#1- because despite what his dad did it feels like he still very much cares him

[wyrmghost]

Recently I’ve fallen in love with Sebastian and his growth as a character and decided to make him an aged up design as well

+ I wanted to redraw some of his sprites cause I like them

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law and shreds of closeness part 3: Donquixote Family Edition

What can I say, I got struck with inspiration yet again, the thoughts just do not want to leave me. This time it will get dark. And it will hurt, so feel warned. I will take a closer look at Law's closeness to the Donquixote Family and also do a small case study of affection between Doffy and Cora and their dad as well, to get a fuller context. Main focus will be on physical affection, yet again.

So what do you think, did Law get support and affection from his "second family"? I would say, very little. But let's look at evidence:

We have verbal support from Doflamingo himself when Giolla and Buffalo start to fear to touch Law or to even stay in the same room after they learn he's sick. That's 1:0 for him, I'm sure Law appreciated and remembered it. In retrospection, it would have been better for him if he didn't.

Then we have Giolla and Machvise who handled him like he's an object. Giolla keeps touching Law on the head, probably not caring why he seems displeased with it. She's just reinforcing the trauma, but I think overall she means well, she just doesn't think much about it. Giolla also shows Law the most physical affection and I swear it feels like she's trying to make up for her initial reaction, she's just not going the right way about it, making it worse instead.

Meanwhile we have Doflamingo, who despite defending Law before, never touches him. And I mean, never ever. Doffy remains cold not only with Law though, which we will see in a moment.

And then we have Baby5. She feels sorry for Law and even cried for him when she heard the story of Flevance (not in Law's presence tho), but she herself is bad with affection and care, because she also never received much, it also doesn't help that she is genuinely scared of Law's angry glares. All she can do to show him she cares is to smack and scold him. And of course when she does smack him it's on the head, which only becomes a trauma trigger over and over again. Those two just completely miss each other by a mile.

That's it. No other Donquixote Family's member ever tried to show some care in front of Law. They train him of course, but would you count kicking and punching him as a positive experience? Yeah, I don't think so.

And let's not forget Corazon, who carried Law like a bag of potatoes (and threw him around) for a long time, even after he kidnapped him. The Trip to Hospitals All Around the World kinda made him become better, holding Law close, trying to make him smile, carrying him all the time and at one point he even begs Law: "please give me the chance to do things right, stay strong for 3 more weeks!". Doesn't change the fact the touches he did give Law at the beginning were brutalized forms of affection, and we can't really forget that fact: that's exactly how Law's trauma of being touched on the head even started in the first place.

He already trained for awhile, but he still failed in the confrontation, and I think it was because of the touch. Being pinned down made Law probably freeze and unable to move. But even after being saved by Doflamingo, Law doesn't even try to seek support in him, unlike Baby5. Here we can see Doflamingo is alright if someone seeks comfort in him, but he will not give it by himself. That makes Doflamingo-Law combo the worst possible match up, a person who will never give it first and a person who will never ask for it, no wonder things were always cold between them.

Thanks to the fight against Smoker in Punk Hazard we learn that Law managed to overcome his trauma of being pinned down to a significant degree, because he manages to escape on his own. This scene gets an extra focus in the manga (it takes like 5 different frames!) which further convinces me it's that siginifcant. Law probably trained himself not to get overwhelmed like that ever again. Still, I can't help but notice soon after this happened Law starts to have troubles breathing, which means it still didn't leave him unaffected. He pushes to finish the fight faster afterwards as well.

One of his trauma triggers is feeling helpless and being pinned down definitely counts for that. I don't think this started with Vergo, I would say it was already a thing after Flevance, when he had to discover more and more dead bodies of people dearest to him, unable to do anything about it.

Let's look at his symptoms thanks to which we can recognize he's going through a triggering situation. Visible shivering, heavy panting (to the point of weezing which makes me think it can even go as far as bordering on hyperventilation or the opposite - apnea). And then in the last image he just goes stiff which I interpret as him completely freezing up. Damn, that's actually a lot. It's very similar to Robin's trauma responses in Water 7.

You can also notice that Law clenches his fists and it seems to be a sign that he's struggling or forcing himself to be strong. He still does it *a lot* when he's an adult. I think it might have honestly became a habit. He does that just before a battle, in most stressful situations when he knows he can't show his emotions (or just doesn't want to), and well, if we go by the anime version, also when he leaves Wano with his own crew. Basically any time he makes a firm resolve or a hard decision, he also does that. I swear sometimes it feels like he struggles for half of the Dressrosa and Punk Hazard, which you know what, might be way too accurate.

Also bonus wholesome points for Luffy caring more to support Law and Muucy than caring for falling into water himself. I'm not sure how much that helped Law when he was dealing with a triggering situation, especially that unfortunate contact with the top of his head. I guess it's still better than similar situation but with Law completely alone.

This puts this scene into a completely new perspective, right? He's shivering here and definitely froze up, even his speech bubble looks distressed. He's not getting angry here, his trauma trigger kicked in. I did check if he ever shivers or freezes up when he tries to, for example, stop himself from feeling angry, but no, we never see that happen. I'm sorry for ruining the comedy :( tho to make it better, he's also shocked, because just moments before Strawhats feared him, and now they already don't and even laugh at him. Damn, I'm now so torn about this scene, I mean, Strawhats couldn't have known!

Now a promised closer look at Donquixote family's approach to closeness and touch. When they were still Celestial Dragons, they barely touched each other. No small touches on the back, hand holding or anything else you usually share with kids. The closeness starts only after they're all starting to be persecuted. First time we see Doffy holding his mom's hand is when they run away from their burning house. First time we are shown Homing hugging his kids is when village people are beating them up and he is just trying to cover them with his own body, so he takes the beating instead of his kids.

The last memory Rosinante has of his father is the hug. And the first memory he has of Sengoku is also a sort of half-hug. Might be why he got so attached to him.

Little Doflamingo and Rosinante are always together, but they never touch in any way. It's clearly Doffy who takes care of his younger brother, probably also telling him to toughen up.

Weird mocking touch on the head from Trebol. And like always, no one ever touches Doflamingo, not even his own officers, and that's true ever since Doffy was a child.

He even tells Trebol he's too close. Doffy doesn't want touches anymore, because it seems in his mind he understands them as someone protecting him, and he doesn't need protection. Ever since he killed Homing, Doffy took the role of being a head of the family and protecting Rosinante, so no more hugs or hand holding for him. In other words, Doflamingo associates physical affection with protection and incoming abuse. And whenever he touches someone it's exactly for that reason: to hurt them.

An interesting parallel because this happens in exactly same chapter: Law is trying to move away because Luffy's "too close". He even lets him take the transponder away and just stands there and waits. And you might wonder: what for? Is he hoping Luffy will give it back by himself?

No, it just took some extra time for Law to brace himself to touch Luffy and shove him to the side. Even though both Doffy's and Law's first instinct here is to move away, Law is struggling but actually tries to overcome it, contrary to Doffy, who seems content in his "no touching" comfort zone.

Let's take a look at Dressrosa now. Doffy is carrying Law by his clothes, Law is unconscious, but he will not touch him directly anyway. Cora-san used to do it as well at first to Law.

But then, you might ask, they fought so much in Dressrosa, surely some kind of touch had to happen as a result? I mean, most of them were indirect touches with Doffy's strings, kicking Law or stopping him by grabbing his sword. But you are right, exactly two touches do happen. You're not gonna like it.

This is literally the first time Doflamingo ever touched Law. To stop his attack he forcefully grabbed his hand. Law is shivering, this actually triggers him, and there's just no way Doflamingo doesn't know that, he can feel it.

And then he makes the full use of the situation. Doflamingo holds Law up in the air, but we can see by the onomatopeia that he's literally holding him up by his hand alone and Law is just freely dangling there, Doffy's not using any strings to immobilize him, not even armament haki. He doesn't even need to. Finally he gave Law the touch he must have been craving when he was a child from him, but it's not a caring one, and what's the next thing Doflamingo does to that hand he just touched? He cuts it off, ripping open the psychological wounds, making them deeper, perhaps hoping Law will never recover from them. Because that's the easiest way to control him later if he wishes to do so, to make him pliant, defenseless and unable to fight back and terrified. But also to punish him for the "rebellion" against him... but also to punish Law for his need and fear of touch. This is a lesson: never want affection, closeness or touch, you're never getting any. Unless it's this: abuse. And if you don't think this is terrible enough, let me remind you: this is their first touch *ever*, Law probably waited for it when he was a kid.

And Law is just hanging there, not even trying to move, and it lasts for like three or four pages long, and I remember when I reread this a couple of times, I was a bit puzzled. Why isn't Law struggling to release himself? Why is he just letting this happen? Especially when it's becoming very clear what Doflamingo is gonna do next. So I have my answer: Law froze up, it's his body shutting off on it's own and all he can do is to just be there and wait for it to be over. It's painful, because we know Law always struggles, always fights back, and he tries here, with words, but he can't do anything else and he just watches it happen.

And this is the second time Doflamingo touches him. It's after the Gamma Knife attack, Doffy knows what he's doing here, he chooses to make contact with Law's head/face (he must have noticed Law's discomfort to it before when Giolla often did it to Law as a kid, and now he utilized this knowledge). He tries to make Law freeze up so he can't finish his move and who knows, maybe that was the final factor of why Law failed to kill off Doflamingo.

To wrap things up, I will share the interesting parallel that I think can be drawn between two rather unexpected characters: Law and Boa.

Both Law and Boa are most comfortable around Bepo (and the snake in Boa's case). Both are victims of brutalized touch and lack of loving and caring one. But while Law fearfully accepts what's given to him, Boa rejects it (even symbolically by kicking fluffy animals away or refusing any show of affection like gifts). Both are touch starved, but Boa will never even try to touch Luffy, and the only time Luffy touched her was in that stealth mission in Impel Down (they didn't have the choice) and hugging her after she gave him the key to Ace's cuffs. Boa doesn't return the gesture, she is very flustered and falls to the ground afterwards, which reminds me a little of her later scene with Rayleigh. Not even Boa's own sisters are shown to share any sort of physical affection with her, Boa shows cold and manipulative attitude to almost everyone besides them. The only other person Boa ever touched was Rayleigh (she's on the ground here again) after he helped them fight off Blackbeard's assault on Amazon Lily and it might be a traumatic response: Blackbeard tried to strangle her after all. Boa's love is passionate and platonic, she shows her affection and caring with indirect gestures (food preparation, offering support and help etc.), probably because that's what she remembers others tried doing for her before. She can't even deal with intimacy face to face and Law also tends to act cold to very open displays of affection and emotions.

Big thanks to @tae-rambles for mentioning the scene with Boa that completely slipped my mind <3 added it in the edit!

[saturnnelahy]

Can I get a BTS reaction to their child (baby, like 1 or 2 year old) giggling and laughing to them looking at themselves in the mirror? I just saw this happening. The dad was pushing the cart close and far away from the mirror, and the kid was DYING of laughter

Hello whitefoxgirl, I loved your request, it gave me lots of good ideas!!!! But I'm going to have to split it into two parts because I'm very sick at the moment so it's very difficult to write, I promise to try and get the rest up as soon as I can!!! I hope you like it 💜💜

Just a Happy Day:

𝓜𝓲𝓷 𝓨𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓲:

Since the birth of your daughter with Min Yoongi you didn't have much free time and you didn't have a day to enjoy without the responsibility of taking care of a baby, your husband did as much as he could to help with everything, but it was still very tiring. Wanting to please her, he took a day off and after a lot of persuasion he managed to convince her to go out with her friends while he stayed at home to take care of Jiyeon, as the girl was already 10 months old and always remained calm and calm with her father. He decided to accept, despite the uncomfortable feeling of being away from his little girl. 

It was already getting dark when you returned with several bags of things you had bought for yourself and Jiyeon. Everything seemed quiet and very clean despite the few toys scattered around the living room and the large sofas, which was strange since there was always a little girl running around and filling the rooms with her sweet delicate voice and loud laughter that made your days happier.

As you climb the steps of the staircase leading to the second floor, you hear a low moan coming from one of the bedrooms, which catches your attention and makes you go up faster and try your best not to make a sound as you walk up to the door of the suite, you open the door just a little to peek at what they're both doing and you end up looking at the most adorable scene in the world. Yoong is with Jiyeon in his arms standing in front of the mirror playing together, he tilts his body so that his face disappears from the mirror and then returns to his previous position, letting out a "buh" that makes the girl laugh and clap her hands.

𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓗𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓸𝓴:

After a tiring morning cleaning the apartment where you lived with Hoseok and your 6-month-old daughter Yeonju, taking the opportunity to sort out some things to donate and the presents she had received the last time your husband's friends came to visit with their children, you decided to lie down on the sofa for a few minutes just to rest but ended up dozing off for a couple of hours because you were so tired. When you woke up it was already afternoon, the sun was low and your body was less sore, but you were no longer on the sofa but on the big bed in your bedroom. Looking sideways towards the huge closet with a large mirror on the door, you saw your daughter's baby carriage with the little girl clapping her hands and laughing loudly while her father appeared and disappeared from the mirror.

Hoseok hummed a tune as he jumped in front of the mirror and then away. Every time the man disappeared, the little girl let out a loud laugh and clapped her hands in excitement at the "magic" her father was performing, which made her father do it more and more enthusiastically. Until he noticed you looking and turned towards you, a little flushed.

- Look love, she loves watching me do magic - he said excitedly before going back to playing with her, only this time determined to make you laugh too.

𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓳𝓸𝓸𝓷:

With a baby at home, it was hard to find a quiet place in the house other than the library where Namjoon went to think, read and work for a while, which he did at least once a day after making sure his wife didn't need him and spending a lot of time playing with little Jae, who was a mini copy of his father.

Today the man had been locked in the library for a few hours working on a new song, but he hadn't been able to make much progress on the track and was starting to get frustrated when he heard a knock on the door and saw his wife open the door showing only her face.

- Hi, honey, I know you're busy, but could you take a look at Jae for a few minutes for me? - Yn asks with a cute smile, Namjoon smiles and nods, going to the door to take the chubby baby from his wife's hands. Jae smiles excitedly and holds out his arms to his father.

Despite being a six-month old baby, Jae is big and strong, always hungry and making a mess, his little brown eyes sparkling with love every time he sees his father. Namjoon holds him in his arms and kisses his chubby cheek, smiling at him, but the happiness of father and son only lasts a few minutes before the little one starts to throw a tantrum, whimpering as he flaps his arms in irritation. The man tries everything to calm him down, but it seems impossible. The father walks with the baby in his arms while rocking him slightly but he continues to grumble, until the man passes in front of the mirror and the baby lets out a low chuckle but starts crying again when Namjoon turns away, realizing this he starts playing with Jae through the mirror while humming the song he was working on.

When yn returned to the room, he found them playing together and laughing with each other in an adorable scene, because both of them, apart from their looks, had very similar laughs. Namjoon always looked immensely radiant when he had his son in his arms, and it was impossible not to get emotional watching him.

Sorry for any mistakes, I hope you like it 💜

[iu-xo]

"Like we've always hated each other"

Tantrum.

intro part 1 part 2 part 3

It took much less time than expected! I hope it's enjoyable to read, god this is so slowburn, so they still hate each other! But... do they really?

The sun... the sun that comes through the window... the fucking sun.

The most recent being to move into the hotel after its restoration, he was fighting a battle to the death with nothing more and nothing less than the sheets of his bed, nothing new for the king to say the least, In his mind it was the eighth time he told himself he would get up, And this was the real thing, he thought for the eighth time...

When he heard a door suddenly open, and even though he loved his daughter with all his heart, he couldn't wish for anything other than that she would leave him for another hour to rot for a little longer in his nest of depression and procrastination, Which didn't happen that way.

-DAD! I'm sorry to bother you... I know you were still sleeping and stuff! despite being past noon.. But your help would reeeeaaaally help me a lot rigth now!

Even though his body betrayed him and made him want to sink and become one with the mattress, knowing that his daughter needed something from him gave him enough motivation to sit up in bed.

-Whatever you need honey..

His voice was still hoarse and sleepy, revealing his little to none desire to exist at that moment, but surely when he did something he would feel better... he hoped.

The princess gave a happy squeal to take out some notebook pages with lists and colorful crayon drawings, and grabbed one in particular which she put on her father's nightstand while she put the rest away with some clumsiness.

-Today I have an activity planned but I mixed up my schedules with next week's, so I have nothing to start with!

The blonde looked very worried about this problem she had, and Lucifer thought that maybe she would ask him for things to buy and he could just magically appear them, piece of cake.

-So while I fix this I wanted you to put these flyers in the businesses that already gave me permission!

Wait. What?

the angel really thought He could get away with doing this quickly with a little magic trick, but he really had no way of appearing flyers in specific places which he had no idea where they were..

-erm.. Dear.. Can't we just put them in... I don't know... everywhere?

-Nop! Because today's topic is... consent!

She said while making a rainbow in the air with her hands , Therefore, the little angel had no choice but to personally walk through the disgusting streets of the pride ring... his ring. While he was hanging little pieces of paper on the windows of the shops of the ungrateful sinners that owned them. But... it was for Charlie... so how bad could it be, He stopped thinking about how bad it would be and instead saw Charlie's smile explaining how she wanted to deal with today's topic, he saw her eyes full of sparkle and got out of bed.

-Count on me char-char, I'll take care of it!

Charlie smiled from ear to ear and hugged him, leaning down, he had taken Lucifer a little by surprise but he gladly reciprocated

-Thank you.. means a lot.

They both felt a silence after that, it wasn't awkward, it was like they were telling each other without words that they were trying to heal something, And even if it couldn't happen overnight, they were trying, Charlie knew they would make it, Lucifer... he could only hope so.

But after that charlie decided to left the room to let her father get ready, she also had too many things to do, time was against her and she wasn't going to waste it.

-Well.. see ya!

She said goodbye with her hand, while her father did it in the same way, Once she was outside, the angel walked slowly to his closet, looking for something more casual, but ended up wearing his usual outfit but without his white jacket, he rolled up his sleeves and headed to the bathroom to fix his hair, he saw himself in the mirror for a moment, a wave of melancholy drowning him for a few moments, He saw himself worn out, tired.

He washed his face with cold water as an attempt to wash away the draining thoughts, it just... everything used to be so simple for him, at least sometimes... He left the bathroom and opened a window in his room, looking to breathe something other than his own self-loathing, A burst of sulfur aroma was what he found, he sighed, At this moment he missed the aroma of fruit and freshly wet grass... he may not be missing the regime of heaven but... that garden and it's smells sure were something else

He realized that he had gotten quite lost in thought, so he washed his face one last time Seeking to return to reality, and avoiding the hassle of seeing so many faces at the reception... he opened a golden portal under his feet that left him at the exit of the hotel, now he only had to...

walk.

Lovely.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

-WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT.

A demon twice his size was shouting at him in the middle of the street, the lamb-like demon had bruises he was bleeding and holding the demon's hand that grabbed him by the neck while lifting him off the floor, he didn't seem scared, in fact he didn't feel the slightest bit of fear despite the dangerous situation he found himself in, as if he believed that at any moment one of his exterminators would arrive and take him out of there, or simply as if it didn't enter his head that he wasn't untouchable.

-F-FUCK YOU.. YOU.. FUCKING PUSSY!

He tried to get free even with less oxygen than required, he increasingly gained strength to kick his attacker into the pit of his stomach, leaving him breathless momentarily and falling to the ground, he took a deep breath and before the opponent could notice Adam was half a block away, he may have been out of shape, but he managed to ran into an alley and lean against the wall, while he saw the idiot run past him.

-SHIT- FUCKING- DAMN IT!

He dropped to the floor sliding down the wall, wiped the blood from his nose, then saw the blood on his hand..

Red.

His blood was... Red. Did he feel.. anger? No.. sadness? Of course not.. he was not a pussy.. He felt... To hell with what he felt all this was bullshit and he shouldn't be going through this! He shouldn't be here! He Should not.. he shouldn't be here...he was the first man...God's most beautiful creation! Fuck..he couldn't be rotting in this shit hole together with all these pieces of shit! They all came from him. where is his respect..

Interrupting his internal monologue bar existential crisis, he heard footsteps and unconsciously clung to the wall with his new claws, since he had arrived he had already escaped from five guys who were looking to kick his ass, perhaps a sixth could be avoided.

Humming a catchy melody, a familiar face passed by looking for something, looked at a sheet of paper, then at the shops, Then he approached the window of the establishment and stuck a flyer on it, without realizing the stare he had on him, Although of course, many people had looked at him since he left the hotel, he had had to send a couple flying, so it wasn't something especially peculiar

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

of all the habitants of hell... IT SHOULD BE FUCKING LUCIFER THE FIRST FAMILIAR FACE HE SEES?! This day, this place and all of this it's nothing but a stupid damn joke!

What the fuck is he doing? Hanging ruffles? Last time he tried to sell him that he was such a big deal, what was he doing hanging fucking pamphlets in the disgusting streets full of shit?

The gaze that Lucifer felt on his shoulder felt heavier and heavier, when he looked out of the corner of his eye he noticed a sinner looking towards the flyer he puted on the glass, and an idea crossed his mind, what would be better than advertising the hotel? Well, make it work of course! He could do this, it was just... talking to a stranger! Perfect, and the bad thing was that... he had to talk to a stranger. come on morningstar! For your daughter's approval!

-Heey you.

They both remained in total silence, panic could be seen on Adam's face, had he recognized him? It seemed like no... everything pointed to no, but that didn't stop his brain from wanting to run away and leave him alone in that moment, Lucifer had an ackward face and it shows in the way his eye twitched that he regretted his decision ever since the words left his mouth, but there was no way to take it back now, meanwhile Adam considered the possibility of just running away.

-I see you... watching from there! You can... read it. You know.. it's a pamphlet. They are for... reading-

He could easily smash his hand against his face in an exaggerated way, but this wasn't the time for that, if he brought a guest to the hotel today Charlie would be so happy! he can do it, it was like selling, It's not that he knew how to sell things... but how hard could it be

Meanwhile Adam looked at him with a disappointed face, his communication skills were as deplorable as they had always been, but he glanced at the pamphlet, of course, their fifth class hotel.

-It has everything! You should tell every person you see in hell about it.

Adam's disgusted face spoke for him, while Lucifer sighed, obviously it wouldn't be that easy to bring someone to the hotel in one day, but for Adam everything was going wonderfully since at least he didn't know it was him.

The feeling did not last too long, as he felt a figure forming behind him, heat emanating from near his back, the lamb-like demon feared the worst, and unfortunately he was right.

-To claim to be the first dick you are quite the pussy.

Said a demon behind him, twice his size, Shark-like, It was the guy from before for sure, shit-

-wait. what was that first thing you said?

before the words had a chance to come out of the angel's mouth in their entirety, He felt a gust of wind pass by him but as far as he was concerned, the wind doesn't scream.

As he turned around at the speed of the wind itself, he could briefly see his future guest crashing into the brick wall at the hands of the stupid demon who had interrupted his negotiation attempt, in a moment six wings came out angelically from the sovereign's back to place himself just in time between the two demons with a flutter of his wings, whit one hand he stoped the inevitable punch destined to hit Adam's face.

-Nobody taught you not get into the grown up's conversations... right?

He said this while a grin formed in his face, showing sharp teeth which this guy would remember all his life, Lucifer released the guy's fist to hold his wrist and with a twist of his hip he easily sent him to the other side of the pentagram.

-now. where did you get that phrase from?

When the angel looked behind him he could see nothing more and nothing less than two hooves walking away two meters away

-Shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!

Although Adam's intention was to lose sight of the small man following him, when he looked back all he could see was his imminent arrival to the ground, receiving a tackle from Lucifer, they both fell rolling around as if they were two little children fighting in the school garden

-SPEAK FILTHY CREATURE

He demanded, standing on top of the lamb, despite it being half his size and looking humorous, the truth is that Adam couldn't get out of his grip no matter how hard he tried.

-STOP BEING SO DAMN DENSE BITCH!

Oh God. He recognized that voice, he recognized that stupid self-nickname, and worst of all, he recognized that stupid tantrum.

-how the hell. are you here rigth now.

-Why should I say that to you, huh?!

-maybe because YOU DON'T HAVE ANOTHER OPTION?! MAYBE??

Both continued to struggle with each other, one to escape and one to have answers. Lucifer was afraid of letting him escape and that he could cause some trouble, although thinking about it carefully... he looked at his lamb's ears, his hooves, his eyes and his teeth... now he was a simple sinner, There wasn't much he could accomplish even if he tried, he'd probably be screwed, he may already had taked a few beatings even.

-Well, I have no idea! I hope that helps sucker!

He said and spit in his face, something he didn't thought about properly, or didn't thought about at all, The ruler's face was irritated, as if he were putting up with a spoiled child, well... that's practically what he's doing.

-That's all, Let's go.

He cleaned his face whit his sleve and grabbed him by the collar of his clothes and began to drag him along the sidewalk, he had an exhausted expression as if he didn't have what it took to face this situation today, although he probably wouldn't any day.

