#(In case that wasn’t already abundantly obvious to everyone)

[bearotonin-international]

Bears make me cry because of how much I love them do you have any bears hugging or cuddling

[m4tthewmurd0ck]

THE MORNING SKY

── Coriolanus Snow x Fem!Reader

CHAPTER ── 3 [ MAKING AN ENEMY (I’LL KEEP YOU SAFE) ]

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from here on out, I mention / feature other tributes. click [HERE] for a reminder of who plays who!

this is the longest chapter yet, but it felt odd and too short when i split it up into 2. if you guys would prefer shorter chapters instead of ones this length, let me know!

YOU WERE TERRIFIED FOR ARCHER. From the day you met when you were both just 6-years-old, it didn’t take long for you to declare yourselves best friends. Naturally, Archer developed quite the protective nature when it came to you. And that was exactly why you were so afraid for him.

A few years ago when you were just 15, a boy had shoved you because you said you were glad he wasn’t your soulmate. Unfortunately for him, Archer had witnessed the ordeal. The next day the boy was sporting a black eye and a limp as he cautiously approached you and apologized profusely. He never bothered you again after that.

Another time, just the year prior, you witnessed how quick he was to turn to turn to anger. Never towards you, but to anyone who showed you or him the slightest bit of disrespect. And if did happen to be you that it was directed towards, let’s just say the bullies in district 12 learned to leave you alone pretty quickly.

One thing that had been made abundantly clear was that for the games, there could only be one winner.

Archer was always quick to come to your defense, to put your life before his. You knew talking to him about it would be pointless, and all you could do was hope that he’d put that aside and for once, also worry about his own safety.

To say you were nervous would be the understatement of a lifetime. Even from watching last years games, it was obvious that first impressions amongst tributes were everything.

Make a good first impression, and you’d have most of your fellow tributes wanting to form a temporary alliance with you. Make a bad one and you were more likely to turn them all against you. But on the other hand, your impression couldn’t be too good. Do that, and you’d be labeled a threat. And the biggest threats were often taken care of first.

This was the debate you and Archer were having as you walked to the training facility. It was on the opposite side of the massive property, and a note tapped to everyone’s room doors that morning let them know that mentors would be meeting them there.

“Do you think they’ll have all kinds of weapons for us to practice with?” You wondered out loud.

Archer nodded. “I’m sure. I can’t imagine what other kinds of training we could do. Besides hand-to-hand fighting and weapons, I mean.”

“I know we both want to go for a bow and arrow, but I think we should also familiarize ourselves with everything just in case.”

Turning to look at you, Archer asked what you meant by that.

“Like last years games. I didn’t see any bows or arrows. We should learn to use whatever we can get our hands on.”

That happy feeling returned, and when you looked up, you saw Coriolanus already looking at you, a hint of a smile on his face.

As Archer and Sejanus greeted each other, Coriolanus quickly gave you a kiss on the cheek. “Did you sleep alright?”

You sighed and gave a sort of half shrug. “With how comfortable the bed was, that should’ve been the best sleep of my life. But I was so nervous about today. I did manage to get at least a few hours, though not in a row.”

The 2 of you were joined by Archer and Sejanus, temporarily halting your conversation.

“You two already have other tributes wanting form an alliance,” Sejanus informs you as you head towards the building.

This surprises you both.

“What?”

“Who??”

“Aemond and Cassian. District two. We’re told they liked the show you put on at the reaping,” Sejanus directs this last part towards you. “I’m guessing they mean what you did to Juniper.”

You remembered something you heard at the reaping. “You’re from two, right? Do you know them?” You were immediately wary of anyone who’d want to work closely with you simply because they watched you smear blood all over someone’s face and clothes.

“I—” Sejanus paused, as if considering his next words carefully. “They’re not good people. But you know that district two is known for weapons manufacturing. They’re extremely skilled, probably the best of anyone our age in the whole district. As far as strength and weapons go, you could do a lot worse than them.”

That wasn’t very reassuring, you thought to yourself. You wondered if it was some sort of trick on their part.

Once in the building, the 4 of you were instructed to wait around with everyone else until all tributes and mentors arrived. You were told it was alright to look around, but to not touch anything until specifically instructed to do so.

There was a room dedicated entirely to targets, bows, and arrows. You knew you’d have to refrain yourself from heading straight there.

Another room had walls lined with knives, axes, and spears. The back wall had wooden targets. The 3rd room you looked at had swords on shelves, and mats all along the floors. The 4th room had a more cushioned floor. There were ropes leading up to poles that hung from one end of the room to the other, with rings to hold onto along the poles.

After looking at the rest of the rooms, each one dedicated to a specific way to train, the tributes and mentors were called back to where you’d first walked in.

There was a long speech about how there was to be no actual fighting. For the swords, you could only spar with your fellow district tribute. The bow and arrows, knives, axes, and spears were obviously only allowed to be used on targets. You were allowed to practice alongside other districts, even train together and give pointers, but that was it.

Then it was explained that scores would be kept throughout the 2 weeks. Fighting with other tributes, even verbal arguments, would result in a loss of points. As would mishandling any of the weapons. It’s as mentioned more than once that you did not want to be the tribute with the lowest score.

“Finally, the last two days are for you to show off what you’ve learned to a select panel of judges. This will be one tribute at a time, everyone else will wait outside until it is their turn. You can show whatever skills you wish, and you can avoid any as well. But keep in mind I mentioned that you’re being scored, so I highly suggest utilizing every room. Training ends at exactly five o’clock each evening. After that, mentors will escort tributes back to the living quarters.”

Before anyone had any time to ask questions, you were met with a surprise when Dr. Gaul entered the room. She gave a sort of sinister smile as she looked back and forth between all of the tributes and mentors.

Her gaze lingered on you and Archer, and Coriolanus had to stop himself from saying something. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind, there was already at least a small target on your backs. Still fresh in her mind was the stunt that Sejanus pulled sneaking into the arena, and how he and Coriolanus barely escaped.

“I wanted to personally escort you all to the new arena. We’ll go there, and you will have exactly two hours to look around and familiarize yourselves with it. It is a lot bigger than last years. And just so there are no… stunts,” she didn’t even bother trying to hide her glance at Coriolanus, “you will not bring anything into the arena and this will be your only opportunity to see it before the games. After today and until the games start, the arena will be locked and heavily guarded. I do not recommend trying to get in after hours.”

Everyone was then escorted by Dr. Gaul and what seemed like too many heavily armed guards. Led to matters black SUV’s, you all were told to quickly get in, 2 districts per vehicle. There was a brief moment of panic when mentors were told to get in to the vehicles at the front, but when no one was looking, Coriolanus took your hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He whispered that it would be alright, Archer would be with you and he’d meet you there.

You and Archer headed or the closest vehicle, thankful you were the first pair inside.

“Are these seats taken?”

Almost immediately, you’re set on edge. You only hope that the 2 boys don’t notice you and Archer exchange a nervous glance, but unbeknownst to you, they do.

��Uh — no, go ahead,” Archer answers for the both of you.

“I’m Aemond,” the one with the eye patch says. “That’s Cassian, we’re district two.”

You attempt to seem braver than you feel as you introduce yourself. “ — and that’s Archer. We’re district twelve.”

Not wanting to make any immediate enemies, Archer puts on a smile and holds his hand out to Aemond. Though he doubts you will want an alliance with them, he knows that it would be stupid to piss them off before training has even started.

The district 2 tributes share a brief glance before Aemond smiles and shakes Archer’s hand. You can’t help but feel uneasy at his smile, as you know it probably isn’t genuine. Sejanus’ words play over and over in your mind. They’re not good people.

“You put on quite a show at your reaping,” this time it’s Cassian who speaks to you. “What did that girl do to you anyway?”

“I—” there is clear hesitation in your life.

That smirk returns to both of their faces. Aemond leans slightly forward. “We won’t tell. Must’ve been something serious.”

Not seeing a point in lying, you tell the truth. “The reaping was rigged. That girl got her father, our mayor, to call my name. She thought… she thought that I wanted her boyfriend. I just got mad when she tripped me as I was walking to the stage.”

Aemond does a slow clap, “made for quite the entertainment. I bet you’ve got sponsors lined up already, just from that.”

“I wouldn’t know,” you shrug. “They haven’t said anything about ponsors yet.”

Cassian speaks up again. “I would’ve killed her.” He says it so nonchalantly that you and Archer freeze for a moment. But you quickly recover, both of you doing a sort of nervous laugh.

Figuring this was your only opportunity to do so, and since both boys seemed to be in relatively good moods, you ask the question that’s been on your mind ever since you learned the names of the other tributes.

“We’re told each district must submit one boy and one girl to compete in the games. How are you both allowed to represent district two?”

“I volunteered,” Cassian shrugs. “It’ll be fun.”

You feel chills down your spine.

“I volunteered as well,” Aemond spoke next. “My sisters name was drawn.”

“They allowed you to take her place?”

He laughs, although there is no humor in his tone. “It’s all about views for them, especially after last years games. They’d never risk the backlash o and deny a brother the opportunity to go in place of his sister. Plus like Cassian said, it’ll be fun.”

Now your mind is almost surely made up. You don’t want Aemond or Cassian as allies. Aemond volunteering in place of his sister was sweet, but based on Cassian’s initial response it seems like he would’ve done so even if her name hadn’t been drawn. The fact that they wanted to compete in the games and considered killing to be fun? You guessed they’d betray you and kill you and Archer at the first opportunity anyway.

Suddenly, the car comes to a stop and the doors are immediately opened. Archer and Aemond exit first, but before Archer has a chance to turn around to help you out of the car, Aemond beats him to it. Not having another choice, you take his hand and step down.

“Thank you,” you speak softly.

“After you,” he steps aside and gestures for you and Archer to go first.

Anxiety and dread are thankfully overpowered by warmth as you get to the massive entrance to the arena and see Coriolanus and Sejanus waiting for you. Aemond and Cassian don’t get another chance to speak, as their own mentors call them over.

But you once again feel a chill when Aemond turns around and gives you that evil looking smile. “I think we’ll be good friends.”

Before the entrance stands a massive metal detector, along with the armed guards from before, all lined up.

Dr. Gaul makes her appearance and reiterates how important it is that you all follow her 3 rules: 1. Absolutely nothing allowed in the arena today, 2. Be back outside of the arena exactly 2 hours after entering, and 3. No sneaking back in after leaving.

Just as everyone lines up to go through the metal detector, you, Archer, Coriolanus, and Sejanus agree that you and Coriolanus will go off separately from the other 2 boys. That way more ground will be covered when exploring the arena. And after going back and training for a couple of hours, the 4 of you will head straight back to yours and Archer’s room to begin strategizing.

One by one, mentors, and then tributes, walk through the metal detector. Anything that set it off, small watches included, were removed and kept in a box held by one of the guards.

“Now, I give you all my latest creation come to life.” Dr. Gaul motions towards the giant doors. 2 of the guards walk ahead and open them, and everyone is finally given permission to enter.

The arena looks ginormous. But what amazed you the most was that there appeared to be seasons in each section. Part of the arena had heavy snow, part was clearly intended to be fall with the leaves on the ground pretty shades of red and orange, and spring and summer sat at opposite ends.

————this is what i’m picture. major the last of us vibes. abandoned buildings, everything overgrown with vines and trees, etc., and i’m thinking an arena the size of the 3rd quarter quell———

ignore the lockers in the bottom left. just liked the pics to show you an idea of what i mean.

You couldn’t help but gasp. You were meant to survive in this? To possibly win?

“Two hours! Your time starts now.” Dr. Gaul tapped a button on her watch and walked out, leaving the tributes and mentors with the guards.

Coriolanus was secretly grateful at all of the rocks and bumps along the roads and paths. He looked around at the mentors reluctantly helping their tributes, and realized this was a rare opportunity to hold your hand in public. Not allowing himself to overthink, he grabs your hand and begins leading you towards one of the buildings. As much as he wants to spend the entire 2 hours simply being with you, you are still tribute and mentor.

“I thought there’d be weapons,” you look around.

“They’ll probably wait until the games start to bring those in,” Coriolanus tries to contain the feeling he gets from holding your hand.

As you walk around and explore the arena more, doing your best to avoid other tributes and mentors, you begin to strategize.

“If you can get to a bow and arrow, a rooftop might serve you well. Unless tributes are looking up, they wouldn’t see you until it was too late. But they’ll most likely scatter and go running as soon as the first arrow hits, so you’ll be pressed for time.”

“What if I’m not able to get to a bow and arrow? Or—”

After checking to make sure no one else is around, Coriolanus pulls you towards a row of abandoned buildings. He turns around and looks at you. “We’ll figure something out, I promise. Turns out district two weren’t the only ones who liked what you did at the reaping. You have some sponsorship money already.”

You force yourself to nod and seem confident, even if you don’t feel it. After a few more minutes of strategizing and Coriolanus pointing out specific buildings or areas that might be good for hiding, or barricading yourself inside if it came down to it, he begins to feel anxious.

“Are you alright?” You glance at him.

“Yeah, I’m— I’m fine.”

You stop, this time being the one to lead him to one of the few buildings you’d yet to explore. “I know you’re supposed to be the one to help me and comfort me, but we’re soulmates you know. If something is bothering you, you can tell me.”

Coriolanus sighs, not wanting to scare you. “I just don’t want to let you down. I swear to you, I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and help you win. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

You give him a sad smile and step closer, putting a hand on either side of his face. “I know you will. You don’t have to prove yourself to me. I trust you’ll do everything you can.” You lower your hands and are relieved when Coriolanus reaches out, already missing the physical contact.

Despite wanting to once again stay there and just be with each other, you know that time is of the essence, so it’s only a minute later that you’re back out wandering around.

“ — the fuck where you’re going,” a voice sneers from around a corner.

Coriolanus begins to pull you back towards the direction you’d just come from, but you instantly recognize the voice. You walk around and are horrified to see Cassian looming over Anna, with Aemond leaning against the wall as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“What are you doing?” You step in front of Anna.

“She was in my way. I’m just letting her know to stay out of it in the future,” Cassian smirks. You can’t help but think about how you’d like to slap that smirk right off of his face.

“She’s a child,” you shake your head in disgust and turn around, intending to ask Anna if she’s alright.

A harsh grip on your shoulder forces you to turn around. You’re met with a now furious looking Cassian. “Hey watch who you’re tal—”

This time it’s Coriolanus who intervenes. He shoves Cassian back, causing him to stumble and nearly fall. “Don’t fucking touch her.” Somehow, his voice being eerily calm makes the situation more frightening.

“And what are you gonna do about it?” This time Aemond speaks up. “We saw what happened last year. You couldn’t keep your songbird safe. How are you gonna protect my new friend here?”

Before you can even open you mouth to protest him calling you a friend, another voice interrupts you all.

“Is there a problem here?” You all turn to see Roman approaching. He immediately goes to Anna, who has remained glued to your side. When he bends down, she whispers into his ear, pointing at Aemond and Cassian before you. When he stands up again, he immediately walks over to the district 2 boys. Although they’re tall, Roman is taller.

They glance at each other and shrug, turning around and walking out of the room. When no one but you is watching, Aemond turns around and winks.

“Thank you for helping her,” Roman speaks to you, motioning to Anna who is now stood beside him. “I was wary of if I did not like those boys from the beginning, but now I am sure. Have they given you trouble also?”

You’re hesitant, but decide Roman seems nice enough. “A little. They say they want an alliance during the games but haven’t even given me an opportunity to answer. My answer is no, but I don’t think they know that yet.”

Roman nods. “I would have done more, but I fear the punishment for starting a fight before the games.”

Coriolanus, who as remained silent, slowly reaches for your hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. You turn to him and smile, “I’m okay, promise.” Roman watches this interaction but says nothing.

“We’ll be on our way,” he and Anna begin to head towards the door, “but thank you again.”

Thankfully, the rest of your time in the arena goes by quickly and uneventful. Before you know it, the guards are calling out a 5-minute warning.

As you and Coriolanus rejoin Archer and Sejanus and the 4 of you begin your walk back to the entrance, Coriolanus’ mind is now racing.

If you hadn’t done so before, after today you’ve surely made an enemy of the district 2 boys. His fight to help you win and stay alive just got that much harder.

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[subspencer]

the to-do list

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader

Summary: Reader is worried that she’s not adventurous enough in bed. So, she makes a secret checklist of things to try with Spencer. Based on this request.

Category: Smut, 18+ ONLY, minors dni

Warnings/Includes: switch!Spencer, (sort of?) corruption kink, exhibitionism, mile high club, brief description of oral, unprotected sex, creampie, brief mentions of other stuff but no descriptions

Word Count: 3k

Spencer’s girlfriend has a secret checklist. It could be called a bucket list, of some sort, but really all of the items on it pertain to sexual acts to perform with Spencer, on Spencer, or in front of Spencer. So checklist is a more appropriate term.

The list came into existence after a girl’s night game of Never Have I Ever, in which she discovered there was an embarrassing number of things she’d never done. Some of them seemed nearly impossible to have gone twenty-something years without doing, especially when in a committed relationship. That was made abundantly clear to her when the girls pointed it out, teasing her — and by association, Spencer — for being more than vanilla.

There was no real reason she hadn’t tried those certain things — she wasn’t adverse to the idea of most of them at all. Really, it was just that she never bothered to dip her toes beyond what was familiar.

When Emily, Penelope, and Tara had nearly all ten of their fingers down after a couple rounds, she finally realized she might’ve been coming up short in the sex department. She figured it was about time to find out what she’s missing, so she made a list of everything she needed to try. And one by one, she and Spencer checked the items off.

