#[ the way he's so dismissive of that thought right after. of his feelings. god dude. ]

[mymarifae]

does anyone want to join me on the aventurine/argenti train. it's got all the perks of being as funny as any other argenti ship - especially given the random absurdity of their first meeting. what the hell was argenti doing in the depths of the nihility? who even knows anymore man. but like also i think it has the potential to be really sweet?

aventurine hasn't let anyone In since his sister died. he's long since forgotten how to Trust, and Love, and how to BE Loved. and this, combined with enormous amounts of survivor's guilt and trauma and being treated as an object, has really done a number on his self-esteem. he doesn't act like it (because he's learned that it's dangerous to be vulnerable; it's the one gamble he's not willing to take), but 2.1 gave us that glimpse into his inner dialogue and it is Bad in there

between his conversation with acheron, the note veritas left for him, and finding a sense of closure in the apparition of his younger self, he's on track to becoming better. we can see it in the way he pretty much immediately reaches out to the trailblazer to get some things off his chest once he gets his phone working again. and the way he's accepting what is basically a form of therapy from the doctors of chaos. but his self-hatred has been building up for years, and it's going to take a long time to unpack and unlearn all of that

so like, in comes argenti, right? he's a loud show-off, but he is SO earnest. he sees the beauty in everything and everyone. he's kind, and gentle, and so full of love. he also comes off as a bit... lonely to me? he's spent so much of his life chasing after idrila's shadow, and only catching a glimpse of them in his many near-death experiences (and isn't that something to think about...........). he's not like, secretly miserable or faking or anything - i think his exuberance is 1000% genuine. but humans are social creatures; everyone wants and requires at least some form of closeness and intimacy. to have a love to pursue in This realm... someone he can see and hold without needing to have one foot in an early grave . i think that would be good for him. that's all

anyway, it's clear that argenti was pretty enchanted by aventurine

like yeah that's kind of just how he talks normally but !?@,%&#& that's a lot of awfully romantic things to say about one specific person out of the several you apparently rescued (??????? god i love this guy he makes no sense. literally why are you even here bud). it seems that aventurine's more subdued state left an impression on him too, and well wouldn't it be pretty in character for him to start popping in randomly... as he does, because he can apparently just go wherever the fuck he wants. to check on this sad yet oh so beautiful peacock.. to try to bring a true smile to his face... to show him how kind and beautiful the universe can be......

i think aventurine might have a hard time laughing off offers of comfort and company and the beginnings of a courtship if it comes from someone like argenti. this man couldn't be disingenuous if he tried. he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve as much as he rips it out of his chest to show you. it'll be a learning curve regardless - aventurine is too used to needing to constantly prove his worth to keep anyone around and to keep them from hurting him

but do you see it. do you see the vision. do you see how Sweet this could be. aventurine is about to receive more roses than he'll know what to do with

[mx24]

[fifthnailinstevesbat]

after the events of season 4, steve just wanting SO BADLY to be friends with eddie. just LOVING the idea of them getting closer and having eddie as a friend because hell yeah! a close male friendship with someone that is actually my age, and who i don’t have a weird history with involving bruised eyes and love triangles? count me IN! and eddie is FUN, he is actually hilarious! the way they share the same glances of understanding when dustin is being an absolute shit head, rambling on and on about some obscure topic, expecting everyone to always be on the exact same page as him. of course. and, although steve suspects that eddie actually probably is keeping up with everything dustin says, much better than he ever could, he knows that above it all eddie can appreciate the antics for what they are, and roll his eyes with steve at dustin, i concur, you dustin henderson, are a total butthead.

steve just about junps RIGHT IN to being friends with eddie. hey man, what’cha up to tonight? wanna watch a movie? get drunk, smoke a bit? hey eddie, how have you been, man? he starts calling eddie up on the phone regularly just to check in, shoot the shit, he loves it! he loves having this new friendship with eddie munson and he loves how much the other boy has surprised him with how much he actually enjoys being around him. he’s not a freak, really, well ok maybe he is a little bit, but only in the best ways. he’s kind, thoughtful, and is always looking out for the people he cares about, which is something steve can really respect in a dude. but he’s also so funny? steve never could’ve anticipated just how much eddie has managed to make him genuinely LAUGH over their short amount of time spent together. and he’s really, out there? with the way he presents himself, the way he takes up space with these big THEATRICAL movements, leaving no room for regret or shame or god forbid embarrassment. steve isn’t even sure munson is capable of feeling it at all.

eddie munson is a good dude, and steve could use a bit more of that kind of person around him. he loves all of his friends, the weird little bonded family he’s found himself apart of, and they are all good people, but it never hurts to have afew more added in here and there. it never hurts to know there are more good people out there to find.

so steve is all over eddie, it seems.

at least, from where eddie is standing. nobody else seems as phased as eddie does at this sudden change in steve’s demeanour, in his interest in what eddie munson spends his time doing these days. it seems like, to everyone else, to steve, it’s just a natural progression in their relationship, after being sort of role model figures to the same group of kids, both being the two single dudes, who fought the same monsters together last spring, it seems nobody questions too much that they’d start casually hanging around eachother more. especially since eddie has found himself to fit into his own special spot as one of the group now after it all, after he unwillingly became tangled in this whole upsidedown-superpowers-supernatural-monsters and demons debacle, and tangled quite dramatically at that, the rest of the group that’s been with this since the beginning seemed to find no trouble in taking him in and seeing him as “one of them” now.

so, steve asking eddie to smoke, to watch movies, to go for a drive with no real end destination, it’s not really something that earns them too many double takes. dustin makes a comment or two in the beginning, because steve since when did you like hanging out with eddie? you guys are like so opposite, you don’t like any of the same stuff he does? and steve barely gives a shrug and a dismissive yeah yeah whatever man in response, with a signature eye roll, and dustin had said it seemingly also not too seriously, poking fun at steve wherever he can, not really meaning anything by it, as he fidgets around and rambles in the backseat of steve’s car, eddie riding up front. after that, though, he’s dropped it. it’s never brought up again. part of eddie thinks, too, that dustin would actually be enjoying that his two older friends are becoming friends themselves.

robin seems to be the only other person to look a bit harder at their situation, lingering stares at their interactions, all squinted eyes and eyebrows raised, though from her all this seems to be almost always and only ever directed at steve. eddie’s not sure what to make of that. isn’t he the weird one? i mean, he’s the one that stands out, right? he’s the odd denominator that makes their friendship strange. why would steve harrington want to hang out with Him? HIM? but robin doesn’t spend her time studying eddie to try and search for what about him could possibly have piqued the interest of cherished steven harrington, no, shes always looking at steve. like she’s seeing him differently, almost. eddie doesn’t even think that steve notices it, either, because he doesn’t seem to be questioning or doubting anything odd or strange or out of the ordinary with their newfound time spent together. and maybe, maybe robin is seeing him differently. eddie knows he definitely has been. seeing him more, intensely. deeply. human. seeing the person that steve is, as just steve, not this idealised version of a boy that eddies starting to question ever really even existed at all, or if everyone around him just needed to believe that he did, and who was steve if not happy to comply to the wants of the people around him for who he should be?

eddie likes having steve as his friend, too. don’t get it twisted. he loves how unexpectedly expressive steve is about everything, even really small things. steve LOVES to raise his voice, rest a hand on his popped hip, scolding the kids for something stupid with no real heat or malice behind it. and steve is, like, kinda bitchy too. eddie knew he had the capacity to be a real asshole when he wanted to be, that’s all he knew steve for back in the day, when he was back in high school, hanging around tommy h and the basketball boys, the jocks. eddie would spend his days hearing only whispers and gossip in the hallways of the parties at king steve’s house and the fights king steve had started and won on the court or out in the fields, only ever getting as close as a shove into a locker with the guy at the time, but eddie knew how it could go. he knew all about what steve had done to jonathan, what he’d said to him, the words he’d used. eddie knew it all. he’d seen enough, and been through enough himself, to know how these guys acted in response to guys like him, like jonathan, people who were lower on the social food chain. so, eddie knew about steve’s “mean streak”, if you will, but this kind of snarky bitchiness was something new to him. harrington was almost, sassy, when he wanted to be. it was less so cruel and more just, just sass. if he’s being completely honest it kind of blew eddie away, at first. he thought steve was one of those dull headed jocks who thought with their fists more than their actual brains, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. steve’s insults were well thought out, they were FUNNY, he was smart with his words. and silly. oh my god steve harrington could be so fucking silly, real honest to god goofball when the moment called for it, when he felt comfortable enough. eddie had caught on multiple occasions steve mimicking lightsabers to play fight with dustin, or the stupid fucking shit he would do or say just to make robin laugh, singing along to a song playing on the radio with a funny voice.

it was all a little, intoxicating, to watch. eddie didn’t know what gave him the right to be in on this now, to get to see this side of steve and better yet to be at the other end of some of his best qualities. it was fun, all the time they spent together, but there was always something else tugging inside eddie everytime they spent close time together, too. something, he knew steve wasn’t aware of. something he knew steve wasn’t equipped to deal with. something he knew, was him. was him, making things something more than they should be, because, nobody seemed to be questioning that they could become friends, so why ruin that? why disrupt it?

- robin and steve

“Steve.”

“-but then like, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to watch it I just thought, hey, y’know, let’s try something different for a change, but then he- oh my god he honest to god TACKLED ME Robin — I mean, it was so fucking funny and it happened so quick — and all over a fucking Tom Cruise movie-“

“STEVE.” Robin lightly slammed a hand onto the counter. She had been standing behind it for no short of 20 minutes, watching Steve as he paced around, supposed to be stacking tapes onto shelves, but ended up spending the whole time going on and on, and ON, about how movie night went with Eddie last night. She thought she was bad…

Steve jumped, almost running into a shelf and knocking down his hard work, and seemed to snap out of whatever trance he had found himself in after starting to tell Robin a story about something funny Eddie had done last night.

“Shit, sorry. Sorry, what were you saying? Were you- were you saying something?”

To this, Robin just rolls her eyes and let’s out a laugh, “You, sir, are goddamn hopeless.”

“Sorry. How long was I talking for?” Steve wandered his way over to lean his arms onto the counter from the opposite side.

“Oh, I dunno Steve, just about half an HOUR?”

“That is an over exaggeration Robin, it’s only been like-“

“Honestly, man, i’m concerned for you. You are like next level OBSESSED with Eddie. Eddie Munson. You do realise this right??? You are obsessed with him, Steve.”

To this Steve sputters, lazily waving his hands back and forth.

“No, Robin, what the hell are you talking about? I am not OBSESSED. No need to be jealous, alright, Stevie-Boy here can have more than one friend. Your spot in my heart isn’t any less special now that it’s beginning to be shared by another.” He bats his eyelashes up at her, holding both hands over his chest as if to cradle his heart.

“Oh my GOD! You even SOUND LIKE HIM!”, she playfully slaps his shoulder. “Steve. You are obsessed.”

“I am not obsessed! He’s just a really great guy, alright-“

“Blah blah, yep whatever you say, lover boy.” Robin quips, plopping down onto the chair chair infront of their staff computer, turning herself to face it.

“Wha- what? Lover boy? What the hell Robin, that is not- that doesn’t even make any sense!”

She is just smiling at him now, enjoying seeing him spiral like this. Steve let’s out a sigh as he puts his hands on his hips, and shakes his head, looking at her right back.

He opens and closes his mouth afew times, like he’s really thinking about what he wants to say next. Or like he has no idea what to say next, and his brain is not moving fast enough to formulate the next sentence his mouth knows he wants to say. He wasn’t obsessed. That’s not- that’s like- no. No he was not, Robin was just playing around with him, she knew how to get on his nerves. Get him all wound up over little things just to see him react like this.

After a minute or two, Robin realises Steve was not going to reply anytime soon, so she turns fully back toward him. Saving him from his spiral.

“So, what are you’re plans for tonight Steve-O?”

He lets out a chuckle and walks around the counter till he’s behind it with Robin, leaning his back against it so he can stand across from her and face her.

“Well, not really sure. Parents aren’t home, no early shift tomorrow, might drink afew beers, listen to some music, —“

“See what Eddie’s doin?” Robin finishes for him, quirking her eyebrows up and down as she does it.

“Oh shut up!” Steve just laughs and softly throws a tape from the counter at her chest. “As a matter of fact, yeah I will see what he’s up to. Because we are friends now, Robin. Is that a problem? Actually I was also gonna ask you what you were up to after work, too, but you know what after this I’m having second thoughts, I mean, the way you’ve been treating me lately-“

“Oh my god, you are the worst. Yes, I’m free, of course I’ll hang out with you dingus. You and your tweedle dee.”

Steve laughs at this, then tilts his head.

“Wait, does that make me dumb? Tweedle dumb?! That’s how you see me?”

“Yeah it is actually, got a problem?”

“Oh wow, she’s feisty today. Can’t believe you think I’m dumb, Rob’s. When you come knockin’ tonight, do not expect a warm greeting at my front door.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take my chances.”

- later. steve’s house. to be continued?

[alipeeps]

Episode 16

I'm ready for the pain. *whimpers* Bring it on...

.......

Whyyyy is Zhu Yan's (much shorter) hair fully grey when he was younger? Is my boy vain? Did he start colouring it as he got older? 😂

Okay so young Li Lun is a sulky bitch. I'm getting "teenager forced to come on a family holiday and determined to hate it just because" vibes...

