#wow this got really really long

[reengeen]

NEW OBSESSION AQUIRED

[severevoiddragon]

I haven't seen anyone talk about how Joel and Bdubs genuinely helped Pearl. Like, they knew what her task was. But they valued their alliance more than the reward they may have gotten for guessing correctly. And pearl was. So scared they'd guess seriously, like she was literally running away as Joel spoke his 'guess', and then turned around like 'oh'. She'd put so much into that alliance, but didn't expect them to reciprocate it. But they did. And I think that shocked her in a positive way.

[aspiring-wildfire]

the epic score is very fun in a lot of ways and odysseus murdering all the suitors at the end is delightfully chilling and very cathartic but i gotta say thinking abt odysseus’s perspective on that whole scene really makes me laugh like. you have been away from home for 20 years fighting first the biggest war in mythohistory and then what really seems like every fucking thing that could try to kill you in the entire adriatic sea. literally all your friends are dead and you just beat the shit out of an actual god to get back to the only two people in the world who matter to you anymore. and then you finally get back to your house after 20 FUCKING YEARS and it’s trashed bc a fucking frathouse worth of nepo babies who were like ten last time you saw them moved in while you were gone, bullied your family for well over a decade, and are currently planning how they’re gonna murder your son and assault your wife. no wonder he’s fuckin pissed

[thedaythatwas]

on nagito komaeda and love

I just think it’s sort of funny that for a character whose (arguably) most well-recognized CG is this: 

komaeda’s narrative so heavily centers love. and I don’t just say this because I’ve had komahina brainrot for years (though this is true!!). even if you don’t care about komahina, it’s tough to deny komaeda is a walking tragedy in large part because of the role that love plays in his life. his characterization is driven by the way his luck has denied him love, and how he seeks it out regardless. in that sense, I think that without understanding komahina as at least one-sided, you miss out on one of the juiciest, most miserable pieces of komaeda’s character development.

tldr; a love-centered reading of komaeda makes sense, recognizing komahina as “a thing” in DR2 (whether you ship it or not) is pretty important to understanding how komaeda operates, and I’ll try to prove it right here under this page break!!

Part 1: Komaeda’s Love Life (or, his life without love)

I think it’s safe to assume that if you clicked here, you know about komaeda’s absurdly miserable, tumultuous childhood, but I’ll do a quick recap just in case! meteor kills his parents on a plane, he inherits a ton of money. he’s kidnapped by a serial killer, he finds a winning lottery ticket in the garbage bag he’s thrown out in. he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer and dementia, he gets into hope’s peak.

in his free time events, komaeda *explicitly* frames his luck cycle as something that takes away the people he loves. it only “takes action” against him after his relatives have died (for the sake of this essay, let’s assume that komaeda loved his parents, or would have at least been hurt by their passing). by way of other close connections… well, his wording here implies that by the time of his diagnosis, he didn’t really have anybody in his life. 

either komaeda didn’t allow himself to get close to anyone after the meteor incident, or he did, and they were taken away by his luck. at some point during his childhood, komaeda learned he should view himself as a death sentence.

so, how does this loss of love shape the komaeda we know? I’ll talk about this in terms of four of his defining (and connected!) traits in DR2 canon – the ones that really make his actions make sense: his self-loathing, his hope-seeking, his learned helplessness, and his certainty that his existence poses a threat to those around him. komaeda’s experience with loss makes him view himself as a source of death, which in turn fuels these tenets of his character. ultimately, his loss and the complexes that arise from it give him good incentive to push people away.

his self-loathing

komaeda hates himself. he views himself as worthless outside of his potential to serve as a “stepping stone” for the hope of the ultimates. he claims that this is driven by his beliefs around talent, which are in turn linked to the way his worldview rests on viewing hope as “absolute good.” the talentless (himself included) are only good for advancing the hope of the talented. still, his self-loathing is a bit more personal than that. take what he says and dig just below the surface, and it’s a clean cut trauma response all the way down. which leads us directly to…

his hope-seeking

komaeda is willing to do literally anything to serve hope. on the island, this (in short) means dying. this is where I prod at komaeda’s reasoning a bit more: komaeda’s willingness to act the way he does in canon also stems from his belief that his dying would be a net good for the world. his existence kills the people around him. his illness will kill him anyway. he has less than no value, and hope is invaluable. to go out for the sake of hope would give his wretched life purpose; it’s his dream come true.

