#Every time I post something serious it feels like a betrayal

[innit1]

and the crowd is !! …. Confused. And a bit sad.

[the-winter-spider]

Say Don't Go | Part 4

Hockey player!Bucky x reader

Word count: 2.3k

Warnings: Angst

A/N: ACCIDENTALLY POSTED THIS AS PART 3 lolol the real part 3 is up 💀💀🫶🏻

Masterpost

-----

The whispers started as soon as you stepped onto campus. You noticed people glancing at you, their gazes lingering a little too long before turning away with giggles or hushed conversations. At first, you brushed it off—maybe they were whispering about something else entirely. But as you made your way across campus, the feeling that you were the topic of discussion grew stronger.

By the time you got to your first class, your chest was tight, your steps slower than usual. Steve had been off the grid all weekend, spending his time with Natasha, which was fine—you didn’t need him every second. But right now, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, and you had no one to turn to for answers.

As you entered the lecture hall, the whispers seemed louder. A group of girls near the back of the room giggled as you walked past, their eyes darting toward you before they leaned into each other, whispering behind cupped hands. Your stomach churned with unease, but you pushed through it, finding your usual seat near the middle of the room.

Normally, you sat alone, but today, Natasha came in just as the professor was about to start, her heels clicking on the floor as she made a beeline for the seat next to you. She plopped down, her usual air of confidence mixed with something more serious as she glanced at you.

“You okay?” she asked, her voice low but careful, like she already knew the answer.

You frowned, your confusion growing. “What do you mean?”

Natasha tilted her head, studying you for a moment, and then sighed. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Your voice wavered slightly as a cold knot of dread began to form in your stomach. Her expression alone was enough to make your heart race.

Natasha hesitated before reaching into her bag and pulling out her phone. She swiped a few times, biting her lip, before handing it to you. On the screen was a photo—it was taken when you were both literally in bed, Bucky was on top of you and you could see your face clear as day. Honestly it could have been anyone on top of you but you knew it was Bucky, it was his room after all. The photo was taken from the bedroom door and you could see the phone in the mirror that was beside the bed but you couldn't see the person just the phone camera. How did you not hear the door open? How did you not see the flash? How could you have been so stupid?

Your breath caught in your throat, blood rushing to your ears as your heart pounded painfully hard. Tears welled up in your eyes as your vision blurred, and you felt your chest tighten as the weight of the image settled on you.

You shoved the phone back toward Natasha, your voice barely above a whisper. “Who… who took that?”

“I don’t know,” she said softly, running a hand through her hair. “It just started getting sent around. People are talking about it.”

Your hands shook as you pressed them against your lap, trying to ground yourself. “You… you don’t think Bucky had anything to do with it, do you?” The words felt foreign and wrong as soon as they left your mouth, but the fear of betrayal lingered anyway.

Natasha shook her head. “I don’t know. But… it doesn’t seem like something he would do, he looked like he really likes you.”

You nodded stiffly, swallowing hard, but it felt like a lump was lodged in your throat. “Okay. Okay.” You tried to breathe, but panic was starting to creep in, your mind spiraling as you imagined what everyone was thinking, what they were saying.

“Where’s Steve?” you blurted out, your voice breaking. “I need Steve. Where is he?”

Natasha reached over, grabbing your trembling hands. “Hey, breathe. Just breathe, okay?” But you couldn’t. The room felt like it was closing in, the whispers from earlier echoing in your head.

The professor started talking at the front of the room, but Natasha didn’t care. She grabbed her bag and yours, slinging them over her shoulder before grabbing your arm and pulling you up. “Come on. We’re not staying here.”

You didn’t fight her as she yanked you out of the room, your legs feeling like jelly as she guided you into the hallway. You barely noticed the stares from other students as you passed, your mind consumed by the image on her phone and the whispers you’d heard all morning.

Outside the lecture hall, Natasha stopped, placing a steadying hand on your shoulder. “Listen to me. We’re going to figure this out, okay? But you need to calm down.”

You shook your head, your breathing coming in short, panicked gasps. “I don’t—I don’t know what to do. I need Steve. Where’s Steve?”

Natasha pulled out her phone, scrolling quickly. “I’ll text him. Just hang on.”

The wait felt like forever, your heart racing as tears threatened to spill over. You wiped at your eyes, trying to calm yourself, but nothing felt real anymore. “Nat,” you whispered, your voice shaky. “What if… what if this ruins everything? What if the professors see this? Oh god, they could kick me out for indecency, can't they?”

Natasha looked at you, her expression softening. “Hey no, none of that's gonna happen, I know we don't really know each other well but I really like Steve and he made it clear you're a package deal, I promise I have your back, okay? And this was obviously taken without your permission, whoever took this should be getting kicked out.”

Natasha was just about to hit call when the sound of hurried footsteps made you glance over her shoulder. Relief and panic collided as you spotted Steve speed-walking toward you, his brows furrowed, his face etched with worry. The moment his eyes locked with yours, the dam inside you broke, and the tears you’d been holding back came flooding out.

Steve reached Natasha first, giving her shoulder a quick, reassuring squeeze before stepping past her to wrap you in his arms. His hold was firm, grounding, and you melted into him, sobbing into his chest as his hand rubbed soothing circles on your back.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he murmured, his voice calm and steady. “We’ll figure this out, alright?”

Natasha motioned toward a quieter hallway, and the three of you quickly made your way to an empty study room. Steve guided you inside, keeping an arm around you as Natasha closed the door, shutting out the rest of the world. The room was private and soundproof, a small sanctuary from the chaos outside.

You sank into one of the chairs, your head in your hands as you tried to catch your breath. “How could I let this happen?” you choked out, your voice trembling. “How could this happen, Steve? I’m so stupid—so, so stupid. I can’t believe I did that. I don’t do things like that, and now it’s coming back to bite me in the ass.”

Steve knelt in front of you, his hands resting gently on your knees, his eyes full of concern. “Hey, stop,” he said firmly. “You’re not stupid. Don’t say that.”

You shook your head, the panic bubbling up again. “Who would do this to me? Who would take that picture and send it around? I just… I don’t understand.”

Natasha leaned against the table, her arms crossed as she glanced between you and Steve, her expression thoughtful. She didn’t interrupt, letting you vent, but her presence was steady, grounding.

“Have you seen or spoken to Bucky?” you finally asked, your voice barely above a whisper. The thought of his involvement twisted your stomach in knots.

Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I texted him a couple of times, but I haven’t heard back yet. I haven’t seen him either, but we’ve got practice in an hour. I’ll talk to him then and figure out what’s going on.”

You nodded, though the uncertainty still weighed heavy on your chest. Steve reached up, using his thumb to gently wipe the tears from your cheeks. “It’s gonna be okay, Bee,” he said softly. “I promise.”

“Okay,” you whispered, even though your voice wavered.

Steve straightened, sitting back in the chair beside you. “If you need to skip practice today, I’ll cover for you. I won’t hold it against you.”

You shook your head quickly. “No, I can’t. I need this job, Steve. I can’t afford to miss a day.”

He nodded, his lips curving into a small, supportive smile. “Alright. If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure,” You finally exhaled.

“Okay,” He gave you a nod, his eyes swirling with worry.

“Okay,” you said again, your voice steadier this time.

“Okay,” He said, giving your knee a squeeze.

“Okay,” You breathed out, nodding at him.

Natasha, who had been quietly observing the exchange, suddenly chimed in. “Okay,” she repeated with a small smile, looking between the two of you. “So… is ‘okay’ like a rite of passage for you two or something??”

Steve chuckled, slinging his arm around your shoulders. “That’s how we say a lot without saying too much.”

You sniffled, a small laugh breaking through your tears. “It’s all in the tone.”

Natasha grinned, relaxing a little. “Good to know for future reference.”

The moment brought a brief sense of relief, a flicker of normalcy in the storm of emotions. But as the laughter faded, the weight of the situation crept back in. You glanced at Steve, the unease still gnawing at the edges of your mind.

“What if…” you started, but your voice trailed off. You couldn’t finish the thought, couldn’t bring yourself to say it out loud.

Steve seemed to read your mind. He gave your shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll find out what happened, alright? Don’t jump to conclusions yet.”

Natasha nodded, her expression serious. “And no matter what, we’ve got your back.”

You nodded, but the questions still lingered, gnawing at your insides. Could Bucky really have had something to do with this? And if not, why hadn’t he reached out yet? The thought left a bitter taste in your mouth.

----

You made your way across campus, the crisp autumn air biting at your cheeks as you clutched your bag tightly. You hadn’t left campus all day, unable to face the outside world with the whispers still haunting you, but you told yourself you didn’t care, but of course you did. But you had work to do—things to prepare for the game later—and keeping busy was your best shot at pushing everything else aside.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket, and you pulled it out to see a text from Steve.

S: Need a ride? Natasha and I are heading in soon, and we can swing by.

You quickly typed back: No, I’m already here. Never left campus, actually.

Steve responded almost immediately.

S: Okay, she’s hanging out until practice and the game are over, she’s gonna stay with you.

You hesitated, not wanting Natasha to feel obligated to babysit you, and replied: She doesn’t have to do that.

Seconds later, a voice note came through, and you hit play, holding the phone close to your ear. Natasha’s voice rang clear and confident, laced with care.

“Of course I do,” she said firmly. “Us girls gotta stick together.”

A small smile broke through your unease, and you sent back a simple red heart emoji. It didn’t fix everything, but it made you feel a little less alone.

With a steadier step, you approached the locker room hallway, ready to dive into prepping for the team’s practice and the game. But just as you rounded the corner leading to the office that opened into the locker room, you heard laughter. Loud, carefree laughter, echoing down the hall.

You froze, your heart dropping into your stomach as you recognized one of the voices—Bucky’s.

Leaning against the corner of the wall, you stayed out of sight, unsure why you didn’t just walk in. Maybe it was the tone of his laughter, sharp and amused, mingling with the voices of his teammates, that stopped you in your tracks.

“She really fell for it, huh?” one of them said, chuckling. “Banged the captain’s best friend. That’s a hell of a move, Barnes.”

"Always knew she'd have a nice rack." More laughter.

Your breath caught in your throat, your pulse pounding in your ears.

“It wasn’t hard,” Bucky’s voice came, casual and light. “She was so easy. Practically bagging.”

A roar of laughter followed, and you felt your knees wobble as if they might give out.

“No way,” someone else said, barely able to contain their amusement. “Was it even good?”

There was a pause, and then you heard Bucky shrug through his words, his voice infuriatingly nonchalant. “Could’ve been better.”

You felt like the air had been knocked out of you, the walls of the hallway closing in around you. Your fingers gripped your bag strap so tightly that your knuckles turned white, and your eyes began to sting as tears threatened to spill. You wanted to storm in there, to scream at him, but your feet wouldn’t move.

The laughter continued, the vile comments piling up as the guys egged each other on. Bucky’s laugh cut through it all, sharp and carefree, like none of this meant anything to him. Like you didn’t mean anything.

Your chest ached, and the tears you’d been holding back spilled over as you turned and walked away as quietly as you could, the sound of their laughter chasing you down the hall.

You stumbled into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind you before sinking onto one of the chairs. Tears poured down your cheeks as you clutched your bag to your chest, your breathing shallow and shaky. You’d trusted him. You’d let yourself believe he was different. And now, you felt like a fool

[starburstminibot]

Ok, seeing the post about the playlist, you mentioned how Breakdown only gets his act together after finding out that Bee was carrying

So it got me thinking (and this has actually been in my mind since i first came across the au tbh), but how was it while Bee was like, carrying?? There's the fact that, at first, many of the bots probably don't like Breakdown too since, well, he was not the best bf let's be honest.

Idk, I'm just curious to how things were before Breakcheck came to see the world

(Im going out of town for a week and cant draw so im just answering this with a straight up fanfiction-esk paragraph I’m so sorry wish I could be artistic for you anon)

Long story short: the Autobots are very forgiving but they can also be petty motherfuckers.

I mean they welcomed Megatron among their ranks and treat him (for the most part) as an equal and sometimes even a friend. Of course, Megatron earned that trust after years and years of repentance.

I imagine Breakdown is going through a similar arc. He’s never really been THAT loyal to the Decepticon cause. He just… kinda ended up there and didn’t care enough to do anything about it. He views Autobots as these goody, righteous people that he doesn’t feel like he belongs with. So really… what’s left besides Decepticons (considering yourself a neutral at one point was pretty much a death wish. A faction was the only way to acquire any sort of Energon or medical attention. Something Optimus tried hard to avoid, but the reality was safety in numbers.) the only kinship Breakdown ever felt was with the Stunticons… and they’ve been scattered to who knows where… if they’re even still alive.

