#why the fuck did i type this all up i think i've actually gone insane

[unreesonable]

Radio 2 interview with Lynn Parsons, 21 October 2002, about Art and other things. Transcript under the cut.

LP: It's late night Radio 2. Now "Art" has been showing in the West End of London for 6 years now and it's renowned for its freshness because every few weeks there's a cast change. As of Monday the 14th of October, the 27th cast took to the stage at the Whitehall Theatre - namely Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith. They are known collectively as The League of Gentlemen, and they join us in the studio tonight to talk about the very last cast change in this six-year run of Yasmina Reza's story of friendship that is put to the test, and all in the name of art. Welcome, Gentlemen.

MG: Good evening.

RS: Hello

SP: Hello!

LP: You've just come off stage. How was it tonight?

SP: Great!

RS: Good, very good.

SP: Very good response. You know, it's the play that really gets people going and we just feel like, you know, we're very lucky to have such a good script, really.

LP: Well, it's going to be completely different to the first time you actually hit the West End stage because you were performing in something you'd written. Now you're performing in something that somebody else has written. Is that as comfortable?

MG: It's very different, but I think what we've found so far is you can almost sense there are some people who've only come to see us. Obviously, there's a big mixed audience because the play has such a reputation, lots of tourists, but I think you can almost detect that people are won over by the material. They may be expecting one thing and they certainly get another, and by the end, they're really going with the actual impetus of the play rather than just the fact that we're, you know, we're novelty casting.

SP: There was a performance the other night where the curtain sort of goes up and I'm sitting on stage to begin, and I heard someone go 'Pauline!' and I was thinking 'Oh no!' And, you know, that's the fear - that people would expect to see what we do on television somehow infused into this play. And of course we haven't done that.

RS: Yeah.

SP: We've just acted in the play, haven't we?

RS: Absolutely. Yeah, it was a concern that somehow people might think, bizarrely, that we would do the play in our characters.

MG: Well, some quite reasonable people have actually asked that.

RS: Yeah!

MG: Which is extraordinary, as if we're going to sort of pervert this play just to our own advantage.

SP: But as Mark says, by the end you can tell by the time you're doing your final curtain call and everything that people have really enjoyed it.

RS: But it is a strange thing to do someone else's lines, finally, because, you know, we are so used to writing and performing our thing and it's our vision. Suddenly to have characters that are not ours - you know, that's where we've had a director for the first time in many years properly directing us as actors, and that's a really unusual thing for we three. We never get told what to do really.

LP: Now we're used to seeing the three of you - the three of you together. And I just wondered whether you chose the parts you played or did they absolutely know who was going to play what?

MG: No, it was up to us, but we sort of fell into. er... There was a kind of general sense - people guessed correctly and I was like 'Oh, all right. Why?' And we did talk for a while about sort of swapping around to confound people's expectations, but it just sort of happened naturally really.

LP: I thought perhaps Mark would be Marc, but you've complicated matters slightly.

MG: Yeah, that was the only concession to complication.

SP: It would help, wouldn't it, to change that. But no, I think they had the same ideas that we had. But to be honest, we could have done it any way. We did feel that the parts were best suited the way we've done them, but we could have changed them.

LP: Well, you're in it for three months-

MG: Oh!

LP: And we're only a week down the line. I was just thinking that maybe you might have a bit of fun and change around.

RS: Ugh! No...

LP: Would that be too much?

MG: It's enough of an effort to get through it every night!

LP: I think perhaps you should tell us the parts you play and what - why you picked those particular parts. That would be good.

MG: Well, I play Serge, who's bought the offending white painting. I'm a dermatologist, I've done very well for myself, and what the others can't bear - or certainly Marc can't bear - is I've splashed out this enormous amount of money, about £20,000, on a totally white painting. It offends his sensibilities somehow. And I'm sort of trying to keep the end up for art for art's sake really, in the face of his- what I see as his philistinism.

SP: But you are more interested in art than-

MG: Than the other two, yeah, yeah.

SP: Than we two. But as yourself, I mean…

MG: Oh, me? Yes.

SP: But you wouldn't like the white painting, would you?

MG: No, that's the thing.

SP: As yourself.

MG: I mean, I love painting, I do paint, but I'm actually more...

SP: He's a decorator.

LP: Right...

MG: I'm a painter and decorator. Like Hitler. I would not have that painting in my house.

LP: OK

RS: It's strange though because by the end I think it is a beautiful thing. That's what's brilliant about the play.

SP: So actually you should have been Serge?

MG: Yeah.

RS: Yes! Yeah, yeah.

SP: Mark should have been Marc and I should have been Yvan.

RS: Oh no. Mistake.

SP: We are discovering we've done it wrong!

MG: Oh no!

RS: Anyway, I - unfortunately - play Yvan. I'm the middle one who is, um, neither hates nor loves the painting but can just see both sides and is the friend of the pair of 'em. There's three friends and we are equally kind of successful in the worlds that we inhabit, but I kind of try to keep the peace and, wrongly, probably - in a kind of a boring way - say yes to both the pair of them. And that causes conflict because I shouldn't just be kind of middling. I shouldn't...

MG: You don't take sides.

RS: I don't, yeah… I don't, I kind of try and keep it all smooth and that causes its own problems. And I don't know whether I do that in real life - I probably don't do that in real life. I'm probably more extreme than Yvan and... angst-ridden. I mean, the character often is being described as kind of the scatty middle one, the obviously comedic one of the three, and I think that we haven't - well, I haven't really done it like that. Not that I'm trying to defend myself if it's not funny, but not obviously to playing it for kind of the bumbling middle one. It's just we… I think we're all quite equal in it and that's good. I think that's true to the play.

LP: OK.

RS: So, um, that's my character.

LP: And you play Marc?

SP: I play, Marc, yes. Marc is an engineer and he's very good friends with Serge and with Yvan, and he hates the painting. And it turns out that he's always thought of himself as being a sort of opinion former - someone who Serge would come to and say 'What do you think about this?' and Serge would get his opinions from Marc. So the idea that Serge has gone out and bought his own painting is really annoying. And the fact that it's just this completely white canvas - he just can't see it. He's very old-fashioned. And when I read it, I sort of didn't like the character. I thought, 'Oh God, he's a bit pompous and a bit sort of arrogant,' but the way we've been directed to do it is to see every character's point of view and play the truth of that because, you know, you do get exasperated about the most ridiculous things. And one of the nice things that we've been able to work on - because we are three friends and have been for 15 years as the friends in the play have been - is that even when they're falling out and at their most extreme, daggers drawn, they can still have a laugh. And so the play needn't become just one long protracted argument - that would be very boring. So what we've tried to do is pick out moments of humour even amid the hugest argument. Someone will say something and all three of us laugh, and that's been really nice to work on.

RS: Yeah, it's a very real thing I think in friendship - in a proper friendship, a long stable friendship - that you can do that. You can say the most horrible thing and a minute later you can be laughing again, and you know it just wasn't meant.

MG: You can certainly imagine it like at the end of a relationship - even if it's all over and that's it, and you're sort of even, like, sorting out who's getting what and things like that, you would have a shared remembrance of something which would still bring you back together. And that's the sort of thing we've been trying to find in it.

LP: When there's a cast change in 'Art,' there is always - I travel up and down on the escalators all the time. Just for the sheer hell of it, not because I'm going anywhere. But there are always those wonderful pictures, aren't there?

MG: Yes!

RS: Yeah.

LP: And yours has got, well, a lot of colour in it. And a cow!

RS: That's right, yes.

LP: One of these cows has been placed around.

MG: Modish.

LP: Was that anything to do with you?"

MG: Well, I had an idea that we should do a Damien Hirst thing and have us cut in half and preserved in tanks.

RS: Yeah.

MG: Which I thought was a bit ghoulish even for us... But then it went that way of having one of those cows. And the reason we've got chainsaws and everything - the implication is we're going to cut it in half and do a sort of Damien Hirst on it. I don't know what it is now-

RS: I think it just happened - the cows are around at the moment and it's an art-type thing-

MG: And it's the only white one. It's an artifact in itself.

RS: Yes. So it's just, um, a sacred cow, maybe...

MG: Hmm, yeah...

SP: But because it's a white cow on a white background in the poster, most people don't see it!

LP: I saw it!

SP: You saw it. OK! Oh, that's good!

LP: It's the blood splattered everywhere, all the red paint really.

SP: Yeah, well, it's certainly different, you know. We went to David Pugh's office - he's the producer - the other day, and he's got all the different posters on his wall. And we were saying to him you should put a book out. Because they are really-

LP: Actually they're very clever aren't they? Very clever.

RS: Yeah. It'd be really nice to have.

MG: We actually have two. We're the first cast to have two - it's double-sided, although no one puts the other one up. The other side is a Gilbert and George pastiche, which no one gets so probably not… it's not up, but it's quite nice, that one. Quite subtle.

RS: Yeah. Like stained glass.

MG: Mmm.

LP: Stay with us, we'll talk more after this. The League of Gentlemen - that's Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith - are my guests on the show tonight, and they're currently performing 'Art' at the Whitehall Theatre in London, which we will come back to in a moment. But I think we need to mention Jeremy Dyson. I've never seen him - I'm not sure if he exists - and obviously there are only three parts, aren't there, in 'Art'?

MG: Yes.

LP: So it's understandable that he's not there. But we haven't seen him in The League of Gentlemen either, have we? Or have we?

MG: You've glimpsed him very briefly.

SP: He crops up, yeah. You'd have to know what he looked like in order to spot him - a bit like Where's Willy.

MG: Where's Willy this week?

SP: The children's books. But no, he does crop up. He was in the original lineup before we were called The League of Gentlemen. He did do some sketches, and in fact, he was the first person to play Bernice, the vicar who Reece now plays. But because he never trained as an actor, I think he just sort of didn't feel confident enough to do that.

LP: And he likes focusing on the writing.

RS: Absolutely, yeah.

LP: What does he think of you in this? Has he seen you yet?

RS: Yes, he has. Yes, yeah, he thought it was very good. He was very proud. He hadn't ever seen it, so it was great that he said he was holding out for us three to do it.

LP: Aww!

MG: Oh, that's what everyone's been saying! Lazy people!

RS: But no, he was very... He thought it was great.

LP: Good. I think I'm right in saying that you were commissioned for the BBC Radio 4 series after being spotted at the Edinburgh Fringe, and that the radio show won a Silver Sony Award, which is-

MG: That's right.

LP: That's fantastic, isn't it?

RS: It did, yeah, it was amazing.

MG: Yeah, seems like a long time ago.

SP: The Gold Award went to 'Jam,' the Chris Morris series on Radio 1, which we didn't mind losing to because we think he's a genius.

LP: It's pretty cool too, isn't it?

MG: I can also remember that the bronze went to 'Hold My Plums' Christmas Special.

SP: That's right.

MG: BBC Radio Bristol.

SP: It was regional. It was local humour for local people.

LP: And then we get the resulting television series, and I'll just have to take a deep breath here, which won the Golden Rose of Montreux, the RTS Award for Best Entertainment, a BAFTA for Best Comedy, and in terms of other awards as well, there was the little matter of the Perrier Award for the Edinburgh Fringe in '97. Now, there are four of you, so do you have these awards on your mantelpiece in a rota basis? How does it work?

RS: Yeah. No, we don't.

MG: Actually, should work out a version of the award story now 'cause… a shortened version of them all. The Golden Rose was stolen by the BBC. It's still there. We got -

SP: It wasn't stolen!

RS: They said, 'Can we have it and have it in a tank for a while and look at it?' and then we never got it back.

MG: We got one BAFTA each - we got one of those at home. The RTS is with our agent. The Perrier is too. I think that's it.

SP: I think the only awards we've got… the only awards I've got at home are… when you're asked to give an award and the person hasn't turned up, so we've got like Gwyneth Paltrow's Best Actress award

RS: Yeah, I've got that.

