#oh yay no matter how much i played in other fandoms
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Yay, my first ever ask to someone!
Because I know you love him as much as I do, I'm sure you'll probably won't even have to think very long about the answers: Of course, I'm choosing Duke for the character ask game :D
I'd be very much interested in 4, 9, 10, 11, 21, 22, 24 – but of course, choose wichever ones you like or make it everything <3
And for the freebie question a little headcanon: What would be a typical phrase you imagine him saying all the time?
OMG Honored to be your first! <3 <3 <3 And you're right, I always love talking about Duke. Sincerely shocked how little attention he gets overall. And as predicted, I answered way more questions than you asked lol. Enjoy!
3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?
The cheerleaders. I just, oh boy, wow. Please tell me those girls put those uniforms on themselves and he didn't ask them to. That would be so cringe. >.<
4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?
So, his English VA, Marc Thompson, does the audiobooks for the Star Wars "Fate of the Jedi" book series that my husband and I are listening to, so I find myself frequently picturing Duke in Star Wars outfits during my Duke Devlin Star Wars Storytime. XD
5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?
Cherry Pie by Warrant, cause I imagine him jamming out to it in his classic car. See also Question 12.
7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?
Fandom doesn't do enough with him for me to have an answer to this question, but I have seen people giving him new outfits, which I adore. Yes, dress this boy up, he loves it!
8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?
Yes, I appreciate the YGOTAS theme song jokes as much as the next dude, but if you try to find Duke scenes on Youtube, that's all you can find. :(
9. Could you be roommates with this character?
Absolutely. I headcanon that he's really tidy with his personal space, and we could take turns making dinner (thank you Season Four for telling us that he's a good cook).
10. Could you be best friends with this character?
Quite possibly, yeah. I have some creative indie side projects of my own, and I feel like he'd have good feedback if I needed another set of eyes on some new character designs or plot-points. I will also be hitting him up for haircare tips all the time lol.
11. Would you date this character?
If I weren't married and I had a chance, absolutely yes. Don't know if it would work out long-term, but it would be fun.
12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?
I headcanon that he's a big Adam Lambert fan and sings his music in the shower (and everywhere else he sings). Try listening to the Adam Lambert cover of Holding Out For A Hero and try telling me it doesn't have Duke-like levels of drama and flare, I dare you. Other AL songs I think he'd specifically jam to are Fever, Strut, The Light, and Pop That Lock. I don't always have headcanons for a character's taste in music, but I just get really strong vibes on what he's into. I also think he'd listen to a lot of classic rock.
Another few songs that will go on my Duke playlist when I get around to making it: You Put A Spell On Me and Dangerous Hands both by Austin Giorgio, Fangs by Neoni, 100 degrees by Kenzie, basically everything by Steven Rodriguez (there's not a lot, but it's all so sexy), and Play With Fire by Sam Tinnesz ft. Yacht Money.
Okay, I admit defeat, Duke Devlin Playlist Post coming soon. (Songs he listens to, not songs about him.)
15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)
I'm not going to pick just one, I can't, but I'll give you my top ships: Mastershipping (Kaiba), Minorshipping (Ryou), Snareshipping (Joey). Poly ships: Mumbleshipping (Kaiba + Ryou), Rollshipping (Joey + Ryou), and Petshipping (Kaiba + Joey). Okay, that's just... all my Duke ships. XD But they're all so good!
I'm intrigued by the idea of Ishizu x Duke, which doesn't have a name. I'm not sure they really know what to make of each other, but I think that keeps them intrigued with each other. I think a first date with them, or even just a flirting scene, could be real fun. She's serious and scholarly, he's fun and free-spirited. They could balance each other.
16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?
Him and Tristan, Chaseshipping I think. I think they could be friends just fine, I just don't see the chemistry there.
20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?
I'm leaving out ship characters for the sake of this question.
I actually think he and Mai could be really good pals, they'd go shopping and talk about bfs/gfs and have a good time. They also both own convertibles, so you know they have some of the same tastes.
21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?
One thing that's always fun for me is Duke's flirting. Can't say I'm a master of writing flirtation, but I do my best to make Duke look like a master of it, because he is. I do generally just love writing him so much, though. He's one of the least angsty characters that I write, so he always puts me in a happier headspace.
In my fic Rock Bottom, he's a solid friend to Seto without being too nosy, which Seto appreciates so much. They understand each other on an intellectual level, but even after Seto's like "no thanks" to a relationship, Duke makes it clear that he's always free to change his mind in a no-pressure way. He's supportive but not nosy. I've got a chapter coming up (spoilers) in RB Season Three where Seto just needs somewhere to chill and lay low, hide from reality, and Duke's like, "I won't say a word to anyone that you're here, it's fine, no explanation needed, just take a deep breath pal." Doesn't ask what's going on, just takes him in for the night. (Also negotiates him into cuddles, but that's separate lol.)
He's just there for people, doesn't need answers (unless things are bad enough that some kind of involvement is just necessary).
22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?
I like when people fill out the details of him balancing his responsibilities between his game shop and managing DDM, or flesh out his relationship with Pegasus even if it's not central to the story. There's just so much more to this boy that we don't get to see, and that stuff just feels like such a necessary backdrop to the rest of his life.
23. Favorite picture(s) of this character?
DSOD did this boy right. He's just so pretty. :')
But also, look at this boy pretending to read while he eavesdrops. And he set up that hammock so dang high off the ground? Looking down on everybody? No, boy has the high ground, tactical advantage. I love him.
And wait, what's that? The most Mastershipping moment in the entire anime, you say? Show me!
Oh. Oh dear. ;P But, for so many reasons, I'll genuinely never get over this scene.
24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?
I'm gonna try to stick to canon behaviors and traits for this and not let headcanons influence it too much.
ZEN/Hyun Ryu from Mystic Messenger has the same "I'm pretty and I know it" vibe as Duke and shares the casual-but-constant flirting behavior (also ponytail bros). This is a fun comparison for me because their hair and eye colors are also exact opposites.
From Nanbaka, I'd have to go with Uno, who can be abrasive at times with his enemies/rivals, doesn't let his friends fight alone, and shares the "ladies love me, I know I'm pretty, look at how well I take care of my luscious long hair" confident attitude. Also like Duke, there's a good few times where a friend is doing something/rash or unwise, and he tries to talk reason to them. Also obsessed with games, so they have that hobby in common. He also compulsively flirts with every woman in the vicinity (except the warden, because she's terrifying and he knows better). Real smooth operator, even with the dudes.
From UtaPri, I'd have to go with Ren Jinguji. Look, they're even hammock bros! Exceptionally confident, but also a bit mysterious. Flirty with the ladies, not that he even needs to try that hard. Actually pretty laid back and down to earth most of the time.
He also just moves the way I imagine Duke moving, with that fluid grace of a man's who's totally comfortable in his own skin. Just look at him!!!! LOOK AT THE HIP! *chefs kiss*
Another thing all these boys have in common is a strong fashion sense in addition to a strong sense of showmanship (ZEN as an actor and Ren as an idol, this is obvious, but Uno just can't help showing off lol), two great traits that Duke also has.
26. FREEBIE QUESTION!!
Honestly, I can imagine him using "yo" a lot, not exactly a phrase, but a slang term. If anyone tells him something like "that's not cool anymore" he just responds with "it is when I say it ;)"
If we're leaning into my headcanons of him as a good cook, maybe he sometimes uses "now we're cooking with gas!" He probably has to explain this to Tristan and/or Joey, which launches him into the discussion of gas vs electric stoves. He's a strong believer in gas stoves being superior. I wouldn't say he's a snob when it comes to cooking, but there's certain things in the kitchen that he has a strong opinion on.
Bonus Headcanon
Duke Devlin's top Halloween Costumes: some kind of imp/demon/devil (let your imagination run wild with this one, because he definitely did), one of his Monster World OCs, the Phantom of the Opera, vampire, ninja.
#ask#answered ask#headcanon#duke devlin#ryuji otogi#otogi ryuji#song recommendation#musings#long post#thank you again for letting me talk about him more#i love him so much#i do recommend the “Fate of the Jedi” series to any Star Wars fans#it's good old canon stuff#theduchessofboredom
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for parkee macmeemee
1. Why do you like or dislike this character?
7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?
8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?
if you have any ships or anything (note: ik the original question is asking about romantic ships but i'd love to know about other types of relationships as well):
15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)
16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?
and if you read/write fanfiction:
21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?
22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?
HI YAY ^_^ okay
1. I like him! His hexed twice and overall bad situations has allured me. He is like a tired sopping wet cat to me. Also I kinda just like his story and past ? Doomed to leave others unstable cursed to roam around everywhere…. that one image. i just think he’s neat :D i don’t fully have a clue on why my brain latched onto him so much but he is Surely A Guy.
7. Ouh… I think it’s funny when he’s portrayed as So Damn Eternally Exhausted [he absolutely would be i do not blame him] also hm what else i Swear there’s more. hmm more tiny details but i do like it when he’s shown [in either drawn or written form] using a cane ^_^ also i do like the stitches under the eyes… neat design methinks
8. Ahh… hm. I don’t really Despise it besides just a mild dislike but I don’t think he’s mean ? Or a heel is a better wording perhaps. i don’t think he Wanted to hurt people [though let’s be honest he might’ve been glad the fireballs got incinerated i mean c’mon] or Enjoyed doing it. it is a super interesting perspective though so i’m not fully dissing on it i just personally think he’s too soft-hearted
RELATIONSHIPS. OH BABY i have A Ton of ideas now hm. i like to imagine that he’s Very Awkward and Cannot establish friendships easily [also the firewalker thing. why make friends when you’ll be launching them into the toaster anyways] so his. social pool life is rather limited.
i like to think that he Used to be friends with agan espinoza at some point? though they’ve been avoiding each other over the mutual misconception that the other hates them now. now they’re just. awkward strangers that try to stay away from each other unless it’s Necessary or an Emergency.
i think he’s friends with durham spaceman! they don’t contact each other often but they’re still buddies regardless. especially since i like to think durham showed him how to play his instrument in the first place
ALSO ALSO. coronation crabs. i think he’s friends with declan, yusef and ramirez ^_^ i imagine they get along well and frequently do tasks like laundry together to keep from getting bored. also card games
now. for the ones i’m real excited to talk about
wyatt mason x aka the max. they are so friends [and maybe more? i haven’t settled on if i think they’re platonic or romantic yet] i like to think that parker Tries to stay away from people he’s on the same team with but max. max is very insistent and stubborn on Not Letting Him Sulk Around Sadly. xe invites him to a lot of places to hangout and stuff and i like to think xe stands near him during band practice. i also like to think max bugged parker about getting another means of contact that wasn’t like. email. and they chat about almost everything but mostly music i think ^_^
tiera wigdoubt. ohh im so. tiera falls to the team and has No Idea what is going on since so much has changed since they were alive and they Immediately linger around parker because hey at least it’s someone they recognize yaknow. they bond fairly quickly [mostly from tiera trying to figure out how to Do Life again and asking parker about everything that’s changed since then] i think tiera drags parker out on the weirdest adventures ever. like exploring abandoned buildings and seeing how fast they can get kicked out of a store kinda activities. gestures around. i think they’re friends or possibly more. you get the deal
THE ALASKAN IMMORTALS!! i am so so normal. unfortunately there are So many immortals it’d take me hours to write all of what i imagine. i think he still has a good bond with the immortals [especially after clearing up the misunderstanding that they hated him] though in particular… i think parker might’ve had romantic interest in owen suzuki and crits manhattan in the past
hm. for everyone else i think he’s either acquaintances with, hasn’t met yet, used to be friends but The Reasons, or dislikes/is enemies with.
15. as for favorite ship ehh? hard to say. tied between parker/tiera and parker/max
16. well. i think this ship is interesting and so so baffling [what is Wrong with them, truly] but megan ito/parker. it doesn’t occupy as much space in my brain as the others do so unfortunately it is cast aside
21. I KNOW I’VE SAID IT PREVIOUSLY BUT CANE!!!!! PARKER USING A CANE!!!!! i love parker with cane. love it so dearly i try to incorporate as much of it as i can in fics. can’t say there’s anything i don’t like? i do get in rough spots where i can’t figure out what he’d Say or Do in dialogue and actions but the blame goes to my mind for stalling in those sentences. lately been difficult to write outside of The Life Stuff and that is my brain being melted into soup which sucks
22. it makes me overjoyed to see him be displayed as a nervous dog it’s a bit comical to me [just like me…] though i adore fics where parker befriends the teams he’s been on it’s really nice and interesting. as for something i don’t like uhh? oh yeah i know i said it before but i don’t think he’s rude. just a personal interpretation difference
#parker macmillan#blaseball#THIS TOOK ME SO LONG I HAD SO MUCH THOUGHTS#i may add on to this or expand it more in the future… but this is kinda what i think and interpret currently!#thank you so so much for the ask it was fun answering it#hmm i should have an asks tag. i think#asks#hey its simple but it gets the job done
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I'm really sorry people are being so insensitive about that post. That scene & the explanation for the arm came as a huge shock to me when I played and I thought 'this is the worst possible way they could have handled it', it's not surprising at all that it's such a major trigger and I'm so sorry you had to go in unaware of it.
On a nicer note, if you'd like to share, what have you been enjoying about TOTK so far?
thanks, i'm appreciating hearing from other people that they found it shocking too, it's reassuring, since no matter how objectively i try to assess it all, obviously my own damage shapes everything about how i see the world
but also i disengaged yesterday already and deleted the original post so i don't have to read the notes anymore, and mostly people have given up on contacting me directly when i stopped posting them... embarassed that it took me over 24 hours to remember "dont feed the trolls" but whatever
tbh i'm hesitant to even talk about my experience playing the game now, lest all the fandom kids come out of the woodwork shouting "she's still playing it, she must have been lying!" because there's no space for nuance, but yeah, i am actually enjoying the game of it...
honestly most of what i'm enjoying is that there's just a lot of game here, compared to the emptiness of botw. there are caves! puzzles! actual treasures! minigames just strewn about the world! a reason and motivation to explore beyond "oh geez, i wonder what could be up here, might it be another korok? oh look it is, yay, another korok, ya-ha-ha."
seriously, after a while in botw, you realise that pretty much the only thing you're ever going to discover anywhere you explore is a korok!
but that said.... the most enjoyable part of totk is absolutely 10,000% the little koroks that can't move because their backpacks are too gotdamn big for them gotdamn selfs!!
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Yay! I’ve been looking forward to your yellow colour analysis for Lois in Smallville!! I definitely agree that Lois being in yellow, most of the time, was done very deliberately. Once I stated paying close attention to the colours I realized that way more thought was put into Lois’ clothes than I’d been aware of before. And yeah when you pay attention the abundance of yellow props, background colours and lighting really stands out too.
Another reason I think the yellow was very deliberate is the fact that yellow isn’t used as the main or only colour in clothing all that often. Which means the costume department were deliberately sourcing all those yellow things for Lois. I think there was very little “oh this is a cute top that just happens to be yellow” happening.
I too adored Lois’ collection of super cute flannel pjs!!! And given how sexualized so much of her wardrobe tended to be it was refreshing to have her be in completely non sexualized pjs most of the time. That must have been a nice break for Erica. [sidenote the overt sexualization of so many female characters, many of them teenage girls, in this period of TV is very 😬 on rewatch. Also 😬is how much I didn’t notice it at the time, when I myself was teenage girl and young women]
I was not aware that people said that Lois was “going through” the justice league because of her relationships with a Oliver and AC. Ugh, people suck.
And “sibling dynamic”? Seriously? Do those people not have siblings? I have a brother, we do not look at each other like that! And I can tell you I would NEVER give my brother a lap dance, no matter the circumstances!! Lois and Clark’s chemistry leapt off the screen from their first episode together. Even *Lana picked up on it for goodness sake. It may have taken Lois and Clark years to get together but they were obviously attracted to each other from the very start. From Chloe to Lana to Oliver pretty much everyone saw the attraction. Except for a Lois and Clark of course!
So yeah thanks for this post, looking forward to part two!!
*I do feel bad for Clana shippers sometimes, it must have sucked to have the Clois endgame shoved in their faces so much. I mean take Exposed for example. The song playing during Lois’ striptease is Don’t Cha (wish your girlfriend was hot like me?) and Clark and Lana are dating during this time! And then there is Clark’s flirty AF “aye aye solider” right at the end of the ep. Sir! You have a girlfriend!
It took a literal age, but I got it posted 😅
The use of red/yellow/blue is so present in everything once you really start looking. I think Clark wears a yellow tshirt once or twice in the first few seasons, Martha wears yellow occasionally, and so some other characters but they definitely leaned into it for Lois, which I love.
Lois is often sexualised in a way that is often uncomfortable, there’s a difference between ‘this character likes feeling sexy and owns her sexuality’ which I think does apply to Lois, but then there’s the times that they just stick her the sexy lamp territory for the drool factor which is painfully 00’s. Which is why I do like that Lois does have her ‘standard’ clothes of shirt jeans jacket rather than all glam all the time (and the pjs! so cute!)
Fandom’s gonna fandom, but there was some really toxic stuff back in the day about Lois; that she wasn’t the ‘iconic Lois’, that she should have died and Chloe taken her name because she was more Lois-like (lol, no), that she and Clark had no chemistry/were like siblings (again, lol), slut shaming her for relationships, etc. I’m glad that doesn’t seem to be as prevalent in the fandom today.
Thanks for the message anon, I always love talking Smallville!
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I posted 19,871 times in 2021
274 posts created (1%)
19597 posts reblogged (99%)
For every post I created, I reblogged 71.5 posts.
