#Also hate to be a nerd but it’s disappointing to see how this is handle when you see what MM is influenced by

[no1ryomafan]

I said I was gonna talk more about MM on this blog again and I will probably eventually do analysis stuff I just need to prep this shit cause those post take time for the ones that are more coherent and not just my usual word vomits, BUT I do need to word vomit for a second about one thing that plagued my mind again today.

One of my biggest peeves with the series lore is how reploids and humans hardly have interactions, more so in the X series as Zero makes a bit more effort in this regard, given it’s a huge deal how reploids are seen lower then humans for the longest time- but what has dawned on me more of another factor that really sucks about this is how reploid society itself is ALSO unexplored.

We hardly have any idea of what makes them different from humans, we can only grasp basic details from what the games provide us but it’s unclear if there society is either “very much identical to humans but still has changes to make it different given their machines” or “completely different down to how they live and are treated”. I can’t speak for every robot media ever as I haven’t consumed them all-that’s a impossible task as some are bound to not interest me lol-but I feel like ones that are primarily having sentient robots and multiple of them rather then stuff like mechas where they don’t have much of a personality (usually) or the cases like Aigis in P3 where she is a robot in a mostly human society and therefore learns to become more human, they usually try to give the robots some kind of established society but MM only gives us breadcrumbs.

Like I know transformers is a bigger series so it got more chances to be incredibly fleshed out but I think about how my friends had told me about it and it’s society from just the comics is incredibly detailed that you even know they have religions n shit. And I’m not saying MM has to go to that extent even if it’s had metaphors of that in the later series, but more context to what reploid society has and doesn’t would be nice.

If they actually do need to eat and we aren’t supposed to guess that the energy tanks n stuff are there equivalent, if they ever got to have hobbies or jobs besides serving under humans especially when they have free will, etc. More of how they operate would be really nice to know but alas much like many things in this series lore it’s never going to be deeply elaborated on so I have to throw darts at a board.

[unquietspiritao3]

hecklers welcome vinyl review and thoughts on how the heck james did this

excessive and spoilery comedy-nerd thoughts on the hecklers welcome vinyl/kettering recording below the cut!

James was not lying when he said this recording was of a very chaotic gig. The amount of heckling got so out of hand, he had to give up on his planned material in the end. Which I was expecting going into it, because I'd seen someone on tumblr who was at the Kettering show saying the same thing. If I hadn't had that warning, though, and if I didn't have my own bootleg recording of the NYC show I went to, I might've been disappointed at just how little of the actual material made it onto this vinyl.

All that said, I'm glad I have this recording, because one of the things I love most about comedy is dissecting how it works! And thanks to my relatively-heckle-free show, I didn't really get to see how James was managing his concept for the tour without totally losing control of the audience. The vinyl definitely gave me a lot of fascinating insight there.

I've only listened all the way through once, so these are just initial thoughts. I'll probably find other things when I listen again and again in the future. Also, most of this is me guessing things. I know from a friend who was at the RHLSTP live recording James did a few weeks ago that he talked more about his process for the tour there, and I'm looking forward to hearing if any of my speculation is confirmed when the podcast drops.

The main thing that stood out is that James seems to have jokes/bits that are reserved specifically for getting the audience back on course. If you were at a more well-behaved show, you might not have heard them!

To wit: In the planned material, very close to the beginning, he explains that he doesn’t like doing standup comedy and that he’s had a pattern of getting angry at his audience. He tells a story of a particular gig early in his career where he didn’t handle a heckler well. Then it’s supposed to be sort of a record-scratch-‘you’re-probably-wondering-how-I-got-here’ thing for the rest of the show, with lots of stories from his childhood and such.

The important part to understand is he establishes the ‘I hate my job’ concept early enough that hopefully there are no heckles to derail it, so he can count on being able to do callbacks to that material at any point. This was demonstrated about 15 minutes into the Kettering show, when he went from managing a heckler, to doing a bit about a list of reminders/affirmations he keeps on his phone and reads through before each gig. I didn't get to hear this bit at all in NYC! And it was a delightful additional insight into James’ psyche and very funny, so I’m so glad it made it onto the vinyl.

I’ll share what he revealed of the list in a separate post instead of burying it in a bunch of meta. For my purposes here, the only thing to know is the last item: ‘you don’t have to keep on doing this if you don’t want to.’ To which he added, ‘I could run out here and play the drums’, and immediately started playing the child-size drum set he has on stage. And once he was done playing, he went straight into more of the material I'd heard at my show.

So that's the other half of the ‘get the gig back on track’ strategy I didn't see until now. In NYC, he went over to the drums or the tetherball set occasionally, but it wasn’t even acknowledged in his material. He'd go over, play, then continue with the next bit. But in this ‘list’ routine, he uses the drums very specifically to sort of reset the show. He goes from dealing with a heckler, to doing a joke he can stick in anywhere as needed, to playing the drums, to picking up roughly where he should be in the actual sequence of the material.

I imagine the drum solo also gives him a pause where he doesn’t need to talk and can think through how he might have to cut or rearrange things to manage his timing. Not that it mattered in the end for the Kettering gig, but I can see how it would work quite well when half the audience isn’t unruly teenage boys, haha.

So interesting!

[what-gs-watching]

"Denial. It's amazing how far you can get on denial."

Gang, thinking about my career journey and where I want to go next and how to get all of my experience into a cohesive situation is tiring. Am I in the right place for that emotionally? Not really but if someone doesn’t make me do it, I never will. So career coaching is a thing, and I’m doing it.

But I’m also still hunkering down in content because that’s just what ya do. So I burned through the entirety of Fall of the House of Usher because I have a thing for Mike Flanagan and Edgar Allen Poe and…

Woooooof, y’all. 

Wherein, an entire family headed up by Roderick Usher, CEO of a pharmaceutical company, and his conniving sister, starts biting it, while Roderick &Co is being prosecuted for doing shady corporate shit. Told through that classic trope of one person confessing to another over a glass of good liquor. 

Do you want to watch a bunch of terrible people die horribly? Yes? Then this is for you. 

Listen, I’m gonna watch almost anything, so I sat down and did the first two episodes in a row, and then I realized I probably could only handle one a day. 

I’m not HUGE on scary movies, I can get into some of them but I’m not like, entirely bloodthirsty. Maybe a little bloodthirsty. And this show definitely has that. Practically chemically melting a party full of people, for  longer than necessary? That’s what got me. Just me on the couch yelling “DAMN, DUDE!”

Also, my brain was all like ‘I’m totally gonna get all the Poe references, I wrote a paper on him in college, I’m with it’ but I really was not. There is a TON in the show and they did a good job of pulling elements from his work and I’m pretty sure it goes a lot deeper than I picked up on. I’m sure there’s someone out there that has dug into this, but it ain’t me - my brain is still on an EXTREMELY low simmer. So, if you’re a literature nerd, there’s good shit in there for you, but I can’t explain it (my english degree is glaring at me in disappointment, I can feel it). And only if you’re cool with some gore. 

I will say, they do make you feel like shit about the world we have built, and for good reason. Society does feel like a bunch of starving, drugged up consumers, but also, the Ushers are the monsters that have helped make us this way. At least we can feel good about a fictional asshole that helped stoke the opioid epidemic getting his comeuppance. 

The ‘reveal’ is pretty straight forward if you’d been paying attention, or maybe it’s because I’ve watched entirely too much Supernatural, that’s possible. My husband’s manager was watching at the same time and shared her theory at one point which was so off the money, it was adorable. She hated every second of it, she thought it was an intriguing family drama, but then she was too far in and couldn’t stop. My guess is other people got roped in that way too. JUST KIDDING! Enjoy some death scenes that are going to make you feel ways about stuff. 

The one that cut me the most was Victorine, I couldn’t figure out how the shadowy figure that’d been following them was going to work into it but she barely had to do anything at all. Determination and outward pressure and the belief that what you’re doing is going to help people, is a hell of a drug. Especially when you’re willing to do anything to get what you want. That bish was trying to do something that would be good for humanity, but her family was poison and it poisoned her too and she downright fucking lost it. And it was the only situation Roderick got to see with his own eyes. That shit was a gut punch.

Was it as good as Haunting of Hill House? No, but it was good. And worth a watch, if you enjoy a twisted, brutal death (or eight). 

All in all, I hope Mike Flanagan keeps ‘em coming. Sometimes, it’s just nice to watch fucked up people get what they deserve.

[lotreckk]

i might be cringe but at least i'm happy this with my warden x loghain thing

1. i think i'll start with a little preamble. surana is not only a magic nerd but he is also a history nerd. so ofc he had read about maric, loghain and rowan (you know this whole adventurous vibe of the rebel prince his bride who is a warrior herself and their best friend of humble origin in love with both of them) in the circle. thus, he respected loghain even before their first meeting at ostagar. loghain's actions at ostagar confused him but he never hated loghan for that. ostagar wasn't surana's battle yet, he didn't lose important people here and king cailan didn't look serious enough for him when he greeted him and duncan. what really disappointed surana is loghain's attempts to kill the grey wardens (an irrational decision in his opinion), his association with howe (who were a stupid asshole) and the alienage (this almost made surana despise loghain). but at the landsmeet and during their dialogues before the final battle surana saw loghain's point. he neither agreed nor justified all of loghain's decisions, but surana understood his attempt to secure the country as loghain saw fit, a willingness to tarnish his reputation but save ferelden. by that time, surana had already seen what actions people commit during war, and for him choosing between lesser and greater evils or sacrificing morality for the greater purpose is not something impossible. besides the fact that surana is naturally attracted to smart rational people, for him warm feelings for a person begin with mutual respect. and they had it with loghain. after the battle until loghain left for orlais and surana remained in amaranthine they developed a mutual understanding. surana had no familiar faces left after the blight and they spent a lot of time together. they had common values ​​and similar morals, and loghain also understood the burden of command. surana knew that loghain wouldn't judge him and this thought was comforting for him. i think at this moment he started to indentify his feelings for loghain as somewhat romantic.

2. i think something might have happened on the eve of surana's departure to amaranthine. i think loghain wasn't really into an idea of any kind of romantic relationship, but he's also too mature to go around in circles (and anything can happen when two people during the war and in post-war conditions, are forced to work and eventually spend evenings together). and surana knew similar attitude from the time in the circle - only a stupid mage allows himself to fall in love and act based on feelings; in the circle he did not see full-fledged romantic affection. but after loghain's departure to orlais, through their correspondence and eventual personal meetings the relationship they had acquired a new level of deep affection.

3. ahaha yes and not intentionally. you know the inevitable excitement at the sight of your favourite person being covered in your foes' blood. surana is not one to be easily embarrassed bc he often does not understand the subtleties of hints and his own feelings. but this one time he realized why he enjoyed watching loghain so much...

4. no. i think in public they don't even use each other's names it all goes with mac-tir and surana/commander. calling each other by name is something very personal and meaningful for them.

5. they are quite comfortable with just sitting in silence and doing their own stuff, what matters is a presence. but also chess. maps. and loghain helped surana learn to wield a sword more efficiently (like yes arcane warriors use magic whatever but technique is important).

6. i mean... they have 10 years experience of long distance relationship i think they handled it well (aaand loghain got into conflict with the orlesian wardens for obvious reasons while surana became even more inclined to isolate himself and not telling anyone anything about his plans; i think it's important for them to have each other you know).

7. now i'll be silly UNEXPECTEDLY BUT anders and secretly nathaniel since they saw surana and loghain talk at the vigil's keep (and nathaniel is the one who has to listen about loghain's whereabouts in orlais because sometimes surana just needs to discuss his letters lol).

8. BESIDES THE WHOLE STORY WITH THE BLIGHT??? they are both too mature for more fighting... however i have one idea in mind! i think they had a fight somewhere a couple of years after loghain left for orlais, when they already had a more than friendly emotional connection, but they didn't discuss it or characterize it in any way verbally. as i said, surana tends to keep his plans to himself if a person isn't directly involved in them, also, he is a fan of expeditions to the most distant shitholes on the deep roads. surana usually asks and values loghain's opinions but this time he decided that loghain had a lot of problems of his own + he wanted to show loghain the results of his "expedition" and studies + surana felt like loghain wouldn't really appreciate him working with the architect etc. and surana just left the vigil's keep for seneschal and nathaniel, took velanna and a few other wardens and disappeared for a long period of time. and i mean it because yes sending letters to orlais takes a long time but not so much and this was strange in surana's case bc he is a fairly consistent person in his “routine”. i think nathaniel wrote a quick letter to loghain like “sorry, warden-commander went to the deep roads, didn’t say when he’ll return, but he leaves grey warden road marks on his way, if he disappears for a long time, we’ll send a rescue expedition". and well obviously loghain understood the duty of the wardens but this was surana's initiative to explore more of the deep roads for whatever reasons and also he didn't appreciate the fact that surana didn't tell him anything. and he kinda had a wonderful flashback from the time when maric run away with the wardens in the calling. loghain trusted surana's abilities but he anyway found himself worried that surana had simply disappeared when he himself was far away from ferelden's part of the deep roads. loghain thought that some small precautions like marks left by the ferelden wardens, and “if I don’t return in a few months, you can send a rescue party for us” would not help. so when surana and his group returned, i think he and loghain were quite reserved in their correspondence, but then, for some plot reasons, they met in person and actually had a little fight. perhaps loghain would go with the argument “you are endangering not only yourself, but also people under your command.” something like this. and surana would be very confused because he expected that loghain would not be pleased that surana had not told him about his plans, but he did not know that loghain might actually be worried about him personally. like would it matter if surana died? all of them, grey wardens, die a slow death anyway. but it turns out that for loghain it would matter. in fact, this is one of the important episodes in the development of the emotional side of their relationship.

9. let's see... the traitor teyrn with depression + a blood mage of questionable morals + most time they are apart from each other + surana not intentionally tries to get lost on the deep roads... i don't know... OK I KNOW ACTUALLY as i said they can balance out their flaws. and if loghain has already passed his moment of grandiose failure, then the potential of surana's grandiose failure, who is also used to deciding everything himself and finds it difficult to rely on others, is still ahead. and with his hunger for magical knowledge and desire to uncover the secrets of the taint and cure it without loghain he definitely can go too far and do some really dubious shit.

10. DIFFICULT I MEAN LOOK AT THEM- i think the most emotionally intense moment was after the battle with the archdemon but the feeling of comfort and understanding came later while they were working together rebuilding the order in ferelden before loghain was sent to orlais. but i also think (i still can't decide what is canon in my main plot) if loghain had survived the adamant, surana would have been unexpectedly emotional and well happy bc he understood perfectly well that falling for another warden, especially someone like loghain, was a doomed thing and loghain would somehow have managed to die while surana was busy with finding a cure for the taint, but... he didn’t die. and that would be the first time when surana would be happy that his prediction was wrong.

When was the moment your character first felt something for their love interest?

How long before they did anything about it?

Has their love interest ever made them blush?

Do they have nicknames for each other?

What are some ways they like to spend time together?

How do they handle being apart?

Who ships them the hardest?

What was their first ever fight about?

What is the most difficult thing about their relationship?

What is their happiest memory together?

(Check out our ten questions for tag if you’d like more posts like this)

[1d1195]

Hi Sam!! It’s been so long omg😭😭😭 I will explain later tbh bc it’s a bit wild and long! But omg I’ve missed you😭(might be a two parter 😔)

I think your gifts probably give off the vibe of being so cute and presented so well that they are just too pretty to open!

