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peachdues · 1 year

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Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me

A/N: oh boy, I just couldn't leave this storyline alone, could I?

Inspired by a post from @aagod who pointed out how amazing the trope is of touching/kissing/caressing one's scars, and I was a WHORE for it. This is inspired by that one line from this song.

But because I have never been brief about anything in my entire life (that's why I'm about to be an attorney), I had to write out a full-length fic set in the Bundle of Joy universe.

This takes place roughly a year before the start of Bundle of Joy -- right at the start of Sanemi x Y/N's physical/romantic relationship (featuring a little bit of angst, because I have to, okay?)

I also had fun with expanding upon the concept of the Lunar Hashira, including a new breathing form, as well as a special weapon for Y/N! See the end for a link to a visual of a naginata (pole) blade.

Word count: 6.3k

CW: angst, fluff, explicit sexual content, unprotected sex, fucking in a hot spring. Pining Sanemi, soft Sanemi; shoulder injury, improper setting of a dislocated joint; scar worship (?).

Bon appetite!

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It was supposed to have been a one-time thing.

Even though he had asked her to return to his estate for nightly training sessions, she had told him “no.”

It isn’t that Y/N doesn’t want him — she does very much so, to the point it pains her — but agreeing to continue this thing that had grown between them was a door she would not open.

She couldn’t.

Not when a career with the Demon Slayer Corps was akin to putting one foot across the line to the afterlife. Not when opening her heart up meant losing everything again.

And Y/N knows she already cares for the Wind Pillar far too much.

It pained her to establish distance between them over the last two weeks, even more so whenever she saw Sanemi Shinazugawa’s eyes linger on her for a second too long at their Pillar meetings, the hurt and longing in his eyes undeniable. He does not act any differently towards her, but she casn see the question torturing him every time she met that lilac gaze.

Why?

Because she wanted to. Because he had kissed her first, so really, it was his fault. Because she had melted the second his lips crashed against hers, and she had been so tired of wanting but never being allowed to have, and she wanted for once to be selfish.

But she had been selfish, and every day since she has been the direct cause of Sanemi Shinazugawa’s pain, and the thought is slowly wearing down the remains of her tattered heart into nothing.

But she loves him too much to want to lose him, so she does nothing.

——————————————-

They are sent on a mission together the next day.

The target is a suspected Lower Moon, located in some dense forest on the other side of the mountainous range surrounding the Demon Slayer Corp’s safe haven.

Rationally, Y/N knows why they’ve been paired together. She knows that his offensive Wind Breathing coupled with her more defensive style of Lunar breathing complement each other well in battle, each breathing style able to make up for the pitfalls of the other.

Still, Y/N thinks the universe is playing a damn cruel joke in making their fighting styles so compatible. It almost feels like a taunt.

They make small talk as they travel towards the demon’s location, every step fraying what’s left of Y/N’s delicate nerves. Her hand closes and releases the smooth shaft of her niichirin naginata blade — a specially forged weapon uniquely suited to her command over Lunar Breathing — as they near their target, her anxiety palpable.

She is not necessarily anxious over the fight — she is more anxious about whom she is fighting beside.

Nervous, because she told Shinazugawa that they could only ever be friends, yet she knows the second she thinks he might be in danger, she won’t hesitate to pitch herself in front of him. A hypocrite.

As she mulls over the thought, Y/N sourly thinks that the Master was probably right about relationships amongst the Hashira. She could not be trusted because she wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice the world to keep her Wind Pillar safe, even though he wasn’t hers at all.

The pair come upon the ruins of a small village, most of the buildings in great disrepair and in various stages of decay. Both slayers, however, pick up on the foul odor emanating from one of the more stable buildings to their left.

Y/N looks to Shinazugawa, who nods in confirmation. That is where their target is most likely lurking.

“I’ll go through the front. Can you find your way in from the back or from above?” Shinazugawa asks, drawing his blade.

Y/N nods. “I’ll cover you.” She brings her naginata to her front, swiping the blade in a long, graceful arc up as she summons her first form, Night of the New Moon, to act as a temporary cloak for the Wind Pillar.

“See ya inside,” Shinazugawa takes off into the crescent-shaped void, not wanting to lose the temporary advantage her technique provides them.

Y/N darts around the side of the crumbling hut and finds a hole large enough to slip through in its rotting roof, joining the battle already raging within.

———————-

The fight against the Lower Moon had been relatively easy — it had almost seemed a waste to send two Hashira to complete the job, given how quickly they had managed to incapacitate the demon. But the tricky part had been in the demon’s blood art, with it capable of creating full, flesh and blood clones of itself that were just as strong as its main body. Though Sanemi ultimately manages to lob off the head of the main body while Y/N held off four — four — of the accursed demon’s equally powered clones at once, the Lower Moon is able to hurtle one last attack towards the Wind Pillar, who is still airborne as he comes down from wielding the final blow.

Sanemi is just barely able to brace himself for impact as the flash of red light sluices towards him, and he feels a slight twinge of dread because he knows he is unable to twist out of the way as he falls through the air. But just before the posthumous attack can land on its target, a flurry of silver and black materializes before him, naginata spinning rapidly in her hand as she summons her eighth form to shield him for the second time since they had started fighting together.

Y/N’s Lunar Eclipse technique absorbs the full force of the demon’s attack, but because she launched herself from the upper balcony of the rotting house where she had been battling the demon’s clones to guard him mid-air, she is unable to get into the requisite defensive stance Sanemi knows she needs for the proper execution of the technique.

So he is helpless to watch as the recoil from the clash of the demon’s attack with Y/N’s defensive maneuver sends her flying backward through a crumbling wood wall, helpless to do anything but yell her name, his free hand grasping uselessly at the air as she sails away from him.

Sanemi feels a sick sense of deja vu as he tears through the rubble into the adjacent room where she has been thrown, thinking back to the first time she had used that breathing form to save him, when she had nearly lost all of her internal organs. Hot panic roils in his stomach as he clamps down the roar building in his chest, moving to yank a large, broken piece of wood out of his way, uncovering the scowling Lunar Pillar.

Sanemi wastes no time grabbing Y/N by the waist and hauling her up to inspect her, eyes wild and frantic as he looked over her for injury.

Y/N groans, sending a fresh wave of anxiety sludging through him as he waits for the coppery tang of blood to hit his nose, to confirm his worst fears that she is seriously wounded, too much so to be able to wait for the Kakushi, and-.

“Shinazugawa,” Y/N’s voice breaks through the roaring in his head. “Shinazugawa. Sanemi.” She grits out, left hand rising to grasp his forearm, nails digging into his skin to command his attention. “I am unharmed.” Sanemi finally meets her eyes, breath still coming fast and hard in his panic, though his erratic heart begins to slow at her words.

Y/N winces, the hand around him flying to the shoulder of her sword arm as she hisses through clenched teeth.

Sanemi sees then the odd slump of her shoulder, as though the joint were sitting lower, an odd gap forming in the fabric of her haori.

Sanemi recognizes the injury, his jaw clenching as anger chases away the panic that had been bubbling within him. “Your shoulder. You dislocated it.”

Y/N shimmies from his grasp, head falling forward slightly to avoid his gaze. And for some reason, her refusal to meet his eyes makes him furious. Furious because how could she look him in the eyes and tell him that what happened during their sparring session could not happen again, because they couldn’t afford to have emotional attachments as demon slayers, yet not two weeks later, she risks her own neck for him again?

Sanemi opens his mouth, ready to rip into her, to curse her for her stupidity and her hypocrisy, because how dare she tell him not to care for her but rush to give her life for his.

Before the words can form, however, Y/N looks up at him, her eyes so soft and yet so full of an emotion he instantly recognizes as self-loathing that the words died on his tongue.

At that moment, Sanemi knows only one thing: there is no insult, no mockery, no barb he can throw at her that she isn’t already screaming at herself.

No point in beating a dead horse, really.

Sanemi doesn’t want to think about why she looks so guilty because to think about the why meant giving himself hope that she was hurting just as much as he was, even though he knows why she rejected him; understands it with every fiber of his being.

So, he says nothing as she stands, makes no sound as she stomps past him and out through the decaying wood doorway, towards a dying tree in the middle of the courtyard. He watches dumbly as she lines her arm up on one side of the dry bark, inhaling once, twice through her nose before she jerks herself with all her might in the opposite direction, a pained shriek tearing from her lips.

Sanemi has spent many years with the Demon Slayer Corp. He has seen countless injuries, far worse than a dislocated shoulder, and heard far worse screams from the dying as they succumbed to demons.

Yet, as he listens to Y/N’s scream of pain, his blood runs cold.

No, Sanemi thinks, he never wants to hear that sound ever again. Thinks it would drive him mad if he were ever forced to.

But he doesn’t tell her this, because she made it abundantly fucking clear that they cannot be more than mere colleagues, so he tucks the knowledge away that his limit is apparently her pain deep into the recesses of his mind.

Sanemi tries not to think about what that means for his heart.

————————-

They arrive at the Wisteria House just after the stars in the sky had winked out, dawn not too far away. The mistress of the house promises that there is a large hot spring just behind the small estate, up a winding path and that they are both welcome to use it. Y/N was so enthralled at the promise of hot water on her aching muscles that she hadn’t thought to ask the Wind Hashira if he too planned to bathe.

Which was how she found herself in her current predicament.

It was stupid.

It was so stupid.

They had seen each other naked for crying out loud, had shared their bodies with each other. But now, here they were, stuck in opposite corners of the hot spring, resolutely turned away from one another as though neither of them had anything to hide from the other at all.

As though he hadn’t spent an entire evening inside of her, making her call out his name until her voice went hoarse.

His first name, at that.

Y/N hopes to conceal her flushed face from the Wind Pillar for as long as possible, so she hugs her good arm across her chest tighter, wincing slightly as her poorly re-set shoulder throbbed. Y/N predicts a visit to the Insect Pillar’s infirmary was in her near future, and the thought of her aching shoulder having to be poked and prodded anymore made her want to vomit.

If Y/N had been alone, she would have groaned, loudly, until she felt the weight slowly crushing her begin to lighten. But she is not alone, because she so stupidly failed to ask Shinazugawa who should bathe first, and now he is here and so is she, and they are both naked.

Still, the Lunar Hashira cannot deny the pang of longing in her heart as she furtively glances over to where the Wind Pillar stands, magnificently muscled back facing her, as he cups water between his hands to bring over his head, dampening it from white to a darker silver color.

His hair is shorter than it had been two weeks ago, she realizes, and she bites down on her lip as she realizes she likes it – a lot. Her eyes then fixate on the silvery jagged lines of the scars which crisscross his back, tracing her gaze down to where the top of his hips disappears into the glowing turquoise of the spring water. He has more scars on his back than he has on his front, she notes, evidence of his years of brutal training.

Evidence of his loss; great, unimaginable loss.

Because even the most skilled soldiers cannot save everyone, a truism she knew tore Sanemi apart. As memories of their past conversations came flooding back to her, memories of Sanemi telling her exactly what had happened to his family, his partner in the Corps, Y/N feels the oily slick of guilt seep into her gut.

It is ironic, that Sanemi Shinazugawa of all people, had felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable with her, — both physically and emotionally — but she had run at the first opportunity for her to return that vulnerability.

She, who had prided herself on being someone that others could depend on, could turn to in moments of need.

But she had run.

Because she is a coward.

He is beautiful and good and selfless and she is a damn coward.

Y/N’s shoulder throbs so violently it feels as if it has its own heartbeat, but Y/N doesn’t pay it any mind. She does not sink deeper into the beckoning warmth of the spring water to try and relieve the ache that is so deep it makes tears sting her eyes.

Such comfort is the least she deserves for the pain she has caused him.

——————————

He hadn’t meant to look. He swears he hadn’t.

But Sanemi accidentally turns when he hears her hiss, an instinctive urge to respond to a threat, to protect her forcing his head around, only to see no threat existed at all. Rather, the sound seemed to have been made in response to her shoulder wound.

She is not turned away from him completely — he has a perfect view of her side profile, the side of her injured shoulder facing him directly. Though her body is mostly concealed by the thick curtain of dark hair that spills down to her waist, he can see that Y/N still has her good arm locked snugly around her chest, in some futile attempt to conceal her ample breasts from sight.