Except he did have one friend. A friend he’s somehow managed to keep despite being on opposite sides of the war. He tried to convince Bee to join the Decepticons a few times but it was never with genuine intent. Bee was too good for the Cons; Breakdown knew that. He asked to get a rile out of him more than anything. Of course Bee would retort with his own argument of why BD should defect. He was serious about it… but Breakdown knew his place. He’d already done too much…

Now the war is over. And the leader of his faction doesn’t even believe in the cause anymore. Now, Breakdown’s never been a fan of Megatron anyways, but he sure as hell is pissed off when he abandons them to go be buddies with the Autobots. Maybe Breakdown is a little jealous (Of course, he’d never admit it) That Megatron, possibly the cruelest and most unforgiving of them all, is allowed to be redeemed.

He feels betrayed. All the Decepticons do really… He feels like he was led down a path that would only end in self destruction and at the last moment, the one who was paving the way jumped ship, leaving them all to suffer the consequences alone.

He never even wanted this.

But it’s way too late now. He dug this grave and he’s going to see to it that he’s buried in it. But despite the betrayal, and most of the Decepticons now stabbing each other in the back, trying to claim whatever power they can while holding on to this flimsy cause they can barely call a functioning faction, he still has Bee… who is maybe more than just a friend at this point but that’s a lot of feelings Breakdown isn’t ready to unpack.

And he still runs every time it feels a little too good to be true. Still proclaims his loyalty to the Decepticons because he’s too stubborn to admit he’s on a sinking ship. And he still keeps his distance because he refuses to take Bumblebee down with him when it finally goes under.

And maybe they’ve got a fling going… and maybe the autobots start to catch on. It doesn’t matter though, Breakdown doesn’t stick around long enough to see their sneers.

Until… he finds out Bee’s carrying that is… because damn he may not be the best bot in the galaxy but he’s not a complete deadbeat.

And when it hits him… that he’s going to be a sire… well maybe… he start’s sticking around to see the sneers. He hears the mumbles of disapproval. And boyyy does it make him so angry at first. How dare these holier-than-thou bots. They don’t know him or what he’s had to do to survive. How many comrades he’s lost thanks to them. They don’t know what Bee means to him. They don’t know just how much he loves Bumblebee. How he would lay down his spark for him in a klick.

Then Breakdown questions… Does Bee even know that?

From then on… Breakdown realizes, preserving his ego isn’t worth this. He has a chance now. A real honest chance. To do better… to have the life he actually wants… with the one bot who hasn’t ever given up on him.

He wants it so bad.

So he puts up with the comments and the obvious distrust. Because he’s willing to put in the work it takes to earn it. He’s going to prove how much he wants this. He’s going to prove how much he cares. He’s going to prove he is capable of doing better… and maybe along the way he’ll learn… he’s deserving of better too…

Breakdown is lucky Bumblebee has always been a little spoiled because it didn’t take too much convincing for the autobots to give him a shot. To attempt to accept him into their ranks.

He thought Optimus would be the worst of it. The one who practically raised the bot Breakdown knocked up. And for a while it is. Optimus lectures him every chance he gets. Any small hiccup, any little mistake. He doesn’t go easy on breakdown. Optimus at least pretends to be polite about it, or at least professional.He doesn’t yell, or make unnecessary insults. His words are always very honest (which makes them that much harder to hear) but Breakdown will take it… he’ll sit through it, no matter how hard he has to bite his tongue against saying something he’ll regret. He knows how thin the ice is. But he’ll do it for Bee.

The others are a little more brutal… Elita especially so… they are more sharp with their words (and sometimes their blasters) letting him know just what they think of him.

But no… the worst of all… is Megatron. Because Megatron is probably the only bot in the whole faction who looks at him and empathizes. Breakdown doesn’t want empathy. Especially not from the damn bot who betrayed him. Megatron doesn’t give lectures, he doesn’t verbally or physically abuse him when he steps out of line. He barely even raises his voice. And it pisses Breakdown off more than anything. Sometimes he slips up in front of Megatron just to push his boundaries, just to see if he can break this peaceful facade the ex-brutal-dictator seems to be taking. He’s witnessed the warlord beat bots into scrap for far less… and yet… Megatron won’t. Megatron seems to be attempting to guide Breakdown, to offer a new start to their relationship, and Primus Breakdown wants nothing to do with it. He’d rather be lectured and assigned extra training.

And it takes a long while… longer than Bee’s carrying term, and a little while into Breakcheck’s sparklinghood for the Autobots to really start to come around to him. Optimus’ lectures seem to have a bit of fondness to them. And perhaps Breakdown listens a bit more earnestly and takes to heart some of the genuine advice the Prime gives him. And maybe the sparring with Elita has turned less from a one-sided fight and into an enjoyable workout. And MAYBE… he doesn’t intentionally push Megatron as much, and has come to a realization of his own that his Megatron… is nothing like the one who betrayed him… and perhaps there is more in common between them than he’d like to admit.

And when people look at him now, he’s not just the Con Bumblebee has been sneaking around with. He’s a Sire… and a devoted Conjux…

And maybe this is what he’s always wanted. And he can be deserving of it too.

[fairyhaos]

How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos

this post details:

ENEMIES TO LOVERS

hi gays and gals! "how to fucking write" is back after a longgg hiatus ^^ this time we're discussing enemies to lovers which is, i think, a universally loved trope! please do send an ask if you have any requests for what i should write advice for next, and do reblog this post if it was helpful for you :)

# - HOW TO WRITE ENEMIES TO LOVERS.

.. bullet point one : choose your e2l

the most important thing when starting is figuring out what type of enemies to lovers you’re writing about. this is mostly semantics: lots of writers/ advice givers will tell you that there’s only one real enemies to lovers (when they’re literally enemies) but personally, i believe that “enemies” can be used as an umbrella term for loads of different relationships.

figure out what kind of “enemies” your characters are. this is by no means an extensive list, but enemies to lovers can include:

literal fighting enemies

(academic) rivals

2 people who snipe at each other a lot

betrayed(????) by one another

…and many other types.

figuring out in which way they’re enemies helps write out their dynamic, and also setting. 

for example, you’ll often see type #1 used in historical, fantasy, battle or mafia settings, where there will be two “sides”, either due to family feuds, country/ kingdom feuds, etc., so their dynamic often feels more serious and more emotionally charged due to history and/or ancestral beliefs that they’ve grown up with.

it’s often seen as the “truest” form of enemies to lovers, because the characters interact with the intention to genuinely hurt each other. this will therefore affect the way you write them, since it has to seem like there is genuine, mutual animosity between them.

example : [court of lies on ao3] — taegyu, enemies to lovers

(holy fuck this is such a bad example but) as you can see, enemies to lovers works well within historical settings, since themes of betrayal, bloodshed and battles lends itself nicely to the trope.

knowledge of how to write fight scenes can be quite useful (fightwrite.net helped a lot with writing mine), along with making sure that dialogue uses action tags that showcase the characters’ emotions. 

type #2, on the other hand, most likely takes place in universities, high schools, and sometimes in offices, where academics are important and it’s less about trying to hurt one another, and more about being royally pissed off by the other person’s presence.

there are certain nuances to how the characters interact depending on what kind of enemies to lovers situation they’re in, which is why it’s important to figure that out first.

.. bullet point two : figure out the why .

next, try to find out the why. why are they enemies? 

it is imperative that you explain their situation to the readers and make them understand why the characters are enemies, and most importantly, why they can’t get together right now. enemies to lovers often goes hand-in-hand with slow burns for exactly this reason.

are they enemies due to clashing beliefs? a certain incident that happened between them, or to someone they know? maybe it’s just repressed feelings?

for every type of enemies to lovers, and for their subsequent settings, there’s often a set list of reasons that most writers use to explain why they’re enemies. 

historical settings often have some sort of feud taking place, or a betrayal. academic rivals focus on, well, academics, but social factors of popularity are often used. and “enemies” who snipe at each other often have very superficial reasons that they dislike one another, such as a bad first meeting or a misguided impression of personality.

the reason doesn’t particularly have to be something as dark and deep as convoluted morals or someone killed someone else’s father. they still need to overcome their enemy relationship and become lovers, after all.

but having a reason helps your readers feel more comfortable that the story will go somewhere and that there truly is an obstacle that’s preventing your characters from getting together at the very beginning. and if that reason is an interesting one, then… well, all the better, i suppose.

.. bullet point three : the friends part

for a good enemies to lovers that has your readers truly invested in the story, the lovers potential has to be there too, even when they’re enemies.

the characters also have to have respect for each other, above all else. if the situation becomes dire, they need to be able to understand one another’s views and work together, or at least recognise that they share some ideas and have moments where they get along.

this will a) make the transition from enemies into lovers more natural and b) create the tension that makes e2l so popular.

the best ways to show these moments are by having scenes where the characters have no choice but to work together, and in that time, begrudgingly admit that the other person isn’t as bad as they first thought.

it could be a group project, them fighting for the same cause for once (against a corrupt/ unfair policy), having to get along briefly due to mutual friends, or any situation where they have to act amicably for once and, most importantly, learn a little about one another in the process.

okay, but yena, how can i write those scenes? what can i do to create that tension?

describe certain actions, mannerisms, and the way that they speak to each other that showcase acceptance and positive emotions. this can come in the form of:

lingering eye contact

them agreeing on something

smiles!!!! 

a pleasantly surprised inner monologue 

dialogue being more lighthearted

A doing something for B without being asked

(this is extra hard mode but) creating an inside joke

…and whilst it is a little shallow, an acknowledgement of the other person’s attractiveness always works really well, too.

example : [my other e2l taegyu fic on ao3]

as a rivals to lovers fic, their dynamic already started off more playful than in the other example i showed, but you can see that their conversation is more teasing, as they become more comfortable with talking to each other normally.

the term “enemies to lovers” always felt a little weird to me, because it’s important to remember that it’s often more like “enemies to friends to lovers”, because the characters need to develop a liking of one another first before they can think of themselves in a romantic relationship.

.. bullet point four : the oh moment

why do they become lovers in the end? 

what is the tipping point? what makes a character realise that they’ve fallen for someone they once believed to be their mortal enemy? do their feelings hit them all at once, or is it a slow build up? and what are they going to do about it?

enemies to lovers lends itself very nicely to the feelings-hit-me-like-a-truck trope and the iconic oh moment. writing the inner monologue is a good way to showcase the exact momene the penny drops. for example, i have a loose “formula” that i like to use when writing oh moments (whether they’re in e2l fics or not):

[dialogue/ action of B as A watches them]

[inner monologue of A showcasing fondness for that action]

[inner monologue of A recognising how their feelings changed over time]

[action from B that solidifies overwhelming fondness and has A surprised by their feelings]

[the oh / oh no moment as the penny drops and A realises what this means]

this is by no means the only way to write out a “feelings realisation” scene, but it works very well, because the inner monologue can use varying sentence structures and a bunch of metaphors and figurative language to build anticipation.

example [venus and sun on ao3] — seoksoo, friends to lovers

this extract essentially follows the outline i described, and seokmin’s acknowledgement of joshua as sweet refers to how he had previously known little about him, merely referring to him as “nice” before their relationship gradually built up to that moment.

for a really effective oh moment, the characters need to have a chance to reflect on how their relationship has developed. they need to be able to notice their growth and draw their own conclusion from there.

.. bullet point five : be careful . 

finally, some precautions.

with enemies to lovers, the whole attraction is the tension between the characters, the original animosity that is actually hiding their repressed feelings. but they still have to fall in love at the end, despite what they put each other through.

do not make them do something that they can’t take back.

this is quite important with enemies that physically fight each other. giving near-fatal injuries, or paralysing or physically disabling them (again, fightwrite.net is useful in giving info in this) is definitely not good lover-material. 

unless the injuries were given when the character was (maybe magically) influenced by someone else, or your characters are traumatised enough to be able to accept each other despite everything, then it’s a good idea to stay away from severe injuries that they inflict on the other and focus more on tense dialogue and opposing beliefs.

however, it’s still equally as important to be careful with emotional hurt that characters cause one another too. don’t make a betrayal too unforgivable. 

as a writer, you have to be empathetic: think from your character’s point of view. constantly ask yourself if character A will be able to forgive character B if they do something. ask if they can still fall in love with character B if they hurt them in some way.

if they can’t, then you know you’ve gone too far, and you need to dial it back.

and as a somewhat obvious but still just as important sidenote: e2l based on stockholm syndrome (captor x captive situations) or bullying to lovers is never okay. the power imbalance along with the trauma that can be developed from that means that it is not a healthy, viable, good relationship in the slightest.

never have your characters do something that you’d feel uncomfortable being the receiving end of. they’re meant to be lovers, remember? even when they’re not there yet, the characters should still treat each other with respect.

