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#the same 4 characters getting put in every book has been exhausting
annamariedarkholmes · 2 years
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if pushing rogue out of the x-books and into the avengers for years means the x-office inadvertently made her marvel’s first 616 x-man introduced in the mcu instead of all the pet favs they’re trying so desperately to push for their own movies and d+ properties during krakoa i am gonna laugh so so so hard
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mactiir · 9 months
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ranking baldur's gate characters by how i think they smell
#9) Minthara. Because she’s a corpse, next question.
#8) Lae'zel. You know this woman has never bathed. Washing is for the weak, is'tik. She says this is because needs her musk to attract mates but mostly it's cuz Gith education doesn't exactly make time for personal hygiene. Once it got so bad that Tav dragged the whole party through a chest-deep stream and stood there for 20 minutes to take a "breather" while Laezel stared daggers at them the whole time.
#7) Karlach. I want Karlach to smell nice so badly, and Karlach probably wants Karlach to smell nice too, but you know this woman smells like brimstone and engine exhaust and sweat. On good days she smells like the fine char you get on burgers on a summer day. On bad days she smells like a truck stop at peak hours, and the truck stop is also on fire. She's not happy about this either.
#6) Gale. Gale tries to keep himself groomed, he really does. But he looks like he is perpetually just a tiny bit smelly. Like he hyperfocused on a book slightly too hard for slightly too long and as a result he forgot to shower for a week. He acts like he bedded Mystra because of his towering intellect but really it's cuz gods don't have human senses of smell. His nightshirt looks velvet, too, and you KNOW it can't be easy to get smells out of that shit without a washer. He is one of those poor guys who is cursed to always stink a little bit no matter how much he showers. When Tav confronts him about this he decides, on the spot, that deodorant is for anti-intellectuals, actually, which he wouldn't have expected Tav to know but it's okay, we can't all be enlightened.
#5) Minsc. He doesn't reek exactly, but you know he's 100% man musk, hamster bedding, and butt-kicking
Tied for #5) Jaheira. You know 100 years of living in forests and adventuring with Minsc has endowed her with exactly the same level of manly perfume as Minsc (except with notes of cedarwood).
#4) Wyll. He used to be the best-smelling until Mizora pulled him through every level of hell in rapid succession, and now he smells a little bit like brimstone all the time. He sometimes rubs fragrant herbs on his horns to counteract it, which doesn't get rid of the smell, really, but it gives his smell an interesting dimension. Otherwise, he has enough experience with adventuring, and is well-bred enough, that him and his things are usually well-groomed (and also because his dad was a freak about it).
#3) Shadowheart. This woman puts on tragic makeup every morning and changes her hair to reflect her religion. Appearances are EVERYTHING (especially when it comes to keeping secrets). Shadowheart smells exactly like she thinks she needs to smell to be religiously pleasing to her goddess and/or coMplEtE thE mIsSioN. She does get anxious sweats though, which are very distinctive if it's been a long day of adventuring. She never admits this, though. Ever.
#2) Astarion. Okay, so, sometimes, he smells just the teensiest, tiniest bit like dried blood. But mostly, he smells like baby powder and potpourri. It is a waste of good fashion sense and his pretty face to go about stinking like a beggar. (He does go through a brief 'Cazador can't tell ME what to do' phase where he stops bathing for a day, but he grosses himself out so much that he resumes his normal routime before anyone notices.)
#1) Halsin. You'd expect him to stink, with his whole smelly-hippy free-love vibe, but nah. The man smells heavenly. He spends all his time frolicking through fragrant herbs and lounging in scented hot springs with whomever strikes his fancy. He probably has a whole ass medicine cabinet full of stuff he uses to freshen up. His breath probably smells like mint and his hair like cedar. He probably puts coconut oil or smth in his hair. He knows how to smell good as literally any animal in the realms. Wanna know why? Dogs have a sense of smell several thousand times better than people. I bet bears do, too. You do Not Fuck As A Bear without understanding not only how to WASH your ass, but also perfume it. Halsin also knows: thou shalt not give yeast infections. And if you got bear dick, that means HYGIENE. It's a point of pride for him, actually.
BONUS: WITHERS. Withers smells like nothing. Like, freakishly, unsettlingly like nothing. Like, you expect him to smell like dust or pitch or smth. Nope. He's a black hole of smell. You come near him and if you ask, he resets your entire hygiene routine for 100 gold and leaves you smelling like roses.
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and-her-saints · 1 month
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Im sorry if this is silly, but like. I connect with catholicism in a lot of ways, in its prayers, its concepts, its aesthetics, etc. But i have a hard time with just. Trinitarianism. It doesn't make sense to me no matter how hard i try to make it make sense. How do i, like, get over this?
hiii! not silly at all!!! i feel like we all have dogmas that confuse us at the beginning. for me, it was the Immaculate Conception. could not wrap my head around it.
the Trinity is a doctrine from the very early Church. and despite the Council of Nicea (325 a.c.) having produced the Creed, many saints and theologians through the years have struggled and wrestled with the doctrine. whoever tells you “it’s easy, it’s clear to understand, you’re just not having enough faith” is honestly being incredibly rude.
St. Agustine of Hippo, one of the most influential theologians and Doctors of the Church, had a hard time with the Trinity as well!!! you are not alone!!! the (medieval) folktale goes that when St. Agustine was leaving Manichaeism and slowly converting back into Christianity, he went out for a walk near the sea to ponder about the Trinity. He could not wrap his head around it. During his walk, he saw a young child digging a hole in the sand. Quickly, the child ran back to the ocean, collected some water into a vase, and went and poured it into the hole. St. Agustine was perplexed. The child did this again, and again, and again. St. Agustine approached the child, and asked him: “My son, what are you doing?” The child turned around and said: “I’m putting the ocean in this hole.” St. Agustine laughed and said, “That’s impossible, the magnificent ocean cannot possibly fit into this tiny hole!” and the tale goes… that this child, who was no ordinary child but an Angel of God, said to Agustine: “I will sooner fill this hole in the sand with the ocean, than you will be able to understand the Holy Trinity.”
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When we speak about Mysteries of the faith, like the Mystery of the Trinity, it’s not meant to be the easy answer. It’s not something you “get over,” like a stone on the road. I think it’s more about inviting these uncertainties and questions into your relationship with God. Wrestling and fighting as much as you need. But allowing some Mysteries to be. It’s alright to have questions and doubts, these are not character faults. If anything, in own personal opinion, every single doubt I’ve ever had has been the beginning of a new and exciting new journey of discovery.
Now, unto more solid theological advice. To me, the argument I find most compelling is one of St. Agustine’s points On The Trinity. This whole idea is about digging deep into the reality of God to us as Christians, and the Truths about God we find in 1 John 4:7-21. “God is Love,” we say, but what does that have to do with the nature of the Trinity? I am no theologian, but the way I understand it, is that the Trinity is the response to the statement: “God is Love.” God is Love, therefore, God must love. God must be Lover (the Father), Love (the Holy Spirit) and the Beloved (The Son). How can there be Love, with nothing to Love? The Trinity is the dance in which God loves God, at the same time of God BEING Love, without the whole ordeal being entirely self-serving, stagnant, or exhaustive. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I am quite in love (badum-tss) with this outlook.
I have not personally read this book, but it is on my TBR, it is Richard Rohr’s “The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation” (2016) I’ve heard wonders about it. It’s definitely not theology heavy, as far as I’ve researched (for that, I think St. Agustine’s On The Trinity might be best) but it could be an approachable glance at what the Trinity/mysticism about the Trinity looks like.
I hope this kind of helps you out!
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misscrawfords · 2 months
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1,4,9,10,18 and 28 for the Austen asks. :)
Favorite Austen Heroine
Elizabeth Bennet. I know I'm basic but hey. I relate to her a lot (see previous post) and I just think she's so charming and clever and funny but also deeply flawed and has to do so much growing up.
4. Favorite quote from the books
I don't even know where to begin here! I love Mr. Collins' list of reasons for marrying ending with "and thirdly - which perhaps I should have mentioned earlier -" before going on to talk about Lady Catherine. I love "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery". I love all of the catty asides about secondary characters - Miss Bingley saying what only made herself miserable, Dick Musgrove only deserving the abbreviation of his name... I love "we fainted alternately on the sofa" from Love and Freindship. More seriously, I love Henry Tilney's quote about how "no man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves, it is the woman only who can cause pain" because BOOM TRUTH and it works for both genders. Also the sardonic "A lady's admiration is very rapid, it goes from admiraton to love, from love to matrimony in a moment" because, well, also true! Every line is quotable lbr. (Except that all of these are misquotes because I can't be bothered to look them up.)
9. Most hated foe of a heroine
Lucy Steele. Look, at a time in my life I sort of knew a Lucy Steele and so I really feel personally and viscerally how much her behaviour could hurt Elinor. The circumstances and personalities weren't the same but nevertheless I cannot stand the two-facedness of it and the crowing over getting the man your so-called friend wants. I hate it. I hate this behaviour so much. My own Lucy Steel kind of messed me up quite a bit so... yeah. She's a bit too close to home.
10. Most frustrating family member
Look. There are so many candidates for this. SO MANY. Every novel has a host of absolute winners for this award. I think I'm going to go with General Tilney as my number one, beating notable contenders such as Mr. Woodhouse, Mrs. Bennet, Sir Walter Elliot, Mr. Collins...
General Tilney does all the right things. But he's rotten to the core. You spend time with him and you hate it and you feel uncomfortable but you can't put your finger on why. As his children, you watch as all your friends arrive at your house ready for fun and leave depleted and they don't know why but they're a bit less eager to visit you the next time and it's really odd because they love you so much... General Tilney does nothng wrong socially. But he also does everything wrong. It must have been hell being his child. He's going to be such an exhausting father-in-law and you can't even pick on a particular thing to complain about.
18. Moment that made you smile/happy while reading
So many! But I'll go back to my earliest experiences of reading Pride and Prejudice as an 8 year old. I adored Mr. Collins' proposal and Lady Catherine's confrontation with Elizabeth. They made me laugh so much. I just loved the drama and the silliness.
28. Favorite character backstory or secret
It's got to be Frank and Jane. There's an entire extra novel there about what actually went on in Weymouth. Brilliant stuff and their eventual happiness so uncertain...
But a solid second prize has to go to Eleanor Tilney and Viscount Laundry List. Bless them!
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vossn · 1 year
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4, 10, 16 and 17 please!
Thank you for the ask <3
4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?
Havoc. I like how it rolls off the tongue and I am sad it is not being used frequently anymore, since its one of those types of words (i forgot the name because it is past midnight) that only exist in combination with others e.g. to wreak havoc. I named the bar my main characters congregate in the Havoc because of that. I also thought it was fitting to name the place after widespread destruction. Unfortunately the it gets burned down, but hey.. that is expected.
10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?
Being haunted by a text to me means having it be so present in your thoughts you almost grow weary of it. As a child i was frequently haunted by different pieces of writing and carried them around with me for no other reason other than I just felt I had to. My backpack always had at least one book in it. There was an article about two goats burning in a zoo fire and it made me sad for days on end, so I kept it in my little school bag. I'd say I am quite easily haunted by just about everything textual, but I do not take it physically with me anymore.
My writing is much the same. I mean, I am basically just writing my book because I cannot be a normal human being ever again until i have dragged the story out of my mind onto the pages. I don't take it as a big compliment to my own word or anything like that, but I think the haunting helps me develop it.
One idea that just keeps haunting me at the moment is a scene wherein a character loses an eye. It was previously named "Eyecatcher", then scrapped for being too gory. I might put meat back on the menu.
16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?
I think I have put the book on the cat once or twice while looking for a stray piece of paper I could use as a bookmark. It, uh, makes a little hut for her? I also have used a knife more than once.
17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.
I think everyone has heard enough about my book project so I'll just talk about the last thing I was working on: A document I made purely to hardcore project on my characters. It still centers around the book characters, but its more of a writing exercise to try to gain insight into their feelings. It plays out towards the end of novel 1 shortly before the whole thing goes ass-up and spans over the course of one night as two characters discuss how they are coping with their situation. (spoiler: not good) (it literally begins with one of them collapsing due to exhaustion). It starts as a comforting-each-other type scenario and ends with them screaming and almost getting into a physical altercation because they just cannot find a compromise to their respective ways. They have a lot of similarities (tendency to bottle up emotions) and differences (wants to share them but doesn't know how vs. wants to be independent at every cost).
"It may be that the people we love the most are the very ones we do not want to see us as weak."
In the end they decide to go through with their plan, it doesn't end well for them as we know.. There's not much lore besides the obvious, but there is a shared history between the characters as they've been friends for almost a decade by then and take time to reflect on whether or not they miss their younger selves. It is partly painful, because they are both sort of broken at that point, and looking back reveals too much of what could have been.
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tittyblade · 3 years
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tumblr etiquette 101
a list that is nowhere near exhaustive, from yours truly.
First off, welcome! Whether you’re a twitter veteran looking for anything but whatever twitter is, or a new user just done signing up, glad to see you in our ranks beloveds! Welcome home. Refer to this quick tour to make sure your fandom experience (or tumblr experience in general) is a positive one!
Disclaimer: I know it’s long, but please try to read or skim through til the end if you’re new here! This is by no means meant to be a rule book (for the most part lol), only a guide to help you get settled easier!
1) Your blog
This is where people will see and interact with you, so put some effort into it!
Try to choose a name (url) that’s simple. You can see it as your brand, it’s how people will perceive you and remember you. If you’d like to interact with other users here (and not use the site just for the content) it’s better to have something short and sweet, preferably without spaces. (Of course, these are only suggestions.) Rest assured, you can change it literally any time you want.
Have a theme. Utilize the tool that lets you edit your blog’s color or the font of your bio! You can make it match your profile picture, or your blog if it has a theme of its own. Make it feel homey :]
Fill in your bio. People will be checking out your profile probably more often than you think. Don’t leave it empty! Put in any information you’re comfortable with sharing and isn’t too personal (like your age if you’re a minor, or other TMI that can be found on other people’s carrds). It’s always better to add a name/nickname people can use to refer to you by, but feel free to use your blog description to shitpost still.
You can have an intro post. More often than not, you’ll see a blog have a pinned post, a post permanently appearing at the top of a blog until you pin another post or unpin it. You can make one of those, if you’d like to introduce yourself in more length, link any other socials or a carrd, and show others visiting your blog how you tag things so it’ll be easy for them to navigate. Not an obligation.
Keep your anonymity and your safety. It should go without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it just in case. Your comfort, privacy and safety has the utmost importance. Don’t share any information you don’t want to. Don’t share your age if you’re a minor, or any other incredibly personal info. I’d encourage you to go by a nickname that’s not your real name, (blog name, your brand, remember?) since there’s safety in anonymity, and that’s lowkey one of the big deals of tumblr, but that’s up to you still.
