#I could've been an English major

[dyanasaur]

Chat, I'm writing my English essay on:

Batman & his 8? children;

the fact that 5 out of 8? which were Robin at some point;

oh fugue ig we got a new Robin???;

Crikey mate, movie Batman needs a Robin. GiVE THE WET CAT MAN A CHILD TO SASS AT HIM. Batsy's not a gym bro who can actually get shit done on his own. Alfred is who keeps him alive and his children give him the will to live.

[i-am-a-bad-influence-writes]

P*rn ☆  Chapter 6, Fear and despair

Masterlist Word count: 2 k Sylus x Fem!Reader

Summary: You have been following a spicy content creator by the name of Red Crow for some time now. Nothing could’ve prepared you for what would happen when he moves into the apartment next door.

Author's note: Ya'll ready to cry?! Me neither... Also, for anyone wondering why I don't English so good sometimes. I am Dutch and nothing is proofread <3

Warning! This story is meant for mature audiences. It contains sex, swear words, porn, smoking, intimate piercings, mentions of drugs, alcohol, mentions of domestic abuse, and other mature themes. Do not engage if you are under 18.

Mature content under the cut. No graphic content. Mention of abuse.

∘₊✧───────────────────────────────────────✧₊∘

'You're not quite here with me.' You look up from the cup of tea you had been absentmindedly stirring since it was put in front of you. He's right. He's always right. Well... Most times. 

Your mind has been a mess. There's the whole Sylus thing, yes, that's something that takes up way too much space in your head. You keep thinking back to last Saturday, sitting on the couch with him watching the rise and fall of sexual tension. Seeing him try so hard to do small talk while pretending he wasn't looking at your lips and body like a man starved. He had kissed your forehead when he left and you leaned into it. Even thinking about it gives you butterflies. 

But there's another thing on your mind. A much more menial thing. Something much easier to discuss with Zayne. 

'How come I never heard you shower when you lived next door?' Zayne tilts his head, looking at you a little confused. 

'That's what you've been stuck on?' You reluctantly nod. It's stupid, so damn stupid, but Zayne still answers. 'When I moved out, Rafayel was talking about a new ventilation system. Maybe it connects to yours?' 

'That makes a lot of sense actually,' you groan, leaning back in your chair defeated. 'I can't believe I've been so busy thinking about that.' 

'You're an interior architect; shouldn't it be logical to you?' He's got a point and a very good one at that. You also could've just asked Rafayel, but no. You'd like to avoid that man as much as possible. He always tries to get you to do work for free, without even offering to lower you rent for a month or something. No way. 

You look around the coffee shop. This is you and Zayne's regular spot. The place is very big and open, but sound doesn't bounce around nor echo. There's tons of natural light and very kind yellow lights when the sun goes down. The furniture is a mix and match of secondhand stuff that's surprisingly pleasing to the eye and most chairs are comfortable. Then again, the chairs that aren't comfortable to you could be very comfortable to someone else. There are tons of plants scattered around, lots of cut vintage decor like old Matchbox cars and very old adverts on metal plates. On the floor are a few rugs that have almost worn into the floor and have major damage where people often walk. Almost looks like the rugs have crop circles. 

It might not be for everyone, even Zayne used to be a little uncomfortable here at first, but it's grown on both of you. The employees are kind and helpful, the music is always good and never too loud. It's a good atmosphere. 

'Anyway, how is the new neighbor?' Your cheek flush almost right away when you meet Zayne's eyes. 'What is it? Are you alright?' He leans over the table to touch your forehead, worried you might be sick. 

'I'm fine, I'm fine. His name is Sylus and he's hot- A LOT, he's a lot.' Zayne chuckles at your antics while you feel your ears burning. Not exactly the information you wanted to share with Zayne. Truly, it doesn't matter all that much in the end. He's like a brother to you and he knows nearly everything about your life. A fact that you wish was still true the other way around as well but he's been too busy to tell you everything. And now that you've dropped the "Sylus is hot" bomb, he's not letting it go until you tell him everything. 

For a professional, cold doctor he's surprisingly desperate for gossip. 

'I'm sure he's a lot,' he says with a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips, 'you were worried he might be loud. Is that the case?' 

'A bit. He's awake deep into the night, so sometimes I hear him moving around in his apartment or playing music late at night. It's nothing too bad though. Though Tara seems a bit cautious around him. Apparently, he's friends with her boyfriend.' A slight frown appears on Zayne's face. If you hadn't known him as long as you have, you wouldn't have noticed. But you do know him. 'What's that look for?' 

'Tara is dating that Kieran boy, right?' You nod and he tries to soften his face. 'Hm, I don't know them very well. It's probably not who I'm thinking of.' 

'Who are you thinking of?' And suddenly he looks real serious. The temperature inside is suddenly a few degrees lower and the bubble we were in feels like a soundproof chamber. 'Zayne, who are you think of?' 

'I wish I could tell you, but patient confidentiality forbids me.'  

“Patient confidentiality? What the hell? Is this even about Sylus?” 

Zayne reaches out for my hand on the table and gently takes it in his. 'Don't worry about it too much. I'm not even sure if it's the same guy.' 

'You're right,' you say, trying to smile as wide as you can while pushing the racing thoughts in your mind down. 

∘₊✧───────────────────────────────────────✧₊∘ 

"She has a boyfriend? Shit." Sylus tries to quicken his pace while he walks past the coffee shop before you see him, but he's too slow. You spot him and smile at him. A big smile, one that almost makes his cheeks hurt from looking at it. 

Wait... He's smiling back? 

No matter, he keeps walking. But then he catches the slightest glimpse of the man sitting with her and his blood runs cold. It's like a distant memory, or more like a distant nightmare. He can only hope and pray and doctor Zayne hasn't seen him. 

It's been years, but Sylus still fears the doctor might remember him. It wouldn't be too bad, the man saved his life, but he doesn't want you knowing. Not yet at least. What if he asked how his recovery is going? What if he asked if his scars healed okay? What if he asked if his situation has changed? How would he answer those questions and not revert back to that scared little boy she made him. 

Because all that still feels so raw, even though it's years ago. He should've been fine by now, at least that's what he thinks. Time heals all wounds, right? Three years should be enough. More than enough. 

That being said, his first doxing was her. She put his address out there as a last-ditch attempt to get him to "commit" to her. To make him obey like a fucking dog. 

He isn't even sure how all of it happened back then, but it did. Maybe it was just young love. Yeah, young love at 24. No, he was just naïve and stupid. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” 

What he does know is that he is nearly running home. He's stuck in his own head, tears prickling in his eyes. How does this keep happening at any mention, thought, or glimpse of her? It's not normal. He should be okay. 

It feels like he's picking up a fever as he unlocks the door to his apartment. He faintly hears the sound of his name but his chest is getting tight and he has to get inside. Why does this affect him so fucking much? 

And suddenly he recognizes what is going on. He's having a panic attack. 

He hasn't had a panic attack in the last two years. He's been fine, he should still be fine. Is it because he saw doctor Zayne again? Because he is with you? Because all he can think of when seeing doctor Zayne's face is how much pain he was in and how scared he was? 

“This is not fucking normal. Breathe Sylus, breathe. You know how to breathe. You've been doing it all your fucking life. Just stop panicking!” 

The voice in his head is no help. He slumps against the back of the couch in the middle of his living room, not able to make it to the bathroom to take a cold shower. Cold showers usually shock him out of it. His breathing stays rapid, his eyes looking for anything in reach that can help him but there are dark spots all over his vision. 

He closes his eyes for just a moment. Just a little bit. A second, no more. He wakes up with a few slaps to his cheek. His head feels cold against the wooden floor of his apartment. When did he fall over? 

'Sylus? Sylus? Look at me.' It's you. Your voice is desperate, scared, as you grab his shoulders and try to pull him upright again. He tries to help you, moving ever so slightly to a sitting position. Your hand raises up to his forehead, brushing the hair sticking to his sweaty skin away. 'Are you alright?' 

'Always with you around,' Sylus says, trying to look and sound like a womanizer, but failing miserably. To you, he just looks a bit loopy. His breathing is still ragged and strange. 

'Cute,' you note with a frown, 'now breathe with me.' You grab his hand and press it against your chest, just underneath your collarbone. 'Ready?' He nods. 'Breathe in.' He feels your chest rise slowly as you breathe in with him, your heard thumping under his hand in a steady, comforting rhythm.  

Slowly, the whole world disappears. His eyes are laser focused on yours, ears zeroed in on the sound of your voice and your breathing. To him, you look like an angel. His guardian angel. 

'Breathe out.' 

Your chest falls, he breathes out. It feels like seconds have passed but by the time you let go of his hand, the sun is setting. He last checked his phone around 16:30 before he saw you at the coffee shop, so that means it's close to six, it being wintertime. 

Finally lucid again, his heartbeat slowed, his breathing steady, he asks: 'Why did you follow me?' 

The coldness of his questions shocks you and you answer: 'I felt like you needed someone to be there for you.' 

He lets out a cold laugh, something that sounds close to disbelief but also much much closer to insecurity. A sound you hadn't expected coming from his mouth. He knows you think he's hot, he knows you are attracted to him, but he does not know you. He does not know about your youth, your struggle with panic attacks, your loneliness. But he doesn't need to know for you to be able to help him. 

If only he'd believe that you only want to help. 

'How do you know doctor Zayne?' There's something possessive in his tone, something you wouldn't have expected right now. 

'He used to live here before you. We're friends.' He stays quiet for a while, staring at you but not quite. More like he's looking through you, disassociating. 'I'm gonna get you a glass of water.' You move to your feet, but he grabs your wrist and holds you where you are. He's suddenly back, eyes watching you with immense focus. 

'Do you pity me?' The words sound like an accusation, like he's admitting he doesn't like what happened and that you "had" to see it. So much grief in those few words, a grief that goes much deeper than you can imagine. 

'Pity you?' 

He lets go of your wrist with an angry expression. He quickly gets up, refusing to look at you any longer. 'Never mind. I think it'd be better if you leave.' 

'What? Sylus-' You try to reach out for him, but when he looks back at you there's venom in his eyes. Your hand hangs in the air, halfway reaching towards his forearm. And then you drop it. 'Okay, if that's what you want.' 

He walks you to the door, his chest full of regret, embarrassment, shame. He was doing so damn well and now you've seen him like that. Like a shell, something defective, a bird with a broken wing. In the doorway you turn back to him so that he can't close the door on you. All he can see in your eyes in compassion, adoration and, strangely enough, love. 

'For what it's worth, I don't pity you. My opinions and feelings about you haven't changed,' you hesitate for a second and look down at the ground, 'and I hope you'll still ask me out. I do really want to get to know you. All of you.' 

