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mysaldate · 2 years

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Why Vil’s overblot matters and why the fandom was wrong

With chapter 5 coming to twst en, there will inevitably be people who completely misrepresent what the overblot is about (again) and people who will call Vil shallow and undeserving of compassion (again). So let me try and explain why Vil’s overblot matters so much more than a lot of the fandom gives it credit for, what makes it different from the other overblots thus far, and why the start of chapter 6 was such a massively harmful gut-punch.

Obviously, there will be Twisted Wonderland spoilers up ahead. Not only for chapters 5 and 6 but for overblots in general as well as the Halloween event. I won’t talk much about Idia’s overblot, or anything beyond the start of chapter 6 though since that chapter is very uncomfortable for me to talk about. If you want sources for any of what I’ll be saying here, feel free to send me an ask or a dm. I will not be linking them here because Tumblr hides posts with links from the search.

Let’s start with the obvious fact we’ve known since chapter 1: Overblots happen as a result of overwhelmingly negative emotions and a build-up of magical residue known as blot. They are often rooted in deep childhood trauma and shattering of one’s deeply-rooted beliefs about the world or people around them. Riddle’s trauma itself doesn’t push him to overblot, it’s when he realizes Trey has been lying to him the whole time. Leona doesn’t overblot because his plan to get attention didn’t work but because Lilia openly mocks him for his efforts. Azul’s memories of being bullied don’t cause him to overblot until he believes the twins have abandoned him and won’t help him out anymore. Jamil doesn’t overblot because his plan didn’t work but because he believes his true intentions have been broadcasted to the world and while trying to protect himself, he doomed his family.

Vil doesn’t have this in the typical sense. The people in his surroundings are largely supportive of him, albeit very creepily so in some cases. Through-out the chapter, he even manages to get Epel’s support and the two of them come to see eye to eye in a very lovely set of scenes. All seems to be improving for Vil the further into the chapter we go. So why the sudden overblot? Why didn’t Vil lean on the support that he had and which had been his obvious edge over all the other overblotees? Vil’s world shattered as well, but it wasn’t because of the people around him. What truly shattered was Vil’s belief about himself.

Up until the last minute, even though Vil’s blot is gradually building up, he manages to keep things under the wraps extremely well. He’s calm, metodical, optimistic even. It’s only after the trial runs of their songs that he really starts to doubt himself and his group, and it’s for a good reason. Vil and the NRC group have slaved away at this performance for a fairly long time. They have their own original song written out, they came up with their own choreography, and they tried their very hardest to polish their dancing as much as they could. And it wasn’t enough. After the first trial, Vil saw some success. He was finally coming out on top for the first time in his life – only to have it immediately snatched away. By a nursery rhyme remix no less. And from the comments the other characters gave, that’s not even the worst part. The dwarves couldn’t dance. Instead, they kept bumping into each other on stage and weren’t in sync at all. By all objective means, the performance was largely inferior to that of the NRC group, and yet they easily overtook their standing in the eyes of the public.

But don’t get me wrong, it’s not this that pushed Vil over the egde. What ended up ruining everything wasn’t even the fact that Vil got caught trying to poison Neige – at least not in the way you would expect. Unlike the other overblotees, Vil never, not once, defended his actions. This, in itself, is very unique. It wasn’t Riddle abusing his dorm “for their own good,” or Leona trying to kill and injuring dozens of people because he “deserves to be the best,” or Azul stripping a bunch of people of their talents, abilities, or even selves because he “needed that power more,” or even Jamil hypnotizing Kalim for “the dorm’s good and for freedom.” The moment Vil was stopped from the momentum and realized what he was doing, he owned up to it immediately – and that, ironically, is what doomed him.

For those of you who didn’t read chapter 5 yet or don’t remember the whole backstory anymore, let me walk you through it before I go on. Vil’s father is a famous actor. We know nothing about his mother but given his father would usually take him with to movie sets and all over the world when he traveled, we can assume she was probably not around much. Vil’s father, Eric Venue, was, for all we know, a wonderful dad. He was always supportive of his son and made sure the time spent together was cheerful and happy. It was him who made Vil want to become an actor as well. And Vil started, like many children, with school plays... where he would quickly fall into a routine that would follow him into the professional industry as well.

