#I can’t believe how grown up Chris is

[bangchxnnie]

how long will this last? (pt. 2)

pairing: felix and fem!reader

tropes: friends to enemies to lovers, idiots in love, brother’s best friend if you squint? , college!au?

content warnings: 3rd person writing, alcohol is mentioned, reader is nicknamed barbie, felix is stupid, cursing, orange cats, shitty writing, bin being bin, massive miscommunication, what can barely be considered angst, some suggestive elements (but as always, read at your own risk buddy!)

chapter word count: ≈4.7k

|| hlwtl masterlist || part 1 || part 3 ||

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“Did you eat my fucking pasta leftovers?” She groans, searching through the fridge. 

“You were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you up and ask what is off limits and what isn’t.” 

“You’re such a prick.” She slams the fridge shut and fights a full-on pout. 

My pasta…

“What bit your ass?” 

It takes a while to explain everything to her brother fully. With how busy his job has been, he’s barely popped in over the last few months. She’s be lying if she said it wasn’t good to see him, though. Scare or not. 

She keeps stopping to fight the residual anger, sadness, or the weird mix of both that comes whenever she says Felix’s name. To Chris’s credit, he does his best to sit and just listen. Until she gets to the part about Felix saying she’s not worth it. He laughs at that. 

“What’s so funny?”

“God, he’s so transparent.”

She looks at him in confusion. 

“Continue. Please.” 

BP, the little traitor, sits in Chris’s lap the whole time, purring contentedly at the constant affection.

Can’t trust none of these hoes. 

When she finishes, he sits in silence for a moment. 

“So it sounds like he’s jealous, dude.” He says simply. 

B immediately shakes her head in protest and waves him off for good measure. 

“No, he’s just a dick.” 

“That may be true too, and I do want to kick his ass, but he’s clearly and obviously jealous of you and Binnie.” 

“You’re clinically insane. There’s nothing to be jealous of!” Her irritation could not be more obvious. Folded arms, jaw tensed, eyes skyward. “He’s just an ass, and there’s nothing more to it.” 

“Are you really that oblivious? I mean, c’mon, I know I’m the brains of the family, but-“ She smacks him upside the head. “Ow! Don’t damage the goods!” 

“Then stop saying dumb shit!” Chris glares at her. 

“I’m not. Anyone with eyes and half a brain cell can see he’s into you. Like, well into you. And has been. It’s quite gross, actually.” Her heart rate picks up at his words. She doesn’t actually believe him, but it gives her butterflies all the same. 

She covers by raising an eyebrow at him. He takes it as a sign to continue. “Look, I’m not gonna tell you what to do. But think about it. He threw a fit that day because he came home and saw you flirting with Bin.”

“I wasn’t flirting with him! That’s gross. Bin was just being himself. He’s always like that. Felix knows this.”

“Doesn’t mean he likes it. Maybe he just snapped.” 

She doesn’t buy it. They’re grown-ass people.

If Felix really was that upset, why wouldn’t he just say something? He’s always been able to tell me when he’s bothered.

If it were that simple, why didn’t you tell Felix how you felt, either? 

…Even my brain is a traitorous traitor. Why are we defending him?

“Okay, fine. What about that day he lied about his laptop?” 

“Maybe he genuinely forgot he had it. Or maybe, that loud ass sound you heard was him at the door.” 

B doesn’t say anything. 

“You said he was in the hallway, right? Maybe he had come home, saw Bin and you doing…whatever the fuck you were doing, and left.” 

Surely she would have noticed if Felix had come in, right? She’s normally so observant. Or at least, she thought she was. It’s a lot of information to process. 

“I mean, really? What the hell were you doing?”

“Irrelevant. What do I do about it?” B reaches for her cat, still seated in Chris’s lap. BP hisses at her. 

Fucker.

“Talk to him, dude. Jesus Christ, I thought you were smarter than this.” Chris just sighs. 

“Thanks, dipshit. And how exactly do you expect me to do that when he ignores me at every turn?” 

“I can’t give you all the answers. Damn. You’ve got to do some of the work yourself. Now,” He gently sets BP down and stands to stretch. “I’d really like to get some sleep. Is the spare room clean?” 

B thinks she’s probably going to kill him before this week is over.

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“What about that one? He’s so cute!” Felix points to a nearby cage, cooing at the cat on the other side. 

“His sign literally says, ‘I Don’t Like People.’” B counters, shaking her head. 

Felix just smiles that goofy smile at her that she loves. “Which means you already have something in common!” 

Her mouth drops in semi-shock at his comment, and she half-heartedly nudges his arm. “I like you well enough!” The same arm wraps around him and she continues walking. “How about this one?” She points to a couple of cages over; a little paw sticking out between the tiny metal poles of the door. 

“I dunno…she seems a little small. So dainty. She’s got to be able to hold her own in your house.” Felix plays with her as much as he can through the barrier, even going so far as to make baby talk to her. B giggles, just watching him for a bit. He’s so gentle with everything; no wonder the littles flock to him at family events. “Whad’ya think, Beautiful? Do you wanna come home with us? Just say the word, and we’ll take you home, yeah?”

Us. The way that one word makes B feel is more than dangerous. Floaty, warm, and fuzzy. After all, there is no us. Just her and Felix. As friends. Until the end of time. 

How miserable.

Felix jolts back when the cat swipes at him, catching his knuckle. “Ow! Fuck!” B blinks back to reality.

“Serves you right for calling her dainty.” 

Felix throws his free arm up in defeat. “Fair enough.”

 He steps into B’s space silently, suddenly laser-focused on reaching the top of her head. He gently moves a stray hair back into place, following it down to tuck it behind her ears. “Sorry, Gorgeous, it was standing up weird.” It’s all he offers in explanation. 

Not that she minds. But between the pet name and the touch, she’s sure her face is outing her in more ways than one. 

You’ve got to get it under control, girl! Get. A. Grip. 

Felix clears his throat, steps back, and offers his arm to her. “Shall we?” 

They interact with a few more cats, and every time Felix talks to the cats, it tugs at B’s heartstrings. She can’t help but watch the way his freckles crinkle when he smiles or how his eyes light up when any of the cats interact with him back. “How are you today, sweetheart?” or “Are you having a good day?” or B’s personal favorite, complete with baby voice-“I might have to just steal you for myself. Yeah, I think I do.” 

Eventually, they come across one that seems thoroughly uninterested in Felix. Felix tries to play with him, but he doesn’t budge. “Well, fine. Be like that then.” He pouts like a petulant toddler. 

“I think he’s just tired.” 

“Is he? He seems pretty indifferent toward me.” 

“Let me try.”

“Be my guest, gorgeous.”

B tries to coax him out from the corner of his enclosure. He slowly sits his head up and just stares at her. At least it’s more of a reaction than what he gave the man.

The cat approaches the cage leisurely like he has all the time in the world. Which, one supposes, he does. B drops her arm from Felix’s to get closer to the semi-curious cat, who lets Barbie pet him and seems content with just that. 

“I think he likes me? Maybe?” She searches the cage for his information card. 

Name: Bobby Pin 

Felix laughs. It compels another smile from B, much like anything else he does. “Bobby Pin? How do they come up with these names?” 

“I mean, my friend in grade school had a cat named Crayon. She tried to eat one as a kitten right after they got her. So there it was.” 

The way he listens so intently when she speaks makes her feel like anything she has to say is important. That she is important, it’s a feeling she cherishes more than he knows. 

Felix tries to reach for the cat again, seemingly feeling like he’s missing out. When the cat grumbles but lets him, both humans laugh. B decides that he’s the one.

She goes searching for a shelter employee. 

“Excuse me, we’d like to fill out an application for this one?” 

The memory pulses a pang in her chest that feels so wrong. It doesn’t seem right that just a few months ago, they were fine, and now, he’s saying shit like, “You’re not worth it”. It doesn’t make sense. Her conversation with Chris and the memory keeps her up until her eyelids can’t hold their own weight anymore. 

She manages an entire 36 hours almost completely people-free. She gets out of bed three times the first day. Once to use the bathroom, once to grab an obscene amount of snacks and dash back to bed, and a third time to grab the remote that fell underneath her bed. Other than that, she’s either sleeping, eating, or watching episodes of a show she’s seen a million times. It usually leads to another nap, honestly. The other days it's even less. Maybe twice, if that. Chris checks on her once a day to ensure she’s alive, asks if she wants him to stay (she says no), tells her to call if she needs him, and leaves. She doesn’t call, though. In fact, she turns her phone completely off to avoid everyone else. 

The fourth morning, however, another unwelcome visitor breaks into the apartment. He also has a key, but that’s beside the point. 

“B, are you home?” She’s already awake but would rather be sleeping off what feels like the beginning of a massive headache. Maybe it’s from all the crying. Maybe someone snuck in the middle of the night and poured alcohol down her throat. Maybe it’s from the yelling. She can’t be sure. The possibilities are endless, really. But what she is sure of is the fact that she doesn’t want to deal with Changbin. Not today.

Die. I want to crawl into a hole and make it my home like I’m some kind of mole. I could be a mole man. Mole-woman? Mole-person. 

She snaps her eyes shut and listens for his footsteps. She’s trying to gauge how far away he is since he says nothing else. She is unsuccessful.

“Well, you look awful.” 

Fuck.

“Go away.” She pulls the covers over her head and turns away from the door. 

“No, we’re not doing this sulking thing. C’mon.” He grabs BP from the foot of the bed and sets him on the floor. BP is unhappy about it, grumbling annoyed cat noises while he stretches and searches for a new sleep spot. 

“Oh, hush. You love me.” Bin argues with himself, it seems, because BP ignores him. 

He gently tugs at Barbie’s comforter. He’s trying to give her a chance to let it go. And when she doesn’t, he just snatches it from her hands and tosses it to the end of the bed. He sits on the edge and waits for her to sit up. She doesn’t. 

“Um, hello?! I have no pants on!” B protests, though she makes no effort to hide anything. Her sleep shirt is long enough that it covers everything anyway. 

“Oh, no! Legs! What’s a man to do?!” Bin faux gasps, clutching his hand to his chest. 

He deadpans seconds later. “C’mon, Barbie.” 

“If you say, let’s go party, I will kick you in the stomach.” 

Bin blinks at her. “Just get up!” 

“I don’t want to!” She thrashes around in protest, tears already threatening to expose themselves. “I’m in pain, I’m humiliated, I’ve been invaded, I’m-“ 

“Invaded?” Bin tilts his head, amused. 

She props herself up on her elbows. “Chris is here.” And just as quickly, drops herself back flat on the bed.

Bin mouths a silent oh. 

“Well, he can come too.” Changbin pats her leg and stands. 

“Where are we allegedly going?” Once again up on her elbows, B eyes him carefully. 

“The beach. Obviously.” 

An eyebrow raises. “In autumn?”

“Nobody said we were swimming. Now get up, and take a shower. You smell like sadness.” 

He finds his way to her tall dresser across the room and starts rummaging through it for appropriate clothing. 