…unless, of course, you’re looking to write a somewhat toxic/ unhealthy relationship. in which case, by all means.

... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else to askt hen just shoot me ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)

taglist (send ask to be added!): @mesanthropi @stqrrgirle @weird-bookworm @blue-jisungs @eternalgyu @yumilovesloona @lvlystars @luvjoshuahong @kikohao @maesvtr0 @cxffecoupx @bleepbloopbeee

[a-bad-case-of-the-stephs]

It’s been one of those days. It’s Time for me to violently defend stephanie brown on the internet beyond what should be considered reasonable or good.

I saw an older anti stephanie brown post which blamed Steph for Robin #87 (when Bruce reveals Tim's secret identity to Spoiler and offers to train her) and all the comments and reblogs and whatever were ragging Steph and it pissed me off and it made me sad so I'm going to break down why being mad at Stephanie for something Bruce Wayne did is insane, why Stephanie is genuinely in the right, and why having the same opinion as Alfred "boy mom" Pennyworth is embarrassing.

This ones gonna be more rambly and less analysis like than my other Steph posts for the record, I just kinda need to get this off my chest.

Let's break it down.

When Batman first brings Steph onto the team as Spoiler he tells Steph Tim's secret identity. When Tim finds out his secret was told to her, he freaks out. Tim's perspective is super understandable. He feels betrayed by Bruce, because he didn't even consult or ask Tim first, a clear betrayal of Tim's trust and the supposed equality of their partnership. Especially in light of how much Tim feels he has sacrificed to keep Bruce's secret.

But lets look at the situation from Stephanies perspective. Because she is just NOT at fault here.

Here are the facts: Stephanie is approached by Batman, who has in pretty much every interaction beforehand been cold and dismissive, and who she expects to tell her to quit being Spoiler again.

This man has only ever shown an ounce of approval towards Steph's vigilantism one time before this, for like one line in Stephs very first appearance. For him to be asking her for help sets off serious alarm bells. Steph is "really scared" when Batman asks for her help to find Robin.

Robin #84

Furthermore, its important we don't take Batman at his word here. Bruce is withholding information, something he does with Steph a LOT. He says "no one" knows where Tim is, and in Robin #87, he clarifies that Robins transmitter went dead.

Robin #87

"No one" is an exaggeration of epic proportions, given that Batman has not checked Tim's boarding school, or contacted Alfred, the location which it is overwhelmingly likely he is at, and the person who would be able to check extremely easily.

Robin #87

Because Bruce didn't want to go to Brentwood himself and run into Alfred, or have to speak to Alfred, on account of their fight in Officer Down, he sends Steph.

While the fear and worry Steph is portrayed with in Robin #84 doesn't really carry over to #87 (one of the numerous inconsistencies between these two issues) the fact of the matter is Steph is misled by Batman about the stakes of Tim being missing, which she is led to believe are much higher than they are.

In addition to this, Stephanie was under the impression that Tim was only ever holding back his secret ID soley because of Batman's wishes, that Tim was just waiting on Batman to change his mind.

Robin #56 #75 #82 #62

Tim will assert this is true later, and he certain says this is true beforehand.

If he's telling the truth, he doesn't have an issue with Steph knowing his identity. He has an issue with Batman telling her without checking with him first.

How is Steph supposed to infer this?

Steph has no reason to think it's important that Batman checks with Tim, because Tim has made it abundantly clear to her that he does want her to know but has just been waiting on Batman's approval.

Let's look how Steph acts when she meets Robin knowing his identity for the first time.

Robin #87

Steph enters the situation seeming to believe Tim will feel happy for her and relieved that their relationship no longer has to be as one sided as it has been. She still leaves room for Tim potentially having conflicted feelings, by mentioning she "hopes" that it's okay with Tim that she's finally on the main team. Tim, as mentioned early, freaks out.

Again, Tim's frustration is understandable. But let's look at Steph's dialogue for a second.

Robin #87

She says "we can be together now". This is weird and really interesting choice, because Tim and Steph have been dating for the entirety of No Man's Land and over the course of her entire pregnancy. This is a substantial amount of time. So what does Steph mean by "now"? There are two explantations.

Steph and Tim were not on speaking terms before this, because Steph was under the impression Tim had been cheating on her. He isn't cheating, but it surprisingly never gets resolved. Like the many other threads which were brought up in Robin #84, it gets completely ignored in Robin #87 and onward. Steph could be referring to the fact that she believes they couldn't be together because he was supposably cheating, but now that she knows his secret identity, he has no reason to cheat anymore. This is a super flimsy idea however, and given the fact that no character brings up how Steph believes Tim was cheating with Star after Robin #84, the logical conclusion is that it was either resolved off screen, or retconned.

The second explanation is much stronger. Steph says "now" because despite the fact that they have been dating for so long, their relationship has been extremely unbalanced. She's been closed off to half of Tim's life, something she agrees to when they first get together, but clearly has taken a toll on her. To the point she says "now" because, to her, the relationship never really truly started.

Robin #80

This isn't a stupid or petty complaint, for the record. Tim has seen her at her worst, he was there for there immediately before and after childbirth, but she doesn't get to know anything about an entire half of his life. This is especially true when you consider much Tim was in control of their communication.

He can show up at her house anytime, but if he doesn't initiate contact Steph's on her own. In Robin #80 for instance, Steph is presumably just hopping around rooftops hoping to bump into Tim, because she has no other way to find him.

Robin #87

And after Steph expresses excitement that they can finally be in the balanced relationship, a real relationship, she is rebuked with a violent "No!" that she seems to lean away from. And in the next panel, she asks, confused: "What?" in a small speech bubble which gets entirely ignored. In fact, neither Batman or Robin speaks to, or even addresses directly Stephanie for the rest of the encounter.

When Robin storms off without even a look to Stephanie, Stephs reaction is (big Shocker) to blame herself. Batman uses neutral language to place the blame on Tim, stating that Tim feels betrayed. In direct contrast, Steph actively disagrees, clarifying that Tim was betrayed, and more than that, she directly places the blame on both her and Batman's shoulders.

Robin #87

But Stephanie is a prop in the plot. Tim doesn't yell at her, he runs from her. Because she isn't Stephanie Brown, his girlfriend who has been in a massively unbalanced relationship, who is overjoyed at finally getting to be in a "real" relationship with him, she's the person Batman told Tim's identity to. He's not angry at her, he's angry she knows his identity and Bruce didn't bother to ask if Tim could tell her. He's angry at Batman. This conversation, this whole drama, is about the partnership between Bruce and TIm.

Stephanie Brown, who believed Tim was just waiting for the Batman go ahead, had no reason to think Tim would be anything but as happy as she was. Importantly, Stephanie Brown is seriously just not to blame in this situation, even if she blames herself (which as I've discussed before, is a running theme with her characterization, her low self-esteem and occasional tendancy to blame herself for the actions of others).

Not to mention, Tim doesn't blame Steph either. So if you're reading Robin #87 and somehow coming to the conclusion that Steph is a monster, please reassess.

Robin #92

How does Alfred factor into this? I'll make it quick.

Robin #88

Oh no Alfred, I'm so sorry that your loyalties to Master Timothy run so deep that you HAVE to yell at the teenaged girl who was more of a prop than anything in that encounter and had no reason to think Tim would be hurt. Oh no, really that must be so hard for you. Well, at least we know he's consistent, I'm sure if he's this mad at Stephanie, he's fucking fuming at Bruce Wayne, right? Right? Right?

No, of course not. Alfred Pennyworth, hypocrite extraordinaire is out there actively defending Bruce to Tim. Which no one asked him to do.

It's all "in his defense" and "you knew the perils" and "master bruce's crusade ill afford the delicacy of privacy required in affairs of the heart" and "stop feeling sorry for yourself"

I cannot believe he has the gall to yell at Steph for this. Talk about wounding Master Tim deeply bro, just wait until its Tim's 16th Birthday Party and Alfreds applying his stupid latex mask with a smile on his face. Sorry Alfred, you’re not always wrong, but when you’re wrong you’re really wrong.

That’s all. Goodnight 🌙

[geekynotfreaky]

The Front Man's Worldview

I posted this Front Man analysis on Reddit the other day and it didn't get much traction, so I thought I'd post it here too!

Squid Game Season 2 spoilers below the cut.

(And yes, proper capitalization, because this shit's serious!)

While watching season 2, I had the basis for the rivalry between Gi-hun and the Front Man simplified into the following: the Front Man believes in peoples' inherent flaws, whereas Gi-hun believes in peoples' inherent capacity for good. But there's a lot more to it than that!

This article recently got me thinking about how interesting In-ho's worldview is: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/squid-game-season-2-lee-jung-jae-lee-byung-hun-spoiler-breakdown-1236258362/.

"In-ho is a character that no longer has belief or hope in the outside world. So it’s almost like he has nowhere to go, because that is not really a world that he feels like he’s a part of anymore."

The Front Man has no hope in the world and feels almost completely disconnected from it. So he clings to the games because the world outside is dire and beyond saving, and the world of the games just makes more sense to him than the world outside. This explains his spiel about fairness and equality in season 1. Under this perspective, it’s true everyone who plays the games is given one last chance to "fight fair and win." Because there is zero hope for them in the outside world, whereas the world of the games is a world of opportunity.

Granted, the rules of the game are not entirely fair OR just, but it's a system that makes more sense than the world outside of it. Knowing the Front Man's backstory as In-ho, you might say the real world disappointed him so much he had to become the leader of his own world.

"In the process of these really grueling and violent games, his feelings faded. Feelings of hope and joy are long gone in the In-ho you meet in Season 2."

Similar to Gi-hun (and they do seem to be foils of one another), the trauma of playing through the games and winning contributed to his shattered worldview. Notably, though not discussed in the article, they both also lost someone close to them despite winning the games (for Gi-hun, his mother; for In-ho, his wife and unborn child).

In-ho is so cold-hearted and impassive as we know him in the present day...he has no joy, no hope. He is what Gi-hun has the potential to become. Throughout season 2, when he’s not putting on that act as Young-il, he's often staring into space with a sort of deadness in his eyes. There’s zero warmth there, and the betrayal in the end serves to remind the audience of that. And yet!

"You do find him almost momentarily enjoying the situation. And I think this is just a very small glimpse of his past self.”

...there are moments where he DOES seem to be genuinely enjoying himself, like during the relay race. And as the article explains it, these moments are like little, miniscule glimpses of his past self. So when he's having a laugh throwing that spinning top incorrectly (three whole times with his non-dominant hand, just for fun), is that something the In-ho of the past would’ve enjoyed? Playing a little joke without the others knowing? How much of that tiny light in his eye is just a remnant of something that has long since faded?

The fact Lee Byung-hun paid such deliberate attention to the details of his character really makes season 2 all the more interesting to watch! Every scene with him in it is captivating because you’re almost forced to scrutinize every aspect of his behavior in order to figure out who he is at that moment: is he the cold and cunning Front Man, the supposedly innocent Young-il, or his true self Hwang In-ho? And that's what makes him my favorite character!

[keymeadoww]

The Dinner

Characters: Poly! Grian x GTWS x Mumbo x M! Reader

Warnings: slight angst, kinda betrayal?, unaccepting family

Words: 2217

Prompt: N/A

I posted this on AO3 about a week ago and I thought i had posted it here too, but apparently I hadn't lol sorry!!

It was supposed to be easy to distance himself. Nothing was supposed to get through the encryptions and nothing was supposed to be able to get even close to his house. However, the letter made it into his hands. The letter seared itself into his brain as he thought about it all day and all night. For two days, he thought about the letter, memorizing every bit of it so he could think about what he would do.

It was a short letter, one containing only an invitation to dinner. Normally, one would feel delighted to get an invitation from one’s mother to attend a family dinner. However, Y/N felt nothing but dread. He would have been fine if his mother didn’t add the sneaky little thing she had.