And we love a hates everyone but her moment! And your grumpy characters are a good mixture of grumpy! Like they aren’t ever truly “mean” if that makes sense lol

I can definitely understand choosing the route of “pretending” stuff doesn’t matter in order to have some peace for your mental health! I think in general we’ve all experienced some form of that whether it be in our personal lives or the world. Sometimes it just needs to happen in order to not breakdown. So I get it, there’s nothing wrong with that! Been actually do familiar with that technique lately with how life is going HAHA

How has your reading been lately?? Anything exciting? Or disappointing?! A possible new book boyfriend or are we hating some characters rn?!

Going to the symphony does sound all grown up lol but it was so nice and it made me really just miss the whole vibes of experiencing that kind of performance! My brother and I are very much nerds when it comes to music lol but omg I’m the total opposite I feel less productive! I get tired around 4 pm now 😭 and omg the COLD😭 so brutal and I think im low in iron so I’m basically freezing all the time lol I haven’t started my winter break yet! I start it in about two weeks! But idk how long it is tbh lol

Oh bestie I love when you do rom-com stuff like sometimes the cheesier the better! You just do those vibes well and it’s nice to read like “feel good moment” stuff! And tbh if I had a chance in some alternate universe to kiss HIM I WOULD TAKE IT!!! I do think you’re creative! Maybe like the painting/drawing stuff isn’t your vibe but the way you write bestie?! SO GOOD! Like these plots,plots twists,love confessions, THE YEARNING?!? You do have a very creative mind! And these dividers are just adorable!

I hope you were able to end November on a semi okay note! I know you’ve mentioned how hard it’s been this past month and I hope you were able to relax a bit for the holidays!(hope that was at least okay!) also hope you got to eat some good potatoes in any way!!

I did notice you were a bit quiet this year about your birthday! But I assumed it was mainly because it was towards the beginning of the week and school probably got in the way! But I love that your students made it a bit better! And of course glad you have some lovely people in your life because you deserve that too!!-💜

I can't make them mean, I think it's my biggest fault in writing 😭 I want to make them grumpier and meaner but I just look at Harry with his dimply smile and his cinnamon roll hair and simply can't picture him being mean.

I'm sorry you're really going through it right now. I love to compartmentalize the bad and ignore it until I can deal with it later. Not sure if it's the healthiest way to handle things but I think it's gotta be done sometimes.

I have not been reading much 😭 I'm working on a Christina Lauren book. It's related to another one that I read last year and it's okay but I don't love it tbh right now. I'm only about 70 pages in. I'm surprised though because my friend who's like the biggest bookwork I know thought it was one of their best and I'm just not seeing it atm. Hopefully it will get better. I revisited my basketball bf though for good measure. It had been a few weeks since I reread about him. I feel like I need a cheesy-wintry book boyfriend. I watched Hot Frosty on Netflix, it's incredibly ridiculous. 100/10 recommendation though. no other notes 😂

I love the music relationship you have with your brother! That's so cute. You and the tuba right? I hope i didn't make that up but I can't even remember when we talked about your instrument last so I don't think I could find it if I tried.

Idk, I feel like with limited sunlight it's like I'm being timed and i have to get more done in a shorter amount of time 😂 I love the cold so much because I get to cover up my body the way I like ☠ let's not read into that. I just love sweaters and boots. I feel way more teacher-y in the winter than i do in the summer. But I get it. My bf is a chilly person. I call our apartment The Tropic of Cancer because he has it on a boiling temp (73). I open the window making full eye contact with him when the sun comes through in the afternoon. ANYWAY. I am sorry you're cold. I totally get that and I know this is a rough time of year for a lot of people.

I don't think it's a choice that you kiss him given the chance. It's a given.

I love spending time with my fam for Thanksgiving so that was nice. But it was a long busy working. I feel like I didn't get much relaxation time but I tried. It'll be a quick turn around until winter break so at least there's that. I'm hoping to finish my Christmas shopping soon and relax a little more.

One of my fave students got into trouble right around my bday and I know it's dumb but I was so bummed out about it I barely wanted to celebrate 😂 honestly the student probably wouldn't even have known it was my birthday but idk. it's hard to explain. Kid makes my whole day just to see him. The event day of was also tricky and exhausting. But regardless.

Onto part two thanks for being the best and sweet and lovely 💕

xoxo

[grimmywrites]

what ya think of the new re4 remake? c:

  I love it! (Everything below is the opinion of a nerd who is way too into the RE world, btw.)

OG RE4 is my favorite video game ever, and like many I was worrying over every bit of information we were fed. I didn't expect it would be, but the worry that it would be like the RE3 remake was there. Thankfully, I think Capcom knew they had to do this one right.

For me, the game is 10/10. They really upped the horror, the story, and made the difficulty feel welcome. Great enemies, great use of the cult this time around, and the game is absolutely beautiful. Not to mention the sound design is so goddamn perfect. I also love how the soundtrack is similar to the original with the old leitmotifs in some of the music. I love the addition of requests and the expansion of the maps and the exploration in certain chapters.

As a remake 9/10 - I'm aware this is just because of nostalgia filters. It's only because I have a few problems with some of the characters. While I think the tweaks to the story made it stronger and a lot of the characters are so good (I've always loved Ashley even in the OG but I'm glad everyone is taking to her in the remake), some got a raw deal.

It's a touchy subject right now, and I'm going to state: I don't condone harassment or bullying. I do think you can criticize something without being cruel. I'm not a fan of Ada's voice acting, but I can recognize what the actress was going for. I'll leave it to others to speculate. That being said, I feel like they gave her character a lot less to do. I'm hopeful the Separate Ways DLC fixes that. Krauser is... okay. Just okay. (Which disappoints me as someone who likes the metaltango ship; none of that tension was there this time.)

That being said, I think Nick (Leon's VA) did much better this time around for me. Really appreciated the fine line he played between Leon's depression and his cocky jokes. Luis is great with a correct accent and he's very playful (and all the new backstory for him and his involvement in Umbrella is S tier shit). VA for Ashley is very good. Merchant is CHEF'S KISS, god I loved him, I'd go to the shooting range just to hear him praise me in that accent.

I guess my biggest complaint is the big bads? They just feel so removed from the game. I know it's realism they're going for, but I really liked the hacking of Leon's comms in the OG so we could have conversations with them. It showed personality.

Mendez was... there. Tbf he was there in the OG, too. At least he chased us a bit this time. I hated that I didn't SEE his transformation in his boss fight. He didn't feel like a big threat. (And yes, I missed Leon charge kicking him and getting thrown on his ass, god that was so good.)

Salazar talked at me a few times, but he was so much more of a puppet and tool and thus FUNNY in the OG. I liked how frustrated he got. His remake version, again, is fine. I like that Leon just gets fed up and shoots him all the time. He's at least more present than the other two. The change in his boss fight is good, it has more mobility and I like all the tricks to it.

Saddler is probably my biggest disappointment. I love Saddler in the OG. He has so much personality. He's SO charismatic. He's confident and is a presence from when you first meet him in the Church (and before) until you defeat him in the end. He's in the castle and handles shit himself. He *jokes* with Leon and laughs at him. His fight with Ada in Separate Ways is the hardest thing in the game. I dunno, I'm bummed for him, haha. I think making him this devout cult guy as his defining feature kinda diminished him.

One last thing: I wanted the U3 fight. I'm in the minority, I know. I also know rumors and some of the game's files indicate it might be a DLC thing, but that was the only boss fight in the OG that scared me. It was so different than anything I'd ever done, so I wanted to see how they'd tackle it. All well.

Even with these critiques, I genuinely really enjoy the game. I had a huge smile on my face the entire time. I'm not mad about anything; the changes all worked for a remake and a new generation of people playing it. It's great, no matter these few nitpicks. That's all they are, nitpicks, because the game is spectacular. It's beautiful and it's fun and I really recommend people to play it because this is what a remake SHOULD be.

[honeymelonpm]

-Innocence-

Part 4:

Characters: Arthur Harrow x reader

Warnings: Age Regression Themes, Yandere, Kidnapping, Fighting, mention of blood, etc

Summary: It's a new day, you see a chance to escape and you took it, well, tried to.

Note: I'm not sure how I feel about this part. I love it but I also hate it.

Requested by @gorgeourrific-nerd

The door to your room creaked open slightly, a beam of light peaking through, illuminating the specks of dust that floated in the air.

"You're awake," He uttered.

Pushing the covers off with your fists, you shuffled into a seating position, before holding out your arms.

Stepping further into the room, the puffiness of your eyes became more noticeable. Most of the night was spent quietly crying into your Tawaret plush, before your eyes fell heavy and you drifted off.

An endearing smile graced his lips as he limped over to sit beside you.

"Awe," He whispered cupping your cheek, ignoring your gestures to remove the socks over your hands, "My little baby."

Eyebrows knitting together and lips pulling into a pout, you showed him your arms again, "Can you please help me take them off."

He tilted his chin up, staring down at you over the bridge of his nose, "Why?"

A confused expression twisted over your face, "They're starting to hurt."

"Hmmmm," He thought, brushing his fingers over his face, the scratch marks still a little red.

A pit of embarrassment formed in your stomach, slowly pulling your arms back into your lap, you stayed quiet.

"Did you sleep well?", He asked, gazing at you.

Biting down on your lower lip, you nodded your head, "Mmhmm."

"You're lying to me now?" He questioned, eyes filled with disappointment.

His knuckles swept underneath your eyes, "I can see the tear stains on your cheeks. Your eyes are swollen and little miss Tawaret over there is wet." He finished, pointing a single finger at the toy against your pillow.

"Now, I'll ask you again, did you sleep well?"

Thinking for a moment, you fixed your eyes on your lap, gently shaking your head.

Beginning to feel overwhelmed, your lower lip trembled, "I was upset."

He brushed a stray piece of hair out of your face, tucking it behind your ear, "Why were you upset Honey?"

"I was scared," You whispered, afraid to admit it.

"What were you scared of?"

You thought for a moment, your fingers fidgeting underneath the tight fabric around them, "Being punished."

"You only got into trouble because you did something bad, but you won't do anything bad again, so you don't need to be scared of being punished, right?"

When you didn't answer, he lowered his tone slightly, "Right?"

Slowly nodding your head in response, you peered up at him.

"Are you hungry?" His hair drifted across his face as his head tilted down.

Once you gave him a nod, he stood up and gestured for you to follow.

Reaching the top of the wooden staircase, you wrapped both arms around his for support, taking each step as slow as you could.

A gleam of gold stole your attention. A polished door handle replaced the janky lock that was attached to the worn front door the day before.

He guided you to the kitchen and sat you in the same chair as the day before.

You held an expectation that you would soon hear the boiling of water and stirring of a pot, however, the only noise that you could hear was a crisp 'pop' as Arthur twisted open a jar of plum jam.

Watching the steam from the toaster rise and travel against the mosaic tiles, you soon smelt the warm toast, before two slices leaped out.

A rhythmic clinking of a butter knife sounded around a glass jar, before it was replaced with the crisp crackle of the knife sweeping against the toast.

Carrying a small plate over to you, he sliced your piece in half, before slicing it in half again, four small corners of purplish coloured toast layed out in front of you.

You waited as he sat next to you, hoping he would unveil your hands, allowing you to eat.

He took a piece off your plate and held your chin in his palm, carrying the toast towards your mouth in the other.

A crunch was heard before you slowly turned your head to the side, attempting to rip off a mouthful.

"There you go," He muttered, watching you chew. "I'll go get you something to drink."

The chair skidded against the floor, sending a shiver up your spine.

He began to fiddle around with cupboards and glasses, as your eyes started to wander.

Observing your surroundings, you noticed the jar of jam he left between you on the table, more importantly, the knife he left in it.

Sparing a quick glance back at Arthur, you stretched your hand as much as you could, allowing you to clutch the knife in your palm.

Not caring about the jam residue that had smeared against your clothes, you held the tip of it in your palm, allowing the handle to rest between your wrist and stomach.

Returning from the kitchen counter, he sat back down beside you, the cotton cuffs of his sleeves tickling your chin as he guided the glass to your lips, "Here you go sweetheart."

He urged the cup against your mouth, causing you to steady it with your hands. The knife remained hidden under the table, the stickiness causing it to cling to your shirt.

He breathed a soft chuckle, watching as you struggled to guzzle the deep red liquid, your attempts at breathing becoming louder and louder.

A drop of juice trickled down the side of your mouth, resting atop your chin as you finished the glass.

Placing the cup in front of you, he wiped your mouth with his sleeve, "Was that good?"

Before you could respond, the weight of the knife on your lap disappeared, followed by a clatter ringing off the tiles, making you flinch.

Brows furrowed, he turned his attention underneath the table. Keeping one arm firmly against the table top, he lowered his head further and further underneath the table in search of the sudden noise.

Without a second thought, snatching the glass from Infront of you, you hurled it at the top of his head.

Not a single cry of agony left him as the glass shattered, shards raining down on him.

Scrambling out of your seat, you tried for the door, only to fall flat against the ground, his hand firmly gripped around your ankle from under the table.

Screams straining from your throat, you kicked back at him with your heel, shaking him off you.

Somehow, seeing him stalk towards you at an even pace was more horrifying than the idea of him chasing after you at a full sprint.

Reaching the front door, it was impossible to get a grip on the handle with socks over your fists.

Regardless, the door swung open towards you, making you stumble back towards the staircase.

A large, stout man towered over you from his place in the doorway, his expression fixed in a look of disgust.

"Leave this to me," Arthur followed you at a steady stride up the flight of stairs, his once grey head of hair was now dyed blood red at the roots.

"I wouldn't do this if I were you," His voice was still calm, unnerving you.

Reaching the entrance to your room, you threw yourself back against the door, expecting it to slam shut. Instead, the familiar yellowing head of his cane stared you down from its position in-between the gap in the door.

"You have one chance Honey, I would think about this very carefully." A subtle glow of amythest rippled through the eyes of the cane.

You didn't feel so confident anymore. Whether you moved away from the door or stayed against it, there was no escaping what he would do to you.

"I've been very forgiving." His voice resonated through the decaying walls.

Breaking out into a sob, you hoped he would let you be.

"One."

Confusion flooded you as you wept against the door, listening to his words.

"Two."

A wave of anxiety crash landed on you as you understood his plan. Panic rising in your chest, your breathing turned to wheezing.

A streak of purple gleaming against your walls sent a strangled cry out of your body as you let gravity pull you down to the ground, immediately hugging your knees to your chest.

Face red and hot, you tucked your head under your arms, ignoring the trail of snot that had descended from your nose as a result of your cries.

The door gently pushed against your back, his almost silent strides moving towards your bed, returning to you with a clink of a heavy chain.

No words were spoken as he strapped the leather cuff around your ankle. The silence was agonizing.

When you heard the click of the padlock, you raced to your bed, burying yourself into the sheets.

He watched you from across the room. He watched the way you immediately reached out for your hippo plushie, burying your head into its neck, smothering it in tears and snot.

The way your mattress collapsed under your weight, as if you were trying to claw your way through it.

You seemed desperate. So desperate that you slipped a knife from the table, threw a glass at his head and clawed at him in an attempt to get away.

Innocent kids don't do that, at least, they don't get away with it.

He was on the correct path. He was keeping you feeling threatened and vulnerable, but perhaps it wasn't enough.

