#how those hopes were dashed in part but also lived up to in a way beyond yosukes wildest dreams.

[daily-hanamura]

#p4 #p4g #persona 4 golden #persona 4 #yosuke hanamura #hanamura yosuke #and now you're in couple clothing #funny how that works #not to mention how to definitely do more than just talk (like hugging obv ahem) #but on a serious note “someone to talk to” is so URGHHH because it's so flippant but also #yosukes unwittingly admitting to how lonely he felt before in front if everyone (also bold move with chie and yukiko being right there) #i just think yosuke's feeling at the start of the game were so complicated and yet so much is revealed here #yosukes belief that he couldnt form any connections here. his reluctance in letting them reach out to him even when they wanted to. #his embarrassment over living in the “country” and partaking in their “country ways” #(if you are reading this rn this is your sign to pls read the magiciam manga) #but also here. in this moment. the hopes that he had placed on yu when yu arrived in Inaba #how those hopes were dashed in part but also lived up to in a way beyond yosukes wildest dreams. #GAHHHH #he's good with his queue

[vashtijoy]

have you seen the commentary from the p5r artbook going around? the shuake part of my dash is losing it a bit at the implication that their wishes were mutual!!! that seems to be what some people are getting from the commentary at least… amy insights?

Hi! I have been through the artbook. It's great, isn't it? :D

The image above is called "One Ending", and the creator caption (by illustrator Akane Kabayashi) reads:

When I think about how Akechi's wish was to play chess after school with the protagonist, I almost want to call him out with "You liked him after all, didn't you!"

Look at that. We're told about Akechi's wish, and what it included. We're as good as told outright that he likes Joker—and this isn't the only time, there's also this:

—There are a whole lot of things we can imagine, based on how the protagonist was depicted as someone special to Akechi. Those are more or less the exact emotions represented during Akechi's confidant. (Mumon Usuda, chief designer)

"someone special" here is 特別な存在 tokubetsuna sonzai—literally "a special presence". It means a special person, and more than that; it describes someone you find compelling, someone you can't look away from, someone who becomes one of your most important people, the centre of your world. It's another term that is often romantic, but isn't necessarily romantic.

(In the same way, I think Kabayashi's suki jan! is more tongue-in-cheek than it is a cast-iron confirmation that Akechi was canonly in love with Joker. The language there is teasing, it's ambiguous, it's baity; Kabayashi is joking. This is a rank 6—as they say, if you know, you know. But it is of course ultimately up to all of you.)

There's another mention of this image, down in the creator interview:

Out of all the Maruki ending illustrations, it was Akechi's that stuck with me the most. It made such an impression to see them opening up as friends, having a fun, peaceful time together like high school students should. (Mumon Usuda, chief designer)

What really strikes me in all of this is the emphasis the creators put on the fact that this is Akechi's illustration, Akechi's wish. Because I've thought for a while that we know Akechi has a wish. You can see him struggling with his refusals to Maruki in the first week of January. And you can hear his wish spoken—when Maruki repeats it back to him, during the boss fight, on 2/3:

Maruki {F1 81}君たちとなら、君も過ちのない道を歩めるかも知れないじゃないか！ {F1 81}-kun-tachi to nara, kimi mo ayamachi no nai michi o ayumeru kamoshirenai ja nai ka! If you're with {F1 81}―kun and his friends, you could begin to atone for what you've done! Think about it! With [Amamiya]-kun and his friends beside you, you could choose a path with no mistakes as well!

So this wish has several parts. First, there's that kimi mo, "you also"; it's tempting to read this as Maruki also wanting his new world to erase his past mistakes. Second, there's the first part, "if you're with [Amamiya]-kun and his friends". Where to even start here?

Being with Joker and the others is a prerequisite for the second half of Akechi's wish. It doesn't just coexist, it enables the rest of it. Just like his words in the engine room, "I wonder why we couldn't have met a few years earlier, [Ren]..."

Remember, Akechi's whole arc is about his rejection of trust and friendship, and his insistence on doing everything himself. This is precisely what Futaba calls him out on—"you trusted no one", or "you played life in single-player mode". This is what he unlearns at the climax of the engine room, when he realises he isn't prepared to let the others die—and follows through to save them.

Akechi is nothing without others, and he knows it. Without their support, which he believes he has no right to, he has no hope of living a better life, even were he to be given the chance—and he knows that, too. He has learned, and he has grown—and yet he knows the things he needs and wants so badly are forever inaccessible.

And his wish is about all the Phantom Thieves, not just Joker. There are many tiny references to this end—not least the original Japanese rank 10 line for his confidant, where he sacrifices himself for all of you. Joker is his compelling presence, his someone special, but he's formed small bonds with the others too, God help him.

and then there's the crime thing

The localisation frames Akechi's wish in terms of atonement, but that's not what's on offer. You cannot, after all, atone for things you never did. We see Akechi's wish put into practice, in the Maruki ending, where he appears with his friends beside him, wholly innocent and with unstained hands. And we see it in the first week of January, after he has finally met Maruki and spoken to him:

Akechi: Ah, that reminds me—there was one more thing I wanted to tell you. Akechi: About the reality Maruki's put us in... Akechi: It seems that Okumura and Wakaba are both considered alive by all accounts. [Ren: They're not dead anymore? / What do you mean?] Akechi: They aren't mere illusions, or cognitive beings—they truly are alive and existing in this world. Akechi: In fact, their deaths seem to have never taken place at all in this reality. [Ren: What happened to Shido?] Akechi: Shido was the only one arrested on the crime of attempting to overthrow the government... Akechi: It seems the Phantom Thieves were causing a stir in this society as well, but there's no record of your arrest now. Akechi: Basically, in this reality, you and I haven't committed any crimes.

While Akechi still remembers his crimes, they never took place. They have been undone, and only his lingering memory—and Joker's, at this point—speaks to them. He objects to this on countless levels, he summons all the strength he has to refuse it, but don't make the mistake of thinking that means he doesn't want it. This is Akechi's wish in action.

People are often very certain that Akechi's resolve in the third semester is like iron—that he rejects Maruki's offers right away, is never tempted, never wavers. But that can't be true. We know he's afraid to die. We know about the bad end where you don't complete the Palace, where Akechi says nothing and stares at the floor, seemingly blaming himself internally while all the others blame themselves aloud, for being unable to say no to Maruki's temptations. We know how he responds to this assertion of Maruki's—Maruki, who has perfectly summed up what we know all the other PTs wanted, and who (even if Word of God hadn't just confirmed Akechi's wish) we have, honestly, no reason to doubt.

Because Akechi never refutes this wish that Maruki describes. He never says he doesn't want it. He just rejects it—like all the others, who so desperately want what Maruki could give them. Futaba's mother, Haru's father. Akechi's life, and his innocence. And the people who might have been his friends, if he could dare, one day, to ask.

Akechi is tested just like the others, and the price he pays for his defiance is perhaps the highest of all.

and finally

[The Maruki ending illustrations are] of Maruki's world, where everyone's wishes are granted and they seem happy. The scene shows their actualised wishes, which were never granted in the real world. (Mumon Usuda, chief designer)

We shouldn't forget the price Akechi pays for his impossible wish. Sure, the vision of himself being altered like Sumire clearly haunts him, and I'm sure it made the choice easier—but I don't think it made it that easy. Instead of taking the dream Maruki offered him, Akechi chose to face up to what he'd done, and who he'd become; at the very end, in the third semester and in the engine room, he always makes the right choice.

And that choice was taken away from him. Agency over his life and death, his own acts, and who he would even be—Joker and Maruki take it all away from him and make him a puppet, just like Shido.

Maruki's ending isn't pretty.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (2024/03/29)—first published.

#asks #persona 5 #p5 meta #things i translate #japanese language #word of god #shuake #goro akechi #takuto maruki

[miuszn]

i’m actually so obsessed with your bouncer!ellie.. we need a fic immediately 🤭 -🪐

taste of lust

SETTING : modern au

WC : 5011

WARNINGS : sexual harassment ( nothing graphic ) ( but reader is sort of implied to have trauma related to it , nothing stated explicitly tho ) , bouncer!ellie x bottlegirl!reader , idk shit about clubs so like some stuff might be insanely inaccurate but i did my best to research ( sorry in advance ) , dash of dealer!ellie bc who doesn’t love her , dom!ellie , sub!reader , teasing , overstimulation if u squint , ellie calls u pretty girl & princess , readers first time with a strap , ellie refers to her strap as her cock , i’m not fluent in english yet so there might be mistakes , not beta read

A / N : hello everyoneeee !!! i know this took FOREVER to finish and i’m so sorry about that .. i’ve been super super busy and this fic was so long omg T_T there was a point i started over completely bc i didn’t like the direction it was heading to .. this fanfic shit gets serious truly . in case u missed the warning there is sexual harassment in this fic and reader is implied to have trauma related to it . putting this here again to make sure u guys see it . anyway , i took so long to post this and so much stuff happened !! but alas , it is here , the bottlegirl!reader and bouncer!ellie fic !! this is my fav fic of mine so far so i hope u guys enjoy reading this as much as i liked writing it <3 ( and yes there will be a part two !! )

— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 —

being a bottle girl wasn’t exactly the job of your dreams. having to deal with creepy rich men every friday and saturday night was definitely not something you enjoyed doing, but that was what paid the bills and allowed you to live a rather comfy lifestyle for a college student. the bad part no one tells you about going to a top college on a full-ride scholarship is that a lot of the students are rich kids who most definitely cheated their way through high school, who live in nice apartments paid for by their mommy and daddy, who use birkins and other designer brand bags as their school bags, who would never be caught dead eating at the cafeteria. of course, you felt out of place. you weren’t exactly poor, but your family definitely could never afford that kind of lifestyle.

you’re pretty. extremely pretty. and you knew you could use that to your advantage. so when you saw a new club in the city that was looking for bottle girls you immediately knew you had to apply. sure, you had to deal with a couple creepy customers every night and sometimes even had to remind them they’re not allowed to touch you, which was annoying. you also hated being seen as an object, and you knew that’s exactly how these men saw you, and what was even worse was those very unsettling “you remind me of my daughter” comments from older men since you were so young. but the money was the main thing you needed, and you were able to put up with all this because of the pay. although the salary itself is just enough to survive, most of your earnings were in tips, and you made good tips. with a little bit of flirting and pretending you were really into customers, you scored lots of tips in the hundreds and sometimes even thousands. that wasn’t really enough for you to be able to afford luxury items whenever you wanted, but you were able to treat yourself every once in a while and that was enough for you.

you and your coworker ellie are the only college students that worked at that club. she wasn’t a bottle girl, however, she was a bouncer. during busy nights the bouncers typically took turns being at the door, and the rest would be inside the club making sure everything was fine. she didn’t mind being inside, it meant she could steal glances at you. truth was, she was into you, and it was obvious. but you took it as her just wanting to get a reaction out of you. that’s what it seemed like. but you can’t lie, whenever she wasn’t looking, you’d stare back as discreetly as you could.

she was a little possessive over you, which you weren’t really aware of. whenever she saw you flirting with customers, she couldn’t deny she felt a little jealous. she of course knew you were just trying to get more tips. regardless, she still couldn’t stand seeing the way you twirled your hair, spoke in that sweet and flirty tone, and even sometimes gave them compliments, and the fact it wasn’t towards her. she wanted it to be her, and her only. she wanted you to be hers. but she never did anything aside from flirt with you a little every once in a while, because she was scared she’d make you uncomfortable.

ellie. where does one even begin to describe her? her strong arms, her short auburn hair she styled as a mullet or put in a half bun when she felt a little lazier, her mesmerizing green eyes. from the moment you laid eyes on her you found her extremely attractive, but you were too shy and didn’t know how to approach her. what’s funny is this is the total opposite of the character you put up for your customers, an extroverted, flirty girl. the thing with you is, you can flirt with people, but only when you’re not attracted to them. when you are, such as in cases like these, the main thing you do is avoid avoid avoid. you rarely had the opportunity to interact with each other, but when you did, you always felt she was trying to subtly flirt with you. it was the kind of flirting where it was hard to tell wether she was flirting with you or just being nice, so you simply took it as being nice because you didn’t think there was any possibility she could be into you. she was just out of your league. even if it was flirting, you didn’t know if she had any other intentions. so you decided to play it safe.

that night was different from the others. your boss informed you that there’d be a bachelor party tonight and surprise surprise, you’d be serving them. the thing about bachelor parties is they’re very demanding and their tips can vary a lot. and demanding in your vocabulary is basically a synonym for entitled. they’ll insist you sit down, have a drink with them, maybe even try to grope you or something. you were not happy about having to deal with them tonight, but your boss told you they were short-staffed tonight, so you’d simply have to suck it up.

the moment the group of about 15 men came in, ellie sensed something was wrong. she rejected about half of them at the entrance before being informed by her supervisor that it was a bachelor party. she didn’t really care. she knew they were up to no good.

“i really don’t think we should let ‘em in.” she crossed her arms.

“any good reason?” he asked, annoyed.

“something just feels.. off,” she whispered, “i dunno. feel like they’re up to no good.”

“i don’t pay you to do ‘vibe checks’ on people.”

“i still don’t think we should let ‘em in. feels like they have bad intentions. have you seen how they’ve been eyeing the rest of the female staff?”

“big deal, this is a night club,” he brushed her off. “that’s how men look at women in nightclubs, williams. suck it up.”

“that still doesn’t-“

“do you want to keep your job or not?” he snapped.

she sighed and rolled her eyes, defeated, and hesitantly let the group in. her eyes were glued on them until they sat down at a table, the feeling in her stomach worsening when she realized you’d be dealing with them. it was one thing for any of the other girls to have to deal with them, but for some reason, she found herself way more worried about you. you were newer to the job and a little younger than the other girls. she couldn’t bear the thought of someone possibly harming you, or taking advantage of you, or anything like that. she felt this strange desire to protect you, something she hadn’t really felt towards anyone before. she felt this way toward you, yet she barely knew anything about you.

— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 —

tonight was going to be a long night. the moment those men sat down, you could immediately tell. you could tell by their piercing gazes, which you swore you could physically feel even though you weren’t looking at them, that you’d have to remind them several times they can look but not touch. you heard them whispering stuff to each other while looking at you and then laughing and hitting each other as if they were a group of teenagers. you took a deep breath, put on a smile, and finally went over to their table.

“hey boys,” you greeted with a flirty tone, “anything i can get you guys today?”

“yeah, a piece of that ass.” one of them said, while the rest laughed.

you faked a giggle, trying to do your best to handle this professionally, as you would with all the other annoying customers.

“anyway,” you continued, “do you guys have anything in mind? if not, you can take a look at the stuff we have over there at the bar.” you said, while pointing at the bar.

“we’ll need a moment, babygirl.” one of them replied, holding out his credit card.

you nodded, took the card, and quickly walked away. you absolutely hated that nickname. before you took this job, you didn’t really mind it. but when you started getting called it by basically every single customer you eventually grew to hate it. if you hadn’t been working, you at the very least would’ve given them a death stare or contemplated telling them off (even though you knew you’d never have the balls to do anything of the sort.)

after a couple of minutes, one of them whistled at you to get your attention. strike two. another thing you very much hated. now you were even being treated like an animal. who the hell do they think they are?

you walked over to them and plastered a fake smile on your face and asked if they were ready.

“we just wanted to know what you recommend. i’m sure you drink lots since, you know, you work here.”

some of them chuckled, and you didn’t really get what was funny. but you decided to not start anything and just answered the question.

“well, we have lots of options,” you responded, “we have many of the classics you can find anywhere else, and we also have some that are less common. we just got the louis xiii cognac which is very hard to find, so i’d recommend that one.”

“yeah? are you just saying that ‘cause it’s the most expensive?”

“if you want less pricey options, we have those too.” you replied, avoiding the question. of course you were suggesting it because it was the most expensive. that’s kinda your job. you’re supposed to make money.

“we can afford it.” one of them said.

“yeah, bring us that one.” another chimed in.

you smiled and nodded, walking away. gosh, you felt them draining any energy you had every second you spent near them. you carefully took the bottle and put it on your tray, and grabbed a few glasses and put them with the bottle. you made your way over to their table, placing their glasses in front of them one by one, and although you weren’t looking at any of them, you knew they all had their eyes glued on you. you tried your hardest to pour their drinks quickly enough so you could just get out of there, but not too quickly that they’ll notice. unfortunately for you, they caught onto what you were doing.

“why’re you pouring so fast, babygirl? you in a hurry?”

tonight was going to be a long night.

— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 —

ellie couldn’t wait for her turn at the door to be over. she made sure to peek inside every chance she had, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t eyeing you. she couldn’t help it. she couldn’t stop looking at how the black shorts and black baby tee you wore hugged your body and showed off your figure, and she had never been more grateful for the existence of the uniform. but above looking at you because of how attractive you were, she wanted to make sure you were safe. she had dealt with lots of men like them before, and she wouldn’t hesitate to kick them out if things escalated even the slightest bit.

after a while, her supervisor dismissed her and told her to stay inside to make sure nobody was causing any trouble. of course, she went over to the area you were, since there was no one watching over that area and because you were there.