Bring your girlfriend. I’ve heard you've gotten quite serious. The letter reads. That part is what got him. That’s the part that has him staying up all night. It wasn’t like she was wrong, he was in a very serious relationship. But he was not dating a woman. Nor was he dating just one person. No, he just had to be difficult for his mother and date three men.

He was conflicted. At one end, he wanted to go and introduce his family to his partners and his partners to his family, but at the same time, he knew the response he would get from his family. It would be anger and disappointment, maybe even hatred. He didn’t know if he could take a reaction like that. 

A knock shocked him from his thoughts. It was late, the darkness outside of his window told him that. He hesitated before going to open the door, hoping it wasn’t a zombie. It was a zombie, just not the one he was hoping it wasn’t. The door opened slowly to reveal the exhausted, yet caring, face of his neighbor. 

“What are you doing up so late, babes?” Cleo asked. He could hear the exhaustion in her words. “I saw your light was on and came to check on ya.”

He frowned, “Me? Why are you up so late?”

“Oi, I asked first.”

He didn’t laugh. In fact, his eyes burned from tears. None fell, but he knew they were there. “I can’t sleep. Not a crime, is it?”

Cleo’s expression softened and she gestured to the door. He nodded and she entered the building, closing the door behind her. The pair walked to the kitchen, where they sat at the island together. “What’s going on, babes? Do you need to talk?”

His mind was a mess. Did he want to talk? What would he talk about? The fact that his family expected him to bring his nonexistent girlfriend to dinner? His nonexistent girlfriend. The words echoed in his mind for a second before he stared at Cleo. 

“Cleo, will you be my girlfriend?”

Cleo’s eyes widened and she coughed, choking on air. “I- uh- What?!” She steadies herself quickly. “Mate, I know we’re close and all, but I don’t think your boyfriends would appreciate that very much.” He groans, placing his head in his arms. “What’s going on? Why’re you asking me something like that?”

“My mom invited me to dinner.”

Her eyebrows rose slightly, “Okay, that’s great.”

“She wants me to bring my girlfriend.”

Her expression shifted slightly, “Okay, less great. You haven’t come out to her?”

He shook his head, “No, well kind-of? I told her I was interested in boys, back when I was identifying as a bisexual, but I never told her I was gay. Or poly.” He frowned, “Even as a bisexual, she didn’t really accept me. She was always saying that she expected me to be with a girl regardless. She doesn’t really accept, I suppose.” He sighed, “I don’t want her to lash out at me or at them.” He said, referring to his boyfriends.

Cleo was quiet for a moment before she moved to cover his hand with her own. “Babes, I think you just have to talk to them about it. You know them, Grian, Mumbo, and Scar. You know they would figure it out. You should just talk to them.”

He sighed, “You’re right I know them. I know they’d want to go to dinner regardless. Just to see if she would accept it. But I know she won’t. I can’t say no to them, Cleo.”

Cleo smiled, “They’ll understand. I know they will. Just talk with them. Please? If you still want me to pretend to be your girlfriend, and your boys are okay with that, then I will gladly be your girlfriend. Deal?”

He hesitated before nodding, “Deal.”

The next morning, he woke up to hushed whispers surrounding him. 

“Aww, look at ‘im. He’s so cute when he’s sleeping.” 

“That he is.”

“Move out the way, you’re blocking my view of him!”

“Scar! Shush! You’re gonna wake him up!”

His eyes fluttered open, coming to view his adorable boyfriends. He noticed the positions they were in. Grian was perched above him on his bed’s headboard, Scar was leaning onto his fists at the end of the footboard, and Mumbo was sitting awkwardly at the foot of the bed.

Grian noticed his eyes had opened and whined, “Aww, you guys woke him up!”

Mambo scoffed, “I believe you mean you and Scar woke him up.” He smiled at his boyfriend.

Y/N’s mouth fitted into a grin, “Hey.” His voice was scratchy with sleep and Mumbo’s ears flushed. 

“Hey, pumpkin.” Scar grinned, moving to lay beside him in bed. “What were you dreamin’ about?”

He thought back to his dreams. It was a nightmare, actually. About how that dinner would go if he brought his partners. His real partners. “Uh, dreamt about y’all actually.” It wasn’t totally a lie.

Scar dramatically placed a hand over his heart, “Oh, how amazin’. I love it when you dream of us.”

Grian rolled his eyes, “You’re so dramatic!” 

“You love it.” 

Mumbo watched quietly before laying down to the right of his newly-awoken boyfriend. “Hey.” He mumbled as the other two talked together.

Y/N turned and grinned at his boyfriend, pressing his lips to his cheeks lightly, “Morning, my love.” 

Mumbo chuckled lightly, “Stop, you’re tickling me.” He laughed softly before his eyes focused on him again. “I got a message this morning. From Cleo.” He said quietly. “She said you had something important to talk to us about. I haven't mentioned it to the other two yet, though.”

A frown quickly replaced his calm smile. He sat up and sighed, “Oh, okay.” He hoisted himself out of bed, quickly getting ready for the day.

As he did so, Scar and Grian looked at him confused. Grian glanced at Mumbo, “Did we miss something? What happened?”

Mumbo sighed and shook his head, “Nothing yet.” 

Scar huffed, “Now wait one second, are you two hiding something from us?” He narrowed his eyes at Mumbo, who averted his gaze. He gasped, “You are! What is it?”

Grian’s feathers ruffled, “What do you mean, hiding something? Are you two keeping a secret?”

Y/N shook his head, “No, nothing. I just need to talk to you guys later.” He glanced at Mumbo with a reassuring smile, “Later, though. Not now.”

The three shared a glance of worry before nodding, “Okay.” They said simultaneously. He smiled, opening the door as he finished pulling his shirt on.

“Okay, come on, let's go make some breakfast.” The three hurried over, scrambling over to the kitchen, pushing each other as they went. He chuckled at his lovers, smiling to himself before he remembered the letter. He glanced to his bedroom, where the letter sat beside his bed. His name was called and he hurried to meet up with his loves.

Throughout the day, he tried to think of ways to talk about it with them. He really did try! It wasn’t like he was avoiding the entire thing and ignored the pointed looks Cleo gave him when he passed by. By the time the sun was setting, he still had yet to say anything.

While he was ignoring the issue, his boyfriends noticed something was wrong with him. He was acting weird and they knew something was up. While he was in the restroom, they talked about it.

“Well, Cleo said he had something he needed to talk to us about.” Mumbo muttered, twisting his mustache.

Grian hummed, “Maybe he got some bad news?”

Mumbo shrugged, “She didn’t tell me what it was about. Only that he wanted to talk.”

“Do you think he wants to break up with us?” 

The two turned to stare at Scar, an absurd look on their face. “What? No- I can’t imagine that's it.” Grian said with a final shake of his head. “Are you worried about that, love?” 

Scar nodded, “No, no, you're right. Sorry. I just don’t know what else it could be.”

“I think we ask him when he comes back.” Mumbo suggested. The other two nodded and they waited patiently for their boyfriend to return.

When he eventually made his way back into the living room, he noticed the slight tension in the room. “Uh, are you okay, my loves?” He asked, eyebrows furrowing. 

“We should be asking you that question.” Grian said, urging Y/N into a seat. “Are you okay? You’ve been acting off all day.”

“And about what Cleo said-”

Y/N sighed, “Why did they have to bring that up?” He groaned quietly before rubbing his eyes lightly. “Okay, fine. I was invited to bring my girlfriend to family dinner.” 

The trio in front of him were quiet for a second before Scar interrupted. “Hmm, okay, see, I think I misheard you. Because I thought you said bring your girlfriend.” He laughed until he realized nobody joined him and paused. “I didn’t mishear, did I?”

Y/N shook his head. “I haven’t come out to my family, especially my mother.” He hesitated before continuing, “I asked Cleo last night to pretend to be my girlfriend for the dinner.” His boyfriends were quiet again, but he noticed how they slouched. “She declined and told me I should talk to you guys about it. I guess- I was just nervous. My mother has been my role model for years. I tried to come out as bi to her before I realized I was gay and she basically said she wouldn’t accept anyone other than a girl as my partner. I don’t think she’ll react well to me being in a serious relationship with three boys.”

Grian decided to speak up. “You asked Cleo to be your girlfriend instead of just talking to us?”

He closed his eyes tightly, “Yes. It was stupid. I’m so sorry. I panicked and I didn’t know what else to do. I love my mom, and I couldn’t stand her not accepting me or my partners.”

They were quiet again. Nobody spoke for minutes. Tension rose and Y/N could feel his throat getting tighter and his eyes burning. He kept his eyes closed, counting silently to keep his panic attack at bay.

“You could have just talked to us, y’know?” Scar eventually said. “We love you. We don’t want you to miss out on your family.” He glanced towards his boyfriends. “We care about you. So much.”

Mumbo nodded softly, “Yeah. We do. Uhm, if you really want to bring Cleo as your faux girlfriend, I won’t be upset. I understand how much your mom means to you.”

It took a little bit for Grian to speak. He curled himself into his wings, “I love you. I don’t want you thinking we won’t accept your decisions. If you want to go with her, fine.”

He stared at them with an absurd expression, “What? No! You guys are supposed to be mad at me. Why aren’t you mad at me?”

“Because we care about you.” Scar repeated. “We understand that you’re under a lot of stress. We know you love us. Mistakes happen. It's okay.” He paused before trying to lighten the mood, “But, y’know, Grian can play a mean girl if you wanted.” 

He laughed, wiping his eyes. “You guys- You are so amazing. I love you.” He pressed his lips to Scar’s. Before kissing Grian and Mumbo in a similar fashion. “I- I want my mom to know who I am seeing.” He mumbles. “I don’t want to lie to her.” They stayed quiet as they waited for him to finish. “I- I guess I’ll have to live with whatever she decides to say. Will you go with me, my loves?”

“Of course.” Mumbo said, taking his hand and pressing his lips to his knuckles. 

Scar grinned, “Can’t leave my prince all alone there, huh?”

Grian hesitated before nodding, “Yeah, yeah, of course, love.” 

Y/N grinned, pulling the three into a huge hug. “I love you guys so much. So much more than anything in the world. Thank you for being patient and for loving me.”

“Ah, well, we couldn’t really help that last part. It just kinda happened.” Scar jested, poking fun at the situation. All of them laughed before they decided to head to bed, cuddling throughout the night and talking about the dinner that awaited them.

[captainsophiestark]

Happy Ending

Luke Castellan x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Day 22 Prompt: "Who takes care of you?"

Summary: What if Luke had come by to see Y/N, his pre-betrayal best friend and SO, instead of Annabeth between books 3 and 4?

Word Count: 4,189

Category: Angst, Fluff

A/N: I really loved the vibes of this post by @m4gp13 so this is very loosely inspired by it, even though the main body of the story doesn't have much to do with it lol

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

I sighed, staring at the piles of boxes on the floor of my dorm room. The spring semester of my second year of college was just coming to a close, and I still had a lot to do to be ready for everything after it finished. I was moving into my own apartment for the summer, and needed to move from the dorm room to my new apartment. As soon as that was over, I'd planned a visit to Camp Half-Blood, the training camp for heroes I kept going back to, even though I was technically an adult.

I needed to pack everything in my dorm, move it to my apartment, and then be able to unpack everything I'd need for a few weeks visiting camp. This packing job would need to be strategically worthy of Athena.

I'd just barely managed to psych myself up to get started when a knock came at my door. I huffed a sigh, but I really didn't mind the distraction all that much.

"Coming!" I called. I glanced out the peep hole, then froze solid when I saw Luke Castellan staring back at me.

My heart stopped dead in my chest. I looked again and saw he had no monsters with him, at least not visibly, but I couldn't understand why he would come here without them.

Luke had been one of my closest friends in the world since we met as kids, on the run together from our mutually shitty families. We'd met first, then found Thalia and Annabeth after. Luke and I were the same age, and we'd been thick as thieves since day one, Hermes pun intended. As we'd gotten older, a small crush I'd had on Luke had grown massive, and luckily for me he'd returned my feelings. We'd been happily dating and in love ever since, until two summers ago, when he'd betrayed me and every single one of our friends and joined Kronos.

I'd barely talked to him since. We only had contact once and a while, and every time, it went the same way. I was hurt, he was apologetic but not willing to change any of his decisions. Me and the rest of Camp fought him and his monsters, and I tried not to fall apart at the loss of the love of my life.