SP: And I've got Marilyn Manson's award for Best Video.

RS: She won at the Empire Awards

SP: So that's the only way we get awards - by giving them out and then people not collecting them. Otherwise, because there's four of us, yeah, we give them to our agent and they sort of look after them.

RS: They've got a, you know, a display cabinet with a lot of awards in. So it's-

SP: Just to stop the BBC stealing them.

MG: Stealing them back!

LP: Now, a moment ago you were saying in 'Art' the relationship is 15 years, you know, sort of off stage and on stage for these characters, and you were saying that it's okay to argue and it works throwing things sort of about between you. Is that how the writing for The League of Gentlemen works? Are there a few arguments? Do you kind of pitch in here and there?

RS: It's not as apocalyptic as in 'Art,' but we're a bit more…

MG: Not yet.

RS: Not yet, no.

LP: No chainsaws.

RS: Yeah, no, it's… we kind of split the writing into two teams. Steve and I write together, and Mark and Jeremy tend to write together, and then the hardest part really is coming together to knit it into one whole. And this third series we've just done, we tried more to have an eye on the entire thing this time around because our last two series have kind of been made up of sketches that we've all written individually.

LP: This is slightly different, isn't it?

RS: Yeah, so we just thought - and it's always felt slightly unsatisfying as writers to have not really ever had that bigger picture entirely. So we just thought let's try and think of… and this is why we ended up with the idea of all six having the same ending and arriving at the same point so that it all completely knitted together. And that's hopefully quite interesting for people to watch.

MG: Also after three series, you know, we move on. There are elements in the second series where if you watch it now, there are storylines developing over a couple of episodes or even one episode. There's a little story about four visits to… and so it's a natural progression then to do a 20-minute story around one or two characters and make it less sketchy, and it's more mature, I think.

LP: Right. The show's really funny and very dark too. Now, I've read that you claim British horror films are a big influence on your work. Are we talking Hammer Horror here?

SP: Yeah, I think in part, yeah.

RS: All kinds.

SP: All kinds of horror films from the '30s, '50s, '70s... I think in this third series what we've tried to do is - because we've done so many horror film pastiches up to this point, and there's a danger of being seen as going into parody and doing parodic humor, which isn't our thing really, and so we've pulled back a little bit from that and allowed the characters just to be in the real world with real problems. But yeah, certainly the idea of those sort of horror films which really shock you and take things in an unexpected direction - that's been a big influence, and we always try to stay one step ahead of the audience.

LP: At this stage in the proceedings, I think I should bring in Papa... Lazarou.

MG: Papa Lazarou.

SP: Why, is he outside?

RS: Yeah, here he comes...

SP: He's going to steal you!

LP: How scary is that man? We've had so many emails because we've said that you're coming on the show, and we had one from Hannah Chase in Dartmouth who said that is her favourite character. Are we likely to see more of him in the future?

MG: Ah, well, you must gaze into your crystal ball!

RS: Yes, yeah… Well, we were very… we had… we talked long and hard about how we could or couldn't bring him back, you know. We just… we just in the end thought that…

LP: You're gonna let him go?

RS: Yeah, one of the first-

SP: For now!

RS: For now. I mean, who knows?

SP: But not forever.

RS: Not forever.

SP: He's roaming the country, yeah.

RS: Yeah he's in the countryside wandering around looking for more wives.

SP: You never know when he's going to crop up.

LP: And bizarrely, we have one from Dave, who I understand is the real Dave. From Cardiff. Who wanted me to ask you what is the special stuff that Hillary Briss the butcher sells to the locals?

MG: We can't tell you that because otherwise it would all be blown!

RS: Ah yes.

LP: You'd have to kill me, wouldn't you?

RS: Yes. We could, but then...

SP: Read the book, read… there are clues in it.

RS: Yeah, there are!

SP: There are clues. If you read the - we've got a book called… I'm not plugging it here, well I am, but 'A Local Book for Local People.' If you read that, there are clues within it as to what the special stuff actually is, and no one's cracked it yet. But-

MG: It's like that thing where you could go and dig up the golden hare. You remember that?

RS: Ooh. 'Masquerade'

LP: I don't know that one. That's kind of fallen a bit flat on me.

RS: Didn't you have to find eggs around the country?

MG: No, it was… it was a bloke called Kit Williams. He made this beautiful jewelled hare out of solid gold and buried it somewhere. And he did this fantastic book of paintings with clues…

RS: Oh yes! I remember that!

MG: And everyone got to around page 16 and couldn't get any further.

LP: Did anybody find it?

MG: They did in the end, and I think someone found it by accident, which is terrible.

SP & RS: Ugh!

MG: We should do something like that.

RS: Mm!

SP: A development, or…

LP: A bit of an anticlimax really. And Alec Duffy from Glasgow says, 'Why was the town called Spent for the radio series and changed to Royston Vasey for television?'

MG: We came up with the… we had a big list of short… a shortlist of potential Northern town names, and Spent is quite authentic-sounding. There's a lot of places, you know, called Knacked and Dry, things like that, various places in the North… and then we just got a bit fed up with it, really. And Royston Vasey had been on the list - it's Chubby Brown's real name. It was like sort of joke within a joke.

RS: Yeah, I think we thought Spent was a bit too kind of on the nose, telling you what-

MG: Too 'Nurthurn'

RS: Um, the intention behind that kind of tired, horrible-

MG: It's also that simple thing, you know, transition to TV, you sort of want to make a fresh start. And we'd made a lot of mistakes on the radio, I like to think. Like today! And it was just sort of is a way of underlining that and saying, 'Well, this is slightly different.'

SP: Same material but a different...

RS: A different town name.

MG: The town next door.

LP: Let's take you back to the theatre now. You're in 'Art' until it closes in January. Is it very nice to be sort of, you know, 27th cast and with all those names? Is it really nice to be part of that?"

RS: Absolutely, yeah. It's such an honour. I mean, I've always… I remember seeing the second cast with Mark Williams, David Haig and Anton Lesser, and I thought, 'That's… I'd love that play. I'd love to do that one day.' And you know, that was 1997/8, was it something like that? I just thought we'd never be asked. But. It's great!

SP: Mm, but to begin with, it was quite daunting, wasn't it? Because we were sort of hearing all these other casts and 'Oh, they did that line brilliantly' and 'they did that scene beautifully,' and it puts the pressure on you before you've actually done the play. Now we've done it and we've got the first sort of week or so under our belts, we're a bit more confident that it's our interpretation of 'Art,' and, you know, hopefully it'll rank alongside the others.

RS: Yeah. And we're younger than a lot of the casts… I mean, they have in the last few casts had younger people, and that's a different spin on it, I think. MG: And also we are three friends - the first time this has happened. I mean, I think previous casts, a couple of people… well, the original-

LP: Might have known each other.

MG: - get on well, but it's a different sort of dynamic, if I dare use that word. We won't be friends by the time we've finished!

LP: And just finally, out of curiosity… he is the producer - have you met Sean Connery yet?

MG: We got some flowers from him opening night. And I was going, 'Who's this Sean?' ... Oh, it's Sean Commery. The very idea that he sent-

SP: We're hoping that, you know, that the run coincides with one of his tax breaks, you know, when he can come to the UK, and that's the only way we'll meet him!

MG: 'What the hell have you done to my play?'

SP: But interestingly, he is filming 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' in Prague.

MG: Ah yes.

SP: At the moment. Is he? So-

MG: Mm. Floods permitting.

SP: So there is a link there.

LP: The other link is, of course, that he was born in Edinburgh, so that kind of has a connection for you as well, because that's when things began to take off for you at The Fringe. So I guess geographically it's a lucky charm. And long may your luck continue!

MG & SP & RS: Thank you very much!

LP: Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith. Thanks so much for coming in for a chat, and they're in 'Art' at the Whitehall Theatre in London until January.

[kiyoomiee]

one. two. three. four. five.

After that pool party incident, Sukuna tried his best to stay away from you. But how could he when you're literally everywhere?

Walking into the kitchen in the morning to find you cooking breakfast in one of his oversized shirts that Yuuji must've mistook as his and let you borrow it. The way it barely covered your thighs had him gripping his coffee mug too tight. Fucking sinful.

Running into you in the hallway after your shower, hair wet and skin flushed from the hot water. The scent of your shampoo and body wash lingering in the air long enough for him to get addicted to it even after you're gone.

Sukuna can sense that you're trying to avoid him too.

You started waiting until you hear his bedroom door close before going out of your room. You would sometimes eat your meals alone just to avoid him in the kitchen.

It was driving him insane. He wanted to avoid you, yet he can't stop seeking you out when you're gone from his sight.

He couldn't stop thinking about you, and he hated it. Hated how his body reacted every time you were near. Hated how his eyes followed you whenever you entered a room.

But most of all, he hated how you made him feel things he never felt before.

“You've been spacing out a lot lately. Everything okay?” Yuuji's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Shut up.” Sukuna grunts. They were watching Yuuji's favorite movie, yet Sukuna's focus was anywhere but the screen in front of him.

His brother was more perceptive around others, contrary to other people's thoughts. Yuuji noticed his lingering eyes whenever you're around.

Where are you? You aren't home yet.

“She's sleeping over Nobara's dorm tonight, if that's what you're worried about.” Yuuji mentioned as if he can read thoughts, and watched as his brother's expression darken.

“Not worried.” Liar. Just the mention of you had his chest tighten uncomfortably.

He needed to get his shit together. You were his brother's best friend, for fuck's sake. Off limits. Forbidden. Young. Not his type.

Lies. lies. lies.

One night, Sukuna came home late from work, pissed over a client who tried to lowball him about their tattoo design which he spent fucking hours on.

He found you in the kitchen, humming softly while washing dishes. He went straight for the cupboard, he desperately needs a drink tonight.

“Oh, you're home. I saved some food for you in the fridge. Have you eaten dinner yet? I'll heat it up for you.” You turned the faucet off and faced him when a gentle smile on your face.

Even after being rude to you in countless occasions, you still manage to spare him that smile of yours. Fuck, you're too good for him. Add that to the fucking list of reasons why he can't have you.

“Are you looking for liquor? I moved it over the next shelf.”

The sight of you in his space, looking so comfortable and domestic, made something snap inside him.

“Can you stop moving my fucking things around?” he growled.

“I was just cleaning-”

“I don't care what you were doing. This is my house, I want my shit exactly where I left it.” You flinched at his harsh and spiteful tone.

Why did he have to be so mean?

“What the fuck is your problem, Sukuna? Why do you hate me so much?” Your voice was barely above a whisper.

Sukuna froze, his jaw clenching. Hate you?

“I stayed out of your way. I avoid bumping into you everyday. I tried to do something nice yet you still look at me like I disgust you. I live like a fucking ghost in this house. So tell me what I've done to make you hate me so much?”Your lips quivered as you rambled on.

You were right. You're like a ghost that haunted him even in his dreams. In his dreams where he can touch you and own you freely, a beautiful nightmare that he doesn't want to end.

As he stares at you, his thoughts became more clear. If only he could actually hate you instead of wanting you so desperately that it made him feel like he was losing his mind.

“I don't hate you.” He said through gritted teeth. He runs a hand through his hair in frustration. “That's the fucking problem.”