Why do I feel like I know the dragon mountain god somewhere?

*goes to check MDL*

Meh, he's done this and My Journey to You (which I only got a few eps into before getting distracted) and two movies that I've not seen. So, no idea why he seems familiar.

Though for some reason (his styling maybe - with the braids and the hint of moustache?) he is giving me Nie Mingjue vibes...

Ahahahaaaa they knew in advance that Zhu Yin was skanky!! 😁

Gotta say (I have mentioned it before) I am loving the narrative device they keep using in this show where they flash back to a previous scene and show more of it/detail that we didn't get shown the first time around that completely reframes the current scene and shows that they were expecting this and had stuff planned in advance...

But wherrrre is my boy Bai Jui during all this? Ying Lei asked this earlier and Zhuo Yichen said he should be with Pei Sijing... I took that at the time to mean they still had no idea that Sijing is the spy and thought he was somewhere safe with her... but could it mean that they do know/suspect and they maybe sent Bai Jiu after her, knowing she would spot him and (trusting she wouldn't actually hurt or kill him - which is a big risk tbh?) would have to stay and guard him, thus keeping Bai Jiu away from the fight *and* taking Sijing out of the fight?

Aiya... Ying Lei living up to his potential as a mountain god...

Uhoh, dragon boy is fighting back with his weather-controlling powers.

And Li Lun is just standing there not doing shit. 😂 Like... dude... they are all occupied with either holding the area or spell-casting inside it. You could just walk up and stab em and they wouldn't be able to do much to fight you off...

Oh shit no... dragon dude is not controlling the weather... he's making it night time rather than day...

Which means... blood moon

Oh SHIT!

Welp Zhu Yan pulling in all the malicious qi has at least dealt with the creatures outside the gate... but on the other hand you've now got a MUCH bigger problem!!

Well fuck

So the Baize token was what was shackling Li Lun and that's why he wanted it broken... bullshit about breaking the barrier between the wasteland and the mortal world so demons could be free was just the lie he sold Zhu Yin to get him on board (just like the lie he sold Qing Geng - this is his modus operandi)

God this is glorious imagery...

Goddamit though, Zhu Yan has absorbed all the malicious qi and very clearly lost control but all he does for the longest time is just hover there... he doesn't immediately go on an indiscriminate rampage. I can only imagine him spending all that time hovering just... trying to cling to control...?

And the first person he *does* go for is Zhu Yin, who betrayed him and his friends.

Ugh the dismissive ease with which he shrugs off the mountain god's power...

Oh man, the slow deliberate malice in the way he moves...

I shouldn't be finding this expression hot AF, right?

OMG look at how distressed he is - even after everything Li Lun has done - at seeing his friend be sealed...

So... it was *again* a blood moon that caused Zhu Yan to kill Zhao Wan'er? But... where did the blood moon suddenly come from? Or did it appear *because* Zhu Yan started absorbing malicious qi?

The *sound* in this scene... no music at all... just silence and the over-loud, almost distorted-sounding sounds - slosh of the water from Wan'er's footsteps, her breathing, the washing of the waves....

So. Fucking. Atmospheric.

But wait, in this memory he attacks Wen Xiao and (it looks like?) ?breaks her neck? (Or does he just knock her unconscious?) That didn't happen though in the other depictions we've seen of this scene? Is this memory faked/altered? In fact... how the fuck can Li Lun be showing her a "memory" of shit that went down after he was sealed? He wasn't there to see any of this? I call bullshit! Unless... he somehow stole this memory from Zhu Yan?

Oh SHIT is the blood moon where he killed Wan'er the same one in which he attacked Demon Hunting Bureau?!!

This song by Hou Minghao is so melancholy and haunting... and even more playing over this scene...

Oh what the fuck Sijing actually fighting on the side of the good guys? Or is she...?

Also wtf happened to her boss who was outside the gate. Why has he not gotten involved in the latest shenanigans... he wants Zhu Yan's core still, doesn't he?

Oooh baby bro enters the fray!!

Using Ying Lei's blood to fire up the sword?!

Oooh divine blood, demon blood & the Bingyi clan blood on the sword = maximum effort!

Ooooooh is he faking? I've been slightly spoiled about Zhu Yan giving him immunity to his one word spell... are we gonna get another flashback showing that that already happened and Zhuo Yichen is once again pretending to be in a coma to get the upper hand?

Fuck WHAT?!! You end it THERE?!!!

And it's fucking 3am, I cannot watch another episode, I will have to go to bed and SUFFER until tomorrow!!

[millyditty]

I stg

If nobody writes an angsty Nobamaki post canon fic where they start to get close and then Maki

OBVIOUSLY TRAUMATIZED STILL

Suffers from comphet for the first time in her entire ass life because the guilt and shock of the finality of her actions finally kick in now that everything has slowed down so of course she dumps Nobara right there in the gym after engaging in flirting for the last three hours and of course Nobara is lucky enough that she has her boys taking care of her after the really really fucked up breakup because Maki should just go to therapy dude

But Maki, because she’s MAKI, is a stubborn ass for a few years because of course she can make herself care about Yuta, who

By the way

Is the only one she has the right emotional distance from to feel at least semi safe with

And Yuji and Megumi proceed to continue to be the very best friends of a baby lesbian that Nobara could ever possibly need, even help her get better at the dating thing and good at finding girlfriends that WONT dump her ass after three hours of flirting just when she had THOUGHT Maki was finally letting her in but anyway, she does deal with her shit until she’s a whole ass adult helping them raise their freaking adopted ass kids that they refuse to admit they’ve adopted

Even though she’s labeled “auntie Kugisaki” and shit, they’ve adopted another damn kid, annnnddddd

Yep, another one, Jesus, how bad would it be if they could actually breed? Would both of them just be walking around pregnant constantly?

Bottom ass slut that he is (she knows, she’s walked in on them, dear god, there had been dicks and spit and other disgusting stuff everywhere, dear god, they were sluts) Megumi totally has the biggest” put a baby in Itadori” kink of all time, she’s absolutely fucking sure of it

But anyway

Nobara actually deals with her shit but still can’t find The Perfect Girlfriend she’s been looking for for YEARS, not that she’s still upset with how Maki has all but ignored her for YEARS, brushes her off every time they cross paths in the school with her usual dismissive attitude and blank stares from across the room

And meanwhile

During these years

Poor Maki realizes that she’s rocked her own shit and she doesn’t even KNOW how to even BEGIN to reach out to Kugisaki again, and she sure as hell doesn’t just go to therapy because Yuta is totally all the emotional support she needs (right up until he also randomly adopts a child and disappears) and maybe Panda skims a whole bunch of complex PTSD books between missions because she’s just clearly not doing well at all

They would have enlisted Toge to be his assistant but there’s only so much emotional processing that he can help Maki with when trauma terms are definitely not on his sushi safe words list

But anyway

FINALLY shit hits the fan when Maki gets her actual PHYSICAL shit rocked for the first time in years because of course their friends and coworkers force them to go out on this mission together but whoops

Turns out they picked the wrong damn mission to play matchmaker but they’re so SICK of this endless lesbian drama they’ve been watching for TEN FUCKING YEARS HOLY SHIT MAKI GO TO THERAPY

And boom

Maki realizes right then that she can and will fucking DIE without saying what she needs to say because suddenly her control issues matter a whole lot less when her Kugisaki is trying to stop her bleeding and is telling her to please not die and is actually crying the way she hadn’t been that night when they’d been just overwhelmed fucking kids and Maki dumped her, when she’d only smiled bigger and bigger and even made jokes so that it would be easier for Maki to finish the dumping process so that they could both just be done with it and move onto pretending neither of them cared about it anyway obviously

And whoops

All of a sudden Maki is promising her like a lead character from one of Kugisaki’s ridiculous dramas that she won’t die, promising Kugisaki that she’ll fix this, promises that she’s sorry and that she’s spent this entire time hating herself and wishing she could take it back and that she hadn’t meant it when she’d told Nobara that “them” was a phase that they needed to just get over because they were “adults” now

Because she’s not over it, she hasn’t been over it

And she’s convinced, fingers refusing to let go of the other woman’s blouse, passing out with Kugisaki’s mouth against hers so that she can at least give Kugisaki this when she says IT for the first time ever, that she’s never going to get the chance to say it again so it has to be now, so she repeats it until she can’t speak anymore because she’ll never get to say it again

Because she’s dying

Because she’s only twenty nine and she’s dying in Kugisaki’s arms like Kugisaki has already forgiven her for every shitty dismissive comment and every stupid childish glare that she’d used to keep Kugisaki away and it still doesn’t matter because she’s dying

Dying right here in Kugisaki’s lap, the reality of it a bleak reflection of how Kugisaki had always inched into her own lap years ago when they were alone, of how she’d been doing it that evening but Maki had panicked

That night she had panicked

She had stared down at the damaged flesh that Kugisaki’s eye patch couldn’t completely cover and thought about Mai and thought about feeling—

So she hadn’t

So she panicked and didn’t, but it hasn’t saved her from any of the misery of the last ten years

And now she’s dying, and Kugisaki at least isn’t pushing her out of her lap like she had Kugisaki, and it doesn’t matter because she’s dying—

Then she wakes up

Then she wakes up and Shoko is staring down at her like she’s a fucking moron which

Considering Shoko’s shitty and borderline fucking abusive relationship with Utahime before she actually got her shit together finally that last time a few years back is really fucking rich, okay

But then Megumi leans over her too, and looks so fucking gay and judgmental that she really really wants to punch him, and wait— why is he holding another new child as said child rambles on and on about…

Ghost dogs? Sushi? What?

Where the hell did THIS ONE come from, they were supposed to be out doing a super dangerous exorcism, what the hell is wrong with them, why are they trying to adopt children like puppies, why don’t they just get fucking dogs like a normal gay couple?

And then she realizes she’s not dead

That she is very much alive

So she looks past the most annoying lesbian she’s ever met (and she has NOTHING in common with Shoko, thanks) and the most annoying gay cousin she’s ever met (thank god she’ll never be anything like him with a new picture on his phone of Yuji sleeping or smiling or training literally every goddamn day, the man is obsessed) and there’s no sign of Kugisaki anywhere

No, there’s her charging cord and her favorite drink tumbler with ancient stickers sitting right there, so Kugisaki must have fled the room at some point—

Oh no

“You’re an idiot,” Megumi tells her, voice dripping with disdain as he fixes the little kid’s homemade knit dog hat with floppy ears that she knows full well Megumi must have made but will still blame Itadori for because he’s such a stubborn motherfucker even after all these years so Itadori must actually get off on it honestly

“You’re an idiot,” the strange child tells her confidently, huge black glasses taking up the parts of her face not swallowed up by the knit dog hat

And that’s how Maki realizes she can’t take any kind of easy way out this time, that she had in fact

Said

Those things

Out loud

To Kugisaki

Oh no

Oh no

And this is when Itadori bursts in looking worried and shaking his head, tells Megumi in a rush, “she wont let me in but Panda’s going to try to break in there and actually get her talking, I think he’ll have better luck, he’s really good at this stuff—”

Itadori stops when he sees her awake

Maki stares at Itadori

Itadori stares back at her wide eyed, looking cornered

The teenager that rushes in after him, the very first of the children that Megumi and Itadori both insist they have not adopted (despite taking them all to doctors appointments and tucking them in at night and all the pictures that Maki has seen displayed in every single corner of their ridiculously minimalist house that may actually have the best shower that Maki has ever used but she sure as hell will never admit it) looks at Maki

His eyes narrow

Shoko says quietly, “holy fuck, oh my god” and starts shoving nicotine gum into her mouth desperately

The kid jerks his head, dark eyes snapping toward Megumi

“Pleaaaaaaassse let me at least try to beat her up, please let me, please just this once, it’s my only chance I’ll ever have to do it, she can kill me with her pinkie, I know, but I’ve never heard auntie cry this hard ever, pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaasssseeeeeee let me fight her—“

Maki gets it then, puts the pieces together

Oh no

Oh no

And so this becomes how Maki has to finally grow up and fix her actual mistakes, which were surprisingly not murdering (almost) her entire biological family in cold blood—

But breaking the heart of the only person she’s ever cared about and has missed every day and thinks about every single night in her shitty bed after she takes her shitty shower in her shitty apartment that she refuses to move out of or spend the money or energy on to improve because none of it seems to matter

But she’s alive

She’s not dead

Her head jerks, finds the nest of fuzzy blankets that Kugisaki had left when she must have fled, the hint of lipstick left on the straw of the pink tumbler, and now she can smell her, the exact same mix of sweet orange and sharp floral that she’d been wearing that evening in the gym when Maki had ruined both their lives

Oh no

… come on, guys I fucking NEED this shit

[catch1ngmoths]

⋆༺𓆩JEALOUSY𓆪༻⋆

Summary: you and Georg are not dating though you both have a crush on each other. But when Tom decides to flirt with you. It changes the relationship with you and Georg forever.

A/N: HEYYY! This one is LONGGGG yall!! It’s like 8:30 am by the time I’m writing this and I haven’t slept yet…sooo if I don’t respond to any requests after this is posted that means my ass fell asleep

!!SMUT!!

Requested by the lovely, @nyxwritesshit

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

You tipped your head back and laughed at somthing Georg said. Georg smiled at the sight and sound of you. You shook your hair back from your face, shining eyes meeting the boy sitting to your right. Tom smirked at you, his arm resting on the back of your chair.