Choose what you want to be visible. Your liked posts and who you follow are all things you can set to keep to yourself and hide from the publics eye, how handy! You should go through all the setting while you’re at it, set it to your comfort.
Side blogs are a thing. You can have multiple blogs that you can use for different things (see: different fandoms, art blog, etc) to keep them organized or away from your followers. Just remember that the replies and off-anon asks you send will be from your main blog, as well as where you follow other blogs from.
2) Interacting with others
You’ve set up your account, now comes the fun part!
Follow to your heart’s desire. If you care about others seeing who you follow, fear not! In tumblr, usually only two types of blogs keep their following visible to others: newbies, and big blogs using it to point people on other good blogs’ direction. Just turn it off, and go ham following people.
Customize your dashboard. Gonna mention just two things here: this is another reason why it’s really important that you follow blogs without sparing, your dash will collect dust otherwise; and you should turn off “best stuff first” in your dashboard settings, to have a better community here and all.
Follow tags. You can set it in your settings that posts with your followed tags appear on your dashboard.
You can check the og post for edits and context. When you see a reblogged post you don’t understand the context of (or don’t recognize the character in case of fanarts), click on the profile so it will take you to the original post. From there you can check the original poster’s tags to get the context, or see if there have been any edits made to the post, since when you edit a post it doesn’t update any past reblogs.
Send people asks... This is how you make mutuals, people! Do it off-anon if you’d like them to know your blog, or anon if you’d rather not! (You can still end your messages with a signature to show you’re the same person, -[name] is one example.) Send them nice messages, ask their opinion on something, discuss things, or just straight up shitpost lol. Go wild. The sky’s your limit and it’s definitely more than 280 characters.
...and let them ask you! You can set your preference in the settings, do it on desktop tumblr to access more settings tho! What you can customize on mobile is limited (like letting people ask you things anonymously, that’s only on desktop settings). In my personal opinion, it’s always better to tag their username (or a nickname you give them, if they’re a friend) on that post, since you wouldn’t want your interactions with your friends to get buried in your blog forever.
Comment on posts. If you have something to say but don’t want the post to appear on your blog you can add a comment. The owner of the post will get a notif for it, but for anyone else you need to tag them.
For the love of god, reblog. People will only see your liked posts if you have it visible to public and they specifically go on your blog to look at them. You like something? You reblog. It’s already hard for posts to circulate properly, if you don’t reblog them literally no one will see them. If not for anything do it for the artists. Just hold and drag on mobile to fast rb.
3) Your Posts
Finally here! Don’t be a lurker, post and engage!
Make use of “read more”. If your post is long, add it. That’s what you clicked on earlier to expand this post. On desktop leave an empty line and you’ll see three dots appear, and on mobile type :readmore: on that empty line.
Draft a post to come back to it later. Pretty self explanatory.
Queue your post. Whether it’s your own post or you’re reblogging, make use of the queue feature to a) not spam reblog and fill up the dashboard of people following you and b) keep your blog active while you’re gone. Mess around in the settings, it’s fairly easy to set up.
Schedule your post. Same as queueing, the only difference is you get to choose the exact time your post will go up. Handy if you want to schedule a post for certain dates like april fools, or 5 years in the future for some reason. 
Format your texts. You can do all kinds of fancy stuff here (that’s a link, try pressing on it). Twitter doesn’t have this, make use of it. Changes depending on whether you’re on mobile or desktop. (Desktop has less features.)
Check your stats. If you’re trying to understand the algorithm better or want to look at some pretty graphs you can get your data on that on desktop tumblr.
@ people in comments. You’ll get all the notifs when people comment on your posts but they won’t see your reply unless you tag them in your message.
4) Tags, and tagging a post
This is where my earlier statement “this isn’t a rule book” stops being applicable. It’s not a war crime to go against these, I won’t come chasing you (don’t take my word for this) but you’ll work up a bad rep. Just saying lol.
Do NOT crosstag posts. It’s really tempting to add unrelated tags to increase your posts’ interaction, I know, but that’s not what tumblr is about. Don’t be a dick and make other communities’ experience worse for them.
Always tag your posts with “crit/critical/discourse/etc” if it calls for it. There’s no exceptions to it. This is the reason you see people migrating to tumblr. Let people enjoy things.
Don’t main tag a critical/negative post. If your crit post is about “Thing”, you add the “Thing critical” tag, but not the “Thing” tag. People block crit tags if they don’t want to see it, don’t shove it in their faces by main tagging it. 
If you don’t want to see something, just block it. Another reason why people are able to survive on tumblr. You don’t start discourse, you don’t make call-outs, you block. You can find something for every community you can think of if you go looking for it. The worst of the worst probably won’t ever appear on your dash, but if you’re worried or feel the need for it, you know where the block button is.
Feel free to shitpost or ramble. More often than not you’ll see people rb a post with a comment, and their elaboration will be in the tags. The tags are only visible on your profile and the notifications of the owner of the og blog. Just a thing people do.
Reblog artists’ posts with nice comments in the tags! Commenting on a drawing is usually done through the tags (Not an obligation, again, just a thing people do. Feel free to add your comment on the rb itself if you’d want other people to see it tho!) and leave nice messages for the artists! It’s a win-win for everyone involved. 
If you have more than a single follower, always use the common tw warning tags. You don’t need to tw everything, but tw’ing some common things is the bare minimum human decency. Keep it safe for others. 
Tag a post “long post” if it’s really long. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t make people scroll through all that please lol. 
You can use them to organize your blog. This is more of a pro tip, if you’d like to not miss a post in your blog, cause they will start pilin’ up soon enough.
#Liveblogging is pretty fun. If you’d like to talk to people during streams, don’t forget to add the relevant tags still! Again, you won’t show up on people’s dash otherwise.
Whew! That got out of hand. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Check out blogs like @heritageposts and @hellsite-hall-of-fame to honor our past o7. @mcytblr-hall-of-fame too maybe :eyes:. Anyways, don’t forget the most important rule of them all:
Enjoy your stay! You’re meant to have fun on here while also making friends (if that’s your thing). Just be kind and respectful of others, you’ll get the hang of the rest! <3
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stardustnfreckles · 3 years
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To celebrate the DeanCas100k on ao3 here's a list of my all-time favourite Destiel fanfictions:
CANON VERSE
A turn of the earth Dean’s your typical half-orphaned, monster-killing 22-year-old until a trenchcoated stranger crashes into his back windshield one September night, claiming he’s an angel that knows him from the future and that he’s on the run.
Early seasons!Dean keeps meeting Cas at the most random moments, till he isn’t anymore... Definetly a must read.
In the shadow of your wings
Set after the S11 finale. Dean kinda breaks Cas’ heart. Because sometimes he can be thick SOB. The Cas finds a new shiny and witty italian boyfriend and Dean’s not happy about it. and now Sam is missing, Mary is back and Dean has a mixed bag of feelings he has to deal with. Probably my favorite canonverse ever.
Like moses and batman and James Dean dean used to turn tricks. over a decade later, he met cas.
A masterpiece in characterization by saltyfeathers. I loved everything, The dialogues, the flashbacks, the way Dean and Cas emotions are portrayed. There’s angst and internalized homophobia but also confort and IT IS JUST SO GOOD OK?
The best bang for your buck It’s not like Castiel knows who this GotImpala67 person is. There’s no personal information listed on their profile. Except that they’re male, thirty-seven, from Kansas and, apparently, they like inserting things inside themselves.
Cas plays dumb even tho he really is not and I love him for it. Dean is the kind of buyer who leaves detailed reviews of the products he buys (which is the best kind if you ask me) I love the writer’s style and their sense of humor. It’s short although I never get tired of re-reading this one. Also Bring up the deep & Till the juice runs from the same author are with mentioning.
Kisses by sunflowers beds by fanforfanatics & Watched by K_K_TiBal
This two fics have a on thing in common: At the end of both you’ll be asking yourself how can less than 5k hurt you so much?
I cried, then I smiled and cried some more. This fics will crush you in the best way possible.
Take me home country roads The most IC Deamon!Dean I’ve ever read. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions.
What’s missing is found (our souls can exhale now) by sobsicles aka queen of post S15 fix-it fics
That black dog ache A simple case turns Dean upside down as he attempts to deal with the effects of a particularly strange love spell.
The perfect gift Castiel has a big problem concerning Dean... thankfully, Sam is always around to help
Really short Crack!Fic about Cas being clueless and adorable.
So says the sword by komodobits
Actually I suggest to go on their ao3 profile and read EVERYTHING.
The profet must die
Dean starts reading Chuck’s book out of curiosity and ends up having a epiphany about his apparently not so much platonic relationship with a certain angel of the lord.
A room of one’s own All Dean wants is a little privacy. Cas doesn't understand.
It mostly smut with a bit of healthy angst and great amount of humor.
My Roots Take Flight After forty years in Hell, Dean’s more than willing to accept the offer: become a guardian angel and earn his freedom. But his new ward seems destined to hunt alongside Sam, and there are secrets in Heaven that the angels don’t want found out. Dean’s going to have to choose between his duty and the people he loves- and to work out just where Castiel fits in.
Reverse!Verse set in season 4. It’s interesting to watch their relationship develop even if the roles are reversed.
The hands that bind me Dean is struggling with adjusting back into the civilized world after a year of fighting for his life in Purgatory. He's going to need some angelic assistance reining in his darker impulses.
If your’re into BDSM/Sub!Dean/Dom!Cas/Hurt/Confort/Dark themes then that’s the fic for you.
What has eight tentacles and isn’t allowed to eat pie? Dean is an octopus 🐙 and it’s weird but also kinda sweet.
Cuckoo and nest For a long time, Castiel thought that every earthly possession other than the immediately necessary was excess to requirement. But Dean – Dean who named his car, who keeps a photograph of his mother in his wallet, some thirty-plus years after her death, who still has the crumpled ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign with a sleeping pelican emblazoned on it from the Microtel outside of Roanoke where he first kissed Castiel, clumsy and unsure, under the unsteady fluorescence of an exhausted bathroom bulb – is sentimental. it puzzles Castiel, where Dean draws the line between what is meaningful and what it is worthless.
Established relationship/ they’re really bad at communication/ fluff / hurt confort
Put up your dukes Dean can't sleep. Cas offers to tire him out.
Along my restless palms Ever since Cas started staying in the bunker, Dean’s been having these crazy dreams—dreams that feature him and Cas in absurd, tawdry scenarios like something out of a filthy paperback. Dean chalks it up to exhaustion, or some monster messing with his head, anything to ignore the real cause: Cas in his personal space, in various states of undress, and, wow, way more muscular than Dean would’ve expected. But if it’s just physical lust that’s the cause, then that’s an easy fix, right? No big deal. There’s definitely nothing else that his subconscious is trying to tell him. Absolutely not.
last but not least Pretty much anything by xylodemon. The atmosphere and the way characters are portrayed are *chef kiss* There are a lor of case fics and they really feels like actual episodes from supernatural just way less omophobic and more fun.
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reidyoulikeabook · 3 years
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Sometimes You Just Don’t Know the Answer
4 times you don’t know the answer, and the 1 time you do
This is the 2nd part to Personal Google! (You don’t have to read it to understand this, but it exists if you want to).
Ship: BAU!reader x Spencer Reid
Summary: You’d call yourself a pretty educated individual, and most people wouldn’t argue with that, given that you’re a member of the BAU at Quantico. There’s just something about your best friend Spencer Reid that gets you all tongue tied.
Warnings: Mentions of cases and case-typical violence, mentions of alcohol, Spencer and Reader being idiots again.
Word count: 3k
A/N: The feedback (in asks and the tag reblogs) for Personal Google was so lovely and encouraging and I am very grateful for it! I only made this account a few days ago and I’m already so glad I did :) I hope this is a satisfactory second part and, requests are open!
(This is the Reid I’m imagining here)
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“What is up with you and Reid?” Emily’s volume is unmoderated at the best of times but right now it’s like she’s trying to alert the entirety of Virginia to your dating woes.
Dating woes might be a stretch, actually. Somehow, just her implication that something is happening between you and Spencer (even though it isn’t, unless you count two exhausted idiots falling asleep on each other and being too bashful to ever mention it again), is enough to get you feeling uncharacteristically shy.
“Nothing,” you shrug, “Well. I don’t know, honestly, nothing I guess? We haven’t spoken about that night.”
Emily’s eyes rake over you, and you can tell she’s waiting for you to continue.
“There’s nothing!” you object, “We just, it was accidental, we fell asleep because we were watching a documentary and we were tired and neither of us fell asleep on purpose.”
She laughs, dry and amused, “At this rate, you’ll be lucky to have sorted things out before you’re 50.”
You scowl, but it’s only because you know she’s right.
***
You don’t have much time to think about your situation with Spencer for a few weeks, considering the rate at which the cases come rolling in. This newest one arrives within about two days of the last one you’d just wrapped up. It’s actually kind of rude, you’ve decided, that the serial killers of America have decided to deny you two weekends in a row.
You’re briefed on the case quickly: four women have gone missing over the past 7 months from a small town in Ohio. There’s no distinct pattern that can be discerned among the victims, the oldest is 60 and white, the youngest is 23 and Asian-American. However, the first three have been found dead in the past two weeks, all within a mile of each other and all killed with the same MO: ligature strangulation.
“So we have no idea how he’s choosing them,” you say.
“No,” Hotch replies, with a sigh.
Meaning that this is probably going to take a while. Spencer senses the way you tense up a little as you absorb that fact. So he goes out of his way to sit next to you on the plane. Once the discussion about the case is done, he nudges you gently, “Did you bring a book?”
You shake your head, “I finished the one in my go-bag. Didn’t have a chance to replace it.”
“Would you like to read this with me?”
You place your hand on his wrist, gently turning it so you can see the cover, “Spencer this is written in Greek.”
“I can translate,” he says.
You move closer to him then, your head resting just against his plane seat and your chin almost jutting against his shoulder.
“Is this okay?”
He nods. The remaining 45 minutes of the flight are spent with him reading to you softly, adding in his own thoughts as he translates and sometimes going off on little tangents. By the time you land you’ve entirely forgotten about your ire with the case. You’re focused only on the characters he introduces you to, who are clearly in love even if they’re too stupid to see it, and the way his nose crinkles a little when he reaches a word with no direct English translation.
Whhat you don’t realise, is that you end up folding into him: head pressed against his chest. Somehow, neither of you notice how you naturally gravitate towards each other. Some pair of profilers.
--
Hotch sends you in different cars to the precinct, and you’re soon reminded of your frustration as you’re caught up in the hub-a-bub of the case. It’s not until you’re leaving the station, after a long and relatively fruitless briefing with the medical examiners and local PD, that you even have time to acknowledge Spencer properly again.
