#I really hope I characterized this man correctly | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fallow-hollow · 1 month

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Aaa! Your Kabru x reader was really nice! May I request a Holm x Reader where the reader helps him when he freezes up in rapid situations?

pick-me-up

…ft! holm kranom x gn! reader

…tags! pre-relationship, fluff, a little banter, reader knows some magic, some magic lore i may or may not have made up

…word count! 1167

…notes! people who are madly in love with side characters are truly god’s strongest soldiers. i hope i characterized your man correctly!!

As close as you and Holm were, neither of you really seemed to idealize one another too much. Being in the dungeon, you had to be aware of all your teammates’ strengths and flaws, regardless of personal opinion. When it came to the gnome you called your closest friend, even he didn’t deny it — he did not operate well under pressure.

Considering that you were in a place where foes could ambush you at any moment, anybody could see why this wasn’t a great quality to have. From being unable to save your friends to even being unable to save yourself, there were a lot of potential consequences to locking in place during the middle of combat. Something had to be done about it sooner rather than later, and if he had to ask someone, he’d rather it be you than anybody else.

The plan was formulated during some downtime the party had — something to stop Holm from going stock still whenever he felt overwhelmed. Luckily, your companion already had an idea for you.

“I figure the easiest way to deal with this’ll be using magic.”

You nodded. Not much of an obstacle, since you already had at least a few spells under your belt.

“As long as you have a rudimentary understanding of magic, it’s not gonna be too hard to get down.” For a moment, the gnome deliberated, wondering how to explain the concept to you. “You know how healing magic can hurt sometimes?”

With a grimace, you shook your head in understanding. Rin and Holm were pretty good about that sort of thing, but there had been more than a few occasions in past parties where healing and injury hurt even more than obtaining it. Seeing that you were familiar with what he was saying, the man continued.

“Well, that’s actually how healing magic is by default. When it doesn’t hurt, that’s because the caster is using a separate spell to numb your sensations.” As you listened, your mouth formed a little ‘o’ shape to show your interest. “Naturally, you can alter people’s sensations with magic in other ways, too.”

“Oh,” you would interject, “so I could use magic to make you more….focused?”

“Not quite, but yes.” At your approximation, he held up his index finger. “I was thinking you could use just a little bit of mana to sort of perk me up, almost like a spike of adrenaline to set me back in motion again.” His hand then lowered, turning over so his palm faced upward. “It’s pretty simple, just transferring mana through touch like you would with a healing spell.”

“I can do that, no problem!”

Ah, he was still looking at you, even after you said that… was there still more he wanted to share? When your eyes wandered down to the hand he held out, embarrassment that you hadn’t realized sooner quickly washed over you.

“Ah, you wanted to practice?” At first, you feared that your slow uptake had caused Holm some annoyance, but the relaxed smile on his face didn’t give way in the slightest. He seemed almost amused, really.

“Guess I should have been more clear about that, huh?”

The smirk on his face let you know that the question was most certainly rhetorical. Answering it would have been a moot point anyway, so instead you pouted and mumbled, “You’re always so snarky with me… not fair.”

Transferring mana was something you were fairly familiar with doing, so you were able to take the gnome’s hand into two of your own with little hesitation. Back when you’d just joined the party, the act of touching him made your cheeks heat up, but exposure to it over time had made the experience far from unfamiliar.

Just remember to envision the flow of the mana, you reminded yourself. Truly feel it, from your head to your toes, through your veins and bones, and out the tips of your fingers. Feel the current connecting you to him…

With your eyes trained on your joined hands, half lidded while you chanted the spell as instructed, you hardly noticed the way your companion’s ears actually twitched and perked up when the incantation was completed. Only when his whole body jolted did you shoot up in turn, concern pooling in your irises.

Said concern seemed to be unneeded, judging from the pleased look on his face. It was one that brought you relief, not just from the knowledge that you’d done well, but from the sight of him alone.

“That’s good, I think you’ve got it.” Even his voice seemed cheerier than before, and you weren’t quite sure if it was from the magic, your success, or both. Nonetheless, it was kind of nice to see his usually laid back demeanor become more enthusiastic from time to time. “So remember, the next time I get stunned in an overwhelming situation, use that if you’re near.”

“Of course!” You grinned, knowing you’d always be neat if you could help it.

That little practice session with Holm had been a few days ago by now. It took quite a while for a situation to actually arise that called for your little backup plan, but you most certainly kept your word.

Perhaps if it was just one stray suit of living armor, Rin or even Daya would’ve been able to dispatch it just fine. But in a whole hallway full of them with no way around, you could only tiptoe past them in hopes that maybe they’d ignore you, or even end up just being normal suits of armor. You should’ve known, of course, that the dungeon is no place for wishful thinking.

When the intimidating armored figures inevitably sprung to life, the first thing you did was look to Holm. Unsurprisingly, he was completely still by your side, eyes blown wide and mouth hanging open while he didn’t even shake or quiver.

Just do what you talked about. Transfer the mana as quickly as you can. You may have taken the latter half of that a bit too seriously judging by how, instead of taking his hand like you had during practice, you immediately reached for his face instead.

Only halfway through chanting the spell did you notice the slight tint on his cheeks, likely from embarrassment, and it took everything you had in you to continue the spell without stuttering from your own flustered state. After all, restarting the spell would take even longer, and that was pretty much the exact opposite of what was needed right now.

The second the spell had been completed, the both of you pulled away from one another, invigorated by both magic and embarrassment respectively. You heard Holm utter a quick thanks to you, but you were too busy feeling completely mortified by the way Kabru had just glanced at the two of you, seemingly more entranced by your interaction than the imminent peril you were dealing with.

You’d never hear the end of this, would you?

#ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ fallow’s works!#dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi x reader #dungeon meshi imagines #delicous in dungeon #delicious in dungeon x reader #delicious in dungeon imagines #holm kranom #holm dungeon meshi #holm kranom x reader

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j4rhead · 9 months

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can i request rubbing kaeyas cock thru his underwear and not directly tocuhing him? making him cum in his boxers with only small touches and make out🤭

the following work contains: nsfw, gn reader, dom reader, very small bit about alcohol and drinking (in true kaeya fashion)

i got sorta carried away and wrote a lot cause i love kaeya, i hope to have characterized him correctly. please don't mind typos, I've proofread this but there might be some i didn't catch.

the cavalry captain is surely... something. he's polite, pleasant to have a conversation with, playful and teasing with an occasional flirt here and there—nothing that makes you uncomfortable, of course.

it's easy to see that it's nothing but a very carefully crafted mask. the man reveals almost nothing about himself save for the fact that he occasionally enjoyes a drink in the angel's share, and some weird story about his grandfather being a hardcore pirate (you don't believe a word of it).

you're burning with curiosity to know more, maybe catch him off guard, see how his mask breaks into pieces and what he's like without it, so that's how you find yourself heading for the angel's share that evening to have another chat with kaeya.

you end up having a few drinks with him, a few bits of conversation and the usual flirt. you can tell he's careful about how much he drinks in front of another person. he's not drunk yet and neither are you, but you feel the urge to do something bold like sliding your hand on top of his, so you do exactly that.

you catch the way his eyes widen slightly before he corrects his expression to a smirk and a playful quip that you don't catch because you're too busy staring intensely at his face, and you suddenly realize that he would look good wearing a broken, flushed expression, maybe even squirming underneath you.

you can't tell if that's the alcohol catching up to you or not and you frankly do not care.

never been one to beat around the bush, you inch your face closer to his and look into his eyes—you want to see if he would still have the mind to put on a facade when you start with him. he looks at you like he's analyzing your intentions, looks away for a brief second, then leans in with a teasing smile.

you two make out for what must've been minutes before you part, both flushed and panting slightly and you can see that he's somewhat aroused if his tight horseriding pants are showing you correctly, so you wordlessly signal with your head and smirk, and he replies with his signature wink (which isn't really a wink... because of the eyepatch).

rest of the motions go in a blur. next thing you know, you're pressing him against a door to some mondstadt hotel's room—of course he would be too cautious to bring me home, you think to yourself— and you're kissing him senseless.

you can tell he wants to take control of the kiss, but you bite his bottom lip and you force him back into your rhythm. your hand finds its way inside the chest window of his annoyingly complicated attire and with the briefest touch of your fingers against his skin, he gasps into your mouth.

touch starved and sensitive all over, it seems. your other hand drops to his waist and ghosts along his hips, noting how he shivers slightly at the touch as you push a knee between his legs and lick at his lips. he lets out a noise at the touches, his mouth forms a half-smirk before he opens it for you to deepen the kiss, which only makes you want to break him even more.

he hasn't exactly given in to you, rather it seems like he's enjoying this way too much to try and reverse the positions, so you take advantage of that and push your knee a bit higher against his clothed arousal. he tries to muffle his moan into your kiss so you pull back, looking at his flushed expression and feeling the way he practically heats up under your touch. he looks back at you in a daring way as if he's trying to challenge you, try and see what you can do, that's the wordless message written on his expression.

you smirk at him with confidence, dragging your hand from his hip to the very obvious tent in his pants and when you grab him through the fabric he jerks a bit from the grip before arching his back a bit into your touch and letting out a breathy moan, hands coming up to your neck and pulling you back inside for another deep kiss. this time he manages to take control of the kiss before taking revenge for your previous bite with one of his own and you think to yourself, challenge accepted.

if he wants to tease, then you'll do it to him tenfold. you tease him with feather touches on his dick then switching to rougher pulls, and you can tell he's getting more riled up and desperate by the second with the way he shuts his visible eye tightly and his breathing becomes more rapid and irregular, moans increasing in volume no matter how hard he tries to muffle them, and when you kiss the sharp edge of his jawline he squirms under your touch with a shaky gasp.

his hands slide down to grip the back of your clothes tightly while he tries to push you closer to him if that's even possible, flushed all over and cursing and a mantra of "more, fuck, pleasepleaseplease-" falling from his lips as his voice breaks slightly, somewhat deepened with pleasure and arousal, and you kiss his lips rougher than any kiss you two shared the whole night.

in a matter of seconds he arches his back and lets out a loud pretty sound against your lips and his whole body tenses like a spring, his hands gripping the back of your clothes so tightly that you fear they would rip, and his knees threaten to give out with the force of his orgasm. his expression is everything you could have asked for—flushed and lost in utter bliss as his eye looks at you in a glassy daze.

you can't help but smirk at the wet patch forming in front of his pants. who knew the famous captain kaeya, ever the mystery, would break so easily under a few touches? you have half a mind to tease him about it or maybe even shame him, see what clever witty thing he'll come up to reply with, and then finally getting rid of his very annoyingly complicated attire. after all, you've got him to yourself for a whole night, haven't you?

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fizzingwizard · 8 months

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I was genuinely looking forward to Lupin vs Holmes in part 6, but what a disappointment it was. Actually, disappointment is too weak a word. In my opinion, it was pretty much a disaster.