and it’s no mystery why komaeda cares so much about hope: again, it’s a coping mechanism! komaeda’s belief that all bad luck is a necessary precursor for good luck and that hope will always triumph over despair is (as he himself says!) the only reason he’s managed to stay alive. I’ll say it again because I really can’t emphasize it enough – komaeda thinks that just by existing, he kills the people he loves. ouch!

learned helplessness / his existence as a threat

komaeda has, essentially, learned to submit to his luck cycle. all bad luck is good luck in the end – isn’t that amazing?! almost paradoxically, he’s hyper-vigilant about the negative impact his luck has on those around him. this is a tricky one. I make sense of it this way: komaeda’s perception of how much his luck impacts the people close to him isn’t inflated, like, at all. the supernatural way the world bends around komaeda to screw him over really does pose a danger to himself and others, and he takes measures to minimize that danger. his stated acceptance of his luck cycle is… well, again, he’s coping. 

if komaeda really thought that all bad luck is ultimately good luck, he wouldn’t try to protect his classmates from his bad luck. but, as we see in island mode, he does!

but really, who could blame komaeda for lying to himself? I’ll restate the facts. komaeda thinks that luck is absolute power. he says that he’s powerless against it. his luck has taken his family, and it’s left him with nothing but money that he doesn’t want. he’s certain he’s a curse, and there’s no end to that in sight: so long as komaeda exists, he’ll keep on losing – murdering – everything he loves. 

in the face of all of that despair, what can you do but abandon your self-esteem and pray for something good to come out of all of it? how else could somebody possibly survive carrying that burden, truly believing that load will never be lightened?

tldr; komaeda thinks his existence is a threat, and a big chunk of his personality is a frankensteined way of surviving the pain that comes with that. still, we should question how much of his worldview komaeda has really internalized without inner conflict. 

Part 2: Enter Hajime Hinata

we get some answers on that front when we see that despite the clear and obvious danger it poses, nagito komaeda still finds himself falling hard for hajime hinata. that’s really, really loud.

I’ll preface this part by saying that you don’t need to actively ship komahina to understand what I’m trying to get at here. this said, I’ll be recapping an argument you’ve almost definitely seen before: komahina is definitely “a thing” – at the very least as a one-sided thing. to this, I’ll add the (perhaps bold?) claim that without recognizing that much as true, you’re missing out on a big part of what makes komaeda so interesting.

komaeda’s FTEs make it abundantly clear that komaeda has feelings for hinata. apart from his famed failed love confession, the fact that komaeda is willing to allow hinata to get close enough to learn about his views on hope and luck is telling. 

(the smoking gun here hinges on trusting that komaeda was telling the truth during the time you spent with him; in so many words, that he only lied about lying. so, for the sake of argument, let’s assume this is true! there’s good proof for it, anyway.)

if you read his final FTE as komaeda flashing his soul to hinata and making a decision at the very last second to retreat, turning to old coping mechanisms to protect hinata from his luck, it’s sort of a komahina bombshell. that capitulation spells out for us that komaeda understands sharing his life experiences with hinata to be one of the most intimate things he could possibly do.

he recognizes the exact moment he lets hinata get too close – when his life story is finally told – and he does what he’s learned he needs to do to get them both out of that situation safely: he tries to make hinata hate him, and tells himself (and hinata!) that he did it for the sake of hope.

