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sugarywishes · 9 months

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My final (and selfish) thoughts/rant about The RUIN DLC (And about the Steelwool Era ig) (spoilers)

PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS LITERALLY JUST MY STUPID OPINION!! You are allowed to agree or disagree, but in all honesty I don't care just don't be rude about it and we'll be cool 😎👍

I ain't gonna lie y'all,,,

The new FNAF storyline is like, a little lame.

Since it's been a few weeks since RUIN came out, I've accepted the fact that yeah, Peepaw Afton is dead, Michael is dead, and now we have new characters and plot ideas.

Which I don't generally mind! FNAF should've totally ended at Pizzeria Simulator (with UCN as a epilogue game). And technically speaking it did end!

And I would've loved to see a new storyline in the franchise!

But oh. Oh Steelwool, I love y'all, you're wonderful for introducing the Glamrocks and Gregory and Cassie and the new set of characters

But why, why are you using stuff from the BOOKS?? 😭😭 more specifically THE MIMIC???

In case you haven't heard, the Mimic entity from the Five Nights At Freddy's book series 'Tales From The Pizzaplex', what it is basically, is FNAF's own Frankenstein's monster. (Super mentally ill dude creates a monster maybe from grief, depends who you ask, then the monster kinda goes haywire after mistreatment from the creator, monster murder rampage ensues!!)

Which on paper is cool and all

But man, IT ISN'T A COOL VILLAIN!!

I'm just gonna admit it! The Mimic as both a character and antagonist isn't neat! I don't find myself being intrigued to the new storyline Scott is following (I dare even say he is just winging it at this point, I'll forever ponder what the original SB storyline was,,,)

For starters, what motive does the Mimic have? What drives it to do what it wants?

Let's use William for example (sorry, not a Will defender but he's an iconic villain), for the longest time in the fandom, we've been assuming he was a child murderer for fun. His motives were simply for amusement, he's a sick rat bastard who wanted to see what killing felt like and he became addicted to it, ala Freddy Kruger or something.

But something far more interesting is when his backstory was revealed (or as revealed as it'll ever be, bless those fan creators who truly carry the fnaf lore with their interpretations) with the Afton family, his history with Henry and that he was a Co-Founder of what is now Fazbear Entertainment (and the mini games!!)

Now the debatingly popular opinion about William is that he was obsessed with immortality, he discovered (probably from Elizabeth or Evan possessing robots) that souls can live on beyond death, he discovered Remnant from that, he killed children to collect more and it backfired on him when he died. But what? He's still alive technically?? Alright!

And then the whole fnaf thing continues because he just doesn't want to die, he always comes back. (Probably metaphorical at this point, but it's funnier and cooler to mean it literally, he's basically a cockroach)

Of course, there's other interpretations of William, like how he was always mentally deranged anyways, it only took one of his children (Evan?) dying, and his sanity plummeted down and down, more bad things occurred to him, and he totally snapped which lead to everything. (I personally love this version of FNAF, it's more dramatic and like- angsty? It's just more narratively tragic yk)

And any rendition of Afton is cool! They make him a scary, interesting villain, which is what he is (suppose to be). The revealed lore about him let's us add onto it to expand his characterization more!

But the Mimic...what does he want again?

Oh, it just likes killing people because...it can? Uh, sure whatever

It's fair to use the argument of 'his creator shunned him and he witnessed the original MCI murders, which caused him to mimic Afton's murderous personality', like he was some fucked up Pinocchio.

But to that I say, that's boring! Because, it's just copying William. It's a MIMIC. It doesn't have it's own character or personality or goals because it is a ROBOT, programmed to copy the behavior of humans (before someone gives me shit about copy and mimic being two different words, they are LITERALLY synonyms!! They mean the same things! Or at least extremely similar)

So basically speaking, the Mimic is literally WILLAM AGAIN! But it's a less cool, boring version of him that's not technically him, it's a watered down version of the previous antagonist!! A CHEAP COPY??

This thing doesn't have an actual motive or plan or goal, it's an intelligent murder machine. Who is presumably just killing because of Edward Cullen, or whatever his creator's name was (or cause of its programming, but that's just as unimaginative) nor does it have a personality that can at least make us engaged with it as a character

Like sure, I don't mind having new antagonists, but why use a BORING robot who not only is described as an unkillable super monster who can brutally kill everyone without trouble like he's a stupid creepypasta OC, but we have far cooler ideas for a villain than an ENDO ROBOT! Like say, oh I dunno, the Fazbear Entertainment CEO? The one everyone has been theorizing about constantly? Who knows who he is! Phone Dude? Sammy Emily?? (Kinda hoping it's none of the previous)

Or just have the company itself be evil! We have countless of options for new opposing forces who are cunning and frightening (like how Vanny should've been, mind controlled villains were fine but it would've been interesting to let her have more screentime,,,)

Anyways, moving on from the topic of the Mimic, I'm also super upset about the idea that, since the stupid Mimic is canon, ALL the TFTP books can be canon. Which means GGY is canon, which means people can tie Greg in with Gregory, WHICH ALSO MEANS people have an actual valid excuse to antagonize him! Again!!

'OooOo I knEW he wAS EVIL thiS WHOle tiME THe booKS CONfirmED IT' Bro, SHUT UP!! Please! Leave this child alone!!

Ever since Security Breach came out I've seen so many people constantly calling Gregory the secret villain, or that he's as vile as Afton

he's like- 12 you guys. He's probably still in 6TH GRADE! If not then 7th, even then, stop comparing him to Satan or whatever, the animatronics were literally attempting to murder him? Just because they were sentient does not make them less of a threat lmao

And I've seen people saying that GGY was Gregory, but he was manipulated or possessed by the Mimic/Glitchtrap (I'll get into that stupid thing in a minute) and to that I say, fine I guess? But most importantly how?? When?? How did he escape his control??

Also AHEM. This is a good time to discuss the fact that it's very likely that Burntrap is actually the Mimic, and unfortunately, so is Glitchtrap.

I don't give a rats ass about Burntrap, so if Mimic was confirmed to be him, I'll accept it. Maybe (I personally think Burntrap should've just not existed, and I already have him as non canon in my AUs so I would've been down for this!)

But Glitchtrap. GLITCHTRAP. Are you kidding me?? The Mimic gets to be 2 VERSIONS OF WILLIAM??

Look, I'm still really, REALLY hoping Glitchtrap and the Mimic are different entities, I will buy every single bit of stupid FNAF merchandise if it means they can be two different characters

And you wanna know something? I 100% believe that maybe, Burntrap and Glitchtrap were literally just meant to be William again. But oh boy, the backlash to this idea scared the shit outta everyone involved, which is why they decided to pull from the books, and they had a villain available who isn't totally unique enough to add in and confuse people more, but who technically counts as a new character who can act like an old one, the Mimic.

Which sucks. Imagine what could've been if they kept Will as Glitchtrap. William managed to escape his personal hell (or he made a digital ghost/version of himself) and now, he can achieve digital immortality, he no longer craves a physical body, hence why Glitchtrap exists. (I also think it wouldve been neat if the only way Glitchtrap could continue existing is by remnant/agony, and since he couldn't do it physically he started possessing the beta testers from Help Wanted to become minions for murder to collect it)

Or better yet, retcon Glitchtrap? Ya know, it doesn't make a lot of sense that a robot, created in the 1980s could become a virus that can control and brainwash people. Even the robots that Henry and William created before they died were a little realistic. They weren't hyper intelligent murder machines (not counting the Funtimes) they were regular animatronics that were possessed by the spirits of dead kids. Which is why they were murderous and walked around at night. It's not like Fredbear could eventually control a computer and virus-ize himself (is that even a real word??)

Edwin was no Albert Einstein. Back then technology was severely limited, so how did the Mimic find out how to put itself digitally as Glitchtrap? Did it 'mimic' a computer virus and simultaneously William/Springbonnie too?? Is the Mimic a program itself and not just a robot?

I'm getting ahead of myself (I need to wrap this up soon 😭😭) so I'll come to my last part of my rant

Now these don't...feel like FNAF games. Sure, the main gameplays back then were mostly just cameras and jumpscares, and the only way we even got lore was through Atari styled arcade games. But that was the charm!

Back then there were barely any horror games that were formatted the way the OG fnaf games were, that's what made it stand out! And that's exactly why so many different mascot horror games try and overtake FNAF's success, and SB and RUIN...Feel just like those other mascot horror games.

Cleary they are using a new style for the new Steelwool era, which I respect. It'll take a real long time to get used to (Not even kidding, whenever I watched a RUIN let's play, it looked like they were playing ALIEN or a generic Sci-Fi action game)

Speaking of Sci-Fi in FNAF, I thought Sister Location was techy, but this game sure proved me wrong!

Uhh...why does the V.A.N.N.I mask even exist? Apparently it's used by employees (so it's not Vanessa's mask) but why the hell would Fazbear Entertainment make a weird ass mask like that? Wouldn't they go all out and just use Freddy as the base instead of some random bunny? (Presumably they don't know how Vanny looks like)

And also, how are we able to just- traverse though the walls?? Are we gonna get a canon explanation?? How can we teleport??? How can Helpi just implant something into us?? What?!?! Are we magical now? Did FNAF just traverse into fantasy at this point

Why are there security nodes in the robots? More importantly, why is the 'final node' in Roxy? I know the robotics and engineering of these games are inaccurate and insane, but at this point it's almost comically ridiculous! Who would think of such an inconvenient way to place security nodes??

And from what I'm hearing, M.X.E.S was created by Gregory and Vanessa, which in concept is awesome as hell

But I ask again, HOW??? Even if both of them were possessed and gained new skills or whatever, they aren't the most techy people I know. Gregory managed to repair Freddy because he was given instructions, and Vanessa?? Like okay she can hijack robots so I believe that maybe she can do it 🤷‍♀️

I swear this game might actually leave me more questions than answers, even more than Security Breach! I probably have a few more complaints in the back of my head, but in all honesty, I know I'm just gonna have to accept the fact that this is how FNAF will continue, and I'll have to get used it (it's actually starting to grow on me the more weeks go by!)

Hopefully I'll end up enjoying the way it turns out once more is revealed in the next games :) (I'd forgive this game if they only hadn't use the Mimic,,,make up a new character for your games :( )

TLDR: Make ME in charge of the FNAF franchise⁉️⁉️💥💥

#fnaf #five night's at freddy's #five nights at freddys #five nights at freddy’s #fnaf sb #fnaf security breach #steelwool #security breach #ruin dlc #fnaf ruin #fnaf ruin dlc #fnaf rant #fnaf post #rant #fnaf opinion #please let cassie live im begging you 🙏🙏#ruin spoilers

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airadam · 4 months

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Episode 176 : It's Goin' Down...

"I AM"

- Chuck D

Hope you've had a good start to 2024! While it's been a bit bumpy over here, the selection on the first episode of the year is strong from start to finish. If you know every single one of these tracks already...we should probably have a chat as you clearly have an ear for the good stuff!

Mastodon : @[email protected]

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Organized Noize ft. Big Boi, Big Rube, Sleepy Brown, and Cee-Lo : We The Ones

A very fortunate find during a recent digging expedition, I didn't even know that the "Organized Noize EP" existed until I had it in my hands. Looking around on Discogs, it seems that it was a limited release in 2017 of 500 copies, on fiery orange vinyl and with a fantastic cover. Apparently twenty years in the making - probably because the production team behind OutKast, Goodie Mob, and more were kind of busy - it's a quality seven-song collection that you can now also get digitally! I heard a few seconds of this track at the listening post and it was the one that convinced me to buy the record, a musically-stirring and always-relevant and timely call to stand up and fight against oppression.

Orbital : Adnan's

This industrial-sounding track from the 1996 "In Sides" album was an extended version of a song they contributed to the 1995 "War Child" charity LP, and was named after a young boy who was killed by a missile during the war in the former Yugoslavia. Paul Hartnoll of Orbital broke this, and the rest of the album, down in a way only one of the creators could - so I'll link you to his own words.

Sepalot ft. Blu : Surrender

I've heard the instrumental of this many a time and had actually forgotten that there even was a vocal version! The beat went down well on the most recent #BeatsOnly show on my Twitch channel, so I thought I'd bring it out on this episode. The angular production from German producer Sepalot lurches, twitches, and squelches, with Blu fittingly being a bit more aggro lyrically than you might have expected from some of his better-known work. I have this on the B-side of a 12" headed up by "She Likes Me" with Frank Nitty, but you can also find it on the 2014 "Red Handed" LP.

Jigmastas ft. Shabaam Saadique : Too Ill

Does what it says on the tin! DJ Spinna on production on this track with the dramatic backing, courtesy of a well-known old TV show sample, while the processing on the vocals makes it sound like weak MCs are being admonished over the phone! By the way, the spelling of Shabaam's name is different than what I've seen on previous releases, but as it's written this way on this album ("Resurgence") I'm taking that as being correct unless/until I find out otherwise.

Public Enemy : Louder Than A Bomb

A classic from what is often said to be the greatest Hip-Hop album of all time, "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" (lot of text to write on a cassette label btw). Those who follow me know I'll sometimes refer to the more grimy records as "not calling for the building of a new nation or anything" but this track literally does! Chuck D will always be the first name that comes to mind when pro-Black, politically-driven Hip-Hop is mentioned, and this is just one of his outstanding vocal performances. Bomb Squad on production of course, with a hard-hitting track that would dominate most other MCs, even now. Sonically, you might notice that the sound is busy but not "thick" - if it was made nowadays, I suspect it'd be mixed with a lot more bass, not to mention built with more high-fidelity samplers. Would that have been "better"? Hard to say, but this is revolutionary in all senses regardless.

Bumpy Knuckles & DJ Premier : B.A.P. (Bumpy and Premier)

For those of more gentle dispositions, you may as well skip to the next track! Otherwise, this is quintessential boom-bap rawness, courtesy of DJ Premier - one of the finest exponents of the style - and fellow Gang Starr Foundation MC Bumpy Knuckles. Wicked track from the "KoleXXXion" LP, where Bumpy starts each verse with the same four bars, before raining fire on snakes, suckers, and studio gangstas over the rugged beat. No sir, Bumpy did not fall off, not even a little.

Stro Elliot : Miles Funk

I may have been late getting on the Stro Elliot train, only hearing his stuff in the last three years or so, but now I'm firmly on board and settled with a book and some snacks. The drums are cracking and merciless on this track from his 2016 eponymous LP, and they lead the way for the bassline and funky guitar to do what they do. Definitely check the album - it's really excellent work.

Dubbul O & Jointhedots : Life:Mics

A great new Manchester release to open the year! You should already know that Dubbul O is one of my favourite MCs from any coast or territory, while the excellent Jointhedots have been holding it down in fine style since most of the members were part of the best-known lineup of The Mouse Outfit. The most special feature on this track is the guitar of the much-missed Phil Ratcliffe, who sadly passed away in 2022, and whose family will continue to benefit from any posthumous releases. Coming together over the peak of the COVID restrictions, this track started when bassist/bandleader/producer Defty sent beats around Manchester for musicians to add their own touches to. As well as Phil Ratcliffe, the flautist Dr Claire Press got busy on here - you may remember her memorable work alongside Dubbul O again on "Never Get Enough" all the way back in 2012! Flavourful and polished music as always from this collective, and worthy of your support.

New Sector Movements ft. Allysha Joy : These Times

Neither of these artists were on my radar previously, so it was a big bonus when First Word Records included this cut on the "Two Syllables Volume Twenty" compilation! As it turns out, New Sector Movements is actually an alias of IG Culture, a UK stalwart respected for his work as part of Dodge City Productions, and of course he shows the deft touch of a veteran on the music here. The vocals are carried by the powerful voice of Australian songstress Allysha Joy, who started singing as a youngster in the church and you can hear the influence very much still with her! This track in full is actually about six minutes long, so if you like what you're hearing, you know what to do...

Common : The Movement

I'll have you know that I did actually mix this in bang-on, but J Dilla decided to go all the way weird with the timing and drum placement at the start, to the point I almost re-ripped the tune from the "2K6 : The Tracks" CD to be sure! This one had somehow escaped me on first listen, but it's got that electronic sound that was increasingly a feature of Dilla's late work, with that edginess contrasting with Common's smooth and familiar voice.

Actual Proof ft. TP : Show You The Way

North Carolina in the house, with Actual Proof (Enigma and Sundown) linking with guest TP (who I don't know much about) for a 9th Wonder-produced track that sounds very different than the intro might lead you to expect. Lyrically, in places it almost comes off as a rougher, less civilised take on "Mind Sex" by dead prez, blended with some of that LL Cool J - in attitude, if not in flow! Track down the 2012 "Black Boy Radio" LP for this one.

Mecca:83, Buscrates, and J Vibes : Amber Hue

Such warm vibes emanate from this 2019 composition, with Macclesfield, Pittsburgh, and Aarhus (Denmark) in collaboration. I don't know who did what, but the final result is a thing of beauty!

Tall Black Guy, Craig Mack : Flavor In Ya Ear Remix

The original beat by Easy Mo Bee is one of the greatest in Hip-Hop history in my opinion, so it takes a brave man to put his production in its place - and right here, Tall Black Guy is that man! Tough drums and a relatively simple bassline provide the structure for some spaced-out touches and soul vocal sampling to undergird TBG's take on one of the all-time great posse cuts.

1773 & Strange Soul Music : Dialed In

Manchester's Strange Soul Music is a fearsome producer, the man no-one wanted to face in last year's WORKINONIT beat battle! He's been putting in that work for years and this is from one of his latest releases, "The Strange Soul Project" a seven-track collaboration with Chicago MCs Jay Nagoma and Wisdm Uno. Themed around a method of internet access that might be unfamiliar to the younger listeners, this is a brief, but strong, opener to the project.

Clear Soul Forces : Nine 5ive

It's a shame that the 2020 "ForcesWithYou" LP is ostensibly the last from this Detroit crew - their stuff has always been energetically high-quality. Ilajide on the beat of course, while on the mic, CSF reference everything/one from Busta Rhymes to Mortal Kombat via George Washington Carver in a track that lasts well under three minutes. May the force be with them, indeed.

Heather B : Steady Rockin'

Straight-ahead Hip-Hop, with the commanding voice and bars of Heather B over the boom-bap production of DJ Premier. Vocalist Twyla adds a little sugar to the hook, but the rest of this track from 2002's "Eternal Affairs" is pretty much as stripped-down as you can get.

Khrysis : The Devil Wears Designer (Instrumental)

North Carolina representing again here, with a groove borrowing clearly from a classic soul record on this instrumental from "The Hour Of Khrysis".

DJ 2-Tone Jones ft. Prince Po, Asheru, Joe.D and yU : Not Down

I've always thought that one of the most important inflection points in the culture was when our ability to self-police was countered by the epithet "playa hater", which nowadays is more likely to take the form of "but he getting the bag tho". This call to arms from the "Contraband From India" LP features real MCs with real commitment letting us know that the leeches, the culture vultures, exploitative corporate interests of various shapes, and everyone else taking away from the culture rather than adding on need to be ejected. The production is not minimal as such, but well-spaced, with the sparse drum pattern and Indian string samples avoiding a situation where the instrumental ends up fighting the MCs for the spotlight, which is critical when what they're saying is of actual importance.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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neverdoingmuch · 3 years

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now hear me out,,, an au where lan wangji is an editor who works for an erotica publisher and wei wuxian is essentially chuck tingle. (also lwj writes romance novels on the side)

wei wuxian didn’t plan to write erotica he wants to make that really clear, he was actually studying like biomed or something equally “oh wow my parents can brag to the other parents about this”

but, as frequently happens in wwx’s life, he got drunk with nhs, like really drunk and they woke up the next morning with a laptop on the floor beside them and loose paper strewn everywhere

they don’t really remember what they were doing or thinking last night but they’ve both drawn a bunch of really shitty and weird porn (the less said about the anthropomorphic version of wen chao’s pet turtle the better) and wei wuxian has like 20,000 words of an erotica story on his laptop

when he starts reading it, at first he’s like haha what the fuck this is so weird but then it turned out to be really good??? and nhs blushed at some of the ~sexy~ scenes so that’s how wwx knew he was writing the good stuff

anyway they’re sitting there, eating their hangover food and wei wuxian goes so uh my story was good right? and nhs is like yeah it was, top stuff i would buy it and wei wuxian goes what if i actually wrote it,,, haha just kidding,,,,, unless?

and in his defence he doesn’t actually write anything for the story for another like three months but then he finds himself in the middle of exam season and he’s like fuck it stress relief let’s write some erotica

he finishes the book and his exams (which he does well in but whatever) and then spends his summer holidays editing the book

when he comes back, he slaps down a paper copy on nhs’ desk and is like i finished it. nhs, thinking he meant his latest lab write up, opens it up to a random page and starts reading it out loud which was a Mistake

he trails off mid-sentence, and whips around to glare at wwx with all the wrath he can muster. it’s raunchy nhs says and just read it wwx tells him so nhs does

like 2 hours later nhs turns to him and says if it wasnt for you and the librarian staring at me the whole time i definitely would’ve felt something and wwx is like so it’s good? and nhs is like fuck yeah it is but i dont get what you want from me?

pretty much wwx passed out after exams, slept for like 20 hours and then woke up and went i should publish this and decided that nhs should draw the cover art.

nhs agrees of course and a month later wwx self-publishes bc there’s no way he can walk into a publishing house with his porn and not just combust on the spot and he decides to go by the name yiling patriarch

wwx clicks the final button to upload the fic and nhs just toasts him and goes yknow what,, this is the closest you’ve ever gotten to having sex and i’m proud of you

wei wuxian is the man who guarded his first kiss for the first twenty years of his life for someone special,,,, wwx definitely wants his first time to be special and there’s no way he’s putting out for someone he doesn’t think is important & despite having dated before, he’s never gotten close enough to someone to go yeah let’s do it so our boy is still a virgin

so wwx’s entire erotica writing inspiration comes from porn, nhs’ way too in-depth answers as to how his latest date went and uh more porn

wwx blusters about a bit bc how is he meant to respond to that and nhs is like maybe you’ll finally move on from reading those trashy romance novels and read something more exciting and wwx is like how dare you call them trashy!! hanguang-jun is a master of the romance novels!! he understands the heart in a way that no other person has ever!!