[fix-it-darlin]

rhav (fullmetal alchemist oc, doctor and former state alchemist)

david- they probably appreciate his pragmatism and prioritization of others, finds gruff demeanor appealing but not much thought given beyond that, if the two of them got closer, they'd probably bond about trying to keep the people they care about from getting hurt, but those people not listening to them and then getting hurt

huxley- immediate short circuit of the brain and then lots of questions about how his 'earth based alchemy' works, they're a bit thrown off by his carefree attitude, but genuinely enjoy their interaction with him

vega- wtf even is this guy?, feelings are definitely mixed and their fight or flight is going off but they also get the sense that people will get hurt if they don't do something about him so definitely a fair amount of hostility that's feeding him

porter- thrown off by his charm initially and then realizes that he's got very little sense of self preservation and views himself as a weapon, gets real rattled about that and has to fight the urge to try and check him over for wounds

geordi- so glad to finally meet a normal person in this universe, they think he's a bit paranoid but they get it

blake- honestly just really disappointed in this guy, like c'mon, you've got the ability to see the future and help others and you've centered your whole being around one person when you've got the potential to be so much better than this, but ~no~ you have to go and be a massive racist asshole who's willing to hurt everyone to get what he wants, they don't even hate him, it's just more of a 'come on man, you're better than this. where is the board of ethics on this?'

hush- you know what, after everything else they've seen at this point, they're just glad that the god child isn't trying to kill them

rowan wagner (space cowboy)

david- he finds him pretty cute, thinks he'd be a fun guy to take out for a drink and get him relaxed but nothing too serious, discussion over drinks would likely be about taking on some kind of job, rowan's a flirt, but he knows when someone's out of his league

huxley- the accent? is something else, but once he gets past it, probably vibes with this guy quite a bit and talks shop on the quality of the earth in the area and what kind of wildlife hangs around the area

vega- well, doesn't look strange enough to be an alien, but is too strange looking to be a human, if vega tries to rile him up, his first reaction is going to be to flirt relentlessly while vaguely alluding to his gun but no one's sure if that's a euphemism or threat

porter- there's an accent he's familiar with, two flirts can play this game, definitely gets rich guy vibes from him and hasn't decided whether he wants to schmooze or antagonize him, the vampire part is the clearest cut part about this fellow and rowan's not even phased by it

geordi- rowan actually knows that star trek exists and is a pretty big fan of it (his space colony had recordings of all the episodes and some of reading rainbow available when he was growing up) so he catches the reference almost immediately and is delighted, he chats him up and teases him a little but is also just on the cusp of nerding out and has to hold himself back from instigating a star trek infodump, he's just got this big stupid grin on his face the whole time he's talking to him and has used some of his cheesiest pick up lines on him just to see if he can get a laugh

blake- this isn't his first rodeo with folks who've gone and gotten themselves possessed by some eldritch horror, he's this close to trying to shake this man by the shoulders and ask him why the fuck he's gone and doomed the universe, rowan is frustrated, annoyed, and just generally enraged by him, but he's handling it significantly better than he did the first eldritch possession he came across

hush- strange little fella, honestly not sure what to do with him, but he's happy to answer any questions, he's not spooked by him because he looks like a slightly less strange version of the aliens he deals with regularly, and he can relate to the whole not understanding people

joey (morally grey lie detecting detective)

david- they appreciate his honesty but also see way too much of their old boss in him and being prone to butting heads with authority, they're not a fan and just try to avoid him because they know that if they don't they are going to start a fight

huxley- they're intimidated at first because they're relatively short and huxley's kind of a big guy, a bit weirded out by the hole digging thing, but they have seen weirder in their line of work, wants to ask more questions but they're reminding themself that it's best not to go asking about things that might be more personal if they want to stay on people's good side and they really want to stay on his good side because they view him as a decent connection to have because they take notice of how much he seems to notice

vega- they're honestly pretty unphased as a sadistic super powered being is more their speed, yeah, he's a liar but he's a predictable one, they're used to people trying to manipulate them but they're able to see through it and brush it off, glad to find something that's relatively familiar in this new environment and has somewhat positive emotions about him

porter- they can not trust a word out of his mouth and they're so tired of it because they're not able to turn off their powers and it's just a constant ping of 'oh, that ones a lie' when they even try to talk with him, and they're probably holding their tongue about it because they've already come to the conclusion that he could probably kill them if he felt like it and it was beneficial to him, probably tries to return similar energy and probe him for information

geordi- confused as to why he thinks that they're a telepath as in their world, most telepaths are pretty damn invasive and loud about stuff in their experience (this is not normal and actually they have high mental paranoia and so that makes it hard for even the most skilled telepath to make it into their mind unannounced), vaguely annoyed by him but also find him endearing, they won't admit it of course

blake- they're immediately repulsed by him purely on the principle that they're reminded too much of themself by him, he figures out pretty quickly that they're "empowered" in a sense and he's spouting his bullshit and they just hate him so, so much and they want him and his lies gone, legitimately contemplating murder

hush- once the wtf is his deal wears off, it's just kind of like, oh yeah, vaguely murderous superpowered being who could crush them like a bug if they pushed things too far, this is just a typical tuesday, astounded by how not a single thing he says is a lie even though they're sure the stuff about him being a force given form is made up, but you know what, they'll humor him, stepping on eggshells around powerful beings is just their default mode

ok cmere listen

take an oc you have from literally any universe that you have (other than redacted)

tell me what’s happening if they were to run into

- david

- huxley

- vega

- porter

- geordi

- blake

- hush

you can doooo as many of them as you want to

(this is just an excuse to hear about peoples OCs btw)

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Stalker X Stalker, Part 12

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Perma taglist: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever @toodaloo-kangaroo @khneltea @raeuberprinzessin

Tim had exactly zero idea what was going on.

Marinette had disappeared into the shower so he’d figured that, hey, work was over and he was 90% sure it was the day she usually shaved (something he knew because every time she shaved she excitedly asked him to touch her leg because it was smooth) so he had time to kill…

He walked over to her jewelry box.

He’d already bugged all of the new jewelry he had bought her but her old stuff was perfectly intact and he kind of wanted more insurance. Sure, they lived together now so it was unlikely she would have much reason to leave without him, but he was known for his millions of plans and contingencies and he wasn’t about to mess up when it was someone he cared about.

So, he went to work on the first necklace he grabbed. It had a tiny cat with green emeralds for eyes.

He looked at the tiny black pupils that the cat had. He pulled a tiny pick out of his pocket and carefully started carving a circle in it for the bug.

And then a bug-shaped god came flying out of the door for something.

There were a few beats as Tim and Tikki stared at each other.

Tikki broke it with a loud groan.

He watched her float past him for the towel hung on Marinette’s bedpost and then go back inside.

Shit.

He darted towards the bathroom, only to pause at the door. He really didn’t want to burst in while Marinette was probably naked, that was a huge breach of privacy, but he also didn’t want Tikki to tell him about all the bugs he was planting! Shit! He bit his lip, considering.

“Here’s your towel, Marinette,” Tikki said with a sharp edge to her tone.

“... are you mad?”

“Not at you. Where are the cookies you baked last night?”

“Uh, the fridge --?”

“Thank you.”

Why hadn’t she told her? Tim wasn’t complaining, of course, but he was a little confused. She was clearly mad about it and he doubted that Marinette had made some rule that said ‘you can’t tell me about people bugging me’ because that was oddly specific and not a very good idea… so… what?

He didn’t know. He was just going to thank the god of luck -- he was pretty sure that was Tikki -- and continue what he was doing.

~

Marinette didn’t have to struggle to keep everyone inside the first night. She liked that. More time to plan.

But how did she get herself let out, you may ask?

Remember how Tim had said that all-hands-on-deck situations are the only exceptions to the Stay Inside While Injured Rule? Well, guess what had happened.

Arkham had had a huge breakout and Marinette wasn’t going to complain… even if her kwami might be a little disappointed in how happy she was about it.

She was even happier when she’d found out that one of the people that had broken out was Scarecrow. She’d been meaning to tell him about her guesses about his brownie recipe for a while and she hadn’t really had a chance to do it when she was talking to him through a phone with a thick glass between them.

Batman -- Bruce? -- didn’t need to know that they’d broken into a bakery for the night to test out their theories before she had taken him back to Arkham.

He’d thank them when he got the brownies (the missing ingredient was Mexican cinnamon!). Or, at least, she hoped he would.

~

Tim had to say… Marinette's plan to get everyone in her house was working.

He could warn his siblings but, honestly, he found it kind of funny.

He was surprised to see Jason show up first. He raised his eyebrows at his brother. “Didn’t know you were in town, Flamebird.”

Jason did an exaggerated eye roll that Tim swore he could see despite the domino. “Marinette said she had something she wanted to show me.”

And she did. She walked over and dropped the Harry Potter books onto the window ledge beside him. “This is terrible and I hate you for making me read them.”

“It gets better later on --.”

“I read two books. That’s six hundred pages. If you can’t get your shit together in six hundred fucking pages then you don’t deserve my time.”

He scoffed. “They’re not that bad.”

“Oh yeah? Read it. It’s been years for you, right? Get to book three and tell me it’s good.”

Jason scowled and grabbed the books, taking a seat in the armchair.

Tim grinned and rested an arm around his girlfriend. “You don’t actually hate Harry Potter, do you?”

“Only the book version.”

He frowned. “I think we need to break up.”

“Nope. Not allowed to break up with me.”

“Oh, well, if I’m not allowed then I guess I won’t,” he said, leaning down to press a tiny kiss to her lips.

There was a groan from the window and they both rolled their eyes, turning to look at Damian.

“Why must you sully my good mood so early on with your disgusting displays of affection?”

“It’s our apartment, you just so happen to be here,” said Tim, glaring at his brother. “We can do what we want.”

Marinette, bravely, stepped between the two of them with a bright smile. “Now, boys, it’s not the time.”

“It is not the time for your libido, and yet...” argued Damian.

“Please, that isn’t even close to libi --,” Tim started, only to get elbowed in the stomach.

She gave him a look that told him to let her handle it and, while he didn’t think that was a good idea, he held up his hands in surrender.

“Robin, it’s unbecoming of you to argue with everyone you meet,” she chided lightly.

… did she speak Damian or something? Because Damian actually looked a little reprimanded at that and Tim needed to learn her ways.

Then, she leaned down with a grin. He could see her hands start to rest on her knees but she thought better of it at the last second. “I got some new stuff from the pet store and I wanted to know if you wanted to help test them out on Vanelope.”

Damian narrowed his eyes slightly. “What kinds of new things?”

“A bunch of cat toys.”

“... I suppose I can test them out for you.”

“I mean, I said you could help --,” she started, but Damian was already heading towards Vanelope without her.

Tim looked over at his girlfriend. She didn’t seem all that put out by this.

“You really had something planned out for everyone?”

She smirked and took a seat on the windowsill. “Yep. It should take Flamebird about two days to finish the first two books -- assuming he can even get through them that quickly -- and Robin is sure to be very thorough in his testing of all the cat toys.”

“Oh? And what’s your plan for everyone else?”

She shrugged just slightly. “Guess you’ll have to wait and find out.”

When Dick appeared she set him up with Beat Saber, saying that she was curious about why the VR glasses gave her a headache and wanted to see if he had the same problem. Tim knew the problem was that they were made for men and therefore sometimes had negative side effects for women, but he bit his lip before he could offer to get a set custom-made for her in favor of watching Dick select the poppiest pop song in existence and instantly get addicted to the game.

Tim raised his eyebrows slightly when Steph appeared, textbook in hand.

“How did you know everyone would show up?” He asked once Marinette had set her up with a particularly long and difficult worksheet to make sure she got the lesson.

“Well, Spoiler shows up every Saturday night for tutoring, Robin comes by every other day or more and he didn’t stop by last night, Nightwing pops by most weekends, and I called Flamebird over myself… speaking of which…” She pulled out her phone and tapped a few buttons. “Right, Signal said he’ll be here in ten minutes seven minutes ago… so, he’s almost here.”

Tim grinned. “You forgot Cass.”

“She only ever really shows up to get away from all of you guys so, with everyone here, she’d have no reason to come over.” Her face split into a sheepish grin. “Also, she’d see through me pretty quickly.”

“Don’t you want B to have no help?”

She shrugged. “It should be a light night since almost everyone important is in Arkham right now but that doesn’t mean that the two of them can deal with all of Gotham’s petty crime on their own. I give them until three or four before they crack.”

“... you might be a little scary.”

“You don’t last long as a vigilante if you’re not at least a little smart,” she chirped. “I just choose to turn my brain off most of the time.”

He smiled. “Oh? And the exception is what? Making you stay inside?”

She waved him off. “Kind of. It’s more that I only put effort into making sure I’ll never be bored. What’s the point of thinking about anything else? All that does is make you sad.”

Well that didn’t sound healthy, now did it? Tim was pretty sure that was just repression but, honestly, he had no clue. His family famously did not use therapists.

Before he could figure out how to address that there was a knock on the door.

Marinette grinned and opened it to reveal Duke, who was holding a computer.

Duke looked around the apartment, raising his eyebrows at all the people there. “Uh… should I ask?”

“I’m spiting Bruce.”

“Wild. Whatever. Ready for GBBS?”

“Sure. Tim, you gonna watch it with us?”

He hesitated. Steph had been sending him pleading looks since she had gotten her worksheet and he felt kind of bad for her… but then Duke and Marinette sat on the couch and she rested her head on his shoulder lazily to get a better view of the computer and Tim figured that Steph was smart enough to do the worksheet on her own if she really tried.

He took a seat beside her and smiled a little when she switched to lean against him instead.

“So, who’s your favorite person for the season?” He asked.

She thought for a minute before shrugging. “The guy that always wins but keeps being anxious about his bakes. Forgot his name, though.”

“Rahul?!” said Duke.

“Sure.”

Duke frowned. “I’m not sure whether to be happy you like at least one contestant, be proud it’s Rahul, or be annoyed you didn’t remember his name.”

“Character development takes time,” said Tim wisely.

Marinette scoffed a little. “Just put on the damn show. I’m tired of listening to you assholes talk.”

Duke grinned. “Fine. Fine.”

Time passed as the three of them watched the show.

Other family members slowly made their way over one by one. Damian brought the cat with him. Jason came over to give his brain a break after all the reading he had done (and then, when Marinette pointed out that you never take breaks while reading good books, had gone straight back to Harry Potter). Steph decided she didn’t want to pass her class and came to lay across the top of the couch. Dick eventually got tired and rested his body after the intense game that is Beat Saber.

… B released her at almost exactly three thirty. They ignored their comms in favor of continuing to watch the season finale.

~

Marinette bit her lip anxiously as she preemptively turned off the notifications on her phone. Tim did the same.

They typed up matching tweets about how they were moving in with their partners, tagged each other...

Their fingers hovered over the tweet buttons.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’m sure one of my siblings will do something stupid in a few days and the media will leave us alone,” said Tim.

She smiled awkwardly. “That isn’t what I’m worried about.”

He frowned just a little and slipped his arm around her. “Well, can I help with whatever it is?”

She hesitated. It would be better to warn him, she supposed. “Not really. You’re going to get the ‘shovel talk’ --.”

“My dad is Batman, Bean, I’ll live.”

“-- by the person who currently controls the embodiment of chaos and destruction.”

His face paled a little (which is dangerous, considering he was already pale enough). “Does Chat Noir not know we’re dating yet?”

“Nope.”

“... so he’s going to find out through the media?”

“Yep.”

“Shit.”

She nodded her agreement, curling into his side and glaring at the phone.

Adrien was going to be pissed. Especially since he was going to learn through the media. Sure, that was the intention, she was hoping that Tim would be left more or less alone because her friend would be too busy being hurt about not being told to focus on his anger at her boyfriend… but, yikes, she didn’t really want to deal with that just yet.

Also, she thought with a wince, Adrien was going to be even angrier when he figured out that she hadn’t exactly given up, as he called it, ‘stalking’ the people she was interested in. Marinette was pretty sure that Tim already knew about some of it but she wasn’t completely sure and, just in case, she wanted to keep it a secret for a while… a few years, at least, and she wanted to be the one to tell him because she was sure that Adrien would be a lot harsher about it than she would. He already called it ‘stalking’ when it was clearly different, she didn’t want to know what he would say if she let him talk about it in more depth.

