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lilac-5ky · 1 year

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Roommates from Hell, pt.3 (Toji x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 3: Eat ✓ Pray ✕ Love ?

Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 | Story Masterlist | Masterlist | Requests

A/N: TOJI POV TOJI POV TOJI POV last chapter dedicated to the same day, I promise!

Warning: Sexual imagery and slight angst.

If Toji knew that the tradeoff for forfeiting his hold on you involved wearing an apron three sizes too small and one shade too pink, he could and certainly would have refused.

But Toji was never good at placing bets, let alone winning them, and when you handed him a bouquet of bushy carrots demanding they be diced-not sliced, he found himself wielding a knife of a different kind than the ones he’d been used to carrying.

Carrot peels, he came to realize, cling to fingers with more persistence than blood. His frequent visitations to the sink were timed with fleeting glances at the chirpy whirlwind that zoomed by him, your stare and grip too focused on beating a bowl of eggs into submission to pay heed to the butchered vegetables on his side of the counter or the enamored gleam that sparked in his eyes. Intentional and raw.

Before meeting you, he could count the times he’d eaten a homemade meal actually meant for him on the fingers of one hand. At the Zen’in household, whatever chewed up and spat out leftover remained of his parents or brother’s meals ended up on his plate. On a good day, there’d be a chunk of meat to sate his hunger, but on the bad days… Well, those definitely outnumbered the good ones.

Even the pesky whining guard dogs his uncle kept around had the privilege of stuffing their bellies with specially imported Scandinavian canned food. Not him. He didn’t know the taste of real food until you forced your way into his unordinary worthless life, making all the soggy french fries his intestine had suffered through in the name of waiting out your shift’s end worth it.

Without you, he would have starved a long time ago, both literally and figuratively, as the sight of you doing what you loved the most fed into his hungry eyes. You loved cooking and he loved watching you cook, and he couldn’t wait until the two of you cut down on excess subjects coming in between. He wanted the reason for your smile to be him, not some stupid free-range egg deal you’d gotten from the farmer’s market.

“You done with the carrots?”

Your question faded into a sour statement after facing the carnage of snipped carrot greens and what was left of their orange counterparts, closer to a pulp than a usable ingredient. You probably expected to hear an “I’m sorry,” or at least an “Oops,” but that was far from what he had in mind.

You look like a fucking housewife.

With your little apron -snatched straight from your workplace’s greasy kitchen- hugging your perfect waist perfectly. With your messy hair pulled in a meatball-shaped bun, a wooden chopstick piecing it together. With your feet defying their weary state from working overtime, just so he could enjoy himself a plate of warm food—

All those little things filled his scattered brain with all sorts of ideas. He could hoist you up so easily. Loop his arms around your hips and spin you round and round the tiny space, not a single complaint escaping your lips before they are made his. You’d be pressed flush between his body and the cabinets with nowhere to go, your thighs welcoming him with the spot he longed to call home, and only then would he let his mouth run off to describe the tantalizing details of all the fantasies he’d ever had watching you in that apron, the vilest of all that you one day wore it as his wife.

“Toji…?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you listening?”

“Yeah.”

Your fingers tapped at your sides, elbows angled into triangles, and nose scrunching up. Shit. He remembered your lips moving, though he had no real recollection of what you’d just said to him. More like asked of him, judging by your irritable tone.

He shook his head unceremoniously and tossed whatever edible of the carrots inside a bowl, scrapping the peels and leaves into the trash and then he gave it up for inspection. Had you scolded him, he might’ve pretended to care, but you didn’t. Instead, you juggled a handful of onions that he caught mid-air, and he prepped his knife for the second round of calamity.

This time he’d do good, Toji inaudibly promised. He’d show you just how good he was with his hands, even if the task was so menial a fourth grader could pull it off.

Soon enough, a mountain of flawlessly chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, and cubed ham stacked up on his cutting board, their executioner impatient to receive your seal of approval. You worked with your back against him, cold air tingling the short hair at the base of his neck whenever the refrigerator opened to reveal the next ingredient. Namely something in a bowl, something in a bottle, and something in a Tupperware container. That’s as far as he could tell, his view of you narrowed down to your skirt flowing in and out of his eye’s range.

But what his eyes failed to discern, his ears made out just fine, the somewhat familiar tune you hummed gaining lyrics in his brain. It wasn’t the worst song, and as far as Toji was concerned, he wasn’t the world’s worst singer either. He could pitch in right where the chorus began, though decided against it at the very last minute. His rougher voice would stifle rather than compliment your own.

And so, he let his chance at a duet be snatched, first by the oil sizzling in the pan, and then twice again by the exhaust hood’s mortifying buzz. The song changed to one he didn’t recognize, and he was left in the awkward spot of having absolutely nothing to do other than stare at your profile and scowl at the lack of acknowledgment.

You didn’t bat an eye when you reaped the seeds of his hard work— didn’t pay a single compliment before tossing them into the fire.

Stingy ass bitch. Words cost nothing to spare.

He decided to hold onto his childish grudge for a while longer and retired against the wall nearest to the stove, a light thud echoing from where his head hit the cabinet.

Toji did love watching you in your element, but at the same time, he was so terribly… bored. You bossed him around like a dog and lacked the common decency to throw him a damn bone. Worst of all? You ignored him. His little huffs and frowns and carrots— okay, maybe he did fuck up when it came to the carrots, but what was your excuse for giving him less attention than you gave that stupid pan?

Luckily, there were plenty of ways to turn this around, especially with how unguarded the curves of your waist and shoulder were, both perfect fits for his arms to wrap and chin to nuzzle. The rest would be history. You could call him a bastard and flip his dinner over his head (oh, what a terrible waste of ingredients) after he scratched that itch.

“Are you plotting my demise?” Your voice nipped a string of indecent thoughts right in the bud. “You’ve barely said two words since we started. Makes me think either there’s a cut-off tongue in here,” you pointed at the rice, giving it a thorough stir “or that you’re scheming my assassination.”

If only you knew, he smirked, drawing away from the wall.

“Who’d ever pay to assassinate ya?” rephrased to “Who’d ever wanna assassinate a B-tier waitress,” as if to mellow the sting of his first statement, both sounding equally hideous to your ears.

“Didn’t know waitresses have tiers,” your grip on the ladle tightened, voice gaining a sudden edge.

“Course they do, dummy. Waitresses who toss in extra ketchup packets automatically rise to C-tier. Then,” Toji grinned, “there are those who wear nothin’ under their little skirts and flaunt their asses over your face for extra tips— now, those are A-tier.”

He could tell you were holding back more than the groan you let out, two of your fingers hiking up your nose and pinching at the bridge.

“What about B-tier, mister diner-expert?” you faked a smile, teeth trembling beneath pursed lips.

It was so easy to get under your skin. Shame he couldn’t say the same about your panties.

“A mix of A and C. They give ya bonus ketchup and let their ‘assets’ dangle for free, but—”

The savory aroma of oyster sauce flooded his senses, distracting his thoughts and diverting his attention from the threat your ladle posed until it batted his hand away from the pan with a vicious swing.

“—Slap ya before you can whip out your wallet,” he growled.

“As if your wallet contains anything other than soapland cards and betting slips from ‘98.”

Green eyes darted to the ceiling, a soundless whistle between his puckered lips.

“You don’t have a wallet, do you?” you said as if it was the greatest revelation of the century.

“Don’t need one,” he glared.

You sighed. “There seem to be a lot of things you don’t need.” The ladle tapped against the pan’s side for the excess grains to drop. “Or at least things you claim you don’t.”

“Need? Nah. Want, though?” Toji quickly bounced back, mischief beaming in every aspect of his expression while he rubbed his palms together like some pesky housefly.

“I can think of a few, roomie.”

“Gonna keep it up with that nickname?” you tutted.

“Don’t like it?” You shook your head. “Alright, pitch in some ideas, ‘m all ears.”

“What kind of pretentious asswipe picks their own nickname?” You shoved past him to fetch another container from the fridge, a hint of green glinting underneath the transparent lid. Uh-oh.

“The kind who refuses what others call ‘em.” His neck craned forward as he propped himself against the counter.

The view was much better from that angle. He was able to notice details he previously missed, such as the drops that’d gathered on your forehead from working over heat for so long, how your lips twitched to find the perfect comeback, or the loose strand of hair that dangled dangerously close to his eyes, inspiring him to play with it like a cat mindlessly yanked on a ball of unraveled yarn.

“I have a name, you know.” You caught onto his staring and tucked the hair behind your ear. Tsk.

“Boring,” he yawned.

“Did you just call my name boring?”

“Nah, called you boring, smarty pants.” Toji cocked his head. “Oops. Couldn’t help it.”

It was your turn to scowl, and he’d be damned if the way your fingers clutched onto the counter didn’t bring a stretch to his lips. More so than aspiring to be the one who made you smile, he took pride in being the only one who could annoy you to such great extents.

“Won’t be able to help if your tongue ends in your plate either,” you snarled.

The Tupperware opened to reveal a sea of disgusting green beads, confirming Toji’s worst fears as you stuffed your hand inside and began pouring them into the pan. Although he was nothing short of an omnivore, he never hid his distaste for the healthier nutrients of vegetables and legumes— peas included. You always tried to sneak them here and there, typically in his fried rice or curry, and every single time he’d leave the plate with enough pearls to string a necklace.

You were about to add in a second handful when the way his far more menacing green orbs drilled holes into your skull became apparent.

“Right—”

Your closed fist emptied the peas back into their container— or so would have happened, if it weren’t for the unforeseen snare around your wrist.

“What are you doin’ ?” Toji snapped.

“S-sorry,” you stuttered. “Forgot how much you hate that ‘stinky green shit’.”

“Well, they are stinky and green and taste like absolute horseshit,” he affirmed. “But you still like that shit, don’tcha?”

“I do, but-”

He dragged your hand above the fire, ushering your fingers open, while you stared at him in utter disbelief. “I’ll just spit ‘em out.”

A short breath hitched up your throat and you peeled your eyes off him, the words “How convenient” washed away once you escaped his grip and neared the sink, scrubbing your hands with soap and water.

Toji lingered around the stove a bit longer, sprinkling some more peas and a lot more ham into the pan to even things out. After all, ham was better than peas.

“And by the way,” he rubbed the greasiness against his apron. “There are better ways to shut me up.”

“Hmm?” you missed his voice under the running faucet. “What was that?”

“Said,” he moved closer, plucking the towel from the handle where it hang, and offering it to you with his most charming (read: sleazy) smile. “Could always shut me up yourself if ya wanted to.”

Reluctantly, you accepted the towel, your eyes narrowing in suspicion. He awaited your next outburst of “creative cursing” in about three seconds, but the longer you maintained eye contact, the thinner his patience wore. A million great things about you, but none of them made you any less of a pussy.

And he would have called you out on your one fatal flaw if a sequence of scenes in slow motion didn’t begin to unfold before his awestruck eyes: You beckoning him to come closer; Your slippers tipping forward and your fingers reaching out; A delicate stroke against the crown of his head, followed by another, and then another; Languid circles that didn’t comb so much as ruffled his hair; A tinge of oblivious red on his cheeks, and a conscious pink on yours; The affectionate warmth your voice basked in as you praised him, telling him he’d done well— and heavens, if he was asked what noble deed deserves such praise, he’d have no real answer to give.

And lastly, the shit-eating grin that plagued your lips as you seized victory. “See? Shut you up so easily.”

The part of him that urged to bite your hand in return for treating him like a damn puppy must have been neutered, considering the only conceivable thought that was left in his brain was to give you a reward befitting of a winner. An action more than a thought, and a reality more than imagery.

Without warning, his lips brushed over your skin, landing on your cheek in the gentlest way imaginable. Fleeting enough to convince him it didn’t register until he pulled away and saw your expression shift to that of a sore loser.

“W-what the h-hell was that?” you fumbled with your own words as if they were shoelaces bound together by some despicable bully— in that case, him.

And like every self-respecting bully, Toji enjoyed nothing more than watching his victims shudder. Your brows knitted and knees trembled at the slightest touch, making him wonder just what kind of reaction a kiss on the lips would elicit. Smirking at the notion, he knelt before you to lift the towel you’d dropped, and with a rapid flinch, he settled it on his shoulder.

“Warned ya.” He ignored your attempts at extracting further information as he walked over to the stove and pinched a pea straight from the pot, cringing as soon as it grazed his tongue.

“Stinky green shit.”

The next frame in your newly-assembled album of domestic bliss depicted a trope far too common for those familiar with 1950s movies. The spent husband who’d returned home after a tiresome day at work sprawling his limbs on the nearest kitchen chair available, fingers laced behind his head and biceps flexing in accordance, while the dutiful wife served him dinner with an extraordinarily loving smile carved on her dolled-up face. They’d sit together, laugh at how fortunate their one-dimensional lives were, and name each other “Honey”, if not “Dearest”. And of course, there would be pie for dessert!

But after the film had dried and all the smoke and mirrors were dispelled, what was left were the remnants of a reverie.

The only truth about the husband lay in how he’d spilled over your kitchen’s sole chair -the second of the set standing limp somewhere in the corner- and as for the wife, one could claim it was a honed habit, rather than blinded subservience that’d led her to the table with a most splendid dish in hand. This was as far as similarities went, for you were no husband and wife, and had no intention to break into chortles over your shared misfortunes. Besides, there was no cherry pie to justify such a crude act.

“About time.”

The last traces of pseudo-romanticism dispersed at the sight of Toji’s feet weighing down the table, the audacity in his tone tempting you to ask for a tip. This was no different than working overtime at Sakurai’s, except that old geezer, rotten as he were, always paid your extra hours. Toji, in all his unpredictability, wouldn’t waste the chance to suggest a tip of a different kind.

Casting his feet on the floor, Toji made room for you to drop his plate, and when you finally presented the finished product in all its glory —tomato-flavored fried rice tucked below a blanket of sheer gold and garnished with fine strings of ketchup— the small appreciative dimple etched on the left side of his lip felt like a privilege.

“Gonna keep loomin’ over my head like a vulture?” he gestured with his spoon.

You glanced at your own plate, and then at the broken down chair whose prayers to be fixed were never answered, and decided to dine alone in the living room. Some drama was bound to have its rerun on NHK, but before you could so much as round the table, an arm raised forward like a traffic barrier.

“There’s nowhere—”

“Here.” His other hand patted a seat on his thigh. “Don’t wanna kick ya out your own kitchen.”

