#I just watched episode 4 and I am emotional | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

absolutebl · 30 days ago

Text

This Week in BL - Lots of lovely kisses & an unwarranted upset in the standings

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Oct 2024 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Fourever You (Thai Thurs YT) ep 2 of 16 - Yes yes J&J should be first but I am weak in the face of, well, frankly this man's face:

Pond = greatest piner in a dog’s age. The yearning in that boy’s eyes is obscene, it’s like the most explicit sex that only he can see and we’re just voyeurs.

Thus I continue to adore this stupid show and everything it stands for. No notes. May the fluff continue eternal.

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 5 of 12 - Everyone is so skilled in this show, but War is truly glorious. Considering the pacing, I think we are probably in for some long periods of darkness, suffering, and pain soon. I’m not mad about that prospect, it’s earned and foreshadowed, I just thought I’d lay it out there.

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 6 of 12 - More boys from GMMTV with good communication. Who knew? Min has SUCH a white knight complex. NO SINGING. Good demanding kiss, though. Well, Ohm can handle anything.

Meanwhile, this really is a bodyguard romance under another name. And I kinda wanna rewatch Never Let Me Go as a result.

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 4 of 15 - Earn remains best boy and my favorite character. Phun is v jelly, as he should be. AND I like Ohm & N'Mik better in this version. I still prefer the original leads, but I’m enjoying this enough.

I had no idea how much I missed Gunsmile! It’s so nice to see him on my screen again.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 12 fin - I hate Diew’s mom. Hate her. So much. She may be my least favorite mom ever in BL. That’s saying a lot. No I don’t think she was redeemed.

Conclusion

Adapted from the novel Godzilla Next Door by Jiwinil about an introvert who lives mostly in his room, until a loud annoying extrovert moves in next door. This was one of my top picks for 2024 and I’m delighted to say it satisfied expectations. A charmingly serene story of opposites attract, that featured good communication, patience, and genuine affection used to build a solid relationship.(I’m particularly delighted that our musician is a drummer and I don’t have to listen to him sing.) Yes it’s a tad slow but it’s very earnest and leans into the kind of sweetness that Thai BL does best. Doesn’t hurt that this starred an actor (Big) that many of us have been hoping would get a lead for years. I was pleased and comforted. This is not a kind of BL that suits everybody, but it suited me admirably. 8/10

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 10 of 12 - Ozone and the Ice Prince (name still unknown) did their little dance. What an earnest and romantic confession from our Icy man. I literally said “no no no just kiss, no foreheads.” And it was a great crying kiss, my favorite. Honestly, that amount of emotion hadn’t been earned by this pair, but I don’t mind. I could watch a whole show just about them. Also woah! Major nekid on YT?

Thailand......

Risking demonetization for arse…...

I guess we’ve all been there.

Where was I?

I’m happy with this episode since it was mostly my side couple. But the distribution of main couple and side couple and the focus of each episode is wildly erratic with this show. It’s very odd. (And let's be clear we ordered errotic not erratic.)

Every You Every Me (Thai Mon Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - Jade and Chin have lived over a thousand lifetimes. In each one they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. (This pair, TopMick was piloted in a My Universe ep, that was one of the only ones I liked.) Soulmate premise is a mix of Color Rush and La Pluie. Frankly, this isn’t as good as either, but it’s enjoyable in a slow cheerful way. Especially if you like this particular set of tropes. It’s quietly lovely and I like the leads. Sunshine is very very sunshine and our tsundere is a grumpy mysterious nerd. Trigger for domestic abuse. It looks like each episode is gonna be a completely different meet cute with the same pairing. It’s more linked vignettes than any overarching story. So if you don’t like this pair, you won’t like this series.

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 9 of 10 - More sports day. (Everybody’s doing sports days right now.) Random sides kissing. Where did the glasses person come from? Was he introduced and I forgot about it? Oh that’s the evil cousin! Okay… anygay. Sides randomly flip-flop who they like and I don’t know what the fuck is going on. This show. I swear. Ooo caught kissing. And… killed? What a mind fuck of a soap opera. Honestly, I’m fine if he’s dead, I don’t care at this point I just feel jerked around.

For some reason no eng sub for me for the first half. So I watched with Spanish subs (which is about as good as my Thai, only for different words). What a wild experience.

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - Oh dear. I just can’t imagine ever rooting for this couple. Which means… Why am I watching this?

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

My Damn Business (Korea Sat YT) eps 1-2 of 7 - Oh I love it. Casual flirty westernized-style boss. Reserved reluctant cutie (yes we’ve seen the actor before). Is it disgusting workplace harassment? Oh most certainly. Do I enjoy it anyway? Yep, I’m warped. No defense, but at least it’s something from Korea.

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 3 of ? - I like the lead being bullied and pushed to his limit thus turning into a psychopath. It’s gonna be a fun ride if it really goes Devil Judge just teens and actually gay. I wonder if it has the strength of its convictions?

Our Golden Times (Hong Kong YT) 5 fin? - I guess that is the reunion? What an odd little piece. I’m not entirely sure what I feel about it except that this feels more BL than anything Hong Kong has given us so far (which isn't much). The subs are truly terrible. Since I speak absolutely zero Cantonese I can’t really fix them in my brain. I thought this was the final ep but then a teaser for ep 6 dropped so I we have at least one more.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 10 of 12 - It was a nice, if entirely unearned reunion. And the leads do kiss beautifully. Trust Taiwan. I am so glad that Orca is back! There was even a little language play flip-flopping just for me. Very cute. Also GREAT kissing. How long have we been waiting for Thailand and Taiwan to kiss?

Eccentric Romance (Korea Weds Viki) eps 1-2 of 12 - Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab. This has been in production since 2022 which is a LONG time in the BL world (worrying). But I like the concept: friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER. Stars Yoon Jun Won (The Man BLK) and Thai actor Save Saisawat (Ai Long Nhai). I begin to think every The Man BLK member will eventually lead out a BL at this point.

It’s enjoyable in a weird way. Grumpy (hottie with a crush) + sunshine (captain oblivious). I gotta say, since this is the second relationship dual lingo style in our BL rn that it’s ALWAYS weird if the other half doesn't occasionally code switch languages, especially for specific words. In other words, the Korean dude is supposed to at least understand Thai, occasionally he’s should use a Thai world to get a point across. And the Thai dude is there to STUDY KOREAN, he should be slipping in and out of Korean regularly. Bah.

It's airing but...

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 5 of 10 eps - I never managed to get hold of ep 5. Frankly, it’s going to Netflix (I don’t subscribe) so I might not finish this out of sheer laziness.

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

Gangster and His Boyfriend (Korea ????) 8 eps? - was supposed to air 10/10 Kim Dong Bin (famous trainee & idol reality competitor, yeah that happens) stars as a fallen idol who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a gangster family. Discovers that his friend’s father is responsible for the murder of his entire family years ago. I don't know much about this one, neither does anyone else and I'm not sure where I got that release date so……

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming Oct 2024:

10/17 Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (Korea Thurs Gaga) 8 eps - High school student Do Hoe lives with his violent and brutal father who runs a Taekwondo gym in a rural area. One day, cheerful Ju Young arrives, he dreams of going to college for Taekwondo. Joy begins to fill Do Hoe's dark life. An unexpected incident forces them apart, they reunite ten years later.

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea ????) 8 eps - Okay, this is both a movie (already out) and a series. Neither one is likely BL and I can't imagine it will end happily. I'm giving both a pass but here's your synopsis.

Cynical fun loving student Young pinballs from home, to class, to on night stands. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju and hookups.

10/23 See Your Love (Taiwan Weds Gaga & Viki) 10 eps? - Zi Xiong, a third-generation heir, attempting to flee from taking over their family business, meets and falls in love with Shao Peng, who works as a hearing-impaired nurse. From the same production house as Kiseki Dear To Me in partnership with Shinehouse Theatre, funded by Taiwan’s BIGART + Japan's Rakuten (Viki). Show includes Lin Chia Yo (Be Loved in House: I Do). Director Chiang Ping Chen’s childhood experiences with his deaf uncle have inspired the drama.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Addicted Heroin

Incidentally he didn’t ask to “be with Ter” he asked if he could flirt/court him. jeeb doesn’t really have a direct translation, but it isn’t “be with.”

Fourever You

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

203 notes · View notes

lostsyren · 27 days ago

Note

I have a request based of the scene where Rafe talks shit about her ''i have standards''. Maybe in this scenario, Rafe spots her walking away crying and he runs after her, ahh angst <3

˖⋆࿐໋ standards ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

{summary: an alternate turn of events in season 4 episode 3}

{a/n: hope you like it, thank you for the request!}

{part 2 here}

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾

“Wait has she moved in yet?” Ruthie smirked, eyeing Rafe over the lip of her glass as she took a sip.