“why’re you pouring so fast, babygirl? you in a rush?” she overheard one of the men speaking to you, with a sort of entitled tone. if she hadn’t been paying attention before, she definitely was now. with the way they were acting, it seemed like they didn’t notice she was there. you were clearly uncomfortable, but tried to play it off, you didn’t want to cause trouble or provoke them. she watched closely as they kept offering you to sit down and drink with them, not listening to you no matter how many times you politely told them you’re not allowed. telling you to “just have one drink, it’s fine” and “no one will know” and they “won't tell your boss.” but your boss was not the only concern. the concern was you. you didn’t know these men, you didn’t know what they could do.

but suddenly, one of the guys sitting on the edge of the seat pulled you in by the hip and forcibly sat you down. in that moment, ellie immediately went over to the table and knew she had to step in.

“sir, you’re not allowed to put your hands on the employees. i’m gonna have to ask you and the rest of your party to step outside.” she said in a stern tone.

“she willingly sat down with us,” one of them lied, “she just wanted to have a drink. nothin’ wrong with tha-“

“i saw what happened. no point in lying. now please step outside before i have you forcibly removed from the premises.”

“yeah?” he stood up to face her. “you’re just a woman. what’re you gonna do? you can’t get all of us out of here.”

“sir, back down.” she warned.

“or what?”

she didn’t respond. instead, she punched him in the face, breaking his nose. a few of his friends stood up, but before they could do anything, some of the security had already gone over to the scene and stopped them, escorting them out as ellie went with you to the break room.

“you alright?” she asked, seeing how shaken up you were.

“i’m, uh, i’m fine. don’t worry.” you responded, sitting down on the couch, still uneasy from the experience. you hated people touching you without your consent, even something that was sort of minor like this. you were already uncomfortable, and this just made it even worse. you didn’t notice ellie had sat down next to you until she wrapped her arm around you and you melted in her embrace. you felt a little embarrassed at how comfortable you felt with a girl you’ve only had small talk with prior, but you were able to push that feeling away because in that moment, you didn’t care. the fact she hadn’t judged you and said “it’s part of the job” or something along those lines, let alone saying you were overreacting was enough to tell you that you could trust her.

“do you, uh, want me to drive you home?” she broke the silence.

“i can’t. i have to finish this shift.” you mumbled. “plus, my roommate has someone over tonight. i can’t go home right now.”

“then, if you want, we can go to my place,” she suggested, quickly adding on “but just so you don’t have to stay in this environment, i’m not trying to be creepy i promise,” because the last thing she wanted was for you to take it the wrong way and be uncomfortable.

“thanks, but, i still have to go back out there and finish my shift.”

she was a little sad. if it was up to her, she’d make you quit and happily support you. she made a lot of money for a college student, between working as a bouncer and dealing weed on the side. she had more than enough to support the both of you, but she’d never talk about anything of the sort out loud.

“i can speak to management for you,” she said, “i’m sure they’ll understand.”

you accepted hesitantly, the voice in the back of your mind telling you you’d just end up fired. but that didn’t matter to you in the moment. you had to get out of there. you couldn’t stand it anymore.

ellie guided you through the back door, making sure you wouldn’t have to face those men again, holding you by the wrist with just enough strength to make sure she wouldn’t let you go easily but not too hard so she wouldn’t make you uncomfortable. she opened her car door for you, waiting a couple seconds for you to get settled in in case you needed her help for whatever reason.

the car ride was short and silent. it wasn’t the awkward kind of silence, more so the kind of silence when there’s nothing to say. it was a comforting silence, a drastic contrast from the loud music in the club that had been blasting in your ears for the past 2 or so hours. you were looking out the window, watching the city lights and buildings as you passed them. ellie would be lying if she said she didn’t steal a few glances at you when you were looking away. she couldn’t help it, you were just so mesmerizingly beautiful she couldn’t help but look at you any chance she could.

when you finally arrived at her place, you were surprised to see she had a house and not an apartment. it wasn’t a big house, but it seemed like it could house about 3 people. you were about to ask about her roommates, but almost as if she read your mind, she said;

“sorry about the mess, i uh, i live alone, so. don’t usually have people over either.”

“it’s fine,” you shook your head, “i’m just grateful you let me come here.”

she noticed you sounded like you were in a better mood. “you feeling a little better now?”

you nodded. “yeah. i guess i just needed to get out of there.” you bit your lip in worry. “but now i don’t know what to do. i’m pretty sure i’ll end up getting fired after leaving like that.”

“after what happened to you? nah. it’s understandable,”

“are you sure? i-i mean, am i not supposed to let them know beforehand-“

“you’ll be fine, don’t worry.” she reassured you. “you’re sort of new, aren’t you?”

“not really. i’ve been working there for a couple months.”

“so you’re new. got it.”

you playfully rolled your eyes. “sure, let’s say that.”

she smiled. “anyway, you wanna do anything? or do you just wanna rest?”

“i guess we could watch a movie or something,” you suggested, “if you want, of course.” you were surprised at how bold you were. it wasn’t anything too bold, sure, but that’s only true for everyone else. for you, something like that, which others might think is minor, is sort of a big deal. not only were you at this girl’s house, but suggesting to watch a movie as well. you were a bit scared that might’ve been too much.

“yeah, sure,” she replied, “you into horror?”

“uhh.. not really..” you admitted.

“it’s fine, we can just watch something else.”

“no, no, it’s fine!” you insisted. it was, in fact, not fine. especially at this time, horror was not your thing. it wasn’t a huge fear of yours or anything, but you were a little embarrassed of the fact you still got scared while watching them, sometimes even got nightmares. but no way you’d admit that to her right there. you felt you were already being too much of a burden on her, so you’d just suck it up to not bother her any further.

a few moments later, you were both on her couch watching some random horror movie she had picked out. you didn’t even know what was going on in the plot, you were way too scared. you’d argue this was one of the scariest movies, scratch that, media in general you’ve ever seen. where did she even find this sort of stuff? ellie was full of surprises indeed.

you didn’t notice you had snuggled up to her, your head laying on her chest, from the fear. once you realized, your face turned red as you pulled away in embarrassment and mumbled some apologies as you moved away. to your surprise, she lightly tightened her grip of her arm she had wrapped around you (which you only now noticed as well), telling you with no need for words that it was fine, and you could stay that way. you didn’t really know how to react to that, but you stayed. something about her was so comforting. you barely knew her, yet you trusted her as if you’d known her all your life. it was a strange feeling. you’d been on multiple dates with the same person many times before yet you still felt more of a connection with your coworker who you had only spoken to a handful of times beforehand. you weren’t even paying attention to the movie anymore. your mind was too busy paying attention to the thoughts racing in your head to process what was going on in the screen about a meter in front of you. you had lots of questions, and the more that popped up in your head, the more your heartbeat sped up.

ellie could feel something was wrong. she lightly lifted up your chin to make you face her, locking eyes with you. she asked if it was because of what happened earlier. you felt like you should look away, but you couldn’t. something about her was just so mesmerizing. you lightly nodded, not wanting to admit all the thoughts in your mind at that moment. you looked into each other's eyes for a couple seconds, before she planted a soft kiss on your lips. it was the type of kiss that happened almost as a reflex, the type that you have almost no control over. you could feel her try to pull away after realizing what she did, but before she fully pulled away you pressed your lips against hers, pulling her in this time in a deeper kiss.

before you knew it, you were straddling her lap as she placed kisses on your neck, occasionally sucking on it softly and leaving light purple marks on your skin. you hadn’t realized how much it was turning you on until you started lightly rocking your hips back and forth, desperate to get any sort of friction. ellie realized what you were doing, and placed her hands on your waist, almost guiding your movement, causing you to let out a few soft moans and whimpers.

“ellie..” you whined.

“i know, baby, i know.”

she carefully lifted you off her lap and laid you down on the couch, hovering over you. she tugged on the hem of your shorts.

“let’s get these off.” she said, as she undid the button and slipped them off you with ease, revealing your soaked cotton panties. “cute,” she thought to herself.

“i’ve barely touched you n’ you’re already so wet,” she teased, rubbing your clit through the thin cloth causing you to moan softly.

after a moment, you started to whine, tired of her teasing.

“desperate, huh?”

you broke eye contact as you looked away in embarrassment. in the back of your mind, you couldn’t believe everything that was going on. you found it a little embarassing, hooking up with a coworker you had barely spoken to prior. but as you had been doing the whole night, you tried to push those thoughts to the back of your mind and focus on the moment.

“don’t feel ashamed, pretty girl.” she said, noticing you felt a little off. something about her caring but almost demanding tone was turning you on even more.

she carefully pulled your panties to the side, sliding two fingers in, thrusting them at a slower but steady pace. this was better, but it still wasn’t enough. you bucked your hips ever so slightly, to tell her you wanted more.

“you’re gonna have to try a little harder than that, baby,” she said. she knew exactly what you meant, but she wanted to hear you say it. you whined in complaint, hoping she wouldn’t make you say it out loud.

“use your words, princess,” she smirked while locking eyes with you.

“please, ellie..” you begged.

“please what?”

“please, more..”

“good girl,” she said under her breath, speeding up her pace and thrusting her fingers inside you twice as fast as she was before, causing you to moan and whimper louder. soon you started feeling a knot forming in your stomach, making you attempt to grip the couch.

“ellie.. fuck..” you moaned.

“i know, pretty. but you don’t get to cum yet.” she smirked, suddenly pulling her fingers out.

you whined at her words and the sudden emptiness inside you, as ellie softly chuckled at your reaction. she found it so cute. she found pretty much everything about you to be cute.

she stood up, and went to grab something from her closet. it was a bright purple strap, and it was quite big. you weren’t sure it would even fit inside you. you watched as she effortlessly took off her pants and put the harness on, walking back to the couch and positioning herself, the tip right in front of your entrance.

“i want you to cum from my cock.”

she started sliding it along your slit, coating it in your slick, causing you to whine a little, before positioning it once again in front of your entrance and slowly sliding the tip inside you easily.

you were still a little scared since you had never done anything like this before. you’ve gotten fingered before, sure, but this was the first time someone used a strap on you. especially one this big.

“ellie..”

“hm?”

“i’ve never, uh,” you stuttered, “done something like this.”

“never gotten fucked with a strap before, huh?” she said, “i could tell. you seem kinda nervous. but relax, princess, i’ll take care of you.”

the nickname only turned you on more. you didn’t get why you loved it so much. it had never crossed your mind, yet you were now sure it was your favorite pet name ever.

with that, she started slowly sliding it in, looking at your facial expressions to make sure she wasn’t hurting you. surprisingly, you were able to take it all. she started thrusting it at a slow pace, gradually speeding up, but not quite fast yet. she definitely wanted to fuck you way harder and faster, but she wanted you to get used to the feeling first.

after a few thrusts you started to get used to the feeling, and it was amazing. she sped up her pace a little more, gripping your thighs, and this time she was able to locate your sweet spot, and boy was she about to abuse it. she hit it with every thrust, making you twitch and moan at every wave of pleasure.

“good fuckin’ girl,” she praised, “already taking my cock so well.”

“ellie.. please..” you begged, between moans, “faster..”

“yeah? you sure you can handle it, tough girl?”

you nodded, and she immediately sped up. she fucked you a little faster than you expected, and it was a little too much, but the overwhelming pleasure was, at the same time, addicting. the sounds of your moans and whimpers, her groans, and your wet cunt filled the room. soon, that familiar knot in your stomach started forming again, except this time it was much more intense, causing you to try and grip the couch once again. she realized what was going on, and started using her thumb to rub circles on your clit. you started tearing up from the overstimulation which was the littlest bit painful but also overwhelmingly pleasurable.

“i wanna hear you say my name, baby,” she demanded, “i know you’re close.”

and almost on cue, you came all over her cock as you moaned her name, just as she demanded, as she fucked you through your orgasm and finally pulling out with a slight pop.

— 𓆩♥︎𓆪 —

it had been about an hour since you finished your.. activity. she insisted on getting a bath started for you, and now there you were on her bed, in one of her t-shirts that was a little big on you, freshly out of the bath. you texted your roommate before getting in the bath to tell her you wouldn’t be coming home tonight, and of course, she didn’t mind that at all.

not only were you on ellie’s bed, but you were cuddling her, trying to sleep. she told you you didn’t have to, and that she just enjoys sleeping with body warmth, but you knew better. maybe it was true, but it sure as hell was not the only reason. but you didn’t mind. you acted stupid and like you bought her story, because truth is, you really wanted to cuddle with her, and you were even thinking of similar excuses if she hadn’t brought it up first.

“you awake?” ellie whispered.

“mhm, sort of.” you replied, in a sleepy voice.

“i just, uh,” she paused for a moment, “i just wanted to know. when will i see you again?”

“on our next shift together.” you joked.

“no, dummy, i mean like this.”

you thought about it for a moment.

“i guess we’ll see,” you responded softly, “i’m pretty sleepy. i think we should talk about this later.”

she seemed satisfied with your response, but she still had the fear you were only saying that to be polite, and you didn’t want anything more or didn’t want this to repeat. of course, she’d respect you if that was the case, although she’d be a little disappointed. but she felt there was something more there, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. you weren’t like any of the other girls she’s hooked up with before. she wasn’t exactly sure what set you apart from them, but she knew there had to be something.

maybe it was just feelings.

but even if it didn’t seem like that was the case because of your shy personality, you wanted something more. just like her.

#arielle writes ୨୧ #arielle’s 18+ ୨୧ #ellie williams x reader #🪐 anon #ellie williams #the last of us #ellie x reader #the last of us 2 #tlou #tlou 2 #tlou x reader #ellie williams x you #ellie williams hcs #ellie williams drabble #ellie williams fanfic #ellie williams headcanons #ellie williams smut

[universitysunflowers]

Ok I've had some time to process heres my detailed thoughts (TBB spoilers)

First I want to get my biggest issue with the finale out of the way - Tech and CX-2. I have been delusional about him but not to the point that I wouldn't accept his death or other clones as CX-2, and I was staying open. But then they went and did exactly what I hoped they wouldn't: they gave us no confirmation of his identity at all and left him thumbtacked to a wall with no face reveal. Not only is this exactly what they did in Ahsoka, but I also feel like it left a huge gap in the finale storyline. They put so much emphasis on him throughout season 3, including the last episode, and we got nothing out of it. I also felt like this made Tech's death kind of meaningless?? Which I absolutely hate saying because of what he sacrificed in season 2, but why kill him when the rest of the batch gets to live happily on Pabu and grow old with Omega? Maybe the writers had a good reason and I just didn't pick up on it?

I also felt like we were gaslit into thinking it was Tech, only for the ending to imply he's been gone the whole time. Domicile? Phee? CX-2's fight with Crosshair and the waterfall? the way he got the most screen time out of a group that was so clearly meant to be an imperial reflection of the original squad? Idk guys I feel like we got cheated there.

I also wish we got some idea of what happened to Wolffe and Cody, but maybe that is an opening for another show? perhaps?

Ok now that that is out of the way I can talk about how much I absolutely loved the rest of the finale.

Emerie's character development was amazing I've been routing for her since the season 2 finale and you know those Jango Fett genes are coming in strong she will take such good care of those kids for as long as they need. I also think it would be cool to see her again in future productions, her character definitely has potential.

Echo survived!! All the parallels between him and CW season 6 Fives had me terrified that he was about to die but that arc trooper experience paid off. His reaction to Omega freeing the zillo is by far one of my favorite parts of the episode he was so proud of her and I was glad to see him work so well with Emerie. I am also fully ready to enjoy Echo and Rex leading a clone rebellion whenever they deem us deserving of it (looking at you Filoni). I know we don't have proof of anything but there are still to many unanswered questions surrounding the clones, I hope they finish those storylines.

The last Domino is still standing, they would be so proud of him (and his dad jokes).

Hemlock finally got what he deserved and oh I was so happy that Hunter was the one who did it, especially after all the batch went through because of him. And what came after that? Even better. We finally got a Crosshair and Omega hug (plus Hunter) and they all made it off Tantiss alive I mean what more could we ask for?

I have so many feelings on the ending and the epilogue and I'm not really sure how to put them into words but my first instinct when I finished the episode was to spend 40 minutes c r y i n g

they got a happy ending? they have peace and happiness on Pabu and got to see Omega grow up? Omega is going to fly with the rebellion and fight back against the empire?

and Tech will be with her the whole time???

I am unwell. This has left me emotionally unstable. Not only is that the best ending I could have hoped for given the past seasons but it is also such an amazing last look at their family. No matter how you think of them you have to admit Hunter was right, she is their kid and that will never change. That line alone will be living in my head rent free from here on out. Her last talk with Hunter was so well done and is one of the best moments in the whole show, but honestly Tech's goggles on her ship's dash is what broke me; he would be so proud of her I need at least 3-5 business days to process this.

Yes I have my issues with the unfinished storylines but wow that finale was something I don't think I will ever recover from. It may be one of the best endings we have ever seen in star wars. Like I said, I have a lot feelings and if I tried to put them all in a post it would have to be a multi-volume novel.

If you made it this far thank you! Feel free to add your own thoughts I like hearing what other people have to say. I'm just going to go burrow straight into the ground now and pretend I don't have finals next week because honestly who can be productive after something like that?

Oddly enough this is making me want to go back and watch the Clone Wars again, maybe Rebels too? Definitely making me nostalgic.