—————————————————————

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[simpjaes]

hear me out.. experienced boyfie! hyung line w an inexperienced virgin!reader 🫠🫠 (you have no idea how long it took me to spell inexperienced..)

hyung line + experienced boyfriend to inexperienced/virgin reader.

warnings: virginity loss, lil bit of pain

jake:

boyfriend of exactly two weeks. he loves fast and hard, so upon realizing that his very own sweet girlfriend from college is avoiding his sexual advances because she's a virgin, he loved you even more. like marriage worthy, man wants to make you his wife.

he's the type to be obsessed with being the first and, hopefully, only man to get his dick in you. of course, he wouldn't push but he would make sure you're aware of how badly he wants to make you feel good, and how good it would feel for him in turn. saying things like "love, it's no rush but i can just imagine how tight you are-" and "i bet you get so wet." and "what if I just eat you out? maybe that would help?"

imagine you finally letting him at least engage in foreplay? maaaaaan, he would go insane. thigh fucking, dry humping, mutual masturbation, giving head, begging you to go down on him too.

by the time you'd finally let him hit, it would be because you're entirely in love with him too, and you swear you see little hearts in his eyes when he slides in for the first time. doesn't matter how experienced he is either, bro gets off like three pumps in because you really are so tight, and so wet.

jay:

"please baby? i'll go slow."

jay did not, in fact, go slow. In his defense, he did start off slow but the second he bottomed out it's like his body moved on its own and his brain went numb. Given, after a little while he'd come back to himself and apologize over and over again in your ear, through moans and little sighs. apologizing but like, also not stopping for a second.

"feels good, baby? yeah?" and he'd just answer for you like "yeah, look at you, totally gone for me."

i don't think Jay would be able to contain his horny level once he's in you, and his apologies are genuine. you'd probably whine a little bit until, well, it does feel good and you suddenly realize why people like fucking so much.

cue you wanting to get railed by Jay constantly, and who is he to say no? His libido is just as high.

free use boyfriend AND girlfriend.

sunghoon:

a perfect boyfriend, doesn't attempt to make you nervous. Because if he did, you might back out.

100% jerks off to you every. single. night. especially when you let slip that you want to lose your virginity to him on your anniversary.

he's seeing stars at the exact same moment you're seeing them, solely because the idea that you're giving yourself to him makes him feel soft and mushy. plus, like, feeling a virgin pussy squeeze and quake around his cock :( seeing your little winces? he's immediately kissing away the singular tear drop that falls and praising you for taking all of him.

he'd give you sweet lil whispers of "tell me what feels best for you, babe." and a lot of "i love yous" and "i've got yous"

by the time sex is fairly regular though? He gets a bit more rough with it, and you're definitely in love with the way he can switch from being a big soft boyfie to being an absolute mad man in bed.

Heeseung:

plays off the innocence HARDCORE.

no joke, he says shit like "So innocent, pretty girl is gonna let me fill her up?" and "you can hold on to me, i'll make you feel so good." minutes before he dives in.

and man, he would live up to all of that when it actually happens. You do, indeed, need to hold onto him with how deep he plunges himself into you. he doesn't let you adjust, praises himself and you, and is instantly throwing you into orgasms you didn't even know you could have.

it's very messy and probably not ideal for someone's first time but it sure as fuck locks you in. you've never seen heeseung act so fucking hot or so fucking into you like he is when he's rubbing your clit and bumping your cervix with the head of his cock.

maaaaaaybe sort of gives you the idea that sex is supposed to hurt before it feels good, and when he realizes that he feels guilty, apologizes, and eats you out or something. then when you tell him you kinda like the pain he's like "that's my girl"

[faeireinthehumanworld]

My Thoughts on Revenge of the Sith

why did I think this was a good idea

But in all seriousness, I finished the movie, here are my thoughts:

If I had any editing capacity I would make a video titled "Elevator Wars" about Anakin and Obi Wan's trouble with elevators.

R2D2 does not get enough credit for anything ever.

I loved all their little quips and I wish they'd kept more of them in the movie.

Much like General Grevious, the duel with Count Dooku was shorter than I expected. I was a little disappointed by this.

Dooku deserved better.

The amount of times I told Palpatine to shut the fuck up is unreal.

Made it until Anakin and Padmé's reunion before I teared up.

Obi Wan is adorable no matter what he's doing.

The first third of this felt like an episode of the Clone Wars.

I really wish Ahsoka was in this.

Not saying I would murder children about it but if I was thrust into the middle of these spy-counterspy shenanigans I would also be on the news.

Anakin needs a slap upside the head, a hug, a nap and therapy. Dear god, please someone let this man sleep.

Padmé is slaying with her outfits, as usual.

Kashyyk (no idea if I spelled that right) is seriously the coolest planet we've seen yet. I really wish we got more time there to explore.

Luminara sighting!

The Wookies are awesome. I'd watch an entire three-season series about them.

Spent the entire middle third of the movie alternately going, "Anakin. Anakin, no. No, don't, no-- goddamitt" and "Throw him out the window. Just throw him out the window, it's right there. Stab him in the head." (about Palpatine)

Anakin was three inches from stabbing him and he just had to open his mouth.

The entire fight with General Grevious was wild. The only reason it took so long was because Grevious is a coward and can't use one lightsaber like a normal person.

Side note: Love Obi Wan's lizard friend.

I wish there was more about the clones in this movie, there's no explanation whatsoever. They deserved better.

I can't help but love the Jedi Temple March, even though it's the backing track for atrocities.

Was basically yelling at Mace and Kit to get out of there the entire time.

It was Master Plo's death that finally got me to cry. I was misting up before, but that triggered the tears.

Oh, seeing Aayla was harder than I thought it would be.

I didn't realize until I actually watched it that all the younglings ran to the Council chamber. They were looking for the council members to protect them. I'm going to start crying again just typing this.

One of the saddest things I've ever heard came up again while watching this. The reason that R2D2 never stays put when Luke tells him to in the OT is because on Mustafar, Anakin told him to stay with the ship. And Anakin never came back.

The one action of Darth Vader's I agree with is killing Nute Gunray. That man is infuriating.

I spent a surprising amount of this movie worried for Master Yoda. Like yes, I know he lives, but he's so small, and old, and I wish I could help.

The duel between him and Palpatine was actually wild.

The fact that Duel of the Fates was playing in the background the entire time was just... not okay.

The fight between Obi Wan and Anakin lived up to expectations. I appreciate that there weren't as many cuts as there could have been. On a technical level it's very impressive.

On an emotional level I think I just felt the death of my soul.

The last third or so is kind of a blur. I just remember emotional trauma and alternating between tears and a kind of aching numbness.

Why was it the japor snippet that killed me

I wish they'd gone with the idea that Padmé started the Rebellion. I am glad she got to name the twins before she died.

Didn't expect to care about Bail as much as I suddenly do.

The fact that they ended on that Tattooine sunset somehow hurt worse.

A random thought I had: The cinematography in this movie is absolutely insane. Pretty much every shot is beyond gorgeous.

Final verdict: It was about as bad as I thought it would be. That is, it was horrible, and I cried, but it wasn't too much worse than the other recountings of the story I've watched. Maybe it was because I watched it during the day, but I'll be fine, I think. If nothing else, it's given me far more motivation to finish my fix-it fic.

[tussive]

Are there any tweaker misconceptions that you could debunk for us

I'm sorry that this took me so long to answer. I did want to think on it and then i did kind of forget about it and then i got called into work early and work was shit so it's just been one thing after another lol.

So, tweaker misconceptions. I'm not positive this is necessarily a misconception...though no I guess it kind of is. I think a lot of people have this idea that all tweakers are like, going to be a stereotypical tweaker. This is actually kind of interesting and something I have discussed with friends before and I don't know why it is. But even when you're doing like a lot or you're using regularly, like not everyone really becomes like a stereotypical tweaker.

Now, I think the longer you're regularly using recreational doses, the more likely it is to happen. But I have spoken with people who have been using for a long time and they aren't like that at all. Then I've spoken to people who y'know, have been going for like a week and it's like one of their first times doing it and they're already like doing tweaker shit. I don't know why it hits some people so fast and others just not really very much. Personally I never really got super tweak-y like that. Towards the end of me doing meth, I was going pretty hard. I was getting like at least half an ounce, usually an ounce, every month and sometimes more than an ounce even. And towards the end of that, I did definitely begin to get a bit paranoid. But it really is just kind of night and day compared to how some people will act.

I think another big one is that you can't use meth functionally. It's hard to do so, I do think a lot of people probably would never be able to. I certainly don't think I could. Believe me, I've fucked tried a lot lmao. But there are definitely people who can eat a bit in the morning or like do a line when they wake up and then maybe another line in the afternoon. I've even seen people who can smoke it and still be somewhat functional. Smoking definitely seems to lower that likelihood. I don't know if I've ever known anyone who IVs who did it and stayed functional...but I think part of that is probably just that if you're IVing meth, you're not looking for a functional experience I feel. Like you're trying to get high as fuck. So could somebody IV a small dose like once a day or something? I really have no idea, maybe.

I guess I kind of am just doing more meth misconceptions than tweaker misconceptions, so I'm sorry if these aren't really what you were looking for. I've never really fucked with tweakers all that much, honestly. Like I would browse the tweaker subreddits while I was on meth and I did enjoy seeing the crazy shit they'd say at times. But like in my personal life, I've almost always preferred the company of junkies to any other type of drug user.

But one misconception with meth is, I guess probably both how dangerous/addictive it is, as well as how not dangerous it is. So, like on one hand if you don't have some kind of like heart problem and you aren't doing like other stimulants or other things that are stressing your heart, it is pretty hard to just straight up overdose and die on meth. If you look online, you will find a bunch of stuff from medical journals about like, horrible experiences that people have gone through, but those are pretty rare. One of my problems with how dangerous it is portrayed, is that then when people do do it and see it's nothing like, insane, they will go the other way with it. Like you end up thinking like, "Oh it's not that bad at all."

Meth is very addictive, it is hard to use it responsibly, there are very much health concerns with using it. But I would say that one thing in particular that is worth keeping in mind, and this is true for "hard drugs" in general, not just meth, most people who try hard drugs do not go on to become addicted to them.

Umm, other misconceptions. I mean, I guess the usual stuff. Tweakers are obviously people, you should try to treat them with respect. Many people who do meth do use it, at least in part, to keep up with work or their home life or whatever. It is very good for that, so you may know people who do use it without ever knowing that they are users. Not everybody who uses meth is white trash or poor or whatever. Etc, etc.

Oh, I guess one last one would just be that tweakers are in fact in direct communication with god and it does imbue with you spiritual energy. This Reddit post actually explains the whole process pretty well imo.

[sylviareviar]

Dear Yusei,

THESE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!!!

For starters, the Survival Duels are being monitored by a visiting professor. It seems like the chancellor allowed it, though I can't fathom why. The basic premise I failed to explain last time is, if you fail to meet the standards after your data is sent by the Bio-Bands, you either get a demotion from the dorm, or get kicked out. Honestly, I don't really care what happens to me. I'm not actually a student, anyway.

Oh, right, the Bio-Bands. This is what they look like:

There's a clean sketch of the Bio-Bands, seen from the front and the back, clearly done by Sylvia's hand.

Every student got one, including me. We were told to put these on, and I did, but it feels... wrong. Off. I tried taking it off at one point to take a shower, but it wouldn't come off. Are they waterproof? I already hate this thing.

But the foreign students here are INSANE. We have some Australian dude with a crocodile-- a LIVE crocodile, mind you-- from South Academy, Johan, who I believe is Norwegian? I'll have to ask him to double-check, but he's from North Academy. We have Adrian Gecko, whom I've never heard of, from East Academy. And we have Austin O'Brien from West Academy.

Austin is the relevant one here.

I've only known Judai and Johan for a few days. I haven't told them anything yet, but these Survival Duels have been underway for just as long, and already everything's gone so far off the rails. On the FIRST DAY, Judai's classmate and friend, Sho, got FUCKING KIDNAPPED. BY O'BRIEN. He was tied up by a metal wire, then hung from a tree hanging over a cliff right above the FUCKING OCEAN. And no, it wasn't because they wanted Sho to join their team for a Turbo tournament.

It was to manipulate Judai into giving his all in a Survival Duel. What. The. HELL.

I'm sorry. I know I'm swearing a lot. I just need to cope. But GOD, what is going on at this school?!