I added 11,970 tags in 2021
#q~ - 5276 posts
#oh the things you'll see - 2498 posts
#cute fluffy things - 1335 posts
#ans - 737 posts
#obiyuki - 433 posts
#fanart - 420 posts
#hakuouki - 390 posts
#bnha - 314 posts
#storytime - 288 posts
#xd - 279 posts
Longest Tag: 138 characters
#like obi is going to go the bloody route but you know ryuu is doing mental calculations on how to poison raj next time they're in the same
My Top Posts in 2021
#5
100 notes • Posted 2021-02-23 15:54:50 GMT
#4
Everyone says that Obi doesn't have any family members, but I gotta tell you I've spent some TIME in anime land these last several months and I now have conclusive evidence that Obi not only HAS a family, but he has a rather large extended family.
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE!!
...His kid cousins (Kamitani Hayoto and Taka, Gakuen Babysitters)
His awkward-doctor cousin (Yamazaki Susumu, Hakuouki)
His nerd-jock cousin (Hyuga Junpei, Kuroko no Basket)
And, lest we forget, his ASSHOLE COUSIN 🤣 (Kai Chisaki, a.k.a. Overhaul, Boko no Hero Academia)
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk, goodnight
105 notes • Posted 2021-08-15 22:45:26 GMT
#3
I cannot emphasize enough
The official volumes are SO worth it
140 notes • Posted 2021-05-09 18:28:01 GMT
#2
Blink and You’ll Miss It
It occurs to me I haven’t screamed into the tag for a while. Allow me to correct this.
YES, I am 110% back on this bullshit again. XD
Keep reading
153 notes • Posted 2021-04-06 00:18:39 GMT
#1
Am I the only one who thought it was funny that Yuki came down just as Tohru is screaming her love for Kyo? Barefoot?? In the rain???
Like he hits the bottom stair and is just like 👀
Oh
I, uh--
Maybe this isn't a good ti--
Kyo: *runs away*
Yuki: Oh my god, you dumb little shi... GET BACK HERE
YOU BREAK MY MOMS HEART, I BREAK YOUR KNEE CAPS >:(((
And then, of course, Akito shows up and it’s like
201 notes • Posted 2021-05-25 03:08:16 GMT
Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →
#my 2021 tumblr year in review#your tumblr year in review#lol i was scrolling down through these being like#oh yay no matter how much i played in other fandoms#my true love still shines through#and then i get to my number one post and it's a furuba shitpost from my watch through 🤣
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Good Night, Sun
Warnings: Raspberries, Angst, Nightmare (mentioned), Hurt/Comfort, Cheer up tickles, Lee!Sun and Ler!Moon. About 1.600 words.
Kanene’s notes: So I have a new fandom SDFGHJKDFTGYHJU. Okay, okay, I was in a v boring writer block until I re-watched @sid-is-screaming amazing TikTok with Sun and Moon being just the custest beans and then a sudden motivation hit me because!!! Cheer up tickles!!!! So yay! Fic! I am not gonna lie, I still need some more pratice to understand fully their personalities but this is already a start. I hope you all like this. Hope you have a comfy day, beans. Take care!
[~*~]
"M...Moon..."
It was just a weak whisper, almost inaudible with the way it was pronounced, the usually so excited animatronic not even being sure if he would be heard by his sound asleep brother.
It was a good thing - he decided as his eyes followed Moon when the called slowly blinked awake, his confusion, even if clear on his expression, being pushed aside as he sat next to him, eying warily the tears that ran freely across Sun’s faceplate, trying to lock their gazes unsuccessfully - that they were so carefully equipped with sensitive sensors prepared to analyze and capture the tiniest hint of any distress sound and quickly find their sources, keeping it easier to find and help scared - or scarred - kids.
And animatronics too, as it seems.
"Sun?" His voice slurred with the way his wires and functions began whirring to life. The blue one realized it was way too dark for them to be fully charged, meaning that there were very few reasons for the other animatronic to be there, none of them being very good.
Sun sniffed miserably, arms hugging himself, no answer leaving him. Moon calmly prodded again. "What are you doing up at this hour?"
And Sun didn’t found his words to answer because he actually didn’t want to be up, he didn’t want to literally shake with the way energy flowed inside of every single one of his wires, making his endoskeleton tremble in what, in any other situation, would have him perfectly hyped up to play with childrens, but right now just lead to a series of unpleasant shocks to travel through his spine, making his fingers hold his arms tighter. He just- he couldn’t- he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stop the flashes of those awful, horrible moments which kept dancing in front of his eyes in explosions of red, orange and fire, oh god, the fire felt so real and horrible and burning and getting closer, closer, closer at every single second and it didn’t mattered how much he brought his brother close to him, how much they hugged and tried to find an exit, there was no escape, there was simply no escaping because the flames were everywhere and they were going to- they were going to-
A hand held his own - when did he start gesturing, again? - and pulled, the firm, yet gentle, sudden touch making the shadows of his nightmare pop out of existence in a fast piece of moment as he found himself lying on his brother’s chest, who just adjusted himself so they could rest more comfortably on the mattress, eyes widening as the other let out a quiet whimper, hugging him tightly.
‘That bad, huh?’ Moon sighed, not unkindly, a hand laying on top of Sun’s head, softly running his fingers across his rays feeling the corner of his mouth quirk upwards with the way Sun immediately relaxed on his hold, a stray, much weaker, sniffle leaving him.
“Sounds like a bad one. Our neuro system can really suck, sometimes.” The other huffed in a tired kind of approval and Moon quietly softened at the good signal that the reaction was, mentally shaking himself awake. It was decided, even before the moment he saw those tears, he wouldn’t fall asleep until his brother did so, it was the least he could do for the one who always brought a smile on his face, never leaving his side independently of the situation.
He hummed in thought, searching for a good topic to distract Sun from his own thoughts.
“Have I ever told you about the dream I had in which we were both part of that old show, the one with those two inventor kids who live in an eternal summer vacations, and Vanessa was our older sister but for some reason she only talked by singing?”
“W-what?!” Sun sputtered, a light already beginning to take space on his eyes as he stared at the other in an amused confusion. “No you didn’t. Why didn’t you!?” His lips turned in a wobbly line, giving his voice a bouncy tune. “Vanessa singing, I can’t believe it.”
“I never told you because I knew you would try to pull her to the karaoke nights, that is why.” Sun snorted at the mental image, quickly hiding his faceplate on Moon’s chest, shoulder’s shaking a little with the two or three giggles that he did his best to keep trapped. Moon playfully poked him between his shoulder blades, fishing another snort. “Quiet, you never know when she will be listening.”
“Stooop, don’t be mean! She is actually nice when you give her a chance, you know?”
“A kid could steal all of your glitter and you would still think they’re nice.”
“Hey! No!” Sun batted Moon’s finger away and it came back for another poke, looking at it warily for a second before jumping to defend his tiny, squishy human friend. “Gregory is a very great kid. He just needed the glitter for a project and he apologized after his timeout! One day we all will have a slumber party and you will see how well behaved he can be. Ask Freddy, he agrees with me.”
Moon huffed, the memory of Monty bad mouthing the young human as he tried to clean all the true mess of glitter his entire form was after the aforementioned’s prank led to equal parts of disbelief and amusement to fill his reaction. The kid has the courage, that he could give.
The one in night themed pajamas was about to mention said prank to Sun, however, as he saw the way his brother was getting closer to pout he decided to grant a bit of mercy to their usual playful banter. He could be a bit more soft today. Just for Sun.
“Ok, ok. Now sush or I will never be able to tell you about the dream.”
And then he started. Moon talked and talked, about that one and many other weird dreams he had, adjusting his voice box to its softest setting, letting his calm tune fulfill the room as the stories brought their attention away from the tears and those scary memories which hid on the dark corners of our mind.
Soon enough a barely muffled laughter yanked Moon out of his thoughts, the same grinning as he saw more and more giggles escaping from his brother’s lips.
“Oh, so this is funny to you, huh?” One of his hands began to scribble the other animatronic’s left side, fingers lightly dancing freely and nimbly across the sensitive spot, only seeming to get faster as a wider smile took over Sun’s expression. “Me being unable to move until naptime was over because a bunch of kids fell asleep in a pile on top of me it’s a very funny story to you, huh?”
“It t-tihihihickles, Moon!” A rather high pitched squeal broke his protest when his brother decided that his other hand was bored and tickling Sun’s unfairly ticklish cheeks was the only way to give it a proper enrichment. “Nohohoh, wait! No, no, n-not thehehere!”
“Why not? I think this is a very good spot. Here, I will show you.” He highlighted his words by blowing a raspberry on Sun’s cheek, being rewarded with a loud shriek and hands immediately pushing his face away, loud squeaks and wheezes mixing themselves in the laughter that danced in the air. “But maybe you would want a few tickly-tickly-tickles-”
“Eek! Dohohon’t call them thahahat!”
Moon playfully pinched his side in a warning, glaring at the other with no real heat behind it. “As I was saying, would you rather have tickly-tickly-tickles on your ribs then?” Sun threw his head back as the hands started to crawl from his hips to the aforementioned spot, Moon needing to dodge the sunrays going from one side to another as the one in yellow pajamas shook his head in protest. “No? What about your armpits? Or this very sensitive neck? Maybe your belly, then?”
Sun’s hands flew to his wrists, although no real struggle happened, they just holding them instead to pushing the offending fingers away, legs kicking and the whole body shaking with the loud, happy laughter that escape from his big smile, his mind much more occupied to focus on the unbearable, silly attack to even remember why he looked for the comfort of his brother’s embrace and words in the first place.
And Moon simply couldn’t help the delightful smirk and laughter that blossomed on his faceplate at that, letting his tickles getting slower and lighter at every second, until the previous “attack” become nothing more than a few scratches that kept Sun with a constant flow of fast, bubbly giggles going.
When he stopped, his gaze traveled to Sun’s face, watching the way his titters got lower and his metallic eyelids began to close, indicating Sun was about to go into charge mode.
An evil idea made a smirk spread wide in his expression.
“Or maybe I should get your spine.” Just a last poke of fun.
With a high yelp of “NO!” Sun jumped out of his brother's hug, stumbling a bit on the place until he fell on the other side of the bed, next to Moon’s foot, and pointed a finger at the teasy animatronic in a warning, his frown losing all its grumpy power due the still happy smile lingering on his face. Moon snorted in amusement, lazily pulling his arms up in a surrendering gesture.
“Ok. Ok.” He chuckled at the way Sun’s eyes squinted in a wary tiredness, for the lack of verbal protest he should be really fighting against sleep right now. “Come on, it’s past our bedtime. Let’s charge.”
Sun only hummed in agreement, body relaxing and immediately falling on the mattress with a soundless thumph. Moon took his time to turn around to the other side and adjusted himself in a more comfortable position, already feeling his systems and functions running slower.
As his eyes closed, Sun’s voice reached his sensors.
“Thank you, Moony”
They smiled, calm, happy, safe.
“Nighty-night.”
#I FORGOT THE PART WHERE THEY'RE LAUGHING TOGETHER IN THE END OH NOOOO XDDDD#Oh well xD#Gimme a rambly Sun who sometimes starts to ramble without even realizing#And a Moon who pretends to be all tough but he is a real softie inside#Me: No I only will make like light soft comforting tickles yeah that is the best // Sun: *lets out a single giggle* // Me:#Me: ANYWAY NOW WE ARE UNDER NEW ORDERS MOON *GET* *HIM*#I was between making Moon a more silent kind of ler or making him go on full teasy t-monster but then the mental image of Sun being a-#-mess of giggles everytime anyone says 'tickle' was stronger than me#teasy tickle monster is it then#Ler!Moon#Ler!Moondrop#cheer up tickles#Lee!Sun#Ticklish!Sundrop#Ticklish!Daycare Attendant#fnaf sb tickles#fnaf sb tickling#Kanene's fic#Kanene's fanfic#That tiktok unlocked my memories when I ran to sib in the middle of the night for comfort after a nightmare and I just got really soft.#V v v amazing art#I strongly believe ticklish cheeks should receive more attention and I rest my case xPP
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Yay welcome to the fandom. Rio deserve all the love so thank you for writing him. Since requests are open, please let us know what you’re willing to write & not. In the meantime, I’d like to please request something a lil angst & maybe fluffy? (Idc, whichever direction this leads you) Rio’s ex coming back in town & him running into her. There’s still unresolved feelings. Thank you!
Thank you for the warm welcome! ♥ I'm willing to write pretty much anything (including smut) within certain boundaries ofc but I may have to think about this longer and make a separate post. But here is your request, I hope you like it!
word count ♡ 1,040
summary ♡ Rio’s ex comes back into town & they run into each other although there are still some unresolved feelings.
situation ♡ angsty x fluffy
“Y/N?!” Marcus yelled in shock before charging towards you. You gasped as you felt his body almost push you over from the hug.
Rio became more alert when he realized Marcus was going towards someone rather than him during school pick-up but once he saw you, he had a mixture of feelings. Relief? Guilt? Hurt? Maybe even a bit of happiness?
“Marcus!” He called but he was too busy trying to crawl into your skin.
“Oh, you’ve gotten so big, papa. How are you?” You giggled, rubbing his back. “I’m good!” He smiled from ear to ear. You were going to say something until the sunlight was covered by a familiar shadow, one you left behind a year ago.
“Hey sweetheart...” Rio smirked. You looked up, your heart beating faster than you realized. “Hey.” You said, unsure if you should smile or not. You felt his dark eyes bore into yours and you were glad Marcus interrupted.
“What are you doing here anyway?” He asked, tilting his head in confusion.
“I’m actually coming to pick up Maya. You remember Maya, right?” You smiled, watching your niece run up to you.
Marcus and Maya used to play together all the time when you and Rio were together. She waved towards Marcus.
“Come on, pup. Let’s get you home.” Rio took his hand. “Wait, can Maya come over and play, Dad?” He said with pleading eyes.
Rio mentally cursed himself for always giving into those eyes. “After homework and only if Maya’s parents are cool with it.” He said, you mentally screaming knowing you’d be looking after your niece for the day and how could you say no?
-
“Can we go nowwww?” Maya pulled on your arm as you were dreading to face your ex for the second time. “Alright, alright.” You said, putting your shoes back on lazily.
You spent so long trying to forget everything, including him. How could you stay away? Your whole family was here. And maybe, just maybe there was a small part of the both of you that wanted you to come back for each other. You quickly pushed the thought away, remembering how badly he hurt you.
Once you both got to Rio’s house, Marcus snatched Maya’s hand and dragged her to the playground in the backyard leaving you both alone.
The silence broke with Rio pouring himself a drink, raising the bottle to ask you if you wanted any. You shook your head, watching him twist the cap back on. It was the little things that made you miss him and hate him. He was just putting something away and it felt more to you than that.
Everything he did, so smooth, calm, collected. Everything and everyone had a place, a reason. You always compared his life to a game of chess. He was always moving the pieces and you spent your entire relationship trying to figure out how you fit on the board and why he was so attached to one of his pawns.
“Whatchu thinking about so hard?” He broke your train of thought.
“Doesn’t matter.” You lied, glancing out the window at the kids playing on the swings.
“Don’t.” He said, knowing you were lying. He probably knew you better than yourself so why try?
Might as well skip the small talk. “If it mattered, I wouldn’t be here as your guest.” You spoke.
He exhaled through his nose and pursed his lips, always a sign of frustration that you picked up on a long time ago. “You left me.” He said, casually sipping from his glass.
You shifted your gaze from the kids to him. “Did you leave me a choice?” You retorted.
He took his drink and came to sit across from you, the closeness making you slightly uncomfortable that you shifted in your seat. “Nah, you want to talk about this. Let’s talk.” He spoke. He relaxed his shoulders back and gave you that patronizing stare he gave everyone that you’ve always hated.
“Why wasn’t I enough for you?” You asked, looking down at your hands. He furrowed his eyebrows. “What?” He asked but, in some way, he knew.
Every argument and every fight, it always came down to one thing. Or should it be said, one person.
Beth.
You felt every feeling you tried to push to the side come back with a vengeance. “Why did you always choose her?”
Rio laughed defensively. “Y/N, come on.” He said.
“It didn’t matter if you came home to me every night, Christopher. You were still with her. And I,” You paused to keep the tears at bay.
“I spent every day wondering what I was doing wrong. What I could have done better. But I realized I just wasn’t her. I wasn’t who you really wanted. Right? And all this time, you think I’ve left? But I was here with you, Chris.” You couldn’t control the tears anymore.
“I was here with you, and you still left me.” You pressed your eyes closed.
Rio couldn’t deny it. Beth was an undeniable factor in his life. He wasn’t in love with her, but he soon realized he was in love with what she could do for him. It fueled his business, his ego, until it took away what mattered most.
He pulled your chair closer to him, so you’d be sitting between his legs. He cupped your cheeks and wiped your tears away with his thumbs.
“Look at me, mama.” He said, holding your hands now. You opened your tired eyes, looking at him. Was he finally getting it?
“I’m sorry.” He said and you remembered this familiar look in his eyes. It reminded you of what he was like before Beth came along. He still loved you.
He wasn’t one to formally apologize. He would just one day give you flowers or make you a cup of coffee but after all this time, he knew what you really needed.
You didn’t know why but those 2 words made you break down. A year of frustration, isolation, and everything in between. You just wanted him there for you.
He pulled you into his lap, wrapping his arms around you.
“I’m here, baby,” he said, kissing your head.
“I’m here.”
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PLUS ONE
》 A TRESE TWOSHOT 《
[Maliksi x Reader]
📝 Summary: In which your beloved best friend snatches you from your apartment at dawn asking you to be his plus one for his cousin's wedding. Unbeknownst to the clueless you, everything is just going according to Maliksi's ultimate masterplan. With the help of friends and family, the Prince of the Tikbalang finally gets the girl he's been longing for. And oh, Señor Armanaz gets his dream daughter-in-law and the promise of grandchildren within the year.
📌 Warning: May contain some slight NSFW for spicy suggestiveness and cussing. No smut or anything super SPG—this girl can't write that for her life—but just be prepared. It's Maliksi we're talking about. We've got friends-to-lovers, obliviousness, pining, fluff, and a tikbalang simp. Figure it out. 😃
(word count: 7,454) ♥︎ Part Two: ?