Sanemi bites his lip to keep from snorting. Did it seem stupid, considering he had seen her in a far more intimate setting just a couple of weeks prior? Obviously. But Y/N’s discomfort with the situation had been obvious the moment she had stumbled across him in the hot springs, and Sanemi isn’t about to push her any further.

Especially after the stunt she just pulled on their mission.

He means to turn around once he confirmed that she was safe, that there was no threat looming in the woods surrounding the rocky hot spring. But his eyes snag on her face, on the grimace that twists at her mouth and the furrow of her eyebrows as she massages the tender skin around her swollen shoulder joint.

He hates to see her in pain. Hates it so much, it makes him want to rip the world apart with his bare hands.

And maybe it was because it tore at him to see her in such pain that he feels compelled to speak up, even though he knew he was opening himself up for more rejection, even rejection as her friend.

“You need heat,” Sanemi says, turning fully towards her.

Y/N startles slightly at the sound of Sanemi’s voice cleaving through the silent tension that had been steadily building between them. She turns her head slightly to face him, good arm tightening its hold over her chest.

He is standing in the water, body turned fully towards her. The blue-green spring water laps gently at the toned muscles of his lower abdominals, but Y/N can still make out the start of the impressive “v” of his hips. Her cheeks warm at the sight of the small trail of silvery hair that began just beneath his navel winding down and disappearing beneath the surface of the water to the crop of neatly trimmed hair that she knows frames his thick, proud length.

Y/N’s mouth runs dry as the memory of what Sanemi did to her with that length on the training grounds of his estate flashes through her mind.

So lost in thought is she that she almost forgets to respond to what Sanemi has said, flushing a deeper shade of crimson when she realizes that he had been talking about her wound.

“O-oh, I know. It’s just hard to do when I’m — well, you know.” Y/N laughs shakily, wiggling her good shoulder and the position of her arm across her chest.

Sanemi stares at her for a moment, eyebrows raised incredulously, though Y/N drops her gaze from him before she can see the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“I can help — if you’re comfortable with it, that is.” Sanemi offers.

Y/N feels her heart lurch at the silver-haired man’s proposition, guilt sliding back into her veins. She does not deserve his kindness, does not deserve his help after how she has treated him, and yet he offered nonetheless.

Y/N cannot deny him again, not when he seems so earnest in wanting to help ease her pain, so she nods. Something like relief flits across Sanemi’s face as he begins to make his way through the water towards her, keeping his eyes fixed behind her out of respect.

When Sanemi is close enough to reach out and touch her, he stops, the water having risen slightly up his waist now that he is in a deeper portion of the spring.

“You can — you can turn away. Put your back to me.” Sanemi says, awkwardly shifting his weight between his legs.

Y/N nods and turns to face away from him. Sanemi’s proximity sends chills across her skin, and Y/N’s belly dips in anticipation as she waits. The thick, damp air of the spring combines with the hot water licking at her upper waist makes her feel dizzy. Wordlessly, Sanemi cups a handful of hot water and brings it up over Y/N’s bruising shoulder, opening his palms to let it pour over her skin.

Though her arm remains firmly placed over her cleavage, for the first time in a long while, the Lunar Pillar feels her body begin to relax under the exquisite heat of the spring water Sanemi delicately pours over her tender shoulder.

So relaxed is she that she does not realize she is drifting backwards, not until her head thuds lightly against something hard and warm. Jolted by the sudden contact, the Lunar Hashira’s silvery eyes fly open and collide with the lilac irises above her, the surprise in his gaze a mirror of her own.

He is now much closer to her than he had been, and it is with no small amount of embarrassment that the Lunar Pillar realizes that in her haze, she has sunken back against the taut, warm body of Sanemi Shinazugawa.

There is a hint of red that begins to spread across the girl’s cheeks as she looks up at him that makes Sanemi’s ears burn, and he quickly moves his own gaze to somewhere — anywhere — that isn’t the ethereal creature now peering up at him with those haunting eyes.

He wills his other head to not react to the feeling of the girl’s head against his sternum; to not react to the silkiness of her hair or the thick haze of jasmine and honeysuckle soap which now enveloped him.

God, has she always smelt this good?

There is no making sense of what happened next. the Lunar Pillar lifts her head from Sanemi’s chest and turns to face him completely, her left arm still failing to totally obscure the luscious swell of her breasts from view. She peers up at him, as he continues to try and glare at a nearby rock in a futile attempt to not show that he has been watching her every bit as much as she is watching him.

Slowly, the Lunar Hashira lifts her free hand to lightly graze a thick scar that slants Sanemi’s left pectoral. She marvels at how it is both jagged and thick but surprisingly smooth and soft beneath the gentle press of her fingers.

Her touch is feather-light but Sanemi feels the skin beneath her soft caress erupt into flames, his cock beginning to stir at the slight contact.

She begins to trace her fingers to the start of another scar lacing his chest — slightly lower than the first — when Sanemi’s hand snatches up to grab her own, stilling its movements.

“Don’t-“he hisses through clenched teeth, his eyes screwed shut as though in pain. His grip on her is firm, but not harsh. “Don’t touch me like that.��

The Lunar Pillar feels the guilt and shame, hot and relentless, course through her blood. Of course he doesn’t want her to touch him — she rejected him after all. Though she had realized there was no point in trying to run from the blossoming warmth she felt her in her chest every time she looked at the stone-faced Hashira, that did not mean he wanted her, too.

Swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat, she moves to quickly pull her hand away, an apology already falling from her lips at her complete lack of professionalism, at her idiocy—

Sanemi’s grip on her hand tightens before she can remove it, pressing her hand harder against his chest. “Don’t touch me like that,” he repeats, opening his eyes to look down at her startled, red face, “because I won’t-.” He winces, trying but failing to cut himself off before he could make the admission that would surely damn them both.

“Because I won’t be able to stop myself if you do.”

Y/N’s eyes fly up to meet Sanemi’s burning stare, her breath catching in her throat. She curls her fingers against his chest, her arm falling from its position across her breasts so that she is fully exposed to him, and Sanemi thinks his heart might fly out of his chest. She steps closer to him until the soft plush of her chest lays flush against his upper abdomen, the heavenly feeling causing Sanemi’s cock to throb as she leans in close.

Sanemi’s free hand itches to touch her, to rise to rest on the dip of her waist and tug her close, but he holds back, insistent that he gives her an out, a window to walk away if that was what she still wanted.

Instead, Y/N stares up at him through a thick cluster of dark lashes, her gaze setting his skin on fire as she further presses herself against him.

“Then don’t.” She whispers.

Sanemi’s heart skips several beats, and his fingers tentatively rise to brush the skin of her waist, Y/N’s eyes fluttering softly at the contact. He lifts his hand, however, to cup her jaw, forcing her to look back at him, needing to see her eyes to confirm that she truly wanted this — wanted him.

“If we keep going, that’s it. No more running from one another.” He warns, voice hoarse with desire and emotion. “There will be no one else.”

Y/N leans her face into his touch, and Sanemi thinks his knees might buckle right then. “There never was anyone else,” she says earnestly, raising her good arm to parrot the hold he has on her face. “It’s only you, Sanemi. It has only ever been you.”

Whatever resolve Sanemi had kept tethered within himself snaps, as he crashes his mouth down against Y/N’s, her mouth opening easily to allow his tongue entrance. He crushes her face against his, desperate to give everything he has and to take whatever it is she can offer him.

Y/N moans deeply into his mouth, her fingers threading themselves through his damp hair. Sanemi’s kiss is so deep that she feels as though he will consume her whole, but she cannot find it in herself to care because, for him, she would let herself burn.

His lips are still locked on hers as he drops his hands from her face, reaching down to grip under her thighs and lifting her up, Y/N’s legs locking around his waist with ease. Sanemi makes his way towards a small, rocky island that separated the hot spring into two, connected pools, wading seamlessly through the water.

Y/N breaks from the impassioned kiss with a gasp as the cold, rough edge of the rocky bank scrapes against her back. Sanemi uses the opportunity to readjust his hold on her, lifting her slightly up to press her against the island so that he has better access to her neck and below, though he does not drop the iron grip he holds on her hips.

Sanemi dances his lips down the elegant length of Y/N’s neck, pausing to suck on her sensitive pulse point and eliciting a high, keening moan from her. He moves one hand from its bruising grip from its position on one of her thighs, wrapped tightly around his waist, trailing it teasingly under her to knead the soft flesh of her backside. Y/N moans again, grinding her hips against him, desperate for the tiniest bit of friction against her core which was now aching with her need.

Sanemi growls as Y/N’s core brushes against his throbbing length, his teeth sinking into the juncture between her good shoulder and neck as he nipped her in warning. As much as he wants to bury himself in her intoxicating heat, he will not do so until he knows she is good and ready to receive him.

He pulls away from her neck to look at her, his eyes dark with need and with something deeper, something tender that Y/N won’t name right now, even though she cannot deny that she feels it, too. His cheeks are dusted pink, and his lips are reddened by her kiss. His hair, though still damp, is perfectly tousled from her fingers, and his chest heaves as he tries to control his breathing.

Sanemi is beautiful and Y/N knows in her heart that she is doomed. Doomed because there will never be anything as good as this — as good as him.

He doesn’t hesitate to pounce back on her, hand dragging down the front of her torso to fondle her breast, his lips following down the same path. Before Y/N can draw another breath, her breast is sucked into Sanemi’s deliciously hot mouth just as a rough, callused finger runs over the slit at her core, dipping below slightly to brush against the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs. Y/N cries out then, her fingers moving to clutch onto Sanemi’s shoulders, and she finds that it is easy to ignore the throb in her injured shoulder when he is working to relieve the pulsing ache between her legs.

Sanemi begins murmuring against Y/N’s breast as he slides one thick finger into her, causing Y/N’s hands to fly up to grip his hair, pulling harshly at the strands as she is overwhelmed by the sensation. He tells her she is beautiful, how perfect she feels clenching around him, and how he cannot wait to be inside her and make her sing. He slips in another finger, his thumb pressing against her clit as his teeth graze her nipple, and Y/N shatters in his arms.

“Mnnnh, Sanemi,” she pants, thighs tightening around his waist as she grinds herself relentlessly against his hand. “Oh!”

Y/N comes with the prettiest moan Sanemi has ever heard, and it takes everything in him not to follow suit just by the look of blissful pleasure on her face. Sanemi cuts off her cries with another kiss, fingers curling inside her as he brushes against the sensitive spongy patch on her inner wall, causing Y/N to fall apart all over again, a gush of fluid coating his hand for a second before the water washes it away.

Y/N feels delirious from pleasure, but a cold sting rushes through her, cutting through the hazy fog in her mind as Sanemi removes his fingers from her needy core, her walls still clenching in the aftershock of her successive orgasms. The sting does not last, however, as Sanemi readjusts her thighs around his hips, unhooking one of her legs to bring it up to her side against the rock island, bending it at the knee. He hikes her other leg higher up his waist so that her core is now pressed flush against his demanding length, its weight heavy and hot as it rests against her sensitive flesh.

He rubs his cock against her dripping folds, the friction causing Y/N’s head to fall back against the rocky bank with a thud, uncaring as a wanton moan rips from her throat. Sanemi has one hand supporting the leg pinned against the rock at her thigh, and the other grips her waist tightly, using the rest of his body weight to keep her slightly upright and pressed against the stone.

The grip on her waist tightens as he calls her attention back to him. Through half-lidded eyes, she sees him staring intently at her, eyebrows raised in question, and she realizes that he is waiting for her signal.

The thought that he would still wait for her consent, that he is still offering her an out if she wanted it, is enough to make her want to cry. But she can’t stop now, can’t stop ever, because Sanemi makes her blood sing and she is so tired of denying herself the happiness she feels whenever he is near.

“Oh Sanemi, please. Please.” She begs, rolling her hips towards him, desperate for him to claim her all over again, to make her his and his alone.

Sanemi does not waste any more time as he carefully sinks into her, a strangled groan falling from his lips as he no doubt was overly sensitive from having waited so long. Y/N’s head falls back against the stone embankment and she cries out, finally feeling whole as he seats himself fully inside her.