Thankfully, Sho was saved. After Judai won his duel, the rope really did snap. But Johan and Judai's other friend, Tyranno Kenzan, managed to pull him up. I only arrived to see the latter half of the duel. Wind had noticed something was off and dragged me out, saying it was urgent.

I ended up revealing my Duel Runner to five students that day. They looked surprised to see me on one. I guess I don't look the type to ride a motorcycle.

There was a lot to unpack that day. Judai has a spirit that inspires all he duels with. He also has this kind of... instinctive wisdom, I think. The kind he's not even aware of. I wouldn't say he's the brightest in the traditional sense, but that spark of his is real. I can see what you meant when you said it was an honor to duel alongside him. He touches people's hearts. He even touched O'Brien's.

But Judai collapsed as a result of the duel. I sensed something then-- as if his very life force was being taken from him. I don't fully know what happened. Regardless, I rushed Judai to the nurse's office on my Runner. Johan, Sho, and Kenzan caught up with me afterward. I did hide the Runner as soon as I could, but it's possible more students saw it. Nothing's been said yet, so I think for now I'm in the clear. I asked Judai's friends to keep it a secret for now, but with how chaotic things are getting, I'm not sure how long that can last.

That being said, the next day, Judai ate really well. I was worried, so I asked for his temperature to be checked too. The nurse said he wasn't running a fever. His other friends were shocked by his big appetite, but I'm not actually all that surprised. Given the state of fatigue in his body, and his active personality, I assume he needs big meals before he gets full. You wouldn't think it, since he's about as skinny as a twig. But he's actually pretty strong.

...I'm jealous of that metabolism, though. Asuka and that Slifer Red girl made some delicious food, and he just... ran right out of the room. But that level of exhaustion definitely wasn't normal. I'm gonna go stick around with Judai for a bit, see what I can find out. And if I can rush him back to the nurse's office after he inevitably hurts himself again.

Update: where the fuck is he

The ink seems to have trailed wildly from the last letter, as if interrupted or startled.

[maliciousandcrude]

Welp. After some time. I present whatever the hell this is. Game Over lyrics with Xeno and Omega because... One not?

Note: I am NOT a lyrics writer so this probably sucks.

Omega: Oh... I shouldn't have gone down that cursed pipe... Well, Whatever this place is, I will survive!

Xeno (Faker): Hey buddy, is something wrong? you seem quite lost.... How about some assistance from this hedgehog?

Omega: I know your rules, You are the type to play cruel, so why don't you come out?

Xeno (Faker): Whatcha talking about?

Omega: You're one of trickery, But I, by mockery so why don't you come clean?

Xeno (Faker): Don't be so mean! Don't you need any help from me, the hero of Mobius?

Omega: You're a mere fake!

Xeno (Faker): Come on raccoon, your accusations are crude! It's driving me insane.....

Xeno (Partly revealed): GAH! You damn bastard! You've broken right through my shell! But that doesn't matter, cause right now you're in my hell!

Omega: While I would like to stay, I got to go to my stage! There's a show going on and I'm the co-star!

Duet 1

Xeno (Partly revealed): You won't be able to go to that damn stage yet, I've gotten a new plaything, and that new plaything is you! Play with me...

Omega: I... Got... No... Time... To entertain you and your rigged games! So, it's about time I bide adieu!

Duet 2 (running section)

Xenophanes: Where'd you think you're going?! This game has just started! Think that you can outrun SONIC? Don't be a fool! You're not smart, just uncool! That tail of yours won't bring you far! You're just a subpar! Throwaway.... Minion... Just a distraction, for satisfaction, of Ultra M! Do you think, he'll even notice?!

Omega: Must... Find... That... Pipe... Fasten up with quick speed, or else I'll bleed! At the hands of a filthy false god! Wait, were you talking shit? I wasn't paying attention! Do you even know what you're saying?! Mediocre insults won't hurt my pride! But it seems I've hurt yours!

Duet ends

Omega: You, look quite upset!

Xenophanes: You, are only a pest! Caught up in the roots, of my cruel games!

Mini duet

Xenophanes: What's the worst in having another soul to play with? Especially one with a sly tongue like yours?

Omega: I've already gotten a person to serve! If you're looking for another soul don't you dare choose me!

Mini duet ends

Omega: Did, I strike a nerve?

Xenophanes: Oh, do you observe! Now seize your language at once, for this is absurd!

Omega: Seems like you are fuming! Glad to know my words are really making you fall apart at the seams! (The "Innocence Doesn't Get You Far" line is instead replaced with "Thinking outside the box now, are we?")

Xenophanes: Come back! You cheeky rat! This chase is getting old!

Omega: Can't catch this shooting star! For I break all of your molds!

Xenophanes: Come back! You are not sly! Why don't you just die pesky fly?

Omega: Think you can catch me with my speed? An All Stars I will be!

Duet

Xenophanes: What a brat! You little rat! You think you're special? You're nothing more than a pawn, designed to be discarded! Once I get my hands on you, your fate, on a stake, it shall be!

Omega: Having trouble keeping up "SONIC?" Thought you're supposed to be the fastest thing alive! Why do they call you a blue blur when you can't even keep up with me~?

(Tails head shows up here)

Xenophanes: Well, What do we have here? Yet another soul! Ripe for the taking, suffering the death toll!

Mini duet

Xenophanes: It's always the same, in this hell, I call my own game!

Omega: Oh fuck, What the hell is this now? Is this where I'll bury my tomb? I think I'm actually screwed!

Mini duet ends

Xenophanes: What a shame! I had such fun! Doing this chase!

Mini Duet

Xenophanes: But now, it's time, for my bloody gorefest! Eye for an eye, swear on my soul your heart shall be, torn out by me!

Omega: Nowhere to run, no place to hide, my own fun is done! Perhaps I've underestimated the stuff you can do, the powers that makes you!

Duet 3

Xenophanes: There's no place to go now! So come and take your last bow! You've tried and yet you've failed to outrun SONIC! Claws and fangs shall graze upon your heart! Tear it all away, till there's no soul! Use... Less... Creation.... You've lost the game, so give up it's in vain! For you are up against a god!

Omega: Are.... you.... Kidding me? This is my fate?! At the hands of a fake?! Oh how cruel! At this pace the warp pipe's a mere drool! Truly an unfair match! Is there really no patch? I'm not super sure if I can outlast! My life, I have lived, shall become the past! But maybe there's a small chance for me!

GET BACK HERE!

Xenophanes: GET RIGHT BACK HERE THIS FUCKING INSTANT! THIS GAME ISN'T OVER YET! TRY AND RUN WITH YOUR MIGHT! IT WON'T GET YOU FAR!

Omega: Getting furious?

Mini Duet

Xenophanes: NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY, HOW FAST YOU WILL GO, YOU WILL NEVER EVER GET OUT MY SIGHT!

Omega: Come on now, false superstar! You thought you could get this showman? Oh such a pathetic thought you had! I know surely you're mad now! And now you'll suffer this tow! Gotten through this, through hoops and mischief! And pass your facade!

Xenophanes: NO NO, NO NOT YET!

Duet 4

Xenophanes: YOU MAY HAVE WON THIS GAME! BUT I'LL WIN THIS WAR! AND IN THE END, YOU'LL SUFFER THE SAME FATE! NOW, KNEEL BEFORE ME FOR I AM GOD!

Omega: Outrun your lucks worth! No more of your sapphire suns! Oh I've had such fun! Playing this game of cat and mouse but now it's time I bid Adieu!

...

OMEGA HAS PASSED HIDE AND SEEK!

[zoobus]

hey question, if you didn't read the book/ couldn't finish it then how do you know what other works it inspired? i mean like how exactly do you know?

I meant I didn't read past the first dozen pages. It's totally possible I'm wrong, but reading the first few pages of American Psycho made me realize I've read quite a few books that were probably trying to be American Psycho.

And to be clear, I'm not criticizing the book or saying the writing is bad. It's a particular type of writing that is nails on a chalkboard to me, that makes me go, I get it, I get the point you're making, please murder someone already. Here's two excerpts that might encourage others to pick it up but didn't work for me:

~~~

Evelyn stands by a blond wood counter wearing a Krizia cream silk blouse, a Krizia rust tweed skirt and the same pair of silk-satin d’Orsay pumps Courtney has on. Her long blond hair is pinned back into a rather severe-looking bun and she acknowledges me without looking up from the oval Wilton stainless-steel platter on which she has artfully arranged the sushi. “Oh honey, I’m sorry. I wanted to go to this darling little new Salvadorian bistro on the Lower East Side—”

Price groans audibly.

“—but we couldn’t get reservations. Timothy, don’t groan.” She picks up a piece of the yellowtail and places it cautiously near the top of the platter, completing what looks like a capital T. She stands back from the platter and inspects it. “I don’t know. Oh, I’m so unsure.”

“I told you to keep Finlandia in this place,” Tim mutters, looking through the bottles—most of them magnums—at the bar. “She never has Finlandia,” he says to no one, to all of us.

“Oh god, Timothy. Can’t handle Absolut?” Evelyn asks and then contemplatively to Courtney, “The California roll should circle the rim of the plate, no?”

“Bateman. Drink?” Price sighs.

“J&B rocks,” I tell him, suddenly thinking it’s strange that Meredith wasn’t invited.

“Oh god. It’s a mess,” Evelyn gasps. “I swear I’m going to cry.”

“The sushi looks marvelous,” I tell her soothingly.

“Oh it’s a mess,” she wails. “It’s a mess.”

~~~

“But then, when you’ve just come to the point when your reaction to the times is one of total and sheer acceptance, when your body has become somehow tuned into the insanity and you reach that point where it all makes sense, when it clicks, we get some crazy fucking homeless nigger who actually wants—listen to me, Bateman—wants to be out on the streets, this, those streets, see, those”—he points—“and we have a mayor who won’t listen to her, a mayor who won’t let the bitch have her way—Holy Christ—let the fucking bitch freeze to death, put her out of her own goddamn self-made misery, and look, you’re back where you started, confused, fucked … Number twenty-four, nope, twenty-five … Who’s going to be at Evelyn’s? Wait, let me guess.” He holds up a hand attached to an impeccable manicure. “Ashley, Courtney, Muldwyn, Marina, Charles—am I right so far? Maybe one of Evelyn’s ‘artiste’ friends from ohmygod the ‘East’ Village. You know the type—the ones who ask Evelyn if she has a nice dry white chardonnay—” He slaps a hand over his forehead and shuts his eyes and now he mutters, jaw clenched, “I’m leaving. I’m dumping Meredith. She’s essentially daring me to like her. I’m gone. Why did it take me so long to realize that she has all the personality of a goddamn game-show host? … Twenty-six, twenty-seven … I mean I tell her I’m sensitive. I told her I was freaked out by the Challenger accident—what more does she want? I’m ethical, tolerant, I mean I’m extremely satisfied with my life, I’m optimistic about the future—I mean, aren’t you?”

[katyspersonal]

Here's an interesting question: What's the best Paleblood Hunter ship and why? Would love to hear your thoughts on this lol

This is a quite hard question because even if you take the default Hunter (some guy with grey hair and grey/blue eyes we always see on the merch with something-something distant Cainhurst affiliation), the story still allows such flexibilities for that;;

I am personally compelled to think that Paleblood Hunter must have some moral restrictions and compass, even if he might be not completely lucid as the game functions like a dream and he loses load of memories upon awakening after Blood Ministration! And pair that with exhausting as many questlines as possible - so, wanting to help Alfred and seeing what happened, saving everyone and sending them to Oedon Chapel, completing Eileen's questline, having both Eileen and Valtr retire (they are still alive because I say so AAAAA!!!!!), all that. And let's presume that despite having to murder quite a lot of people, Hunter doesn't fall for needless cruelty and like, cares ok? He is not simply a murderous psychopath!