Tom spoke something in your ear with a voice to low for Georg to hear as a giggle spilled from your soft lips. You whispered something back to Tom, making Georg’s fists clench in his lap.

Your chair moves against the floor as you get up from your seat. You playfully ruffled Tom’s messy locks making Georg frown. Tom smirked, cockiness setting in him.

“I’m full, I’m gonna go clean up.” You say with a smile. “Will we see you tonight?” Tom responds, resting his head onto his hand and looking up at you seductively.

You waved your hand at him dismissively. Georg couldn’t help the way his eyes shifted down to your ass, hips swaying as you walked away. God, he really wanted to see those shorts on him bedroom floor.

“Fuck I love watching her walk away,” tom spoke, “I can’t wait to get acquainted with that ass.”thought he was cut off by Georg. “Hey!” His voice was sharp, “she’s a person you know?” Georg continued.

“What’s it matter to you?” Tom asked, quickly turning his head to georg in confusion. “It’s nothing! Just…treat her with some respect, asshole.” Georg said as he stared down Tom.

“No need to go in on tom like that, dude,” gustav said, “it’s not like it’s the first time he’s said those things.” Georg clenched his jaw as he turned his eyes on gustav. This was news to him.

Tom had never said anything like that about you whenever he was around. “Yeah yeah whatever.” Georg said as their crew members came towards them, telling them their break was over.

Georg couldn’t get his mind off you. The way you laughed, the smile you gave him when he said something funny, the way your legs looked in shorts. The way he imagined you’d look in his bed. Okay, maybe he could understand tom a little…

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

It was finally time for the party that bill was throwing. By the time you showed up, everyone was wasted… everyone except for Georg. He immediately noticed when you walked in and rushed twards you.

He couldn’t take his mind off this afternoon, and it made him realize something, he had to tell you how he felt before someone else got to you before him. He couldn’t stand the thought of that.

You saw georg coming up to you and reached your hands down to smoothen your dress. You wanted to look the best for him. “Hey N/N! I need to talk to you.. can you follow me up to the spare bedroom,” Georg yelled so you could hear him over the music blasting throughout the house.

“Of course!!” You respond as he grabs your hand, interlocking your fingers together in a way that made you feel all fuzzy inside. Once you were in the bedroom, Georg grabbed your other hand as he looks you in your eyes with a undistinguished look.

“Okay so I need to talk to you. It’s important.” Georg says, squeezing your interlocked hands. “Okayy…tell me, I won’t judge!” You reply, smiling reassuringly at him. “Okay I’m just gonna say it.. I’m..I’m in love with you y/n! I’ve always been in love with you.”

Georg holds his breath as he waits for your response but feels your hand slipping out of his. He panics for a moment. But only a moment as your hand reaches up to hold his face.

“Georg…I love you too. It’s always been you. Always.” You say flashing a toothy smile at him. He smiles back as he slowly leans in, you understand what he wants and you lean in as well.

You both lean in until your lips connect. It starts off slow and sweet but very quickly turns rough and heated. You are both grabbing at each other as Georg leans you down on the bed.

Slowly, he kneels between your thighs, taking your underwear into his hands. He traces the rim with his fingers waiting for your permission. Your throat is tied with excitement that you can only bare a nod.

With that, Georg pulls your underwear down. Leaving your dress rolled up at your upper waist and your bottom half being completely exposed to him. Not that you were complaining.

Before you can even think to cover yourself, he laces your fingers together again “Nu uh.. None of that.” He speaks softly as his head shakes “your beautiful, I want to see all of you.”

You spread your legs apart, giving Georg full access to you. You suddenly gasp as he licked a stripe down your pussy. You can feel his smirk hidden in between your thighs.

The image of your crush that you’ve liked for forever, buried in between your legs, is something that burned into your memory. His long messy hair cover his face, especially those eyes that are closed in pure bliss, seemingly enjoying himself just as much as you.

Your free hand grips onto his soft brown hair. Trying to stay as still as possible. The harder you pull on his hair, the louder he moans.

The hot burning sensation claws its way from your core, slowly dragging itself up ready to burst at any moment. His fingers start to burry themself inside you, adding to that already raging feeling.

Georg pulls away from you, hoping to gather the breaths that he never bothered to take. He doesn’t even have time to do that before your fingers claws onto his shoulders to drag him closer for a messy kiss.

He tastes like you. That singular thought has your head spinning in all directions. You kiss him even harder- tongues thrashing together. Your shaky legs lock around his back- trapping him even closer to you. Even if he wanted to move, he literally couldn't.

His hips start to rut against yours, the fabric of his jeans doing nothing to calm your over sensitive heat. “I need you.” You whine into his mouth, fingers now wrapped around his belt loop.

“Then take me.” He smirks and gets rid of the clothes that cover his body, fumbling with the buttons and zippers. but soon enough he is naked in front of you.

Though he is shaking with excitement and anxiety, one look into your eyes… the eyes he has found precious for so long, has all those fears melting away. You look perfect- no other way to describe how it feels to just look at you, laying down on his bed, waiting for him to give you all you need. He’ll be damned if he doesn’t give you exactly what you deserve.

He positions both himself and you to be as comfortable as possible- being on a mattress with springs that are totally not digging into your back. His fingers cover your hand once again- anything to give you all the comfort you can get.

Slowly, he enters you. He voices his thoughts at the same time. Your mind goes blank. The only thing you can hear is his pretty voice saying, ‘you feel amazing’ and ‘you’re so beautiful’. His praises have your heart overwhelmed, and if you weren’t so content with him inside you- you surely would have cried.

With every soft grind of his hips, he buries himself deeper, until he bottoms out. Soft gasps come from both of your lips. He restraints himself so hard, every inch of him is fighting not to dick you down into this bed.

Your hips start to talk for themselves, moving on their own- aching for anything. Georg doesn’t shy away from giving you what you both crave nor being vocal. No, every time he thrusts back into you, loud moans escape from his chest- not concealing his pleasure whatsoever.

It drives you insane. “More” You whisper. You can and will take as much as he can give you. He leans himself lower, until his face is right against your chest. He hesitates before connecting his mouth onto your breast.

You moan pathetically as his pace shifts to move even faster. His mouth still abuses your chest. Neither can his hands stay in one spot, they slide up and down your burning skin, touching what he can reach.

You tighten around him, causing his rhythm to fatter for a moment. He grounds his hand onto his headboard- attempting to not fall over and crush you. It was so hot, his looming figure on top of you. He looked gorgeous like this.

Sweat drips down on your skin, and the familiar ache comes creeping once more. You cling harder onto his neck and back, surely leaving marks on the skin. He hisses at the sensation, more out of enjoyment rather than pain- which you take mental note of.

Your desperate moans become louder against each other, both of you so close to reaching your high. His face falls against your shoulder- no longer worrying about keeping his weight up right. “Oh shit….I’m gonna cum-” His sentence cut off by his own moan.

You both moaned in each others mouth as you came against one another. The room’s heat was increasing with every pant. After a few moments, when you were both calmed down, Georg kissed all over your face as you giggled. He pulled you on top of him and rubbed your back comfortingly.

“Georg?” You said as you kissed against his chest. “What is it baby?” Baby?! You blushed harshly at the nickname as you continued. “What..what are we?” You said looking up at him with tired eyes.

“Well, I would love for you to be my girlfriend…but whatever you want.” Georg responds as he looks at you with desperation. “Yes..yes! I would love that Georg.” You said as you layed your head back down on his chest.

Georg smiled in relief as he knew you were so close to falling asleep. He kissed your head a few times and pulled the covers against you. “Goodnight my sweet girl.”

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

[slvttysstuff]

REBOUND chapter 3

(jay jo x reader)

Chapter 1:

https://www.tumblr.com/slvttysstuff/738042134255583232/rebound?source=share

chapter 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/slvttysstuff/738478643741884416/rebound?source=share

summary: months after shelly and jay broke up he found himself in a relationship with you while he hasn't moved on yet from his past lover (shelly)

Warning: angst, grammatical errors

Note: I'll be taking some scenes from the original story line of wb and I'll be changing some of it also^^

⊹¤.•⨳•.*☆✬✬☆*.•⨳•.¤⊹

Weekend ended as fast as I thought and now I'm standing outside the room debating whether I should enter or leave and stay at home for a couple of days, Im not ready to see him yet..

Recalling what Vinny told me I closed my eyes as I hold my breath, slowly opening the door, Suddenly before I could fully opened it someone already did it for me, Dom screamed as soon as he saw me

" ahh- god! You scared me! " Dom yelled as he put his hands on his chest, I mumbled a small sorry to him " what are you even doing outside the door? " Dom asked " anyways, you're nerdy boyfriend is waiting for you " Dom continue as my eyes completely went from Dom to jay who was already looking at me though his glasses, I Immediately looked away not wanting to have staring contest with him

' just ignore him, what's so hard on ignoring someone..or just act normal like before when you were still on your right mind '

Suddenly vinny's words rang through my head, I grip my bag tightly, I looked back at Dom and giving him a small smile before walking inside the room, I sat on my chair that was near at the window, once I sat there, I took my books and start studying before the class started

I feel a pair of eyes looking at my way but I didn't bother to look who it was, it's pretty obvious that it was jay

Dismissal time appered and everyone was now leaving the room while the others were packing up their bags, I was currently putting my belongings back to my bag when minu entered the room and talking about having a training after class today as he asked if the others will be attending

" hey nerd you going? " Minu asked, " yeah " jay answered which made me feel nervous, I'll be training with him fuck.

" you're being quiet today y/n? Are you okay? " Yuna suddenly went to my side as she holds my shoulder looking at me, " i-im fine Yuna thank you " I answered smiling at her gently her worried look hasn't vanished yet, she looks like she's not believing what I said

" what about you y/n? You going? " Dom asked I looked at them who were already looking at me, I nodded my head as an answer " did something happened to the two of you? " Minu asked as he keeps on looking at jay and me " you haven't Interacted yet since this morning " Dom said agreeing on what minu said

maybe I should tell them now

Silence engulfed us, no one dared to talk or speak, I sighed feeling uncomfortable

" we broke up " I answered earning a shocking look from Dom, minu, yuna and Mia while jay was only looking down at his book pretending not to be bother by what I've said

" we should get going now guys so we can practice " I said I acted as if my words didn't hurt me, I gave them a small smile " don't think about what I said, it's completely fine, jay and I talked about it " we did not " right jay? " I said as I looked over to jay who looked at me after I called out his name, everyone looks at him waiting for his answer " yeah.." he answered

" I hope June recovers quickly" minu said as he sighed, last week June was gang up with some dudes, they beat him up and his bike then after some day jay also encountered the same guys who beaten June, luckily we were there to help jay

" I'll beat those motherfuckers when I saw them again " Dom said as he clenched his fists but only to received a slap on the head by Yuna " you idiot! Will you stop acting so though? Stop getting into fight! All of you " yuna said scolding us

" the tournament again was near, who do you think we will race next? " Minu brought up while everyone just shrugged their shoulders, I looked over to jay who was busy ready his book, we were currently having a rest that's why he took the opportunity to study again

" how can you move on when you kept on looking at him? "

Vinny suddenly said, I looked at him annoyed " I'm not looking at him " I lied " who are you looking at then huh? Idiot " Vinny said once again, I bit my lips not knowing what to say " t-the.." I stutter as I looked back at jay and starts looking for something to answer at vinny's question " yeah right! I was looking at the tree there! It was beautiful!" I said and pointed the tree, Vinny's looks turned sour as he gave me a ' the fuck are you saying ' look

" I swear! I was looking over the tree " I repeated as he rolled his eyes " idiot " he muttered, " I'm not an idiot" I said looking at him with full annoyance " I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the tree " he said sarcastically, pointing the tree behind me I looked over to the tree and looked back at him only to see his finger pointing at me already, I slap his arms I was too bothered to not notice the eyes of the others looking at our way

" since when the two became so close? " Dom muttered receiving a ' I don't know either' from minu, yuna, and Mia

You also didn't noticed the looks that jay was giving at the two of you, and he can't help but to feel jealous at the scene...

im debating whether to let you ended up with Vinny or still at jay😭 what do you think?

[youcouldmakealife]

LBTE: Jared (106-110)

Quick return to summaries, for: in which two dorks get married.

106 - Jitters

“It’s stressing me out,” Jared says. “Like, obviously I love Bryce, I wouldn’t be marrying him if I didn’t, but like, figuring out how to say it and not like, embarrassing myself in front of everyone? I dunno. It’s hard.”

“You are your father’s son,” his mom says, and Jared can’t even argue that. His dad’s fucking awful at this kind of stuff, so Jared inherited it honestly, he guesses. Like, it’s so really clear his dad thinks his mom’s the shit? Jared’s over being embarrassed by his parents being happy in their relationship. But his dad kind of sucks at the expressing good emotions bit, to the point where him saying something really nice is the kind of thing that sticks with you for a long time because of how rare it is, but at the same time, Jared’s never doubted his dad loves him, and Erin, and his mom.

Jared is SO MUCH his father’s son, in a way he generally refuses to acknowledge, and yes, they’re both straight up awful at expressing their feelings, but no one doubts Jared loves Bryce after any time spent around the two of them. Ditto Don with Susan. (It horrified Jared and Erin as kids, how gross in love their dad was. Marcus Mathesons will be able to relate.)