#tbb #star wars #the bad batch #she took Lula and Gonky with her that was so cute #tbb season 3 #I'll just be here #sobbing #the bad batch season 3 #thank you for 3 amazing seasons #tbb tech #tbb omega #tbb echo #tbb emerie #tbb hunter #tbb crosshair

[andypantsx3]

Deceiving the Duke | 4 | Todoroki Shouto

pairing: Todoroki Shouto x Female Reader

length: 3.1k of 30k words | 4th of 9 chapters

summary: When Camie Utsushimi elopes on the eve of her society debut, scandal threatens to destroy the family’s prospects. It’s up to you, a maid, to impersonate Camie throughout the Season, long enough that her elder sister can make a match. The only trouble? Lord Shouto Todoroki is also intent on making a match—and that match, quite impossibly, appears to involve you.

tags/warnings: romance, regency au, class differences, hidden identity/identity porn, aged up characters, eventual smut

A few weeks on, you received a reply from Camie.

It was a great luck that the Utsushimis employed so few staff, which meant that you were the servant in charge of collecting the post. You imagined Mrs. Utsushimi would have seized on the letter as soon as she caught sight of it.

It was addressed in Camie’s horribly girlish hand, and it opened in the most typical of Camie phrasings.

Y/N, my sweet foolish friend–

Your plot is hilarious but doomed and you should end it sooner rather than later. Mumsy should have never asked you for this, it’s sure to ruin you and ruin her, even if Caroline makes a match.

I would have always taken care of her, and Inasa has promised the same. Of course you will come live with us on Inasa’s estate, too.

You’ll find a way to put a stop to things, won’t you?

She’d signed her name below with an aggressively elaborate flourish, so you knew how upsetting she truly found the news.

Guilt settled in your stomach like a leaden weight.

You shouldn’t have undertaken this plot, obviously. You’d said as much in your original missive to Camie. But now that the scheme was already well underway, you thought it had to be seen through. Otherwise, what had all this been for? The Utsushimi family would be embroiled in scandal with absolutely nothing to show for it. And you doubted Mrs. Utsushimi would be so generous with your promised wages, were you to renege on your commitments now.

Carefully folding Camie’s letter and stowing it under your mattress, you decided you’d just have to redouble your efforts. Perhaps you would start accepting dances with gentlemen just to talk Caroline up, and mention her kindly to Miss Uraraka and Lady Asui.

You wished you’d taken the chance to mention her to Lord Shouto, before you’d caused the scene at Lady Cathleen’s party. If he wasn’t actually courting Princess Yaoyorozu, that was, as rumor seemed to suggest.

With a new plan in mind, you started your morning chores, mending the hem of one of Mrs. Utsushimi’s gowns where she’d torn it, starching the linens, picking seams on the latest of Camie’s dresses you planned to wear. You helped the family with breakfast and saw them off to the milliner’s, after which you changed their bedding and washed the old sheets. You were just settling down to get more work done on one of Camie’s gowns when a knock came at the door.

When you pulled it open, you found Lord Shouto on the other side, peering into the dim of the hallway. His mouth parted in surprise to see you, those mismatched eyes going rounder at the corners. You immediately panicked, slamming the door shut on him.

Fuck! You’d been dressed in your maid attire, not expecting the family to receive a caller! Your only grace was that the hall was very dim this time of the morning–you hoped he hadn’t been able to make out your dress in the dark.

“Um!” you called through the door, your voice strangled. “Forgive me, my lord, I am not yet properly attired! I will be right back!”

You dashed up the stairs, grabbing the latest of Camie’s gowns, quickly unlacing your apron and shedding your clothes, then stuffing yourself into the dress. Your fingers scrabbled over all the ties and buttons, shaky with nerves. You were back down the stairs in under two minutes, panting, hoping Lord Shouto wasn’t working himself into a state at being so rudely received.

When you pulled the door open again, however, he was wearing a curious expression. Those eyes picked over you, seeming to note every detail, and you self-consciously tugged at the skirts of your dress. You did not even want to think of the state of your hair.

There was a bouquet of flowers in his hand, sweet purple lilacs decorated with bursts of white clover. You squinted at the flowers, remembering Caroline had told you each had a special meaning, if you knew how to interpret them.

They looked too pretty to be declarations of your idiocy, however, so you guessed they might not be for you.

“I—you must be here to see, um, Caroline?” you asked. “I’m afraid she’s out at the moment–she should be back in a few hours, however–if you want to leave your card…”

Lord Shouto shook his head, stepping forward. “I am here for you.”

Your heart tripped over itself with his proximity, and you backed up a step, leaning back to look into his face. “I–-you are?” you asked stupidly.

The tiniest hint of a smile twitched at the edge of his mouth. “I came to see that you were well, after Lady Cathleen’s.”

Your stomach churned guiltily. That was really too kind, especially considering that you’d done nothing but fling snacks at him, ramble nonsense at him, and then pretended to faint on him. To say nothing of the fact that you were pretending to be an entirely different person than the one you’d introduced yourself as. And here he was, in your doorway still, looking at you carefully, as though he meant to catch you were you to faint again.

Now that he was here, it would not be so easy to refuse him. You backed out of the doorway, gesturing him inside. “Please come in. I can serve tea in the sitting room.”

Lord Shouto inclined his head and followed you inside. You lead him to the parlor, glad you’d neatened it, wondering at your own nerve–a servant, entertaining a duke, in a sitting room that was not her own.

“The maid is, um, indisposed today,” you told him. “I’ll make the tea myself, please make yourself comfortable.”

You left him to his own devices, darting to the kitchen. You’d hoped to run into the cook but she was also apparently out, probably at market, so you threw the kettle on and spent several long minutes rummaging around for the nice tea–-the kind Mrs. Utsushimi only served when she wanted to impress. You figured a duke would definitely meet her criteria for people worth impressing.

When you returned, Lord Shouto had left his flowers laying over the settee. He was at the mantle over the fireplace, glancing through the Utsushimis’ portraits and displayed needlework. That curious look was back on his face when he turned back to you, and his eyes seemed to rove over every inch of your face.

He looked strange, in fact, as though he’d just been confronted with a startling discovery. You flushed under his scrutiny, hoping you hadn’t missed a stain on your dress or some large rip in the fabric.

You hurried to the corner and set the tea tray down on the sideboard. Your skin prickled tellingly as he drew near, and you quickly poured him a cup and ordered him into a chair to get him away from you. You did not understand why his presence made you feel so strange.

You dared to pour yourself a cup of tea, too, and perched on a chair opposite him, luxuriating in how good the tea was compared to your usual fare.

“I, um, appreciate you calling,” you said to him, watching him settle into his chair, and trying not to pay too much attention to the way his thighs filled out his breeches, or the way his shoulders seemed to take up the entire width of the chair back.

Lord Shouto sipped at his tea, humming low in his throat. “Have you recovered, Miss Utsushimi?”

You nodded quickly. “Yes. It was just, um, a passing thing. I am completely fine.”

He looked satisfied, smiling softly into his tea cup. “I am happy to hear it.”

You noticed his lashes left long shadows over the tops of his cheekbones as he drank, and you pinched your leg through your skirts when you realized how deeply undue that observation was.

You quickly cast about for something to take your mind off of the way Lord Shouto looked sitting across from you.

“The flowers are pretty,” you said, glancing over at them. The purple of the lilacs looked especially deep against the lighter fabric of the settee–you wondered what purple lilac was supposed to mean, and which of the Utsushimis they were for.

Lord Shouto had said he was calling on you, but he’d not said the same of the flowers. It would be the height of conceit to think that they were also for you, especially given how completely unhinged you’d been with him to date. A man did not bring flowers to a woman who pelted him with snack cakes.

“Are they–-Caroline’s?” you guessed.

Another threat of a smile pressed at Lord Shouto’s mouth. “You speak as though you’ve never received flowers before.”

That arrested you. What did he mean, you? They were for you? You couldn’t help the way your mouth dropped open.

“I–me?” you asked, dumbfounded. “I’ve never—are you certain?”

Lord Shouto’s eyebrows went up, and there was a note of something amused in his deep tone. “I should hope so.”

You left your cup on the table beside you, unable to help the way you were drawn to the flowers. Your first bouquet! And probably your only, considering your prospects and the expense. But they were so lovely, and they smelled so bright and green and fresh.

A weird giddiness came over you, and you tried to squash the feeling down.

“I–Thank you, Lord Shouto,” you said, unable to help the embarrassingly touched note in your voice. “They are beautiful.”

Lord Shouto looked a little bit smug, you thought, as you fingered some of the petals, feeling their silky smoothness on the pads of your fingers. You’d have to put them in water. And maybe hide them in your room, if you got the chance. You doubted Mrs. Utsushimi would be pleased to discover Lord Shouto had brought you flowers, considering you were supposed to be keeping a low profile.

Which you were apparently utterly failing at.

You turned back to Lord Shouto, placing your flowers on the seat next to you, unwilling to be parted from them. It was probably strange, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care quite enough to try to be normal about it all.

“They don’t mean something like learn Greek, do they?” you asked him suspiciously.

Lord Shouto laughed, out loud this time, low and easy, and the sound went straight to your head.

“They do not,” he said, but he did not elaborate on whether they did mean something. You made a note to try and look them up later.

You had the sudden, wild thought that a man bringing a woman flowers meant something more than you were currently accounting for. And it also dawned on you that you were a man and woman alone–-an impropriety by any of good society’s standards, regardless of the fact that your first meeting had been much like this as well.

“Caroline and Mrs. Utsushimi should be back soon,” you blurted out, as if to reassure him that you had no inappropriate designs on him.

Lord Shouto looked unbothered, watching you with those mismatched eyes over the rim of his tea cup. “It does not matter to me. I am not here to see either.”

There was something teasing in his tone that warmed you all the way to your toes, and you had to school your face so as not to betray how much that pleased you.

You tried to remind yourself that he meant nothing by it, and that this could be nothing, in the end. And now was as good a time as any to try and talk Caroline up, now that you had Lord Shouto in your clutches.

“Caroline is good company, it is a loss,” you said. “Have you met her?”

“In passing,” Lord Shouto said. “She’s never flung anything, so I’m afraid she did not make a significant impression on me.”

You laughed. “But a better one, I hope.”

Lord Shouto did not say so.

“You’ll remember how pretty she is, though,” you said insistently. “And she does read Ancient Greek, I think. She’s accomplished on the piano forte.”

“So her hobbies are not so secret as yours?” Lord Shouto asked.

You smiled. “She is rather more accomplished. I must hide my own in order to save myself the embarrassment.”

Lord Shouto leaned forward in interest. “You’ll tell me at least one? You are aware I am a trustworthy secret keeper.”

He looked so earnest, and his tone was so genuine, you couldn’t do anything but give him what he wanted. Much may it please him to learn.

“My chief hobby is reading–though obviously not in any ancient languages. I’m…quite fond of novels, actually.” You were mostly fond of them because Camie was fond of them, and they were the principal artifact she had been able to smuggle you. But you quite liked all the tales of adventure, cunning, and head-spinning romance. The only type of adventure you’d seen thus far was this hare-brained scheme of yours–and it would not end nearly so well as the stories in your novels did.

“I too, enjoy reading,” Lord Shouto obliged you. “Though not usually novels.”

You smiled. “I’ll recommend you some, though I can’t tell if you’d enjoy them. They’re a lot of nonsense.”

“I believe I told you,” Lord Shouto said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on those thighs. “I like nonsense.”

For some reason, your heart did a weird fluttering motion in your chest. Your cheeks heated, and you grasped your tea cup tighter, as if holding on for safety.

“Well, then,” you said. “I’m certain I can oblige you. I’ll send you a list, perhaps.”

Lord Shouto looked pleased, blinking long and slow like a cat in a sunbeam. “I’d quite like that.”

You took another sip of your tea to hide some of your face, trying to reign yourself in. You had not meant for this conversation to turn towards you–Caroline was the objective here. You wracked your brain for another segue back to her.

“I’ll ask Caroline to send along recommendations as well–though they won’t be novels,” you said. “Perhaps something in Greek may tempt you.”

Lord Shouto regarded you curiously. “Your recommendations do not stand on their own?”

You frowned at him defensively. “My recommendations are the finest,” you sniffed.

A tiny smile lifted the corner of his lips, like he’d caught you. “Then I need only accept yours.”

“But really–Caroline–” you started, but Lord Shouto cut you off.

“Miss…Utsushimi,” he said, pausing strangely over the name. “It is not Caroline’s opinions I seek. My attentions are yours, and yours alone.”

You froze, a spear of ice plunging into your heart. His attentions were yours? What could he mean–which attentions, exactly? That sounded quite terribly like an admission of interest–-romantic interest–-except that would be insanity itself.

He was so very noble, and so very handsome, and you were beginning to learn that he was so very kind. You were the most horrible match imaginable for him.

You’d have to make sure he understood it.

“Lord Shouto, you understand I do not mean to marry,” you said, testing the waters.

“You’ve intimated as much,” he replied, his tone low. “Though your reasons…remain a mystery.”

For some reason, his eyes cut back to the mantle, lingering strangely over the Utsushimi family’s portraits.

“I would be a poor choice,” you said. “You understand my shortcomings already.”

Lord Shouto’s features arranged themselves into a mask of polite incredulity. “You think all a man wants in a wife is her knowledge of ancient languages?”

A laugh burst out of you. “In part.”

A tiny smile threatened the corner of Lord Shouto’s mouth again. “I assure you there are other qualities one might desire.”

Yes, like needlework and piano forte and singing and such. Your talents lay elsewhere–and plenty undiscovered.

“I also understand that your hand is all but promised to Princess Momo,” you told him. You hoped he understood what you were implying–whatever attentions he had been referencing, he needn’t lavish them on you.

“Do you?” Lord Shouto said softly.

You nodded earnestly. Lord Shouto looked thoughtful but did not elaborate.

You wondered what he was really doing here, in the Utsushimis’ sitting room. If he meant for you to be a distraction, a shield against the other debutantes while he waited on the princess. Or if he was perhaps open to marriage.

You decided it could not hurt to continue to peddle your Caroline agenda. Whatever Lord Shouto’s reasons, you were not a suitable prospect for him. But if he was open to marriage, Caroline would be a good match.

“Still, I’d like you to meet Caroline,” you said. “I’ll introduce you at the Satos’ dinner next week.”

“If you like,” Lord Shouto said vaguely, but you could tell he had no interest in her. His eyes drifted back to the mantle, roving over the miles of needlework and colorful oils of the portraits.

You sighed, sensing the enormity of the task before you.

After that, Lord Shouto steered the conversation back into calmer waters, trying to ferret out more about you. You managed to turn a great deal of it back on him, learning more about his family. You were surprised to learn he was the baby of his family, as he’d inherited his father’s title.

He told you about his eldest brother, Touya, who’d disowned the family to join some antimonarchist group in the south, and his other brother Natsuo, who’d rejected the title to become a man of the cloth instead. He talked fondly of his mother and his older sister, Fuyumi, who he seemed to visit often.

You liked the way he spoke about the people in his life, with patience and intention—even Touya, who it was clear had bad blood with the rest of the family. You could have listened to him for hours, luxuriating in his low, soft tone, the occasional conspiratorial twitch of his mouth.

He really was unlike anything you’d expected from a duke.

Eventually the tea ran cold, and the real world called back to you both. You saw Lord Shouto to the door with both regrets and a resolution forming in the back of your mind.

Whatever his interest in you, you would redirect it to Caroline, and kill two birds with one stone–Caroline could make her match, and Lord Shouto would be made to see what a pretty, qualified wife could be like. You carefully ignored the large part of you that recoiled at the thought.

It did not matter what you wanted, and you wouldn’t let yourself think on it. Lord Shouto was good, and he should make a suitable match.

You would arrange it so Lord Shouto and Caroline got a happy ending, just like in your novels.

You would make absolutely sure of it.

#todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki x you #shouto todoroki x reader #shoto x you

[wavernot4love]

wanted 2 make a post about some positive things that happened at iDKHOW Buffalo last night, because there certainly was good in there, for everyone involved, and i want to highlight/talk about that stuff!

i make these posts a lot for shows, mostly for myself so i don't forget, but others seem 2 enjoy them too, and i don't think last night's show should be any exception.

- first of all, OPENING BAND in the crowd!!! something i have never heard of dallon doing for that one before, and all things considered, i fully see why he chose to do it here as it fit the clear vibe of just wanting to be close with and sort of revel in the connection with the crowd - and the ability of that to make everything better.

there were no flamboyant theatrics like with visitation, just all of us singing together (it was also just anthony playing onstage), and homie stayed out with us for a long time - most of the song. i was also right up there which was nice.

(i'm just gonna put a keep reading thingy here you can click so this doesn't clog tags/folks' dash due to being long)

was just super sentimental. dallon even brought the "gives me.... and ____ a purpose" thing back, mentioning/gesturing towards anthony, & also the thing where when we're all doing the last "band" he like, leans back and yells it with his hands around his mouth. just kinda got me & made me smile since he didn't do either of those things on saturday, and i always do them out of habit when singing the song because of past shows.

definitely the best moment of the night & the embodiment of everything i love about idkhow. he truly made the best out of everything.

i didn't film all of it, & also my camera angles are bad since i didn't want to shove my phone in dallon (or anyone's) face. this is the only video i really feel comfortable posting from last night since it just felt like everything was alright in that moment, 100%. not that i took many in the first place for that reason, but you get the idea.