》 AUTHOR'S NOTE 《
Not an Inday spinoff, but a lengthy oneshot in celebration of this blog getting 90 followers. Just ten more to 100, yay! Thank you so much for the love and support, everyone. I also promised that I'll be making this brainrot that @binibiningbabaylan and I have fangirled over a few days ago (find the original post here) when I finished the latest chapter of Inday. Here it is! 🥰
Before I forget, I was also inspired by the cute fic made by @crispybasil titled "Sunshowers" and the "Trese Boys As Things My Guy Friends Do" made by the amazing @smolla-than-a-bug (I bow down to your wonderful works in the Trese fandom). I definitely see Maliksi to be the type to go on spontaneous roadtrips and be the boyfriend to drive you around eveeeerywhere (while also driving you crazy). 🚘
There are also some songs mentioned throughout this work. You should probably listen to them while reading for the full experience. Ending was somewhat rushed but eh, I'm too exhausted and I've rewritten it too many times. Also, if someone makes some actual tikbalang smut, tag me please. Anyways, enjoy! 💕
The way it all started was hilarious. Absolutely fucking hilarious. It happened like a blur. Literally. One second, you were snoozing in your bed. The next? You had a seatbelt on in the shotgun seat of a sophisticated-looking car. Your brain didn't even get to process it yet.
"... So let me get this straight," you grumbled, still half-asleep from your sleep marathon. You just finished a hugely successful project at work yesterday, got promoted, and wanted to make up for the restless nights you spent overtime in the office. Of course you were irritated from being disturbed. You were on vacation leave for two entire weeks, originally planning to go into temporary isolation by deactivating your social media accounts and reserving a beach cabana for yourself in Batangas.
Well, turns out, you weren't going to Batangas anytime soon. All because your unreasonably spontaneous bestfriend of ten hectic years stole you from your apartment at 2AM. Was this considered kidnapping? Was this him just being more in touch with his tikbalang side, taking unsuspecting women in their sleep and leading them to their inevitable death? (He was going over the speed limit, so it was a valid thought.) Will wearing your shirt inside-out save you today? Lord, masyado ka pang pagod para mag-isip ngayon.
"Go on."
"You abducted picked me up in the middle of the night because you want me to be your plus one at your cousin's wedding in Tagaytay?"
"Yup. And technically, the venue is right on the outskirts of Cavite going to Tagaytay," he corrected you as a matter-of-factly.
"Same thing, whatever," you huffed tiredly. "Your cousin's wedding is at 6AM today. In a few hours. In four hours."
"Uh-huh."
You groaned exasperatedly, "Mal naman, eh! You didn't even let me bring anything. Could've at least given me a heads-up a few hours ago. I'm practically emptyhanded right now save for my phone! Sinungaling ka, you said this was just a normal midnight drive—not a freaking wedding!"
The Prinsipe ng Mga Tikbalang, son of the Great Stallion, heir to the Armanaz herd, and the Top Drag Racer of C-5 Expressway—if that was even one of his Game of Thrones-like titles—grinned as he continued driving beside you. He let you continue ranting in the passenger seat while he mulled over his ultimate masterplan that would change his entire life later on. He was a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy, so all this wasn't his thing. But for you? He'll make plans, alright.
"Wala man lang akong dinalang masusuot o kahit konting makeup para maging presentable sa harapan ng buong pamilya mo," you exclaimed, in absolute despair. "Do you know how out of my league you are? Your rich-ass family might judge me—hell, your dad might see me as a hampaslupa if I show up there in my pambahay and tsinelas!"
"Psh, I'm not out of your league," Maliksi waved it off, smoothly turning a corner. "And calm down. We've known each other for a decade! My dad practically loves you as his own daughter. Heck, the entire family knows you and keeps telling me they want you adopted in already. Lolo Andres and Lola Perlita said they'd have the paperwork settled. You just need to sign them."
It would be even better (and easier) if you married into the family. To him, specifically (as if he'd let anyone else have you). God, he was already being so obvious in his advances, but you were just so damn oblivious whenever it came to romance. None of this needed to happen if you just got it through your thick skull that he was madly in love with you.
"That's not the point, idiot!" you slumped back into your seat, hopeless. "Do you think the bride and the groom will get offended? Shit, baka masumpaan ako kung magagalit sila, Mal. Mukha akong patay galing sa South Cemetery."
The long-haired tikbalang rolled his eyes, "Huwag kang mag-alala. Nothing's going to go wrong. Chill ka lang diyan. I've got everything under control, babe."
Babe. Yes, he even called you babe but you thought it was him being a himbo and a massive flirt. Now, it was his common term of endearment for you, but you still assumed it was him just being irksome to you and that you couldn't stop the man from saying it anymore. Thus, you let it be (the most obvious hint of his attraction to you, bestie).
"... Ugh, why didn't you ask Hannah or Amie to go with you?"
He just smiled knowingly, shrugging and making up an excuse, "Nagmamadali ako, eh. Hannah and Amie are also coming, but they already have the other tikbalang as dates."
"'Luh, ako pala ang backup choice mo?"
"Heh. Whatever you want to think."
Little did you know that you were always his first choice. Always. Even when he pursued Alexandra Trese many years ago, trying to convince himself you were just his best friend, it was always you. How did he come to that realization? Well, an international band he was a fan of released a song a couple years ago and he heard it being played in a club in BGC. The song title?
It Was Always You by Maroon 5.
Needless to say, after hearing the song and being unable to get it—get you—out of his mind at night, he stopped courting Alexandra. Unfortunately for him, that time, you'd started dating other men. Therefore, he was left on the sidelines... until your latest and most painful breakup, at least. That was five years ago. You still hadn't dated anyone since then, kind of traumatized from getting into another failed relationship like that.
In the present day, as if the fates were playing on you two, one of your favorite artists played on the radio. A very ironic song given the situation you two were in.
Best Friend by Rex Orange County.
Maliksi knew it was a favorite of yours. He knew it by the way your eyes lit up like a star brightening the twinkling night sky. Like the sun first rising in the morning at Apolaki's command. Like the moon extending its gentle rays from the magic of Mayari herself. If there was anything he wanted to ask of the old gods, it was you—everything else be damned.
"I wanna be the one that makes your day, the one you think about as you lie awake," you half-sang and half-screamed happily, somewhat out-of-tune. "I can't wait to be your number oooooone! I'll be your biggest fan and you'll be mine—"
Maliksi glanced at you, not minding that his eardrums were probably getting microscopic ruptures from your aggressive singing. As much as he wanted to stare at you all day, he had to keep his eyes on the road. But the lyrics you were singing were wrong; the Prince of the Tikbalang was already yours from day one.
"Babe, McDo drive-through tayo for breakfast. Let me make it up to you. Gusto mo ng caramel sundae for your promotion gift? Sige. Ako bahala. Chicken nuggets din? Mabubusog ka ba niyan? I don't think they serve those this early..."
》》》
"Sandali lang!" you shouted out from inside an empty room. You'd just arrived at the venue—the Alta Veranda de Tibig in Silang, Cavite (practically the gateway to Tagaytay)—an hour or so ago. The hired makeup artist just left so that you could privately change into the outfit that had been bought specifically for you. Curse Mal and his ability to buy anything (perhaps anyone) he wanted. "Bwiset, Mal, you didn't tell me we'd be part of the damn entourage. We have to be walking the aisle in thirty minutes, simbako! You just love rushing me, don't you!?"
If only you were the one walking down the aisle today towards him.
When you exited the room, Maliksi couldn't help but let his jaw drop as he skimmed your figure, clad in the luxurious, silky satin blush midi dress he bought in one of those fancy stores in Makati yesterday. He imagined that it would look great on you, but now, seeing it on you in person... you looked divine (and frankly, he wanted to see it off your body to see what was underneath—but don't get too ahead of yourself, Mal). It was a whole 'nother level from his imagination. The deep cowl neckline and thin spaghetti straps showed your lovely collarbones... as well as a peek of your cleavage. His favorite and the best part of it all? It was backless, allowing him to gaze at the tempting curve of your spine.
He hadn't realized he had grown silent until you smiled and closed his mouth, tapping his chin.
"Lalangawin ang bibig mo, Mal," you laughed softly. Never had you seen him so speechless. You then flicked your hair back, ridiculously posing for him like you were on the cover of Vogue magazine (haba ng hair mo, gurl!). "Do I look that good? Char lang."
"... You look absolutely ravishing—I mean, uh, stunning. Hot. Yeah." That was all he could say. He mentally punched himself for not showering you with more suave compliments.
Still, your face brightened up, not knowing that the man in front of you just fell for you a thousand times harder, "Wow! Really? Damn. Ang galing talaga ng MUA na kinuha mo, ginawa akong artista. Give me their contact number later! May work event pa naman ako in two months. I'm shocked, it's like they made me rise from the dead! Even my eyebags are gone, Mal! How'd they do that?" Heck yeah, your confidence was boosted. He offered his arm to you like a gentleman, making you half-heartedly roll your eyes (you took it anyway). From holding it alone, you could tell that your best friend was a sinewy man (well, you knew that already after seeing his tikbalang form before—the little shit didn't even wear a loincloth like all his clanmates; your poor eyes were eternally scarred).
You looked him up and down. You wouldn't lie—Maliksi is and always has been an attractive man. Now? With his hair in a ponytail (pun not intended), definitely one of the hunkiest men you've ever known. "You're not looking too bad yourself, horsey."
"Ako pa!" He puffed his chest out in pride. You chuckled at his reaction.
"By the way, how do you even know my dress size and my shoe size?"
"Babe, I've known you too long. You know almost everything about me, I know everything about you."
You snorted at his confident tone, "'Di nga? You don't know every single thing about me, Mal. Assuming ka masyado."
"Alam ko nga anong cup size mo. Wala lang 'yang shoe and dress size."
You slapped his shoulder, cheeks quickly flushing red, "Huy, umayos ka! Walang hiyang tikbalang na 'to." With this guy as your best friend? You heard dirty jokes at least once a day. "Don't be inappropriate here!"
"What? It's only fair I know!" He looked down on you suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows. "You already know I always go commando, so of course I know that your bra is a size—"
"Shhh! Baka marinig ka, 'nyeta."
"So? Let them hear. My best friend has a nice set of melons!" he shouted. You were grateful there was no one around. Hopefully.
"Oh my God..."
Your best friend chortled at how flustered you'd become. He led you to where some of his family was waiting, with a couple of his relatives already greeting you. You instantly and quite easily mingled with them, your worries of them not accepting you far from even true (they all knew how much their prince loved the innocent you).
"Kayo na talaga, pare?" one of his older tikbalang clanmates asked while you went away to be fawned over by his aunts.
Maliksi chuckled, crossing his arms as he watched you from afar, "Heh. Hindi pa."
Another one of his clanmates—a younger one—laughed, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "Talaga? That's cap, bro. You two are like a married couple already and you guys still aren't a thing?"
"Ilang taon na ba kayong magkakaibigan?" the older one asked him.
"Almost ten years," Maliksi responded, a smile unconsciously pulling his lips up as he remembered your moments together. He watched you converse with his female relatives (who adored you the moment Maliksi brought you to a family event many moons ago).
The two tikbalang snickered as they saw the look on the Great Stallion's heir.
"You're down bad," the younger one said, snapping a photo of his lovestruck kuya. "You've got it so bad for her, dudeparechong!"
"Balak mong ligawan anytime soon?" the older tikbalang inquired.
"Heh. Balak ko na ngang pakasalan. Kung pwede, ngayon."
They looked at Maliksi as if he was crazy. He was very much serious, though, even if there was a huge, lopsided smile on his face. The Prince of the Tikbalang raised a brow at them.
"What? Don't give me that look. Our ten years of being best friends is practically the courting and the dating stage already."
"Eh... you're right. Don't waste anymore time. Go and marry her today, dude. Suporta kami sa'yo, basta groomsmen kami sa kasal niyo, ha!"
"Ge. Without question."
Meanwhile, on your end with the ladies of the family, they started pestering you on your love life (like all typical Filipino aunties). Chismis everywhere.
"O, iha, single ka pa ba?"
"Kailan ka magpapakasal? Malapit ka nang pumasok sa thirties mo."
"Do you want kids? How many?"
"Are you and Maliksi a couple? You look good together! Kayo na, 'di ba?"
"Will you be getting married next? Are you engaged? When's the wedding? Invite niyo kami!"
Before you could get overwhelmed by their questions, Maliksi swept you off your feet to lead you to the entourage that was lining up outside the chapel area. Again, it happened like a blur. He laughed at the partially nauseated look on your face.
"You okay there?" he asked, grinning.
"Your family thinks we're together," you muttered quietly, not meeting his eyes. You weren't sure why you felt... tingly about their statements.
He tilted his head at you curiously, gently setting you down on your feet and helping you stand.
"Do you hate the idea?" It hurt him to ask you the question, but he wanted your thoughts on it. Perhaps doing this was a bad idea. Maliksi was competitive in many things, including wanting you to be his, but if you were so opposed to it, he would never force you into something you didn't want. He let go of your hand; you didn't even notice he'd been holding it until he let go. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"
Your wide-eyed gaze snapped back to look up at him, "No! No, it's not that! And... it's not bad." Your hand felt strangely empty now that his was gone. Biting your lip, you disclosed, "You're not making me uncomfortable, Mal. Don't ever think that."
With that, you shyly interlocked your arm with his, tearing your eyes from his to mask the growing warmth you felt spreading in your veins. You two didn't say anything else when the ushers let you walk down the beautiful, petal-covered aisle together.
The man beside you was starstruck. Hopeful. Maybe both of you did have a chance. Maybe somewhere in the depths of your soul, his feelings for you were being reciprocated. For the rest of the sacred ceremony in the gorgeous main pavilion, both of you relished in short, comfortable, and low conversations. He even cracked jokes every once in a while—really funny ones that made it challenging for you to you stifle your laughter.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride."
Maliksi fervently prayed to Bathala that he'd experience the same opportunity he was seeing with you someday. One day.
Even while the sun was brightly out, the sky began showering down light rain onto the land. You were in awe as you looked out the window.
"Hala, totoo nga pala! Tignan mo!" you laughed, tugging Maliksi's suit sleeve, pointing at the window.
"Na ano?" he curiously inquired, not understanding what you were referring to.
"Na kapag may tikbalang na kinakasal, umuulan habang may araw pa," you replied, eyes filled with childlike mirth and wonder. A rainbow had even begun to form by the clouds. "Look, it's magical! Ang ganda pala ng view dito kasama ang old Spanish architecture. Timeless na timeless. It's so pretty, 'no? Picture tayo 'maya, Mal."
Unlike you, it wasn't the sky outside that the prince was looking at. Amidst the loud cheers for the newlywed couple and the bubbles the guests were blowing, his vision could only focus on how magnificent you looked while being amazed. You were his best view. (Ed from 90-Day Fiancé, kabahan ka na, may katapat ka sa pickup line mo.)
》》》
"Smile for the picture!"
You giggled as Maliksi was dragged into a photo-op with the bridesmaids and the important older wedding sponsors a few feet away (funnily, he looked a little constipated around them). All of a sudden, when he was heading back to your direction, you were roughly pushed into the said man's arms. When you turned around, there was nothing (except maybe a gust of wind that came out of nowhere).
"Ooh, gotcha. Careful," the tikbalang steadied you, strong hands holding your biceps. "Natapilok ka?"
"... Huh, hindi naman," you wondered suspiciously, looking around. "I think someone pushed me? Parang tinulak ako... but wala namang tao."
"Weird. Maybe it was just the wind."
It actually was. Really. Maliksi knew for a fact that it was those two taong hangin who were spying on you from the corner, trying to pair you up. He gave them a thumbs-up while your back was turned in the opposite direction. Hannah and Amie returned the thumbs-up before vanishing. Suddenly, the two wedding photographers had moved on from the bridesmaids and were right beside you.
"What a lovely couple you two are!" she praised. Before you could correct her, she held up the black contraption she held towards you two. "Pose for the camera, lovelies!"
And so you did, the photographer guiding you two on what to do. Maliksi wrapped his arm around your waist and you leaned on his side, looking sidewards to the camera with one leg cocked in front of the other. Her assistant, who was holding a polaroid camera, printed out two photos for you.
"Thank you," you told him, taking the photos from his hands then flicking them rapidly to make the images develop. You and Mal were about to walk to the reception area when the photographer stopped you, handing the male beside you a business card.
"If you two need a photographer or a videographer for your wedding, call me," she signaled to both of you before running to another guest, bringing her assistant with her.
You gawked, "Mal, did you just hear what she said?"
"Loud and clear." A grin was on his face. He seemed very pleased at what he heard.
"... How can she even tell if someone is married or not?"
Maliksi's free hand took your left hand, tapping the ring finger, "Nothing here."
"Ooooooh. I get it now." Your brows creased. "Huh. This is like the fifth time today the people here have mistaken us for a couple."
Maliksi shrugged, teasing you, "Who knows? Baka may potential tayo, babe."
Before you could ask him what he meant, he was hurriedly towing you to the reception venue. While he was doing that, you stared at the now-developed polaroid photos you were holding. Huh. Maybe you two did look like a couple.
"Come on, they're serving some snacks at the welcome reception area. Peach pie and mango float-flavored. Paborito mo, babe."
》》》
The rest of the night went by without a hitch. You were actually enjoying the event—the host was great, the food was great, the music was great. Everything was great... that was, until the games.
"Alright! Now that the bride's garter has been removed, let's have the bouquet and garter toss... starting with the females!" the host announced. "Dear bride, please stay here in front. And all single ladies—and by single I mean ready to mingle and are not married—please rise and stand here on the dance floor. Let's play matchmaker tonight, everyone!"
"Uy, single ladies daw," Maliksi nudged your side. "Sign mo na 'yan." You snorted like a pig.