“Are you serious?” You were doubtful of his invitation even as he dragged you onto his lap, your omurice all but growing wings and flying in the air.

“Dead serious,” he smirked, his knee parting your thighs while his non-dominant hand wrapped around your hip. “All nice and comfy, aren’t we?”

This is the opposite of nice and comfy, you meant to object.

You could feel everything. Every peak, every crevice, every bulging muscle of a body that was trained against its will to be hardened and rough, impenetrable to any weakness. And when you squirmed around to meet his gaze, they were the unreadable eyes of someone who’d played this game far too many times to keep count of his winnings— the bored eyes of someone who knew scoring another victory was merely a matter of minutes.

“You better not try anything weird, or I’m out,” you mumbled with less conviction than intended.

His thumb rubbed a languid circle against your hip bone as if to remind you of its presence. A battle of wits could go either way, but when it came down to raw physical strength, there was no slinking away unless he decided to let go first.

“Relax,” Toji assured with voice smooth as silk. “Just want us to eat together, that’s all.”

You had a hard time believing that was indeed all, and you were right not to, because no more than five bites into your ham-laden omurice, his knee bounced, and your legs were slung over his lap so effortlessly as though you’d moved them on your own. And in this new position, where his arm engulfed your waist from one end to the other and his fingers slyly cascaded down your skirt’s seams to brush against your bare skin— that was really all he did.

“We need new furniture,” you quavered.

“Nonsense,” he shrugged undisturbed, stuffing a spoonful in his mouth. “What did ya do with the money I gave ya?” he asked once he’d swallowed.

But you hadn’t.

“Hmph, Hmphight!” you grunted, quickly downing your bite with a chug of water. “Oh, right!” you rephrased. “Was gonna return what was left at lunch, but then you dropped the bomb on me and I forgot.”

“No need. Gave it so the kid spends it however he wants.”

“Kenzo is only eight, Toji. If I gave him the money, he’d spend it all on a mountain of cotton candy and umaibo. Got him a nice car-racing set and that was it.”

“Lame,” he sneered, your body involuntarily bending forward as he reached for his glass.

You were compelled to watch the rise and fall in his throat, lips glistening with clear droplets that dribbled to his chin. Some, he wiped with the back of his palm, while others, his tongue licked clean, and you silently wondered if there was a right and wrong way to do something this trivial, because if that was the case, then Toji’s way could only be right.

He made drinking water seem entrancing.

The next dive was imminent, but this time you were prepared. You curled closer to his chest and trusted in his arms that deliberately dipped lower than needed, cradling you even after he’d let go of his plate. You were pleased to find a single-digit number of peas remaining.

You are growing as a person, Zen’in Toji.

His gravelly voice snapped you from your thoughts. “Then, you keep the rest.”

“Well, we could use the rest to buy some extra furniture, such as a bed, a sofa, or… a chair,” you emphasized the last beat.

“Aren’t ya the sensible one?”

His fingers crept under your skirt to bestow a light squeeze on your thigh, a haughty smile spreading to his lips. It baffled you how he acted on every single impulse without hesitance. Just pure action and reaction. Zero contemplation whatsoever.

You interjected before he could get any funnier ideas and peeled his hand off— or at least dragged it to a less risque area of your body.

“And as the sensible one, I get to call the shots,” you declared. “We are goin’ tomorrow.”

A few murmurs of protest buzzed in your ears though none significant enough to defy you. He agreed to drive you wherever as long as you paid for gas, and it was fair, considering he was paying for everything else. And when you recited the list of chores around the house that were postponed due to either lack of height, strength, or sheer laziness, and he inaudibly acquiesced, you thought that this just might work.

“So, you’re crashing the couch tonight?”

No answer.

“Toji?”

“You smell nice,” he blurted seemingly out of the blue, with a strand of your hair wrapped around his forefinger and held near his nose.

“Not letting you use my shampoo,” you scoffed.

“That’s not what I meant, idiot.”

He released your hair with a not-so-gentle yank, coaxing a high-pitched squeal.

What an asshole.

“You’d smell nice too if you ever used something with fragrance,” you said.

“Suggestin’ I reek?” Toji glared.

Much to his dismay, a snort preceded your answer. “That’s not what I meant either, idiot. All I’m saying is you have no real smell. Every self-respecting playboy oughta ‘t least smell like cheap hotel and drugstore cologne, or smoke, or you know. Something sleazy that screams ‘I’ll hump and dump you.’”

His expression remained sour, almost defensive. You should’ve just taken the compliment. A grumpy Toji could turn insufferable in minutes.

“Hey, I-”

“Work calls for it,” He cocked his head. “Can’t be invisible if I leave a trail of peaches and jasmine back.”

“It’s gardenia, actually,” you smiled.

“Whatever,” he muttered.

Even as he faced away from you, his fingers refused to unlatch from your waist—and truthfully, you wouldn’t mind staying like this a while longer. On a typical Friday night, you’d be stuck in front of the TV with a cup of Nissin Noodles, too tired from your shift to consider going through your contacts for some cheap company, and too prideful to hit him up only to have some bimbo answer his phone instead. But he was there now and you felt relieved you didn’t have to stay awake in a cold bed, wondering what color handbag his newest conquest carried and whether it matched her five-inch heels— but most of all, you were relieved that bickering in his arms felt like the most natural thing in the world.

“You like your job, Toji?”

You brushed up a question you’d asked far too many times throughout the years and whose answer remained quizzically the same; “Dunno.”

“Don’t you ever want to quit?” you pressed on. “Shower yourself with an absurd amount of perfume, or go ‘round stomping your feet really loudly?”

“Are those supposed to be your arguments for me to quit?” His eyes rolled to the back of his skull while he leaned against his chair. “I’ll raise ya this. Easy cash and double-digit annual workload, versus however many hours you work at that rathole for breadcrumbs. That settles it?”

“Money has nothing to do with enjoyment,” you said.

His tongue clicked into a sharp sigh. “It’s the one thing I can do.”

“That’s not true. There’s plenty you can do!”

You punched his shoulder playfully, and he couldn’t be less thrilled to find what you’d come up with.

“You really showed those carrots who’s the boss," you chuckled. "And, you’re not half as bad as a human chair. Got a bright future ahead of you.”

“You want me to quit?”

His sudden question threw away whatever light-hearted atmosphere and tossed it in the trash, voice cutting with the sharpness of a hundred razors.

“It’s not my place to tell you whether you should or shouldn't quit, Toji.”

“I’ll quit if you ask me to.”

The silence felt… weird. Like a forced cliffhanger in the middle of an episode, your answer gaining more weight than it ought to. However long you postponed, the commercial break never came, and you were left staring into a pair of eyes that flickered back and forth between a state of narrowness and wideness. Of patience and demand. Of sincerity and uncertainty. Of trust and distrust.

Even for a second, he’d put his fate in your hands, and you held onto it so scarcely as if the wrong kind of shake would break it— would break him.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt,” you confessed, warmth spreading from your voice to where your fingers found purchase on his cheeks, soft thumbs rolling unhurriedly against flushed skin. Because you are precious to me.

“If you got another scar,” you continued “it’d be as if you are permanently frowning. Or,” You nudged the left corner of his mouth upward, “smiling.”

And what was about to come next, you should’ve been able to predict because all the signs were there— His absolute compliance and relish for the slow, kneading motions of your fingers; The intensity in his stare waning past heavy eyelids; The hand that moved higher up your back and the one that wrapped behind your neck to reel you in; His lips eagerly parting before they even had the chance to meet with yours.

The incoming storm gathered one dark cloud at a time, though it took the first drop of rain for you to heed the warnings of your bleary conscience.

“Don’t,” you whispered one breath away from sharing his.

Toji was all but disheartened, his eyes focusing solely on your mouth and ignoring what came out of it. “Let me kiss you.”

The softness in his tone kept you from turning around until the last minute, your aversion rousing spite in him. “I said, let me fucking kiss you.”

And while his hand moved patiently the first two times, it forcefully pushed you onto him the third, your last line of defense being your fingers as they were caught in the crossfire of his lips.

“We shouldn’t.”

“Why the hell not?” he hissed.

“Because…”

Because we can’t— an all-time classic.

Because we are friends— an excuse.

Because I don’t want to— a lie.

Because it won’t end at just a kiss— a truth.

And finally, the real reason; Because I love you.

Tears threaded your eyelashes, your vision of Toji turning watery, yet not blurry enough to drown the cadence of emotions in his eyes. Confusion, hurt, and anger. So much anger that it stifled all potential answers and seared your fingertips which were still attached to his lips, and as shallow as it sounds, you were ecstatic to find the one spot that was utterly soft in his slanted scar.

If a scar is evidence of pain, what is evidence of heartbreak? If scars are healed pain, what becomes of a pain that never heals?

Your thumbs slid across his jaw and returned to your sides, the lump in your throat dissolving into a broken sigh as you attempted to dismount from his lap.

“Because new rule: no kissing your roommate unless their life depends on it.”

“Like hell, I agreed to this,” Toji grunted, his grip -desperate now- bruising your waist.

Just when you thought your self-hatred reached its peak, you shoved his hands off your body and jolted up, legs slightly numb from balancing on his for so long.

“Agreed or not, my house, my rules. If you can’t respect that, there’s the door” you snapped, sending whatever desire might have sparked straight to the guillotine.

“So what’s it gonna be?”

His fingers wove through raven hair, his palm concealing the blown pupils as they reached their crescendo; fury.

A pang echoed against the hollow table, followed by the slight reverberation of the cutlery in the plates, his fist the sole culprit. He scoffed, muttering to himself something about blue balls and rules that were meant to be broken, profanities that could make even a sailor’s ears turn red spilling left and right until he gritted his teeth and locked in his final answer.

“Better brace yourself then, because I’m getting that kiss, be it in life, or in death.”

tags: @absoluteindulgence , @evansuvamp , @sarwhorius , @liluvtojineteyam

Anyone else, comment so I can tag your @.

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ladykailitha · 11 months

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All My Roads Lead Back to You Part 17

Welp. We are in the home stretch. I’m almost done writing the last chapter and then there will be a small epilogue. Thank you so much for sharing this ride with me on this one.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Edie isn’t exactly sure when it started happening, but she began to notice little changes in her dad’s eating habits. Some times he would go for seconds if he liked it or he would keep some kind of fruit on hand to snack on.

But knowing her dad’s past also helped her notice when he would get that thousand yard stare or when he would jump at certain sounds. Knowing that he had walked through hell, not just once, but multiple times was like slotting in a piece of the puzzle you didn’t know was missing. And just watching all the other pieces that didn’t make sense before form a complete picture.

She knew that they had told her was only scratching the surface. Things they weren’t directly involved in but didn’t want to know. After she was told about their past Mr Munson gave her permission to dig into the incident surrounding the actual fucking lynch mob that was led by a psychotic basketball star.

What made her the angriest was that the asshole died in the earthquake and never had to deal with the consequences of his actions. That the town took that as liberty to just sweep it under the rug. The police chief quietly resigned two years later. No one that was involved in the witch hunt was actually punished for what they did to Mr Munson.

So she decided she was going to make a long distance phone call. A very long distance phone call.

“Miss Thing!” Lily Byers greeted cheerfully. “To what do I owe this totally awesome pleasure?”

“Cousin Itt!” Edie greeted back. “How’s it rocking, girlie?”

“You know,” Lily said, “as much as I love traveling the world, I got soo super jelly of your prom pictures. I’m trying to convince Mom to let spend the last year of high school with you.”

“Just say the word, Cousin Itt,” Edie said seriously, “I will deploy the puppy dog eyes.”

Lily laughed. “I’m not quite that desperate. Yet.”

“Duly noted,” Edie said. “Hey, I need a favor. But first how much do you know about your parents’ high school days?”

“You talking normal angst filled love triangles?” Lily ask slowly. “Or are we talking about nightmare fuel?”

“Nightmare fuel.”

Lily let out a slow breath. “I got ‘read in’ last year.” Edie could feel the air quotes from here. “I’m guessing you’re new to the ‘my parents are fucked up’ club?”

“About a month I guess,” Edie said with a sigh. “Me and Harri Munson. They tell you about what happened to his dad? Eddie Munson? Not the monster shit, but the normies fucking shit up stuff?”

Lily let out another long sigh. “Yeah. The witch hunt of the century.”

“Can you please explain why your mother and father didn’t expose the fucking town the way they did the Lab?” Edie asked pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“That is a really good question, Miss Thing,” Lily said. “And I think you just gave me new leverage against my parents over the whole high school senior year dealio. I’ll get back to you.”

“Love you lots!” Edie said.

“Love you more!” Lily replied and then hung up.

“You know,” a voice said from behind her, “that’s a pretty low blow, weaponizing your cousin that way.”

Edie whirled around to see her dad leaning against the doorframe of her bedroom. His arms were crossed over his chest, but he had an easy smile on his face.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop,” she said glaring at him.

“I just came to ask if you wanted pizza or kebabs tonight,” he said, his smile turning into a grin. “I did knock. A couple times in fact. But you were the one plotting world takeover with your bedroom door open.”

Edie flopped on her bed. “Is that one of the reasons we rarely get together, because we’d take over the world?”

Steve laughed. “One of many. One of many.”

Edie grinned. “I’m just correcting a miscarriage of justice is all.”

“Oh, is that all?” he asked grinning back at her. “Knowing Lily Byers like I do, I fully expect an expose by the end of the week and formal apology from the city of Hawkins and the state of Indiana to Eddie by the end of the month.”

Edie pretended to toss non-existent long hair over her shoulder. “Good.”

Steve pulled her in for a hug. “I think the reason she didn’t is because of me.”

Edie pulled away slightly. “What do you mean?”

“I think she didn’t want to stir up feelings for Eddie after he left.”

“But he left three months after,” Edie insisted. “Why didn’t she say something then?”

“Our town was nearly destroyed,” Steve reminded her. “And the government had found a scapegoat in Henry Creel, got Eddie off and all this while Eddie was still in a coma from being nearly ripped to bits. She had a lot on her mind those first three months. We all did. And then he got a record deal, he was going to be famous. She probably didn’t want to make waves for him and ruin his chances.”

“Damn it,” she sighed. “Those are all really good reason not blow up the biggest scandal since the ‘gas leak’.”

“So maybe tell Lily to ease up a bit on her mom?” Steve asked.

