Omg pls you should write a hot, cocky slytherin Harry one shot 😭

'Hey, Malfoy!'

'Fuck,' Draco said, and walked faster. His stomach did a little swoosh swoosh and a little hoppity hop and that made him scowl so he said, 'Fuck,' again.

'I know you heard me,' said Potter cheerfully falling into step beside him, leaning in to speak quietly into Draco's ear. The hairs on the back of Draco's neck sprang up.

He walked faster still. He was very late and the library would close and Pince would charge him a late fee for Beikoff's Brave Brews - A Venture Into Modern Potion Brewing, and it wouldn't even be a fair fee, honestly, she demanded the most bizarre numbers, the bint.

'Of course I heard you,' Draco said and he did not look at Potter. No, he stared straight ahead and walked with purpose. Maybe even stuck his nose up a bit. 'My ears work just fine.'

'Yeah, not like your eyes.'

'What? My eyes work just fine too.'

'Really, Malfoy, what eighteen year old wears reading glasses?'

'It's hereditary!' Draco said indignantly, stopping and swivelling around to face him. His cheeks felt very hot. 'And look who's talking?! You've been four eyed since you were, what? Six?!'

'I don't need them to read, though,' Potter said, grinning gleefully. He was always grinning. He had such white teeth and he grinned so wide and they shone against his lovely brown skin. His eyes shone too. They were very pretty and they shone. Behind ugly glasses. Aha!

'Your glasses are ugly,' Draco said. 'They're not even very trendy. Did you take them from your grandfather?'

But Draco did not wait for an answer and stomped off with a hmph because Potter was looking at him again. Looking. Like that.

Like he thought Draco was adorable. Like he wanted to touch Draco. To hold him like he were a...a little dormouse or something, and...and kiss him and pet his head and show him off to all his horrid, Slytherin friends.

Like he wanted to swallow Draco whole.

'Malfoy?'

Draco was staring. Again. At Potter. Draco was staring at Potter with his mouth a wee tiny little bit open and his eyes were unfocused and probably glazed over.

Potter's grin was now predatory.

'Lubrication!' Draco blurted out. Practically shouted it. He then had to focus very hard on not fainting.

Potter, his eyes enormous, raised his bushy eyebrows very high.

'Beg pardon?' he asked, voice vibrating with horrible, perverted glee.

'I-- I'm on medications, Potter, I'm very sick!' Draco announced shrilly.

'Oh? What's wrong, Malfoy?'

'It's dryness!' Draco snapped. 'When the eyes aren't-- aren't wet, they get dry.' Absolutely incredible. To think of his IQ. He might as well be a Slytherin. 'And so I'm taking potions. To make them wet.'

Potter wasn't grinning anymore. He was looking at Draco very intently.

'Okay,' Potter said slowly.

'So-- so that's why they were like that, that's why my eyes looked like that just now,' Draco spoke quickly now. He had things to do, books to return, essays to write, other books to read, pillows to scream into.

'Look like what?'

'Glazed over,' Draco said impatiently. 'When the eyes get dry, they look glazed over. Eyes are very delicate, Potter, they need constant lubrication or else they can get, well, dry. Fuck. 'And itchy.' Fuck. 'And so just now when I was staring at you, I mean gazing at you, I mean I was not gazing, not gazing.' Fuck. Oh, fuck. 'I think gazing requires more and very intense looking, like in Astronomy? With stars? Through a telescope.' Astronomical fuck.

Potter's grin was back. It was so...so salacious. And evil. Really, Slytherins were all so terrible and perverted and...so bad. Bad people.

Draco's back hit the wall. What. How why? Well, okay, but only because his knees were shaking and he really, really needed the support.

Potter needed the support too, apparently, because he planted one hand on the wall. Right next to Draco's head.

Draco's eyes darted, without permission, to look at the hand. Wide hand, very big. Hairy knuckles. Bitten nails with dirt under them. So uncouth, honestly. Yuck, bleurgh oh Potter's face was very close.

Draco hugged his book very tightly because he needed comfort he needed strength Potter looked very strong, he was always flying, my god Potter's chest had to be, what, 45 inches wide?

'Malfoy,' Potter purred. He was so repulsive, honestly, whose voice sounds like that, maybe Draco should punch him in the throat. 'Are all you Ravenclaws this cute?'