"Nope, ayokong madamay sa bouquet toss," you whisper-yelled at your best friend. "Do you know how embarrassing that is?! Besides, they won't notice if I don't join! Special tactic ko 'yan sa weddings: pretending I'm not single. Katabi naman kita."
More women came to the front, making you feel assured that you didn't need to participate. The host was about to say something, when the bride interrupted to whisper something into his ear.
"Hala, halaaa! Sabi ko all single ladies, pero may isang single lady na nagtatago pa!" he announced, making you freeze. Please don't let it be you. "What's her name, beloved bride?"
"Y/N L/N." You nearly spat out your champagne. You? Did they just call out your name? How did they know?
"Oh fuck," you cursed quietly.
"'Di ka makakatakas dito, babe," Maliksi jabbed, making you stand up. "Tinatawag ka na."
"Baka may ibang Y/N L/N dito," you resisted, attempting to sit back down. "I can't do this, Mal."
"'Sus, ikaw pa. And it's just a symbolic ceremony!" he encouraged, as if he didn't have any underlying intentions. "I doubt the bouquet will go to you anyway."
Sheesh, what a big fat liar you are, tikbalang prince.
You expressed your dissatisfaction with the situation, "Bwiset, fine. I'll just... dodge it. Or evade it. God, I swear..." You calmed down, confident. "I'm not going to worry. I've never caught the bouquet at my own friends' weddings anyway."
When you were at the dance floor, Maliksi snickered, seeing the bride—his cousin—wink at him. After all, he had thoroughly bribed her earlier.
《《《
"It's about time you settled down with someone, Mal," the bride commented while he slipped her the newest Hermés designer bag filled with a bunch of jewelry (plus some bills) two hours ago, right before the reception began and while you were in the restroom freshening up. "Hehehe, this is why you're my favorite cousin."
"Do we have a deal?"
"Of course. I'll make sure she participates. I'll also try to throw it in her direction."
"Good. Thanks."
"You better invite me to your beach wedding. I can tell how much you love her."
"Not a problem. I'll even make you a sponsor."
The bride stared at her bouquet, already practicing how she was going to throw it, "Tito's going to thank me so much for ensuring that he's going to get grandkids soon, hihi."
》》》
Back to the present, on the other end of the room, Maliksi saw a familiar duo give him a sign that they were ready. Bingo. Time to execute the most important part of his plan.
《《《
"I don't care how you do it," he told the two wind elementals after he bribed the bride. "I've already instructed the bride on what she should do, pero siguraduhin niyo lang talagang lumipad sa kanya ang bouquet."
"Mmhmm," Amie flipped her hair, a hand on her cocked hip. "And what do we get in return, oh great Señorito Armanaz?"
"Sagot ko bar-hopping niyo for one month."
The two girls pretended to think about it, making Maliksi roll his eyes. He had to pull out the big guns, huh?
"Fine. Magbibigay ako ng cash deposit plus pwede niyong gamitin ang black card ko for a one-week shopping spree in Ortigas." There. Bullseye. That's what they liked.
"Deal!" they exclaimed excitedly.
Hannah let a cool gust of wind enter one of the nearby windows, testing out how they're going to do this. "Ano pa bang pinaplano mo for Y/N mamaya?"
Maliksi hummed, "Basta."
》》》
You tried your best to hide within the densest part of the group of women. The bride seemed to have her eyes on you, weirdly enough, and she looked almost feral wanting to throw her flowers into someone's face.
That someone being you. Most likely.
"Target locked on," you saw her mouth move. She positioned herself like she was about to throw a football at someone (ahem, you). Holy shit, was she talking to you? Miss ma'am, it was a bouquet toss not a bouquet throw. The bride seemed to notice this, and once more regained her elegant composure.
"3, 2, 1," the host counted down. "Go!"
Surprisingly, the bouquet flew very high into the air (it was a wonder it didn't get tangled in the ceiling decor), but quite a distance away from you. You grinned, knowing it was too far to even touch you. Squeezing through the crowd of women eagerly awaiting the bouquet, you went to return to your assigned table.
Ah, what a wonderful evening.
Sike!
Something painfully landed right into your face, leaves and flowers getting into your hair and mouth.
... Wait, leaves and flowers?
Before you could comprehend it, the bouquet dropped right into your arms. What kind of ungodly, inhuman force allowed this to even happen?
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have our lucky girl for the night!" Everyone clapped, with some—those guests you knew—even cheering your name unbelievably loud. The host approached you, a glint in his eye which you couldn't understand. "Miss Y/N, kindly sit here while we await the lucky guy who catches the garter from the groom."
What just happened?
"All single gentlemen, please proceed to the dance floor. Remember, the man who gets the garter gets to slip it onto the lucky lady's leg later!"
Oh, God. You pinched the bridge of your nose. What you'd give to be back at home or to be in that resort in Batangas you'd planned on going to for a solo vacation.
"To make this even more exciting," the host stated, handing you a black blindfold. "Our lucky lady has to keep her eyes closed until her lucky man for the night captures the bride's garter! When the music plays, only then can she uncover her eyes."
See? Humiliating, just as you expected. Still, you wrapped the blindfold around your head (albeit hesitantly). You attempted to guess who it might be, thinking of all the tikbalang friends Maliksi had introduced to you back then whenever he invited you to his clan reunions.
"Groom, are you ready?" the host asked, microphone loud and clear.
"Ready na ready!"
"Single gentlemen, are you ready?!"
"Ready na ready! Awoo, awoo!" they loudly chorused, exactly mimicking Spartans about to engage in battle. You sweatdropped in the seat you were in. This was actually kind of scary. Maybe you felt a bit objectified.
"3, 2, 1, go!"
There was a brief moment of silence, which made you concerned. Ba't ang tahimik? Then, everyone erupted into roars and bravoes much louder than when you caught the bouquet—perhaps even louder by tenfold. What the heck was happening?!
The music played. Very raunchy, spicy, babymaking music. You expected it to be the typical Careless Whisper by George Michael or Pony by Ginuwine (corny songs which you could probably laugh at, at least), but no. Nuh-uh, this was probably worse. The DJ must be pretty young, the song of their choosing being a slowed, bass-boosted, sexier remix of Earned It by the Weeknd.
Ano 'to, bold? Fifty Shades of Grey? The hell was this?
Alright. This was embarrassing. Thank the heavens there were no children at this party. From the music alone and its implications, this was strictly for adults.
You removed your blindfold (that was okay now, right?) as the guests whistled playfully. You peeked one eye open reluctantly, then inwardly groaned. Oh, no. You should've expected it to be him of all people from how loud the reactions were. And all those yells from the crowd were from his family.
Son of a—
"Well, this has proven to be a very interesting arrangement!" the host proclaimed. "Our lucky man for tonight is none other than our great clan leader's heir, Maliksi Armanaz! Congratulations, sir! You get to slip the lacey little garter on Miss Y/N!"
The said very smug tikbalang stood a few feet away from the chair you were sitting on, smirking at you. His hair was no longer in that mesmerizing ponytail—instead, he'd tied it into a more sinfully attractive man-bun, loose strands framing his face and accentuating that sharp, angled jaw of his (say yes and thank you to Manny Jacinto's jawline, besties).
"Let's cheer him on in his new mission, everybody!" the host pushed. Was this that glint in his eye earlier? And was that a one thousand peso bill sticking out of his pocket?
The groomsmen, Mal's cousins and uncles whom you've met before, hollered words of encouragement to the tall man (who was, oddly enough, not one bit fazed). In fact, Maliksi seemed like he was famished as he stared you down.
You swallowed, feeling like you were going to get eaten (heh, say that again). Maliksi had shrugged off his dark suit blazer to the beat of the song (holy fuck, he also unclasped the suspenders attached to his pants right before your eyes—asdfghjkl). Were you prepared for this? No. Will you ever be prepared? No!
"Mr. Armanaz, before you begin," the host interrupted. "We have an additional challenge for you in this mission. Kaya mo ba? It was a request of the newlywed couple."
"What is it?"
"Use your teeth!" the bride and the groom cheerfully shouted, clapping with the other guests. Whatdidtheysaaaaay???
The cocky bastard didn't even hesitate, his smirk at you growing wider; those pearly whites of his on full display. Was it just you or were his canines a little sharper than usual?
"Anything for the newlyweds. Challenge accepted," he dashingly replied, winking at you. You sputtered indignantly. Pisteng yawa. Putangina. Putek. Pakshet. You swore you thought of every swear word in the book at that moment. What did that YouTube parody song about Filipino mythological creatures say again? About the tikbalang? Ah, yes. Half-macho dancer and half-stallion. Maybe the joke was true, especially when you saw what Maliksi did next.
He bit the shred of lace, loosening his necktie (bestie, you good there?), unbuttoning some top buttons, and rolling up the sleeves of his collared white undershirt up to his elbows (consequently showing off his toned, veiny forearms—those lucky bridesmaids behind him nearly fainted). Honestly, you felt like you were about to lose your mind from embarrassment. With how tantalizing your guy best friend was being? Let our response be: San Pedro, kunin mo na ako. Was he doing all this to tease you? To rile you up?
Because damn it all, it was working. In your ten years of knowing Maliksi Armanaz, withstanding all his daily dirty jokes and flirtatious attempts, never had you seen him like this. So... wolfish. Ravenous. Like he was a man that hadn't been fed in years.
He stalked closer towards you, falling to his knees in front of your legs. Your gown had a long slit that extended up to an inch or two below where your left leg began—your best friend was eyeing his target already, knowing where to place the garter. Normally, you would never even wear something as revealing as this gown. It just wasn't your type, but Maliksi was the one who bought this for you for this specific occasion, so you had no choice. It was this or your pantulog he stole you in just hours ago. At first, you were confident in the gown. Now? You felt too... naked.
Somehow, in the heat of it all, you'd muted out the noise of the venue. Maliksi teasingly lifted your foot up, fingertips slyly grazing the thin shoe straps around your left foot—his calculated touch leaving fire in its trail. Once the garter had been successfuly inserted past your high-heeled stilettos, the man kneeling in front of you kept his hands to himself. Despite the fact that now there was absolutely zero skin-to-skin contact between you and this man, your body felt hotter than it ever was before as he expertly slid the lacy bit of cloth up your ankle at an agonizingly slow pace.
Maliksi's warm eyes had turned dark, his pupils blown, a tinge of red in them—of his true beast—while he maintained striking eye contact with you, pulling the garter up your calf with his teeth. Smoothly tugging... tugging... tugging. Tangina, it was like he was undressing you with his eyes alone; like he was telepathically telling you to keep your eyes open.
To keep your eyes on him, where he was knelt inbetween your legs, his hands intentionally locked on his back. Did you ever imagine this? Him between your legs? Maybe. Once or twice. But you never thought about it seriously; Maliksi dated girls left and right in the past.
His lips... his lips were so close... so close to your leg that you could feel the heat of his breath along with the lace. Were you about to die? Perhaps you already did. Maybe you were in heaven. Up... up... up... snap!
Suddenly, he stopped, grinning up at you mischievously and letting the elastic bounce back to the skin of your left knee.
"I'm not going any further, don't worry, babe," he whispered, noting that your eyes had become misty and glazed over. Internally, he grew worried. "That's enough." Did he think it was from discomfort? From you being uncomfortable? Bitch, no. It was the exact opposite. You had never been this turned on in your entire life.
You felt like your soul had left your body at that moment. Did you just have a heart attack? Was your blood pressure okay? Before you or Maliksi could stand, however, someone bellowed from the wedding sponsor tables.
"Higher! That's an order!"
Fucking hell, it was Maliksi's father who shouted. He wasn't in the huge tikbalang form you'd normally meet him in, but he was still very intimidating in his humanoid form, commanding attention and subservience wherever he went. You could tell where Maliksi got it from.
Instantly, the other guests—already half-drunk and wanting the spirit of partying to continue on—joined in.
"Higher! Higher!"
The host cheered, "You heard Señor Armanaz! Higher!"
Maliksi gave you a questioning look. Even if it was his father who spoke up, he still wouldn't do anything you didn't want. Well, you two made it this far; there was no point in getting embarrassed now. You bit the inside of your cheek, nodding. You probably couldn't erase the redness on your skin with how much you'd blushed from this night. It was as if the heat was tattooed onto your skin.
"Go on, Mal," you whispered to him, bending your torso down closer to his face, eyes half-lidded from want. "Finish what you started, babe."
With those sultry bedroom eyes he'd never once seen you show him before—plus you turning the tables with that familiar term of endearment, how could he refuse? Like a switch had been flipped inside him, he immediately complied, taking the frilly scrap of stretchy lace between his teeth once more, moving it further up to your thighs until where your high slit ended—centimeters below the warming juncture between your legs.
Your legs felt wobbly... boneless, as you stood up from the chair, the fabric of your gown cascading over where the lace sat securely on your upper left thigh. The party was still going strong even after you two finished the garter wearing tradition.
"'Atta boy! That's my son!" Señor Armanaz blazoned, standing up and raising his glass for a toast. "Cheers to the newlywed couple! May they last forever!"
You guys weren't the newlyweds, but it did sure feel like it. If the clan leader was hyped up, everyone was hyped up. Heck, the groom and the bride didn't mind one bit what had just transpired on their dance floor. In all the chaos, Maliksi took you out of the reception area and somewhere quieter. More private.
You would need to have a serious, urgent talk with your boy best friend.
》》》
You two silently sat on a stone bench in a gazebo somewhere in the reserved venue for the wedding, trying to cool down and get yourselves back together (at this point, you needed ice from that steamy, half-scandalous event you just went through). Here, there was no one else except for the chirping of crickets, the lush trees surrounding the area, and the golden fairy lights strewn all over the roof. Awkwardness was something you'd expected after what just happened, but somehow, you still felt comfort in this man's presence. For the past thirty minutes, both of you just stayed still, lost in your thoughts and reflecting.
"Mal?" you finally spoke up.
"... Hmm?"
"Ano tayo?"
"Whatever you want us to be."
Your fingers instinctively reached out for his, just like they always did when you were anxious. Sensing this, he grasped your hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Soothingly. He massaged the skin of your fingers, distracting you from your nervousness. It seemed like both nothing and everything changed between both of you. The gesture was the same, but so different at the same time.
"Mahal mo ako." It was not a question. It was a statement. A truth—one that you'd been too blind to see before. One that you only discovered while you stared into each other's eyes in that party not as best friends. You realized with a jolt in your heart what he really felt for you, and now, what you really felt for him. In those thirty minutes of silence, you knew. You just knew.
"Yes. I do."
"... Just as a best friend?" you probed.
"..."
Finally, you gazed into his eyes, previously so dark and full of hunger. Now? Just reluctant. Vulnerable. Open. Unsure of what to do next.
Seems like you had to be the one to take initiative tonight. Taking out your phone, you opened your music app and pressed play on a certain song. Ikaw at Ako by Johnoy Danao. You removed your heels (which were starting to blister your ankles and toes), then pulled him up to stand.
"Dance with me," you murmured, grabbing his arms to wrap them around your waist. He was stiff. Tense. What was he to do when the woman he's been pining after for so long let him hold her? All his gallantry and ability to romance disappeared out the window the moment you let him touch you so intimately.
You two weren't even waltzing. Just swaying. Slowly, you leaned your head on his broad chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart.
"... I love you," Maliksi admitted in the middle of it all, feeling like he was dreaming. Your head on his chest kept him grounded to reality, however. "More than anything in the universe. I fell for you ever since you patched me up when you were nineteen and I was a reckless drag racer who didn't have a purpose in life. 'Nung dinala mo ako pabalik sa Armanaz Tower on the verge of death. Simula noon, ikaw lang."
"I realized that," you smiled, reminiscing the old memory. You were just a broke college student that time, coming back to your dorm from making your group thesis at a classmate's house. Imagine your panic when you found a half-man, half-horse bleeding out by some bushes on the way home at night. Despite your fear and your little money (only enough to feed you for the week), you went out of your way to buy a first-aid kit at the nearest 7/11. It was scary, but you managed to mend the creature's wounds by the side of the road. When he was finally able to speak, turning fully human (which you admit, freaked you out initially), you arduously carried him back to his address—to his father and his clan, even if you had classes the very next morning. Because of your heroic deed of saving their precious heir, the tikbalang clan had become indebted to you: a teenage girl on the verge of a mental academic breakdown, just making her way through the cruel adult world. How old of a memory that was, you thought, yet you still recalled it in perfect detail. "Just a while ago."
"Ah." He swayed you gently.
"Lahat ng ito, plano mo?"
"... Yes," Maliksi fessed up. "Except for this part where we're here dancing in this belvedere. Wala sa plano ko. Gusto ko sanang magconfess doon sa may fountain para sweet, pero..."
You lifted your head off his chest, smiling at him with one brow raised, "You know, between both of us, you're supposed to be the spontaneous one. Planning isn't usually your thing."
"I know. It's a failure, huh?" Maliksi sighed.
"Nah." You shook your head, then suddenly locked lips with him. It was so fast and surprising he didn't even get the chance to return your first kiss. For once, you caught him off guard. You pecked him on the lips again. "It's not a failure."
"Wha—"
"I'm sorry for making you wait, Maliksi. Ten years. We're twenty-nine now, and only tonight do I realize how blind I've been. We've been going around in circles, wasting so much time. Ayoko nang mag-aksaya ng oras," you whispered guiltily against his lips. How could you have been so blind? Andaming nasayang na taon. Making up your mind, you told him, "Yes. Sige, I accept. I'll be your plus one."
The tikbalang was flustered and baffled from the kiss, as well as your revelation, "... But, you already are?"
"No, silly. I meant that I'll be your plus one for life. For as long as you'll have me," you laughed, now processing that you were currently dancing barefoot with your boy best friend and had just kissed him in a wedding you didn't even plan on going to. The universe had a mysterious way of doing things. "Guess I'm the spontaneous one now, huh?"