-the FUCK. ARE YOU DOING?!

He said, fluttering his black wings everywhere, managing to irritate Lucifer by obstructing his vision, forcing him to stop, to which he grunted in annoyance.

-Well. taking care of you! What else am I supposed to do! It's what I should always do! because it seems like your entire existence is made to cause me problems!

Adam's gaze could be nothing but anger, he struggled away from Lucifer's grasp, which was curious to see due to the difference in sizes, once free he turned around to look at him from the front

- YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, I WAS MADE TO BE FUCKING PERFECT! YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT.

-If you were as perfect as you say, how do you explain this eh! How do you think this happened?! You are not in this putrid pit for being the dick of the dicks PAL!

The lamb growled in exasperation as he stamped on the ground with his right hoof, after pulling his hair looking to escape from his angryness he lookef at the little one in the eye.

- IF I DON'T CARE, WHY THE FUCK SHOULD YOU CARE, YOU PIECE OF CRAP!

He felt a lump in his throat, but not as painful as the lump in the throat of the king of hell himself, Why should he care? Why the fuck should he care??

-Oh then i saw You die a fucking WEEK AGO. and You expect me to see that You are alive and let you wander through hell knowing that any demon is out there KICKING YOUR FUCKING ASS?! A THANK YOU WAS ENOUGH!

Lucifer screamed as his eyes turned from yellow to red from how infuriating he found having to argue with this idiot, he was never particularly reasonable but right now he was more irritable than normal and had no idea why

- THANK YOU?! OH SURE THEN YOU THINK YOU CAN TREAT ME LIKE A CHARITY CASE FOR YOUR BRAT'S SHITTY HOTEL HUH!? Well I have news for you DUDE!

Adam He kicked dirt from the street, dirtying Lucifer's clothes, who coughed in response to the cloud of dust

-im not your fucking guinea pig.

He narrowed his gaze in disgust, looking down literally and metaphorically at his contrary.

-Are you allergic to kindness? or why is it that you can't accept a fucking favor!?

Adam's Contemptuous face became one of intense anger and he took a step forward and brought his face closer to the angel's.

-from YOU? Of course. Good joke.

Lucifer had enough, he wouldn't wait to know where this reunion could go, It's not even worth wasting his breath on... Adam. Or at least that's what he thought.

-you know what? It's fine with me. It's not like you're not used to everyone leaving you, stay like that, as always, stay alone.

The king shook his clothes to remove the dirt, with one hand he snapped his fingers and as he arrived he left, Adam was left with an unreadable expression, he didn't move from there, he just stood there.

still and quiet.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

The golden portal opened above the hotel's front door, since he had avoided greeting people in the morning he assumed he could say hello in the aftern.. nigth, it was nigth.

Well, anyways, he would greet them at night then.

Opening the door abruptly without worrying about whether it was timely or not, he stepped into the hall.

-HEELLOOO everyone! How does the night treat you all?

From there you could easily see the bartender behind the bar along with the little maid sitting at the bar playing with some dead bug, on the sofa lay their most exotic guest and a certain deer showed no signs of being close, much to the king's liking.

-we have been better short king, But nothing that a drink can't fix, rigth wiskers?

The feline rolled his eyes but smiled at the end, and began to mix different liquids, When he looked in the direction the king was his eyes widened in surprise

- wow. It looks like you were hited by a truck.

Angel Dust looked in the same direction realizing what the bartender was referring to, It really looked like they had made him crawl on the floor, well, in fact something like that happened-

- someone played too rough whit ya~?

Husk put his palm to his face as Nifty leaned over the bar counter

- I like rough.

She said, sketching a sinister smile, to which Lucifer reacted with a certain degree of displeasure, and Husk put a donut from the bar counter in her mouth to make her shut up for a little bit

- umh.. rigth. Well no, I wasn't hit by a truck, and no! Neither, the other thing. I just ran into a few issues. Nothing to worry about.

While this small exchange of words was going on, footsteps could be heard in the distance approaching faster and faster, ending with a hug from behind to Lucifer's surprise.

-DAD! What happened? It took you hours to come back!

-Oh come on, come on... it's nothing at all! A few small issues, a few hours! But everything is fine now.

While the angel convinced Charlie that it was nothing, sounds of static reached everyone's ears, covering them in the act, everyone anticipated the arrival of you-know-who, it was nothing new for him to arrive in such a dramatic way, especially if the king was there prior to his arrival

-How interesting... I would swear it would take more than a few small matters to delay the big boss.. a couple hours.

The one who had just arrived in the room exclaimed very arrogantly, with a smile from ear to ear per usual , Charlie watched him appear on the spot and waved happily, only to receive a greeting from the deer-like demon in return.

-oh oh oh If you only knew You little shit.

Lucifer smiled evilly knowing that if Alastor ran into Adam again the last thing he would do would be act with that arrogance so characteristic of his

-Honey there is someone at the door.

Vaggie entered the room and to the conversation to warn her girlfriend about the presence of someone outside, so charlie left the two old men arguing to answer the door

-Oh but tell us your highness, what were these "issues" then.

-Nothing that your walnut-sized brain can understand piece of-

Two brown hooves entered, stepping on the red carpet that covered the hotel's entrance hall, to which Charlie said very excitedly and taking small jumps until they reached the area where everyone was, her girl on one side of the stranger and her on the remaining side.

Lucifer's sight changed from being fixed on Alastor to seeing the newcomer and although the king was already prepared to smile at the person to receive them, when he looked at him carefully, the only thing that came out of his mouth was..

-FU- ADAM?! THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE.

When everyone heard who he was talking about, they stayed cold and glued to the floor. With his new demonic form, no one would have guessed that it was the leader of the exorcists in person, or rather... in demon.

-ADAM?!

-adam??

-THAT ADAM?!

-OH OH estás muerto CABRON!

-Mhhh..

After the domino reaction Adam with lowered ears tried to talk keeping his dignity and pride, not very successfully, with a stupid smile on his face he speak

-heey bitchees.. so.. what's for dinner?

You could swear there was the sound of a cane breaking in the background followed by a static sound.

[pluckyredhead]

I've been meaning to ask for a while, since you've read so much more Supers books than me, but what are your thoughts on Kon being retconned as Clark and Lex's lab grown love child? Asides from that one mind-controlled-into-shaving-his-head incident, did that ever factor into anything again? Is it even still canon? If it were up to you would you keep it and try to do something interesting with it or just sweep it under the rug and pretend it was never true?

I think it would be a great retcon if they ever did anything with it aside from one (1) incredibly stupid story.

Because the thing is, originally Kon's human donor was Paul Westfield, and genuinely, who the fuck cares about Paul Westfield? He was only relevant for, like, a year. He's a footnote at best.

But Lex? There's so much potential there:

How does Clark feel about it? Does he trust Kon less? Does he feel guilty about that? Does he defend him to people (Batman) who would question him?

What are Lex's plans? You can't tell me he would sic Kon on other heroes once and give up. Lex always plays the long game. He has to have other Machiavellian schemes. What if Kon gets the clone plague again and Lex has the cure? What if he built in a vulnerability other than kryptonite? Most interestingly, what if Lex cares?

And of course, most importantly, how does Kon feel about it? We've seen him ignoring it and then moping about it. And I think it was his Adventure Comics run where we saw him tracking his own behavior to see if he was more like Superman or Lex. But what if a story really interrogated the fact that Kon is a very different person than Clark? (Especially in light of Jon, Clark's mini-me.) Kon likes money; Lex is a billionaire. Kon loves attention; Lex is functionally a supervillain because he's jealous that people like Superman more. Kon is a sweet boy but he's not a shining paragon of virtue. Is that because of Lex's genes? Is everything good about Kon simply Superman's genes? Is Kon is own person with free will that exists beyond picking a donor to emulate? Is a clone a person at all? Let's get into it, DC!

If it was up to me, I would write two stories about it:

First is the story where Kon and Lex actually develop a relationship. Kon and Clark has never been close, and Kon has rarely had a stable home or consistent parental figures (Rex was untrustworthy, Dubbilex got written out a lot, Guardian died and came back as a child, Pa died, Ma lived but Kon died and then got retconned into another dimension...). Kon is primed to fall for lovebombing, especially if Lex is doing one of his regular "no, really, I'm Redemption Arc-ing for real this time!" routines. Especially right now with a trillion Supers Clark likes better hanging around Metropolis, and Lex swearing he's going to be Good...what if he stopped trying to convince Clark, and started trying to convince Kon? What if he spent time with him, and listened to him, and took his side against Clark, and let's be real, probably spent money like water on him? And what if Lex, despite himself, discovered that...he actually cared about his clone son?

Of course, Lex's self-interest would eventually win out. We see this over and over again, where he sacrifices his relationships on the altar of his ambition, where he just can't quite love anyone else as much as he loves being evil. And yes, Kon ends the story hurt, but also with another reminder that validation needs to come from within and not from a billionaire who wants something from you, even if he is your other dad.

(And maybe Clark is reminded that he has failed Kon. Again. Ahem.)

The second story I would write is the one where Lex goes to jail and Kon somehow inherits Lexcorp and many billions of dollars and is cartoonishly irresponsible with all of it. Lex gets out of jail and there's a giraffe in his office and all of his doomsday devices are full of Zesti Cola.

But yeah, instead DC does nothing with it. Literally a few months ago they had Clark and Kon and Lex all having a conversation about a villain Lex created and gave TTK to - so like, talking explicitly about how Lex created Kon, too - and aside from Kon being mildly snide, that was it. That was it! DC WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS. WHAT IS THE POINT OF SETTING UP SOMETHING SO JUICY AND THEN LEAVING THAT JUICE UNSQUOZE.

[pinazee]

Scary Sherry, season 1 finale!

Best. Episode. Of. Season. One. (Should i rank them?)

I love Goochberg (Mercedes Ruehl)! I wish she would have come back also. Like once every season she shows up in Lassies life somehow, wreaking havoc but ultimately teaching him something about himself like they did this time. Which, by the way, Chief Vick 1000% did that to get Lassie out of his own ass haha

Shannon woodward did a phenomenal job as alice bundy. There was so much depth to her character, you could really feel the pain she was in. This is something Psych also does very well. They have their comedy bits sure, but for the most part they don’t forget that a dead body was a person first. Like in Forget Me Not, they humanize our victim by telling us the woman who died liked to play scrabble with her friends. And Shawn has repeatedly said may they rest in peace, which seems small, but i think it shows they respect the subject matter for what it is. Im not saying they’re perfect, but considering this show is 90% jokes, it’s nice that their 10% drama is handled with such care.

When this scene plays, I only watch James because i watched the commentary and he said he could barely get through this scene and you can see him trying not to break haha

It’s interesting that Gus is over at Henry’s so often, to the point that he’s almost like his second kid. Theres two reasons i think this happens 1. Shawn asks him to come over so he won’t have to be alone with his dad. 2. Henry and Gus have an unspoken agreement that because Gus is supporting Shawn so much financially Henry is paying him in food. Like child support lol it’s also interesting that they’ve reached a point of family dinners essentially. I wonder how much of this is Shawn feeling a sense of obligation because it’s his dad, how much of him still seeks his acceptance and approval, and how much is him trying to bury the hatchet. And then on Henry’s side i wonder how much is him recognizing that he could do better, how much is trying to rebuild this relationship (that he probably blames himself for destroying though i doubt hes even admitted that to himself), and how much is simply needing Shawn for the exposure to cases again.

And we get quite a bit of character development for our cops. Lassiter sees how his perception of self doesn’t match with what he’s putting out, Juliet experiences some real personal danger and handled herself. And that end scene, was such a great small gesture that showed us despite their history, Lassie is part of the group.

Final note: Look, at how perfectly executed this scene is! The running, the screaming, the jumping, pretending to be brave, and the cherry on top putting his hand through the open window!!!! Dying. Dead. Resuscitated. Choked on laughter. Died again.

[kaymarie-bell]

I just came up with the saddest theory. What if the reason for Silver's sleepiness is because Lillia doesn't love him enough? I mean the reason he's sleepy is because of the residual magic the guardian fairy casted on him right? Where he'll sleep and only wake up by parental love. Lillia found and raised him but he still has the problem of the sleepiness. So doesn't that mean Lillia doesn't love him enough? And it's heartbreaking. Because Lillia cried when Malleus was born and he considered it his happiest moment. And he seemed nonchalant when he told Silver they're not really related in a flashback.

And I think I just wanna torture myself and others emotionally by writing this.