The distraction provided by college had been a serious, serious relief.

But now, Luke was here. In the middle of space where I very intentionally avoided thinking about him, on my doorstep for whatever reason. And I had no idea what to do.

"Y/N? I know you're in there. I'm here under a flag of truce. I just want to talk."

Just like that, any desire to duck and hide crumbled. The rational part of my brain screamed at me that he could be lying, that this might just be a trap, but I ignored it. After everything we'd been through, if Luke said he wanted to talk, I wanted to hear him out.

I opened the door, and Luke's shoulders sagged with relief when he saw me. I wanted to dart forward and wrap him in a hug, something I hadn't been able to do in two years, but I held myself back. Luke shifted a little from foot to foot, looking incredibly awkward, so after a second's hesitation I stepped to the side.

"Would you like to come in?"

He gave me a suspicious look, like he thought it was a trap or a trick or something. My heart shattered in my chest. How had things gone this wrong, that we stood on opposite sides of the door as basically strangers?

"My house is a mess, because I'm in the middle of packing up to move, but... if you want to talk, Luke, I feel like the hallway isn't gonna be the best place to do it."

He gave me a curt nod, not quite meeting my eyes as he walked past me into my apartment. I glanced down the hallway, taking one last look to make sure we didn't have any lingering monsters, but things were deserted. I sighed and went back into my apartment, closing the door behind me.

I found Luke hovering in the space between the kitchen and the living room, surveying things with a strange look on his face. I moved toward him carefully, not getting too close in case I spooked him.

"Do you want some tea or something? I haven't packed my electric kettle yet-"

"I think tea might take longer than the five minutes I promised."

I turned to look at Luke, raising one eyebrow in challenge, a little bit of our old rapport back. He shifted his weight around and glanced towards the door, then met my eyes again.

"Luke... is some giant monster going to burst through my door in five minutes? Or an army of small monsters, or anything under that general monster-army umbrella?"

"What? No, no, there's... no. I'm here under a flag of truce. There's nothing coming to hurt you, and when I leave... I'll leave."

"Okay then," I said, deciding not to comment on just how shaken and pale Luke looked, at least not right now. "Then I'm giving you a pass on the five minutes. And electric kettles take like two seconds anyway, seriously. They're magical."

Luke huffed, shaking his head as an incredulous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. My heart squeezed, but I made myself move towards the kitchen and act like things were normal.

"Take a seat, Luke. Or come pick your tea."

Luke took the second option, and my heart doubled its speed when I felt him hovering behind me, closer than we'd been in a long time if you didn't count combat. He leaned over my shoulder to point to the bag of black tea on my counter, and I nodded as I poured the hot water into our cups. I dropped two teabags in each of our drinks, then turned to Luke with a smile.

He stood a little more than a foot from me, and he took the cup from my hands carefully, like he didn't want this bubble of peace and normalcy to burst either. I stared into his beautiful, bright blue eyes, a smile growing on my face again despite myself. I'd missed this. A lot.

The moment lasted another few seconds, and then Luke cleared his throat and looked away. He took a tentative sip of his tea, then looked at me again, his face deadly serious.

"I don't know how to say this. I... I learned some things recently, about some plans I wasn't aware of before."

He paused and took another sip of his tea, and his hand shook a little as he brought the mug away from his lips. Shock coursed through my body as I realized Luke was scared.

"Kronos, he- he's going to use me. He's going to use me to take over the world. This summer... he's going to use me like a stepping stone, until he gets so much power he's unstoppable."

"Luke... what are you saying?"

His eyes had wandered to stare holes in the wall of my kitchen while he'd talked, but now they snapped back to me, wide and full of urgency.

"I'm saying I want to run away. I want us to run away, like the old days. Before... before he gets the chance to carry out his plan."

I stared at Luke for a few minutes, then shook my head, scoffing and pushing past him into the living room of my house. I paced a little, trying to make sense of what he'd just told me. What he'd just asked of me.

"Luke... I don't know what to say!" I finally admitted, completely honest as I turned back to him. He watched me, his expression guarded. "I don't... I don't think I can just run away. Not from the life I've managed to build, not from our friends still here and risking their lives!"

"So that's it, then?" he asked, taking a few steps forward, his tone angry. "Your answer's no?"

I huffed a laugh, staring at anything in the room except for Luke and trying to think. My brain was working a million miles an hour, but I still needed a little bit of time to think things through. But I wasn't sure I had time.

"Okay, Luke, can we sit down for a minute? Actually talk about this?" I said, taking slow steps towards him. I set my mug down on the nearest table, then reached out to gently rest my hands on his. A storm of emotions raged behind his eyes, but he didn't stop me or pull away. "This is a lot to take in all at once. Can we work through this together?"

His jaw worked like he was holding back some retort, but he let me pull him along towards the couch. Slowly, together, we sank down onto the cushions. I only pulled one hand back, and made sure our knees rested against each other, hoping it would do something to help keep Luke grounded.

"I don't want to run," I said simply, meeting his eyes. He opened his mouth, looking ready with an outburst again, but I continued before he could. "But Luke, think about it. Where are we gonna go that he doesn't find you, especially if he wants to? Monsters can sniff us out. We'd never, ever be able to live another day without looking over our shoulders."

Luke's shoulders sagged, and he shook his head miserably as he stared at the half-full mug in his hand.

"Then there's no hope."

"That's not what I said. And it's also not true." Luke scoffed, shooting me a look out of the corner of his eye. I looked right back. "If you don't want to follow through on what Kronos is asking of you, why not just come back with me? To Camp, to my somewhat normal life. I have an apartment with space for two. You could even enroll with me next semester, if you wanted to."

Luke shook his head. He pursed his lips as he raised his head to meet my eyes again.

"And let the Olympians continue exploiting us? Let them keep destroying people and lives because we don't matter to them?"

I huffed a sigh. "Look, I'm not their biggest fan either, but right now it seems like it's 'let Kronos kill you' or 'stop fighting the Olympians'."

Luke shook his head again, more energized this time, more angry. He stared at the wall ahead of us, the same hurt and bitterness I'd seen from him over the years burning in his eyes.

"It's just not right. There should be something we can do. Something that isn't Kronos, but isn't letting the Olympians win."

And just like that, a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Luke... what if there was a way we could do that?"

****************

That night, Luke and I stayed up until almost two in the morning brainstorming and working out the details of my plan. When we finally decided to get some sleep, he stayed with me, and curling up in the same tiny twin bed, falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, had me more at peace and ease than I had been in a long, long time.

The next morning, we finalized a few things over breakfast. Then, there was nothing left to do but put our plan into action.

Luke stayed in the apartment, tasked with keeping his head down and finishing packing for me, since I had other places I had to be. Namely, Camp Half-Blood. A little earlier than I'd talked about with Chiron, and hopefully, before the place was crawling with campers for the summer.

Thankfully, it didn't take me too long to get to Camp. I arrived a little after lunch and found the place expectedly deserted. From the top of the hill, I could see some of the year-rounders moving around the lake. I tried to keep them from noticing me as I headed straight for the Big House.

I paused just outside the front door to steel my nerves one last time, then marched inside. I found Chiron and Mr. D sitting together, apparently deep in conference. They both looked up when they noticed me, matching looks of surprise on their faces (although Chiron's had a noticeably happier edge to it).

"Y/N! We weren't expecting you for another few weeks-"

"I'm not staying for long. Something just came up that I needed to talk to you about right away. To both of you, actually, especially Mr. D."

He raised a bored eyebrow in my direction but otherwise didn't move. Chiron motioned to a chair at the table.

"By all means, please."

"That's alright, I think I'll stand," I said. I took a deep breath, squaring my shoulders and straightening my spine. I would not back down, wouldn't leave until I'd succeeded. Luke and I's future depended on it.

I took a moment to make very intentional, determined eye contact with Mr. D. His other eyebrow raised.

"I'm here to bargain for a pardon for Luke Castellan."

Silence. Both Chiron and Mr. D just stared at me for a few long moments, then turned to look at each other. Chiron looked concerned, but Mr. D burst out laughing.

"He's a traitor and an enemy of Olympus! This has all been very boring and ridiculous, and a waste of our time. Get out."

Mr. D's last word had a firey threat behind it, but I didn't flinch.

"You and the rest of the Olympians are perfectly aware what a threat Kronos presents. Everybody's getting scared, and they should be. He's got a plan for returning to his Titan form, the one he had before he was defeated the first time, before Zeus cut him apart and cast him into Tartarus. And it's a plan that he can definitely make succeed.

"Luke knows all about this plan. Obviously. And he's willing to defect and tell you all about it, so we can stop it before it happens. But you have to give him a complete pardon, sworn on the River Styx by Zeus."

Mr. D snorted again, this time raising from his chair and taking a few threatening steps towards me. I still didn't back down.

"Y/N, listen," Chiron interrupted, shuffling forward a little bit to stand partially in between me and Mr. D. "If you have information that could save Olympus and the camp-"

"Oh, I have some. Just like Chris Rodriguez had some. But Luke has all of it. And you're not getting any of it without giving him a pardon first."

"Or we could force it out of you before finding your little boyfriend and doing the same to him," said Mr. D, his tone light but his eyes blazing. Chiron started to step in again, but I spoke up before he got the chance.

"You haven't been able to find him this long, you won't be able to find him now. And anybody who knows anything about interrogations knows that torture just plain and simple doesn't work for getting information." Mr. D grunted, but we both knew I had him there. "Besides, if Luke gets his pardon, that means more than just getting all the information from Kronos' former right hand man. It also means that Kronos loses said right hand man, who's been organizing and leading a lot of the work so far."

Chiron and Mr. D shared a look, and I tried not to let it show just how much my heart was racing. For the first time since I'd walked in here, I actually felt a glimmer of hope that my plan might succeed. Chiron turned back to me, the worried look still on his face.

"Y/N... what makes you so confident that Luke wants to defect?"

"He sought me out," I answered simply, trying to dance around his location at least a bit. "He's realizing quickly just how bad Kronos would and could be, and he's scared. Terrified. He wants a way out, so when he found me, he asked me to run away with him. I suggested trying this plan first, mostly so I don't have to leave behind everyone else I love. But also because, this way, you might stand a chance against Kronos that you wouldn't have if we'd left without offering information."

The conversation continued for almost another hour, centered mostly around Mr. D making threats and, when I didn't back down, reminding me that I was trying to demand something of Zeus. He made plenty of good points, but I'd thought through all the ways this plan could go terribly, painfully wrong with Luke before I'd come here. I wasn't going to give in, for anything.

Finally, after restating my points and my argument a few times, Mr. D agreed to bring my request to Mount Olympus. I waited anxiously in the Big House with Chiron, whose brow remained deeply creased the entire time. I didn't engage, intentionally avoiding the conversation he looked like he wanted to have, but I saw him watching me out of the corner of my eye.

I started to get worried as the evening came, but finally, Mr. D reappeared. The first time he'd delivered his news, I honestly hadn't believed him. I asked him to repeat himself, which he rolled his eyes over, but the words were the same. Somehow, by some miracle, I'd managed to succeed.

Zeus was willing to give Luke his pardon in exchange for information and defecting.

I wasn't a complete idiot, so made sure the terms were clear when Mr. D brought me to Olympus to witness the oath. The words covered any retaliation, punishment, or harm that might come to Luke, and completely prevented it. Zeus spoke the words and the sky rumbled with lightning. I tried not to shake in relief or from the adrenaline dump as I bowed and promised he wouldn't regret his decision. Hermes shot me a grateful look on my way out, and I returned his nod. He'd been awful to Luke, but we were aligned in not wanting to see him dead, and I got the feeling Hermes had been helpful in pleading my case.

When we returned to the Big House, I headed for the door as quickly as possible, promising to bring Luke back with me in a week when I'd been planning to return anyway. I still had to move out and then move in to a new place again, and Luke had assured me that week of time wouldn't cost the war.

I raced back home, breaking almost every traffic law in the process, but I didn't care at all. I called out to Luke from the hallway, so he wouldn't be scared when I flung the door open, then rushed to wrap him in a giant hug. We sank to the floor together, crying in relief, and stayed like that for a long, long time.

The next week felt like a dream. Luke and I finished packing up my old apartment, then moved together into the new one, which we'd started calling 'ours'. We had to duck monsters a few times, and Luke was still in significant danger, but this time we were on the same side. As we settled into our new place on the last night before we were supposed to head back to camp, I quite literally couldn't have been happier.