and nhs just chugs a bunch of wine and is like yeah hon okay, do you still blush when the main characters hold hands? and wwx is like no! of course not! (it’s a lie, he blushes a lot)

so nothing really happens with the book at first and wwx forgets about it for the most part but then he wakes up one morning and he’s got an extra like RMB 1000 (i dont actually know much about currency so it’s roughly $200 if my quick interneting is legit)

wwx is like wtf? and once he finds out it’s from his novel he’s doubly like wtf? but then he finds out that someone had purchased his book and did a dramatic reading on youtube bc wwx decided that regular erotica was boring and decided to make it satirical or whatever and people loved it??

he’s got nothing better to do so he just goes hm yeah remember that Author i dated who had an “incredible idea that would absolutely amaze The Critics and helped explore his own convoluted mind” let’s make something of that and he writes another book kinda mocking that idea in a very horny way.

he publishes it and someone writes a review of his two books on their blog and now he’s actually starting to get popular - he’s got more money from those two books than he did by working at the local cafe for the whole week

wwx is poor and broke and semi-disowned anyway by this point so he goes fuck it and spends every moment he’s not studying writing erotica.

he publishes another like five books by the time the year is out (i know the maths isnt working here but this is a book world where wwx can just do that via the power of loneliness and friends who egg you on)

also?? he varies his books. some of them are porn parody things a la chuck tingle and some of them are genuine porn and one book was just him writing a recipe book but making it sound as horny as possible

by the time he’s published his like 8th book or so he starts getting reviews that are critiquing his book and most of them boil down to the fact that he needs an editor or something

he ends up asking nhs for help and he’s like oh sweet my brother’s boyfriend works for a publisher who does that sort of thing

cloud recesses actually specialises in erotica and i hate the idea that lqr has spent years reading and editing erotica but sacrifices must be made

(side note that i know nothing about the writing or publishing process so pls don’t judge me too harshly)

wwx goes in with his latest manuscript and ends up arriving like ten minutes late, he rushes into the room sweaty and hot, takes one look at the guy sitting on the other side of the desk, flushes an even brighter red and runs back out of the room. he checks the plaque on the door and walks back in slowly and goes hm i didnt expect you to be so hot

cue lan wangji

lwj has always enjoyed being an editor. what do editor do specifically? idk? edit? regardless, he enjoys it.

while most of the time he’s happy working from this side of things he also likes writing

lwj fucks. he deserves it tbh. but, while he’s had a tonne of one night stands and fuckbuddies, he’s never actually dated someone. so the fact that he’s writing romance novels under the pseudonym hanguang-jun makes his friend jzx laugh a lot

he tried writing porn once and he just couldn’t do it. it was always too clinical or vague and lacked any actual passion bc he was always going oh okay mc sucks a dick but the guy i slept with last week was like a 6.4/10 when it came to sucking dick so maybe mc should also be bad at it or whatever and it just ends up falling apart,,,, but romance he can do

as an editor lwj has pretty high standards for good erotica but he’s really found himself enjoying yiling patriarch’s work even though he’s clearly just been editing himself so when the guy sent cloud recesses an email asking whether they’d be interested in his latest book lwj was ecstatic.

he also didnt expect wwx to be so hot

anyway,,, we now get to enjoy a week of lwj thinking that wwx is super hot but even more annoying and then him deciding that annoying is hot and now wwx is just absolutely amazing and wwx is just panicking the entire time

i want my publisher to rail me so hard wwx texts nhs and nhs just responds has he read the bdsm scene with the alien who has a tentacle dick and a knot yet? and wwx is like no??? nhs just goes shame, it will give him so ideas for if you ever grow a backbone and just ask him out

they publish one book together and nothing happened between them the entire time other than yearning and horniness,, of the heart and body.

when wwx realises this means that he won’t get to see lwj again he immediately writes a new book and like a month later he’s back in lwj’s office, lying on his couch while whining about the cafeteria prices at university

lwj is very enamoured by the fact that wwx is writing erotica and studying biomed bc wow

they do this for like another three books and wwx’s eroticas evolve from here’s a dinosaur man fucking a politician while a mary sue watches on to be like here’s a dinosaur man with black hair and golden eyes and a stern look to his face fucking a politician while a mary sue watches on

and hanguang-jun’s latest book?? i dont want to say that this au’s version of wangxian is hanguang-jun finally finding inspiration to write porn (his muse is wwx of course) and writing the most amazing porn with feelings and plot novel ever,, but it is.

wwx read it five times in the first week and when nhs finally tried to read it he was like uhhh wwx are you a narcissist, the love interest is exactly like you? and wwx is like ??? no???? he’s nothing like me??

anyway one day wwx gets called into lxc’s office and lxc is like so i’ve read your latest book (not the dinosaur man, a serious one with like normal people and not overly humorous thank fuck but still full of lwj yearning) and wwx is like okay? and lxc goes yes, see i was worried that you didn’t care very much for my brother but after reading your book i’m not so sure and wwx gets the weirdest shovel talk ever which is interspersed with like compliments for his porn writing skills

anyway lxc accidentally mentions that lwj writes books too and before he can take it back wwx is like who??? and lxc is like are you fucking stupid?? you told lwj to his face that you loved his books,,, he broke his theme of tender romance to write kinky sex with a character that’s a lot like you and wwx is like .,,,,,,,,, hanguang-jun??? HANGUANG-JUN???!!

lxc barely manages to confirm it before wwx is sprinting out of his office and across to find lwj.

regretfully for everyone else, lwj is in the lobby so thirty people get to hear it when wwx comes in and shouts LAN ZHAN!! back then, i really wanted write porn about you! ... i think i have actually? but i want to write porn about you and i want to be able to do the research to make it accurate! and i also want to go on dates and hold hands and feed each other food! and i love you a lot!

lwj is dying inside bc his brother’s bf is there, his uncle is currently waiting for the elevators and a whole bunch of staff are also there but also wwx likes him??? dinosaur man was lwj??

he goes over and they make out for a really long time right there in the middle of the lobby but no one wants to get between them when they’ve been pining for so long

after that they start dating and they do all the romantic stuff but also,, let’s just say that the next book wwx publishes is a lot more creative than all of his previous books

and they become some writing power couple with horniness of the heart and body and sometimes wwx will be like hey lwj i don’t really know how the logistics of this sex scene will work and lwj will be like we could try it out ourselves? and wwx just pats him on the head and is like im sorry but you dont have enough dicks for it to work ),: better luck next time

#mdzs #modao zushi #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #im so sorry everyone #i just got the idea and it wouldnt leave me alone #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #have i read any erotica? no. have i read any chuck tingle? also no. am i an editor? no #so this is gonna be very shit #this is why people should be sending me prompts instead of me just writin shit myself #nsfw-ish?

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pinky-the-elephant-room · 4 years

Text

Lovely Noya

❀ AN: I’m been trying to upload this since yesterday here’s hoping this works !! This prompt is based off Lovely Complex, so yes Noya is Otani in this but the plot was changed to fit Noya’s personality. Reader is 5′8 and Nishinoya 5′2 or 4′10 with his hair down as Wiki states.

✿ Warning: None fluffy goodness. Tall Fem Reader x Nishinoya

❀ Summary: Of all the different times Nishinoya saw you how was he suppose to know that you were leaving a piece of yourself inside his heart?

✾✾✾✾✾✾✾

1 time.

Nishinoya rested his face against the wooden desk as the sensei went on and on about how important 2nd year was going to be for graduation and eventually college. But really, he tuned it out, the defeat at Inter high still fresh in his mind. He opened his muted brown eyes to watch as the clouds hazily moved across the horizon. He jerked out of his musing when his seatmate next to him suddenly got up, the chair scraping across the floor, and in doing so creating such a horrific sound that he couldn’t help but wince.

“L/N, read the next paragraph please,” the sensei commanded.

“Haiiiiiii.”

Nishinoya couldn’t help but sit up straighter, did girls know how cute they sounded when they talked like that? He proceeded to pay attention as Y/N continued to read in accented but clear English so much so he couldn’t help feeling envious. Despite years of having English as a mandatory class he still sucked at it.

“And that’s why the Dutch succeeded in trading with a closed-off Japan where other nations failed,” Y/N finished and tucking her skirt, sat elegantly back down in her chair.

“Alright, who’s next to read?”

Nishinoya ducked his head and prayed silently it wouldn’t be him.

“Akira, read the next paragraph!” the gruff teacher barked.

Nishinoya let out a big sigh of relief and slumped over. He heard muffled giggles and he saw Y/N covering her mouth with her hand. When she finished, she looked over to see him staring at her. She jolted in surprise.

“Oh gomen, you just looked so relieved,” she said with a grin.

Nishinoya just grinned back at her. “Don’t worry about it. I’m used to girls laughing at me.” He realized with a depressing clarification and slumped even more.

Y/N blinked at him and leaned forward resting her face on her palm. “What do you mean by that?”

He quickly shook his head. “N-never mind that, Y/N. We should pay attention now before we get in trouble.”

She flashed him a quick smile showing off a dimple only on her right cheek.

“If you say so. And I’m glad I don’t have to correct you on my name! I don’t really like my last name, Noya-kun.”

N-noya-kun??! His cheeks flushed red and he tucked his head behind his textbooks so she couldn’t see the effect her simple words had on him.

L/N Y/N was someone he never shared a class with, and he wasn’t close with her either. Well, he wasn’t close with any girls, but still, the fact they were neighbors would mean they should at least exchange pleasantries, right? But she always arrived before he did and left later than him, so they never really got a chance to communicate. In fact, this was the first time they had an entire conversation since school started. Maybe he should make more of an effort to talk to her. She seemed pretty nice and he could always use more female friends since he had none.

He was jolted out of his thoughts as the bell rang and signaled the class had ended. Nishinoya leaped from his chair with a “yatta!” and quickly picked up his bag. Just as he was about to go rushing out of the classroom, he remembered his previous notions about making friends.

“Bye-bye, Y/N!”

Y/N looked up startled, just as she was putting away her books and a small smile blossomed on her face.

“Mata ne, Noya-kun!” And she turned back to her bag.

Just in time too as his face once again quickly felt hot and he ran off trying to reach the volleyball gym in record time.

4 times.

Nishinoya sat glumly in his seat as everybody trickled in for the morning classes. Asahi, the ace of their team, hadn’t shown up again, not even seeing Kiyoko-san’s face had lifted his mood that morning. Their loss was even harder to cope with Asahi not showing up like a coward.

He glanced up when he saw Y/N pull out the chair next to him and sit down at her desk.

“Ohaiyo, Noya-kun!” she greeted cheerfully.

“Hey….” he replied and sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing just some volleyball club stuff….”

“Oh! You guys had a tournament in March. How did it go?”

Nishinoya furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “wait how did you know about the game? Are you a volleyball fan too?”

Y/N waved off his inquiry. “No, I’m on the student council and I know pretty much all of the clubs’ activities for budget concerns.”

“Right well, we lost.”

Y/N’s face wilted and the smile on her face vanished. It looked wrong on her somehow, he wanted her to smile all the time.

“I’m sorry to hear that, but you’re in your second year! You have the tournament a few months from now on and even next year to do better.”

“I suppose,” he muttered and fiddled with the pencil on his desk.

Nishinoya peeked at Y/N from the corner in his eye and saw that she looked like she wanted to say something several times but stopped herself.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?”

Y/N perked up. “Of course!”

“There’s a teammate that took the loss really badly and he’s not showing up to practice anymore! And the thing is it’s not his fault we lost but he’s taking it personally. The team relies on him a lot and everybody’s down. I don’t know what to do.”

He didn’t know why he was asking her or why he was even opening to her, but it was a question weighing on him heavily. Sure, he was a boisterous guy that never let things like defeat keep him down, but Asahi was different. Nishinoya didn’t understand what the ace was going through, and he was kind of confused on how to make things right. Especially since he was harboring his own guilt. But it felt right to ask her. Especially since Y/N was a popular girl that many of their classmates relied on.

“Well, maybe you should start by talking to him and telling him how you feel. Start with exactly what you just told me and eventually persuade him to come back,” she suggested.

“Are you sure it’s as simple as that?” He couldn’t help but be skeptical. Where were the dramatic crying and wholesome man hugs?

“Yup! Every time the student council members argue amongst themselves, I always act as a mediator being the Vice President. We always start by being honest with each other and then finding a compromise.”

Nishinoya nodded. “Alright! I’ll go talk to him right after classes are done.”

Just as he was about to ask her if she could help him with last night’s homework (more like copy), Mai-san, their class representative, had interrupted them.

“Oy Y/N-chan! I have a couple of questions about the upcoming spring festival’s budget,” she waved Y/N over to her desk.

Nishinoya watched as Y/N stood up and made her way across the classroom. He was startled to notice her height for the first time. How tall was she exactly? She made him feel like an ant underneath her heel. Furthermore, how the hell did he not notice until now?

He watched as all the girls and even a few guys in their class gravitated to Y/N’s friendly nature. She was a natural-born leader that reassured many by her presence. She felt like a gentler version of Daichi-san, to be honest.

As the morning bell rang, all the students made it back to their desk on time. When Y/N sat down at her own, he leaned over and whispered, “Y/N, can I see your math homework from yesterday?”

She didn’t even look at him as she replied while writing down notes, “you can’t keep relying on me, Noya-kun. Otherwise, you will fail your tests.”

He softly brought his hands together and bowed. “Onegaiiii! I promise I’ll make it up to you! How about a popsicle?”

She reached over and pulled one of the notebooks before passing it over to him.

“Try not to make it too obvious, ok?”

“Don’t worry! I’m great at copying we won’t get caught.”

Y/N shook her head. “I wish you would be just as good at math as you are at copying,” she muttered under her breath.

When Nishinoya finally finished he couldn’t help but let out a relieved shout.

“Oy Nishinoya! What are you doing? Pay attention or you’ll start failing before the semester even begins!” The sensei barked at the interruption.

The class broke out into giggles and Y/N couldn’t help the small smile at Nishinoya’s expense as his face crumbled from being scolded.

6 times.

Nishinoya blinked slowly as he laid on the couch watching another comedy rerun of some old comedy duo that were famous in the ’90s. He quirked his head when he heard another noise. This time the doorbell rang clearly and awoke him from his stupor.

He scratched the itch on his behind as he slowly made his way to the front door.

“Alright, alright! I’m coming no need to keep ringing the doorbell.”

He reached and unlocked the door before turning the knob. There stood Y/N on his doorstep still wearing her school uniform.

“Y/N, what are you doing here?”

She shot him an annoyed look and planted her hands on her hips.

“When I told you to go talk to your teammate, I didn’t tell you to start a fight and get suspended, Noya-kun!”

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “Gomen! But in my defense, it wasn’t a fight, and I didn’t mean to break anything.”

She tsked and reached in her bag to pull out some papers.

“Here, that’s the work for this week that you missed. I live close by, so I got the responsibility.”

He tried to sound enthusiastic as he thanked her, but her face gave him the impression she wasn’t buying it.

“You aren’t going to do it until the last minute, am I right? And you won’t even do a good job on it either because you would be in a hurry to finish it.”

“T-that’s not true and you know it,” he lamely defended himself before conceding. “Ok, fine you win.”

“What am I going to do with you?” she asked shaking her head. “Can I come in?”

Nishinoya was startled at her request for a minute before consenting. “Sure!”

He watched wide-eyed as her head almost touched the doorframe, she was that tall and he couldn’t help but stare up at her as she passed.

“Ne, Y/N how tall are you?”

“172 cms. It’s not that tall though. Chichiue’s even taller. He has to bend down so that he doesn’t hit door frames most of the time.”

Not that tall? Nishinoya wished most of the time he was able to at least reach the glassware on the lower shelves in the kitchen and she said 172 cms wasn’t tall! Genetics just aren’t fair, are they?

As Y/N collaborated to help him finish this week’s homework, he failed to notice the stars in Y/N’s eyes and the soft blush on her face each time their hands touched. And that would prove to be her undoing.

10 times.

Nishinoya cackled at Tanaka who was still lamenting tripping over a volleyball in the gym. His shaved head still sported a nasty bump that was beginning to purple, with a mischievous grin Nishinoya reached over to poke it. Tanaka let out a yelp and smacked his hand away.

“Don’t do that!”

“Gomen Ryu, it looks like you have another head growing out of your skull,” he gasped out between his chuckles.

“Ah! If it isn’t Noya-kun!” a voice called out.

He turned around to see Y/N walking towards him. She was probably heading home as well.

“Yo Y/N! You’re going home early today?”

“Un! The President let me go since I finished my work early.”

Nishinoya turned around to see Tanaka pulling at his sleeve and looking at him eagerly.

“Oh, this is L/N Y/N my classmate and this is Tanaka Ryunosuke, my teammate.”

“Nice to meet you!” Y/N said cheerfully and bowed.

Ryu however just bowed in a hurry and turned away. Y/N gave Nishinoya a curious look which he only shrugged at. He had no idea why Ryu was acting weird.

Suddenly he remembered the favor he owed her from when she helped me finish his work. He fumbled through his pockets, pulling out a Gari Gari-kun’s winner popsicle stick.

“Here, Y/N! My treat for you!” he said eagerly and put it in her hand.

“Wow. A free popsicle when I took time out of my day to help you,” she deadpanned.

He only chuckled nervously and scratched his head. “I know. I know. I owe you.”

“Never mind I’ll just think of something later. I’m going to head home now. Bye-bye!”

Nishinoya just waved to her and watched as the taller girl left.

“Noya you bastard! How could you do this to me? How could you hide such a cute girl from me?” Ryu burst out dramatically as soon as Y/N left.

“Y/N? Cute?” Noya murmured to himself like he hadn’t considered the possibility.

“You’re joking, right? That’s Y/N, the vice president of the student council. Even third years think she’s pretty and you’re telling me you haven’t noticed? Are you feeling ok?” Tanaka placed his hand on Nishinoya’s forehead trying to check his temperature.

He just batted away Tanaka’s hand and shrugged.

“I guess I just didn’t notice because I don’t like her that way? She’s super helpful and always taking care of me, but she’s not someone I would consider a girlfriend material, you know? More like a friend or even a sister.”

He saw Tanaka giving him a look that he couldn’t decipher before it disappeared. So, he just brushed it off.

“I mean the only girl for me is Kiyoko-san! She shines brighter than any other girl in the school, so it’s not a surprise that I didn’t really notice Y/N.”

Tanaka gave him a nod in agreement. “That’s true! No one can compare to Kiyoko-san,” he said before slapping Noya harshly on the back.

“Ahh! What was that for?”

“For not telling me your friends with a cute girl like Y/N!”

The two best friends tussled with each other for a few more minutes before going about their way home.

14 times

Another one and another Friday gone, Nishinoya stretched happily and got ready to leave for home. Next week is the training camp and he was beyond excited to play volleyball once again.

“Noya-kun! Do you have a minute before you leave?”

Nishinoya looked up at Y/N and nodded with a huge smile.

She handed over a bag that she grabbed from inside her desk.

“Here, I’m not sure if your allowed to have snacks at the training camp so I grabbed you some.”

Nishinoya looked through the bag to see some potato chips, chocolate, and other variety of snacks.

Y/N was nervously twitching as she watched Noya look through the bag.

“Sorry if you don’t like them, I wasn’t sure what you liked besides Gari Gari-kun popsicles.”

“N-no!... No. It’s just no one ever has done this for me. I’m just a little shocked is all, Y/N” he said a bit emotionally.

Y/N’s raised her eyebrow. “You’re not going to cry, are you?”

“Of course not! I just have something in my eye,” he cried out while he wiped his eyes.

Y/N let out a giggle. “Well, make sure to train hard. I want to see Karasuno go to the Nationals, ok?”

“Yosh! I’ll do my best!”

She just waved happily and turned to leave the classroom. Nishinoya hurried to show off his goods to Tanaka in the gym.

He ran all the way there before finding his shaved friend just about to enter the gym.

“Yo, Ryu! Look what Y/N gave me!” Nishinoya proudly showed off his gift.

“Whoa, all of that? Did you blackmail her?” Tanaka asked teasingly.

“Nah, she said she wants to see our team at the Nationals and told me to train hard! It’s like I have my very own cheerleader.”

Tanaka looked at Noya tentatively again and Noya’s face dropped at the expression.

“What? You keep looking at me like that.”

“Nothing. I just find it interesting that Y/N’s so nice to you. Do you think she likes you?”

Nishinoya’s face burned at the accusation and he quickly denied it.

“No way! Y/N’s just nice like that and she’s helpful with all her classmates. I mean she and I have gotten close lately, but I don’t think she likes me like that.”

“But does she give snacks to other boys? Or help them study? Does she treat them the same way she treats you?”

The questions left Nishinoya a bit speechless and unable to respond coherently.

“S-still I don’t think she likes me, Ryu! There’s just no way!” He burst into nervous laughter and swerved around Tanaka to head up to the changing rooms.

As he climbed the stairs all he could think about was, ‘Y/N’s pretty and tall there’s just no way she would like me. Absolutely no way!’

16 times

Most of his class was heading out to their Thursday lab class that occurred in another building. He was sluggishly making his way to chemistry which he wasn’t ok with. Because no Friday should ever end with a class as awful as chemistry (still not as bad as literature though)!

He wanted to practice volleyball some more after their practice match with Nekoma. Next time he was going to receive all the serves headed his way. His thought process was broken by high pitched squealing.

“Ehhhh? Is that Y/N-san’s boyfriend?” a girl called out.

As soon as he heard the word “boyfriend” and “Y/N” in the same sentence, his head snapped so quickly towards the group of girls talking that he could feel a kink in the back of his neck.