One of the more simple things on the list, and perhaps her favorite, was giving her first blowjob. It wasn’t something she felt compelled to try with any of the guys she’s been with before, and Spencer, though he was very curious about it, was too much of a gentleman to ask for one.

So when she asked him to sit on the edge of his bed and dropped to her knees in front of him, he didn’t stop to ask questions. His mind went blank the second her fingers undid his zipper. It was Spencer’s first, too, and his fingers knotted in her hair as she took him in as deep as she could, hollowing her cheeks around his cock and swirling her tongue as her head bobbed up and down. Spencer always made pretty sounds in bed, but in this instance she envied his memory because she wished she could replay his moans and gasps from that first blowjob all over again in her mind.

Another favorite was allowing the favor to be reciprocated until completion. She figured she might just be someone who couldn’t get off from oral, because though she always welcomed Spencer to go down, she got impatient every time and pulled his head up by his hair, demanding him to fuck her already. Spencer was one to oblige every request, but he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t overjoyed when one time she never stopped him short.

There were no interruptions, no hands shoving his face away from its rightful place against her, just increasing moans and shaking legs as Spencer was encouraged to give more. She can still remember the half-moon shapes his nails left on her thighs from where he had to grip them so tightly as she rode out her high. And she definitely remembers the almost feral look in his eyes after, because since that first time he insists on doing it again nearly every day.

There were more or less a dozen other items that slowly but surely got ticked off the list.

Handcuffs in the bedroom — fun, but perhaps better saved for special occasions. Or if Spencer was being extra good and deserved a treat.

Various new positions — a reminder to stretch more. And that sixty-nine is not as easy as it sounds on paper.

She let Spencer put a blindfold on her — it was decided they both prefer it more when the blindfold is on him. It keeps him guessing.

Spanking — both of them like this one, either giving or receiving. Surprisingly, she thinks she might like receiving it a little more, and Spencer is always excited to give.

Shower sex — a bit of a logistical nightmare, yet still a weekly staple. It’s slippery, yes, but it’s also relaxing and intimate. And Spencer just enjoys putting his hands on her wet, soapy body.

Sending dirty texts — great, but Spencer prefers taking nude polaroids of her instead. He keeps a few in his wallet for easy access. And because he knows Garcia can’t hack his wallet and find them.

And there were more items that went in the same tune until there was just one left. The one she was most nervous to attempt.

She wondered if joining the mile high club was better or worse if it was on the BAU jet. They’d have ample opportunities to do it, but they’d also be surrounded by their colleagues, and there is no coming back from getting caught.

But the main challenge was convincing Spencer to do it in the first place.

The initial plan of attack was to drop some “subtle” hints. She brought it up for the first time one night in their shared hotel room, right after Spencer fucked her against the bathroom counter, her legs wrapped around his waist.

“We could totally do that in the jet bathroom.”

“Yeah, I guess the basics are the same. Cramped space and a ledge to lean on.” Spencer was completely aloof as he picked up the scattered articles of clothing from the floor, rattling off about the size and dimensions of the airplane bathroom and missing the entire point of the comment.

She mentioned it again a little later, hoping the repetition may help him catch the drift.

“What’s the craziest place you’ve had sex?” she asked, completely catching him off guard as he ate a breakfast of frosted flakes in his kitchen.

“Um.. I don’t know? You tell me,” he shrugged, knowing that whatever the craziest place was, it was definitely with her.

“What about doing it on the jet?” It couldn’t get more obvious.

“We haven’t done that, silly. OH! I’m gonna say it was in my car,” he nodded with a wide grin, confident in his answer that unfortunately brushed past the proposition far too quickly.

It was time to change methods.

The new plan was to see if she could get him turned on enough on the jet to motivate him to do something about it right then and there. It seemed easy enough.

She sat next to him on the small couch, as she always did, and cuddled up to his side as he read his book.

Once everyone was distracted, she snaked a hand onto his thigh, allowing it to rest there long enough for Spencer to get over his initial shock and relax into her touch. As soon as he let his guard down, she moved her hand up another inch or two, watching him squirm again as he fought his mind from wandering. She repeated that cycle every five minutes until it drove him insane, his willpower diminishing in tandem with the proximity of her hand.

When everyone finally fell asleep, she craned her head to press small kisses on his neck, alternating between quick pecks and lingering ones, sucking warm and wet little flecks onto his skin that drew soft sighs without fail.

“What are you doing?” his breath was raspy and low as he muttered into her ear.

“Nothing.” She kept her tone innocent and sweet as she continued to sprinkle the teasing kisses across the column of his throat.

Her hand finally found its way directly on top of the bulge straining against his slacks and gave it a gentle squeeze. Spencer grinded himself into her palm, desperate to feel some friction, his jaw slacked and pupils wide. She dragged a thumb across his length, stopping to rub slow circles over the sensitive tip, drawing out a wet spot at the front of his trousers.

But even with his skin flushed red and his cock leaking and half-near orgasm, Spencer still found the restraint to stop her from jerking him off right on the jet and ripped her hand away, placing it in her lap as if the action could permanently force her to keep her hands to herself.

“I can’t go to the crime scene with cum in my pants,” he hissed, squeezing her wrist tighter.

She smirked at the opportunity, wrapping her warm lips around his ear lobe and tugging with her teeth before whispering with hot breath. “Then put it in me.”

For a second she saw him consider it. His eyes had a dark cast, gaze flickering between her eyes and lips as he swallowed the thick lump in his throat. But then Emily woke up and it was yet another failed attempt.

She resigned to the fact that it just wouldn’t happen, and that the item might remain unchecked on the secret list. So she cleared the idea from her mind, not wanting to keep pushing Spencer toward something he clearly didn’t have an interest in, or to keep embarrassing herself by trying.

And then a couple weeks later, as the team wrapped another case up, she came back to their hotel room to find Spencer sitting on the bed, facing away from the door.

“Hey, baby,” she greeted. When Spencer didn’t respond, she crawled onto the bed behind him, placing both hands on his shoulders and attacking the side of his face with kisses, giggling into his messy curls. “I said hey.”

Still nothing. Her eyes followed his line of sight down to his hands and went wide with realization.

“Spencer, where did you get that!?” She tried to snatch the crumpled piece of paper from him, but he was too quick to pull it away.

“I was looking for gum in your purse,” he explained, reading the sheet over again in complete amusement, “but I found something better.”

Spencer was much too excited about it, bordering on smug, and she rolled off the bed away from him in annoyance.

“Is this what I think it is?” She remained silent, suddenly feeling very insecure about the note. “Did you... did you make a list of things to do in bed?”

“You weren’t supposed to see that, it’s so stupid.”

“Hey, who said it’s stupid?” He tugged on her fingers, pulling her back onto the bed next to him. “I just wanna know where it came from.”

“Well... when I went out with the girls, we started talking about all the things we’ve done…” she paused to see if Spencer could guess where this was going, and of course he didn’t, “... in bed. And I hadn’t even done half of what they have, so I wrote some of them down. I — I wanted to try them with you.”

“So you… you’ve never done these with anyone else?” Spencer’s eyes widened as he pieced the puzzle together. He looked down again at the discarded sheet laying on pillows, his pride swelling at how long the list was. “I’m the first?”

She nodded in assent and no sooner was Spencer pushing her back flat against the mattress, settling his body on top of hers.

“God, that’s so hot,” he spoke into her neck as he sucked purple bruises into it, allowing his hands to roam freely under her shirt. His nimble fingers made quick work of her bra clasp, pulling the hem of the top up to attach his lips to her exposed nipple. He rolled the other in his fingers, tugging gently as she arched into his touch, rolling her hips up to grind against his. He groaned and pushed back, nestling himself perfectly between her legs.

Suddenly his motions halted and he popped his head up, looking at her with wide eyes and freshly ruffled hair. “We haven’t finished the list yet!”

“I — I didn’t think you were interested in the last one.”

“If my girlfriend makes a list of ways she wants to fuck me, I’m interested.”

A devilish grin took over her face. “Well, we fly home tomorrow.”

And true to the plan, they arrived on the jet the next day with at least a vague sense of strategy: wait until everyone is asleep then go at it in the bathroom. It wasn’t the most elaborate of plans, but there wasn’t much else to think of.

Except for the possibility that the others might not go to sleep.

The flight was already halfway through its journey and everyone was still wide awake, and Spencer was growing incredibly impatient. Perhaps even more than his girlfriend, now that he knew this would be part of a long list of things he got to be her first for.

That fact seemed to encourage him, the thrill of forever being her first at something. Never mind that she’d be his firsts, too.

Spencer’s not stupid, he knows that bending her over the bathroom counter while everyone is awake to hear it is a horrible idea. But his willpower doesn’t extend far enough to stop him from dropping his hand to her exposed knee, rubbing it softly just to be able to touch her. It seemed innocent enough in case anyone might see.

He kept his eyes on the open book he was pretending to read as his fingers traced the inside of her thigh, pushing up the hem of her skirt ever so slightly.

He inched his hand up and slowly spread his long fingers apart until they covered the length of her inner thigh. The tips stopping just below her cunt, delicately tracing lines back and forth parallel to the seam of her underwear.

And she quickly discovers there’s no taste worse than your own medicine. There was gentle brushes and concealed touches, all the things that she did to him. But where Spencer would’ve stopped her teasing before it got too far, she wouldn’t have done the same.

She covered up his hands by bringing her own down to her lap, silently encouraging him to continue unseen.

Spencer looked down at her through his thick lashes, bottom lip stuck between his teeth. Looking for more confirmation that she wanted this. The answer came in the form of her shifting subtly down the seat, pressing her clothed pussy firmly against his hand.

His cock twitched against the confines of his slacks when he felt the damp patch on the fabric. His knuckles brushed against her clit and her knees clamped shut, holding him in place as she brought her lips close to his ear to let him hear her soft whines.

He has to put his book over his lap to cover how hard he is, and it almost makes him regret starting this game. Almost.

Because just as she starts desperately grinding against his hand, squirming for more friction, he notices that everyone’s asleep. And then it’s a race to the bathroom, Spencer positioning her directly in front of him to cover his bulge as they stand up.

Their mouths are on each other before the door even closes, her hands wasting little time in going for his zipper. Both desperate to have each other after all the anticipation. She immediately perched herself on the countertop, spreading her legs wide so Spencer could fit in between them, just like in that hotel room. A confused whine fell from her mouth when he lifted her off from the ledge, interrupting her plan.

“No. Like this,” he growled, turning her around and pushing her hips against the edge of the counter, bending her over it. She muttered a “Fuck,” under her breath as he pressed his cock against her backside, knowing he preferred this angle because he could get deeper.

His lips trailed down her neck as he tugged the skirt up to her hips and pulled her panties to the side, running his cock along her folds to gather the wetness that had been pooling there.

“Shit, you’re so fucking wet.”

He quickly inserted his thumb into her mouth to stop any sounds from escaping before lining himself up. Her moans vibrated against the digit as he slowly pushed in, stretching her out and letting her adjust before starting to move. Slowly and deliberately, at first, then quickly gaining speed.

She pushed her hips back to meet his thrusts until he pinned them against the ledge with his own, holding them still so he could set his pace faster.

The hand that was resting on her waist came up to her chest, groping at the flesh over her blouse. Her spine arched into his palm, bending forward to give him more leverage to get deeper to that spot inside her repeatedly.

He alternated between a few quick thrusts followed by a deep one, holding himself there for a moment before repeating.

Her cunt tightened around him as he held still against her, applying firm pressure to her spot with the head of his cock.

“Fuck, do that again, please,” he grunted against her neck, pushing his hips into her ass with bruising force to get impossibly closer. A loud whine nearly escaped her lips as he did so, the motion sending her over the edge.

She sucked harder around his thumb, using it to keep her cries at bay as she reached her climax. Her walls fluttered around him as she did, giving him exactly what he needed.

“Remember what you said before, baby?” he hummed in her ear, “Do you still want me to cum inside you?”

“Please.”

Immediately his thrusts became erratic, hips snapping forward a handful of times before he spilled into her in hot spurts, biting down on her shoulder to stifle his moan as he came.

Still heaving from the comedown, he pulled her panties back on, using the fabric to keep his cum from spilling out.

She turned to feverishly attach her lips to his, panting into the open mouthed kiss. When they finally broke apart, both looked completely wrecked with swollen lips, flushed skin, bruised necks. Still, they tried their best to fix themselves, straightening out their rustled clothes and smoothing knotted hair.

Before Spencer turned the door handle, he pulled her side into him, pressing a kiss onto her forehead. “We should make another list.”

.

.

.

taglist: @suburban--gothic @ssa-sarahsunshine @mercy-burning @reidspurple @mediocre-writer @honeyboysteezy @ssa-m-187 @calm-and-doctor @drayshadow @s1utformgg @you-sunshine @altsvu @reidtheprettyboy @goose-eats-god @sonnydoesrandomshit @rigatonireid @muffin-cup @amoeebaa @reidingmelodies

[atpaftmoom-bily]

Thoughts about Erik, why Wilhelm wasn't allowed to come out, and more.

Be warned, this is long, confusing, and I'm not even sure if I made any valid points. But I had thoughts on Young Royals, with no one to talk to, so here you go.

I've seen various different takes on Erik and what people thought his reaction would have been if Willie had come out to him, most of them being positive, and some as well saying how sad it was that Willie never got to come out to his brother. I have a different take, but bear with me it's gonna take a second to get there.

Something that I found interesting in the first place was that when August found out it was Simon and not a girl, he just seemed shocked, but not in a homophobic way that I had kind of been expecting.

Additionally, let's take a look at the comments on the video, I've split them up into three different groups. General comments (disbelief, surprise, pity, etc.), comments sexualizing them, and negative comments. (I've translated these as well as I could as they were not all captioned, but if I've made a mistake feel free to let me know!)

General Comments "OMG Have you seen this?? The Prince is gay!!!!" "Who's the other guy?" "I'm dead" "Finally some news to put Sweden on the map!" "Poor boys, I feel sorry for them" "So clumsy to get caught on film" "I know where he lives!" "I think the video is fake" "Love for the boys"

Sexualizing Comments "Royal porn" "Sexy" "Love" "Sexiest video ever"

Negative Comments "How will the monarchy survive this?" "The end of the royal family, time for Sweden to become a republic!" "Never been ashamed about being Swedish until now" "Class traitor! Your mother cries for your sins"

Now, there are quite a few things I want to point out about Sweden that I feel should be taken into account here. Of course, we don't know the exact dates that the show took place, but we do know it is modern-day, and though it is a work of fiction, I am going to assume that anything that is currently true in Sweden at the moment, give or take a few years, would also be true in the Young Royals universe.

The first point I would like to make is that Sweden is one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, even being named the most friendly country in 2019. Looking back in history, 1944 was when Sweden decriminalized sexual relationships between consenting adults of the same sex, though it was still thought to be an illness. However, in 1979 it was no longer considered an illness. Fun unrelated fact, but Sweden was the first country to legalize gender change in 1979. (If you'd like to read more on LGBT rights in Sweden here are some resources. One. Two.) If Sweden is that progressive and is that LGBT-friendly, then I wondered what the problem was with Willie coming out, so I dug some more.

I'm American, so my understanding of many parts of the world is unfortunately skewed or incomplete, but I'm working on changing that. However, because of this, one thing that surprised me in my research was that the monarchy in Sweden is more of a unifying symbol than anything else. They have no political affinity or formal powers, but rather "the King’s duties are mainly of a ceremonial and representative nature." Of course in the case of Young Royals, the Queen inherited the throne, and Wilhelm would after her.

Something else I found interesting about the monarchy in Sweden is that the current Queen, Queen Silvia, did not come from a line of nobility, so when Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf married in 1976, it was highly unusual. (See more on the Swedish monarchy here.)

There is one last thing I want to point out about the current King and Queen. "In summer 2000, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden made history when they ate under the rainbow flag at Djurgårdsterrassen, a Stockholm restaurant owned by gay owner Arto Winter. At that time, the decision was seen as controversial, and played a valuable role in moving conversations forward – while making the royals’ position abundantly clear." (Source)

Now, of course, I understand the difference between a fictional work and real-life situations, but at least in my opinion, these same ideals should carry through to the show that we see. If the King and Queen in real life have been openly supportive of the LGBT community since at least 2000, then although specifics might not be the same, some of those ideals should carry through to Young Royals, so what is the problem, right?

I'm not trying to erase the reality of homophobia altogether, because of course, that exists. We even see in the show through comments that there are some people who are worried about the state of the monarchy, are disgusted, or downright still think that not being straight is a sin, but we also see other comments as well. If Wilhelm were to come out, what would happen? Would there be some backlash? 100%. Would there be people who would support him? Also 100%. Would it make his life harder? Probably, but would he be happier? In my opinion, yes, but I guess that's a question that Wilhelm would have to gauge on his own.

Now I want to look deeper at the conversation that Wille has with his mother, the Queen, in the car on the way home so he can give a statement to the media. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Wilhelm: Why can't I just have a relationship with him? And not say anything. Just live a normal life.

Queen: You're the crown prince. And that's a privilege, not a punishment.

Wilhelm: Yes, but I didn't ask for this!

Queen: Well, nobody has ever, ever asked for this! You are the only one who can take over the throne after Erik. Don't you understand that? You are so young. When you're young, love feels like the most important thing in the whole world. When I was your age, I too had an unfortunate romance. That was before I met your father. What I mean is, is it worth it? If you feel that the attention you've been getting so far is unacceptable, it's nothing compared to what you will endure for the rest of your life. We have a chance to cover this up, I urge you to take that chance. You may not get another."