She sighs in defeat, dragging herself up to a sitting position. A hefty yawn escapes her lips, and it dawns on her she has no idea what time of day it is.

“Wait, what time is it?” B searches for her phone, but it’s not in its usual spot on her nightstand. “And where’s my phone?” 

“7:30.” 

“AM?!” 

Bin waves her off as if it’s unimportant information. 

“You do realize this is an executable offense.” 

He turns his head to look at her, evil smile spread across his face. “Kill me and I’ll haunt you until your last breath.” 

It’s probably true. 

He tosses some clothes at her and points to the bathroom, exiting the bedroom in the same stride. “Shower. I’m gonna go wake your brother up.” 

“Best of luck, soldier.” 

She takes a deep breath, determined to face whatever the day throws her way. She quickly grabs the clothes thrown at her and heads to the bathroom. As she steps inside, a feeling of dread overcomes her. 

Why do I feel like this day is going to be a shitshow?

She closes her eyes and prays for the best. 

The shower is surprisingly refreshing. Once she finally convinced herself to get in, it’s hard to get out. A full wash can be quite draining most days, but the effort came with a little more ease once the warm stream also warmed the room. She leaves a little less dread-filled and a little more hungry.

After she gets dressed and styles herself to her liking, she heads to the spare room to see how successful Bin is at getting Chris up. He’s usually hard to rise since he doesn’t sleep much, either. 

She finds her brother and her friend..giggling. On the bed. Bin lightly punches Chris’s arm, and Chris falls into a full fit of laughter. 

She smiles, happy to see some of her favorite people so happy. “What’s so funny?” 

Their laughs settle, and Chris waves her off. “It’s nothing.” 

Bin agrees, lingering laughter escaping. “Don’t worry about it, Barbie.” 

She frowns, but doesn’t press. The uneasy feeling in her is growing, but doesn’t have the energy to have it out with them about it.

“Oh. Well, are we going to leave soon?” Her entire demeanor shifts.  

“Soon, we’re just waiting for one more arrival.” No one has time to address B's body language because as if on cue, the door shakes violently. The doorknob attempts to turn, but, of course, it’s locked. The door shakes again, and B sighs. 

“Why would you leave a brainless squirrel outside by himself?” 

Bin shrugs.

“I heard that!” It’s slightly muffled, but the hurt is still there. 

B unlocks the door and steps back, allowing Jisung to clamber inside. He almost crashes into Barbie with how aggressively he runs in. He’s breathing heavy, dramatically sets his hands on his knees to ‘catch his breath’. When he stands, he narrows his eyes at his friend.

“The door wouldn’t open.” 

B laughs. “Because it's locked, dumbass.” 

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“When it didn’t open?” She ruffles his hair. He swats her hand away and attempts to fix it, muttering something under his breath. 

Han Jisung is…a special friend. He can be incredibly intelligent, and very insightful, but it’s blanketed by a lack of common sense sometimes. Most times. He likes to say he’s too smart for his own good. There’s a sliver of truth to the statement. 

“Can we go now?” 

The beach itself is relatively uneventful. Bin packed a picnic kit and some chairs for the group to just sit and talk for a while. He even packed a book for B for when she’s burnt out socially. It’s a kind gesture, but B opts to just sit and listen to the waves, conversation as her background noise. Jisung chooses to sit with her in silence. Eventually, she lays her head on his shoulder. It’s the happiest she’s been all week. 

Nobody says anything to her until they start getting back to the car.

“You know, it’s okay to talk about it.” Chris says, pulling his seatbelt across his lap in the driver’s seat. “How you feel about it.” 

B shakes her head. “I don’t know how I feel.” 

“That’s fine too.” It’s the last he says on the subject. 

The rest of the boys pile in after closing the back of the car, resuming whatever new conversation they’d started on the walk back. B doesn’t really take in much of it. Until she heard something about her brother’s birthday.

“Oh, yeah! Have you finished everything for Saturday, Chris?” 

“Yeah, about that…” He cringes, like the words are paining him.

“What did you do.” 

“ThevenuecanceledandwehavenowhereelsetohostitsoIwashopingyouwouldletususetheapartment.” The words blur together, but she manages to get the gist. And she’s not happy about it.

“And how long have you known this, Christopher?” She stares him down through the rear view mirror. 

“Just since yesterday! I swear! I was just as mad as you are but I know that you love me and you’ll do me this major solid and I’ll owe you big time.” He flashes her his biggest smile, hoping it’ll seal the deal. The car is quiet, save for the radio, while she contemplates her answer. 

“…Yeah, you’ll owe me big time.” 

The whole car lets out a sigh of relief. “You’re the best!” Chris sing-songs. B flips him the bird, smile fighting at the corners of her lips. 

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Turns out, Chris has much more of his party planning shit together than anyone realises. The transition from venue to house party is relatively smooth over the next few days.. Hiding away the valuables and ultra breakables (nobody plans to get that wasted, but who knows), deep cleaning every room in the house, locking doors to off-limit rooms, the works. 

“Do you really not trust your friends that much?” Barbie questions. She’s washing up the rest of the dishes before she has zero energy left. 

“It’s not his friends he’s worried about, Barbie.” Seungmin joins in, spread comfortably across her couch.

“Oh, right. The New Year’s incident.” Jisung had gotten so drunk he’d gone up to every single person at the party and challenged them to an arm wrestle, and if they lost, he got to kiss them. He almost left with a broken arm. 

“We agreed we won't talk about that anymore.” Jisung gripes anytime somebody mentions it. 

“You agreed. With yourself.” B counters. 

Jisung, Changbin, and Chris all make weird eye contact with one another. It sets off that uneasy feeling in B’s stomach again. It’s so frustrating to feel out of the loop. Again. 

“What is this, some sort of weird intimate mindmeld? What aren’t you guys telling me?” 

They make eye contact again, and Bin clears his throat. 

“Um, Felix is, uh, coming to the party.” 

Her stomach drops at his name. Whether that’s from anger or something else is unknown. She hides her feelings behind a neutral face. 

“Oh. Well, I knew that. He and Chris have been friends for ages.” 

Nobody’s buying it. 

“Are you sure?” He speaks slowly; he’s scared to spook her. 

“Yes. Just because he can’t be civil doesn’t mean I can’t. Kill ‘em with kindness, yeah?” She shrugs and walks off to her room as casually as she can manage. 

She locks her door behind her and can feel a panic attack rising with every breath. She uses her grounding techniques to fight it off before it consumes her. 

Okay, I have exactly…16 hours to get my shit together. Oh shit. Chris was right. I just need to get through the night, and then I can sit his ass down and sort this shit out. His being into me is the only logical explanation for all his bullshit. It has to be. Yeah, I’m gonna talk to him when this is all over. 

She eventually hears a knocking sound in the back of her mind. It takes a few seconds to register that it is, in fact, a real knocking sound. 

“Hey, y’okay? We can tell him no if that’s what you want. Believe me, I have no issue doing that with how stupid he’s been acting lately.” 

She tries to laugh, but it comes out choked. It’s more air than sound. Some stray tears get eaten, which is weird because she didn’t even realize she was crying. She wipes her face and gets off the bed to unlock the door. 

She’s met on the other side of the door with Chris leaning on the doorframe, a sympathetic look adorning his face. 

“It’s okay, really. One night won’t kill me.” 

“I’d be a shit brother to let him around after all this.” 

“Good thing it’s not your call, then! It’s mine, and I say I want to move forward.” 

Chris nods. He knows when it’s the final straw for her, and she’s nearing it. He doesn’t bring it up again. She’s grateful for it. 

One more day and I’ll get my answers. 

….

….

She jolts awake, a scream echoing through her brain. Was it real? Was it in her head? 

She takes a moment to process her surroundings. The clock says 2:26 am. It’s dark. It’s cold. She realises 3 things:

She had a nightmare.

Felix is not here. She doesn’t know where he is. Thankfully? Unfortunately? Why do I wanna know where he is?

The scream was real, as noted by Chris and Changbin rushing to her room to see what had happened. My bad, bro. 

It takes a cup of tea, half a movie, and an extra body (Changbin) in her room to get her back to sleep. It’s in moments like this that she deeply appreciates the friends she has and the way they support her. 

When she wakes in normal operating hours, Changbin is still asleep in her bed. Granted, he’s somehow wrapped up in two blankets, and one of his legs is hanging off the bed, but he’s still there. She reaches across and attempts to unravel him because it must be hot like that, but all he does is grumble something that sounds like, “Get off my head,” and rolls toward the middle of the bed.

Can't say I didn’t try. 

B leaves him to his fate and gets herself ready for the day. 

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“Hi! Thank you for coming!” B greets guests happily, hugging and smiling as each person steps over the threshold of her apartment. She gestures to the nearest bedroom, offers them a place to drop their bag and coat, and tells them to enjoy themselves. It’s the same formula for nearly every person. 

While doing rounds, she spots a familiar face by the back door. 

“Look at you, all dressed up!” She wolf whistles at him, and Seungmin’s face reddens, but he brushes her off. Truthfully, it's just a button-up and pants, but he looks good anyway.

“I was told dress nice or die, so.” He does his best to keep a neutral face, but it’s obvious he’s in good spirits. 

“Well, you look very nice. Very handsome.” B teases, pinching at his cheek. She loves to mess with him like an older sister, and as much as he complains, B has a feeling he doesn’t mind one bit. To save face, however, he ducks away and wanders off to find his friend Jeongin. 

Chris is mingling happily as cohost, beer in hand, as he hugs or high-fives his friends who made it out here. Communicating the last-minute change was the hardest part, but they made it work. It's nice to see him relaxed. It doesn’t go unnoticed how he works himself into the ground at that studio of his. Hopefully, this week has been a nice break from that. 

A hand on her back makes her jump,and she gets immediately defensive. Have spins around, ready to say something about personal space, but it’s just Changbin. “My bad, my bad! I didn’t mean to scare you!” He looks…nice. Fitted polo shirt that shows off his arms (shocker) and neutral pants. It’s a good look when you add in the watch on his wrist. 

“Just wanted to tell you that you look cute, Barbie!” He continues, gesturing to the dress B picked for the evening. Black and simple. Hair and makeup to match. 

Elegant. Classy. Easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl. 

She smiles. “It has pockets!” She dips her hands into the pockets and twirls the dress to show it off. 

“I’m thrilled for you and your pockets. Do you want a drink?” She takes him up on his offer, and he sets off on his mission. 

In the meantime, she checks up on supplies. Everything seems to be good. Something catches her attention back toward the entry, and B’s heart drops to her ass. 

In walks Felix. And he looks divine. Black turtleneck, black pants, he even dyed his hair. She swears time has stopped.

Holy shit. Just, holy shit.

She agreed with everyone earlier against greeting him for fear of a cold shoulder. She knows herself, and she won’t let it slide if he decides to show out today, and today is not the day for that. Tomorrow, definitely, but not today. Instead, she just watches him walk in and barely notices the person following behind him.