He looked towards Y/N and what looked like a familiar boy. Wait, was that Tsukishima? Since when did she know him?

“No way! I think he’s a first year. Look she’s handing some papers to him. It’s probably student council business.”

Sure enough, Y/N handed Tsukishima a huge stack of papers to which he took and bowed to the older girl in thanks.

“Oh, that makes sense. But don’t they look so cute though? Look, their height difference is only a few centimeters. They match so well,” his classmate said eagerly to her friend.

Nishinoya waited to hear the group of girls disagree with a frown. Only for that frown to get deeper when he heard resounding approval. Did they not know how rude Tsukishima was or how crappy his personality was? Y/N wouldn’t ever be happy with a guy like that! She needed someone who could appreciate how caring she was, not someone who would take advantage of her kind nature.

With that in mind, he rushed to rescue his friend before Tsukishima could get his claws in her.

“Hey Y/N, aren’t you going to chemistry? It’s time,” he said as he budged into their conversation.

Y/N’s eyes widened and checked the watch on her wrist. “Shoot! You’re right. Anyway, Tsukishima-san make sure to deliver that to your sensei.”

Tsukishima only nodded respectfully. “Will do. Ja! Senpai and Y/N-senpai.” He threw a weird, confused look at Nishinoya who kept sending him hostile glares.

As soon as he left, Nishinoya grabbed Y/N’s wrist and pulled her away.

“Stay away from him, Y/N. He’s on the volleyball team and he has a very nasty personality.”

“Huh? Do you mean Tsukishima-san? Are you sure? He was pretty polite to me,” she replied as she kept up with his pace easily.

“Oh, that’s a façade trust me. He always has something smart to say sooner or later. I still can’t believe he had the nerve to talk crap about Rolling Thunder!”

Y/N let out a giggle. “Rolling Thunder? What’s that?”

Nishinoya’s face lit up as he proceeded to explain how cool his super-duper receive was. And how he was called the deity of Karasuno’s volleyball team.

Soon enough the two had arrived at the lab and sat down at their assigned seats. Chemistry passed by him slowly as the teacher droned on and on about molarity. Even the lab that involved freezing and melting water by a flame turned out to be boring. Finally, the lab ended, and he was just about to zip out of there to head to practice when he heard the same group of girls again.

“Ne Y/N-san, which one of those boys would you date? Mai here thinks you suit Nishinoya-san, but I think you would suit that tall blonde boy that you were talking to earlier.”

Another voice interrupted, “aren’t Y/N and Nishinoya-kun close? I think it would make sense.”

“Yeah, but he’s so short! How would they even kiss? Don’t they have like a 10 cm height difference? It would be too weird.”

The girls burst into laughter and his heart dropped. He knew the idea of Y/N liking him was too farfetched and even if she did it wouldn’t work out. So, without hearing what Y/N had to say he left the area in a hurry.

20 times.

He could feel the pressure surrounding the court, suffocating him and the team. They had to defeat Aoba Johsai to get to the finals. Apparently, his team had beaten Seijoh before in a practice match, but it was without their usual setter. “The Grand King” as he was called by Shoyo. A competent setter really made all the difference, huh. Well, Oikawa was better than competent, but Nishinoya really didn’t want to admit that right now. He was annoying in middle school and he was annoying now.

He blew a breath through his teeth as he once again caught a serve by Oikawa. The power of the serve had struck his forearms making them alarmingly red. He could feel the spirit of his team dimming as the rally continued. What should he do? He was getting the serves, but they were still trailing behind Seijoh.

“Fighto! Noya-kun! Fighto!” a familiar voice called out.

He looked up to see Y/N cupping her hands and cheering for him. Nishinoya felt relief flooding through him. She had let him know that she would be a bit late and she had missed several of their matches already. But now she was finally here. His lips trembled and he could feel his vision get watery. Quickly blinking the moisture away, he felt his spirit rekindle.

“Yosh! Everyone don’t worry about the match! I’ll protect the court, so you guys make sure to get those points! After all, I got your back,” he finished off with a wide grin.

Immediately, he could see Daichi relax and let out a small smile. Hinata and Kageyama exchanged a look and nodded. Even Tsukishima’s tense shoulders seem to drop a little. Their spirits renewed, the team quickly readied their stance and faced Seijoh once again.

21 times.

The defeat weighed upon the team as they moved through the building to get to the bus. They were going to head back to Karasuno and go to a nearby restaurant afterward. The team was quiet contemplating their loss silently, each of them coping with it differently. As for himself, he felt disappointed and upset of course, but there was still a drive burning inside of him. Seeing the libero on Seijoh cross the line and actually set up the ball, was inspiring. He wanted to try it out for himself for future matches like in the Spring High. However, there was still the somber atmosphere and he knew it wasn’t the right time to talk about future training just yet.

“Noya-kun!”

Nishinoya looked back to see Y/N running towards him. Daichi placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You have five minutes. Meet us at the bus.” He nodded in reply and the team left without him.

“Hey Y/N, I’m sorry…,” he began.

“Why are you sorry?”

He looked up at her face to see it scrunched up in confusion.

“B-because we lost. You told us to go to Nationals and we couldn’t go.”

“Are you kidding? You guys were amazing! I don’t know much about volleyball, but so many people in the audience were surprised by Karasuno. Apparently, Aoba Johsai is an amazing school, and the fact you guys lost by two points? I’m-m. I don’t know what to say! I’m speechless,” Y/N spat out in a rush, giddy in her excitement.

Y/N bent down a little and wrapped her hands around his waist. She pulled him close and he could feel her body heat against his.

“I’m so proud of you. I had no idea you were so good at volleyball,” she whispered.

His heartbeat sped out of control and he started to feel dizzy from the smell of her sweet perfume and the feeling of her soft skin against his. Why was he feeling this way? Wasn’t this how he usually felt around Kiyoko-san and other cute girls? The realization hit him hard. Was he actually starting to like her? And not just in a joking, faux way he did with Kiyoko-san, but in a way that involved heart fulfilling confessions?

Nishinoya could feel himself panic and his body stiffened at the close contact. Y/N noticed right away his body’s reaction and stumbled back quickly.

“Oh gomen. I-I got too excited,” Y/N said as she blushed.

“It’s fine,” he trailed off watching as Y/N nervously played with her hair. He eyed the prominent blush on her face. Why was she acting like….. Oh. Oh. He wanted to immediately deny it like he had done with Tanaka all those weeks ago, but it was hard to when the evidence was right in front of his eyes.

He had to go. He had to go now!

“Listen Y/N, the team’s waiting for me. I have to get on the bus.”

She smiled and replied, “of course. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

School? Oh, hell he didn’t even think about that.

“Yeah, sure,” he got out before leaving her behind. He had a lot to think about.

25 times.

Nishinoya wasn’t trying to avoid Y/N on purpose. He still greeted her in class, but he was just no longer engaging her in inane conversation like he did every day. He had a lot to think about. Again, how he didn’t notice her feelings earlier; he had no idea. She wasn’t obvious but when they were alone her earnest gaze was hard to ignore.

As he tried to get himself together, Nishinoya knew he was making Y/N upset by ignoring her. But he couldn’t help himself. Sure, he was the definition of a man who was girl-crazy, but it was all in good fun. He wasn’t seriously pursuing anyone even Kiyoko-san knew that. But this situation was very real and very complicated. In the end, it could cost him the one female he managed to somehow befriend. Still, he wouldn’t have known that Y/N was going to use the opportunity to be honest.

“Noya-kun, can we talk alone?” Y/N asked one afternoon as he was readying to flee the classroom.

“O-oh, I’m not sure. Daichi-san might make me do laps for being late,” he replied flustered at her request.

“Please. It won’t take long,” she pleaded.

Hearing the urgency in her voice, he could no longer refuse. “Alright.”

They walked out of the classroom and she led him behind one of the older science buildings.

She stood in front of him, clenching and unclenching the grip on her bag before she hesitantly spoke.

“N-noya-kun, I have something to tell you.”

Nishinoya felt his eyes widened.

“I know we have become really good friends over the last few months. But I can’t help myself. I really like you! Please accept my feelings!” she said before bowing to him.

“I can’t, Y/N. I don’t really think of you that way. I’m sorry.”

Y/N stood up and looked a bit shocked. Her face that was previously flushed with nervousness drained and became pale.

Nishinoya bowed in return and said, “I’m really sorry. I hope we can still be friends.”

Still looking quite aghast she replied in a small voice, “I-I…. of course, Noya-kun. I just need a little time that’s all.”

He hesitated for a minute as he tried to explain why he was saying no. That he was confused with his own feelings, but before he could begin, Y/N ran off without another word.

“Y/N! Wait up!” He ran after her and caught her wrist, forcing her to turn around and face him.

Her face was wet with tears. “Please, I have to go.”

Stupefied at making Y/N cry, he let her go without another word. He only watched as she got farther and farther away, he couldn’t help but think that he made a mistake.

25 times

He could distantly hear volleyball hitting the gym floor and the sound of someone saying, “nice kill.” But it all seemed to fade away.

Daichi hollered, “alright, let’s do another penalty drill.”

Nishinoya absentmindedly followed his teammates doing another round after they lost again to Fukurodani.

“Oy Noya, this way. We have to run up the hill now. Practice is done for the day,” Tanaka said as he dragged him.

“Right. Gomen,” Nishinoya muttered.

As he ran up the hill, he didn’t notice Tanaka looking at him worriedly. He approached Nishinoya after he was lying at the bottom of the hill and panting for his life.

“Let’s talk, me and you. There’s something bothering you,” Tanaka blurted out.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. Just the losses are getting to me that’s all.”

“Bull! I’m your best friend I know these things.”

Nishinoya looked around to see the rest of the Karasuno members busy trying to catch their breath or getting water.

He sat up and plucked the grass on the hill. “Y/N confessed to me before the training camp.”

“What?!” Tanaka yelled out.

Nishinoya got startled by Tanaka’s volume and crushed the grass blades in his hand by accident.

“Shhhhh! Quiet!” he ordered, “do you want everyone to hear?”

They turned around to see the rest looking at them weirdly before assuming it was just the duo being their obnoxious selves and going back to relaxing.

“Noya, you bastard! You got a girlfriend before me! I’m happy and sad at the same time,” Tanaka blubbered trying to hug Nishinoya.

“Ugh! Get off me, Ryu! You’re sweaty and it’s too hot.”

He sighed with relief when his excitable friend finally got off him. “And no, I didn’t. I rejected her.”

Tanaka burst out laughing. “I’m sorry I think I heard you wrong. I thought you just said you rejected a pretty girl asking you out.”

“I did reject her! And she ran off crying.” Nishinoya said desolately.

Tanaka ran his fingers over his shaved head, trying to pull his nonexistent hair in fury.

“What?! Why?! This was your chance and don’t give me that bullshit about not liking her that way! You do I can tell! When you and I talk about Kiyoko-san, you get all excitable. But when you’re talking about Y/N you’re actually quiet and serious for the first time.”

Was he like that for real? He had no idea. All he knew was that he had messed up. That day after he rejected her, Y/N was polite as if they were acquaintances. There was this barrier between the two despite being their desks only a few feet away. She never ignored him, but she kept this façade by ignoring personal questions and answering noncommittally whenever she could.

“But you still haven’t told me why you rejected her,” Tanaka continued.

“Because! Y/N’s 172 cm and I’m what 159 cm? Why would she want to date someone like me anyway?”

“Baka!” Tanaka hit the top of Nishinoya’s head. “Didn’t you say that height doesn’t matter and that you’ll fight with your life?”

He clutched the top of his head and moaned. “Ryu, you bastard! That’s with volleyball! You can’t apply the same thing with dating, dumbass!”

“Yes, I can! You think that if Kiyoko-san was over 190 cm I would stop pursuing her? No way! I would still build shrines to my gigantic goddess every single day if I have to! Who cares about height in volleyball or love? Besides, Y/N already knows about your damn height. She sees you every single day and she still confessed! Doesn’t that mean she doesn’t care in the first place?”

The words echoed in his head. Ryu was right! He was so caught up in his insecurities that he hadn’t realized that Y/N never cared about his flaws. Never once did she call him out on his height or even comment about it. The only time she did get annoyed with him was when he refused to study or asked to copy her work again.

“Ryu, you genius! You’re right!” Nishinoya said cheerfully pushing himself on Tanaka’s shoulders.

Tanaka put his hands on his hips and threw his head back as he laughed gleefully. “Of course! You better fix things with Y/N when we get back. Until then get your head back in the game, Noya. Karasuno needs our libero.”

He felt his spirits being uplifted, the rejection no longer weighing as heavily as before.

“Yosha! I want to practice some more. Wanna help me with something, Ryu? I have something I wanna try,” he asked thinking of the tactics that libero used during the Seijoh match.

26 times

He could hear Y/N’s tinkling laughter as she covered her mouth to giggle whatever dumb shit his classmates were telling her. She never covered her mouth with him instead laughing with tears in her eyes desperately trying to breathe while he laughed along with her. She never had to pretend in front of him. But the fact she would rather entertain whatever they were asking her instead of hanging out with him before morning classes began, hurt. But could he blame her? Why would she want to talk to someone who rejected her? Still, at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel that maybe Y/N’s feelings weren’t as genuine as he thought they were. Because there she was acting normally with other people.

He let out a sigh of relief as the bell rang not because he was excited about class. Rather it meant Y/N had to return to her seat and all the boys surrounding class president Mai’s seat also had to go back.

“Hey Y/N, how was your break?” he asked tentatively.

She spared him a glance and a muted smile.

“Good.” She reached inside her desk and pulled out her textbook.

He couldn’t help the annoyance bubbling up. School just restarted! There was no way she had any work to review, but Y/N was putting on an act like they were about to be handed their midterm exams.

Before Nishinoya could say anything, their gruff sensei had entered and started class. He honestly couldn’t say he learned anything that day. Too anxious rehearsing in his mind on what he would say to Y/N.

When it was finally lunchtime, he made his way to Tanaka’s classroom for some reassurance. Nishinoya was going to corner Y/N before she went home. Hopefully, it would end well and with Y/N as his girlfriend if he had anything to say about it. Again, too nervous to eat, he just gulped down some bread and headed back to his classroom.

He let out a groan when he heard those gossipy classmates of his again. Didn’t they have anything better to do with themselves? Maybe study like the responsible students they all pretended to be?

“What do you mean Y/N has a confession? In the courtyard? W-who is it?—”

Nishinoya didn’t even bother to hear the rest and ran out like someone just announced their volleyball club was being discontinued. He didn’t even bother apologizing to the students he was pushing through to get to his destination. His mind being preoccupied with one thought only.

‘There’s no way I’m losing her to anyone else!’

He arrived in the empty courtyard to see an unfamiliar boy and Y/N standing alone. An unfamiliar tall boy. Y/N and he were the same height.

Nishinoya scowled deeply and stomped towards the two.

“Oy! Y/N doesn’t like you get lost!” he growled out.

Y/N jumped and turned around to look astounded by his appearance.

The boy’s eyebrows furrowed, “um who are you?”

“The guy that Y/N likes and confessed to! So, she doesn’t need or want your second-rate confession,” he snarled as a dark aura surrounded him.

“Though, I would be happy to rearrange your face if you don’t leave right now.”

The boy paled and unceremoniously turned around, walking away at a fast pace. He could be heard murmuring, “what’s his issue I was only passing on a note?” But neither of the two particularly cared.

“Noya-kun! How could you?” Y/N asked aghast.

“Me? What about you? You only confessed to me about two weeks ago! How could you?”

Y/N’s cheeks flushed and Nishinoya’s own cheeks reddened in response. Neither of them had spoken about what happened since that day.

She fidgeted a bit before replying, “i-it doesn’t matter! You don’t like me anyway that means I’m free to date whoever I want.”

Nishinoya took a deep breath knowing it was time to tell her the truth about his feelings.

“You’re wrong. I do like you! In fact, I like you a lot! Probably more than you ever thought possible.”

Y/N’s eyes widened. “But you rejected me! Why did you do that if you liked me?”

“Because I was worried about what people might think of a pretty girl like you dating someone like me. I was insecure about my height. I didn’t think you and I would work out,” he explained quietly.

“Noya-kun, I knew about the short delinquent with the blond streak since first year. And I never cared about that. I like you because of how much passion and persistence you have. You think I didn’t notice the different pain relief patches on your arms? You think I didn’t notice how much you gave your all during your match against Seijoh despite losing? Or the fact that you’re horrible at literature but still study because I asked you to? I could go on and on-“

Nishinoya felt his heartbeat race out of control. No one had ever said something so nice about him and especially not a girl. A girl that had been on his mind for weeks. No, not weeks. But if he was being honest since the day he had met her.

“Please go on. Tell me more about why you like me,” he said with a huge smile.

“I—no way! It’s too embarrassing!” she squealed and hid her face behind her hands.

“Oh please? I’ve never had a girl tell me she liked me twice!”

Y/N peaked between her fingers. “Did you mean it? Do you really like me back?”

Nishinoya motioned for her to bend down. Y/N, out of curiosity, did as she was told. He tugged her hand when she got closer, to connect their two mouths. She let out a noise when she felt his chapped lips against hers. He took her quiet sigh as a good sign and pressed harder. There was no earth-shattering moment nor was she suddenly the center of his gravity like people would say. But her soft lips felt warm and inviting so he discreetly asked for permission by sliding his tongue between her lips. Their tongues tangled and danced despite neither knowing what to do. It was messy and awkward, but they didn’t care as their enthusiasm and passion overcame their inexperience. When breathing became necessary, he reluctantly separated while she let out a small whine unable to disguise her disappointment.

“Now do you get it? I really do like you.”

Y/N nodded happily and gave Nishinoya a quick peck.

“Wait, what do you mean by short delinquent? Who called me a delinquent? What the hell?” he asked out of the blue.

She burst out laughing and laughed even harder at Nishinoya’s miffed face.

27 times

Nishinoya marveled at the feeling of her soft hand holding his coarse callous filled hand.

“I’ll wait for you after your practice. We can get some Gari Gari-kun popsicles,” Y/N said.

“Are you sure?” he asked worriedly. She already came in early for the student council. She didn’t need to stay late too.

“It’s fine don’t worry.” She stepped down the staircase and looked back up at him. “What are you waiting for? Aren’t you going to be late for practice?”

Nishinoya looked down at her curiously and smirked. With him standing on the upper stair, now their heights looked equal for the perfect angle.

“To do this,” he murmured before pulling Y/N in for a quick smooch.

She didn’t hesitate to grant him entry and let him explore for a while before pulling away. Her eyes sparkled looking lovingly at him.

“Ja!” he called out before running down the stairs. Nishinoya only sent a haughty look to an embarrassed Shoyo and Kageyama who were looking at anyone but him. A hysterical Tanaka came running up to him.

“Noya! You became a man!” The two best friends hugged and thumped each other on the back.

Daichi and Sugawara came out of their gym only to see the second-year duo crying and hugging each other, while Hinata and Kageyama were suspiciously red.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I better see you in the gym warming up soon or there will be hell to pay,” Daichi said as he gritted his teeth. He headed back inside shaking his head.

Sugawara puttered over to Hinata and poked him.

The twitchy first year screamed and relaxed when it was only his senpai.

“What’s going on here?” he whispered to Hinata.

“O-oh. Um. It seems Noya-senpai got a girlfriend.”

“Phfft. Funny joke, Hinata. Seriously what’s going on?” Sugawara asked again.

This time Kageyama interrupted, “no it’s the truth. We saw them on the stairs just now. K—k-is”

The flushed dark-haired boy unable to finish his sentence just threw his milk carton away and walked off muttering something about “warming up” and “volleyball”.

“Huh. It must be the truth then,” Sugawara uttered disbelievingly watching as Nishinoya and Tanaka were now talking about double dates as they entered the gym.

28 times

Hinata got on his bike and was now ready to go home when he spotted a familiar boy with a blonde streak. He was about to call out for him when a taller girl stepped next to him. Noya-senpai’s face beamed with happiness and grabbed the girl in for a hug. The two then walked off hand in hand as the sun set behind them.

‘If Noya-senpai can get a girl like that there’s hope for me too!’ Hinata cheered. With that positive thought in mind, he biked vigorously home ten times harder.

#haikyuu!!#haikyu #hq #hq fanfic #nishinoya x you #nishinoya x y/n #haikyuu nishinoya #nishinoya x reader #nishinoya imagine #nishinoya hcs #nishinoya yuu #hq nishinoya #nishinoya fluff #nishinoya scenarios #yuu nishinoya #haikyuu #noya x y/n #noya x you #noya x reader

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neokad · 3 years

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Phantasy Star II - The 1989 JRPG that could

(This post is dedicated to @kuukigajan, my best friend, whom motivated me to post here again, so... I hope you'll enjoy this!)

This game. This freaking game.

I'm gonna say it right now: this post will contain massive spoilers about pretty much everything in Phantasy Star 2's story, so if you do plan on experiencing this game fresh, I strongly advise you to not read this post at all beyond the first paragraph, but... here's the gist of it: Phantasy Star II is one of the most important and groundbreaking JRPGs of its time, and I just did not believe this game was from 1989, at ALL. For that and a few other reasons, it has become one of my new favourite games of all time <3

In fact, I do want to start with the one big flaw of this adventure so that I can just gush about everything else that's brilliant about PSII. I have to be honest: the dungeon design in this game is horrible. Now to be fair, it does make the many places you visit more memorable, but well... there's a rumor floating around that an actual trainee made the layouts for the dungeons - and since this game was a bit rushed for the Genesis's launch, the devs just didn't have time to replace the... stuff he submitted. And let me tell you, this rumor makes sense: PSII's dungeons are too big, too maze-like, too confusing and also FILLED with strong enemies. And in a game where you don't get a way to save anywhere until the midway point, it can make your adventure very frustrating and potentially grindy because of that... Now I wouldn't say that PSII's nearly as bad in this area as say, the original version of Dragon Warrior or ironically the first Phantasy Star, but the dungeons can totally make you feel like the game's harder than it actually is, at least without a map.