---

Something I find interesting is how much Willie just wants to live a normal life, which I get. He is under so much pressure, from being a role model, his brother's death that he hasn't even had time to process, preparing to be king someday, and (kind of) being outed to the entire world, but at least his school. It's enough to make anyone want to live normally. I think the biggest thing we have to think about here is the Queen's question as well. Is it worth it? She is right of course, the attention he will get will always be there, but I do think that Willie would be able to find a way to be happy along with being King. It shouldn't have to be a case of either-or, and ultimately I don't think it is.

Now I'm going to move back to Erik, and really, this ties everything back to the start where I mentioned I had a different take on Erik's reaction to Willie being not straight. I think that Erik already knew. It would make sense for a variety of reasons. In the show, it is obvious that the two of them have a good relationship. We also hear Erik tell Willie, "you can trust him, he's like a brother," in episode one when speaking about August, showing that trust is something strong between them as brothers. I'm not exactly sure how old Wilhelm is meant to be in the show, but I estimate somewhere around sixteen. I would like to assume that sometime before attending Hillerska, he may have had a crush or felt some attraction to a guy. We also can see from their phone call in episode three, that they're not afraid to joke around with each other about such things, meaning that Erik would most likely be the first person that Willie would go to about such things.

Another thing that makes me believe Erik already knew has to do with people assuming that Simon is the first guy that Willie has liked. Now, I know things are not the same for everyone, but if we consider what happens when the video is posted, and Willie had to deny it is him, we can conclude that being anything other than straight in their family is not okay, simply because they are royals, and the media attention will be too much. Imagine you've known your whole life, you can't be something, the first instance you encounter that, you're probably not going to give in right away. I'm talking at least some minor internalized homophobia here or something.

So put that into the context of Simon and Willie's first kiss in episode two. Simon kisses Willie twice before Willie says "Well, I'm not... I'm not... Stop! Wait, wait, wait!" and immediately pulls Simon back towards him. Let's reflect back to episode one where Willie says "I’m not… I’m not allowed to speak about political issues." I'm not allowed. Of course, there are TONS of restrictions on what he can and can not do, kissing guys, probably being one of them. But if he was going to say I'm not gay or I'm not like that, why would he instantly pull him back in, contrasting what he was just going to say. In episode three, Willie does say, "I'm not like that," which makes sense. He's had time to think and isn't in the heat of the moment. What other explanation can he give? Sure, he could say he's not allowed to be like that but saying that would admit that he is. It's a circle, a very messy circle, but it is a... loop.

Going back to what I'm supposed to be talking about here, Erik. This isn't Willie's first rodeo, but Erik was there for the first. One last thing I want to talk about is the phone call that Erik and Willie have in episode three. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Erik: You've met someone.

Wilhelm: I, uh... Yes, okay, but I... I don't think we're a couple or anything. I don't know what it is but can we just...

Erik: I get it. I get it. You don't have to tell me any... I don't wanna hear any details. Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions and-

Wilhelm: They don't care about me. 'Cause you're the Crown Prince that they have opinions.

Erik: I don't get it. Why are you sitting in your room sulking when you have a crush to hang out with?

---

Firstly, Erik refers to Willie's crush as completely gender-neutral. "You've met someone" could very easily be "you've met a girl". The same goes for "you have a crush to hang out with". Very well could have been "you have a girl to hang out with". Sure, it could be completely coincidental, but we live in such a heteronormative society that it would just make sense for Erik to use female-gendered words. Unless, of course, he knew.

Secondly, "Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions". This sounds very much to me like, enjoy your time while you can be yourself without backlash because soon you won't have that privacy. While I feel that, yes, the same may happen with anyone Willie was to date, him having a same-sex partner multiplies that, by a lot.

In conclusion, Erik knew Willie was not straight, Willie should come out, but when he is ready, and August is a really deep character that people don't give enough credit to. Gosh, I hope I covered everything, I probably forgot so much, but it's fine. Please let me know your thoughts if you've made it this far into the post.

One last thing. I hope you'll notice how in this post, I never referred specifically to Wilhelm's sexuality, and I did that for a reason. I often see gay used to label him, and though I am unsure if that's being used as an umbrella term or specifically as in he only likes men, I think it's really important to realize that they're specifically making him unlabeled. In this youtube video Edvin Ryding, the actor who plays Wilhelm, says "What we're trying to do... We're not labeling Wilhelm's sexuality. I think that's good because it's like, it portrays that it's okay that way too. You don't have to. You shouldn't have to come out. It should be allowed to be a bit fluid, a bit out there." I just think that it is important as it's another type of representation that is not seen often.

[fandom-imagines-stories]

If I Go, I’m Goin

Dr. Spencer Reid x Reader

Words: 1845

Part One

Summary: With the reader’s funeral just days away, the team worries about Reid. Spencer struggles to cope and finds himself going to places he remembers being with you. Inspired by the song If I Go, I’m Goin by Gregory Alan Isakov. 

Notes: I know. I’m mean. 

Warnings: Character death, grief, depression

More Criminal Minds: HERE

-

And the photographs know I’m a liar

They laugh as I burn her down

She wasn’t leaving until he opened the door. J.J. knocked again, this time a little louder than the first. She had given him a day to himself, but now she was worried. It had been less than 48 hours since Y/N died. Everyone was dealing with it differently. Prentiss and Morgan went to the shooting range, Hotch buried himself in paperwork, Penelope was running around trying to fix everything, and Rossi was being, well, Rossi. 

Everyone thought it was a good idea to let Reid be alone for a while, but they didn’t know what J.J. knew. They didn’t know what Y/N had told her that day. Of course, everyone had their suspicions, but J.J, and maybe Penelope, were the only ones that knew that Spence just lost the woman he’d loved for at least the past year. 

The door slowly opened just enough for him to look out. From the little sliver that she could see, he didn’t look well. His eyes were sunken and dark and it looked like he hadn’t changed clothes since the hospital. The sight of his despair nearly brought tears to her eyes. 

“Hey J.J.” 

“Spence.” She greeted, her voice quiet and empathetic. “Can I come in?” 

“Uh, I guess. Sure.” He stepped aside and let her walk past him into his living room. It was strangely well put together. She expected things to be discarded on the floor, for the kitchen sink to be full with dishes. But the only thing that seemed out of place was a single chair facing the window. “Why did you come?” 

“I just wanted to see how you were holding up.” 

“Did Hotch tell you to come see me?” 

“Spence-”

“Because I really don’t need a psych evaluation right now.” He sat down in the chair in front of the window. Honestly, it was where he had been for the hours before J.J. got there. He just sat, looking out like he was waiting for Y/N to come down the street. 

“I came here as a friend, Spencer. Not as an agent.” 

“Oh.” She watched as the previous outburst lost its effect on him and he slumped forward, leaning his head on the glass. It was like watching a wounded animal stop fighting. It broke her heart. 

Spencer didn’t say anything else. When J.J. asked him a question, he responded with either a silent nod or a quiet mumble. Eventually, there was nothing else she could say. 

“We’re all here, Spence.” She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “If you need anything before the funeral…” The last word nearly caught in her throat. Funeral. J.J. kept a steady appearance, leaning over and kissing the top of his head. “Bye Spence.” 

He didn’t say anything as the door closed behind her. He didn’t even look back. Spencer kept his gaze out the window and watched J.J. get in her car and drive away. He must have sat there for a few more hours because by the time he finally moved, it was dark out.  

He forced himself to stand and walk back to his room so he could take a much needed shower. Seeing his still made bed made his stomach twist. His mind conjured the image of a quiet morning, none in particular, where he laid with her. He laid with Y/N in his arms as the sun peeked through the windows. Just as quickly as it had come, the vision left, returning the room to its original empty state. 

Spencer moved through his apartment aimlessly, his body moving before his mind could catch up. His thoughts were far away, trapped in those woods with the constant sound of an arrow cracking through bone. It cracked through his chest, leaving only a painful ache. He stepped into the shower with his clothes still on. 

-

This old house, she’s quite the keeper

Quite the keeper of you

He was there before anyone else, sitting in the dim light by himself for nearly an hour. When Hotch quietly trudged to his office, he stopped suddenly, seeing the form sitting at his desk. 

“Reid?” He flipped on the main lights and looked warily at the young agent. While he didn’t show it, Hotch noticed Reid’s disheveled appearance and blank expression. “What are you doing here?” 

“I wanted to do some paperwork,” Reid replied, keeping his eyes trained in front of him. Hotch set his briefcase down. 

“I told the team to take a few days off.”

“You’re here.” 

“I have to deal with…” He trailed off, dreading the report sitting on his desk. Reid nodded, still not entirely paying attention to his supervisor. 

“Right.” He continued to slowly tap his pen against the surface of his desk. Hotch knew that the psych evals weren’t until after everyone came back, but Reid was worrying him. Grabbing his briefcase, he kept a close eye on him as he went to his office. 

Spencer stared at the desk across from him. 

“Come on, there has to be something that you don’t know.” You challenged, chewing absentmindedly on the cap of your pen. Normally he would remark on how many germs were on the average pen, but when you did it, he thought it was cute. 

“Of course there are things I don’t know, I just don’t talk about them because I don’t know them well enough to talk about them.” 

“I bet you can’t name every character in Star Wars.” 

“Alphabetically or in order of appearance.” He smirked smugly. 

He blinked and the memory was gone. Y/N was gone and the emptiness returned. Spencer stood up, wanting to find something that would conjure another image of her. He wandered aimlessly around the office, slowly weaving in between desks. He opened the drawers of her old desk, but they had already been emptied. Her parents must have already cleaned it out. 

Right. Her parents were here. He’d almost forgotten. They were here for the… 

Somehow, he found himself standing in the break room in front of the empty coffee maker. He made himself a pot, not really thinking about his motions as he put the grounds in the filter and poured the water. It wasn’t until he imagined her hand on his arm that he felt anything at all. 

“What are you doing?” He asked, an amused smile playing at his lips. 

“I’m dancing.” You twirled to the other side of him, your playful laugh filling the small room. 

“There isn’t any music playing.” 

“Who said you need music to dance, Spence?” You took his hands and spun into him, giggling relentlessly. “Come on, dance with me.” 

“Are you crazy? We’re at work.” He tried to sound stern, but he just laughed instead. 

“So? Nobody will see us.” You put a hand on his shoulder and moved his arm around your waist. You both swayed to the music in your mind, your hearts somehow playing the same song. For a moment, you forgot where you were. You forgot that there was another horrific case awaiting you in the conference room and all that existed was you and the man that held you. 

“Hey Y/N.”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.” It seemed now that the two of you were swaying to the sounds of your heartbeats. You blinked up at him, surprised at first, but soon a bright smile spread across your face. 

“I love you too.” 

This vision faded slower than the last, Y/N’s face staying until the last possible moment. His arms ached from the emptiness, his feet rocking back and forth like he was dancing all on his own. 

“Reid.” Hotch’s voice halted the music in his mind. His voice was grimmer, almost sadder than it was before. “Are you ready to go?” 

“Go?” He read Hotch’s expression. “Oh. Right. That’s today.” Hotch nodded and stood aside so Reid could pass by. 

“I’ll drive you home so you can change.” 

-

If I go, I’m goin crazy

Let my darlin take me there

It was a perfectly nice day, making him even more sick to his stomach. The sun was out and clouds lazily drifted across the sky. He wished it would have rained. At least then, the world would look like he felt; colorless and dark. 

Y/N’s parents both shared a few words and Penelope did the eulogy. Spencer was sure it was nice, but he couldn’t focus enough to really hear any of the words. Hotch kept a close eye on him, though he tried not to be obvious about it. Spencer felt like everyone was watching him, waiting for his numb exterior to break. He knew they meant well, but he’d appreciate it if they were a little more subtle about it. 

Somehow, the ceremony felt both eternal and over too quickly. Before he had even moved to put his rose on the coffin, it seemed like everyone was leaving. Maybe it was just him; frozen in time until he could bring himself to step forward. It still felt like everyone was staring at him. How many people even knew about him and Y/N? Maybe everyone, at this point. They were profilers after all and he hadn’t been abundantly subtle on that last case. 

That last case. 

Suddenly the rose in his hand was an arrow, bloody and splintered at one end. It fell between his fingers and hit the grass as a flower again. A petal fell off and he held it to his lips. Was he going insane? Was this what it would be like from now on? Everything reminding him of that last moment with her? With the blood and the arrow and the screaming? 

With a slow, shaky hand, he placed the rose on the coffin. Someone put their hand on top of his, but when he turned, there wasn’t anyone there and suddenly, he felt something… peaceful. Something that told him that all he would need to remember were the good things. The smiles. The laughter. The dances in the breakroom. Despite every logical impulse in his mind, every scientific fact he knew by memory, he knew. It was her. Y/N.

Finally, he started to cry. The numbness was gone and allowed for emotion to finally come to light. Sobs shook his body and nearly made his knees buckle, but he made himself stand. He ran his fingers over the gleaming surface of the coffin and cried. 

“I love you. I’ll always love you.” 

He must have stood there like that for at least an hour, if not several, but when he turned around, he found his team- his family- waiting there for him. And they walked away together, always to remember the member that they lost. A friend. A sister. A lover. And Spencer would never forget you, as long as he lived. 

I will go if you ask me to

I will stay if you dare

-

General Tag: @rae-gar-targaryen; @takemepedropascal; @childhood-imagination;  @mylovegoesto; @yellowbadgergirl; @itmejado; @suckmyapplejacks; @kendahl0216​

Requested Tag: @ lolalee24; @ haylaansmi; @ obsssedwithjustaboutanything;

[stellocchia]

Okay, time for another overly long analysis of our favourite green blob with a god complex and traumatized teen!

I will be discussing both the “Trapped in prison with Dream” stream and the “Am I dead?” stream as I think they should be analyzed together, so espect spoilers for those. It also goes without saying that, from here on out, unless stated otherwise, I’ll be talking about the characters and the roleplay only!

So here we go! More under the cut and be advised that this will be a long one!

First of all it’s essential to keep in mind that Dream’s view of his relationship with Tommy is extremely different from Tommy’s. I will be going more into details as the analysis proceeds, but it’s very clear by now that Dream is under the delusion that Tommy’s attachment to him is as strong as his for Tommy. 

We have multiple examples of this, but the strongest one (until the revival stream at least) was back in the season 2 finale when he kept believing that Tommy wouldn’t kill him as he wouldn’t kill Tommy. We also have instances like him saying “exile wasn’t that bad, you had me” and his insistence on them having “so much fun together” that all point to the conclusion of Dream believing their game is played on both side.

Tommy, on the other hand, made it abundantly clear that he despises Dream entirely. He recognizes that Dream actively makes him a worse person when they’re together and he recognizes that he abused and manipulated him along with many others. Tommy doesn’t reciprocate Dream’s obsession in the slightest and actually seems extremely taken aback any time the green man proposes the idea of them being a theme. 

On that last point it’s interesting to notice that the actual idea of them working together (Tommy and Dream vs the world style) is actually something new that Dream introduced with his stay in prison. Proposing they could “escape tigether” when they first ended up stuck there and even more in the two latest streams... Dream’s interpretation of their relationship seems to have shifted from “fated nemesis who have fun together” to “friends”. No, this is not a positive shift, and I’m not framing it as one. Dream’s idea of friendship is as twisted as can be and Tommy has zero say in the matter. 

Now that the introduction is done, let’s get to the actual analysis!

Trapped in prison with Dream

So the stream starts with Tommy trying his best to annoy the Hell out of Dream. Then PussBoy is introduced... 

One thing to point out is that Tommy seems to fear silence and lonliness over everything (as we’ll see proof of later on), so it’s honestly no surprise that he would not be able to bear the silence for too long. 

“The cat is the best thing that’s happened to us” Dream is already sort of shifting from the “me” talk to the “us” talk, which is rather interesting. That also mirrors his “You being stuck here is the best thing that’s happened to me since I got to prison” statement.

Then there is the interaction with Sam where he decided to leave Tommy in there longer in order to solve the issue. We also get a very rare instance of Tommy showing a lot of his vulnerability, talking about exile (though it’s clear he doesn’t know Sam knows as much as he does about exile), which promptly gets ignored in favour of Sam continuing to work on the security issue.

A few seconds after Sam left Dream already burns the new clock. The reason he’s doing it is obviously to keep Tommy in a more vulnerable state of mind by continiously insuring he has no way to tell how much time has passed. All the while acting like it’s no big deal of course. Like his actions aren’t deliberate.

“What if we get out together?” “No, no! Because then you’ll break out with me, I don’t want you to break out with me” Dream already gave a similar proposition when they had just got stuck together and, again, the reason why this is so important, is because it seems to indicate a shift in Dream’s mind between the “me vs you” mentality to the “me and you vs the rest”. 

There is then the whole debacle with PussBoy where he’s killed. There isn’t really much reaction from Dream for it (really, Tommy shows more panic about it then Dream does any emotion. Please people, re-watch that scene and stop using the damn cat as a motivator there). “Look Tommy, I’m gonna get out” is literally his only reaction. That and saying that Tommy is and always has been his motivator: “You motivated me, well, you motivate me all the time”. It really couldn’t be clearer here.

“I’ll get out and, when I do, I’ll get my revenge” (...) “On who” “On everyone who’s wronged me” “Oh on fucking everyone won’t you! You’ll go and you’ll kill fucking... you wouldn’t kill anyone would you? You wouldn’t, you wouldn’t kill someone (long pause)... of course you fucking would...” Now, why did I highlight this whole thing? Well, because there’s a lot to unpack here. 

1) Dream is still fully of the idea that he was in the right, hence his desire to get revenge on “those who wronged him”. His mentality has not shifted at all so we can conclude, once and for all, that his “meek” act during most of the visit was indeed just that: an act. 