And even then, it’s only when Hotch says.
"You'll be sharing a room with Reid, alright?"
He’s only really asking as a formality. Nobody questions Hotch’s assignments for them. So why, then, do you feel yourself flush a little.
Why then, do you feel so embarassed replying, “Alright.”
***
There was nothing much to be nervous about with sharing a room, as it so happened. The past day and a half had been a whirlwind since the unsub had snatched a fifth victim. You’d been sleeping in shifts, making sure that some of you were awake at all times to keep working.
You were working on the geographical profile with Spencer, and had taken to driving around to look for landmarks at night, when there was nothing much else to do. There were maps but sometimes it helped just to get things embedded in your brain. And now, at 4am, you’re bursting into the conference room occupied by Spencer and Rossi, because you might just have got something.
"I have an idea,” you say, and before anybody can even respond you’re scribbling hurriedly on the whiteboard.
“Slow down kiddo,” Rossi laughs.
“Sorry I’m just,” you cut yourself off, slightly flustered and tapping your foot with frustration as you try to put the last pieces of it together, “Diana Matthews.”
“Yeah?” Spencer responds.
“She was the one who lived on Lakefield right?” Rossi asks.
Annoyingly, you can’t remember off rote. Spencer sees the pinch of frustration in your brow. He senses that you’re heading for the case file.
So, he answers, “Yeah 38 Lakefield Drive.”
Smiling gratefully at him, you breathe a sigh of relief, “There’s three different stores in the area for this local electronic repair company, Gladston Digital, in this area. Two of them aren’t accounted for on the maps because these are from last year, and one of the ones on Google is pinned to the wrong street, there are two Minister Avenues and one’s on the complete opposite side of town.”
Denoting the map with annotations as you go, you continue, “All of the victims had residences within a mile of one of the three stores. And we interviewed the area manager, Paul something, he manages all three stores. He came to speak to me and Hotch while we were scoping the area.”
“Inserting himself into the investigation,” Rossi notes, “Fits the profile. A stalker like that would want to remain an illusion of control.”
“I just need to get Garcia on the phone to see if it checks out.”
Spencer just watches, slightly in awe, as you make the phone call to Garcia. She manages to cross-reference bank statements and emails, showing that all five of the victims had taken something of theirs in for repair sometime in the year before their disappearance. And he feels something in his gut. Pride? Maybe. That’s certainly a part of it.
But there’s something else in there too. Your eyes meet his, with a flicker of recognition. He realises what it is then: marvel. Your brain works so fast, and that’s not novel to him, he knows you’re intelligent but there’s just something about how fast you manage to put it all together. You conjure something out of nothing, a link that he’d missed. And he’s reminded, again, that he has to try and keep up with you sometimes. He wonders if you know that.
Probably not, he thinks. You’re rambling down the phone and gesturing with your hands, in a way you may or may not have picked up from him, and all he can think is how you look so in your element. And beautiful.
He’s a little embarassed about how normal it feels for that last observation to pop into his head.
***
“To _____!” Prentiss cheers.
8pm has rolled around. Since your revelation 16 hours earlier, you managed to confirm your thinking, apprehend Paul Bader, and save the fifth victim. All in all, a pretty good days work. It’s not just down to you, but everyone’s singing your praises so loudly it’s making you a little embarassed.
Even Hotch sets a drink down in front of you, squeezing your shoulder, “Really good work today ____.”
Fair to say you’ve probably peaked there.
Spencer is sat to your left, sipping at a Mai Tai that you know is going to have him giggly in about an hours time.
“I wasn’t trying to keep you out before,” you tell him, “I was going to come and wake you up when I got back but you were in the conference room.”
He smiles, “I know. It was my shift to sleep.”
“Bet you’re paying for that now.”
“A little,” he chuckles, “It’s worth it.”
"I just didn’t want you to think I was hanging you out to dry. You know, to make myself look good,” you decide to press further: mostly just because the team has sung your praises and that kind of attention makes you shirk at the best of times. Let alone when you’re sat with the guy responsible for creating half the damn profile.
His eyebrows furrow. You worry for a minute about what he’s going to say, but then, “I would never think that about you. We’re a team.”
He squeezes your hand. Maybe that’s your favourite thing about Spencer, really. More than the fact he remembers to get your caffeine just how you like it, more than how gentle he is with just about everybody he encounters, more than his relentless enthusiasm for your questions about whatever pops into your mind. No, it’s his modesty. The way he doesn’t even think for a moment to be prideful or arrogant about his intelligence. He genuinely roots for you in every moment, you think.
“Are you okay?” he asks, “You seem a little..quiet.”
It wasn’t until he mentioned it that you realise you’d let your thoughts run away with you, “No. I’m good. Just thinking about how good of a teacher you are.”
“You think so?”
“Of course I think so. You’ve taught me. I didn’t know the first thing about geographical profiling when I got here two years ago. I could barely read a map,” you laugh, keeping your tone sincere, “You’re a really good teacher Spence. I feel like I learn so much from just being around you.”
“I often don’t give you much choice.”
You smile, “I wouldn’t want you to. Really. I’m always interested in everything you have to say. I think you know that. But I wanted to tell you anyway. So you’re sure.”
He’s incredibly grateful you get pulled into a conversation by Morgan, giving him a moment to process.
A lifetime of being insecure. Of feeling like nobody was interested in what he had to say but not being able to really control whether he said it anyway. All this time being insecure in himself, and you liked it. Complimented him on it, even. Considered him a teacher. He doesn’t think he could articulate, in any of the languages he speaks, the sense of peace that brings him.
-----
The Mai Tai’s do make him sleepy. Buzzed, but sleepy. After being bought rounds by Hotch, Morgan, and Spencer, you’re feeling exactly the same. It’s only 10:30pm by the time you decide to make your departure for the night. This is much to the chagrin of Emily, who lolls against Rossi’s side demanding that you stay.
“Some of us have been up since 4 this morning, breaking their backs to keep this country safe,” You tease, putting on a melodramatic air just for affect, “Besides, you’re going to regret this when you have to be up and back on the jet in the morning.”
“You will, especially since you still owe me that report,” Hotch teases, with a smile.
Emily rolls her eyes, “You two are no fun.”
She’s joking, goading you, but unfortunately for her you have a sleepy Spencer nuzzling against you which is a far more pressing matter to deal with.
“Come on Spence, let’s get you to bed,” You say, gently wiggling out from under him and offering him your hand.
He pouts at the momentary loss of contact. It’s subtle. You catch it though. He links his fingers through your own, holding your hand properly, and you try not to read into it too much. He’s tipsy. He’s tired.
Ignoring the deliberately obvious eyebrow-wiggling from Morgan, you make for the lift.
“You didn’t have to come to bed just for me,” Spencer says, “I feel bad for taking you away from the others. I’m not that drunk, I could get myself to bed.”
You shake your head, “I wanted to go to bed with you.”
His eyes snap to you, a grin playing on his lips.
“I mean, I wanted to go to bed. And we’re sharing a room. So I’m going to bed with you. As in we’re going to the place where bed is, together.”
He’s just enough tipsy to be confident enough to jest, “Sure.”
You roll your eyes, “You sound like Morgan.”
“What did Morgan say?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know exactly what Morgan always says whenever anybody goes off together.”
“That they’re having sex,” He giggles, tipsiness shining through again.
“Yes, Spence, that they’re having sex.”
“But we’re not.”
The elevator dings as you arrive at your floor, saving your brain from delving into the implications of what he’s just said. And whether that was a disappointed or netural tone.
He hasn’t let go of your hand. He walks to the door with you, still keeping your hand in his. It’s hard not to let yourself read into it now. How holding hands with him could be such a casual thing. Hard not to imagine walking through bookshops with him, one hand in yours and the other picking books off the shelf he thought you’d like. The domesticity of it sickens you.
Then he lets go to cross to the bed.
“Aren’t you gonna put your pyjama’s on?” You ask.
“I wasn’t gonna sleep yet,” he says, “I was gonna...”
He looks bashful, suddenly, self-consciously licking his lower lip, “I was gonna ask if maybe you wanted to watch something with me. You can pick. I always pick.”
“This an excuse to get me in bed with you again, Spence?” You tease, just past tipsy enough not to care that this is the first time you’ve even acknowledged that night.
"Yeah, the Pearl Harbour ruse doesn’t work twice,” he jokes.
You wish you could find the courage to tease him more. Unfortunately, the liquid courage seems to have run out, and the topic somehow feels too delicate to touch.. Instead, you change quickly into your pyjama’s. Together, you pick something to watch, settling down. You’re suddenly thankful for the single bed, the necessity to be cozied up against him as you watch. To feel his chest, every beat of his heart. You swear it’s beating fast. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
***
Just like last time, you wake up huddled against Spencer. Unlike last time, there’s no Emily banging the door down to drag you to the police station. No, it’s quiet.
You can’t see what time it is because there’s a Spencer between you and the clock. Your phone is in your back pocket but it’s hard to find any motivation whatsoever to move when you’re like this: face pressed into his chest, his head resting atop of yours so a single curl of his hair tickles your nose, his hand on your hip holding you against him.  
His eyelashes flutter, “Are you awake?”
“Yeah. I just woke up.”
He smiles, “Me too.”
“Looks like we did it again.”
“Looks like we did,” his voice is quiet.
“Do you want me to move? If I’m...I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
His free hand comes up to your chin, tipping it so you’re looking him directly in the eyes. His pupils are dilated. In the dim light it’s hard to place the look on his face exactly. But it’s soft.
"C-Can I kiss you?” the question spills quickly from his lips, like he’s afraid he’ll change his mind if he doesn’t get it out fast, “I just. I don’t know if that’s what you want too, I’ve just really-”
"Kiss me, Spence. Please kiss me.”
The smile on his face would have made you fall in love with him, if you weren’t already. And then he kisses you. Barely. Your lips are just grazing against one anothers. You tilt yourself upwards, towards him, giving him a better angle. Then he really kisses you, capturing your lips in his. It’s sweet, it’s soft, it’s...it’s everything. It’s everything, how his hands tangle themselves tentatively in your hair, how he kisses you so deeply, drinking you in.
His hand cups your cheek, then he’s pulling back, just a tiny bit, to mumble against your lips, “I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”
The only appropriate way you can think to verbalise your agreement, is closing the gap between your lips again. There’s an urgency to it this time. Your lips move quickly, passionately. He swipes his tongue across your lower lip and you let him in, your tongues delicately dancing together. He’s good. He’s good and you don’t even notice the morning breath or faint taste of rum, it’s just Spencer.
When you finally come apart, you’re out of breath.
“I didn’t think you’d ever do that,” you say, “I was worried I was reading this whole thing wrong.”
He frowns then, that little nose crinkle appearing again, “I thought I was too obvious.”
“So did I. Maybe it’s best if we don’t tell Hotch how bad we are at profiling each other. He might rethink his decision to take us on.”
He laughs, “Not being able to profile when somebody’s in love with you might be a cause for concern. There are several obvious phyical signs of love, including dilation of pupils when looking at the object of your affection, heart rate synchronisation.”
“How am I supposed to know if our heart rates have synchronised?”
He smiles. Pressing a finger to your lips, he dips his head in the small chasm between your two chests. In the silence, in the early morning quiet, in the absence of all distraction you can hear it. The steady thrum of your hearts, pounding away at identical paces. The sound that told you that some part of you had always known.
--------------
Tagslist: @takeyourleap-of-faith​​ @sassiest-politician​​ (let me know if you’d like to be added/removed from this list)
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shroomcult · 3 years
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@soulxmakaweek
Day 4: Apologize
I fell way behind with Soma week because I got slammed with work and this monster of a fic took me too long to write.
Summary: 
Maka comes to realize that Soul had never felt fully comfortable around Crona, and in ignoring this entirely - she unknowingly hurt her closest friend.
Special thanks to Tori @chichirichick (she betas all of my dumpster fires, bless her) for proofreading this mess of emotions and also to Zi @azroazizah for coming up with the concept for this fic. 
**Disclaimer** This story is not about putting blame on Crona, but instead about acknowledging the fact that Soul went through trauma due to their actions and it was never taken into consideration by Maka before inviting them into their friend group. I'm not saying Crona didn't deserve support, but it's also completely valid for Soul - a victim of Crona - to not feel entirely safe around them regardless of their tragic background and circumstances. If Crona is a big comfort character for you and you feel you would likely be upset by this concept, then I recommend not reading it altogether. We all interpret things different and we're all entitled to our own opinions, and I'm not going to get in arguments with people over this.
It’d been a while since the Spartoi team was all together again.
After the fall of Asura, they really had no purpose to join forces as a team. No big baddie to unite them in ass-kickery. 
The skies were blue again. There were still Kishin eggs to take down, and a shaky new diplomatic relationship with the witches to maintain as well. 
Things were more or less … normal. Boring, even.
The only big difference Blackstar could discern was that nobody seemed to have time to just hang out and be friends anymore.
Kid was over his head with his new responsibilities, and while he was doing an admirable job filling his father’s shoes; there was a steep learning curve and his perfectionist tendencies only made it more challenging to overcome. He upheld a calm and collected demeanor in the public’s eyes, but Liz and Patty spent most of their time holding him together behind the scenes. 
Soul and Maka were a different situation entirely.
It was odd enough to adjust to the recent change in the nature of their relationship. They claimed to be the same as they’ve always been - just Soul & Maka. Only, they grew much closer after the hardships they had endured both in the book of Eibon and on the moon.
They had been close to begin with, but this was a different kind of close. Stolen glances, hands reaching for each other when they thought nobody was looking. Blushing for almost no damn reason. 
Something was going on between them - he could be sure of that.
More recently, however, Maka had been particularly obsessive about solving the dilemma of Crona’s entrapment on the moon. She was driving herself to a slow-burning insanity, considering every moment that she hadn’t rescued them yet to be a personal failure.
She’d been spending much of her time in the restricted section of the library, consuming every piece of relevant research for hours on end. Soul often stayed up there with her doing the same, or at the very least keeping her silent company when he was too burnt out to read anymore.
He’d also spent much of his extra time with Stein, training to perfect his sound-wave abilities into his own form of wavelength attack.
He’d been giving his all ever since making deathscythe status to hone his strength and better serve Maka. He’d even been able to hold his own for a surprising amount of time in the sparring ring against Blackstar, and that was a feat in and of itself.
All of the focus on Crona’s rescue had appeared to be wearing on him, though. 
Soul may have accepted Crona into his friend group for Maka’s sake, even empathized with them - but he had never fully trusted the demon sword meister. Although Soul was outwardly friendly towards them, Blackstar noticed the way his friend had watched them like a hawk before they turned back to Medusa. He was always ready for a scenario like that because he had never felt entirely safe around them to begin with.