Thankfully, you should never feel bad for using any maps or guides with this game! The execs at SEGA at the time made the very smart decision to include a walkthrough with each copy of the game, including maps, tips, secrets and more! Said guide does encourage youto not look at it as much as possible but... it's totally fair to just use this, without any shame!

And that is a great thing, because... with you armed with this piece of paper, Phantasy Star II can finally show you its actual brilliance.

The game's plot starts off a thousand years after the events of the first Phantasy Star game. Since Alis and her party defeated Dark Force, the inhabitants of the Algol solar system - and its three planets of Palma, Motavia and Dezolis - have enjoyed relative peace. However, at a (to my knowledge) unknown point in time, a computer entity known as Mother Brain has started imposing itself onto mostly Motavia. This, over time, has actually given many benefits to the region: the once deserted wasteland was given rain, water and crops, so that it could finally host viable, comfortable civilizations. The citizens that lived here could finally ditch their (arguably) nomadic, harsh lives in favor of comfort, pleasant weather and more. And most importantly, Mother Brain allowed its citizens, save for a few, to ditch their current jobs and live a life of laziness, without any obligations or pressure to do anything other than well, existence. This is reflected many times during the game through NPC dialogue, too!

It is on such a setting that our protagonist, Rolf, wakes up from a strange nightmare. In it, we see Alis batting Dark Force and struggling in doing so, but as soon as he realizes this, Rolf wakes up in cold sweat. He then proceeds to calm his nerves, realizing that no such dramatic events could possible happen to him - after all, he and many others have been under the universal protection and care of Mother Brain, whom at this point, has provided all of their needs for centuries. He then gets out of bed and goes to the central tower, where we works as an agent in case some things do go wrong.

And gone wrong things have! His superior informs him that biological monsters, which had been created and bred in the Mota biosystems laboratory, have gone rogue and infected the regions of Motavia at a rapid rate. Because of this, Rolf is asked to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Once he gets home to prepare for his journey, he is ambushed by best girl Nei, who has been rescued by him many months ago from the clutches of a serial killer. She does not want to be left alone anymore, and since she is also worried for Rolf's sefety, asks him to accompany him on the mission. Naturally, Rolf accepts.

Here, I do want to bring up Nei in more detail! She's in fact, the first of PSII's brilliant story-gameplay interactions, and here's why! Nei is in fact, a crossbreed experiment between a human and an unknown animal with cat-like features, but here's the thing: this said experiment was a failure. Because of this, Nei is only one years old, and yet her physical and mental age are progressing way more rapidly than they should. And you can feel this effect on the game itself: she needs way less EXP than any other party member in the game to level up, and because of this she will skyrocket in levels way beyond the rest of your crew... with a catch. Because of the nature of the experiment, the genetic code inside of her is slowly being messed up and corrupted, which not only causes her level ups to be less valuable than anyone else's, but it also becomes an important plot point later... Unfortunately, despite her absolute cuteness, her status as a half-half made her a victim of bullying, racism and so much more, which is... pretty messed up to bring up at the time not gonna lie o_o

Starting up the journey, the party discovers that rogues have destroyed a neighboring city, and it just so happens that their base is situed at Shure, the first dungeon of the game . One assumption I like to make from this scene is that life has become so easy and careless on Motavia that people just went and did crime out of pure boredom, because life just wasn't thrilling enough anymore with Mother Brain doing everything it could for its inhabitants...

However, upon climbing said tower, Rolf and Nei find out multiple dead rogue bodies, whom have been presumably murdered by the many biomonsters roaming the place. They do, however, manage to find some dynamite and most importantly, a letter. This piece of paper informs our heroes that the daughter of a Darum, the very same person that tried to murder Nei months ago, is held captive in another tower, which explains why he turned to crime in the first place. They then decide to do the obvious, which is to rescue daughter Teim in her captivity location. Once they meet up with her, she explains her desire to talk to her father to set things straight and sway him from the life he's been getting into, as well as hide her from the surviving rogue members with the help of a veil. Our group manages to meet up with Darum, but... her daughter asks the party to stay put, as she does not want them to interfere with her as she explains things to her father. However, in the heat of the moment, she forgets to remove her veil, which causes Darum to not recognize her. In his confusion, he murders her own flesh and blood and sits there, stunned, as he watches the reason he caused many untold atrocities... wither away below him. Shocked and going insane by this situation, he sees no other way out... but to commit suicide with the help of a bomb.

It gets worse.

While this scene was tragic and brutal to say the least, it does allow Rolf to cross the previously guarded bridge where Darum was always located, which allows him to investigate his mission further.

I do want to make a sidenote here actually! Phantasy Star II does include eight playable characters, but unlike Rolf and Nei they do not join you at fixed intervals - instead, they will become available in your home town of Paseo once conditions are met. Sadly while they do have a recruitment quote, a few lines and a backstory, they do not have an impact on the main story in any way. This does blow as this means PSII does not have much in character development and interaction, but I did want to mention that there’s more to this game than just Rolf and Nei :P

Upon exploring the regions of Motavia, the party manages to make its way to the Biosystems lab, and what they find here is horrifying to say the least. The lab is in horrible shape, with cracked floors everywhere. On top of that, there is no one inside the lab anymore, it being completely deserted, save for some horrible-looking creatures being kept insides tubes, decorating the now sinister looking building... Because of this, Rolf deems it safe to pick up the recorder inside the lab, to analyze it and try to find out just what exactly went wrong - if anything at all - to hopefully figure out why the world has been sacked by biomonsters. And sure enough, the gang make its way back to Paseo. After handing over the recorder to the library located in Paseo’s Central Tower, it is now made clear: the biomonsters were caused by a large amount of energy used in a very short amount of time in those labs, causing them to mutate extremely rapidly. This had the predictable but unfortunate effect of ruining the natural order of the ecosystem, which is why these species are wrecking havoc without control. The librarian giving this information also makes the following connection: this outpour of energy must have come from Climatrol - another lab which regulates the weather of the terraformed planet so that it can sustain its new shape. Following this, Rolf and co. take a few steps to reach Climatrol - and I want to highlight a specific one!

The story somewhat pauses until then, but one of the dungeons you’ll go through is a garbage dump... and one of the treasures is a jet scooter you can use! Sounds cool, right? Well it is, but even such a cool object has been abandoned by the lazy society, since teleportation is much more convenient to them. I just thought it was a really neat detail, that’s all ^_^

Once making their way through the relatively normal Climatrol, something does wait for them at the top of the building... something... unsettling...

This is Neifirst. She was another failed experiment just like Nei, sharing the same biological data as her. However, unlike her sister, her creators tried to kill her on the spot due to her status. This made her enraged against the species that gave her life, and as an act of revenge, decided to unleash this bio catastrophy to slowly wipe us out. This is where another truth is revealed: Nei did not come with Rolf just to protect him, she actually wanted to put a stop to her sister, because while she did dislike being treated like a freak or a monster, she never wanted to hate her species as a whole... It remains that she still wants to stop her sister’s plans, and despite Rolf’s protests, the two engages in a fight. However, due to Neifirst being much stronger, Nei sustains heavy damage and is incapacitated. But, this is where the rest of the party comes in, and thus they finish the job and kill off Neifirst dead in her tracks, Rolf then quickly rushes in to his dear friend’s side, but as he does... it’s too late... Nei is dead.

This is yet another reason why Phantasy Star II is such an important game: it is, to my knowledge, the very first JRPG in which a major playable character dies permanently. Heck, Rolf even tries to bring her back through the local Clone Lab - because yes, citizens have access to eternal life by cloning their bodies until the end of time - but... since Nei’s genetic code was degenerating rapidly, they could not clone her body anymore. And, since Neifirst was also defeated, it is also impossible to get a fresh code back from anywhere in the world. Nei is dead. And you cannot do anything about it.

But don’t worry! It still gets worse!

But just as you’re about to find a way to fix this, it turns out that Climatrol has collapsed, which caused an immense flood all over the world. Since the government - and by extension, Mother Brain - isn’t happy about this, you are now considered a fugitive, a criminal. You are now the bad guy, and you are wanted for treason. 1989, anyone??

This is where the second brilliant story-gameplay integration of Phantasy Star II happens. Where until now you’ve only fought mutated monsters due to the outbreak, the government has now sent thousands of carious cyborgs and robots against you - and lo and behold, this is now the only thing you are fighting in both the overworld and dungeons, and the previous creatures are now nowhere to be seen. THAT’S REALLY SMART. Now sure, even if you are considered evil to many, you still task yourself with the task of unflooding the planet, and to do so you simply reactivate all four colored dams in the continent. However, upon reactivating the fourth one, your party is suddenly ambushed by a trio of robots sent by the cops, and this time? They succeed in capturing you. Your party is now sent in chains on a hovering satellite, as you are sentenced to slowly wither away and die in there without any trial of any sort, simply because you went against Mother Brain’s dear wishes...

But, something goes amiss. The sattelite starts to malfunction, and is now set to crash on one of the three planets of the Algol system. And despite you all trying to alter its course, it is too late. The satellite crashes onto Palma - the planet of the first Phantasy Star game - and it is gone.

That’s right! The planet in which many players took the time to save with Alis’s gang, to have a huge dungeon crawling adventure, the planet where you defeated Lassic in a glorious fashion. GONE. In only a few seconds. But... what about yourself? Well, you actually died! But a space pirate wandering close to the crash site pulled out your remains and cloned everyone’s body back to life... which makes you technically not yourself, and also dead, for the remainder of the game! ...May I remind you this game was developed in 1989?

Tyler the space pirate then escorts the zombie party back to Paseo, but not for long - you see, your commander, who hasn’t truly approved of Mother Brain’s actions against your group, allows you access to a spaceship. This is a big deal, because space travel as a whole has been banned ten years ago due to a major accident in which Rolf had lost his parents, and thus, the one stationed in Paseo is the last one remaining on the planet. But sure enough, Rolf takes the opportunity and travels to the ice planet of Dezolis, or Dezo.

And honestly? Even though this next part has nothing to do with the main story, it’s probably one of my favourites in the entire game. In this section, you simply must make your way through an abandoned space station, which has not seen use in years. At first, you’d think it was somewhat related to the spaceship incident, but as you explore this space station, you find a bunch of animals and newspapers lying around. You not only find some irrelevant ads about various products, but also news flash about a horrible gas spreading throughout the station, begging every inhabitant to evacuate immediately, which... definitively implies a very bleak fate to the place and its inhabitants o_o

And on top of this unsettling setting, this is the first time you get to hear “Silent Zone”, my favourite track in the game. While the rest of the soundtrack is very upbeat, catchy and all around excellent, this track in particular is very... sad, desolate, lonely, in spite of it being just as catchy! It all combines for a brilliant example of “show, don’t tell” that really sets the mood perfectly to me <3

Either way, upon exploring more of Dezo - a frigid wasteland with few inhabitants - the party gets to meet up with Noah, a party member from Phantasy Star I! After reawakening from a cryogenic sleep, he then reveals that unlike Paseo and Motavia, Dezo basically never submitted with Mother Brain’s control and benefits simply because they did not want to live a life without any struggles. Unfortunately, this is also where you learn that Paseo came to terms with this *after* being to MB’s whims and as such, you can connect the dots and realize that the satellite crash was no accident after all... it was all planned.

Noah, however, knows about how deeply MB has ruined everything for the inhabitants of Motavia and thus tasks Rolf with collecting eight legendary ancient weapons all throughout Dezo, located within some ruinous, empty, cold dungeons which make for stunning atmosphere and presence, believe me!

Once that’s done, he then entrusts Rolf with the ultimate Sword and, thanks to kinetic abilities, sends him and his troupe to the space station housing Mother Brain. And once there, for the first time in centuries, a human being has met with Mother Brain.

And of course, the computer scoffs at those rebelling against her. She laughs at how they think they’d want a life with struggles, wtihout comfort, without anyone providing their needs, when work and hardship seems so uninviting on a desert wasteland like Motavia, or a frigid hell like Dezo. And yet, after a (pretty difficult!) battle, you emerge victorious! Or do you?

After the victorious outcome, Noah senses some additional presences beyond Mother Brain’s spot, and urges the party to investigate. And then... I don’t think I’ll even explain it in words. Please watch what happens. It is disturbing.

youtube

Yeah. We, the humans, were destroying our planet, Earth. Thus, we escaped through this spaceship to avoid extinction, and found the Algo system. It then, to our species, only seemed logical with so few numbers, to instead slowly weaken the population of all three planets with Mother Brain, making it then easy (although a very long process) to get rid of the population and start anew, even if it meant genocide. What I love about this twist ending is not only how it’s presented: the creepy music, the way you did *not* expect it at all, the number of humans on the screen at once, and so on... but also, how you don’t even know for sure how it ends. You don’t know if Rolf, Rudo, Amy, Kain, Hugh, Shir, Anna... if any of them survived. But it looks grim. It looks like we lost. And it looks like everyone we fought and tried to save... will rot until the final days anyway... Phantasy Star II... is important. Sure, I could talk about how the game is challenging due to how both your party members AND the enemies are very capable in battle or the stellar, catchy, memorable soundtrack... but its story... is stunning. In 1989, we were still used to princesses being saved by armored heroes from dark dragons. We were used to things going all well in the end. But in 1989, Phantasy Star II taught us many things that would become staples in the future of JRPGs: Yes, your cherished ones may die with you not being able to do anything about it No, you may not be able to save everyone you’d like to. Yes, your actions might make things worse for yourself and everyone else. No, things aren’t quite as black or white as they seem. And no, you might not always win. Phantasy Star II is a masterpiece. It’s a bit hard to approach this game today, but with a guide, this game is a must play. It’s unique. It’s ambitious. It’s chilling. And I adore this game to pieces. Thank you for reading, somehow <3

#long post #phantasy star ii #phantasy star #jrpg #sega genesis

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peekbackstage · 3 years

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AU WWX & AU LWJ, what is your head cannon on their relationship dynamics. Who would have made the first move, who would have confessed and etc.

I’m guessing that this question is about my previous AU post about an alternate universe where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are idols! This post is probably going to be a little ridiculously embellished, because why not.

In this universe, which is an AU version of our modern day world, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are the two biggest pop stars in China. While they fall in love while working on their series of critically acclaimed collaborations, they actually met many years before as trainees.

Upon meeting at a joint training camp held by Gusu Lan Entertainment, Lan Wangji decides that Wei Wuxian is quite possibly the most infuriating fool he has ever had the misfortune of meeting. After all, for a trainee from Yunmeng Jiang Entertainment, Wei Wuxian seems to lack all manners and decorum, loses the security badge required for entry into the Gusu Lan Arena, and to add insult to injury, seems determined to break every single rule Gusu Lan Entertainment expects their artists to follow.

(Lan Wangji does not understand how Wei Wuxian is considered the most talented trainee Yunmeng Jiang has to offer. Clearly, there are better trainees. He does not have high hopes for the boy.)

Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, finds Lan Wangji -- no, Lan Zhan, since that’s actually his real name, not his stage name -- to be an endless source of entertainment. He’s not entirely sure why Lan Zhan is determined to never have any fun in life. (He’s not even sure if Lan Zhan knows what “fun” is.) He’s even more determined to find out, though.

(Lan Wangji is not impressed. He is, however, extremely confused.)

In any case, at some point during the training camp, Wei Wuxian decides that he will be Lan Zhan’s friend, regardless of whether or not Lan Zhan wants him as a friend.

(Lan Zhan has never actually had a friend. It’s all very strange to him.)

This is not supposed to be a fic, so I’m not going to include too much more backstory exposition here. Mostly, I wanted to offer some history before we get to the main course!

So, now we are a few years in the future, and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have both debuted. They aren’t megastars yet, so Gusu Lan Entertainment and Yunmeng Jiang Entertainment decide it might be a good idea to have their two budding idols work on a collaboration together, kind of like the Kangta & Vanness collaboration from 2011. Or Jun Ho and Van Ness, from 2012. (In fact, Van Ness Wu’s collaborations seem like a pretty good business model to copy.)

During this process, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji spend many late nights working closely together. Unlike other idols, they actually write their own music, and even play their own instruments. They’re exceptionally talented musicians, and they discover just how well they complement one another during this time.

[Insert some cheesy line about how their souls speak to one another through music, because this is The Untamed AU.]

(It’s around this same time that Wei Wuxian starts to notice how distractingly handsome Lan Zhan is. He really has no right being that handsome. It’s rude, really.)

They end up writing and recording enough songs to release an EP together. It’s all very productive.

(It’s during this time that Lan Wangji realizes that he can’t seem to stop looking at Wei Wuxian -- correction, Wei Ying. He curses his treacherous eyes, which keep finding their way back to the ridiculous curl of Wei Ying’s mouth.)

[Insert an absurd amount of unfulfilled sexual tension, largely caused by a certain Wei Wuxian growing increasingly, outrageously flirty, much to Lan Wangji’s complete dismay.]

At some point, Wei Wuxian kinda-sorta accidentally gets Lan Zhan drunk. He really didn’t mean to. It sort of just happened. He discovers that Lan Zhan is kind of hilarious when he’s drunk. So he makes it a habit of occasionally convincing (or tricking) Lan Zhan into have drink.

On a particularly hot summer night, after an entire day spent rehearsing choreography for the music video they are supposed to shoot the next day, Wei Wuxian once again manages to get Lan Zhan drunk. He kind of accidentally may have gotten himself drunk in the process. And maybe sort of accidentally ends up in Lan Zhan’s lap. He really didn’t plan for that to happen. It sort of just does, along with all the relatively rated-M stuff that happens after that.

Afterwards, he panics, not unlike his counterpart in MDZS, cuz apparently, this is apparently Untamed-AU-meets-MDZS-AU.

Wei Wuxian tells Lan Zhan that this is just the sort of thing that guys sometimes do together, and not to take it too seriously, then immediately runs off, because of course he does.

It’s all very dramatic.

[Insert even more dramatic internal monologue.]

Fast forward to the next day. It is now the big day of their music video shoot.

Wei Wuxian gets there early, and arrives alone. Lan Xichen, who has no real reason being on set but who I need to put on the set because plot, is quite surprised to see Wei Wuxian on the set without his brother, especially considering that in recent weeks, they pretty much had become inseparable.

One thing leads to another - I really don’t know how - but Lan Xichen is the best wingman ever and ends up more or less telling Wei Wuxian what a dumbass he is for not really understanding Lan Wangji’s feelings, because come on. Literally every single person on both teams know that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have been making eyes at each other like no one’s business.

And of course, once Lan Wangji arrives on set, Wei Wuxian does what Wei Wuxian does best and declares, in front of everyone on set, that he really, truly deeply is in love with Lan Wangji. Remember, we are in Untamed-AU-meets-MDZS-AU land now, and apparently I’ve decided that this is now a retelling of the story through idol land.

In any case, Lan Wangji is overcome with emotion and there is a dramatic embrace.

The director of the music video sees all of this and decides to rewrite the script, right there on the spot. He tells the lead actress who they were supposed to both be pining over that she no longer will be playing a love interest.

The music video for their first collaboration song drops. The song itself is renamed WangXian. It’s filled with “socialist brotherhood” (aka censored gay love) scenes of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji together.

Pandemonium ensues. The single breaks records upon release. Youku’s site actually crashes because so many people are trying to watch the music video. WangXian instantly becomes the #1 trending hot search. CP speculation explodes overnight. It only gets worse when the BTS footage is released.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Beijing, Wei Ying is sprawled on the couch, playing a video game on his phone, while Lan Zhan makes them dinner as Wei Wuxian’s cat rubs against Lan Zhan’s leg. It’s all very domestic.

As for their relationship dynamics, I don’t think it would be all that different from the way they are in the show! They’re Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, after all. Where one goes, the other is sure to follow.

#the untamed #wangxian #mdzs #cql #the untamed au #au wangxian #idol wangxian #mdzs au #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wei ying #lan zhan #hehe this was fun #ask #Anonymous #peek answers

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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I saw speculation on this going around & I’m curious to get your thoughts on it: where do you think Geten’s story might be going in the future, & do u think it’s possible Dabi will kill him? I saw ppl talking about Dabi’s noted distaste for him & how the PLF seems more of a temporary alliance in the LoV’s mind (Compress’ noted rejection of the name in his thoughts, Dabi’s use of Skeptic against his will, etc), & w/ AFO back in the picture they theorized Dabi may get his quirk & kill Geten.

Okay, so, it took me a while to grapple with this one, and in the end, I'm going to have to break my reply up into two parts. Because you asked a very simple question, anon, and my answer to the question you actually asked is pretty simple (if characteristically rambly)! But you also provided a bunch of contextualizing information about what prompted your ask, and I have a lot to say about that contextualizing information, stuff that is only tangentially related to your actual question.

Note that some of this is going to get pretty salty, but I assume you wouldn't have brought a Known MLA Stan a question like this if you didn't want at least a bit of that. Most of the salt will be in the second part, though! This first part is pretty safe!

So, to answer the actual question: I don't have a lot of solid thoughts on where Geten's story is going, because from the looks of the way the series as a whole is going, it may well be that the MLA’s story is already done. I have previously expressed concerns about the current status of the MLA mainly because of all the speculation that Horikoshi is trying to rush to get to the ending, and if Hori’s rushing the ending, I don’t know that I’d bet on Geten coming back at all. In fact, given what I can guess about the scenario, I’d kind of rather he not.

The thing is, the MLA have always been far more relevant to the League than they have been to anyone else in the cast. They’re Tomura's victory spoils; their plot beats were established to connect to the League, not the heroes, the students, or even All For One. There’s just no personal connection there, and lacking a personal connection, all they’d do is be fodder for background fights to fill page space and give the side characters something to do.

And there’s just no drama in that! Not even any tension! We've already seen the MLA characters beaten--first by the villains, and then by the heroes. Hell, we've seen Re-Destro beaten three times!(1) Based on how the raid went, there are maybe three people in the entire MLA that present a credible threat--Hose Face, whose name we don’t even know, Re-Destro, who has a repeatedly-illustrated weak point in the form of his new legs, and Geten.