Binnie returns with her drink, and they watch Felix timidly approach Chris. They share a mildly awkward embrace. Another person is standing beside Felix, a woman who looks just as, if not more, uncomfortable by the situation. They can’t hear what’s being said, but they see Chris give Felix a weird look before turning his attention to the woman. Chris greets her politely, gestures to the kitchen, and makes eye contact with Bin across. 

It genuinely looks like he’s trying to say something telepathically, and Bin almost looks like he understands. 

Men. How fucking weird. 

Just like it’s weird that Bin steps behind her, semi-casually wrapping an arm around her waist. “Don't do anything crazy.” Is all he says. She’s so busy getting ready to question how much he’s had to drink and what the fuck he means that she doesn’t notice when Felix approaches. Felix clears his throat and stops an awkward distance away. 

She acknowledges him by meeting his eye but doesn’t break Bin’s hold. 

“Felix.” Bin doesn’t hide his ire. Apparently, things haven’t been as smooth as he’s been telling Barbie it has been. She makes a mental note to bring it up later. 

“Long time no see, huh?” He attempts a laugh, but it falls flat.

B scoffs. “And whose fault is that?”

Bin squeezes her waist, a warning. She ‘accidentally’ steps on his foot in response.

“How are you?” He looks straight at B. He almost sounds…genuine. She contemplates giving him a real answer. Changbin answers before she can say anything-“We’re fine.” 

Felix goes silent. The moment stretches, long and very awkward. It’s becoming more and more uncomfortable with each blink, and B prepares to just walk away before Bin decides to speak up. 

“Who’s your friend?” He gestures to the woman pretending to look around the room. Felix reaches for her hand, and she smiles, interlocking their fingers. She’s pretty. Like, really pretty. Between the two of them, B’s not exactly sure who she should be looking at. 

“This is my girlfriend, Aila.”

Changbin’s grip on ‘his’ girl tightens. 

I think I’m gonna throw up.

[carpetbug]

La Llorona (3.2k)

read below or on ao3 • [tw: attempted drowning]

“It was true that he didn’t remember when he learned to swim, but he did remember his mother teaching him. That was a big part of why he was quickly getting tired of the topic matter at hand.”

“I don’t really remember when I learned how to swim,” Adrien shrugged, chin resting on his right hand as he passed the few remaining minutes of class conversing with his friends. Alya’s face turned down into a playful frown at his response, clearly unsatisfied with such a weak answer. Marinette watched the conversation in amusement while mindlessly chewing on a pencil—one already covered in teeth marks. They had all already told their own stories: Nino had been a natural swimmer, Marinette had to take a few years of swimming lessons, and Alya had told some kind of story about almost drowning at a water park with her older sister. Adrien hadn’t been able to follow that one very well.

“You can’t even remember bits and pieces?” she prompted. He felt like he was in some weird interview.

“Maybe you were just born knowing how to do everything, huh?” Nino teased from beside him before poking him with an elbow. He had started the conversation in the first place by mentioning how his little brother Chris had just started swimming lessons. Apparently, Chris was not enjoying them.

Adrien shrugged again, not entirely wanting to try and muster up bygone memories. “Oh, I don’t know, I must have learned at the hotel's pool with Chloe,” he awkwardly explained, trying to string together a story his friends would believe. When he really tried to remember, all he could see was fragmented pictures of his maman in her swimsuit, arms outstretched in a shallow pool that lapped around her waist. He could smell, slightly taste, the chlorine. It was true that he didn’t remember when he learned to swim, but he did remember his mother teaching him. That was a big part of why he was quickly getting tired of the topic matter at hand.

“Ugh, understood. If I had grown up being best friends with that girl I would also try to forget it,” Nino joked, making Alya and Marinette laugh. Adrien copied the sound—he had given up trying to justify Chloe’s place in his life, and even he wasn’t entirely sure she belonged there anymore—but the laugh he let out wasn’t nearly convincing enough.

Three pairs of eyes were immediately on him, stunning him into silence. It was like he had failed some invisible test.

The quiet held for a second too long before they started blurting apologies.

“Shit, dude, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said that, I know Chloe’s your friend and—”

“Yeah we didn’t mean to laugh, Adrien, we weren’t thinking.”

Marinette opened her mouth to begin her explanation when Adrien anxiously shut them down. “Guys, guys, it’s okay! I know you guys don’t like Chloe, but I also know you guys respect our friendship. It’s fine, really,” he assured them, squeezing Ninos shoulder comfortingly as he talked. “Anyways—,” he was desperate to get the attention off him “Why is Chris hating swim lessons?”

Nino laughed and began flapping his hands excitedly in the air, the previous tension quickly forgotten. “You’re never going to believe this, he’s scared of ‘La Llorona’.”

“‘The crying woman’? Isn’t she some kind of, like, Mexican folklore story to scare little kids?” Alya questioned, leaning towards her boyfriend enthusiastically.

“That’s exactly what I said! I was like ‘Chris, bro, we live in Paris. She’s all the way in Mexico, busy doing ghost things, no way she’s going to get you.’ But he’s convinced she’s out to find him! I don’t even know where he learned about it,” Nino recounted, laughing as he went. Maybe it was kinda childish to be scared of a ghost in a distant country; but in Chris’s defense, Adrien also felt uneasy about ghosts.

The idea of being haunted made his skin crawl.

“I’ve never heard of her. What’s the folklore?” he asked curiously, interest piqued.

“It’s actually kind of a gruesome story,” Marinette spoke up, but quickly looked like she regretted it as eyes turned to her. She looked down at her hands and fidgeted with the chewed pencil as she continued. “There’s a lot of different versions, but the most common one is a woman fell in love with a wealthy man, had his children, caught him cheating, and drowned their kids out of rage. Then she regretted it and drowned herself out of guilt, leaving her weeping ghost to haunt rivers and streams, crying out for her children. It’s usually used to keep kids away from bodies of water, especially at night. Supposedly if you hear her sobs, she’ll find you, then drown you when she realizes you aren’t her child.” Marinette shivered with the final sentence, clearly recalling something. She combed her fingers through a pigtail and let out a tense giggle. “My grandma goes on trips all over the world. She went to Mexico when I was in kindergarten, then decided to tell me that story when she got back. I was scared of the seine for months, so I can’t really blame Chris.”

“Your parents must have been mad.” Alya smirked.

“My mom definitely was! She was convinced I would never get over it, and I’d have a fear of water all my life. I forgot about it when summer came around and I got to go to the pool.” The girls were talking now, carried away with their own conversation.

Adrien didn’t mind. He was busy mulling over the new story.

“—rien? Adrien!” Nino shook him hard, eyeing him up and down like his friend had done something suspicious. It felt almost invasive, and made Adrien squirm in his seat. “Dude, you’re out of it. What are you thinking about?”

He stopped, and thought for a moment. Then the words got the better of him and before he could stop it the question spilled out. “Do you think she loved them?” Adrien asked, eyes locked with Nino’s.

“Who? The—La Llorona? I mean, I guess she loved her kids. All parents do, right?”

“No, I mean—I mean do you think she did it because she loved them?”

Adrien’s attention turned to the phone in his hand, a notification lighting up his lockscreen. It usually rotated through different pictures he had picked out, but right now it was settled on one of him and his mother. “Do you think she drowned them because she loved them, maybe just too much?”

Before Nino could respond, the bell rang out. Class was over, Adrien needed to go home, and Nino had to take Chris to his swim lesson.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Maman looked so pretty in the pool. The way her hair shined in the sun, and the corners of her mouth wrinkled when she smiled. The clear, bright blue water that stopped at her knees. The thin silver band on her left ring finger reflected the sun brightly, as did the silver feather earrings dangling from her ears. She always wore jewelry. Her green eyes reminded him of the grass that grew beside water in the books she’d read him. It made him happy to have the same green eyes.

Adrien was four years old, right at the age where he was blathering out any words he could, and consciously exploring all the different sensations that came with being alive. But today he had a swimming lesson, which meant listening to his mother.

Emilie stood, merely a foot away on the second step, cooing and trying to coax her living ball of sunshine to dip a foot in the pool. “Adrien, darling, I promise the pool won’t hurt you,” she assured, leaning over and slipping a few fingers into his palm to grasp. He did so tightly, then slowly stepped down onto the first step into the pool. It was cool, almost ticklish, against his skin and thankfully only rose to his shins at this height.

“See!” she smiled, almost purring the words. She pulled her fingers from his grasp, lowered to the bottom step, and splashed the summer water towards her little student. He giggled and shielded his face, though the splash only reached his stomach. “Next step, now.”

Adrien’s laugh caught in his throat. The next step was deep, too deep, but… she was standing right there, lip-glossed smile beaming at him.

She wouldn’t make him go too deep. Maman was safe.

He stepped forward cautiously, missing the tight grip he had on her hand just before, and slowly found his footing. The water now pooled just above his hips, the sloshing waves from their movement gently pulling him this way and that. His arms hovered above the water's surface at his sides, refusing to fall victim to the pool just yet.

“You’re a natural, little minnow!” Emilie cheered, then sucked in her cheeks and pursed her lips to make a kissy face, trying to imitate a fish. Only she looked more like she had bitten into a much too sour lemon, which made Adrien laugh again, even harder this time. His arms dropped slightly and an elbow dipped into the water, making him squeal suddenly.

“It’s cold, Maman!” he whimpered, wanting to retreat back to the shaded table where their towels and pool supplies resided while they swam. Adrien’s gaze was locked over his shoulder on the dry, warm spot a few feet away when Emilie snapped her fingers to get his attention again.

It worked immediately.

“Darling, it’s the perfect temperature. Don’t let the water scare you,” she comforted him, reaching out again to offer a hand to hold. Adrien’s smaller hand took it urgently. “Last step.”

If the previous step had come anywhere close to scary, the last step was utterly daunting. Plunging one foot further into the depths of the water, the surface rose up to his chin. When he tried to lift his other foot it felt rooted to the concrete stair that held him above the water, and he couldn’t find the strength to rip off the bandaid. Thankfully, Emilie had strength to spare for her minnow, and using her free hand she hooked two fingers around his ankle, then sternly pulled it to the final step.

“Ah-ah-ah,” she cooed in her sing-songy voice, hands receding from the young boys’ space again before pushing at the bottom of his chin. His mouth opened to protest but she tilted his head back, letting his golden hair fall and soak up the chlorine-rich water..

Now the water lapped at the edges of his face as he stood, tiptoed, and tilted back. He looked up towards the sky, closing his eyes to block out the harsh sun, and urgently trying not to panic over the water sloshing in his ears. His arms floated in the water at his sides, and he was too aware of the open space where nothing could be grabbed onto. Adrien could hardly hear Emilie, if she was singing her praises at all, but if it was because of his submerged ears or his racing heart he couldn’t tell. After a few seconds—a few too many for small Adrien—she plucked him from the step and placed him on her hip, giving him a moment to rub the water from his hair and ears.