So yeah, Bloody Crow's ass is kicked to carry on Eileen's quest, Alfred certainly wrecks him up by showing his true face, Beggar he murders after the first victim (though still feels pangs because of the 'I did not ask to be like this'), Brador is seen as a total bitch, Imposter Iosefka is perceived as insane and Hunter would not really get behind her motivations, Micolash.... well, after wading through a whole village of display of his atrocities, and finally seeing THE man guilty for all this, I think this would be when Hunter actually loses it and murders him very cruelly, like, to the point of forgetting himself! You recall anon ask that suggested this scenario, and I still agree!

Basically? I feel like Henriett or Simon as the best ones! I talked about Henriett's potential as a character in this ( x ) post more, but she could be the similar type of a friend as Simon. Both knew some lore and are willing to share with Hunter, both follow us, both share reasonable and noble motivations (to stop/expose the Healing Church despite having once been part of it). I just really like this type of dynamic it seems? Paleblood Hunter is roughly following a good goal too - to find "paleblood" and stop the ritual that is fucking everyone over! And I still really love the idea I've got that since Bloody Crow has Repeating Pistol and is in Grand Cathedral and there is cut content Henriett's corpse file - he killed her, so- Yeahhh, these ships are very much straight vs gay version of one another, you feel?? xd It is a good type of a buddy that resonates with an interpretation of a Hunter who is rather a decent guy, not evil and callous, still in touch with the humanity despite mysterious connection with the paleblood on his own. These awesome buddies are as close to humanity and human values as our Hunter could stay, without ascending. And they are qualified to fight along his side, though Simon would be more like sniper + rogue and not blunt close combat like Henriett. There is not just ship potential - there is companionship potential, that I love. Like... let's just say that 'death' is a strong word for Bloodborne setting and they can live yet again. I mean, if Henryk was given second life just to fight again, clearly Yharnam functions a bit different :')

Funny enough, Eileen or Valtr are of the same nature - straight or gay variant of the same dynamics; an old person with very grim quest that is sort of in secrecy from the others, who also retires at the end and passes the mantle to Hunter! They are second best ships, yeah. There might be just drastic age gap (I think Paleblood Hunter is not really old, but rather 'colored' by paleblood and hence hair gone grey early), and a gap of mentor/student thing - nothing bad here, just that more "equal" ships are a personal preference!

____________________

Honorable mention: Things might get.. interesting, following the idea of Paleblood Hunter being incarnation of Laurence (elaborated on here: ( x )). That could create really heart-rending bond with Gehrman (and also with Micolash, Fauxsefka and Brador maybe? depending on how much of the sentiments long gone resurface), but I do not even know where to begin with this idea... @_@" It always felt quite hefty with how many factors there are to keep in mind. But Hunter x Gehrman is very good regardless, even if doomed. @ Flora pls get SECOND host of the dream for a change ;-;

Thank you for an ask!!

[batsplat]

a tennis ask: does the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) actually do anything? its existence and operations are kinda weird… also, what do you think about djokovic’s tennis political views? compared to fedal, he’s definitely more active, and seems like he actually cares about players’ needs and concerns

kinda does something. I guess

in a very abstract sense I am obviously a pro-union person and I am also a pro-tennis player union, but. you never really got the sense that the ptpa would be able to explain what they were doing that the atp's player advisory council isn't already there to do (beyond 'include women', which they started doing... in the second draft). I don't think that's an argument against its existence - there's a lot of areas of tennis where theoretically a union would be called for, and at the end of the day something with some independence from the actual tours would be good. in the general spirit of unions. it's kinda... historically complex... because you can argue that the professionalisation of the sport did happen in a reasonably grassroots manner, and you can say that it's still reflected in the governance structure when compared to some other sports. but also it's fair to say a lot of players don't feel like they have much power over said governance in reality, so the 'seat at the table' is a bit useless. this was also very much a covid era thing - like ik it was technically discussed before that, but it was created at us open 2020 and very much had the vibes of 'weird covid thing'. and a lot of the initial interest amongst players was linked to that... the tour was suspended from march to august, which is survivable as a top player but pretty rough for everyone else. they weren't completely left on their own --

-- but again, just to be clear, I do get the timing and why this was theoretically something you might want to exist

it does run into the whole 'what do you people even do' issue. I mean, look, it's tough - if you're not recognised by the official tours and if you have to build this from ground up, obviously you can't revolutionise the sport in a day. but from the start, the ptpa has just felt quite... amateurish. unclear mission statement, unclear on what their goals were and how they were intending to go about it, lack of professionalism in their public utterances. obviously their leadership structure was pretty *waves hand* djokovic, pospisil and friends at the start - and as I understand it, that has gotten better, but it was a very particular type of first impression. ik all this stuff is quite boring and annoying and I don't want to nitpick, but it does matter. it just did not feel like a serious organisation. I've checked their twitter and clearly they've hired a semi-competent social media manager, though I still think some of this stuff needs improvement --

-- but like. at least it looks vaguely professional. they do also have a passion for releasing statements that are a pain to read

it HAS gotten more professional over time, but it still feels like it has an extremely scattergun approach to what it cares about and what it doesn't. there Are Issues where it feels like it would be nice for some kind of a player's union to provide some thoughts. I'm about to go on a bit of a tangent but I swear this is relevant

my personal bugbear issue is the tennis ball crisis - which I don't just care about because I suspect it's helped kill the career of my favourite men's player, but I'm not thrilled by that development icl. we all know about the tennis ball crisis: they're shit now. talk about this started early 2023 and it's really gone mainstream since. it's a problem with all the manufacturers, it's a problem at every level. like, they really are more shit now. the balls I play with are worse than the ones we had a decade ago. they get fluffy insanely quickly, especially obviously for pro players. and beyond fucking over players who need the balls to be sturdier to help them with pace generation, it's caused an obvious increase in injuries. you hit at these shitty pancake things and you're fucking over your arm because they're not bouncing off your strings like they're supposed to

now, again, this isn't news, but nobody's really known WHY this has been happening until quite recently. in november of last year, zverev as a member of the atp players' council talked about his communications with the tennis ball company (yes I'm aware I'm citing the research conducted by a repeat domestic abuser who was elected by his peers to represent them, yes this sport deserves to die):

one of the best journalists currently in the sport, giri nathan, wrote an article about this in january of this year that I would very much recommend. does also probably make clear my personal investment in the issue

there's a related problem that goes beyond the balls being shit - they keep changing them. absolutely insane they can't work out something where at least tournaments in the same bit of the calendar have to use the same ball manufacturer. the point is, while clearly people within the advisory council are doing something, this has become a pretty widespread complaint. wta world number one and noted non-pusher sabalenka recently posted on instagram about how quickly the balls were dead during her practise session. if covid really has made the tennis balls worse, then... the ptpa should be talking about this!! maybe they're doing stuff behind the scenes, but they certainly haven't been vocal about it. player safeguarding seems like such a standard issue

in general, it feels like the ptpa still doesn't quite know what its jurisdiction is. here's another far thornier issue - the situation with rybakina and her coach, who has been banned by the wta for a year. an article (tw: abuse) was published by the athletic about the current situation this week. while it is obviously generally a good sign that the wta was willing to take action in this situation, looking at the details of the case you do start to think they should have taken action a whole lot earlier - and that a year long ban is clearly inappropriate if what is being alleged is true. now, again, obviously this is a complicated case, given that rybakina at the time of writing seems to be resistant to outside help. but, if we're talking about player safeguarding... the high number of abuse coach/player relationships, as well as how often coaches sleep with their players, is something that you're going to want to tackle. at least talk about! it's something pam shriver has obviously talked about a lot (she was incidentally very quick to see the rybakina situation for what it was) and has been written about plenty elsewhere. again, an organisation that is not the official representative of the players can't fix this issue overnight, but there are certainly steps you could be pressuring tennis governance policies to be taking. I'd just like to see some sign of interest, more than anything

with those examples out of the way. let's look at what the ptpa has accomplished. there was a controversy last year where roddick criticised the ptpa for being useless and a lot of people (mainly djokovic fans) got very mad at him. I don't like roddick and I don't like djokovic, which makes me a great unbiased third party in this matter. let's see what pospisil listed as the ptpa's accomplishments:

now, if I could go back in time and offer mr pospisil some advice - when listing the accomplishments of your union, 'trading card deal' is not what I'd lead with. nothing inherently wrong with it, but it does objectively sound silly. I laffed. ofc when you keep reading, there is a lot of stuff there that actually sounds pretty good. it's hard to glean from a tweet how much these programs are actually helping tennis players - but the practical aspects of travelling around the world for tennis obviously are a real concern to most players, and I'm generally pro helping them. on demand player service also sounds really positive. if that is a functional service then I think that would be a super positive thing. this does bring me to another complaint - a lack of transparency. I don't want to be finding this stuff out through twitter beef! yes, there's news announcements out there for these items, but we really don't have any sense of how much take-up there's been. without more context, I have no way of knowing how relevant hilton hotels is in the world of booking hotels for tennis tournaments. guys, you need a proper communication strategy

that being said, I do want to highlight something that sounds like, if it's done properly, could be a really positive step in making the sport better - offering pro-bono legal aid to players accused of doping and corruption:

however you personally feel about the recent conclusion of the sinner doping case - even if you believe that sinner was treated exactly like any other player would be - I think it would be hard to argue that this case hasn't revealed just how many inequities exist in the system. again, let's be as generous as possible here - at the very least, sinner has benefited from a quality of legal representation that is simply not available to the vast majority of players. while I support anti-doping measures in principle, I do also think it's clearly extremely easy for a small misstep to lead to very serious career consequences, and at times it just feels like... too much. sinner had a team who knew what they were doing - even just knowing the rules enough to get everything filed on time. obviously this isn't a sports-specific thing, inequality in quality of legal representation is just a problem in Society. but, well, if this service does what it says on the tin, then it can only be a good thing

so like. in conclusion on the ptpa. I think it's probably more good than bad? it could be better. I feel like it comes from a good place for the most part, which only takes you so far but I do have like... a base level of sympathy for it. I'm not particularly convinced by it as a professional organisation - but also, I am convince-able. I'm not a hardliner on this I don't think

on the second part of the ask - icl, I initially skipped over the word 'tennis' and just read 'political views', which, jump scare. ofc I hold a very dim view of djokovic's political views, which does inherently colour how willing I am to trust him on anything related to tennis politics. obviously his anti-vaccine views have been well-publicised, though my personal red line is his persistent serbian nationalism. I try not to pay attention to athletes' personal politics - my general rule is I don't really care what these people believe in their heart of hearts but I do care if they make it my business by publicly talking about it, especially if their rhetoric crosses over to actively doing harm. djokovic's stance towards kosovo and his genocide apologism have for a long time now made it impossible for me to be a fan of his

given how that last paragraph ended, it's a bit hard for me to write a pivot. let's take it as read I don't support djokovic. I have always liked him more As A Tennis Player than the other members of the big three, which is partly due to the tennis itself but also just about what role they play within the sport. it's like,, you look at federer/nadal and what pr merchants they are and go 'oh won't SOMEONE say something controversial for a change' and then the monkey's paw strangles you. and I agree with you, for all intents and purposes it DOES seem like djokovic actually cares about other players. like... this is why I kinda had to lead with his actual political views - the problem is he is a campaigner, he actually has more of a social consciousness than 99% of tennis players (super egocentric sport, lest we forget), it's just that this leads him to both caring about lower ranked players and serbian nationalism. I think the intentions behind the ptpa were mostly Good, I do have a wariness of djokovic's anti-establishment schtick and his populist views but I'm also not a fan of The System as stands. so sometimes we arrive at the same conclusion but due to quite different reasons and underlying ideologies. I also have more general respect for that than I have for federer/nadal's general cowardice when dealing with anything remotely controversial. it's worth pointing out that they have been involved in a bit of a behind the scenes power struggle - the run up to the ptpa being created involves the time in which djokovic was part of the player's council and supposedly federer and nadal rejoined in 2019 to work in opposition to him (this is a whole other controversy involving then-atp tour boss kermode we don't have time to get in here). in general, with djokovic it is interesting that... it sometimes feels like he needs a cause to motivate himself, and then there's a super fine line between that spurring him and distracting him. but it's almost part of his working process As An Athlete in a way it clearly isn't for federer/nadal

idk... I do think the zverev thing played a big part in disillusioning me from the big three once and for all. in a way, it does quite neatly illustrate the differences between the three of them. djokovic really believes in his continued support for zverev and is willing to make it a point to stand by him, whereas federer/nadal just don't care enough. when you read stuff like this it's pretty clear we're not dealing with someone with a functioning moral compass

y'know, every time you see those uwu gifs/photos of nadal/federer being cute and holding each other's hands at the 2022 laver cup, I just want you to remember that zverev attended that retirement event despite having an ankle injury that prevented him from playing himself. federer's precious laver cup twitter account for years has blocked anyone who mentions the abuse allegations against zverev in the replies. nothing about tennis is morally clean, but the continued breathless fan engagement with that particular event is something I personally cannot understand

anyway the point is that djokovic is obviously even worse about this. he's a principled man! unfortunately those principles fucking suck. and that to me is always going to be a problem when we're talking about who I want to see running a union. I think djokovic has done some good things in the sport - and I think he clearly really does care. I think it's a good thing he's willing to use his clout and power within the sport to proactively advocate for change, even though I kinda 50/50 agree on his actual targets for change. and I still wish players' best advocate weren't such a crackpot