While I definitely think Geten could give any of the students save Deku a run for their money,(2) what would be the point? Who would he be slotted in to have a dramatic fight with? Geten hurt Cementoss, but he didn't kill him, and none of the students are uniquely close to Cementoss anyway. Geten has never personally offended or harmed any of the kids directly. There was a time people theorized that Shouto's end game boss would be a combination of Geten and Dabi, but with the PLF scattered, that looks less likely.

From the other side of things, Geten himself has no particular beef with the kids. If he'd been on the front lines to witness the opening moments of the battle, maybe he'd have a bone to pick with Kaminari, Kinoko, Juzo, and particularly Tokoyami, but it took Geten a bit to get to the front; he has no particular way of knowing about those four, and at the moment, he certainly has more pressing matters on his mind.

Geten's primary interest, when it comes right down to it, is Re-Destro. He talks a big game about the MLA's goals, but when the pivotal moment comes in Deika, he bails on the battle that was assigned to him to try and help RD instead. He claims that pure strength is to be valued above all else, but his loyalties don’t change when Gigantomachia bats him aside like a fly or when Shigaraki proves himself to be An Strongest. Even up to Jakku, Geten is still concerned solely with Re-Destro. With no real reason to pit RD against the kids, there’s no reason to throw Geten against them, either.

The only person Geten has an established rivalry with is, of course, Dabi, but getting the two of them even in the same vicinity again is going to require breaking the MLA leaders out of jail, which clearly isn't a priority of AFO's, and he's the one running the show right now. Would Shigaraki bother? He might, particularly if RD, Trumpet and Geten all get shipped to whatever Tartarus Lite Mr. Compress and Machia are likewise bound for. But if the story is headed to its conclusion, is Shigaraki ever going to get that option?

Is AFO the final boss? If so, it doesn't seem to leave much of an opening for the MLA to become relevant again, because, again, the MLA are all about Tomura's victory, Tomura’s ascendant arc as a villain, his status as a hero to other villains (namely RD). If Deku "saving" Shigaraki from All For One is going to magically resolve all of Tomura's issues with society as a whole, because hey, at least this kid is a good person, so his society can't be so bad after all! (GAG), that doesn't seem to leave much room to get into the myriad issues with society that all of Tomura's followers have. Frankly, the only thing the MLA has to offer Deku right now that's remotely relevant to his current goals is Re-Destro's starry-eyed explanation about why he's fallen so hard for Shigaraki, and Spinner is better suited for that role on basically every level.

So that’s all been one big if. The other alternative is the ending I'm hoping we get, in which Deku and Shigaraki join forces to put an end to AFO, only for Shigaraki to thank Deku cordially and then get right back to destroying things because, surprise surprise, Midoriya Izuku being a good person doesn't absolve Hero Society of all of its many, many sins. Then I can see there being room for the MLA to return. At that point, not only is there RD’s devotion to Shigaraki on offer, but also the MLA’s ideology of Liberation, what it is, what it offers, along with, for example, more on whatever Harima Oji’s complaints were about heroes, more on what has to change systemically to satisfy Shigaraki’s grudge. That’s a story the MLA can meaningfully contribute to, and therefore a story in which Geten and his quirk supremacist beliefs are more likely to be addressed.

However, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get that ending, and until we find out whether Shigaraki will be satisfied with being rescued from AFO (if, indeed, he survives the process at all), or whether he and his compatriots’ societal issues will be left by the wayside, I’m not yet prepared to spend a lot of time theorizing on how the MLA’s role in it would look.

As to the specific question of Dabi killing Geten--honestly? I think that moment is past. While I said earlier that Dabi is Geten’s only established rivalry, that is frankly being more generous than their relationship actually warrants. After all, we haven’t seen them interact since Deika, and literally the only time one of them has so much as thought of the other in that period was Dabi grumbling, “That icy punk sure knows how to let loose,” after Geten’s big wall of ice attack allows Tokoyami to get away with Hawks. If their continued animosity were going to be a plot point, and especially if Dabi were going to murder him in cold blood eventually, Horikoshi should have shown us the two of them antagonizing each other as co-lieutenants of the Violet Regiment.

At this point, Dabi has made his big play, revealed his identity to the world. I think he's pretty locked into the Todoroki Drama now; he has bigger concerns than going back and winning a grudge match against Geten. Also too, given the point he's trying to prove about the strength of his/Endeavor's flames, would he even want Geten's quirk? If he were to get it, would he get the "evolved" version or just the basic one?(3) Because given the precedent set by both the mechanics of Monoma's Copy and AFO's comments about Jeanist's Fiber Master, I'd be inclined to think the latter, and Geten's ice powers are way less badass without the temperature control, especially for a dude trying to wield them in concert with flames of the temperature Dabi uses.

From a narrative standpoint, Geten has already been punished for his hubris with a personal defeat, the humbling of his leader, a loss of pride in his organization, and then a second, much more damning defeat and subsequent capture at the hands of heroes. Dabi taking his quirk and killing him at this point would just be kicking--indeed, killing--him when he’s already down. It doesn’t feel like karma; it just feels malicious.

That said, in the rather dubiously scaffolded scenario that the MLA gets free and finds their way back to the League and AFO/Shigaraki takes Geten's quirk(4) and Dabi accepts it, would Dabi then kill Geten with it?

…I mean, maybe? Do people think that Dabi is that much of a sadist? Because it would be the act of a sadist, to murder a kid who's almost certainly younger than he is and might even still be a teenager, one who has just been violently stripped of any ability to defend himself, all out of a desire for petty revenge over a months-old slight--a slight consisting of Geten parroting rhetoric he learned from the weird cult he grew up in, and which Dabi has very possibly been working with Skeptic long enough to know is maybe not all that accurate a characterization of the cult's ideals anyway!

And that brings me to Part 2. ---------------------------------------

(1) Four, if you count the clone’s destruction.

(2) Even 1-A's two remaining powerhouses don't present any more of a threat to Geten's ice than Dabi did, and Shouto will only give him more of it to work with. Their advantage over Dabi is that they can both sort of fly, which might well tip the balance--one of Geten's major advantages is his ability to manipulate ice from a considerable distance away, farther away than Dabi's flames can reach, but flying opponents deprive him of that advantage. Now, Shouto's flying is fairly unstable, so I suspect Geten is more maneuverable in the air, but his maneuverability wouldn't save him from Bakugou, the human equivalent of the anger-powered jetpack.

(3) Set aside the Doylist explanations about anyone who stole Geten's quirk getting the version the audience already knows purely out of laziness, forgetfulness, or authorial fiat.

(4) And look me dead in the eye and tell me Geten would just let Shigaraki Tomura or anything currently inhabiting his body just casually stroll up and lay hands on him without protest. Not to say I think AFOmura couldn't do it, but doing it in a "cool," dramatic way would probably involve some lightning movements we have not seen him make thus far.

#bnha #stillness answers #geten #meta liberation army #dabi

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ellewritesathing · 4 years

Text

Ten Things VIII

Summary: If there’s one thing you have to know about Harvey Kinkle, it’s that he rarely thinks things through. So when he meets (and falls for) Sabrina Spellman on his first day of Baxter High and finds out that she can’t date anyone until her tempestuous sister does, it seems like the obvious solution is to get someone to date her so he can go out with Sabrina. A not so obvious choice for the challenge is Caliban, but, hey, it’s not like Harvey thought that far.

Masterlist Prev. | Part 8

Word-count: 3.8k+

A/N: ahh i can’t believe this series is completed!! it’s been super fun to write these characters and their relationships and i hope you guys like how i’ve done this (endings are not my strong suit lmao) 💕 thank you for reading!!

A few months ago, your and Sabrina’s relationship had been strained at best. She had been so young and all she wanted to do was experience everything, and you were older and a bit more jaded because you’d already experienced it all. And thanks to your wild days of experiences, Hilda and Zelda set a rule in place when you cooled down: Sabrina could only do something if you did too.

A part of Sabrina had always resented you for it, even though the rule wasn’t your fault. It was just incredibly frustrating to always be asking you for favors and you consistently refusing because you were done ‘pretending to be someone you weren’t.’ She hadn't understood what that meant back then.

And Sabrina had to admit, even though Hilda and Zelda would crucify for her saying it, that your relationship got better after Caliban and Harvey came into your lives. Those two idiots had a way of making Sabrina more forgiving and you less hard-headed and, slowly, your relationship improved.

But then prom happened and everything exploded.

No matter how many times you promised that you were fine, Sabrina couldn’t shake the memory of picking up from the mines with Caliban’s car smashed in and abandoned in the background. Nor could she forget how she cradled you in the backseat while you sobbed and asked her why he didn’t like you.

So, when you rejected Sabrina’s thirtieth offer to join her and Harvey for some retail therapy (or vandalism - Harvey could wait in the car), Sabrina did what any good sister would: She canceled her plans with Harvey and hunted down Caliban.

She thought finding Caliban would be the tricky part, but talking to him turned out to be the hard part. The second Sabrina saw him at Dr. Cerberus’ looking for a book, her entire speech that she’d been preparing since breaking Nick’s nose just disappeared into thin air. It wasn’t fair that he was perfectly okay while you cried into a pint of ice cream, but she couldn't find the words to yell that at him.

Despite being at a loss for words, Sabrina stormed over and tapped Caliban on the shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Looking for a copy of Pride and Prejudice.” Caliban straightened up and bumped Sabrina’s arm lightly to get to the bookshelf. “Do you mind?”

“Do I mind?” Sabrina repeated, crossing her arms and stepping closer to him. Even though he was easily a foot taller than her, she was determined not to be intimidated. “Yes, I mind. I mind that you’re here book shopping while my sister's turned into Boo Radley!”

“Oh, spare me the dramatics, Blondie,” Caliban said with a roll of his eyes. He turned his attention back to the bookshelf. “Firstly, you were just as involved in all this as I was. More so, actually - it was your gentle manipulation that pulled Harvey into all your bullshit. And secondly, your sister is far too strong to get her heart broken. By me or anybody else.”

Sabrina faltered. She had been working very hard to block her part of this whole mess out of her head. “Are you gonna tell her?” she asked, in a very careful voice.

Caliban knelt to get a better view of the shelf. He was in the totally wrong section if he was looking for Pride and Prejudice, but Sabrina didn’t want to point him in the right direction just yet. “Now, why would I do that?” he asked, tilting his head up at her. “So that she can hate us both?”

Tapping her fingers on her arm, Sabrina was forced to admit that Caliban was being a frustratingly good guy about this all. “Well…” Sabrina tried to figure out something to be mad at him for. “What’s your plan?”

“My plan?” Caliban didn’t take his eyes off the copies of The Great Gatsby and Catcher In Rye in front of him.

“Your plan to fix this,” Sabrina said. She put her hand on his head and turned it to in the direction of the British Lit two shelves down. “You’ve got a plan, right?”

Caliban was quiet. He stood up and looked down at her, seemingly figuring out how much Harvey would mind if he pushed Sabrina over. “No,” he said eventually, trying very hard to keep his voice level. “I don’t have a plan.”

He turned to go to the British Lit and Sabrina grabbed his arm to force him to turn around. “How can you not have a plan?” she asked.

“Because-” Caliban shook off her arm and kept walking “-nothing I say will fix this. Your sister hates me.”

“My sister hates everyone!” Sabrina stormed after him, practically knocking him over when she closed the distance. Awkwardly, she added, “But she hates you a little less than everyone else.”

Over the dusty copy of Lord of the Flies, Caliban looked at Sabrina with an almost unreadable expression. Unnerving, yes, but surprisingly unguarded. Sabrina was sure he could set someone on fire with that look alone.

Caliban dropped his gaze and pulled out the last Pride and Prejudice on the shelf. “Well, thanks, Blondie, but I think she hates me most of all right now.”

“That’s just because she doesn’t know!” Sabrina grabbed Caliban’s arm before he could leave. Giving him her best set-you-on-fire look, she said, “If you just talk to her - explain what happened - then I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“Because ‘forgiving’ is the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of your sister,” Caliban said quietly, staring at Sabrina’s hand on his arm. He looked back at her with a hard expression. “Whatever happens between me and your sister, I want you to know one thing.”

“Anything,” Sabrina said, caught off-guard by his intensity.

“If you ever hurt Harvey, I’ll break into your house and shave your cat,” Caliban said.

Before Sabrina had the chance to even begin formulating a response to that, Caliban gave her a tight smile and walked away.

Sabrina could see now, after one very frustrating interaction with him, why you liked Caliban so much. He was impulsive, vaguely threatening, and very clearly in love with you.

---

“Okay, let’s open up our books to page 73, Sonnet 141. And listen closely,” Wardwell said. She ushered in a scrawny freshman who rapped the first four lines of the sonnet and then excused him with three quick taps to his shoulder. “As Toby has just shown us, there are multiple ways of engaging with Shakespeare. It wasn’t always bad actors in stuffy period clothes, you know.”

She said it knowingly, as if every dumbass teenager in the class had seen a Shakespeare play and thought wow, this stuff would be great if it weren’t for the poorly done accents and garish clothing.

When no one responded to Wardwell’s attempt at humor, she took a breath and walked in a little circle around her desk to reboot. “I’d like for all to write your own versions of this sonnet,” she said. “A poem riddled with contradictions and the struggle between the physical desire and mental …” she paused when you put your hand up. You knew you should have known to wait until she finished her sentence, lest she forget her original point. “Um, yes, Ms. Spellman? Do you have a problem with the assignment?”

“No problem. Do you want this in iambic pentameter?” you asked, pen ready to write down whatever convoluted answer Wardwell gave you.

Wardwell narrowed her eyes and walked around to the front of her desk again to get a better look at you. “To be clear, you don’t have any problems whatsoever with the assignment?”

“Whatsoever,” you echoed. Your voice had a slight edge to it thanks to your thinning patience. You tapped your pen on your notebook.

“Are you sure?” Wardwell crossed her arms over her chest.

You sighed and put down your pen. With your best attempt at one of Sabrina’s polite smiles, you said, “I’m sure that it’s a great assignment, Mrs. Wardwell. Now, iambic pentameter: yes or no?”

“You know, I’m not sure I like this new attitude of yours,” Wardwell said, pushing herself off her desk and turning to look for a notepad. She scribbled something on it as she walked to your desk. “Take this and go see the nurse. I think you may have a fever.”

“A fever? Wardwell, what the hell is this?” you asked.

“A note. To see the nurse.” Wardwell tore the note off her notepad and handed it to you before gesturing toward the door. “Go.”

“But I-”

“Now, Ms. Spellman.”

You let out a listless breath and slammed your notebook shut. Shoving all your things into your bag and ignoring Nick’s snickering, you grabbed the note from Wardwell and stormed out of the class.

When you turned to flip Nick off while Wardwell had her back to the class, you saw Caliban reaching over his desk to flick Nick’s neck and whisper something in his ear that made him a few shades paler. It filled your heart with a funny feeling and you adjusted your bag and fled before you had a chance to start crying in the middle of your English class.

Once you were in the safety of the hallway, you had no idea which way to turn. The nurse’s office wasn’t an option because Pollit was deeply against any student seeing her unless they were bleeding and you didn’t feel like getting detention for supposedly faking an illness. It was too bright outside to throw rocks at the soccer team. You found yourself heading for the library before you even realized that you’d decided not to ditch.

The smell of coffee and freshly microwaved lunches mingled with old books and teenage angst when you stepped through the threshold. It was surprisingly busy for the sixth period, but luckily your spot in the back corner by the window was open. Slipping on your headphones, you drowned out all the others and started working on your stupid sonnet.

If the writer’s block wasn’t annoying enough, someone slid into the seat across from you and jostled the table in the process. Lifting your gaze from your newly marred page, you were intent on giving the offender the harshest glare in your arsenal until you saw it was Harvey.

He was nervous, spouting some apology that you couldn’t hear over your music, and wearing a football helmet. You took your headphones off to hear some of the ten billion words he was saying.

“Why are you wearing a football helmet?” you asked, setting your headphones aside and doing your best not to glare at him.

“Oh, uh-” Harvey tapped the helmet like he’d forgotten he was wearing it. “I wanted to talk but I thought you’d still be pretty pissed at me.”

You tilted your head to the side. “And you thought a helmet would protect you?”

“I mean, I feel a little dumb about it now but yeah,” Harvey said with a shrug.

You laughed at him and leaned over to take the helmet off his head. He looked ready to run for the exit, but he held still as you took the helmet in your hands. Collapsing back into your seat, you sighed and looked at the red Greendale High football helmet. “I’m not angry with you,” you said. “I tried but it’s like being mad at a puppy.”

Harvey shifted uncomfortably and frowned. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment but thank you.”

“No problem, Harvey.” You sighed and set the helmet on the table. Both of you stared at the helmet for an awkwardly long period of time. “What did you want to talk about?”

Either his seat was very uncomfortable or you still managed to unnerve him because Harvey kept shifting in his seat and starting sentences but never quite finishing them. Eventually, he sighed and said, “It’s not Caliban’s fault. It’s mine.”

“No, you only think it’s yours because you’re sixteen and more easily manipulated than most,” you said.

“Yeah, I know all that but-” Harvey shifted and tapped your notebook as he tried to figure out how to word what he was about to say. “I liked Sabrina, right? But everyone told me that she couldn’t date unless you did. So, I started talking to Caliban because he seemed like your type-”

“Caliban is my type?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Harvey said, completely missing your offense at his assumption of your type. Sure, he’d been right but still. “Anyway, so, like I said it, was my idea. He had feelings for you already and then Nick offered him money and … I don’t know. I told him to go for it anyway.”

You picked at the rings of your notebook in silence, mulling over Harvey’s words and trying not to punch him.

“He was going to tell you but I said it would just hurt you,” Harvey continued. He took a deep breath. “So, if you’re going to be mad at anyone, then be mad at me.”

You hoped you’d see something outside that told you what to do, but everything outside stared at you ambivalently. Letting go of your notebook, you turned back to Harvey and shrugged.

“He lied to me, Harvey. I get that you were selfish and messed up, but Caliban lied,” you said. “That’s worse than what you did because it feels like I can’t trust anything he says.”

Harvey looked like you’d just told him Santa Claus wasn’t real. Gut-punched and disappointed. In a slightly smaller and more strained voice, he said, “But it’s not his fault.”

You reached out and touched Harvey’s hand on the table. “I know you’re just trying to help your friend but it’s not that simple,” you said. “Do you understand?”

“No,” Harvey said lamely. He sank back in his chair and sighed. “But I’ll stop bugging you about it.”

“Thank you.” You squeezed his hand before letting go entirely. You pulled your notebook out from under Harvey’s helmet. “Are you gonna keep staring at me like that or do you have work to do?”

“Oh, I’m supposed to be in chemistry right now,” Harvey said.

Again, a bit of your bad mood dissipated and you laughed. “You should probably go to chemistry.”

“Yeah, probably,” Harvey said. He looked at the door and looked back at you. “But, uh, is it cool if I sit here for a while?”

You wanted to say no and to tell him that he was still an idiot for his part in this whole mess, but he was looking at you with those dumb lost puppy eyes. “Okay,” you said. “But don’t distract me or I’ll kick you under the table.”

Harvey laughed and settled into his seat. “Got it. Next time I’ll bring shin-guards.”

---

All things considered, Caliban had been handling your blind hatred quite well. Though, technically, your hatred wasn’t blind anymore because you knew the truth about him. Your hatred was all-seeing, all-encompassing, and everlasting. Caliban expected no less, considering the remnants of his smashed-up car found on the edge of the mines, but it still felt like he was falling apart every time he saw you.

Before, your almost exactly replicated schedules had been a convenient way to spy on you until Caliban finally worked up the courage to ask you out. Then, it had been the ideal opportunity to pass notes and make fun of Billy. Now, it was the perfect torture session where the two of you pretended not to notice one another.

It had gone on for almost a week before Caliban couldn’t stand it any longer. He had a plan, a very shaky plan, and Ambrose’s assurance that he could treat any of Caliban’s bones that you broke.

Caliban had waited the whole day and all he had to do was get through English, and then he could talk to you. Regardless of whether or not you broke his nose, phase two of the plan would commence with red carnations and one of those cheesy acoustic songs you liked.

“Okay, children,” Wardwell said in her disturbingly chipper voice. Her heels clacked against the floor as she scurried to the front of the class. “You’ve had plenty of time to work on your poems and I’m very excited to hear your takes on this classic sonnet.”

She was met by the silence of two dozen over-tired teens. Awkwardly, Wardwell fiddled with her hands and started walking around again. She paused at the window for a second and turned back to the class with wide eyes.

“Any brave souls willing to read theirs aloud?” Wardwell asked it like it was a dangerous question, like she was asking them if they wanted to rob a bank later.

Again, she was met with uncomfortable silence. Then your hand shot up and the air felt slightly more electric.

“Oh, Ms. Spellman … um, would anyone else like to give it a try?” Wardwell asked, looking out at the crowd with hungry eyes. “No? Well, alright then. Come on up, Ms. Spellman.”

Wardwell waved you over and placed you next to her desk in the front. She gave your shoulders an uncomfortable-looking squeeze and hurried back to her spot near the window. When she stood like that, she looked like a spindly bird watching over her chicks. Or maybe over her prey; it was hard to tell.

Once you were standing in front of the blackboard the way Wardwell liked, you took a deep breath and looked down at your notebook. “Here goes nothing,” you mumbled. Glancing over at the Caliban, his heart stopped as you dropped your gaze and started reading in a tight voice. “I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare.”

At the mention of his staring, Caliban’s heart stuttered annoyingly. He was staring at you now, along with the rest of the class, but this was different. He’d told you once that he stared because it gave him a chance to figure out what to say, but this time he was staring so that he’d never forget this moment.

“I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind … I hate you so much that it makes me sick-” You let out a short laugh and looked out at the window as you shook your head. “It even makes me rhyme.”