LISTEN I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF SILVER'S SLEEPINESS CONSTANTLY! You have given me a chance to talk about the DiaFam and I WILL GLADLY DO SO!!! Let me torture you right back.

But before I get into it, just to be safe: DIASOMNIA BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD

Since I refuse to believe that Lilia simply doesn't love him enough, I'd rather go with the "Silver is the one who thinks being an adopted child means that he doesn't truly deserve his father's love" route.

1. Because that's still such a good angst and 2. Because the game itself tells us that's what he thinks and that *Sebek voice* HE'S WRONG! LILIA DOES LOVE HIM!!!

I do think the trigger for his pseudo-curse coming back was his realization that he's adopted. I might be remembering wrong since I usually binge the entire update as soon as it comes out and it's been months, but in Lilia's memories of raising Silver there's no mention of Silver falling sleep randomly any time before he finds out he's adopted.

And I feel like Lilia telling Silver he's adopted so casually was him just thinking "I'm obviously a fae and he's clearly a human, he should be aware of it already," plus Lilia does accept that he might have kept quiet about it because he subconsciously knew that Silver would be sad about it.

Now, Lilia's thoughts do tells us that his choice to adopt Silver in the first place was due to him wanting to set an example for Malleus. He chose to take this baby in despite knowing who his parents were, because if he wanted Malleus to grow up kind and keep the peace with humans, he should be the one to lead the way.

He still questions his relationship with baby Silver when he calls him "dad" for the first time, and the first one to point out how much he truly cares about Silver is Malleus himself when he tells him that "[Lilia] would be very sad if the baby got sick." Malleus overcame his hatred for humans because Lilia cares about one.

But the point where I feel it finally clicked for Lilia that he truly loves Silver is the acorn bracelet scene. Before this point he still felt the divide between fae and human, but then he is shocked to find out that Silver wants him to live a long happy life with him despite Silver being a human. This is the result of Lilia willingly choosing to try and love a human: the human -his son- loves him back.

And you wanna know what makes me insane? the immediate scene after this is Silver finding out he's adopted. The moment Lilia fully loves Silver is around the time Silver questions his worthiness for the first time. Also, isn't this the moment when Silver stops calling him "papa" and starts calling him "Father"?

So in conclusion: Lilia's love for Silver did not come immediately like it did with Malleus, but rather, he willingly chose to love him. The one who struggled to accept it was Silver himself.

How could he (the son of Lilia's enemies) ever compare to Malleus (the son of the people he loved, the one he shed blood sweat and tears for during hundreds of years just to be able to see him) in Lilia's eyes? And yet, what finally broke the little self-control Malleus had left was Silver's tears...

Edit: I got so caught up in the love they feel for each other that I forgot to clarify: Silver DOES accept Lilia's love as of the recent updates. This is all me rambling about their relationship, we still do not have a clear answer about the reason behind Silver's sleepiness 💔

tbh since the DIasomnia characters seem to be closer to the Maleficent version (not the animated Sleeping Beauty) the fairies probably fucked up the initial spell for Silver

39 notes

[kholnt]

Can you tell us more about lost and there relationship with the chain?

oh lordy theres an entire doc for this that kay n i worked on earlier so i'm just gonna copy and paste that :thumbsup: and if some things dont make sense uhhhh problem for later me under readmore bc its long asf

Twilight

PRE-TOTK: Not that close with Twilight but very close with Wolfie. Wolfie is basically his therapy-dog so Twilight knows some of the secrets/details of his life that Lost has been keeping from the rest of the Chain. Twilight struggles with respecting Lost’s privacy but also wanting to help him work through what he’s going through.

He tries to incorporate Lost into the group in little ways. It’s small but it’s the most he can do at the moment and he doesn’t want Lost to be completely isolated from their group.

If Wolfie's reveal happens Pre-Totk their relationship is soured. Lost kept all those secrets secret for a reason and Twilight knowing them messes with him a lot. Lost probably thinks that Twilight was only keeping tabs on him to make sure he wouldn’t be a problem to group despite what Twilight says in response.

POST-TOTK

If Wolfie Reveal happens Post-Totk + character development, Lost is a Lot More understanding as to why Twilight kept the whole Wolfie thing a secret. Twilight basically becomes his older brother (he was before but now Twilight gets to actually show it outside of being a wolf) and they’re really close. Twilight is the #1 Lost Defender.

Time

PRE-TOTK: Time struggles a lot with trying to help Lost because he can Tell Lost has a lot more going on under the surface. Twilight confirms this is the case but will not go into details for the sake of Lost’s privacy unless he Has To. But he can’t do much since Lost is still very much afraid of him and puts the soldier front on with him. Also struggles with the fact he doesn’t really Know Lost.

Lost has a lot of respect for Time but Also Time reminds him of his dad and that’s scary for him and also bringing up past trauma. (DADDY ISSUES!!!!!)

POST-TOTK: The first/one of the first to give Lost a hug after the Horn Incident. Lost is still working out his daddy issues but he’s a lot more open with Time. Lost’s relationship with Malon improving also helps a lot in this aspect too.

Warriors

PRE-TOTK: Lost feels the need to prove himself to Warriors because he’s The Captain and his own past issues with authorities figures. Warriors in turn struggles with the fact that Lost appears so Afraid of him all the time and tries to alleviate that fear, but it doesn’t do much. 

Warriors also is Not a fan of self-sacrificing Lost is. Tries to gently scold him and discourages him but this only makes Lost get better at hiding injuries and discreetly healing himself after fights. Warriors (+ Time) doesn’t like ordering him around but it’s the only way to get him to listen to them when it comes to proper self care and allowing others to help.

POST-TOTK: After Lost learns that he outranks Warriors he sees their dynamic more equally and removes a lot of tenseness from their relationship. Lost becomes a lot more involved with planning and strategy and helps Warriors with planning attacks/defense/etc. which helps improve their relationship a lot too. 

Legend

PRE-TOTK: Tense. Legend sees Lost as a “suck-up” and tries to be understanding of his mentality and such, but it’s still frustrating for them both because Lost is trying to “impress” Legend and prove his worth and Legend doesn’t see Lost as genuine. This eventually leads to an argument between the two of them.

POST-TOTK: After the Horn Incident™, Legend apologizes to Lost about the things he said and did pre-totk, their relationship vastly improves after that. 

Sky

PRE-TOTK: Lost has Feelings about Hylia but he respects Sky’s relationship with her + another case of complete respect since Sky is the one who made the Master Sword. There’s a healthy dose of fear from Lost almost dying from the blade as well, so he tends to keep his distance as well.

POST-TOTK: Sky has Feelings about the fact that Lost turned himself into a dragon to repair the Master Sword. Lost talks about repairing the Master Sword and how he didn’t consider any other option because “it's what you would have done”. 

Four

PRE-TOTK: Lost is the least “afraid” of him. He’s willing to talk more about himself with Four because they’re the most similar. They both have their own secrets, and they understand that. Four is also very observant of Lost, and is the first one to learn how Lost displays his emotions, and will generally come to his aid when someone in the chain is (usually worriedly) hounding him.

POST-TOTK: Not much changes between them, for better or for worse. Lost is a lot more open to asking more personal questions, and they get to know each other much better. Plus Four got to show Lost what blacksmithing is like, so that’s a very big bonus

Hyrule

PRE-TOTK: Wary respect.Lost has respect for Hyrule’s medic abilities but is Unsure on how to feel about the magic healing. The only person he knows who is able to heal with magic isn’t a Hylian. Possibly wary of if Hyrule is actually a Hylian? + Hyrule probably reminds him of Mipha and that's Probably Not A Good Thing

POST-TOTK: Hyrule allows Lost to finally have some sense of individuality by allowing him to escape and go out adventuring by themselves. This starts a snowball effect of Lost learning things he’s interested in, nature and a drive for learning being the first few.

Wind

PRE-TOTK: Guard. Wind wants him to be a big brother, but he forgot how to fill that role due to Reasons™ Instead, he fills a guard role so he’s still able to protect Wind in some way. (Wind has mixed feelings about this)

POST-TOTK: After Lost learns more about himself and finally allows himself to have some fun, they get along like a house on fire. Please never give them access to a hill it’ll be terrible for everyone’s hearts.

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

I am listening to it on audible and am still only half way through but so far have a few thoughts

1. ⁠It is actually very boring

2. ⁠You can feel the treachery, spite, vindictiveness, deceit, victimhood, maliciousness, envy, paranoia, delusion and manipulation in every sentence, Its oozes into my pores and makes me feel unclean just listening to it. I cannot think of a book I have enjoyed less.

3. ⁠The weird and constant mentions of his mum are just bizarre. I understand the tragedy of him losing her so young, but I am sure his reactions to it are not typically normal for what is now a grown man. He is batshit crazy.

4. ⁠He has long gratuitous sections about killing rabbits, deer, pheasants, and talks at length about the blood, gore and disembowelling. It literally made me feel sick.

5. ⁠He has a grandiose sense of self-importance that is utterly delusional.

6. ⁠His constant references to his drug taking are over the top. He acts like it is totally normal. I understand why this plays a part in his autobiography since he seems to have spent so much of his time taking them. But he seems to glorify it with no introspection on the dangers, and revels in spilling all the details with no cares for the people who have loyally tried to cover up for him over the years. Despite the fact he talks about leaking and planting by his family it is obvious how much they have covered for him.

7. ⁠He doesn't seem to give a damn if he destroys the monarchy, and after reading the book that is what I think he is intent on doing. He misses no opportunity to add in any malicious adjectives, unnecessary anecdote, unflattering (and unlikely) quotes about his family and throws shade and blame on to them whenever he can. He comes over as so petty and malicious. You get the sense that he feels that if he can't be king he will blow the whole thing up.

8. ⁠It is abundantly clear he has no real love for his dad, brother, or grandfather from the way he talks about them, and it is questionable that he even loved the queen. He shows no empathy or respect for them and makes them look bad whenever he can. He can talk all he likes about reconciliation but he has burnt every bridge and if he were my son or brother, he would be dead to me. There is no purpose to a reconciliation - if it is not for love then it is for his own self-serving purposes.

9. ⁠When you read the whole book rather than listening to excerpts, some stories fade into insignificance. For example the losing his virginity story is a minor mention in passing. But what you don't get from the excerpts is the whole sense of nastiness pervading every paragraph. Before reading it I really didn't like Harry, but blamed Meghan far more. Never before have a read an autobiography where someone has the chance to write the narrative of their own life in a way that is supposedly flattering, and I have found myself liking them even less, despising them in fact. He is an utterly nasty piece of work......and I am still only half way through the book.

I'm so glad you wrote it up. Thank you.

I think part of the sense of boredom is that the writing gets monotonous after a while. Also, you are immersed inside Harry's head and he really has no empathy for anyone. When I finished the first few chapters, I felt like I was reading one of those 80s anti-hero novels like American Psycho, where you are looking at things from the viewpoint of a sociopath. The way he focuses on the bedroom sheets and the hole in his shoe and even the way he spoke of women ("she was perfect, perfect, perfect") struck as very Patrick Bateman.

I agree as to the nastiness, hence the American Psycho reference above. One of the passages that most struck me was when the Diana Ghost Leopard shows up and his bodyguards are alarmed. He explains that they were alarmed because if the leopard mauled him the headlines would be horrible. It didn't seem to cross his mind that the bodyguards were scared because they did not want him hurt. He only thought of the headlines. That, to me, shows how warped his mindset is.

Ditto on the Diana segments. It feels almost sweet at first because the first chapters of the book deal with his childhood, but then it turns weird really quickly.

I'm surprised not that many people have talked about the hunting gore. It's very striking and, frankly, alien. I know hunters (at least in the US) and I've never heard of any describing the kills like this. It was truly disturbing, and I'm not anti-hunting. It's just that he seemed to enjoy the gore a little too much.

He is very arrogant, particularly for someone who was supposedly raised with an inferiority complex for being a spare.

Drugs seem to be a part of his identity, which surprised me since I'd bought into the "Hero Harry" image. I don't know if that was always the case, or if he bought into the California drug culture when he arrived there, but it's striking.

He does want to destroy the monarchy. That comes across very clearly.

He seems very detached from everyone in his family, and yet passionately attached to the image he has built of his mom (a tabloid-based image!). It's an interesting contrast. He has no empathy for Will's position at all or for his dad's struggles. His family relationships seemed to be stuck at a childhood developmental level--mom is the perfect nurturer, father is all-powerful, and brother is a rival.

It is all very nasty, and I'm surprised someone didn't step in to explain that to him.