Sofia thought about her things scattered across Rafe’s house: her clothes in the drawers, the flowers she’d buy sitting in the vases, her toothbrush next to his in the bathroom. She hadn’t moved in but she may as well have.

“I’m not living with a pogue.” Sofia blinked in confusion at his callous words. She couldn’t see Rafe’s face, but she saw Ruthie and Topper’s faces perfectly. They were gleeful. That’s what she was to them– a joke. The poor, pogue bartender Rafe dragged around everywhere. And of course she followed blindly. Like a good dog. Sofia’s stomach frothed and roiled with nausea, her heart splintering in her rib cage. Heartbreak was one thing, mortification was another…her face burned with both.

“I hope not.” Ruthie chimed.

“I have standards.” Rafe muttered. Sofia’s eyes roamed Rafe’s back, the sinewy muscle imprinting on the material. The skin she’d kissed, the skin she’d grip. And now he was turning away from her. Shunning her. Twisting a knife in her heart. The rest of their words faded away like mist in the wind, leaving only the weight of emotion on Sofia’s shoulders. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, in some self-soothing hug, as she sped back to her car, her breathing shallow and painful.

Standards. Of course Rafe Cameron had standards. And of course a girl like her didn’t meet them.

“Sofia!” She heard a voice call out behind her, barely perceptible over the sound of blood rushing through her head.

“Sofia!” This time she noticed, turning around to see no other than Rafe approach her, a smile on his lips, as if those same lips didn’t just spew all that shit about her moments earlier.

“Hey I thought you were with your family today?” He asked, nearing her outside the country club gates.

Sofia spun back around with a scoff, heading to her car, not wanting to see his face for an another second, scared she’d burst into tears in front of him.

He bridged the gap between them almost instantly, his long legs striding towards her just as she reached her car door. By this point the tears in her eyes had spilled onto her cheeks, her vision blurring into a watery film.

Rafe’s hand rested on her shoulder, as he turned her body gently to face his.

“Hey– hey hey– Sofia, what’s wrong?” He said on seeing her crying, his voice soft like gossamer. It perturbed her how quickly he could flit from cold to caring, her anger veining into confusion at the paradox of a man in front of her.

“Get off of me,” she pushed him off her, trying to sound intimidating but instead the words came out in a blubbering mess.

“Hey? What happened huh?” Rafe’s face screwed in confusion. His words came off as desperate. Pleading. Sincere… his hands hovering over her skin, still in the same place she pushed them off from. He could be so damn sweet sometimes. Maybe this was why his words pierced hard– because she never expected it from him.

“You Rafe. You happened.” She hissed, spinning around to get in her car.

But Rafe moved quicker, his big arms slamming the door shut, caging her small frame between them.

“What are you saying?–“ he began.

“I heard what you said. With Topper and Ruthie.”

She watched as his pupils widened, his jaw tightening.

“What– when…?”

Sofia rolled her eyes. “Just cause we hook up doesn’t mean I’m your girlfriend right?” She mocked, throwing his words back at him.

“Sofia–“ his face sunk, blue eyes getting even bluer.

“18 months Rafe. Nearly two years and that’s what I am to you? A hook up?”

“No,” he said, the word practically jumping out his mouth, “no of course not. Look you weren’t meant to hear that–“

“So that makes it ok then? For you to degrade me like that in front of your friends?”

“No, look I just was– I didn’t mean–“ he was stuttering, his hands reaching out to her, but never connecting the space.

“I was there for you Rafe. Did you just forget that?” She thought about holding him, teary eyed on his yacht, consoling him for the death of his father. She thought about the nights where he’d pepper her with kisses, his touch bordering on worship. She thought about his laugh, his smile, his sweet nothings. All that gone, as if it was always ephemeral.

“No. I know you were there, and I appreciate it, more than you think– ok?”

“But I’m just a pogue right?” She derided, a sarcastic, pained leer twisted on her lips.

Rafe’s face contorted in an emotion she couldn’t place, his azure irises brewing with something darker. He looked…devastated.

But she continued her barrage, words sharp, tongue fast. “And you have standards of course.”

Lips twitched, eyebrows knitted in a hurt expression, Rafe’s face bled into a heady emotion, a strange mix of regret and anger.

“Sofia…” be began warily, voice like husk. Rafe instinctively lowered his hands, trying to find purchase on the skin of her shoulders but she slipped out of his grip like smoke from fire.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet them for you Rafe.”

And with that she got into the drivers seat, slamming the car door shut, trying hard not to spare another glance at him.

Careeing out the parking lot with the screech of her tyres behind her, Sofia couldn’t help but chance a look in the rear view mirror. Rafe stood in the distance watching as she drove away, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Sofia’s heart spasmed with a resounding pain, her throat itching with unshed sobs. She quickly glued her eyes on the road, her fingers gripping the steering wheel as she drove further away from the country club back to her home on The Cut…driving further away from the kook she’d fallen in love with. The kook who’d just shattered everything they had built together.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾

#outer banks #rafe cameron #rafe and sofia #sofia outer banks #sofia obx #rafe x sofia #drew starkey #fiona palomo #rafe cameron fic #rafe cameron fanfiction #rafe cameron angst #rafe and Sofia fanfiction #outer banks season 4 spoilers #outer banks season 4 #obx season 4 #obx 4 #༊*·˚syren

211 notes · View notes

myosotisa · 2 years ago

Text

i'm starvin, darlin - e.m.

Eddie Munson x Reader

ǁ summary: Since coming back from the Upside Down, Eddie has slowly been changing. Each week seems to bring something different and he finds himself doing things he never thought he would.

ǁ tags: gender neutral reader, no pronouns, no y/n. nickname used (sweetheart). mentions of season 4 final episode and what occurred. canon divergent (every one lived). it's not smut, but smut adjacent. it's sexy

ǁ word count: 2k

ǁ notes: i sat down and wrote an entire one shot in one sitting again. and i am also not going to edit this one. and i do not feel bad for lowercase hozier title, so don't even try me like that. if y'all really like it, i can add a part 2 with smut, but this is it for now

There are still a lot of things Eddie is having to come to terms with since the night his heart stopped.

That night in the Upside Down, laying in Dustin’s arms, he had died. Without a doubt. Dustin had felt his pulse and there was nothing there. And though he didn’t know CPR, had no idea what he was doing, Dustin had laid him down on the ground and started to beat against his chest. Like maybe if he hit hard enough and in the right place, his friend would come back to life.

Somehow it worked. No one bothered to ask why.

But they all knew something was wrong two days later. Eddie, barely breathing and with a weak heartbeat, had been dragged back to the surface and hidden away in the RV they had stolen. Someone watched him round the clock as they debated what to do. If they should try to get him to a hospital, how they’d be able to explain it. But then something miraculous began to happen:

Eddie started healing. All on his own. Way faster than any person should have been able to.

His skin stitched itself back together faster than should be possible, leaving less scar tissue than it should have behind. His chest began to rise and fall in more steady breaths, his heart beat getting stronger, bones resetting themselves with slow and quiet creaks as he laid in that RV bed and slept. He’d been asleep since they brought him back.

The day he woke up, his body had almost entirely healed itself. From the brink of death, having even stepped over to the other side, and now he was almost back to before it ever happened. It had only been a week.

Everyone rejoiced, refusing to question anything weird that may have happened in the Upside Down and just thinking they finally won for once. Max had casts on both her arms but was otherwise unharmed, Steve had recovered from his own injuries at the rate of a normal human and now sported a scar around his throat that he sometimes felt self conscious about. Dustin was on crutches with his broken leg for another month at least. Eddie was alive and whole and back to himself. They’d made it, everyone had made it.

He began to notice more and more things that were different as the days went on.

The first thing he caught on to was that he had the capability to be strong. Way stronger than someone who had recently been bed ridden should be. It was like in the comic books with the Hulk – if he wasn’t paying attention or if he got too emotional, he could easily break anything. A walkman destroyed, a ceramic bowl reduced to shards, a metal pipe bent beyond fixing, the wooden handle of a hammer shattered in his grip. The boys were all present for the hammer incident and sighted it as one of the coolest things they had ever seen. They swarmed him, asking him how he did it, what else he could do, how strong he really was.

Only the other teens, Steve, Nancy, Robin, you, started to look a little bit closer.