Maybe Draco would punch him in the throat over his Adam's apple, his neck was really elegant actually, Potter had excellent bone structure.

'I really am curious because you're the only nerd-- er, Ravenclaw I ever look at. I mean, gaze at.'

Potter's dirty, dirty smirk, his other big hand in his pocket, ugh such a reprehensible lack of manners.

'But I can still say that, you are, by far, the cutest nerd-o-claw in the whole damn school,' Potter reached up and touched the tip of Draco's nose. 'Boop,' he said softly.

Potter had touched Draco's face. Just like that. And he had said the word "boop". His chest was definitely at least 38 inches broad, exactly 38, Draco was ready to wager and my god did Potter never get a haircut? How did one read with such masses of hair in one's green eyes all the time.

'But then you know that,' said Potter. 'You've always known that.'

Broad chest, dry eyes, very nice neck, late library book - yes good, a comprehensive list.

'I've been telling you for years,' Potter murmured with a little tilt of his head.

He leaned right in and pressed a kiss to Draco's cheek.

'If only you paid attention, Malfoy,' Potter frowned, but his eyes twinkled, 'Tut tut. Some Ravenclaw.'

Potter shook his head and backed away. Still shaking his head he winked at Draco. Then he walked off, throat bobbing with laughter.

'Later, sweetheart,' he chimed over his shoulder.

Pince was going to drain the Malfoy vaults. It really had to be illegal.

Illegal.

(Part 2)

lost my words again

He squints. “Mike?” “Hey,” Mike replies, feeling like a nutcase. He’s still holding onto his bike handles. “We – um, fancy meeting you here.” Will stares at him. His hair is progressively getting wetter. “I live here."

A sudden epiphany brings a confession in the rain.

After a year's hiatus, we are hoping to bring back "krisnix week" or a similar krisnix event for 2024. This is the initial interest check to gauge people's opinions on rough scheduling and what the event would look like. We expect to do another interest check in a month or so that will help tie down specific dates and finalize prompts (if any).

If you think you might be interested, we encourage you to share your thoughts on the survey before it closes on May 4, 2024 at 11:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

hi this isn't a question i just desperately need to tell you how much zero sum game ruined me and put me back together again. lurking mental illness and suicidality under shit circumstances, physical disability, mental and physical scars, constantly fighting off the ptsd and having to learn how to cope in ways that don't hurt other people so you can hang onto the person that makes it all worth it. it's everything i've gone through, right down to soul destroying and healing intimacy, at first to feel pain and then to attempt feeling truly good for the first time. zero sum is undoubtedly going to be one of those artworks i can never shake off my psyche in the best way, like an abstract background hug for my heart. thank you so much for taking so many scary themes to tackle and packaging them so beautifully, i really needed that lately.

sincerely, a previous battle of the bands fan who is now absorbing your entire oeuvre into their personality.

first i want to thank you profusely for sending me this. thank you for sharing your own experience, and your own pain. i know thats not easy and i'm some random person but honestly reading this makes me feel not so alone in the world. of course, thank you for reading, but also for relaying that you felt seen by it. i always feel so silly because its a my hero academia fanfiction but, with all sincerity, words like yours are what make writing it worth it.

zero-sum is sincerely my favorite thing i've ever written and probably always will be. not because i think the plot is awesome or the physics stuff was cool (EVEN THOUGH I STILL THINK THOSE THINGS ARE TRUE) but because its the first time i was able to write about my own personal experiences with mental illness (heavily projected onto Katsuki and Izuku, lmao) in over ten years.

Okay fair warning i am going to overshare under the cut so please feel free to stop reading also I love you and cherish you and appreciate you thank you so so so much for sending this

i'm sharing this because, at some point, i needed to read this. maybe someone will stumble on to it and realize something. maybe not. maybe its just another way for me to continue to process what happened. i think i'll always be processing it. mental illness is a bitch

when things got really bad for me (the first time around) i stopped writing completely. at that time, i truly, from the bottom of my heart, believed that my disorder was the only thing that made my writing interesting. that if i was to recover, that means i could no longer do the only thing i was good for. unironically, writing was actually a major barrier to my recovery for some time.

writing, the thing i loved most in the world, started heavily triggering me.

so i stopped.