Unfortunately, though, Adrien wasn’t stupid. He’d eventually catch on. The longer they dated without him knowing the guiltier he would assume she was.

She sighed and took his face in her hands. “I’m leaving it up to you. I’m not sure. I’m leaning towards being public but...”

He bit his lip as he considered it. She fought the urge to stretch his face until he let go.

He smiled hesitantly. “Well, I’ve lived long enough, I think.”

“Don’t worry, darling, I’ll summon a lucky charm for you,” she half-joked.

He gave a puff of laughter that wasn’t quite real and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thanks, Bean, but I doubt that’ll be necessary. This is Gotham, no one dies here.”

“We don’t know how long that’ll take, though,” she said with a pout. “I’d prefer to have you back as soon as possible.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’ll always have my siblings.”

“But I want you,” she huffed. “You’re my favorite.”

She felt his cheeks warm beneath her hands.

“I’m your second favorite,” he reminded her. “Cass.”

She snickered. “True. You’re my favorite until Cass accepts my proposal.”

“Hm. I’ll have to enforce the bro code to make sure that never happens.”

“Oh no! I guess I’ll be stuck with you forever, then. What a shame!”

He smiled brightly. Sometimes she lamented the fact that he didn’t give a lot of genuine smiles. The grins and smirks were nice, of course, but she liked to watch the way he would duck his head slightly to try and cover his face with his bangs. Still, in the privacy of her own head, she had to admit that the fact she could get such a smile out of him when few others could made her heart rate spike. He smiled for her. Who wouldn’t be flattered by that?

She pulled the smile that she loved so much down for a kiss.

~

The first time they stepped out the door as an official couple they were hounded by reporters.

Tim wanted to ask how they knew where they lived. He settled for asking them to blur the area around them.

It was more than a little annoying to be harassed on your way to the grocery store. They had just wanted eggs, milk (Marinette kept leaving it out for some strange reason), some cat food, and enough miscellaneous snacks to keep Cass occupied. They did not want cameras shoved in their faces.

But years of being public figures had trained them to keep pleasant smiles on their faces and to answer questions with as little information as possible.

Finally, though, they made it inside and a manager kicked out the reporters.

Marinette let her shoulders slump a little beneath his arm and Tim flexed the muscles in his face before it could get stuck in that awkward half-smile forever.

He squeezed her a little. “You alright?”

She shrugged as much as she could without displacing his arm. “Yeah. Just… hate reporters.”

He nodded his understanding. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Want to buy some Oreos while we’re here?”

Her face lit up. “Can we?”

“I’m rich. Of course we can.”

And, so, they did. He made a mental note to start buying oreos in bulk. All the flavors, just in case she ever got sick of the normal version.

They glanced out the door and, though they couldn’t see the paparazzi waiting just outside, they were sure that they would be back soon. They ducked through back alleys to try and get away.

Only to stop in the middle of a dark alley at the high-pitched cry of: “Give me your money or else!”

Tim sighed and set down the cat food to hand over everything in his pockets. A glance back at Marinette confirmed she was doing the same --.

And then he stopped short. He turned more fully to look at their mugger and then started to laugh.

“I’ll… I’ll kill you!” Said the mugger, who was just a kid. They might not have even hit puberty yet.

“With a pocketknife?” Tim said.

Marinette turned around as well at that and a grin spread across her face. “Oh my gods, that’s so lame.”

“It’s Gotham, you gotta do better than that,” said Tim. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a butterfly knife. He handed it over. “Here, have this, at least. Christ, that’s terrible.”

The kid didn’t seem to know what to do about the fact that his would-be victims were laughing at her and apparently helping her mug people.

Marinette handed over everything except for the necklace Tim had given her. “Here, kid. And get a mask or something to hide your face, it’s not nearly dark enough in here for you to just go with a hood.”

“Oh, and here’s my address,” added Tim. He typed it into his phone -- damn, he should have brought more than a pager -- and then handed it over. “We always have a lot of extra food, so if you ever need it just knock on the window.”

“... thanks?” said their now adoptive kid (they didn’t make the rules, this kid was theirs now).

“Yeah, yeah, no problem. Can we go now? One of his siblings is coming over soon and he will start our show without us.”

“Uh… sure?”

~

Marinette sat on the kitchen island, squinting at the cast on her arm. Was it worth taking off for the sake of doing work? Maybe --.

Tim’s voice crackled through her ear and she perked up a little at the sound, smiling. He was talking, greeting guests it seemed. Right. He had a meeting today, Janet had mentioned it earlier that morning.

Marinette sighed a little at the reminder that, while she might not care about her broken arm, her boyfriend did. Yeah. Tim would probably be stressed if she took off her cast before the doctor said it was okay. She settled to lay back on the counter, head resting on her good arm, and stare at the ceiling as she listened to his voice...

Only to dart up when she felt a tap on her arm.

She looked over, eyes blown wide, and only relaxed slightly when she realized she recognized the person.

Adrien stood over her, arms crossed over his chest despite the glasses/miraculous he had hooked to the collar of his shirt, but he apparently wasn’t angry enough to not accept the usual kisses on both cheeks that Parisians did as greeting.

He said something that she couldn’t really understand with the part of her brain still concentrated on Tim explaining some sort of chart.

She sighed and reached a hand to her ear to turn off the bug. “Hey, can you repeat that?”

He didn’t. Instead he squinted at her ear suspiciously. “Does your ear hurt?”

“... no?” She said slowly, a little confused.

“Whatcha listening to?”

She paled. Shit. He was going to be pissed (or, at least, more pissed than he already was) if he found out that her supposed ‘stalking’ was getting worse. She needed an excuse.

“Uh, that one rapper, uh --.”

“BS. You don’t listen to rappers.”

He held a hand out and, reluctantly, she handed it over to him. She might as well get her murder over with.

He set it in his ear and, after a few attempts, turned it on. His face soured even more, somehow.

“This better not be who I think it is.”

She gave a tentative half-smile.

That was all the answer he needed. He grabbed her by the back of her shirt and started dragging her through the streets.

No one helped. Not that she expected them to, it was Gotham, but it was still a little hurtful.

Adrien stopped suddenly after a few minutes of walking.

“... wait… where’s his office?”

[professorchaos]

What were your thoughts on the episodes of this season?

pajama day was an ok start, not very memorable but had a kinda promising plotline that kept it afloat and seeing everyone in pjs was cute! the second ep was enjoyable too, nothing special but the tolkien gag was made stronger by the commitment to the bit (changing online links etc) and my sp parents-loving heart was warmed by steve black being a massive lotr nerd (i wish that he'd done his lotr-themed weed idea in the end tbh)...

still, despite some strong ideas, the writing this season was shockingly bad and at many points it was pretty obvious to me that the season was a low priority for m&t. i have a strong suspicion that it was primarily written by ghost writers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! i'd love if sp brought in fresh talent to the writing team, but whoever handled these 6 eps seemed to be struggling to find their feet.

city people and back to the cold war were probably the worst eps of the season, with city people being absolutely lacklustre and back to the cold war relying far too heavily on jokes completely empty of substance. it was disappointing and surprising, bc eps with either cartman or butters as a central character are usually really good and i think it's hard to go wrong when playing liane and eric off against each other (or indeed butters and his parents), but they ended up neglecting to properly utilise their strongest characters here. the plot with mr mackey did feel like a suitable commentary on current events and definitely reminiscent of the attitude i have noticed in american adults around me, and was the saving grace of the horse riding episode, which otherwise would have honestly been one of the worst sp episodes in a very long time. i would have liked to have shown in to certain american family members who have been treating the war in ukraine like a personal issue. still, as a european i didn't find it to be anything revolutionary.

the last two eps were the strongest, with the last possibly being my favorite for the season. help, my teenager hates me! was a nice, wholesome main 4 ep, though i thought it felt odd that both eric and randy barely spoke (this has been happening a lot this season though, with certain characters just fading into the bg almost as badly as, historically, kenny has done). eric was forgivable, due to the continuity gag (him being depressed about living in a hot dog), but randy could have had a couple more lines, at least - it's weird to have him there and not talking these days. still, i was really happy to see stuart (!!!) and gerald used, and even jimbo got to make a cool little cameo as eric's stand-in dad. the take on teenagers was pretty funny (them with their heads on the trolleys in the supermarket made me laugh especially - i was totally like that when i was a teenager myself, oh my god, the agony of being taken places you asked to go, the agony of doing literally anything etc etc. also the kid burning himself with the naruto poster behind him... classic).

the "st patrick's day special" was the closest to being "classic sp" levels of enjoyable; it was great to see butters and randy both used well (as a butters fan i hate to say this, but butters is funniest when he's suffering for no reason, and they don't make him suffer enough these days). playing them off each other was a good choice, and something i wish they'd leaned into a bit heavier - they're two of the show's best and most popular characters, but how often do we get to see them interact? the take on st patrick's day itself was kinda unintelligible and the episode wasn't really saying anything that i liked (making light of sexual assault accusations with no clear punchline just felt a bit weird coming from people who hold a lot of power in a notoriously abusive industry... but hey). i have noticed since being in america that americans take to this holiday with a bizarre amount of enthusiasm for people who by and large are about as irish as i am (which is to say: not irish) so the idea that it's secretly a way to celebrate being white felt pretty on the nose to what i've been thinking every time i see all the green shit in stores lol. i liked the thing they did with splicing artstyles at the end for st patrick! i've definitely missed that aspect of the show in recent years.

all in all it was just ok, with some strong moments and a lot more shockingly terrible ones (seriously... some of the writing was just so awful this year that i almost gave up watching halfway through the season). in some ways i do feel like aspects of the show are headed in the right direction, so i'm still excited to see what next season is like, but if it isn't significantly better than this one was, i'm not sure how much longer i'm gonna be bothered to keep watching -_-;;

[rouiettes]

raya and the ugliest fucking dragon i've ever seen holy fuck who the hell thought to give a dragon fuckiNG EYEBROWS WHY WHY—

aka the musings of a filo non-binary bisexual who feels victimized by the dragon designs of this fucking movie supposedly centred around THE LAST DRAGON???? MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE STAYED STONE GDI WHAT THE FUCK SERIOUSLY WHY DO THE DRAGONS LOOK LIKE THAT

let's get one thing straight.

none of the characters in this movie. rest assured. not a single straight person was in this movie. trust me.

raya and the last dragon had all the foundations of a good movie

IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT

BUT IT WASNT

AND HERE'S WHY

(in my humble opinion okay pls dont come for me)

a disney movie with sea culture at its heart and soul, i was so hyped to finally watch this movie

(not as hyped as i could have been tho bc let's be honest DISNEY DID SHIT WITH RAYA'S MARKETING)

(AND PERHAPS FOR GOOD REASON LOL I SWEAR I DONT HATE THIS MOVIE OKAY)

you had the amazing score, the amazing concepts for plot and characters, the solid solid worldbuilding???

if you just told me about how raya's setting and premise, i'd probably be "wow this movie sound like the whole package"

and then i'll actually watch the movie and have just as much trust issue as raya did :/

but i digress

A DISNEY MOVIE WITH SEA CULTURE AT ITS HEART AND SOUL

do you know how diverse sea culture is??? VERY

and one thing i was very happy to see was how raya handled it

it was by no means perfect but

the subtle shows of culture in the way the characters acted, and the environment of the movie was just CHEF'S KISS

not only that but the ideas the movie had in terms of its world and the people in it felt genuine, it felt alive

a dragon that isn't the typical fire-breathing lizard

characters who look like they could easily be my neighbours or children i've played with

instead of pandering to this movie felt like an actual homage to sea cultures

and for good reason bc seeing all those familiar names rolling in the credits had me feeling some type of way :")

also that fucking soundtrack gave me chills throughout my watch of the movie

okay now that we've got the things i actually like about the movie, let's talk about what i don't like

if there's one word i could use to describe disney's raya it would be: rushed

like i said in the beginning, all the groundwork for an astounding disney movie were already there

but all of it just goes to waste bc the plot and it's characters feel so Unfinished

the movie felt like a bullet-point presentation of the story

WHICH IS SO FUCKING DISAPPOINTING BC THE CHARACTERS SEEMED SO INTERESTING but all we got were shadows of what they could have been

cardboard cutouts of the archetypes they filled

i'm not asking for a bottomless well of depth, but i at least wanted more for the cast than just: angry misunderstood princess, angry misunderstood princess with an undercut, that one dancing kid from moana but with more spice, boss baby, and the mountain

and i get that they had to sacrifice some of their depth to keep the run time of the movie short but you have got to be better than this disney

i hate to compare but it felt like this movie tried to go beyond what moana gave us, and shot so far that it ended up back to where it started, and then stumbled back a few steps

AND IM NOT EVEN SAYING A DRAGON MOVIE WITH A BIG CAST IS IMPOSSIBLE

BC IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON DID IT THREE TIMES

and you'd think the plot for one of the few disney movies with a non-western setting would have more than just a macguffin considering how batshit sea folk tales can be

but you'd think wrong folks.

GENUINELY IT FELT LIKE THEY WERE ATTEMPTING SOMETHING BUT WERE SHORT OF BRINGING IT TO FRUITION

sure moana had a macguffin too with the heart of te fiti, but the heart itself wasn't the heart of the movie

it was the journey of moana and maui

it was that BEAUTIFUL TWIST WITH TE KA AND TE FITI

ALL DELIVERED WITH A NATURAL FINESSE THAT HAD YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT

YOU WERE ALONG FOR THE RIDE OF THE STORY INSTEAD OF QUESTIONING EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING ON LIKE I WAS

maybe this was just me but like, i felt so bad for the friend who watched this movie with me bc all i could go on and on was how the plot felt like it was getting in the way of itself

why didn't the different kingdoms (??) kept the gem in rotation or smth, when did they decide that heart would keep it and then get mad at heart for keeping it????

why didn't awkwafina dragon just show herself to the kingdoms bc everyone seems to be in agreement that dragons good right? that they would be the key to getting rid of the druun right??? SO THEY'D ALL AT LEAST HEAR HER OUT OR SMTH RIGHT????????

and yes raya has trust issues but it seems to only spring up at the most convenient times plot-wise, we didn't really see her learn to trust other people again OTHER THAN THE TIMES WHERE SISU WOULD HAMFISTEDLY SHOVE IT DOWN OUR THROATS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE GOOD SOMETIMES RAYA

we see it with boun, but then she just trusts noi, her monkeys, and tong THE GUY WHO STRUNG THEM UP AND WAS THREATENING TO TORTURE THEM????????

i'm gonna be honest and say that if it weren't for namaari i'd have absconded the moment sisu came on screen

as far as i'm considered the actual plot of the movie is just the entire sword fight scene between her and raya

and finally

we get to the part i will be erasing from my brain for my own mental well-being

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT DRAGON DESIGN

WHY OH WHY TH  E FUCK DOES SISU SOUND AND LOOK LIKE THAT

my friend said they looked like the ponies from mlp in 3d AND NOW I CAN NEVER UNSEE IT

THEY HAVE EYEBROWS THEY HAVE HUMAN FACES

HUMAN FACES ON MAJESTIC DRAGON BODIES

THE INTERNET HAS COLLECTIVELY DECIDED THAT SISU IS BASICALLY FURRY ELSA

every time we got a sisu close up i lost 5 years to my life

disney i am suing for damages

if you want me to drop the charges i demand raya 2: electric boogaloo but it’s just raya and namaari enemies to friends to lovers ark

and also for them to never say dragon nerds ever again

AGAIN. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON GAVE US BEAUTIFUL DRAGON DESIGNS. HELL IF YOU WANTED MORE EASTERN LOOKING DRAGONS FUCKING SPIRITED AWAY??? HAKU??????????