2) Callback to Tommy saying he feels like his brain is “wired to be Dream’s friend”, despite having already been killed 2 times by Dream, Tubbo more recently almost dying to him and knowing what he is capable of in general, it still takes him quite a bit to remember that yes, Dream would kill someone, he would hurt people. Tommy still has a hard time admitting to what happened to him and the impact Dream has had on him and he’s not entirely out of Dream’s manipulation (once again, good representation, because you don’t heal from something like that in a month), he is however now better at recognizing it and correcting his own faulty thinking. 

“I have a plan” I did not notice this on first watch, but was Dream’s plan to send Tommy to the afterlife from the start? Or, at least, to send someone there so he could study it? It could very well have been. He’s shown in the next stream that he wanted talk to Schlatt immediately asking Tommy about him once he was back. We can’t however ignore that he mentione that “someone who owes him a favour” may be a part of his escape plan, so that feels rather important for the future once he’ll have brought Willbur back to life. 

So then there is more of fight that start. Dream is getting annoyed at Tommy’s “whining” and tries to make him see things from his perspective (aka “it’s not so bad because we have each other” again with the trying to establish their “friendship”). 

“You don’t have ME, you never have ME, we don’t have each other, alright? I am me and you are this fucking looser who goes around manipulating people and lying to get what he wants” What this is is 2 things: 

1) Tommy recognizing what Dream is trying to do, the subtext of what he’s saying and refuting his claims (hurray for the bit of healing he’s had!)

2) Tommy actually recognizing the possessive side of the claims Dream keeps making. I don’t see this talked about that much, but, to Dream, Tommy is most definitely his propriety, just like Tommy’s disks were Dream’s in his mind (remember that speach? He literally referred to them as “my disks”). I mean, he clearly acts like that’s the case, enphasizing time and time again how he has absolute power over Tommy (I’ll go a bit more into it towards the end of the analysis of the other stream, for now though, keep this in mind)

“Even when I’m in here I’m more powerful then you are when you are outside” back on the theme of Dream’s God Complex I see. He seems to like showing off as often as he can “how powerful he is and how powerless Tommy is” (in Dream’s words from the season 2 finale), though that’s most probably to keep enforcing the dynamic that he already established in exile, the whole thing with Tommy being entirely dependent on Dream. He seems to like that aspect of their dynamic as he has expressed multiple times his appreciation for that specific period of time. 

“If I wanted to, right now, I could just kill you. And the only reason I’m NOT is because of my friends, for Tubbo, because WE need that fucking revive book, alright? That’s the only reason I’m not killing you” well, I mean, we’ve known this for quite a while. The only reason Dream got to keep his last life was because of Tommy’s attachment to his friends. I’ve seen a few people saying that it was specifically to revive Wilbur and, while that may have been an idea at first, by now he had already shown multiple times that that was not the case (even before spending time with him in the afterlife). When he went to “Wilbur’s revival” (the failed one) he showed that he was already incredibly uncertain about wanting Wilbur back (describing him as “not so poggers” in very Tommyinnit fashion). No, the actual reason why he wants the book is most likely because Tubbo is on his last life and we know he can’t live without his best friend. 

“Tommy, I’m never, I am NEVER EVER going to use the revive book to help you or any of your stupid little friends, okay?” So now the question is: was this a lie or a twisted version of the truth?

I’m gonna say the latter and here is why: Dream DID, in fact, revive Tommy. We know this now, it’s canon. But he really didn’t do it FOR Tommy. One thing I want to make clear is this: while Dream may, in fact, consider himself and Tommy “friends” he doesn’t CARE for Tommy himself, not in a way that’s commonly considered as “caring” at the very least. He finds him fun, entertaining and he seems to be rather dependent on him, but NONE of this things equate to caring about HIM. So, now that that’s cleard up, the resons why he revived him in the first place should be rather obvious: 

1) He wanted to see if he could and learn more about his power in general

2) As I said before, there is a degree of dependency Dream has on Tommy. It’s very obvious in the fact that, despite having let go of every other attachment, he doesn’t seem able of letting go of Tommy, not permanently anyway. He seems to actually need to have a degree of control over Tommy at all times

“I will never use the revive book. I will NEVER use it on you, I will never use it on any of your friends, I will never use it to save ANY of you” now THIS one is a straight up lie. What Dream was trying to do here was provoking Tommy enough to see if he’d actually kill Dream or not (which was a useful information for him for later). To see if Tommy could bring himself to do it (he can’t)

“I’ll get out eventually because, either you’ll let me out or... people will be dead” way to be ominous green man! We could assume by this point that his plan to escape may have been along the lines of “getting Techno to repay him by killing one of Tommy’s friends therefore forcing him to let Dream out to bring them back”, or something of the sort.

“This isn’t worse then exile (...) because in exile I thought you had all the power (...) here’s the thing Dream, here’s the thing I know: I don’t think the revive- I- how could I be so fucking...? The revive book Dream, it’s not real is it?” Here is where things start to actually go downhill fast. There is nothing Dream hates more then Tommy questioning his power, there is nothing that makes him angry faster (I’m sure the whole “I don’t give a fuck about Spirit” speach comes to everyone’s mind when I say this, as it should). Dream, as much as he presents himself to be a logical mastermind, is actually very emotional in the way that he is very easily overtaken by anger. He does irrational stuff every time he gets mad, that’s no secret. If he wasn’t already planning to kill Tommy to test his power, this push is what convinced him to do it. Also this is the exact reason why he likes Tommy (weirdly enough, their relationship is so very complicated) in the first place, because he’s the only one who’s constantly questioning him and challenging him. 

As we know the fight escalated and Dream ended up killing Tommy telling him to ask “Schlatt” about the book. Though before that there are quite a few exchanges were Tommy expresses that he thinks Dream is powerless now and was lying about the book all along because that’s generally what he does and Dream keeps insisting that he’s not lying and that Tommy’s life is still in his hands, that he still has all the power (turns out he wasn’t so wrong...). 

Also, last line to analyze from this: “I might as well be a God Tommy! You can’t kill me and I can kill you” pretty sure this is the first time Dream outwardly announces his God Complex and it’s interesting that his idea of power revolves entirely around having power over Tommy specifically. Because, even having power over Tommy’s life he’s still in prison, he stil has no real power of any kind. Everyone on the outside still hates him (aside from the anarchist duo), they still aren’t letting him out. Who comes to see him and what he can keep in his cell is still entirely dependent on Sam and not on him. But the fact that he has power over Tommy is enough to make him a God in Dream’s eyes.

Am I dead?

Fisrst things first, the afterlife part:

It seems that we may be seeing pieces of conversation had at different times. Let me explain myself:

Tommy opens up asking if he’s dead, then he has an interaction with Wilbur that sounds like it could be their first interaction after his Tommy’s death as Wilbur asks how he’s doing. 

We know however that he’s been ther for at least 2 months, probably more considering he seems to have interacted with Schlatt, but Schlatt has been comatose for 3 months. We could then assume that what we see is a sort of very short montage of Tommy’s time in the afterlife.

The next scene we have Tommy asking “How long is left?” (we don’t know what he’s referring to, though it could be to his revival) and Wilbur responds saying that, to the end of the Universe it would be still 8 eons. Then Wilbur asks him to play competitive solitary and they randomly chat for a bit.

New change of topic (probably next scene again) we have Wilbur telling Tommy he’s happy Tommy is there (dead) with him as the tw of them were never good for the server and caused all the problems (which we know to be incorrect, but it was Wilbur’s mentality at the time of his death and it makes sense that he would have kept it). Tommy also has a very clear panic attack which Wilbur generally ignores. Wilbur also says that, if he’s brought back to life, he knows for a fact that the server will be in shambles because, in his words: “I know what I’m like, that’s the issue”. 

Like it or not people Wilbur is most definitely implying that he knows he wasn’t a good person and that he won’t be different when he comes back. Simple as that. It’s also a further confirmation of his self-deprecating nature that brought him to self-destruct in the first place.

There is another pause that we could consider a cut scene and Wilbur is then talking about making a solitaire arena in a couple of months to an exasperated Tommy

Now for the revival itself:

First thing we notice once Tommy is back to life is that he’s most definitely experiencing a sensory overload. He’d gotten used to living in a colorless dimension with almost no sounds (aside from Wilbur’s and Mexican Dream’s voices I’m guessing) and no sense of touch aside from the constant pain that being back on the living plain may be quite ovewhelming for him.

“So what was it like?” Dream doesn’t loose a beat once Tommy is back before starting to ask him questions. He literally sounds like an eager kid who just got a new toy (and I gotta commend cc!Dream for the voice acting here!). The book worked and now he needs to find out exactly to what extent he can use it (the idea of immortality being on his mind as we’ll see later).

“Void, it was dark, it was all dark” “There was Schlatt, there was Mexican Dream” “There’s so many more drugs then just alcohol” “Mexican Dream, he was there, which was confusing, he was loud. And then there was Wilbur...” “(Continuation from below) and then I came out and I was in a long long hole, a tunnel of black and void, not even black just colorless” “When I was there it all felt so real, but so torn apart. It felt like I was in pieces, like I was stomped on” This is our best description of the Afterlife so far. A static void with no colors or viable sensations, with only 3 known residents now that Tommy is not there any longer. A weird reality with a seemingly entirely different set of rules to our own.

“Death felt like my body was taken apart and then put together and then taken apart and put together here. It felt stretched man” “It felt like I was shredded to dust” “No it didn’t feel goo- it felt like I was put through a shredder, but there was no blood, there was no flesh it was just essence, like a powder and I was put through (continues in previous section)” This is Tommy’s complete description of his experience with death and what it felt like. Having to stay for months with this constant sensation it’s really no surprise he would be so hypersensitive to touch.

“Honestly I was kind of scared it wouldn’t work” So, here we got another indication of the fact that, while Dream killed Tommy in rage, having him stay dead was never his intention (despite him claiming he would never use the book on Tommy a couple of days prior). He never intended to severe his last attachment (I’m honestly not sure he even CAN seeing as how dependent he actually seem on Tommy), he literally only killed him because he was mad Tommy would question him and wanted to prove a point, but to prove his point in the first place he needed Tommy back. It’s also probably why he revived him so fast, his weird need to have control over Tommy, which he couldn’t have while Tommy was dead.

Why did he care so much about Tommy not believing him on the book, you may ask? Was it to save his own skin? It’s possible and I think that’s part of it, others being convinced that the only reason they kept Dream alive was a lie could cause his death. The other reason is that he seems, as I said before, to want to shift his and Tommy’s dynamic to an “us vs the world” type of deal, which would require Tommy in particular to believe everything he says.

We can now add being hit at all by Dream to Tommy’s ever growing list of trauma triggers as he seems to have a very vivid recollection of his death by Dream’s hands... also we need to point out their body language in this: Dream is constantly trying to get close to Tommy as much as he’s constantly insisting on getting more information, while Tommy alternates between getting close to Dream and pushing him away (could be he’s both seeking some kind of comfort, but is also very overwhelmed).

“Tell me, one more time: what was it like when you died?” “Did it feel good?” Dream’s insistence and exitment about Tommy’s very obvious extreme distress is honestly concerning, but expected. By now we can safely assume that he doesn’t really have any empathy, I know, bold claim, but is there any evidence to refute it? Any evidence at all? Because, so far, he has shown a distinct lack of empathy in any and all situations...

Another interesting thing was Tommy’s reaction to Dream’s probing questions: while he seemed to get increasingly distressed by them, he kept answering Dream every time with little hesitation only at times adding on things like calling Dream a monster for the way he was treating him. I honestly think this may have been because he was in desperate need of comfort, and having someone to confide into is part of that. And Dream was the only “someone” he had there.

We then get the whole exchange about how time in the Afterlife is different then in the normal plain of existence. I’ve seen people equate 1 day to 1 month, however that’s incorrect. That was Dream’s wrong assumption but, from whet Tommy said, we can guess that it was much more then that. Frist of all, the first month and 18-20 days Schlatt was still awake and he was the one making them keep count. That said, we know Schlatt has been asleep for around 3 months (we don’t know exactly how much as they lost count). Which means that Tommy’s stay in the Afterlife was much more around 5 months then 2, meaning 1 day in the Real World should equate to roughly 2.5 months in the Afterlife give or take. That is, of course, assuming time there moves in a regular way and there is an actual correspondence between Real World time and Afterlife time, which is not a given.

Tommy keeps asking for the people he find reassurance in (at least we can assume so) which, in this case, are: Tubbo, Jack, Phil, Fundy an Sapnap. It’s a pretty weirdly matched group of people but, apparently, they are the ones Tommy seeks out when he’s distressed. It would be interesting to see an analysis of his relationship with each of them, but this one is not about that I’m afraid. 

“Wait shut- shut up! Shut up! Sorry, I’m sorry” Tommy seems to have re-acquired some of his exile mannerism such as being overly apologetic and skittish, together with the lashing out more. None of this are good signs... he had just started healing as well...

“I... I’m a God! I can bring people back to life, I wasn’t even sure that I could, but I can!” Bringing Tommy back to life worsened Dream’s God Complex even further, because now he doesn’t only have power over Tommy, but everyone else as well. And, I mean... at this point he IS basically a God, he’s not even wrong on that. 

“Dream, Dream, listen to me. The things I saw, the things he talked about, the things he said he will and the things he WILL do... do not- promise me, never EVER bring back Wilbur! Please, please, please” In case anyone was wondering this is the exact thing Tommy said on Wilbur. He didn’t say he’s worse then Dream here, but he IS bad news, at least if we trust Tommy on it. Wilbur wasn’t only self-destructive when alive, he was destructive in general. He was dangerous to others as much as he was to himself and he DID hurt people. And this side of him seems to only have been accentuated by death.

 “Do NOT bring back Wilbur. Ever! Promise me you’ll never do that, alright? Dream, Dream, you are nothing, you’re nothing, you’re fine Dream! We can be friends if you don’t bring him back! You’re not even- all the tragedies you’ve done-” and here’s the part that I’m guessing people are interpreting as Tommy saying Wilbur is worst then Dream which is... a fair interpretation actually (considering that Tommy is not a reliable narrator). Now please don’t get me wrong, Alivebur as he was, wasn’t worse then Dream, but he had years in the afterlife to become even more radicalized in his beliefs. There is also the fact that Tommy doesn’t seem to put the harm done against him on the same level as that done against others: Dream has hurt Tommy worse then Wilbur ever did, but Wilbur’s potential harm against others might be greater in Tommy’s mind then Dream’s. That’s the reason why he’s offering something he knows Dream wants, which is his friendship, in order to keep Wilbur from coming back: because he truly doesn’t care about his own wellbeing as long as others are safe. Of course Dream’s response to this is: "It’s not up to you. It’s up to me because I- I have that control” which is very in character for the green blob with a God Complex

“What if, now that we know, we could send you back and you could figure out-” We can see that Dream has an utter fascination with this whole concept and, now that he knows revival works, he has no qualms with sending Tommy back (no matter how obviously traumatic it was for him) to get further information because, guess what? Death is not in any way an escape anymore. He can simply pull Tommy back as he pleases.

There is then the exchange about burning the book, but, as Dream has it memorized, they would need to kill Dream to get rid of the knowledge, but Tommy can’t bring himself to do it because he’s even more terrified of being stuck alone in the cell then he is of Dream bringing Wilbur back. 

“I wanna know about death. We can study it! We can study it together! We can become immortal together!” Again, if there were any doubts on Dream’s constant need of having Tommy under his control, this should dissolve them. There is truly not much more he can do to show how obsessed he is then offering Tommy to be immortals together, especially because we know that the ideal for him would be to have Tommy be completely dependent on him again. To have his favourite puppet under his control for eternity apparently... “I want absolutely fucking nothing to do with you” of course, as we said many times, Tommy doesn’t view their relationship in the same way. Tommy actually hates Dream and truly doesn’t want anything to do with him.

“You owe me your life” “Owe you my life? You beat m-!” Who’d know that Dream had some similar arguments to his apologists huh? But this does show how warped his view of reality is. I mean, he’s fully aware that he beat Tommy to death, but he still think Tommy should be grateful to him for bringing him back. 

“Now you can tell everyone that the book exists, that I'm not a liar!” Dream really went hard with the whole God Complex thing, even going as far as choosing his profet huh? Man’s just on a high horse and will never get down...

“Everyone... is my puppet” Welp, this is the culmination of his God Complex. The realisation that he has absolute power of life and death over everyone else. That he can play with them as he pleases. Also, may I add that, for basically this whole stream, he has used the “soft voice” he tends to do with Tommy whenever he’s trying to get him to comply? Like, I’m mentioining it now because it was particularly obvious in this last exchange, but it’s been there on and off the WHOLE time. 

“You killed me to prove your own point. You could have just showed me! You could have just- this is so evil. This is- this is- this isn’t like before. This isn’t you’ve blown up and- you’ve put me through torture, through pain, to prove a point, that’s fucked! You can’t do that to me... to anyone!” It took almost half an hour but Tommy has finally come to the full realisation of what happened to him, of why it happened and he’s honestly very understandably distraught about it (though it is to be said that it's arguably quite good that he understands that it wasn't okay for him either to be put through that as he tends to downplay his own suffering greatly). He has been through something unimaginable for us because Dream was upset that he didn’t believe him about the book. That’s all there was to it, that’s all the reason for his suffering. Like, he’s not wrong at all when he describes Dream as a monster, that’s literally the only accurate description of him. No normal person would put someone else through this for such a petty reason. 