∘₊✧───────────────────────────────────────✧₊∘ 

Previous - Next

∘₊✧───────────────────────────────────────✧₊∘ 

Taglist

@carmelves

@d0llfilth

@terriblesoup

@valkyyriia

@fvcknwww

@itsizumiiii

@ludwigsb0nker

@amywright

@frenchmess23yo

@malleus-draconias-rose

@deathkat657

@sweetnanah

@trishiepo0

@iraot

@nyxie-00

@sherlockstolemyname

@poptrim

@dummiebunny

@everythingistaken00

@ikesimpleton

@tyys-stuff

@venussakura

@crimsonlittlecrow

@raiyuxa

@pxxchyjjk168

@satansdaughter123

@nekee-lilac02

∘₊✧───────────────────────────────────────✧₊∘ 

[pleasantlycrazyworld]

Hello, can you write something about reader x jealous Eddie? I love this trope.

Maybe they're close friends and Eddie still didn't talk to her about his feelings but one day someone new appears in her surrounding. Maybe he's into punk subculture and Eddie knows he might be her type 😏

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I hope you like it <3

Eddie has been your best friend for years now, it's always been the two of you stuck to each other's hips like glue. Everyone around you two knew of the feelings you had for each other. Everyone but the two of you, obviously, and it is killing everyone! Hell Wayne has a bet going with one of the neighbors about when the two of you will finally get together. It better be soon or he will lose twenty bucks.

Eddie keeps a close eye on you at school. He doesn't want anything to happen to you, especially when he could've been there to help. Because of this habit of his, he noticed that there was a new guy who was swarming around you. At first he didn't think anything of it, just thought maybe it was a lab partner who needed to work with you on a project. But when the guy doesn't leave your side the entire day, he knew something was going on and he did not like that.

As he sat at lunch he glared at the new boy from across the room. Thanks to Gareth he learned that his name was Alex. And thanks to Dustin he learned that Alex is in a band, the band you went to go see last weekend when Eddie had to cancel plans you two had. He was kicking himself for canceling those damn plans. His glare drifted back to Dustin and he clenched his jaw before saying "Tell me everything about him."

For the rest of lunch and a majority of english he learned everything he needed to know about this Alex. Alex just moved here, he played drums and guitar but he only played the drums for his band, the nightmares. Fuck he wanted to hate him but that was a cool name. Alex worked at the record store and he had a D&D club at his old school. Dustin laughed at Eddie when he noticed how jealous he was of Alex. "Dude you're his twin! You two could literally be the same person" Dustin left Eddie as he perked up at this fact. He is just like Eddie. And if you were into him...how are you NOT into Eddie!?!

Eddie was now determined to find you before you left school for the day. And once he found you...he doesn't know what he'll do but he'll do something!

He searched the halls and finally found you by the history room, he remembers you saying that you needed to talk to the teacher about an assignment due soon and he was hoping that was who you were talking to but as he got closer he noticed it was Alex that had your attention. He clenched his jaw again and walked over to interrupt the conversation. He doesn't even realize what he's doing until he's already doing it. He grabs your bag and drags you to one of the empty classroom.

"What the hell are you doing??? Ed! Will you let go!" He finally lets you go and before you could say anything he cups your face and kisses you. He has never been so scared to kiss someone as he is right now but thankfully he felt you melt into him and he allows himself to melts into you.

[letmedixonyou]

i'm not yours - part 5

summary: Daryl and you are (were?) friends. He's dating Leah. You told him you loved him and things fell apart. Will it ever go back to normal?

words: 2.7k

warnings: alcohol use, swearing, mentions of drugs

A/N: Hi, darlings! Here another part of the series. I'm still not sure how long this whole thing is going to be, but I already have another idea for a longer story. My brain is working overtime these days! It was proofread by my English boyfriend, so I trust there aren’t any major errors.

Parts: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

The drive was long, painfully hot and quiet, but you finally reached Alexandria's gates. All this time you were thinking about Daryl, the image of his foot stomping on one thing you really wanted. That 80s music cassette could've been such a gem in this stupid world. You couldn't remember the last time you've heard good music, other than some weird 60s psychedelic shit that was surely listened to during LSD trips. For once, you wanted to listen to something you knew you'd enjoy. And he knew that too. He knew you like no one else. You couldn't help but think that he did that on purpose, to sort of get back at you for destroying your friendship.

Back when you were friends, he'd never told you no. He'd always allow you to get giddy and excited about things, like that one time when you found a pink Nintendo DS console with somehow preserved 20% of battery. Your eyes shimmered when you looked at it, and then you turned it on and the screen came to life, a familiar sound played and you let out a squeak, making Daryl chuckle. He made a comment about you being a nerd, and you admitted it proudly. You played some games on it until the battery gave out and then kept it as a keepsake. To this day, the console had an honourable place on your nightstand, making you smile each time you look at it.

Or that one time when you both went on a supply run to town and you saw a shop with clothing you never could afford before zombie outbreak, so you made Daryl go with you and watch you try on dresses, coats and fancy trousers. He was sitting there on the footstool, watching you having fun. You knew this wasn't his thing at all, but yet he spent next two hours just watching you and making comments about how fancy professional, but stupid you looked. You kept a huge fur coat, apparently worth $4000, now free for anybody who wanted it. And you wanted it. Daryl rolled his eyes when you decided to wear the coat all the way back to Alexandria, but never stopped you. You believed he secretly enjoyed how silly it was.

Of course, he wouldn't come back with you in the car - the silence between you would be too much to bear for him and frankly, you were quite glad that he chose to walk. You were fed up with arguing, fighting over nothing, constantly being reminded about the "I love you" you shouted to him a while back. Every time you thought about it, you beat yourself up for ever making the rude comments, escalating the situation instead of calming it. You beat yourself up for ever saying the three words, for ever admitting your feelings, and it was heartbreaking for you to think that your friendship was gone.

Getting out of the truck, the ground crunched under your feet. You wiped some sweat off your forehead and and looked around. A few people looked at you, puzzled by the question of "where the hell is Daryl", especially Carol, who was walking towards you with concerned look on her face.

"Hey," she says, standing in front of you, crossing her arms on her chest. "You okay?"

"Hi," you say and smile gently to her, rubbing your forearm lightly. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Where is Daryl?"

There it is. The question. Of course, everyone was concerned that Daryl wasn't with you. He was a valued member of the group and people have grown fond of him over the years they've spent together. God forbid, something would happen to him. You admit, it was most definitely weird that you and Daryl weren't coming back together, so you could understand why people are so worried about him.

"He chose to walk back," you look away from Carol, feeling some type of embarrassment creeping up on your cheeks. You weren't exactly sure why you felt this way. "We argued. He walked away. Left keys in the truck, so I could come back."

"He chose to walk back?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "You argued? About what? You two never argue."

That would've been right a few weeks ago, before you confessed your love, before he got weirded out. You and Daryl were great friends, almost attached to hip. Always together, always joking around. You never argued when you two were still friends. To some people it was quite weird that you didn't argue, but for you two it was natural. There was just never anything you'd think to argue about. But now? Now, you are sure that the friendship was never going to go back to normal.

"It's a long story, Carol," you say, scratching the top of your head. "And frankly, I don't think I want to go into details with it."

"Alright."

Carol stayed for a minute more, looking you up and down, concern never leaving her face. She must've seen how exhausted and unwilling to talk you were, because she smiled and left, asking no more questions. You watched her figure disappear into her house, the yellow doors of it reflecting the shine of the sun so harshly it made your eyes hurt.

You walked down the street, trying to use the buildings' shadows to your advantage, to hide yourself and get cooler. You couldn't help to think about Daryl and hope that he is staying out of the sun too, and staying hydrated enough. You knew it was silly to worry about him - he's always reasonable, knows how to take care of himself as he did so since he was a kid. Yet, a part of you almost seeks it out. That worry. That anxiety if he is okay. Maybe it was because your feelings for him. Maybe it was simply because he is... was your best friend and you wanted him to be safe. You felt like you will always worry about him in some way, even when you are not friends. You wanted to. Because you cared.

As you walk into your house, the walls provide you with a cool air, hugging your body tightly. You sigh deeply at the sensation and you walk straight into the bathroom. Taking your clothes off, you see yourself in the mirror. All the scars on your body, all the scratches, old and new, were glistening with sweat. You looked at your tattoo - a small detail that no one knew about, not even Daryl. The tattoo was a medium size, black and white Medusa head, gracefully wrapping around the contours of the ribcage. It symbolises transformation and power for you.

You haven’t had the best childhood, and you were raised in a household where emotions were not discussed in a calm manner. It was always a fight, always verbal abuse towards your mother that ended with a door slam from your father, and was never actually resolved or talked about again. Your parents always went to the usual selves a couple days later, bottling up whatever was bothering them. You've heard your mum cry many times because of the fights. You even heard her talking to her friend on the phone about getting a divorce, but it never actually happened. Your guess was she was too scared to actually leave your father.

Getting out of your childhood house was one of the things you dreamt about since you were a child. When you turned 18, instead of going to parties, getting drunk or doing your driving license, you got a job and moved out, marking your body with a tattoo symbolising the moment your life changed.

Hopping into the shower, you wash away all the sweat and grime from the day, desperate trying to wash away your feelings too. You thought about how the situation you are in with Daryl could've been avoided if you just kept your mouth shut. But then... you'll always be living in the shadows of Daryl's relationship. Shadows of Leah. Is that what I want, you asked yourself internally and you knew the answer is no. Sooner or later, Daryl would've found out about it. Sooner or later you would've told him and the same thing would happen. Somehow, even if it meant losing him, you were glad it was sooner rather than later. At least, you're not bottling up the feelings and emotions, just like your parents did.

Another couple weeks pass by and situation between you and Daryl hasn't changed. He's avoiding you like fire, keeping his distance everywhere. You stopped going on supply runs altogether, after speaking with Rick and telling him you don't want to work with Daryl anymore. Rick was shocked and, of course, asked questions, but you kept it short and sweet of an answer and explained you needed a break. He wasn't convinced, maybe it was the look on your face, finally letting you off.

One evening, you decided to open a few bottles of alcohol you stashed in your house. You kept them for special occasions, but you felt like this was an emergency and you just wanted to numb yourself for a little while. Sitting on the porch of your house, you kept sipping on some whiskey straight from the bottle, your mind wandering. You thought about your family, your friends, people you've lost since the zombies became reality. You thought about Daryl, what he was up to, what he was doing. Was he thinking about you too?

The sun was setting on the horizon. Everything looked so beautiful in the orangey hue. The trees were still, and the air was stuffy again, although it smelled like wet ground - a tell-tale of rain. A whole street was calm and quiet - an advantage of choosing to live in the corner of the settlement, next to an old couple, away from the places people would usually go to.

Suddenly, you heard footsteps and you turn your head towards it, hoping it would be Daryl, but the blonde hair in a pony tail and an all black outfit came to focus. Leah.

She stood there, smiling at you gently. You felt awkward and super conscious about the fact you were in love with her boyfriend, so you looked down at your drink as quickly as you looked at her.