(and yet, komaeda let hinata approach him every FTE, knowing damn well that they were both playing with fire… very interesting.)

now, let’s say you don’t consider the FTEs to be integral to canon. I mean, you can really easily miss out on all of komaeda’s content if you choose not to hang out with him in chapter 1! so, for the skeptic, in the unskippable main story, komaeda tells hinata this:

komaeda cares about hinata despite everything. and I really, truly mean despite everything. at this point in the story, the fact that he still cares about hinata calls into question basically every single one of his core beliefs. he’s read his final dead room prize – not only does hinata not have a talent, we can presume that komaeda also knows hinata became ultimate despair along with the rest of them. 

hinata has continually sought out komaeda’s company, even though komaeda knows himself to be worthless at best, lethal at worst. komaeda was willing to let him get closer, even though he knows how dangerous that is for hinata. he can’t help but let hinata try to know him. 

isn’t he awful? to want what he knows he can’t have, even though that wanting has never done anything but cause pain? he’s really the lowest of the low, to love someone who destroyed the world, who makes him question the views that will allow him to do the only good thing he’s ever been able to do for it: to die for hope. 

and yet, it’s a nod to how incredibly capable of love komaeda is that he’s still willing to reach out for it, no matter how many times it’s burned him in the past, and how much it hurts him in the present to want it. he understands more than anyone that his feelings can only result in disaster. reading komaeda as someone who can’t help but go on loving anyway makes his story hurt so much worse. 

but, you miss a whole lot of that without an eye for komahina. seeing hinata as the eye of komaeda’s emotional hurricane (and keeping tabs on their connection accordingly) allows us to glimpse past the cracks in komaeda’s front. we see that komaeda’s worldview is less stable than he presents it as – hinata is where komaeda’s coping mechanisms, for better or worse, run up against a wall. that tends to be uncomfortable for a guy who’s just barely coping in the first place. then again, growth is supposed to be uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Part 3: The Future He Chooses

so, all of this considered, I think one of the most interesting ways you can flesh komaeda out post-canon is by asking how he’d find himself willing to accept love. whether that love is from hinata or the ultimates, whether it’s platonic or romantic, love is the thing that komaeda wants AND fears in equal measure more than anything. it’s the source of his self-loathing and his obsession with hope. it’s the reason he’s lived the way that he has for so long – lonely, and afraid of being anything but.

getting into a relationship wouldn’t solve komaeda’s problems for him, and that’s a good thing. it would force him to confront old ones, and probably create dozens of new issues for him, too. writing him through that makes for great character study!

hinata (or anyone else, for that matter) can’t love komaeda into loving himself, but he can give him a shoulder to cry on while he works through 22 years of fear and sorts through the wreckage of a worldview that’s long since stopped serving him. I don’t think his progress would be linear. but, I think that he could do it. komaeda learning to accept care is what his healing looks like. 

(well. and physically recovering from cancer and dementia. but that’s neither here nor there!)

a post-canon komaeda learning to love narrative is also in line with the themes of DR2. hinata leads the survivors out of the neo world program because he makes the decision to choose his own future, creating a new version of “hope” for himself and his classmates. likewise, komaeda can make the decision to save himself. that is, if he trusts himself enough to actually touch and hold the thing that he’s never been able to stop reaching out for, anyway.

after all, hinata is lucky too. (and if it turns out he isn’t… y'all like angst fics, right?)

(shoutout to @cynopter for looking this over and confirming that I'm not spouting nonsense <33 thank you for reading my thesis of the week <33)

[surreal-duck]

master artist and his number one fan

guy who is being so normal about the new additions to their profiles. i think abt midoris initial infatuation with his art slowly developing into appreciating yuzuru himself as a person and idol to the point he worries about how he sees him (ex: a bit of home party and in workplace survival rules) sometimes thats a lie i think about it a lot. and yuzuru learning to enjoy art just for the sake of drawing!! seeing the lets try diy story where he doesnt even refute drawing on midoris desk and was only worried that his doodles might cover up the mascot design compared to how discouraged he usually would be in earlier ! stories. everything to me i adore their dynamic if that wasnt obvious by *gestures to basically everything*

and happy pride month 🏳‍🌈

[thankstothe]

Some notes on Wilson's marriages/divorces, and how he met House:

• House didn't just meet a freshly divorced Wilson. He met barely married Wilson, who just got notified about his #1 divorce by a lawyer, not his wife

• Wilson walked around with papers on hand, long enough to give House a chance to sneak a peek. The same day he received the news. (there's a chance it was some sort of middle step in the divorce procedure, but "just served", checkmate your honor)

• House 100% knew that when he bailed him out. No, I don't have any concrete evidence besides "it's fucking House"