“You’re soft Dream, you’re soft” Another valid point by Tommy. While Dream IS undoubtedly extremely powerful and extremely clever, he’s also petty, stubborn and childish. He throws violent temper tanrtums every time someone (especially Tommy) disagrees with him and mostly gets away with his bs because he has the power to back them up. That said he hardly ever lost, the only true loss he had was being locked in prison, and he managed to turn even that in his favour! But that’s the think: loosing makes you stronger, it often teaches you a lot and pushes you to get better. He (along with a couple of others) basically never had that. Tommy’s been through literal Hell and he survived that, he knows he can survive that. Dream? He may break at the first real hardship as far as we know!

“I’ll let you free, I’ll let you free alright? We’ll call for Sam, we’ll get him in here, he’ll let you out, but... I’m gonna bring back Wilbur and Wilbur- Wilbur is gonna help me escape” 2 things to unpack here (aside from the fact that he’s using the “soft voice” to say something extremely disturbing again):

1) Dream is, once again asserting his power over Tommy in two ways: by frasing it in a way that implies that it’s up to Dream wether Tommy leaves or not and by confirming again that Wilbur’s resurrection is entirely up to him and that Tommy’s opinion on the matter is utterly worthless

2) He fully intends to use Wilbur as a puppet as well because, as he says a bit later, if he brings him back then Wilbur will be indebted to him

And that’s how it’s concluded! 

My closing thoughts on this are that, generally, Dream’s level of dependence on Tommy seems to worsen as fast as his God Complex. man went from telling him that their story “would never be over” to offering him immortality in the span of little over a month. Tommy is Not Doing Good, AT ALL, but I’m hoping he’ll ask for help this time from other people because he literally cannot deal with this on his own. Wilbur will not be good news, but what he’ll do is still entirely uncertain, it is to be pointed out however that, at the beginning, his frasing at a certain point sounded scarily similar to Dream’s idea of “us vs the world” when he said that him and Tommy specifically are the single cause of conflict. I hope I’m wrong there because the LAST thing Tommy needs is another obsessive God-like individual in his life!

@mysweatymakerstudentworld

[normal-thoughts-official]

Why was Lorenzo such a jealous bitch nd why does this fandom treat him like he's a good person😑

okay so i know that this is a rethorical question but i've actually thought about this a lot so i'll take my crack at answering this - WHY is lorenzo such a jealous bitch?

the only thing he's said about why he hates magnus - that i remember of, at least - is the line "he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. his fame is not based on talent, it's all nepotism"

now, anyone who knows anything at all about magnus knows that not a single fucking word of this is true. magnus was born poor in a recently colonized country under a lot of oppression, there was no damn silver spoon in his mouth, and after that he was thoroughly abused by his demon father. his fame is also absolutely based on talent - he invented portals, for fuck's sake! and the "nepotism" comment barely makes sense. i assume he means it's just that magnus' power is all due to the fact that his father is demon royalty, which makes magnus more powerful than most warlocks

so, that explains what lorenzo is jealous of - magnus' power and prestige among warlocks (such as having been HWoB for decades) - but not what the fuck lorenzo's deal is (i mean, we've met plenty of other warlocks in the show, many of which weren't really fans of magnus, but no one other than lorenzo has this idea that magnus doesn't deserve his fame), or why magnus (because while like, yes, magnus is very powerful, i assume he's not the only son of a prince of hell, considering asmodeus is not the only prince of hell and these guys get on the loose, like, weekly. and lorenzo is obviously OBSESSED with him, he deliberately went out of his way and abused his power as HWoB several times specifically to antagonize him, and also, you know, TRIED TO KILL HIM)

lorenzo talks about magnus almost as if magnus took something from him. it's not just that magnus is powerful and that he supposedly doesn't deserve it, lorenzo obviously feels as if antagonizing magnus is some sort of vengeance. i know plenty of jealous people, but going as far as forbidding anyone other than himself from giving magnus a magic transfusion, specifically saying that if it went wrong he wouldn't help, and then refusing to take back the magic when he KNEW perfectly well that would kill him, is to me very obviously a thought out plan TO kill magnus. lorenzo had been hoping from the start that magnus' body would reject his magic and the transfusion would kill him - why else would he specifically say, the second he agreed to the transfusion, that if it went wrong magnus would be on his own?

and it's not like lorenzo even gains anything from that, other than killing magnus. and humiliating him, which lorenzo has said explicitly was something he wanted to do (i believe the term he used was "breaking his spirit", but potato potatoh). if it was about magnus' position of power, he already had that - lorenzo literally already had the HWoB position. if it was about magnus' magic, he had already lost it. lorenzo had absolutely NOTHING to gain from magnus, so his personal vendetta against him doesn't even make sense from JUST a jealousy standpoint. he had already "won" over magnus. the only explanation is that he wanted some kind of revenge

but revenge from what? well, we know that magnus and lorenzo don't like each other, but magnus never really TOOK anything from lorenzo. considering how he wouldn't miss an opportunity to talk about how much he hated him, i think lorenzo would have brought it up if that had been the case. and magnus is just not the kind of person to pull the rug from under other people's feet - look no further than the whole show for evidence of that. he literally puts the others above himself at all times (which is unhealthy but that's another story and something i've talked about plenty of times already)

so why does lorenzo feel so much resentment towards magnus? why does he act as if magnus' power took something that was rightfully his?

i think lorenzo feels that he was entitled to be the most powerful, to have the most prestige, to be above magnus, and he resented magnus because that was simply not true

why?

let's go back to the only thing we know about lorenzo's backstory - the baby painting. yes, it's a huge meme, but think about that for a second. lorenzo has a huge ass painting of himself as a baby that he displays proudly in his home and that's, like, his #1 stop at the house tour. the baby painting. "needless to say, being born in spain during the siglo de oro was quite the experience". is the first thing he said

let's make this abundantly clear: this line makes it canon that lorenzo is a colonizer. the siglo de oro ("golden century" in spanish) started (roughly) in 1492, year of the """""discovery""""" of the americas, and ended (roughly) in 1659, the year when spain signed a treaty and lost a bunch of their territories to france (link to source). altho the term is usually used to refer to the boom of the arts in spain, it's obvious, just from these historical landmarks, that the siglo de oro is about colonization. it's about the fact that at the time spain was at its peak colonial power, and could afford to exploit what later became third world countries, and put part of that money (in fact, the literal gold they were stealing from latin american countries) into arts and other luxuries (because in the renaissance portraits were a luxury item and a symbol of status - link to source) for the ultra rich that benefited from colonization

so, lorenzo is not only a colonizer, but he's a part of the elite. the fact that his family could afford to have a painting of him as a BABY (portraits were almost exclusively adult portraits, and usually of the whole family, unless you were even richer than the rich. and even then individual portraits were usually to celebrate important achievements such as a marriage or acquisition of state - a baby being born doesn't qualify, especially because at the time most babies died not long after birth anyway), and a HUGE painting on top of that, shows that they were just. loaded in an incomprehensible way. im talking jeff bezos level of riches. they were the elite of the biggest colonial empire of their century. so, ironically, lorenzo was born with a silver spoon in his mouth - everything that he had, he was born having, and he specifically had because it was being stolen due to a dramatically violent process of genocide and slavery, that he believed to be entitled to simply because he was born a spaniard/white. that is all canon, because in the shverse mundane history is the same as in real life. EVERYONE who was born in the colonial elites was taught that they were entitled to shit from other countries, that they were superior not only to other ppls but also to their own people - let's not forget that this was way before the advent of republics, those were monarchies. the ppl who were part of the elite straight up believed they were superior to others by virtue of god

"woah woah woah but lorenzo is played by javier muñoz who's brown" yeah, which is unfortunate, but he is still canonically a colonizer. first off, because it's not like they wanted someone to be lorenzo and were looking for brown people - they were looking for someone javier could play because he's a bigshot broadway actor who was also a fan of the show, and then they picked lorenzo. probably because the sh showrunners don't fucking know the difference between a latino and a spaniard. or maybe they do, but they thought, "eh, close enough". either way, lorenzo is a spaniard, and he was born a colonizer - ergo, he is white, regardless of what race his actor is, regardless of even what he looks like. there are plenty of white spaniards with similar skin tones to lorenzo, because what today is spain used to be a territory occupied by middle eastern ppl, and there was mixing. what makes whiteness is not skin tone, it's context, and the context of being a literal colonizer directly benefitting of the oppression of black and brown people is as white as it gets

so, to recap: lorenzo was born a white colonizer, and he was RAISED believing that everything he had, he was entitled to. he was entitled to it by virtue of god, because he was born a part of the rich elite in the richest colonial power in the world, and he had access to everything he could possibly want. and he wasn't just entitled to riches and power - which he still has, look at his fucking mansion, dude - but specifically to superiority to his peers. especially black and brown people, the source of his riches, the people who owe him the wealth he takes from them

and then he joins the warlock world, and not only is he not royalty (because presumably he is the son of a regular demon, not too high up in the hierarchy) but some brown guy is. and this guy is in a position of power over him (high warlock) and he is better than him (at magic, specifically, but also at everything including being a human being, but lorenzo doesn't care about that). and lorenzo is fucking livid, because he believes himself to be entitled to be the best, entitled to be treated as a superior, entitled to admiration and to servitude, especially from people like magnus (let's not forget that the philippines - colonized by spain during the siglo de oro - are right next to indonesia [link]). instead, magnus is, politically speaking, his superior

and it's not like it even means much because the high warlock position is implied to be kind of like, the mayor, and it's not like magnus ever abused his power (unlike some people - and sidenote, i think this backstory is also why lorenzo was so comfortable using his power to antagonize magnus: because he was raised in a context where political power was pretty much boundless and politics and the personal feelings of the ruler were not separated). so in practice its really just that if lorenzo had a problem, he could go to magnus, and if magnus made a decision that referred to all warlocks, lorenzo was supposed to follow it. it's nowhere near like, actual subservience. but it's way too much for someone who was raised to be entitled to the level that lorenzo was

so that's why he has this feeling that magnus took something from him - because in his head, everything magnus has, lorenzo should be entitled to. because in his head, any and all power rightfully belongs to him, and if magnus has it, then it has been stolen. and that might not even be conscious of his part or whatever, altho i doubt lorenzo doesn't think in explicitly racist terms at least in private, but that had been ingrained into his head for centuries on end. if it's still ingrained into the heads of white spaniards born TODAY, imagine one who was actually born at the fucking height of racist exploitation

so. yeah. that's why lorenzo is such a jealous bitch. that's why he hates magnus so much - because he feels that magnus having anything at all lorenzo doesn't is theft, and ironically, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but believes that he earnt what he has whereas magnus didn't. it's not just jealousy, it's a profound feeling of racist vendetta, and i'm sure the sh writers didn't mean it that way, they were just writing a big villain to bring malec together, but death of the author, baby! and this explanation actually makes sense without having to change anything in canon, so, i feel very comfortable saying that's why lorenzo behaves the way he does

THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT THE BOOKS

[ninjas-go-round]

Saw this question pop up in the notes on the au post and I didn’t know if you actually wanted to know but I’m desperate to blab so here’s an answer!!

If you’re taking about the team:

At first, the others are a little concerned about the fact that Kai and Nya supposedly have close family ties to their enemy, in the same way they are wary of Lloyd later on. However, it quickly becomes obvious that the connection is just as much news to the two of them as it is everyone else. And unlike Lloyd, Kai makes it abundantly clear that he wants nothing to do with his father because he already has parents and Garmadon ain’t one of them.

Once that is established they kinda just accept the fact and move on.

(If you want to know about how the previous elemental masters felt about the smiths relationship Garmadon, I have an answer for that too. In that case, nobody particularly cared until garmadon started going evil. But even then it wasn’t a huge issue cause at that point Ray and Maya had already retired, and the three of them had somewhat distanced themselves from the rest of the masters.)

[sylverstorms]

Cassandra Dimitrescu x Maiden ----Valiant

The tavern is lively in the evening.

A fact you are endlessly grateful for. It provides an imperfect little sanctuary to drown out the mad howling from the outside.

The shrill sound is nothing new, nor out of the ordinary for you; it has been with you your entire life. Ever since you were a child, you remember the fear it instilled and the nights it kept you awake, shivering in terror underneath the covers of your bed. You remember the stories your mother told you about the monsters lurking in the darkness of the forest… even more so now that her warnings and tales are all you have of her.

Perhaps that subconscious terror is the very reason which had you seeking work at the inn.

You could do literally anything else in the village than tolerate the half-mad grouch that is the owner –he never even pays on time— yet you are still here. Possibly to escape the cold walls of your empty house at night. Possibly to avoid being alone with the howls and the padding right out your door. You don’t know how the other villagers do it. They’re either braver, denser or crazier than you give them credit for.

As for yourself, you know for a fact you are not as strong as other people think you are. Maybe it is your sturdy build that tricks them, or the killer glare you’ve perfected over the years of putting up with the town’s shit. Whatever the case, you are in no hurry to debunk the lie, even while you recognize it for what it is.

A distant howl threatens to crack the cocoon of safety you’ve convinced yourself you’re tucked into, so you focus on the drunken chatter and the bard’s soft music a tad harder. It’s just the wind. Just the wind out there. Your knuckles are white around the bear glass you’re in the process of cleaning.

And then something strange catches your eye.

At a shadowed, quiet corner of the tavern, a shopkeeper is speaking to a hooded woman. The scene would not be anything out of the ordinary… only, you know just about every individual in this damned village –it comes with the job— yet you do not recognize her.

And you’d remember that tight, lithe figure, that is for certain.

There aren’t many girls in the village who can make plain black robes look like an article right out of a fashion magazine. So, yes, she is the first thing your mind settles on. But your attention quickly shifts to the person she’s talking to. The man has had far too much wine to drink –you’d know, you served it— and he’s not exactly the type you’d trust being inebriated around women. Already, he’s looking at her like a starved beast salivating over a freshly cut steak.

Your hazel eyes narrow at his direction.

“I will ask you for the final time. Do you have what I ordered for my mother?” the girl asks, her silvery voice curling slowly around every word, as if she’s talking to a toddler or a fool. It’s as funny as it is cute, but you can’t let yourself smile just yet. Something in his gaze takes all the mirth out of the situation for you.

Instinctively, you’ve moved closer.

“I have it. Yes, of course. Come with me an’ I’ll give it to you.” There is a very obvious slur to his words that inspires no confidence.

You want to shout when the girl so very easily follows him outside.

There are too many things wrong with that thought. Her, possibly new to the village, alone with a lecher like him. Her, unprotected, out in the dark, where every soul in this cursed place knows not to be.

Suddenly, you’re hyperventilating and you don’t know why. You don’t know her and her wellbeing is none of your concern. Everyone in the town is out for themselves, that part was made abundantly clear to you a long time ago. There is no room for compassion, especially at night. She made a bad decision and the consequences are her own to deal with.

You are not a heroine to follow her out and save her from the wolves and the man’s intentions and the rumored monsters. You are not that good of a person. You know it like you know the sky is blue; you are not that brave.

But you must be stupid.

You must be, because it’s not a minute later that you hurry out the back door, as well. It’s difficult to see anything in the dead of night, but you manage to spot the pair on the side of the building. The shopkeeper is now leaning too close to her, a drunken grin to his lips as he reaches out to grab at her chest. The girl’s hand flies to her hip, the handle of a weapon visible there just under the shadows—

Your fist is faster.

It cracks straight against the man’s jaw in a sound that shouldn’t be so satisfying but it is. His head knocks against the wall and he falls backwards like a pushed domino. Howls echo in the distance but the sound of your heart is too loud in your ears to register them.

You turn to the girl to make sure she’s alright –to see her with a gleaming sickle in hand, hovering awkwardly mid-air. At least she had a weapon with her. Yet it’s not so much the blade as her face that captures your attention.

She is beautiful. All delicate features befitting a princess, curved nose and cupid lips and a small chin. Her brown hair looks silken-soft as it runs down the sides of her angelic face… but you haven’t heard of any angels with an umbral, rose-like tattoo on their foreheads.  

You have heard of beings bearing such markings that you’d be smart to avoid.

The contrast between the attraction you feel and the danger you should feel leaves you hanging there, still and mute. She is the first to move, hooking her sickle back to her belt in a motion far too dexterous not to ring some alarm bells in the back of your head.

“Well.” she says. “Looks like I’ve been rescued.” she doesn’t sound rescued. “Unnecessary… but sweet of you.” If her smile wasn’t so pretty maybe you would have already started running indoors.

“N-no problem.” you say as you’re beginning to regret all your life choices.

Her eyes flash down to your neck, then back up to yours. You don’t see her move, but her hand is suddenly on your bicep, just above the curve of your elbow. You can feel the chill of her skin through your clothes. “Relax. You’ll have a heart attack.”

Easy for her to say.

A quiet moment passes between you, during which you are all too aware of the fact your back is now pressed against the wall and she’s in front of you. Then, “Is it the howling…?” she asks. You’re half-lying when you nod. “Don’t worry about it. I can’t very well let my valiant protector get eaten, now, can I?”

It’s meant as a joke, but your heart constricts further in your chest. Images you’d like to avoid thinking about come to mind. How casually did she say the word ‘eaten’, though…?

“I’m –not really any of those things.” You shake your head. “What did you need from this guy?”

Conversation is probably good, you muse. It helps with your nerves and it keeps her occupied. Plus, she’s kind of really cute, the way her voice so perfectly matches her face. You can’t help but add that to the list of reasons.  

A pout crosses her balmy lips. The moonlight that caresses her face makes them glitter. “I wanted a surprise gift for my mother. My order should have arrived by now –so maybe I don’t need him, after all.” Maybe I don’t need him alive is what she doesn’t say but strongly imply.

“No, no! I can get it for you!” you say the second she makes to move towards the unconscious shopkeeper.