Sanemi does not wait long to start moving and for that, Y/N is grateful. But unlike their first pairing at his estate, Sanemi takes his time, rocking his hips into hers, cock hitting her so deep that she cannot tell where she ends and he begins. Their first time had been the product of repressed sexual tension that had been steadily building between them, hard and fast and needy, but this?

This was different.

This was passion. This was both the end and the beginning, a sacred covenant between them that bound their hearts together, entwined their souls for infinity.

As Sanemi’s hips pick up the pace against her, the water stirring and sloshing and breaking around them with the force of his thrusts, Y/N realizes that until now, she has been on fire.

She had been from the moment their lips had met during training at his estate. She had been engulfed in an inferno that had only grown hotter, had only consumed her more, when she had tried to run, tried to deny the love that had bloomed in her heart well before she had ever offered herself to him for pleasure. For the last two weeks, she has burned and burned because she had known deep in her soul that she loved Sanemi Shinazugawa and had put herself in hell trying to deny it — to deny him.

Yet he had come and saved her, again, had pulled her out of that pit of fire and brimstone and smothered the flames with his tender heart and tender kiss, and now she was no longer burning; she was just warm.

Warm and safe and in love.

“Y/N,” Sanemi rasps, his forehead pressed against hers as his eyes bore into her, his mouth falling open. His hands clutch her tighter against him, the possessive drag of his cock making Y/N see stars as she clings to him, moaning and whimpering as she feels her release building inside her belly.

And though she is unable to stop the words that fall from her lips, she means them with every ounce of her heart.

“I love you,” she whimpers, fingers digging into Sanemi’s back as his hips stutter slightly against her at her words, the movement resulting in a delicious spike of pleasure against her clit. “I love you, Sanemi.”

Sanemi’s forehead pulls away from her own, his eyes wide and so full of hope it breaks her heart. He does not say anything, but the way he then kisses her makes her taste his response.

I love you, too.

Y/N breaks the kiss, her moans growing louder as her end nears, and from the way Sanemi’s movements quicken, becoming slightly uneven, she knows he is near as well. So Y/N presses her hands against the sides of his face, thumb running over the jagged scar cutting across his cheek as she tilts his head up to look at her.

Lavender eyes meet hers and Sanemi tumbles headfirst over the edge.

He comes with a shout, the tendons in his neck straining as his hips press hard against her. Y/N feels the warm rush his seed start to fill her and she follows after him, clenching so hard on his cock that Sanemi moans again, his release prolonged by Y/N’s pulsating walls around him.

They are both finally spent but Sanemi cannot yet bring himself to pull out, instead burying his face in Y/N’s neck as he tries to catch his breath.

“Did you mean it?” He pants against her sweaty skin, his breath causing goosebumps to ripple across her. “Did you mean what you said?”

Y/N moves to cup his face, pulling him away from her neck so he can meet her eyes. Though he is inside her, he blushes as she peers up at him, her expression serious.

“I love you, Sanemi. I have for a while,” She pauses, considering. “Longer than I was willing to admit two weeks ago.”

And her words are so honest, spoken with such conviction, that Sanemi cannot stop the grin that spreads across his face, and Y/N thinks she has never seen a more beautiful sight than a smiling Sanemi Shinazugawa, as he leans to kiss her slowly and languid.

————————

It’s hours later, and the two have not left the hot spring, even though they’ve long stopped feeling the heat of the water.

They had not stopped themselves from having one another again and again. Sanemi had still been buried inside of her when she had felt him harden as she professed her love for him again, and so she had had no choice but to move him under her and ride him until he shouted her name, filling her back up with his essence.

Y/N now rests her head on Sanemi’s chest, fingers tracing the outline of the scars dancing across his pectorals.

God, he was beautiful.

His scars told a story — a story of a warrior who gave every part of himself to the dream they shared of ridding the world of demons.

A story of strength; of survival. A warning that he had won every encounter with every demon who crossed his path.

It was a beautiful story. He was a beautiful story.

“Ugly, aren’t they?”

Sanemi’s derisive tone startles Y/N from where she lay, and she looks up at him in alarm. Though the expression on his face was soft — contented, even — there is an unmistakable hardness in his eyes as he glances down to where her fingers rested.

“What on earth do you mean?” Y/N demands, fanning her hand out protectively across his chest.

Sanemi does not respond, merely choosing to smile ruefully at her.

But Y/N shakes her head. “No. No, they’re not ugly; not in the slightest.” She moves so she’s sitting on his lap and bends over him, brushing her lips along the outline of each scar that crosses his skin.

“You’re beautiful.” Y/N insists between the press of her lips to him.

Sanemi reddens but shakes his head at her. “They scare kids, ya know. And girls. And most people, for that matter.”

Y/N looks up from the scar she is currently lavishing and sees Sanemi watching her intently. She sits up, reaching a hand to cup under his chin so that he won’t try and hide from her, won’t try to avoid what she is about to say.

“Your beauty has never scared me, Sanemi. Ever.” She swears, voice firm and steady.

Sanemi’s heart feels like it is going to punch through his chest and dance across Y/N’s lap. At that moment, Sanemi realizes that nothing else matters to him, nothing at all, except for the woman with the kindest heart he’s ever known and the moon in her eyes.

So he sits up, and cradles her face while he kisses her softly, breaking away from her only to respond to her earlier declaration.

“I love you, too.”

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

I hope you all enjoyed it!

Here is the reference for the Lunar Pillar's naginata blade -- fun fact, naginatas were historically used by Japanese noblewomen for protection!

Tag-list:

@stuckinthewrongworld @ladytamayolover @sweetblueworm @kazehayaaa @horror4themasses @catzpawn @lollypoporabullet @fuckimgenderfluid @sobbing-bunny @otaku-reblogs @umekohiganbana @mydreamissleeping @finnydraws

#sanemi shinazugawa #sanemi x reader #kny x reader #sanemi drabble #kny fanfic #demon slayer hcs #kimestu no yaiba #kny #kny smut #sanemi shinazugawa x reader #demon slayer

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total-drama-brainrot · 2 months

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This Alenoaheather AU is bringing me an unholy amount of serotonin and I love it- I’m still just now discovering it and I wish I knew about it sooner😭😭 But question if I may!

So, by the time Noah gets eliminated, where would you say his relationship lies with Alejandro and Heather? Like, does he leave the competition like, “You both tried to play each other, but I ended up playing the both of you, L” Like does he just think that Alejandro and Heather only romantically like each other, and he was just their attempt at emotionally manipulating one another, or does he at least have an idea that they potentially may feel romantically towards him? Honestly I’m just curious about how his elimination would play out between the three of them-

I'm glad other people are enjoying this AU as much as I am. Me and Perp are slowly spreading our Alenoaheather propaganda and it's working.

It's been established that Noah's elimination in this AU will take place at some point in the early post-merge game, probably either China or the Serengeti (though Niagara Falls might work too. We haven't exactly touched on how each challenge can/will play out since this whole concept has been put on the backburner), which gives his dynamic with Heather and Alejandro time to blossom from the initial double fake dating ploy into something more genuine.

Well before his elimination, Noah's been caught in his double-crossing ways; or to be more accurate triple-crossing, since Noah initially decided to play along with both Heather and Alejandro's schemes with the intention of throwing them both under the bus (or at least reaping all of the benefits for himself). But, by the time his ploy is figured out, the three of them have developed genuine feelings for each other.

As such, Heather and Alejandro are hesitant to have him eliminated; sure Noah somehow managing to pull the wool over their eyes for as long as he did was infuriating, but it was also impressive. Like recognises like, and the two biggest schemers in the game can appreciate when they've been outplayed, aggravating as it is, especially when the person who bested them essentially used their own trickery against them. Also, though the two of them would never admit it, both Heather and Alejandro know that they'd honestly miss Noah's caustic company.

Of course, at this point in the competition Heather and Alejandro are still deep in their "rivalry" phase, so it takes the two of them a very convoluted and overcomplicated conversation to figure out that they both share the same sentiment concerning a certain cynic- since every encounter they have with each other is practically a game of backhanded compliments and dancing around the true meaning of their words. It takes even longer for them to come to an agreement, given how stubborn the both of them can be, but eventually they manage to co-operate.

Which is what leads to The Confrontation, the point in the story where the two fake dating plots merge into Heather and Alejandro putting aside their differences to rule the game together, utilizing Noah as their shared right hand man since he's shown a knack for strategy and subterfuge. After all, why would they want to get rid of the one person on the jet who's able to go toe-to-toe with them in terms of scheming, when they can instead keep him around as an accomplice?

At least, that's the excuse they both use. But the two of them internally can't deny that, even if it was all pretend, Noah wasn't a bad "boyfriend" by any means, and they genuinely enjoy his company. In turn, Noah's accepted that neither Heather nor Alejandro are as insufferable as he initially assumed, and that playing along with their grand plots is actually really fun. (And maybe he also likes the two of them, but Noah would never admit that.)

But there's a a whole cast's worth of people on the jet who the trio also have to consider in their plans; it would be super suspicious of all three of them if the flirting and Aleheather's animosity suddenly ceased. No matter how oblivious the rest of the competitors are, a sudden public change in their dynamic would be the equivalent of waving a huge red flag and screaming "hey, we're in an alliance, vote us out!" Very counterintuitive to their goal of winning the competition.

So the three of them resolve to act as they have been during challenges, and sneak off to the confessional when it's most convenient/feasible to do so, where they can plot and scheme away from the rest of the cast.

This means that, at least to everyone else in the game, Noah's still in this weird grey area where he's actively flirting with both Heather and Alejandro. Or, well, "flirting", since I imagine most of the advances would be initiated by the other party and Noah would play the part of the blushing damsel- or more accurately the begrudging but highly amused recipient, since I just can't conceptualise snarky, stoic Noah being the type to get flustered easily.

I imagine The Confrontation would happen somewhere around London timeline wise (it just feels like the most appropriate place to have a major shift in the plot happen, for obvious reasons), which would give the initial fake dating aspect of the AU time to run it's course without getting stale, and allow the three of them to establish their dynamic as a trio before the merge hits. It'd give Alenoaheather around five or six episodes worth of time to grow closer as a trio (from Greece's Pieces to Niagara Brawls, at least) and have their feelings grow and develop at a natural pace, to the point where they acknowledge that, perhaps, not all of the romantic tension between them is fake.

And then, of course, the Fake Cheating Arc happens. Noah's elimination is the catalyst for this section of the plot, which Perp and myself touched on pretty heavily in one of our reblog chains, and at this point in the story Alenoaheather are in a sort of vague kind-of-dating situation; the three of them know there's feelings there, but they're all more invested in the competition (and their manipulation of such) than trying to figure out what exactly is going on between them. Plus, World Tour takes place in 2010- concepts like polyamory weren't exactly common knowledge back then, so the three of them wouldn't have any basis of comparison for what their dynamic is/would be.

That, and the three of them are all fairly emotionally closed off, so getting them to admit genuine feelings for each other and show vulnerableness to anyone would be like pulling teeth. As it stands, they're fairly content to continue acting as a Trickster Trio, contented to leave whatever's going on between them unlabelled for the time being in favour of focusing their time and energy on winning the million. There's an unspoken understanding between the three of them; what they have is special, inconceptual and indescribable by mere words... which is mostly just an excuse for the three of them not to breach the subject, since they have the collective emotional intelligence of a spork.

That doesn't mean they don't love each other. Because they do, even if some of them (Heather and Alejandro) aren't exactly familiar with concepts like "unconditional love" and "loyalty/compassion for someone besides yourself" and "lowering your emotional walls and being the most genuine version of yourself in front of the people who care about you". It's a steep learning curve, but they're doing their best.

But that's besides the point; at this point in the plot, the trio are essentially a throuple in all but name at the point of Noah's elimination.

That's why his suggestion of playing off of his "cheating" is initially met with hesitance on Aleheather's part- they don't want the one person on the jet (besides each other) they actually care about to risk his reputation, but they also know that it's a strategically sound idea. There's a conflict of interest between their desire to win the competition by any means necessary, and the budding sense of empathy they've both began to develop as a result of their situationship.

Of course, they eventually agree to his plan, and then the whole Cheating Arc plays out as it's been explored previously.

Which means Noah's actual elimination ceremony is a very tense affair.