“Wonderful, mon bébé!” She was laughing as she whirled him through the pool, hands tucked under his armpits as they spun in excited circles. “Was that so bad?”

Adrien waited until they stilled to respond. “My ears went under the water,” he muttered, trying to balance in her grasp and holding onto her shoulders. “My eyes were closed, too. I was scared.”

Emilie pouted, maybe trying to give him a sympathetic frown, but it only made him feel smaller. It was the kind of look that a passersby gave a baby throwing a tantrum. “You’re okay,” she assured gently, holding him against her chest and lifting a hand from the water to push a wet strand of golden hair from his forehead. He leaned into the touch of her palm. “When you’re with Maman or Père, you’re always okay.” Their eyes locked and Emilie’s smile dropped. Her left thumb slowly grazed over her ring when she continued. “You know that, right, little minnow?”

The words spilled out before he even knew what he was going to say. “Yes, Maman.”

Yes, he was okay so long as Maman and Papa were there. Mother and Father would always keep him safe.

“Wonderful, darling. Now, let’s try doggy paddling.”

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

It had been a grueling hour in the pool, consisting mainly of Adrien clinging either to his mother’s shoulders or the wall of the pool. The doggy paddling had been too scary, treading water was too exhausting, and floating on his back was too overwhelming.

Worst of all, Emilie was starting to get angry. She had even screamed at him when he tried clambering out of the pool.

Adrien hated making Maman angry. Her eyebrows would twitch when she furrowed them together, and she often brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration. It made him feel stupid, and wrong, like he had broken some rule. Sometimes—though Adrien wouldn’t admit it for many years to come—it made him angry too. Angry enough to want to rip piano keys out of their places. Angry enough to want to destroy things with a single touch.

Angry enough to try and climb out of the pool during a swimming lesson. Which was, of course, unacceptable.

“Honestly, Adrien, you’re behaving like a brat! Are you stupid?” She snapped, top lip pulled back in a snarl, letting her canines shine in the sun. Adrien could feel them closing in on him. Even at her worst, he only wanted her to hold him close. It never really mattered if he was alive or dead when she did it—he just wished she wouldn’t yell.

“I’m scared, M-Maman!” He hiccuped, clinging desperately to the roughly textured wall. It stung the pruning skin of his fingers, threatening to cut his raw fingertips. Adrien didn't notice over his own sobs and wracked breathing.

“Stop crying already!” Emilie lunged forward to rip her son from the wall, ignoring his wails of refusal. He urgently grabbed for the wall as she carried him towards the middle of the water, muttering under her breath. The only things Adrien could pick up was ‘useless fucking kid’ and ��made you to be better than this’.

The words didn’t fully register in his panic-stricken brain. The only thing he knew for certain was real in that moment was the steady stream of warm tears pouring from his eyes. Until Maman reached out, palm cupping his tear stained cheek, and gently wiped at the droplets clinging to his eyelashes. Adrien’s eyes opened and took her in, eyes half-lidded and eyebrows pressed together. She was as comforting as she was terrifying, which was an intense combination of emotions for four year old Adrien.

“Don’t make me repeat myself again. There’s nothing to be scared of,” she said intensely.

It made the tears stop and hiccups pause—it even took some of his breath away. Adrien’s mother was like a being of pure emotion, raw and untethered, changing at the snap of her fingers. Emilie could play people like a violin, and this was her philosophy when it came to maternal matters.

“Nothing to be scared of,” he whispered in repetition, eyes still glued to hers. His muscles relaxed, and he softened into his mothers hold. Truthfully, Adrien always thought it was much more comfortable once he stopped fighting.

Emilie smiled and nodded, then turned to look at the empty pool around them. Her hair was still radiant in the sun, but now the ends had gotten soggy and knotted as they dipped in and out of the water.

“M-Maman, can we stop now?” Adrien asked softly, unable to stop the trembling pout his lips formed. “Please?”

She blinked. Swallowed, then clicked her tongue against her teeth. It was a nauseating sound. “Only if you can swim, little minnow.” His body froze when her eyes targeted back onto him, his stomach turning when he saw her gaping smile. “Show me how you swim.”

In the blink of an eye, Adrien was forced under the surface, water overtaking his mouth and nose before he even thought to close or cover them. It stung, like a wasp had crawled through his throat and made a nest in his lungs, infesting him from the inside out. He gasped for air, desperate to cool the burning taking hold of his chest, but only inhaled water.

He was screaming, crying, violently thrashing in the water as he tried to breach the surface. The sounds only left his mouth in muted air bubbles, floating past his vision to the surface his body screamed for. But it was useless against the tightly gripped hand around his throat.

Maybe Maman just couldn’t hear him when he was so deep under the water. Maman wouldn’t mean to hurt him.

The water churned against his limbs, thwarting his efforts to kick and paddle back to air. He was quickly losing hope that there was any kind of escape. This is what baby birds who fall from their nest too early must feel like. Weak, defenseless, kicking and screaming and fighting to stay alive in a terrain that only wants them dead.

At least those birds can breathe.

Adrien stopped fighting when fatigue overtook him. His legs went limp and arms crossed his torso, enveloping himself in a tight hug under the water. There was some comfort to be found in that, even in the worst situations. He let the water envelop him, too tired to continue. His muscles eased, repeating the lesson he’d learned just before. Pain and terror are so much more comfortable once you stop trying to fight them.

His eyes closed. His body stopped screaming.

Then it was over.

Fresh air swarmed his lungs, bringing up the chlorinated water he’d swallowed. It tasted like stomach acid and summer.

“My poor little minnow,” Emilie murmured as she sat him on the wall of the pool. He coughed and gagged as she slowly rubbed his back, occasionally raising her hand to pet his soaked, ruffled hair. Her voice—usually spilling over with emotion—was monotone and brief, like she was stating a fact. There was no comfort in her words, only recognition that he was suffering. No apology, no explanation. No loving coos and empty promises of safety. Only a mother and her son.

“I-I couldn’t breathe, why Ma—” he sputtered, coughing and stumbling over the words.

She cut him short.“I already said, Adrien. No more squalling.”

He was quiet. His lungs still ached and his throat felt like it was burning, but his lips remained sealed. Any screams or cries were trapped out of his reach.

“You’re okay, aren’t you? No blood, no bruises. Good as new.” She beamed at him. “Nothing bad happened, darling. Let’s get you toweled off and head inside for lunch. You can learn to swim tomorrow.”

Emilie swam through the pool, leaving Adrien sitting on the edge. He watched her silently as she ascended the steps out of the water and made her way to him, then plucked him from the ground like a feather. He usually loved when Maman would carry him around on her hip. This time he felt like a prisoner of sorts, anchored to her side while his own emotions, thoughts, and wants were cast aside to cater to his warden.

“Yes, Maman.”

[saturnluvva]

ARE WE STILL FRIENDS

Summary : when bsf!matt and fem!reader accidentally make out at a Halloween party Matt ends up distancing himself from her

Warning(s) : slight angst, yelling, smut??, making out, distancing??

A/N: this used to be my fav song on Igor but now it’s like my top 5😭

Pairings: Matt x reader

Y/N, MATT. NICK, CHRIS,NATE, MADI

It all started three weeks ago when I was invited to a Halloween party by my friend Madi. I thought it would be fun, innocent, and a good time to socialize. But of course not it’s always something when I wanna have fun.

…………. …………. …………. …………. …………. …………. ………….

“What are you dressed up as again?”

“That one bitch from subway surfers”

Nick then bursted out laughing and because I thought his laugh was so dramatic I ended up laughing too. We had laughed for a good 30 seconds before Matt walked up to us. “Hey wo- what the fuck nick?! You stole my costume!”

“I wore it better” Nick always had then intimidating voice. It scared me sometimes “what?! Y/n who wore the costume better?” “You both look like dumbasses” they both then turned to me with the most shocked look on their faces as if I’m the problem now “bitch how?!” “Huh?!”

“Well for starters” I started to argue “you’re both GROWN ASS men dressed up as woody. And not only that you’re both fighting over who looks better as if you both didn’t buy the EXACT same costume kit. It’s kinda embarrassing.” And of course they both rolled their eyes.

“I feel insulted so I’m gonna go talk to Madi because she actually knows how to be nice” Nick then walked away and left me with Matt.

“What a dick right?” “I’m not saying you look better than him.” “Dammit.”

…………. …………. …………. …………. …………. …………. ………….

A few hours later I ended up hella drunk and stumbling around. “Woah dude” I looked up and noticed Matt looking down at me with a huge look of concern “what?” I had slurred my words “you wanna go upstairs or something?” “Uhh sure”

Now that me and Matt are upstairs we went to an empty guest room and sat on the bed that was in there. “So…” “I’m still not saying you look better than Nick!” “Why not!?” “Because this is stupid” I laughed throughout my words. Luckily Matt started laughing too “whatever dude! I know I look better than him! And if not tonight then every other day i definitely do!” “Okay dude sure” “cmon you can’t even lie!” We had made eye contact. I then noticed him scooting closer to me. He got closer and closer and closer until he ended up kissing me for 30 seconds. I then pushed him off of me and gave him a look that an angry grandma would give you if you broke her heart. “Dude what the fuck?! Why would you kiss me?!” I then rubbed my lips as if I was trying to kiss him.

“I thought you wanted to.” “WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?!” “We made eye contact! That’s what usually happens” “where?! Romance movies” “well…yeah! But it also works in real life!” I then groaned out stormed out of the room. Even In my drunken state I would NEVER take advantage of someone like that so why did Matt do that?! And I knew he was sober because he never drinks. I couldn’t believe him

When I arrived downstairs I had seen people looking at me. I guess they heard what happened upstairs “y/n what’s going on? “”What happened?” “Where’s Matt?” Were all things I heard. And unsurprisingly nobody was concerned about me! Only Matt as always. It’s like I wanted to be mad at everyone else but I was only mad at myself for letting myself get drunk AND being in a room alone with a guy like Matt. Sure he was one my bestfriends but he’s also a dick sometimes.

I ended up leaving the party and walking to my dorm room that I shared with Madi.

…………. …………. …………. …………. …………. …………. ………….

Now it’s been three weeks and I’ve been distancing myself from Matt, Nick, and Chris. I even forced Madi to not talk about me infront of them incase they’d forgotten about me. Did I HAVE to do all of this? No. Did I NEED to do all of this? No. did I WANT to do all of this? Yes.

But of course the universe hates me so I ended up being seen by Matt anyways. “Y/n?” My head instantly shot up. Fuck. “Yeah…?” “Where have you been? I was worried sick about you!” “I don’t know.” “Bullshit.” “What?!” “You know I can tell when you’re lying right” well that’s what I get for being friends with a man. “Were you avoiding me?!” “Maybe.” “Why?!” “Because I don’t wanna look at you! You made things awkward” “how?! What did I do?” “You kissed me!” “Oh my god! You’re still stuck on that?!” “Yes because i wanna know why you did it!” And of course he walked away.

…………. …………. …………. …………. …………. …………. ………….