It was a little strange returning to camp with Luke, but I quickly got over my own concerns when I saw how tense he was. I held his hand the whole way in, and thankfully, we'd still managed to get here before most of the summer campers. Luke and I sat shoulder to shoulder in the Big House while he told Mr. D and Chiron everything about Kronos and his operation. It took hours, and I could tell Luke struggled to get a lot of it out. But he did.

It had taken long enough that we decided to stay the night, even though I could see Luke clearly didn't want to. We stayed in the Big House, and the next morning, we finished the last of the intel-sharing before heading back home.

Chiron stopped Luke on the way out the door with a hand on his shoulder and said he was so happy to have Luke back. Luke just nodded, but I squeezed his hands as I noticed a single tear making its way down his cheek as we left.

"You know..." I said as we climbed in the car. I was driving, and Luke stared determinedly out the window. "Chiron's probably not the only one who'd be happy to have you back. There might be some apology tour type-stuff, but for the most part... I think you'd get a warm welcome home."

Luke just gave a noncommittal grunt, and I let it go. That was a bridge we could cross later.

For now, we still had one final part of our plan to put into action.

The reason Luke had joined Kronos in the first place was because he'd been neglected by his Olympic parent, especially since his mortal parent had been in such a bad place. He'd discovered the hard way that Kronos was no better alternative, but the fact remained that the gods used their mortal children at best, and at worst completely ignored them for their entire lives.

We needed to find a third option, some middle ground way to make things better. So, we decided to be the change we wanted to see.

As legal adults with a newly moved-in apartment that had a decent amount of space, we had the power to make our home a space for demigods who had nowhere else to go. If their immortal parents were neglecting them and things weren't good with their mortal parent either, they could come to us. For a little while, or to stay for good. We made our own little sanctuary, then shared it with all the kids like us who'd needed it.

Over time, the operation expanded, and we moved into a bigger apartment with more space. Thanks in part to Luke and I, Camp Half-Blood won the war, and we were able to do even more once Kronos stopped being a threat. What had started as not much more than a dream of doing good had turned into a loud, busy, happy house with people constantly coming and going.

Which is how we'd ended up in an alleyway talking to a scared teenager, after helping defeat a monster who'd been bearing down on him.

"Who takes care of you?" asked Luke, a sympathetic and understanding frown on his face as we stood a little ways from the kid. We didn't want to make him uncomfortable, but we'd gotten good at spotting the signs of a young Half-Blood in distress and helping them.

"I take care of myself," the kid spit. I tried not to glance at Luke.

"We used to do that, too," I said, moving a little closer to Luke. "We both ran away from home, survived on the streets, although I guess we really took care of each other."

"Now, we take care of people like you," Luke continued, right where I'd left off. "Do you know what you are?"

The kid hesitated, then half shook his head. He at least had some idea, then.

"You're a Half-Blood," I said. "Half mortal, half immortal Olympian god."

"...What?"

"Look, I know it's a lot to process," said Luke. "But the longer the three of us sit in this alley, the more likely it is another monster's gonna come and pick a fight."

We managed to get the kid up and moving, heading back for our apartment. On the way, we explained more about the Olympians, and told him about Camp Half-Blood.

"It's a good place to get training, and to meet other Half-Bloods like you," I said. "A place for heroes."

"It's only one option, though," Luke added. The kid nodded, looking a little overwhelmed but excited as we stopped outside our apartment door.

"And... what's the other option?"

Luke and I shared a smile, then he pushed open the door to our apartment.

Inside, we were immediately greeted with a wave of noise and excitement. We'd left Ethan Nakamura, one of the Half-Bloods Luke had met away from camp, in charge, and he'd been leading the rest of our group in basic combat lessons.

"What... what is this place?"

"A place for normal kids who need somebody to take care of them," Luke answered. "You'll still get training, since monsters will always be trying to kill you."

"But we won't ever ask anything of you, other than to do your own damn dishes," I said. "No dangerous quests, no tribute to the gods. Just our own little makeshift family going through life together."

Luke put his arm around me, pulling me into his side and kissing my temple as Ethan noticed our newcomer and waved him over to join in the fun. Luke and I stayed where we were, watching the bubble of happiness we'd made together with smiles on our faces. We'd gone through hell and back to get here, but as far as I was concerned, every moment of pain had been worth it for Luke and I's happy ending.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury

Percy Jackson Taglist: @valkyriepirate

[therookandthecrow]

My Rook, while he played the field by flirting with every single one of his companions, he wants an exclusive relationship (Although in Lucanis' case, he doesn't mind sharing him with Spite. Being a Mourn Watch, he is very comfortable with and familiar with spirits.). Another thing is, he is aware of how Lucanis got attached to Spite, and he'd never hold it against him.

That said, after some specific mid/late-game scenes and banter he is going to make it very clear to Davrin that Lucanis is off-limits to him, and to not even make a move towards his man. At the point where he's done flirting with anyone but Lucanis, I can see something like this happening. (It's under the cut, for those who are interested in how my Rook's mind works.)

There is much unhinged Rookery, because my Rook is actually quite so. He's an Aries Sun with a Scorpio Moon, and a Venus Opposite Pluto, both in fixed signs. He was born to be possessive. Example below of how this manifests in Aries Sun, Scorpio Moon; especially because he lets his insecurities about how his previous relationships turned out make him possessive about Lucanis.

He'll be like, "Davrin, while I am pleased that you buried the hatchet with Lucanis, don't make a move on him unless you are interested in fulfilling 'In Death Sacrifice', because I can point you in the direction of Elgar'nan's Archdemon. I'm making it crystal clear, that I, for all intents and purposes, am not one to mince my words. I will be glad for you to help fulfill the final part of your Warden's oath if you so much as try anything with him. No more flirting, no more anything like that. You are one of my best friends in this entire world, and I'd hate to lose you so soon, Davrin."

To follow in the theme of my Rook being possessively unhinged beneath his calm facade, I can see his mind going "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!" while he's calmly telling one of his best friends to not engage in any suggestive banter with his intended love-interest, with or without any not-so-subtle nudges that he's not messing around with the mention of the final part of a Warden's Oath. It's even harder for him to say that because Davrin is one of his best friends, but he's claimed Lucanis, as I had said in my previous post about this subject.

The flirtatious dialogue with Neve and Lucanis had already come and gone by that point, although to me, it didn't come off as overtly flirty as the dialogue between Davrin and Lucanis. A lot of that happened before my Rook caught serious feelings for Lucanis and developed something more akin to an obsession than a mere crush, although he didn't know that he was already a goner the first moment he met Lucanis in the Ossuary. His Lucanis fixation didn't start overnight, to say the least. It grew on him over time.

Davrin is like, "Okay boss." in his normally cool manner, and he tells Rook that he's not interested in messing with his love-life, and that he doesn't have to worry about this. Of course, my Rook is going through a loop of paranoia and obsessive jealousy, so he goes back to what Davrin told him about there being 'nothing between him and Lucanis.' in the way that he's convinced himself there is, because he (Rook) is so used to people either leaving him or rejecting him. He's conflicted, because he doesn't want to lose his best-friend, but he wants Lucanis for himself.

The worst part of this is that he's been the prophet of his own pain by thinking the worst of people and expecting either betrayal, infidelity or abandonment and the proverbial 'other shoe to drop' because he's never had a truly satisfying romantic relationship, and the closest one he had to the depths of what he finds with Lucanis that he got before was one that ended up a mess. I want him, I want Lucanis. He has made his own mind into a prison of sorts, not dissimilar to how Lucanis has done the same with his.

[nakanotamu]

I've been wanting to write a Kamitani post for a while now as I get closer and closer to her heel turn because I'm just absolutely floored at how masterfully the whole thing has been handled. I keep getting overwhelmed almost trying to write it, like there's too much good stuff I'll miss something. I don't think this was intentional foreshadowing going back this far, but it worked out that you can see the seeds perfectly laid out in the title match between Maika & Kamitani months before. In that match, Maika sees them as rivals. Two people who are very committed to competing against each other, but in an ultimately friendly way! It's sporting, and there's no reason they couldn't work together instead.

Whereas Kamitani wants Maika to actually fucking die.

So a few months later when Kamitani had lost everything and was a snivelling loser failure (/pos, this is her ideal form) it should have raised SERIOUS ALARMS when she reacted to that by being BESTEST BEST FWIENDS with Maika. She started acting like a character from TJPW out of *nowhere*. At the time I remember being taken aback by how sudden a pivot it was for her character, but I wasn't yet familiar with just how crazy Stardom can be now. I really thought Kamitani just got insane fan backlash over QQ disbanding and they were trying real hard to make her an ultra babyface.

But the thing that floors me is why I think it works. Because as a character, she's completely fake. And I think I could do a good post about how she kept losing to Mei in this period because "hardworking committed babyfabe High Speed champ Kamitani" was an insincere act. But as a performance? It feels completely real. And ofc I can't say for sure, but my guess is that it works because she really is friends with the people she interacted with during this period. It's such a wonderful thing that you can sort of only get from wrestling, you know? This fake story told with real emotions. And I think that's why her turn is so effective.

And it's not like heel Kamitani has felt "fake" or insincere or anything. She's had so much depth as a character and it still feels like it comes from such a genuine place. She showed a glimpse of this all the way back in her white belt run, particularly against Ami, and it really feels like her truest self unleashed. I think that's part of what keeps getting me about every character change, every performance right now. It all feels so honest, it has that wrestling feeling of always feeling like reality turned up to 11. This train of thought is petering out and idk that I have a conclusion to this just. God it's so good. It's SO good. I've talked before about how part of why I like wrestling stories about people hating each other and betrayals and negative emotions is that when you get glimpses behind the story it's that much more likely to be something nice. When your story is everyone being friends and working together, seeing something else slip through is more likely to feel bad, you know? So this whole story is just like. I don't know. What a great example of getting to have it all.

[jellycreamjammedart]

Lost and Found (Super)Stars

PT. 3 (index/parts) (Tag: desktop/mobile)

FNAF Security Breach Ruin, post-"betrayal" elevator ending hurt/comfort, Found Family, something I like to call "Hopeful Horror"

Summary: Having had her kindness stomped on then spat back at her, betrayed by who she thought was her friend, and now stuck at the ruined remains of Freddy Fazbear's Mega PizzaPlex, Cassie tries to find the slightest bit of meaning and worth in all of this.

Everything was foggy at the seams, colors blurring together, but Cassie could make out a birthday cake before her (carrot cake, her favorite,) with a familiar wolf and bear as they both sung her a birthday song, a boy clapping along to the tune. She can feel her own face beaming with a wide smile before she blows the candles on the cake, somehow blowing everything and everyone around her as if everything was smoke of several colors, the singing fading away.

-

Cassie opens her eyes and blinks, looking up to see Roxy looking down at her with what she could imagine was a worried expression if she still had her facial features. She could feel the wolf's hand on her back, likely to stop her from being flat on the floor. "Huh... what happened?" She asks, bringing a hand to rub her eyes with her thumb and index.

Roxy's ears gave a light twitch, glad to hear the girl's voice. "It looks like you suffered a dizzy spell. From hitting your head in that elevator, I assume." It wouldn't be a stretch, given Cassie clearly had blood trickling down her head every now and then.

"Dizzy spell?" Cassie parroted, trying to sit herself more upright. "How long?"

"Not long. Around two minutes." Roxy, being a robot, could be sharply precise at counting time, but rounding it up seemed far more useful. "How are you feeling now?"

Cassie, took her hand away from her face, blinking her eyes a few times as she contemplates Roxy's concern. "... better. I think the dizziness passed." She looks down, seeing the V.A.N.N.I mask resting on her lap. Wordlessly, she puts it back on, immediately getting greeted by not only Helpi, but M.X.E.S as well, as the two digital beings look down at her along with Roxy.

"Oh, hey! You're finally awake!" Helpi exclaims, his blue eyes twinkling in relief and joy. "You had us worried there!" He glances back at the cybernetic rabbit. "Isn't that right?"

M.X.E.S rolls its eyes, crossing its arms as it glanced away. It didn't refute Helpi, however.

Helpi just chuckles slightly, winking at Cassie. "Don't mind them! They just need to get used to sharing the V.A.N.N.I system with me!"