When the next few changes became apparent, it was clear something unnatural had happened to Eddie that night in the Upside Down. He could feel other people's feelings. They brushed against his consciousness like ghosts whenever he looked at someone. Happiness like warm rays of sunshine, fear like a shuddering gust of wind, anger like hot coals pressed to his skin. It wasn’t a conscious effort – in fact, there were a lot of times he wished he could turn it off. Whenever he looked too hard at someone, it’s like his brain adjusted to a different frequency and their emotions reached out to him, no matter what they were. And he didn’t struggle to make sense of the sensations like he thought he might, his brain completed the dots easily at first, but then he began to recognize them consciously. It was certainly useful sometimes, especially when it came to you, but it still felt a bit invasive. When he’d explained it to a few people, he assured he tried to ignore it whenever he could, but sometimes he couldn’t help but react. The icey spike of terror he felt when you woke up next to him from a nightmare. The velvet comfort that enveloped you and him when he held you after.

The first time he spoke into someone’s mind it was an accident. Steve had whipped toward him, breath catching in his chest, eyes wide and mouth open in a gasp. Eddie felt it like ice down his spine. “Did you… You did that?” He’d asked breathlessly. It had been so shocking, Eddie wasn’t even sure what’d he said, or projected, or whatever it was.

“I - I don’t know.”

Steve stepped closer, suddenly looking determined. “Try to do it again.”

It was a slithering feeling when he dipped back into Steve’s mind. Like sliding his way in between cracks to a place he didn’t belong, seeping into the forefront of his thoughts to plant one of his own. It made him feel dirty, uncomfortable, and wrong. But it worked. Steve explained it as having a thought like his own but it came out in Eddie’s voice instead. An intrusive thought but not an uncomfortable one.

As with all of the other discoveries, a meeting was called. Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Max, Will, El, Robin, Jonathan, Nancy, Steve, and you. Steve did most of the talking while Eddie sat and looked at his hands. These meetings, while he acknowledged were important for everyone to keep track of his progression into… something, it still made him feel a bit like a zoo animal in a cage. A magician with a magic trick. All the boys immediately begged him to do it to them, they wanted to see what it felt like, wanted to see how easy it was for him to do it.

Nancy and Jonathan had shooed them, catching on to how overwhelmed Eddie was, their excitement and curiosity battering against him like a whipping wind of too much. Once it was just the older people in the room, you crossed over to where he was, kneeled down in front of him, reached out to hold his hand.

Pity felt like someone was pissing in his pants.

“Are you okay?”

How could he say no? How could he admit that he was scared, confused, and feeling more and more like a monster with the passing days? “It’s just a lot. To deal with.”

Your smile was pained as you pushed yourself up onto your calves and wrapped your arms around his shoulders. His came around your waist on instinct, the breath feeling like a wheeze in his lungs as he held tight. Face pressed into your hair with his eyes squeezed shut, he inhaled deep in relief.

That was when the next thing changed.

It was a desire. A need. One he couldn’t place a name to. Like he was desperately missing something, desperately craving something and he didn’t know it was. It crawled under his skin like ants and sent him scratching for a feeling that couldn’t be satiated. No matter what he tried: eating, drinking, masturbating, exercising. The feeling wouldn’t go away. It got stronger day after day, his mind focusing more and more on the void it left behind until it was all he could think about.

Steve threw a little get together at his house once a month or so. Just time for everyone to get together, eat some food, listen to music, play board games, maybe watch a movie. This was the first get together since his hunger began.

He was sitting on the couch on his own, decompressing. While normally he was right in the middle of everything, today it was a lot to handle when he was hyperfocused on the crawling beneath his skin. He had his legs spread wide, hands resting on them, leaning deep into the cushions of the couch in Steve’s basement. While he had initially tried to close his eyes, hang his head back, maybe stare at the ceiling – he couldn’t stop his attention from drifting back to you.

You and Eddie had been friends for a long time. Understandably, you’d gotten much closer after the events in March. The two of you had helped each other through hard nights of nightmares, panic attacks in parking lots, flashbacks in public. You’d been a great comfort to him since he came back. But today your laugh sounded like music. The smell of your perfume hit him even across the room. Each emotion crashed over him in waves, pushing and receding like the tide as he tried to get off your frequency, unentangle himself from you before he did something he didn’t mean to do.

I’m starving.

Your back stiffened, the grip on your plastic cup getting just a bit tighter. A moment of fear quickly shifted to mellowed surprise, curiosity. He’d never spoken into your mind before, hadn’t meant to do so now. But you still shifted, your eyes slowly coasting across the room until you caught sight of him on the couch.

A shock of electricity shot down his spine as you made eye contact, his hands tightening over his thighs in reaction. Unsure exactly what to do, he settled for projecting again. Slithered his way into your ears and settled a respectful distance from the area he’d never been brave enough to venture. Sorry, he offered with a wince, didn’t mean to.

What he didn’t expect was the utter flood of feeling that hit him next. Like a drip of warm honey settling into the space between his hips, pooling there in a subtle swirl as the warmth from it started to diffuse outward. You realized you’d been staring and your eyes flit away, but the feeling didn’t cease. In fact, it only got stronger. Your lower lip caught on your teeth as you shifted between your feet. Things that would be completely normal to see, wouldn’t have anyone looking twice, but Eddie could. Your desire. The want that poured from you like water when your eyes first met his.

Was this the first time? Had something changed between you and him? Or had he just never caught on before?

The ants beneath his skin began to vibrate as he narrowed in on the feeling, on you. Like the part of him that had slithered into your thoughts was now bearing down, digging in for purchase, wanting to stay awhile and feed on this new feeling, what you were offering. It didn’t even occur to him what he was doing, how invasive it might be, how wrong he normally would have felt. All he knew is that it felt like licking at the thing he’d been craving for so long and he was helpless to chase after it.

Sweetheart. It came easy as breathing now, teeth sunk into your consciousness from where you stood across the room. You whirled on him again, another flood of warmth hitting him deep as you leaned your hip against the counter you were standing next to and focused on him. What’s got you so worked up?

He couldn’t even consider how bold he was suddenly being, the fear that he might ruin this friendship well out of his grasp. Especially when your embarrassment spiked along with the want, the pool of warmth now suddenly coming to life to have a heartbeat of its own. Your eyes widened, shifting on your feet again as you broke eye contact. It only took a few moments before you couldn’t help but look back at him again. The buzzing settled further, now like a purr beneath his skin. It was bearable as long as you kept your eyes on him.

You wanna do something about it?

thanks for reading, please reblog and leave a comment if you liked it!

#eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson smut #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson hurt/comfort #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson imagines #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson blurbs #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #myos ideas #vampire!Eddie munson #kas!eddie munson #myo4munson

2K notes · View notes

mizgnomer · 3 months ago

Text

Behind the Scenes of The Star Beast - Part Eight

Excerpts from Benjamin Cook's Star Beast Set Visit - discussing the Camden night shoots:

Is nobody here having a bad time?? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM? "I had a little lull earlier," admits David, "at 2AM when we were waiting to turn over- I definitely yawned, maybe twice - but then the blood starts pumping again." Wrap isn't till 3AM. David lives across town. Isn't he worried he'll wake up his family when he gets in? "Listen, the kids are at Davison's," he says (this is Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison, who happens to be David's father-in-law), "so I'm full of beans. Oh, and sugar. Do you want some?" He's bought a churro from a market stall that's stayed open because it's very much in shot. "You can have more than that." He breaks me off a bigger piece. "The sugar rush will do you good." He offers the director [ Rachel Talalay ] some too: "Go on, Rachel, you deserve it." "Are you doing OK?" she asks him. "Yeah! Sugar! I'll move on to the Yorkie bars next. I give not a fudge at this time in the morning." He claps his hands, dusting off the sugar from his churro. "But are you OK?" "I am at this moment," she says, waving to some fans. "Tomorrow at 4:30AM I might not be. Ask me again then." "You do get a lot of love from the fans, don't you?" says David. "In a tiny way, which is just lovely. I mean, I'm not you," she says, with a laugh. "I love hearing them scream for you. But I'm not used to any of this. And… I think it's stopped raining." "OK, here we go," says Scott. "Let's go for one. Stand by then, folks…" They go for another take. And another. When I catch up with Rachel later – much later, it’s October 2023, and she’s chatting over Zoom from her home in Vancouver – we’re five weeks away from The Star Beast airing on TV. “I didn’t know quite how well the episode was working,” she says, “till my family watched an almost-finished cut. I came downstairs, and my two girls were crying. It was like, oh, OK, this does work! And on a much, much deeper level too. To have them go, ‘We knew it would be full of joy’ – which I think it is – ‘but we didn’t expect it to be so emotional,’ that was very satisfying. It was an emotional time all round.” It was. In more ways than one. Which is something that Rachel wants to talk about – here in DWM – for the first time publicly. “I think I can now,” she says, “because I’m close to two years in remission. I will be this month. Two years in remission. And Doctor Who really helped heal me. Directing Doctor Who while I was only a couple of months post-chemo.” A deep breath. “I had lymphoma,” she explains. “I’d been in chemo for seven or eight months. I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive. Then I was offered The Star Beast. I thought, I’ve got to do this. I didn’t tell anybody I was sick. I hadn’t told anybody except very close family. And I didn’t tell anyone on Doctor Who till I was there long enough to say, ‘Look, I’m well enough, so I don’t want you worried about me.’ Because, frankly, I don’t know that they’d have wanted to hire someone who might not have made it through the shoot. I totally get that. That’s fair enough. [...] “I could not have been surrounded by a more supportive crew,” says Rachel. “The best crew in the world. When I realised, it’s all night shoots, I thought, oh god, and I’m two months post-chemo. But that crew – David especially – made those night shoots so fun. It’s weird now, because I look back at the pictures – like that lovely one of me and David you published last issue – and that was my chemo hair. I was just getting my hair back. But I got healthier and healthier, stronger and stronger, as the shoot went on. When I got back to Canada, the doctor said, ‘You’re a poster child for how well someone can do after chemo. This is what people are capable of.’ “But it’s just what you do,” she reflects, “isn’t it? – when you love Doctor Who in your heart so much. There was no better place for me than Doctor Who.”

