studied. Will you stop interrupting? And I told her that her friends I'll treat her, she was in denial, called me a jerk. She came to realise. She apologised, we texted and then suddenly everything was…off? I don't know why, I thought she wanted to be friends or talk. I don't exactly know what I was expecting but when she stopped texting me, I was disappointed” He tried his best to put everything together.

“Woah. Okay, show me your texts.” Jameson demanded.

“No.”

“I'll help you.”

“With what?”

“To get her! You clearly like her or else wouldn't fret about a girl not texting you!” He took his phone out and gave it to Jameson, Jameson read their texts and spoke.

“You told her you don't like people.” He said.

“I did. Which is true.”

“Idiot. She probably thought she was annoying you by texting you.” Jameson chuckled.

“What? No. I wanted her to text me.” 

“Well, you gotta up your game. Tell her that you like talking to her, ask her out.”

“No! She doesn't know me well enough for me to ask her out.”

“Well, just tell her that you didn't mean everyone, okay?” 

_

Grayson thought of texting her but he decided to tell her directly. He walked to her table in the cafeteria and waited for her to turn to him. Her friend noticed him first.

“Another group project, nerd?” Lily said, rolling her eyes.

“Stop it, Lily.” She stood up from her seat to talk to Grayson. “Hey.” 

“Hi.” He was so nervous.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Can…Can we talk?” God, did he just stutter?

“Uh, sure.” 

They both walked further away from the table and then he spoke.

“A few days ago when I texted you saying I don't like people…” His heart was beating so fast, she looked so pretty he couldn't focus.

“yeah?”

“I didn't mean you.”

“Huh?”

“You, I like you.”

Her eyes widened.

He immediately spoke. “As in, you're not bad, not like I like you romantically, I like you because you're nice. You're not everyone.” His words came out so fast.

She chuckled. “I got it, Grayson. No worries. Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“Well, thanks for saying. I actually thought I was annoying you.” She chuckled.

“Jamie was right.” He mumbled, which she heard.

“Who is Jamie?”

“My brother.”

“Oh?” She was so confused.

“He was the one who told me that you might have thought that I included you in the ‘everyone’” He chuckled awkwardly.

“You told your brother about me?*m” She asked with a smile.

“He sort of forced it out of me.”

Her smile widened. “I'm glad that you did. Because I kind of missed you.”

His heart stopped and started beating again. “You did?”

“Yeah. I missed how you randomly say random facts or one of your many talents.”

He blushed. He actually blushed.

She chuckled at his reaction. “Hey, do you want to hang out after college? There is a party.”

“Party isn't really my scene.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry.”

“Don't apologise. And I'll be there.”

Her eyes lightened up. “Well, okay.” She chuckled. “Have you been to one before?”

“2”

“Woah. Mine is like 20 times or something” she chuckled. “I'll send you the details. 

part 3 →

[sassysnakedemon]

Sorry - it's been a while

So, I've been missing for a while. I had to take a break from socials of all kinds (although, tbh, I really only have tumblr and Ao3). There's been a lot of stuff happening. Trump getting re-elected was just the first brick in the wall (enjoy the Pink Floyd reference, if you like). I've been going through deep clinical depression, which is not unusual for me, but a real stop sign for social activity. I can cope, but only with a very basic amount of social activity, which includes 'real' relationships only, as those make my paycheck come through, where social media relationships do not put ramen on my table.

This sounds bleak, but on the plus side, prioritizing my real world activities has netted me a side gig that pays a hundo an hour for teaching the elderly to play the ukulele. That sounds like a joke, but it really isn't! And it's uniquely fun!!

I've also had to divest all of my investments that were made in the US, and transfer the funds to my bank up here in Canada - that took several days, and I was making sure to make it happen before the Inauguration took place. Luckily, I was able to make that happen, but I have a bunch of work to do now to make sure I can make some good investments in Canada instead. I would surely love to invest so properly that I actually become wealthy, and then I can start giving back in a really big way to the various communities that I so desperately want to support. But that's kinda first world problems, so I understand if you don't care about that! (I mean, my real dream is to become like Michael Sheen and just give up everything to help the people around me, and only keep that which I really need to live - unfortunately, with inflation and everything, what I have now is barely what I need to live for the next couple of years - and again, first world problems, but I have some plans - that don't include crypto - that might actually make it possible for me to turn what little I have into something big that could actually be life changing for the world around me)

On a far more personal note, I've finally made the decision (at the ripe old age of almost 48) to finally transition to male. I wanted to, like 30 years ago, but the LGB community was really unfair to trans people back then, so I spent the last almost 30 years trying so hard to be femme, when that's not what I am. I'm going for top surgery, as soon as I can lose enough weight to make it look good (I'm not enough overweight to have a problem with surgery, but enough that I wouldn't be happy with the results), and then we're on the road. If anyone wonders, my name now is Ezra - partly a cultural thing, and partly a Good Omens fan thing (if you know, you know), and I've gotten approval from everyone - friends, mother (and that was the hardest one, friends were all like 'yeah, we knew', but mom is a bit difficult) and best of all, my husband, who said 'I'm not much of a boob man anyway' in answer to my revelation. He also said that he couldn't live without me, no matter who, or what I was. That's something special right there! The plus is that I would be a gay man after transition anyway - never been really attracted to women in the first place, just didn't want to be one. So, I'm still wildly attracted to my husband of 20 years (this year in November - on Guy Fawkes Day, no less), but now I'm coming at the attraction as the man I've always been, rather than the woman I've been cosplaying for way too long. That's something, and it's been a big thing eating at my mind and soul for a long time. It's been keeping me from being completely open with everyone, and I apologize for that. But I had to wrestle with this particular demon one last time before I could rejoin the world.

I've also had walking pneumonia for the last month and a half, which does NOT make it easy to do anything, so I've been avoiding anything which isn't strictly necessary to do. I'm starting to recover though, so I will try harder now to rejoin 'all y'all', to make an appropriate Texasism, as I lived there for enough time to pick up the local jargon.

Suffice it to say that I will try harder to be a better friend to the friends I've made here, but give me a minute - I'm still finding my feet. And I've had a bit of trouble with the GO fandom, as I am finding it hard right now to hyper-focus on it when I've got so much else going on.

Can I say that the world sucks right now? Can I say to all of my friends here, and all of the friends that I'm yet to make, that I feel you, and will protect you? I am really feeling a sort of way, and it's hard to deal with. I wish the troubles were over, and that we could all sing together in fields of green - that we could love each other, even when we don't always agree. I would give anything, including the blood in my veins, for that future.