“You’re not going to be a troll with your grandkids, are you?” Jared says, doubling down on the making her feel old since she can’t make him set the table twice.

“Oh no,” his mom says. “I’ll treat them like gold and spoil them rotten until they doubt every story you tell about me being a troll.”

Rude.

“Oh god,” she mutters. “I’m my mother.”

“Grandma’s a saint,” Jared says.

“Well,” she says. “At least I know firsthand that the strategy works. Table.”

She is going to do it and it is going to WORK and none of the M&Ms will doubt their grandmas are saints, no matter how much Jared insists only Elaine is actually a saint.

With a week to go Jared realises he totally forgot to ask Arvan for time off, and he only realises when he hears Raf ask Arvan for time off, that time off being, oh, Jared’s wedding.

“Um, me too!” Jared says. “And Chaz. We kind of need to all take that off.”

Raf gives him an utterly disgusted look

Raf will tell this story for YEARS, along with Bryce and Jared meeting. So many unflattering stories about Jared that Raf was forced to witness.

“It’s cool if you’re — you know it’s normal, right? To have — doubts.” “Cool, but I don’t have any,” Jared says. “…do you have cold feet?”

Bryce makes a very dismissive noise.

Please, Bryce has been ready for years at this point.

Him and Julius go over to his parents for his last dinner as like, an unmarried man — weird — and Jared’s half waiting all dinner for his dad to like, grab his shoulder and go ‘if you’ve changed your mind…’ or something, but he doesn’t. Best behaviour. Mom probably threatened him.

Honestly proud of Don for not doing that. (Susan definitely threatened him)

How’s the lake house?”

“It’s huge,” Bryce says. “You’re going to be so annoyed.”

I love that Bryce’s first thought about the place is ‘wow, this is so nice — that’s going to piss Jared off’, and he’s RIGHT.

107 - Preparation

“Nervous?” Julius asks him over breakfast.

“My feet are toasty warm,” Jared says, and after a very confused look from Julius, breakfast is briefly derailed to explain the concept of cold feet and no, Jared doesn’t know why it’s called cold feet, and then they’re looking up the etymology and Julius is making disgusted noises because it’s just based on some dude writing the words and it sticking, no actual clarification as to why

Nope, no proper origin to this idiom either. Enraging. I am Julius in this matter.

His dad insists on driving, saying it’s because Jared will be distracted, but actually because he’s a control freak who can’t handle not driving himself. Jared doesn’t fight it — he doesn’t know the area around the lake house at all, and if they get lost his dad will be unnervingly backseat stressed about it — but the fact that Julius gets dibs on the front seat, because ‘he’s a guest’, in Jared’s car, on Jared’s wedding day?

Jared sulks in the backseat, bags stacked between him and Erin like a barricade.

Shades of the blanket already. The brother Jared never had.

Elaine meets them outside, steering them towards the main house — apparently Bryce is getting ready in the bunk house, and Jared is very tempted to like, cut and run in that direction. It’s dumb. He’ll see him in three hours. He’s still considering it. “Don’t even think about it,” Elaine says cheerfully, apparently wise to Jared.

“I wasn’t going to do anything,” Jared protests.

“Bryce made that exact face when we heard your car pull in,” Elaine says. “Gail and my mom have him covered, and Gordie’s been instructed to stop you at the door by any means necessary.”

Do not mistake Elaine’s kindness for weakness.

“Wait, are there bigger rooms than this?” Jared asks. Because if so, this place is insane: this room’s the size of their living room and dining room combined. Maybe Bryce was right that Jared would be annoyed by how big it is — stupid thing to be annoyed by, considering how many people need to stay over, but there’s big and then there’s obnoxiously big.

It is nice and Jared is annoyed, just as Bryce predicted.

How’re you feeling? Jared texts.

pretty great get to marry the love of my life today, Bryce says

Bryce.

“Yeah, me too,” Erin says. “But it’s a pretty dress, so.”

Cue another twirl.

With a dress that swishy, you gotta twirl -- Erin is only doing what is necessary.

“Honey,” she says. “There’s going to be crying today. You’re probably going to cry today.”

He refuses.

“Bryce has already cried at least three times already,” Elaine says. Oh god. Every time Bryce cries Jared wants to cry. This is going to be a disaster.

Jared often stubbornly believes things despite evidence to the contrary, but I continue to have no idea how he thought he would get through his wedding day without crying.

There are going to be many matching PJs in his life, won’t there? He can’t even bring himself to mind.

It’s gonna get REAL cute with three generations in the same pjs.

“Wait, you gave Erin the rings?” Jared asks. “Why does Erin have our rings?”

“Because I’m maid of honour,” Erin says, with a little eyeroll like ‘duh’. “I’m standing up there with you, so I get the rings.”

“Do not do something to them,” Jared says. “Don’t — pretend you’ve lost them, or drop them, or—”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Erin says, sounding almost hurt.

Jared does not believe her.

“I wouldn’t do that to Bryce,” Erin adds.

Bryce is the brother ERIN never had. Because her brother is much worse than Bryce.

“When have you even tied bow ties?” Jared asks.

“Haven’t since my own wedding, but I looked it up on YouTube just in case you needed the help,” his dad says. “Now quit talking, I’m focusing.”

“Okay,” Jared says, and it looks pretty good after the third time his dad subjects him to a ‘wait, fuck, I’m trying again’.

“Don’t tell your mom I fixed your bow tie,” his dad says. “She looked it up on YouTube too, and she even bought one to practice with, she’ll be annoyed with herself.”

This right here encapsulates the Mathesons. A lot of snark and plenty of faults, but these hobgoblins love one another a lot. (Also randomly sneaky about their kindness because can't be obvious about their loving acts, how embarrassing.)

His mom wipes his eyes for him. “I did a really good job on that bow tie,” she says, sounding pleased.

“A great job,” Jared says, and bites down a smile when his dad gives him a thumbs up behind her back.

<3 Mathesons.

108 - Impaired Judgment (and other excuses for falling in love)

I’ve said it before, but this was the original title of the series, shortened for a few reasons (mostly brevity), and it felt right to use it for this part.

“Your dad spent the entire morning of our wedding day convinced I wasn’t going to show up,” his mom says. “You’re doing fine.”

“I didn’t really think that,” his dad mutters. “It was just a possibility.” If Jared was marrying literally anyone else, that’d probably bring the freak out to a new height, except it’s Bryce, so it doesn’t.

Seriously, can you imagine Bryce not following through with it? I can’t. Jared can’t. Dude’s cried with joy three times today in the presence of his mom alone. Nothing could get him to miss this.

Chaz does this goofy salute at him when Jared glances over the crowd of people ready to witness the inevitable mortification, and Jared smiles back weakly.

The person unironically referring to his time at the altar as ‘inevitable mortification’ does not get to call other people goofy.

“I’m not hugging you,” Erin says, when his dad finally lets go.

“Didn’t ask you to,” Jared says, which apparently is the permission Erin needs to hug him.

It’s like he doesn’t know her at all. Of course that’s the permission. Also: every time Erin and Jared hug my grinchy heart grows two sizes.

Jared looks over, sees Elaine and Bryce coming out of the back door of the bunk house, their hair glinting gold in the summer light and Bryce’s tux tailored perfectly, some full on James Bond suave shit going on, and Jared just — he gets to marry him.

We have TWO soppy ass dudes in this relationship, I don’t care what Jared says.

Who would dare pointed cough at him in the middle of his wedding? It’s probably a Matheson. Or Julius. Jared bets it was fucking Julius.

Chaz had a ticklish throat, sorry for LIVING.

Who let Jared open his mouth, holy shit. Someone stop him.

An excellent summary of Jared’s vows and also Jared’s life.

“I was such an angry person when I met you,” Bryce says. “Angry, and unhappy, and not — I didn’t want to be who I was. I didn’t like me. I didn’t like pretty much anyone. But god I liked you. And I wanted you to like me back so bad. And somehow you did, even though I wasn’t someone who even close to deserved you. And my biggest goal since I met you has been to become someone who does. And I don’t think I’m there yet, and I don’t know if I ever will be, but I promise you that’s going to continue to be something I strive towards every single day for the rest of my life.”

Bryce Marcus in his feelings is my number one kryptonite, and it got me good again.

He shakes his head, because he knows Bryce worked on it. Draft after draft, probably, trying to articulate his feelings for Jared, managing to land on the most devastating words possible, because he’s devastating in the best way possible.

Jared inhales, exhales, tries to get his breathing under control. Bryce waits for him to try to put himself together, and if Jared hadn’t been sure he wanted to marry him before this — and obviously he was pretty fucking sure — that would have done it, all by itself.

I’m not crying, you’re crying.

109 - Wedded Bliss

“Have a great season, guys,” she says, and Jared’s all panicky, suddenly, wondering if she’s a fan, which team she’s a fan of, before realising like — maybe she is a fan, maybe she isn’t, no way to know. If he was her, signing a non-disclosure agreement, he’d be immediately looking up the names if he didn’t recognise them, wondering what made an NDA necessary in the first place. And even if she is a fan, she’s not going to snitch; like, she signed a binding contract that would open her up to being sued for everything she’s worth, and also she’d probably lose her marriage licence…thing or whatever.

Besides, no Flames fan would be able to tell an Oiler to have a great season with a straight face.

Jared going through all the possibilities before stating the obvious.

(This reminds me of a fun fact I learned recently: in a map showing most hated teams by state and province, Alberta’s most hated team? The Calgary Flames. Meanwhile the Boston Bruins has all of Eastern Canada and two of three territories, for the largest geographical spread, good work dudes.)

“No one’s going to look at a picture of you standing alone in a tux and say, ‘hey, he must have been getting married to a man who plays for his rival team’,” his mom says dryly, which — fair point.

I mean…

“Bear, come here for a sec? I need a favour,” Elaine says, and Bryce immediately stops mid-conversation with Chaz and Ash and trots over, like the momma’s boy he is. Ridiculous.

Jared blinks when Elaine’s phone goes off. “Much better,” she says. “Thanks, honey.”

“I didn’t —” Bryce says, sounding confused, and Jared shrugs at him.

Elaine knows all the tricks. Jared’s smile went from strained to soppy watching that jog.

But, then, fuck it. He doesn’t need excuses. They’re literally all at his and Bryce’s wedding, who’s going to complain about a little kissing?

“Hey,” Bryce says, wrapping an arm around him when he comes over, mouth surprised against Jared’s when he kisses him, but only for a second before he’s kissing back.

“Okay, no,” Erin says. “Stop.”

Erin. Erin will complain about a little kissing. (They're so happy they get to kiss in front of PEOPLE. While OUTSIDE. Downright giddy.)

Also, Jared is pretty sure at a normal wedding, him and Bryce would get first crack at the food, but nope, he’s got to wait in line like everyone else even though he’s starving. Julius won’t let Jared butt in front of him, all ‘just because you’re married now doesn’t make you special’. Julius is the fucking worst. Jared can’t believe he even invited him.

I’ve said it before, but: truly the friend Jared deserves.

“So Jared’s like ‘I’ve never hated someone more in my life’ and ‘what a stupid flashy car Bryce Marcus has, don’t you hate Bryce too, Raf, I hate him so much that I can’t stop talking about him’ and ‘how dare Bryce Marcus say a single word to me, doesn’t he realise how much I loathe him, that handsome bane of my existence’, and he’s blushing bright red every time Bryce walks within ten feet of us, and—”

IJ(aoe), Act I: a summary.

“You didn’t bring lube?” Bryce says.

“No?” Jared says.

“You forgot lube?” Bryce hisses.

From comedy to tragedy.

Jared has to get up to hit the lights — they played rock-paper-scissors for it and Bryce lost but then he looked so dejected Jared got up anyway

True love right there.

“Thanks for marrying me,” Bryce murmurs.

There are so, so many sarcastic responses on Jared’s tongue. So many. And Jared’s sure that Bryce is expecting one, wouldn’t mind, would probably even laugh. But like. He doesn’t want to say any of them. And if there’s any time he can be like, unselfconsciously sappy, he thinks his wedding night probably qualifies.

“It was my privilege,” Jared says, cheeks heating anyway, because apparently nope, there is no time that he can be unselfconsciously sappy up to and including his wedding night, but the smile on Bryce’s face, small and sweet and almost shy, the way it lingers when Jared kisses him, well, it’s worth any embarrassment Jared feels.

They’re so gross, I love them.

110 - Refuge

And they order Thai from their usual place, but Jared doesn’t know if the orders got swapped or someone was new or not paying attention or what, because his usual order is his usual order, except there’s shrimp instead of chicken in his noodles and he can smell shellfish the second he opens his soup, and Bryce is ridiculous when he calls them back, all ‘how can you not see ‘shellfish allergy’ in the notes’ and ‘do you want to kill him?’, like Jared would actually die and not just be moderately to severely uncomfortable if he ate it, which he hadn’t.

Jared is right on the verge of telling Bryce how ridiculous he is when he remembers his dad’s pre-wedding advice, and he bites his tongue and lets Bryce take care of it, even if Bryce’s version of taking care of it is a total overreaction.

Bryce is PROTECTING HIS MAN. And look at Jared listening to his dad’s advice.