The whole class laughed and you took another breath to prepare for the next stanza. There was no laughter in your voice when you spoke again. “I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie.” Your voice cracked and you looked up at the ceiling. “I hate it when you make me laugh.” A stray tear ran down your face and you wiped it away roughly. “Even worse when you make me cry.”

Caliban leaned forward in his chair. Whatever you said next, he didn’t want to miss a word.

“I hate the way you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call,” you said, voice trembling between the tears that Caliban knew were eating you up inside. As if this moment couldn't twist him up any more, you looked up from your notebook and made eye contact with Caliban for your final lines. “But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close … not even a little bit … not even at all.”

With a breath, you shut your notebook and started walking out of the classroom. In a show of remarkable self-control, you didn’t slap Nick on your way out as he asked what on earth that poem could possibly be about.

Wardwell called after you, teetering on her heels as she scurried after you, but she stopped when she was almost run over by Caliban bolting out of his seat. She held onto him until he promised that he would make sure you were okay.

Thanks to the Wardwell delay, you were long gone by the time Caliban made it to the hallway, but he had a pretty good idea of where you’d gone. He raced out of the school and tracked down your car.

You were glaring at your car when Caliban found you, or more specifically glaring at the dozens of red carnations in your backseat. Reluctantly, you picked up the apology note on your windshield.

Technically, it was more of an excerpt than a note. Caliban had ripped out one of the last pages of the Pride and Prejudice he bought the other day, the page where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth (which was your favorite because ‘he promised to leave her the fuck alone if she didn’t feel the same’), circled your quote, and scrawled out an apology.

Caliban didn’t even know you’d seen him standing there until you balled up the note and threw at him. “You know you can’t just keep buying me red carnations every time you mess up, right?” you asked.

Seeing as amusement outweighed the annoyance in your voice, Caliban walked closer to you. “Yeah, but that’s why they have roses…” Closer- “tulips…” Caliban stopped in front of you and let out a shaky breath. “Hell, if I get that desperate, I'll even buy you some peonies.”

You bit the inside of your lip and cast a look at your car. You shrugged. “How do you plan to afford all that, huh? Going to keep dating girls so the cash keeps coming?”

It was a cheap shot but one that Caliban deserved. He dropped his gaze. “No, I, uh, messed up the last time. See, this girl was … something else. And I fell for her.”

You frowned for a second but then gave him a very hesitant smile. “Really?”

“Really,” Caliban repeated. “It’s not every day you find a girl who’ll steal your car and then leave it absolutely wrecked without leaving so much as a note for your insurance company.”

You laughed and covered your face with your hand.

“In her defense, she did leave my tires alone,” Caliban said with a mischievous smile.

For the first time, Caliban’s heart didn’t wrench at the sound of your laugh. You knew the truth and you seemed to care about him anyway. “Shut up,” you told him. You grabbed a fistful of Caliban’s shirt and pulled him closer.

Your first kiss was rushed and clumsy - you wanted to kiss him and Caliban needed to kiss you. After a shared laugh, your second kiss was less frantic and a little smoother - your hand cupped his jaw familiarly and his arms held you without having to think. Then there was your third kiss, your fourth … each one better than the last.

by the way, loves, here’s the quote in case any of you were wondering: Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”

Tagged: @t-a-i-l-o-r-m-a-d-e @miss--moose @marrypuffsstuff @harryscarolinaa @igorsbby @foji2000 @hxlalokidottir @artaxerxesthegreat @thxmagic @strawberriesandknives @xealia @hotmessindisguise @acciomaximoff @reheated-coffee @shelby-x @perseny-blog @millie-753 @luneerius @shizzybarnaclee @lettherebelovex @throughparisallthroughrome @ietss @thebookwormlife @mechanicalanimalz @mariamermaid @nqbmf @caliban-is-my-girl @shephard17895 @andie-kathleen @clockworks-world-to-fandoms @luquincy @marina468 @olivia-west-allen @drrramaaaqweeen @roxytheimmortal @blondeeee-e

#ten things #Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #caos #Caliban #caliban imagine #caliban x reader

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nostalgic-pancakes · 3 years

Text

Watching the starlings as autumn draws in

Summary: Tommy and his friends try on some skirts, and he reflects a bit on how they all got here. (It's a happy story) Title from September by Sparky Deathcap

Pairings: None! Platonic everyone (esp in irl fics_)

Read on AO3 (preferred place to read)

Word count: 2570

Warnings: None, except for surface-level references to the exile/prison arcs, but not much.

Other notes: I wrote this in a fit of madness last night in like three hours at 2 am, so i’ll probably edit it honestly but for now, enjoy! (If the CC’s ever display discomfort with this type of fic I will take it down)

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"WELCOME BACK TO THE STREAM, BOYS!" Tommy exclaims, rubbing his hands together as he starts rapid-fire answering questions about the stream, and the stream title from chat. It's funny, how over time, Tommy's come to see Chat as this one entity- an old friend. The nervousness of answering questions as a fifteen year old with nothing but a big personality, a twitch account and a copy of Minecraft is all but gone now, nineteen years old and happier than he's ever been.

Dreadfulzombie19: what are u doin this stream

"THANK YOU FOR ASKING, Dreadfulzombie19, today is gonna be a bit different, innit Tubbo?" Tommy raises his voice a bit at the end of his sentence, just loud enough for one of his flatmates to hear him. When Tubbo yells back an affirmative, Tommy turns back to his setup. Chat's gone a bit wild again, even though he, Tubbo and Ranboo have been living together for over a year now.

"Okay, okay, calm down chat- so recently I was at university, as usual right? And I had an eight AM class again, and… yeah I can see you all can relate."

"BUT! BUT! On my way back to the flat, I saw something really cool." Tommy hesitates in his speech to take a sip of coke again- his blood pressure's been acting up lately and watches Chat to wild again, asking him what he saw.

"Okay, so there was a shop- new place, which doesn't happen often this is fucking Brighton- and they sold skirts and dresses and stuff with adjustments for AMAB sizes!" Chat goes a bit bonkers, but Tommy's mod team- a little smaller than it used to be, now that he isn't the centre of YouTube or Twitch attention anymore, none of them are- are handling it, and pretty well.

"So I had to go, right? As many of you probably know, last year, I made the astounding discovery that gender-based stereotypes and expectations are, in fact, fake and I should not give a SHIT. And so I go in and look through the stuff- it's a really poggers shop by the way, and I find the perfect thing- it was the most poggers skirts and shit, okay? So, today's stream is going to have me wearing this pogchamp shit and wearing it right, with the help of…" Tommy ends his monologue by picking up the joke shaker-things that Phil had gotten him as a housewarming gift last year and indicates for his first two helpers to enter the office.

In walks his mother, face obscured from view as always, waving to the camera, and Wilbur, also wearing one of his only skirts for this occasion. Eret had taught him, on a phonecall in the skirt shop that week about the different types of skirts with a handy diagram. Wilbur's was a pleated circle skirt, brown to offset the bright yellow of his sweater and beanie, the same colour as his hair. It's very swoosh-y, so he's wearing black leggings with his regular shoes too. Motherinnit's also wearing her favourite skirt, a baby blue prairie skirt, Tommy thinks, and it's one he's seen fairly often.

Wilbur ducks down in order to show his face to Chat, and ruffles Tommy's hair while he's at it. Tommy's taller, but not by much, so Wilbur still fucking makes short jokes, That fucker.

Chat is now going so fast that he simply cannot read anything but some of the all caps messages and can barely make out some of the emotes.

"Okay, OKAY, CALM DOWN CHAT! WE HAVE TO GET TO FUCKING BUSINESS!" Tommy yells into the mix, like he did when he was sixteen and used the 'many people find me annoying at first' intro. Nowadays he just lets the content speak for itself. Anyone who wants to be here already is, by now.

Wilbur laughs a bit, and that hasn't changed at all. "Tommy, how is chat supposed to calm down if you're not calm?"

"I am their god!! They will obey via sheer digital willpower!" Tommy replies back, pretty zealously (What? An English Literature class is mandatory for his film degree, and The Great Gatsby by Zelda Fitzgerald is a good book, as are most of the other assigned ones. He's had entire conversations with Techno with just lit quotes and it drives everyone insane. Tommy loves it.) Chat seemingly has listened to his godlike abilities, with a few OG's spotting his half-quotation of one of Dream's last lines in the Dream SMP. The rest are spamming 'MOTHERINNIT'.

"If having a shitty magic trick book from a washed-up politician makes you a god, then what does that make me?" Wilbur replies, with one of Foolish's lines and swatting his hand at Tommy. Tommy swats back.

"Bitch" "Arsehole" "Shithead" "Fuckface" Wilbur finishes cheerily, as if this happens all the time. It does. Chat's used their antics now, four years of consistently making content together will do that for you.

Eventually Motherinnit reminds them both to get back on Topic, and Tommy goes back to facing the camera, addressing Chat directly.

"Today, my beloved mother, and my idiot brother-" "hey!" "And maybe my flatmates will be joining me to show off some cool as SHIT skirts! And a dress or two. We all have our selections, right?" Everyone nods in affirmative, even Tubbo and Ranboo. Though the camera can't see them. Ranboo's just come home from his final class, then. He should probably take the first hour back off, and judging by how Tubbo is forcefully judging Ranboo to the shower, he probably gets it. Tommy signs an affirmative to both of them, and gets back to the camera, where Wilbur's showing off all of his (very poggers) very stupid brown or yellow skirts. Tommy's are in cool colours, for fuck's sake.

"Oh yeah, Puffy just confirmed she'll be on stream! She'll be here in about twenty minutes, accounting for fucking traffic, and Niki' going to get onto VC after her own stream, what game is it this time?"

"GRIS." Wilbur answers.

"Poggers- she is the SHIT and will join us soon! So expect some QUALITY QUALITY content this stream!! Remember to not spam her chat to finish faster." Exclaims Tommy, even if it ends up as a light warning, as he picks up his own very poggers skirts from the extra armchair in his office to show the camera.

One is the classic red and white, mostly white but with bright red on the waist (elastic) and the bottom, and it reached to about Tommy's knee, if worn at the hip. It had no pleats, but the red bits were a very nice velvet texture, and while the skirt was heavy, it still had very much swoosh value, and pockets!! Big ones!! He slips the skirt on top of his jeans before entering camera view, the skirt visible in all its classic Tommyinnit glory, as he takes his place right next to Wilbur, who just took. a quick spin at the behest of several dono's., Skirt spying out from his lower shins all the way to his knee, making visible one of his (many) petticoats. ("What? It's cold all the fucking time here, Toms.") Tommy also makes a quick little spin, skirt flying outward, not upward, so it looks like he's hula hooping for a moment there. Lastly, Motherinnit spins around too, and while her skirts do not swoosh, she looks opulent, like she was about to go to waltz with the enemy, for whom she has a dagger in the back of her dress for. (He finished Anna Karenina and the Six of Crows duology within the same week and has not yet recovered. Jack Edwards is laughing at him as he thinks in his English Lit Graduate glory.)

It's fun, trying on different skirts- he and Wilbur accidentally bought the same dress at one point, which they paired up to wear, darting off into their respective changing rooms while giggling like idiots with their checkered blouses and the grindl skirts that Niki had sent over when she heard of this stream idea, laughing the whole time. Tubbo enters as dramatically as possible with Puffy, and while Tubbo looks really fucking good in his handkerchief skirt with embroidered bees and plain white shirt, it's Puffy who steals the show with an exact, real life version of her red banquet dress.

Fans from way back in the SMP, before Tommy had started branching out start going insane and are bringing back emotes Tommy wasn't sure were still available, but she is fucking stunning- deep shades of red and crimson, with slits on either side of her waist and all the detailing. She'd gotten the contact for her dressmaker through Bernadette Banner, Tommy recalls- she was so fucking cool when she streamed with him once, and gotten him to swear less and supplant those world's with bigger ones to intimidate instead. While he still curses like a sailor as part of his persona, it's less so and he does way less in real life these days, unless the situation calls for it. It's also just rude, especially in uni libraries, where he spends too much time these days wondering why he didn't read more as a kid.

Puffy's stolen his audience for a WHILE, and Niki coming on hasn't helped any, so Tommy exits camera view for a while to hug Ranboo really quickly- he's had midterms and has basically been dying all month.

Everyone on this stream- Tommy, Wilbur, Motherinnit, Tubbo, Puffy, Niki and Ranboo enter the camera frame after entering their dressing rooms for the last time on this particular stream, Puffy with full in-character wigs and makeup, Tommy in an Edwardian-Gothic reminiscent black and red dress, Ranboo in something he bought when he gap-yeared in Japan, punk lolita or something, Niki flaunting her pink in a Marie Antoinette style show of finery, Tubbo dressing in all green this time, something like a very deranged biology teacher who hasn't slept in days (Tubbo hasn't-Tommy has to get into that), Wilbur like a forest-nymph, all earthy tones and swishy fabrics and nature highlights, and finally Motherinnit, who hasn't changed but is here to take pictures as they all lean in together to fit into frame, as drastic as their height difference is. Niki is going to be edited in later, and everyone on the 'Dream SMP but nobody does Dream SMP and we're all fucking nerds' discord server is going to get a copy.

The stream wraps up there, after about two hours, and it's only about six in the evening- a far cry from the late nights and long hours from the beginning of Tommy's career, so everyone runs to their changing areas for the last time, into pajamas now, and packs away all of the clothes they wore, properly, as to not incense Karolina Zebrowska, and Jemma, Dan's wife, who would look at them disappointedly and nobody wants a sad Jemma because that means no cooing at their son. Also it just feels shitty.

Everyone huddles in Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo's living room, and they out on UP for like, the millionth fucking time (they still cry when Ellie dies), and Tommy is leaning into Wilbur's side and feeling his mum play with the hair in his very small, stubby ponytail he's developed by being in Uni as he and Tubbo intertwine their legs together and Ranboo rests his head in the tangle of limbs, playing with his fidget cube. Puffy stays on Wilbur's side, intently texting someone and smiling the whole while, and Tommy takes a moment to reflect (something he's been getting better at doing) on how the actual hell they all got here.

The Dream SMP was always going to end- everyone knew it, if course, they were the fucking writers. But by the time they did, not only were their respective brands too closely intertwined to just… sever that quickly, but they'd become too close to even want to. So the SMP discord never shut, even though Dream and George had planned it months ago, and they continued supporting each other with their interests. Wilbur made a lot more music solo, with his band and even just random ass streams where he practiced guitar for an hour. He kept playing Minecraft, but it wasn't his main focus. A bunch of people left. More stayed. YouTube left him alone.

Dream, George and Sapnap are still Minecraft streamers, but their YouTube channels are mostly blogs of them being poor excuses of adults with other former SMP members joining in sometimes. Tommy and the Dream Team were closer than ever, even though the seeds of their friendship had been sowed when they used to linger after heavy streams together, reassuring each other that none of that was true and that nothing like… that would happen in real life, because Dream had used real abuse tactics, and those still hurt unless immediately taken care of. So they were. It was a running joke that Dream was stuck at 99 million subscribers since nobody really wanted the face reveal anymore. The other Dream team members were doing peachy.

Phil and Techno were also still primarily Minecraft streamers, but they also released things like advice videos and mental health stuff, especially for relationships. They had a new scripted series where Tommy was a minor character. The dadza jokes were still as real, and yes, outside of streaming, both of them were lovely people and responsible adults (mostly). They collaborated with DanTDM and co a lot more now.

Puffy and Niki kept doing games, but did lots of different ones, testing point and clickers to triple A titles, and making it all fucking hilarious while they were at it.

So where had that left Tommy?

After the Dream SMP, he'd kind of had no idea what to do, and he was going to University for the first time, so he just… did whatever he thought would be fun. He learned about vintage fashion from the queens themselves- Mina Le, Bernadette Banner and Karolina Zebrowska and had fun learning how to sew for the first time, fixing and making his own clothes for the first time, clunky as they were, Wilbur had cried, genuinely, when he saw the Lovejoy shirts that Tommy had made for the band. He'd found a genuine love for literature in university, so Tommy started talking to booktubers and studytubers like Jack Edwards and Noelle Stevenson. Tubbo and Ranboo had joined him, fucking around in any YouTube niche they found even remotely interesting. Eventually, they all found a happy medium- a bit of everything.

Some people obviously weren't happy with that but Tommy was happy as he was, making what he liked with his best friend's, living together close enough to most of their friends (family) to have fun and drop in on one another at ass-o-clock in the morning to comfort, to laugh. His sub count hasn't gone up in a while- most of his audience is static, with about 80-90k online on a stream at any time.p

It was a nice feeling, to have carved out a space for himself and the people he loves, and be is so, so glad that he got this chance.

Looking at his mostly asleep family, Tommy thinks 'yeah. Life is good.' as the last thought before he sleeps.

#dream smp #mcyt #irl fic #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #tubbo #nihachu #ranboo #vee's writing #2021

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archived-gtronpa-account · 4 years

Text

Hey @impytricky I saw a post of yours (I'll try to link it here when I find it again) about how annoyed you were to see Gonta 'fans' talking about how Kokichi should've died in chap 4 ! I agree with that and I just wanted to say, first, I'm glad I never stumbled across something like this, second,,, aah

Now, I love Kokichi and Gonta as much as the next person, and not the 'pure cinnamon roll Gonta' but the boy who's intellect is severely underestimated, who constantly gets babied for absolutely no reason and feels extremely inferior to his peers as a result. I like Kokichi and Gonta's relationship, how you can often find them spending their free time together (which I don't remember seeing in a previous game? I'm not sure) and how Kokichi (despite popular belief for some reason?) Was the one to treat him best in how he understood how smart Gonta really was and trusted him- like how he took his word about seeing tiny bugs and didn't brush it off as 'Gonta idiot' like the rest of the class. Grumble grumble.

Aaa but I'm not gonna go on a tangent for this since I know ur blog and I think we're on the same line regarding those two!

I just wanted to share an idea I had like, right as I was watching Gonta's execution for the first time, an execution for Kokichi in chapter 4!

Like, Kaito voted for Kokichi in the trial. But imagine if maybe Maki had joined him- like how she always sides with Kaito in scrum debate after he learns her real talent (I think? I'm not sure about this info) or if Tsumugi had voted for him to spice things up. And if for some reason, Kokichi had kept no rational sense at the end of that trial and was just completely crushed under the weight of his emotions and decided to vote for himself since he couldn't bring himself to vote for Gonta, even if too many people voted for him and he became the blackened right at that moment he really wouldn't care anymore and at least their plan would have worked and he wouldn't've had to live with his sin.

Anyway, that makes 3 votes for Kokichi, and the player's vote! So yeah I think it's abundantly clear now that I'm going for an alternate route where you -the player- vote for Kokichi and both he and Gonta are blackened. I've seen takes on this scenario and so far haven't found the gem among the stones- especially now that I'm imagining those Gonta 'fans' posts wanting to kill Ko out of spite, yikes. I just wanted to share my thoughts with a fan who's got taste wink wonk ;]

So: Monokuma stays unclear about the two blackeneds tho and just drags Gonta gets taken to his execution, except that unlike the normal version this time there's a those lock things on the metal chains and Kokichi jumps in to try to lockpick those and free Gonta.

Haha I've already got the scenario somewhere written I'm feeling a lil lazy lemme just copy paste it.

So imagine: Gonta is taken to be punished. He's attached to the pole and Monokuma walks in and the execution song starts. But then Kokichi runs in in front of Gonta and alter ego and fumbles with the chains to try and free him, Gonta panics and urges him to go back and not die and he's not the murderer and Gonta can't die knowing he couldn't even protect his classmate one last time only because of those chains. Such despair! Kokichi doesn't listen and desperately tries to get rid of the chains and pick the many locks one by one. Monokuma starts shooting the bugs at them and Gonta is still struggling to try to get Kokichi to move out of the way and Kokichi is growing nauseous from the bug stings and his face gets blue then purple in Danganronpa fashion and Monophanie's stomach grows bigger and bigger and just then Kokichi finds a last lock hidden between the chains he lockpicks it with shaky hands- but Monophanie's stomach bursts open and the lock clicks and right as it falls in Kokichi's hands the giant bug bursts out of Monophanie. Gonta pushes the chains off his arms and legs, falls to the ground, limbs finally free, and jumps in front of Kokichi with his back to the bug to protect him, but right as he's about to push him out of the way of danger the giant bug strikes them both, its his claw digs in their abdomens and they both fall to the ground. After a beat the wooden pole creaks and falls on their on top of their bodies with a heavy thump. Monokuma looks with disgust at the bodies still twitching a little and the nasty bug on top and he throws a match on the pole and everything catches on fire. The fire crackles and the music fades out and the image cuts to alter ego Gonta at their feet looking sad before his screen glitches and goes black and a dark grey puff of smoke comes out of it.

(Dramatic much, I know, but I'm a sucker for despair and tragedy.)

After that you get a shocked text from Shuichi who doesn't understand why Kokichi did that and something like how till the very end he confused them all with his lies (nothing much too grand and emotional, your typical killing game shuichi after chap 4 talking here). After that you get a weird disturbing ending like that of dr1, with a last CG of all the students aged up smiling at a camera, Maki and Shuichi holding up Kaito's portrait since he died of his disease, and with that awful music to disturb you further at the weird image and to really rub it in that you fucked up by being spiteful and voting Kokichi, bad choice you silly player.

I just kinda think it's a cool response to those who could hate Kokichi and get petty and vote for him- only to have a bad ending as a result and a surprise regarding Kokichi's character. I also thought of it as more of a Kokichi's execution, kinda like how it would have Kokichi elements: lockpicking, his leadership quality and how he puts his people before himself and is pretty selfless, also willingly putting himself in front of Gonta so he doesn't get bug stings- which is cool with Kokichi disliking bugs. And just how by being a petty hater you give Kokichi a somewhat peaceful death where he doesn't live with his sins, but you the player get a bad end instead as a result. On Gonta's side, I just like the despair of him ultimately dying unable to protect his friend.