Sorry for the ramble - meds are partly to blame, but so is my depression - and my planning for a future I cannot see. I want to be engaged, but I'm finding it difficult. I want to be present for you, but that may not always be possible. I'm trying though, and I haven't forgotten any of the friendships I've made here - I'm just trying to be a better version of me before I come back and interact with everyone again!

@missunderstoodlyrics, @naturallyteal, @isiaiowin, @ilikeblue, @inezrable, @copperplatebeech,@phoen1xr0se, @di-42

[punkitt-is-here]

This has been in my head for a year and sometimes it keeps me up at night. At 2023 EFNW, we were hanging out at the bottom of the escalators outside the vendor hall. A guy in a green 4chan shirt came up to our group and said how much he admired your comics, and gave you a Lyra "numget" sticker. I didn't manage to catch the name tag on the person, but there's 3 people I think who it could have been. Two of which spent June of 2020 making shitloads of extremely racist pony artwork of George Floyd, and the third just hangs out with the other two in online spaces. Nowadays the group just kinda does crypto-fashy stuff. Anyways I was really awkward at the time and I wanted to say something after the fact to you but I didn't really think it was my place. Ever since then I've _really_ wondered how that guy sees you as a person now. I hope they've gone on to become a better person. Keep being awesome

oh my god i still have that sticker i think. what da hell.

[5five5five5five5five5five]

I've been watching top many of Blake Jennings "witch characters from blank can say the bad word for gay 🚬" youtube shorts / tiktoks and have been inspired to make this. (I'm a fruity trans man, i can say it. pls no slur discourse, this is for shits and giggles. not putting it under a spoiler bc i like scaring the straights. this my blog.) luther: no, but has been called one a few times. true ally if I've ever seen one. MIGHT be queer but the show runners never cared enough and its too risky to say yes. diego: he's bi but a bit too cis macho man for his own liking so i feel like he'd be too insecure to say it. he really needs to explore his queerness though, maybe he will find the strength to use his pass one day. Lila can easily help with this. Allison: no but if she called me one, i feel like shes either trying to fit in with the queer siblings....or being s3 Allison, witch are two very different situations........but no. klaus: bitch, he invented the word. that man is very word for queer under the sun and back around. he can say it and says it proudly. Five: thinks he can't, would never want to...... in till he realizes he's queer, then its flying out of his mouth almost daily. i don't even think he has THAT strong of a 🚬pass, he just knows he has one. and whose stopping him? its hilarious. he says it very seriously too and at moments no one would expect. it always jump scares someone. ben: he cant and doesn't want to but he's so used to Klaus saying it that it might slip into conversations. Klaus will never correct him because hearing Ben call him one when mildly frustrated is funny af and he knows theres 0 venom behind it. Ben would feel bad though and apologize. Viktor: he 100% can but doesn't really want to. BUT the local queers around his bar have given him the D word pass and love calling him one. so he calls himself that a lot more. city queers who don't touch queer twitter discourse don't care, that's one if they have ever seen one and they love him dearly.

Lila: shes British. whether she can or not is irrelevant to her saying it anyway with FULL PASSION. (she can btw. that's a nonbinary bisexual who has had cop blood on her boots on numerous occupations.)

bonus: sparrow Ben: he....he really cant guys....please stop letting him get away with this. idc if he's a pathetic wet meow meow and very clearly queer man in s3.....h...he just cant.... no one who gets into crypto can. that's the rules.

[olderthannetfic]

I think part of why these really bizarre ideas of what "crypto terf" rhetoric spread is because people treat dogwhistles like they're some kind of magic spell that requires secret lingo, and so they assume everyone crying "crypto terf!!!" in a way that doesn't make sense to them MUST be seeing something they don't see. But really, it's not that hard to guess at how a particular hate group would attempt to turn normies on to supporting their hate group. If you know what their standard rhetoric is, and you know how ideological recruitment generally works, it's not hard to imagine how they mutate that rhetoric to make it more palatable to someone on the fence. After all, it's really not that different from how people do this with anything, in far more benign circumstances; if you have a strong opinion on a controversial topic, you're probably going to talk about it differently with someone you know is already on your side vs. someone whose opinion you're unsure of, right? I've read stuff by people like Ky Schevers who WERE "terf recruiters" who have since renounced the movement, who know what "crypto" rhetoric looks like from the inside, and none of it was actually particularly surprising to me as someone who knows what regular TERFs believe. I think one of the issues though is that people are confusing "crypto terf rhetoric" with "the conditions that put people in a position that cause them to be seen as targets by TERFs." Like, a lot of people on here seem to have this idea that any time women are venting about how much men suck, or talking about particular kinds of men who creep them out, that's "radfem/terf rhetoric." Which - first of all, I think if you spend amount of time in groups of women where they're talking about men (real ones, not fictional characters), you have to know that that kind of venting about men is not a thing that's going to stop happening anytime soon. Women are going to feel that way and express it as long as we live in a sexist society, and all you're doing by treating it as though they're already on the road to a hate group is making it so they don't do it around you - which ironically, makes them riper prey to extremists, if they're the only ones letting them vent. Like especially in the wake of a US election where a majority of Gen Z men voted for a rapist whose brain is rotting and who wants to take away women's bodily autonomy over a highly qualified woman, you can't be surprised that a lot of women their same age are throwing up their hands and wondering if it's even worth it trying to find the good ones anymore, if they exist in enough numbers to make the frustrations of dating worth it. What's "crypto TERF" is not being frustrated with men (which again, is not something you're going to social-norms away anyway), but it's channeling that frustration toward the kind of essentialism that leads them to eventually see all AMAB people as the problem. Or broadening this beyond terfs specifially to other radfems: taking where most women are now of "I know some good guys exist, but there are so many bad ones and so many wolves-in-sheep's-clothing and I'm kind of exhausted with the search" and turning that into "there ARE no good ones, ALL of them are hiding at least some sexist beliefs and behavior and you CANNOT trust them." But just like plenty of white people who have economic anxiety don't get convinced that immigrants are the problem, and plenty of people in vulnerable situations like recently having moved or a bad break-up or death don't get recruited into cults, most women who are frustrated with shitty men don't become radfems. There's a difference between recognizing certain conditions as more likely to make someone recruitable, and treating them as already a lost cause.

--

[doubleddenden]

The topic of Palworld is pretty charged, but often times I see people be shamed for liking it because the CEO tweeted stuff about NFTs and the company using AI art in a separate game. Acting as if that's the most damning thing ever for a gaming company in an industry filled with similar people.

Make no mistake, I dislike both AI art and nfts, but do you realize how many gaming companies have involvement with that?