[chaifootsteps]

College anon dropping in to say that the dubs aren't very good. Some, like the french one, sound like the text went through google translate (and the dubbing in general is terrible despite France having a good rep in the industry). The Italian version of Poison is low-key good tho

As for my reaction to Poison, imagine that gif of the happy yellow emoji looking traumatized/dead inside. I stared at the screen wondering what led me to watching this and how ANYONE would think this was a good scene. Vivziepop claiming that the leaks don't represent the full scene was right for once... It was so much worse. I could think of a more tasteful way to picture it in 5 seconds, it isn't that hard. She could have even kept most of the scene, just remove the graphic stuff to keep the suggestive dancing (a smart idea that should have remained subtle) and maybe keep the Val part à la Addict to show that, yeah, on top of "working" all night (because the graphic scenes made it obvious he stopped "enjoying" work early during the night), Val SA'd him and that shows the entirety of the hell he's going through. It explains why he breaks down and lashes out. Viv didn't need to keep most of the SA, the entire thing was implied.

Also episode 4 comes out of left field. Yes, it was foreshadowed since the beginning but why is Angel suddenly returning his calls? We SAW him ignore Val. He clearly HATES him. Since when is Husk calling him out and badgering him about being "fake"?? They've known each other for a WEEK. It's way too early for that. It's like we're missing 3-4 episodes of development in-between. Angel reconnecting with Val and showing hints that this is indeed a facade, Husk knowing a lot about everyone and giving a damn... This should be a mid-end of season arc for Angel. I'd personally make it end of season 1 so that he can show change during season 2, beginning as someone new, someone who slowly tries to show he cares and let down his bravado in small amounts, with clear hints of being a little scared of the reactions, until it naturally becomes his full-time persona. Maybe have Charlie notice at some point and subtly encourage him, DELIGHTED (in caps because that girl is extra) that Angel is getting better but having to keep her excitement in in fear of scaring him off (because Charlie should have SOME sort of emotional intelligence ffs).

Loser, Baby feels out of place. This is NOT the appropriate reaction to Angel's words. Did they rewrite the dialogue but not the song?? Here's how it sounds:

Angel: I feel like I've gotta be Val's perfect whore all the time so I'm trying to break myself enough he will be alone—

Husk: Well, it's okay to be a loser, baby! Look at me, I'm a failure too. You ain't special and it's okay!

....So Angel is a loser/failure/broken but Val is still into him??? Did they realize that this should send him the wrong message?! That Val will "love" him no matter what and that Angel cannot be free, that he's been making himself miserable for NOTHING?? First of all, Husk's greediness and addictions are NOTHING like Angel's situation. He signed with his real name. That alone implies that Val snatched him early on as he arrived. On top of that, he's being abused every way possible on the regular, for no fault of his own, and is self-destructing. He cannot kill himself and Val won't let him be killed. This is NOTHING like Husk losing a game for more power and being forced to be a bartender.

Here's how it should have gone for the song to work:

Angel: So?! The real me is a good for nothing loser who died in a ditch from some shitty coke! THIS is the famous, hotter than Hell pornstar that everyone wanna fuck! And I've— I've gotta be the part. 'Cause if I'm not... If I ain't then who am I?

Angel's fear should have been about being seen as who he was, as some loser that nobody loved. Let him feel like he beat his father, that now he's someone so suck it dad! You were wrong! Let Angel behave as if his life was a porn movie because that's all he knows now and what he thinks he should be like. Instead of trying to ruin himself so that Val discards him, have him try to be perfect... Because that'll stop the abuse, right? Val is happy when he acts like that. The perverts worship him. No one cares about Anthony.

That would make Loser, Baby work. It would achieve its goal of saying "it's okay to suck, we all do! Look at me, I'm a loser but my life isn't over!" and get Angel to accept that he's enough as he is. If you add in a few episodes beforehand to set it up, it could have worked better instead of being insensitive.

Personally I would have entirely changed the Angel/Val dynamic. Val can still be a whiny bitch but not in a drama queen way as is implied. He gets like that whenever he loses control of his favorite. Have one of the Vees groan and say something about Angel having done something as if it happened often. Make them used to Val throwing a fit because he didn't get what he wanted out of Angel or because he's having a jealousy fit. It already makes Val more controlling. It'll make the messages scene hit harder as, yeah, we can see why Angel left, the dude is unstable and obsessed. I'd be a little more fucked-up and have Angel kinda love him. Ofc in the Stockholm Syndrome way, he's been abused so much he's too attached to leave. That shift in dynamic would explain why he eventually goes back despite everything. Like in the show, he feels ignored in favor of the new resident and the way he's dismissed and talked about makes him feel like shit. He checks his phone again and ends up listening to Val's new voice messages... And this time, they're sickeningly sweet in a row. He's sorry, he's begging for him to come back. He loves him. And that's enough for Angel to go out or answer him. Put a few episodes in-between where Angel seems... Off? How weird, he's jumpy, more on his phone. He's out for parts of the episodes or clearly focused on something else. Then we get episode 4, where everyone culminates to show how bad the situation is for him. I'd personally not have Val hit him. He's smart enough to not leave bruises on his top whore. However, he's manipulative and threatening. There's no doubt that he COULD hit Angel whenever, especially with the way he cowers. Angel tries to diffuse the situation, so well that it's heartbreaking, and he gets bold. That line when he doesn't reply "Yes Val" is meant with silence as we wait for Val's reaction, waiting for him to blow up. A beat. He doesn't. He's not calm but he's not as angry. He's not going to hit him. He thanks Angel, touching him while the other flinches, a hint that he handles Angel roughly in this kind of situation, and just as Angel looks relieved, he announces that he'll have to work all night, distressing Angel again.

Ofc that would require extensive research and talk to specialists to do it well. Viv's audience can be stupid so it's more of a struggle to make it clear that none of this is Angel's fault and to not romantize this shit but it's more interesting than Val being so obviously abusive. IMHO he almost transformed into someone else in that episode and it could work but we didn't see enough of him to go "oh that's the old abuser trick! he's not as nice as he is with others when he's with his victim!". Idk how to put it sensibly but the impression he gave me was "whiny manchild who sadly was given enough power by Daddy Vox to abuse someone" instead of the intended "terrifying Overlord who is unstable and abusing his power to abuse whichever worker he fancies at the moment". I dunno Chai I just think it would work better if he were more manipulative and welding his power in other ways than by force. Like Angel isn't scared by his strength but by his influence. Also I would low-key find a way to make it so that Angel, mistakenly, thinks he can get away with some things to explain how he'd leave for the Hotel. Like having him not be a perfect victim. While he tries to cater to Val and keep him happy out of fear (and/or care because abuse fucks you up), he sometimes provokes him or tries to do his own thing. It'd show he's his own person and stuff. Sadly that would be lost on Viv's stans and it would absolutely spark some victim-shaming stuff or worse. But I think if she's gonna try to portray something like this, she could do with some nuance and not so... Cliché? Of course, it happens like this to too many people but it feels like she's applying a trope with no thought into it. The most cookie-cutter depiction she could do for quick satisfaction or to tick that case. A bit like how Stolitz is a mix of multiple tropes and is a terribly done version of that trope where a noble falls in love with someone whose class is lower with a sprinkle of badly done transactional relationship that sparks feelings. Thinking of HB, HH has better representation of abuse but not by much. I feel like if Stella was a man, she'd have written it this way? It felt like fetish fuel hiding underneath the surface whereas Stella was lazy writing.

I dunno man, I wanted to rant about Charlie and her design but episode 4 hit me like a wall of bricks

Thank you for all of this, College Anon. This was a great read, and you're right, the Italian version of Poison goes so much harder than the English.

Also Italian Val's voice is...yeah, 10/10 stars on that one. Mama mia.

[velvetcloxds]

Could I ask for a Part 2 of tipsy? Eli and Reader meeting in the morning 🥰 it’s was such a cute imagine 🥰 can’t get enough of how sweet Derek was in that fic and the little heart to heart with Eli at the end 🥺🥺

SOBER | D.H.

word count: 0.8k

warnings: age gap, reader has a slight hangover, teen wolf the movie storyline- also peep the can you keep a secret gif for the ideal dilfyness- part 1

a/n: stop I got so excited when I saw this because I really loved writing tipsy

You woke up with a headache, one you had a feeling should've been much worse considering the state of you, you were still wearing your dress from the night before but Derek was kind enough to remove your makeup and save his pillowcase in the process. The night, for the most part, was a bit of a blur, not that you didn't remember what happened, but rather how, how did you end up in Derek's bed drunk, to begin with after you tried to be careful and how did the poor man end up explaining that to his son.

You could hear the two men in the kitchen, it sounded like they were cooking, trying to at least since they probably hadn't done much of that before, their meals consisted mostly of takeout, frozen dinners, and whatever Melissa brought over every now and then. You thought it only fair to give them a bit more time to find their feet and give yourself some time to get over the sheer embarrassment of your current situation by taking a quick shower, hoping that Derek had something that would be at least slightly suitable for you to wear once you were done.

"That's not enough sugar," Eli noted after he'd heard the bathroom door shut, happy he wasn't expected to whisper anymore now that you were awake. Derek wasn't as happy, knowing that Eli would not hold back with the commentary as he continued to sift the sugar into the pancake batter.

"It's enough," he replied even though he wasn't all that sure himself, but he was not about to admit that out loud, so he stirred it through one more time, frowning at the consistency.

"It's not, look, I'll show you" the teenager argued and moved away from the frying bacon to shove his cell phone into his dad's face, the online recipe clearly stating that it needed twice the amount of sugar that Derek used. "Can you read that or should I get your glasses?" he teased, earning a raised brow of disapproval that only made him shrug.

"I can read it just fine, Eli," he groaned and despite his pride, he reached over for some more sugar, ignoring the light laugh that filled the kitchen. "You better not burn that bacon," he added and was about to dish out another order when the bedroom door opened, and barely a second later you came paddling into the room, nervous beyond measure as you pulled the sleeves of Derek's hoodie over your hands, hoping the pair of them wouldn't look too hard at the way his sweats fit you in all the wrong ways. "Morning, honey," Derek cooed and you swore you'd have missed it had he not moved over to you, a sweet kiss placed on your forehead as a gentle hand guided you further into the kitchen.

"How's your head?" Eli asked without a second of prompt, ignoring the warning glare from his father as you smiled, a giggle that sounded more like a breath leaving your lips. "Sorry, I wasn't supposed to mention that," he backtracked but you just shook your head, stealing a quick glance at Derek before looking up at Eli.

"Eli," Derek sighed in faux exasperation but he didn't miss the way your body was starting to calm down, your nerves easing slightly at how casually Eli was trying to talk to you.

"It's fine," you insisted, a gentle hand brushing over his chest paired with the sweetest of smiles as you walked over to Eli, looking over what they were trying to make, gently reaching over to turn the oven down so the bacon doesn't burn. "Can I help?" your question was aimed at Eli, the boy in question smiling brightly at the idea.

"Yes, please," he sighed and showed you the very recipe he was showing his dad, pointing specifically at the part where it shows the sugar. "Dad is severely under sugaring our pancakes," he sounded exasperated like the poor thing was fighting a losing battle to which you giggled softly, dipping a finger in the batter and nodding lightly after tasting it.

"Can he read that without his glasses?" you teased and Eli was very smug at the repetition of his joke, looking to Derek to witness the reaction the comment would receive and his curiosity was satisfied when he narrowed his eyes at him, leaning onto the counter with a sigh.

"I can read it just fine," he argued and when you noticed the tension in the room you looked between the two Hales with a knowing nod, Eli was already laughing softly as he took it upon himself to find the sugar.

"I'm sure you can, bear," you mused and he wasn't at all convincing when he tried to shake his head at you in disapproval, not when his lips were betraying him, a little grin spreading out and tilting into his face. Eli didn't buy it either, turning around with the bowl to have you taste the batter once again, it was slightly sweeter than it should be, showing he wasn't all that fond of the instructions either.

"Too sweet?"

"No, it's perfect," you lied and Derek hummed, standing up to join the two of you at the stove, not even thinking before wrapping his arms around you from behind and squeezing your waist in the process. "It's perfect," you whispered to yourself, watching Eli spoon far too much batter into the pan, not even telling him to do otherwise because he was clearly enjoying it too much.

"It is," Derek agreed and you weren't surprised by the kiss he placed on the back of your head, tightening his hold and forcing you against his chest, knowing that the both of you might've underestimated just how easy this whole thing would be- he loved you and Eli more than anything in the world, so how could it be anything other than perfect.

"Hey, dad, if you could stop fraternizing with my sous chef long enough for us to finish breakfast that would be great," you were quick to jump out Derek's arms, bumping shoulders with Eli as you took your place next to him. "Do you want to pour or flip?"