All in all, I just thought it'd be a cool take on chap 4, especially with how… tasteless Gonta's execution feels to me. I also kinda just like this as a Kokichi execution that exploits some of his aspects well enough without being overly dramatic- like the many popular fan excutions I've seen that have him on lie detector forced to tell the truth about his intentions and how he cares about his friends and yadda yadda simp stuff- like, you should be able to see a Dr character's execution and not be able to tell if this character is important or not based on that alone; executions don't discriminate between the popular and the lame, so I think this is a fitting enough execution for Kokichi that works for his character, isn't too lame but isn't too grandiose. This has it's flaws for sure, like how that ending doesn't fit the fictional world reveal of chap 6 and some minor details, but ah, eh, uhm, you know.

I'm a sucker for discussions I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Since you too have a respectable good view of Gonta and I think I saw a post about you thinking of a Kokichi execution? Aaa you know whatever I'm getting awkward now—–-

#Danganronpa #drv3 #kokichi #Gonta #execution #idea

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hyperfixiationstation · 3 years

Text

Thoughts on LUCIDS Part four

Once again, I took forever to post this, sorry. Spoilers for LUCIDS Part four under the cut.

1. I love the little chimes when the apple pops up into view as he throws it. I just think the opening scene is really cool.

2.Wait if they met in Elementary school, does that mean in this universe Benjamin could go and talk to a little Isabelle?

3. I definitely have to copy down his speech about everything constantly existing for theorizing purposes.

4. Benjamin writing his proposal speech is the sweetest thing I have ever scene, and I am absolutely in love with their relationship now. I desperately wish that there were more fanfiction writers in this fandom so that I could read so much fanfiction about it! Unfortunately, we have a grand total of like one person, so I guess I will have to suffer.

5.Aghhh I love Isabelle's voice!

6.Oh my god its the scene from the epilogue!

7.I LOVE THEIR INTERACTIONS SO MUCH! Oliver making for of Benjamin for being dramatic is quite possibly my favorite thing ever. I’ve probably mentioned this already, but Characters and relationship dynamics are always my favorite things in any series, and little things like that, and them knowing there is going to be a PowerPoint when Ms. Hills talks to them gives me so much joy.

8. Ms. Hills back at it again with the stellar memes! Also, the roasting of Benjamin’s jokes is so good.

9. Wait, its been at least 3 days, and neither of their parents have gotten at all suspicious that they haven’t seen their child? I’m slightly worried by this information.

10. I know that I’ve been talking about like, every other line so far, but they’ve just been so good that it feels wrong for me not to comment on them. Anyway, the shot of Oliver calling dibs on Benjamin’s bed, Benjamin protesting, then it immediately cutting to Oliver sitting on Benjamin’s bed while joking with him is one of my favorite scenes in this whole series, and this episode has already managed to surpass part 2 as my favorite episode at only like 5 minutes in.

11. Oliver’s facial expressions when Benjamin is going on about the dreamscapes are so incredible, and I just- UGH! I can’t express how much I love this series.

12.Ok, I already addressed how I’ve been talking about every single line and how redundant I am in this post, so I’m just going to say how much I love Benjamin and Oliver’s dynamic one more time, and then I’ll shut up about it for this episode.

13. Ms. Hill’s facial expressions and mannerisms are one of my favorite things about this frickin series. Her little proud shift when she tells them that she made more “Dank memes” and her smirk at Oliver’s terrible joke are so good.

14. Ok, now we’ve caught up to the point where everything in Jasper, the Epilogue, and the Trailer have happened, so there is literally zero knowledge of what is going to happen going forward, and I am so excited for it!

15. Did Quinn not recognize Benjamin from the cult? Or was he just asking about Oliver?

16. I did say I wasn’t going to praise Benjamin and Oliver’s dynamic anymore, but I have to give some appreciation to Jasper and Quinn. Gosh it’s great. Like we only got one scene, but gushing about a show together is one of the best examples of friendship. Also, I’m so glad that Oliver got to hear people gush about his show like that. He deserves it.

17. QUINN IS A LUCID! I lowkey expected that, but I didn’t expect him to be like... practiced at it. Also, my friend mentioned this when I rewatched it with her, but the swear filter is such a great detail.

18. Why was this scene cut into Jasper episode 6? Does time move that much quicker in Jasper’s dreamscape? Does this give an indication of how time works as far as dreamscapes go? Does time move quicker in some dreamscapes than others? Did he not actually see this when he was knocked out at that time, and that was just foreshadowing?

19. Hey, he referenced the discord! Cool!

20. Oliver getting winded after like 5 seconds of running is a mood. Like same dude, same.

21. Time for your regularly scheduled loving the music in this series mention. It is so incredibly good! I’ve actually been paying more attention to it lately, and I am completely blown away. I don’t know if that is because this is like par for the course, and I haven’t really thought about the soundtrack for shows that much in the past, or because this series in particular is really good, but either way I enjoy it immensely.

22.I do not talk enough about the cinematography in this thing. Once again, it might not be more than what most shows do, but this is all done by like one guy! It is amazing!

23. I just realized that Oliver and Benjamin probably just straight up passed out in the Whole Foods in the first episode of TAOBAO.

24. I wonder if Jasper is going to address what Oliver told him with Quinn later, or if he’s just gonna be like, “oh well,” and keep on livin.

25. It is moments like these where I wish the fandom was bigger. Normally, I would have been reading Oliver/Benjamin and Quinn/Jasper fanfiction this entire time, and then after this interaction I would have been able to enjoy the brand new flurry of Jasper/Oliver fanfiction, but once again, all I can do is suffer.

26. Wait, why didn’t Ms. Hills realize that Quinn was a Lucid before? Are there certain criteria you have to meet to technically be a Lucid?

27. Was weird time jumping shenanigans going on? Why did we get a clip of Benjamin waking up? Are we going to learn more about how LUCIDS do time stuff in the future?

28. The Ah! A tree! guy was funny enough on his own, but Nick later explained it on the livestream, and gosh, that was a layered joke.

29. What the actual fuck Ms. Hills. God I have so many thoughts and feelings about this scene. First of all, I almost cried the first time I watched it. Second of all, how are Benjamin and Oliver going to handle this information? Oliver especially? Like that is brutal man. Third of all, who did Quinn meet? Did he find another Lucid who trained him? What happened? Fourth of all, does Arthur know about this? Also, this was an observation from someone in the Discord server who wasn’t me, but does this have any implications for Arthur leaving and then Ms. Hills telling Oliver that “he always comes back”? Holy shit man, this scene is so crazy.

30. Benjamin cheated on Isabelle!? When they had a daughter together!? That scene was like two punches to the face, finding out about what Ms. Hills did, and then what Benjamin did. I can’t believe that he would open with that 2 minute shot making me fall completely in love with their relationship, and then just rip out my heart and completely stomp on it like that.

31.Before I go into my closing thoughts, I just have to mention how much I love that ending music. Its so sweet and calming and comforting, and I want to be able to listen to the full version as soon as possible. This episode took everything I loved about Part 2, and then ramped it up to a ten. The soundtrack felt even more impressive, the characterization was pure gold in every single line, the character dynamics felt so real and natural, the plot twists were so incredibly insane, and the ending music makes me feel even more like I’m going to cry than the one from Part 2 did, but like in a good, comforting way.

32. Every single character in this series has to have an angsty backstory and moral complexity, don’t they? Like I can’t think of a single main character that those things don’t apply to in at least some way.

33. Apparently Isabelle is voiced by a fan called astronautdancer (I think that is right) on TikTok who made a spinoff series about Isabelle, which I’m really excited to watch! (Nick did say it probably wasn’t canonical though)

#thank you so much for reading this post if you actually managed to make it through the whole thing #I can't believe how quickly he manages to put out this episodes #and they are all such incredibly high quality!#sorry about using such and also so much in this post #LUCIDS #nicholas podany #LUCIDS Part four #LUCIDS Part 4 #god I love this series so much

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bangtan-madi · 4 years

Text

All Of Our Lifetimes — One: Daymare

Pairing — Taehyung x Reader

Tags — boyfriend!Taehyung, husband!Taehyung reincarnation au, lovers to strangers and to lovers again, established relationship, implied soulmate au

Genre — fluff, angst, crime (ish)

Word Count — 2.7k

Summary — Does love ever truly end, or does it simply take another form in a new life? The cycle is like clockwork: your lives end and you’re reborn again. You’ve lived it over and over. Each cycle, one of you loses your memories and is tragically unaware until the other finds and awakens their lover. After all these eons, all these lifetimes, is it possible to find each other again—even when neither of you awakens with your memories?

Part — 1 / 10

Warnings — swearing

A/N — This is going up a few hours earlier than I said previously, but I don’t care! Tuesday is the worst day of the week so I need to put out something good lol. Enjoy!

Previous — Next

"Find me... Find me... F—"

"—Oh, fuck me!"

Milo's temper tantrum draws you from your intense daydream. Jolting in your seat, breath ragged and heartbeat racing, you see your roommate throw a copy of her resume across the living room in a burst of rage.

"Fuck you," she points sharply at the paper, "fuck this, and fuck me!"

As Milo throws herself onto the couch, draping her forearm dramatically across her eyes, she heaves a heavy sigh and groans loudly.

"How are we supposed to have this much experience for an entry-level job, [Y/n]? We were lied to. I feel wronged. Can I sue?"

You shake your head, trying to push the daymare away from your mind. It's not the first time this has happened, and it certainly won't be the last, but somehow that man's face keeps coming back to you. Day and night, he's all you see when you close your eyes, almost like a memory...

You feign a smile as you reply, "Who are you gonna sue, Mi? You're the one that insisted on doing your resume yourself, after our internships."

Milo gestures extravagantly with her free hand, making shapes in the air with her fingers. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe the professor who told us that we'd have enough to get a job overseas by the time we graduated? Maybe the damned school who never mentioned the fact that South Korean's are so damn particular? Maybe my mom who never forced me to continue speaking Korean or writing Hangul when I was a kid so that I had to basically re-learn every-fucking-thing?"

The highs and lows of her complaints cause a laugh to slip out as you turn your attention back to your own resume, a digital copy ready for edits on your laptop. "You're gonna sue your Mrs. Choi? Doesn't sound like a great idea. Besides, I like her too much. Her kimchi is to die for. And if you had already known Korean and Hangul, we may have never met!"

Your best friend nods once, accepting this fact as true. "Probably not. That semester in a foreign language really did solidify our nerdiness about South Korea." She jabs a finger in your direction. "But I have a one-up on you 'cause my grandparents were first-gen immigrants from Seoul. So ha!"

Raising your hands in mock defeat, you retort, "You win that one. I'm just an American."

"So sad." The brunette sits up with an excited expression, eyes wide as she crawls over to you on your side of the sofa. "How about my academic advisor, if you can even call the woman an advisor for rehashing my own questions back at me? She convinced me that I could get a job anywhere, with any degree. So what did I go with? Interior design! I can't find a single freakin' job in Seoul for that! Not that doesn't require, like, three years experience, a particular certification that I conveniently did not get, and a signed contract with the Evil Underlord Satan."

"I really don't think that's gonna work, but hey go ahead and try!"

Milo shoves your shoulder playfully, turning to the television to change it to the New Year's Rockin' Eve show that you'd been waiting to start. "You're the one that took ethics classes! I thought you'd be able to tell me if I had a case."

You scoff, "I took business ethics, not legal ethics! But I can agree with you partly. That woman was of no help. At all. Glad I wasn't stuck with her as an advisor since I was in the communications program."

"Yeah, I like to compare her to our house: a conventional ranch with no personality."

You burst into laughter, and Milo hops up from the sofa, an amused expression on her face. She tosses the remote in your direction. "Get the channel right. I can't find it. I wanna watch the ABC exclusive. Pretty sure we get that through YouTube TV."

You catch the remote with ease and turn to the menu. "You think I know how this thing works? I only use Netflix and Crunchy Roll."

"Just shut up and search, will ya?"

You roll your eyes and do as your roommate asks. "Why ABC? Isn't it easier to just stream it online?"

"Becauuuse BTS! They're gonna be performing in, like, ten minutes!"

"What's that again?" you tease.

"Okay, I am not dealing with you right now. Don't make me come over there and hit you with the champagne bottle."

The last two words catch your attention. You turn around, rest your arms on the back of the sofa, and give your best friend the biggest puppy-dog eyes you can manage. "Pour me a glass, Jagiya?"

Milo smirks at the Korean pet name and grabs the golden bottle from the refrigerator. "Get your ass over here so we can pop it and move on. I ain't waiting for midnight. We got shit to do before then, and I can't work on this job-seeking stuff for another damn second without some alcohol in me."

You squeal a tiny, "Yay!" before leaping over the back of the sofa and joining your roommate in the kitchen.

After the champagne is popped and poured, both of you return to your places on the sofa. You take a sip from your glass as Milo calls your favorite local pizza place to place an order.

"Pickup in fifteen, which is perfect! I don't wanna miss BTS," she giggles, pushing her champagne away. "No drinking and driving. I can wait until I get back."

"You're giving up champagne for this band?" you tut, swirling your glass to show off the drink. "You must really love these boys."

Milo narrows her dark eyes at you and tosses her hair over her shoulder. "You'll see."

Another sip and you turn back to your laptop, the noise of the New Year's Rockin' Eve in the background. "Mhm, sure."

You continue to work in relative quiet for the next five minutes until Milo breaks the peace with an elated screech, a sound that is more similar to that of an animal than a twenty-something woman.

"They're on!" She grabs your arm and shakes it vigorously. "Look at them!"

You stop your edits to your portfolio and turn to the television with a sigh. The crowd has started to go mad over the seven men currently trotting up the stairs and on to the stage. The singing has already begun, and you have to admit that their voices harmonized spectacularly together.

But there's one voice, in particular, that is so familiar to you. Despite being mixed in with the group, the lowest register has your eyes leaving your laptop screen and shifting to the television. You can't put your finger on it, but there's something so soft, so real, so warm about it.

The camera zeroes in on the seven men. All are dressed to the nines and look like they're having a blast while performing. So not only can they sing and dance—and, for some, rap—they're all stupid good looking, each in their own unique way.

As the first song comes to a close, and Milo sings the last verse at the top of her lungs, the camera pans to the man in the center. He delivers some of the last lines in a voice as soft and warm as the one you'd heard amongst the mass. Except, this time, he stands out.

But you recognize more than his voice; his appearance is familiar, too. Despite remaining in the background for most of the first song's performance, there's something about the man with the wavy black hair and similarly colored trench coat that calls to you. On an ordinary day, on any other day, you would wave it off as a simple attraction.

But this—this is different. You can't put your finger on how or why, but you know that you've met this person before.

Lightning strikes. You know where you've seen this face before. He's been in your dreams and nightmares, your daymares and daytime imagination. He's been all over your mind, consuming it for the past few months. You've always had this dream, ever since you were a child, but lately, those nightmares have been getting more frequent. This man might be a slightly younger version than the one that plagues your dreams, but it's the same person. You're sure of it. Every time you close your eyes, his face is the one you see.

Right before you both die.

The next song begins, and the dark-haired stranger is back at the front. For the remainder of their eight-minute time slot, your eyes are glued to the screen, unable to comprehend where this person came from. You have distinct memories of your mother consoling a three-year-old you after having these same night terrors. Surely, you could not have seen this person back then. It's unlikely you saw him at all, and certainly not as he is at the turn of the decade.

"Who's that?"

Milo follows your gesture, seeing the raven-haired man taking center stage once again. "That's Kim Taehyung! Pretty, isn't he?" She chuckles at your expression. "You have a bias already, damn that's impressive. I mean, I'm more of a Hoseok girl myself but..."

Your roommate's chatter fades away as your attention is once again drawn to the screen. The performance ends, and the show shifts to a different artist, all part of the New Year's Rockin' Eve circus.

"Welp, that was worth the wait, but I'm gonna go pick up that pizza," Milo cheers, hopping to her feet. "Don't drink all the champagne before I get back!"

You shake your head and wave to the brunette as she slips out the door. Turning back to your laptop, you open a new search bar and put in two words: Kim Taehyung.

Millions of results pop up, everything from Wikipedia articles to Koreaboo gossip posts and everything in between. The entire time Milo is gone, you spend online researching BTS' V. By the end of the half-hour, you've learned quite a bit about him—taking particular note that his birthday is just a few days after yours—and have stalked his social media.

A little farther down on the results, you see an ad for Big Hit Entertainment. The ad says that the company is looking for bi-lingual speakers, preferably English and Korean, to hire as a production assistant. Out of curiosity, you click on the link and are taken to Big Hit's site.

Milo returns with fanfare, holding the pizza in front of her like Simba the lion. "It's the cirrrcle of life!" she sings. "They were definitely talking about pizza when they wrote that line."

As she plops the box onto the kitchen counter, you make a sound of vague agreement. Milo asks you how many pieces you want, but you hardly hear her, eyes skimming the job posting over and over.

Is this a possibility? Is this something you're actually considering? Besides the fact that you just saw the add a few minutes ago, your reasons for applying are vague at best. Are you weighing the real options, or are you leaning into this particular job because it might lead you to answers? Or maybe give you an opportunity to meet this Kim Taehyung, maybe even ask him questions?

"Hello? Earth to [Y/n]!" Milo reaches over the back of the sofa to wave a hand in front of your face. Snapping you out of your stupor, your best friend laughs. "Damn, what are you reading? You're really out—wait...is that Big Hit? You found a job posting? What!"

Milo grabs your laptop and pulls it from your grasp. "Mi—"

She brings it over the back of the couch, placing it on the counter beside the pizza. Her brown eyes are wide and curious as she scrolls through the information. "Production assistant for Big Hit, in Seoul, for a bi-lingual speaker with no prior experience? Dude. This is the perfect job! Like, seriously, where did you find this?"

"On Google," you sigh, knowing that you're not going to get the laptop back until Milo relinquishes her control. You settle in on the stool beside her. "I was looking...for postings while you were gone. I stumbled across it."

Milo cocks an eyebrow and shows you your search history, terms which mostly consist of "BTS," "BTS V," and "Kim Taehyung."

"Mhm, suuure, we'll go with job postings."

You take the device from her with a playful scowl. "My point remains. This is exactly what I've been looking for. It says here that the job would be a lot of translation work, both in person and on documents. I'd also assist in the studio while recording or producing. And various other tasks, but I think it'd put my communications major to good use. It's a step in the right direction."

"You sure you just don't wanna see Taehyung-ssi?" she giggles.

A rising feeling of defensiveness comes over you as you close your laptop, moving to the sofa to retrieve your glass of champagne. "I just heard BTS for the first time tonight, Milo. I'm not about to pick my first post-college job and move half-way around the world for a boy I don't even know, let alone a K-pop boy."

"A cute K-pop boy, though."

You return to her side, raising both eyebrows in an expression that says, "Really?"

Milo shrugs, raising her hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll let it go. Just an odd choice for you."

"Well, it's like we were saying earlier." You grab a piece of pizza from the box and shove the end into your mouth. "What'd we got t'lose?"

Milo makes a "close your mouth" gesture with her hand, grimacing at the sight. "Points were made. Fine, but maybe sleep on it? And this is me telling you to not be impulsive," she laughs towards the end. "But what the hell. If you go for it, I might have to find a job in Seoul sooner than I thought."

"I'm sure there are thousands of applicants," you grimace, the reality of the situation settling in.

Milo grabs a slice for herself and wraps an arm around your shoulders. "And you're worth each and every one of 'em." After pressing a loud kiss to your temple, she slips from the bench and plops back down on the sofa. "C'mon! We got some balls to drop and resumes to edit."

Later that evening, or earlier the next morning, you're left cleaning up as Milo reclines on the sofa in a tipsy slumber. After the New Year rolls in, along with a brand new decade, you're left alone with your thoughts.

Thoughts and several disposable dishes.

As you tidy up, you contemplate the options in front of you. Sure, you'd sent out several resumes to plenty of companies already. Some of which you'd heard absolutely nothing from, while others have let you know they'll get back to you about a possible interview. So far, nothing has been terribly promising.

So what' the harm in applying for the Big Hit job in Seoul?

The other half of your motivation slips into your sleepy mind. The person you've seen since childhood, could he really be Taehyung? Could you finally be so close to the answers? Why only one dream? Why him? Why so much blood and death?

Does he dream of you, too?

The laptop remains on the kitchen counter, and your fingers itch to open it up and send off your completed resume. This could lead to more than just a new job and a fresh start; this could lead to the answers you've been seeking ever since you were three years old.

A tiny voice inside you says, "Do it."

And, against your better judgment, you listen.

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some-creep · 4 years

Text

CREEP RANKS EVERY SONG IN NIER... AUTOMATA (mostly) BY TITLE

Because, like, no one played Gestalt. Also this game has more songs.

Significance Like. I guess. It’s a title you can use. What is significant? We don’t know. The characters don’t know. They are struggling to find out. We all are. What is meaning? What really matters? I don’t know but we’re all crying. 8/10

City Ruins – Rays of Light / Shade Plays in the ruins of the city. Exactly as advertised. Sounds sad like you might imagine. 9/10

Peaceful Sleep This is the Resistance camp right? Peaceful things don’t tend to happen there honestly. At least not as we keep going. Sounds like a sleepy JRPG town though. Ok title for the mood it gives. I like this song a lot so I’m cheating and giving it more points than I know it deserves as just, like, a title. 8/10

Memories of Dust Sand is dusty. What memories? We’re making them. Cool title. Sounds like a YA novel though. 9/10

Birth of a Wish Genuinely often get confused with the Silent Hill 2 bonus story Born from a Wish whenever I try to remember what this song is called. This Cannot Continue / 10

The Color of Depression This is like… a really cool title. Thanks. That Scanner boy is not gonna live the happy family life you all for some reason keep suggesting he is. Bad things are gonna happen to him. He dies anyway. 11/10

Amusement Park Yeah. I guess. We certainly are in the amusement park level. Creep why does this one rank so much lower than City Ruins which was also just “name of location”. Amusement park is not a cool title. City Ruins is a cool title. 7/10

A Beautiful Song Would you say Simone has girlpower? Would you say Simone successfully used her girlpower to kill and consume countless androids and also turn them into near lifeless weapons and body jewelry? 9/10

Voice of No Return Sad title. Sad song. Exactly as advertised once again. I feel sad listening to the Automata OST most of the time. Is this quest complete in the camp? I think so. Anyway it’s really sad. I love to cry. 11/10

Grandma – Destruction Um so this is like. Genuinely a horrible title. It reminds me of the title of a darkweb video which I will say no more on. This song is REALLY good its a shame this title is so… uh. Bad. It’s just bad. 1/10

Faltering Prayer – Dawn Breeze / Starry Sky This is another really cool title. This game is about like… life after god. I’m not here to get thematic. I say in a list entirely about if the song fits the theme. Anyway this is a cool title. The song again… sounds sad. One of them is a music box which I love. Cheating again. 10/10

Emil’s Shop EVERY DAY’S A SALE. EVERY SALE’S A WIN. 12/10!!