Cassie blinks at the little bear. Sharing the V.A.N.N.I system? Helpi seemed to sense her inquisition. "When you configured the mask into a security node for them, it allowed them integration into the V.A.N.N.I system, just like me!" He paused to give Cassie a bemused smile. "It sure is something I've never considered possible, or considered at all! No one thought of this before. But perhaps it is good that you did." Helpi goes a little more serious, despite his adorable looks. "... their integration into the system appears to have expelled something else from the system." From serious, the tiny bear also expresses remorse, his smile fading a little. "... if I ever said or did anything that misled you and contributed to your plight, I am terribly sorry. That... might not have been truly me."

For an AI programmed to be just a work tool full of that soulless corporate talk, Helpi really does look like he feels guilty for unwittingly setting Cassie up, even though it's likely that he either didn't notice something was wrong or had no say in it. With M.X.E.S integrated into the V.A.N.N.I system, it seems the rabbit turned into an extra protection for the system including Helpi's AI. "I don't remember those moments really, though; it seems that in the process of securing my AI from further interception, my memories from those moments got corrupt. They might be repairable, but I don't see it happening anytime soon."

Well, bummer, if he could remember, he could pinpoint exactly when that thing intervened to lie to Cassie, but perhaps it's the price to pay for a more secure system thanks to M.X.E.S. The rabbit was single-handedly keeping both their minds safer.

Helpi shakes his head at himself, trying to switch back to his more peppy self. "But enough feeling bad! We have work to do, and you've proved to be cut for the job with your thinking outside the box! You'd make an excellent Faz-technician, if you were old enough Fazbear Entertainment would hire you on the spot!" Okay, that's a bit of the corporate talk junk, but beggars can't be choosers.

But either way Helpi was right: they have work to do.

"Think you can stand up?" Roxy asks cautiously as she felt Cassie stirring, keeping her hand on the child's back just in case. The girl lets out a positive hum in response.

"Yeah, I don't feel dizzy anymore."

"Good!"

But Cassie was careful anyways as she stood up to her feet. She looks from Roxy in her holographically reconstructed self, to Helpi, then to M.X.E.S, before briefly glancing to the bunny's server now up and running okay... then to that Glamrock Freddy backpack close to a collapsed vent. She picks it up in her hands, staring down at it. "It is Gregory's."

The name prompts a very low growl from Roxy somewhere behind Cassie but she doesn't say anything. She stares rather intently at the little nametag close to the bottom of the backpack, before her gaze shifted to what looked like muddy smudges from the vent. "I'm pretty sure this is his, too." She pulls out the Freddy-talk from her pocket, which she had collected from the other room before Roxy saved them both from being flattened by a boulder. The same Freddy-talk that thing used to lure her in.

Her grip on the cute little device tightened, her hand shaking slightly with a feeling of bitterness.

It's Gregory's fault that all this happened in the first place.

He was so careless in not only leaving his Freddy-talk behind but also his entire backpack. This carelessness was what gave that old thing an opening to reach her.

Why does Gregory get to commit such mistake and get away with it, but she has to be punished not only for hers but his as well? Why does she have to pay for what was his slip-up so that he can wash his hands at her expense!?

It's not fair.

The longer Cassie stared at the nametag, the more it was as if she was looking at the most insulting word in the entire vocabulary. "He was never my friend." She mutters out bitterly.

She would've thrown the Freddy-talk to the floor in frustration, but couldn't bring herself to do it due to Glamrock Freddy's image. Instead she tucks it back into her pocket to free her hand, then she tugs the tip of Gregory's nametag with her nail until she can pull it, ripping the adhesive off the backpack like a nasty bandaid. She crumples the little tape into a fist and tosses it away, before glancing back at the other three. "Finders keepers."

That seems to amuse Roxy, who barely suppresses a snort. "Hah! It's just too bad it's not a backpack with my face." She says mostly jokingly. But otherwise pays it no mind; Truth be told, she does miss the bookish bear, along with all the good times of the PizzaPlex. "Either way, that will sure come in handy. You're risking losing things from those tiny pockets of yours." Seriously, why are pockets in female clothes borderline unusable?

Cassie opens the backpack, and proceeds to tuck in both the Freddy and Roxy-talkies, then her Faz-Wrench and flashlight, as well as anything else she may have found along the way, then things she had shoved at the bottom of her pockets, which turned out to be a little bunch of cereal bars; Hey, she had prepared a little for what she thought would be a straightforward rescue mission!

Roxy's ears perk up at the sight of the treats; Those kinds of snacks might be the only things in the PizzaPlex that are still safe for human consumption... if they find any more of it. That's something the wolf keeps in the backburner; Cassie certainly will need to eat at some point, being human and all.

"So," Cassie turns to fully face Roxy, as well as Helpi and M.X.E.S, tucking her arms through the backpack's straps to carry it on her back. "- are we ready for that race, after all?"

Roxy's torn up chest emulates a puff forward in pride towards her twice number 1's initiative. "I thought you'd never ask." She gathers Cassie up into her arms then onto her back. "Hang in there, it's a bit of a bump road ahead!" She heeds, leaving the basement room through the hole back into the earth tunnels up which led back to the remains of the old pizzeria. Cassie had to slide the mask up off her face since that area was out of the V.A.N.N.I network zone, but she knew Helpi and M.X.E.S weren't far off.

To Be Continued...

[crystallinekai]

ShuAke Childhood Friends(?) to Rival Lovers AU

(I'm posting this headcanon here so I can reblog onto my P5 roleplay blog~ 💃🏽 Also, I have not written anything headcanon related in ages so please bear with me.)

Goro and Akira met at a Japanese equivalent of a daycare at the age of 5 years old while Akira was 3 years old. Akira was already there, playing with some blocks, when he saw a shy Goro enter while clinging to his mother. Goro's mother was explaining her situation, a lot of words that Akira couldn't understand. Something about money and how she needed Goro to stay here during the daytime while she's at work. The employee quickly assured the woman, making her relax before she signed some registration papers.

Akira had no idea what was going on as he couldnt take his eyes off of Goro. The other boy piqued Akira's interest even before he glanced his way. It was more of a glare he received while he clung to his mother tighter. It seemed like the woman noticed and she saw Akira looking in their direction. She smiled at him, finished signing the forms and placing a payment. She walked over to Akira while Goro trailed closely behind her, still glaring at the boy. The lovely woman introduced her son to Akira and hoped they will be good friends to which Akira cheerfully promised, "We will!"

And while Goro and Akira had became friends, there was a tiny bit of a rivalry going on. Akira thought it was a game, but Goro was serious. Their competition would stem from who can put the toys up faster or who can count the highest. That one was a little unfair for Akira who was three. One of their odd competitions led to Akira crying and it made Goro feel bad. So he promised to bring some candy tomorrow as a way to call a truce and make it up to Akira. It was silly, but they ended up bonding more after that particular incident. They spent a lot of time together before one of them had to go home each day. Their friendship was pure happiness for over a year.

Until one day, Goro hadn't come back to daycare one day. And one day turned to two. Then three. Before Akira was even aware, a week went by with no sign of Goro. He was sad. And then, it was Akira's turn to move away. He was due to start primary school soon and with his parent's line of work, they had to move to a different city.

He hadn't seen Goro Akechi again since. Akira was heartbroken and he didn't understand why.

About 13 years went by and a series of events happened then turned his life upside down. Getting arrested and slapped with a false assault charge landed him in a different prefecture and school.

Imagine Akira's surprise when he met Akechi on a social studies trip with his school. He felt a sense of familiarity from Akechi which made him feel a bit nostalgic and also like something that was previously missing had fell into place. He had met his old friend again, but unfortunately, they were on opposite sides. Akechi was a famous ace detective while Akira was a Phantom Thief. Akira knew needed to be careful around him yet, he was eager to spend time with Akechi and make up for lost time. Akira found himself wanting to talk to Akechi once they exchanged contact information often and they did. Then they hung out in a few spots including frequenting Cafe Leblanc, the bathhouse in Yongen-Jaya and spending time at the Cafe or Club in Kichijoji. They gravitated to each other when their schedules happened to line up, talking about their past and sometimes exchanging opinions on the Phantom Thieves. Akira found himself looking forward to every hangout between them and deepening their bond. And he fell hard for Akechi.

Which was why the betrayal from Akechi had been expected, it still hurt his heart. He thought of their talks while he was in hiding for the next month, still yearning to hear Akechi's voice on the other line if he called or see his name come up in his messages. All was quiet until the moment they had crossed paths again in Shido's palace. Akechi revealed to Akira he hated him ever since they were kids, mostly out of anger and frustration about him being surrounded by everyone while Akechi had been alone and cast aside. The words were said, but that wasn't how Akechi had felt. Akechi actually loved Akira too. Even Akira's friends could see that. They fought each other and brought Akechi to his knees. Akira offered for Akechi to join yhem again to take down Shido together when the Cognitive Goro Akechi appeared, gun in hand and pointed it at the real Akechi. Akechi gave Akira one last look and said, "If only we had met sooner..." Which Akira was about to reply before the steel gate separated them and a single gunshot was heard. His heart shattered when Akira heard Futaba confirm she couldn't see Akechi's signal anymore.

The fight with Shido was difficult and he avenged the boy he loved while making Shido atone for everything. The change of heart was a success. Akira lamented to Morgana on how he was unable to save Goro. He was mourning the loss of someone dear to him and had been dear to him since they had first met.

Eventually, Akira had to turn himself in as he had promised to Sae Niijima. His initial charges from Shido had been cleared. He served his time in juvenile detention because no one can overlook the fact he is the leader of the Phantom Thieves. Akira accepted that easily than when he had to accept that Goro wasn't alive. He still had the glove Akechi gave to him. Thankfully, that hadn't been confiscated when he was first arrested.

Akira returned to his life outside of juvenile detention after his time served. His friends rejoiced in having him back. He was glad to be with them. However, Akira knew one more person should be here. He still waited for his phone call or even a text.

It was when Akira was watching the shop shortly after White Day was when he heard the door open. Akira greeted the customer as normal before getting a good look at him and froze. Those familiar brown eyes with a unique reddish hue to them, the chestnut brown hair and his beautiful face. He was here. Goro was here, alive in Leblanc. The one word, a name was all Akira managed to say when he locked eyes with the other man:

"Akechi."

end

[twig-tea]

Love in the Big City Part 1: Reliable and Unreliable Narration

This post will be a ramble capturing of my reactions and thoughts and linking other meta where it applies. I did think about the discussion questions by @bengiyo but haven't set out specific question-by-question answer per se.

[if you don't know what this is about, check out the initial post about the book club, and if you'd like to join, here's the post with the overall schedule]

First, I am just going to acknowledge that I struggle with stories written in the first person, but this book is good enough that I got over this hang-up pretty quickly. I really love how both the narrator's self-awareness and his lack of self-awareness comes through in this writing style--he is very reliable a narrator around his own faults (as he brags to his readers), but unreliable about his own feelings. This is reflective of his emotional intelligence and lack of self-understanding or self-interrogation around his emotions. A few moments stand out to me around this: He mentions explicitly that he often laughs when he is actually angry and only realizes he is mad after the fact; He is also shocked at the level of hurt he feels at Jaehee's betrayal, and doesn't understand his own reaction; and he similarly gives no indication of having any emotional attachment to K3 in terms of how he talks about him, though he keeps and returns to his last text message and thinks about how he had imagined K3 remaining in his life through his future.

All this is to say, once I realized the disaffected tone was intentional and also unreliable, I got really invested in this novel and enjoyed Part I a lot!

I agree with the read of the narrator and Jaehee's relationship as a Queer Platonic Relationship as @doyou000me wrote here, and I agree with @lurkingshan that this relationship went unrecognized in the novel because these characters did not have the words to understand or characterize the relationship they were in. I can also relate; my roommate and I in my 20s were both queer, on the aroace spectrum, and were one another's plus-one for everything from work parties to family events. We lived together for ~4 years. We shared cooking and cleaning duties, spent every evening together, vacationed together (we even went on a vacation just the two of us while they were dating other people), and it was only when we realized (without realizing that's what we were realizing) that we could not have further emotional intimacy with one another and we "broke up" (by spending less time together, no longer sharing meals, it was all very avoidant and immaturely handled lol) that they eventually got serious with someone else and moved out.

I now have a few queer platonic relationships that I'm in consciously that are as close as Jaehee and the narrator, where we share all kinds of intimate details about our lives and plan major things like where we'll move to around one another; and my awareness is much better for managing and understanding my emotions around them. This is part of why I think this read is so compelling; it helps explain some of the disaffected writing style overall in this part, because when I didn't have words for the relationship I was in, I didn't understand and sometimes didn't acknowledge the feelings I had about it. And the way Jaehee slowly but easily transitioned into putting her relationship with her boyfriend/fiance/husband first; @my-rose-tinted-glasses connected this to atanormativity in her post, and that resonates for me too.