To begin with, Pokémon used AI art in a promotional piece for Pokémon Go in September, and nobody gave a shit because uwu Pikachu. The Pokémon Company also put a job listing some months back seeking an expert in NFTs. That's not quite damning evidence, but if I were a betting man, no "NFT expert" will willingly say "yeah nfts suck are bad for the environment, man, I'll take my paycheck and fuck off now." There's also a strong argument to be made that Pokémon has stolen ideas from fakemon artists (Finizen and Palafin, Scovillain, Dipplin, etc) and other franchises (kaiju movies, Dragon Quest, Megaman, final fantasy, western cartoons and food mascots, etc), a dubious legal statement that claims they own all fan art from the remixes and fakemon made on youtube to the pikachu your kid drew at breakfast; they have yet to apologize for the state of Scarlet and Violet while charging full price to millions of paying customers for a clearly unfinished and barely functioning game (which i did enjoy, but you can't tell me it was finished baking when it struggles not to shit itself just to run), and a bunch of other things people shit on Palworld for, but A. It's Pokémon so people don't care and think it's fine, and B. That's not the point of this post.

You know who else does NFTs and AI art? (Yes I heard Muscle Man from Regular Show in my head just now, too, moving along)

Square Enix sold several of their IPs for NFTs and claims to have used AI art "a minimum amount" in Foam Stars, yet I see nobody yelling for boycotts of Final Fantasy 14, 16, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Life is Strange, etc etc etc.

Sony has invested in both, they want to implement AI into gaming, and has a patent for nfts to be used in games and consoles, yet there's no movement to throw out your playstations.

Bandai Namco- you know, that company with a hand in pretty much most anime games on the market and popular games such as the Dark Souls games? They have a game called RYU that's essentially a virtual pet game that uses the blockchain, and its AI driven, among other projects. Yet there's no outcry to stop playing the many, MANY games they brand with. This also includes quite a few Nintendo games (btw they just partnered together to form a special studio quite recently) like Smash Wii U/3ds and New Pokémon Snap. Nobody gives a shit though.

Android, Microsoft, Google, Apple- I don't even need to explain those, they have whole teams dedicated to both. Even popular VPN companies accept crypto.

I'm just saying an awful lot of you guys that scream and shit bloody murder about Palworld's company being involved with that shit are either the biggest "It's okay when my favs do it" type of hypocrites, or you're sorely ignorant to just how evil and greedy most corporations are. You'll be hard pressed to find a game company with popular AND fun games that DOESN'T have some interest in either, let alone movie and show studios. That's the awful reality we live in.

You have 2 options

1. You basically stop doing anything involving most modern tech, including throwing out your pc and smart phone. You could probably live a comfortable life with tech circa 2010, but you have to be aware that any thing you buy may go towards a cause you don't like.

2. You accept that people can enjoy a product while not necessarily agreeing with the CEO of said product. Most CEOs tend to be jackasses anyway, that's kind of the shared trait they all have. You can also discourage companies from using them while understanding it is everywhere.

Palworld at the end of the day is just a toy, that's it. From the looks of it, it's not even actually hurting anyone, and it seems like the company at least treats their employees pretty decently- at least according to a few things I've seen here and there that seems rather progressive for a Japanese studio (with room for doubt obviously, it's a company after all and as we've established, they're all evil). At the least its not like when people supported Hogwarts Legacy and directly put money into JKR's wallet so she can openly hurt more Trans women. In fact, the only people seemingly hurt in all of this Palworld drama are obsessed Pokémon stans that can't accept a parody, or the Pokémon Company themselves, who rightly deserve some punching up tbh.

You can just say you dislike the game, that's fine, I totally get that. Even though I personally think The Pokémon Company deserves a few nut shots after the way they've treated fans these last few years with the state of their games (and you know, stealing ideas from fans without credit), I can see why someone would be turned away from a parody that's literally meant to be Pokémon with guns. I can totally understand all of that, personally I'd prefer if the game was MORE like Pokémon with turn based combat.

But if you're going to defend Pokémon because you think its perfectly innocent because of Wooloo or something like that, just be sure you're aware you're defending the World's Richest Franchise and their own attempts at AI and NFTs while calling out an indie company (a real one thats learning as they go, not the fake "We're totally indie" franchise that hasn't been indie since gen 3) for having a ceo that also seems interested in the same stuff. And remember, you don't become number 1 without hurting people somehow (we could dig up receipts about certain partners Pokémon has teamed up with, such as Tencent with Unite, but I'd rather not right now.)

Just saying. I don't think you're an irredeemable person for still liking Pikachu, cuz I do too believe it or not. I've been a life long fan and still have fun with the games despite the clear scummy business practices towards their paying customers. Just maybe extend that courtesy to the millions of players just trying to have fun in this awful, putrid, shithole planet that just keeps getting worse and worse with each passing day.

Plus... you know, think about it. Do you think Pokémon would ever get around to making a gunless Palworld? Probably not. Do you think Palworld would exist if The Pokémon Company and Nintendo were the slightest bit chill about Pokémon fan projects like SEGA is with Sonic? Also probably not. From what I've read, the devs just wanted to make a fun game that happens to mostly be ARK with Pokémon adjacent monsters. That's not really a bad thing, all things considered, and it seems like the worst they've done is reference official Pokémon when making their own models.

Palworld being successful is actually beneficial to Pokémon fans, as well. It'll never really truly compete, but it has outsold Legends Arceus in terms of units sold (not as much financially because Palworld was only $30 plus a sale recently, but still impressive), and it is enough that Game Freak is aware of its existence. Let Palworld light a fire under their ass, and maybe GF will actually finish their next game before releasing it for full price (and no, we're not bringing up the tired imaginary ball and chain game devs, game freak owns 1/3rd lf the franchise and can easily take methods to get more dev time, they just haven't because money). Just saying, at least the Paldevs were honest enough to sell it in early access for half the price.

[peachymilkandcream]

Hi! Can you do another modern au where Evelyn is imprisoned for a crime she didn't do and Levi is the warden who likes to torment his prisoners?

Jailbird|Levi x Evelyn AU

(A/N: Interesting idea Anon! We've all seen Levi abusing his power and taking it out on those weaker than him so this fits right into his personality. Honestly, I might leave this a little open ended and you can tell me, a part two, or, a full series? I definitely could see a full series coming out of this request. Let me know what you think in my asks, messages, and replies! Thanks for the request and I hope you enjoy!)

WARNINGS: implied noncon/dubcon, big age difference, kidnapping, slavery, violence, power imbalance, implied somnophilia, forced pregnancies, mind breaking, yandere behaviour, yandere themes, forced exhibitionism, sexual coercion, blackmail, misogyny, sex trafficking, etc.