AND YKNOW WHAT. SISU WOULDN'T EVEN LOOK THAT HORRIFIC IF THE MOVIE WAS IN 2D

im not the first person to be side-eying disney's decision to keep pumping out these 3d movies but like.

no amount of added dimensions could ever make that dragon design okay

and there so many more points i could go off on to show how this movie was rushed

how the other dragons, and even sisu's siblings whom she had been missing for the entire movie DIDNT MAKE A SINGLE SOUND???? NOT EVEN A FUCKING GROWL DISNEY???? DID YOU EVEN TRY WITH THE DRAGONS AT ALL??? THE SUPPOSED CENTRE OF THIS MOVIE'S PLOT?????????

HOW THE CHIEFS OF THE OTHER KINGDOMS WERE BASICALLY PLOT DEVICES????

THAT ONE CHIEF'S SKELETON WAS MORE INTERESTING THAN ANY OF THEM COMBINED ALIVE

kudos to that one granny chief though

u can never have enough bad ass old ladies

AND GOD THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS JUST FELT SO FORCED

ALONG WITH WHATEVER LESSON SISU WANTED TO IMPART ABOUT TRUST

LOVE THESE CHARACTERS THEY ARE FUNNY THEY ARE FRIENDS FOUND FAMILY

TRUST PEOPLE IF U WANT THEM TO TRUST U

TRUST PEOPLE OR ILL LITERALLY FUCKING KILL U

children aren't stupid disney. if you tell your story well enough, they'll pick up on the messages you want to give them. YOU DONT HAVE TO THRUST EVERYTHING IN OUR FACES

i was exhausted by the time i finished this movie

bc i really wanted to love it. i wanted to feel more for it than just: well, it's a movie :)

i dont hate this movie though like it's not even worth the energy for that

i think that ultimately, despite all my issues with it, this movie was a step in the right direction when it comes to having non-western stories being told by non-western people in big name productions

i'm glad raya and the last dragon exists

i just can't help but be dissapointed though bc this movie put so much effort into putting my people and culture at its forefront but at what cost???

good characters and story for a good setting and design????

does it have to be one or the other?????

DOES THE DRAGON HAVE TO HAVE EYEBROWS??????

[spencstan]

Six of Crows re-read

(i also did this for the shadow and bone trilogy so read that if you want to)

spoiler alert obiously

i'm SO EXCITED FOR THIS this is my comfort book (with crooked kingdom of course)

JOOST HI

oo fun fact this was my first grishaverse book and i read it with no context whatsoever except that the mc is an emo boy and morally grey

so IMAGINE my pure confusion when JOOST appeared

i was like ?????? weird take on morally grey character but ok

joost trying to figure out how to flirt with a girl is a mood

anyone wanna teach us how to???

i kinda wanna skip this part so i can see the crows..

but i won't don't worry

(won't I?

"I think Yuri may be quarantined"

aaaand?

so are we you are not special

i feel like it's very important for me to mention that i read this book in spanish first

and then i got into the fandom and i was like who the fuck is the wraith? i only know El Espectro

Heartender who??? ooo you mean Cardio

Tidemakers? nope, i only know Maremotores

for real i was so confused i had to re-read it in english (not that i mind tho)

say whatever you want about the spanish version but we have to agree that this design is pretty af

another one yay: "Retvenko was a Squaller" vs. "Retvenk era un Impulsor"

(should i also say that in my pfd english version the book is 294 pages long and in my pdf spanish version its 532????) (i think it's because in the english one the speces are way less like the lines are so close together wtf

i've decided that i'm bored so i'll be skiping this chapter

anya is super badass tho

skdgfalsdgfliaysvfascvhjl yesssssss inej

Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

KAZ

INEJ

I MISSED THEM

omg now i can picture amita and freddy SDJGKASKGLASG THIS IS AMAZING

we interrupt our regularly scheduled program to watch the shadow and bone trailer once again to hear freddy's beautiful voice

ok moving on!

now hear me out i'm giving you all permission to make fun of kaz for this one: Dirtyhands = Manos Sucias

hello i am Kaz Manos Sucias. nice to meet you!

AAAAA

AAAAAAAAAA

JESPER FAHEY

JESPER LOVE HI

SJDGHFKAHSGDLAJSDFSJ,AHFLHDSGF

I MISSED HIM OMG

OMG NOW I CAN PICTURE HIM AS KIT

can you tell jesper is one of my favourite characters?

i really love the fact that kaz is pissed about the murder of that ambassador ONLY because he can´t figure out how it happen

he´s such a nerd

i can't believe one of the firts things we hear jesper say is threathen to kill someone by writing "forgive me" with bullets

AND HE CALLS HIS GUNS "BABIES" OMG

picture saying hi baby and wylan thinkin he's talking to him but actually jesper's talking to one of his guns

Jesper rolled his eyes. "It's about sending a message. What's the point of a dead guy with forg written on his chest?."

"Compromise," Kaz said. "I'm sorry does the trick and uses fewer bullets."

ooo thank god we have kaz to come up with creative solutions /j /s

honestly i love how they talk about kaz's cane like it's the scariest weapon ever (which it kind of is)

nothing will ever disappoint me more than finding out that in english their gang name is "the Dregs". like i don't even know for sure what that means

in spanish is "Los Indeseables" (the undesirables?) which sounds a lot more badass

no hate tho i like the dregs

but i was confused af bc i expected it to be sometihng like "the undesirables" or"the unwanted" or whatever

and it said "the dregs"

which in the translator means something like shit or something

anways moving on:

If he'd (kaz) ever been a little boy

i love how lowkey all the crows think he was just born exactly like he is now

imagine a baby kaz all dressed in black and threatening people

cute

"No mourners," Jesper said as he tossed his rifle to Rotty

"No funerals," the rest of the Dregs murmured in reply. Among them, it passed for "good luck".

YES

YESSS

i wonder what wylan's doing right now :))

i can't wait for the next book where he has a pov

the first time i read this book i literally looked at the title of every chapter to see if he ever got one (i was disappointed to say the least :((((

Besides, she was the Wraith - the only law that applied to her was gravity, and some days she defied that, too.

ma'am

marry me please

i'm gonna cry so hard once the show is out and we get to see inej omg

me simp

That Kaz had chosen Jesper to be one of his seconds was no surprise. Twitchy as Jepser was, with or without his revolvers, he was at his best in a fight, and she knew he'd do anything for Kaz.

idk why but i just love it every time kaz implies or shows that he cares or trusts jesper

it makes me soft

But every one of Inej's senses told her that was not how this was going to play out. Her father would have said the shadows were about their business tonight. Something bad was going to happen here.

underrated saying from Inej's father right there

"I'm a business man," he told her."No more, no less"

"You're a thief, Kaz."

"Isn't that what I just said?"

i-

i see no lies here

not to be annoying but i hc jesper as adhd (i mean is pretty much as canon as wylan's dyslexia) so i'm gonna write here every time i see evidence :)

jesper with adhd part 1: impulsivity

Jesper snorted. "Stomach, spine. What's next, spleen?"

"Shut it" Oomen snarled. The rules of parley dictated that only the lieutenants could speak once negotiations had begun. Jesper mouthed "sorry" and elaboratedly pantomimed locking his lips shut.

he know he couldn't speak but couldn't stop himself from making a comment (i relate way too much to that lmao)

hoestly poor jesper he had to watch hid friend get shot and kaz do nothing about it

i would've been mad too

"I like it when men beg," she said. "But this isn't the time for it"

KAHGFAHLGSFGASFLGSAFS

this is one of the best quotes in the book by far

YASSS KAZ POV

Kaz could have tol Jesper that he knew he wasn't dirty, reminded him that he'd trusted him eough to make him his only real second in a fight that could have gone badly wrong tonight.

cute

but kaz is petty af

he didn't even have a reason not to tell jesper that!

i love that kaz knows inej is following him but doesn't say anything because he wants to wait until she's ready

i LOVE the scene where kaz in in the van eck mantion /srs

idk why but it's so good

And, of course, there was the mystery of Van Eck's son.

wonder what that could be!!! /s

He grinned at her (...)

"Hmm." she said noncommittally, pretending to examine one of her knives, determined to ignore that grin.

KANEJ YESS

HE'S BASICALLY SHOWERING IN FRONT OF HER OMG

this is so funny poor inej is getting flustered

"And I'll need Wylan waiting at the Crow Club tomorrow night."

YES WYLAN OMG

One minute he made her blush and the next he made her want to commit murder

happens to the best of us :/

"Please, my darling Inej. treasure of my heart won't you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat?"

if kaz doesn't say this on the show we riot

agreed?

it's so amazing how nina found a way to use her powers to get money instead of having to like steal and murder like the rest in the gang

NINA'S POV YESSS HIII

nina and inej omg

their friendship is just perfect

POOR MATTHIAS HE HAS TO FIGHT THE WOLVES

i would straight up cry

Matthias was dreaming again. Dreaming of her

i'm gonna cry damn it

this is the enemies-to-lovers we all needed

jesper has adhd part 2:

"Jesper was supposed to wait until three bells." said the pale boy

"It is three bells, Kaz." replied a small girl (...)

"Since when is Jesper punctual?" the boy complained with a glance at his watch

the time blindness come one

(btw i love the fact that kaz plans around jesper's time blindness instead of like threatening him to be on time)

i really love how every one feels the need to take the time to say/think that the masks are ugly

its so unnecessary lmao

yessss inej is a badass that kills monster we stan

and matthias is lowkey impressed lmao

as he should

"Thank you, Jesper," said Nina

"You're very welcome, gorgeous. See, Kaz? That's how the civilised folk do"

THESE TWO OMG

JESPER IS THE LOML

INEJ OMG LOOK:

She stepped aside as if she's known he was coming, languidly hooking her heel behind his ankle. Matthias let out a loud grunt as he landed on the stones

(...) "Clumsy, this one," the bronze girl said impassively.

i-

that's what happen when you underestimate her bitch

AAAAAAA

PEOPLE

PEOPLE

TIME TO FREAK OUT

WYLAN IS HERE

AND HE'S DOODLING STOP IT'S SO CUTE

ok jesper has adhd part 3 i think:

"Just how crazy is he?" asked Jesper, fingers drumming on the pearl handles of his revolvers.

ok first of all: stimming

second of all: hyperactivity

i rest my case

ok 2 or 3 things here

"I believe you know Nina," Brekker continued. "The lovely girl freeing you is Inej. (...) and this is Wylan, the best demolitions expert in the Barrel"

"Raske is better," Inej said

The boy looked up, ruddy gold hair flopping in his eyes, and spoke for the first time. "He's not better. He's reckless"

"He knows his trade"

"So do I"

ok 1: kaz calling inej lovely omg kanej

2: YES WYLAN STANDING UP FOR HIMSELF

2.5: kaz calling him the best cute af

3: honestly why do people think wylan is like an innocent soft boy or whatever. he's in a room full of murderers and thieves and the first thing he does is correct them and stand up for himself

like i wish i could do that

i would be crying like a bitch

AAAAAAAA

"Meet Wylan Van Eck"

KHDSGFALSGFIASGFAL

HI WYLAN BABY

YESSS JESPER'S POV NOW

I'M SO HAPPY also look at this it's the first thing in his pov

Jesper stared at Wylan

do i sense some wesper?????

ok everyone is being so mean to him right now

they are aclling him useless and an idiot and other shit

poor boy honestly he had to deal with this + taking part of a heist he is definetly not ready for + he has to hide the fact that he can't write or read

it so distrubing that kaz is literally the nicest one to wylan right now

"See that? Hidden depths." (...)"He's good enough at demo, and he's got a fine hand for sketching, thanks to all those pricey tutors."

(...)

"There you have it," Kaz said to Jesper. "Marketable skills. Wylan is watching you, Helvar"

GET READY

ARE Y'ALL READY?

OK THEN:

"Scheming face," Jesper whispered to Inej.

She nodded. "Definetly."

THEIR FRIENDSHIP OMG

AND THIS QUOTE

I NEED IT ON THE SHOW THEY BETTER GIVE IT TO US

"Who's Mark" damn wylan (but pretty good comeback to jesper tho)

"What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?

"Knife to the throat?" asked Inej.

"Gun to the back?" said Jesper.

"Poison in his cup?" suggested Nina.

"You're all horrible," said Matthias.

tag yourself i'm jesper

KJSFGAL kaz just told wylan to tell him everything he know about his dad's company

and he said he doesn't know and kaz was like "and you never looked trough his documents????

AND THEN HE GOT SAD AND SAID HE HADN'T (and kaz believed him this is sad)

AND NOW JESPER CALLED HIIM USELESS

ok you know i love you jes but if you keep this up

idk i can't do anything you're a sharpshooter

but stiiiiiil

LMAO MATTHIAS ACTUALLY THOUGHT HE COULD BEAT KAZ

nice try

demjin

*insert spongebob voice* demjin

WE'RE GONNA TAKE A MOMENT NOW TO APPRECIATE INEJ GAHFA

BECAUSE KAZ DOESN'T

The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.

*ugly crying*

Many boys will bring you flowers. But some day you'll meet a boy who will learn your favourite flower, your favourite song, your favourite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won't matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.

*uglier crying*

TANTE HELLEN IF YOU DON'T GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE

SOMEONE PLEASE STAB HER FOR ME

jesper has adhd part ?? (i have dyscalculia you can't expect me to remember the number):

That sound - the swift, shocking report of gunfire - called the scattered, irascible, permanently seeking part of his mind into focus like nothing else.

do i really need to explain this?

ok just in case.. an adhd brain doesn't actually have a deficit of attention(the name just sucks) it's problem with controling that attention. the brain is always looking for new sources of dopamine which is why it shifts its focus so much

i love that jes thinks of matthias as "tha giant"

like sir

have you seen yourself?

you're tall af

HE GOT SHOT

WHY DID I FORGET JESPER GETS SHOT IN THE LEG HERE

"Close your eyes!"

"You can't kiss me from down there, Wylan"

"Just do it!"

i love the energy BUT NOW IT'S NOT THE TIME JES

YESS WYLAN SHOW THEM THEY WERE WRONG CALLING YOU USELESS

inej just stabed some guy int the d

good for her!

KAZ YESSSS HI

AWWW SHE'S WORRIED HE DOESN'T HAVE HIS CANE

KANEJ FOR LIFE

oh no wylan got shot too???? (just barely but stilllll por baby)

my Wraith omggg

ok 3 things about this:

Without another word, he tipped Oomen into the sea.

"No!" Wylan shouted, leaning over the railing, his face pale, stunned eyes tracking Oomen in the waves. (...)

Jesper set his hand on Wylan's shoulder. "Let it go."

"It's not right-"

"Wylan," Jesper said, giving him a little shake."Maybe your tutors didn't cover this lesson, but you do not argue with a man covered in blook and a knife up his sleeve"

1. wesper yasssss

2. wylan just argued with a mant hat had just tacken the eye out of someone. he literally called him out for being an asshole. like damn wylan is brave af i love him

3. do you think seeing kaz trow the guy out of the boat reminded wylan of when the same thing happened to him???? this makes me sad

he's brave and a good person and i just-

"Man with a knife, remember?" he said over his shoulder.

"Man with a gun!" Jesper called after him

this had no right being so funny

AND THEN KAZ GAVE HIM THE MIDDLE FINGER STOP I CAN'T

nina is the biggest kanej shiper no one can tell me i'm wrong

unrelated but if jesper had gone to the Little Palace and had studied there with nina they 100% would've had a crush on Zoya and bonded over it

like you can't tell me those two bisexual disaster wouldn't be absolutely in love with Zoya

jesper has adhd part ??:

Jesper scrubbed the back of his neck, touched his hands to his gunds, returned to his neck. He always seemed to be in motions

hyperactivity right there

and restlessness

"Do you know the best way to find Grisha who don't want to be found?" (...)