This connects also to something @lurkingshan talked about here around life stages and how these two people only worked while they were in the same life stage, and since the expectations they had on their own lives and that everyone had on them were so different, those life stages did not align and would not align forever. The way the narrator talked about not ever wanting to be married and not understanding why Jaehee, who seemed to feel the same way he did about life and love, would want to get married, really resonated with me as a queer arospec person who has always struggled to understand why other people want the things they want in their lives, and always feeling out of step with where they're headed. It's been interesting actively trying to keep friendships with people who got married and had kids, for example. I wrote a list of my own list of alternative milestones for anyone who falls outside of allonormative and atonormative lives.

One thing I wanted to highlight that I think @my-rose-tinted-glasses also alluded to was that the betrayal the narrator experiences when Jaehee shares their secret and outs him to her boyfriend was a betrayal because Jaehee puts her boyfriend's needs over the narrator's. This happens again with the wedding planning, where she assumed she could ask the narrator to be her emcee and then had to renege on the request because her fiance had someone he wanted to use and it was 'traditional' that the groom's side get to set the emcee. The narrator basically shrugs this off but we can tell by the way he talks about the wedding, the emcee, and the bitterness that exudes from the page, in addition to how quickly he leaves, that he has feelings about this.

Unrelated but one of the things I noticed about the health scares that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that Jaehee is yelled at by the doctor for being irresponsible with her sexual health; in contrast, the narrator is responsible about his sexual health by bringing his sexual parter for testing at the first sign of a potential STI, and he is made fun of and feels explicitly embarased. I haven't fully thought through all of the implications of this but thought I'd add it to the discourse while I think about it some more this week!

When going into Part 2, I'm going to be thinking about the cover of the book and how the two versions I've seen have either blueberries and Marlboros, or fingertips stained with blueberry juice making a finger heart. I am wondering whether these will become visual leitmotifs for the rest of the novel, or whether Jaehee's role in the narrator's life and these physical manifestations of their bond will be left in part 1; and if so, it's interesting that these themes resonated strongly enough with the publisher to put this visual on the cover. Either way, it indicates their importance and the importance of this relationship in the narrator's story overall.

[johannaflowers]

Hi, hello 🪄🥀🗡️🌙🖤

I've been quietly posting things here and there but haven't really introduced myself so far. Figured I should finally get to that.

Hi, hello. My name is Johanna Flowers, the latter being a direct reference to Ramona Flowers, because like her I love dyeing my hair flashy colours.

I've actually been on tumblr for well over 10 years by now (believe it or not, I am 30 years old and have really witnessed the good old angsty emo times of it) but I've been on a very long break. My old blog I have - to my heartfelt regret - deleted in a 2018 fit of not wanting to be part of said angsty emos any more. I'd probably cringe were I able to look at it today but at the same time I'd love to see teenage me's interests and ideas.

Anyway, I digress.

I've come back here last year because I am utterly exhausted with all other social medias I've been using (which weren't many to begin with but still managed to give me a burnout) and had an urge for the good old days I've experienced here. Plus I needed somewhere to put my writing.

As I'm (again) becoming more serious with wanting to finally finish writing a novel and feel in dire need of a community to share ideas and thoughts and questions with, I want to be more active on here again.

Alas, welcome to my blog!

I'm gonna try and focus mainly on writing. Currently working on a couple of long form things, but so far only one is worth mentioning. A story I've been working on and off for about eight years, working-titled Curse the Dreamless. It's a mystery story filled with magic, love, betrayal and a good old curse.

You can find some snippets of that here.

I also enjoy writing short stories or one shots every now and again to keep my brain active and inspired.

For my general writing tag you can come here.

(all pictures found on pinterest, not mine)

I am generally a big fan of fantasy, everything Victorian/Edwardian set, pirates and sail ships, I love mysteries, magic and darker narratives and I am dead set on writing something on Atlantis one day because the myth has my brain in a choke hold ever since I first watched the disney atlantis movie as a wee 8-year-old. I usually write original fiction in the form of prose, but might slip poetry, song lyrics or even fanfics into the mix if I feel like it.

Fandoms you might encounter on this blog:

Star Wars

Lord of the Rings

Avatar The Last Airbender

Arcane

Ghibli

Battlestar Galactica

The Expanse

Firefly

Grishaverse

The Witcher

Harry Potter

Atlantis

Sleep Token

Halsey

Bad Omens

(might extend this list over time)

If you've made it this far, thank you! I'm really looking forward to interacting with the people here - some of whom I've already got to exchange a few words with and found to be very lovely and welcoming. Feel free to follow if you're interested in any of the above mentioned things.

'til then, see you around!

[katerinaptrv]

Babe was so overwhelmed with guilt, pain and grief for Chalie’s death that he just needed do to something or he would fall apart. It fills him with rage that in times like this his mind goes to Way, not knowing if it was because he was his best friend for ten years or if was the remaining of all the mind control he did on him. 

He remembered Way always saying to go to him whenever he felt like this, maybe he manipulated his mind for it. 

That enraged him further, how dare he intrude on his mourning for Charlie, but the more the thought about it, the more he found likely for his fake friend to have a part in his lovers death. 

He hated Charlie from the beginning because of his twisted jealousy and possession of him. Tried to separate them both so many times. After all the lying, maniputaling and sexual assault attempt, he believed his former “friend ” capable of anything. Who would say he would not go this far to keep them apart from each other?

That gave him a new purpose, he got his jacket and went to the bar where he knew he would find him. 

Seeing Way just bring up all the pain of his betrayal again, so Babe did not waste a second and punched him, throwing him and asking in rage: What did you do to Charlie? What did you do? 

Way denied it of course,had the audacity to quote them as family but at this point Babe was not even listening to him. He was feeling so much, all at the same time. And punching Way felt good, felt like revenge for him, for Charlie.

He was getting ready to throw another blow at him when someone stopped it and threw him away from Way. Babe's eyes go looking for the person in disbelief and was shocked to find Pete, now hiding Way behind him, standing in front of him protectively. 

- WTF, Pete, what are you doing? He asks enraged. 

- He said he did not do it, if you want to continue to interrogate him use your words. 

- Are you on his side? What the fuck is this? He deserves every punch I throw at him!! 

- I don't care if you think he deserves it, I am not letting you touch him again. 

Babe was beside himself after this, he did not want to fight with Pete, they needed him as an ally to take Tony out. He honestly did not have the emotional capacity to deal with whatever is happening here right now so he gives them both a disgusted look and turns back and leaves. 

The second Babe goes and the danger is gone Pete turns to Way, getting close to him and gently helping him up. 

- Are you okay? Did you want me to help you get home? 

- I'm fine, thank you. 

- I am not going to let anyone hurt you on my watch Way. 

Pete says that giving one of his very serious looks that he always seems to give Way since they met. He always seemed to be there for Way lately, just quietly sit with him drinking, helping his drunken ass get home, listening to his laments without judging him or even protecting him from Babe's rage apparently. 

Way could not fathom why he acted like this but he was thankful for it.

NA: Here it is, I have to write it, it would not leave my mind. Just as a disclaimer I am not a Way defender and fully support and enjoy Babe punching him now or in the future. But I could totally see this happening if Pete was there at the moment. I tried to portray Babe's feelings and mental state at the moment but it was hard. I did not dwell on Way's POV because I can't understand him at all but I do think he is too self absorbed to realize Pete's feelings for him. I probably revise this and post it on ao3 later.

[meimei-bunnie]

Was thinking about Jiang Cheng last night, and what I understood of his character– and especially of his relationship with Wei Wuxian, because obviously, every aspect of his character is shown through the lens of their relationship owing to the fact that Wei Wuxian is the main character.

I don't think it's a bad thing, but I do wish that we could have got some serious in-depth of a lot of characters from their own perspectives, but it works for me and my overactive brain to fill in the gaps.

I genuinely feel heartbroken over their relationship because I know that the love is there, and always will be. Even if it's now tainted with too many harsh words and spilt blood, the love is still there. The problem lies in how Jiang Cheng was raised.

At first, I used to think that Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are not that bad of parents but after thinking over it, I have realised that they are not good either. In fact, when it comes to Jiang Cheng, they did a terrible job. JFM essentially neglected JC because of his similarity to his mother, leaving him craving for love. YZY on the other hand, constantly put him down by comparing him to WWX.

Both of these things became a core part of how JC thinks and feels. He never received unconditional love from his parents, and his relationship was strained with WWX, but he still loves them all. He is a classic Slytherin, in my opinion. He is definitely ambitious and loves his cultivation but another thing that I characterize Slytherins by is the difference in which they treat those inside their circle and outside their circle.

So, for JC, the people inside this circle are: JFM, YZY, WWX & JYL (and afterwards JL, but that's inconsequential to this post since I'm focusing more on the JC before WWX's resurrection). Even if they treat him badly, he loves them to death. He would go to the world's end for them, and all he wants in return is for them to be by his side.

Which is what WWX fails to do after the Wen situation. (I'm not blaming him, I totally support WWX's decision; I'm just painting it from JC's pov.) At a time when he had lost his parents and JYL was getting married and going away, the only tether for him was WWX– so when he chose the Wens (outsiders, for JC) and demonic cultivation over him, it was betrayal for him.

I believe there are 3 feelings that ruined their relationship, from JC's side: ① betrayal ② jealousy ③ loneliness.

The feeling of betrayal ties in to the loneliness heavily. At the root of everything is the fact that JC struggles with love; he loves deeply, but doesn't quite know how to express it at times because his own parents were lousy at doing that. (I wanna give him a tight hug so bad ugh.)

The jealousy... Well, that's the factor that ruined it the most. And I believe that if only JFM had looked past the fact that JC's mother is YZY, and had loved him as freely as he did WWX, and if YZY had not constantly compared them, then JC could have grown up without the compulsive need to constantly compare himself to WWX. It's not that he does it on purpose, but something that's wired in him because of the glaring difference in them that his parents keep pointing out, whether it's with his actions or her words.

The thing is... WWX was literally the worst person to compare himself to. He was literally a genius, a prodigy, a once-in-a-generation kind of cultivator. And also a classic Gryffindor example. Brave, reckless and strong sense of justice. That's what marks the main difference between them.

JC would choose his family/inner circle over justice. WWX would choose justice over his family/inner circle.

Those feelings of betrayal, jealousy and loneliness come out in the form of misplaced anger and hatred in the 13 years WWX is gone on every person who does demonic cultivation. I feel like JC was trying to find him too, but it was in equal parts love and equal parts hatred.

The point in the climax when he gets angry at WWX and mocks him about how good he is, and constantly better than JC that he even gives away his golden core– that scene hurt me so much. I was really upset with him, but well, his words struck me. Even now, he is still comparing himself to WWX. He has always tried to catch up to the image of WWX, in hopes of gaining his mother's pride and his father's love and even long after they are gone, he feels the need to prove himself to the rest of the world that he is Jiang Cheng. He is Jiang Wanyin, heir to the Yunmeng Jiang clan and worthy of leading them.

It's literally no secret how much he despises that everyone sees him as someone 'not Jiang like'. Their motto doesn't match him. But WWX does. WWX gets his father's love freely. WWX is the talented cultivator that everyone praises and sees, and it's never him. Never JC.

He spent his entire life trying to catch up to WWX, then chasing him in hatred, only to realise that he never could. No matter what he did, he would never measure up to WWX. And he is grateful, he is thankful for what WWX did, but it came out in the usual way all his feelings do: anger and derision. That scene hurts, but it made me finally understand JC.

Honestly, my biggest takeaway from all this was that JC deserved better parents. I love him and I love WWX and I want their relationship to be better desperately but knowing that with all that has happened, I also know it's going to be really really hard. I still want to believe in my own hc that post-canon, they sit down and talk like mature adults and get all this out of the way.

Be the brothers they always should have been, even if they can't be the Twin Heroes of Yunmeng anymore.

(Sorry this got a little long hahaha~)

Edit: And I just want to add that JC never needed to compare himself or 'catch up' to WWX. That's where his parents failed him. Nobody telling him that he is enough and wonderful and loved as he is. I would love to jump in and just, give him a tight hug and say all these things to the younger JC. That I'm proud of him. That's he's enough.