"Flipping is more fun..."

"Great, so I'll flip then," he was very pleased with himself when you managed a mocking gasp, taking the bowl and spoon from him as he searched for the spatula. "You can just stand there doing nothing, dad, it's safer, don't you think so, Y/n?"

"Definitely," you breathed and your heart soared seeing the sheer size of Derek's smile as he watched the two of you. "You can just stand there looking pretty."

"Yes, chef."

"Sous chef," Eli corrected and the laughter that filled the room was something the Hale house had been missing for quite some time and it was something that Derek hoped would never go away ever again.

[classic-maya]

why did Justin fall for Brian?

Ahhh, I love this question because I feel like it is more complicated than answering why Brian fell for Justin but I’ll give it my best shot.

After their first night together when Justin says he is in love with Brian I think he has a naive understanding of what love is at that point. He is infatuated with this handsome, confident, wealthy guy who took him home, let him join at the hospital during one of the biggest nights of his life, and then gently took his virginity. I really like that all the way in season 4 Justin says they made love that first night and when Brian disputes it he says "It was love to me." Even if it was infatuation, Justin is right, that night, that moment, that whole experience was love to him.

Despite not being able to remember his name, Brian made Justin feel like he was the center of his world that night and Justin had never experienced that before. I think it’s that initial spark that pushes Justin to be so resilient and keep seeking Brian out. I mean how do you get over a man who says "you can see me in your dreams." !!!

Later on I think Justin falls in love with what Brian represents. Brian is freedom incarnate; he will say anything, do anything etc. When the audience meets Justin he is entrenched in his rebellious teen phase. Don't forget that Justin is 17 running around all night. He is the kid who told his teacher to fuck off, told his mom that he likes dick, and in an absolutely iconic statement after his dad threatens to send him to military school to learn some discipline replies with "I know all about discipline and you should see me take it like a man."

In many ways, Brian is in the same place emotionally as Justin in season 1. He is chasing his youth. He is angry at the world, he likes being an outsider in society and he revels in it. He doesn't care about driving around in a vandalized car painted with the word “faggot." I mean for goodness sake Brian drove through a fucking car dealership because the seller said something mildly homophobic. Justin finds Brian's fuck you attitude ridiculously attractive. The persona of Brian no excuses, no apologies, no regrets Kinney is Justin's first love.

But over the course of the first season, Justin's understanding of love and his understanding of Brian both develop. Justin is suddenly dropped into this very adult world that is different from his WASPy upbringing with two parents who have fallen out of love with each other. Justin has adult friends for the first time and he gets to see how Melanie and Lindsay love each other. How Michael and Brian love each other and Ted and Emmett and how Debbie as the matriarch loves and cares for all of them. I think he comes to the mature idea that you don’t just fall in love with someone and everything is fine, you decide to love someone and then you hold on to that decision and make lot of little decisions in order to keep loving them.

In the first season while Brian struggles with himself and his love for Justin, he keeps hurting Justin in an effort to push him away. He tells him not to trust people, he flaunts his tricks in front of Justin, he is downright mean to him at times. I love this scene in 1x17 when Justin tells Brian “Being mean to me has never really worked, you should try another tactic.” He is telling Brian that he’s got his number and that can’t get rid of him that easily. He then says “I’m killing you with kindness.” From the start, I think Justin saw through Brian’s bluster and just dug down until he could see the scared boy behind the walls Brian built around himself.

I honestly don’t think anyone else in the show understood Brian as much as Justin. Justin notices all of the little ways that Brian sacrifices himself to help his friends and others. Brian has a reputation for being selfish, but Justin peels back the layers and sees how Brian uses that assumption as cover.

And while Justin does eventually lose his infatuation, he still loves Brian because he already made a decision to love him and to love him for the man he is and not for everything he represents to him. Brian is no longer a symbol to him but a human being with significant flaws and insecurities. This is where I see a massive difference between Michael’s love for Brian and Justin’s love for him. Michael idealized Brian but never got over his hero worshipping crush. Anytime Brian acted outside of how Michael expected him to he was overly upset and confused. While Brian obviously hurt Justin’s feelings sometimes and they misunderstood each other at inopportune moments, overall Justin was able to accept and love Brian as a person not a persona.

Another one of my favorite scenes is in 1x11 after Michael’s birthday party and everyone else abandons Brian but Justin just says “I guess you’re going to need someone to help you clean up this mess.” As an audience, it’s one of our first indications that Justin really gets Brian. Although everyone else thinks he is an asshole, Justin knows what his true intentions were. I also like the use of the word mess in this scene. He is not just talking about the party leftovers but everything. It is also a small little commitment. Justin isn't going anywhere, he is going to love Brian even when it’s messy and difficult.

Of course, if I'm arguing that Justin made an active decision to love Brian that begs the question why did he leave him in season 2? I don’t think Justin ever fell out of love with Brian. Even in the cheating era I don’t think either of them stopped loving each other. Justin was very hurt and he wanted to see what life was like with someone who was deliberate about showing and stating their love for him unlike Brian. Obviously, Justin shouldn’t have betrayed Brian by cheating but I don’t blame him for wanting something else, nor do I blame Brian for not being able to give Justin what he needed at that time. I think Justin was so shocked by Ethan’s betrayal again because he is a bit naive and did not realize that someone can say they love you 10 times a day but not mean it the way you want them to. On the other hand, although Brian couldn’t let himself say it he showed Justin in every way he knew how that he was important to him and he cared about him. Also, one more reminder that Brian NEVER broke their rules and I think Justin knew that and realized that was what he wanted way more than someone who spoke the right words but didn't follow through with real action.

TL;DR Justin fell in love with Brian over and over for so many different reasons. Because he was sensitive and gentle, because he made Justin feel important, because he represented Justin's anger, rebelliousness, and the freedom he desired, because he loved Justin unconditionally even when it was messy and difficult.

[columbo-of-narnia]

You've probably been asked this before, but if you could insert your husbands into each other's shows (Tanner into HSMTMTS and Josh into Cobra Kai), how would you design their characters? What would they be like? What would their purpose in the narrative be?

And most importantly, would they finally get to snog men on screen?

I have never been asked this, BUT I have thought of it! First, let's do Josh in Cobra Kai. This is just part 1. I am gonna add Tanner to HSMTMTS next

His character would be named Briar Thorne and start out as one of Sam's friends. They grew up together, Briar's dad is a lawyer who grew up in poverty, so he does everything he can to provide for his son. Despite this, Briar isn't spoiled and rather understands his privilege and tries to give back to those who don't have as much.

He is very kind and sweet and absolutely hates unnecessary violence.

His narrative reason for being is to add some realism to the show because holy fuck does Cobra Kai not do that itself.

He first meets Robby mid season 1 when Robby first starts hanging around the LaRusso house and he is almost instantly Smitten. Nothing really happens romantically with them until season 3. Really he is a side character one season 1 and 2. He slowly becomes someone Robby can consider a friend and becomes more Robbus friend than sam's (He and she had been drifting apart for a while)

Briar avoids the out of tournament Karate fights but does show up to support Robby and actually goes to the locker room to check on Robby after Hawk cheats and hurts him. That shows Robby that Briar actually cares for him.

When Briar finds out that Shannon just left Robby without food or money. He immediately offers him a place to stay and Robby is thankful but declines because he is living with the LaRussos. Briar leaves the offer open and suddenly after that he is hanging out with Sam more at her place. He knows it's shitty but he wants to spend time with Robby more. He does have a crush but doesn't pursue it because obviously Robby is Dating sam

At the end of season 2 he is there for the Brawl and witnesses Miguel attacking Robby and Robby defending himself by Kicking Miguel over the edge.

Now this is where things change. Robby does still run away. However, Briar is very Vocal to everyone that it was self defense. He even posts videos online showing Robby trying to stop the fight and how Miguel antagonized and kept being aggressive towards Robby up until the point where Miguel fell.

When Robby is caught, Immediately Briar is there with his dad. Robby doesn't go to juvie for Assault but rather running from the police. His stay is still awful but now he had Briar as a Visitor daily.

There is also a lawsuit against the DAs office because they initially tried repressing the videos taken showing how Robby was just defending himself.

When Robby gets out he goes and Lives with Briar instead of staying at Cobra Kai. He doesn't even join the Dojo until Sam comes to see him at the skate park because she tries to just brush everything under the rug and act like she hadn't gone on the news and said "I don't know why robby did it". That's when he joins Cobra kai.

He isn't tricked or conned into it. He is using them. He wants to get back at his dad, at Daniel, at Sam and everyone who turned on him.

He still trains Kenny and forms a bond with him but it's more genuine. Because Robby had someone believe in him (Briar) he hasn't fully gone to the dark side and thus he is able to build a stronger bond with Kenny and teach him the importance of Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. How Kenny can use both and not be consumed by either.

Robby initially struggled with his feelings for Briar when he first got out of Juvie. He still had Johnny's voice in his head telling him 'no way my son can be gay. Be a man robby'. It took some time and Briar never pushed, but Robby soon realized he liked Briar back and they began dating.

And Briar actually became good friends with Tory once he got to know her and She learned that he wasn't stuck up or judgemental like she thought. They became very close to the point where his dad was willing to help Tory with any legal Issues her Aunt may cause.

Robby goes to prom With Briar, who sets Tory up with a nice guy. They have a lot of fun until the after party where Sam confronts Briar for dating Robby.

She is upset that he is dating her ex and that he took his side. How she feels betrayed that he dropped her and has been ignoring her. That he is friends with the go who tormented and attacked her relentlessly.

He points out that she dropped Robby when he needed her. How she Betrayed Robby. How she showed up to prom with the man who started all this (Briar does not like miguel). He tells her she is acting immature and that the world doesn't revolve around her. He can date who he wants and be friends with who he wants. Because Tory never would have been aggressive if sam had not been judgmental.

Sam slaps Briar and that's when Tory and Robby come over and tell Sam to back off and Sam is horrified she slapped one of her oldest friends. She tries to apologize but Tory stands in the way and tells her to leave before they make her. Miguell comes over and that's when the after prom fight happens.

When it ends Briar and Robby leave and end up cuddling in the car Tetry lent Robby. They didn't have sex but instead spent the night just talking, Kissing and being together. Robby promises that after the All Valley, he was done with Cobra Kai and all of it. T

I've already written too much, and this is just half of my ideas for Joshua in Cobra Kai because I was trying to keep season 1-3 mostly the same with season 4 changing drastically and season 5 being completely rewritten and season 6 possibly not existing.

[thoughtspresso]

Hello, sorry I just need someone to voice my op to since none of my circles read or watch OnK :'(

It's so weird to me how Akane's fans interpret that scene when the girls are filming an MV as Akane only having good intention and care for Kana, 'cuz imo even if there is, what she said was still one of her attemps to get Aqua to stay with her. Look at how things played out to her: her business bf wanted to break up, he even straight up refused sex when she offered, and now she found out that right after that he took Kana on to a proper date, Akane's chances were close to zero. She was grasping at straws when she said that and played it under the guise of being considerate about Kana's safety, just like how she said she's okay with breaking up with him yet cried - showing that she wanted the opposite. Because if she only cared about Kana's safety, then what's with the side comment about how actors have it easier? It's like she was saying "Choose me, I'm the safer choice!". I'm not saying Akane didn't have good intention, but it's more like a two bird one stone typa thing where she wanted Kana to be safe and Aqua to continue with dating her (her own selfish want). It was kinda a dirty move from Akane, consider how she knows very well what happened to Ai and how much that'll affects Aqua. Akane always strike me as a good in nature yet also self-absorbed character: She decided what's best for both Kana and Aqua that also benefits her selfish wants regardless of how the other two would feel (& we all know how miserable both Aqua and Kana was during that ghosting period); She decided what to do to Aqua's father without thinking about how he might feel (again); The signs were as early as the LoveNow arc where she tweeted the apology thinking it was the right solution without consulting with her manager first because she thought she knew what was best for her to do in that situation. Even her acting method also kinda reflect this, where if the character's portrayal clashes between her and the director/scriptwriter, she already has a concrete image of the character from her own interpretation and thus has difficulty compromising and adjusting with the production team.