A soft, airy chuckle leaves her lips. “Didn’t you say you aren’t a valiant protector?”

“Words I stand by. But there’s been enough loss in the village as it is.” you somehow find the courage to reply. “I’ll get it from him tomorrow—”

“So, that’s where you are.” Another female voice chimes in, this one several tones darker than firmer than the brunette’s. The figure that looms in the darkness wears a similar attire, but she feels more ominous than the one in front of you. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” she says, stern, like an older sister you don’t want to ever cross.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m coming.” The brunette waves with her free hand. The one that’s not still on your arm. She turns back to you, her expression sweet amusement once more. “Be home tomorrow night and have my order with you, yes?” You can imagine it’s impossible for anyone to say ‘no’ to her when she bats her lashes like that.

You also don’t want to imagine what will happen if you refuse.

“Uh— Yeah.”

She beams. She downright beams. “Excellent!” She steps away and you take a much-needed breath…

But then she seems to think twice about it and slips right back into your space. Dainty fingers catch your chin, deceptively strong. Cool, soft lips land on your warmed cheek. She smells good, is all you can think about while she’s that close. Like the cold and roses and faint undertones of something metallic.  

“Thanks, sweetheart.” she purrs.

The edge of her hood brushes your forehead and she’s out of reach before you can even blink. She waves at you from her sister’s side, who looks none too pleased with any of this.

And then— she blends into the dark and you finally register how cold it is outside.

Ko-Fi

[athina-blaine]

writing update! so for the last few weeks ive been slowly working through the companion piece for fell in your opinion and its almost complete, with about 3-ish pages of editing left. it’s a pretty dense scene, though, so im giving myself permission to shelve it for now and take a short break to reboot. between that and momm (the next chapter still around 50% complete), it’ll be a good while before anything’s ready to be posted :’(

in the meantime, here’s the opening scene from the companion piece, as a treat~

fallen out of favor and fallen on my face

companion piece to fell in your opinion, Jon POV

Preview word count: ~1k

-

It proved difficult to watch Martin walk back to the cab stand, alone. Should Jon have insisted on accompanying him, in case it started to rain again? Is that what a good boss would have done?

Not that Jon would know anything about that. Good boss, feh. His only template was Elias and, well, that was fraught with its own tension. 

It just didn’t sit right with him, watching that lone figure shuffle down the corner on the rain soaked pavement.

And maybe … maybe he also wanted to spend a little bit more time with Martin. Soak in the colour of his eyes, equal measures vulnerable and … concerned.

With that thought came a flushing face and a stomach churning with embarrassment and shame. Jon buried his face in his hand, massaging his temples. The streetlights were doing nothing for his headache.

Jon knew the sort of person he was: Irritable, unfriendly, impatient, argumentative. He’d accepted it, leaned into it, even. It made things easier, after all, knowing how people will feel about you in advance, so why bother going off script?

And yet, despite all that, Martin said he still should have a cup of tea in the morning. Deserved it, he’d said. Jon didn’t feel like he deserved much of anything these days, much less … 

Just get to the dishes already, Sims.

Scooping up the plate, he flipped on the sink and watched as it filled with hot, soapy water. His finger tapped the edge of the counter, teeth gnawing at his abused bottom lip. There was nothing else for it.

In the very beginning, he’d assumed the tea Martin would bring was an effort to butter him up. Get close to him so as to better keep an eye on his work. Those were early days, when Jon had thought Martin to be working for Elias as some kind of spy, to go blabbing the moment Jon inevitably made a horrible mistake.

Those assumptions, however, were dashed when it had been made abundantly clear Martin had been even less qualified for his current position than Jon. 

Even when he’d realized Martin wasn’t some spy, he still assumed the tea was for something. Maybe to make Jon more forgiving to all of Martin’s obvious mistakes, which only served to increase his own workload, barely treading water as it was. Absurd, in hindsight. Why would Martin continue to bring him tea for all those months when it obviously did nothing to ease Jon’s ... temperament? 

Of course, it had just been standard courtesy. A friendly gesture, from an amiable man. 

Jon … didn’t react well to people being friendly with him. A learned habit from the struggles of childhood, maybe. He thought he’d gotten better after the extensive efforts of Tim and Sasha back in research, but apparently that hadn’t been the case. And, in the cold, impersonal halls of the Institute, no one went out of their way to be kind to him, not without reason. Even with Tim and Sasha, the close proximity of their work required that they get along, although he’s certain they’d argue otherwise out of politeness. 

Jon preferred things that way. It meant nothing was expected from him. Nobody was disappointed.

Jon was Martin’s boss; they didn’t have to get along with each other. So then why …?

Because he’s kind, you knobhead.

Dumping the dishes into the hot water, he flipped off the sink and yanked out a sponge. Fat load of good that realisation does him now; not after all the things Jon’s said and done, the things he can never take back. He could prattle off excuse after excuse, but that wouldn’t change the fact that, at the end of the day, he’s just an arse.

Jon’s shoulders sagged. Why hadn’t he realized sooner? Why hadn’t he figured out Martin was trying to be nice to him?

It’s probably the only thing you eat all day, anyway, right? Martin had said. Couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.

His eyes had been so resolute, so determined to care about him, despite everything. 

All these months working so closely together and, somehow, Jon never realized the colour of his eyes were an almost opalescent shade of brown. His smile– 

The dishes clattered into the sink, his face burning.

Christ, he was so predictable. One small gesture or hint of affection had him falling headfirst.

With Georgie, it had been the return of his collectible nekojima pen after a maths class. Had set a personal best record for himself for that.

The problem was when he fell so fast and so hard he cracked his head at the bottom of the swimming pool, and there was no one around to fish him out of the water. 

Not that any of that mattered; Jon would be lucky to salvage any kind of amicable relationship at all. 

Leaving the dishes to dry, Jon pulled out his phone. It was nearing 1 AM; Martin had said he lived in Croydon, hadn’t he? Surely, he must be back by now? Searching through his contacts, he squinted. Had he never saved Martin’s number? He could have sworn …

Oh. He hadn’t saved him under Martin. Just Blackwood.

Taking a shuddering breath, Jon struggled to compose his message (Are you–? Have you made it–? Do you think we can–?) before sending a succinct,

>Did you get home safely? 

He probably wouldn’t get a response for some time. Martin likely wasn’t chomping at the bit to hear from him.

And yet, a few moments later, his phone chimed.

>yeah

Oh.

>Good.

Maybe, though … Maybe things could be different this time. Maybe Jon can put his trust in someone else’s kindness for its own sake. 

Maybe Jon could be better. 

Even though the work loomed high, bearing its weight down on his thin shoulders, Jon decided it would be better for everyone if he actually got some sleep that night.

[solange-lol]

i already know it (i’ll probably blow it)

words: 1,725

read on ao3

—

Camp Half-Blood Thanksgiving was a new tradition, only started after the war with Gaea when demigod lives weren’t as threatened, (keyword being as.)  

Even while it was safe for more demigods to go home, some still chose to stay at camp year-round, or, in the case of Nico, they didn’t have anywhere to go. Thanksgiving in the Underworld could be interesting, but to be honest, the son of Hades was sort of trying to avoid undead beings for a little while.

“Everybody gather around,” Malcolm Pace, head of the Athena cabin after Annabeth left, calls. The rest of the counselors swarmed him as he began to hand out food assignments.

They had decided the best method of going about this was letting the head counselors of every cabin take over one section with Chiron’s aid and supervision. They were just a group of teenagers after all, and what do teenagers know about making group meals for a bunch of campers?

Not much, as it became abundantly clear to Nico as he stands cluelessly in the kitchen of the Big House.

“Nico, you’re on dessert with Drew and Clovis,” Malcolm informs him, steering him in the direction of the two, who are already peeling apples (Drew was peeling apples, Clovis seemed to have given up after one in favor of a quick nap.)

They were also sitting right next to one Will Solace, who was busy peeling potatoes and laughing at whatever Drew just said.

He hesitantly joined the two, trying his best not to make direct eye contact with the son of Apollo. Ever since his three days in the infirmary after the war took place, Nico didn’t know where they were going to go.

The answer was nowhere, apparently, as Will has made no attempt to ask him out since then.

“Why don’t you ask him out, then?” Jason had asked him when he was packing up his stuff from the summer as Nico complained to him. He had found that Jason was the only person with who he actually felt comfortable discussing his more-or-less crush on Will ever since the incident with Cupid.

“Because how am I supposed to know he’s not just like this with everyone? He’s crazy protective like that with everyone; I’m just waiting for him to at least give me a sign that he likes me too.”

Jason had just rolled his eyes. “I think you both are crazy oblivious.”

Nico crossed his arms. “Just because you have a girlfriend doesn’t mean you're the love expert.”

“Then why did you come to me?”

(Said girlfriend later broke up with him, but it’s not like Nico had made any progress anyway, so who cares.)

How was Nico even supposed to know what he wanted with Will anyway? He’d never been in a relationship before, and none of his crushes ever stemmed past more than, well, a crush.

He wishes Annabeth were still here. When it came to crushes on oblivious guys, she was an expert. Nico still doesn’t know how she did it.

“Hey, di Angelo, are you gonna help us with dessert, or should we just watch you stare at Solace all day?” Drew asks, dumping the apple mixture (how did she make that so quickly?) into the pie crust.

When he snaps back, glancing up at her and trying to ignore both Will’s eyes on him and the heat rising in his neck, she just snorts at him. “Wanna get started melting marshmallows for Rice Krispie Treats?”

He nods, and she takes the bag the Clovis had just been using as a pillow out from under his head and hands it to him.

Nico glances at it. “What do I do with this?”

“Mix it with half a stick of butter and pop it in the microwave,” she tells him. Nico follows instinct after that from what little cooking knowledge he has from growing up with Bianca.

As he stands back at the microwave, he can’t help but watch Will, rattling off reasons why his body had subjected him to have a crush on another boy way out of his league. Tall, blonde, blue eyes, assertive, but also nice, could probably carry him, and dumb as rocks.

“Invested in the mashed potatoes?” Will asks, once again snapping Nico out of his train of thought. He holds up a mostly-peeled potato. “Am I up to your standards?”

Instinctively, he straightens his back, playing along. “My Italian mother would cry at that potato,” he informs Will. Behind him, the microwave beeps, signaling its end, but Nico ignores it.

Will just laughs, shaking his head, and Nico continues. “Lucky for you, I don’t have much of a memory from Italy, so it’ll pass.”

“Thank god, you had me worried.”

Before he can say something else, Drew interrupts. “Are you going to get out the marshmallows before they solidify?” she asks him, then holds out a spoonful of some dessert for Will to try.

Nico sighs, turning back to the microwave and opening the door. He can’t tell if he’s jealous, or just frustrated about his first interaction with Will in a while has been cut short. There was that whole thing with Drew, too. He didn’t know what was between the two of them, and frankly, he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to know.

“Oh, and be careful, it’s hot!-” Drew warned last minute, but it was too late.

Nico grabs the bowl full-hands on, then immediately squeaks and drops the bowl on the floor with a clatter, the burn already settling into his hand.

Drew glances down at the buttery-marshmallow mess on the floor. “Couldn’t have even aimed for the counter?”

Meanwhile, Will stands up from potato duty, offering a hand out to Nico. “Alright, to the infirmary with you.”

He rolls his eyes, accepting it with his good hand and trying to ignore the way his other one feels like it’s burning off. Together, they exit the infirmary and make their way over to the infirmary next door.

Kayla is already set up for her shift, but as soon as she notices Will’s hand in Nico’s, she just nods them off to the back.

“I guess you don’t cook much?” Will asks once Nico is finally sat down.

“Never really had a reason to, I guess. Coach did all of the cooking when I was traveling with him and Reyna,” Nico explains as Will takes out some cream, tugging Nico’s hand forward so he can lay it on. He seems surprised when Nico barely flinches at it

“Usually Silvadene gets a scream out of campers,” he says, putting away the ointment and begins to wrap Nico’s hand.

“I think you're forgetting I got clawed by a werewolf” Nico reminds him, and Will shudders.

“Oh, no, I remember. Those were a nightmare to heal. Thank gods for nectar and ambrosia,” he says, then reaches behind him to a drawer, pulling out the godly food. “Speaking of which-”

He takes the small square, taking a bite out of the corner “Thanks.”

“What does it taste like for you?”

“Rice Krispie Treats.” Nico deadpans.

Will’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“No,” he snorts, and Will rolls his eyes, laughing lightly. Nico doesn’t know if it’s the sound or the ambrosia that makes his stomach warm.

Will stands up from his seat in front of the bed, putting away materials. He then reaches for Nico’s good hand again and pulls him up. “Well, anyway, you didn’t have to throw a bowl of marshmallow mix on the floor just to get my attention.”

Nico ignores his suddenly-flaming cheeks. “Don’t flatter yourself,” he tries to force out smoothly. His voice cracks a bit, and Will's lips twitch upwards. “I really did burn myself.”

“I know, but I could see you watching me.”

He swallows. “You could?” (He’s faced monsters, titans, gods, even Tartarus, but one cocky son of Apollo makes him suddenly lose all his chill?)

“Di Angelo, you are as obvious as I am oblivious. It took Drew telling me to notice, but once I did, I couldn’t stop,” he says, tugging Nico a little bit closer.

The son of Hades leans back a bit, trying to push away the skeletal butterflies in his stomach. “Are you two a thing? You seem awfully close.”

Will raises his eyebrows, and an amused smile on his lips as he pulls Nico even closer. The back of his legs are pressed against the bed, and with a good six inches on him, Will is towering over him.

“Well considering she’s gay and I’m into you, I would hope not,” he says quietly, wrapping one arm around Nico’s waist as he leans down.

“Oh.” Oh.

His face closes in towards Nico’s, so close that his heart is pounding as he waits for Will’s lips to reach his. (Nico could lean forward and speed up the process, but his entire body seems to be frozen in some emotion he can’t quite name yet.)

Just when their lips are inches apart, Will stops. “Can I kiss you?” he mumbles practically against them.

“Please,” Nico responds, and then there they are.

He’s never kissed anybody before. He doesn’t know if Will has, but he’s doing a bit better than Nico. It’s a little messy, and there are no fireworks like in the movies, but it’s with Will, and that’s all he can really ask for at any point.

Will’s hand tugs Nico’s waist closer to him as he tilts his head, and oh. He loses himself in the sensation as Will drops Nico’s hand, letting it move up Nico’s arm to his neck, and then into his hair.

Nico sighs into his mouth. Out of instinct, he put both hands on the back of Will’s neck, trying to pull him closer.

The sudden pressure on his hand makes him wince and step back. He would have tripped backward on the infirmary bed if it wasn’t for Will immediately grabbing his waist, keeping him steady.

“You okay?” he asks, slightly breathless, and the butterflies return to Nico’s stomach.

“Yeah,” he breathes. “Do you think you can give me some more of that ambrosia? I need my hand to heal so we can keep doing that.”

Will smiles like he can’t help it, placing a kiss on Nico’s cheek before reaching into the drawer again.

—

solangelo tag list (message/ask to be added removed) 

@unicornsgomooo @anxiouswinter @soulangelou @number-of-fucks-i-give-0 @underworldystuff @theeloquentsnake @solangelover@thefandomsaretakingover @internallyexplodingrainbows​ @motivatedcryptidtamer @emilyfairchild @wherethewildthingsare-nt @hetapeep41 @blavk-dahlia

[onedayiwillactuallywriteafanfic]

Just A Date

Summary: You are best friends with Fred and George Weasley, and you agree to go on a date with Fred as to not ruin you friendship, but you don’t want to like him in that way. 

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1700+

 It was one date. Only a trip to Hogsmeade. Just a butterbeer.  How much could one date hurt? You tried to convince yourself. 

   It didn’t work. 

   This was the end of your friendship with Fred. After being best friends for years with him and George, it was coming to an end. 

   You knew that everyone thought you and Fred were soulmates, and your mother made it abundantly clear that she agreed. But you knew that Fred was only your best friend. It was all he would ever be in your mind, no matter how madly in love with you he was. He might try to hide it, but it was extremely obvious sometimes. 

   You thought about this in detention, which you had since you were reading in Potions.

   So now you sat on the floor of his classroom, organizing files from way back when. It could be worse, you weren’t a newbie to detention. Not after being friends with the Weasley twins for as long as you had. But they hadn’t done this prank with you, so you took the fall alone. 

   Detention took forever, as it always did with Snape, so you headed back to the Ravenclaw common room late. Of course, Professor McGonagall stopped you. 

   “Why are you out so late, Y/L/N?” She asked. 

   “I had detention with Snape,” you answer. 

   “What, may I ask, did you do this time?” 

   “Reading in class.” 

   “Hurry on to your common room, Y/L/N. You wouldn’t want to be caught out of bed.” 

   “Yes, ma’am.” You said, taking a set of stairs up to Ravenclaw tower. 

   You were in the corridor where the door to the common room when someone whispered, “Boo!” In your ear from behind you. You immediately send your elbow backwards, hitting your target even without seeing them. “Ow!” said the same voice. Weasley. 

   “I told you doing that was a bad idea,” the person to your left laughed. George. 

   That meant Fred was behind you. Merlin, what were they doing here? 

   “What are you two doing up here?” You ask angrily. 

   “We just wanted to ask how detention was. That hurt, Y/N.” Fred said from behind you. 

   You spun around to face him, “That’s your own fault.” 

   “Yeah, yeah. We’ll leave.” 

   “You better, McGonagall stopped me on the way up here for being out of bed.” 

   “Excuse me, young lady, who are you talking to?” Another professor walked up to you, a different one this time. 