Not that Maka had bothered to even take Soul’s feelings into consideration before forgiving Crona on his behalf.
She couldn’t have possibly been that dense. She had to have been actively ignoring the signs of Soul’s discomfort because she couldn’t handle acknowledging them.
And now she was doing the same thing all over again even with Crona as far away as the moon. It was obvious that Soul was doing what he always did - shoving his own feelings aside in favor of Maka’s. The loyal mutt of a boy valued her wellbeing far above his own, that was for certain.
He just seemed so exhausted of it all now. Searching tirelessly with Maka for a solution that may not even exist took up much of his time and energy.  
He never had the time to shoot hoops or play video games like he used to, and Blackstar was far above begging for his attention. He stopped even bothering to ask him.
Just for one night though, by some divine luck - everybody was willing to clear their schedule to have a late night dinner at the most beloved and heart-attack inducing burger joint in town. 
Every member of Spartoi was crammed into the largest booth in the restaurant and their chatter was loud enough to fill the whole section. 
There were multiple conversations happening at a time, but Blackstar was zeroing in on Soul who had his chin resting on his palm and that stupid, dopey look he got on his face when he was proud of Maka. Yuck. Keep it in your pants, loverboy.
Maka was next to Soul, his arm stretched out behind her on the booth, while Ox engaged her in a fiery debate over god knows what across the table from her. Judging by the redness in baldy’s face - Maka was on the winning side. He really couldn’t understand Soul’s hard-on for a bossy know-it-all personality, but whatever floats his boat he supposed.  
He decided he’d seen enough of that look on his best friend’s face and crumpled up a straw wrapper, dipping it in his soda and sticking it at the end of his straw.
He blew on the other end, sending the sticky wad of paper flying across the table. The projectile hit its target directly on the cheek.
“Fuck’s sake dude, how old are you?” he grumbled, reaching over the table to grab a handful of napkins to clean his face off with.
Maka snatched some of his napkins for herself, rubbing it vigorously into the flecks of cola that stained her uniform. “You got my shirt all wet, idiot.”
Blackstar simply threw his head back to cackle obnoxiously. “I just thought I should break up your lame little debate team fight before Ox over here pops a blood vessel. You know he can’t handle losing well.”
“I wasn’t losing!” Ox hissed under his breath.
Maka only met her opponent’s glare with a shit-eating grin.
“Hey, Maka! What had you stopped to talk with Professor Stein about earlier today?” Tsubaki cut in, obviously attempting to diffuse another argument between the two competitive brainiacs.
Maka’s expression relaxed into something a little more neutral, seemingly caught off guard by the question. Debate-mode successfully disarmed.
“Oh. Well… I just had some questions about my black blood research for him.” 
Blackstar didn’t miss the way Soul tensed up beside her at the mention of black blood. His face was void of any distinct emotion, but something was off in his body language. The way his shoulders squared as if he were instinctively bristling.
Anyone with a shred of social awareness could have deduced that black blood, Medusa, and Crona were not Soul’s favorite topics. It wasn’t unusual for him to shut down and discontinue any contributions to a conversation when any of these things were brought up. 
Unfortunately for Soul, all of those subjects were constantly on Maka’s mind since she began her obsessive pursuit for a solution to Crona’s ordeal.
“Oh? And what did he have to say?” Tsubaki pressed, completely oblivious to the tense situation she was potentially triggering.
“As you’re already aware, there’s not really any official research on the black blood that exists. We’ve been digging through countless books - gathering as much information about madness and Kishins as we can, but it can only get us so far. It would be so much more useful if we could get our hands on a physical sample of the substance itself.”
Soul’s eyes widened in concern, but only for a second before he slipped his usual poker face back on. His Adam’s apple bobbed nervously despite the veneer of calm he displayed.
“Anyways,” she continued, turning to look at Soul, “I was going to talk to you about this later, but maybe some of the black blood still remains in your system? I know we believed it was all gone, but surely there’s some residual amount of it lingering behind? Something we could maybe isolate, extract and create a concentrate of? Stein said it was unlikely, but technically possible. We have to try for Crona, right, Soul?”
He was no longer wearing his mask of apathy. Unmistakeable, visible discomfort was etched into his facial features and he was clenching his hands, knuckles whitening from the pressure. Everyone at the table was hushed and the tension was palpable.
“He doesn’t have to try anything,” Kid’s voice cut sharply through the silence, golden eyes flashing sternly at her.
A soft gasp escaped her and her eyebrows shot up, clearly taken-aback by the sudden burst of hostility from her boss and close friend. Her eyes darkened seconds later, determination setting in.
 “I think that’s his decision to make, and I’d like to hear what he has to say,” she turned her attention back to Soul, hope still shining in her eyes.
He fidgeted with his necktie, loosening it and clearing his throat. “Yeah, s’fine. Whatever you need, I guess.”
Maka’s face lit up into a bright smile that turned Blackstar’s stomach and she pulled Soul into a brief hug. “I knew we could count on you, Soul! You’re the best partner ever.”
“Whatever, it’s no problem. Just try not to drain me of all my blood, alright?” he chuckled weakly, avoiding her eyes in favor of staring a hole in the middle of the table.
She gave an easygoing laugh in response, and went back to conversing with Tsubaki as if she hadn’t just pressured her partner into volunteering himself as a guinea pig for the sake of someone who had literally sliced him open from shoulder to hip and infected him with black blood to begin with.
Is she fucking serious?
Blackstar was practically vibrating with fury from the interaction he’d just watched, and Tsubaki’s normally soothing hand on his shoulder did little to calm him down. When he glanced at Kid, he instantly knew the death god had shared his frustration with Maka’s obliviousness. 
It wasn’t long before Soul abruptly stood from his place at the end of the booth, pulling a twenty out of his wallet and placing it on the table in front of him.
“Soul? What are you doing? The food hasn’t even gotten here yet,” Maka blinked at him in confusion.
“I’m not feelin’ too great - gonna head out, sorry guys. Could you just bring my food back in a to-go box?” he said with an apologetic quirk of his lips. He squeezed her shoulder gently before turning on his heels and making his way out of the diner in long strides.
Why does she look so shocked? Does she really not understand that she’s been hurting him?
After that, the night passed by in a haze for Blackstar. He hardly spoke for the rest of the meal due to the fact that he was using all of his mental capacity to keep his impulse to stand up and loudly call his friend out in front of everybody in check. 
The only thing truly stopping him was the knowledge that Soul would likely be embarrassed and more than a little pissed off if he’d made a big scene over something that he wasn’t even willing to talk about.  
So he waited - held his tongue until he could lash out in private.
As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Blackstar watched her rise from her seat gathering her to-go boxes carefully and giving him a nod of acknowledgement before she headed out.
His eyes bore into the back of her head as she left, and Tsubaki’s hand clamped gently on him for the second time that night. Her eyes were crinkled with a gentle concern.
“I think you should leave this between them. If Soul wanted all of this out in the open, he would have had that conversation with her himself.”
A heavy sigh settled in his chest, “You know how he is. He’s the suffer in silence type and he always does her bidding. If nobody says anything, then nothing’ll change. I just want to talk to her - not like I’m gonna beat her ass or anything … unless she gives me a reason to.” 
“Blackstar,” she chided, fully aware that he would make good on that threat.
“I know, I know. I won’t be long, see ya at home,” he said, throwing up placating hands before stuffing them in his pockets and striding in the direction Maka had gone. 
            _______________________________________________
Maka set her walk home at a leisurely pace, dragging her feet slightly as she watched the sunset bleed into the sky above.
It wasn’t that she was trying to prolong seeing Soul, or that she wasn’t worried about the way he’d acted back in the diner - like something was eating at him. 
She was pretty positive that he wasn’t physically ill, which only left the option of it being an emotional issue. 
And getting Soul to talk about emotional issues was like trying to pull teeth from a temperamental bear. 
She had to figure out a way to go about this delicately, and she had to figure it out soon because their apartment block was fast approaching.
She stopped in her tracks when she felt the presence of a familiar soul behind her. His steps had been so quiet, she wouldn’t have even been aware he was stalking her from behind if it weren’t for her exceptional soul perception abilities.
“I know you’re following me, Blackstar.”
In moments, he was stepping out in front of her. “Wasn’t trying to hide. I need to talk to you,” his voice was uncharacteristically stern.
She wasn’t stupid. She knew Blackstar had some kind of problem with her since dinner. He was deathly quiet and glowering at her for most of the night; very unusual behavior from someone who never shuts up or hesitates to start a fight. 
“Okay, I’m listening,” she said, already preparing to defend herself against whatever absurd argument he wanted to pull her into.
“The whole situation with Crona - have you ever once thought about how Soul feels about it?”
Whatever she had been expecting to come out of his mouth - that wasn’t it.
“What? I mean, I know how Soul feels. He wants Crona to be safe, just like I do. What are you trying to get at?”
“I’m not talking about what he thinks about Crona being stuck in the deathdamned moon, Maka! I mean have you ever thought about how he felt when you forced Crona into his life to begin with? After being sliced open?” 
Maka’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her mouth opened and closed a few times, baffled by the question. 
“Soul understands why I welcomed Crona as a friend. He trusts me,” she answered, hoping her voice conveyed the confidence that she couldn’t find in this moment.
This entire conversation was throwing her off.
“Yeah, okay. He accepted your decision because he trusts you, or loves you or whatever the fuck. We all know that - but that doesn’t mean he was comfortable with it. It doesn’t mean he felt safe. He just stuffed his own feelings down, because he knew it made it easier for you.”
Her throat tightened as her own conflicting emotions overcame her. He had no idea what he was talking about. Soul was fine. He’s always been fine. 
“Did he say that to you? That he didn’t feel safe?” she choked out. 
“Soul? You think he tells people things? About his feelings?” he snorted. “No, he doesn’t have to tell me shit. It’s clear on his face every time you mention Crona, or Medusa, or that fucking blood.”
“Maybe you’re just making assumptions about how he feels!” she shouted back, gripping handfuls of the front of his shirt.
He leaned in, completely unfazed by the rage burning in her eyes. “You ever noticed how when Crona was around, he was always watching them out of the corner of his eye - twitching every time they made some sudden move. You ever noticed how quiet and withdrawn he’d get around them? Or any time they were brought up? You didn’t - because you didn’t want to.” 
“Shut up! Y-you’re making something out of nothing. Are you trying to tell me that I should just give up and forget about Crona? That they don’t deserve to have a friend?” 
Some of his aggression was fizzling out as he released a heavy sigh, placing his hands calmly over hers, still clenching in his shirt. “I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t have helped Crona, or that you shouldn’t keep trying to help them now. I’m only telling you that even if Soul has forgiven and moved on - he’s still a victim of Crona’s actions. He suffered trauma from that, even if he’s too fucking stubborn to admit it. Just acknowledge that maybe he needs a break from thinking about them - all of that shit that happened - every now and then. Get your head out of Crona’s ass long enough to check if he’s okay too.”
She stumbled over wordless sounds as her hands went limp and released their vice-grip on his clothing. She was trying desperately to think of a way to refute the awful things he was saying, but Blackstar wouldn’t give her the chance. 
“If you gave him even half the thought you gave to Crona - maybe you would have noticed it like everybody else has. I just want you to think about it for a bit, that’s all,” his voice softened towards the end, shoulders sagging slightly as he turned away, leaving her to deal with the aftermath of his confrontation.
The heat of tears prickled behind her eyelids and she clenched her fists tightly to her sides. 
She wanted so badly to swing around and scream at Blackstar’s retreating figure that he was wrong, that he had no idea what he was talking about and of course she thinks about her weapon.
But the longer she allowed his harsh words to sink in; the more she could feel the sting of truth settling into her heart.
Had she really been so blind? 
             _______________________________________________
Soul had been laying on his back in bed, hands resting on his stomach and eyes pointed at the ceiling, unmoving for some time. He wasn’t entirely sure how many hours, but he knew his playlist had ended long ago - no music played from the earbuds that were still jammed in his ears.
He couldn’t explain the heaviness in his heart. The anxiety that often set in whenever Maka mentioned Crona or the black blood. It was all water under the bridge, wasn’t it? There was no point in allowing himself to wallow in all the negative emotions that punched him in the gut at the mention of their name. It was selfish to feel those things - it was his job to give Maka his full support. His own feelings were irrelevant.
It was just harder on this particular night. Sure, she droned on about those sore subjects often. Their research revolved around it anyways. He’d just hoped that it could have been different just for one night.
He’d secretly been ecstatic when Maka begrudgingly agreed to shelve her research just long enough to get a late dinner with all of their friends. A break had been long overdue. 
Things had been different between them, after all. They’d been sharing a bed, and they’d even shared a few kisses in the small, rare moments that they’d spent alone together - focused only on each other. They were chaste kisses, but he’d greedily take whatever he could get. 
As she became more frantic about her lack of results in helping Crona, he may as well have not even existed to her. 
He’d just needed that one dinner to pretend things were normal, to pretend as though he was on a date with her and she was willing to spend time with him and think about literally anything aside from her latest fixations. Instead, she’d asked him to play part in some unsound experiment - to prod for things that he hadn’t wanted to find again. It had only been made more uncomfortable by the scrutinizing presence of all of their friends. 
He’d felt used.
Soul perked up at the familiar sound of the front door creaking open and slamming shut. He was immediately ashamed of the pavlovian response he had to the sound of his meister returning - the little flip in his heart that made him feel like a stupid dog wagging its tail at the sound of its master.
Just keep to yourself. She doesn’t need to interact with you in this useless state of self pity. You don’t deserve her comfort.
Self-loathing curled in his gut and he kept his eyes stubbornly trained on a water stain in the ceiling.
Suddenly, light flooded into his dark room as his door was hesitantly opened. He reflexively brought himself to sit up on his elbows only to meet a teary-eyed Maka.
All self-indulgent angsty thoughts instantly evaporated from his head, and he was ripping his earbuds out and swinging his legs over the side of the bed to get up.
She made purposeful steps across his room, throwing her arms around his neck and forcing him back onto the bed with the motion.
“I’m so sorry, Soul,” she warbled mournfully into his sweater. 
“Huh? Sorry ‘bout what? What’s going on, Maka?” he tried to nudge her into looking up at him, but she adamantly refused.
She took a few shallow breaths before rubbing her wet cheek against the quickly-dampening fabric and looking up at him with dewy eyes.
“I haven’t been a good friend to you - have I? 
Was that a trick question?
“I-I don’t get what we’re talkin’ about here,” he stuttered uselessly, attempting to compensate for his lack of eloquence by brushing his fingers comfortingly through her soft hair.