Additional parts of this set are in the #whoBtsBeast tag. The full episode list is [ here ]

#doctor who #david tennant #catherine tate #rtdedit #60th anniversary #dw 60th #rachel talalay #I'm so glad RTalalay was able to direct a special #and how special it was for everyone involved #apologies for the text being so long #but it seemed wrong to split it between 2 different posts #and I reused the photo of DT and RT since it gets a mention #stuff i posted #whoBts #whoBtsBeast #yay for talalay!

176 notes · View notes

ballerinarina · 3 months ago

Text

𐙚LET'S TALK ABOUT... DIEGO, LILA & FIVE

Okay, firstly I need to state that I'm going to say my impressions about the season four of The Umbrella Academy, focusing on the subway plotline. My considerations are very long (I'm talkative!) and about what I watched in the episodes and what I read on social media, so, I am totally open to opinions too!!

As an hyperfocused girl, I've been thinking about the subway arc plot decision during an absurd amout of time. I watched it a few times and read a lot of opinions. Yet, I still feel a little... surprised (?) by the intense hate over it.

It's not about liking or disliking the new couple that I'm talking about. Since naturally people would prefer one ship over another, it was obviously waited that the opinions would be divided.

I just... can't understand why people hated it so much as if it was a bad plot decision. Diego and Lila are beautiful together, i agree! They have a long, real and strong love story together. But why people are acting like this new plotline erased all their relationship together? Relationships are more complex than that.

Feelings are more complex than that. Humans are.

Actually, I may say that the psychological development that happens in the subway is way more interesting because Lila and Diego love each other, as much as Five loves Diego too.

This being said, I don't mean that I think a cheating plotline is interesting because of the cheating. I actually use to dislike it a lot. However, dealing with cheating in a black-and-white way as if it's an indefendible action is not clever. Sometimes, some things I read make me realize that people are so stuck into traditional morals that their capacity of thinking and analyzing complex emotional situations is kind of... damaged.

𝐒𝐨... 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐗 𝐃𝐢𝐞𝐠𝐨 𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐗 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞?

The Umbrella Academy is known as a series with very human and complex characters. That's what makes it so good, from the beginning! That's why I think it's kind of sad to judge their relationship with a typical moral view.

Claiming that Lila didn't deserve Diego, for example is so... so sad. She was an amazing mother and wife. She tried to go back to them for six years and as soon as she could she went back! Not even thinking twice! She loves Diego, of course she does!

Loving Five doesn't make her love for Diego less strong.

I really don't think Lila X Five is just neediness, however, no way. They already spent two seasons constructing a beautiful (friend) relationship before and in this horrible context they spent a lot of time taking care of each other, being each other's support. Considering this and their communication development — jokes on season 3, kindness in the beginning of season 4 — it's not surprising or nonsense that it turned to become romantic. People and relationships change, love is built and adapted.

I don't think Lila stopped loving Diego (i mean romantically, but even if she did, she surely didn't in other ways of loving that are as beautiful as it is) but that doesn't make her love for Five false, and Five loving and having a relationship with her doesn't make him a bad brother either. That's why I emphasized that TUA is a series with complex relationships. Why do you get upset and surprised when another relationship between complicated characters is built due to the tragedies of the script?

If this didn't cause outrage before, could it cause because, this time, when things get complicated, the plot resource used questions the standard romantic drama format expected by the system?

𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭? 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫?

I guess one of the main arguments I saw was that their relationship didn't make any sense and that their scenes were extremely out of character, but I don't think it could be sustained when they both are characters who go through a lot that makes them change, alone or together. What they're claiming being out of character may simply be character development under non-ideal circumstances.

It seems like there's an strong resistance to open their minds while watching and realize that love isn't something that can only happen once and/or once at a time and under ideal situations. Diego and Lila's marriage crisis, Five and Lila developing ther friendship inbetween work cumplicity, Five looking more lost and tired in his decisions than before, the fact that it is the second time he has been trapped in space-time — which is a big trauma for him, since, from the first season (in the first apocalypse) we have been shown that, despite being introverted, arrogant and reserved, it is precisely "relating" that serves as a point of refuge for Five not to go crazy, lowering his guard and being kind...

All of this constructs very well their psychological coherency. "He wouldn't treat her like that during season 2 or 3!", "Lila would never be a domestic mother/ Five wouldn't work do CIA!". Well, we're talking about them now, not there.

One of the plot decisions to start this season was that the characters were living between what they kind-of-desired, but things still weren't fine, they still weren't getting what they wanted.

Five being free from the world-ending, but stll not being able to relax and live a simple retired life as he wanted. Klaus being sober and free of the ghosts, but insecure and anxious. Allison having Claire and Ray, but still unable to live a happy marriage and career. Viktor having his place working with something that makes him comfortable, but still unable to find love. Diego and Lila having a family and marriage and still unable to feel happy because the domestic work dynamic wasn't working...

Adulthood. Real life. None of those situations were out of character, as much as none of the psychological changes they suffered were too.

𝐀 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦

Since I don't really see the point on why would all of the happenings between them three could be claimed as "nonsense", even less "unasked" or "unnecessary" — because it's a work of fiction and, even if it may not be what the public wants to watch, it is not something that needs to prove its usefulness, just as events (that tie together well, because coherency matters) do not need to prove their necessity in art —, so it makes me even more sad that clearly mostly of the reactions are based on conservative views of marriage.

I know this season is not perfect, and it had a lot of defects, so I'm not saying the arc is perfect. As all the other arcs, it happened in a hurry, making us the public less abl to feel the 7 years of development. Complaining about how the arc was executed is perfectly fine, actually: after all, we know that 4 episodes were cut from the original script, as were many recorded scenes (including a big part of the subway plotline).

AIDAN: "There's a lot of the relationship with Lila that we filmes but they cut it. It took weeks to film it and they used a few minutes in a montage. That wasn't right. It also made very hard for the viewers to believe when we spent weeks filming scenes to set up that scenario."

But when I bring the conservatism theme (misoginy and remnants/consequences of the monogamous religious structure), it's because, even if we have lots of other of worse defects on other parts of the season, the biggest public overreacting opinions have been undoubtly about Five and Lila.

Anyone who spends more than 2 minutes in the comments on Twitter, Tiktok or even here knows that most of the time people've been sad and angry treating them both as if they were turned into cheaters with no morals (Five as a new kind of scroundrel asshole, Lila as some kind of ungrateful whore and I've even seen people problematizing their enemies phase, or the age difference as if one of then, or even the director, were predators, which is pure nonsense) and I can't even express how it makes me deeply melancholic.

I can't see how reacting as if the situations they were put in and their actions toward it in the scripts were absurd, terrible and dumb can't be just conservative, because they were actually very well tied script decisions, used in a bold way. With an interesting and well written enemies to frenemies to friends to lovers trope, they managed to write something fun and that developed both of the characters in their early-season-conflicts-arising-from-other-seasons.

𝐒𝐨? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐂𝐞𝐂𝐞?

I truly just... Can't understand how some people ended up having collectively such insensitive opinions about the relationship of two characters who were so... vulnerable.