the problem was, i heavily romanticized what i was going through in my writing. i made the suffering 'beautiful.' by thinking it was beautiful, i was trapping myself in a loop of self-destruction.

they say, 'write what you know.' but all i knew was misery. so misery was what i wrote.

romanticizing your pain is something i think we all do. sometimes you have to. its a survival mechanism. if the pain is 'beautiful,' then its 'tolerable' to go through.

what no one really tells you about mental illness is that its really, really fucking lonely.

what no one tells you about recovery is, its even lonelier. its the most isolating thing in the world. everything you relied on, everything you thought to be true, the way you interact with the world completely changes.

things are always going to be different. you can't go back to who you were before.

what i did do, when i went into recovery, was read the very few published books about people with (disorder) who recovered. over and over and over again. i needed something to latch on to. anything. i needed to believe it was possible. i needed to believe people like me survived. that they could find happiness. that they could find love. that there is space in this world for people as broken as me.

i dont know. zero-sum, to me, was a love letter to that 19 year old kid that hit her (first) rock bottom. i pretended she didn't exist because it hurt too much to think about her. but what she needed to know, then, that recovering, no matter how difficult, was worth it. that life can and WILL get better. that she will one day wake up every morning and think 'fuck. i'm so glad i'm alive.' that even people like her can find happiness.

that one day, many years later, embarrassed, she'll show her scars to a person she just started dating. that he'll sheepishly show her his. that they'll exchange police reports like love letters. she'll learn that there are people out there that understand her. have felt her same pain. have lived through the same hell. she'll learn that survival is sometimes based on hope, and sometimes based on spite.

but is, despite it all, always worth it.

she'll learn that her suffering does not preclude her from love and connection and happiness.

that one day, she won't feel so alone.

and that one day, she'll be able to sit down at her computer and write about it. maybe it will be in the form of my hero academia fanfiction lmao but that doesn't make it any less real.

maybe it will reach someone. maybe it won't.

but one day, she'll be able to do the thing she loved more than anything in the world again, because nothing is ever truly lost.

there is a future worth fighting for.

1, 5, 7, 10, 16 and 34 for Rooney and Yorinobu

Thank you for indulging me on this! I just love them so much.

1. What, specifically, was the catalyst for their physical attraction (if applicable) to the other character? In other words, what in particular had them like “Oh, they’re…hot…”

Rooney realizes they think Yorinobu is hot when they're working on a motorcycle together. Rooney has a thing for hands, and watching him work gives Rooney an ‘Oh shit, I think this guy is hot’ moment. However, they immediately push that thought away and are like 'I have to be normal'.

Yorinobu realizes it when watching Rooney during one of their sparring sessions. He is watching them practice with their monowires and realizes that he thinks Rooney is hot. When Rooney asks him what he is doing, Yorinobu tells them he’s admiring the view which elicits eye-rolling and blushing from Rooney.

5. How do they consciously realize that they like the other character? Does it take them a while?

Rooney is very dense when it comes to their romantic feelings. They tend to rationalize any feelings of romance as a strong friendship. It takes Rooney a while to realize it, but they get there.

Yorinobu figures out his feelings faster but downplays them. It only hits him that he's really fallen for them when Rooney talks about returning to the military. All he can think is how much he would like them to stay.

7. Do they (or would they) pursue the other character’s affection, and if so, how? Do they tell the other character how they feel? Try to earn their admiration? Woo them with romantic gestures? Flirt with them, skillfully or otherwise?

Rooney isn’t the type to overtly pursue affection. They’re more playful with Yorinobu, allowing him to see the softer parts of themself. Rooney knows it’s a bit cowardly, but they aren’t the type to tell someone how they feel unless they are absolutely sure about the other person's feelings.

Yorinobu, meanwhile, is absolutely flirting with them. He has to be more straightforward with his flirting because he realizes Rooney is oblivious to most flirting attempts. Yorinobu shows off with romantic gestures until Rooney tells him that he doesn’t need to show off, just to be himself.

10. What scares them about entering a relationship?

For Rooney, it's letting someone in. They lost their family and whole town when they were 16. When they were 21, they lost their whole squad to an AI. On top of that, they're a veteran of the Unification War, where they lost so many friends. Even though they can be open with others, it can be hard for Rooney to truly people in. When they realize that they want a relationship with Yorinobu, Rooney realizes they have to be open, which means risking getting hurt. (It’s a choice that Rooney does not regret.) When they meet Yorinobu in Night City, they’re worried about hurting him again and protecting V.