I might even take a wild guess that she was in love (obsessed) with the idea of saving prince charming rather than Aqua himself because to her, their story literally went/was gonna go like the old classic story of prince charming saving the girl -> the girl learns about the prince's past, decides to help him to repay him saving her -> prince charming defeats the bad guy (his dad in this story) with the girl's help -> happily ever after. Akane being a teen + Aqua saved her + it's her first dating experience caused her to have an idealistic view of dating and probably why she tolerated Aqua dating her despite having his eyes on Kana for he did act like the perfect bf on the surface, and that to her was enough to fulfil her prince charming fantasy. Akane is, actually, not that mature in her relationship with Aqua like how her fan keep praising her for, tbh imo it's more akin to what teens think "being mature" is. I know this is one of the appeal of her ship with Aqua, even though some might deny it. As oppose to Kana who might be a potential obstacle to Aqua's revenge whether good or bad, Akane is narratively there as a bonus reward for Aqua after finishing the main quest of avenging his mom if the ship ever be canon again. Akane and Aqua have unfortunately became perfect self-inserts for those who are into revenge and/or trophy girl fantasy (nothing bad about this itself tho). But perhaps because of looking into those fantasy fulfilment rather than the actual context of the manga/anime, they accuse Kana of not understanding the "real" Aqua (I have alot to say about this, maybe 3 paragraphs at least lol) or how she's useless for not helping him kill a person and ignore the entire other half chunk of the story about showbiz problems, where Kana's own story entangle more.

If you've read this far, thank you so so much.

P/s: My wild guess no.2, rather than being a damsel in distress (being Kamiki's target) for Aqua to come rescue, Kana already has a close relationship with Kamiki prior to reuniting with the twins (maybe a mentor-student relationship?). I've always find it weird how Aka just glossed over Kana's past, like he's holding back important info regarding her past that he can't show the readers too soon. So that's why I have this guess. This explains why Aka's been keeping her out of the revenge plot for so long + better than Kana just being a damsel in distress + raises the stakes for Kana (will she choses the mentor who helped her through her dark days being abused by her mom or the twins who she can see the light and bright future in?) + makes Kana a key player in the revenge plot.

Hey Anon! I'm happy to talk to you about some OnK Character Analyses anytime. Sorry to have taken so long to respond, I really wanted to sit down with your question. I've been thinking about this a lot. And I'm afraid my response might be even longer than your ask hahaha!

I want to summarize your main points for everybody else, so that we're all on the same page:

Akane was manipulative when she reminded Aqua that Kana was an idol, and pushed him to choosing her.

Akane wants to reverse the damsel-in-distress and Prince Charming trope, and decides on behalf of others.

Akane fans accuse Kana for not knowing the "real" Aqua

(Bonus) There's a possibility that Kana already knew Hikaru Kamiki.

So, my responses:

#1 Was Akane being manipulative in Ch. 76?

Well, yes. And no.

I actually had a short discussion (argument?) with Skania (who I will not tag for the sake of their mental health, but mentioning here to credit them.) about this very topic. (And I want to thank them for their time and also apologize to have annoyed them!) We have really different interpretations and disagree each other on this part.

To get the fast answer out of the way: Yes, I believe Akane was wholly aware of what she was saying.

She already knew from the Tokyo Blade arc how badly Aqua can get triggered on the topic of Ai's death.

Put it this way: imagine being a teenage girl who was depressed or bullied, and the boy who saved your life started dating you but admits that it isn't because he likes you that way. You start offering him sex if that would fulfill his wants in a relationship, but he tells you that your relationship is about to end soon. You find out from another girl that they went on a date--shopping for suitcases and Brazilian barbecue--a kind of date he never did for you. Then when he invited you to go on a trip, most of what he did was walk you around his hometown to look for something else, and then watch this other girl be really cute in a dress he was stunned by.

Akane is allowed to be a teenager who would want to nudge her boyfriend to stay with her and away from his other crush.

Akane fans like to argue that she was being completely selfless, and was just looking out for Kana's safety too.

I really dislike this reading of Akane's character, because it strips her of agency. Of course she has personal goals, wants, and flaws. She's allowed to be a teenage girl who wanted her love to be reciprocated. She's allowed to be a teenage girl who gets a little jealous, and try as she might to be professional and civil because all of these people are her work colleagues too, she still does things that fulfill her goals. She is allowed to be self-interested, and act on opportunities that align with those self interests.

I also think that if Akane's fans want to believe in her intellect and her masterful ability in understanding people's psychology and detective work, then it stands to reason that they should also believe that Akane was deliberately aware of the effect of what she said to Aqua. She doesn't always make 100% correct bets, but it's reasonable to conclude she made this bet hoping that it could get him to stay.

Akane and everyone else is already aware that Kana is actually not a person who needs scolding on the dangers of being under public scrutiny:

Under any normal circumstance, if Akane simply cared for Kana's safety, she would have simply responded to Kana when she was bragging about the date. Like, "hey be careful about dating in public spaces okay? I dont want you getting in trouble." Or, if she would talk to Aqua about it, she might say, "Please remember to book a private room next time you eat in a restaurant."

But no. If Akane would remind them of safety tips of dating as public figures, it would just lead them to the advice to do Home Dates:

And she doesn't want that now, does she?

She didn't say something as straightforward as that, and neither did the author write it in a more neutral tone. It was deliberately written with Akane implying that if he didn't want Kana killed, he should just date a fellow actor. (Preferably one that the public is actually cheering on to be together, because they were already in a Love Team due to the show.)

I just don't like ignoring what the Author and the Illustrator clearly put on the page for me to absorb the way that it was. I think pretending she was being wholly selfless is an insult to the writers.

#2 Is Akane motivated by the want to Save Prince Charming?

This is the "and no" part of my answer.

When I think of Akane, I don't think of an outright evil person who manipulated Aqua into doing things, wanting to be a hero for that reason. And just like how Tokyo Blade serves as a parallel for the show, it in turn informs us that it is an incorrect interpretation of Saya-hime (or Akane) to think that she outright wants the violence herself.

This part I agree with Skania on: Akane's main flaw is her low self-esteem.

Akane doesn't personally believe that she is inherently worth any value, and any value that she holds is attributed to her hard work.

People have taken notice to the fact that, unlike Kana's experience of abuse and abandonment, Akane had a really good support system behind her when her suicide attempt happened during the LoveNow arc. She had a loving mother and a really kind-hearted manager that believed in her. Yet she clung onto the validation from the agency President more. She ascribes her personal value to the approval of other people, especially positive feedback from her superiors in the industry, her theater troupe calling her a genius, her fans applauding her.

And, on the opposite side of the same coin, she has immense Rejection Sensitivity that makes her extremely defensive when she received cyberbullying, leading her to want to make a public apology right away and appease people.

This leads Akane to be an extremely hardworking person, but also seeking validation and direction from other people (like the LoveNow crew), unable to voice out her views unless it is supported by an authority figure (like when she wanted something changed in Tokyo Blade), and also why when meeting her personal hero and idol Arima Kana in person, when Kana lashed out at her, instead of simply thinking, "okay she's a terrible person, I'm done with being her fan forever", she rejected that idea and went on to study Psychology in the hopes of understanding people like Kana.

All of this manifests in her relationship with Aqua being okay with receiving bare minimum from him, not complaining when she realizes he has feelings for someone else, and also doing anything and everything for him, whatever he needs whether he asks for it or not.

I'll go a little further into my interpretation of her (which I know Akane fans might be resistant to or disagree with, but I hope you stick with me here.)

I also think Akane has a co-dependency on Aqua, and herself has Inverted Narcissism, with Covert and Cerebral Subtypes.

I agree! I sound nuts! This interpretation is crazytown.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) has several subtypes, including Inverted Narcissism, which is a subtype where the person craves the co-dependency on another narcissist. They are self-sacrificing to their primary narcissist, feel they are not entitled to anything, but seem emotionally level-headed and highly attuned to the primary narcissist's needs but not much empathy for anybody else.

Because of how little they think of themselves, it gives them a feeling of power and control to be with a person who believes himself to be so special, to have a crucial mission whose victory she can partake in. In a sense, Aqua was someone Akane looked up to so much for having saved her from her suicide attempt, and for turning the public's view of her from negative to overwhelmingly popular.

Akane definitely thought, "I want to be useful to him! I want to make him happy!"

And this man had his own amazing detective mission going on in his mind and trauma to solve. And so Akane thinks, "Let me solve that for you! Let me be useful to you even if it kills me! Use me as you need!"

They say true love is unconditional and self-giving so I will aide my enabler in patricide to prove my worth to him!

According to Professor of Psychology Sam Vaknin, the DSM gives us 9 criteria to diagnose an Inverted Narcissist, and you need to have at least 5 to qualify. Here are some that he mentioned that I think fit Akane:

The inverted narcissist is emotionally stable, but her self-esteem is very low. The inverted narcissist devalues herself as an offering, as a sacrifice to the narcissist in her life. The inverted narcissist is compelled to filter all her narcissistic needs through the primary narcissist in her life. The inverted narcissist feels amplified by the primary narcissist's own accomplishments. The inverted narcissist is pre-occupied with fantasies [...] of an ideal love to be accomplished through the narcissistic partner.

The inverted narcissist feels like she is undeserving and not entitled to anything.

The inverted narcissist is indistinguishably selfless. She is sacrificial. She is anxious in her interpersonal relationships. She avoids assistance of others at all cost. She can only interact with others when she can be seen to be giving, supporting and expending an unusual effort to assist. So she is sacrificial, she sacrifices herself, but ostentatiously, in full view.

The inverted narcissist lacks empathy like a classic narcissist. She is intensely attuned to others needs, but only insofar as it relates to her own need to perform the required self sacrifice. She needs to self sacrifice in order to obtain her narcissistic supply from her primary narcissist. But to do so, she must be attuned to his needs. So this is her restricted use or leverage of empathy.

The inverted narcissist displays extreme shyness, lack of any real relational connections, is publicly self-effacing, is highly moralistic and critical of others, is a perfectionist, engages in lengthy ritualistic behaviors that can never be perfected.

I also mentioned that Akane has Cerebral subtype, in that she believes she has superior intellect, and the Covert subtype, where she seems altruistic and selfless on the outside but internally she is driven by a self-serving need to be useful, to be wanted, because she chases after this external validation to fill in the gaps of her own self-esteem and call to perfectionism.

There is room to argue that Aqua is actually the inverted narcissist and she's codependent on Akane who is the altruistic/communal narcissist subtype. I reviewed it, but it seems she's the codependent one in this scenario.

I think this answer entails that Aqua himself also has NPD, and I think he does have Vulnerable Narcissism with Cerebral subtype. Kana actually picked up on it pretty well:

He does tend to think that he is the sole person who can accomplish this mission of revenge, even though it took him 4 years to crack a passcode and he actually didn't solve anything himself. Like, ever.

He thinks that he has some superior ability to read people and manipulate them (and it's not necessarily true, he just believes so).

And he likes bringing it up out loud a lot, like I used you, or haha she's so easy to manipulate, regardless if he actually did anything.

When Ruby points out he hasn't made any friends, Aqua deflects and becomes defensive.

He also initially thought that he was going to make it big as an actor after the one time he did well as a child, and entreated Gotanda to take him in, but when his PTSD was getting in the way of his acting, he just chalked it up to saying no actually I was never talented in that, because he doesn't want to admit to others that he doesn't have the supernatural inhumane acting skills he thought he did. (Note: He's not comfortable showing those old acting videos to Kana, but is okay with showing it to Akane for this reason.)

He truly believes he's everybody's savior. Unprompted he just thinks he's some main character that caused everybody's suffering. His Behavioral Self-Blame (BSB) about the death of both of his mothers is a manifestation of his wish for control over the situation, which is a known coping mechanism for those with PTSD or Major Depression Disorder (MDD)

Vulnerable NPD subtypes also feel uncomfortable being praised, which is why he reacts that way with Kana.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes also hate being asked to compete, which is why during both LoveNow and Tokyo Blade arcs, he keeps out of the way.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes really really hate rejection, and that's why Aqua says that he can't confront Kana without a Pieyon mask because he's too weak to be shot down by her again.

Vulnerable NPD subtypes are quite anti-social, but again if you confront them about it, they'll just deflect you and say things like they had no intentions to make friends or they're busy observing or something like this.

I mean, look at this dumbass intellectualize having feelings for girls his age like Akane and Kana:

Kana gets it though:

ONLY A NARCISSIST WOULD (half-joke)

This is of course a reminder that people with NPD aren't inherently bad people, they also don't come in one shape or form as there are many subtypes, and they can swing in severity. Most of them are a by-product of either a traumatic childhood or an overly doting one. Akane and Aqua just simply happened to be both of these.