MAKING A PART 2 SOON MAYBE BC IM LAZY ASF

[angelmelon]

How Leasebound suffers under the ablebodied gaze

Hiiiii I’m on my bullshit again 😘❤️

today we are going to talk about how Leasebound’s disability rep is kind of mid

we all know how I feel about the special ed teacher panel

and BONUS: this is Sunny’s insert. Sunny has never worked with disabled kids. RUSTY has never worked with disabled kids, and neither are disabled to my knowledge. I am disabled AND have worked with disabled kids. I still think that panel is complete bullshit, with the lack of knowledge on the topic showing through in the implication that there is ever an instance outside of imminent harm to yourself or others that you need to restrain a disabled child even if my old post may have admittedly overreacted. There is not. There is never an instance outside of imminent harm to yourself or others. If your special education facility has told you that restraint is an option at all when a kid hugs you too long, get a new fucking job 😭 the next alternative to a “let me go” or a collapse or drop move you weren’t taught somehow is never to “hm. If I don’t go to self defense training my only other option is to restrain them”

anyway to the guys I wanna talk about here

now let’s list off disabled characters

Shanzay (it’s not spelled Shanzey in any language Rusty should probably correct that)

Rocky

Uhhhhhhh

Ginger is most definitely disabled given the knee injury but that was most definitely added to give her a stereotypical middle aged “man” backstory of wanting to play professional football and then getting injured and it doesn’t even really come up on panel. Plus the trans women in the comic are. Well. We all know 😭😭

and I am of the personal opinion that Brick has some form of dwarfism or potentially Down syndrome due to how Rusty draws them (height, proportions, and facial features) but this was not done intentionally by Rusty and seems to have mostly been an attempt to make them look “clownish” which is a whole other set of issues. Like I thought Parniya was supposed to teach your grown adult fanbase not to make fun of people for their height or weight but your commentors say otherwise when it comes to Brick sooooo

anyway the only ones I can definitively say are disabled are Shanzay and Rocky

so so far the only 2 characters who are definitively disabled both got it from some big showey traumatic event, not looking good so far seeing as that’s a pretty common stereotype…

Shanzay has partial blindness, seemingly caused by blunt force trauma

Now I can’t believe I have to say this but…

regardless of how you are drawing this REALLY does not communicate a blunt force eye injury

fun fact: I’m not going to show a picture because HOLY SHIT the pictures are horrible but a healed blunt force eye injury (one that WOULD cause permanent full blindness in the eye) usually includes

partially or fully detached retina

reddish sclera for obvious reasons, it gets better overtime but it rarely fully goes away

usually rather than a perfectly vertical scar with stitches there is a bruise or a scar that isn’t. Yk. Perfectly vertical over the whole eye. Often a scar would be something like a deeper one over the eyelid, or uneven tiny scar bits around the eye. While we don’t see what Chris does to Shanzay exactly, if he hit her with what he had at the moment (his fist), she more than likely got a hugeass bruise with no permanent scar outside the eye, maybe a tear in the eyelid itself if we give Chris the disbenefit of the doubt that his single fist is that strong, or that he got multiple hits in. I mean he sells drugs or whatever so maybe??? I’m gonna be for real I doubt this guy’s mary sue ass strength he looks under half my dad’s weight

Bonus that shit is probably HORRIFIC if the injury wasn’t super bad then because it doesn’t seem like she was taken to the doctors

Better ways to stylize this sort of injury on Shez:

partially detached retina, rough healing

Retina removed surgically due to extreme injury or infection after injury, probably healed better due to medical intervention. Would likely wear an eye cap or glass eye cover to protect the eye

Traumatic cataract (what I think Rusty was going for??). Despite all the models you’ve probably seen or whatever the fuck a traumatic cataract is rarely completely perfect over the eye, and often the original eye color is slightly visible underneath. I specifically made this one partial, giving an easily stylizable but accurate look.

“why is this a problem?? Other media does this all the time”

yeah and I kinda hate it 😭😭 it’s one thing if all your characters have dot eyes, like just put an x there BOOM eye disability communicated. Also, Shez is never shown to have the same or similar disability needs to most people who are partially blind or blind in one eye. The large majority of people with full blindness in one eye cannot drive very easily, first of all. One, in most countries you need to pass a medical test. Also, if Shez’s injury is in fact a traumatic cataract, driving is either an incredibly difficult/stressful task, or just straight up unsafe, seeing as the areas of an eye a cataract falls over only allow for very limited vision.

Like bestie you CANNOT be looking back at Jaden like that regardless of potentially training yourself to drive?? Which even then you’re apparently driving at 3am or so??? It’s DARK AS HELL at 3am fuck off there’s no way

now I’m not partially blind or blind myself so people can absolutely correct me on this (blind people, not people with a totally super real blind cousin or something, I’m not centering ablebodied people here)

Shez seemingly has no trauma from her injury specifically. Only her mother is affected by it. Honestly that’s a lot of the Chris plot line; Shez only wants to save the people around her and that’s apparently good cause “power fantasy” like??? I thought this was supposed to be a comic about realistic women experiences or whatever the fuck.

Oh yeah and why is this panel kind of implying that Shez got her injury on the job when she got it from Chris 😭😭 I guess the rest fits but “this is a rough job” with the weird closeup of her eye 😭😭 bitch what does that MEAN Chris did not injure you at Yonique

okay next one

I have BEEF with this woman ‼️‼️‼️

Whoever decided they weren’t gonna at least teach Rocky sign language is a fucking idiot. Why is she communicating with the same *nod* *nod* she did when her muteness was new at 22 years old. Someone teach Rocky sign language!! ”you can’t expect rusty to learn accurate sign language just for Rocky” then I can’t expect her to respectfully write a mute character without falling into dumbass stereotypes

I do understand why Rocky wouldn’t have an AAC device… I mean, this is 5 (now 6 with Parniya!!) people living in one tiny living space in a city that has a huge classism problem, it’d be very difficult to get their hands on something like that. But. A text to speech tablet?? Like just an iPad?? Maybe??? There’s also AAC-like apps for both Samsung and Android. Rusty invents shit that doesn’t exist all the time!! (Like a plain white simultaneously loose and tight around the boobs turtleneck with plain black text that says yaoi. Looking at Kai) she could just invent an AAC app for Rocky to use that functions exactly like the expensive ones but free and on a standard off brand tablet!! PLEASE it’s giving Teardrop bfb but worse than that because Teardrop was 1. Originally written by children on YouTube 2. Eventually DID get means of autonomy and communication and most people understand and respect her. Rocky only gets nods. How is she getting a job with nods??? Interviews are unfortunately way more complicated than yes or no questions.

now my final issue, applying to both Rocky and Shanzay, which I briefly hinted to earlier

Their disabilities are BOTH from big life altering injuries or PTSD. Which can happen!! That’s fine, but it’s also the most stereotypical form of these disabilities. It’s the one in media most palatable to ablebodied people. Like the little disabled representation coming in the form of wheelchair users who cannot walk at all (often paralysis) or supergeniuses if it’s caused by anything else, or people who so tragically lost an arm, or an eye, or their hearing, or sight in a war, or a fight, or whatever, a mute person who does not communicate in any of the numerous ways that mute people do because the ablebodied writer does not believe they can. Like, you know that dialects of sign language have formed for mute or deaf kids from observation, right?? Even if Meriam didn’t teach her fucking kid to sign or get her in a learning environment where she could learn to, Rocky most definitely knows more than nod and shake, ESPECIALLY as a mute adult.

all the disabled characters are written in the most palatable way they can be to an ablebodied audience, by an ablebodied writer.

Easy fix: GET SENSITIVITY READERS OR DO PROPER RESEARCH BEFORE WRITING SOMETHING YOUVE NEVER TOUCHED JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

[clarabowmp3]

or maybe joe knows deep down that his gravy train has officially come to an end so he's trying to gin up extra press. He was doing all the storm and stress... woe is me pre ttpd only to be relegated to a footnote because he was that boring. Taylor ain't sweating that man and let me get my Will Smith voice on, he should keep travis kelce and t swifts name out his freaking mouth. He's a loser for this as far as I'm concerned and these comments cemented why I will never like him. How about he take a hike huh. Travis and Taylor are out living their lives. Yall don't like - look elsewhere. There are other musicians to stan but Tay is very much her millennial self and Travis matches her freak. Pretentious douches like Joe can mauld in misery. Like boy bye. Leave Tay alone, stop talking about her joe alwyn, booooo

Ah yes, press-hungry joe alwyn who never leveraged his position as taylor swift’s boyfriend to catapult himself into higher levels of fame, who waited over a year for the heat to die down before he made a fairly neutral statement about the break up (mostly directed at the rabid fans too)

tell me how he acted all woe is me pre ttpd? By staying silent ie not doing anything to twist the narrative in his favour, unlike what taylor did with you’re losing me? It’s almost as though a rational person would sympathise with him by default…

personally I disagree that a boyfriend of 6 years was just a footnote in taylor’s life. so long London only scrapes the surface of the complicated feelings she had about him, and it shows how difficult the break up was for her. I think what a lot of people forget is how he was there for her when no one else was in 2016, so you’re just flat out wrong abt him being boring idk what to tell you

since your brought up the will smith incident, let’s do a little comparison! Chris rock made a joke at a highly publicised event. Joe alwyn was having a conversation in a semi-private setting which was not intended to reach the ears of the public. He was in his right to say what he did so I don’t know what inference you’re drawing from his comments or the reason why you never liked him.

And I think you could stand to follow your own advice. Don’t like what someone said about one of your faves? Look elsewhere! You can’t control what people think or want to talk about lmao it’s not even unethical or immoral. as you said, as long as taylor and Travis love each other and find happiness in one another, what does it matter what anyone has to say about them? He is leaving taylor alone like??? Idk how to explain it more than this

Idk if he is a pretentious douche and I see no substantial reason to believe he is so idk what you’re taking about. Also please touch grass. Why are you ripping a guy to shreds over a singular comment he made not to the public, all to defend a grown woman who’s in her own happy relationship?

[majaloveschris]

What makes me laugh about the TikTok DM situation is how do people know that this wasn’t Josh hitting this girl up? He’s liked stuff before and left comments while he was running the account, who’s to say he’s not hitting women up on there? Heck, or an intern as far as that goes. When several people run an account you can’t say for sure who it is this girl talked to. (If you believe it, which I don’t.)

I mean, I doubt Josh would send out messages to random girls from Chris's account, as if he were Chris. That would be a really asshole move and a catfish situation. And I doubt any intern has access to his IG account. I can imagine Josh having one, but a random person? No way! Posting a few things is not that big of a deal that he needs multiple people to do that for him. I think before he deactivated, mostly he was the one sharing those posts and stories; now it's probably Josh, but I can still imagine him handling it, just being more professional about it.

Those messages look legit. I've expressed my concerns with WhatsApp and the "he messages me 6 months later too" parts since we have no evidence of those things, and just because she probably was telling the truth about the messages doesn't mean those things also happened. I saw this whole thing unfolding in real time, and to me, those messages looked legit. She didn't even share a picture but a video, and I don't know how she could've made an edited video like that.