For Yorinobu, he worries about his father meddling in the relationship. In Saburo's eyes, Rooney Shepard is a weapon, an expensive investment, not some toy for his son to play with. When Saburo is alive, Yorinobu worries that he'll find some way to drive Rooney away, or if that doesn't work, making sure they leave. When he meets Rooney again in Night City, Yorinbou’s only fear is losing Rooney again.

16. If they had the ability to just spend free time with their partner, what would they do? Would they go out or stay inside?

Depends. If it’s somewhere Rooney’s never been, Yorinobu wants to show them all his favorite places, especially when Rooney visits Tokyo for the first time. (And Rooney loves this. They've always wanted to travel the world.) But if the two just want a quiet day together, they’ll just spend time curled up together, catching up on the rest both of them desperately need, or working on motorcycles. One of the first things Rooney and Yorinobu bonded is a shared love of working on motorcycles, and they enjoy working on a fixer-upper together.

34. Under what circumstances would they feel protective?

Both feel protective when the other person is physically in danger. However, Yorinobu acknowledges that Rooney is more than capable of defending themself.

Besides that, Rooney feels protective of Yorinobu when people are unfairly dismissive of him. (Although, Rooney can't help him with the nepo baby allegations, lol.) Yorinobu gets protective over Rooney when people tend to be shitty to them about their background. (Mainly that they aren't of the same social standing.)

pokeani moments that exist purely to make Me miserable:

the line where they call ash's oshawott a throwaway pokemon in the unova league so they're just flat out saying they think it's a worthless pokemon

to thine own pokemon be true (extra angst points for me bc ambipom was my second favorite on the team at the time)

the granddaughter of the guy who trains gliscor calling gliscor pathetic and weak to her face despite gliscor being an extremely sensitive pokemon

pretty much everything about that gible

blue episode (favorite color but they made it a fetish somehow and also dewott and brionne and meowstic are all there and its so bad)

boxing heracross immediately. also that battle frontier episode where it's literally the only returning ash mon (barring torkoal i think but i dont count it bc its native to AG) to get humiliated onscreen

pidgeot returning but gliscor didn't even show up in the miniseries despite being an Actual Character

absolutely dragging myself through my last essay rn. gripping the sink staring at my shattered reflection its literally just words bro you use them all the time

recently ive become a mawarin meki childhood friends truther and i cant wait to write a whole bunch of it

they were clearly already friends before tanuki came into the picture but i like the idea that it goes back further and mawarin was the first to reach out and that while these two were the popular ones of the friend group in highschool they were also weird kids once (they're still both pretty weird. nothing about this friendship group is normal)

like mawarin is pretty good at holding in the things that make her different from other people (to the extent she seems like a normal friendly girl that could get along with anybody) but I keep thinking abt the idea of meki being kind of a loner for ages and being shunned by his classmates and stuff. after a point he probably wouldnt care but mawarin seems like the type to reach out even if she knows it could get complicated cause of her bad luck curse/non curse situation. like shes so much of a sunshine character its kind of hard to dim that kind of light. anyway I feel like even if she got deterred by the people around her she WOULD go up and make friends with the weird kid, and WOULD go do that again a second time no matter what (even if the latter is the type of guy who hisses at people).

plus its a good intersection of the traits of like

- meki is noted specifically as having a rough time growing up from being sick, spiritual nonsense and also the whole Situation (which I am choosing to interpret as trans stuff but like in general)

- watanuki being the latecomer to the friend group, and also notably a lot more of a loner rather than the popular type so he was probably adopted into a preexisting friendship at some point

