#in effect

[positivelyqueer]

one question

what’s your view on the meaning of life

hey anon,

you gotta make one.

like right now, mine is to bring warmth and joy and love to the people around me and myself, and treat my animal body with kindness.

[yourheartonfire]

"It's not so much that I don't believe you're my soulmate," the protagonist said. "So much as I believe that the soulmate programme was designed to control us and stop us from challenging the government." They pierced the hero with a look. "Ensuring that everyone needs another person to feel complete gives one rather a lot of leverage, don't you think?"

"On the other hand, it gives you someone who is always on your side."

"You're not on mine."

The hero smiled, faintly. "Aren't I?"

From @the-modern-typewriter 's awesome patreon!

The protagonist crossed their arms and glared at the hero over the sticky tabletop between them. "Oh, sure," they said. "'[Hero]'s on the little guy's side!' I've seen the t-shirts."

As was traditional when one was first matched, this first meeting was a coffee date. As was decidedly untraditional, someone had pulled some strings and this coffee shop - one of the trendiest in the neighborhood - had been closed for a "private event" in the middle of a busy Saturday afternoon. The protagonist wondered if the remaining staff, eying them curiously from the other side of the counter, had signed NDAs. They wondered how long it would take for word of this to leak - the government's shining symbol of law and order matched with one of the government's loudest and most public critics.

The hero drummed their fingers on the table, studying the protagonist's face. "Why did you sign up for the programme? After all this time and noise, you chose to participate. Why?"

"Out of the sneaking suspicion something like this might happen," the protagonist said promptly and took an obnoxiously noisy slurp of their sugary caffeine. They'd ordered the silliest, most pretentious drink on the menu - they'd researched before showing up. It made their teeth ache. Which was good. This was not supposed to be pleasant. They were not here for fun. 

"Don't you think it makes a certain kind of sense, though?" The hero popped the lid off their tea to stir it, the smell of peppermint and honey filling the air. "Who else cares about this country as much as you and me? Who else is so willing to fight for what they believe?"

The protagonist did not miss how they caved those broad shoulders in, curved that muscled back into an awkward slump. Trying to mirror the protagonist's body language.

"I'm sorry, but do you believe this-" the protagonist gestured at their table, at the room "-isn't somebody's idea of a sick joke? Or, more likely, somebody's political calculation."

"You think this is a trick."

"Obviously it's a trick," the protagonist said, a little too loud. "The question is whether you're in on this or whether you actually believe the bullshit that comes out of your mouth."

The hero looked down into their flimsy paper cup, tiny in their meaty hands. "If that were true," the hero said softly, "If there was no integrity behind the soulmate programme, they would have given me a soulmate years ago. When I asked for one."

The protagonist blinked. The hero lifted those famous blue eyes to meet their gaze, and their eyes were not twinkling with justice or whatever. They were dark and deep with sadness. With need. "I signed up as soon as I was of age, even before I'd finished training," the hero admitted, spreading their hands on the table. "Nothing. A few times now, I've called in a favor and asked the program's analysts to double check, to see what was wrong with..." They cleared their throat. "To see if I'd filled it out wrong or made some error. But every time, there just was... nobody. Twelve years, and not even a tentative match. Until the moment you submitted your profile and the system lit up like a Christmas tree."

"I'm not your Christmas present," the protagonist snapped. A new coldness was seeping through them. 

"That's not what I..." The hero raised those steel-crushing hands in apology, tried a smile. "Are you really going to tell me this was a calculated political decision you made to submit a profile to the soulmate programme?"

"Yes!" the protagonist said.

The hero raised an eyebrow. "Hm. A calculated political decision that you made at 3 in the morning after you'd had two bottles of vodka delivered to your apartment?" 

The protagonist rocked back in their chair. The hero took a sip of their tea and held their gaze expectantly, without a hint of shame. 

"It's a little early in the relationship to start abusing your position to cyber-stalk me, don't you think?" the protagonist managed to say through a dry mouth.

"[Protagonist], I'm not judging you. I'm saying I understand. I'm saying I've been there too." The hero leaned in. Somewhere along the way they'd abandoned the bad posture act. The protagonist tried not to flinch from them as they loomed over the table. "All those long dark nights of the soul. Aching and exhausted and so. Fucking. Alone. Is it really too much to believe that there might be somebody out there who understands what you put yourself through to do the right thing?"

"This was a mistake." The protagonist yanked their gaze away, fumbled for their backpack. "I gotta go-"

They stood - too fast. The strap tangled around their ankle, their hip cracked into the table corner, they fell -

- and the hero's hands were on them. At the waist, at the wrist. Caught.

For a moment they both hung there. For a moment, the hero's eyes glittered. Ever so slightly they squeezed - 

And then the moment was gone as fast as it had come, and the hero was placing the protagonist back on their feet.

"Of course," the hero said with a sad smile and ringing voice that carried to all corners of the room. They loosened their grip on the protagonist's wrist to just a thumb and a forefinger, wrapped around their pulse like an iron shackle. "If that is your choice, that's your right. But please know..."

They raised the protagonist's captive hand up to their mouth and pressed it to their lips. "...when you realize the truth, I'll be waiting for you," they murmured.

Finally they let go. The protagonist bolted. 

No one tried to stop them, but they felt the hero's eyes on their back all the way out the shop. All the way home, all the way behind their double locked door where they collapsed in a panicked heap.

Well. On the one hand, now they knew the hero really believed. On the other...

"Okay," the protagonist wheezed into their knees. "Not good."

They wondered if the hero could hear them. And realized, undoubtedly, they could.

Now continued here. Part three here. Part four here. Part five here

[frostfuyu]

you're a teacher so. what do you think of u.a and it's system? do u have any critiques?

Don't even get me started on their system. I have a lot to comment on, but I'l just talk about this one thing for now.

The single fact that the hero course is being glorified makes the students in general clasess feel horrible. You can tell that just by watching the sports festival. Remember the introductions? "It's the hero courses!! Wow so great, amazing and cool! Oh yeah and the support course, business sourse and general studies(forgot about those, whoops)"

We need the teachers to be less biased. Most of them favour the hero course and some don't even try to hide it. How would you feel if you were one of those students?

[frostfuyu]

what are your main pet peeves with your family?

Fuyumi's pet peeves

Shouto being racist

Father being a dick to everyone

Natsuo coming home literally once a year

Touya still missing (you better come back)

ect.

[frostfuyu]

whats the thing bothering u most rn!!

Our family has a groupchat now. I thought it would bring our family together.

It does not.

[frostfuyu]

has your dad ever gotten on your nerves?

I'm not going to lie here. Yes. A lot of times.

[allnightsong2]

The April Fool is enchanted but not ensorcelled.