He's intentionally playing himself up as kind of a scumbag during it, since he wants both Heather and Alejandro to appear as sympathetic as possible to the remaining competitors, so the three of them stage an altercation during that day's challenge where Noah's caught out in his "cheating", and consequently "admits" that he's been playing the two of them and it's all ingenuine on his part, to direct the majority vote against him. It'd kill two birds with one stone that way; Noah gets himself eliminated without having to do much out of the ordinary, since he's already kind of an asshole so all he really has to do is play up that aspect of himself a little and lie about manipulating his partners, meanwhile Heather and Alejandro can reap the benefits of whatever brownie points they gain from being his "victims" by using their own manipulative prowess to adopt the role of the ex-villains, redeemed by their shared heartbreak. Or something equally melodramatic.

Noah doesn't really care about the specifics of it, he'll be long gone before his partners can start playing up their "betrayal and heartbreak", and then soon enough one of them will win the competition. And spoil him rotten with their money.

So, during the actual ceremony, Noah becomes persona non grata. No one wants to sit anywhere near him on the benches, and the remaining cast members form a protective wall between him and a distraught Heather, who sniffles back quiet tears every time her eyes wander too close to the cynic's slouching, impassive frame, and Alejandro who's sat eerily still and taut with disgraced fury, who's fiery green eyes haven't strayed from the burning glare he's shooting towards the bookworm.

Not that Noah's a stranger to receiving glares; the rest of the cast are also shooting him some downright murderous looks. Though he is impressed by his partners' acting abilities. He's also physically biting back pearls of laughter- the gritting of his teeth only serves to make him look unapologetically indignant, and thus more irredeemable in the eyes of their company- because every time Alejandro knows that no one's focus is on him, he sends his cerebral partner a cheeky wink and a smirk. The smug bastard.

Unsurprisingly, the vote is fairly unanimous. Chris doesn't even bother trying to raise suspense or tension by counting the votes, since the result is inevitable. That, and the atmosphere is already so tense and dramatic, the host is revelling in it. Chris even goes so far as complimenting Noah for outshining Duncan's cheating fiasco, showing the audience "what real relationship drama looks like", and maybe even congratulating Noah on almost being as heartless as he is.

He's escorted to the Drop of Shame, parachute backpack in tow, but before he can take the plunge he glances back at his audience. A raging sea of hostility greets him, but within the depths of animosity two shining beacons of light greet him. Alejandro and Heather shoot him a fleeting wave, the ghosts of smiles flickering across their features before they continue their flawless acts, but it's enough to reassure Noah that everything will be fine.

(Spoiler alert, things don't end up being fine for Noah.)

Of course this is all just an idea I'm spewing out. Nothing in this AU is set in concrete and it's always open to peer review or change. That's the beauty of public AUs; you can do whatever you want with them!

#is this anything? i just got home from work and sort of typed this out in an exhausted haze #me when i see the word “alenoaheather”: 🏃‍♂️💨#to be fair i did take a break in the middle of writing this to read kijo's newest fic (it's also alenoaheather and it's INCREDIBLE)#uhhhhh #honestly now i kind of want to make an off-shoot of this au where noah really IS that much of a dick--#and IS playing with their feelings and hits the fortnite Take The L dance during his elimination #“L + Ratio + RIP Bozo + I never loved either of you. Peace ✌”#but for this au. yeah. they love each other so much. it's disgusting #i think me and perp touched on it a little but they do have a situationship going on pre-elimination #it's untitled because the 2000s were awful for any relationship that wasn't straight and monogamous #these three are rediscovering polyamory like a group of cavemen reinventing the wheel. it'll take them a while to fully figure out--#but what they've got going on works for the time being!#need to gather The Council and make us all have a brainrot session over this AU at some point #total drama #td alejandro #td heather #td noah #alenoaheather #fake dating au #silly ideas #long post #replies

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aftokrator-official · 30 days

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some Thoughts on chapter 13 now that i've finished:

I LOVE HOEDERER.... i already did but like. Really enjoyable to get his POV in this event and see more of his inner thoughts and motivations. I'm fond of characters who are so tired and worn down and jaded, but manage to hold onto some scrap of hope regardless, even against their own better judgment. A lot like Mlynar in that way, tbh.

regrettably this chapter sold me on hoederines a little. i'm CONFLICTED because i love wines so much, dammit. (and manhoe, but there's not as much of a conflict with my headcanons there.) But their relationship is so good regardless of whether you read it as romantic or platonic.

speaking of, Ines was a delight in this chapter. Love her role as the resident non-Sarkaz Sarkaz who is completely unaffected by whatever arcane bullshit is getting to Hoederer and W in any given moment, so she can yell at them to snap out of it and save all of their lives lmao. I love her deep loyalty and care for them that she expresses in everything but words. ugh ugh i love her

the little subplot with Vendela and the Sarkaz commander who tried to keep her safe was sweet and sad, I wish he'd gotten a unique sprite at least. I kind of want to see her meet Flamebringer now and her reaction to the friendship between him and Perfumer... I feel like there's some parallels there.

We're starting to see some payoff to the buildup with Siege in this arc, and I'm so glad! I've never really understood the hate her arc gets - I know it's partly that I'm biased, she was my first 6* so I'm rather fond of her, and I just really like the whole concept of the Glasgow Gang. And I think it doesn't help that ch12 was (imo) the weakest part of act 2 so far. But also, it was always really clear to me that we've been just... laying the groundwork with her up til now, I didn't really expect her to have big moments or turning points yet? Idk. i kind of want to write a whole post about her arc and my thoughts on it at some point. BUT, I really liked her in ch13, seeing her start to really come into her own and how all the events of act 2 up until now have shaped her decisions.

I'M REALLY SAD ABOUT GUARD ACTUALLY??? :( Tbh I have not really cared much about New!Reunion until this chapter, except for Talulah, but I'm finally getting invested. And Talulah's confrontation with Eblana was AMAZING. I've always seen her as a foil to Talulah - while Talulah started down her path with good intentions and ideals, Dublinn seems to have been like late-stage Reunion from the very start, because Eblana has always cared more about seeking power than about the oppression of the people around her. SO FUCKING SATISFYING to see Talulah, of all people, calling her out on that, and protecting Reunion from her. I really hope we get more of these two in future, and also more Reed in main story please please pleeeaseee.

This chapter was wonderfully cohesive with the themes of tradition and bloodlines vs forging a new path. Siege, Delphine and Horn, all beginning to break away from their inherited roles in Victoria's hegemony and fight on their own terms instead. The Kazdel flashbacks, the spacetime feranmut, and Hoederer's POV - a character who wants to see a better future for Kazdel, while still remembering and learning from its past. Nine, Guard and Talulah dealing with what Reunion means as a symbol, and figuring out what it should become. Shining and Nightingale, confronting the Confessarii and their own past. Even Vendela, having to let go of the life and traditions she'd grown up in, the townspeople clinging to familiarity and the hope that things would go back to normal to the point that it was literally going to kill them. The confrontation with the Sanguinarch was such a great culmination of all of this, with his fixation on blood purity and the glorious lost past of the Teekaz. And he's defeated by several people who all soundly reject his vision of what the Sarkaz "should" be - Amiya, the outblood King; Logos, who does have a "pure" bloodline by the Sanguinarch's standards but refuses to be defined by the role he inherited; Hoederer and W, two of the mixed-race "commoner" Sarkaz he's so contemptuous of (and Hoederer specifically rejecting the idea that the Sarkaz's destiny must always be soaked in blood); Ines, who isn't a Sarkaz at all, except she is, because her family is Sarkaz, and she's always going to be one of them. It was! So fucking good!

#arknights #i need to properly write up my thoughts on act 2 in general at some point but.#CH13 WAS REALLY GOOD

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visgrapplinghooks · 9 months

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friendlinghood: a proposal

skip to "terminology" if you don't want the long explanation

QPRs are really difficult to talk about because of the way the modern queer community has kinda framed it as like "dating but without romantic attraction"

when that's not entirely true

I mean, you COULD say that's a kind of QPR but it'd be a mistake to frame all of it that way. this is in large part to internet misinformation and shit as well as amatonormativity from which a lot of relationship discourse is framed against

queerplatonicism, from my pov refers to what is essentially the natural byproduct of queer and neurodivergent people having close friends

the queer community has been aware for a while that its members would have close friendships that in some way violated traditional social norms for behavior outside romantic relationships or family, etc.

when you sit outside the neurotypical and patriarchal norm, the conventional social understanding of what relationships are kinda breaks down for you

you display levels of closeness and intimacy and affection that are "inappropriate" for neurotypical and patriarchal society. in most cases they're not formal relationships, but natural evolutions of friendships between queer and neurodivergent folks

cishet people actually do have variants on this like the concept of "blood brothers" where two men who love each other basically make a pact to always have each other's backs and be their support and they do the whole movie thing where they mix blood to bind them together (it's a very cinematic thing, but the point is it exists in the popular consciousness)

"romance" and "friendship" each refer to a set of social norms and expectations. there's like a whole narrative constructed around those concepts and people internalize and have their own versions of them

a lot of people probably have friends they want to fuck or kiss or cuddle or declare their undying affection for but it'd just be "weird" within the social boundaries of acceptability and so people pigeonhole their relationships into either friend or romantic partner.

queerplatonicism (from my pov) is essentially accepting or practicing relationships which are neither platonic or romantic or even strictly familial. many queer people have them with other queer people they're close to. if you know queer folks then you probably know what I'm talking about - the friends they have that they're not dating but seem intensely attached and close to. they usually have weird names for each other that go beyond friendship like they'll jokingly call each other wives and husbands and siblings and partners... but it doesn't feel quite entirely joking. they'll express a lot of physical affection in the casual way you might typically ascribe to romantic partners. they'll prioritize time with those people as much as any romantic partner they may have etc.

straight and cis people and neurotypical people obviously experience them to some extent, it's just that patriarchy was built around cishet neurotypicals in particular, so it tends to cling to their mindsets more strongly, and once you're already outside of the "bounds of normalcy" by being queer, ND, etc. then it's a lot easier to feel like it's okay for you to be in relationships that aren't "normal".

because like the idea of loving someone with your entire fucking being... it's so tied up in these cultural ideas on how to behave about those feelings and it never made sense to me, because if you just let yourself feel those emotions you start to realize there are people in your life that maybe you love so much more than friends. but "more than friends" is so washed up in romance that you force those feelings down and think "this is fine, I'm happy with being just friends, what else can we be?"

maybe I don't want to have sex or hold hands on a ferris wheel or get. married or kiss or any of that. maybe I just want to exist in the same room as that person know that that person is in my life and know that person cares about me just as much as I do them.

terminology

I've started to use the term "friendling" in my day to day life, now. the term is a portmanteau of "friend" and "sibling" and "loveling" (the english cognate of the German word "lieblings" which can mean "favorite", but is also a term of endearment).

to me, it's probably the most accurate way to describe the Everything All At Once feelings that are simultaneously your weird friends that are your found family and also "romantic" but twisted beyond recognition where the term stops meaning anything.

I'm just throwing this word and explanation out there for anyone who feels like me and wants to use it too. not exclusive to queer people or neurodivergence or anything, I just think it's often easier to be cognisant of those feelings when you are queer and neurodivergent.

that being said, I do NOT want this to be folded into another "attraction label". this is, as far as I can tell, not a unique form of attraction but quite literally the opposite. it's an abstraction of the core impulses of attraction that ALL humans experience without the labels or social structures built around it. I do not want the language that I've spent so long trying to find for my experiences losing all of its value and being reapporpriated into the amatonormative, allonormative, and cisheteropatriarchal framework.

"friendlinghood" - is what I see as an attribute of relationships and the extent to which they deviate from socially conventional definitions of a relationship.

"friendlingship" - used grammatically like friendship. referring to any complex relationship acategorically.

"friendling" - used grammatically similar to friend. referring to those involved in any complex relationship acategorically.

all of this shit is nebulous and doesn't really mean anything beyond what meaning you choose to give it. I think any relationship can have some amount of friendlinghood and I don't think there's a clear line between friendlingship and friendship or romance or family, because it's not a type of relationship in the first place. it's just silly words I made that helped me.

language and labels

so the biggest problem with terminology like this is you can end up creating labels. my point was to create personal terms for myself and my relationships because that's what helped me personally process my own feelings.

that's not to say everyone needs or benefits from them. you can just vibe and do whatever you want and many people are happy with that.