There’s a tiny part of Jared that’s faintly appalled he hasn’t left the house for days, hasn’t put on a shirt in just as long — Bryce has offered to be the one to get dressed every time they order food

Bryce transparently wanting to be the provider. Also not wanting Jared to put any clothes on.

“So hey,” Bryce says. He’s trying to make it sound casual, but it doesn’t, and Jared squints up at him suspiciously.

"I want us to keep wearing our wedding rings,” Bryce says.

Bryce being the initiatior of the first step of many that leads to their eventual outing. (I mean, the wedding would also count, but these rings get scrutinized at the time and then down the line).

“You’re worth like, everything,” Bryce says. “You know that, right?” Jared presses his face tighter against Bryce’s shirt, Bryce’s thumb tracing the heated shell of his ear.

Oh kids.

“So you’re okay with it?” Bryce says.

“If you stop saying nice things to me for like, at least an hour,” Jared says. “Then okay.”

“I’ll do my best,” Bryce says solemnly.

“Okay,” Jared says.

“I love you,” Bryce says.

“Bryce!” Jared says.

“That’s not a nice thing, that’s just like, a fact,” Bryce says. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jared says, then commences to pull Bryce’s shirt up and stick his head under it, because the only way Jared can maintain the absolute fiction that he’s not blushing is to hide his face.

Jared would protest vociferously, but: he is adorable.

Bryce sacks out early that night, exhausted from his day of lounging around the couch and like, complimenting Jared too much. Jared’s half tempted to poke him awake to just like, not have the honeymoon end yet, but that’s mean. He looks so peaceful, Jared can’t do that to him.

Jared’s a place Bryce can rest, and he takes that role seriously.

[penny00dreadful]

Somebody To Love - Part 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6 AO3

*Professor Farnsworth voice* Good news everyone! It is finished! There'll be one more part after this, I didn't need as many parts/chapters as I originally thought becasue I figured why can't I just have a high word count here? 😅 I should be able to have the final part out soon once I've completed the edits. 🥳🖤

Some tw's for this part: addict thoughts, talks of dieting, addiction recovery.

The delicacy with which Dustin and Max were handling him made Eddie feel like he’d been thrown into an alternate reality. They had the kid gloves on, treating him with so much care, like he was a temperamental ornament ready to shatter at any moment and honestly, he kind of appreciated it. 

People often took one look at him and just assumed he was a tough as nails metalhead drug addict that would spit at them sooner than look at them and like… sometimes they weren’t that far off. 

But he was still human with an infuriatingly soft core and that core was feeling very bruised right now.

He didn’t know exactly what they knew of everything, they were obviously much closer to Steve than they were to him, but he wasn’t really sure how close.

Still, it was nice that they weren’t automatically treating him like dirt for breaking Steve’s heart and then clumsily attempting to sellotape it back together with promises of proving it to him. Maybe that was Steve’s doing. Or maybe they were just more emotionally intelligent than he’d given them credit for.

Chrissy, however, had no such compunctions.

She waltzed into his house at ass o’clock in the morning and shoved a to-go coffee into his hands, knowing well he hadn’t slept a wink, she had been the one up with him on the phone for half the night after all.

“C’mon, Twinkie!” She slapped his ass hard. Way harder than was necessary, in his opinion. “Now’s not a time for moping, now’s a time for action!”

Eddie scowled at her and took a sip before coughing it up and shooting coffee straight out of his nose.

“Jesus fuck!” He gulped back air, barely able to get the words out through the scratching at his throat. “How many espresso shots are in this?!”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.” Chrissy dismissed with a wave of her hand.

He had barely managed to get his breath back, standing in the middle of his house in just his ratty old Dragon Ball Z boxers with coffee dripping down his chest when his front door was thrown open with a bang and more people descended on him.

“What the fuck are you guys doing here?”

The Corroded Coffin boys strolled through his house, immediately descending on his kitchen and raiding his cabinets for whatever food Steve constantly kept his house stocked with.

“We heard you finally got your head out of your ass.” Jeff replied, through a mouthful of Honeycombs.

“Hey! Those are mine- Wait. You knew?”

“Dude, everyone knew.” Grant had commandeered his chocolate Yoo-Hoo, cracking the lid off easily.

Eddie felt his stomach drop. “Everyone?”

“Everyone.” Gareth emphasised, knowing exactly whose wrath Eddie was now fearing.

“Shit. Does he know? What happened yesterday?”

Chrissy nodded. “I called him. He’s in the air.”

“You fucking traitor!” He shouted, pointing his finger at her. “He’s going to kill me!”

She just waved her hand at him. “Go get dressed. We’ve got work to do.”

Eddie mumbled and grumbled but did as he was told, knocking back the rest of the poisonous coffee she had provided him. When he arrived back downstairs it was like walking into the middle of an intervention, even though he had started the process himself.

He was going to get off the drugs, he was going to stop drinking. He was no longer going to be sleeping around, obviously, but he was also going to go to a private medical clinic for a number of tests. Just to make sure he hadn’t picked anything up in between previous testing. He was going to keep smoking, because god-damn it he needed something.

The rest of that day was spent with Dustin, Chrissy and the Corroded Coffin boys scraping through every square inch of his house, searching for his various stashes of drugs and alcohol while Max watched him like a hawk.

Chrissy pulled away some pills taped to the bottom of a decorative pot that sat on top of one of his upper cabinets and Eddie was pretty sure he’d never seen that pot in his life before. Never even looked at it, let alone hid shit using it. It was the ugliest fucking pot he’d ever seen, why was it in his house? Honestly he’d forgotten half the places they pulled a handle of vodka or a baggie of powder out of. 

He wasn’t an addict, he didn’t consider himself an addict but he just used them more as an aid to get him through the day. He wasn’t an addict. 

He used them because he wanted to, not because he needed to.

Except.

Except now that he was faced with the reality that there’d be none of it left in the house, and he’d be monitored very closely by all of them so he couldn’t break and go out and get a fix… it had his anxiety skyrocketing through the roof and he almost asked them to stop multiple times. 

But each time he did, he remembered the defeat and heartbreak on Steve’s face and he… he just had to keep pushing forward. 

As they went from room to room, Max seemed to have some kind of sixth sense. Sitting there in her tailored business suit, red hair in a high pony, leaning over towards him with her elbows on her knees. Whenever he knew where something was stashed and the guys skimmed over it or missed it, she called out to them, telling them to look again without taking her eyes off him.

“How the hell are you doing that?” He asked.

“I had a troubled upbringing.” Max replied with a flat tone of voice.

They’d been at it for hours by the time he called for a fucking breather. All of this was exhausting. The stress was eating at his stomach. Eddie was in his back garden, trying to chill the fuck out with a cigarette when he heard the door open behind him.

“Boy.” The voice that came from behind him was heavy and stern, like Eddie’s own personal Kratos had descended and Eddie froze like a rabbit caught in a trap.

He turned slowly, hoping that someone else, anyone else was around to help take the pressure off but they all seemed to have scattered, the cowards.

“Wayne!” He tried to inject as much joy and lightness into his voice as he got to his feet but the man just continued to stare down at him with a raised eyebrow and his arms crossed, towering over him like a monument of parental disappointment.

Quick as a flash Wayne’s hand shot out and slapped him over the back of the head, not too hard, but hard enough to let Eddie know he wasn’t happy, as if that had ever been in doubt. “What did you do to that young man?”

“You can’t hit me! I’m in recovery!”

Wayne slapped him again.

“I’m fixing it!”

“You better be. I like that Steve kid. He’s good for you.”

Eddie slumped, dropping his cigarette butt on the ground and trudging over to his uncle, pressing his forehead into his collarbone. “I know.”

Wayne nodded and pulled him in close for a hug.

“I’m fixing it.” Eddie said again, quieter this time. 

“Good.” Wayne rubbed his hand up and down Eddie back before pulling away. “We’ll get this sorted.” He placed his hands on either side of Eddie’s face and gave him a light squeeze. “Now pick up that butt, I didn’t teach you to litter.”

For all his whining and grumbling and absolute terror of the man, it was a big help having Wayne around. Of course it was, how could it not be. Though he’d never doubted Wayne for a second, facing up to the consequences of his actions had never been something Eddie was particularly eager to do.

Case in point, involving Chrissy was maybe a mistake. 

Because she was, like, sporty and shit. And she kept dragging him out of bed in the early hours of the morning once the worst of everything was out of his system. 

She’d force him into the gym room that came with the house and Eddie was pretty sure he’d never set foot in it before. But all the stuff there had clear signs of being used regularly and it was with a strange mix of sadness and glee that he figured Steve had probably been the one using it all along.

“Why am I here?”

“To get some endorphins into you without using drugs.”

Soulmate his fucking ass. 

Chrissy was no less than a drill sergeant and no amount of whining and bitching would stop her from making him do stretches and get on the treadmill and god he fucking hated it. Any one who enjoyed exercising was now solidly listed under ‘psychopath’ in his brain. 

Chrissy had even convinced Max to get her husband, some kind of sports health something or other, to put together a meal plan for him that had him eating shit like broccoli and apples and brown fucking rice.

Eddie did not throw a temper tantrum by day five of that diet, about a week and a half into this whole ‘getting his shit together so he could prove to Steve he was a competent human’ thing. Definitely not, even though his muscles ached and he wanted to stuff an entire Dunkin worth of Donuts into his mouth and get stupidly ridiculously high.

“Fuck off and leave me alone, Chrissy.” He snapped one morning from underneath his bedsheets. He was fucking tired, he was fucking sore and last he checked sugar wasn’t one of the addictions he was supposed to be giving up so why the fuck wasn’t he allowed to have any?

Chrissy crossed her arms. “No.”

“What’s even the point of this anyway? How the hell is the fucking broccoli and the fucking treadmill proving to Steve that I’m gonna stick around?”

“Because you’re improving yourself, taking care of yourself. Staying away from the drugs and alcohol and sex orgies and showing him you’re trying.” She sighed, softening her voice. “Didn’t you tell him you’d try every day for him?”

“Whatever.” Eddie grumbled, pulling the covers up over his head. “It’s a bed day. I’m staying in bed. Don’t try to drag me out, I will bite you.”

He could hear Chrissy leave and he knew the attitude was unnecessary, she was his rock in all of this, but he just wasn’t in the fucking mood to do anything apart from wallow.

He had dozed back off to sleep until he was awoken by someone coming up the stairs. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a tall handsome man with fantastic shoulders standing in his doorway with a box of fucking donuts in his hand.

What kind of sugar-craving wet dream was this?

The guy lifted his hand with a pleasant smile. “Hey-”

“Sorry, man. I’m off the market.” Eddie slurred in some kind of delirious half-asleep haze before his brain finally caught up with him and he realised that’s probably not what was happening right now.

The guy burst out in a short laugh. “Yeah, me too. I’m Max’s husband, Lucas.”

Eddie’s entire face went scarlet. “Oh fuck, don’t tell her I said that. She’ll cut my balls off.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said with an easy smile as he held the box out and shook it slightly. “I brought these for you.”

Lucas handed the donuts to him and even though Eddie should be wary of the quite literal candy from a stranger (although, was candy really the correct term?), the allure of fried sugar was too much.

“Aren’t you supposed to be having me eat healthy?” Eddie asked, practically diving face first into the box and stuffing as much as he could into his mouth at once. “Minoththuppothsbeowmaheawthmfifthnssjurmy?” 

Lucas blinked at him and Eddie forced himself to swallow the large lump of fried dough, but not without sucking on his fingers first. “Am I not supposed to be on a health and fitness journey? Or whatever you,” he wiggled his fingers at him, “active types call it.”

"Don’t get me wrong, you still need to eat right and exercise but the meal plans I write up are usually for athletes at the top of their game. So the fact that sugar and some fats never made it in just never occurred to me. And no offence to you dude, but you are no athlete.” He smiled and tapped the box. “Everything in moderation, right?”

Things began to even out after that. The boys started to travel between Eddie’s house and their own homes, checking in on him less and less the better he got. Finally getting to spend some well deserved time with their families rather than babysitting their problematic frontman. 

Wayne still stuck around. Eddie’s literal rock in everything he’d ever done in his life ever and Chrissy was no longer riding him so hard about getting the endorphins pumping. 

Honestly video games could do the same thing for him but she refused to accept that.

When Steve walked back through his front door some two weeks after he’d left for a second time, he took Eddie by surprise all over again, manifesting behind him like some kind of ghost and scaring the ever loving shit out of him.

But he didn’t throw himself at Steve this time. 

He didn’t have that right anymore. 

The ball was in Steve’s court and he would be the one that would decide just how fast they moved from now on.

He noticed the difference in Eddie almost immediately because of course he did. Telling him off hand that he looked good, healthy. That he hadn’t looked like that since their second studio album blew up, which caused Eddie to blush furiously and hide his face behind his hair like a fucking schoolgirl and not someone who had appeared in fucking ‘Playgirl’, which he had.

Usually in his down time he would have been spending it hanging out with Steve and his weird little found family. And with Wayne, flying in between LA and Indiana and getting to remember what it felt like to just be a normal person again. 

But it had also been the time Eddie would let loose and go hard into everything could. The kinds of things he couldn’t manage when on tour. 

Days long sex parties, kink clubs, high quality drug dens, week long getaways to someone’s private island or luxury yacht that probably collectively took ten years off his life every time he went.

But they were a thing of the past now.

Eddie found he was kind of enjoying the slower summer getting clean afforded him. He’d started to enjoy the things he used to love so much, but lost over time. 