"Hi," she says softly, sitting next to you on the steps. Her politeness and kindness was almost bugging you.

She was always quite nice to you and others. Maybe that was why people actually disliked her - it was coming off as ingenuine. The first time she came to Alexandria with Daryl, she was so sweet it almost made your teeth hurt. She spoke softly, all the time, like there was nothing that bothers her, like her zen was always in check. Daryl didn't seem to mind her overly sweet voice and attitude of a little girl who didn't know what to do with themselves. In fact, he seemed to like it which made you cringe. Maybe it was because he was a natural protector. A person that always keeps people safe and when he met Leah, all alone in the woods, his instincts kicked in and he needed to protect her. Or maybe it was because she was not shy in showing that she was interested in him, making eyes at him and laughing at his jokes, even when they were bad ones.

You grumble in response, nodding once to acknowledge Leah. There was a pause, a super uncomfortable silence between you two, before she opened her mouth again.

"You shouldn't drink that much, you know? It's not healthy."

"Okay, Leah," you say dismissively, taking another swig out of the bottle. Leah was the last person you'd listen to when it comes to advice. Or anything, really.

Another long pause happens, and you keep looking at the sunset, trying to avoid her burning gaze. You could tell she was scanning you, like she was trying to figure you out. You didn't care much about how she looked at you. You disliked her and her opinion about you didn't matter.

Leah sighs and clasps her hands on her knee.

"Why did you stop going on supply runs with Daryl?" she asks straightforwardly, and you finally turn your head towards her, tilting it to the side.

Your eyebrows turn upwards. You were trying to assess if she's serious or not. It's been a few weeks since the decision of stopping supply runs with Daryl, so you were sure she was joking, maybe mocking you or something. Your eyes meet and you can see concern on her face. Her lips press together, waiting for your answer. She was nervously tapping her foot on the ground.

"I was just wondering that's all. Did something happen?" she pressed even more. It was starting to get on your nerves a little, but you kept your mouth shut. Sipping on the amber liquid, you leaned against the baluster of the stairs.

The sun was barely visible anymore, the evening has gotten more dark. You could hear cicadas in the grass somewhere, and the slight buzzing of the electricity from the solar panels nearby. If it wasn't for Leah's presence next to you, the evening would've been perfect - full of drunken thoughts about Daryl, blurry vision and calm air.

"Daryl has been really absent lately," she says, shrugging her shoulders. She kept looking at the setting sun as well. "I guess I wanted to know why."

"Me and Daryl aren't friends anymore," you finally say in a low voice, almost like you didn't want to say those words out loud. You feel alcohol drifting around in your veins, so you try to steady your mind to make sure you don't just babble anything inappropriate to her.

"What?" Leah turns her gaze towards you, clearly confused, scowling hard and then turning her eyes towards the ground in front of her. "Why not?"

Again, you glance at her, making sure she was serious. And yet again, all you see is just concern and sincerity in her eyes. She looked genuinely shocked at he information you provided her with, like she actually had no idea what's been happening. Her whole body leaned towards you a little, waiting for any answer from you. But before you can answer her, she speaks up again.

"Daryl doesn't really share things like that with me," her voice almost a whisper, as she's rubbing her arm, either from coolness of the air or just a pure awkwardness of the situation. "I wouldn't have known if you two were not friends anymore. He's quite a mystery, isn't he?"

You swallow hard, the realisation of what she said hitting you like a ton of bricks. Leah was his girlfriend, the person who he should confide in, should talk to about things, especially about things like arguing with his best friend to the point of never speaking to them again. He should be speaking about his fears, dreams and future with her, right? Like couples do?

She doesn't know?

You couldn't help but wonder what else did he conceal from her? Does she know about his past? About his childhood, about Merle? Does she know how he got the scars on his back? Does she know anything about his past, anything at all?

You kept looking at her, completely dumbfounded, not knowing what to say or do. You take another swig out of the bottle, assessing the situation. What can you say? It's not exactly something you should speak about with Daryl's girlfriend. "I'm in love with your boyfriend and he didn't like that, so we aren't friends anymore" or "You boyfriend hates me because I confessed my love for him". You felt like it wasn't your place, wasn't something that you should announce to her. It should've been Daryl who bitches about it to her, not you.

You open your mouth, but the words don't come out. They get stuck in your throat, and you bite your lip, desperately trying to find anything to say, anything at all. Leah looks at you, clearly frustrated with something. Well, probably you. Or Daryl. Or both. She doesn't wait for your answer. Instead, she scoffs, gets up and walks off, leaving you on half-drunk on the stairs of your house, with even more to think about.

PART 6

[peterm4rker]

CAN I MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS? ── a maeda riku smau

00. brochachos

★ @/m_riku ;; animation major maeda riku can never wait for summer. he loves to be at home, taking a break of all the exhausting people he has to deal with at college and hanging out at the local skatepark all day, every day. he grew up with the boys in his neighborhood, later following sion to college and waiting for the rest of them to catch up. he had never connected with anything quite as much as he did with skating until one particular girl came along. she was his everything, and he was hers.. at least that's what he thought.

★ @/rikukuku ;; riku's priv.

★ @/si_onnn ;; music major oh sion is a diligent father of five. he has known all of them ever since they were little, living in the same neighborhood and doing their best to be best friends with him. he realized how much he missed his children once he left for college, which is why he makes sure to spend as much time as he can with them during the summer. he is also well acquainted with yn and her friends.

★ @/yoshiwitha_u ;; english major tokuno yushi is silently suffering. as they quietest in the friend group, he is prone to very embarrassing moments caused by the members of it. even when he considers himself a victim, he is always judging them in silence, his side eyes giving away whatever he is thinking. still, he is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet, and is incredibly grateful to have been adopted by sion that one afternoon at the skatepark. he always hated riku's ex gf, but would never tell him he told him so. (he did, multiple times)

★ @/sakuyacardcaptor ;; high school student fujinaga sakuya is yn's little brother and the boys' baby. ever since he was little he watched yn and her friends be together like they were stuck with glue, so he decided he would have the same thing. when he saw his older neighbor, riku, leave with the rest of the boys with a skateboard in hand, he ran to his best friend's house and dragged him with him towards the skatepark. he is the biggest menace in the world, but that doesn't mean he is not the most caring little brother yn could've asked for.

★ @/syaoryolee ;; high school student hirose ryo has been joined by the hip with sakuya for as long as he can remember. he lived next door to the fujinaga's since birth, leading him to be sakuya's ride or die and yn's second little brother. he loved to be dragged along to whatever adventure his best friend was planning, and is forever grateful to have found a bunch of boys to adopt him, even if they were concerningly older.

★ @/jaeheehee ;; music major kim daeyoung, better known as jaehee, is riku's ride or die and sion's middle child. he met the boys when they were little and immediately connected with riku like he never had with anyone despite their age gap. he is incredibly sweet but also a menace, and undoubtably yn's favorite out of the whole bunch. he also swears that the worst time of his life was when he was in the awkward middle between the oldest and youngest kids in the group.

previous ⋆ masterlist ⋆ next

★ blues corner ;; this does not reflect on the idols actual personality and actions, just my vision of them for this specific smau. sorry for how late this is!! im currently being killed with school work so please be patient with me🙏 ★ tag list ;; @winwintea @neozon3nha @kittydollzz @spacejip @injunnie-lemon @jovialdelusionbouquet @n0hyuck @julsinglee @leejenoenthusiast @morkiee @taroddori @mrsjohnnysuh @sunghoonsgfreal @dudekiss3r @m1ng1swife @grlscrushing @flaminghotyourmom @secretvivii @ballsa420 @sillyyuz @sunghoonsgfreal @insbread @222brainrot @va1entinaa @ayukas ★ back to the main masterlist ★ please do not copy, adapt or steal any content !!

© peterm4rker, 2025

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 270 (spoilers)

Before I write my thoughts down, I have to confess that they've been tainted by a post I read I after reading the chapter. I decided to write the first part of my review as I had initially wanted to but the second part will discuss the things I read afterwards.

We start the chapter with a beautiful scene of a grave belonging to Tsumiki but my first thought was... what about Tsumiki's soul that had prevented Megumi from killing a girl?

If this is what Tsumiki's end and Megumi's final reaction to that would be, why did Gege bother including her soul as an active character into the story?

I also tried to find the raws to see what exactly was written on her grave. Only her surname? And was it also in English?

After that we get to Tengen and what happened to her and it was exactly here where my thoughts of this chapter went a big 🤨😵🧐🤬🤪

So Yuji just punched her out? And nothing more happened to her? The Culling Games are over? How did that happen? And through which remains would she stay stable? There was nothing left of Sukuna, at least nothing that had gone through Kenjaku's ritual. The only place she would be stable would still be inside Megumi. Her barriers are magically stable as well.

What a... neat ending to all those plot threads...

Then we come to Maki finding her past helpers and telling them that all the reincarnated sorcerers would be separated from their hosts by Yuji soon and...

That's against established canon. We already had the discussion that the souls of the host's can't be saved because they've been pushed down to complete darkness. Choso couldn't feel the soul of his host anymore and that was how the narrative absolved him from any wrongdoing because now he didn't have to give his body back for ethical reasons and he hadn't made an unethical deal to be reincarnated either.

Only Megumi was said to have a chance of being saved and no one else.

So now I'm here and scretching my head thinking... was Gege so desperate or time constipated to end the manga that he threw that point out? Or is sth else going on here...

We get Takaba back and he has a suspicious looking partner now, with whom he can do more comedy.

Now I don't think that's the real Kenjaku there. It's more likely that Takaba simply imposed that hairstyle on his new partner because he's missing his short time best friend.

For an actual Kenjaku comeback, he wouldn't have Geto's body anymore. Imo, Kenjaku did have spare bodies lying around he could've fled to at the last second though.

We get more loose ends being tied up and for Higuruma it's clemency. This is another point in the "everything turns out perfectly good for the good guys" part we have been bombarded with in this chapter.

I'm like, Gege, isn't this too much? Wasn't JJK darker than this? Even Shoko gave up her smokes. The military plot is just "we'll deal with them" and there's no mention of JJ societal instability with the clans falling apart.

Either he really wanted to wrap every loose end up... or

Gege forgets Megumi's scar on a pretty big panel and we get an anime love complication with one chapter remaining. It was funny though.

Then we come to the end where we're set up to believe that life of the first year trio will go on as it should've been without those major Shibuya/Shinjuku complications.

Just going on missions and living life like that.

Now, one could accept that kind of ending (why isn't that in chapter 271 though?) But it comes off as so... lackluster and mended with fire after big chunks of the plot were cut off.

After I had finished the chapter, I was the most disappointed at everything that had to do with Tengen and the CG. So Gege sets up that the sorcerer life will continue afterwards. Even without wanting a Part 2, just ending the CG and Tengen's story like that is... unnecessarily boring and wasted space for nearly everything that came before that.