There were so many reasons to be hyped for that crossover. You've got Holmes, the greatest detective of his time, and Lupin, the greatest thief of his. They're both canny, eccentric, and always a step ahead of everyone else. They're also both independent and live by their own set of morals. Holmes picks which cases he'll take without concern for money, and lets people go even if they're guilty if his own convictions say they don't deserve punishment. Lupin always does what he wants, doesn't let himself get pushed around, and enjoys wreaking havoc among inhumane criminals just as much as he enjoys flouting the law.

They're even perfectly matched in the ways they're different. I was open to them either liking or disliking each other (though I feel convinced they'd definitely have respect for each other), because I can see either take making sense. Holmes is calculations with a pinch of chaos, Lupin is chaos with a measured dash of calculation. Holmes eschews relationships aside from a very few - Lupin enjoys social interaction (but prioritizes just a few). Holmes is functionally asexual. Lupin is never not horny.

Even the supporting cast was so promising! To tell the truth, from watching previous seasons I didn't really think the rest of the Lupin gang or Watson would have much to do. But I hoped they would because there was so much potential.

I mean Jigen and Watson are both war veterans in their own way. It's not the best comparison (Watson was a doctor, and got shot almost immediately... but he is also a "man of action" and does have a lot of fight and pluck, even if he's not going to be a match for Jigen in terms of marksmanship). And they're the right hand men of two pretty difficult geniuses... couldn't they spend a moment commiserating lmao.

It could have been awesome to see Fujiko interact with Holmes because her usual tricks wouldn't work on him. I admit it isn't unlikely the show would have been like "Ahh, but this time they do work on him, just like Irene Adler!" and totally ignored that book!Irene impressed Holmes with her wiliness and not her sexiness... But I'm talking about my fantasy here. And in my fantasy, Holmes would have had a similar reaction to Fujiko's manipulation and acting skills similar to how he did with Irene. It would have been pretty cool to see Fujiko interact with a man who was NOT into her, but was just as smart and brave and perhaps wiser than Lupin.

Even Goemon would have had something to do. He could have had a super cool kenjutsu vs baritsu ("what even is that?") battle with Holmes. Extra points if Goemon walks away saying "I respect the skill of that fellow warrior, even if he can't spell his own martial art correctly."

And of course Lestrade and Zenigata's shenanigans at Scotland Yard are a nobrainer. But serious bonus points if they both pine away with equal envy and admiration for their respective smart ass thorns in the side hahahahahahaha.

I mean. There was SO MUCH there. How, HOW do you mess that up???

(Answer: By knowing absolutely nothing about Sherlock Holmes to begin with and basing everything on your memories of inaccurate movies from fifty years ago x'D)

So instead we got: perpetually sad, somber Sherlock Holmes, who isn't working the job that he literally loves anymore in favor of looking miserable a lot and raising a child. And the child is Watson's kid, who Watson can't raise because he's fucking DEAD, and mom can't raise because SHE'S dead (just say Holmes is her mom. Come on. We're in the future. Just say it). Also Watson is dead because Lestrade killed him like WHAT. Of all the twists they could have gone one, they definitely surprised me with that one. Was it a fun surprise though? ... No, no it wasn't.

Add to that the extremely dull characterizations of everyone, the heavy reliance on the danger to a little girl who isn't even a canonical character but is very cute, and the slow, slow pace of the episodes... What a mess. It was memorable, sure, but for the wrong reasons.

Like the only thing I can think of that I didn't hate about the whole arc was Lily taking her first steps as Holmes's assistant at the very end. Fine, that's adorable, and makes me feel ever so slightly better about Watson being dead. And I'm desperate for something to like here so let's go with it.

("It's not really Sherlock Holmes anyway because of the generational difference, it's his great grandson who has his exact same name and job! Same with Watson and Lestrade and sexy Mrs Hudson and and and-" I'm gonna stop you right there we all know it's Holmes. Whatever excuses they make, no matter how they have to bend time and physics to make it happen, it is Holmes Prime in every way that matters lol.)

A melancholy sigh for the Coolest Crossover Ever That Wasn't. As a Lupin fan and a Sherlock Holmes fan, I'll regret it till the day I die.

#lupin iii #honestly fuck part 6 lol #a very grave and serious post about very grave and serious matters

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cannellee · 2 months

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Not a request but a question! Who is your favorite tokyo rev chara to write for? Who do you wish you could write more and who do you think you’re the best at writing (in terms of characterization)?

hope its okay to send in questions when requests are closed! if not, ingnore this ʕ•��•ʔ

hiii! yes it's totally fine, that's why I opened my ask box again after a while because I had no interactions anymore on tumblr🧌

(my masterlist👭 : ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚)

my fav tokyorev character to write for :

it has to either be taiju (😔) or mitsuya, both because they're just easier to write for. like, taiju's personality is the embodiment of the stereotypical alpha so it's not that hard to imagine his reactions and stuff like that. I'm always scared of messing up when writing a character, but taiju simply is a bad guy🤾‍♀️ and I have no shame to portray him as such.

while some characters like inupi or ryusei (and sometimes baji) give me more of a hard time.

and for mitsuya, he's just the perfect man so it's refreshing to write for him. I know exactly what I want mitsuya to appear like when I write for him (kind, warm, reliable etc), he doesn't seem very ambiguous to me so I don't feel like struggling a lot when I think about his reactions, thoughts and feelings.

tokyorev character I want to write ++ :

probably chifuyu, he's my fav through and through so it's obviously my first choice🫶 but surprisingly people don't request a lot of chifuyu content

but! I also really wish people would request more shinichiro and sanzu fics. shinichiro is giving the same vibes as chifuyu in terms of relationship, they're the sweetest 🫂

and for sanzu, it's only because he has that love sick/yandere vibe which I love. I don't write much yandere content but I would be really happy to write more of it!

tokyorev character I write the best (imo) :

maybe chifuyu? but I don't have as many fics of him as I have of mikey for example, so I'm not sure. I think my draken is representative of how he really is in the anime/manga although the fics I wrote about him are not my proudest work, I feel like they, at least, described him correctly?

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horrorknife · 29 days

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hi ! sorry if this sounds weird but like

i stumbled upon one of your hoffheight posts and I'm so. genuinely fascinated ?? like, i THINK i understand it (I've certainly put them in a microwave and stared at them for the past few days) but i want to "get it right", if that makes ANY amount of sense. I want to interpret them correctly, I think is a better way to phrase it (it's 2am nothing I say will make more sense and I apologize for that.)

I think in a post you mentioned them being like, reflections of each other or something, which, I didn't realize but shit yeah?? they are aren't they. something about being on hair triggers or whatever. GOD they fascinate me so much I need you to understand how much this dynamic intrigues me. having them both be unstable in their own rights (esp with anger issues and all) it just. I love that ?? it's so fun!! I keep spinning them in my mind !!!

I think you also mentioned them being some flavor of qpr and as someone who's aromantic I. god qpr's my beloved. I really need them to be an evil qpr. that means a lot 2 me. ESPECIALLY if it's not even mentioned, but it definitely is a qpr. in my head Adam would have the potential (still not likely) to know what a qpr is, but he would never label it as that. at least not verbally. I love when there's a silent agreement that two people are definitely not romantic but labelling something as platonic is insincere. they're a secret third option don't worry about it !!!

sorry for dumping this into your inbox, I have a lot of thoughts and assumed it'd be mildly funny if I just left them with you. do with that what you will. I hope you have a nice day and thank you for the food for thought

[bonus ask that's ACTUALLY an ask and not just the ramblings of a mad man, do you have any fic recommendations of the two? for research, of course]

HI!!!! oh my fucking god anon you have no idea how excited and happy this makes me . *little cat running around in circles moment*

so like. i imagine there’s this cord between them and neither of them understand it. they can both just Smell the sameness on each other, the familiarity of deepset rage and suffering and loneliness. adam’s young and impressionable and hoffman would be able to use him to his advantage. hoffman would love this guy. my characterization of adam post bathroom is lonely, detached, and even angrier than before so he gets into fights for the self destructive nature of the thing and hoffman would LOVE how unhinged he is (we all saw how much hoffman seemed to admire/get obsessed w strahm and that guy is Nuts). they’re the same kind of prey animal! they have the same fear of abandonment!!

something something the way they both die in the same spot, attached to the same pipe, forced to watch as LAWRENCE (OF ALL PEOPLE!!!!) abandons them for dead. adam is desperate for life adam is in a game rigged against him. hoffman fights and fights and gnashes and thrashes against this the entire series and yet he ultimately has no choice but to succumb to it, he dies the same horrific way adam did, alone and abandoned and feeling that same primal prey animal fear. there's something to both of them being lawrence's only (CANONICAL) victims (brad, ryan, and dina are lawrence's vics to me. but that's a different post) there's something to the way that adam dies in the first film and haunts the narrative forever and the person who reprises that role is HOFFMAN of all people. the way that this comes full circle is really really delicious to me

adam's camera is his buffer from the real world, it's how he processes things, he's at his best when he's unnoticed and free to Watch. guys we're not doing enough with the voyeur thing. guys. adam catalogs information adam loves holding secret knowledge. in a similar way, hoffman is holding a knife between himself and the real world, he's processing everything through a layer of violence before all else because he can't risk human connection anymore. all of his relationships are made through violence and this is of course present here as well because you adam's deepest connections are also facilitated through violence. you can argue that this is true of all saw characters and you'd be right but there's something so specially flavored about it when you look at hoffman and adam next to each other.

hoffman needs Direction From Someone Else in order to be an effective cog in the jigsaw machine–after john dies he just falls apart immediately and gets clumsy and makes stupid mistakes bc at the end of it all hoffman has been robbed of a Normal existence and the thing he really wants most is companionship (again, seen in the way he interacts w rigg and strahm–he communicates his ‘affection’ in adversarial ways to keep them hooked + offers them genuine chances at survival but they’re both too clouded and Against Him for it to work. king of misjudging situations) and direction. i think if he even had a LITTLE help he’d be a lot better at being jigsaw

conversely, adam is this poor, broke 25 year old clinking pennies together in his shithole apartment. and he has the same stripping of purpose hoffman does. he doesn’t communicate with his family anymore (for undisclosed reasons but this is one of my personal pinpoints for bi/transmasc adam), effectively abandoned by them, and we know that his one namedropped friend (his “BEST” friend btw) is a piece of shit TO him and ABOUT him. adam gets walked all over and he lives at the universe’s disposal to kick the shit out of. he’s been abandoned or mistreated by everyone significant in his life. hoffman is a well off and well respected cop with a whole department of people who highly respect him but he’s empty inside bc he’s incapable of having any meaningful relationships the moment he gets involved with john. he has to fully wall himself off again because it’s too risky to get close to other people. imagine your only worldly thread of understanding from another person ends up being the serial killer you’re chasing/impersonating. and he hates you.

adam’s a genuinely understanding and kind person under his defensiveness, we all know this, we’ve all seen saw 2004. he’d be kind to hoffman and hoffman would see stars. he forgot people were capable of treating him like a normal person. having hoffman warm up to you is the equivalent of having a crochety old man who hates everyone share apple slices with you. you’re a little nervous about it, you’re a little on edge, but he’s just cutting out his apple slices and handing you one every so often. a test of trust. maybe you’re uncomfortable but you’ll take his offering to be polite. you’ll enjoy his company, you’ll share that apple with him, you’ll forge a new bond with that person. this is the type of companionship im kind of getting at.