   You quickly pushed Fred back into the shadows of the corridor, so that he wouldn’t be seen. George was already hidden since you hadn’t seen his face, just heard his voice. 

   “Hello, Professor Lupin, I was just talking to myself trying to figure out this riddle so I can go inside the common room.” 

   “Well it’s quite late, might I help you?” 

   “Uh, sure.” You paused as you heard the twins go back down the stairs. “Can you please repeat the riddle for me?” You asked the door knocker. 

   “Imagine you are in a room with no windows and no doors. It’s quickly filling with water, and you don’t know how to swim. How do you escape?” The door knockers says, thankfully not bringing up the fact that it hadn’t said the riddle a first time in order to repeat it. 

   “Oh, I was overthinking it. Obviously, all you have to do is stop imagining.” You said. The door became open, and you said, “Thanks for your help, Professor.” 

   “Yes. See you in class, Y/N.” Lupin said, walking away. 

   You shut the door, and went to find a spot on the couch to read your newest book. You had thirty pages left, and the still unresolved plot line was driving you crazy. Not as crazy as your date tomorrow, but it was still taking space in your brain. 

   The couch was full, so you found a nice corner to curl up in. Before finding the book in your bag, you find your notebook. It was full of pranks you had pulled with the twins, and sometimes you’d find messages in there from then since they’d jinxed a few pens to relay messages from your notebook to theirs and vice versa. 

   The newest message read: Thanks for helping us not get caught by Lupin, Y/N. Owe you one. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, if we’re still on for Hogsmeade. Hope we are. It’d be so much more fun with you there. -Fred

   You were glad he wasn’t there to see you blush. Oh Merlin’s Pants, you couldn’t be falling for Fred Weasley, could you? No, no. You couldn’t. He was just your best friend. Just your friend. That was all he was, and all he’d ever be. 

   You didn’t sleep a lot that night. First, you finished your book only to learn the next in the series wasn’t coming out for at least five months, according to one of the Ravenclaw Prefects. That meant five months for wondering what the heck was going to happen to your favorite characters. Then, you realized you might have a slight crush on Fred Weasley. You tried to deny it, but it wasn’t working. You knew that whenever people tried not to do certain things, they had more and more of an urge to do it. In your case, it was true. And you would deny it until you couldn’t anymore. 

   You got up early, which was five in the morning, to do something to distract yourself. You ended up attempting a puzzle someone had left on one of the common room tables with a sign that said, “Help me finish this. PLEASE!” 

   You only got a small section done, and you didn’t know how it attached to the border of the puzzle, but you left it alone to go get ready for Hogsmeade after others started to get up. And the kids that had stayed up all night, started to go to bed. 

   You got a little bit for breakfast, and got in line for the trip to Hogsmeade. Your notebook was open and with you, since you hadn’t seen either Weasley twin to find out where Fred was. He was supposed to meet you in the Great Hall, but you hadn’t spotted him and didn’t want to miss the chance to go in case he was going to meet you there. 

   You wrote your message a little while ago. It said: Thought we were meeting in the Great Hall? Didn’t see you, about to go to Hogsmeade. 

   You were all the way into Zonko’s before his message appeared. Got detention this morning. Don’t worry, Georgie’s going for me. Meet me inside Honeydukes in a few minutes. -Fred

   What did he do this time? You wondered, paying for some fireworks you wanted to set off when O.W.L.s were over. They were still a month away, but some kids were already studying non-stop. You’d probably wait until the night before, yourself, but you still wanted a good excuse to use fireworks. 

   Honeydukes was crowded, as normal, but you felt an arm pull you into somewhere you’d never seen before. You heard a familiar voice whisper, “Lumos!” And saw the smiling face of Fred Weasley. It made your heart jump, but you tried to hide it. 

   “Where in Merlin’s name are we?” You asked. 

   “You mean we never brought you into the secret tunnels?” he said. 

   “So that’s where we are?” 

   “Yeah. It’s also how I got here.” 

   “So how’d you wind up with detention?” 

   “Well, somehow the headboy ended up with pink hair, and my hands just coincidentally had a stain the same color on them.” 

   “You’d think it wouldn’t look too different than the red.” You laughed. 

   “That’s what I said.” 

   “You know, you’d look great with pink hair.” 

   “You mean even better?” 

   “No I mean it’d make the Easter Bunny jealous.” 

   He made a confused face, “The what?” 

   Realization dawned on you, “Oh, right. It’s a muggle thing. The Easter Bunny comes to visit kids on Easter and bring them colored eggs and stuff.” 

   “That’s weird.” Fred said. 

   “Oh, like Wizard traditions aren’t.” 

   The rest of the day was a blast. It didn’t feel like a date to you, and you thought you were just hanging out with your best friend. But when Fred asked, “Do you wanna go on a second date?” It felt all too real. 

   You said no. It didn’t matter if he was nice, and funny, and super cute, and you had a crush on him. You wanted to be his best friend, not his girlfriend. So you said no. Then regretted it for the rest of your life. 

   The next few days you avoided any Weasley and as many Gryffindors as possible. George and Fred tried to approach you multiple times, but you went down a different corridor, or left for class quickly. You put your notebook in the bottom of your trunk and left it there. 

   Days turned into weeks. You read more and more to make up for the loss of your two best friends. Then it was suddenly time for O.W.L.s and you studied for real in an effort to distract yourself. Then it was the end of the year, and you didn’t speak to Fred Weasley the entire summer. Not in person, not in letters. You cut off all communication, and moved on with your life. 

   Then it was seventh year, and you watched the twins fly out of the school on broomsticks, and you didn’t say anything. You didn’t visit Weasley Wizard Wheezes, no matter how cool the products were, or how much you wanted to check it out. 

   And when you cleaned out your trunk at the end of seventh year, you found your old notebook, and threw it away. Then you got a job in the muggle world, since the war with Voldemort had become all too real, and you were a muggle born wizard/witch. 

   But one day an owl from George Weasley came, saying Fred had died in the war. 

   No matter how much you tried to forget, or how much you told yourself he was just a friend from school, it hurt so much worse than that. The pain never seemed to go away.

[cosmic-affinities]

Fantasy Meets Reality Ch. 4

The final chapter of my BNHA Fantasy AU is here!

Chapter 1 

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Summary: Of fucking course, it had to be Katsuki Bakugou.

Who else would have a weirdo clone from some kind of ‘Alternate Dimension’ show up to mess up their life? Obviously no one.

Of fucking course, Bakugou just had to be the one who temporarily imprinted on the random-ass third year who had a dimension summoning quirk.

Because why wouldn’t he?

Big thank you to everyone who has read so far or will start reading now! I also just want to say that this would not be here without @we-stanjirou she helped motivate me to write this entire thing and it most likey would have forever been a WIP if she hadn’t been so excited to know what happens next. Thank you!

CHAPTER 4 STARTS HERE

To reorientate himself, Kit looked around. Everything seemed to still be in place, and the sun had hardly moved any since he left. He assumed it had only been about three hours in his time.

Without thinking too hard into the implications of that fact, Kit swiftly moved to finish any small tasks that needed to be completed so he could go find Izuku before it was too late.

Kit instinctively knew that the best place to find Izuku was at the Inn their friends ran, lucky for him it wasn’t too far away.

He planned to stay the night just in case Izuku was reluctant to speak to him right away, which he felt was a big possibility. His simple overnight bag that was prepacked would have to do.

Kit arrived within the hour, making especially quick time because he couldn’t wait another moment. As he approached the nerves began to take over, there was no way for him to know what was going to happen.

Kit stared at the Inn, not ready to go inside until Asui came out and spotted him.

“Bakugou-kun, we’ve been waiting for you! Midoriya has been here for a few days already! We never see you two without the other anymore, Mina and I were surprised when he came in by himself!” Kit wondered why Izuku hadn’t said anything to them, he thought for sure everyone would be angry with him.

After thinking about it for another moment it all made sense. ‘Of course he wouldn't say anything, he doesn't want them to hate you, even if he’s upset with you.’

“Bakugou-kun?” Kit had waited much too long before responding.

“Ah yes, apologies. I’m here now and if you could just point me to the room he’s in?”

“Do you even have to ask? You always get room seven!” Kit smiled softly, it was true they did always share room seven he just assumed Izuku would have requested a different one given the circumstances.

“Yes of course, thank you Asui-san.” Kit walked away with a quick nod.

He made his way through the familiar halls, stopping in front of a large wooden door with an emblazoned ‘7’ directly in the center. He raised his fist to knock but hovered for a moment, all of his fears came rushing back to him.

He took a step back for a moment, thought about what Deku had said to him, and made up his mind once again. He had to have courage, if he knocked and things ended badly he would feel better than if he were to never try at all.

He knocked soundly three times and waited, he would maintain that those few seconds before there was a response were the most stressful of his life.

“Wow, Asui-san, that was qui- Kit?” Izuku looked up with wide eyes, obviously not expecting Kit to be knocking on his door.

“Izuku, can we talk?” Kit’s voice shook slightly, giving away his carefully masked fear.

“I think you did enough of that the last time I saw you, what more could you have to say?” Kit looked down, he couldn’t meet Izuku’s eyes when they looked like an awful mixture of sad and angry.

“You are right. You have no reason to listen to me at all.” Kit took a deep breath to steel his resolve. “But, I want you to know that I’ll keep coming back, I won’t be able to move forward unless I know that I did everything in my power to make things right.”

Izuku moved out of the way and motioned for Kit to walk in, he was just glad Izuku didn’t slam the door in his face.

“Alright, I’ll listen to you.” Izuku kept his face blank, he had been missing Kit but refused to go crawling back to him, he knew in order for them to continue on that Kit would have to prove that he was willing to be more considerate and talk to him.

“Thank you. I want to start with saying that I’m sorry. I should never have said that you were- I should have never said those things to you, no matter the circumstances. I wish I could take them back but I know I can’t. I can tell you that I was angry and that it all came from a place of me wanting to protect you but that doesn’t change anything. It took me far too long to come and apologise to you. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness but I will endlessly try to earn it.” Kit paused for a moment and Izuku took the opportunity to speak.

“You are stubborn, headstrong, and sometimes downright mean! But don’t think for a second that you are undeserving. Simply by coming here today and admitting this all to me you have defied the main ways people describe you. You have already earned my forgiveness, I just needed to know that you knew that what you said hurt and I needed you to acknowledge that you should not have said it in the first place.”

“It’s been a long week without you.” Kit smiled widely, he was only halfway there, but he couldn’t help but be relieved.

“Has it really been just a week? Without the dragons I really lose track of time.” Izuku hoped he hadn’t missed Eri taking flight for the first time, they had been waiting weeks for her to recover.

“She hasn’t yet, if you’re wondering about Eri. I’d say maybe another few days if that.” Kit knew how much Izuku had been looking forward to seeing her fly, the look on his face when he mentioned the dragons seemed to say it all.

Izuku simply smiled, glad to know that their litter seemed to be fairing nicely.

“Izuku, I have something else to tell you. It’s not the right time by any means but if I continued to wait for the right time then I would never find my opportunity. I just hope that this doesn’t change things for us, I cannot stand to lose you again but I also cannot keep this in any lo-”

“Kit? Just say it already, you are starting to sound like me.” Izuku’s words caused a blush to form on Kit’s face, he didn’t realise he had picked up Izuku’s nervous habit.

Kit took a deep breath to prepare himself to take a leap of faith and follow Deku’s advice.

“Right, well here goes. This time without you helped solidify something I already knew. My feelings for you go deeper than I was ever willing to admit out loud. I don’t ever want to spend time without you. In as short as a week I have come to know that, even a second without you, is a second wasted.”

Izuku stood stunned for a moment. At the silence Kit grew more nervous, worried that he had ruined things for good. He worried that Deku was wrong and he would have to leave the Inn and never see Izuku again. His thoughts were cut short by Izuku throwing his arms around him.

Kit heard Izuku sniffle and worried that he had said the wrong thing yet again.

“Are you alright?”

“I am more than alright you oaf. Why would you think I’m not?”

“Well you’re crying! I thought that I had messed up again.”

“Oh my goodness, I basically have feelings for an emotionally intelligent dragon.”

“Does that mean you return my feelings?” At Kit’s words Izuku let his forehead fall forward onto Kit’s chest in obvious exasperation.

“Yes that’s exactly what I mean.” Izuku felt the need to clarify.

At that Kit lifted Izuku up and spun him around out of excitement, once his feet were firmly on the ground Izuku leaned forwards slightly and planted a soft kiss on Kit’s lips.

Once he pulled back Kit chased him and pulled him closer, not wanting to waste anymore time.

The pair did everything in their power to make their complicated feelings abundantly clear with their kiss. Kit knew that even though Izuku returned his feelings, he would still work endlessly to deserve everything Izuku gives him.

They spent the rest of the day at the Inn continuing to talk, they both wanted to make sure everything between them was understood before they went any further.

That night they decided to head back to Kit’s cabin so they could properly care for the dragons for the night and the next morning.

As the pair walked up Eri took notice of Izuku and bounded towards him, after a moment the silver dragon began to fly directly at Izuku. The small thing landed in his open arms and crawled to lay around his neck. Izuku had a wide smile on his face, the runt who happened to be his favourite had flown for the first time directly into his arms.

As he looked at Izuku’s elated face, Kit couldn’t help but to think back to what Deku said that first morning he spent with him, maybe they would know each other no matter the circumstances.

A few people were interested in reading more about Kit, here is everything that didn’t have a place in the fic!

1- Kit and Izuku were initially arguing about Izuku going out by himself to take down one of the henchmen of the ‘Demonic Beast’ taking over their realm. Kit was worried that he would get hurt going by himself and said some things he didn’t mean. Things like Izuku was useless with his sword and too weak to go by himself. In his mind Kit was being protective but in truth he was being quite mean and hitting sore spots for Izuku, there was a reason he was still a knight in training while others his age had already earned their titles. He was always fairly small and people told him he was not enough to be a knight. He decided to do it anyway and tried to enlist help from others but Kit was the only one who was willing to hear him out, Kit had seen the runt in a litter of dragons grow to be the strongest and most capable so he felt Izuku could do the same. The one person other than his mother that believed in Izuku telling him the same things he had heard all his life was hurtful. After thinking about it for a little less than a day Izuku realised that was Kit’s way of trying to keep him safe. So he decided that he would forgive Kit if he came and apologised because even if he meant well, Kit should have known how much that would have hurt him.

2- Anyone and everyone who has come into contact with Kit agrees that he is a rough Dragon Master that no one should mess with. Izuku disagrees, and for good reason. The main reason being the way he speaks to his dragons. He uses the stereotypical voice of someone talking to their pet or a baby. He calls them all good boys and girls and goes out of his way to make dragon safe treats that he gives them when they are being especially good (which is quite often in his eyes.) The only time he does not use that voice with his dragons is when he is healing them. After being questioned as to why by Izuku, Kit explained that when they are being healed they need a clear description of what's going on, the best way to convey that is with a very professional tone.

3- Kit (and Izuku after about a month with Kit) is an exceptional healer. He was able (with Izuku’s help) to heal a three foot long underbelly gash on one of his dragons that it got while flying much too close to a tree. If he so pleased Kit could make really good money healing people but he much prefers the company of dragons (and Izuku)

4- Kit also read Izuku’s name as ‘Deku’ the first time he saw it written out (they were signing for a room at the Inn) that’s why he didn’t question Kacchan’s nickname for him. He continued to call Izuku by his name but notably requested to name the runt of their next litter (which also happened to be green) he normally left the naming up to Izuku because he was always much more creative. When Izuku asked him what the name was going to be and he responded with ‘Deku’ Izuku asked him why. It wasn’t until the dragon had fully grown up (and they had been an official couple for about six months) that Kit told him that the beginning portion of his name could be read as Deku and that’s why he named him that. It made all of the times Izuku caught Kit giving special attention to Deku all the cuter.

5- Finally, Kit acts like a male lion with his cubs, but with dragons! When a litter is freshly hatched Kit allows them to ‘hunt’ him so they can pick up the skills necessary for survival. Dragons no larger than ten pounds can be seen completely knocking Kit over and ‘pinning’ him to the ground. He tried playing dead one time because he had heard from another trainer that giving the dragons more realistic feedback would help them know the proper steps while hunting, even though no other trainer took it to the level he did. He only did it once though, because as soon as he stopped moving and ‘struggling’ all of his dragons came to his aid and soon he had ten baby dragons nipping at him to get him up and two fully grown ones standing guard, he decided to never try that again.

[plus-size-reader]

Jealous as Hell

Caliban x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1236 words

Warnings: none 

Summary: Jealousy can be a bitch...especially when the prince of hell and the Morningstar are involved.

——————————————————————————————————

Caliban was your prince.

He was your everything and then, and you’d always treated him as such. However, with everything that had been going on with him lately, due to the challenge and such, you didn’t feel like he returned the favor. 

...At least not like he used to. 

You didn’t feel as close as you had been once before.

Now, you had never been all that jealous as a rule, because you didn’t have to in hell, but it was getting so bad that you couldn’t help but wonder if he was beginning to prefer the young Morningstar to you.

She did have more to offer him than you did, in many respects. 

She had his dark blood and even though he had challenged her, you could tell that there was something about her that he enjoyed.

She brought something out in Caliban, a fire that you’d never seen before.

...And it was becoming abundantly clear that no matter what you did, you would never be her. 

More than anything, you were just upset that he would give her so much of his attention, even though you would be his queen. He had often talked about his dream of ruling hell by your side, but now that it had come to pass, it was like he’d forgotten about you. 

You knew that jealousy was ugly and unbecoming of anyone, but you didn’t care. Caliban was your prince, and you had always been loyal to him. You weren’t going to let some witch take him for you, even if she was a Morningstar.