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell, Dad.”

Steve sighed. He figured that was the answer, but felt he had to try. At least a little.

School was ending and Edie and Harri both had summer school. Mandy and Kenny were free, but then they were good in school and mostly liked by the teachers.

Their rich school was a bit backwards. Probably because it had only been built in the last decade, but Mr Pearson wasn’t the only teacher that turned their noses up at old money students like Edie. She had the misfortune to be old money, too. Her family’s wealth went back as far a century at least.

She wasn’t third or even fourth generation wealthy. Her great-great grandparents were stinking rich. They were among the few families to come out of the stock market crash and Great Depression relatively unscathed. It’s why Dad’s trust fund was so sought after.

A trust fund that only grew because he may not have had a head for numbers, he had a head for business. He knew when to pull out if something was failing and when to pour more money in if they looked on the verge of discovery.

But it meant that all the teachers thought that her dad didn’t earn having his daughter at their school. So they always went a lot harder on Edie then they did her friends. All three of which had parents that came from nothing or very little to make their wealth. Mandy and Harri were both children of rock stars. Kenny’s mom invented some kitchen gadget that had taken the world by storm and now was in nearly every house in the country.

Harri was only joining her in summer school hell because two of the credits he needed to graduation next year didn’t transfer over and he had zero desire to sit with sophomores and juniors his last year of school.

“They should standardize the curriculum across the country,” Harri grumbled, kicking at a rock on their way into school.

Edie sighed. She agreed with him, but if they had she wouldn’t have a summer school buddy to be miserable with.

“I hear that,” was what she said instead. “And you should be allowed to skip a class if you don’t want to take it. As long as you get two years of math, who cares if it’s just basic math. It’s like judging a fish by its ability to climb or however that quote goes.”

“Right?” Harri agreed. “Like if what you want to go into takes heavy math that sure, you do the advanced math, but if you’re going into art and the only math you’re going to need is fractions they shouldn’t have to force you into bullshit like that.”

They both had to take a math class and a science class, so they took the same ones so that they could at least have a study buddy.

“I hate that I have to do this,” Edie groused as she flopped down in a desk somewhere near the back of the class. “It means I can’t go to the gala this year.”

“Gala?” Harri asked, sliding into the desk next to hers. “What gala?”

“The biggest event my dad does all year,” she explained, resting her head on her hands and staring off into the distance dreamily. “He’s involved in a shit ton of charities, but this is his biggest. It’s like the it party of the year and everyone foams at the mouth for an invite.”

“So why can’t you go?” Harri asked.

“Because for everyone else it’s a one night event,” Edie said, “but for my dad it’s a week long thing just prepping for it. And because I have summer school, I can’t help him. His rule has always been that I’ve been too young and that was supposed to change this year. I was going to help out and get to go. But because I have this stupid shit, I have to spend the week at Mandy’s.”

“You’re nearly eighteen,” Harri protested. “Can’t you be left home alone?”

Edie sighed. “If it was about Dad being gone all the time, sure. But it’s not. It’s held at the house. Or rather the backyard. There are people coming and going all hours of the day and night. Setting up lights, preparing food, setting up tables. It’s a whole thing. And if I want to actually pass these classes...”

Harri winced. “You can’t be around all that shit...Point well and truly taken. So what are you going to do instead?”

Edie shrugged. “Normally Mr Lawrence lets Mandy have a party that night and we stay up late watching movies, but I think the Lawrences are going this year, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Harri opened his mouth to ask another question, but the teacher chose that moment to walk in and they were forced to pay attention to the class.

***

Part 18 Epilogue

@spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk @trashpocket @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @mightbeasleep @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @trashpocket @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @steddie-as-they-go @lillemilly @callas-shitshow @bisexualdisastersworld @renaissan-vvitch @immortal-iratze @bookbinderbitch @cardigangoth @lilacrobin @nightmareglitter @nerdsconquerall @stxrcrossed186

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #reconnecting years later AU #ladykailtiha writes

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keplercryptids · 2 months

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for my new ttrpg campaign, Choir (scifi, multi-system, set in a homebrewed universe based on the machineries of empire books' setting), we've been playing a bunch of worldbuilding games in preparation, including one- or two-shots for each PC to play out specific moments from their backstories. (for more general campaign info, see this post!)

anyway, i thought i'd write up brief summaries as to how these backstory games have gone, because they've been a blast and i highly recommend doing this for a campaign that'll involve deep character exploration.

1. Love Triangle in a Death Cult Regency

PC: Idona Noci (they/he)

TTRPG: Good Society, "a collaborative regency rpg that seeks to capture the heart, and the countenance, of Jane Austen’s work."

Backstory situation: How teenage Noci chose duty over love.

Present-campaign Noci is a trained torturer and professional indoctrinator, but they were just a teen once who had to choose between an arranged marriage or a continued relationship with a lower-class boyfriend. We played out one week set 25 years pre-campaign to show how Noci chose marriage and responsibility over love. The setting was a space station that floods with time-keeping tides, set during a week-long celebration of the faction's revered saints. Good Society was such a fun vehicle to play out the intricacies of a death cult space society, and the two-shot was honestly so moving???? i have not stopped thinking about it???? A++++.

2. Chase Through Space

PC: Moment's Pallor (she/zie)

TTRPG: HOUNDs, "a dice-stacking roleplaying game about the bond between a mech pilot and their robot companion."

Backstory situation: How Pallor was caught trying to run away with a stolen, sentient spaceship.

Present-day Pallor is a coder, a scientist, has already been executed once, and doesn't understand why it didn't stick. We changed HOUNDs to be about a computer coder/hacker and a sentient space-moth that had been harnessed and augmented into a ship. Five years prior to the campaign, Pallor connected to said moth, realized that it was sentient, liberated it and tried to escape the empire. Zie was caught and executed for this, then brought back to life under mysterious experimental means. HOUNDs was so much fun and did a great job ramping up the tension of the chase and allowing touching, calm moments too. (We play online, and used Tabletop Simulator on steam for the dice-stacking, which worked very well!) I love this mothgirl and i can't wait until zie can be with hir moth again wahhhh.

3. Divorce Negotiations

PC: Attra Rose (she/her)

TTRPG System: A Long Night in the Mech Bay, "A TTRPG about Relationships Reforged in Conflict."

Backstory situation: Rose and her wife (an NPC) negotiate a divorce while reminiscing about their relationship.

One year before the campaign starts, Rose got divorced (but they will be on the same crew once the campaign starts, oops). We used an albeit incredibly hacked version of LNitMB to play out the seven years of Rose and Han's relationship, from meeting up until and through the divorce negotiations. This was mostly accomplished by completely rewriting all the questions so that they were specific to this couple, and reversing which kinds of questions were asked first, so that it started with happy memories before we entered The Agonies. We also added NPC opportunities and setting description stuff so that the other two players could contribute, but the basic framework was still really useful for this kind of exploration, and I love the idea of starting a brand-new campaign with scar tokens lollllll. anyway i am unwell and having a GREAT time.

#choir campaign #dm stuff #idona noci #moment's pallor #attra rose #stel han'ae #execution #execution mention

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hell-heron · 1 year

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Love Interests and TWOW/ADOS speculation - Why Tyrion And Sansa Make Sense To Me

I've been wanting to make a contribution to the Sanrion fandom for so long, but I can't do anything artistically and only write once in a blue moon, my only real fandom skill is rambling. So, rambling time!

1) The Original Outline

Yeah, I know. I know, sorry. In the original outline, Tyrion is controversially involved in a love triangle with Arya and Jon. I'm not interested in the notion that GRRM repartitioned this love triangle amongst the Stark sisters or anything of that kind, nor in the idea that nothing actually changed from it. I think it's most likely that Jon and Daenerys will be romantically involved, and that Bran and Arya will see the completion of their relationships with their secondary love interests in the epilogues/ADOS, though that obv can only be a theory. What do I find relevant, then? That

1) Tyrion is said to befriend Sansa. While their nonconsensual marriage has its sweetness and they think comparatively fondly of one another considering the terrible situation, they can't be said to be developing a friendship in canon. That might be for the future! Still, it is very interesting to think how that may have happened. It Is possible that Sansa died in the original outline (no, its never actually mentioned, contrary to popular opinion, its only implied her baby is killed) but clearly she lives long enough to bitterly rue her choices, and it seems to be implied Tyrion befriends Sansa before he does Arya by the wording. Was this friendship developed in facing the horrors of the court and the issue of their conflicting loyalties together? Was it an important part of Tyrion's choice to defect, after having gone so far for his family as to burn Winterfell? There's so much room for speculation.

2) On a meta level, GRRM explicitely parallels them here as his grayest protagonists, the most conflicted and hardest to love. They both have sweeter journeys in the finished canon, but I think the intention was the same, and for me, the execution sealed the deal splendidly.

2) Fondness

Tyrion and Sansa have every reason in the world not to be fond of one another, but they are. Supposing that their marriage did not happen just because GRRM didn't know how to occupy valuable writing space in ASOS, the purpose must be to make them hate one another or to grow closer: they very clearly do not hate one another.

Tyrion is protective of Sansa over and over before and after they are wed, he's kind to her at Joffrey's nameday tourney, is interested in her wellbeing after the dissolution of her betrothal to Joffrey, protects her when Joffrey has her beaten for Robb's victory, puts himself at risk to avoid her a bedding ceremony, and does his best over and over to ease her suffering during their marriage, independently of whether he succeeeds. Often, though not always, he's also quite self aware and understanding of the fact Sansa is mistrustful and not overtly appreciative of his kindness, in a world where people are always wanting Sansa to be "grateful and obedient". Even at his bitterest and more pissed at Sansa, he protects her in his testimony about Joffrey's murder. These repeated instances are not needed for us to know that Tyrion is kind and fond of children, we've already been shown that very well. This is so obvious it hardly bears repeating, and this is a Sansa Month meta, so let's see Sansa's more subtle fondness.

We see in Sansa's thoughts once she's free and able to collect herself that she is, in fact, grateful to Tyrion's actions. He was kind to her. He protected her from Joffrey, not Littlefinger. She immediately protests his innocence of Joffrey's murder to Littlefinger. She finds herself wanting to tell Lysa that he was kind, but having to say he "had whores" instead, much like she was forced over and over again to dissimulate her loyalty to her traitor mother and brother.

We even have this pretty damning quote

Moreover, even when Sansa is desperately trying to be as unengaged as possible in the marriage and not attract attention in any way as she waits her chance to escape, she does have an interest in caring for Tyrion as a wife. She tried to curb his drinking on their wedding night in a way I don't think is out of self-preservation, because I don't think she would consider him being slightly drunker while he's already sloshed to be a greater danger to her than him being pissed because she dared contradict him, based on her experience. She is apprehensive about him confronting Joffrey again, she wishes to dance with him at their wedding, and she shows an interest in what he'll wear to Joffrey's wedding even though she knows she'll be peacing out right after it! It doesn't really reflect on her in anyway! Yet it's a role that comes quite instinctive to her. It's painful to see a 12 year old feel the need to do that, but it is how she as a very traditional person expressed her feelings.

Obviously these are sweet nuggets in a very bitter sea. Sansa and Tyrion in the books are sadly two people who don't trust each other, who hit on each other's negative baggage quite heavily, who have no wish to hurt one another, yet they do basically everytime they talk because of a situation they have more or less been forced in. Yet it's a dynamic GRRM thrives on and it's something that works as extremely shippy for me.

3) Endgame Desires

I'm someone who doesn't give that much thought to TWOW/ADOS, as someone who's bad at predictions and doesn't have too much hope for them to ever come. However I've developed the idea that Sansa's ultimate return will be to a rebuilt King's Landing. For Arya and Sansa to me the most significant place will be the one where they started their journey, where they quite literally poured their blood and tears and knew intimately in the darkest details and that shaped them as people before they even had agency enough to enbark on their developmental journeys in Braavos and the Vale. So I'm enamored with the idea that both will return to Winterfell, but ultimately Arya shall be lady of Harrenhal or anyhow have an important role in the Riverlands, and Sansa will come back to court not as a pawn but as a player once she has been given back the sense of home and safety and belonging she lost.

It's very widely theorized and foreshadowed that Tyrion will be Dany's hand and that Dany may be the endgame ruler, there's no need of my rambling for that. What struck me recently is how Sansa has been in the later books given an arc heavily antiparallel to the tragic story of her aunt Lysa, who before she was the lady of the Eyrie was the Hand's wife. Sansa's journey is paralleled-with-a-twist to hers in many ways (notably her making many of the mistakes Lysa made as a child and seemingly going towards mending them as an adult) and it would be satisfying to me to see her take up this role in a way that allows her to reach, unlike Lysa, real political and cultural agency in the environment of court intrigue that is to her most natural.

This would be a role of particular responsibility and influence, of course, in a court that lacks a Queen consort, perhaps because there is, you know a queen regnant instead 🤭 Dany and Sansa are Cersei's closest foils, and it would be so satisfying to see two "younger and beautiful queens" take up the role which she despised and the role which she failed at, that of chief lady and patroness of the court and that of ruling queen, and be so much better at them than she was.

4) Small things in common and foreshadowings

We know from Tyrion's bitter memories of Tysha that he enjoys

1) a girl who sings

2) blue eyes in which you can drown

3) this banter about the need or lack thereof of highborn people to be able to make their own fire, which i suppose there's a different attitude to in the North but it struck me

During their wedding, Sansa stands in defiance when Tyrion attempts to cloak her, but does kneel for the kiss, maybe foreshadowing refusal of him as a Lannister but acceptance as a person.

They both have their actions uncredited during the Battle of Blackwater, but they also both have a moment of not underestimating the other where everyone else does:

I think they genuinely just want similar things in life? In ASOS, they both have some of the loveliest passages about yearning for children and domesticity of the whole series. They enjoy city life and luxury and books and the pleasures of the table. Though Sansa is so new to it, they're both energized and intellectually gratified by feeling they get people's motivation and are on the top of the intrigue. They also get some parallel descriptions of their skill:

Sansa would have known who he was, and the fat one too, but Arya had never taken much interest in titles and sigils.

"The Boltons skin their enemies." Jaime remembered that much about the northman. Tyrion would have known all there was to know about the Lord of the Dreadfort, but Tyrion was a thousand leagues away, with Cersei.