- dallon strutting around with a pride flag from someone for half a song!! let me tell you, bro was showing that thing OFF. sadly i just had my film camera in hand in the moment so i just grabbed maybe five shots on that aka i don't have em yet, but i'll have em eventually, and it sure did happen, and it was great. did see a few posts in idkhow's tagged on instagram if ya wanna peep.

- back to what i said in regards to opening band about making a rough situation more positive, dallon brought up this exact point (even moreso than usual, including just on saturday in rochester) earlier in the show while talking about a letter - he went really in depth about turning negative stuff into something beautiful. and was talking about how when he wrote the song, he could only hear what we were doing now (you know the parts, in the chorus) in his head, and now he gets to actually experience it, and so he never stops playing this song even 20 years after he wrote it. i love dallon's love for a letter, man, and hope he never does stop.

- downside has truly become one of my favorite live songs. holy moly dude it had even the otherwise seemingly casual fans going wild, possibly even more than rochester actually. that is a song to freakin JUMP to if there ever was one!!!

- did mention this in my post from last night, but a while after the show (there were only maybe a dozen of us around at this point), on his way out to the bus, dallon kind of smiled & waved at us/said thank you, first to the larger group closer to the venue and then to the few of us a bit further down, too.

can't really word it right, but just the fact that despite seeming quite down, still, bro took care to make sure we all felt appreciated/not ignored was sweet. i think maybe he could tell we were concerned, i don't know, dude, all i do know is there's a lot of kindness in that dude's eyes.

had honestly never really interacted with dallon all these years prior to these shows (besides theatrical visitation crowd stuff), so i hadn't fully realized until these past few days - really given me a different perspective i hadn't fully caught onto before amidst the dramatic aspects of idkhow/dallon & their shows, i guess.

point is, dallon's a kind dude. be good to him. just wanted to say that.

- and finally, last night was my eighth (!) idkhow show, & what's crazy is i have never traveled more than an hour & a half for one all this time. i can't say that goes for any other band, and that fact doesn't go lost on me. western ny loves and shows up for idkhow, & idkhow loves and shows up for western ny always. <3

i just have so much love for all this, dude. i miss the shows already.

this project & dallon's music & the live shows have all been in my life for so long. both of these shows have been special in some way or another, last night being a reminder of how powerful everything idkhow has going is to the point of being able to make something good out of, well, whatever might be going on.

truly hope to catch another show back around here sometime soon. please get out 2 a gig if you can - chances are, like me and everyone i've encountered, really, at their shows, you'll never want to stop going, either, if you do. :p

#idkhow #i dont know how but they found me #gloomtown tour #dallon weekes #idkhowposting #wavernot4love gets 2 the gig

[luvzxr]

Innocence pt. 2

Nsfw 18+ mdni!! I will cry. Summary: The youngest and most innocent member of the redfield siblings finds herself falling for the broken and not so innocent blonde agent whose been a well known long term friend with her two older siblings.

This fic consists of possible nsfw, mentions of deep and depressive topics, violence, gore, pet names, small age gap, no use of y/n your/you're, oc name is used but you may use you own if you'd like! Part 1! Word Count: 2,942

Sophie was never much of the talkative type, even less when she was drowsy.

She was quiet-- reserved for herself and close companions who understood her so It wasn't much of a shock when there was no noise except the soft murmuring of the radio playing some sort of old time rock and the humming of the heat flowing through the small vents of the interior jeep that currently was cruising down the dimmed out, paved roads. Her head rested against the glass window, staring out as she watched the world seemingly go by in a blur. Her legs curled under the dash, closely huddled towards the passenger side door and her frail arms were folded lazily over her chest. She was eager to just get home. Leon didn't necessarily scream uninviting but it was just an odd case scenario. And an awkward one at that. He never offered her a ride home but that might also have to do with the fact he was never in a predicament where he had to. He didn't even have to now. He could of easily ignored the sleepy girl that was sat in that metal chair that looked far too uncomfortable to be falling asleep in but she was making it work. It made his back ache, every muscle in his entire body twitched in a way that made him feel he just finished an excruciating training session. How the girl managed to sleep like that was beyond him. Sophie had no right to feel any remote fear over him. He was an agent. He protected innocence and kept them out of harms way but the unknowing about him is what bubbled that anxiety deep within her. And if he was anything like her brother, he had hidden emotions stuffed so deep inside-- stuffed down so far to try and suppress but eventually that all just snaps. All the pent-up anger, heartbreak, and depressive thoughts all shoved into one thing and one thing alone. Killing.

She was curious, yes, and she asked a lot of questions. Probably more than for her own good sometimes. But she wasn't dumb. Ditzy but not dumb. She knew when it came to Chris, he used the missions and the military as an outlet to release all those emotions out without being forced to talk about what really was going on inside his head. Without having to open up and where he could stay and play the unbothered hero like everyone looked to him as. And she knew better than to play shrink and try to get him to spill. She learned her lesson the first time.

It seemed to almost become an animalistic instinct for not only Chris or Leon, but also Claire. How they always expected the worst to come out of whatever roller coaster they unfortunately were always first in line for. Placed directly on the front lines every time. Sophie managed to see them be put to work once or twice through her lifetime, watching how they were two completely different people with little ammunition in that chamber and the deathly grip that held that pistol in their palms as if it was life or death. Because it was. Day after day consisted nothing but survival for all of them, coming in close contact with death only to directly laugh in it's face when they lived yet another day. As the youngest sister forced to sit at home, living her average days like the average civilian at home while her two other siblings left more often than she'd like them to and the constant worry that bubbled inside, wondering if they would be coming back in one piece, alive or in a body bag was often the worst nightmare only she could hope never became a reality. Leon was cold, his redden knuckles slowly turning white due to the grip of the steering wheel. He was tired. More like, exhausted. All he wanted to do was get back to his small, singular residential apartment where he then could find peace, crashing into the plush of the mattress where he would or wouldn't manage a decent eight hours of sleep. Only his body would mange the luxury he desperately longed for right now. But here he was, being yet another 'hero' in some sense to the younger girl who he'd occasionally give a head nod or a lazy wave just to be polite but never really acknowledged her anymore than that. He had his own reasons to keep people on a six foot long pole. Sophie just happened to be one of those people he needed to keep farther away than usual. She was the youngest of his two pals but she was also the only one who wasn't roped into the same tormented nightmares they had. It was best to keep it that way. To some extent, he didn't mind the plus one company he had sitting in his passenger seat because most nights the drive home felt much longer and drawn out-- like he was stuck in a loop of going down the same old road he started on, only to find out that wasn't the case and it happened to be his muscle memory taking the same route he always did. His mind was just on auto pilot the whole ride home. The only difference now is he had to be at least a little present because it wasn't just his life at risk anymore. "Leon!"

Forearm pulsing against the wheel from the sudden sound that ripped right through his personal thoughts. His gaze flickered from the where the shriek emerged next to him and then back to the road. A split second decision needing to be made-- he jerked the wheel, swerving the vehicle to the other side of the road in an attempt to avoid hitting the dumbfounded raccoon scurrying across the pavement. So much for paying attention. "Shit," he huffed, repositioning on his side of the road before taking a glance over to the petrified girl next to him, "Are you alright Soph?" "I-I think so.." Leave it to the blonde to get lost in his imperial thoughts and manage a split second decision. Most times that ended in a flipped vehicle, explosion or worse-- However, he'd prefer not to mention that to the her, especially when almost the entirety color of her slight tanned skin was almost completely flushed white. He'd also never muster up the courage now to mention he'd probably was in desperate need of a eye sight check up. A prescription was almost one hundred percent certain, he was just far too stubborn to book the appointment. She looked like a ghost and in more ways than one, Leon couldn't blame her. Stupid dumpster puppies.

The rest of the car ride was short and painless. Sophie didn't dare to let go of the handle connected to the passenger door, knuckles turning ghostly white from the grip she held to it. And Leon now was hyper focused on the road and surroundings along with it. He felt he'd done enough damage in the short period of time already and refused to dig a deeper hole he already was practically buried in. Being the one he was throwing theoretical dirt over top of his casket six feet in the ground. Leon didn't want to say anything, but the silence was almost deafening, and it was starting to cause a slow burn of anxiety. Although he didn't believe he truly deserved the comfort because he just pushed the girl into a huge tidal wave of emotions that he was mentally beating himself into a pulp over. No doubt Chris would be physically doing so if Sophie uttered a single word about it along with never trusted Leon to take her home ever again. Leon wasn't one for silence. But the small girl in the passenger's seat seemed like the silent type, leaving him in an impossible situation. He didn't bother to turn to her for a conversation or anything of the sort. He wasn't too sure if he could carry it on, anyway. His eyes sewn together in distress. The far to familiar feeling of his stomach twisting into knot after knot, the walls of his throat clenching as they were slowly closing to cut air flow. The forming beads of sweat littering his palms that where firm to the wheel, almost completely slipping from the leather each time he made a turn. The anxiety he tried so desperately to rip away from since he was the bright blue eyed 21-year-old rookie so many years ago. But, no matter how much he tried to run, hide, shove it down-- anything. It was always still there. A lurking emotion ready to swallow him whole. When the motion of the jeep finally faltered, parking in the abandoned driveway Sophie felt a ting of relief wash over her heightened nerves, more than happy to finally be home and more importantly, not moving. Leon tried not to make a mental note of how ecstatic the girl seem to be to finally escape his company- sure it was awkward and of course he understood a little further looking back on the near accident he caused but it wasn't that bad, was it? It never dawned on him that the average civilian life was far different than the one he was forced into.

The life he was plunged into after the horrors of Raccoon City. Forced to take part in high military training that nearly took his life the first week of it, not that he didn’t already want to take that opportunity and be the one to end it himself with a single bullet to the skull but it left him almost bitter. The thought of the government being the one to kill him instead of himself was the more pitiful thought. The mere place that stripped him of his entire personality, took away any hope of him to escape this nightmare and try to muster up that average lifestyle he now only ever dreamed about. He was nothing more than the shell of the puppy like boy he was forced to leave behind much sooner than he had hoped for.

So when near death experiences tend to rise it doesn’t quite strike him as shocking but instead the average daily occurrence in his life. Leon shook the question from his mind, protruding behind Sophie with his hands plunged deep into the fabric of his pockets and playing gentleman. If he was going to start off the night acting as such, he mise as well end it the same way. He'd never paid much attention to her at all before, mainly because he was far too deep and drowning in his exhaustion or his work to notice, but he could see her. Very clearly, actually now that she was walking in front of him. For starters, she was tiny. For some reason, Leon just couldn't wrap that around his head-- Her brother was Chris Redfield, her sister Claire and even though he'd seen things over 12 feet tall the two siblings where one of the tallest he'd ever met. How the hell was the girl under 5'0? Did the genes just stall out once they got to her? He could probably plainly ask, and she’d tell him. Leon could probably ask Sophie a lot of things and she’d tell him. If he hadn’t almost killed the both of them on the short car ride to her house, perhaps. Under different circumstances where he didn’t have the girl quivering in her seat and latching on to anything in sight, maybe.

The front door to the Redfield residence opened only a few seconds after Sophie was knocking, and Claire was currently standing on the other side. Her eyes fitted between the two, eyebrows raised until she noticed the two familiar faces and the expression that was once confusion was nothing more than genuine surprise and a hint of cheer in her eyes. It was a genuine surprise for Claire to see Leon there. Not that he didn't come around often because he was almost at the house everyday, if not every other day but it was odd to see him with her little sister rather their older brother. She got the hint though, as Sophie stepped in through the door after Claire moved to allow her inside. "Chris was still busy at the firing range," He heard her murmur, "So Leon drove me home." Leon winced. He was hoping the younger girl wouldn't go about mention to Claire about mere moments ago on the road, for he'd appreciate being able to live another day before being pummeled to death. "I'm sorry I was late," Claire just let a soft chuckle slip, "Sophie, you're 25 years-old," Claire's hand rested gentle on her forearm, "You're no teenager running late on curfew." An internal feeling of relief washing over Leon, watching as the small girl chose to keep the incident as just their little secret. Feeling lucky enough the girl had some mercy on him. "Right.." She was used to Leon bringing Chris home, for the men often went out late on the town to a close by bar where both would drink for a while. Most times however, Chris would get smashed out of his fucking mind more nights than just one, forcing Leon no other choice than to escort his mate stumbling in through the front door. All while trying to keep himself upright in the process as well. Or nights where the two stayed a bit later than intended at the office to read over case after case before finalizing anything. She was just having a hard time understanding how on earth Chris conned her into going with him in the first place. "Thank you, Leon," She allowed Sophie to file past into the house, "I'm sorry you had to go through the trouble of bringing her home. I'm not quite sure why she didn't just call me but I appreciate it." Leon just nodded. "It's alright," shrugging his shoulders. He wasn't quite sure what else to say, "it's not a bother." "How was the training?" Her voice lowering almost to a hushed tone. For some reason, finding the topic inappropriate for their younger sibling despite her being a 'big girl.' Claire just didn't see the purpose of bringing it up around Sophie because in some sort she felt it may tarnish that innocent mind of hers and Claire just couldn't handle doing that. Leon frowned slightly, taking note of the sudden change in her demeanor. Then chose to yet again, shrug, "Same old, same old. Muscle are achy and tired. I feel like an old man." "You are an old man." "Watch it, Redfield." This made Claire smile. She loved Leon dearly, for he was like another piece of family to her and has been since Raccoon City-- If anything happened to that man, she had no idea what she'd do. Especially knowing the mental torment Chris went through. She could only imagine the things Leon tortures himself with late at night inside his own head. She worried over him more than she'd care to admit. "Well I should probably head out," Leon said, slipping one hand from his pockets to direct his thumb behind him. Throat clearing as he begun to back away from the front door, "my bed is calling my name." "Right," Claire gave a soft nod, "I'll let you head out. You deserve some sleep. And Thank You again, Leon." "Sure thing," His smile was small, but Claire learned that, that was enough. He wasn't exactly the smiling type of guy. At least not anymore. "I'll see you sometime soon, I'm sure." "Right. I'll see you Fri-" "Oh.. Is he headed home?" The sound of Sophie's small voice was the reason he faltered in his tracks, coming to almost an immediate stop. Surprised when he peered over his shoulder to see her head peaking out from behind Claire in the doorway.

He had convinced himself that she'd crashed out on the couch or even made the efforts to drag herself up the small flight of steps to her bedroom, but apparently not. Instead, she managed to swiftly stray her old clothing and slip into something more appeasing for the night. The attire consisting of pastel pink matching sleep set of Bugs Bunny, for it had the cocky bastard of a rabbit slapped right in the center of her crop top along with the same image down the left pant leg of her pajamas. Only difference was it was much larger on the leg than in her shirt. "Yeah," Claire shifted over, "Would you like to say goodnight?" Sophie knew what she was hinting at. Her sister had never made it difficult on what she expected from her younger sibling and the manners needing to be used and right now, Claire was gesturing for Sophie to say thank-you. She stepped forward, her head ducking under Claire's arm to get a better view of Leon outside. She had a gentle smile on her face now, she looked far more calmer now that she was in the comfort of her own home. "Thank You," He couldn't help but return the same gesture to her, finding it very hard not to find her gentle demeanor amusing. Now that she wasn't anxious, huddled against the passenger side door or silently praying under her breathe to just be home. He could find it in himself to muster up a reluctant nod of his own for her. "Not a problem, Soph."

#leon kennedy #leon kennedy fanfic #leon kennedy x oc #leon s. kennedy #leon x oc #resident evil #resident evil leon #resident evil x oc #fanfic #leon s. kennedy x oc

[lunargrapejuice]

hello luna my love <33 how are you? i would love to participate in the blooming love event, it's so adorable!! also the diluc fics youve been posting recently are chefs kiss im eating them up hhh

info for the matchup event:

gender preference: male pls 🙏

about me: i'm rather introverted in general but lively in familiar company! it can take a bit for me to be comfortable but when i am i make jokes every other minute and i try my best to be the life of the conversation <3 i LOVE stoic men with my whole heart and i have a deep seated desire to be some guy's wife that he won't shut up about :")

prompt: either sundress or sunlight would be wonderful!

i match you with..

✿ alhaitham

“wait! grand sage, we - we weren’t finished.”

“acting grand sage,” alhaitham corrects, stopping in his pursuit to leave this conference room as quickly as possible. he would have thought by now they’d have learned that he doesn’t work outside of office hours and he had almost made it to the door but still they stopped him. “we will continue this tomorrow, during my office hours. my wife is waiting for me.”

he knows he doesn’t need to add that last part, he’s said it every time they wanted to keep him longer, nearly as much as he’s corrected those who keep forgetting the ‘acting’ part of his title but he just couldn’t help himself. and as he turned back around, making his way out the door without another word, he feels the corner of his lips tug upwards at the thought of you actually waiting for him.

it had become routine, he’d say. walking you to work in the morning before heading to the akademiya just for you to find your way there later in the day to walk home with him. the best part of a long work day as sage. life was so much simpler when he was just the scribe, it was easy to slip out of his office and head to wherever you were but as acting grand sage, that so many needed the attention of, it was much harder to get away with.

he hardly pays any mind to those he passes by on his way out the painted glass doors, shining bright blue in the sunlight, and heads down the path leading to where you always wait for him, near the flowerpot a bit away from where the researchers usually stood and argued. like every day, there you were leaning against the railing, admiring the flowers that had begun to bloom as spring set in.

at the sight of you in the blue and pink light, in a sundress he had yet to see you in before, he felt a flutter in his rib cage, like gentle satin wings knocking against him and drawing warmth from his heart. it wasn’t unusual for you to do this to him, not that you’d be able to tell by looking at him, but today it felt.. wilder. like the heat blossoming under his tight shirt was going to reach his ears.