================================================

Evelyn stalked around her cell feeling utterly dejected. She thought she would've been a free woman by now, but instead she was just rotting behind these bars because no one could trust the courts to actually deliver justice. She hadn't done anything wrong but now she was framed for fraud and was forced to spend the next two years of her life in this box.

That's what she got for being the scape goat for a crypto scam, even though one of her close friends Eren assured her that crypto was the investing strategy of the future.

That friendship was over.

It could be worse, there were much more serious charges she could've been convicted for, with much worse sentences. But still, two years of her life would be put on hold and now she would have a permanent record as a felon because once again the government protected the rich while letting the poor rot in the gutter.

A bang on the bars startled her out of her thoughts. "Enough of that pacing, it's driving me insane."

Evelyn looked up at the warden, his cane still poised to strike the bars again if she didn't obey. Levi Ackerman had a reputation for being a stickler for the rules and an asshole, she'd heard it before. He had to be transferred from a maximum security prison because his methods of disciplining the more rowdy and violent inmates ended up with severe injuries and several attempted lawsuits. They figured more docile and less threatening prisoners would suit his fragile temper.

Just her luck. Best to keep on his relatively good side to avoid making her life even more of a hell than it was. Although she did think it was odd that a man ran a women's prison with all women working under him, probably some chauvinistic stance regarding women's places in society. What an asshole.

"Right. Sorry."

"You're new, I saw that you'd just been transferred here. Evelyn, correct?"

"Yes, that's me."

"I thought it would be best if I came and introduced myself properly, considering you and I are going to get to know each other quite well in the time you're here."

Evelyn swallows, the thought of that causing more than just a ripple of fear. "Thank you for taking the time-"

"Don't flatter yourself, it's merely a formality. I don't understand why women like you end up here anyway. None of you little cunts would be in this situation if you just abided by the rules that have been so painstakingly set out for you."

She was right, he was an asshole. "And what kind of rules are those?" She barely concealed the animosity in her voice.

"Getting your base education so you're not stupid, marry, spread your legs, and then repopulate the earth."

Evelyn frowned, she had a feeling this is what he'd be like, but seriously, the guy really did suck. "Not all women want that lifestyle sir, and prisoner or not I'd appreciate it if you didn't make those comments to me."

He scoffs. "Cocky bitch." In an instant he reaches through and grabs her jumpsuit, pulling her hard against the bars, her feet on their tiptoes as he brings her up to his level. "Listen here you little shit, I don't give a damn what you want or don't want. For the next two years you're mine to do with as I please. You're seen as less of a human now, a drain on the system, it's my job to rehabilitate you and that's to be done however the hell I see fit. It's in your best interest to sit down and shut the fuck up and listen to all the lessons I'm taking my precious time to teach you. If you're lucky you'll leave here a little less useless. Understood?"

She wants to argue back, wants to spit in his face and tell him to go to hell. But the way he was gripping her collar was choking off her air supply, making it impossible to do anything but nod pathetically until he put her down, gasping for air.

"That's more like it. You think you can defy me and get away with it? You're in for a rude awakening girl, and you'll be thanking me for it in the end." His eyes rake over her, so slowly, menacingly, she shivers. "Enjoy your stay here."

[doodlemancy]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh

so here's the deal re: this fucking horseshit. god i hate this.

i, personally, have mostly given up on trying to dodge inclusion in AI datasets. the stuff i make generally isn't what they're looking for anyway and there's no real way to 100% avoid being scraped short of becoming entirely invisible online, which would um, lead to me having no money and dying. that's part of the cruelty of all this, but also, in a way, it's the same risk artists online have always taken; if you want people to see your work, you have to post it knowing that some of those people are fucking lowlife piece of shit scumbags who will try to resell it on redbubble or something for a quick buck. AI is just a new and exhausting way for garbagey people to stink worse. i am not in any way excusing that behavior or trying to imply people should not be mad about it or that we shouldn't condemn this move and fight back. "if you don't want your work stolen, don't put it online" is the kind of shitty Internet Tough Guy talk i've always hated since my dA days. it's as useless and heartless as telling people that if they don't want their bikes stolen, they shouldn't leave them at the bike rack. i'm saying that i, personally, will not let a bunch of soulless thieving shitheads drive me offline. i belong here. they belong in a wifi-proof dumpster.

nightshade and glaze eat my artwork alive. they make it look terrible. when you have to sell things on the basis that they look nice, it's a big problem when protective measures make them look like dogshit. my work is not a good candidate for these processes. even if that weren't the case, i don't have the stamina, especially right now while my chronic pain is flaring for the third month in a row and my adhd meds are scarce, to go back and shade/glaze everything, and it wouldn't work on reblogs anyway. given the way midjourney and its equally stinky siblings have already scraped years and terabytes' worth of image data from popular websites, it doesn't seem worth my time. if you think it is worth yours i am not going to like, yell at you. i am just one person. but i want to be clear about the kind of situations some of us are being forced into.

i think some of the doomsaying about AI and what it will do to us has been overblown-- they need you, for marketing purposes, to believe that someday their shitty robot will be as good at "drawing" and as practical to work with as a human-- but the consequences of "AI" (which is not even actually AI) are already real and visible and obvious to anyone paying attention. i unfortunately am not infinitely wise and powerful and therefore do not have an ideal all-encompassing solution to this deeply stupid problem that the Most Unlikeable Manbabies On Earth have imposed on us after NFTs fizzled out.

what i do have is a very large repository of nice anime and game screenshots i've taken, knowledge of many archives of nice public domain images, a computer that can run nightshade overnight or while i'm off doing other things, and, most importantly, near-infinite capacity for pettiness. i do kinda feel like the jury is still out on how well nightshade/glaze will work in the long run, but in the meantime, i suppose it wouldn't cost me a lot to... perhaps... every time i get Mad About AI™, channel that anger into dumping some thoroughly-but-not-spammily-tagged, high-quality, inconspicuous poison onto this godforsaken hellsite via a secret side blog. i could make a batch of poison ahead of time, keep it on my phone, use my Toilet Scrolling Time or my Public Transit Time to post and tag up an image here and there. it could be a fun challenge to try to make some pretty robot poison that some humans will still enjoy.

the other thing we need to poison at this point, IMO, is the word "AI" itself, by being loudly and mercilessly critical of any company that dabbles in it, the same way we all clowned on any company that pushed their luck with NFT/crypto shit a couple of years ago. we need to have every corporation terrified that association with AI will tank their sales and hurt their brand. AI must = number go down and lots of people screaming at you. companies will fuck around. we must provide the finding-out. we shouldn't have to. but we can!

so make sure to let tumblr know you hate this. maybe you could include this interesting link (tw child abuse) about how Stable Diffusion was trained on some extremely serious crime. or these screenshots of Midjourney devs just sort of admitting what their whole thing is, which i got here but which have kinda been spread all over since January.

spite and anger can be forms of hope. that's all i have to say, or at least all i'm willing to type with my left hand tonight.