They both have very complex ways of processing trauma that it would be very long to write about, but it breaks my heart how they both describe it in similar ways:

Finally, I think its very interesting that Seasons of My Love is given to us as the leitmotive of Tyrion's love life, yet the verse about sunset-colored hair never happens in his chapters... Yet? 🤭

#sansamonth2023 #sanrion #op #i def forgot some things lol. ive just been rotating this for months and its so self indulgent in all the little details. it was nice to #embrace that fandom tradition

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thosewildcharms · 3 months

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I agree with you that the show doesn't write love triangle. Even with Jessie in S5 I remember thinking it was a miss opprtunity to show some Richonne tension or Jealous!Michonne but in retrospect I love that Michonne didn't get involve with the Rick/Jessie debacle. Homeboy was dealing with trauma and was in a way I think coming in term with the loss of his wife on his own. I don't even think they talked about it off-screen but I'm sure she knew. 1/2

extremely well put anon! we agree :) as you said, it would have been really fun to see those kind of tropey-romantic moments between them during that time, but that's not really the vibe of that show. and it's so true, i would much rather rick be completely free of his lori baggage before he started anything with michonne - she shouldn't have to be dealing with all of that. and of course, she needed time to settle too! that conversation with deanna was definitely a turning point for michonne - it was about time she started thinking about what she wanted for herself, and i'm so glad the show gave her some space to do so without throwing her into that sloppy jessie situation.

in any case, i think it happened perfectly on the show. that's not to say that it couldn't have been well done in some other way, but that is what fanfiction is for :)

#richonne #twd #answered #you're so valid anon because i too would love to see jealous!rick and/or jealous!michonne pre-relationship that's so delicious

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brekker-by-brekkerr · 11 months

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the folklore love triangle and the correlations to the tsitp triangle. book series/show spoilers ahead

before i get into who each person is, i have to note that august is 100% a bellyconrad song. in general, taylor songs are for bellyconrad and bellyconrad only and the words of august perfectly fit their relationship at the beginning of it’s not summer without you, with how belly waits around for conrad to call or to spontaneously show up like he does during the december scene, with how temporary that relationship felt (”you were never mine” fits them at that point in time because things with conrad were so fragile). “wanting was enough” just really fits where belly was in her relationship with him at the time, just living for those little moments with him until it all slips away. the way the first page of the book is all happy summer moments and then that’s ripped away and we see that it all slipped away and belly was just “lost in the memory.”

but as far as connections to the triangle go, belly is obviously james, conrad is betty, and jeremiah is augustine.

starting with jere...

august so perfectly fits his relationship with belly. “whispers of are you sure” fits because in the first book, belly is clear about her lack of feelings for him, and jere has assumed it was always going to be conrad for her, so when their relationship starts in book 2, it has that hopeful, is this really happening??? feeling. also, the lyrics about wishing she would call fit because belly kind of ignores him for a bit. “remember when i pulled up and said ‘get in the car.’” literally him in book 2, pulling up for their little road trip adventure to go after conrad. their whole relationship is really jere “livin’ for the hope of it all” because he never expected them to happen. most especially the lyrics “so much for summer love and saying ‘us’ / 'cause you weren't mine to lose” fit, thinking about “saying us” as her saying yes to his proposal in book 3, and then in the end it’s all over and she was always going to go back to conrad (like james going back to betty).

conrad is so cardigan and it hurts my heart

“when you are young they assume you know nothing” except conrad has had to grow up so much because he knows all of the crap actually going on and is having to carry that weight and everyone else doesn’t know/assumes he knows nothing. “i knew you, hand under my sweatshirt, baby kiss it better” just feels so bellyconrad circa book 1/their relationship in book 2?? (like belly literally kisses him at the end of book 1 in a moment of pain. not actually a fan of that writing decision and i prefer the way it’s handled in the show but the lyrics really do fit). the lyrics “and when i felt like i was an old cardigan under someone’s bed / you put me on and said i was your favorite” are so conrad. it’s the perfect summary of conrad’s self-deprecation and how much belly loves conrad, like he’s her favorite person. “to kiss in cars” and “you drew stars around my scars” it’s them it’s bellyconrad. the whole bridge like “i knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss / i knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs / the smell of smoke would hang around this long.” the smell of smoke and the whole connection that holds to the events of book 1 with belly trying to get conrad to quit. the way other relationships conrad tries to have, the what-ifs, are never the same. “i knew you’d come back to me,” and one day, after they’ve both changed and grown so much, she does. she comes back to him (don’t mind me sobbing).

and finally, belly is james

considering james is at the center of the triangle and the one getting with august and betty, i think it’s clear why this would need to be belly lol considering the fact that siblings are involved here.

but also james dreaming of betty all summer long is so belly throughout book 2 and 3. james missing betty standing in her cardigan + the way belly is obsessed with the idea of conrad in a sweater at the beginning of book 1 then gets to see that at the end?? her being “only 17″ like she was in book 2. though betty feels the least fitting of all the songs just because a lot of the blame in their relationship problems lies with conrad and the fact that he wasn’t in the place for a relationship and needed time to grow (like even though i’m team conrad, i’m glad they break up in book 2 because belly was right when she said she deserved better and i was so proud of her for realizing that, and even though my heart hurt for conrad and the way he selflessly stood back so jere and belly could be together because he wanted them to be happy, i’m also glad that conrad grows from there and doesn’t get back with belly until they’re both in a better place), while in the song betty the problem is really with james. still, lyrics like “when i passed your house it’s like i couldn’t breathe” are so so fitting. also just belly wondering if he would want her after all this time.

anyways, both of these triangles have consumed too much of my brain space and i needed to word vomit this so enjoy :)

#the summer i turned pretty #tsitp #belly conklin #bellyconrad #belly x conrad #conrad x belly #conrad fisher #jeremiah fisher #taylor swift #folklore love triangle #august #jenny han

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vickyvicarious · 2 years

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The Couples in T&T Represent Phoenix/Dollie

I played through the second investigation day of Recipe for Turnabout the other night, and it made me realize something properly for the first time.

All of the couples in Trials and Tribulations parallel one another. Honestly, it makes sense that they would - T&T has more canon couples than any other game as far as I can recall. The series typically focuses on familial or friend relationships rather than romance of any kind. But this game in particular has a lot of couples, all of a sudden; there's gotta be meaning to that. And there is.

Every single couple in T&T reflects some aspect of Phoenix's relationship with Dahlia/Iris, and the progression of them as you go through the game reflects his journey as he heals from the betrayal, as well as exploring possible other ways Phoenix's relationship could have turned out instead (both good and bad). In doing so, it also ties in really nicely to the themes of the other two games in the trilogy.

This gets pretty long since there are a lot of couples to talk about, so I'm putting it under a cut. Read on if you like!

First off, here's a list of the couples, in order of appearance:

Feenie/Dahlia (3-1) *

Doug/Dahlia (3-1)

Ron/Desiree (3-2)

Gumshoe/Maggey (3-3)

Tigre/Viola (3-3)

Mia/Diego (3-4)

Terry/Dahlia (3-4) **

Godot/Mia (3-5)

Phoenix/Iris (3-5) *

*I'm counting these as the relationship as it was presented at the time, as well as how Phoenix thought of the relationship. I'll get a bit more into the nuance of Dahlia vs. Iris later.

** This relationship is pretty upsetting in several ways and there's a lot that could be said about it. However, for the purposes of this meta, I won't be really getting into all of that fully, instead briefly discussing the thematic/interpersonal relevance.

There's at least one couple per case (typically two which contrast one another), and no matter how you count up characters, a minimum of 5 reciprocal relationships (meaning established couples, not necessarily reciprocated feelings). Every single one of these relationships has strong importance to the plot, and what's more, we see all of the characters alive onscreen and get to interact with them (with the exception of flashback couple Doug/Dahlia). This is a significant departure from the first two games. In PW, Larry/Cindy is important, and Yanni/Polly has relevance for motivations, but in both examples one of the characters is already dead, and they don't have impacts on other cases. In JFA there's a whole love triangle at the circus centering on Regina, as well as a different sort of percieved 'love' triangle in the final case involving Adrian. Neither of these actually show a reciprocal relationship onscreen, and while you could talk about the ways they contrast one another that's a different post. We get closest with Juan/Adrian and Maggey/Dustin, but again only one person is still alive in both those pairs by the time their cases start. (Granted, I'm not counting Larry's other infatuations or Oldbag's with Edgeworth in any of these metrics. But they have a very different feel, you know?) Even games released after this one don't have the same density of romantic relationships as far as I can recall. This game stands out.

As I said before, I think the reason why is clear: all these relationships reflect Phoenix. For the first time, a main character has a romantic relationship. Not only that, but the player character, the one the series is named after, and the one whose arc this game in particular is meant to tie up. Previous games centered far more around the Feys and Edgeworth's arc, and Phoenix grew in ways related to his relationships with both of them. And that's certainly still true, don't get me wrong, but T&T puts Phoenix's own personal feelings and motivations more front and center via the throughline of his relationship in college and the aftershocks thereof. This is why there are so many romantic relationships... and why they all reflect the central one of Phoenix/Dollie (meaning both Dahlia and Iris). The exception there is Miego, which is significant as well for the fact that this game's prosecutor/rival's entire motivation is tied up in a romantic relationship. And it still ties into some of the themes going on even if not as directly as the other couples.

I'm going to break this down couple by couple, going down the list chronologically by case. Then there's a final wrap-up at the end.

Feenie/Dahlia

This is the catalyst. In the first case, we flash back to when Phoenix was Feenie: quick to fall in love, naive, willfully blind, very emotionally demonstrative, very emotionally vulnerable, dedicated... betrayed.

As far as Phoenix understands his relationship, it was one of deep and real love. The person he knows could never have done the things she's accused of. The person he knows loves him back. Phoenix is willing to take the fall for her even when all the evidence points Dahlia's way, even when she seems to be turning against him, because he believes so completely in the person he knows. He's even willing to destroy evidence to save her. But finally, by the end of the trial, he's forced to surrender to the facts. They don't match up to his perception, and the conclusion we (players on their first playthrough as well as the characters themselves) have to draw is that Phoenix was wrong all along. He was fooled; Dahlia used him and then tried to get rid of him when his usefulness ended. She never cared about him at all, and in fact hates him. She thinks he's an idiot.

This has lasting scars for Phoenix. He is far more closed-off after this case, far more prone to hide his feelings, or at the very least be less demonstrative. He develops a deep hatred for two things: betrayal, and poison. And it seems pretty clear that he has a harder time trusting people, at the very least in a romantic capacity.

In terms of some specific details that later on get echoed: Phoenix fell in love at first sight. His partner lied to him, and he didn't realize for a long time. She tried to poison him. Even when he had lots of evidence, he couldn't bring himself to confront the truth for quite a while.

Doug/Dahlia - BAD END 1

This relationship is the only one in the entire game where we don't get to see and interact with both characters. Nonetheless, this is an important early contrast to Phoenix/Dahlia, in two significant ways.

First, Doug realized Dahlia was up to something, and he broke off his relationship with her. He was able to look past his feelings to become suspicious of her.

Second, Dahlia killed Doug. When he tried to stop her from hurting someone else instead of just keeping his distance from her, he paid the ultimate price.

Doug's entire story is a look at "what could have been" if Feenie had been less trusting of Dahlia in the beginning. But it's a bad end. Doug never came forward about what he suspected Dahlia had done to Diego, possibly because he felt complicit given the poison was his creation (an early parallel to Iris); when he did try to help the second time around, he fatally failed.

Doug trusts evidence over emotion, unlike Phoenix who believed in 'Dollie' till the end. He is at once a cautionary tale of how Phoenix could have been killed by her (/representative of Phoenix's love being 'killed'), and also a kind of model to trust the facts over your feelings. Their relationship reflects Phoenix's feelings of betrayal and reluctant acceptance of the verdict immediately after his trial. As such, it's fitting that we see this couple at the same trial - it represents Phoenix's initial trauma and pain.

Ron/Desiree - IDEAL END

There's already a really fantastic meta about how the Delites parallel Feenie's relationship by @eggpngg, and I don't want to just retread all of what she said. Please go read that post instead - suffice to say, there are parallels between both Phoenix=Ron + Dahlia=Desiree, and Phoenix=Desiree + Dahlia=Ron.

I do, however, want to add on slightly. Just as Doug/Dahlia was a "bad end" for Phoenix, this is a different kind of 'what could have been' scenario. In this case, it's the ending he hopes for. The partner who was lying (Ron/Dahlia) was revealed to have been doing so out of love all along, and was innocent of murder. The partner who fell in love at first sight (Desiree/Phoenix) had their affection returned and their faith in their partner rewarded in the end. Though there were still lies and betrayal, everything turned out okay in the end and they were stronger than ever.

The Delites represent the kind of relationship Phoenix hoped for. They are his last kernel of uncertainty about the trial, the part of him that stubbornly, even after so long, can't help but think about how different the Dollie he knew was from the Dahlia he saw on the stand. It's his wistful daydreaming and doubting, something he wanted but never got. This would be a recurring dream in the time shortly after the trial, as Phoenix dwells on his college relationship.

Gumshoe/Maggey - HOPEFUL END

Gumshoe's affections for Maggey aren't returned. In fact, she feels as though he has betrayed her when his testimony is unhelpful, and is angry at him for most of the trial. However, they are both good people who care about others. Maggey's anger is based on a misunderstanding, and by the end of the trial, Gumshoe's earnest affections and dedication to her is able to reach her. She may not feel the same way, but their relationship isn't broken. And there's hope that she may return his affection in the future (the gifted trenchcoat).

Maggey is Phoenix in several ways: accused of murder, feeling betrayed. But Gumshoe is Phoenix too: he believes in the person he loves, she doesn't love him back, he investigates and learns the truth for her sake. This time around, no one is really playing the role of Dahlia/Iris. Instead, both parts of this couple still represent a better outcome Phoenix wishes could have happened for himself.

However, once we are looking at them purely in terms of metaphor for Phoenix's relationship, Gumshoe/Maggey as a couple is asking for a lot less. Phoenix has over time given up on the idea of a true happy ending like the Delites got. Maybe it's true that Dahlia never loved him. Maybe it's been long enough that he's almost okay with that. But what if she weren't truly all that bad? What if she at least weren't a killer - what if he could have saved her? It's still a hope... just a smaller hope, something more tempered. Phoenix eventually moved on from still being in love with his Dollie; at the same time he never quite got over hoping she truly was the person he knew.