“i see they had you for a bit of overtime today. a whole two minutes, how did you ever survive?” you tease the moment you look up and see him only a few steps away, making your way to his side and accepting his extended hand.

to your surprise he tugs you closer, enough so that you can smell the lingering scent of rose water and hibiscus clinging to him from his morning shower, feel the rise and fall of his steady breaths.

“it was easy knowing my beautiful wife was waiting for me.”

authors note: aaaaaaa rae <333 💕💖💓💞💖💕💕 i was so excited and giddy writting this🥰💕💖 im still feeling all gooey inside heheh. i've been doing much better, i hope you've been doing good!🥺💖 it always makes me so happy to see you in my notes and on my dash - just why are you so amazing fjdkdkdkdkd

thank you for waiting for me to do this🥺 i appriciate you and i really hoped you enjoy it! xoxoxo🥰💓💞💗💕💖💖

main masterlist | blooming love match ups

#blooming love match ups #was this enough emojis to show I adore you or nah lmao #al haitham x reader #al haitham #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #alhaitham #alhaitham x reader

[daengkkaz]

—︰꒰💌 ✎◞♡ pairing —> highschool!ot8 x fem!reader

— ꒰🎙️꒱ genre —> romance, fluff, some angst

— ꒰🤍꒱ 8 different scenarios

Synopsis: In Yellow Wood High, there is a broadcasting club that does live podcasts during lunch everyday. These podcasts deliver news of the weather that day, exams that are coming up soon, a few song recs from students…and anonymous love letters. 『💌』

Every lunch, all boys and girls alike hope to have their name called from the speakers to experience that fluttery feeling. You weren’t any different from them. The prayers and hopes you held to be the main character of one of those letters all payed off on one day at noon, when you heard your name being called from the speakers, loud and clear. 『🎙️』

“…And today, we have a love letter submitted by an anonymous student to y/n l/n.”

…now your biggest goal is to discover who this anonymous person is. 『🤍』

You have eight boys as the main suspects of the letter. (In this AU, hs is five years long because I needed to fit all of them in lol)

┊ Bang Chan ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: exes to lovers ╰(*´︶`*)╯

— pairing: student council pres!chan x vice pres!reader

Even the flawless student council president breaks his picture-perfect composure once a while when it comes to his ex: you. Unable to get over you for the past two years, his repressed feelings start to grow again when you decide to join the student council as the vice president. As the both of you begin to see each other more than you ever did for the past years, maybe Chan has decided that his repressed feelings should be told one way or the other before he loses the one last chance he has.

┊ Lee Minho ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: black cat x golden retriever ฅ(＾・ω・＾ฅ)

— pairing: cat dad!minho x cat mom!reader

A fourth-year that almost every single girl(even some boys) has or had a crush on at least once. His cold resting face is said to be one of his many charms, but it is also what scares people off after confessing their love for him. Everyone knew the boy as the ice prince, aside from his (probably)only friend, Chan. He reported him as being funny and bright, but how were people supposed to believe that, when their first impression of him was “cold”? However, you started to believe Chan. Your first encounter with him was rather… odd. It was full of confused blinks, crouches behind the school building, and cats. After discovering both of your loves for cats, the cat parenting has begun between you two. And maybe that mom and dad role was taken a bit too seriously? Minho being Minho, he straight up inserted his full legal name in that letter.

┊ Seo Changbin ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: popular x loner (*´ω`*)

— pairing: popular!changbin x loner!reader

He was born to be top. First in his classes, mvp of the school’s basketball team, popular people magnet, and hot. His friend circle seemed to be expanding every day, even to the teachers. But there was no way you were going to be a part of that, when that was the exact type of person that you hated. Throughout your life, you’ve seen all kinds of “popular” kids turn out to be the most wicked, messed up assholes ever. Not after that incident in middle school, you weren’t going to get lured into their stupid groups ever again. But you didn’t know then, that Changbin was going to make you think twice about that. And that you were going to steal his heart in return.

┊ Hwang Hyunjin ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: secret relationship ♪( ´▽｀)

— pairing: school prince!hyunjin x artsy!reader

The school prince(used to be just Minho now there’s two) and the most popular boy of the school. He’s hot, athletic, and social. What’s not to like? You were no doubt one of his thousands of admirers. As a school nobody, he was someone you idolized, not a crush. That boy was far too radiant and bright for you, who barely had any presence. Just when you believed admiring from afar was enough, you stumbled across that same dashing boy, Hyunjin, in the art room sitting in front of an easel with a brush in hand. Over time, you discover that there’s more to this boy aside from the blinding spotlight that always shone upon him. Shared portraits of one another, golden hours in the art room, and the quiet laughs that filled both of your hearts. The events that turned your idolization turned into crushing. And maybe, just maybe, Hyunjin’s did too. 99% sure it’s just your delusional head, but what if the 1% was right?

┊ Han Jisung ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: secret(?) penpals (*≧∀≦*)

— pairing: broadcasting club pres!jisung x reader

A strange and mysterious boy that runs the broadcasting club, and the famous voice behind the speakers every lunch. Your penpal relationship with the anonymous(?) boy sets off when Jisung accidentally finds your lousy paper airplanes decorated with blue ink on how you hated your classes and teachers. Every plane you sent out and the silly letters in them became what he looked forward to every school day. The music recs, responses to your complaints, corny dad jokes… And subtle hints on his identity. Despite the failed attempts to find out who your mysterious penpal was, the face he made that day at noon when reading his own letter was clear in your head.

┊ Lee Felix ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: matchmaking gone wrong ٩( 'ω' )و

— pairing: matchmaker!felix x hopeless romantic!reader

The brightest and most optimistic person you will ever meet, you will need sunglasses to face his radiant energy. Not only is he the sunshine of the school, but also is the notorious matchmaker of the school. When you develop a crush on the school prince, Hyunjin, your friend recommends you to go ask Felix for help(even if he sucks as the job). Excited at the request, the boy does everything in his power to play the Cupid between you two. What he didn’t realize is that as this matchmaking mission was heading towards success, his own feelings were growing as well deep down. Even if it seems too late for him, he submits a letter in hopes that you’d glance his way just for once.

┊ Kim Seungmin ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: fake dating \(//∇//)\

— pairing: photographer!seungmin x popular!reader

Member of the photography club, an aloof boy that doesn’t really stand out aside from his excellent photography skills. After you got yourself into a bet with your worst enemy, you make a deal with Seungmin. In exchange for being your fake boyfriend for a month, you’ll be the muse for his photography project. The reluctant handholdings, awkward flirtings, warm hugs, and your bright smile captured in his camera may have been more than enough to make his confused heart race. And by the end of his short month as your boyfriend, he anonymously writes down the feelings he wasn’t able to fully express on a paper.

┊ Yang Jeongin ɞ﹕₊˚

— trope: enemies to lovers ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

— pairing: enemy!jeongin x tutor!reader

A first-year at the school that is liked for his contagious smile and kind personality. Definitely not the brightest student, but his cute dimples and fox-like eyes were more than enough to win over everyone's heart. With you being an exception. The way he whispered insults in your ear with a bright smile, and tripped you over just to help you get back up with the most apologetic face in the whole world. You knew all about it, the true Yang Jeongin. How badly you wanted to give a huge smack to his face, it was unimaginable. And to make matters worse, your teacher assigned you to tutor Jeongin and help him raise his failing grades. Surprisingly, your afternoon with your enemy turned out to be not the worst, and instead a time you both began to look forward to. After the big misunderstanding and a few bickering, the fox-like boy slips in a letter in the broadcasting club. The letter claims it was for a joke, but you know what he meant is the exact opposite.

a/n: I’m so obsessed with the shoujo type of setting with skz idk if I’m ever going to finish this but I’m js writing down the plots bc theyr so cute <3

#skz #skz fic #stray kids #stray kids fluff #skz fluff #stray kids imagines #skz imagines #bangchan #lee know #lee minho #seo changbin #changbin #hwang hyunjin #hyunjin #han jisung #jisung #han #lee felix #felix #lee yongbok #kim seungmin #seungmin #yang jeongin #jeongin #i.n #skz chan #skz bangchan #skz lee know #skz changbin #skz hyunjin

[kyrakyrakitty]

this might come off as cruel or sadistic, but i don't want walpurgisnacht rising to have a perfect ending for madoka and homura. i dont want a doom and gloom ending, either - i think the best outcome of the film would be a bittersweet ending ♡

i dont wanna flood your dashes, so ill elaborate below the cut!! and in case you dont want to read, ill wish you a good day now ♡♡

first tho, pmmm is a story of hope, and it's given that to me and so many others for over a decade now. i think everyone is touched by it in a different way, and that's one of my favorite parts of this community!! but that's also to say, i know i don't speak for everyone here, and i love seeing posts about a happily-ever-after scenario for the holy quintet ♡ i love all of these characters immensely, and i definitely understand the desire to see them finally find peace, so i dont write this with any ill intent towards the characters or all of you in this community who just want to see them happy ♡ i know many of you have just as special a place in your heart for this series as i do, and i think thats incredible for so many reasons ♡

that said!

madoka's wish and homura's wish are inherently incompatible. they're mutually exclusive. madoka cannot sacrifice herself for the greater good without devastating homura, and homura cannot keep madoka safe without preventing her from fulfilling her dream of giving everything she has to others. there cannot be hope without despair, after all.

ive always loved the ending of the og series for being so bittersweet. it says "life can be painful, but there's always reason to hope", and "you are never alone", but it doesn't promise a perfect outcome. life will hurt, and you can do everything in your power to change it, but just as you can always find hope for a better tomorrow, you can never erase all of the pain from the world. i think a happily-ever-after ending would muddle that message, and i don't think its possible for madoka and homura to live happily together - at least not as they are now.

if madoka and homura were to end up together at the end, they'd both have to undergo major character development. madoka would have to realize that as hard as she tries, she can't save everyone, and sometimes the pain you'll cause by sacrificing yourself will outweigh whatever hope you might instill. homura would have to come to terms with the fact that she cannot spare madoka from every source of pain without, herself, hurting madoka.

the happiest ending i could forsee (for madohomu, at least) would involve both of them undergoing a major event to come to their respective conclusions and move forward together with that trauma and an earnest desire to reach an equilibrium. i think the most effective way to accomplish this would be a major character death - probably mami and/or sayaka (and if both, may as well throw in kyoko and nagisa for extra angst! :) ♡) - that occurs specifically because madoka has overused her magic to help others and no longer has any to give to save her friend(s) without completely corrupting her soul gem, and similarly because homura could not prevent madoka from witnessing the death(s) of those she cherished and experiencing that grief and pain.

alternately, the two could cease to exist together. perhaps the "homura is walpurgisnacht" theory is true (i think there's a solid chance) and in order to save the world, madoka has to use all her strength to kill her and the two of them go down together kyosaya style.

another fun ending (albeit not one where the two are together) is a variation of madoka killing homura as walpurgisnacht - what if madoka had to kill homura before she becomes walpurgisnacht, in a direct parallel to homura shooting madoka's soul gem to prevent her from becoming a witch? oh how the turn tables,,,,

ooh! or what if both homura and madoka have to disappear together, but ai (clara doll #15, and our mystery magical girl if that theory holds (which i also think is likely)) lives on as a remnant of the love they shared?? then we could get a manga afterwards thats just a lil story about ai's life as a magical girl too!!

i think i forgot the thesis of this post towards the end there, but thank you for reading!! id love to hear any thoughts you have!! ♡♡ may you always find reason to smile ♡♡

#madoka #pmmm #pmmm4 #pmmm walpurgisnacht no kaiten #walpurgisnacht rising #i found this in my drafts #just some rambles about madohomu #im sorry for the run-on sentence i promise i know grammar; i just dont like to use it sometimes LOL #madoka my absolute beloved #mine

[whiskeyswifty]

yo whiskeyswifty.........how do you feel about the torture department (still can't remember the entire title), in terms of her releasing a new album, new material, so soon after midnights? because i have some thoughts i'd like to share and i think you might agree so i'm asking you first

torture department is apt hahaha! hmmm i gotta say, my knee jerk reaction was not all that different from everybody in the room at the grammys, which was a feeling of exhaustion with a dash of resentment. upon seeing the artwork and the tracklist though i'm intrigued! and thrilled to leave midnights behind. hopeful is the word i guess.

and in terms of timeline i guess it's twofold. one being that this is the first time in recent history (since lover i think?) that she's taken her typical album cycle gestation period of 2 years to work on an album. it's no secret i'm a huge fan of editing, sitting with something, coming back to something, letting things marinate and emerge over time creatively. and also that big thing of like, ya know, having time to live a life worth writing about. and her "put it out as soon as it's 'done'" methodology is NOT it. imo, folklore only worked because she really only made half of that herself from scratch, working mainly on lyrics as Aaron sent her like 98% completed instrumentals to write to for half the album, the rest she made her standard way with jack doing both lyrics and melody herself. so of course it could come together more quickly and of course it was lyrically brilliant since she was focusing more on lyrics for the majority of that project. and i think you can see the way midnights suffers in comparison because she tried to do the same thing but stretched her self too thin for the time period she gave herself (although she won't see it that way now that it has aoty but i simply cannot talk about that cuz it enrages me). she misunderstood what made folklore so great; not the fact that she wrote it in a short period of time but because she opened herself up to creative collaboration in a new way, was challenged creatively and put in particular constraints, both self imposed and circumstantial, and how that brought out a new side of her. it's because of those factors that folklore came together so quickly and turned out so brilliant, not the other way around. and while it may seem like it's quickly coming behind midnights, as we know, she wrote midnights in late 2021 cuz she said they wrote it while their partners were shooting Stars At Noon which shot in 2021. and so this album has been worked on from 2022 at the latest all the way up until now, which is 2 years and some change. i'm really excited by that promise of a return to form, methodologically anyway, and she's had a hell of a time since midnights and if she writes about herself, which it seems like she did, i'm excited to hear about it!

and two i think from a content churn perspective, i'm not thrilled with the general constant hype cycle. there seems to be no downtime with the re-records always in the mix. and i know that's mainly the part that is killing me. one of the most important things for me is having downtime. let me miss you, let me get bored of the last album or content you gave me. let me want you. so when you do announce another album, i'll be excited! right now, i'm just exhausted. midnights was a year and some change ago. we've had two tv's since. reputation tv hangs ominously over us like a threat at all times. and now NEW music? it's just too much. i get that she's doing whatever she wants because it makes her happy, and i'm happy she's happy. but as a consumer, now I'M the one stretched too thin.

tldr/ i guess i'm numb to the content machine at this point, so that's a wash. but it's a net positive right now knowing how long she's been sitting on this one and working on this one, and how hopeful i am that she'll return somewhat to singer/songwriter a bit as per the aesthetic. although midnights was a total fake out visually -> sonically so who the fuck knows. i get exhausted thinking about it, which i think tells you all you need to know lol.

happy to hear your thoughts and whether you agree or disagree!