“I never asked if you felt okay with Crona being around you. I never asked you if you forgave them at all - I just brought them into your space, your home. I just wanted them to have a chance at a normal life so badly - I ignored your pain, and I’m so sorry,” she rushed her confession out like it had been a breath she was holding in.
He had to fight the urge to bark out a laugh. It wasn’t that he found anything that she said humorous - it was just so strange that she was addressing this out of the blue. She’d seemed completely unaware as usual back at the diner, where had this even come from?
He was so lost in thought, he’d almost forgotten to respond and instantly regretted the prolonged silence he’d left her in. “Maka, it’s fine,” he insisted, “I get why you forgave Crona. I admire you for it.”
“But that doesn’t mean you were okay. I should have at least checked on you, or asked you about how you felt - or literally anything,’ she mumbled numbly from his chest.
“Hey. Look at me,” he said, lifting her cheek from its resting place against his sweater, “Sure, I didn’t feel the most comfortable around Crona. I think it was pretty awkward for both of us to be near each other. That doesn’t mean I dislike them, or didn’t want you to be their friend. You can’t beat yourself up over something I hadn’t bothered to tell you.”
His words hadn’t brought the comfort that he’d hoped they would, and her brows remained stubbornly crinkled. “If it had been me - if I was the one who’d been cut by that sword, would you still say that you don’t dislike them? That you’re okay with us being friends?”
It was a question that he instantly knew the answer to, but he was reluctant to say it out loud. He finally caved, bringing his eyes back to hers, “No. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive them if it was you.”
She closed her eyes tightly, nodding her head in grim acceptance of that truth. She had likely known that would be his answer already, but hearing it must have been difficult.
“But I love that about you. You have so much compassion. I only care for the few people that I’ve decided I love - I don’t have room in my heart for others like you do. I’d like to be more like you,” he whispered reverently, taking her cheeks in both of his hands and briskly wiping away all of the moisture he could reach with his thumbs.
“I should’ve had more compassion for you,” she lamented softly under her breath, eyes downcast.
“You’re not a fuckin’ mind reader, Maks. It was my choice not to bring anything up.”
She nodded slowly, but the way her grip tightened on him only confirmed his suspicion that she wasn’t going to forgive herself for it.
Minutes passed before a word was spoken, but Soul eventually cleared his throat. “You know, I don’t expect you to ever stop being friends with Crona, or to give up on rescuing them. I don’t want that. I don’t mind helping you like you’d asked earlier tonight, too. If that’s what you need from me, then I’m here.”
She brought herself to her elbows on top of him to get a better view of his face.
“I know. I’m not going to give up on them. But It matters to me that you’re happy too, and if that means you need a break from all that, then I want you to know that it’s okay to ask for that.”
“Right, I’ll keep that in mind,” he said in a hushed tone, distracting himself with a piece of her hair twirled between his fingers.
“And I don’t want to use your blood for research. It was wrong of me to even think of asking you that. We’ll find another way,” she assured him, voice tightening with emotion, “I definitely got carried away with all of this. It wasn’t healthy, and I really am sorry I’ve pushed you away in the process. We can’t solve this thing if we don’t have time to properly take care of ourselves. You’ve been working so hard with me, and I think we need more actual quality time together.”
“Yeah, I could get on board with that. I kinda walked out on dinner tonight, so how about we do something - just you and me tomorrow? Movies sound good?”
“Movies sounds great,” she hummed in agreement, hands idly playing with his hair.
As much as he would have preferred for her to continue her ministrations, he stopped her movements to grasp her hand, bringing it to his chest to rest above where she knew his scar was. He pressed down on her hand lightly.
“I’m glad it happened. I’m glad they gutted me, ‘cause I hadn’t understood what you meant to me till that moment,” he muttered, pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head.
She only exhaled shakily, hand tightening against the evidence of his devotion.
“I just hate that it took a lecture from Blackstar of all people for me to realize that I’d been hurting you.”
His eyes widened a little at that new piece of information. Blackstar was the one that brought all of this on her mind? He could’ve sworn it would have been Kid if anyone. He couldn’t help but feel a little touched that Blackstar had been so concerned about him, but he was also somewhat irritated that his friend had distressed Maka as much as he had.
“Blackstar, huh? Remind me to have a conversation with him about mindin’ his own business,” he laughed half-heartedly.
“No, don’t. I’m glad that he said what he did - I needed to hear it,” she urged him.
“Doesn’t matter. He didn’t have to make my girlfriend cry from guilt over bein’ friends with someone,” he muttered, but his face immediately burned a bright red as soon as he’d caught what he’d called her.
She was a similar shade, holding her breath as well as his gaze with a tortuously difficult to decipher expression on her face.
“That is, uh- I mean… fuck.”  
Very articulate. Great job, Soul.
He hadn’t needed to agonize over whether or not he’d just fucked everything between them for long because her face soon melted into a warm, genuine smile.
“Girlfriend, huh?” she said with a glimmer of mischief in her eye.
“I’d like that. If that’s w-what you want,” he wanted to kick himself for the voice crack he just experienced. Not cool in the slightest. 
At least she got a good giggle out of it. The melodic sound squeezed something in his chest and he swallowed nervously as a response.
She brushed back his bangs, leaning in to place a soft kiss to his forehead. She peppered a trail of kisses down his cheek until she reached his lips. 
This kiss was far from chaste. She cradled his cheek and jaw as she slanted her mouth sweetly over his, pressing fervently, constantly moving against him and eliciting a breathy moan from him that he would never admit to making. 
When she tried to separate, he followed her, bumping noses for a moment and giving the corner of her mouth a few more enthusiastic pecks before backing up and allowing her room to look at his face. 
“Girlfriend sounds nice, actually,” she smiled broadly, letting her fingers brush against the back of his neck.
“Glad that’s settled, then,” he laughed easily, not even bothering to feel any embarrassment over the flush of his skin or the lightness of his breath.
He crushed her to his chest, and they stayed like that for a while, just listening to the other’s loudly beating hearts until they were lulled to sleep. 
He’d have to thank Blackstar with a game of basketball later.
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sasstrash · 3 years
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Please forgive me I've been super focused on school
The Silent Queen 6; A Royal Morning
Raven woke up the same she always did - quietly. No one ever really noticed her until she was outside her room and hallway back in the castle but at school, people smiled and waved at her the second she left her dorm with Maddie. She guessed that the news of her arrival had spread and a lot of people wanted to know the daughter of the Evil Queen. Raven grimaced at the thought, she would have preferred not to be known at all. To just be a minor character in a smaller story. With a happy ending. But that wasn’t who she was, she was Raven Queen and this was her life.
Walking down the corridors to the castleteria was mostly uneventful aside from all the other students who continued looking at her and pointing things out. It was times like these that she wished she could hear. But then again she wasn’t sure how well she’d adjust to suddenly being able to hear. The castleteria itself is big and crowded with white lighting that made everything look brighter than what Raven was used to, many eyes looked over to her and Raven felt herself subconsciously tug at a lavender streak in her hair. This was going to be a long school year.
Cerise stood up and waved over at the pair of newcomers from her table where she sat with Cedar, Hunter, and a few girls who Raven vaguely remembered from yesterday who had been with that blonde- Apple, Apple White. The next Snow White, the one Raven would eventually have to poison. Raven stopped moving for a second at the thought of her destiny. Eyes wide she almost started to shake until Maddie lightly poked her shoulder, pointing to the castleteria’s food table. Raven straightened and followed her roommate and best friend to grab breakfast.
At home, she usually just walks into the kitchen. Chef made pancakes most mornings with berries from the nearby forest and honey on top. Raven always loved those pancakes, even if she had them almost every day. Raven quickly put a few slices of bacon on her plate smiling at the staff before grabbing some fruit salad and a couple of waffles and left to follow Maddie over to Cedar’s table. Most people moved out of the way to let the two girls pass through in order to get to their table. If Raven was being honest she had expected more students to run away from her when she arrived, and yet they all seemed to be completely enamoured by her. Weird. Maybe it was because she hadn’t shown up for regular school until this year, or because no one knew what she looked like (she avoided mirror phones and rarely left the castle grounds), or maybe none of them knew much about deaf people. Or maybe all three. By the time she and Maddie sat down, Raven was already exhausted, and she hadn’t even gone to class yet!!
‘Morning Rae, how was your first night at EAH?’ Cerise signed over to her childhood friend. Raven smiled at the nickname, Cerise had given it to her when they were about six, very soon afterwards Raven and Cerise began talking more over chats with their mirror phones as Cerise started elementary school while Raven began to be castleschooled. The two would work on video chats every now and again to keep sign language in Cerise’s vocabulary, (usually with a little help from Ramona too, but it’s not like they could talk about that it was a secret!) so the two stayed connected no matter where they were.
‘It’s been good Cher,’ another nickname that had come from their younger years ‘you know after the whole Headmaster situation me and Maddie set up our dorm. It was definitely different from the castle or your place’ Raven concluded before picking up her fork. She really was hungry after skipping dinner last night. As the others smiled at her she felt a warm fuzzy feeling wash over her, these were her friends, some through childhood, some through the others and they all loved her. She was loved, at least she was now but once she became, that she wouldn’t be. Her smile began to dim just a tad as she bit into her waffle. She shook it off before looking at the three girls she didn’t know the names of. ‘Oh sorry I almost forgot, I’m Raven, and you guys are?’ she asked the brunette in pink, the platinum blonde in white and the ginger with green eyes. Each one smiled at her as brightly as her friends, if not a bit brighter, they were probably princesses, Raven thought to herself before each one signed their names.
‘Briar Beauty’ The girl in all pink signed with slightly tired eyes. Raven immediately made the connection to the Sleeping Beauty Story, it took a lot for her not to frown, that was always such a sad tale, sleeping for a hundred years would mean losing the people she loved. Even still Raven could see that something else was turning in her mind, maybe she’d get to see what that was.
The ginger signed after ‘Ashlynn Ella it’s nice to meet you!’ she had the brightest smile that Raven had seen from the trio. Cinderella’s daughter her mind added in, another story with a happy ending but a tragic beginning, she couldn’t imagine losing both of her parents. Then again it was better than being imprisoned in a mirror, or being forced to dance in hot iron shoes until death, or being crushed by a boulder after falling off of a cliff. Raven’s thoughts were broken as she saw that Ashlynn was sitting very close to Hunter, who seemed to be completely focused on her, the dork had a crush, which seemed to be mutual. If Raven could speak well she would have laughed.
‘I’m Darling Charming but you can call me Darl for short’ The Platinum Blonde signed last as she gave a simple polite smile. Like the one that Raven had been taught to use for visitors and knights when she was younger. A female born Charming? She had heard of it before but it wasn’t common, most of them became small-time princesses with small kingdoms, or took over for the Charming Kingdom when the time came. It would be interesting Raven thought to see where her destiny leads her, after all, Darling definitely had the most open book story out of all of them.
‘It’s nice to meet all of you’ Raven signed before continuing ‘So.. has anyone gotten a schedule, I still haven’t’ It hadn’t been a big surprise to her though, she supposed no one had accounted for her deafness and they might have had to remake her schedule. After she mentioned it though she saw Cedar hit her head with her hand. “Ugh, I almost forgot,” she muttered to the group before pulling out a piece of paper. ‘Here Raven, I passed the headmaster and he asked me to give this to you, don’t worry he only had to reschedule two subjects!’ she finished passing the note over. Raven sent a grateful smile to her friend thank goodness for Cedar on the top of the paper a note was written with a schedule underneath. It read:
Dear Ms. Queen; first of all, I’d like to apologize for not being aware of this sooner, in the short time we’ve been given I was able to find some students to help you translate in each class. However, just in case most classes have an extra student who understands sign language. Below is your schedule, I hope you enjoy your time here at Ever After High.
Sincerely,
Headmaster Grimm
Breakfast: 6:30-8:30
Block one: Geografairy with Professor Jack B. Nimble (assisted by Cerise Hood) 8:45-9:30
Block two: Beast Training and Care with Professor Poppa Bear (assisted by Dexter Charming) 9:35-10:20
Block three: General Villainy with Professor Badwolf (assisted by Ramona Badwolf) 10:25-11:10
Block four: Math with Dr. King Charming (assisted by Ashlynn Ella) 11:15-12:00
Lunch: 12:00-12:45
Block five: History with Professor Rumpilstilskin (assisted by Madelyn Hatter) 1:00-1:45
Block six: Spellcasting and Potions with Professor Baba Yaga (assisted by Cedar Wood) 1:50-2:35
Block seven: Grimmnastics with Coach Gingerbreadman (assisted by Darling Charming) 2:40-3:25
Block eight: Art with Professor Card (assisted by Meshell Mermaid) 3:30-4:15
Dinner may be had at any time after this, as can counselling with Baba Yaga or Mother Goose. Lights out is at 10:30
Raven smiled at the schedule she only didn’t know two of the names on here. She was nervous to start her time at EAH but as long as she had good grades and a clear head she was sure she would do fine.
Notes:
I am really sorry this took so long, I kept forgetting about it because of school and COVID. btw if anyone knows how to make a master post and pin it could you please let me know? I would like to be able to do that. I also just got an AO3 account so I might post on there.
Taglist For The Silent Queen:
@virgil-is-a-cutie @justafanwarrior @bee-a-garbage-shipper @spicybelladonna @starrry-nites @tired-butterfly @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @themagicmistic @a-star-with-a-human-name @futursworld @pepelachanel @me-with-a-z-and-double-the-e @wolf-for-life
@iz-bell-saiah @thebookwormfairy @fantasiame
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beybladefanboy · 3 years
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Top 5 Metal Masters Episodes
Honestly, out of the three main seasons, Masters to me is the weakest. That is by a slight margin, it’s still a very good season, but it is a more noticeable margin than the one between Fusion and Fury. I think we can all agree that the time they spend in America in the last twenty five or so episodes is the most consistently good part of the season. Before that, this season goes up and down in quality like a rollercoaster. In the end though, this season was more good than lackluster so here are the best episodes.
Honourable Mentions
Episode 98: The Fallen Emperor
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This is the episode where Da Xiang and Julian battle. I honestly really relate to Julian’s story where he was held to really high expectations and was never allowed to fail so when he did, he didn’t know how to handle it and felt like he lost everything. This episode also made me really like Da Xiang. He was annoying at first but seeing him become a leader who has found strength supporting his team and getting back up after every defeat and teaching Julian to do the same was really nice. It was a great moment for both of their characters and it was cool seeing Da Xiang use the full extent of his abilities. I didn’t really think of him as a really strong blader before this episode.
Episode 100: The Wild Beast Unleashed
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This is Kyoya and Damian’s battle and once again, I’m biased toward Kyoya. I like his battle against Damian more than Gingka’s because Gingka was sort of guaranteed to win while Kyoya could’ve gone either way. I don’t really have much to say: it’s just an epic battle and an interesting look into Kyoya’s character. I won’t go into that because another Tumblr user has already done a much better job and I don’t want to copy them, it’s just really in line with the Kyoya we know.