Tigre/Viola - BAD END 2

In the same case that we see Gumshoe/Maggey as a kind of softer hope, we get this couple as a harsh, even brutal, reminder of the reality of how Phoenix/Dahlia turned out. Tigre/Viola are sharply divided in who they represent, for the first time. There isn't any mixup between Phoenix mirroring both people in the couple, or even between Dahlia/Iris really. Instead, for the first time, Iris/Phoenix both share a representative. But I'll get to that in a moment; first, Tigre.

Tigre is firmly Dahlia. His only callback to Iris is when he impersonates another person to cover up his own crime - and that could be seen as relating to Dahlia too, given she later impersonates Iris. Tigre was the first one to approach his partner and initiate a romantic relationship, in an attempt to avoid consequences for a crime he had just committed (car crash/poisoning Diego). He stayed with Viola out of a fear of the consequences catching up to him, but despite her devotion, he looked down on her. Tigre even insulted her as soon as the jig was up, much like Dahlia expressed contempt for Phoenix once she was no longer pretending to love him. Tigre's weapon of choice was poison, just like Dahlia. And just like Dahlia, he used someone's love for him to help him get away with a murder he'd already committed.

Meanwhile, Viola is an amalgam of both Phoenix and Iris (and someone else, but I'll get to that later). She is Phoenix, once again, in that love at first sight. In trusting and believing her partner even against her own doubts. However, this time, that trust isn't warranted, and she's eventually forced to confront that fact. She is betrayed and injured by the one she loves... and all because she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (car crash/courtroom meeting). She's also Iris - despite knowing what she's doing is wrong, despite knowing Tigre is a murderer, she loves him and wants to protect him from being arrested, so she impersonates someone else (Viola faking being a waitress poisoning someone/Iris being 'Dollie' ).

This bad end comes later for a reason. Because Phoenix has to be the one to help Viola face the truth about Tigre. He's very gentle about it too, guiding her along with evidence in a Psyche-Lock conversation as he says things like, "But do you honestly believe that to be true?" and "Do you want to know what I think...?" leading into him asking her if it's possible Tigre is only with her because he's scared of Bruto. Phoenix doesn't often talk this way. He isn't usually callous or anything, but he generally speaks confidently when presenting evidence, making statements as opposed to questions. But in this moment, he just gives Viola the option gently. He leads her to the truth, just like he was led in his own trial - but not forcibly (unlike his trial). He's obviously empathizing with her feelings in this moment of horrible acceptance.

And then comes this exchange:

Viola: I wanted to believe him... I wanted to trust what Don Tigre said... He said it had nothing to do with my grandfather being Bruto Cadaverini... I wanted to believe he helped me because he cared about me. Not about my grandfather... But I knew... That wasn't really true... Maya: Wow. I'm so sorry. Viola: What he did to get the money was... It was... evil! Phoenix: ...! Viola: He said it was all for me... So I... I helped him...

Viola hands over her medical records, and as soon as she leaves, Phoenix exclaims, "It's inexcusable!" out loud, before going on to think, "(There are two things that I consider inexcusable. Poisoning, and betrayal! Only a coward would hurt people using either of these tactics.)" He's obviously visibly upset, because Maya asks if he's okay. And then right after this, when they meet Tigre, Phoenix gets so angry at him. In the second game, Phoenix mostly got over his tendency to show vital evidence to murderers and reveal his hand too soon, seeing as it never worked out for him (White, von Karma). But he does it again here, and the only reason the evidence isn't stolen from him is because of Gumshoe stepping in. Tigre demands the medical records back, and Phoenix shows them just to tell Tigre he won't be getting them. He brings up the betrayal of Viola's trust. He swears that he'll convict Tigre. It's no longer just about defending Maggey - Phoenix wants revenge this time.

And that's the big difference between this bad ending and the last one. Doug represented the pain Phoenix felt in the immediate aftermath. Viola represents the anger Phoenix feels when all is said and done. The hatred he has for Dahlia, the desire to confront her and get revenge for how much she hurt him. Viola isn't dead like Doug in the aftermath; instead, it's heavily implied that she poisons Tigre in prison, acting out the kind of revenge Phoenix wants to have. (But using a method he considers cowardly and would never do, foreshadowing how revenge isn't his primary motivator even when he gets the urge.)

This is also foreshadowing for Phoenix's urge to defend Iris later on. By merging Phoenix and Iris's roles together here, instead of Iris/Dahlia, Viola opens a path to putting them on the same side for the first time. Thematically we are shifting towards Phoenix/Iris reconciliation and Phoenix/Dahlia enmity, just in time for things to all start fitting together.

Mia/Diego - HOPEFUL BEGINNING

This brings us to the next flashback. Miego stand out among all the other couples in the game, because they actually hold nearly an equal share of narrative weight as Phoenix/Dollie. Their relationship is key to Mia's hatred of Dahlia (which lead to her and Phoenix inspiring one another), as well as motivating everything Godot does after he wakes up from his coma. As such, Mia and Diego don't quite reflect Phoenix's relationship in the same way that all the other couples do. Instead, they hold their own. In fact, some of the other couples reflect them as well, though to a lesser degree that more concerns things echoing what happened to Diego (e.g., an entire case revolving around poisoned coffee).

However, the difference between Miego when they're both alive, and the state of affairs in the present time, is a distinct contrast as well. Miego in 3-4 aren't a couple yet. Instead, their relationship is something hopeful, something that develops out of a comradery and dedication to the truth/justice. Every couple in this game has a relationship that is hurt by lies or misunderstandings. Miego and the Delites are the only established couples where those secrets are entirely about helping the other person, and were forgivable without costing the relationship. Yes, Diego meeting up with Dahlia ends up putting him in a coma and their relationship isn't resumed after that, but we don't see any evidence of Mia resenting him for continuing to work on the case, or anything like that.

Of course, none of that happens yet - that's for later, chronologically in between 3-4 and 3-1. During this trial, Mia and Diego's relationship is most importantly one of equal partners, both supporting and encouraging one another.

Terry/Dahlia - BAD END 3

Every time there are two couples in the same case, they contrast one another, as well as represent one good/bad possibility each. Everything about the Terry/Dahlia relationship is completely different from Mia/Diego.

Miego are just beginning; Terry/Dahlia are finished both as a couple, and also never going to see one another after this. Mia and Diego both want the same things, and work together to get them. In their initial relationship, Terry wanted love, Dahlia wanted money, and she actively sabotages him. When they met again, he wanted the truth while she worked to hide it. Miego are partners. Diego is a bit older, and more experienced than her initially, but they're both adults, clearly mentally on a level and even over the course of just this one trial he begins to start working with and supporting her as an equal rather than a subordinate. Contrast that to the many layers of inequality in Terry/Dahlia, from the pedophilic age gap (20/14) to Dahlia's cleverness vs. Terry being portrayed as slow/possibly disabled (a not-so-great portrayal to say the least), to him being her teacher and her his student, etc.

This relationship of course culminates with both possible bad endings Phoenix later avoids in his trial: Terry refuses to admit the truth that Dahlia betrayed him, and dies from drinking poison on the stand. Phoenix comes alarmingly close to both outcomes, but manages to escape physically/legally unscathed despite the trauma he experiences.

Neither of the couples in this flashback case directly correspond to Phoenix's recovery from/emotions about his relationship with Dahlia after the fact. That makes sense given that it is a flashback set before he even was in said relationship. However, they both represent one final "what could have been" contrast, one Phoenix learns about when he is in the hospital, preparing to defend Iris in court. Before he learns the full truth of the matter, he gets one final look at how things could have gone for him. Either a supportive partnership (what he wanted, but which could never happen with Dahlia), or a dismal end (what he nearly got).

Godot/Mia - BAD END 4

The thing is, as soon as he learns about Miego, Phoenix realizes who Godot is. And while he may not instantly know that he was the one who killed Misty and why, as soon as he knows Diego's identity, seeing Godot prosecute Iris has got to be ringing alarm bells. Godot at the very least could be drawing the same connections between Dahlia and Iris as Phoenix. (In fact he's way ahead of him for a while.)

Mia/Diego doesn't get to remain a simple "what if" of a happy couple for Phoenix. As soon as he realizes who the people involved are, he knows they ended in tragedy as well. But Godot's storyline doesn't represent a possible bad end for Phoenix/Dahlia back in the day anymore. Instead, his actions which lead to 3-5 are a continuation of what we saw with Viola/Tigre in 3-3. We're picking back up on Phoenix's current-day emotional arc, and Godot is following in Viola's footprints in one very specific way. He is obsessed with getting revenge on Dahlia (remember, Tigre = Dahlia. As I said, that distinct split there was significant in multiple ways, and Viola parallels one more character).

And Godot is the final bad ending. Sure, he gets his revenge... but it's at a terrible cost. A cost that both he and others are forced to pay. This is what comes of being more focused on the anger and pain you feel, instead of moving on and focusing on the people you still have. The comparison can go even farther because just like Phoenix always has a client he is protecting, Godot was 'protecting' someone in Maya. The plan that he/Misty/Iris use is bonkers and not the best way to keep Maya safe at all, but as @queergodot said once, that's kind of the point. It makes sense for all three characters, and for Godot specifically, it's clear that his drive to protect Maya got twisted up in his wish to be the one who protects her (a different thing than making sure she is protected) and of course his hatred of Dahlia and desire for revenge. Godot/Mia in the final trial is the counter to Phoenix/Iris in the same trial, because once again we have a bad end and a better one.

Phoenix/Iris - TRUE END

Phoenix finally learns the truth at the end of the game. His intuitions/hopes were never wrong, exactly: the woman he loved wasn't the Dahlia revealed to him in the courtroom. Iris loved him back, and would never have tried to murder him. And yet, the betrayal he felt was just as real. Iris knew what Dahlia was up to and willingly went along with it. She lied to Phoenix for their entire relationship, and then was too afraid to admit the truth to him in all the years since. Just like Doug, her inability to admit to her complicity in her first crime with Dahlia put her in danger later.

Phoenix learning the truth and protecting Iris is the better end than what happens to Godot and Mia, but it's not a good ending. It's at best hopeful, and if we take the following games into account it's clear they never resume any kind of romantic relationship after this. That's not really any surprise, though. If we follow the 'good ends' leading up to this point, they have been getting less and less hopeful for that. It's been years, and Phoenix is no longer in love with Iris. But he still cares deeply for her, and for what they had. This 'true ending' is most importantly closure for him. It marries together the evidence/facts of the case with what Phoenix's intuition/heart always said. He wasn't wrong to doubt; he also wasn't wrong to accept the facts. Everything makes sense now, everything is out in the open, and he can finally move on.

Phoenix and Iris somewhat contrast Mia/Diego in this final case, by being on the same side. It isn't immediate, far from it... for a long time Iris refuses to fully cooperate despite allowing Phoenix (well, first Edgeworth) to defend her. But she does agree to be defended, she listens to Edgeworth's request that she tell Phoenix the truth, and later does in fact do so as much as possible without betraying Godot, before finally being ready to tell him all after the trial is over. In contrast, Mia and Diego are literally on opposite sides of the courtroom; as soon as they begin to work together even somewhat it's the 'death' of Diego as it leads right to what he did, whereas Iris cooperating helps Phoenix win the case. When Diego finally admits the truth, it's an admission of guilt, not innocence. Neither pair are exactly a team of in-sync partners like Miego were in 3-4, but Phoenix and Iris at least come closer to having a 'positive outcome' (though honestly, the death of Godot and resuming the identity of Diego is much healthier ending for his character than escaping repercussions would've been).

Really though, far more than 3-4 (generally more of an outlier case), both of them follow 3-3 better. Phoenix could have gone down the same route as Viola (is implied to have) and Godot did, becoming wrapped up in revenge. But just as, even in the midst of his anger, he felt so much compassion for Viola helping Tigre out of love, so too does his compassion for Iris win out over his anger towards Dahlia. This is what shifts Phoenix away from the track leading to a final bad end, and instead lands him on something much closer to the resolution of Gumshoe/Maggey from the same case. While Iris is actually guilty of crimes other than murder, and so doesn't walk free at the end like Maggey did, she's not guilty of the crime of trying to kill Phoenix, the most central one to their destroyed relationship. In the end, just like Gumshoe/Maggey, the misunderstanding is cleared up and they end on positive terms. In the final visit to the Iris in the detention center, there's even a hint that he may still have feelings for her, just like we got a hint that Maggey may feel something for Gumshoe. Neither turns into anything in this game (and indeed ever, for Feenris; I believe there's room to read into Magshoe in AAI but it's still not like a confirmed thing), but they don't really need to, because that isn't the point.

The point is that closure. The truth. And choosing compassion over anger. That's the final culmination of Phoenix's arc, and while it does result in Dahlia losing one final time and that's very satisfying, the most important thing is reconfirming his dedication to truly protect people and ensure justice. Justice, not revenge, even when the lines may start to get blurry between the two.

Wrap-Up

Phoenix loved Dollie, and was betrayed horribly. In the immediate aftermath he felt deeply hurt (Doug/Dahlia), though a part of him still longed for it all to have been a mistake and for things to end happily (Delites). As time passed, he eventually got over being in love, but still couldn't completely let go of the idea that she hadn't been evil (Gumshoe/Maggey). At the same time, the pain he felt slowly transitioned into anger for all she'd put him through (Viola/Tigre). Finally, he learned the further truth and saw how much more was lost than he ever knew (Mia/Diego) as well as how much worse things could have been for him (Terry/Dahlia). He learned the last missing piece of the story and gained closure at last, choosing compassion (Phoenix/Iris) over revenge (Godot/Mia).

All the couples in the game tie in really well to his arc (with Miego as one partial exception). And not only that, but this storyline helps to conclude the trilogy by marrying themes from the first and second game together. In PW, Phoenix is driven by a belief in Edgeworth that initially flies in the face of the person he's become. It's 'I know my Dollie would never do that' in another guise, and while that faith is justified somewhat, it only goes so far. In JFA (as well as RftA, honestly) Phoenix is confronted with the limits to that sort of belief/motivation. @96percentdone wrote a really good meta about the themes of JFA, I highly recommend you read it. Not going over everything he already said again here, but in the end Phoenix's choice in the Engarde trial shows him the limitations of saving everyone and forces him to choose the truth. T&T now takes both those ideas and first pits them against one another in Phoenix's trial, before resolving the conflict in Iris's trial. We go from "heart" to "truth" to finally, both together instead of being in conflict.