Reading, losing himself in a writing haze, feeling the frantic passion of ideas and creativity overtaking him, and all with a clear head this time. 

Days spent in his basement studio no longer fueled by cocaine and other stimulants, now only fueled by caffeine. 

Before, he’d be able to go a couple of days awake in his writing haze but caffeine was no substitute for coke. 

As a result of that, being under the influence of only caffeine, sugar and nicotine he usually ended up crashing on the couch down there before he even realised he was falling asleep. Sometimes he’d wake up with handwritten pages stuck to his cheek or forehead, sometimes he’d wake up with the mother of all back aches and stiff fingers. But sometimes he’d wake up with a blanket thrown over him, the ghost of a hand in his hair and a strawberry frappuccino waiting for him on the coffee table.

The downside of being lucid and sober was that Eddie was now painfully aware of his shithead behaviour over the last number of years and it constantly threatened to push him back into a spiral again. 

He was actually mentally present for the first time in he didn’t know how long for a meeting with the label executives to discuss a timeline for the next album and tour. He had no idea just how much Steve had been doing for him, especially when it came to this. 

Making decisions on his behalf that always benefited him far more than anything he’d have been able to negotiate himself, making excuses for why he was so out of it all the time that everyone could see through. But the execs always let it go because Corroded Coffin were one of the labels biggest bands, on of their biggest money earners and continued to be, no matter how fucked up Eddie was.

And it wasn't just meetings with execs he now had to deal with. The people refused to get the god-damn memo. The invites to all the debauched shit he usually took part in just kept coming and people actually started getting defensive whenever he refused.

No matter what he told them. 

He told them he didn’t want to go. He was healing. He was off the shit that would be shared around like pass the parcel. They were down right offended to hear it. Like Eddie was somehow telling them all he was better than them by holding up a mirror towards their own actions which… maybe, yeah actually.

The only invite he had accepted was a charity fundraiser for queer homeless youth. But only with a firm stance that he would not be going to any kind of after party, so don’t even bother asking.

But it would be fine. 

There’d be alcohol and probably some drugs and probably some people trying to get into his pants there but Chrissy and Steve would also be there, all but chained to his side. Gareth, Jeff and Grant would be taking up the mantle of schmoozing so it would be fine.

Plus, he was close to hitting his ninety days so he was definitely stronger than he had been at the start, right?

Yeah.

Either way, the alcohol, the drugs, the horny people… it would be the kind of shit that would be unavoidable in his line of work. So he’d have to get used to temptation being thrown in his face regardless and this would be a nice entry level experiment.

“You sure you want to do this?” Steve asked him, with an arm around his shoulder. 

The return to normal touch had been gradual, happening over the last few months and it was doing wonderful things for his nerves right now. The three of them were sitting in the back of the big fancy car, stalling.

Steve flashed him a cheeky grin. “We can leave and head to the McDonalds drive-thru right now if you want.”

Eddie smiled and stopped twisting his rings around his fingers. This was an overly fancy event, probably requiring white gloves as part of the dress code but Eddie wasn’t going to start worrying about expectations like that now. 

They knew who they’d invited. 

“I’m fine. It’s fine.” He tipped his head over until he was leaning against Steve’s shoulder and laced his fingers with Chrissy’s gloved hand. “Let’s just get this over with. Maybe we can leave before I turn back into a pumpkin, though?”

Steve smiled. “Sure thing.” He pressed a quick kiss to the top of Eddie’s head and smoothly exited the car. 

It was definitely not the most intimate thing they’d ever done together in their decade long friendship but definitely the most intimate thing that they’d done in the last three months and Eddie’s stomach exploded with butterflies.

“Cinderella doesn’t turn back into a pumpkin at midnight.” Chrissy said, shaking out her large pale pink dress as she stepped out of the car after Eddie. “Are you calling yourself the carriage?”

“Yeah.” He offered her his elbow. “I have plenty of carriage.”

“Twinkie,” she shook her head, “you have no carriage. It’s a tiny little fuzzy peach butt.”

“Excuse you, it’s a pumpkin!”

She rolled her eyes and gave his ass a little pinch out of view of anyone. “It is not.”

“It’s really not, Eds.” Steve put in with a not so subtle up-and-down look.

“This is a betrayal of the highest order,” he pointed at them, “and the both of you are terrible people.”

Overall, things went pretty well. 

He didn’t really have to talk to anyone, the Corroded Coffin boys as previously discussed between them, were dealing with the majority of boring ass rich people conversation and Steve had enough experience from his upbringing with his parents to deflect the most persistent of wannabe schmoozers. Eddie had been sticking only to mocktails (his favourite would always be a Shirley Temple but they had some strawberry thing which was essentially just strawberry limeade but it was fucking delicious so who gave a fuck) and some really nice non-alcoholic champagne that honestly tasted better than the regular champagne without the tang of alcohol in it.

Steve had to lead someone away, almost with a hand at their elbow when they just kept pushing for conversation. Chrissy was in a gentle discussion with a new young artist who looked like she was about to vibrate out of her skin from fear. And Eddie felt a shadow descend into the chair next to him.

He turned, still trying to suck the last dregs of his Shirley Temple out of the bottom of his glass.

The guy who sat down looked vaguely familiar, in that kind of memory signal way. His subconscious definitely knew they’d crossed paths before but that could mean anything. Maybe he’d collaborated with him in the past? Maybe he was an old supplier? Maybe he’d slept with him, who knew?

“Hi!” The guy said with a smile and dark bedroom eyes.

Well, okay.

He slid a drink towards him, cold and beading with condensation and the most beautiful amber colour.

Eddie swallowed, unable to take his eyes off of it. He picked up the edge of the white tablecloth, using it to push the drink away. He didn’t even want to risk touching it.

“I’m clean.” Eddie pretty firmly kept the now empty Shirley Temple glass up, still sucking the straw around the bottom, trying to keep a barrier between them because no thank you. Not tonight. Not ever, anymore, if life worked out the way he wanted.

The guy nodded and smiled again, a little condescending, as though Eddie’s attempt to stay sober was cute. “I've been watching you. Trying to find an opportunity to say hi.” He scoffed lightly with a raised eyebrow. An attempt at an inside joke only one of them was in on. “Your bodyguard’s got a pretty tight grip on you though. Glad he finally gave you a chance to breathe.”

“Steve’s not my bodyguard.”

Even though he could be. Has definitely had to act like it before. More than once. 

God, Eddie was a shit.

“No? He’s certainly acting like it. Won’t let anyone near you. Seems a little possessive if you ask me.” The guy scooted a little further forward and started brushing his leg up and down Eddie’s calf and Eddie retracted almost immediately.

“That’s going to be a solid no from me. I’m off the market for the foreseeable future.”

The guy couldn’t hide his surprise quickly enough. “Seriously? Someone get in your head about it?” The corner of his mouth tilted up in a smug grin. “Couldn’t stop thinking of a particular night? I couldn’t stop thinking of it either. I heard you stopped making the rounds after.”

Eddie could do nothing but blink at the absolute balls on this guy. But apparently this was a one sided conversation because the guy was still talking.

“I was hoping you’d call me again.” He attempted to nudge Eddie’s knee with his hand but Eddie pulled back again with a hard glare. The guy scoffed again. “Unless, of course, your phone privileges have been taken away by the help.” He laughed at his own pathetic, mean excuse for a joke. “I think we could be quite good together, Eddie.”

“I don’t fucking think so.”

The guy pushed out his bottom lip and batted his big eyelashes at him, like Eddie’s rejection was performative, like he was playing hard to get. “Awh. That’s too bad. You marked me up so good last time.”

It was only then that it finally clicked for him. “You’re the guy from the ‘Sucker’ video.”

The guy's bravado faltered, clearly not expecting to be forgotten so easily.

“Obviously.” He bit out.

He was the last guy Eddie had slept with before everything had happened.

Steve had shown him out and left on his vacation almost immediately after.

He’d been so upset.

“What the fuck did you say to him?” Eddie hissed, finally setting his glass down.

The guy blinked with a curl at his lip. “Who?”

“Steve.”

“Oh, him?” The guy laughed, short and sharp and mean. “Not my fault if he wasn’t ready to hear some harsh truths.” He shrugged. “I didn’t tell him anything he didn’t deserve to hear. Practically did you a favour, by the way.” The guy rolled his eyes. “Just had to get it in his head that he didn’t have a shot, shooting above his pay grade and if he couldn’t handle it he should take a long walk off a short pier. Even if you did let him weasel his way back in-”

There was something shoved hard into Eddie’s chest and he only had a second to register what was happening before he had to catch Chrissy around the waist and pull her back to stop her clawing this guy's eyes out. 

The purse she’d pushed at him fell to the floor as Eddie was jerked forward, using his all of his weak as shit strength to keep a firm grip on Chrissy who was always so strong with her hidden jock prowess.

“Jesus Christ, put a leash on her, would you?” The guy had fired himself backwards, nearly toppling himself out of his seat.

“You motherf-! Edward, let me go!” Chrissy was swiping at the guy with one arm while the other dug into Eddie’s arm, trying to loosen his grip. 

Before he could consider whether the spectacle of Chrissy Cunningham in her pink meringue dress absolutely wrecking this guys shit would be worth the entertainment enough to let her free, a wall of bodies planted themselves firmly in her way.

“I think it’s time we head out, don’t you?” Jeff asked leaning back, trying to avoid Chrissy’s hands.

“Yeah,” Eddie huffed. Jesus this girl was strong. “Yeah, maybe!”

The four of them were able to manhandle Chrissy, who was still spitting and cursing, shooing her out of the front door. Eddie glanced back and saw Steve leaning down towards the guy with the sharpest smile he’d ever seen, muttering into his ear ‘He doesn’t even remember your name’ before turning and following the five of them out.

There was silence between the six of them outside, save for the sound of Chrissy’s heavy breathing, as they waited for the car to come around.

They all bundled themselves inside and once the door slammed shut Eddie exploded.

“Okay, what the hell?” 

The boys were looking at him with wary expressions, Chrissy was wide eyed and a little flushed and Steve just cocked an eyebrow, well used to Eddie’s tantrums after so long. But that wasn’t what this was.

“Him? Him? I slept with him? He’s not even cute, why the hell didn’t anyone stop me?!” He pointed at each of them in turn, not even bothering to skip out Steve, the fucker would only tease him about it later.

The car started moving and Eddie took a second to send a silent apology to the very nice chauffeur, Marlon, who really shouldn’t have to be dealing with their nonsense.

“Twinkie,” Chrissy huffed, ripping her white opera gloves off, “the amount of times I have tried to slap the dick out of your hand and get you to listen to me-”

Eddie squealed, high and outraged. But he couldn’t even stay mad because Steve was doubled over cackling like a witch on her broomstick and the boys were poking fun at him while literally poking him in the sides and all he could do was slump down in his seat and pout at them with crossed arms.

They did end up going through the McDonalds drive-thru after all.

So... y'all wanna see Eddie's Playgirl cover? 👀 (minors dni)

That magnificent artwork was done by the supremely talented @sporelium and I am in fucking awe of him, like holy shit. I saw it when it was originally posted and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. Thank you so much for letting me reference it here. 😘🖤

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6 AO3

@lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring, @child-of-cthulhu, @sweetwaterangel, @anaibis, @katytheinspiredworkaholic, @littlewildflowerkitten, @hallucinatedjosten, @estrellami-1, @gregre369, @stxrcrossed186, @novelnovella, @imhereforthelolzdontyellatme, @hellowhatthehellisgoingonhere, @thesuninyaface, @messrs-weasley

[essaysbyciara]

someone wanted to get into my business 💗

Someone asked me to answer all of the even-numbered questions and I like a challenge, so… here it goes. 

A picture of me: just posted some here :) 

Last time i cried and why: yesterday, watched the scene from Lion King when Mufasa left Earth. Started thinking about my Dad. that’s all it takes, sometimes. Miss my guy. 

Favorite band: Mint Condition counts as a band, for sure. Falling in love with Bootsy Collins and ‘em too. 

Top 5 (insert subject): i’ll do my top five favorite sports: 1) NFL, 2) football (the real stuff, i watch Serie A when I can but I’m more locked in during international tourneys), 3) NBA, 4) College football, 5) MLB

Biggest turn ons: jesus, well … passion; passionate about the things you love. Oh you love turtles? You can’t stop talking about turtles? *ummph*. I’m a sucker for a set of juicy lips. I have a thing for bratty boys too. I saw this fine-ass Black man roll his eyes once and it lit up something WILD inside of me lol.

Ideas of a perfect date: I’m a museum date girl. And we go get ice cream after. 

Piercings i want: I want ear gauges, small ones. I do want to get my nipples pierced too. 

Favorite movie: I really don’t have a favorite. I just have movies that hold a shitton of sentimental value. One of those is Alien v. Predator. Again, my Dad. 

Phobia: not really afraid of anything but just the unknown lmao. I need to learn how to live on the edge a bit more. 

Height: 5’6

What’s your shoe size? 8.5/ 6 (GS) 

Do you smoke, drink, or take any drugs? Don’t smoke, only drink a few times a year (special occasions, kicking with my homegirl).  never taken a hard drug in my life. I’m hella green lol

What’s one thing you regret? I regret not being more fiscally responsible in my twenties. Lessons learned though. 