• House had Wilson observed the entire time to know he didn't open the papers. The divorce lawyer prob gave him an idea of what it is, and he was just marinating in the suffering juice

• House had to be nosy and stealthy when he checked the package Wilson clung to, he saw what's written on it

• They didn't actually talk at the conference itself, so House did it silently too

• There was a law firm address on the papers, and you couldn't just google shit then. House's had to remember it to investigate it further, or he already knew of the firm (or it said "BLAH LAW FIRM BLAH HERE'S YOUR DIVORCE PAPERS, LOSER", which is possible)

• Wilson likely opened them in a hotel room (or he looked at the package sadly/angrily there too), needed a drink, and House was at the bar

• House was watching Wilson at that conference, then at the bar, then meltdown over the song, then the whole fight and the mess, then the detention, and was like yeah I'll bail that

• "First words you ever said to me." This is when they first talked, Wilson was in jail and the one in need

• Ok alright, hear me out, if House didn't know what the papers were at the time of bailing. There are 2 paths for him to find out

• Wilson STILL had them on hand in jail

• Or Housey saw them at Wilson's hotel room. Yeah

• It's been over the decade since they've met and they both vividly remember the details of that drunk night (I get why for storytelling purposes. Still... Much to think about)

• That conference is either the last one, or one of the lasts, House attended. And that one was already boring to House without Wilson. 15 years prior to s06e06 "Known Unknowns", can't do the timeline magic I just eyeball it

• House also introduced Wilson to Cuddy pretty soon, since she was a witness to the levels of despair he was apparently in

• House might've pestered Cuddy to hire him, or she chose to do so herself (whenever she was dean). Maybe House chased away some poor oncologist to make an opening. Even if House isn't as obsessed with Wilson at the start of season 1, he's always plotting

• There's the brother thing too. Wilson still fresh out of med school, still divorcing, still guilty af and looking for the brother in Princeton, so he was happy to work there

• Prior to that, Wilson was working 2 jobs to support himself and Sam and was ready to follow her to Baltimore

• The divorce and meeting House happened in 1991, the same year USSR completely fell apart. Just thought I'll throw that in #educational

• Wilson was married, non-fraudulently, for 12 years total

• Marriage #1 has only lasted 1 year

• That means every marriage House was present for has lasted longer #math

• Wilson found a way to get fulfilled while in the marriage

• Now he's got a needy bitch with infinite problems and who will slurp any poison he has to siphon

• I'd argue House is what made Wilson bearable at home

• At the same time, House is what kept Wilson away from home, ultimately contributing to the divorce

• Wilson himself describes his marriages as crappy - he doesn't really need help destroying them. House still helps~✨

• Timeline gets wonky, but there couldn't have been much of a downtime between marriages, a couple of years max

• "Fell in love at the wedding" - whatever the fuck that means for Wilson

• Either Wilson met Sam through that wedding, and she also aimed to work in medicine - how they've connected. Or they went there as a couple, both being med students? Got high on emotions and jumped into marriage

• Wilson speedruns relationships once he's in them, so it could've gone "hey that was a nice wedding, how about we have our own?"

• He fucking sucks at proposals, his looks and general air of niceness carried him all 3 times, I will not be hearing any objections on the matter

• When Wilson talks to Cameron about cheating. He says, "I have (cheated). I always told them"

• "Them"

• It's could've been every marriage (#1, #2 and #3). If boy managed to sneak in cheating in his 1-year lightning marriage #1, while he was studying + 2 jobs (now I don't doubt his time management skills, but it's still a hassle. On the other hand, all that stress couldn't have been helping)

• Or it could be #1 and #2, or #1 and #3. But #3 is pretty much a certainty (he flirts with nurses on screen, House is also there), and it's "them", so why would he randomly stop in the middle? Don't think so

• What's most likely is - #2 and #3. When arguing with Sam (#1) again she didn't mention or allude to the cheating, her problem was that Wilson didn't communicate ANY emotions to her, she even admitted to House she made the most mistakes in that marriage, let's say there's some truth in that

• Wilson either didn't tell Sam about cheating, she didn't have a problem with it, or he lied to Cameron

• OR he didn't cheat on Sam

• He started to cheat after the first divorce AND his marriages started to last longer, which is funnier too

• He could've started cheating prior to House entering the picture, but much more likely - after. Divorce and/or House are the cause

• Speaking of. Meeting House is very tightly linked to the #1 divorce. Every time Wilson would think back on it, he would have to think about all the turmoil and getting bailed by House. And vice versa - every time he'd think back on meeting House...