I just like the idea that mawarin has an affinity for bringing weird kids out of their respective shells and that all three of them kinda see themselves in each other as individuals and a group bcs it adds an added layer of sentimentality to what's already been established. and its very found family vibes. I rly like the framework of what's already there in canon but my brain wants to make it even more compelling so it comes uff with stuff like this out of nowhere lol

anyway imagine if mekis mind was already set after the rain incident but himawari comes up to him one day like 'so like theres this kid in our year with no friends and i think he needs somebody cause he keeps eating alone at lunch can we keep him' 😭 like he's some sort of cat in need (he is) (thats exactly what he is)

and doumeki immediately is like yeah go for it (hes already had a life altering experience and at this point without himawari even knowing he's basically ride or die for the guy at first sight)

i like the idea that this like a lot of other things in the story is cyclical idk how to end this thought anyway this probably doesn't make sense im sick and thinking about holic is a good distraction

my version of centipede man? we call him 10 inch dick man and every time i go over i learn something cursed. here is a collection of facts: he went to college on a bass fishing scholarship, he is only 5’10, if u scratch his head he falls asleep, his brother is in prison. i am haunted by the things he says while fucking bc for every hot sentence he says something equally as cursed. this weekend it was “i’m so hungover im gonna throw up” but the week before it was “what are you this fuckin wet for” I’m sorry to burden u with this knowledge

ANON THIS IS ABSOLUTELY KILLING MEELSKFDLK

TICK TICK BOOM - By ChasetheWindTouchtheSky

ao3 link | 31k | S6 Spec

“Did you know if you put a frog in water and slowly bring it to boiling, it won’t hop out?” Chris is chattering as Buck makes a quick dinner while Eddie argues with his gas company on the phone. He can hear the occasional swear word in Spanish as his voice raises. Eddie doesn’t like to raise his voice around Christopher – the very thought makes Buck want to kiss him full on the mouth – so he decided to take it to the living room while Chris sits with his homework in the kitchen and Buck cooks.

“Hmm?” Buck asks, unable to fully pull himself out of Bobby’s baked mac and cheese recipe. It took him years, but he finally convinced the man to write it down. Bobby’s handwriting was juvenile at best on a good day, but this was nearly unreadable. Buck wonders if he did that on purpose. “Frogs?”

“Yeah!” Chris states. “My teacher said that if you put a frog in a pot, you have to make sure it’s not immediately boiling. You put them in water and then slowly raise the temperature and they won’t realize what’s happening. Then once they realize, they have no place to go. They can’t jump out.”

*

S6 Spec: Buck decides he doesn’t need therapy, reverts to some bad habits, and explodes. Or, the Breakdown Fic.

So, I plan to write that Hazama-centric fic I've been teasing soon, and was curious; what's on your wishlist for this story?

This is the first time I've ever been asked smth like this lolol.

Idk if I have a whole wish list, but I'm really excited to see how you handle Hazama experiencing true heartbreak and his reaction to it (maybe not the right phrase to use when talking about a guy who has a hole where his heart should be but you get what i mean lol). Like would he react to it the same way as physical pain, or would it take a bit longer for him to process??

I thought I had more, but I think I forgot, sorry! If it comes back to me, I'll def PM you! Thank you so much for the ask!

i haven't been this excited to draw in so long and of course it's of The gay people

🐸 (for the ask game)

🐸 What do you wish people who don't craft understood better? That crafting things is not usually cheaper than buying them, and that it takes a lot of time and effort to make things But also, one specific non-crafter pet peeve. Like, literally I have had this problem with one person: making someone a beanie is not a way of asking for some kind of committed relationship. There was this guy I was good friends with in high school, and we lost touch for a year or two afterwards, and then he reached out to me on facebook. We chatted a bunch, and (crucially) this was after I started crocheting but before I figured out what to actually do with the stuff I crocheted. He talked about it being cold where he was living compared to where we both grew up, so I offered to crochet him a beanie, and we'd been talking about pokemon and our favorite eeveelutions a lot, so I offered to send him an amigurumi espeon To me, this was a combo of "I make a LOT of things all the time*", "I have zero use for beanies it never gets below like 60 degrees here", and "hey eeveelutions sound fun to make but I have no desire or space to keep them", which combined with "hey! a person I can give these to! Give him something he likes, get things I've made out of my house so I'm not overrun, win-win!" To him, this was "I am spending a lot of time and effort to make something especially for you, after giving you a nickname important to my culture**, clearly I expect our relationship to progress after this" He stopped talking to me. For years. Because I'd offered to make him a beanie and an espeon. He told me the offer of the beanie made him uncomfortable? Which, like, fair, if it made him uncomfortable I am glad he let me know and drew a boundary, but I am still baffled. So I guess the thing I wish non-crafters understood better is that, while gifting someone something you made can be a big deal, it can also be not a big deal at all. I have literally given more beanies to strangers than I have to people I know (I donate them to a local shelter) OH MY GOSH I just realized I sweater cursed myself but with a beanie with someone I wasn't dating lol. The unsweater unboyfriend curse *I cannot sit still unless I am doing something, and I found making physical objects is very very good for my mental health so I am pretty much always making something and have been since like...2012ish? 2011? Definitely since 2013, but I'm pretty sure it started earlier than that **It wasn't. He gave me a nickname around the same time I briefly interacted with my bio grandpa, who is Russian. The association with my bio grandpa did not last long (like...one visit) but I learned and really liked the word solnyshko (it means "sunshine" but is used like "sweetheart" and I think that's cute). I also really liked the word "chickadee" as a nickname/term of endearment at the time so like...it was 50/50 which one I was going to use? I'd never really been given a nickname before but figured it was the sort of thing I was supposed to reciprocate