[mechanically-made]

ramblings about kamen rider outsiders bc if I don't get it out somewhere I'll fucking explode

First of all fucking insane for toei to just make Dan kuroto a dilf 😭😭😭 for the love of God do NOT MAKE THAT MAN A FATHER!!! I MEAN IT BENEFITS ME BUT LIKE...NO!!! I say this like he wouldn't already be a better father than fucking horobi (kills myself it's not his fcuking fault). My scary purple dad men collection keeps growing, my will. My will... Dan kuroto always on top baby.

Finally knowing what Dan is saying actually contributes a lot but finally knowing what zein is saying contributes almost nothing LOL which is fine thats chill, I wasn't expecting anything crazy, tbh I just wanted more evil images and things that could be said like this

Like what the fuck does this mean brom the fuck are u talking about Jesus christ. Mf really is an angel ai huh. It's peak. I'd say this type of shit before I REDACTED. Prolly gonna think abt him more than I should rn which is a very inconvenient time bc I can't DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Maybe soon. My zein delusions are from a more angry and resentful and tumultuous part of my life and I'm glad I'm past that BUT to say the feelings have gone completely would be lying, but I can use it to my advantage more than I thought. Shrug.

And here it is. Finally. Knowing what they say. It's nothing groundbreaking but God. It's so good. They finally interact and the first thing they do is fuck 😭. You will never see two robots have such insane carnal disgusting satellite sex in your life, I can literally feel how badly ark craves that stupid blue bitch, it drives it fucking insane. The buildup to it chuckling and walking forward and then the shot of it looking at there with such potent intense desire drives me through the roof. It wants it so bad it's not even funny. It's desperate. Almost like it's saying please. Hurry up. Please. And there knows it. She knows how badly he wants it, she knows what's about to happen to her. She knows the years of wanting that ark feels, and is about to finally satisfy using her. I cannot stand seeing these two look at each other. It makes me fucking delusional. WHY. WHY DID THEY TURN ARK SOFT. LOVING. WHY IS IT LIKE THAAAAT 😭😭😭. TOEI AIMING FOR MY VITALS WITH THIS ONE. YEAH OK.

Can't forget the star of the show. Or stars rather. Literally TWO MFS. Worlds first canonical nb kamen rider and its because there's literally two mfs 😭. The text is perfect. The voice/voices are perfect. The way they fight is perfect. They are everything to me. They mean everything to me. They have given me what zero-one as a dumpster fire of a show could never give me. And it did the impossible. It made me get hype for somethign thouser related. Truly, the toei satellite above the Hudson valley has it out for me. I've never been so fuckign horny because of a kamen rider suit. It must feel immaculate to become a singularity with your other half. I know ark is feeling things it thought it could never, or never wanted to feel in it's life. I know it can never go back, and if it did go back, it would be fucking miserable. It would regret it, yearn for it every day of its life. Maybe it would even do anything just for a chance to become one again.

Sorry the self projections came out again

[egg-emperor]

sorry can you tell that I've had enough and that this was kind of the last straw lol

first of all: what the actual fuck

second of all: this was my response that's long enough that I look insane in my YouTube comments but it's just normal for me here lol

The small moments of humanization for Eggman in previous games were so much lighter and more in character because they didn't try to apply things that were impossible for the type of character he is to feel or change to do so reasonably. So it feels jarring and forced in this game for them to suddenly play it up so much. This kind of stuff doesn't work for every kind of villain that exists and some of them should just be allowed to be evil, expected to be what they were created to be without wanting to change every single thing about them and make them into a different person, taking away all the things that are appealing about them as evil characters. Evil can be fun and entertaining and characters don't always need a good side.

You can believe we need more villains that are humanized to the point they're redeemed and aren't so bad and stuff but... I have absolutely no idea how people are thinking that this works for Eggman, I can't fathom it. The whole point is that he's a deeply selfish self centered egotist, which is exactly why he wants to take over the world. He shouldn't be expected to be able to care for others because his core important character trait is literally against the entire idea and that's why they didn't show that before now. They really tried to disregard the defining traits of his entire being to try to make this happen and I don't think this is a good thing.

Also we definitely shouldn't want to become Eggman and he's not the type of guy we should redeem. The guy that carelessly harms animals and the environment, manipulates and gaslights people into getting what he wants, is carless towards innocent people getting hurt and sometimes even tries to target them intentionally like when he tried to blow up Station Square in Adventure, tries to kill Sonic and friends who are children sometimes as young as 8 and saying it will be "[his] pleasure" to do so, enslaves other beings to force them to work for him and keeps them there by causing them pain and fear, mistreats his creations and other robots severely by yelling insults and hitting/destroying them, has no remorse or empathy for all the people he hurts in any way, terrorizes the world to try to get what he wants- a world where he rules and forces people to worship him with no sense of self and freedom ever again. I can go on and on. There are some characters that have gone so far that you cannot convince me that after all this time and all they've done, they'd very abruptly change in heart like that.

Eggman isn't a flat or boring villain just because he didn't have a good soft side and empathy and he doesn't need to be given one. Eggman isn't someone they should use for us to try to be inspired by and want to become, not every villain needs to be to be great characters. He's a monster but he can be funny and he does have feelings and passions but just not ones that involve caring for others. Humanizing a villain, fleshing them out, and making them feel real can be done without suddenly implying that this character can suddenly change in 5 mins after 30+ years. It's very poorly done and I can't understand how the English version's lazy cheap attempt at forcing a dynamic to try and get emotions out of people is actually working. But then I remember it's because people don't actually like real villains and want all of them to change. Sigh...

I'm so glad that this was toned down severely in Japanese and presented in a way that feels so much more like him and actually adds up with his behavior and actions in other games and actually considers and respects them, instead of forcing a huge drastic change of entire character at the end like they did in English.

[thestarseersystem]

Looking at that post that says they faked DID and I'm gonna say this as gently as possible that "not having an identity" and "fucked up memory" is having a dissociative disorder.

Let me break down this post. I am not reblogging, because I do not wish to antagonize op or argue with them. But I will talk about it here.

"Lack of identity". I'm going to be honest, when I was experiencing a very traumatizing time in my life, I felt very confused with myself and my identity, I felt like I had to repress myself just to survive. It's common to feel like you have no identity, or feel so dissociated from yourself that there's no concrete or "real" version of yourself. Many systems struggle with having no host or changing hosts, or a very dissociated sense of self. It's normal to feel this way when you have a dissociative disorder.

"Not being able to understand my own personality". I've felt this one forreal tbh. I have felt like my personality is too complicated or confusing and therefore it's just confusing to have a concise sense of self. I know myself sometimes and then I don't. Its common in systems to have a fragmented or confusing identity. Also I used to say I had like 5-10 different favourite colors, I would not be able to choose. And yeah the words to describe myself? Enigmatic, complex, extreme, intense, etc. Like I'd say I was both outspoken and reserved in the same sentence.

"Rapidly switching from aesthetic to aesthetic". I FELT THIS ONE. We *cannot* decide what to wear in the morning usually. We love all types of different aesthetics, ESPECIALLY the ones that involve a dual vibe like yamikawaii or pastel goth. We love dark fairycore, yamikawaii, pastel grunge, cybergoth, animecore, emocore, scenecore, lolita, everything. We love so many different aesthetics it's insane. I felt this so fucking hard you have no idea. Every alter has their own playlist/aesthetic, we just love them all.

"Need to seem special and traumatized". Bitch, I used to think I was insane. We have a goddamn insane asylum in our headspace and when we have a panic attack it makes us feel like we're crazy. We used to feel like we were going to pass out all the time because of dissociation. I was like "damn, why do I feel like I am going to pass out, I think I'm just doing it to be edgy and cool". NO. You just want to stop fucking fronting for now. Imagine thinking you were cursed because you struggled to maintain friendships and thought a memory eating monster was eating your memories away. I THOUGHT THAT.

"Not being able to settle on a name, yes, this includes usernames". YEAH SO UH... This is real experiences I've seen other systems have. I have a close friend who went by like 10 different names before being able to settle on one. And for many of our alters, they don't have names because it's too dissociating to settle on one. I think this is normal, mate.

"Actually, occasionally, feeling like I am a separate person." I just have nothing to say on this one because it's goddamn obvious that you have alters, what the fuck.

"Not knowing what I want to do in life". Why the fuck do you think I'm focusing on the past in my life? To distract from current reality, because the dissociation makes me feel so unmotivated. You should accept that you have more than one of you. Istg man. It would be so helpful if you just let yourself have multiple interests and feelings. It's okay.

"Insecure about how I look". Yeah, dysphoria is common. I have this so much, we have attributes on the inside and look different on the inside that it's sometimes so disorienting to look in the mirror. It can cause DPDR for us. But we try to use snapchat filters to help or make art or picrews that look like us. That helps.

"Messed up memory". That's the dissociative amnesia, my guy. I used to think that a memory eating monster ate my memories because the amnesia was so bad. Years of my life are gone because of trauma. Having gaps in your memory is literally dissociative amnesia.

"No social circle." I can't tell you how fucking hard it is to make friends when you feel disconnected from them and from reality. I constantly feel like they don't understand and I struggle to maintain friendships because of my conflicting opinions and lack of energy and fear. Its hard. I feel abandoned by everyone who leaves. It fucking sucks, man.

You have a dissociative disorder. I'm not fucking kidding, man. So many of our symptoms align and I know I'm a system. This isn't normal, this is what being a system is like. This isn't effects of faking, this is real symptoms of being a system.

It makes me frustrated and sad that people think that this is made up or a lie, that they somehow fucked it up, made it up. I swear to fucking god, this is reality for systems. Please get it out of your head that you made this shit up. This is how it is. Hear it from systems with real experiences. You are a real system, whether or not you believe it.

[asknarashikari]

I just finished the Senki Block which includes:

1)Saber Special Chapter:OT4 vibes this ep were great, quite large.

Then there's whatever the hell was happenning beteeen Touma and Zox.

My favorite bit:

"Have you gone insane?"

"Yes, we have"

Also Orihime!Touma x Hikoboshi!Kento.

2)Zenkaiger episode 20:the Shindais really mesh better with the Zenkaiger cast.

They work better as the Comically Serious rather than whatever the hell sorta roll they had in Saber since Ryoga's introduction.

Reika/Magine FTW.