"Seems to be if they don't want to be found, you should just let them be" (jesper says this)

this conversation must be so stressful to him omg

LMAO JESPER CUT MATTHIAS HAIR THIS IS SO FUNNY

AND HE SHAVED HIM

ok you all know i love all of them but they can be sooo stupid

like wylan wrote no names on the drawing and he's excuse is that he doesn't know fjerdan?

AND THAT'S NOT EVEN TRUE he literally said he learned school fjerdan which means he should know how to write it too (we know why he can't but the tohers don't)

and even then like the excuse doesn't make any sense. why would having the original name be usefull if no one can fucking read it????

the worst part tho? NO ONE QUESTIONED HIM

THEY WERE LIKE "yup makes sense" AND WENT ON WITH THEIR DAY

i wondered how they didn't figure wylan's secret sooner but now i now

it's because theya re idiots

"I'm just doing my job. Stop glaring at me"

wylan baby let's not make the gigant mad

Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. "Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost."

Brekker's lips quirked. "I'll just hire Matthias ghost to kick your ghost's ass."

"My ghost won't associate with your ghost," Matthias said primply, and then wondered if the sea air was rotting his brain.

i had to put this here i don't want to get murdered by the fandom

jesper, inej and nina have the BEST friendship

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE JES AND INEJ TOGETHER ON NETFLIX

"I know some people don't understand, but Kaz told me ... he said it was my choice, that he wouldn't be the one to mark me again."

i love this because it happen when they had just met

he did it because he understands her trauma and he respects her not because he loves her (i doubt he did at the time)

Kaz had been impressed with the sketches. (...)

"Just learn to take a compliment. Kaz doesn't hand them out often."

I'M SO PROUD OF WYLAN

and yess kaz only compliments wylan (and inej but that's sarcastic so it doesn't count) because he's a proud dad

"And you don't belong here, either."

"I beg your pardon, merchiling?"

"We don't need a sharpshooter for Kaz's plan, so what's your job - other than stalking around making everyone angsty?"

He shrugged. "Kaz trusts me."

Wylan snorted and picked up his pen. "Sure about that?"

DAMN WYLAN DESTROYED HIM

also

"If you aren't born with every advantage, you learn to take your chances."

"I wasn't-" Wylan left off and set down his pen. (...)

aww cute neurodivergent boyfriends bonding

Wylan had turned back to his work, his disappointment obvious. For some reason, Jesper felt disappointed, too.

ajgflasjgfjagslfiuusgflgdfsgdflasdgfsd

wesper

aww jes checks on inej every morning and every night i love him

"Thank you for keeping me in this world when fate seemed determined to drag me to the next. I owe you a life debt."

Nina blushed deeply. "I was teasing, Inej"

LJFGALKGFALGA another cute friendship right there

(and i can see why people ship them romantically)

STOP INEJ AND JES ARE BONDING SO MUCH (page 127 so i can go back and read it lmao)

Van Eck writes to Wylan every week, and Wylan doesn't even open the letters

"They just said the same thing again and again: If you're reading this, the you know how much I wish to have you home. Or I pray that you read these words and think of all you've left behind."

should i kill him? anyone want to join me?

Inej bumped her shoulder against his."Then at least we're both the same kind of stupid." (...)

"You're too good for him, you know?"

"I know. So are you"

jes and her bonding over their stupid crush on a white boy

Because I've been looking for an excuse to talk to you for two days.

jfsfdajdhmgkfutdjrgsg ok i can't blame them for having a crush on him anymore

this chapter is full of kanej i love it

"What do you want, then"

You, Inej. You forever.

jksdgfoagsdfgsdgfklasgdflaghsldfgksdgfkahgsdfghjlkf

kaz's backstory makes me sad

"When we get our money, you can burn kruge to keep you warm," said Kaz. (...)

"I´m gonna pay someone to burn my kruge for me."

Kaz fell into step beside him. "Why don't you pay someone else to pay someone to burn your kruge for you? That's what big players do."

"You know what the really big bosses do? They pay someone to pay someone ...". Their voices trailed off as they tomped ahead, and Matthias and the others followed.

JES AND KAZ HAVE THE BEST CONVERSATIONS

i can't believe we get to see nina and matthias meet and their whole backstory in less than a month omg

"It's not natural for women to fight."

"It's not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall, and yet there you stand."

QUEEN

YOU TELL HIM

oh no the dead grisha

this part breaks my heart every time

"Do you have a different name for killing when you wear a uniform to do it?"

.....i'm just gonna leave this quote right here

anyways acab

stop nina tried to kill the survivor so they wouldn't suffer but she couldn't do it

and jesper did it for her without hesitation i wanna cry

and inej didn't want to do it either i want to hug them

"Because our crime is existing. Our crime is what we are"

..........

i'm gonna leave this here again

do with it what you will

"Don't mock what you don't understand."

"My mockery offends you? My people would welcome you laughter in place of this barbarity"

i- this conversation is so important

AAAAA JES AND WY ARE A GREAT TEAM I LOVE THEM

WYLAN TROWS BOMBS TOGIVE JESPER TIME TO GET READY TO SHOOT

INEJ AND KAZ ARE A GREAT TEAM TOO

THEY LITERALLY DID THE SCENE LIKE IN THE AVENGERS (but without the shield WHICH MAKES IT BETTER)

Jesper shouldered his rifle. "Wylan earned his keep."

Wylan gave a little jump at the sound of his name. "I did?"

YES BABY YOU DID GREAT

kaz getting self-conscious for his hair is pure comedy

but nina how can you say that have you see his hair on the show???? it's perfect

"Remeber our friend Mark?"

HELP I CAN'T

"Any other impossible feats you'd like us to accomplish?"

The bearest smile flikered over Kaz's lips. "I'll make you a list."

once again jesper and kaz being besties

unrelated but nikolai and jesper would love each other

the amount of sass they have between them it's unparalleled

"Mmm," Inej murmured, taking a sip from her mug. "Maybe you're just not enough."

DAMN

ma'am marry me please

kaz fainted damn poor boy

unrelated unce again but this is so much betetr than shadow and bone

like you can tell leigh improved so much

her characters are better and their arcs are better developed

the writing itself it's better

or maybe i'm just biased because i love soc so much but i think she definetly improved

INEJ IS TRYING TO GIVE HIM SPACE EVEN WHEN SHE'S TRAPPED AND LOCKED ON THE WAGON

I JUST - THEY KNOW EACH OTHER SO MUCH

Though he'd trusted her with his life countless times, it felt much more frightening to trust her with his shame.

Inej had once offered to teach him how to fall. "The trick is not getting knocked down," he'd told her with a laugh. "No, Kaz," she's said, "the trick is in getting back up"

inej is smart af

Kaz was usually unshakeable during a job, but now he was on edge, and Jesper didn't know why. Part of him wanted to ask, though he knew that was the stupid part, the hopeful farmboy who picked the worst possible person to care about, who searched for signs in things that he knew deep down meant nothing - when kaz chose him for a job, when Kaz played along with one of his jokes. He could have kicked himself. He's finally seen the infamous Kaz Brekker without a stich of clothing, and he'd been too worried about ending up on a pike to pay proper attention.

ok i got a couple of things to say about this part

first of all it makes me so sad that jes cares so much for someone who dosn't deserve him. because no hate to kaz but they would never work as a couple and kaz already treats him like shit most of the time

i think this part shows who a lot about who jesper really is. a boy that grew up having to hide parts of himself, who thinks he's worth nothing but it's smart and capable, who's loyal and brave and caring but doesn't even know it himself. he's someone who feels he doesn't deserve good things and thinks he's not good enough, and that's why he unds up in all the wrong places with the wrong people. he left uni bc he fell in with the gangs, because he didn't think he was smart enough or even prepared to be in studying in the university. jesper is constantly hiding behind a mask or running from things because he's scared of not being enough

an kaz is everything jes in a way wishes he could be. kaz is secure in himself (at least on the outside), he's stable, he's smart, he's "unshakeable". and most of all, he doesn't care about others (we know that's not true but that's how he presents himself)

and that's the thing that causes jesper all his problems. because he's insecure because he thinks he's not good enough for the poeple or things he cares about. and he's always trying to do what's best for his loved ones: he went to the ice court to pay his debt for his father, he follows kaz everywhere beacause he cares about him, he offered to read to wylan (knowing it wouldn't be easy for him to be still that long).

and yeah it often doesn't work out becuase he's messy and he has problems but he tries. and he hates that. he hates that he cares so much about people because at the end of the day, that's what makes him feel like he's not good enough

one more thing and i'm done i promise

unpopular opinion but i love that leigh made jesper have a crush on kaz. 1 beacuse it's refreshing to see someone not get otgether with his first crush. and 2 because i love that it shows that we sometimes get attached to people that are not good for us, but that we can learn to move on. jesper ended with wylan who respects him and values him, unlike kaz

ok i'm sorry that was probably all bs

oo one more thing, jesper definetly has rsd (rejection sensitive disphoria), which is something most poeple with adhd have

"My father used to take me everywhere with him"

this is so sad. bc they probably had a good relationship when he was little. and then they figured he coudln't read and now his father treats him like shit

it's even worse than if he haf been horrible from the beginning because wylan knows he can be a good father. and so he thinks it's his fault and he deserves to be treated like that. i hate van eck

"You're cuter when you're smart"

(...)

"Definitely cuter when you're smart"

wesper yesssss

i love them so much

ok but why do people think jesper is stupid. like the boy just made a bunch of criminals pass out by mixing some chemicals

and he was going to the university at like 15

AAAAND NOW THEY KNOW HE'S A FABRIKATOR

amazing plot twist

also:

Wylan coughed. Flirting with him might actually be more fun that annoying him, but it was a close call.

oooo come on jesper we all know you just love getitng him to blush

and you love him

who said that? definitely not me, nope

awwww jesper misses being around animals that's cute

imagine him coming home to wylan one day with a puppy because he just couldn't resist

cute

Better terrible truths than kind lies

just leaving here more of inej's wisdom

ok this may be a reach but jesper has adhd part ???

Yellow Protocol? Red Protocol? He couldn't remember which was which. (...)

"The alarm was Yellow Protocol, a sector disturbance."

Jesper pushed at his temples. "I don't remember what that means"

a bad working memory? sounds familiar

kaz loves puzzles

it's canon

"I love puzzles. Trickery is just my native tongue."

this part where wylan and jesper see the banner made with grisha's kefta kills me every time

I would have worn purple, Jesper thought, if I'd joined the Second Army. (...) He'd beenwilling, even eager to risk capture and execution as a thief and hired gun. Why was it worse to think about being hunted as a Grisha?

this makes me want to cry so much

another thing super sad: the fact that since his father is Kaelish and had some supersititons towards grisha, jesper grew up wondering if his own father was scared of him. he had to hide his powers and he was almost taught to be afraid of them

"Is it safe to leave them, you know-"

"Alive? I'm not big on killing unconscious men."

"We could wake them up"

WYLAN

NO

damn the boy needs therapy

it's amazing how nothing went like they planned

not a single thing

PEOPLE GET READY

ARE YOU READY?

NEITHER AM I BUT WHO CARES

"What do you like?"

"Music. Numbers. Equations. They are not like words. They...they don't get mixed up."

ok dude the clues are right there he's basically saying it

"If only you could talk to girls in equations."

There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they'd created in the link, Wylan said, "Just girls?"

Jesper restrained a grin. "No. Not just girls." It really was a shame they were all probably going to die tonight.

wylan really said a straight man?? couldn't be me

this is the definition of bi panic "jesper restrained a grin" bitch we saw that

btw i love the slow burn

like they hint something here but they don't actually start liking each other until much later and they don't get together until almost the end of ck

i also love that the fact that they both like guys is like out in the open now. bc i'm not a fan of when queer characters have a crush and there's the whole thing of "are they queer too or not?"

like they both know htey are queer. but they don't get together right away bc they have to start liking each other before. they don't get together bc they are the only queer mlm characters

matthias fake betrayal killed me

i tought it was real

I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept fom this oath.

this is just-

also foreshadowing?

YAYY KUWEI HI

There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.

She's laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and got drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him.

if i ever have a s/o and they don't tell me this at least once i don't want it

He needed to tell her... what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himslef together into some smeblance of a man for her

THIS

THIS IS LOVE RIGHT THERE

they are the only straight couple that matters

everyone else go home

Wylan had scratches all over his cheeks and neck. He was beaming. Inej grabbed his hands and sqeezed.

so cute omg

"You can explain why our illustrious Shu scientist looks like one of Wylan's school pals along the way"

KAZ

i mean it's true but you didn't have to say it

KAZ IS SMILING OMG

EVERYONE FREAK OUT WITH ME

HE'S "grinning like and idiot" STOP I LOVE HIM

"We are all someone's mosnter, Nina"

"I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all"

this part breaks my heart and i love it

"Stay," she oanted. Tears leaked from her eyes. "Stay till the end"

"And after," he said. "And always."

i just- helnik is perfect

AWWW JESPER MISSES WYLAN

my daily dosis of wesper :)

ok but in like 2 pages jesper tought of wylan like 10 times bc he's sad wy isn't with him

Jesper scanned the empty deck. He's assumed Wylan would come up to see them off. (...)

Jesper knew he was being selfish and stupid, but some petty part of him wondered if Wylan had deliberately kept away from him on the journey back. Maybe now that the job was complete and he was on his way to his share of the haul, Wylan was done slumming with criminals.

*charles boyle's insinuating voice* and why do you care so much???

btw YOU ARE WRONG. HE'S LITERALLY GOING OUT OF HIS WAY TO BE WITH YOU EVEN THOUGH HE CAN'T SPEAK

this scene where we find out the truth about wylan hurts so much but it's one of my favourites idk why

I LOVE THAT EVERYONE IS AS MAD AS I AM ABOUT THE LETTERS NOW

"Your're a fool," Jesper snarled. "He smarter than most of us put together, and he deserves a better father than you."

YES TELL HIM

the fact that wylan just heard him say that omg

"Deserved" amended Van Eck. He blew the whislte twice.

SOMEONE BETTER GRAB ME BEFORE I KILL HIM MYSLEF

THAT IDIOT

I HATE HIM SO MUCH

I'M GONNA CRY CAN SOMEONE KILL HIM FOR ME

Jesper screamed in rage and raised his guns.

YES EXACLTY WHAT I MEANT

JUST KILL HIM RIGHT NOW

"I'm not big on bludding, am I Inej?"

"Not as a rule"

Van Eck's lip curled. "And why is that?"

"Because he'd rather cheat," said the boy who was not Kuwei Yul-Bo in perfect, unaccented Kerch.

THIS WAS PERFECT

THE BEST WAY TO REVEAL THAT

(...), and Jesper flinched

baby he recognized wylan's voice

The Shu boy held out a hand. "Pay up, Kaz"

BITCH THIS IS AMAZING

THIS BOY MADE A BET WITH A CRIMINAL THAT HIS OWN FATHER WAS GOING TO TRY TO KILL HIM

AND HE WON THE BET

A nearly perfect replica of Kuwei Yul-Bo stood before them, but he had Wylan's voice, his mannerisms, and - though Kaz could see the fear and hurt in his golden eyes - Wylan's surprising courage, too.

i love it when they compliment him

my boy deserves all the compliments ever

AND KAZ IS PROUD OF HIS SON WE ALL KNOW THIS

Wylan cuold draw a perfectt elevation. He's made a drill that could cut throu Grisha glass from parts of a gate and scavenged bits of jewellery. So what if he couldn't read

this is taking me to some real places

i may cry you've been warned

WYLAN DIDN'T CARE THAT HE MAY BE STUCKED LOOKING LIKE KUWEI

this is making me cry

"A fool would have been waiting to be smashed to bits on that ship. And as for "traitor", you've called me worse in the last few minutes alone."