#ace attorney #aa meta #phoenix wright #feenris #phoenix/dahlia #doug/dahlia #delites #magshoe #tigre/viola #miego #terry/dahlia #my meta

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inuyashamybeloved · 8 months

Text

Here’s a tease for chapter 2 of Front Piece

Kagome huffed for the tenth time in two hours. Every time she turned around, that Naraku creep was just right there. He didn’t talk to her, save for the occasional polite greeting, but his constant presence bothered her to no end.

He wasn’t even looking at her, at least not obviously so, but Kagome could just feel his beady red eyes on her when she wasn’t looking. Ayame hadn’t been wrong when she had said he was sneaky, and it honestly worried her.

Looking at her watch, she grabbed her things and headed out to meet Sango for lunch.

~~~~~~~~~

“What’s wrong with you, dude? You’ve been out of sorts since last night.” Miroku asked as he pushed the door open to the restaurant, letting Inuyasha through before following.

“Nothing,” the half-demon muttered before suddenly stopping in his tracks and causing Miroku to stumble into Inuyasha’s back.

“Hey, watch it!” he protested before registering Inuyasha’s gaze lingering on a table with two gorgeous women. “Damn,” he drawled, focusing on the stunning brunette who was animatedly talking with a raven-haired beauty. It was on the tip of his tongue to make a comment about asking them out before his brain reminded him that Inuyasha was off the market.

Which was a damn shame.

If anyone asked him, Miroku would tell them he didn’t think Inuyasha was happy. Sure, his friend adored his wife, that was abundantly clear, but… Miroku couldn’t find a spark between them. If anything, his friends—because Miroku considered Kikyo his friend—looked like an old couple who were truly comfortable with each other, and that was it. There was fondness, there was respect, there was loyalty, but Miroku didn’t think there was love. Or rather, the kind of all-consuming love one usually expected from loving couples.

Momentarily tearing his eyes from the two women, Miroku carefully observed his friend and was honestly shocked and confused at the longing expression in Inuyasha’s eyes as he stared at the petite woman with black hair.

“Do you know them?” Miroku asked, gauging his friend’s reaction.

His words snapped Inuyasha out of his trance. “Yeah. She’s the new accountant. Dunno who the other chick is,” he replied, shaking his head subtly.

He didn’t need to ask for clarification about which of the two women Inuyasha was talking about because just before the question was brought up, Miroku noticed the one with black hair staring at Inuyasha like a deer in the headlights.

Okay, what the fuck am I missing here?

(if you haven’t read the fic, don’t worry, there’s NO love triangle nor cheating involved. Just think of the title 😉 )

#inukag fic tease #inukag romance #inuscarlett fic tease #inukag #NOT A LOVE TRIANGLE NOR CHEATING FIC

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maerinhearts · 1 year

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Pspspsps i heard you read bl, u wanna give me some recs?

Ohohoho. You've come to the right place

So let me give you a couple and tell you a little bit about them.

1. A Man of Virtue

If you like BDSM type stories, this is for you.

Jinwoo is a (seemingly) straight man who encounters a haechi statue while drunk one night and curses his lifelong rival Sangtae before vomiting on said statue.

The next day, anytime Jinwoo comes within 5 feet of Sangtae, he gets these overwhelming, erotic, BDSM fantasies.

The two work together to figure out the cause of the fantasies, the solution, and how to get them to stop.

It's fucking HYSTERICAL.

Their dynamic is so interesting.

It's a breath of fresh air from the normal feminine, dainty bottoms most authors write about.

2. Love or Hate

If you like love triangles... boy, do I have the triangle-ist of love for you.

Haesoo is a freelance writer who often gets sucked into the drama of his former step-brother, Joowon.

The two explored their sexuality together when their parents got remarried to each other.

Haesoo, sick of waiting on Joowon to stop being a dick and admit his feelings, encounters K, a photographer from Japan known for his lewd pictures.

He is tasked with writing a piece about K and conducting an interview, but the two end up hitting it off.

Honestly, this one was kind of gut wrenching for me. The emotional turmoil Haesoo experienced throughout was hard to get through, but it has a happy ending.

This one is depressing with a bit of humor sprinkled in here and there.

If you can read about a main character who thoroughly and 100% hates himself and make it through to the end, this one is for you.

3. The Dangerous Convenience Store

AHJUICY.

Ahem.

If you like a big, seemingly emotionless top who only gets emotional about his bottom, this one is for you.

Euijoon is a college student who works at a convenience store in a terrible neighborhood riddled with gang activity.

One night, a man shows up and saves him from a rude customer. After that night, the man continues to show up at the same time to buy alcohol and cigarettes.

Euijoon, out of curiosity more than anything, becomes infatuated with this man.

The man, who has been straight his entire life (he's like 40...), is confused about his adoration for Euijoon and decides to pursue him.

This one is a helluva ride. I dont even know Ahjuicy's real name cause Euijoon calls him Ahjussi the entire comic.

There is some violence (gangs are involved, what do you expect?)

It does have a happy ending, though.

4. Hold Me Tight

If you like a more feminine top and a more masculine bottom, this is for you.

Felix is being blackmailed into becoming Giovanni's body guard all so the guy who is blackmailing him can take Gio down.

Only, Gio has a condition where he doesn't feel warmth. Even a fire would not keep him warm. He has spent many of his nights cold and wears coats and scarves in the middle of Summer.

Until he encounters Felix. He feels warmth from Felix.

With Felix's motives not being so pure, how will their relationship pan out? Especially when Gio actively seeks out his warmth.

Felix is pretty masculine for a bottom. He is a black belt.

Gio is pretty weak as a top. He owns his own company and needs constant protection.

This was a very interesting dynamic.

It was a roller coaster of emotions, but DAMN the way their relationship progressed was too damn good.

These two hold such a special place in my heart.

5. The Unquenchable Mr. Kim

This one has a bad rep. I literally only half understand the bad rep and I'll get there.

Dooyun is half vampire, half human, but he can't drink blood to survive. In fact, eating doesn't even help him survive. He has to obtain a humans "essence" in order to stay alive. If he doesn't, he gets very sick and could die.

How do you obtain this essence, you ask? Guess. 😉

So anyway, his boss, Kangwoo, offers him a proposition after Dooyun accidentally sends him a message about finding a new sex partner. The message was supposed to go to someone else.

The only problem? Kangwoo's essence isn't strong enough to keep Dooyun alive.

As the two fall for each other, how will Dooyun survive???

The smut is A fucking PLUS.

The art isn't very good in the beginning, but it gets SO beautiful by the end.

The reason it has a bad rep has a lot to do with two important characters that were very poorly executed. It's only 65 chapters, but the author could have stretched it to over 100 so easily. As an author myself, I can overlook poorly executed characters in favor of a good storyline.

These are all finished works that I really enjoyed. Special mentions also include BJ Alex, Insecret (about an idol group), Hold Me Safe, Love So Pure, In My Closet (also about an idol group), A Life Without You, My Way With You, and Cherry Blossoms After Winter.

Ongoing works that I am currently reading (the list is long, so prepare yourself) includes: Pearl Boy, Under The Greenlight, Jinx, Steel Under Silk, Painter of the Night, Again, Low Tide in Twilight (omegaverse), Limited Run, Speak of the Devil, The Pawn's Revenge, Aporia, The Pizza Delivery Man and the Gold Palace, Opposites Attract, Anemone Theater, The Ghost's Nocturne, Stranger Than Friends, Checkmate, Mad Place, Semantic Error, Liveta (HEAVY ON THIS ONE. It's on hiatus but I have NEVER seen world building this good), Payback, It's Just A Dream... Right?! (Heavy on this one too. The top is DREAMY.), The Words in Your Snare, Don't Build My Hopes Up (this one made me realize I have major trust issues, lmao), Punch Drunk Love, Missing Love (this one is not for the faint of heart. It is DARK.), You Get Me Going.

I keep track of what I have read with ratings and comments in a notebook. I was thinking of transferring the data to my computer and posting it sometime. I've read over 70 works so far with a lot of ongoing works. I'd be so incredibly happy to share.

There are some works that I have finished that I didn't really care for. There are also a couple of works that I am reading that are ongoing that just don't have enough oomf to be mentioned here. I have dropped one that I won't even mention. It doesn't even deserve to be mentioned. If you want my list, it will be mentioned there, but that's it.

Sorry for the long post, I just got so excited 😭

#bl recs #bl comics #lezhin #listen #this made me so happy #i could go on for days and provide details on every single one i've read

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storyswept · 10 months

Text

After finishing the recently released sample of The Running Grave, I couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the book will unfold (which I guess is the point).

(Spoilers under the cut)

The 2 deaths by drowning we're told about in the prologue intrigued me, so I decided to do a little research about drowning in Chinese culture and found some interesting tidbits.

There are folktales about drowned people becoming ghosts or spirits:

According to legend, Nüwa, a girl who drowned in the Eastern sea was turned into a bird called Jingwei after her death. To prevent others from meeting the same fate, she drops twigs and stones from the nearby mountains to fill up the sea.

Jennifer and Daiyu Wace both drowned on the sea off Cromer beach, which lies on the East Coast of England.

More chilling are the stories about shui gui (literally "water ghost"), drowned people who haunt the waters they died in and lure people to their deaths.

Folklore also claims that ghosts are particularly active during Ghost Month, the 7th month of the lunar Chinese calendar. During this month, it's recommended (among other things) not to swim. I checked - Daiyu Wace's death (on the 29th of July 1995) happened during Ghost Month.

I find it hard to believe this is a coincidence.

The names which Galbraith/Rowling chose for the Wace females are also quite interesting:

Mazu ("ancestor mother") is apparently the name of an East Asian goddess, particularly popular in Taiwan. It is said that, during her moral life, she saved part of her family from death at sea. Her father and brothers were fishermen and would have all died if not for her intervention. Having fallen into a trance while she was weaving at home, she was in the process of rescuing them when she was snapped out of her trance and dropped her oldest brother into the sea.

Jennifer is a Cornish form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which literally means "white phantom". Gwenhwyfar (better known nowadays as Guinevere) is also Arthur's wife in Arthurian legend. In the retelling by Chrétien de Troyes, she has an affair with Lancelot of the Lake. By the by, the first account of Arthur's life in Norman was written by a poet named Wace.

Daiyu ("black jade") is also a famous figure, namely in Chinese literature. A flower reincarnated as a girl to repay a debt of tears, Lin Daiyu is one of the main female protagonists of Dream of The Red Chamber (or The Story of the Stone), a Chinese literary classic which, according to most scholars, was never finished by its original author, Cao Xueqin. He is considered to have only written 80 of the 120 chapters of the first published edition. One of the plot lines involves a love triangle between Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu (the main character, "precious jade") and Xue Baochai ("jeweled hair pin"). In the 120-chapter version, Lin Daiyu, who was chronically ill, dies an early death at the time of Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai's marriage. Jia Baoyu ends up becoming a monk. In 2016, the year in which The Running Grave takes place, an English-language opera adaptation of Dream of The Red Chamber came out. In this version, Lin Daiyu instead commits suicide by walking into a lake after the wedding.

Not sure if we're supposed to look further into it… But if we are, this could be hinting that:

Jennifer's ghost is responsible for Daiyu's death (oh wait, it's not this kind of story)

Mazu is like a "mother" to the members of the cult. (Considering that Jonathan Wace is known to members as "Papa J" I could see that being the case)

Before Jennifer's death, she, Mazu and Jonathan had a love triangle of their own?

#the running grave spoilers #cormoran strike

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lynxfrost13 · 2 years

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Hi, Lynx! I have some random WoF questions for you (apologies if any have already been answered): What's your favourite WoF ship and why? Did Lynx from WoF inspire your username? Top 3 WoF headcanons? Turtlejou or Pertle? Before scavengers were discovered to have a language and became more important in the plot or after? And you must be asked this a lot... whom do you ship with whom in the JMA love triangle?

Thanks!

Hiii! Thanks so much for the ask, I love talking about WoF!

1. Favorite ship (and why):

I’d have to say Luna and Swordtail for sure. I think they’re written the best, even though arc 3 wasn’t my favorite. Tui made them feel so relatable, and I also love the large himbo man and badass girlfriend dynamic. I especially loved exploring their early friendship, I thought it was really neat that they had little inside jokes from years back (again w the relatable bit!)

2. Did Lynx from WoF inspire my username?

No actually, my username predates her existence! I used to read the spirit animals series when I was younger, and they had an online game that gave you a partially randomized username, it was originally Lynxfrost130, but I changed it to 13 several years ago.

3. Top 3 WoF headcanons:

A. Magic is actually really common, it’s in little things. Each tribe has an affinity to a certain magic/element/etc that every member of the tribe has varying affinity levels of? If that makes sense? Animus dragons aren’t tied down to one element, and kind of throw magic off balance by their shaping of raw magics. For example rainwings often amplify their camouflage with illusions, mudwings can actually tap into the earth to shape the land. There are varying degrees of magic ability, sure you can learn to be better, but there’s always going to be a limit that you reach. Also maybe the elemental magic involves working with said element, but animus magic is controlling it?

B. I like to think that Winter wasn’t kind of just left at Sanctuary. His friends visit almost every break, he gets lots of letters from them, overall just less thrown out on his own.

C. I like to think that these dragons hoard, but that what and how you hoard is cultural (a little less classic western dragon treasure hoard). Mudwings have really small hoards, usually sentimental items that aren’t very valuable. Icewings have hoards that they spend years “perfecting” with only the finest of whatever they choose, and hold hoard competitions. Skywings are maybe the “classic” dragon, so they would probably have their treasure and gems, but also art, whether it’s instruments, poetry, paintings, etc.

4. Tutlejou or Pertle?

To be honest I’ve never liked Tutlejou on account of it feeling (and kind of being) forced. I’d have to go with Pertle, but I honestly like them better as friends!

5. Before scavengers were discovered to have a language and became more important in the plot or after?

For some reason I don’t think I’m reading this right?? If it’s which did you prefer then I definitely liked it better when the scavengers weren’t as involved. I thought it was kind of cool having them there in the first couple arcs, but I don’t want a heavy emphasis on humans in my dragon series!

6. JMA love triangle who do you ship?

Hmm this one’s tough. Maybe Quinter or Winterwatcher? I’d definitely go for Winterwatcher if it had been written a little less one sided (I don’t remember Moon being super interested in Winter, I would have like to have seen them develop together)

Thanks so much!!! These were a lot of fun to think about <333

#wings of fire #wof #wof headcanon #animus magic

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lostinafictionaluniverse · 2 years