• "I met someone who made me feel funny. And I didn't want to let that feeling go." Another Cameron talk. Ur honor, there's something on that wall

• btw, he is STILL married while meeting House, so if you hilson 1st-night-fuck truther, that meeting is his cheater origin story in a more practical sense. He then could've really meant all the marriages, but then he lied about telling Sam/Cameron, he might not count it since he's divorcing to tell Sam

• Ultimately, he's a huge liar, and I'm wasting my time. What I'm saying - nothing is really off the table with this guy in terms of hcs

• Aftermaths of #2 and #3 aren't really talked about like #1. It must've been really nuclear

• House says neither of them recovered from (#1) divorce to Wilson's face, Wilson doesn't contest that in any way. Even tho House didn't know Wilson before the divorce he usually right on the money with these things

• After the divorce #2 Wilson got 3 legged cat

• After failing to secure marriage #4 (#1 part 2) he got a diabetic cat

• Just like the thing he has with missing phone calls, after every divorce, consciously or not, he might expect a savior to bail him out

• After and during #3 he crashed at House's, then surfed hotels, then moved in with a dying patient, then Amber's, then House moved in with him (still Amber's)

• Maybe his wives kept taking properties in the divorce, and he just stopped getting them

• Man frankly didn't have a home for a while (HOMELESS BUT NOT HOUSELESS)

• Then Wilson finally commits and gets the place for himself and House, from Bonnie (#2)

• Wilson adamantly remains on good terms with his ex-wives (but not random exes. One helps House with a prank, House kept tabs bc of course)

• But Wilson thinks they hate him. Did he ever pay attention to them?

• While spending all the time with House, then cheating, telling his wives about it, Wilson gave them more attention and emotions to delay the divorce

• He also learned how not to get attached in marriage, to not get destroyed by the divorce (excellent gambit if you expect your marriage to fail)

• He has a better support system now too. Can't believe House is your support system, fucking lmao and ouch. Cuddy is his only other friend we see, maybe Stacy at some point (he kept in touch with after the incident)

• All his other friends and family we hear next to nothing about, at best they're surface level

• In season 5 he's only visited by the coworkers/House's team + Cuddy <- all that is pretty much House's tolerance circle

• House is pathetic, but Wilson is something else entirely

[teeth-draws]

Chase suffers in love but the other Norms still let him come to their little photoshoot

[rockethorse]

The basegame wedding dress has a pregnancy morph??

[feroluce]

Made a FANTASTIC discovery today regarding the meaning behind Boothill's fourth eidolon, I'm so happy!!! Most of it is just cowboy references, like

Eidolon 1: Dusty Trail's Lone Star- cowboy lingo, the Lone Star of Texas

Eidolon 2: Milestonemonger- more cowboy lingo, someone who roams and wanders

Eidolon 3: Marble Orchard's Guard- yet more cowboy lingo, a term for a graveyard (a fave of mine, because for me it evokes the image of a Church Grim <333)

Eidolon 4: Cold Cuts Chef- ????

Google didn't really provide much on Eidolon 4 like for the first three. Before today I had assumed it was just another movie reference of some sort, since Boothill is like entirely based on/inspired by old Western films.

"Cold cuts" are basically lunch meat/deli meat. It's precooked meat that doesn't need any kind of preparation- you can literally just eat it cold. Since it didn't seem to be a movie reference, I thought oh, maybe it's a nod to his lifestyle? Boothill is unhoused and lives on the run from the IPC with little rest, he doesn't really have the means to cook. Precooked, easy food like that would be a godsend for someone in his circumstances.