I don't think words like this being codified and standardized really helps anyone. it's unavoidable that we as humans like articulating feelings, but the entire point of my interactions with friendlinghood is about certain things defying labels and language. language in this sense is just a tool, it's a hammer for a nail. it's not embodying the concept itself, it's just useful shorthand.

I will still freely refer to friendlings as close friends, best friends, found family, and other words. as long as I know the intention behind it is all that matters. I just needed that initial bit of language to articulate the feelings before the other words felt right to me.

#romance #relationships #healthy relationships #friendship #neurodivergence #actually neurodivergent #actually autistic #lgbtqplus #lgbtq community #lgbtqia #aromantic #aromanticism #acespec #aspec pride #asexuality #aroace #queerplatonic #queerplatonic relationships #queer

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hikari-ni-naritai · 3 months

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honestly, what could possibly be a more perfect harem anime for you? not only does the main character get to be immortal, all but one of her harem is as well, AND there's ghosts in this setting, so even death can't separate them.

Slime300 is like if they took my ultimate wish fulfillment story (immortal cute witch outside of town) and then tacked on a harem that's not done particularly well u_u

Don't get me wrong I love the girls very much, but I'm generally put off by harems where the concept is 'all these girls love the same one person and their relationships with each other are either antagonistic or nonexistent'. Which is most harem plots. And slime300 is not immune to this, nor will I overlook it just bc the MC is a girl. While it's true that I am a lesbian, I'm also debilitatingly monogamous, so I have no more personal interest in a lesbian harem than I do a straight one if they're both portrayed the same way.

Now we get into the contentious part. Feel free to draw and quarter me in the streets for this one, but you wanna know what anime harem I DO like? Arifureta. Because from the start, it's grounded in open communication with each other, including amongst the girls. Frankly I'm only calling it a harem bc I know it ends as one, but for the first two seasons it's not. The main character is explicitly dating the vampire girl (points for Emily btw), and any time New girls arrive he makes sure to turn them down firmly, because he's only interested in vampire girl. There's none of the awkward 'horny teenage boy can't pick between these 8 hot girls' shit. Vampire girl meanwhile doesn't have anything against polyamory, but she rejects anyone who would fuck up their relationship by trying to have him for themselves. She accepts bunny girl bc while bunny girl does love mc, she also loves vampire girl. Perhaps not romantically, but she wants both of them to be around. And all three of them are aware of the state of things because they communicate with each other. This understanding is what makes a healthy relationship between the three of them in the future possible.

We won't spend time on the dragon girl bc she's just horny and doesn't really care who he dates. But the classmate girl is another case that I think is done particularly well! She joins the group and is told in no uncertain terms that mc isn't going to date her, but she's so sure she can prove she's Better than vampire girl and all the other girls and make him fall for Her Only, so in her hubris she joins anyway. Vampire girl isn't insecure in her relationship (another good thing! You don't want excess jealousy in your polycule) and she recognizes that classmate girl is an important friend to mc and that, if she got over her monogamy, she could be a good gf. Over time though classmate girl gets really discouraged, as one might expect when you're hanging out with someone you have a crush on and his extremely cute vampire gf and they are like explicitly fucking off screen. And instead of letting her stew in it, mc again explains that the only reason everyone is here is bc they've accepted that he's dating vampire girl, and they're not going to interfere with that. And if she can't handle that, being in this group is just going to hurt her, so she should consider leaving. And I think that instance of honest communication is one of the best scenes in the show, bc you really don't get that from harem anime, ever. By the end of the show, she's determined to at least get to a place where she feels she's on equal footing with vampire girl, and I think that's also important! You can't survive in a relationship where you're constantly comparing yourself to other partners. If classmate girl can feel like she's on the same level as everyone else, she'll feel less jealous and more willing to accept the state of things, i.e. that everyone loves mc, but everyone also loves each other. And I think she could love them too!

Anyway. Sorry you had to hear that. If slime300 put half this much thought into its harem it would be a perfect anime lol

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treblrebl · 7 months

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Charting the Course of B&B Part 2 - The Journey

Continuing the rather ridiculous effort to graphically summarize the B&B relationship trajectory, this instalment focuses on the agonizing journey between feelings realization, and relationship initiation, viz. Seasons 5 and 6.

Note: The Y-axis follows a simple 0-100 progression. The categories at each milestone are plotted relative to each other against a range of 0 to 100 points. Entirely subjective.

Season 5: Keyword - 'Devotion'

The season where everything changes. This is where Booth has his blinders forcibly yanked off, and where Brennan can no longer compartmentalize the depth of her feelings. Through all the tenderness, the pining and the utter devastation which the two of them go through this season, one thing remains constant. They are absolutely devoted to each other's happiness over anything else, including their own.

I have changed the parameters for this season's graph to mirror the changes in the B&B dynamic itself. Attraction and trust already reached their peak. Feelings on the other hand have deepened into serious romantic love. With that however, come the opposing forces of hope and fear. And that's what the chart below depicts.

Representation:

Milestones considered:

S5-E1: "He sees the truth of you, and is dazzled by it." - Booth can finally acknowledge to himself that he loves Brennan. There's hope for a new beginning, tempered by the very real fear that the surgery and coma have changed Booth somehow. The 'attagirl' backtracking is frustrating, but at that point, the right thing to do.

S5-E5: "What goes on between us, should just be ours." - Iconic for a reason. This is Booth firmly creating a space which is just for the two of them. This is a possible pivot point - where I believe if either of them had the courage to declare, they would have started a romance much earlier.

S5-E7: "I can't think of anything I wouldn't do to help Booth." Self-explanatory. Nobody notices the little things about Booth the way Brennan does. At this point Booth has patience, and hope. His marksmanship test at the end is another possible pivot point.

S5-E8: "He's big and strong, but he needs someone." - Ah, Hank. Cutting to the heart of the matter. I believe this is the point at which Brennan begins to truly fear the depth of her feelings for Booth, and how far she will go for him.

S5-E12: "I will never forget what you did for him." - Case in point, how far Brennan is willing to go for him. And vice-versa - single-handedly breaking into a lab under Secret Service lockdown isn't something Booth does every day.

S5-E16: "I don't have your kind of open heart!" - Where all our hearts shattered. However, contrary to popular theory, I don't believe this is where Booth gave up.

S5-E19: "Then, in ignorance, I await my own surprise. Although the odds of it involving a commitment to another person are remote." - As much as I hate the trope of using jealousy to make a character recognize her feelings, I think this is where Brennan realizes the fact that the reality of Booth moving on is very different to the concept of it. Even here, I don't think Booth had lost hope. Brennan is more interested in his dates with Catherine than he is.

S5-E21: "Maybe I've lost my advantage because of all the people I'm involved with now." - Ouch. THIS is the beginning of Booth giving up on Brennan. Till now despite the rejection, Booth hasn't once stepped back in his devotion to Brennan. He ignored his heartbreak to give her the prom dance she wanted, he used his witch wishes for her happiness, in whatever form that may take, and he let go of his own trauma to help her get justice. But Brennan is pulling away, she says she can't deal with the deaths and murders any more. Her fear is at it's apex, and she can't see clearly. But to Booth, it looks like an ending.

S5-E22: "No, things have to change." - Yep, that's Booth's hope in a tailspin. Brennan needs a pause, a break, some distance to evaluate her mental state. But she can't communicate it the way she wants to, and Booth is too close to the issue to be able to see things from the right perspective. What she saw as an opportunity for a pause, he sees as her signal telling him he must move on. Crossed signals leads to a year and half of torment.

Season 6: Keyword - 'Inner Demons'

The BIG, notorious, controversial one. You either love this season or despise it. I love it. The character arcs for both of them are spectacular. They both face their worst demons and hit rock bottom, yet manage to climb their way out. Plus, in contrast to their usual dynamic, here Brennan is the one who is a rock to Booth through her own turmoil.

Almost every single episode in this season has a milestone. So much so that I have to use 2 graphs to chart out the course of this season. The first graph uses love, emotional distance and internal torment as parameters, whereas for the second graph we return to hope and fear, with the addition of anger.

It has to be noted that I have plotted each parameter as a composite of Booth's and Brennan's, even though at many points they are at absolute opposite ends of the scale.

Representation (A):

Milestones considered:

S6-E1: The return. Booth is distant, Brennan feels displaced. She's at a much healthier mental space now, but I don't think she had yet found the courage to name what she feels for Booth. But the man in question has moved on. Or so we are led to think.

S6-E2: Enter Hannah. The magnitude of Hannah's decision to CHOOSE him over everything else to someone with Booth's history is a separate post in itself. Suffice to say, Hannah coming to DC changed things drastically. The emotional chasm between B&B widens.

S6-E3: "Booth will give himself to you completely." - Ouch. Brennan speaks from experience. But Hannah is moving in, and there's no space for Brennan.

S6-E5: "So basically, you just saved my life." - They're Booth and Brennan. Distance is slowly being erased. The wall that Booth erected in Afghanistan between him and his feelings for Brennan receives a solid blow thanks to what she did for Hannah.

S6-E7: "But you agree that love is an idiot?" - Oh Brennan. Who are you trying to convince?

S6-E8: "Parker thought I was cool when I did the cannonball into the pool. Do you remember that?" - Bren, you're breaking my heart.

S6-E9: God.

S6-E11: Gravedigger gets shot, all Brennan can think about is Booth. The shell, her smile. Booth's protective wall beginning to disintegrate.

S6-E12: "There's only one person you love the most." - Oh Booth. I don't envy you.

Representation (B):

Milestones considered:

S6-E13: "The evidence says that there's something wrong here." - Booth's anger is frightening, but most of it is directed towards himself. Whatever hope he regained in Afghanistan, he's lost it. He's afraid that love just isn't on the cards for him. Brennan however, is the one holding out hope this time.

S6-E14: " Happy Valentine's Day Massacre, Booth". - The first ray of sunlight from beyond the dark, forbidding clouds.

S6-E15: "I just don't like the idea that my partner thinks that me and Jacob Broadsky are in any way alike." - One step forward, two steps back. Booth's internal struggle with his past and his mentor's turn to the dark side are doing nothing to help dampen his ever present anger. Brennan stands strong in the face of it.

S6-E16: "A time may come when you are no longer angry, and I am strong enough. Maybe then we could try and be together."

S6-E18: "Just because you can explain something doesn't mean its explicable. Like us. We don't make any sense at all."

S6-E20: "I never told you how much it meant that you stayed with me."

S6-E22: Doesn't need any further elaborating except that the fear now is losing each other without having had each other.

S6-E23: "I'm pregnant. You're the father."

#bones tv #bonestv #booth x brennan #seeley booth #temperance brennan #why am i doing this #oh god this is long as hell

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avelera · 1 year

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Random warm-up thoughts as I dive into writing this weekend (ayooo!) but as much as I am a firm believer in bisexual Hob supremacy, the OG fan of it being absolutely inextricable from his essential identity, this man fucks and he fucks regardless of gender...

(And here's where we get into some lengthy Giving Sanctuary Behind-the-Scenes!)

... when I write him in a historical context like Giving Sanctuary I do write him as coming from a time when marriage was simply understood as being between men and women.

Let me explain! (And by doing so, let's also explore what marriage meant historically for much of Hob's life, what divorce meant, and why male friendships really were like that in such a way as to make it very hard for Dream and Hob to parse if the other is interested in them romantically as well.)

To clarify, I don't mean "marriage between a man and a woman" just in some conservative, reductive way. Throughout history, many het* couples didn't bother to get married formally, officially before a priest or whatever in Europe, particularly if they were peasants like Hob, because marriage was a formal affair, more of a business transaction, all about the sharing of property. Marriage wasn't necessarily even romantic or aligned with romance as we'd imagine today. This is a sweeping generalization that's not true across all the periods Hob has lived through, even by 1689, but I just want to make clear where I'm coming from for the next part.

Hob certainly had other life partners before Eleanor, in my mind, but Eleanor was the first person he married with the intention of founding a dynasty, so to speak, sharing property, and having official descendants, as part of his grand plan to sort of pin himself to this world and immortality by having his many times over great-grandchildren by Eleanor to look after over the years.