um but yeah . rambling aside. back on track. unspoken/unaware qpr hoffheight is THE THING to me. yes we love each other yes we’d kill for each other no we’re not in love. we have a secret third thing and it’s called I Have To Keep This Guy Safe Right Fucking Now Because He Matters To Me More Than I Can Understand. OH mid paragraph im remembering something important. this absolutely all takes place within a sphere of hoffman and adam’s relationship starting with hoffman making adam his apprentice. i feel like that might have been obvious up there ^ but i want to be very clear w my intentions and my vision. KJDFSJKDF. ALSO oh my god . fuckkkkk fuck fuck fml i think hoffman thinks 2 himself that angelina would probably have liked adam and that definitely endears him to the guy.

like you said yeah i think adam has the Potential to know what a qpr is (but i dont think he does know)!! if anything he would ultimately just recognize it as an inherently special and inherently queer relationship…auuuu………i know i didnt get too into the evil parts of them too much here but thats cuz it would make me end up writing a 6k essay on them or something. just know that they do butt heads a lot because at the end of the day theyre from completely different universes and adam is an ODD/BPD king.

god . i could really just go on and on and on and on about them. i have so much more to say LOL but this is already a bit of a wordy response >__< i just have such a clear vision of their vibe and dynamic in my mind. it comes to me like sherlock visions. i’m being pelted with big times new roman font things that say shit like “HOFFHEIGHT GAY SEX” “They Are Everything To Each Other In A Codependent Ass Way”

THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK BY THE WAY I UM. GOT SO FUCKING EXCITEDD WHEN I READ IT AKJDNJAKLDNVSJKFNFDKGNVDFK. YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THESE TWO ARE TO ME . YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SICK AND FUCKED UP I AM OVER THEM LOLLLLL. asks that made me get up out of bed at 6:30 in the morning because i was too excited and woke up fully

if u have more questions or u wanna rap abt this more PLEAAAAASE feel free 2 send more asks or reach out via messages i love discussing my evil plots with them. i am literally ALWAYS locked and loaded and ready to talk about hoffheight. anon i unfortunately do not have fic recs because i do not like reading fanfiction. im incredibly particular about characterization and i’m a little bit of a writing snob. i don’t trust them in anyone else’s hands for fic if i’m being honest. i don’t think anyone else’s vision will fully align with mine and i’m too autistic to risk seeing that be done wrong. i’ll get too emotional KJDNKJSNFJ

#hoffheight #tagging cuz why not. tag is dead as hell #anonymous #asks #thank you for giving me a chance to ramble i love getting to infodump

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komorebi-rabbit · 2 months

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Hey you!

I just came from your Sasori Roleplay account. I wasn't sure if you were active there anymore, so I hopped on over here via your pinned post.

You seem like a talented and fun person to roleplay with, so I thought why not ask?

I've read your rules and some of the older blogs and they really resonated with me.

I used to roleplay Itachi on Amino like you used to play/still play(?) Sasori on here. Those in depth roleplays that just make my heart sing. And also the RPs that are a pain to find because...well...novella takes work. And building a bond with a character who isn't naturally friendly takes even more time.

Still those have got to be the most fun times I can remember from my teens. And I misss them...

It was quite challenging to find people who share similar views on roleplaying and like the same fandom. So I must have given up sometime back. And when I read your blog today, I was instantly like "Oh my god this is exactly what I was looking for" (except like 6 years passed since I last attempted that xD)

So I wanted to pop in and say "Hi, I love your blog already!" but that didn't quite suffice so here we are xD.

It's kinda funny because after all this time not roleplaying, I found myself on tumblr, figured why not make a Sasori RP account (there are many others for the Naruto characters) to have some fun and be nostalgic? But...there was still a little 'eh' that was missing. And I found it in your blog.

I adore it, when people just get their characters and portray them correctly. And I've been aching to find more people like this. I remember it being quite the challenge in the past, back in my Itachi days, so it was like a gift to find your account!

Anyways, I am trailing off-

I'd love to RP with you sometime. Or...to just chat and reminisce about days past, even if I just discovered you today. I just know I would have loved to have you in my Akatsuki geoup back in 2015.

I hope you have a lovely day!

This is the SWEETEST message, oh my lord, thank you so much! You have no idea how happy this made me and how much I needed this little spark of positivity in my life right now!

I unfortunately no longer RP on tumblr due to some incidents that have made me wary over the years. I also no longer RP Sasori, but I do still RP in the Naruto fandom, just on Discord with friends that I am comfortable with. Novella does take work! But man, if it isn't worth the effort! I'm so glad people are still RPing and taking up Sasori. He absolutely deserves that love! Unfortunately, I did most of my tumblr RP back when the manga was still ongoing and tumblr was at its peak so there was a LOT more interaction then than I see these days. I wish it could go back to being that way! I miss a lot of the friends I made back then! (But also I'm still friends with some of them 10 years later, it's fantastic. You really form some lasting bonds). Even back then, however, there were only ever a couple of Sasori accounts (like... maybe 3, not including myself? And most were not active).

I'm mostly a Shisui RPer these days, though I do write for Kakashi, Tobirama, Kisame, and Izuna, too! Like I said, though, I only RP with those I'm super comfortable with, but if you want, I have plenty of recs for you! I'm also KomorebiRabbit on AO3 and @komorebirabbitwrites. My Sasori is actually heavily based on characterization from @renaerys and her works from back then (such as Zero Hour) and she is still writing FANTASTIC Sasori works to this day. I mean absolutely unbelievable, haunting, you will never get it out of your head type fics. Her characterization is unparalleled and also she's just an awesome person in general! I also mod @sasoriweek which will happen again in November of this year!

Also, if you like dark, horror-heavy Sasori, Athelise on AO3 is absolutely amazing! She writes such an interesting Sasori and some phenomenal smut, I definitely recommend her!

#Forever fave #I hope you dont mind me posting this ask #I wanted to save it cause it really is so so sweet of you to send this #sasori-anon #ask

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theokusgallery · 6 months

Note

Since you have a lot of opinions about Sunflower fics, do you have any recommendations :p? I do generally agree with you about the derth of good works on them - kind of hoping for something I've maybe slept on.

Okay, I'll try,

First of all — I want everyone, and I mean everyone to read Coda for a Crestfallen Caitiff by MercuriallyApathetic, who also wrote The Strange Summer of Sunny Whatshisface (still one of my favorite longfics to this day but a lot more lighthearted). Coda is a masterpiece, it makes me insane, it is criminally underrated, I want to inhale its essence, and when I first read it it gave me a panic attack and a mental breakdown that lasted three straight days (/pos). Definitely read the tags and prepare yourself mentally but JESUS CHRIST I need everyone to read it. Please. You will regret it for a few hours but it is... an experience. To me at least. And to the two people I recommended it to who gave me feedback.

Then there's sunflower seeds in the rearview mirror by @andrewwtca which remains probably my favorite multichapter OMORI fic of all time (you might spot my essay-comments in the later chapters, I love this fic so much. I didn't end up writing one for the last chapter but man did it hit me hard). Very intriguing with a captivating style and an unreliable narrator mechanic that I am absolutely in love with. Everything by that author is excellent.

We have, of course, literally everything by BetweenDisorders. Arsenic is partly inspired by one of their fics ! (you know the one.) Their characterization of both Sunny and Basil (but especially Basil, because I'm gay) makes me froth at the mouth. Their style is very recognizable and honestly one of the best I've ever seen. But more generally, they have really original and intriguing ideas (like communication, in which Basil and Sunny are two computers... Did I mention how I'm a sucker for original/unique plots and premises enough yet) and everything they do is something you've never seen before. It's amazing.

Note to Self: Don't Be Gay in Faraway Town by witheredahlia is also very, very good. It's a lot lighter, but it still made my gay little heart ache, because I'm a sucker for misunderstandings done correctly (fight me).

Detective Sunny by Det_Sun is genuinely one of the most creative, fascinating OMORI fics I've seen, and also way too underrated. It's an excellent read, and there's a bunch of ideas in it that you know go deeper than what is shown, and it makes my brain go at the speed of lights. Many many thoughts about this one. (Side note: I fucking love it when there's unexplored ideas in fics. Makes my brain go brrr. Not everything has to be shown and when I see hints of "behind the scene" thoughts and character background that isn't discussed much but still implied, my brain becomes a feral animal. I don't know if that makes sense...)

#im recommending fics that can be morally be read by/recommended to everyone because i know my demographic #but i literally just went through my bookmarks and ooh'ed and ahh'ed at every other fic so i linked them lol.#i'm not linking 'the telltale of a recovering megalomaniac' by shootingstarlightt because im trying to link underrated things #but it's also very good.#there's also Drying on the Steps by DeepFriedBasil but i can't recommend it because i haven't finished reading it !!#but it's so intriguing and unique and you can spot me in the comments of the first few chapters trying to make sense of it all.#I didn't link Culinary Conversations for the same reason (I have yet to catch up on it unfortunately) but it's MAGICAL it's INCREDIBLE #I NEED MORE FICS THAT WRITE STRANGER LIKE THIS. PLEASE. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE #on the topic of characterization: Sunny & Mari Edition™ we also have Mari Doesn't Die At The End by CoreyWW #and The Very Best by nullmeh. both are very very good.#Deep Down We're Still The Same Kids by witheredahlia is also great from what I remember but I... don't remember much #there's some fics in my bookmarks i just... don't remember. oops.#...i hope this post isn't too long. i'm leaving some stuff in the tags because linking them in the post would've made it 3ft long #and also because when i give fic recs I feel like I have to arguments it and for some of those I don't really know what to say except Good #please read Coda for a Crestfallen Caitiff. please.#rant #omori #ask #ephemeralspirit-blog #fic recs #most if not all of these are sunflower btw ! i basically only read sunflower.#sorry to my fellow ze[...]ae lovers btw. i'd recommend them but. again. i know my demographic #arsenic #<- i tag every single mention of him for someone who had it blocked sorry

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bobohu4eva · 2 years

Text

Ecstasy

Part 4 - Get You Alone

Characters: Reader x Baekhyun Feat. Chanyeol

Genre: Soloist AU, Smut, angst, fluff

WC: 5k

Tag List: @nana-banana @xzyxbbh @iluvybs @greasywall @endzii23 @scopoliax @silent-potato @baekyeonoreo

Warnings for this chapter: explicit smut, unprotected sex, brief violence/abuse.

A/N: Sorry it took to long but here it is y’all 🥴

Masterlist

Addiction (noun): Disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences

Work.

As much as she would’ve loved to just lounge around with Baekhyun for another day, she still had a job, and other responsibilities, and the morning after their day out in the country together she found herself chugging coffee, barely dragging herself into work on time. It was for some sort of photoshoot that started way too early in the morning, the purpose of which she hadn't paid much attention to. She was just an assistant after all, it wasn’t like she was in charge of anything important yet with how new she still was at the company.

However insignificant she might’ve felt, the head producer, her boss, still looked pretty displeased with her when he saw her walk onto set. He was a small, round man with a face that always looked a bit angry, but especially right then.