Treasured Times The fact this plays after Emil’s shop on the OST is the biggest tonal whiplash in the world. This song makes me feel an emotion I cannot describe. It’s something like sadness but not quite. This isn’t a review of the songs, just the title. But reading the title makes me feel that emotion too but stronger when I think about it. I don’t know. 9/10

Vague Hope – Cold Rain / Spring Rain Good title… Thematically very appropriate. Not COOL like some of the others but it feels right feels canon. I like it. It’s just the city ruins quest complete song but it also plays in one of the fucking… DLC fights. That makes me extra sad. 10/10

End of the Unknown Which unknown was ended. Genuinely think when this plays I had more unknowns than knowns. This song sounds like every song from the Gestalt DLC. 6/10.

Pascal At least Automata has far fewer “named after a character�� songs. They just have named after a place songs. I love Pascal so if I give this a low score he might be upset. 8/10

Forest Kingdom It really… the forest huh. Random but one of the songs in Code Vein does a vocal thing that always reminds me of this song for some reason. That has nothing to do with this game or this songs title at all I just wanted to tell you. Long Live The Forest King / 10

Dark Colossus – Kaiju This song is also in Gestalt. It’s cooler here. More stakes. Song title suggests less stakes though? That’s kinda weird. Because of this it loses points. I’m sorry. 7/10

Copied City Dude I left this one off the list when I first typed it out lol. Someone not to @ anyone told me this was based on Nier’s village. Lie to me again. I don’t know what City is being Copied. One of them. It reminds me more of the Cathedral City from DoD3. Which is a bad horrible game that I completed 100%. 8/10

Wretched Weaponry Not to be confused with Wretched Automatons. Is this like, a remix? My ears don’t work so I don’t know. Don’t inform me because I love being stupid. Anyway, in the narrative it makes sense. It’s a good, cool title. Song is softer than the title would suggest. 9/10

Possessed by Disease COOL SONG TITLE. Thank you. This plays… somewhere. Uh. Hm. I’ve 100% completed this game like three times. 9/10

Broken Heart You think you’re gonna hear a sad song? SURPRISE. Sinister as hellllll. Subverted expectations baby. MCU take notes. I’ve never seen a movie in the MCU. Loving the dark tones in this. Broken heart but the emotion isn’t just sad. GOOD STUFF. 10/10

Mourning Again. You think it’s gonna be sad? But BOOM. It isn’t. I mean it still is, but in a dark way. These aren’t song reviews. These are title reviews. But if a title suggests one thing and delivers another that’s still a valid point right? I don’t know. Hey wait isn’t this just Shadowlord’s Castle? Yonah / 10

Dependent Weakling Well, it’s no Song of the Ancients – Fate, but it’ll do. In all seriousness, this is like, a great song title for Eve’s boss battle. Y’know, because he relied so heavily on Adam and all’a that. Maybe a little on the nose. Maybe a little rude. Eve sucks / 10

Rebirth & Hope Sounds hopeful. Plays during ending A where we see a Rebirth cos 9S super doesn’t die. This song is literally 30 seconds long why am I even bothering. Oh, right, because it’s on the OST at all. 30 second songs / 10

War & War Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room. It… sounds like a war room song. A preparing for a big battle song. Once again, exactly as advertised. Plays before a big battle. It really thematic naming! Peace was never an option. 8/10

Crumbling Lies Words cannot express how much I adore this song. First of all, title is on point. It’s the song that plays when you get to Route C. Literally the moment I fell in love with the game. The Bunker is destroyed, which, again… maybe it’s a bit on the nose. I don’t care. This is the perfect song title to the perfect song. I will die on this hill. 12/10

Widespread Illness Red Eye except it’s robots now. Very thematically appropriate. Everyone is dying. There’s nothing you can do to cure it except kill them. They’re incredibly infectious. Zombie Virus but with Robots. Can you tell I don’t remember what it’s called? I’m writing this at 1am and I’ve decided it’s funnier if I don’t look anything up. Sounds very somber… I like it. 9/10

Fortress of Lies Not to be dramatic but when I read this English title I was like MMMMMMMNNN because like. I get it. It plays in the Bunker. Which… is built on lies. Again. Incredibly on the nose but when I learned what the song was called I just fucking DIED the first time. I’m stupid. I don’t care. 11/10

Song of the Ancients – Atonement Another song I died when I learned the title of. Devola and Popola in that game have nothing to atone for. They are atoning for sing they did not commit. Punished for the crimes of another set of Androids, possibly thousands of miles away. It’s not fair. They have nothing to atone for. They’ve done nothing wrong. 12/10 crying creeps.

Blissful Death FUCK. This one plays in the Devola and Popola like. Text Adventure part. Which is just. I love it so much. No one dies in that though. Well… maybe someone does. It’s not impossible that Popola hurt someone. It’s suggested that, maaaaybe she did. No one stops. No one Stops.

Emil – Despair Emil’s life has quite literally only been despair. Please don’t bully him with your song titles like this… 9/10

Alien Manifestation Vintage meme of that guy from the history channel with the impact font that just says Aliens. This game has aliens, I will give you that. They’re all dead though. I guess the machines are aliens but. Eh. Wait doesn’t this play in the castle? There aren’t even aliens there what the fuck. 5/10

The Tower There’s a tower. This plays there. Thank you. Also the name of a tarot card I think? That could be cool if I knew a single goddamn thing about tarot cards. I don’t. 6/10

Bipolar Nightmare Cool flying section. Has anyone found Grun skip yet? Because the bounty for that was like. A lot of money. Vaguely a cool song title. I kinda like it. Although for some reason it reminds me of The Evil Within’s Japanese title, Psychobreak. So I think I like it less because of that. Not the worst title, but maybe the lowest of the COOL EDGY song titles. Fucking love the piano part in this one though. 7/10

The Sound of the End Really super cool and sexy song title. 2B is going to die but she can’t let anyone else get hurt because of it. She’s already done so much damage. This song is really dramatic sounding. The title is dramatic. Love this one a lot. The actual playable segment is kind of a struggle. But I think that’s the point… 10/10

Weight of the World / End of YoRHa I once got into an internet fight because I said this song is about every character except 9S because of the line “I’m only one girl”. I was corrected that the Japanese version is basically EXCLUSIVELY about 9S. None of this is relevant at all I just wanted to remember it. I still do not like 9S. Thematically a brilliant title. Everyone feels like they must do so much… but you cannot bear the weight of the world alone. Ending E legitimately makes me cry. Whenever I think about the messages from other players supporting me? It’s a lot. What the fuck. 12/10

#nier #nier automata #long post #creep ranks

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doctorguilty · 4 years

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alright here’s how I’d rewrite Infinite and ergo some of the plot points of the games story.. it got long i got a little carried away lol........................

Infinite’s name probably isn’t that before he becomes a tool of destruction thing but I don’t care all that much to name him something else rn

he also doesn’t have a sword because that’s really not necessary and I don’t know how to make that relevant at all

forget the mercenary thing because it makes no sense that he was “hired” by eggman and that’s also boring. The jackal squad is a nomadic, robin hood type group that steals from bad folks to help other animal people villages in need

to make character relationships.. matter a little bit more, OC is a long time childhood friend of Infinite and they still see one another a decent amount despite the jackals moving around

I don’t really care how or why the phantom ruby exists in fact I’m just realizing there’s a huge discontinuity because according to the COMIC it just.. existed arbitrarily like a chaos emerald, but according to the GAME it seems to be something Eggman fabricated, since there’s “prototypes” in play??? hm hm okay you know what I’m feeling ambitious let’s make both make sense. There is one true phantom ruby that exists, eggman finds it, where ever I don’t care. some legend about, this ruby can bring your ultimate fantasies to life! EXCEPT you need to have, idk, a good heart, a heart of gold, to use it and eggman doesnt have that so he can see the illusion of his empire but it wont become reality

eggman thinks okay well, maybe if I fabricate copies of it I can make a version that will work, which I reckon doesn’t make them “prototypes’ anymore but just, copies, but close enough. however, they still don’t work

now cut to jackal squad raiding eggman for his cool shit. maybe they catch wind about this whole “bring your fantasies to life” power and want to use it for good and they know eggmans vibes are rancid. in any case the jackals make off with a ruby (a FAKE one uh oh!) but not without infinite losing an eye and gaining one big unsightly scar from a fight w/ eggman and he’s like Shook about that but he’s like hm well at least I stopped that terrible guy from harnessing this power (oh no bitch u thought..)

of course the jackals dont keep their spoils but WHO ever could be trusted with this legendary gem thing?!? oh none other than You, Original The Character, aka Infinite’s best friend .............. so he gives the ruby to OC and tells them like, idk allegedly this can make ur dreams come true but I don’t know how it works...oh my eye? yeah I sure used to have two of those but dont worry about it, anyway ttyl stay fresh *saunters off, jackaly*

because the fake!ruby is.. fake, it just seems to be a dud at first so OC just hangs onto it as a keepsake

eggman, pissed about his shit getting stolen and worried what could be done with it sends robots out to hunt down infinite, kidnap him, and drag him back to eggman’s base and demand the fake!ruby back. infinite naturally refuses to tell him anything especially at the cost of putting OC in danger, so he’s like, blow it out your ass

eggman is like HAHA WELL U DUMB SHIT you stole a fake anyway and I have the real one right here.. he uses the ruby to suddenly spawn a bunch of robots and infinite braces himself for the attack... except they go right through him because they’re just illusions. eggman is like FUCK !! DAMMIT! WHY WONT THIS SHIT WORK!! Infinite uses eggman’s tantrum time to rush in to snatch the ruby. when infinite touches it as its in eggman’s hand, however, all the illusion robots become “real” (probably conveying this through effects/opacity), taking them both by surprise. infinite is unable to take the ruby before getting hit with a full force attack from a robot

infinite is incapacitated and eggman grins, like, inch resting...................... you seem to be able to make the ruby work... I will now use you for malicious purposes >:) (cut to black)

NOW when Infinite is in the tube, 1) he already has his mask because the scene with him putting it on and monologueing about abandoning his old identity is unnecessary, it’s more symbolic here, 2) he’s amnesic and I know we did that with shadow already and I don’t mean to overuse it, but I think it works well enough in a different way for this story! Shadow had some fragments of memories and an identity crisis, but with Infinite, his memory is completely wiped (or perhaps suppressed?) and his only understanding of himself is that he was “created” to work for eggman. Even MORE importantly! the stakes are raised because of Infinite’s relationship to the OC--Infinite cannot remember them which makes attacking them a lot more heart wrenching ESPECIALLY when we get to a point where OC begins to recognize their brainwashed best friend using one of the (apparently) very same rubies given to OC to try to destroy them with

this also adds more tension to all the scenes where Infinite is taunting and threatening OC on a quite personal , rivalry-like level? Infinite would, over time, begin to get an inexplicable sense of familiarity with OC, which causes him to hesitate and hold back

oh and as for the fake!ruby, OC does use it to defend himself just like the first time! it ends up being successfully activated because OC shows a strong will to protect the other civilians. if you haven’t caught on to my cheese, both OC and Infinite have hearts of gold and thats why they can use the rubies. eggman is cheating though by fusing Infinite to the ruby and using him as a proxy for his bad will..... and again, coming back to the cheese, Infinite’s heart cannot be changed and he is not truly “evil” so that’s like, how this is working

I’m way too lazy to fix everything scene by scene because there’s also just SO MUCH wrong with all the other characters and plot but I’m just focusing on fixing Infinite and making him more interesting so I’m skipping to the end..

I’m not entirely sure how I’d order the bosses and what I’d wanna do with the eggman robot phases the whole things was a big mess............I kinda wanna go with what I THOUGHT was going to happen after beating up giant robot thing and then that squid robot breaks out??? and I thought it was going to be Infinite cause that would be much more dramatic? So lets go with that---When Eggman says like, well fuck infinite who needs him? i harnessed the power of the ruby into my robot, he means he literally trapped Infinite in it like, wired up and shit to use him like a power generator. fucked up. Infinite breaks out after that phase of the battle, and he’s like, in so much pain and glitched out on overclocked energy he cant even control what he’s doing.... commence TRUE final boss battle (it can still be a tagteam with sonic), and it’s sad and dramatic! OC pleads (or I reckon sonic, maybe the other heroes too since they talk during fights! like since OC doesnt talk) infinite to remember his true self because they dont want to destroy him

once you’ve depleted his health bar, I’m going to go ahead and use the game’s weird addition of quicktime events to fuel more cheesiness (B/C THIS IS SONIC...WHY DID THEIR “POWER OF FRIENDSHIP” MORAL END ON SUCH A BLAND, UNEMOTIONAL NOTE IN FORCES??? shadow didnt fall to his (alleged) death in sa2 for this..............) and you quicktime OC HUGGING Infinite, like jumping towards him and grabbing him in an embrace type of thing! and when OC makes contact with the ruby, it activates, making all the probably hostile glitchy battle terrain or whatever dissipate, infinite stops being like.. idk lookin like he’s being electrocuted, and his mask fades away .. exposing Infinite as his true self once again

the in between the lines intent here, again since OC doesn’t talk, is that OC’s fantasy was to bring Infinite back so they could be together again. you’re welcome to interpret that as romantic, or platonic, it doesn’t matter! it’s open ended! it’s just supposed to be cute!

idk and then emotional stuff, I’m not entirely sure what it doesn’t really matter the idea is that Infinite is like, remorseful of what happened but everyone ofc forgives him because it’s not his fault , and then he joins up with with everyone to help fix the world! hmm I’m torn between Infinite keeping the true phantom ruby or giving it to the OC, like giving it to the OC makes sense, but for the sake of like, hypothetically bringing Infinite back in a future game and having special powers, it would be perfect if he kept it and that was his thing, he uses the power of virtual reality to help people and fight evil and whatever

I dont know I guess there’s not a lot of sense in thinking too hard since I just remembered none of this is canon whatsoever and we’re probably not seeing Infinite again unless as a stock evil thing to beat up like metal sonic 8′)

I have no idea who i wrote this for I guess myself! Idk if anyone else played forces or cares or w/e but! if you DO happen to be someone who read this and cares about it omg well like feel free to! comment and tell me what you think!!! this was all very stream of thought

#seth speaks #save tag #so i dont lose this in case i wanna come back to it

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magnoliawhetstone · 4 years

Text

broken glass

trigger warnings: mentions of body shaming, eating disorder, verbal abuse, breaking things, perfectionism and self hate.

no, no no no no no. fingers rapidly swept over the flat surface of the maghony wood next to her bed. alarmed, the blonde sat straight up, her eyes still adjusting to the bright light of the day as they flew to the nightstand in haste. It has to be here. There is no way its not here. She repeated, silently, as if it was a prayer to some deity. Every day after work, lia had a very specific routine--one that never, ever was messed with. She’d walk in the door, take her shoes off and place them in the closet, along with her coat if she had one. She’d relish the feeling of bare carpet on her feet and move toward her bedroom, taking a detour in the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Then, as she’d enter the room, she’d carefully take out her favorite copy of pride and prejudice and set it in its rightful place: on her nightstand, closet to her bed. That was where it lived when it wasn’t in her bag. That was where it should have been this morning--and yet it wasn’t.

Lia had very few real, physical reminders of her home in south carolina--or, for that matter, her family. Why would she? The Barnes demanded perfection in every single ounce of their life. From their outfits, to their manners to the two offspring they produced. It was be perfect or die trying. And, when the family realized that lia was not their perfect doll of a daughter--better known as the incident--they sent her away. They physically removed their love from her life and disowned her in almost any way but officially. Well, her parents did anyway. Her brother, on the other hand, was far more complicated. He couldn’t go against them, or anything that he would do for the rest of his life would be ruined too. But Bennett loved her--she knew that. When her mother would make a remark on her appearance, you could bet later on that day there’d be a note from him that said that he thought she looked beautiful. When her father failed to show pride at her new baton twirl trick, Bennett was the one who had cheered her on as she practiced. It was easy to say that Lia’s life had been hard--because it had been. But for every moment of love her parents took from her, Bennett did his best to replace it and more.

Saying goodbye to him was the worst part about being sent away--because Lia knew it meant that he’d very likely stop talking to her. Her mother had made it clear--when she could learn to behave and stop being so dramatic--she could come home. What she meant was: when you can learn to be perfect and a desirable wife, we’ll make some room for you to come back. But Lia knew that’d be impossible now. The world knew about her incident, even if they didn’t know the full details. She would never get that black scar of her back. So this was goodbye, in it’s most real form. As the blonde turned to head through airport security, she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. It was Bennett, handing her a copy of her favorite book--pride and prejudice.

“Mags--I’m sorry. You deserve better and I know that this book was your escape while you were here. I just hope you know that no matter what--I’m always gonna try to give you that better.” Those were the last words she heard before she left for London--and while they weren’t the last words she heard from him, their communication had been sparse since that day.

But they were the words she heard every time she opened the book. It was now tattered, the cover was damaged, the pages yellowed and slightly frayed--notes everywhere in the margins. Lia had poured herself into the pages of Elizabeth and Darcy’s love stories, every time she had a bad day, every moment she had felt less than or unworthy. Even on her best days, she felt solace in celebrating with them. The book was her security blanket, her tether, the only thing she had left of that life behind her.

And now, it was gone.

“No!” she breathed, her body tense with the panic of losing this book. Where could she have put it? Where did it go? Her heart raced as she threw back the covers and searched frantically for the novel. She hadn’t read it in about a week, so it shouldn’t have been in bed with her, but she thought to check anyway. Nope, not there. Flying out her bed, hair still sporting it’s unappealing just got out of bed look, she ran to the kitchen. She hadn’t seen Murphy in a while, but even if she had, she wouldn’t have cared about her looks. Strange for her, but there was nothing more important in her life right now than finding this novel

She threw open kitchen cabinets, rummaged through drawers. She dug deep within her bag, and another one--and still another one. Through coat pockets and bookshelves and nooks and crannys. The blonde tore every inch of their immaculate apartment apart until it looks like someone had tried to break in multiple times. And stil, no sign of the book.

She slumped down, back against a wall as she let out the more inhuman that the blonde has ever created. “I can’t--I can’t---” Words had ceased to flow to her brain as a tidal wave of emotion rocked through her--and suddenly, those perfectly crafted stone walls, the ones she had erected years ago, gave way. The debris flew to every inch of her soul as the tears streamed from her face, pooling on her arms as she cried.

“Do you really need another bag of chips?” The woman at subway asked, raising her brow.

“Oh, sorry honey, looks like you’ll need a size 6 this year.” “A size 6?” Her mother would screech, dragging the blonde out of the store. “I thought I told you that you needed to be a size 4. This is unacceptable, Magnolia. Miss America can’t be a size SIX!”

“Magnolia, darling.” Father started, after she had finished sharing about Clemson’s English department--a school she had dreamed about going to for a bit of time. “You know that college isn’t for you, right? That’s Bennett’s thing. Pageantry is a full time job, like your momma says. And besides, why do you need to get a degree to read books? That won’t help you as a wife.”

“Magnolia--look, you’re pretty. Stunning. Gorgeous---but not...not to date. I mean, I don’t really see myself dating anyone right now. Can’t we just...hook up and not make this a big deal? I said you’re pretty.”

“Lia-- you know your role. Sit on my arm, look pretty and try not to stuff your face with those hors d'oeuvres like you did last time. I didn’t hire you to eat, goddamn it.” Her boss barked before they entered the gala.

The words repeated over and over and over again, sobs wracked her body like a nine point earthquake on the Richter scale. Every new memory that arrived, a hard cry would follow. All those years she hid behind those walls, that perfect smile, were all laid to waste in a matter of seconds. Whatever grounding the book had given her had left and she was stuck with just herself. Broken shards and shattered remnants of the girl she thought she was becoming--and the one she was desperate to leave behind.

After the initial tears had flowed, she pulled herself up and headed to the bathroom. Her usual brightness was now a dark cloud and she felt like she was simply dead weight, dragging herself from one place to another. Lia braced herself over the sink and looked up at her reflection. Red puffy eyes, tear stained cheeks looked back at her and she felt disgusted. This was not the version of herself she wanted, this broken, sad, pained face pleading with her in the mirror. “NO!” she shouted, uncharacteristically and full of anger that she had never displayed before, Picking up the closest thing she could find, she chucked it at her reflection, shattering the mirror. There, now it looked exactly the way she felt. Broken, jagged, unable to fulfill its purpose, useless.

Shards of glass littered around her as she once again sank down to the floor. She was thankful it hadn’t hit her--and she had no idea how she was going to explain this to Murphy, or anyone else. But that was not her concern right now. Nothing was. For now...for now she let her pain settle in her heart, and she closed her eyes. She wanted a break, and it looked like this would be the perfect time to take one. Lia just hoped the silence would stay silent just this once.

@malnatimedia

#tw body shaming #tw eating disorde #tw self hate #tw verbal abuse #tw breaking things #tw perfectionism #[[inner monologue; para]]

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