Vil would always get cast as the villain. Be it the protagonist’s rival or a cruel bully, his characters would always be evil in one way or another, and never get redemption or their own happy ending. Dreary already but once Vil joined the industry, this became so much worse. During a shooting when he was still in elementary school, he overheard two of the movie staff talking about him. They did praise his appearance (and to those who say being called a “beautiful child” is predatory or SA, please shut up) but they immediately followed it up by calling him “too perfect” and stating that he would never play a protagonist because nobody could relate to him. He would never get his happy ending because he was not who the audience wanted to see succeed. And in a way, they were right. Even off-screen, Vil would get bullied for what happened in the movies and tv series he played in, because it was easier for people to believe he was just as much of a scumbag in real life as he was on tv. Vil called this out, clearly showing he had more brains in elementary school than the average Twitter user has in their early 20′s, but that doesn’t mean it never affected him.

In fact, the exact opposite is true. It affected Vil so much that as soon as he had the luxury of choosing his roles, he would vehemently refuse any villainous role he was offered, even when they were extremely lucrative offers. He even went off at his agent when she signed him up for one such role without consulting him first. Vil also changed his last name and while the officially stated reason was so that nobody could account his success to his father, it more than likely was also to put his past behind him. Because he was better than that, because he was not a monster, because he was not a villain.

Except once. During VDC (and I refuse to call it SDC because twst en versions of names are poor at best), Vil did become the villain for a moment. He let his own goals and desperate wishes get the better of him and was ready to seriously harm an innocent person to get his way. And yes, Neige is an innocent party in all of this because although his performance was poor and kind of pathetic when compared to Vil’s, it was not his fault that he was put on a pedestal. And Vil knows that too. So when he was snapped out of the moment and he realized what he was about to do, he crumbled.

Now let’s talk a bit about coping mechanisms and trauma responses. There’s no doubt that Vil is traumatized. Not in the same way as many of the other overblotees, and his trauma manifests differently as well, but overall, Vil didn’t overblot because of the trauma but because of his response to it. Vil lashed out against the trigger of his trauma, and acted in an objectively incorrect way. That isn’t unusual with many trauma victims. More often than not, victims of physical abuse begin to strike back at their abusers, victims of mental abuse have a hightened risk of becoming abusive themselves (not saying all of them do, put the pitchforks away, they just have a hightened risk of it), and so on and so forth. Vil’s response, though inappropriate, is still understandable. His response is human. All the more hurtful it is that he felt as though this response meant he was just as bad as all his evil roles painted him out to be. THAT was the real breaking point of Vil’s overblot. What shattered wasn’t his view of others, it was his view of himself.

Even with his overblot starting to set in, Vil’s first instinct was to plead with the people around to not look at him, to not watch as he becomes something ugly, something he never ever wanted to become. His pleads went ignored, and even purposely disregarded in one case and it only pushed him further in. This is just speculation, but I firmly believe Vil would’ve been able to pull himself together, did his wishes go followed and had people given him the time to calm down. Instead of, you know, going on and on about how what he did was so terrible and how you were there to see it and would purposely look as he turned into that ugly thing he absolutely hated. But that’s going off the topic a bit.

Personally, I have a lot of gripe with how the chapter ended. But it got even worse when chapter 6 tried to address this. At the start of chapter 6, the rest of the NRC group tries to confront Rook about his final vote. And full disclaimer, he is free to vote for whoever he wants, that is not the issue here at all. What IS the issue is Rook defending his vote by saying it was all Vil’s fault for not being beautiful enough, in regards to his overblot. It is Vil’s fault that he lashed out after years of continous trauma, and Rook is actually the good guy here for putting him in his place, never to be seen as a hero, never to be seen as someone deserving of praise, because of one trauma response that was less than desirable. There was no need to say that and yet, he did. Just like on numerous other occasions where he purposely puts Vil down for no reason. But that is material enough for another post like this. The take-away from chapter 5 and the start of chapter 6 somehow stopped being “when you break down, your friends will help you overcome it” but it instead became “if your trauma response is not morally unambigously correct, you do not deserve fair judgment” and that bothers me.