Hob in Giving Sanctuary still thinks of a relationship between a man and a woman as being... not more legitimate by any means, but as being more formal, having more privileges in terms of recognition by society, and this is not me trying to be a pedantic jerk or make Hob homophobic, far from it. He has had deep, abiding love affairs with men for long stretches of time (obviously for Hob, not a lifetime), relationships he'd see as just as emotionally legitimate as his marriage to Eleanor. Relationships he was probably even open about with his inner circle as being sworn to one another and exclusive. But that wasn't marriage in the historical sense of his time and place pre-1689. That's not the binding of two houses, that's not confirmed by wider society at large, which Hob so hungered to be a part of in the 1500s. Hob would never be against the idea of being married to a man, formally, but it's so far outside his context in the 1600s that the thought doesn't even occur to him as something that might be available to him, especially with regards to Dream, or occur to Hob that Dream might consider it as an option with Hob.

(For the record, Dream is part of a supernatural world that would absolutely see marriage between two men* as totally legitimate, but Hob does not know that and it would blow his mind to learn that Dream is metaphorically doodling the seating charts for their grand eldritch wedding as we speak.)

Which brings me, first, to Calliope and Hob's borderline masochistic insistence that she be the one to go to Dream when he's grieving, to patch things up and maybe get back together and forgive each other. Keep in mind, Hob also lives in an era where divorce was practically unheard of except for annulments due to lack of consummation or because of adultery, along with a few other very rare and very expensive exceptions. Divorces were quite hard to achieve. To Dream, when he says Calliope is his former wife he means it in the modern sense of they are divorced, something that was legal and regularly practiced in say, Ancient Rome, so Dream is very familiar with the concept. Hob, less so.

So one very subtle miscommunication happening when discussing Calliope is that when Dream says "former wife" he means it in a very final sense of "legally" divorced, separated, no longer a family unit. Hob, however is hearing something more along the lines of "separated" - they had a child together so non-consummation is clearly not present. She was a wife, not a partner, she was a goddess so it was a binding of houses, a contract. To Hob's ears, he's hearing that Calliope and Dream no longer live together but that doesn't preclude Calliope moving back in down the line and simply resuming the marriage where it left off, particularly since she does not mention having remarried or found another partner since then.

And furthermore, this woman/goddess is the mother of Dream's (deceased) son! She has precedent over Hob as Dream's lover. If she shows the least interest, or if Dream did, Hob would bow out in a heartbeat (a brokenhearted one, of course). Because that concept of man/woman* marriage being somehow more legitimate, more open, more accepted, more formal applies here. He could still, in theory, be Dream's lover on the side if that were to happen, not that he dares hope for that, but if Calliope returned, the agreement to tend one another might even be in jeopardy, because the whole "helpmate" thing is built into the concept of marriage.

One reason for Hob's obsessive insistence on being Dream's friend and being sworn to tend him is that it keeps the door open to staying by Dream's side, albeit in a more limited capacity than now, is if this estranged wife ever decided to return. He could still at least have a claim to some fraction of Dream's time as his friend if that were to happen. Calliope really did need to insist that she has zero interest in ever returning to Dream, yes, that many times over and then force the issue by refusing to go to Dream's side to comfort him before Hob really understood that this marriage has been truly over for the past 2000+ years and not just temporarily suspended.

Now, speaking of Hob's claim to being Dream's friend, another perhaps subtle, almost invisible element of this story that is hard to comment on within it because it would be as natural to Hob (our POV) character as breathing and therefore not something he'd mentally comment on, is historical male bonding.

Much of why it's not obvious to Hob (or Dream) how they feel romantically for one another is because both are from a context of a pre-Puritanical, pre-20th c. homophobia mindset as far as male closeness. Men historically embraced, held hands (yes, sometimes to show they were together so they wouldn't be seen as easy targets for mugging, a practice still common in parts of the world today!), shared a bed together, and spoke of one another in effusive, indeed quite romantic terms. Just look at some old epics where men swear themselves to their comrades in arms, the fact that Achilles/Patroclus was considered debatably platonic relationship at various points of history, not just because commentators were being dense but because loving your male friend so much that you wanted to die without him was just kind of something guys said in many warrior cultures. Many aggressively (by today's standards so * needed) heterosexual, macho, warrior type men thought it was effeminate to love their wives too much and not prefer their male friends and not as sexual or romantic partners necessarily.

My point is, when Hob says things like how wearing Dream's colors would just make the outer appearance match the inner heart, he's speaking in the way men talked about their close friends or even their superiors, a beloved liege lord, back then. He doesn't think he's saying anything particularly romantic, and indeed, for his context he isn't saying anything particularly romantic! Even sharing a bed or cuddling for warmth wouldn't necessarily be seen as explicitly romantic or sexual. Men were just more demonstrably close to one another in many eras he lived through.

Hob has not, to this point, outed himself as in love with Dream at all despite all the (by modern standards) romantic stuff he's said or all the times they've cuddled or touched one another. Everything they've done could be seen as just them being very close, but nothing has been romantic or sexual in any way that would necessarily be questionable for that time. And that assumption of Hob's, that all the affection they've shown to one another is plausibly platonic, is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now, combined with his own insecurities after 80 years of suffering and privation, for how and why he doesn't see anything that has happened between him and Dream as being the greenlight to make his also romantic and sexual interest known.

Dream is just bad at emotions and expressing himself, which is why he's been too dumb to use his words and ask for what he wants yet, lol. But! He is also aware of this effusive male friendship culture (Shakespeare's works are littered with it!) so he too has not seen any behavior that he would take as the greenlight to make overtures or declare his romantic interest clearly enough for Hob to not feel he's misinterpreting based on his own desires.

But we'll get there ;)

#giving sanctuary #1689 fic #giving sanctuary bts

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hyperactivewhore · 1 year

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there's something very juvenile and shallow about klaroline, in my opinion. part of it is because the narrative has never really focused on them unless its for fanservice. klayley, for example, have had ups and downs. they have worked together and worked against each other. they have made concessions for each other, they have killed for each other, and they have made choices for each other. their dynamic feels a bit more adult despite their immaturity at times, and of course part of that comes from their shared responsibility and their shared desire to put hope above themselves. it is through their circumstances that they regard each other differently and begin to treat each other like equals, which i find interesting. personally, klaroline just feels a bit stuck in the teen drama pit, which is why i do not find it nearly as compelling.

I also think it's because Caroline herself is a teenager. Yes, a vampire, but also a girl who's frozen at seventeen and will never grow up out of it, similar to Rebekah.

I'm not sure if it's been said in canon, but in tvd it's pretty clear that vampires are more or less mentally frozen with their physical age when they die. I don't know if that made sense, so: you die being twenty-two = you'll always be twenty-two mentally and emotionally, no matter how much you live as a vampire.

A clear example of that is Klaus, who died when he was twenty-one/twenty-two and despite having a thousand years, he clearly doesn't act like it. Or Rebekah, who in canon died being seventeen: she was clearly an insecure and neurotic teenager in tvd, until they made her act mature and feminist in The Originals (don't come at me for the last part, trying to steal a girl's boyfriend wasn't very feminist of her).

But back to the point, definitely. There was a lack of power between their relationship which Klaus always took advantage of, and Caroline did act like she couldn't stand his sight yet she didn't hesitate before accepting his attention or his gifts imo. I believe is because they weren't supposed to be romantically interwined at first, so the writers clearly didn't know how to handle them and they tried to make look romantic every time Klaus threatened her and snapped whenever she said something he didn't like.

Which failed, and yet fans bought it with their whole "Klaus is the only one who always put Caroline first." He didn't imo and that's final.

And Joseph and Kat, the actress of Bonnie, wanted their characters to have a romantic relationship yet Pl*c said a big no because she's a racist piece of shit. So with the way the writers jumped at the opportunity to not give us the romance between the black witch and the hybrid and instead had him "fall" for the baby vampire is disgusting. Klaus x Bonnie would have been a thousand of times better than any of his other relationships.

And now, going to klayley, I personally don't ship them anymore even though I did once. I agree about how they were more mature than klaroline, but the whole point of their dynamic is that they wouldn't have spared the other a glance if not for Hope. Hayley hated sleeping with him, as pointed out for their daughter in s5, but didn't regret it considering it brought her her hope (no pun intended lmao, or perhaps yes). Still, seeing the development in their relationship was quite beautiful despite everything: they loved each other as family, and one of the few things they agreed on was that Hope was their number one priority.

The whole conception about how Hope was made is strange though, hybrid and female werewolf = magic and most powerful baby as cliché as Renaissance from Twilight, that is three species without any logical explanation other than "we don't want any black witch (especially Bonnie Bennett) to be the most powerful" and "Klaus is a hybrid so he can procreate, despite the fact that he had been killed before having his werewolf side locked, therefore he couldn't get any woman pregnant".

I honestly love Hope, but her whole character revolves around being the most powerful and being the daughter of Klaus Mikaelson who is traumatized after her daddy and mommy died.

But going back to the point, definitely. Personally, I don't ship anyone with Klaus because I believe that to be seriously in a relationship with him, you must be as screwed up as him. It's the reason I don't believe Camille or Caroline could have been with him for a long time, and honestly he doesn't deserve either of those girls (I do though, give him to me.)

Either way, klamille and klaroline have problems of their own, but the fact that they resemble so much the sister he's always been obssesed with??? And the way Rebekah went for Marcel, the person that the show always said was the most like Klaus???

#klaus mikaelson #caroline forbes #camille o'conell #klaroline #klamille #rebekah mikaelson #marcel gerard #hope mikaelson #bonnie bennett #klonnie #marbekah #the originals #the vampire diaries #tvd #to

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izzysillyhandsy · 8 months

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Izzy has love for Ed. Ed has love for Izzy.

Ed loved Izzy as best he could. Izzy loved Ed as best he could.

And it wasn't only not good enough, in the end it was actively bad, a destructive, unhealthy, co-dependent love for both of them.

But!

We don't know when and how it started (Izzy's "all my life" implies a very long time) and what happened between them in the years and years they spent together. We don't know if there were good, happy times once. Or at least content and/or exciting ones. What we do know is how important Ed is to Izzy, and vice versa. They built their whole lives around each other.

Yes, their relationship was (at least in the end, maybe always) damaging to both of them, to put it lightly. But I think they didn't know it could be any other way and painfully held onto each other 'cause this is as good as it gets - at least we don't fuck each other over. At least this one person will never leave me. If we go down, we go down fighting side by side. And if we live another day, there's this one person I can trust to help me survive.

And then Stede comes along. And shows both of them this radical new concept - a soft and sweet kind of love, affection, enjoying each other's company in a light, sunny way. Just having fun, nothing life-and-death about it! Two people immediately getting each other, talking, laughing, being comfortable. Ed immediately falls for it and is the happiest he's ever been. For Izzy it takes a while, and it has to trickle down and be filtered through the crew for him to accept it (also his armour had to be cracked by the Kraken to make even that possible).

For Ed (and also, to an extent, for Izzy) this is the first time in their life they got a taste of a healthy relationship - it can also be like this?

This is only the start of it of course. Love unfortunately isn't that easy. But Ed will get there with Stede, and Izzy will get there (and faster than any of us thought judging by his character development in the first 3 episodes alone).

But...

Edward Teach and Israel Hands, old married couple, best friends, mentor and pupil?, captain and first mate, maybe (ex-)lovers, probably not, their worst enemies, the perfect team, two very troubled men, taking each other down to the brink of death. Obviously theirs wasn't a healthy relationship! But that doesn't mean that their love for each other is worth less and shouldn't have happened. It also doesn't mean that the way forward is to stop that love (as if that was so easy).

This show is all about learning to love in a healthy, mature, non-destructive way - be it romantic love, friendship, the love of (found) family or (most importantly) self-love.

I'm absolutely certain both Eddie and Iz will get there in the end, not us-two-against-the world, not as a romantic couple. But each in their own way and, hopefully, still remaining loosely bound to each other by mutal hard earned respect and love. That's all I hope for for them <3.

#ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd season 2 spoilers #edward teach #izzy hands #this is a bit of a reaction to all the toxic relationship posts out there #yes yes of course it is an unhealthy relationship #but it's our unhealthy relationship #years and years of shared experiences mean something especially with such a close bond #it had to end ofc and well done show for how it ended still a bit shaky over here #ofmd

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yanderes-galore · 6 months

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Romantic Yan! Mauga x gn!reader concept

I'D LOVE TO. He comes out on my birthday so this is a bit special for me/hj. Hope you enjoy my take on him! Here's me pouring general thoughts down ^^ (Love you for your Overwatch requests, istg).