Maliksi was tongue-tied. "Seryoso ka ba? Is... Is this a marriage proposal?"
"Whatever you want it to be," you echoed his words back to him. "Best friend, plus one, girlfriend, wife—mmpf!"
He kissed you so hard your lips bruised. After an impromptu makeout session which was definitely more in character for Maliksi, you both pulled away, panting heavily in search for air, still desperate for passion. He cupped your cheeks, giving you a sweet, featherlight Eskimo kiss.
"You're missing one more title."
"Hm? What do you mean, Mal?"
"Love of my life." He kissed you again, this time lifting you off your feet and spinning you around (his sneaky right hand was resting on your bum, too, giving it a tight squeeze). You know in the Princess Diaries where the main character's foot just... pops whenever the prince charming kissed her? Yeah, that happened to you on that humid summer night. This was right. You two were meant to be together. Everything was falling into place.
The bungalow you reserved for your Batangas vacation leave ended up being the site of your very eventful honeymoon with the Prince of the Tikbalang (with his libido, it wasn't that difficult to continue where you'd left off in the garter toss; that scrap of lace came off your leg the same way it went on). Actually, nauna pa ang honeymoon sa actual wedding (it was definitely spontaneous). Right after your confession in that alcove, you two went to Maliksi's father to ask for his blessing (which he gladly gave, cackling and saying that it took you long enough) before you guys went driving off to Batangas that night. You and Mal indeed had lots and lots of fun in that resort (I'll let you imagine the rest). More beautiful memories were made from that point on—this time, not just as best friends.
All that and your small, intimate wedding occurred in early April. Just when you thought that it'd be impossible to fulfill Maliksi's life goal of having a baby within the year (nine months of pregnancy meant that the earliest you'd give birth would be January next year), the impossible happened.
Exactly thirty-two weeks later, on New Year's Eve, the Armanaz herd welcomed one prince and two new princesses into the world. Triplets who were instantly adored by everyone in the clan.
Señor Armanaz had never been happier, and so were you and your husband. Your best friend. The love of your life. Your forever plus one.
Maybe being spontaneous wasn't so bad after all.
Taglist: @belladaises @binibiningbabaylan @4kodzuk3n @sparklingmallow @severuslovebot @holyshxtangel @marinac15 @space-flamingo @pippethealien @kashasenpai @disappointmentpastry @hornehlittleweeblet2 @seijohoe @monimiin @ibelievein2dmensupremacy @tinybonksharkcop @methehipster @banisuoh @genshin-idiot @lemonnie-kimmie
#trese#trese 2021#trese netflix#maliksi#maliksi x reader#tikbalang#trese fic#x reader#trese x reader#thera.writes
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Playing tricks with the trickster
Summary: Failed escape attempt from yandere Childe. He lets you play your cards, even playing along, just for his own amusement.
Notes: My first genshin piece yay... I had a sweet and terrible dream of me running from Childe in the woods. Also some inspiration was drawn from @cinnamonest‘s this post, one big virtual hug to her! I hope I did Childe justice, what can I say I love manipulative smiling boys. It has become a pattern as I dash from one fandom to another. This is had turned out to be longer then I expected...Ginger boy demands my time and energy too much omg. Mind the warnings, although there is nothing extreme in this.
Fun fact, I was looping to Nintendo game by Alessia Cara when writing this down. I believe it fits the theme of this fic quite well.
Tagging: @akutaguagua a great friend who patiently beta-read this mess of a horror dream and gave me lots of kind praises!
(Offical art belongs to miHoYo! This is a cover page of this video, if there is any issues, contact me and I will remove it at once)
Warnings: Implied past abduction,dub-con touching, mild degradation, drugging(not on reader), implied non-con/dub-con at the end, this is not healthy love and I do not condone this irl.
It has been nearly a month since the youngest Fatui Harbinger had “taken you in”. After a few tries, you were too horrified by the punishments to continuously fight him. You learned on the first day that Childe’s smiling, the friendly mask would come off towards you. Your behaviour would decide if that is a curse or a “blessing”.
So you had quieted down, struggling to restrain yourself from yelling or screaming, carefully not to provoke his anger. Despite being compliant to his orders, you never truly showed him any affection either. Sure, you would sit on his lap if he asked, but you never initiated anything intimate with him. No matter how much Tartaglia spoiled you with clothes, books, jewelry or other luxuries, he is still the one who holds the commanding end of your shackles. It’s the best not to get used to all of that when your sight is set on the door.
Although he has taken your freedom away, you are not kept in a windowless room. On the contrary, you have too many outings now. Wherever he goes, you have to be present in a 2m radius, including meetings. Being a Harbinger is no easy job, so he prefers not having to worry about your safetly during buisness hours. The best way to do that is never let you out of his sight.
“Love, no one should witness our little problems. Well, no one alive that is.” Of course you wouldn’t want to put innocent people's lives at stake. You never dared to act out when you two are in public, and no one would bat an eye if a Fatui had taken a lover.
You had taken an emotionless approach towards him. If Childe wants a kiss on the cheek, you’ll give him a quick light peck. If he wants breakfast, you’ll go make some pancakes with the topping he likes. Luckily, Childe had not done anything too extreme yet. If cuddling to sleep does not count as extreme that is. The only time you slipped up is when he suddenly hugs you from behind when you’re cooking.
You thought maybe, just maybe, by being as boring and dull as you could, this bastard might just get tired of you and let you go. Childe only loves the fun of it right? Or maybe it could lower his guard.
Oh, how naive you are. You should have known better than to underestimate a Fatui harbinger. See, this is exactly why he needs to keep you around. Yes, unfortunately for you, Childe loves you, so very much. Speaking to him with a monotone voice isn’t going to alter that fact.
You have been devoid of emotions as of late. While Childe does appreciate fewer screams for the sake of his eardrums, this schemer can sense you are up to something. Perhaps this is the peace before your “storm”(he thought of it more like a drizzle)
You want to play a game? Okay, why not? Childe cannot wait to see what tricks you got on those sleeves. Are you ever getting away? Does an amateur ever win when they play a game with a professional trickster? Never.
Still, nothing bites like a cornered rat. You are no airhead, and he is fully aware of that. Just not as cunning and observent as him, that’s all.
The way you just kept your emotions sealed up is impressive, even to someone like him. Even when he got hansy, you did not flinch and just stared at the corner. Childe can only catch faint glimpses of anger when you thought he wasn’t looking.
Hm, when are you pulling your trigger? Tonight, or tomorrow night? Not that Childe is impatient, anything from you is worth waiting. But he would need to dismiss his patrolling underlings in the nearby woods beforehand. No extras would be allowed to disturb this game.
There is no chance during the day, a somewhat mutual understanding for you two. Night time in comparison, is a different story.
Anyone’s sleeping hours is their most vulnerable time of the day, Childe is no exception. You do not plan to harm him, not that you don’t want to. But you are willing to swallow the pent up frustration towards him if you would never see his face again after this. Maybe beating up some slimes would help with the release?
You somehow managed to slip a mixture of herbs into his tea. Since he would buy cooking ingredients for you from time to time, you had requested a bunch of herbs along with the ingredients of a sleep inducing medicine you remembered. Although Childe does all he can to keep you near him, there are inevitable hours that he needs to be somewhere without you. He cannot jeopardize your safety with troublesome monsters. On a side note, he loves showing you off to anyone, his colleagues, acquaintances, business partners, anyone he does not deem a threat.
Enough time for you to make those herbs into powder and cover it up with a few spoons of milk. Tea with milk has become quite popular in Liyue as of late. Childe has grown to love them, so you have learned how to mix it up. He always let you handle his food and drinks, saying that he “trusts you”. What you do not know is this is one of the openings he exposed on purpose. It’s not like you can aquire anything deadly under his suffocating supervision.
Your plan will work, or so you think. Childe will not wake up when you wiggle out of his grasp, because dreamland will keep him occupied. All you need is a glider and a usable sword from Liyue and you’ll get your life back. Bottling up extreme emotions has certainly taken a toll on your mind, but it will be worth it if that is the prerequisite of being free.
Something about this being so easy sits ill with you. Have you really been with the youngest Fatui Harbinger this whole time? But that was brushed off your shoulders by the sheer excitement of regaining your long lost freedom. You know Liyue is in walking distance, all you need to do is cross these woods and-
The moment you dive into the forest, you think you heard an amused chuckle.
That smooth voice terrifies you to no end, the same voice you took orders from for the past month.
Oh, how Childe loves seeing you happy. It’s priceless, both literally and figuratively. No matter how many things he buys you, you had not shown him even one small smile. Enjoy your sweet freedom, because it ain’t going to last. You certainly will know your place after this right? If not you are just dumber then he give you credit for.
That glow of relief in your eyes is worth every last bit of this intense dizzying feeling to Childe. To make sure your plan go through, he had drunk the tea without hesitation, quick enough to catch the momentarily excitement you expressed. He knows the game is on, therefore he had given the night patrol guards the entire evening off. Forcing himself to stay concious by digging his nails into his palms, Childe followed you into the woods.
Your potion is quite strong. Excellent, you’ll have to give him the recipe for informational purposes later. Especially how you managed to achieve such effects with a few herbs you had. He never took you to be anything less than a smart girl, but this has exceeded his expectations. Where’s the fun in a game without challenges?
How you storm through the forest wearing that cute terrified expression looks so endearing, it’s surely not his fault if he wants to enjoy this sight to be longer right.
So, each time you feel the slightest at ease due to whatever reason, expect Childe to make some sound to send you running like your life depends on it again. The sadistic man is hunting you down playfully, like a cat chasing a stray mouse to the inevitable corner.
You know he is toying with you. There is nothing you can do to make him shut up though.
“Love, you had scratched your leg. Must hurts by the looks of it.”
“Liyue is that way, you know.”
“Are you tired? If you want to jog in the middle of the night, you should have called me to come along!”
How can he say those things nonchalantly while you are trying to escape from him? Here he is, daunting you with that signature smile he wears so very often. That is when reality slaps you right in the face. No matter how hard you plan, no matter how fast you run, there is no getting rid of him.
When your stamina runs out, a simple pull and push on your left wrist is enough to let you fall onto the ground panting. Even now, you still refuse to beg for mercy. You would take the cold grounds to the warmth of Childe’s embrace anyday.
“Aw, burnt out already? Pathetic. Looks like we need to work on your stamina more. But this is not the place for exercise.”
“Look at me.” His slender but forceful fingers tilt your head up, making you look into those ocean blue orbs. There is anger present in his eyes, but those emotions are more a mixture of delight and that. His smile had also been replaced by a mocking smirk. “You, trying to leave me? Your sense of humor is...well, let’s just call it unique. Lucky for you, you amused me nonetheless.”
“I know what you’re thinking. How I’m a selfish jerk and you hate me. Why be so ungrateful? You get to live in luxury thanks to me, you know. I am selfish, yes, but look how stupid you are. I know you added something extra in my evening tea, my beloved.”
“Come now, we are going to do some exercises suited for a night like this once we’re back home. It is our one month milestone, after all. You had already given me your gift, it is only fair for you that I do the same.”
Childe is not making a sarcastic remark. The thrill of that chase was the best fun he had in months. And you are going to love his gift too, maybe not right away, but surely sometimes after.
You have to mentally prepare yourself for the worst as he dragged you back to the prison, hopefully you’ll still be able to walk properly after whatever Childe got in store.
#yandere#yandere genshin impact#yandere genshin#yandere childe x reader#yandere childe#yandere tartaglia#this is a dream fleshed out into a fic#i am not sorry
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OML I have to talk to someone about it!😭
May I request a fanfic for William? I got this idea and it made me cry this morning: so basically MC was thinking a bit idk and then came to the conclusion "Did I ever tell how grateful I am for everything Liam does?" So she goes to him, he is just doing chores and then MC hugs him and pours her heart out about it 😭🥺 dygvhhdaarjj- I can't anymore! So if you you're taking requests, I would be really happy and thankful for it!
Oh and in general, I love your work, keep it up it's great!💖💞
This is a very old request and I’m sorry for taking SO LONG to finally do it but here it is! I hope you like it <33
Fandom: Love Unholyc
Word count: 892
Warnings: None
Genre: Fluff
William x GN! Reader
The controller could've been sewn to their hands and it wouldn't make any difference to their lives. That's all they did all day - play games and stay in their own, filthy room, only ever coming out to eat or go to the toilet. Or, on the rare occasions when William forced them to leave the house and get some fresh air, saying the lack of clean air is going to rot their brain, if they had any remaining at all.
Mc never gave their daily life much thought, enjoying the fleeting moments as they passed by.
Though he complained and sent empty threats in his master’s way, William never complained too much. One could say William preferred when they stayed in their room, giving them less opportunities to trash another room or break something.
Mc never gave his job much thought, and the times they did try to help the exhausted butler, he just sent them away. They never complained or urged him to allow them to help, but now they began to regret ever doing so.
Their eyes drooped as they stared at the screen in front of them. The main character of their new game was talking to their mother, telling her how much they loved and appreciated her efforts in their life.
The scene tugged on MC’s heartstrings as they began to bite on the inside of their cheek, suddenly feeling guilt for taking William’s care and hard work for granted.
Pausing the game, they pushed themselves off their chair and stretched their body, letting out a sigh of relief when multiple bones in their body cracked. After placing the headset on the desk, they made their way out of the room and raced to the laundry room, where they knew William was most likely to be at that time.
They knew his schedule like the back of their hand, always staying the same and never changing. And they realised how boring and uneventful his life must be, making the guilt swell even more.
And there he was, in the laundry room folding freshly ironed clothes. As always.
His back was turned to them, and so when their arms securely wrapped around his torso, he flinched, not having expected the sudden visit.
He froze in place for what felt like hours before he finally placed the piece of clothing down, “Master?” He called, his brows knitting.
Mc remained quiet, only tightening their hold on their butler as he stood still.
“Master, do you need something?” He questioned.
Their expression soured; his immediate thought was of them wanting something from him. Without realising, their eyes turned glassy, the guilt of taking him for granted being bigger than they had realised.
“You know I appreciate everything you do, right?” They spoke quietly, feeling the butler’s body stiffen at their words, yet he didn’t dare interrupt them. “The way you look after me, comfort me when I’m sad and deal with my annoying self every day,” they muttered, sniffling as they clutched his shirt in their hands.
Gently, William grabbed hold of their hands and pulled them away from him, leaving him just enough space to turn around and return the embrace. One hand landed on their back and the other at the back of their head, pulling them towards him once again.
“If it weren’t for you,” they whispered, closing their eyes as they rested their head against his shoulder, “I would have been all alone. So thank you for always being here for me. I’ll help you with the chores from now on,” they pulled away from him and wiped the tears, that they didn’t even realise they shed, off their cheeks. “We can split them if you’d like.”
William smiled, a real smile that wasn’t mocking, angry or annoyed. A smile they haven’t seen in what felt like ages and were eager to see more of.
“Thank you, master, but I like to do things a certain way, I -“ he would cut off by his over-enthusiastic master.
“Then teach me!” They exclaimed, their eyes sparkling in excitement despite speaking about chores. “Please! I will do things your way, I promise. So please…”
A sharp exhale left his lips as he stared at them, eventually giving in, “Alright. We’ll share the chores,” he folded his arms over his chest.
“Yay!” Cheered Mc as they threw their arms around him once again, this time wrapping them around his neck with a wide smile on their face.
William of course returned the gesture, more than happy to embrace them, “If I may ask, what brought on this sudden change?” He asked curiously.
“Oh! I was playing this game and the main character-“
“This… happened because of a game?” His eyes turned sharp and words turned sour, which Mc noticed immediately. He wanted to scold them and send them back to their room, yet when they pulled away with a pout, he couldn’t. It’s the thought that counts after all, right… no matter why it came to be.
“Come on,” he ruffled their hair comfortingly, “I’ll teach you how to fold clothes properly, not throw them in the corner of the room like you always do,” he rolled his eyes. Though when he saw the smile pull at their lips once again, he couldn’t help but mirror the look on their face.
———
Rule book
Masterlists
Unholyc mains Masterlist
#love unholyc#love unholyc masterlist#love unholyc masterpost#unholyc william#love unholyc x reader#love unholyc william#love unholyc william x reader#love unholyc William x mc#love unholyc William x gn!reader#love unholyc William x yn#love unholyc fluff#love unholyc fanfiction#love unholyc fanfic#love unholyc imagine
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Saw your post, getting stuff off your chest, I just wanted to say that I haven't seen the thing with the kids mentioned by anyone and it really stood out to me, I feel what you mean to some extent, because for me it was a stronger reaction, albeit you probably won't feel the same and that's, obviously, perfectly fine. I have an instant recoil these days whenever a character is around kids for like one second and everyone instantly goes "THEY LITERALLY ADOPTED THEM/THAT'S THEIR CHILD/THEY'RE A PARENT"... genuinely sick of it, and I went white as a sheet when I heard it, I wanted to pluck my eyes out. I don't know if it's an American thing but English speaking fandoms (well, those teeming with fancops that is) seem like they cannot process adult looking characters being in any near proximity to childlike characters without automatically imposing parenthood and family dynamics and it's becoming distressing to me. I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me.
Thank you so much for the ask!! I don’t get many asks so it makes me happy when I can talk meta with people 💛💛 (Sorry I’m a bit late in answering.)
Funnily enough I actually do agree with you. I didn’t have quite so strong a reaction, but I definitely had a very similar one when I first hear it.
My feelings were and are a bit mixed. I was saying in my other post that I would have preferred that I got to actually see this interaction; see the kids run by him and call him father, and him smile when no ones looking. I still think that would have been a better, more touching way to do the scene, and would have had more chance of me liking it (though I probably still would have felt very weird about it). (I think it especially would have been better because it would show that Alucard himself liked it, not that Greta was forcing the role on him.) I know that it was meant to be something touching, and pretty much everyone seems to like it (and I have seen some cute posts about it), so I just tried to like it too, and focus on the fact that all they were really trying to say was he was having a nice relationship with the kids, and that was indeed sweet.