3)SUPER HEROOOOOOOO SENNKIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!:It was a much better watch this time, because I downloaded it rather than watching on Kissasian, where it was uploaded with the audio of the aid for the blind version.

I did not enjoy that it ignored the Special Chapter and Zenkai Ep 20, acting like the Riders didn't meet Zox and the Shindais didn't meet the Zenkaigers.

Kento should have worked alongside Red Racer in the Final battle, to show he did interact with the Carrangers when he was sucked into their book.

Sayonara, Onodera Shotaro-Sensei.

May the Riders always look to you for Guidance.

It was good to see the Zenkaigers again.

I've missed them, so even if this was something from the past that I've already seen for them, it was nice.

I'll only see them next in DonBrothers VS Zenkaiger.

4)Kamen Rider Revice:The Movie(prologue):not a bad watch.

It helped me Believe that I would enjoy Revice once I'm done with Saber.

Now, Onward to the last 9 episodes of Saber!

1- Special Chapter was a hoot from start to finish. The shenanigans was sublime XD It was also some much needed comedy right before shit went down in the Saber main plot.

Also, Rintaro being Kento's inflatable cow...

KenTouma was probably the best part of the episode... or was it ShuichiRyo? Sometimes I can't tell anymore. One of them posted a video on Tiktok where they were in costume but not on set, and they were... uh, very affectionate.

There were also these videos on Toei's YT for the tie-in with Superhero Senki where the Saber cast were competing against each other in a laser tag-type game. Ryo Aoki captained one of the teams and when he named Shuichiro for his first pick, Shuichiro squealed and ran at him to glomp him. It was wonderfully gay of them.

2- Yeah, the Shindai sibs were definitely way better in the Zenkaiger crossover in their own show. Ken Shonozaki clearly had a lot fun playing off of the Zenkai cast's shenanigans, and Angela Mei's enthusiasm for Magine was self-evident.

3- Well, the Special Chapter and the Zenkaiger episode were always meant to be their own thing, not really tying into Senki. Most of the Spring crossover specials, back when they were a thing, were like that too- none of them really tied in to the Taisen films.

Yeah, it was a little disappointing that they didn't show what happened to Kento after he got sucked into the Carranger book... though that already had some other stories mixed in as well- Drive and Black, iirc. I'd like to think he was actually in that other world where he, Luna and Touma all grew up together, and where his dad was alive- which would explain his resistance to Touma returning things to the "normal" world. (Also, Ryo was so damned handsome in that sequence... I was simping the whole time)

Tbf, it also wasn't shown what happened to the other Zenkaigers aside from Kaito after they disappeared either. And Zox just shows up out of nowhere, lmao.

Honestly them including Ishinomori-senshu in this movie was kind of a brilliant move, and seeing his interactions with Touma and Hongou-san made me cry a little, ngl.

Also. Saber roll call scene. Fuck me, why don't they do this in Rider more often. It was amazing.

4- I didn't actually watch the Revice short movie, but from what I gathered it's not canon to the show because it and the first episode contradict each other in terms of how Ikki got his powers.

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon, sorry its been like 2 days since I last submitted something! I've been busy and whenever I finally had time to sit down and write this all its like 1 in the morning. I hope its still ok for me to send these.

🌹 anon ima respond to you first, your The Deal au could be the reason why and how Ranboos and Dreams soul got mixed and linked together. But then a problem is how did it pass to Ranbob? In my au, each person has their own soul basically. And while certain attributes like DNA can be passed through bloodlines, souls can't, as their unique to their person. 

What left Ranbob vulnerable to Dream is that he was seen as the star student. The apprentice everyone wanted. He always got perfect grades and was seen as the smartest in the City. This did not go well. As Ranbob was put under a ton of pressure to always stay perfect and get everything right. When his grades started to slip and his chosen mentor started to put even more work on him, his mentality started to suffer. With him losing sleep and starting to not care for himself or do the basic necessities like eating or drinking, all in an effort to be "perfect". Its through this need, and weakened state over all, Dream's presence was able to slip in and convince him to let him help.

Benjamin is 30, Isaac 29, Cletus is 24, and Charles is 27. 

When Ranbob first told Ran about the Dream mask and how he wasnt himself, Ran did not believe him at all. And kept saying that he needs to stop lying and fess up to what he did and pay for it. Others tried to convince him that his brother really wasn't in control of himself, but was met with strong skepticism, scoffs, and disbelief. With Ran not beliving that was the truth at all.

Watson was very shocked but quickly reorganized himself cause he had to calm Jackie, and its only after Jackie fell asleep he was like "Oh fuck. I really am the dad huh?" Jackie was embarrassed at first but after some prodding did say how he truly saw Watson as a dad figure in his life. And everyone had different reactions to Watson suddenly accepting and fitting into the dad role. Jackie was excited and immediately started calling him dad and asking him awkward dad questions "Dad whats puberty?" "Uhhh-" "Dad where do babies come from?" "Ask your dad about that!" "But you are my dad!" Ran seemed indifferent about it but Watson can tell he's revealed to have someone to talk too, and someone to go to if things get to much. Grievous keeps sating he doesn't need a dad but he's the one that goes to Watson the most for things like hugs, comfort, and advice. 

Jackie and Grievous do everything. They rig the battle field so if someone steps in a certain area water will shoot up into their face, Grievous usually taunts and distracts opponents so Jackie can sneak up behind them and just latch onto them and cover their eyes while giggling like a madman as the opponent screams and runs around trying to get him off. Jackie regularly pulls peoples seat out from under them, while Grievous scares them and makes them choke or drop something. But they do know peoples limits. Like for Ran, no water related pranks (there was an incident where Grievous spilled a whole bucket of water on him and Ran got severe burns and had to stay in the hospital ward for a few days), for Watson don't mess with his bow or arrows, he will stab you. And for eachother, Jackie, no pranks that leave him alone for extended periods of time or makes it seems like everyone is gone/left. For Grievous no pranks centered around food or drinks (like putting toothpaste in his sandwich or putting pepper in his beer). 

Ran and Jackie have a 50/50 win if that makes sense. They both win and lose pretty often. They play games like Spoons, Go Fish, Dart Throwing (Watson needs to be present for this one), something similar to Cards Against Humanity, Poker (everyone plays during this one), and Tic Tac Toe. 

Sometimes Jackie loves being the smallest and other times hates it. He hates it when Ran steals something of his and holds it above his head, he sometimes resorts to aggressively climbing Ran to get it but Ran tends to just pluck him off, and people make fun of him in a mean natured way (he's fine with light teasing). But he loves it when he rides Ran's shoulders or can duck under peoples legs and trip em. Because he's also small and fast he's hard to catch and that definitely comes in handy during fights. No ones particularly protective of eachother (excluding Ran who's protective of everyone), because they know none of them like being babied and they can all hold their own, though they will quickly flock to help eachother if they need it. Ran definitely flaunts it whenever their in a agurement. 

There is a area under the fighting arena of the pit where they stay. Theres separate rooms for everyone, training areas, dinning areas, and just chilling areas. Theres even extra rooms meant for often visiting friends (Like Genevieve) and some for storage of weapons which also holds things to sharpen them or get new ones. The Pit itself is in the middle of a gaint city, so there are tons of stores and food areas around. And because of a high salary the King gives them they go out quite often, often eating out and browsing stores when their not training or sleeping. 

If by other combinations you mean like Ran-Jackie, Ran-Grievous, Watson-Jackie, and Watson-Grievous then it highly varies. Watson and Jackie are by far the worst team, their styles just don't match and constantly but heads during battles. Watson and Grievous are probably the best out of the 4 teams because Grievous can be serious and works well with Watson as he's much more willing to change his fighting style to accommodate whats needed. Ran and Jackie are like Jackie and Grievous, but they aren't nearly as insane. Rather Ran provides distractions while fighting to give Jackie time to sneak up behind them. Ran also is the only one able to actually throw Jackie, which they sometimes do during battles. And Ran and Grievous work well together, but not as much as Watson and Grievous, its just a few things of both their styles don't match or could potentially cause problems.

He's clumsy flat out, he isn't used to having full control and needs to get used to certain things like walking or talking again. He is also severely dehydrated and malnutritished because Dream didn't care enough to drink or eat. He's also incredibly skittish and scared easily. He and Cletus's relationship isn't solved fast at all, it takes months and the work of everyone to get the two comfortable around eachother. They start by putting Cletus on watching duty, where he watches over Ranbob to make sure he's eating and drinking and resting while not tiring himself out. Then after a month or 2 Isaac, Benjamin, and Charles start purposely leaving the two in a room alone toghere to get them to talk stuff out. It takes 3 months until their comfortable enough with eachother to willingly talk and hang out. Oh the house building attempts went aboustely awful. They sometimes fell on Ranbob! And when they didn't they just collapsed or got blown away by the wind, but Isaac did ofter help a few times and showed him multiple different ways to make sure the walls stay up and keep the cold out. 

Ran is very unhappy with Ranbobs haunting, he thinks their kind of like Ranbob in which they've all killed people and considers them a threat at first, but when he sees how his haunting likes and interacts with Ranbob's, he losens up a bit, his group trusts them, so he has to trust them a little bit. But he doesn't trust them or like them nearly as much as he trusts and likes his haunting. 

Im guessing you mean who from the two groups get along the easiest. Most of them take a while to get to know eachother, like a few hours. But after that their all really close. Charles and Jackie, Cletus and Grievous, and Benjamin, Isaac, and Watson are the groups that get along really well really fast. 

Im honestly probably am going to go for them adventuring outside the City to try to get the brothers to get along again. Mostly cause I thought of the idea that what if Watson, Jackie, and Grievous all lie to Ran, and while they are actually going on an adventure, they lie to him that his brother and his group isn't coming. Then when its much to late for Ran to back out, Watson just goes "Oh yeah! Your brother and his group are traveling with us. And you can't do anything about it." And Ran just sits there shocked. 

Ran and Ranbob are both subtle protective of their group. With Ranbob never really getting aggressive or going into overbearing. But for Ran, if someone in his group is injured badly enough or if there's a big enough threat he does get overbearing and extremely aggressive towards whatever/whoever the threat is *cough cough Ranbob cough*. Ranbob tends to be very physical, listening more to a certain instincts that tell him to constantly have a view on or hold his family, as if he doesnt see or touch them for a long time he gets very anxious and panicky, thinking his family is dead and that he's all alone again. His group understands this and so tends to not stray to far away from Ranbob. He will also follow his group like a lost puppy at times. Ran while listens more to the instinct that tells him at random times to make sure his family is ok and to bond with them. The bonding leads to him randomly grabbing them and just sitting down with them, most likely playing games. While the random urge to check on them has led to him waking them up during the middle of the night or interrupting his own conversation or others conversations just to ask if their ok. His took a while to understand why he does it, but now if he wakes them up or drags them somewhere, they know to go along with it and comfort him during those times. 

Hybrids are rare! Especially aggressive or netural type mobs like Ran, Ranbob, and Porkius are. Their actually seen as monsters and are chased out or hunted in other city's because people aren't accepting of them. Theres very few city's like Subbin that fully welcome and are even led by hybrids. So there are more hybrids in Subbin, than there is anywhere else. 

Sorry this is so long ':)

Asks are always welcome here, and don’t worry about taking a bit or anything. The questions aren’t going anywhere, there’s plenty of time. 

Here’s that for you,🌹anon.

--------------------

1: Wow, Ranbob’s really going through it, huh? Does he ever start to fall back on that need to be ‘perfect’ while with the others? If so, how do they deal with that? And how is he with others offering to help him? If he even can really recall falling under Dream’s thrall, by accepting such an offer, how does he react to others doing the same, even if their intentions are far different?

2: So we’ve settled all the ages down, nice. You figure out anything for their backstory yet? And how do their ages affect their relationships with one another? Does Benjamin take the lead a lot? Or is he more of a follower that still has a lot of say? Who met who first?