Chapter 6 then proceeds to completely skip any character development Vil went through and instead just hits us with “Yeah he’s fine and made peace with his share now” with no build-up so that’s not even worth talking about. But Vil’s overblot is a total stand-out among all the others and I wish more people actually paid attention to it rather than disregarding it as “first-world problems of a spoiled movie star” when there’s so much more to it than that.

I could go on for a while, talking about how dehumanizing Vil’s experience in the movie industry has been (not the world of child actors irl but just his personal experience) or how the society put Neige on a pedestal because he was born poor and how he’s always had support of his community unlike Vil, but we would be here for far too long if I did. So I leave you with this, I hope you enjoyed the read, and I’ll be back some other time with another long ranty brainrot analysis.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twsten #disney twst #disney twisted wonderland #vil schoenheit #twst vil #twst chapter 5 #the tyrant of beauty #twisted wonderland vil #twst analysis #twisted wondeland analysis #overblot #twst overblot #twisted wonderland overblot #some of the takes i've seen about Vil's ob are so wild #like have y'all read anything from his backstory at all?#i really can't with this fandom sometimes

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ryllen · 6 months

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nah, i think vil knows how handful they would be to be handled for group practice but i want to see him getting pissed off over wasted talented helps

#twisted wonderland #twst #jade leech #vil schoenheit #floyd leech #book 5 #a beautiful tyrant #fanart

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k-wame · 10 months

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NOAH SILVER & RAPHAEL ACLOQUE 2016 • TYRANT • S3·EP4

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rakiah · 2 years

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The Fairy Gala was quite enjoyable~

Even if that damn bastard cat didn’t come after 100 summons

#twisted wonderland #Fairy Gala #leona kingscholar #vil schoenheit #kalim al asim #jamil viper #ruggie bucchi #I do enjoy a beautiful tyrant~#crash them darling #esp Leona #I hate you so much Leona #you deserve that suffering

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singingcicadas · 6 months

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Your boss can be friends with you, but you can't be friends with your boss.

Perfect example of different expectations of different societal roles. Considering everyone a friend is the quality of a good leader, it demonstrates affinity and empathy to the people of which he leads, but at that level no one can ever consider him a friend back, at least not on an equal degree. There's no closeness, no real camaraderie. The position of Prime always takes precedence over any personal relationships. He is a Prime before he is his own person.

This is also the reason why I think Optimus can never go back to being Orion. Why an ending for Optimus as the retired common citizen is never an option. He's been exalted as a political/spiritual symbol for four million years, used to a position of power, it's not something he can simply renounce one day and expect people's perceptions to change. It's not even possible to change his own perceptions of himself, however much he might like to. You just can't erase four million years of ingrained mindset. He will be viewed as a threat to those in power and undermine their presence just by existing. People will flock to him regardless whether he wants it or not. On a personal level, he's never been the kind of peaceful obedient citizen who takes comfort in trying to live a normal life. Giving up being Prime means giving up control: he will never be content to pasture himself out and wait for other people to make decisions for him when the next crisis arises. He will never be content to have his words hold no weight when he speaks out against the next injustice.

Being Prime is not just a job, it's an identity. One that's defined by four million years of experience in a niche societal role with very specific expectations, of which he'd molded himself to fit. It's a lonely, crushing burden, associated with war and the old order and the question of whether one person should even have that kind of power - but for good or bad it's also a part of him. Taking that away would be truncation, not freedom.

#idw transformers #optimus prime #maccadam #transformers #I think it's as impossible for Optimus to go back to being Orion as Shockwave is to go back to being Senator Shockwave #Or as Megatron the tyrant is to going back to being the Megatron in Maccadam's #There's mindsets you can't undo #experiences you can't unlive #People like that in real life rarely retires peacefully of their own violation #Those that do eventually comes to regret it #Because relinquishing your power also means relinquishing agency over your own life #it's the kind of life that seems beautiful in theory but would be stifling in reality

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subsequentibis · 2 months

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Let me die, let me drown, lay my bones in the ground I will still come around when the time for sleep is through Over hill, over dale, through the valley and vale Do not weep, do not wail, I am coming home to you

flower meanings cheat sheet under the cut!