Either way, even if it was Chris, even if it was true, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like he did something illegal. He messaged a grown woman, and he didn't say anything bad, disrespectful, or disgusting. Obviously, we didn't see the whole conversation, but she hasn't said a single bad thing about him.To me, it's so weird to see that people make such a big deal out of this whole thing. He just messaged someone. He wasn't in a relationship, and she wasn't underage at the time. Those messages don't even prove anything. We all knew he wasn't a saint, but trying to hook up, get together, or whatever with someone isn't from the devil. We all knew he had one-night stands, and we all knew he probably messaged girls. This doesn't make any story real, this doesn't prove any "side" being right, and this doesn't prove he is a fuckboy. He messaged a woman. That's it. That's the story.

[thelonesomequeen]

hi I wasn’t here around the jenny slate era but since that movie with Blake was released users of tik tok are bringing up what she used to tweet, her insensitive jokes and something about a podcast and hitting Chris? If you don’t mind explaining to me

Honestly, I’m kind of surprised she was never called out sooner for her poor behavior. I do hope that she has changed for the better, but she hasn’t done anything that proves she has (in my opinion) because she mostly stays quiet now and she deleted her twitter which had most of the receipts of her crappy comments anyway. The best thing she could have done for her own public image was step away from word vomiting all over social media.

A lot of Evans fans get slack for hating on Jenny simply because she dated Chris and that isn’t true at all. A lot of fans were initially happy for him until they discovered that the relationship started off with what looked like an affair and that Jenny was/is a person of questionable character. People had reasons for disliking her and I’ll post actual receipts of her tweets below.

When it comes to the hitting during the podcast, yes it is true she was slapping at him and punching at him, but I will say that a lot of people have characterized this as a form of physical abuse and I’m not sure I’m comfortable going that far with it. I think it was in more of an obnoxious attention getting type of contact versus her actually aiming to harm him or physically dominate him in any way. But that’s just my opinion. With that said, I’ll also say that I don’t love the whole “play hitting” thing myself, it’s kind of weird to force contact on someone else like that, but I do think she was unfairly demonized in this instance. And what’s weird is that commentary came long after they broke up. I don’t remember anyone being alarmed by her contact with him during the podcast when it initially came out. Mostly because people were very focused on what both of them were saying and how they were interacting with each other.

With that said, I believe the podcast is still on YouTube and I would encourage you to listen to it for yourself and make your own judgement there.

Now, as for her making shitty comments that were transphobic and fat phobic in the past? Well I’ll leave some receipts for you and again, let you judge for yourself. What I will say is that these are only a SMALL sampling of her posts and that more are out there, but you get the idea. It also took forever to find just these, and I’m sure you’ll get the point either way. And before someone comes back and says “…but but but! Some of the tweets are from as far back as 2010! That’s 14 years ago!” I’ll say you’re correct. Some are on the older side. But keep in mind that Jenny would have been 28 at the time of those tweets. Older than Alba is now for those keeping score. These tweets were also posted by Jenny HERSELF as a full grown adult, and not her friends back in their teen days.

Just as a final note, please do not go on after reading these and use them as an excuse to harass anyone. The point of this post is to provide context to newer fans who do not understand why older fans disliked Jenny and it is not meant to rehash old drama or cause problems for her in the present.

Examples of homophobic and transphobic language:

Examples of fat shaming:

Example of ableism:

Perpetuating rape culture/sexual assault :

Other weird shit:

And we can’t forget a classic example of how she would bait and troll the fandom (this one had everyone thinking she was pregnant):

[hippolotamus]

Shall I write it in a letter?

5 times Buck writes a note to Christopher + 1 time Chris wrote back

[Image Description: 6 images. 5 images are handwritten notes from Buck to Christopher. Image 6 is a cell phone with a text conversation between Chris and Buck.

Image 1: Blue background with T-rex watermark and handwritten text that reads ‘Hey Buddy, Have an awesome first day! Can’t wait to hear all about it! Buck p.s. what’s fast, loud and crunchy?’ To the right is a hand drawn arrow pointing right.

Image 2: Light gray background with moon phases print at the top. Handwritten text reads ‘Chris, Things probably seem pretty rough right now. It's never easy when your best friend moves away. I know this doesn’t make it better, but I'll bet Sarah misses you, too. I wish I could snap my fingers so you could skip the hard part. Hope you're having a Not Bad day. See you tonight Buck’. To the right of Buck is a hand drawn black heart.

Image 3: Pale yellow and green background in a sun formation. Handwritten text that reads ‘Dear Mr. FIRST PLACE, I knew you would crush it at the science fair. Plus, now we have a super cool plant for the house. Who knew they could grow like that? I know we've already said it, but your dad and I are SO proud of you. Can’t wait to celebrate this weekend. Love, Buck’

Image 4: Pale yellow background with handwritten text that reads ‘Chris, You have your driver's license now. Who let that happen? Oh, wait... :) I know you're probably too cool for school now, but be safe. Let me or your dad know if you'll be late or if the car gives you ANY trouble. WE love you, Buck + Dad’ Driver’s and License are both underlined for emphasis. Before ‘WE’ is a scribbled out ‘I’. ‘+ Dad’ is written in different handwriting.

Image 5: Light gray background with image of a rocket ship in the lower right corner. Handwritten text that reads ‘To my Favorite Diaz, It's hard to believe today is your last day of high school. Weren’t you just 7? Now look at you - valedictorian and ready for college. Kinda feels like we blinked and you were all grown up. Hope you know I'll never get tired of telling you how proud I am of you. Can't wait to see what you do next. I love you, buddy. Buck’

Image 6: A cell phone with ‘Favorite Diaz’ as the contact. There is an image of a young Christopher Diaz for the contact. There are 3 texts from Buck to Chris that read ‘You’re sure you don’t need anything? Plenty of snacks? Fridge is working fine? Ok your dad just told me to relax and let you settle in. Love you buddy.’ There is a return text from Chris that reads ‘Everything’s great, Buck. You’re gonna be OK. I love you too.’ There is an accompanying photo of Buck’s original note indicating Chris has held onto it.

/end ID]

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

JEEEEEZ 34 emojis! THAT's 102 SENTENCES FUCK. I LOVE THIS! WHAT A CHALLENGE. let's gooooo. This will probably involve a line break and take us close to the end of the chapter.

---

He trods over to the fridge and raids it for anything easy to steal without making a mess. He misses Buck’s cooking. Well, he misses Bobby’s cooking the most. And, if he’s being honest, Abuela’s. But Buck’s is a very close third. He spots a collection of mason jars with overnight oats and fruit and snags one. Not exactly a home cooked meal, but he’s feeling ravenous. He grabs a spoon from the drawer and scarfs it down. 

He gives the empty mason jar and spoon a quick rinse, places them in the dishwasher, and hopes it’ll go unnoticed. He grabs a Gatorade out of the fridge and a few protein bars from the cupboards to take with him.Then, he takes a final look around the house. That’s when he notices it. Hanging in the living room. 

He’s not sure how he passed by it the first time. Maybe because he was so hungry and tired and hurting. But there it is.

In the same black frame on the wall where Eddie always kept Christopher’s school photos, is a new one. One he hasn’t seen before. Christopher’s hair is cut shorter. He’s wearing a short-sleeve burgundy button up. He has new glasses frames. He knows it hasn’t been that long, in the grand scheme of a person’s life, but Chris looks older. Like he has grown. Changed. His smile is a bit muted. Forced. 

“Oh, Chris,” Eddie exhales, reaching to hover a finger over the glass. 

Does he think Eddie is dead? Has he spent all this time believing that he’s an orphan? 

“I’m so sorry, son.”

Eddie can’t bring himself to look away from the picture. The only glimpse he has of Christopher as he is now. 

So Eddie does something risky. As risky as eating the oats, if he’s being honest. But just as sustaining. 

Carefully, he takes the frame off the wall. Flipping it over, he removes the back and slips the new photo out. The old one is still in there, slipped behind it. Eddie positions that one in the glass, refastens the back, and hangs the frame back on the wall. A smiley, younger Christopher sits in the place Eddie remembers him. 

Eddie holds the new photograph in his hands like it’s treasure. He traces the outline of Christopher’s face with his finger. 

“I’m going to get you back,” he promises the boy in the photo. 

Then, he slips the picture into the pocket of his sweater, walks back towards his - Buck’s - bedroom, and leaves the distorted funhouse reflection of the place he used to live. 

💧💧💧

“Fuck,” Buck hisses, rummaging through the center console of the Jeep in the parking lot after the service. 

“Language, honey,” Sophia deadpans. “Big brother might be listening.”

Buck spares a glance out the windshield to see a huddle of church ladies a few parking spaces over, chatting amongst themselves.

“Fuck,” he amends in a whisper. 

“What’s wrong?” Sophia asks.

“Notebook isn’t in here,” Buck grumbles. “Must’ve left it at the station.”

He keeps his notebooks meticulously. Not only does it help to have things to cross reference, but after months of practice, it’s started to feel like a form of meditation. 

“Hmm. You could type your diary entries in your phone,” Sophia suggests. Sometimes she is so much like Eddie it hurts. The way she can poke fun at him and sound concerned at the same time is truly a Diaz art. 

“Don’t want it digital,” Buck replies. “What if my account got hacked?”

He’s not trusting Eddie’s life, or any of the information he learns at these things, to Google Keep or Apple Notes. 

Sophia gives him a sad look.

“You know who you sound like?”

Buck sighs.

Fuck. 

The thing they have most in common, the source of their mutual love, also hurts so damn much some days. On her mind constantly, the way it is his. Maybe Christopher coming home will give them something happier to share. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Buck replies. He taps his temple. “I’ll just have to keep it all up here.”

“Steel trap,” Sophia teases. 

“Titanium, actually.”

She rolls her eyes. 

Buck drives them home. The moment they’re out of sight of the church, he pulls the tie off from around his neck and tosses it in the backseat. He itches at the skin of his throat, careful to avoid the scar tissue bite marks Eddie left behind. 

“We won’t be able to come as much soon,” Sophia exhales. “Can’t say I’ll miss it.”

“Really? I was thinking of showing up next time with a bi pride flag and showing all my tattoos.” 

“Oh, Percy hates tattoos,” Sophia chides. 

“Nah, I think he’s probably got, like, a Jesus fish one or something.”

She snorts. “Top secret information.”

“But, yeah, we’ll have to figure it out with Chris,” Buck agrees. “He’s old enough to be home alone for a few hours.”

“As long as he doesn’t tell anyone,” Sophia agrees. 

“I don’t think he’d tell your parents.” Buck frowns at the thought. “He’s… Unhappy with them, to say the least.”

“He’s still close with Adri,” Sophia whispers. 