If it sounds like I'm self-indulgent, I probably am, my bad.

Yandere! Mauga Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Abuse of power, Kidnapping, Murder/Death, Threats, Intimidation, Violence, Possessive, Restraints, Dehumanization mentioned, Sadism, Forced relationship.

I feel like there's a lot of scary things about Mauga.

First of all, he's huge.

He's been augmented from a near death experience to be huge and powerful.

His name even means "mountain".

Then there's the fact he takes joy in doing what he does... literal murder for Talon.

He even is oddly chipper/chill with his language.

Even when threatening others he sounds so... excited? Friendly?

He seems so nice to be around... but he's still a murderer.

He'd act the same with you.

Mauga calls everyone "friend".

If he met you he'd immediately be overly friendly.

He'd call you friendly terms, like "friend", "buddy", and "pal".

But if he felt flirty he'd probably call you by some sort of nickname.

I'm not sure what he'd call you exactly but maybe "Teuila"? It's the national flower of Samoa (from what I saw)

He could also call you the classic nicknames such as "babe", "baby", "dear", "doll", etc.

It's just "Teuila" seems more unique to him.

Mauga is another one who likes the size difference between you.

It serves as a good way to intimidate you and he likes it.

Mauga is a sadistic sociopath who doesn't appear affected by the crimes he commits.

In fact he depicts himself as "carefree".

Mauga could be the type to slaughter innocents then look at you with a big grin.

He doesn't mind if you fear him.

He'd part of Talon... he loves the fear.

He knows he's a bad person and doesn't mind.

His apathy towards the life of others is what makes him terrifying.

He only really cares about you, his little Teuila.

If I'm correct, Mauga canonically has sharp teeth.

Which means he would certainly bite you.

He may also like to hold/manhandle you a bit.

He likes the power and size he has over you.

Oh, fighting him a bit?

How do you like being pinned to a wall?

In his obsession he is naturally rough.

Mauga likes to have everyone know you're his.

No one should touch you unless they want a Talon agent breathing down their neck.

You could be a civilian or a fellow member of Talon.

Doesn't matter to him.

He plans to keep you all the same.

Would take you to bars when he could find them.

He sees it as a way to bond, probably.

Mauga could isolate you, yet showing you off can be quite exciting.

A silent challenge for others to take what's his... so he can have an excuse to break their bones, most likely.

He isn't one for "messing with your mind" manipulation.

More like... brute force.

He doesn't want to intentionally hurt you.

It's mostly just enough to show his mark on you, not to break anything.

He knows you're fragile.

If you tried to escape this mountain of a man... good luck.

He found Baptiste with ease when he left Talon.

He can find you.

He'll hunt you down and pick you from wherever you plan on staying.

He deserves to have you in his eyes.

You may cry or scream, but any hit against hist chest just makes him chuckle.

Your hits tickle him... he finds it adorable.

His "Cage Fight" ability implies chains.

This is just being clever, but imagine as punishment he chains you to him?

Now you can't run... he'll just drag you.

If anything you begin to look like a pet to members of Talon.

But they allow it.

They don't need Mauga becoming a problem.

Obviously he is quite possessive.

Loves your touch, your warmth, in a weird way your smell.

He may mark you but tries to treat you as delicately as a flower.

Like the nickname he affectionately calls you....

Mauga doesn't care if you miss your family when he drags you back to him.

He feels things would be better if you forget them.

He may end up doing something bad if you don't... wouldn't want that now, would we?

Overall, Mauga is a powerful and possessive man.

He is unfazed by what he does to obtain you... even when it includes others losing their lives for helping you leave him.

Mauga loves the challenge... even finds it exciting.

#yandere overwatch #yandere mauga #yandere overwatch mauga #yandere mauga malosi #yandere maugaloa malosi

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chaptersbycaz · 5 months

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𝘄𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼: 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝘇𝗲𝗿

this is it!! the intro for my beloved main wip, stargazer! i've had this wip for more than a year now and i haven't even finished the first draft of the first chapter, but this is the one that's rotting my brain... super duper excited to be writing about it someday, but for now, let's get into some info about it!

𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

if you like: rock music, rivals to lovers, the 80s, 90s and 2000s, alternative culture, sapphic pining, secret relationships, queer and bipoc representation, and character driven stories, then this may be for you!

genres: coming of age, slice of life, romance

setting: san diego, california; present time

ratings and content warnings: stargazer is intended for audiences 16 and over. this story contains heavy material such as strong language, mental illness, drug use and addiction, death, homophobia, transphobia, bullying and child abuse. more will be added if necessary. discretion is advised!

𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

arabella winters, a talented guitarist, returns to san diego after her mother's tragic passing. battling anxiety, she joins her friends' band searching for spade for a music contest, encountering an opposing band, hunter and the hounds, and their charming drummer, rudy osbourne. as they navigate a tense rivalry, a friendship between the two of them grows, deepening into a hidden romance. amidst the chaos of competition, friendships are tested, and arabella grapples with decisions that could either align the stars of her life or scatter her amidst the constellations. will love's force pull her together or tear her apart?

𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 & 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

stargazer's entire concept revolves around love. not just romantic love, although it's one of the biggest themes within the story, but all other kinds of love, like the kind you have for your friends, for your family, and even for the things you do. it's also an exploration of grief, trauma, mental illness, and how adolescents process all of that stuff without glamorizing any of it. combining all of that, through arabella's story, i wanted to show that even if you've been hurt before, and you carry all kinds of baggage and scars, you're still worthy of love and capable of loving others. everyone is. and that's what it's all about!

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

although the story focuses on two different bands, collectively all together, i tend to call them the all-stars.

arabella winters: searching for spade's talented guitarist struggling with grief and anxiety navigating her new life in san diego

rudy osbourne: hunter and the hounds' easygoing drummer whose eye arabella catches

regina han: searching for spade's highly well-liked frontwoman with a desire to win the competition

avi garcia: hunter and the hounds' determined frontman who harbors a deep personal grudge against regina and her band

rachel han: searching for spade's drumming prodigy secretly hiding contempt for her seemingly perfect older sister

ever davis-jones: hunter and the hounds' no-nonsense keyboardist who tries to keep their friends in line

jordan miller: searching for spade's nonchalant bassist and token boy best friend

conan flynn: hunter and the hounds' timid yet sweet bassist with a growing crush on avi despite thinking that he's straight (he's not)

𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

i've had the characters of arabella and rudy in my head for years prior to sitting down and working on stargazer, they're actually ocs that i made when i was 12, re-recycled when i turned 14, then re-recycled again a year later. there's a lot of influence specifically from scott pilgrim vs. the world, heartstopper and various romance stories from the 80s, 90s and 2000s.

music also played a big hand into helping shape this story into the way it is now, which is why it's such a big theme. the entire plot revolves around music someway, especially rock music. it really helped to form the vibe of stargazer, and i'm very happy to be integrating something i love into my work!

𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

♡ lovesong - the cure

♡ everlong - foo fighters

♡ teenage dirtbag - wheatus

♡ kids in america - the muffs

♡ about a girl - nirvana

♡ first date - blink-182

♡ head over heels - tears for fears

♡ take on me - a-ha

♡ are you bored yet? - wallows

♡ there is a light that never goes out - the smiths

♡ kiss her you fool - kids that fly

♡ touch tank - quinnie

♡ time after time - cyndi lauper

♡ sunday - the cranberries

♡ ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn't've) - the buzzcocks

♡ blue hair - tv girl

𝗳𝘂𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 ° 𖦹｡⋆☽

♡ arabella and rudy's relationship was originally supposed to be toxic, but then i jumped ship when i realized that wasn't the kind of story that i wanted to tell with them, plus i figured that the world needed more healthy, functional relationships in fiction

♡ i created this story during my metallica phase, and unintentionally designed arabella and rudy to sort of physically resemble kirk hammett and james hetfield respectively...... i swear it was an accident

♡ i did originally post a really old version of this story up on ao3, but it has since been deleted

♡ arabella and rudy originally played different instruments, arabella played bass and rudy played guitar instead.

and that's all i got for stargazer! if you've made it to this little section at the end, thank you so much for taking your time to read about my silly lil wip and my silly little ocs <3 it means the world to me as someone entirely new to writeblr, so if you wanna hear more about them or talk about something else entirely feel free to reach out however you please!!!

#stargazer by caz #my wips #wip intro #wip introduction #wip #coming of age #slice of life #romance #love story #drama #writeblr #creative writing #2000s #90s #80s #nostalgia #alt rock #chaptersbycaz

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guess-that-ship · 1 year

Text

Guess That Ship Tournament S3: Submission Closed!

The concept: You describe your ship* to me, I pick out the submissions which I find most compelling and pit them against each other without revealing who they are, people vote on them, and their identities gets revealed once they're eliminated.

Submission Guidelines

*For the purpose of this tournament, relationships do not have to be romantic in nature. I'm sometimes going to use "ship" as a shorthand, just know I mean "relationships" in general.

Relationship can be between any number of characters.

Real people are accepted if they've been dead for more than 100 years.

Roleplay characters are accepted as long as the description only pertains to the characters and not the players.

OCs are accepted.

One submission per person. (I cannot enforce this on google form without forcing you to log in. So just be champs and respect this rule.)

Summary Guidelines

Here's the selection process: Me or another judge is going to read through the list of descriptions submitted without looking at their names, we're gonna pick the most compelling submissions, then we check the name to make sure there's no repeats.

Keep your description canon compliant. You don't have to clarify if the ship is canon, just don't say they're married if they only act married.

Use canonical pronouns. (If a character's gender is popular fanon or often debated, then I kindly ask that you omit explicitly stating it in your summary. Just stick with the pronouns and/or gendered terms they canonically use.)

Avoid identifying information or setting specific giveaways. (ie. Ninja village, space necromancers.)

If your ship is like, super well known even outside of your fandom, then it's better to keep your description on the vague side.

Keep it concise but bring something unique to the table.

No need to mention any meta commentaries or words of god, like whether the ship is canon. Just tell me their story.

Here are some previous submissions for reference.

Exclusions

Ships which were previously selected will no longer be accepted. You don't have to go through the whole list, just hit ctrl+f and search for the name of the characters you wish to submit.

I will also not be including any submission from Harry Potter, sorry.

Notes

I will not vet the ships/pairings for problematic content.

If you participate in this tournament, know that you run the risk of unintentionally voting for your nOTP. The mod does not take any responsibility for any distress that may cause you.

Submission will open for 24h, until May 17, 7PM EDT.

Submit your ship here:

#submission call #organization #s3 #tournament poll #tumblr tournament

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opinated-user · 1 year

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Anyone else think her Huntlow post was a bit…unhinged?

I mean, I like the show. I don’t care enough to join a discord or anything, but it’s a fun watch.

But her constant accusations of the fandom being racist or emo edge-lords is starting to take up her identity as a fan of the show. And as someone who has only tackled a bit into the (tumblr) side of the fandom, I think majority of them are sane, nice people. Sure, there’s always a bigot, but what fandom doesn’t have one? They generally accept anyone until that someone crosses the line.

Idk, I read her post and I was just thinking “bitch where” every sentence. Where is she getting these crazy accusations from?

“People like Hunter because he’s a white boy”

“They only ship him with Willow because Luz and Amity were taken. Also something something racism”

“Wannabe edgelords won’t shut up about Huntlow”

…what are you talking about? What’s wrong with people liking characters you don’t? Just keep away from them! It’s not hard!