“Where have you been?” He asked her before she even had the chance to shake his hand or introduce herself.

“I’m sorry? I was told this shoot started at 6, it’s 5:58.”

The man rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed. “Yeah. The shoot starts in two minutes. But everyone else has been here setting up for the last hour already.”

“Oh..” Her heart sank, she had really wanted to do well on this since it was her first ‘big’ project she was working on, or so she’d been told.

“Yeah, ‘Oh.’ Next time we won’t be so lenient.”

She quickly bowed, “I promise it won’t happen again, I’m really sorry.”

She went on to introduce herself and he seemed to dismiss her after that, but she still wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to be doing there. Before she’d mostly been in the office, just working on promotional stuff. After looking around for a moment, she reluctantly decided that she should ask him, before she ended up standing around wasting more time.

“PD-nim, is there anything you need me to be doing right now?”

He sighed at her question, looking increasingly irritated. “You should have a whole checklist, do you really pay that little attention? You need to get a headcount to make sure everyone’s here, check that all the equipment is set up correctly, make sure the set matches the concept sketches, and most of us are getting pretty hungry so you’ll need to order food. Oh and I think one of the photographers needed something, one of the cameras was acting up so you’ll need to get that fixed. Good luck.”

And with that he walked off, pacing the other side of the room, just staring down at his phone.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and tried her best to get started on everything he said. However, she still didn’t feel that she had the details she needed to do it all correctly. She did a head count, but she didn’t even know how many people were supposed to be there, and she wasn’t familiar with a lot of the equipment she was supposed to be checking on either, but she just did the best she could, asking everyone she could find (aside from her boss, who still seemed preoccupied), if things were all in order.

After doing as well as she felt she could on her first few tasks, she decided to find the camera man who needed something for his camera. She hoped it was something relatively easy to fix, because she really didn’t know much about cameras, and luckily it was just a lens of some sort that he needed, and she was easily able to drive to a nearby store to get it. But when she got back, the head PD still looked pissed.

“Did you leave the set in your own car? Not the company car?”

“There’s a company car?”

“Are you fucking serious? If someone hit you we would have to pay for it, of course you take the company car! First you show up late and have no idea what to do, and now you can’t even get a few simple tasks done correctly, have you even gotten to the other things? Did you even check if the artist was ready? Or so much as look at the concept sketches?! You set everyone back almost a full hour already, you better pull your shit together real quick or this will be your last time on set, got it?”

She felt the lump bubbling up in her throat, threatening to let out a sob, but she didn’t need to embarrass herself even more so she tried to keep it down, just nodding and turning away to try and make things right. If she’d known that set days would be this stressful, she wasn’t sure if she would’ve accepted the job at all, no matter how glamorous it seemed. If she’d been given all the information she needed ahead of time, of course she would’ve prepared herself better, but nobody had said anything to her prior to the shoot, from what her supervisor had told her the week before she thought she was just going to be watching and learning how things work.

She tried to finish the rest of her tasks best she could, running the numbers to make sure there weren’t any last minute purchases that put them over budget, and when it was time to make sure everything matched the sketches, she realized she was going to have to ask him again, having no idea where else to find them.

Compared to now, he’d really been holding back before, and several other members of the crew looked at her sympathetically as he began to yell at her.

“Did you not prepare for this shoot at all? Do you even know what we’re shooting for? How do you ever expect to do well in this job if you can’t even listen to simple directions?! You should’ve spent all day yesterday getting ready for this shoot, but you never even showed up at the office to look at the sketches! If I’d known you’d be this useless I wouldn’t have had you here in the first place, running around like an idiot bothering me with all your stupid questions. Now go see if the artist is ready so we can finally get on with this mess, you’ve cost us enough time already.”

There was no more holding back as the tears flowed in steady streams, and she once again nodded before turning to go look for hair and makeup, doing her best to wipe away most of the tears but with little success. When she finally found the dressing room she knocked lightly before opening the door, and her breath got caught in her throat when she saw who the artist was.

She’d been so preoccupied with her other tasks she hadn’t even stopped to consider that it might be him this whole shoot was for. But with her luck, of course it was. Out of all the artists at the company, of course it would be him there on the day she fucked everything up.

When she first saw him she froze, and her hands quickly flew to her face to wipe away more of the tears, the last thing she wanted was for him to know how terribly she was doing. But she quickly pulled herself together as well as she could, because she still had a job to do.

“Hi, um, I just wanted to check that everything was going okay in here, we’re almost ready for you on set.” She spoke, probably too quickly for anyone to fully understand, before turning the corner into the hallway again, hiding her face in her hands as more tears came.

Baekhyun was surprised to see her there, but he was even more surprised to see how upset she looked, and quickly followed her out into the hallway. When he turned the corner he found her sitting on the floor, quietly crying to herself. He crouched down next to her, taking her wrists in his hands to move them from where she was hiding her face. When she saw that he’d followed her out, she only cried more.

“Y/n, sweetheart, what happened? Why are you crying?” He asked softly.

She just shook her head, still too embarrassed to speak.

“Is someone giving you a hard time? If you tell me what happened, maybe I can help, but you have to tell me, okay?”

Reluctantly, she nodded, and took a deep breath to steady herself before explaining it all to him.

“I thought I was just going to be watching and learning how everything works today, because it’s my first time on a set like this, but then Mr Kim told me I have to do all this other stuff that I didn't know about and I did it all wrong and now everyones off track and it's all my fault.”

Baekhyun still had her hands in his, rubbing soothing circles with his thumb as she choked out the words.

“Nothing is off track though, I’m not even out of hair and makeup yet.” He chuckled, hoping it would help lighten her mood. “I’m sure you’re doing great. Did Mr Kim get mad at you?”

She nodded solemnly, “He yelled at me in front of the whole crew.”

At that he frowned, moving closer and giving her hands a gentle squeeze so she would look at him again. “What was he so mad about?”

“I guess I was supposed to prepare a bunch of stuff ahead of time for this shoot, but nobody told me, last week they made it sound like I just needed to show up and someone would teach me all of this, but he wanted me checking the sets and camera equipment and everything and when I couldn’t do it like he wanted and had to keep asking questions he got mad.”

Baekhyun let out a long sigh, gently tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Mr Kim is being an asshole, all that stuff is his job, not yours. Don’t beat yourself up about it, okay? If you want you can stay in my dressing room with me until hair and makeup are done and then I can try and talk to him if he keeps giving you shit, alright?”

She nodded and he stood up, extending a hand to help her up and she followed him back into the room, though she didn’t miss the look the stylists gave her as she walked in after him and sat down in the corner. To avoid any obvious awkwardness she just stayed on her phone as the hair and makeup girls finished getting him ready. It wasn’t long until they were done and she followed them back out to the set, hoping the PD wouldn’t humiliate her even more, but things just didn't seem to be going her way.

“There you are,” He said, still looking more annoyed than usual as he lit a cigarette. “Will the food be here soon? Everyone’s starving.”

She quickly bowed her head in apology, “I still need to order something, sorry for making everyone wait, I’ll do that right away.”

“Fucking seriously?!” He raised his voice at her again, and this time Baekhyun watched, eyes narrowing as he continued to berate her. “You can’t even remember that? What the hell were you even doing wasting your time back there? Or is even that too difficult a job for your dumb ass?!”

The tears were threatening to spill over again, and she was so fed up that she almost started yelling back, but Baekhyun was quicker.

“Is that really necessary Mr Kim? She was in my dressing room, checking to see if I was ready, which by the way is usually your job, along with ordering food for everyone. So unless I missed something and she’s the one in charge now, you should be doing your job instead of yelling at some poor girl on her first day to do it all for you.”

He stayed quiet, narrowing his eyes at him.

“And I’ll take care of the food, is everyone okay with Chinese?” He asked, pulling up a delivery app on his phone and looking around, and nobody seemed to object. “Glad that’s settled then.” He smiled, and she couldn’t help but grin a little at his response too.

Mr Kim was visibly fuming, red faced and fists clenched but he knew he couldn’t say anything, Baekhyun was right and to argue with him would only make him look even worse to his crew. What he could do though, was make a point. He grabbed Baekhyun’s arm, wanked up one of the sleeves of his shirt, and pressed the lit cigarette into his skin.

She watched as Baekhyun’s eyes went wide, and the room went dead silent. It stayed that way for a good several minutes as Mr Kim walked off set, until he showed back up, barking orders at everyone, including her.

After a little while a girl a few years older than her named Tiffany introduced herself as part of the production team, and started showing her around, reassuring her that she wasn’t expected to do any of the things he had yelled at her about. Mr Kim was simply the absolute worst kind of person.

Soon the shoot was underway and she watched the whole ordeal go down, trying to pay attention to every part of the room, every aspect of the project, but he made it really difficult. How the hell was she supposed to focus on her job when he kept looking at her like that, and in full hair and makeup too. He looked almost criminally sexy.

Eventually a break was called and she grimaced at how the three girls from hair makeup immediately swarmed him, tugging at his clothes and hair, dabbing away at his face, even his lips. There was no way they really needed to be doing all that, right? It just seemed like overkill to her, as far as she could tell he looked perfect before too. She was even less thrilled by how Baekhyun seemed to welcome it, talking and laughing with the girls as they continued their frenzied attack on him. She hated to say it, but the girls were all quite pretty, and she found herself wondering what their pasts with him looked like. If he’d slept with any of them before too, or anyone on set for that matter. If he was willing to hook up with her, it definitely wasn’t impossible.

She hadn’t even realized how she was glaring at the whole scene until Baekhyun’s eyes met hers and he shot her a knowing smirk, dismissing the three girls and walking her way. One arm snaked around her waist, pulling her into himself and pressing a kiss below her ear.

“Am I wrong or were you just mentally scalping my team of stylists?” He whispered, a teasing edge to his low voice.

“Maybe...” she hummed, giving his chest a light push to keep some space between them. “Don’t be so obvious, someone could see us.”

While she enjoyed the attention, especially now with the three girls watching, there were still a lot of other people around and she didn’t want any of their opinions of her to become skewed just because of who she slept with.

“Who cares what they see?”

“I do!” She pouted, before concern took over her face, remembering what Mr Kim had done. “Is your arm okay?”

Baekhyun frowned, taking a deep breath before uttering a “Yeah”.

“That was so fucked up I can’t belive he would-”

“I’m okay. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“But-”

He cut her off as he took a step closer, close enough to feel her quick breaths against his lips.

“Admit it, you liked that my stylists saw us, didn’t you?”

“What? I mean…maybe a little..” She saw him smirk. “But they were all over you for no reason! You should be glad too.”

He stepped back, shrugging, and before he could respond they heard a call from the director to start setting up again.

“Are you busy after this?” He asked as they made their way back.

“Not really, why?”

“Wanna go out later?”

“Sure, what did you have in mind?”

He shrugged, “We could get something to eat and then go to my place?”

She accepted his invitation without a second thought, heart fluttering at what the night now promised.

They were back on set where the camera crew, stylists, and various other staff were waiting and she was about to turn away towards the girl who’d been showing her around, but Baekhyun’s hand snuck its way into the back pocket of her pants, pulling her back to him. Her hands landed on his chest, faces only centimeters apart.