But yeah, when I heard Greta say “I heard some of them calling you father” for me it was less a reaction of horror, and more a “HUH??!!”moment. When I heard it I was like “Alucard...you agree with this???!! This is how you see yourself??!!” I almost expected Alucard to refute it and say he didn’t see himself as a father to them. Like I seriously do not see Alucard as anything remotely close to a father figure, and it felt weird and wrong to me.
Like when I saw him interacting with the kids the first time, I didn’t think “oh he’s a father figure to them.” I just thought “yay, Alucard’s playing with some kids, and getting out of his bubble!!” I didn’t have any thoughts as to what his relationship role was with them, I just thought that first interaction was lovely.
And if I saw him interacting with the kids again, I still wouldn’t go “father figure” I’d just be like “yay, Alucard’s playing with the kids again, how sweet!!”
Sometimes the relationship doesn’t need a role or a label, ya know?
And I thought it was especially strange because…he literally just met them?? Like how can they possibly start calling him father when he’s played with them once or twice? Regardless of Alucard’s side or things, what group of kids would randomly call a nice man they just met ‘father’? Is...Is this a normal thing??
Anyways, back to Alucard’s side of things, Sypha’s line about Alucard being a teenager trapped an adults body has always been something that stuck with me and shaped how I view Alucard. I definitely view him as internally much younger than he looks. No matter how much I might hate them for what they did to him, I think Sumi and Take are about the age he actually is, and their relationship with him made sense to me. He’s still a kid—or at least young—he still needs his parents in his life, really. (That’s part of why I didn’t like that Drac and Lisa don’t go to him at the end. I personally don’t think Alucard really got closure, and in my mind I think he still very much needed them, and that would have been the perfect ending to his story in my mind, where everything comes full circle; He was forced to lose his parents and grow up too early, and only when he’s started to truly grow up does he get them back.) So yeah, I really don’t see him like a father at all. One of my main focuses in my Castlevania fanfiction is his relationship with Dracula, so I very much see him as the son, not as the dad, even when Drac isn’t around.
(Sidenote, come to think of it, I think this is another reason why Greta x Alucard is a nope from me. She’s very much an adult, so I just see a discrepancy between them that makes me feel weird about them being in a romantic relationship. If we need a label I feel like she fits as an older sister for him, guiding him and giving him support. Him unloading all his problems on her within just meeting her makes more sense if he’s like a younger brother who needs to cry to his sister. I felt weird about it in a romantic context when it was so fast. I mean I know he was desperate to talk to someone, and I probably would have done the same, but still).
“I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me”
^^ THIS. EXACTLY THIS.
I was honestly really hoping they’d go in depth into him dealing with his trauma, and how he’s still hurting from the wounds of it, and how he needs to heal. I thought that’s what his S4 arc would be about. I don’t think they gave him the chance to really process and work through everything that happened. (Again, I don’t think him just unloading all his problems on a nice stranger is truly working through his trauma. I would have much rather watched him struggle to trust her, and him telling her about his trauma happen later, and be difficult for him, and a deep, heartfelt moment).
Like I was saying in my other post, I think if they framed his arc in how he dealt with the town collectively, I think that would have fit better, and been more touching and satisfying. I would have liked to see him struggling to trust humans, and then see as time progressed how several different people in the town liked him and meant him no harm, and how he realized he could trust them, and that he liked them too. It wasn’t that he had a bad romantic partner and needed a new one. He believed he needed to be punished for killing his father, and in his deep loneliness he let these kids into his house and heart, and they turned on him because he was half vampire. That’s something pretty deeply ingrained, and not something a new romance just fixes by existing. He needed to work through that in a much deeper way.
I know this is gonna be a very unpopular opinion, and it's totally cool if you disagree, but in a weird way... I sort of disliked Alucard’s ending. Don’t get me wrong, Im glad he’s happy, and I’d certainly prefer it to him just getting more trauma like last season (*shudders*), and I don’t think him opening up his castle (and his heart) to humanity is a bad way to end his story, certainly not. I think that fits. And my heart did melt a bit at the "I'm weirdly happy" scene. But, where everyone else is like “*sobbing* happy endings for all our faves” ...I see the creators of the show trying to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, and while that’s certainly not all bad, I don’t love every aspect of that. Theres a time and place for that, but a show based on video games, for which there’s more content in these storylines isn’t one of them in my mind.
Sometimes some of the sadness needs to linger. At the very least, let it linger at the beginning of the season so you can work through it in a powerful way, you know? It may have been tough to see Alucard be more closed off, but I think it would have been more satisfying to see him open up his heart and go back to his old self if we saw his trauma leave lingering effects at the beginning.
To me it didn’t feel like a satisfying arc, it felt like the fairytale ending of “oh look he’s not apprehensive about humanity even after what happened! Oh look he got the girl! And the Castle’s a happy place now! Look he’s not sad anymore! He’s even a father figure to these kids! He’s totally moved on!” And all those things can be awesome when done properly, and when they have depth to them. But they didn’t work through the trauma to get there, so it felt surface level to me, and too fast. I really liked that first episode, and how we saw the two sides of him—one that's become more closed off, and the other that still buries the human despite his comments—and I also really liked the first interaction with the kids, and thought that was one of the few interactions that had depth to it and fit with his arc well. Having it go beyond “they’re helping him learn to like and trust humanity again, and displaying who he really is inside” ended up detracting from the power of his relationship with them in my mind.
Having played SOTN, I think an ingrained loneliness and sadness are, in a way, a key part of Alucard’s character. That sounds really sad and awful out loud but…there are some people that just have a sadness or a loneliness to them, and that's not entirely bad. Here’s the thing…it can make them that much more beautiful. The fact that they still fight for good, even when they see all the dark, those moments when they find true friends, despite how alone they are, those moments when they are happy, are so much more powerful. They just are always a bit…separate from other people. One of my favorite lines in anything is the line "We are connected by our darkness, not by our light" in Pandora Hearts. I think it's a line that fits Alucard well, and it’s always something that’s drawn me personally to him. Don't get me wrong, I don’t think Alucard’s all dark and sad and lonely, he’s definitely got a bright side to him too, of course he does. But I also don't think he ever is able to fully accept the vampire side of himself, and I find that interesting, and worth exploring. Personally I was honestly hoping for the show makers to come up with a bittersweet reason for why he went to sleep for 300 years, (and I thought that's why they set things up with Sumi and Taka that he’d have something against his vampire nature). Personally it felt like they were trying to say “oh he’s all better now, he’ll never be sad or lonely again” and while that’s nice I suppose…for me it sort of…stops feeling like Alucard, in a way? I don't know if I'm explaining it right, or if that sounds terrible...😅
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I do agree that’s very common of fandom that people are like “boom! Just add water! Instant father figure!” and I don’t love it either. Sometimes it can be cute if it truly fits, but it doesn’t fit every relationship between an adult-looking character and a kid character, and shouldn't be the first place people go to. In the same way every relationship doesn’t have to be romantic, not every relationship has to be parental/familial either. Sometimes it feels like fandom culture isn't really okay to have some characters just be good friends. A good friendship can be more wonderful than a romance sometimes.
If we have to put a label on it, I think he seemed like a nice older brother figure to them? I think that fits who he is in my mind. But father? Nope. Not for me. And again, I don’t think it needs a label.
Thanks again for sending me this ask!! It was nice to get the chance to work through some more of my feelings here too. Sorry if I went too overboard. And I hope I don’t sound too terribly negative, it really was a great season, and I definitely liked some parts of his arc, just not all of it.
If you or anyone else reading would like to discuss with me more, be my guest!! 💕
#alucard#castlevania#castlevania season four#castlevania s4#castlevania s4 spoilers#castlevania season 4#castlevania netflix#Adrian tepes#adrian fahrenheit tepes#Greta#greta castlevania#castlevania alucard#alucard castlevania#castlevania Greta#netflix castlevania#castlevania meta#castlevania spoilers#castlevania anime#asks#Castlevania asks#alucard meta#alucard asks
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Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (3/3)
Ladies and gentlemen, we've arrived at our final destination.
Again before we start, we have our obligatory disclaimers. I do not own the game or its characters, nor do I claim to know the true history and likely fate of this game. I am entitled to the thoughts and opinions written within this post. Feel free to agree or disagree with the points being made.
This post also remains untagged from the main foofan tag. Only my followers will see this.
We are in the third and final stretch, and the checkpoint is past the cut.
Community
So... here we are, fellow Master Attendants.
As consumers of this piece of entertainment media, we are free to enjoy it however we wish. Appreciating what is there, creating something new from what exists, playing the game by the meta or however you want to play it (within your means and at your own risk of course). There's no one true and absolute way to experience the game.
However, just as you can enjoy something, doesn't mean you can't also point out flaws or shortcomings of the media in question. As an active veteran player, I've already pointed out the many gameplay design flaws already. And I'd be pretty dumb to say that Food Fantasy's writing is perfect. Hell, it has a lot of holes from a worldbuilding consistency standpoint.
And what of things from the community side? Yes, there will be times you'd see content you consider cringe, or something in fanon you don't agree with. Or there happens to be fan theories and fangirling posts you don't like the take of because of X or Y.
And that's fine. If we all happen to play the same way, like the same thing, agree on the same thing and produce the same thing, well, this would be one helluva boring community, wouldn't it?
But what if someone decides the way you're playing the game is wrong and harasses you over it? What happens if someone decides that their interpretation of the game's flavor text and lore is more important than what anyone else thought about it? What happens if someone decides that they're absolutely right, and you and everyone else who disagrees deserves to be bullied out of the fandom?
As much as I want to say we aren't part of the problem why the game is deteriorating, we are unfortunately, part of the reason why the game is as such even if most of the blame is directed towards Funtoy and Elex themselves.
⦁ Whale Authority. Whales will always be part of a gacha game's ecosystem. Without them, the game won't be able to maintain its upkeep costs, moreso for one that services global regions instead of just one. But when a game decides to cater its decisions of what features should be prioritized and when it should be launched around only its most elite paying players' voices -even if that influence has since tapered off-, you know there is something wrong with the publisher's management team and priorities.
⦁ Interguild drama. While I did not personally follow any of this, this has certainly been the peak of in-game tension back in the day. Poaching good players from both competitive and smaller guilds, guild mergers that often ended up making the annexed guild/s the equivalent of UK colonized India or Australia, suck-ups chummying up to guild leaders to keep a spot in an active, high ranking guild (for bragging rights!) despite never contributing much to overall damage, and just general dislike of certain players' attitudes. Actions like this have disillusioned many players about their playing experience and the reason why many eventually just lost the motivation to log into FooFan.
⦁ Cheaters. You know very well about the Hacker-teme I've mentioned before, but that was in context of Elex being incompetent with dealing with them. Here, I would like to point out the players who are desperate to dominate the playing field for whatever reason to the point that they would resort to cheating the ranks with forceful modifications of the APK. Whether it is to rank high in catacombs weekly, get a top spot in daily disaster damage, or weasel their way into the competitive whale ranks of a major ranking event, these are the people who have no qualms messing with the code to give themselves an easier time with the game. And if they're caught? Some pretend that they've made a mistake, some quickly sell the account to escape the blame, some others just scamper away into the dark and hide in the lower ranks where they can't be found. Others simply don't care and keep cheating until Elex decides to finally ban them... if Elex ever decides their rebates score isn't worth saving the account.
⦁ Ship wars. Ah yes, a staple of drama in any fandom. There doesn't need much explanation to this as we've all had our fair share of running into a battleground in whatever fandom we visit. Someone ships BB52 wholeheartedly? Nope, problematic 'age gaps'. Someone likes Napoleon with Pastel? Someone's bound to misinterpret their bios in order to justify that Napoleon was being abusive. Spaghetti and Borscht? Borscht is minor coded, ship her with Vodka instead. Whiskey and Pizza or Cassata? Cancelled! And I've never heard of the Foe Yay trope or pretend I don't know about it! Rarepairs? Disgusting! No fanon in my canon playground! Turkey and Eggnog? Gasp! How dare you, you pedo-shipper-even-though-you-never-said-you-shipped-them-romantically-but-that-isn't-my-point!
⦁ Character Obsession: Bias. On one hand, you love a character so much. Relate to a character so much. You have thus pulled this character into the folds of your bosom and coo at them like a mother dove and get so minutely triggered if someone so much as makes one disagreeable or joking comment about the character that you fly into an overreactive ballistic rage that would make a Canadian goose honk in fear. You don't care what they are in canon. You don't care about the possibility of mistranslation. What matters is the fanon space you carved out for them to exist in and that's all that matters. The problem with this is when this obsession takes over common sense and social etiquette and it steps into harassment territory. You begin to think: I'm the only one who 'understands' the character. I'm the only one who wishes better for the character, everyone else is out to defame them! Oh wait, you like them too? Do you like them the way *I* like them? No? Maybe if you're my 'friend', I'd let it slide. But to everyone else? No one else has the right to like them as much as I do. No one! Never mind that they're completely fictional- No one hurts my bias because in turn, they're hurting *me*!
⦁ Character Obsession: Anti. On the other hand, you hate a character so much. This character just makes you see so much red. Their smug little smirk just makes your blood boil. Their fictional backstory makes you recoil in disgust. You hate that someone else loves a character you hate so much. You cannot *believe* that someone could be so daringly stupid to like a problematic character. They must be problematic too then. They must be hiding real life secrets that are problematic! Yes, yes. That's right. That person's a supporter of abuse. That person's into pedophilia. That person is into military lolita fashion that Japan started the trend of but clearly Japan was part of the Axis Powers! And that... that person... that person... is a roleplayer and a yaoi fangirl properly interacting with minors and adults. How dare they...!
⦁ Fan Translations. Normally it wouldn't be a problem that a group or two or several are translating pieces of the game's lore ahead of the official. But with Elex's very delayed translations and extreme allergic reactions to translating Food Soul bios, people have become dependent on fan-translation groups to get their fix. The problem herein lies... is when the translators get drunk off the power that they are one of a handful in a small community who can magically transcribe the oriental moonrunes into English. The problem starts when the translator starts to have an inclination. The problem starts when the translator loses their professional detachment and start adding in details here and there into the fan translated product that ultimately changes the meaning and direction of the entire story. The problem is also escalated when that translator's embellished product is touted as the truth by their followers. If there was an upcoming character whose backstory is connected to a character they hated (either because of someone or they just don't like the character) and you were hoping to read the fan translation? How would you know that what you get isn't something doctored to the point it's basically fanfiction?
⦁ Social Justice Vigilantism. Sometimes someone does not have a character obsession or need it to be annoying. Sometimes, someone just wants to ring the alarm over something they find 'problematic' in order to police and sanitize the enjoyment of the media for 'everyone'. They no longer really take enjoyment out of a new Food Soul design being leaked, they no longer read the lore just to enjoy what it has to offer. Instead, they nitpick bits and pieces of the design and point it out repeatedly as a reason why the whole thing is bad. They point out bits of the story and inject their interpretations of it without really comprehending what they've read in full and react badly to it. What's worse is that they have no qualms publicly posting their reactions and eagerly and hungrily await those likes and echoes of agreement that they were right.
⦁ Circles of Influence. Everyone has a group they eventually gravitate to in a fandom. It comes with its own pros and cons. Sometimes you join a group because someone you admire is in there, sometimes you join a group because you just want to mingle and see more content. All valid reasons. Arguments can't be avoided in a group, it has to happen... But you have to take care. You have to take care to feel the change in the air of the group. When someone starts pushing people to agree with them. When your most admired people start to feel overly sensitive about certain characters or issues. When you start to feel obligated to spy on other groups outside of this one for 'nonbelievers', 'traitors' and 'heretics' who do not think the way this group does, and that bringing back bits and pieces of gossip as offerings would somehow make you more favored in the eyes of the inner clique or remain inside it. There is a gripping sense of annoyance when that person comes in to complain but you can't do anything about it but nod and agree. There is a pervading sense of fear and apprehension of overstepping an invisible boundary. There is fear that you might be next on the chopping block, after witnessing one of the others being ganged up on and thrown out without a second thought, their name spat upon like they're worth less than dirt. And so reluctant you are to give up what you have with them that when they push you to do something you are reluctant to do, all in the name of 'harmony and justice'... You do it. Even though it would mean offering yourself up to the mob with no salvation, and the stark realization that... [they] never cared about you as a friend.
And we've come to the end of this analysis trilogy. The writing got a little bit strange in this post, but honestly this is the best way I could put it. I'm aware things can and will be more complicated than the bullet points I've written but I'm just one person and I tried very hard to keep details of all the drama that happened in this fandom as vague as possible. Of course, that wouldn't work if you know what I am talking about.
The community is quiet now for the most part, the game is somewhere between limbo and the living plane. Things could be better for us, but I don't really count on it.
I wish I could leave a bit of a moral warning or something. But rather than do that, I just hope this was an entertaining read into one individual's eyes into Food Fantasy and everything that makes it up.
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Breaking a Promise - Read on AO3
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Titans (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), The New Titans (Comics)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Dick Grayson/Joseph Wilson
Characters: Dick Grayson, Koriand'r (DCU), Joseph Wilson
Additional Tags: tw for self harm, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Angst, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Canon Divergence, emotional breakdown, Broken Bones, description of injury, star crossed lovers, Flowers, Canonical Character Death, it's Joey guys, I'm Sorry, Swearing, lot of f bombs, POV Dick Grayson, Dick grayson centric, Dick Grayson is bi, Dick Grayson is Bad at Feelings, Dick Grayson is Discowing, Dick Grayson Needs Therapy, Dick Grayson Whump, Angst with a Hopeful Ending, a little bit of fluff near the top, Gardening, when your gf is poly and ships you with someone else, Heartbreak, Heartache, no beta we die like -sobs- Joey, Hurt/Comfort, and then hurt/no comfort to follow it up
Series: Part 5 of Bad Things Happen Bingo
Summary:
The one where Dick Grayson has his heartbroken twice.