[96rh]

hey folksss!! im ser n im super hyped to get to know everyone + also bring ryu han to the dash. i have a skeleton of a profile here / an intro underneath w some quickfire plot ideas but otherwise feel free to like this and i'll hit u up to plot, or alternatively feel free to dm me first :^)

ryu han, 27, 2nd year masters' student in criminal law currently living in yellow hall with the power of necromancy, commitee member of together for daehan

only son of the ryu family, a pretty big name in the corporation world (idk what they do exactly but they'own a conglomerate so we can start there)

his family is also notorious for being in a lot of shady dealings though, of course, a paper trail is rarely left so there's never quite enough evidence to accuse them of anything

shoved into the law division of the company where his abilities manifested at 11 during a hit-and-run case (details withheld but it wasn't pretty)

linked his app above regarding his powers but tldr (tldr in a tldr ik its outrageous sorry) he can raise the undead momentarily and manipulate them

as the only one with an ability in his family his parents were super stoked until he left home when he was around 18 because he disagreed with his family's criminal actions and their moral alignments

kindaaa big news in the business world that followed with a lot of "wow he isn't like his parents maybe there's some hope left for them"

in reality, his leaving-the-family was basically orchestrated to get the public slash ryu family enemies on his side. he's still loyal to them in every way, receives money from them, is in contact with them etc but maintains a facade that he lives away on money he earned solely by himself

post-undergrad, started to intern (and still does) at a not-so-big-deal law firm (that pay for his residence, living cost etc but this is basically a paper law firm that's controlled by his family in the end. people just don't know)

takes part in a lot of cases that aren't really national news but are subtler parts of his family's plans ie the factory worker who saw something they shouldn't have getting into a truck accident, the disappearance of a secretary who questioned too much -- he "uses" his power to mitigate the fallouts of those deaths ie by telling the families he communicated with the undead, passing on last words etc but it's just all soppy stuff to get them off their trail

or he summons the undead so they can do the dirty work for him .. the feeling of blood on his hands is sort of physically and emotionally difficult to wash off

literally at university so he can make a bigger name for himself (hence his participation in student politics) and get deeper into the legal system for his parents @_@ can't really imagine a life without them nor is he willing to acknowledge how deeply evil his whole family is but he'll cross that bridge when gets to it

spoiler alert: he is never getting to that bridge

personality wise he kinda thrives off making people feel subtly uncomfortable. doesn't break eye contact when talking, makes off-handed comments that you only realise the biting undertones of five minutes after you leave the conversation, smiles a little too much and especially at the wrong times. not really likeable, not really dislikable, either

all this to say he seems like a walking paradox. you might know he renounced his family's evil ways and chose the life of a just, morally righteous lawyer -- but why does it seem like there's something inconsistently unsettling about him?

regarding how much guilt he feels about participating in his family's dirty dealings -- growing up going to church every sunday means there's a lot to grapple with in terms of religious guilt and whether he's doomed for hell but once again he will cross that bridge when he gets to it and he is never getting to it. it's much easier to pretend he doesn't feel bad and that evil is rooted in nature, not nurture.

quickfire plots include: someone who knew him before he "left" his family; someone who's understandably suspicious of him but can't seem to figure out why; alternatively someone who completely believes in his facade and thinks he's the absolute apostle of justice; ex-friends that fell apart; an ex-friend whose relationship deterotation between them hurt a pinch too much; fwbs; someone he has a soft spot for because they remind him of his younger sister (who's currently 15); someone who he leans on when he overexerts himself and ends up sick; someone who wants to use him to get to his family; someone who keeps seeing him with nosebleeds in the library and isn't sure how much more spare tissue they have left

#nm:intro #disc available on req too :^) #sry miss yap a lot has entered the chat

[bowserssupermariopartylaugh]

rambles about my messy af bowuigi yoshi's island au thing, at the "behest" of @maxium-defense-luigi i have more bits and bobs but tried to "summarize" the vague major points and failed 😭

Basically, it's yoshi's island's premise where kamek kidnaps baby luigi, but ends up taking him in as his ward. So now bowser and luigi grow up together and become each other's best friend.

But remember, kid mario and the yoshies are still looking for luigi. When they finally manage to defeat kamek, they take luigi with them, to "rescue" him. But, for the most part, what they've done is tear luigi away from the only family he's ever known.

And taken away Bowser's only friend.

From here, the story can somewhat fall in line with the movie premise. In that, the yoshies hide the human children away, sending them to a world where they better blend in. A world no one else seems to know of.

But kamek doesn't know that. He wages a war against the yoshies, razing their island in search of luigi. To no avail. He extends his search to other kingdoms, and Bowser grows up knowing only that luigi was taken from him—

—and that he /despises/ the boy in the red cap.

Moving forward in time to when bowser ascends to the throne, you can only imagine how someone like bowser only doubles the search efforts. He tears through kingdom to kingdom in search of luigi, and leaves destruction in his wake. He gains a reputation as a war monger, the world fears him, and he intends to keep it that way.

Until the day bowser's troops capture a human fumbling through the kingdom. Because bowser's hopes and dreams of a happy reunion with his invaluable friend are instantly dashed when luigi /doesn't remember him./ All Luigi seems to do is cower from bowser as if he were a dangerous beast, who won't let luigi go back home, and luigi /doesn't want to stay./

But bowser has gone his whole life looking for luigi, to have him by his side /always,/ and he won't let go without a fight.

Luigi seems real preoccupied with running back to some "Mario" guy, and lo and behold, bowser's scouts discover that the stubborn mushroom kingdom has also received a visitor.

A man in a /red cap./

The main timeline difference here is that in yoshis island, you rescue luigi relatively quickly. But in order for the au to work, the yoshies cant find and rescue luigi until he's been missing for like a few years. Oof.

Theres so many tropes i wanna cram into this thing likeee. I love to imagine that bowser has basically gastby'd luigi, ykno? Where luigi, like daisy, has almost become more of a concept than an actual person in bowser's head. And that luigi would just conveniently not care about bowser having terrorized numerous kingdoms for "luigi's" sake, and that he'd just /agree/ to stay with bowser forever and ever etc. even tho its completely unrealistic and frankly ridiculous

Ive made a short post about this before, where i wanted to explain that i would want to do these different phases of their lives as separate parts, so that I could focus on the different stages and their different tones without it seeming too disjointed for one story. Like i rly wanna dedicate a whole story just to kid bowuigi bc guh theyre so precious 😭

And clearly i want to cram beauty and the beast in there. I love the idea of bowser instantly crushing on now-adult luigi, but he can't make any progress bc bowser has also let himself degrade into the monster the world views him as.

Its also fun to consider this like, thing of how /kamek/ was the one who started this thing of marking the yoshies as mortal enemies of the koopas, moreso than any other kingdom or race. And so bowser grows up in a kingdom at war, and just kinda absorbs that mentality and those practices. It's kinda all he knows.

(It also just doesn't help that kid bowser was HELLA traumatized by having luigi kidnapped from his own home /right in front of him,/ as kamek hid them both together in a saferoom. Likewise, luigi is def fucked up from being kidnapped but whereas bowser explodes from all of his issues, luigi is a perfect embodiment of repressed/suppressed trauma. 🥲)

And remember, mario was basically raised a la tarzan by the yoshies (hell yeah feral jungle boy mario), and luigi is mario's brother. So now there's these two heavily feuding groups, and bowser goes and falls for someone he shouldn't associate with. Yes, it's romeo and juliet, dammit.

I have yet to watch howl's moving castle but (excuse me if im butchering your special interest 😭), i feel like this plot is also vaguely similar to that movie.

Its just fun. Like. Luigi's kidnapped as a baby by the bad guys, the good guys rescue him after like five years but it's basically kidnapping at this point, so whos in the right and whos in the wrong, etc

Ugh this is why i dont write this story lmao, im trying too hard 💀💀💀 this idea has clearly been rotting in my head too long and getting out of hand 😵‍💫

#my brainrot #bowuigi #au #yoshis island #smw2 #hcs #my wiritng #fic ideas

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2022 MOVIE OF THE WEEK #33

disenchanted. i......have been avoiding this review since literally months ago because just thinking about reviewing this movie makes me sad and tired. if you loved this movie, which i think some people must have because i’ve seen the occasional gifs from it on my dash, feel free to skip this. it’ll go behind a cut, because i suspect it’s gonna get long.

(spoiler alert: it got ridiculously long. how did i have five thousand words to say about this? and if anyone besides leander reads this i’ll be shocked but that’s fine cuz they were the one encouraging me to make it through this rant and if they hadn’t i definitely would have given up even trying a long time ago.)

and it is pretty much universally negative, because i could not have been more looking forward to this sequel featuring literally my favorite disney (noncanon but still mine) princess and it not only let me down (as sequels tbh do a lot so that’s not even surprising) but it sincerely broke my heart. 

in a ‘wow i’m being really overdramatic about a disney movie’ sort of way, but it’ll make more sense after i explain it, i promise. you had to be there, i think, to care as much as i do, and only @actuallylukedanes was, so it was also pretty convenient that i ended up watching this with them when they were gonna watch it with their partner and invited me to join. cuz they felt the same way i did about the sequel, which is how i knew i was not overreacting. 

it was also leander who advised me to start posting completed reviews of other 2022 movies since i was stuck on this one, even though i never posted them out of order before. (i ended up realizing in january that i totally forgot a movie from 2022, so it’s good i wasn’t as obsessed with perfect chronology anyway.)

the first warning sign i had with this movie was honestly its release. they had been talking about an enchanted sequel for so long that i had stopped hoping for one, and then when it was really happening they wouldn’t even put it in theaters!! i was so pissed off about that, because enchanted felt like a magical (pun intended) experience for me in 2007. 

it came out exactly on my birthday, when i turned 23, and @actuallylukedanes​ and i saw it in the theater to celebrate. we lived in utah then, and were happy rather than homeless, and we paid for the movie using a card that had a ‘reward’ system like a lottery where they told you they would at some random time choose a single purchase you made, and reimburse you for it. out of everything we paid for with that card, it was the tickets to enchanted that they made free.

and i couldn’t have been more excited to see enchanted back then, because it was a real live musical, and those have always been rarer than i wish they were, and the cast was ridiculously great. long before amy adams was making bigger movies, she had played tara’s cousin on buffy and a memorable one-episode character on charmed, and i had just always loved her an unreasonable amount like i had been waiting for her to be a movie star. plus i had discovered wicked in college and dove deep into other idina menzel musicals as well as every one of her solo albums (and singles that weren’t sold anywhere, which i downloaded illegally because that is called devotion) and was just generally obsessed with her for years. 

and then there was patrick dempsey, reliable dreamy star of grey’s anatomy (which i gave up on quickly but he was good in) and james marsden of the x-men trilogy i had watched a zillion times. (his character was not one i liked in that, but he was great as a comedic part of this.) i had grown up with susan sarandon and wasn’t used to her as a villain but she brought just the right level of Too Much, and her henchman was perfectly cast. they somehow managed to even make the child in the story not annoying, which can be really rare, especially when she has an actual role--but she’s great. 

the mix of animation and live-action was really fun, and when giselle’s dress goes from cartoon to sparkly 3d it was so swoony. truly like a disney fantasy sort of moment, they brought so much to life. and they did so even where it shouldn’t have worked! the basic plot of ‘two couples aren’t meant to be so they switch partners amongst themselves and then it’s perfect’ is not one i like in other movies, but here i’m just like, yeah absolutely, dance with patrick dempsey in your pretty dress, and let idina menzel go live in a fairy tale. 

but in addition to all of that, and the catchy, catchy music, what i really, truly loved about enchanted, and why it was one of my all time favorite movies to put on that i never got sick of (along with mamma mia and a few others, i really like musicals okay), is how much it turned out that i identified with giselle. how much she not only made sense to me, even as she was supposed to be this wide-eyed disney princess, but how she gave me language for things i was still figuring out, and i got so attached to that.

i was 23 years old. i had left home less than two years earlier, and i didn’t know i was autistic yet, let alone bipolar/anxious/adhd/disordered eating all knotted together. i hadn’t begun thinking about what it meant to be ‘developmentally disabled,’ and how unprepared that made me for adulthood, independence or being in a relationship. I had just leaped into all those things, and i wasn’t necessarily all that good at any of them. 

but there was giselle, singing her way through a world she didn’t understand how to navigate either, and it was okay because there was somebody who loved her for her exact weird self and a child who needed her. (substitute cats for child and you see where i’m coming from.) she was relentlessly optimistic but also cursed by forces outside her control, and she was full of creativity. 

my absolute favorite moment that giselle has in the whole movie, when it comes to why it was important to me, is when she experiences anger. at first she can’t even name it, and then there’s a kind of joy she finds in it, in having a new feeling...in having the FREEDOM to feel that difficult feeling, and not need things to be perfect all the time. until i saw that scene, i had never realized that my childhood had trained me to not be angry--before i was even conscious that had happened. and once i saw that scene, i started to wonder if maybe anger was something i was allowed to feel, after all. 

i think if you’re not me, or you didn’t know me at 21 (a fragile adorable unstable bby desperate to be rescued from my life), it might be hard to understand that, how i didn’t just love giselle for being giselle, but loved her for being the most me a character played by amy adams could be. 

up until i fell in love, and was loved in return (my only real wish thanks to moulin rouge), i collected tv and movie characters, made little lists of them, and they were always the ones i wanted to be like, ones i wanted to grow into. usually the snarky best friends, the deadpan wits, the ones who pined but never got the guy. (bby me didn’t think anything but ‘guy’ was an option.) i didn’t spend time claiming characters that were like me, that made me feel seen, until i was older. (i couldn’t, when i didn’t know who ‘me’ was.) so giselle felt like one of the first ones, with her autistic literalism and trust in humanity and her joy in everything. 

then flash forward fifteen years and they’re continuing the story. even more amazingly, they’ve brought back the whole central cast (minus the child actor, who i assumed they replaced because New Morgan sings and dances, but i didn’t look it up or anything). idina is much more famous now thanks to her frozen work and of course amy adams is amy freaking adams now, nominated but never oscared, but they both came back. the direct-to-streaming release worried me, but i saw a trailer and the movie looked way better than i kind of expected, so i was excited after all. and as mentioned above, i settled in to watch it with my family. 

^^^^and that is where this review left off, almost a year ago--because it was still so hard for me to wrap my brain and my heart around writing it. but at this point i’ve reviewed all the other movies i watched in 2022, AND i’ve watched almost 20 movies this year and reviewed most of them, and those reviews are just sitting in my drafts waiting for me to post them once i finish this. so here goes:

this movie was bad. obviously that’s a personal opinion or value judgement or whatever, but like...it was really, really bad. it bore no resemblance to the original and painfully reminded me how disney’s moviemaking these days is so soulless when it comes to trying to squeeze more money out of its existing IP. and i can handle fairy tale/princess modernizations that aren’t all that impressive (idina was in one of those as well, cinderella), but even those had parts that i liked or that were fun once i was grading on a curve for the whole movie. i can’t say the same for this one.

first of all, we’ve skipped time since the original, which makes sense, since everybody’s older. but nothing about the time progression makes sense, because offscreen fifteen years have passed, making amy adams 48 when this movie came out. giselle and robert have just had a newborn whose royal inheritance is what leads to the movie’s plot--at best, i guess we can assume amy was supposed to be playing giselle a lot younger than she, the actress, was. or maybe her andalasian genes make her immune to fertility averages? 

either way, though, that still doesn’t explain morgan. who in addition to becoming literally a different person (and i hope they only replaced her because the original actress opted out, because she was so great in the first movie i’d resent disney for dumping her just to make the new one sing and dance, or whatever other justifications they might have) is a teenager now. Original Morgan was nine years old in enchanted, or the actress was, anyway. if we assume they meant for Original Morgan to be only seven or eight as a character, that still doesn’t explain a now-high-schooler morgan in this movie. it has been literally twice as many years in real time as it would have to have been in this movie world for morgan to be this age! and unfortunately for the movie, it’s mainly about adults, who have aged the fifteen years you would expect. so that’s ridiculous.

but anyway. somehow, all the adults from enchanted look fifteen years older but morgan’s a teen, and her parents have had a shiny new baby. idina’s character moved with prince james marsden to his world, and literally everyone is depressed now except prince james marsden (and presumably the baby). giselle sees a billboard and decides that’s a plausible reason to uproot her whole family from the city she fell in love with and that the others were from even before meeting her...to move to the suburbs. 

at first, because of the impression i got from the trailer, i thought she would be moving to a perfect-seeming little enclave that was secretly evil, like a magical stepford or something, and that it would turn her evil and throw her family into peril. but the real plot is not that creative. it’s literally just the three of them moving to an ordinary suburb that (gasp!) doesn’t automatically fix their lives. instead, robert has a slog of a commute now, and in their own ways, giselle and morgan both struggle to fit in with their new local peers.

everything establishing this movie’s setup baffled me because it felt so random and flimsy, when the original was a beautiful sendup of classic disney tropes that managed to be subversive but still magical. i referred earlier to giselle deciding on a plausible reason, and i felt the same way about disney and this sequel: it felt like they decided this concept was a plausible reason to bring the cast back together, mix in a few new actors, and try to make money off the result (in this case by locking it inside their streaming service as though that would force new subscribers to disney+ instead of what i’m guessing actually happened, having less viewers for the movie than they would’ve gotten in theaters--cuz even i, the biggest fan of the original, wouldn’t have subscribed just to watch it).

but their ‘plausible’ setup is therefore that everybody’s feeling a bit meh in new york city. robert’s not excited about his job, morgan’s a sullen teenager, and giselle misses the days when everything felt magical and new and perfect. instead of recognizing that they have a freaking newborn, which i may not have experienced personally but have certainly heard is a difficult phase of life (especially the first time, for giselle), and that they simultaneously have a teenager, which anybody who’s ever been or met a teenager can tell you is a difficult phase of life for both the teen and their parents--heck, instead of just going to THERAPY when new york city is one of the few places it may still be easier to find access than everywhere else these days--they move to a random place where they know no one for truly no reason.

the movie wants us to believe that the reason is giselle seeing a billboard and believing its promise (or still being unusually literal?) but neither of those makes any sense because even if we had reason to believe that giselle hadn’t learned anything or grown in the last mysterious number of years and would truly treat a billboard like a promise rather than an advertisement (and i don’t think what we see of her in the sequel supports that idea) it’s still robert she’s married to now, and we know he’s always been someone who lovingly but firmly points that stuff out. 

morgan’s unhappy because she’s a teenager, she doesn’t actually want to move, and as much as robert loves giselle, i don’t believe at all that he would just let her have her fantasy of a fresh start without injecting reality into the situation--so i think the real explanation is that both robert and giselle, for their own reasons, are desperate enough to try it despite knowing it won’t be a magic fix. but then idina menzel and prince james marsden (i should remember their character names but i really don’t at the moment) pop into their new, still-unhappy-just-in-a-different-time-zone, lives and make everything even worse. way to go guys!

continuing the flimsy plot setups, they’re visiting to give a gift to the new baby, to basically proclaim how special she is and make morgan feel like she’s neither special nor giselle’s ‘real’ daughter. giselle is thrilled by the gift from her childhood home and her former prince remains as hilarious as ever (the acting in this movie is good, they’re just not given as much to work with; ‘campy humor’ was the only element they could successfully recreate for some reason). but nancy is clearly already Over It, the former new yorker not exactly as enchanted with prince james marsden as she used to be now that she has to live with his personality 24/7. 