“Give me a kiss.” He whispered into the space between their lips.

Cheeks flushed, she looked around to see if anyone was watching, and luckily everyone seemed preoccupied so she quickly pressed her lips to his.

His hands moved to her waist and he held her there just a moment longer, before letting go and admiring the shy twinge of pink still on her face.

“So cute,” he mumbled to himself as she walked across the room, looking back at him and smiling before she reached her guide from earlier.

The rest of the shoot went fairly well, and she felt she was doing a pretty good job catching onto everything. Tiffany explained what her role would be on sets and what she should expect moving forward, and it all seemed pretty reasonable. Baekhyun kept doing his job too, looking handsome as ever as they changed out the sets and his outfits, moving from one scene to another.

She thought it was funny how much more reserved the stylists were around him after witnessing their little display, and one of the girls even looked blatantly annoyed by it. Of course it wasn’t like they were actually together, but it still felt nice to know that she was the one who’d be in his bed later that night, not any of them.

She’d been getting along well with Tiffany, and as the shoot was coming to an end the older girl couldn’t help but comment, “So you and Baekhyun, huh?”

The question took her off guard, and she almost choked on the water she’d just taken a sip of. “You saw that?” She grimaced.

“Everyone did,” She laughed, “It's really not that big a deal, just… different, I guess.”

“Different how?”

“I mean you know Baekhyun, right? I’ve been working here for over five years and I’ve never seen him act like that before. Other artists will have their significant others on set often too, but he just never seemed like that kind of guy, you know? With his big parties and everything.”

“Oh, we aren’t actually dating or anything.” She stammered, blushing.

Tiffany raised an eyebrow, “Are you serious?”

“Well, yeah. We’ve just been hanging out and stuff, it’s not serious, just for fun.”

“Look, I obviously don’t know any details, but like I said I’ve been working with him for years and I’ve never seen him look at someone like that before, that was more than ‘just for fun’ if you ask me.”

She sighed, she wanted to believe her but she knew it was best to stay guarded with him. “It’s just confusing, sometimes I do think he really cares about me, but he said he doesn’t want a relationship.”

The older girl offered her a warm smile, “Half the time men don’t know what the hell they want, but I think he likes you a lot. He’ll come around.”

With that the shoot was finally over, and she gave her new friend a short hug before breaking off to look for him. She found him in his dressing room as expected, with one of the stylists wiping the makeup off of him.

He smiled his familiarly dazzling smile at her, and asked, “You ready to go? Any idea where we wanna eat?”

She just shrugged, silently laughing to herself at the way the girl seemed to tense up at his question, hastily wiping off the last bits of makeup before standing up to get her things and get the hell out of that room.

The second they were alone Baekhyun closed the distance between them, an arm around the small of her back pressing her flush to him as his other hand guided her into a kiss.

“So how’d you like your first day on set?” He asked once their lips parted again.

“It was okay after you spoke up. And thank you by the way, that was really cool of you. And I’m really sorry he did.. that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m starving, let's go.” And then he was pulling her through the door, and before she knew it she was back in his sleek black Audi, winding through the city streets. They ended up at a barbecue place, and were once again seated in their own room, out of sight from the rest of the guests.

It was difficult for her to keep ignoring what Mr Kim had done earlier, but it was obvious Baekhyun didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t bring it up again.

She knew it was a bit silly, but even as they ordered their drinks she couldn’t get the stylists out of the back of her mind, laughing and smiling as they fawned over him and he welcomed it with her right there on set.

“So those three girls,” She eventually asked. “Are you close with them at all?”

“The stylists?”

She nodded.

“Not super close or anything, but it's usually them or a handful of other stylists who work for the company that are on set, and when you see people that much I guess you do kind of get to know them.”

She wondered if she should really ask her next question, but the curiosity was killing her and she decided to just let it out.

“Have you ever… slept with any of them?”

Baekhyun knew he shouldn’t be grinning at that the way he did, but he couldn’t help but find it endearing that she would ask.

“Does it matter?”

“I don’t know, I’m just curious.”

He smiled to himself a second longer before answering.

“The blonde girl who did my hair, one time, after a party.”

She had to admit, she didn’t actually think he would tell her something like that. She swallowed.

“Just one time?”

He nodded. “Over a year ago it must’ve been. I hardly remember it honestly.”

The blonde girl. She’d been the one who looked so annoyed after Baekhyun’s little public display on set.

“She looked pretty pissed after seeing us, you know.”

He shrugged. “She has no reason to be upset. It was a one night stand and it was forever ago, she should’ve known better than to expect any more.”

She couldn’t help but let out an exasperated sigh at his words. If he thought sex and attraction were that simple, he had lot to learn. That or he was simply choosing to ignore the ways he might hurt people.

“So then why do you keep me around?”

He paused, considering it for a moment. “You’re good company.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, throwing him a challenging look. “Really? That’s it?”

“What? Did you want to hear something else?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not really very specific.”

“You want me to be more specific?”

She gave him her best ‘yeah, duh’ look.

A sly smirk tugged at his lips before he scooted his way to the other side of the booth, moving the hair from her shoulder and whispering lowly into her ear,

“I I guess I just wanted more after fucking you the first time, seeing as you have the tightest, wettest, gorilla grip, make me cum twice in one night, super soaker pussy I’ve ever had the pleasure of burying myself in.”

His crass words quickly had her face reddening but a giggle still erupted from her throat. Once the initial shock wore off she was swatting at his chest, reprimanding him for such profanity at the dinner table.

“You’re awful.” She laughed.

“You’ll still be in my bed later though.”

The look on his face when he said it was clearly taunting her, but at the end of the day, they both knew ‪he was completely right.

“Maybe, but that doesn’t explain why you’re wining and dining me first. My pussy doesn’t care if I’ve eaten.”

“Like I said, you’re good company. I’m not that shallow you know.”

“Hmm..”

It still didn’t really make sense to her, but he seemed to keep avoiding her question so she just let it be.

“So you came to our current company after a few years at a different one, right?” She asked, “But don’t most contracts last for at least like 5 years? You were only there for 2 or 3 right?”

She thought she saw his jaw go tense, and he nodded.

“Well, what happened? Why did you leave?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have plenty of time, I don’t mind-”

“No. Just…not today.”

His face had gone blank and she knew better than to push it, although she still couldn’t help but wonder. She knew what the industry was like, and how harsh it could be. But she didn’t want to argue, or pressure him to talk about something he wasn’t comfortable with, so she promptly changed the subject and he fortunately seemed to lighten back up after that.

As the dinner went on they laughed about Mr Kim’s terribleness, happily grilling their meats and throwing back drinks until it was finally time for Baekhyun to once again take her home with him. The sun had set as they ate, and she found her eyes drifting shut on their way to his place, exhausted from the long day and early morning they’d had. When they finally reached his apartment, she made a b-line for his bedroom, all but throwing herself face first onto his bed, sighing with delight at the perfectly plush mattress and soft silk sheets; she could’ve fallen asleep right then if it weren’t for her host. She felt slender fingers tracing up her calf before he spoke.

“You can’t be falling asleep already, it’s barely eight.”

“But we’ve been up since like four am.” She whined in return.

“And if you fall asleep now, you’ll be up that early again tomorrow.”

She groaned, but he was right. She knew he wasn’t going to let her sleep that easily anyway, he still had other plans for the night, plans she knew she couldn’t deny him, nor did she want to.

She felt him climb onto the bed after her, pushing the hair from her neck before leaving a wet kiss at the nape “You know you’ll be able to sleep better after I make you cum anyway.”

“Hmmm, I hope you’re ready to do all the work then.” She turned her face to look up at him, and he was grinning back at her.

“I don’t mind… just stay like this for me baby.”

So she did, and his hands wandered beneath her blouse, pushing it up until he could pull it over her head before moving to her pants. She felt him slowly pull them down her legs, until they too were removed, leaving her in her bra and underwear. It wasn’t anything super fancy since she hadn’t planned to even see him that day, but at least they matched, and she silently patted her former self on the back for her choice.

He moved back over her, kissing the back of her neck and shoulders, sending shivers down her spine. One hand snuck its way under the band of her bra, before deftly undoing the clasp and pulling the garment out from under her in one smooth motion.

She felt him get up, stripping off his clothes as well before making his way back onto the bed, and she took the opportunity to turn around and finally look at him. He slowly pulled her last piece of clothing down her legs, and as soon as they were both bare he covered her body with his own, pressing more kisses into the skin of her neck and chest before eventually reaching her lips.

His mouth was still on her own when she felt one slender hand dip between her legs, and she sighed into him at the divine touch. The more they’d slept together, the better he got to know her body, and the easier it was for him to have her shaking and gasping beneath him, just how he liked.

He kept teasing her with his fingers, working her up as their lips stayed glued to one another aside from the gasps or moans he pulled from her so effortlessly. After some time though, he became impatient himself and she whined as he moved off of her, grabbing a condom from the nightstand. She eagerly helped him get it on, and he turned her back onto her stomach, once again moving the hair from her neck and attaching his lips to the now damp skin before pushing inside with a relieved groan. She whined at the sudden fullness, the angle hitting all the right places as he started to move at a leisurely pace inside her.

They could both tell that this wouldn’t last long with how pent up they were and he wasted no time picking up the pace as she cried out into his silken pillows. They weren’t even doing anything particularly adventurous or dirty, but he just knew how to fuck her exactly the way she wanted, and he never got tired of the way she clung to him and moaned out his name. She just felt so perfect around him, and it wasn’t long until they were both getting close to their highs.

Baekhyun made sure to keep up the movement of his hips, satisfied with how loud she was getting, and he knew she was close, just a few more thrusts and she would be twitching and shaking for him. Just as he expected, she was soon falling apart beneath him and the sound of his name on her lips and the squeezing of her pussy around him was enough to have him follow soon after, pushing into her a few more times as he reached his own peak.

Once the rush had faded he all but collapsed on top of her, showering the back of her neck with more kisses before finally rolling off and getting up. He returned with a warm washcloth, cleaning her off as she already began to doze off, and when he finally got back into bed he pulled her in, arms wrapped firmly around her waist and her back met his chest as he inhaled the pleasant smell of her shampoo on her hair before falling into a blissful sleep.

Baekhyun wasn’t usually one for ‘boring’ sex, but with her that wasn’t even an option it seemed. What would usually bore him with past one night stands, suddenly felt exciting again, if it was with her. She had lit a new fire inside of him, whether he liked it or not.

Next Chapter

#baekhyun smut #baekhyun fluff #exo smut #baekhyun x reader #baekhyun fic #exo fluff #baekhyun #exo #baekhyun fanfic #baekhyun ff #baekhyun angst #baekhyun au #exo angst

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seyaryminamoto · 1 year

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I'm gonna join the little crowd of canon Zuko dislikers who believe he becomes a lot more likeable character in Gladiator. He's not scarcely developed like he is in canon. I can notice how he grows from his anger issues that could lead to dangerous outbursts into someone who knows how to keep calm and in control. From self-centered to considerate of others. From entitled to responsible. From having a confused moral compass that depends greatly on Iroh to a man who knows how to make his own decisions enough to even call Iroh out on his mistakes (removing Iroh from Zuko's growth journey was something that greatly benefited him since Iroh burdening Zuko with expectations and plans for his life, with Zuko simply shifting from following a parental figure to another, at least according to my reading of canon).