Full story under cut
Two years ago:
“Dick, what about this one?” Kor’i smiled sweetly, positively glowing in the sun. She gestured to a little potted plant sitting in the shade of the bottom rack. Her hair fluttered in the wind, seeming to sweep up his heart as well. Crouching, he gently bumped her shoulder, and she nudged him back. Perfect.
“Why don’t we look over there?” Dick asked, pointing over to another shelf.
“But I like this one.” She pouted, puffing out her bottom lip slightly. He glanced at the little sprout she picked out, his mind happily buzzing as he identified it without looking at the tag – botany lessons with Alfred had paid off.
“Lamprocapnos spectabilis.” He began. Kor’i nuzzled her head on his shoulder, reaching out a hand to stroke the leaves. He grabbed the little tag sticking out of the pot. “This one is of the Valentine variety.”
“Mmm.” She rested her hand back on Dick’s thigh, warmth spreading from the spot. “Tell me more.” He swallowed and complied.
“They’re a perennial – they come back annually. They like full or partial shade, and are native to Siberia, Japan, northern China, and Korea.”
“How big will it get?” She asked, rising to her feet, carrying the plant with her.
“About yay high.” He spread his hands two feet. “But Kor’i, uh, I can’t just give that to Joey it’s-”
“Commonly known as the bleeding heart?” She smiled mischievously. “I don’t see why not, your heart bleeds all the time.” She innocently widened her eyes, batting her eyelashes. “Or is it because it symbolizes love? Do you not love him?” Doubt was as clear in her voice as it was in her face.
“I-” He stammered; he would never cheat. “I love you.” Heat rose to his face. “Only you.”
Kor’i was perfect, she was so loving, always building him up, never tearing him down. Always healing, nurturing, growing seeds of her own – not just in him, she seemed to bring out the best in everyone she met. People basked in her beauty, and he simply basked in the knowledge of her presence. In being loved so fully, so openly and honest. Dick didn’t know if he could ever love anyone more.
“Oh.” Kor’i looked thoughtfully at the clear cerulean sky. “I wouldn’t mind if you… loved someone else too.” He frowned.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel like I did, but Kor’i, you’re the only one for me.” He stood, lightly pecking her on the cheek. She grinned, grabbing his hand, dragging him towards the checkout line.
“I like this one, forget silly earth symbolisms, Joey would love it.”
Dick sighed, following along anyways – she was right, of course, she always was – Joey would love the flowers, they were pals after all, he wouldn’t read too much into it.
One year ago:
A cool breeze snaked its way over the hillside, finding its way around the rock at his back and through his hair – leaving him disheveled in its wake. A chill rain up his spine, goosebumps swiftly decorating his arms. He could feel his hair slowly rise up, standing in a desperate bid to retain heat.
Dick wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there, knees tucked to his chest, head resting on his crossed arms. Too long likely. He should be back to the tower soon – he didn’t want anyone to worry, but after the mess on Tamaran, it was best for him to be alone right now.
He was just… so tired. He’d already destroyed half his punching bags trying to fight the emotion out – which had worked to some extent, leaving his hands throbbing and arms burning. He sprinted as far as he could go before his legs gave out. It had dulled the anger and pain, leaving him worn out and exhausted. The dull ache in his chest returned just as soon as it had left.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at the night sky – he’d come out here for comfort – to watch the waves lap against the rocks from far above and gaze up at the stars. But the stars could never shine brighter than Kor’i, only serving to remind him of what he’d lost when he’d ventured too close to the sun.
It wasn’t fair – Kor’i hadn’t loved Karras though they were together – legally bound, and he was here, light years spanning the distance between those bound by their souls.
He never believed in love in first sight. Not until he’d met her.
He’d always believed in love, though, from the time he was a child – his parents were living proof. It was foolish – his parents had died hadn’t they? Believing in their love until the bitter end, loving their lives, each other, him. It was love that kept them on the trapeze all those years, and that love had killed them.
He sighed, maybe Bruce was right – love wasn’t something compatible with their lifestyle. He never shared himself so fully with others or lost himself so fully either. Always playing cat and mouse with his lovers, never committing, communing with another soul the way he had with Kor’i.
He licked his chapped lips, tasting salt in the air. Light footsteps padded towards him. He curled further in on himself, not in the mood to talk. A rough woolen blanket dropped over his shoulders.
It smelled like crisp green apples, mixed with a hint of cinnamon.
Adeline Wilson had great tastes in laundry detergent – something she’d handed down to her son.
Joey crouched next to him, wrapping an arm around him, offering warmth and comfort. Dick hesitated, mind screaming to recoil, run away – be alone and repress, but heart yearning for the warmth and comfort he always seemed to find in Joey. That same warmth reminded him of Kor’i.
The desire for comfort won out, loosening up, he leaned against Joey’s shoulder. Joey’s chin nestled into the base of his neck; soft puffs of warm, wet air sent tingles down his spine. He raised his head a little dislodging Joey, feeling weirdly uncomfortable – but not displeased – just – he’d think about that later, now wasn’t the time.
Joey quickly backed off, removing his arm. Dick gave him a side glance and for a moment, lost himself in kind emerald eyes. <em>He isn’t Kor’i</em>. Why was that so hard to remember?
It took him a minute to process Joey signs. ‘Your hands.’ He followed his gaze down to his numb fingers. Upon seeing them he was hit by the realization they hurt like hell. He probably should have remembered to wear gloves, or at least wrap them, before taking his frustration out on punching bags.
His right hand had swollen, both had bruises blossoming, his skin rubbed raw, blood freely dripping from busted knuckles.
“Fuck.” He’d be out of the game for at least a month, if he was right about his right pinky – that was a boxer’s fracture. Tendrils of pain crawled out from the spot, his hands throbbing in time to his pulse. Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. He couldn’t afford to make mistakes like that – the Titan’s needed him!
Joey squeezed his upper arm, ‘let’s go’, he suggested, rising to his feet. Dick bit his lip, internally cursing himself for being such a dumbass. He shakily rose to his feet, immediately hit by a wave of exhaustion. Which in hindsight – he probably shouldn’t have sprinted until he dropped either.
Joey wrapped an arm around his waist, bending slightly to stand under his shoulder and steadying him as the blanket slipped over his shoulders. They left it were it lay – more pressing matters to attend to, but Dick shivered in the cool night without it. He took a few wobbling steps forward – and dumb – his knees gave out.
He never came close to the ground, instead, finding himself lifted into a princess carry. Joey smiled apologetically, with a little shrug. Dick sighed; this was embarrassing. He was eighteen – he should know better – Bruce had taught him better!
“It’s fine, thanks.” He ignored how rough his voice sounded, instead concentrating on the throbbing from his hands, using the pain to block out the ache in his chest. He focused his gaze forward, not thinking about how close he was to Joey, how Kor’i used to carry him this way, how Joey smelled like honeysuckle and lilac, how this was everything he missed – and he just prayed he wasn’t falling in love again – he couldn’t be, no – he just... he was projecting. He just missed Kor’i.
He ignored Donna’s concerned eyebrow raise as they passed her on the way back to the tower. Gar’s whistle as they crossed the living room. The way Joey was so delicate when placing him in the passenger seat of the helicopter, so careful to avoid eye contact, so mindful of his pride.
In the brighter lighting he noticed stark red against Joey’s golden curls. A flower from a bleeding heart had made its way into Joey’s hair. There were gardening gloves in his back pocket
His heart sped up as they took off, he felt weirdly lighter than before – though perhaps he was just dizzy from pain. Joey stared at him, his eyes darker than before, brow set determinedly, but looking pained and a bit melancholic.
“What’s wrong?” Dick asked, feeling guilty for ruining whatever gardening project Joey had evidently come from. A lot was wrong, he was wrong, was asking a stupid question.
The tips of Joey’s lips curled into a frown. ‘Do not do that again’ he pointed at Dick’s broken hands.
Dick shrugged, it was a dumb move, he couldn’t guarantee he’d never break his hand again. He shifted his gaze back through the window. Joey tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Promise.’ Well, if it would keep Joey happy, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“I promise.” He wouldn’t break his hand as long as he never broke his heart.
Now.
He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid, and he didn’t lack self-awareness. He knew how to bottle his feelings into a jar, create a vacuum seal, and tuck them away on a shelf. The thing was, he also knew eventually he had to deal with the things he compartmentalized.
It had been a month since Joey died. He’d been putting it off. But today…
The bleeding heart had wilted.
The jar fell to the floor and shattered, his heart disintegrating into a million shards with it.
A watering can joined the broken glass on the floor, before he knew what was happening, he was running from Joey’s garden, not knowing where he was going, not sure of his surroundings. His vision narrowed, relying on muscle memory and reflex to avoid crashing.
Crashing was a good way to describe this.
He was right there. Looked Joey in the eyes. Watched him become twisted and never even noticed that his beloved friend was going through things no one should ever go through, slowly destroyed from within, suffocating from a painfully sluggish death before Slade made the final move.
“FUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCK!” Birds flapped away as he screamed at the sky, at the world for letting this happen. Joey never knew – he never told him – was too scared that this would – that he would –
WHY DID THINGS HURT SO MUCH HE SWORE NOT TO LOVE ANYONE LIKE HER AGAIN-
*CRACK*
He broke a tree, feeling bone snap against splintered bark.
He froze, staring at his right pinky, and laughed.
So much for promises.
Laughs turned to sobs, knees buckling as he fell to the forest floor – sitting on his heels before flopping to his back. Staring up at the baby blue sky, cumulus clouds drifted by without a care in the world, laughing at him, mocking him from the high heavens.
Tears flowed freely, nature as the only witness.
His heart wasn’t supposed to break like this, he’d locked it away long ago, he wasn’t supposed to care about people like this anymore, that wasn’t in the fucking plan. He’d restrained himself, time and time again, turned down offers, avoided hanging out – he did everything he was supposed to do to not fall in love again.
And absolutely none of it mattered.
Love had mattered – fuck love for being like this – fuck Bruce for making him believe he could live like him – fuck the world – fuck Joey – fuck Kor’i – fuck everything. Fuck whoever he was supposed to be, his training, his painstaking control of his emotions.
He pounded the ground with his good hand, promises could be broken, but he wouldn’t break – not today – he didn’t have time. He could be dead today, next week, fuck – half the Titans were dead, Jason was dead, he couldn’t waste time like this - his life was going to be short.
His life was going to fucking short and he needed to pull himself together – he had family to get back to. He had people he loved – if his heart was going to break anyways – he was so FUCKING stupid.
Drowning in regret, he slammed the ground again, hard enough for the shockwaves to jar his broken hand. Feeling pain was better than feeling this – because fuck – fuck – he loved Joey. He loved Joey and Kor’i and they were both gone and nothing was okay anymore. Joey never even knew. Never even knew – and it was all his fault – and he never knew how much he mattered – never knew how when he smiled it everything around him dulled in comparison or how when they talked it was like he had known him his all life.
He never knew.
And would never know.
He focused on taking painful breaths sobbing himself silly, laughing till he couldn’t breathe, and crying until he couldn’t feel. Time passed in a vacuum, hysteria waxing and waning until he ran out of tears to cry.
He rolled over, pressing himself up, wiping his face on his shirt, ignoring the familiar pain creeping up his arm.
He made a new promise because well, fuck the last one didn’t work out so he might as well start over. Giant pines towered over him standing tall as silent witnesses. He swore on the living along with the dead, any that would listen really – he didn’t care - he couldn’t keep living like this.
“Whoever I love will know.” He whispered the words as a sacred oath, finding an odd sense of solace. He paused, letting the words hang in the air as if imbuing them with some sort of power.
Stumbling forward, he made his way back home.
#bad things happen bingo#titans#batfam#ntt#dick grayson#joey wilson#koriand'r#dickkory#dickjoey#tw heartbreak#nightwing#discowing era lol#my writing
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Jon is outed as Steampunk
Hello my beautiful patient followers. I’ve returned with TMA content because it’s my latest obsession. I’m proud to say that my first contribution to the fandom is an obligatory Mechs!Jon fic because I find them hilarious.
--
Tim was doing his best to avoid having to go up to the boss’s office all day, but was very disappointed to find he had no choice but to pop in for a visit to give him some of the ‘possibly true’ statements.
It wasn’t like he was going to believe it anyway - what was even the point? The guy was so uptight Tim didn’t think he knew how to have some fun and imagine the possibility that maybe there was something exciting in the universe. Tim supposed that didn’t really change the fact that he needed to give the guy his precious statements, so he groaned and grabbed the pile he’d gathered up.
He approached the door and stopped short of it, wondering if he would even notice if he didn’t give him the statements. He really didn’t have the energy for whatever job he was going to be given if he dared to walk in. Then something caught his ear.
Was Jon… chanting?
He was talking slightly quieter than his speaking volume and that definitely wasn’t English. It couldn’t be him speaking to himself. Jon had specifically told him the other day he didn’t speak any other languages. He tried picking out his words in case he was just mishearing, but the words were very clear and were certainly not anything coherent. He did catch him occasionally switch to humming. Was Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the Magnus Institute singing to himself?
Tim made a mental note of the more coherent words and stepped into the doorway.
“Hey, boss!” he couldn’t help but be amused at how Jon jumped at the sound of him. He ripped his hand away from his face, which was pressed up against it, and readjusted his glasses with the hand.
“What did you need, Tim?” he asked, looking up at him unenthusiastically.
“Got a fresh delivery of statements for you!” he said cheerily, stepping up to the desk and placing the pile on an empty part of the table with a satisfying slap.
“Later than usual I see. Doesn’t matter I suppose. Would you mind filing away all of these on your way out?” Jon said, gesturing to a pile of statement files that was even larger than the one he’d just brought in. Great.
“Sure thing, boss! Wouldn’t want you having any of the fun, eh?” He joked, which didn’t seem to carry the same amusement for the other man.
“Shut up, Tim,” he deadpanned, returning to his work, signalling that the exchange was over.
Tim wandered back to his desk faster than usual and frantically wrote down all of the phrases he could remember.
What were they…. He definitely said something that sounded like ‘yai’ and he thought he heard a ‘sothoth’. How was he supposed to find anything with this gibberish? With little hope he opened up his web browser,typing in the words, and was surprised to find it wasn’t gibberish at all. It was some Lovecraftian chant. He doubted Jonathan ‘this-statement-is-wrong-because-this-word-is-mispelled’ Sims would be the sort of guy to worship Cthulhu.
He’d been humming though, hadn’t he? Maybe it was a song. With his impeccable research skills he added ‘song’ to the end of his search and right there on the first page of results was a song called ‘Red Signal’ by the Mechanisms. He clicked on a video and listened to the song. That was definitely the same tune. It was strange, though. He never really pegged the bossman as someone that listened to this sort of thing. It reminded him of a folksy sort of punk or metal? Then the chanting stopped and switched to a spoken verse and Tim froze.
Was that Jon? It definitely sounded like him… Maybe the voice was a bit deeper and gravelly but Tim could have sworn that it was his voice. He frantically searched up the band. After looking through some photoshoots for some old albums he couldn’t help but stare. That was definitely his boss with quite a bit of makeup and dressed in some very over-the-top steampunk getup and flipping off the camera. He suddenly felt someone pressing up against his chair from behind.
“Is that Jon?” Sasha asked, leaning over his shoulder, squinting at the screen with her head cocked.
“Apparently,” Tim said, grinning ear to ear. “Look, I did some digging and it turns out he used to be in this steampunk band,” he continued, showing Sasha more pictures of Jon and his bandmates on the page.
“That’s amazing. He looks quite good in the pictures though, don’t you think?” she said with a chuckle.
“Right? He actually looks like he’d be fun to have a drink with!” He switched back to ‘Red Signal’ and started playing it. “I mean listen to this, he’s actually good, too!”
“How did you even find this?”
“He was singing it to himself and I used my incredibly advanced skills to track it down,” Tim bragged, making a show of readjusting his lapels.
“If only you put the same effort into actually working,” she chided, giving him a cheerful nudge with her elbow.
“Alas, I don’t think there’d be any work left for the rest of you if I did. It’s a public service to you all.” He grinned.
“Riiiight, because this place could run without me around.” Sasha grinned back.
The door to the shared office opened with a sharp creak and Martin stepped into the room.
They looked up and Tim called, “Hey Martin! How was Bexley?”
“Quite nice, actually! No creepy witches sending body parts to people, but there were some very kind old ladies I had the pleasure of speaking to!”
“Sounds like it was fun!” Sasha replied with a warm smile.
Martin was placing his bag down at his desk when he stopped and looked back at the two of them.
“What song is that?” he asked.
Tim grinned mischievously. “It’s called ‘Red Signal’, it’s by-“
“-by the Mechanisms? I had a friend that loved them, played it all of the time,” Martin finished, chuckling to himself at the memory. “I quite like their music, actually.”
Sasha and Tim took a moment to stare at each other knowingly and beamed innocently at Martin as he turned back to them.
Sasha looked at him with the same warm smile she’d given him before. “Maybe you could ask Jon if he’s heard of them while you give him your report?”
“Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like the sort of thing he’d go for,” he wondered.
“People can surprise you all of the time, may as well ask anyway. It’s not like he’s gonna hate your guts any more than he already does.”
Martin made a disappointed wince. “I guess so.”
“Don’t let that grump get you down, Martin, he probably just has a huge crush on you,” Sasha smirked.
“What? N-no! As if, that doesn’t even make any sense!” he stammered, turning back to his desk and sitting down to hide the red that was spreading over his face.
“Ask him, though, will you? I’ve already had to go up there today and he’s given me a whole stack of files to go through. Not sure I could take another trip,” Tim joked as Sasha moved back to her desk. “Don’t tell him it was me that was wondering, though, he’d probably think it’s a trick or something,” he added casually.