5) Episode 77: The Dragon Emperor Returns
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I mentioned having a Kyoya bias but if there’s a character I have even more of a bias for, it’s Ryuga. Long story short, this is the episode that made Ryuga my favourite character. I liked him as a villain in Fusion, and was already starting to get a bit of a crush on him, but this episode made me fall in love. In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment it happened: when he explained how the dark power was man made so he could overcome it and draw L-Drago’s power from its original source, showing that he was willing to admit his mistakes and determined to grow from the experience. How could I not admire that? He’s also just a total badass. His entrance in this episode, walking in with a sadistic looking smile as he makes meteors fall all around him before he beats the crap out of everyone there was just amazing. This is also a great episode for Tsubasa, another favourite character of mine. He’s going crazy due to the dark power in this episode, letting his dark side take over and drive him to battle Sophie, Wales, and Julian in the woods at night with the intent to destroy them. It’s tragic but the Dark Tsubasa arc was the best part of Masters so I really liked seeing him struggle with this darker side and seeing Ryuga provide him the solution: to become one with the dark power. Just a really interesting episode overall.
4) Episode 69: The Scorching Hot Lion
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Here’s more of my Kyoya bias. This episode was a huge breath of fresh air. Masters before this point was really uninteresting for me, with the exception of the Dark Tsubasa stuff which hadn’t been portrayed much at this point. It was mostly battles I didn’t care for and Gingka, Masamune, and Yu being insanely obnoxious. So to get away from them, and see a character’s return I was personally waiting for with baited breath, it was like a drink of cold water on a hot day. This is a simple episode all things considered: it’s just the formation of Team Wild Fang but that was more interesting than anything else in the season at that point. Kyoya and Nile’s camaraderie/friendship is developed and showcased well, to the point where they already really feel like a team. Demure is sort of just inserted into their group but he does prove himself to be useful and to kid me, it was a nice surprise that he was the one to make their team. So yeah, just a simple episode showing fun interesting characters forming bonds.
3) Episode 91: The Furious DJ Battle?!
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This episode is honestly just funny. It doesn’t accomplish anything plot-wise: it’s just Gan Gan Galaxy trying and failing to find a replacement member for their team since Tsubasa and Yu are both hospitalized. Kenta and Wang Fu Zhong all battle for this honour, when Ryo interferes in his Phoenix costume. He tries to join the team, stupidly not knowing the rules of his own tournament and in one of the most satisfying moments EVER, Hikaru puts this idiot in his place and Ryo is disappointed. His suffering is points in my book. Then the American and Japanese blader DJs come in. Rewatching it now, this episode was probably fan service for people that wanted to see them battle but it’s honestly great fan service. Seeing the main cast react to such a terrible bey battle, with the series’ over the top announcing, is just amazing. Words can’t really give it justice. Just watch the episode. It’s the funniest one in the show.
2) Episode 72: Eternal Rivals
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In my opinion, this was Gingka and Kyoya’s best battle. I always have fun seeing these two battle but at this point in the series, they hadn’t battled one on one since Metal Fusion. The battles got much more layered and fierce since then. Gingka and Kyoya are constantly going back and forth between who is winning, trading special moves and keeping you on your toes and wondering who’s going to win. And then… neither of them do. Gingka and Kyoya end up being equals in power, using up every ounce of their strength trying to defeat their opponent before collapsing from exhaustion. Yeah, it’s kind of disappointing we never saw Kyoya defeat Gingka. However, I think a tie was the perfect way to end this specific battle. Before this, Masamune lost to Nile so one more loss would’ve kicked Gan Gan Galaxy out of the tournament but simply giving Gingka the win would’ve sort of discredited the hard work Kyoya put in. Having them tie keeps Gan Galaxy at the disadvantage without making them lose and showcases how far Kyoya has come as a balder. Overall, just a really epic battle that makes the slower parts before it worth it.
1) Episode 79: Dark Eagle
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There’s a very simple reason I love this episode: it’s the culmination of the Dark Tsubasa Arc, aka the best thing about Metal Masters. It was an interesting look into a character's psyche and added a darker layer to the earlier part of this season. However, this resolution was what made it really stick out to me. In other shows I've seen (Yugioh for example) the goal is always to drive out/destroy the darkness within people but this episode decided to go in a more realistic direction. Realistic in an representational way I mean. In real life, we can't drive out our "darkness" so to speak. What we can do in real life is accept ourselves and learn to overcome our inner demons rather than denying them, which is what Tsubasa did in this episode. He accepted that his darker self was part of him but that it didn’t define who he was, overcoming that darkness and creating a new special move on the spot to defeat Sophie and Wales. Yeah, the battle itself is still really good but the flashback of Tsubasa as a kid and him overcoming his dark power is what propels the episode into being one of the best.
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steve0discusses · 3 years
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Yugioh S5 Ep 19: Yugi and the Only Neck Accessory He Didn’t Really Want to Wear
Been busy! Hopefully stuff will open up soon as I’m taking a hiatus on a different quarantine project and will be finishing painting the entire roof of my car this week? One can hope. Sanding the rust off the whole top of a car takes a long time it turns out?
Also, fun Yugioh fact, I recently painted a book cover for an author who is older so she’s never seen the show, and she looked at my tumblr, saw my Duke Devlin fanart and was like “That’s him. That’s my main character. OMG. You captured him perfectly!” and I was like “Ma’am that is Duke Devlin, hence the single dice earring on his lobes there, but we can work with this.” and now a spiritual Duke Devlin is on the cover of a Wuxia-style fantasy trilogy on the Vella. Had to give him a top knot and delete the eyeliner for Wuxia reasons but uh, that’s just Duke.
So long story short, fanart can get you work, don’t even worry about posting that stuff online because most people don’t even know it’s fanart anyway and older ladies freakin love it.
Back in Yugioh, the team was doing their best to navigate a map through the woods and they do about as well as they normally do.
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And inside Tristan lifted up the floorboards and was like “I found the only way out, this is it, this is the only way.”
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And they ended up in something that has a color scheme I would actually associate with a jungle. Finally. We have finally left California (in order to go to another Hell.)
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Youknow, when we went to California, we visited Hell, and when we went to India, we also took a stop at the nearest death destination. There’s just so much death on this show and sometimes I forget because there’s been a ghost in our party for so freakin long it’s been normalized.
(read more death imagery under the cut)
Joey freaks out at a flock of crows and reveals in this episode something I never realized about him before.
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Like I’m not always the perfect observer as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but I love that this is canon for probably only this episode, but I will never forget it for the entirety of this series.
You go on hating birds, Joey.
Bro was like “Maybe it’s a deep cut about Mai Valentine because she’s a harpy lady” but eh...pretty sure we spent like an entire season of Joey telling us that Mai was a good experience? Would be incredibly funny if immediately after all of S4, Joey was like “You know what? Screw Mai, guys.”
So my thoughts...it’s probably just a literal bird experience. Like I had a friend who hated deer because once she went to a petting zoo, got some pellets to feed the deer, but her finger was sticking up, so when the deer came over to nibble on some pellets her finger went up it’s nose by accident. She was so disgusted by this event that was entirely her fault, that she brought up how much she hated deer basically whenever we saw one.
So like...maybe Joey fed a bird wrong at a petting zoo. I can see him getting bit by a parrot because he was too Joey Wheeler.
But now that we’re in a graveyard neighborhood, Pharaoh decides to hop out because there’s a lot of ghosts here and he needs to practice socializing with his peers.
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So that’s just a Yugioh monster doing the ostrich dance, right? Like this is a meme from like 2010 but on Yugioh in 2003(4?)
Good to see the Ostrich dance here in the land before Vine.
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So they pull out their Pokemon to do some antics, Tea looked like she was about to do something useful, and Yami does a yump across time and space to get her as far away from playing (not)cards as quickly as possible and y’all...sure was a position these animators animated.
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Holy crap.
And I was going off about that scene last season where they woke up in the same bed like...
...have these two been together this entire time? Like together together?
They’re like...way more comfortable than you’d figure they’d be considering Yugi nearly passes out every time he gets a hug. But Yami just like....How long has this been going on? As long as Joey’s fear of birds?
Like obviously this show would never cover what the hell Yugi may be thinking about this overreaching move here, because we’re gonna gloss right over that, and just run away up a flight of stairs. No one mentions this ever again. Which is mind blowing for an anime to do. I think in most anime I watch, the kids would be like “ahh ahhhh I bumped into a booooob!” like it does for I want to say every other episode of My Hero Academia. But in Yugioh, they saw that low hanging fruit and they were like “we expect a higher level of maturity out of our audience. Now here’s a fleet of ostrich dancing tree monsters with faces for crotches.”
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They decided to sprint up this flight of stairs, and it enough of a slope to deter the monsters who are only unbalanced weird legs.
I want us to take a moment and admire this background painting. I can’t unsee the rocks that are all the same size, just piled on top of eachother. Did Alexander the Great just plop rocks here--or was the mountain made up of tons of similarly shaped boulders?
Like there’s a lot of nice bg’s in this arc, don’t get me wrong, but this one...I’m just trying to wrap my head around the logic of it.
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At the top, they meet a pantheon, that is immediately blocked by this wall, because if this arc had a tagline, it’s “Yugi gets inconvenienced every 4 seconds.”
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Bro was like “Clearly they would have pushed it over if Tea wasn’t slacking off” and like...she is actually. Look at her. Only used one hand? Slacker.
Joey was disappointed he couldn’t push over a massive wall, and the team decided not to analyze how much Joey Wheeler thinks of his own strength and instead fixate on these statues.
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Usually in anthro characters they kinda look birdlike but act human. But what about an anthro that’s just a bird? Like human torso, but can turn his head 180 degrees? Yugioh made me ask this question.
And then Joey was like “wait, there may be a solution that isn’t just to use brute strength!”
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Youknow it is a bummer that Kaiba couldn’t witness Joey own a dragon while he himself only has a robot jet dragon. Although, the jet is probably faster, stronger and overall...better than this baby dragon. It would have been great for Kaiba to witness Joey under-utilize this dragon and forget he has it for like huge swatches of the episode.
And then Grandpa pulled some body horror out of nowhere.
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Wow.
I mean that is really gross.
I guess Grandpa can’t use Blue eyes, because Kaiba ripped it up, Grandpa can’t use Exodia because Weevil tossed it off a boat, and grandpa can’t use the card that’s just a building because...it’s a building.
So instead Grandpa has a bunch of meat and bones that look like something out of Doom. It’s probably from a more obscure Konami property, but I forget which.
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I’ve seen Tristan hold back Joey in this hold, first time it’s been Tea.
So much shipping in this episode, it’s wild.
It’s also wild how low my standards are for what could possibly be shipping when it comes to Yugioh because of how freakin tepid all of these characters are, which as I’ve brought up before, I really don’t mind.
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So Yugi decides that because Grandpa was folding his arms like one monster and it made a gem light up or something, to just do the video game thing and use the giant ass statues as clues.
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Why was this arc not a video game? Like parts of it really feel like it was meant to be.
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So Yugi falls down a hole, where the walls cave in like it’s that dumpster in Star Wars but like...it barely phases him.
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Also...Yugi might be able to see in the dark. It’s never been brought up but like...the more I think about it...has Yugi ever struggled to see without the lights on?
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After Joey disappoints everyone, he confronts death.
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And Pharaoh and Yugi decide to solve the puzzle of “how do I get out of this trap dungeon room” which, honestly, is probably what they’re doing every time they hang out in the brain pyramid.
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So they summon their mascot monster, and surprisingly the show decided its ability to fly cannot help them out here.
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Kuriboh manages to become enough of a doormat to push Yami up to the stone and they end up in a set of weird cuts that ended in this?
Like seriously it was like flashes of light and then they were just...up here like this.
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Hey like...
Alexander the Great, my man...
Were you planning to put that stone in the middle of a exhaust vent hoping someone would touch it? Because there’s no way anyone would rationally have done that. You would need to fly to do it. This is the world’s worst DM.
Like Yugioh pulls a lot of fantasy nonsense but this arc is a lot more like a “it’s a kid’s show, just go with it.” arc than most of them. It’s not a bad vibe, necessarily, it’s just not the vibe I’m used to.
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So once I witnessed maybe the most boring conversation I’ve ever witnessed about corn (this was on a twitch stream, by the way, a guy was playing an interesting game, and then a guest came on and started talking about corn and plants for 2 hours) and they would not shut up about how all taxonomy is wrong because there are no such thing as trees and how all animals are labelled incorrectly, and then they started comparing it to like all sorts of mushrooms and phytoplankton as you would if you clearly got a little bit high before dumping your corn knowledge on a twitch stream.
Anyway, after that bizarre experience I suffered so I could learn how to play an obscure video game, I think I can safely say, that while I know everyone here thinks a bird can’t be a dog. If you’re a high biologist: a bird is absolutely a dog. Apparently you can just do that if you’re the most boring biologist alive and no one will argue with you because to do that would involve talking to you. We’ll just say a bird is a dog and no one can fight me or I will talk about the corn book that this guest on this twitch chat was thinking about renting from the library about the different types of corn mutations inherent in freakin Indiana. Therefore, Joey’s fear of birds and dogs is same.
So they use Dark Magician to save them from the statues, and Yugi busts into the pantheon again because they got to open this casket before a time limit that I kind of forgot about, tbh.
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And inside the casket, is...this thing!
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(enjoy this line on the bottom of the image I don’t feel like fixing it)
And you may say to yourself...it looks like it’s just floating in mid-air, that’s silly, and so I want to introduce you to the next panel where you can see that it is...quite literally...just floating in the air like a video game.
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and it just slurps itself onto Yugi before he can be like “nonono.”
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Wasn’t there some horror movie where you were stuck in some sort of body brace that slowly tortures you (was that Saw?) This has that vibes. Like man that looks uncomfortable to wear over a jacket and two belts and a collar that is another belt.
That and I...I gotta appreciate that Yugi popped his collar while wearing body armor and chunky necklace. What 00′s fashion appreciation right there.
Bit like...this isn’t breathable, right? Like Yugi’s gonna finally take this thing off and his jacket will just be completely soaked in sweat?
Anyway, that’s it for this post, next week we’ll see if Yugi can walk through a doorway in that thing.
Also, I can’t bring up the ostrich dance without sharing the vines of my generation
youtube
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simschallenges · 4 years
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(note: because the original post by suxela can’t be found, i’m posting an archived version of the rules.)
Into The Woods Legacy Challenge Rules
By: Suxela
Welcome to the Into The Woods Legacy Challenge, where your legacy will have plenty of interesting characters, as well as ups and downs.