Most Zuko stories I read are either focused on milking extra sympathy for him or washing the flaws down the drain into awkward turtleduck, and both of these narratives are cringeworthy, with the comics doing him no favors either but doubling down on these flaws.

So his characterizations in Gladiator was a breath of fresh air. That one line when Guru Pathik told him "He damaged your willingness to open yourself to others… to let someone else look after you, out of fear of being vulnerable, I expect." was moving and even relatable.

Ah, damn, thank you very much for saying so! You know all too well that I have plenty of gripes with Zuko's canon writing, so I'm really glad that you feel this way about my portrayal of him in Gladiator... I have to say, I think a lot of my issues with canon Zuko became clearer precisely because I was writing him from scratch in this story. I struggled to understand many things about him back when I watched the show, without my full awareness initially, and I genuinely realized what those things were once I started writing him in Gladiator.

My inability to grasp Zuko properly is one of the reasons why I chose to rewrite Zuko's entire journey. Not only did it make sense to do so in this setting, but the truth is that I hoped it would help me get a better handle of his character: I'd written post-canon content already and the one character I wasn't sure I was writing correctly was Zuko. People would tell me that I shouldn't write him being so moody anymore, that he had become more mature, that he had become basically a perfectly decent person, that he would be a better brother to Azula than how I depicted him, and that I had to work on that. I'd hear all that criticism and then I'd take a look at canon Zuko... and I'd wonder if I was missing episodes or something, since there were many instances, post-redemption, where Zuko made displays of many flaws (be it his temper, be it his narrow mind, be it selfishness, you name it) that a lot of people were constantly pretending he had relinquished completely as soon as he joined the Gaang.

So... it became clear that I just couldn't write him the way they wanted me to X'D it wasn't natural for me, the character they were asking me to write didn't feel like Zuko to me at all, and I honestly didn't understand why right away. And so, as Gladiator's idea crystallized, I realized I'd have a clear shot at writing Zuko's character arc from scratch, I'd get to develop him on my terms, and I'd be the one to decide which traits and flaws he'd preserve throughout his growth process. Doing this helped in a lot of ways, of course, as in changing his journey, I started to realize just what were the elements of his canon storyline that I wasn't 100% pleased with.

Even from the start, I've had readers who felt very sorry for Gladiator's Zuko (especially because Mai married someone else when he was hoping she would have been waiting for him) since he definitely was starting out in a very bad place and a lot of people were immediately emotionally attached to him because they already were in canon. Still, I think part of why he resonated with readers in a different way than canon Zuko was that the challenges I was giving him were different from the ones canon did. For one thing, I let him go home without having captured the Avatar: he knew that he wouldn't have the "approval" of his father from the start. Instead of using Mai as a manner of compensation for him, or as his only true bond in the Fire Nation, Mai was actually another source of anguish simply because she moved on with her life, something Zuko never anticipated she would do. Iroh's sudden interest in the Gladiator League, his sister being up to her own business and becoming a hugely popular public figure while he was mostly sorting out how to live life again... Zuko had a lot on his plate for sure from the very beginning.

Instead of simply making these inconveniences go away, though, instead of featuring every character validating him at every turn and grieving along with him over how unfair his life was, Gladiator's Zuko had to learn how to live with all those things that changed while he was gone. He learned to let go of so many things he couldn't control. He started developing his own interests, connecting with new people, and he tried to figure out how he wanted to live his life, above all else. If he was never going to reclaim his role as Ozai's heir because Ozai wouldn't let him? Zuko would have to decide what to make of himself beyond the idealized future on the throne that he used to cling to... and he did just that.

At this point, back in Part 1, I realized that a lot of what I was doing with Zuko had never really happened in canon. His personal worldview wasn't defied: his father's worldview, which he had adopted, but that he apparently didn't believe all that faithfully, was what he changed his mind about, and he wound up adopting Iroh's belief system instead. It's not Zuko's own beliefs that are contested and challenged: one example of that is his belief in canon that his sister was born lucky, that she didn't work for anything, that he was the one who had to struggle and that was why he was ultimately stronger than her: at no point does the story make him look at his sister any differently. At no point does he conclude that maybe it's fine if she's a stronger fighter because his convictions are the right ones, because his bonds with people are truer, because maybe the true worth of a person isn't how skilled they are at combat. He was never confronted with any of this, never had to think on it at all, and so, the story concludes by as good as rewarding him with a fight where he's beating up his sister and proving himself superior to her. How was his belief defied? It wasn't. It was only reinforced, confirmed, reiterated, and he got away with his dream scenario in which he "put Azula in her place". As in, chains and an asylum. How much of a challenge was this, in terms of conviction, for Zuko? It wasn't one whatsoever.

Along with that belief, he also believed the throne was his birthright (... and I reiterate that I don't understand why he treated it that way, considering that he spent many years of his life believing Iroh and Lu Ten would be Fire Lord and Crown Prince respectively, far more years than he spent being banished or being Crown Prince for Ozai...), but by the end of the story, he becomes Fire Lord indeed, so what he was chasing for happened anyhow: Zuko is rewarded, yet again, by the confirmation of the beliefs he held all along. Yes, he had a hard time throughout the show, but that doesn't change that when the story wraps up, he's exactly where he always envisioned he would be. So, as much as he may have changed and grown, ultimately his two primary beliefs ("Azula needs to go down", "I will be Fire Lord"), at the very core of his character, were never put into question.

This is without going into all those times where his behavior leaves much to be desired, where he acts irresponsibly, where he even withholds vital information from his new friends for reasons that don't make sense, and he gets away with all of it without even a slap on the wrist. There's no pushback, all be it so he can have, again, exactly what he wants: a group of friends who cherish him deeply, so much that he can do completely senseless things like attack them over their inaction due to their lack of information, which he didn't bother disclosing to them because "it was obvious" (it wasn't), and nobody finds that alarming or worrisome, anything he says or does is 100% fine because it's him and everyone must love him, of course.

All this flies against some of my fundamental passions as a storyteller. I've always enjoyed doing something that is, honestly, a really simple way to build a character arc: give a character something they want, and then take them on a journey of existential crisis that will eventually make them question whether or not that's really what they want anymore x'D I've been doing it since well before I got into ATLA, and it's 100% what I've done with a LOT of characters in Gladiator. There was nothing quite as distressing for someone like Azula than falling in love with the defiant Water Tribe warrior who refuses to bow down to the Fire Nation's alleged superiority, all of which leads her to question her beliefs, her assumptions about life -- is the Fire Nation truly superior? Is Sokka right to defy it and rebel as often as he does? Her father, obviously, doesn't want her to marry anyone outside Fire Nation nobility -- is he right to want that, though? Isn't it up to her to decide what she should do in life? If she chooses to be with Sokka, does it mean she's rebelling against her father? Is that wrong or right? After over twenty years of following Ozai's ideology, does she have the courage to turn her back on him and open her heart to a different way of living?

It's particularly easy to see it in Azula, but it really has happened with basically every important character in the story (save for the more villainous ones, I guess), and Zuko is no exception. The goals he sought, the people he idealized and idolized, have changed a lot in his eyes as he grows and changes too. And by specifically choosing every element of his growth, and how they impact him, I've also pushed his development all the way to the point where, like you mentioned, he meets Guru Pathik and, upon opening his fire chakra, Zuko is basically set free. Everything he went through up until that moment has been adding up to a conclusion he hadn't quite unlocked... until he did that day. It was difficult, it wasn't intuitive for him, but it's as if he had opened his eyes to the world fully for the first time, and he could see things so much more clearly because he finally knows how to do so. And it doesn't mean that he will be at all merciful with Ozai, just as it doesn't mean that he will condemn Iroh to hell for the horrors he's responsible for... but it means that he's ready to stand on his own, and to not let other people choose his identity for him, particularly these two.

I'm honestly surprised by how his development has reached the point it has. After all these years of being well-known for being ambivalent towards Zuko even at the best of times, I've honestly felt proud of this guy for the first time ever while writing Gladiator Part 3 xD it's not exactly common for me to feel that I'm in a good spot with Zuko, but it really took me breaking him down from the get-go, rewinding him to his earliest stages, with very little to no development, and taking his growth into my own hands completely. I'm sure a few people thought I was a mindless Zuko hater after everything I put him through in Part 1, and that everything I was doing to him was some manner of vendetta because he had a better outcome in canon than Azula, and I was overcompensating for that in Gladiator... well, I hope that, if any of those people are still here now, they'll actually see what the point was xD the point honestly wasn't to punish Zuko: I just needed to develop him on my own terms, and it wasn't an easy journey, but it's one I'm genuinely pleased with. His hard-gained maturity, his reliability, his strength of heart even when facing that the world isn't quite what he thought he was... all those things have led me to feel like I can actually write, at last, the characterization of Zuko that so many people thought I should have been doing since day one. But this time, I handled it myself. This time, I know this character personally, and I know that his journey adds up to the man he has become up to the newest chapters. I'm not standing on shaky grounds, confused about what I'm doing, the way I was with his character back when I was writing canon-based content primarily.

And indeed, in doing so, I've come to understand just why Zuko's canon journey didn't hit every mark I needed it to. I'm not going to pretend that I've handled him flawlessly, but I do think that I've let him be a version of himself that doesn't need to be coddled, doesn't need a second person to perpetually stand beside him, whispering in his ear what's right or wrong, doesn't need someone else to serve as his scapegoat, so he can blame all his misfortunes on them... above all else, it's a Zuko who can think properly on who he is, who he wants to be, and reflect on whether he's failing or succeeding at that endeavor. Yes, sometimes he'll feel the pull to be selfish, sometimes he'll be harsh, sometimes he'll be unsure of what path to follow, but ultimately? He will be ready to make the tough choices. He will also be ready to step out of his comfort zone to do right by the people he wants to protect. He will be responsible... he will actually learn to be a leader, and not simply for the sake of repurposing the skill for a future potential tenure as Fire Lord. That's not his ultimate motivation in this setting.

So, all of this really ended up putting in sharp focus for me that so many of these elements of growth are actually only implicit in canon, or outright non-existent. They hinge often on interpreting Zuko in the most positive light possible, in denying his flaws and in pretending the tropes he embodies are more representative of who he is than the person he actually proved to be through his actions and behavior throughout the show. In one breath, people will claim he's incredibly complex and in the next they will sweep away all such complexities to declare him exempt from all the consequences of his actions. As much as I can understand the protectiveness that comes with having a fictional character mean a lot to you, the fact that pointing out any single mistake or misbehavior by him in canon feels like such a threat to the character his fans think he is -- hence their immediate, alarming, wild arguments to defend him --, tells you that the idea of Zuko is more important than Zuko as a fictional character. It's all about what he "represents", and very little about who he actually is. In my experience, it's not common to find fic writers who actually handle Zuko correctly, and I sure love it when they do, but just as you said it, so many people bank on milking out extra sympathy for him (as if the show hadn't done a ton of that to begin with), and very little is about exploring him as a character in a deeper, more challenging way than what canon did.