Non-ironically I even saw a lot of people defending they would prefer Five to end up with a “real life Dolores” plotline (since the author felt the need of a romance) than with Lila, or that he shouldn't ever fall in love with anyone else than Dolores. It sounds so... Insane. I can't see how someone can have any kind of shipping-affection for his "sick" relationship with Dolores. It was, for me, a completely heartbroken arc.

While watching this new season, actually, it made me almost warmly happy, as a Five fan, to see him having someone to take care of him in hard times like that. Last time he didn't have it. They loved each other, they constructed this love and even if it was constructed under a refuge, extremely vulnerable situation, as much as even if it was constructed over a hopeless and trust-breaking decision towards their loved Diego, it doesn't make it less real and beautiful.

They aren't bad people. They aren't cheaters. They were desperate.

I'm happy they found love in each other. They were victims but managed to construct a beautiful relationship to survive and it doesn't make them love less Diego, as a brother or as a lover.

Of course it breaks completely my heart that Diego and Five died without making peace, but while watching not even for a moment I considered that they stopped loving each other. They're brothers, they've went through a lot.

They were doing so fine getting along together since they came back from the apocalypse.... There's no way it would "destroy" and "erase" (terms used by some fans) all the progress that's been made... I think it would be a very shallow interpretation of their relationship and a very futile interpretation of the events. Some of the public is seeing the situation as if Five slept with his wife since the beginning, not as if he had felt in love with her in a very apocaliptical and hopeless situation.

It's essential to remember that nothing said romantic happened for six years. It turned this way only after they having practically given up hope of returning home, so exhausted they were.

I really don't think that such a desperate and lonely situation would erase all the love and dedication Diego have for Five (and Five has no reasons to stop feeling it for Diego too, obviously). Diego was totally the sweetest during this season, he did his best, but Five did too... Now they fought but it doesn't mean their relationship would be forever broken. They were both stressed out, of course, it was a sensitive situation. But, i don't think it would... However with an apocalypse going on, they just didn't have enough time.

Diego was clearly open to understand Lila better, so I really doubt he wouldn't try to do the same with Five. But, again, they were both heart broken, hot headed and with no time. It's sad and it affect them, but "destroy and erase" are very heavy terms and inconsistent with the context of their relationships.

I don't know. I don't know how to conclude this analysis. I just… Am sorry. I honestly feel lucky to have been able to experience Diego, Lila and Five, but I'm so sorry that I couldn't see these three hearts find peace in their complicated loves, even during their final moments. These are three very beautiful love relationships that grew up tangled up and that, unfortunately, couldn't unfold in time to hurt less their lovers.

It felt wonderful and desolate. I hope more people can feel it like i did.

145 notes · View notes

bylrlve · 5 months ago

Text

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things 5 mentioned,

Rewatching episode 2, and I’m genuinely staggered by how many times Mike peeks at Will. It’s very clear his mind is on Will, in fact. I am also staggered by just how many small byler details are in here.

His whole face drops after no. 4 too, as @starbylers observed here.

I also want to include these @chirpsythismorning gifs from the roller rink scene, as they’re brilliant:

Mike watching Will get out of the van, and seemingly offering a hand to him.

Mike openly watching Will as they take their skates.

(X) (X)

These are very deliberate acting choices from Finn Wolfhard, and he was certainly doing it on instruction.

Some other notes on 402:

The transition from Mike and El being fake -> Murray looking up looking like he’s experiencing his Seeing Clearly -> Robin talking about Vickie laughing ‘and not like a cheap, fake laugh, but a real, genuine laugh’, right after we saw Mike hiding his genuine disgust at burritos for breakfast behind a tone of fake laughter.

Mike’s whole face just drops into an unhappy, spaced-out espression when it zooms in on El - this is after Will ignored his sock joke (video here by @buckybxarnes)

As many have observed, Mike and El look genuinely miserable when viewed from Angela’s perspective, as opposed to the shot of them skating with Will miserable behind them

It’s occurred to me that in s2, 3, and 4, the byler plot really takes off in episode 2. I’m wondering if that’s also the case with s5 - I’ve reconsidered my theory that the Mike + El rooftop scene takes place after the hospital plot in ep 2, as I’ve heard that the paparazzi at the filming site were told it was in episode 1.

The door slam/open transition between Joyce going to the bank to get the 40k random for Hopper, utterly singleminded, and Mike barging into the womens’ bathroom, being kicked out, and subsequently starting an argy-bargy with Will as opposed to continuing to prioritise El… well!

The disparity in time is so interesting. El counts off 185 days since she last saw Mike - which is roughly six months, as is canon within the show (Sept-Oct 1985-March 1986). And here Mike is, saying ‘you knew she was having trouble for, like, a year’ and Will saying ‘it’s been a year, Mike’ and, in 404, Mike saying ‘the last year has been weird.’ It’s pretty obvious the last one is Mike referring to their fight nine months earlier, plus the time prior that Mike had spent pulling away from the rest of the Party to focus on El. The second one is Will potentially referencing the time that elapsed since their fight - even if it’s moreso subtext from the writers. What, then, to make of Mike saying Will knew El was having trouble for, like, a year? What subtext could be meant by this? I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts because u can’t quite deduce this.

Mike listing off everything Will did is so hilarious given the surveillance he carried out all day on the boy, and given the fact that poor El being humiliated publicly and assaulted with liquid before she skated off bawling did not, apparently, ruin the day. On second thoughts, I understand what Will meant… she’s in trouble having Mike’s gay ass for a boyfriend.

What’s striking me now is that this fight + El’s iconic roller skate moment, are the real emotional climaxes of this episode’s M/E/W plot. It could have been Mike finding El and comforting her before she lashed out at Angela. It could have been him talking to her afterwards. It could have been at the house - him following her up to her room and silently comforting her until she fell asleep. No, no. Mike and Will airing out their grievances (and Mike betraying which of the two truly emotionally affects him more) + El handling her own shit, while Mike thoroughly disapproves.

The way that Will just wants to be Mike’s friend, but it’s Mike making it so deeply weird.

The way, also, that they stick together at the rink even after the fight, and Mike openly is more preoccupied by Will in the van. I’ve seen it observed before: the parallel between El and Will staring out the same window in the van crying: Mike looks at Will in the shot. He does not look at El in the shot.

I think it’s hilarious that Mike ends the fight by feigning concern for El - he offered her no comfort whatsoever, actively stood away from her when she was waiting for Jonathan and Argyle to arrive, ignored her crying in the van, and of course:

She didn’t look fine.

Mike and Will are blocked together, not Mike and El

The sincerity of Mike’s concern over El juxtaposed with the rank falseness of ‘no, that’s…that’s not true, maybe I was a little upset in the moment’ etc really sticks out - the defensiveness is reminiscent of the tone he took with Will during the fight, but even then he was more sincere-sounding because he was more emotionally affected.

Bylers don’t talk enough about the insanity of ‘who… who said that I didn’t?’ In context, thinking logically, Mike is very likely referring to Will here (the bullies were shouting at her, he could hear what they were saying)- and why would his mind immediately go to ‘Will thinks I don’t love El, and has told her his suspicions?’ Why would he take a defensive tone?

Seriously, 402-403 M/W/E may well be the plot that (potentially) spells out byler endgame the most.

#byler #mike wheeler #will byers #el hopper #bizarre love triangle #oh… el…. babe #finn wolfhard #gay mike wheeler #mike wheeler is gay #do you ever just feel really bad for el?#my post #otp: heart and light

193 notes · View notes

wordsarelife · 22 days ago

Text

⛧༺ NO BODY, NO CRIME ༻⛧

EPISODE 04: somebody’s gotta catch him out

pairing: theo nott x potter!reader

summary: bonding with hermione, theo tells you the truth and new theories come up..

warnings: extremely big trigger warning for the whole series, in this chapter: mentions of murder, illegal activities, grooming

note: welcome back to the fourth episode of nbnc! i’m so excited to have you all back and to hear your opinions on this weeks episode!!

and because i’m not a monster and know that you guys are patiently waiting for the ball chapter, the next episode will be out either thursday or friday, depending on when i get to finish it!!

you had fallen asleep around 4 am, repeated thoughts about burbages murder and theo’s letter plaguing your mind. the night had been awful, sleep only ever granting you a few minutes of calmness, until you shot up, another thought in your head.

you still felt uneasy when you got dressed before sunrise. hermione was still asleep when you got up, which honestly said a lot.

you didn’t want to risk, running into theo during breakfast, so you walked to the great hall as soon as it opened, ready for students to eat. you couldn’t concentrate. the loneliness of the morning only fueling your thoughts.

some part of you just couldn’t believe theo really was the type of person to do something like that. he was so different from every slytherin you had ever met and him being the killer seemed so unlikely.

at the same time many things made sense now. you thought about monday evening. theo had been late to dinner, just like professor burbage. they had strolled in only minutes apart. and while theo barely looked at her, professor burbage hadn’t been able to stop glancing at him. she had been nervous and scared. maybe theo had been the reason for that.

he had been at the astronomy tower just minutes before you had found the womans body. he never offered a real explanation for his presence, only saying he hadn’t meant to disturb you. but what was the truth? could all of this really be coincidences? how many could there be before they stopped feeling like chance?

had you been so wrong about him? so terribly wrong?

when you left the great hall, you almost ran into hermione, who silently commented you strange behaviour with a quirk of her brow.