hi I saw your tags on the musicals poll and im kind of curious about the homophobia comment at the end. is there homophobia in cats? or the cats movie? sorry i only know a little about cats in general

Hey! I'm terrible at explaining things, I really am, but I mean a lot of people who don't like Cats (not *everyone* but a lot), well it comes from a lot.... Homophobic roots. They think its weird, there's "no plot", they think the costumes are strange and they just want to not like it, but a part of them not liking it is inherent homophobia because a lot (and I mean A LOT) of queer people LOVE Cats. Not only that but majority of the actors/actresses who perform in Cats are not straight/ are gender nonconforming. And when you watch Cats, it is unashamedly gay as fuck, either in subtext or context, you can't watch that musical and think everyone performing in it is straight (unless you closed your eyes the entire time). Its in your face about it, even with Rum Tum Tugger, who is portrayed as a womanizer, is hinted at having a romantic relationship with another male character, Mr. Mistoffelees (and sometimes the actors even choose to kiss during Tugger's number, thats how in the face it can be sometimes). And that is just ONE example, I could pull out 50 more.

So you're looking at a lot of LGBTQIA+ people loving this weird and fun musical and some who are performing in this show and you (ambiguous you, not YOU specifically) think its gross and weird. You think the people who like it are strange. The people who are, again, mostly queer.

Its like how a lot of people think furries are gross and weird, and its really telling when majority of furries are people in the queer community, you know what I mean? And you immediately look at furries as a weird sex kink (when its not, it really isn't. Most furries I've met are actually asexual, and I used to go to furry cons all the time, some of the nicest people I've ever met who actually don't appreciate being sexualized).

AND HEY let me clarify that you can hate Cats and NOT be homophobic. Cats isn't everyone's cup of tea, I get it, it IS weird, I'm not saying you have to like Cats or you're being homophobic. I'm a huge Cats fan but I can see a lot (a loooot) of reasons why someone wouldn't like Cats. But there is a certain subset of people (in theatre and out of it) who do not like it for unfortunate reasons, who look at it and see all these queer people in it and immediately don't like it because of that.

Also yes the 2019 Cats movie is super homophobic (imo) and I hate it. It goes out of its way to be SUPER straight, like its overcompensating for its source material being very gay.

Its just a shame that musical theatre fans will be like "We are such a unique group and everyone is valid we love all art here!" and then the second someone says they loves Cats they're like "That show is so weird! Why do you like it? You must like it IRONICALLY, thats the only explanation! IT SUCKS, WHY DO YOU LIKE IT"

And a lot of musical theatre fans will claim its a shame that certain stage actors were in Cats! Why is it a shame? Why do you not like this actor being in Cats?

A huge amount of people don't like Cats because when they think of Cats, they immediately relate it to queer people.