As a long-time Zuko critic, I'll never stop saying that my problem with Zuko isn't who he's supposed to be, but who he actually is. It's in the writing flaws that make his growth process far more questionable in canon than it should be, and more than anything, that the fandom has taken to defending anything he chooses to do relentlessly, almost religiously. There are so many elements of his growth that could have been handled better... and as I wrote him in Gladiator, the clearer those elements became. Naturally, I'm working with an older Zuko, but similar beats could have happened in his character arc in the show and they simply didn't.

Anyway! All this is to say... thank you very much for sharing your thoughts :) I know there's been a ton of contentious arguments about these subjects lately, and I really am glad that I can write a Zuko that makes sense to those of us who are critical of him in canon. What I feel like a lot of the Zuko defenders don't understand is that we don't want him to be perfect: we want him to be treated in the same way other characters are treated, rather than getting preferential treatment where so many others, with similar traumas to his own, aren't given the same courtesy. But in my honest, sincere opinion, I wish I could love Zuko. I really wish I could enjoy his character as much as other people do. I absolutely believe I would, if the writing around him had addressed all the elements I needed it to address in order for his journey and character arc to add up successfully. And yes, it's fine by me if people love him exactly as he is: I don't have to, though. Neither do you. And if I'm writing a Zuko the two of us can genuinely enjoy, the better for us, am I right? XD

Thanks again for this ask <3

#wingsfreedom #gladiator #yeah it's been a while since my last long asks ahahaha oops #took me a while to answer sorry about that #as usual #I need to get it together yes I do #but honestly it's so reassuring to know that my Zuko is hitting the spot for other people aside from myself #I really looked forward to posting the Southern Air Temple arc because I just REALLY wanted you guys to see that scene #it made me so happy to finally set him free #the impact that scene had #and how it has genuinely helped him find stability safety and inner peace #it was such a wonderful breakthrough #and I cannot believe how proud I can be of this guy after all these years #but that's the power of stories :')#so glad you're enjoying him too! <3

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lostloveletters · 6 months

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Yes, writing about Sonny could be really really a lot more fun, he is an hot head, he is a womaneyzer, he is big heart too (look at Tom! I mean, it's been him to want Tom in the family when they were just kids) ... writing about him could be like taking a breath after an heavy working day . BUT I also think that in the long term characters like Michael, more complex, more obscure, twisted mind, and in a certain way more interesting are funnier to write about. Just my thought of course. I really can't wait to read how good you'll characterize Sonny!

I completely agree with you! Michael makes for a better longfic because he’s so complex and there’s all these layers to dig into. It’s a fun challenge to write for him but can be equally frustrating sometimes. As of right now, Bruised Fruit is going to be 25 chapters (up from the original 20 I planned), so that’s definitely a testament to how compelling Michael is!

Sonny’s wonderful too, the hot-headed ladies’ man who literally took in a complete stranger and made him part of the family. If I remember correctly, in the novel, it says Tom’s parents both died when he was young. He was alone on the streets with a bad eye infection, and people in his neighborhood thought since his mother went blind before she died, he was cursed and they wanted nothing to do with him. But Sonny just saw this other kid alone and brought him home, and Vito took Tom to a doctor to get treatment for his eye. Tom’s definitely going to feature significantly in my Sonny fic because he grounds Sonny, he’s his voice of reason. I find it so interesting that for all of Sonny’s talk of your family being your blood, his favorite brother is the one he chose.

I’m rambling! Sorry! Thank you so much for your kind words, and I’m so glad you enjoy my writing🖤 I’m hoping to have all 5 chapters of my Sonny fic finished soon, and then I’ll start posting them!

🦇 Battie

#ask tag

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kafkaoftherubble · 8 months

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237不止没有改进236，还他妈的直接... //CH237 did not improve CH236. In fact, it fucking—

Spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen CH237.

Damn. This chapter blows as a belated Gojo fan. Also blows as a character-work fan. Or a "surprise me with an interesting and creative maneuver after the last chapter" fan. I should be glad I didn't inhale dangerous amounts of copium last week beyond small doses and hope.

You know what feels like the point of JJK as of this writing? "Be an asshole, or lose." Megumi ain't an asshole, is he? So there you go. He kept getting punished. Bruh had been an L magnet for a while now for sure, but at CH237 you can reasonably believe he's in that same afterlife airport in yet another offscreen death. At this rate JJK is gonna feel like a fundamentalist/millennialist Christian talking point: "This life on Earth is shit. You can only hope for salvation in the afterlife. No point trying to fight suffering while living; no point dreaming about improvement. True happiness only exists after you die... In God's Kingdom Gojo's airport, mai furrendo. Until Sukuna Reality-cut through even the afterlife, that is."

Megumi had a lot of characterization early on, man. He's got an interesting psychology, legitimate mental growth, a self-ish goal revolving around Tsumiki, a selfless goal revolving around his definition of being a jujutsu sorcerer, a dynamic of interesting potentials between himself and Yuji + himself and Satoru + himself and Tsumiki + himself and the Zenin clan (or whatever's left of it), and a canonically busted technique. We would have been so stoked to see what Megumi himself could do with Ten Shadows, especially when it's said to rival the Gojo clan's Limitless.

Instead, when the 10 Shadow vs. Limitless fight happened, it was Sukuna who demonstrated how good it was, not the young hero we're rooting to master it. And now comes CH237 and Sukuna's like, "Yea, this technique was just an Anti-Gojo move so I can forget this now that he's 2.5jo. Bye Megumi's L Magnet body! Bye Megumi's soul; thanks for tanking Unlimited Void that one time! MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE! BELIEVIX, SO MAGICAL!"

Was the whole point of Megumi's existence just to erase Satoru? Were all those previous hints to Megumi's character development and psychology just haphazard salad dressings?

And man. Because I'm, indeed, a Gojo fan, what really bummed me out is this growing realization: Satoru seemingly still dead right now really lends substance to people who said he's the single-most stupidest loser in this story ever. He has never made any right choice, has he? Even his insistence on not executing Yuji, which was framed to be a move for a noble cause back then (I'll die on this hill; I really can't see it as a self-motivating cause no matter how some people might like to paint it), is now seen as a stupid choice that doomed the future because of how much the villains are winning right now (while the strongest guy on the good guys' side is chilling with "no regrets" in an afterlife airport).

You'd at least hope that Satoru managed to introduce some permanent damage to Sukuna for the rest of the camp. Lose the battle, win the war. But apparently, from the looks of it, that didn't last. Sukuna magical-girled into his Second Stage Boss form. It's reasonable that his brain just got renewed from this, which means Malevolent Shrine may be back on the table already. And any (meager) damage Satoru had left on him from their fight is just wiped clean. Bruh even has his dumbbell-looking weapon (it's actually a legit weapon in Hindu myth if I recall correctly, though what exactly is the name slipped my mind this time) now.

Hell, that simp Uraume is still alive and kicking. Satoru didn't even offscreen that annoying twerp with his 200% Hollow Purple at the beginning of the fight. Now Uraume is presumably acting out those Gamble God(赌神) Chinese New Year Hong Kong movies with Hakari up there in the sky.

Honestly Gojo Satoru, are you sure you were the strongest at all? Or have you just been subjected to that old Chuck Norris meme, where tales of Chuck Norris being "the strongest" in the most ridiculous ways possible spread among people—except in your case, everyone including yourself believed it? 'Cause man, the story disrespects you so hard now.

Oh, and don't bother looking for Satoru's body among the rubble. Nor bother with the cast's emotional reaction. No Yuji, no Yuta, no nobody except Kashimo and Hakari. Some said this might allude to a background event—maybe Satoru is being patched up in the background as we speak, ya know?

But I don't know. It's just... better not to expect anything at this point. Better not to cook unless the intention is to write fanfics and what-ifs for yourself or your community. I do neither of those things, so I don't wanna try cooking at all. "Nekkhamma", man. Non-attachment is the better frame of mind by this point.

Still gonna stick with JJK though because hey, I still wanna evaluate things when it's all said and done. I'm not gonna try persuading my best friend into seeing it with me when Season 3 comes, though. Her fav is Nanami and she's only interested in Satoru because of me. By this metric, there's no point in having her stick around past her personal interests. She's not even one who likes pointless tragedies nor is she wanting of shows to watch, aye, Fionn?

Sukuna fans can rejoice, though. He reclaims the form Sukuna fans wanted to see for years! And he's more powerful than ever and is indisputably the King of Curses very likely riding into a non-airport style victory (unless Kenjaku screws him). In addition to being the strongest and poetic (that's the character depth non-Sukuna fans like myself missed at our peril, I suppose), he's—by his admission—an unwanted child with a hint of him "working to become the strongest" (this has been a pretty persistent fanon for a while now. Just need a confirmation.). He also doesn't know "love." And thinks everyone else is trash. There are some genuinely interesting possibilities to speculate about his background based on the breadcrumbs provided CH237 though. I wonder if the conjoined twin theory is true!

Hey, Gege? If you're transitioning Jujutsu Kaisen to Sukuna Kaisen, might as well start throwing the most meaningful bones to Sukuna fans, okay? No more being coy. Just tell them his backstory. Hell, I'll stick around out of curiosity alone... even if I hate an asshole who never gets punished.

Thank you for reading my ramble.

#I actually don't like to broadcast my reaction to weekly chapters or episodes because I don't think my reactions warrant any attention #I rarely feel like expressing these sorts of thoughts and massively prefer churning out long thought-out rambles...#...on an expansive melange of ideas. For example I never feel the need to broadcast weekly reactions to To Your Eternity manga...#...no matter how much I adore that story. Just talking about it with fellow fans for some hours will do already.#But this? I need an outlet that doesn't burden non-anime-watching real-life people around me #And talking to myselves can only go this far!#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk spoilers #jjk gojo #jjk megumi #jjk 237 #jjk manga #jjk leaks

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headlineawards · 1 year

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2023 Headline Award Winners Other Characters

Fiction Awards Other Characters

Best Thing Since Rainbows Award [Best Gen Fic]

Winner - New team bonding traditions by Impatientseamstress

“I never thought I'd read a Rupert Mannion- centered fic that would leave me feeling good, but Impatientseamstress has managed to create what I had previously deemed impossible. This writer clearly has a love for the canon, as their characterization of everyone from Moe to Ted to the aforementioned slimy villain is absolutely spot-on. They get into Rupert's head and nail that haughty man-of-privilege attitude that makes us love to hate him so much, and the result is a delightful read that truly captures the spirit of what *Ted Lasso* is all about-- even when Richmond is being mean, they're loveable nonetheless. And who doesn't love to see Rupert Mannion get the passive-aggressive comeuppance he deserves?”

Runner-up - proffer to displace by knapp_shappeys

“This story has lovely prose and engaging descriptions which elevates what we get from the original audio format. It takes a relatively small plot point from the canon and fleshes out a backstory full of the reasons and relationships that led to Herc’s decision concerning Zurich. Herc and Linda’s relationship is unique and nuanced. His care for her in her moments of need and the way her ambitions influence his decision is very moving. It’s clear the author has a real love for these characters and also put a lot of effort into being knowledgeable about the airline industry to write this.”