acanthus - art, immortality, rebirth alcea rosea - please remember me, epiphany, remembrance, nostalgia aloe - grief astragalus - your presence softens my pain bird'sfoot trefoil - revenge coltsfoot - justice shall be done cypress - death, mourning, despair, sorrow lime tree - fornication love lies bleeding - hopelessness marigold - pain and grief rainflower - i love you back, i must atone for my sins, i will never forget you scabius - unfortunate attachment, i have lost all

#ibis art #underbelly #lazarus bensi #sal cereza #lyrics from thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos #there was gonna be a sillyfunny followup drawing to this piece but i got too tired! maybe i'll add it on a next day reblog #having to basically rebuild my pc means i had to reinstall all my programs #which means i also finally updated medibang and found out there's a bunch of new brushes #that soft watercolor brush RULES for this kind of shading #it's a bit slapdash here i really should have dug in deeper but i like how it looks!#reverse sleeping beauty is the vibes i'm going for

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thomaslightwood · 2 years

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Y'ALL, WE HAVE THE COVER OF IRON WIDOW'S SEQUEL, HEAVENLY TYRANT

#I'M CRYING #I KNEW IT WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL #BUT THIS COVER IS EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE IRON WIDOW'S WHICH IS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT #iron widow #heavenly tyrant #xiran jay zhao #books #my post

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maddiesbookshelves · 2 years

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HEAVENLY TYRANT COVER REVEAL, I'M SCREAMING

This cover is absolutely breathtaking, I can't

The artist is the same as the first book, (@)_ashmackenzie on twitter, and here's the original tweet

#iron widow #heavenly tyrant #xiran jay zhao #nskfneifjeixkeidj #beautiful #booklr #books #book recs #book recommendations #cover reveal #book cover

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clicheantagonist · 15 days

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15 Lines Of Dialog

Thankies @aceghosts and @adelaidedrubman the tag! 😘

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well! (Y'all know I can't do that.)

Some of my favorite Alex lines:

“Is that why you hate him? ‘Cause he cockblocked you?” - Alex @ Wesker, joking about Chris in Little Tyrants

“What’s your name? Who’s your daddy? Is he rich like me?” - Alex playfully serenading Jake (yeah, Wesker's son Jake, that one) in AU: Something About Infinite Cycles (unposted as of right now) Yes, she knows.

“Listen. One does not say ‘no’ to getting to do a Scarface in the coke. When was I gonna have that opportunity again?” - Alex telling Kit about a very damning photo of herself Wesker keeps on his desk in their untitled fic (The Unholy Throuple Universe)

“Boy went to law school and still isn’t smarter than my drop-out, yee-haw ass." - Alex talking to herself (judging John's lack of foresight) during the Reaping in Drown Me And Call It A Baptism.

“Um…this is…exactly what it looks like.” - Alex's response to Wesker catching her sparking up a joint after-hours. In a Holiday companion oneshot to Little Tyrants that explains their first hook up (during the S.T.A.R.S. days) and the circumstances surrounding it.

“I’ve been making and breaking monsters for twenty years – what makes you so special?” - Alex being a [playful, I promise] smartass in response to a comment Butcher makes about being a monster, in my still Untitled The Boys AU (I'm having so much fun there. I get the hype. It's awesome.) “Aw, c’mon! Something got loose after they got my ass?!” - Hearing Wesker tearing through bodies at a black site she's been caught and detained in. I posted this as a WiP here.

“I’ll kill him. I better not ever find out if he sticks his dick in that bitch.” - speaking (bitching) to Alex Wesker about Excella's proximity to Albert in a scene from Little Tyrants.

“If – allegedly - I’m willing to eat my own, imagine what I could do to you?” - a joke/threat regarding her nickname, in response to being questioned by Feds (derogatory) about her presence in Russia during the Caucasus outbreak of 2003 (Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles) in Little Tyrants.

“Ya think it was God’s grace that kept you fuckin do-gooders alive all these years? It was me. I spared you. D’you know how many opportunities I had to bring your heads home as trophies? You show some fuckin respect.” - In her Rick Sanchez era when she snaps during the events of RE5 in Little Tyrants, properly encountering Chris and Marshall again after betraying the cause. Wesker is very proud in this moment.