Favorite ice cream? Mint chocolate chip. 

What my last text message says: cool. Thank you! 

Have you ever painted your room? Nope. 

Have you ever slept naked? Yep. For mad years. I was dealing with this dude and he would never let me put my clothes back on after we had sex so I built a habit, I guess. I no longer do. Choosing to no longer do that broke a tether he had to me, weird to say. 

Have you ever had a crush? HEH! Come on, now lmao. I have three huge Spotfiy playlists for all of my crushes. 

Have you ever stole money from a friend? Nope. 

Have you ever been in a fist fight? Yes. 8th grade. Talked shit and got hit. Never got in a fight ever again lmao. 

Have you ever had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back? See the answer about having crushes. Unrequited love is my speciality lmao. 

Have you ever made out with a stranger? Yes lmao. In a club. That’s another regret lmao. 

Have you ever left your house without telling your parents? Nope. again, hella green lol. 

Have you ever ditched school to do something more fun? I think ‘senior skip day’ counts lol. Only day I ever skipped school. Me and my girls went to the mall and then I went home. I lied to my Mom and said that there was an early dismissal I didn’t know about lmao. 

Have you ever seen someone die? I haven’t but I’ve been the one to find dead bodies. 

Have you ever kissed a picture? Boog from B2K count? lmao. 

Have you ever loved someone or miss someone right now? Oh God, yes. Right now, I miss my parents. 

Have you ever made a snow angel? Yes. I’d make one now if I could lol. 

Have you ever cheated while playing a game? You ain’t a real winner if you haven’t lol. 

Have you ever fallen asleep at work/school? Fell asleep in a work meeting. 

Have you ever felt an earthquake? Oh, man. Yes. The earthquake that hit DC/Maryland ten or so years ago. I was at work when it happened. My co-worker thought the Rapture was happening and ran out the office. 

Have you ever ran a red light? Nope. Again, green. 

Have you ever had detention? Yes, for forgetting my homework. First and last time because, yep … Ciara is green. 

Have you ever hated the way you look? *SIGH* 

Have you ever pole danced? No but I want to! 

Have you ever been to the opposite side of the country? Nah. I haven’t traveled much. That’s changing in the new year. 

Have you ever cried yourself to sleep? All the time. 

Have you ever done something you told yourself you wouldn’t? Yeah. They all seem to be sexual things. I won’t elaborate further lmao. 

Have you ever slept with someone at least 5 years older or younger? Five years older, yes. He was in his 50s. I was in my late 20s. It was serviceable lol. 

Have you ever sang in the shower? I’m Deborah Cox in there. 

Have you ever dream that you married someone? Yes. Just recently too. I hope dude is well. 

Have you ever got your tongue stuck to a flag pole? A la “A Christmas Story”?! Nope.  Sounds fun though. 

Have you ever been a cheerleader? Nope. A lot of my friends in high school were though. 

Have you ever brushed your teeth? Duh. 

Have you ever played chicken? Sure I have. 

Have you ever been told you’re hot by a complete stranger? Can’t say that I have. I did have a man tell me that he liked my outfit today. I’ll take that lmao. 

Have you ever been easily amused? Always. I started laughing the other day thinking about my old days in the streets of DC. 

Have you ever mooned/flashed someone? Flashed, yes. Went full wet t-shirt a few times too. 

Have you ever forgotten someone’s name? The way this brain is set up?! Yes. 

Give us one thing about you that no one knows. I own five  different versions of the Bible: NIV, NKJV, KJV, CEV, NRSV. 

[smytherines]

19 for curtwen this is a burning question for me WHAT DO YOU HATE ABOUT THEM????

the autism is going a little fucky because there are a few ways to interpret what question 19 is asking here. But if I understand the question correctly, you're asking what I hate about their relationship with each other? Which is tough, because in canon we only get maybe 6-7 minutes or so where they are actually together as a couple (without accents and tickle time)

So of that time in A1P1, I guess I hate that Owen repeatedly tries to show concern for Curt/the mission, tries to rein in Curt's impulsivity, and Curt responds by dismissing him, ridiculing him, and steamrolling him. And Owen is such a huge fucking simp that he just kinda shrugs it off, like he knows Curt is so stubborn he isn't going to listen anyways, so it isn't worth starting a fight because, after all, he trusts Curt even if he thinks he's a bit ridiculous.

So we have the "Oh Curt no, not until we're out of here." Regarding the drinking (which is definitely not the first time they've had that argument), and Curt immediately mocks Owen's accent and his concern and shoves the flask at him, and Owen takes a swig from it (and makes a face) like he disapproves but it just isn't worth turning into a fight right now.

Then we have the banana peel. Owen gestures to it as soon as he drops it, like "dude, come on, really?" And Curt immediately dismisses it with something like "this place is about to be garbage anyways, who gives a shit?" And Owen just shrugs with annoyance but drops it, like he doesn't want to start a fight.

And then with the safety barricades Owen is trying to explain to Curt why they need to relock the safety barricades, and Curt says "we don't have time for this" (which he knows, but Owen doesn't because he doesn't know that Curt only set the timers for 3 minutes). In that part, Owen does actually try to stand up to him by explicitly saying "trust me, Curt, you're going to want to do this." But there just isn't any time left.

And I think you can sort of extrapolate that dynamic to the end of the show, where Owen is telling Curt that the future is happening, that it isn't going to wait around for him, tells Curt what the future of espionage is (and he seemingly has the expertise to back that opinion up) and Curt just says it sounds boring.

So... I dunno, the trend of Owen telling Curt what he wants or thinks, and Curt being so goddamn stubborn that he seems to cut down Owen's thoughts/feelings impulsively, like he thinks winning the banter war is just saying "nuh-uh" the loudest? Like he has to be a contrarian because... I dunno, maybe he thinks Owen will think less of him if he isn't swinging his dick around like he's God's gift to espionage (which seems to be more of Curt's insecurity talking than how Owen actually feels?)

Oh man, people are not going to like this one, but they have so little canon relationship time that it's really all I can think of?

[lookismstuff]

Reaction to Ep 461

SPOILERS ALERT

I've been rooting for Daniel (Hyungseok) vs Logan (Taesang) forever so I'm pretty pleased. Then again now that I remember it, wasn't Logan defeated already in the homeless/first love arc?? I thought it was impressive that Danny did it but did later events make Logan dismiss it as trivial? Or did PTJ forget it? But then again in one of his vlogs he mentioned that older arc specifically as Danny's trigger for growth so yeah maybe Logan simply just deleted it from his brain?

Anyway some of the other fights unfortunately happened off-screen when in fact these are what readers had been waiting for.

Well, let's open for a jump scare review.

HAHAHAHA [INSERT EVIL LAUGHTER]

The fight between Vin (Hobin) vs Changyoong itself imho is a bit underwhelming, but the fun side of it is Changyoong is utterly traumatized by scared of Vin.

Vin has no choice but to show his polycoria now since there's no replacing his super dark sunglasses for now (here's my begging PTJ to insert real consequences of this condition, especially since Vin's happened because of an accident).

Again I'm pretty satisfied with the Daniel vs Logan fight, even more so because there's a new flashback of a humiliating bullying scene that we've never seen in the school episodes (earliest arc). And to those who think that it's too much...well where I come from there are such awful bullies it's bordering on human rights violation (or even a crime).

But the most satisfying comeback from Danny is not the fight itself imho. It's the way he basically told Logan that he didn't care anymore (in my last review I mentioned that he doesn't think Logan is worth his time...and I was right).

Also glad that PTJ erased whatever feelings of amicability between Vin and Logan that was briefly present during the God Dog arc. I feel like it's distanced Vin further from his earlier bully self (I do wish that he would apologize to Duke/Deokhwa tho, especially since he's now a huge fan).

Also too bad that we are not privy to two action scenes. First, no onscreen action scenes with Jay at all. Like none. I get that things are going at the speed of lightning right now but I enjoy watching Systema and Arnis duels and Jay's action scenes were always enjoyable to me due to the elements of surprise (kinda like reading Gray/Sieun's fight scenes from Weak Hero).

Second, Jake (Gimyung) was there (he's the sleeping dude in the ambulance) AS AN ALLIED MEMBER HECK YEAH. AND I'M GLAD TO SEE HIM IN CASUAL CLOTHES (looking much younger and fresher after a staycation in a hoodie). But we saw nothing of what he did.

Well at least he left this in his wake (which impressed Taejin and a new goon Jo Yisoo).

Overall, I'm looking forward to reading the next episode. I suppose having Jake around means that out of the three experiment victims, Samuel (Seongeun) is going to be rescued by Jake, then Johan (Yohan) by Zack, and Big Danny by Danny.

[arthropod-concoctions]

(AO3 - prev)

After discussing the details of being the 'royal stunt double' for a little while, Bigb was dismissed by king Ren, who clarified that he really meant it this time. So he left the throne room and descended down a narrow spiral staircase all the way to the ground. He was about to head outside, when he noticed an odd sound, like someone pounding their fists against a wall repeatedly.

He traced the sound to a diorite wall to the right of the door. He approached the wall and then, hesitantly, called out.

“Hello?”

The pounding stopped. Faintly, a voice responded from the other side; Etho's voice. “Ren? Is that you?”

“No, I'm- uh. Yeah. I'm totally Ren. Etho, is that you?”

“E- what? No, I'm Joel. Ren, do you see any buttons where you are?”

“Buttons?” Bigb was fairly certain he did hear Etho's voice, but then again, he looked like Ren now. Maybe the same thing had happened to 'Joel'. “Nope. No buttons here. Why?”

“Well, I'm in this big dark room, and I can see that there's a piston door here, but I can't find any way to open it, so I thought maybe the way to open it was on your side? But I guess not, so-” he made a hysterical laughing sort of noise, which definitely sounded like something Joel would do- “well, that's fine!”

“Okay. Alright, don't worry, I can get you out of there,” Bigb replied. He scanned the room again. There weren't any buttons, but he did see an observer in the floor, with some candles on top of it. “There's an observer here. I can try and trigger it, see if that-”

“No! Dude, don't just trigger an observer, that's probably a trap!”

“I mean, it sounds to me like you're already trapped. I don't think we have much to lose.”

“Trapped?” Joel made another noise. “I'm not trapped at all! I could easily break out of here, it's just very dark, and I don't have a blumming pickaxe in my inventory, and, well, a god of the sky just isn't supposed to be in a dungeon like this, and-”

This was getting out of hand. “I'm triggering the observer,” Bigb said.

“DON'T YOU DARE-”

Bigb reached down and grabbed one of the candles standing on the observer. It clicked.

Behind him, pistons retracted, and then someone collided with him.

Joel breathed out sharply, sounding relieved. He made no attempt to move away from Bigb, so Bigb just awkwardly hugged him instead. I sure am getting personal with these guys today, he thought. Strangely enough, he didn't recognise Joel's features at all. He had pale skin, and white hair, and a scar over his eye-

No, wait. He recognised that scar. And the top half of his face. And the piece of dark blue fabric that was now hanging around Joel's neck.

Joel finally pulled back. “I wasn't scared or anything, you know. If you th-”

“Dude, your mask!” Bigb interrupted him.

“My mask? You mean this thing? I don't- wait.” Joel looked at the mask he had pulled down, then at the rest of his outfit-- Etho's outfit. He tapped on his face around the scarred eye. “Oh. Well, I guess that explains where my depth perception went...”

Bigb continued to stare at his- at Etho's mouth. “This is surreal. I feel like I just walked in on somebody naked.”

Joel let out a hum. He sure was making a lot of noises today. “Then- if I look like Etho but am actually Joel, does that mean you're actually Bigb?”

“Yeah.” Bigb nodded.

Joel nodded too. “I thought you didn't sound like Ren.” Then he pulled the mask back over his face and said: “Well... Bigb. Can we agree to forget about, just... this whole encounter?”

Bigb chuckled. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Sweet. Thanks,” Joel replied, then opened the door-- a regular door-- and went outside. About three seconds later, he came back and asked: “By the way, where the heck are we?”

“I have no idea.”

---

Gem opened her eyes, and cracked her knuckles. Both other members of the soup group were away, doing some sort of hardcore challenge, which meant she had a few hours to work on her base with no distractions-

Oh, nevermind. The player list showed that Impulse had already arrived, and a bunch of the other participants too. That was strange. The game was supposed to last around 24 hours, maybe more-- and 17 hours was not 'around 24', in Gem's opinion.

“Well, I guess that's what happens when you trust Grian to estimate a time,” Gem said, and sighed. “Goodbye, productivity.” Then she solemnly grabbed a rocked and flew into the sky.

Impulse wasn't in his own base, which meant he was probably at the shopping district. Flying in that direction, she found him soon enough- about halfway to spawn, in a screaming match with Bdubs for some reason.

“...whole time, I was thinking, 'I can't wait to be back so I'll be taller than Impulse again', and now this has happened!” Impulse shouted as she approached the two of them.

“Well what do you want me to do about it? I didn't cause this!” Bdubs shouted back.

“Impulse!” Gem yelled, interrupting the argument. Both of them jumped as she landed on the ground.

“Hi Gem!” they both said, almost in unison.

“Guys, what's happening? Do I need to slay somebody?”

“Th- no, no, that won't be necessary,” Impulse said. He didn't quite sound like himself.

“Good. Impulse, what were you even saying, about being taller than... yourself?”