[centrally-unplanned]

Matt Darling showcasing some blast-from-the-past "what is wrong with economics" takes that are apparently preserved in amber from 2008 being retold in 2024:

"Don't economists know that scalar models aren't everything" wow. amazing.

"hAvE yOu tRiEd SyStEm DyNaMiCs" fucking lmao

Anyway our boy Michael Saylor continues by asking "hasn't anyone tried tracking price changes for specific goods?" - inquiring minds at the BLS want to hear more. Will you be shocked to learn this guy is an ex-tech CEO who is now really into Bitcoin??

Back in 2008, the financial crisis hit the world, and while the idea that it was "economist's fault" like they were running things somehow was very silly, its fair to say it was a black mark on a lot of mainstream macro people - it did cause some solid revisions & debates. And in the dissident econ era of that time, it became a "thing" to talk about economics as this sort of backward institution, obsessed with models disconnected from reality and privileging math over data, since if macro was vulnerable the whole field was.

This critique was fully outdated at the time, but I will least credit that it takes time for people to catch up to the frontier, and the critiques were like a bit valid about say 1980's economics - with the extremely obvious caveat that they lacked affordable computers then and so couldn't do shit like system dynamics, but w/e. Still, if it was outdated in 2008, its laughably off the mark in 2024, discussing an econ field flush with econometrics, measurement & big data, and diverse mathematical and computational methods. But since the ideas of 2008 were foundational to so many dissident movements - like crypto for example - they continue to march on, divorced from their place and time.

Fun to see an old friend I guess; how ya been since Occupy Wall St eh?

[urban-mutt]

Perfect Someone: Chapter 1 - Lalo Salamanca/FTM Reader (NSFW)

 Summary: You are a thief! You target old rich men. You drug them and steal from them while they're drink out of their mind. Your last operation didn't go as planned, and now you are an accomplice in a serious crime. And a plaything for your new sick friend.

Tags/Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Rape/Non-con, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Rape/Non-con Elements, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Slurs, Transphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcohol, Smoking, Drug Addiction, Vaginal Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Murder, Reader will be abused delulu and traumatized, FTM Reader, trans reader, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Manipulation, Daddy Kink, Forced, Angst, Inspired by Music, Biting, Age Difference emphasized, Sugar Daddy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, dead dove ig

anatomical terms: cunt

words: 2817

ao3 link

Author's notes: Inspired by my sims save and Sofi Tukker - Perfect Someone (And Melanie Martinez - Tag You're It)

You are a thief. You target old, rich men who think you are just a dumb young boy who wants some mature meat. You do want that, but none of them are your type. Even if they were… you can’t risk it. You lace their drinks with ketamine, and by the time you two are in a hotel room, the guy is long asleep. You take everything you can off of him and leave. Perfect. A huge amount of drugs and alcohol makes them forget anything happened, plus shame stops them from ever seeking you out.

You make pretty good money, but you still prefer living in hotels, using rental cars, and keeping cash or using crypto. Better safe than sorry.

Your lifestyle is a nonstop party. You remind yourself of Harley after she broke up with the Joker; though you never had an abusive guy throw you into the acid. Funnily enough, recently you met a guy who would 100% do that. You never wanted to be an actual criminal, bad person, or a predator. You never thought of yourself as one. You’re just a scammer, and who cares about old rich cis men anyway? They deserve it!

Anyway…

You were at your local scouting spot. Looking for a target. And then you saw him… 

Tall, well groomed, golden Rolex, golden chain, purple shirt with a few too many undone buttons. Gray hairs forming a white streak in the middle of his dome, mustache...

Black pants and— Ugliest fucking loafers you ever saw. They’re not just teal; no, they're CYAN.

This man is screaming, “I’m rich”!

You stroll over to say hello, but he seems too busy talking to someone else to pay attention.

You eye the unattended drink. Cis men never care to pay attention to such things. Too bad.

You order something for yourself and turn your back to him. You hear the glass being lifted and set down again. It's totally his.

He is distracted, the bartender is distracted, the DJ just arrived, and people seem to pay more attention to the upcoming show than anything else. Perfect.

You take a baggie of powder out of your pocket and turn around quickly to— To see your target mirroring you. 

You both freeze, holding your drugs, ready to lace the same drink. You pocket yours quickly, and he does the same. You stare at each other, waiting for this to resolve itself. You blush intensely in shame, and he smiles sleazily.

You don’t remember how you two ended up in a hotel room. Tearing clothes off of each other.

He didn’t even acknowledge your lack of a dick. How perfect. 

He was perfect.

No condom, no wasting time on foreplay. It was raw and wild. It did hurt a bit, but you like it, it’s fine. His cock is impressive, just like the ones you see in porn. Big and thick. Well-trimmed bush and shaven, ass, and balls. He sucked you good after filling you up, moaning into your cunt. 

A perfect man.

You catch your breath, looking up at the ceiling while he lights a cigarette.

As soon as you remember who you are, you get up on your shaky legs, trying to find your pants. 

“So, what’s your deal?” The man asks. 

“I steal from old guys.” You say as you put your pants on.

“And give it to the poor?” He chuckles.

“Yeah. I’m the poor.” You glare at him, putting your shirt back on.

“Wait.” He puts a cig in his mouth and gets up to pick up his pants and take out a stack of cash.

He counts out loud one thousand dollars and drops it on the bed.

“I’m a thief. Not a prostitute.” You frown.

“And I wanted to rape and kill you, so what?” He scoffs, sitting back down.

“Ah, great.” You say with sarcasm. “That what you do? Rape people and kill them?” You call out his bluff.

“Yeah.” He says. A bit too relaxed. 

It sounds too honest. You look down.

He chuckles. “What? Gonna snitch on me?” The stranger grins and exhales the smoke.

“No…”

This got real uncomfortable real fast. 

“Bueno entonces...” He nods and takes another five hundred and a pen. He writes something on it and adds it to the stack on the bed.

You take the money and see that he wrote his phone number on the bill, with a few “xoxo’s”.

“Fate is on our side today... I like you. Call me if you wanna see me again.” He lays back, watching you.

“As if.” You bark back and head out. “Bye.”

“Hasta luego, cariño.” You hear him purr before you shut the door behind you.

Okay. Great.

You have no interest in unpacking thoughts of how close you were to death that night.

You put all the cash on your crypto wallet, including the one with his number. No way you're gonna call that freak. Not gonna report him either; you’re not that evil. Besides, you are a criminal yourself.