“I need to know I have a place. That I won’t be another dying star. Like Excella. Marcus. Sergei. Birkin. All the others that worked with you who thought they were too big to fall.” - trying to express her fears regarding Wesker's obsession with his New World Order (RE5) + past history with partners - she's not so much worried for the world, she's worried about them. (Priorities, girl.) I love this line because it's such a good example of how she doesn't shy away from dangerous topics; and she's willing to name his previous partners to impress upon him she knows she has good reason to worry. From Little Tyrants.

“Couldn’t trust you with no dirt. Retrieving your virus gave me leverage, and that made me more comfortable." - During her affair with Neil Fisher (Resident Evil Revelations 2); she's telling him very directly who she is and how she operates in explaining why she gave him a chance. I posted this as a scrapped WiP here

“I had to level the playing field. I’m a sore loser.” - to Butcher, regarding a life-altering decision she makes in near total secret. He asks why, and this is how she says: "cause my ego can't take anyone, even a Supe, kicking my ass and getting away with it." They really do mirror each other in ways I hadn't realized till just now. I swear I'll post some of this when I figure out where it's going/how long I expect to be invested. From the as of now Untitled The Boys AU

'Oh, I'm doin' a big stupid. The Lord God himself could come down and be like 'No, bitch' and I'd pretend I didn't hear him.' - Alex's inner monolog the night she and John start hooking up in Drown Me And Call It A Baptism. I didn't give her inner voice enough recognition here, but I should of. I love her running inner commentary.

Tagging, If y'all wanna (ignore me if you have): @socially-awkward-skeleton @josephslittledeputy @shallow-gravy @carlosoliveiraa @i-am-the-balancing-point and whoever else may want to.

#writing memes #tag games #original character stuff #my writing #little tyrants #au: in the company of monsters #ship: im starving darling #ship: the unholy throuple #drown me and call it a baptism #au: something about infinite cycles #ship: i love you like an alcoholic #otp: faith healers #mary post #this was hella fun! i loved picking lines and going through everything #alexandra shepherd #ship: beautiful thieves #au: feel good drag

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asknarashikari · 5 months

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Mistletoe with King Ohgers!

Kaguragi was the one who snuck it into the room where they were having their usual meetings for the alliance, which was decorated for the holidays

No one noticed it at first since it was disguised amongst the other winter holiday foliage, but Jeremy saw it as he crawled about on the ceiling

He then used his string to hang down and stole a kiss from Gira, who was so shocked he was barely able to react before Jeremy shimmied back up

Himeno saw this and immediately started plotting to trick Rita into stepping under one, which succeeded with use of a limited edition Moffun plushie as bait

Rita was so embarrassed she was tempted to outright ban mistletoe altogether (citing the stolen kisses as "assault" as her basis) but relented with Himeno's pouting

#ohsama sentai king ohger #jeremy brasieri #gira hastie #himeno ran #rita kanisuka #otp: tyrant king and king of the in between #otp: beauty queen and chief justice #ask #askrikkaiandhyotei

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trixiegalaxy · 2 years

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a summary of the beginning of Book 5

#twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #book 5: the beautiful tyrant #twisted wonderland book 5 #twst book 5 #twisted wonderland a beautiful tyrant #twisted wonderland yuu #twisted wonderland mc #twst ace #ace trappola #twst deuce #deuce spade #twst grim #twisted wonderland grim #memes #meme

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pumpkincarriage3 · 1 year

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Another random thought --

So, in the English server the A Firelit Sky over the Sands event came out not long ago.

And the new parts revealed not only Jamil’s dislike of dates, but mainly the fact that his first thought upon seeing a bug was to set it on fire.

Something he also did in the Halloween event.

So, does Jamil just turn into an arsonist the moment he sees a bug? Just, everything up in flames? That’s had to *have* caused some incidents.

Especially if you consider during Chapter Five of the game he stayed at Ramshackle, and no offense to Yuu, Grim, the Ghosts, and the work Jade and Floyd put into the building during Chapter Three, Ramshackle is still pretty rundown and has been abandoned at least for a decade. So, there’s probably tons of bugs.

So now I can’t get the thought out of my head that Yuu and Kalim had to stop Jamil from setting the entire dorm on fire. Multiple times. Or maybe were extra careful to make sure he didn’t see any.