Sophia misses her sister. Badly. Adriana isn’t talking to her more than a few words here or there. She doesn’t understand Sophia’s choices. She’s much younger than Eddie and Sophia, and the closest of the three of their parents. According to Sophia, it wasn’t always like that. She used to be the golden child. Now Adri is the only one who hasn’t disappointed them, Sophia explained once.  

“We’ll explain to him,” Buck insists. 

Sophia nods.

---

THIS WAS 930 WORDS

[randomsebs]

For me, it’s less that she’s a “Zionist” (which is just a straight-up antisemitic term) and more that she actually doesn’t care, period. Her posts mean nothing. She flip flops. IMO, hurting for the hostages doesn’t make you a Zionist. Those people were put in that position because their government failed them. I mourn their lives because they deserved better. Bones doesn’t actually mourn them, or those suffering in Palestine. She. Doesn’t. Care. She is evil and hollow and USES tragedy to make herself look like some angelic, perfect being. She’s a sick, self-obsessed, rotten person. People like her make my blood boil.

I think it’s shameful that Sebastian has allowed her into his life in any capacity, and this is coming from someone who believes they are PR. He is a grown man who makes his own decisions. And while I do believe that he’s being advised and (at times) forced to be part of this, I think it’s gross that he is so obsessed with his career that he would allow a situation like this to go on for so long.

!!!!

You are totally right. He is a grown man.

Honestly at least he broke up with Alejandra after what she did, but he’s changed. It’s very visible that he has. Whatever the cause may be - whether if he’s forced into it, the contract isn’t expired yet, etc, it’s a shame. If he is struggling to get out of there he can try to get some help, any form of it. His godmother doesn’t even like her so I doubt his actual mom does either 🤣

The thing is - the people that support this relationship/most of his fans… are giving HER the attention instead of HIM, when it’s HIS fandom, which could also be fueling her giant ego, and feeding her fame. That’s why she’s getting jobs , obviously , because that’s the whole thing about the contract. It’s just to get more jobs. I wish I could just send the things she’s done to him, it’ll make it easier, but we can’t do that. I have to try and get people to come together and put an end to this egomaniac lady, let her go onto the next man, she’ll also end up with the same reaction from that persons fandom.

After this is all over, I hope he’ll be the same. If this relationship goes on for any longer, the Sebastian WE all know might just end up like Chris pine: used and aged (- which is a normal thing, but lately Sebastian has been aging fast. It’s from stress. When he’s with the correct people he looks younger because he’s happier).

This whole relationship is sickening. I heard one time Sebastian fired one of his team members because they were racist, so why doesn’t he do it to her?! She has no emotion, no personality, shes practically a cold-blooded-lizard, she’s just a bad person. She basically promoted his fans DOXXING him (she hinted out where he lived) so he had to move AGAIN.

She’s a sick, sick woman. She needs to be humbled and karma needs to come already, it’s been going on for way too long.

Plus let’s not forget how she got 3 jobs this year, since she broken up with pine in 2022? Strange??? She’s just started to sky rocket in fame, it’s working. She’s gonna try and make him extend the contract, which I hope he doesn’t. If he gets nominated, I’m sure they’ll have to extend it for HER gain. He gets nothing from it but a small pay probably. I honestly feel bad, it’s clearly destroying him and all the shippers say “he’s never looked better/happier/more in love!!” Excuse me? How can you look at their photos and say: “ah yes, their body language tells me they’re madly in love”. No. It’s more like he’s trying to force a happy face, but in fact it’s not working. He’s more in love with his co-stars than with her. Ever notice?

[sillyname30]

No I agree, a small part of me enjoys reading their delusional takes, as bad as that may be. Some of them truly are hilarious.

I actually was a tinhat at one point, back in 2012. I was fully convinced CC was real and Mia was a beard…I was also 12 years old. Imagine my horror when I finally snapped out of it at 15 and realized most of the accounts I was interacting with were grown adults.

Anyways, I understand how they feel, and why they act the way that they do. It used to stress me tf out. I’d spend hours each night on Tumblr analyzing every little clip of Darren and Chris, reading theories, and searching for any personal info I could about their partners. Idk what caused it but it consumed me and whenever something happened with one of the couples that put a hole in the CC narrative I felt intense anxiety. It was bad and I regret it, but I was a child so I cut myself some slack. I ended up talking to Mia at an event in 2016, she was so kind and I felt so much guilt for the things I used to say about her online.

I really can’t believe some of them have been around since 2010, I just know they’re exhausted.

I can understand that a young person believes it for a while. When you watch a tv show for several years the characters become real and you talk about them like they are real persons. I do that too. I understand to transfer that to the actors and wish/believe they were a real couple. But the tinhats today are grown-up women. I can't understand how they can still believe/know. The cc-narative has so many plotholes and logic flaws. There is nothing to support it. No pic, no video, no stories from people knowing the "truth".

I know that they aren't happy. Every time I see a pic of Darren and Mia or the whole Criss family I'm happy. For one because I'm happy to see them and a little part of me is happy because I know the tinhats aren't. They don't have to post about it. I know what they feel.

[renee-writer]

Out of Time Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-three

AO3

“After this long, do you really believe there will be anything there?”

 

A shrug. “Maybe not but, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Jenny, I need to be about something to help.”

 

“Ian, my heart, you kept Lallybroch up, giving us all a place to stay.”

 

“Aye, but I want to do more. I can take Murtagh with me. We have seen no other people since John and Kathleen came. Should be safe enough.”

 

“Enough! You are my world Ian Murray. Enough isn’t enough.”

 

He smiles, drawing her closer. Kissing the top of her head, he says, “I swear to return. To you and our bairns.”

 

The farm is producing well but winter is on the way. They need more supplies. He recalled there was a supermarket supply warehouse on the outskirts of Inverness. That is where is discussing going.

 

“You better.”

 

After discussing it with everyone, they all agree it is a good plan. Jamie offers to join them on what, should be no longer then a few days trip.

 

Everyone is stable and Heather will handle any small issues.

 

“As Jenny told Ian, you better return Jamie Fraser, or I will hunt you down and drag you back by your hair. Our family needs you.” She touches the small bump, including their latest in her declaration.

 

“I promise.” He kisses her soundly and then the slight bump.

 

Goodbyes in this time are hard. So they aren’t said as such. “See you later.” And “See you soon.” Replace them.

 

They head out. Taken the roadway, they make good time, arriving in Inverness a day later.

 

It is eerie. No sounds but their footfalls and the raising wind.  Cars driven by skeletons, line the streets.

 

“Lets hurry.” Murtagh states what they are all thinking.

 

Walking quickly and as quiet as they can, as not to disturb the dead, they make their way to the warehouse.

 

There are no obvious signs of damage. The approach with caution.

 

Guns at the ready, Ian opens the door.

 

“Halt! We have guns on you.” The voice surprises them all. Stopping, they place their hands up. “Good guys or bad?” The voice is of a teenager, they realize.

 

“Good,” Ian speaks for them, “I am Ian Murray, and these are my kinfolk, Jamie and Murtagh Fraser. We come from Lallybroch in the Highlands seeking supplies.”

 

“Just a minute.” They hear whispers. Several different voices but they can’t pinpoint how many. “Alright, come in, slowly keeping your hands up.”

 

They follow orders, each man recalling the promise made to his wife.

 

What they see, shocks them. They are all young. A quick count shows ten teens and a few children, a couple babies too. The later born after the mist, maybe a few of the children too.

 

Have they always been here, surviving on what the warehouse offers?

 

“May we place our hands down now?” Jamie asks.

 

“Okay. We don’t think you will hurt us.”

 

“We won’t. Have you been here since the Mist?”

 

“Yeah. Tom, Cassie, Brett, George and I, Harry, we were with our parents, shopping, when it hit. Denny, Kerri, Chris, Josh, and Lynn, they found us after. We tried to make a family. The children and babies are ours.”

 

Harry possessively draws them close with just a look.

 

“You have done well,” he knows he must be careful. They have grown up wild. Though they need the help the adults can provide, they may not want to take it, “very well. I am a doctor. If anyone needs my help, I will be happy to give it.”

 

Murtagh adds, “We also have a nurse, a teacher, and a psychiatrist at Lallybroch.”

 

“We farm and hunt. So there is lots of fresh food.” Ian adds.

 

A murmur raises among them. One voice stands out. “I don’t care. She needs it.” One of the lasses stands, a baby in her arms, “I am Lynn and this be Evie. She isn’t eating well.”

 

Jamie takes a step towards mother and child. Harry watches. Jamie sees when he lets go. A relaxing of his shoulders and a nod.

 

Lynn comes up to him. “I have milk. She just doesn’t  take enough.” She hands him the baby.

 

“Hello Evie. I am Dr. Jamie and I am going to look you over, okay?”

 

They have turned part of the huge space into a living area. He lays the baby on one of the couches. Wishing he brought his medical bag with him, he does what he can.

 

Using the stick from an ice pop, he opens her mouth. The problem is immediately evident. Her little throat is badly infected.

 

“She has a bad sore throat.”

 

“Can you fix her?”

 

“Aye Lynn. We have a supply of medicine at Lallybroch.”

 

“No! Here.” He looks to Harry but Murtagh speaks first.

 

“You have done an amazing job here. Keeping everyone together and safe. A man’s job. You should be proud. But a man needs to know when to accept help. This baby needs medicine. We can provide that. Schooling for the little ones, my wife is the teacher and she is excellent. You can lay this burden down. We aren’t trying to take your family. Just trying to help you with them.”

 

“You swear my children will stay mine?”

 

“We do.” The others echo him.

 

“Alright. We will go with you.” They watch the load roll off him with every word.

 

A census is taken. There are three separate families, men with common law wives and children.

 

They find many medical needs and more psychological ones. With their education stopped at twelve and thirteen and none of the new children with any schooling, Mary will have her hands full.

 

Jamie writes down all their names and family relations, as well as each ones specific need. With Evie refusing any milk heading out immediately is necessary.

 

“There is a big lorry in the back.” Josh says. “we don’t know if it works.”

 

It does. The men and teen boys load it up. Then everyone is loaded in it. Girls and children in the extended cab, the guys in the back.

 

They head to Lallybroch.

[thelonesomequeen]

Congratulations team PR or whatever once again u have bullied/harassed yet another person on SM to the point they delete. You can’t even be nice just attack, take the piss, call them names but that’s ok it’s about Chris and Alba. Remember it’s 👌 to call Alba names.

Hello team PR you can believe it’s PR just like others believe it’s real but which ‘side’, bully’s the most it’s not real so what does that say about you PR. Who is it you say has tantrums PR. Maybe it’s time you grow up after all you are all responsible grown up mature woman who just dislike Chris. Regina,circle,mid,Roger,blea, Georgia,Annie half who hide behind a screen then you have the ‘I’m in the industry’ blogs. Funny how 20yrs in the business industry never leaked but in the last 6 months the flood gates open and all singing the same song and I mean the same song😏 everyone knows what’s happening with the contract,where they live, what they are doing, travel arrangements, what happens in private, conversations personal ones at that.