“i’m going to the library” you quickly muttered, not allowing her to say anything before you continued your fast pace.

hermione stared after you in disbelief, before she abandoning her original plan for breakfast (which was nothing like her, because she was a great believer in breakfast being the most important meal of the day) and followed you.

to both of your surprise you really ended up in the library. you had walked inside the room by accident, but quickly decided to do some research if you were there already. you had often enough watched hermione do it, it couldn’t be that hard.

you only noticed her presence when you were in the third row. “hermione” you gasped, pressing a hand to your chest as you tried to calm the beat of your heart.

hermione was not even fazed by your reaction. “you’re acting strange” she noted, a look of disbelief flying over you, as your hand wandered along the row of books in the shelf. “i have never seen you pick up a book from here that wasn’t fiction”

“i—“ you tried answering something but were at a loss for words.

“what’s going on?” hermione crossed her arms, sending you one of her typical strict looks. “the truth, please”

you sighed, knowing it was to no use to lie to her. “it’s theo” you said finally.

hermione searched your face for a hint of emotion, for something to tell her what was bothering you about the boy. your expression remained stoic and unreadable, even for her.

you sighed, before you sat down at the desk in the middle of the two shelves. hermione followed your movement and sat down next to you. you turned your head to look at her. and then you told her absolutely everything. from what you had found out in burbages office (which hermione interrupted, lecturing you) to the kiss and finally the letter theo had send burbage.

when you had finished, you were keeping your eyes on your fidgeting hands, ashamed and afraid of hermione’s reaction. there were a few seconds of silence, which you spend wondering how fast she would get up and tell your brother everything you had just admitted to her.

instead, she grabbed your hands with her own, making you look up in surprise.

“it’s going to be okay” she assured with a calm voice. she smiled at you softly. “you’re not alone”

“but theo—” you muttered “what if he really..?” you couldn’t even say it.

hermione shook her head. “he didn’t”

“what?” you asked, confused, unsure if you had heard her right. “how can you be so sure?”

“well” hermione smiled mysteriously. she stood up and studied the shelf for a few seconds, before she grabbed a thick book, throwing it down between you. she began turning pages, while she explained. “the smell of the poison you described, you said it was a mix of burnt herbs and something metallic”

she skipped the pages, past liquid luck and into the more advanced section. “i only ever encountered one potion that was described to smell like that. theo is absolutely smart enough to brew that, that’s for sure” your hope sank. “but” she noted, pressing her finger down on the page, seemingly having found what she was looking for. “mors fumes is a binding potion” she looked at you with a smile.

“which means..?” you drawled, unsure what she was telling you.

“it means that the potion binds itself to the person” she explained. “that timeframe has to be atleast six hours before the person drinks it to have any effect. it matters when she drank it, because she must’ve received the bottle atleast six hours before that. the poison works fast. burbage died around ten, right?”

you nodded and hermione’s smile grew even bigger.

“that means she drank the wine at around half past ten.” she calculated in her head, before she continued. “so she received the bottle between three and half past four.”

“but couldn’t she have received it a day before or something? wouldn’t that work too? more than six hours?”

“no” hermione shook her head, before she aggressively pointed down on the page again. “mors fumes is shortlived. it can only survive in it’s measured timeframe. it could’ve been brewed whenever and over weeks or days, dependent on the wizards time to brew. but as soon as it’s hexed, the six hour timer starts. after that you only have four hours to use it until it’s worthless, so considering it still worked, it could’ve only been given to burbage during that timeframe”

“wow hermione” you almost couldn’t comprehend how your best friends mind worked so effortlessly and precisely. “that’s honestly amazing, but sadly i have no idea where theo was between three and half past four that day, so it changes nothing” you sank you head into your hands, frustration taking over.

“of course you don’t” hermione muttered, rolling her eyes. “but i do”

“you do?” you were ready to jump out of your seat and plaster her face with kisses. “how?”

“how often did i tell you to visit the library?” hermione asked, raising her brows.

“so theo was in the library? the whole time?” you asked hopefully. “and he didn’t leave for some time?”

“he was here the entire time i was” hermione nodded. “from two until half past five. he didn’t leave. he sat two seats from me, i would’ve noticed.”

“not even to, you know, go to the bathroom?”

“no” she shook her head. “he definetly drinks way too little, you should tell him that by the way”

“oh, hermione” you almost cried, as you leaped over the table, throwing your arms around her body and messing up her curls. “you’re amazing, seriously”

“i can’t let you run around suspecting the wrong people” she muttered into your hair. “and i can’t let you run around suspecting theo. he might be a slytherin, but he’s better than all of them”

“i know” you nodded, sitting back down and quickly freeing your face from a few stray tears. “but i’m still angry with him”

“of course” hermione nodded. “he should’ve told you about the letter and his whole relationship to burbage, considering his weird remarks. you definitely should ask him about that. just because he didn’t kill her doesn't mean he didn’t do anything wrong”

“yeah, i will” you nodded. she was right with everything she had said. you just didn’t know why theo felt the need to lie to you, if he hadn’t killed the professor. you had sworn to work together, that would only work as long as you could trust each other.

“and all of this..” you muttered, pointing in the air between you.

“stays between us” hermione assured. “no word to the boys, just like i promised, as long as you stay safe”

“thank you” you smiled, thanking her for nothing defined and everything all at once.

“always” hermione promised, before she got up, excusing herself to go to breakfast. despite having just eaten yourself, you decided to accompany her. confronting theo could wait a bit longer and hermione was glad about the company, was she always lonely breakfasting so early during the holidays.

it was actually quite wholesome for hermione and you to get some time alone. you had the chance to catch up and discuss topics you normally wouldn’t when harry and ron were sitting with you.

hermione was not in a rush like she usually was, enjoying your time together, and you felt a bit bad, that you had focused so much on theo and only relied on her when things got difficult. hermione assured you that you didn’t have to worry about it considering she was working most of the time and also most efficiently when she did it alone.

still, she was there whenever you needed her and you promised the same.

after an hour, you were joined by harry and Ron, who strolled into the hall behind neville and ginny, who were in deep conversation. you could see that harry was trying to catch what they were talking about, while ron talked your brother's ear off at the same time.

theo came to breakfast at nine and made obvious gestures for you to follow him outside around ten. you quickly excused yourself from the table and followed the boy. harry and ron reacted confused at your sudden urge to leave, while neville and ginny both waved at you and hermione send a smile.

ron quickly concentrated on his food again, but harry kept an eye on the entry of the hall, peeking around hermione, and saw you drag theodore nott down the hallway behind you.

“she’s not honestly—“ he muttered, while he made a move to get up and follow you. hermione stopped him before he could do so.

“calm down, harry” she said. “she has to ask him something about their final project, she couldn’t sleep last night, wondering if she had forgotten something important.” hermione effortlessly lied.

“hermione” harry muttered sternly. “there’s just been a murder and the slytherins—“

“—are just as suspicious as anybody else” hermione finished. “don’t get your knickers in a twist. she has her wand, she’s fine”

“she could’ve at least discuss whatever she had to in here. nott was sitting at his table the entire time”

“discuss a mistake in a potions project next to draco malfoy, really harry?”

harry muttered something neither ron nor hermione could understand, before he picked up his toast and bit into the strawberry jam atop it.

you had gripped theo’s arm, before he had been able to say something, dragging him down the hall behind you, until you reached an empty classroom. you let go of his arm, like it was on fire.

“ow” theo muttered, rubbing his skin. “you have a hard grip, sparrow”

“no, don’t call me that” you crossed your arms, leaning your back against the wall. “not after you did nothing but lie to me”

“lie to you?” theo repeated confused. “i never—“

“sure you didn’t” you spat, throwing the letter, you had kept in your pocket, at him.

all colour drained from theo’s face in a second. he didn’t even have to look at the paper, he knew what it was immediately, which did not help his case.