Deuce and Ace come over often, so they probably wouldn’t say anything about bugs, I can’t imagine bugs would annoy Epel all that much to say something about them, though I can see possibility of him doing it, but I imagine at least Rook and Vil would. Vil from the disgust of seeing a bug, and Rook probably just wanting to see how much of an ecosystem Ramshackle is, and in that case Jamil would hear about the bugs anyway. And threaten to set everything on fire.

I don’t know, just sounds like a really funny scenario. That, if it did happen, I wish we saw. But it probably didn’t. But it’d be funny if it did.

#twst wonderland #twst fandorm #twisted wonderland #disney twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst wonderland #jamil viper #Chapter 5 #The beautiful tyrant #Jamil is an arsonist in hiding #But I also relate to the man #I'd probably set ramshackle on fire too #shitpost #ramble

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softquietsteadylove · 1 year

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Hey :)

If ur still accepting requests, could you something where Thena is on her period and is in a lot of pain (Cramps suck Fr) and Gil comforts her??? You can choose the AU <3

Btw ur entire account literally gives me life lmao 🫶🏼

Thena woke slowly, having drifted off on the couch after using the last of her pain meds. She had sent a message to Kingo to bring her more, though.

There were sounds coming from the kitchen. Panic flooded through her as she looked up and over the back of the couch.

"It's okay," he smiled at her, having sensed her alarm, "it's just me."

Gilgamesh.

Thena relaxed her knee-jerk reaction to reach for a knife. Although she was on high alert in other ways, seeing him at her stove. "What are you doing here?"

Gil turned down the burner on whatever he was cooking and came over to the couch, leaning on the back of it. "How're you feeling?"

"Answer me," she grumbled at him, curling around herself and drawing up the blanket she had thrown over her legs.

"I ran into Kingo while he was out getting some things," Gil answered gently, brushing some hair away from her cheek for her (why she let him was beyond her). "I offered to come and check on you."

Thena made a mental note to fire Kingo before she killed him.

"I've got some cheesy tteokbokki on for you," he smiled at her, leaving the back of the couch only to retrieve a tray from the kitchen and bring it over for her. "Start with this."

Thena frowned as he set the tray on her coffee table, on top of the laptop she had abandoned since cramps had robbed her of the ability to work from home.

He had arranged a glass of gingerale, a fresh dose of midol, a few crackers and cheese and even a few pieces of white chocolate (her favourite). There was even a tiny little vase with a budding lily in it.

Thena looked from the tray to the eager and hopeful face of the Tyrant King. She was still curled up around herself, and not just because of the cramps in her abdomen. "Why?"

His smile fell, and she hated to admit that it made her feel so bad she was willing to do anything to undo it. He corrected his expression, though, letting his smile become smaller but softer. "I'm your boyfriend, Ice. So I'm here to do boyfriend things, like comfort you when you're having a rough period."

She was a grown woman. She had no reason to be embarrassed about a perfectly natural function of her body. But she had never intended on letting him witness it firsthand.

She hadn't showered yet, she was sure she was pale as a ghost with messy hair and cold sweat on her skin. And that was to say nothing of the fact that instead of her usual silk nightdress she was in fuzzy sweatpants and an old hoodie.

Thena picked her head up off the throw pillow and gave him a withering glare, "my boyfriend, are you?"

"Well, let's go with that for now," he chuckled, putting his hand on her shoulder to steady him as he leaned over to kiss her cheek before returning to the kitchen.

She eyed the fresh ink of his ring tattoo as he moved.

"Your cup is still in its pot here, too--I just moved it."

Right, she had been boiling her menstrual cup while she had texted Kingo for supplies. This was exactly what she meant about Gil not having to be here doing all this for her. They were...something--she had thought to maybe call them an ongoing affair. But apparently he was her boyfriend.

That didn't mean she wanted him handling the pot that had a silicone cup she put in her-

Thena groaned, leaning her head back against her throw pillow again.

"Take your drugs, Princess. I'll bring lunch over in a sec."

She pursed her lips as she eyed the lovingly arranged platter he had brought her. She could hear him humming to himself in the kitchen behind her. It was so...domestic. She turned herself as best she could, keeping her blanket over her lap as she leaned just enough to reach the midol and the gingerale (and a piece of chocolate).

"Here we go," Gil narrated as he came over with a sizzling claypot in its holder. He walked over briskly with it, setting it down next to the other platter and sitting beside her. He turned to her with a grin, "want me to feed it to you?"