I think this woman needs to stay away from this fandom. All she adds is toxicity and unnecessary conflict between fans.

i think LO legitimately just forgot that a not small portion of the TOH fandom are teenagers, a majority of them probably teenager girls or afab people, because the show is all about that demographic. i always found it so disgusting for a grown woman on her 30s to go around telling teenage girls that they couldn't find a teenage fictional boy attractive. that would be some "i'm not like other girls" type of behaviour that reeks of internalized misogyny if LO was of their same age, but since she's a lot older than that? it's... pathetic. i actually don't have another word to describe it. it is pathetic for a 30 year old woman to be this mad about what teenagers girl like online on a show that was made for them, not LO. side note: that is not straightwashing means. Luz is bi so she dating a boy wouldn't contradict anything at all about her canon identity. i feel like LO slip up here by showing off, once again, that to her the only valid representation is when there is a romantic/sexual relationship between two people of the same gender and nothing else. a bi girl dating a boy is not legitimate representation according to LO, who loves to commit some bisexual erasure even against real life bisexual women who disagreed with her by calling them straight too. bisexual women are always queer, no matter who they date. here Rowan Ellis (no relation to Lindsay Ellis so LO can relax) made recently a whole video going in depth about the concept:

youtube

i do really recommend people to watch it, but to make it short: straightwashing is when a company decides to take a character that was established to be queer on it's original story and erase that identity when translated into other type of media. example: character was a lesbian on the novel, gets a boyfriend without any mention of queerness in the movie adaptation. people writing fanfiction can't do that because fanworks are never going to be on the same level of legitimacy as an official adaptation. those people who, again, on this context are most surely underage, afab and likely to be not straight themselves. people with zero power to erase the canon identity of any character like big production companies have. as to "fans of white boy needing to calm down"... i'd say the same about the 30 year old woman who celebrates for the death of a fictional teenager boy in a show made for tweens.

#lily orchard #lily orchard is biphobic

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peculiarnation4u · 1 year

Text

Why (i think) Huntlow confuses some people and myself (Very long post)

I don’t hate Huntlow, don’t even think it's bad. Felt the need to say that right off the bat for those of you who just saw the title and assumed the worst. So put your “Leave Huntlow alone!”, and “God I thought I was the only one who hated this ship” comments away, that’s not what this post is for. I made this to try to explain my complicated feelings towards this ship and how they came to be specifically why I feel the way I do. I also hope to shed some light as to why people may not be as fond of this ship as the other main two we have in the series. Now i only mean to give my thoughts, I can not speak for the bulk of the fandom and people who don’t like the ship, but maybe I can enlighten those who don't understand why the hate is here, and help the haters contain and focus the reasons they don’t like it outside of bias and petty ones. I'm also making this with the sole hope that'll i'll be proven wrong in For The Future and that my arguments will be invalidated (I don't believe you should ever hate a ship, just writing)

Huntlow, or Winter as some people call it which i refuse to do because like, winter is an already established word. Why would you name a ship after something that already exists and is used in daily conversation outside of the fandom? Isn't there a tumblr thread about why it’s a bad idea to name ships after already existing concepts.

Back to where I was, Huntlow is the ship between willow and hunter, established as canon in Labyrinth Runners. Despite that, the ship existed in the fandom prior to being confirmed and really started during the episode Any Sport In A Storm and fans of it only having to wait about a month till said confirmation. Unfortunately, it being confirmed somewhat divided a portion of the fandom with both sides being convinced they’re the minority. One of the main arguments against Huntlow was that it was rushed, which I don't actually agree with and will explain why later. Even so, it was still massively popular as Hunter’s only real understandable ship partner. With the four he had prior not really being well received by a majority of the fandom, Willow seemed like the best option handed to us on a silver platter and it wasn’t just a fanon ship either like most of them. That paired with the fandom eager to see Hunter get some sort of happiness and it not having any of the toxic tropes that usually come with teen mlw relationships in media it seemed like another hit from The Owl House relationship department and an obvious outcome. But was it?

Now like most of the fandom, I was right there watching all these episodes come out every week and the fan’s reactions to them as well as my own. I was personally really fond of Any Sport In A Storm as Willow, as well as Gus, was one of my favorite characters when the series started and I was happy that she finally got an episode or a moment to shine that didn’t feel overshadowed by Amity or Lumity. A little salty that it took being significant to Hunter for the fandom to finally give Gus and Willow the time of day but beggars can’t be choosers.

While watching the episode, one thing I and many others knew just from this episode alone was that the fandom was gonna start shipping Hunter and Willow, it was inevitable. However I wrote this off as the fandom just shipping as it does and didn’t pay it any mind, especially since I didn't see any of their interactions in the episode as romantic. So when Labyrinth Runners came out and confirmed that Hunter had a crush on Willow, my reaction was

“......what?”

No really, it was “what?”, I was confused. I mean I thought it was cute and was happy that Hunter had developed positive feelings for once, but seriously I didn’t see this coming at all, I was surprised, and that’s not a good thing. I wasn’t happy it was confirmed, I wasn’t even dreading it as either would imply I knew this was going to happen, but i didn’t, and i can explain why.

Now I will admit that I'm definitely biased. As you may have guessed, I'm not the fondest of Huntlow. But furthermore, I'm not the best at understanding what may lead two people to develop feelings for one in media and irl *cough*A-spec*cough*. So if Hunter or Willow had some sort of connection that I didn’t pick up on, that's on me. Though even with that drawback, I still think i’m not completely crazy when I squint at the writing

I mentioned before that Hunter's crush on Willow confused me, from a writing standpoint at least, so in order to understand it we have to look at what came before it, their meeting in Any Sport In A Storm. Call me crazy but this episode wasn’t enough to convince me Hunter would gain feelings, again from a writing perspective, not an emotional one. In terms of emotions I could completely get why he’d find her appealing, it was just poor at setting up that it was going to happen.

I think the main reason why is because there was no emphasis on their relationship specifically. Willow spoke to Hunter as she would any other member and as she did any other member. Gus got in a moment of speaking too. Hunter as well since he is shown interacting with and liking every member.

This downplays Willow and Hunter's presumed relationship and it raises the question of “why her?”, since Hunter showed that he liked everyone on the team equally, granted he put more focus on Willow but that was because she was the captain.

Hell, everything Hunter did with or to Willow, he did with or to Gus in the same episode, (meeting, complimenting their skills, a sad moment, a deep moment where they showcase their inner thoughts) he even goes on to have more moments and even an episode with gus.

Actually he had an episode with everyone except Willow , again I don’t count Any Sport In A Storm as it felt more like a group relationship episode than Willow and Hunter specifically, you wouldn’t consider Wing It Like Witches a Luz and Amity episode would you? (actually knowing this fandom, y'all probably would).

All this does is make Hunter and Willow’s chemistry look weaker by comparison, and only raises my questions. Hunter has more in common with everyone else on the team than Willow. The only thing they really had, that was stated and not assumed by the fandom, was that half a witch comment, which I want to talk about for a moment.

I remember hearing that line when I first watched the episode, back before the ship was really a thing, and even then I thought that they pulled this out of their ass the moment I heard it. Like it makes sense on a surface level but then you start thinking about it and it feels a little off. Like Willow was called half a witch because she wasn’t good at magic, but Hunter can’t do magic at all, so would the term still apply. Where did he even hear it from, I find it hard to believe that a high up establishment like the emperor’s coven would use playground insults, and Hunter couldn’t have just called himself it as we know this guy doesn’t know anything about slang. But all that is nitpicking, it just feels like it doesn’t hold as much weight for Hunter as it does Willow. We know Willow has been called it multiple times throughout the series and things adjacent to it, we see how she’s struggled with it and why she was called it. But Hunter doesn’t get any of that and I guess it lessens the impact, which is concerning since this is supposed to be their big connecting moment.

I feel like this could’ve been fixed if Hunter being called half a witch was brought up in an earlier episode, maybe when he was talking to Luz, that way the audience already knew this fact and didn’t learn at the same time Willow did. Because at the moment, Hunter and Willow’s chemistry feels a little dry. There's a reason Gus is Hunter’s best friend and Hunter hasn’t spoken to Willow since the episode they met.

“But Hunter has a crush on her and he’s nervous so he’s not going to talk as much” . And that I understand, even noticing that it was a parallel to how Amity acted around Luz, and it was cute, but that’s the thing, cute, not efficient. It was sweet at first but then I started fearing that he actually wouldn’t talk to her ever again. It’s reminiscent of, and I don't want to compare the two because Huntlow is a thousand times better, Adrienette from MLB. In that show our mc Marinette has a crush on perfect model Adrien however is basically incapable of speaking to him without tripping over her words or backing out. At first it was cute how nervous she got but then it became detrimental to their relationship because she was unable to make a move and even the audience started to notice. How were we supposed to support this relationship or believe it’ll be ok if the mc had to get dragged to it by her friends or couldn’t do anything on her own, and Huntlow is giving me the same feelings. Nowhere near as bad as it just started and didn’t drag out but with only three (at the time) episodes left, i was paranoid.

Another way to explain my disposition is to simply look at the other two canon ships in the show, Lumity and Raeda and how they handled their ships. Earlier I stated that I didn't think Huntlow was rushed and I still stand by that. You can tell because it follows the same pattern as Raeda and Lumity, that the two characters become friends and almost immediately after, one of them catches feelings. Actually Eda got a crush on Raine faster than Hunter did Willow, both in story and irl. So it’s not rushed, however it does have an issue that led people to believe it was rushed, the aforementioned lack of chemistry and talking to one another before the crush came. Luz and Amity, and Raine and Eda were repeatedly shown talking to each other specifically and enjoying the other’s presence as well as getting to know them, Huntlow didn’t have that.

“But the show got shortened, they didn't have enough time to give Hunter and Willow their own episodes and moments”. And to that i say you’re right, but why even put in a ship if you know you won’t have the time to flesh it out. Also I can only agree with that statement so much when we’re constantly shown Hunter interacting with and having moments with Gus after their introduction.

Honestly I had a theory that Huntlow was always planned to happen back when they had more episodes, but then the show got shortened, however they still wanted to keep that so they left it in, which i'd be completely fine with.

It just feels off y'know, Raeda and Lumity were so good at avoiding tropes and doing something different. Amity could’ve just remained a stuck up bully or befriended Luz and become the angsty Lancer, but she didn’t. Their relationship could’ve been dragged out or Luz could’ve never shown signs of being interested until the show ended and they got together, but it didn’t. Luz and Amity could’ve gotten into stupid drama or jealousy after getting together, but they didn’t.

Raeda follows suit too. Raine could’ve just been the shitty ex who we forget about an episode later or they could’ve just been used for sexual tension instead of showing how they and Eda care for each other. Even more so, the reason why they broke up wasn’t left vague and it was actually worked on, instead of most exes tropes where the audience is never told why they broke up, or the two characters get back together without the initial reason they broke up being fixed. On top of that, all of their moments and episodes actually served the plot, world building or character development and it never felt like the plot stopped or like these moments could be taken out.

Raeda and Lumity did so many things differently, so it feels weird watching Huntlow come in and repeat so many tropes from media with teens as its main characters.The only thing I think Huntlow did differently was have a plus sized girl in the relationship, which I really like since plus sized girls usually aren't seen as desirable in media. Not that tropes are bad or that the ones Huntlow did were bad, it just makes me squint. Huntlow following so many tropes in comparison to Lumity and Raeda, plus flapjack (hunter’s closest friend for half a season) dying, plus Hunter being the character the writers like to torture, plus the weirdness of how it was written, makes me nervous because I really hope Huntlow isn’t going to be used just to hurt Hunter, mostly cause of fan backlash. Even I'd be a little upset if I got dragged along on this ride for nothing.

Now despite all of the things I've complained about, I still think Huntlow is fine, however I do think it could be better and fix the issues I mentioned earlier. Now the best fix would be to simply give them an episode, but we obviously don’t have time for that so the next would be to give them more moments together. Moments where Hunter is actually speaking and Willow isn’t doing all the work. Or give them more things in common, canonical things not stuff assumed by the fandom. Huntlow can definitely work, I even believe that that was the reason we were all able to overlook the negatives simply due to the ship having a lot of potential. (I really think that For the Future will give us this)

I have hope that my opinion will be swayed in these last two episodes and that my confusion will be put to rest. I feel like I'm missing something, like there was some sort of connection I didn't see, and if I didn't, then that's on me.

#ye this was long #but had to get it out before ep 2 lol #im feeling confident #owl house don't fail me #Toh rant #toh #toh season 2 spoilers #toh season 2 #toh season 3 #toh season 3 spoilers #Huntlow rant #not tagging this as huntlow cus they don't need to see this shit on they daily stroll #pls don't kill me in comments i just had a thought 😭#random thoughts #i was too lazy to make them all gifs

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