“i swear this isn’t what it looks like” he muttered, picking it up and scanning the lines of his own writing.

“i bet it isn’t” you nodded sarcastically. “for a few hours i really thought you were the killer”

“i? i would never—“

“you can be glad hermione cleared that up or this conversation would be a lot more physical”

theo seemed like he had temporarily forgotten the topic of said conversation as he looked at you, a dirty smile on his face.

you send him a deadpan look and he quickly remembered the severity of the situation. “oh” he muttered “you mean..”

“yeah” you nodded. “i would’ve bashed your head in”

theo’s eyes quickly fell on the paper again, not daring you to make your statement reality.

“i’m ready for a good explanation” you encouraged, as he continued to stay quiet.

“it’s not as easy” theo muttered, averting his eyes and trying to find a spot in the room he could focus on.

“theo” you muttered, a bit softer now. “you threatened a teacher and told her to meet you on the evening of her murder, i don’t have to tell you how it looks”

“yeah, i’m sorry.” theo whispered and if you weren’t mistaken, you noticed tears in his eyes. “i never meant to drag you into this”

“drag me into what?” you stepped closer, forcing him to look at you, tears now clearly rolling over his cheeks. “you’re scaring me, theo”

maybe there really was a good explanation for all of this, but right now you just hoped theo hadn’t murder-in-the-orient-express-ed professor burbage.

“okay” he finally said. “i’ll tell you, everything, but you have to listen until the end”

you nodded, waiting for him to begin his story.

“it all began two years ago. that’s when i had to take muggle studies, because i had too few subjects. professor burbage was amazing. she was attentive to all of her students and over all a great teacher” he smiled upon the memory, before it quickly evolved into a frown. “but then she asked me to stay back one day after class. she made a few comments i found unsettling, but decided to forget about. maybe i had understood her wrong, she surely hadn’t meant it like that.”

you looked to the ground, not liking in which direction his story went. you felt sorry for the way you had treated him. for how you had spoken about burbage like she had been a saint, how judgemental you had been when theo had disagreed.

“she passed me notes during class when no one was looking. she asked me to stay back more often. she made obvious advances. and she continued and didn’t stop until i couldn’t excuse it anymore. until i reached a point where i understood that i hadn’t been the one who had gotten the wrong idea, she was. she read into the things i did, not the other way around”

tears spilled over his cheeks quicker than before, but he did not falter, as he continued to speak, his voice trembling through both of your crying.

“then, one day after class, she tried to kiss me”

your breath hitched, waiting for him to continue.

he shook his head. “i stopped her and rushed out of the room. i was too scared to tell on her, but i went to dumbledore and requested to drop the course because of personal reasons. i had enough luck never to be caught with her alone again for the rest of the year”

you thought about everything he had just told you. how someone you had respected was so different to the person she had shown everyone around her. you thought about theo, the fourteen year old version of him, who’s trust got betrayed so badly. fourteen year old theo, who had no one to tell about a teachers wrongdoing. fourteen year old theo, who had probably felt so alone.

you stepped across the room and hugged him. the way he had calmed you, you were now trying to calm him. “you’re safe” you whispered softly. “you did nothing wrong, you didn’t deserve it”

you could feel him nod, as he buried his face in your hair. his body still spread warmth, it felt the same like yesterday in the closet, when your lips had connected.

“i never told anyone” theo admitted. “you’re the first person”

“i’m sorry” you muttered, breaking the hug to look at him. “i shouldn't have made you”

“no” he shook his head. “i should’ve been honest from the beginning. i didn’t want anyone to know, i didn’t want you to know. i thought you might think i’m weak or less of a man”

“i would never think that, theo” you shook your head. “you’re not the person this information should damage. she was in the wrong, not you, you’re right the way that you are. i doesn’t matter what she did to you, it doesn’t change anything about you, you’re still the same to me”

theo nodded. “i wrote the letter out of frustration, not because i intended to kill her” he continued. “a few months ago dumbledore gave me something i had to deliver to burbage. when i came into her office, she was busy writing a note. i was able to read what she had written before she saw me”

“what was it?” you asked carefully.

theo sighed, before he recalled the words from the top of his head. “your insights in class are so refreshing; i truly appreciate how you see things differently. can you stay behind after class today? i’d love to discuss some of your ideas further—just between us, of course. it’s important to me that this stays our little secret.”

“wow” you huffed disgusted. “what happened then?”

“i told her she should not be doing that” theo mumbled. “she agreed and i believed her. she had lied, i should’ve been more persistent”

“you’re not responsible for her actions, theo”

“of course i am” he shook his head, fidgeting with your hand, he held in his own. “she tried the same with me, she was just able to do it again, because i never reported her, because i was too scared to admit what she had done to me” he breathed, his voice steady again. “and then after all, i just believed her, because it was easier than to admit that i had a responsibility for this child”

“it’s not your fault” you assured. he continued to shake his head. “it’s not your fault!” you repeated, louder, more firmly.

“i only found out a few weeks ago that she hadn’t stopped like she had told me she would” theo said softly. “i don’t know who her victim was and it honestly didn’t matter, because then i wrote the letter. but the one you read wasn’t the first i sent. in the first i threatened to report her if she would not immediately resign and leave her position as a teacher, nothing happened so i send a second one, the letter you found. i gave her a last chance to do what i had told her, to resign and leave the castle as well as the poor kid she had used all this time. i didn’t want this to have any effect on them, so i only threatened to report and tell dumbledore about my own experience. i asked her to meet me so she could tell me about her decision"

“and?” you asked, interested to hear how the conversation had went.

“she told me that she had resigned, like i had asked her” theo explained. “she asked me not to tell anyone about this and i agreed, because i honestly was not ready to tell someone myself. but i told her i would if i should find out about any of this happening again or if she would resume to a teaching position at a different school. she promised she wasn’t planning on doing that. and that was it. we split up and went to dinner”

“okay, but that would explain the note on the wine bottle burbage received: ‘consider this a parting gift’. that’s why she wasn’t suspicious before drinking it. it made perfect sense in the context of her resignation”

“yeah” theo nodded “i know that my involvement seems to make sense, y/n. i had reason enough to kill burbage, but i didn’t, please believe me, i’m not a bad person”

“you’re quite the opposite of a bad person, theodore nott” you shook your head, proudness flushing your whole body as you looked up at the brunette boy in front of you. “you did everything to make sure burbage could never hurt someone again. you had absolutely zero reason to kill her, considering she did everything you had asked her to and also, you possibly couldn’t have done it”

“i know, but how do you know that?”

theo listened attentively as you told him everything hermione had told you.

“that's incredible. and it reveals a time frame we can follow” he nodded.

“exactly" you smiled, before your expression turned serious again "thank you for telling me all of this. i’m sorry for all of it, but i’m still glad you had a good reason to send such a letter”

“yeah, it probably looked pretty bad without context, now that i think about it” theo admitted.

“but i do still have one question: was it really coincidence that you were at the astronomy tower too, right before burbage’s death?”

“yes and no” theo nodded. “it was a coincidence that i was there when she died, but i followed you on purpose”

“you followed me on purpose?” you repeated confused “but why?”

“because i wanted to talk to you” theo admitted, his voice steady yet vulnerable “i’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now”

you raised an eyebrow, curiosity piqued “really? about what?”

he hesitated for a moment, searching your eyes as if weighing his words. “i’ve fancied you for a long time, you know?”

your heart skipped a beat, surprise flooding through you. “you fancied me? me?”

theo laughed, the sheer disbelief on your face amusing him. “how couldn’t i?” he replied with a playful grin, his eyes sparkling “you’re smart, you’re fierce, and you don’t take any nonsense from anyone. plus, the way you stand up for your friends? it’s impossible not to notice. it’s honestly quite entertaining to watch draco and you fight”

you grinned, somewhat proud someone had taken an interest in your debates with malfoy. you always made sure to be ready to break him. “who do you think wins?” you asked, a brow quirked.

“you, of course” theo smirked. “draco is not half as good. it’s honestly amazing how good you are at telling him off”

“you’re making me blush” you smiled, as you stared up at him. “i always liked you most, you know? out of all of them. you were so nice every time i encountered you and i think i really took a liking to you during our project”

now it was theo’s turn to smile proudly. “so, are we good again?” he asked softly, waiting for you to make a decision.

you nodded, mirroring his expression. “we are” you assured, before you reached for his neck, connecting you lips with his for a short peck.

when you pulled back, theo grinned at you with a lopsided grin, his worries fading away as his eyes wandered over your face.

the next thing to do, you had decided, was to wait for mattheo’s invitation to reveal the infos you needed to find the masquerade ball of the nocturne society. someone there would probably know more.

that led to your next problem: the right clothing. theo suggested to make a trip to hogsmeade, which you quickly noticed to be impossible because of the storm. that’s when you remembered the convenience of the room of requirement. you had always used it the year before, so it had become manageable for you to find.

theo walked next to you through the halls cluelessly, ready to follow your lead.