Anyway the original Chinese text gives it an entirely different, MUCH wilder meaning fjadskljfkld

love how they chose "celebrity chef" to show his expertise and/or fame in this fjkdlsja

Because no, "cold cuts" isn't cowboy lingo for anything, but cold meat specifically is.

It's how you refer to a corpse.

"Cold Cuts Chef" is not a title talking about his cooking ability, or his life's circumstances, or anything as mundane as that, IT'S ABOUT THE FACT THAT BOOTHILL SPECIALIZES IN DEALING DEATH, THIS MAN IS EXTREMELY SKILLED, AND GOOD AT WHAT HE DOES, AND WHAT HE DOES IS MURDER!!!!!

[calmbigdipper]

What you mean to me

[faunandfloraas]

Ughgghhhhhhhhhh

[lupiinist]

alright, so, i'm writing something and wanted to share my black sisters hcs because i like them so much (and also because i need to so i won't forget it)

first of all, bellatrix is a very good sister. she's a bit unhinged, sure, maybe can get a little violent, yes, but it's alright so long as you don't mess with cissa and andy (or regulus and sirius by extent, but she prenteds she doesn't like them)

they have a thing with nicknames. for everyone, they are bella, cissa, and andy. but for each other, they are trix/trixie, cissy/ciss, and an/mendy. the only other people who get to call them that are their loved ones (sirius, reggie, ted, alice and rita)

narcissa likes jewelry, she has rings, earrings, and necklaces to match with every single one of her clothes, and she can even make her own, she likes to chose gemstones and knows most of them by name (her favorite are emeralds and rubies)

bellatrix is a ballerina, she has so much strength in her body, like, she doesn't look like it, she looks scrawny at first, but she's very strong and flexible, ballet is a thing requires a lot of focus and determination, and for everything that she's chaotic, she has her moments of peace with dancing

andromeda tonks is bisexual. fight me on this one.

i feel like andromeda would also be a lot into fashion, like, just generally, she likes clothes and loves to push gender norms with her clothes, she rocks in dresses, and she rocks in suits, and sometimes she mixes both and guess what? she rocks!!!! (no, but seriously, andromeda tonks in a suit. please.)

the three of them like to gossip, like, a lot. they paint each others nails, bellatrix learned at a young age to do her sisters' hairs, so she does them whenever she gets the chance, and they talk about every bit of gossip they hear

narcissa painted her hair black once because she felt left out from her sisters. next thing she nows, once the paint fades, bella and andy have dyed their hair blond. now they all match

once they all have their lives apart, they still like to hang out when they can. cissa brings draco to his favorite aunts (although he likes pandora a lot too), sometimes bella brings rita when she's not working, and ted likes to pick andromeda up from their meet-ups so he can at least say hello to his in-laws

when they were young, their parents used to fight a lot, and it used to get really loud, so the three of them would get together in bella's room, and she would sing them a song until things got quieter. she's a surprisingly good singer (although narcissa is better)

when andromeda marries ted, bella and cissa walk her down the aisle, one on each side

[quigzahhutt]

🤎 + sargebon for the ask game PLEASE i miss them so bad i will love you forever if you write them...

for the kisses ask game💋

🤎 multiple kisses / kisses all over / kiss after kiss

OHHHHH OKAY OKAY. anon I hope u don't mind me altering your prompt juuuuust a little bit, because i will be making this a part of my Lily/Alex/Logan universe. it will still be sargebon, but it will also include Lily in the fun as well :)

The airport is incredibly crowded.

Logan is glad they're meeting up in a less populated part of California, but he has to remind himself that it's still in California, during the holidays.

He's been recognized more times than he can count, which isn't really a bother, but Logan has just come off of an 11 hour flight and is currently in his airport clothes, feeling particularly crusty like he's been brushed with butter and left in the oven to bake.

London to California was a bad idea; an awful, awkward timezone change that he's especially unaccustomed to now that he isn't travelling to a new country every other week.

It's worth the misery, though, he reminds himself; Alex and Lily are waiting for him, and he'll get to hug them, and see them in person, and then take a nice, long nap in the car.

Speaking of; he spots Lily not too far from the exit, and he can't help the smile that breaks out across his face, toothy and uncoordinated as he approaches her.