Growing up loving Disney fairy tales, it was no surprise that when I heard about the Into The Woods musical, I absolutely had to see it. That movie remained my favorite until I watched the Beauty and the Beast live action movie. Now, inspired by the Disney Princess Legacy Challenge, I decided to make a brand new challenge based off of Into The Woods. If you don’t know what it’s about, let me sum it up. Into The Woods is about several different fairy tales being intertwined and each story is dependent upon the others. The baker and his wife need to gather supplies for a potion to break a curse so they can have a child. These ingredients include items from the other fairy tales, like Cinderella's slipper. Everyone gets their happily ever after but then the big twist happens, affecting every single character.
General Rules:
No money cheats
Must complete all goals before death of character or you lose the challenge
Must have or adopt an heir for each generation
If you have any extra packs installed, feel free to use them. I would definitely love to see the cats and dogs expansion used with some of the characters. And if you do this challenge as a youtuber, please post the videos so I can watch.
Starting Out: Begin with a starter home and 1000 simoleons. I encourage you to be creative with the characters but it is always good to have some sort of representation of who they are in their looks.
Generation 1: Cinderella
Despite the life she’s lived with her stepmother and stepsisters, she’s finally free from them but still bound to her old life through a wicked curse of cleaning and a dreadful wardrobe. But it’s not all that bad, because she kinda likes cleaning. Will she ever break the curse and find her happily ever after…? 
Start out as a YA and must clean everything in her household until marriage.
Traits: Music Lover, Loves Outdoors, Neat
Aspiration: Your choice
Career: Your Choice
Goals:
Plant a tree in her backyard as a YA
Throw a fancy party and invite chosen prince before marrying him as a YA (feel free to rush relationship. That’s what she did in the movie)
Have at least 1 child (heir) named Red
 Divorce husband as an adult after catching him cheating
Achieve level 10 of the singing skill
Generation 2: Red (Red Riding Hood)
Red’s nothing like Cinderella so raising this child must have been exhausting. It’s hard to say who they got their traits from but not from Cindy, and the trouble Red gets into doesn’t help either. 
Traits:Glutton, Kleptomaniac, Loves Outdoors (Or dog lover if you have the Cats & Dogs EP)
Aspiration: The Curator
Career: Criminal
Goals:
Reach level 10 of the fitness skill 
Decorate your house with 5 stolen items
Reach top of Criminal career
Complete aspiration
Have at least one child but doesn’t have to marry (can adopt)
(Again only if you have the EP) Have a dog that is like the wolf from the movie with the traits glutton, hunter, and trouble maker.
Generation 3: Jack/Jackie
This kid takes after their parent for sure. Stealing is a thrill for them but gets the kid into trouble quite a bit. Well, I hope they can make other friends besides Milky White.
Traits: Active, Childish, Kleptomaniac
Aspiration: Your Choice
Career: Criminal
Goals:
Become best friends with Milky White (Add this sim into town as a female)
Sell all items stolen for profit
Mother dies before marrying
Marry as adult and have 1 girl first and 1 other child (must be by blood)
Dual Generation: Generation 4: Rapunzel and the Baker
*In a dual generation, you have to have both sims living in the same house and control both of them, doing their challenges at the same time. It’s more of a challenge and much more fun.*
Rapunzel’s mother loved her but forced her to clean everything for them once she was old enough and wouldn’t let her leave the house, save for school (unless you have the mod for homeschool/online school). She couldn’t even talk to her sibling! (not like she knew about them) It was fine for her though. She had all the things she wanted except a romantic relationship, but she didn’t think about that until she was a YA.
Traits: Creative, Neat, and Romantic (give her this trait as YA)
Aspiration: Soulmate
Career: N/A until adulthood
Goals:
Reach level 10 of the painting skill 
Doesn’t talk to her sibling until an adult
Gets married as an adult and meets sibling
Grows to hate her mother before her mom dies (you can cheat this)
It doesn’t matter what gender or name the baker has but for rule purposes, it is a boy. The baker doesn’t have a good relationship with his parents. In fact, he barely speaks to them, or his sister until he’s an adult. All he does for them is cook once he’s a teen. He loves it so he doesn’t mind but hopes his future S/O shares their love of cooking so they can both cook. After meeting his S/O, the couple finds out they can’t have a child. Will they ever lift the curse they find out has been put on them?
Traits: Family Oriented, Foodie, Self-Assured
Aspiration: Master Chef
Career: Culinary
Goals
Meets future husband/wife as teen and marries them as YA
Both have to be a part of the Culinary career
Meet Rapunzel as adult
Have mother drink the Sim’s Special to become “magically” fertile
Have 1 child but the mom must die after it’s born (cheat this if needed)
Reach level 10 cooking and gourmet cooking skill as well as completing the Master Chef aspiration
Generation 5: The Baker’s Child; Final Gen!
*Can have any name/gender, but for rule purposes, I will use a female. Also I’m aware we don’t get to see the child grow up in the movie but here you can play the life of the child.* 
She grew up without a mother, but is still able to live a good childhood, despite her slightly gloomy nature. She had great grades in high school, too. Other than her seemingly perfect life, she has a cool ancestry which is perfect to write about, so what does she do? She becomes a writer of course, telling their stories as her father once told her.
Traits: Gloomy, Creative, Your Choice
Aspiration: Bestselling Author
Career: Writer
Goals
Max out all skills that are available to toddlers/children.
Has to be at the top of her class in high school
Write 3 books inspired by some her ancestors as those tell the stories of their lives. Be sure to name it after them as well.
Reach level 10 of the writing skill and top of career
Complete aspiration as well
You can decide the rest of the aspects of her life such as her friends, romances and even if she has kids. You can even have her get a pet (squeals from pet loving nature). Definitely have fun with this character. 
Congratulations! You have won the Into The Woods Legacy challenge.
“Remember to tell the stories worth telling.” 
~ Suxela
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leahquark · 3 years
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How to escape from a time loop
How to escape from a time loop
Prevent the causing event
Alright, so you’re stuck in a time loop. But maybe you know what caused it. Hey, if the causing event keeps happening, it’s obvious. Let’s say at the end of every day, you die. Easy peasy, just don’t die one day and you’ll escape the loop. Easier said than done, sure. Especially if the loop is short, or the event is out of your control (yea, 10 minutes really feels unfair to convince your aunt Sally on the other side of the country not to knock over her Egyptian flower vase). But hey, you get unlimited tries at this. Plus, a time loop means your money and resources reset, so feel free to go nuts and waste them. Just, don’t do anything you might regret if the loop suddenly breaks. Of course, after enough repeats, I doubt there’ll be much left in this category. If the loop happens when you go to sleep, then don’t go to sleep. Heck, chase the sun around the world if you have to. Rage against the dying of the light.
2. 
Make amends for the causing event
Okay, so maybe the event that caused the time loop only happened once. And maybe it happened on the day before the loop, or in the first iteration only. Well then, you can still make amends for it, hit the edit undo. Don’t believe me? The statistical probability that YOU would be the first person stuck in a time loop is so ridiculously close to zero. If you’re in a time loop now, that means others were probably in a time loop too, and maybe got in and got out the same way. And they kinda had to get out, in order for time to progress and trap you in your time loop today. So go track down that evil time witch and apologize to her, or find a scientist who can study the alien blood you’re covered in. Tell them to keep notes, then at the end of the time loop memorize them and regurgitate them back at the start of the next loop. Remember, you’re the only one who can retain information / make progress at the end of each loop. Only you can look out for yourself, but maybe medical science has an answer.
3.
Prevent and make amends for everything that could possibly be the causing event
Okay, so maybe you don’t know why you’re trapped in a time loop. Alright, then try this. Go through a list of everything you did the day before the loop, and during the first iteration of the loop. Focus on things you said, places you went, objects you saw, things you thought about. It’s important to do this before the time loops repeat so many times you forget what happened the first time around. One of those things, something as minor as not hanging out with a friend, could have been the causing factor… at least according to movies and TV. In reality, it’s probably as likely the time loop was caused by a passing black hole, or a scientist at the large hadron collider. But hey, if it’s something not related to your personal life and daily activities, then you’re kinda screwed. So just completely change your daily routine, do things you’d never think to do, break that habit that you do on every iteration of the timeline, and hope that the loop was just some catharsis for your morning coffee addiction. Now is the time to fix any regrets you may have, to make amends, to become a better person. 
4.
Binge watch time related tv
Also read some sci fi. Of course, if you’re reading this, you’re probably on track already, and getting into the more obscure sections. That’s good, a lot of those mainstream sci fi movies are more meant to make you feel good than actually discuss the repercussions of time loops. But hey, you never know, maybe you’ll get some inspiration for something. Heck, a lot of escaping from time loops is getting the right inspiration. So yea, take a break, and binge those bad tv shows. You’ve got all the time in the world to do what you love… assuming you love sci fi television as much as I do. Heck, I won’t judge if you just want to use the time loop to binge all day, enjoy yourself! (You are trapped in a serious science anomaly we don’t fully understand after all) Just, make sure you eventually take a television break if the time loop doesn’t show any sign of fixing. 
5.
Find a guide
Alright, so basic fact of logic, there’s only one person on the planet who knows the absolute most about time loops, and chances are it’s not you. At least, it wasn’t you when you got stuck. For all you know, that person walking down the street next to you knows more than you. Heck, maybe they were trapped in a time loop too. So go ahead and ask. What’s the worst that could happen? No seriously, what’s the worst that could happen? You’re trapped in a time loop, any social awkwardness you display will be forgotten by the next loop. Go up and talk to random people, find that person who knows a ton about sci fi. My DMs are always open, and I’m sure you can find some people in a sci fi discord server. Want a real kicker? Spend one loop learning all you can about a person, just talking to them friendly and nice. Then next time loop start the conversation with an announcement that you’re in a time loop, and prove it by reciting those same facts you learned about the person in the last loop. Get to know someone, make some new friends, or just reach out for help (its so hard to escape alone). 
6.
Convince the government
That trick I mentioned, in point 5… that’ll probably work for the government too. Imagine calling up the president of the United States on his personal cell phone, telling him you’re in a time loop, and backing it up with a whole host of personal facts. What they won’t see, is the hundred or so timelines you spend going from convincing the police, to the FBI, to the governor, to your local senators, etc, etc. At every step of the way, wasting one or two timelines to learn all their personal info, then regurgitating it to them in the third timeline as proof you really are looping. It’s exhausting. All to convince some bureaucrats and some scientists to look into it. Let’s hope they really do have aliens in area 51, or this will be a massive waste of time. But hey, time is something you’ve got too much of anyway. The effort may be exhausting, but you can’t give in, you need some professional backup on your team, and no matter how much you repeat yourself, its worth the effort.
7.
Number those timelines
Alright, so at this point, try anything. But you need a way to stop yourself from trying the same thing twice. And you need a way of prompting the people you are with to stop saying the same old ideas. If you wake up on the same day every morning, and ask the people around you to help you escape a time loop, then they’re going to be repeating a lot of their responses. But in my experience, people reply, think, and remember differently based on the prompts they’re given, and maybe those different prompts will jog your brain, and the brains of the people you’re around, into thinking of something new. One way to do it is get a dictionary, or some other book with a wide variety of words, and each day refer to the next word in the book as that day's prompt. Do something completely random, completely insane, but make sure it started with you and your time loop guides reading and thinking about the prompt. So you’re probably going out to go touch an aardvark then. Come back when you’ve ridden a Zambonni and I’ll know things are really desperate. Point is, keeping trying new things, and enjoy them while you’re at it. 
8.
Keep trying
Alright, it’s not really like you’ve got much of a choice here. Going about your day, or repeating the same day twice, or acting and pretending like you’re not really in a time loop, are all ways of experimenting with something new (though, frankly I think these will just lead to frustration). Heck, maybe instead of acting crazy, what you really needed was to act normal. Maybe it’s a sentient creature keeping you trapped in the loop, and it’ll sense when you’ve given up hope and then release you from the loop. Maybe. Really doubt that though. Technically, it’s impossible to give up. But hang in there. Keep yourself, and your joy. You get to live. You get to experience something no one else has felt. You can learn a hundred new skills, and master them all, and live frivolously every day. You get to meet every person on earth, and study them all in a single day. You are technically immortal. There is nothing you have to do, no responsibilities. There’s nothing new on television to keep you glued to the screen, and no point putting any of your dreams off until tomorrow. You’re trapped in time, but in a way free. Free of consequences except the ones you choose for yourself. So choose to be happy, choose to live. Choose to value this day with your friends and family, even if they won’t value or remember them. Maybe plan one million for escaping the time loop is to go down to a nice sunny beach and just relax. In a strange way, that’s got just as much chance of working as anything else. And it’ll make your eternity here a lot more bearable than moping around your house all depressed like.
9.
Don’t die
I have no idea what the religious implications are of being trapped in a time loop. And the thing with most time loops, at least the ones I’ve seen on tv, is that death doesn’t let you escape the loop. And frankly that’s a good thing, because death is something worse. I’m not going to go into this too much, though if you really are trapped in a time loop I’m sure these few words are tantalizingly short. (If you need more, there are plenty of resources out there) But no time loop has ever been solved by dying. Even if it did resolve, your eternal purgatory would probably end up taking the form of a time loop. But don’t worry, I can give you my personal assurances that you’re alive right now. And that’s good. Because life is a beautiful thing, even when the day repeats. You know, especially then. After all these dark and gritty escape the time loop stories, of tormented characters driven mad because nothing they do matters, can’t we have one where someone is happy to be in a time loop? We all die, eventually that is. Whether you’re trapped in a time loop or not. But not all of us live. Not all of us truly live. Maybe being trapped in a time loop will help you live truly. I mean, if you really think about it, in several thousand years, is anyone even going to remember you? Remember your accomplishments? You may as well have lived for a day. If you want to escape the time loop so what you do matters again, maybe it’s time to face the reality that what you do… may not have mattered. And that’s okay. Life is about the living. Living every day, day by day, and making the most of it. We don’t always get to control the hand that life gives us. Maybe we know someone with Alzheimer's, whose memories fade at the end of each day, and makes it seem like we’re living that moment over and over. Maybe they don’t even remember who you are. Maybe, to them, you’re a stranger, who met them today, and knows so many things about them. Is it happy when someone laughs, if they won’t remember it later? Did it really happen? Yes it did. Yes it is happy. 
10. 