EXACTLY

YOU TELL HIM WYLAN

Instead, in that moment of threat, when he should have thought only of the fight, he looked at Inej.

BABY

i would've done the same tho she's pretty

amita is sooo pretty i'm gonna die when the show comes out

Jesper was staring at Wylan, his eyes roving over the black hair, the golden eyes. "Why?" he said at last. "Why would you do this?"

nothing to say here except: wesper

You... how many times was it you standing beside me on the deck at night when I tought it was Kuwei?"

"Every time."

i want to cry so bad

"Why does it matter?"

"I don't know!" Jesper said angrily. "Maybe I liked your stupid face."

a very staright and platonic thing to say of course

i know jes we all liked his stupid face

"Jesper made a mistake," said Wylan. "A stupid mistake, but he didn't set out to betray anyone."

YES WYLAN DEFEND YOUR BOYFRIEND

And maybe he'd kept him in the dark about Wyllan because he wanted to punish him a little

even kaz know they like each other come on

Jesper sat with elbows on knees, head in hands. Wylan deside him wearing th face of a stranger.

wylan give him a hug fro me please

he needs it

"Scheming face," murmured Jesper.

"Definitely," agreed Wylan.

i miss inej already

And I'm going to get my girl. Inej could never be his, not really, but he would find a way to give her the freedom he´d promised her so long ago.

i'm ugly crying and so what?

and now we're done....

i want to read this book again omg this is unhealthy

[krisdreaming]

ii. The One When You’re Apart

｢ Masterlist ｣

Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x reader

WC: 1.2k

Summary: You and Kuroo are at different universities, and this year, you can’t spend his birthday with him.

A/N: Day 2! This one might be my favorite of the fics bc I love me some very soft angst ;-; dw though it’s pretty much just fluffy!!

You get back to your dorm after dinner, and you finally have some time to call Kuroo. It’s his birthday, and up to this point all you’ve been able to do is send him a quick message. This long distance thing sucks every day, but you especially hate it on days like this.

“Hi Tetsu,” You say, smiling when his face finally appears on your phone screen. You can tell by the background that he’s sitting at his desk.

“Hey, Baby,” He grins back, propping his chin on his hand.

“Is this a good time?” You pull your phone a little closer, taking in his face even though the low light in his dorm is making it especially grainy. 

“Yup. I was just about ready to take a break from studying, anyway. My roommate’s out with his girlfriend, so I’ve got the room allll to myself,” He swings the camera around so you can see the empty room behind him.

“Nice,” You say, laughing softly. Your smile drops off your face. “And you’re stuck in your dorm alone on your birthday. Did you even do anything to celebrate today?”

“Nah,” He shrugs. “Well... I did buy myself a pastry with my coffee this morning. Does that count?”

You shake your head with a soft chuckle. “Sure,” You hum. For a few moments, the two of you sit in comfortable since. Then, you speak up again. “How do you feel about going for a walk?”

“Why not? Might be good for me. And if the coffee shop is still open, I can grab another coffee.” You hear the hollow tap of his empty coffee cup on the top of his desk.

“Tetsu, no! It’s like 7:30!”

“Tetsu, yes. Why would you deprive me of the one thing that makes me happy on my birthday?” He gives you a teasing pout.

“The one thing that makes you happy?” You echo incredulously as you prop your phone up, stepping across your dorm to grab your coat. 

“You’re not here, so yes.” His voice is muffled, and when you glance at your phone you see that he’s also disappeared from view. “Don’t worry about my caffeine habit, it doesn’t concern you.” His face comes back into view, now with a familiar red scarf wrapped around his neck. “You ready?”

“Yup,” You say, already reaching for the door handle. It’s become somewhat of a habit for the two of you. In the evenings, sometimes you’ll go for a walk around your respective campuses while you talk. It’s nice to have the fresh air, and something about it makes you feel a little bit closer even if his hand isn’t in yours.

“Hey,” You say once you make it outside, “Is that really the scarf that I made for you?”

“Of course,” He gives it a tug, readjusting it on his neck.

“But it’s so gross,” You cringe, “I’m a terrible knitter. You know this.”

“I don’t care, you made it for me! It’s warm. What more could I ask for out of a scarf? You didn’t think I’d get rid of it, did you?”

You laugh. “I wouldn’t blame you.”

“Well, I would never.” He huffs out. For a bit, all you can hear crackling through the phone is the crunching of his footfalls on the leftover leaves. 

“So, did you have a good birthday?” You finally ask as you walk through the mostly empty courtyard.  

“I guess, yeah.” He shrugs. “It didn’t feel much different than a normal day. Buuut, it’s about to get better.” There’s a shuffling sound. “Hold on a second.” The screen goes dark, and you roll your eyes. He’s shoved his phone in his pocket, but you can make out just enough of the ambient sounds to figure out that he’s stepped into the coffee shop.

“You’re impossible,” You say the moment his grin reappears, the rim of his coffee cup in the bottom of the frame.

“But you love me anyway,” He sing-songs, taking an exaggerated sip of his coffee. “Ahh.”

“Yeah, how unfortunate for me,” You say with a shake of your head. The soft smile on your face gives you away completely. He sits down at one of the small tables outside of the coffee shop.

“The only thing that could make this better is if you were here,” He muses, his eyes flickering across the screen. 

“I know,” You murmur. “I wish I could’ve visited you today.”

“Oh well,” He’s quick to brush it off, but you know he’d been disappointed too.

“I miss you,” You say then, barely above a whisper.

“Yeah,” His expression softens. “I miss you, too.”

The late fall air is crisp, and you draw in a deep lungful of it to distract yourself from the stinging at the backs of your eyes. You rub your free hand up and down your arm, picking up your pace a bit in an attempt to ward off the chill now that the sun has almost completely set. 

“Hey Tetsu,” You say as you glance upwards and a thought comes to you. “Can you see the stars there?” He squints up at the sky, and you do the same. They’re faint, but you can just make out a few of the brighter ones. You smile.

“Yeah. Well, kind of,” He says. “Can you?”

“Yup.” You take in a deep breath of the chilly night air. “We’re both looking up at the same stars right now. So that’s something, right?”

“It’s something,” He agrees. But not enough. You finish silently.

“I’ll see you in 26 days,” You say then. You’d just counted this morning.

“Wow, you’re keeping track already? Nerd,” He chuckles. 

“Oh, I’m the nerd?” You smirk, “Which one of us is the chem major, again?”

“Hey, you’re not allowed to be mean to me on my birthday. It’s the rules.” He makes a face at you.

“Yeah, whatever.” You fall into silence again, just existing together for a few moments. Every so often you can hear Kuroo take a sip of his coffee. You fiddle with the zipper on your jacket and finally heave a sigh. “I’ve got an exam tomorrow. I’d better study just a little more before bed,” You say regretfully.

He nods, getting to his feet. You can hear him toss his now-empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can. “Yeah, and I have a lab report to finish. I’ll stay on ‘til you get back to your dorm. Then I should go.”

You try to make the walk back to your dorm slower, but it comes to an end. Just like it always does. “Alright,” You say when you’re inside, feeling the warmth tingle on your cheeks after the chill of the outdoors, “I’ll talk to you later, you old fart.”

He feigns a gasp. “Excuse you, I just so happen to be another year wiser. So there.” And then you’re both laughing, despite the twinge in your middle. “Okay, I’m hanging up,” He says when your laughter peters out. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” You say, holding your phone even closer. “Happy Birthday, Tetsu.”

[neuroduckvergency]

was going to write this as an entire fanfiction but i got too occupied with college lol rip

"You're such a nerd."

"You know, I was probably listening for a good 20 seconds, but I just learned to tune you out when you start going on your tangents."

"The world isn't some Nerd Science Convention, you know."

Deep down inside, Huey knew his brothers didn't mean it when they made these comments. Or, at least, that's what he always tried to convince himself so that he wouldn't get too upset or hung up on them. But the reality of it was, it hurt him a lot. Being the oldest, Huey always just wanted to be of use to somebody, especially to his younger brothers, but as they got older, there was more of a disconnect between Huey and his other two brothers. Growing up moving house to house with Uncle Donald due to his financial issues, having to help Uncle Donald deal with said financial issues since he was a lone parent, made Huey gain a sense of responsibility, and maybe he grew up faster than he was supposed to. Huey was alright with that, because in his mind, he felt that he could still have fun and enjoy himself like a "normal kid" would do. Della coming back in the picture, and them moving in with Uncle Scrooge definitely took a lot of weight off of Huey's shoulders, but between all of the dangerous adventures the family would embark on almost weekly, it was hard for Huey not to step up and be the "adult" of the group at times. There's nothing wrong with that, right?

Except when Dewey would say that Huey would almost obsess over the idea of being the oldest triplet by 3 seconds, and Webby would make comments of Huey "living out of a book" rather than just living day by day, experiencing life as it comes along. Now, Huey always disagreed with this perspective of himself, and for good reason. He wasn't obsessed with being the oldest, he actually had experience being the oldest dealing with Dewey almost always putting his life in danger, and getting Louie out of whatever sticky situation he couldn't get himself out of.

But the more Huey tried to disagree with Webby's point about his "over usage" of his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, the harder it became to find good reasons to argue against it. Sure, the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook offered a worldwide viewpoint of survivor skills, and knowledge about history, mysteries and the way the world functions, but there were times where Huey was disappointed from his usage of the book: Whether it was debunking things that were eventually proven true, denying the own historical research he had (granted, it was very outlandish and if one did not experience it with their own eyes, it would be hard to believe), or not being able to function without being able to use it. That's what really struck out to him when he did the Senior Woodchuck challenge a few months back, how anxious he had gotten once he wasn't able to go through the course with his book on hand. Deep down inside, Huey knew that he could've fared well in the challenge had he not gotten so caught up in not being able to have his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook on hand, but having it with him was what he was used to. In a way, it provided a sense of security for him, especially when facing the unknown, which was undoubtedly his biggest fear.

But maybe, it wasn't normal for him to have reacted the way he had when he was told he couldn't even do as much as make eye contact to his book during the competition. Other past competitors, especially Violet, seemed to fare well without it. So why couldn't he? Maybe he wasn't as good as a woodchuck as Violet, but he definitely knew in his heart that he had the rules of the Guidebook memorized in his brain as if it was implanted into it. So why couldn't he go, I don't know, maybe 2 or 3 hours without it?

That's when Huey decided to do some research.

Of course, his first resource was from the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, but it didn't exactly deliver the answers that he personally needed. One thing about Huey, that all of the adults in his life have credited him for time and time again, is that when he's looking for answers, he always knew directly what kind of response he wanted, and he wouldn't allow himself to stop until he gets that desired response. So when the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook failed him, he went to the source he almost hated the most: The Internet.

Now Huey knew that the Internet had a tendency to overcomplicate, or overexaggerate certain things, but for some reason, when Huey found a certain answer, it almost resonated with him.

"repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, flicking their fingers or rocking their body"

"not seeming to understand what others are thinking or feeling"

"liking a strict daily routine and getting very upset if it changes"

"finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on their own"

"having a very keen interest in certain subjects or activities."

The keen interests, and liking a strict daily routine struck out to him the most. Huey never thought anything of them, but now seeing those words on a screen, linking to autism, a developmental disorder, made Huey put them into a whole new perspective. Made him put his whole personality in a new perspective, even.

Huey was used to other kids telling him that he was different, an outsider, an "old man in a child's body". But hearing that from a Doctor? Huey wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of reality. Yet, at the same time, if this was something that Huey actually had, he wanted answers, and he knew that if he didn't reach out to a Doctor and get those answers, all he would do is obsess over the thought of it, and get even more anxious and stressed.

His research online told me that while there weren't any medications that were prescribed for autism as it's not something that can be treated with medication, there is therapy available for it. Huey remembered Uncle Donald and his Mom having Louie start to go to therapy for his anxiety attacks, but he also remembered how they reacted when they finally realized something was wrong with Louie.

Now, don't get him wrong: Uncle Donald and his Mom were two of the best parents that a kid could have, especially a kid growing up in the conditions that he and his brothers did. Huey knew that no matter what, they loved their boys with all of their hearts, and will do anything to make sure they're okay. But when Louie started having his anxiety attacks, it was as if a light switched, and things went from 0 to 100 rapidly. Constantly checking on Louie, not allowing him much personal space, almost treating Louie as if he was 5 years old again. Huey knew that this was only out of love, but Huey could also sense Louie's growing annoyance with it and imagined himself being annoyed as well if he constantly had the two breathing down his neck. Even in times when Louie would call them out for it, it wasn't long before they were right back at it again.

At the same time, Huey knew that he needed some adult to accompany him if he were to get diagnosed, as minors weren't allowed to go to appointments without the presence and permission of an adult. And Huey knew that at some point, his Mom and Uncle Donald would have to know, if they didn't find out themselves.

But what if they didn't have to know right now? What if Huey had another adult figure accompany him to the appointment, found out whatever answers he needed and worked through them, and then once he was ready, tell his mom, Uncle Donald, Uncle Scrooge, his brothers, Webby, and whoever else needed to know?

The idea sounded good in theory, but he definitely needed a plan of attack, especially since Della and Uncle Donald were the only ones who were legally on his documents. He also needed to figure out who he felt comfortable with taking him.

Huey already knew Uncle Scrooge was a hard pass. Not that he didn't trust him, because he did, but the only experience Scrooge had with raising and taking care of children was occasionally baby sitting Uncle Donald and his mother as kids, and Huey didn't know how exactly he'd handle the situation at hand and didn't want to risk it. Beakley, on the other hand, had tons of experience with raising and caring for Webby on her lonesome, but would also probably encourage him to confide in his parents about it, if not telling them herself. So another hard pass.

That's when another idea came to Huey's mind, and he almost immediately ran out of the mansion to find the source.

"So you... want me to attend your doctor's appointment with you?" Fenton asked.

"Please," Huey begged, "You're the only person I trust with this."

--- @neurodihuegent

[lesbianjunimo]

If you’ve played Chapter 12 of Sweet Elite, then you know what went down. Today I am here to humbly attempt to give us what we all want: A MISTLETOE SCENE WITH THE RIGHT PERSON!! WOO!

ANYWAY, here you go!! I hope you guys enjoy. I’ve only romanced Alistair so some others may be ooc but let’s hope not. Putting these under a cut because I’m assuming this is gonna get long!

Alistair:

As soon as he got back with your punch, the crowd around you guys started giggling and pointing. You two just looked at each other and shrugged. That was when they started yelling to kiss.

“What? Why?- Oh.” You finally spotted the mistletoe above the two of you. “There’s a mistletoe, Al! I couldn’t see it behind your head. You’re too tall.” That made both of you laugh.

“Really? Sorry,” he rubbed the back of his neck. The crowd had gotten bored of you both by that point. You took too long, and high schoolers have the attention span of a pigeon.

Having noticed no one was looking anymore, you quickly planted a kiss on Al’s cheek. He turned bright red immediately, holding a hand to his cheek. “What was that for? I mean, I really liked it-”

“The mistletoe!” You beamed at him and he felt like his heart could’ve exploded. He smiled back at you, taking your hand and giving it a squeeze. He was very glad he asked you to the party.

Tadashi:

If you think this man would kiss you in front of a crowd, I’m afraid you are sorely mistaken. I think the most PDA you’d get from Mr. Professional would be him jumping off a bridge after you if you happened to fall off.

So when the crowd starts yelling for him to kiss, he simply rolls his eyes. “That’s not going to happen! Stop shouting, you’ll get us all caught.” A few people called him lame, but no one really had an argument. If y’all didn’t want to kiss, so be it!