So please they wake up in the morning with a clear conscience. -repeat after me I never bullied anyone, never call them names,never pretended to get nice to them,I’m a great role model.

[bifuriouswaterbender]

WIP Wednesday Game

All right, it's that time of week! I've gotten a lot accomplished on Wednesdays in the last month or so, and I'm hoping to keep that train rolling! Thanks in part to this time, I've managed to post three things in the last week. Send me some asks to keep me moving along!

As always, credit to @kedreeva

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request! Also, if you send me an ask, I'll look on your page to see if you'd like one back. This works best when we help each other!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

Filenames

Chrissy Woke Up Ch 5 (yay, finally finished 4)

Stripping

Drag Queen Gareth

He's All That

C2 Admires

Snippet: Stripping (Nothing NSFW yet)

Eddie knew it was cruel to consider himself the worst parent because he worked nights. That wasn’t fair to himself, but missing his daughter’s first day of school felt like something a bad parent did. Chrissy kept insisting he was wrong. Eddie wasn’t sure he believed her.

Still, he put on a smile for her benefit as he scrolled through the photos of their baby girl grinning that toothy grin of hers outside the school building. One of Izzy’s friends would be bringing her home in the next half hour, a remarkable carpooling situation Chrissy could also take credit for figuring out. Parents didn’t like talking to Eddie. He looked too much like the kind of guy they’d someday tell their girls not to date and their sons not to be friends with—or if they were more accepting, tell all their kids not to associate with.

“All grown up,” he cooed before finding himself blinking back tears. “Fuck, Chris, where’s the time going?”

She groaned and scrubbed her hand over her face. “I have no idea, but I would like it to slow down.”

They shared a moment at the kitchen table before Chrissy stretched and stood to take her mug over to the sink. Eddie would wash it and the other dishes later before he headed out for the night. They had a pretty good system going—better than most actual couples he knew.

He took a sip from his own before asking, “You still a date tomorrow night?”

“No,” she said reluctantly. “Izzy’s got a playdate at the park now after school, so I didn’t feel like I’d have enough time to feed her and get ready before taking her to Gareth’s.”

“Gareth can cook.”

Chrissy raised an eyebrow.

Eddie pursed his lips for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, okay, she can’t eat anything Gareth makes without us worrying about the fire department involved. I could take her, though.”

She shook her head. “Eddie it’s a Friday night. I can’t let you skip work. Plus, they’ll pitch a fit if you cancel on a client this close to the event.”

Eddie sighed. She was right, but he didn’t have to like it.

Chrissy’s face softened, and she came over to press a kiss to his forehead. “I appreciate you trying to make this work for me, but this is the reality of having a kid. If me rescheduling the second date is a dealbreaker, then she’s not actually interested in me — not in a way I can make work anyway.”

“If you’re sure,” Eddie said. “The next time, though? I’ve got it. Just let me know, okay?”

Chrissy reached out to squeeze his hand. “I will. I promise.”

[moviemunchies]

After the critical and popular acclaim of The Dark Knight, a movie beloved by just about everyone I knew at that time, we all wondered how Christopher Nolan would follow up in the next Batman movie.

The result, The Dark Knight Rises, was a bit divisive.

Eight years after Joker’s reign of terror, Batman is still blamed for Harvey Dent’s crimes and death,, with the Dent Act having cleaned up Gotham’s streets. Batman’s gone, since he’s supposedly won, and Bruce Wayne is a recluse. But the terrorist leader Bane, an expelled member of the League of Shadows, comes to Gotham with a plan to take over Wayne Industries’ energy project, turn it into a bomb, and eventually destroy the city, cutting it off from the rest of the country and causing the violent overthrow of society.

And Batman can’t do anything to stop him.

We’ll talk about some spoilers in this review. I don’t  know if anyone cares, because this movie’s a decade old; I thought I’d throw that out there, anyway.

When it’s remembered at all, other than memes of Bane’s voice (no really, the Harley Quinn show uses it), it’s generally considered as the worst of the Nolan Batman films. And I think that’s true, but it’s a high bar, and the movie has a lot going for it. It’s more thoughtful than most superhero movies today, for sure–though that doesn’t mean all of these thoughts always work when expressed on screen.

Shortly after re-watching this movie, I saw Chris Stuckmann’s recent video on the film, and he brings up an idea that has made me think. He talks about how, in the previous movie, the Joker makes the assertion that once you get rid of the rules of society, people will tear each other apart–and what we see in this film is Gotham City tear itself apart (or at least, some of it–we don’t see much of what the average people are doing) once Bane brings down the ruling institutions. It makes me wonder. There were rumors that if Heath Ledger hadn’t died, the Joker would have played a role in this movie. And so I’m really, really curious and imagining an incredibly ambitious film that ties together both the League of Shadows storyline and the anarchy of the Joker. I’d like to think it would blow us all out of the water.

We didn’t get that though.

There are some baffling things in this movie. Bane’s voice has grown on me, but re-watching it’s annoying that the third act has two or three instances of Bruce Wayne/Batman just… appearing where he needs to be. I’m not asking for a full scene of how he got from the Pit to Gotham, I just want a throwaway line or something. I suspect that the film loses track of its characters. Miranda Tate/Talia is an example of this–at the trial scene, Bane asks her to be brought to him, and then she’s with the captives that Bruce sees when he pretends to be captured, and then later he asks where she is. Despite that he has no reason to think she’s anywhere other than where he left her. But she’s not, she’s with Bane again.

Actually, we should talk about Talia and her role in the movie. It’s fine, in theory, I guess–

[Waitwaitwait hang on! What do you mean, child Talia is played by Joey King in the flashbacks?!]

–but there’s so much work missing. We’re meant to believe that Bruce is falling for her, I think? They don’t have enough meaningful interactions for me to think that Bruce has reason to feel particularly attached to her, but after he goes broke he lets her into his mansion and has sex with her. Why? Well, so it’s a twist when it turns out that it’s Talia, and she wanted to kill him the entire time. Since her relationship with Bruce also comes out of nowhere though, it seemed as if the character only exists to make Plot Twists instead of being developed as a real person in the narrative.

Selina Kyle is an interesting character, and I appreciate her character arc here more. I don’t know if running off with Bruce is the best ending, as again, I don’t know if there’s enough work put into that romance; though unlike with Talia, but I can actually see that these two are attracted to each other, and actually grow more attached to the other as the story goes on.

[Side note that might be a Hot Take: does anyone ship Bruce/Batman with Talia? Other than Ra’s al Ghul?]

Upon re-watch, I found Selina’s character arc in this movie much more interesting. She’s someone who, over the course of the film, realizes how her selfishness has led to absolutely terrible consequences. I like that.

The fight scenes in this movie are… eh? They’re not good. I complained about it in the last movie; they’re worse here. Nolan is less interested in that aspect of action movies, I think. There are bits that are alright, but overall, it is miles behind every other superhero movie in this regard, which is a shame because this is Batman. Batman is supposed to be one of the greatest fictional martial artists of all time, and Nolan put together a very basic style for him, which is at its worst in this movie. Disappointing.

One of the most discussed aspects of the film is Bane’s rhetoric. Many took issue with how and his forces are presented. Bane gives several speeches about liberating Gotham’s people from corrupt elites, and yet he’s the villain, instead of a revolutionary hero. I’ve talked about this before, but these comments miss the point of Bane: he’s not a revolutionary. He’s a terrorist. He’s happy, like so many real-life villains, to use rhetoric about helping people get what they want or deserve in order to gain public support only to use that support for his own ends. He does not care about the liberation of Gotham’s people, he wants to blow them up because he thinks they’re beyond redemption.

Now, one could argue that the delivery of all of this is awkwardly done, or could have been done better, and I’ll accept that argument. But so often it seems like a lot of people seem baffled at the idea that villains convincingly lie to people sometimes to get what they want, or that benevolent ideology can be used as a cover for nefarious purposes. They’ve clearly never watched anything in pop culture as a religious person, I think. Look, maybe this is more right-wing than most Hollywood films now, but that’s a low bar, and as critic Jonathtan Chait put it, the movie only “submits the rather modest premise that, irritating though the rich may be, actually killing them and taking all their stuff might be excessive.” Some people find that too extremist, I guess.

The actual inspirations for the film are quite obviously the French Revolution and Tale of Two Cities, and I sort of like the idea of this story. Gotham is a mess, and horribly corrupt, even when they do get the crime off of the streets (even though the Dent Act is not how city laws work!), and so it requires fixing that corruption before things actually get set right. 

I remember some doofus on Tumblr (the same one who was like, “Joker says he doesn’t have a plan but totally does! Gotcha, Nolan fans!”) who argued that the ending of The Dark Knight was ProBleMAtiC because it involves people believing a lie for the sake of the Greater Good–welp, this movie exists! And it shows that, yeah, that’s actually a massive problem! Let’s deal with that!

No, it’s not the best ending we could have gotten to this trilogy. But I don’t think it’s bad–I think it’s pretty good. It just isn’t up to the high standards of the previous film–which is pretty darn high! I think maybe it required a couple more editorial looks before completion. Still, I enjoyed this movie! Even though it’s the weakest link in the Nolan Batman trilogy.

[denimbex1986]

'Cillian Murphy has said he didn’t pursue a music career because he didn’t think he was “good enough”.

Inspired by John, Paul, George and Ringo, Murphy and his brother, Páidi, even formed their own band: The Sons of Mr Green Genes, named after a Zappa tune from his 1969 album ‘Hot Rats’.

Their songs were similarly experimental, filled with “wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos”. Eventually, they were offered a five-album deal by London-based Acid Jazz, but he is and brother turned it down, citing reasons of artistic independence.

Murphy has often been disparaging about his songs to journalists. When asked about his 2002 short film Watchmen — his only attempt at a screenplay, which he co-wrote with BAFTA-winner Paloma Baeza — he was similarly self-deprecating.

“I just never thought that I was good enough really,” he said. “It’s why I haven’t, you know, pursued the music either. I like to do one thing quite well.” The actor added that it’s unlikely this will change in the future.

Elsewhere in the interview, Murphy admitted that he didn’t socialise much while filming Oppenheimer, due to the intense demands of his role.

“I didn’t go out much. I didn’t socialise much, mainly because of the amount of work I had to do… I became so immersed in the role.”

The actor also explained how Nolan helped him to “unlock” the character with an “amazing phrase”.

“Chris used this amazing phrase. We were talking about Oppenheimer’s arc and he said, ‘You know, he’s dancing between the raindrops morally.’ That unlocked something in my mind when I was preparing,” he recalled.

Murphy further explained of Oppenheimer: “I do think that he believed it would be the weapon to end all wars. He thought that [having the bomb] would motivate countries to form a sort of nuclear world governance. He was naive.”

In a five-star review of the film, NME wrote: “Not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb, Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking.

“For years, Nolan has been perfecting the art of the serious blockbuster – crafting smart, finely-tuned multiplex epics that demand attention; that can’t be watched anywhere other than in a cinema, uninterrupted, without distractions. But this, somehow, feels bigger.”'