You can’t escape / why did you listen to me, I’ve never been trapped in a time loop
Life is a beautiful thing, time is a beautiful thing. It’s beautiful because it doesn’t loop. I can understand the anger, that bitter rage people can have, trapped and unable to reach out, repeating the same day over and over. Unable to move on. Unable to break free. And sometimes they do break free. Sometimes, silly movies and tv shows, that avoidance of the causing incident, or the help of scientists and their research, are enough to fix even the most terrible of fates. But sometimes they can’t, and we can go on, suffering forever. I’ve never been trapped in a time loop (I thought I was once, in fact, all my friends thought I was too, and they all tried to help me out of it. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t, right?), and if any of the people around me have, they've been hiding it exceptionally well. They’ve worked today, for the hope of relaxing tomorrow. They’ve made progress, with the thought that their accomplishments matter, and their adventures can wait. That’s the mindset a lot of us go through life with. But maybe, just maybe, life can’t wait until tomorrow. Maybe it takes getting trapped in a time loop to realize. When your hard work doesn’t pay off, and you can’t think of what evil thing has landed you where you are, when the universe deals you a bad hand, maybe that’s when you realize what’s important. Waking up, every day, with people you care about, ready to live life for today. Maybe tomorrow won’t come. Maybe it never will. Maybe you have to live, live every moment of your life, today. Or, maybe, just maybe, tomorrow is right around the corner. And when you tell those people around you that you love them, maybe this time they’ll remember. But what the hell do I know? I’ve never been trapped in a time loop. I’m just a person, one of billions on planet Earth, living life. 
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wolfish-trickster · 3 years
Text
Lost traveler
4/?
Loki x female!reader
Word count: 1 084
Tag list: @gaitwae @lucywrites02 @hard-to-be-the-bard @birdgirl90 @laramoonworld
Summary: A mysterious traveler visits Asgard and thanks to an accident has to stay for longer than she expected. Bonds are created but also shattered along the way.
A/N: reader has elemental powers, something like avatar the last airbender.
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Loki always liked nature. It was quiet enough for him to think or relax with a book, always changing, interesting with its abilities to not only heal but also kill. Unfortunately, he was the only one in 'his' friend group to think this way. Thor and the rest always picked a sword into fight and left all the thinking at home. It was quite refreshing to see someone like you enjoying a walk through forrest.
He still hadn't figured out why you keep your name secret. Are you a wanted criminal? Would be fun if you were. Even though you really don't look like one.
He looked behind his back to check on you. You were always behind the group. You occasionally stopped to sniff a flower, pick up a rock in a funny shape or just stopped and listened to birds' singing. You really were an interesting person.
He slowed down to walk next to you. "So, Astrid, where exactly are you from?"
"Ehm, it's far away," you fidgeted with your fingers.
"How far?"
"Very."
Loki lifted an eyebrow at you. "Not the type to talk too much, are you?"
"At first, not really. I just need some time. I barely know you after all."
Right. Clever girl. "So you aren't someone to blindly trust, correct?"
"More or less," you chuckled and relaxed a little.
However your shoulders became stiff again when Thor's big strong arm snaked around them. "Stop interrogating the poor girl," he chuckled and winked at you.
You unwrapped his arm from around yourself. "He wasn't interrogating. We were just talking."
"So were we in the front! Fandral had an idea; let's make campfire and tell eachother stories of Asgardian heroes. Just like we used to. And our dear Astrid will at least lear about us and this land!"
"Isn't it too bright for a campfire?" you asked and gestured at the still shining sun.
"I guess we will have to wait till sunset. A very romantic one," Thor put on his seductive smile. Loki knew that smile all to well. Whenever there was a new girl in the court or an old childhood friend grew into beauty that smile made an appearance. It also made appearance whenever Loki showed interest in a girl, whether a romantic or platonic one.
You looked very uncomfortable at his flirting, to both Thor's and Loki's surprise. "Oookay then, if that's what you want to do..." and you speed walked towards Sif. Loki imagined it was more of a 'get away from Thor' reason than to just befriend Sif.
"What is up with her? Do I have something in my teeth?"
Loki rolled his eyes. "She isn't interested Thor. First time hurts, doesn't it?"
"Oh you shut up," Thor playfully shoved him to the side.
~~~
Sif and you settled on a small meadow inbetween woods. You talked about weather and flora and fauna of this planet. You still didn't reveal anything about you. With your amulet still damaged and cold against your skin you just felt vulnerable. Sif, to your disappointment didn't know much about plants and their abbilities, but the younger prince made up for it.
You started to like Loki. He was quiet, observative, kind of an introvert like yourself. When he mentioned he likes reading you immediately wanted to ask him his favourite genre, author, book, quote from the said book, character, setting, trope...
But you couldn't be open, not yet. They were still strangers to you. Even though they were nice.
"Hey Silvertongue! Have you tested her yet?" Volstagg shouted at the both of you sitting under a giant old oak from across the field. He, Fandral and Thor went for a run into the woods few minutes ago and returned all sweaty and exhausted.
"That's right! You did not test her yet!" Sif woke from herlight nap.
"What test?"
Thor took off his beige shirt and started stretching his muscles. "My dear brother has this test to determine whether you are worthy of his time or not. He always does it to everyone. Even all of us. According to his words no one passed yet. Seems like he likes you enough to not even test you," he glared at grinning Loki.
"I was merely waiting for the right time," he stood up and gestured for you to do the same. His golden magic shined around his fingers as he made a square of grass disappear from infront of you.
You gasped. "You're a warlock!" you nearly shouted excitedly.
"What?" Loki asked confused.
"A warlock. You know, someone who deals with magic and stuff."
"And that is what fascinated you? Him doing little magic?" Sif asked, more surprised than confused.
"Well, it's a long story. For another time," you studied tips of your boots.
Loki blinked few times to ground himself. No one has ever been this excited to see his tricks before. He made a wooden stick appearen in his hand (to which he ganed a 'so cool' from you and angry glare from his brother) and gave it to you.
"With this stick you will draw the perfect weapon for every fight or war against any enemy into this dirt," he pointed at the de-grassed place.
You thought for a while. With a smile you started to draw one straight line after another until you drew a box. You looked up into their faces. Most of them were confused, Sif was holding back a laugh.
"A box?" Hogun tried to look at the drawing from every possible angle.
"You have never been in a real fight and it shows," Fandral shook his head.
"Remind me to teach you some moves later," Sif said in between chuckles.
"What did you mean by that drawing?" Loki asked.
"Well, there is no such thing as a perfect weapon for everything and against everyone. People, who are good with swords will imagine sword as the perfect weapon. Those who prefer daggers will imagine daggers and so on. In this box is whatever a person needs and is good with," you explained, hoping it was good enough of an answer.
Loki just smiled proudly at you. "She passed."
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miggydiaz · 3 years
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For the salty ask 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23 and 26 for cobra kai pretty please
My answers are so long, so I am putting this under the cut @wonderwolfballoon! Also I just noticed your Daniel icon I SWEAR I’M NOT DRAGGING HIM TO BE MEAN!!!
1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?* My biggest IDGI ships for CK are probably Elimetri or Kiaz. I’m not here to yuck other people’s yums or anything, but I do think there is something to the idea that Migueli isn’t popular because it’s a ship predicated on mutual respect for one another. Kiaz has the obvious enemies to lovers vibe and I just generally don’t sail those ships. Elimetri has... its problems, IMO, most especially around the idea that Demetri has to like... save Hawk from himself? Idk. I just like romances that I feel are based on love and mutual respect and not ...tropes.

 I am also not a Lawrusso shipper although I have a lot of those on my dash and you all are great! Again, not yucking yums! Daniel just makes me want to head butt him too much to pair him romantically with anyone 😂 I don’t even want his wife with him. He needs to self reflect~ 

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?* 

I once saw someone ship Amanda and Anoush and I noped out of that so fucking fast I almost tripped over myself. I’m not sure if they’re popular. I just think some people feel the need to get Amanda out of the way to sail their ship and stuck her with Anoush which... no. Just no. Let Amanda be a messy single queen with a martini hobby, thanks! 

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?* 

Not in CK. I’m lucky because I pretty much stick to my little Migueli bubble and I’m okay with that? Lmao lord knows the Squad on my dash is all about the DISCOURSE™️ so idk if I just don’t feel the need to get sucked into the wider ship wars because we have good healthy debates, but so far, so good. 

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?* 

I never hated it... I just didn’t have many feelings on shipping with this show in general at first. Then I was in the CK tag one day and I saw Migueli fan art. Then I discovered @afurioushawk‘s falconry series and it was all over for me after that! So fandom DID make me love a ship, just not one I hated.
9. Most disliked character(s)? Why? Oh boy. How much time do you have? In some instances, it’s a good thing season 3 happened because otherwise, this would be a multi-page essay on the problems with race and class privilege as it pertains to Sam LaRusso and just some... generally not nice comments about Demetri that I’m conflicted about because I’m not sure if the writers are intentionally trying to write him a specific way and it’s just not translating to me or what. But season 3 revamped both of their images with me a lot. I’m way more flexible in terms of Demetri, but lmao I was the number one Sam LaRusso hater for a minute there (or maybe number 2, I can think of at least 1 other person who was in that boat with me back in like... August/September, but I won’t call them out because I don’t want them to get hate...) However, I have grown a bit in my opinions of Sam, and even though I still think she’s responsible  for a lot of shit she NEVER gets held accountable for, I also think that’s a reflection of the adults around her too, and this includes my otherwise unproblematic queen, Amanda.
But honestly, my most hated character (other than the obvious villain that is Kreese) is Daniel. No matter how handsome Ralph Macchio looks in cable-knits, because Daniel has always been a sanctimonious, shit starting drama king and I say that about KK Daniel too. I’m not saying Daniel was the ~true villain~ or anything, or that Johnny was innocent -- I can only drink so much Red and Yellow Kool-Aid -- but Daniel’s always been annoying to me as a protagonist, and turning him into a smarmy wealthy car salesman who is also a class traitor did not do him any favors in my book. I will say, I also like Daniel more in season 3 than I have in previous season, but since he is the adult, I will be mad at him longer than I will be at the kids, ya feel?
10. Most disliked arc? Why?

 Johnny’s entire season 3 storyline. The sheer level of REGRESSION at every turn drives me bonkers. It’s like watching him go through all of the stumbling blocks of season 1 all over again, but without the “he’s learning! He’s going to make mistakes!” free pass that I was willing to give him the first time around. He regularly jeopardizes Miguel’s recovery and it’s played for laughs. He fucks up on every level with Robby. He spends most of his time running away when things get hard or too real. He drops the ball completely with Hawk, and like, not to put too fine a point on it, but a lot of Hawk’s issues are because Johnny put Hawk on this ‘flip the script and be a badass’ path and then offered him no guidance for how to walk that path and instead left him in the hands of Kreese. And then he has the nerve to go to Hawk and basically be like “I made you what you are!” lmao yeah Johnny, you sure did, that’s why he’s breaking peoples arms, hoss. And then all of the nonsense with Ali and Carmen, like... if you were planning on teasing KK fans with Ali and him getting back together, why write her as married in the first place? Why even tease the idea of Carmen and Johnny until after you were sure what you were going to do with Ali as a character? Instead, they do what they did in season 3 and it makes him look like a colossal jerk. So yeah. Literally every choice they made with Johnny this season, I hated.
14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom? People who hate Tory are not valid, sorry not sorry.
16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? I would have kept Miguel entirely out of Tory and Sam’s beef. Or at least not directly inserted him into it like he was with the kiss. I know the writers thought it was necessary to push Tory to the point of inciting a fight at school, but I am just so exhausted over girls being unable to fight about anything but boys. Also I would bring Aisha back.
20. What is the purest ship in the fandom? 

I am probably biased, but I still maintain it’s Migueli. Look, Miguel stood up to Kyler for Eli and Demetri both. Hawk joined CK because he saw what it could do for some skinny nerd who was getting his ass kicked. And he took to CK, really took to it! Even flourished before he started getting mixed messages. And he and Miguel were pretty much inseparable after that. They coordinated their wardrobes ffs. Hawk dubbed him El Serpiente and no one else calls him that — it’s Hawk’s nickname for him. Miguel confides in Hawk only secondary to Johnny, who is like a father to him. The entire Coyote Creek exchange shows they can fight and disagree but... well, to use the cliche, they don’t go to bed angry, you know? They’re square the very next day. Hawk is the first person at Miguel’s side when he gets kicked over the balcony and the LOOK he gives the second floor where Robby is? That boy is out for blood immediately to avenge Miguel. So much of his s3 behavior is fueled by that need for vengeance because MD is wholly responsible for what happened to Miguel. And Miguel is so confused and betrayed by Hawk’s shift in behavior, and yet still holds out hope that Hawk will see through Kreese’s BS and come with him to The Dojo I Refuse to Name. And when Hawk does make that deflection finally, he shows up at MD with Miguel. There’s so much more that I know I’m missing but whether someone ships them or not, that is a tried and true love and respect for one another, a willingness to fight for and defend one another that you don’t often see in TV friendships... or even in most tv relationships. And I just think that’s the best ❤️
22. Popular character you hate?

 Daniel, hands down. I mean... I don’t even necessarily hate Daniel, you know? I just think it’s really, pardon the pun, rich that a guy of immense wealth and privilege can’t get a therapist or turn to his far too patient wife for help with his existential crisis over his high school bully opening up a karate dojo to make some money and help a kid who is getting the crap kicked out of him. I get that Daniel’s narrative is necessary for the rivalry, but it does nothing to make him sympathetic as a character.
23. Unpopular character you love?

 Tory, definitely! Everyone hates her and then there’s me and the Squad over here banging away on our Coors Banquet cans yelling TORY RIGHTS! Seriously she catches so much flack for a teenage girl who is... the sole income provider for her family? At 17? While caring for a sick mom and a little brother? And fending off a creepy landlord? Tory has it so rough and then she meets a cool girl at her dojo who asks her to hang out at some fancy ass country club which is probably the nicest place Tory has ever been in, and then she gets talked down to and accused of being a thief and has another girl lay hands on her, only to find out that same girl is her new boyfriend’s ex and... ugh. I HATE that Tory gets shit all over when Tory and Sam wouldn’t even have beef if Sam had apologized to Tory as she SHOULD have. Tory isn’t innocent, but damn, I’d be pressed too.

 My other unpopular character I love? Nathaniel. Seriously that kid is THE best. He’s a literal child but is out there like I WILL FUCK YOU UP, even though he’s MD. Honestly, his Cobra Kai energy is so ferocious I won’t be surprised if he moves back to CK eventually. Anyway, I love him.

26. Most shippable character?

 Miguel, hands down. It’s because he’s so affable and sweet overall. And because his hair is so fluffy and pettable that no one can resist touching it. I like to imagine that one day he and Hawk are talking about their hair and Hawk makes a joke about how Miguel’s mane is getting so long that it’s going to be bigger than his own, and then he reaches out to ruffle it and internally has a bisexual meltdown because oh no IT’S SO SOFT AND NICE. But uh... anyway, yes. Definitely Miguel.
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