"Hi," is the first thing she says, joy evident in her voice, before standing on her toes to give Logan a hug.

It's a bit awkward considering one of his hands is being taken up by his bag and suitcase, but he tries to wrap his other arm around her the best he can; his hand feels huge where it's splayed out across her upper back.

"Was the flight okay?" Lily asks as they pull away, and her voice is so soft it's almost inaudible, like she's afraid someone might be listening in. "I know you were texting us through the whole thing, but you look, like, dead tired. Are you okay?" Her tone is humorous, but it's intertwined with an unnecessary level of concern.

Logan can't help but huff, a little hysterical. "Yeah, I'm good, just... Not as used to long flights like that anymore, I guess," He runs his fingers through his hair as he says it, trying valiantly to keep his tone lighthearted, to ensure that she knows that he's okay just so she'll stop looking at him like that, uneasy and worried, tying knots in Logan's sternum.

Lily just hums after that, thoughtful as she stares up at him. "Okay. Alex is pulling around, so we can get going, he'll get cranky if we keep him waiting,"

Logan scoffs, "As if he isn't always late to literally everything," he rolls his eyes as he says it, and his stomach tightens as the realization of seeing Alex in person again finally sets in.

They've been calling and FaceTiming an awful lot, yeah, but Logan hasn't actually seen Alex in person since August, all the way back during Zandvoort, back when everything was kind of awful. Just thinking about it makes Logan's throat feel tight.

But as they stroll up to the car, a sleek, slate-grey Mercedes GLS, all of those worries disappear as Alex's window rolls down to slowly reveal his face, sunglasses tipped on his nose and his mouth cracked into a huge smile as the pair of them slowly approach.

"Need a lift?" Alex hardly gets the sentence out, his grin acting more as a hazard than anything, impairing his speech and making him sound absolutely off the rails.

Logan actually feels weakened by it, by seeing Alex, by seeing Lily, the truth that all three of them are finally together after what feels like years of waiting.

"Hi, Alex," is all that Logan can manage, because the feelings brewing in his chest are growing to a dangerous frequency; he's a little nervous he might just lean in through the window and kiss Alex until they're both breathless, which would be very bad for their whole secrecy thing.

So, Logan instead occupies himself by tossing his stuff into the back seat before climbing in after it, and he's sure he looks deranged, moving with an urgency that is entirely unnecessary, like he's running away from an invisible threat.

"You're riding in the back?" Lily asks, and when Logan looks up, she's standing outside of his door with an almost wounded expression on her face; when he glances over, Alex is dutifully watching him from the rearview mirror with an equally odd look in his eyes.

Shit. Fuck. Was this some sort of arranged thing he was totally unaware of?

"Uhm, I'm really tired, so the back will probably be more comfortable for sleeping. Is that okay?" He says the last part slowly, suddenly terrified that he's just done something horribly wrong.

Thankfully, Lily's face softens with relief. "Okay," she says, before bracing a hand on Logan's thigh and leaning in to give him a quick peck on the cheek, so quick that it's basically nothing, and yet Logan's heart leaps in his chest.

She makes quick work of closing his door for him and making her way to the passenger side, and when Logan glances up, Alex is still watching him through the mirror, although this time with a significantly more relaxed expression on his face.

When Alex realizes he's been staring, he quickly ducks his head, and Logan can see how the tips of his ears turn pink. He's sure they both look insane, hiding their faces and smiling down at their hands like stupid, lovesick fools, even though that's exactly what they are.

--- --- ---

Logan falls asleep quicker than he expected, and by the time he wakes up, the car is coming to a gentle stop in the driveway of a quaint little cabin, nestled somewhere deep and cozy in the mountains, dusted in a fluffy layer of snow.

He's still waking up, and he's barely getting unbuckled when suddenly his door is opening and letting in a healthy waft of winter chill that bites his exposed skin; he is definitely not dressed for this kind of weather. Oh well.

Alex seems to be the perpetrator, judging by the ridiculously large grin crowding Logan's vision. He squints at it, like Alex's smile is actually blinding, and Logan very quickly wakes up when Alex begins leaning in, peppering kisses all along his cheeks before finally making it to his mouth.