“Uh- okay, that does sound weird, but it makes sense, I promise,” Impulse replied. “You see... hm. How do I put this...”

“Oh, Pearl's just gotten back,” Bdubs interrupted, looking at his chat.

“Pearl's gotten back... or... somebody else?” Impulse replied.

“Yeah. We should probably go greet... them.”

They had yet to explain anything. Impulse and Bdubs took off flying, and Gem followed them. “Okay, would somebody explain what the heck is going on?” she asked as she caught up.

“Yeah, we probably should,” Impulse replied. He slowed down, and for some reason stuck his hand out towards her. “Hi. I'm Bdubs. Nice to meet you.”

“Wha-” Gem stopped herself, and sighed. “Okay, first of all, if you're Bdubs then we've already met, so there's no point introducing yourself again. Second of all, I just left my larping world, so I'd appreciate if you didn't-”

“We're not larping!” 'Bdubs' yelled. Admittedly, his tone of voice did sound a lot like Bdubs'. Ahead, the real Bdubs-- was that Impulse now?-- landed in front of Pearl.

“Hi. How you feeling?” he said to her. Yep, that sounded like Impulse.

“Very confused,” Pearl responded in a Scottish accent. “I don't know where I am, I wasn't expecting to see you again- no offense- and I have the body of-”

“Of Pearl. Yeah.” Bdubs nodded. “Welcome to the club, Scott.”

“Scott?” Gem repeated.

“Gem!” Pearl- no, Scott- turned to her. “Can I have a word with you, privately?”

The two of them walked away from Impulse and Bdubs. Scott grabbed Gem's shoulder and whispered: “Where are we? What is this place?”

“This is Hermitcraft. I live here. Welcome!”

“You... live here? Don't you live in Dawn?” Scott said, confirming Gem's suspicions: not only was this the same Scott she knew, but he was still acting in character.

Gem replied: “Well, I live here too.”

“Okay,” he replied, looking up and around at the fantastical landscape Pearl had terraformed. “Do you know how I can get back to Chromia from here?”

Gem hummed. Scott wasn't whitelisted to Hermitcraft, so the only way he could be here is if he got Pearl's permissions as well, but she wasn't whitelisted to Empires. “I'm not sure you can.”

“I- excuse me? I can't just stay here, I have a responsibility to my empire! As do you, by the way!” Scott said, looking at Gem sternly. Classic Scott; he wouldn't break character if his life depended on it. Also, he was taller than Gem now, which she did not like.

“Oh, relax, I'm sure it'll be fine. Also, I can go over to Dawn whenever I like. I was just there!”

“Oh.” Scott looked down, then at Gem again. “In that case, can you also keep an eye on Chromia when you return? As a favor?”

Gem sighed. “Yeah, okay,” she said. “I can do that.”

As if she didn't have enough to do already.

(next)

[theno1joelhater]

OH GOD NEW CGCU VIDEO. LONG FORM. EMILY WOKERSON STORYLINE. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ok back to my normal thoughts (with spoilers btw)

timothy bichboy is a submissive and breedable bottom 🤯 (are you surprised? i’m not)

they added xavier child (or childe? who knows this was written right after the vid was posted). wonder how the guy who kept suggesting him feels. elated, most likely. (i don’t know what i was expecting for xavier’s voice but it wasn’t this) he also seems…reasonable? kind of?

“Tim, shut your trap for 15 seconds.” not a healthy relationship core!! also every time emily calls timothy tim i have a heart attack since i think she’s talking about iddboy and not bichboy

the throwing your kid thing. seemed like it’d be a gag but it’s not and i like that cam is taking it seriously instead of being dismissive.

the way timothy backed down so quickly…

when timothy catches the baby, he says “got him!” or something like that. he could be saying “got em!”, but it’s unlikely. this is proof that the baby uses he/him pronouns (/j, i think it means the baby is male. we’ll see next saturday i guess)

about xavier showing up—does this mean frank snitched on emily about the baby tossing? or is ray and max’s deal finally coming into fruition? oh i hope it’s the latter dude that would be so interesting. more of ray’s sinister side (that doesn’t relate to his name) and max actually doing something bad instead of being a criminal. maybe max will eventually turn against ray, and put value on things other than money. i need max harm character development and ray cist death (cam discussed this in a live prior).

also. xavier. he’s wearing the gus lighter shirt. the same one as gus lighter. this is clearly foreshadowing new gus lighter video gus lighter video im going insane he’s actually my favorite character i love him so much you could never comprehend he is my savior my light in the darkness my hope my dreams my life i need him

[jessjustplay]

I finished (the main story of) God of War!

September 22, 2024

I saw the credits roll after I wrapped up the main story of God of War last night. I wanted to see the story play out so I focused on the main story tasks list. I'm glad I did because now I feel like I have "freedom" to just wander around completing side-quest stuff. Which I plan on doing, eventually.

God of War is definitely a good game. I had a lot of fun with the battles, they were fast and chaotic (in a fun way). Aiming Atreus's arrow was hard at first, but you get used to it. Fighting with the ax, barehanded, and then with the blades was beyond cool.

The one battle-related thing I regret is activating a skill that stopped me from recalling the ax over and over. It was frustrating when Kratos would start attacking with the ax instead of staying put. That's not what I want! Before activating the skill (I have no idea which one it was), I was able to stay in the same spot and throw the ax then recall it without issue, over and over. The good ol' days.

Mimir was a great addition to the team. I liked his accent and his funny comments. I liked that he called Kratos "Brother" and Atreus "Little Brother." The dwarves were funny, but at the very end I noticed this was very much a "Bro" game. So many guys, with the exception of one woman (Freya) who is portrayed as a mad woman at the end. Fun. So cool. We love to see it. [sarcasm]

Endgame stats!

There isn't any EXP in this game, so it seemed like the only way I was "leveling up" was by crafting and upgrading equipment. Which is fine, I guess, but I definitely prefer EXP or AP or some sort of system where fighting = leveling up.

Commentary/Thoughts:

After Freya saved Atreus, he was giving Kratos a bit of the silent treatment. I like that Kratos acknowledged the silence.

Nice little detail here.

And this was just silly. Very cute.

Shout out to the game devs for giving me anxiety with these puzzles.

Atreus lost his mother's knife saving Kratos, so it was nice that Kratos gave him a new one. One that he made for himself and for his son. Cute.

After Atreus learned he was a god, he got a major attitude! It was really interesting to see himself get such a big ego from learning what he is. I think even Kratos was shocked and worried about the attitude change. It was quite touching to see Kratos attribute Atreus's goodness to his mother, saying something along the lines of "You will honor your mother" when telling him to be better.

It was cute to see Sindri and Brok back together. Sibling love is interesting!

Same, Mimir. Same.

This part reminded me of being inside that whale in Kingdom Hearts. lol

This dude's whole story is about "feeling" anger that he can't feel anything (except anger, I guess!). Which I find very interesting. Reminds me of Tales of Berseria and how Velvet would say that feeling pain is a sign you're alive.

Also! I'm glad the green arrows finally came into play. Ever since Freya took them from Atreus and called them wicked, I was like, "What the heck?? WHY? I need more info!?" Sindri gave them to us, which made me distrust him for awhile. It makes sense now that she didn't like them because she knew they could break the spell on Baldur. Smh.

Not a fan of Freya being portrayed as a mad woman at the end. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that this game is very much a "Bro" game, as in, there are a lot of male characters. So to see the one woman in the game get overwhelmed and overcome by her emotions sucked.

However, Kratos said he understood her behavior and that he would also do the same (choose to die if it meant to save Atreus) which I think was a good detail to include. If this declaration from Kratos had not been included, it would have been too easy to dismiss Freya as a wild woman full of uncontrollable emotions, but having Kratos say that he would do the same makes her actions seem understandable, but I still think unreasonable.

Atreus is a good kid right now, so if Kratos died to save him, it would make sense. But Baldur was not a good person, and if Atreus turns "bad", then it also would not make sense for Kratos to save him either. I think Freya was in the wrong for wanting to save Baldur, yes even though he is her son. He wanted to kill her! Surely that is a sign there is something unhinged in your child's brain, heart, soul!? (shrugs)

I'm interested to see if she shows up in the next game.

At least Mimir seems to agree with me that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

So as far as the ending, I like the reveal of the mom actually being a Giant. Atreus is both god and Giant... interesting! This quick look at this mural in particular is also intriguing. To me, it looks like a snake coming out of Atreus's mouth and possibly connected to Kratos. Maybe it represents a circle or never-ending cycle, but who knows.

When Kratos killed Baldur, he said the cycle ends there. Kratos killed his father, and apparently this happens a lot with the gods lol. So it'll be interesting if this is Atreus killing Kratos or just him holding a dead Kratos, or if this even happens at all? I DONT KNOW. (I'm also not a pro on Greek or Nordic mythology.)

Cute little moment, he called him "Son" directly.

And this was interesting. Atreus is Loki??? Not sure how that will play out. They don't seem to like Odin or Thor in this world, who are portrayed positively in the Marvel universe while Loki is portrayed as a mischievous god, so... will Loki have good qualities in this game? I mean, so far he does. But again, I DONT KNOW.

Yeah I'm not doing a New Game+ any time soon, but like I said at the beginning of this post, I would like to revisit this game to do some of the side stuff that I didn't finish. I did fight one Valkyrie, but I kept dying at the very end each time. Maybe Kratos needs more HP because I got really close to killing the Valkyrie, I just couldn't find any green heals to stay alive.

Overall, a good game! I'm counting this as a "Finished" game because the credits rolled. I do not Platinum games because I do not care about digital trophies lol.

[cheiyunn]

Kimisute main story [5部] Part 4

Side: Fujin Rizing

[Sharehouse]

Aoi: …Fuuta, I’m leaving the food here so, it’s okay if it’s just a nibble, please eat

Yamato: How’s Fuuta?

Aoi: Still no response. Is he okay…

Yamato: That's worrying…

Aoi: yeah… what if… Fuuta just stays like this and…

Yamato: There’s no way this is going to continue on forever. We just don’t know when he’ll feel better, that's all

Yamato: Oh and, where are Misaki and Kohei-san?

Aoi: They’re out. I want to prepare for the live as well but, at the same time, I want to make sure Fuuta’s doing okay and check on him

Aoi: Its really like what Ko-nii said, we just need to wait and see…

Yamato: ….

–------

[Street]

Yamato: (The 3 of them think that they should just wait until Fuuta recovers…)

Yamato: (But, is that really for the best?)

Yamato: (I’m sure for Fuuta that it was all too much, and the shock was huge)

Yamato: (Since it was in middle school, thats around… 6 years ago)

Yamato: If it's a zodiac calendar it’d be… the year of the cat? Wait no that can't be right

???: …what’re you murmuring about?

Yamato: hm?

Yamato: Oh, hey Nijo. What are you doing here?

Haruka: That’s my line. What are you doing on the side of the street muttering weird stuff and all

Yamato: Good timing. Can I ask you about something

Haruka: what?

Yamato: We’re going to that cafe over there

Haruka: wait, no, huh, hold up..!

–

[Cafe]

Haruka: Don’t pull me, let go..!

Yamato: Sit over there

Haruka: I’m telling you to listen to others for god's sake. Who said anything about me giving you advice

Yamato: It’s just between us

Haruka: The hell do you mean…!

Haruka: hah…damn, fine… you better treat me to something

Yamato: You’ll settle for that? That's a piece of sack

Haruka: Pretty sure you meant piece of 「cake」*

–

Yamato: …so thats it, and my band is pretty down in the dumps in atmosphere

Yamato: What do you think I should do?

Haruka: …nah it’s not about what you should do, you should just wait until he gets back on his feet

Haruka: There’s probably nothing you can do after all so..

Yamato: No, there is

Haruka: If you knew that there was, then just do it dude

Yamato: There’s something I can do, but I don’t know what I have to do

Yamato: Thats why I thought I should ask someone else

Haruka: Ha! And that someone else is me? Dude are you dumb?

Yamato: Are you not good at giving this kind of advice, my bad

Haruka: No thats definitely not the problem at hand here

Yamato: …I, really want to do something

Yamato: Its normal to want to help out a friend who’s suffering right

Haruka: ….

Haruka: (Its normal to want to help out a friend who’s suffering huh…)

Haruka: …then, instead of moping around, how bout you charge head first instead

Yamato: I see, so I should break the door down and ask

Haruka: I never said that..!

Haruka: I mean that instead of waiting around patiently, you should do what you just did to me, and go about it your way instead is what I’m saying

Yamato: Go about it… my way…

Yamato: What is the ‘my way’ that you’re thinking of?

Haruka: What ??

Haruka: How you can’t read the room, don’t listen to others, super my-pace and also, how your guitar sucks

Yamato: Really? I thought I was getting better at the guitar though

Haruka: Its more because you roped the other bands’ members in to teach you right

Haruka: gah, the conversation keeps deviating..!

Haruka: Anyways, rather than overthinking it, why dontcha just go all in, break it down and see what happens

Yamato: I thought I wasn’t supposed to break stuff?

Haruka: Well I can’t imagine you actually breaking anything. But rather, thats the only thing you can really do right now so yeah

Yamato: …I see, I’ll take it to heart. I’m glad I was able to talk to you

.

.

*「お安い御免だ」 x     「お安い御用だ」 〇     Not sure how to TL that one but just know that 御免 means dismissal / permission