You’d be lying if you said you weren’t disappointed. You were, like, super disappointed. You had been wanting to kiss this man since Halloween night! That’s two whole months of staring at his lips! And for what!

You were a bit bummed, but the excitement of spending the rest of the party with Tadashi brought your mood back up. You had almost forgotten about the mistletoe incident entirely until he walked you back to your dorm.

“I had a really great time tonight,” you smiled at him. He blushed, returning your happy expression. “So did I...” And then he did something you didn’t expect. He took your hand in his, bringing it up to his mouth and kissing your knuckles. “I apologize for the mistletoe incident...I’d rather kiss you at a time more special than that.”

OH. OKAY COOL. THANKS. You two said goodnight and you blushed all the way until you fell asleep. Nerd.

Raquel:

She catches on to the hype of the crowd, but she doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable or move too fast. She’s about to tell you just that, but when she turns to you she sees that you’re not as hesitant as she assumed you’d be.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you for months,” you’re nervous, but so giddy at the prospect of getting to kiss your crush that your feelings just rush out. You didn’t know what you expected Raquel’s response to be, but the huge smile that spread across her face was clearly the best option.

This girl absolutely dips you to give you a kiss. The crowd goes wild. She is milking it. She has spent way too much time with Axel. It’s a really good kiss, though. So good you barely even register the crowd noise. 

When you’re both back upright and you pull away, you’ve got stars in your eyes. You’re so happy you feel like your heart could explode right out of your chest. 

“Definitely the best party I’ve ever thrown,” Raquel winks at you, and smiles to herself when you burst into flattered laughter. “Agreed.”

Tyler:

Also starts yelling “kiss! kiss!” before realizing that it is, in fact, you two being told to do that. Oh. Well, in that case...

Gives you a really cheesy wink, one that makes you snort, before taking both your hands in his. His expression changes to be really serious. “If you want to kiss, that’s fine by me. More than fine. Awesome, even. But if you don’t want to kiss right now, that’s also cool. Kissing in front of people isn’t for everybody.”

He’s. So. Sweet! Oh my God! “A consent king,” you joke, and the two of you snicker. “But, seriously, I would love to kiss you.” “Really?” He looks absolutely giddy at the prospect. “Really.”

And so you two kissed. It was short, but super sweet. You both smiled through the whole thing. Ahh, you’re too cute! You get a few cheers and hollers from the crowd as you pull away. Tyler has a mind to scream “Thank you!” to both them and the heavens for letting him finally be able to smooch you, but he restrains himself.

“Would you want to do that again?” You ask him when the two of you go back to dancing. “Anytime, anywhere.”

Claire:

Mmm no. This would just not do. A bunch of people yelling at Claire will never do, even if they aren’t being mean. And based on the panicked look on her face, all that commotion is deemed illegal under the “everyone must be nice to Claire at all times” law. You leap into action quickly.

“Hey, hey! Leave us alone! If it’s so important someone kiss, do it yourselves!” You shout over everyone. You get a few boos, but you just roll your eyes and take Claire’s hand, leading her out of the room.

You take her back to your dorm, away from all noise. “How about we just stay here for a while?” You offer. She nods, smiling at you. “Thank you. That was very brave of you to stand up for us like that. I froze up.” 

“And that’s perfectly okay. Anyone would have. I just hated seeing you like that; I knew I had to do something.” You sat down next to her, on the edge of your bed. She leaned over and unexpectedly kissed your cheek.

“We may not have had a mistletoe kiss, but I hope that shows my gratitude.” NO ONE PERSON IS ALLOWED TO BE THIS CUTE. You blush and smile, giving her a nod, before the two of you start talking about how excited you are for the group vacation the next day.

Axel: 

More annoyed than anything. Since it’s him, there’s even more excitement than there would be if literally anyone else was under the mistletoe. Shuts that shit down immediately.

He glares at the crowd before telling them to calm down and leave you two alone. You’re torn between sad you didn’t get to kiss him and happy all the peer pressure to do so is gone. 

Honestly, after that Axel doesn’t seem that into the party. You feel bad. Was it your fault? I mean, probably not...but maybe you could’ve handled it better? Hm...

“You wanna get out of here?” He offers, knocking you out of your thoughts. You agree, and you both head to his dorm. “You seemed out of it back there,” he observes.

“I was just...worried I did something wrong and upset you,” you twiddled your thumbs, looking at the floor. Suddenly his shoes were in your view, and he was standing right in front of you. 

“I don’t think you could ever upset me,” he puts a hand on your shoulder as you look up, squeezing gently. “I was just mad at everyone there for pressuring you. I didn’t want to be in the same room as them anymore. I never want you to be uncomfortable like that. I’m used to large crowds screaming at me, but I don’t want you to have to be.”

“So it wasn’t me? Or that you didn’t want to kiss me?” “God, no,” he replied instantly, no hesitation needed. “I’d love to kiss you. Just not with all those people around.” “Well...what about right now?”

Take a guess what happens sjdssgffkdsfj

Karolina:

Completely immune to peer pressure from anyone she doesn’t respect. All the shouting has practically no effect on her. Her reaction is similar to Axel’s, except far more subdued.

“Oh, stop it. It’s not happening,” she pinches the bridge of her nose in a move that kind of reminds you of Tadashi. Those two do tend to have similar body language. Not wanting to deal with the ice queen’s wrath, as well as seeing that no kiss was coming, people lose interest.

“Sorry about that,” Karol says, when you two move to chat in the corner over punch. “It’s no problem! You handled it just as gracefully as I assumed you would.” If there is one compliment she wasn’t expecting, it was to be called “graceful” for dispersing a crowd. She loved it. She was blushing before she even realized it.

“What? It’s true,” you smirked as you took a sip of punch. She looked away, trying futilely to hid her burning cheeks. “Plus, I think first kisses are better when they’re in a more romantic setting. Maybe we’ll get to do that someday?”

Karol lifts her punch to her mouth, seemingly trying to hide in a dignified way, before locking eyes with you. “If you’re lucky,” she replied, smiling despite herself.

Tegan:

Ew. Not a fan of all the peer pressure going on here. Glared at the gathering crowd. “Stop that. Leave us alone.” He was a whole lot more stern than usual! You knew he could be like that when he was especially upset or passionate, especially after what happened at Faxion. 

“Why don’t we go?” You suggested, voice soft. He sighed and agreed. You took his hand in yours, and he quickly intertwined you guys’ fingers as you left the room. You both decided to head to his dorm to get away from the chaos.

“Sorry,” he looked a bit skittish when you arrived. “What are you saying sorry for? You handled that well! You showed major guts out there!” You smiled at him, sitting down on one of the bean bags. He sat down next to you on the carpet, blushing at your praise.

“Thanks. I just...I really wanted everything to go perfectly at that party. It’s important to me that tonight goes well.” He looked into your eyes, clearly worried he had ruined your night.

“Tegan, literally any time spent with you is perfect. We could be doing math homework right now and I’d still be ecstatic. As long as I get to spend it with you, no matter where, tonight will be my favorite I’ve spent on campus.”

Oop- was that too much? You couldn’t tell. You were about to apologize when Tegan surged forward and hugged you. Oh. Looks like it wasn’t. “You’re the best, Y/N.”

Neha:

Freezes up when everyone starts demanding you two kiss. It’s not like she doesn’t want to, just...not now! She gives you a bit of a deer in the headlights look while you both desperately look for a way out of the situation. 

Spending a night with your crush has absolutely fried your brain, so you do the first thing that comes to mind. Point at something shiny. “Whoa! Look at that!” You point towards the window, at nothing in particular, in hopes your peers will think you actually saw something. To your surprise, the majority of people fell for it! Maybe their brains were fried, too. Probably from finals.

Neha can’t stop herself from laughing at your awful plan, continuing to giggle as the both of you make your escape. You guys go back to her room, closing the door behind you before collapsing into another fit of laughter.

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t think of anything else! I just wanted to get you out of there!” You wipe a tear from your eye as you both begin to recover your breath.

“I don’t know how that worked,” the girl next to you rolled her eyes. “But I’m very happy it did.” She lifted your still-joined hands, kissing the back of yours. You blushed beet-red. “Thank you, Y/N.”

Ellie:

Making Y/N uncomfortable is illegal. And the crowd yelling at you sure as hell seemed to be making you uncomfortable. So Ellie put her foot down. “Alright, alright! Stop it!” She’d brandish her screwdriver as a weapon if she weren’t still on Arlington property.

But, luckily for her, the crowd dispersed quickly after her outburst. You let out a sigh of relief, and she wrapped an arm around your shoulders. You could feel her concerned eyes looking you over.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” “Yeah. That just made me really nervous. Do you think we could go somewhere quiet?” “Absolutely!” She agreed immediately. “How about we play some Honeydew Valley? Tegan will totally let me borrow his Swatch.” (ajsgaksjdgsj i love coming up with weird names for stuff like they do in-game)

“That sounds great.” God, she always knew just what to do. You loved that about her. After asking Tegan for permission and getting set up in her dorm, you two settled down. You had a whole lot of fun playing together. You mar or may not have even married your farmers in co-op ohohoho...

“Thank you for changing your plans so last minute,” you mumbled as the night got later, your head having rested itself on her shoulder at some unknown point in the gaming session. “No worries, Y/N! Anything is fun when I do it with you.” 

“Really?” You lifted your head. “Bet,” she replied, and kissed your nose. You nearly died. “Next time let’s make it a real one, hm?” Okay, then you did die, all while she laughed and beat your farmer at the egg hunt.

[whitleyschn33]

How about your boy Whitley for the ask game? :)

What are my top four favorite non-romantic relationship dynamics for them?

Just a heads-up now, Whitley doesn't have many canon interactions and I'm avoiding his family, so we'll be diving into hypotheticals fairly quickly.

Ironwood: I'm fully on board for Ironwood to be the father figure the Schnees' deserve, and that includes Whitley. Their little banter at the door in V7 was nice, and it was incredibly refreshing to see someone actually talk to Whitley with some respect as a human being. In a nicer timeline, I could absolutely see Whitley working in an R&D facility as an adult for the military and reporting to Ironwood, the two having a more argumentative relationship than Winter and Ironwood do, but one ultimately built on a foundation of grudging respect for the other's work and skills. Also, just more positive male figures in Whitley's life, please.

Ruby: I was 100% ready for them to reveal Whitley's techy tendencies and have the two of them geek out about weapon designs, Dust, power suits, all of that fun stuff. Even if the show has largely left Ruby's weapon nerd side behind, I still think the two of them would make a great team, Whitley being more into the circuitry/computer coding and Dust side of the equation, and Ruby having a more practical knowledge of engineering and physics to make the ideas they come up with work in reality. Sadly, that apparently wasn't meant to be. Besides that, I do appreciate that Ruby was the one to reach out and show a little respect to Whitley in V8 E4, actually trying being kind and reasonable when asking to crash in his home. It's one of the few moments where I feel like the old Ruby surfaced in that volume. I really think that they could have made really good friends, and if I ever decide to get off my lazy ass, I'll dig up my old "Ruby/Whitley Pen Pals AU" idea and make it a reality.

Ren: Look, I just want Whitley to have an older brother figure, and Ren is the prime candidate. Ren has endless patience and while not good at expressing his own emotions, is good at reading them in others (literally now), making him a good fit to handle someone that masks his emotions and lashes out to defend himself. I could also see his fighting style appealing to Whitley, respecting a more subtle approach to fighting. Other candidates for this older brother spot include Jaune and Marrow.

Oscar: I don't personally ship Snowpines very much, so this can count, right? I think the two can relate with being pulled into this situation not entirely of their own free will, and the discussions they could have about identity would be very interesting - Whitley being defined by being a Schnee, the new heir, and Weiss's brother rather than by what he himself can bring, and Oscar's sense of self becoming lost as the merge grows closer and closer and his personality is mixed with Oz's. The rich city boy x poor country boy dynamic is always a fun one, too. I want the two to go shopping for new clothes sometime and eavesdrop on that conversation~

What season were they at their best and why?

Volume 8, hands down. He was the undeniable MVP of episode 8 and did so much to show off what a smart, resourceful, brave, and surprisingly caring person he can be. He called a doctor for Nora, came up with the airship plan, completed the commands even in the face of the Hound, helped finish it off while the Huntresses were all dumbstruck, gathered the blueprints to make the portal plan work - he did so much this volume and I'm so proud of him.

What season were they at their worst and why?

Hmm... which is worse, the humiliation of V7 Cordially Invited, or V4 with Weiss acting like he betrayed her for doing nothing... I would probably say they're about even in quality, but if I had to pick one, I'd say V7 was more disappointing. He had some really good scenes with Ironwood, Jacques, and the stair scene after Jacques gets arrested, but I really hate the wine prank and feel like they missed a lot of good opportunities to use his character and develop him. V4 is frustrating with how much it wants to paint him as a bad guy for doing literally nothing, but it's nothing that couldn't have been revealed to be a bias of Weiss's that she overcomes with the help of an outside perspective, and then repair that relationship. That didn't happen, but looking at V4 by itself, it's more the fan response that frustrates me than the actual volume's content.

How would I rank their outfits from worst to best?

*weeps in only one outfit and it's not even that good of one*

Please get some new clothes, if we see him still in that same fucking vest and pant combo that don't even match in Vacuo, I'm going to destroy something.

Which Hogwarts House would I sort them into (optional; what would their wand be?)

Slytherin~ Ravenclaw is a valid contender, but I love the idea of a resourceful and ambitious Whitley that works hard to achieve his goals and prove himself worthy. Slytherin Prefect, and gifted in Transfiguration, with a pet cat he's very fond of.

As for wands, I'm thinking pine wood with unicorn hair, but I could also see elm or acacia.

What do I think this character would be like if they were on the opposite side (good characters are bad, bad characters are good)

I mean, they would just actually make him mini-Jacques, but that's boring as shit.

So how about a character that has been perpetually ignored and abused by the people who are supposed to love him? A character who grows to hate the very idea of huntsmen and huntresses that are upheld as "paragons of virtue and glory" but can't even stop the abuse in their own households, who do whatever they want and use their skills for evil with no oversight? A character that sees 5 people be able to halt the flow of the most crucial resource of their world and leave 3 out of 4 kingdoms utterly defenseless and energy-less? A character that decides that the system that couldn't even stop one of the most famous men in the world from abusing his own son to the ground has to go. No more renegade huntsmen that fail to protect anyone, no more embargos imposed by the will of less than 10 people to the detriment of millions, no more children left behind to fend for themselves, no more kingdoms left to fight alone. And to build something new, the old must be torn down and the earth scorched clean.

...but he's also 15, so I'm not sure how much he could act on that anger. XD

If I suddenly had control of RWBY, what would I want to do with this character after the events of V8?

Vacuo adventures! Clearly Whitley has one of the only two braincells from the hero crew (Ren has the other), so I'd like for him to be included in the problem solving of how to accommodate thousands/millions of people being added into a kingdom that already had a housing problem (from what I've heard - I haven't actually read any of the tie-ins). Whitley's already proven to be good at using the resources they have, so I'd like to see how that would work in a new kingdom.

I'd also like some interaction with Winter, see how that awkward reunion and inevitable blow-up goes, and even though I hate the idea of him becoming a huntsmen, I would be interested in Winter trying to teach him some basic self-defense. Vacuo is a dangerous place, and probably doubly so for a Schnee, and Winter just lost one sibling. I could absolutely see her feeling like she has to at least try to teach Whitley how to defend himself - and there would be so much drama involved in that that I want to see. Also, the two characters I said I'd like to see him interact more with are there, so win-win.

Thanks for the ask! These are some really good questions you've come up with, KitKat~