Anyway, thats about all I have to say about that.

trying to distract myself from the very real fears i have about vol 2 by thinking about a ronance veronica mars au. 

the story always starts the same. barb dies at the first blush of sixteen and nancy’s life shutters to stop. it’s senior year now, and around her everyone is making plans for their future, but nancy is stuck living in the past, haunted by the ghost of her dead best friend that everyone is too happy to have forgotten about.

then we have hopper, a washed up police chief with a drinking problem who barb’s parents hire as private investigator. nancy would, of course, con her way into being his assistant for access to barb’s investigation. (plus i love the idea of innocent, suburban good girl nancy wheeler sneaking out of her house at night and going around hawkins terrorizing people while hopper just sighs tiredly in the background)

but peace in hawkins only lasts so long, even without supernatural disturbances, and teens start dying again.

when eddie munson is named as suspect #1, nancy doesn’t think much of it. there’s little to connect chrissy cunningham and barbara holland’s deaths. but when her brother comes to her with his big pleading eyes and claims eddie’s innocent, c’mon nance, don’t you believe me? she finds that she does. and of course it makes sense her brother and her friends are mixed up with eddie munson. she’s more surprised to see her ex and his weird friend getting involved.

and while this nancy is really more of a solo act, steve and mike get all wide-eyed and worried and there’s someone out there offing high school girls, you really shouldn’t be wondering around on your own and that’s how nancy gets stuck with robin buckley, certified disaster who never stops talking and insults everyone without prejudice, who keeps looking at nancy like she’s waiting for nancy to laugh at her terrible jokes and it feels a little too close to how barb used to look at her and -

she was my friend, too, y’know robin tells nancy, one day, soft like the confession cost something, and nancy didn’t know that, or didn’t want to remember that. you weren’t the only one who lost someone.

(nancy is starting to suspect she lost more than just barb that day.)

and in between the casual breaking and entering and some light larceny, robin starts to take the shape of a friend. or something friend-like. robin does things like remembers how nancy likes her coffee, and shows up unannounced to hang around hopper’s while nancy works and never feels like the distraction she is. it makes nancy’s chest sharp.

and then fred benson’s body is dumped at nancy’s front door.

it’s as clear a warning as any, but all it does is piss nancy off. this bastard has stolen so much from her already. she’s going to be the one to put a bullet between his eyes.

and robin is right there, unusually calm in the face of nancy’s thunder. robin’s hand is a little sweaty and bigger than nancy’s, but she slots her fingers between nancy’s like she has the right to and swears she’s with nancy, whatever happens. it’s the sort of vow begging to be broken, but nancy is tired of being so alone.

the first time nancy kisses robin, they’re both soaked with terror, trembling from the relief of a near miss. she does it so she can blame it on the rush of adrenaline, but she’s never as good at lying to herself as she is to everyone else, and she’s been thinking about using her mouth to shut robin up for weeks now.

their only real connection is a misplaced loyalty to a dead girl. and there’s still a killer out there, painting a bloody target over nancy’s life. she isn’t even sure if she remembers how to be a part of the living anymore. but robin kisses her back like tomorrow is promised and nancy thinks it may be worth it to try again.

So @grapejuicegay asked about the colour theory of Teacher Sani and Waree wearing blue and red repectively during the scene where the protestors fake/doll body is burned. I theorised that red stood for progress and change (and generally Ayan), while blue is clearly for Suppalo, tradition and opression. So why would Sani wear blue and Waree red in this fairly pivotal scene? Honestly, I don't think its hugely clear but I'm giving it a guess.

(I go through about 4 hours of research into Thai clothing and colour theory and this post gets long so I'm warning you now.)

In terms of Teacher Waree, the colour of her clothes doesn't seem to matter hugely, its constantly changing and always very vivid colours, but the style stays almost exactly the same. The fabric and cut of her clothes are always almost identical, and are a take on traditional clothing.

Wait, hold up, I started doing a little research to find out more about this style of traditional clothing and it's fascinating. (Before we get into this, for age reference, the actress that plays Waree was born in 1980) So, in 1932, Field Marshal Plaek (yes, that Field Marshall Plaek, who Waree gave us a class on, more on this later) was one of the leaders in part of the People's Party who stage a coup and overthrew the absolute monarchy to create a "constitutional monarchy" where a government and the monarchy work together. In 1938 he becomes the Prime Minister and, as The Eclipse points out, this guy was a military dictator and the monarchy's power was pretty much wiped out. During this term in office, from 1938-1944, he set up some cultural mandates known as the Thai Cultural Revolution, one of which was about Thai dress, in an attempt to modernize and westernize them. From wiki:

"Appropriate dress for Thai people consists of:

"Uniforms, as position and opportunity permits;

"Polite international-style attire;

"Polite traditional attire."