The kiss is similar to how Alex was smothering Logan just a second ago; soft pecks in quick succession, and it's a little bit uncomfortable, honestly, with just how much their teeth are trying to invade.

Logan can't even find it in himself to be bothered by it, because he actually feels like he's going to burst from joy, from finally being able to touch and kiss Alex after so many months of waiting.

But, they were going to have to separate eventually, and Logan is getting increasingly colder as the seconds tick by, so he reluctantly pulls away so he doesn't accidentally catch Alex's lip with his chattering teeth.

"Jesus, Loges, you're so pale. Does your nose always get red like that in the cold?" Alex asks, a bit hysterical, and his voice is filled with far too much glee at the prospect of Logan's flushed face.

At the same time that Logan says, "Yeah, so get out of the way so I can go inside and warm up," Lily also pipes up and says, "Yeah, Alex, so get out of his way so we can go inside!" It makes them all laugh a little, and none of it feels real; Logan can't believe that he's actually here right now.

--- --- ---

The house is unbelievably warm; Logan and Lily have no qualms in abandoning Alex to carry all their stuff inside so they can try and start a fire in the cute, rustic little fireplace in the center of the living room.

By the time Alex is done hauling all of their luggage in, Logan and Lily are sitting by the fire, leaning into each other and having idle conversation. Alex sneaks up behind the pair of them and places his freezing cold hands on the backs of their necks, snickering with retaliation for leaving him to do all the work.

When they both flinch and begin shouting at him, Alex raises his hands in defeat. "Listen! That's what happens when you leave me behind to do everything in the freezing cold!" He squawks, but the joy on his face betrays any possiblity that he might be upset.

Still, Logan can play along. "It's actually your fault for being the only properly dressed one for the weather," Lily quickly nods along, humming an affirmation in Logan's direction, and leaning further into his side to really hammer it home.

"Ugh, you're both impossible, I can't believe this," Alex resigns, and gracelessly flops back onto the leather loveseat tucked against the wall.

Lily makes a face before suddenly standing up. She moves towards the couch almost like she's going to sit with him, but she surprises both of them by instead placing a hand on Alex's chest and leaning in, looming above him as she leaves a slow, easy kiss on his lips.

"You did this to yourself, babe," Lily pulls away just barely to say it, and even though Logan can't even see it, he's sure that the energy between their eyes is insanely charged.

She smacks another kiss against his mouth, and Logan can imagine the way some of her lipgloss comes off on Alex's lips, slightly pink, sensual and glittery.

Alex then leans over, peering around Lily's body to nail Logan with an expectant look. He nods his head once, as if he's signalling Logan to come over, and when he does it, Lily turns around, still propped up against Alex's chest as she also begins staring at him.

The image of them right now, locked together, perfectly in tandem, is already a lot for Logan to process, so the fact that they're inviting him over, allowing him to interrupt their already perfected rhythm makes him feel a bit woozy.

So he stands up on wobbling feet, because it feels like a sin not to heed their calling. He feels a bit silly being watched like this, like he's something special and not just an intruder.

But when Logan gets there and Alex drags him down into a heavy kiss, full of love and reprieve, and he can feel Lily's hand in his hair, and her lips along his cheek and lining his jaw, Logan finally realizes that maybe they've always wanted him here.

[vsgigan]

things tarantula DNA makes you good at

[marshmallowgoop]

This is a story of despair and hope that befalls children who dream of becoming witches.

I participated in an MMV exchange! You can find the wonderful Detective Conan MMV gifted to me by Violet Skies here, and my giftee was tayuyashoujo, so I decided to combine Poets of the Fall with Witch Hat Atelier!

My ideas were much greater than I was able to accomplish in the timeframe, but for my first full-blown DaVinci Resolve MMV, I'm very pleased with what I learned. Stay tuned for the full version—I definitely plan on finishing it!

[YouTube Link] [Song Link]

[yeetusthemighty]

The creechur

The silly (crazy? I was crazy onc-)

So I got inspired to finally post this guy because of this post by @z4n3jul13n (cool person you should look at their stuff)

full version with my doodles under the cut

(I have a whole au based off of this guy)