But then I read @thepersonperson post on how the last 3 chapters of JJK could possibly have been an induced dream sequence this whole time.

Induced by Yuji through his ability of creating fake memories right before defeat/death. His own DE is an application of this and Sukuna's strangely similar ability of talking with freshly deceased people in a dreamscape.

When Yuji had first expanded his domain, I went on such a ramble at the time about these strange abilities of them both. What I said back then was that Yuji wasnt an active/aware participant of them but by now he had acquired Sukuna's CT and again a DE.

This could mean that his induced dream sequences could've evolved enough that he became aware of them instead of only pushing them into someone else. In other words:

Yuji is dreaming of his best happy ending.

And here truly experiences that but he can't tell until now that it's a dream. He might very well be lying on the ground now about to die.

The post I linked adds more details to this theory like inconsistent character placements and "mistakes" like Megumi's scar suddenly missing, which would be commonplace in a dream.

That last picture up there with the guy who's supposed to be cursed but it was actually his girlfriend who had her perception of reality altered as well as the name of this chapter, would be the final hints about the last few chapters having been another glitch in perception.

Now only one week is left then we'll get our final answers to JJK. If this dream theory is true, then Gege will establish himself as the biggest troll, either with a JJK 2 or with a tragic ending.

(And if this really comes true, then I don't think I'll manage to escape the spoilers)

But whatever might come and even though I'm meh about the end (as it's presented to us right now) I still love JJK and immensely enjoyed reading, watching and engaging with it 😄

[rubyreadd]

except it’s your driver that has an entourage that shittalks Lando (don’t even deny it lmfao y’all bragged about it and called it county) while Lando has never been an asshole to precious Oscar

To be honest anon I'm not quite sure what the argument you're trying to make is.

"Oscar's entourage"?? Where?

If you're talking about Max saying that Oscar came in as a number one driver and so of course he wasn't going to bend the knee to Lando just because. Or even George having a chuckle about Lando qualifying P17, then that's just plain and simple mind games.

If you mean Mark Webber and him telling Charles that he had the opportunity to overtake Lando in the championship at Baku, or being outspokenly supportive of Oscar, then that's just Mark doing his job. He's an F1 pundit and Oscar's manager, he's going to have opinions on both subjects.

Lando on the other hand has the full backing of the British media, especially Sky Sports, who are a major English language distributor of F1 coverage. In Monza they could not shut up about how Oscar's fair and hard racing was actually unfair to Lando because Oscar should've held position and defended Lando's lead.

Yet in Australia when Oscar was ordered to relinquish position to Lando because he was on fresher tyres and McLaren wanted to challenge Ferrari, there was no remarking that it was unfair to push Oscar off a home race podium when Lando could not close said gap to Ferrari.

Similarly, when Oscar and Carlos touched in Miami and Oscar dropped to the back of the grid, then put in a mega effort to gain back several positions as well as set the fastest lap of the race, only to be told by McLaren to back off so as not to cause a safety car, it was accepted as the right thing to do.

Lando is not defenceless nor is he is a victim of some "Oscar entourage". Oscar has been a good team mate to him, has up until now bided his time, but if Lando is going to leave a gap then Oscar has every right to be a racing driver.

Ayrton Senna was a McLaren champion after all.

Now, granted, Lando has not been verbally dismissive of Oscar, but actions do speak louder than words. When Lando refused to give position back to Oscar in Hungary until the penultimate lap, it was as Nico Rosberg said: Lando wanting to humiliate Oscar.

Yes this was whole situation could've been avoided if McLaren had given Oscar the preferential pit stop strategy he had earned after getting the better start on Lando and leading the race for more than half the laps. However, if Lando had acquiesced to giving the position back when he was first asked to, there would have been a further twenty laps where he could've fought Oscar for the win, with a good chance of taking P1 because his tyres were up to heat.

Instead, he had a tantrum and delivered McLaren a tainted 1-2 that completely undermined Oscar's maiden win.

He also chucked a fit at Lewis in the cool down room, when all Lewis was doing was complimenting Lando on his speed, and then went on to snub Oscar on the podium by not spraying Oscar with champagne. A behaviour he repeated in Monza.

I know your argument is likely to be that F1 is a high stress environment where everyone is fighting for wins and championships and no driver wants to lose out by a few tenths or a lap, so it's natural for drivers to act out when they do. But for contrast let me talk about Charles and Max.

In Baku this weekend it was clear that Charles was intensely frustrated with his P2, yet he still had the grace to congratulate Oscar, compliment him on his race craft, and celebrate with Oscar on the podium. Similarly, Max went out of his way to wave at Lando after the race, even though Lando had bitten just that little bit more into his championship lead.

And what did Lando do? Snitch on Max for overtaking under the VSC even though it was after the chequered flag.

It's this kind of repeated unsportsmanlike behaviour that leaves me with diminishing goodwill for Lando. I laud Oscar for being cunty when he stands up for himself and his right to race, because Oscar shows maturity and respect towards his peers even when he is disappointed with his results. Lando however makes his poor performance (even when it objectively isn't) everyone else's problem.

Oscar has been driving F1 for one and a half seasons. Lando has been driving for six. Yet it is Oscar who carries himself with the mindset of a champion.

At the end of the day anon, it's unlikely that I am going to sway your opinion about Oscar and that's fine. You are free to like and dislike whatever driver you want. All the advice that I can offer you is to block the anti Lando tags, block Oscar's tag, and block anyone who posts F1 content, opinions, and discourse you don't like. Including myself. I am a stranger on the internet, it's not worth your time or peace to get upset in my inbox because I am voicing my distaste for a driver on my personal blog.

[m-joys]

Bay!Donnie: crush dates someone else

@thequeenofcupps :Hi! I was wondering if I can request bayverse Donatello where he finally manages to have enough courage to ask out reader but because he took to long reader is already dating someone? I want the angstiest angst that you can make 😇 also can it be hc’s?

A/n: saw this rn and had to write it. Lord give me angst♡ this also isn't proof read and English isn't my first language so sorry🙏

Even tho your first interaction with the turtles was quite...harsh to say the least, you just had to accept the four mutants as a new occurrence in your life. Simply knowing of their existence and having the chance to endanger them in any way by them letting you go without a care was too dangerous.

You quickly adapted to them being in your presence, simply seeing them as your friends rather than some mutants. Though in case with Donnie, you seemed to like him a lot more than the rest and not in a friendly way. The same could've been said vice versa, but the purple masked turtle didn't seem to be as sure in his feelings as you are.

It was no secret that you two were particularly close with each other, most of the time when you would come over majority of your time was spent with him in his lab. Talking about random things, him showing you his latest finds and relaxing together were probably your favorite moments of the day and each day the bigger spark between you two was forming.

The thing being, you could never truly figure out his feelings about you. You knew he didn't hate you, that's for sure, but you couldn't help but wonder whether the feelings were mutual or you were just imagining things. With that said, you decided not confess as to not harm the friendship between you two.

Time passed by and you came to the conclusion more and more that he didn't feel the same way about you. Deciding that It's the best to just move on and look for love elsewhere, you cut your time with Donnie short. Still visiting the lair and his lab, but the visits became more infrequent as you have now focused on meeting new people and trying out your luck in dating.

Donnie, of course, notices your sudden change in behavior. How couldn't he? The thing he thinked about the most was you after all, anyone in his vicinity could surely confirm that given that he managed to always bring you up in conversations no matter the topic. To say he was infatuated would be an understatement. This being the first time he ever felt something like this, he wasn't really sure how to act or what to do. He's a teenager after all.

Your visits became less and less frequent, which deeply hurt him even though he wasn't expressing it directly. He couldn't help but think that he was somehow the cause of this and that you started despising him for some reason. Yet, he couldn't just sit still and wonder knowing that that way he would never get the answer he deeply craved and would have to live with his feelings for you never being confessed to, well, you.

Mustering up the courage, he picked the time when he knew you were most likely to be home and visit you to finally let his heart out. The burden of his most beloved person drifting away was too much for him to handle and the only way he could possibly fix it is to talk to you.

Leaping from roof to roof, in his head Donnie was only thinking and connecting sentences to find the best way to say everything he's been thinking about since you two first shared glances. Replaying in his memory some of the times you shared together, only then did he manage to figure out that you probably had a crush on him too. All of the little smiles, discrete touches and obvious favorisem only seemed to make themselves clear right now.

Taking one final jump onto your fire escape and carefully looking around so no one sees him, he wa ready to knock on your window and call out for you.

At first, he thought you weren't home as your bedroom was dark with doors shut and you weren't in there, but he notices the light beams that peeked on the bottom of the door from the living room. Deciding to change position and move from one windows to another, Donnie made a quick way towards the other side of the building.

The urge to knock immediately and call out for you quickly went away when he noticed the commotion in your living room. At first he couldn't exactly tell who was there with you or why, but it seemed to quickly make sense to him once the stranger grabbed you by the waist and left a kiss on your forehead whilst sitting on the couch.

Seeing another person with you didn't hurt him as much as seeing you so happy, the way you were happy when you were with him. At least it used to be him.

A tear couldn't help but fall down his cheek as he realized that all of this could've been prevented if he had thought about confessing sooner. He was the smart one, how couldn't he have figured out long ago that you were in love with him? The same way he still is with you? Right now he couldnt tell if he was sad, disappointed in himself, hopeless or all three of those.

Turning around to make his way back home, he couldnt help but ask himself what if's. If he was a little sooner? If he notices earlier? If he had the courage to tell you right away?

He quickly stopped, realizing that there is no point. You could never be his, and he could never be yours. Maybe thats just the way it's meant to be.

[my-stories-vault]

Part 2 ~ Love and War.

Pairing: Dean Winchester X Y/N Singer; American Dean Winchester X English Y/N L/N; American Dean Winchester X American Y/N L/N; English Dean Winchester X English Y/N L/N

Blurb: You must've read a lot of enemies-to-lovers, let me show how someone can be your lover and enemy . . .

Warnings/Trigger Warnings (18+): language, gore, major and minor character deaths, break up, major angst, surprise ending, the Supernatural Wars (TSW) spoilers.

Song Inspiration: Love and War by Fleurie.

Challenge: This chapter is a surprise ending and a connecter to my three series, the Supernatural Wars, Purgatory Series, and another one that's in the works right now (find those stories from the links below)! The first chapter can be read as a standalone one-shot, but this chapter will have to be read as part of the series. Hope you enjoy 🥰❤️!

{ Series Masterlist ; Main Masterlist }

Love and War: Purgatory Bonus.

Sitting in the library, my ass felt like it had been stuck with a superglue to the chair; it almost hurt to sit in now.

I could've gotten up, fetched a good whiskey, and paced around a little; probably hit the training center or the garage or the gun range - anything that would prove soothing after the long day this was turning out to be - anything that could get me out of this goddamn research, out of wallowing in my misery.

See, we had a couple of teensy-weensy problems on our hands.

Firstly, we had been thrown into another frying pan that kids liked to call the apocalypse these days.

Secondly, monsters seemed to be turning up all over our radars these past few days, and almost all the hunters in America were running on back-to-back cases to save people. Something that even Sam and I had been doing when we found her.

Which makes my third point: Y/N.

So, she was basically this girl we found on the roadside, lying unconscious in the middle of nowhere; wearing ripped clothes, her skin smattered with bruises and scratches that made me think that she had gone ten rounds with a wild cat - whose personality she seemed to match. But here's what got our panties in a twist: she didn't remember anything sans her name.

She shouldn't have been a clinch in our plans to take up the Rugaru case up in the north, but here came the clinch.

I've seen her before. In Purgatory.

Hell, I've done more than "seen" her before. I've loved her. I've gotten my heart ripped out by her. And here she stands - without any recollection of what she did, or how she got here. Without realizing that she's the Brit who saved my life.

She had come adorning my amulet - a replica of what I had years ago. We didn't how she got it, she didn't know how she got it.

But, frankly, it didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that she has been messing with my goddamn mind since the first fucking moment she met me.

Now that I've finally found her again, I've promised myself that I wouldn't go through that again - I wouldn't let her go. There was something inside me that told me that if I lost her today, I would have to grieve her.

And I can't do that. Not again.

I was brought out of my reverie when a storming and determined Y/N rushed out with Sammy on her heels.

'Whoa, whoa, easy there,' I stood up with my hands raised.

She stopped dead in her tracks as if caught doing something illegal.

'What's going on?'

'She wants to go after Rowena,' Sam explained from behind her, towering over her.

'What, why?'

'I want to know what happened to them, Dean,' her accent bled into her voice, too strong - unlike the accent she had phased out or rather tried to, over the years when she lived in Purgatory but coming back here seemed to have brought it back full force.

'You lost me.'

She sighed as if speaking to an insolent kid. 'The book Rowena gave me. It contained a story of—of a far-away kingdom, two lovers, and seven regions. And . . . I just need know what happened to them! The pages where the end should be are missing!'

The gears in my mind turned. We had called Rowena after Castiel mentioned how her memories weren't gone by fluke - but it had been devised that way by someone. The only creatures powerful enough to do that were the witches, hence, the call to a certain redhead.

She handed Y/N the book to keep her entertained while she investigated the "subject" (in Rowena's words, even though I told her not to call Y/N that). A book that Y/N refused to return when Rowena left - the witch just waved it off by saying that she'd collect it when she came back with a solution for Y/N's amnesia.

Before I could formulate a response, Y/N was already rushing up the stairs.

'Hold on, you're not going anywhere!' I demanded, wondering how the hell she was even going to find the damn witch.

Moreover, it had been years since I last saw her, and yet, she seemed to be the only woman who seemed to put a smile on my face and ease on my heart. I can't see letting her go without, at least, some fucking explanation.

'Y/N, you don't have your memories yet. We don't know what dangers lie ahead of you if you leave this place.'

'I know, Sam,' she exclaimed, standing a few steps higher from where Sam and I were at the bottom of the metal staircase that led us outdoors. 'But I can't shake this feeling out of my head. I feel like I lived this story. I can't sleep until I've found out the climax of this book!' Not waiting for us to recover, she turned toe and climbed up the steps two at a time.

We followed suit, my annoyance with her stubborn recklessness burgeoning - why was she always like this?

'Whoa, I'm not ready to play "Finding Dory"! You're not walking out of here - end of discussion.'

My hand reached out to her elbow, brushing against the scar her shirt's sleeves weren't long enough to cover.

And what happened next was too fast that it almost didn't register with me.

She gasped, all the air rushed out of her; her eyes misting over and fading under the white sheet that seemed to draw over her outstanding e/c irises; and then her head lolled forward, her body free-falling - almost hitting the ground but my reflexes made me hold her.

Her head hit my chest over my heart with a soft thud, and her limbs lost all their energy as she went limp in my arms. Her eyes closed just as my voice called her name out in panic.

Oh, this cannot be happening to me right now!

Y/N bolted on the bed, seemingly overwhelmed with the events that had unfolded. I knew this was a bad idea as soon as it had been suggested.

My fingers automatically found hers, latching on as if my life depended on her (it did).

'Darlin', you okay?' the depths of my concern were endless, and my heart threatened to burst past my ribcage like in the cartoons - but just slightly more fatal to my health.

'Dean,' she breathed out shakily, her eyelids fluttered open and her shoulders slouched as she leaned forward to rest in my arms.

I held her gratefully, breathing out through my nose in relief; my lips brushed on her forehead.

'Dean, darling, oh, my God.'

'What is it?' I pulled back, trying not to let the panic cloud my thinking. 'How can I help?'

She shook her head, gazing in my eyes with so much hurt.

Suddenly, she jutted forward, landing her lips on mine in a shocking yet I-will-die-if-I-do-not-do-this manner. My eyes widened before they closed in submission, letting her take the lead as my hands found purchase on either side of her waist.

Sebastian cleared his throat awkwardly, 'Still here, you know.'

Y/N pulled away gasping like a fish out of water, gulping as red flooded her face. 'I'm sorry, Mr. Slay.'

He chuckled, 'No worries, Y/N. Did you get it?'

She nodded, her haphazard hands producing two necklaces she went to the alternate universe for.

One necklace was a sign of the secret relationship and love, given by a Dean to a Y/N, and the other necklace was an amulet.

There was only one another universe where Y/N and I's namesakes and lookalikes were royalty - there were more royal couple like ours, but some had different names, or different birthmarks, or something or the other that differed.

There was only one other royal couple like ours, and we needed their symbols of love for this case.

Something that required Y/N to bend through space and time with the assistance of a redheaded witch, an angel I could not find myself trusting, and a few more odds and ends.

I would have been against it had it not been Y/N's only chance of surviving against Michael, the archangel whose vessel I was supposed to be, but Y/N won't let me say "yes".

As grateful as I am to her for protecting me, I don't like the fact that this involves teaming with other factions.

'Can I?' Seb stepped forward with a tentative hand extended.

She handed it over, 'Please, be careful . . . I can't go through that again.'

He smiled softly, exchanging a look with me, 'I will be. You should sleep the jet-lag off, Y/N.'

The room vacated and I finally turned to her, her breathing just now starting to even out. Brushing a strand out of her face, I smiled softly at the love of my life.

'Are you okay?' I repeated.

Tears welled in her eyes, and she swallowed the mythic lump gathered in her throat. 'Do you . . . do you know what happened?'

I pursed my lips, 'Rowena gave me a rundown.' I grimaced, 'I heard the other Royal couple died - I can't imagine it might have been fun for you, my love.'

'It wasn't,' she pouted, looking really upset. She sniffled, 'It wasn't . . . It wasn't that I just went there, I hitched a ride in the Y/N's of the other Universes.'

'Universes? Plural?'

She nodded, pulling my hand till she had maneuvered me around her body - up and out of my chair and lounging behind her on the bed; my legs tangled with hers, arms tightening around what I now understood was a shivering frame, and she settled against my chest with her head laid down over my heart. She took a few moments as my fingers carded through her open locks.

She kissed my chest, making my heart skip a beat despite so many times she'd done it.

'Well, first, I went to that Royal Universe like we planned - I-I-I didn't even remember myself or who I was when I was there,' she shuddered. 'It was only until that other woman died because of that arrow . . . did I come alive in her body, until then I was trapped in the back of her mind like some damn demon possession gone right?' She shook her head, 'I don't even know.'

'Did it hurt? Dying?'

'A bit,' she sniffled, 'didn't feel most of it - but what was worst was seeing you dead - died in my fucking arms!'

'I'm not going anywhere,' I whispered into her hair, my arms constricting further like shrinking steel bands.

She made herself smaller, slinging her legs over my thighs till she was sitting on my lap and burying her face into the crook of my neck, breathing my scent in till she had calmed down more.

'Anyway,' she cleared her throat when she had found her voice again, her words muffled against my neck and tickling me a bit - but I closed my eyes and relished the feeling.

'I had asked Rowena for a failsafe. Told her to keep an eye on me - whichever world I went into. So, she protected me as much as could there, protected me from some damn Phantoms, or something. I killed Gordon, I think - everything's so hazy like I'm missing a key detail. Then . . . when I could have probably died with how weary and bled out that vessel had grown, she transported me to another universe.

'I don't know why this one in particular. But it was one where there was this American hunter - you, and Sam - and you looked at me like I had done something to you! Like you missed me or something . . . Obviously, my brain had been fried to the point where I couldn't even remember my own last name!

'So, I didn't know what that look was for back there. I was just this girl they picked on the side of the road, I guess. With these necklaces.'

'Did you hijack that Universe's Y/N, too? The American version?'

'I think so, yeah, yeah, I think I did. But in our struggle for control, we both ended up cancelling out each other's memories, and I kinda won? Um, I guess, yeah. So, it was my personality with no memories while the original host sat on the back burner . . . Talking to me? Screaming, maybe, I don't remember.'

'How did you get out?'

'Rowena,' she raised her hand to rub her face tiredly.

'Do you want to sleep first, darling?' I asked her gently.

'Just let me finish the story,' she insisted, even though her eyes were already half-closed. 'So, the Rowena of the second universe gave me a book of the exact same story I had experienced in the first Universe - her way of trying to give me "my memories" back. But the pages in the end were ripped, and I panicked, because my own memories were like, behind a wall or something, and they were begging me to come back, and—' I breathed in deeply, 'No, wait, I think I fought with—No, I don't - I don't know! It just didn't work, so I panicked more. I really wanted my memories to come back . . . I really wanted to come back and—' She cut herself off, 'Why don't I remember?'

'You're okay, Y/N. It's okay,' I whispered into her hair. 'You don't have to think about it now. You got what you went for.'

A pregnant pause.

'I thought I'd never see you again,' her bottom lip trembled, twisting my heartstrings.

'As long as I'm here, no one can get you. You hear me? I would have found you wherever you ended up,' I said with all my conviction.

She relaxed further in my arms, and the pride over eliciting that reaction from such a strong woman boosted my low self-esteem.

'Long story short, the American version of you touched this scar,' her index finger absent-mindedly dragged along the scar she had gotten when she fell from a tree while we were on a hunt - a scar that only one other Royal couple replicated, who were now dead. 'And my memories rushed back to me, and I got pulled into reality. Our reality.'

'Now you're here,' I promised quickly. 'You're not going anywhere.' After a beat and a frown of realisation, 'I thought . . . I thought you could only hijack people who were similar to us. How did you hack that American?'

'Well,' she licked her lips, eyes sealed shut by now, breathing getting shallower by the minute, and I knew this would be the last question she answered for now. 'The second universe . . . I think she was a dream-walker or something. Technically, she can live my life - if she scouts my noggin and all, lives vicariously through me. Plus, I don't know . . . there must be some kind of connection between her and I, right? Plus, she had this scar - the one that triggered my return - I'm sure there's an explanation.'

'Probably,' I murmured.

When I look down, Y/N has slipped into the bottomless recesses of her brain, sleeping soundly, finally calm against me.

The way this woman rules on my heart - I swear I could die for her.

A/N: Can I just say I love plot twists?

Tag List.

@stoneyggirl2 @hobby27 @globetrotter28 @aylacavebear @emma1998sblog

@stanzie

[roukabi]

Well, I said back here that I wanted to do a NYTW critter-ification. So here we are!

As usual, design notes/trivia/comments under the cut:

"Rook, none of these are animals I'd ever consider related to the Hadestown cast."

Yeah, I know. But it looks cool, right?

Orpheus strikes me as someone who was wild as a boy. And by 'wild', I mean biting and growling and hunting squirrels with his bare 10-year-old hands. He got less feral when approached with food and stable housing. With all that in mind, it made sense to give him something that matched that energy. Also, community-minded? Famous vocals? Effortlessly beautiful? The connections are there! And I stole from this drawing I made a long while back. Yeah I bet y'all forgot about that but I didn't! I still really like the idea of werewolf Orph!

...come to think of it though, we give nytw orph too much credit. I think it's easy to pin him as the brave, heroic union leader because of his confidence, but he's just a poet. He's lovey-dovey, he's gentle. He's got a very healthy ego, but it doesn't overpower his soft core. There's a reason his 'If It's True' is so sad - he's not a fighter, he's an artist, and more importantly, a lover. He has no real incentive to finish his song (for better or worse, narratively-speaking). He's an artist who talks big and loves his wife.

That said, it seems a little weird to give him such a fierce animal. But as is the case for bway orpheus's fox choice, i am a fan of designs that betray the real character underneath. His big snarky wolf persona (fursona?) falls apart when he looks at Eurydice for more than 3 seconds.

Wow, that could've been its own post tbh. Moving on, the star-like speckles in his fur were added because of his name - "the darkness of night". Canis Major is somewhere on his fur.

Now, could a catgirl and dogboy really fall in love?

With regards to Eurydice, you can't improve upon perfection, which is why my design looks very similar to @riveracheron's Eurydice design. You can see most of ismene's design here (I can't find the original ref image, sorry!) for reference. I wasn't sure about making Eurydice's nose yellow, but she needed yellow somewhere in her palette, and a black or pink nose looked kind of wrong. She's a loner kitty built for the snow. Not that she enjoys it. Also I wanted to add a cute white/yellow bow around her neck but forgot :( pretend it's there

Anyway, probably the most interesting animal decision was Hermes. I mentioned in my Broadway critter designs that I wanted to keep the neutral characters as birds. That meant I had to find a bird to match Chris Sullivan's Hermes, and, idk, I liked the barn owl the most. Barn owls are screechy and painfully unexpressive, but if Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga'Hoole has taught me anything, it's that anything can be expressive if you break just enough rules. So there.

Barn owls are associated with doom and death in old English tales, and they're known to live in abandoned houses. It would sound like the barn owl should be given to Hades, but I like to think that since Hermes is the one telling the story, he's in charge of the cycles of death and renewal that take place in the story. He's a harbinger whether he likes it or not.

For the Fates, I already had cat designs in mind, but I almost made them birds to fit my neutral rule. Then I kinda waffled on it and said "well, the Fates are kind of mean, and you know what would be fun? Wild animals vs domestic animals". Cats it is! And they are anything but dressed the same: we got stripes, spots, and swirls. They torment their fellow kitty Eurydice for being 'wild', they're invasive, and they get in fights with the local wolf. The relationships write themselves.

I didn't draw Hades and Persephone since they'd already been covered in the Broadway lineup, and there wasn't much of a difference between bway and nytw to justify new drawings. They're still critters though, trust me.

And that's it! I guess had a lot more to say about these than last time. As always, the designs are free to use with credit.

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Hi friends! Super interesting thoughts. Fundamentally, the reason I think the scene makes Neytiri seem less sympathetic than Quaritch is because they didn't show enough of Neytiri and her perspective otherwise in the movie. Neytiri isn't developed as a character in these movies enough, she isn't given the care and then depth that she should be. I completely agree with your perspectives on giving complexity to her and letting a female main character do a bad thing (which they still did, the version in the movie is still pretty dark), but she was barely a main character in this movie. Almost all of the scenes we would've seen centered around her, save for her talk with Jake about leaving the forest and their date night, would've been centered around violence. Meanwhile we are given complexity and layers for Quaritch.

As a main character, Neytiri is never the center. We are never given HER perspective. The first movie we see her as Jake sees her; beautiful, exotic, fierce, and loving. In this movie, I would argue we see her mostly from Spider's perspective; ruthless and terrifying, willing to do anything for her family. The way she is framed in that scene is not at Quaritch's level, it's putting her as the savage beast that Quaritch (and in that scene Spider) see her as. This is totally something they could have done, and then fought against, if we had also been given Neytiri in other lights in the movie. Like, as you mentioned, the deleted scene of her learning and adapting to the Metkayina, a version of her which we never saw in the movie.

I agree with you Neytiri should get to be complex, layered, and to make bad decisions. I just think this movie didn't earn that. They didn't show us enough good to earn the bad, if that makes sense. When we get to The Southern Raiders episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we have spent almost two whole seasons seeing Katara as the most compassionate, loving, and forgiving character. Someone with intense layers. We know the character, so when we see her do something so out of character from what we had seen, we completely understand how she was pushed to that point, and how we would have ended up there too. With Neytiri, we spend almost no time with her, seeing and understanding her. A lot of her pain is relayed to us off screen, from deleted scenes teaching us about Sylwanin, or from previous movies that show us Jake's perspective of the loss of her home and her father. We don't see enough of her for the average viewer to SEE it, and UNDERSTAND her.

Basically, my point is just that I wish they had written what you're saying, but they aren't that good at writing. I think that's evident by how many people demonize and hate Neytiri for the tamer version of the scene, and paint Quaritch as a redeemable loving father.

omgg please tell me that you’ve seen the extended atwow extended cuts?? they’re phenomenal and canon and i can’t be told otherwise.

The Parents from hell one had me on the edge of my seat I was so scared even though I know the outcome, well now we know that Neytiri was definitely going to kill, not even to bargain for Kiri but for revenge and that’s just ughhh i can’t wait to incorporate this in my fanfic

I gotta say, I do fundamentally disagree, at least about the parents one. It's not so much of a deleted scene as a full rewrite of the scene. If Neytiri's goal was to kill Spider and take revenge over saving Kiri, why did they do with the version where she lets him go immediately? I don't know, man, to me it seems like they filmed that and then decided it didn't work with the character or for what they had planned. It definitely makes sense to me that they chose not to go with that version. Even the name, "The Parents From Hell," it makes it seem like it's a dark alternate universe.

But yes, scenes that were missing and not included I am all for thinking of as canon! But this is a full rewrite. It's not canon, because it's not what happened in the final version. I think the reason they chose to change it is more telling than the fact that it was filmed in the first place.

But of course, I am mad it exists. I wish they never released it. I don't like what they seem to think of Neytiri's character. I don't like the framing of her as less sympathetic than Quartich (even though a lot of idiots still took it that way which is still on the writing team as well), but I'm glad they understood they had to change the scene. I'm trying to withhold judgement until I see the full arc they intend for her, but as of now I'm not very pleased. She should be the heart of this series if it is to stay it's course as a true love letter to indigenous communities and what has happened to them. I hope they don't forget that.

[sincosma]

Regarding Hurricane Helene and those who didn't evacuate

I don't often make huge posts like this, but as someone who has been involved in the emergency response to Hurricane Helene, I have some things to get off my chest.

I am in total shock at the damage Helene did to my area (the Tampa Bay area). Over 8 feet of storm surge, never before seen here, has completely destroyed iconic and vital parts of my community. The storm stayed 100 miles offshore from us but managed this level of devastation. Then, seeing the catastrophic levels of damage for the folks in Taylor County and the Big Bend area, as well as everyone in the South... it's hard to comprehend.

I work in government, so I've been on call the past few days for storm updates. I'm so tired and overwhelmed by the pictures and videos I'm seeing. Last night, I saw posts of people in my area begging for rescue with several feet of water or more in their homes. There are still people awaiting rescue right now. We have 5 confirmed fatalities in my county as of now, all due to storm surge.

With all that said, I'm making this post for a specific reason. I'm seeing a lot of people say, "They were in a mandatory evacuation zone, so it's their own fault for staying and risking their lives," or, worst of all, "emergency services shouldn't help people who were dumb enough to stay."

Quite literally, from the bottom of my heart, go fuck yourself.

You do not understand the immense challenges many people face when mandatory evacuations are called. People with disabilities, the elderly, unhoused individuals, people experiencing poverty, non-English speaking communities, and many other vulnerable populations cannot simply get up and go. Were there people who could've evacuated but didn't because they were being stubborn or flippant? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean these people suddenly lose their human rights because they made a mistake or froze up in fear or could not evacuate for a million different reasons. They still deserve help and understanding.

If you don't live in hurricane-prone areas, you will never fully understand the scope of these impacts, the complacency some people get from repeated storms, the limitations of evacuation resources, and the thousands of obstacles people face when they need to evacuate. Sure, YOU think it would be EASY to pack up and go, but that's often not a reality for many people who are living with disabilities, poverty, abusive situations, etc. The list goes on and on.

I'm honestly horrified by the levels of superiority and callousness with which some people are reacting to pictures and videos of the storm impacts. I usually see some of it every time a major storm occurs, but it seems especially prevalent this time around.

Keep your opinions about evacuations, and your judgment towards those who chose to stay, to yourself.

Hope everyone else affected is hanging in there. <3

[zeynyukine3011]

Hi! I want to get to Damian Wayne better. So could you recommend me what comics, or issues, to read? If it’s not an inconvenience. Thanks! (My English is not so good, sorry)

Hello!!!! It's not an inconvenience, I'd like to help ^^

Damian first appeared in Batman #655. But his character wasn't fleshed out. He was there to be a rich spoiled kid who annoys everyone.

But thanks to Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi, Damian's character evolved.

So you should definitely read Batman and Robin (2011), Robin:Son of Batman. These two are a MUST read for every Damian fan.

After that there is of course iconic Supersons. First Supersons, then The Adventures of the Supersons, and The Challenge of the Supersons.

You can read Batman and Robin (2009) too. It's where Dick is Batman and Damian is his Robin.

Besides those, my favourite is DC vs. Vampires. Damian is a major character in this and he is written well and he is a badass.

My another favourite is Dark Nights: Metal. He is written good here too.

I don't recommend reading his second team in Teen Titans (2016). He was first teams with Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire, Kid Flash, and Aqualad a while. It wasn't bad but canonically most of them should've been adults.

His second Teen Titans team was horrible. That comic absolutely ruined Damian's character. Don't read!

Then there is Robin (2021). It wasn't as bad as it could've been but it wasn't perfect either. Joshua Williamson tried to fix Damian's character after Adam Glass butchered it in Teen Titans. Was he successful? That's controversial. He mostly focused on his OCs so it wasn't much about Damian. But I think it is worth to read.

There is ongoing Batman and Robin (2023) by Joshua Williamson. At least he is not written as a villain in this but Williamson is writing him sooo boring. Damian was an unique and interesting character who wasn't like typical teenage heroes. But Williamson is making him a stereotypical teenager. It's boring 😐

Then there is brand new Boy Wonder! There is only one issue so far but it's looks really good for now. I hope they don't ruin it 🫠

Then there is Batman vs. Robin (2023) but it's not good, unfortunately. Damian is not written well and the only interaction we have between Bruce and Damian is just Bruce bad-mouthing him and saying every bad qualities of Damian. You can read if you want. I leave it to your judgement.

For every comic and issue Damian had appeared you can see this from this link.

[saintmuses]

❝𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙝, 𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙧❞

Pairing:

Lenny Miller x Reader

Summary:

She never got to marry, or bear children, or have a house with a white picket fence. She never got to grow old either. Even in death, she would never be able to escape from the man who loved her a little too much.

Warning(s): Death. Implied murder. Angst. Implied toxic relationship. Age gap (10 years apart between Reader and Lenny). Major power imbalance. Dark!Lenny. Minors, dni! Note: I was trying to make this something that you would read from a non-fiction crime book which includes many characters from Anna so it does not feel personal. Reader is a Russian American in this one. Also the switch between ‘Leonard’ and ‘Lenny’ is intentional. The title is from Mirrorball because I thought it was fitting of how it refers to the end of something, therefore the end of one’s life as they know it.

Word Count: 3.3k

1995

"It was something I would do, but I would've never expected her to do it. She and I were very different in that sense." Anna Poliatova, her best friend from childhood days murmured softly, her accent curled around the letters as she sat down in a chair for the interview regarding the crime documentary. She had eyes that were colored like the sky, and platinum hair, straight as spineless grass in the plains.

"1990 was something for her," she then laughed. "She met someone I never even knew about, but I found out in her diary of an early 1990 entry of a man named Leonard Miller."

April 16, 1990

Dear Diary,

When you meet someone, how would you picture meeting someone? One day, they would be a stranger to you, but they could be everything but a stranger tomorrow.

I didn't expect to meet Leonard Miller yesterday, but everyone knew of him. 

I mean he is an agent handler for Central Intelligence Agency, his reputation precedes him everywhere he goes in that workplace. What attracted me to him right away was how he eluded power and raw presence. He commanded attention as soon as he walked into the room. I had to talk to him because of my job; I’ve been assigned as a secretary for the director of CIA.

The day before, you would be doing something so mundane, right up to the moment, and that was when everything changed. I haven't felt this way in a long time, like a schoolgirl's crush on a man who is very handsome, but very off-limits. There’s a workplace code set in place for something like this. My brain had to remind myself that we cannot be more than just co-workers, no fraternizing around, but my heart didn't care.

I was never supposed to be that person.

Never.

Y/N.V.

Y/N Vasilisa—Love to those close to her due to the meaning of her last name—was born in New York in 1966 to her parents Arseni Vasiliy and Janet O’Conner.

Aurora, New York was a town where families would bloom while the others faded.

Arseni Vasiliy was born in Moscow, USSR, and migrated to America when he was nineteen and met a girl from a town over, then fell in love with her. They were married in 1964, two years before Y/N was born. "She kept him on his toes, and they made the marriage work. They had good years," his friend recalled, a brief appearance. "Really good years."

Janet, her mother was very protective of Y/N, perhaps because she was the baby, the only child of the family. They were close, close as best friends could've been.

The Vasiliys were the poster child of what family should really look like. It was a small family, but it was home.

Y/N met Anna Poliatovia in English class when she was a teenager. She came to America as a foreign exchange student from Soviet Union program. They were the duo that every girl was jealous of, and every guy wished they would've gotten together with.

Y/N Vasilisa was an honor student, had perfect grades all four years of high school, and became a valedictorian for her class.

Everything had changed a month before her graduation in 1984. Her parents died in a tragic car accident. Their slow but terrible deaths were caused by fire when a drunken driver of semi-truck crashed into them.

She moved to New York City after she graduated from high school, wanting to get away from the town that used to be so kind to her.

In a utopia world, no one would die. In the real world, parents weren’t supposed to bury their children. In a twisted sense, they made the natural order of death happen. Y/N had to bury them at eighteen.

She went to a community college while working for a company as a secretary during the week, and she would complete double shifts as a waitress at a restaurant on the weekends to be able to afford an apartment she lived in.

As Y/N struggled to make the ends meet, Leonard Miller was on his way to becoming an operative for CIA.

Leonard’s father was born in Europe in 1928, but his family moved to America specifically Hawaii in 1935, although it was not a part of fifty stars for another few decades. When his father was twenty-one, he met his wife at a shore, and they were married before finding a job as a constructor while his wife was a housewife and a mother of four children.

Elizabeth was the first and only daughter that was welcomed to the world in 1951, John was born two years later, then it was Leonard and Maxwell after that.

The family experienced a devastating loss when the patriarch of the family died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-three in February 1981, leaving his wife, children, and grand-children behind.

While the women of the family were soft-spoken, soft hearted; the men were stolid, hardworking, and they set their minds to succeed in America.

All men but one worked for a construction company that their father built with his partner. The company became Miller and Co. when it thrived in Pearl City, and the boys except one joined.

The third child of the family did not want to work for the construction company, opting to make a path for himself.

Leonard -Lenny for short- was born in 1956, the third child, but second boy in the family. He had dark brown hair, icy blue eyes so piercing that someone would feel like he was looking into their soul. He did almost everything first, he was not only an honor student, but he was also undeniably his parents' favorite son out of four children. He was hardworking and disciplined like his father, quiet and conservative like his mother.

John and Maxwell, his brothers were the opposite of it. They were the life of the party, the charmers who could work a room full of strangers and leave with a bunch of friends.

They were very much loved by their parents despite the differences in all of them.

To them, Leonard was the good brother. The one who could give dependable advice. To school, he was quite unattainable. Polite, friendly, only mingling when he had to, but he knew how to have fun as well.

When he was eighteen, he graduated from high school in 1974, and enlisted in military. It was there he was recruited to become an CIA operative thus moving to Washington DC to be close to Langley.

Despite being the second oldest brother, he did take over the proceedings of the patriarch after his father's death, but he refused to do anything with the construction company. His other brothers were there to run the business while he and his sister were there for their mother.

Before his father's death, he accepted a promotion to become CIA Agent Handler.

And he was thirty-four years old when he met Y/N Vasilisa.

"She was filled with life," Lenny said softly, fingers tracing the surface of the table in front of him as he stared down at the patterns, remembering the night he met her. "She was something else," he swallowed thickly before turning his head away, not without a hint of regret in his icy depths.

Y/N met the director of CIA when she moved to Washington DC after college, who recruited her to be his secretary in late 1989 and having the career that aligned the path of the position as CIA Operative Handler, it was inevitable.

"I remembered being there when they first met," Maud Lebereva, her friend and co-worker recalled. She had buzz cut brown hair and wide doe eyes, she also migrated to the states from Russia when she was a teenager. "He came in to have a meeting with the director about an upcoming mission in then-USSR, he had his eyes on her way before she noticed him. It would've been sweet if it was something else, but I saw something I knew wasn’t sweet." She murmured, shaking her head.

No one knew anything about them. They had started meeting at lunchtime, getting to know each other, it was harmless. Anyone who walked down the streets in the DC area would see them sitting outside in cafes, laughter could be heard from them, and they looked like they were friends, best of friends even.

They were friends for a few months until early summer of 1990 when the director of CIA had a gathering where every person must attend the function.

He had to walk her to her home that night, and that was when the dynamic changed for them. A soft kiss on her cheek, a pair of lips pressed against her skin slowly before withdrawing, and she had blushed viciously.

After that night, they weren't just friends. They were on their way to becoming lovers.

No one knew about them. They talked through phone calls that would be on the side tables, they emailed each other, and they would do anything discreetly.

He was still unobtainable, and she was still feeling guilty. Although, he had said he loved her in the summer of August at the Bahamas when he took her out for a vacation under the disguise of attending a seminar. Somehow, in her mind his declaration of love made everything seem alright.

It wasn't until late November when everything started to unravel around her. She met a very sweet man Alex Tchenkov through a friend and knowing there couldn't be any more than just an affair between Lenny and her, she went for it.

That was when she realized she had the idea of love wrong. Love wasn't about swearing an oath not to be seen, keeping the lines blurry between what was right and wrong, and it wasn't supposed to feel poisonous. It felt deadly, like a bitter taste of acid whenever she looked back to the months of her affair with Lenny.

Her friend, Anna was in Langley for Christmas, and Y/N took her out to a bar in Washington DC. Afterwards they sat on the concrete edge of Tidal Basin for a long time until the sun began to set over the capital, talking. The blonde woman gave Y/N an early Christmas gift, and she started to cry. 

 "She cried for a really long time," Anna said thoughtfully, nibbling on the side of her bottom lip. "I didn't know she was trapped in a wrecking affair at that time, but she was crying because she said she didn't deserve Alex," she remembered idly. "I was confused, but at that moment I knew there were so many things about her, many secrets that she hadn't told him, and she was really scared she would lose him if she was honest with him."

Eventually one person found out in February, it was Maud who had introduced her to Alex. She had sworn to keep it as a secret, and there were times when they would all meet for lunch.

"Despite my ill-feelings towards Leonard, he was a good person to people around him that I knew of. Figuring him out, and not being able to put a finger on why he gives me a bad vibe, that is where I can't stand him." Maud murmured; her eyes flickered briefly to the window. "I do remember one time I sympathized with him when it came to Y/N, it was a dinner at a really expensive restaurant, and he offered to pay." She laughed slightly, although it sounded uneasy.

The whole dinner affair was tense, it was to say with the understatement of the century. Y/N barely gave Leonard any time of the day, only cordially polite even it would make the worst of the worst dictators silently kneel to the ground.

At some point during the evening, Y/N excused herself to the ladies' room. When she was gone, Lenny had turned to Maud and asked why Y/N hated him.

"I was surprised when he asked me that," she paused, thinking back to that night. "He sounded desperate and sad, and it was that moment I felt bad for him.".

Maud tried to give him an excuse not knowing how to placate his emotional being, and she knew the sad pitiful look on Leonard’s face was caused by Y/N’s attempts to leave so she could be completely in a relationship with Alex. She did wonder if Leonard had any feelings for Y/N after all. If he did, it would be too bad.

"I mean I knew Y/N was irrecoverably in love with Alex, and I just felt bad for Leonard because he didn't stand a chance." Maud sighed, chuckling. The sound was not without a small amount of pity. "I just never knew how bad of a person he was to her. It's always the guys that can fool you easily, but not girls. However, she did fool me a bit." A grimace adorned on her face as she thought about it.

In the leading months, she and Alex got involved exclusively with fear gripping in the back of her mind that Lenny could ruin it all. Leaving her life into ashes if he ever exposed their affair to Alex.

"It was the one thing in her life she was most ashamed of," the brunette murmured, "but it wasn't her fault. I just wished she would understand that. However, he was a powerful man in Washington DC. He could easily ruin her life if he wanted to, and he did."

It was after midnight on July 5th, 1991, but there was a soft orange glow behind the curtains framing windows in the apartment. Silhouettes could be seen moving as six people roamed around the place restless. The fear had gripped them all after false-hope rationalizations failed to erase the tension Y/N had left them with.

Her other best friend had noticed something was wrong when Y/N didn't show up for dinner along with Maud.

"She didn't call to tell us she was running late, or anything really." Anna stated, her blue eyes glistening as she sniffed slightly. "I tried calling her several times, but it went straight to the voicemail." Her eyes flickered to the window as her lips turned down slightly. "I waited because she always called me back no matter what."

While they had waited for her, for the police, for some word, anything; they forced themselves to believe that she was okay, she had to be, the other option was something they didn't want to think about. 

Ever.

"I remembered going through her room, finding her journal, and I thought as I stared at the slim book 'God help me that I will break her private cocoon she'd set up for her mind, but if it was to help us find her then so be it'." Anna murmured; her eyes closed briefly before opening. "I remembered there was some sort of a letter stuffed in the last page she'd written."

You asked me a long time ago after we met, 'what do you want?' in a teasing manner with a soft twinkle in your pretty eyes. What I want...is for you to be happy. I love you.

"It wasn't signed, but it didn't really have to be it was obvious, and that was when I knew Y/N had been harboring a secret for a long time." She shrugged before sighing, looking away. Her blonde hair swayed slightly. "She was definitely not perfect, but she was the best of us. Despite the flaws we harbored in ourselves, she saw the best in them, and I can see why she would look past his overbearing flaws in the beginning to see the best in him even when she shouldn't. I can't really fault her for that, she tried, and she did until it wasn't enough for her." She then hesitated, "and whatever she wrote in her last entry...I knew he’d read it because I know Y/N, she would've just thrown away the letter after reading it, not put it in her private cocoon where it would ruin her peace. The letter he put in was more of some correspondence to her journal right before everything..." she then paused; her bottom lip trembled as a gasp escaped from her mouth resonating in her lungs as a light sheen glazed over her eyes.

June 29th, 1991

Dear Diary,

There were times I questioned myself, in the beginning I could see why I wanted to be with Lenny despite all the wrong things that I have seen.

Now more than a year has passed, and I'm suffocating. The leash I didn't notice wrapped around my neck on the day we met had been becoming shorter and shorter, chipping away its inches as his control became iron-clad over time.

I had once asked him when I met him, he was the guy who had it all, and he did, but to assuage my curiosity, I had asked him "what do you want?"

And it was that particular conversation that changed everything for me.

We were doomed, entirely and truly.

I can't say it wasn't love at first, for me it was, but it wasn't for him. I had only noticed after I fell out of it was when I realized we were doomed. He was an agent with a dangerous future, and I was at a different place in life.

Being with Alex had made me see things differently, it made me realize that Lenny Miller is not the man I or everyone else thought he was. He is a narcissist, a liar who manipulated everything around him including me. He was like a rose, sweet at first until I touched the thorns and that was when he became cruel. I fell in love with the idea of him and accepted the false flaws until it got to the point where it all became too much for me to bear.

He knew I wanted the chains off my heart especially after meeting Alex. Especially when I want to be free, I need to be free, but he won't let me go. I know he will never let me go, and I'm afraid of whatever that means.

It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't love despite him saying it was.

I have to get away from him before the suffocation drives me to the grave.

Y/N.V.

"I did love her. I loved her more than anything in this world, even when she didn’t love me anymore, but I suppose no one would understand." Lenny had emphasized slightly, almost bitterly. His blue eyes were steely glinted when the light from the sun hit their depths, before the mask of indifference fell into place. "The last time I saw her was when she didn't want me to be in her life anymore." He had murmured before looking out to somewhere in the room. He had said when the sun began to set, everything fell apart around them, "and that was that." He then shrugged as if it explained it all.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Tuesday, July 21, 1992

A MISSING AMERICAN WOMAN'S BODY FOUND IN LOIRE RIVER IN FRANCE

(Photo taken at the graduation in 1984)

The body of a 26-year-old woman Y/N Vasilisa who was reported missing a year ago on the 5th of July had been found in the Loire River under the boat dock in Nantes with a bullet wound in her head.

Vasilisa’s death, according to Detective Chief Marcel Clairmont of the Nantes Prosecutor's Office, was caused by bruising around the neck which resembled strangulation before the victim was killed with a bullet wound in the forehead. The cause of death was accurate after the autopsy was completed by the Washington DC Coroner Vincent Delacour. The prime suspect for her disappearance prior to her death, former CIA agent Leonard Miller’s DNA was not found anywhere on her body, and the bullet did not match his gun serial numbers thus eliminating him from the list of suspects...[read page five for more information].

[artzzyb00-27]

Can you do a Bay!TMNT X reader that doesn't have an accent normally but when they get upset that shit just appears outta thin air and they can barely understand them? Thank you!!

{🩷Firecracker🩷}

Anonymous on Tumblr asked for, "Can you do a Bay!TMNT X reader that doesn't have an accent normally but when they get upset that shit just appears outta thin air and they can barely understand them? Thank you!!" It's short but here you go anyway 😭?

The turtles met reader when they were younger. Around seventeen turning eighteen. Now being twenty-six, they're more open and casual around the turtles.

When they first met, reader wanted the boys to feel comfortable seeing as they didn't have many human friends to begin with. So when their accent came up, the turtles couldn't tell. Reader spoke English well enough so they couldn't pick up on it.

Especially when they had practically spent years around them. However, when Vincent offers reader a job at the station she notices that if a cop or office person is dumb, and reader got mad at it, they would mumble in their native language and have an after-accent longer in their English.

Vincent wasn't one to judge, her wife's best friend was Venezuelan and had an accent in moments. It only made her curious about the alliance ship between them and the turtle brothers.

"Where is reader from?" When Vincent asked them that, it threw the boys through loops. They hadn't thought about you not being from a different origin. Yeah, you were raised in the U.S. but you could've spent the majority of it speaking your native tongue, or you had moved to the United States before meeting them in the late teenage years.

Naturally, they tried paying more attention to how you spoke. How your grammar would come out. The possibility of your tone being off without trying to sound sarcastic or overzealous. Donnie had been close to plucking a hair of you and finding your ancestry but Leo guilt-tripped him.

"You didn't like it when they asked for a shell scute for science purposes." He made a good point sadly.

Two weeks later, however, reader had cussed out the TV that had a baseball game on. It was kinda funny watching them get pissed at the TV in their native language.

"What did you say?" Leo asked through his shit-eating grin. Even though Donnie was secretly recording and translating it into English.

"They said, 'Fucking idiot, you need glasses. You dumb bastards.'" Reader whipped their head to Donnie so fast it made Raph and Mikey crack up.

"You know (insert language)?" Donnie raised his translator and gained an understanding look from reader. "How come you don't translate everything I say?"

"Then there's no point in trying to learn about it." With that, reader gained a softer expression, before getting sucked back into the game and got annoyed again.

[adobe-outdesign]

Have you reviewed the Farfetch'd line?

Back in the early days of Pokemon, it was more common to see Pokemon based on specific Japanese references that English audiences wouldn't necessarily understand (not that this doesn't still happen, but they seem to acknowledge they're an international brand more these days).

In Farfetch'd's (that name looks so wrong as a possessive) case, it's based on the Japanese proverb "a duck comes bearing spring onions". Ducks are often cooked with onions, so the saying is referring to something that's an unlikely opportunity (the closest English version would probably be a "sitting duck").

The concept is fun, but being a Gen 1 design, it's also maybe a bit too straightforward—it's a duck with a leek, nothing less and nothing more. I do like the expression with those big ol' brows, and it's perfectly fine-looking, but it feels like it could've been pushed more. (I'm kind of surprised it didn't have leek elements built into it and be part grass-type, given that it already has the leak shape built into its head feathers.) It always seemed like the perfect kind of Pokemon to evolve, and apparently GameFreak agreed... kind of.

My major beef with Galarian Farfetch'd is that it exists in the first place. That sounds harsh, but what I mean is that regional-only evolutions are fine when they only make sense coming off a regional with a different concept. For example, Cursola wouldn't make sense when evolving from regular Corsola because the bleached coral theme would come out of nowhere; Obstagoon wouldn't make sense evolving from regular Linoone because it has no reason to turn into Gene Simmons out of nowhere, etc etc.

But with G. Farfetch'd? It's not really all that different from regular Farfetch'd at all, and I definitely don't think Sirfetch'd needed to evolve from a regional; it would've made just as much sense evolving from Kantonian Farfetch'd. So all G. Farfetch'd does is make regular Farfetch'd feel even more obsolete than it already did.

Now, I will say that visually, I do prefer G. Farfetch'd's design. The stupidly huge leek is super fun and brings a lot more to the table conceptually when combined with its extra serious expression and increased strength (especially because it's apparently based on how leeks are bigger in England than Japan). The darker colors are also nice, and it's a nice little touch that the head feathers switch orientation. It's a good improvement over the original, just once again frustrating from a practicality standpoint.

I should also mention really quick that originally, Farfetch'd had this scrapped evo called Madame. I'm... not a big fan, to be honest. I don't know if it's meant to have an SM thing going on with it or if it's just meant to be masquerade-themed, but either way that element comes out of nowhere and the main focus of Farfetch'd, the leek, is too de-emphasized. The feather detailing also feels like too much.

Pre-evo beefs aside, I do really like Sirfetch'd as a design. The concept of just taking the leek and making it into a sword and shield is extremely fun and straightforward, and I like the little details like the sheer length of the sword, the handle being the unpeeled base, and the leaves being the shield. The white body works well with the white parts of the plant and gives it a "white knight" kind of vibe, which is really emphasized by its super stocky body. Conceptually it makes logical sense as an evo; visually, it's fun and easy to understand. No complaints here.

As a whole: Farfetch'd is fine but feels like it could've been pushed more conceptually. G. Farfetch'd has an improved concept and design, but also didn't really need to exist and robs original Farfetch'd of an evo. Regardless, the evo itself is a great design with a solid concept.