you might expect this to be woven in with the central family’s ennui in some way, but you would be disappointed--that general intermittent eyerolly energy is never directly addressed and as far as we know by the end of the movie, she’s still with him. and i guess will remain so forever? because that’s the rule when you choose a fairy tale life?? even though giselle’s story was entirely about leaving fairy tales behind when they weren’t what she wanted???

maybe we’re supposed to read nancy’s reactions as like, lovable occasional annoyance at How Very Much her guy can be sometimes. but it didn’t come across that way to me; it seemed intentionally to mirror the dissatisfaction giselle and robert were struggling with. i could have been giving them too much credit there, i guess, in assuming deliberate parallels. 

but the real point is that the adults were unhappy in the city, and now, in the suburbs, they’re still not very happy. after the gift-givers go back to andalasia, giselle makes a wish using her baby’s magic present, wanting to make their family into a fairy tale...and she gets her wish. morgan goes from a strugglng teen to a cheerful girl again, running around singing and eventually having to be the savior of her family. robert goes from a commuting lawyer to a wannabe monster slayer, and giselle slowly transforms into an evil stepmother--while the women in town who’ve been snubbing her turn into an actual villain with henchwomen in tow.

from then on, it only gets more ridiculous. amy adams is an immensely talented actor, and like i said, i’ve loved her since she was on tv. but she is not doing her best work here, switching between normal giselle and evil stepmother giselle in response to a chiming clock in a way that reminded me of one of those over-the-top acts where a guy hypnotizes people and then can trigger them to be a chicken or something. it was just so over the top, and lacked any of the emotional depth the original movie brought to her character that made me care.

and poor robert, it was clear, they did not know what to do with. a convoluted exchange with prince james marsden before the wish created circumstances where he was carrying a sword around on his commute. that, i’m sure, was supposed to help make it seem like it made sense for him to become a giant fighter or whatever. but really, they had a sequel to make in which he had to be there because he was her happily ever after in the first one, except now robert isn’t a love interest anymore, there’s no drama between them--and the actor was never meant to be a major contributor to the musical part of these movies, so what’s the point of his story? to run around looking for monsters, totally separate, and mostly unnecessary, it turns out.

the fairy tale transformations mean that we go from watching giselle being sad and hurt in response to morgan’s attitude to morgan’s being mistreated by her now-evil stepmother--neither of which is fun. in giselle’s intermittent ‘good’ moments, she tries to encourage morgan to be free of her and get help, and eventually morgan does end up in andalasia with nancy (she’s also a cartoon at that point, i think). nancy helps her understand what might fix things, and the fact that it’s up to their teenage daughter (whose complaints the whole time have honestly seemed the most reasonable to me compared to her parents’ vague ennui) to save not just her own family but both worlds from doom...it doesn’t seem at all fair. but okay. 

the solution for making giselle good again involves morgan’s memories and singing and the idea that with the power of love it’ll all be fine, but what i remember most about it is that the scene is really just a vehicle for idina menzel to get her own song. which, duh--i was very disappointed that she didn’t sing in the original, and given the success of frozen, it would’ve been crazy for them not to showcase her more this time. 

but the song she’s given? it’s so bad. so very bad. the others i was watching this movie with spent a significant portion of the song time mocking it, and i couldn’t blame them. at a certain point, it just devolves into idina belting the words ‘love power’ over and over and over. you know how some words or phrases become completely meaningless if you say them too much? this definitely felt like that, like the big drama’s ‘solution’ was flimsy to begin with, and then they forced a song into it that wasn’t even a good song, and got idina to sing it. she’s so much better than that! it genuinely made me wonder if she has some kind of disney contract that left her stuck dealing with this.

somehow thanks to morgan, though, giselle does stop being evil by the end--i don’t remember exactly how that scene plays out so i doubt it matters too much--and ending the sort of wish curse she inflicted on everybody means they go back to living in a normal suburb. the woman who briefly became her villain nemesis apologizes in a ‘sometimes i’m a lot oops’ way, and giselle is just like ‘hey, me too, no big deal.’ 

and this brings me to my two biggest problems with the movie, outside of how much it felt like it was trying to destroy any love i still held for the original. 

this movie has no real villain. unlike the first one, where susan sarandon was camping it up in a delightfully appropriate way, and was defeated in the end...this movie falls into the same hole that so many New Disney Movies are determined to, for unknown reasons. we can’t have classic straight-up evil anymore; our heroes have to instead be facing antagonists that are less specific or even less corporeal. it’s family! who of course will no longer be in conflict by the end, and don’t actually need to be ‘defeated.’ or it’s emotions! and once they can be accepted rather than avoided then things will be okay again. 

i’m not saying that’s a bad thing, in general. i love encanto, and i thought turning red and inside out were great. but when you’re dealing with a now-franchise whose original style was to reference and gently mock and lovingly rework classic disney tropes...why would you toss that out completely and make a sequel that feels like the other movies disney makes now? why can’t people appreciate that beloved movies are beloved for a reason and you can’t just slap the ‘brand name’ on whatever you want and act like it’s just as good?

but yeah. this movie decided to have no villain by way of having two villains, both of whom were only temporarily villainous due to indirect magic and who became normal again once it stopped. they bear no real responsibility for being villains, because after all, they aren’t really. post-movie, it seems like they may even become friends! all’s well that ends well. 

which really annoyed me, lol, because it felt so incredibly pointless once i knew that was how it ended. our main character accidentally makes herself evil, makes somebody else evil, has to be saved from being evil while fighting the other evil, and the grand conclusion is that they just finish back where they started? how is that a story that moves forward, let alone a good story with some kind of point or even just a good-versus-evil win, fairy tale style? 

it’s like the main conflict of the movie is created by them having problems, but then the problems they were having...are solved because they’re no longer in conflict. which brings me to my second issue with the movie’s ending: apparently the ultimate lesson of this follow up to enchanted is that growing up means learning to settle, rather than believing in happily ever afters.

despite the cheerful singing at the end of the movie that tries to make us believe it’s just as great an ending as enchanted got, i was so underwhelmed and disappointed and tbh freaked out, that they reached that conclusion. the story we were given was giselle and robert and morgan are a family now just like they wanted but they’re all unhappy, so they move out of the city to seek happiness elsewhere. and it fixes nothing which instead spirals giselle into cursing the town but in the end everybody’s okay and there are no consequences and nobody’s mad at giselle cuz she didn’t mean to do it...so she and robert and morgan commit to trying even harder to be happy in their new suburban life.

and all i can wonder is, why is that the lesson? why is that the right place to end up? why couldn’t they go back to the city and figure out their problems there, since clearly suburbia wasn’t a fix on its own? there didn’t seem to be a real reason for requiring giselle, who loved the sparkly harsh city she landed in years ago, to become a suburban mom--or for uprooting morgan, or making robert become a ‘small town practice’ kind of guy. 

i guess what grates on me about it is that it has such a hallmark christmas movie vibe of just assuming their real happy ending would naturally be escaping the city, no matter how central it was to their original story and lives. whatever their deeper issues were that made them unhappy in the city, they haven’t addressed those by the end of the movie; they’ve just somewhat improved the issues that moving TO this new place piled on. 

therefore my logical brain goes, you were unhappy and tried to fix it by moving but that only made things worse. why wouldn’t you reverse the making-it-worse part by going back, and then continue trying to figure out how to fix it? i just don’t get it. and i may be kind of offended by it, because the giselle who i have always adored is a completely different person in this movie, and not because of some wish curse.

she’s older, and sad, and it’s like nothing about her life is fun anymore...and maybe there could’ve been a way to craft an interesting story out of that, though i don’t know what it would be off the top of my head. but we don’t get whatever that could’ve been. and we don’t get a sequel about our faves from enchanted having more hijinks and having a to fight a new tropey villain, in the style of the first one. what we get is a story about everybody from the first one not liking their lives and having to fight the fallout from that and then concluding that hey, at least the world didn’t end so they must be better off than they thought, time to make the best of it. it deeply depressed me.

and look--i’m not saying i demand happy endings always. i don’t even require happy endings mostly! but unless there is some requirement i’m not aware of that post-pandemic we are no longer allowed happy endings at all, this was not the movie world to bring back just to say ‘the best you can hope for is meh. good luck.’ giselle and everybody else deserved better.

i will say that there was one thing about this movie that i liked. exactly one thing, sadly, or at least only one i clearly remember. i was really excited about the casting before this came out, because i love jayma mays, and maya rudolph is reliably good always. once i actually saw the movie, i was bummed that jayma mays and the other henchwoman didn’t have roles worth including, but maya rudolph was as good as i expected. 

and since this movie was such a mess, she also just really stood out. she’s a ‘can do it all’ kind of performer, in a way that makes it look easy, and i feel like that’s the difference between amy adam’s background in a lot of dramatic roles and maya rudolph’s background in snl. they’re both super talented and both have range, but are a good fit for different things because of that. 

so there is one song in this movie and one performance (cuz it’s the performance of it that makes it good) that i genuinely enjoyed. it’s basically a face off between the two not-actually-villains, kind of like ‘anything you can do i can do better’ but sillier and maximum camp. it’s the only part where it felt like that was what the movie was deliberately aiming for, and both actresses are fully going for it while sometimes we’re watching them parallel on splitscreen...it was ridiculous but in an entertaining rather than cringe-inducing way. 

so that part is great, but also highlights even more what this movie could have been. if only they had let maya rudolph be a proper villain, the leader of a trio of new antagonists for our faves to face, that would’ve been potentially a great movie. she could have gone evil after getting her hands on the baby’s wand, then gone down fighting after the family consulted with their andalasian friends on how to deal with magically corrupted humans. the ending could have been more interesting with bigger stakes than ‘everyone survives and decides to play nice.’ 

heck, i could write that version of that movie! lol. but i won’t. because it would probably necessitate rewatching disenchanted and that is something i never ever want to do. that was a piece of my heart you fucked with, you jerks. and i’m gonna stay mad.

#disenchanted #rant #amy adams #idina menzel #patrick dempsey #james marsden #susan sarandon #actuallylukedanes #actually autistic #autistic #jayma mays #maya rudolph #negativity #enchanted #2022 motw #my formative years

[thedo0zyslider]

Explosions Across Lifetime - Chapter 32: A New Sheriff In Town - k Words

Fwhip finally gets to meet the Sheriff, and he's a much different than expected (and maybe a little handsome as well…)

A03

Playlist

It takes a few days and a bunch of more building and town expansion, but Fwhip does, eventually, get going towards the mesa. It’s a few days later than he would’ve liked, but goblins were always busy. They probably did most things a few days later normally, so this wasn’t any different. Just more annoying, because Fwhip was more excited about it than doing, like, all the paperwork he had to file before leaving the city yesterday. So much paperwork for all the new buildings, so much…..

It’s about another day or two’s walk to the mesa, not counting the search for the empire; which just happened to be in one of the biggest biomes around. Though hopefully there’s some indication of life, or Fwhip will be really out of luck. It’s not smart to wander the mesa aimlessly for days, and he alo really doesn’t want to.

He thankfully does find those signs of life he was hoping for, in the form of footprints still lingering in the sand. Which means they’re fresh, for the wind to not have blown them all away by now. It means people, and possibly a town, were closer than he thought. Fwhip flicks his tail in excitement, and starts to leave little markers in his wake. Little things like torches so that will be visible, even in the night. And some rocks, things not found in the aboveground of the mesa. So he has a clear path out of here, at least until the new empire can afford to put some roads up. And he won’t fault them if it takes too long, for the goblin personally knows how expensive several feet of road can be to put down, no matter the material you’re making it from. 

It does not take Fwhip long to find the town after he finds the footprints, only having to walk for about fifteen minutes more. He knows he’s the news empire when he spots houses, ones made of oak and spruce, sitting atop the clay and surrounded by several large cave openings. Beyond the houses is a large, circular dip in the ground, where Fwhip assumes more of the empire would be. That’s where he would build after all, if this was his biome to own.

The goblin hums, and enters the town slowly and respectfully. He doesn’t want to come off as an intruder as he walks through these houses. Though that doesn't seem hard to do, as most of the town’s residents either seem to be inside or off working somewhere. He isn’t even sure anyone notices him at all for the first few minutes of walking.

After a few minutes of walking around town, and waving to the few people he did see outside (all cow hybrids for the most part, the goblin noted,) Fwhip was directed to where the town's emperor would most likely be residing at this time. He gives a quick thank you to the citizen who told him that, a kind looking woman with a round face, and hurried in the direction she pointed towards.

She says their leader is called the Sheriff, and that he lives down in the fishbowl. Really big building right against one of the walls, so apparently you can’t miss it. So Fwhip, rightly assuming the large hole in the ground is the fishbowl, starts to slowly make his way down the side of it; on one of the makeshift paths he sees carved into the wall. It seems they haven’t finished terraforming this area quite yet.

Fwhip spots the house the woman was talking about rather quickly, the building standing out just like she said it would. He thanks her in his head again for the directions, and quickly dashes across the empty fishbowl area. This part of the empire is again, rather empty, and also very big. He feels less awkward moving hastily down here than he did when more people would watch him. And also somewhat justified by the rather large distance between the wall and his next destination.

He approaches the Sheriff’s house, as the woman from before had called it, slowing his pace as he sees a figure outside. The person is rather tall, with cow ears and a tail just like most of the people here. His blond hair is covered by a cowboy’s hat, something that also seems to be a normal sight in this town. Which stands out quite a lot to the goblin. It’s not everyday you see cow hybrids of cowboys, much less the two of those things together.

The new ruler in the east is…a cowboy. In an old western town. Which shouldn't surprise Fwhip as much as it does, considering the…. everything about the mesa, really. It's not something he’d usually be expecting, but he’d have to get used to it he supposed.

The other seems to be moving some stuff, personal belongings he presumes, inside from somewhere else. Maybe another place he had stayed out before, one further out and closer to his people. They did seem to be newly setting up this area, after all. The man’s ear flicks as Fwhip approaches further, probably hearing the crunch of his boots against the sandy floor below. He turns his head, and sees the goblin leader’s cautious approach. Fwhip makes a friendly face once he’s spotted, hoping he isn’t stepping out of line hy visiting. He has no idea what this guy’s really like, after all. For all the goblin knows, he could be a huge douchebag. 

The new emperor returns the welcoming yet cautious smile when their eyes meet, and Fwhip thinks he might’ve just met the living embodiment of the sun itself. His smile is warm, even despite the understandable wariness hiding under them. The hair hidden under his hair looks well taken care of and windswept, and just generally really nice. His eyes are wide and blue, and just looks…. soft. His whole face is defined, yet also soft looking at the same time. Fwhip feels like it’s the cow in him that contributes to the latter. Not that he’s complaining.

Fwhip is honestly a little mesmerized as he finishes approaching the other, and also trying to keep himself from staring. Even if that was harder when they were closer, the goblin now being able to see the man’s features more clearly. (Or maybe he was just weak for stupidly pretty men. That was always an option) 

The man was… dashing , he had to admit. Ruggedly handsome in every sense of the phrase. Clearly had some nice muscles hidden under that vest. But Fwhip should learn his name at least, maybe get to know him first, before wondering what the new ruler looks like shirtless. 

“Hello there!” The cow man smiles softly at him. His voice has a decently heavy southern accent to it, one that seems to just fit him. Even if some of it sounds (and probably is) slightly faked for appearances in the moment. He has to wonder what his real voice sounds like under it all. “What brings you here?”

“I heard some talk of a new empire in the east, and wanted to drop by for a visit!” Fwhip says, feeling his face mirror the others' expressions just a bit. His tail moves idly behind him, kicking up some sand and throwing small grains of it from side to side. The new emperor watches it curiously for a second, before speaking once again.

“Oh! Are you one of the other emperors!?” The blonde says, his eyes lighting up in recognition. Which made sense, because he’d probably heard about all the other civilizations around here. The newer ones that were just being made, and a bunch of the older ones. The goblin wondered how much the man had been told about his own home down in the caves.

“Yep! King Fwhip of the Goblands! Pleased to make your acquaintance!” Fwhip smiled his widest, probably very toothy grin, reaching out a friendly hand. The other man takes it enthusiastically, giving a really strong handshake in return. (So he does have muscles under that vest after all…)

“Jimmy, Sheriff of Tumble Town at your service!” The blonde tips his hat as he speaks, and Fwhip cannot help but smile, finding the action quite endearing. He likes this guy a lot already, really likes him! He also cannot help but repeat the name over and over again in his head, making sure he never forgets it. It's a name he wouldn’t want to forget, not ever for any reason.

“I like what you’ve done with the place so far!” He compliments, taking a glance around the fishbowl. It;s not as decorated or filled out as the upper parts of the empire, but it still looks nice. He’d clearly taken some time, the redsand that was originally here obviously having been replaced with the normal stuff they were currently standing on. “Really!?” Jimmy sounds a little surprised at the complement, like he doesn't get them much. Or he’s just very humble. Fwhip files both of those possibilities away in his mind for later. “Yep! It’s not often you see an old western town anymore!” He flashes another smile, one that's earnest and probably still a little toothy. Jimmy seems wholly unbothered by the last thing anyways, to Fwhip’s joy. Most non goblins think all the gobliny things about him are weird. Jimmy rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, giving more credit to Fwhip’s theory of him being humble. “Well, I’ve done the best I could, I’m not much of a builder.”