And trans. And gay. No. No cops. Never. 

You try to forget and move on. You take a little vacation, just a week, to get back on track. Spending your time everywhere, but the usual scouting spots. It is better not to be a regular. You are a man, but that damn vagina between your legs still makes you a vulnerable one. People will have more reasons to report suspicious someone if they're gay, trans, or of color. (Choose your difficulty setting.)

So it is kinda understandable that you never saw that guy before. His looks are quite unique. He has a tattoo, too. Easy to remember. Hope you won't see him ever again.

After that week, you come back to town. The desert is beautiful, but money is not endless. 

You stand by some bar table in the corner of the club, watching the room. Your favorite song is playing, you move your hips to the bit while thinking.

This one is too young. This one is obviously a poser. This one already has someone. 

Sparse. Maybe changing venues soon won't be a bad idea.

A sudden scent hits you. Guh— you won't mistake that for anything. You cover your drink and turn sharply to see him. He stands closer than you expected; it makes you jump. You were so deep in your thoughts that you didn’t even notice.

“Hola.” He purrs.

You move away. “The fuck you doing here?” He leans onto the table too. “Same thing as you. Hunting.”

You frown. “You do. I don’t ‘hunt’. I scout.”

“Call it whatever you want, but really... It is the same thing. You are a predator.” He reaches out to take your drink. You let him take a sip.

“I’m not. Fuck off. There’s nobody here anyway; I gotta go.” You shake your leg in tension.

“I like that one.” He points at a girl who looks barely 18. “She’s alone, drinking, looks too young to be here, and probably is.”

“And?” You ask.

“And?” He scoffs. “She won’t notice how I will put some K in her drink, and then I’ll drive her out and rape her and then burn her body.” He talks casually.

You shiver in discomfort.

He keeps talking.

“I always pick young ones. Very easy targets.” He chuckles, still watching the girl.

“That’s why you picked me?” You mumble.

“¡Sí! I thought you looked suspicious, but I couldn’t tell why. Now I see that you preyed on me too... Why, by the way?” He turns to you.

You shift your posture uncomfortably. “You look rich and old. That shirt was Gucci; I could see that from a mile away. You really should be more stealthy.” 

“Yeah? And you look like a sissy slut. Thought you were a man.” He teases you.

You show him your teeth. “Well, since you’re bi, why complaining?”

“I’m not bi. I’m gay. I get off on the power, mostly… when it’s a girl.” He takes another sip.

You turn to him fully. “Was that drink even yours?”

He shrugs. “I thought it was yours.”

You both were silent for a bit.

“We’re worthless.” You prop your head on your hands. 

You watch the girl that he spotted leave the club.

“There she goes. You lost her.” You follow her with your eyes.

“It’s fine. I like talking to you more anyway.” He finishes your drink. “Want anoth—”

He is interrupted by some white fella coming right up to your table and almost yelling, “Dude, get off of him; he’s taken!”

You both are confused for a second. The guy is clearly really drunk. Looks bland, like British food. 

You look at the freak you've been talking to; he looks back at you and winks. Okay, what plan do you have, sir?

“He is not taken, and I’m not trying to take—” 

Guy interrupts him again.

“He is clearly uncomfortable! Are there not enough bitches in your country?!”

Before this derails, you decide to speak up.

“He is my fuck buddy! We're actually just looking for a third.” You lean forward, all fake flirty. 

Guy looks flattered. “Oh, yeah? Uh… Sorry! Then— Uh…” He tries to speak through a drunken haze.

Old man glances at you, grinning.

You keep pushing.

“Come on! You’re cute! Thanks for trying to protect me. There are a lot of bad guys around! You want to drink with us?” 

“S-sure, man.” He mumbles.

Your new creep friend is glowing with something evil. “Then I’ll go get us something!” 

He walks off, leaving you to keep glazing that drunken dummy.

He comes back with three drinks. He gives everyone their own, because one is clearly already laced. 

You two kept feeding the guy booze. His name is apparently Dave, but why would that matter? You don’t even know your new crime partner’s name!

The rich freak drives you three to some shitty motel and makes you go and rent a room while they wait.

You come back with a key. You go up to the room quickly.

You didn’t know what you were expecting.

Your crime partner lays Dave on the bed. Taking poor man’s clothes off. You notice a big knife on your friend’s belt. It wasn’t there before. Lube in his pocket? Wait, you’re not actually fucking that guy, are you?

You stand by the door awkwardly.

Dave clearly changed his mind. Of course, he was just too drunk to say “no” when in the club. Now he’s too high to resist. He is trying, though.

“Hold him.” Your partner commands.

You don’t move. 

“Hold him.” He repeats.

You walk around the bed and hold the guy's wrists together while your friend zip-ties him to the bed. He grins and giggles. You let go when he’s done and step aside.

“Bring a towel.” The man commands again.

You go to the bathroom to quickly take one. He gags the poor guy with it before actually… getting to it.

You wanted to look away, but it's like a car crash. A poor guy tore his throat while trying to yell. His ass bled even though your partner used lube. He was just too rough. You had to turn away when he was choking the guy to death, though. You started crying. You shouldn’t be here. 

Fuck around and find out? You did. Honestly, whatever else happened was a blur. You sat on the floor, dissociating silently. The man taps your shoulder.

“Ay.” He says.

You turn around, shivering.

He gives you what seems to be Dave's belongings. 

“This is yours.” He sounds so calm.

Your hands shake, but you take everything.

“And…” He takes an extra out of his back pocket. It looks like a lot of money. “This too.”

You take that too, putting stuff in your pockets and trying not to sob. One sob breaks out, though. Stranger pats your head. 

“It’s fine. You can go. I’ll take care of the rest.” He says.

You get up and run to the door, trying not to look at the body. You're frantically trying to unlock the door, but you fail.

He grunts and walks over. You let go of the door and back into the wall right next to it, covering your face.

You feel his hands rubbing your shoulders. 

“Hey! You’re okay. If I really wanted to do this to you, I already would.” His voice is soft and kind. Too soft. Too kind.

The smell of him is poison. You feel nauseous. You will never be able to smell lavender again. Who else smells like that anyway? Lavender, musk, and however axe deodorant smells. Now also sweat and blood. 

“Are you listening?” He asks again.

You just tremble, not able to say much.

“Okay, listen. You go outside and sit in the car while I take care of this mess. Then we will drive into the desert and dump the body. Then I will drive you home. You clearly can’t go by yourself.” He speaks very clearly and slowly, making sure you understand. 

“I-I— I don’t— I don’t have a— h-home.” You’re barely able to speak, choking on your sobs.