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Bridgerton S2 and its overarching motif of 3

Since the triangle was so heavily stressed upon this season, upon my nth rewatch of Kanthony scenes, I noticed that this season has the theme of three or trio in more ways than just the triangle, and thought I’d list them down. I’m just focusing on Kanthony here and not the other storylines because theirs is the central storyline and I’m certain if these were put in deliberately by the writers/ show runners they would focus on only the central plot. I concede there may have been the theme of 3s in the other plots as well, but confess I did not pay attention to them. Also, I maybe grossly wrong about some of these!

So the triangle is the overarching theme - which we will all agree because it’s the most obvious one. There are three people involved right from the start to the end, and even JB said Edwina is the one that pushes Kate to be with Anthony during that last dance. So Edwina is very much a presence in the Kanthony love story right until then. I’m putting the rest under the cut because it got long and if you don’t wanna indulge my obsession/brain rot around this season and Kanthony please feel free to skip it.

3 ‘symbols’ that were meant to be Kate’s, were given to Edwina before they came back to Kate.

The ring: This was clearly meant to be for Kate, because she doesn’t even need it fitted, it stays on her finger and does not come off! Edwina is given it when Anthony proposes, but we’re left to assume it does not ‘fit’ her, and has stayed with Anthony since the proposal, since he brings it with him to the fitting in ep. 5. It’s Kate who ‘gives’ it to Edwina, pulling it off her finger.

The bangles: They are Kate’s and she’s always had them (much like Anthony’s heart) but she gives them to Edwina to wear on her wedding day. And Edwina gives them back. It’s foreshadowing for what happens later, and therefore apt that Kate ends up wearing those bangles since they were her mother’s and meant to be worn at her wedding. At the end of Ep. 6, when they kiss at the backdrop of the altar, she’s still wearing them, so it’s pretty clear that they’re wed in their hearts. The way that shot is framed with the camera panning out and them standing at the altar holding hands indicates this.

Anthony himself: I don’t have to explain this. But think back to the statement he makes to Edwina at the end of Ep.2 after which she is kind of smitten by him. I shall not fail when it comes to duty and action. Then contrast that with the vow/ pledge he makes to Kate at the end of Ep. 8. I will humble myself before you. A man who’s always prided himself on his honor and placed duty before everything else is ready to let go of it all to have Kate in his life.

3 times Kate and Anthony meet at the park

Their first meeting

The time when she begs him to marry Edwina in ep. 5

Kate’s accident

3 times Kate bests Anthony in games

The ‘race’ at their first meeting at the park

At the races when her horse wins.

At Pall Mall: she’s clearly the better player!

I bet she’s a better shot too, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see it!

3 times Anthony ‘wins over’ Edwina

At the races when he confesses him setting up Dorset with Kate was just so that he could spend time with her

At the poetry reading with this honest confession about action and duty.

When he stands up for them against the Sheffields

(not counting the conversation where they’re being chaperoned because that’s just them getting to know each other, and Anthony’s responses were probably too fake and rehearsed to be real)

The 3 proposals that Anthony makes:

To Edwina

To Kate when she’s recovering from her accident

And to Kate again in the final episode

3 times Daphne ‘sees’ that Kate is the one truly suited to Anthony

When she first meets Kate - she mistakes Kate for Edwina and the one Anthony is courting

At the Pall Mall game when she sees how out of place Edwina is and how comfortable Kate is with the competitive Bridgerton family, she gives them a long look as they disappear together to recover their balls

At the ep. 4 dance - she’s watching them and Anthony’s meltdown at the end of it, and she clearly does not miss how agitated her brother is when he leaves.

3 almost kisses

The Bee sting

The library/ study in ep 4

The one in ep 5.

I’m not counting the rifle moment because they’re not facing each other then, and not counting the night in the library because although you can see his eyes darken they don’t get close enough to kiss, nor am I counting the closet scene in Ep. 6 because reasons.

3 people who see/ suspect Anthony and Kate’s feelings for each other before anyone else

Daphne

Lady Danbury

Violet (she’s the last to see it and Daphne confirms it when the wedding falls apart)

I want to add Newton here but I won’t although I do believe he’s been a Kanthony shipper from the beginning!

3 Kanthony dances (and the mood is different with each one!)

Ep 4: Dancing on my own

Ep 7: Harmony/ country dance

Ep 8: Wrecking Ball

Also, the dance in Episode 7 has them changing partners thrice.

3 times Anthony made scandalous declarations to Kate

The Study/library in Ep. 4

In Ep 5 after the Sheffields leave

The gazebo in ep 7

3 times Kate has a flashback about Anthony and their shared intimacy

Start of Ep 5 before the meeting with the Queen, she thinks about the Hunt, the Bee sting and the library scene.

Start of Ep 7 before the bath scene as she’s laying in bed and thinks about their kiss in the church

End of Ep 7 before she goes off riding in the storm, she thinks about their night in the gazebo

3 women we have seen Anthony in a sort of romantic relationship, each one different of course.

Siena

Edwina

Kate

3 siblings we see Anthony in close/heartfelt conversations with:

Daphne

Benedict

Gregory.

He also brings up 3 of his siblings: Benedict, Colin and Daphne when he’s talking to Edmund in the flashback.

3 times Anthony breaks Kate’s heart after she gets her hopes up about him

When she overhears that conversation at the Conservatory Ball

When he proposes to Edwina after their interlude in the library

When he proposes to her after their night of intimacy with no declaration of love

3 times Anthony refers to her as Kate

When he introduces her to Daphne: Miss ‘Kate’ Sharma

When she falls off the horse he yells her name frantically

When he proposes to her for the first time and she turns him down

3 times Edwina actively pushes Kate and Anthony together (and I love her for it!)

For the hunt

For the Ep. 4 ‘Dancing on my own’ dance

In Ep 8 after their ‘resolution; when she tells Kate she cannot avoid him forever.

Other threes:

Anthony’s 3 requirements for a wife: Tolerable, dutiful, suitable hips for childbearing (half a brain wasn’t a requirement but a preference!)

The first time they touch each other intimately is in Ep. 3 during the Bee sting, and their first kiss is 3 episodes later in ep. 6.

The 3 fingers he holds up at the dance! And then flips it into 4. I know people have pointed out that it symbolizes the number of children they have or like JB said it could be the number of seasons they’ll be in!

But I take it to mean that it’s 4th time lucky for them.

They have 3 intimate encounters indoors: The library/ the room in ep.5/ the closet in ep. 6 where he holds her hand and asks her to wait, before they finally kiss in their 4th one at the end of ep. 6.

They have 3 intimate physical encounters outdoors: The Bee sting, The hunt, The gazebo before they finally confess their feelings at the 4th one at the end of episode 8.

Okay, this post has gotten out of hand, and if you made it this far, kudos to you. You must have realized how deep down I am in the bottomless abyss of Kanthony obsession. Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

#kanthony #bridgerton #bridgerton meta #bridgerton s2 #Forgive me cos the brain rot is real #please be kind and leave me here to spiral #Unless you'd like to add some I may have missed

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beepboop358 · 3 years

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Decoding some of the stranger writers tweets for s4

I'll mostly just be analyzing the media tweets in this post, since they are the most ambiguous, but also hold A LOT of clues/hints for season 4. I'll include the water tweets at the end.

Now, getting into the tweets :)

This tweet represents Eleven’s relationships with other characters throughout the seasons:

The pictures on this LEFT SIDE of the tweet (even seasons) show El with Kali and Will, PEOPLE WHO HAVE POWERS. Will also has direct involvement to the lab, just like El and Kali do. (It also hints to Will and El's underlying connection throughout the show and that finally being discussed in s4, as they are now living together and we will see them interact more). Kali was a test subject (008) and we know she has powers, and we also know Will has some kind of powers and is associated with the number 7. Hmm where have we seen these numbers recently? In the “Eleven are you listening?” teaser a red puck is covering the numbers 4, 7, and 8. 7 for Will and 8 for Kali. The number 4 represents how El, Will, and Sara Hopper are all connected, and I believe that’s what they are hinting to with the number 4 here. I think we will find out more about Sara, the lab, and Hopper’s knowledge of it all in s4. There is also a popular theory that Will is one of the test subjects in that teaser.

The pictures on RIGHT SIDE of the tweet (odd seasons) show El with Max and Mike, PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE POWERS.

I think I just found another even/odd season pattern.

Even seasons: El’s relationships with people with powers, a direct connection to the lab, and a connection to the upside down (like her)

Odd seasons: El’s relationships to people without powers.

This series of 4 tweets references the Will, El, and Mike love triangle, and Lucas's knowledge of it:

Will hiding from the shadow monster in s2, Eleven watching Max and Mike in the gym in s2, Mike smiling during the conversation in s1 where he insists Will is alive, and finally a picture of Lucas standing in the junkyard, done with everyone's bullshit LOL. Will, El, and Mike's picture's all hint towards their 'love triangle' next season.

Will's picture: Noah has said this will be Will's darkest season, and last year at the s3 premiere he said he knew he might have his own storyline. Obviously this will feature more of Will's connection to the upside down, his powers, and the lab. Right after this image of Will hiding, Mike comes to find him and takes him home, where they have the "crazy together" conversation. He's also dressed in his ghostbusters costume. Romantic parallels through the roof here.

Eleven's picture: I think this hints to El finding out Mike has feelings for Will, since the picture they chose to post of her is her watching Mike with someone else, and I think it also hints to an even more permanent mileven breakup.

Mike's picture: Mike is paralleled to Joyce in this scene, because they both recognize Will's breathing and his noises before they even hear him speak, and they both try to convince others he is alive. Mike beams at the possibility that Will is alive, and that he hasn't lost him. I

It's no coincidence that both Mike and Will's pictures here reference their relationship, and Eleven's picture references Mike with someone else besides her.

Lucas' picture: Lucas knows what's up, he's over of the drama, and he just wants to get back to the mission at hand. Before this scene, he is determined to find Will, and leaves the group to go on his own, but once he reunites with them he apologizes to El, and he and Mike make up as well, and they get back to looking for Will. And Lucas' expression is very skeptical in this image too.

Just a reminder that they could have picked ANY images for these characters, but they chose these, so they obviously have some significance. It's not random.

This tweet also references the changing relationships in the show:

In the top right corner we have (3 people - a love triangle) Will, Mike, and El.

In the top left corner we see Lucas and Max (2 people - a couple). I think Max and Lucas will be having problems this season, and continue their on again/off again relationship, and there may be an even more permanent split between the two. They aren't standing or biking next to each other in the st4 sneak peek promo, and the show ALWAYS pairs couples together, and Lumax has always been visually paired together in s2 and s3.

In the bottom left corner we see Robin (1 person), who looks exhausted handing out ice cream. This picture probably references Robin being tired of all the drama, since we know she will be more with the rest of the hawkins group this season, and she's incredibly smart and perceptive so she will definitely pick up on it.

In the bottom right corner we see Dustin watching this all play out with his binoculars.

And then this tweet also refers to the changing relationships:

(also from my byler proof master slides)

'Mike is gay' tweets:

(from my byler proof master slides)

And this subtle hint:

Using the wood "mood" accompanying an image of Robin's coming out scene, and also with Mike standing alone after he tells Will "It's not my fault you don't like girls"....

Another Byler Hint tweet 😉

Back to more general tweets:

This next 4 quadrant image tweet features the older teens of the show relating to them discovering/fighting/being involved with the upside down.

A picture of Billy possessed by the mind flayer, under running water, and directly below that a picture of the mind flayer, surrounded by fire. There's a picture of Steve protecting the kids from the demodogs, and we will undoutedly get more of that this season. And Jonathan and Nancy at Driscoll's door, investigating what's going on with the rats/how it connects, which I also think we will see more of investigative Nancy in s4, and maybe Jonathan too, but separately because of location logistics.

These images show how the older teens are involved with the supernatural horror in hawkins, and hint towards how they will continue to be involved in s4. The top row images are from s3 and the bottom are from s2.

This next series of 4 tweets below were all labeled with the caption "4.", referring to season 4. These tweets were posted February 26, 2020, after Hopper's teaser: "From Russia with love..." was released on February 14, 2020 (Valentine's Day), and is captioned 001/004.

Eleven's teaser: "Eleven, are you listening?" was released May 6, 2021, and was captioned 002/004.

Obviously we can conclude these will be our 4 teaser for season 4, each one representing one of the 4 main storylines of s4, one for each of the 4 characters. It's interesting that's it's kind of a father/daughter, mother/son (parent and their child), combo of characters. The important thing to note here is that they aren't releasing the teasers in the order of the pictures posted. Hopper's was first, then El's, and based off of the parent/child order of their teasers, I'm guessing Joyce's will be next, then Will's last.

The ST4 sneak peek teaser was released on August 6, 2021, exactly 3 months after the 002/004 teaser was released on May 6, 2021. That's 2 6's in a row... interesting

666 is known as the "devils number", and we know in s4 the town of Hawkins is swept with satanic panic. Certainly fits in with the story this season.

Back in October of last year the stranger writers twitter may have hinted to these release dates being 6's:

Last year the stranger writers twitter kept tweeting telling people to “stay hydrated”, and make sure they were “drinking enough water”; here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Water has an underlying significance in the show, it is usually depicted surrounding the upside down creatures/people’s special powers. There’s definitely something going on with the water references in the show as well as in the tweets. Steve was shown underwater during the st4 sneak peek teaser. The stranger writers also tweeted that Steve wasn’t drinking enough water. That tweet about Steve not drinking enough water could allude to his possible death/serious injury.

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no-reply95 · 3 years

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So I listened to the Something About the Beatles (SATB) latest podcast today, titled “Dear Friend” with the topic of conversation John and Paul’s relationship in the 1970s. So I was thinking that this would be great because I feel like the primary things talked about when the John/Paul 1970s dynamic is discussed is Lennon Remembers, How Do You Sleep and the PlayBoy interview, maybe they’ll throw in the Lost Weekend for balance if they’re feeling so inclined... I’m obviously exaggerating here but... Firstly, before I start my rant, SATB is a good podcast, they usually have great guests (Erin Torkelson Weber the MVP of course), cover interesting topics and Robert Rodriguez is a good host who’s good at challenging things in the story that don’t ring true.