“I beg to differ!” Fwhip protested, his smile falling a bit at the words. The building he’d seen here, including the Sheriff’s house, looked fantastic! There were a few rough edges here and there, as most builds could have, but for the most part this place looked amazing! Jimmy and his people were very skilled builders, and the goblin would hear nothing different!

“You flatter me.” The Sheriff laughs, a light shade of pink starting to dust his cheeks. Deep down, the goblin feels a little proud he was able to get such a reaction. And it was only they’re first meeting as well!

“I did notice that you’re lacking roads,” Fwhip noted, the whole interaction making him feel warm and welcome. So much so that the goblin felt confident enough to do some small self advertising. “My empire sells stone, if you’re ever in need of some for that!”

“Oh, thank you!” Jimmy says, clearly getting a little excited, either about the rocks or visiting Godland. Fwhip isn’t sure, but both of those are good options! Gobland and rocks are both two very exciting things! “I’ll have to drop by and grab some soon!” “Of course!” Fwhip’s tail curled up in delight behind him. Jimmy once again took notice of its movement, and smiled. They were both doing that a lot during this conversation, smiling and grinning. That had to be a good sign indeed.

“We should probably build a road between our two empires, if we’re gonna be trading like that.” Jimmy notes, momentarily stroking his chin. It is then that Fwhip notices that he has a slight amount of blonde stubble lining his lower face. Facial hair really suits him, huh…

“O-oh yeah, we should!” Fwhip finds himself stammering, pleased yet thrown off by the suggestion. (And the beard stubble still) It’s exactly something he would think to do, but you know, great minds think alike and whatnot.“You’re very eager to make alliances already, dear Sheriff.”

“Well I dont wanna start out on bad terms with anyone.” Jimmy explained. His accent had become less fake while they spoke, the heavy southern twang starting to leave it. It became more like his real voice by the minute. Fwhip thinks he likes it a lot more than whatever cowboy front he puts on normally. “And I figure you’re a good ally to have!”

“Why thanks, Sheriff!” The goblin feels his own cheeks flush a little at the compliment, and holds back a small amused sound and Jimmy’s enthusiasm. He’s glad his first impressions have apparently been so good so far. A moment later Jimmy asked a question, his tone sounding more serious than it had before. And it is the first of many times Fwhip will hear this question be asked over their time knowing each other. And everytime it is, the asksers tone will get even more serious (and maybe a bit broken as well, but that is a story for later.) “You respect the law, though, right?” “Of course! Goblins love the law!” Fwhip says, a little curious. He’s honest when he says it, well, as honest as a goblin can be, but he still has to wonder about the seriousness in his new friend's tone. (And yes, they’re friends already, even if they’ve only known each other for like, twenty minutes.) 

“Good, good! Just had to make sure!” Jimmy said with yet another smile, the striking seriousness leaving his tone as soon as it had entered it. “As the Sheriff, protecting the law is very important to me!” “It’s good that we have someone doing that then!” Fwhip responded. That must’ve been it then, a strong sense of duty to his job. Nothing more and nothing less. He rather liked that in a man, in fact! A good sense of duty was a great trait to have in goblin society!

“Would you like a tour of Tumble Town, by the way? SInce you’re already here and all.” Jimmy offers, quickly shoving whatever he had been moving before in his house, so he could deal with it at a later time. The goblin tries not to stare at his muscles as he moves a whole, and presumably full chest, inside his front door. (...Dear lord this guy could break him in half….)

“Oooh that would be lovely! And we could discuss road placements as well?” He suggests waiting a quick moment for the Sheriff to finish up his small chore. It is becoming very hard to not stare at his muscles, or just him in general. Fwhip hopes it is just the heat getting to his head, since he’s not used to it.

“Yes! Great idea!” Jimmy says, excitedly walking off his front porch and into the sand below. “Let’s get going with this tour, partner!” He adds, with a tip of his hat, and Fwhip cannot help but laugh loudly as he follows the cow hybrid further into his empire.

They spend the next few hours walking around Tumble Town, and a little bit of the mesa surrounding it as well. Fwhip listens very intently as Jimmy shows him the whole empire so far, all the houses and stores and the mines. He makes sure the blonde knows he is interested and listening at all times. He listens as they walk for what has to be three hours straight, getting a tour of the fishbowl and discussing where future roads could be in and around Tumble Town, even if that mostly depends on where buildings end up being placed. 

During the whole tour the two of them find themselves always close physically, bumping into each other so often they stop apologizing for it. It just becomes another part of the tour. Another thing that makes him feel welcome in this town, and safe around the Sheriff. Which is good, considering that's what a Sheriff is supposed to do anyways. 

The tour ends around sunset, and he’s pretty sure this guy’s gonna be one of his good problems.

“Thank you for the tour, Sheriff!” Fwhip says, now standing on the outskirts of Tumble Town again, from the same way he entered from. His torches and other markers from earlier were still there, so he wasn’t too worried about finding his way back home, even if half his journey would be made in the dark. It’s a good thing goblins had night vision then. “I’ll have to give you one of Gobland when you come down!”

“No problem!” Jimmy tips his hat again, something he knows makes Fwhip giggle by now. He sounds a little excited when he speaks next, which just makes the goblin more excited. Which in turn makes him feel like a small little dog full of energy. “And I’m looking forward to that tour!”

“I promise you’ll get it! Goblins honor!” He gives a salute, mirroring his hand movement with his tail best he can, for a double salute of sorts. Jimmy makes an amused snort at his theatrics. “I’ll be seeing you around I presume?”

“Yep!” Jimmy confirms, sounding like he’s already making plans five weeks in advance. And Fwhip is doing so as well, to be honest. “Hopefully we can meet again soon!” “Oh I’ll make sure we do!” He promises, ears flicking as he speaks. Jimmy watches that movement too, seeming very fascinated by all his movements. Even though as a cow, he should do similar things with his own ears and tail. “Us goblins are very persistent when we want something!”

“I'll hold you to it!” Jimmy says, starting to wave as the goblin retreats. He would love to stay longer, but darkness is falling fast. He wants to get home before a lot of mobs start to spawn. He was not in the mood to deal with skeletons, not tonight. Not after the great, amazing day he’d just experienced. “Goodbye, Fwhip!”

“Bye-bye, see you later!” Fwhip called over his shoulder, parting with a wide grin on his face, and excitement for the next time they would see each other as he followed his touches and whatnot out of the orange and red biome for the first time.

Out of all the emperors, new and old, Fwhip was going to make sure to keep this one close. No matter what it took.

He didn’t let the things, or the people, that he liked go easily. Especially not ones like the Sheriff.

#explosions acorss lifetimes #ron.fic #jimmy solidarity #ron.writing #empires smp #fwhimmy #fwhip #empiresshipping #empires shipping #the sheriff #goblin fwhip

[talenlee]

Player Characters Of the Szudetken

Oh yeah, I talked about the Szudetken, right? That peninsula that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and is full of these awful horror-inspired daylight-horror Christian ideas, with a dash of Bloodborne and The Locked Tomb for players to work with. But how do players interact with them? Especially with no mechanical information?

Well, that’s what this lengthy mechanical article is about. Yes, two thousand words of just ‘different perspectives on living in these cursed places.’ It’s not going to have a dramatic conclusion, it’s just character options. Note that these aren’t the backgrounds you get in the Szudetken. You can be an Artisan or a Merchant or a Military background character from all across the Szudetken: those backgrounds still show up just fine. These backgrounds just represent some of the more prominent experiences unique to these specific parts of the Szudetken.

Also, these backgrounds are presented as a way to try and give you, the player, a vision of what life is like when you have this background. Things that are familiar to you and normal to you, and what big, prominent things that are normal to other people aren’t necessarily normal to you.

Where a Background says ‘Associated Skills,’ that means you can choose for those skills to either be added to your class skill list, or you can have a constant +2 bonus to those skills. When it lists a ‘benefit,’ that’s something else.

And now, on with tools for making a Szudetken character, which may be of use to you if you’re just… grabbing these cultures and dumping them into your world!

Osteon Backgrounds

You grew up in the Osteon. You’re familiar with centralised cities, connected across landlocked countryside with a train system. You live with industrialised benefits, and a class system that hasn’t got a lot of upwards social mobility. If you ever broke a bone, it was healed in the same day by experts, and when you lost your teeth as a child, your parents probably sold them. Instead of coal, oil, or captured lightning, though, the industrialised cities you lived in were defined by skeletons. Prosthetics, engines, transport and weapons of war – skeletons were involved somehow.

Bonecrafter Family: Your family are somehow connected to the necromancers of the Osteon society. You probably insist on them being necropaths or mortirian, and you have very clear opinions on what the difference is. You might have been a business that acquired bones, or cleaned or sorted them, or recovered bones from other skeleton systems in a process of optimisation and refinement.

Associated Skills: Religion, Heal

Capital Camper: You grew up or learned your trade in the vast camp around The King’s Lattice. Rather than growing up in a city, you grew up in a tent camp around an enormous city, and knew that everything around you was temporary. Any day now, you’d be allowed into the city, which is what everyone hoped for, at least those who didn’t give up and quit. Time to time bone constructs would emerge over the city walls and drive off some of the tents, or kidnap some people, and sometimes missions would be delivered out of the city to the camps by skeletal messenger birds. Despite living in a country with a central industrialised system, you basically lived in a tent city, surrounded by people trying to interpret strange and cryptic changes in the walls of a city.

Associated Skills: Endurance, Nature

Crucesbough Backgrounds

You’re from Crucesbough. You’re used to assuming it rains. Sunny days happen, you know, since farms grow food and laundry dries eventually, but even the sunshine is dull and grey and grimy. Every colour you’re used to is muted, hillsides of grey-green with purple-grey lavendar and grey-white heather. Almost everything you’re used to somehow orients around blood — sellers will boast how their food is good for the blood, travellers will store magical spells in blood and carry them from town to town, and people recommend treatments to improve up your blood. One of the hallmarks of a Crucesbough native is the phrase ‘something up the blood,’ like angry up the blood, hurry up the blood, sing up the blood, where ‘up the blood’ is used to invoke the idea of a person’s inner self, a true opinion or something deeply felt.

Empty Churchguard: Cathedrals and churches in Crucesbough are empty buildings. Nobody goes into them. It’s actually seen as a sin or crime to go into a church, and so most churches are patrolled by people who keep near the churches to make sure the empty space is kept inviolate.

Associated Skills: Religion, Streetwise

Blood Courier: You’ve done work travelling between the cities of Crucesbough and wandering the unguarded highways. You’ve probably dealt with nasty cults and woodland druids, blood thieves and ne’er-do-wells, and the things that teem to attack the veins of your nation. The heavy mask, the rain slicker coat, the boots, the scarf – the whole aesthetic, you are skilled in the transport of magically enchanted blood. You know not to look in a box. You’re probably really patient and can handle losing a lot, though you might be haunted with memories of dying over and over on your journey and somehow not being dead.

Associated Skills: Nature, Dungeoneering

Terzocco Backgrounds

You’re from the glorious kingdom of Terzocco. You’re familiar with a life with a healthy, bustling economy. You know people who have jobs, unemployment is probably limited to a few people in any given village, and the royal family’s affairs are excitingly always on your mind. The world is colourful, with beautiful, brightly coloured plants and fruits in parks dedicated to the crown. Every place you’ve ever lived has had an interesting puzzle just waiting to be solved nearby, whether it’s an old cairn that druids set up, or maybe a particularly hazardous type of local bear, cursed by an ancient fungus. You are used to living your life in a small, fairly insular experience where you rarely travel from where you are, and facilitate the experiences of a few rare travellers who enter your town to help with problems. These problems are very rarely fixed, even though every time, the people helped. You are a quest NPC in a brightly coloured MMORPG run by the royal family to keep themselves entertained.

Curtain-Twitcher: You’ve seen the truth of it. Whether you did the math on the economy and worked out it doesn’t make sense, or you tried to solve your town’s problem on your own only to learn it resets itself, or maybe you just saw a moment where one of those questing nobles changed into a different person because they were bored. You know what reality is now and you know that a large portion of your whole country is made out of dreamstuff the Terzocco Nobility have set up just as the boundaries of a playground. You know that they don’t think of you as a person and you know, you know, that they have absolutely replaced some people who they thought were interesting, so they could ‘play’ those people’s lives.

Benefit: Your paranoia has benefits. You get a +1 bonus to initiative. Once per day, if you roll an initiative and don’t like it, you can reroll it, but you must take the second result.

Lost One: You know the truth of it. You were a Terzocco Nobility, one of the Fair Folk from another realm projecting yourself immaterially into the bodies of these puppets in Terzocco. But somewhere along the way, either for moral or narrative or traumatic reasons, you can’t go back any more, and now you’re bound on this plane trying to make life as an actual creature with actual needs and an actual life work. You are a fair folk stuck in the body of an actual person and finding that you can’t stop being real, even if you used to be able to.

Benefit: You can’t die while you’re asleep. If someone coup de graces you in your sleep, your body just persists, not decaying. When your normal sleep time runs out, you wake up, with your body intact and on one hit point. This is because your body doesn’t know how to die on its own, even if you do understand it. Your starting hit point total is increased by 2.

Bernean Lodge Backgrounds

You’re from the apocalyptic Bernean Lodges. You know power flows from a compound built out of tempered wood. There are villages outside the compounds, but they don’t have the horses, they don’t have the steel, they don’t have the priests and they don’t have the knowledge of the future. You may have never seen a building more than two storeys tall, and even signal towers only reach a little higher than that. The forests are dark but rolling hills and wide valleys are dangerous too. You probably assume the world is ending, because you were told that most of your life. You also don’t look up at people on horseback, out of habit. That’s a good way to get hit.

Curst or Heretic: As a Curst, at some point in your childhood, you did something wrong. You might have expressed a heretical thought or asked a question that upset a Cathar. You might have weird hair or wrong coloured eyes. You got kicked out and forced to survive outside of the community. Food was left outside the walls for you to gather if you were too far from a convenient village to offload you.

If you were a Heretic, you chose to do something and get outcast from the community. If you were around, the food left for the Curst would probably have dried up – they don’t want heretics, who chose to be evil, stealing things left for the Curst, who had no choice.

Associated Skills: Religion, Nature

Voolfardisworth Backgrounds

If you grew up in Voolfardisworth, you know it’s pronounced ‘Vulzy.’ You probably grew up in a small population centre, maybe a small city at the biggest. You know that travel should always be done to places during the day, and never at night. You’re used to the storms that rack the sky. You know that the countryside is dotted with old castles or abandoned mansions, near towns that are otherwise trying to get by. You’ve heard rumours about vampires that drain your years away.

Ah, You Must Be The Hunter: You’re from a heroic family of vampire hunters, or possibly hunters of the general supernatural. There’s a legacy behind you, a skillset that suggests that you were being prepared to be good at fighting the forces of darkness from the cradle. You probably aren’t going to take too kindly to finding out that your family’s progress was being managed and fostered by another vampire that was trying to create a good weapon to direct at other vampires, though.

Benefit: Choose a simple or military weapon. You gain proficiency in it if you didn’t already have it, and you have a +1 to initiative while you’re wielding that kind of weapon. Add Religion to your class skills, and if it already was, you get +2 to Religion checks.

Night Survivor: The powers that drive Voolfardisworth are in a non-stop cold war against each other, and sometimes they can be locked into inaction by the right coincidence of effects. You at some point, had a brush with the night creatures and then somehow got away from it, surviving and escaping, either through wits or political maneuvering. Either way, you know things about your limits most people don’t.

Associated Skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering

Seibelmarsh Backgrounds

You grew up, or moved to, Seibelmarsh, a country that snakes along the cold, northern coasts of the Szudetken peninsula. Heading further into the country involved long passes up and over hazardous mountains, and dark nasty forests, you’re used to all the new things in your life coming by boat. You probably see the most outsiders of anyone from the Szudetken. If you’re well off, you probably ate a lot of fishy food, mushrooms and kelp products, flavoured with imported spices. If you’re poor, you probably ate most of the same things, without any spices. You may think of your people as intellectual, since every fishing village seems to have its own special secret and practice, and the University of Seibelmarsh is one of the largest in the world (you understand).

University Adjacent: It isn’t to say that you’re necessarily one of the famously doomed researchers at the Seibelmarsh university. It’s a big institution, and there are a lot of people involved there. But whether you were emptying the bins, protecting the staff, or preparing the food, you still picked up the way that university style magic is done, and can pick it up more readily than someone without exposure.

Benefit: You can substitute Arcana checks for any other skill checks for performing rituals, and you get a +2 bonus to Arcana checks for rituals.

Fouled Blood: Oh, you don’t think of it this way, but people outside your village do. Your village had a pact, perhaps, or maybe just your family, with something that wasn’t like the rest of Seibelmarsh, and it shows in your body and your mind. Maybe you’re a little bit fishy-person, a little bit demon-y. Either way, you know things deeper than people know them.

Benefit: Whenever you make a monster knowledge check, you can reroll the check, but you must use the second result even if it’s worse than the first.

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