He frowns. 

“Fine. Go to the car.” He gives you the keys.

Like, you won’t just drive away?

Yeah, you won’t.

You sit in the passenger seat, sobbing. 

He puts the heavy body in the trunk, and you two drive away. You run out of tears by the time you reach the place he wanted to dump the body. He just throws it off a cliff. It was wrapped in a blanket like a cocoon. He dumps the rest of the sheets too.

As if anyone will look for that guy... If they ever investigated anything, that fucker would already be in prison. Along with you. 

He comes back; he doesn’t say anything for the rest of the drive, and you actually fall asleep soon. Too exhausted to stay up.

You wake up when he picks you up and carries you inside a house. You don’t move; you let him do it. He lays you on a spacious couch and covers you with a couch blanket. You still don’t move, but you don’t pretend to be asleep either. 

He walks away and comes back with a glass of water, which he sets in front of you on the coffee table. Then he leaves upstairs. In his room, probably.

Too tired, you take the water, but then set it down before drinking. You wouldn’t wanna be next. You turn away and try to sleep more.

It isn’t a problem; you are too tired to stay alert. 

You wake up when it's bright. Seemingly untouched. You sit up. Water is still in the same place.

You look around. His house is huge. Pretty too. You hear his footsteps. He walks into the living room with some breakfast. He sets it in front of you.

“You really should drink that water.” He sits down on one of the chairs across. 

You look up at him, scared.

“I would already kill you by now; come on.” He throws a hand up, annoyed.

You look away and take the plate.

“Really, what did you think we were going to do to that guy?” He chuckles. “Or you just didn’t think the sausage was really made that way?”

You don’t respond, but eat and drink.

He nods and looks you up and down. 

“I’m Lalo.” 

You clear your throat.

“Y/N.”

He nods again. “Nice to meet you, y/n.” Lalo scratches his chin. “Well, y/n, why don’t you have a home?” 

You swallow your food before responding, “Safer that way.”

He laughs at you.

“Nah. It’s not.”

You blush. “And you would know?”

“Baby, I was born into this. I was doing it before you were born. I know.” He grins proudly.

“Don’t call me that.” You point your fork at him.

“Stay here.” He ignores your request. “I have extra bedrooms.”

“No.” You finish your food and put the plate down. “I’m leaving, and we will never see each other again.”

“Querido, America is too small for that! You’ll have to skip the country.” Lalo shrugs.

“Who are you? Really?”

Lalo raised his eyebrows playfully and said, “Nobody. Just a friend.”

“Yeah…” You relax in your seat.

“Seriously, though, stay. I’ll pay for everything you need.”

“And I give you?...”

“Sex and maybe...” Lalo responds, “We can go out like yesterday again. Just… I want you to help and not cry in the corner.” 

You frown, thinking.

He keeps talking.

“Or you can come back to your old life and occasionally bump into me, knowing you got blood on your hands now and that nobody will ever be by your side anymore—”

You interrupt him.

“Nobody was by my side before.” You mumble.

Lalo grins and leans forward.

“Then let's be friends.”

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S04E07 - A Stab in the Dark Web Part B

"We've got a surveillance team in place." That's great. Will you remember this in a few hours? Will they, even? Why were they so "discreet" as to let Eva near Charlie's laptop when they knew she shouldn't be on it?

Sarah is not jealous AT ALL. Nope. Not picking up anything.

"I'm so going to take advantage of this information."

Like, how can I not pin this on the whole team? Joe suggested that Charlie's place was the best place for Eva to be in, when they already thought that they were compromised, which meant that they should have assumed their home addresses were compromised as well. Charlie leaves Eva alone at his house so that Rex can go pee instead of calling either Sarah or Jesse to take him out, which would leave one cop in the van and one guarding Eva, instead of having two in the van (which helps at nothing) and zero in the house. Then we have the house which is supposedly under surveillance by Jesse and Sarah, supposedly watching, but they don't alert Charlie to the fact that Eva touched his laptop. Once Charlie realizes that she's done that, he takes her explanation at face value and doesn't ask Jesse to check his laptop.

The graphic for the disappearing chat messages on the dark web is fun.

I've had some contact with libertarians over the years, more than I'd personally like. All the talk about revolutions and whatnot, and their fondness for the dark web are indeed real. When crypto had first risen, lots of them were salivating at the idea of an unregulated and anonymous form of currency, and even more when they discovered private cryptocurrencies (which supposedly offer an extra layer of anonymity). It's funny, though, that they thought even for a bit that governments and banks would let them do that. Anyway, what I want to say is that Joe wouldn't know how to talk to that person at all. But let's disregard that.

"I can't believe that I left her with a laptop and she opened it! I said no electronics!"

And then he gives her his phone too. Forget Sarah, why didn't Jesse burst into the house?

It's true that the way some drugs are regulated actually hinders some people who could benefit from them, instead of helping. Still, in that moment, Eva is pretty much selling a sob story to Charlie, which isn't even the whole truth since she also needed those drugs for herself, to try to get him on her side.

This is a very appropriate distance.

Sarah looks like she'd fallen asleep and just woke up for the good part. Which would actually make more sense than whatever they were doing in the van with Jesse.

First time I watched this I was like, eh, let the guy kiss someone if it's not Sarah. I hadn't realized he was entering his slut era. Also, yeah, Sarah, they are, this is a very astute observation.

And Jesse is entering his pervert era.

I can't decide if he was thinking "I'm so screwed" or "I wonder if Sarah is watching".

I love that Rex is thoroughly disappointed by that development. Rex was all of us in S4.

And then the ninjas attacked. I'm assuming our surveillance is too busy watching the Charlie Hudson show to see the guy approaching the house?

Dude had knives everywhere. Charlie was lucky he wasn't hit (and I was unlucky).

"I'm having a really bad day. Thank you for letting me get off some steam."

This is the only slightly disapproving look I can find. I mean, given the circumstances, she could have said something.

What a plot twist! She lied and she used you, Charlie. Also, again, where were the rest of you when she was using Charlie's laptop?

More bad news.

I... have questions. Like, where did the paramedics go? Did she make them abandon the ambulance? And was that before or after she tied Rex to the stretcher? This scene was executed sloppily.

Congratulations, you finally figured out why he wouldn't leave Eva's side. I think that played a part in Charlie trusting Eva.

Their brilliant ideas to subdue an angry guard dog is: pet behind the ears, put jazz music... Are you kidding me? At least Jesse thought of food.

I feel like they should have made Mercurius seem more scary and money-hungry or even power-hungry.

In which season?

Sorry, that's just funny. I really don't think he's ever made the first move.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Oh god, he still doesn't get it. Because it was easier for her to manipulate you when you didn't have all the facts!