You just wouldn’t have it.

In all honesty, if Caliban expected you to battle for his attention, maybe you didn’t want it in the first place. No man had ever treated you this way, and you wouldn’t take it from your prince either. 

No matter how much you truly love him. 

Now, traditionally, Caliban could read you so well that he wouldn’t even have to ask what was wrong with you, as he could tell. As of late though, it was getting more and more difficult to tell. 

Not that your silent treatment helped in that regard. 

However, Caliban didn’t fret because he knew that it was only a matter of time before you came back to him and told him exactly what it was...

Or so he thought.

That was how you’d dealt with every problem with him before now, but that just wasn’t the case right now. You were hellbent on making him rectify this on his own, which required him drawing his own conclusions about the reason for your behavior. 

You had already made up your mind and instead of addressing the issue head on with your prince, you swallowed your resentment and anger. Nothing you said or did would change the obvious attraction he had for her.

You didn’t want to waste your energy on it.

Rather, you turned your attention to the forest of torment and the pain you could inflict on the wandering souls. Everyone in hell was yours to punish as you saw fit, after all, no one would dare argue. 

Your soul was in anguish and it was only fair that everyone else’s felt that same pain. 

After a few hours though, you got bored of wandering the forest and found your way back to the shore of sorrow. The tide was coming in, which meant that you could watch the souls of the damned drown all over again.

Usually you and Caliban sat in the sand together, watching the sunrise fall over the water but he was busy with his challenge for the throne today…

Too busy for you, which meant that you were completely alone. 

Completely and utterly alone.

You wanted Caliban to get his throne, of course but you didn’t want to be alone for him to do it. You wanted the man you loved to treat you with the love and respect you had grown accustomed to.

He had always treated you like the only thing that mattered, the only thing in the world that he wanted or needed. However, as the minutes ticked by, you began to worry that he didn’t want you to rule by his side. 

Perhaps, he only wanted Sabrina now. After all, she was the fastest way to the throne that he’d always wanted and if you had been in his place, you would have taken her and her power…

Over anything you could offer him. 

There was nothing more than love and devotion. You couldn’t offer him anything more than that, and it likely wasn’t enough. 

Though, before you could dive too deep into the pools of your own despair, there was a familiar sound behind you. It was the disruption of sand, beneath two perfectly scalped feet. 

To anyone else, it would have meant nothing...But to you it was more. 

To you, it meant that everything you’d been thinking about all day long. All the things that you’d been worrying about, had become inconsequential. 

It was Caliban. 

You couldn’t help but smile when you heard him, your ears trained only on the sound of his rhythmic breaths instead of the crashing waves and screaming. 

However, you weren’t going to let him off that easily. He had been cruel to you lately, ignoring his love for you for the promise of power and it would not be easily forgotten. 

...No matter how much you wanted to just sit with him as the sun went down and enjoy his company. 

“I’m surprised to see you here, I gathered you’d be in the throne room for a few more hours” you scoffed, not even bothering to look at him as he sat down beside you in the sand. 

You couldn’t be bothered to look at him after everything. 

Anyone would have taken the hint, but you had never known your Caliban to do something so easy. He had always preferred to have the world bend to his will. He rarely accommodated it the other way around. 

Though, perhaps he could make an exception for you. 

“In all these years, have I ever missed this?” he questioned, knowing that you couldn’t argue with that. It had been hundreds of years, and each night, you two sat here until the corpses floated to the top of the cages. 

He had never missed it. 

“Still, I would have thought you’d have chosen the Morningstar, all recent events considered” you spit back, crossing your arms across your chest. You were grasping at straws to be angry with him, but this wasn’t the first argument you and Caliban’d had. 

This wasn’t new. 

As much as you would like to believe the opposite, you had always been jealous when it came to him...and he had reacted similarly where you were concerned. 

Caliban didn’t even bother to address that at first. Instead, he leaned in closer to you and let his arm fall over your shoulders. You hated him for it, but you were also tired of it. 

You were so tired of being bothered by it. 

“You will always be my queen, and once I win that throne, you will be by my throne for all time” he hummed, that declaration putting you at ease even if you didn’t really want it to. 

If nothing else though, you believed him and that would just be enough for now.  

[peachybeatles]

ultimate bottom!John master post ;)

Every fic listed is mclennon, includes sexual content and is on ao3. Do feel free to add onto the list if I’ve missed anything! 

Be My Baby - crybabycry

“Tell me, Johnny,” Paul murmured, teasing his almost-auburn hair between his fingers, “were you a good boy today?”

John’s breath quickened, blush spreading as he readjusted himself on Paul’s lap. “No, Paul, I was not a good boy today.”

These Nights - Unchained_Daisychain

Music journalist John Lennon is tasked with writing an article on newfound pop artist Paul McCartney. A night of fame, music, and passion soon surround John before he knows it. By the end of it all, he’s not so sure he can manage to give up this star and these nights.

Father’s Day - ImagineBeatles

John and Paul have a different way of celebrating Father’s day.

Understanding - ImagineBeatles

John wants to know what it’s like to be fucked roughly after he had seen how much Paul had enjoyed it, when he had done it to him. Paul is more than happy to do it.

The First Scene - DemonDean10

John is an omega and has kept this secret from all his friends for years. Until one day while on their first visit to the U.S. he discovers he forgot his heat suppressants. There is an Alpha that could come to his rescue, but what will happen after the two wake up and realize what they've done.

Higher Education - smothermeinrelish

Starting anew in Edinburgh Scotland, John is hired as a conservationist at the University where he will be working along side English Literature Professor Dr. Paul McCartney. John is instantly attracted to his new supervisor and mentor, but the feelings aren't mutual? Are they? Set in modern AU, the teacher/ student relationship could be more than just a temporary fling.

You Teaser, You Pleaser - Unchained_Daisychain

John and Paul finally find time to put their new handcuffs to use.

John shrugged, but the smirk on his lips belied his nonchalance. He glanced at the handcuffs Paul held between their bodies. “Seize the moment, Macca,” he said, low, tracing a single finger along the ridges of one open cuff. “Or any accessible poles throughout the day. They always leave that part out.”

Tease Me - nipsynips

His bandmates had always called him the ‘kinky’ one, but they had always assumed it was him doing the tying and the holding down and the commanding. True enough, that was often the case, especially with birds, but it wasn’t his preference. In fact, contrary to what most people thought, John relished the chance to relinquish control every once in a while.

Patience is a Virtue - Peachy_Beatles

John is trying his best to song write despite his overactive imagination. Luckily, Paul is willing to reward him for his efforts.

Summer Rose - chanderson

John and Paul rekindle their relationship late summer 1980. John's feeling lost, and Paul's missing him in more ways than one.

Cutting Strings - Peachy_Beatles

Early 1969: With John’s increasing emotional unavailability, Paul is left clinging on to whatever he can get from him- no matter how unfulfilling.

I Blame Tumblr - DemonDean10

I would just like to apologize to the world and myself for doing this. Based off this Tumblr post by @johnsdoublechin: @ the ppl who say John isnt a bottom at my last post well I got MY SOURCES. George, Ringo, Paul, Brian, Cynthia, and Yoko have all topped him thanks for listening And so...this was born. Basically John bottoms for everyone. Everyone tops him. I did this instead of my actual fics.

Ten Minutes - ImagineBeatles, ChutJeDors

Paul had thought that his friends only wanted the best for him, with giving him a gift card to a brothel and all. Now, having ended up in a room with a stunningly handsome male whore, he needs to reconsider those ideas about his friends, and his beliefs in life altogether. It’s just for ten minutes, though… Definitely a once in a lifetime thing, and all that. Totally! Right? Right??

What Feels Right/ This Loving Game - ImagineBeatles

Paul and Julia have been going out for a while and now they’ve decided to move in together. What Paul hadn’t expected when he’d agreed was that he’d fall in love with her troublesome teenage son, John

like a river flows, surely to the sea - toppermostofthepoppermost

John is smiling around his cigarette, head thrown back, eyes fixed on the cloudy sky, and it takes Paul all of his poor will to mutter, “You shouldn’t flirt with your teachers, you know?” “In my defense, Mr. McCartney,” John quips, shifting his gaze to Paul, “you make it very hard not to.” Or: Modern-day AU where Paul spends his days teaching everything Shakespeare, getting angry at modern electronic devices, raising a five-year-old girl who's 50% puppy eyes and 50% sassy comebacks and trying not to fall in love with John Lennon, his university student.

The Consequences of Getting What You Want - deux_lunes

Why John Lennon really beat Bob Wooler up at Paul’s birthday party.

Queer - deux_lunes

Paul gives John what he desires

Discipline - deux_lunes

John has been an utter brat and Paul decides that he is in desperate need of discipline.

Skype sex.  - mickeymouse (Sgtmacca0)

day 8. john skypes paul in the middle of the night.

In the Back Seat of My Car - ImagineBeatles

Modern AU. After having met at Stuart's birthday party, John and Paul get down and dirty in the back of John's car.

It won’t be long - orphan_account

After some interesting scents were being left around everywhere the Beatles went, even without any women around, it became obvious that someone in the band is an omega and never told anyone. But no one seems to care, or even notice, but Paul. The only other alpha in the band, with John of course. And he sniffs out (literally and figuratively) who it is alone in the hotel.

James - JP (jpgr1963)

Paul helps John cope with stress while on tour in 1964.

Magical Mystery Tour Love - DemonDean10

Paul gets drunk one night during MMT filming and confesses his love for John. John had been in love for yrs and is elated. but when Paul wakes up he remembers very little of the night before, will he tell John or try to make the relationship work, even with all the moral conflicts it brings up?

Day 30: Who’s Your Daddy, Johnny Boy? - ImagineBeatles

John's been a naughty boy who needs his Daddy to punish him and make him learn his lesson. Or at least, that's what Paul thinks. Not that John isn't more than happy to indulge his lover.

Day 22: Over The Desk - ImagineBeatles

1968. John keeps bothering Paul while he's busy doing management stuff, which is highly irritating for the younger Beatle, especially seeing as John makes it abundantly clear he isn't going to leave until he gets what he came for. In the end, John gets a little more than he bargained for.

Day 18: Lazy Morning Sex - ImagineBeatles

John and Paul spend the morning in bed together.

Day 6: Clothed Getting-Off - ImagineBeatles

John had seen Paul watching him, eyes hot and determined, so he was not at all surprised when he was dragged into an alleyway and pushed up against a brick wall to have his lips positively snogged off.

 I Want You - sockittoem

“In which John gets really horny after doing coke, and needs Paul to fuck it out of him.”

The Night Before - andthemoondogs

[ Anon McLennon prompt: "The Night Before" ] John and Paul have a night of drunken sex, after which, John panics and gives Paul the cold shoulder until Paul finally confronts him about it.

Day 7: Naked/Dressed - ImagineBeatles

1964. On the set of A Hard Day's Night, John and Paul cannot get one particular scene right in which Paul has to drag John away from a couple of girl as they try to find Paul's grandfather on the train, so they sneak off to practise the scene together. Soon, however, the boys have other things on their minds than rehearsing a scene.

Kiss Me - orphan_account

Mimi is gone for a trip, and when John and Paul meet at John's house for practice, things don't go quite as planned.

masturbation. - mickeymouse(Sgt macca0)

day 4. paul masturbates at the thought of john.

bottoms up. - ffomixam

“Can we get some mclennon with a possessive, dominant paul and compliant john? (technically doesn’t have to be smut)”

breathe desperation. - ffomixam

 McLennon smut, something along the lines of a first time, unexpected, adrenaline fueled, thoughtless, desperate handsy-ness and making out backstage after a show with John as the more submissive and needy one?

love me harder. - ffomixam 

Could you write a fic about Paul fucking John in public while in Hamburg, being really rough and dominant and teasing John that someone’s going to hear them and see John taking it up the arse, and John just devolves into a cummy fucked-out mess.

Of Hot Chocolate and Rainy Nights - paulmcfartney

yall already know what's goin on ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I feel like I’m the worst, so I act like im the best - KiwiPillow

John, a young ravishing man, who is absolutely uninterested in anything but himself really, gets pursued by his roommate to try a dating website! What could go wrong? Well, maybe your "match" could turn out to be a bastard stalker mobster boss with a serious daddy kink, who wants to work on your attitude. Shocked and upset. In the mob bosses defence, John is annoying as hell in this.

[commentaryvorg]

I think most people don't do Kaito's free time events maybe because, you already spent quite some time with him during the main game, so either people think that they don't need to know more about him or want to use the events to get to know more about other characters who don't get as much time on the spotlight. Which really fucking blows, but I can kinda understand.

I could kind of buy that reason, if it wasn't for the fact that nearly all of the LPs I've ever watched max out Maki's FTEs, or at least get pretty damn close. I'm happy that this at least is a thing - Maki is also very deserving of attention and the other character besides Kaito whose FTEs ought to be considered basically canon, because of course Shuichi would choose both of them if left to his own devices. But this means that apparently, a character already getting a large amount of attention and development in canon isn't inherently a reason for people to not consider their FTEs worthwhile. It should be abundantly apparent once Maki joins training that there's going to be plenty more of her in future training sessions, just like there has been and will be of Kaito - but in Maki's case, that doesn't stop people wanting to see even more of her in FTEs anyway.

I do, however, agree that there are some unfortunate yet kind of understandable reasons for people missing Kaito's FTEs, but I think they're a little different to what you propose.

I think part of it just comes down to Kaito's availability. For someone who's alive for every FTE chapter, Kaito has surprisingly few available slots - only twelve. (And one of those is while he's ill in chapter 3, which might possibly make people worry they won't get an event even though that's not how this game works, while another one of his in chapter 4 has him not show up on the map due to a programming oversight. Not that I've ever seen either of those things be the deciding factor to prevent someone from maxing him.) Admittedly Maki only has one more slot than that - but all of hers come after she's come into narrative focus and shown herself to be an interesting and important character, and nearly half of them happen to be when there's very few other options available. Meanwhile, a third of Kaito's possible slots are before the training session that should (SHOULD) cement him as one of the most important and likeable characters, and also happen to be when there's the maximum number of other characters alive that people might also be interested in.

So, maybe it's reasonable that it's so rare for people to focus on Kaito in chapter 2 when that'd mostly be out of personal taste in character types and not narrative importance yet (though there really should still be more people interested in Kaito just for that reason and I'm definitely not at all biased to think this). And then, by the time they get a proper chance to be able to focus on him after realising how important he is (which is totally a thing everyone does, right, cough cough I wish), it's chapter 4 and they're also probably wanting to focus on Maki, too. I remember one LPer who was at the start of chapter 4's free time, about equally interested in both Maki and Kaito with one FTE done so far for each, so he decided to pick one of them to focus on for chapter 4 in order to definitely at least finish that one... and he picked Maki. If he'd picked Kaito first, he'd have had time to finish Maki as well, if only he'd known!

I think this might have to do with the fact that the knowledge of Kaito's illness probably makes it seem like his potential death is going to be related to that, and therefore he's most likely safe as far as chapter 4 goes. And if anyone assumes that Kaito will still be around in chapter 5, they're never going to predict that he won't be available to hang out in it anyway. I've seen a lot of LPers reach chapter 5 with Maki maxed and lament that they would want to hang out with Kaito next out of everyone remaining, if only they could. Which is frustrating, but I get it. I absolutely wouldn't want the game's writers to have forced Kaito to be available in chapter 5 just for the sake of making him easier to max out, because that'd completely go against the place his character arc is in at that point, and that's way more important than his FTEs.

But another big contributing factor to people choosing Maki over Kaito in chapter 4 if they were considering both might just be that people will be inclined to think that Kaito is a less interesting character than Maki, even though this isn't actually remotely true. Maki after all has a big obvious Tragic Backstory that people would want to learn more about, whereas Kaito... never talks about his issues at all, making it far too easy for people to overlook the fact that he has them. Still, it should be perfectly possible to notice that Kaito has at least some kind of issues by chapter 4, what with the whole lying about dying thing! Which... is admittedly not something one would expect to get expanded on by his FTEs in particular (even though they definitely do help explore that more than a first time player would likely notice), so, I guess I kind of get it. I hope that's the reason people pick Maki over Kaito in that situation if they do, rather than just thinking Kaito isn't interesting at all. (Though I'm still not remotely convinced it is as much as it should be.)

It's still sad, though! It still shouldn't be so ridiculously unheard of for people to hang out with him more than maybe once or twice. Even if you're not necessarily expecting any deep issues from Kaito's FTEs, he's such a likeable person who's fun to be around and just watch be Kaito, and that alone should be more than enough reason for at least a reasonable fraction of players to want to spend more time with him and learn some more about what makes him so very Kaito. Like I mentioned in my response to the previous ask, even without his issues, Kaito is still a really interesting person on the surface anyway, in such a way that people should want to find out more about it - and his FTEs do expand on some of that!

It's like... I've also not seen even a single LP that ever maxed Gonta's FTEs (I think I've only seen one even hang out with him at all?) despite the fact that basically everyone generally loves Gonta and agrees that he is pure and precious and good and is heartbroken by trial 4. That should make at least some people want to spend more time watching Gonta make a friend and be his usual lovely gentleman self and maybe talk about why the gentleman thing is so important to him, even if they're not necessarily expecting any particularly groundbreaking new insights into his character, no? But they don’t and I am sad about it. Gonta is good and deserves an actually healthy friendship. (And, Gonta's character aside, I'd also be really interested to see what an LPer who is familiar with Chrono Trigger and/or Street Fighter makes of Gonta's second FTE, during a blind playthrough and not in the postgame, before they know the twist.)