I just came to this interpretation when I kept thinking of why was it that it felt like both Akane and Aqua were using each other. They both felt miserable and yet felt necessary and dependent on each other's emotional comfort. They both lie to each other too. I think a lot of people have picked up on the "feeling" that the two are using, manipulating, abusing each other, there's something dysfunctional about them together, and yet they also genuinely care about each other a lot. And people couldn't pick the right words to describe that. Co-dependents and their primary narcissists can heal together into a healthy relationship, they don't have to stay that way forever. But for the most part, nobody really recognizes that that's what was happening, because the dance they do together looks completely synchronized as a relationship. Who ever says no to a sweet and completely self-giving girlfriend? Who would leave their boyfriend to die alone in a revenge plot?

ONLY A NARCISSIST WOULD (not joking)

#3 Does Kana know the real Aqua:

I think a lot of Akane fans love to cite that Akane knew about the revenge, the trauma, the using, the manipulation etc. She also knows what he's like when he's being silly and playful.

And I don't deny that Aqua and Akane cared for each other.

But I also think that Kana knew Aqua even when he was being unpleasant, making crude jokes about her when they were kids. Kana observes Aqua's acting meticulously and understands the fine details of his style. Kana also has actual conversations with him about his interests too. They read the same books and they jog together, and they're very comfortable arguing with each other about anything.

Most of all, of anybody, only Kana has pointed out that Aqua has chuunibyou/grandiose thinking, narcissistic tendencies, and that Ruby has a co-dependent relationship with him (even when she didn't know about their past as Sarina and Gorou, she just picked it up as the core reason for their clinginess).

#4 [Bonus] Does Kana know Kamiki?

I don't think so.

When Kamiki opened his production company/agency, Kana would have been about 11yo. It was around this time that she had been recording Full Moon and her other songs, and her career had been on a decline. Then her company left her and she started freelancing instead.

Kana's acting style is also diametrically opposed to Kamiki's acting. Which as Akane has pointed out is similar to Ai's acting style. Kana's acting is very emotionally honest and is rooted in her personal understanding of her own emotions, whereas Kamiki and Ai act to deceive others based on the calculated perception they know the audience wants of them. Given this, it's unlikely that Kamiki mentored her in any form.

Lastly, I think Kana would have been the first person to point out that Kamiki looks like Aqua if they knew each other, even if he was acting as the Miki-san persona.

But I did joke before that I think if Kana and Kamiki met each other, they'd just traumabond and be friends until the cops haul Kamiki away. And that'd be the funniest thing ever.

That's it! That was a very long rant. Thanks for the question.

[mdhwrites]

So, do you think Sasha kinda is like Zuko on Avatar in a sense too? Sure Zuko got more time for his abusive dad than Sasha for her family, but the core is the same on redemption and all.

Both are

obsessed with their goals in season 1

- are on the run alongside someone serving as a parent figure to them (Grime and Iroh) in season 2

have a moment of bonding with the heroes and seemingly considering redemption before betraying everyone in the season 2 finales

have their full on redemptions in season 3

Heck, it's telling that Aang is the one who ends up defeating Ozai in the end instead of Zuko (who never even faces him in the finale).

TL:DR The two share oversimplified plot similarities (you literally use a third act redemption as evidence when like... That's just literally narrative structure?) but the details of their characters and what their arcs are about are drastically different. It does warrant comparison, as two villains turned good guys by finding peace with their worlds but the details for both are actually very different, allowing for both to be great shows of this sort of general archtype. Their 'core' similarity as you posit is really just a writing trope or narrative structure much more than it is specifically about the two and their arcs.

I never considered the Grime and Sasha parallel though what's fun with that is Grime is absolutely not like Uncle Iroh. Iroh pushed Zuko's better nature while Grime actually fuels Sasha's negative nature. He introduces her to effectively the calculus of war while Zuko's father is the one who did it for him. It's an interesting contrast and part of why I say that while Grime didn't mean to, he wasn't actually all that healthy for Sasha to know, taking her darkness to extremes. Also, 'obsessed with their goals' is just not right for Sasha in S1. Her goal is to get home with her friends but she is explicitly not in a rush to do so. She's here to have fun because she is incredibly self serving. She uses her perceived status as hero for her friend as an excuse. That making her happy must make everyone happy. Meanwhile, Zuko isn't self serving beyond wanting to literally be allowed to go home. He's never doing things just to treat himself or make himself happy until S2 which is explicitly a part of his arc. That he actually needs to care more about himself than what others desire of him and find his own definitions for things like honor, leading to the evil of the Fire Nation's expectations and his long buried, good heart coming to war with each other.

Meanwhile, Sasha's arc is actually much more extrospective than it is introspective but in a really good way. She needs to learn to stop playing in this fantasy of hers that she has created where the world is her toy. Realize other people matter and have desires and feelings that she needs to stop gaslighting, gatekeeping or girlbossing against. That her happiness does not mean the happiness for all.

Honestly, it makes it so that if she shares anything with an Avatar character... It's probably Azula. And why shouldn't it be? Azula is someone who takes pleasure in controlling people and genuinely believes that anyone can be crushed or used for her own desires. She treats even her friends like pawns and Reunion shows that Sasha isn't much better than that. That Anne is still subject to SASHA'S whims.

The difference is that while Sasha sees herself as a hero and so can be confronted with how she hurts people and cares enough about Anne to be motivated to change, Azula believes herself to be a queen. It's actually part of why becoming the Fire Lord fucks with her so hard. This is the day she was always waiting for but the goal post becomes impossible as her father discards it. This thing she has always wanted is now ash and so she loses her mind trying to pretend that it still matters despite her still being number two. Still not being the best despite the fact that she has always perceived herself as above EVERYONE.

Buuuuut, especially with current analytical trends I see, no one is going to think about Sasha with Azula. They don't share enough narrative parallels for anyone to consider it despite how much their characters have parallels. Both have two friends who have varying levels of loyalty to her and differing skill sets. Both are manipulators, both for fun and profit. They will destroy you if you upset them but also believe that once loyalty is given to them, they no longer need to earn that loyalty again.

These are all genuinely character based similarities and based on overall behavior... Which I think people struggle with analyzing nowadays. When I see people talk about arcs, it's mostly with the big ticket moments or the like. With the episodes everyone loves rather than an actual aggregate of the character. This is exactly the sort of thinking that leads to people say Anne doesn't have an arc in S1 or makes people think Marcy treated Amphibia as nothing but a game because the literal only episode they're analyzing is True Colors and specifically her speech.

My blogs are as long as they because I look more for the aggregate. I am as cruel to TOH's character arcs because those writers themselves want to throw away elements of the characters and ignore the aggregate when that's REALLY important.

So yeah, from a very basic, narrow view, Sasha and Zuko seem similar... But only because they're redeemed villains. Zuko in S2 explicitly NEEDS time away from Aang in order to grow. It's why he reverts at the end when presented his prize. Losing the hunt lets him breathe. Meanwhile, Sasha's exile with Grime is not so good for her mental state. She doubles down because she showed a moment of weakness and HATES it. She is at her absolute worst in S2... Until reunited with Anne and Marcy who make her question things. That alone is a DRASTIC difference in how their arcs narratively function as for Zuko it shows what he could be if he chose peace while with Sasha it shows how much she genuinely does care about her girls, even if her need for control and to keep her fantasy intact guarantees she won't change until she hits absolute rock bottom.

The Turning Point for Sasha, pun intended, is when she has nothing left. When she cannot support her fantasy at all and keep doing this. When she realizes that her care for Anne and want to be a hero means that she can't keep only serving herself. Not when she has only brought misery to others for so long. For Zuko, it's when he has EVERYTHING. A hot goth girlfriend, the respect of his people, his 'honor back, etc. but the point is that the Fire Nation is choosing war. Choosing death. Things that Zuko can no longer enjoy and so he has to make the incredibly difficult choice of throwing it all away because he cannot be a part of The Fire Nation anymore. He exiled himself in S2 just as much as Ozai exiled him in S1.

It still makes them interesting to compare, this blog has been a lot of fun for me to write, because they are both villains turned good in very interesting ways... But they aren't the same. Not even close. Every step on their journey is incredibly different simply by the nature of what drives them and who they are as a character. Which... Good. That's how it should be.

The only times you should be able to claim two characters are practically the same is if they're both kind of boring.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[devondespresso]

WIP WhhhMonday Nightish

Once upon a time Devon was tagged in a wip wednesday by @eriquin and meant to do it but missed both wednesday and the weekend before remembering again. totally unrelated, Devon is working on getting their official adhd diagnosis.

i also noticed that the past snippets shared in wip-whatever posts have been purposefully the least interesting parts because i was worried about spoilers, which is dumb because that's created the unintended consequence of my tag is full of everything i don't like as much and a very different impression of what my fic is (as seen by most of these snippets being my rewritten scenes despite the actual fic being mostly new in-between scenes)

TLDR: WIP Whatever-day-it-is: But Actually For Fun This Time

The Rules

Post the file names of up to 5 of your WIPs for people to send you asks

Post a snippet of one of those WIPs

When people send you an ask with the name of one of your WIPs, write 3 lines of that WIP.

(Optional) Post the lines you wrote.

You can send multiple requests especially since this is going on through the weekend!

The WIPs

we're doing bulleted chapter titles to share from since that was my favorite and genuinely most productive format I've used. Feel free to ask for as many as you want, I plan on working on this basically all week

Karen Wheeler POV Bonus Chapter (Prologue kinda? side story in the same universe?? Bonus chapter set after season 1 and way before ch 1)

Steve, are you okay? Are you okay, Steve? (ch 9)

What's this? The consequences of my actions? (Is that a motherfucking Lovejoy reference?) (ch 10)

Kidnapping? no. surprise adoption. (lol get taken care of BITCH) (ch 11)

NEXT CHAPTER BC IDK HOW TO TRANSITION (ch 12) (a very tentative title for the next chapter to be written)

The Snippet

here is my favorite and most recent scene I've written, which takes place before they junkyard where Steve and Dustin are at the grocery store to get that ungodly amount of raw meat they have to toss around (also i've split chapters up a bit in the name of structure so the third chapter is now called "Mommy Issues Central". Lemme know any goofy vine reference ideas you guys have or if it should stay like that) (fear not, Get Yo Fucking Dog Bitch lives on still as chapter 4)

___

They turned down the next aisle, lining the edges of the cart with some other pasta-related shit that he could still probably use. They heard someone coming over from the next aisle and before he could turn the cart around Mrs Wheeler pulled up.

"Oh, Steve ...and Dustin. What're you boys up to?"

He took a short breath to work their story into something without Mike, but Dustin beat him to it.

"He's teaching me stuff." 

He was imitating the tone Steve used but still way too vague. Mrs Wheeler held up a smile, her brows slightly lifted.

"Y'know, like cooking-" Steve said, throwing in a little gesture to the cart.

"And cars, changing oil and things. Y'know just.. dad stuff."

Dustin's part convinced her, Mrs Wheeler's expression softening into a real smile.

"Well I won't keep you long," 

She nodded off to the side to talk to Steve one-on-one.

Great.

“Are you and Nancy okay?”

“Wh- we’re- Why? Did she say something?”

“No, no, she’s just been… closed off, lately. And I drove her to school the other day, she didn’t say why.”

“Sh- yeah, that- that’s on me. Sorry.”

“Did you break up?”

“No no, definitely not. We’re kinda… we’re working on it. I’m going to try and make it better, after y’know..” he gestured to Dustin behind him.

“Right.” she smiled again, “Let Nancy know she can talk to me about any of this? Please? I tell her but- I don't know, maybe it’d be different coming from you.”

He held up a smile for her.

“Yeah, sure. Mind if we..” he jutted a thumb towards the end of the aisle.

“Yes, go ahead.”

He gave her a short wave and turned back to Dustin, who studied random shit in the aisle like Steve would believe his sudden fascination with olive oil outweighed childish curiosity.

“Steve-”

He turned back around, seeing Mrs Wheeler coming back up to him and whispering again.

“I know I’m not your mother, but you can talk to me, too. Both of you, okay?”

He kept the smile in place and nodded again, and she finally went back to her cart.

Dustin “Definitely-Not-Eavesdropping” Henderson followed him out of the aisle, thankfully waiting until they were out of earshot to ask.

“What's going on with you and Nancy?”

“Thought we had ‘much bigger problems than my love life’?”

He pulled up to the deli, stopping to pretend to look at the options.

“We’re not dropping everything for it but we can still talk.” he groaned.

“I’ll tell you later, kay? Not exactly the best place to talk.''

___

Tags

@stobinesque @spoookysix @marvel-ous-m @alexcharmsyou @museumgiftshoperaser @blushweddinggowns @sharpbutsoft @fag4dykestobin @findafight (no pressure ofc and feel free to switch it to actually wednesday fhuhjdklashj) (also just let me know if you don't wanna be tagged in these)