Bold of you to assume that Charlie would follow, but he's definitely not at his best. This is actually using Rex as Charlie's weakness, unlike the previous episode. Although I don't think Charlie should risk that jump regardless. Also, really, a dog wouldn't have made it? I find that hard to believe, they seem like better jumpers than humans. And have more legs.

Yeah, even at his worst, he will do the right thing.

Oh, yeah, we forgot all the hitmen that might come for her. Whoops.

The more they show that cliff, the more confident I become that Rex would have survived it and Charlie wouldn't.

Angst.

Joe: "There's nothing you or any of us could have done." Except for your jobs, but better?

Poor Charlie. He's definitely not okay. I wish they'd written something deeper about what's wrong with him.

And this is Eva letting Charlie know that she made it and even had time to hack the app to let him know that she's okay.

I like this episode but it always makes me think of what it could have been if it was another show, another production and another network involved.

Once again, I'd like to focus on the fact that after a certain point in the episode where it becomes clear that Charlie's head is not in the game, no one says anything about it. No one pulls him back, no one asks if he's okay or even what the fuck he's doing. I guess they keep all the second-guessing for the last episode of the season. Charlie tried to do his job until the very end but I think the distractions were just too much for him and they're indicative of his state of mind.

And they all made mistakes. I still don't know where to pin the surveillance failure, there were two people in the van. They should have intervened in two separate instances, one to take the laptop away from Eva and one to intercept the masked guy who also might have strolled right next to the van. Am I to presume that they put cameras inside the house and not outside? Where they suspecting Eva more than they suspected someone would show up to kill her? In both cases, they failed.

Again, this less than stellar performance from our characters is a great reason for Adele to show up and say that they need more oversight. But some part of this would have to make it to the reports for that to happen.

I've written thoughts on this episode before. I'd pointed out that Eva notices some sort of kinship and attraction between her and Charlie and she tries to use them to her advantage. Which is why the morality of their kiss is more complex than it seems at first glance. At first glance it might seem like he's the one taking advantage. He's not. Is it still wrong that he let her kiss him, and from the way the scene is shot, for several seconds too? Yes. But I remember from the first moment this episode came out, reading about how he was in a position of power. And in that scene, to me, he always comes off as... powerless. Lost.

I understand the contradictory opinions this episode causes. Personally, I like the episodes where there is an upset. We have too many episodes where everything feels like another day on the job, and it doesn't seem to affect them in either way and the repercussions begin and end in that episode. In this one we do see Charlie visibly upset. I'd have liked to see the rest of the team more worried about him or even frustrated and not understanding his predicament. I'd have liked friction more than getting a mention in the finale. There was something there worth exploring.

I'll say again that it would have been a much better storyline to write something about depression or PTSD for Charlie rather than heartbreak throughout the season. Or a combination. He has been through a lot. Maybe I'm asking again too much of this show and this belongs to fanfictions.

[insane-weasel]

Me, with the objectively worst opinion: Oh...I liked the idea of a QPR Lila x Five.

I'm only halfway through S4, but I like it over S3. (Victor's son caused me to mentally block out like 90% of S3)

Review so far:

Luther's plot: 3/10. I'd love for him to stop being the butt of the joke.

Diego: 0/10. Horrible. You're going to make him a dad and tell me he is not like a super loving and caring father and show me any of that????? Why???? Is he always treated so bad by the plot. Stop making fun of him ffs. Oh, he's barely even chubby, but make fun of his weight. Oh, he's kind of concerned his wife doesn't love him...when she doesn't....make him seem paranoid and in the wrong when...like??? What? WTF is Diego's character.

Allison: 6/10 Thank you for not sticking with Allison is the bad guy...though why throwing any character progression...uh what's with her and Claire??? Are they gonna expand on the last 6 years??? Why 6 years??? Hello??? Anyway, her plot is passable so far. Not best, but....not S3 which is a win

Victor: Only solid 7/10 because he's really hitting me-core. Only characterization I'm kinda on board with. Actually, yeah, have Victor living a really moderate life at a bar. I think he should take you another instrument that isn't the violim. Though not a fan of how they're depicting his powers. I liked the more ethereal powers. Though no on Victor having failed relationships. He needs an awkward cute romance like Sissy? WTF was with that whole beginning? Like...anyway.

Five: 2/10 I don't hate it. But it is the worst five plot thus far IMO.

Ben: 5/10. Actually, I do think Sparrow Ben would be arrogant enough to be in Crypto. I don't like Sparrow Ben, but his depiction tracks. Still wish we could...have OG Ben........Second thought, hate Sparrow Ben. Though whatever, love interest, okay.

Lila: ...1?/10 I feel like the one person who didn't like Diego x Lila, and didn't think she'd settle down. I like a QPR with her and Five. However--How they're handling this? Awful. Also, her powers????? No more mimic. Boooooooooooo.

Klaus: 2/10 I wanted them to go angst with Klaus' immortality, but...ughh. Compulsive cleanliness and over anxiety about common fears is a legitimate way paranoia can develop...as a person with those kinda issues, but they do not depict them in any. Like I'm going to be honest, when you do have those fears to that level...you aren't sober or if you are...you're not looking well. But forget all that crap, why couldn't we have whatever story was Klaus bonding with Allison and helping raise Claire. Why was that the plot we had to be told about rather than shown????$

Other thoughts:

-Gene and Jean are like...10/10. Solid villains. Love em. Costume, actors, quirks--great.

-OH. My. God. Can Reginald stoooooop being a character.

-Music and set designs are a 10/10, costumes this season and apparel is a 2/10. What are some of these looks????

-Uh...The plot is kinda...feels like a fanfic that the author continues after 6 years, half-assed and wings, and has no love for the source material. Some parts seem so lazy. The stakes feel weak. There's traces of a great story...buried in there.

Overall, my theory for what happened: Umbrella Academy leaned into its comic book elements in the worst way possible. For that to have worked, a cohesive and fully fleshed out plot would need to be in place first then followed by a style of editing, composition and mise-en-scene, and then characters can play into cartoon styles.

The editing and filming have not changed between seasons. There's no style. Actually, they've gotten worse. The camera angles are painfully standard. If you wanted comic book, that camera needs to be at some different angles, but no, 3/4, eye level, always capturing same length. Whoever directed this? For shame. You don't use the foreground. You don't use the background. Everything happens on the same level and has the same amount of presence on screen. It screams "no time for flare, let's just get this done!"

So many of the BTS/production elements feel...rushed. If that wasn't the case, if this didn't have a painfully short filming timeline and they didn't have severe restraints compared to the last seasons...than...no one had any love for the series anymore.