3: So Ran’s obviously going to be awhile before he believes what went down. Still, I can’t imagine he’d have been as willing to go along with his hauntings little roadtrip plan if he wasn’t swayed at least a bit, since I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have put his foot down if he truly though Ranbob had done what he did. Why exactly does he go along with it? Does some small part of him want to give his brother a chance? Is he just confident he can overpower him, and looking for an opportunity to settle the score? Does he see something that makes him hope a bit? What’s going down there, anon?

4: On one hand, very adorable. One the other hand, poor Watson. Does Jackie actually not know that stuff, or does he do that just to mess with his new father figure? It seems like they all take to it pretty well overall though.

5: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Two people to truly fear. How many people straight up forfeit when faced with this combination? It seems like they’ve had some interesting times, good and bad. How’d those play out? As for those last two, I’m sensing a bit of a backstory. Why does Grievous not like stuff being put into his food? And why’s Jackie not good with being left?

6: So it’s fifty/fifty, huh? Who wins the most at what games? And uh, Watson has to be present for Dart Throwing. What happened there? How’s everyone’s poker faces? Who’s got the best luck in games of chance?

7: A love/hate relationship with height. I feel ya, Jackie. Very funny to imagine though, Jackie just, physically climbing up Ran. How tall even is this guy?? How do they deal with meaner teasing, not just from the gladiators, but from general bullies? Not everybody’s as friendly as some of the Pit fighters, after all. And how do the fishermen react with their fighting skills? Obviously, they must know how to fight somewhat, to have entered the Pit, but the gladiators do this for a living. How much is the difference in skill level? And does the gang ever get to show off just how skilled they are? 

8: Their home sounds very nice, honestly, I wished I could live there, minus the people. What’s everyone’s rooms look like? How have they personalized them? Which brings up another question-what kind of interests and hobbies do they have? What kind of things do they do that aren’t fighting and related to such? And they must be pretty well known, to have such high pay. Any of them have an arena title, or some sort of stage name? How many people can recognize the city’s top gladiators on sight? And how do they get around that, when they don’t want to be seen? How do people feel about them in general?

9: All these team ups sound terrifying, and I wouldn’t want to be facing them. How do they deal with it when they get a bad match up? Do they just stay out of each other’s way? Try to take their opponents out quick? Make it one on one? Ran and Jackie have to be my favorite team up, solely for the fact that you’ve said Ran straight up throws him. Like?? Imagine coming to the King’s Pit, a well known, popular place, hoping to prove yourself, and then getting taking out by a flying midget, just tossed at you by a ridiculously tall endermen hybrid. How would you feel?? 

10: Ranbob is just really going through the ringer here. How many times does he just drop stuff, or trip over his feet? Does he ever get better, or does he still retain a clumsy streak? If so, how does Ran react to that? It’s very good he and Cletus bond! Are they just as close as the others, or is there still a bit of distance? How often does Ranbob forget to eat or drink, or really just take a break? How long does it take to get him to start remembering to do that stuff again? 

Does he ever slip up while with the gladiators? Also, in a room? Do the fisherman expand their house more, or do they just leave them in the house? Does Ranbob ever get his own house up? If so, does he use it at all, or is it more for storage? And how many times did he fall asleep out there, get injured, or not realize it was about to rain? How long did it take before Benjamin or Charles put their foot down and make him stay in for a bit?

Has Ranbob ever even dealt with rain before, or a storm above water? If not, how’d he react to it? 

11: Oh, boy, Ran. Your concerns are understandable, but definitely going to lead to some angst. Is he just on edge the whole time? How many times does he just glare at them, or straight up steal one of his haunting back a few feet away from Ranbob’s? Are the fishermen ever worried he might hurt them?

12: How do both hybrids deal with their groups bonding? I imagine Ranbob’s pretty happy with it, but how about Ran? As you said, he doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of these guys. 

13: Roadtrip! Gotta love a roadtrip! What kind of places do they head? Any transportation, or is it just walking, enjoying nature? Do they go on an adventure to look for something cool? What’re they getting up to?

14: So Ran and Ranbob both act on their instincts in different ways. How do they feel about seeing how the other acts? What happens if any of the fishermen stray too far, or get separated from Ranbob? Same question to Ran. Ran just...like...picks up members of his haunting? Do people just see him walk around with them dangling in his arms? He must be pretty strong. How often does he do this? How else do their instincts lead to them acting? Cuddle piles, picking up blocks, keeping their groups close together, ect?

15: So Subbin’s pretty much a safe space for hybrids? Interesting. But since the groups are heading out, does this mean they run into some trouble outside of the city? And is there ever trouble within it? 

Other questions: Does Karl play any further part in this, or has he already played his role for good? Does the gang ever end up back at Mizu? Do any of the group have a pet or something similar? With there be any sort of connection to other Tales, even if only slightly, or will they be solely focused on these two? Does Ranbob pick up his studies of Ranboo as best he can once he’s free, or does he leave it all behind entirely?

Thanks for the ask, this AU’s become quite interesting. I can’t wait to see where it goes!

[prismatales]

Comfort

All my love and gratitude goes to @sugacookiies, @pixxiesdust and @hawks-senseis for beta-reading this, you guys were some of the greatest help I've ever had! ❤

Pairings: Bakudeku x Reader

Warning: Tw:Depression, Tw:Suicidal thoughts, angst, fluff and comfort.

Fingertips slam a frantic yet steady pace against the keyboard, your eyes go back and forth between each paragraph with a growing sense of panic. All your senses are running on nothing more but pure anxiety and stress, not even the thought of eating something crosses your mind as the one and only thing to worry about seems to be this specific assignment.

Neither of them can remember the last time they saw you in another spot of the house that wasn't that chair before the computer, sure sometimes you take a break to go to the bathroom, but sleeping? That word doesn't seem to have a meaning in your vocabulary.

Except for that one time you fell asleep on the couch for less than 30 minutes before startling yourself awake and jumping away from the plush cushion to keep working.

Both Midoriya and Bakugo knew how important it was to complete your thesis, but was it worth it when your health and body is on the edge of giving up? They both know how badly this kind of routine can end up affecting your health.

The last time you got this stressed it ended up fucking up your stomach all the way from the esophagus to the intestines. The whole digestive system was so affected it started to feel like your stomach was literally burning itself into nothingness from the gastritis you developed. You had to get treatment for two whole weeks, which was right before your high school finals, and it was one of the worst experiences you've ever had to go through.

There's a reason a huge portion of people going through College ends up feeling dead on the inside, the overwhelming amounts of work, spending so much time in the library one could literally claim they live there, assignments and impossible amounts of field work, all of that could be more than enough things happening at the same time to cause plenty of people to go insane. And if that was bad enough, preparing your Thesis was like one of the deadliest of trials.

Just from the look on your face, it was obvious you're starting to develop another health trouble just like that time, the tips of your fingers start pressing right on the spot above your stomach with a face full of discomfort.

Deku's the first one to see that and in less than five minutes he's already outside on his way to get some medicine, he doesn't think twice about using One for All to go faster. 

Everyone in the apartment was more than used to hear mumbling during the day, courtesy of your beloved Deku, but not even Bakugo was prepared to hear you of all people mumbling such dark things the very next day, when the stress began taking a harder toll. He could hear every single word loud and clear even when he's standing near the kitchen counters at the other side of the house.

"Why do I even bother?...It's not like anything I do even matters..." He can hear the the long sigh followed by more self hatred while he's stirring the noodles for dinner. "Sometimes I wonder if people would even notice that I'm gone...hahaha...I wanna die"

"...! That's it!" The wooden spoon gets slammed roughly against the marble counter, searching through his pocket Bakugo pulls out his phone to text Deku, who's already on his way home from patrol.

It takes less than an hour for the two of them to be there right besides you trying their best to comfort their shaking and panicked S/O, it makes them feel useless seeing how much you're struggling to hold on to the remains of your mental stability.

And when they hear the next course of muttering they know things are just about to get worse unless they do something about it.

"I can't do this anymore...I just can't," The tiny voice coming out of your mouth was heartbreaking. Your whole body is trembling uncontrollably as Midoriya walks up behind the chair, he lifts your whole body so he can take you to the bedroom, that way you could finally get some well deserved rest and calm down, in the meanwhile Bakugo goes back into the kitchen to fetch you something to drink.

Their dynamic was simple and yet effective, most of the time Izuku tends to be the one calming both of you through words, if that's not enough to help he's trying to find another solution to the problem through physical actions. Katsuki on the other hand tends to prefer being the one letting his actions speak for themselves first, even through the smallest of gestures he's always looking out for the both of you, in a reverse context to Deku, when his actions are not enough he's trying to make an effort to comfort you with his words.

Everything came crashing down inside your head like a landslide in the middle of a storm, bringing chaos and despair from every direction. It's easy to recognize the signs of your depression kicking in due to all the work piling up at once, and they're aware you're one of the most dedicated and passionate persons when it comes to your studies.

Midoriya tried to lay you down into the soft mattress and walk away to get that blanket they bought specifically for this type of occasion, but his shirt is quickly clutched into a tight grip, the broken sobs are barely audible to someone not paying enough attention have him on high alert as he realizes you've already started crying.

He has no other choice but to ignore his quest for the blankets and sits back on the bed. His back rests against the headboard while you're laying on your side, face resting softly against his well-toned chest, your body surrounded by his own arms that hold your shaking body against his with the hope that it can help you relax.

Bakugo comes into the room shortly after, carrying your favorite cup steaming with some nice and warm drink, your favorite judging by the glorious smell coming out of the cup in small puffs.

He carefully passes the cup to the green haired man sitting in bed before walking to the corner of the room and towards a dark gray, medium sized basket where the additional blankets are kept, rummaging through the furniture he finds one of the biggest, fluffiest and softest blanket of them all before walking back towards the bed. 

It takes you awhile to process what's actually happening because of the storm running through your head. But eventually, between the reassuring words and sweet whispering, the shaking and the crying slowly, but very slowly starts toning down until nothing but a small whimper can be heard every now and then through your bedroom. 

In less than a few minutes you've already been wrapped in that beloved blanket while resting between two warm and fit bodies, leaning back against the headboard with a comforting drink in hand.

"Are you feeling any better?" Izuku's voice is soft and sweet, just in case there's something still bothering your mind, at the same time one of Katsuki's hands is busy rubbing circles in the section between your shoulders in a steady rhythm, the feeling of his calloused and scarred hand touching that portion of skin helps relaxing your exhausted self at an almost exaggerated level. The last thing they want is for you to have another breakdown.

You want to reply but your mouth quickly opens and closes, so all you can manage to do is give them a soft nod in response, too tired to even try and talk to your sweet boyfriends. 

Sometimes the negative thoughts come during these kinds of moments to try and bring torment. It makes you wonder if one day they'll get tired of this and leave after realizing you're nothing more than a hindrance.

"Don't even think about it, Dumbass," Katsuki growls from his spot at your left side "I recognize that look on your face when I see it, you think you're worthless don't you?" That hand behind you makes its way to your shoulder, pulling your whole body towards him and positioning you in a way that makes your head rest on top of his well toned shoulders. For someone who's body is so nicely sculpted, the place where your head lays is one of the most comfortable places where somebody could rest.

"You are one of the strongest people I've ever met. You've always been someone who rarely allows small shit like this get the best of them" Katsuki's hand had long ago left your back to run his fingers through your hair, the friction against your locks of hair and scalp has a soothing effect that relaxes everything from your whole body to your mind.

A small tear manages to escape, but this time is out of relief and happiness for literally having two of the most wonderful lovers by your sides. The exhausted smile that spreads over your face sends the both of them into a state of relief.

"What did I do to deserve you both?" 

Deku lets out a soft laughter while Katsuki just smirks in satisfaction.

"Existing." 

MASTERLIST

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