“so, motives” you muttered, looking at him. “who would’ve had an interest in killing burbage?”

“someone who was after the artifact?” theo suggested.

“not impossible” you shrugged. “maybe that was the only way to steal it. maybe she had hexed it and there was no other way than to kill her.”

“but that would mean that whoever was trying to get access to the artifact also knew about burbage’s resignation” theo noted, he thought for a few seconds, before he added. “so far, the only people who know about it are you and me and of course dumbledore and maybe also mcgonagall.”

“i don’t think that will lead us far, theo” you remarked softly. “we don’t know who burbage might’ve told. she was thinking about if for some time. i mean, remember your first letter? that was months ago. she could’ve told people as far as we know”

“you’re right” theo nodded. “so back to the beginning, if we exclude the artifact for now, what else could’ve been a reason to kill her?”

silence errupted between you as both of you thought about the question.

your breath hitched. “what if it’s unrelated? what if someone found out?”

“about?” theo quirked a brow, not able to follow your stream of thoughts.

“her inappropriate relation to a student” you explained. “i mean think about it. you found out, how unlikely is it that someone else did?”

“not unlikely at all” theo nodded. “it wasn’t even hard to uncover. i mean, if someone was just a student in her class, they could’ve easily picked up something”

“i’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, so tell me if we should stop talking about it, but—“

“it’s fine, sparrow” theo said honestly. “i can take it”

“okay” you nodded, before you continued. “if we assume that she had a preferred age, fourteen, like you were, then maybe the killer is not an unrelated student, maybe it’s someone who didn’t witness the relationship first hand during class, but someone who knew her victim” you explained. “someone, who would go to lengths to protect that kid, someone who wanted to take revenge”

“a sibling” theo breathed.

“exactly” you nodded. “i would kill for my brother, no questions asked. we just have to find someone who would do the same”

you both dwelled on the thought as you walked around a corner, the doors of the room of requirement welcoming you as if they had waited ages for your arrival.

“what about this?” you held a blue dress against your body, twirling from side to side for theo to inspect it.

“beautiful” theo complimented, before he scrunched his nose. “but too blue. most members of the society will be slytherins, remember?”

“how can you be so sure about that?” you questioned, putting the dress to the side and picking up a dark green, almost black mask and holding it in front of your eyes.

“well, it’s illegal and dangerous and—“ theo grinned “—have i already said illegal?”

you shook your head, throwing a similiar mask like yours in his direction. theo caught the thing with ease, wiggling his eyesbrows as he held it in front of his eyes.

“you recognize me, sparrow?”

“your smile is uncanny” you giggled, holding a hand up to hide his mouth. “maybe you should just wear a whole bag”

“well, your options don’t seem the most practical to guarantee a fast escape. i mean can you even run in these shoes?”

“i’m not running” you crossed your arms, raising your nose. “i’m a lady, theo”

“of course” theo shook his head, before his gaze dropped to a beautiful emerald green ballgown underneath part of his tuxedo. “wait” he muttered, holding the dress up against your body. “this is the one”

your smile grew bigger as you took in the gorgeous dress. it was made up of a thin lace fabric, adorned with highlights of shimmering ivy. as you put it on, it was clothing your body beautifully, fitting like it had been made for you (that were the perks regarding magical clothing; they fully took on the form of the person wearing them, clinging to every curve of your body).

“wow” theo muttered when you stepped around the shelf you had changed behind.

your cheeks grew rosy, glancing up and down his body, admiring how well the tuxedo fit him. “you look very much wow yourself, mr nott”

he laughed, shaking his head like he wasn’t believing one word of what you were saying. “it’s time” he grabbed both of your masks and the note mattheo had given you, that was now slowly revealing letters. one after the other until more and more words were forming.

moonlit atrium, it read, portrait of the lonely witches daughter, in the dungeon

luckily, theo read the words with a hint of recognition in his eyes. you would’ve been completely lost without him, probably strolling through the halls, desperately searching for a portrait admist thousands. you would’ve never made it in time.

“come on, my lady” he watched you fasten your mask around your head, looking into the corridor to check for people, before he took your hand in his, leading you to the nereast stairs down to the dungeon.

the air grew cold around you as you walked down, the chilly setting of the hogwarts dungeon making it's presence known and casting your body in goosebumps. theo didn’t let go of your hand for one second, squeezing it to reassure you anytime you would cross a dark hallway that send shivers down your spine.

finally, theo started walking slower in a particularly dark corridor. his eyes wandered along the walls, searching for the familiar portrait, before his gaze locked onto the artwork.

you were searching the wall opposite from theo, when a hand reached out and touched your arm. “did you—ahh!” you screeched, jumping back when the person the hand belonged to was not theo, but someone else.

the unknown person was a man, well, more a boy, blonde hair peeking out behind his mask. he wore an even darker tuxedo than theo, the black on his body almost making him invisble against the dark of the corridor.

theo behind you, spun around, ready to meet your attackers face with his fist. before he hit him, you stopped the movement, pulling the dark haired boy back by the arm. “malfoy” you said simply, sharing the gathered piece of information with theo, who relaxed immediately.

“potter” draco malfoy greeted almost bored. he moved the mask from his face, revealing his ice blue eyes staring at you and theo in displasure. “theodore”

“draco” theo breathed. “i almost killed you”

“sure” malfoy rolled his eyes, not believing it for a second. “luckily potter here kept you from murdering any more people”

“haha” theo nodded. “very funny”

malfoy shrugged, not caring one bit about his unsolicited joke against theo. rather than on his friend, malfoys gaze was fixated on you. you lifted your mask too, deeming it weird to act like your identities hadn’t been revealed.

“i should’ve known you were involved in this club” theo crossed his arms, making not even the slightest move to take off his mask too.

“well, theodore, i’d say it is in my blood” malfoy took his eyes from you for a mere second, before his unnerving gaze returned. “unlike you, halfblood”

“careful” theo warned, voice filled with a sharp edge.

malfoy’s gaze flicked back to him, eyes narrowing with an unspoken challenge. he tilted his head slightly, the question clear in his expression, almost daring theo: have you forgotten where you belong?

“it’s alright” you mumbled, not even moved by the blonde boy’s words. he had insulted you and your friends too often for you to still care about it, unlike harry, who almost enjoyed throwing a tantrum. maybe that was the reason malfoy hated you a little less than your brother. you knew how to behave and that was something he respected. “what do you want?”

“i didn’t come to murder you, if that’s what you’re thinking” malfoy replied, his tone almost playful as he hinted at your reaction of panic at his sudden presence “nor to give you more proof. that’s not why i’m here.”

“then what?” theo snapped impatiently, eyes still on malfoy. “what’s so important that you had to deliver it in person?”

draco paused, his gaze darkening as his playful demeanor faded. his next words were spoken softly, almost ominously. “a warning.”

the air in the corridor grew thick, the weight of his words pressing down on you. theo stiffened beside you, his guard going back up as malfoy’s expression turned deadly serious.

“a warning about what?” you asked, your heart pounding now, knowing that this wasn’t just another one of malfoy’s games.

malfoy stepped closer, his voice barely above a whisper. “someone’s watching you. and it’s not just the castle’s usual suspects.” he hesitated for a moment, his eyes locking with yours, as if deciding whether to reveal more. then, quietly, he added, “you're not safe. neither of you.”

before you could question him further, malfoy backed into the shadows, disappearing as quickly as he had come.

“malfoy!” theo called after him, but it was too late—he was gone.

the tension in the air remained, your heart still racing. you exchanged a glance with theo, both of you realizing that whatever danger was lurking, it wasn’t just in the form of cryptic messages or secret clubs. it was something much darker.

and now, someone knew you were onto them.

taglist: @melsunshine @shereadsandcries @ch3rry-lips @the-sylver-dragon @mayamonroem @allurearia @prongsprincessworld @brokenpoetliz @winterbarnesblog @mysummerwinesblog @cowboy-luvr @ahead-fullofdreams @mietlynn @maxsisly @too-efn-old-to-be-here @reverse-soe @insideoutjulie @thestrawberrythatgotaway @dvartesgfs @chimchoom @eggsysstuff @uku-lelevillain @lexi2005 @lia-2008 @liataylorsversion @esmerai-artemis @folklcv4r @lovrsm

let me know if you want to be added/ removed

106 notes · View notes