Imagine You and Me Award [Best Romance]

Winner - The Necromancer by Ryne

“Though told from Nimueh's point of view, this story beautifully captures the turmoil in Uther's heart at the loss of his wife. He forces Nimueh's hand to do his bidding with a brutal rage only a king can command, and yet we're so clearly given the insight into the grief that drives him that it is impossible not to look on him with sympathy. In fewer than two thousand words, we're given despair and hope and despair again written with heartbreaking grace.”

Runner-up - adrift in space, or whatever by timeladyleo

“A beautifully written piece that highlights the relationship between Herc and Carolyn. The right touch of humor as Carolyn teasingly sets Herc up to face his fears under the guise of a visit to a vineyard.” Gold Blend Award [Best Smut]

Winner - Anatomy 101 by RoselynnThornwood

“This is a really fun and unique premise, dancer Marni learning anatomy from med student Nathan through putting her own body on the line. The action is slow, tantalizing, and dangerous as he slices the body parts she can’t identify correctly, working his way through her bones and muscle groups toward parts she would very much miss if she got it wrong. Though this takes place before the canon you can definitely see an early darkness manifesting in Nathan as we would come to know him, which was entirely let loose when he lost Marni.”

Runner-up - In Anticipation Of by Unsentimentalf

“The pace is slow and uncertain between Herc and Douglas, the power dynamic shifting at a moment’s notice, which lends itself to the payoff being satisfying. You’re never really sure who’s playing who. There is humor throughout while maintaining the sexy nature of the fic, with a side helping of occasional fear from Herc, which is impressive in its own right.”

The May the Best Man Win Award (Fan Favorite Other Character Story)

Winner - New team bonding traditions by Impatientseamstress

Runner-up The Necromancer by Ryne

Thanks to thenewbuzzwuzz for our prize banners!

#anthony head #headline winners

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popblank · 2 years

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To Kill a Mockingbird at the Pantages Theatre:

I did not really care for this adaptation. I have a slight anti-Aaron Sorkin bias which might be influencing my reaction, but even so I was expecting more from this play.

Sorkin has taken the story from the novel and arranged it so that instead of the basically chronological narrative that takes place over several years (as told by a presumably adult Scout Finch), the story is told by its child characters, with scenes depicting the background and overall storyline alternating with courtroom scenes.

Atticus Finch is presented as a Polite White Liberal whose initial explanation of Bob Ewell’s motives is that he is suffering from economic anxiety. He believes that a white Southern jury will be able to clearly see the facts of an unfair accusation against a black man and act justly, even as he is absolutely certain that there are things that will unleash that same white Southern jury’s blatant racism. The show follows his character arc as he eventually has to face that contradiction.

Structurally I didn’t have an issue with it, and it moved along at a good pace although I felt like the first act seemed a bit long (though that is hardly unique to this show). I don’t remember much about the book having read it many years ago, but a quick skim reminded me that among other things, there was quite a long lead-up to the trial and a lot of characters.

My issue was mostly with the dialogue, tone, and certain storyline and characterization choices:

The rhythms of the dialogue sounded like Sorkin’s style of writing for other media, so it was difficult for me not to hear the writer’s voice rather than the characters’ voices. It probably would have been better for me to not have known who wrote the play.

It was presented with a lack of subtlety. Perhaps that is a side effect of playing to a large theater but the dialogue and acting choices seemed big and loud and occasionally cartoonish.

It dialed up the network-TV sentimentality. I used to use “The Stackhouse Filibuster” from The West Wing as my go-to comfort watch so I am not opposed to cheesy TV sentimentality in itself, but there were parts that just felt hackneyed (the way Dill’s storyline was filled in, for example).

After leaving the theater I thought, “I hope this didn’t win the Best Play Tony Award.” It did not win, and in fact was not even nominated. That was apparently perceived to be a snub, but after seeing it in person I don’t think it was. If this had won it would have been like Crash winning the Best Picture Oscar.

Staging looks good, though during scene changes I repeatedly found myself idly watching the actor who was responsible for locking the stairs of the Finches’ front porch into place, because it took a while for the porch to slide into position.

I am rolling my eyes at the pull quote they used for the poster at the theater: “This is a phenomenon,” attributed to former New York magazine critic Sara Holdren. Why yes, this play certainly is a thing that happened. Then I looked up what Sara Holdren actually wrote, and the only time she uses the word “phenomenon” in her review is here:

“All rise,” Scout repeats throughout the play, and on the wings of Sher’s direction and his outstanding ensemble of actors, the production does rise. Ultimately, it rises above Sorkin’s fashionably contemporary polemic on privileged, blinkered white civility — which is both a real phenomenon and, at least from where I stand, not cause enough to abandon empathy in the pursuit of right action.

If I’m reading that correctly, she’s saying that “privileged, blinkered white civility” is a real phenomenon, not the play itself. So unless she also said this in some other context, it’s quite misleading.

#to kill a mockingbird #to kill a mockingbird play

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 1 month

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right now my absolute favorite musical is wicked, coinciding with my perpetual oz interest (I hope I used that word correctly). I used to listen to Dear Evan Hansen quite a lot but haven’t listened to it in a while. Except for “a part of me”, one of the cut songs.

can I ask why it’s your favorite?

Wicked and Oz in general are awesome. I read through the books semi-recently (as well as re-watching Return to Oz) and it always amazes me to remember just how different in tone the 1939 film is. It's truly a world of it's own, with a different feel an overall mood - Dorothy is obviously far different. Our stage adaptation is primarily based on the 1939 movie so my analysis is based on that, but I'd practically call it an Oz AU with all of the liberties it takes. Mostly with Dorothy. She is largely a pawn in games played by the Witches and Wizard of Oz. A game that ultimately, Glinda won. (My feelings about the 1939 version of Glinda are very similar to my feelings about Dumbledore for similar reasons.)

But Wicked is different. Wicked is a commentary on...on, so many things, but I think a major one is complacency. (It's similar to why I love Borrasca actually.) The idea that there can be something rotten in the state of Denmark, something bad happening in Oz, and people will look the other way. It's painfully realistic. Galinda's whole character arc is intertwined with this. Because it's like Elphaba says. She'll grovel in submission to the corrupt institution if it means advancing her own position and career. But in her heart, she knows better. I love the repeated use of the words "good" and "wicked" blatantly deconstructing them and proving that things aren't black and white. That good and evil are just...words that we say. And their weight depends on who is saying them and about what.

The only thing I don't care for when it comes to Wicked is that...well, it kind of succumbs to what I call "Prequel-itus." As a prequel to Wizard of Oz (well, it technically is both a prequel and a retelling since it goes past the end of the original but I digress) Wicked feels the need to give everything and everything a backstory. Fiyero...didn't need to be the Scarecrow. Fair enough to that one, since it was clearly planned and a major part of the story (though it casts a shadow over his bond with Dorothy in all honesty) but Boq as the Tin Man? Give me a break. That asshole is nothing like The Tin Man, who was sweet and sensitive and, oh yeah, already had a backstory. Not to mention the hastily thrown in line about the Lion being the cub from Act 1? Come on now.

As for Dear Evan Hansen.

I just. I really love human dramas. (Again, Borrasca. I can't recommend it enough, except, every trigger warning you can imagine applies to it.) Dear Evan Hansen is such a magnificent story about realistic people going through emotional issues. It's a story that isn't guided by plot, but by characters reacting based on their feelings and desires. The inciting incident is Connor's suicide and the misunderstanding with Evan's note, but after that, the entire plot could be resolved if the characters (mainly Evan) just made different choices. Better ones, smarter ones. But it's not a plot hole, either. It's characterization. You can see the exact moment when Evan falls in love with the lie. "And I see him come to get me. He's....come to get me. And everything's....okay." I've seen a slime tutorial of this show and based on the performance, that is the moment that Evan went from awkwardly trying to comfort a grieving family....to telling himself a better story, about his own life. One where he had a best friend, and wasn't having suicidal thoughts.

And that's one of the major themes of Dear Evan Hansen. Rewriting history when there's no one to contradict you, and living in the new reality you've created from that story, because there's nothing to stop you except yourself. It crops up all over the place, not just in the #BigLie, but Evan also initially lies to Larry about the situation with his father. This idea is echoed in Sincerely, Me as well. "All that it takes is a little reinvention." and "Just believe you can be who you wanna be." It comes up again in Words Fail which is...the most fucking raw and emotional that a musical has ever gotten, for me anyway. I sob when I listen to that song, especially at the crescendo when it reprises Waving Through a Window. Evan talking about no one seeing the real him, because he fears "Will they hate it too?" Just broke me. Because...honestly? I relate to it. And I think a lot of people can. "Will I just keep on running away from what's true?" Like. Oof.

Everyone in this show is miserable, in different ways, and they manifest it in different ways that are typically unhealthy. Though I think my favorite character is Heidi. I don't know if she's considered problematic in the musical fandom, but I will pick up my foam finger and defend her to the last. She was doing everything she could. Evan's anger at her for being absent is understandable, but it wasn't out of negligence. She was working multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads. She didn't always handle situations the best, like the dinner with the Murphys...but she was blindsided over and over that night, so, fair enough. She isn't very knowledgeable about her son's mental health issues, but it's not for lack of trying. She's doing her best, and also, Evan isn't telling her anything. He's not sharing with her. He's lying to her, on top of lying to everyone else.

The situation needed to end. Because it was unhealthy. Even if Connor and Evan's friendship had been real, it was reaching unhealthy levels. They gave Evan Connor's clothes. They gave him Connor's college fund. Given how he was sleeping over at the Murphy's house all the time, and I don't see them making him take the couch (or allowing him to crash with Zoey) he was probably sleeping in Connor's room. Like, it was reaching creepy levels even if you ignore that it was all based on a lie. And when they find out...yeah, they don't forgive him. Why would they? It would be way too good to be true, Evan would be getting off far too easy, if they just forgave him. They didn't expose him to the world and that is charitable on their parts. Evan had to lose the life he'd gained and return to reality. I like that even though Zoey ultimately forgives him, they don't get back together. Realistically, there's no way they would.

God this story just rips me to shreds. I feel bad for everyone involved, but they're also culpable for their own choices. Like...Alana is another example. We're meant to sympathize with her (and Jared) by the end. Sure, she's a little annoying, but she means well, and her dedication to the Connor Project is sincere. That said...she really doesn't know what she's talking about, claiming the emails "don't make sense" because Connor seemed to be doing better before he died. That's...shockingly naive. Also, the fact that she posted Connor's suicide note (as far as she knew) online without permission. She didn't ask his family if that was okay. She did it explicitly against the wishes of his best friend who the letter was written for. That's fucked up.

I could write similar analysis of Jared, Connor's parents, Zoey...but I can already tell this one is gonna be a long runner so I'll cap it here.

#Wicked #Wizard of Oz #Dorothy Gale #Glinda The Good #Dear Evan Hansen #The Tin Man #Evan Hansen #Alana Beck #Heidi Hansen #Connor Murphy

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