“R-right, sure thing, Tim,” Martin obliged.
—
Martin knocked on Jon’s half-open door later that day, report in hand. Jon spared him a brief glance upwards before looking back down at his work.
“Did you find anything regarding the Bexley statement?” he asked, not bothering to hide his disinterest as Martin placed his report on the table.
“I didn’t find the woman described in the statement, but I made sure to check every elderly Angela,” he said, a bit disappointed at how useless the trip was. “I did have some wonderful conversations about jigsaw puzzles with a few of them, though!” he added cheerfully. Thankfully Jon didn’t seem to be in a mood to scold him, but wasn’t at all invested in the conversation. Martin was about to leave when he remembered Tim’s request.
“Oh, uh, by the way, we were- well we were talking about it earlier so I was wondering if you’d heard of the Mechanisms? Like that space pirate band that used to play in a lot of London bars?”
Jon froze up for a moment before quickly explaining, “Erm, no I don’t think I have. Not uh…. not a big fan of going to see bands play at shows, you know?”
Martin raised an eyebrow. “Oh, okay? I guess it doesn’t seem like something you’d like… are you okay? You seem… off?”
“I’m quite fine, Martin, just a bit of a headache, I suppose. If you’ll excuse me I need to get back to this,” he said dismissively, returning to whatever he was writing down and setting Martin’s report on a stack.
“Sure! Did you need any tea? I’ve got one that’s really good for headaches,” he offered.
“That won’t be necessary, Martin, get back to work.”
“Right.” Martin concluded as he left the room.
—
Things had been going a bit too slowly for Martin’s liking in the past few days. That usually meant Jon got antsy about people not doing as much work. It wasn’t like there was anything to do in the first place.
He was at least in the break room with Tim having lunch, who was playing more Mechanisms music, so Jon couldn’t tell either of them off right now. As his mind drifted to Jon, the man himself entered the room with his own lunch and made his way to the coffee machine.
The song Tim was playing was pretty good. Martin curiously looked at Tim’s phone on the table playing the music.
“What song is that, Tim?”
“Ah, it’s called ‘Loki’, it’s from this great album called ‘The Bifrost Incident’,” he said with an obnoxious grin. Jon looked at them and ducked his head when Martin looked back.
Martin pulled out his own phone and searched up ‘The Bifrost Incident’ and found a video from a show that he opened up. After a bit of pre-show banter the first song started.
That was when Martin heard Johnny DeVille do the song’s introduction. He’d always thought the lead singer sounded familiar, but the paragraph gave Martin a very vivid recollection of the exact tone of voice Jon always used when he recorded statements.
That couldn’t be right, no way was that him. He took a good look at Johnny and looked between his own phone at the man with black cracks drawn on his face wearing the most steampunk outfit he’d ever seen and Jon, who was standing there, in his sweater vest, making a cup of coffee to go with his sandwich. Tim was looking at both of them struggling not to laugh and Jon was suddenly VERY interested in the coffee he had just poured out.
“JOHNNY DEVILLE?” Martin exclaimed, prompting Tim to bend over, choking on his own stifled laughter.
Jon picked up his coffee and claimed his sandwich from the table behind him and refused to meet Martin’s gaze.
“Thats- uh- probably just a coincidence… I’m, uh, I’ll just have lunch in my office today,” he mumbled out, clearly not convinced he’d covered it up at all and left the room without another word.
Tim pulled himself back up and let out a heavy breath. “Oh, ha, Martin, sorry, it’s just Sasha and I were wondering how long it was gonna take,” he sighed gleefully. “Hopefully he’ll face society again. Hard to imagine the bossman was ever that cool, huh?”
Martin stared at the door. “Yeah…”
—
The next day Jon came into the office, but hadn’t shown his face for the whole day. Martin felt bad about yesterday, he probably overreacted a bit. Tim assured him it was fine and that the boss just isn’t the type to take a bit of embarrassment on the chin. This didn’t stop Martin from dropping in with a cup of tea when it became clear Jon wasn’t leaving his office for lunch.
Martin knocked on the door and upon getting a gruff ‘yes?’ from the other side he let himself in. Jon was more dismissive than usual and didn’t even spare a glance at him. Martin wasn’t sure how much of it was his usual grumpiness and how much was because of yesterday.
He set the tea down in the spot Jon usually kept it, right next to his coffee mug from yesterday. Martin waited for any acknowledgement. The acknowledgement never came and Jon’s expression was unreadable. The fact that he was looking down intently didn’t help.
“You know, I think it’s pretty cool that you were in a band. It’s not like you’re a murderer or something actually bad,” Martin said, desperate to break the silence. Jon clenched his pen tighter and looked up at him cautiously.
“That’s… kind of you to say…” he responded.
“Don’t worry about it, we’ve all done some pretty silly things. I will be honest, though, Jon, if being the lead singer for the Mechanisms is the most embarrassing thing you’ve done, I am extremely jealous.”
Jon smiled in a way that looked almost bashful on him. “It was a lot of fun, performing. It was a real shame when we all split after university.”
“I can imagine,” Martin sighed, silently cursing himself at how softly he’d said it. “Steampunk outfits really suit you, though, Jon. The makeup was a nice touch too.” He turned and made his way back to the door.
As Martin went to close the door behind him Jon grumbled, “Shut up, Martin.”
—
The next morning Martin found something on his desk. It was a Mechanisms shirt neatly folded up and a copy of the Bifrost Incident album, both signed by all of the band members.
The note lying on top of them read ‘I had a few extras at home - J’ and Martin couldn’t help but feel giddy.
#galaxywrites#the magnus archives#tma#fanfiction#the magnus pod#jonathan sims#the archivist#tim stoker#sasha james#the mechanisms#mechs!jon#martin blackwood
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Ok so I've been stalking your blog for the past couple of hrs after seeing your TadaAi posts (I'm drowning in the period drama that is this ship) and I find you ship Tododeku and rinharu (god i can't stand bakudeku and makoharu) and seems like we share a lot of our views on fandom and ships probably because we're older (I'm 22). Followed and looking forward to your input in the future!
Also you might've given me the motivation to finish watching Free! XD
Hehe yay, please, we need more ppl in our “house of oldies”, make yourself at home lol. And we share a lot of ships?! Even better <3
I knooow, I can’t believe we’ve got a gay “master who fell in love with his servant” ship in the anime, just what I needed for my idiotic collection lmao
But also these two have too much going on between them, so much wasted potential in my opinion, it’d be so interesting to explore (but sadly no xD), they were still the only interesting thing for me lolz. I love complicated morons, who became the victims of a huge unrequited requited love misunderstanding, bc they’re insecure morons lmao and they just have 2 of my fav ships vibes, so it’s probably mostly this haha.
Oh, I’m inputting *wink wink*, can’t wait to finish the vid, I’m having too much fun with it. I’ve just literally spent several minutes trying to get whether I’ve put Tadashi’s sexy mole in the right distance from his eye in the “him moaning on the table” manip lolz. What can I say... I picked the best hobby, with all the support I’m getting with my vids, I’m living a dream xD
You know, I think I’ve said it before, but when it comes to bakudeku, I at least understand what ppl hope to see there and why, but like.. it’s just not happenning. Also imagining Bakugou lovingly hugging Midoriya is just so OOC I start laughing all the time. And whatever ppl say, in any ship whether they’re enemies or rivals or anything, if you can’t imagine them being tender with each other, smth is not right in my opinion. Also once again, who needs idiotic bleating Midoriya, idk. I’m just tired of the endless “die, deku/out of my way” yelling, I like watching Bakugou going to parties and amusement parks and doing silly stuff, too. Like I’ve said before, pride won’t ever let him change the way he behaves with Midoriya, even when they’re doing “great”. If he was the one, it wouldn’t have mattered, no matter how tough you are, and it wouldn’t take that long. I also don’t think they’re that kind of relationship, like they move each other for sure, sometimes, yeah (not always in a good way tho), but be together in a relationships? Can’t imagine that. Like not all rivals have the rivals to lovers dynamic, no matter what ppl say. But I get the shipping, bc 1stly these two are playing too huge of a role in each other’s lives, 2ndly Midoriya is obsessed with him and Bakugou obsessed with him too (just in a bad way lmao) and 3rd ppl want that “enemies to lovers” dynamic, since many love it (me included, when it done right and progresses right), so they’re trying to write that “to lovers” bridge, that just doesn’t fit here in my opinion, simply bc Bakugou won’t be soft with Midoriya, like ever in a way, you’d want, and I don’t think it’s possible for them to go there.
Tododeku on the other hand, 1stly they also play too huge of a role in each other’s lives, 2ndly Midoriya is obsessed with him too and Todoroki is lovingly obsessed with him in return, 3rdly they are also rivals to lovers, and I have no problem imagining the second part, it won’t be OOC, 4thly Midoriya when he’s with Todoroki is my fav Midoriya, he’s happy, he is cocooned and he’s badass af (and like when he told Endeavor to fuck off or yelled at Todoroki “the fuck are u doing?” xD are still the best), 5thly Midoriya forgets about Bakugou, when he’s with Todoroki a lot and it’s just funny to me, 6thly they healed each other so nicely, I can’t not be into that, 7thly when they’re together I have like 0 worries, idk I’m like “he will catch him” anyways haha, Bakudeku just don’t give me this vibe. It’s like yeah, they won’t let each other die, but it’s always this chaos of “out of my way”, “I don’t want your help” and “let me punch you before I punch the villain” that I’m just “oh for god’s sake, pls bring in Kirishima and Todoroki so we could just go home, it could’ve been solved in 2 minutes” lmao. Etc, etc.
Tododeku just have too many winning points over bakudeku for me, same with kiribaku over bakudeku, even tho I 100% get bakudeku as a ship ofc. Also idk whether things would be different if Todoroki wouldn’t exist in the equation, but the moment I saw that s2 scene where Bakugou started yelling and Todoroki just ignored him and was like “was Midoriya always this good?”, there was no going back to me XD. Like they both obviously see that Midoriya is wonderful, but only one reacted to that in a way that I wanted. And I’m a sucker for the ships who don’t give a fuck and like “yeah, I find him amazing and everyone should know that”. Todoroki is also one of those guys, who if you give them the much needed love, they’ll return it tenfold with a forever devotion. And all of my fav ships are like that: Yullen, Rinharu, Mikayuu, Wangxian, Akakuro, etc. They’re like “well, I ain’t an idiot to let someone this precious go”, you know lol
On the other hand, when it comes to Kirishima, Bakugou can do all kind of ridiculous thing I wouldn’t imagine he would do to keep him or make him happy, you know. Kirishima is also the only one, who can put his arm around Bakugou without it being cut off, so I don’t make the rules here lol.
So it’s not like I can’t stand bakudeku, more of like can’t imagine this work, to me it’s easier to imagine todobaku in a relationships, but not bakudeku lolz.
But when it comes to makoharu, I just have a huge problem with it and I will never get it. Bc they don’t bring anything good in each other like AT ALL, I don’t even understand what kind of relationships this is from their shipper point of view; they give each other nothing, and one of them is totally in love with someone else and wants a future with him. And that someone also head over heals with him and also wants a future with him. And I hate how 99,9 % of mh fans don’t give a fuck about Haru or Rin whatsoever and just ignore their character’s everything. Bc Makoto. I’m also like if you love him so much, the fuck would you want him to be with Haru anyways, dude doesn’t reciprocate, like at all. I’m at confusion, like name good points of this ship and what good can they do for each other characteristically. There is none, it’s like a damn swamp. Like usually I can give my notp some points, but this is like... they’re both no good for each other... like... why would anyone even want this idk. Don’t tell me “for the childhood friends” one-sided dynamic, like why won’t you also ship Shion with Safu then, like even he seemed more invested in that, than Haru in makoharu lol.
Even if you think of them from the point of view of “the two who are always walking together” ships, that are everywhere nowdays (even tho since Haru moved to Tokyo, he was always with Asahi instead), but even if... those kind of ships are usually at least make each happy and are enough for each other. Haru on the other hand, when he doesn’t have Rin, he is walking with Makoto like a ghost, not even caring if he’s talking next to him AND he’s getting ennoyed by him. Like explain, how someone’s shipping them romantically. It’s been showed like 20 times, that with Rin, but without Makoto, he can be perfectly happy, without Rin tho, he never is.
Also someone explain, what exactly is the point of splitting up two characters, who are happy together, make each other the best versions of themselves and want to be together whole-heartedly? Like I know many start shipping smth, bc the relationships are better in the other pairing, for example, but this is like... definitely not the case here. Like what exactly is missing in rinharu, that makoharu has? Lack of progression and mutual inspiration?
So yes, if you’re into rinharu, totally finish Free! They’re like doing sooo incredible and holy shit they’re inspiring, I mean, look, they’re now the tokyo olympics ambassadors, like how many of yall gay ships reached that? you can’t miss out on them, and also they’re so hilariously romantic, they literally made a wish to swim with each other since they were 13 and did everything to get each other there, I’m.. you’re lying, if you didn’t cry watching them as chibies making wishes on a star and watching them now. One of the most wonderful development in my opinion. Like who would’ve thought back in s1, that we’ll get Haru yelling on top of Rin about how he made him want a future with him, def not me lmao and now all the olympics boyfriends fanfiction are true, I mean, idk what to say anymore. I miss them so much, I can’t wait for the movie :D
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ok so inspiration hit me like a truck and this is what I got also just imagine that one of the multiverse survived batman who laughs bs and tries to rescue reader pls again havent read that much of it so yeah, oh also I got bored of writing "the batman who laugh" over and over again so imma just write evil batman - knull anon
~~~~
sneaking into a heavily guarded fortress was never easy, but especially one made by his father (technically his father) was damn near impossible.
whatever was in this fortress must be extremely important to the batman who laughs, because damian has yet to have seen this much security and back up plans for a fortress.
he was with the rest of the bat kids, and their missing was weird to say the least.
the planet he was on was actually one that the evil batman didnt completely destroy, and he was surprised to see this fortress in a beautiful forest jungle area, where the trees grew taller then he had ever seen.
however, he couldnt look at the scenery forever. he eventually had to focus on the mission: find whatever was in the fortress, get it out, and run. this object was apparently extremely important to th evil batman and it was their job to try and get it.
the plan was that if they were able to get whatever was inside, it might be a bargaining chip for them to use so they could try and lure this batman into a trap.
currently, damians own father was fighting the evil batman so they could get this chance.
of course, it took a while to even get into the fortress but that didnt matter.
the guards were everywhere, they even saw some zombie robins walking around the place, usually carrying random every day items. from books, clothes, and even food and water. strange considering they only ate people, but fortunately for them, the robins usually were too busy at whatever task they had to even try and pay attention to the batkids.
they eventually had to split up, damian going with cassandra, tim and duke while dick took every one else.
it was probable never a good idea to even try to go in a big group, but it was the only chance they had.
trying to find whatever was there that was so important to this evil batman was probably going to change the tides of this "war".
dick had told him to keep on looking when they werent able to find anything important of value. they had come to a standstill, where they were hidden in a darkly lit hallway with so alcoves with strange plants and other decorative objects.
damian was about ready to lose his mind. there was absolutely nothing here that would say anything about where this important item was.
the rest of his group was probably thinking the same, considering how they looks and stood.
however, he forgot about his exhaustion when he heard footsteps approach from one end of the hallway. he motioned for them to leave the hallway when duke motioned back that there were more people coming from the other end of the hallway.
trapped, damian stepped back, looking around to see if there was anything to help them. but he stepped back to quickly and lost his footing, having to hold on to a potted plant in one of the alcoves.
which set off a door system.
the four batkids watches as a door appeared on the opposite side of the hallway, and when it fully opened it revealed a stairway leading downward.
not having any choice, he motioned for the others to follow, and together, they headed downward, towards whatever was being kept hidden by a potted plant.
☆
either you were hearing things or the Robin's decided to play tag, becuase you remembered what their footsteps sounded like every time they came down to check on you. great entertainment but only when you stayed in the house.
and now as the footsteps became more louder, you were curious on who it was. getting up out of your overly plush bed, you walked over to your door and put your ear up against the door. the footsteps seemed to stop as you heard a familiar voice say "where to now?"
hold on... is that... damian wayne?
"damian?" you called out, confused. wasnt he a part of the attack of that new earth that popped up? and he never spoke unless told to.
the speaking stopped as you heard the voices speak to you.
"who are you, and how did you know my name?"
you wanted to laugh, you're the bitch who never let's me leave whenever you're "babysitting" me. but you decided to play it cool.
"um, I'm the kid who is supposed to stay down here for like, the rest of my life? besides, why are you here? arent you supposed to be with my "dad" while he fights that new earth and their batman?"
you stood there waiting for an answer when you heard a new voice, one that was kind of familiar but not as familiar as damians.
"you know the batman who laughs?" you yourself almost laughed, before responding "of course I know him, he keeps me here saying that I'm a extremely important person to him, and he makes me call him dad when hes around. actually, wait, who are you?"
silence was heard and before you could try and ask another question, you heard "get away from the door"
taking a couple steps back, you narrowly missed the door that just exploded to reveal the oh so dreaded hallway.
however, you forgot about memories from earlier when you saw who was standing in to doorway. 4 kids, 4 batkids, all from whatever earth they came from.
damian reached for his comm and said "dick, we found the important object. its gonna be harder to get out, though."
~~~~
ok 1, I rediscovered a bunch of fandoms I was in when I was younger and all I can think of is all the new possibilities for dads, and 2 I'm starting to count all the fictiknla father figures I have and I'm thinking of creating a list for them, and 3, I like how this turned out. I wanna continue this but it was getting to long so ye. anyway imma probably just write something tonight so yay to that see yall later bye - knull anon
You’re giving me inspiration to start writing for the Bat Who Laughs now!! You’re doing a real good job by the way with everything you’ve been sending in!!💕💕 Much love to you, Knull anon!
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