However, I feel like throughout the Beatles active years and into the post break-up years there’s a narrative that has been established that so many people are wedded to, to the point that it’s part of the orthodoxy of the band. In my opinion the narrative is that from first meeting up until the moment that John died Paul was always doing everything to be John’s BFF, he was always trying to be closest to John, no matter what John said or did, Paul would always be the one to try and mend fences and throughout the 70s he was doing whatever he could to end up back working with John. I don’t think this narrative is completely wrong but I think it’s uneven mainly because, in all this, Paul’s importance to John is completely glossed over and John’s manoeuvring to ensure that he was the most important person in Paul’s life is completely missed. So, I just want to highlight some of the instances off the top of my head where I feel that John showed how much he needed to be prioritised in Paul’s life and how much he wanted to mend fences post break-up, that I feel don’t get talked about often enough:

1) John’s competition with Jim McCartney: There’s a lot of stock put into the John-Paul-Stu triangle but that obscures a weird triangle that, maybe Paul wasn’t even aware of, but I think definitely existed which is John-Paul-Jim. By all accounts Jim didn’t want John around and was against John and Paul’s friendship. Jim had a lot of influence over Paul and had a lot of sway as his sole parent once Mary died and I think John was resentful of that. We all know about the ultimatum John gave Paul when he took the job (that Jim implored him to get) which jeopardised his commitment to the band. In John’s eyes and own words, Paul choosing to quit his job to commit fully to the band was Paul choosing John over his dad. No one (in books I’ve only seen Joshua Wolf Shenk discuss this) discusses how Jim was effectively John’s Stu, someone that obstructed his closeness and ability to influence Paul to the point that over a decade later, post break up, John saw Paul focusing on the band as a victory over his dad. John had a jealously of Paul’s closeness and prioritisation of his family that would rear its head further down the road but, by and large, I rarely see this discussed.

2) John’s jealousy of Paul’s other close friendships: On this front, we hear ad nauseam, about Paul’s jealousy of Stu, which is fine because, even without Paul acknowledging it, it’s obvious from space that Paul was jealous of Stu’s closeness to John but we never hear about John’s jealousy of Paul’s other close friendships. All the Beatles were close to Mal Evans but I think Paul was especially close to him (he was the first Beatle to befriend Mal, Mal lived with him at Cavendish for some time, Mal helped Paul write some songs etc.) which got to John. In John’s own words when discussing Magical Mystery Tour he was “choked” when he found out that Paul had come up with the idea with Mal and Mal’s widow has said that Yoko told her that John had told her (whew Chinese whispers time) that he was jealous of Mal’s friendship with Paul... Then there’s Tara Browne, it’s interesting that despite Tara apparently being really friendly and outgoing John never took to him. Maybe it was because Tara was upper class. Maybe it was because after pestering him for months, Paul chose to do LSD with Tara instead of with John and the rest of the band. Maybe it was because Paul invited Tara up to Liverpool, right after Christmas, to hang out with his family resulting in the infamous moped crash. If I put my tin foil hat on, in “A Day in the Life” when John’s reaction to the death of a man in a car crash is “to laugh” is that meaningful? The song is thought to reference Tara but does that passage give us a glimpse into how John saw Tara? If he’s laughing about Tara dying then it sounds like he really didn’t like him, possibly due to his close friendship with Paul.

3) John’s resentment of Paul’s romantic partners: So this one is interesting... There are quite a few examples to walk through so here goes. We have the incident in Hamburg where Paul is in bed with a woman and John (in the aftermath of Stu’s death and probably high on prellies) comes charging in attacking the girl, cutting up her clothes and basically scares her out of the room, maybe that was just the prellies but there seems to be too much of a pattern to ignore. Then there’s Jane of course, we don’t know a ton about John’s interactions with Jane over the years but it’s interesting that he makes a terrible first impression with her (asking her to describe how girls masturbate) and it seems that their relationship is cordial at best going forward (note how Jane and Paul never go on holiday alone with John and Cynthia in the same way George and Ringo did with their respective partners). Peggy Lipton also tells the story about how when she came to hang out with Paul in 1965, John was really rude to her out of nowhere and asked “what she was doing there” and she seemed to think that John couldn’t understand why Paul wanted to take her to dinner if all he was going to do was fuck her. Then, there’s Linda... John consistently gives interviews in the early 70s when he talks about how in a few years Paul will wake up and leave Linda, according to Ray Connolly John couldn’t believe that Paul was staying faithful to Linda and then there’s other weird occurrences in that late 60s/early 70s period. There’s the fan who claims seeing John about to hit a pregnant Linda before Paul stepped in, there’s John rushing to get married as soon as Paul does (8 days later I think which is WILD to me), there’s John describing Paul’s wedding as a “funeral” in ‘71... What does all this tell us? That John was too busy replacing Paul with Yoko to care about Paul anymore? In my book, it’s John’s fears being realised that Paul would always prioritise his family over him when push came to shove, in John’s mind he had won when he was competing with Jim for Paul but once Linda came into the picture and gave Paul the family he always wanted, I think in John’s mind, it was game over. Maybe if Paul had divorced Linda in the 70s (like John predicted) they would have worked together more, we’ll never know, but in a similar way to Yoko, Linda was a wedge in John’s relationship to Paul.

4) John’s attempts post break-up to reach out to Paul: We hear a lot about Paul reaching out to John in the 70s and not engaging with the feuding anymore, it’s Paul that decides not to respond in kind to HDYS, it’s Paul that invites John to the Venus and Mars sessions, it’s Paul going to the Dakota to see/try to see John, it’s always Paul seemingly who misses John and wants to reestablish their relationship. However, according to May Pang, John was happy to do Bangladesh if Paul was doing it too. According to Ray Connolly, John gave him a letter to give to Paul, in the hopes that Paul would call him. According to Paul and other people involved in the One to One concert, John asked Paul to appear with him during his performance in ‘72. And in the face of the backlash from HDYS, John’s the one going around calling Paul his best friend ,other than Yoko, and sending him Beatles bootlegs for Christmas.

All this is to say that John and Paul did not have this one sided relationship where only Paul cared and wanted them to repair things or where only Paul was looking to manoeuvre a situation so he was closest to John, John also wanted to be the closest person in Paul’s life, he was jealously protective of their partnership (see his angry reaction to Paul not coming to him and only him to help with Eleanor Rigby) he also seemed to fear losing Paul to his family which may have happened in his mind, who knows. Because John’s most famous post Beatles interviews have him bashing Paul and Paul’s had 40 years to talk about how much he loved John, there’s this view that Paul loved John more than John loved Paul or that John loved Paul until Yoko came in the picture, at which point Paul was no longer relevant. If Paul meant nothing to John anymore, why did he even bother writing HDYS, if he was so tuned out he wouldn’t have been bothered by Ram, none of the critics were so why was John all over that album more than a Paul is Dead truther?! Why did Yoko block Paul’s calls to John, they were happy to hang out with Ringo, what was so threatening about Paul? Why, according to Robert Rosen, were John’s diaries full of his obsessions about Paul?? We’ll never know a lot of the answers to these questions but I would love it if more podcasts even acknowledged that these questions exist and acknowledged that Paul was such a huge part of John’s life till his dying day: “we have our ups and downs but I would do anything for Paul and I think he would do anything for me” John Lennon December 8 1980.

Apologies for the rant it seems listening to Beatles podcasts always seems to set me off! But SATB is a good podcast, just feel that there are so many interesting conversations that get missed in favour of the usual narrative time and time again, so close but no cigar!

Thanks to @onesweetdreampodcast and @anotherkindofmindpod for being the only podcast I’ve heard to date brave enough to discuss these questions, I think doing that will give us a much better understanding of the Beatles and how their story unfolded.

By the way most of what I referenced above can be found in @amoralto incredible blog, have fun!

#the beatles #john lennon #paul mccartney #john and paul #something about the beatles #dear friend #jealous guy #complex relationships #thoughts #my rants

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keisukeenthusiast · 3 years

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I LIKE YOU, BUT YOU LOVE HIM. Characters: baji keisuke, chifuyu matsuno, y/n (self insert) Mention: love triangle, character de@th, just bunch of dumb teenagers in love. Warning ⚠️: mention of character de@th

-------------------------------------------------- On morning monday, "good morning chifuyu!!" said you greeting him with a smile plastered on your face. "good morning y/n", just by seeing your smiling happy face can make his day two times better than it should be. Chifuyu matsuno, the boy who is so in love with you. "Bajiiiii good morningggg!! did you get a good sleep last night!?" your eyes full of light and loving gaze when you talk to baji and chifuyu noticed it. "well no shit, i was so happy that i can finally complete my math tasks. very proud of myself " baji replied with shit eating grin. Its been 2 years since you has a feeling towards baji. You and baji are childhood friends that mikey introduced the two of you to each other when in his granpa dojo classes. You can't help but fall for baji, he's not only loyal, but also his chaotic persona that makes him glowing and attractive to you. Can't ignored the fact chifuyu also admired and adored baji like baji are some kind of 'hero' to him. But the idea of you liking baji instead of him makes him feel sick and jealous, chifuyu understand why you fall for baji instead of falling for him but- "why baji-san??" *three years later* Chifuyu feelings for you still the same as ever, never changed. And yet here you are happily in relationship with baji. Chifuyu stares at your direction from afar admiring how cute your face was when you smiling like a little kid when baji crack telling some dumb jokes. He's wishing that instead of baji, he's the one who should make you smiling like that NOT baji. He wish that he is the one who should've stay by your side and calling you 'his'. You began to noticed chifuyu's gaze towards you. "Chifuyu!! come here! join us!!" you shouted, "No thank you y/n! , just enjoy your time with baji-san!!" he shouted back. "What's wrong with chifuyu today? why he suddenly doesn't wanna to joined us? its not like we're on a date or sum!?" baji murmurs enough for you to hear. Chifuyu put a fake smile on his face before his back facing the two of you and baji. (The day when "bloody Halloween" incident happen) *at your house* "Peyoung date tonight??" baji grinning on his face just to make sure that nothin seems off to you knowing bad things would happen to himself and alot of people involved with the gangs fight tonight. He knows bad things going to happen tonight so why would he still keeping it going?? maybe he's doing this for his bestfriends sake? but he promised not to leave you right?? ofc he's not going to leave you, baji always keep his words. "yeah sure! but promise me you going back early tonight okay!?" you pout. Baji smiles but this smile seems different from the other smiles he ever shows you. This smiles full of genuine, worried, regret. But his face still shining bright, the face you've always loved. so it should be okay right?? "Well i can't promise you that.. but listen y/n, whatever will happening tonight just remember that i've always loved you. So, if anything happens to me.. chifuyu will be there for yo-" you cut him off. "What are you talking about keisuke? what are you trying to say? huh??" You can't help but worried and curious of what he's trying to tell you. "Ohhhh look at that faceee!! you worried?? I was just joking dumbass! nothin will ever happen to me ya know!? Im keisuke baji after all !" baji IS trying to change the subject. "see ya later, i love you" Didn't know that was his last words talking to you, EVER. *six hours later* You heard a knock from your front door. Excitedly you opened the door thinking that was your boyfriend keisuke baji making his promises come true but- Chifuyu?? 'What is chifuyu doing here? Where's baji??' "what's up chifuyu? you bleeding pretty bad.. where is baji??" "where is baji??" "where is baji??" "where is baji??" Those three words keep replaying in his head. Chifuyu doesn't dare to look at you in the eyes. All this time his head only looking at the floor. "H-his last words was 'y/n' " chifuyu finally speak. However you still dead confused what

is he talking about so you invited him into your house. You know, you know something bad happened, but it doesn't involved baji right?? "Baji-san.. baji-san died in the middle of a fight.." 'Baji... died????' 'WHAT' You feel numb. you doesn't know how to react. All you can do is crying over the fact Baji is already dead. *2 weeks after baji's death* You sits infront of baji's grave, still can't accept the fact baji is really leaving you. And here you are, pathetically crying infront of his grave. "y/n look! look at that kitty~ so cute! How about we adopt him? he can be our child!" baji grin. Now its all just a memories that you will never forget and cherished about. You finally smiled, you smile because you know baji hates to see you cry and if he see you in this state right now he will mad at himself because he thought he is the reason why you cry. Baji has always been like that. That's why you love him the most. After you wipes all of your tears, you turns your head to see Chifuyu standing there already looking at you. "Y/n i need to talk to you, pls follow me" You followed him without thinking back. "Y/n, im sure baji-san wanted you to move on and live your life as before without him.. baji-san told me before that if something ever happened to him, im the one who should be taking care of you. Baji-san really loves you y/n.. so he wanted the best for you " Said chifuyu. "So, what do you meant by all of that?" You eager to know. "I like you y/n. i liked you from the first time I've met you. So i wanted to take care of you and make you happy.." the boy said again. "Really?? after only two weeks of baji's death?? Where's the respect? and if you think im going to say 'yes' then you're wrong.. i would never love somebody else other than baji himself. Did you know how much hurt my heart still?? what do you even know? have you ever lost your lover!?--" "I KNOW GODDAMMIT!!! I KNOW YOU STILL LOVES BAJI-SAN! I KNOW ALL OF THAT! BUT HOW ABOUT ME???... i respect and adored baji-san more than you think, but that doesn't matter right now.. i wanted to make you happy just like how baji san told me to, and i think this is the right time for me to finally confessed to you about my feelings toward you! pls be MINE". "right time??? are you fucking serious???! this is the right time!?!? don't make me laugh! why the fuck would you think this is the right time?? funny how you have betrayed your own bestfriend, Chifuyu. I'm so sorry but, never once in my life I've seen you as the person i will fell in love with.. i only see you as my friends! only friend Chifuyu!! I can't.. I'm sorry". Day started to raining as you leaving Chifuyu alone.. with his shattered heart. How could you did this to him?? But its for good right? better than if you're in relationship with him but your heart and your mind still has baji that's NOT fair.. Your figure became smaller and smaller while chifuyu staring at it with his teary eyes. And that is the day you,baji, and chifuyu never see each other again..

#tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers x reader #baji keisuke #chifuyu matsuno #baji x y/n #toman baji #tokyo revengers headcanons #DON'T MIND ME IM MENTALLY ILL #what is this behaviour dear self??

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