"Absolutely not."

"Aw, come on, Sweetness," he laughed as he stirred around the steaming hot rice cakes in their red sauce. "It'll be like the old days in the poison ward."

Was that what constituted 'the good old days' for them?

"I can feed myself," she huffed, although when he leaned out of her way, she realised just how far away the nice hot bowl really was.

"Here," he smiled, picking up the utensils and using the chopsticks to pile a few into a larger spoon as kind of an in-between serving vessel. He handed both over to her, "take your time."

Thena sighed, taking a few and blowing on them before eating them. She knew very well he made the best tteokbokki. He was quite a sufficient home cook, but something about how he made the sauce for the rice cakes--how he got them to the absolute perfect consistency for her every time. It never failed.

Gil rubbed her back as she slurped back a few more. "You could have told me, y'know."

Thena sighed between bites. She didn't have to answer him. If she didn't, he probably wouldn't pester her with it, given her current mood. She handed the spoon back so he could pick up a few more for her. "It's...personal."

He gave her a look. "Baby, I gave you a sponge bath while you were in the hospital. You think I can't handle your period?"

She glared at him; he didn't have to bring that up. "Not the point."

He let it go, handing back another few tteokbokki with stretchy, oozy cheese on them.

"Just," she said just before taking a bite, using the time chewing to collect her thoughts. She sighed through her nose, her shoulders sinking. She gulped. "Just...let me be a mess on my own."

"A mess?" he asked in a tone that was so disbelieving it was a little snarky. But surely he knew better than to be snarky with her when she was in a foul mood; she glared at him again. But he laughed, "you think you can hide how beautiful you are?"

Thena stared down at the tteokbokki she was holding. She was piled under comfy clothes and blankets and a fuzzy warmer stuffed inside the pocket of her hoodie. Her back hurt, she hadn't even washed her face that morning, let alone brushed her hair or checked what she smelled like.

Gil blinked as she handed back the utensils without having finished her last bite. "Sweetness?"

"Stop it," she grumbled, pressing her face into her hands, including the tears that were threatening more and more seriously to spill over. "Stop...being sweet."

Gil smiled as the problem was stated. He set the food aside, moving closer so he could pulled her into his lap. She growled at him a little but he nestled her head under his chin, "I don't think that's something a good boyfriend does."

Thena pressed her face into his shirt. He smelled like his office, even in his casual clothes. He smelled like gojuchang and gojugaru and aromatics.

Gil let her bury her face in his chest, her hand sliding up to join it, sitting over his heart, like it always did. "I'm right here, Thena. I'm not going anywhere."

She inhaled the mix of scents on him, letting it relax her like lavender in a bath. "Lunch."

"I'll save it for you, heat it up later," he promised, whispering as he ran his fingers through her hair. "I'll run you a hot bath, we can have a nice relaxing dinner. What do you think, Ice?"

"Hm," she mumbled, already on the verge of falling asleep again. The night had been fitful at best, and something about how warm he was always made her want to nod off. "Tell Kingo he's fired."

Gil laughed, although it wasn't the belly deep laugh he sometimes had. He was careful not to jostle her in his arms. "I think you should tell him that yourself."

She whined faintly, burying her face in his chest completely again, "later."

"Later," Gil agreed, kissing the top of her head as he supported her back with his arm and rubbed her shoulder. "Take your time."

#Ice Queen/Tyrant King AU #so I googled it...and you can have a period after you get your tubes tied #which I don't know why it surprised me #but anyway #cramps DO suck fr #and I am always taking requests my love so don't be shy!!!#you're so sweet #and yeah Thena is the flawless and untouchable Ice Queen #but let's face it we can't be polished all the time #she just didn't want him to know that #and she's self-conscious about it #but Gil takes one look at her #dry hair and pale and grumpy and thinks #she has never been more beautiful #he thinks she's so cute all bundled up and growly #he lets her nap #runs her a bath and everything #he offers to carry her and lower her into it but she's like no absolutely not nope #but he does ask if she wants him to set out fresh jammies for her #and she very quietly opens the door just a bit and holds out her hand #“shirt”#Gil tears it off his back and hands it over #god he loves this woman

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