He becomes Prime Minister again for 1948-1957, during which a new King and Queen are sworn in. In the 1960's they feel the need to also try to reform Thai dress. The Queen creates a national Thai costume with 8 separate outfits for women in an attempt to create unity in the Thai identity. One of which is the Thai Chitlada:

One article I read talked about this style being somewhat similar to a men's traditional outfit. Described as "A mandarin-collared, five-button jacket, the Rajpattern was inspired by colonial British dignitaries' style (the biggest of yikes) and brought to Thailand through India". Similar to a Nehru jacket.

Which is wild, on one hand you have a dictator who is all for Thai nationalism trying to modernize clothing by Westernizing it who gets kicked out of his position. On the other a Queen using the help of a French designer to create traditional-inspired modern Thai clothes based on fabrics of extant garments from the Royal Treasury, but with some of the style influenced by uhh.. the british military? If anyone knows more please feel free to tell me, my ask box is always open and my mind is always empty. This is literally a 1am rabbithole of wikipedia and fashion blogs.

Back to Teacher Waree! When she's talking about Plaek and uniforms to the students, Ayan asks her if she thinks students should still wear uniforms to which she says yes, to maintain orderliness. Which is funny to me because she is someone who is wearing probably overly formal clothing in a school which seemingly has some sort of black uniform that she.. doesn't wear. Literally just "I like uniforms" "so does dictator Plaek" "well, I don't wear them!".

So, I feel like generally her outfits are made in a style that represents traditional views, and perhaps the colours are more in line with "traditional femininity". Except that one flashback where they're interviewing Sani for the job and Waree is wearing a Suppalo Suit and honestly maybe they just knew seeing her in actual suits would be too much for my gay brain to handle bc she's just so hot.

(them mad ms paint skillz)

(Took a break, painted some walls, lost power due to a storm, came back probably loopy from paint fumes and tiredness.. bon appetit)

So, for Teacher Sani, she tends to wear fairly neutral colours: white, light pink, black, and green but she does have a pale blue suit and a dark blue/navy one which she wears when Wat starts talking to her about being unhappy and wanting to make films. As she walks away after talking to Wat you can see she's wearing heels that are black but with a red sole. like a Louboutin (bottom right, if you squint).

So I think her wearing a fair amount of red and blue is probably to show her inner conflict between following Suppalo's rules and wanting change/desire to help the students. She's sometimes show physically on the side of the students, standing with them and often against Chadok.

Which is also the case during the doll burning where she's standing with the protestors and against Chadok and Waree. Interestingly, Thua and Namo are both standing beside Chadok, so a point towards the theory of either or both of them being the second Suppalo curse executer.

Also she's always shown wearing a star necklace. I don't know that that has any specific relevance to the plot but it carries on the planet aesthetic and it's very cute.

One last thing I looked up was the use of colour in Thai culture, and there's a specific difference between blue, light blue, and dark blue and also a difference between red and orange-red. (Decide for yourself if Waree's one red outfit veers more towards the orange-red spectrum. Pls ignore my insane editing of these images though.) These also correspond to specific days with some colours being lucky or unlucky on certain days and different on others. For example, on Sunday, red is lucky and blue is unlucky. Blue is never lucky, but light blue is. The same article says that "Color symbolism in Thailand is heavily influenced by political parties. Red is connected to the People’s Alliance for Democracy. The party is against monarchy and promotes democracy. This party’s followers wear red color clothing during demonstrations and public gatherings to show their support. " So they really were not being subtle at all with these choices.

Some final thoughts, Sani usually pairs her blue suit with a dark red lipstick, which I love.

Also when she first joins the school she seems to be wearing more neutral colours and gets pulled more towards blue and red as she goes. One of the first times she joins the other teachers she's wearing white while everyone else is wearing black except Waree in her bright pink. Also, and its very hard to get a picture of, the female teachers all have pink or light purple rectangle lunchboxes, while the male teachers all have blue or green rectangle lunchboxes. Except Sani who has one of those stackable round ones in plain metal AND Waree who has a similar round one but with a blue floral design.

So there's the similar lunchboxes and both of them wearing multiple of the same outfits in block colours, with Waree's being vibrant and Sani's typically being more muted. If Chadok is who Akk could become if he stays in this system, I'd wager that Waree is who Sani could become if she also bends to this school's will.

Finally, let's just have a moment for the prettiest of all the outfits so far: