#I don't know a huge amount about them but someone I trust told me they're not shit and I hope that is true

[28whitepeonies]

Bea Leeds was slippy as fuck this morning walking into town. PLEASE BE CAREFUL because I’m sure Edinburgh’s even worse. Here there’s either mounds of grit on the pavement or nothing at all. Hope you get your Christmas shopping sorted xx

Hello my love

I survived, although I had to come home and immediately lie down after the hoards of people I encountered. The city centre here was actually alright, but the bit outside my flat is really hellishly icy, I slip and slide every time I take my dog out and there's not a salt box for miles.

I got maybe half of what I needed, I'm at the point where all the gifts I still have to get are for people who are difficult to buy for and that's why I don't have them. I did find a fab gift for my friends which is some zatoun olive oil from the One World shop because they have me round for dinner so much and love to cook, and I did also buy myself a book.

I hope you managed alright though today too! And got everything you were looking for!

[desceros]

i open up my tumblr to get my daily dose of turtle content after an excruciating day and immediately SPAT out my tea seeing what was happening in the rottmnt tumblr community like?? oh my god thats WILD

i presume you're referring to the dragon situation which is. well. it sure is fucking something i'll tell you that.

it's my understanding that she's currently being told she didn't do anything wrong which. ok. i'm going to need people to understand something. there are two big reasons to Why this is Such a Huge Fucking Deal.

interacting, sexually, with adults (which dragon lied about her age to do) is harmful for kids. it puts them directly into explicitly sexual places, which while Mostly Safe, do harbor some people who will latch onto vulnerable people. kids don't have a lot of the real-world experience that adults have that allow them to Spot these asshats and avoid them. kids like validation. they like feeling cool, wanted. and groomers know how to spot people that like these things and give it to them. christ, there are a lot of Adults that get this part wrong. (comprehensive sex education can reduce the chances of this happening, but considering the state of that for children being less than robust, it's safe to assume Most kids aren't being taught the sighs of a proper, actual predator and not 'dude in a white van with some candy.')

interacting, sexually, with kids, can get adults into a MASSIVE amount of trouble. there is no recourse for this. it ruins your reputation, it puts you on a fucking List, it can get you jail time, it destroys your ability to get housing or a job, etc.

so yes. this was all bad because a kid was doing sex stuff. but for everyone who i've seen saying "ohhh we all looked at smut and stuff when we were teenagers, she didn't do anything wrong", yes, she did. because she INTERACTED WITH ADULTS ABOUT IT. yes, we all know that teenagers read smut. we all know that you can click onto someone's blog. frankly, in my opinion, there's never going to be a way to stop that. but having that teenager come into adult spaces and TALK to adults, SEND them asks, POST erotic art, SEND THAT LEWD ART TO ADULTS, DO EROTIC ROLEPLAY WITH OTHER ADULTS, is beyond the pale. that's not "a teenager reading smut like we all did." that's a minor violating the trust and consent of adults who have said they don't want to interact with minors.

i want you to imagine a scenario where we have someone we Know is a liar. she says she's 17 in two months. but is she? she's lied about it before. but let's say we believe her this time. let's say we trust her when she says she's 18 now. we start letting her interact again. we talk about erotica with her again. except oops she's still not 18, she's 16 and her mommy just checked on her blog and sees she's talking about porn with adults. or she hears a headcanon she doesn't like and decides to narc on that adult for sexting with a child. or one of her friends decides they don't like how i talk to people, so they say something.

do you see the problem? sure, the kid is in danger. but so is the adult. the adult who thought they were interacting with another adult, but because that kid lied, now they're the one in trouble. oh, and fun fact, there is typically no recourse against the kid in this scenario. the adult's life is ruined, and the kid gets to walk away.

there are very few adult-only spaces left on the internet. we put up signs on our blogs that say "we talk about sex. minors do not interact." because we want these spaces for ourselves. it's so disrespectful and childish and stupid and selfish and bratty for kids to think "oh, i'm adult enough for that, actually" or "well everyone i'm following is an adult, but they all say minors don't interact, so i'll just lie and say i'm an adult, heehee." it reveals a lack of character and regard for others that disgusts me. it tells me that you don't care about my wishes, you will do whatever you want to get what you want. i did not consent to speak with a child. it's vile behavior, and people who can't comprehend why the adults here are so upset because "oh you don't owe anyone your age, we all read smut as kids, what's the big deal, it's totally fine" are clearly not using any amount of critical thinking because they learned that their favorite artist is a minor and they don't want to rock the boat and lose access to it which, by the way, maybe think about what that says about you.

[kimigia]

my problem with owari no seraph's writing, from someone who's been reading it since 2016

finally decided to revive this blog after it sat untouched for years and collected copius amounts of dust.... just ignore my old posts LMAO

anyways, i have a small list of issues that i think i've already posted about before? but i wanted to compile them all, and add on anything i haven't mentioned before.

*small spoiler warning for recent chapters & light novel*

the countless neglected side plots and characters. i understand that every side story will eventually get its time to shine... but when? i don't think i'd have such a problem with it if the comic updated more often, but i understand that kagami has other scripts to write and it takes yamamoto time to draw the beautiful art. but it's been years since we last saw characters like lacus welt, rene simm, seishiro hiragi, chess belle, makoto narumi and horn skuld. i definintely think it's a huge shame that after being present for like, 50 or so chapters, they just... disappeared. hell, last time yoichi's plan to get revenge on lacus was mentioned was over 5 years ago. again, if the updates were faster i wouldn't have such a problem with it taking so many chapters to finally get to the side storylines. but i just feel like it's been way too long at this point... this has already been stated before, but the lack of mistuba, kimizuki, yoichi, and sometimes shinoa's respective stories being addressed is also really annoying. it feels like they've been completely forgotten and neglected and like the comic is just 'mika & yu + extras''. i want to see yoichi get his revenge on lacus, i want to see ferid's backstory, i want to see mitsuba's relationship with her sister branched out more, i want to see chess and horn and how they're relevant to crowley's story, i want to see where narumi ran off to, i want to see kimizuki's storyline with his sister, and i know these will be addressed eventually, but like... when? to add onto this, i feel like new storylines keep being added on without old ones being addressed. the whole thing with mika turning into a demon, turning into a sword, finding out the first's past, and all of that. but then again, it took us years to finally figure out the first's past, so i trust that these side plots will also eventually get addressed! it's just very messy, and all over the place.

2. the same lines being repeated over and over again. i swear to god every couple of chapters they go through the same dialogue of "we're going to revive everyone and save all of our family members and save the whole world" and i just feel like nothing really happens after that? just from chapters 100-130 it's been mentioned SO many times and i just. if i'm missing something i'd appreciate it if someone could just tell me at this point because i really don't see why the almost exact same dialogue has to be said so often. i am perfectly aware that the whole storyline revives around the importance of companionship, friendship, and love, but it just seems futile for the same exact thing to be stated so often. i think when it's SHOWN rather than just being told is really nice, like how krul and ashera's backstory was played out, or how the love between paimon and bael was shown. we can draw our own conclusions and interpret the story differently based on what we see rather than being spoonfed the same information over and over again. ashera basically cursed his sister because he couldn't fathom living without her, and bael ended his life because he couldn't fathom living without paimon. i think when the love and importance of the character's relationships with each other is shown like this, rather than the same dialogue being restated chapter after chapter, the story flows much smoother.

3. the lack of character development. again, if i've somehow missed it then please just tell me because i can't find it anywhere. specifically in yu's case, because it's been YEARS. i will say, in the early volumes of the manga i definitely saw him undergo a huge change, because before he got put in the demon army he had a very sour attitude and refused to make friends. but after he found his new family, he did a complete 180 and made it his life's mission to live for them and do anything to save them, mika included (later on) but again, that was years ago and since then i've honestly been unable to see much change in his behavior. despite the numerous times guren has shown himself to be a shifty, shady person that's hard to trust, it doesn't go through yu's head. even after they had that huge fight around chapter 112, his anger towards guren wasn't even about the fact that guren planned for his family to be murdered by ferid! he rarely listens to mika, and he generally just goes off and does whatever he likes. i UNDERSTAND that this is just part of his character and personality, but my god is it frustrating to watch... i will say though, him bowing to krul and requesting her help to save mika was a nice surprise that i didn't anticipate. i'd really like to see more of that! more of him listening to other characters who desperately try to help him, etc.

4. the way female characters are written and treated. i understand that this is a shounen manga, but the only female characters in the series being used for fan service gets on my nerves a LOT, especially since they're not really that well written in the first place. also the dialogue and interactions between them... i really really hate that majority of the conversations between just shinoa and mitsuba are played off as boob jokes or something when they could be having legitimate bonding moments and building their friendships. like i'm not gonna lie, shinoa is an absolutely FASCINATING character to me. but i want to see the girls interact with other girls outside of topics that have to do with a man or just making boob jokes!!! (i've only read volume 1 of the catastrophe manga,) but going off of that, the way there could've been so much more attention paid to sayuri's character for example but a lot of the spotlight on her just consisted of either a. her boobs being shown or b. somebody talking about her boobs. i'm not gonna lie, one of the first pages of the manga being a naked 14 year old girl was ....?? anyways. and how could i forget about chess and horn! they're vampires that're hundreds to thousands of years old, and they can't even fall in love or feel romantic desire, but the whole blushing thing while getting down on their knees to suck crowley's blood from his finger? chess getting jealous of horn for being able to suck his blood? hello? like... come on. i will say though, i really like how krul's character is written. in my opinion, she's an example of a well written female character.

an additional note that's not criticism: my opinions on the new art style are kinda 50/50... i feel like for the adult/older characters, the tiny eyes and sharper/more realistic features can make them look kinda weird sometimes, especially their front profiles. but for the younger/child/teen characters, i actually really like it and i feel like it suits them! not having their eyes take up half of their faces anymore looks good, and it can also be interpreted as physical growth.

anyways, there are so so so many things that i legitimately love about owari no seraph, so this isn't me just shitting on the entire series. i'm gonna follow it through to the end, and i'm excited to see how that goes! i just think the writing could use.... some work.

*please excuse any typos*

[lloydfrontera]

How would you characterize Lloyd/Suho’s relationship with Alicia in Tged? I’ve just started the webcomic and I find their dynamic so fascinating despite that they’re not the main relationship of the series.

it's. it's hard to describe. and tbh i'm not the best person to ask. i am not a lloyd/alicia shipper and i was too fascinated by every single other of lloyd's relationships that i think i missed when their relationship started to shift into a more personal one.

lloyd respects alicia, he knows she's a tolerant, fair and just queen, he feels relatively safe that she won't screw him over for no reason and knows he has her absolute trust. he's kind of afraid of her tho lol like not because he thinks she's evil or anything but simply because, well, she's the queen. you gotta treat royalty carefully. and alicia is the kind of ruler that wants to squeeze the last bit of use of her subjects, not without fair compensation of course but still, she isn't the kind of person who likes to see a competent person just lazying around when she can put them to use to the betterment of her kingdom. so that's. not good for lloyd's plans lol

as for alicia... she mainly thinks he's a very smart, very competent, very stingy and petty person lmao. he's cunning and insolent and lazy and capable and she kinda likes him. he's frustrating but he's trustworthy. he's annoying but he's reliable. he's cheap but he's hardworking. he's exactly the kind of person she wants working for her.

"A competent individual was to be used. Ignoring one's talent was wasteful, and it bordered on being sinful. The more tired capable individuals became, the more prosperous the kingdom and people's lives became." <- alicia's ideology and lloyd's worst fears lol

she knows exactly what he wants and how very non-ambitious he is. that he wants to live an ordinary life and he's just itching to be free of having to work. she is absolutely not up for that lol

so like. they're both extremely smart people. intellectually they're pretty much equals. but when it comes to their power dynamic i always feel a bit iffy tbh 😅 i really didn't like the change they made to the webcomic where alicia outright threatens to invade the frontera fiefdom if lloyd doesn't do the work she has for him. most of their interactions is either her summoning him for a job or lloyd going to her to offer something in exchange for her help or to avoid a disaster. and when it comes to their flirting it mainly boils down to alicia flustering lloyd and lloyd just,,, accepting it ig jakshdska

i don't know! i feel like a missed a huge chunk of the novel! like! honestly! at the end of the novel, lloyd says that when he was struggling with his despair back in korea that two people he thought the most about was javier and the queen. javier because he was like a brother who had always been there with him. and the queen because he'd never told her about his feelings. and like???? what feelings??? when did that happen?????? we have 400+ chapters of lloyd and javier's relationship growing and changing and evolving and then we have,,, i'm not sure how many chapters are about lloyd and alicia interacting actually, sorry, but they're not nearly enough for me to believe he would think about her an equal amount to someone he spent the better part of the last few years of his life with or to, y'know, his found family, the one he also spent years coming to know and love.

my feelings about their relationship are very tainted by my frustration that the author seemingly couldn't bring himself to give lloyd a happy ending that didn't involve him getting married to the only female side character who was 1) not related to him, 2) already in a relationship with someone else and 3) who's character development was directly related to her not having to marry for duty. it just. it had to end with him marrying for it to be a happy ending apparently.

so i'm really not the best person to ask about them i'm so, so sorry alskdhlasd

[queen-of-writing-bad-things]

Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 3

Episode 14: License to Fly

*hint of spice, can't help myself, so watch out for it*

~A back alley in Downtown Swellview~

It was light at night and the city was asleep, but even so, crime never stops. Therefore, Captain Man and his faithful sidekicks were skulking around the backstreets of Swellview looking for some good-for-nothing scum; the Ballerino Brothers. They were fairly certain that they were gonna find them and of course, looking for criminals required a good amount of stealth and quietness, but all the waiting was making Henry impatient and he desperately wanted to Ray let him do one particular thing. Something that he'd never been allowed to do in all his time as Kid Danger.

"Come on, man..." He whined as they crept around, but Ray wasn't too happy about all the noise. It was hard enough concentrating with (y/n) and the scent of her perfume following him around, he didn't need a teenager bothering him too. "Shhhhh!"

"Will you please just say yes?" Henry kept begging. He was sixteen now, surely, he should at least be given a lesson. Y'know, for emergencies. 

"Kid, will you please just shhhhh?!" (y/n) whacked his chest as she stood on her tiptoes and peered over her boyfriend's shoulder. Ever her noble protector, he insisted that stayed behind him, just in case one of these criminal brothers jumped out in an ambush. 

"I'll shhhh if one of you teaches me how to fly the Man-Copter." The boy countered, saying that damn phrase for the hundredth time that day. It wasn't like the couple didn't trust him, far from it, it was just that the Man-Copter represented a huge investment, approximately one-hundred thousand dollars, to be exact. It's not stupid to ban a teenage boy from flying around in your ridiculously expensive machine, especially when he sometimes tended to show off.

Henry sighed as Ray's phone began to ring, effectively ending the argument there as he brought his girl close to his chest so she could pick up on what was being said. "It's Charlotte. Go for me."

"Okay, it's confirmed. You're looking for the Ballerino Brothers." The teen girl stated, checking out all the info she was getting on the supercomputer.

"I hate those guys," Ray growled, wrinkling his nose up at the thought of having to deal with those jerks. He didn't like any criminal, but the Ballerino Brothers took the biscuit. 

"You know, they're they're not even brothers." (y/n) grumbled too, folding her arms grumpily,  which made Ray smile at her cute, frowning face. She always made him feel so much better.

"I don't get why you won't just--" Henry tried to butt in on their little moment, in an attempt to persuade them/badger them into giving him flying lessons, but interrupting Ray when he was admiring his girlfriend wasn't a recipe for success.

"Do you get that I'm on the phone?!" He retorted, (y/n) trying to calm him down when she felt the hand on her waist squeeze at her flesh even harder. The constant mithering was getting to her lovely boyfriend, but they had to remember where they were and who they were trying to capture; a back alley was not the place for a fistfight, something someone should've told Henry.

The boy grabbed Ray's phone from his hand in the blink of an eye, making the superhero gasp when he realised that his sidekick was using his hypermotility against him. That little shit.

"Uh! You do not snatch my phone like that!" Ray snapped, becoming caught up in their arguing and with (y/n) stood with her eyes gazing up at his handsome face, no one noticed how the thugs they were searching for were prancing and pirouetting towards them. 

"Will you please just teach me to fly the Man-Copter? Or get (y/n) to teach me?" Henry asked again, but Ray still wasn't happy about the whole Henry-stealing-his-phone thing.

"What have I told you about using your lightning-fast reflexes to snatch our stuff?" The young woman scolded him, not liking how he was so tall now that he could easily overpower her if he wanted to. Paired with his new superpower and his teenage arrogance, Henry Hart was becoming quite a handful.

"You both promised me that you would. When you weren't busy doing gross things." Henry grumbled and didn't care if he embarrassed them or not. Judging by Ray's pink ears and how (y/n) buried her face into her boyfriend's chest it worked, but the man didn't want to discuss it in the dingy alley.

"We'll talk about it later." Ray snapped, his angry tone sparking a furious debate between the two males that (y/n) tried to contain, but to no avail. The shouting meant that they didn't notice the Ballerino Brother pick up a trash can each and just when Henry tried to yell back, they cracked them over the head with the heavy metal. 

The superheroes fell to the floor in agony as the ballet-dancing criminals floated around and waited for Captain Man and Miss Danger to get up from the ground since they recovered much sooner than the boy. Ray was fuming at whoever attacked him and his girl, not to mention Henry, so unexpectedly and he stumbled around only to see the brothers' smug faces. 

"Captain Man, Miss Danger and Kid Danger."

"Nice tutu see you." They greeted, bringing the ballet puns thick and fast. All the Swellviewian criminals loved an evil pun, something (y/n) could never wrap her head around as it seemed so silly and unthreatening. 

"Well, if it isn't the Ballerino Brothers." Captain Man growled as Henry rubbed his sore head. Luckily, the blow wasn't serious and he was able to blink away the fuzziness in his eyes to see the odd ballet costumes worn by the Ballerinos. Orange and purple definitely don't go together.

"Right. And our favourite dance is The Nutcracker...sweet." The criminals beat the fists together and glared at the superhero squad, both sides psyching themselves up for a fight, but it seemed like Henry wasn't ready to their quarrel go.

"Okay, what about Saturday morning? Your girlfriend could teach me before work." Henry proposed, forgetting about the brothers and turning to his boss with pleading eyes. He'd hoped that mentioning (y/n) would sweeten the deal, but honestly, (y/n) was always busy on Saturday mornings. Always. 

"You're too young to fly the Man-Copter. And Miss Danger will be busy that morning." Ray dismissed his sidekick's words. He couldn't let (y/n) get out of bed early, not when she usually gave all her attention to him. The thought of waking up alone and unloved sounded horrible.

"Ohhhh, so I'm old enough to help you beat up vicious ballet dancers, but I'm not old enough to fly the Man-Copter?" Henry spat, prodding the man's chest with an accusing finger. The only sensible one amongst them tried to wiggle her way between them and push the boys apart, but Ray just wanted her glued to his side so he could protect her from Henry and his need for flying lessons.

"It's not a question of age, it's a question of experience and training and---" Captain Man started to list everything he expected from a responsible pilot, but the men waiting for a fight were getting impatient.

"Uhhhh, 'scuse me? Are we gonna fight or do you two need to see a couple's therapist?" One Ballerino brother asked harshly, making the heroes look at them offendedly. To be fair, Henry and Ray did squabble like an old married couple sometimes, leaving (y/n) to giggle at their arguing.

"Perhaps both." She agreed with a sour smile, not willing to be too friendly with the brothers since they were enemies. Still, Ray wasn't too happy at the sass from the men, particularly since it was obvious that he already had a girlfriend. "You dancing punks."

"Punks?! We went to Juilliard!" One Ballerino replied and they stiffened their posture so they could stand elegantly to show their dancing prowess. 

"How could you say I'm too young?" Henry hissed to his boss, making the couple groan. Not this shit again, it was like they were just going back and forth, back and forth.

"You're not ready, you're just a sidekick!" Ray exclaimed, not realising that his words were quite upsetting for the boy. He longed to be more than just the sidekick and even though he loved him like a brother, he sometimes grew tired of being in Captain Man's shadow.

"Oh. Oh, really?" He asked, trying not to appear as hurt as he felt, but (y/n) could see the grimace that passed over his features. Her dumb boyfriend needed to think before he spoke. 

"Oh. Oh, really?" Ray copied him, not seeing how his petulant way of dealing with the situation was irritating (y/n), who was starting to move onto Henry's side. 

"Okay, stop! Captain Man, you're being unfair and unkind. Kid Danger, can't this wait until after--" The young woman sighed, but the cocky glint in her boyfriend's eye pissed Henry off to the point where he was going to do something drastic.

"Then let's make a deal." He interrupted, dismissing his wisdom in favour of wiping that smirk off of the man's face by proving that he wasn't too young or just a sidekick. He was powerful and smart, he could handle anything.

"Aw, what kind of deal?" Ray scoffed tiredly, feeling fed up with going around in circles of some dumb helicopter. This was supposed to be a quick mission, yet they were still waiting on the action.

"If I knock out both these Ballerinos, by myself...then you, not Miss Danger, have to teach me how to fly the Man-Copter." Well, it was a fair deal, stupid and hilarious for Ray to hear, but fair nonetheless. 

"Kid, you..." Ray sighed, not wanting to see him get hurt just to win some bet, but a shrug from (y/n) told him that she was all for it. If Henry thought he could beat the Ballerinos (who were once again getting bored of waiting and were looking for things they could use as weapons), then why couldn't he go solo? Maybe it would take his ego down a peg or two.

"Okay, tell you what...I'm gonna take my girl and we're gonna sit over here. You fight these guys by yourself." Captain Man clutched Miss Danger's hand and led her over to a ledge where she could snuggle into his side and watch the fight. Front row seats. 

"I will." Henry puffed his chest out cockily and sneered at the retreating pair, but it was a mistake to turn his back on two criminals known for loving sneak-attacks.

"Good luck." (y/n) told him sweetly, smiling at the boy since she knew he'd need every scrap of fortune on his side. The kid was outnumbered and overly confident, a dangerous combination when he was gearing up for a fight.

"I don't need luck, you know why? Arghhh!---" Oh, poor Henry, not even two seconds after the adults had taken a seat, a Ballerino whacked him over the head with a piece of junk. The old microwave colliding with his skull was agonisingly painful and even if it did make him wince, Ray refused to help.

"Wow, kid. Way to block that..." He commented sarcastically whilst wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and bringing her closer into his embrace until she was almost in his lap. Her leg folded over his as her head lolled against his peck, a position that looked way too comfortable to say they were in some filthy alley with two of Swelllview's most dangerous lawbreakers.

"With your head as well. Very impressive." (y/n) chuckled at Henry's unimpressed face, ignoring it so she could focus on drawing mindless patterns on Ray's knee and thigh.

"Okay, Ballerinos...let's dance." Kid Danger quipped and swung and struck at one brother after doing a pirouette kick. He took a punch to the face when the other Ballerino retaliated with fury in his eyes and all the while, Ray had uncurled his right arm from (y/n) and was digging through his little bag for some snacks. Not fighting bad guys really worked up his appetite. 

A flick on his nose snapped Henry into reality and he suddenly remembered that he had an advantage over these bastards: stupidly fast reflexes. 

A few swift blows to the orange guy's face made him stagger out of the way, just in time for the sidekick to block the purple dude's jabs, seize him and throw his body into his brother's arms.

"Ah, dang it!" Ray cursed as he took out a jar of jelly, followed by a jar of smooth peanut butter, which wasn't his favourite kind of PB. How was he supposed to make a sandwich without some crunchy goodness?

"What's wrong, doofus?" (y/n) frowned at his sudden, sharp tone, but it soften when she saw that his anger was directed towards some peanut butter, not the Ballerino Brothers, her or Henry.

"I told Schwoz to pack crunchy peanut butter." He hissed, mentally cursing the handyman for messing up the simplest of instructions. Now, his sandwich was going to be smooth and boring. As Ray fretted about his food situation, the Ballerinos were getting fancy with their footwork. After dodging a weirdly beautiful flying kick, Henry took up a trash can lid to use as a shield and weapon. He smashed one guy in the face with it before blocking a punch, leaving the purple Ballerino to clutch his broken fingers for a few seconds before the metal was smashed against his jaw in an uppercut.

"Can I have a sandwich too?" (y/n) asked her boyfriend in a sweetly innocent voice, fluttering her eyelashes so she could share his food. The problem was, Ray had only packed enough for one person, but with so much temptation, he couldn't say no, not to his sweet girl.

"Sure, sweet girl. Wanna go halfsies?" He smirked at her, leaning in close to brush his lips against hers for a taste of something much sweeter than his grape jelly, but Henry didn't want them to kiss, he wanted them to pay attention. 

"You watchin' this?" He shouted at the couple after tossing the lid into one guy's face, making (y/n) break away shyly. Ray clenched his teeth in annoyance. First, the kid wanted his girl to leave early on Saturday morning before they even got a chance to enjoy each other's company and now, he was stopping him from feeling those honeyed lips against his? What a jerk.

"Yeah. Hey, Ballerino, try using this." The disgruntled superhero threw a crowbar to a brother, much to Henry's and (y/n)'s horror. Their shocked faces grew as the Ballerino used the metal to beat Henry to the ground, which the superhero enjoyed more than he should've.

"Why would you give that to them, doof?" The woman hissed at her boyfriend as he began to smear some jelly across their sandwich and he ignored her question so he could watch the fight. "Bravissimo!"

"Hey! You can't help them beat me up!" Kid Danger panted as he recovered from the whack on his knee and seized the crowbar so he could give the Ballerinos a taste of their own medicine, meaning he gave them a good hiding in return. 

"Nah. Never said that." Ray was technically right. They'd made no rule about not helping the criminals, but you'd think that Captain Man would be against that.

"Juilliard!" The orange Ballerino cried before spinning crazily to Henry with a roundhouse kick. The boy was too quick for him though and ducked before he could get hurt and swiftly punched the thug in the nose several times, knocking him into a dumpster. Well, that was one taken care of. 

The purple Ballerino came hurtling towards Henry, full of revenge for his beaten brother. Every one of his swings was expertly blocked by the boy, who kneed him in the stomach before hoisting him over his shoulder and tossing him in with his partner. Victory was Henry's.

"Now, you have to teach me how to fly the Man-Copter." He bragged, sauntering over to Ray and stealing his sandwich with a smirk. The superhero spluttered when the boy took a bite of his PB and J and (y/n) wasn't happy about it either.

"Hey, half of that is mine." She told him but then again, if Henry was the one eating it, she wasn't sure if she wanted what was hers. She only stole Ray's food, no one else's.

"No, no, no." Ray waggled his finger, thinking he'd found a loophole that would save both his extremely expensive helicopter and his morning fun with his girlfriend.

"We had a deal." Henry gasped, shocked that Captain man was going back on his word. He never broke a promise, well, he tried his best not to.

"Ray, you did say that you had a deal. I was a witness." (y/n) hated disagreeing with her boyfriend, especially when it involved something that broke the bank when they bought it, but to be fair to the kid, Ray had agreed.

"Yeah, I know, sweet girl! The deal was you had to knock out both Ballerinos!" The large man smirked, resting his hand casually on his girl's inner thigh so he could stroke the soft skin there.

"I did!" Henry argued. Was he so busy fondling his girlfriend and the sandwich that he missed the entire fight?

"No, you didn't, look! There's one getting out of the dumpster, right now!" The superhero pointed to the open dumpster where a Ballerino was trying to get to his feet so he could keep on fighting. His associate was out for the count, so it would be too hard to deal with just one ballet dancer.

Taking half of his/Ray's/(y/n)'s sandwich, Henry tossed the peanut buttered side at the criminal, making him shriek when it splattered across his face. "Ahhh! I'm allergic to peanuts!" He shrieked, causing the superheroes to laugh at his dramatic reaction.

"Come on, you. Fair's fair." (y/n) smiled at Ray, who had to admit, his youngest sidekick had done extremely well. His training had really paid off.

"All right, kid. You win." Ray conceded, wrapping his arms around his girl's waist as he admired the boy's work. Two more criminals off the street, he couldn't ask for more. 

"I know," Henry smirked at his admittance, but mostly because he knew that this time tomorrow, he'd be cruising over skyscrapers in a goddamn helicopter. 

~Saturday Morning~

Well, it was 7 AM, a disgustingly early time for those who liked to sleep in on Saturdays, namely (y/n), Ray and even Henry. However, the boy didn't care about his principles, not when a helicopter ride was up for grabs, so he was already up and rushing to Junk-N-Stuff when the couple's alarm went off.

"Rayyyy..." (y/n) grumbled in a sleep-laced voice at the sudden noise filling their bedroom and blinked through the darkness to see her boyfriend with his arm covering his eyes. Clearly, he didn't fancy leaving the warm comfort of her and the blankets, but in the back of his mind, he knew that Henry would be arriving soon and breaking down the door for his lesson. 

"Five more minutes." He mumbled and rolled onto his side so he could bury his nose into her neck and pull her body close. God, he felt like shit, but the feeling of her softness underneath him was something that could make him overlook that...and also make him late for Henry. 

"You promised H-Henry...shit..." (y/n) replied in a breathless voice, her skin heating up when she felt him roll on top of her with a groan. He didn't have time for sleep or this, but it felt so right. Just a few minutes...

"But I've been dreaming about you all night, sweet girl. S'only fair that I get to have you before I go." He whined, trailing a hand up her ribcage and smirking when he felt her shudder through the thin pyjamas she always wore, only for them to be ripped off. 

"Stop destroying my pyjamas. I only have, like, three sets left." She whined, smacking his shoulder when he chuckled against her collarbone. It was no secret that he loved tearing her clothing and uncovering her soft, feminine curves, the thrill it gave him, it was too good to stop just for the sake of a few dollars.

"Maybe you'll just have to wear my t-shirts to bed. Just my t-shirts, nothing else." He teased flirtatiously, growling lowly at the thought of her wearing something that belonged to him. God, that used be nothing but a fantasy born from long, lonely nights and pent-up desire, but now, he had her, she was here in his arms, quivering as he watched the marks he left on her breasts fade away instantly.  

"I'll wear anything you like if you put that mouth of yours to good use." (y/n) smirked, threading her fingers through his silky hair as he kissed his way down her body. That cocky smile, she could feel it hovering over her navel and her core clenched when he deliberately stopped before he reached where she needed him most.

"I'll take that as a promise sweet girl." He mumbled, implanting the thought into her memory as he moved down and began to worship her like her hips were an altar. Early mornings weren't always a bad thing, sometimes, they were a blessing.

~One hour later~

After a rather vigorous start to the day, Ray practically dragged his complaining girlfriend all the way up Mount Swellview, the couple trailing after Henry who was way too excited for a spot of early-morning hiking. Y'see, Ray figured that rather than using his precious Man-Copter as the guinea pig in the kid's flying lessons, it would be better to hire someone else's and let him crash that one. There was one slight problem though, the nearest helicopter rental place was on top of a mountain and after two hours of rolling around the sheets, (y/n) was pooped before she'd even started.

"Come on, sweet girl. It's not that bad." Ray told her, barely feeling any tiredness since he had his superhero stamina. The young woman clenched his hand, hoping he'd take pity on her and just carry her up, but he was certain that she wasn't tired, just cranky about her legs feeling like jelly (insert his smug face here).

"Every step I take feels sore." She grumbled, trying to ignore the ache between her legs and how the glinting morning sun was being a pain in the ass and shining directly into her eyes. Hiking wasn't all that bad, to be honest, having super-regeneration was a hidden blessing; endless energy from her muscles that kept her powering on with a slight limp that was easing speedily.

"You and I both know that it'll be gone in five minutes. Ten if we screwed as loud as your screaming suggested." He teased, laughing loudly when he watched her mouth drop open and the faux-anger built up behind her eyes. She was cute when she wrinkled her nose in anger.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I'll be the one laughing when we get home and I change into that grey shirt you own, you know, the one you got from Mississippi. Nothing else. Just your shirt, on your bed, my fingers, who knows where they'll end up." Oh, it was on. Ray's head snapped to her direction, his eyes softening when he saw how the early morning light streaked around her like she was an angel, his angel.

"We could go home right now...you and me."  He suggested, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, but they'd walked up there and Henry was already sat in the pilot's seat of their rental, feeling up the joystick and buttons like a curious child. They were gonna do this.

"Give Henry his lesson and then I'll wear your damn shirt. If you don't crash and burn, that is." She shrugged, giggling when he realised her hand in favour of marching faster up the hill to the plateau with the landing pad. 

"Move." He ordered Henry, who was going "pew, pew, pew!" like he was a helicopter pilot in a computer game. No way was Ray gonna let him take off, he valued his life; no, first, they were just gonna get airborne and a feel for how the craft worked.

"What? Dude!" The kid whined as he was shoved into the passenger seat and forced to watch as his boss buckled up. No fair, he was having fun...

"Beautiful morning, eh?" Ray smiled at him, silently admitting to himself that whilst he originally thought that this Saturday was going to be crap, it was shaping up to be pretty damn good.

"You're supposed to let me fly," Henry complained, internally grumbling at the man's blatant refusal to let him be in control. How was he supposed to learn if he wasn't in the pilot's seat?

"Well, I assume you know the first rule of flying a helicopter." Ray proposed as he strapped his seatbelt across his chest and buckled up. Now, where was (y/n), oh and Charlotte, who was also climbing Mount Swellview, just much more slowly and sweatily. 

"What?" Henry asked, thinking it was probably about pre-flight checks or checking the fuel levels or something sensible, but he soon got a rude answer.

"Shutting up. Now, flying a helicopter isn't for babies." Ray stated as Henry also fastened his belt and rolled his eyes at his arrogance. Oh, how he wondered at how (y/n) loved him so much.

"What's your point?" The boy grumbled, not loving the whole "passenger seat driving/flying" he found himself in.

"That you should read this manual, cover to cover," Ray answered and helped up a worn copy of an old flying guide he'd made his sweet girl dig out of storage just so he could annoy Henry and delay him taking the controls. 

"Okay. I'll read that manual if you swear on (y/n)'s life that you read that manual before you flew a helicopter." Henry smirked at his smart comeback because he knew that he'd caught his boss out. Using his girlfriend against him was a bit mean, but effective.

"Okay, you don't have to read the manual." The superhero answered after quickly flicking through the pages. It was just Henry being sassy, but just the mere thought of losing his girl over a dumb lie made him go pale. Better safe than truly, utterly sorry. He tossed the book out of the opened door, not realising that the girls were reaching the summit of the mountain.

"Owwww!" They heard a cry that sounded awfully like Charlotte, probably because it was indeed the teen, who'd just taken a flying guide to the face.

"Raymond...who threw this manual?" (y/n) demanded to know as she stormed up to her handsome boyfriend sitting in the cockpit, Charlotte strolling up behind her, rubbing her bruised temple.

"Uh, som-so--some guy." He stuttered an answer, trying not to let his words dry up as he faced her fury. Shit, she was hot when she was mad and her glowing eyes made him squirm in his seat.

"Charlotte, (y/n), will you please finish up this diagnostic test so we can get this thing up in the air? Thank you..." Henry asked them politely, but there was a sense of authority in his tone that reminded the girls of Captain Ego next to him.

"Oh, sure, we're sorry. We didn't mean to waste your guys' time while (y/n) was pulling this manual out of my eye." Charlotte snapped at his demanding tone, not appreciating how she and (y/n) were busting their asses so early in the morning, on a goddamn mountain, yet they were still being ordered around like slaves. 

"Apology accepted."

"It's okay." The boys didn't pick up on her anger, making Charlotte cooly look at her friend, who also wasn't impressed.

"My dear boyfriend...here's your manual." (y/n) smiled in a sugary voice and slammed the heavy book down onto Ray's crotch before briskly following the younger girl to finish up the tests. His squeal of pain made her heart clench, but at least he'd learn his lesson.

"Hey, why are we taking this helicopter. I thought we were gonna take the Man-Copter." Henry questioned as he ignored his boss's discomfort.

"Because...before you get to fly my super-cool Man-Copter, which does exist. You first need to learn on this rental helicopter. (y/n) doesn't want you to literally crash and burn all of our money." Ray replied, curling his fingers around the controls and smiling at the thought of his girlfriend. Even when she was mad, he couldn't help but want her close.

"Okay, fine, whatever. I'll listen to your girlfriend, let's just start this thing, okay? I just wanna fly." The kid said impatiently, getting all fidgety in his chair as his adrenaline began to pick up. Here came the skies, baby...

"Hey, hey, hey, it's not that easy." Ray quietened down his enthusiasm, wanting to take as much fun out of this experience as he could since he thought that if Henry hated his lesson, he'd never ask again. "Oh, it's not?"

"No, it's not. I mean, for example, starting a helicopter, nothing like starting a car. 'Cause, as you can see, there's literally dozens of buttons, levers and lights all over the dashboard and it takes time and experience..." The man tried to sound so cool and wise, like his sweet girl when she was explaining a technical, scientific term he could never understand, but Henry being Henry, got bored halfway through and just flicked a switch that looked like the on button and hey, presto, it worked. The helicopter's blades began to whir to life and the girls working on the back of the fuselage got the fright of their lives when they nearly met a sticky, Indiana Jones-esque end.

"AHHHHHH, TURN IT OFF!"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FLICK THE SWITCH! FLICK THE SWITCH!" Ray's heart leapt into his mouth when he heard Charlotte and (y/n)'s screams of terror and quickly killed the motor before he had a devastating mess on his hands.

"Don't do that." He told Henry sternly, giving him a stern, serious gaze at how his show-off attitude nearly killed the most important person in his life; his darling, sweet girl. Oh, and Charlotte too.

"But it started." The boy argued, thinking that since no one had their heads chopped off and he was right with his guess, everything was fine.

"I know but don't do that. You can't slice up my girlfriend." He replied in a dangerously calm voice, not that his sidekick was too concerned. He was still right...

"Okay."

"Thank you." You'd think that they'd just leave it there and see if the late-minute tests were complete, but oh, no. Smart-ass Henry just had to open his mouth yet again.

"But it started." He repeated, unable to let go of the fact that he'd bested an experienced pilot from just his common sense and a dash of luck.

"Mmm? What?" Ray immediately asked for an answer, but the kid merely feigned ignorance, acting as though nothing had happened. Charlotte and (y/n), on the other hand, begged to differ.

"Okay, who started the helicopter? Come on, fess up!" The young woman shouted angrily and she and the girl marched around the cockpit. Charlotte's hair was windswept and slightly hilarious, whilst (y/n)'s cheek was stained red from where she'd accidentally smeared the blood when feeling the nick of the helicopter blades lightly slicing her skin. It had stitched back together instantly, but the scarlet evidence was plain to see and a stark reminder of how messing with heavy machinery was never a good idea.

"It was Henry." Ray swiftly answered, but his reaction to cup her marred cheek was even quicker. (y/n) couldn't help but lean into his touch as his thumb swept the blood away and Henry just groaned at the snitching and how lovey-dovey they were.

"Well, we're not really sure---" He tried to cover his tracks, but Ray couldn't lie to his girl, not when she was resting her hand tenderly on his thigh and she was leaning up to him as best she could.

"We're sure that it was Henry." The large man butted in, making his sidekick look out of his window in annoyance.

"Well, Henry did you start the helicopter?" Charlotte questioned indignantly, looking around (y/n) and her gooey stare so she could glare at her friend.

"Uh, maybe. I think so. I'm pretty sure, yeah! Why does it matter? I didn't mean to, I'm sorry." Henry rambled, shrinking under the anger of not one, but two disgruntled girls, both of whom had fearsome tempers when roused.

"Well, the next time you wanna start a helicopter, we'd appreciate if you'd tell us first, so we can move our heads away from the spinning blades of doom! That goes for you too, mister!" (y/n) scolded him and then her bashful boyfriend, who was suddenly quite eager to leave before her hand could slide any place where it could do some serious harm or leave him in a puddle of melted pleasure.

"Dude, your girlfriend's mad with us."

"Just hit the thing and lift off." The superhero duo scrambled to flee the scene, hoping that when they returned, calmness would be back with their friends, but for now, they just wanted to get the hell out of there without the girls.

"Oh, no, bye!"

"See you later, babe!" They shouted above the noise of the engine and rotating blades, Ray ignoring the furious look in (y/n)'s eyes as they began to ascend into the sky. Boy, he'd be in for it tonight when he finally stumbled into their bedroom.

"Raymond! Don't you dare go without me!" She screeched at the helicopter as it hovered above the ground, but they were too far gone to drop back down and pick them up, even if her experience would help his learning. 

"Back in a few!" Henry yelled back as Ray piloted them away from the massive obstacle that was the mountain and into the clear skies over Swellview, missing his girl already. Oh, well. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and the punishment all the more sweeter.

  ~

"Now, as you can see, one of the most important things about flying a helicopter is keeping the helicopter high off the ground, or, in more technical terms---" Ray began to explain as they reached a safe cruising altitude where he could bullshit his way through teaching. Maybe Henry should've brought (y/n) along, after all, at least she'd actually give him a decent lesson.

"Dude! Dude! You said I could fly!" Henry stated over the noise, making Ray falter as he tried to think of an excuse. he didn't mind Henry flying, he was just worried about Henry crashing and subsequently dying. He'd never get over that.

"Well, yeah, but first, I gotta teach you." He replied, not realising that a person only learns when their hand is guided under the expertise of a master.

"Then teach me while I'm flying! Or, maybe we should just go back and get (y/n) so she can do it!" The boy insisted, twisting Ray's arm by the mere mention of the young woman. She was his only true pressure point, one that worked every time.

"Ahhh, all right, you think you're ready to fly this thing?" Ray sighed, knowing that this was inevitable. Henry was his tutee, his apprentice, his sidekick, one day, he'd be flying around on his own so he had to learn, even if the stakes were high. "I really do."

"All right, then let's switch places." With Henry's agreement, Ray unclipped his belt and began to shuffle his but of the button and switches between the chairs so he and the kid could swap seats. It was a massive kerfuffle; not only did they have to worry about falling out of the open doors or knocking the stick and crashing, but more importantly, they had to think about Henry's banana. Unsurprisingly, the two, who weren't known for their gracefulness, rocked the helicopter from side to side as they crawled around the cockpit, nearly rocking Ray out of the door and making Henry drop his beloved fruit. They lost a valiant soldier that day.

"Wooo! Yeah! This isn't so hard!" Henry bragged as he gently wobbled the joystick around and steered the helicopter through the clouds. He couldn't understand what all the fuss had been about, piloting was just like a videogame.

"Yeah, just be careful," Ray warned him, knowing all too well about pilots getting too cocky and losing control. He did not want to spend his day scraping chunks of teenager off the pavement. 

"Yeah, no problem--hey, that's my soda." The teen lost concentration as he noticed his boss pick up a bottle of strawberry soda that (y/n) packed and began to pop the cap off. No fair, he wanted the strawberry one.

"Yeah, well, (y/n) packed it, she's my girl, so I'm drinkin' it." Ray shrugged, believing that since he was now the passenger, he should get first dibs on choosing a beverage.

"No, no, you better not!" Henry ordered, his knuckles turning white as he grasped the stick tightly. Stupid Ray, always stealing his stuff, how the hell did (y/n) put up with him?

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot drink, Henry--whoaaaa! Dang, it!" The superhero cursed when his devious sidekick jerked the controls, causing the helicopter to roll violently and Ray to drop the soda so he didn't fall. He mourned the loss of his drink as Henry cackled in laughter, but on the ground, it was a different story.

"Schwoz, just come pick us up." Charlotte sighed as she and (y/n) sat moodily on a rock and tried to convince the handyman to come to rescue them from the mountain top. No way were they gonna trek back down when Schowx could readily come and take them back to the Man Cave, but the little guy was a little apprehensive.

"Because Ray and Henry left us here and I don't know when my dickhead boyfriend is coming--what the hell is that?"(y/n) groaned into the speaker as Charlotte held it between their heads, but she trailed off when she saw a red sparkle descending from the heavens.

"SODA!!!" Charlotte exclaimed in fear as she recognised the label and tugged the young woman away before they could get hit. They dodged the drink just in time, watching with wide eyes as it shattered on the rock they were sitting on moments before.

"I'll kill him, I'll actually kill him when I'll get hold of him. Don't know how, but I will!" (y/n) growled as she glanced up and saw a black speck soar over their heads and she knew it could only be one pair. Next time, she'd remember to never let a teen boy and a child trapped in a man's body rent a helicopter, it only ensued chaos.

~Junk-N-Stuff~

So, Schwoz refused to come to collect them, so the girls were forced to stumble back down the mountain and then call a cab once they were back on the road. Yeah, Ray was definitely dead when he got back, but for now, at least they were back at the store, where they could flop on the couch and not move for the next ten hours. If only things were that simple.

Upon entering Junk-N-Stuff, (y/n) and Charlotte were greeted by a scene of utter pandemonium and Jasper was its orchestrator. The entire floor was flooded with cotton candy? The hell? And by the looks of it, Jasper and apparently, Piper, had no way of controlling the machine that was creating the flow.

"Why is my life never simple?" (y/n) moaned in anguish as she went to close the door and leave the problem with the kids in the hopes that she could come back from the ice cream parlour in an hour and the mess would've sorted itself out, but no.

"(y/n)! Charlotte! Help us!" Jasper cried as he wrangled with the cotton candy machine, trying. desperately in vain to try and turn it off. Piper, however, was perfectly content, or at least, she made herself out to be. "Don't help me, I'm fine."

"What happened in here?" Charlotte screamed as she led a dazed (y/n) into the pink, fluffy mess. Just when they thought Jasper could be left on his own he floods the place out, typical.

"We turned on the cotton candy machine and now, we can't turn it off!" Jasper explained in a panicked voice, causing the young woman to look at him with exasperated, annoyed eyes.

"Well, how much sugar did you put in there?" She asked, praying to god that for once, the curly-haired boy had read the instructions and only added a small amount, but no. "These two jugs...and about eight more." Yeah, Jasper Dunlop doesn't know "sensible", not at all.

"Why--wha--I don't--ugh!" Charlotte spluttered at his stupidity, unable to comprehend how he had thought that was a good idea, but (y/n) was trying not to freak out too much. She just hoped Ray didn't come back early.

"Okay, okay, let's not worry about this." She told the teens, glancing over to look at Piper, who had filled a cone with candy floss and was now munching away. Well, that was one way of getting rid of it.

"Why don't worry?" Jasper yelled over the machine's noise and even Charlotte couldn't see her logic. This was a worrying thing, why the hell couldn't they panic?

"Because it's got to stop eventually, unless you've created the world's first endless cotton candy machine, in which case, may I congratulate you on your success?" (y/n) answered sarcastically, watching as Piper played in the fluffiness. Why would she be worried? This wasn't her livelihood or part of it going down the drain.

"Ooo, what then?" Jasper grinned, slightly hoping that he had created a marvellous invention that he could sell to the masses. No, focus.

"Then...we'll gather up all the cotton candy, put it outside the door, then we get the hose and spray it so all the cotton candy washes away," Charlotte replied, knowing that the sugar would just dissolve under the water, leaving Ray none the wiser as to what had gone down in his shop.

"Hey! You know what we can do in the meantime?" Piper excitedly asked them, looking like she was experiencing a massive sugar rush, probably from all the cotton candy she'd eaten.

"What can we do?" Jasper asked, finding Piper's sudden enthusiasm a little unnerving. The three watched in amazement as Piper dumped Jasper's backpack that she'd been hoarding and belly-flopped into the sea of cotton candy, which, to be fair, looked quite fun.

"You know, she makes a good point." (y/n) shrugged, enjoying seeing the little girl have so much since she'd be the one taking it away once the machine packed in. Piper could have her fun, for now...

~In the helicopter~

"WOOOO! YEAH! Yo! Helicopters are heli-fun! Y'know what I'm saying?" Henry yelled to Ray as he piloted them through the air and the incessant swaying and rocking was starting to make the man feel a bit sick. "Yeah."

"You know what I'm saying?" Henry asked again like Ray hadn't heard him. He just wanted some energy for flying, 'cause it was hella cool.

"I know what you're saying, yes!" Ray exclaimed, debating whether they should wrap up the lesson before he puked. Henry was undoubtedly comfortable at the controls and the thought of non-moving, steady ground sounded quite nice. 

"Hey, hey! Look,  look, look! We're not that far from Junk-N-Stuff!" Henry pointed out as he recognised the streets below them. Maybe he could drop by and see how his friends were doing and maybe Ray could kiss (y/n) long enough to get back into a good mood.

"Yeah, so?" Ray asked, wondering why that was relevant since it wasn't like he could get out and just stroll in to see how his girl was, assuming that she and Charlotte had left the mountain.

"So, c'mon, let's fly over the shop so Charlotte, (y/n), Schwoz and Jasper can see us!" The kid suggested, wanting to have another chance of doing some aerial tricks to impress. people on the ground. However, Ray's tummy heavily disagreed with that notion.

"No, no, no, no. The answer is no." He stated firmly, wanting to keep the contents of his stomach inside him, particularly because he didn't want to spend all night puking when he had been promised something much better.

"Ah, yeah, of course, the answer is no," Henry smirked, setting the trap for Ray's ego. The superhero hated being accused of cowardice or being a stick in the mud, he was Captain Man, for Christ's sake, he could handle anything. Hopefully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ray asked in confusion, wondering what his sidekick was on about.

"That you're against fun," Henry answered simply, shocking Ray in indignance. "What?"

"You hate fun. You're a fun-killer." The boy went on, knowing that the man wouldn't be able to resist, not when he prided himself on being a fun, chilled-out guy. 

"What? I love fun." Ray corrected him, thinking about all the times they'd had a good time and he was the instigator. This boy was chatting shit.

"Then let's fly over Junk-N-Stuff. You might see (y/n)..." Henry grinned, dealing the final blow and Ray couldn't help but agree. "No, 'cause I think we should fly over Junk-N-Stuff."

"No, 'cause that's what I wanted to do," Henry argued back, not realising that Ray's fun side stemmed and often coincided with his childishness, so as usual, the two fell into an argument.

"Yeah, after I wanted to."

"What?"

"J-just be quiet and fly over Junk-N-Stuff, so we can have some fun, okay? I'm just trying to have fun, okay? I mean unless you're against fun." Ray ranted, making Henry look at him weirdly. What had gotten into him?

"Nah, I'm pro-fun." The boy replied. wondering why his boss was getting so irate.

"Oh, sure, sure. 'Cause--'Cause I'm pro-fun." Ray had no idea where he was going with this, he just wanted this helicopter flying lesson from hell to be over, not that Henry would agree; he was having way too much fun.

"What?"

"Just fly."

~Back in the store~

The cleanup operation had begun. As soon as that damn cotton candy machine fell silent, Jasper, (y/n) and Charlotte got to work scraping up armfuls of pink fluff and dumping out outside, where there was now a mountain of the sweet treat.

"Ugh, moving a thousand pounds of cotton candy is hard work." Jasper groaned as he picked some of the stickiness from his sweater and panted for air. His arms were tired, but they weren't finished yet. The shop was still a mess.

"Well, y'know what'll make it easier next time?" Charlotte asked him in her "I think you're dumb" voice, but Jasper being Jasper, didn't pick up on it.

"What?" He responded, hoping that they would get a digger or something to scoop up the cotton candy so they wouldn't have to do it manually.

"If you don't dump ten entire jugs of cotton sugar into the machine all at once. Just a thought." (y/n) answered as she dropped another load of cotton candy onto the pile and picked a wisp of it from her hair. There was no doubt - they'd be finding this shit for months to come.

"You know, anyone can criticise." Jasper disregarded their comments, preferring to think that he was an undiscovered genius or something.

"Yeah, but we're really good at it," Charlotte replied, smiling sweetly at Jasper, who pouted at her words. 

"Okay, you two, come on. I'll get that cotton candy over there and you guys can grab that pile." (y/n) rolled her eyes and gestured for them to follow her into the shop. She and Charlotte each took a heap of cotton candy and began to ball it into lumps that they could carry, but when Jasper tried to work on his, he screamed in fear. "AHHH!"

"What?" Charlotte asked in worry, wondering what had spooked him. Was it another mouse? 'Cause, she was not going to be the one to trap it this time.

"I--I felt something! There's an animal in there!" He whispered, not wanting to rouse the beast that slept in its pink, fluffy lair. he must've forgotten who was candy-swimming earlier.

"An animal?" Charlotte looked at him tiredly, knowing that he had the wrong end of the stick as usual. 

"Or, maybe it's just..." (y/n) sighed and walked over to the pile and parted it until she revealed...

"Piper?"

"Oh my god!" The teens gasped at the sight of the little girl. Her eyes were glazed over and she had a sickly pick-coloured stickiness around her lips that told the coworkers that she'd eaten way too much sugar for a child her size. 

"What's wrong with her?" Jasper asked (y/n), who knelt next to the girl and felt her pulse under her jaw. Yep, just as she suspected, it was rocketing under the influence of the pure sugar flowing through her bloodstream.

"Well, how do I put this?... I think...she's in a cotton candy coma. She's eaten so much sugar, she's pickled herself." The young woman answered, getting a little freaked out when Piper smiled through her pain at the thought of more of the delicious sweetness.

"Ohhh. I love it." Okay, that was creepy. What were they gonna tell Henry? He was flying over their heads at that very moment and if he came in...oh, god. He'd see his sister as a sugar zombie. Shit.

~In the helicopter!

"All right, this is officially the most fun I've ever had." Henry giggled as he and Ray continued on their course for the store, still unaware of the fiasco that was going on there. They were just enjoying the moment, well, one of them was.

"Yeah, just keep flying towards Junk-N-Stuff. I'm trying to make a list. for the supermarket." Ray told the kid as he stared at his PearPad. He was trying to remember everything (y/n) had asked him to buy, but with all the noise and an excitable teenager, that was easy said than done.

"Oh, sorry." Henry quickly said and fell silent, giving his boss some much needed time to gather his thoughts. 

"'Kay, I need meat...I need peanut butter, crunchy. Assorted crackers..." Ray thought aloud as he typed everything down, but something had caught his sidekick's eye. Ray looked up in confusion, only to realise that because of Henry's absentmindedness, they were banking harshly.

"Henry!" He cried and grabbed the joystick before they could spiral to the ground. Geez, he turns away for one minute and it all goes to pot.

"What?!" The boy exclaimed, wondering what all the fuss was about. He wanted to look out of the window and he had everything under control, no biggie.

"You don't look through binoculars while you're flying a helicopter!" Ray told him, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. Concentration was everything up here, one wrong move and it was game over.

"Oh...but I saw some cheerleaders down there!" Henry grinned at the sight of the cute girls on the ground, wishing he could go and impress them.

"I don't care about---cheerleaders?" Ray asked in confusion, wondering why on earth his sidekick was so distracted, so he decided he need to see for himself. "Gimme those."

"What? Oh." Henry blinked in surprise as Ray tore the binoculars out of his hands and began to search the football field below, groaning when he saw the pretty teenagers rehearsing for the next game.

"Yeah, that is one cheerful group of young ladies." The man could understand why Henry was interested but he wasn't. First of all, he had a girlfriend and he was more than happy with her and secondly, he wasn't the kind of guy who flirted with freshman college students. That would be weird.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! I bet those cheerleaders would love to take a selfie with Captain Man and Kid Danger." Henry grinned, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively to try and convince Ray to let him pick up a few girls so he could get to work flirting. However, Ray wasn't too sure...

"Henry, you know, I'd like to stay in my relationship and picking up cheerleaders won't help that." He smiled sarcastically and patted the boy on the shoulder so they could just fly past.

"Please, Ray! If (y/n) finds out, I promise I'll tell her that I wanted the selfie, not you! Please, please, please!" Henry begged, desperate to do this since it had been ages since any girl had paid attention to him. He knew that (y/n) wasn't always completely secure in her and Ray's relationship and he'd hate to make that worse, but, this was on him. Ray had nothing to do with it.

"You promise? 'Cause I'm not interested in a bunch of giggling teenage girls." The man told him sternly, already shuddering at the thought of hurting his sweet girl again because he'd been stupid. He was trying to be a better man for her, but Henry wasn't making it easy. "I promise."

"All right, fine," Ray grumbled and they both swiftly popped a gumball and transformed into their heroic alter-egos. The sooner this was over, the better.

"Lookin' good, Captain Man." Henry grinned at his boss in the hope that buttering up to him would make this go smoother, but Ray was still a little nasty. What if (y/n) found out?

"Let's just get down there, Kid Danger." He grumbled, wanting to just snap a quick selfie with the girls and leave Henry to whatever he wished to do. 

"All right, all right. I'll take us down and land by the cheerleaders." Henry agreed, sensing the man's annoyance, but the thought of him doing his first landing, near some very hurtable people, didn't sound good.

"Uh, no, no, no, no. Let--let me land." Ray tried to order him and grabbed the joystick, but Henry batted his hand away. He could do this, it was just a matter of slowing down the thrust and touching down gently. Easy-peasy, squeeze the lemon. "I can land." 

"Have you ever landed a helicopter?" Ray questioned, knowing full-well that he hadn't. To be honest, the landing was the hardest part and not something he wanted the kid to experiment with so close to a bunch of civilians, (y/n) really would kick his ass then.

"Uh, well, no, but..." The kid stuttered, admitting the truth, but. he didn't think it mattered, He had to learn somehow, right? And cheerleaders seemed like the perfect reward for not dying.

"Okay, so you've never landed a helicopter, but somehow, you know exactly how to land a helicopter." Ray mocked him, making Henry roll his eye at his dramatics.

"Uh...I don't think it's that hard to land a helicopter." He bit back, making the superhero on his left scoff. There was that arrogance again.

"Well, it's very hard to land a helicopter," Ray told him, wanting to just grab the controls and fly them home before they got into trouble, 'cause it was gonna happen. Trouble was always one step behind them.

"And that's why I'm gonna do it," Henry replied, flicking a few buttons so he could begin the descent, but Ray could see straight through him.

"You just want to land so you can show off in front of those cheerleaders!" He argued, knowing that it was exactly what Henry wanted to do because it's what the old Ray would've wanted too. But he wasn't that guy anymore, he didn't need to turn to subpar placebos to nurse his aching heart, because he had his dream girl and he'd learnt his lesson. No more play-boy lifestyle for him.

"Hey, guess what? You're right, I helped you get your girlfriend, now help me get one." Henry said firmly, not budging from his seat even when Ray unbuckled his seatbelt and gave him a stern look.

"Yeah and I'd like her to stay my girlfriend, now switch places with me so I can land this thing safely." The man ordered, drawing a disbelieving laugh from his sidekick. Yeah, right, like (y/n) would ever leave him over something this dumb.

"What? No! No!" Henry growled and wiggled his butt so he was firmly wedged into the padded chair. He wasn't moving an inch.

"Hello, this is your Captain speaking, now get out of that seat!" Ray yelled over the tannoy, trying to use his status as the leader of the Man-Cave team to get the kid to shift, but he just wouldn't.

"No! I wanna land it myself!" The teen snapped, making Ray shout and yank at his arm to try and move him. Henry yelped as an extremely heavy man crawled over his body and tried to force him out of the seat, but he wasn't going without a fight.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Charlotte, Jasper and (y/n) were cleaning up the last of the cotton candy and the huge mountain was ready for dousing with the hose.

"Hey...I think that's the helicopter Ray rented." Charlotte gasped when she saw the familiar aircraft hovering above their heads. She recognised the stickers on the fuselage, it was definitely them.

"Oh, yeah, I wonder if he's come back so I can kill him." (y/n) mumbled, still not over the fact that her boyfriend had left them on top of Mount Swellview. He'd regret that decision tonight when she dragged out every movement of her hips and secured his wrists in the super-handcuffs she'd designed. Not even Captain Man could break out of them...perfect.

"Let's wave!" Jasper suggested, hoping they be able to see them on the ground, so he, Charlotte and a reluctant (y/n) began to signal the helicopter excitedly.

"Hey, guys!"

"Hiiiii! Look at us!"

"Oi! Down here!" No luck, Ray and Henry were still too busy fighting over who got to land and it was getting out of control. The helicopter was swaying and. dipping. from Ray's jerky movements, worrying those watching on the ground.

"Outta that seat! I am the man, you are the child! Do you understand?!" Ray bellowed as he tried to unclip Henry's belt, but the boy reacted on instinct and shoved his boss away from his body, failing to remember that there was a massive open door next to him. Ray screamed in fear as he fell through the clouds, leaving Henry to panic about how he just assaulted his boss.

"It's okay, it's okay. It's okay, it's all good. He's indestructible...so it's not a problem that he flew outta the helicopter...(y/n) will make him feel better...gross." He panted to himself, trying not to go into a panic attack as he left his boss behind and headed for the football field.

"Hey, did Henry and Ray throw something out of the helicopter?" Charlotte asked as the three on the ground frowned at the speck leaving the craft. It was tiny, but rapidly getting bigger and they couldn't for the life of them work out what it was.

"Yeah...looks like a...a Captain Man action figure." Jasper guessed, not taking into account perspective or anything. (y/n), however, suddenly had a very bad feeling in her gut as the figure got closer and closer.

"Oh, yeah. It does." Charlotte nodded happily, just as their ears began to pick up on Ray's faint screaming. "Do you guys hear something?"

"Uh, yeah, sounds like...that's not an action figure!" Jasper yelled as he realised that the thing he thought was a toy was actually his boss, hurtling towards solid concrete. 

"Holy shit, it's Ray!" (y/n) swallowed in fear as her boyfriend's face started to become clearer. Shit, he'd be fine, of course, if he hit the ground, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like a bitch. "We have to help him!"

"Uhhhh..." Jasper tried to think of something useful: a jetpack, no, a mattress, no, giant swimming pool, no! Nothing was helping but they only had a few seconds to think before Ray went splat.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Charlotte suddenly snapped her fingers as she thought of something brilliant and they could do with a bit of brilliance.

"What? What? What?!" (y/n) asked her urgently, needing to save her handsome doofus before she had to watch him groan in pain on the sidewalk. She wasn't sure if she could take that.

"He's gonna land on the cotton candy!" She smiled, making (y/n) breathe a sigh of relief. Sure, it seemed crazy, but they had enough of it and it was soft and springy the perfect landing target.

"Oh, yeah! This is perfect!" Jasper grinned at the idea as he and the girls took shelter in the doorway of Junk-N-Stuff. They didn't want to be in the way of the superhero, a collision could be fatal.

"This is so serendipitous!" (y/n) bit her lip happily, using her fanciest words since she felt so elated. Ray was seconds away from landing now and heading straight for them.

"Oooh, he's about to land! Right here!" Jasper yelled and pointed to the unmissable cotton candy pile next to him as (y/n) and Charlotte began to yell at the superhero encouragingly.

"Come on, Ray!"

"You'll be fine, sweetheart, I swear!" 

"Right into that big pile of--" Shit. Even their directions and kind words couldn't make Ray move through the air, he had no propulsion. They cringed as they watched him land directly next to the soft mountain and (y/n) choked up at his pained groan. 

"So close," Charlotte said awkwardly as the young woman rushed to her boyfriend's side and gently put her hands on his shoulders.

"Raymond, are you all right?" She asked softly, not knowing how to help him since the damage was already done. He clutched a handful of cotton candy and looked up into her worried eyes, feeling like every inch of his body was on fire.

"Owwwwwww! I'm okay, sweet girl..." He mumbled drunkenly, gazing at her like he'd drank ten rounds and gone back for another five. Her poor baby, he looked so done.

"Are you sure? You don't look okay..." She told him shakily, watching as he crawled over to the cotton candy pile and flopped down into it,  letting the softness take his weight. This felt nice like he was floating on a cloud and when she leaned over him to see if he had a concussion, it was like he'd died and gone to heaven.

"You look like an angel, sweet gir---" He trailed off, very very tired suddenly as the pain faded, leaving his muscles twitching and exhausted. She stopped at his words, recalling how he'd uttered them the last time he'd taken a strain, back when he'd nearly frozen to death in Alaska. Maybe he always saw he like that when his brain didn't want to work.

"You need to get in bed, doofus. Your body needs to rest after falling from the helicopter." She sighed, admittedly loving the flattery, but she couldn't let him sleep outside, not when anyone could walk past and see that he was Captain Man.

"I'll move if you give me a kiss, angel." He smiled dreamily, making her roll her eyes and press her lips to his as Jasper and Charlotte wandered off to find a wheelbarrow or wheelchair for the man. They had to move him somehow.

"Happy now?" (y/n) asked Ray as she pulled away, giggling when he stuck out his lips for another kiss. No fair, he wasn't done with the first one.

"I'm always happy with you, my sweet girl---" His head flopped back into the fluff, making her pleased that he couldn't see her flushed cheeks. It was weird after nine years together he could still make her blush like a teenager, make the butterflies in her stomach go crazy, but that was just them. 

Ray and (y/n), the sweet girl and the doofus, together forever.

[eisforeidolon]

https://www.tumblr.com/eisforeidolon/728741971448954880/it-also-needs-to-be-reiterated-that-bi-lighting

You already covered this really well, but a little extra discussion on "bi lighting," and how stupid it would be as a way to demonstrate a characters sexuality. For one thing, say in the bar scene in season 15 of Supernatural where Dean is visiting his old friend. He’s not the only person in that scene, so is everyone in that scene bi?

Also, I know that filmmakers use colors to evoke moods and make us feel things, to draw focus, etc, but that being said, 8% of men and 1 in 200 women (according to a quick Google search) are colorblind. So, they are going to use color cues only to tell us someone is bi, but not actually make them, you know, attracted to the same sex at all, but just use the color as a clue. I get that not a huge amount of people are colorblind, but I know quite a few who are, myself included. But still, show runners are going to do things like put characters in "bi colored shirts" and light them with "bi lighting" but not actually say it out loud? Not to mention, I am sure there is a considerable amount of the general audience who won’t automatically knows the colors of the bi flag, and if they don't know them off the top of their head, they’ll have no reason to look up color choices of shirts and stage lights to check. So, now colorblind people and people unfamiliar with the bi flag colors aren’t going to know your character is "bi." That’s not the entire audience, of course, so maybe that’s fine, but then you also have the people who just watch a show to enjoy it and aren’t actively looking for parallels or clues about characters. These viewers are just, you know, watching the show. They are doing this crazy thing where they watch the action and listen to what the characters say (not what they wear unless it funny, out of character or otherwise stands out in some way) to find out information about the characters.

Anyway, I don’t have anything profound to add, just wanted to add weight to the absurdity of big lighting, and help demonstrate why hellers are delusional.

It doesn't need to be a profound addition to make it worth continuing a discussion. I mean, I don't think I was saying anything really new in the first place, but sometimes, especially in a fandom so full of really bad interpretation? I think it's a good idea to keep pointing out all the ways it obviously all falls apart if you actually look at it.

At the end of the day, it just comes back down to the fact that subtext and symbolism simply don't work like that. You don't tell a story ONLY through symbols that could potentially have a multitude of other meanings (if they're significant at all) and ONLY count in terms of one of many characters they could apply to. You don't tell a story ONLY through symbols large parts of the audience will not catch - or may not even be able to catch. You definitely don't tell an extended story ONLY in the subtext contradicting the directly told main narrative. These kinds of theories always rely on a fundamentally flawed and frankly bonkers assumption a canon's writers are telling a secret hidden story that will only be satisfying for the fraction of super special people in the audience *cough* clever and dedicated enough to decipher it being hinted at for years and years without materializing in the actual narrative. In this case, a CW tv show's writers where the previously on segments made it clear they sometimes didn't trust the audience to remember what happened an episode ago writing a hidden story across fifteen fucking seasons (since they insist there were totes hints in the first three, too). Yeah.

I admit there's an evil troll part of me that almost wants to go write a D/C fic where Dean and Castiel treat each other just as they do in canon, but I constantly include background detail nonsense like bi lighting from their meta. Then in literally only one line at the end of the final of many long chapters, apropos of literally nothing building to it, shove in something vaguely romantic and just end the fic. Because I'm sure they know damn well that would be an absolutely shit excuse for a story, and wouldn't be shy about saying so - if it was divorced from their campaign of "proving" their ship totes exists (or they deserved for it to exist) in the canon. But I won't because I'm lazy and not that much of a dick.

[kim-ruzek]

this is just my opinion but i think the upstead crazies might seem more in number and more of an issue bc the fandom in general is bigger to begin with. and truthfully your posts seem very victim complex to me about burzek fans, and lumping most of us together is insulting bc even though most of us hated this season, we don’t really bother with your fandom bc we don’t like Adam and kim

I don't really get what you mean about me seeming very victim complex but okay? Probably because I don't use as harsh language maybe? But that's just because that'll be bitchy, and I'm only bitchy back to those who are bitchy first. And because Burzek fans follow me and as much as ridiculous fans in all fandoms including burzek makes me roll my eyes I don't want to potentially isolate my fellow fans who might think they fall into that category. But I still don't pull my punches when criticising and hold them to the same standard I do other fans.

And I'm not lumping most of you together. I've literally repeatedly made a distinction because I want it to be known that I most definitely do not colour everyone with one brush. Because I'm not about that. (And trust me, it can be hard sometimes because sometimes my mind's instinct is to associate upstead fans to the few nasty fans who sent me racist shit because I remember it frequently whenever stuff like this is brought up but I know that was just a few rotten apples and that all of you, even most of the people I think is a tad delusional would chuck them out way before they spoil the barrel and so is unfair to hold their crimes against the majority).

You don't bother my fandom? Okay then you're not the stans I'm critiquing. It's simple as and if you read what I wrote you'd get that. Instead I can only assume, that if you do normally have comprehensive reading skills, that you just skimmed my posts, made this conclusion that I was lumping everyone together and sent this. Which in the future if you're going to send an ask like this, please use critical thinking and actually read everything that is said so that you have a comprehensive idea of what I said. And if you don't want to put that work in on a post written by someone who thinks there's a huge amount of hypocrites in your boring white piece of bread ship fandom then simply don't engage.

But if you do engage, please make sure you're informed.

And if this is on my criticism of upstead fans not liking this season let me make this clear once and for all: it is perfectly fine to not like a season, for whatever reason. I am not disputing that. My criticism was purely about the hypocritical nature of upstead stans -- again I'm using this to mean the crazies that have just exponentially grown since Jesse left-- but never did I assert that they had no right not to like the season.

I'm a big believer in critiquing things. I love doing so, even when during s8 and 9 I was told to get over it by your fellow fans and I truly believe looking at your show under a critical eye is a good and healthy thing (although I don't fault anyone who doesn't). But saying that, I also believe that if you are going to critisize something you can't just go half in, you have to go in all the way. Especially when making broad statements the fans I'm critising are.

And that you need to address your biases. Upstead is your ship and it doesn't matter if I find it baffling, they're your precious babies but if you're going to take a critical eye, you need to address how that may colour your opinion. I do this. I have had a jerk response to something, reexamined it and realised I was looking through the lens of my burzek coloured glasses. I've also reexamined things to make sure my dislike of fans or honest utter bafflement at how upstead fans see their ship as (like it is truly utterly baffling to me. I get it logically obviously but it's just so baffling to hear people describe it as the greatest love story) to make sure that wasn't colouring my views.

That's how your criticise things. And if you don't want to do that, then you can't criticise. And it is more baffling to me that people don't get that, or that people don't realise they don't want to become part of this modern fandom toxicity that unfortunately is getting more and more common.

[amewinterswriting]

I've not officially been a manager but I've had keyholder and till management (cash drops, cashing up and morning float) duties at different places and I'm pretty confident at handling some of the weirder customers without needing a manager involved.

If we're talking really small, that usually gets very weird very fast. I've worked at two tiny import candy places and typically they are as dodgy as everyone says - I can probably guess exactly what tax dodges the owners were pulling but no evidence for it. I was often opening/closing on my own - 'management' was thin on the ground/only in for half the day.

We'd often get people coming in to a candy store (bright colours, sweets on shelves, massive gumball machine, not exactly subtle) and asking for cigarettes, soap, bin bags, etc. I mostly credit that to us being in the proximity of a small convenience store that closed an hour before we did so people weren't really paying attention or were desperately hoping it would be something we had.

We had a serial shoplifter who wore a huge neck to ankle puffer coat to hide sweets in to resell in the middle of summer. Like...who is buying sweaty melted candy from this guy? I still shudder thinking about it.

On shoplifters, somehow my current place (children's toy shop) is far worse for it than anywhere else I've worked and more prolific than anyone who doesn't work retail realises - it's daily. The bulk of shoplifters we get are aiming to resell the toys, so in general it's collectables (TY, Transformers, Lego, 5 Surprise, Squishmallows etc) or electronic baby toys (vTech in particular). They are absolutely shameless and will give you a lot of aggression for succeeding in stopping them. I've been physically threatened just for keeping an eye on someone who looked a little bit suspicious from half the store away.

A weird one though: had a guy come in, quite big and intimidating and asked how long I'd worked there. I gave a vague answer. He apologized profusely to me (and a lot of other people who had been there for a similar amount of time). See, turns out he had attempted to lift from us in the past, been caught and been very aggressive about it. He admitted that it was a very low point of his life and he was stealing to fund a drug habit and he was now turning his life around and his sponsor suggested apologising to the people he'd wronged in the past. It was very awkward for everyone involved but nice to get an apology. The sad thing is, I'm not even sure if I was even in store when he was being aggressive - it's not unusual enough that a particular incident would stick in my memory anymore.

Customer weirdness:

Being convinced that we're hiding exactly what they're looking for 'in the back' despite being told very clearly that we don't have it, we last had it six months ago and I personally checked the system and the whole company doesn't have a single one left

On Christmas Eve: "what's your bestselling toy? I'll buy that." Our best-selling toy sold out in November, but here's what we've got in store now. "Well, if it's still here, it can't be that good, can it?" Sir, you are buying a toy on Christmas Eve, what other options do you think you have??

"Do you have this really specific thing I saw six months ago?" Nope, that was something we typically only get for Christmas.

"I saw this thing yesterday, it was right here!" And it sold. Yesterday. You were here, why didn't you just buy it when you saw it?

"Have you got any of this really specific thing left?" Uh...we've never carried that range, it's an own brand from our competitors. "Sure you did, I bought it six months ago, probably before your time." I've worked here five years and for three of them I've been in charge of this specific subsection of the store, trust me, we've never sold that item. "Well, can I talk to the manager? He knows me, he'll tell you." The manager in fact, does know the customer, in a 'oh no, it's him again' way, and also repeats that we haven't ever sold that item, he must be thinking of our competitor. Customer accepts this information this time (likely because a man said it, or because a position of authority said it, but I am frothing at the mouth at this point - manager often needs to ask me about specific products we have in this section, my product knowledge of toys is embarrassingly good for someone without kids). Best part about this is that the mistaken guy is a semi-regular and while he prides himself on knowing the manager 'by name' he's actually got the wrong name. He just calls my manager the wrong name for 20 minutes every time he visits. We wear nametags!

The obsession with gender. When working in chocolate, it was always "what kind of chocolate do men like?" For some reason there's a general idea that men prefer dark chocolate, even though my informal survey of everyone I know places milk chocolate as the preference of most men, dark for most women. But even then, most people who prefer dark won't turn down a gift of milk chocolate whereas people who prefer milk chocolate tend not to like more bitter dark chocolate. In children's toys, it's always the most gender-neutral toys imaginable like some Paw Patrol figures and the question "is this appropriate for a boy?" Double points for asking the most gender-nonconforming member of staff around. (Short hair, no makeup, occasional facial hair, obvious breasts, higher pitched voice) Trust me, I'm never going to answer that it's inappropriate for your kid to play with anything in our store unless it's an actual age related safety thing (like Nerf blasters for very young kids). Let your son have the doll and let your daughter have the remote control helicopter, if that's what they're interested in.

Well, this is getting a bit long and mostly complaining so I'll stop here but if you have specific questions I'm happy to talk shop, as it were! I've worked in video game stores, import candy stores, posh chocolate and children's toys so there's a bit of variety there.

I need to speak to the manager

Hellooooooooooo writeblr 😘 I have a character who works as the manager of a small shop. If you’ve worked in a similar position I’d looooove to hear stories. Give me your boring day-to-day, your weird wtf, and anything in between. Basically, anything I can use so someone reading this character would think “oh yeah, that tracks.”

[babu-haitani]

Hi! This is for the 900 followers event!

Pronouns: she/her

Personality: (what guys have told me) at first glance they’re intimidated by me because they think i’ll be mean or shoo them off if they try to talk to me and be like one of those girls who think highly of themselves, but once they get to know me they say i’m very kind, considerate and friendly and also don’t uselessly engage with people but i do try to help include people whenever i can. (What girls have told me) i’m very trustworthy and know where my loyalties lie, i am extremely caring and considerate. Even if my friends boyfriends all try to engage with me, my friends would actually ask me to test them because they trust me that much and know i’d never uselessly engage with a guy who i don’t see a future with (or my friends guy lol) Generally, i’m the type who loves challenges and when i get challenged i make it a point to prove the other person wrong, i am head strong and am very analytical and can understand what someone is thinking or how someone is just by looking at their expressions/ their friends group. I am loyal to my very core and am also clingy lol.

Hobbies: My hobbies basically are cuddling with my pets and basically spending time with them, cooking and baking, painting, yoga and dancing, and i like to swim as well.

Dream date: i have two types of ideal dates lol. On the one hand i LOVE dressing up and looking sexy like wearing bodycon dresses that hug all my curves and always causes a bunch of heads to turn but i’m in my boo’s arms and its a nice bar date where we get to sit in a booth and just hold onto eachother and talk about how much we love one another and get drunk, then go back to our place and get comfy to watch a nice movie and just cuddle. On the other hand i like a spontaneous date where my guy just comes and picks me up and we do fun things like cliff diving, hiking, swimming in the ocean or just something but again it should be full of love 🤍

Ideal guy: someone who loves me a lot and is clingy like me. Loyal and someone who doesn’t care what anyone thinks only what i think.

I ship you with...

At first, I thought I should ship you with Peh Yan since you said you have a strong loyalty type of personality but then I read that you're very analytical and headstrong.

Which is GOOD! but I think you suit better with Rindou and not to mention the fact that you do Yoga is already Rindou approved.

Like, I just know you're the type of girl Rindou prefers (I'm still his wife).

The only thing that Rindou and you don't get along with is when he doubts himself since he has a huge amount of insecurities due to being in his brother's shadow all the time.

Reading your dream date makes me ship you with Rindou even more, The Haitai Brothers are the definition of CLASSY and I just know that they don't go or buy cheap stuff since they were in their teens. If They're HIGH CLASS their S/O should be HIGH CLASS as well <3

Anon! Whoever you are! Let's be friends, I love your thinking of fashion <3

LITTLE SCENARIO: You were swaying your hips as you dance through the crowds of the dancefloor, your hair tied in a high ponytail, The red dress that hugs your curves makes you look like a goddess, Your heels clacking as you dance. You were intoxicating. As you were dancing, you suddenly felt two calloused hands on your hips; turning around your face turned into a scowl as you have expected for it to be Rindou---Your Boyfriend--- to be the one who held you but instead it was a degenerate male who thought it was fine to touch you without asking. "Please let go of my hips" You spoke venomously before the man could even reply he was dragged by your lover's colleague (Sanzu and Mochi) with a smile plastered on their faces before disappearing through the crowd. "Angel" Turning around your face lit up as you saw Rindou, his face was stoic but you saw the small smile he gave you and those eyes that stare at you with love can't deny that he is head over heels for you. "Rindou!" You yelped as you rushed over to him and hugged him by his neck, tightly. As soon as you let go, he dragged you towards the VIP area and made you sit on his lap. His long slender fingers twirl the loose strands of your hair. "Can you stay here with me instead? I don't want filthy hands touching you" Rindou spoke before looking at you with a pout and leaning over to your neck. You let out a soft laugh. "Don't worry RinRin...I'm all yours, so don't be jealous" You spoke, pushing him off of you; you cupped his cheeks and made him look at you. "You will always be my RinRin and I'll always be your Angel so stop with the negative thoughts and cuddle me!" You whined as you give kisses all over his face, Rindou let out a chuckle before completely wrapping his arms around your waist; not minding the complaints of his colleague and brother because of your PDA.

[goldenmaybank]

meant to be

(not my gif)

pairing: jj maybank x reader

summary: y/n has been in love with her best friend, jj maybank, for years and now has to watch him fall in love with another girl, who is a kook.

warnings: swearing and slight angst (?)

word count: 4k (it’s a long one) 

a/n: hi! this is my first imagine and i hope you like it. i know it’s a long one i just got carried away :)

2 years. 730 days. 17520 hours. 1051200 minutes.

that's how long i've had to watch the guy i'm in love with be with another girl. two long years of seeing them kiss, hold hands, cuddle, go on dates and anniversaries. all because i was too scared to tell my best friend that i loved him.

two years ago

" yo, y/n ! y/n ! guess what just happened." my best friend since we were kids, jj, said as he ran up to me.

"what?"

"you remember that girl, shay, that i was telling you about? that kook that i met at the kegger last weekend with the long blonde hair, green eyes, slim waist, and fat as-"

"yes, yes. jj i remember." i said cutting him off from finishing his sentence.

"so, i just asked her out and guess what? she said yes!" he said with the biggest smile on his face.

"okay."

"okay? that's all i get? an okay? y/n, this is the hottest kook i’ve ever seen that we're talking about here."

"yeah and last week kate was the hottest kook and the week before that was penelope. this is nothing new j. it's just another pretty girl with big boobs and a nice ass that you'll mess around with for a few weeks maybe even days and then move onto the next girl."

"no y/n, this time is different. it feels different."

"mhm sure" i say not convinced

this is what jj does. he meets a cute kook girl or touron at one our parties, they hook up for a few days or weeks, and he moves onto to the next one. this was no different. however, in that moment, i didn't realize how serious he really was about her until it was too late.

few months after

jj and i were laying on john b’s couch watching movies like we always do every friday night. we've been doing this since we were little kids, usually the rest of the pogues would join us, but they’re all busy tonight. john b is with sarah, kie is working, and pope is helping out his dad. so that just leaves me and jj together.

"um, y/n?"

"hm?" i asked in response

"would you mind if i ended our movie night a little bit early?"

"why?"

"because shay just got off work early tonight and wants to hang out. she's been really busy lately, so we haven't gotten the chance to hang out as much. would you be okay if i left to go see her?”

"um, sure. i guess i can just rewatch friday the 13th again without you."

"really? you're the best! thanks." he said jumping up excitedly to put on his shoes and grab his hoodie, " i mean it's not like we haven't watched this a thousand times already, you'll be fine without me."

"i kinda wanted you here, but i guess she's more important" i mumbled under my breath

"huh?"

"n-nothing. uh, j can i ask you something before you go?"

"yeah sure, but it can't take too long shay is waiting for me."

"are you serious about her? like really serious?"

"yeah, i guess i am. i don't know i've never really felt this way about a girl before. she just makes me feel so happy and i always want to be around her and spend time with her. i usually just get bored with girls after a while and break up with them, but it's different with her. it's something about her i can't explain it." he said with admiration in his eyes.

that's when i knew it was too late. i could see the way his eyes lit up when i mentioned her and how he talked about her with such admiration. he was head over heels for this girl and who am i to step in and ruin it by telling him my feelings. he wouldn't reciprocate those feelings anyways she's the only girl he's felt like this about. i never had a chance against her. i will never be her.

after that day i didn’t see jj for three weeks. he cancelled every single one our plans because of her. “i cant go surfing today, shay wants to go get lunch” “can’t go fishing, shay needs me” “cant make it to the boneyard tonight, shay wants to have a movie night” he bailed on us, on me, all week because of her. the kook girl he just met a few months ago. 

finally, after countless begging and excuses jj came to hang out with us at john b’s house. we were all laying on the hammocks outside watching the sunset and for a minute it felt like everything was how it used to be even though i knew it wasn't. you could feel that everything was different especially between me and jj. he wasn't his usual flirty, touchy self with me and the tension in the air was thick. the rest of the pogues tried to act like everything was normal, but we all knew after today it would be another few weeks before we saw jj again. all he did was hang out with shay and he barely had any time for us anymore.

“so, jj since when did you start dating kooks?” john b snickered as jj punched his arm

“since when did you start dating at all?” pope replied

“i don’t know, man. it’s just different with her, i guess. i never thought i could be capable enough to have a relationship, but she changed that. she changed me.” 

kie looks at me with sympathy in her eyes. she was the only one who knew about my love for jj. i spent so many nights crying to her about my feelings for him and how i wish things could be different between us. it took a lot to get jj to open up to me, especially about his dad, and i always wanted to be the one he could go to for anything. i was the one who patched him up after a fight with rafe, i was the one who hugged him as he cried to me about his dad, i was the one who went along with his crazy ideas, i was one who did everything i could to get him to love me the way i love him. but i guess things don’t work out the way you want them to. i give kie and a nod and smile letting her know i’m okay. as long as jj is happy that’s all that matters to me. i would do anything to make him happy, even if it means i have to watch him fall in love with another girl.

present 

6 years. 2190 days. 52560 hours. 3153600 minutes.

that's how long the love of my life has been with his girlfriend. six long years of me trying to get over him and find someone else yet i could never get that boy with blonde hair and blue eyes out of my mind. he followed me everywhere i went even when i wasn't with him. he's everything i want in a guy yet i can't have him because he's not mine to have. he's someone else's and now i definitely can't do anything about it because they're getting married today.

today is their wedding and of course they invited me and the rest of the pogues. i debated even going and just letting kie give them my present with my pathetic excuse for why i wasn't there, but after talking to jj about the wedding the other day i couldn’t not go. "i could never have my wedding without you there, y/n. you're one of the most important people in my life." is what he told me. if i was strong i wouldn't care and still not go, but i'm not. all i had to do was look in his eyes when he told me that and i was puddy in his hands. there's no way i can't go and let him down like that. he means way too much to me to hurt him just to spare my own feelings. 

i walked into the venue looking around at the setup. of course the kook princess wanted a fairy-tale wedding. i sigh as i look at all the expensive decorations everywhere. i always imagined what my wedding with jj would be like. definitely wouldn’t look anything like this. even after years of all my hard work and schooling i still could never afford something like this. i always thought we’d have our ceremony by the beach since that’s where we first met when we were little kids and spent all our time together. it became our little safe space to get away from everyone and all our problems, and just be together. just me and jj. 

“gotta admit it looks beautiful.” pope says as kie hits his shoulder

“it’s okay, kie. he’s right, it is beautiful. more than i could've ever given him.”

“hey” kie says as she grabs my hand, “you sure you’re okay? because we can leave right now. trust me, i really don’t care to see the little princess wearing a dress that costs ten times the amount of my house.”

“it’s fine, kie. we have to be here for him. i’m just gonna go talk to jj quickly.”

“okay, i’ll save a seat for you.”

i went towards the back to find where jj is, so i could give him something before the ceremony started.

"knock knock." i say as i opened the door to jj’s room walking in to see him finishing getting ready.

"hey you. i almost thought you weren't gonna come."

"now why would i miss my best friend getting married to the girl of his dreams? i would never miss this no matter what"

"good because i know i would never be able to do this without you here."

"so.." i say as i sit down next to him, "how does it feel to finally be getting married?”

"it feels unreal. i never thought this day would come. and if it did, i honestly thought you would be the one standing at the end of the aisle"

"yeah, so did i" i say as i laugh weakly.

"i remember we had this whole thing planned out as kids. we were gonna get married on the beach, preferably the bahamas, but you know any beach would’ve worked for us. 

"and we were gonna have this huge reception and have our friends give sappy speeches talking about how we've been friends forever and despite the “no pogue on pogue macking” rule we still ended up together and got married." i added.

"and our honeymoon was gonna be in mykonos. we were gonna get a suite with a pool and relax all day and then turn up at night at the clubs there." he said as we both laughed.

"wow. we had a lot of plans when we were younger."

"we really did, but i guess none of them really worked out huh?"

"i guess not"

we sat in silence for a moment thoughts both roaming our minds about how we ended up here. best friends since we were little, spent all our time together, always acted like a couple, and yet here we are sitting in this room minutes before he gets married to a girl who isn't me, a kook nonetheless. it's now or never. do i let him know how i feel and finally have this weight lifted off my shoulders or just keep it to myself and let them be happy?

"uh, j? i- um, wrote this letter for you" i say as i take an envelope out of my purse, "it was the original speech that i wanted to tell you at the reception later but felt as though it wouldn't have been right to say, so i just wrote it for you to see. just, don't open it in front of shay, please."

"why can't you just tell me what's in the letter in your speech later?"

"because i would be a shit person if i say what's in that letter at your wedding reception in front of everyone."

"what's in the letter that's so bad?" he asked confusingly

"j-just read it when you're alone, okay?"

"no"

"no?"

"no. just tell me now what's in the letter."

"jj, i-i can't."

"yes you can. what's so bad that you can't tell me now?"

"i don't want to overstep my boundaries or ruin anything or make anything awkward, so just read it later when you're alone."

"no, y/n. tell me right now."

"jj, your wedding starts in a few minutes you need to finish getting ready. we don't have time for this."

"yes we do. i always have time for you."

"jj-"

"no. i'm not leaving this room until you tell me."

"j, don't be difficult."

"i'm not being difficult just read me the letter and this will all be done with"

i sighed, "oh my god fine. i'll read you the damn thing." i take a deep breath and begin to read the letter that might just change everything between us.

"dear jj, i'm not sure when exactly you'll be reading this, but i know when you do you'll be happily married to shay. so, congratulations best friend you're finally someone's husband. i honestly never thought this day would come; you were never one for relationships. always thought it was too much work to handle and you already had enough shit to deal with in your life. remember when we were little we made a promise that if neither of us were in a relationship by the time we were 30 we would get married. as silly as it was i always thought that would happen. that we would be the ones getting married and have our best friends write a speech for us. i'd always imagine kie writing mine and john b and pope would write yours, mainly pope though because we all know he’s way better with words than any of us ever were. but i never once in a million years would think i would be writing one for you and another girl. we've been through so many ups and downs and we still stuck together through it all. you're my best friend and i love you. words can't even describe how much i love you. jj, you've brought me so much happiness and never fail to put a smile on my face. even during my worst times you were always there to pick up the pieces and make me laugh. i never thought i would have someone in my life who means so much to me as much as you do. being around you immediately makes my day a hundred times better and i don't know what i would do without you in my life. my life would've probably been extremely boring and plain without you and your crazy adventures. your smile can make anyone's day better and you always make sure everyone else is happy even before yourself. and that's one of the many reasons why i'm in love with you. yes, i'm in love with you and have been for a while. this is more than a just as friends thing. i'm completely and utterly in love with you and that's never gonna change. and i know it took you a while to believe that someone could truly love and care for you, but i always have and always will. you so deserve so much than life has given you and i hope you know how amazing you really are. i’ve become such a better person because of you and you make me so incredibly happy. i'll never be able to repay you for everything you've done for me. i love you so much. i hope you're happy in your marriage and she treats you right, which i know she does. all i ever wanted was for you to be happy even if it wasn't with me. even though i just dropped this huge bomb on you, please don't let this affect our friendship. i will always be here for you no matter what. i love you, jj maybank."

there was complete silence. jj just sat there staring at the wall not saying a word.

"see this is exactly why i didn't want to tell you in person because i knew this would happen. i-"

"you love me?"

"yes, j i do."

"like actually love me?"

i sighed, "yes and i have for a while as i said in the letter"

"w-why didn't you tell me?"

"i don't know i was always so scared to and i thought you would never really find someone, so i had nothing to lose by not telling you. and then you started dating shay and i could tell you were really happy with her and by the time i realized you two were serious it was too late. i didn't want to step in and ruin anything or lose our friendship."

"you wouldn't have."

"what?"

"you wouldn't have ruined our friendship because i felt the same way. i still feel the same way." jj admitted

"you, what?"

"i love you y/n and as more than just friends. i have since freshmen year of high school when i first told you about my dad and you cleaned up all my cuts and held me in your arms all night. but i was just always too scared to say anything because i thought you were out of my league and i never really deserved you. the only reason i was with all those girls was to forget about you and get rid of my feelings for you, but they never did go away."

"i guess we're both stupid then. we always had these feelings for each other and just never said it."

"i guess so."

"so, what does this mean for us?"

"what do you mean?" jj asked

"i mean this obviously changes things, so what are we gonna do?"

"i don't see why things have to change. yeah we admitted we have these feelings, but that doesn't change anything."

"you're getting married, jj. in like twenty minutes there's gonna be another girl waiting at the end of that aisle for you to go there and give yourself completely to her. and i don't want to stand in the way of giving you and her that happiness you both deserve. me still being here is gonna change things because things are different now whether you want to believe it or not. these feelings are out there and they're still relevant. and i'm not gonna sit here and watch you two be happy and in love and be on the sidelines and feel like shit. i don't deserve that. i don't deserve to have my heart broken seeing you together knowing you have feelings for me and yet i can't do a damn thing about it. and it's not fair to her either to have another woman who you have feelings for sit there and get in the way of her happiness. i'm not gonna ruin this for her, jj. i won't. shay has been nothing but sweet to me and i'm not gonna do that to her. she doesn't deserve it and neither do i."

"so what do you want me to do then?"

"i want you to let me go."

"what? y/n, i love you. you can't tell me to do that"

"let me go, jj. as long as you sit here and tell me that you love me and have feelings for me, this will never end. and we will be going around in circles and i've been stepping on eggshells long enough for you and i'm done. you love her and she loves you, so be happy with her."

"but i love you too y/n and that's never gonna stop." he says with tears in his eyes.

"i know and i will always love you too, but i can't keep doing this. i can't watch you be with her and not be able to do anything. i can't be able to be alone with you knowing how you feel and not do anything to you. you don't know how badly i've just been wanting to kiss you after hearing you say those words to me. you don't know how bad i want this, but jj i can't do this" i say tears running down my face.

"i'll end it then. i'll cancel the wedding and we can be together."

"no. no, jj you can't do that. i'm not gonna ruin this. you've been with her for six years already, you've created this beautiful relationship and commitment to each other and i'm not just gonna ruin that. she's doesn't deserve that. you just need to let me go, jj. let me get over you because the more i'm around you the more the feelings grow. just let me find happiness within someone else.”

"so what? we're just gonna end our friendship? our years and years of friendship is over just like that? i don't want to lose you. if i cant have you in that way, even though i want to so badly, i still want you in my life as a friend."

"but i can't jj. i can't be around you. please, just let me go. let me get over you and find someone else. maybe one day if it's meant to be we'll find our way back to each other and maybe things can work out differently but for now just let me go." i say as my voice breaks

he sighed, "fine, i'll let you go, but only if you do one thing for me."

"what is it?"

"kiss me."

"w-what?"

"kiss me. i've been waiting years to tell you how i feel about you and finally be able to hold you and kiss you, so please just let me do it."

"jj, i don't know" i say hesitantly

"shay never has to know about this and once we kiss it's over. i'll let you go."

"if i kiss you, you'll let me go?"

"yes."

i sighed looking at jj. i actually got a good look of him right now in this moment. he looks so broken. dried tears streamed down his face, his eyes are puffy, and nose is red, but yet he still looks beautiful. no words can describe how jj looks. "cute" or "hot" never did this man justice. he was beautiful both inside and out and that's why i fell in love with him years ago. and as i started to lean it looking in his eyes all the memories we've made together came flashing through my mind all at once. this is really it. after this i'm actually leaving my best friend, who's the love of my life, to move on with my life.

moments later i felt his soft pink lips mold against mine. our lips moved in sync in such a way i have never felt with anyone else before. there was something about the way his lips moved against mine in such a passionate and loving way that i've never felt before. my stomach was immediately filled with butterflies and my mind went blank. all i could do was be in this moment with him. a few moments later it ended leaving both of us breathless. we stared at each other in awe not knowing a simple goodbye kiss would make us feel this way.

"wow. i've been waiting for this kiss for so long and i never knew it would feel like that." jj said

"neither did i.”

as much as i didn't want to, i knew what had to be done next. i stood up grabbing my bag and walked towards the door.

"so this is really it? you're just leaving now. after what we just felt in that kiss you're still gonna leave?" jj asked

"you know i have to."

"no, you don't have to. you want to, there's a difference. but it’s fine you’re just gonna leave just everyone else does, huh?”

don't turn back now. i know what he’s trying to do. he knows how the last thing i ever wanted to do was leave him like countless of other people in his life have done. but don’t let his words get to you. don't turn back now. the decision is already made. if i go back now i'll never leave and end up in the same cycle again.

i turn around one last time to look at my best friend, "i'm sorry. goodbye, jj."

that was the last time i saw jj.

after that i left the venue without saying anything to anyone. i got a ton of calls from kie, pope, and john b asking me where i was. i know they all eventually found out how i felt about him, which sometimes makes me wonder how he never knew, but then again i'm pretty sure they knew he had feelings for me too and i still never noticed. it's crazy how that happens. you could spend every moment of every day with someone and still be so oblivious to how they really feel about you. i guess i was just so caught up in my feelings for him i never noticed all the signs he showed of liking me back.

they always say what’s meant to be will be no matter how long it takes whether it's a day, a month, or a year. well i never really believed in that until now. years later after i walked out of that room, now stood face to face with the guy who was and still is my everything.

[the-wonder-wall]

Willow: The Basics

Tw: Under the cut/readmore topics such as bugs (maggots), self/harm (during hallucinatory episodes), and sexual manipulation (Predeviancy) will be discussed. There are also censored reference photos. Stick to the area above to avoid that.

Species: Android

Height: 5'4

Pronouns: They/them

Sexuality: Pansexual

Created: May 2034

Deviated: October 31, 2035

Quick Notes:

• Michael had named Willow Angelica, often calling them his angel, they changed their name to Willow shortly after deviating

• They also hate angel's because of this, would not recommend using that as a pet name unless you want to upset them

• Because of how they deviated it is very hard for them to trust someone enough to repair them, if they do let someone repair them the circumstances are likely to be extreme

• Due to the amount of damage they've sustained, both self-inflicted and by others, their self healing program is barely functioning

• While they are still durable and can take a hit, they recover much slower than previously

• As of 2038 they live in the Junkyard, after the revolution pretty much any android there is dead. Willow see's the lack of life as a sign of safety, even if they are very lonely

• Although they're skittish, Willow is far too friendly for their own good. They can also be very gullible

• Willow doesn't quite grasp that stealing is wrong, only that stealing certain items are wrong. They don't steal to be malicious, they just assume it's ok if the item is either abundant or appears to be abandoned

• If told not to steal they are likely to take it as "Don't steal this particular item."

• They do not like being approached from the right as they can't see due to the missing eye

• The damage under their clothes is just as severe, if not more, than the damage to their face.

• While they don't want to be violent, there are situations where they'll feel there's no choice. They carry a switchblade for their own safety

• On the off chance that they kill someone, the memory files of the incident have and will corrupt for the sake of their own sanity. It's worth noting that they will continously try and fail to open the memory files as they badly want to know what happened.

• Will occasionally crack jokes, they're still learning humor and this tends to adapt to the people they hang around

• Will hide wherever they deem safe before going into stasis, usually in closes spaces at the junkyard

• Voicebox is severely damaged, causing their voice to sound distorted when they speak

• Created as a female android, has fully functional genitalia but they are non-binary

• Has never interfaced, isn't even sure what it is beyond android's holding hands and deactivating their skin programs

• They have no cooking program, but they were taught a small amount of recipes that their ex owner and his college aged daughter (Monica) wanted Willow to know

• They will sometimes try to avoid answering certain questions if they're uncomfortable

• Michael (ex owner) hade Willow's sense of touch made to be as close to human as possible. They feel chronic pain from their injuries

• They are highly susceptible to cold due to the open wounds allowing air exposure to their bio components. If their temperature drops too low they will be forced into stasis

• They also can't get too wet because of the exposed bio components. While water is unlikely to kill them it will certainly hurt them

Summary:

Willow is a custom made android created for their ex owner Michael with the intended purpose of being a fancy Halloween decoration. Before the Revolution he was well known for his increasingly horrofic Haunted Houses, gaining fame for his use of android's and how realistically their responses to stimuli, most notably fear, were.

To make everything more authentic feeling he would pay to have custom android's built to his liking, only giving them the program's he felt they'd need.

For Willow this means that they were built without the ability to scan, communicate through their mind, or use search functions to look things up. Michael intended for them to be entirely reliant on him. As a result they're as naïve as they are curious.

One perk they do have is their durability. Having become annoyed with how easily the previous android's shutdown during the deviation process, Michael had Willow built for durability. This is a huge reason Willow has yet to succumb to the damage they've sustained.

He also had them built with a feature that'd force them into an Emergency Stasis if they were to begin to self-destruct, after deviation this feature keeps them alive during hallucinatory episodes.

[Note that I forgot to draw their LED in one pic, they do have one]

Willow's Deviation:

From May 2034 to October 30, 2035 Willow lived with Michael, his college aged daughter Monica, and a few miscellaneous android's, blissfully ignorant as to what their intended purpose was. While weren't deviant, there were feelings of love. They had been led to believe that Michael cared for them as someone would a spouse. It's worth noting that he had installed Willow with sexual programs for his own perverted reasons, naturally Willow had gotten the wrong idea. Michael, however, was not about to correct them as he was well aware that the emotional whiplash would only aid in the deviation process. Which he saw more as damaged coding than actual sentience.

To cause Willow to deviate Michael had created several open wounds, burning the edges of the wounds to ensure the damage would heal as little as possible.

This was also to create as much pain as possible, as with each android Michael had continuously worked to make their sense of touch as strong as possible, both inside and out.

Once that was done he filled the wounds with rotten meat and maggots, locking them in a cage as a prop for the Haunted House.

He also installed metal wings to play up the angel aesthetic, these were ripped out when Willow met Kelli

Normally, early the next morning, Michael would put the android out of it's misery if it survived the night, but Monica, having begun to question if these reactions were really just broken coding, took pity on Willow and allowed them to escape.

After deviating Willow suffers from hallucinatory episodes where they believe the maggots are still inside of them. It is essentially bits of the memory replaying, overtime it began to spread much like a virus until they could see/feel the maggots on areas of their body that hadn't been harmed when they deviated.

During these episodes they attempt to dig the maggots out, usually with the switchblade they often carry, the episode will not end until they're forced into Emergency Stasis. During these episodes, if someone approaches them, Willow will likely perceive them as a threat or as Micheal himself. They are very likely to attack someone during this time.

[The reference photo with the flowers was created by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. All other art is by me, though some is older]

[bakugou-simp]

⚠️SPOILERS for bnha, and the heroes rising movie⚠️

I have rarely voiced these opinions, but I think it's about time I did.

See, there is a fine difference between ships and what is more likely to be canon, for me at least. As of right now I do not believe that bkdk will come anywhere near to being a canon romantic relationship, not only because of the type of manga/anime bnha is but also because of the development and change that would need to happen in order for it to even be possible. For the type of manga, I also believe Izuku or Katsuki being with anyone of the same sex is also out of the question. Horikoshi has put two transgender characters (and supposedly a bisexual character) in his manga, yes, but I do not see us getting anything more than that.

I am a multishipper through and through however, and I ship almost anything you can name that isn't incest, pedophilia, or abusive. Kirideku, for instance, and Todobaku as well. I like those ships, I think they're very cute and make a lot of sense. The only ships I don't like (I won't name them) I dislike purely because of the people who ship them. The way they act completely disgusts me.

But let's take a look at why BakuDeku, in my opinion, is commonly misunderstood.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the BakuDeku ship, and I don't say this just because I personally ship it.

Katsuki

Season 1, as soon as Katsuki was introduced I hated his guts. I couldn't stand watching him bully Izuku, let alone telling him to go and jump off of a building. I wanted to reach through the screen and punch him myself. I don't take things like that lightly, and so I thought to myself I will never like this character. Even as time went on, season 2 and all the way up to season 3, I couldn't stand him.

He was an abusive person terrified of his childhood friend becoming something that perhaps he feared that he himself could not. He's disgusting towards everyone, showing only disrespect and arrogance.

When he was kidnapped is when things started to change for me.

Not just his reaction alone-- "Deku, stay back"--but also Izuku's. Izuku is one to forgive way too easily, in my opinion, but I doubt he forgives someone if he truly doesn't think they deserve it. So for whatever reason, Izuku thinks Bakugou deserves his trust and forgiveness.

If you look at it like this-- Izuku knowing Katsuki better than anyone else, not only from his observations but as well from his up close interactions with the other. Taking this into account, maybe Izuku knows something we don't about Katsuki. We know for sure his mother was borderline abusive--as seen from that conversation with Todoroki as well as just how she treats him--, but is that all? We can't know for certain, but it seems that Izuku might.

Let's say that none of that is true, let's go ahead and say that Katauki is just what he seems to be: an arrogant prick with a superiority complex. Even so it's impossible to say that he hasn't changed at all.

Take this scene for example. Just from this scene alone, from this one thing that he tells a kid he doesn't even know, you can see how much he's grown from when he was 14 years old.

This is turning into more of a Bakugou thing rather than a bkdk one, but hang in there. This is important too.

He has gone from believing that he is the best of those around him, thinking that everyone else will only get in his way, to recognizing that he has weaknesses just like everyone else. That in its self is a feat to be praised, but top that off with the realization that if he keeps putting others down he'll never see his own weaknesses and you've got one heck of a character development process. Granted, that won't be enough to make up for things he has done in his past.

So let's take a look at his past, shall we?

Raised in a home with, while loving, a push over father and a brash and aggressive mother. Whether or not she realized what she was doing, or even if she had been raised in the same way and doesn't see it as wrong, the way she yelled at him undoubtedly rooted something not short of some sort of trauma (disclaimer: I am no expert on trauma) into him. Not only that, but she probably pushed him to be better. Constantly; be better, you aren't good enough, you call that trying? So on, and so on.

Being told his entire life that his quirk is amazing, those around him letting him believe he is an undeniable leader, all of that has made him into what we see in the beginning.

Even before he got his quirk he probably thought he was better than those around him and that they also knew that, that they would follow him for protection or some sort of recognition from great power.

So, we have a 14 year old who thinks the world eats out of his hands. He sees Izuku, quirkless Izuku, as something not worth his time. Someone as great as him has no reason to play around with someone as worthless as Deku.

There is obviously the hinted at miscommunication, as shown during the Deku vs Kacchan 2 fight. The fact that apparently Katsuki sees everything Izuku does as looking down on him, mocking him, calling him weak and so on.

As a person who struggles with this, I can assure you it really is hard to tell the difference between someone genuinely wanting to help and secretly saying they don't think you can do it. Obviously I realize not everyone looks down on me, but because of the need to be independent and to prove myself to those around me, it feels like every outstretched hand is going to burn me when I grab it. Katsuki is far worse in that regard than I am, so I can only imagine how hard it is to admit to himself that someone is offering help and not mockery.

So let's say this entire time, their entire lives spent together, Katsuki has seen Izuku--someone who was quirkless--as one of the many people who doubts his abilities. Of course he's going to treat him worse than he treats others, but none of that makes it okay. None of that, any of this, erases what has been done.

That being said it does create a bridge for his redemption, for a deserved forgiveness, and yes I truly do believe he will earn that forgiveness.

It's going to take a long time for him to grow into the fact that accepting help doesn't equal to accepting defeat, and that offering it doesn't equal to the belief of weakness.

Katsuki, in my opinion, started to see his faults around the time be befriended Kirishima. Kirishima is strong, so obviously Katsuki is going to want him on his side, but there is more to it than that. I truly believe that Kirishima sparked the change in Katsuki, or at least held the match for the flame to be sparked.

Kirishima and Katsuki's friendship is what I imagine Izuku and Katsukis's might have been like if Izuku had gotten a quirk, as that is all that mattered to Katsuki. He never cared much about the person attatched to the quirk, only how it might help him. Meeting Kirishima, a person who believes everyone is strong and that they can do anything they want with the resources handed to them, must have irritated the piss out of him. Another person who seemed to think that the weak could be strong.

Being around that kind of thinking will eventually rub off on you, however. Even off onto someone like Katsuki. Especially after seeing Izuku's potential with his own two eyes.

So all of those thoughts of Izuku being a weak nobody turned instead to thoughts of Izuku being a threat to him and his goal. It's better than the first, but it really doesn't do well for them being anything other than rivals.

So, right now in his character development process? BakuDeku even being friends seems like a far off thought.

So now, let's take a look at Izuku.

Izuku

His entire life he's been told by Katsuki that he is lesser, he will amount to nothing, he's completely worthless. That never stopped him from arguing, denying, or wanting to be a hero. Finding out he has no quirk didn't stop him, and being told he might as well die didn't stop him.

Izuku is a wonderful person with a huge heart, a heart that wants to save every single person it comes across, and a heart that sees the best in everyone around it.

He went from being someone in the background, never standing out or doing extraordinary things to a person who will stop at nothing to save one single life. He no longer lingers at the sides, or fears his own abilities. He strikes with confidence in himself, in his peers, teammates, and all of those around him. He uses the hearts of those he wishes to save as a boost to help him win the day.

Meeting Iida and Uraraka, and many other amazing individuals, helped him realize that there are people who believe in him and want to see him succeed. Not everyone will treat him like Kacchan, or only see him as being in the way.

Do I believe that he had to have resented Katsuki in some way for some amount of time? Absolutely. In fact, he might still.

Him forgiving Katsuki wasn't out of the others development at all. It was out of his own achievements, his own confidence, that he was able to come past all of that negativity and believe in himself as a hero. For that reason, he was able to at least not hurt from what Katsuki done to him, if he hasn't yet forgiven him.

Sadly I don't have a lot to say about Izuku's development, or his thought process, but I do know that Katsuki has always been his image of victory, and I do now believe that he can finally see himself as his own image of victory. Or at least, more than just his tormentor.

Heroes Rising

I want to talk a little about the events of heroes rising, dispite it not being a canon part of the universe. It has been said that the movie was what Horikoshi imagined the end of bnha to be, and that is what I'm going with here.

In the movie Katsuki is still his usual superior self, treating Izuku the same as he always has. When there is no immediate danger, and even during a fight neither of them expected to walk away from. Now this may be do to Horikoshi changing it to fit more into just an alternate period of the present instead of perhaps a more time skipping version, but I am not aware of that being false nor true.

Even so, Izuku showed the same amount of care for every individual person as he always does. Katsuki on the other hand, he seemed to care just a little more than his typical self.

Even going as far as to use Sero's actual name when he's calling out, concerned for the other.

Especially, in the way he treated Izuku suggesting giving him one for all just so they could win the battle.

They both knew what this would mean for Izuku, and it's pretty obvious Katsuki didn't want to do it at first, but he's not clueless. He knew that Izuku was right, without two one for all's they and everyone on the island would have died. Throughout the process never once does he say anything about himself, he's only ever concerned about what would happen to Izuku and about saving the island.

Izuku was willing to give up his dream for an entire island, because that is his dream. His dream is to save lives and become the greatest hero, and saving an entire island is exactly that. He trusted Katsuki because he knew All Might would, and if All Might would trust this quirk with a person such as Katsuki, clearly others besides us, Katsuki and Izuku can see his development.

Their Relationship

Now, in regards to the actual conversation of misconceptions. I do believe that at first glance, that being not taking into consideration home life and miscommunications among these two in their own time, any sort of romantic relationship for these two would be seen as abusive. Because right now, if they both weren't more busy with training to be heroes rather than relationships and for some reason decided to be together, that's what it would be. Katsuki has a lot of things to sort through in his own head, and after he gets that settled they both have a long road to being able to be anything close to friends.

So being rivals is the best for them at the moment. They are each others core motivation, the reason they push and push themselves even when there's nothing left to push. Which over time is going to build a strong connection, more than what they have.

Eventually I do believe they could be friends, a hero duo is even more likely as they've already proven just now as training heroes that they work well together.

That being said if anything romantic were to come of it, it would be in a much later date.

Another misconception might be that bkdk shippers either ignore the way Katsuki has treated Izuku or just don't see it at all, which may very well be true about a lot of younger (or even older) people who might just see their rivalry as some sort of romantic tension. Which happens a lot in anime. However many of us see this ship and see the development, the huge development that will take place in order to be something more, and that is something we would absolutely love to see.

Shipping (for me personally)

I think that most ships in this fandom have good reasons for being shipped, and even if they don't as I've said there is a difference between shipping something and thinking it will become canon.

Personally, I think any ship becoming canon would ruin the manga. I see bnha as something that is perfect without any building romance, that being said a little background romance wouldn't hurt.

As far as relationships among the students goes, I'd hate to see any of them actually start dating. At this age, when they're doing things that are far more important, it doesn't seem like the right decision at all. That doesn't stop me from reading fanfictions, or looking at fanart, or saying that I ship two or more characters together. It's all harmless fun, until you turn into an Anti. I have absolutely no respect for antis and I severely hope they never interact with me.

In conclusion

I do not think that bkdk will be a canon ship in the mangas current timeline. That however, doesn't mean I can't ship them or think that eventually something could come of all of their character development.

Like it or not a good part of Izuku, his development, his personality, his dreams and life goal come from Katsuki. They come from knowing him nearly his entire life, from seeing him as a symbol of victory since they were kids and even up until now.

You can dislike bakudeku as a ship, you can ship other things and all that, but to deny that they aren't important to each others entire character-- and yes I do mean both of them, Katsukis's character also revolves a lot around Izuku--is to be blinded by your "hate" for the ship or even for Katsuki as a character. BakuDeku as a friendship/rivalship is way more important than as a relationship, and I think that's something everyone who loves either of them needs to respect.

The entire reason that they are were they are right now is because of All Might, their shared admiration for a strong hero for different aspects of said hero. That he never loses, and that he always saves everyone. Both traits make up their own respective heroes, Izuku and Katsuki happening to be opposites on that spectrum.

Their current existence thrives off of each other. Where they once looked to All Might for motivation, they now find it amongst themselves. As seen many times, when Katsuki asks Izuku "when are you going to hurry up and make that quirk your own?" You can choose to see that as him looking down on Izuku, but all I see is him wanting Izuku at his fullest potential so they can both give their all against each other, while at the same time with each other (though I doubt the second part is what Katsuki is thinking, those are just my thoughts.)

All in all, they push each other to be better, and I can't help but respect that.

(I'm sure there will be at least one person who will come around and reblog this just to say how much they disagree with me and why I'm wrong, so if you're that person I'd appreciate it if you just didn't. Your opinions are your opinions, but I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong so I don't want to see you telling me that. Thank you.)

posted on tue, Aug 25th

[whitehairedclea]

Red Roulette part VIII

Helena sat in her office remembering Chang's words from last night. “As if I didn't know about my intuition, if it wasn't for my intuition I wouldn't open casinos in the States or raise such amount of money, you idiot” she thought. Then, for a split second, she remembered his hands holding her hand and her waist. Gently, yet firm enough to keep her from talking any more. She lit a cigarette and tossed the lighter at the corner of the desk. She quickly dispelled her memories, returning to the issue of the diamond. From the words of Chang showed that the guy did it on behalf of someone, and so probably the diamond has already been transferred to the client.

"Sebastian!"

A seconds later he appeared in the office waiting for an order.

"Bring the Spider over here immediately, maybe he will know something today that will be helpful"

"Of course, I'll get him right away," he replied and left the office quickly.

If someone did order the theft of the diamond, there must have been some trace of it on the streets. So many informants were fooling around deceiving every single profitable handful of information that such a fact of handing over the diamond could not have escaped them.

“ Mrs. Roulette! How nice ... "Spider began as soon as he entered, but Helena quickly cut off his greeting. 

“Okay, finish this cirrus. Fast. Have you heard of any strange meeting last night? "

"Virtually every one in this city, as if you could be more precise"

“It's mainly about the diamond, so focus. Whatever you heard, whatever you know "

“Let's start 600,000,” he smiled.

She had no desire or time to bargain with him, so she just nodded, trying to trust her intuition that he was the only person who could move her search forward.

"I heard one guy brag about a huge amount of money earned for one thing, just one Job. Maybe not a diamond specifically, but quite a similarity"

"Well, who was it then?"

"One of the people coming to the Yellow Flag, long brown hair, possibly American, weird that’s why I remember and that's all I know."

This was more than she could figure out so far, so she thought she had found the lead. All she had to do was find this man and find out who told him to do the job. Time was running out and there was also a risk that someone would want to sell this diamond abroad. Probably worth more than all of Roanapur .

***

  Sebastian headed for the Yellow Flag, a dingy bar on the main street. Inside, it was swarming with suspicious curiosities - dealers, bounty hunters, dirty workmen, prostitutes who could be hired upstairs. In all this hive, he was looking for an American with long hair. 

"Hi Bao " greeted the owner "how's the deal?"

"So far so good, it's only been a week since the last damage, how r you ?"

"It's pretty good to say the casino is spinning somehow, little problems"

"Problems? What, boss has her period? " laughed, but after Sebastian's expression he retired to safer topics "so what problems?"

"I'm looking for a new stranger, he must have arrived here about two days ago, a long-haired brunette, an American, have you heard something about it?"

Bao rapped on the counter to indicate that nothing is for free. Sebastian took a bundle of money out of his pocket and asked for a mug of beer for that.

"My dear, if any connoisseur from Uncle Sam is going to roll through this town, he is sure to look into a lovely restored place like the Yellow Flag!" Bao moved closer to him so that no one would hear what he was saying "... how to tell you, the girls upstairs are definitely perfect"

Sebastian didn’t need more. He jumped up, throwing an additional tip to the bartender, and ran upstairs. Already on the stairs there were crowds of women who were Whiting for the client. Mixed voices of men and women came from everywhere. Every room felt occupied. Sebastian had to choose one to find the American.

One room caught his attention as there was no sound. He decided to try and blew the door open. Inside, a white man sat on the couch, counting quite a large mountain of money. It was obvious this guy was the one he was looking for.

In an instant, he took out the gun before he could react and pointed it at him.

"Dude what are you ?!"

"I would advise you to start talking before your brain will be on that wall over there!" he shouted.

The gun was now right at his temple.

"Who did you sell the diamond to?" Sebastian asked the distressed American.

"It's nothing personal man"

'I don't care, you stole my boss's diamond, who's not a very patient woman. If you want to get out of this, I advise you to talk, we will probably manage without you, but it will be faster,' he replied, unlocking the gun.

The American, feeling the barrel of the gun against his temple, understood how much he did not care about keeping the client's secret. He had money, keeping his life was a priority. Later he talked more than had to.

He was commissioned by an Italian named Dotti right after his arrival in Roanapur. He escaped from the Italian mafia and hid somewhere in the city, gathering his strength to take over the position of the then mafia boss. He couldn't announce his great comeback yet, so he decided to start marking his grounds with minor intimidations. Defecting Helena was to scare her and take over the casino as a new home. The plan might have worked if it had happened to someone else. Helena wasn't going to let go of such an insult, she would have pulled information about him from the city's canals to get him.

"THIS IS ALL I KNOW!" he shouted "really even the pasta makers don't know where he is. NOBODY knows, I got the money a moment ago together with the key to this room!"

There was nothing else to ask. He sheathed the gun and grabbed the bag of money, then threw them all out of the open window. Hundreds of dollars scattered across the crowded street. Seconds later, there were shouts of surprise and fights for every dollar.

"FUCKING MOTHERFUCKER WTF ?!"

'Enjoy you're alive. I'd rather blow your head off now" Sebastian replied and left.

He returned to the casino as soon as possible. It was the most important piece of information, the main puzzle to solve the whole case. They might have started working before it was too fast to spread around town that the Roulette casino could be brazenly robbed.

Sebastian shared with Helena all the clues he had obtained. Without a moment's thought, she rushed to the phone and started calling known informants if anyone had heard of Datti's location . Unfortunately, silence, no one knew him and no one heard of him since he hid from the Italian mafia.

"The little fish don't know anything or don't want to sprinkle ..." she said, looking out the window. Sebastian had the impression that she was running out of ideas on what to do next.

'Maybe actually wait for an intimidation attempt? There is a chance he'll reveal himself. ”Helena didn't let him finish, she held up a hand to silence him.

'I won't wait, Sebastian. It's a perfect night to spill some blood, "she said with a slight smile on her face, then added," If the little fish don't know anything, let's see what the shark says. "

'It means ?'

'We're going to talk to All-Knowing-Mr-Chang , I think it might be a good move.' her green eyes flashed.

Sebastian felt as if she was getting excited about this whole situation.

***

The private line telephone began to ring. Chang picked up "Cho , if they're Cubans again with cocaine in their veins, fire them, I won't play business with junkies," he dropped after a hard day. From this morning, one of the cartel people wants to sell him the idea of cracking down on cocaine in Japan. Like a drugged man, full of vision, he only wasted his time.

'Of course boss, it's just ... they're not Cubans. Red Roulette and Sebastian are here asking for a meeting'

Somewhere in the background you could hear Helena's voice, who didn't like the phrase 'ask'. She clearly tried to correct that she required this meeting.

'Let them in'

Chang began to believe that this evening was not going to be written off after all. "But there are still people in this town who can keep me entertained," he thought. A moment later he heard the clap of heels and a knock on his office door.

'Come in'

Cho entered first and signaled that they could enter. Helena straightened her red hair quickly and walked in with a serious look.

"Why do I owe such a great visit," he asked, comfortably leaning against the desk.

'I'll be short because I don't have time. I know who ordered the theft and it was Dotti , a former member of the Italian Mafia, but I have no idea where he is ' she came close enough to rest her hands on his desk. The red nails tapped gently impatiently. Her green eyes, full of fury, waited for his reply. It was only then that he noticed that there was a tiny mole on her face next to her left eye. Right at the tip , as if it was waiting to be spotted under the cover of red waves of hair. The long black dress sparkled softly in the light, and Chang wished she would take a few steps back to see her leg emerging from the slit. The louder tapping of her nails brought him back to reality. He wanted to laugh at wandering his mind, but quickly gathered his thoughts.

"Of course, I know where he is. Boss of the italian mafia still makes me laugh that he can’t find this Dotti guy. I'll help you with him, " he replied, standing to put on his jacket.

'You misunderstood me, Mr. Chang. I don't want you to help me deal with him. Just give me his location, I'll do the rest myself. '

It made the corner of his mouth turn into a devilish smile. The predator's gaze shone from behind his black glasses . 

'Sorry, I misinterpreted your intentions. Then let me accompany you on this journey ”he offered her a hand, lowering his head as if inviting her to dance.

He was eager to see this confrontation unfold. And most of all, what she can do. As a new fish in town, she had to show that she could do more than sell information, otherwise it would be difficult for her. She could slide quickly to the very bottom of that Roanapur abyss .

'In that case, let's dance tonight' she smiled malevolently.

[80siconic]

AXEL SWEDES X OC!VANESSA LEBEDEV

prologue

words: 1129

Vanessa Lebedev was always known as a freak. A freak who could do things with her mind. Vanessa came from a Russian family who sent her away when they figured out about her powers. No family's wanted her after they found out she could move things with her mind. Everyone she knew saw her as a freak. That's all she ever was. Maybe she started believing it herself too.

Vanessa was hired by The Commission after they found out about her powers. They watched her. Day after day. Night after night. Just to see if she was worth it, and she really was. Carmichael, the talking fish, sent the Swede siblings to find her and bring her in. Of course she wouldn't budge, especially because she had no idea who they were. Axel, the older brother, told her they needed her powers. That she was special. Maybe she just needed to hear the words from someone else. Vanessa wanted to say no, but it was a good idea. Maybe she'd finally have some people who cared about her.

Vanessa officially worked for The Commission. Carmichael thought it was a good idea for her to work with the Swedish siblings. She worked well with them. With her powers, and the brothers strength, Vanessa was a good asset for them. Vanessa wasn't exactly a huge fan of Oscar and Otto. Axel was her favourite. Vanessa butted heads less with him than the other two. Axel made her feel like she was wanted and loved. Unlike the people who threw her onto the curb when they found out about her telekinesis. Vanessa loved how the brother made her feel. The Russian finally felt like less of a freak. Vanessa was normal, and fuck anybody who thought differently.

Vanessa didn't exactly have anywhere to stay but her landlord was kind enough to give her an apartment for free as long as she worked for her part time. Vanessa couldn't exactly say no. The landlord paid her which meant she had a decent amount of money. The landlord didn't know about her powers and she planned to keep it that way.

With a sigh, Vanessa approached her door, at the last moment she realized it was open a crack. She became suspicious. Vanessa slowly opened the door the rest of the way, she picked up a few knives and they floated over to her. Vanessa peaked around a corner slowly, nobody was there.

Slowly walking over to the living room, Vanessa turned her back, the knives still floating beside her. She heard a slight creek behind her which made her quickly turn around. Vanessa stretched out her arm, the knives almost hit the man that was standing there but he dodged them quickly. "Who are you? What the fuck do you want?"

The man didn't say anything, a small gun was in his hand. Vanessa backed up slowly in caution. Out of the shadows on one side of her living room came out another man who looked almost identical to the other one. They both had white coloured hair, dressed in 60s clothing. One had a scar on his face, the other one looked quite young. Maybe close to Vanessa's age. Her questions still wasn't answered.

"They don't talk. Not much anyway." Another man came out of the shadows of her kitchen. Vanessa widened her eyes. "We're not here to hurt you. I'm Axel, those two are my brothers. Oscar and Otto."

Vanessa raised her head, she wasn't scared of them no matter how scary they did look. "I'm going to ask again. What do you want?"

Axel slowly took his gun out of this back pocket and bent down to put it on the ground. His brothers followed his lead. Axel raised his hands in surrender. "We're part of a group called the Commission. We were sent to bring you."

Vanessa gave the brothers suspicious looks. "I don't know who you guys are. What makes you think I'll come with you?"

Otto and Oscar looked at each other, they were about to go to their guns but Axel snapped his fingers, stopping them immediately. "The Commission has been watching you. They know about your powers." Axel could see the fear in her eyes. He stretched out his hand. "It's okay. They're magnificent. You're powers could be a good asset for them."

Vanessa looked at him shocked. No one had ever said her powers were "magnificent." If she ever did anything with them, people would automatically run away. Vanessa sighed, she slowly reached her hand out and took his in hers. "You aren't scared of me. Why?"

Axel lightly smiled at Vanessa. He pulled her slightly closer to him. His brothers looked at each other, confused. Otto looked at the two of them, he noticed Axel looking at Vanessa fondly which was a weird sight for him. Never in all his years has he ever saw his brother look at someone like that.

Axel studied Vanessa's face for a few seconds. He took in every detail of her face. "You're powers are something else, Vanessa. They're beautiful. Your powers make you, you. We won't harm you. Just come with us."

Vanessa slowly nodded, she felt Axel let go of her hand. Vanessa looked over at the two brothers. She picked up the knives and brung them back to the kitchen. Axel lightly nodded over at her telling her everything was going to be alright. He walked over to her and placed his hand on her back. Otto and Oscar made sure everything was clear before they rushed outside of her apartment. "Am I not bringing anything?"

Axel shook his head, he took her into the hallway and closed the door behind her. "Everything will be brought to you. Trust me. But we need to quickly bring you there."

"Your accent. What is it?" Vanessa felt Axel slowly push her as she was walking, telling her to go faster. Axel didn't answer her question as they went down the stairwell to the back door. Vanessa pushed it open and at this rate, Axel took her hand and started pulling her to what looked like a milk truck. He opened the back and let her go in first.

Vanessa climbing into the back. Oscar was in the drivers seat, Otto was in the passenger seat, and Axel was in the back with her. As Oscar drove away, Vanessa looked up at her apartment building as they drove past it. Axel's voice rung in her ears. "The Commission will take care of you, and so will we. My accent is Swedish, by the way."

Axel turned his head to look at Vanessa, he gave her a comforting smile making sure she was okay. Axel made his way over to her, sitting down beside her. Vanessa didn't know him but he made her feel comfortable, unlike his brothers. "Ever since I was little, everyone was afraid of my powers. My parents threw me out. No foster family's would keep me. Why aren't you scared?"

Axel placed his hands on his knees, resting them there. "You're powers are special. I can see it and so can you. You can forget about the people who thought any differently. You may not know how you got your powers or why you have them specifically, but you're not a monster and you're not a freak. Don't forget that."

Vanessa turned her head to look at Axel, she raised her lips into a smile. Vanessa noticed how sweet he was to her, he didn't see her like everyone else saw her. "Thank you.....I—If you don't mind me asking, why don't your brothers speak?"

"Hmm, they don't speak English." Axel chuckled. "I'm the only one who can. I translate for them and I don't think they really like your presence."

Vanessa scoffed. The feeling was mutual. "Yeah, well, I don't exactly like them either." Vanessa smirked as she saw them both roll their eyes in the rear view mirror. Axel quietly chuckled. Vanessa was really starting to enjoy her time with them. Maybe, just maybe, she finally found a family to call her own.

[eisforeidolon]

Hey. I hope you don’t mind, but you seem fair. I’ve been a J2/Bibro fan for all the run of SPN. Had a blog for several years now, and I mostly followed Jared/Sam blogs because I was told they were the sane an fair ones and that all Dean/Jensen blogs were either hellers or AA’s. I just…. Need to vent? Most of these Sam/Jared blogs lately have said NOTHING but hate on Jensen/Dean and everything about them. They say the most ridiculous things about him (acting like they’re in the industry) and criticize EVERYTHING. They sound EXACTLY like all the AA’s and hellers I was told to avoid, and then they’ll find a bad Jensen/Dean fan and say “See!? See how awful they are and how much better we are?” I was a constant reblogger of their Sam/Jared defenses because they are right! Sam/Jared gets such ridiculous hate and I love him to pieces. But lately…. All the anti D/J stuff is getting ridiculous. So I went and started following a lot of D/J positive blogs and guess what? They don’t say anything negative about S/J AT ALL! I was told D/J didn’t have any good fans, and I’ve found dozens of blogs that love him AND respect and admire s/j. Of course hellers and AA’s exist in huge numbers and are a boil on the butt of humanity, but there ARE extreme Sam/Jared fans who are exactly like them. I’m tired of them, and I don’t think it’s fair they’re on some high horse thinking they’re the sane side anymore. This criticism of course excludes the very lovely Sam/Jared blogs I now follow who just love and don’t perpetuate the hate or drama

I think it's a good general rule to side-eye anyone who makes such a big deal out of insisting that only they are the [good/sane/fair/insert positive quality here] side of fandom. If someone feels the need to repeatedly tell you what they're like instead of letting their words and actions speak for themselves? Yeah, time to wonder why they don't trust you to come to the "right" conclusion from all the available evidence.

One of the reasons I got into the fandom was to see the various other perspectives fans had that were different from mine, so I sought out blogs from a lot of different fan subgroups. Which lead me to conclude fairly early on that the fans who were only into one J or the other were pretty much the same, despite protestations to the contrary. No matter which group you follow, if you look in the wrong place, you will get stuff like the following: Claiming the other side does nothing but complain about Their!J because they must be dissatisfied and bored with Other!J, followed by five posts mocking Other!J's choices. That's totes different though - somehow. The other side constantly lies about them and, oh, and by the way? That thing you literally saw their side doing with your own eyes totes never happened! Both sides have people pretending to be in the know to aggrandize Their!J and slight the Other!J. Both sides will occasionally claim that if X applies to Their!J, it's an amazing accomplishment! But if X applies to Other!J? It means nothing, was rigged somehow, or totes shows what a failure Other!J is, actually.

The only difference I've noted is the one that's bothering you - in my experience, Jensen fans that don't like Jared are generally pretty up front about it. There are, however, Jared-only stans who pretend to love both equally or be unbiased - until Jensen gets attention for something that doesn't involve Jared, and then suddenly, somehow, mysteriously? Everything about Jensen is a joke and/or obvious mistake. They'd totally call Jared out if he did something as mock-worthy, they would! It's just that he's infuriatingly perfect in every way! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (As you've seen, this is totally different and entirely superior to AA's talking the same silly, trivial shit but without having ever pretended to like Jared in the first place ... somehow.) Jared gets an insane amount of disturbingly vitriolic hate, but that doesn't justify or make me a fan of how Jensen gets treated as a sidekick/prop who needs to know his place. With them going their own ways now career-wise, it's more obvious than it's ever been.

Honestly, sometimes it does piss me off, but mostly I just try and laugh about it because we're all just over-invested fans on the Internet - sound and fury signifying nothing. In the end, if you can either read past or avoid all the stan wankery by curating your experience? There are plenty of perfectly nice fans who have a clear preference in one direction or the other. There are a lot of interesting perspectives to be found. When reading posts, I try and remember how big a part bias plays - the bias of the blog we're interacting with, the biases of their entire dash/circle of interaction, and how our own biases incline us towards believing or agreeing with what they're telling us. It's not always as easy as it sounds. Especially when it comes to people we like interacting with or things we may already want to believe.

[invisiblerhythmcat]

(this thing with my partner is complicated because they are someone that needs a certain amount of support to survive. Up until they moved back to their parents, I was the person doing that, which was mostly cooking meals, but also some general awareness of cleanliness and checking in anything they might need and not think to ask about.

We have another housemate who was supposed to be the person doing that, but, when we moved in together, it became clear very quickly that she was not up for the task and so I ended up doing things basically because no one else could.

Except, I couldn't really either. And I was actually significantly ignoring my needs in order to keep up with theirs. They feel like small needs when I write them out, but considering that it does amount to making sure another human (who i care about deeply) doesn't starve to death, it's a huge responsibility, which was not good for my anxiety and just the act of having to make food for dietary restrictions that are very incompatible with mine left me with no energy to feed myself or to do a lot of the other things I needed to do.

It felt like it had to be fine, because I didn't want them to feel like a burden or force them to go back to living with their parents and because I could technically do it, but it was really rough. But I always told myself that, well, I could still keep a job, and do my teaching, and do the cooking, so obviously i was better off than them and should be supporting them. And they sometimes mention their cousin whose husband left her after a tbi. And I don't think they ever made the connection, but it always feels like a signal to me of "see? don't be That Asshole who leaves because their partner is too disabled" but I was really really not fine, not because they were too disabled, but because I was also disabled.

So now, they had a brain thing and said things that really upset me. And usually, I'm able to forgive them because I know their brain is weird, but it poked at some very deep shit and eroded my trust in them a lot and, honestly, I think I was looking for a reason to lose my cool because I have been hurting myself by prioritizing their needs for so long, even in terms of how we communicate and interact once they moved out and I wasn't responsible for their caretaking, and I haven't known how to talk to them about it (and they also claim they understand that I'm not doing well, etcetcetc, when I tell them, but they're never able to do anything about it, and now I have to doubt them since a lot of what they said was about putting conditions on disability in ways that made me super uncomfortable).

When I responded and explained to them why I was so upset, they had another brain thing and never responded. Which is again, fair, that's their brain. But I don't have any closure on the thing.

At the same time, I'm sure this whole kerfuffle is part of why their brain is so weird, so I'm stuck feeling like That Asshole for having feelings and being upset.

But they still had to leave their parents for various reasons and, so, in the middle of all this, they just moved back in without telling me.

And, on an emotional level, I think it's completely within my right to keep my boundaries and hold my space. And, before any of this blew up, when they mentioned they might need to move back, they promised me that I would have no caretaking responsibilities, their mom would take care of them (which is something I've heard before)

But literally, the only food I see they brought with them was some slices of watermelon and hummus. I don't know what they have with them in their room, but they did just take the protein bars left over from when they moved out six months ago back into their room, so I'm definitely now suspicious.

So, there is a very practical component of this which is that this is still a human being who I love very deeply and I don't want them to die of starvation because they're not able to communicate properly and their mother is lovely, but not necessarily the best long-distance caretaker.

But I also don't want this responsibility. it's one I was never supposed to have in the first place. And it is harmful to me. And I'm so terrified that if I even start trying to deal with that, I'm just going to get sucked into the hole of "well, no one else can do it" again.

But if I don't, who will?

And just, we talk a lot about relationships with disabled people. And disabled people aren't burdens on their partners, or it's ok to be a burden. And I never want my partner to feel guilty for something they can't control, but I am hurting and I need support and caretaking that I'm not getting either, so there is a burden here that neither of us can carry.

And I've been carrying it for both of us anyways, and it's breaking my heart to realize I have to put it down, but also terrifying, because it means I don't know what will happen them, but also just so frustrating that, for all the connections and community support they have, there's still no one else who can make sure they'll have food to eat. Like, this should never have been on me in the first place)